The Official MLB Power Rankings According To Barstool Experts
The 1st ever Power Rankings Panel united Sunday evening to create a formal 1-9 in MLB through the 2nd weekend of play. Thamls to Klemmer, Castellani and Hubbs for joining me in this endeavor. We'll gather the panel on Mondays throughout the season with more baseball guys joining us it goes. The main idea is having multiple brains build one serious list that everyone else can complain about. If you watch the show, you'll see we've got checks & balances built into a shared format. You're not gonna see me steamroll the Cubs into the top 9 right now just because they're .500 much as you noticed the Mets are nowhere to be found after a disappointing 2-4 week.
It's not perfect but we're trying.
Currently I'm getting shit on for the Braves ahead of the Padres. But again, if you watch the show, you'll see exactly how that played out. Klemmer (hitting in the 5 spot) liked the Braves more than the Padres. We talk about Sunday Night Baseball about to start and the impact that has on the rankings. The Padres would need to beat the shit out of the Braves convincingly for this to come back is something along the lines of what I said. This is the only dead time 4 grown men can reflect on a week's worth of baseball for a Monday morning. And as luck would have it, the Baseball God's smited the shit out of us.
I reluctantly took the Padres 6th. We then reluctantly agreed it was a weird spot with them up 2 games to 1 on the Braves but looking bad against the Rockies. A split against the Dbacks. A potential split against the Braves looming. IN REAL TIME it wasn't that crazy to say Braves marginally ahead of the Padres. And even so, Klemmer's the one who made that call so take it out on him.
Personally I want to circle back to these Baseball Gods because last night was some poetic shit.
Don't tell our captions department that Trent has reverse splits. Broader point is he slugged .341 last year and is currently on pace for about 3x as many extra-base-hits. 10 games, sure. But it's been a good 10 games for Trent at .243/.333/.541 in 42 plate appearances.
The Padres would add on 5 more runs after this HR to finish up a 10-2 Sunday Night beating on the Braves.
It was surely a dominant performance. Just a little too late for the Judge's table this week, which honestly couldn't have been scripted any better when you consider we WANTED to put solid authentic rankings into the universe. The whole point of this would be a good objective list.
And even with that intent, we still managed to inflame a small portion of the baseball internet.
THESE STUPID MOTHERFUCKERS DON'T KNOW SHIT
Maybe not.
Some other observations:
- The Twins have been so good that we're compelled to put them in the top 4. The staff has pitched to a 2.48 ERA while veteran additions Kyle Farmer, Joey Gallo, have performed well alongside a healthy Byron Buxton and emerging Trevor Larnach (7 walks in 9 games). They just took a series from the Astros and Correa has been bad. Maybe 2 is a little high but the lineup has another gear and they LOOK outstanding.
- You can swap around 2-4 pretty easily with the Yankees and Brewers. That's not controversial. We're all pretty similar on where things shake up after the Rays.
- The Guardians could be in the top 9 all season long and nobody would notice.
- The Pirates may never be in these rankings again. We have to take advantage of their momentum while we can. Especially amidst brutal news about Oneil Cruz's broken ankle. Fact is the Pirates have been much better than anyone anticipated alongside some unique storylines: The McCutchen return was awesome. Bryan Reynolds deserves a blank check. Derek Shelton is severely underrated and David Bednar is the best reliever Most People don't know.
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- The Diamondbacks might be the most fun TEAM to watch. Certainly other clubs have more notable names. But as a team, the 2023 Dbacks look like an 80's team on astroturf. They've got 8 players with a stolen base. 5 of them with multiple. And they've combined to convert 17 of 18 attempts good for 94%. For context, Byron Buxton is #1 all time in MLB history with 88% success. So the team as a whole right now is, on average, notably better than the most successful ALL TIME.
And they look cool doing it:
- Rangers and Red Sox were on the cusp. Some other clubs flirting with that 3rd level in the rankings. Definitely some competition for the last spots.
Overall not a terrible list. The Blue Jays and Astros and Mets and Dodgers should be here. The Mariners should be here. The Orioles and Phillies should be here. The more teams you bring up, the more you realize just how deep the league is.
And at the top sits the Rays at 9-0, shit pumping every single team they play, every single game.
Damn shame nobody in Tampa cares.
Watch the full Power Rankings Panel here: