Welcome back to the Power Rankings! We’ve added week over week change in ranking to see who’s moving up and who’s moving down. This early in the season, there will be large leaps and precipitous tumbles, not necessarily correlating to how good a team actually is. For example, the Giants and Red Sox made the biggest leaps, up 20 and 19 spots respectively. Are they the best teams in baseball? Probably not. In fact, most consider them long shots for a playoff spot, especially the Giants. Meanwhile, the Yankees and Blue Jays drop down into the 20s. Toronto is depending on some young, promising players like Vlad Guerrero, Jr. and Bo Bichette, so a bit of up and down is unsurprising. But the Yankees should be one of the top teams in baseball. The pitching staff after Gerrit Cole is a bit questionable. If Corey Kluber, one of the best pitchers in the league from 2013 to 2018, gets back to that form at 35, Luis Severino returns from injury, and Jameson Taillon pitch like he did in Pittsburgh, the rotation will be fine. Plenty of power in the Yankee lineup, but can Aaron Judge stay healthy for the first time since his ridiculous rookie season in 2017?

As far as the Tigers are concerned, a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde week. Four straight losses finish off the homestand and then two wins in Houston to start off a 10 games in 10 days roadtrip. Good signs include Matt Boyd getting back to looking like he did during his dominant start to 2018 (since then, um…not so good) and new catcher Wilson Ramos leading the league with 6 HR. Also, Casey Mize just won his first career game and looked great doing it (7 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, and 5 K on just 89 pitches). Early returns on Akil Baddoo have been absurdly good, especially for a player who hadn’t seen a pitch above single A before this season. We will see if he can keep it up all year, but you need to find some diamonds in the rough during a rebuild to offset highly touted prospects who don’t pan out.

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