MLB Team Power Rankings Update: What's Going on With the Cubs?
It's no longer April, which means the "small-sample size" argument doesn't work nearly as well as it used to for players and/or teams who were either struggling or thriving. But still, the calendar hasn't even flipped to June yet -- there are about four and a half months left for teams to turn their fortune around.
Take the Chicago Cubs as an example.
Fresh off their first championship in more than a century, they're off to a slow start. No big deal, right? Even if they struggled a little bit out of the gate, it's not like they won't be able to turn it on soon enough.
There is no reason for Chicago to actually panic just yet, but seeing them fall under .500 this late in the year is at least a little bit concerning. On this date last year, they were cruising with a 27-9 record and a 7.5-game lead in the National League central. This year? They're currently 18-19 and 3.5 games off the pace.
This isn't an ideal start, but it's also not the end of the world.
Who else has seen their stock rise or fall over the last week?
Unlike some other power rankings around the interwebs, ours here at numberFire aren't influenced by hype or the latest narratives. We put faith into our algorithms and use nERD to see which team is the best, which is a metric that represents runs scored above or below a league-average team per game.
Our rankings will include each team's nERD, their current record and playoff odds, along with how much their spot has changed over the past seven days.
