MLB Team Power Rankings Update: What's Going on With the Cubs?
Teams Ranked 20th to 11th
The Colorado Rockies hold true at 16th overall this week and have nearly a 50.0% chance of making the playoffs. That's surprising enough, but there is one team here nobody would've expected to see in the middle of May.
| Rank | Team | nERD | Record | Playoff Odds | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | Chicago White Sox | -0.34 | 17-19 | 6.6% | -1 |
| 19 | Philadelphia Phillies | -0.21 | 14-21 | 2.4% | -2 |
| 18 | Chicago Cubs | -0.19 | 18-19 | 71.1% | -5 |
| 17 | Los Angeles Angels | -0.15 | 20-21 | 9.1% | +5 |
| 16 | Colorado Rockies | -0.12 | 24-15 | 47.4% | 0 |
| 15 | Milwaukee Brewers | 0.00 | 21-18 | 14.2% | +3 |
| 14 | Miami Marlins | 0.07 | 14-23 | 7.0% | +1 |
| 13 | Minnesota Twins | 0.19 | 19-15 | 15.5% | +1 |
| 12 | Seattle Mariners | 0.21 | 18-21 | 31.1% | -2 |
| 11 | Oakland Athletics | 0.46 | 16-22 | 5.9% | -3 |
Biggest Rise: Los Angeles Angels
Well, it's not the Los Angeles Angels, although they've been holding their own quite nicely over the first month and a half. This seems like a good time to talk about how ridiculous Mike Trout is since it's been a couple hours since we've last done it.
After missing five straight games with a hamstring issue, he hasn't shown any signs of the injury impacting him at the plate by slashing .333/.476/1.133 with 4 homers, a .595 wOBA and 302 wRC+ in his last 21 plate appearances. What makes it even more interesting is that he also hasn't struck out at all during this time and has just a .083 BABIP.
Small sample sizes are fun.
Biggest Drop: Chicago Cubs
Prior to the regular season kicking off, our metrics gave the Cubs an 88.7% chance of returning to the playoffs. This slow start has not only given them some extra work to do in the standings, but also some work to their playoff probability, which currently sits at 71.1%.
So, what the heck is going on here?
The pitching staff, including Jon Lester, John Lackey and Jake Arrieta, haven't gotten off to the best of starts. However, it'd be tough to expect similar production from them -- and Kyle Hendricks -- as last year, but they could at least expect the offense to continue mashing. They're just not yet.
Outside of Kris Bryant doing what he normally does (147 wRC+ and .403 wOBA through 162 plate appearances), the offense has been rather underwhelming -- Anthony Rizzo (95 wRC+), Jason Heyward (88), Ben Zobrist (87), Willson Contreras (82), Kyle Schwarber (78) and Addison Russell (70) have all been below-average hitters.
That has to change at some point in the near future, right?
