The MLB power rankings are a strange beast. It is mostly a big name popularity contest. And even though the Milwaukee Brewers are one of the hottest teams in baseball, they continue to be barely be near the Top 10.
There are plenty of teams that are playing well, and it doesn’t help that the Chicago Cubs are also red hot. Yes, the Brewers are playing a lot of sub .500 baseball teams. But if Milwaukee was losing to those teams, they would be punished for that and drop in the rankings.
In the big scheme of things, do Power Rankings really matter? No. It’s just a thing that is out there for people to discuss and argue about. But it doesn’t mean the Brewers aren’t being disrespected and average teams are still being put on a pedestal for no reason.
The #Brewers are 17-4 in their last 21 games, including 14-2 in the last 16 and 9-1 in the last 10 contests. They are on a 4-game winning streak. Prior to this stretch, the team was a season-low 2 games under .500 (21-23). Are now a season-high 11 games over .500 (38-27). pic.twitter.com/ahghwTfG5t
— Mike Vassallo (@MikeVassallo13) June 14, 2021
The Brewers are 9-1 in their last 10 games. They are 17-4 in their last 21 games and on a four game winning streak. Milwaukee is 11 games above .500. Their record is 38-27. According to the Power Rankings, the Brewers are still not in the Top 10. What?
Week of June 6th
Last week, the Brewers were listed at number 14 according to MLB.com’s Power Rankings. Before those rankings were released, Milwaukee had just come off a split two-game series with Detroit and just swept the Arizona Diamondbacks for four games.
The Brewers were sitting at 33-26. They were seven games above .500 and still barely over the top half of all MLB teams. The power rankings article did mention to keep an eye out for the Brewers. But, if you are going to mention that the team is tied for first in the NL Central and have some of the best pitchers, why is the team ranked 14th?
The Cincinnati Reds swept the Cardinals, and jumped from 23 to 17. The Brewers won five of six games, and went from 15 to 14. They moved up one spot have winning almost every game the previous week. The Diamondbacks aren’t a great team, but a sweep is still impressive. A four game sweep is even more impressive.
Week of June 13th
The Brewers did have the biggest jump this past week. They went from 14 to 11. Moving three spots is great, but why not be number 10 or 9? After last week’s rankings were released, the Brewers again only lost one game all week. Their only loss was on Wednesday to the Reds.
But, they still took two-out-of-three from Cincinnati and then swept the Pirates at home. Winning five out of six when you are about to play 16 straight games is impressive. And they did this while missing Cain, Wong and losing Shaw and Taylor this week to the injured list. None of that is factored in?
Let’s take a quick glance at the Top 10. The New York Mets are at 10 and have a record of 32-25. Yup, they have a worse record than Milwaukee and still above them. The Brewers are 9-1 in their last 10. The Mets are 6-4. New York moved from 12 to 10 while having a worse week. They did win the series against the Padres, but San Diego hasn’t won a series in a while. The Brewers could easily be at 10 instead.
The Cubs are at nine. It’s hard to admit this, but they are also playing really well. They also are a big city team so naturally they will be placed above the Brewers. But Milwaukee has a better season record against the Cubs right now, so really you could flip-flop either team and it makes sense.
The Red Sox are playing well, but have been dropping each week. They went from number 4, to 6 last week and now have dropped to 8. You then have the Oakland Athletics at 7 and Houston Astros at 6. The Brewers have a better record than the Astros as well. The As are currently winning the AL West over Houston. You could easily drop the Astros.
Current Top Five
The Padres are still number 5. I am not saying the Brewers should be above them, but they haven’t won a series in a while. They just lost their series to the Mets twice and the Cubs twice. Yes, both teams are decent, but how do you stay in the Top 5 when you have lost your last four series? They’ve also lost their last five out of six. When you are playing just average, you shouldn’t be number five.
You then have the San Francisco Giants, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays. Can’t argue with any of those.
So if anything, the Padres should be lower, and the Brewers should be next to the Cubs. The Mets should honestly be lower. It really does paint the picture of the big name and big city teams will probably always be favored over the smaller market teams like the Brewers.
Additional Stats
Milwaukee has an easy schedule right now, but doesn’t mean they aren’t beating good teams. So far this year, they are 8-3 against the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers. They are 6-3 against the rival Cubs.
Yes, good teams are supposed to beat bad teams. But again, if they were splitting a series with a bad team or not going 7-0 in their last two series, they would probably drop in the rankings. It’s just so inconsistent.
The point is, what else does Milwaukee need to do to crack the Top 10 again? They can’t control how their schedule was made, and playing really good baseball right now. The Power Rankings should be the best teams playing right now.
The Brewers are 11th at MLB.com and The Athletic right now. CBS Sports has them at nine, so at least some places are showing respect. Let’s hope more places wake up and notice Milwaukee.
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