1st ESPN Power Rankings....Cubs #6 and Brewers #11

[mikerollins]

Now I'm not an ESPN critic like so many on this board are, but I found the first set of Power Rankings to be utterly useless. Not only do they have the Cubs 5 spots ahead of the Brewers after a dominating 3-game series....but they also have:

 

the 0-4 Tigers at #3

the 1-3 Cubs at #6

the 1-3 Braves at #8

the 1-3 Phillies at #9 (who have shown absolutely no signs of improving their terrible pitching from a year ago)

 

I'm not one to throw out the "no respect" card because I do feel that respect is earned, but I do think that spots on a power ranking like this should be earned too. I think pre-season power rankings are the time to say who you "think" will be good, but once the games start, you should have to win some games to ear a spot in the Top 3 (Tigers) or Top 10 (Braves and Phillies and Cubs).

 

Just saw the Rankings were out and thought I'd click on it fully assuming the Brewers to be in the Top 3 or 5 and was very surprised.

[jazzytrav]

Leave 'em at 11. I feel like winning the World Series under the "no one believed in us!" banner.

 

ESPN's power rankings are worthless in any sport.

[BrewCrewForever]

ESPN is worthless. End of story, I don't care what anyone else thinks about my team. I know they are good, screw the critics.

[derflotr]

All ESPN cares about is Eric Gagne because he wore a Boston uniform for half of a season. I'd be willing to bet a good chunk of money that in their little description they mention Gagne's troubles.

 

edit: Yup.

 

"Eric Gagne's meltdown in the season opener comes as no surprise to members of Red Sox Nation."

 

No surprise here. Getting four outs after allowing a crippling HR is a meltdown.Vintage ESPN.

[logan82]

I don't care if we are ranked 30 as long as we are in first place in the division.

[Schlitz001]

These rankings are based more on potential instead of record and performance in the young season. Otherwise the Royals would probably be ranked #1 instead on #24.

[NYChez]

It's too early to adjust any rankings. If this was football, we'd be in the 2nd quarter of the first game of the season. If the Patriots are down 10-3 in the 2nd quarter of their first game next season, are you going to change your thoughts from "Super Bowl favorite" to "will be lucky to make the playoffs"?

 

Once we get to Memorial Day, the predictions can be adjusted.

[rluzinski]

Did the rankings change from a week ago? As NTChez points out, the results of the first week should have no effect on these rankings.

[berniebrewer4life]

I think Rluz is right. They probably won't change em til Monday or so. That being said, ESPN is still worthless.

[BrewCrewForever]

All ESPN cares about is Eric Gagne because he wore a Boston uniform for half of a season. I'd be willing to bet a good chunk of money that in their little description they mention Gagne's troubles.

 

edit: Yup.

 

"Eric Gagne's meltdown in the season opener comes as no surprise to members of Red Sox Nation."

 

No surprise here. Getting four outs after allowing a crippling HR is a meltdown.Vintage ESPN.

So true, its like he wore a Boston uniform for a half a season and struggled and all of a sudden he sucks and everyone in Boston knows it. How stupid. I can't wait till he throws that crap in their faces.

[mothershipconnection]

A ton of luck can figure into 4 games, so there's really no need to change predictions unless a critical injury occurs that will affect the future. The 2002 Brewers could win 4 straight against the 2008 Brewers at one point over 162 head-to-head games, but you'd still figure the current club to win 100. We could be 2-2 at this point if not for some unlikely heroics provided by Gwynn. A single great defensive play or a single swing where the bat contacts the ball just an inch in another direction can be the difference between a .750 winning percentage and .500 at this point.

[Team Canada]

If rankings are just supposed to mirror the standings, what's the point of having them? Outside of the last couple weeks of the season, the correlation's not always going to be that great. They're ranking how good they believe those teams are, regardless of what they did in the first 4 games.

[pebadger]

The funny thing is, in defending their other power rankings from criticism the hack in charge of a given set of rankings will say "This is about how good the team is playing NOW".

Not that it makes any difference to their purpose as a page-view generator.

[wisportswriter]

All ESPN cares about is Eric Gagne because he wore a Boston uniform for half of a season. I'd be willing to bet a good chunk of money that in their little description they mention Gagne's troubles.

 

edit: Yup.

 

"Eric Gagne's meltdown in the season opener comes as no surprise to members of Red Sox Nation."

 

No surprise here. Getting four outs after allowing a crippling HR is a meltdown.Vintage ESPN.

Well done, derflotr.

I can't decide whether that is sad or funny. Probably a little bit of both.

99% of ESPN sucks.

 

[Sepolevne]

Eh, you have to figure the power raiting capsules were probably written by some intern. But I have to agree, ESPN is mostly garbage for non Boston/New York Yankees coverage.

[Mr QL]

And then they'll all be picking the Brewers to win the division and talk about how surprising it after a good start and declare the Cubs dead just like last year...

 

ESPN sucks. Whatever.

[TooLiveBrew]

Exceedingly

Stupid

Propaganda

Network

 

WE SCREEMM IT SO ITS TRUE!

[rluzinski]

Well, if people just want a snapshot of the season standings, ol' Haudricourt is happy to deliver in the JS power rankings published today. Well, kind of. We have the 3-2 Royals at the top in the AL. They did sweep the Tigers to start the season, so Tom must be willing to forgive them for losing the next 2. The Tigers are 0-5 so they are the worst team, obviously. Oakland is ranked 14th, despite being 3-3. But they started off 1-3, though, so there you go. Did Oakland's game yesterday end after Tom's bedtime?

 

In the NL, the 4-1 Brewers are only behind the 3-2 Dogers. The Dodgers got a lot of preseason hype, so I guess that was enough for even Tom to notice them. Then again, the 2-3 Braves were probably just as hyped but that doesn't stop them from being ranked 15th.

 

Clear as mud.

[DuWayne Steurer]

I don't care where the teams are ranked. However, when the "East Coast Influence" has gotten so deep that a capsule on the Brewers is mainly about the half season that one guy spent on the Red Sox, that tells me all I need to know about the writers' bias.

 

We'll go through this all season again this year. We'll have a good record, nobody in the national media will notice, and Brewer fans will get up in arms over the "lack of respect". I honestly couldn't care less about what people who aren't Brewer fans think about the Brewers.

[zzzmanwitz]

and on the other end of the spectrum, this ranking really cares about the first week of the season.

[Thurston Fluff]

If nothing changes in such a short amount of games why even bother having a new ranking? If the rankings have changed from the preseason then it stands to reason ealry season performance has to play into it somewhat. IF the Cubs losing two of three at home to the Brewers doesn't change the power rankings just what criteria should be used to determine the changes from preseason. How much more can a team do to change their power rankings than beat the team supposedly better than you?

[rluzinski]

As long as we accept that rankings aren't trying to measure the true, collective talent of a team, they can update it as often as they want. Later in the season, rankings are usually just the teams ranked in order of their overall record but with the most recent games weighted more. Right now, they have no real explanation.

[DrWood]

That power ranking was after the first series. If you thought the cubs were better than the brewers before the season, that one series shouldn't change things. Let's see how the rankings change on the 11th (presumably the next ranking will be a week after the last).

[Glennron]

Power rankings released at this point in the season have about as much merit as pre-season College Basketball and Football polls, which is basically none. I highly doubt anyone believes the Tigers are the worst team in MLB, while the Cardinals are one of the best.

[kmcasper23]

Just the simple fact however that the Brewers win 2 out of 3 in Chicago and are 5 spots behind them is puzzling. I can't believe how many people were picking the Cubs in this division in the first place. The Brewers are better than the Cubs in hitting, SP, & RP.