NEWSLETTER
Boy, ‘Power Rankings’ sure are popular on Mondays! I saw a couple of them come across my feed on Twitter, which got my curious about where the national punditry is placing the early-season Cubs. So I poked around, and there are a TON of fresh power rankings today.
So, here’s your roundup of how various places see the Cubs …
⇒ At The Athletic, the Cubs rank 18th (up from 20):
These Cubs might be all right. Not great, but not lovable losers. More like lovable mediocrities.
If you’re a Cubs fan, the key this year is the lovable part. And what’s not to love about Seiya Suzuki, who enters Monday with a .400 average and a 321 OPS+? Time will tell if the Cubs can successfully rebuild the plane in the air — to see how that can go wrong, look at the Diamondbacks — but there are intriguing pieces here. Nick Madrigal and Nico Hoerner could man the middle of the Wrigley infield for years. There are prospects on the rise, and the Cubs may have figured out how to develop pitchers.
Things on the North Side could be worse.
That all sounds pretty fair to me. I could probably argue that the ranking number is too high, but the description and reason for putting them just below middle-of-the-pack sounds right.
⇒ At MLB.com, the Cubs rank 21st (up from 23), without any commentary. The Cardinals (10) and Brewers (12) rank much higher, for what that’s worth.
⇒ CBS Sports is definitely the high man on the Cubs, ranking them all the way up at 16th:
It’s difficult to get used to after the makeup of the offense, given what it looked like the last several years, but the Cubs are *way* different. They are among the best teams in the league at batting average, on-base percentage and making contact. They also don’t hit many home runs and hit lots of groundballs — leading to them leading the majors in groundball double plays.
Again, I could and probably would contend it’s a little too early to say the Cubs are definitely a middle-of-the-road team just yet (lofty standards!), but whatever. I’m not going to beef with anyone who sees what the Cubs have done so far and thinks maybe this team might be average.
⇒ The Score has the Cubs 18th (previously 21), offering love for NL Player of the Week Seiya Suzuki (obviously) and Justin Steele. That’s fun.
⇒ Sports Illustrated has the Cubs at 17, once again with a similar bump (previously 20). More praise for Suzuki. I won’t complain.
⇒ USA Today has the Cubs 21st, flat from the previous ranking. WHAT, YOU’RE NOT IMPRESSED?!?!?!?
