Power rankings are not a ranking of how good a team is "AT THIS POINT." There's another ranking for that: it's called "the standings." Power rankings are a combined evaluation of the team's record, how well the team is playing recently, and how successful their overall season is projected to be. Because the Red Sox do so well in the third category, they would have to do a lost worse than losing 5 in a row to fall out of the top 5. (In any event, the Red Sox won yesterday and are a reasonable 5-5 in their last 10.) More to the point: who should be ranked #2 instead of the Red Sox. In my opinion, nobody.
Similar point with the Tigers/Royals. Realistically, the Royals well end up near the bottom of the AL. Not sure where the Tigers will end up, but almost surely they will have a lot more wins than KC. That, combined with the Tigers playing better lately (6-4 in their last 10) and the Royals playing worse (3-7 in their last 10, and only Giants and Padres have scored fewer runs) is plenty to get the Tigers a higher ranking.
|