Braves Sweep Reigning NL Champs and are Rewarded With Interesting Power Rankings Placement

The Atlanta Braves swept one of last season's World Series participants and weren't rewarded for it

The Atlanta Braves have a bone to pick with MLB.

No, it's not about further reduction to the pitch clock, something that Spencer Strider pointed to back in February as a health risk. Strider, who left Friday's game complaining of elbow pain and later had an MRI that confirmed "damage to the UCL", is slated to meet with a specialist in Dallas, TX later this week and is more than likely heading for a second Tommy John surgery that will keep him out of action until late in 2025 at best.

It's about the disrespect, as Atlanta was moved around in the most recent MLB Power Rankings that came out on Monday morning on MLB.com.

You see, the Braves handled their business on the field, sweeping the reigning NL Champion Arizona Diamondbacks over the weekend to improve to 6-2. The Braves, who have played only eight games, lead all of baseball in runs per game at an even 7.0 and have the league's best team batting average (.300), slugging (.532), and OPS+ (142). Despite playing so few games, Atlanta's tied for third in all of baseball in homers with 13 and for the league's second-best run differential at +26. Atlanta's worst performing lineup regular is reigning MVP Ronald Acuña Jr, who is batting 'only' .242 without a home run after eight games.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, lost their weekend series to the Chicago Cubs, who didn't make the postseason last year. Scoring only twelve runs in the three games (and allowing eighteen), the Dodgers sit in 7th for total runs (5.75), but lead in homers (15) by virtue of having already played twelve games, two more than anyone else except their opponents in the Korea Series, San Diego. Their season-long scoring differential is only +9.

But because they lead or are near the top in several counting stats, the fine folks over at MLB.com decided that they should jump Atlanta and be installed as the new #1 team in baseball.

Here's what MLB.com writer Will Leitch said about the decision to install the Dodgers as the new #1 team in baseball. (Spoiler alert, it's heavily reliant on the counting stats)

"Ten days in, and Mookie Betts leads baseball in essentially every major statistical category: Hits, runs, home runs … even walks. It’s that last one that’s particularly impressive, all told, considering the guy who is hitting behind him in that lineup: It’s not like there’s any particular advantage to pitching around Betts. Speaking of Shohei Ohtani, he’s “only” putting up a .944 OPS, which would have been top 25 in baseball last year but currently puts him only third on his own team."

Yep, infuriating, isn't it? Acknowledging that Mookie Betts, who (don't get us wrong) is having a great start to his season, is leading the league in several counting stats without acknowledging that he's played more games than anyone else feels a little disingenuous.

And when explaining why Atlanta was moved down to #2, the intimation is that it's because of the Spencer Strider innjury and the Max Fried stumble

"It was quite the one-two rotation punch for the Braves: They lost Spencer Strider to a UCL injury on Friday and then watched Max Fried give up six runs in the first inning on Saturday. This is surely going to cause them some long-term problems --that nice Chris Sale performance on Sunday will help, though -- but fittingly the Braves went ahead and swept their weekend series over the defending National League champions anyway. They’ve got three guys in their lineup right now with an OPS over 1.000 … and none of them are Ronald Acuña Jr. or Austin Riley. (They’re Matt Olson, Marcell Ozuna and Michael Harris II. The Braves are insane."

They're insane, yet simultaneously deserving of being dropped in the power rankings because Mookie Betts has had more chances to accumulate stats than everyone else in the league except for his own teammates.

Make it make sense.

If you were curious, the next chance for these two teams to settle this on the field comes in May, when Atlanta travels to Los Angeles for a three game set at Dodgers stadium from May 3rd through 5th, and then the return trip from LA comes in September, from the 13th through the 16th in Truist Park.