We know computers hate the Orioles, and national broadcasters hate the Orioles, but do the folks who make power polls/rankings hate the Orioles? Losing five straight going into Tuesday didn’t hurt as much as you’d think, it seems.
ESPN.com Power Poll (6th; Last Week: 6th)
The Orioles remain 6th in The Worldwide Leader’s power ranking. “During Seattle's four-game sweep of Baltimore, Orioles pitchers allowed 31 runs. It's not surprising that O's pitching -- the starting pitching, in particular -- has performed poorly lately, but the team's offense wasn't able to save it this time. The O's rotation can't get to the All-Star break fast enough.” -- Matt Kremnitzer (@mattkremnitzer),Camden Depot
SI.com: The 30 (6th; LW: 5th)
Jonah Keri lowers the O’s just one place in his rankings, but outside the Top Five.
USA Today Power Rankings (4th; LW: 4th)
The Nation’s Newspaper didn’t update their rankings in time for their latest ranking to be included. Boo, hiss, USA Today.
Bleacher Report Power Rankings (8th; LW: 4th)
Slideshow Central drops the O’s to 8th, and honestly, I can’t argue with the placement with the exception of #7, the Mets. “Being swept in a four-game series with the Seattle Mariners to close out last week costs the Baltimore Orioles a few spots in the rankings, but they still hold a three-game lead atop the AL East standings. It was another tough week for the starting rotation last week, as it combined for a 7.76 ERA and tallied just two quality starts in six games.”
CBS Sports (4th; LW: 4th)
Matt Snyder kept the Orioles at 4th when he last updated these rankings, and his prediction skills seemed to be on point. “The Orioles have hit 54 home runs in June, which is only one short of the MLB record (A's, 1996). Given that there are still two games left in June and this team is almost laughably powerful, I like the O's chances.”
Power Rankings Guru (5th; LW 6th)
PRG is an aggregate of several national power rankings/polls, and they have the O’s at 5th.
reddit’s Power Poll (7th; LW: 6th)
The community editors over at reddit agree the O’s are one slot worse than last week. “The 2016 Baltimore Orioles. We hit a bunch of homers and our starters can't pitch to save our lives. Somehow we're still in 1st.” I omitted the last sentence of the analysis because we try and keep the article family-friendly at CC, but trust me, I agree with it.
OddsShark.com (12th; LW: 9th)
Ranks are based on rolling past 20 games overall. And the OddsShark.com rankings roller coaster stablizes a bit and send the O’s down just three spots.
The Baltimore Sun's MLB Power Rankings (N/A; LW: 4th)
The Sun did not publish a Power Rankings in time to be included this week.
Any egregious slights or wild overestimation of this team? Any polls you’d like to see included? Add your thought down below and hit me up on Twitter @Bill_Duck21804 where you will find way, way too much discussion of politics and MMA for any baseball fan’s liking.