Orioles in Power Rankings - Week 20

We know computers hate the Orioles, and national broadcasters hate the Orioles, but do the folks who make power polls/rankings hate the Orioles? Honestly, not as much as I expected after a stretch where the O’s went 1-5 before the Nats series.

SI.com: The 30 (8th; Last Week: 5th)

Jonah Keri drops the O’s out of the top tier of teams. Can’t say I blame him.

USA Today Power Rankings (9th; LW: 7th)

The Nation’s Newspaper drops the O’s two slots, on the outer edge of the Top 10. “Rotation ERA balloons to 4.99 as Red Sox, Blue Jays pass them by.”

Bleacher Report Power Rankings (12th; LW: 8th)

Slideshow Central has finally ejected the O’s from the Top 10. From before the Nats series: “The Baltimore Orioles slide outside of the top 10 in these rankings once again after closing out a bad week with three straight losses to the Houston Astros. Their defeat Saturday moved them to a season-high 2.5 games back in the AL East standings, and they now trail both the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays in the division. They are also 6-11 in their last 17 games and have won consecutive games just once during that span.”

MLB.com (8th; LW: 5th)

MLB.com uses analysts for 75% of their polls’ composition, and fan votes for the other 25%. The experts have the O’s at #8, the fans at #8, so the O’s end up, unsurprisingly, at #8.

CBS Sports (7th; LW: 6th)

Matt Synder drops the O’s just one slot. “Mark Trumbo's gonna hit 50 homers this year, isn't he?” He just might, Matt.

Power Rankings Guru (8th; LW 7th)

PRG is an aggregate of several national power rankings/polls, and they have the O’s down one slot to 8th.

reddit’s Power Poll (9th; LW: 9th)

The community editors over at reddit have the O’s on the outer fringes of the Top 10. “As we approach September, the room for error gets smaller and smaller. So this makes it a perfect time to lose 5/6, including a 5-3 loss to the Red Sox after battling back late and then a 15-8 loss to Houston despite hitting four homers in the first five batters of the game. Just as the offense gets going, the pitching goes back to being terrible. Silver lining: Chris Davis has five homers in the last five games after having five homers in the last 29 games before that.”

OddsShark.com (20th; LW: 20th)

Ranks are based on rolling past 20 games overall. Since this includes the Houston games, yeah, I can kinda see it. Again.

The Baltimore Sun's MLB Power Rankings (8th; LW: 4th)

The Sun’s Jon Meoli drops the the O’s out of the top five. “ Losing Chris Tillman for even two weeks as his shoulder soreness clears up is going to be tough for a team that hurt its own cause with a terrible stretch at home last week.”

ESPN.com Power Poll (9th; LW: 7th)

The World-Wide Leader keeps the O’s in the Top 10, but their hold is slipping even more. “Could this be when the O's drop out of the playoff race? They are 8-11 in August and can't seem to hit and pitch well at the same time. They lead the Mariners for the second wild-card spot by a game, but they'll need to turn things around in a hurry.” -- Matt Kremnitzer (@mattkremnitzer), Camden Depot

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.