Cleveland Indians up to No. 4 in ESPN’s MLB power rankings

The Cleveland Indians had a great week and have risen up to the No. 4 overall spot in the latest edition of ESPN’s MLB power rankings.

The Cleveland Indians have now dropped two straight games, but things were going so well before Sunday.

The Indians had rattled off nine straight wins, and currently sit with a record of 57-47 heading into tonight’s game in Boston. Two losses without much offense are frustrating, but the Indians are still in a great position.

The Indians are now tied with the New York Yankees for the second-best record in the AL behind the Houston Astros, and have shot up in ESPN’s MLB power rankings as a result. After a week at No. 8, the Indians are now up to the No. 4 spot behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros and Washington Nationals.

From the article:

"The Indians’ season-best, nine-game win streak (snapped Sunday) rebuilt the AL Central lead they squandered earlier in July. Now the question is whether they’ll pull up again instead of breaking away. One positive sign is that Francisco Lindor, Carlos Santana and Bradley Zimmer are among the hitters who powered the streak, snapping their slumps. If the Tribe sees more of that from them, they’ll be hard to catch."

The Dodgers, Astros and Nationals all have giant leads in their respective divisions, so making it to No. 4 shows some confidence from the voters in the Indians’ abilities to run the table in the Central. Or so it seemed before this recent stretch of the offense going quiet.

The six-man rotation is down to five again as Josh Tomlin recently hit the disabled list at a time when Mike Clevinger has had two consecutive rough outings. This comes after six dominant weeks from the young pitcher, so the takeaway is that the six-man rotation prepared an extra man in the instance of one going down. Not a bad idea from Terry Francona.

A positive on offense is that Francisco Lindor has now hit in 11 straight games, and Jose Ramirez moved up in the order to the cleanup spot as of Monday night. He needs to get as many at-bats as possible, so every move up should have Indians fans happy.

The power rankings article was written before the trade deadline, but while the Indians were quiet, the addition of Joe Smith does help bolster the bullpen. It wasn’t as high-profile of a move as the Dodgers adding Yu Darvish, but such a deal may have been too expensive for the Indians.

Next: Indians acquire Joe Smith

The recent nine-game win streak showed fans that this team can be dominant in 2017, it is just a matter of everyone playing up to their potential. It sounds obvious, but it is true.