Away Back Gone
FanSided

Guardians finally get respect in recent MLB Power Rankings

By James Mastrucci

Oakland Athletics v Cleveland Guardians
Oakland Athletics v Cleveland Guardians / Jason Miller/GettyImages
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It was not that long ago that the Cleveland Guardians were clearly blindsided by an irrational and nonsensical MLB Power Rankings, which saw them ranked among some of the worst teams in the league. Luckily, a recently released power ranking from a different outlet recognizes the early season success of the Guardians and has rewarded their efforts rather than trying to find faults in any way they can. 

This power ranking, coming from Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter, has the Guardians inside the Top-5. Coming in at number four is Cleveland, which is up from their previous rank of eighth. Cleveland went 6-1 last week, taking a four-game road series with the Boston Red Sox three games to one and coming off a three-game sweep of the Oakland Athletics at home this past weekend. 

There was some concern coming from Reuter regarding their starting pitching staff and the season-ending injury to Shane Bieber.

"The Guardians are tied for last in the majors with only three quality starts from the starting rotation, and two of those came from Shane Bieber before he was lost for the season to Tommy John surgery."

- Joel Reuter on Cleveland's rotation

This is an incredibly valid point and one that should not be disregarded. The Guardians are going to need a few arms in their rotation to step up in the wake of Bieber's injury. Yes, Gavin Williams' return is drawing ever closer, but it is going to take more than that. The rest of the arms currently in the rotation must start going deeper into games to take pressure off of their bullpen to perform at an elite level every night. Overuse of a bullpen early on in a season builds up until it finally reaches its breaking point late in the year. This could very well result in another unceremonious early postseason exit, should they make it that far.

But for now, it appears that the Guardians are back and better than ever, even with the one notable area that needs to be addressed. Cleveland can continue their impressive run of winning six of their first seven series with their upcoming matchups with the Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves this week.