Up and down week sees Guardians slip in power rankings

It was a week of extremes for the Cleveland Guardians, being the sweeper and swepee of consecutive series. This has been somewhat of a recurring theme as of late, with the Guardians going on prolonged winning and losing streaks. Ideally, the hot and cold spells come to an end, and the team finds a way to be more consistent overall, but that remains to be seen. This has resulted in the Guardians slipping a bit in a recently released MLB Power Ranking.

Appearing on Bleacher Report, Kerry Miller's MLB Power Rankings 2024: Brewers Soar into Top 5; Mariners Plummet and a New No. 1 has Cleveland just outside the top five. Coming in as the sixth-ranked team in the eyes of Miller are the Guardians. Miller noted the sweeps of both varieties as reasons why they slipped to their current spot.

"Unfortunately, the Guardians followed up that sweep of the Cubs with a sweep at the hands of the Brewers, keeping things close in the AL Central race and slipping a bit in the power rankings."

Kerry Miller on the Guardians

It is pretty much impossible to argue with the logic used here. The Guardians have been incredibly streaky in their post-All-Star Break play, and it is making it truly hard to gauge where they are at as a team. The overall season sample size shows that Cleveland is indeed a good team, but the recent streakiness combined with some of the areas of their roster that are patched together has led to some questioning the viability and sustainability of this team as currently constructed, with that being reflected somewhat in their slide in this power ranking.

There is still plenty of time remaining in the season for the Guardians to get their act together, so there is not necessarily a need to go into full-blown panic mode. Although, the longer this streakiness continues, it is going to make it hard to envision this team having the extended postseason run they have shown to be capable of. Everyone would feel a lot more comfortable if they were able to find their level rather than shifting from one extreme to the other in the results department, and they have the chance to do so with their upcoming series in New York.