MLB Week 3

MLB Rankings Week 3: Competitive Division Battles & Breakouts

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MLB

Baseball is buzzing as the 2025 season kicks into high gear, delivering drama, dominance, and breakout stars across the league. The past week has highlighted the National League’s rising power—especially in the NL West, where teams like the San Francisco Giants are making strong early statements. Over in the American League, the AL East is shaping up to be the most compelling division, with the Yankees riding a red-hot Aaron Judge and fierce competition from the Blue Jays and revamped Red Sox. Familiar faces are delivering vintage performances while new names emerge, as Judge continues his power surge and rising stars like Tyler Soderstrom begin to shine. With both seasoned vets and fresh talent fueling the action, this season is already living up to the hype.

National League

NL East

Atlanta Braves – No clue what’s going on. They just continue to lose. Strider came back and pitched great in a loss which is encouraging. I can’t help but feel like they’re gonna bounce back but so far? Nothing.

Miami Marlins – The pesky fish took 2 of 3 from the Nats who are reeling at the moment. Then they ran into the NL West. Happening to everyone so no need to feel ashamed! 8-10 not a bad start considering their roster.

New York Mets – What a drama filled up & down week for my Mets. 2 of 3 in Sacramento against the A’s before dropping 2 of 3 to the Twins (who are not very impressive at the moment). The big story were the comments made by a struggling Juan Soto though who alluded to missing Aaron Judge’s presence in the lineup. The confusing thing is that outside of Aaron Judge, Pete Alonso is probably the best hitter in baseball at the moment. Not the excuses you want to hear from your 15 year 800 million dollar man. Pitching has still been very impressive on all fronts.

Philadelphia Phillies – lost 2 of 3 to the Cardinals & trying to split a series with the Giants currently, the Phillies showed some weakness this week. Lineup has been underwhelming. Big series against the Mets coming up this week which should be a solid indicator of what the team has early on. 

Washington Nationals – As good as they were last week is as bad as they’ve been this week. Downright ugly week against the Pirates and Marlins who are considered two of the lower ranked teams in the league. Maybe the Nats are right down there with them.

NL Central

Chicago Cubs – Took 2 of 3 on the road from the Dodgers and lost 2 of 3 in a competitive series with the Padres. I’d be a pig in shit if my team went out west and played the way they did despite their 3-3 record. Cubs are very much a force to be reckoned with in my opinion.

Cincinnati Reds – Swept the Buccos before dropping a series to the Mariners. Hunter Greene Cy Young watch is officially in play as he went another 7 innings of 2-hit ball with 8 K’s. Just wildly impressive so far to begin the year.

Milwaukee Brewers – Tough schedule for the Brew Crew this week who went 3-3 against the DBacks & Tigers. Of course they took 2 of 3 from the Tigers because… well… the National League appears to be miles better than their American League counterparts. It feels like they’re a team that no matter who the players are they play a very specific brand of baseball: pesky speedy lineup with solid (but not amazing) pitching to boot. It’s been a recipe for competitive regular seasons and zero playoff success, we’ll see if this trend continues this year.

Pittsburgh Pirates – It wasn’t the best week ever but the Pirates finally showed some signs of life this week against the Nationals coming off a tough series against the Reds. O’Neil Cruz had a hell of a week: huge grand slam in game 3 and a solo lead-off shot that proved to be the winner in the final game of the series. Hopefully winning a couple can wake them up moving forward.

St. Louis Cardinals – Underwhelming. Pitching is decent between Gray & Pallante throwing solid innings, Brenden Donavan and the lineup racking up hits (2nd most as a team in baseball actually), but JT hasn’t come together yet. Hoping they wait one more series before it comes together as they have a 4 game set at Citi Field to start this next week of play.

NL West

Arizona Diamondbacks – Ahhhh the NL West. Let’s put things into perspective: the Arizona Diamondbacks are 11-7. They’ve beaten the Yankees who look like early AL front runners. 4th in batting average, 5th in ding dongs, naturally 3rd in RBI’s. They have 8 quality starts from their starters which is good for 2nd most in the league. And yet they are currently a 4th place team. Speaks a hell of a lot more about the division than it does to them as a teamz They have been good, but they have their work cut out for them this year.

Colorado Rockies – I’m going to say really good things about every other team in this division, but I’m sorry Rockies fans I have nothing good to say about your team. Not only would they stink if they were in a bad division but they are in the best division. It’s very ugly.

Los Angeles Dodgers – The Dodgers got knocked down a peg last week and started this week on a similar note losing to the Cubs in a home series. Luckily the trusty Rockies were there to get them back on track. Freeman has been playing sparingly, they’ll obviously be fine. No longer #1 in the power rankings but one good week away from reclaiming the top spot.

San Diego Padres – It looks like an awful lot of fun to be a San Diego Padres fan right now. I got to visit their park and their city last year and they have a very passionate fan base. After an off-season filled with drama surrounding the ownership of their team and talks of selling key players, the doubts have quickly been laid to rest. This team is simply beating the good teams and pummeling the bad teams. They’re gave up ZERO (0) runs to the Rockies in their weekend series. They’re the best team in baseball at the moment.

San Francisco Giants – I will once again revisit my week 1 opinion when I said the Giants were a sleeper team. At no point have they been asleep this season. Jung Hoo Lee tormented the Yankees in a nice series win, & the offense did not slow down as they have taken 2 of the first 3 in their 4 game set to finish off an East coast trip. The Giants (much like the rest of the division) came to play this year. There’s a chance we get 4 teams from this division in the playoffs which is almost unthinkable.

American League

AL East

Baltimore Orioles – 2-2 over the last week with a rainout. At 7-10 it’s been a disappointing start for them. But luckily no team has jumped out into a commanding lead of the division (although the Yanks look poised to as usual). Might be a good time for Baltimore to wake up before they put themselves in an early hole.

Boston Red Sox – The theme of the AL East is me not really being able to get a read on teams. They’re 3rd in the league in hits, 3rd in stolen bases, & their team ERA is bad but not the worst. It’s their fielding that’s been very weak, multiple guys near the top of the league in errors at their respective positions. Losing series to the White Sox? Losing games 16-1? But winning a series and sitting at 10-10 in the process? Who are the Boston Red Sox?

New York Yankees – There is a lot that can be said about guys like Dominguez & Grisham who are valiantly playing their role for this team. But my goodness I’d be doing a disservice if I didn’t mention Aaron Judge. The generational talent continues to carry the Yanks during the regular season as we’ve become accustomed to. Batting .409 & 2nd in homers, the king of New York continues to do king things. Once they replace some of their awful pitching they should once again be a legitimate contender in the AL.

Tampa Bay Rays – 3-4 since our last update, this is another team I can’t figure out. I’ll just be blunt about it though, I think that’s we will figure them out sooner than later as I don’t think they’ll have the talent to keep up with the rest of the thoroughbreds in this division.

Toronto Blue Jays – The Blue Jays are equally as confusing to me as the Red Sox. The interesting thing is they aren’t winning one losing one: they look dominant in one full series, & lost in the next. History would lead me to believe they will go the way of the Rays & fade away as the season goes on, but something inside of me says maybe we should pay them a little more attention until they give us a reason not to. Vlad finally hit his first homer after a long long drought, if he can start hitting for power (because his average never wavered) they could become a force.

AL Central

Chicago White Sox – They still look terrible, but I’m not gonna beat a dead horse. On a positive note they actually beat the Red Sox in their 3 game series this week so hats off to them! Going to try to go easy on the fellas from the South Side this year as I feel for them & their fans.

Cleveland Guardians – 4-2 since last update. A step in the right direction. Surprisingly, after having one of the best bullpens in the league in 2024, their bullpen has looked like a shell of itself, including their stud closer Emmanuel Clase. Early season woes? Reason for legitimately concern? Too early to tell. But if the bullpen doesn’t figure it out the rest of the team isn’t good enough to carry the weight.

Detroit Tigers – 3-3 with a series win over Twinkies & a series loss to the Brewers Crew. Not a ton to report this week, looking forward to their 7 games in 7 days against the Royals and the surging Padres. Might tell us more about this team.

Kansas City Royals – Someone might want to let them know the goal is to hit the baseball and score runs. They don’t seem to know.

Minnesota Twins – 3-3 week against Mets & Tigers. Didn’t look particularly good in either series but the Wins & Losses columns do not discriminate. This team battling the injury bug right now needs to keep relying on Joe Ryan & Bailey Ober, both of whom looked really good against the Mets.

AL West 

Houston Astros – America’s favorite team is still playing average baseball out the gate. They lead the league in quality starts & are 2nd in the league in strikeouts, but remain 8-10 and in 4th place as of today. Nobody in this division (or any other division) has looked too much better than the rest so they’ll luckily have time to find their footing.

Los Angeles Angels – Here comes the correction 🙁 After a decent start over the first two weeks the Angels have lost two series in a row to division rivals. Can never overreact to one week of baseball at a time, but it felt like this regression was going to come eventually. Hoping they bounce back & prove they are legit. Their 30 homers is good for 3rd most in the bigs through 3 weeks of play.

Oakland Athletics – The A’s unfortunately look like the worst team in this division. Sure they took 2 from the White Sox (who hasn’t) but they were sloppy in the 3 game set against my Mets which they lost. To compound things, their minor league stadium is an embarrassment to the sport. The small crowds gathering on the grass hills in the outfield is a cool touch, but there is no place for players to get a stretch leading to workouts in the middle of the dugout, & they needed to cart an injured player out of the stadium through the outfield & the cart broke down halfway there. Maybe foreshadowing for the remainder of the season. The one shining spot is currently Tyler Sonderstrom, who leads the league in homers out of nowhere.

Seattle Mariners – Big step in the right direction for these guys taking 4 of 5 this past week. They even managed to put up a crooked number against the Rangers which you’ll rarely see from the M’s. Despite their generally poor hitting, Big Dumper (yes, his real nickname) Cal Raleigh is tied with Aaron Judge for 2nd most home-runs in the league.

Texas Rangers – Naturally as soon as I said these guys would be on top of the division for a while the Rangers were swept by a struggling Mariners team. Luckily they beat the interim division leading Angels twice to reclaim the lead before I had to eat my words completely. Surprisingly they share the lowest run differential in the division with the A’s.

AH Top 10 MLB Power Rankings: Week 3

  1. Padres
  2. Dodgers
  3. Cubs
  4. Giants
  5. Diamondbacks
  6. Mets
  7. Yankees
  8. Phillies
  9. Rangers
  10. Tigers
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