The national perception of the NL East – and especially of the Braves and Phillies – has shifted dramatically.
Four different sets of weekly “power rankings” – ESPN’s, USA Today’s, Bleacher Report’s and CBS Sports’ -- pegged the Braves as MLB’s fourth best team entering this week. All ranked the Phillies among the top 10 teams, ranging from sixth to 10th. All ranked the Nationals among the top dozen teams, ranging from sixth to 12th.
And one ranking, ESPN’s, had three National League East teams in the top seven (No. 4 Braves, No. 6 Nationals, No. 7 Phillies).
"The AL East might be baseball's drama division," ESPN wrote, "but the NL East isn't far behind with that trio and a winning Mets team all contending."
CBS Sports' rankings assessed the Braves this way: "They're real, and they're spectacular." And then assessed the Phillies this way: "They're real, and they're close to spectacular."
Wrote USA Today: "(I)s it too soon to call a Braves-Phillies three-game set a showdown series? Hey, why not?"
(The Phillies took the opener of that three-game series Monday night in Philadelphia, shutting out the Braves 3-0.)
All four sets of rankings, by the way, agreed on MLB’s top three teams, all from the American League: No. 1 Yankees, No. 2 Red Sox, No. 3 Astros. That means all four sources ranked the Braves as the top NL team.
Granted, it’s still very early – 116 games to go for the Braves – and such rankings are by nature fluid and fickle and, yes, inconsequential. Still, it’s worth noting and enumerating how far the Braves and Phillies have progressed from teams that lost 90-plus games last year … and the year before … and the year before that.
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LEADOFF LINKS
> Future Super Bowl sites. National anthem protests. Kickoff rule changes. Carolina Panthers' sale. Sports gambling ruling. Lots of important issues are on NFL's radar heading into the owners' spring meetings in Atlanta, beginning today. See story here.
> Josh Okogie is leaving Georgia Tech, which is bad news for Josh Pastner. Read Mark Bradley's column here. And Ken Sugiura's report here.
> Could money change Julio Jones -- or our perception of him? Read Steve Hummer's blog here.
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