Elephant Rumblings: Where the A’s stand in power rankings after April

Happy Tuesday, Athletics Nation!

We’re now into the second full month of the season and so far the A’s have managed to get by with a .500ish record, sadly sliding a few games below over the weekend. Before Opening Day we checked in with the general opinion of the Athletics across the baseball world, so let’s see what’s changed after the first month of play.

Before the season the A’s were consistently placed at the bottom of all teams, generally around 28th place. This was a significant drop from the end of the 2021 season, when they sat mid-pack. Let’s see where baseball punditry ranks the green and gold now:

Site - Rank (Opening Day rank)

• MLB.com - 23/30 (27/30)
• ESPN - 20/30 (28/30)
• The Athletic - 22/30 (27/30)
• Sports Illustrated - 21/30 (28/30)
• CBS Sports - 21/30 (25/30)
• theScore - 23/30 (28/30)
• FanGraphs - 20/30 (27/30)

On average the A’s are ranked 21st, which is 6 places up from the previous average. The biggest move on any of the lists is the 8 places the A’s sailed up on ESPN. In the rankings that include write-ups, the general consensus seemed to be that the squad has been boosted by Sheldon Neuse, Tony Kemp, and the starting efforts of Montas, Irvin, Jefferies, and Blackburn.

Looking at these ranks together, they seem appropriate for how the A’s April went. The nature of power rankings being a weekly exercise does mean that they’re a little slower to adapt to current events like a series sweep by the Guardians. The A’s are still beating the low expectations set for them a month ago, and while leading the pack for the bottom-third of teams isn’t necessarily the highest accolade to receive, it’s better than dwelling at the bottom of the list.

A’s Coverage

• Ashford: Game #23: A’s bats fall silent in loss to Rays
• Hall: Roster shrink: A’s option Jacob Lemoine, DFA Austin Allen
• Kawahara: Austin Allen, Jake Lemoine off active roster as A’s pare down to 26 ($)
• Franco: Athletics Designate Austin Allen For Assignment, Outright Mikey McDonald
• Ravani: Oakland A’s score win as ballpark plan gets preliminary nod from key state agency ($)
• Kawahara: A’s total 2 hits, lose 6-1 to Rays before paid crowd of 2,48 at Coliseum ($)

MLB News & Interest

• Passan: How MLB umpire grades really work, and what it means for the future of balls and strikes
• Apstein: Stop Paying Attention to Trevor Bauer ($)
• Szymborski: Is This The End for Joey Votto?
• Mets Designate Robinson Cano For Assignment
• Taylor: Kelsie Whitmore Becomes the First Woman to Start in an Atlantic League Game
• Creamer: MLB 2022 Camouflage Caps for Armed Forces Day
• Cespedes Family BBQ: Drafting Players Who Were Optioned/DFA Today (video)
• Today in Baseball History

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