Philadelphia Phillies Disrespected With Latest Weekly Power Rankings

The Philadelphia Phillies have been on a tear over the last month. After playing to an 11-8 record over their first 19 games, the club has gone an impressive 17-10 over their last 27, including an 11-5 run in May.

It has seen the Phillies close the early gap the New York Mets had on the National League East lead, now just a 1/2 game behind the team from Queens.

The success has come on the back of many throughout the lineup, and the elite starting rotation, but a new leadoff hitter has set the tone atop the lineup throughout the recent stretch. Despite that success, the latest weekly power rankings from Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report is a slap in the face to the team, as they have dropped from sixth last week, to eighth this week.

Philadelphia Phillies Somehow Drop in Weekly Power Rankings After 4-2 Week

"The Phillies swept the Pirates over the weekend and Mick Abel tossed a gem in his MLB debut on Sunday," writes Reuter, "but the club was dealt a major blow when closer José Alvarado was hit with an 80-game PED suspension. The rest of the Phillies bullpen has a 4.86 ERA with eight blown saves in 16 chances, so things could get messy in the late innings."

While losing Jose Alvarado for 80 games is not ideal for Philadelphia, the bullpen gets used far less than it does for other teams. The starting rotation ranks second in MLB in innings pitched with 263, while the bullpen is tied for the second fewest innings with the Kansas City Royals at just 149 2/3. It is hard for a unit to be that detrimental to a team when they are used that infrequently.

While no reliever outside of Matt Strahm and Alvarado holds an ERA on the year below 3.00, Jordan Romano has turned things around of late after his early-season struggles. Despite his ERA of 7.49 on the year, he has not allowed a run in his last seven outings and carries a WHIP of 0.57 in that time.

The bullpen is nowhere near as bad as it looks on the surface, and the Phillies are a much better team than one ranked eighth in MLB right now. Their record alone is fourth-best in MLB.