MLB Power Rankings: Week 1

Mandatory Credit: Brad Barr-USA TODAY Sports

Opening Day. When every team thinks they have a shot at playing in October. Expectations are high for players and fans. Nothing screams hope as loud as Opening Day.

It’s magical.

Every Monday, you can come here to find my weekly power rankings. Truth be told, power rankings are as significant as spring training statistics, but they’re still a lot of fun.

Here are my power rankings for Week 1 of the 2014 Major League Baseball season.

1. St. Louis Cardinals: Best rotation in the bigs, and pretty much stacked everywhere else.

2. Detroit Tigers: Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer make a formidable 1-2 punch.

3. Boston Red Sox: Last year’s champion and Big Papi is showing no signs of slowing down.

4. Los Angeles Dodgers: Can Matt Kemp return to form?

5. Washington Nationals: Stephen Strasburg will win the NL Cy Young.

6. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: Josh Hamilton and Albert Pujols have to bounce back, right?

7.  Oakland Athletcs: Sonny Gray is a diamond in the rough.

8. Tampa Bay Rays: Heck of a rotation, but can they score enough runs?

9. New York Yankees: Derek Jeter is back and A-Rod’s drama is gone.

10. San Francisco Giants: Tim Lincecum is huge wildcard in 2014.

11. Pittsburgh Pirates: Lost A.J. Burnett in free agency and didn’t find a legitimate first baseman.

12. Kansas City Royals: Is this the year the Royals break their playoff drought?

13. Cleveland Indians: Hopefully, Justin Masterson‘s contract negotiations (or lack thereof) doesn’t become more of a nuisance.

14. Atlanta Braves: Losing Kris Medlen hurts. Who’s going to step up in his place?

15. Cincinnati Reds: Didn’t do enough to improve the squad this offseason.

16. Milwaukee Brewers: If Wily Peralta and Marco Estrada overachieve, watch out.

17. Texas Rangers: Adding Prince Fielder was huge, but losing Jurickson Profar and Yu Darvish is devastating.

18. Baltimore Orioles: Rotation is a concern for me.

19. Seattle Mariners: I think Robinson Cano will struggle in Safeco and the offense will sputter.

20. San Diego Padres: Rotation is blah and offense is mundane. Just not an exciting team.

21. Toronto Blue Jays: Boy, their offense is exciting, but their rotation has a lot of question marks.

22. Colorado Rockies: Can Troy Tulowitzki stay healthy for an entire season?

23. Arizona Diamondbacks: Patrick Corbin‘s absence in the rotation will be noticed immediately.

24. Philadelphia Phillies: Everyone is just so old.

25. New York Mets: I feel for Matt Harvey. But he’ll rebound nicely in 2015, and so should the Mets.

26. Minnesota Twins: They won’t be as bad as people think, and in a few years, they’ll be a dominant force in the AL Central.

27. Chicago White Sox: Chris Sale is fun to watch. The White Sox? Not so much.

28. Chicago Cubs: Theo Epstein is slowly turning things around. Kris Bryant will be a beast in a couple of years.

29. Miami Marlins: Jose Fernandez will compete with Strasburg for Cy Young.

30. Houston Astros: For the first time in years, they might not be the worst professional sports team in Houston. But they’ll still be god-awful.