Cleveland Indians break into top 5 of latest MLB power rankings

I think the last time I paid attention to power rankings for any sport with any regularity was probably NFL rankings in middle school. Just the idea of people ranking things made them seem official in my pre-teenager brain because, of course, you would need to have an immense amount of knowledge about a sport in order to be given the power of ranking its teams, right?

If you have ever followed power rankings, you know that is a blatant lie. There is no real way of comparing so many teams and effectively ranking them -- it's a crapshoot and anyone and everyone can do them.

But I will not deny they can be fun. When the only official way to track teams is standings, it can get dull, especially if things do not change rapidly. With power rankings, however, you can get all kinds of input on your team and how they compare to others in the league. Right now the Cleveland Indians are winning (a LOT) which makes for some power rankings for Indians fans.

Now the Indians look like an unbeatable machine of baseball death, let's see where they rank according to some of the bigger outlets.

ESPN: 4 (Previous: 8)

ESPN has the Indians at No. 4, the highest of any rankings. They also still have the Chicago Cubs at No. 1, with the Rangers at No. 3. Some have those two teams switched, or at the very least, the Cubs at No. 2.

Susan Petrone of It's Pronounced Lajaway -- the ESPN SweetSpot blog for the Indians -- has a difficult time picking out a specific highlight to discuss in one little paragraph. That's a good thing.

Bleacher Report: 5 (Previous: 9)

I clicked through the slideshow so you don't have to.

Bleacher Report loves the Indians starting rotation, noting their 3.63 ERA and 42 quality starts this season. They also named Francisco Lindor as hitter of the week while Carlos Carrasco and Corey Kluber were both pitchers of the week.

MLB.com: 4

I don't know about you, but here's a quote I like:

every reason to believe that in three more months it will still be right in the mix in a very winnable division

Heavy: 4

Of all the great things going for the Indians, Heavy.com points to Rajai Davis' steals as one of their factors in putting the Indians No. 4. Points for originality, I guess, but I might have a few other things come first.

USA Today: 5 (Previous: 8)

USA Today likes to distill their power rankings down to a single note, and the Indians' was simply: "9-0 vs. rival Tigers." I'll take it.