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Generally speaking, I start eyeing a topic for the Power Rankings intro around Friday. Last Sunday, though, I told myself one thing was off-limits: I'm not writing on the Brewers again. I had done so two straight weeks and three of the last four. The best team in baseball deserves plenty of virtual ink, obviously, and there will always be plenty of "the national media is ignoring us!" chirping in situations like this, but I don't know if I've ever focused on the same team three straight weeks alone up here in Power Rankings, and I've been doing this since 2012. 

The Brewers are so relentless right now that they've forced my hand, though. They've only lost once since July 30, and it was an extra-innings defeat on Sunday that came after they hit a go-ahead home run in the ninth inning. Think about how absurd that sounds. The trade deadline feels like a veritable eternity ago, but the Brewers' loss on Aug. 17 was their first since the deadline. They are 29-5 since July 5 and 53-17 since May 24. I've used those endpoints a lot recently, though, but the funny thing about how good the Brewers have been is that I don't really need them anymore. And that's why I'm writing about them again.

In glancing back through the last 10 years of baseball, the best teams in the regular season that went on to win the World Series were the 2016 Cubs, 2017 Astros and 2018 Red Sox. 

At this exact point in the season, here are the records of those three teams along with the 2025 Brewers: 

  • The 2016 Cubs were 78-45. 
  • The 2017 Astros were 76-47. 
  • The 2018 Red Sox were 87-36. 
  • The Brewers are now 78-45. 

The most regular-season wins we've seen in recent memory was 111 from the 2022 Dodgers. They were 86-37 at this point. The 2021 Giants won 107 games and were 79-44 at this point. The Dodgers that same season won 106 and they were 77-46 right now.

OK, so the Brewers haven't caught the '18 Red Sox's or '22 Dodgers' pace (yet?), but otherwise that's pretty lofty company to be keeping. 

There's still a relatively long way to go, but it's pretty easy to see this being the best Brewers team of all-time. The franchise has only seen five teams get to the 95-win mark. 

  • 95-66 in 1979
  • 95-67 in 1982
  • 96-66 in 2011
  • 96-67 in 2018
  • 95-67 in 2021

In order to set the franchise record with 97 wins, the Brewers only have to go 18-21 the rest of the way. For anyone who has been paying attention to this team lately, it seems out-of-this-world ridiculous to imagine the Brewers having a losing record the rest of this season. 

Dare I say, it's gotten to the point where anything less than their first NL pennant would be a disappointment for this Brewers team. Who would've ever thought back in mid-May that we'd even entertain such a thought? 

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1 Brewers The weird thing about Sunday's game was not that the Brewers lost. It was that the oh-so-obvious two-run home run in the ninth to give the Brewers the lead wasn't enough. That 100% felt like a play that extends what would end up being a 25-game winning streak. -- 81-50
2 Blue Jays Daulton Varsho is such an interesting unicorn. He came up as a catcher, but he's an exceptional defensive center fielder. And how about the power? He's hitting .225 but that's with a .566 slugging percentage. He has 13 bombs in 132 at-bats. 2 76-55
3 Dodgers Getting swept by the Angels only to turn around and sweep the Padres is a good illustration of how stupid baseball can be in small samples. -- 74-57
4 Phillies The return of Aaron Nola was pretty worrisome, but not nearly as worrisome as the Zack Wheeler blood clot. 2 76-54
5 Tigers The Tigers had felt pretty broken since the week before the All-Star break, but this past week they flexed their muscles and went 5-2. Then again, that was against the White Sox and what's left of the Twins. We should know more this coming week when they have winnable series against better competition (Astros and Royals at home). 3 78-54
6 Cubs The rest of the season will be much easier, fellow Cubs fans, if we just ignore the division race and root for winning a wild card spot. 1 76-55
7 Padres Man, how "Little Brother" of the Padres was it to get scorching hot and overtake the Dodgers for first place in the NL West -- after trailing by as many as eight games -- only to turn around and get swept in by a previously ice-cold Dodgers team. 2 74-57
8 Mariners Well, George Kirby was throwing the ball really well. Until the Little League Classic on Sunday night. 2 70-61
9 Astros The Astros are still looking mediocre overall, having gone 14-20 since I ranked them first in these Power Rankings. The Josh Hader injury is pretty concerning, too. 1 72-59
10 Red Sox Wilyer Abreu's home run on Sunday (go find a highlight if you didn't see it) brought back memories of the Bullpen Cop. That was so fun (unless you're a Tigers fan). 1 71-60
11 Yankees The Yankees are certainly not completely fixed with a 5-1 week, but it was the first time they've looked like an actual good team since a five-game winning streak just before the All-Star break. 1 70-60
12 Mets Maybe Friday was rock bottom and the Mets are gonna salvage their season now? 1 69-61
13 Reds The Reds seem like they aren't going away and will make the race for the final NL playoff spot a fun one. They'll have their work cut out for them. Among contenders, the Reds have the most difficult remaining schedule. 1 68-63
14 Royals Last week I said if the Royals were to make an unlikely playoff push, they had to start immediately. They went 5-1 in the week. That's a start! 2 67-64
15 Guardians They climbed right on the cusp of a playoff spot, but then got swept at home by the Braves. 4 64-65
16 Rangers I thought I remembered an awful stretch of baseball in August of 2023 before the Rangers rebounded to win the World Series. Sure enough, yes, they lost 16 of 20 starting Aug. 16. The 2025 Rangers just lost eight of nine. Of course, they were in worse shape than the 2023 group before it happened. 1 66-66
17 Rays Back in the middle of June, I mentioned multiple times the brutal upcoming Rays' schedule due to how many road games were stacked through July and August. It's pretty much over now, finally. They have 19 home games and 18 road games left. 4 63-67
18 Cardinals Have the Cardinals ever had a shortstop who was the best defensive player in baseball before? Masyn Winn is right now. He can't be the first. Hmm ... 1 64-67
19 Diamondbacks Corbin Carroll tied Tony Womack's club record with 14 triples last season. He has 14 triples this season, so his next one sets a new single-season record. He'll have the career mark for the D-backs relatively soon, too. He has 40 career triples and the D-backs record is 52, held by Stephen Drew. -- 64-67
20 Angels The ship has probably already sailed on whether or not Jo Adell can be a star, but he's hit 19 homers with 52 RBI in his last 66 games. He might be one of those power hitters you can just leave in the five or six hole and enjoy the slugging. 3 61-69
21 Giants The Giants have had three separate losing streaks of at least six games since July 11. 3 63-68
22 Marlins Remember when the Marlins swept the Yankees and climbed to .500 and within striking range of the playoffs? Yeah, that was fun. They've gone 4-10 since. 2 61-69
23 Braves Ozzie Albies has been better, but still not good enough, in the second half while Michael Harris II is scorching hot. These are things that are encouraging for a 2026 bounce back. 3 59-71
24 Orioles Rookie Samuel Basallo was hit by a pitch in his first career plate appearance Sunday. That's the first time it happened to someone with this franchise since 1929 to Red Badgro of the St. Louis Browns. And Badgro is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame (hat-tip to my CBS Sports colleague Dan Weiner on this one). 1 60-70
25 Athletics Nick Kurtz, Brent Rooker and Shea Langeliers are all likely to get to 30 home runs this season. The A's have only had four seasons, ever, with three 30-HR guys (the most recent was 2019 with Matt Chapman, Matt Olson and Marcus Semien). Oh and Tyler Soderstrom has 22 homers. Could the A's get all four players to 30? They've never done that before. 1 60-72
26 Twins Byron Buxton now has 25 homers. It'll be cool if he can finally reach 30, but also, the Twins haven't had a 30-HR guy since 2021 (Jorge Polanco and Miguel Sano). 4 59-71
27 Pirates Bryan Reynolds has looked a lot more like his old self with a nice second half. I wouldn't be surprised if the Pirates try to unload this contract in the offseason, though, given that there are five years and $65 million left on it. -- 57-74
28 Nationals We've seen a few good signs from Dylan Crews here in his four games since returning from the minors. He's got the rest of the season now to build momentum toward a hopeful breakout season in 2026. -- 53-77
29 White Sox Uh oh. The White Sox looked like a sure bet to hit their over (53.5 wins), but now they've lost 11 of 13. Do not let me down, boys. -- 47-83
30 Rockies I got asked last week what year would be the earliest in the future that the Rockies could possibly make the playoffs. I couldn't come up with a reasonable answer. It's a shame. -- 37-94