We'll start with an admission: This is easily my least favorite time to rank teams. A Major League Baseball season is a marathon and we can't judge which teams are better based on even a head-to-head series. I don't even need to establish trust here, because the following have already happened:

The Red Sox lost three of four to the Mariners.

The Yankees lost two of three to the Orioles.

The Cubs lost two of three to the Rangers.

The Astros are 1-3.

The Mariners are 5-1!

All three above series will prove fluky over the course of this season. The games obviously are in the books and count, but I'm not ranking the Orioles over the Yankees. We all know they aren't better.

Obviously we can react to some of what we saw, but let's throw out two specific reminders from last season. The Mets started 11-1 and ended 77-85 while the Dodgers started 16-26 and ended 92-71.

As such, it's tough to sit here and earnestly rank the teams based upon what we've seen so far. If the teams were previously ranked close, maybe the head-to-head matters. I'm not wholly convinced the Rays are better than the Astros, but they are both expected contenders and the Rays took three of four. I feel like that matters here.

We'll massage in what mattered without going crazy and doing things like putting the Mariners ahead of the Red Sox. I actually think the moves I made below were aggressive, given how little we actually know about how this season will unfold based upon what we've seen on the field.

The Brewers taking three of four from the Cardinals definitely matters, as I had the top three in the NL Central bunched up to start the year. How about that division and the potential of fun? The Pirates were over .500 last year and the Reds had a great offseason. Those latter two teams had an incredibly fun Opening Day game and split a series. The Cubs' offense appears fixed and -- while the bullpen was most definitely worrisome -- they were a few breaks from sweeping in Texas.

The division also features three MVP-caliber players off to incredible starts.

That's my bet for the most fun division in baseball this year. The defending champion Brewers definitely have a leg up right now and in the way early going look like the team to beat. They sit atop the NL Central in rankings before a series against the Reds to start the week, which you can stream on fuboTV (Try for free). The Cubs kick off the season ninth and the Cardinals 10th.

As for the rest ...

Previous rankings: Preseason | Offseason