Well, we’re through May and there’s some strange things going on. The Twins are really good for some reason, the Astros are still rolling, the AL East is a dumpster fire, and Giancarlo Stanton is reportedly considering petitioning the MLB to move the fences back in all stadiums to 460 feet so only he can hit home runs. In any event, lets see where we stand.
- St. Louis Cardinals- The Cards lead the league in both record and run differential and don’t really seem to be slowing down soon. Matt Holiday is red hot and has compensated for Matt Carpenter slowing down a little big. Big first baseman Matt Adams is going to miss as much as a couple months with a quad injury. How the club responds to that will be a big indicator of the rest of their season in a tough division. They are also the only team with a sub 3 ERA.
- Houston Astros- So turns out the Astros are the real deal. They swat homeruns at a league leading clip (no surprise) and strike out more than anyone else in the AL (also no surprise), but they can also pitch! They are 9th in the bigs in ERA behind bonafide Ace Dallas Kuechel, who improved to 8-1 this weekend.
- Kansas City Royals- The Royals are still atop the AL Central despite some good months from other contenders. Danny Duffy needs to right the ship, as they need him in the rotation. One thing to look out for is the wear and tear on Salvy Perez as Ned Yost does Ned Yost things to him all summer and never gives him a break.
- Los Angeles Dodgers- The Dodgers forgot how to hit for a while in May, after leading the world in offense previously, The real Dodgers are somewhere in between and good enough to run away with things in the West.
- Washington Nationals- Hey! The Nats woke up! Bryce Harper is the planet’s best player, which is good because the superrotation isn’t that super, turns out. Stephen Strasburg is having the season from hell and Doug Fister is hurt. At least Max Scherzer is as good as advertised.
- San Fransico Giants- The Giants are red hot behind some really, really good pitching. Even Tim Lincecum seems rejuvenated and the staff as a whole is 8th in ERA. Their middle of the pack offensively though and smell kind of like a streaky team that got hot for a bit.
- Pittsburgh Pirates- The Pirates are quietly the second best pitching team in baseball and AJ Burnett has been lights out. Fransico Cervelli has been tearing the cover off the ball and, despite being in just 3rd place, the Buccos sport a +37 run differential, good for 4th in baseball.
- Minnesota Twins- So Paul Molitor is gunning for Manager of the Year. I still think this team is a pretender more than a contender but this team is 7th in baseball in runs scored and has a +20 run differential. They still struggle a bit on the mound and once the Tigers, Indians, and White Sox right their respective ships I think things will normalize but in May, the Twins were the best team in the game.
- Detroit Tigers- The Tigers are about to get Justin Verlander back, so that should help. Injuries and underperformance have kept their offense from clicking and they rank 14th in both runs scored and ERA. This season has the potential to be a huge disappointment but they’ll come around.
- New York Mets- Ahh, here’s the real Mets. Ranked #1 in last months rankings, the Metropolitans have come back to earth quite a bit and are now 4 games over .500 as of Saturday night. 7-15 on the road through May certainly isn’t a good sign moving forward.
- Chicago Cubs- The Cubs are in second place despite a negative run differential. Kris Bryant arrived and has been excellent but Jorge Soler continues to struggle and needs to be more of a power threat for this team going forward. Anthony Rizzo cooled off a bit too. The Cubs have the biggest deficit of any 2nd place team and are about to be caught by the Pirates but at least they’re still the most fun MLB.tv team.
- Los Angeles Angels- The Angels can’t really score runs and now have to watch Josh Hamilton swat homers in Texas but the pitching’s been pretty good. Other than the Astros, the division is very mediocre and they definitely still have a shot.
- Seattle Mariners- The Mariners are just about .500 and that seems right. Led by King Felix, the pitching has been fine and will get a big boost if Taijuan Walker really has figured it out. On offense, Nelson Cruz is a force but Robinson Cano has been awful. Something tells me he’s in for a big month though.
- New York Yankees- The Yankees are atop the AL East despite being not very good. CC Sabathia isn’t very good, Mark Teixeira isn’t very good, Stephen Drew isn’t very good, Chris Capuano isn’t very good. The bullpen is though, so there’s that.
- San Diego Padres- Despite all the changes in SD, this team is very average and seems to have found a niche in 3rd place in the West. Above average on offense but below average on the mound is a new thing for them, but the result is the same.
- Tampa Bay Rays- The Rays have battled injury all year, especially in their starting rotation and they’ll get Matt Moore back this month, so that’s a good thing. 27th in the league in runs scored is problematic though.
- Cleveland Indians- The Indians are finally starting to come around a bit. Cory Kluber is a monster and could lead Cleveland way up the rankings next month.
- Baltimore Orioles- Getting Matt Weiters back should help but this team hasn’t been great on either side of the ball. This might be a case of playing to their talent rather than exceeding it like they’ve done the past two years.
- Texas Rangers- Josh Hamilton seems happy to be back in Texas and Prince Fielder might have been baseball’s best hitter over the past two weeks. Troublingly, the Rangers are 26th in pitching and that’ll limit them quite a bit.
- Toronto Blue Jays- The Blue Jays have scored the most runs of any team in the game and Josh Donaldson has been locked in for a while now. They can hit. Problem is that they have the third worst pitching staff in baseball, second worst among non-Rockies and are in fourth place, though not very far behind the whichever flawed team is in first today.
- Atlanta Braves- So Shelby Miller should be on the short list to start the All Star Game. He’s making a living on tossing complete game shutouts and as a result, Atlanta’s pitching has shot all the way up to 22nd in baseball in ERA! Trust me, that’s an accomplishment when you see some of the other guys they’ve been running out there.
- Boston Red Sox- The Rockies are the only team in baseball with a worse team ERA than Boston. Joe Kelly seems best suited as a reliever and even the offense has struggled. The plan of simply outhitting the opponent just isn’t working and 2013 is starting to look like an aberration rather than the start of a pattern.
- Miami Marlins- Giancarlo Stanton is really really good but sometimes it seems like the Marlins are doing whatever they can to ensure that he’ll definitely opt out of his huge contract when the time comes. Moving the GM to manager certainly qualifies as one of those moves.
- Chicago White Sox- The Sox are still struggling a bit. They have the second worst offense in the game, despite Jose Abreu’s presence in the lineup and the pitching hasn’t been very good either. Though Chris Sale appears to be coming around. In what is perhaps the best division in baseball, the Sox are increasingly being left out.
- Arizona Diamondbacks- Paul Goldschmidt is really good. He’s led the Dbacks to the 6th most runs scored in the game. Thing is, they are squarely the fourth best team in their division and, thanks to some serious pitching problems, they constantly have to outhit opponents. Not a great outlook
- Cincinnati Reds- The Reds have the third worst offense and 6th worst ERA in baseball. Bryan Price is a bad manager too.
- Oakland A’s- The A’s are top ten in offense and middle of the road in overall ERA, but thanks in large part to the dumpster fire that is their bullpen, they are one of only 3 teams yet to win 20 games. Plus, they just put Sean Doolittle back on the DL.
- Colorado Rockies- The Rockies once again have the worst pitching in baseball. They somehow haven’t figure out how to work around their particular home environment yet. Thing is, Troy Tulowitzki had an awful month and Corey Dickerson is hurt at the moment. Couple that with the pile of terrible that has been Carlos Gonzalez and you’ll see why Colorado is struggling so much.
- Philadelphia Phillies- The Phillies are bad. Chase Utley looks done and there isn’t much talent on the roster. However, Aaron Harang has been great, Ryan Howard looks way better and Jon Papelbon and Ken Giles have been themselves, too. All are trade candidates.
- Milwaukee Brewers- They are still the worst team in baseball and not showing signs of improvement.
-Max Frankel
