Newsletter for games through 5-12-24

COMMENTARY

A turtle made it onto the field in a single-A Mets affiliate minor league game this week…I can’t pretend to to know the turtle’s motivations, but I figure he was probably trying to steal second since the Mets are historically bad at throwing out runners…pretty sure the turtle would have made it, especially without Alvarez in the lineup…Cubs ran another perfect 6-0 week to move 8 games up in the NL central and challenge the Dodgers for the best record in the league…Rick Wynne’s group were also 6-0…both teams lead their division by 8 games or more…Philly is holding it down in the NL East, where 4 of the 5 teams had winning records…Cubs, Pirates, Cards, and Reds are all in plus-WOR territory in the NL central…Colorado is quietly 4-2 on the week and 7-3 over the last 10 to move to +1 WOR…everyone in the AL East had 2 or 3 wins…Baltimore would be holding stead if the Bosox and Jays weren’t both +7 WOR…Yankees lurk 2 games over .500…gotta respect Steve Horak, who inherited a really bad Chisox club, but is staying active and went 5-2 on the week, best in the American League…sure, Texas and Houston are slugging it out for the top of the AL west, but what’s truly impressive is the +8 and +10 WOR…Cleveland is hitting a rough patch, but they’re playing better inside the division than outside of it and have a winning interleague record…Sonny Gray struck out 17 but walked 13 in 10.33 innings last week…check out Ryan Jeffers’ day on May 11…kinda cool to see the Leo/Jim have traded with a combined 31 teams…and we’re at 90 trades already, and we’re not even out of May yet…the teams with the best actual OPS are the Dodgers, Astros, and Phillies…team with the most actual homers is…Oakland!!!…and they’re followed by Minnesota…Cubs have the best actual team ERA (2.49) and best actual starter ERAs (2.12)…Jays, Braves, and Dodgers are also under 3.00…shocking to hear an Astro would be caught cheating…I’m going to have Leo check Jim Casey’s fingers for sticky stuff before each lineup submission…I mean, do you really need to cheat against the San Jose/Oakland/Las Vegas A’s?

FEATS AND FAILURES

• Kyle Schwarber (Philadelphia) struck out 4 times (on 5/6/2024 against San Francisco)
• Jared Jones (Pittsburgh) struck out 11 batters (on 5/6/2024 against Anaheim)
• Teoscar Hernández (Chicago (CWS)) struck out 4 times (on 5/6/2024 against Tampa Bay)
• Christian Yelich (Milwaukee) stole 3 bases (on 5/6/2024 against Kansas City)
• Nolan Gorman (St. Louis) struck out 4 times (on 5/6/2024 against New York (NYM))
• Zac Gallen (Arizona) struck out 12 batters (on 5/7/2024 against Cincinnati)
• Andrew Vaughn (Chicago (CWS)) had 5 hits (on 5/7/2024 against Tampa Bay)
• Jackson Chourio (Milwaukee) had 5 hits (on 5/7/2024 against Kansas City)
• Dairon Blanco (Kansas City) struck out 5 times (on 5/7/2024 against Milwaukee)
• Blake Sabol (San Francisco) struck out 4 times (on 5/7/2024 against Colorado)
• Bryan De La Cruz (Miami) struck out 4 times (on 5/8/2024 against Los Angeles)
• JJ Bleday (Oakland) hit 6 RBI (on 5/8/2024 against Texas)
• Mitch Garver (Seattle) struck out 4 times (on 5/9/2024 against Minnesota)
• Edouard Julien (Minnesota) struck out 5 times (on 5/9/2024 against Seattle)
• Elias Díaz (Colorado) struck out 4 times (on 5/9/2024 against San Francisco)
• Michael King (Chicago (CWS)) struck out 11 batters (on 5/10/2024 against Cleveland)
• Ryan Jeffers (Minnesota) hit 4 homers (on 5/11/2024 against Toronto)
• Ryan Jeffers (Minnesota) hit 7 RBI (on 5/11/2024 against Toronto)
• Ryan Jeffers (Minnesota) had 5 hits (on 5/11/2024 against Toronto)
• Fernando Tatis Jr. (Texas) hit 7 RBI (on 5/11/2024 against Colorado)
• Joc Pederson (Colorado) struck out 4 times (on 5/11/2024 against Texas)
• Kevin Pillar (Los Angeles) hit 6 RBI (on 5/11/2024 against San Diego)
• Eguy Rosario (San Diego) struck out 4 times (on 5/11/2024 against Los Angeles)
• Josh Bell (Miami) hit 3 homers (on 5/12/2024 against Philadelphia)
• Brandon Marsh (New York (NYY)) struck out 4 times (on 5/12/2024 against Tampa Bay)
• Ezequiel Tovar (Colorado) struck out 4 times (on 5/12/2024 against Texas)

Newsletter for games through 5-5-24

HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO…pentadic observations….five teams had five losses…five teams have five wins or more over reality…Vierling, McCadden, and Bohm had five RBI on the week…Luis Arraez had 5 hits against Colorado…and was the only player to have 5 hits in a game all week…five teams are five (or 5.5) games back of first place…Houston’s divisional record is 5-5…they are the only team in the league to be 5-5 in any divisional/interleague/1-run game breakdown…the Mets, Jays, and Tigers are 5-5 over their last ten…and in my opinion the May 5 winner is the Chisox, who have 5 wins on the season…ignoring the call to do things in fives, the Cubs ran the table and went 7-0…the Phillies used their 5-win week to move into first place…as in real life the Dodgers swept the Braves in an early-season battle of the NL elite, earning thanks and praise from everyone else in the NL East…Bosox and Rangers were both 6-0, making three undefeated teams last week…all of them are in first place…in face, teams that ended the weeks in first place in any division other than the AL central were a collective 29-2…the Royals led the AL central but were 1-5…so that’s five teams leading their division and winning fives games or more, and the Royals losing five…but still +1 WOR and still leading the division…Tigers are also +1 and are in second…every AL East team has a winning record…NL Central is the bloodbath in the other league, collectively +6 WOR and with four of five teams at .500 or better…and I just gotta mention the Diamondbacks, who have the misfortune of sharing a division with the Dodgers, but who are +6 WOR and only 5.5 back, which is striking distance if we believe Rick Wynne doesn’t play .750 ball all year…

FEATS AND FAILURES

• Nolan Gorman (St. Louis) struck out 4 times (on 4/29/2024 against Detroit)
• Eguy Rosario (San Diego) struck out 4 times (on 4/29/2024 against Cincinnati)
• Luis Arraez (Miami) had 5 hits (on 4/30/2024 against Colorado)
• Tucker Barnhart (Arizona) struck out 4 times (on 4/30/2024 against Los Angeles)
• Luis Castillo (Seattle) struck out 11 batters (on 4/30/2024 against Atlanta)
• Pete Crow-Armstrong (Chicago (CC)) struck out 4 times (on 5/2/2024 against New York (NYM))
• Tarik Skubal (Houston) struck out 11 batters (on 5/3/2024 against Seattle)
• Ezequiel Tovar (Colorado) struck out 4 times (on 5/5/2024 against Pittsburgh)
• Kyle Tucker (Houston) struck out 4 times (on 5/5/2024 against Seattle)
• William Contreras (Milwaukee) struck out 4 times (on 5/5/2024 against Chicago (CC))
• Javier Assad (Chicago (CC)) struck out 11 batters (on 5/5/2024 against Milwaukee)