Power rankings system devised and compiled weekly by Stemshul. “Expert” analysis by paradroid.
We continue our league-wide tour with the N.L. East this week. If there’s one word for this division, it’s mediocre. There are no great teams to be found. There may not even be any good teams to be found. But there aren’t any really bad teams either. The Miami Marlins can’t win despite a run differential which suggests a near .500 team and Washington is slowly but surely drifting away from that same indicator of “meh”. Atop are the Phillies, despite their negative run differential, but 59-54 and one game ahead of the pack shouldn’t make the Santa hating Philadelphians too confident. The one team who has a case for “good” is Atlanta. They own the only positive run differential (+66; a number which indicates an expected record of 64-49 – the perfect 64tacos result through 113 games). The fact that they’re only 58-55 makes you wonder what’s wrong, but after muddling their way to a 30-35 record on June 16th, Atlanta has (kind of) kicked it into gear with a 28-20 run despite the loss of their best player, Ronald Acuña, Jr, to an ACL tear June 11th.
While the Braves are slowly working their way towards meeting preseason expectations, the other team that was supposed to contend to win the division, the New York Mets, are fading fast. At one point 35-25, the Metropolitans have slumped to a 21-30 record since, including losing 9 of their last 11. It was a minor miracle they were in first place so long, because the Mets are truly terrible on offense. They only manage 3.78 runs per game, 3rd worst overall. The teams below them, the Pirates and Texans, have a combined win percentage of .358 and sit at #27 and #28 in our rankings. They got by on dominant pitching, but with their best pitcher (and the best in baseball this year when healthy), Jacob deGrom, out indefinitely, the Mets have dropped to 7th in runs allowed at 3.92. It looks like the Braves and Phillies will duke it out for the division crown, but with no team to 60 wins yet well over 100 games into the season, a wildcard slot looks unlikely for the team that loses out, especially with the three headed monster of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Whale’s Vagina San Diego out west (Atlanta is currently 7 games behind the Padres for the last wildcard spot). I believe it will be Atlanta who wins out; despite being rated a few spots behind Philadelphia in our rankings, I think they have more hitting and more pitching than the Phillies and may well run away with the division by September.
Detroit alternated losses and wins this week, going 3-3 after beating the Orioles 9-4 last night. Casey Mize has struggled in his last 2 starts, giving up 6 home runs in 9.1 innings last week. He’s in uncharted territory as far as innings pitched (120.1 this year, more than the 114.2 he pitched his last year in college or the 109.1 he pitched in 2019 in the minors), so fatigue may be a factor. Or it’s just a 2 game blip and he’ll get right back to his best. I’m eager to see how he does in his next start. One bit of concern from last night’s win: Derek Hill and Akil Baddoo, two of Detroit’s promising young outfielders, collided at full speed going after a fly ball to left center. Hill somehow held on, but both guys look to have been injured. Watching the play, it’s a amazing they both walked off the field. Those plays usually result in nasty injuries. Hill may have hurt his ribs and Baddoo is being evaluated for a concussion, but hopefully they’re both relatively ok. They’ve both exceeded expectations this year and are looking like part of the future in the outfield for the Tigers.
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