Power rankings system devised and compiled weekly by Stemshul. “Expert” analysis by paradroid.
The All-star break is here and we have a new #1! The Giants leapfrog the Astros, Dodgers, and Red Sox to finish the official first half of the season at the top. How is a team nobody expected to be any good this successful? Well, there’s really nothing they aren’t great at. Run scoring? Sixth with 4.96 per game. Runs allowed? First (3.65) Ok, how about defense? Eight in Fielding Bible’s DRS metric (29 runs saved). How could nobody have seen this coming? Pretty much every veteran is having a better than expected year. Buster Posey, a 34 year old catcher (not a position that ages particularly well), is having his best offensive year since his 20s. His OPS would be his best ever if he keeps it up. SS Brandon Crawford has never been this good (also 34), and 35 year old 3B Evan Longoria is playing like he did in his prime for Tampa Bay. On the mound, Kevin Gausman and Anthony DeSclafani are, at 31 and 30 respectively, having career years (they are 19-6 with a combined ERA of 2.19). Can all these veterans keep it up? We will have to see; there’s not much margin for error with the Dodgers and Padres lurking just behind in the division, although it’s looking increasingly likely all three of those teams will make the playoffs.
Now, the other side of the coin: Arizona. After a 14-12 start, the D-backs collapsed to 12-54 since. May brought an unbelievable 5-24 record, and June was somehow worse (3-24). Arizona has accomplished this by being bad at everything. They are pretty poor in the field (24th in DRS according to Fielding Bible with -14) and similarly weak at the plate (22nd in runs scored per game with 4.14). Where they really fall apart, however, is on the mound (dead last at 5.77 runs allowed per game). Not a great recipe when you’re very, very bad at one big thing and quite bad at everything else. It’s going to be a long year in the valley of the sun for baseball fans.
As far as the Tigers are concerned, it has been a fairly solid first half. The four game sweep at the hands of the Twins leaves a bad taste in the mouth, but it was great to see the team bounce back from the very poor 9-24 start to go 31-23 before losing those four straight before the break. There will be an opportunity for revenge as Detroit gets 4 more against Minnesota starting on Friday. In the second half I hope to see more improvement from the young guys (Skubal, Mize, Baddoo, etc.) and something conclusive from the fringe prospects like Willi Castro, Eric Haase, Zach Short, Daz Cameron, Derek Hill, and Jake Rogers). I’d also like to see Spencer Torkelson, Riley Greene, and Dillon Dingler to keep mashing the ball and move up to AAA Toledo in anticipation of maybe hitting the roster at some point next year. Overall, it seems like the team is on an upward trajectory and I think I’m feeling a little more confident than I was when I predicted the future in my rebuild review in early May.
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