top of page
Search

MLB Round-Up: Power Rankings and Headlines

First MLB Bean's Blog to date as I try to find ways to write about a sport I love when I root for a team 99% of people I know hate. Shocker - not a ton of fellow Cubs fans in St. Louis Missouri. However, the Cubs are shaky right now and The Cardinals are on a 9-game winning streak, so figured now's the best entry point I'm gonna get (especially now that the Birds have to play some good teams the rest of May). And this is a chance to look at the MLB as a whole and where teams stand about about 1 1/2 months into the year. The Birds Win Streak, The Javy Baez Revival, Power Ranking the Divisions, and a Hitters Power Rankings is what's in store for the 1st MLB blog on Bean's Blog.


Red Birds are Hot


Starts with the pitching staff - allowing 2 runs a game over the 9-game winning streak. 7th in the Majors in ERA over the last 30 days. Matthew Liberatore, Sonny Gray, and Erik Fedde (CG SO the other day) have bolstered the rotation so far, and Stephen Matz has been a weapon out of the bullpen/spot-starting. The offense has also been better than I think most people expected -- Top 10 in Runs, Top 5 in AVG + OBP, Top 10 OPS. Contreras is getting hot, Donovan and Nootbar are on-base machines, Victor Scott's coming into his own and is really fucking fast (but is poor man's Pete Crow-Armstrong). Interested to see if they can carry the momentum with two more in Philly and series @KC (25-18) and vs DET (27-15).


Javy Baez's Revival


I imagine there aren't a lot of Cardinals fans that have love for Javy Baez, but as a Cubs fan I certainly do. And I'm sure there's more than a few who have been delighted by his fall off over the last few seasons - steep drop off in power, contact, fielding, and overall confidence from one of the most electric players of the late 2010s. But this season in Detroit, Javy Baez has transformed himself into an entirely different player. He's playing CF now -- no longer at SS -- and doing it exceptionally well. Robbing homers, showing off his canon of an arm, and hasn't made an error in the OF all year. He's also hitting for contact better than he ever has: currently on a career-best pace of .318/.357 AVG/OBP with a 145 OPS+. Tuesday night was his masterclass - hit two 3-run home runs, including the walk-off game-winner in the 11th inning to win it 10-9. For a guy who was hitting .184 last year and never above .240 as a Tiger, seeing Javy turn his career around in the opening stretch of the season has been my favorite story in baseball this year.


Power Ranking the 6 Divisions


NL West

The Dodgers are the best team in baseball and the Padres are right there with them. I think there's several teams capable of upsetting LA in October, but I wouldn't bet on it. The Giants got off to a scorching hot start but are cooling off a bit, and the Diamondbacks are bruising their way through a gauntlet part of the schedule, still sitting at 22-20. The Rockies are the worst team in baseball of course, but every league needs their doormat. NL West is tops by a wide margin.


AL Central

Of the 4 highest win % teams in the AL right now, the Central has 3 of them -- The Tigers, The Royals, and The Guardians. Plus the Twins are sneakily on a 8-game winning streak and back up to a +19 run differential. Speaking of doormats from earlier, the Chicago White Sox also exist in this division. Aside from the Tigers, these teams aren't exactly hitting the cover off the ball, but they pitch very well and have deep bullpens that find ways to win close games.


NL Central

This is not a prediction for where I think these divisions will be at the end of the season -- it's where they stand as of today May 13th as 6:00 pm CST. And right now I think the NL Central is a step above the remaining. We've covered The Cards heater moving into 2nd place, The Cubs are 24-18 and +53 RD while playing 35 of their 42 games against .500 teams (7 vs LAD, 6 vs SD). The Reds are on a little skid but have a great starting pitching staff. The Brewers are always feisty, they've also played a brutal schedule and have hung around .500. The Pirates stink, but even they have Paul Skenes and Oneil Cruz who are electric future stars.

NL East

The remaining rankings are tough because all 3 have major question marks, but I'm going with the NL East because I think they have the best 1-2 punch at the top. The Mets are 27-15, The Phillies are 24-17 and even the Braves are right there in 3rd despite a fucking horrific start to the year. The Nats are hot ass and the Marlins are dead fish, but the Mets are WS contenders, the Phils have shown they can win in October, as have the Braves if they continue their current trajectory.


AL East

I wanted to put them last just as a fuck you to the Yankees and Sox, but my hate for the mediocrity that is the AL West won out. The Yanks are very good at 24-17, and the Red Sox and Blue Jays have been circling .500 all year. It's honestly been sad to see the fall off of the Orioles early on, mostly from an utter lack of pitching but the hitting has been really bad too. The Rays are such a meh team to me, they play in a wind tunnel and are wildly mid. Least favorite division to watch.


AL West

If you want to watch a couple of mediocre teams go at it, flip on your TV at midnight and catch an AL West game. I actually go think the Mariners are a solid squad and have star power obviously with J-Rod. But the rest of the division doesn't do much for me. The Rangers aren't bad by any means - they've had to battle some injuries and a tough schedule - but aren't real exciting. The A's are pretty fun until you catch them on a bad night. Houston games are rock fights and the Angels are boring and don't hit. The first Bean's Blog Division Power Rankings crowns the AL West as poopiest division in baseball.


Hitter Power Rankings


Not going to do big in-depth breakdowns for each like I did above - just going to list them and their key stats from 1-10. These are my top 10 position players in the MLB right now:


  1. Aaron Judge - .410/.497/.770 , 14 HR, 40 RBI, 1.267 OPS, 28 xBHs, 39 Runs

  2. Freddie Freeman - .366/.431/.714 , 9 HR, 33 RBI, 1.145 OPS, 20 xBHs,

  3. Shohei Ohtani - .302/.406/.626 , 12 HR, 21 RBI, 1.035 OPS, 24 xBHs, 10 SBs, 44 Runs

  4. Pete Alonso - .310/.419/.589 , 9 HR, 36 RBI, 1.008 OPS, 15 2Bs

  5. Corbin Carroll - .285/.357/.622 , 14 HR, 31 RBI, .977 OPS, 27 xBHs, 35 Runs

  6. Fernando Tatis Jr. - .316/.389/.574 , 11 HR, 26 RBI, .963 OPS, 8 SBs, 36 Runs

  7. Kyle Schwarber - .268/.401/.584 , 14 HR, 32 RBI, .985 OPS, 30 Runs

  8. Bobby Witt Jr. - .312/.378/.512 , 5 HR, 25 RBI, .890 OPS, 14 SBs, 17 2Bs

  9. Alex Bregman - .304/.381/.567 , 10 HR, 32 RBI, .948 OPS, 15 2Bs, 30 Runs

  10. Kyle Tucker - .262/.369/.524 , 10 HR, 33 RBI, .893 OPS, 11 2B/3Bs, 10 SBs, 33 Runs

HM. Pete Crow-Armstrong - .267/.307/.545 , 11 HR, 30 RBI, .852 OPS, 13 SBs, 32 Runs, 11 2Bs


And with that, the first MLB Bean's Blog is complete. Will continue writing about the MLB as the season progresses -- I like the idea of continuing Power Rankings like these, so if you have any ideas please comment them below (Pitcher Power Rankings, best young players, veterans, etc). The longest season in sports will continue to be a big part of our lives as long as the Cardinals and Cubs are playing well - so please like this blog and subscribe to Bean's Blog if you want to stay in the loop!

Comentarios

bottom of page