MLB Daily: Guessing the Division Winners on Memorial Day; Prince Fielder is Back; Nolan Arenado Made Another Amazing Catch
By Mike Cardillo
Welcome back to MLB Daily, where so much has changed over the last four days, yet has still stayed the same …
Crystal Ball: Is it okay to use Memorial Day as some sort of unofficial measuring stick in baseball? Most teams have played around 45 games, which is a little over a quarter of the season. Maybe the math doesn’t line up. Lisk did a study on this in April that is much more scientific. Let’s take a look where we stand as of Tuesday morning and make some random guesses how it’ll stack up in late-September.
American League East: Tampa Bay (24-22) 0.5 games up on New York …
This is looking like the weakest division in baseball with everyone clustered within 3.5 games. Boston hasn’t gotten going thanks to poor starting pitching. The Yankees recently lost nine straight. Toronto and Baltimore are lingering. It’s anyone’s game and I applaud Tampa for hanging around this long with a patchwork lineup that is getting contributions from the likes of Logan Forsythe. Division winner guess: Baltimore
American League Central: Kansas City (28-16) 2 games up on Minnesota …
The Royals were written off in the winter, but have been nothing short of awesome in all facets. The surprise here is the Twins — written off after the first week — are in second. Nothing quite jumps off the page about Minnesota, but Paul Molitor’s team is scoring a lot of runs and winning games. Often baseball doesn’t make sense. Both Chicago and Cleveland are eight back. Division winner guess: Kansas City
American League West: Houston (29-17) 5.5 games up on Los Angeles …
Per FanGraphs, the Astros sport a 57 percent chance to win the division. Let that sink in. Houston might only get better as it adds from its farm system. One thought: would they consider trading a few chips for a Johnny Cueto or Cole Hamels in July? Jeff Luhnow’s track record says no, but it would make the rest of the season fascinating if the Astros decided to break character. Division winner guess: Houston
National League East: Washington (27-18) 2.5 games up on New York …
By now the only question is how much the Nationals win the division by as the injury-hit Mets fade away. … Division winner guess: Washington
National League Central: St. Louis (29-16) 4.5 games up on Chicago …
Throw Pittsburgh into the mix and this is going to be a fun race, especially since it could signal a changing of the guard if the Cubs ever get past the Cardinals. History tells us not to read much into it until it happens, of course. The projections still like Pittsburgh ahead of Chicago in the Wild Card. Division winner guess: St. Louis
National League West: Los Angeles (27-17) 2 games up on San Fransico …
The numbers say the Dodgers win out here, but the Giants never go away quietly, do they? The highly talked about Padres are actually in fourth, behind the Diamondbacks for whatever that is worth. Division winner guess: Los Angeles
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Credit where credit is due: Over the winter it was easy to pick on the Rangers and the massive, long-term contracts on the books for Prince Fielder, Elvis Andrus and Shin-Soo Choo. Going forward for the next five seasons those three guys are owed over $50 million between them. At the moment it doesn’t look quite so bad as it did in the winter since Fielder and Choo are straight up on fire at the plate.
Fielder leads the Majors in batting at .365 with nine home runs — showing no side effects from the neck injury that cost him most of 2014. In May Choo is posting a .308/.354/.567 line with 18 runs scored.
Texas is still only 22-23 after beating Cleveland yesterday, but Josh Hamilton is back in the midst and suddenly it doesn’t look quite as bleak as it did at Globe Life Park. That said, the Rangers’ team ERA is still 23th overall and would be a lot worse if not for the excellent start to the season from Nick Martinez.
Highlight reel: Nolan Arenado is pretty good at fielding the ol’ baseball, reckon.
Giancarlo Stanton made a catch against the wall … with a thud.
Ryan Braun hit a homer that cleared the Miller Park bleachers.
[Back in the Yard]