MLBRT 5/16/2024

The questions and discussion…

1) Which MLB team, for either good or bad, has been the biggest surprise for this MLB season so far? Why?

The Kansas City Royals have been the biggest surprise to me so far this season. They’re second in the AL Central with a 26-17 record. They’ve had very good pitching, and led on offense by Bobby Witt Jr and Salvador Perez, who has come back to life after a down season last year that was hampered by multiple injuries. The pitching staff is led by Seth Lugo, who has been pitching out of his mind this season regarding a quality start in eight of his nine starts, posting an ERA of 1.66 and WHIP of 0.98 and has been a true ace. They also have Brady Singer with an ERA under 3.00 and Alec Marsh, in six starts, with an ERA under 3.00.

They’ve been getting help on offense as well from other members outside of Witt and Perez, with Maikel Garcia and Vinnie Pasquantino contributing on offense as well. They have a run differential of the Baltimore Orioles at +47 (Orioles are at +48). They’ve set themselves up nicely for the rest of the season to make a push towards the playoffs. 

Considering that the Cleveland Guardians lost their best pitcher in Shane Bieber to Tommy John surgery I expected them to be one of the worst teams  in MLB this season. Instead they started the season 17-6, which is one of the best starts ever in their history and are presently leading the AL Central with 27-17 (.614) record and have a plus 48 run differential and are in the top ten in MLB in team ERA (3.39) and WHIP (1.21) while holding their opponent’s hitters to a .231 BA.

Simply put if they keep this up they could wind up being he best team in a very winnable AL Central Division.

 2) With about 25% of the season in the books, which player is your early leader for the AL MVP award? Why?

 Let’s go with the easy answer on this one, Juan Soto.

He’s been an absolute menace in the Yankees’ lineup, posting an OPS+ of 169, has nine home runs on the year, driven in 34 runs and has a slash line of .313/.421/.947 and has been the missing piece of the Yankees’ lineup. He’s been a huge part in the reason the Yankees are at the top of the AL East and atop the entire American League this season and has fit in nicely with Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Volpe and others.

He’s also been very good in the field, with no errors, four assists, one double play turned, 2.26 range factor and 93 putouts. He’s been the best hitter in the American League and the most valuable. 

Right now it’s a tough choice between more than a couple of players with guys like the Royals Bobby Witt Jr, Orioles Gunnar Henderson, Yankees Juan Soto and Astros Kyle Tucker all having decent years with only the Astros being in danger of dropping out being eligible for October baseball.  

But I’m going with Soto who very arguably is the main reason why the Yankees are right now the second best team in MLB.  Last year the Yankees hitters as a team couldn’t hit their way out of paper bag at times and their offense was statistically one of the worst teams in the league last season. This season they are one of the better teams in MLB in almost all offensive stats and I believe Soto is leading the charge.  

It Also doesn’t hurt that Soto is the among the league leaders in OBP (.403), HRs (9), RBI (34) and runs (30) and walks (30) while batting over .300.

But I will also say this that if Aaron Judge keeps on hitting the way he has been as of late and putting up doubles and HRs on the ridiculous pace has is on then he could sneak in and take the AL MVP away from everyone else. 

3) With about 25% of the season in the books, which player is your early leader for the NL MVP award? Why?

It’s hard for me to pick one of the Dodgers’ duo as an MVP candidate, so to be fair to both of them, I’ll cancel them out and go with William Contreras of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts have been on an absolute tear ripping the seams off the ball consistently. Mookie Betts made the switch from outfield, which he was a Gold Glover, to shortstop and hasn’t missed a step, but rather gotten better, especially at the plate.

Ohtani could join only Brooks Robinson as the only player in MLB history to win an MVP in both the American and National League. But, because they both play on the same team, and because I have a lot of belief that Contreras is going to be in the top-five of MVP voting all season, I’m going to go with him right now.

While he’s been posting a career year, with an OPS+ of 172, he also has five home runs, 30 runs driven in and is leading catchers in most categories, including posting a slash line of .352/.429/.951 and has been a huge factor in the reason the Brewers are leading in the NL Central. While Christian Yelich has been great at the plate in the games he has appeared, Contreras didn’t let up when Yelich went on the IL with a back injury and was the main reason the Brewers’ offense stayed afloat during those couple of weeks. He deserves to be recognized in the MVP voting this season, and that’s why I decided to pick him instead of the two favorites in Ohtani and Betts. 

Ohtani has been a league leader in many offensive statistical categories, however batting average was never really one area where he excelled. Most seasons his BA was somewhere between .275 to around .285 or so and he only surpassed .300 once and that was last season when he had a .304 BA.

Now with the Dodgers, in a lineup that sees him surrounded by other All-Star batters he has exploded out of the gate and leads MLB with a .364 BA. And along with that excellent league leading BA he also leads MLB in hits (63), doubles (16), slugging average (.676) and OPS (1.108). Plus is second overall in HRs (12) and is fourth overall in runs scored (34) and OBP (.431).

Which leads me a to name Ohtani as my early leader for NL MVP.

4) Saturday’s loss to the Philadelphia Phillies dropped the Miami Marlins to 10-31 on the season making it one of the franchise’s worst records through a season first 40+ games ever and presently makes them the worst W/L record wise) team in MLB. And with the recent trade of Luis Arraez to the San Diego Padres it appears as if the Miami Marlins’ owner Bruce Sherman has begun what could be considered yet another fire sale of the team’s best talent.

With that in mind…  

Have the Miami Marlins and Bruce Sherman arguably replaced the Oakland Athletics and team owner John Fisher as the worst team and owner in MLB? Why or why not?

The Marlins haven’t replaced the Athletics yet as the worst owner and team in the MLB, regardless of the better team that Oakland has been putting on the field this season.

The difference about this is that Oakland has fumbled trying to move out of Oakland. Las Vegas had expressed that they barely want them. Trying to find a home until their stadium is ready in Las Vegas was a struggle as well. Oakland doesn’t want them, but the fans really didn’t like them moving to Las Vegas either and decided to show up in droves.

The Marlins can’t seem to get anybody to show up to games, let alone keep people to stay on with the team, with Derek Jeter backing out, them losing Kim Ng and just being a poor franchise that seems to consistently be in the rebuilding mode.

The Marlins are the worst team, but I don’t think their owner is worse than Oakland’s at this point. Miami at least pushed to make the playoffs last season. Oakland can’t even sniff out of the basement, outside of this season, possibly.

Miami needs a lot of work done. Oakland does seem to be trending upward. Another season of just awful play by Miami and nothing improving will propel them into the top spot of worst overall organization/owner in the MLB. 

It’s real damn close at this point in my mind between the Miami Marlins and owner Bruce Sherman and the Oakland Athletics and owner John Fisher.

 I’ll kinda waffle here a tad and say while the Athletics are having a better seson than they have had in many a moon they are still the worst team simply because of how they have screwed the pooch regarding their move from Oakland to Las Vegas which from what I have been reading on various sports sites is not the most solid marriage of a team and a city.  Added to all of this is they don’t even have a MLB ballpark ready for them in Vegas and will have to play temporarily at the home of the Minor League Sacramento River Cats from 2025-27 with an option for 2028 until their planned new stadium in Las Vegas is built.

That in my mind leaves the Athletics as being the worst team with the worst owner in MLB. But the Marlins aren’t far behind in the “race” to be the worst in MLB by any stretch of the imagination as long as Sherman is the owner in Miami.

5) Entering play Sunday, the Baltimore Orioles have the best record (26-12) and best run differential (plus-56) in the AL and have won 18 of their last 24 games. In addition, the Orioles are scoring 5.16 runs per game, most in the AL and third most in baseball, and their rotation ranks sixth in ERA (3.28) among all teams. The bullpen has not been bad… it ranks seventh in ERA (3.26) and sixth in win probability added (2.00)… but the ninth inning has been somewhat of an adventure thus far into the season.

The Orioles will be without all-world closer Felix Bautista this season as he recovers from Tommy John surgery and the team signed Craig Kimbrel to essentially serve as a one-year stopgap closer but, to date, things with Kimbrel have been shaky in the ninth inning and while it isn’t tanking their season it is becoming a concern.

Should the Orioles…

Ride it out with Kimbrel, go with someone else the closer, go with “a closer by committee” approach or just make a trade for another player to be the closer for the remainder of the season? Why?

Baltimore needs to do two things: closer by committee and make a trade.

I think their best bet is going to be to trade at the deadline. They will be able to look at the market, have a better picture of who is available and probably get a pitcher on a better deal knowing that some of these teams are going to be thirsty to move players to cut costs and get younger players up and replace them. Sticking with Craig Kimbrel and only him is not going to be the best option for Baltimore if they want to compete and make the World Series. They are going to need to get a new arm in the bullpen who is a for sure closer option for Baltimore.

But, in the meantime, they need to go with the hot hand and switch around players. Whoever is hot and is fresh, get him in. I think a two-three man rotation of closer is going to be adequate for them to survive and not blow too many games they should win. But they have to get someone in the ninth-inning/closer role to lock down games in order to make the World Series. When playoffs come, it’s known for tightly-played games and not high scoring, so pitching and defense becomes vital, especially the closer/bullpen situation.

I think the Orioles should just go with closer by committee from this point on this season. Simply go with whoever is having the hot hand at the moment and/or matches up well against the batters in late game/ninth inning situations

By no means should the Orioles exclude Kimbrel from pitching in a closing  situation but depending on the situation he should no longer be the guy they automatically use as their closer.

Extra Innings…