We are just over 2 months into the season and things are starting to take shape. The current standings are no longer a fluke and some of these underdog organizations need to be taken seriously while others have started to fade into the expected mediocrity. Once again, we have had a handful of injuries as well as a fun and intriguing move made.
The Arizona Diamondbacks have earned their respect. They have been back and forth with the Dodgers for the division lead and this past week Arizona took full advantage of playing two of the weaker teams in the league (Nationals and Tigers) and have given themselves a 3.5 game lead over LA and are contenders. The Baltimore Orioles are another team that we must officially call contenders. While most expected them to be a solid team this year, I don't think anyone anticipated them to be this dominant. They went 4-2 this week against the Brewers and Royals improving their record to 41-24 which is good for the 3rd best record in all of baseball. Finally, and probably the biggest surprise is the Miami Marlins. Miami has somehow maintained a 37-29 record despite having a -20 run differential. I will always be skeptical of the Marlins; however, they have been finding ways to win and currently sit in a comfortable 2nd place in the NL East that has been abundantly disappointing. They went 5-1 against the White Sox and Royals this week and will look to keep it rolling against the Mariners and Nationals this coming week.
As always, there were a handful of injuries inlcuding to some of the stars. First is Jacob DeGrom. Yes, I know he has been hurt a good portion of this year but the Rangers officially ruled him out for the season and he will undergo Tommy John surgery. This move came as a bit of a surprise as the star had recently started a throwing program to get back to game ready. Obviously the training staff and DeGrom found something they didn't like and decided to go under the knife. He will be out for the remainder of the year and likely all of next year with an off chance he could return at the end of the 2024 season. Texas seems to be firing on all cylanders and, though they could use the help, will continue to succeed with the current rotation. Next is Aaron Judge who went on the IL with a sprained toe after making a nice catch up against the wall against the Dodgers. You know, the catch that broke the gate in right field that was shoved down everyone's throats as the media salivated over Judge "putting his body on the line." As long as you have a TV or social media, you've seen it. Sure, it was impressive, but the media seems to be nominating it for an ESPY which is a far cry. Hopefully we will get Judge back soon because he sure found his stride in the month of May and we will miss his massive homeruns until he returns. The final "injury" I want to touch on is about Noah Syndergaard. The reason I quoted injury is because Dave Roberts pretty much confirmed that it wasn't really an injury that placed him on the IL. Syndergaard has severely underperformed since signing with the Dodgers to a tune of a 7.16 ERA. Pretty hard to imagine but I promise that is an accurate stat. After he got rocked by the Reds this past week they placed him on the IL and manager Dave Roberts said "Noah has been going through it all year. It is not from lack of effort or preparation. It's just not working." He stated he has a blister and his fingernail broke during his most recent game, but he isn't going to make excuses and understands his performance.
There were two other major headlines this week. I'll start off with the less good one. Toronto's "star" pitcher Alek Manoah was sent down to the Blue Jays Florida Complex League. Last year he was in the running for the AL CY Young Award and 2 months into the 2023 season he was sent down to figure out what is going wrong. Manoah has been beaten around all year and has a 6.36 ERA with a 1.90 WHIP. There was an interesting Twitter thread about Manoah's reason for struggling and I will post it here. It is worth the read I assure you.
The last and most exciting thing to happen this week was the Reds finally called up their top prospect SS Elly De La Cruz. He was anywhere between the number 1 and 4 prospect in all of baseball depending on what website you look at. Boy oh boy has he gotten off to a great start to his career too. He started off his first ever game hitting 4th, first at bat was a walk, followed by a double that he ripped to the right center field. His next game, he hit a casual 458ft home run that was 1 row of seats away from leaving the entire Great American Ballpark followed by a triple where he showed off his truely elite speed. He has incredible speed and jaw-dropping power. He is likely going to strike out a lot, but when he gets the bat to the ball watch out because he will either hit it over everyone's head or he will hit it to the ground and you better be ready to pick it up and throw it as fast as possible because he can absolutely fly.
Another beautiful week of baseball is in the books and we are hitting stride for everyone. Tune in next week for another weekly update!!
--Cyrus Beermann