May 15-21 Weekly Update

Another week in and we are learning more and more. Some expected contenders that got off to slow starts are finally coming out of their shell. A star returns with a bang, Early season front runners for awards and more! Let's dive into it.

There have been two teams that were expected to be great and got off to slow starts. The first is the one we have talked about a lot, the St. Louis Cardinals. They FINALLY seem to be hitting their stride, taking 2 out of 3 games from the Brewers and 3 out of 4 games from the dangerous Dodgers. They are still 6 games below .500, but their offense is starting to really break out thanks to the resurgence of Nolan Arenado. Their starting pitching has also improved of late. Miles Mikolas has calmed down, and hopefully, the recent call up of Matthew Liberatore will continue to help them succeed.

The Mets are the other team that's starting to catch fire after an up and down start. Granted, they weren't doing as poorly as the Cards, but they were well-below expectations. This last week, however, they took 2 of 3 games from the Rays and swept the Cleveland Guardians improving their record to 25-23. They still have some work to do to catch the Braves, but this is one of the most talented teams in baseball and is certainly capable of it.

Aaron Judge finally came back and reminded us of why he was chosen as the AL MVP just last year. From the 15th to the 22nd he went 11/22 with 5 home runs, 11 RBI's, 7 runs and 7 walks. Yes, I would say Judge is indeed back to his 2022 ways.

Time for some early season award updates! In the National league, the 3 front runners for NL MVP are the Mets 1B Pete Alonso, the Braves OF Ronald Acuna Jr and Braves 1B Matt Olsen. All 3 have been demolishing the baseball in the early going. For the AL MVP, the leaders are Angels DH/SP Shohei Ohtani, Rangers OF Adolis Garcia and Red Sox 3B Rafael Devers.

For the NL CY Young race, the front runners are Braves P Spencer Strider, Pirates P Mitch Keller and Diamondbacks P Zac Gallen. For the AL CY Young race, the front runners are Twins P Joe Ryan, Yankees P Gerrit Cole and Astros P Framber Valdez.

Finally, for the NL ROY race, our front runners are Dodgers OF James Outman, Diamondbacks OF Corbin Carroll and Mets 3B Brett Baty. For the AL ROY, the leaders are Red Sox OF Masataka Yoshida, Astros SP Hunter Brown and Mariners SP Bryce Miller.

Comment who you think I am right or wrong about and plead your case! We'll catch you on the next one!

--Cyrus Beermann