Diamond Report

The weather is getting warmer outside across the nation, which means the diamond is beginning to move along in it's 2024 chapter. A whole lot of surprises as we near Memorial Day. From the standings, to the stats, all the way to the headlines. Surprise o Mania has been running wild across the diamond. Lets open up the report with a run down of the surprises in the standings.

Who would have thought the AL East & AL Central would be the divisions pavin' the way early on atop the league standings (MLB)? No you didn't, stop cappin'. The only two divisions in baseball with 3 clubs above .500; the Central has a league high four teams over .500 with just the White Sox hangin' below (by a lot). The AL Central is currently the best division in baseball.

Not only is the AL Central the only division with 4 <500 clubs, but also the only division with four clubs having a positive points differential. The division only had one club last season finish the campaign over .500. The Twins. A club many counted out in the playoffs (eliminated the Jays). Now the division is off to a hot start in '24, giving the chance the division will have much better results by year end in comparison to the last.

Guardians and Royals lead the way, with the Twins and Tigers right behind them. Cleveland has been stellar while Kansas City looks like an entirely new club from their basement finish in 2023. 34-year old Seth Lugo is looking at having a career year as he has been on a MISSION to elevate the Royals' rotation. A mission that has been quite the success early on. Cole Ragans has struggled with consistency, but Brady Singer has been following Lugo's wave. Lugo himself is pitching like a top-5 arm in all of baseball. Bobby Witt Jr. is cementing himself as a top overall player in the American League while carrying the load for the lineup. The sunshine is out in Kansas City. KC fans can't ask for much better of a start.

Twins have been powered by the resurging Ryan Jeffers, who is off to a tear at the plate. Minny is getting healthier and are starting to put together a solid winning pace. Twins put together a 12-game winning streak; their longest streak since winning 15 in a row in June of 1991; which was the longest winning streak in franchise history since the move to Minnesota (1961). Twins have won 17 of their last 20 games. Good flip of the switch. Tigers on the other hand, are feeling the other side of that, being on quite a losing spurt since starting the campaign strong out the gates.

Tigers have been powered by their pitching as they now seem to have officially found their ace (Tarik Skubal) to be the successor to Justin Verlander (yes, it's been that long). Good thing the pitching has been elite up and down as the Tigers continue to have their bats be an anchor. That sentence was far too kind... the offense has been a MAJOR anchor for Detroit. The Tigers just currently got shutout in back-to-back games by the worst club in baseball Marlins. They lost both games by a combined 3-0 score. Just a nasty set of games by the offense, both games in Comerica. Tigers are now just 10-13 at home this season.

Detroit and Minnesota are still proving that the Central is deep. Tigers' pitching is keeping them afloat. Twins are showing they are without a doubt a team to watch out for. Can the Central stay hot? Some think it's easier to bet on the AL East than the Central in that regard- based off paper that is. I'm undecided. I mean, it's only the middle of May. What do we know about the AL East and AL Central from past years? That they are as inconsistent as any of the other divisions in the big leagues.

From my perspective, or more properly; in my opinion, it's quite a surprise to see both the Orioles and Yankees as top-5 clubs in terms of winning percentage in the now. Baltimore not as much. Orioles have gone 105 straight regular-season series without getting swept. The surprise is the Yankees having a .5 game lead over the O's in the East with the Rays and Red Sox trying to stay in the distance right behind them. Not surprised to see the Rays flirt with going under .500 half-way through May, however. They started the season still feeling the aftershock of the Wander Franco situation, and since have faced some serious injuries to both the rotation and the infield. Tampa Bay has a negative 31 runs differential and have only won six of their thirteen series thus far. Rays need to keep improving if they wish not to lose the pact; same with the Red Sox.

Boston may only have one more dub than the Rays, but they have played far more consistent (+32 DIFF). The starting pitching has been beyond solid overall led by a thunderous 1-2 punch toward the tail-end of the rotation with Tanner Houck and Kutter Crawford DEALING early on the bump. The top guy, Brayan Bello; hasn't been too shabby, Crawford and Houck have just been elite. Filling out the rotation nicely if I dare say. The offense awaits consistency. Tyler O'Neill has been batting solid, picking up the power slack of Devers. Sox need more; just like the Rays. Offense needs consistency, but all-in-all a solid start to stay above .500 and behind the O's and Yankees.

We are facing a nasty reality, folks. A reality that shows us one of the game's greatest figures; face a career derail due to injuries, which in itself, has baseball fans facing the strong possibility that Mike Trout's prime may now be a thing of the past. A reality that his best days are likely over. Trout has faced bad fate once again, for the fifth season in a row.

Just as Trout is leading the league in home-runs; he accepts a knee surgery to place himself on the shelf for the foreseeable future. An utterly bad pill to swallow. Trout has played in 150+ games just four times in his 14 years of service for the Angels. He is on pace to play in less than 100 games for his fourth time in five seasons. When Trout isn't on the field; it's bad for baseball. Not to be blunt- it's also not good for his résumé when we set his case. Not for Cooperstown, relax... but the injuries sure play a part when we compare his name to the modern day GOAT discussions, rather by era or overall.

Knee surgeries are never good, as you age, the recovery can worsen. I don't expect him to be a major factor on the base-pads or even in the outfield at this point of his career- depending on his recovery. That's a sad revelation. Now, he is just 32, and is one of the more special talents of any sport in the modern era. Trout can certainly prove that all wrong. His prime is done, though. Lets be real. The injuries have piled up. Maybe we can get the cat to a real contender, so he can have a crack at a ring. Trout can be a factor at the plate for a playoff run; just need to give him a real opportunity. The fact that he has only played three postseason games in his career is criminal. Criminal! We don't get to see him past October; so the injuries always kind of sting more. Hopefully he can rehab back quicker than we expect he will. Hopefully he can still have some flame left in that wick. Injuries sucks. A disease always ready to attack. Speaking of diseases.

Want to know what else sucks? Angel Hernandez and the MLB umpires (most of them). Add in Rob Manfred and his office as well for never holding them accountable for straight up being a disease to the game of baseball. A toxic-toxic disease that is the last thing holding the game back from reaching another level.

Again and again we sit here screaming for Angel Hernandez's head at the gallow. When is enough enough. It's become tiring some at this point. I don't even have a rant for Hernandez here. I've spent far too much time and energy chewing his tail. His counterparts however, are getting just as bad as Angel. Rather it's missing calls behind the plate or being soft/making the game about them; the umpiring in the MLB has reached far beyond the boiling point. Ben May & Hunter Wendelstedt can't handle any type of bark toward one of their bad calls so they eject a manager even when it's a fan who's in their ear chirping... not the manager. Checkout Wendelstedt being a clown and ringing up Aaron Boone despite it being a fan that was yelling at him:

video via BarnHasSpoken2//X

That's just one thing that makes up the bucket of BS from the MLB umpires. Despite the umpires shaming the game, the commissioners office does NOTHING about it. Regarding Hernandez, this is years of continued nonsense- yes, with a plural (!), but the league continues to allow it. Nah, he's good, right? He can stay employed; he can stay crapping on this game. It's all good! Psh. Screw you Rob Manfred. We need some accountability; it's long over-due. Angel Hernandez needs to be terminated and the rest of the station needs advising. Bottom line.

Corbin Carroll is on his Pat Listach as he rides the rails of what looks to be a major sophomore slump looming in the distance. Listach and Carroll are actually very similar. Both recorded stellar rookie campaigns that were powered by speed (50+ stolen bases) and consistency hitting at the plate. Carroll needs that Listach comparison to stick to rookie campaign success, and stay away from it being a full-on career comparison.

I predicted Carroll to start the season a bit less productive after his lackluster postseason debut, but never did I think his sophomore slump would slump this hard. The cat is batting a poor .193 at the plate with 31 hits in 161 at-bats. He only has 8 stolen bases as well, but I mean you can't steal first base. Not getting on base (.284 OBP) is the reason for his low stolen base numbers. Not the start of the season that Carroll wanted. Diamondbacks are two games under .500 and need Carroll to step up (among others). It's early; a lot can change. Hopefully Carroll is just slumpin' and will soon return to the form we saw all of his rookie season.

The doom of spending money in baseball... more times than none; you get a 'chise killer. An over-paid cat that plays so bad he becomes more than just a waste of money. Even with no salary cap, seeing a guy suck that you are paying hundreds of millions for, is no fun ordeal. We have a good list of cats who I call franchise killers. Anthony Rendon you already know about; he's beginning to welcome more and more company to his club.

Not many teams will have the luck, and smarts, of the Braves when they locked down Acuña Jr. at 21-years old for just 8/YR, $100M. Atlanta has a contract worth 56th best in baseball for the game's best all-around player. That was a rare dub of a contract agreement for a front office. Most of the time, we see the alternative. A handful of teams have spent millions on millions in free agency for obvious over-pays. A few of those are really killing their respected clubs- Javier Baez (DET), Xander Bogaerts (SDP), Kris Bryant (COL) and Francisco Lindor (NYM) being the worst of the bunch. Rockies are paying $33Ms in payroll this season for a guy playing in St. Louis (Arenado) and Kris Bryant, who is currently sitting on the shelf (again) after batting .149 with a .273 OBP and a -0.3 WAR in 13 games. The Bryant contract has been brutal thus far for the Rockies. He's in year three of a 7/YR, $185M deal. Kris has only played in 135 games in a possible 367 and hasn't been all that sharp on the field when he is playing. He's no top-25 player anymore (contract value is 25th). Another contract that Colorado is soon ready to forget about.

Bogaerts and Lindor's contracts are even worse. Both contracts are terrible; Lindor maybe worse with it being more value and more into the contract. San Diego opened up the vault, as they like to do, for former Red Sox star Xander Bogaerts. I don't need to spend much time shaming the contract in the first place. It's an eleven year bid for an aging infielder. I'll talk the outcome as of today. Year one wasn't all that bad, he didn't play like a top-16 player (contract value), but he wasn't horrible. He only missed 7 games; which is excellent for a team who faces injuries amongst their stars in strong order (see Tatis Jr.). It's how he is starting year two that has me worried. I get it's early into the season, but the cat has stunk the bed at the plate for the Padres' middle of the lineup. He has just 38 hits in 178 ABs, batting .213 with a -0.3 WAR. Bogaerts has to step up to pay true to some of that contract value. Time for him to flip the switch. I scream that towards Francisco Lindor. One of the ultimate franchise killers there is.

Lindor is signed to the Mets for 10/YR, $351M, the sixth highest valued contract in the big leagues, and is playing like a player valued out between 90-130th in the league. Since signing the deal in 2022, Lindor's numbers have fell off. Not his strikeouts; those have sky rocket. Lindor hit for 30+ homers last season for the first time since his Cleveland days, aka his prime days, but I don't see him hitting that number this season. Lindor has been ice cold at the plate batting .194 (160th), with a .268 OBP (158th), and a 0.3 WAR (203rd). Top-6 highest paid player in the league; that's what the Mets get out of their investment. Not good. Want to know what's even worst? Javier Baez.

Baez defines franchise killer. Christopher Ilitch will soon be hated for eternity inside the Tigers organization for his signing of Javier Baez. Ilitch chose Baez over the likes of Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, and Carlos Correa. Over-paying for him no less. They signed on for a guy that soon turned into the laughing stock of the league being a meme for bad swings and misses. Among all big leaguers, Baez ranks 413th in batting average, 435th in rOBA (offensive contributions), 447th in OBP, and 519th out of 536 in total WAR. Javier Baez is quite frankly, the worst player in all of baseball. Another awful contract to add to the list for Detroit. They won't be able to get rid of him either. The Cabrera situation on steroids. Baez not only plays bad, but he does such bone-headed things the Tigers faithful are left simply ripping the lashes from their eyes. Folks on X (non-Tigers fans ) love the joke that is Javier Baez.

Lets get away from all that bad and end on a good note, shall we. What a flip it has been for the Phillies. They are marching through May winning in bunches and in variety to claim the top spot atop all of MLB (win percentage). Philadelphia has had two separate seven game winning streaks and are 21-5 since starting the season 8-8. All they do is win.

Philly had won 11 of 12 and have currently won 16 of their last 20 games. Even better a stat: Phillies have only dropped one series of eleven since they dropped the first two series to open up the season. That includes a 4-game sweep of the Giants. They have been remarkable as a unit. The rotation has been powered by ace Zack Wheeler and Ranger Suarez. Ranger is on a major heater, pitching like the top arm in all of baseball; lookin' like a CY Young worthy arm. The team has been winning in all facets. Which is a bit of a surprise- all in all the lineup, at least the stars, has been quite lackluster. It's just Trea Turner and Alec Bohm are playing out of this world at the plate right now. They each rank top-6 in average with Bohm ranking 4th in total hits. How about Alec Bohm! The cat is taking a MAJOR climb; continuing to progress and now we are seeing things come together nicely. Good thing for Philly. The stars (outside of Trea) have been mid to bad. Harper and Schwarber have the occasional pop, but struggle with consistency and precision. Castellanos... well he completely sucks right now. That cat ranks 520th in WAR. Only four players with 40+ games played have been worse than Castellanos. .

Phillies are also glad to see Bryson Stott begin to snap out of the slump he started the season with. Most of the lineup is performing better, at the very least. Winning in bunches will do that for a unit. This club is clickin'. They have a strong chance to win the next four series to close out the month heading into June. Philly is a strong force to go up against right now. Look for them to keep climbing as their lineup is beginning to heat up. This club is so streaky. Philly is a scary team when that streaking is in terms of winning.

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Opinion. Fact. Or Straight Up Cap.