I'm headed to the Cubs-Padres game this afternoon, so today's post will be a bit shorter. But, tomorrow I'll be back on the 1981 Strike beat, so you can look forward to that. As we near the halfway point in the season, I have three standings observations.
My goodness, the Phillies suck
After beating the Cubs on May 1, the Phillies sat at a very respectable 12-12. Since then? How about 10-35. Over the first 24 games, the Phillies averaged 4.83 runs and gave up 4.25. Over the past 45, they have scored 3.29 runs and given up 5.76. Yikes.
The NL West is on fire
Everyone knew the Dodgers were going to be great, but the Rockies and Diamondbacks haven't showed any signs of slowing down. In June, Colorado is 14-4, Arizona is 11-5, and LA is 13-5. How have they done against each other?
- Dodgers are 4-5 against Rockies
- Diamondbacks are 5-4 against the Dodgers
- Rockies are 5-2 against the Diamondbacks
Are the Angels better without Trout?
Mike Trout hurt his thumb on Sunday, May 28. The Angels record was 26-27, while getting outscored by 16. Since the injury, they somehow have gone 11-10 while outscoring their opponents by 18. So with Trout, they are a 79 win team and without him, they are an 85 win team. He's a -6 WAR player!
Of course, this is ridiculous because Mike Trout is amazing. He's still third in baseball in WAR at 3.4, trailing only Aaron Judge (4.1) and Paul Goldschmidt (3.7). And he could be back in time for the All-Star game, which he is in line to start.
Baseball is here! And more importantly, that means the over/under game is back. It seems as though everyone is an expert this time of year. Somehow we convince ourselves that we are better at predicting baseball outcomes than everyone else. Well, AFITB is putting that to the test for the third year in a row. Think you know more about baseball than us? You probably do. But go ahead and prove it anyway.