Every day, Pinstripe Alley offers updates on what the Yankees’ top American League opponents are up to through the Rivalry Roundup. The AL East is well-trodden ground there, but with the end of the month upon us, we’re going to take a peek around MLB as a whole and check in with each of the other five divisions. Who’s surprising? Who’s underwhelming? Who’s simply mediocre at the moment? Read on and find out.
Note: Records and stats are for games played as of Tuesday night.
First Place: Milwaukee Brewers (52-31)
Top Position Player: Brice
Turang (2.9 fWAR) Top Pitcher: Jacob Misiorowski (4.3 fWAR)
In our initial check-in at the end of April, the Brewers sat in third place, 3.5 games out of first. After yet another winning month in June, Milwaukee has gone 36-17, opened up a 5.5-game lead in the Central, and trail only the Dodgers for the best record in all of MLB.
You don’t do that without having a good team top to bottom, but the headliner of this Brewers’ squad has been pitcher Jacob Misiorowski. Pretty much every start, he manages to set some new stat for fastest pitches thrown by a starting pitcher, and topped 105 MPH recently.
He also has the overall stats to match, with a 1.45 ERA and a 1.84 FIP.
While “The Miz” gets the headlines, they’ve gotten good efforts from all over the field. One notable one has come from former Yankee Jake Bauers, who has a 144 wRC+ in his 74 games.
Second Place: Chicago Cubs (48-38, 5.5 GB)
Top Position Player: Pete Crow-Armstrong (5.1 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Ben Brown (2.0 fWAR)
Despite the Brewers remaining on fire, the Cubs have only lost a game’s worth of ground since the end of May. They were pretty good themselves in June, going 16-10.
That being said, this could be a bit of a danger zone for the Cubs. At time of writing, they have 10 different pitchers on the injured list, including their ace from last year Cade Horton. Of the starters they still have healthy, Shota Imanaga is probably the best, but even he’s been below average for the season.
Throughout all those injuries, the Cubs have been kept going by a good offense. Pete Crow-Armstrong has been excellent in all areas of the game. Of their most used players are every position, only one dips below a 90 OPS+ on the season.
Third Place: St. Louis Cardinals (44-38, 7.5 GB)
Top Position Player: JJ Weatherholt (3.3 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Dustin May (1.8 fWAR)
The Cardinals remain pesky and as of now, they’re currently tied for the final NL Wild Card spot.
On offense, a decent chunk of their lineup has below average numbers for the season, it’s just the ones that don’t have generally been very good. Jordan Walker, Iván Herrera, Alec Burleson, and Lars Nootbaar all have an OPS+ over 120. JJ Weatherholt is at 117 and has defense that also grades out very well. Nelson Velázquez has been around the league without much success, but he’s been a revelation in St. Louis so far, with a 180 OPS+ is his 16 games so far.
One interesting thing to watch will be their pitching, though. Michael McGreevy had put up a good ERA so far, but has a FIP that suggests that might not be sustainable. On the other hand, Dustin May has a FIP that suggests he might be a bit better than his ERA. Andre Pallante is slightly above average according to both, and the rest of their rotation has been below average.
Fourth Place: Pittsburgh Pirates (43-43, 10.5 GB)
Top Position Player: Bryan Reynolds (2.5 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Paul Skenes and Braxton Ashcraft (2.8 fWAR)
The Pirates aren’t too far out of the last NL Wild Card, just a game in the win column behind the aforementioned Cardinals. They also have the raw talent that could go on a run, but they’ll need some things to go their way.
On the mound, Paul Skenes has been perfectly good, just not the Paul Skenes we saw win the NL Cy Young last year. His 3.10 ERA and 2.75 FIP is strong, and he and Braxton Ashcraft have provided a nice little duo at the top of the rotation, just not quite enough for the Pirates to take a clear step forward.
On offense, they’ve gotten good performances from all over the roster, although two of their more talented hitters — Spencer Horwitz and Oneil Cruz — are currently on the IL. If young prospect Konnor Griffin can take a step forward over the rest of the year and there’s not much regression elsewhere, it wouldn’t be that crazy if the Pirates stole the last NL playoff spot.
Fifth Place: Cincinnati Reds (39-45, 13.5 GB)
Top Position Player: Elly De La Cruz (2.4 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Chase Burns (2.8 fWAR)
The Reds record isn’t terrible considering that they’re a last-place team, but if you’ve only seen them take two out of three over the Yankees, you might not realize that they’ve been pretty bad for a while now. At the end of April, they led the division, and were 3.5 games up on the Brewers. Since then, they’ve gone 19-34, losing 17 games worth of ground in the process.
In June, their offense sputtered, averaging just 3.81 runs per game. The top end of their lineup — aka the likes of Elly De La Cruz and Sal Stewart — has been perfectly good, it just falls off a cliff. While he’s on the IL at the moment, Ke’Bryan Hayes has posted a 16 OPS+. I repeat: 16. Their pitching outside Chase Burns, Andrew Abbott, and a couple bullpen arms has also been a bit of a mess.
