This June has been absolutely crazy across the world of baseball, and quite frankly, I don’t think anyone could have predicted the way this month has gone so far. You can place sports bets at a number of sites online, and if you placed a bet on everything that has happened thusfar in June, you’d be a rich person.
Take a look at just exactly what has happened this month that’s boggled the mind.
The Toronto Blue Jays are 11-4 after starting the season 23-32. The Blue Jays were expected to be the class of the AL East this season, and fell flat on their collective faces out of the gate to start the year. Over the last month, they’ve been on fire, and perhaps more shockingly, they’re doing it without Jose Reyes and Brandon Morrow. Chien Ming Wang and Esmil Rogers are holding down the fort in the rotation, and Munenori Kawasaki has held his own at short replacing Reyes despite no power at all.
The San Diego Padres have made the NL West a four team race. San Diego’s best starter has been 33-year old Eric Stults, who has had stints in the majors with two other NL West teams. Their best hitter this month is Everth Cabrera, a former Rule 5 pick who was known for his speed and little else in previous years. They’ve gotten nothing out of Chase Headley and Cameron Maybin when the pair has been healthy. And yet, the Padres are just two games out in the NL West and swept a pair of division leaders (Braves and Diamondbacks) last week.
The Royals are finally living up to expectations. Kansas City’s low watermark of the season came on June 4th, when they were shut out 3-0 by the Twins to fall to 23-32. Since that loss, the Royals are 11-3 and they haven’t lost a series since. While yes, the Royals have beaten up on the Twins and Astros, they took a series from the Tigers and then took three out of four from the Rays at the Trop. And yet, they’re doing all of this without much of anything from their offense this month.
All four teams from New York and Los Angeles are under .500 in June. And honestly, we’re getting dangerously close to all four teams falling under .500 for the season as well. The Angels and Dodgers got quite a bit of hype coming into the season, and they’re a combined seven games under in June and a whopping 19 under for the season. As for the Yankees, they’re just a game above .500 since the beginning of May, and are under .500 so far in June. Then there’s the Mets, who are the Mets, but have a pair of incredible young starters in Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler. But hey, at least the Mets, Angels, and Dodgers each have a young player or two to keep an eye on…what do the Yankees have, aside from old, broken down veterans?
The worst team in baseball this month? The Texas Rangers, of course. You know, we all surmised that the Rangers would see their production drop off after they started the year 34-19 and feasted on a weak schedule. In June, Texas’ 5-12 record is worse than any team in baseball, They’ve lost six games in the AL West standings this month, and the A’s now have a three game lead in the division. But really, what do you expect from a rotation that is flotsam after Yu Darvish and Derek Holland? And when you consider that Holland hasn’t been too good this month…well, here we are.
The Marlins and Astros are playing above .500 ball. Miami and Houston were on pace for historically bad seasons, but their Junes have gone and screwed all of that up. Each team is a game above .500 for the month (Houston is 9-8, Miami is 8-7), and while neither team is necessarily good, there are some really great signs for each for the future. Specifically, the Astros’ rotation led by Jordan Lyles and Bud Norris has been pretty good, and Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton and Jose Fernandez are playing like franchise cornerstones. And yeah, while it’s just been a couple of weeks, the Marlins took a series from the Cardinals (who have the best record in baseball), and the Astros swept the scuffling Angels in a four game set in Anaheim. Baby steps.
