The Cubs have Seiya Suzuki out, but honestly their lineup isn't that good, even with Suzuki around. They can really use some offensive help, especially with Cody Bellinger looking less like 2023 and more like the prior few years.
Instead of giving AB to low-ceiling guys like Mike Tauchmann, why don't they just bite the bullet and promote big prospect Matt Shaw? Shaw is killing AA, whereas the one more heralded offensive prospect in their system -- Pete Crow-Armstrong -- isn't looking very good at the moment.
The Cubs have done decently offensively so far -- 5.4 runs per game. However, the underlying lineup just isn't very powerful, and I don't see this holding up. The NL Central is wide open, even with the Brewers' hot start.
For whatever reason, they seem to mishandle a lot of players recently. Christopher Morel seems to be on the bench often when he's blistering the ball, and is in the lineup every day when he's awful (like right now).
I wish I knew a White Sox fan just so I could make fun of them. Buried 14.5 back after 25 games is hard to do. Absolutely stone cold dead before April is over. Talk about a lost season.
I think 22 losses in April might be among the worst ever starts, and they still have probably 3 more games.
Somehow relative parity right now.
15 of 30 teams are within 4 games of .500 right now, either way.
26 of 30 teams have won at least 10 games.
The A's are 10-16, the Nationals are 10-14.
So far there have been only 4 teams with horrendous starts:
The Marlins, originally expected to win something like 75 games this year, is dreadful, and is 6-20.
The Rockies are expectedly bad at 7-19.
The White Sox were expected to be bad, but not THIS bad, sitting at 3-22.
The Astros, projected by The Athletic to win the division with 93 victories, are somehow off to a 7-19 start.
Aside from the better-than-expected Nationals and A's thus far, we are also seeing surprisingly good things out of the Indians (18-7), Yankees (17-9, despite Judge struggling), Royals (16-10), Brewers (16-8), and Cubs (16-9).
Dodgers are somehow only 9-8 at home. They will still win the division.
My osession the past two weeks is playing the DK “Up 2 Early” promo. Fun as hell. Cheering on the A’s lulz.
It’s an Away Dog promo. At least that’s how people approach it
Some maths being shared by twitter types fwiw.
I ultimately took Guardians @ +180. Sale is pitch to contact and Guards are disciplined at plate.
I shoulda taken Dodgers but long shots are a rare treat for me
My Braves with a big series (at least for April anyways) against BCRs Guardians this weekend.
Two best records in baseball thus far; should be a fun one.
Somehow the Braves are 17-6 despite the following:
-Lost the preseason NL CY favorite for the year in Strider (killed some futures bets of mine too)
-Lost their All-Star C Sean Murphy on opening day
-Lost all-star 2B Ozzie Albies for 10 days with a broken toe (he’s back tonight)
-Reigning NL MVP Acuña has a sub .780 OPS w/ only 1HR
-Matt Olson is hitting .216 and has an OPS of .759
-Austin Riley OPS of .725
-Max Fried has an ERA of 4.97
-Charlie Morton has an ERA of 4.70
It’s kind of amazing they have the best record in baseball given all that, but their 5th starter Reynaldo Lopez has a 0.72 ERA, the bullpen has been mostly great, Marcell Ozuna has been on fire, as has Travis d’Arnaud.
The latter guys are all going to regress heavily but the former ones should regress to the mean in a positive direction. I’m ready to be hurt again in October.
Yeah its been fun to walk around with my chest puffed out at our quick start, but I would gladly take 1/3 in Atl. We have faced A's, Red Sox, and White Sox for over half of our schedule. Our bullpen is legit. The starters have been dancing between raindrops, which you can do against those offenses, but I am not delusional about this team. I expected 75 wins before Bieber went out. I'd be thrilled at 3/3 over next 6 as the Astros kill us also and are off to bad start. Two out of six isn't a killer even, just don't want to get blanked.
I am looking forward to the series and seeing them against quality even if it goes poorly. The Tribe fights, which I love even on bad days. Hopefully it's a competitive series.
Yep the Braves have played 6 already against the Marlins, and had a series with the White Sox and Astros so they’ve benefited from a soft schedule as well. One of the White Sox 3 wins is against the Braves.
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