The day-in, day-out schedule means there’s always something new to react to, while the magnitude of a single game is relatively insignificant when it’s just one out of 162.
Such is the balance when performing an exercise like these weekly power rankings.
They’re currently on a 17-game losing streak, the longest in franchise history, and haven’t won on the road since Madison Bumgarner’s unofficial no-hitter April 25.
Mountcastle has hit .308/.328/.562 in his last 45 games, though there remains plenty of uncertainty about his ability to command the strike zone, as Mountcastle has struck out 78 times with just eight walks on the season.
The Pirates have launched an MLB-low 51 homers, with a 15-homer gap between them and the next-to-last D-backs proving larger than the difference between the Arizona and 19th-ranked Detroit.
Dane Dunning in particular has gone through a rough patch, going 0–3 with a 6.65 ERA and 1.94 WHIP in his last five starts.
He’s allowed no more than three runs in each of his last 10 starts, posting a 3.06 ERA in the process.
Raimel Tapia has been quite the underrated spark plug at the top of Colorado’s lineup, leading the majors in hits over the past 30 days with 21 runs scored.
Welcome back, Byron Buxton.
Maeda has been a disappointment in his follow-up season after finishing second in last year’s Cy Young voting, but a resurgence would go a long way in Minnesota’s climbing up the AL Central standings.
His hot streak—combined with another strong year from Salvador Pérez and a return to the lineup from Adalberto Mondesí—gives an otherwise subpar Royals lineup some much-needed thump.
After 2020 brought the Marlins a disruptive COVID-19 outbreak, this season Miami has had to endure a rash of injuries that have prevented any sense of roster continuity.
No team has outperformed its Pythagorean record more than the Mariners, and their weekend sweep of the Rays was emblematic of that trend.
He has eight home runs and an .830 slugging percentage this month, while going 2–0 with 23 strikeouts and a 2.65 ERA in 17 innings on the mound.
Kyle Schwarber has been on a power binge since Davey Martinez moved him to the leadoff spot, and the Nationals are the hottest team in the National League as a result.
Bringing back Max Scherzer to his hometown team may be a pipe dream at this point with the Nationals warming up, but executive John Mozeliak may have to explore other external options if he wants to save his team’s season.
Since returning from a hamstring strain at the beginning of May, Max Fried has started to resemble the ace he was last season, registering a 2.53 ERA in eight starts with 41 strikeouts in 46.2 innings.
On Saturday, he drew his 13th career ejection in the first inning, upsetting a young Reds fan in the process .
He’s lately been the only consistent member of the Phillies rotation, which has used off days recently to revert to a four-man group in the absence of any palatable No.
They’re 5-9 in one-run games, with a pitching staff that ranks 29th in the majors in fWAR , Robbie Ray is a prime regression candidate.
While a spin rate drop over the last couple weeks during MLB’s sticky stuff crackdown isn’t unassailable proof of past Spider Tack usage, it certainly raises suspicion that his decline has coincided with the rpms of his fastball/cutter reaching a two-year low.
Can Cleveland survive with Shane Bieber on the shelf? The reigning Cy Young Award winner won’t throw for at least two weeks, and it’s unclear how long it will be before he takes the mound in a big-league game again.
The Yankees have won five of their last six games against two of the best teams in the AL, thanks in large part to their exceptional knack for turning triple plays.
Patrick Wisdom, a 29-year-old Quad-A type and former Cardinals draft pick, has unexpectedly done his best impression of Bryant at third base by carrying the lineup with nine home runs in 73 plate appearances and an astronomical 1.112 OPS since being called up in late May.
Francisco Lindor has alleviated some of the pressure that had been building by fulfilling his expected role as New York’s most valuable hitter this month, with a .275/.359/.522 slash line and four home runs in 19 games.
After an eyebrow-raising sweep at the hands of the Rockies in Denver, the Padres returned home to a full capacity Petco Park for the first time this year and quelled some concerns by completing their first four-game sweep in a decade for their first series win of the month.
Aside from a six-game hitless streak from May 26 to June 2, Bogaerts has gone more than one game without hitting safely only once, a two-game skid from May 11-12.
The 5′ 6″ utility man has developed into a patient bat with a good amount of pop, hitting .273/.392/.453 on the year with a 16.1% walk rate.
But if he acclimates himself quickly to big-league pitching, he could be the difference maker in what should be a tight race in the AL East.
Beating up on bottom-feeders is what good teams should do, but a better showing against the cream of the crop is a needed step toward serious championship contention.
Buehler, who took a no-hitter into the eighth inning against Arizona on Saturday, has allowed just six runs over his last seven starts and boasts MLB’s third-best ERA over that span.
After scoring just three runs in four games against the Nationals last weekend, they exploded for 59 runs in seven games this week, and are now tied for the MLB lead with 107 homers.
But fans who feel robbed of getting to boo to their hearts’ content when the Astros came to town last year can rest easy—stadiums are open again, and Houston is back on top.