So far, the MLB season has been action packed, full of homeruns and strikeouts. Some teams are off to a great start in the first month. Others, not so much. While it’s early in the season and some teams are still finding their identities, it’s important to note who the winners and losers are from the opening month. It’s a long season, and there’s plenty more baseball to be played; but if some teams don’t find their way soon, their playoff hopes may be crushed.
Winners: Dodgers, Padres, and Mets
The top 3 teams right now consist of two teams from California and a team as far from California as you can be. The Los Angeles Dodgers sit atop these rankings at #1, and the three-headed snake of Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, and Mookie Betts is as good a reason as any. The three bat .288/.333/.266 respectively, with a combined 12 homeruns between them. Tommy Edman, an infielder for the team, also leads the MLB in total homeruns thusfar with 6, further solidifying their lineup as the most dangerous in the National League.
At #2 we’ve got the San Diego Padres. Holding the best record in the league at 15-4, the the Padres have the lead over teams like the Dodgers who are also Division Rivals. Fernando Tatis Jr., who’s batting .346 with a league-tied 6 homeruns is an early candidate for National League MVP. When Tatis is on, the Padres are a scary team, and with help from the pitching staff who has achieved the lowest ERA (earned run average) at home in the league the team will continue to thrive.
At the #3 spot sits the New York Mets. First basemen Pete Alonso is the frontrunner for NL MVP thus far, holding a .356 average along with 5 homeruns and 20 RBIs. Alonso also leads the league in OPS (On Base + Slugging), with an unfathomable 1.195. New Yorks starting pitchers, led by Kodai Senga, hold the lowest team ERA so far this year as well. Don’t forget, the Mets also splashed in free agency to acquire star outfielder Juan Soto, and once him and Shortstop Francisco Lindor finally catch fire, there will be no stopping the Mets lineup.
Losers: Rockies, White Sox, Nationals
Often times, a young team doesn’t fair too well in the early going. This can be said for the Washington Nationals, who rank as the #3 worst team in the league so far. The Nationals team age average is 27.87, the third lowest in the league. The teams 7-11 record reflects this as the team has significantly underperformed in a division they have no business being last in. The Nationals Bullpen ranks dead last in ERA (7.21) and WHIP (1.89). This means the Nats ‘pen gives up about 7 runs a game, and almost 2 walks and hits per inning! Definitely not a remedy for success, but the team is young and has lots of potential. Their inexperience has gotten them off to a rocky start, and if they don’t tap into that potential they’ll for sure be setting up shop at the bottom of this list for good.
The #2 spot at the bottom of the ranks belongs to the Chicago White Sox. The Sox have failed to achieve a winning record since 2021, where they went 93-69. Since then they’ve lost talent such as Tim Anderson, Dylan Cease, and Liam Hendricks. The Sox post a record of 4-13 thus far, 2nd worst in the league. You know it’s bad when your first basemen, Andrew Vaughn, has an average of .131 and is considered one of the better hitters on the team. As a team, the White Sox rank 29/30 in average with a .200 flat, which is heavily to blame for their lack of production thus far. Considering their pitching staff ranks in the middle of the road at 16/30 with a 4.01 ERA, it solidifies that hitting is the issue. If the bats don’t wake up for the Sox soon, dark days are ahead as they’ll continue to fall further into irrelevance.
Finally, our #1 spot for the worst team in the league belongs to the Colorado Rockies. Yet another team struggling with age, posting an average of just over 28 years old per player, the inexperience has shown in their 3-15 record. There really isn’t anything good to say about this team so far, they’re 1-7 in their last 8 games and one single player, Brenton Doyle, accounted for 5 of their 7 runs in that only win. Baseball is a team sport, and with a 5.92 team ERA (30th) and only 52 runs scored (30th), they’re practically giving up more runs than they can score. One player can’t save a team like that, and the only sense of optimism surrounding the Rockies is that they’ll eventually start putting balls out of the park at Coors Field, where the elevation makes a simple pop fly a 450 foot homerun.
This is my analysis thus far of the MLB season and my predictions for the Early Contenders. The top of the league is heavily represented by the National League, while the bottom dwellers belong to the American League. It will be interesting to see how things shake out in the coming months, but like mentioned at the start; There’s a lot of baseball yet to be played.
