Caption: Shohei Ohtani in the batters’ box for the LA Angels

By Ryan Harless

Ryan Harless is a third-year undergraduate at BGSU from Hillsboro, Ohio. He is majoring in Sport Management with a Journalism Minor. Baseball and golf at all levels are his primary interests but he is also interested in combat sports, hockey, basketball, and football.

May 29, 2023

With most teams being at least 50 games into their season, I felt it would be a good time to see where things are. Here’s my overview of the season as it stands in the American League.

AL East: This division has completely caught me off guard this season. Tampa got off to an insanely hot start and has only now started to cool down, but they still hold a three-game lead over the second-place team… Baltimore. The Orioles are having a great season so far, standing at 33-17 with a four-game advantage over the Yankees. New York has had a very disappointing season (if you’re a Yankees fan) so far. Manager Aaron Boone just got suspended by the MLB due to the number of ejections he has had and after winning his first four starts, Gerrit Cole has only had one decision. Bringing up the rear in the East are the Red Sox and Toronto who are both under .500 and just a half-game apart in the standings. If either of these teams expect to make any sort of postseason push, they need to start making changes right now.

AL Central: The Twins present another surprise in this division as they are holding onto first place, partly due to the season that starting pitcher Sonny Gray is having. He still has the best ERA in MLB at 1.83 leading Tampa’s Shane McClanahan’s 1.97. The Tigers are another surprise in second place, trailing Minnesota by two games. The Tigers have a surprising record due to the fact they have scored the second fewest runs in the MLB this season and already have a -53-run differential. Trailing the Tigers, the Guardians really shocked me; after last season’s impressive run I thought their young team could only improve. But they have struggled this season and not only have been odd to watch on the major league field, but also, why is Bo Naylor still in the minor leagues? Rounding out the bottom of the AL Central are the White Sox and Royals. The White Sox have had a really disappointing season thus far; they have a lot of talent on their team but are only 9-18 when playing away from home. Kansas City is, yet again, painfully bad with a record of 15-36 and is neither winning at home or on the road.

AL West: Another shocking division when looking at expectations. Leading the division are the Rangers with a +112-run differential and a 31-18 record so far. Of course, they have spent a lot of money in the past few years on the trio of Marcus Semien, Corey Seager, and Jacob DeGrom. Although Seager and DeGrom have both had injury issues this season, the team has done a great job of producing without their stars. Standing three games behind them are the Houston Astros who are still the Astros, they’re just always good no matter what, although their +38-run differential is crazy when looking at how well they have played. Sitting in the middle of the pack, only four games back from first place are the Angels. It makes me so sad to think about it, but I think this will be the last season we ever get to see Ohtani and Trout on the same team. Unless this team can do something drastic and make a playoff push (they are only one game back in wildcard standings), I can’t see them keeping both players beyond this year. They are both having phenomenal seasons with Ohtani looking like the obvious MVP that he is, and Trout being himself. But outside of those two, there aren’t a lot of fun things to talk about with this team. In fourth place and still with a winning record, are the Seattle Mariners. Seattle has given up the second fewest runs in all of baseball this year due to their stellar pitching staff led by my 2023 AL Cy Young prediction Luis Castillo who has been nothing but flawless so far this season. Now, let’s get sad as we round off the AL West. The Athletics are bad, like historically bad, and there was never any other way for this season to go. The owners wanted the team to fail so they could move to Las Vegas (which looks like it will be happening in the next couple of years) without much pushback from fans. The fans are not happy about it at all and have staged a “reverse boycott” where they plan to fill the stadium showing that there should be baseball in Oakland. Now to the on-field overview. As of today, the A’s are 10-42 which is the worst start in MLB since 1932 when the Red Sox started 10-40. They have scored 183 runs which is the third lowest in the league; HOWEVER they have given up 367 runs which is over 100 more than every other team in the league outside of Colorado who play in the most hitter friendly park. Their run differential is -184 which is at least 100 worse than anyone else. The team is batting .222 and they have a team ERA of 6.88. It is really sad to watch such a storied franchise crumble like this.

Next up: MLB Season Update – National League.