It's another off-day! Time for another update.
We're twelve games further in, with each team having played 36 games. I'm not crazy about the schedule, to be honest--every team plays a bunch of games in a row, kind of in lockstep. I feel like it might really end up wreaking havoc on some pitching staffs, though maybe the AI can handle it since OOTP is pretty well established? In any case, with just a 150-game schedule, we're nearly 1/4 done!
Here are the current standings:
The Red Sox' winning streak ended just after the last update, and they lost 2 of 3 to the Yankees, were swept by Oakland, and lost 2 of 3 to Detroit (though they won a series with Oakland). New York (7-5 since last time) and Cleveland (8-4 since last time) have made up most of the deficit. Between now and the next off-day update (22 May), Boston will play Seattle, Milwaukee, Baltimore, and LA, the Yankees play most of those same teams (playing Toronto instead of just-visited Seattle), and Cleveland faces LA, Toronto, Houston, and Kansas City.
Over in the AL Central, the White Sox went 8-4 to take over the division lead, sweeping Baltimore and taking 2 of 3 from Milwaukee and LA before losing a series to Toronto. They're within shouting distance of .500, the only division leader below that mark. Milwaukee had a disastrous stretch, going just 2-10 and are now tied for the worst record in this simulation.
The AL Southeast has remained more or less static. Tampa Bay and Houston went 7-5 and narrowed the gap between them and Texas to 1 game. Baltimore had a very difficult stretch and dropped to 5 games back. But none of these teams strike me as out of it. Texas' schedule next has them playing Detroit, Seattle, Milwaukee, and Baltimore. Tampa Bay will play Baltimore, LA, Toronto, and Houston, while Houston faces Chicago, Minnesota, and Cleveland before the showdown in Tampa Bay.
Kansas City remains in first place in the AL West, slightly enlarging their lead after a 7-5 run. However, second place now belongs to Seattle, who swept Minnesota and won series with Tampa Bay and the Yankees (while losing a series to Cleveland) to go 8-4. Oakland also went 8-4, and has taken over 3rd.
The story in the NL is more of good teams extending leads. The largest divisional lead in the AL is 3 games (Kansas City in the AL West), while the smallest divisional lead in the NL is 4 games (St. Louis in the NL Central). Pittsburgh went 8-4, St. Louis went 9-3, Atlanta went 10-2, and the Dodgers went 9-3. On the flip side of this, Montreal, Colorado, Charlotte, and the Mets went 3-9, and Arizona and the Giants went 4-8. Atlanta had a 13-game winning streak, which was snapped by Pittsburgh in a showdown of the league's best teams (Atlanta won the series). St. Louis has the longest active winning streak at 8, Charlotte owns the longest active losing streak at 6.
Looking at the statistical leaders, Alex Bregman has been very hot, and now leads the AL in batting at .429 and WAR at 3.3. Roberto Clemente is at .414 to lead the NL in batting average, Chipper Jones has a WAR of 2.5 to lead th eNL. George Brett remains the AL home run leader at 17 despite only hitting 2 in the last 12 games--Pat Burrell and Darryl Strawberry (Yankees edition) are just behind him at 16. Cody Bellinger leads the NL with 15. Brett continues to drive in runs, however, with 18 in 12 games to maintain his RBI lead with 15. Matt Holliday of the Rockies leads the NL with 43. Brett's RBI pace remains close to where it was (229 on the season), though his home run pace is down to "only" 71 (in a 150-game season, though)...
The pitching leaders include Kevin Brown of the Marlins, who has a 1.63 ERA, Kevin Brown of the Padres, who has 2.8 pitching WAR, several folks tied with 6 wins (Don Gullett is the only NL player among them, though), and Randy Johnson maintaining an insane strikeout pace, now at 127 for the season and averaging 19.1 K/9. That puts him on a pace to strike out 529 people on the season.
Thanks again for reading, and you can get daily scores and highlights on the league Twitter feed at @CloverlandLeag1, which I retweet at my personal feed at @asrivkin.
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