Weekly Wrap-up: Into the Second Half

The All Star Break has come and gone! I wanted to congratulate Jordan Walker on out-dueling Kyle Schwarber in the Home Run Derby! As Philly celebrates the only marquee event at Citizens Bank, let’s take stock of the last few months of this baseball season (and the looming Specter of No Baseball)

Philadelphia Phillies

I walked to my local smoothie place on Wednesday to get my favorite drink—a peanut butter banana smoothie. When I last turned on the TV, the Phillies had just taken the lead with two runs in the third inning. On the way, I saw a nearby bar broadcast the game. As Griffin Conine hit a two run home run to take the lead in the eighth inning, the bartender gently slammed his Phillies hat to the ground. With that loss, the Phillies have been swept by the Marlins. To make matters worse, the Phillies lost Zach Wheeler in the first game of the series after he gave up five runs in three innings of work. To agree with Bryce Harper, we do need help, but will it be enough? Is it even the right decision to prop open a window that looks about ready to slam shut? Will Trea Turner stop making errors (he has 18 this season, which is five miscues away from tying his 2023 career high)? As we saw with last years’ Mets, any team that gets swept by a team going through a twelve game losing streak won’t make the playoffs. I’ll never forget 2022, and I still won’t talk about 2023. The playoff window is closed, long live the playoff window!

San Diego Padres 

While the Padres have maintained relevancy in the Wild Card race, they also have multiple needs to fill at the deadline. Their biggest hole is pitching. Starting pitchers Nick Pivetta and Joe Musgrove are on the long term injured list and recently started throwing live batting practice. Relievers Jeremiah Estrada, David Morgan and Jason Adam have joined them on the injured list. The remaining Padres arms (except Walker Buehler, who has already had two Tommy John surgeries) are being asked to serve as bulk relievers, essentially serving as openers or as long relievers, depending on the game or situation. This also means that they are operating on short notice, which can add additional strain to a rotation that already has multiple pitchers on the injury list. I’m looking forward to seeing the wacky trades Padres GM AJ Preller tries to make. It is how he got ace closer Mason Miller in the last Trade Deadline. He also has a cool game entrance that rivals Jhoan Duran’s. I wouldn’t be surprised if Preller tried to make a run at Tarik Skubal.

Atlanta Braves

Remember when the Braves got off to a hot start? I do! They’ve cooled off since the start of the season, losing just over half of their last 45 games. Thankfully, the massive lead they had only shrank to four games thanks to those Phillies’ early season turnaround. Like the Padres, they also need rotation help. Spencer Strider is still on the injured list, and fifth starter JR Ritchie has not done well, posting a 4.50 ERA. With the Phightins breathing down their neck, they need to get a midseason rental to fill that spot until Strider returns. Channel the spirits of the 2021 Trade Deadline, Anthopoulos! As I said earlier this year, barring a collapse, October awaits, and that has historically been its own horror show. Some recent examples include the Sun Truist Massacre in 2019, the 3-1 series lead blown against the Dodgers in the 2020 NLCS or the consecutive annihilations by the Phillies in the 2022 and 2023 NLDS. I’m glad Matt Olson looks like he’s having fun.

Chicago Cubs

Since we last talked about the Cubs, more pitchers have gone on the injured list. Ethan Roberts, Phil Maton, Daniel Palencia, Eduardo Cabrera, Hoby Milner, Gavin Hollowell and Justin Steele are the new additions to the walking wounded. At least Colin Rea, Javier Assad and Shota Imanga are pitching well in the surplus of injured hurlers. Alas, Jameson Taillon has been designated for assignment, which means that getting a fourth arm will be especially important for the playoff push. They are second in the NL Central thanks to those pitching performances and stellar hitting. Former Mets prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong leads his team in batting average with .283, and has continued his Gold Glove play in center field. Seiya Suzuki is also doing well with a .270 batting average, but the hitting outside of those two have been streaky. Carson Kelly, off season acquisition Alex Bregman and Michael Busch have been inconsistent. At least they’ve improved from 17th to 14th with runners in scoring position. That’s progress!

San Francisco Giants

The Giants’ season from hell got worse when Harrison Bader injured his foot in a late-night scooter accident, when a firetruck ran over his foot. MLB has its answer to the NHL's Jack Hughes injury. At least Hughes recovered to score the golden goal and is an excellent hockey player. Bader is not, hitting just .170 in the games he played before being sidelined with plantar fasciitis. The Giants have since suspended paying Bader and are investigating what actually happened with him on the scooter. At least Luis Arraez is having fun, racking up a team-leading .328 batting average. He’d make an interesting bat for contending teams to look at adding before the Trade Deadline.

New York Mets

Staring down my own team’s incompetence makes laughing at the Mets less fun than it was when the Phillies were doing well. At least rookie Carson Benge looks good with a .260 batting average. But because the Mets are deep in the cellar, the selloff has begun in earnest. Relief pitcher AJ Minter got traded to the Twins in return for two prospects. Expect more Mets to be traded off as we approach the Trade Deadline for a rebuild.

Los Angeles Angels

I did not have on my bingo card the Angels making the first Trade Deadline deal. But amidst yet another season in the cellar of a horrible AL West, they had to make some selloffs. They sent catcher Logan O’Hoppe and pitcher Chase Silseth to the Rangers for two prospects. O’Hoppe has a batting average slightly above the Mendoza Line (.200), but will make a serviceable replacement for Rangers catcher Kyle Higashoka, who is on the 10 day injured list. Could Arte Moreno sell the team next? The way he’s wasted Mike Trout’s prime and part of Shohei Ohtani’s career makes me shake with rage whenever I think about it.

Tampa Bay Rays

The Rays are in first place in the AL East, just like everyone expected. I thought they would continue in the middle like they did last year, but it seems a change of ownership that’s willing to spend will help. It also helps that Tropicana Field was rebuilt, so they don’t have a ballpark that doesn’t do double duty as the Yankees’ spring training facility. The issue with them is hitting. They are top heavy, relying on Yandy Diaz, Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero to generate offense. While that might lead to wins against the Angels, it won’t bode well if/when they make the playoffs. Their pitching continues to be stellar, with Griffin Jax doing wonders for my fantasy baseball team with a 3.63 ERA.  Adding Mets pitcher Freddie Peralta will further bolster their starting rotation. 

Detroit Tigers

Detroit’s playoff window seems to be closing. Rather than being a gradual decline, this has been a sudden  implosion. Hitters like Parker Meadows and Kerry Carpenter either couldn’t hit or were sidelined, or both happened. Despite ace Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize continuing to dazzle, the Tigers don’t seem to have the same edge that gave them consecutive postseason berths. They couldn’t even win their last start with Skubal on the bump; Tigers relief pitchers blew a 7-0 lead to the Orioles after he was pulled and ultimately losing the game by a score of 10-9 in extra innings. Skubal was then traded to the Dodgers on Saturday for two prospects. It is a lower value than I would have gotten for him, but I am not the Tigers’ general manager. He’s the reigning Cy Young winner, you should at least get some MLB ready pitchers or hitters to replace him! I’ll be talking more about its significance for the league in my Specter of No Baseball section below.

Baltimore Orioles

Like the Red Sox, the Orioles are planning to climb out of the cellar and into a playoff spot. After a disappointing few months featuring inconsistency on both sides of the diamond, the Orioles have righted the ship with a record slightly above .500 in June and July. They are now positioned as a fringe wildcard team thanks to the weakness of the American League. Here’s to hoping Gunnar Henderson has more clutch hitting moments like the lead-taking triple he raked against the Phillies and the Polar Bear continues to anchor his new team at first base. 

Chicago White Sox

There’s magic on the South Side. Some may call it Vasilcadabra, others the luck of noted White Sox fan Pope Leo, but I call it a significant improvement. Yes, the AL Central isn’t the strongest division, but White Sox fans needed to see their team improve badly. I think they’d agree that leading the AL Central qualifies as a massive improvement. The young core of Munetaka Murakami, Miguel Vargas, Colson and Braden Montgomery continue to flourish. However, the White Sox have the seventh worst runs allowed per game, which means that the hitters have to out slug their pitchers’ mistakes. They aren’t as bad as the Diamondbacks or Athletics (who are first and second on that list), but it is an area that needs improvement to maintain their division lead. The acquisition of Luis Castillo will help bolster the bullpen (and get rid of struggling Seranthony Dominguez) but they need proven starters. Stan Getz, get to it.

Boston Red Sox

The Red Sox climbed out of the cellar of the AL East with a 15 game winning streak, which ties their franchise record set in 1946. While the streak was snapped in the next game, the Red Sox have now gone 22-4 in their last 26 games. Thanks to this stellar stretch of play, they now hold the last American League wildcard spot. Now, if they can find a way to mitigate the on-field emotional breakdowns Jarren Duran has thrown on the field. A mental health leave would be helpful, and I’m speaking from experience about this. He’s already spoken about his struggles with depression in 2024, and it wouldn’t hurt to ensure that his poor play doesn’t stem from this. I am happy to see Ranger Suarez continue to deal, as he has 4 wins and a 3.15 ERA. Ranger Danger has reached the American League.

Last time in the Specter of No Baseball, initial negotiations started between the MLBPA and the owners for a new collective bargaining agreement.  The latest issue stems around the MLB Draft, which is also under negotiation in the potential collective bargaining agreement. The owners want to get rid of teams picking high schoolers in the MLB draft, and reducing signing bonuses by hundreds of millions of dollars. MLB also wants an international draft, which makes sense due to the spread of the game (and aspiring players) around the world. The MLBPA rejected it wholesale, calling it “flat out bad for baseball”. Any offer that reduces player opportunities is not one that the players (or the association that represents them) wants.  The owners have now utilized an old union busting tool as negotiations continue–advertising for a cap. On MLB.tv, which is a streaming platform they own they placed advertisements for a campaign called “Leveling the Playing Field”, which advocates for a salary cap. This undercuts the players position to those outside of the Players Association, which is to say the fans. The MLBPA have blasted this campaign, and understandably so. It denigrates their stance of a floor in front of people who invest their time and money into following their sport. If a critical mass of them believe what the league is saying, they could demand a return to baseball without the floor that the MLBPA desires.

I understand that these players are millionaires, and I’ve heard this potential strike classified as “billionaires versus millionaires” but baseball, like other sports, is a reflection of the world we live in. That world is full of wealth inequality, where 1% hoard the wealth and refuse to let it trickle down. When workers like the players advocate for more money or better work conditions, the bosses will run campaigns like this to stymy those efforts.  To quote from the union hymn “Solidarity Forever”-- “Solidarity forever, for the union makes us strong.”

During the debate about international player drafts, Tarik Skubal was traded to the Dodgers for two prospects. Skubal is the reigning Cy Young winner, and, while he’s been injured, is still a elite pitcher. In fact, he reached 1,000 strikeouts in his last start with the Tigers. While he has come off elbow tightness, he is still a elite pitcher This trade reinforces the narratives of the Dodgers as a super team that picks off talent because they can exploit loopholes such as salary deferrals. This doesn’t just come from yokels online, but from an MLB executive who said that there’s no point playing the rest of the season. I find the last executive a bit melodramatic, but seeing these sentiments evinced by MLB employees does not bode well for a quick end to the CBA negotiations.  Time to start learning your union hymns. At least we have the PWHL, NHL and the WPBL.