MLB Roundup Week 4: Win streaks, sweeps, and sausages, oh my!

The latest on news around baseball includes Seattle’s latest surge, top pitching performances, and ... a White Sox sweep?

While it hasn’t been too long since our previous update, BOY has a lot happened over the last week. Join me as we round up all of the league and performance updates from Week 4!

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Team Trends and Divisional Updates

The Seattle Mariners surged to first in a weak AL West division over the last week and a half, going 7-3 in their last 10 games; however, their bats have been quiet, ranking last in batting average and OPS in the past seven days. It hasn’t really mattered, however, because the Mariners pitching staff has been top-tier. They also walked off the MLB-best Atlanta Braves Monday evening after nearly being no-hit. The Texas Rangers are still hanging right there, just a half-game out of first, but the momentum seemingly belongs to Seattle right now.

Getting on my soapbox:
The one thing about the AL West that I don’t find fair, is that I continuously see journalists ranking the Oakland A’s somewhere in the bottom few in the league in their power rankings, but there are two whole teams in that division alone with a worse record: the Houston Astros and the Los Angeles Angels. Obviously the A’s don’t have much to write home about, but it feels unfair to continue to rank them at the bottom next to the Chicago White Sox, Miami Marlins, and Colorado Rockies when Oakland has seven more wins than them. End rant — thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

The Minnesota Twins have been hot, and they are currently on an eight-game win streak as of Monday night. In pretty much everyone’s defense, they did play the White Sox for five of those games ... however, their offense has absolutely mashed over the last week. Throughout their win streak, four Minnesota players ranked in the Top 25 in OPS, all at .1000 or higher. They also drove in the most runs (51), and are now at a +9 run differential on the year. Minnesota is still four games behind the Cleveland Guardians, but perhaps the Twins just needed a home run sausage this whole time.

The Atlanta Braves are currently the best team in baseball, with a .704 win percentage and a 19-8 record. Although they have several struggling stars (notably Ronald Acuña Jr. and Austin Riley), Atlanta pitching has been on point, and the second-best in the league in the past week, which allowed them to hold down the division lead (not that there is much competition outside of the Philadelphia Phillies). The New York Mets are gonna Met, but the young Washington Nationals have been hanging right around .500, and have been fun to watch so far this year with exciting up-and-comers like CJ Abrams.

The Baltimore Orioles continue to be one of the teams to watch this year, with so many blooming stars contributing across the board, now holding a slight lead in the AL East. Jackson Holliday was called up a bit early and was sent back down to Triple-A, but guys like Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman are making it very tough for teams not from Baltimore.

The New York Yankees are still cruising, but they have some injuries they need to overcome. The good news for them is that they hit a league-leading 15 homers in the last week while also posting a team .896 OPS. And that is without Aaron Judge hitting to his full potential.

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Who rode the struggle bus this week?

This past weekend the Tampa Bay Rays were swept by the Chicago White Sox, who were the worst team in baseball at the time. Now they are not. Do I need to say more?

The Miami Marlins stole the throne from the White Sox and are now the worst team in baseball (again), rolling on a seven-game losing streak — including blowing a seven-run lead the other night.

Saturday night was a wild one in Boston, as the Red Sox obliterated the Chicago Cubs, 17-0. Cubs fans are not allowed to make jokes about White Sox attendance for at least one week.

In the words of Hulk Hogan: hell yeah, brother.

Vinnie Pasquantino (KC), Josh Bell (MIA), and Bo Bichette (TOR) take the bottom three in OPS this week, posting a .115, .203, and .221 OPS. Pasquantino literally had zero hits, so his OPS solely consists of his three walks that make up his .115 OBP. WOOF.

No one really expected them to be good, but the Los Angeles Angels are now 2-8 of their last 10. Although they broke their four-game losing streak on Monday, I’m not sure even Mike Trout can save them, as he’s batting .176 in his last five games.

Craig Kimbrel has been lights-out for the AL East-leading Orioles, but he’s blown two saves in a row — including one to the Oakland A’s. Ope.

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Top Moments of the Week

Anthony Rizzo and Alec Bohm were named the AL and NL Players of the Week. Rizzo blasted four homers, including his 300th career bomb, while Bohm lead the league with a 1.555 OPS — including seven doubles and six multi-hit games. My fantasy baseball team sure is having a great time with these kind of stats.

The White Sox are bad, but Erick Fedde has been a bright spot on the pitching staff. The righty threw for a career high 11 K’s in one game, and went for two solid starts last week to drop his ERA to 2.40.

Sticking with the White Sox because it’s extremely rare they are in this section: Andrew Benintendi put together a multi-homer game, including a walk-off blast to actually win a series. Over the last seven days, he’s ranked second in RBIs next to Carlos Santana. Who would have thought? Definitely not me.

Max Fried went off last Tuesday, earning a complete game shutout, giving up just three hits, walking none, and striking out six. He even went for six hitless against the Mariners on Monday night, but his pitch count didn’t allow him to continue.

Texas Rangers rookie Wyatt Langford, recorded his first MLB home run over the weekend, and naturally it was an inside-the-parker!

Mark Vientos was called up to the New York Mets on Sunday, and he roped a walk-off blast in his first career MLB game. Welcome to the show, Vientos!

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In Case You Missed It

The MLB Jersey Drama continues, and the league is finally addressing the (see-through) elephant in the room, long after players have consistently been highlighting the poor quality of the upated jerseys. This is allegedly all Nike’s fault and not Fanatics, and while MLB is getting to work on updating them, new uniforms likely won’t be completely rolled out until 2025. Sometimes the phrase “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is the motto to live by, Nike.

The Tampa Bay Rays had such a bad weekend against the White Sox they had to drop the City Connects as a distraction.

They pretty are fresh, though, I can’t lie!

For the most important news of the week, the mascot for Twins minor league affiliate the St. Paul Saints, Mudonna the Pig, broke a world record for most hugs by a mascot in one minute. Quite the week the Twins organization is having.

While not exactly MLB news, the beloved Savannah Bananas signed Jocelyn Alo to a one-month contract as the first female to play for the Bananas. Alo is a superstar from the University of Oklahoma and is the all-time HR leader in NCAA softball. Oh, and she also previously won a state title in wrestling. QUEEN.

And that’s a wrap for April! Can’t wait to see what madness is in store for May.

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