At one point, the Chicago Cubs had one of the biggest division leads in baseball. Their lead in the NL Central grew to 6 ½ games on June 17. They haven’t even been playing poorly lately — they are still on pace to win 97 games — but the lead has dwindled. In fact, the Cubs and Brewers are tied for first place.
They are also tied for the second-best record in baseball, only a half-game off the Tigers.
The Cubs have the best run differential in baseball and had won four games in a row before stumbling on Sunday, but they’ve been unable to shake the Brewers thanks to Milwaukee’s 10-game winning streak. I try to not begrudge teams for beating up on inferior competition because good teams take care of business against bad teams. It’s one of the hallmarks of being a great team. The Brewers, though, have beaten the Dodgers six times in six tries in the last 14 days. You know, the defending champions who were supposed to be so good this season that the sport needed to change its rules in the name of fairness? That team. The Brewers swept them this season in a matter of two weeks.
The Cubs haven’t played the Dodgers in a while, but did win four of their last five games versus the titans of the sport. They also have played a top-five schedule in baseball by opponents’ winning percentage.
The NL Central has a claim as the best division in baseball, actually.
As noted, the division houses the two best records in the majors. There are two other contenders over .500, too, in the Cardinals (3 ½ games out of the last wild-card spot) and the Reds (2 ½ out).
The only other division with four winning teams is the AL East and, sure, it could be argued that division is stronger than the NL Central. The Central, though, has a better run differential and I’d point out that the top two teams are better than the top two in the AL East.
Of course, the Pirates serve as the anchor here, tugging the rest of the division down as best they can. In wholly unsurprising news, they aren’t even good at that, though, because we can clearly see the other four teams are good, including two elite teams. It’s frankly embarrassing for baseball what the Pirates have become over the past several decades, but we don’t need to harp on the negative here.
The rest of the NL Central is great, including, right now, the two best teams in baseball right now.
Biggest Movers
|
Rk |
Teams |
Chg |
Rcrd |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
|
The Brewers have won 10 straight games. The club record winning streak? Thirteen games, which came when they started the 1987 season 13-0. | 3 | 59-40 |
2 |
|
If losing the lead has you down, Cubs fans, hopefully this nugget will help: The Cubs have the easiest remaining schedule in all of baseball while the Brewers have one of the more difficult remaining slates. | 1 | 59-40 |
3 |
|
Well, it wasn’t emphatic (2-1 win), but the Tigers have snapped that six-game losing streak. | 2 | 60-40 |
4 |
|
The Blue Jays have been good enough for long enough that it’s reasonable to wonder if they can end up as the top seed in the AL or even the best record in all of baseball this season. It’s all within striking range. | 3 | 58-41 |
5 |
|
They’ve now lost 10 of 12 and that division lead is back down to 3 ½ games. | 3 | 58-42 |
6 |
|
Have the Yankees lost nine of their last 16 or won seven of their last 10? Depends on if the glass is half full or half empty. | 3 | 55-44 |
7 |
|
Ever since I named the Astros No. 1 in the official Power Rankings, they’ve lost seven of nine games. I apologize to the entire city of Houston for my misuse of karmic powers. I generally try to only be a force for good, like Superman, but sometimes I mess up. | 2 | 57-42 |
8 |
|
Oddity of the week, as discovered thanks to the Phillies’ broadcast on Friday: Trea Turner has 11 home runs on the road this season and zero at home. That’s in 48 road games and 49 home games. | 2 | 56-43 |
9 |
|
The Mets might be the most fascinating team heading into the trade deadline. They need to be aggressive and you could justify so many different areas of need, but you could also justify internal solutions at several of those areas. Watching how David Stearns elects to piece it together will be fun. | 1 | 56-44 |
10 |
|
Two players this season have hit 10 home runs in a 14-game span and they both play for the Mariners. Cal Raleigh, obviously, but the latest was Randy Arozarena. | 2 | 53-46 |
11 |
|
The Padres are only 3 ½ games out in the NL West and have a workable rest of this road trip, heading to Miami and St. Louis. They are very interesting right now. | — | 54-45 |
12 |
|
The 10-game winning streak came screeching to a halt, but Wrigley is a tough place for visitors to win and the Red Sox staged a late comeback to salvage Sunday. Their very tough start to the second half schedule continues with a trip to Philly before hosting the Dodgers this coming week. | 2 | 54-47 |
13 |
|
A good Matt McLain would do wonders for the Reds’ offense in the second half. And he might be getting hot. In his last five games he’s 8 for 20 (.400) with a double, home run and two walks. | 1 | 52-48 |
14 |
|
What a great sign it was to get a good start from Taj Bradley at home to open the second half on Friday. | 1 | 52-48 |
15 |
|
I’ve seen some people discussing Adolis García as a trade candidate, but, man, the Rangers are within striking range of a playoff spot and have a former player running the show in Chris Young. I’m not seeing any selling as things stand. | 2 | 50-50 |
16 |
|
The Giants started the season 24-14. They’ve gone 28-34 since. What’s the bigger sample? If I were a Giants fan, I wouldn’t be feeling very good right now. | 3 | 52-48 |
17 |
|
The Snakes are likely dealing with calls from about a dozen teams (probably more) looking to trade for some of their free agents to be, notably Eugenio Suárez, but Arizona is only 4 ½ games out of a playoff spot. This might go down to the wire. | 4 | 50-50 |
18 |
|
Yes, in the introduction I called the Cardinals a good team and while they are over .500 and still in contention, things are trending toward worrisome right now. They’ve lost 11 of their last 15 games. | 2 | 51-49 |
19 |
|
The Angels are within one game of .500 and four games of a playoff spot. I want to believe, but years of tease jobs won’t let me. | — | 49-50 |
20 |
|
Gavin Williams, who struck out 11 on Sunday, now has a 2.79 ERA in his last nine starts. | 2 | 48-50 |
21 |
|
In the last day of the first half and the first day of the second half, Kyle Stowers went 8 for 10 with five homers and 11 RBI. Holy smokes, man. | 2 | 46-52 |
22 |
|
Bobby Witt Jr. has 33 doubles and 26 stolen bases. The only Royals players to ever get to 45 doubles and 30 steals in the same season are … wait. It’s only Bobby Witt Jr., who did it last year. He’s going to make a bunch of Royals history. | 2 | 48-52 |
23 |
|
If there was any hope to convince the front office to believe in this team and not move into “seller” territory, maybe losing two of three to the Rockies wasn’t the best way to start the second half. | 5 | 48-51 |
24 |
|
Pretty bad timing on that Charlie Morton clunker to start the second half. He was starting to look tradeable. | — | 44-54 |
25 |
|
Could Ronald Acuña Jr. end up leading the team in home runs after he missed the first 49 games of the season? He’s got 13 now and the team leader is Matt Olson with 18. While we’re here, LOL at that throw from Acuña on Friday. He’s such a beast. | — | 43-55 |
26 |
|
Jacob Wilson was hitting .372 through June 8. His average is now down to .323. Uh oh. | — | 42-59 |
27 |
|
We’ve discussed how the Nationals rebuild so far has only yielded three sure things in James Wood, C.J. Abrams and MacKenzie Gore. But after getting shellacked on Sunday, Gore is now 4-9 with a 3.59 ERA and 1.27 WHIP. | 1 | 39-60 |
28 |
|
The White Sox are now on pace to win 57 games! I’m elated. My over 53.5 wins looks like it’s in decent shape. | 1 | 35-65 |
29 |
|
What’s 27-7? That would be the total tally of how badly the Pirates were outscored by the White Sox while being swept by them to start the second half. What a joke of a franchise. Bob Nutting is an embarrassment to baseball. | 2 | 39-61 |
30 |
|
I kind of wanted to put the Pirates here just to make a point, but I’m thinking we’re better served to just have the Rockies go wire-to-wire here. And, yeah, the body of work says the Pirates are still miles ahead of the Rockies. | — | 24-75 |
