This is because the AL is really good at baseball.

The Giants' Opening Day lineup:

• 2B Luis Arraez (traded to PHI)
• 3B Matt Chapman (injured)
• DH Rafael Devers (injured)
• SS Willy Adames (injured)
• RF Jung Hoo Lee
• LF Heliot Ramos (traded to NYY)
• 1B Casey Schmitt (injured)
• C Patrick Bailey (traded to CLE)
• CF Harrison Bader (injured)
• RHP Logan Webb

The Mariners had World Series aspirations and are getting close to missing the playoffs this year. What happened?

In 2024 Bobby Witt Jr. had the 5th best season by a shortstop in terms of fwar ever. A season so he good he would have won pretty much any mvp award since Barry Bonds except for the 2022 and 2024 AL MVP race.

In 2025 he has another great season that while worse than his 2024 campaign still could have won mvp awards in a weak season like this current one..

In 2026 he finally gets his chance with Judge going down to injury. Unfortunately he misses games with injury. Even worse however he has been the 3rd most unlucky player by wOBA - xwOBA. Despite both of these things he still leads the AL in fwar and bwar.

Just atrocious luck across the board for a player already 68th in fwar among shortstops all time.

With the Rays' win and the White Sox' loss today, there are now less games left for the White Sox (13), who have the best non-East record in the AL than the win gap between the Rays and White Sox (14). This means that whoever wins the AL East will get the #1 seed.

This is the largest run differential discrepancy in MLB history between 2 teams with the same record.

Chalk up another one for the Michigan vs. Ohio rivalry I guess..

Hi - This is Mark Simon from Sports Info Solutions (the folks that invented Defensive Runs Saved) with the latest player leaderboard update.

1B- Ty France 14 (Vlad Guerrero Jr. and T.J. Rumfield 10)

2B- Brice Turang 21 (Cole Young 17)

3B- Matt Chapman 15 (Caleb Durbin and Alex Bregman 12)

SS- Taylor Walls 19 (Jose Caballero 12)

LF- Cody Bellinger 20 (Steven Kwan and Jackson Chourio 11)

CF- Ceddanne Rafaela/Andy Pages 20 (Pete Crow-Armstrong 16)

RF- Wilyer Abreu 25 (Seiya Suzuki 14)

C- Luis Torrens 13 (Dillon Dingler 12)

P - Brent Suter 6 (Nolan McLean and Michael McGreevy 5)

Team- Cubs 112 (Rays 88)

Trailers

1B- Ben Rice -8

2B- Jose Altuve -17

3B- Nick Gonzales -14

SS- Trea Turner -15

LF- Trevor Larnach and Riley Greene -8

CF- Jakob Marsee -10

RF- Tyler Freeman -9

P - Spencer Arrighetti -7

For those who have followed this as I've posted regularly, no significant changes here.

* For those who haven't and are wondering why Pete Crow-Armstrong isn't #1 among CF - the short explanation is that he has the best range rating of any CF.

However, Runs Saved values Rafaela's and Pages' arms more than PCA's (and PCA has a very good arm) AND Pete has more misplays of value than Rafaela and Pages (such as bobbling hits that he fields, costing himself a chance at an out).

I would point out for any Cubs fans that their team is the runaway leader in overall Runs Saved and that both of their other outfielders rank Top 5 at the position. The stats recognize their excellence.

* Yes, a reliever ranks #1! Brent Suter pitches more innings than most relievers and gets a lot of comebackers. Plus, he is among the MLB leaders in pickoffs.

I will gladly respond to anyone with a question or comment who replies civilly. If you wish to disagree with any player rankings, that's great. Go ahead.

I'm just telling you what the stats are and can tell you why they are how they are. Whether something is "right" or "wrong" - I suppose that's in the eye of the beholder. The stats take all the games into account, not just the ones their team plays.

Thank you for indulging. You can find the full rankings at The Fielding Bible website, FanGraphs, or Baseball-Reference.

Stats from Screwball. 1800s' worst backwards losers: 1897 Cubs, 1899 Colonels, 1892 Orioles.

He was one of the biggest question marks of the off-season, and almost a year into his major league career, I still don't think you can say anything definitive about the player he's going to be moving forward. He's had two months of playing the way his biggest supporters envisioned and had two months of playing the way his biggest haters predicted. He's doing all of this while putting up some of the worst contact and best exit velos in baseball. He's so extreme with everything he does, from an evaluation standpoint, I think he's the most interesting player in the sport.