Listen, we know it's tough to catch up on everything happening in the baseball world each morning. There are all kinds of stories, rumors, game coverage, and Vines of dudes getting hit in the beans every day. Trying to find all of it while on your way to work or sitting at your desk just isn't easy. It's okay, though, we're going to do the heavy lifting for you each morning, and find the things you need to see from within the SB Nation baseball network as well as from elsewhere. Please hold your applause until the end, or at least until after you subscribe to the newsletter.
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
★★★
The Nationals are finally in first place, where everyone expected them to be for basically the entirety of the 2015 season. It took some time, as key players were (and some still are) injured. Yet in spite of the Mets’ torrid start to the season, the Nats have caught up and are squeezed into a tie for first with their rivals from New York. You can thank Bryce Harper for a whole lot, but not all, of this sudden change.
The Mets won 11 games in a row in mid-April, propelling them to a 15-8 record on the month. Other than that stretch, though, the Mets have been a pushover: they have 23 wins total on the season despite rattling off 11 straight, are under .500 in May, and can’t seem to get anyone in the lineup besides Lucas Duda to really hit. The Nats started slow with a 10-13 April, but are 13-4 in May, and 10-2 since Harper began destroying every pitcher he faced -- in that stretch, Harper is batting .535/.630/.1.349 with twice as many homers (10) as strikeouts, and more walks (11) than both.
The Nats are playing a little better than they actually are thanks to Harper, but he’s just making up for the lack of Anthony Rendon and a healthy Jayson Werth -- the Nats should be a real juggernaut once everyone is healthy. The Mets look worse than they are: they aren’t going to steamroll everyone like they did in mid-April, but they’re a team with realistic playoff aspirations once they get healthy and maybe add another bat to the mix. For now, they’re all caught up with each other, and the NL East race is basically back to day one.
- The Marlins are weird for making general manager Dan Jennings their regular old manager, but they might not be stupid.
- This White Sox door turned John Danks’ little danks into a doorknob.
- Bruce Chen has retired, and since he probably pitched for your team at some point in the last 17 years, you care more about his many faces and roles than you might think.
- In fact, Chen was a last-minute trade away from possibly changing Red Sox history just a few years ago.
- Professional wrestler Goldberg stopped by Citi Field to help promote a wrestling event occurring at the stadium in June, and ran afoul of Bartolo Colon. How many spears do you think it would take to knock Bartolo off his feet? Fewer than it would take to knock his batting helmet off, probably.
- Here’s some insight into how a scout’s mind works when it comes to projecting and ranking draft prospects.
- The A’s are looking ill, and the vultures are circling, waiting to tear some Scott Kazmir-shaped chunks from their corpse.
- That last bullet point had more imagery than I intended it to.
- Robinson Cano has been a bit unlucky to start the season, but some of his slow start is on him.
- The Giants need a third baseman, and the Rangers have Adrian Beltre and nothing going on in 2015.
- Yankees fans, are you happy with the Nathan Eovaldi trade so far, or would you like a redo?
- Not only are the Astros winning and leading the AL West, but now they’re scouting Jeff Samardzija in case they need a mid-season upgrade in their rotation.
See More:
