The M's have surged since the watercooler. But how do they stack up?
Remember the offense bottomed out early on and had a 92 OPS+ offense but the defense at what time had a 120's ERA something like a 127 at the peak. The hovered around .500 never going lower than 4 under or 3 over until July 31st when they were 55-51. But from Watercooler kicking they are 37-14 I think I heard that was best in baseball(.725 win%).
M's 108 OPS+ 113 ERA+
Texas 116 OPS+ 106 ERA+
Houston 105 OPS+ 109 ERA+
TB 116 OPS+ 108 ERA+
Balt 105 OPS+ 104 ERA+
Jays 105 OPS+ 115 ERA+
Boston 106 OPS+ and 105ERA+
Minny 101 OPS+ 112 ERA+
On Paper I would probably add up that Tampa team and say between the pitching and defense they are plus 24 and they are #1. But, Their best player Wandering Franco has not played in two weeks because he played around and got played by a 13 year old and her mom. TB has many of their SP injured and really only have two good ones but I would favor our top 3 vs theirs in every match up.
Texas was on of the reasons we got our pitching number down for a bit they blew us out. They added Scherzer164 ERA+ and Montgomery 191 ERA+ who were both on my list. with those two being better than Castillo and Kirby and then Dunning with a 129 RTA+ or Eovaldi with a ERA+ in the 160's but is DL Buddies with also 160's ERA+ DeGrom. Texas clearly has the SP advantage in a playoff series of top 3 starters in every one. Texas is the #1 team in the AL on paper.
Baltimore is a paper dragon that has been lit on fire.
they are only slightly above average on both side +9 total but have ridden 2 bad ass close out relievers to kill leads after 7 as wins> : best closer in baseball this year was 3.1 WAR King Felix Bautista 284 ERA+ but out for the year and Y. Cano 267 ERA+ 2.8 WAR. I could see them fade. But in the playoffs could you pitch Cano for 3 or 4 in a row? ANd only 1 good starter.
Houston added Verlander and Graveman and they are both performing. Because they did that tilted the SP matchup from us to them and now their BP is probably about even maybe even a slight edge.
Here is my top 5
1. Texas
2. Houston
3. Seattle
4. TB
5. Jays or Minny