We're nearing the halfway point of the 2023 MLB season and things are both settling down and refusing to settle at the same time. Some great MLB stories from the first few months have lapsed, but newer, crazier stories are coming to the surface and making this an even more interesting year to cover. June was just another eventful, compelling chapter in the story of this year.
So first, let's cover the 5 predictions I made for June 2023 at the end of last month:
1. There's going to be a big rookie that comes up this month and it's going to piss everybody off that Topps will immediately refer to them as a call-up and not make rookie cards of them until 2024. ELLY DE LA CRUZ. Henry Davis as well.
2. The Cardinals are gonna do what the Astros did this month, and become good and piss me off. Not really, honestly. They're still in last and very frustrated. I'm fine with this.
3. The entities that always do well in June, including Kyle Schwarber and the Toronto Blue Jays, will have nice months. Sort of. Schwarber's had 8 homers this month, and has improved slightly over his first two months, but he's still not an overwhelming force. Same with the Jays, they're still in fourth.
4. An oft-injured/oft-delayed player [Sixto Sanchez, Andrew Painter, Carlos Rodon, maybe Cole Hamels] finally gets back to the majors and does something big. None of those four, because we can't really have nice things. Can't really think of anybody that fills this category.
5. A Rays reliever says or does something stupid this month. Surprisingly not. Maybe having them all injured helped this. Never would have predicted that Pride Month would go by without any Rays relievers saying something crude yet one of the best pitchers working right now would be the one to bite his tongue over it.
Damn, and I thought I'd made things easier for myself. Ah well. I suppose that leads right into 5 things about June 2023 that nobody could have predicted:
1. FIRST PLACE REDS??? I figured this was a year or so away. The Reds taking first not only had a lot to do with the Brewers, Pirates and Cubs sagging all at once, but with Elly de la Cruz's promotion awakening something in this Reds team, and bringing the best out of Matt McLain, Spencer Steer and T.J. Friedl. Even with all the injuries that have hit this rotation, Andrew Abbott has shone for this team, and Brandon Williamson and Graham Ashcraft are at least decent innings-eaters. The lead may be dissipating a little, but the Reds are currently over .500 and doing a ton of things right. Kinda awesome to watch.
2. The Marlins are 14 games over .500 for the first time since 2003. Similar to the Reds, a team that's had terrible luck in the last few years is looking like one of the true alphas of the league, and has not only an impressive record as a 2nd placer, but is looking legitimately great. They're 48-34, three division leaders aren't even that. It really is as simple as not only having the single best contact hitter in all of baseball right now, the great Luis Arraez, but arguably one of the best rotations in the game. And what's crazy is that Sandy Alcantara's having a down year and he's still notched 102 innings and struck out 83. The kids, those being Jesus Luzardo, Edward Cabrera, Braxton Garrett and inexplicably amazing rookie Eury Perez, are keeping this team going, and making it even harder for teams to do anything while Jorge Soler and Bryan de la Cruz show off. Truly great team, I hope they keep this momentum going. At the same time,
3. The Mets completely falling apart. As the Marlins have cemented themselves at 2nd, the Mets went from a 2nd place team to a fourth place embarrassment just in the time it took Pete Alonso to shake off some bruises. This Mets team went 7-18 in June after going 29-27 in the first two months, thanks mainly to McNeil and Alvarez hitting cold stretches, the pitching struggling, and a few almost comical losses to teams they could have beat. This is still a good team with some great players, but they spent a lot of money to compete and they're trailing the Phillies, even with Scherzer actually pitching like himself and Verlander slowly getting there.
4. The Angels somehow keeping the Astros at third for a bit. I was convinced the Astros were gonna snap out of it this month and piss me off by taking first, and they almost did during a Rangers cold stretch, but leave it to those Angels to just heat up and shock everybody when no one expects them to. It's a little more than Ohtani and Trout being hot, as now all these other pieces, like Mickey Moniak, Brandon Drury, Griffin Canning and Reid Detmers are all locking into place and helping this team compete. Thanks mostly to the Rockies series, featuring that insane rout, the Angels were in second for most of this week, and it's only because of a tougher schedule that the Astros have lapped them at the moment. But man it's nice having a team that can keep the monolithic Astros down in June. Makes me a little more optimistic that someone else might win a World Series this year.
5. DOMINGO GERMAN WENT 9 INNINGS WITHOUT ALLOWING ANYONE ON BASE. It's gonna take me YEARS to wrap my head around how that happened. This is like if Rob Schneider had an Oscar winning performance in him.
Alternatively, here are 5 things about June 2023 that a lot of people could have predicted:
1. Back down go the Pirates. It was beginning to happen last month, but it really kicked in this month, as several of the pieces responsible for the Pirates' upswing, like Vince Velasquez, Johan Oviedo, Connor Joe, Colin Holderman and both Reynolds and Hayes, all wilted back to earth. Bringing up nice rookies like Osvaldo Bido and Henry Davis has helped, as the team is still in third above the Cubs, but they're under .500 and not looking as confident as they were before.
2. Corbin Carroll is, in fact, legit. Again, I'm really hoping his shoulder is okay, but the Mike Trout in 2012 vibes this guy is giving off right now are inescapable. An incredible season as a power hitter, contact hitter, baserunner and outfielder, and the promise of so much more in the future. Not exactly a shock, but a welcome confirmation.
3. The Braves continue to be one of the best teams in baseball. With all they've cultivated, and all that's wowing the league this year, it's kind of obvious. Having a healthy and surging Acuna, as well as Strider, Morton, Murphy, Olson and Arcia all working, does a lot of difference, and the Braves will surely go into the ASG break as one of the top teams in baseball.
4. Shohei Ohtani's probably winning another MVP. Like, he might even win a Cy Young as well, the dude's exceeding on every level and nobody's doing what he's doing. 6.5 WAR through 3 months. The Angels are probably gonna break the bank to keep this guy around, and he's gonna deserve it.
5. In an MVP environment where it's harder to get no-hit because pitchers aren't built to last as long, the A's still got no-hit.
For my money, here are the 5 Most Important Players of June 2023
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