MLB Memorial Day check-in: Who is a contender and who is a pretender?
By Scott Roche
Now that the MLB season is officially two months old and we’re coming up to Memorial Day Weekend in the United States, it’s time to peek at the first checkpoint of an MLB season.
There have certainly been some surprises and disappointments to begin 2023. All you need to do is look at the standings in each of the six divisions. Some divisions are proving to be more challenging than others.
One thing that’s different this season is that each team is playing at least one series against each other to balance out the schedule. Of course that drops the number of division games from 19 to 12, which is both a good and bad thing. Injuries and momentum for each are going to be different when they play different teams, but in the end, it’s what the league wanted, a balanced schedule.
For the second straight year, the expanded playoffs are in play, which makes it interesting for each team during the season and into the summer where they have to decide if they are going to be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline. A lot of times teams have an easy decision to make, while other teams are stuck in the middle of whether to buy or sell.
As the calendar turns to Memorial Day Weekend, it’s OK to start looking at the standings and see who looks like a contender or a pretender a third of the way into the season. With that said, let’s look at each division and see who is going to be taken seriously as we move toward June.