NL East monthly check-up: Braves, Mets, Phillies, Marlins, Nationals

The Miami Marlins were 14-13 in May, and crept past the New York Mets for second place in the division. Just 4.0 games behind Atlanta, the Fish just refuse to go away. Jorge Soler had probably his best month ever, batting .284 with 12 homers and 25 RBI in 25 games. Nine of those dingers came against left-handed pitching, and Soler is just crushing lefties this year, hitting .370 with a 1.453 OPS in 46 at-bats.

Even with all of those heroics, the Marlins were still in the bottom 10 in team home runs for the month, and bottom eight in runs scored. Injuries to Jazz Chisholm and Jesus Sanchez kept them out of the lineup for most of the month, and definitely contributed to those numbers, but this team has struggled to score all season. They are 27th in the league in runs scored on the year, and it is pretty impressive that they were able to win 28 games so far. While Chisholm is probably out for a couple more weeks, Sanchez should be back with the team any day now and hopefully is able to pick up where he left off. In the seven games leading up to his hamstring injury, Sanchez was hitting .455 with a 1.455 OPS, and swinging a stick like that could help kick start this offense.

The real strength of the Marlins, however, are these starting pitchers. I know it’s been a rocky road so far with a lot of ups and a lot of downs and Sandy Alcantara isn’t exactly throwing like we’re used to, but, at just 27 years old, he’s the senior member of this rotation. Jesus Luzardo, Braxton Garrett, and Edwad Carbrera are all just 25, with Garrett and Cabrera still a couple years away from arbitration. Luzardo will get paid this fall for sure, and hopefully the perpetually stingy Marlins can figure out a way to keep him, because with 20-year-old Eury Perez now in the fold as well, this could be one the most dominant rotations in baseball. These kids are still developing and learning how to pitch, and they all have such great stuff, it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch.

The New York Mets entered the month with the golden gift of 12 straight games against the Tigers, Rockies, Reds, and Nationals. They were three and a half back from Atlanta at that point, and while I don’t think anyone forsaw the Braves just treading water, there was a nice opportunity with that schedule to maybe catch up to them or perhaps even take over first place. Well, the Mets went 4-8 over those 12 games, played .500 ball themselves the rest of the way, and slipped into third place. Same ol’ Mets. This is going to be a hotly contested division all season long, and if New York can’t get out of its own way, then the highest payrolled team in the league is going to be playing golf this fall instead of playoff games.

Max Scherzer, except for one little hiccup against Detroit on May 3, has been pretty good lately. He’s allowed just two earned runs over his last three starts and the Mets were 3-1 with him on the bump this month. Kodai Senga was pretty impressive as well, and looks like he’s really starting to figure things out. Senga threw 6.0 innings and allowed just one earned run, with 12 strikeouts, in an extra-inning win versus Tampa Bay on the 17th, and tossed another gem later in the month, this time against the Phillies, throwing 7.0 innings of one hit ball, with nine punchouts. New York managed to win three of his starts this month and in all, per Gary Cohen of SNY, the Mets are 14-0 when their starting pitcher throws at least 6.0 innings this season.

Pete Alonso clobbered 10 homers this month, including seven in his last 13 games, and leads the league with 20 on the season. He is also third in RBI, with 46, and, along with Francisco Lindor, they have 86 between them. They are the muscles that make this lineup move. There are tough outs throughout this batting order, but these guys are RBI machines. Omar Narvaez was supposed to be this team’s primary catcher this year, but he hit the shelf early with a calf injury and the Mets have since handed the keys to home to 21-year-old Francisco Alvarez. Alvarez has really come into his own, especially this past month. He’s pretty solid defensively, with a nice arm behind the dish, but I know a couple of Mets fans who have been waiting for that bat to come around. Well, over his last nine games Alvarez is hitting .353 with a 1.258 OPS, and has five homers and 13 RBI to go along with all that great behind the plate stuff. This kid is a sharp shooter with upper management written all over him.

The Philadelphia Phillies were 11-15 this month. The Washington Nationals were 13-15. Neither one of those records are very good, but they’re also not too far off from how the rest of the division performed either. I am, however, more impressed by the Nats.

Philadelphia is coming off of a World Series appearance (kudos, great job), signed a couple of big bucks free agents, completely retooled their bullpen, were supposed to push for the division, and … nothing. Sure, Bryce Harper hasn’t played to his full capabilities, starting the year on the IL, but Kyle Schwarber is hitting .166 on the season and .119 on the month. That’s a slump if I ever saw one, seven home runs or not, that’s not a productive at-bat. Trea Turner is a career .298 hitter who’s batting .240 with a .285 OBP. This isnt to say it’s all on Schwarber, Harper, and Turner, it’s tough to say what the problem in Philly is, but they are still only 6.5 games behind the Braves. It’s only just June, and there is still a long road ahead. I hope they can turn it around because there isn’t a bigger Bryce Harper fan than me. He carried my fantasy team for years, but this version of the Phillies has been pretty disappointing so far.

The Nationals, on the other hand feature two of my favorite young pitchers, a few sneaky bullpen arms, and a nice group of up and coming talented players in their starting nine. The Nats were 0-6 when Mackenzie Gore took the mound this month, but that’s not to say that he didn’t try. Gore surrendered just 14 earned runs in those six starts, and he struck out 39 batters across 31 innings. Josiah Gray started five games, and Washington won three of them. He’s having a little trouble getting batters to chase, as he issued 18 walks in his 27 frames, but he also struck out 20 batters, and allowed just nine earned runs. Kyle Finnegan had a nice month and, despite one bad outing against Arizona, he was able to collect six saves while striking out 12 batters in 10 May frames.

Washington, as a team, does not hit a ton of homers (29th in the league), and struggles to score runs (22nd). They don’t get on base a lot (21st), and they dont really run when they do (27th in steals), but they are fifth in team average, and ninth in OBP. Second baseman Luis Garcia hit .299 for month, including a 6-for-6 effort against Kansas City on the 26th, and Lane Thomas had a great month as well, hitting .316 with eight homers, and is usually a nice sneaky option for your DFS lineup.

Maybe I’m just a fan of the underdog, but I’m more bullish on Washington right now, and holding out hope for Philly.