Every week, the Pitcher List team will publish an update to our power rankings, reviewing the biggest risers and fallers of the past seven days. This time, we are previewing each team’s outlook for the upcoming season. As always, the full rankings can be found at the bottom of this article … but where’s the fun in that?
Movin’ On Up
Houston Astros
Record: 45-42
Rank change: +3
After starting as the most disappointing team in baseball, Houston has battled their way up to second place in the AL West. Their 45-42 record puts them behind only Seattle, whom we will discuss shortly. The Astros placed in the top ten in just about every offensive metric in June, despite being without Kyle Tucker for all but three games in the month. Overall they ranked eighth in wRC+ (118), eighth in wOBA (.335), and ninth in ISO (.174).
Yordan Alvarez put this team on his back in June. The big lefty led the Stros with eight homers, 21 RBIs, and 21 runs scored. His 216 wRC+ in June ranked third in all of baseball behind only Aaron Judge and Bryce Harper. He also recorded the highest walk rate (11.5%) and lowest strikeout rate (9.6%) among all hitters on his team. That being said, Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, and Yainer Diaz all had successful months of their own. All three carried wOBAs of .365 or higher in June.
From a pitching standpoint, the man who stands out the most is Hunter Brown. The 25-year-old went 5-0 with a 9.97 K/9 and 3.32 xFIP this past month. He did have some cupcake matchups against the Angels, Tigers, White Sox, and Rockies during this stretch, but Brown has demonstrated some impressive consistency since his nine-run blow-up against Kansas City in his third start of the year.
The only man with a no-hitter on their resume this season, Ronel Blanco, has been serviceable of late, and tied with Framber Valdez with a 3-2 record in June. Spencer Arrighetti has even shown some upside with a 10-strikeout game against Colorado just two starts ago. His 10.38 K/9 leads all starters in this rotation.
This is a team that should be competing in this division come September, and the return of Kyle Tucker will only boost their odds even further.
Hittin’ the Skids
Seattle Mariners
Record: 48-41
Rank change: -2
Speaking of the AL West, the Mariners currently lead that division with a 48-41 record, but have a 3-7 record over their last ten games at the time of writing. They've had solid pitching this year like we thought they would, but many of their star hitters have been a disappointment this season.
In June, Seattle was ranked 16th in wRC+ (97), 23rd in wOBA (.299), and 17th in ISO (.159). Julio Rodríguez had been one of the coldest players in baseball before last night when he went 2-4 with a homer. Before last night, he had recorded just four hits over his last 41 plate appearances. He also had the second-worst wOBA (.124), and second-worst wRC+ (-23) in all of baseball.
As a whole, the Mariners struck out at the highest clip in all of baseball at 27.9%. It's been a profitable strategy streaming pitchers against them in fantasy baseball. Garrett Crochet recorded 13 strikeouts in just seven innings against this squad on June 13th. It's not even just one guy that is sinking the average. Cal Raleigh leads the way with 32.1% which is the sixth-highest in baseball, and Mitch Garver isn't far behind with 30.8%.
The highest batting average on this team amongst qualified hitters in June was .212 from J.P. Crawford. You read that correctly. Nobody hit more than five homers and Luke Raley led the way with a 143 wRC+.
Pitching is what has mostly gotten Seattle to their division-leading record so far this year. George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, Luis Castillo, and Bryce Miller all have xFIPs in the 3.00's and K/9's in the 8.00's. Kirby leads the way in win-loss with just a 7-5 record.
I think we see Seattle stay in the hunt for a playoff spot by the end of the season, but I believe it's only a matter of time before the Astros surpass them on the leaderboard.
