Week 15 notes and records

[Rangers GM (Stephen)]

Week 15 notes and records


Division leaders:
- Orioles (#1 AL, #4 overall)
- Royals (#4 AL, #8 overall)
- Rangers (#2 AL, #5 overall)
- Marlins (#3 NL, #3 overall)
- Brewers (#2 NL, #2 overall)
- Rockies (#1 NL, #1 overall)

Wild Card leaders:
- Rays (#3 AL, #6 overall)
- Astros (#5 AL, #9 overall)
- Guardians (#6 AL, #11 overall)
- Braves (#4 NL, #7 overall)
- Reds (#5 NL, #10 overall)
- Giants (#6 NL, #12 overall)


Races within 10 games:

AL East
----- Orioles
3.0GB Rays

NL East
----- Marlins
9.0GB Braves

AL WC3
4.5GA Astros
----- Guardians
4.5GB Mariners
5.5GB Angels
5.5GB Blue Jays
6.0GB Twins
10GB Tigers

NL WC3
1.0GA Reds
----- Giants
4.0GB Cardinals
6.5GB Pirates
8.5GB Padres



Notes:
- No teams achieved a 10-0-0 win this week. The #2 Brewers narrowed the gap to the #1 seed with a 9-0-1 victory over the Mets, whilst the Red Sox moved up to #24 overall with a 9-0-1 victory over the Dodgers.
- No division leads changed hands this week.
- The Reds and Giants flipped wildcard spots, with Reds now 1 game ahead of the Giants in the NL WC2 slot.
- The top 3 teams in the AL are separated by only 3 games, with the Orioles just 1.5 games ahead of the Rangers for the top AL seed. With two of the top three teams in the east, at least one of the current top 3 will secure no better than a wildcard place.
- The top 3 teams in the NL (and overall) remain separated by 8.5 games, with #1 COL just half a game ahead of #2 MIL. Only two of these teams can receive a bye through the first playoff round.
- The Guardians are no longer within one matchup of the Royals, who have now stretched out an 11 game lead at the top of the ALC.
- With 3 weeks of the regular season remaining, only 10 teams are more than a matchup whitewash away from a playoff spot.
- The pick of this week's games is without doubt the #1 overall Rockies facing the #3 overall Marlins. This could be Miami's best chance at closing the gap towards the first round playoff bye.
- In what at a glance may appear to be an otherwise quiet week, the Rays and Guardians are the only two other teams currently sitting in playoff positions who meet this matchup.
- Lots of records were added to the books as a result of the long matchup and the relatively low number of these matchups that we've seen in league history.
- In a normal week I may highlight the Rockies posting a 0.963 WHIP across a whopping 90.1 innings, but that was somewhat put into the shade by the Orioles who compiled a stunning 1.49 ERA and 0.883 WHIP across 54.1 innings this matchup.
- All teams met the AB and IP minimums for scoring.


Records (10 day matchup):
RBIs - Twins (68) took 2nd
SBs - Brewers (16) joined what is now a tie for 2nd
SVHDs - Orioles (18) joined what is now a tie for 1st
SVHDs - Brewers (16) joined what is now a 4-way tie for 3rd
ERA - Brewers (1.49) took 5th

Lowest BA - Giants (.169) took 5th
Highest ERA - Nationals (8.79) took 1st
Highest WHIP - Nationals (1.767) took 5th

[Red Sox GM (Nick)]

Fact check: Red Sox also came closest to 10-0 shutout with a 9-0-1 victory over the Dodgers.

[Rangers GM (Stephen)]

Jul 24, 2023 8:25:59 GMT -5 Red Sox GM (Nick) said:

Fact check: Red Sox also came closest to 10-0 shutout with a 9-0-1 victory over the Dodgers.

Sincere apologies, I have corrected the write-up.

[Washington Nationals GM (Alex)]

Fairly deep into this weeks matchup it looked like the Braves were going to break the record for worst ERA… and still sweep me in every pitching category. That’s how bad my pitching blew up.

[Athletics GM (Daniel)]

Sometimes when I see “#1 Orioles” I like to just stop reading at the “O”, close my eyes, and pretend the rest says “akland”.

[Orioles GM (Andy)]

Daniel, it's new and exciting for the Orioles, glad that 2 of us can enjoy this moment!

[Marlins GM (Dan)]

Injuries hitting at just the wrong time. I think I had Seager in 3 games before he got hurt, and pitching is...well, not pitching. Happens to everyone, I know, but still not fun.