Monthly tracking might get an interesting wrinkle if we bundled the results we have for you (monthly data for April-July) with what then transpires in August-September--in other words, after the trading deadline adjustment. Such data isn't readily available without additional back-end summarizing efforts, but we might have a chance to do some of that in the near future...watch this space, just in case.
Meanwhile, here are the updated monthly 2023 summaries for the National League, presented by division. First, we get flyover country out of the way with the NL Central:
You'll just have to imagine the green-colored squares for the Reds' starters in April, May and June (we'll fix that for the August update). That would make it clearer that Cincy actually got some better work from the rotation in July, which kept their June momentum from fizzling. The bullpen is doing a great deal of heavy lifting for the Reds this year: their relievers are 33-17, as opposed to 26-30 for their starters.
The Cubs survived poor starting pitching in July to post their second winning month in a row: as with the Reds, they got a boost from the bullpen. Meanwhile, the Brewers are 39-40 over the past three months, just treading water. The Pirates (27-49 since May 1st) are back to being a mess, while the Cardinals remain intensely enigmatic: their fire sale at the trading deadline could make for some "interesting" pitching numbers in August...
Now let's head East:
We did a little better with the color-coding here. As we suspected, the Braves cooled off, as their starting pitching remains spotty. The Fish hit an underwater headwind (you figure out what that is...) and are now swimming upstream for a post-season berth. The Phils had a solid follow-up to their hot June, and look poised to make another run, but they need more consistency from their starters.
The Mets actually had a decent July, but it wasn't good enough to keep management from backing up the truck and unloading a whole lot of merchandise. (That 1-13 record from their relievers in June seems to have the killing blow to Steve Cohen's overwrought pipe dream.) And what can anyone say about the Nats, except how the heck did they go 12-14 last month with such crummy pitching?
Now, the long red-eye haul to the left coast:
Serious rough patches in starting pitcher performance for the two front-running teams (Dodgers and Diamondbacks) might be letting those pesky Giants back into things. SF's manager Gabe Kapler, who's shown some intriguing "retro" sensibilities now and again, might be listening to the Who's venerable rock opera Tommy via his earbuds: that would explain the "pinball wizardry" he's been displaying with his bullpen over the past two months. (Giants' relievers are 24-5 since June 1, and 38-17 for the year.)
By contrast, the Padres bullpen is now 4-18 since May 1, which is one of the key reasons why they're still looking to get some traction vis-a-vis the post-season. They kept their top pitchers for the stretch run, and we might just have a four-team race develop in the NL West.
