Sports Media Report
For the second straight month, Jorge Soler of the hanging-in-there (31-29) Kansas City Royals earned American League Player of the Month honors, highlighting the May award winners as Strat-O-Matic’s (www.strat-o-matic.com) simulation of the 2020 baseball season enters June. The Houston Astros (41-19) and Los Angeles Dodgers (40-18) hold the best A.L and N.L. records, respectively, with Tampa Bay (37-24), Cleveland (37-23), Washington (37-21) and St. Louis (34-26) leading the other divisions through two months of play. Strat-O-Matic updates results and standings daily at www.strat-o-matic.com/2020-season-simulation/.
Strat-O-Matic also announced today that it has opened All-Star voting, based on the statistics generated in the simulation to date. Fans may vote at http://www.strat-o-matic.com/announcements/2020-strat-season-all-star-voting/, and may view each player’s statistics via links from the main simulation page linked above. Voting continues through July 1, with the All-Star Game scheduled for July 14.
In addition to Soler, who hit 13 home runs and drove in 38 runs (1.215 OPS) during May to increase his MLB-leading totals to 25 and 70, winners include A.L. Pitcher of the Month Kenta Maeda of the Twins (3-1, 1.62 ERA), N.L. Player of the Month Daniel Murphy of Colorado (.402, 5 HR, 19 RBI, 1.110 OPS), and N.L. Pitcher of the Month Luke Weaver of Arizona (4-0, 1.77 ERA).
Despite a league-best eight wins from off-season prize pickup Gerrit Cole, the Yankees slumped in May, dropping to 31-29, 5.5 games behind Tampa Bay in the A.L. East and three games out of the wild card, with Oakland (36-25) and Minnesota (34-26) in a virtual tie for the two spots. Atlanta (33-27), San Diego (32-28) and Chicago (32-28) are tied atop the N.L. Wild Card standings.
Some of the other individual league leaders through May 31 include:
- Tommy Edman, St. Louis, N.L. batting (.359);
- Luis Arráez, Minnesota, A.L. batting (.351)
- Trevor Story, Colorado, N.L. home runs (23); N.L. runs (51)
- Keston Hiura, Milwaukee, N.L. RBI (52)
- Nelson Cruz, Minnesota, A.L. runs (44)
- Yonny Chirinos, Tampa Bay, A.L. victories (8, tied with G. Cole, NYY)
- Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles, N.L. victories (8); ERA (1.85)
- Blake Snell, Tampa Bay, A.L. ERA (1.36); strikeouts (119)
- Jacob deGrom, New York, N.L. strikeouts (109)
“As the season unfolds, we are seeing some of the outstanding individual performances and exciting games that mirror the accuracy that are typical of Strat-O-Matic simulations,” said Hal Richman, Strat-O-Matic founder. “There are some surprises, like how Soler has dominated and the Yankees have struggled, but there is still a lot of baseball to be played.”
