Strat-O-Matic Baseball Simulation: Trout, Freeman, Morton, Scherzer Earn June Awards

As Strat-O-Matic’s (www.strat-o-matic.com) simulation of the 2020 baseball season moves past the halfway point and with the All-Star Game less than two weeks away, award winners for June were announced today. Mike Trout of Los Angeles and Freddie Freeman of Atlanta were selected as A.L. and N.L. Players of the Month, respectively, while Charlie Morton of Tampa Bay and Max Scherzer of Washington earned League Pitcher of the Month honors.

Tampa Bay (53-34, 9.5 game lead over New York), Cleveland (54-32, nine games ahead of MInnesota), Houston (MLB-best 56-28, six games ahead of Oakland), Washington (51-35, six games better than Atlanta) and Los Angeles (57-29, 8.5 lengths past San Diego) remain atop their respective divisions, while Milwaukee (45-39) moved into the N.L. Central lead with a 14-11 month, percentage points ahead of Chicago (46-40), a game ahead of St. Louis and four better than Cincinnati in the tightest division race to date. Strat-O-Matic updates results and standings daily at www.strat-o-matic.com/2020-season-simulation/.

Trout earned the A.L. honors by hitting .327 with 10 home runs and 24 RBI in the month, while posting a 1.136 OPS. Freeman was even better, slashing .378/.461/.724 for a 1.185 OPS in June. Morton won all four of his decisions, pitching to a 1.06 ERA and 0.82 WHIP, fanning 36 across 34 innings, while Scherzer went 5-1 with a 1.89 ERA and 0.95 WHIP, whiffing 53 in 38 innings in the month.

The wild card races are very tight in both leagues, with Oakland (51-35) in first place in the A.L., Minnesota (45-41) one game up on Kansas City (44-42) for the second spot, two ahead of New York (43-43), 2.5 up on Los Angeles (42-43) and three ahead of Boston (42-44). In the Senior Circuit, San Diego (48-37) sets the pace, with Central-leading Milwaukee (45-39) and Chicago (46-40) a game better than St. Louis and Atlanta (45-41) and three ahead of Arizona (43-43) for the second slot.

Some of the individual league leaders through June 30 include:

• Shogo Akiyama, Cincinnati, N.L. batting (.349);

• Nick Madrigal, Chicago, A.L. batting (.342)

• Trevor Story, Colorado, N.L. home runs (31); runs (75)

• Jorge Soler, Kansas City, A.L. home runs (31); RBI (91)

• Keston Hiura, Milwaukee, N.L. RBI (73)

• Mike Trout, Los Angeles, A.L. runs (77)

• Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles, N.L. victories (12); ERA (2.25)

• Danny Duffy, Kansas City, A.L. victories (10)

• Gerrit Cole, New York, A.L. victories (10); strikeouts (158)

• Blake Snell, Tampa Bay, A.L. ERA (2.18)

• Jacob deGrom, New York, N.L. strikeouts (153)

“Just like on the field, the teams have started to separate themselves at the top of each division, but there are still close races and unexpected results in the Strat-O-Matic simulation of the season,” said Hal Richman, Strat-O-Matic founder. “With some of the league’s superstars like Mike Trout, Max Scherzer and Clayon Kershaw among the leaders along with newer faces in Shogo Akiyama, Nick Madrigal and Keston Hiura, the last three months of the season should be as exciting and interesting as the first three have been.”

Monthly winners to date:

• A.L. Player: Jorge Soler (April), Jorge Soler (May), Mike Trout (June)
• N.L. Player: Trevor Story (April), Daniel Murphy (May), Freddie Freeman (June)
• A.L. Pitcher: Blake Snell (April), Kenta Maeda (May), Charlie Morton (June)
• N.L. Pitcher: Stephen Strasburg (April), Luke Weaver (May), Max Scherzer (June)