Understandably so, we've got a ton of disappointing teams in the bottom third of the league, except for the Colorado Rockies. They've basically been hanging around the back half of our power rankings all year based off nERD, and have continually outplayed it to this point.
| Rank | Team | nERD | Record | Playoff Odds | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | San Francisco Giants | -1.20 | 40-67 | 0.0% | -1 |
| 29 | Baltimore Orioles | -0.89 | 51-54 | 3.6% | -1 |
| 28 | Chicago White Sox | -0.75 | 41-62 | 0.0% | -8 |
| 27 | Philadelphia Phillies | -0.67 | 39-64 | 0.0% | +3 |
| 26 | Minnesota Twins | -0.66 | 50-53 | 4.4% | -5 |
| 25 | Colorado Rockies | -0.54 | 60-46 | 66.2% | -1 |
| 24 | Atlanta Braves | -0.50 | 48-56 | 0.6% | -6 |
| 23 | San Diego Padres | -0.49 | 47-58 | 0.1% | +3 |
| 22 | Cincinnati Reds | -0.47 | 42-63 | 0.0% | -3 |
Biggest Rise: San Diego Padres
Let's just cut to the chase here -- the San Diego Padres aren't going anywhere, and it's not like anyone was really expecting them to. However, anytime they can climb out of the bottom five teams in baseball, it's an accomplishment.
The pitching staff has been just about middle-of-the-road over the last 30 days, but you may be surprised to see that the offense has landed in the top 10 during that same period with a team wRC+ of 104. It's also encouraging to note that their team ISO of .194 ranks seventh.
Manuel Margot and Hunter Renfroe each posted a wRC+ greater than 100 over the past month, but it was Cory Spangenberg leading the way -- he's slashed .309/.378/.531 with 4 homers, 11 RBI, and 17 runs scored through his most recent 90 plate appearances, giving him a team-leading 138 wRC+.
Biggest Drop: Chicago White Sox
Like the Padres, we also expected the Chicago White Sox to be down here, too. Watching them drop eight spots shouldn't be shocking when we take a second to think about the players they've recently traded away: Jose Quintana, David Robertson, Tommy Kahnle, Anthony Swarzak, Todd Frazier, and Melky Cabrera.
That would be their best starter, solid back-of-the-bullpen pieces, one of their top power hitters and a productive switch-hitting outfielder. Yup, that'll do it. So, when we consider the fact that they easily had baseball's worst pitching staff this past month (-0.4 fWAR) despite having those guys around most of the time, they may be in some trouble moving forward.