Back in 1968, Denny McLain became the last pitcher to win 30 or more games in a season. There are a number of reasons why 30 wins will likely never happen again. For one, the advent of five man rotations (and occasional six man rotations) means that most starters don’t get more than 34 or 35 starts in a season even if they make every one of their starts. When you couple that with the number of decisions that go to relief pitchers you can see why it hasn’t happened since then.

Chris Sale is the latest early candidate to make a run for 30 wins. He is now 8-0 after eight starts on the season. He went the distance on Friday night to move his ERA to a sparkling 1.67. Of course, the odds are still stacked against him. It will take consistent strong run support in addition to great pitching each and every time out. Still, he has to be the early favorite for the Cy Young Award.

If you read only one thing

It remains to be seen whether it will continue, but the Philadelphia Phillies are confounding expectations this season. They came into the season as one of the early favorites to contend for the number one overall pick. Now, they are 21-15 and early contenders for one of the wild cards in the National League. The odds are stacked against them on that front, but they have cobbled enough talent together to make a run at the 80 win plateau. That might not seem like a big deal, but considering where they were just a season ago it is a big deal.

We kind of expected

The Cubs returned to the win column by beating the Pirates 9-4. More importantly, they opened up an eight game lead on the Pirates in May. They have a 7.5 game lead on the Cardinals at press time, but the Cardinals are playing the Dodgers. Pundits are fond of saying that it’s still early, but games in May and games in September count just the same in the standings. The Cubs may run off and hide for the rest of the summer.

We didn’t expect

In spite of the efforts of Byung Ho Park (.245, 9 HR, 15 RBI), the Twins find themselves with the worst record in the American League. At 8-26, there are certainly plenty of fingers to point, but the start by Phil Hughes is somewhat disturbing (1-6, 6.44 ERA, 1.431 WHIP). The bullpen also has only two saves on the season and their presumptive closer has a 5.40 ERA on the season. No one thought the Twins were a runaway juggernaut, but you would have thought they would have at least played at a .300 clip up to this point.

Save Opportunities

• Ryan Madson (converted #9)
• Cody Allen (converted #9)
• Zach Britton (converted #10)
• Jeanmar Gomez (converted #14)
• Jonathan Papelbon (converted #10)

Baseball News

The suspension for Jose Reyes finally came down from MLB today. He will be suspended through the end of May and will surrender his salary from the first two months of the season. The official game count will end up being 52, but with a lack of playing time, it will likely be until the middle of June until he is seen in a major league game. Obviously, this story has a number of different angles that could be analyzed in a series of articles, but we will try to focus briefly on each.

The immediate story surrounds the Rockies and what they do now considering Trevor Story’s obvious development. Supposedly, there might be a team or two actually interested in trading for Reyes. That would be a godsend for the Rockies even when you overlook the public relations aspect of it. Considering he has over 30 million owed to him between now and the end of 2017, that would seem unlikely, but you never know.

The fantasy angle to the story is also interesting. Reyes is still capable of hitting around ten home runs and stealing 20 bases in an abbreviated season. He could give an owner a shot in the arm midway through the season. Like other lightening rods, fantasy owners have to choose between keeping a hated player off their team or holding their nose and accepting the production.

Finally, you get the human side of this story. Reyes allegedly grabbed his wife around the neck and shoved her through a sliding glass door. She refused to cooperate with both the criminal case and MLB’s investigation. So, the charges against him were dropped. Still, it’s hard to know exactly what is appropriate in cases like this. On the one hand, when you consider what supposedly happened, two months seems very light. On the other hand, you reach a murky point when you consider that you are punishing someone for something they did off the field when the law is not punishing them. All in all, they are probably reaching a decent compromise on those two points.