MLB Week 7 Roundup: You’ll never guess who the hottest team in baseball is!

The Phillies and Yankees hold the top spots in their respective leagues, while the Rockies ride good vibes right into a winning streak

It’s been a wild week around the league! While we still have our heavy-hitting teams that have been holding out on top of the divisions, others around the league have been trending up and making a splash — regardless of their win-loss record. Let’s take a look, shall we?

Top Stories and Trends

The Philadelphia Phillies (31-13) possess the best record in baseball, are 8-2 in last their last 10 games, and are riding a three-game win streak. The curious thing about the NL East and the Phillies is that they are in a fairly weak division, and have only played three games against teams with a record of .500 or better — which is the fewest played among anyone in baseball. Outside of the Los Angeles Dodgers at nine, all other clubs are in double-digit games played against winning teams. Philadelphia is strong, but it will be something to watch and see if they can sustain their dominance.

The New York Yankees (29-15) are also 8-2 in their last 10 games, and are sitting at the top of the American League. Even without Gerrit Cole, their pitching has been elite — with a 2.98 team ERA on the season, only second behind their nemesis, the Boston Red Sox. It sure helps that Aaron Judge has been on a heater, slugging .952 over the past week with three doubles and three homers, including a 467-foot bomb against the Minnesota Twins that punctuated his 4-for-4 evening.

Surprisingly enough, the Colorado Rockies are the hottest team in baseball, gliding on a seven-game win streak after sweeping the San Diego Padres. Over the past week, they’ve produced the top batting average (.306) and ERA (1.86), as well as the second best OPS (.822). If you’re going to be bad, at least be fun-bad.

Speaking of win streaks, the Houston Astros are attempting to chip away at their awful start, stringing together four wins and six of seven. They’ve had an efficient 2.71 team ERA over the last week and struck out 73 batters, the most in the league.

Adley Rutschman walked off to keep the Baltimore Orioles’ “sweepless” streak alive, now sitting at 105 straight series. Though “Sweepless in Baltimore” doesn’t have a nice ring to it, honestly.

Who’s Hot?

William Contreras is giving potential superstar vibes, and has been bolstering the Milwaukee Brewers offense. He’s posted a 1.339 OPS in the last seven days, and produced his 18th multi-hit game of the year this week: four RBIs on three hits, including a homer. Only Shohei Ohtani has more multi-hit games in 2024, so I’d say Contreras is in good company! For any fantasy managers, he’s been raking points for my team so I’d highly recommend snagging him if he’s (somehow) available.

Judge is scorching right now. See above — I have no other notes. Perhaps Arson Judge was accurate after all.

Bryson Stott has been key for the Phillies, slashing .467/.625/.867 and reaching a highly impressive 1.492 OPS in the last week, striking out zero times in his 15 ABs.

Arizona shortstop Kevin Newman has been sneaky-good for the Snakes. He’s tied with Judge for extra-base hits over the last week, mashing five doubles and a triple, while posting a BA and OBP at .500 or better and walking off the Cincinnati Reds on Monday. Could be worth snagging for some extra fantasy points if he keeps on pace!

Being one of the bottom teams in the league, it’s almost ironic that there’s two Chicago White Sox players on this list, but Garrett Crochet and Erick Fedde have been impressive for the South Siders, both executing two strong outings this past week. Crochet has racked up 17 K’s in his last two starts, lasting 11 scoreless innings while giving up eight hits and just three walks. Garrett was also responsible for two wins, which have been very hard to come by for the White Sox.

Erick Fedde also threw 13 solid innings, and posted an exceptionally nice 0.69 WHIP. He gave up just two hits, walked one batter, and struck out seven. He’s been a strong addition to the White Sox rotation, especially after a “Cy Young” season in the KBO.

Speaking of WHIP efficiency, Chris Sale has been doing Chris Sale things for the Atlanta Braves. His last start yielded only two hits in seven innings, with zero walks and nine K’s — amounting to a 0.29 WHIP. Sale has a 2.54 ERA and a 0.89 WHIP on the year, walking just eight batters compared to 62 Ks.

Reese Olson has been extremely helpful for the Detroit Tigers, posting a 0.47 ERA and a 0.53 WHIP in his last three starts, only giving up one ER on six hits. Even with an 0-4 record, he’s been solid all year in terms runs prevention, sitting at a 2.09 ERA in his 47 1⁄3 innings.

Bryce Harper has been insane, which is pretty much par for the course for him. In Wednesday’s game against the New York Mets he mashed a home run as well as a double with the bases loaded. In the four times he’s come up to bat with the bases loaded this year, Harper has been QUITE a menace: A 3.300 OPS is simply out of control.

Who’s Riding the Struggle Bus?

Sadly, the Miami Marlins have still not disembarked the struggle bus. Their 13-32 record and .289 win percentage are the worst in baseball, and their -87 run differential is tied for worst — heyo, White Sox!!

The Oakland Athletics performance thus far has been fairly surprising, especially with how much of a mess the organization is; the fact that they are within a hop, skip, and a jump to first in the AL West is wild itself. However, they are, unfortunately, on a four-game losing streak, and have won just two of their last 10 games. They are still third in the AL West but Houston seems to be catching up, having won three straight against Oakland. Mason Miller has been a bright spot, however.

Although they started to (sort of) turn it around the last three games, the St. Louis Cardinals were riding a seven-game losing streak, and are 3-7 in their last 10, for context. (For further context: They lost a series at home to the ... White Sox.) It does not help that Paul Goldschmidt is slumping HARD, with a Bottom 20 league OPS, and the third-most strikeouts in the league. The Cardinals are just sad at this point, and as a White Sox fan, I can only empathize.

Manny Machado has not been having a great start to the year, and it’s gotten a little worse this past week, only slashing .045/.125/.045. He has just a .622 OPS on the year, but as an elite player, we can assume he will snap out of it? The Padres can only hope!

Jake Burger had a couple of fun weeks to start the season, but has really been struggling after coming back from the IL earlier this month. In the last week, he’s slashing .091 across the board, getting just two hits. If you stretch it out to his last 15 games, his batting average gets worse at .077 and just a .246 OPS. I really hope he can turn it around!

San Francisco Giants pitcher Keaton Winn is most certainly not Winn-ing right now (I will see myself out). But his last two starts have been especially brutal, posting a whopping 14.09 ERA and a 2.09 WHIP. He’s likely headed to the IL with a forearm strain, so it’s possible that injury is factoring into his poor performance!

Although the Seattle Mariners are holding down first place in the AL West and Logan Gilbert has been mostly lights-out this year, in the last couple of games he’s been riding the struggle bus, producing a high 9.28 ERA in his last two starts, leading to a 1.69 WHIP. He still has a solid 3.07 ERA on the year, and I don’t think it’s worth panicking much about because he still can’t stop missing bats.

In case you missed it

Houston Astros starting pitcher, Ronel Blanco, was thrown out of a game earlier this week for violating the rules for foreign substances, after an umpire said that there was some “very sticky stuff” in his glove. He has been suspended 10 games, and allegedly isn’t appealing at this time.

Funny how this stuff keeps coming up with Houston.

The Cleveland Guardians and Detroit Tigers released their City Connect jerseys over the last week. Personally, I find them a bit boring to be totally honest, and think they could have done more with them. For Detroit, the best they could do was some tire tracks? Really? It feels like the City Connects are getting worse as time passes, but maybe that’s just me. Let me know!