We are now in June. It’s been 2 months since the 2023 season began. Last month, several players had a tremendous month. And, there are some players that we have to take a closer look at.
Firstly, the 2020 NL MVP Freddie Freeman certainly had a great month. In May, he slashed .400/.462/.722 with 24 extra base hits. In April, his OPS was .854 and he only collected 9 RBI. But, in May, he had 26 RBI, leading the majors.
At the same time, the 2022 AL MVP Aaron Judge had a great May as well. Judge had 17 extra base hits in May and among those 17 XBHs, 12 were home runs. Judge’s OPS was 1.356 in May. Moreover, in April, Luis Robert Jr. only hit .202/.248/.414 with 5 home runs and 13 RBI. He was off to a slow start this season. However, in May, he surely had done a great job. He had a slash line of .310/.373/.640 last month and collected 17 extra base hits. In particular, 8 of those 17 extra base hits were home runs.
Furthermore, Mookie Betts, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Juan Soto and Lane Thomas each had 16 extra base hits last month. All of these 4 players owned an OPS over .900 in May.
Now, let’s take a look at those pitchers, who were dominant in May. Michael Wacha and the Padres agreed to a deal in February. Wacha made 5 starts in April, but he posted an ERA over 6 across 25.1 innings. Nonetheless, in May, Wacha had a great month. He made 5 starts, posting a great 0.84 ERA and a 0.72 WHIP over 32 innings. Additionally, the Rangers had been playing well in May and now they are leading the AL West. Nathan Eovaldi and Jon Gray each made 5 starts in May and they each earned 4 wins with a WHIP below 1.00. Eovaldi’s ERA was only 0.96 and Gray owned a 1.95 ERA.
Finally, it’s very important to talk about Bryce Elder. He made 9 starts and 1 relief appearances last year. By far this season, he already made 11 starts. In May, Elder made 6 starts and owned a 1.72 ERA and a 1.12 WHIP over 36.2 innings. He’s certainly an important pitcher in the Braves rotation now. Furthermore, Logan Webb made 5 starts in May and Miles Mikolas made 6 starts. They each owned an ERA below 2 and a WHIP below 1 through 30+ innings.
The 2023 regular started at the end of March. In the first month during the regular season, some players might still need some time to get on track after the winter or make some adjustments after the spring training. As we can see, some batters or pitchers were off to a slow start, but they gradually heated up. Freddie Freeman, Aaron Judge and Luis Robert Jr. did hit well in May. On the mound, Micha Wacha and Nathan Eovaldi were just dominant with an ERA below 1.00. Let’s see whether some of these players will also have a great month in June.
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