Keytron Jordan, CBS Sports

Remember this? 

The Los Angeles Dodgers were 8-0. All the overwrought whining from the offseason about how this sport isn’t fair was coming to fruition. The defending World Series champions were just operating on a different level than everyone else, right? 

And then they weren’t. 

The world-beaters have gone an incredible incredibly adequate 10-10 since. 

For real, though, can everyone just settle down and realize how ridiculously stupid the offseason discourse was? I know we aren’t technically allowed to make earnest points with small samples, but the sample of the Dodgers in 2025 being average is larger than the sample of them being amazing.

At the very least, here’s what I’d like: Admit it was dumb. 

That’s it. You can do it. It won’t be difficult. Just say, “yeah, I overreacted and it was stupid.” 

We’re talking about a good baseball team. A very good one, in all likelihood. It might even end up the best team in baseball this season. But there were earnest discussions about whether or not this team was so good that it was ultimately bad for the sport. 

Think about that. Think how ridiculous it sounds now. Major League Baseball hasn’t had a repeat champion this entire millennium, yet the defending champion signed Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates and then a good portion of the MLB fan base lost its collective mind. Salary cap! No fair! (Sarcasm font) I’m so happy for the Dodgers!

Did we really need to go through all that? 

Again, this isn’t even an argument that the Dodgers are bad. They aren’t. They are a good team. They are one of the best teams in baseball. They are not, however, even close to being good enough to warrant discussions that they are so absurdly good that the rules of the sport need to be rewritten. They’ve gone 10-10 in their last 20 games with a negative run differential. This was a set of games that included series against non-contenders like the Nationals, Rockies and Pirates. They’ve lost four straight to the Cubs. They won a series over the contending Rangers, but only managed seven runs in the three-game set. 

Since Ohtani’s walkoff homer on April 2, more than half the other teams in baseball have a better record. The 8-0 start counts, obviously, and the Dodgers are still among the teams with the best record in baseball. They are a great team. 

I just thought a team that caused a collective aneurism in the offseason would’ve been better, that’s all. After all, if the game is so unfair, maybe the team with the unfair advantage should at least have the best record and stop losing series to these inferior teams. 

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Mets You cannot say enough about the starting pitchers stepping up here in the first month. Major kudos to Kodai Senga, Clay Holmes, Tylor Megill, Griffin Canning and David Peterson for making the rotation a strength. Also of note: The 1986 Mets were only two games better than the 2025 Mets at this point. 2 19-9 2

Cubs The Cubs have had the hardest schedule in baseball to this point. The remaining schedule? The easiest in baseball (as an example, they only play the Marlins and White Sox from May 12-21). A great team would start feasting now. Let’s see how great these Cubs are. 2 17-12 3

Dodgers My hunch is they’ll be No. 1 next week, but they are coming off a 2-3 week and have been outplayed by the Cubs on the field. And the Mets have the best record. 1 18-10 4

Giants Remember in 2021 when the Giants were awesome at the start of the season and so many people kept thinking they’d eventually return to Earth with an extended stretch of losing? Only it never came? Is it happening again? 3 19-10 5

Tigers They are only 5-7 away from home so far this season and now head out for a 10-game road trip. Let’s see what they’re made of. 3 18-10 6

Yankees They’re still sitting in first place despite whatever has happened to Devin Williams. 1 17-11 7

Padres They are dealing with injuries, yes, but those expose their lack of depth. The Padres have now lost eight of 11. 6 17-11 8

Mariners Andrés Muñoz at this point has an argument as the best reliever in baseball. 4 16-12 9

Rangers Can you name the AL leader in ERA? It’s Tyler Mahle! He sits at 1.14 through six starts. — 15-13 10

Diamondbacks Eugenio Suárez is on pace to hit 58 home runs this season. Only one Diamondbacks player ever has topped 45 (Luis Gonzalez hit 57 in 2001). — 15-13 11

Astros Yordan Alvarez might be ready to get hot. A quick sorting of his stats by month says this was the worst month of his career. August 2022 was his only month with a sub-.650 OPS. I’m saying “was” because he went 2 for 4 with a double and homer on Sunday, raising his OPS to .671. 2 14-13 12

Phillies How about the start from Jesús Luzardo? He’s been off-the-charts amazing. 6 15-13 13

Red Sox Alex Bregman is on pace for 59 doubles. The Red Sox record is probably unreachable (Earl Webb, 67, in 1931). The most post-integration, though, was 56 by Nomar Garciaparra in 2002. 2 16-14 14

Guardians Remember, Steven Kwan was hitting .397 as of last June 19. He’s at .346 right now. 2 15-12 15

Reds Since that woeful 2-6 start, the Reds have been playing some good baseball. And the offense is still capable of more. 2 15-13 16

Braves What a total bummer it was to see Spencer Strider return and immediately go down with an injury. Still, the Braves are playing really well right now and are attempting to dig themselves out of that early season hole they dug. 2 12-15 17

Royals The Royals lost six in a row and then won six in a row. Easy come, easy go. 5 14-15 18

Rays Through Tuesday, the Rays were on a stretch of dreadful baseball, but they’ve now gotten hot against two very good NL West teams. It’s a nice illustration of how quickly the tide can turn early in this sport. 2 14-14 19

Brewers Rough week for the Brew Crew. The good news is they get to face the White Sox now. 8 14-15 20

Athletics I don’t think they are a good team, but they are a pretty fun team to watch, especially with the power in the lineup right now. 3 14-14 21

Blue Jays I think it’s been long enough to officially be concerned about Bo Bichette’s lack of power. This is now the longest homerless span of his career. 7 13-15 22

Nationals Dylan Crews has now hit safely in 11 of his last 12 games. He’s cut down on the strikeouts and is hitting for power in the stretch, too. 5 13-15 23

Orioles In the time it took you to read this comment, the Orioles just left another runner in scoring position. 2 10-17 24

Cardinals Remember when Jordan Walker was a phenom? — 12-16 25

Twins It’s hard to tell if the Twins have finally awakened or if they were just beating up on bad competition at home. We’ll get a better read this week when they visit Cleveland and Boston. 3 12-16 26

Marlins Rob Deer fans, keep your eyes on Matt Mervis. He now has seven home runs with a .211 batting average and 29 strikeouts in 71 at-bats. 1 12-15 27

Pirates That Andrew Heaney signing is working out beautifully so far, as he has a 1.72 ERA and 0.77 WHIP through five starts. Maybe they should sign more free agents? Just a thought. 1 11-18 28

Angels The Halos have now lost 10 of their last 13 games. 9 12-15 29

White Sox Believe it or not, the White Sox have actually played the easiest schedule in the majors to this point. — 7-21 30

Rockies Before 2023, the Rockies had never lost 100 games in a season. They are now working on their third-straight 100-loss season. There doesn’t even seem to be an end in sight. — 4-23