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With June right around the corner, it’s normally the time where the contenders in Major League Baseball have shown that they’re the teams to beat this season, but that’s not actually the case everywhere.

There are teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves who were expected to be at or close to the top of their divisions and both teams are currently in 1st place. It’s not even a huge surprise that the Milwaukee Brewers are in 1st place in the National League Central. Of course, there are still some things that no one thought would happen. No one had the Tampa Bay Rays going out and having the best record in baseball at 38-16. It’s also a bit of a surprise that the second-best record in baseball belongs to the Texas Rangers with the Baltimore Orioles holding onto the third best record just a half a game behind the Rangers. The Arizona Diamondbacks have also been a nice surprise as they currently find themselves in 2nd place in the National League West just 2 1/2 games behind the Dodgers. The Pittsburgh Pirates are also a surprising 2nd place team, but they’re just one game over .500 and their placing might be more of a weak division than a surprising start.

While Tampa Bay and Baltimore have gotten off to very good starts the rest of the American League east has played well themselves. The other three teams in the division the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays are all over .500 and would be in 1st or 2nd place in every other division in baseball except the American League West.

Of course, with the good there has to come the bad. You could throw either Central American or National in with the bad. The A.L. Central only has one team over .500 the division leading Minnesota Twins while the N.L. Central has managed to get two teams over the .500 mark the aforementioned Brewers and Pirates. Sadly, there will be a team that will end up winning these divisions and getting into the playoffs while it’s very possible a team with a better record could miss out on the playoffs.

Two of the more disappointing teams reside in these Central divisions. In the A.L. the Chicago White Sox have been a huge disappointment while in the N.L. it’s easily the St. Louis Cardinals who have been quite disappointing. The White Sox are currently 10 games under .500 at 22-32 but believe it or not they’re just 6 games behind the 1st place Twins. As foe St. Louis well they’re 7 games under .500 at 23-30 but they’re just 4 1/2 games behind 1st place Milwaukee. The one advantage for both the White Sox and the cardinals is that their divisions are so bad that their terrible starts haven’t hurt their chances of winning their divisions all that much. If either team can put together a winning streak they’ll be right back at the top of their respective divisions.

Another team that you can file under disappointing is the San Diego Padres. Believe it or not San Diego actually finds itself in 4th place in the N.L. West. San Diego is 4 games under .500 at 24-28 and 7 1/2 games behind the 1st place Dodgers. It was hoped that the return of Fernando Tattis Jr. would help the Padres go on a run and while Tatis Jr. has hit 9 home runs so far this season his batting average is .254 and he’s struck out 28 times in the 32 games he’s played in. Manny Machado had also struggled this season before getting hurt. Don’t forget that Machado finished second in the voting for National League Most Valuable Player last season, so his struggles and then his injury are a big concern for the Padres. Unlike the White Sox and the Cardinals, the Padres don’t have the luxury of being in a weak division and they’ll will probably find it hard to catch the Dodgers.

You can probably throw the Philadelphia Phillies into the disappointment pile, but they have taken two straight from the 1st place Braves and are now just two games under .500 at 25-27. Philadelphia is 6 games behind the Braves in the division but are just two games out of what would be a wild card spot. Don’t forget that just last season the Phillies went to the World Series as a wild card team. With Bryce Harper back in the lineup and as he gets more acclimated to either returning to the outfield or playing 1st base it will give Philadelphia some flexibility with their lineup.

Let me know if there’s a team that you’re either surprised by the way they’ve played so far or if there’s a team that you’re disappointing in. Obviously, it’s just coming up and June and there’s still a lot of baseball to play but remember with the now even scheduling teams won’t have those extra games against the other teams in their division to help them make up games.

Now we’ve seen some players move though either being released or just signed as a free agent, but you have to wonder when will really start hearing those trade market rumors. There are always some kind of trade rumors out there, but generally really early in the season it’s just sportswriters looking to fill column space. As we get closer to June and then of course into July the trade market should really heat up and some of those teams that we talked about as being disappointing might have to decide if they’ll be sellers on the trade market.

Of course, the one name that’s going to be talked about over and over and over again is going to be Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels. Ohtani is in the last year of his contract with the Angels, and it seems as though he’d like to try his luck on the free agent market after the season were people think he could get up to $500 million dollars.

The Angels have played well this season and are currently 28-24 which puts them in 3rd place in the A.L. West 5 games behind the division leading Rangers. The Angels wouldn’t make the wild card round either as they are two games behind the Yankees who currently hold that last wild card spot.

The Angels will have a difficult decision to make if they don’t stay in the playoff race. Do they trade Ohtani to a contender and get however many prospects they can or do they ride it out with him and possibly watch him walk away as a free agent and get nothing for him in return.

August 1st is the trade deadline in baseball, so the Angels have two months to find out if they’re contenders or not. Don’t forget that August 1st is a hard trade deadline and there is no longer a waiver process for teams to make trades after that. Of course, there are still ways for players to change teams as there are loopholes to that trade deadline, but a player like Ohtani wouldn’t slip through like that.

So, what do you see the Angels doing with Ohtani. Will he be traded? Or will they hang onto him and take their chances trying to re-sign him?

Don’t forget to look for me on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.