The Pulse: Wait, *who* has the best record in baseball? (2024)

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Good morning! Please don’t try to smell like mayonnaise around me.

Resets: Yes, the Guardians are this good

The Olympic haze has officially passed. Did you know we have just two months of baseball left? It’s time to reset the table. And we should start with the biggest surprise of all: the Cleveland Guardians.

The Guardians — not the Dodgers, Yankees, Orioles or Phillies — are MLB’s best team through 120 games.It’s not hyperbole to say zero people expected this coming into the year. Advanced projection models like PECOTA and ZiPS liked Cleveland coming into the season, but still saw a finish right above .500.

Cleveland sits 22 games above .500 right now. How did this even happen?Zack Meiselwrote a great featurethis morning about that exact question, and I want to highlight two points:

• It is almost shocking to see a team with a new manager (Stephen Vogt) play so well — especially a team that bid goodbye last season to the legendary Terry Francona. This crew won 76 games last year, and instead of falling into an inexperience trap, they’ve simply overprepared for every game. Being honest with yourself is a good thing, I guess.
• The bullpen has been this team’s savior.Guardians relievers lead the majors with a 2.76 ERA, and as Zack detailed, it may be the biggest surprise about this surprising team. Even if you account for advanced stats like xFIP, the Guardians have the best bullpen in baseball by a significant margin.

Read Zack’s full story, which is worth your time, particularly for the clubhouse anecdotes. I always love when a team is winning while being able to have fun, instead of the classic story about a coach coming in and removing all the ping-pong tables to let the team know things are Serious now.

Anyway. Let’s just recap where we are in the standings right now:

• AL division leaders: Yankees, Guardians, Astros
• In contention: Orioles, Twins, Royals, Red Sox, Mariners
• NL Division leaders: Phillies, Brewers, Dodgers
• In playoff contention: Diamondbacks, Padres, Braves, Mets, Giants, Cardinals, Reds, Cubs

See the full standings here. A fascinating thing to watch, as Levi Weaver highlighted in The Windup yesterday: All four NL West teams could make the playoffs this year, which would be an MLB first.

News to Know

McCarthy to have surgery
Vikings rookie QB J.J. McCarthyneeds surgery to repaira torn meniscus in his knee, Minnesota coach Kevin O’Connell announced yesterday, a day after McCarthy reported soreness. It’s a bummer for Minnesota, which had high hopes for the first-year signal caller despite having Sam Darnold ahead of him on the depth chart. There’s no timetable yet for McCarthy’s return but, as Alec Lewis wrote, this delaymay not be the worst thingfor the No. 10 pick — or for the Vikings.

Add Chase to the hold-in list
Bengals star wideout Ja’Marr Chase was absent from practice yesterday as the 24-year-old negotiates a long-term deal with the team, something Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor called “day to day.” Chase has been with the team throughout training camp, watching practice every day until his absence yesterday.Expect this negotiation to last until the end of camp.

Will Levis, big mayonnaise guy
Titans quarterback Will Levis is partnering with Hellman’s Mayonnaise to produce a … mayonnaise-inspired fragrance, aptly titled “Will Levis No. 8, Parfum de Mayonnaise,” which is apparently a real thing you can purchase. Levis infamously said in college that he adds mayo to his coffee sometimes. It’s just a lot.Read more about the mayo man here.

More news

• Police arrested Browns rookie Mike Hall Jr. following an alleged domestic dispute Monday night.
  
• Former Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh was supposed to serve as honorary captain for the Wolverines’ season opener against Fresno State, but canceled yesterday. Hm.
  
• Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez reportedly broke the Rays’ scoreboard with a batting practice home run. I wonder who pays for that.
  

(Top photo: Scott Taetsch / Getty Images)

Chris Branch is a staff writer for The Athletic's daily newsletter. Before joining The Athletic, he covered the Phillies for The News-Journal and worked as a content strategist for various industries. He graduated from LSU, where he worked for The Daily Reveille. Follow Chris on Twitter @cbranch89