- Chicago Dogs (11-4, 1st in East)
The Dogs made the long trip to Cleburne this week and spoiled the Railroaders’ home-opening series, winning the first five games of the six-game set before coming up just short of a sweep on Sunday. Now holding the league’s best record, Chicago is 8-2 in its last 10 games and is clicking offensively, scoring 51 total runs across the six-game set. Josh Altmann continues to mash early on in this season, hitting .429 with a league-leading seven home runs, 24 hits and a 1.468 OPS.
- Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks (9-6, 2nd in West)
It was a good week for the reigning champs as they took home two series victories on the road in Lincoln and in the Miles Wolff Cup Final rematch in Milwaukee. Arguably the highlight of the week for Fargo-Moorhead was Friday night in Milwaukee, where Correlle Prime took the mound against his former team and tossed five no-hit innings with three strikeouts en route to a 6-4 win for the RedHawks. While the RedHawks are still in the middle of the pack in terms of most team stats, they have been the most solid team on the defensive side, making just five errors on the season thus far, helping them win a lot of the close games they’ve had as of late.
- Sioux City Explorers (10-6, 1st in West)
It was a bit of a rough patch for the Explorers this week, losing back-to-back series on the road in Sioux Falls and at home against Lincoln after their 8-1 start to the season. However, the Explorers have shown some positive trends offensively while continuing their very strong start as a pitching staff with the league’s second-best ERA at 3.42. The Explorers scored nine runs or more in three of their six games this week, including 16- and 17-run outbursts.
- Gary SouthShore RailCats (10-7, T-2nd in East)
The RailCats are coming off their first series loss of the season at home against Kane County, but were able to salvage the final game as well as take two of three on the road in Lake Country earlier in the week. Gary continues to be one of the more well-balanced teams in the league, sitting fourth in team batting average at a .268 clip and tied for fourth in team ERA at 3.99. They don’t hit a lot of home runs, just eight on the season, but the duo of LG Castillo and Francisco Del Valle has been a strong run-producing pair, while on the pitching side, Cole Erwin has been phenomenal with a 2.51 ERA through three starts.
- Kansas City Monarchs (8-8, 4th in West)
A rare absence from this list in the opening week, the Monarchs have begun to display the strong talent they have on their roster, winning three series in a row including a sweep of Sioux Falls, two of three against Milwaukee and two of three on the road in Lake Country. Offensively this team has shined as of late, tied for second in the league with a .281 team average and third with 16 home runs. A lot of the credit there belongs to Chris Hermann, the league’s batting average leader at a whopping .444 clip to go along with six home runs, 20 RBI and a 1.378 OPS.
