EDITOR’S NOTE: Boyd Bergquist was the sports director at KETS-TV in East Tree Stump, Nebraska for almost 40 years.  Known across the Husker state as the voice of the Boy’s High School Basketball Tournament, Bergquist was a four-time winner of the Marv J. Butz “Golden Cob” Award For Excellence In Nebraska Broadcast Journalism. That background, along with his quick if not cliché-riddled wit and love of single-malt scotch makes Bergquist a perfect fit to be our “Question” guy.

Baseball season is like a long horse race, which is why I like to break it down into four parts.  We’ve already seen the start. Later in the season there’s Independence Day which marks the half-way point. Then there’s Labor Day which is all about heading into the home stretch.  But today is all about Memorial Day, which marks the “quarter turn.”

What happens today is we look at my initial categorizations of all 30 major-league baseball teams and compare that to where they are a quarter of the way into this long race.

If you recall, I’m not about the usual “power ranking” stuff.  Instead, I’ started this season by breaking down all 30 major league squads into six easy-to-understand groups based on what I thought these teams could realistically expect in 2025. Those original six categories were as follows.

• Ready To Win Right Now: These are teams which are ready to climb the mountain right now…no ifs, ands or buts.
• There’s Just One Thing Missing: Did you ever almost complete a jigsaw puzzle, but the three pieces you have remaining don’t fit the holes you have left? Welcome to the stories of these teams.
• Need Some Things To Go Their Way: Welcome to a collection of clubs who almost have the goods to win on their own; but anything is possible if they get more than one “lucky break.”
• At Least They Don’t Suck: Do I really need to explain this one?
• Why Wait For Next Year? One way or another, these teams need to make a decision about the future.
• It’s Going To Be A Long Summer: Everybody has hope on Opening Day, but some lose it far faster than others.

Now that the race is underway, at the “quarter turn” I now have six new categories which again should be fairly self-explanatory.

Just As I Expected

Detroit Tigers

Original Rating: Ready To Win Right Now: Not to say “I Told You So,” but… Tarik Skubal is coming off a streak of seven starts in which he dished 50 Ks against 1 walk. Last year, Javy Baez looked like wasted money, then after hip surgery and a change in position…well, he finally looks like the Javy Baez who’s worth that stupidly-huge contract.

Chicago Cubs

Original Rating: Need Some Things To Go Their Way: The Cubs are the best team in baseball that nobody talks about as being great. There’s so much love for the likes of the Dodgers and the Yankees, and there’s a lot of folks heading for that Tigers’ bandwagon. But the Cubs are the only team that can say some interesting things at this point in the season.

Coming into the most recent complete week, the Cubs were the only team who can boast having multiple players in the top ten in home runs, stolen bases, total bases, runs batted in, and runs scored. Not to mention, the Cubs’ rotation has suffered injuries to Justin Steele, Javier Assad, and Shota Imanaga, plus Jamieson Taillon has been spotty at best. Despite that, Chicago has managed to stay in the top ten in team starter ERA, thanks largely to Matthew Boyd, Colin Rea…and the non-spotty Taillon.

This team is as good as anybody right now, and are likely to get better if they get/stay healthy.

Philadelphia Phillies

Original Rating: Ready To Win Right Now: The surge is on again in Philadelphia. After yet another slow start, the Phillies were struggling at .500 on April 25^th, then rattled off 11 wins in 14 games. A big part of that is Kyle Schwarber, who has been flirting with leading the bigs in dingers AND has dropped his monstrous strikeout rate from ~30% to ~%20.

See what happens when you put the ball in play?

San Diego Padres

Original Rating: Ready To Win Right Now: Stars are gonna star, and that’s exactly what’s happening with the Friars. Fernando Tatis, Jr., Manny Machado, and Jackson Merrill are raking as advertised, however that has to continue to make up for some serious holes in the bottom of that line-up.

This team is also streaky as hell as evidenced by a road trip to Coors Field in which they scored 34 runs, then couldn’t knock in that many in over a week. That amount of “up and down” combined with San Diego’s “star power” explains why they remain baseball’s best soap opera.

New York Yankees

Original Rating: There’s Just One Thing Missing: Aaron Judge’s batting average is heading for Ted Williams, and Max Fried’s ERA is plunging into Bob Gibson territory. But now third base is a hole, the offense is still largely Judge-dependent (see pretty much any October), and the pitching staff is still thin. At least they are in a division which will prove to be shit.

Off To A Great Start, But There’s A Lot of Season Left

Minnesota Twins

Original Rating: Why Wait For Next Year?: Besides being completely dependent on each other, what do the surging Minnesota Twins have in common with Byron Buxton? The question isn’t how they are doing it; it’s how long will it last?

The Twinkies spent the better part of the last three weeks looking like one of the best teams in the game, but the better minds know they’re not. Buxton is bound to get hurt and Ty France looks like what you get get when you think you’re getting a 40-HR slugger from Temu.

But the strength of this team is the rotation. Joe Ryan, Pablo López, and Bailey Ober have pitched like aces. Speaking of things that won’t last, even Chris Paddack is bringing it right now.

St. Louis Cardinals

Original Rating: Why Wait For Next Year?: Take everything I said about the Twins and apply it to the St. Louis Cardinals. Switch up the individual names to fit whatever narrative you’d care to build, the themes are the same; an overperforming offense, a pitching staff red-lining at maximum potential…and neither’s going to last.

New York Mets

Original Rating: Need Some Things To Go Their Way: Things have clearly gone their way; the Mets have one of the best records in the game, and they are in the thick of the NL playoff picture a quarter of the way in. But at some point, the Mets are gonna “Met”…they always do.

That’s why we always use this Greg Giannotti meme…because we always can. In 2025, will the point when things went all “Met-y” be Pete Alonzo’s newfound inability to throw the ball?

Seattle Mariners

Original Rating: Need Some Things To Go Their Way: Here’s another team with pitching staff depleted by injuries…which makes this another team asking the question “Can they get/stay healthy?” If not, nothing else matters.

San Francisco Giants

Original Rating: At Least They Don’t Suck: Another entrant in the “can’t last” category: Wilmer Flores in on a pace to drive in 148 runs in 2025. Let’s put that in perspective…the last Giant to have a 120+ RBI season was Barry Bonds in 2001. Wilmer Fucking Flores? Really?

So Far, So Good

Los Angeles Dodgers

Original Rating: Ready To Win Right Now: You can fawn over the line-up all you wan; what’s not to love about an offense built around Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman. and Mookie Betts? The main flaw of the Dodgers will continue to be the pitching staff looking like a mass-casualty event.

Oakland Las Vegas Sacramento U-Haul Athletics

Original Rating: At Least They Don’t Suck: On May 5^th, the U-Haul A’s were hauling ass at 20-16, just a single game out of first place. They’ve been ice-cold since then. The bottom line on the A’s is the have almost no pitching, they couldn’t catch a cold let alone a baseball, but that offense can bomb with anybody. But when the bats go to sleep, the Fightin’ U-Hauls can be a nightmare to watch.

Washington Nationals

Original Rating: It’s Going To Be A Long Summer: This is a team that flirted with .500 not long ago, and has every chance to end up right around there. That’s not bad for a team developing all the prospects it hauled in with it’s megadeals of a few years back (Juan Soto, Max Scherzer, Trea Turner, et al…). That’s really not bad considering the Nats are in a division with three payroll leviathans.

Cincinnati Reds

Original Rating: At Least They Don’t Suck: For a team that started the season with no illusions of grandeur, the Reds are exactly where they should be. In other words, they’re bobbing around .500 with absolutely no signs of consistency.

The weird thing about the Redlegs is they don’t win many close games. As the graph illustrates, when Cincinnati wins, they pour it on. But in games where the margin is two runs or less, the Reds tend to come up short.

Boston Red Sox

Original Rating: At Least They Don’t Suck: The Rafael Devers thing may very well be settled for now, but it’s emblematic of the general disorganization plaguing this franchise. This is why they won’t be relevant much longer.

It’s Not “Panic” Time…Yet

Atlanta Braves

Original Rating: There’s Just One Thing Missing: Yeah, they had a terrible start. Yeah, they’ve got injury problems. Yeah, sometimes manager Brian Snitker looks lost. This team will get healthy and be just fine. They just need not to get too far back of the pack in the NL East.

Texas Rangers

Original Rating: Need Some Things To Go Their Way: Here’s another team that stumbled out of the gate, but they’ve got their offensive woes figured out and Jacob DeGrom looks likes his old “ace” self. Like the Braves, as long as they stay close in a relatively weak AL West, anything is possible.

Houston Astros

Original Rating: There’s Just One Thing Missing: Like the other team in Texas, the Astros have had issues, but both Jose Altuve and Christian Walker certainly look to be rounding back into form. Getting Yordan Alvarez back along with Houston having one of the best bullpens in baseball means the Astros will figure in this division’s outcome and probably October’s as well.

Cleveland Guardians

Original Rating: There’s Just One Thing Missing: Emmanuel Clase is back to mowing down opponents after some early-season shoulder issues, the rotation is getting better, and Jose Ramirez is continuing his march to Cooperstown. The AL Central looks again to be a race right down to the wire, even if it’s a Wild Card race…largely because I was right about Detroit.

Kansas City Royals

Original Rating: At Least They Don’t Suck: This team really is a slightly better, American League version of the Cincinnati Reds. They’re every bit as much of a roller coaster, and they have just enough talent to be interesting. Perhaps Jonathan India brought Skyline Chili with him when he came over from from the Queen City.

Better Figure It Out Quick

Tampa Rays

Original Rating: Why Wait For Next Year?: Who would have thought when you move a team into a minor-league ballpark they would start to hit like minor-leaguers? Out of the “usual” starting 9, the Rays have exactly one guy with more than 120 plate appearances hitting better than .250. That means Tampa isn’t staying in the picture much longer. It’s already starting to look like the Rays need to win the AL East if they want to see October…and that just isn’t happening.

Arizona Diamondbacks

Original Rating: Ready To Win To Win Right Now: With their ability to pour on runs and their awful pitching, the Snakes manage to win only because they can fill the bucker faster than it leaks. Maybe it’s just me, but that doesn’t sound like an effective strategy.

Milwaukee Brewers

Original Rating: Why Wait For Next Year?: By August, the sausage race might be the only thing left worth watching in Milwaukee. Christian Yelich is striking out way too much and Jackson Chourio has flashes of brilliance which aren’t nearly long or often enough. They might as well let the sausages play because without those two guys producing, the Brewers will be buying six-packs watching October baseball.

Baltimore Orioles

Original Rating: There’s Just One Thing Missing: I knew going in pitching would be a problem for the Birds. But I had no idea how much crow I was gong to eat, because I also said this:

“No matter what, Baltimore will remain as a major player in the October Derby.”

So many things have gone wrong for this team the only reason they aren’t in the “Not Too Early To Say It’s Over” category is that lineup can out-hit the pitching shortcomings. If that ever happens and the Yankees completely implode…who knows?

It’s Not Too Early To Say It’s Over

Miami Marlins

Original Rating: It’s Going To Be A Long Summer: Start the “How long before they deal him?” clock on Kyle Stowers. As of Sunday, he was good for 10 dingers and 31 RBI, while slashing 309/.349/.543. Here’s the best part: the Fish scored the former second-rounder as part of an off-season deal with Baltimore. As completely dependent on offense as the O’s are, do you think they could use him now?

Los Angeles Angels

Original Rating: It’s Going To Be A Long Summer: I swear to God, if there was a team that embodied the movie Groundhog Day, it would be the Angels. It’s yet another year in the Arte Moreno era in which the Halos spent on the cheap, generally on the wrong people, and…by the way…Mike Trout is hurt again. That’s why like the Mets, the Angels have a graphic we will use every time, because tariffs have nothing to do with why your Temu order isn’t coming.

Chicago White Sox

Original Rating: It’s Going To Be A Long Summer: Speaking of God, how bad are things on the south side of Chicago? The Mighty Whiteys were historically awful last year, and apparently it takes divine intervention to keep them from repeating as the worst team in baseball.

Colorado Rockies

Original Rating: It’s Going To Be A Long Summer: Bad baseball is usually a victimless crime…unless you’re Clint Hurdle. When the 7-33 Rockies fired manager Bud Black, hitting coach Clint Hurdle was named interim bench coach. The last time Colorado fired a manager in the middle of a shitty season, it was 2009 and the guy who got the axe? Clint Hurdle.

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