10 Biggest Takeaways from Week 16's MLB Action

As much as it may seem like the past week was full of nothing but trade rumors, I bring glad tidings. There was actual baseball played in this, the 16th week of the 2015 MLB season!

If you missed any of it, you've come to the right place. We're going to celebrate MLB's Sweet 16th by doing what we always do: recapping and reflecting.

Ahead of you is a list of the 10 biggest takeaways from the week that was. This week, the list includes a handful of standout performances, as well as a couple of teams that are looking good and a couple that are looking decidedly not good.

We'll go in order from least interesting to most interesting. Step into the box whenever you're ready.

10. Joey Votto Is Locked in Like, Well, Joey Votto

Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Things aren't all happiness and sunshine in Cincinnati these days, as there's an awful lot of distance between the Reds and the top of the NL Central. In a related story, word is the white flag has gone up.

But hey, at least they have Joey Votto.

The veteran first baseman has been having a good season all along, but he's been flat ridiculous this week. In five games, Votto has hit .526 with a pair of homers and six walks on the side. A good chunk of that came in a Wednesday doubleheader against the Chicago Cubs, in which he reached base nine times.

So it goes for Votto thus far in the second half, as he's now hitting .548/.641/.903 through eight games following the break. And if you ask Reds skipper Bryan Price, he'll say those numbers might actually undersell how locked in Votto is right now.

"Even his outs right now are hard line drives all over the field," said Price, via Mark Sheldon of MLB.com.

It's a shame that Votto's hot hitting is being wasted on a Reds team that's going nowhere. But given that this hot stretch has boosted his overall average to .302 and his OPS to .938, what he's doing now is at least a reminder that he's not done being himself. After an off year in 2014, he's been in 2015 what he was between 2009 and 2013: one of the best hitters in baseball.

9. The Savior Known as Kyle Schwarber

When the Cubs decided to call up top prospect Kyle Schwarber at the start of the second half, there was a glimmer of hope that he would be just what their sagging offense needed.

Well, he hasn't solved everything just yet, but let's give him this much credit: He's doing his damndest.

After impressing in a six-game major league look-see back in June, Schwarber kicked off his second go-round in the majors with a three-hit game back on July 17. More recently, this week has seen him hit .411 and pretty much single-handedly win a game for the Cubs in Cincinnati.

In Tuesday's 5-4 win over the Reds, Schwarber enjoyed a 4-for-7 day that included a game-tying two-run dinger in the ninth inning and a go-ahead solo dinger in the 13th inning. Just like that, Baseball America's No. 6 overall prospect became Public Enemy No. 1 in Cincinnati.

From the looks of things, the Reds won't be the last team to feel Schwarber's wrath. Though he's only played 14 games with the Cubs, the 1.126 OPS he has at the major league level is very much in line with the 1.042 OPS he's authored in his minor league career. These numbers speak to a legit ability to rake. 

And down the stretch, that figures to be quite the difference-maker for a Cubs team that has its eyes on October.

8. Albert Pujols Doesn't Want to Stop Hitting Dingers

Round up a list of the big surprises of the first half of 2015, and somewhere on there has to be Albert Pujols. After looking very little like his prime self in 2013 and 2014, he looked a lot like his prime self in the process of hitting 26 home runs and racking up an .855 OPS.

And based on recent events, it doesn't look like Pujols wants the good times to stop rolling just yet.

In a Monday doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox, the Los Angeles Angels' veteran first baseman went deep not once, not twice but thrice. The three-homer outburst pushed his season total to 29—that ties him with teammate Mike Trout for the MLB lead—and his career total to 549. He's now all alone in 15th place on the all-time list.

It all looks good when viewed from a wide perspective, but what's really astonishing is how 21 of Pujols' 29 dingers this season have come in just his last 49 games. And as we discussed in detail earlier this week, in this span he's indeed looked a lot like his younger self.

Given that Pujols is 35 years old, there's a decent chance this surge won't last. Nonetheless, we should enjoy it while it lasts. As Grantland's Michael Baumann put it, Pujols is "reminding us that this creaky old man who makes too much money used to be, by far, the best baseball player in the world."

Yes indeed. And it's a hell of a sight.

7. The Red Sox Are Screwed

Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

If you really strain yourself, you'll be able to remember that things were looking up for the Boston Red Sox not too long ago. After struggling for most of the first half, they ripped off eight wins in 10 games to push their record to 41-45 heading into their final series before the break.

But since then...uh, yeah. I'm trying to think of a better word than "splat."

The Red Sox ended up losing two out of three to the New York Yankees in that final first-half series and have come out of the All-Star break looking about as helpless as the Washington Generals. Before they finally got off the schneid with a win against the Detroit Tigers on Friday night, their second half had consisted of a seven-game losing streak in which they got outscored 39-13. 

So, then. Fork, meet Red Sox.

With their record at 43-54, the Red Sox's shot at the 2015 postseason has more or less officially come and gone. That's bad enough. But what makes things even worse is that they probably won't even make the best of the bad situation.

Normally, bad teams go into sell mode at the trade deadline and at least manage to salvage some hope for the future. But with Clay Buchholz badly hurt and free-agents-to-be Shane Victorino, Mike Napoli and Justin Masterson all having lost seasons, the Red Sox are lacking in good items to sell. 

The Red Sox were the best team in baseball as recently in 2013. Now, they're not even good at being bad.

6. The Diamondbacks Just Can't Stop Being Tough Guys

Gone from Arizona are Kevin Towers and Kirk Gibson, and that was supposed to be for the best. Their obsession with grit, however, apparently lives on.

As you can see above, a scary scene unfolded in the sixth inning of Wednesday's game between the Diamondbacks and Miami Marlins. Miami ace Jose Fernandez let slip a 97 mph fastball that caught Arizona outfielder David Peralta up around his head, sending him sprawling to the deck.

From Fernandez's reaction, though, it was clear that the pitch had been an accident. If the D-Backs had decided to follow common sense, they would have kept their hand off the escalation button.

But yeah. That's just not how the Diamondbacks operate.

You could see it coming as soon as some members of the Diamondbacks started chirping at Fernandez from the dugout as he approached Peralta with his hands on his head. And in the seventh inning, it came: Dominic Leone took the mound and buried a heater right in Christian Yelich's backside. 

Say it with me now: sigh...

Look, the D-Backs aren't the first team to slavishly adhere to the unwritten rules of the game by retaliating for one hit batsman with another hit batsman. They won't be the last either.

But firing a retaliatory beanball in response to an accidental beanball? That's about as bush league as it gets, and Wednesday's situation didn't see the D-Backs help their reputation in that department. What happened was no different from when they responded last August to Paul Goldschmidt getting hurt by an accidental beanball by hurting Andrew McCutchen with a totally-on-purpose beanball.

When Towers and Gibson got the boot at the end of 2014, one hoped that jackassery like that was in the past for good. But it seems that when it's disguised as grit, jackassery dies a slow death.

5. The Giants Mean to Give the Dodgers a Fight

Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Just before the All-Star break, the San Francisco Giants were drifting toward irrelevance in the NL West. The low point came on July 6, when they dropped to 42-42 and five games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The way they're going now, however, that seems like ages ago.

All of a sudden, the defending champs are on fire. They've won six out of seven coming out of the All-Star break and 10 out of 12 overall. They're up to 52-44 on the season and just 2.5 games back of the Dodgers now.

It will be no easy task for the Giants to actually catch up to the Dodgers, but the one thing they have going for them now is that they're as complete as they've been all season. Matt Cain, Jake Peavy and Tim Hudson are all healthy, giving the Giants pitching options galore. When Nori Aoki returns from a leg fracture, the lineup will be intact for the first time in months. 

Another thing the Giants have going for them: Buster Posey is doing his Buster Posey thing again. He's hitting .432 over his last 21 games, and he now boasts numbers that Chris Haft of MLB.com correctly notes put him in the National League MVP race.

Somebody must have told the Giants it's an even year. Either that, or they've simply grown tired of that cliche.

4. The Yankees Have Begun Putting the AL East Away

Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports

We said it all winter, and we've been saying it for most of the season: The AL East is anyone's race.

Well, we can probably stop saying that now. The New York Yankees appear to have it well in hand.

They have had their ups and downs this season, but it's been all ups in recent days. They've won five out of seven coming out of the All-Star break and nine out of 12 overall. With nobody else in the AL East playing well at the same time, this has allowed the Yankees to push their lead to 5.5 games.

And now, they have everything they need to hold onto that lead.

The Yankees' recent surge is partially owed to Ivan Nova and Andrew Miller returning from the disabled list to deepen the club's pitching staff. Jacoby Ellsbury also returned from injury recently, and he's now part of a lineup that's been clicking from top to bottom over the last month.

As skipper Joe Girardi said this week, via Grace Raynor and Alden Woods of MLB.com: "We've got all of our pieces back, and I think that's helping out."

What will also help out is the upcoming schedule. After this weekend's three-game series against the Minnesota Twins, the Yankees will play 10 games against the Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox. 

They're already pulling away in the AL East now. That could be a stretch where they put it to bed.

3. The Astros Are Coming for You, October

Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Not unlike the Giants, there was a point toward the end of the first half when the Houston Astros appeared to be in trouble. They went into the break as losers of eight out of nine, a stretch that knocked them from first place in the AL West.

Well, now look at them.

The Astros have come out of the break looking like they're very much intent on finishing what they started in the first half, winning six out of their first seven post-break games. To add to the fun, they went out and acquired ace left-hander Scott Kazmir, who liked what he saw even before he suited up.

"We have every tool you can imagine," Kazmir said, via Chandler Rome of MLB.com. "We have the speed, we have the pitching, the offense is there. It's an exciting team to watch. I'm excited to be a part of it."

If his first start for the Astros is any indication, he's going to be a big part of it. In a 4-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Friday night, he fired seven innings of shutout ball to lower his ERA to 2.24.

At times, it's seemed too good to be true that an Astros team of four straight 90-plus-loss seasons could make it to October in 2015. But now they once again find themselves playing like a team that means to get there, and they have the pieces to finish the job.

There is, however, one complication...

2. The Angels Will Be Very Hard to Track Down

Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

Yeah, things in Houston are pretty good these days. But in Anaheim, things are just a tiny bit better.

Though the Astros have caught the Angels in the AL West standings, the Angels' recent play suggests that staying caught up won't be easy. In winning six of their eight games following the break, they've now won 17 of their last 22 games. 

What's been going right? Pretty much everything.

After struggling in the early portion of the season, the Angels offense has really come alive over the last month. Mike Trout and Albert Pujols have been supplying the power, while Kole Calhoun, Erick Aybar, Chris Iannetta and C.J. Cron have heated up as well.

Meanwhile, the Angels are also pitching well. They went into Friday's action with a league-best 2.23 ERA over the last 30 days, mainly thanks to the fact they have four hot starters in Garrett Richards, Hector Santiago, C.J. Wilson and Andrew Heaney. And with Jered Weaver due to return from an injured hip in the near future, the pitching staff is only going to get deeper.

"It'll be a nice problem when Jered's ready to go and we have more depth established in our rotation," skipper Mike Scioscia told Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com. "If you have six guys throwing the ball well out of rotation and you have to pick five, that's a nice position to be in."

There's no arguing that. There's also no arguing that, with the way they're going, it's going to be tough for anyone to clip these Angels' wings.

1. Clayton Kershaw Is Going Full Clayton Kershaw

Hey, remember when we were all worried about Clayton Kershaw? You know, right around the time his ERA stood at 4.32 after nine starts?

Heh. Of all the things to be worried about...Kershaw? What jokers we were. 

His latest effort saw him take a perfect game into the seventh inning against the New York Mets on Thursday and ultimately finish with a three-hit, 11-strikeout, no-walk shutout. With that in the books, he's now allowed no runs while striking out 38 and walking none over 26 innings in his last three starts. Per ESPN Stats and Information, he's on a streak the likes of which hasn't been seen in more than 100 years.

So yeah, Kershaw is hot at the moment. And not just over his last three starts, either. In 11 starts since his ERA stood at 4.32, h has posted a 1.21 ERA with 112 strikeouts and just 11 walks.

The difference? It sure looks like Kershaw has found his excellent slider again. Per Brooks Baseball, its whiff rate has skyrocketed over the last two months. Add that to his excellent fastball, his excellent curveball and his excellent command, and those numbers up there make a lot of sense.

In all, the guy with the reputation of being the best pitcher in baseball has been, shocker, the best pitcher in baseball.

Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.