Welcome to Rates and barrels. It's Tuesday, July 1st. Derek Van Riper, Ino Seris here with you on this episode. We take a look at the division leaders in the National League.

We'll talk about some strengths and weaknesses, what those teams will need to do to hold their position

atop their respective divisions and types of upgrades they might be considering as the trade deadline approaches at the end of the month.

We're also going to check in on the Nationals rebuild because things are not going

quite as well as they could in D.C. even though they've returned a ton of Major League talent

from that Juan Soto trade with the Padres three years ago. Hard to believe that was three

years ago already. But as we keep saying, time is flying seemingly faster than ever.

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Eno, let's get started in the NL East.

Philly is currently at Top Division, and of course the question on the cry on is, will they stay there?

The question really we're going to ask about all the division leaders, but this Phillies team is a little bit different than what I expected.

They're tied for 8th in Wobah.

They're only 16th in homers.

I know Bryce Harper's been banged up, so that's part of why they're lagging in that department.

11th in run scored.

The strength is clearly with the starting pitching.

First in strikeout minus walk percentage with their group of starters, 19.2%.

They're tied for first in starter ERA.

Obviously a first in F-4 by a healthy margin, by multiple wins.

So everything is going really well with that part of the roster, despite an ERA over six from Aaronnola in the nine starts he made before going on the IL.

A familiar problem, though, with this Philly's team, the bullpen just isn't good, right?

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