The All-Star break is le s than a month away and the chaos of the trade deadline is only five weeks away. I know it feels like the 2021 MLB season is just getting started, but we're in the thick of it now. Teams are Rashad Weaver Jersey coming up on their 81st game and soon the postseason races will intensify. I can't wait. Our weekly series examining various trends acro s the league continues with a look at a pitcher with a new pitch, a great hitter's under-the-radar improvement, and a historic losing streak. . CHC SP Steve Cohen's occupy first place in the NL East and not because of their offense. The Mets are averaging only 3.62 runs per game, second fewest in baseball, and they've scored five or more runs only 20 times in 68 games. That is easily the fewest in baseball. Despite the names on the roster, the Mets have been a weak offensive club in 2021. The pitching, however, has been dynamite. The Mets have a team 3.11 ERA, second lowest in baseball, and they've allowed only 3.38 runs per game. That's the fewest in baseball. A greatly improved team defense is certainly part of that. The Mets were among the worst teams in baseball with minus-21 defensive runs saved last year. This season they're among the best at plus-28. Right-hander is a significant component of the dynamite pitching staff. Stroman opted out of the 2020 season amid the pandemic, and has returned to pitch at an ace-level this season. A hip i sue forced him out of Tuesday night's game after one inning, which is a bummer, but Stroman has a 2.32 ERA in 15 starts and 85 1/3 innings this season.Throughout his career Stroman has succeeded with a deep arsenal that generates ground balls aplenty. He throws sinkers and cutters, sliders and curveballs, and every so Tennessee Titans Pet Gear often a changeup. This season, he's added a new splitter (technically it's a split-changeup grip) thanks to teammate , who taught him the pitch when they rehabbed injuries together last year. : In two innings, Stroman threw more than a half-dozen split changeups -- a pitch he learned from Robert Gsellman when both were rehabbing injuries in Brooklyn last summer. The pitch gives Stroman, who has generally relied on fastballs, sinkers and sliders throughout his career, an added dimension to his repertoire. "Man, I love it," Stroman said. "That's a new pitch for me. I'm still getting comfortable with it, but to see the results today, it's extremely encouraging." Already Stroman has thrown more split-changeups this season (172 in 85 1/3 innings) than changeups during the 2019 season (162 in 184 1/3 innings). He's gaining confidence in the pitch too. Stroman is using the split-changeup more and more as we get deeper into the season: The pitch has been very effective too. Opponents are hitting only .182 with a .250 slugging percentage against the split-change, and they're mi sing with 40.0 percent of their swings. The averages for splitters and changeups are a .228 batting average and a .368 slugging percentage, with mi ses on 31.0 percent of swings. The pitch is already well-above-average. In this era of huge strikeout totals, Stroman is an outlier because his strikeout rate is roughly league average, yet he gets a lot of ground balls and a lot of easy pop-ups. His pitches work together in a way that get him a first or second pitch ground out seemingly every inning, allowing Stroman to average over six innings per start (prior to Tuesday's injury-shortened one-inning start) despite not throwing more than 98 pitches in a game yet this year. The split-changeup fits well with his sinker and cutter and gives Stroman yet another weapon. A weapon he feels confident in, and that part is important. A five-pitch pitcher isn't really a five-pitch pitcher if he doesn't have confidence in his fifth pitch. Stroman seems to love the splitter, and now he can ambush hitters even more with a deep arsenal of pitches that move all over the place. "You never know until you throw it against hitters," . "It can feel filthy, it can feel nasty, it can feel like the best pitch ever. But until you actually get out there and throw it in a game, and see how hitters react to it, I feel like you can' Tennessee Titans Home Office t actually consider that pitch a weapon ... I feel like it's a weapon." TOR 1B #27 Jr.'s breakout season has arrived. The wunderkind has authored a .340/.441/.668 batting line through 71 games and leads baseball with 4.1 FanGraphs WAR. Guerrero is as talented as anyone in the game, and yet he needed a good 700 plate appearances to find his footing at the big-league level. Good reminder that development is not linear. Guerrero's improved plate discipline (which was already good to start with) and launch angle have fueled his breakout, but there is another aspect of his game that has improved immensely: base-running. To be sure, Vlad Jr. is no speedster, but he's gone from a well-below-average runner (a baseclogger in old school baseball jargon) to a solid contributor Nick Dzubnar Jersey . Here are some before and after numbers: 2019-202021Extra-base taken rate 35 percent 38 percent Sprint speed 25.8 ft/s 27.0 ft/s FanGraphs baserunning minus-7.5 runs plus-0.3 runs The MLB average sprint speed is 27 feet per second, so Guerrero is an average runner now, and he's taking the extra base (first to third on a single, etc.) a little more often. FanGraphs' all-encompa sing base-running stat covers everything from stealing bases to advancing on ground balls to moving up on wild pitches, and Guerrero had gone from comfortably below-average to average. Going from horrible to just average is a significant improvement, and a lot of this can be explained by simple experience. Guerrero is in his third year as a big leaguer now and he's growing more comfortable and more confident. The same way a hitter or a pitcher can get better with experience, a base-runner can as well. That's part of it. Also, , and said he feels "quicker, strong, and more athletic." Most spring training "best shape of his life" stories are nothing. Just stories to pa s the time. In Guerrero's case, the weight lo s is noticeable, and yes, lose that much weight and you're going to be a better runner. The weight lo s has undoubtedly contributed to his base-running. Guerrero is and always will be a bat-first player. He is a generational talent at the plate, and you'll live with any defensive and base-running shortcomings to get that bat. In this case though, Guerrero has improved his base-running. He's not a game-changer on the bases, Breon Borders Jersey but he's not longer actively hurting his team with his base-running either. There's real value added. Monday night, the snapped a miserable 17-game losing streak that dated back to June 2. , but the 17-game overall losing streak is over. At one point Arizona was 15-13 with a plus-6 run differential. Now they're on pace to lose over 115 games. Going 6-41 -- 6-41! -- in your last 47 games will do that. It's the worst 47-game stretch since at leas