It's Memorial Day, so you know what that means, MLB fans. You are officially free to look at the standings and give credence to what you see!

Among baseball fans, the saying goes that you should avoid checking the standings until Memorial Day because by that point teams have finally played enough games through two months to add meaning to what we're seeing play out in every division.

Though your team's position in the standings today doesn't guarantee it will end the season there, there is something to the concept: According to Elias Sports Bureau data, 59% of teams (99 of 167) that were in sole possession of first place on the morning of June 1 have gone on to win their division in the wild-card era (since 1995, excluding 2020).

We asked ESPN MLB experts Jesse Rogers, Bradford Doolittle, Buster Olney and David Schoenfield to look at this year's standings and weigh in on what stands out most.

What's the first thing that jumps out to you when you look at the standings?

Doolittle: I'm not sure "jump" is the right verb when referring to the 2025 Colorado Rockies, but the level of depravity at the bottom of the National League West is hard to look away from. Where do you start? They are minus-171 in run differential. They are on pace to finish more than 50 games back of the fourth-place team in their division. They've given up nearly two runs for every one they've scored. But the most stunning stat of all: The Rockies rank 10th in per-game home attendance, though they're last in their division in that area as well.

Schoenfield: The Rockies are so bad, they make the 2024 Chicago White Sox look like the 1998 New York Yankees. They're like the ending to "Game of Thrones." Like Shaquille O'Neal shooting free throws. To be fair, though, they're better than the 1899 Cleveland Spiders -- who hold the worst single-season record in MLB history, finishing at 20-134.

Olney: The parity of the American League, which is affirmed by the playoff odds presented on FanGraphs.com: As of Monday morning, 11 of 15 teams have at least a 20% chance of reaching the postseason. That means we really don't know anything yet about the AL, other than how good the Detroit Tigers are and that only four games separate four teams at the top of the AL West. If there are few pre-deadline trades in late July, this will be the primary reason: AL owners of middling teams will convince themselves (and rightly so) that they have a chance and won't deal talent.

Rogers: Seeing the Baltimore Orioles in last place in the AL East. Even if you didn't think they did enough in the offseason, their offense alone should have kept them afloat. In that vein, the lack of productivity from Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman is quite shocking. The concept of the Orioles trading away players at the deadline was farfetched in January; now, it's a reality.