On June 10th and 11th, an incredibly abbreviated MLB Draft took place. There were no baseball games played of course, as America finds itself three months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Talks of a deal between owners and players have stalled in the meantime, and it is unclear if a season will happen at all. But the advent of the Draft was a chance for the league to lick its wounds and focus on the young stars of the future who would sign with their teams and kick off their MLB careers.
Well, it certainly was a draft. The Tigers took Spencer Torkelson first overall out of Arizona State, the Orioles ambitiously selected Heston Kjerstad second overall out of Arkansas, and second-ranked draft prospect Austin Martin fell all the way to fifth overall, where he was selected by the Blue Jays. The Houston Astros were conspicuously absent. It seemed like a normal draft, with storylines and interviews and player comps galore. But it was not a normal draft. One key reason why was the length of the event. The MLB draft is notorious for its length. A 40-round affair that was shortened from a whopping 50 rounds in 2012, it is a marathon that tests the patience and attention span of any prospect fanatic. However, this year, the Draft was cut to a meager 5 rounds, shorter than the NFL and NHL Drafts, and only three rounds longer than the notoriously small NBA Draft. It's hard to believe. Thirty-five rounds, axed just like that. This was supposedly done to allow teams to sign an unlimited number of undrafted free agents for $20,000 per organization. But how many undrafted free agents are there going to be? Would it not be more likely that these undrafted players return to playing at the collegiate level for the chance to actually be drafted in a still-shortened-but-significantly longer 2021 Draft? (That Draft will have 20 rounds.) And indeed, news on undrafted free agents has been slow a few days after the Draft's conclusion. Just two players, Francisco Urbaez of Florida Atlantic University (signed by CIN) and Carson Coleman of Kentucky (signed by NYY) have reached agreements with teams so far. It will be difficult to track just how many of these undrafted players sign, but it's unlikely to be anywhere near the number the league was probably expecting when they brutally stunted the 2020 Draft. Beyond that, plenty of players will fall through the cracks as a result of this shortened deal. Those who may have been signed in later rounds and fail to sign in undrafted free agency may be S.O.L. if they can't rebuild their draft stock. Some college seniors will just be done. It's not like there's school to return to. Even if it's in the late rounds, the opportunity has always been there for these kinds of players to keep the fire burning. Now, the match has been blown out. Even then, it might not have mattered. Earlier in this lengthy offseason, MLB gutted the Minor Leagues. They had flirted with lowering the number of teams for years, all while mitigating the rights of the players who often languished in the lower levels. Minor Leaguers have been designated as seasonal contractors, and do not have health insurance, overtime pay, or pensions. They often make under the minimum wage. MLB has not lifted a finger for these men, and the team owners were all too happy to justify not paying thousands of players, before cutting many of them loose in May. Countless Minor Leaguers had to hang up their cleats and give up their dreams, just like some of the college-aged players who may have been left stranded at the gate to the Draft. This mass exodus of players at the Minor League and draft-ready level CANNOT be good for a sport that is regressing in cultural relevance, socioeconomic accessibility, and viability as a career path. Now that this exclusive club has become even more exclusive, how can the sport grow in these manners if so much of the developing talented is abruptly uprooted and tossed aside? Care to guess something else that can't be good for a sport? That's right. Not playing games. As the MLBPA and owners battle it out over length of season, prorated salaries, and postseason revenues, the stagnation of a further delayed season threatens to reduce interest in the sport across the board. Owners have made unreasonable demands--in fact, it is just the same single unreasonable demand, packaged in four differently sized boxes--to the players, who are villainized by our capitalistic culture for not sucking it up and getting back to work. Clashes between players and fans on social media have grown more frequent as players have become more outspoken about the situation they find themselves in. The sport is hurting like crazy. They didn't need another bombshell. Seems like Murphy's Law around here. Yesterday morning (June 13th), a headline from The Athletic read "Judge orders 2017 MLB letter to Yankees unsealed; plaintiffs say it details sign stealing". Immediately, Twitter was whipped into a frenzy. If it was true that the Yankees, who were portrayed almost sympathetically in wake of the Astros' cheating scandal, were cheating as well, fans of other teams, most of whom hate the Yankees, would be laughing about it for decades. As the day went along and things started to quiet down a bit, it started to appear that there was no evidence of sign stealing, and the letter was likely to do with a bullpen phone-related misconduct incident from 2017 or earlier for which the Yankees were lightly fined. I have no idea what they did with the bullpen phone. I don't know if anyone does. The titular letter in that Athletic headline may have the answer. But the Yankees want to keep it sealed for some reason. That's not exactly the kind of behavior you want to exhibit if you're confident the contents of that letter will exonerate you. Maybe I'm overthinking an uptight action by a famously uptight organization, but there might be something in there. And even if there isn't, and the Yankees are exonerated, questions still remain. It's hard to believe that the issue of sign stealing is confined to just Houston, Boston, and New York. The greater question that must be asked is "just how many teams are stealing signs anyway?" If the answer to the question makes us uncomfortable, it's about time we started on devising some new rules on sign-stealing to make sure this doesn't happen. And please, please, better punishments to disincentivize the sign stealing. What the Astros got just wasn't enough for what they allegedly did, regardless of how much it actually helped them. Now, these issues all overlap and intertwine. And who is in the middle of this messy tapestry. The commissioner of baseball, of course. Rob Manfred is chiefly to blame for this league's downward spiral in viability and reputation. It all has to do with a lack of accountability. We saw it when the Astros were punished fairly lightly for their cheating scandal, and then seemingly given protections when it was announced players on other teams could be heavily fined for retaliating against offending players. In addition, if baseball returns, they will be lucky enough to have a home crowd, thanks to Texas' relaxed rules on distancing. (My advice to MLB: maybe don't???) The lack of accountability doesn't end with the Astros debacle. The team owners have gone out of control in their desire for control over the power struggle between them and the players. They have grown miserly in their free agent spending, cheap in their player development, ruthless in their mistreatment of Minor Leaguers. All the while, ticket prices have increased, and stadiums have continued to implement practices such a locker system in Nationals Park for fans' belongings that add more cost to the fan experience. The owners have made the sport less accessible for people of all socioeconomic backgrounds, and they have forwent spending on players to the point where solid major league contributors like Derek Dietrich had to settle for Minor League deals once they hit free agency. All the while they continue to insult the players with crappy proposal after crappy proposal, all of which go back on their promised prorated salary that they agreed to with the players months ago. Manfred has failed to keep them in check, and has in many cases gone to bat for them. Is this what a commissioner who cares about his sport should be doing? Now, the thing is, we puny mortals who write and chat about these issues don't have any say about who gets to be the Commissioner of Baseball. The owners do. It's the owners' vote that determines who becomes Commissioner. And if you're an owner, do you think Rob Manfred is doing a bad job? Probably not. I mean, baseball is certainly not what these owners care about the most; it's their bottom lines. And those have soared under Manfred, with baseball enjoying revenue records year after year. Is there any reason for them to change course? Absolutely not. So this is how it will stay. For the foreseeable future, you can continue to expect this sport to be relentlessly pilfered and gutted by a group of owners, enabled by their commissioner, much to the detriment of the players and owners who live for this sport every summer day. What a damn shame.
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By God, MLB, you came so close to getting it right. So I'm trying to shove content out, I swear, but it's hard to do. I found a cool concept for divisional realignment that I tried to do a preview of sorts for, but all my drafts came out flat. Then like three more divisional realignment proposals came out, including one that is so close to getting it right. It just falls short. You might know what I'm talking about. You see it? Do you see it right there? No, it's not that the Marlins logo is out of date on this image. Pittsburgh...and Atlanta. Pittsburgh and Atlanta. What...are they doing there? They were sooooo clooooooose!!! Now let me take some time to actually explain my indignation, and why I think this alignment is almost perfect. Before we begin though, I do not care that Atlanta is further west than Pittsburgh. I know that. This still doesn't excuse it to me. And here's why.
Something you'll notice about the western division is that it packs every team from the AL West and NL West into one division. While it's very chaotic--as any division with both Houston and the Dodgers would be--it achieves something important: it keeps the regular divisional layouts together. It is possible to form NL West and AL West standings organically, with every division rival playing each other. What does this mean exactly? It means deciding a playoff format is a no-brainer. When investigating different division realignments like the one I tried previewing a few weeks back, I was always held back by the burning question of "what will the playoffs look like?" The realignment I looked at then had no good answer to this, as it had multiple teams from different divisions and different leagues mingling frequently. AL Central mixed with NL East, NL Central with AL West. It was kind of a mess, and it left me with no clue on how a postseason format would be pulled off. But if the league simply consolidated the "East", "West", and "Central" divisions of both leagues into three ten-team divisions, the answer to the playoff question is obvious. You have two sets of standings -- one is three divisions, and the other is the conventional six-division system we know and love, divided between the AL and NL. This means we don't actually have to modify or improvise the postseason (unless we wish to expand the number of teams who make the playoffs, which was rumored). We also get plenty of play outside our normal divisions as well, in the form of the teams from the other league. While there are problems to this format--some teams are inherently advantaged and disadvantaged, and the Central and West will be quite chaotic--it has the fewest problems of any alignment I can think of, and guarantees a good level of competition with a much lower level of randomness, while providing the best answer to the postseason quandary, which is what these guys are all playing for anyway. So why the hell would you swap the Braves and the Pirates? I mean, do we know which teams we're talking about here? The Atlanta Braves won 97 games in 2019 en route to their second consecutive NL East divisional crown. Meanwhile the Pirates languished in last place in the NL Central, finishing a paltry 69-93. By swapping the two, you replace one of only two division winners from last year in the East, and replace it with a last place team, meanwhile giving the Central three different first place teams. This throws the whole format into chaos, because not only does it mean the rest of the NL East's biggest potential rival in this alignment is taken away from them, but instead they get to feast on another bottom feeder. If this alignment goes through untouched, the East will have four teams who finished with over 90 losses. In addition, the East division is probably the weakest division all-around anyway. The Marlins, Blue Jays, and Orioles are all rebuilding. The Red Sox just traded away their best player and lost their second best player to a season ending injury. They have no starting pitching to speak of and figure to be mediocre at best. The Mets and Phillies have been difficult to project for years, and have finished with underwhelming results in recent seasons. And the Nationals, despite being defending World Series champions, lost Anthony Rendon to free agency. Rendon contributed 7 WAR according to Fangraphs last year. Losing seven wins with one player is a huge blow to a Wild Card team, even as they add it back incrementally with players such as Starlin Castro, Eric Thames, and Carter Kieboom. This leaves us with the Rays, a very good team, and the Yankees, a juggernaut. Without the Braves, another very good team, to keep them in check, the Yankees look to run rampant over most of this division. Not only will it be not fun for the teams they maim, it would probably get dull for Yankees fans, too, who want more real competition. However, the most insidious thing this flip-flopping does is it throws the playoff picture, particularly in the NL East, into chaos. How are the Braves supposed to compete in a division where they never play their rivals? If they "win" the NL East despite never playing the Nats, Mets, or Phillies, how will those three teams react? If one or more of those three teams farms enough victories off the Marlins, Orioles, Pirates, and Blue Jays to finish with a better record than the Braves, who must play two other division winners and only have two "bad" teams to whale on, how is that fair to Atlanta? It would be so much simpler if the Braves rejoined their division rivals, and the Pirates crawled back to the Central. Now I understand that the league wants to minimize travel as much as possible, and an Atlanta team traveling to Texas is probably shorter than a Pittsburgh team traveling to Texas. I'm fully expecting this complaint to fall on deaf ears, but at a time like this, nothing is final, and if the teams and players see this the way I do and make enough noise, who knows? Maybe normalcy will be restored and the logical divisional alignment with be instated. That's all I can hope. Whenever the MLB decides on an official alignment, I'll probably try doing a preview for it, in a similar vein as the one I tried but gave up on earlier. We'll see. For now, can we please just get our divisions down right? Well, shit. There goes my season preview post, probably. Considering baseball is on hold indefinitely, I figured writing a gigantic post about an upcoming season that may never actually happen was unproductive. If I'm really bored with absolutely nothing better to do with my time, I might consider writing that out again. Don't count on it, though. The coronavirus pandemic has thrown our lives into disarray, and as our everyday realities grow duller, sadder, and more complicated, we're left with little recourse but to escape to our minds. Playing out scenarios in our heads, imagining the outcomes in an alternate universe where baseball motored along unperturbed. On a particularly dull Monday night some buddies and I got to thinking about the DH in the National League and decided a good way to pass the time would be to go through every NL team and see who would be best suited for the role out of their current rosters. Here's what we came up with. I'll be listing the top two candidates for each team, unless we decide on a DH-by-committee. I will not be entertaining debate about whether the DH in the NL should happen at this time; I've had that conversation enough. Allons-y. Arizona DiamondbacksFirst candidate: Kevin Cron Second candidate: Seth Beer We make this choice under the reasonable assumption that the Diamondbacks will employ a first base platoon of Christian Walker and Jake Lamb. Kevin Cron, brother of CJ, is a decent power bat who has waited a long time to secure a permanent roster spot. Already 27 years old, he doesn't have any learning in the Minors left to do. He showed off his toolset briefly last year, playing in 38 games (78 PA) and hitting .211/.269/.521 (.790 OPS, 96 wRC+). One hopes the on-base numbers improve, but the slugging ability is already apparent. He mashed six home runs in this limited sample. He also played well in the abbreviated Spring Training this year for what it's worth, with an .899 OPS and 3 round trippers in 32 plate appearances. He also has 151 home runs in the Minor Leagues to his name. We cheated a bit with Seth Beer. Beer, one of the top prospects in Arizona's revamped and deep farm system, came over in the Zack Greinke trade and hopes to grab a roster spot very soon. He isn't on the Diamondbacks' 40-man roster, but MLB Pipeline lists his ETA in the Majors as 2020, which is what got me to put him down as the second option. Beer would most likely have started the season in AAA, only one call away. He put together a very solid 2019 campaign, posting a .904 OPS with 26 homers between A+ and AA. This is the first and last time I put a player with 0 MLB plate appearances on this list. We're getting the weird stuff out of the way first, I guess. Atlanta BravesFirst candidate: Adam Duvall Second candidate: Austin Riley Adam Duvall was an indispensable bat off the bench for the Braves in last year's NLDS, cracking a huge home run off Jack Flaherty in Game 2 and driving home 5 runs in total. The DH would likely provide a good home for the 31-year old, who revitalized his career this past season in Atlanta. He only got 130 plate appearances in the regular season, but he made the most of them, putting up a .267/.315/.567 triple slash (.882 OPS, 121 wRC+). With Ozuna, Acuña, and Markakis manning the outfield spots, it will be hard to find consistent playing time for Duvall next year, hence why he fits the mold of this DH thought experiment. I have Austin Riley penciled in as the starting third baseman for the Braves this year, but should the Braves prefer Johan Camargo over him at third, the DH spot would come a-callin'. Riley broke out in a huge way offensively, posting an over 1.000 OPS in the month of May, but eventually regressed and then struggled mightily, particularly with the strikeouts. He finished his rookie season hitting .226/.279/.471 (.750 OPS, 86 wRC+). Still young, entering his age 23 season, he should be getting plenty of opportunities to rekindle the flame that set him ablaze at the beginning of his MLB career. Chicago CubsFirst candidate: Kyle Schwarber Second candidate: David Bote Choosing Schwarber here is a relative no-brainer. Schwarber has a power bat that is well-suited for the DH position, and was never a natural outfielder, despite playing there for a few years now. Perhaps the -10 Statcast outs above average last year illustrates this effectively. Schwarber was one of the few Cubs who was hitting at the tail end of a disappointing 2019 season for the squad. His hard-hit rate and exit velocity are elite, as expected for a power hitter of his caliber, and his .375 xwOBA falls just short of the top 10% of hitters. For those who like conventional stats more, 38 homers and an .871 OPS in 2019 should sound good to anyone. David Bote is mostly here because I decided there needed to be a second choice, but let's hear his case. Bote is a respectable hitter (.785 OPS, 106 wRC+) who doesn't have a clear spot in the lineup now that the "Kris Bryant in Left Field" experiment appears to be at its end. Bote is a fun guy to root for, and everyone remembers his legendary walk-off grand slam. He can hit better than Ian Happ, and can cover many of the same positions Happ does. It's just that Schwarber can probably use the DH spot to greater overall team value than Bote can. Cincinnati RedsFirst candidate: Nick Castellanos Second candidate: Aristides Aquino Another no-brainer here. Castellanos' reputation as a good hitter who can't field precedes him. It's the top talking point surrounding him. I've wrote about it on this blog before. I wouldn't be surprised if he's the man I've written about the most on this blog, come to think of it. Castellanos finally got traded out of the cavernous Comerica Park, and while it interestingly didn't impact his hitting stats all that much, he got to play in the middle of a playoff race with the Cubs. That obviously didn't pan out, and now Castellanos is a division rival of those Cubs. He hit .289/.337/.525 (.863 OPS, 121 wRC+) last year, and while he doesn't pulverize baseballs quite like Schwarber does, he certainly does enough for the Reds to hand him the hypothetical DH spot without hesitation. The ballpark should help him out, too. Aquino was perhaps my favorite late-season storyline last year. The dude hit 19 home runs in 56 games--how could you not love it? Despite his meteoric rise, which broke some all-time records, he's still very much in the thick of a battle for a roster spot with players like Jesse Winker and Shogo Akiyama. I don't think he would start on Opening Day this year...if it happened. But with a DH, perhaps he gets more chances to show off that power than he would otherwise. The prospect of more Aquino magic ever tantalizes me. Colorado RockiesFirst candidate: Charlie Blackmon Second candidate: Ian Desmond Here in Denver, it's a nice fun game of pick your poison. Both Blackmon and Desmond are players who plain out struggle in the outfield. Blackmon posted -9 outs above average in the outfield last year, and Desmond posted -8. Blackmon's UZR was -10.6, Desmond's was -7.4. Now, one of these guys can still hit. It's, as you'd expect, Chuck Nasty. A .314/.364/.576 (.940 OPS, 125 OPS+) offensive season might have fallen under the radar in the midst of the Rockies' fall from Wild Card to basement dweller, but his home-road splits are alarming. Blackmon posted an unreal 1.174 OPS at Coors, but just a .731 mark outside of it. Even with highly-rated quality of contact metrics last year, Blackmon could be heading for a fall if he isn't basically the best hitter in baseball at his home park. Since the DH is about putting a good hitter in an extra slot to maximize value, I put Blackmon, the better hitter of the two, and slightly worse fielder, in first. Desmond has struggled to hit since signing that 5-year contract with the Rockies. He managed a Coors-boosted .788 OPS, which upon being park adjusted, returned a more sobering 86 wRC+. Baseball Reference rated him at a miserable -1.8 WAR, and while Fangraphs produced a more forgiving -0.3, the consensus is he provides negative value to his team. The question is, of course, why would you ever have Desmond in the lineup at all, considering the fact that he is utterly awful on offense and defense? Well, money talks, and all that guaranteed salary for Desmond as well as the Rockies' grim outlook for 2020 and beyond, means he'll be on the roster for the foreseeable future, probably until the contract finally mercifully expires ahead of the 2022 season. Rockies fans will probably just have to watch more Larry Walker highlights to keep themselves sane. Los Angeles DodgersDH by committee Simply put, the Los Angeles Dodgers are too well-constructed to have a dedicated DH. That's a weird sentence to write, isn't it? But it feels like the Dodgers' lineup just consists entirely of position players. None of these people really need to DH. Max Muncy just fits at first base, as does Turner at third, Lux and Seager up the middle, Bellinger, Betts, and Pollock in the outfield, and Smith behind the plate. I suppose you could put Joc Pederson in there, but he's a platoon hitter who struggles mightily against lefties, and you might not want him occupying that position daily. It's more likely that this lineup would use the designated hitter as a rest slot of sorts; a rotating, mercurial position for whichever player has started in the field a few too many times in a row and could use a lighter workload. Miami MarlinsFirst candidate: Jesús Aguilar Second candidate: Garrett Cooper These two are interchangeable between first base and DH. It'd be a bit awkward to have two right-handed first baseman play on the field at the same time, so just put one of em at DH. Jesús Aguilar probably wasn't expecting to be here, but the cruel randomness of the sport has a way of doing that to people. Aguilar hit 35 homers and started at 1st base in the All-Star game for the National League with Milwaukee in 2018, then his offense vanished the following season. He hit a paltry .236/.325/.389 (.714 OPS, 88 wRC+) with the Brewers and Rays before being put on waivers at season's end. The Marlins claimed him as a low-risk bounceback candidate. If he makes it even anywhere near the numbers he put up in 2018, that's awesome. If not, the Marlins don't lose much. I'd place him at DH to start the year due to his status as a bit of a project, and being new to the organization, giving the starting first base spot to Cooper. Garrett Cooper was streaky last year for the Fish, but overall solid offensively (.791 OPS at Marlins Park, which produced 111 wRC+). He's an offensively-geared player, but I would give him first base over Aguilar due to his previous seasons with the Marlins and his solid first base defense (4 OAA, compared to Aguilar's 1 OAA as an All-Star in 2018). Milwaukee BrewersFirst candidate: Ryan Braun Second candidate: Justin Smoak We already knew Ryan Braun wasn't going back into the outfield. Right now he's preparing to play 1st base full time for the first time in his career. But if the NL had the DH, he'd likely take that spot, so a natural first baseman like Smoak can play his natural position regularly. Braun, now 36 years old and entering his 14th MLB season, is on the final year of his contract. He can still hit, though. A .285/.343/.505 (.849 OPS, 117 wRC+) line did well to mask his age and poor defense. Smoak would work fine as a DH, as well, though as I previously hinted at, it probably wouldn't make sense to give the career outfielder the first base job over a career first baseman. Smoak finally finished a fruitful five-season run as the Blue Jays' starting first baseman, then essentially flip-flopped teams with Travis Shaw in free agency. Smoak has better numbers to his name in 2019 than Shaw, with a 101 wRC+ -- just above average! What's more, he's a switch hitter with two very different attitudes depending on which side he's hitting on. He hit 22 home runs with Toronto last year, and should still be a decent power source in Milwaukee. New York MetsFirst candidate: Dom Smith Second candidate: Yoenis Cespedes The Mets should love Dom Smith in this spot. Baseball Reference lists him as a "first baseman, pinch hitter, and left fielder." The Mets already have an everyday first baseman in Pete frickin' Alonso, and they have J.D. Davis, Brandon Nimmo, and Michael Conforto in the outfield. This leaves the Mets without a place to put Smith last year. This is absolutely a problem. Smith hit .282/.355/.525 (.881 OPS,133 wRC+) in 197 plate appearances. You want that in the lineup in addition to what Alonso, Nimmo, Conforto, and Davis can offer on offense. He's also a really witty dude who's easy to root for, as anyone who saw the Mets on their ESPN All-Access broadcast this spring should know. Céspedes has seen the march of time pass him by. Unfortunate injury after unfortunate injury has sidelined the former superstar for half of 2017, most of 2018, and the entirety of 2019. If he finally comes back healthy, he won't be able to keep up with the aforementioned outfield trio of Davis, Nimmo, and Conforto. He also probably wouldn't be able to put up the numbers Smith, who is 10 years younger, could. The DH would be a welcome refuge for him, though, as he needn't risk injury in the outfield. Mets fans all want to see the Céspedes chapter in New York end on a good note. The DH would certainly help with that. Unfortunately, this year is the last of his contract, so we won't be seeing him in the DH spot outside of maybe some interleague games? But nothing is guaranteed this year. Philadelphia PhilliesJay Bruce, or DH by committee There aren't many options for the Phillies here. They wouldn't immediately benefit from a DH spot. I feel that similarly to the Dodgers, they could use it as a rotating slot for hitters who've done a little too much fielding and could use a reduced workload for the day. If you insist on giving the DH spot to somebody in particular, Jay Bruce is still here, and damn near the only thing he did last year was hit dingers. Seriously, his OBP was .235 with the Phillies, and .263 overall on the season splitting time between Seattle and Philadelphia. But he hit 26 homers in 98 games. There's value to be had here, assuming he doesn't have an OBP below .300 again. That said, if he really is reaching base below 30% of the time, you'd probably be better off making the DH a committee spot, with Bruce coming in as a pinch hitter if you want to play matchups. Pittsburgh PiratesFirst choice: Colin Moran Second choice: José Osuna Colin Moran has been somewhat of an enigma for the Pirates. A fairly well-regarded prospect with Houston before heading to the Steel City in the Gerrit Cole trade, his offense failed to materialize, with a .746 OPS in two seasons as a Buc. What's key here, though, is his third base defense, which has not been pretty. He posted -10 outs above average at the hot corner in 2018, and -7 in 2019. Putting Moran at DH mercifully shields Pirates fans from Moran's glovework. If you're the Pirates, you can probably put Erik Gonzalez at third instead and keep a straight face, but if he can't hit, you might begrudgingly move Moran back to third. José Osuna has not gotten much playing time in an outfield that frankly has better options than playing him everyday. He could be an intriguing DH candidate, though. He's never been a league average hitter, but he showed significant improvements with the bat in 2019, going from hitting .226/.252/.396 in 2018 to .264/.310/.456, a whole 118-point jump in OPS. I think this is a good indication that the Pirates shouldn't give up on him yet, especially as the new front office regime led by Ben Cherington prepares to rebuild. San Diego PadresFirst candidate: Tommy Pham Second candidate: Franchy Cordero Pham has never been known for his defense. He's an on-base wizard with great contact skills, but a bit of a butcher in the outfield, posting an unsightly -11 outs above average in left with the Rays last year. Now a Padre, he'll have no other option to play the field, but in this thought experiment, we offer him the refuge of the DH spot. Now he can focus on his hitting, which is his calling card. Last year with the Rays he hit .273/.369/.450 (.818 OPS, 121 wRC+), and it would have been better if he didn't slow down a bit in the second half. People might have forgotten about Franchy Cordero. That's because he was injured for most of 2019. He underwent right elbow surgery in June and missed the remainder of the season. Cordero hasn't lit the league on fire yet (.737 career OPS), but he has the requisite power for the DH position. The drag against him is his struggles against lefties. He has a career .592 OPS against southpaws, which would likely keep him out of the lineup on some days. Do you want a platoon player at the DH spot every day? You'd probably prefer Pham on there. Nevertheless, I do really like Franchy and hope he breaks out. Just...probably not as a DH. San Francisco GiantsDH by committee Look, the Giants are old. Buster Posey is 33. Brandon Crawford is 33. Evan Longoria is 34. Hunter Pence is 36. Any of these guys should be allowed to DH on any given day, because baseball is hard to play, and they've been doing it for a long time. It's a very different DH by committee than the Dodgers and Phillies--not a celebration of their depth and structure, but a sad reminder that all good things must end, and the Giants are finally at the point where they must rebuild and start over. Many players from the old core remain, as do other veterans who were brought along in a vain attempt to keep it alive. They know where they stand now. St. Louis CardinalsFirst candidate: Matt Carpenter Second candidate: Tyler O'Neill The Cardinals long stood as a great example for what NL teams could accomplish with a DH. Now with José Martinez traded to Tampa Bay, it's more the Cubs and Reds who show that the most. Anyway, we still have two candidates here. Matt Carpenter is up first. The secret salsa that gave him a power boost in a big way in 2018 (.897 OPS, 36 HR) couldn't provide a repeat performance in 2019 (.726 OPS, 15 HR). Staring down father time, Carpenter doesn't justify time in the lineup over Tommy Edman or Kolten Wong. The DH could potentially give the 34-year old a chance to provide offensive value without taking playing time from those two. Should he continue to decline, Tyler O'Neill is an intriguing second option. Now, O'Neill figures to start the season as the starting left fielder due to the departures of Martinez and Marcell Ozuna, but the man to watch for in this is Dylan Carlson. The young outfield prospect turned heads in Spring Training, and could be up in the Majors very soon. In the event of Carlson coming up and making waves in The Show, O'Neill could pivot over to the DH spot. O'Neill is known for his bulging muscles, and while he doesn't have many homers to his name in the MLB, he has 170 homers in his Minor League career. Plus, he's marketable as all hell. This would be my ideal scenario for the Cardinals, but as for right now, O'Neill has a starting spot and Carpenter does not, so Carpenter is ranked higher. Washington NationalsFirst candidate: Howie Kendrick Second candidate: Eric Thames Howie Kendrick was perhaps the single most valuable offensive player in the Nationals' World Series title run aside from maybe Juan Soto. And yet he enters the 2020 season without a concrete position on the field. The Nationals have Carter Kieboom at third, Starlin Castro at second, and a platoon of Ryan Zimmerman and Eric Thames at first base. But come on; even if he'll turn 37 in July, you've gotta find a place in the lineup for a fan favorite who hit .344/.395/.572 (.966 OPS, 146 wRC+) last year. That's where the DH comes in and provides him with a guaranteed lineup spot. Thames is included here as a second option due to his slugging tendencies (2019 stats: .247/.346/.505, .851 OPS, 117 wRC+, 25 HR), but I think the Nationals intend to use him as a platoon first baseman with Ryan Zimmerman due to his .679 OPS against left-handed pitching last year, as opposed to .877 vs. righties. Zimmerman, for his part, posted a .966 OPS against lefties, while struggling against righties to the tune of a .645 clip. It'd probably be a no-brainer for Davey Martinez to platoon the two and give Howie the DH position. Unfortunately, he can't do that yet! He has to either keep on the bench, or put him at 2nd and take time away from Starlin Castro! This is why the NL is inferior. And on that incendiary note...Thanks for reading this post! This one was a ton of fun to cobble together, because it involves thinking about a rule change that I hope to see in the Majors very soon! Some teams could obviously really use a DH spot, others can manage perfectly fine without it. And some teams are trash either way!
I feel like this is how the content is gonna be over the COVID-19 postponement. I'll need all the ideas I can muster. If you have an interesting thought experiment like this one you want me to try out, Tweet at me, @JeremyN75.* *I reserve the right to tell you if your idea is trash. Alright, that's all from me. Have a good week, stay safe, and wash your hands. I was caught totally off guard when it happened. The first clue I had that a trade had been done was a Discord DM from a friend of mine talking about how cheap the Red Sox are. See, that wouldn't normally mean much, except said friend isn't much of a baseball fan. Something had to be up. I open up Twitter and I am greeted with Photoshops of Mookie Betts wearing a Dodgers uniform. How did we get here? The Padres were the first team linked in Betts rumors. The Dodgers popped up later. I figured the rumors would die until maybe the trade deadline if the wheels fell off. A trade now didn't seem plausible. Surely the Red Sox know how good Mookie Betts is. He's a top ten offensive player in the MLB. No trade package you get back is going to recoup the loss from letting Betts go somewhere else. They can't shed a transcendent talent for "financial flexibility." They can't do it. But they did it. Mookie Betts goes to the Dodgers along with David Price. The Red Sox receive Alex Verdugo from the Dodgers. Later it's announced that the Dodgers traded Kenta Maeda to the Minnesota Twins, who ship top pitching prospect Brusdal Graterol to Boston. Let's analyze the fallout. Los Angeles DodgersMookie Betts and Cody Bellinger are now in the same outfield. Need I say more? Alright, I will. David Price was tacked on as another large contract for Boston to get rid of, and Price will function as an effective third starter behind Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw. He's coasted on reputation lately, and was never truly excellent in Beantown, but he can still offer value to a team at a bit of a premium price tag. Even if Price doesn't live up to the billing, it may not matter. Refer back to that first sentence. It's terrifying. I'm absolutely terrified of the Dodgers this time. We can't mistake them for being immortal, as prior doomed playoff runs for LA have shown us. But even if this dynamic duo of Betts and Bellinger are only together in the outfield for a single season, the Dodgers won the trade. Mookie Betts has a staggering 42 wins above replacement at age 27. It's not Mike Trout level, but it's easily first ballot trajectory. He is absurdly good at everything. One-time MVP. Four-time All Star. Four-time Gold Glove winner. Three-time Silver Slugger. The Dodgers saw the Yankees get Gerrit Cole and knew that their offseason would be a total failure without an earth shattering move. They got it. Two players depart Los Angeles to new locales as a result of this deal. Alex Verdugo, a talented young outfielder who stands as yet another triumph of the Dodgers' prospect development, heads to Boston. Obviously, you don't need a guy like Verdugo too much when you have two MVPs in the outfield. Kenta Maeda, a reliable and consistent innings-eater who found himself in a tweener role as a spot starter and reliever before injuries put in him in the rotation for good, will go to Minnesota and continue on a full-time starting role. Both players were just shipped off to clear space for the shiny new arrivals. It's just about the perfect trade for the Dodgers, and if they can convince Mookie to stay... Do I even want to think about it? Minnesota TwinsA surprising third wheel in this trade, the Minnesota Twins popped their heads in the door right as the party started and joined in on the fun. Looking up to shore up rotational depth, the biggest weakness for Minnesota heading into the year, they acquired Kenta Maeda from the Dodgers. Maeda isn't flashy, but he is an expert in mitigating hard contact and has sexy advanced stats. He's a fantastic value pickup for the Twins, immediately improves them, and keeps them from having to rely too much on veteran arms Rich Hill and Homer Bailey. The player they dealt to Boston, Brusdar Graterol, is an intriguing piece for the Red Sox' bullpen. I'll talk more on him later. Despite the intrigue, dealing Graterol makes a lot of sense for Minnesota. They already have a top bullpen in the AL, and even though Graterol is a very well-regarded prospect, that's part of what you keep prospects for--these trades. That's something Minnesota didn't seem to understand too well in recent years. It's a gamble, but if you're in win-now mode, you have to make these tough decisions. The Twins managed to leverage a strength of theirs in relief pitching to address a weakness in starting pitching. There's little to complain about here in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes. Boston Red SoxYep, it's time to simultaneously laugh and scream at Boston. As much as I relish the Red Sox' complete and utter destruction by their own hand, I just can't get over the cowardice this move represents. The Red Sox are really good at signing free agents or trading for established players that carry them over the top, but when it comes time to pay their homegrown stars their due, this nonsense tends to occur. It cannot be overstated that no return can justify trading away Mookie Betts. Certainly not a single outfielder and a single reliever. How can the Boston Red Sox, just over a calendar year removed from a World Series victory, cry poor at a time like this? A team that eagerly handed gigantic paychecks to Rusney Castillo, Pablo Sandoval, Price, and Chris Sale can't bear to keep their face of the franchise, one of the faces of the sport, around. It's infuriating, but also absolutely hilarious and exactly what Boston deserves, if you believe in that sort of thing. This thing can kill a rivalry, too. Part of my frustration as a Yankees fan comes from knowing that the Betts-Judge rivalry is over after three short years. And of course, Betts has a ring to show for it. Judge doesn't yet, and if he does, he won't have to get past Boston to do it. I want to get past Boston. I wanted us to beat Betts and the Red Sox, not by watching them slip to 4th in the standings, but by beating them fair and square in the playoffs. The Yankees-Red Sox rivalry was back in 2018 but cooled off last year as the Red Sox regressed. If the Red Sox kept everyone around, there was no reason to believe they couldn't come back and vie for playoff contention. They're friggin' Boston, they find a way. Nope. They just couldn't afford to do it. Remember. Baseball doesn't have a salary cap. They have a luxury tax, but no cap. And yet baseball owners are the cheapest in North American sports. They're the most averse to paying talent what they're worth. This garbage is yet another case study. When this happens, the general manager is always put in an impossible situation from a negotiation standpoint. Chaim Bloom, the young and exciting protégé of the Rays' brain trust, was completely helpless to the whims of an owner who just didn't want to pay his best player anymore. His only recourse was to try to take some gambles on young raw talent who still won't make up for the value lost. That said, let's take a look at said raw talent. Alex Verdugo had an impressive rookie campaign, compiling an .817 OPS in 377 plate appearances. He competed for playing time with the likes of A.J. Pollock, Chris Taylor, and Joc Pederson. That won't be the case in Boston. He'll be thrust into the role of Mookie Betts' successor/replacement. That is a heavy mantle to assume. A starting role should be good for him, but is this the role he wants? Boston's fans will put all their hope into him becoming a star, and in times where he doesn't perform, it will be hard. If he flourishes, great for him. But the Red Sox never had to be in this situation in the first place if they just paid Mookie his money. Brusdar Graterol is the unknown in this deal. Luckily for me, I'm well aware of this man's toolkit because A) I watched some Twins games in September and B) I follow Pitching Ninja on Twitter. Graterol, if he pans out, is gonna be on Pitching Ninja's list for years and years. The sinker is not a popular pitch in today's MLB, but you can tell Graterol's sinker is special on sight. It averages 99 mph and has wicked movement. In a limited sample size up with the big club, it was unhittable. Batters managed a measly .190 xwOBA against the pitch. It probably isn't that good, but if he's the real deal--and I think he's MLB-ready now--he could be the low-cost closer the Red Sox have been looking for ever since Kimbrel departed. Shame he won't have the bat of Mookie Betts to give him more chances to close games. The news isn't over.
The Dodgers made another deal on the same day that was completely overshadowed by the Betts trade, and understandably so. It's still an intriguing deal if just for the fact that it was between the Dodgers and the Angels. I'll get to it either later on this week or on Saturday. I'll also take a closer look at what the Angels have got percolating. For now, though, that's today's post! Mookie Betts in a Dodgers uniform. I'll have to see it to believe it. Good thing Opening Day is 50 DAYS AWAY. I'M READY! COME ON! LET'S GO! The Hot Stove Dragon has reawakened from its slumber. A free agent signing, a major trade, a much-needed update to the replay review system, and a proposed rule change that could alter the landscape of baseball forever in the near future are all on the table today. Let's get to it before the flames cool off. Castellanos Signs With CincinnatiFrom my post last Thursday on Nicholas Castellanos' potential free agent destinations: "Cincinnati Reds - There have been rumors linking Castellanos to the Reds, but aside from ballpark I don't like the fit. The Reds will be pushing a lot of guys they should probably give time to prove themselves, into bench roles (namely, Aquino). Considering that there are rumors, though, I'm including them to cover my ass in case a deal is made. Doesn't mean I'm gonna like it." Y'all heard it here first! Covering your own ass pays dividends! So Nicholas Castellanos this morning agreed to a 4 year, $64 million contract with the Redlegs, marking the final big name free agent coming off the board. See, baseball? That wasn't so hard! We're in January this year instead of freakin' June! Anyway, there's a little bit of sticker shock here for me with Castellanos. Maybe this was short-sighted of me, but I really wasn't expecting much more than a 2 year deal at around $20 million for a somewhat one-dimensional player. I certainly wasn't expecting a 4 year deal at an average annual value of 16 million bucks. And not to a team with such a crowded roster as the Cincinnati Reds. I said in the previous post that I wasn't a fan of a potential deal here because of the young talent they could be pushing into bench roles because of the way the National League is. (More on that later...) If you go ahead and put Castellanos in right field, the position he's played regularly since moving from 3rd base a few years ago, you probably have to put one of Aristides Aquino, Shogo Akiyama, Jesse Winker, or Nick Senzel on the bench. You could--and should--put Senzel at short, but that still leaves Aquino, Akiyama, and Winker jockeying for position. It looks like Aquino would be the weak link here, which saddens me. But he'll get a chance to fight for a spot in Spring Training and that prospect excites me. So it's not all bad. Jon Heyman mentioned in passing that Cincinnati might consider putting Senzel up for trade, which doesn't really make sense to me if he can play shortstop, and do so more productively than Freddy Galvis. If anyone, Galvis should be the man on the move here. Plenty of teams can use a well-traveled veteran shortstop who's solid with the glove and can hit a little. Rebuilding teams love those guys. It's clear Cincinnati isn't a rebuilding club anymore. They're competing. Even then, they can just keep him as a depth infielder anyway. Is there any reason to trade anyone? Anyway, the Castellanos signing only reaffirms my prediction that the Reds will be NL Central Champs. My confidence in them is even higher. You are only making me more powerful. Designated Hitter in the National League - Coming 2021?!In more power-related news, this. Jim Bowden Tweeted this afternoon that there is "a growing belief amongst NL GM’s" that the designated hitter will come to the National League as soon as 2021. This, as you'd expect, has been met with mixed reactions. There's the "but I like seeing pitchers hit dingers" camp and the "but pitchers can't hit to save their lives" camp. Which side are you on? As with most stat nerds on this issue, I am firmly in the pro-universal DH sphere. Perhaps some open-minded anti-DH people are reading this blog right now and wonder why I arrive to that conclusion, hoping to learn in good faith. Well, you're in luck! I'll lay out my entire argument here. I'll start with the immediately obvious: the pitcher hitting. You know what I'm gonna say. Pitchers can't hit. According to Baseball Reference, the average pitcher's OPS in 2019 was .322. The average hitter, .758. Blah-de-blah=de-blah. You know it, I know it, there's no point in beating the dead horse further. That's definitely important. But my main points about the DH's true benefit surround allocation of playing time and overall offensive value. I have a few examples to illustrate what I mean. First off, last year's St. Louis Cardinals. Their top four outfielders were Marcell Ozuna, Harrison Bader, Dexter Fowler, and Jose Martinez. Bader has an elite glove but a below average bat, while Martinez has a great bat and terrible defense. By playing one over the other, you are making a sacrifice either defensively or offensively (they call it "strategy" in the NL, I call it "a liability."). Now, with a DH, obviously, that isn't a problem. You just stick Martinez at DH so he and Bader can be in the lineup together (along with Ozuna and Fowler) and they can all contribute to the lineup in their own ways. And they don't have to waste Martinez' lineup spot on a pitcher, who can only realistically hope to move the runner up a base at best on an overwhelming majority of his plate appearances. This offseason, Jose Martinez was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays. Of course, the Rays have such a unique roster structure that it's a little muddier to determine a projected roster, but with the DH being there, Kevin Cash can start him with the confidence that he's not taking any playing time away from players such as Austin Meadows and Hunter Renfroe. It's a simple value proposition. Having both guys in the same lineup will get you more value than one guy over the other. It also means guys aren't competing for playing time as much, which likely has a positive effect on clubhouse culture and relations. I'll use one more example to drive home my point: the Bomba Squad. The Minnesota Twins broke the single season home run record last year, and their top slugger in terms of overall homer output was Nelson Cruz. As a full-time designated hitter, Cruz pulverized 41 home runs. But imagine for a moment if the Twins played in the National League and Cruz had to play either in the outfield or at first base to stay in the lineup. He would have to compete for playing time with Eddie Rosario, Max Kepler, and C.J. Cron. There's no way the Twins as productive that way. With Cruz at DH, that's not a problem. All those players can play every day, contributing more value and forcing less competition for roster spots. Cruz also doesn't subtract value from the team playing the field over a superior defender like Kepler. That's more exciting to me than pitchers striking out, double-switches, and awkward roster logjams. They say it's a "good problem to have," but it's still a problem, and the DH is the easiest way to solve it. Marte Joins Marte in Arizona!This news dropped while I was writing this. After trade rumors on Starling Marte went cold for a few months, they flared back up again and instantly came to fruition this afternoon when the Arizona Diamondbacks made their move. They traded their #7 and #9 ranked prospects to the Pittsburgh Pirates to acquire the 31-year old center fielder, as part of many adroit moves by management to position themselves back into playoff contention. Marte last year turned in 119 WRC+, quietly effective for a bad team. He becomes a free agent in 2021 ahead of the 2022 season unless the Diamondbacks pick up his team option for that year. The prospects the Pirates received in return are two nineteen-year-olds: shortstop Liover Peguero (#7) and right handed pitcher Brennan Malone (#9). They're described as having high ceilings, but also a high risk factor. It's a bold move by new GM Ben Cherington, placing faith in his organization's ability to develop these players with high upside but also high volatility. It continues a series of events that show the Pirates are finally ready to accept a rebuild, which often comes with a change at the general managing position. (We may be seeing it right now in Boston, too. Keep an eye on Mookie Betts rumors.) For Arizona's part, they're looking more like a competitor with each passing hour. Starling will slot in center field, where he's played in Pittsburgh, with David Peralta and free agent newcomer Kole Calhoun manning the corner spots in left and right respectively. Ketel will move back to second base full time, placing Eduardo Escobar back at the hot corner, while Nick Ahmed continues to put in Gold Glove defense at short. At first base, expect a lefty-righty platoon of Christian Walker and Jake Lamb. Carson Kelly, one of the top returns of the Paul Goldschmidt trade from last winter, stays behind the plate. Of course, I'm super excited for the Marte and Marte Show (trademarked, registered, copyright 2020), but there's a lot to like about this lineup in general. Arizona's pitching remains a bit iffy and devoid of top-flight talent (yes, I know they have Bumgarner, no, he's not what he used to be). But their farm system still has a lot of young players like J.B. Bukauskas and Corbin Martin (spoils from the Greinke trade) looking to make an impact, and they already have said impact at the plate. Marte is a solid all-around player who just makes the D-Backs lineup even more ready to compete. This was a fun trade all around. Mic'd Up Umps Are Finally Here!This was a loooong time coming. The league finally stated today that umpires would be given microphones to clarify calls that have been challenged and reviewed, in a similar fashion to referees in the NFL and NHL. We finally get to hear their exact thought process, which is huge for transparency and just overall ease of communication. It was frustrating in the past when we'd just see "safe" or "out" signs with no justification as to how they arrived at that call. That won't be a problem anymore. Better late than never! That's all for today! Today was a pretty lively one as far as baseball news in the middle of January. Opening Day still feels so far away from now; I only hope we haven't exhausted all of our fun stuff before Spring Training. Pitchers and catchers report across the league from the 10th to the 12th of February. Real preseason activity in exactly two weeks! I can't wait to see guys in new uniforms, and exciting young players hoping to take the league by storm. The anticipation is killing me.
Alright. So. The Astros thing happened. I've thought enough about that debacle and I'm just ready to move on from something beyond my control. All I'll say is the 2017 Yankees should've made the World Series. Aaron Judge probably shoulda won MVP, too. Hindsight's 20/20 though. I won't be talking about that anymore. It's about time I started writing again. I've taken a very longwinded, almost journalistic approach to this blog in the past which can make writing exhausting. I think I'm overthinking it. So today I'll just air out some thoughts about recent happenings in the MLB offseason. I'm a naturally talkative guy so I'll probably write a lot more than I think/hope I will. Some Thoughts on the Marcell Ozuna DealTo preface this, I won't be overwhelming you with stats this time because it's frankly a lot of effort--I'll leave it to you, the reader, to investigate at your own leisure. Baseball Savant is my recommendation, and if you need any help understanding some of the numbers I have an article on that stuff here. Got it? Good. Let's talk about Marcell Ozuna. This isn't where he wanted to be. The Cardinals got him from the Marlins and expected more of the guy who torched the league en route to an All-Star selection, a Silver Slugger, and a Gold Glove in left field with Miami in 2017. Unfortunately, shoulders injuries prevented him from reaching that peak, and that was brought to bear with an ugly regression in his defensive abilities. His throwing arm went from strong to perhaps the weakest among any full-time outfielder in the league, and his foot speed has undergone a similar trend. At the plate, he slugged enough to earn his keep, and had some torrid stretches where he looked like the fearsome complement to Stanton and Yelich in the middle of the Marlins' lineup. But he couldn't keep it consistent, and after a tough NLCS against Washington sent him to free agency on an unceremonious note, he bet on himself with a one-year, $18 million pact with the Atlanta Braves. While it's not a big free agent payday--far from it--I like this deal for him, as he joins a playoff team who's hungry after...well, you know what happened last year. Also, he could stand to see a jump in production simply from the players around him in the lineup, like Acuña and Freeman. I like it for the Braves because it should be illegal to complain about any one-year deal, ever. People complained about the one-year Josh Donaldson contract, for crying out loud, and now Braves fans are the ones crying out loud now that he's in Minnesota. It's actually a fairly similar scenario to Donaldson's deal. Ozuna is damaged goods, but his peripherals are still very encouraging (his xwOBA was actually comparable to Acuña, Freeman, and Donaldson, despite inferior tangible results). If he can stay healthy and realize the potential his analytics prognosticate, he'll be yet another steal for Atlanta, and will probably be easier to re-sign than Donaldson, too. If not, move on, and try another. Are the Reds a playoff team?It's too early to lock anything in, but the Reds have drawn me in. I haven't talked too much about Cincinnati aside from Luis Castillo's dominance and Aristides Aquino's rise to nationwide notoriety. But I've been fascinated by their rebuilding process since last winter, when they went out and made some bold moves, trading for Sonny Gray and Yasiel Puig. If not franchise-altering (at least, not one of them), they added intrigue to a team penciled in to lose 90 games again. Of course, Sonny Gray had a masterful campaign his first year in Cincinnati, receiving downballot Cy Young support. As the year progressed, the Reds called up top prospect Nick Senzel, traded for Trevor Bauer, and got 49 dingers from Eugenio Suarez. I won't count on a repeat performance, but 35 homers is easily reachable for him. This offseason they've added Mike Moustakas and Japanese outfielder Shogo Akiyama in free agency. They enrich a hitting core that was lacking in firepower overall but still has weapons (I checked, and Jesse Winker actually had a sneaky good offensive season.) A big question: where does Nick Senzel play next year? If it's the infield, top prospect Jonathan India may become a trade chip for a piece that pushes them solidly into contender status. I'm also operating under the assumption that Aristides Aquino's torrid rise is for real. Is it a dangerous assumption? Yes, but this entire section is a dangerous assumption, soooooo...yeah. Let me have fun. Wade Miley was added as rotational depth. Anthony Desclafani would work as a fifth starter for damn near any team in baseball. Their bullpen is also underrated. Raisel Iglesias, Amir Garrett, and Michael Lorenzen are all really good! Robert Stephenson, Lucas Sims, and Matt Bowman had good peripherals too, even if their performances varied. I've kinda convinced myself into thinking they could win the division if the Cardinals and Cubs don't make any big moves for the rest of the offseason. (Keep an eye on Nolan Arenado, I guess...?) Here's a rough estimate of their Opening Day roster. What do you think? Could this team make the postseason? C - Tucker Barnhart/Curt Casali 1B - Joey Votto 2B - Mike Moustakas 3B - Eugenio Suarez SS - Nick Senzel/Freddy Galvis LF - Jesse Winker/Josh VanMeter CF - Shogo Akiyama/Nick Senzel RF - Aristides Aquino SP - Sonny Gray, Luis Castillo, Trevor Bauer, Wade Miley, Anthony Deslafani RP - Michael Lorenzen, Amir Garrett, Robert Stephenson, Lucas Sims, Justin Shafer, Tyler Mahle, Matt Bowman, Raisel Iglesias Where is Nicholas Castellanos heading?Here's a shortlist of the best available free agents remaining after the Braves signed Ozuna: - Nicholas Castellanos - Cameron Maybin? - Hunter Pence? - Andrew Cashner? - The Astros' Trash Can? - Gritty? As you can see, the free agent market has just about completely thinned out to the point where Castellanos is the only player with over 2 WAR last year still on the market. Who can use his bat and is willing to cope with the defensive liabilities that unfortunately accompany every mention of him? (Gee, I wonder why he isn't signed yet...) Cleveland Indians - The Indians haven't had a DH since they traded Edwin Encarnacion away to Seattle last offseason, and the "position" last year was a slapdash rotation of regular players who were given the treat of not having to field today. If the Indians are favoring a rebuild, they may feel more incentivized to consider a less expensive stopgap option. But Castellanos can still provide value as a trade piece over the deadline if they sign him to a 1-year deal and he produces offensively from the DH spot. This way, a team that may not have thought they needed him over the winter can pounce on him if they feel they need an extra bat. Now, who would you rather have play the field? Castellanos, or Franmil Reyes? I think Franmil has a slight edge, but it's not an enviable situation. Seattle Mariners - I actually kinda like this fit. He profiles as a better Domingo Santana who probably won't have to play the field nearly as much over the youth the Mariners are excited about, and Mitch Haniger. They also might be able to offer him multiple years if they see their rebuild concluding sooner rather than later and want him to be there for the playoff push. Daniel Vogelbach might want reps at DH, so that lineup spot isn't totally set. If Jerry Dipoto likes Austin Nola at 1st base (which is understandable) this won't be nearly as much of a fit, because it would likely push Vogelbach to full-time DH and Castellanos to the outfield. It's an idea to play with, though. Texas Rangers - Now, I am aware that the Rangers have Joey Gallo in right, Shin-Soo Choo at DH, and Willie Calhoun in left. So this might not be the best fit in the world. But they may wish to account for Choo's increasing age, even as his production continues at this point in time. And maybe most of all, they're looking for any kind of win in free agency. They were in rumors for Anthony Rendon, and lost him to a division rival because they weren't willing to provide enough years on a contract. Similar story with Josh Donaldson, who seemed like a great potential fit for the Rangers. Their final signing at 3rd base? Todd Frazier. Ouch. Maybe getting Castellanos could serve as a flashy little distraction for a year or two before the pain of watching Rendon in Angels red gets unbearable. Chicago Cubs - Yes, the Cubs would have to play him in the field every night. Yes, he is better offensively than any other Cubs outfielder. Plus, the fans seemed to like him when he came from Detroit and scorched the entire North Side. I don't really see this happening, but the familiarity between both parties could facilitate a deal. Cincinnati Reds - There have been rumors linking Castellanos to the Reds, but aside from ballpark I don't like the fit. The Reds will be pushing a lot of guys they should probably give time to prove themselves, into bench roles (namely, Aquino). Considering that there are rumors, though, I'm including them to cover my ass in case a deal is made. Doesn't mean I'm gonna like it. San Francisco Giants - The Giants would be acquiring Castellanos for a similar purpose Cleveland would in this scenario. Build up value, dangle him around the trade market and see if anyone needs the help. However, Castellanos may not want to hit at such a cavernous ballpark in San Fran, having just escaped another veritable canyon in Comerica Park, which would be understandable. Colorado Rockies - Embrace chaos. This will not happen. It is fan fiction. Carry on. St. Louis Cardinals - In case they missed Jose Martinez. That's about it. The contending teams are hard to come by--which may be another factor in Castellanos' inability, or perhaps reticence, to sign anywhere yet. Someone will eventually want reasonably priced offensive value though. Oh, wait, what about that Yasiel Puig fellow?I guess I should consider this guy, whose reputation precedes him. Yasiel Puig is more of a name at this point (1.2 fWAR, .785 OPS, 102 wRC+ this past season), but he can still play. While Castellanos provides more offensive upside, Puig is a good alternative with a more well-rounded skillset. The big draw against him is that he gets off to very, very slow starts, and that's not what a win-at-all-costs team might be looking for. I think the Cleveland Indians will likely re-sign him and look to get a deal going midseason. Whether Castellanos goes along with him for the same purpose remains to be seen. I could see a lot of the same teams who might get Castellanos getting Puig, for similar reasons. He seems well-positioned to a return to The Land, though. I like him and hope he gets off to a decidedly less frigid start than last year. That's all from me today! If you like this blog, and want me to write more, annoy me a lot! I swear, that'll work. See ya next time, which will hopefully be soon and not in 5 months!
Kid gloves are coming off today. The Houston Astros are the AL Champions. They've reached the World Series for the second time in three years. The Astros are a powerhouse, with no apparent weaknesses on the field. However, they've run into some big trouble off of it. For the uninitiated, Astros assistant GM Brandon Taubman (pictured above) caused a stir on the night Houston won the pennant (October 19th) for his actions in the postgame celebration. According to Stephanie Apstein of Sports Illustrated, Taubman shouted aggressively and profanely at multiple female reporters about how he was "so fucking glad" that the Astros traded for Roberto Osuna, the team's closer. Osuna was accused of domestic violence against the mother of his child back when he pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays in June of 2018. The timing was exceedingly strange. Roberto Osuna had given up a game-tying 2-run home run in the top of the 9th inning to Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu about an hour prior. The Astros only won because of a 2-run walk-off home run by José Altuve, the Championship Series MVP, off Aroldis Chapman (another closer with domestic violence charges to his name). Why was he shouting so exuberantly about Osuna when he was quite frankly, by any metric, the least valuable Astro that night? Well, one of the female reporters to whom Taubman's rant was directed was wearing a domestic violence awareness bracelet. (Later, it was revealed in an NPR report that this rant was directed primarily at this reporter. Taubman had gotten upset at this reporter in previous instances for Tweeting out phone numbers of helplines for domestic abuse when Roberto Osuna took the mound.) The optics were really bad, and somehow they kept getting worse. We expected the Astros to take some action against Taubman and neutralize the situation as well as they could. The Astros soon released a statement. All it did was fan the flames. Sadly, this is what the Astros do. They've fought against the media frequently, like when they barred a Detroit Free Press reporter from interviewing Justin Verlander. And now, when a disturbing report surfaces that some dude in your front office shouted at some female reporters about a domestic abuser, they decided to go after the person who reported it, attempting to ruin Apstein's credibility rather than admit and address any wrongdoing. Worse still, it was revealed that this statement was a bold-faced lie when corroborating reports came out in support of Apstein's article. After we had finally established that yes, this event DID take place, Taubman and Astros owner Jim Crane released a pair of incredibly weak statements. First, Taubman's. Aside from the fact that he still admits no wrongdoing, and claims that his shouting was in support of Osuna and nothing else, check out that last sentence. "I am sorry if anyone was offended by my actions." Now here's an old trick. Sorry you got offended. Apologizing while also placing the blame for this apology at our feet. It's a non-apology that accomplishes nothing. Also maddening was Taubman's crocodile tears about how progressive he is and how he's a family man, as if that mitigates what he said.
Next, Crane's. A nice little palate cleanser paragraph reaffirming the organization's commitment to raising awareness and combating domestic violence. (Look at how much of the franchise's pocket change we raise!) Never mind that Taubman's actions completely contradict this statement, and Taubman isn't exactly a nobody in the organization. Remember, he was an assistant GM for the most advanced and cutting-edge front office in baseball. That statement, along with Taubman's, is dead air. After 5 whole days of tanking their reputability, the Astros finally gave Taubman the boot on October 24th. It's absurd it took this long. The Astros could have washed their hands relatively clean of the subject had they only taken a few hours. Instead, starting with their outright denial of Taubman's freakout ever happening, they've started a battle with the sports media and those who value it. They're an organization that does not value the truth. They used Osuna's suspension as a market inefficiency to get a top closing talent on the cheap, and proceeded to defend him and his nasty little cheerleader from ridicule. Osuna's presence on the team, and Taubman's endorsement of him, is a complete contradiction of all of Houston's "zero tolerance" bluster and poetry about charitable progressivism. Even as Taubman was finally axed from his position, the stink from his statement and that of the team claiming "fake news" lingers after his departure. And I am not content to let it dissipate. I'm an aspiring sportswriter and broadcaster, so I take these matters seriously. America right now hates the media enough. It's unfathomably irresponsible to insinuate that the reporter is not being truthful when they are, because it sets a precedent. If a similar incident were to occur with another organization, like say, the Yankees, fans and casual onlookers alike would feel emboldened to decide that the incident never happened, and point to Houston as an example of the "lying media". If you compromise the media's position here, you encourage more multi-billion dollar organizations to cast aside all codes of ethics simply because you don't want to think about the unpleasant stuff. The Astros, as I mentioned earlier, are already in a contentious relationship with the media. Now the tension has reached a fever pitch. The ignorant among us will assume that Taubman's firing means it's gone and we can forgive and forget. That's exactly what the Astros want. For the sake of our integrity as journalists, we have to keep them accountable. They must apologize to Stephanie Apstein. They must apologize to Sports Illustrated. They must reaffirm their commitment not just to domestic violence awareness and prevention, but the truth. And they have to take actual concrete steps to prove it. As long as Roberto Osuna still wears an Astros jersey, and as long as they continue to discredit reputable journalism whenever their image is threatened, they have failed that mission. That's all from me on this issue. Jeez, remember when the worst part about the World Series was just "it's Boston again"? Simpler times. Innocent times. Don't worry; fun baseball posts will be back soon. Rawlings announced their Gold Glove Award nominees and I have some TAKES. And today I learned the award has an innings qualifier. Explains a lot. See you then. Keep your eyes open, y'all. IT'S POSTSEASON SEASON. I have arisen from my tomb of higher education on this occasion to prognosticate the proceedings of playoff baseball. In true college student fashion, I am waiting to the last possible moment to make this post, as the NL Wild Card Game is tonight. I'm not willing to waste more breath on the intro, because time is of the essence. I'm arranging by league, and then by seeding. Let's go. AMERICAN LEAGUE1. Houston Astros Regular season record : 107-55 How Davids so quickly become Goliaths. It feels like just yesterday that the upstart 2015 Astros overcame the New York Yankees in the Wild Card Game for the right to take on the top-seeded Kansas City Royals. Now, one World Series championship and two game-breaking pitching acquisitions later, here they are. Fresh off a club record 107 wins and armed with the scariest starting triple threat since Smoltz, Maddux and Glavine, they're primed to "take it back", true to their new social media slogan and rallying cry. They have an insane list of names at their disposal. On offense - murderer's row. Franchise cornerstones José Altuvé, George Springer, Alex Bregman, and Carlos Correa are back, and they're joined by on-base machine Michael Brantley and rookie sensation Yordan Alvarez. Don't forget about Yuli Gurriel, Josh Reddick, and Robinson Chirinos. This offense has been firing on all cylinders for two months and it'll take a near-immovable object to handle this near-unstoppable force. Of course, that only works if you can score runs off them. Good luck with that. Their top three pitchers are Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, and Zack Greinke. Those names--it doesn't feel right. It feels like if someone went on franchise mode of a video game and cheesed the system. Last year's Red Sox, as unstoppable as they were, could only dream of a rotation this dominant. Verlander and Cole in particular are certain to be number 1 and number 2 in the AL Cy Young conversation; the only question is how you order them. Both reached 300 strikeouts over the season. Cole will be the more intriguing storyline in my opinion; he's on a contract year. He is all but guaranteed to get a record-smashing contract in free agency for a pitcher. Who will he sign with? The Astros' results this season may determine this; it may not. The Astros also have Wade Miley as their fourth starter. Let's not forget the bullpen. While it isn't the best unit in the AL, it boasts shutdown names like Ryan Pressly, (sigh) Roberto Osuna, and Will Harris. Brad Peacock will be available in a long relief role. This team is deep, this team is multifaceted, and this team is DEADLY. Winning a single game against these guys on their home turf will be a Herculean task. To do so multiple times unprecedented. That's what it'll take to beat them, as they have the top record in baseball. We'll see if anyone is up to it. 2. New York Yankees Regular season record: 103-59 Here they are. My boys. It's hard to believe this is the first time in seven years that the Yankees have stood atop their own division. They didn't get there in remotely the fashion anyone expected. Some of the people in the above photo were completely unknown before this season made them into stars. This was not the season of the juggernaut firing on all cylinders, crushing all in its path with pure talent and payroll. It was a season of uncertainty, of steps forward followed by steps back, of injury. Literally, record-setting injury misfortune. And yet. One hundred three wins. The exact total amassed by the 2009 World Champions. I'm so proud of these guys. But if they're going to make it back to the World Series, they will have to get past at LEAST one other 100-win team. Here's the lineup they figure to use to try to get there, at least until the next injury muddies it up again. Aaron Judge, Gary Sánchez, a revitalized Giancarlo Stanton, and sophomore sensation Gleyber Torres lead the offense. Free agent signing DJ LeMahieu was endlessly valuable for the Yankees, staying healthy all year and playing three positions on the field while reaching base at a fantastic clip at the top of the order. Veteran legend Brett Gardner set a career high in home runs at age 36. And, oh yeah, Edwin Encarnación is here too. A struggling Luke Voit and--gulp--declining Didi Gregorius fill out the lineup thanks to--what else--injuries. Gio Urshela, a revelation at third base, got hurt on the final day of the regular season, and his status is uncertain. Aaron Hicks and Mike Tauchman will likely miss the entire playoffs. The latter bit of news sucked as Tauchman is such an electric personality, who would no doubt serve up some unforgettable moment or two were he in the lineup. But these are the cards they're dealt. This is how they'll play 'em. Pitching is the biggest question mark the Yankees have had to face all year. The Yankees notoriously signed no marquee free agents and made no moves at the deadline. James Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka, Luis Severino, and J.A. Happ are the pitchers with whom they will appear to move forward. Paxton has been lights-out since the All-Star break, but left his final start of the regular season with a tight glute, and now we're all going crazy again. Severino has 12 major league innings to his name this season, so who knows how much length the Yanks will get out of him. Happ has been better down the stretch in September, but has fallen prey to the long ball and can't consistently stay out of trouble. We all know the Yankees' true pitching strength. The bullpen. Adam Ottavino. Tommy Kahnle. Zack Britton. Aroldis Chapman (sigh). These four horsemen of the apocalypse are also joined by Chad Green, Luis Cessa, and David Hale, long relief options who can swoop in to the rescue should the starters sputter. At this point you're probably saying, "hey, buddy, you're missing a name". I assure you I have no idea who you're talking about. ...Eugh. ...You know what? Don't worry about it. Here's your team. It's not all in one piece, but it's got the depth and the next man up mentality needed to win a championship. We'll see if it's enough. 3. Minnesota Twins Regular season record: 101-61 The Bomba Squad. In a baseball landscape dominated by the long ball, these Minnesota Twins perfected the craft. They rode the home run ball to a triple digit win total, and dominion of the AL Central for the first time since 2010. I've got no idea if all three division winners in one league had triple digit win totals ever before this year, but it's something else. Somehow, the Twins are the third best team in their league. Here is that "third best team." Max Kepler. Jorge Polanco. Eddie Rosario. Miguel Sanó. Nelson Cruz. C.J. Cron. Mitch Garver. They all hit for power. Don't forget Jonathan Schoop and Jason Castro. Unfortunately, Byron Buxton has lost to the injury gods once again, necessitating center field starts from Jake Cave, but even he is hitting at an above average clip. Utilitymen Luis Arraez, Ehire Adrianza, and Marwin Gonzalez are all hurting, but all three can be back in the mix at some point in time. The offense is easily Minnesota's strength. Here's where things get tricky. José Berrios leads a pitching rotation that has been effective but not impressive. Jake Odorizzi has been impressive in his second season in Minnesota. He has a bit of a tight hamstring but should be ready for the playoffs. Martin Perez has been better than expected as a low-risk free agent signing, but it's uncertain if he can give the Twins distance in games. Kyle Gibson has been painfully average. And Michael Pineda has been suspended for PEDs. The Twins' bullpen has a solid back end. Taylor Rogers, quietly dominant last season, has repeated his brilliance this year. Noted Gamer Trevor May has been indispensable. Tyler Duffey and Ryne Harper have also been valuable. Aside from those four, you've got Sergio Romo and some question marks. This team will go as far as its pitching will be able to take it. You likely won't have to worry about offense. 4. Oakland Athletics Regular season record: 97-65 The Oakland Athletics, in direct defiance with the great powers of their sport, have won 97 games for the second consecutive season. Last year, they did it with the lowest payroll in the league. This year, they did it with the second-lowest, higher than only the team they're slated to face in the Wild Card--Tampa Bay. Moneyball was published sixteen years ago, but this conniving franchise is still armed to the teeth with cutting edge knowledge. Even with the most advanced organization in the sport right in their division, breathing down their neck constantly, they succeed. Behold the group that just kinda makes it happen time and time again. Headlining this band of misfits is the best 3rd base-1st base combo in all of baseball. Yes, that is a hot take. Yes, it is substantiated. The two Matts--Chapman at 3rd and Olson at 1st--can do it all offensively and defensively. Add to the Matts a Marcus (Semien) having a career year which will likely garner downballot MVP support. Tack on Chad Pinder and Jurickson Profar, and you have an infield for the ages. In the cavernous Oakland outfield, you've got batt flippin' sideburnin' legend Mark Canha. You'll also find statistical oddball Ramon Laureano (he's terrible at defense, actually), and the reliable Robbie Grossman. Don't forget about Stephen Piscotty, who can still make some noise despite being in a far more diminished role than last year. Behind the plate WOULD be Sean Murphy, but something something September callup. So have a Josh Phegley instead. Here's the part that continues to defy logic: the pitching. Sean Manaea is healthy again, a miraculous, potentially season-saving gift from the baseball gods, and compensation for losing Frankie Montas to suspension. Other than Manaea, you're presented with a wholly unremarkable staff of Mike Fiers, Brett Anderson, Homer Bailey, and Chris Bassitt. They make it work. When presented with a one-game playoff situation, though, what's important is who you've got at the top. The A's know that from their ill-fated opener experiment in 2018 against New York, which is why getting Manaea back is so, SO huge. He's also been untouchable since his return. Now the bullpen. If I told an A's fan in mid-2018 that Blake Treinen and Lou Trivino would both turn into pumpkins and be out for the season by September, but they were still a playoff team, they'd call me a lunatic. Or assume Sean Doolittle came back somehow. Well, they found a closer in-house. Liam Hendriks, the dude who opened last year's Wild Card game is now pitching dominantly in the 9th. In addition, you've got Yusmeiro Petit, Joakim Soria, Jake Diekman, Tanner Roark, J.B. Wendelken, and Ryan Buchter available. Again, they just make it work. Somehow. Someway. They're the impossible dream. Let's see how far the dream takes them. 5. Tampa Bay Rays Regular season record: 96-66 If a team makes the playoffs, and no one's there to watch it happen, did it? Evidently so, as we examine the curious case of the Tampa Bay Rays, who despite being in a playoff spot nearly the entire season, just could not draw a crowd. The Rays' attendance woes were so great that they drew fewer fans this season than the Orioles, Tigers, Royals, and Blue Jays, who are picking in the top 10 in next year's MLB draft. Only the Marlins had poorer attendance numbers than the Rays this season. It's an ugly storyline and one I wish I didn't have to talk about, but it's unavoidable when discussing these Rays. That said, let's recognize that the attendance problems are not the players' fault and analyze the squad they've built. The Rays have strength in numbers. They have some individual stars such as on-base god Tommy Pham and the slugger who makes Pittsburgh look stupider every passing day in Austin Meadows. But aside from that, it's just a bunch of above average guys who make a lineup that is tough to crack in its malleability. Brandon Lowe, Ji-Man Choi, Yandy Diaz, Kevin Kiermaier, Willy Adames, Avisail Garcia, Travis d'Arnaud, Joey Wendle, Jesús Aguilar (remember him?), and somehow there's MORE. You never really know who Kevin Cash is gonna trot out there, which makes facing them a tough task for opposing managers. This versatility also applies to the pitching staff, which once again has foregone a traditional pitching rotation for the strategy they've pioneered and perfected: the opener. However, the injuries to the Rays staff that necessitated such a reliance on the opener have been mended, and now a one-two-three of Charlie Morton, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow is very real and very scary for prospective opponents. In addition, Ryan Yarbrough and Yonny Chirinos can give you distance with or without an opener--and Cash is trusting them both more to start games. This is, of course, the end goal of the opener strategy. The bullpen is a bit different-looking than Opening Day's. Gone are Ryne Stanek, Adam Kolarek, and Jose Alvarado--the former two to trade and the latter to injury. Here to take their place are Colin Poche and Nick Anderson. Other names you might recognize include Emilio Pagan, Diego Castillo, Oliver Drake, Chaz Roe, Jalen Beeks, and Andrew Kittredge. The Rays, despite 162 games in the books are still unpredictable as all hell, and could travel further than anyone anticipates if Kevin Cash shuffles the cards just right. NATIONAL LEAGUE1. Los Angeles Dodgers Regular season record: 106-56 You might not believe it, but 106 wins is the most a Dodgers team has ever had in the regular season. This is the best Dodgers team ever assembled, so it would seem. That's it then. No more pretenses. No more excuses. Third time must be the charm in Chavez Ravine. Cody Bellinger leads them on offense. After unanimously taking NL Rookie of the Year honors in 2017, he suffered from a bit of a sophomore slump in 2018. Both years, he has struggled in the postseason. This must be the year he gets it going. Just a glance at his numbers shows how good he's become. Alongside Bellinger, you've got returning faces Justin Turner, Corey Seager, Max Muncy and Joc Pederson. A.J. Pollock's health has been questionable, but when he's on, he's as good as the rest of them. Will Smith has been a rookie sensation at catcher. Chris Taylor and Enrique Hernandez can be plugged in nearly anywhere you need them to be. Don't forget Matt Beaty, playoff legend David Freese, Austin Barnes, and veteran Russell Martin, back where his career began. On the mound, Hyun-Jin Ryu is having a helluva contract year. He was the Cy Young frontrunner through the summer, but tripped up near the end. He still has fantastic numbers and figures to get the ball game 1. Behind him, the legendary Clayton Kershaw, eager to silence doubters. After him, underrated second-year gem Walker Buehler. Add to it veteran Rich Hill, and the ever versatile Kenta Maeda and Ross Stripling, and you've got a pitching staff as good as any in the NL. Their bullpen is what's going to give Dodgers fans fits, though. Kenley Jansen, one of the most dominant closers of his era, has been rocky, volatile, and frustrating. He'll have to finish the job that Pedro Baez, Yimi Garcia, Adam Kolarek, Joe Kelly, (sigh) Julio Urias, and Dylan Floro started. The Dodgers could have everything go right the first eight innings. But if they can't count on Kenley, it's going to get MESSY. That said, this team won 106 games on their resourcefulness, so they could just figure something out. This team isn't invincible, though. 2. Atlanta Braves Regular season record: 97-65 Entering the 2019 season, the pressure was on the Braves to prove that last year was not a fluke. A refreshed Nationals squad and the Phillies, coming off a spending spree that landed them Bryce Harper among others, were gunning for Atlanta's divisional crown. Hell, even the Mets looked pretty good and looked to be in the hunt. The incumbent was faced with a tough test. They passed with flying colors, winning 7 more games in 2019 than the previous season. Behold the Braves, your proven kings of the NL East, in all their splendor. The Braves lineup features one of the scariest top 4 hitters in baseball. Ronald Acuña Jr. leads off, followed by his brother from another mother, the diminutive scion of Ram trucks (just look it up), Ozzie Albies. After that, Freddie Freeman, the most startlingly consistent player in baseball who just doesn't win MVPs because the NL is insane. Then there's the Bringer of Rain, Josh Donaldson, who somehow looks like a bargain despite making $20 million. Those four underpin a lineup which also features Atlanta legend Brian McCann, Matt Joyce, Adam Duvall, Dansby Swanson, and Nick Markakis, back for one last ride. Adeiny Hechavarria has turned his season around since leaving Queens for Cobb County, and Billy Hamilton is a dangerous pinch-running threat who can probably score from first on a single. The squad isn't in one piece, though. Fan favorite Charlie Culberson will miss the fun, as will backup infielder Johan Camargo. The team still has a multitude of weapons at its disposal. The pitching staff has solidified after a few months of uncertainty. Mike Soroka, rookie stallion of the True North, shall lead them. After that, The Beard, Dallas Keuchel. Julio Teheran is on a contract year, and he's a solid veteran option. Then there's Mike Foltynewicz, who turned his season around after a disastrous start. The bullpen should be stronger than regular season form by virtue of rookie hurler Max Fried, who started games, joining them there. Fried joins a cast of characters good as any in the NL. There's Sean Newcomb, Josh Tomlin, Luke Jackson, Anthony Swarzak, and Jerry Blevins, as well as July 31st acquisitions Shane Greene, Mark Melancon, and Chris Martin. It's no Yankees bullpen, but there's strength in numbers. The Braves have silenced the doubters and posted Tiger Woods images on their tombstones. Now it's time for a little more payback. 3. St. Louis Cardinals Regular season record: 91-71 As the dust clears from the ungodly battle that is the National League Central division, one team must stand alone atop the totem pole. St. Louis, fresh off a Stanley Cup, proved it wasn't going to use that as an excuse to pass up a shot at the Commissioner's Trophy. The Cardinals, perennially respectable but never overpowering, had missed the playoffs for three consecutive seasons, all while staying above .500 and staying in the fight. This year, they finally outlasted their rivals, and now the Central is all theirs. Paul Goldschmidt is the story. He had a roughly average first season in Cardinals colors, but the postseason is the perfect chance to change the narrative. Alongside him are Paul DeJong, Marcell Ozuna, and Kolten Wong. Matt Carpenter has lost a step, but he might find that special salsa again in the postseason. Yadier Molina returns behind the plate, and looks splendid for 36. Harrison Bader could awaken his bat again to go alongside a sterling glove hand. José Martinez and Dexter Fowler are still here, for what it's worth. Maybe Tyler O'Neill will go on one of his tears where he's the best hitter in baseball before reverting back to being average. This offense is quite frankly weak in comparison to other division winners, but there's nothing a little Cardinal Magic can't fix. The rotation was a spot of bother for the Cardinals in the first half, as they struggled to field competitive pitching. In the second half, they were treated to Ultra Instinct Jack Flaherty, unstoppable after the All-Star Break. Behind him, Miles Mikolas has taken a step back, but if he can keep his slider under control he should be bueno. Dakota Hudson has been extremely valuable for St. Louis and doesn't get enough credit despite somewhat troubling peripherals. Adam Wainwright is still here and can still do damage, even at the ripe old age of 37. Can he add another piece of hardware in his storied career? The bullpen has also been unpredictable. While Giovanny Gallegos and John Gant have been unexpected heroes, Jordan Hicks blew his arm out and forced Carlos Martinez to take over as closer. While certainly a downgrade, he's been effective in his new role down the stretch. Andrew Miller is here, too, but a broken down version of himself that might not get it done in important situations. They might rely upon more youthful options in Tyler Webb, John Brebbia, and Daniel Ponce de Leon. We'll have to see what the late-inning strategy is for these Redbirds, as it will likely be a critical determining factor in whether or not they fly far. 4. Washington Nationals Regular season record: 93-69 How about this? This team couldn't have gotten off to a worse start for a team looking for one last gasp at glory before their window closed. With no Bryce Harper to lead them, the much mocked and much-maligned Nationals seemed destined for a date with the cellar for the foreseeable future. Then, something changed. The Nats soon turned around and delivered on the potential their star-studded cast of characters presented. Style finally met substance. Is this the year they finally win a playoff series? What if they're not satisfied with just one? A child shall lead them. Twenty-year old Juan Soto continues to defy belief with light tower power and unprecedented plate patience for a man his age. Then there's Anthony Rendon, who somehow only barely made it into the All-Star game and should absolutely get NL MVP votes, he's that good. Don't forget Trea Turner, who rides outstanding glovework, blinding speed, and exceptional bat to ball skills. Rookie Victor Robles, who's about as fast and defensively proficient as they come in center field, joins Soto and the spunky Adam Eaton in the outfield. Howie Kendrick is 35 and doesn't look a day over 25 at the plate. Gerardo Parra isn't exactly good, but he's fun, and you can tell how much the clubhouse rallies around him. Add to that veteran presence in Kurt Suzuki, Matt Adams, Brian Dozier, and Ryan Zimmerman, and you have one of those Wild Card teams that can easily go toe-to-toe with division leaders. The fun doesn't stop there. The Nationals' pride and joy, as always, lies in their rotation. Max Scherzer. Stephen Strasburg. Patrick Corbin. Anibal Sanchez. These names strike fear into the hearts of batters nationwide, and they'll be hungrier than ever as this playoff window nears its close. I don't need to explain just how good they are. Just go to Baseball Reference. Their dominance speaks for itself. Welp. Here we are. The Nationals bullpen. Here come your favorite jokes about how bad they are. This fruit is hanging so low, it's touching the ground. Yet, they have a strong back end. Sean Doolittle is their closer, and Daniel Hudson their setup man. Austin Voth has been nasty and you probably haven't heard of him, which only bodes well for him. ...Aside from them, things get dicey. Wander Suero has been dominant at points and completely overmatched in others. Tanner Rainey has been good, but can he stand out? Fernando Rodney is Fernando Rodney. Hunter Strickland can't keep it together. Javy Guerra isn't really the guy I'd have out there. Jeremy Hellickson is bad. If the starters can get deep into games and get some run support, the Nats should be fine, but it's not that easy in the playoffs where the best of the best are always waiting to pounce on one small mistake. The Nats know that better than anybody. Here they are, maybe one last time. Can the Nationals turn the narrative around? 5. Milwaukee Brewers Regular season record: 89-73 On September 10th, the Brewers lost their heartbeat. Christian Yelich suffered a broken kneecap and was done for the season. Despite this, they kept on living. Riding a torrid September in a similar fashion to last year's divisional champions, the Brewers secured the last remaining playoff berth in the NL over the Cubs. Thirteen wins in their final eighteen games, without the help of the reigning NL MVP. It is a Cinderella story. But has the clock already struck 12? Yelich isn't the only one hurting. Eric Thames, Lorenzo Cain and Ryan Braun have all suffered injuries in September and while Thames looks to be back, it's unclear for the other two. (UPDATE: all three are in the lineup and ready to go. That's huge.) Mike Moustakas has mashed in Yelich's absence, but can he carry a team? How about the rookie Keston Hiura? Yasmani Grandal is valuable behind the plate, but will he get the yips in the playoffs again? Orlando Arcia can field, but can he hit? Do they have anybody worth a damn off the bench? There's so many questions. Probably not enough answers. The Brewers' pitching staff has been in a state of flux all year. Gone are Jhoulys Chacin and Wade Miley. Here to stay, Zach Davies, Brandon Woodruff, Adrian Houser, and Chase Anderson. Like the lineup, it's a rotation that raises more questions than answers, but at least Woodruff is here at all. Here's hoping that oblique holds up. Then there's the bullpen, which has gone from a monolith to...presentable. Josh Hader remains, and he's sure to do a lot of heavy lifting. Brent Suter finally returned and looked dominant in a small sample. Drew Pomeranz has put it together. Junior Guerra can get it done. Jordan Lyles should be effective in a smaller role. Aside from that...here come the question marks. Matt Albers? Jimmy Nelson? Do the Brewers even TRY with Corbin Burnes? Craig Counsell is presented with a CVS receipt filled with questions, and he'll need to find answers. He did it in September, but October is a different beast. Can the Crew tame it? Prediction Time!Here's where it gets spicy. I'm gonna make this quick, because this post is long enough, but I'll predict how I think every series will end up when it's all said and done. Bonus: Championship Series and World Series MVPs. Time to break out the crystal ball. Lukewarm takes incoming! AL Wild Card Game - A's beat Rays (1-0)
NL Wild Card Game - Nationals beat Brewers (1-0) ALDS - Yankees beat Twins (3-2), Astros beat Athletics (3-2) NLDS - Braves beat Cardinals (3-1), Dodgers beat Nationals (3-2) ALCS - Astros beat Yankees (4-2). MVP - Gerrit Cole NLCS - Braves beat Dodgers (4-3). MVP - Ronald Acuña Jr. World Series - Astros beat Braves (4-2). MVP - Michael Brantley How do you like my unsubstantiated shots in the dark? I hate 'em, too. Yankees losing to Houston? Nationals losing to LA? I hate it. HATE IT. Here's hoping these are inaccurate. I want a Nats-Braves NLCS and I want it NOW. ...Oh, yeah, Yankees, please win the World Series. Thank you. Aaaaaanyway. Congrats on getting to the end of this post! I'm glad I was able to get it in just before the playoffs started. Feel free to shout your hot takes at me via my personal Twitter, @JeremyN75, which I'll just be using to post from now on because the blog account just doesn't have any followers, heh. Or you could yell at me on Discord, JeremyN75#1957. Thanks, y'all. Enjoy the postseason. These past few months have been busy for baseball, and they've been busy for me. I'm trying to post more, but it's sometimes challenging to build up motivation in the dog days of summer. Here I am, though. Today, I'm making a post about all manner of things: there's no underlying theme or motif, I'm just spitballing ideas. Let's begin in Cincinnati. The Punisher: Aristides Aquino's Torrid Rise to HistoryHis brother dubbed him The Punisher when they were children in the Dominican Republic. Now Aristides Aquino is the next big thing in the Major Leagues. On August 10th, he hit three home runs in one game, and made some history. He became the second player in Major League history to hit seven home runs in his first 10 career games. The only other man to do it was Trevor Story for the Rockies in 2016. It's fascinating to watch a man who almost faces the pitcher head-on in his batting stance quickly bear down on the baseball and destroy it. Aquino's third career home run was hit at 118.3 mph, the hardest hit by a Red in the entire Statcast era. There's always the cautionary tale of small sample size, and he's had a very hot-and-cold Minor League career to this point, but as far as first impressions go, you could do far worse than Aquino. On the 12th against Washington, he hit his 8th home run in his 39th career plate appearance. Over twenty percent of his career PAs to this point have yielded a homer. It's insane. He's quickly becoming one of my favorite players to watch. One final anecdote on Aquino: on the same night of his three-homer game, Houston Astros rookie sensation Yordan Alvarez accomplished the same feat against the Orioles. Aquino and Alvarez became the first two rookies in MLB history to have three-homer games on the same day. To add to the coincidence, both of them wear the number 44. Know who else wore the number 44? The man with perhaps the most famous three-homer game in baseball history: Reggie Jackson. It's official: 44 is the three-homer game number. It's not intuitive, but it's backed up by results! Aaron Judge's Power Outage - Injuries Still LingerAaron Judge isn't having a bad season by any means. But with just 12 home runs and a .463 slugging percentage, there's a critical aspect of his game missing: power. The man with the most raw power in the Major Leagues hasn't been able to summon it with consistency this season. To diagnose Judge's sapped power stroke, we could offer all sorts of weird explanations, including the ol' reliable among Yankees fans: "he's not that good." Well, that's preposterous, so let's employ meaningful thought to see what's really going on. One big quirk with Judge's homers this year is that none of them have gone to left field. That's right; none of Judge's twelve homers have gone to left. Nine to right, three to center. That's it. He's not turning on pitches and pulling them with power. He has a .460 SLG on pulled pitches, which ranks #347 out of 372 hitters who have pulled the ball 30 times. Guys like Dee Gordon, Orlando Arcia, and Richie Martin are slugging better than Aaron Judge on their pull side, which is preposterous. So, why? During a Sunday Night Baseball broadcast on ESPN between the Yankees and Red Sox on August 4th (a game where Judge homered), Alex Rodriguez provided some great insight on how Judge's oblique, which he strained in late April, is likely still preventing him from really turning on pitches and blasting them into orbit in left. The reason I say it's valuable is because A-Rod said he suffered an oblique injury of his own. This was in 2011, before Statcast came online, so we can't analyze it as thoroughly as we can Judge's. However, Alex Rodriguez' slugging percentage after the All-Star Break (which is when all of his post-injury at-bats took place) was .353, as opposed to a .485 slugging percentage beforehand. The ramifications are evident: oblique injuries hamper your slugging abilities. The reason I'm bringing this up is because people tend to forget that just because a player is healthy enough to play doesn't mean that their injuries are totally gone and they're at 100%. Some injuries will leave a more lasting effect on your performance off the IL than others. Sure, some players go on torrid stretches since returning from injuries, but you have to contextualize the injury and see how much (or how little) that injury could still be impacting them. Predicting Gerrit Cole's Free Agent Destination Far Too EarlyGerrit Cole will be the best free agent pitcher to hit the market not just in 2020, but in recent memory. He will receive a massive payday. Through the first twenty-five starts in his contract year, the Newport Beach, California native has a 2.87 ERA and 226 strikeouts in 156.2 innings. His 36.8% K rate is tops among all qualified starting pitchers (minimum 450 plate appearances). His xwOBA of .257 is 3rd in the league among starters behind Max Scherzer (1st) and teammate Justin Verlander (2nd). In addition, Cole will be 29 in free agency, placing him solidly on the younger side of the free agent spectrum. Yeah, this man's gonna get a big paycheck. So where could he go? I'm almost certainly about to put more thought into Gerrit Cole's free agency than Gerrit Cole is right now. First off is the obvious one: the Yankees. You've likely heard the bellyaching of the Yankees fanbase about how much of a liability the starting pitching has become in the Bronx. They're not wrong. Since June 1st, the pitching rotation has a 5.63 ERA. To make matters worse. Luis Severino isn't coming back any time soon, and the front office made no additions at the deadline. The Yanks should be motivated to spend big on a pitcher in free agency after lowballing Patrick Corbin and settling on J.A. Happ, who's been abysmal. Fans can only hope the front office, which is suddenly very interested in saving money for some reason, mans up and offers Cole what he's worth. The Cardinals are another candidate with a similar story to the Yankees. Their pitching rotation has been unreliable all season long, and they made no moves at the deadline other than...trading Jedd Gyorko for Tony Cingrani. Sure. "The Best Fans In Baseball" are getting restless as a sputtering and uninspired Cardinals squad is trending toward missing the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year. Jack Flaherty is just about all they have. Miles Mikolas has declined after a big payday thanks to a suddenly ineffective slider, Michael Wacha is a meatball dispenser, Carlos Martinez is apparently a reliever now after Jordan Hicks' arm went FUBAR, Dakota Hudson is mediocre, and Adam Wainwright is 38 at the end of the season. They'll need another guy, and the front office will likely feel the pressure to make a big move. I wouldn't put it out of the question for the Braves to take a shot on Cole. Their rotation is solid, but not necessarily a strength. It depends on whether or not the Braves wish to move on from Julio Teheran, who is also a UFA in 2020. Teheran is solid, but not a game-changer like Cole could potentially be. Mike Soroka and Max Fried appear to be legit, but Mike Foltynewicz is shaky and Sean Newcomb figures to stay in the bullpen. The Braves might also desire to see more internal development. Ian Anderson and Kyle Wright are highly regarded prospects with plenty of hype around them, and the Braves have been hesitant to include them in trade offers, so keep that in mind. The Phillies should be a player for Cole too. Their rotation is devoid of depth beyond Aaron Nola, and Jake Arrieta isn't getting any younger. Vince Velazquez, Zach Eflin, and Nick Pivetta don't seem to be long-term solutions. Nor are Jason Vargas and Drew Smyly, who are both on expiring contracts. Their conquest to "spend stupid money" may not be finished just yet and the rotation is clearly the greatest deficiency facing Philly at present. We'll see just how much money they'd be able to pony up for Cole's services considering how much they already have on the books. The Brewers and Twins could certainly both use more starting pitching help, but are they willing to pay the right price for it? The Twins could potentially be spurred to make a big move if the Indians overtake them (which, as of August 12th, they have) and the Brewers' rotation is in shambles after GM David Stearns made no notable moves to improve it in the offseason. Neither rotation is excellent and they lack that face-of-the-pitching staff #1 guy, which Gerrit Cole undeniably is. As cool as it would be for either of these teams to nab Cole, I don't see it happening because they just don't have a history of doing so. Even if they do, they can very easily be outbidded by the Yankees or Cardinals. I decided to have fun with this next one. It probably won't happen, but what if the Reds signed Gerrit Cole? The Reds ostensiby have the payroll space if they want to throw all their eggs into one basket and create a pitching megastaff. A rotation of Cole-Luis Castillo-Sonny Gray-Trevor Bauer-Anthony DeSclafani would instantly be a top 3 rotation in the MLB. The Reds already broke their franchise record with a $133-million payroll this season. With a few contracts such as Matt Kemp and Alex Wood coming off the books, there should be room to grow it further. Excitement is starting to build up in the Reds' fanbase, so making a loud splash move would get people to games just like that. Of course, there's also the possibility that Gerrit Cole remains an Astro, but I'm not convinced that will happen. There's certainly reason to stick around, as the Astros will be dominant for years to come. But Houston may no longer have room for him after adding Greinke and Aaron Sanchez, and they're awaiting the arrival of top prospect Forrest Whitley. Greinke's contract ain't cheap, even with how impressively Astros GM Jeff Luhnow managed to lower his retained salary (the D-Backs are paying $32 million of the $77 million Greinke is owed--about 31% of his contract.) There's also Lance McCullers and Colin McHugh to consider, though they'll likely be long relievers who can supply rotational depth should one of their big boys hit the IL. Where do I think he's going? The Yankees, if they pay up, but if they don't, I think the Cardinals could nab him. In my opinion, the order of likelihood he signs with the teams I listed are: 1. Yankees 2. Cardinals 3. Phillies 4. Braves 5. Astros 6. Twins 7. Brewers 8. Reds. It's too early to tell, but I can't think of too many other teams who'd be primed to take a run at Cole. Gleyber Torres, Bird KillerYankees infielder Gleyber Torres, if you haven't noticed, really likes hitting against the Orioles. Yesterday he homered three times in a day-night doubleheader with the O's. These three blasts pushed his season total of home runs against Baltimore to thirteen. As you can probably expect, this is historic. He's tied a mark set by legends such as Roger Maris and Jimmie Foxx for home runs against a single team in a single season. Can he keep climbing? The Yankees play two more games against the Orioles this season. If he reaches 14, he ties the all-time mark, set by Lou Gehrig against the Cleveland Indians in 1936. If he reaches 15, the record is all his. Considering that the Orioles are well on their way to setting the Major League record for most homers allowed in a single season, it's not an inconceivable occurrence. Of course, the best part about all these homers against the Orioles is seeing legendary O's broadcaster Gary Thorne lose his marbles every time. Paul O'Neill even paid a visit to the MASN booth to hassle Thorne about it after home run number 13. His call from last night: *crack* "Ugh! Way back, left field! You've gotta be KIDDING me! Goodbye home run! ...I swear to the Lord, you gotta put four fingers up when Torres comes to the plate, 'cause when he comes around third, it's too late!" (https://twitter.com/Yankees/status/1161083092125310981?s=20) Gary Thorne's sanity might not be able to withstand any more home runs from Gleyber. ...Like, ever. Like, even after this season. Like next year. Like five years down the line. Watching Torres is gonna give him flashbacks. Poor dude. Can The Royals' Offense Rebuild Quicker Than Expected?The 2019 Kansas City Royals cannot and will not be mistaken for being a good baseball team. They sit thirty-three games below .500 with a -99 run differential. But they might be good quicker than expected, and their offense will lead the way. So who are the names to know? First, there's Whit Merrifield, who is just about the only Royal most people know about. He's just about a five-tool player who reaches base at a high clip, plays plus defense at multiple positions, steals plenty of bases, and even has some pop. He's having a career year offensively and is on an extremely team-friendly deal. He typically plays second base, but can also cover short, first base, and right field. 2019 Stats: .306/.361/.491 (.852 OPS, 121 wRC+), 14 HR, 64 RBI, .360 wOBA, .338 xwOBA, 16 SB, 28.7 ft/s sprint speed Second, there's Hunter Dozier. Dozier was the first man I covered ever on this blog, and he's still crushing baseballs. He's one of the top hitters in the American League right now, and most people probably don't know who he is. He probably should have been an All-Star, but it's no worries, seeing as he's still rather unknown. He mans the hot corner. 2019 Stats: .285/.366/.561 (.926 OPS, 138 wRC+), 22 HR, 66 RBI, .386 wOBA, .375 xwOBA, 92.4 mph average exit velocity, 44.7% hard hit rate Finally, there's Jorge Soler, a bonafide slugger with light tower power. Acquired in a one-for-one swap with the Chicago Cubs for closer Wade Davis, Soler had mostly underperformed his prospect pedigree before 2018. He showed flashes in an injury-hampered 2018 before breaking out and crushing baseballs with authority this season. He patrols the outfield, usually in a corner spot. 2019 Stats: .259/.344/.555 (.899 OPS, 131 wRC+), 35 HR, 87 RBI, .376 wOBA, .389 xwOBA, 92.3 mph average exit velocity, 48.1% hard hit rate Now, three players does not a team make. But the foundations are already here. What's more, they'll be sticking around. Whit Merrifield isn't a free agent until 2023. Hunter Dozier is under team control until 2024. Soler, 2022. The Royals have time on their side, and they should be able to secure another top draft pick this year. Why deal any of these players? ...Oh Yeah, The Mets Are Good NowSoooo...what's happening over here in Queens? The Mets are 21-7 since the All-Star Break and are back in the NL Wild Card race. As if there needed to be yet another team in contention. Anyway, there's no denying that the Mets have played like a unit recently since clubhouse infighting, ineffectiveness from key players, and general underperformance threatened to kill the first season of new GM Brodie Van Wagenen's tenure. Something changed, though. The Mets finally started living up to expectations. And it's about time we started respecting their roster again. It's not perfect, but the Mets have plenty of talent. Their hitting core consists of NL Rookie of the Year frontrunner Pete Alonso and NL batting title candidate Jeff McNeil, as well as slugging outfielders Michael Conforto and J.D. Davis, the latter being Van Wagenen's finest acquisition as GM. Their pitching rotation is undeniably elite. Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, and deadline deal Marcus Stroman create a top trifecta in the league. Zack Wheeler as a fourth starter doesn't hurt either. The bullpen is where it always gets interesting with NL teams, and the Mets are no different. While Seth Lugo has been dominant down the stretch, and Justin Wilson and Robert Gsellman have gotten results, the big story is Edwin Diaz. He continues to scuffle in spite of the Mets' new winning ways, and it's not hard to diagnose the reason why. Despite a high K rate and xwOBA, the dude gets hit like a truck. A hard hit rate allowed of 45.8% and average exit velocity against of 90.3 mph are bottom marks in the entire league. When contact is made, Diaz gets rocked. Other peripherals for Diaz are good, but unless he finds a way to remedy his hard hit problem, the desired concrete results might not show up. Do I think the Mets are a playoff team? Nah, but this is the season I expected them to have in March. It sure makes them fun, even if there are a ton of red flags, especially pertaining to the farm system, which has stripped bare many of its top assets in recent trades directed by Van Wagenen. It adds just a little bit more chaos to a crowded NL race, which isn't a bad thing. I'm still salty they only had to give up two prospects for Stroman, though. This crosstown rival wanted the Stro Show for himself. And, that's all! Thanks for getting to the end of this thing! At some point I considered splitting these all into separate posts, but figured I was too far along for that. It's something I'll think about next time. Thanks again for reading, and I'll see you next month!
...Too soon? Happy birthday, Tyler.
The entire baseball world has struggled to move on from the sudden, tragic death of Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs. No one knows why he passed, and we won't know until season's end at the soonest. But all we know is that he's gone. The Angels, already a team struggling to hang on in the American League playoff race, were dealt a blow larger and more painful than any playoff elimination. It's easy to wallow in sadness after losing a loved one. Grief is only natural, after all. But on the night of July 12th, 2019, 11 days after his passing and one day before what would have been his 28th birthday, the Angels chose to celebrate their brother. On Friday, the Angels kicked off their second half against the last place Seattle Mariners at Angel Stadium. Every Angels player wore Skaggs' name and number 45 on his back. Skaggs' mother, Debbie, threw out the ceremonial first pitch. The pitch was right down the middle. The Angels bats erupted early and often, scoring 7 of their 13 runs in the first inning. It was a magical offensive night, but the offense quickly gave way to a more powerful magic on the loneliest place in sports. Skaggs made the last start of his life in this building on June 29th, two days before his death. There, he toiled alone for 4 and a third laborious innings against the Oakland Athletics. He allowed 2 earned runs on 2 hits and 4 walks. He would receive no run support and would take the loss in 4-0 shutout victory for the A's. Alone. The pitcher's mound offers a unique form of solitude in professional sports. Your only lifeline is the occasional chat with your catcher, coach, or manager when he's seen enough of you out there. Otherwise, you have to battle with yourself through every second. When you're cruising and executing, it can be simple enough to win these battles. But Tyler Skaggs' final start offered no such luxury. He battled and lost alone. His lifeline, manager Brad Ausmus, took the ball from his hands for what would be the last time. Skaggs didn't have a lifeline shortly after midnight on July 1st. He died alone. It's a pitcher's lot in life to triumph and falter alone. When Taylor Cole, a 29-year old journeyman called up from the minors on July 4th, stepped on the mound to open Friday's game, it seemed at first glance that he too was alone on the hill. But as the outs piled on with no Mariner hits to show for it, it became clear to all watching that Cole was not alone. Tyler was with him. Cole pitched the first 2 innings and gave up no hits before ceding to Felix Peña. Peña pitched like a man possessed, racking up 6 strikeouts and allowing only one baserunner--a walk to DH Omar Narvaez--through 6 innings, from the 3rd to the 8th. After the Angels did not score in the 8th inning, Peña came in for his seventh inning and the stage was set. Three outs to get. Mac Williamson hit the first pitch of the 9th high in the air to right center field, but it was a routine play for Mike Trout. One down. The speedy Dee Gordon nubbed a tapper back to Peña, who scampered to his right off the mound, fielded and fired a bullet to first base in time. Two down. The last batter was Mallex Smith. After a first pitch slider from Peña missed outside for a ball, Smith chopped his second offer to second base. Luis Rengifo knocked the ball down, recovered, and fired to first base within three seconds. And just like that, the Angels had done it. They had achieved a miracle. Such a feat lived in the pages of fairy tales, not real life. Yet, it had happened all the same. The Angels threw a combined no-hitter in honor of their fallen teammate, Tyler Skaggs. It felt, and still does feel, like a decree from a higher power. It felt demanded, expected. The baseball gods wanted a proper tribute to Tyler Skaggs, and they got a master class from his domain. After the game, teammates settled around the pitcher's mound and placed their Skaggs #45 jerseys on it. The loneliest place in sports felt a bit less lonely. But perhaps the greatest revelation, perhaps the greatest sign of a higher power orchestrating this game, came from a single date in history. |
About MeI'm Jeremy, and I like baseball. Watching it and writing about it mainly. This is where the latter goes. My other hobbies include video games, singing, biking, and slacking off. I live in New Jersey and go to school at Goucher College in Baltimore. That's me on TV! If you want a better look, check out this video. Watch the stands on Kyle Lewis' home run very closely. Look for the skinny guy with the Yankees hat.
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