The Season is Over, but Baseball is Not

The baseball regular season is over, unfortunately. But good news! The playoffs are here! But first, I want to recap everything that happened this year.

 Here are the final results for each division:

 

AL East:

Boston- 97-65

Tampa Bay- 91-71

NY Yankees- 85-77

Baltimore- 85-77

Toronto- 74-88

AL Central:

Detroit- 93-69

Cleveland- 92-70

Kansas City- 86-76

Minnesota- 66-96

Chicago Sox- 63-99

AL West:

Oakland- 96-66

Texas- 91-71

LA Angels- 78-84

Seattle- 71-91

Houston- 51-111 (Finishing with a 15 game losing streak. 51-111 and a .315 is the worst record in baseball history since the 2002 Detroit Tigers)

 

NL East:

Atlanta- 96-66

Washington- 86-76

NY Mets- 74-88

Philly- 73-89

Miami- 62-100

NL Central:

St. Louis- 97-65

Pittsburgh- 94-68

Cincinnati- 90-72

Milwaukee- 74-88

Chicago Cubs- 66-96

NL West:

LA Dodgers: 92-70

Arizona- 81-81 (shocking…)

San Francisco- 76-86

San Diego- 76-86

Colorado- 74-88

That’s it. A long time ago, I made my predictions, and got four of the six division winners correct, including the Red Sox, who were seen as a surprise pick. Hey, I’ll take that. 

I don’t know about you, but I thought this year was fantastic. We saw the surge of the Atlanta Braves earlier in the season, and they continued to be a dominant team throughout the season. We saw the AL fight between Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout… again. We saw teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals have winning seasons for the first time in forever, while teams like The LA Angels, Washington Nationals, and San Francisco Giants disappointed. 

If you look at players, we’ve found ourselves in the beginning of a new era. We saw a guy named Chris Davis stop Miggy from getting another Triple Crown with his 53 homers and 138 RBI’s. We also saw guys that were top prospects two years ago, like Manny Machado, Matt Harvey, and Paul Goldschmidt, bring their bright talents into a new era. But then rookies came, such as Yasiel Puig (who we all know how that turned out), Jose Fernandez, and Jose Iglesias. We also saw top prospects come during the season besides Puig, like Gerrit Cole and Xander Bogaerts. 

But with the rise of new players, there has been a fall of great veterans. As we know, the New York Yankees are crumbling, as both Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte, the faces of the organization for years, have retired. It seems like Derek Jeter is coming close to retirement too. Todd Helton, the greatest Rockie to ever play the game, is gone too. Jason Giambi might be gone any day now, and Roy Halladay is on his deathbed, after having a terrible but sad-to-watch year this year. Ichiro hit his 4,000^th hit, and might retire soon as well. There’s no Johan Santana vs. Tim Lincecum matchup anymore; now it’s Clayton Kershaw vs. Yu Darvish. 

I mentioned a load about statistics. There is Wins Above Replacement, Batting Average On Balls In Play, Ultimate Zone Rating, and Power-Speed #, which are just a few to mention. There are so many more that have impacted this game completely.

The steroid era might be in a close, thank god. Though the Bonds era also had some of the greatest players too, the suspensions of players like Ryan Braun, Alex Rodriguez (kind of), and many other players have marked that the issue just might be over. 

This year, there’s no clear cut of who will win the MVP, in both leagues. If you think Miggy had it in the bag, look at the stats. Things have changed. The Cy Young is clear for the NL (Clayton Kershaw, who is only the fourth person to finish with an ERA under 2 in the live ball era), but the AL is still finding a shoe-in. Max Scherzer seems like the favorite right now, but there are others that might deserve it more.

We saw three no-hitters, including one just yesterday to end the season. Henderson Alvarez threw a no-hitter, and the Marlins walked-off in the ninth to win 1-0. How many pitchers can say that they threw a no-hitter by standing in the on-deck circle? There were also many one-hitters, and an absurd amount of no-hit bids that were broken up with two outs in the ninth. 

There were fights, injuries, and questionable trades. There was a time when it seemed like the LA Dodgers were completely throwing their money away. But those times are over, and now we’ve found ourselves in a play-in game to a play-in game to get into the playoffs. How crazy is that!

I can’t wait for tonight. It’ll be the start of the playoffs in September. 

Then it’s October, and we all know how magical this can be. 

I read an article questioning whether baseball is over, and is no longer America’s pastime. I would say hell no. Even though football and basketball and even hockey are rising, baseball is just transitioning into a new era. This isn’t the baseball that we know of ten years ago. The rise of new players and statistical analysis has changed the game, in a good way, and we must accept that. 

There’s no more Mariano Rivera. But there is Craig Kimbrel.

Baseball is not over, it’s only beginning. Soon even the Cubs will have a shot at the World Series. Email me at statsbuddy42@gmail.com for any questions/comments/concerns.

-Evan Boyd