So with the baseball season perhaps being shortened, that has led me to a ton of quesions. Some of these are interesting, and others make me a little sad. I'm going to start out with some of the sad ones first.
There have been talks about re-aligning things drastically. I've seen there were a few articles written on this but didn't really read them, just kind of skimmed over one, so I may not know what I'm talking about on this one. While I agree that some sort of re-alignment needs to be done, I don't believe it needs to be that radical. My overall best-case scenario would be for the AL & NL to do away with divisions and have the top 2-4 teams make the playoffs (2 in my utopia), or for the AL & NL to split into East and West divisions, with the top teams in each division making the playoffs. With the talks I have heard of, it would totally change the landscape of everything I have ever known. Heck, I organize my baseball cards by the AL & NL teams alphabetically. It took me forever to put the Brewers in the NL, and Washington at the very end of the NL, and I still do the Marlins as if they are in Florida, and the Astros as if they are in the NL. If MLB changes things like I've been hearing, it will just crush part of my childhood, and I really don't think keeping things the way they are will mess anything up, even if they do just play in AZ and FL. It keeps rivalries intact, and allows things to stay the same in 2021 when (hopefully) everything will be back to normal. The divisions are pretty balanced right now, and it could upset the flow of talent in each division as well. Lets say the Yankees, Braves, Nationals, Phillies, and Blue Jays end up in some kind of Eastern division and the Tigers, Royals, Pirates, and Orioles end up in some sort of East division in another league. You are going to have some top 10 teams in another division, and some bottom 10 in another, yet the top team in each one will make the playoffs. Nobody wants to see a below .500 team make the playoffs, and it almost makes sense to do away with divisions and have the 2 teams with the best records in the league to advance to the LCS.
Another thing would be if an over-achieving team gets in the playoffs. Remember the Royals of 2003? Heck, the Tigers were over .500 early in 2019. What if a team like the Tigers, Orioles, Royals, Giants, or Marlins overachieves for 2-3 months and somehow gets a playoff spot? Everyone knows each of those teams are a few years away from contending. I could see a team like the Padres, White Sox, or Reds getting in, but I can see them competing legitimately competing this year, and definitely next. I just think there are too many chances that a non-deserving team will get in the playoffs due to the game shortage and potential division changes.
Now on to the kind of fun quesions.
We could potentially see someone hit .400. I don't think that will mean they would have 400 At-Bats or however many Plate Appearances it is, but we could really see someone have a .400 Average at the end of the season.
We could see someone with a below 1.00 ERA.
We could see someone go 9-0, 10-0, etc.
While we probably won't see any volume records being broken like most HRs in a season or see any 50 HR, 20 Win, and 50 Save seasons, some of these other stats could be cool with the shortened season amount. It could also help a mid-tier player who gets hot end up leading the League in something. We could see a streaky hitter like Nick Castellanos win a HR crown or a guy like Robbie Ray of the Diamondbacks win the K crown.
Do I think the amount of games will give us enough to determine a real champion? I don't know. I hope so. Just some random things I have been thinking about lately.
Here are some customs I've made lately from one of the last times a shortened season was played (not counting 1994 and 1995).
There have been talks about re-aligning things drastically. I've seen there were a few articles written on this but didn't really read them, just kind of skimmed over one, so I may not know what I'm talking about on this one. While I agree that some sort of re-alignment needs to be done, I don't believe it needs to be that radical. My overall best-case scenario would be for the AL & NL to do away with divisions and have the top 2-4 teams make the playoffs (2 in my utopia), or for the AL & NL to split into East and West divisions, with the top teams in each division making the playoffs. With the talks I have heard of, it would totally change the landscape of everything I have ever known. Heck, I organize my baseball cards by the AL & NL teams alphabetically. It took me forever to put the Brewers in the NL, and Washington at the very end of the NL, and I still do the Marlins as if they are in Florida, and the Astros as if they are in the NL. If MLB changes things like I've been hearing, it will just crush part of my childhood, and I really don't think keeping things the way they are will mess anything up, even if they do just play in AZ and FL. It keeps rivalries intact, and allows things to stay the same in 2021 when (hopefully) everything will be back to normal. The divisions are pretty balanced right now, and it could upset the flow of talent in each division as well. Lets say the Yankees, Braves, Nationals, Phillies, and Blue Jays end up in some kind of Eastern division and the Tigers, Royals, Pirates, and Orioles end up in some sort of East division in another league. You are going to have some top 10 teams in another division, and some bottom 10 in another, yet the top team in each one will make the playoffs. Nobody wants to see a below .500 team make the playoffs, and it almost makes sense to do away with divisions and have the 2 teams with the best records in the league to advance to the LCS.
Another thing would be if an over-achieving team gets in the playoffs. Remember the Royals of 2003? Heck, the Tigers were over .500 early in 2019. What if a team like the Tigers, Orioles, Royals, Giants, or Marlins overachieves for 2-3 months and somehow gets a playoff spot? Everyone knows each of those teams are a few years away from contending. I could see a team like the Padres, White Sox, or Reds getting in, but I can see them competing legitimately competing this year, and definitely next. I just think there are too many chances that a non-deserving team will get in the playoffs due to the game shortage and potential division changes.
Now on to the kind of fun quesions.
We could potentially see someone hit .400. I don't think that will mean they would have 400 At-Bats or however many Plate Appearances it is, but we could really see someone have a .400 Average at the end of the season.
We could see someone with a below 1.00 ERA.
We could see someone go 9-0, 10-0, etc.
While we probably won't see any volume records being broken like most HRs in a season or see any 50 HR, 20 Win, and 50 Save seasons, some of these other stats could be cool with the shortened season amount. It could also help a mid-tier player who gets hot end up leading the League in something. We could see a streaky hitter like Nick Castellanos win a HR crown or a guy like Robbie Ray of the Diamondbacks win the K crown.
Do I think the amount of games will give us enough to determine a real champion? I don't know. I hope so. Just some random things I have been thinking about lately.
Here are some customs I've made lately from one of the last times a shortened season was played (not counting 1994 and 1995).
Hopefully we wil get some instance of a decent season in 2020. Let me know what you think about some of these questions. Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy
Those are cool. I'd love to see some ridiculous league leaders like ERA and AVG. I agree that they wouldn't be legit, for the record books, but cool still. I remember in the 94 strike year, Jeff Bagwell hit like 360 and Matt Williams was on pace for 60 home runs. A few years before McGwire and Sosa.
ReplyDeleteI don't think any of the current proposals call for PERMANENT realignment. I think the idea is to re-sort the teams into regional divisions for this shortened season, so they can minimize travel and make it so players won't come into contact with as many people. So the northeast teams would stay in the northeast, and so on. But I'm assuming that in 2021 (or whenever the coronavirus threat is over), things would go back to the usual league and division setup.
ReplyDeleteI certainly agree that they should preserve the separate leagues--in fact I want them to continue to have no DH in the NL, and I'd like to see some realignment or expansion so we don't have to have interleague play in the final weeks of the season.
The DH... sigh. I think this is the beginning of the DH being introduced to the NL on a permanent basis. From everything I have heard, if there is some sort of division realignment this year, then the DH will be implemented across the board for 2020.
DeleteWith all the talk about adding the DH to the NL in recent years I think this will only re-ignite those talks and speed up the process. Could the DH be a fixture in the NL in 2021?
This could be good news for me. I've been wanting a DH in the NL since the early '90's. I'm sure manager will find a way to strategize even with a DH. They can put the LF guy at 2nd, and then 2 hitters later, move him back to Left. Have them officially change it in the scorebook everytime they do it, and nobody will miss the 'strategy' that pitchers hitting brings.
DeleteLove all these Dodger custom cards, great job! As for the 2020 season, I think it will be cancelled. Currently a few states have begun a limited reopening and are now seeing a new spike in Coronavirus cases, Georgia especially. Even if the 2020 season does begin, a player or coach will probably get infected soon after causing the 2020 season to be cancelled.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words.
DeleteYou know, I never thought of that possibility. I could totally see someone coming down with the virus, and everything having to be shut down again. That would be the only sensible thing to do. I can't imagine what that would do to the leaderboards and cards if it does happen. You could see a guy like Tim Anderson lead the AL with 2 HRs, someone like Jason Kipnis lead the AL with a 1.000 Batting Average, and have Edwin Diaz lead the NL with 2 Wins if someone should get infected after playing like 3-4 games.
What would happen with the baseball cards? If you were a 5th Starter like Lance Lynn or Jordan Zimmerman, and didn't get to appear in a game yet, would they just keep you out of the set? I would love to see 2021 baseball cards, but with barely any games, what would be the point? I love these ideas and thoughts. Keep them coming!
This gives me hope that in another shortened season, the Dodgers will win it all again.
ReplyDelete