Anyone else kind of baffled by this season thus far?

Grant Ward

Grant Ward

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There doesn't seem to be a clear and decisive favorite to win the WS at this point. A lot of good teams, but no one seems to be great.

You've got 16 teams within 9 games of each other:
Baltimore, NYY, Cleveland and LAD all with 70 wins.
Philly with 69 wins.
Milwaukee, Arizona and San Diego with 67 wins.
Minnesota 66 wins.
KC 65 wins.
Houston and Seattle with 63 wins.
Atlanta and Boston with 62 wins.
NYM and SF with 61 wins.


4 of the 6 divisions have a lead of 3.5 games or less.
3rd place in every division is 9 games behind or less.

A stat I found really odd:
Baltimore, Cleveland, Houston and Philadelphia, all current division leaders are a combined 65-66 in interleague play.
 
Well, a historically great offense from a season ago is dookie this year. Injuries and what not, but pretty well every position player other than Ozuna is having the worst season of their career all at the same time

And with all that, I’m not giving up on winning the division because the Phillies have been sucking just as much ass as us lately
 
There does seem to be more parity this season, which is not a bad thing. But also, "clear" frontrunners usually means nothing,
look at last season, Atlanta and LAD both looked like shoe ins for the NLCS and one for the WS. both taken out in their first playoff series, same with LAD the year before. I also remember a year Seattle won like 116 games and looked to steamroll everyone, then lost in the playoffs.

It's typically which teams are hot at the end of the season/entering the playoffs, last season Philly and Arizona were 5 and 6 seeds and played in the NLCS, Texas was a 5 seed and won it all.
 
Illustrious Potentate said:
Well, a historically great offense from a season ago is dookie this year. Injuries and what not, but pretty well every position player other than Ozuna is having the worst season of their career all at the same time

And with all that, I’m not giving up on winning the division because the Phillies have been sucking just as much ass as us lately
Click to expand...
Phillies have really struggled in the past few weeks. Except when they played the 70 win Dodgers. crushed them.

baseball is a wild game
 
Just think, 1-2 months ago it looked like we had several teams on pace for 100+ wins. Now I don't think anyone will reach that mark. There really just doesn't feel like there's any standout teams.

Dodgers are still good and while the lineup scores a lot of runs, the lineup outside of Ohtani/Betts/Hernandez/Smith/Freeman isn't very good. The rotation is loaded with injuries and overall as a unit, it's been very meh. At least Glasnow and Kershaw are off the IL... for now. Buehler looks like damaged goods.

Yankees just feel like a house of cards. The pitching started out great and while they still have a good ERA, the rotation hasn't been good for the last 2+ months (5.37 ERA in June, 4.95 in July, 5.13 in August). They've got two historically great hitters in Judge and Soto, but the rest of the lineup is very unremarkable. They got Stanton back and while he'll at least bring some needed power, he's still a DH with a 116 OPS+ and sub-.300 OBP. I do really like Wells though.

I love the Orioles lineup. Westburg's on the IL, but that just opened a spot for Holliday to come back to the majors and he's looked much better in his second stint. Eflin trade helps bolster the rotation, but losing Bradish really sucks. The bullpen has been a mess. Idk what the hell they're waiting for in regards to locking up Henderson.

Can't complain too much about how this season has gone for the Sox. Wasn't expecting much, but they're on the cusp of a playoff spot right now. The lineup has been great. The rotation has hit a wall however, with Houck/Crawford regressing (though Houck's ERA+ is still great). Bello's had a disappointing season, though his last 8 starts are giving me some optimism for him going forward. Trading for Paxton was dumb. And even when the rotation has done it's part, the bullpen just loves to fuck everything up (see last night's game against Texas). We've got a pretty tough schedule going forward, they might grab one of the Wild Cards but I think a division title is unrealistic.

As @Illustrious Potentate stated, the Braves lineup has been a massive disappointment this year. At least there's that hope they'll only perform better going forward. The pitching has been a revelation and has kept them in contention.
 
Hitman Hart said:
Phillies have really struggled in the past few weeks. Except when they played the 70 win Dodgers. crushed them.

baseball is a wild game
Click to expand...
That's the only team they've won a series against since the final series before the all star break. And they are 5-1 against them in that time.
 
Trade your best pitcher for next to nothing. #2 starter on season-long DL. #3 starter is barely replacement level. Closer out 1st 110+ games. Best hitter at best 1/2 time player. In first by 8 games. MOTY job done by Murphy. Go Brewers.
 
Kburjr said:
Trade your best pitcher for next to nothing. #2 starter on season-long DL. #3 starter is barely replacement level. Closer out 1st 110+ games. *Best hitter at best 1/2 time player. In first by 8 games. MOTY job done by Murphy. Go Brewers.
Click to expand...
*Out for the season
 
Kburjr said:
Trade your best pitcher for next to nothing. #2 starter on season-long DL. #3 starter is barely replacement level. Closer out 1st 110+ games. Best hitter at best 1/2 time player. In first by 8 games. MOTY job done by Murphy. Go Brewers.
Click to expand...

Brewers have some awesome defenders (Turang, Chourio, Perkins). Even with Yelich missing a good chunk of the year, the lineup has been decent (104 OPS+, 4th in runs in NL) and they steal a ton of bases. They give me mid 2010's Royals vibes.
 
Nothing matters until September. When a team pulls away and get's hot leading into October, that's all that matters.
 
navamind said:
Just think, 1-2 months ago it looked like we had several teams on pace for 100+ wins. Now I don't think anyone will reach that mark. There really just doesn't feel like there's any standout teams.

Dodgers are still good and while the lineup scores a lot of runs, the lineup outside of Ohtani/Betts/Hernandez/Smith/Freeman isn't very good. The rotation is loaded with injuries and overall as a unit, it's been very meh. At least Glasnow and Kershaw are off the IL... for now. Buehler looks like damaged goods.

Yankees just feel like a house of cards. The pitching started out great and while they still have a good ERA, the rotation hasn't been good for the last 2+ months (5.37 ERA in June, 4.95 in July, 5.13 in August). They've got two historically great hitters in Judge and Soto, but the rest of the lineup is very unremarkable. They got Stanton back and while he'll at least bring some needed power, he's still a DH with a 116 OPS+ and sub-.300 OBP. I do really like Wells though.

I love the Orioles lineup. Westburg's on the IL, but that just opened a spot for Holliday to come back to the majors and he's looked much better in his second stint. Eflin trade helps bolster the rotation, but losing Bradish really sucks. The bullpen has been a mess. Idk what the hell they're waiting for in regards to locking up Henderson.

Can't complain too much about how this season has gone for the Sox. Wasn't expecting much, but they're on the cusp of a playoff spot right now. The lineup has been great. The rotation has hit a wall however, with Houck/Crawford regressing (though Houck's ERA+ is still great). Bello's had a disappointing season, though his last 8 starts are giving me some optimism for him going forward. Trading for Paxton was dumb. And even when the rotation has done it's part, the bullpen just loves to fuck everything up (see last night's game against Texas). We've got a pretty tough schedule going forward, they might grab one of the Wild Cards but I think a division title is unrealistic.

As @Illustrious Potentate stated, the Braves lineup has been a massive disappointment this year. At least there's that hope they'll only perform better going forward. The pitching has been a revelation and has kept them in contention.
Click to expand...
that didn't take long

 
Grant Ward said:
There doesn't seem to be a clear and decisive favorite to win the WS at this point. A lot of good teams, but no one seems to be great.

You've got 16 teams within 9 games of each other:
Baltimore, NYY, Cleveland and LAD all with 70 wins.
Philly with 69 wins.
Milwaukee, Arizona and San Diego with 67 wins.
Minnesota 66 wins.
KC 65 wins.
Houston and Seattle with 63 wins.
Atlanta and Boston with 62 wins.
NYM and SF with 61 wins.


4 of the 6 divisions have a lead of 3.5 games or less.
3rd place in every division is 9 games behind or less.

A stat I found really odd:
Baltimore, Cleveland, Houston and Philadelphia, all current division leaders are a combined 65-66 in interleague play.
Click to expand...
That’s what makes it interesting from here on out
 
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