The Best of the Rest: 2019

I do love doing this post every year, even if there's a bit of heartbreak involved. Because...at the end of the day, here I am mean-spiritedly eulogizing 20 teams, including ones I genuinely like. This year, this list (once again) includes one of my hometown teams. So while this is a tough post, it's still fun to make lightness out of multiple teams missing the playoffs, including the one with the longest playoff drought who I'd put as 'most likely not to be on this list next year' 2 years in a row.

Good news is a few teams got off the list, including the Twins, Rays, Cardinals and Nationals. This also means a few 2018 playoff teams wound up back on this list. Baseball is fickle like that.

So once again, let's give superlatives to the 20 teams that did not make the playoffs, because we can always reward the teams that miss out on rewards in general.

Most Likely to Succeed, According to GMs in January: San Diego Padres

Best Team That Peaked Way Too Early: Seattle Mariners

Best Team That Peaked Way Too Late: New York Mets

Best Squanderer of Hopes Their Fans Had in 2018: I can't NOT say the Boston Red Sox

Best Squanderer of Hopes Their Fans Had in April: Seattle Mariners

Most Willing to Settle: Texas Rangers

Best Reason to Not Be Okay With A Team That's Just Okay, Rather Than Bad: Chicago White Sox

Best Pitching Staff for a Team that Didn't Make the Playoffs: Cincinnati Reds. I never thought I'd be putting them in this category.

Worst Pitching: Baltimore Orioles

Worst Outfield (Until August): Cleveland Indians

Most Unwilling to Win Away from Home: Chicago Cubs

Most Pathetic Team To Actually Finish Over .500: Arizona Diamondbacks

Team in Most Desperate Need of Youth, for God's Sakes: San Francisco Giants. Even their YOUTH MOVEMENT is old!

Biggest Anticlimax: Colorado Rockies (Red Sox & Phils came close)

Most Depressingly Injury-Prone Team: Los Angeles Angels

Best Plant-Related Cockiness Surrounded by Weeks of Debilitating Losses: Philadelphia Phillies

Most Depressing Team to Talk About Every Few Weeks: Detroit Tigers, as usual

Most Fun Last Place Team: Miami Marlins

Best Youth Movement: Toronto Blue Jays

Best Team If 22 Members of the 25-Man Roster Just Don't Show Up: Kansas City Royals

Team That Has No Idea What it Wants: Pittsburgh Pirates

Best Overall Team That Didn't Make the Playoffs: Cleveland Indians

Most Likely to Not End up on this List Next Year: Cleveland Indians & Chicago Cubs

So, those are my superlatives for the year. It was fun following these 20 teams this year. Tomorrow night, we try to predict how the other 10 are gonna do.