September 2025 in Review [ft. Ronny Henriquez]

 

In the years I've been doing these month by month reflection posts, I've never seen the picture of a season change as dramatically as it had this season. We had stakes in April that were completely overhauled by a new breed of competitor, and teams so battered by injuries that they couldn't follow the path set out for them by previous years. And it culminated in one of the wildest Septembers in recent memory. So of course it's worth it to look back on what the hell went on there.

First, let's look at the 5 bold predictions I made last month:

1. At least one laughably humiliating breakdown from a team at this point expected to make the playoffs. THE NEW YORK METS. Absolutely, positively the Mets. The Astros could go in here as well. 

2. Schwarber and Raleigh have some Sosa/McGwire style intrigue as they clobber further. I guess you could say this happened, though it was a bit subdued compared to Sosa and McGwire. Raleigh still got to 60 though, which is pretty huge.

3. At least one really good divisional series with serious stakes. Bunch of these actually. Guardians-Tigers had excellent moments, there was a great Reds-Brewers series, a Mariners-Stros one that cemented the Mariners' status. I forget if that last Phils-Mets series was this month but that too.

4. At least one rookie really gets people excited for 2026. I suppose Samuel Basallo counts. Had such a big aura around him that the O's locked him up over Rutschman. I guess Jonah Tong and Brandon Sproat also go here. 

5. One of the onlookers in the AL Wild Card race [Royals, Rangers, Guardians even] makes a Tigers-esque run. THE CLEVELAND GUARDIANS. Holy moly, what an amazing month they had.

And that ties directly into 5 things from September 2025 that nobody could have predicted:

1. The Guardians lap the Tigers. The lead that the Tigers had midyear that they managed to completely destroy over a month or so is going to be studied. It's not that anything in that team stopped working, it's just that the close games they were winning in the first half weren't getting won because instead of bringing on young talent the Tigers brought on 5 pitchers over 30 and none of them did what they were supposed to. I mean...I guess Kyle Finnegan did, but then he got hurt. Meanwhile, the Guardians suddenly clicked into an awesome rotation schematic of Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams, Joey Cantillo, Slade Cecconi and Parker Messick and absolutely rolled into the playoffs. I saw the Guardians make a ton of mistakes midyear and have truly awful stretches, and something just clicked in a way that the Tigers couldn't this year. Them immediately having to play each other in the wild card series is gonna be pretty insane.

2. The Reds send the Mets to Cancun. I had...HOPED for the Mets to fall off, but I didn't think the Reds would be able to do it. Their team is scrappy, useful, but not fully developed. Elly wasn't hitting homers for 2 solid months. Abbott and Greene would blow a start right after soaring. But somehow, the Reds kept winning enough close matches, even against the Brewers, to stay in it, while the Mets just kept getting owned by people they were supposed to sweep. Once the Reds had the tiebreaker, and the leverage, nothing the Mets could do would have saved them. I don't know how WELL the Reds are gonna do against the Dodgers, but the fact that they could get there over the Mets, who had such a lead at one point, is something they should be proud of.

3. The Mariners come alive like never before. I had always said that if the Mariners tapped into their potential and played as well as they looked on paper, they'd be a playoff team. In September, this happened. After getting swept by the Rays and losing one to the Braves, the Mariners turned around and never looked back, winning 10 straight, then winning 7 straight, including a sweep of the Astros, sealing their fates. Suarez is finally taking off as a Mariner, Gilbert and Castillo have stepped up, Julio and Randy are still killing it and Raleigh hit 60. Not only are the Mariners in, they're a playoff threat, and I'm so happy to see it.

4. The Marlins become the ultimate spoilers. The Marlins surprised me this year by being a good team that just kept being too underdeveloped to be taken seriously. The formula of guys like Kyle Stowers, Xavier Edwards, Agustin Ramirez and eventually Heriberto Hernandez and Griffin Conine just finding new and different ways to get past pitching definitely works. And the fact that they eventually became wise to their own strengths and decided to get hot down the stretch and chase competitors made for a great finish. During their September run they took 2 from Detroit, swept the Rangers, and used Alcantara, Perez and Cabrera to land the final blow on the Mets' season. Imagine how good this team will look with everything finalized. 

5. The Dodgers don't get a first round bye. In March this would have shocked people. But honestly, you can't have that many injuries and still be the best team in the league. It helped that Glasnow, Snell, Muncy and Sasaki returned for September and helped them outlast the Padres, but there was so much lost time due to those injury issues. It also doesn't help that Will Smith is probably out for a bit, and the bullpen is a complete mess at the moment. This Dodgers team is still ultimately the Dodgers, and could still dominate this year, but...they didn't finish the regular season as hugely as everyone thought.

And counterpoint to that, we also have 5 things from September 2025 that lots of people could have predicted:

1. The Yankees make it close for the division title. I don't think anybody was expecting the Yankees to completely lay down and die this year, this wasn't 2023. There was enough talent to get this team back into the mix, and with Grisham, Chisholm, Bellinger and Stanton all surging this month, it was always gonna be a possibility. Ultimately the midyear slide made it so that it was never gonna be enough to catch Toronto, but the Yankees were always gonna be a factor.

2. The Padres forget to make it close for the division title. The thing I noticed about the Padres this year is that they'd have these hot streaks, and then the second everyone noticed they were hot they'd respond by completely leveling out and trying to sweep it under the rug. They were always close to lapping the Dodgers and then they'd get to actually PLAY the Dodgers and it wouldn't come together. I'm assuming there's a chance they'll run into each other again if...things completely turn inward for both high seeded teams, but the Padres could have surprised people and just chose not to.

3. Alex Anthopolous wasn't gonna let this year end without trying as much crap as possible. Here is a list of all the waiver claimed players that came to Atlanta in the last three months. Erick Fedde, Vidal Brujan, Ha-Seong Kim, Stuart Fairchild, Jake Fraley, Brett Wisely, Joey Wentz, Carlos Carrasco, Dane Dunning, Cal Quantrill, Joel Payamps, Alexis Diaz, Alek Manoah, and finally Charlie Morton. That is a lot of people. Many of them, like Kim and Manoah especially, might be in the mix for next season. Several more contributed to the late season swell that saw a random 10-game winning streak. If the Braves are awesome again next year, it's cause Anthopolous never stops working. 

4. Paul Skenes is going to win the Cy Young award. Not even Cristopher Sanchez can come close. Dude's just on another level. Shame about the team though.

5. Once they actually have a good rotation, the Orioles are a halfway decent baseball team. Bradish and Wells came back, Rogers straightened out, Kremer and Sugano got over the hump, and somehow this is a team that can win the close games again. I really hope Mansolino keeps his job, as he seemed to be the main force that turned the team around this year, aside from everybody getting healthy again. 

Now, here are my picks for the 5 most important players of September 2025:

1. Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners

2. Paul Skenes, Pittsburgh Pirates

3. Hunter Greene, Cincinnati Reds

4. Garrett Crochet, Boston Red Sox

5. Nolan McLean, New York Mets

And finally, 5 bold predictions for this coming postseason

1. Some wild card team gets insanely hot and drives the narrative for a while.

2. Someone who is not going to win the Cy Young has some incredible moments that makes some sportswriters second-guess themselves during voting [I call this the Corey Kluber in 2016 factor]

3. A perennial postseason thumper does something crazy again. Y'know, a Giancarlo or a Schwarber or a Muncy, someone like that.

4. This one's really bold: we went the whole season without a no-hitter but someone pitches one in October.

5. The team that wins the World Series is one who hasn't won it lately, or at all, and truly deserves it. Maybe wishful thinking there but sue me. 

The Best of the Rest: 2025

There's two kinds of MLB seasons, especially in regards to my yearly 'Best of the Rest' superlatives post. There's the kind of season where I could put this out a week ago if I wanted to, because of how set in stone the whole setup has been, or there's the kind of season where I literally cannot tell who's eligible and who isn't til the final moments of game 162. And this was one of the latter. Two major spots were up for grabs with 48 hours before the end of the year, and like 7 different teams were still chasing spots with a week left. And at that point you can GUESS if you want. Like 'I SUPPOSE this team will be missing the playoffs', but you can't count on anything. The Guardians and Reds still made October, even after everything. I prepared superlatives for both just in case, and did not need them.

However, that still leaves eighteen teams that are sitting out of the next month of play, and therefore will be showcased in this 'best of the rest' post. Some of them truly made an effort to compete only to fall short. Some could not. And some genuinely thought they were playoff teams only for the door to swing shut at the final moments. It was a very poetic last day of play, and it made for a satisfying conclusion to a great year.

So here now are my superlatives for the 18 teams that didn't make the playoffs, in the same vein as your high school superlatives, like 'most likely to succeed' and 'best dressed' and all of that. Everyone here should be wishing they won't be next year, and five teams from the 2024 list are not here. Of course, five teams who made the playoffs last year are back here. Either one can happen to anyone. 

Let's crack on, before any more Mets jump ship..

Most Likely to Succeed [According to the Sportswriters in January]: New York Mets 

Team That Peaked Too Early: Houston Astros

Team That Peaked Too Late: Arizona Diamondbacks

Best Squanderer of Hopes Their Fans Had in 2024: Kansas City Royals

Best Squanderer of Hopes Their Fans Had in August: Texas Rangers

Best Use of Somebody Else's Youth Movement: Chicago White Sox

Best Pitching Staff For a Team That Didn't Make the Playoffs: Texas Rangers

Worst Pitching: Colorado Rockies, second year running

Most Willing to Settle: Pittsburgh Pirates

Most Puzzling Use of Money: TIE: Athletics and Baltimore Orioles

Most Depressing Team to Write About Every Two Weeks: Washington Nationals, narrowly edging out the Rockies

Most Comically-Timed Injuries: TIE: Baltimore Orioles & Atlanta Braves

Best Backfiring of 'Titanic Will Never Sink' Logic: St. Louis Cardinals

Best Attempt at Salvaging an Impossible Situation: Arizona Diamondbacks

Best O. Henry-esque Reversal of Fortune: San Francisco Giants

Team That Needs to Find a New Excuse: Los Angeles Angels

Most Fun Last Place Team: Baltimore Orioles

Most Likely to Make Teams Regret Putting All Those Players on Waivers This Time Next Year: Atlanta Braves

Most Unwilling to Recapture the Lightning in the Bottle: Tampa Bay Rays

Team That Has No Idea What It Wants: Minnesota Twins

Waggiest Tail: Miami Marlins

Most Satisfying Collapse: Houston Astros

Best Overall Team That Didn't Make the Playoffs: Texas Rangers

Most Unlikely to Make This List in 2026: Baltimore Orioles & New York Mets

From here, all that remains is to roll out the playoffs. Hoping for both my teams to do well, though will accept great postseasons from the Mariners, Brewers, Cubs, Reds, Tigers, Guardians and Padres, in that order. 

Playoff Outcomes I Can Live With

 

I'm getting the feeling that the outcome I want for the World Series isn't one most of the world would want. I was raised in South Jersey, 20 minutes from Philly, by a Yankee fan father. I'd be absolutely fine with Yanks-Phils. The trouble is, everybody else would be annoyed with that. After years of Philly sports not reaching the championship threshold, now they win so often that it annoys people. And the Yankees...well, the Yankees have enough rings. For the sake of variety, everyone would prefer if the Yankees or Phillies, or Dodgers honestly, didn't make it. Which leaves virtually every other possibility as a fun one, something I agree with. The Brewers, Mariners, Padres, Cubs, Guardians, Tigers, and even the Reds if they make it in, would be super cool to see in the World Series because it's been ages since they've won one, if at all.

And honestly, this is a postseason where the Cardinals and Astros, two banes of my existence, will not be attending. Also the Braves won't be in there, nor will the Rays. Meaning most of the teams that would annoy me specifically if they took it all...are out. The Dodgers are inevitable, and if they win I'll deal. But by and large, most of the teams that piss me off are sitting this one out, in favor of fun teams I have no problem with like the Mariners, Cubs, Brewers and Tigers.

There are two I'm worried about, or at least a past version of me would be worried about. And they're both AL East teams.

The Blue Jays honestly I'm over. The 2015/2016 teams pissed me off because their greatness seemed to come out of nowhere and came at the expense of Orioles and Yankees teams I enjoyed more. This team I honestly don't feel that about. The seeds of this Jays' team were sown years ago, and so much of this team is working because it's a well-oiled machine that's finally succeeding. I can't be mad that Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Kevin Gausman and Bo Bichette are tough to beat, that's a foregone conclusion. I'm mostly happy that the party seemed over in Toronto and they've made themselves a great team again when everyone counted them out. If they get to the end, even if it's at the expense of the Yankees, I'll be alright with that.

Then there's Boston. I've always gone back and forth on how much the Sox really affect me. In 2007 and 2013 it was bad. 2018 as well I guess. These past couple teams haven't bothered me as much, as it's just not as personal. I can't be mad at this Sox team for not only building a solid youth movement and using Brayan Bello, Roman Anthony and Ceddanne Rafaela to outdo the division matchups, but being super resourceful. They swung Romy Gonzalez for nothing and he's been a terrific piece at 1st this year, hitting .305 with an .826 OPS. Carlos Narvaez, Garrett Whitlock and Rob Refsnyder were all Yankee farm system guys that came over for nothing and made this team what it is. Bregman and Story now look like excellent decisions, and Crochet was absolutely everything this team needed, even at the expense of prospects. They made all the right calls to get back to the postseason, even dealing Devers. I can't fault them for that.

Now, if the Sox end up going against the Yankees this fall, I very well could sour on them, especially if they embarrass us. I think the Sox are a good, growing team that could grab momentum, and how long they hold onto it could affect the whole postseason. They're the exact kind of sneaky team that could piss me off, and I don't know if preparing for that outcome is gonna help me any. But it definitely exists.

So that's where I'm at. I could be peeved by this postseason. But only if it's painfully obvious, which is a low probability, at least for my tastes. Of course, your particular mileage may vary, but the odds that I'll be excited by this playoff season are still very high. And that's even before you factor in the last couple spots that haven't been filled as I'm writing this.

A for Effort

 

There's a lot of playoff spots still up for grabs as I write this, and by that I mean just one in each league and a lot of seeds bobbing around. You can still see playoff cases for the Mets, Reds, Guardians, and even the Astros if you squint a little. Really, the only elimination we might see in Game 161 might be the Arizona Diamondbacks, which, at the very least came one game earlier than it did last year.

I will applaud the D-Backs for making it a lot more exciting than it could have been this year. By the end of July this team looked pretty dead, lying around 4th in an already-competitive division, pawning away Josh Naylor, Eugenio Suarez and Merrill Kelly, and backtracking from even a still-commendable 2024. Carroll, Perdomo and Ryne Nelson continue to be valid answers for this team, but the infrastructure that made them a World Series team in 2023 with 2 and a half valid starters seems to have fallen off. The players that seemed so close to getting it before, like Jake McCarthy, Alek Thomas, Brandon Pfaadt and honestly Lourdes Gurriel, have backslid into mediocre, weighty pieces. Even someone like Gabriel Moreno, who is a great fit at catcher, is gone for like half the year and they have to start guys like Jose Herrera and James McCann.

And yet for the last two months, especially September, they were right there in the Wild Card race, complicating things for the Reds and Mets. They were never lapping anyone, but they were embedding themselves right in the action, just enough to get people nervous. During this period, Corbin Carroll attained a 30-30 season, Geraldo Perdomo obtained the top WAR in the NL and the possibility of MVP votes, Ketel Marte rode a last swell into a 25+ homer year after a devastating run in his personal life, Zac Gallen reached 13 wins and somehow second-year infielder Blaze Alexander became one of the most crucial contact pieces on the team. How the D-Backs couldn't put something like this together throughout the season but came through with it late is beyond me.

I think it points to the fact that the team is shedding a lot of the pieces that made them competitive in 2023 in an attempt to strengthen, and get younger, for future runs. Obviously Carroll, Perdomo, Moreno and Pfaadt will be big pieces of this team's future, and will remain as the numerous rookie guys get brought up [Druw Jones may be on the way]. In terms of the middle pieces like Alexander, Ryne Nelson, Tim Tawa and Jordan Lawlar, it remains to be seen whether or not they're long term pieces or just guys that tided the team over during a down year. Lawlar's yet to really excel in the bigs, either it's coming next year or it's not coming.

The point is, the Dodgers, Padres and Giants will no doubt be competitive next year, and the D-Backs, even with the possibility of Corbin Burnes returning, still are expected to be a fourth place team. If they can build their way past that, they'll be in business, but this year points to this being a slower process than expected. Which amounts for occasional pops in excitement, but they're gonna need to be more than pops if they want to follow up on the promises they made in 2023. 

Coming Tomorrow- The White Sox didn't know what to do with him in the infield, but thankfully the Red Sox sure did.

Hanging By a Red

 

It might not happen. It's not completely guaranteed to happen. But the possibility still exists that, if things go a certain way, it could.

The Mets play the Marlins this weekend, the Reds play the Brewers. Both the Mets and the Reds are after one wild card spot. Obviously the Reds have the tougher series, as the Brewers are essentially playing for a 1 seed. The Mets do have the leverage over Miami, but have to contend with A.) some inexperienced starters and B.) just how volatile the Marlins can be as a spoiler. So there is a chance that the Reds can stay at a decent pace, or sweep the Brewers, and just wait for the Mets to fall over. The Mets have the spot right now but only by a game, and the Reds own the tiebreaker.

Again...it's unlikely. But there's enough of a chance that the Reds aren't going to start fighting.

How else do you explain Hunter Greene and Nick Lodolo having the starts of their lives this week, with the latter throwing until he literally could throw no longer? How else do you explain how Elly de la Cruz went 2 months without a homer and now is hitting them way more consistently? How else do you explain how this Reds team was able to sweep the Cubs while the Cubs were closing in on the first wild card spot? They want it. They want it very badly.

You can make the argument that the Reds still don't have the team, and that so many of the pieces that looked near ready in 2023 have taken major steps back, and that is valid. Spencer Steer has yet to completely follow up with his monster 2023, and even if he's been decent, with 21 homers and 73 RBIs this year, he's not hitting as consistently as he used to. Matt McLain is similar, as the defensive numbers are great but he's still only a .220 hitter. Even Ke'Bryan Hayes, as crafty as he is, isn't the five-tool player that was advertised. But I see a team that's succeeded where many others have failed, especially in its pitching. Abbott, Greene, Singer, Lodolo, Burns, Littell and Martinez have all been fantastic this year, and they haven't needed to break into as many failsafes as usual. That is a serious difference-maker, and it's kept the Reds in the race all summer basically. 

I do worry about how well this team could do if they do make it in, especially from an offensive standpoint, but it's also the kind of team that could catch fire and surprise people if given the opportunity. And it's not like anyone WOULDN'T want to see a surprise Reds team become a playoff favorite this year. They all love underdogs. 

So yeah...the odds do say the Mets finish it off, but I'm secretly hoping the Reds can surprise people and make the leap. It'd be good for baseball, and as someone who doesn't even dislike the Mets...it'd be pretty funny.

Coming Tonight: A catcher for a team that technically also has a chance at October. It's dwindling by the day but it is still there.

Sticky Rice

 

Well. This year certainly took a turn, didn't it?

Y'know, you think you know how a season's gonna go and then it keeps surprising you. The Yankees come roaring in out of the gate and then stop cold midyear, then the Blue Jays take hold of the division in the classiest, most inoffensive way possible. And now, as the season's coming to a close, the Yankees have an opportunity to take the division back. As I write this, the Yankees are obliterating Trevor Rogers and leading over Baltimore while the Jays are tied against Tampa. If this continues to progress exponentially, the Yankees could end up with the division that, for a while, looked like was never theirs to finish with. There's also a chance that if the Yankees take the East, they might even take the #1 seed, which is something that seemed out of the question just a month ago, or even two weeks ago.

No matter how the season ultimately ends, the Yankees' 2025 season will be summed up by the insane swells that guided them here. That includes their blistering first 2 months, where they went 35-22, and the stretch from mid-August til now, right after the bullpen got everything figured out. Even if July and August were disasters, the Yankees still found a way to win 90 games this year, and did it with 3 30+ homer seasons [4 if Bellinger gets there this weekend], a 30-30 season, a 50 homer year from Judge, two 18+ win years from starters not named Gerrit Cole, and 3 guys who made all their starts and, at least two of which, hit 195 innings. A lot was accomplished. A lot was learned. And a lot separates them from the pack.

Let's talk about Ben Rice for a second. Last year I saw him start at 1st against the Braves, for the first-ever Fried/Rice game, and the last one to happen with Fried not in pinstripes. Rice couldn't get a damn thing done. He had one insane game last year, a 3 homer game I think, but barring that he was unspectacular. They sent him down when Rizzo returned, and you kept hearing down the stretch about how much Rice was killing it in Scranton. Thought nothing of it. Then Rice makes the team out of camp, he's expected to back up Goldy and be a DH option, and he becomes one of the team's best hitters. Through 136 games he has a .826 OPS, 24 homers and 63 RBIs. He was a much more consistent power threat this year, and his flexibility, being able to play 1st, DH or catcher, made him even more valuable. You can have him in the same lineup as Goldschmidt, or Wells, or both. You get him in there and he's just as important as Bellinger or Chisholm or Stanton.

The Yankees have just landed on a formula that works. Judge is Judge but doesn't always have to be the focal point. Rodon and Fried are strong but Gil, Warren and Schlittler are just as reliable. Bednar works in the 9th, Williams works in the 8th. Even if we can't get 1st place, or 1st seed, we're much further along than we were midyear, and we're much stronger than we were even during the 2024 playoffs. I think if we keep on this run we could really get somewhere. 

I'm just glad the Yankees' season is ending in a playoff berth, and possibly more. I was so worried we wouldn't even get that.

Coming Tomorrow- A corner infielder trying to ensure his team can shock the world this weekend.

Crone Zone of Interest

 

I know the Padres were probably hoping that they'd manage to lap the Dodgers for the division, but not even the Dodgers' bullpen could let them have that. But still, the Padres are postseason bound again, and have enough to still be a threat even in a schematic that seems set in stone.

The wild thing about this Padres team is just how much seems to feel commonplace in between the spikes. Obviously the Padres made waves in April for being unstoppable at home, and then again in August as they challenged the Dodgers for 1st, and later reneged. Aside from that they've had a pretty unassuming year. It's not looking like anybody on this team will cross 30 home runs, with only 1 guaranteed to cross 25, and only 1 with a chance at 100+ RBIs. Only 2 pitchers made all their starts, and one will be finishing with a negative W/L ratio despite 200 Ks. The stars of this season have been the contact game and the bullpen. This Padres team hasn't needed to overpower its opponents as much as just outfox them; Xander Bogaerts, Jake Cronenworth, Luis Arraez and Freddy Fermin have been the stars of this team, arguably more than a proven power bat like Ryan O'Hearn or Gavin Sheets. 

I think the key is that the things that are working for this Padres team are proven, well-tested solutions. We obviously know Jake Cronenworth works, both as a contact bat [.748 OPS, 56 RBIs], and as a multi-instrumentalist in the infield. Right now he's covering shortstop for Bogie, though he's continued to be a fixture at 2nd. Cronenworth has been one of those unsung multi-dimensional guys for the Padres since 2020, and he's only gotten more and more tuned into what this team needs. You can say the same thing for Luis Arraez in his second season in San Diego, as he's hitting .288 with 176 hits and 61 RBIs. He's not the headline-catching contact guy he was a few years ago, but he's a very useful guy to have around. And now, barring an injury scare, they have Ramon Laureano, a very useful outfield bat with a lot of perks. Like the Blue Jays, everyone's just in position to succeed efficiently, and though there are power moments from Tatis and Machado and such, they don't run the team.

The one thing I worry about in playoff competition is starting pitching, as beyond Pivetta and Cease they're kinda rolling the dice. Is Michael King truly healthy after all that time missed? Is Randy Vazquez a valid postseason option? Does Darvish have it at all this year? Even Cease, while fundamentally a strong pitcher, is more spotty than usual this year. Seeing as, at the moment, they're set to play Chicago in the Wild Card series, and the Cubs do kind of have the better rotation [even if Cade Horton is worrying folks], it may be up to, again, the contact game and the bullpen to sink things. 

The Padres have a difficult road to playoff greatness, and I do see them potentially shocking people again. But it's gonna take some momentum that I don't know if they completely have now, that they need to gain against the ever-spoilery Diamondbacks. It won't be easy...but neither was 2022. 

Coming Tonight: I saw him as a rookie and hoped he'd find his place in the Yankee lineup, and while it took a year, it's definitely happening now.

That's The Way it Stros

 

As it stands at the moment, the last spot in the AL playoff field will either go to the Detroit Tigers, who let a great season get away from them in a way that I completely empathize with them, or the Houston Astros. Both teams are working on getting through today with a win. The Astros rode Framber Valdez to a win over Oakland, and the Tigers are finally lighting the fire under their rear ends to strike back against the Guardians. Both teams are at 85 wins, both teams have a Cy Young candidate, and both teams had a fairly unlucky trade deadline. 

You can probably guess who I'm rooting for to snag that last spot. I'll give you a hint, it's not the Astros.

I feel like we're gonna be 10 or 20 years down the line, and the Astros will have been a losing team for a while with no future and no promise, and I'm still gonna root for them to lose. It's the same as the Patriots now. I don't want the Pats to get good again because for a good 20 years they were good, and in a way that directly antagonized my interests. That is the Astros as well. It's not that they were good constantly, it's that they were hot constantly and valued that over being good. The Astros have had some phenomenal teams over the past 10 years, and the two that won the Series' might not have even been the best ones. 2018 and 2019 were probably the fullest portrait of what this team was capable of, the Gerrit Cole years. After that, people started leaving and they tried to convince people they were still that good, and...I mean, they got one more ring out of it. Last year they were embarrassed by a team that got hotter than they ever could, and it was a worthy dethroning. 

This year...I've tried looking at this Astros team for a direction, or a unified idea, or anything, and it hasn't been there. A lot was hanging on Jake Meyers, and there was a big hole when he got hurt, but...Jake Meyers paled in comparison to the sort of people he's replaced. He's not George Springer, he's not Kyle Tucker, both are more valuable to their current teams than Meyers is to Houston. He's a .292 hitter, but in 104 games he's got 24 RBIs. He's very good defensively, he's very good on the basepaths, but he's not an offensive killer. And in a season where Alvarez is falling apart, Paredes is gone for half the year and Altuve is past his prime, you need at least someone who you can fall back on, and Meyers is not that guy.

The heroes for the Astros this year have been Jake Meyers, Mauricio Dubon, Jason Alexander, Bryan Abreu, and ultimately Jeremy Pena, Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown. The depth is gone. There's depth pieces stepping into lead roles. Christian Walker, like Jose Abreu before him, was plugged into 1st to maintain the power numbers and it hasn't been pretty. Jesus Sanchez has been a disaster defensively. Cam Smith is having a fine rookie year but is hitting .239. The future is still stuttering on call-ups, and Zach Cole and Brice Mathews don't have it yet. 

Honestly, missing the playoffs would be the best thing to happen to the Astros, because for once this year they stop lying to themselves. They're not that team anymore. They don't have it. Maybe then they'd actually address some of their issues instead of trying to catch the wave and ride that. You can't catch any waves if your surfboard's caved in. 

Coming Tomorrow- A perennial threat from a team gearing up to shock the world again this fall.

Out of Their Hands

 

In a season where Juan Soto has performed above and beyond expectations, three rookies have revitalized the pitching staff, Pete Alonso has continued his long ball reign over New York and David Peterson had a breakout season years in the making, the New York Mets have still managed to come into the last week of the season needing other teams to lose in order to make the playoffs.

Again. For the second year running.

It's not quite clear if the Mets will need as dramatic of a final series to punch a postseason ticket this year, considering the doubleheader against the Braves that did so last year, but it's just as indistinct, and requires just as much action from the Diamondbacks. The Mets have been holding this playoff spot all month, but have wound down even with surges from Nolan McLean and Juan Soto, and are now only one game ahead of both the Reds and D-Backs, and need to keep winning in order to stay in the mix. And...considering just how great this Mets team has been at its peak, and how much they're working with...it's honestly incredible that we're at this point. Is this just gonna be a staple of the Carlos Mendoza era? Down to the wire regular season finishes? If their postseason ends anywhere near how last year's ended all could be forgiven, but if the Mets don't do as much as they can on their end, they miss out. A team this good shouldn't be waiting for Emilio Pagan to blow a save.

Even worse, the Mets have to spend the better part of this week in Chicago, playing a Cubs team that has already punched their ticket to the playoffs. But that isn't to say the Cubs are mailing it in, despite what Steve Cohen seems to think about Matt Shaw [no comment because if I say even the slightest thing in either direction I might lose my talk show on ABC]. The Cubs still have a lot of energy left, and they still have a lot of weapons with scores to settle. Nico Hoerner is polishing off his single best season to date, with a .302 average, 174 hits and 60 RBIs. PCA is one long ball away from his first 30/30 season, and that could make up for his rough second half. Matt Shaw, controversy aside, has had a very strong rookie season and looks to be the answer going forward at third. Cade Horton's 11-4, and could get a ton of ROY votes, even if the Cubs are limiting his starts til the playoffs. And the Cubs just got Daniel Palencia back, and he's a very sharp closing option.

But last night the Mets struck first, with a big win over the Cubs on the night of a surprise Reds loss to the Pirates. Right now they have the leverage, even if the Reds have the tiebreaker. They have some great pieces to rely upon at the moment, like Brett Baty, who has a .740 OPS and seems to have taken the starting third base job from Mark Vientos. You're also seeing Francisco Alvarez back and surging, which has always been a sign of a winning streak in the past few years. And Cedric Mullins has been an improvement in center field, even if he's still hitting below the Mendoza line.

Whatever the Mets can do during this series will make up for their lost week or so, but the Reds and D-Backs could still spoil it for them by going on a parallel run. It will come down to the wire, and whatever happens will be the result of how much effort the Mets can put in at this point in the season. 

Coming Tomorrow- Speaking of teams running out of time for a playoff spot, a recently-activated outfield threat trying desperately to move the needle. 

Occam's Jay-zor

 

Sometimes the simplest explanation is the correct one. The Toronto Blue Jays have the #1 seed in the AL, from the looks of things, and have become one of the best teams in the AL...because they just put the 14 best people to succeed in positions to. Having to choose between Myles Straw and Daulton Varsho in center field is not the worst problem to have. Hmm, I dunno, do we want the defensive whiz who doesn't hit, or do we want the defensive whiz who hits for power?

And the thing is, if Varsho hadn't have come back blazing, this still would probably be a 1st place team. Myles Straw is just a good guy to have around. He may not always be the best at contact work, but you want him in the outfield, it just helps. Varsho, however, has been the difference maker. In a shortened but still valid season, Varsho has an .846 OPS with 19 homers and 51 RBIs. This run has occurred during the insane Jays stretch in this second half where they've commanded the AL East and shocked the nation. 

Varsho's just one of many people on this team who've aided a playoff run by being exactly where they need to be. The Jays kept George Springer in the leadoff spot, and he rewarded them with a 30-homer year and his best season since leaving Houston. Nathan Lukes and Davis Schneider have both been extremely effective in bench roles, with both trading off having wild power performances. Addison Barger and Ernie Clement have turned fill-in roles into huge leading performances. Even Joey Loperfido is taking off, he's hitting .337 since coming back up. 

The name of the game with the Jays is efficiency. Just efficient performers put in position to lead, punctuated by the crowd-pleasers like Vlad and Bichette and such. And sometimes that is enough. The Jays could have like a flashy sort like Alek Manoah, but that doesn't work anymore, so plugging in Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt, Jose Berrios and Shane Bieber just works a lot more. The trouble is that not every other postseason competitor is emphasizing efficiency. The Mariners have built themselves as a mega-power team, as have the Yankees. The Guardians have built themselves as a mega-contact team. The Tigers have a unified youth movement. So something like this is the kind of thing that only works for a short period of time, and who knows how far it'll take the Jays. But getting a bye is a very good thing, and it could set them up for a decent playoff schematic. I do not think they're a World Series team yet, not with their current momentum, but they could always catch fire like they did in July.

Coming Tonight: Since coming up he's fought for third base with a fellow young call-up. Last year his competitor won the position. This year it's been his turn. 

Muncy Talks

 

I don't think anyone is surprised that the Dodgers are winning the NL West this year. That was a foregone conclusion after their very productive offseason. The surprise is just how a pedestrian of a season this turned out to be, despite everyone who joined this team. Most of the big free agency additions were supporting players. Roki Sasaki, Blake Snell, Kirby Yates, Tanner Scott, even Teoscar Hernandez honestly. It was a lot of smoke, and a lot of pieces that could have been keys to a championship if circumstances didn't land this team where it ended up. 

Whereas instead of the Dodgers getting to the postseason because of all these players they got contracts for this offseason, the Dodgers got to the postseason in spite of the majority of them not adding much. This is an underdog Dodgers team in this playoff scenario, and a Dodgers team that probably will have to be active during the Wild Card round, meaning they could be vulnerable immediately. How many people thought that was gonna happen when they signed Sasaki? He was gonna be the kill switch. And then he does okay for 9 starts and gets hurt, and they get to October with Emmet Sheehan and Hyeseong Kim in major roles. 

The only reason the Dodgers can get practically nothing from all of those contracts, plus partial years from Tyler Glasnow, Max Muncy, Tommy Edman, Will Smith and Michael Kopech, and STILL WIN THE NL WEST...is because they are the Dodgers. This team is built to withstand just about anything. All of this is keeping me from thinking they're a World Series team, but that doesn't mean they won't still end up there. They still have Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow in peak form. Plus, now they have to win it for Kershaw. Perfectly timed, that Clayton Kershaw, announcing his retirement a week and a half before the end of the season solely to establish stakes. Granted, Rob Manfred spoiled this a couple months ago by naming him to an All-Star team and having him get a royal walk to the dugout after it, but it's still a big deal. You can't just lose with Kershaw retiring, right? Though honestly wouldn't it be a great tribute to Kershaw's prime? Just choking hard in a divisional round?

[I know, I'm one to talk as a Yankee fan.]

Even with the injury issues, you still can't count this team out. Max Muncy was gone for a month and he's still a very crucial part of this lineup, with 19 homers and 68 RBIs in 98 games. Muncy has been way more of a factor in these teams than I ever would have thought in 2018, and the fact that he's become a perennial Dodgers hero as much as Betts or Freeman at this point is pretty cool. It's also nice to see Blake Snell making up for lost time, as he's 5-4 with a 2.44 ERA and 67 Ks in 10 starts. That is Blake Snell alright, even if he's been limited. Shohei's even been really effective on the mound, with a 3.29 ERA in 13 appearances. They're thinking of pitching him in relief in the postseason, or even eventually making him play the outfield or something. Go nuts, man.

The Dodgers are so well-built, and so deep, that even a decidedly down year, they're not completely out of the race. They'll probably be the third seed, meaning the Reds or Mets or whoever sneaks in is still gonna have to surprise them. There's still time for this team to heat up further and recapture their 2024 energy. They're just doing it from behind this time.

Coming Tomorrow- Further proof that missing time isn't a dealbreaker, a guy who was out for most of the season, came back a month and a half ago and has been absolutely electric. 

The Italian Job

 

I'd just like to say that nobody is happier about the Mariners sweeping the Astros in three games to take the division than me. I am overjoyed. The math finally makes sense. The better team is ahead of the AL West and in position to make the playoffs as a much stronger version of themselves. The logic checks out!!

The Mariners, being a team with Julio Rodriguez, Cal Raleigh, Randy Arozarena, Eugenio Suarez, Josh Naylor, Jorge Polanco and J.P. Crawford, always had an opportunity to dominate but never quite took advantage. A year after stymieing the league, the pitching has taken a step back, and Logan Gilbert, Luis Castillo and George Kirby have all taken far too much time to get to peak levels, which they seem to be at now. Every time the Mariners were in position to lap the Astros, they simply did it, and they backtracked. Heck, in a normal season the Rangers wouldn't even have factored into this at all, and them bursting into the race only to fall apart in September is a lot more palatable knowing that the Mariners' streak started around the same time.

So yeah, the Mariners win 10 games, then as I write this they're on another 4 game winning streak. Things have turned around, and everybody's hitting. Raleigh is now at 58 homers, and still has time to chase Judge this week. Naylor has been a smashing success since joining the Ms, hitting .287 with 9 homers, 29 RBIs and 17 steals. Julio's 2 bags away from his second 30-30 season, and any thought of him trailing off after his breakout has gone away. Randy Arozarena, if he has time to hit 3 more dingers and steal 2 more bases this week, could also break 30-30. And out of nowhere, Dominic Canzone has become an unsung hero of this team, going on a tear in the second half hitting .296 with 10 homers and 29 RBIs. Three of those homers were hit in one game last week, one Canzone will never forget. The offensive insanity of this team more than makes up for the ineptitude of 2024's, and proves that this will not be an easy AL field in a potential playoff scenario.

I say potential because, despite the Mariners being 3 games ahead of the Astros and getting to play the Rockies this week, nothing's set in stone yet. The M's magic number is three, but the Astros can never be counted out, and there's still a chance they still end up in the playoffs, even as the Guardians close in on that spot. I'd love to see a playoff schematic where the Mariners not only get in but have a bye, but that needs one last powerful week from this team in order to happen. I'd absolutely love to see it, and I'd absolutely love to see this team go wild in October. It's not a foregone conclusion yet, but it's so close to being one.

Coming Tonight: He missed some time, but came back to see his team potentially win the NL West again.

In Quinn-tessence

 

Lemme tell ya something...this Quinn Priester thing is gonna be one of the wildest developments in a while. How does someone go from decidedly not working in two different organizations to being a 13-game winner for someone else? It's wild.

Quinn Priester is one of those names you don't soon forget. 'Priester' is an inherently funny name, and I don't just say that because 'priester' is the dutch word for priest. If you didn't already think that dutch wasn't a serious language, there you go. And so I remember when Quinn Priester debuted for the Pirates, it was in Cleveland, and I remember this because my friend the Guardians fan was in attendance. Like 'oh, you get to see this big Pirates prospect', and he got killed. And even as he struggled as a swingman for Pittsburgh and then got dealt to Boston, I was like 'there's gotta be some relevance to this guy'. You can't just bring a guy named Quinn Priester up and have nothing happen to him. This isn't L.J. Hoes hour.

Well, since arriving in Milwaukee, Priester has become one of the most crucial starters for this team. He came in at the right time, when they were throwing around back end options like Logan Henderson and Aaron Civale, but before the Miz showed up and Woodruff came back. Since May 30th, every game Quinn Priester has pitched in for the Brewers has resulted in a win. That is his last 19 appearances, 18 of them starts. Altogether, Priester is 13-2 with a 3.25 ERA and 128 Ks, plus a 1.214 WHIP. He's a very reliable, durable pitcher who makes up in consistency for a lack of flashiness. And look, the Brewers pitchers who've succeeded this year haven't all been too flashy. The Miz, yes, but even he's struggled recently. Guys like Priester, Freddy Peralta, Brandon Woodruff and Jose Quintana have succeeded for this team by performing dominantly without overexerting themselves too much. The Robert Gassers and Logan Hendersons of this world can do that but then miss a year. Gasser is back though, but...he's struggled in a returning appearance. 

The Brewers are a playoff threat, and the #1 seed, because of steady performers like Priester and Chad Patrick, who've helped this team just as much as the big guns like Christian Yelich, Brice Turang and Jackson Chourio. The Brewers have sneakily brought on some crucial pieces where no one has expected, like swinging Andrew Vaughn in a deal for Civale and watching him become a .300 hitter, or grabbing Jordan Montgomery as an add-on, waiting for the possibility of him having a comeback year for Milwaukee in 2026. This team is just well put together, and this current period of dominance is the result of a lot of small moves stacking up. 

I sincerely hope the Brewers can cross the hurdle that seemed so nebulous for Craig Counsell and make it past the first rung of the playoffs. The bye will help, but if they fall apart at the wrong time they could miss yet another NLCS in a playoff season primed for them. I hope it happens this year, and I hope they can outlast the competition.

Coming Tomorrow- When his team needed him the most, he had a 3-homer game that made them a division threat at last.

Too Close to Call

 

I remember when the Tigers had a rough stretch in July, as the Guardians sort of approached them in the standings with a parallel streak, and the Tigers were able to get out of it, and I myself thought 'well that was the one moment this year they've really had to prove themselves'. Because the Tigers have been one of the league's alphas since the very beginning of the year, completely flipping from their 2024 'surprise wild card threat' moment. They were a 1st place team early, kept it despite that losing streak, and retook the lead and rolled through August.

And yet....here we are again. Only it's way more crucial.

The Tigers have blown 8 of their last 9 games, including three to Cleveland. The Guardians, meanwhile, are in the midst of a 10 game winning streak, and are 18-4 in September. These Guardians teams are very good at finding ways to catch fire without a great deal to work with, and this team is no exception. Right now, the Guardians are simply playing better baseball than the Tigers, and it's enough to, potentially, completely derail the narrative of the entire season. 

Yet I think I like this better than a complete steamrolling.

We've really only had one division where it's been an out-and-out runaway, and even then the Cubs are a good enough team that they're still a playoff favorite despite the Brewers being heads-and-shoulders ahead of them for the division. Every other division has been tight. The AL West just got flipped in dramatic fashion. The NL West still isn't a foregone conclusion. The AL East still has time to get close. And if this had been a simple 'well nobody could catch the Tigers' thing, that wouldn't have been as fun. The White Sox had one of those a few years ago, and they couldn't do much with it in October. Sometimes competition makes you a better long-term threat, or it illuminates your flaws.

So now we're seeing a lot more flaws in this Tigers team. You really can't trust Jack Flaherty as much as you could last fall, and he leads the league in losses with 14. Beyond Skubal and Mize, the lack of depth this rotation has is kind of infuriating, as Charlie Morton needs to be trotted out there every 5 games due to lack of options, and this isn't peak June Charlie Morton. Riley Greene isn't hitting, and he's looking to lead the league in strikeouts. Baez has sort of reverted to his old Tigers self. The stronghold has dissolved a bit. Not that the spark could still appear, but there's a desperation that was not there before.

The Guardians, however, have turned desperation into opportunity. What was once a very messy rotation now has roles for excellent performers like Parker Messick, Slade Cecconi and Joey Cantillo. Cantillo's been excellent since coming back, with a 2.44 ERA and 41 Ks in 8 starts. We knew last fall that he was capable of greatness, he just needed the opportunity. In a weird way, the Guardians' rotation sort of fulfilled a lot of promises, because Tanner Bibee and Gavin Williams did, in fact, make all their starts. Granted, they weren't all gems, but those two integral pieces stayed healthy. Thus, this 6-man September schematic of Bibee-Williams-Allen-Cecconi-Cantillo-Messick is truly effective, and leads to a lot of possibilities if October happens.

Still, one game separates the Tigers from the Guardians. Even if they're able to stave Cleveland off, it's a very crucial moment in a season they once thought was destined for greatness. And even if this coup doesn't happen for the Guardians, I'd also be fine with them taking the Astros' playoff spot. Just as satisfying honestly.

Coming Tonight: The Red Sox did not know what to do with him, so they let him go. And of course the guys that pick him up turn him into one of the most crucial starters of the season.

Bye Anxiety

 

I so badly want to be excited for another Red October. I really do. This is a great team with a satisfying offensive attack, a pitching staff that has stepped up in Wheeler's absence, and a palpable drive. You get the sense that the Phillies truly feel that they're not done yet, and are doing everything in their power to prolong the dynasty and get that last check marked. The worry going into this year was that it would be the team's last chance before the core got too old, and while I'm not completely going that far, with Schwarber potentially becoming a free agent after the season and with Wheeler and Harper potentially leaving their primes soon, this could be the last sure chance to win with this regime. 

So much is good about this team...and yet we have a first round bye this year. And that worries me.

Those first two playoff seasons we came into the schematic as a wild card team and worked out way up, getting to an NLCS by staying hot and sparking fire like no one else. Last year, the bye cooled us down, and by the time the very-hot Mets showed up, they had the momentum and we were no match. I am very worried that this will happen again. It might even be the Mets again at this rate, despite how reluctant they seem to be to get back there. The way the new playoff system works, the smaller, feistier teams with no time to look back at the ones that get the furthest, and the ones that do outlast the bye are monoliths like the Astros or Dodgers or Yankees. The Phillies have not proven they can do this yet. Because we only have a small sample size to go off, 2011 and 2024, I'm not filled with too much confidence.

It happens so often, the teams that truly deserve a World Series spot don't get there because they have to pass so many rungs to prove it. The 2001 Mariners were not a World Series team. The 2011 Phillies were ousted by a lucky Cardinals team [which made 2022 all the more sweet]. The Dodgers and Braves teams that won came in the stead of so many more that were just better. Back in the day, you didn't need to do as much to prove your worth. Granted, there were less teams, but you didn't have a team barely over .500 sneaking in and making a World Series out of pure spite as much back then. Now the Astros can just win the right games and make a World Series without doing the 'hard work' in a sense.

Which brings me to the Phillies, who have done the hard work, and have reinvented themselves after nearly falling apart in June. Now with Harrison Bader in center field they feel so much better. Bader truly was the perfect pickup, being a defensive upgrade as well as a great power hitter, hitting .340 with 5 homers and 16 RBIs [plus a .926 OPS] in 42 games in Philly. He's already a fan favorite, already beloved, and already the heroic figure behind one of the darkest moments of the season [Karen in Miami]. He's also lifted up a lot of lower-lineup Phils like Bryson Stott, Brandon Marsh and Otto Kemp as they've gone on. Meanwhile, Cristopher Sanchez is perfectly suitable for the ace moments of this year, as he's 13-5 with 198 Ks and a 2.66 ERA, plus a wild 7.2 WAR. In addition to subbing in for Zack Wheeler as the ace, he'll also be subbing in for Zack Wheeler in his 2nd place spot in the Cy Young voting. Hopefully he won't make a habit of it. 

This team has worked so hard to not completely fall apart, and it would have been very easy to. They're without Trea Turner right now and they're still outhitting people. Kyle Schwarber's chasing Ryan Howard, and it's exciting as hell. I really want this all to lead to something, and I guess we won't know until we see how their NLDS matchup goes. Hopefully they can sustain the momentum this time. If not, we may be hearing about it for the next decade. 

Coming Tomorrow- I never thought this guy would be the answer to catching in Detroit. 

Late Swell

 

Well, here are some facts about the 2025 Baltimore Orioles. They're not looking like they'll be finishing the season with anybody hitting more than 75 RBIs, or anybody hitting more than 25 homers, or anyone with more than 12 wins, or anyone with more than 150 strikeouts [actually maybe Kremer gets there, who knows]. They did not have a healthy team to make a run at a pennant, and they were without Adley Rutschman, Kyle Bradish, Grayson Rodriguez, Colton Cowser, Felix Bautista, Trevor Rogers, Ryan Mountcastle, Zach Eflin, Tyler Wells, Tyler O'Neill and Jordan Westburg for large swaths of this season. If your entire core misses more than half the season then you have to just be up front with people that you're taking a year off, and the O's kinda were.

However, a stat that I like better is this: the O's are .500 under Tony Mansolino. It may not have seemed like it at the time, but getting rid of Brandon Hyde may have been the best thing the O's did, because since then, they've been much closer to an actual good baseball team.

And that's kinda where we're at now, a team that's much closer to good because the injured guys are actually contributing, and some of the replacements are still helping as well. Samuel Basallo, Dylan Beavers and Trevor Rogers are as crucial to this team as Kyle Bradish, Ryan Mountcastle and Colton Cowser are, and it makes me excited for a season where they can all be called upon.

Like...Trevor Rogers didn't even look this good in Miami. He'd been hurt so long that we forgot this is just what he can do. Last night he kept the Yankees silent, barely allowing many hits, and reminding people just how crucial he's been for this team since being activated. Kyle Bradish has been very similar. In 4 games back he's had a 2.45 ERA and 30 Ks, he's very much himself again, and hopefully will have more of this material to display next year. Even Tyler Wells has been amazing since getting called back up, 2-0 with a 2.04 ERA in 3 starts. If they'd had this from the start without the injuries they'd have been a playoff team. Now it's...a big swell for nothing essentially. 

I'm really hoping this is a preview for next year. All of this in one place without shenanigans, it's coming. I do worry about the Rutschman/Basallo situation, if this means they might try and shop him for prospects or something, but there's gonna be concrete, healthy pieces next year in position to carry a team to the top. I think something will happen. And if I'm wrong...Mike Elias will never hear the end of it.

Coming Tonight: How the hell do you go from mid-year trade to 'everybody's hero' status in the span of a month? Not since Hunter Pence have I seen something like this...and I'm really hoping that's where the 2011 comparisons end. 

Not the Worst, But Close

 

Earlier this season, the way the Rockies opened things up was getting people really worried that not even a year after the White Sox set the new record for a losing season it'd be surpassed. Because of the lack of pitching, the troublesome defense and the flaws of even the people set up to be stars, the Rockies were barely even expected to win 40 games, which would have been below the 41 that the Sox were able to win last year. But ultimately, the Rockies sort of mellowed into a regular bad team, and are at 41 wins now, with 9 games left to be played this year. They will not be the new standard for ineptitude. Though seeing as, for their last new custom of regulation, I've been forced to go for Jimmy Herget, a fairly decent reliever, rather than a name guy or a breakout rookie, should tell you everything you need to know.

What do the Rockies have to take with them next year that they know will be good? Not much. Jordan Beck, Ezequiel Tovar, Warming Bernabel I suppose...and that's it. Look, I'm sure that Tanner Gordon, Carson Palmquist, Chase Dollander and McCade Brown could be good pitchers, but I literally cannot tell how good they are at rest because they're forced to pitch for this godawful Rockies team in Coors Field. How do you tell if a rookie is good in Coors Field? Everybody gets lit up there, even the people who are good at pitching. Fundamentally it is difficult to not give up runs in Coors Field. Maybe if it was domed or something you'd level things but I don't think they have the money for that. 

And even with that handicap, you also have to factor in that despite this being a hitter's park, only one person on this team hit 30 home runs this year. Hunter Goodman. And we're still not sure whether or not he's a fluke, cause Michael Toglia hit a lot of home runs last year and then this year he completely switched off. There's a chance Mickey Moniak hits 25, but that's not really a building block, is it? The big young guys who this team is trying to build around are not 30 home run guys, at least not yet. And so the team that is supposed to be an inherent power team had basically no power this year...and I don't even know how much power they're gonna have next year. 

I can see why this team was looking like they were gonna past the White Sox for a while. Not that Andrew Benintendi's power was much better last year. 

I suppose there's a chance things pick up eventually for the Rockies, but honestly it's just not gonna be pretty for a couple years. This is the deal, sadly. Lots of years like this where nobody shows up until they agree upon a formula that avoids it. 

Coming Tomorrow- At last, his team has enough pitching to outlast the Yankees. It's just a shame it took them this long.