The Best of the Rest: 2020

 I figured it'd be easier to do a Non-Contenders Superlatives post this year, seeing as it's a shorter season and there's less teams to talk about, but there's also less time to actively gauge a lot of these teams' story. In another season, maybe a few of these teams could have made the playoffs. In another season, six more teams would be joining them. 

So while it's always fun to write one of these posts, there's still this sort of curve to it, like 'am I doing this right', or 'am I accounting for the right arc', or 'is this accurate'. Because while 2020 is gonna go down as a wild season, probably due to these playoffs...it may not be as accurate as a full 162-game season. And that needs to be taken into account.

Still...these are the 14 teams that didn't make the playoffs, and these are their superlatives. 

Most Likely to Succeed, According to the Sportswriters in December: Texas Rangers

Best Team That Peaked Too Early: Colorado Rockies

Best Team That Peaked Too Late: Seattle Mariners

Team That Didn't Even Begin to Give The Idea That They'd Be Good In the First Place: Pittsburgh Pirates

Best Squanderer of Hopes Their Fans Had in 2019: Second year in a row this goes to the defending World Series champs, the Washington Nationals

Most Willing to Settle: Philadelphia Phillies

Best Pitching Staff for a Team That Didn't Make the Playoffs: Kansas City Royals [I'm as shocked as you are]

Worst Pitching: Boston Red Sox

Best Farm System [Comprised of Other People's]: Seattle Mariners

Biggest Anticlimax: San Francisco Giants

Team That Should, By All Means, Be Good Yet Somehow Isn't: Los Angeles Angels

Most Anonymous Youth Movement: Detroit Tigers. Who the heck ARE most of these guys?

Most Depressing Team to Talk About Every Few Weeks: Pittsburgh Pirates

Most Comically-Timed Injuries: Arizona Diamondbacks

Most Fun Last Place Team: Kansas City Royals

Best Youth Movement: Baltimore Orioles

Best Youth Movement [That Needs Another Few Years To Adjust to the Majors]: Detroit Tigers

Team That Has No Idea What it Wants: [sigh] New York Mets

Most Likely to Not End Up on This List Next Year: Los Angeles Angels and San Francisco Giants

So, those were my 2020 superlatives. Not as fun with 6 teams missing, but hopefully the 2021 version will be a little fuller.