When you looked at the Wild Card Series between the Braves and Reds, you were left to wonder if a series with six total runs over 22 innings could push the NL to add the DH. After all, one of the purported reasons for the NL DH was to increase offense.
It was just one series, but it showed just how the universal DH yet again failed to do what the DH purports to do.
That series wasn’t an anomaly either. This is exactly what we saw play out over the course of the 2020 season.
In 2019, NL batters, inclusive of pitchers, hit .251/.323/.431. They would walk 8.6% of the time and strike out 23.0% of the time. Ultimately, they would score 4.78 runs per game.
This year, NL batters without pitchers batting hit .246/.325/.421. They would walk 9.3% of the time and strike out 23.1% of the time. Ultimately, they would score 4.76 runs per game.
Looking over those and all numbers, we see the NL DH had zero impact upon the league. That’s not surprising when you see there’s very little difference over the last five years between NL and AL offensive production.
Part of the reason for that is pitchers revive on average little over two PA per game. After that, there are PH who hit roughly on par with AL ninth placed batters.
Really, when you look at it the only thing MLB accomplished by instituting an NL DH was making the AL fans happy. That’s a bizarre decision to make.
After all, we’re not going to see a flood of New York Yankees fans suddenly become New York Mets fans because of the DH. Really, if that fanbase sat through vastly inferior broadcasts and still continued to watch Yankee games, you can’t imagine seeing pitchers two ABs per game go away being the straw which broke the camels back.
No, in the end, such thinking is nonsense, which is exactly what the NL DH was – nonsense.
Rob Manfred got to have his shtick for a year, and it failed miserably. There wasn’t an increase in offense. Pitchers still got hurt. Fan interest didn’t increase. Taking all of that into account, we again see the DH has zero impact on the game and has no place in the National League.
Fortunately, it is set to go away in 2021. For the few fans bemoaning that fact, please console them when NL teams have effectively the same batting line and runs per game as they had in 2019 and 2020.
While most agree the expanded postseason made sense in a 60 game season, many do not want to see it going forward. Seeing these Wild Card series only affirms that for many.
The best of three format removes the drama of the winner-take-all Wild Card Game, and it completely fails to build the momentum you get with even a best-of-five series.
In short, we’ve learned the best-of-three format is a dud. It removes what is the typical excitement we see with postseason baseball. What it really accomplishes is giving fans who love baseball more baseball. While never a negative, it’s not accomplishing anything on the larger scale.
Learning that in and of itself is a positive. Believe it or not, there are more positives we can draw from the Wild Card round.
The first real positive we saw was holding the series in one ballpark with the top seed being the home team.
After the first year of the Wild Card format, we saw MLB switch the series to a 2-2-1 format. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this other than it not being a significant home field advantage.
When you have two division winners, it’s understood why you would use that format. However, when you have the top team in the league facing the Wild Card, it makes less sense.
Really, the biggest failing of the Wild Card format is top seeds don’t have a significant benefit to being the best team in the league. Oft times, they’re stuck playing the better team than the second best division winner. The best way to combat that is to have all five games played in the home field of the team with the best record in the league.
The other real benefit we see is playing these games closer to real baseball.
We saw teams playing three games in a row instead of having days off scattered throughout a series. With that, teams had to pay a little more attention to bullpen usage and the like. Honestly, seeing the series play out, that wasn’t much of an impact at all.
However, what we did see was baseball everyday. If you’re an Athletics or White Sox fan, you got to see your team play three days in a row. Typically, they would’ve seen their teams play two games followed by an off day followed by two more, and depending on the TV schedule, another day off or a game the following night.
At least for the Division Series, we should get five straight games. It will force teams to use more than 2-3 starters. That, in turn, really shows us just how good of a TEAM is winning the series.
Really, after 162 games, we should hope the postseason format benefits the best team. The current format doesn’t quite do that. Typically, we see teams with 1-2 top level pitchers or teams with a strong bullpen make unexpected runs.
Pushing a Division Series to five straight days would push the lesser teams to actually use their weaker fourth starter, which in turn, could very likely impact the outcome of the series.
That, in turn, could lead to better LCS and World Series matchups. Although, to be fair, MLB hasn’t been exactly suffering on the World Series matchups in recent years.
Overall, we see from these Wild Card rounds, there is a better way to handle the Division Series. We see the playing baseball everyday is a positive, and we see the best teams in the league should get complete home field advantage.
Mostly, we see best-of-three series are a dud, and they need to go away in 2021 much like the universal DH will.
In light of Mike Puma’s article for the New York Post regarding whether the New York Mets should retain Van Wagenen, here is a complete list of the reasons why Van Wagenen should keep his job:
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While baseball and the Mets are my main passion, it’s not the way with my oldest son. No, for him, it’s hockey and the New York Rangers. Henrik Lundqvist is a huge reason why.
Back in 2014, I would rush home from work to spend time with my infant son. He was most excited on hockey days. The ritual was I would come home, get him in his Rangers onesie, and we would watch the Rangers improbable run to the Stanley Cup Finals; a run made possibly by Lundqvist’s greatness.
From that moment, he was hooked.
My son has literally loved his Rangers all his life, and his first favorite player was Lundqvist. He wanted to play hockey all the time, and the jersey he wanted was Lundqvist’s.
In his first game at MSG, it was the thrill of a lifetime for him to see Lundqvist between the pipes.
In fact, when looking for seats for the game, he didn’t want center ice. He didn’t want to see the side the Rangers shoot twice. No, he wanted to see Lundqvist in action.
It got to the point with him where he increasingly wanted to play in net more and more like Lundqvist. If you’re a hockey parent, you know the multitude of reasons why that’s daunting. Eventually, we relented a bit, and we let him have his shot.
Yes, the gear he wanted was Bauer because that’s the gear Lundqvist uses.
In his first tournament in net, he wore his Lundqvist t-shirt under the equipment telling me he wanted to do Lundqvist proud. He certainly did picking up his first ever win.
He’s loves playing in net, but he also loves playing out and scoring goals. Where he goes from here is an unknown. That said, no matter the path, Henrik Lundqvist has been his inspiration.
This is just our story. Undoubtedly, Lundqvist has been an inspiration to many around the world. We’ve personally seen that talking with other parents around the rink. We’ve also seen that with Igor Shesterkin.
In the end, that is Lundqvist’s true legacy. With his aura, greatness, humility, and charity, he’s inspired children across the globe and helped them love hockey. They want to be just like him.
In the end, that is the real reason he is the King. He’s led and inspired children the best they can be. Seeing him as a player and person with his work with the Garden of Dreams Foundation, he’s worthy of children wanting to follow in his footsteps.
When you look through sports in New York, the legends always win. No, we’re not talking about beloved players like David Wright. We’re talking true legends.
Every Yankees legend has a ring. Tom Seaver won with the 1969 Mets. The famed Knicks teams have two. LT has two, and even Namath and the Jets have one. The Islanders have their dynasty.
After 54 years, Leetch and the Rangers got his as well in one that may have to last a lifetime.
It’s funny. For it being the world’s most famous arena, it just seems to come up short over the last 25+ years in delivering titles with all-time great players. First, Patrick Ewing. Now, Henrik Lundqvist.
Lundqvist could be the best Ranger of all-time. He might be the best hockey player in New York history. He’s definitively the best player to ever leave New York without a title.
That’s what happens when the Rangers officially buy out his contract later today. It is a decision which hurts, but in the end, it’s the right decision for all involved. Hopefully, everyone feels respected in the process.
The Rangers just couldn’t get it quite right. They had a legendary goaltender who was the driving force behind the Rangers going to the Conference Finals in three out of four years.
Maybe with a fair whistle, he and the Rangers have a Cup, but sadly, it didn’t happen. From there, the team had just one more run in them.
At the moment, the Stanley Cup, a living championship trophy, is incomplete without Lundqvist’s name etched onto it. Maybe Lundqvist goes somewhere next year, and he accomplishes what Ray Bourque and Dominic Hasek did before him.
Even if he doesn’t, it doesn’t change how great he is. For all the talk about his not winning a Stanley Cup, people conveniently forget he led Sweden to Olympic Gold in 2006. On the highest stage with the best players in the world, Lundqvist reigned.
And he still reigns because he’s not just a Rangers legend, or a hockey legend. He’s a New York legend.
Babe Ruth was the Sultan. Henrik Lundqvist is the King. He has been and always will be.
We will miss Lundqvist in a Rangers sweater between the pipes because he’s the best to ever do it. We look forward for his 30 hanging from the Garden rafters, and and we look to see what he does next.
Before all that, Rangers fans everywhere thank you. The past 15 years were among the best in Rangers history and that had come on the heels of the worst period in Rangers history.
You were responsible for that, and we loved you for it. Thank you.
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On July 25, 2020, the Miami Marlins were informed three of their players tested positive for COVID19. That included Jose Urena, who was supposed to start the following day.
At that point, as noted by Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Marlins, who had been in close contact with one another, opted not to quarantine as per MLB and CDC protocols. No, instead, the Marlins opted to play their game against the Phillies.
Now, there was a pandemic. The Marlins were based in a city considered a hot spot. According, to Marlins manager Don Mattingly, he and his team never hesitated in their decision not to play:
Mattingly post game after several #Marlins players test positive for Covid-19: "Never really considered not playing from my standpoint. We're taking risks everyday, everyday we're taking risks. That's what the players all around the league are doing." pic.twitter.com/8xL16CsF1Y
— Mike Cugno (@MikeCugnoCBS4) July 26, 2020
From there, the three Marlins who tested positive grew to 20. The Philadelphia Phillies would see members of their organization test positive. The Marlins would not be permitted to play in a game for over a week.
The schedules of the Phillies, Yankees, Nationals, and Marlins were also screwed up. That happened because Mattingly and his players didn’t remotely care about the health and safety of their opponents and the low level staffers who they come into contact.
Mattingly and the Marlins team he was supposed to lead jeopardized the entire 2020 season in a completely selfish act. Worse than that, they put the health of many in jeopardy.
It wasn’t just the Phillies. It was the people who were still working in the visitors’ clubhouse. It was the people at their hotel. It was the unlucky person who had to drive the sick players on sleeper busses back to Miami.
Through it all, Mattingly showed reckless abandon both for the MLB season and for the health of his players. He didn’t care about the health of the other 29 teams or all the human beings his team would come into contact.
When you exhibit you don’t care about whether your season is actually played or the health of thousands of people, you should not receive awards or accolades. Instead, Mattingly should’ve been fined and suspended with the Marlins wondering if this is really the person they want to lead their team in the future.
By giving your vote to Mattingly for Manager of the Year, you’re rewarding his sheer recklessness and complete lack of decency. You’re actually rewarding someone actively trying to stop the 2020 season from being played.
Voting for that is absurd. There are many other managers who had great years and who managed not to threaten the health of people or the season. Those managers deserve the votes. Not Mattingly.
As the season wound to a close, there was much talk about how the Mets were too talented for this season to have unfolded the way it did. Certainly, some players struggled, but in the end, the Mets missing even an expanded postseason should not have shocked anyone.
Things changed dramatically for the Mets the day Noah Syndergaard had to shut it down due to Tommy John surgery. It was at that point the Mets went from possible postseason contender to a team who was likely going to miss the postseason.
Syndergaard presented, along with Jacob deGrom, two top of the rotation, swing and miss pitchers. The Mets desperately needed this as this was a team with far too many pitchers who pitched to contact in front of a terrible defensive team.
In 2019, the Mets were last in the National League with an 86 DRS. Despite planning on going into 2020 with Marcus Stroman and Rick Porcello, two pitchers who pitch to a high rate of contact, the Mets affirmatively opted not to improve their defense. In actuality, they probably made t worse.
Remember, the plan was to always have two first basemen in the field with Pete Alonso and J.D. Davis. Based on what we saw of Robinson Cano in 2019, you could’ve argued, the Mets were really putting three first basemen in the field. That’s beyond ill advised.
An important thing to remember here was not only were the Mets playing three first basemen, they were playing three poor ones at that, at least in terms of their respective positions.
By OAA, Alonso was the worst defensive first baseman in the NL last year. Davis was the 26th ranked LF with the second worst success rate. Cano was also ranked 26th.
The good news is Cano rebounded by OAA but not DRS. Past him, well, it was a complete disaster.
Davis didn’t last long in LF because he was even worse, which you could not imagine to be possible. He then moved to third where he was again an unmitigated disaster. That was a precipitous drop from the good, albeit declining defense, provided from Todd Frazier last year.
Alonso too regressed leading him to lose his everyday job at first. Instead, he split time with Dominic Smith at the position. When Dom wasn’t at first, he was in left. That meant the Mets had FOUR first basemen in the field.
You can’t win games that way.
What makes this even worse is the Mets didn’t really surround these players with plus defenders to offset the terrible defense.
Brandon Nimmo isn’t a center fielder. That was again proven by his -4 OAA and -5 DRS. Wilson Ramos was just about the worst catcher there was in baseball behind the plate. His framing numbers were poor, his ability to block the ball worse, and his ability to tag out runners nonexistent.
Essentially, that made the pitchers mound look more like a tiny island with a bunch of people around him just letting him drown.
Really, when you look at the Mets, the only position they had good defense was short with Andres Gimenez and Amed Rosario providing very good defense there. Other than that this was a terrible defensive ballclub with the fourth worst DRS in all of baseball.
The sad thing is it didn’t have to be this way. There were very good defenders on this roster who earned playing time. Case in point was Luis Guillorme. He had a very good defensive season with a 1 OAA and DRS, and he posted a 144 wRC+ at the plate. Playing him up the middle with Gimenez or Rosario could’ve had a profound impact on this suspect pitching staff.
On that note, Porcello struggled with terrible defense behind him. Stroman opting out certainly hurt, but he also might’ve struggled in front of a flat out terrible defensive team.
Throw in Michael Wacha being predictably bad and injured and Steven Matz regressing, and this wasn’t even close to being a team being built to compete over a 162 or 60 game season.
Truth be told, the only way this team could’ve competed was by having a starting staff of swing and miss pitchers who induced soft contact. Unfortunately, Syndergaard was injured, and the Mets didn’t want Zack Wheeler. Once the latter two were gone so were the Mets chances.
In the end, Brodie Van Wagenen and Jeff Wilpon treated the Mets like they were a fantasy team. With the Mets having an MLB best team 122 wRC+, they probably won their fantasy league.
However, on the field, where things like defense and base running matter, they built a flawed and arguably bad baseball team. Certainly, this was not a team truly built to compete, and in the end the Mets didn’t.
That’s why Van Wagenen will be gone and why Steve Cohen has zero interest in keeping Jeff Wilpon around in any decision making capacity when the sale is officially ratified by MLB.
Overall, the 2020 New York Mets didn’t underachieve. No, this team did EXACTLY what they were built to do. That was have deGrom be great, the offense hit, and get horrendous defense and suspect starting pitching.
Could you believe all the things the Mets needed to happen for them to make the postseason actually happened? It literally had a less than 2% chance of happening at one point, but it did happen!
Actually, no, that’s not entirely correct. The Mets making the postseason was contingent on them winning out. The Mets didn’t do that part. In fact, they lost their last three, four of five, and seven of their last 10.
By losing their last three games, they finished in last place in the NL East. To add insult to injury, they got completely blown out in the final game of the season.
Seth Lugo, Brad Brach, Steven Matz, and Dellin Betances simply didn’t have it. Each one of these pitchers allowed three runs with Lugo allowing six. This set the stage for a 15-5 loss.
While it’s terrible having to watch the Mets lose a game like this, there is solace in the fact this is the last game of the Wilpon era. For all they put this fanbase through for nearly two decades, their lasting memory as majority owners is getting their doors blown off with their team being completely embarrassed.
Yes, the Mets will lose games like this is the future. It’s unavoidable. That said, we’ve just seen the last time the Wilpons get to react to this kind of loss. Actually, that time has already passed. Now, they just have to watch and be powerless to do anything about it.
Now, Mets fans have an owner with actual resources to operate a baseball team. He’s hired someone who knows what he’s doing, and he’s going to show both Jeff Wilpon and Brodie Van Wagenen the door, which will make the Mets infinitely better.
As Brandon Nimmo said before the game, “I’m glad that somebody who is a lifelong Mets fan is going to end up owning the team.” We all feel the same way.
The Wilpons being gone wasn’t the only highlight of the day. Luis Guillorme sports an incredible fu manchu, and he was 2-for-3 with a double, walk, and run.
Pete Alonso was also great hitting two homers. It was fun seeing fan favorites perform this way. It’s even better when it leads to a Mets win. But that didn’t happen.
Instead, we saw the Mets lose just like Jeff Wilpon did. Now, (we ,@6$!@)see him go witwell is as
The Mets had Jacob deGrom on the mound against the Nationals. That meant they had their best chance to stay alive. It didn’t happen.
Why?
Well, the answer is Brodie Van Wagenen. He’s a terrible GM who created a highly flawed team who is going to finish under .500, miss the postseason, and may finish in last place.
With two outs in the fourth, Wilson Ramos couldn’t block a ball a Major League catcher should be able to block. That led to the second run of the game for the Nationals.
If you recall, the Mets entered this season with two everyday outfielders. That has led the Mets to play players out of position. Worse yet, with Pete Alonso, J.D. Davis, and Dominic Smith, the Mets continue to put three first baseman in the lineup.
That had Smith in left running hard into a wall. On that play, Andrew Stevenson would circle the bases for an inside the park homer tying the game at 3-3.
Miguel Castro would relieve deGrom to start the sixth. He immediately put two on putting the game in jeopardy. The Mets brought in Edwin Diaz, who is poor with inherited runners, into the game. Diaz allowed the go-ahead sacrifice fly to put the Nationals ahead for good.
In the seventh, Brandon Nimmo gave the Mets a chance by hitting an infield single. That didn’t matter as the -0.2 WAR J.D. Davis, the player who Van Wagenen seems to tout as his proof he’s not completely incompetent, struck out to end the game and the Mets postseason chances.
In the second half of the doubleheader, Rick Porcello struggled, and the Mets lost 5-3.
In the end, it was Van Wagenen’s players who failed this year, and as a result, Van Wagenen is the reason the Mets won’t make the expanded postseason.
As the day progressed, the rained out New York Mets hopes of making the postseason lied in only one scenario. They had to win out while the San Francisco Giants were swept by the San Diego Padres.
The Padres are a very good team, so it was at least possible. With the Padres up 3-2 entering the sixth inning of the seven inning game (thanks again Manfred), there was increasing hope. That hope seemingly vanished when Wilmer Flores stepped to the plate:
? I'll be there for you?
…IN THE CLUTCH! #OrangeFriday pic.twitter.com/BWT1Ii1dL0
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) September 26, 2020
This should infuriate every Mets fan.
Flores was a fan favorite and productive bench player who wanted to be a Met. Instead of looking to keep him around, the Mets non-tendered him and made up an arthritic condition he didn’t actually have.
Worse yet, Flores has been more productive than any player Brodie Van Wagenen has brought into the Mets organization. That includes Jed Lowrie who actually did have a knee issue.
They tried to replace him too by trading for J.D. Davis who was actually a significantly worse defender than even what they made Flores out to be.
Overall, the Mets would’ve been much better off with Flores. That’s not only because he was better than every single Brodie Van Wagenen alternative. It’s also because Flores wouldn’t have been in San Francisco trying to end the Mets season.
Fortunately for the Mets, Trent Grisham hit a seventh inning walk-off homer for the Padres (in San Francisco) to give the Padres a 6-5 victory and to keep the Mets hopes alive.
TRENT GRISHAM WALK OFF BLAST
IN SAN FRANCISCO
PADRES WIN! #FriarFaithful pic.twitter.com/jy5yOjUOUX
— Bally Sports San Diego (@BallySportsSD) September 26, 2020
Tomorrow, the Mets will have to win two games while hoping Flores doesn’t have any more magic in his bat. Whatever the end result, we’re not too far away from Jeff Wilpon and Van Wagenen making stupid decisions that has Flores in San Francisco with worse options on the Mets roster.