It's Time for Baseball. We Got You Covered.
Welcome sports fans who need a sporting fix during what non-baseball fans call the doldrums of the sports calendar. Adam Silver is doing his darnest to make the finals last for three decades. Over at the hockey rink, the Stanley Cup Finals are still a couple days away from getting started. (Apologies, by the way, to all our Canadian supporters - the drought continues, but only for one more year!)
A few years ago, I created this internal rule, one that said I will not actively look at baseball standings until at least Memorial Day. After all, they play 162 games. Looking at win-loss records and making prognostications about any team before they’ve played at least a quarter of their schedule seems futile to say the least. Throw in a slightly delayed start to the season because of the lockout and, well, you get my drift.
So after a birthday weekend that was filled with loads of fun and shenanigans and another weekend needed to recover, we’re here, with our initial overview of what sticks out, what’s concerning, and what’s downright exciting glancing at the standings of America's past time. And for starters….
Sticks Out… and Concerning
As of the evening of June 10, half of the teams in baseball are under .500. As we embark on the first real summer since 2019, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has to be at least a little concerned about the fact half of the teams in his league can’t stay at the average mark before the summer solstice. Most of the teams we expected to be bad (the Orioles, Royals, Athletics, and Nationals come to mind) but there are others whose futility is more surprising (White Sox and Mariners). Regardless, baseball loves to stake a claim to parity that isn’t quite deserving, but in a year when many sports franchises need fans to come through the turnstiles to help make up for COVID related financial losses, it’s tough to sell that product to middle class Americans during historic inflation when the odds are 50/50 that their baseball team is even mediocre, let alone a real contender.
Sticks Out – We Coastin…. Hard!
One of my favorite songs by Victoria Monet is Coastin’, in which she illustrates in such poignant and poetic detail what she’d like to do on a lovely date, from the east to west coast. (Or something like that. Listen for yourself.) Baseball will definitely have that track near the top of its Spotify year end list.
The coastal elites might be reeling politically, but their baseball teams are soaring. The Yankees are on a tear. The Mets are maintaining a sizable lead in the division. The Dodgers are the Dodgers. The Padres are serious contenders to take the division crown from the NL West, and that’s without the services of baseball's most exciting player, Fernando Tatis Jr. The Giants were never going to replicate their torrid pace last season, but they’re still legit pennant contenders. Had I written this a few weeks ago, the Angels of Anaheim would’ve been included on this list too. The Red Sox started slow, but it’s clear they’re too talented to stay out of contention for long. If you live within 100 miles of the beach, odds are your team is pretty decent. That helps when deciding whether to cruise the boardwalk or patron the ballpark in the heat of July.
Pete Alonso and the Mets currently sit atop the NL East
Downright Exciting — The East’s
As mentioned, the teams from the Bronx and Queens are really good, but their mates in the division aren’t too shabby either. Do I think the Yankees or Mets can keep up the pace they’ve played the first two months of the season under? No, that’d be too hard, and both teams have very legitimate pennant contenders as division rivals. That should spur a lot of interest from local and national media outlets over the summer, causing some consternation and entertaining discussions when each team inevitably goes on a four or five game losing streak.
Nonetheless, each of the eastern divisions are likely to be the most fascinating, even if not the closest. I expect both New York teams to win both divisions – they’ve built up quality cushions early on – but with the expanded postseason and a number of teams that are well within their right to believe they should make a World Series appearance this year (Blue Jays, Rays, Braves) and others that need to make the postseason (Phillies, Red Sox) it’ll be fascinating to see what deadline moves are made, how heated these rivalries get in the summer, and if either of the New York juggernauts can run through the tape.
Joe Maddon was relived of his duties as Angels manager
Concerning – Lopsided Divisions
You can make an argument that four of the divisions are wrapped up. The Yankees, Astros and Mets all have leads of at least six games. The Twins lead the Guardians by three games, though their most realistic divisional competitor over 162 games are still the White Sox, who stand five games back. Things can change. There’s a lot of baseball left. But you certainly want tighter divisional races headed into July.
Exciting – The Hunt for October, Wild Card Edition
I’m not a fan of more playoff teams. If I were czar of the world, we’d go back to two divisions in each league, with only the divisional winners playing the LCS. You don’t need a lot of playoffs when you play so many games. But I acknowledge that ship has sailed, and if we’re going to have multiple wildcards, I like what baseball has decided to do expanding the field.
The Angles recently lost 13 games in a row, yet they’re only 2.5 back of the final wild card spot. Two of the best players in the game play in Anaheim in Mike Trout and Shohei Ohatani. We need them in the postseason. The White Sox, who have championship aspirations, may be sticking a fork in it in any other year, but even if they can’t catch the Twins, they’d be a catastrophic failure if they don’t manage to snag a wild card spot. The pressure is on.
In the NL, the Phillies need to make the playoffs, and a recent nine game winning streak is turning that from fable to possibility. The defending world champion Atlanta Braves are the hottest team in the land now. A couple of hot weeks from the Mariners, Rangers or D’backs could get them right back in the picture as well. The more teams that are in it, the merrier. And while the clubs at the bottom have slowly started their race to awfulness, there are enough clubs that would count a playoff appearance as a roaring success, both on the field and for the financial bottom line.
Bring on the summer!
