Torres, incidentally, has set the all time record for homers against one opponent in a season; the previous record was 12 by Sammy Sosa against the Brewers in 1998.
When you consider that guys like Babe Ruth, Hank Greenberg, and Jimmie Foxx got to play 22 games a year against really bad teams, it’s impressive the record is so recent.
Astros and Yankees are basically drag racing for the best record in the AL - tied at 98 wins with 11 to go, Astros have zero games against playoff teams left and the Yankees have two.
If I had to pick any team right now to win it all, I gotta pick Houston. New York and LA are great teams too, but I’m choosing Houston over NY because
Houston has faced slightly better opposition; they have no in division opponents as bad as Toronto or Baltimore,
Houston has stronger front line starting pitching, which confers a slightly greater advantage in short playoff series versus the regular season, and
New York has been a bit lucky to win 98 games; Houston hasn’t. I’m not running down the other candidates; Minnesota is a good team, Oakland is a good team, Cleveland is good, Tampa Bay is good, but Houston and New York are clearly superior and should be disappointed to lose to anyone except each other.
It’s harder to compare across leagues but the Dodgers are loaded. I’d say they’re 50-50 to win the pennant again, which is a very complimentary thing to say when you have to win two playoff series. They are the Astros and Yankees of the NL; no one else compares, they’re all comparable to Oakland or Minnesota.
I thought it might be interesting to talk attendance, since the numbers are pretty much clear. As I am sure most folks know, MLB attendance has been sliding year over year. It’s down a little this year too.
At the top of course is LA; if you want to win a trivia contest, ask your friends “what professional sports franchise has sold the most tickets all time?” It’s the Dodgers, by a mile. Anyway they average fifty thousand a game. The other top teams are mostly winning teams but the Angels are fifth despite sucking.
The concerning numbers of course are
Miami, whose attendance is utterly disastrous, and
Cleveland, Tampa Bay, and Oakland.
The latter three are all playoff contenders who don’t draw well. That’s wildly concerning. If a team in a strong market isn’t drawing well because they stink, that’s one thing; Toronto has basically the same attendance as Cleveland but Toronto is a dreadful team. Their attendance level is a floor. They’ll pull twice that when the team contends. If “shitty” is what you draw when you’re GOOD, there is a problem.
The problems in Oakland and Tampa Bay are well known, but Cleveland I find really frightening. Jacobs Field is a fine ballpark, and they’re been rolling winning teams out there for years now, and no ne goes. The concern is what attendance will be like when the team isn’t good. If they only average 21K a game with a star-laden winning team what do they average when they’re no good?
I mean, obviously Cleveland cannot, long term, enjoy the support of teams in huge markets; even the comparison to Toronto is unfair. But they don’t compare well with teams in similar markets, either; Milwaukee, arguably the smallest market in baseball, is killing them in attendance. San Diego did well this year. Cincinnati draws okay for a bad team. St. Louis kills it every year.
There was a funny play in yesterday’s game where the Cubs whipped the Pirates’ buttocks 16-6. On a run-scoring triple by the Cubs’ Tony Kemp, Pittsburgh coaches thought that a Cubs runner missed third base on the way home. They instructed the Pirates pitcher to make an appeal toss to third base. The throw was nowhere near the intended target, and Kemp scored on the error. It’s the kind of play you don’t expect to see beyond tee-ball.
Ha ha. I watched that game yesterday. And an inning or two later, after a sac fly scored a run, the Pirates players were petitioning for another appeal, thinking that Schwarber had left 3rd base early. You could see the Pirates’ skipper just shaking his head. No, no (good god, no). I just KNOW that he was thinking of John McKay’s infamous quote (possibly apocryphal) about his hapless Tampa Bay Bucs (“What do you think about your team’s execution, coach?” “I’m in favor of it.”)
Gotta say, when you talk about a terrible blunder in a game the Cubs are playing in, this long-time Cubs fan has to be surprised (and pleased!) about whose blunder it was.
With Mike Trout out for the rest of the season, Jorge Soler, who tied Trout’s 45 home runs last night will (barring a miraculous home run burst from the runners-up, who are currently 8 behind) become the first Royal to win the AL home run title.
Trout’s injury probably also costs him the MVP Award. Had he played out, his greatness could not have been denied, but now I think the edge goes to a player on a contender. His only hope for the award is simply that there is no immediately obvious, clear cut second choice. Those votes will be split among a number of guys - Semien, LeMahieu, Bregman, Bogaerts, Polanco, Verlander, all having great years. I think Bregman will actually win the award but it’s going to be split a lot of ways.
Yeah, Cleveland’s attendance over the last few years has been puzzling. They’ve been fielding competitive teams, they have some big names, a nice stadium and they just don’t draw. Last game I attended was a Sunday afternoon, Kluber was pitching and the place was less than half full.
Semi-related:
Pirates pitcher Felipe Vazquez has been arrested for solicitation of a child.
Speaking of Trout, rough last two weeks for the Angels - not only are they down the best player on the planet, they also have three games against the Yankees, two against the A’s, and seven against the Astros. They’re at 68 wins now and it wouldn’t be surprising if they didn’t make it past 70.
Wow, that is one hell of a hard schedule.
Yesterday Cavan Biggio hit for the cycle for the Blue Jays, only the third Jay to do so (Kelly Gruber and Jeff Frye are the others.)
Toronto fans are all a-flutter over Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette and they’ve both played well, but Biggio has quietly been very impressive; no one has noticed because his batting average has been low, but he gets on base, has power, has stolen 13 bases in 13 attempts, and plays decent second base. He could help the Blue Jays win many games in the next five or six years. He’s older than Guerrero and Bichette so he’s not the same prospect they are, but he could be an All Star.
Fun facts:
Biggio’s famous dad also hit for the cycle; they are the second father-son duo to do it, after Gary and Daryle Ward.
Biggio is the first visiting player to ever do it in Camden Yards.
Biggio also stole two bases in the game; he and Charlie Moore are the only men in the last century to do that.
1a - Craig Biggio and Daryle Ward were teammates for about 4 years - they were teammates when Biggio hit his cycle, but not when Ward did.
Gerrit Cole gets 300 strikeouts. It’s funny how the increase in strikeout rates and the decrease in innings pitched have pretty much offset each other and 300 strikeouts is still a big deal but not an impossibility.
Cole is a fine pitcher but his strikeout rate is astronomically ludicrous. If he were to rest for the regular season it would not just be the highest in baseball history (for a starting pitcher) but would be so absurdly higher than anyone prior to 15-20 years ago that it’s hard to ascertain where the standard is anymore. If you look at the best strikeout rates of all time, you have:
The best K/9 ratio in major league history from before 1997 is Nolan Ryan in 1987, the 28th highest ever, and he’s 2.5 K behind Cole. Above that, just this season, are Robbie Ray, Lucas Giolito and Matt Boyd. Matt Boyd, by the way, has an ERA of 4.54 and has given up 38 home runs. He’s 8-11, and he deserves to be, even though he has 228 strikeouts and only 47 walks. There is little representation from prior to the 1990s on that list except for a few Nolan Ryan seasons and the odd fluke here and there. Bob Gibson doesn’t appear on the top FIVE HUNDRED, but someone named Kyle Gibson does, from 2019 of course. I had to look him up to remember what team he played for.
K-W ratio is kind of becoming divorced from pitching success. It’s bizarre.
Has there ever been a team with 3 second generation players, like the Jays, before? I guess it could even be 4 if you count Gurriel Jr.
Found one - 2000 Cincinnati, with Ken Griffey Jr., Aaron Boone, and Mike Bell (brother of David, son of Buddy, grandson of Gus). Mike Bell played his only 19 major league games (with 31 plate appearances) that year.
The striking thing about the three Jays rookies, of course, is that they all came up at the same time and the least promising (Biggio) still looks like he’ll probably have a 3-4 year career at worst.
By the way, anyone know if there a fourth-generation Boone or Bell in the minors somewhere?
(answering my own question - Jake Boone, son of Bret, was drafted in the 38th round out of high school last year and decided to go to Princeton instead).