2023 Mid-Season Review
July 8, 2023
If you find yourself stuck in the middle, there is only one way to go: forward. Richard Branson
This post will be a random collection of thoughts on each Major League team with the 2023 season at its halfway point. One of the beauties of Baseball is the ebb and flow of the game. Batters catch fire and cool off. Pitchers find a groove and pitch lights out… then lose it and get rocked. Teams leap forward and recede. Often there is a rhyme and reason for all this. Batters catch fire because they face pitchers that they hammer and cool off because they face pitchers that have their number. Teams go on winning streaks after playing weak opponents and then recede when the competition is stiffer.* Pitchers? Who the hell knows what is going on with pitchers. There is a beauty to this ebb and flow of the game that deepens your appreciation for it over time.
*McGraw’s 1916 New York Giants hold the Major League record for consecutive victories at 26. If recollection serves, all 26 games were played at home in the Polo Grounds of New York against teams from the bottom half of the standings.
1a. Atlanta Braves [54-27 after 81 games, exactly halfway through the season]: On pace to win 108 games in 2023 and with a set line-up for the foreseeable future, the Braves, already a good team, have changed into a juggernaut. They may win 100+ games for the next five (or more) years if the young core stays relatively uninjured and the pitching hold ups. The Atlanta Braves of the 2020s may make the great Braves of the 1990s teams look like total underachievers. They already have one World Series Championship under belt (2021). Already probably the best hitting team in the Major Leagues, the Atlanta Braves seem to be mutating into the most ferocious offensive team since the Cincinnati Big Red Machine of the 1970s. If their young players continue to develop along a normal growth path, they may be even better than that legendary team. There is no Atlanta Brave equivalent to the light hitting Cesar Geronimo of the 1975 and 1976 World Champion Reds. All these guys can all hit.
1b. Tampa Bay Rays [54-27]: Also on pace to win 108 games, the TB Rays are a different animal than the Braves. Other than Wander Franco, their best player, they have not locked up their core players. But the analytical processes that keep Tampa Bay fielding good teams year after year are still in place. The only difference this year is that the Rays are having good luck. Their core players are performing well and team is, for the most part, injury free. If you field a team that should win 90 games, year after year, the team will in some years win 100 games through good luck and in other years win just 80 games or so because of bad luck, injuries, and sub-par performance. You have to wonder how long Tampa Bay can keep doing this. Almost all the other Major League teams want to be like the Rays and the talent drain out of that front office has been ferocious. Of course, what most of these other “copycat” teams admire the most about Tampa is that they field a good team on the cheap. The smart part is much harder to duplicate.
3. Texas Rangers [49-32]: Doubling down, in life or in poker, usually doesn’t work. It goes against the theory of sunk costs (i.e. tossing more good money into bad investments while refusing to cut your losses). After finishing with a brutal 60 and 102 record in 2021, the Rangers thought that they were close to contending in 2022. Despite signing top free agents 2B Marcus Semien and SS Corey Seager to help put them over the top, they only improved to 68-94. Throwing caution to the winds, the Rangers then signed top free agent Jacob deGrom and three time World Champion manager Bruce Bochy to lead them in 2023. The decision to redouble their efforts has completely paid off for the Rangers (despite the fact that their decision to outbid everyone for deGrom is not looking good at all). It’s easy to root for a team that (after being severely beaten) picks itself up, dusts themselves off, and tries twice as hard.
4a. Arizona Diamondbacks [48-33]: For the 2023 season, the Major Leagues adopted a slew of rules to speed up the game. It was surmised that these rule changes would benefit the young and gifted and be to the detriment of the old and slow. With less time to think, quick reaction times are emphasized. The Arizona Diamondbacks would be shining example of this hypothesis. If they keep this pace up (so to speak), they will go from 74-88 to 96-66 (and into the play-offs). Much of this upsurge is due to the first full year of play by Corbin Carroll, already the team’s best player. If you squint your eyes, you can imagine Carroll (who is listed as being just 5 feet and 10 inches tall and only 165 pounds heavy, as one of the many great players from the olden days of baseball who were about his size. The average modern baseball player is just a littler bit smaller than the legendary Babe Ruth (who was considered a giant man during his time and nicknamed Big Fella among other things). With Jose Altuve, Carroll is living proof that the sheer size of modern players does not automatically make them better than those who played long ago.
4b. Baltimore Orioles [48-33]: The Orioles and the Nationals share a Regional Sports Network [RSN]. The Orioles are the majority partner in this RSN. This set-up is hardly by choice on the Nationals part. When the sad sack Montreal Expos moved to Washington in 2005, Peter Angelos, the Orioles’ owner and a famous lawyer, threatened litigation if he was not recompensated for the Nats invading his “territory.” Bud Selig, then the commissioner of Baseball, caved and gave away the Nationals TV rights to the Orioles RSN. He could do this because, at that time, the Expos were under control of Major League Baseball, not any individual owner. Faced with a delicate situation that needed serious negotiation, Selig simply gave away the whole farm. Incredibly, he gave away the Nationals RSN TV rights… in perpetuity! Why didn’t Selig just give them for 10, 20, 30, or 50 years (or Angelos’ lifetime). Why did he give them away forever, thus creating an endless problem. In any event, there is a on-going lawsuit by the Nationals against the Orioles. Recently, it was decided that the Nationals had short-changed (cheated) the Nationals out of 100 million for the years 2012-2016. Two more lawsuits (for 2017-2021 and 2022-2026) are underway. Bud Selig is rightly remembered for the greedy owner lockout of the players that canceled the 1994 World Series. But it is hardly the only black eye on his record. It is nice to see the Orioles have a good team again; but it is hard as hell to root for any team owned by the Angelos family.
6. Miami Marlins [47-34]: The Marlins have always seemed to be an incognito team, lacking any real identity. The team has been owned by a succession of pretty scummy owners. The early history of the team is almost bizzare. From the formation of the team in 1993 until 2003, the Miami Marlins had only two winning seasons, 1997 & 2003. In both years, the team won the World Series. From 2004 to 2009, the club treaded water, not really bad but not really good either. From 2010 to 2022, the Marlins had losing seasons every year except the covid aborted 2020 season (in which the team went 31 and 29 and surely would have finished with a losing record if the season had been completed). Perhaps, this year marks a resurgence to relativity for the club. In my opinion, they shouldn’t be taken seriously until they change their name to something better. How about Miami Knights (which could translated into Spanish as the Miami Caballeros)? All this being said, the Marlins will probably win their 3rd undeserved World Championship this year just out of spite.
7. Los Angeles Dodgers [46-35]: The Dodgers are right in line for a 90-95 win season despite an avalanche of injuries to their pitching staff. Considering the fact that they are rebooting their team (not going all out to win and giving a lot of rookies a chance to contribute), the Dodgers still appear to be headed for the playoffs. Given a year to break in their rookies, the Dodgers should be set for 2024. If they sign Shohei Ohtani as a free agent after this season, the Los Angeles Dodgers may well become the West Coast version of the Braves’ East Coast super-team. Obviously, the LA Dodgers have to be considered the front-runner for the services of Ohtani. And the team certainly seems to have positioned themselves to go after Ohtani. A recent poll revealed that most of the players in the Majors believe that Ohtani will end up with the LA Dodgers. So why does it feel like that the odds of Ohtani ending up with the Dodgers seem like slim and none?
8a. New York Yankees [45-36]: The Yankees are a collection of old and injury prone players. Lately, every Yankee season seems to turn into some sort of death march with the team trying to massage their creaky players over the finish line. The talent is there to claim a championship but the good health, and will power from the executive suite, is not. The patience shown Anthony Volpe, the team’s struggling rookie shortstop has been a little eye-opening. The Yankees have kept on playing Volpe through his slumps and calls for his demotion by all the media’s shouting heads. Volpe, given this long leash, seems to have finally turned the corner. The last time that the Yankees were patient with their rookies, the team was ultimately rewarded with their 1996 to 2000 dynasty. Of course, the one major difference this time is that Hal Steinbrenner is not George. Unlike his father, it is hard to picture Hal going balls to the walls to win a Championship.
8b. San Francisco Giants [45-36]: The Giants have been trying to play chess while the rest of the National League is playing checkers ever since Farhan Zaidi became the team’s general manager. In 2021, the Giants went 107-55 when all their moves came up aces. In 2022, the team ended up playing tic tac toe instead of chess and wound up 81-81. This year, it seems like Zaidi’s strategies are working once again, though not as well as in 2021 (which was a unique season). So what is San Francisco doing? Basically, the team seems to be trying each year to deepen and then absolutely maximize its Major League talent. All teams do this to some extent. But the Giants are all in. The Giants use analytics to try to always get the best pitcher/batter and batter/pitcher match-ups possible. They platoon. They try to have deep depth so they can rest their players. Their new age manager, Gabe Kapler, is a bodybuilder and mental guru. The Giants have the largest coaching staff in the game to ensure that the players have access to any help necessary. The team is built in a very liberal and progressive, one could even say granola way. In other words, the Giants perfectly represent the city of San Francisco itself.
10a. Houston Astros [44-37]: The bloom is off the rose for Houston. In 2022, their deep and excellent pitching staff led the Astros to victory in the World Series. Like many pitching staffs throughout baseball history, the Astros are now paying the price. Pitching, more than any other baseball act, wears and tears at its practitioners bodies. Pitching staffs that excel one season tend to fall apart, either slightly or completely, the next. The Astros waxed their way all the way to a 2022 World Championship. The Astro pitchers are now waning because of minor aches and major injuries. Of course, the disastrous signing of Jose Abreu to bolster the offense has not helped. This signing signaled a disturbing trend in team philosophy. They were investing in assets that were already fading. It seemed like a something that was going to be a problem somewhere down the line for Houston as Abreu got deeper into his 30s. No one (as far as I know) predicted Abreu’s immediate and complete face plant. It will be interesting to see if he will rebound at all in the second half of the 2023 season. The Houston Astros are old and the now Grim Reaper is at the door much earlier than expected.
10b. Los Angeles Angels [44-37]: Mike Trout is now clearly on the down slope of his career. Basically, he was the best player in Baseball from 2012 (his first full season) until 2019. His peak had two stages: 1) 2012 to 2016 and 2) 2017 to 2019. In the first stage, Trout was very much an everyday player (appearing in 157 to 159 games every year from 2013 to 2016). In 2017, he morphed into an even better player and would have hit well over 40 HRs (or even 50) every year if he could have just stayed healthy. His control of the strike zone peaked and he actually walked more than he struck out in 2017 and 2018. But during his 2017 to 2019 stage, he simply could not stay on the field for a full season, playing 114, 140, and then 134 games. Since his peak years ended in 2019, he has slowly and then suddenly lost control of the strike zone while being even more injury prone [just 36 games in 2021]. In 2022, he walked 56 times while striking out 139 times in just 119 games. In 2023, he has 45 BBs and 103 SOs in 81 games. With Mike Trout clearly in accelerated decline, the Angels will be even more brutal in 2024 if they do not resign Shohei Ohtani.
*Note: this was written on July 3, right before Trout broke the hamate bone in his left hand, pretty much wrecking the rest of 2023 for him.
10c. Toronto Blue Jays [44-37]: The Blue Jays may be the poster child for the nepotistic flavor of modern baseball. Many MLB teams feature the children of former Major Leaguers (or even grandchildren). But the Jays have the sons of two Hall of Famers (Craig Biggio and Vlad Guerrero) and the son of a player who once year lead the National League with 40 HRs, 128 RBIs, and a .620 SA (Dante Bichette Sr). Strangely enough, the son of the non Hall-of-Famer (Bo Bichette) probably will end up the best of the three. Cavan Biggio will end up the worst; and Vlad Guerrero Jr. seems likely to end up the second coming of Prince Fielder (also a son of a former Major League home run and RBI king, Cecil Fielder). Prince, of course, peaked at 23 (50 HRs) and 25 (141 RBIs). He was out of baseball at the age of 32.
13a. Cincinnati Reds [43-38]: Elly De La Cruz was listed near the top of most pre-season prospect lists. These prospect lists cited his lack of selectivity at the plate as his only drawback while noting that he probably had the highest potential ceiling of any prospect. Other than selectivity, these prospect lists talked about: 1) his absurdly quick bat; 2) his ridiculously strong throwing arm, 3) his otherworldly running speed; and 4) his light tower power. Now he is in the Major Leagues and it is hard to keep your eyes off him. He is all that was claimed and more. The fact that all these gifts are wrapped up in a 6 foot 5 inch/200 pound frame make it even better. Not since McGwire and Bonds in the 1990s has Baseball had two players who I would literally stop everything just to watch their at bats. But Ohtani and Cruz are even better than McGwire and Bonds (in a way) because their ridiculous gifts are much greater than just hitting home runs. If Cruz ever bulks up and keeps this bat speed (and gets much more selective), he could be Barry Bonds 2.0; but playing infield with an outrageous throwing arm. The possibilities are currently endless.
13b. Milwaukee Brewers [43-38]: It is nice to see that Christian Yelich has had a bit of a dead cat bounce. From 2013 to 2017, he was a very good outfielder. In 2018 and 2019, he suddenly changed into a MVP candidate, hitting 36 and then 44 HRs respectively. Of course, the year 2019 was the peak of the rabbit ball and, after 2019, the ball was deadened. But the rabbit ball simply cannot explain Yelich’s power explosion in 2018 & 2019 or batting collapse from 2020 to 2022 (14 HRs in 154 games for 2022). Yelich was bothered by many injuries during his collapse and apparently these bruises changed his swing. In 2023, Yelich has returned to his pre-MVP candidate good outfielder form. In fact, Yelich has been steadily improving as the 2023 season has progressed. If this continues, Christian Yelich will have his best season since his 2018-2019 peak. Cody Bellinger of the Cubs, whose career has oddly mirrored Yelich’s ups and downs, is also having a badly injured feline rebound too.
13c. Philadelphia Phillies [43-38]: The Phillies are one of the most entertaining Major League teams. General manager Dave Dombrowski collected a bunch of defensively challenged sluggers, best represented by Kyle Schwarber, to try to win a Championship. The team got all the way to the World Series before losing to the buzzsaw that was the 2023 Houston Astro’s pitching staff. This anti-modern analytics (i.e. Moneyball) strategy is quite interesting. Moneyball is all about quantifying values for every physical action on the baseball field, both offensively and defensively, and then finding those areas that are under-valued. Did Dombrowski find a Moneyball edge in Moneyball itself? In other words, did he figure out that Moneyball was quantifying some baseball values incorrectly and exploit them? Did he Moneyball the strategy of Moneyball? It certainly seems like he did.
16a. Boston Red Sox [40-41]: There are usually two different types of Baseball teams: Contenders and Pretenders. The contenders were teams actively trying to win the pennant… while the pretenders were not. The current Red Sox club seems to be a new hybrid: a pretending contender or contending pretender. Under this strategy, the team gathers together enough talented players that, if they all have good or great years, the club will suddenly become a surprise contender. If the talent base has injuries or off years, the team will wallow as a pretender. This strategy may have had its origin in the Red Sox’s 2013 and 2018 seasons. In 2013, the Red Sox, coming off a 69-93 record in 2012, put together a random collection of talent. These players all had good years and rampaged all the way through the season (97-65) to a very improbable World Series Championship. In 2014, the very same players collapsed, finishing 71-91. In 2018, a very good team (93-69 in 2017), coalesced and incredibly went 108-54 before winning another World Series. In 2019, they busted, ending up at 84-68. With the two World Series under their belt because of this boom or bust strategy, the Red Sox seem to have completely adopted it. Unfortunately it’s already apparent that 2023 will be another contending pretender year.
16b. Minnesota Twins [40-41]: There is an old joke that goes: What walks on four legs in its youth, two legs in its prime, and three legs in its old age. The answer, of course, is man (crawls as a baby, then walks normally, uses a cane in old age). But what if the baby never becomes a man? What if there is no prime and the baby goes straight to old age? There is a child development term to describe this lack of evolution: Failure to Thrive. For some reason, the Twins have a bunch of players who have failed to thrive (Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano, and Max Kepler in particular). Kepler would seem to be the poster child for this problem. All his analytics are good…. except that he continuously hits the ball hard on the ground. Launch angle? We don’t need no stinking launch angle. It’s been years now and no one has addressed it. I sincerely hope Max goes to the Dodgers or some other savvy organization before its too late.
18a. Cleveland Guardians [39-42]: It is interesting how some teams are able to keep a consistent identity over time. For instance, the NY Yankees have pretty much maintained their “Bronx Bombers” identity ever since they bought Babe Ruth from Boston. The Cleveland Indians, for the longest time (1901 to 1959), fielded consistently good, sometimes great, teams. In those 59 years, the club had 42 winning seasons and only 17 losing years [no .500 years]. From 1960 to 1993, the Indians were consistently mediocre. They were often terrible and sometimes good, but never contenders. Their constant also-ran status led to the Indian’s reputation as a perennial loser being memorialized in the movie Major League. In the 1990s, the Indians reemerged as a powerhouse with an amazing collection of sluggers (Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez, Juan Gonzalez, Jim Thome). Now, in a Jeckyll and Hyde twist, the Indians have been renamed the Guardians and are channeling the Deadball era of Baseball. It is amazing that any modern team could have a team with two regular outfielders that will not hit 10 home runs, or anywhere close to 10 home runs, in a season.
18b. Seattle Mariners [39-42]: The Seattle Mariners have had two all-time top 100 players start their careers with the club. First there was Ken Griffey. But Griffey only played half his career with the Mariners. He eventually forced his trade to his hometown team, the Cincinnati Reds. As soon as he joined the Reds, Griffey’s career went in a tailspin. Injuries and a lack of desire to stay in shape led to ineffectiveness. The Mariners dodged a bullet by letting Griffey go. The second all-time top 100 player was Alex Rodriguez. But Rodriguez did not even play half his career in Seattle. Once again, the Mariners dodged a bullet. Rodriguez did not turn into a pumpkin like Griffey. Through the use of steroids, Rodriguez was a great player for a long time after leaving Seattle. But the steroids led him down a dark and ugly path. Now the Mariners have another potential great player: Julio Rodriguez (though he probably not be an all-time top 100 player unless he improves quickly and then suddenly). Here’s to hoping that the second half of his career doesn’t die like Griffey’s long fade or twist in the wind like A-Rod’s syringe fueled nightmare.
18c. Pittsburgh Pirates [39-42]: In the 1970s, the Pirates had an identity that no team could probably get away with now. They were the blackest team in the Majors (i.e. African and Latin black players, not the color of their uniforms or something). Famously, they fielded the first all Black line-up in 1971. This was very much in contrast with the other Pennsylvania team (the Philadelphia Phillies) which had a blue-collar redneck (i.e. white) reputation. This identity peaked and culminated in the Willie Stargell led “We are Family” 1979 World Championship Pirates team. In 2022, the Tampa Bay Rays had the very first All-Latin player line-up on September 15 (which was Roberto Clemente day). Which all-something line-up will be next? All-White (by racist default), All Black, and All Latin have all now been done. When will the first All-Asian line-up happen? Perhaps when the Tokyo Giants join the Majors in 2055? But, more seriously, the Pirates have the #1 pick in the 2023 Major League draft. Can the team finally turn around its long recent history of simply being an incubator for other team’s stars and get an identity of it’s own again?
21. Chicago Cubs [38-43]: One year ago, the Chicago signed Seiya Suzuki out of Japan. Playing regularly in the Cubbies outfield, Suzuki has now struggled through one and a half years in the Major Leagues. This year, the Boston Red Sox signed Japanese outfielder Masataka Yoshida out of Japan. From 2019 to 2021, Suzuki hit for OPS marks of 1.018, .953, and 1.073 in Japan respectively. On the other hand, from 2020 to 2022, Yoshida had consecutive OPS marks of .966, .992, and 1.008 in Japan.* Comparatively, Yoshida hit for a slightly better BA (batting average) with greater plate discipline in Japan. But Seiya Suzuki had much greater power. So far, Yoshida has been a much better hitter in the Majors than Suzuki. Why is this so? Suzuki has had some injuries. But so has Yoshida. It may simply be mental. Yoshida seems to truly love playing in the Majors. He met his idol (Bryce Harper). It has been reported that Yoshida has planned to come over for years. Suzuki? It seems like his primary reason may have simply been the pay. For many years, Japanese pitchers have had more success than Japanese hitters in the Majors (except Ichiro & Hideki Matsui). Pitchers, by and large, are a confidant group. It may be that the largest part of coming to America for Japanese players is psychological rather than talent related.
*OPS combines two very disparate statistics: OBP (On Base Percentage) and SA (Slugging Percentage), but is a handy way of representing offensive production.
22. San Diego Padres [37-44]: In baseball, all things usually even out. At the end of the year, the great hitters and pitchers have compiled their stats. The players hitting .400 for half a year have been brought back to earth. Unless injuries have crippled them, player performance remains steady, advancing and receding with age. In other words, the Padres have too much talent to continue to wallow in the second division like they are now. But nothing is a given. Up until now, the Padre’s 2023 season has been beset by injuries and under-performance. There is no guarantee that it will turn around. But, in all likelihood, it will. If someone wants to bet you that the Pads will not improve upon their 37-44 first half record, you should probably take that bet.
23. New York Mets [36-45]: Yet another example of the fickleness of the Gods of Baseball. Almost everything went right for the Mets in 2022. Starting with the injury that sidelined their star closer (Edwin Diaz), most things have gone wrong for the Mets in 2023. Of course, pitching is a much more fickle talent than batting. After the 2022 season, the NY Mets had some pitching choices to make. They kept one of their aces, Max Scherzer. The Mets let their other ace, Jacob deGrom, go. They keep only Carlos Carrasco from their back end starting depth, letting Chris Bassitt & Taijuan Walker go. They kept their sixth and seventh starters, David Peterson & Tyler McGill, hoping both could step up. The Mets signed future Hall of Famer Jason Verlander to replace DeGrom and signed Japanese star Kodai Senga for backend depth. Realistically, they did not really make any mistakes. Perhaps the Mets could have tried harder to sign Bassitt and Walker to maintain their remarkable starting depth. But letting DeGrom go turned out to be a blessing as his rotator cuff soon blew out again. Like the Padres above, the tide has been against them. Will the tide turn for the Mets before the season ends? There is an awful lot of talent on this team. It’s more likely than unlikely.
24. Detroit Tigers [35-46]: It’s amazing that the Tigers continue to let Miguel Cabrera soak up at bats simply because they have to overpay him. Cabrera hasn’t been worth his salary since 2017. From 2017 to 2021, the argument could have been made that there was a (slim) chance that Cabrera had one last blast-from-the-past left in him. After all, Albert Pujols, after being just a pale shadow of his one-time greatness from 2017 to 2021, found the fountain of youth in 2022 and went out with an astonishing finishing kick. But Albert Pujols showed up for Spring Training in 2022 in the best shape that anyone had seen him in for years. Miguel Cabrera, who has been showing up with a double chin for many years, showed up for 2023 with a triple chin. The Tigers cannot be taken seriously until this man no longer plays for them (or they at least nail him to the bench and maybe pinch hit him every blue moon just for the fun of it).
25a. Chicago White Sox [34-47]: The hiring of the elderly Tony LaRussa to be the White Sox manager in 2021 seems to have completely derailed the White Sox organization. To be fair, LaRussa did lead the Pale Sox into the 2021 post season (where they were quickly eliminated). But 2022 was a disaster and the Sox, who looked like they could become a perennial contender, probably now should be torn down and rebuilt. However, it is good to see Luis Robert, the latest in a long line of Cuban sluggers, finally fulfill his 40 to 50 HR per season promise. This team seems to be living proof on how fast the sun can set on a contender.
25b. St. Louis Cardinals [34-47]: There seems to something gone wrong with the Cardinals organization. From 2000 to 2015 or so, there were indications that the Redbirds were a blend of the best of both the vintage traditional way of running a baseball team and the modern analytical approach of Moneyball. From 2003 to 2011, the Cards employed Jeff Luhnow as their nerd stats guy. He then left to run the Astros. In 2015, the Cardinals were investigated by the FBI for hacking into the databases of the Luhnow’s Astros. An analyst for the Cardinals, Chris Correa, went to jail. In 2017, Major League Baseball fined the team two million dollars and took away 2 draft picks for what happened. The reaction of the Cardinals to all this may have been to lean back into tradition and jettison the analytics. The current GM of the club, John Mozeliak comes from a traditional scouting background. The current field manager, Oliver Marmol, has gotten quite a bit of bad press for acting like an embarrass-the-player old-school manager. And the Cardinals have hemorrhaged talent in a series of horrible talent decisions (trades or releases of Randy Arozarena, Zac Gallen, Sandy Alcantara, Adolis Garcia, etc). It may be time for the consultants to come in and clean house.
27. Washington Nationals [33-48]: Since the Washington Nationals won the 2019 World Baseball Championship on the once strong right arm of Stephen Strasburg, their fate has pretty much paralleled the ruin of that appendage. Possibly the most interesting thing about this season for the Nationals will be the Major League Draft. In a way, the 2023 Major League Draft will be a very interesting echo of history. In 2009 & 2010, Washington had consecutive #1 draft picks. With these picks, the team choose Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper respectively. Rule changes have made it impossible for that to happen again [i.e. a team getting the #1 pick of the draft two years in a row]. But this year, Washington has the #2 draft pick in an incredibly loaded draft class in which the consensus #1 and #2 picks will be either a pitcher (Paul Skenes) or an outfielder (Dylan Crews). Which will the Nationals begin the rebuild with? This time the Nats have no choice. They will have to just take whoever is not picked by the Pirates (who hold the #1 pick).
28. Colorado Rockies [31-50]: The worst type of Baseball team to root for is one with a dreadful Major League team and a terrible farm system. It’s just a very hopeless feeling for a fan. The Rockies have one true former star on the roster, Kris Bryant, and he kind of symbolizes the whole team. At one time (2015 to 2017), Bryant looked like a future Hall of Famer. Now he is getting by on just the dregs of his talents and a bloated paycheck. The gloom that surrounds the Rockies even extends to the 2023 draft. In the deepest draft class in a long time, the Rockies don’t even get a top pick. They have the #9 choice, which is still good, but hardly what they need. They need a #1 or a #2.
29. Kansas City Royals [23-58]: Using the Pythagorean theorem to predict a team’s winning percentage, the KC Royals are nowhere near as bad a team as the doomed Oakland Athletics.* But their records are quite similar. Kansas City is a team in transition: out with the old, in with the new. Baseball is often like this, players coming and going like ships in the night. It will certainly be sad to see Zack Greinke, currently having what looks like his final season, go. By any standard, Greinke has been one of the most fascinating players of the last 20 years. Probably the most compelling reason to watch the Royals right now is the start of Bobby Witt, Junior’s career. For some reason (maybe the flowing hair), Witt brings to mind Robin Yount. Hopefully, for the Royals, Witt has a career as good as the former Milwaukee Brewer star and Hall of Famer.
*The formula is: (Runs scored squared) divided by (Runs scored squared +runs allowed squared).
30. Oakland Athletics [21-60]: On course to lose 120 games in 2023 (and tie the Major League record for losses in a single season), the Athletics have the worst record in the Major Leagues entirely on merit. But the team has also provided proof of the complete uniqueness of baseball. After beginning the season with a pitiful 12-50 record, Oakland won an amazing seven [7] straight games. In what other sport could a team this bad suddenly rip off 7 victories in a row? Since that streak, the Athletics have returned to form, immediately losing 8 games in row after their winning streak ended. Apparently this will be the Athletics last season in Oakland before they are relocated to Las Vegas. Here’s hoping they can go out of town taking down the New York Mets 1962 record of 120 losses.