Baseball Musings: Thoughts on the Season

October 02, 2005

Thoughts on the Season

The regular season games are over. San Diego, San Francisco and Oakland all pick up victories to put a cap on a fun year. There was plenty of controversy as a new steroid policy sent players into suspensions. New stars emerged. Some old stars had unbelievable seasons, while others nursed injuries.

There was baseball in Washington for the first time in over 30 years. Washington finished in last place, but with a .500 record. For a few weeks, it looked like they might make the playoffs. They made a good impression on the city, enough to bring major league baseball a nice profit when they auction the team.

Some things were back to normal. For the 7th time in 8 year the AL East finished NY, Bos, Tor, Bal and TB. The Orioles got off to a great start and were leading the division in early July. The Orioles lost their power, however, as their slugging percentage was 75 points lower after the break than before the All-Star Game. The pitching slowed down also, leading them to play 22 games under .500 after the in the second half.

Mostly though, this season showed that game early in the season matter, too. The White Sox, Cardinals, Angels all got off to great starts, and those great starts allowed the White Sox and Angels to hold on as Oakland and Cleveland made impressive comebacks. All the early losses hurt the charging teams.

We came close to a sub-.500 division winner, but San Diego managed to finish two games over .500, the worst finish for a first place teams since baseball split into divisions in 1969. (For some reason, baseball doesn't count first place teams from 1994 as division winners. The Rangers were under .500 when the players went on strike). The seventh best record in the National league is going to the playoffs.

The Braves, Athletics and Indians all showed that good young players can perform as well as expensive old veterans. The Royals showed that players can be bad at any age. The Rockies showed that pitchers with unusual arm angles might be the answer to Coors field.

All in all, a fine season. The Padres and White Sox are here to bring some new blood into the playoffs and we have four more weeks of fun ahead.

Posted by David Pinto at 06:53 PM | Baseball | TrackBack (0)

Comments

A nice wrap up which raises an interesting question...Why don't the leagues go back to a simple East/West format and have the 1st round of the playoffs be East 1 vs West 2, West 1 vs East 2? This seems alot more equitable than the current cumbersome system.

Posted by: Phil at October 2, 2005 09:18 PM

i suspect its got something to do with the fact that having three divisions allows for more first-place teams. owners could probably promote a first-place team better than a second, regardless of the number of teams in the division. two fifteen team divisions would also would mean more and further travel with an unbalanced schedule.

Posted by: amos at October 2, 2005 10:03 PM

Money is def the reason for the current divisional and wildcars playoff system. I don't like it, but I understand.

The best story of this year was the Nationals. Hands down.

As a Astro fan seeing my team come from 15 down to finish as a wildcard is great. The Stros haven't had much success aganist the braves or cardinals this regular season. Yeah I have already written the Padres off.

The worse was the continuing steroid stories. I hope baseball toughens the rules with a first time 2/3 year suspension. Eventually I believe baseball should enact lifetime suspensions for use.

And anone caught in the minors using should be given a lifetime ban. Only the harshest penalties should be considered.

Posted by: john beard at October 2, 2005 11:54 PM