The Good, The Bad, and The Winehouse: 2012 Baseball Edition
I am back with the longest running theme in the history of
HJ4HS. Let’s look at the 2012 MLB season as it wraps up tonight (possibly).
The Good: Last season brought us the drama of 162nd
game, where the Tampa Bay Rays and St. Louis Cardinals stole wild card spots
from the Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves. In an attempt to keep the end of
the season competitive, Commissioner Bud Selig added a second wild card spot
this year to the playoff format. Both wild card teams will play in a do-or-die
game, with the winner taking on the top seed. Selig wanted to emphasize the
importance of winning your division instead of settling for the wild card.
Selig couldn’t have imagined a scenario like this. Entering Wednesday, the only
thing we know in the American League is the Detroit Tigers are the Central
Division winners and we know the four other playoff teams (The Oakland A’s, the
Texas Rangers, the New York Yankees, and the Baltimore Orioles). What we don’t
know is the AL West and East champs, who has home field advantage, and who will
be hosting the wild card game. The National League still needs to figure out
the top seed. Wednesday night won’t be as exciting as last year, but it should
still be entertaining.
The Bad: Selig’s idea was good, but his planning and
execution was piss poor. He was able to squeeze in the second wild card just
prior to the season, but had to change the venue format for the first round.
The higher seed use to host the first, second, and fifth games of the series
(2-2-1 format), but for this year only, Selig changed it to 2-3 format where
the top seed host the last three games. This was needed in order to keep the
Championship Series and the World Series on schedule and avoid nightmarish
travelling scenarios. Now, there is a chance the Washington Nationals only host
one playoff game if they get swept. Not a fair deal for a city who hasn’t
hosted a playoff game since 1933. The format will revert back in 2013, but 2012
is a fucked up blip in the radar.
The Winehouse: The Boston Red Sox. They went 7-20
down the stretch last year, including a walk-off loss in Baltimore that cemented
their place in the record book for biggest baseball collapse. They cleaned
house, hiring a new General Manager (Ben Cherington) and a new manager (Bobby
Valentine) with the hopes of a strong 2012. They were dead fucking wrong. The
hope was Valentine, the talented but controversial manager, would be able to
divert bad media attention away from the players, yet he instigated it by
feuding with longtime Sox player Kevin Youkilis. From there, injuries and
subpar pitching decimated this team. In August, upper managements decided to
hit the reset button and dump their best offensive player, Adrian Gonzalez, in
order to dump some horrendous contracts. Officially waving the white flag, the
team went 7-19 in September and will finish at the bottom of AL East (They are
guaranteed to finish ahead of only four teams in all of baseball, possibly six
if things go their way tonight.) Valentine is rumored to be hitting the bricks
once this trainwreck of a season ends.
The Good: The Atlanta Braves. They had the biggest September
collapse for about an hour until the Red Sox finished their choke job. This
year, they enjoyed Chipper Jones’ swan song by making the post season and
erasing all the bad memories from 2011. They carefully managed their best
pitching prospect, Kris Medlen, to start the year in the bullpen after coming
off of Tommy John surgery and he has emerged as the ace of the team. The Braves
have won the last 23 starts by Medlen and will be a dangerous team if they
advance past the wild card round.
The Bad: While Kris Medlen had his workload carefully
structured, Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg did not. He started
the season with a 160-inning plan. While it appeared the Nats would be a
contender and Strasburg would hit his number in September, there was no
contingency plan. The team didn’t want to shut him down for a long period of
time & mess with his preparation and they were pretty firm on his innings.
Sure enough, Strasburg made his last start on September 7th and has
been riding the pine ever since. Many people are speculating the Nats were
ahead of schedule in terms of their development. They figured 2013 would be
their year, not 2012. Well, GM Mike Rizzo has balls shutting down his top
pitcher. If they don’t win the World Series, I am sure the off-season will be
spent questioning Rizzo’s decision.
The Good: Miguel Cabrera. He is one game away from
winning the Triple Crown (leading your league in batting average, home runs,
and runs batted in.) As of Wednesday, he was leading all three categories.
There hasn’t been a Triple Crown winner since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. It is quite the honor. Having
said that, I still think Mike Trout is the MVP of the league. The numbers he
put up as a 21-year-old are mindboggling. I realize Cabrera is going to the
postseason and Trout is not argument can be made, but Trout played for a
contender and his defense was redonkulous. Also, this is the lowest batting
average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage in three years. If this
was like the NFL, I would give Cabrera the offensive player of the year award
to reward his season.
The Winehouse: The Pittsburgh Pirates. They were the
darlings of the summer, contending in August. And then their dream turned into
a nightmare. Rather than get excited about a playoff spot in September, the
battle cry became “.500 or better”. Instead, the Pirates played atrocious
baseball down the stretch and wound up with their 20th consecutive
losing season. There’s always next year I guess.
The Good: R.A. Dickey and Adam Greenberg. Dickey came
out of nowhere to be one of the best pitchers in baseball. His knuckleball
allowed him to win 20 games (2nd best in the NL), strike out 230
batters (best in the NL), and have a 2.73 ERA (2nd best in the NL).
He is a contender for the Cy Young award and just revealed he pitched most of
the season with a torn abdominal muscle. As for Greenberg, he was hit in the
head on the first pitch he ever saw in the majors in 2005. He suffered a
concussion due to the beaning and sat out two years with related health issues.
Since then, he’s been in and out of organized baseball, never making it to the
big leagues. Film maker Matt Liston heard Greenberg’s story and started an
online campaign called “One At-Bat”, trying to him another at-bat in the major
leagues (Getting hit by a pitch doesn’t count as an official at-bat). The story
received national attention and the Miami Marlins were happy to oblige. On
Tuesday, Greenberg suited up with the team on a one-day contract (MLB approved
this, per the situation) and got to pinch hit against R.A. Dickey. He struck
out on three pitches, but he is now among the 17,000 people to get an at-bat in
MLB history.
The Winehouse: The U.S. performance on Sunday in the
Ryder Cup. God awful.
The Good: Baseball in the Beltway. The Nats and the
Orioles are both going to play October baseball. The Nats were a preseason dark
horse, but the O’s came out of left field (horrible pun intended). It is great
news for a Baltimore fan base whose been waiting for a playoff team since 1997.
Also, give it up to Teddy Roosevelt, who won his first President’s Race on
Wednesday, after 534 consecutive losses.
The Bad: The potentially small window of opportunity
for the Orioles. They were incredibly lucky this year (14 straight win in extra
innings and a .763 winning percentage in one-run games, which hasn’t happened
since 1890). They are bound for regression and play an incredibly competitive
division. I don’t think the O’s fall off altogether, but a lot of things
happened for them this year to get to where they are. We’ll see if luck stays
in Charm City for another year.
The Winehouse: When the Washington Capitals made the
playoffs after a long stretch of sucking, the fans showed their ignorance of
the sport and became cocky assholes. I’ve seen it happen already this year with
the Nats and think it will only get worse the further they advance. Bryce
Harper is good but he isn’t a god. The starting pitching is good, but loses a
huge advantage with Strasburg being an overpriced cheerleader. The bullpen is
looking a little sloppy down the stretch and some of the bats have cooled off
with the weather. I’m not trying to rain on Washington’s parade, but I am
trying to preemptively put an end to Natitude douchebaggery.
-Written by Marcus Boyd
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