By: Marvin A. Azrak
The leaves are changing colors, and the calendar has flipped to October, signaling the start of the “Fall Frenzy” and the MLB postseason. The reformat created a heap of urgency towards the end of the regular season, captivating baseball, and has galvanized us with enrapturing playoff tilts ahead.
THE FORMAT:
Instead of 10, we now have 12 teams playing beyond the regular season, six from each league. Of the three division winners in each pennant race, the top two receive first-round byes, while the latter falls to the Wild Card round, joining three others yearning for a spot in the LDS. The lone division winner battles the third wildcard (#6 seed), while the other two wildcard teams fight it out in the best of 3 stanzas, with all games at the higher seeds park. The rest of the playoffs will proceed as usual, and there are no off days in the LDS or wild card rounds.
Noteworthy, there will be no game 163 to break ties, but rather a head-head record.
Now that you’re all up to speed, we can move forward if you weren’t already. However, before we got to the matchups, there were blizzard regular season moments that changed baseball history.
BEST OF THE REGULAR SEASON:
Yes, we will remember the 2022 Major League Baseball regular season for watching Albert Pujols of the ST Louis Cardinals become the fourth player to surpass 700 homers and become second all-time in RBIs. We will also remember the season for the connection between Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina, who set the battery mate record of 330 starts and counting, and Aaron Judge of the Yankees broke the AL single-season home run record with 62 round-trippers. The 111-win Los Angeles Dodgers won more regular-season games than any National League team in the past century(1909 Pirates were the last NL team to win 110 games).
Bleier BALKS THRICE:
Richard Bleier, a 35 year-old veteran reliever on the Miami Marlins had never balked in his seven-year career but did so three times in the same inning in a Sept. 28 game against the New York Mets at Citi Field. Up 6-3, facing Jeff McNeil and a man on first, Bleier “Balked” on two straight pitches sending the runner to third before doing so for the third time moments later, forcing home a run leaving outgoing Miami manager Don Mattingly and Richard,,, were both ejected from the contest. Per MLB.com, “It was the first time since 1988 that a pitcher balked thrice in the same inning. It happened twice that year, first by Tigers right-hander Don Heinkel on May 3, against the A’s, then by Pirates right-hander Jim Gott on Aug. 6, against the Mets. The last pitcher to have three balks at any point in a game was Mets right-hander Mike Pelfrey on May 17, 2009, vs. the Giants.”
MLB PLAYERS FIGHT OVER FANTASY FOOTBALL:
The bout was between the Cincinnati Reds’ Tommy Pham and the San Francisco Giants’ Joc Pederson on May 27.
Per Joc, Pham hit him in the face during batting practice before the game, all because they’d had words about Pham’s accusation that Pederson broke the rules of their fantasy football league.
“We were in a fantasy league together,” Pederson said. “I put a player on injured reserve when they were listed as out and then added another player. And then there was a text message in the group saying that I was cheating because I was stashing players on my bench. Then I looked up the rules and sent a screenshot of the protocols when a player is ruled out. You’re allowed to put him on the IR. That’s all I was doing. It just so happened that he had a player, [49ers running back] Jeff Wilson, who was out. He had him on the IR. I said, ‘You have the same thing on your team, on your bench.’ Then I guess he was in two leagues, and one of them he was on the IR, and one of them he wasn’t, so maybe that was the confusion, but in the ESPN league we were in, he was listed as out, so it feels very similar to what I did. And that was all of it. There’s not much more to it.”
Indeed, this is not a comprehensive list of 2022’s weird baseball occurrences, but these were some of the primary viral stories that kept things interesting.
Let’s get to our 12 playoff teams, starting with the fearsome foursome who get to rest for a week and have successfully avoided the best of three Wild Card series.
AL:
- HOUSTON ASTROS(106-56)
The reigning AL champs plowed through a weak division and acclaimed the one seed on the back of galactic pitching and a potent offense.
For starters, Justin Verlander returned from Tommy John surgery, and the 39-year-old
hall of Famer articulated a career year, posting an 18-4 record with a staggering 1.74 ERA, 185 strikeouts, and a 0.83 WHIP, and is likely to win a third CY Young award.
Framber Valdez is a NO2 starter who would be an ace on both teams, as the hurler went 17-6 with a 2.82 ERA, a 1.16 WHIP, and a Major League-best 26 quality starts over 31 outings. He had an MLB-record 25 consecutive quality starts from April 25-Sept. 18 and surrendered 11 homers all year(0.49 per nine innings).
As for the bullpen, Astros reliever Ryne Stanek finished the season with a 1.15 ERA and set a franchise single-season record for the lowest ERA by a relief pitcher. The previous mark was 1.50, set by Will Harris in 2019, per MLB.com.
Rafael Montero was dreadful in Seattle back in 2021. However, like most big league pitchers resurrected himself after arriving in Houston. This season, the 31-year-old had a career-best 2.37 ERA out of the pen, with 73 strikeouts and a 1.02 WHIP.
At the backend, closer Ryan Pressly nailed down his 33rd save of the season, extending his career high and giving him 76 saves in an Astros uniform. That ties Fred Gladding for fourth place on Houston’s all-time saves list, trailing only Billy Wagner (225), Dave Smith (199), and Brad Lidge (123).
As a staff member, Houston posted a 2.90 team ERA for the 2022 season, a franchise record for an entire season. The only other sub-3.00 ERA in franchise history was 2.66 in 1981, a split season because of a players’ strike. Houston played 110 games in the regular season that year. This year’s team also had an MLB-leading 2.80 ERA out of the bullpen.
Per MLBMetrics, 99.4% of innings pitched by Houston were tossed by a pitcher sporting an ERA below 4.00.
The offense, spearheaded by Yordan Alvarez(37 HR, 97 RBI, .306 BA), Jose Altuve (.300 BA, 28 HR, 57 RBI, 18 stolen bases), and CO will electrify television sets as they do every October.
- NEW YORK YANKEES (99-63)
They were 52-18 on Jun 14 and an MLB-best 64-28 at the all-star break. They were pacing the majors, projecting a 126-36 record, and were compared to the best team of all time, the 1998 Yankees.
When the sport paused for its midterms, Jose Trevino was the best defensive catcher in the AL, starter Nestor Cortes and reliever Clay Holmes had become revelations, Gerrit Cole was racking up strikeouts on his way to team history, while Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton were mashing baseballs deep into Bronx nights. With the midsummer classic in his backyard, Stanton took home all-star game MVP honors, and at that moment in time, the Yankees looked unbeatable. But as soon as the second half began, they sank into a swoon of epic proportions, being swept by their nemesis in the Astros(Who went 5-2 against New York, including a no-hitter on Jun. 25 in the Bronx), Cardinals, and a week later, the New York Mets. Holmes regressed, Aroldis Chapman decided to get a tattoo and went to the IL with an infection for two weeks. Trade deadline acquisitions in Andrew Benintendi and Frankie Montas struggled to produce or stay on the field, as both went to the IL in September. The Yankees went 10-18 in August, with only Judge’s torrid production single handily carrying the offense, saving them from an apocalypse that would’ve likely stung the franchise more than the ALCS collapse in 2004.
Aaron Judge captivated sports fans with his chase for AL(And non-PED) Home run supremacy, mashing number 62 in game 161 against the Texas Rangers in Arlington, passing Roger Maris, who walloped 61 in 1961. Judge, a free agent to be, has put together an MVP season and will be expected to deliver when called upon in the postseason. However, this team has question marks, such as how their shaky bullpen will pan out. Who will be closing the games? Can Josh Donaldson, Aaron Hicks, and DJ LeMahieu deliver after subpar regular seasons? How will Matt Carpenter respond coming off a foot injury that sidelined him for two months? What’s the health status of Andrew Benintendi? Will Harrison Bader hit as well as he did in St. Louis? The brilliance and versatility of rookie sensation Oswaldo Cabrera have been a welcome sight, but can he handle the postseason pressure?
