2021 AL East Preview

You know we're getting back to some semblance of normalcy when you're looking at a Thursday start to the Major League Baseball season with a full 162 game slate scheduled. And since they're going all out on this... I figure I need to get back to my normal pattern as well.

Last year I didn't do a preview series for Major League Baseball because of the delay in the start of the season, then the quick start up to the abridged one. But with a full year coming up, I feel like I need to get back to my usual pattern. So each of the next few days, I'll look at two divisions a day, alternating leagues as I used to, finishing up with the division hosting our defending champion. With the playoff picture for 2021 up in the air, I won't go into Wild Card picks since my picks could be rendered meaningless in a month or two, I'll just go with record projections.

So, without further ado, here's my first look at the upcoming season.

2019 MLB Tournament of Champions: Group Finals

I'm breaking from football again for a little bit because the 2019 MLB Tournament of Champions is still rolling on!

We've managed to narrow the field down to 16 teams from the original 128, including every World Series champion. It's a little amazing when in other sports that I've done Tournaments of Champions for it's all more modern teams, while here, half the remaining field is from before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. Our two highest seeds from group play, as well as our defending Champion of Champions from 2017 are all still in contention.

So today I'm going through the third round, which is the last set of series that will be played within the confines of the groups I set up at the beginning of the tournament. It's also the final round of a best-of-five. Home field advantage goes to the higher seed based on group finish in a 2-2-1 format. This is only a factor for three teams and thus three series, but any home games for American Leagues from 1973 onward are played with a designated hitter; all other games have the pitcher batting ninth.

You can view the bracket so far, as well as go back to see how group play went, here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's set up the Elite Eight!

2019 MLB Preview: AL East

And with this, we are at the end of the preview road.

Back on Monday I started going division by division to look at the upcoming Major League Baseball season, alternating leagues and moving across the country. As is customary, I always conclude with the defending champion's division.

So to wrap this all up, let's grab a look at the AL East. Happy baseball season!

Unwritten Rules vs Thug Baseball IV

Photo by Maddie Meyer (Getty Images)

Ah, yes. It's not baseball season until I have to break out my soapbox and start calling out thug baseball. And last year I had to wait until May. Yesterday we had not one, but two fights that delayed games.

The first one happened in Denver yesterday afternoon. There's been some craziness in the series between the host Rockies and the San Diego Padres. Padre outfield Manuel Margot is out after getting one in the ribs, and early in the game yesterday Trevor Story of the Rockies and Hunter Renfroe of the Padres were both hit, though I believe unintentionally.

And of course, because the neanderthals are still in charge, this happened when Nolan Arenado stepped to the plate in the third.

Not to be outdone, when the Yankees and Red Sox renewed their rivalry last night, tempers got so heated the benches cleared twice.

I kind of get the anger from the Red Sox' perspective. Going in with your spikes is dangerous, but other than using his spikes, the Yankees' Tyler Austin did nothing wrong: he slid directly into second base, albeit ending up past the bag (though by the rule, you only have to be able to remain on the bag after completing the slide and since the force was already completed, the fact that he was off isn't an issue). That's why I don't take issue with the benches clearing in the aftermath of that play.

Still image from Fox Sports

But in both of these games, we see the old school unwritten rules in full force. You hit one or more of our guys, we're hitting yours. You spike our second baseman, the runner who slid is getting thrown at his next time up. It's the way that baseball has been played for years so it's in no way a surprise.

But here's the rub. It's 2018, and we're still acting like thugs about things. I'm not saying you can't or shouldn't defend your guys, because in team sports you have to know that your teammates have your back. But there has to be a better way than by assaulting an opponent with a deadly weapon. That's what this is. Don't give me the "he hit him in the back, or on the rear, it's okay," bullcrap. Fastball velocity is... fast, and that can do some serious damage. And if it happens to get away and you end up hitting a guy in the head? We're talking potential life or death territory here.

I love a good donnybrook as much as the next guy, but this crap that precipitates these scrums needs to stop. One of these days, a guy is going to get seriously hurt by an intentional beaning... or worse. There's no place for assault with a deadly weapon in the game anymore. We should be beyond it. The league needs to start stepping in, though like I said last year, I don't see Rob Manfred doing anything about it.

If it were me, it's getting to the point where I'd start getting draconian on incidents like this. I'm talking month-long suspensions for the assaulting pitcher and multigame suspensions for the manager to hammer the point home. Suspensions for the fights resulting from beanings can stay where they are now, but players need to find a better way to police themselves.

It's an extreme example, but one day, someone is going to get killed by one of these retaliatory beanballs. What happens then? I'd rather get this removed from the game before something like that happens.

2018 MLB Preview: AL East

I'm changing up the rate at which I'm cranking out previews this year. If you're reading this and are surprised that I put out a pair of previews in one day, that's the plan.

I'm doing two divisions a day for the next couple of days as well, rounding things out with the division of our defending World Series champion. This year we're starting out east again and after covering the National League side of this geography, we're moving on to the AL East.

MLB Tournament of Champions: ALDS Series 1

The postseason rolls on in the MLB Tournament of Champions!

I'm making sure to devote one post to every individual series to make sure that they all get the attention they deserve. Today, we're looking at the American League. I'm also starting things off with our series that doesn't involve the Wild Card, because I do want to give the winners of those series an opportunity to rest a little bit.

In this series, on one side we have the 2011 Texas Rangers. A team that came one strike away from winning the 2011 World Series before Cardinal Devil Magic took over, the Rangers spent a little time in first place in the AL West early in the tournament, then suffered a sweep at the hands of the 2001 Mariners to fall into third place. But they hung around and retook the lead in mid to late June and, other than briefly dropping out after a bye, hung on to win the West with one of the better records in the league.

They take on the 2004 Boston Red Sox, a cursebreaking team that started the tournament a little slow, but by mid-May was in first place and for a while, contending for the top spot in the American League. While the Red Sox couldn't keep that pace, they played more than well enough to take the AL East crown by the second to last weekend of the tournament. Their sweep at the hands of the 2005 White Sox hurt their chances, but the Rangers got swept on the final weekend as well, which allows Boston to take home field advantage into this round.

That home field advantage will be in a 2-2-1 format, and I'm glad their records were separated by a game, because these two teams split their regular season series, with the road teams taking four of the six matchups. That might present an advantage to the Rangers, but we'll have to see. I will also be keeping track of stats for this and every round of the postseason, and you can view those here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's head down to the field.

Unwritten Rules versus Thug Baseball II

Photo from Getty Images (Photographer uncredited)

Three years ago, I wrote about the stupidity of baseball's unwritten rules. After last night, I need to write a sequel.

By now, you've heard about the infamous slide into Dustin Pedroia from a couple weeks ago (and here's a video that includes the slide from MLB Network in case you haven't seen it). It was a reckless slide, to be sure, but I don't think it was a dirty one.

Of course, none of that matters, as the next day the Red Sox went after Machado.

[Video from MLB.com]

Supposedly, this was the end of it. Barnes got suspended for his attempted assault and Machado moved on from it. But then yesterday in the second game of a four game set at Fenway, the bad blood was renewed.

[video from MLB.com]

I included the later home run as part of the video because that just adds to the lore of it all, and is the best response to this kind of thuggery. And that's what this is. It's thug baseball.

Photo by Michael Dwyer (AP)

I find this whole situation somewhat ironic; the last post I wrote with this title was surrounding a play involving Manny Machado of all people, who seems to keep finding himself in situations like this. He handled the heat of the moment perfectly well, saving his revenge for on the field where he took his sweet time trotting the bases after his home run. And he saved the brunt of his anger for after the game with a profanity-laced tirade, which I'm fine with (and Lee Elia probably is too).

The Red Sox, meanwhile, need to be condemned for this. The argument I've heard for Chris Sale throwing at Machado last night stemmed from Mookie Betts getting hit last night. The other justification I've heard for Sale's pitch was that at least he didn't aim at Machado's head. That's fair to a point, but Sale threw at Machado's knees, which he has an injury history with, so the argument is invalidated in my eyes.

Here we get to the crux of the argument and the first part of this post's title. It has long been the unwritten rule of baseball that revenge is meted out by plunking an opponent. You slide hard into someone, you get drilled. Your pitcher hits the other team's best hitter, your best hitter needs to brace for one to the ribs. The players police the game, that whole thing. To an extent, I get it. You need to protect your superstars, and these unwritten rules are supposed to be in place to allow for this.

Photographer uncredited (Photo from Deadspin)

But the problem is this: it's 2017. We should be beyond advocating for assault with a deadly weapon, because evilly wielded, that's what this is. Most pitchers know better than to throw at someone's head, but the knees still seem to be okay. Both are dangerous, and taking a 95-plus mile per hour baseball to the back, ribs, or butt is still not pleasant either. And yet many players, coaches, and fans seem to still be okay with this. I see it fairly often among the racist, homophobic [crap]heads who follow the Cardinals, even though they aren't fully representative of the fan base. Yet it's ingrained into the culture of baseball, and that's the hardest thing about this.

It's hard to fight against a clear cultural norm, where the players, coaches, and even a lot of the former players-turned-analysts condone and endorse. It has to start with the younger generation, but they're being influenced by the current and previous generation who all say it's okay. But throwing at guys serves no purpose. I guess I could justify throwing in tight at a guy, but not intentionally hitting them. The only other way that can change is with a top down order from Rob Manfred, something I don't see coming. So until players wise up, we're going to continue seeing the caveman tactics of assault for slights both real and imagined, and eventually, someone is going to get hurt by it. I just hope it's not something career ending or life threatening when it does happen.

2017 MLB Preview: AL East

We're just a week away from the start of the 2017 Major League Baseball season, which means I need to start doing baseball predictions again!

The 2017 season will run alongside the MLB Tournament of Champions for about three and a half months up until we hit time for that postseason. You can read up on more about that here.

As is my custom, I preview each division individually, going with one each day. I alternate leagues, and always end with the division containing the defending champion. So finally, I get to end with the one I've always wanted to. But for now, we start in the American League, and we'll start out east.

2016 MLB Predictions: AL East

There's no April Fools' jokes here from me. I'm going honest on this prankster holiday with my fourth set of MLB predictions.

We're staying out east today before heading to the heartland this weekend, but today we're looking at one of the more competitive divisions in a lot of recent memory. Let's take a look at the AL East.

2015 MLB Preview: AL East

Spring is upon us. It's starting to warm up again (finally), we've had about a month of spring training baseball to whet the appetite, and we're just a week away from lighting mups at Wrigley Field.

So, as is my custom, I'm going to go division by division and take a look at all 30 clubs, complete with predictions. I look forward to totally overrating a couple clubs while some surprises sneak in and throw everything off, as happens every year.

Since last year's World Series champion came out of the National League West, I'm starting in the opposite league on the opposite coast. You can view last year's AL East predictions here.

2014 MLB Preview: AL East

We've almost made it! Baseball that actually counts and is not played at weird times of the morning starts tonight! It's maybe the first real sign of spring!

In another total shocker, I goofed on last year's predictions out in the AL East, focusing too much on big splashes. There weren't too many big ones this year though, so hopefully I'll be closer to right this time. Also, you best respect the champ. Let's go.