2021 AL Central Preview

Day two of my set of previews for the upcoming MLB season is underway!

Yesterday I covered both East divisions, and I'm working my way west over the next couple days. Since our champion came from out west, I'm saving them for tomorrow, which means I'm staying close to home today.

Starting things off, let's look at the American League Central.

2019 MLB Preview: AL Central

We're halfway through the MLB preview series for 2019! Thursday everyone except the Mariners and A's open the season (since they played a pair in Japan already), so I'm working my way through the league early this week to be ready for Opening Day.

Earlier today I touched on my home division in the NL Central, so this afternoon we flip leagues and head over to the American League to see how the Central shapes up.

90's Youth Life Podcast Special: The 1994 MLB Playoffs Simulation

I was a radio guy in college. So it's kind of a surprise that, other than a random podcast with a Nintendo forum something like ten years ago that who knows if it even still exists anywhere or not, I am a novice at the podcast game. Fortunately, I know people.

I've talked up the immortal Geoffrey Clark on here before. He's a classmate and friend from my North Central days, a blogger for Chicago Bulls Confidential, and he is also the host of the 90s Youth Life podcast. He's talked up a number of topics from when we grew up, including topics like the McDonald's Beanie Baby craze and the career of Ken Griffey, Jr. with another WONC alum we overlapped with.

So a couple weeks ago, I got a text from Geoff regarding my favorite tool on this blog, WhatIfSports. He'd been introduced to the tool through Confessions of a Sportscaster and was talking about how addicting it was. It was through that discussion that he brought up the lost postseason of 1994 due to the strike. One thing led to another and, well... I was a guest on a podcast.

In it we run through how the 1994 Major League Baseball postseason could have played out had the playoffs been the leaders in the standings when play stopped. After the jump I will post links to the box scores of the games, but if you want to keep the element of surprise... take a listen.

2018 MLB Preview: AL Central

We're onto the second preview of the day as we pass the halfway point of a look at the 2018 Major League Baseball season. I've condensed the process down this year to three days instead of six, going through two divisions a day. Tomorrow I'll look at the west coast.

I got a look this morning at my most familiar division. Today, I go to my second most familiar division as we stay in the Midwest and take a look at the AL Central.

2017 MLB Preview: AL Central

After four days out towards the coasts, we're finally back in the nation's heartland as I continue my series of MLB previews. Sunday night sees the start of the Major League season, while Monday is the beginning of the MLB Tournament of Champions, my very ambitious project for the year.

As we make our final geographic move, let's swap leagues again and take a look at the AL Central. Let's note though, that both wild cards are taken.

2016 MLB Predictions: AL Central

Happy Opening Day! All of the doldrums from winter can fade away now with the beginning of another spring and summer at the ballpark.

I've previewed five divisions, following my practice of saving the division with the World Series champion for last. I've also handed out all four wild card berths for my set of predictions, so only one team today is making the playoffs. Without further ado, here are my predictions for the AL Central.

2015 MLB Preview: AL Central

We're onto Day 3 of the series of MLB previews. In the last two days we've been out east, and now we're moving west towards the center of the country.

Today we're back in the American League looking at the Central division.  If you want to refer back to last year's predictions, which, overall, weren't too shabby for the division, you can find them here.

Let's take a look.

2014 MLB Preview: AL Central

Happy Friday! We're onto the fourth of six division previews now, and I'm through with projecting another sad year for my Cubs team. But what about the other Chicago baseball team and the rest of their division?

Detroit saw its pitching staff lead the way to the postseason again, while the postseason saw something of a surprising entrant in the Indians as a Wild Card. The rest of the division might not really be in a position to make a run, but you never know. I was way wrong about Cleveland last year. Hopefully I won't be as wrong this time around.

Dadgum It

In a day where I could spout off conspiracy theories in the NBA about the draft lottery or about the foul disparity in Miami's win over Boston last night (which I watched the end of, and I think Boston mainly ran out of gas plus LeBron continues to play out of his mind), or even about how no one on the Phoenix Coyotes will be punished for their classless actions after getting knocked out by the LA Kings. Today... I take sides with someone I never would have expected to.

Living in Chicagoland we get coverage of both the Cubs and Sox, and all their games are televised. I can't really sit and watch a White Sox game though due to Hawk Harrelson. He's a passionate guy and loves his team (which I don't fault him for), but often, his blind homerism affects the way he calls games (probably largely why GQ ranked him and Steve Stone the worst TV tandem in the majors). Often my favorite Sox games to watch are the ones where they're getting smoked, because Hawk says next to nothing. But when he does open his mouth, he often inserts his foot.

The best example of this, by far, would be a Cubs-Sox game from 2007.The Cubs were threatening, and on a ball put in play, a Cub ran into Juan Uribe, then was thrown out as part of a double play... or so it appeared. The umpires got together and reversed the outs citing the fielder interference on Uribe. Listening to the Cubs broadcasts, they knew it was fielder interference, pointed it out, and sounded intelligent. Hawk, on the other hand, didn't see it and apparently wasn't notified of the decision, but called the play "BS" and that he had never seen that in all his years of baseball (a call my friends and I will make fun of all the time). He never said anything after the game about having made a mistake. For more details about this, you can view the story here.

All that being said... when I saw this play from yesterday's Sox-Rays game on my train home, I was shocked; not only by the call but that Hawk actually seemed to be sensibly angry for once. You can see the video of the play here.

I've been paying attention to baseball for probably 15 years. In my experience, when somebody on your team gets plunked and you want to send a message, you hit a guy on the other team back. The home plate umpire will issue a warning to both teams, and usually that's the end of it. Whether this was a botched attempt at retaliation or just a flat out wild pitch, I don't know. Yes, it was behind Ben Zobrist, but if anything, that's where you issue a warning to both teams. The point is made. That clearly didn't happen here, and Hawk was right to call out Mark Wegner for his hair trigger call.

I don't know if it's a product of being in a skeptical society, I've been blinded for years, or what the case is, but just based on several of my last few posts, officiating in professional sports has gotten absolutely horrible lately. There continues to be accusations of corruption in the David Stern Basketball Association, the NHL has seen horrible officiating and inconsistent punishments from the league office, and the MLB had already had some issues with umpires thinking they are bigger than the game.

I've always heard and believed that a good official in any sport is one who is completely unknown. Mark Wegner got his name out there for reasons he had no business doing. And yet some "experts" claim that the immediate ejection was justified? Please. For once, I agree with Hawk Harrelson. Let the players do a little policing themselves (within reason of course), and intervene when things get out of hand. Things weren't out of hand. We're descending into a dark place, sports fans.

South Side Perfection

I surmised at the beginning of this month that it was going to be a long summer for Chicago baseball. For my Cubs, I was right. The starting pitching has been good, but the bullpen and offense have struggled in typical Cub fashion. The Sox meanwhile have been off to a decent start and are competing in a tough AL Central. But I never saw what happened today coming. No one could have.

Major League Baseball has been around for almost 150 years. Many things have changed since the 19th century within the game since then, but even with all the differences, retiring all 27 men you face in a single game has only happened 21 times in hundreds of thousands of games. I've been blessed to be alive for 9 of them, though I was really only aware of 5 of them (all since 2000).

I had no idea Humber was going for it today. I had called my dad this afternoon to figure out stuff with dinner when he told me Humber was 3 outs away. He talked me through the pitches of out number 25 before I was able to get the TV on at my girlfriend's house. She knows I'm a Cubs fan, so needless to say she was shocked that I flipped on a Sox game. But when you have a chance, even on TV, to witness history, you don't pass it up.

The closest I've ever been in person was 2009 also involving the Sox... and the last South Sider to do it in Mark Buehrle. The start right after his perfecto was in Minnesota. He retired the first 17 or so batters as I recall before giving up that first hit... then the floodgates opened. I was happy he didn't record another perfect game, but 5 innings was awfully early to really feel it.

I'm not a Sox fan. I never will be. But I'm a baseball fan, and I appreciate these rare moments when they happen. I was rooting for Humber to get those last 2 outs when I flipped on the game. And I'm really glad the Mariners fans in Seattle were on their feet in the 9th. A classy move by them to appreciate the moment.

So from this humbled Cubs fan, congratulations to Phil Humber. You may not feel like your name belongs in the annals of history with the likes of Randy Johnson, Roy Halladay, and Sandy Koufax, but you earned it today. And you are forever immortal in the lore of baseball.