2021 NL East Preview

Finishing up the first day of two-a-day's as we approach the start of the 2021 MLB season!

Earlier today I did my predictions for the AL East as I alternate leagues and work my way across the country to end with the division of our defending champion. Tomorrow I'll be in the Central divisions.

To finish today, let's look at the NL East.

2019 MLB Preview: NL East

Opening Day is tomorrow! Let's celebrate by cranking out the last of the season previews!

I've condensed this down from prior years; I used to do one division a day. With a mid-week start to the season, I've changed that to doing two-a-days. I'm still sticking with my same pattern of rounding my way around the country, alternating leagues, and always ending with the division of the defending champion.

With the West and Central under wraps, and the defending champion Red Sox getting to round out the previews, we look at the NL East.

2018 MLB Preview: NL East

It's kind of crazy to think that we're already in late March, and that the 2018 Major League Baseball season is upon us.

This year I'm not plugging a Tournament of Champions with the MLB one concluded last year. Instead I'm focused solely on the upcoming season.

As is my custom, I go through one division per post, but this year I'm condensing stuff down to three days, with two posts coming per day leading up to the start of the season. As usual, I'm alternating leagues and working my way around the country, ending with the division of the defending champion. With that thought in mind, let's kick things off with the NL East.

2017 MLB Preview: NL East

My series of MLB previews soldiers on for its second day. Most Major League teams open their seasons a week from today as they prepare for another campaign. A week from today is also the official start of the MLB Tournament of Champions, which you can find out more about here.

As has been my custom, I alternate leagues daily, so today we stay out east but switch over to the National League.

2016 MLB Predictions: NL East

We're back at it today with another MLB division and my predictions.

After starting out west, I'm doing my third of six previews with the division containing the National League champion from 2015. It's an interesting division with a couple sexy teams followed up by a couple teams that are clearly still in rebuilding mode. Let's take a look at the NL East.

2015 MLB Preview: NL East

We are now just five days away from kicking off the 2015 Major League Baseball season, which means I need to get back to the predictions.

Yesterday saw a look at the American League East, and today we're swapping leagues while staying out east. Last year's predictions for this division were much more on the money, other than being swapped around at the bottom. Like last year, this division has a clear favorite, though the wild card chances are probably greatly diminished.

2014 MLB Preview: NL East

Happy Saturday and Opening Night Eve! We're almost there!

I'm onto the last geographical area of the league and the second to last division in the series of previews. Today I tackle the NL East, in a division where I kind of whiffed last year on the winner, but had kind of the right idea at least. There's a definite separation though between the class of the division and the also-rans. So without further ado, let's make that distinction.

Fixing Our Pasttime

This has been a post that I've been holding in my back pocket ever since I started doing Confessions of a Sportscaster. Given the news today, I figured today was the best opportunity to write it.

While I think football is easily now the #1 sport for most people in the United States, baseball remains an old classic that a lot of people love. But I have had a couple rule changes in mind to help improve the competitive balance of the game. I think one or two of these are no-brainers, but there's one that's definitely a controversial one.

Institute a salary cap
This has long been an argument that I think a lot of fans have been pushing when you look not only at how much it costs to go to a ball game nowadays but what baseball salaries are escalating to. Here is a list of the 25 highest paid players from this past season. There's a lot of great players on this list, but also a lot of overpaid and/or overrated players. Avoiding these sorts of backbreaking contracts can help keep you from crippling your franchise... or at least make your GM think twice before offering a 32 year old first basemen with bad knees a 5 year, $80 million deal. But this is just part of the deal.

Institute a salary floor
Here's one that kind of gets overlooked, but gave me the idea to write this post. Today Twitter blew up with reports of a massive trade between the Blue Jays and the Marlins that gets rid of 5 of Miami's highest paid players. When you consider that a couple guys on that list were already gone... there's virtually no one left on their payroll. That's ridiculous. From a business standpoint, I get that the idea is to maximize your profits (accomplished with their new ballpark). But if you're the owner of a sports franchise, the product you're selling is the team on the field. At least make it seem like you care. Spend money on your roster. With the combination of the cap and the floor, you can try to guarantee a distribution of the talent fairly evenly amongst the majors. Parity hasn't been a huge issue in baseball, with only 2 teams winning multiple World Series titles since the 21st century began and all but 3 teams have even made the playoffs over the past 12 years. The idea here is just to make sure one team isn't stockpiling talent and trying to buy a title while other teams aren't trying to put a sham on the field for the fans.

Obviously money doesn't tell the whole story. Looking at how much each team spent in 2012, spending tons of money didn't necessarily equate to a playoff spot, but you were much less likely to make it if your team didn't spend money (Oakland was the exception of teams that spent less than $80 million on players). Miami's trade here is a disgrace unless you're a Blue Jays fan.

Abolish the designated hitter
This is my controversial argument, but hear me out. With the 2013 season bringing a balance of 15 teams in each of the 2 leagues, interleague play will span the entire regular season. While I can take or leave that prospect, if you're playing between 2 different leagues more, the rules need to be uniform. The AL and the NL are like 2 separate professional leagues as it is right now.

So why get rid of the DH? My first reason is more of a fan intrigue perspective. You normally assume that when your pitcher is facing the bottom of the order, that includes the pitcher and is usually an automatic out. Given that pitchers normally don't hit well, that's usually a safe assumption, but some pitchers actually hit well. Carlos Zambrano comes to mind (of course, when he wasn't being an absolute headcase), but I went to a game in Milwaukee between the Twins and Brewers, and I think both starting pitchers got base hits in that game. It happens, and it can be a major momentum swing if your pitcher can hit. (I also saw Kerry Wood hit a home run at a game in 2003, so maybe I'm a tad biased).


The bigger reason for it is purely strategic. Managers in the American League now barely have to do anything other than decide when to take pitchers out, and that is based solely on how they're pitching. I love how in the National League, much more strategy is involved with how you use your bench and when a good time to double switch would be. It puts a lot more weight on these decisions and how long you want a pitcher to go and how quickly you want to empty your bench while thinking about future scenarios. It's a much more mental game in the NL, and I think makes the game more intriguing.

Someone get this man out of baseball. Now.

Obviously with all these issues, given the nature of the sport and how much money is involved, this is not something that can be instituted overnight. You'd probably be looking at 2 or 3 years down the road, but Major League Baseball should at least consider this now and announce that it will happen down the road so teams have time to prepare for it. You have DH's on American League rosters that would need to have their contracts come off the books so you don't completely screw those teams over. The other problem is that it would shorten careers of some guys, but I think having an impact in more ways than just stepping up to bad a couple hundred times a year without taking the field is important. More importantly, don't let a greedy owner ruin baseball in your town. Or just contract the Miami Marlins, since their entire history is based around fire sales anyway, 2 World Series titles be damned.