I'm looking forward to...
... Living in a Clayton Kershaw world. What Kershaw is continuing to do is put together a run of pitching seasons that deserve to be alongside Maddux, Clemens, Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez. We had that foursome at their best in more or less the same time in the mid-90's through the early-00s. We haven't had a pitcher since reach that level consistently. Halladay had a few years that were great, but not near the level of those four, same with Johan Santana, and Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, etc. Kershaw is better than all those guys. He probably should have won teh Cy Young in 2015 over Arrieta, with a 300 strikeout season, something I thought was undoable in the innings-limited modern era. He keeps pushing his ERAs lower and lower, and last year may have been his best. What he does is so insane, so ridiculously insane.
... Enjoying the random regional broadcasts. There is a separate point on the brilliance of MLB.tv as a package, but here I wanted to focus on the broadcasters themselves. Baseball seasons are endless, with so many dreamy, stolid nights in June-August where these announcers become your friends. I feel the quality of baseball announcing at the local (team-specific) level is at a far different, and in my opinion, better level than any other sport. Getting to watch random Giants games or Mariners games, or Indians games, or Royals games and watch these random 60 men do great work is a blessing.
... Seeing if the Verlander Renaissance becomes a multi-year production. Let's be real, Justin Verlander probably deserved the Cy Young over Rick Porcello. I thought we were past the days where a gaudy W-L record could beat out being better in nearly every other facet of pitching. Anyway, Verlander had a great comeback season after fairly average 2014-15 seasons with 250 Ks in 227 innings. From July through the end of the season, he threw 123 innings of 1.98 ERA ball, holding batters to a .184/.239/.323 slash line, with 147 Ks to 29 BBs. That is prime Verlander stuff. After cratering in his age 30-32 seasons, I don't think many expected that in the Age 33. If anything, he should get worse this upcoming year, but I for one found his revival one of the great, hidden stories of 2016 and am desperately hoping it continues into 2017.
... Watching the sausage race a couple of times. I'm being serious here, the sausage race in Milwaukee's Miller Park is one of the great traditions in the sport. It is something so incredibly unique to that area, to that team, to that fanbase. Plus, it is, and will always be, hilarious. The sausage race is never not funny. Every now and then, some choreographed stuff happens to make it even better, like a player getting involved or some inter-sausage sheninegans. Long live the sausage race!
... Seeing if the Orioles can beat the analytics again. The Orioles ever since their great run to the playoffs in 2012, have habitually outperformed the analytic projections and even their own expected record based on their performance. The Orioles have done it mixing an odd combination of boatloads of home runs from varying imported sluggers (Nelly Cruz, Chris Davis), terrible starting pitching, great bullpen performances (don't tell Buck Showalter though that he should use such an advantage in a Wild Card Game type setting) and a few homegrown stars like Matt Weiters and Manny Machado. The Orioles, as usual, are projected to go around .500. Of course, they were last year when they went 89-73 and lost the Wild Card game. They were three years ago when they went 94-68, and who knows maybe they can do it again.
... Watching Max Scherzer spit hot fire a few times a year. No one since maybe prime Verlander can feel so dominant as Max Scherzer. Now, Kershaw has him beat in 'actually' being more dominant, but Scherzer at his best is an incredible experience. In 2015, he threw two no-hitters, and another game that was about as good as a no-hitter (complete game, 1-hit shutout with 16 Ks). He followed that up with a Cy Young season that featured a 20-strikeout game. Scherzer had 284 Ks. Again, Kershaw topped this in 2015, but Scherzer's gas just seems more dominant, more untouchable, more exciting.
... Hoping that Giancarlo Stanton can stay healthy and bomb away. Watching Giancarlo a few times a year really get into one where it flies out at the speed of an Aroldis Chapman home run, with a ridiculously high arc deep into the outfield seats is one of the great moments of joy in the game. Many scouts and baseball analysts have been asked to name the single best tool anyone possesses in MLB, and the answer almost always in Giancarlo's power. He's played 123-116-145-74-119 games the last five years. The one year he had the 145 games? He was 2nd in MVP voting and jacked 37 HRs. He actually had a more ridiculous year in 2015, hitting 27 HRs in his 74 games (slugging .606). The Marlins are an awful franchise, but with Jeffrey Loria finally giving up and looking to sell, things may be finally brighter in Miami, and Giancarlo staying healthy would make it as bright as possible.
... Seeing if the Rockies can actually turn the corner. It has been a strange last 10 years of baseball in Colorado. They made a World Series trip to start the decade in 2007 with a young core that should have dominated. They made another Wild Card run in 2009, but have done nothing since. The centerpiece is gone with the Toluwitzki trade. Carlos Gonzalez is still around but the Rockies have a nice new core. Nolan Arenado is the star, but they have DJ LeMahieu who was a 5-win player last year, and Trevor Story who started the year with an insane first couple weeks but still ended up decent after inevitably not hitting 324 home runs. And that is just hte infield. The real area for optimism is the rotation that has, Coors-field adjusted, an ace performer in Jon Gray. I've been to Denver. Coors Field is beautiful. That team should be better because Denver should be a baseball town. It was for Rocktober in 2007, and a decade later maybe they are back?
... Watching Buster Posey hit and catch. Yes, I'll admit I have something of a man crush on Buster Posey. I've been a fan of the Giants revival mainly because I loved watching Tim Lincecum pitch, and then they went and got Hunter Pence in 2012 and he became an integral and loved part of the '12 and '14 Title teams. But Buster was my favorite. First off, he's a great hitter, especially for a catcher. Last year was the worst hitting year of his career, but still had a 112 OPS+. He has such a smooth, compact swing. The real joy is watching him catch, though. Pitch Framing became a huge cause celebre in the stats community the past two years, and he is the active God of it. They haven't figured a way to put it into WAR yet, but the rumor is if they do, guys like Posey would be some of the most valuable players in baseball. His 2016 may be the beginning of the end of Posey as a great hitter (he just turned 30), and he may at some point be moved off to 1st base, but as of now, he's still a joy to watch on both sides.
... Not caring about the Phillies, Twins and Padres. I tried to think of which team I hadn't really talked about yet, and these are the three that came to mind. I then tried to think if I had anything to say about them, and the answer in the end was essentially that no, I do not. These are three bad teams, that are aggresively boring without much to actually care about. The Phillies and Twins have some decent prospects, but we've heard that for a few years and there are worse off teams with better prospects. None of them have discussed implementing some crazy idea or new way of playing. There's really no reason to care about any of them.
... Enjoying every single aspect of the MLB.tv product. Online/App-based league packages have essentially replaced the TV versions to become the standard for all mass sports watching. Out of these, including DirecTV Sunday Ticket Online (which of course is still limited to DirecTV customers or anyone in a city where they may not be able to get a dish), NBA's LeaguePass and NHL's Center Ice, MLB.tv is by far the clubhouse leader. Crystal-clear quality. Access to both home and away TV adn Radio announcing. Very easy to discern quad-box watching. MLBAM (MLB Advanced Media) is a powerhouse that has even started going into other sports having essentially redesigned the NHL Center Ice package to match what MLB.tv is, and you can understand why other sports may want to jump on board.
... The Home Run Derby without Chris Berman. I'm a huge proponent of the home run derby as an event. Out of all the skills competitions that various sports attempt to put on each year at their respective all-star games, the Home Run Derby is by design the simplest and the best. What has kept it from reaching the mountaintop as the great event it should be was the presence of Chris Berman and his gratingly annoying 'back, back, back, back, back x100' awfulness. With Berman gone they can put in the hands of someone more sedate and let the Derby speak for itself. The new timed round format is brilliant, and while last year at Petco wasn't as great as Todd Frazier's win in Cincinnati in 2015, I have high hopes for the 2017 vintage, especially if it involves Gioncarlo Stanton going long in Miami.
... Imbibing endless, endless, endless baseball. I give extreme credit to the baseball world for accepting the beauty of the regular season. Other than the strange anti-Kershaw-cuz-he-chokes crowd, baseball fans generally accept that playoff performance has very little to do with your recognition. No one doesn't call Mike Trout the best player in baseball because he's only made the playoffs once. I feel a lot of this is due to just how long the baseball season. The length of the season may seem overwhelming for non-baseball fans, but for those who love the game, nothing is better. There is no better feeling that in June, 80 days into the season, there are still 100 more days to go.
... Watching Albert Pujols pursuit of 600 Home Runs. Yes, he is playing on an albatross of a contract. Yes, watching him hack away these days is sad. But this man ruined my life to the point I became in awe of him. Prime Albert Pujols was terrifying at the plate, with a perfect, powerful swing. Out of the guys that are in the 600 HR club, few preceded my time, three are clouded by steroids (Bonds, A-Rod, Sosa), and two I only really got to enjoy during the end of their careers (Thome, Griffey). Pujols is different. I remember him as a rookie. I remember him turning my life into a nightmare in the 2005 NLCS Game 5. I remember him hitting three home runs in Game 5 of the 2011 World Series. Sure, he's been a relative disappointment in LA, but when he reaches 600, he'll have the 2nd highest batting average and 3rd highest slugging percentage of anyone in that club. The only guys above him are Messers Ruth and Bonds. He was a generational player. He is still having a generational career.
... Enjoying the Astros. Of course this was going to be #30. The Astros are by most analytic forecasts, fairly clear division favorites. Their offense is either the best or 2nd best in MLB (Boston is the only other contender for that title on paper). Their offense is crazy, with last year's #3 MVP finisher Jose Altuve (still just 27), George Springer (when healthy an all-star level player), super-prospect Alex Bregman, and imports in Carlos Beltran and Josh Reddick. If Cuban import Yulieski Gourriel works out they can be terrifying. Of course the centerpiece is Carlos Correa, who is still just 22. Take away any potential call-ups this year, and out of the whole set of great young players in baseball, he is the youngest. Most GM and front-office types consider him the guy with the most potential in that whole group. If he reaches it, and one day he will, the Astros will me ridiculous. Let's hope, for my sanity at least, that it happens.
... Living in a Clayton Kershaw world. What Kershaw is continuing to do is put together a run of pitching seasons that deserve to be alongside Maddux, Clemens, Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez. We had that foursome at their best in more or less the same time in the mid-90's through the early-00s. We haven't had a pitcher since reach that level consistently. Halladay had a few years that were great, but not near the level of those four, same with Johan Santana, and Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, etc. Kershaw is better than all those guys. He probably should have won teh Cy Young in 2015 over Arrieta, with a 300 strikeout season, something I thought was undoable in the innings-limited modern era. He keeps pushing his ERAs lower and lower, and last year may have been his best. What he does is so insane, so ridiculously insane.
... Enjoying the random regional broadcasts. There is a separate point on the brilliance of MLB.tv as a package, but here I wanted to focus on the broadcasters themselves. Baseball seasons are endless, with so many dreamy, stolid nights in June-August where these announcers become your friends. I feel the quality of baseball announcing at the local (team-specific) level is at a far different, and in my opinion, better level than any other sport. Getting to watch random Giants games or Mariners games, or Indians games, or Royals games and watch these random 60 men do great work is a blessing.
... Seeing if the Verlander Renaissance becomes a multi-year production. Let's be real, Justin Verlander probably deserved the Cy Young over Rick Porcello. I thought we were past the days where a gaudy W-L record could beat out being better in nearly every other facet of pitching. Anyway, Verlander had a great comeback season after fairly average 2014-15 seasons with 250 Ks in 227 innings. From July through the end of the season, he threw 123 innings of 1.98 ERA ball, holding batters to a .184/.239/.323 slash line, with 147 Ks to 29 BBs. That is prime Verlander stuff. After cratering in his age 30-32 seasons, I don't think many expected that in the Age 33. If anything, he should get worse this upcoming year, but I for one found his revival one of the great, hidden stories of 2016 and am desperately hoping it continues into 2017.
... Watching the sausage race a couple of times. I'm being serious here, the sausage race in Milwaukee's Miller Park is one of the great traditions in the sport. It is something so incredibly unique to that area, to that team, to that fanbase. Plus, it is, and will always be, hilarious. The sausage race is never not funny. Every now and then, some choreographed stuff happens to make it even better, like a player getting involved or some inter-sausage sheninegans. Long live the sausage race!
... Seeing if the Orioles can beat the analytics again. The Orioles ever since their great run to the playoffs in 2012, have habitually outperformed the analytic projections and even their own expected record based on their performance. The Orioles have done it mixing an odd combination of boatloads of home runs from varying imported sluggers (Nelly Cruz, Chris Davis), terrible starting pitching, great bullpen performances (don't tell Buck Showalter though that he should use such an advantage in a Wild Card Game type setting) and a few homegrown stars like Matt Weiters and Manny Machado. The Orioles, as usual, are projected to go around .500. Of course, they were last year when they went 89-73 and lost the Wild Card game. They were three years ago when they went 94-68, and who knows maybe they can do it again.
... Watching Max Scherzer spit hot fire a few times a year. No one since maybe prime Verlander can feel so dominant as Max Scherzer. Now, Kershaw has him beat in 'actually' being more dominant, but Scherzer at his best is an incredible experience. In 2015, he threw two no-hitters, and another game that was about as good as a no-hitter (complete game, 1-hit shutout with 16 Ks). He followed that up with a Cy Young season that featured a 20-strikeout game. Scherzer had 284 Ks. Again, Kershaw topped this in 2015, but Scherzer's gas just seems more dominant, more untouchable, more exciting.
... Hoping that Giancarlo Stanton can stay healthy and bomb away. Watching Giancarlo a few times a year really get into one where it flies out at the speed of an Aroldis Chapman home run, with a ridiculously high arc deep into the outfield seats is one of the great moments of joy in the game. Many scouts and baseball analysts have been asked to name the single best tool anyone possesses in MLB, and the answer almost always in Giancarlo's power. He's played 123-116-145-74-119 games the last five years. The one year he had the 145 games? He was 2nd in MVP voting and jacked 37 HRs. He actually had a more ridiculous year in 2015, hitting 27 HRs in his 74 games (slugging .606). The Marlins are an awful franchise, but with Jeffrey Loria finally giving up and looking to sell, things may be finally brighter in Miami, and Giancarlo staying healthy would make it as bright as possible.
... Seeing if the Rockies can actually turn the corner. It has been a strange last 10 years of baseball in Colorado. They made a World Series trip to start the decade in 2007 with a young core that should have dominated. They made another Wild Card run in 2009, but have done nothing since. The centerpiece is gone with the Toluwitzki trade. Carlos Gonzalez is still around but the Rockies have a nice new core. Nolan Arenado is the star, but they have DJ LeMahieu who was a 5-win player last year, and Trevor Story who started the year with an insane first couple weeks but still ended up decent after inevitably not hitting 324 home runs. And that is just hte infield. The real area for optimism is the rotation that has, Coors-field adjusted, an ace performer in Jon Gray. I've been to Denver. Coors Field is beautiful. That team should be better because Denver should be a baseball town. It was for Rocktober in 2007, and a decade later maybe they are back?
... Watching Buster Posey hit and catch. Yes, I'll admit I have something of a man crush on Buster Posey. I've been a fan of the Giants revival mainly because I loved watching Tim Lincecum pitch, and then they went and got Hunter Pence in 2012 and he became an integral and loved part of the '12 and '14 Title teams. But Buster was my favorite. First off, he's a great hitter, especially for a catcher. Last year was the worst hitting year of his career, but still had a 112 OPS+. He has such a smooth, compact swing. The real joy is watching him catch, though. Pitch Framing became a huge cause celebre in the stats community the past two years, and he is the active God of it. They haven't figured a way to put it into WAR yet, but the rumor is if they do, guys like Posey would be some of the most valuable players in baseball. His 2016 may be the beginning of the end of Posey as a great hitter (he just turned 30), and he may at some point be moved off to 1st base, but as of now, he's still a joy to watch on both sides.
... Not caring about the Phillies, Twins and Padres. I tried to think of which team I hadn't really talked about yet, and these are the three that came to mind. I then tried to think if I had anything to say about them, and the answer in the end was essentially that no, I do not. These are three bad teams, that are aggresively boring without much to actually care about. The Phillies and Twins have some decent prospects, but we've heard that for a few years and there are worse off teams with better prospects. None of them have discussed implementing some crazy idea or new way of playing. There's really no reason to care about any of them.
... Enjoying every single aspect of the MLB.tv product. Online/App-based league packages have essentially replaced the TV versions to become the standard for all mass sports watching. Out of these, including DirecTV Sunday Ticket Online (which of course is still limited to DirecTV customers or anyone in a city where they may not be able to get a dish), NBA's LeaguePass and NHL's Center Ice, MLB.tv is by far the clubhouse leader. Crystal-clear quality. Access to both home and away TV adn Radio announcing. Very easy to discern quad-box watching. MLBAM (MLB Advanced Media) is a powerhouse that has even started going into other sports having essentially redesigned the NHL Center Ice package to match what MLB.tv is, and you can understand why other sports may want to jump on board.
... The Home Run Derby without Chris Berman. I'm a huge proponent of the home run derby as an event. Out of all the skills competitions that various sports attempt to put on each year at their respective all-star games, the Home Run Derby is by design the simplest and the best. What has kept it from reaching the mountaintop as the great event it should be was the presence of Chris Berman and his gratingly annoying 'back, back, back, back, back x100' awfulness. With Berman gone they can put in the hands of someone more sedate and let the Derby speak for itself. The new timed round format is brilliant, and while last year at Petco wasn't as great as Todd Frazier's win in Cincinnati in 2015, I have high hopes for the 2017 vintage, especially if it involves Gioncarlo Stanton going long in Miami.
... Imbibing endless, endless, endless baseball. I give extreme credit to the baseball world for accepting the beauty of the regular season. Other than the strange anti-Kershaw-cuz-he-chokes crowd, baseball fans generally accept that playoff performance has very little to do with your recognition. No one doesn't call Mike Trout the best player in baseball because he's only made the playoffs once. I feel a lot of this is due to just how long the baseball season. The length of the season may seem overwhelming for non-baseball fans, but for those who love the game, nothing is better. There is no better feeling that in June, 80 days into the season, there are still 100 more days to go.
... Watching Albert Pujols pursuit of 600 Home Runs. Yes, he is playing on an albatross of a contract. Yes, watching him hack away these days is sad. But this man ruined my life to the point I became in awe of him. Prime Albert Pujols was terrifying at the plate, with a perfect, powerful swing. Out of the guys that are in the 600 HR club, few preceded my time, three are clouded by steroids (Bonds, A-Rod, Sosa), and two I only really got to enjoy during the end of their careers (Thome, Griffey). Pujols is different. I remember him as a rookie. I remember him turning my life into a nightmare in the 2005 NLCS Game 5. I remember him hitting three home runs in Game 5 of the 2011 World Series. Sure, he's been a relative disappointment in LA, but when he reaches 600, he'll have the 2nd highest batting average and 3rd highest slugging percentage of anyone in that club. The only guys above him are Messers Ruth and Bonds. He was a generational player. He is still having a generational career.
... Enjoying the Astros. Of course this was going to be #30. The Astros are by most analytic forecasts, fairly clear division favorites. Their offense is either the best or 2nd best in MLB (Boston is the only other contender for that title on paper). Their offense is crazy, with last year's #3 MVP finisher Jose Altuve (still just 27), George Springer (when healthy an all-star level player), super-prospect Alex Bregman, and imports in Carlos Beltran and Josh Reddick. If Cuban import Yulieski Gourriel works out they can be terrifying. Of course the centerpiece is Carlos Correa, who is still just 22. Take away any potential call-ups this year, and out of the whole set of great young players in baseball, he is the youngest. Most GM and front-office types consider him the guy with the most potential in that whole group. If he reaches it, and one day he will, the Astros will me ridiculous. Let's hope, for my sanity at least, that it happens.
