Do you ever argue with yourself? It's only natural, right? When there are, in your mind, at least two different sides to an issue with similar merit, you just kind of go back and forth in your head with it.
Lately, I've found myself arguing with myself when it comes to the American League Central and the playoffs.
You see, the Guardians lead the AL Central and they are on pace to go 86-76. There are 12 teams with better records than the Guardians and only 17 worse. And yet, should they hold on, they'll be the No. 3 seed in the AL.
Remember, last season the Braves had the worst record among the playoff teams at 88-73. They didn't feel too lackluster, due to such a strong final two months. Maybe the Guardians or White Sox (or Twins, I guess) will finish so strong that they don't feel vastly inferior to the rest of the field this time around, either.
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As of right now, though, I couldn't help but think about how annoying it would be if, say, an 85-win team took the World Series this season with so many Goliath-types.
But then I started to argue with myself.
Aren't David stories just so much fun? We all love the underdog, no?
Eh, I don't know. I think I'd much rather see two powerhouses duking it out in the World Series, whether it's a rematch of 2017 with the Dodgers and Astros, a Subway Series between the Yankees and the Mets, the Braves looking to defend their title against one of the AL titans, maybe even in a rematch of 2021 or something along these lines.
On the other hand, we've seen some relatively boring World Series between two titans before. The 2018 Red Sox dismantling of the Dodgers comes to mind. And in 2014, for example, neither the Giants nor the Royals won 90 games in the regular season and they gave us a beauty. Every World Series is great, too!
Wouldn't it have been so much more cool if Cleveland broke its World Series drought with one of its recent powerhouse teams instead of this slightly-better-than-mediocre bunch?
Wait, though, who cares about the regular season when your favorite team wins the World Series? Ask fans of the 2006 Cardinals. Do you think they care that team only won 83 games in the regular season?
I'm certainly of two minds here. Maybe more. I just can't decide if the AL Central winner making a deep run would be bad or good.
Of course, it probably doesn't matter. The most likely outcome is a loss in the wild-card round for whoever emerges. Until then, we get to follow the hopefully hotly contested race.
Biggest Movers
Rk Teams Chg Rcrd 1The 1927 Yankees had a +371 run differential. The 2022 Dodgers currently have a +310 run differential. We haven't even seen a +300 team since the 2001 Mariners went 116-46 and were exactly +300. The only other post-integration team +300 or better was the 1998 Yankees.
2Ninety wins again. There have been 10 90-win seasons in franchise history and five of those have been the last five full seasons. It's the Golden Era of Astros baseball, easily.
3They battled all the way back from a 10 1/2-game deficit to take the NL East lead on Friday night. But they've now lost two straight and fell to 1 1/2 games back. This should be a fun race down to the end, hopefully the final day of the season.
4From June 1 through Friday night -- the time period when the Mets "blew" a 10 1/2-game lead -- they played at a 96-win pace. That's not a choke job. Not even close. Be better than ignorant narrative.
5One of the many cool things about these Albert Pujols home runs is how many of them are game-changers. He did it again on Sunday.
6We should have all seen it coming from a mile away. They just needed to play the Twins to get their mojo back. Jaw-dropping stat coming: This was the first time the Yankees won back-to-back series since June 22.
7If you haven't seen them yet, go find the highlights of the Julio Rodríguez and Eugenio Suárez home runs Sunday to walk it off and win two of three from the Braves. So much fun. There are some damn good vibes here!
8Through August (127 games), Bo Bichette was hitting .260/.305/.420. He's been so ridiculous in his 10 games this month that he's now hitting .279/.322/.472.
9My gut feeling is they had their chance at the AL East and that chance has passed with the Yankees pounding them two straight days.
10They've won 21 of their last 25 when they play the Marlins or Nationals. Say what you will about strength of schedule, but taking care of business is a great feature of a good ballclub. The Phillies have seven games left against the NL East bottom-dwellers, too.
11Shane Bieber has a 1.75 ERA in his last nine starts. He's struck out 68 with nine walks in 61 1/3 innings in that span.
12Juan Soto continues to struggle with everything but his eye. He's hitting .218 with a .345 slugging percentage since the trade.
13In spring training, 2020, just a few days before COVID caused everything to shut down, the Brewers announced a monster contract extension for Christian Yelich. He's still only 30. He's played in 133 of the Brewers' 140 games this season. And yet, he is eighth on the team in home runs. He was coming off a 44-homer season when he signed the deal. It's remarkable how this has unfolded.
14The White Sox, 63-65 with Tony La Russa in the dugout, are now 9-4 with him away from the team.
15Last week was the first time the Orioles broke into the top 10 in the rankings since 2016. This week, the Orioles have lost six of their last eight games. You could argue that the two things have nothing to do with each other, but I have it on good authority that the Orioles saw my power rankings and got too proud of themselves, hence the recent skid. As we've learned from Spiderman, with great power comes great responsibility. I'm sorry, O's fans.
16Rafael Devers in the first half: .324/.379/.601, reasonable MVP candidate. Rafael Devers in the second half: .207/.276/.357. Yuck.
17You know how in the Mets comment I explained that it would be ignorant to slap a "choke" on them, even if they end up not winning the NL East? Yeah, we can instead use the label on the Twins. They had a 5 1/2-game lead on May 24. They've gone 42-54 since then, including 3-8 against the Guardians.
18Who had "Thairo Estrada will be their best position player this season" back in spring training? No, you didn't. Liar.
19It really looked like the D-Backs would crawl into the periphery of contention, but then they lost four in a row. Still, it was fun watching them claw their way into the discussion for a quick second and kudos to Zac Gallen for his scoreless streak (it reached 44 1/3 innings).
20Did you know Mike Trout (has only played in 99 games) and Shohei Ohtani (a pitcher) are tied for second in the AL in home runs? Sure, they are 21 behind the leader, but that's still funny.
21Yes, I realize the air is thinner than other ballparks, but go watch that 504-foot shot from C.J. Cron on Friday. It's mesmerizing.
22The player who has lost the most hits to the shift the last few seasons is Corey Seager. I would say something like "file that away for your fantasy baseball draft," but you'll surely be pounded over the head with it come next spring.
23Remember when they started 3-22? Surely at that point, most of us believed they'd lose at least 100. They can avoid 100 losses by going at least 7-17 the rest of the way. It says here they pull it off and avoid 100 losses.
24THE BEARS WON! Sorry. Wrong sport. We'll do this. Here are the shortstops with more WAR than Nico Hoerner this season: Xander Bogaerts, Dansby Swanson, Francisco Lindor and Trea Turner. That's it.
25The Tigers have been shutout 20 times this season, tying their 1975 team for the most shutouts in a season post-integration. They have plenty of time to shatter the record.
26This has been a really nice breakout year for Brady Singer overall, but he's getting better. In his last 13 starts, the Royals have gone 10-3 and he's pitched to a 2.45 ERA.
27I'm getting worried about Power Rankings Favorite Sandy Alcantara. He's been roughed up three of his last four outings and even with a complete-game gem against the Dodgers mixed in there, he has a 6.08 ERA in those four starts.
28There's a lottery now, but the Nationals will have a great shot to pick No. 1 overall next summer. Previous No. 1 overall picks for the franchise: Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper. Those worked out decently. Will they hit the jackpot again?
29The single hardest-hit ball this season came courtesy of Oneil Cruz. Anyone who has watched him regularly is now rummaging through about a dozen different plate appearances in their head, trying to figure out which one went 122.4 miles per hour.
30Since Aug. 23, the A's are 3-1 when Cole Irvin starts and 3-10 when he doesn't. I have no idea if this means anything, but I have to enter a comment for the A's, so here we are.
