Strong Start — Baseball Bench Coach

What do the 1927 Yankees, 1955 Dodgers, 1984 Tigers, 1990 Reds, and 2005 White Sox teams have in common? They all went “wire to wire”, in first place in their league (or division after 1968) after every game of the entire season and capping the season off with a World Series Championship. Just 5 teams in the history of Major League Baseball have done this!

Just about 10 games into the 2019 season, and we do have a team in the American League that is in the position at least to accomplish the feat. The Seattle Mariners, buoyed by the two early wins over Oakland in Japan before the rest of MLB opened the season, have led the AL West from the first pitch and are sitting at 9-2 after yesterday’s win against the White Sox, 3 1/2 games in first place. Will the magic continue wire to wire for the Mariners? The odds are heavily against it.

Both leagues have other teams off to some hot starts, the Brewers and Dodgers in the NL and the Rays in the AL. Milwaukee and L.A. are no secrets, given that they met in the NLCS last year. The Brewers’ 8-2 record after yesterday’s play has other NL Central contenders scrambling. The Dodgers have started the season with an identical record and bats booming, a home run in each of its 10 games and 24 HRs in total.

Tampa though was somewhat of an afterthought by the experts as the Rays compete in the AL East with the media darlings Yankees and Red Sox. Beware of the division-leading Rays! They are pitching deep with a team ERA of 2.09 during the first 10 games of the season.

And what about the NL East with the best win-loss division record in baseball. The Phillies jumped off to a 4-0 start (their best since 1915!) and lead the competitive division with a 6-2 record. Have the 2019 Amazin’ Mets returned for a 50-year reunion of the ’69 title? Perhaps so with starters Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard, reminiscent of the Seaver-led staff days. One of the Mets players you need to watch play is rookie first baseman Pete Alonso who is batting .382 at the end of week’s play. The Nationals, despite the loss of Bryce Harvey, will contend with its own ace pitchers, Scherzer, Strasburg, and Corbin. Certainly don’t count out the Braves, who won the division crown last year, and are 5-1 in the last six games.

This April, like any April in baseball, the standings look somewhat upside down in other divisions. The Red Sox (3-8) and Cubs (2-7), winners of two of the last three World Series, are off to slow starts. Has the panic button been pushed in Boston or the north side of Chicago? I don’t think so, especially since they are the only remaining teams yet to play a home game. It will be interesting to see this week if home stands at Fenway and Wrigley will right their ships.

Other not so strong starts belong to the Marlins, Reds, Giants, Rockies, Blue Jays, Royals, and Angels. But there is so much baseball to be played in the 162-game marathon. Think of it this way; playing your first 10 games of a season in baseball is the equivalent of playing one game in the 16-game NFL season.

There’s an old adage that baseball standings do not matter until Memorial Day. By that point each team has played about one-third of its games and seen the other teams in the league at least once. (Yes, I know, with the odd scheduling in baseball nowadays, there are exceptions to that.) For those of us attending a game at the ballpark in the next several weeks, we can ignore the pennant race flags flying beyond the outfield fence for now. But of course pay attention on Monday, May 27, to see which teams are leading the divisions in the Memorial Day edition of this blog! There is so much to cover between now and then.

Until Next Monday,
your Baseball Bench Coach