With a just a little over a week left in the baseball season, the playoff picture has become clear for some teams while others will seem to be fighting down to game 162. September baseball: it’s my second favorite time of the year. Friends of the Comic Book Clique, it’s the MLB Weekly Report!
We start with...an apology from me! Webster's Dictionary defines the word “weekly” as every seven days. It has been more than seven days since my last report. My bad! No less this is dropping on a Friday instead of my much preferred getaway day of Thursday. I strive for better and I strive to give you what I promised! What’s this? An Immaculate Grid flex from me after a weak apology?! Yes, yes it is.
5 is tied for my lowest rarity score, ok? I'll take my street cred now. Back to your regularly scheduled programming!
Most teams have around ten games left to play and of the 12 spots in the playoffs, just four have been grabbed. Back on Sept. 11, the Brewers became the second team this year to book their ticket to October in an absolute 20-0 decimation over the Reds, just after the Rays did the same with a dramatic Junior Caminero walk-off (His 40th of the season, making him the only player in franchise history with multiple 40 home run seasons!). A few days later on the 14th, the Yankees locked in their spot on the same day the Dodgers’ did, with neither game having anything of note.
That makes it 14 consecutive years the Dodgers’ made the playoffs, tying an MLB record held by the Atlanta Braves (1991-2005, the first 14 years on Earth for me…all as a Mets fan). It’s hard to imagine the Dodgers’ pre-2020 and the molding of the current ‘Evil Empire,’ but there was a time where it felt like they were coming by it more honestly. In 2013, when this streak started, their starting outfield featured Carl Crawford, Andre Ethier and rookie Yasiel Puig. A solid outfield, just not the loaded one we’re used to seeing. We’ve come a long way, but they’ve been successful for years.
Seemingly no amount of success satiates the Dodgers appetite for not just winning but continuing to field the best team in baseball. It’s not enough that the pocket book is so deep they can pay someone $60 million this year just for that player to produce a 0.4 bWAR, and still be a playoff team. No. They also develop a farm system that consistently ranks towards the top of MLB, year in and year out, getting fruitful results. Take a look at some of the current players (mostly) who came through the Dodgers organization:
Corey Seager (Rangers SS)
Joc Pederson (Rangers DH)
Cody Bellinger (Yankees OF)
Grant Holmes (Braves SP)
Walker Buehler (Padres SP)
Will Smith
Miguel Vargas (White Sox 3B)
Andy Pages
Zach McKinstry (Tigers, UT)
Michael Busch (Cubs 1B)
That list contains varying degrees of success and very few who’ve managed to stick around until now but the ceiling includes a guy who was pivotal in getting the Texas Rangers their first World Series title. Right alongside him? A former teammate who won the NL MVP in 2019. The only two remaining active Dodgers on the list? Andy Pages, likely their starting center fielder for the next 5 years at least, and Will Smith, the catcher they signed until he turns 39 in the year 2034.
They can develop talent, real game changing talent and they can go out and get the prized free agent in any offseason?
It doesn’t stop there. That was the last decade and a half. Let’s fast forward to just this past week. Their #1 prospect and 6th overall, according to MLB.com, outfielder Josue De Paula. Signed in 2022 as an international free agent, he made his MLB debut on Sept 11. In his 3rd game on Sept 13, he notched his first hit; A three run homerun into the second deck at Loan Depot Park in Miami. You could hear Dodgers broadcaster, Joe Davis, gushing with glee. An absolute bomb measured at 416 ft, you have to just sit back, admire and wonder “Where does it end for the Dodgers?”. With no answer in sight, the Dodgers will soon embark on their journey to nab their 4th World Series title this decade and 3rd in a row.
(Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images)
If I may, I’d like to keep things in the West, still in Los Angeles, or technically Anaheim. Don’t worry, I’m not entirely bringing the spotlight to the Angels. Honestly, what is there even to spotlight about the Angels organization that won't feel like a hit piece? I am bringing the spotlight where I think it needs to be at the moment: Mike Trout.
This question gets posed every season, if not multiple times per season: Who is the best player in baseball right now? For a long time, more specifically the decade of the 2010s, that answer was simple and almost irrefutable. It’s Mike Trout. One glance at his Baseball Reference page will show he was basically a Hall of Famer by the end of the decade. And then came the 2020s.
Watching Mike Trout year after year miss extended periods of baseball has brought the fan in me some real despondency. It’s like watching Ken Griffey Jr. after the age of 30 all over again with a career filled with what ifs. Granted, a regression in production is expected once a player enters his 30s, no less one that amounted 75.9 bWAR (again, Hall of Fame level) in his 20s. No one wants to see a career weakened by what seems like a physical curse on the body of the Angels franchise player.
With 11 games left in the regular season for the Angels, Trout finds himself eight games shy of playing 140 games for the first time since 2018. I wish that were a typo. While his production isn’t quite what it was in 2018 as the AL MVP runner-up, take a peek at the Angels lineup from this year and you’ll see why it’s just another lost season in Anaheim.
Nonetheless, I’ll take more 140 game, 20 home run seasons from Mike Trout. The questions going forward are the same questions that continue to surround Trout and the Angels as a whole. Can we expect more 140 game seasons out of Trout? What are the Angels, now under new ownership, going to do to maximize the remaining years of Trout?
With the AL East more or less figured out, it’s the Central and West divisions that haven’t necessarily gotten clearer with the Wild Card tying those two divisions together very closely.
The once-insane seven team frenzy has realistically come down to a fatal four way between the Guardians, currently holding the third Wild Card spot, the Rangers and Blue Jays each being two games behind them with the Orioles bringing up the rear, just three games back.
The Guardians hold the cards here in the Wild Card, should it even come down to it. The White Sox haven’t exactly been playing stellar of late and this may well become a problem for the South Siders. If not, the Guardians are two games up and have the easiest schedule of any of the above teams the rest of the way. They face the lowly Athletics next, followed by a Red Sox team likely looking to rest some players and finally finish the season against the 5th worst record in baseball, Kansas City Royals. They’ve played well the past couple of weeks, winning eight of their last 13 games but holding pace at this time would likely seal their place going into next weekend's last games.
Meanwhile in Texas, the Rangers begin their last homestand of the regular season. They’ll take on the Blue Jays in a must win series. The loser of two out of the three games, or worse all three, may find themselves in a well they cannot climb out of. The Mets fly into DFW for three games after that, where my house will unquestionably be divided. The blue and orange from Queens don’t necessarily have anything to play for at this point and I won’t actively root against the Rangers but should the Mets happen to take that series and play spoiler..well…
The starting rotation for the Rangers has missed a couple of its key pieces in Nathan Eovaldi and Jack Leiter. Former Met and de facto ace, Jacob deGrom has stepped up in a way only a two-time Cy Young Award winner can. In three starts this September, deGrom has pitched in 17 innings, struck out 27 batters to a tune of an ERA just above 2.00. He’s been electric.
Yet somehow, the Rangers have only won one of those three starts and Jake has been alone in pushing this team across the finish line and into October baseball. Over the past 13 games, the Rangers are 11th in runs scored and 15th in runs given up. Middle of the pack stats provide middle of the pack results, and they’re 7-6 in that span. Relating to Guardians in the AL Central, the Rangers are neck and neck with the Astros in the West that this could also end up being the other team’s problem.
Unlike the AL, the Senior Circuit has had less exciting races going into the end of the regular season. The aforementioned Brewers and Dodgers have already won their respective divisions and although the Phillies are still within grasp of the Braves atop the East, all signs point to Atlanta getting back to their division winning ways.
Also unlike the AL, the Wild Card scenario is interesting, not because of what happens with the third spot but what happens with all of the spots. The Cubs, Phillies and Padres are all within a game of each other and a game of Musical Chairs is on the horizon.
The Padres are that scary team that everyone should be fixating on. They may be in the rearview mirror of the top two spots but objects in said mirror are closer than they appear.
11-4 in the month of September, they’ve been fueled by Fernando Tatis Jr.’ .901 OPS and 9 home runs. Really, his second half might be the difference maker, separating a first half Padres team that sat solemnly in the middle of their division at .500 to a surging 36-21 second half record, the best in MLB, sparking hope for the Friars. It’s no coincidence that once Fernando got his bat going (.991 OPS in the second half), the Padres would go with him.
He hasn’t done it alone; their bullpen, ranked fifth in ERA this season, continues to shine. Seriously, the combination of Mason Miller, David Morgan, Yuki Matsui and Griffin Canning on the back half of games this month has been exceptional. 25 ⅔ innings, one single earned run. And when we talk playoff baseball, pitching is king and Los Padres find themselves matching up on paper against just about any other team headed for postseason play. Being able to run four deep after ace Michael King starts or midseason acquisition, Casey Mize, makes them unsavory for any lineup that has to face them.
The once promising Diamondbacks sit on the outside looking in, four games back of a Wild Card spot. Scoring 52 runs this month, their offense has been abysmal, despite Nolan Arenado’s first 1.000+ OPS month since August of 2022. They will likely have to run the table and go close to undefeated in their next six games in order for the last weekend of the regular season against the Padres to give them any real hope. And let’s say we go into that final series with the Diamondbacks down exactly three games to the Padres, surely their head-to-head record this year would provide some insight? Nope. None. They are 5-5 against each other this year. There I go, making drama where there is not entirely much. Arizona, make it happen.
That’s a wrap on this week’s MLB report! Until next time, I’ll leave you with my “How can you not be romantic about baseball” moment: