We've finally made the part of the countdown that will probably surprise just about everyone. I've made it quite clear on my blog over the past few years that the Houston Astros were my "adopted" AL team to root for, especially since my Reds have been mostly pathetic in that time period.
Well, in what is the greatest drop by a single team in the rankings this year, I present team #22:
#22: Houston Astros (2019 Rank: #2)
That's right, Houston was my #2 favorite team in my countdown last year and now they drop all the way to number 22. If you've followed baseball news at all in the past few weeks, you'll undoubtedly know why Houston fell so quickly. In short, they cheated and that really sucks.
It sucks because Houston went to great pains to say they were doing things differently than most clubs, more analytics and less "by your gut" calls. As a math guy, that appealed to me. They also had a bunch of seemingly likable guys on their team including one of my favorite active players: Jose Altuve.
Now?
Now I don't know what to think. How much did Houston cheat? Well, 2017 for sure but what about in 2018 or 2019. Will they stop cheating in 2020 or just do something else that's maybe a bit less obvious than banging on a trash can. Is Jose Altuve (among others) as good as his numbers suggest or are his numbers nothing but a product of all the cheating?
So why not drop them either further?
Well, even a cheating Astros team is probably still more palatable than the Yankees, Red Sox, or Cardinals for starters. Next, I do believe that the Astros' pitchers were not cheating - and with the likes of Verlander and Cole (until this year of course), Houston had a dominate staff regardless of whatever shenanigans the hitters were up to. Furthermore, the team still had to play half of its games on the road where it presumably couldn't cheat to the same extent, so it's not like it was win 100% of the games at home and lose everything on the road. Still, it's a bad look and I'm currently wrestling with exactly how I feel about the whole thing. As more reports and more news comes out, Houston may continue to drop in my rankings.
One piece of good news? The Reds swept Houston last year (in Cincinnati though). So at least I have that.
Next up in the countdown is another team that has fallen precipitously in my rankings. A once Top-10 favorite team of mine is now going to be a bottom feeder in the standings (both mine and, most likely, the 2020 MLB season).
2020 Rankings:
#30: New York Yankees
#29: Boston Red Sox
#28: St. Louis Cardinals
#27: San Francisco Giants
#26: Washington Nationals
#25: Miami Marlins
#24: Chicago Cubs
#23: Milwaukee Brewers
#22: Houston Astros
#21: ??
Contest entries to date (see here for details):
8 John Sharp
7 P-Town Tom
8 bbcardz
5 hockey kazi
11 Brett Alan
5 Fuji
1 acrackedbat
1 Wilson
9 Matt
1 Trevor P.
1 friend11
1 Adam Kaningher
Well, in what is the greatest drop by a single team in the rankings this year, I present team #22:
#22: Houston Astros (2019 Rank: #2)
That's right, Houston was my #2 favorite team in my countdown last year and now they drop all the way to number 22. If you've followed baseball news at all in the past few weeks, you'll undoubtedly know why Houston fell so quickly. In short, they cheated and that really sucks.
It sucks because Houston went to great pains to say they were doing things differently than most clubs, more analytics and less "by your gut" calls. As a math guy, that appealed to me. They also had a bunch of seemingly likable guys on their team including one of my favorite active players: Jose Altuve.
Now?
Now I don't know what to think. How much did Houston cheat? Well, 2017 for sure but what about in 2018 or 2019. Will they stop cheating in 2020 or just do something else that's maybe a bit less obvious than banging on a trash can. Is Jose Altuve (among others) as good as his numbers suggest or are his numbers nothing but a product of all the cheating?
So why not drop them either further?
Well, even a cheating Astros team is probably still more palatable than the Yankees, Red Sox, or Cardinals for starters. Next, I do believe that the Astros' pitchers were not cheating - and with the likes of Verlander and Cole (until this year of course), Houston had a dominate staff regardless of whatever shenanigans the hitters were up to. Furthermore, the team still had to play half of its games on the road where it presumably couldn't cheat to the same extent, so it's not like it was win 100% of the games at home and lose everything on the road. Still, it's a bad look and I'm currently wrestling with exactly how I feel about the whole thing. As more reports and more news comes out, Houston may continue to drop in my rankings.
One piece of good news? The Reds swept Houston last year (in Cincinnati though). So at least I have that.
Next up in the countdown is another team that has fallen precipitously in my rankings. A once Top-10 favorite team of mine is now going to be a bottom feeder in the standings (both mine and, most likely, the 2020 MLB season).
2020 Rankings:
#30: New York Yankees
#29: Boston Red Sox
#28: St. Louis Cardinals
#27: San Francisco Giants
#26: Washington Nationals
#25: Miami Marlins
#24: Chicago Cubs
#23: Milwaukee Brewers
#22: Houston Astros
#21: ??
Contest entries to date (see here for details):
8 John Sharp
7 P-Town Tom
8 bbcardz
5 hockey kazi
11 Brett Alan
5 Fuji
1 acrackedbat
1 Wilson
9 Matt
1 Trevor P.
1 friend11
1 Adam Kaningher
I commend you for knocking them down as far as you did.
ReplyDeleteThey're my #30 right now and Boston is close at #29. I'm not naive enough to think they're the only cheats in MLB, but it bothers me so much that they'll remain at the bottom of the list for the foreseeable future.
That 2017 run of Houston's was a lot of fun to watch...and it's tough to see it all going to waste with all the allegations now. It'll be interesting to see how Houston does this year (especially the hitters) with all of the eyes of MLB on them.
DeleteI completely agree. Really fun at the time, just about as fun as Washington winning four on the road this year. Just crazy.
DeleteI've very curious to see how the batters for Houston do this year.
Diamondbacks?
ReplyDeleteThe Astros have let me down as well. Altuve has been a favorite player of mine since before 2017, and it's truly sad in this day and time that great players like him and Bregman had to do this nonsense.
ReplyDeleteI also wish that Verlander never got involved in all this, benefiting from the sign stealing.
Braves next?
Good job.
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ReplyDeleteThe Astros scandal bothers me, and I'm glad they were punished harshly, but I'm not sure it's going to really make me root against them--time will tell. They weren't a team I especially cared about nor one I particularly rooted against. Having Beltrán be so involved and having it cost him the Mets' managerial position makes it even stranger. (We should have hired Girardi!) I suppose the Mets and Astros are a bit connected, having come into the league together, and with a lot of guys who played significant amounts of time for both teams (Grote, Agee, Staub, Ryan, Mike Scott).
There are a couple of teams in last year's top 10 who are likely to be bad for a while (hope the Mets aren't one of them) but I'll guess the Tigers.
Finally, I can stop guessing Astros! (The Tigers are next, FWIW). My biggest issue with the scandal is the complete lack of guilt from any of the players. Own up to what you did and apologize. You owe your fans that much.
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ReplyDelete