Welcome to the first in my 30 MLB Teams in 30 Posts countdown for 2022. As what I hope will be a fun addition to the blog series, I am running a guessing contest throughout the run of the series - check the bottom of today's post for more details.
Back in 2020, I ranked all 30 MLB teams according to my preference starting with the worst of the worst and culminating with the one and only true, original baseball team. I didn't do rankings in 2021 but I'm back in 2022 to update my rankings (and only a bit over a week into the current MLB season, not bad, right)?!
For the record, here's how I ranked the teams last time around:
Final 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: Pittsburgh Pirates
#20: Atlanta Braves
#19: Los Angeles Angels
#18: Los Angeles Dodgers
#17: Texas Rangers
#16: San Diego Padres
#15: Baltimore Orioles
#14: Colorado Rockies
#13: Kansas City Royals
#12: Toronto Blue Jays
#11: Oakland Athletics
#10: Chicago White Sox
#9: Minnesota Twins
#8: Philadelphia Phillies
#7: Arizona Diamondbacks
#6: Tampa Bay Rays
#5: Detroit Tigers
#4: New York Mets
#3: Seattle Mariners
#2: Cleveland Indians
#1: Cincinnati Reds
Now, it's time to get on with the MLB Team Rankings for 2022:
#30: St. Louis Cardinals (Previous Rankings - 2019, 2020: # 30, 28)
The Cardinals are back at the bottom of the MLB rankings where they probably should have been in 2020 (somehow they inched up to #28 that year). Truthfully, the Cardinals won't be nearly as repulsive once the likes of Yadier Molina retires (he's one of the last remaining players from the infamous Reds/Cardinals brawl for which I blame Molina the most). That said, the Cardinals didn't do themselves any favors in my rankings by resigning Albert Pujols this year either.
Finally, the Cardinals are generally expected to be competing at the top of the NL Central this year with Milwaukee...and for as long as the Cardinals remain demonstrably better than my Reds you can expect St. Louis to sit near (or at) the bottom of my MLB rankings!
With the stink of team #30 out of the way let's talk about the contest.
Each of my 30 MLB Teams in 30 Posts will feature at least one card from the featured team. When the entire series is over, I'm going to give away all of the cards featured throughout the entirety of the posts (beginning with that Jack Clark card above)!
How to enter? Easy.
You get one entry for leaving a comment on each 30 MLB Teams in 30 Posts for 2020 BUT you must do so on the post prior to the time the next slot is revealed. You get a bonus entry if you correctly guess the next team on my countdown (so for this post, you'd be guessing which team is #29 on my list). I'd love to hear your take on the featured team of the post and I ran a similar contest a couple of years ago with great success - so here's to another contest this year!
Now that we Cardinals fans have been properly shamed...
ReplyDeleteI'll say Boston remains #29
One interesting thing about that brawl is that La Russa's White Sox have signed Johnny Cueto, and Tony doesn't strike me as a forgiving guy.
I've never been a fan of the Cardinals either. At least the Twins were able to put them away in '87.
ReplyDeleteNext up must be the Yanks.
Gotta guess Yankees. It is almost guaranteed that if any non-Yankees fan makes a list like this, they will be in the bottom 3. That is a franchise that you cannot be apathetic about. You either love them or hate them, no in between.
ReplyDeleteI might lose an entry here, but as a completely neutral observer of the Reds/Cards brawl I have to say that both sides were equally to blame and Cueto and Phillips were just as guilty as Yadi.
I'm a catcher guy,and so I'm a big fan of Molina.
ReplyDeleteLets go w/ the BoSox at #29.
I can see why you don't like the Cardinals, but I don't understand what's wrong with them bringing back Pujols. He's an all-time great and it's nice he'll be able to go out where he started.
ReplyDeleteI'll say the Yankees next. They would always be last on my list!
Probably the Yankees...I'll prob just guess them until they came up, even though #1 for me!
ReplyDeleteSince everyone is picking Yankees (which is my hope honestly), I'm going out on a limb and picking the Giants.
ReplyDeleteI sure hope it's the Yankees. They'd be in the 30 spot for me.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to hear this perspective about that brawl, considering how fans of the opposing team can single out Brandon Phillips as the instigator (he started it in the media of all places) and how Johnny Cueto literally ended someone's career by kicking him in the head. (My personally opinion- Phillips is/was pretty obnoxious, but whatever. Cueto, on the other hand, behaved unforgivably.) Every team has its guy that the other teams loves to hate, but Yadier Molina has rarely played the heel.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'll take the Brewers for the next post. They're definitely near the bottom for me, though the Dodgers are #30 with no one close. They're everything that people say they hate about the Yankees, only worse somehow.
I agree with you 100% about Cueto, no excuse for his actions (though I think he was way more scared than anything as he was pushed up against the netting by the mob). The whole "fight" was idiotic on both sides if you ask me.
DeleteCrocodile, hiflew, Brett Alan, Lost Collector, and Fuji all got it right - the Yankees are #29.
ReplyDeletelol, Dodgers being worse than the Yankees. Someone's going to have to write out their theory on that so I can poke holes in it in the comments. ... I'm ineligible but my guess is the Yankees.
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