As the sun sets on the 2005 Major League Baseball season and chants of "We believe!" are unceremoniously replaced with laments of "Wait 'til next year!" in many of the league's ballparks, a little retrospection is certainly appropriate.
Emerging from the sewage of an ongoing league-wide steroid scandal, fans were treated to a virtuoso season from one of the game's all-time great hurlers, a bevy of ball clubs winning the right way, another division title for the unfathomably consistent Braves, and a resurgent year from a group of Canadian cast-offs in the Nation's Capitol. Beyond those headlines, though, MLB '05 featured a number of standout performances and noteworthy accomplishments that may have flown under the radar in light of the game's more ballyhooed stories.
Trading deadline rumors feature a whole lot of style, not much substance.
Years passed have showcased many adaptations of moves involving big names and small names alike and in big, small, and medium markets across the landscape of baseball. As a rule, the dog days of summer are triggered by the fireworks of the non-waiver trade deadline in MLB and as the season roared through a sweltering June, 2005 seemed no different.
Premier names like Ken Griffey, Jr., Eric Milton, Adam Dunn, Sean Casey, Todd Helton, Barry Zito, Jose Mesa, Denys Baez, Aubrey Huff, and even the ageless Roger Clemens were bandied about the airwaves as if there was a Major League Baseball all-star team clearance sale on eBay. But alas, July came and went and the veritable smorgasbord of goodies available to anyone with some cash and a few minor league stiffs wound up looking more like a picked over buffet at Luby's after the Sunday church rush.
There really is no rhyme or reason as to why the air rushed out of the generally very buoyant trading season in baseball, but with parody as it is in baseball, it does seem the perennial sellers of the league were too close to respectability to ship away their present stars while the perennial buyers held such tenuous leads that they were far too spooked to deal their future stars for present success that could not be guaranteed. Regardless the reason, with more and more teams looking to annually find themselves in contention later into the season, this year's inaction may become the norm rather than the exception.
Traditionally, smaller-market teams are surging towards respectability through judicious spending and a remarkable youth movement.
As is usually the case, the Angels, Yankees, and Red Sox lead the fight for postseason positions. It is no secret that those teams, along with the Dodgers, Mets, Cubs, White Sox, and Orioles have far deeper pockets than the other participants in the annual race to the pennant, and, as recent history has proven, those are pretty much perennial players in over the course of the 162-game major league seasons (yes, I do know there are many exceptions, but I'm talking big picture here). Historically, the teams who ply their craft in markets that aren't so large have had little to no chance of even breaking even on the year, much less remaining competitive into September.
This season, however, the paradigm is beginning to show very recognizable signs of shift. While most of the headlines continue to go to the mega-markets in New York, Boston, Chicago, and L.A. (along with baseball hot beds in St. Louis and Atlanta), teams in the smaller markets have seemingly found the answer to their concerns about competitive balance by developing youth while focusing on fundamental play.
Milwaukee and Cleveland are two of the more noticeable culprits in this game of cat-and-mouse, as both have very quietly put together seasons onto which they can build in years to come. As Oakland and Minnesota have demonstrated in recent years (and continue to demonstrate in '05), teams in the small markets don't necessarily have to mortgage the future to compete in the present and a refreshing amount of parody is beginning to emerge, promising future years more closely resembling the bygone eras where most any team can hold onto October dreams as they break their spring training camps.
While the equation still favors those who are ready, willing, and able to spend crazily on free agents, it is becoming more and more apparent that the future may not be so predictable after all. Now if only someone would clue the hapless Royals and Pirates into this reality, we'd really be making some progress.
The old guard of the league is beginning to show signs of wear, but there will soon be a new sheriff in town, avoiding any potential downward trend.
While most media outlets continue to sing the praises of well-known superstars like Albert Pujols, Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, and Roger Clemens, a new era of stars is very quietly beginning to usher themselves into prominence while remaining somewhat under the media's radar.
For every broken-down superstar (Sammy Sosa, Craig Biggio, Mike Piazza, Jim Thome, Barry Bonds, and Randy Johnson), there is a young up-and-comer (Miguel Cabrera, Ricky Weeks, Joe Mauer, Mark Teixeira, Jason Bay, and Zach Duke) ready to take his spot. Within two years, this transition should be complete, with the injection of youth fully establishing themselves as mainstays while the old vets ride off into the sunset.
This youth movement of sorts couldn't come at a better time for the sport — scandals have once again tainted America's pastime and the emergence of new, fresh-faced torch bearers is very necessary to ensure a continued trend toward parody and will ultimately hold fan interest through the rough times the league is sure to fall upon over the next couple of seasons as the facts relative to performance-enhancing drugs sort themselves out.
While Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz set the bar for potent 1-2 punches, MLB lineups all around the league feature some young, exciting dynamic duos.
The numbers Ramirez and Ortiz are putting up in Beantown are almost otherworldly, but that fantastic coupling of talent isn't as head-and-shoulders above some others as media outlets would like you to think. A handful of young tandems promise to captivate fans in other cities across the nation. In Chicago, the emerging Derek Lee is teamed with the powerful Aramis Ramirez, providing a great deal of thump in a Cubs lineup that many felt would be trending down with the departure of Sosa and Moises Alou. Both are .300 hitters and have 40-plus homerun/30-plus double/100-plus RBI power.
The Houston Astros also feature a rugged 3-4 combo in Lance Berkman and Morgan Ensberg, both capable of putting up huge run-producing numbers without sacrificing on base percentage or batting average. Meanwhile, Atlanta's duo of Chipper and Andruw Jones continue to impress and still are relatively young, though both have displayed chinks in their armor over the past four or five seasons. In Texas, the trio of Mark Teixeira, Michael Young, and Hank Blaylock look to hold down the fort in Arlington for many years to come, putting up nice average, homer, and RBI numbers.
Though there are many more, those four hold the most potential for greatness, aren't too far behind the leaders in Boston and certainly should be garnering much more of the media's attention than they are at this point in their careers.
Even with two clear-cut favorites, one in each league, the 2005 World Series is still far from being decided.
With St. Louis running away with the National League's best record and the Chicago White Sox hanging on to their five-plus game advantage over their nearest AL foes, one would think that the playoff scenario in each league is pretty much cut-and-dried. Fortunately for the rest of the competing factions, however, this is anything but the case.
St. Louis has been dogged by injuries all season long and those types of things can catch up to you with little or no warning. The ChiSox seem to be pretty solid all-around, but their pitching staff has begun to falter down the stretch and you never know how their lack of playoff experience will manifest itself once the calendar turns to October.
With the Red Sox sporting such a potent offense, no team's pitching is safe in the AL playoffs. But not even their unearthly lineup can guarantee success, as the BoSox also feature the most inconsistent pitching staff in baseball. Both the Angels and the Athletics are flawed in multiple areas, so neither provides any sort of comfort when handicapping chances come playoff time. And with a pitching-light Yankees team battling relative unknowns in Cleveland and Minnesota, it is almost impossible to get a read on who, if anyone, would have an advantage as we approach the playoff season.
The NL picture is every bit as cloudy — Phillies, Astros, Mets, Nationals, Marlins — any of the five could put it together at any time, but only one of those teams will even qualify for the postseason. The Astros are the smartest bet to take the wildcard with their dominant 1-2-3 pitching matchups, but their everyday lineup is one of the worst in the big leagues, so it is tough to give them the edge at all. The Braves will once again by playing into October, but you can't hardly look at their pitching rotation and feel that they'll finally overcome their frustrating propensity for exiting the postseason early in 2005.
Even the hapless NL West representative won't be an easy out come the shortened five-game series in round one of the playoffs. San Diego, the odds-on favorite, has as good a starting rotation as there is out there and if any other team passes them in the standings, that team will be riding a hot streak into the playoffs and would showcase their own set of problems for any of these other teams to have to deal with.
The stretch run should be fun and October baseball may be the best we've seen in years. Sure, the Cardinals and White Sox will have the advantage of setting up their lineups and pitching staffs for the playoffs with gigantic division leads and no fear of missing the playoffs, but you will certainly have to tune in to the playoffs in 2005 as anything could and likely will go.
With the season nearing its crescendo, it is always helpful to take stock on what has been seen (and unseen) to this point, especially since the media generally overplays storylines in Boston and the Bronx and underplays the small market agendas. Just because you don't read about it on ESPN's front page doesn't mean it didn't happen, so remember that as you prep yourself for baseball's second season!
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