Just two days left in the what was the 2018 MLB season — it always cracks me up how long the marathon of a full year of play seems in April. And, like grains of sand in the hourglass, time suddenly slips away out of control.
The Athletics, amazingly, have made the postseason and get to face off against the Yankees. I truthfully never had such high expectations for the Athletics this season, and I am indeed hoping the team can survive long enough to face the Red Sox. For, that would give my friend Lord Zola and me some fun discussions, with both our hometowns represented.
Of course, Oakland owes its success to a bunch of guys. Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Khris Davis, Stephen Piscotty, Marcus Semien, and Jed Lowrie have all had great seasons. But personally, the key to the Oakland season is Jonathan Lucroy in my view.
Remember, this is a team that projected a rotation of Daniel Mengden, Sean Manaea, A.J. Puk, and Jharel Cotton going into the spring. A few months and Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson, and Edwin Jackson later, the Oaklanders are still in it. And much of the credit for pitch calling and framing has to live with the professional Lucroy, who has helped the Athletics with a steady veteran presence behind the dish, enough offense (.243-4-51) and that ever-valuable clubhouse veteran presence.
I am enjoying a decent season in a few leagues. Second in AL Tout Wars, though only 10th in AL LABR. Most of my baseball squads were mediocre, but my Strat-O-Matic team, The Berkeley Liberators, are in the throes of the pennant race, .5 a game behind the Carlsbad Bats in line for a postseason Wild Card slot.
All in all, my team has done well. Marcell Ozuna (.314-24-98), Steven Souza Jr. (.263-32-86), and Travis Shaw (.224-29-92) lead the way among my hitting, and Zack Greinke, Dinelson Lamet, and Pat Neshek are the successful core of my pitching staff, which is reliever heavy but has 77 wins with a month to go.
It took awhile for this team to take off, but what really puzzles me is the draft picks in the league. Since the Mid-West Strat League is a sim, based upon the previous season, rookies like Juan Soto and Ronald Acuna won’t be available for drafting till February of 2019.
Well, I have done well with third-round picks in this league over the years. Shaw, Ozuna, Domingo Santana, Derek Norris, and Alex Wood are all players who fell to me that late, but the weird thing is the wreckage of disappointing first rounders I have had over the years.
Jedd Gyorko, Matt Harvey, Ike Davis, Lamet (who hopefully will be back in a year) and Jhoulys Chacin are among the first-round disappointers I have selected and then watched wither over the years. I did draft Chacin in 2010 (9-11, 3.28) and hung onto him for two more years when injuries and ineffectiveness and a 9-16 mark made him expendable for the next four years. And, suddenly, he resurrects himself at age 29 with the Padres last year and builds upon it this season with the Brewers. It all makes me want to pound my forehead with a loud Homer Simpson-like “doh.”
Shohei Ohtani might have disappointed in some leagues and for some owners, but think about this: He is the second player all-time to hit 20 homers and appear in 10 games as a pitcher (Babe Ruth is the other). But Ohtani also struck out Jose Altuve (the reigning MVP) and homered off Corey Kluber (the reigning Cy Young). Crazy.
Were there two FAAB moves I might have made during the season that would have made a difference? I finished second, 19 points behind Rick Wolf and Glenn Colton, and a few points in steals and RBI and runs and homers might have done it.
I was looking at picking up Tony Kemp last May, anticipating some steals. I eventually traded for Kemp, whom had I grabbed in the spring would have been worth a couple of points in swipes, anyway. Similarly, I had a feeling about Luke Voit when the Cardinals swapped the slugger to the Pinstripes. Twelve homers, 33 RBI, and 26 runs would have similarly been worth a half dozen more points.
The lessons? Trust your instincts and play the season through to the end every time
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