Tag / Nationals

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All Time Team Records

The 2019 baseball season got underway yesterday, with the now early start brought about due to the last collective bargaining agreement.  To celebrate, it is time once again to look at the all-time team records for games that I have identified as having attended dating back to 1984. The Cubs look to avenge last year’s loss in the Wild Card and hope to make it back to the World Series, while the rebuilding White Sox hope to finally start seeing some of their young talent blossom.  The 2019 season should be an exciting one on both sides of town.

All-Time Team Records
Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
California Angels 1 0 1.000
Arizona Diamondbacks 13 2 0.867
Florida Marlins 15 8 0.652
Colorado Rockies 10 6 0.625
Philadelphia Phillies 10 7 0.588
New York Yankees 14 10 0.583
Boston Red Sox 17 13 0.567
Los Angeles Angels 17 13 0.567
Toronto Blue Jays 13 10 0.565
Cleveland Indians 26 23 0.531
Detroit Tigers 27 24 0.529
Chicago Cubs 213 192 0.526
Houston Astros 22 20 0.524
Chicago White Sox 293 271 0.520
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2019 Predictions

The 2019 baseball season is scheduled to kick off tomorrow, at least the North American portion, with a full slate of games featuring all 30 teams.  For the ninth consecutive year, I’ve looked into the crystal ball to make my picks for the upcoming season.

American League

East: Yankees

Central: Indians

West: Astros

Wild Cards: Red Sox, Angels

AL Champion: Astros

Cy Young: Justin Verlander

MVP: George Springer

National League

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2018 Predictions Revisited

Six months ago, at the dawn of the 2018 baseball season, I made my annual predictions as to who would win what.  Now that the regular season has come to an end, it is time revisit those predictions and see what, if anything, I got right.

American League

East: Yankees

The Red Sox set a franchise record in wins and have pretty much held a commanding lead for the entire season, so I was a little off here.

Central: Indians

Getting this right shouldn’t really count, as the Indians are the only team in the Central to finish with a winning record.

West: Astros

The Astros have surpassed 100 wins and are ready to defend their title.

Wild Cards: Red Sox, Angels

Well, if you swap out the Red Sox and the Yankees, this doesn’t look too bad.  The Angels, however, did not pan out and instead the A’s took the second Wild Card slot.

AL Champion: Yankees

Well, they are still alive, so I guess it can still be a good pick.

Cy Young: Chris Sale

This seemed like a good pick through much of the season, but a late year injury may hold him back.

MVP: Giancarlo Stanton

Not going to happen.  Either Mookie Betts or Mike Trout will take home this award.

National League

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Looking Ahead To 2019

Major League Baseball released their tentative 2019 schedule last week.  While the local squads have differing goals in mind as 2018 winds down, with the Cubs looking for their 4th straight trip to post-season and the White Sox playing out the string in year two of their rebuild, it’s time to turn our attention to next summer for both teams.

For the second year in a row, the White Sox open their season on the road in Kansas City against the Royals.  The home opener comes a week later, on April 4, against the Mariners.

The interleague schedule pits the White Sox against the NL East, with trips to Washington, Philadelphia, and Atlanta and home series against the Nationals, Marlins, and the Mets.  The rivalry with their north side foes continues with a 2 game series at Wrigley Field in June and then moving back to the south side in July.

The season ends with a 6 game homestand against the Indians and the Tigers.  Hopefully by this time, the White Sox losing ways will be well behind them.

On the north side, the Cubs open their season in interleague play, facing the Rangers in Texas on March 28.  They kick off the home portion of their schedule on April 8, against the Pirates.

The interleague schedule pits the Cubs against the AL West, with trips to Texas, Seattle, and Houston and home series against the Angels, A’s, and the Mariners.

The Cubs end the year with a 16 game stretch against the NL Central, with 13 of those coming against the Pirates and the Cardinals, who are likely to  challenge them for the NL Central crown.

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All Time Team Records

The 2018 baseball season gets underway today, with an early start brought about due to the last collective bargaining agreement, which added additional off days for each team throughout the year.  To celebrate, it is time once again to look at the all-time team records for games that I have identified as having attended dating back to 1984. The Cubs look to avenge last year’s NLCS loss and make it back to the World Series, while the rebuilding White Sox hope to finally start seeing their young talent blossom.  The 2018 season should be an exciting one on both sides of town.

All-Time Team Records
Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
California Angels 1 0 1.000
Arizona Diamondbacks 13 2 0.867
Florida Marlins 15 8 0.652
Philadelphia Phillies 10 6 0.625
Toronto Blue Jays 13 9 0.591
New York Yankees 14 10 0.583
Colorado Rockies 8 6 0.571
Los Angeles Angels 16 13 0.552
Boston Red Sox 16 13 0.552
Kansas City Royals 27 24 0.529
Chicago White Sox 284 256 0.526
Chicago Cubs 209 189 0.525
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2018 Predictions

The 2018 baseball season is scheduled to kick off tomorrow, the earliest date in history (not counting special series outside of North America) with a full slate of games featuring all 30 teams.  For the eighth consecutive year, I’ve looked into the crystal ball to make my picks for the upcoming season.

American League

East: Yankees

Central: Indians

West: Astros

Wild Cards: Red Sox, Angels

AL Champion: Yankees

Cy Young: Chris Sale

MVP: Giancarlo Stanton

National League

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2017 BBWAA Award Predictions

2016wsballThe Baseball Writers of America have announced the finalists for their awards for the just completed baseball season, which will be announced next week.  It is a good bet that few of my original predictions for the winners will be accurate.  Hopefully, these new predictions will be slightly better, especially since I’ll have a 33% chance of being right.

American League

Most Valuable Player: Jose Altuve, Aaron Judge, Jose Ramirez

Francisco Lindor was was my pre-season selection to win the award this year, but he was left out of the top three in part to his teammate Jose Ramirez.  Judge should be a shoo-in for Rookie of the Year, leaving Jose Altuve to take home the award, adding to his hardware.

Cy Young Award: Corey Kluber, Chris Sale, Luis Severino

Ironically, in his first year away from the White Sox, Chris Sale will finally win his first Cy Young award.

Manager of the Year: Terry Francona, A.J. Hinch, Paul Molitor

Once again, I didn’t make any predictions for this award prior to the season.  I’m guessing the surprising Twins will give Paul Molitor some love, but A.J. Hinch should take home the award.

Rookie of the Year: Andrew Benintendi, Aaron Judge, Trey Mancini

Another award I didn’t predict prior to the season.  Judge just might be a unanimous selection.

National League

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2017 Final Standings

For the third consecutive year, the NL pennant was captured at Wrigley Field.  Unfortunately, this year it was the Dodgers that will be moving on, winning the NLCS 4 games to 1 against the Cubs and bringing the game-attending portion of the 2017 season came to an end.  I made it to 49 games this season, my largest total since 2010.  I did manage to add one new stadium this year, along with trips to 3 others that I had been to before.  Here are the final standings for those games and the 20 different teams I saw in person, through both the regular season and the playoffs.

2017 Team Records
Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
Milwaukee Brewers 2 0 1.000
Seattle Mariners 2 0 1.000
Oakland Athletics 2 0 1.000
Colorado Rockies 1 0 1.000
Pittsburgh Pirates 1 0 1.000
Boston Red Sox 2 1 0.667
New York Yankees 2 1 0.667
Kansas City Royals 3 2 0.600
Los Angeles Dodgers 3 2 0.600
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Fitbit III: Week 37

An up and down week that just managed to sneak past my goal for the week.  Things got off to a slow start on Sunday, as my streak of days above goal came to an end, with just over 4000 steps.  Monday bounced back thanks to a trip down to Wrigley Field for Game 3 of the NLDS.  Tuesday was even better, with work in the morning and the first attempt at Game 4 getting rained out in the afternoon.  Wednesday was the big day of the week, as the Cubs and Nationals managed to get the game in and I was forced to park well beyond where I normally would, resulting in over 11,700 steps.  Thursday was back down under goal again, as a planned night out fizzled.  Friday was right at goal for the day.  Thunderstorms on Saturday resulted in another down day, coming in just shy of 2700 steps.

Total steps: 46,320

Daily average: 6617.1

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All Time LCS Team Records

Thanks to a Game 5 victory over the Nationals, the Cubs head to their 3rd straight NLCS appearance.  The series kicks off tomorrow night in Los Angeles, in a rematch of last year’s championship series, which the Cubs won over the Dodgers in 6 games.  So, it’s time to take our first look at the team records for the 9 LCS contests I have attended, the NLCS in 2003, 2015, and 2016, and the ALCS in 2005.

League Championship Series Team Records
Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
Florida Marlins 3 0 1.000
New York Mets 2 0 1.000
Los Angeles Angels 1 1 0.500
Chicago White Sox 1 1 0.500
Chicago Cubs 2 5 0.286
Los Angeles Dodgers 0 2 0.000