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barnhasspoken-blog · 5 years

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Gleyber Torres Reaches the History Books on Monday Night’s Victory Over the Orioles

What can you say about Gleyber Torres. The 22 year-old, shortstop from the New York Yankees, has been absolutely fabulous on the baseball diamond. Utilizing both his bat and his glove, he has proven to be a valuable asset and a player that every organization dreams about building around.

On Monday night, Torres opened eyes and ears all across the league, as he entered the record books. To begin, Torres is now the youngest player in MLB history to acquire 12 home runs against any opponent in the league. Secondly, Torres collected his 5th multi-home run game, which is now the most recorded by any player vs an opponent in MLB history. Thirdly, Torres it the 2nd player in the Divisional Era to obtain 12 home runs against any opponent in a season. Last, but certainly not least, Torres is the youngest player in American League history to possess 8 multi-home run games in his career. What an incredible journey this young man has experienced, and he isn’t even near the end.

It’s blatantly obvious that Torres had an incredible game on Monday night, but so did Brett Gardner, who recorded a 3-run, bases clearing triple, granting the Yanks their first runs in the bottom of the 1st. Thanks to a throwing error committed by Chance Sisco, the Yanks tacked on 1 run in the bottom of the 2nd.

In the top of the 3rd, Joe Mantiply was responsible for giving up 3 ER, including an RBI ground out hit by Rio Ruiz and a 2-run homer hammered by Trey Mancini.

Mike Ford extended the Yanks lead to a 2-run ballgame in the bottom of the 4th, punching a solo shot to right-center field, traveling 388 feet with an exit velocity of 98.7-MPH. In the top of the 5th, Mantiply was relieved by Brady Lail, posting a final line of:

3.0 IP / 3 H / 3 R / 3 ER / 2 BB / 2 K / 52 pitches - 37 strikes

Lail, who made his MLB debut on Monday night, forced a ground out, double play on just 2 pitches. Impressive to say the least. Lail was showered with love from not only the fans in attendance, but his family who were present as well.

In back to back innings, Torres obliterated 2, 3-run homers, recording his 8th multi-home run game in his career. The first homer traveled 420 feet with an exit velocity of 101.0-MPH, while the second homer traveled 395 feet with an exit velocity of 103.6-MPH. Gary Thorne was definitely not having any of it, stating that “You gotta put four fingers up when Torres comes to the plate, cause when he comes around 3rd it's too late."

The Orioles tacked on 3 runs in the top of the 7th. Lail was responsible for giving up a 3-run homer to Hanser Alberto, cutting the deficit to a 5-run ballgame. Lail was then relieved by Nestor Cortes Jr, posting the following line on his debut:

2.2 IP / 2 H / 3 R / 3 ER / 1 BB / 2 K / 46 pitches - 29 strikes

In the top of the 9th, the O’s turned the game into a thrilling, nerve-racking experience. With the bases load and 1 out, Ruiz smashed a 2-run single into right field, giving the O’s their 8th run on the night and creeping ever so closer to the Yanks. However, Adam Ottavino saved the day, recording 1 strikeout and forcing a flyout, granting the Yanks with a 11-8 victory over Baltimore.

The Bronx Bombers have now claimed victory over the Baltimore Orioles for the 14th consecutive game this season. The Yanks now possess a 79-41 (.658) record, tying the Dodgers for the best record in the MLB and possessing the best record in the American League.

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ecoorganic · 4 years

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MLB Power Rankings: Who's Already Surprising Us?

What's gotten into the Rockies? Has David Ross already revived the Cubs? The ... Marlins?

The 2020 MLB campaign is only two weeks old, and unfortunately that has already been ample time to become skeptical of the season’s viability. COVID-19 outbreaks have caused the league to quarantine entire teams and make drastic alterations to an already wonky schedule, while the commissioner

lays blame on the players and deflects accountability.

With so much opportunity for dismay, we're using Week 3 of Power Rankings to highlight one pleasant surprise from each club. Because what are the early days of a baseball season for if not a little positivity?

30. Pittsburgh Pirates (Last Week: 29)

It wasn’t enough to prevent falling into the basement of our rankings, but the Pirates secured a walk-off win on Thursday against the Twins, who entered with MLB’s best record. Kevin Newman had the game-winning single after racking up four walk-off hits last year as a rookie.

29. Kansas City Royals (Last Week: 26)

At long last, Trevor Rosenthal appears to have rediscovered his form (and, more importantly, his health). He missed all of 2018 recovering from Tommy John surgery, then posted a 13.50 ERA with 26 walks in 15 1/3 innings for the Nationals and Tigers last season. So far in 2020, he has a 1.93 ERA with five strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings, and has yet to walk a batter. His fastball is as firm as ever, averaging 98 mph.

28. Seattle Mariners (Last Week: 28)

The emergence of J.P. Crawford’s bat has to be music to the ears of Mariners fans. Crawford, a former top prospect whose defense has always been strong, hit .222/.320/.367 in 165 games before this season. He’s batting .280/.410/.380 through 14 games, and has cut down his strikeout rate from 21% in 2019 to just 11.5% in 2020.

27. Detroit Tigers (Last Week: 24)

Tyler Alexander’s record-setting 10-strikeout performance in relief on Sunday is among the most surprising feats of the young season. Alexander has never had overpowering stuff, with a fastball sitting around 90 mph. He’s faced 26 batters on the season and struck out half of them, providing support for a Tigers bullpen that ranks 18th in the Majors with a 4.30 ERA.

26. Baltimore Orioles (Last Week: 30)

Does moving out of the cellar of SI’s power rankings qualify as a pleasant surprise? Last weekend’s sweep of the Rays certainly counts, as does Hanser Alberto’s hot start. The 27-year-old still rarely walks (1.9% walk rate in 53 plate appearances), but he’s improved his plate discipline, swinging less often at pitches out of the zone and more often at strikes than he did a season ago.

25. Texas Rangers (Last Week: 23)

It’s been a tough start to the season collectively for Rangers hitters, who are batting a combined .208/.290/.362 through 11 games. One positive note has been 34-year-old Todd Frazier, who’s hitting .289/.372/.553 after signing with Texas on a one-year, $5 million deal this offseason.

24. Boston Red Sox (Last Week: 21)

The Red Sox have had the worst starting rotation in the American League, so finding a bright spot requires a bit of squinting. Left-hander Martin Perez has been just that through his first three starts, going 2-1 with a 3.45 ERA and no home runs allowed while inducing weak contact—his average exit velocity is 82.5 mph, among the lowest in baseball.

23. Arizona Diamondbacks (Last Week: 22)

While Madison Bumgarner and Robbie Ray have both taken a nosedive this season and brought along Arizona’s playoff odds with them, rotation mates Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen have tried to pick up the slack by recording ERAs under 3.00 in five combined starts so far.

22. San Francisco Giants (Last Week: 27)

Mike Yastrzemski has been doing his best impression of Mike Trout at the plate, slashing .304/.458/.630 to lead the Majors in fWAR (1.1) entering Thursday. Like Trout, he’s also playing center field, but in spacious Oracle Park after manning the corners last season, increasing his value for the Giants even more.

21. Miami Marlins (Last Week: 25)

The Marlins are somehow leading the NL East despite playing with a skeleton crew after over half their team tested positive for COVID-19. Their ragtag group of green youngsters and journeymen swept a four-game set from the surprisingly frisky Orioles to help Don Mattingly, who admitted he didn’t know some of his newly signed players, become the franchise’s all-time winningest manager.

APSTEIN: Marlins' Eddy Alvarez Becomes First Winter Olympic Medalist to Play MLB

20. Los Angeles Angels (Last Week: 20)

The Angels traded four minor leaguers for Dylan Bundy this offseason to help improve a starting rotation that ranked last in combined fWAR last season, and the early results have been spectacular. Bundy tossed his third career complete game on Thursday, and is 2-1 with a 2.08 ERA in three starts with 25 strikeouts and just two walks in 21 2/3 innings.

19. Toronto Blue Jays (Last Week: 18)

This young Toronto lineup has yet to find its rhythm, but 27-year-old Teoscar Hernandez has been a steady force. Six of Hernandez’s 11 hits have gone for extra bases (four homers and two doubles).

18. New York Mets (Last Week: 13)

Robbie Cano is slapping singles like it’s going out of style—which, it sort of is. He's batting .412 on the back of 11 singles in 39 plate appearances, the highest single rate (which sounds like an unfortunate romantic stat) among players with at least seven singles entering Thursday’s games.

• Verducci: What Happened to MLB's Elite First Basemen?

17. Milwaukee Brewers (Last Week: 16)

The Brewers are yet another team whose schedule has been interrupted by COVID-19. None of Milwaukee’s hitters have really found a groove yet, but Adrian Houser’s seven innings of shutout ball against the White Sox on Wednesday lowered his ERA to 0.75, vaulting him to third on the MLB leaderboard.

16. Philadelphia Phillies (Last Week: 17)

The Phillies have played just seven games in 14 days, or as many as they’ll play in a five-day span against Miami in September. The most pleasant surprise of their season so far is that no players were infected with the coronavirus when they played the COVID-stricken Marlins on opening weekend.

15. Cincinnati Reds (Last Week: 12)

Nick Castellanos had a tale of two seasons while split between the Tigers and Cubs last year. Reds fans are happy he’s carrying over what he showed in Chicago, ranking among the top five league-wide in home runs (six), RBI (13) and OPS (1.212) and carrying a 12-game hitting streak to begin the season until it was snapped Thursday.

14. St. Louis Cardinals (Last Week: 14)

The Cardinals have just five games under their belt and haven’t taken the field since last Wednesday, so it’s hard to draw any conclusions here. Longtime heralded prospect Tyler O’Neill has two home runs in 15 at-bats, so that’s … something.

13. San Diego Padres (Last Week: 11)

A renewed emphasis on plate discipline has translated to the best Padres offense since the steroid era, as San Diego leads the NL with 5.5 runs per game. Just as it seemed like Wil Myers had worn out his chances to start in San Diego, he’s finally hit his stride in his sixth season in SoCal and leads the Padres in OPS (1.109).

12. Chicago White Sox (Last Week: 19)

White Sox starting pitchers have scuffled so far with a collective 5.46 ERA. The bullpen, though, has been stellar. Alex Colome, Evan Marshall, Ross Detwiler and Matt Foster have pitched a combined 23 1/3 innings of relief without allowing a run.

11. Tampa Bay Rays (Last Week: 4)

Dropping from fourth to 11th may seem harsh, but that’s where getting swept by the Orioles will get you. The Rays have dropped six of their last seven, but a silver lining has been the improvements made by second baseman Brandon Lowe. Lowe was an All-Star last year and finished third in Rookie of the Year voting, and now he’s improved his slash line to .302/.375/.605. He’s particularly doing damage on fastballs, hitting .389 against heaters in 2020 after batting .291 on fastballs last year.

10. Cleveland Indians (Last Week: 6)

One of the few consistent contributors in Cleveland's lineup has been Cesar Hernandez, who’s batting .319/.429/.383 after two years of below-average performance in Philadelphia. The bullpen must be mentioned here as well—Cleveland relievers have a combined 1.34 ERA with no home runs allowed in 33 2/3 innings.

9. Washington Nationals (Last Week: 7)

Washington’s bullpen has the third-best ERA (1.53) in the Majors among teams who haven’t had COVID-related postponements after the unit recorded an NL-worst 5.68 ERA in 2019.

MLB Blog: Nationals's Early-Season Woes Strike Again in 2020

8. Colorado Rockies (Last Week: 15)

Colorado’s core four starters (Kyle Freeland, German Marquez, Jon Gray, Antonio Senzatela) have combined for a 2.49 ERA in 11 starts, providing a nice collective rebound after all except Gray struggled to repeat their 2018 form last season. All three of Colorado’s losses have been by one run. Rocktober will likely be upon us soon enough.

7. Atlanta Braves (Last Week: 8)

Mike Soroka may be out for the season, but Max Fried looks ready to assume the ace role in Atlanta after allowing a total of four runs in three starts against the Mets, Rays and Blue Jays.

6. Houston Astros (Last Week: 5)

The Astros’ rotation would be in dire straits were it not for two youngsters: Cristian Javier and Framber Valdez. The pair has combined for a 1.93 ERA in 23 1/3 innings pitched, with 21 strikeouts and just one home run allowed. With Justin Verlander injured and Lance McCullers still struggling, Javier and Valdez will be relied upon to keep Houston in contention.

5. Oakland Athletics (Last Week: 10)

The A’s have risen to the top of the AL West thanks to their sensational pitching. Oakland pitchers ranked eighth in the Majors last year in total WAR, but rank second through 13 games so far. That jump is thanks to the team’s bullpen, which sports a 1.80 ERA in 55 innings.

4. Chicago Cubs (Last Week: 9)

Before the Cubbies were inexplicably whipped by the Royals on Thursday to snap a six-game winning streak, their rotation held a MLB-best 1.95 ERA. Every starter has carried his weight, from steady veterans Kyle Hendricks and Jon Lester to the resurgent pair of Yu Darvish and Tyler Chatwood (Thursday’s debacle aside) and even the soft-contact dependent Alec Mills.

3. Minnesota Twins (Last Week: 3)

Everyone expected the Twins’ lineup to rake this year, but few likely expected Minnesota’s rotation to pitch this well. Twins starters had a 4.19 ERA last season, ranking 11th in the majors. The group’s 2.71 ERA through 13 games ranks third-best in 2020—led by ground-ball machine Randy Dobnak, who’s posted a 0.60 ERA through three starts.

2. New York Yankees (Last Week: 2)

Yankees fans who watched him thrive last year might not consider this a surprise, but Gio Urshela has picked up where he left off last season and taken his game to an even higher level. Urshela is batting .324/.405/.649 through the team’s first 12 games, posting a ludicrous 57.7% hard-hit rate. Any doubts about the legitimacy of Urshela’s breakout 2019 campaign are quickly being put to bed.

BACCELLIERI: What's the Craziest Feat We Could See in 60 Games?

1. Los Angeles Dodgers (Last Week: 1)

Accidental Opening Day starter Dustin May has upped his velocity another notch this season and throws the fastest sinker in the league (97.8 mph), per Fangraphs. He also made Manny Machado look like a Little Leaguer with one of the nastiest pitches of the season on Tuesday, when he picked up his first win of the season while pitching a career-high six innings.

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viraljournalist · 5 years

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How many bad teams would it take to beat the Astros, Dodgers or Yankees?

New Post has been published on https://viraljournalist.com/how-many-bad-teams-would-it-take-to-beat-the-astros-dodgers-or-yankees/

How many bad teams would it take to beat the Astros, Dodgers or Yankees?

9:00 AM ET

Sam MillerESPN.com

ESPN baseball columnist/feature writer Former editor-in-chief of Baseball Prospectus Co-author of “The Only Rule Is It Has To Work”

It is, like the story began, the best of times and the worst of times — an era received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

There are three major league teams on pace to win 104 or more games — a mark reached by only 10 teams in the past 40 years — and another two on pace to win 99.5. (There have never been four 100-win teams in a single season.) There are three teams on pace to lose 104 or more games, another on track to lose 101 and a fifth on pace to lose 99. (There has only once been four 100-loss teams in a single season.) Fully a third of the league could end up at one of the two triple-digit extremes that typically would mark The Best or The Worst team in baseball.

How to put the gap between, say, the Yankees and, say, the Orioles, in context? A simple way is to note that the Yankees are 17-2 when the two clubs play. Or to note that the Yankees, Astros and Dodgers — the three 104-wins-or-better clubs — are collectively 41-12 against the Orioles, Tigers, Royals and Marlins, the four 101-losses-or-worse clubs.

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A more complicated way is to ask this: How many of these bad teams would it take to make up one of these great teams? Would a playoff superteam of the Royals, Orioles, Tigers and Marlins be able to hang with the super playoff teams in Houston, New York and Los Angeles? In an era of total teardowns on the bleak side of the standings and insatiable depth hoarding on the bright side of them, is there room for any good players on a last-place roster?

To answer this question took 17 tabs in a spreadsheet.

Here were the rules: We built 25-man rosters for the Astros, Yankees, Dodgers and Tigeroyiolins — on second thought, that’s the only time we’ll attempt to call them that. Henceforth, they will be the Superteam — based entirely on 2019 stats: a starter at every position, four bench players covering infield, outfield and catcher, a four-man starting rotation (because only four are needed in the postseason) and an eight-man bullpen. We prorated each player’s 2019 WAR for a full, healthy season in the role he is assigned to: 600 plate appearances for starters (except 500 for the catcher), 250 for bench players, 175 innings for starting pitchers and 65 for relievers (except 95 for one designated swingman).* The plan was to see how many bad teams it takes to compete with the Astros, Dodgers and Yankees.

We’ll start the bidding at four teams, do I hear four teams?

SUPERTEAM

C Pedro Severino, 1B Garrett Cooper, 2B Jonathan Villar, 3B Hanser Alberto, SS Adalberto Mondesi, LF Trey Mancini, CF Whit Merrifield, RF Hunter Dozier, DH Jorge Soler

DODGERS

C Will Smith, 1B David Freese, 2B Max Muncy, 3B Justin Turner, SS Corey Seager, LF Alex Verdugo, CF Joc Pederson, RF Cody Bellinger, DH A.J. Pollock

ASTROS

C Robinson Chirinos, 1B Yuli Gurriel, 2B Jose Altuve, 3B Alex Bregman, SS Carlos Correa, LF Michael Brantley, CF Jake Marisnick, RF George Springer, DH Yordan Alvarez

YANKEES

C Gary Sanchez, 1B Luke Voit, 2B DJ LeMahieu, 3B Gio Urshela, SS Gleyber Torres, LF Giancarlo Stanton, CF Brett Gardner, RF Aaron Judge, DH Edwin Encarnacion

The best player on any of the Orioles, Royals, Tigers or Marlins, by total WAR, has been Jonathan Villar, acquired in a midseason trade by Baltimore last summer. At the time, the competitive Brewers were trying to upgrade at second base, so they traded their second baseman (Villar) and a couple of prospects for the non-competitive Orioles’ second baseman, Jonathan Schoop. Since then, Villar has been the 42nd-best player in baseball, just ahead of Trea Turner, Paul Goldschmidt and Manny Machado. He has been the ninth-best second baseman, while Schoop is 42nd. It was a masterful trade by the Orioles: 21 homers, 33 steals, 3.8 WAR this year.

Mike Trout is now better than … wait for it … Derek Jeter. Sam Miller »

So, there are good players on the Superteam, of which Villar is undeniably one. Soler has 44 homers, Alberto is hitting .320, Mondesi has 39 steals, Dozier is slugging .550. But the fact that Villar is the best player that the four teams can produce puts the Superteam’s uphill climb in perspective: Teams who are committed to losing don’t keep MVP candidates around. Villar is not an MVP candidate, the way Cody Bellinger and Alex Bregman are. He is not even above-average by the standards of the other three teams’ rosters: There are 21 Dodgers, Astros or Yankees who have produced more WAR than Villar on a per-plate-appearance level this year. Villar is cast here as the best player on any of four major league rosters.

The Superteam might make it up on depth or pitching, but its nine best players simply can’t compete with the nine regulars on any of our three historically great teams:

Superteam: 175 homers, .281/.341/.474, 26.4 WAR (scaled to 600 plate appearances per player) Dodgers: 199 homers, .276/.361/.532, 42.3 WAR Astros: 210 homers, .293/.372/.544, 46.2 WAR Yankees: 206 homers, .279/.355/.519, 39.7 WAR

(Note that all of these teams’ WARs are exceptionally high, even higher than the Astros, Dodgers and Yankees’ lineups have actually produced this year. That’s because we’re picking only their very best player performances, after the fact, giving the teams full health and awarding nearly all playing time to those nine best players. Real life doesn’t go this smoothly.)

But those are just the starters. In theory, depth could benefit the Superteam. There’s no Cody Bellinger on a 100-loss team, almost by definition, but there might be a whole lot of Mike Fords.

On the other hand, depth is part of what makes these Dodgers, Astros and Yankees so incredible. They’re not building nine-man lineups, but 13-man lineups — players able to platoon, to move around the field and to not just fill in but very nearly replicate injured starters. Over the course of a full season, when 50 or 60 players might be called upon, the Superteam’s depth almost certainly would win out. But for just a 25-man roster, the good teams are nearly as deep:

SUPERTEAM

C Jorge Alfaro, INF Miguel Rojas, OF Anthony Santander. UT Jon Berti

DODGERS

C Russell Martin, INF Enrique Hernandez, OF Matt Beaty, UT Chris Taylor

ASTROS

C Martin Maldonado, INF Abraham Toro, OF Josh Reddick, UT Aledmys Diaz

YANKEES

C Austin Romine, INF Didi Gregorius, OF Cameron Maybin, UT Mike Ford

Superteam: .276/.330/.437, 4.6 WAR (scaled to 250 plate appearances per player) Dodgers: .254/.331/.434, 4.1 WAR Astros: .251/.322/.425, 3.9 WAR Yankees: .260/.318/.473, 3.6 WAR

The Superteam inches up, but barely.

As to starting pitchers:

SUPERTEAM

Matthew Boyd, John Means, Brad Keller, Spencer Turnbull

DODGERS

Clayton Kershaw, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Walker Buehler, Rich Hill

ASTROS

Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, Zack Greinke, Wade Miley

YANKEES

James Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka, Domingo German, J.A. Happ

The Superteam’s staff has one All-Star appearance (Means, this year) and zero Cy Young votes. The other three teams’ pitchers have won five Cy Youngs and appeared in 31 All-Star Games. But it’s not quite as bad as it looks. The Superteam’s rotation actually has been better than the Yankees’ rotation, despite a 28-48 combined record this year (thanks to terrible offenses behind them and terrible bullpens protecting their leads). Still, it’s not great:

Superteam: 4.24 ERA, 4.31 FIP, 12.0 WAR (scaled to 175 innings per pitcher) Dodgers: 2.84 ERA, 3.51 FIP, 15.6 WAR Astros: 3.08 ERA, 3.62 FIP, 17.0 WAR Yankees: 4.45 ERA, 4.62 FIP, 10.5 WAR

Again, in a longer season the Superteam might benefit. It’s fair to say the Superteam’s eighth- and ninth-best starters — Daniel Norris and Jakob Junis, maybe? — are better than Houston’s. But Houston isn’t going to need eight starters to get through October, and at the top of the staffs it’s a huge mismatch.

For bullpens, we chose to limit our options to actual relievers, so unused starting pitchers (for example, Daniel Norris, Jakob Junis) were not generally considered for the Superteam’s bullpen. Pitchers such as Ross Stripling and Kenta Maeda, who have both started and relieved this year, and who are likely to be in the Dodgers’ actual postseason bullpen, were:

SUPERTEAM

CL Ian Kennedy, RP Mychal Givens, RP Scott Barlow, RP Buck Farmer, RP Shawn Armstrong, RP Jarlin Garcia, RP Jose Cisnero, SWING Sandy Alcantara

DODGERS

CL Kenley Jansen, RP Pedro Baez, RP Yimi Garcia, RP Ross Stripling, RP Dustin May, RP Kenta Maeda, RP Joe Kelly, SWING Julio Urias

ASTROS

CL Roberto Osuna, RP Ryan Pressly, RP Will Harris, RP Joe Smith, RP Hector Rondon, RP Chris Devenski, RP Josh James, SWING Brad Peacock

YANKEES

CL Aroldis Chapman, RP Tommy Kahnle, RP Adam Ottavino, RP Chad Green, RP David Hale, RP Zack Britton, RP Luis Cessa, SWING Jonathan Loaisiga

Superteam: 3.96 ERA, 3.90 FIP, 7.3 WAR (scaled to 65 innings per pitcher) Dodgers: 3.74 ERA, 3.85 FIP, 7.9 WAR Astros: 3.24 ERA, 3.86 FIP, 6.9 WAR Yankees: 3.15 ERA, 3.78 FIP, 8.4 WAR

Add it all up:

Superteam: 50.3 WAR

Dodgers: 69.9 WAR

Astros: 74.0 WAR

Yankees: 62.2 WAR

To repeat something from earlier: 74 WAR is a crazy-high total for the Astros, and it would equate to about a 120-win team in real life. But it assumes almost perfect health and almost perfect decision-making by the Astros, funneling nearly all of their playing time to the players who actually were the best this year.

Who has clinched a postseason spot and who could be next? Playoff tracker

2019 postseason schedule

But the same applies to the Superteam. The ex post facto nature of this exercise benefits them most of all, because it allows us to accurately pick, from the 215 or so mostly anonymous players these four teams will field this year, the 25 who actually had the best years — in many cases, career years, years unlike any they’ve ever had or will have again.

Indeed, if we were to use not actual, observed WAR to measure each roster’s strength, but projected, future WAR, the Superteam would fall even further behind. In that case, team strength would look something more like this:

The Superteam built above, in other words, projects to be somewhere around a .500 team, assuming good health, while the others project to be around 100-win teams. I think we can say, conclusively, that four teams put together still aren’t as good as the Astros, the Dodgers or the Yankees. Wild.

Do I hear five teams?

Superteam 2: Superteam + Blue Jays. Add Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Bo Bichette, Danny Jansen, Wilmer Font and Ken Giles. Remove Miguel Rojas, Trey Mancini, Jorge Alfaro, Jose Cisnero and Sandy Alcantara.

Total WAR: 58.1.

Do I hear six teams?

Superteam 3: Superteam 2 + Mariners. Add Kyle Seager, Tom Murphy, Marco Gonzales and Sam Tuivailala. Remove Jon Berti, Danny Jansen, Brad Keller and Jarlin Garcia.

Law’s 2019 prospects of the year

A home run mark for all 30 teams

One key for each wild-card hopeful

Olney: What’s next for the Red Sox?

Total WAR: 64.3, good enough to pass this year’s Yankees (who, it’s worth noting, are without excellent outfielders Aaron Hicks and Mike Tauchman, both key contributors this year but both out for the season, and Luis Severino and Dellin Betances, who have no statistical records to go on this year but could each return for the playoffs).

Do I hear seven teams?

Superteam 4: Superteam 3 + Rockies. Add Trevor Story, Nolan Arenado, Ryan McMahon, Jon Gray, German Marquez and Scott Oberg. Remove Adalberto Mondesi, Hanser Alberto, Garrett Cooper, Spencer Turnbull, Marco Gonzales and Buck Farmer. Break the rules and move Bo Bichette to second base.

Total WAR: 68.4. Still worse than the Dodgers and the Astros. Do I hear eight teams?

Superteam 5: Superteam 4 + Pirates. Add Josh Bell, Bryan Reynolds, Jacob Stallings and Felipe Vazquez. Remove Ryan McMahon, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Pedro Severino and Shawn Armstrong.

Total WAR: 72.9. Ahead of the Dodgers and somehow still behind the Astros.

Do. I. Hear. Niiiiiiine teams?

Superteam 6: Superteam 5 + White Sox. Add Lucas Giolito, James McCann, Aaron Bummer and Tim Anderson. Remove Matthew Boyd, Jacob Stallings, Scott Barlow and … Jonathan Villar.

Total WAR: 75.7. Phew.

Is the conclusion too hard to believe? Does it seem credible if you simply look at the rosters?

SUPERTEAM

C Tom Murphy, 1B Josh Bell, 2B Bo Bichette, 3B Nolan Arenado, SS Trevor Story, LF Bryan Reynolds, CF Whit Merrifield, RF Hunter Dozier, DH Jorge Soler, UT Tim Anderson, UT Kyle Seager, UT Anthony Santander, UT James McCann, SP Lucas Giolito, SP John Means, SP Jon Gray, SP German Marquez, RP Felipe Vazquez, RP Ian Kennedy, RP Ken Giles, RP Mychal Givens, RP Sam Tuivailala, RP Aaron Bummer, RP Scott Oberg, RP Wilmer Font

ASTROS

C Robinson Chirinos, 1B Yuli Gurriel, 2B Jose Altuve, 3B Alex Bregman, SS Carlos Correa, LF Michael Brantley, CF Jake Marisnick, RF George Springer, DH Yordan Alvarez, UT Aledmys Diaz, UT Abraham Toro, UT Josh Reddick, UT Martin Maldonado, SP Gerrit Cole, SP Justin Verlander, SP Zack Greinke, SP Wade Miley, RP Ryan Pressly, RP Roberto Osuna, RP Will Harris, RP Joe Smith, RP Hector Rondon, RP Chris Devenski, RP Josh James, RP Brad Peacock

The Astros have the two best starting pitchers, maybe the three best. They have, easily, the best player (in Bregman), and by WAR per plate appearance this year they have the three best (Bregman, Alvarez, Springer). They have five of the top seven, with only Trevor Story and Bo Bichette reaching 5 WAR per 600 plate appearances on the Superteam side. While depth eventually will favor the Superteam, all of the 104-win teams have built extremely deep 25-man rosters. Of our original Superteam 1 players, maybe half would have made the Dodgers’ Opening Day roster.

The point is, this is really some kind of era we’re living in. You’re seeing some of the worst baseball that’s ever been played. The Tigers actually don’t have a single above-average hitter, in any number of plate appearances above two. And you’re seeing some of the best baseball that’s ever been played. According to Baseball Prospectus’ third-order winning percentages, this year’s Astros and Dodgers actually are the two best teams since 1950. It’s amazing that these teams have coexisted in the same league, occasionally playing against each other, standing next to each other, and had it even look like baseball at all. It’s a baseball miracle.

But that’s not the payoff for this era. The payoff is the postseason, when as many as five 100-win teams — and three historically great ones — are going to smash into each other, with barely a below-average player in the bunch. Truly, it can’t get here fast enough.

* In cases of injury, the player was included on the roster if he seemed likely to return sometime this year or if he would return but for his team being out of contention. He was not included if he definitely is out for the year, like the Marlins’ Brian Anderson. Players who have been traded away, like the former Tiger Nick Castellanos, aren’t eligible. There was some preference to players with more playing time, but mainly we went with the most productive players on a per-PA basis. And players are allowed to play slightly out of position if, as with Whit Merrifield, they’ve played at least some significant time at the position to which we wish to assign them. We used Baseball-Reference’s WAR for hitters and FanGraphs’ WAR for pitchers.

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