Five BLISTERING Takes to Cap Off 2016

2016 was one of the best seasons of baseball I can remember.  So much happened, and it kept us on the edge of our seat right up to the very end.  To cap off the year, I wanted to deliver five incredibly strong takes that hold at least some level of merit in my opinion.  As always, these opinions are my own, but I welcome anyone to disagree with me! Here we go:

5. Rajai Davis hit one of the greatest home runs of all time.

And so many people will forget that.  Let’s look at the circumstances surrounding the moment:

-Cleveland was trailing by three runs at one point in the 8^th inning

-Aroldis Chapman, the hardest throwing pitcher in the MLB, on the mound

-Cleveland had not won a World Series since 1948

-Chicago was four outs away from winning its first since 1908

-Rajai Davis played a HORRIBLE game for the first seven innings

-Rajai Davis had 55 career homeruns in 11 seasons, including playoffs

-Aroldis Chapman had not allowed a home run since June

There’s probably more that I’m missing, but to tie the game with a two-run missile in the late innings under all of the above circumstances qualifies as one of the greatest home runs of all time in my opinion.

4. Mike Trout needs to get the hell out of Anaheim.

(Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press)

Mike Trout is generally accepted as the best player in baseball.  We already know that.  But off the top of my head, I have no idea what his stats were this season.  To a diehard fan of the game like myself, that’s a bit of a problem.  Trout is clearly one of the worst marketed athletes in professional sports and there’s no real reason for me to believe that could change any time soon.  Let’s move away from his publicity though because that’s only part of the problem.

The meat of the issue centers around his team’s performance.  I said it in April and I’ll say it again, Mike Scioscia has been extremely disappointing for the Angels recently.  This isn’t entirely his fault but at the same time he’s had some serious talent to work with over the last few years and barely anything to show for it.  The Angels are not going anywhere, especially since Seattle has now joined Houston and Texas as another contender in the division.  Additionally, their farm system is empty and their starting rotation is a disaster.

The way I see it, Trout may be perfectly okay with his situation in Anaheim.  But if he wants to be able to help his team make a postseason run, it certainly doesn’t look like staying in Anaheim is the solution.  As amazing as it is, Trout may not have even reached his prime yet.  A trade could also be mutually beneficial to both teams involved.

3. The Red Sox keeping Clay Buchholz was the right move.

(Ron Schwane/AP)

If you told me back in May that I would be typing out that sentence I wouldn’t have believed it for a second. But here we are. Clay Buchholz’s 2017 option has been picked up by the Red Sox and, God help me, I’m fine with it.

He had a good second half.  No, he had a great second half, posting the second lowest ERA for a Red Sox starter and going 4-1 from August to October.  He wasn’t even half bad as a reliever for the most part.  These might seem like mediocre numbers but when you consider where he was in the first half, there’s not much more he could have done. 

Moving away from that, let’s take a look at notable starting pitchers on the market this offseason:

...

Look, Buchholz is a figure that the Sox are extremely familiar with.  He has a huge amount of talent when he’s on, and we’ve all seen what he’s capable of. Now that he has a job next season the mental aspect may be able to be worked out.  The team could not have done much better on the market, and the farm system isn’t exactly a breeding ground for pitching.  If worse comes to worst, he may be able to be a solid trade piece should the Sox need another pickup at the deadline.

One final note on Buchholz: he has never had a losing record in back-to-back seasons.

2. David Ortiz should not be a first ballot Hall of Famer.

 

(John Angelillo/UPI)

Yes, you read that correctly.  Look, David Ortiz has done more for the Red Sox in his career than many others combined.  He pretty much delivered two of the last three World Series championships to the city of Boston himself.  He is the greatest clutch hitter of all time.  And he should be in the Hall of Fame.

Just not yet.

Now I’m sure there are others out there who feel this way as well but ever since Ortiz began to sniff Hall of Fame numbers I’ve said he shouldn’t be in on a first ballot.  For two reasons.

Reason #1: performance-enhancing drugs.  SHUT UP GEOFF THE RESULTS WEREN’T SUPPOSED TO BE RELEASED.  Yes, I’m aware of that.  But I also know that everyone who is linked AT ALL to PED’s has the asterisk hanging above their head because we group them all together.  Nothing good or bad about that, it’s just what we as fans do. Whether Ortiz is guilty or not is irrelevant, his name still surfaces just as Bonds and Clemens do. The writers association has ruled with an iron fist when it comes to association with PED’s in the Hall of Fame, and it doesn’t look like Bonds and Clemens will be in any time soon.  The way I see it, Ortiz should not be allowed into the Hall of Fame until Bonds and Clemens are allowed in. Once one gets in, it opens up the door for everyone.

Reason #2: Edgar Martinez.  There should already be a designated hitter in the Hall of Fame, and he played in Seattle for nearly 18 seasons.  Edgar Martinez is not only one of the best designated hitters of all time, but one of the best hitters.  If you go down the list of comparisons between Martinez and Ortiz on a 162 game average, you’ll find that Martinez has more hits, runs, and a much higher batting average.  Many of the other stats are fairly similar with Ortiz gaining some ground in power numbers given the nature of his hitting style.  Bottom line, Martinez put together a Hall of Fame career in the eyes of many including myself, and for Ortiz to get in on a first ballot over Martinez would be wrong.

1. The Cubs winning the World Series is bad for baseball.

(Getty Images)

Before you all jump down my throat for this one, because I know you will, stop and actually understand what I’m going to say here.

The Cubs 100% deserved to win the World Series this year.  Theo Epstein, being the mastermind that he is, brilliantly developed a five-year plan to turn a losing team into a powerhouse filled with young talent.  The Cubs are very, very good, and no one is discrediting their accomplishment this year.  It was their season, and they outplayed twenty-nine other teams to reach the top of the baseball world for the first time since 1908. I tip an infinite number of hats to the organization.

But...

Their World Series victory is bad for baseball.  Now what do I mean by that?  Does it hurt the other teams? Of course not.  Was it an awful event to watch? Definitely not, that was one of the greatest games I’ve ever witnessed.

The Cubs victory is bad for baseball because it wipes away the last bit of history that baseball has held onto for over a century.  The Cubs’ identity has completely changed, especially since the team may very well contend for years to come.  The Lovable Losers were a staple in the tradition that has enveloped this great game since its inception almost 200 years ago.  The Cubs were “that team that hasn’t won since 1908.”  Movies, books, songs, documentaries, poems, curses, characters, sports bars, comics, businesses, and so many other things have come to fruition all because the Chicago Cubs had not previously won the World Series since 1908.  I may be the only person that feels like this but that’s okay.  Again, the Cubs’ victory was nothing short of remarkable, and now it will be very interesting to see how long they can continue this run.