With the Wild Card Series behind us, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world headed into the weekend:
1. Reds under new management:
The Reds’ managerial search came to a shocking end last night when it was reported that three-time Manager of the Year and two-time World Series champion Terry Francona is being hired to replace David Bell in the dugout. The Reds have not yet announced Tito’s hiring, but are expected to do so as soon as today. In a year that hasn’t seen much upheaval in the league’s dugouts to this point, Cincinnati’s surprise hiring of Francona takes perhaps the most attractive managerial gig available off the market though both the White Sox and Marlins have yet to name a manager for 2025 and it remains at least theoretically possible that one or more of the teams currently in the playoffs could make a change in the dugout following the postseason, though no club is an obvious candidate to do so.
2. NLDS starts this weekend:
There’s no playoff baseball scheduled for today as the remaining Wild Card teams rest up and prepare for their upcoming division series matchups. In the NL, there’s plenty of roster-related intrigue that figures to be settled this weekend before two pairs of division rivals clash. The Dodgers and Padres have already announced their starters for the first two games of the series, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto (3.00 ERA in 18 starts) set to face Dylan Cease (3.47 ERA) in Game 1 before Jack Flaherty (3.17 ERA) faces Yu Darvish (3.31 ERA in 16 starts) the next day. Of note, Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas told reporters (including Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times) that the left-adductor strain that left him sidelined for the final games of the Dodgers’ regular season is still bothering him with minimal progress. Rojas indicated that he intends to play through the issue, although Tommy Edman stands as a capable replacement at shortstop if necessary.
Meanwhile, the Mets and Phillies prepare to play this weekend with only one starter announced between the two teams: Philadelphia ace Zack Wheeler (2.57 ERA) is set to take the ball for Game 1. Neither team has made any sort of indications regarding who their Game 2 starters may be, and the Mets also haven’t announced who they’ll send to the mound opposite Wheeler. Even so, there’s at least some roster-related intrigue in this series as well: the Mets are reportedly contemplating the addition of right-hander Kodai Senga to their NLDS roster. Senga has spent most of 2024 on the IL after a breakout 2023 season, and while he won’t be available as a starter this series it is possible that the club could lean on him for short relief, bolstering a bullpen that has seen closer Edwin Diaz used heavily in recent days.
3. ALDS starts this weekend:
Along with the NLDS, the ALDS will also begin this weekend. Unlikely its National League counterpart, however, the American League will only see the first game of its series take place this weekend before a day off on Sunday. This year’s Division Series is flooded with AL Central teams, as the division champion Guardians will take on the Tigers after Detroit knocked the Astros out last round, ending their long streak of ALCS appearances. The Tigers haven’t announced a starter for tomorrow’s game, though whoever they choose will face Guardians righty Tanner Bibee (3.47 ERA). Meanwhile, the Royals managed to sweep the Orioles out of the Wild Card series and prevent a fourth intradivision LDS matchup. In Baltimore’s stead, Kansas City will now face the Yankees in the Bronx with veteran right-hander Michael Wacha (3.35 ERA) scheduled to face ace righty Gerrit Cole (3.41 ERA) in tomorrow’s game.
To say that great hire by the Reds was a shock is an understatement. Well done for once in many moons.
Francona will arguably be the best manager the Reds have had since Lou Piniella.
If the AL Central is mediocre, the rest of the AL must be terrible.
The AL Central was dragged down by the historically bad White Sox. The AL West was probably the weakest division overall this season.
layventsky: The Sox gave Central teams some easy wins, but each teams played a lot more games than those so I think the ALC teams deserved to be where they are. And to think, it was always a foregone conclusion that the ALC wouldn’t earn a WC spot. GO TIGERS AND ROYALS!!!!
I’m sorry, I don’t see where the article says the AL Central is medicore. Historically both central divisions are weaker, but with Cleveland’s 91 wins (vs. the Yankees 94 wins) and Detroit and KC’s 86 wins, the AL central was reasonably strong. There was an unsual degree of parity most of this year, though the final month or so did see Boston and Minnesota fall out of the packs (though Seattle did not make the postseason, it still put in a competitive 85 win performance, behind Houston’s 88 wins), Notably, the Orioles tied the Guardians with 91 wins, and would have done even better, maybe surpassed the Yankees, if they had not had that perplexing .500 second hald. .Interesting year. Personally, I like it when you have a lot of teams in competitive positions throughout the year. And it gives more cities reason to pay attention and hope. If they come up short, like the Mariners and Twins, their is going to be disappointment, but in my opinion that is preferable to experiencing seasons like those the White Sox, Angels, and even Rangers (given the great fall off from w0o23(. Like I said, interesting year,
Btw, in 2023, the divisions were won with the following number of wins:
For comparison, this was 2023:
AL East: Orioles (101), Rays (99), Jays (89)
AL Central: Twins (87), Tigers (78)
AL West: Astros & Rangers (90), Mariners (88)
Run Differential by Division:
ALE +107
NLW +92
NLC +87
NLE -27
ALC -81
ALW -178
White Sox run differential. -306.
Rest of ALC. +225
Cornelius: I’m not saying this season, but if you look the WC teams haven’t come from the Central. They’ve come from the ALE.
You could play that game with all the divisions but it would be a statistically pointless exercise. If all the runs scored/allowed for teams in a division are summed the runs scored/allowed in each division factor out so what you really see is how that division performed against the rest of baseball. Remove any one of the teams and the account no longer balances out.
You can’t because the Sox were the only team in ALC in negative and no other team surpassed -250 runs. The closest was the Rockies and as you pointed out the NLW was in the positive even with them.
I’m simply pointing out that if you remove one team the math no longer works, and the same would be true no matter what team you removed from whatever division. The only way it works potentially is if you could factor out the run differential between the CWS and the other four teams in the division, and good luck figuring that out. Otherwise you’ve basically create a checkbook that records deposits without debits.
That whooshing sound is the point going over your head.
I’m sorry you don’t understand, but it really is only simple arithmetic you are failing to comprehend.
Thanks for rubbing it in, BlueSkies.
Not that he would have accepted the Job, but I guess it goes without saying that Shapiro and Atkins ineptness continued into the search for a potential new Manager. Embarrassing as always
I didn’t even know Tito was looking to return. John Henry should have gotten on his knees, apologized, hired Tito back and kicked Cora to the curb.
No way the Red Sox fire Cora after they rehired him after serving his 1-yr. suspension. He’ll get promoted to a front office role.
I speak for MANY Guardians fans when I say it came out of nowhere and knocked us all back on our heels. He was in really poor health when he stepped away after last season. I really hope he is truly recovered and can withstand the rigors of a season. But one thing is for sure – Francona is the perfect antidote to David Bell.
The Reds finally have a legit manager to lead this young core. Hopefully they listen to and absorb his experience and begin to play the right way. The future looks bright with this hire!!!
While this is a great move for the Reds, the White Sox’ next manager will either be someone as clueless as Grifol or have suffered a serious head wound.
Off topic but mlb correctly says that the way for the Guardians to beat the Yankees is to make players other than Judge and Soto beat them. When mlb.com talks about how to beat the Dodgers, however, even though they talk about the Ohtani threat, they neglect to mention that the way to beat the Dodgers MUST start with making players OTHER THAN Ohtani (and Betts) do it. And that’s the way I feel teams failed against the Dodgers all year long. They failed to exclude Ohtani from the equation. They walked Judge and Soto a ton, but not Ohtani. They almost always pitched to him right in the strike zone. And he consistently punished them. It’s like they all have Stockholm syndromed. A real headscratcher.
(I realize he presents the interesting challenge of stealing bases, and that walks put him in a position to do so; but I would much prefer that than the one of having him smash extra base hits–like 54 HRs (see his XBH and TB totals)–with reckless abandon.). When they pitch to him, it’s often like watching a pinball wizard.
We’ll see if teams wake up in the postseason or if he is simply allowed to crush them all.
You have a great point here. I’m very happy for what Ohtani accomplished this year, that is not an easy thing to do, but you’re right. It’s almost as if they pitched to him on purpose just to see what happens.
You know the old adage: Don’t let the other team’s best player beat you.
Does anyone not know what happens when you pitch to Ohtani? Seriously? The other side of this equation should be pretty obvious and it isn’t necessarily who follows him in the order, it’s what happens if you pitch around him. Most likely he ends up on second base. Hey, maybe the explanation for that is they let him run just to see what happens.
The difference between the two is that guys like Freeman and Hernandez can still beat you if you make them. While if you can pitch around Judge and Soto, it’s more unlikely that guys like Torres or Volpe can beat you.
Maybe it’s all rigged. Why didn’t he have more intentional walks??? Must be because who is behind him in Betts and Freeman. Aaron Judge has Austin Wells batting behind him.
AL Central went a collective 43 wins with only 10 loses
That approximates to 10 wins over the worst with only 2.5 losses
Thus padding the numbers for the Central Division
They also went 4-0 in the wild card games
Best of 3 can be a crap shoot… you gat a team that’s hot takes a quick 2 and it’s over.. Or is able to line up with 2 hot starters…
If the Phillies beat the Mets are fans going to complain that it’s not fair, because they Phillies had that long layoff? I know stuff like this has been said in past seasons.
I’m a Mets fan, and I don’t see where there is a complaint there. Phillies won the division, Mets didn’t.
The Mets (and Braves) were at an unfair disadvantage in the WC round, but the Diamondbacks were the real victims there.
Diamondbacks weren’t a victim. Their owner’s rant over the Mets not playing hard in Game 2 of the Double header, but it was alright for the Padres to call in the Sunday game against them…
They were victims of their own sloppy play and tanking down the stretch.
Losing 2 of 3 to the Giants, 2 of 3 to the Padres, and the week before 2 of 3 to the Rockies…
Thank goodness Brewers out. 3rd or 4th place in other division’s. Never understood why they went to NL? Then Astros to AL? Wish they would swap back. Another note Pete Rose ban should be lifted! Compete joke. There is no telling what Mantle, Whitney Ford, Billy Martin were into!Never got publicized because they were toast of town in New York. Let the guy in for Christ sake.
harebrained ramblings
I’m a diehard Reds fan but Pete Rose deserves his punishment. He knew the rule and he broke it. Pete’s fans cared more about him getting in the Hall of Fame than Pete did. All Pete had to do was come clean about the gambling in 1989 when all of it started and there’s a chance he may have been reinstated but he continually lied about it. Pete loved the rush of playing baseball but unfortunately Pete loved the rush of gambling even more. As a kid, Pete Rose was what made me fall in love with baseball and this was Pete at the end of his career in 1985 and 1986 but I won’t give him a pass just because I’m a fan of what he did on the field.
For some reason I am unable to comment at the point in the thread where we were discussing Judge and Ohtani and why one gets walked and the other doesn’t.
The primary argument was that Ohtani was backed up by Betts and Freeman. Not to say that isn’t a significant factor, but for two months Betts was out, and Ohtani still got pitches to hit.
In the end, Ohtani had 80 more at bats than Judge. Here’s what did happen:
Hits: Judge 180, Ohtani 197
2B; Judge 36, Ohtani 38
HR: Judge 58, Ohtani 54
XBH: Judge 95, Ohtani 99
TB: Judge 392, Ohtani 411
If Judge had 80 more ABs:
Hits: 206
2B: 41
HR: 66
TB: 448
XBH: 109
And that’s with Verdugo and Wells behind him. Now, imagine what those numbers would be if he had had Betts and Freeman… Truly otherworldly,