Let’s take a look at “my favorites” to qualify for the 2023 Major League season. There are 12 who go to the postseason, since last year the wild card winners increased to 3 in each league.
We are going to make things easier, and we will start from what happened in 2022, precisely with those 12 qualifiers. As always, we must take into account surprises, which are rare, but from time to time someone sneaks in who had not been invited. He is the famous Paratrooper.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
EAST DIVISION: Last year the Yankees, Toronto and Tampa Bay qualified. The Yankees won 99 games and they did it easily.
Toronto won 92 games, has gotten a lot stronger and will have to sneak in again. And Tampa Bay always has a good club, although I think they would have to aim for 90 wins to go to the playoffs. His is not clear because clubs have improved. and Boston? Nobody knows.
CENTRAL DIVISION: The only classified last year was Cleveland with 92-70 as the rest of the group was far below. They are White Sox, Minnesota, Kansas City and Detroit. Can any of them reach 90 wins? It looks tough, but especially Minnesota and the White Sox have some improvement.
WEST DIVISION: The Houston Astros won 106 games and walked the league. In second place Seattle with 90-72, and the rest below; Oakland, Texas and Angels. Houston must repeat and see how the Angels and Texas, who have a lot of economic investment and many stars, can react. Can Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani revive the Angels?
NATIONAL LEAGUE
EAST DIVISION. Three qualified, Atlanta and Mets with 101 victories and Philadelphia with 87, but with a good second half. They will fight hard again and perhaps the one who will benefit the most will be the one who has fewer injuries to important players. Don’t expect much from the Marlins and Washington.
CENTRAL DIVISION: St. Louis was the only postseason attendee with a 93-69 mark. Cincinnati and Pirates each lost 100 games and could repeat. Milwaukee can improve on its 86-76 record in 2022.
WEST DIVISION: The Dodgers had 111 wins and San Diego ranked 89-73. The Padres are strong and can compete one on one. Not much is expected from Arizona, Giants and Colorado.
There are the 12, more or less the same as last year. Put them out there and we’ll check in October.
A RELAXATION: Yesterday, in a turn by Rafael Devers, he fouled and while he returned to receive the next pitch, more than 8 seconds passed. Result? Since he had two strikes and committed a time violation, the referee ruled him out… Really? Yes sir, crazy. I see well that they apply the 15 seconds to the pitcher between each delivery, but they can’t bother the batter that much. ?How is it possible? I think that in the short term they should eliminate that… Everyone now celebrates that, due to the clock, the games will not exceed 3 hours, but you have to give that measure time, to see what happens.
First: In his first at-bat, Aaron Judge hit his first home run of the season. He fired it off Logan Webb’s second pitch and then drove in a runoff single… Judge hit 62 homers with 131 RBIs en route to last year’s MVP. The Yankees won 5-0 with pitching in 6 innings, 3 hits and 11 strikeouts by Gerrit Cole… Rookie Anthony Volpe made his debut at shortstop, was walked in his first turn and missed twice. He also stole a base… Gleiber Torres also took it for the Yankees, although he didn’t do anything for Venezuela in the classic.
BAD OUTPUT: Sandy Alcántara had a bad first outing against the New York Mets… In 5.2 innings they gave him only 3 hits, 3 runs, but he walked 4 with 2 strikeouts. The Mets won 5-3 over the Marlins, Starling Marte went 2-for-4 and Max Scherzer pitched 6 innings of 4 hits, 3 runs, 2 bases and six strikeouts… It is reported that Justin Verlander is injured and will not be able to exhaust his first outing this weekend.
OF INTEREST. The Pirates beat Cincinnati 5 for 4 and Oneil Cruz hit his first home run. Oneil has a tremendous projection for 2023 after his first season, 2022, in which he had 17 Hrs and 57 trailers. Jacob DeGrom also had a rough day with Texas, which beat Philadelphia 11-7. deGrom pitched 3.2 innings of 6 hits, 5 runs. Adam Wainwright sang the United States national anthem at the St. Louis and Toronto game… How many Dominican players could do that with the Dominican anthem?