Often, we make assumptions on a situation or person at work, home or in the sports world. It’s NOT ALWAYS WHAT YOU THINK…lets jump into the sports world..
….many have thought…like I did…that the MLB batting levels in 2020 was far below 2019 levels.
Here’s a table from this 2020 season by week for the first 4 weeks….yes, the batting was miserable for the first 2 weeks but check the numbers in week 4 (Aug 13-18)—compare it to 2019,2018, 2017 table!
July 23-29 AVG-.229 OBP-.312 SLG-.394                                                                                           July 30-Aug 5 AVG-.231 OBP-310 SLG-389
Aug 6-12 AVG-.251 OBP-.328 SLG-.437                                                                                                Aug 13-18 AVG-.252 OBP-327 SLG-.444
Compare it to the past few seasons—–
2019 AVG-.252 OBP-.324 SLG-.426                                                                                                        2018 AVG-.248 OPB-.318 SLG-.409
2017 AVG-.255 OBP-.323 SLG-.435
….So…it’s NOT WHAT I WOULD THINK, in the 4th week of this crazy 2020 season, the MLB batters were already almost identical to the batters of the past 3 years!
….the installation of the new extra inning rule (runner put on 2b to begin inning)was thought to be necessary so that teams didn’t get stuck in extremely long games and ruin their 25 man pitching staff(with all the pitchers in Springfield for immediate fly-up)…it really is about 25 pitchers…anyway… the MLB was concerned about overuse. So I thought there must be many games going far longer into extra innings. In the last 2 MLB seasons, just 43 games went more than 3 extra innings. This was a severe drop from 2016-17 when there were 345 games that went more than 3 extra innings. It’s NOT WOULD I would have thought the numbers would be to push us into this extreme rule change. According to stats, with this new rule change, a fan can expect a run to be scored in the 1st extra inning 61% of the time. Sooo…. now, BOTH teams have a strong chance of scoring!!
….Seeing Mike Matheny with his KC uniform on brought back many thoughts about his tenure as manager in the Lou. I thought he was dismissed over poor use of the pitching staff, especially the bullpen and poor base running. Well…it also turns out in 2018(Matheny’s last year), the Cards were DEAD-LAST in team fielding–#30. They had the most errors (133) in the league and the lowest fielding percentage! In 2019, the Cards went from the worst defensive team to the #1 team defensively in the MLB! They had the fewest errors-66 (exactly one half as many errors iin 2018!!) and the highest fielding percentage–.989. It’s not what I thought! Unfortunately, 2020 has seen the Cards fall back to #27 in the team defensive with 16 errors in 22 games.
…When the Cards obtained Paul Goldschmidt last year, I …along with most fans…thought he was a good player. Looking at his lifetime stats, assuming that he’d played his whole career with the Cards and kept these same numbers. Paul Goldschmidt would be #4 in HR, #11 in RBI, #18 in OBP, #13 in 2b in All-Time Cardinal records. He really is much better than I thought.
…in this era, I wouldn’t think that mgmt. & teammates would “come down hard” on covid violaters. Not so in Cleveland—it’s NOT what I would think…when 2 key pitchers Zach Plesac & Mike Clevinger broke the team rules by leaving the club’s hotel, the mgmt. AND the team were furious with the two of them for their lack of responsibility and the breach of trust given to professional athletes. They were immediately driven home. I thought that was the end of it….nope…Cleveland’s mgmt. is still upset . These 2 pitchers were sent into exile (Clev’s minor league roster) AND if these pitchers remain there for more than 20 days, Clevingers’ free agency & Plesac’s arbitration would be pushed back a full year! It’s NOT what I thought would happen. I’m wondering….would the Cardinals have reacted in the same way? The Cards have remained tight lipped about the start & spreading of the virus… makes me think that the player(s) responsible are veterans…maybe highly paid veterans. Go ahead.. you guess! MO said that he doesn’t want to play the “blame game”. Sounds weak to me!
…I think most of you would guess, like I did, that Alabama…far & away…has the most players drafted by the NFL & the most 1st rounders since the year 2000. It’s NOT WHAT I THOUGHT… the Ohio State Buckeyes have the most players drafted-141 and 31 1st rounders. Bama IS #2 with 127 players drafted, and the same number of 1st rounder-31 as OSU. The rest of the top 10 in most players drafted by the NFL are (3-10)..LSU, Miami, Florida, Georgia, USC, Florida St, Oklahoma, Michigan. Mizzou was ranked #47 and Illinois #48. You can’t win without the star athletes…no matter how good you can coach. Mizzou has to improve in recruiting….according to this info…schools like Louisville, Pittsburgh, Oregon State, Kansas State & Boston College put more players into the NFL than MU…. I surely didn’t think that was true!
…When I saw this 5 game stretch of the season—3 games v KC & a DH vs the Pirates, I thought that the Cards come make some hay! Instead we go 2-3 and chew up 5 games of the schedule. It’s NOT WHAT I thought it would be! However, the final 13 games of the season have the Cards playing the Pirates 5x, the Royals 3x and a struggling Milwaukee team 5x! That looks good to me.
…Last week it was brought to my attention that MLB games have an average length of 3 hr 5 min. Obviously, I would expect the 7 inning games to be shorter. In 2020 the 7 inning MLB games are averaging 2 hr 20 min! To look at it another way, the 9 inning games are taking 20.4 min/inning and the 7 inning games are at 20 minutes per inning! It’s NOT WHAT I thought it’d be! It seems to me that those shorter 7 inning games really fly by!!
… I thought that “THIS was the YEAR” for Cincinnati Reds. After 28 games, the Reds are absolutely LAST in batting with a .208 average and are stuck at 11-17, 4th place for the season. Even, long time star, Joey Votto appears to be swinging a 70 ounce bat….it’s really SLOW….he’s aged. The Reds have expected Mike Moustakas to be a powerful part of the lineup…he’d hit over 100 home runs in the last 3 years…but as of today, only 2 HR! Castillo has ‘ace’ stuff but can’t win games or go deep in games. They sure aren’t what I thought they’d be in 2020.
…the early, real early NCAA pre-season basketball polls are beginning to pop up. It wasn’t what You thought it would be… Duke, Kentucky, N. Carolina, Kansas aren’t found anywhere in the top 5! This poll had 1-Villanova; 2-Gonzaga; 3-Baylor; 4-Creighton; 5-Virginia!
…Last week, this weekly 2020 blog passed its entire 2019 total of readers (over 15,000!). Thanks to all of you…. And spread the word! New readers just have to send me their email address, or go to my facebook page(Bob Ryan) or my web site–bobryansportsblog.com web site.