Baseball Playoffs

 With the 2023 MLB Playoffs in full swing, I find that I start getting a little interest in the games. I do not spend much effort watching the regular season, but I do like to see which teams are playing well at the end. As part of my interest, I start using my old Spring Training photos as backgrounds on my PC. The next photo showed up from a game from 2016. It was one of the last games of the spring with the home team of Washington Nationals playing host to the St Louis Cardinals. 

In the line ups, I recognized a few of the names from the current 2023 playoffs, and decided to do an analysis of the players and where are they now. There have been eight seasons played since this game.

Surprisingly, of the 18 players, 7 are still active in the Majors and 2 have remained active in the Minors. Nine of the 18 have since retired, and most of them had pretty good careers. This includes 10 of the players playing in an All-Star game (once or more), and 8 of the players being on a winning World Series team. 

This wide angle view of that Spring Training game back in 2016 shows current Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper batting for the Nats against Adam Wainwright, who played 19 years, all with the St. Louis Cardinals. Wainwright retired at the close of the 2023 season, where he had a one year contract worth $17.5 Million. He was on the 2006 World Series winning team, had three All-Star games, and even won the Roberto Clemente Award. I say that was quite the career.

Playoffs

Up to 1968, there was only a World Series. The team with the best record in the American League played the team with the best record in the National League. Simple. There were ten teams in each League. In 1969, two teams were added to each League, so they split each League into East and West Divisions with six teams each for a total of 24 teams. They added an East versus West series to find the American and National League winner, who then would play in the World Series. Two more teams were added in 1977 but they kept the same playoff format.

Then in 1993, they went to 28 teams and divided each League into three Divisions: East, Central, and West. They could not fairly have three team play for the Pennant so they added a fourth "Wildcard" team. Now four teams in each League played an initial series and then the winners would play for the Pennant. Those two winners would play in the World Series. Complicated, but MLB were not done.

They actually made it to 30 teams in 1998, and after some moving of teams both geographically and divisionally, in 2013 they evened it out to two Leagues (or Conferences) with three Divisions with five teams each. Well, in 2012 they made changes so the two best teams in the League would get byes, and the next four best teams would have a wildcard playoff. The winner of that series would play the top two teams and those winners would play for the Pennant, Again, the top American League team would play the top National league team in the World Series.

In 2023, as I write this, there are four teams playing. In the National League, the Phillies are playing the Diamondbacks. In the American League, the Astros are playing the Rangers. Now, back to my original photo.

This next photo has 3 of the eighteen players. On first base for the Nats is Ryan Zimmerman and at 2B is Daniel Murphy. The runner is Kolton Wong, who did play in the 2023 Wildcard with the LA Dodgers. He has 2 Gold Gloves and is from Hilo Hawaii, where my sister use to live.

Daniel Murphy left the Nats in 2018 and played his last Majors season in 2020. He officially retired in 2023. He did play in three All Star Games and was named MVP in the 2015 NLCS.

Ryan Zimmerman played his whole career with the Nationals and  retired in 2022. The Nats retired his #11, the first for the team.  A two time All Star, he won a World Series in 2019 and a Gold Glove in 2009 with the Nats. I saw him play a lot.

What is interesting about the next photo is that all three are still playing. Wilson Ramos, the catcher,  is now in the Minor Leagues, but he  played in the Majors for the Twins, Nats, Rays, Phillies, Mets, Tigers and Indians. He was a two time All-Star but some people remember him as the player that was kidnapped in 2011 in his home country of Venezuela.

The guy on 3B for the Nats is Anthony Rendon, who is currently playing with the LA Angels and is the 5th highest paid MLB player. He signed a 7 year deal for $245M. He has one All-Star appearance and won a World Series with the Nats in 2019.

But the guy on the mound, is Max Scherzer, who is currently playing in the ALCS with the Texas Rangers. He is the highest paid player in MLB, signing a 3 year contract for $130M or $43.333M per year. He won the World Series in 2019 with the Nats, but he has also won 3 Cy Young Awards, has 2 No hitters, and has pitched more than 3,367 Ks.

The next photo shows Tommy Pham. He is still playing and is a starter for the Diamondbacks which he joined during the season from the Mets. He signed a 1 year contract for $8M. 

I just wanted to have one more picture of Adam Wainwright to honor his great career with just one team. That is the way it was when I was a kid; before Free Agency.

I just wanted to have one more picture of Ryan Zimmerman to honor his great career with just one team. He played for the Nats in DC but he played college ball and before in Virginia. So he was always been near home....

Playing LF for the Nats was Jayson Werth, who retired in 2018, the year before the World Series win for the Nationals, but he did have a World Series win in 2008 with the Phillies. He played in the Majors for 16 years and made the All Star team once. He was a fun player to watch.

Playing SS for the Nationals, Trea Turner help the Nats win a World Series in 2019. He is currently helping the Phillies in the 2023 NLCS, who gave him a 11 year contract worth $300M. He has been a All-Star twice, NL batting champ in 2021, and NL Stolen Base Leader in 2018 and 2021.

Interestingly, he has hit for the cycle three times in his career so far, and did it once on his Birthday, a MLB first. FYI, a cycle is having a single, double, triple and HR in one game.

Playing RF for the Nats, Bryce Harper's story is similar to Turner, except he left for the Phillies in 2019 so he missed the World Series Win. He did make it to the Series last year and is trying again this year. He signed a 13 year contract with the Phillies worth $330M. He has been an All-Star 7 times and won the HR Derby in 2018.

The last Nats player is CF Michael A Taylor. He is still playing in the Majors for the Twins. He signed a 2 year contract for $9M. He was also on the World Series Champions in 2019 with the Nats. Here he has hit HR and is being congratulated by Anthony Rendon.

There are six Cards I have not mentioned, and all of them have retired. I should mention that Matt Adams went to the Nats and help them win the World Series in 2019. 

I hope you enjoyed the useless baseball data...