Baines and Smith make all my unofficial HOF balloting official

Lee Smith HOF 2019

I was driving home from work on December  when I got floored by unexpected good news.  I was working an overnight weekend job for the holidays and turned my radio on while driving past all the mopes on their way to work. The national news was on and the last story was about the baseball Hall of Fame.  Harold Baines and Lee Smith were both selected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the modern era committee. 

Harold Baines HOF 2019

 This came as both a delight and surprise to me.  Since I began this blog in 2009 there has been no greater advocate to HOF consideration and inclusion for Baines and Smith than myself  Each year in these very pages I pretend I have a vote for the Hall.  Go back into the archives and each year you will see me eloquently persuade the inclusion of either gentleman into the Hall.

Harold Baines  began his career with the White Sox in 1980 and finished his career there as well in 2001.  He had 3 stints with them 1980 to 1989, 1996 and 1997 and then came back in 2000 and retired in 2001.  He also played for the Baltimore Orioles 3 separate times (1993-1995,1997-1998, &2000) In between He played for the Rangers , Athletics and Indians.  Baines was predominantly a right fielder in his first 7 years in the Majors.  From 1988 to 1992 he transitioned to designated hitter  playing some outfield. From 1993 on he was used exclusively as a DH with the exception of one game in right field for the Sox in 1997.

In 1980 while Baines was starting his HOF career on the south side of Chicago, Lee Smith began his HOF journey on the North side with the Cubs.  He played for the Cubs from 1980 to 1987 and then played for the Red Sox from 1988 to 1990, In 1990 he went to St. Louis and was there until mid 1993 when he finished the year with the Yankees. In 1994 He and Baines were teammates in Baltimore.  He finished his career with stints for the angels (1995-1996) Reds (1996) before finishing up with the Expos in 1997.  Smith was a reliever for the vast majority of his career finishing 802 games and earning 478 saves.

I have read several places that Baines and Smith belong in the Hall of Very Good and not the Hall of Fame.  This just does not hold up.  The truth is that they are both Hall of fame caliber in their positions of Designated Hitter and Relief Pitcher.   In baseball reference,com they rank players in similarity.  4 of the 5 players most similar to Baines, Tony Perez, Al Kaline,  Billy Williams & Andre Dawson are Hall of Famers.  Lee Smith best comps to Trevor Hoffman who made the HOF last year and Mariano Rivera, a lock to do so this year. 

Congratulations to both Baines and Smith I look forward to your future enshrinement.

If the playoffs started today. . .

The baseball season is somewhere between 1/3 and 1/4 finished.  My team (The White Sox ) are the worst team in the majors and for that reason and others I have not been paying a lot of attention to the season.  What I like to do from time to time is look at the current  regular season like it just ended for the year and extrapolate what would happen if the playoffs began today.

The current playoff format is this.  The  3 division champions are seeded (put in order) based on their record and the teams with the next best records would be the wild card teams.  The 2 wild card teams would play each other in a 1 game series then the wild card winner would play the # 1 seed in a 5 game format and the #2 and #3 teams would play each other.  The winners of the divisional series face off in a championship series which is best of 7 games.  these 3 series (wild card, divisional and League championship) take place simultaneously in the American and National leagues.  The winners of the NLCS and ALCS then match up in a best of 7 World Series.

If the playoffs were to start today, the records at the end of yesterday would determine the playoff pairing.

In the American League the seeding would be

1. New York Yankees East Division 31-13 .705
2.Houston Astros West Division 30-18 .625
3. Cleveland Indians Central Division 22-23 .489

Wild Card 1 Boston Red Sox 32-15 .681
Wild Card 2 Seattle Mariners 27-19 .587

A quick perusal of those records and you see that the Red Sox have the 2nd best record in the American league and yet they are only a wild card.  You may also see that the Res Sox and the Mariners' both have a much better record than the Indians yet the Indians are a better seed, There are actually 2 more teams (Angels and Athletics) who have a better record than the Indians and they are not even in the playoffs.  That is because none of those 4 teams play in the A.L. Central and the Indians are the best team currently in that division despite their losing record. As for the Red Sox they may have the 2nd best record in the AL but the team with the best record (The Yankees) is in the Eastern Division with them. 

If the playoffs were today The Yankees would host a 5 game series against thee winner of the wild card game between the Red Sox and The Mariners.  The winner of that series would then play in the league championship series against the winner of the Houston Astros and the Cleveland Indian series. 

In the National League the seeding stacks up like this ...

1. Atlanta Braves East Division 28-18 .609
2. Milwaukee Brewers Central Division 29-19 .604
3. Colorado Rockies West Division 26-22 .542

Wild Card 1 Philadelphia Phillies 27-18 .600
Wild Card 2 St. Louis Cardinals 26-19 .578

4 mores  teams the Cubs, Pirates, Mets and Nationals all have records better than the Rockies but if the playoffs began today they would not make it because none of them play in the N.L. West.

The Braves would hos the Phillies - Cardinals Wild Card winner and the winner there would play the Brewers Rockies winner with that winner heading to the World Series. 

From time to time I will come back here and tell you the playoff match ups if the Playoffs began today.