The MLB players who made baseball worth watching in the 2022 regular season
May they continue to be blessed with scandal-free lives
Tomorrow I’ll be posting some bashing-free running content in what feels like the first time in months, even though several sources close to the investigation insist it’s really been more like eleven days. Many of you are used to baseball-related posts here and seem to like them, so today I’ll light the kindling for what promises to be a very fleeting feel-good Back of the Pack fire.
The 162-game Major League Baseball regular season ended last night. From the standpoint of a stats goon, it was unremarkable, even banal. A collectively anemic MLB offense should have resulted in a numerically impressive pitchers’ campaign, but as the role of starting pitching has increasingly given ground to middle relievers, the numbers I got used to as a kid and younger adult have disappeared from the game in the same way hurlers starting 50 or 60 games a season did a hundred years ago. And stolen bases? They’re an afterthought.
But the gems were there, and they were displayed by deserving athletes.
Starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani went 15-9 with a 2.33 earned-run average for a Los Angeles Angels team that was 58-80 (.420) without him. Meanwhile, his efforts on the mound were buoyed by an Angels player who swatted 34 home runs and racked up 95 runs batted in. That player was also Shohei Ohtani.
No one, ever, was supposed to be able to do this at the Major League level. It has traditionally been a marvel if a pitcher could bat .250 in the limited appearances National League rules forced them to make. Now that the National League and the American League—slowly being bled into one unit, as evidenced by an increase in the number of interleague games—both have the designated-hitter rule, MLB pitchers being inked into the batting lineup is, in theory, part of a past era. There is no analog for him in track and field, not even this guy.
Ohtani’s overriding desire to excel in every aspect of the game has proven costly to his chassis, yet he’s remained healthy for a couple of seasons now. If you want to get a glimpse of monomaniacal focus on excellence—especially if you’re a runner—watch this Baseball Doesn’t Exist video.
Gaining more attention, especially over the last month, was New York Yankees center fielder Aaron Judge attempting to break the American League single-season home-run record—61, set 61 years ago in 1961 by fellow Yankee Roger Maris. The drama wasn’t what it could have been because the overall MLB record was broken twice in relatively short order within many if not most fans’ recent memory.
But it was enough to compel one of my best friends, a lifelong Yankees fan and therefore a scourge, to fly to Dallas for Tuesday’s doubleheader against the Texas Rangers in the hope of seeing history made.
He got his wish. How cool must this have been to have seen in person?The names Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa are all permanently derogated by—pick one or more—known steroid use, corked bats, being despised i the clubhouse, lying to Congress, lying to grand juries, having an enormous head, having an enormous ego, being seen with Jose Canseco, and other niceties likely to keep them out of the Baseball Hall of Fame despite their éclat at wielding the lumber.
What’s fascinating about Sosa is that despite being the only player to reach 60 home runs in a season three times, he not only never broke the MLB record, he never even led the league.Judge, though only 30 and with plenty of time ahead of him to establish himself as a shameful human being, seems like a delightful contrast. He plays for a team that most people despise, but Judge himself is extremely popular. He seems extremely gracious, maybe because he didn’t get his MLB start until he was 24. He is also 6’ 7” and 282 pounds, which means that if anyone who can connect with a pitched ball was built to hit home runs unaided, it’s him. (If Stanton, also with the Yankees, ever gets fully healthy, he and Judge could combine for 120 HR in the same season, though they would stop seeing hittable pitches. But Stanton is 6’ 61/2” himself, and these huge guys invariably have problems remaining uninjured.)
Also, Judge was unstoppable behind the plate, period, in 2022. He led the league in on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and on-base plus slugging (obviously), and was within five points of winning the elusive Triple Crown (leading the league in HR, RBI, and batting average).Sportswriters tasked with choosing the American League’s Most Valuable Player this season have a challenge in front of them. The same is true in the National League, where the St. Louis Cardinals’ Paul Goldschmidt—already on a likely Hall of Fame track a few years ago—had a career year at age 35 (.317, 35 HR, 115 RBI, .404 OBP) and also reached three big career milestones—300 HR, 1,000 runs scored, and 1,000 RBI—within a span of a few weeks this summer; and Freddie Freeman of MLB’s best team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, won a batting title to go with 117 runs scored and 100 RBI. At 33, Freeman also went over 1,000 career RBI and runs scored in 2022. Goldschmidt is low-key and kind of a goof, but highly regarded, and Freeman is almost supernaturally adored, even in his former playing base of Atlanta.
The Yankees, the Dodgers, and the Cardinals were among the twelve MLB teams to qualify for the playoffs, which start tomorrow, so you’ll perhaps see some of these characters in the same contests. They may have to contend with some cheating, and not just because the Houston Astros again won their division. But at least the skullduggery, tomfuckery, and hijinks are always being refined by new technology and the relentless ingenuity of the constitutive Machiavellian dirtbag that’s been baked into humanity since the species’ unfortunate inception.
Wait, did I just derail the whole theme in only two sentences? Entropy, man.
Ohtani and Judge are a breath of fresh air for baseball, as are my loveable Blue Jays. They'll hopefully get past the Mariners, but they have formidable pitchers to battle.
And speaking of Aaron Judge: Did you see the game in Toronto where Judge hit a home run and a fan caught the ball and ended up giving it to a young kid that was overcome with joy and appreciation? It was a treat. Judge also became aware of this fantastic moment and had to meet this young fan; the kid couldn't stop crying meeting his hero. Great feels all over.