Fun Fact: Inter-league record isn't the most telling metric of success, but it is quasi balanced, and I think tells an interesting story.
Playoff "contenders":
Braves 29-14
Brewers 31-15
Dodgers 30-16
Padres 27-19
Phillies 26-20
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Guardians 24-22
Mets 24-22
Diamondbacks 24-22
Yankees 22-21
Royals 21-21
Astros 22-24
Tigers 22-24
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Orioles 20-26
Twins 18-27
First, the NL is so much better than the AL. And The Twins really aren't good. The got all their wins in the two worst division (54-31) and shat the bed against the far superior ALE and NL (28-45).
With Pablo's raise, it's now $74m on 3. So that leaves $60 million for 23 players now. Now we look at Willi Castro, Ryan Jeffers, and Chris Paddack raises ($17.5m) and we're down to about $40m for 20 players.
So before we're even considering the raises of our bullpen guys, we're looking at a max $18mil to spend in the bullpen if we're trying to stay in the $130-135 mil range.
As is, yeah. But because all of Duran, Jax, Stewart, Topa, and Alcala are due raises, we don't know if this front office will keep them all around. The bullpen, as is, is due $14 million.
That's not even mentioning Paddack who is due 7.5 mil.
The expansion of the playoffs has really muddied the waters on what it means to "warrant" a playoff spot. You could make a decent argument that the Minnesota Twins are the 18th best team in baseball.
I want to say again, because we all rightfully criticized Rocco for poor bullpen usage last week, he actually utilized it tonight in a way that showed some level of urgency.
No Margot leadoff or PH though. 2/10 /s
Since we all (rightfully) maligned Rocco for going to such terrible arms in Boston, he's actually approaching this game with some sense of urgency.
Too bad the seasons already over.
You're just looking at the narrow picture of this season. I think it's uncontroversial to say both of those teams are better positioned, better core group of players, going forward. Detroit might be dangerous for 3+ years.