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Local Fed said:
tl;dr answer - I think that's right, there's no way that anyone touches. It's right up there with records like Wayne Gretzky's all-time points record or Cal Ripken Jr.'s iron man streak.

When you consider that Nolan Ryan ended with 5714 strikeouts over parts of 27 seasons and pitched until he was 46, there are just way too many things that would need to go right for someone looking to top it. The only way that someone I think could do it is if:

- they came up as a phenom around Opening Day as a 20 year old
- pitched 20 seasons with a virtual clean bill of health :optimistic: and elite performance
- averaged just a little over 285 strikeouts per season
- ideally plays their whole career in the NL and pray that they never adopt the DH
- play for a team who will let them stay late into games and don't treat analytic data as the Bible
- pray that they don't reduce the season at all which might cost the pitcher a start per year
- "ideally" play for teams who rarely go to the playoffs or don't go deep (Ryan only pitched 58.2 playoff innings; Scherzer for instance will likely already double that mark this October)

I think that 3000 will remain the vanity goal from here on out with perhaps a true phenom shooting for 4000. Of the three pitchers who've reached that latter number, all pitched parts of at least 22 seasons or more, and three of the four made their debut before reaching their 22nd birthday (the exception being Randy Johnson who made his five days after turning 25.)

Scherzer by the way is now just 10 strikeouts away from tying the injured Justin Verlander for #18 on the all-time list. The others to watch in the next few seasons are soon to be 38 year-old Zack Greinke (2799) and Clayton Kershaw (2663) who will be 34 before Spring Training next year. After that, it's basically a 32 year-old Chris Sale sitting at 2037 (currently tied with David Price who won't do it) so even that is a bit of a stretch, but not totally impossible either.
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No one will reach 300 wins again either. The Hall of Fame will soon become the hall of very good.
 
Wins are one of those stats that is overrated a bit for sure. While there is certainly some weight behind it (it generally correlates with a pitcher who is good for a long time, healthy, is giving 5+ innings per start, etc.,) it's not totally indicative of a pitcher's quality.

Take someone like Jacob deGrom for instance. It's crazy to think that his career record is only 77-53 (.593 winning percentage.) While it's a very good winning percentage, for anyone who even somewhat follows baseball you know that he has deserved a much better fate. His back-to-back Cy Young seasons saw him have records of 10-9 (where he led all of baseball in ERA) and 11-8, respectively. Can't really blame him for his team tending not to do anything on offense when it was his day to start, especially considering that as far as pitchers go he's not a guaranteed out when he has to go to bat to try to help his own offense.

Another example of wins not being everything is when Felix Hernandez won the AL Cy Young in 2010. He had a record of 13-12 (.520 winning percentage,) but led all of baseball in ERA (2.27,) and led the AL in starts (34) and innings pitched (249.2.) Not much more that he could do on a Mariners team which lost 101 games and only had a single every day player (a 36 year old Ichiro) with a league average or better OPS+.

Much like Ryan's strikeout record the game has changed a lot in how it's played. A guy going forward who can reach 200 wins I think shouldn't be looked down on really.
 
Local Fed said:
Max Scherzer just punched out Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer and recorded his 6th strikeout of the day. More importantly, it's the 3000th of his career Hall of Fame career. He's now just the 19th pitcher to record 3000 of more strikeouts. He also happens to be perfect through 5 innings today.
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I'm old enough to remember when he looked like a bust with the Diamondbacks.
 
These cardinals games are getting too close. First theres the 11 inning fiasco against the Mets, and now they win the game against the Padres 3-2 despite being down 2-0 for almost the entire game. Here’s hoping that devil’s magic keeps going.
 
Salvador Perez of the Royals hit his 46th homer of the season. By doing so he broke Johnny Bench's single season record for home runs by a catcher.

In some other interesting news from the AL Central and a name that may ring a bell with a few people, the Indians are selecting the contract of lefty reliever Anthony Gose. As a reliever he's been hitting 100mph with his fastball, but has also allowed a ton of walks. It'll be his first time being in the Majors since 2016 when he was an outfielder with Detroit. He was a second round pick by the Phillies back in 2008 and then was flipped with J.A. Happ and Jonathan Villar to Houston at the 2010 trade deadline for Roy Oswalt; within hours he was then sent to Toronto where he'd eventually make his MLB debut in 2014. He was later traded to Detroit (where he transitioned to pitching full time in 2017) and then spent time in the minors with Texas and Houston. He's been with Cleveland since 2018 and was part of Team USA at the most recent Olympics.
 
My White Sox become the first team in baseball to clinch their division with a 7-2 win over the Indians. Though the division was never really in doubt since mid-June, and the Sox have been playing to get healthy for the playoffs since the end of August, this division title marks the first time in the long history of the franchise that they have made the postseason in back-to-back seasons. Granted, last season with the goofy playoff format and shortened season was hard to call a real season, but it still counts.
 
Here Comes Mongo said:
My White Sox become the first team in baseball to clinch their division... this division title marks the first time in the long history of the franchise that they have made the postseason in back-to-back seasons.
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I looked that up because I thought that you had to be crazy, but you're right. First time for a franchise that's been around since 1901.

To compare: the Diamondbacks who've been around since 1998 made back-to-back playoff appearances in 2001/2002, winning the World Series in the first of those two seasons. The Rays, who entered the league with Arizona, made it in 2010 and 2011, and are now going back-to back-to-back through 2019 to 2021, winning the East in the last two (this season isn't official yet, but it's inevitable) of those seasons. The Rockies who've been around since 1993 were a Wild Card team in both 2017 and 2018.

Of the four most recent teams to have joined the league only Miami hasn't made back-to-back playoff appearances. They did, however, win two championships in their 5th, and 11th seasons of play.
 
Local Fed said:
I looked that up because I thought that you had to be crazy, but you're right. First time for a franchise that's been around since 1901.
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Sadly, you are correct. In recent times, the Sox made the playoffs in 1993 and were well in contention for a spot in 1994, but then the strike happened, and Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf was a big part of the strike. Then after the Sox won the World Series in 2005, the Sox won 90 games in 2006, but they ended up missing the postseason that year because the Minnesota Twins and the Detroit Tigers both won more games that season, and at the time there was only one wild card spot (which went to the Tigers). Hilariously, the 2006 World Series was won by the 83-win St. Louis Cardinals, who won less games than the Sox that year but had the fortune of playing in a garbage NL Central that year where 83 wins was enough to win the division. No shade here, all that matters is getting there and then who knows what could happen.

Local Fed said:
To compare: the Diamondbacks who've been around since 1998 made back-to-back playoff appearances in 2001/2002, winning the World Series in the first of those two seasons. The Rays, who entered the league with Arizona, made it in 2010 and 2011, and are now going back-to back-to-back through 2019 to 2021, winning the East in the last two (this season isn't official yet, but it's inevitable) of those seasons. The Rockies who've been around since 1993 were a Wild Card team in both 2017 and 2018.

Of the four most recent teams to have joined the league only Miami hasn't made back-to-back playoff appearances. They did, however, win two championships in their 5th, and 11th seasons of play.
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Also, the Florida (now Miami) Marlins have the distinction of winning two World Series without having a single NL East title to their name. Last (and first) time they made the playoffs and didn't win it all was, in fact, last season, and they still knocked off the NL Central champion Cubs (bringing up painful memories of that 2003 NLCS) before they got knocked off by the NL East champion Atlanta Braves in the "NLDS" round.
 
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Here Comes Mongo said:
My White Sox become the first team in baseball to clinch their division with a 7-2 win over the Indians. Though the division was never really in doubt since mid-June, and the Sox have been playing to get healthy for the playoffs since the end of August, this division title marks the first time in the long history of the franchise that they have made the postseason in back-to-back seasons. Granted, last season with the goofy playoff format and shortened season was hard to call a real season, but it still counts.
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Congratulations on winning the shittiest division in baseball besides the NL East! Get ready to get curb-stomped in the ALDS by the Stros since you guys suck on the road and against decent teams.

I'll lower the "typical jackass Astros fan" mask for a minute and mention that I lucked into a seat for game four of the 2005 World Series and actually watched the White Sox win a title. That is bar none my most memorable live sports moment and my team lost lol. Minnie Minoso was in the section next to mine and they honored him before the game. Shit was like 15 years ago so everything else is pretty hazy.

Mask back on. Get ready to get FRAMBERED. Honestly, Dusty is going to find away to fuck this series up. Starters should be McCullers, Framber, Greinke, and Garcia if needed. He's probably going to roll Greinke, Odorizzi, Framber or some shit like that and use McCullers and Garcia in the pen.

He had Michael Brantley hitting in the seven hole last night. You do not put the Professional Hitter, who's second in the AL in hitting, seventh in the batting order. I really like Dusty Baker as a person and he's an absolute MLB legend, but his managerial decisions drive me nuts.
 
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Cliff Booth said:
Congratulations on winning the shittiest division in baseball besides the NL East! Get ready to get curb-stomped in the ALDS by the Stros since you guys suck on the road and against decent teams.

I'll lower the "typical jackass Astros fan" mask for a minute and mention that I lucked into a seat for game four of the 2005 World Series and actually watched the White Sox win a title. That is bar none my most memorable live sports moment and my team lost lol. Minnie Minoso was in the section next to mine and they honored him before the game. Shit was like 15 years ago so everything else is pretty hazy.

Mask back on. Get ready to get FRAMBERED. Honestly, Dusty is going to find away to fuck this series up. Starters should be McCullers, Framber, Greinke, and Garcia if needed. He's probably going to roll Greinke, Odorizzi, Framber or some shit like that and use McCullers and Garcia in the pen.

He had Michael Brantley hitting in the seven hole last night. You do not put the Professional Hitter, who's second in the AL in hitting, seventh in the batting order. I really like Dusty Baker as a person and he's an absolute MLB legend, but his managerial decisions drive me nuts.
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I want to be all meatball and be like “fuck yourself and die faggot” but you’re not wrong. You guys did take us behind the woodshed and beat us like your trash can when the Sox went to Houston for that 4 gamer. As far as the weak division goes, the Sox can’t control how shitty their division is.

But the beauty of the playoffs is everyone starts 0-0, regular season doesn’t mean shit once October begins. Also, you’ll be playing us at full strength this time around so that could make a big difference.

My prediction for the rotation is either Lynn or Giolito for game 1, the one who didn’t start for game 2, and Cease for game 3. If it goes that far, it’ll probably be Rodon and the game 1 starter. Keuchel will be in the bullpen as will Lopez for long relief or emergency starting (God forbid).

In all seriousness, that is awesome that you got to see Game 4 in person, I would have sold my soul to be at that game. I remember Game 4 they had a thing where MLB honored Latino Legends, so that’s why Minnie was there. But I ended up having to settle for watching at my college dorm room, and I still remember that night like it was yesterday.

Looking forward to this series, I hope it’s a good one. That said, jump in front of your stupid train at your stupid ballpark :feels:
 
We are heading into the final day of the regular season, and there are still some very important games to be played tomorrow.

The White Sox had a comeback win for their sixth straight, but Houston winning their game against the A's means the Astros clinched the 2 seed and home field advantage against the White Sox for their ALDS matchup.

Toronto, Seattle and Boston won, while New York lost, meaning the AL Wild Card is still up in the air. Both New York and Boston are 91-70, while Toronto and Seattle are 90-71, and if Seattle and Toronto win while Boston and New York lose tomorrow, there will be a glorious 4-team clusterfuck for the Wild Card.

Upon further research, in the event that that happens, the four teams will choose a slot between A & D, with the format being B @ A and D @ C, with the winners going to the actual Wild Card game.. The order is determined by each team's winning percentage against each other, so in this case the order would be Boston, Toronto, New York, and Seattle. Boston and Toronto would choose A and C respectively for the home field advantage, New York gets to choose which team they get to visit, with Seattle visiting the team that New York didn't choose.

The Giants lost while the Dodgers won, which if the results repeat themselves tomorrow, there will be a Game 163 between the two teams to decide the NL West crown, with the loser hosting the white hot Cardinals in the NL Wild Card game.

Current playoff scenarios as of 10/2:

AL Wild Card: New York @ Boston
ALDS: WC winner @ Tampa Bay*, Chicago @ Houston*

NL Wild Card: St. Louis @ LA Dodgers
NLDS: WC winner @ San Francisco, Atlanta @ Milwaukee*

* - series is set in stone
 
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It's hilarious the Yankees drug this all the way to the last day for a final choke.
 
And the playoffs are set, no funky tiebreakers or extra games needed.

Toronto won their game to make things interesting, but both the Yankees and Red Sox won as well, so the AL Wild Card game will be Yankees/Red Sox at Fenway.

San Francisco won to clinch the NL West title, so the Dodgers will host the Cardinals in the NL Wild Card.

Final Playoff Picture:

AL Wild Card: New York @ Boston
ALDS: WC winner @ Tampa Bay, Chicago @ Houston

NL Wild Card: St. Louis @ LA Dodgers
NLDS: WC winner @ San Francisco, Atlanta @ Milwaukee
 
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Here’s the picture of the bracket. I’m hoping for a cards victory myself, but also I some good baseball either result.
 
Team with the top 10 picks in next year's draft looks like this with last year's 1st round pick position in parenthesis for each team:
  1. Baltimore (5)
  2. Arizona (6)
  3. Texas (2)
  4. Pittsburgh (1)
  5. Washington (11)
  6. Miami (16)
  7. Cubs (21)
  8. Minnesota (26)
  9. Kansas City (7)
  10. Colorado (8.)
Baltimore already holds the #1 (catcher, Adley Rutschman) and #8 (pitcher, Grayson Rodriguez) prospects in the sport by mlb.com's most recent rankings. Baltimore and Arizona actually had identical records in 2020 and 2021, but get to select first overall due to having a worse record than Arizona in 2019. Of any non-playoff teams, the Blue Jays will get the worst pick; they'll draft at #23.
 
Not sure if anyone saw this yesterday, but long time umpire Joe West announced that he'll be retiring at the conclusion of the playoffs. He's been an MLB umpire since 1976 and holds the record for the most games umpired.
 
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