While ESPN rambles on about Tebow, Dwight Howard, and other
things…. They are overlooking the MLB season; which has
been one of the greatest seasons in recent memory. We saw so many incredible
feats that have not gone unnoticed, but have not been combined together to show why this
is the greatest season I have seen since I began following baseball closely.
Here’s a list of the things we saw that made 2012 the best
season in memory.
-We saw small market teams, Orioles and A’s, make the
playoffs over big budget teams such as the Angels and Red Sox.
-We saw that a one game wild card adds quite a bit of
drama to the season.
Offensively:
-We saw Miguel Cabrera won the first triple crown since Yaz
in ’76.
-We saw a 19 year old in Bryce Harper hit over 20
homeruns despite getting called up part
way through the season.
-We saw Mike Trout go from top prospect to top player after
his incredible 30/45 (HR/SB) season, which had never before been accomplished
by a rookie.
-We saw the end of two sure fire Hall of Fame careers: The
first being Chipper Jones. He’s going down as one of the switch hitters in
history and it is a shame his career had to end the way it did (Flygate as I’m
going to call it).
-The other HOF career is Omar Vizquel. Over 2,800 hits and a whole bookcase full on Gold Glove awards. One of my favorite players
growing up and a HOF worthy player.
-We saw the rise of the next group of superstars in Harper,
Trout, Manny Machado, Jurickson Profar, Andrelton Simmons, and Starling Marte
get called up from the minors to have impacts on their teams.
-We are going to see two great MVP races between Cabrera and
Trout in the AL and then betweem Andrew McCutchen, Buster Posey, and Ryan Braun (I think
David Wright could steal a vote or two as well) in the NL.
-Speaking of Posey, I was extremely happy to see him come
back fully healthy after the horrendous injury from last year. That’s not
because I had him on a bunch of fantasy teams either, it’s cause I like Posey
and he’s emerged as one of the top if not the top catcher in the game.
With all the offensive feats, this year could easily still
be called the year of the pitcher:
- We saw Fernando Rodney and Craig Kimbrel turned in two of
the most dominant seasons by closers in history; and the best years since Eric
Gagne won the Cy Young going 55 for 55 in saves.
-We saw one of the most dominant seasons ever by a
knuckleball pitcher with R.A. Dickey leading the NL in wins and strikeouts.
-Both Cy Young races will be close: Rodney, Jered Weaver, Justin
Verlander, and David Price in the AL while Dickey, Johnny Cueto, Clayton Kershaw, Gio Gonzalez, and Kimbrel fight it out in the NL.
-Rookie sensastion Yu Darvish had a rookie of the year type season if it wasn’t for Mike Trout. 15+ wins and 200 k’s in a first year is
great. If he cuts down on the walks he will approach superstar status.
-Kris Medlen turned in one of the most dominant streaks of
pitching the league has ever seen over July-September.
-There were also an incredible 3 no-hitters, 3 perfect
games, and 1 combined no-hitter. Absolutely insane.
All this and even more I have not mentioned makes this year
the best baseball season I’ve seen in my life.
I look forward to a just as exciting playoff season of the
greatest game on the planet.
