[PARAM]

As I sit down here on the west coast of Florida, the place is buzzing with the soon to begin spring training. The local channels are touting their MLB team and reminding people to come out and see them play. So I wondered what the 2020 baseball season would bring us.

We have the Asstros and their cheating scandal which had tentacles that reached from Houston to Boston to NYC. We have Ryan Braun announcing this may be his last season. We have the Washington Nationals, who finally got over the hump and won something. And we have the Evil Empire Yankees, who signed perhaps the most coveted free agent since.....Bryce Harper and Manny Machado last year.

Everyone's favorite this year is the NY Yankees (and that makes me happy being a lifetime NYY fan). The Red Sox, for better or worse, are usually in the running. Houston should be in the running again despite the cheating scandal. Oakland is young and talented despite being severely underpaid. The Minnesota Twins really improved but they have a huge hurdle to get over, should they make the postseason. Could this be the year they beat the Yankees in postseason play? They've been to the postseason 8 times in the last 25 years and been eliminated by the Yankees the five times they faced each other. Tampa Bay should be good once again, in spite of being underpaid like the A's. And then we have the dark horses like Cleveland, who dropped off a bit last year and the Angels, who lost out on the Gerrit Cole sweepstakes but signed Anthony Rendon

In the National League we have the Nationals, and being defending Champs have to figure in anybody's list of potential teams to beat. The Dodgers and Cardinals are always contenders as well as the Cubs. Atlanta came back to relevance last year but Philadelphia really improved with Girardi (I know DieterBrock will call me on this), Didi Gregorius (for his talent and leadership qualities) and Zack Wheeler. Last but not least, watch out for the Mets and my dark horse contender in the NL is the Cincinnati Reds. The Brewers should be good too.

What's funny is, MLB is almost...and I said "almost"....getting like the NFL where every team except for the Cleveland Browns and NY Jets has the potential to get to the postseason. Much like the universe, MLB seems to be constantly expanding. I remember growing up when the only thing you could hope for was your team won the pennant. It almost made the World Series anticlimactic. Again, I said "almost".

Then in 1969 (one year before the NFL expanded), MLB introduced division play and where we had, at the most, a whopping 7 postseason games to watch, suddenly became a possible 17. Then in 1985 they changed the LCS to a 7 game format giving us 21 games (possible). In 1995 they introduced the LDS, 5 game series and the possibilities were 41 games, almost double the 1993 total. IMHO, that strike year of 1981 when they screwed the Montreal Expos and had a special LDS round prior to the LCS, showed them the possibilities of expanded postseason play. Finally in 2012, because they wanted the division title to mean more, they introduced the wild card 1-off to prevent teams from coasting once the division title seemed out of reach. That brought the potential total of postseason games to 43. Talk about overkill....but they making money and we all seem to like the extra games don't we? Now if they could figure out a way to start the postseason in mid September, we wouldn't need earmuffs, parkas and some hard stuff in a flask to attend playoff games.

Anyhow while non Yankee fans have complained over the years about the Yankees "buying the pennant" (and I expect those complaints to ring loudly this year) we have teams like the MIami / Florida Marlins who actually did buy 2 World Series titles. They've been to the postseason a grand total of 2 times and won it all both times. There are teams who won it despite not appearing annually like the Diamondbacks of Johnson and Schilling (which may qualify as a "bought the Championship") and the Los Angeles Angels. Arizona has been to the PS 6 times the last 25 years and the Angels 7 times.

But there are also some pleasant ironies the last 25 years. The Atlanta Braves, everyone's team of the 90's have 1 Championship to show for 16 postseason appearances, second only to the Yankees 21. The Cubbies (8 appearances in the tourney) finally got the monkey off their back (a little too late for Moises Alou) and Boston, forever razzed with the chant "1918" broke out in epic fashion in 2004 and have won 4 in the last 15 years (13 appearances since 1994, #4). But alas, as I said earlier, the Asstros Scandal encompassed the Red Sox too. And what are they thinking, trying to trade Mookie Betts? That would be like the Yankees trying to trade Aaron Judge or the Angels trying to trade Mike Trout. Well Trout is in a class by himself but you get my point. Perhaps the greatest irony of all is something we learned after the fact, when the Nationals beat those cheating Asstros last year.

Anyhow here's a list of teams with their number of postseason appearances the last 25 years and their (World Series titles). Lord knows there have been some inspiring performances and some major disappointments.

NY Yankees; 21 (5)
Atlanta; 16 (1)
St. Louis; 14 (2)
Boston; 13 (4)
LA Dodgers; 12 (0)
Cleveland; 11 (0)
perhaps we should hope for a 1959 rematch?
Oakland; 10 (0)
Houston; 10....6 in the NL, 4 in the AL (1)
San Fran; 8 (3)
Chi. Cubs; 8 (1)
Minnesota; 8 (0)
Texas; 8 (0)
Angels; 7 (1)
Arizona; 6 (1)
Philadelphia; 5 (1)
Baltimore; 5 (0)
Detroit; 5 (0)
Colorado; 5 (0)
San Diego; 5 (0)
Washington; 4 (1)
NY Mets; 4 (0)
Cincinnati; 4 (0)
Milwaukee; 4 (0)
Seattle; 4 (0)
Tampa Bay; 4 (0)
Pittsburgh; 3 (0)....(I miss the "We are Family" Pirates of the late 70's)
Florida; 2 (2)
Chicago White Sox; 2 (1)
Kansas City; 2 (1)
Toronto; 2 (0)

Amazing after winning it back to back prior to the strike in 1994, Toronto has only made the postseason twice. The White Sox, Royals and Marlins (as well as the Giants) have made the most of their opportunities.

So which team will you be rooting to win, break a slump or return to dominance?