Kuzul

October can’t come any sooner for fans of the New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, Minnesota Twins, and Texas Rangers. The American League has little to no excitement on the postseason hunt in September with teams like the Red Sox and White Sox playing for any realistic hope that just isn’t there to be had. 

Major League Baseball is in a difficult spot when it comes down to September every year. The National Football League opens play in September and if a team such as the Red Sox or White Sox is out of the hunt you pretty much forget baseball to focus on your Patriots or Bears. 

Personally to play 162 games in the regular season and only have four teams from each league pass through to the next round of the season makes it impossible for teams to end playoff droughts. Teams like the Washington Nationals or Kansas City Royals will never make it to the playoffs in this system. Not with the wealthier teams dominating in their divisions with no space for them to make any ground up. 

Now with Major League Baseball taking the initiative to end the postseason before Halloween, any such fix to the playoffs would have to be relatively short. So what can be done to fix up a leaking faucet of a playoff system? MLB could start by adding a pair of teams into the mix giving 6 teams a shot at the playoffs from each league. 

American League/National League

Team #1 (Best Record); Bye                                                 Team #1 (Best Record); Bye

Team #2 (Second Best Record); Bye                                     Team #2 (Second Best Record); Bye

Team #3 (Winner advances to LDS)                                       Team #3 (Winner advances to LDS)

Team #4 (Loser goes home)                                                  Team #4 (Loser goes home)

Team #5 (Winner advances to LDS)                                       Team #5 (Winner advances to LDS)

Team #6 (Loser goes home)                                                  Team #6 (Loser goes home) 

Italics: Teams play in Wild Card Series (best-of-three) 

Essentially you would have your usual three division winners and now three wild card winners instead of a solo wild card team from each league. The top two teams from each league, if you were translating to this season, Rays and Yankees in the American League and let’s say Phillies and Reds in the National League would get a “bye” for the first round of the playoffs. 

This extra rest adds incentive to play well in the regular season and finish with a better record. This can be seen as one reason teams rarely reach 100 wins in a season mainly because the All-Star game awarding home-field advantage to the winner. Teams usually rest their players down the stretch once they clinch a spot and that’s what eliminates the triple-digit wins from the standings. 

Beyond the top two teams from each league, you have a pair of “Wild Card Series” games in each league. In order to keep the postseason within the month of October, the “Wild Card Series” should only be a best-of-three format. After it’s said and done, the best team from both leagues faces the lowest seeded team (team with lowest record) and vice-versa with the other two teams in both leagues.

In other words, the postseason would revert back to its original format with the LDS (League Division Series) in a best-of-five and a LCS (League Championship Series) in a best-of-seven. The World Series would be the grand finale to a baseball season in its usual best-of-seven format. 

In using this formula for the National League we would see the likes of the Braves, Reds, Padres, Phillies, Rockies, and Giants all in the playoffs this season. Now this would certainly take away from the luster of making it into the playoffs but it would make for an exciting run to see who can avoid the “Wild Card Series” and have a bye to start off instead. Additionally, more teams would be involved in the playoff mix such as the Cardinals or Marlins although both are further back than the rest of the pack this season. 

In the American League, in addition to the Red Sox and White Sox, a team like the Blue Jays or Athletics could be in the mix. They’re records may not be approximate to Boston and Chicago but it would be better if they knew there were more spots up for grabs. 

The reality is that September is seen a trial period for the grand majority of Major League teams. Rosters expand to 40 players and you have an array of players make their debut or essentially try out for a spot next season. It takes away from having teams go all out at the end versus just laying low and parking your season in. Baseball needs more markets involved while it tries to stay afloat against the National Football League in its final weeks. Having six teams in each league make it to the postseason would give more teams hope they can be in the Fall Classic. Since the league doesn’t have a salary cap it makes it hard for low market franchises to ever dream about October, yes, Pirates, Royals, and Nationals I’m talking to you and I hope Major League Baseball is listening too. 

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Ever since I first seriously considered the concept, I have taken home/road splits seriously. If you are a Boston Red Sox fan, don’t talk to me about Jim Rice or Wade Boggs. Are you are a Chicago Cubs fan? Well, you probably don’t want to hear what I have to say about Ron Santo and Billy Williams. And if you want to hear good things about Sandy Koufax, I suggest you look somewhere else.

But if you are a fan of Carlos Gonzalez, you may just want to stop reading right here. Good news, though, Mike Stanton fans, you’re gonna love every minute of this.

Indeed, it has often been suggested that I take home/road splits a little bit too seriously. Maybe.

The most common refrain I hear from my critics is “Hey, you know that home games count too, right?”

My feeling about home/road splits, though, is that home ballparks are an impediment to truth. When we’re comparing players, we don’t want to know which players put up better numbers; we want to know who the better player actually was.

Thus, if I tell you that in 1995 Dante Bichette had 40 home runs and Mike Piazza had 32 home runs, you might conclude that Bichette was the better player.

But what if I told you Bichette hit 31 of his 40 home runs at home in 1995, leaving only nine for the road, while Piazza actually hit 23 of his 32 home runs on the road, leaving only nine at home.

It should be clear to you that Bichette wasn’t a good home run hitter, but rather that Coors Field was a good home run ballpark, and that Piazza was a way better home run hitter playing in an oppressive ballpark.

Now, consider this: if before the 1995 season the Dodgers and Rockies had traded Bichette and Piazza for one another, straight up, then logic dictates that Piazza would have hit approximately 54 home runs while Bichette would have hit 18 dongs.

Or something like that.

Which brings me to Carlos Gonzalez and Mike Stanton.

Gonzalez, of course, plays for the Rockies and is on his way to a National League batting title as well as league-leading totals in hits, slugging percentage, and total bases. Stanton, on the other hand, plays for the Florida Marlins and is having an up-and-down season, with 20 home runs and 20 doubles in 82 games, but also a meager .251 batting average, 100 strikeouts and only 28 walks.

To give you an idea of how those numbers look up against each other, have a look:

Now, obviously if this were the end of the story, I wouldn’t have written this article.

There is more. A lot more.

Gonzalez is, of course, a Colorado Rocky, and humidor or not, we have to be skeptical of his numbers. Sure enough, his home/road splits do not paint a pretty picture:

Home runs: 25 at home, seven on the road.

RBI: 67 at home, 34 on the road.

AVG: .385 at home, .288 on the road

OPS: 1.198 at home, .760 on the road.

Suffice to say, if Gonzalez were playing on a different team, in a different home ballpark, he’d be having a considerably different season.

Meanwhile, quite the opposite effect has happened with Mike Stanton, as being victimized by Sun Life Stadium (or whatever they’re calling it these days) has made him the Anti-CarGo:

Home runs: six at home, 14 on the road.

RBI: 16 at home, 33 on the road.

AVG: .172 at home, .305 on the road.

OPS: .586 at home, 1.024 on the road.

Now, to be sure, Stanton is going to need to figure out how to hit in Florida; a .172 batting average with a .586 OPS would be unacceptable even if he were playing his home games at Solder Field.

Nevertheless, look at what a beast he is away from Miami; in other words, look at what a beast he would be if he didn’t have to play his home games at Sun Life Stadium.

And, just for a purely rhetorical, academic exercise, let’s see how Stanton and Gonzalez’s road numbers alone match up with one another:

This is real folks, this is not a drill.

This is happening.

So, tell me: if you were starting from scratch and you were going to build a team that was going to play in, say, Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas, which of these players would you take?

I would take Mike Stanton in a heartbeat, and frankly I think he is the better player.

But I may just be taking this all too seriously.

Asher B. Chancey lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is a co-founder of BaseballEvolution.com.

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One of the reasons, if not the reason, I got into baseball writing was to challenge conventional wisdom. Challenging conventional wisdom is what we learned from Bill James and from Billy Beane, and it is the reason we tend to speak unfavorably of Joe Morgan.

Since moving to Philadelphia, one bit of local conventional wisdom I have been quick to challenge has been the notion that Ryan Howard is one of the greatest run producers of all time. This hasn’t made me incredibly popular amongst my local readers and fellow writers (Jamie Ambler?), but it is a notion to which I have never warmed.

Are You Saying Ryan Howard isn’t a Good RBI Guy?

There can be no doubt in that during the last five baseball seasons, Ryan Howard has established himself as one of the premier RBI men in Major League Baseball. Howard has led the National League in RBI in three of the last four seasons and the only reason he didn’t lead the league in 2007 was because Matt Holliday won the RBI crown in a season-ending tiebreaker game with San Diego.

(By the way, counting one-game playoffs to be regular season games: There’s a rule worth revisiting.)

How unique is Howard’s performance over this period? Consider the following:

Since the advent of the American League in 1901, only six players in Major League Baseball have led their league in RBI’s three years in a row: Ty Cobb (1907-1909), Babe Ruth (1919-1921), Rogers Hornsby (1920-1922), Joe Medwick (1936-1938), George Foster (1976-1978), and Cecil Fielder (1990-1992).

If not for the Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres finishing the 2007 season tied for second place in the NL West, Howard would have become the first player since 1901 to lead his league four years in a row; consider also that Howard only played 144 games in 2007, and you have to say “wow.”

So How Can You Say He Isn’t a Great Run Producer?

Nevertheless, given the potency of the Philadelphia Phillies lineup over that period and the general discrediting of the RBI as an indicator of value, however, I have been quick to discredit any sort of significance that has been placed upon Howard and his RBI totals.

After all, from a statistical perspective, Howard is not the best hitter in the National League; indeed, he is not really even the best hitting first baseman in the NL, and he may not even be in the top five.

And so my theory went thus: If you were to plug Albert Pujols or Adrian Gonzalez into the Phillies‘ lineup, not only would they easily lead the NL in RBI, but they may even set the National League record for RBI in a season.

This is not an unsupportable conclusion to reach, for Howard’s RBI have not been a one man show.

In 2006, when Howard first led the NL in runs driven in, Chase Utley led the league in runs with 132, and Jimmy Rollins didn’t finish too far behind with 127.

In 2007, Howard did not lead the NL but finished with an astounding 136 ribs nonetheless, and that season, J-Roll led the NL in runs scored with 139 while Utley and Aaron Rowand each scored over 100 runs.

In 2008, when Howard once again led the NL, the Phils had three guys score 100 runs, and when he did it again in 2009, they had four guys score 100 runs.

Doesn’t it seem like Pujols, Gonzalez, or any other elite hitter would be able to easily pace the National League in this category if they had the luxury of hitting behind Rollins, Utley, and company?

Good Point. Maybe Ryan Howard Isn’t Actually a Great Run Producer.

But then a funny thing happened: the 2010 season came along and challenged everything we know to be true.

Remember when we used to think that the Phillies had an “American League-style” offense? Not any more we don’t. We have become a team that plays a ton of one-run nail-biters.

Remember when we used to think that the Phillies were the type of team that won games with an elite offense in spite of their pitching? In 2010, our pitching has become our strong suit, and it is our offense that makes us want to look away.

As an aside, this is no reason for panic and no knock on this team. In fact, I believe that an argument could be that the 2010 team, with a simply dominant front three of Halladay, Hamels, and Oswalt, is more well-equipped to win the playoffs than either the 2008 team or the 2009 team. But I digress.

Where was I? Right. The 2010 Phillies offense has been terrible.

And it isn’t really their fault; The 2010 Phillies have suffered injuries to every major offensive contributor other than Jayson Werth, who himself has had mysterious issues at the plate. If this team had been healthy, who knows what we would have looked like on offense.

Which brings me back to Ryan Howard, and my point.

Finally.

Hitting behind scrubs and subs this season, with an incredibly inconsistent and unspectacular lineup, and himself having suffered injuries and hitting slumps, Howard has nevertheless collected 95 RBI this season.

Which, somehow, puts him fourth in the National League and only five RBI behind league leader Carlos Gonzalez of the Colorado Rockies. Somehow, in an injury-plagued and slump-marred season, Howard has only three fewer ribs than Pujols and four fewer than Joey Votto, both of whom are having significantly better overall seasons, and whom most watchers expect to be vying for the NL MVP.

Unlike previous seasons, you can’t discredit this one. You can’t point to Utley and Rollins and say that anyone would produce runs behind those guys. You can’t point to the Phillies offense and say it is designed to score runs. You can’t even really credit the Phils’ ballpark.

When all is said and done, the point is becoming undeniable: Ryan Howard is one of the greatest run producers of all time.

How conventional.

Asher B. Chancey lives in Philadelphia and is a co-founder of BaseballEvolution.com.

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With the season winding down to a merciful end, the Reds are faced with a few hard questions.

The starting pitching has not been getting it done as of late, and that becomes a huge concern. In the three games thus far in the series with the Colorado Rockies, the starters are only giving an average of a little over four innings.  

That is entirely too much burden to place on any bullpen.

The only thing that has rescued them from “sixty-fourea” (a term I coined for anyone resembling the 1964 Phillies) has been the total collapse of the NL Central rival St. Louis Cardinals.

If the Cards had been minding the store, the Reds lead could easily be only three games.

Let us look at some other problems they are currently faced with.

Jay Bruce—what has happened to him? Before his injury, he was the hottest hitter on the squad. Since his unfortunate departure, the team has a record of 3-5.

He had just started killing the ball, as we all knew he could, after nearly a season of disappointment.

With his unavailability, the Reds have been reduced to only three outfielders: Jonny Gomes and rookies Drew Stubbs and Chris Heisey. Who would go in if one of them was ejected from a game or, God forbid, injured?

Would it be Miguel Cairo? He has played the entire infield this year but has played a few games in the outfield during his career.

Cincinnati’s’s active roster is pitcher heavy. They are currently carrying 16 hurlers—that is a bunch of sunflower seeds to be chewed on. Why so many, Dusty?

It looks to me like there are at least four long relievers in Matt Maloney, Sam LeCure, Carlos Fisher, and Logan Ondrusek. I would think they could slide by with no more than two.

They have three catchers and…wait for it….nine infielders. You have to be kidding me. Who needs nine infielders, especially when you only have four outfielders?

It looks like they have a dedicated sub for every infield position with Cairo thrown in as a “catch all.”

Why would you bring up so many infielders and be outfield poor? How come Wladimir Balentien hasn’t been on the MLB roster? He is batting .282 with 25 HR and 78 RBI at Louisville.

Now we get to the meat of the discussion, the starting rotation. Who should be the five starters that drive this limo to the big dance?

We all know that the first two are Bronson Arroyo and Johnny Cueto, but what about the rest?

Do we pray for rain, then a tornado, and then a hurricane, or what?

The Reds have some good arms in that 16-man staff. Rookie Travis Wood should be the No. 3 man in the rotation, followed by Homer Bailey. Now it gets rough—I mean real rough.

Aaron Harang? Not after what we have seen lately. I see him as the sixth long man out there chewing cud.

Edinson Volquez? Don’t make me laugh, eh?

I can’t help but remember how he started us out in that series with the Giants. Unbelievably, he was warming up as a reliever in the end of the last game there. That would have been ironic for him to start and end the worst pitching series of the season.

I called for his departure several weeks ago, after two very good starts and two piss-poor outings. I was temporarily proved wrong, and he snapped out of it. Now, here we are with him playing American Legion ball in Dayton. He should be stuck in Louisville for the remainder of the season.

I would like to see Maloney get another crack at the rotation. Before he was sent down to Louisville in June, he was doing quite well. In his last start with the Reds, he went six innings, allowing only four hits and one run. He also walked one and had one strikeout.

One thing is sure: There are only 23 games left, and some crazy stuff could still happen.

It ain’t over until the fat lady sings.

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What appeared a few weeks ago as a two-man race for a potential Triple Crown has now become a three-man competition.

Colorado Rockies outfielder Carlos Gonzalez has been hitting the ball like he was mad at it lately. He is now comfortably ahead of Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds in batting average with a .340 mark. Votto is batting .321.

In his last nine games Gonzalez has had three hits in six of them, and is in the midst of a 14 game hitting streak. During those nine games he is batting a cool .553/.571/1.053 with 4 HR and 11 RBI while scoring nine runs.

Gonzalez is also first in H, SLG and second to Votto in OPS.

St. Louis first baseman Albert Pujols is fading fast from the batting title scene. In his last seven games Pujols is hitting a miserable .087/.179/.130 going 2-28, setting his own personal streak of hitless AB. During that span he has dropped his average from .320 to .309. He has 0 HR and only 2 RBI with three runs scored.

He still leads the league in homers with 35, leading Washington National’s Adam Dunn by one. Votto is three off the pace and Gonzalez is four back. He is also setting the pace in runs scored with 95.

Votto leads the league in RBI with 98, while Pujols and Gonzalez are both tied for second with 97.

In his last five games Votto is batting a paltry .176/.364/.294 with only 3 H in his last 28 AB. During that span he has 0 HR and 1 RBI with two runs scored.

So at this juncture Gonzalez is red-hot. The other two are as cold as a couple of mackerels.

If the season ended today we would have a different winner in all three Triple Crown categories. In fact, I will go out on the proverbial limb and predict that it will end that way as well.

It looks like Gonzalez is going to walk away with the batting crown, regardless of what Atlanta’s Omar Infante does.

Pujols will probably win the HR crown and I think Votto will probably lead the league in RBI.

As many people wonder who will win the Triple Crown, I for one say that nobody will this year (in the National League). Ducky Medwick of the Cardinals was the last TC winner in the Senior Circuit in 1937.

He won it that year by hitting .374, with 31 HR and 154 RBI. Nobody has won it in that league for 72 years and it looks as though it will be stretched to 73.

In contrast the American League has had five Triple Crown winners in that stretch, with the last one being Carl Yastrzemski of the Red Sox in 1967.

In summation any of the three could still win it, but in my opinion nobody will.

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The Cincinnati Reds have taken just about everybody by surprise this year.  Going into the season, they were not a team that was expected to be involved in the playoff race at this time of the year, much less own the best record in the National League and be a lock to make the playoffs barring a 2007 New York Mets-style collapse in the final month of the season.

Normally, a team in their position would be viewed as one of the favorites to represent their league in the World Series, but much doubt has been cast upon the team due to their poor record against other contending teams and their not so stellar pitching. 

Despite these two factors, a very strong argument can still be made for their ability to go deep into October due to their explosive offense, but let’s first take a closer look at the case against them.

Cincinnati‘s pitching has not been good.  Not good to the tune of a 4.05 team ERA, ninth in the National League.  Of the NL teams still in serious contention for a playoff spot, Atlanta, Colorado, Philadelphia, San Diego and San Francisco, only the Rockies are worse, barely, with an ERA of 4.08. 

Add in that their closer Francisco Cordero has a 3.47 ERA to go along with his six blown saves, and this bodes trouble for the Reds come playoff time.  

And now on to the most damning evidence against Cincinnati’s October hopes, their inability to beat the other contending teams. 

Of the teams mentioned above, the Reds are 10-16, a .385 winning percentage, and have a non-losing record against only one of them, Colorado, at 2-2, a record that could suffer greatly in the coming days as the teams kicked off a four game series on Monday, a game won by the Rockies. 

If you include St. Louis, a team that I believe is out of the playoff hunt, but until recently had been the Reds’ biggest opponent in their division, that record drops to 16-28, a .364 winning percentage.  Yikes!

For comparison, the Phillies boast a 24-15 record against the other contending teams, including Cincinnati, giving them a winning percentage of .615.  The Braves and Rockies are also vastly superior with records of 20-16 and 26-21, respectively.  The Padres, 19-23, and Giants, 19-27, have also struggled in this category, although not as mightily as the Reds with their winning percentages at least still above .400.  

It seems Cincy is facing an unbelievable struggle come the playoffs, particularly if they are matched up against the Braves or Phillies.

All hope is not lost for the Reds, however.  Coming into this week they had the highest batting average in the league at .272 coupled with the most productive offense with 679 runs scored this season, not to mention their 157 home runs, certainly giving them as good a shot as anyone in the NL despite their poor pitching.  The Reds also have the favorite to win the NL MVP in Joey Votto, something that cannot be overlooked.

We also all know that the playoffs are a completely different animal from the regular season.  One need only look at the 2008 Cubs and 2006 Cardinals to see that regular season success, or lack thereof, does not guarantee victory or ensure defeat in the postseason.  The Reds also boast a superior defense with the fewest errors and best fielding percentage of all the teams not only in the NL, but in all of baseball.

It also cannot be held against Cincinnati, as it has been by some in the national media, that they have beat up on the bottom feeders of baseball to the tune of a 69-42 (.622 winning percentage!) record against non-contending teams.

We hear all the time how championship teams need to possess a killer instinct that allows them to step on the throat of all inferior teams.  That is precisely what the Reds have done.  It is entirely possible that the team is waiting until the playoffs start to step up their game against the other winning teams.

One thing is for sure: The Reds have made the 2010 season much more exciting by injecting some new blood into the pennant race.  While it is entirely possible that their struggles against the upper tier teams will continue in October, it is equally plausible that they will find a way to reverse their fortunes and make a run at a championship.  Reds fans cannot wait to find out.

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If someone had come up to me in April and said, “I bet the Cincinnati Reds will go to the World Series this year,” I would have laughed and made jokes at their expense for such an idiotic prediction.

That shows what I know.

Each month, many experts and fans have been waiting for the Reds to falter; to revert back to the losing ways they’ve mastered of over the past decade. Those experts are still waiting. Except now, it looks to be too late.

With a seven game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals as of September 5, and the best record in the National League thanks to the San Diego Padres’ recent plummet back into uncertainty, I think it’s safe to say that the Reds are all but in the playoffs for the first time since 1995.

The question is, how far can they go? Are they in for a Wild Card round exit? Or can they actually make a run?

Judging by the title, my opinion is they can make more than just a run, they can make it to the World Series, and possibly give the American League representative serious trouble. In fact, I think they’re the favorite to come out of the National League.

It would be foolish to solely mention the strengths of the team while completely avoiding their weaknesses, so let’s get that out of the way now. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the Reds pitching isn’t the greatest.

As a team, their stats are average. Their best ranking in what I view as an important category come October, is save percentage, where they rank fourth in the National League. Typically, they are around seventh or eighth in the NL in virtually all categories. Not horrible, but certainly not a strength.

It’s no secret that pitching, specifically the bullpen, might be the most important characteristic of a championship contender. That’s why the Yankees have been so dominant behind Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer of this generation and probably ever, for the past 15 years. It’s rare to find a squad without at least an above average staff that wins the World Series.

For the Reds, their bullpen doesn’t have names that the casual fan would recognize. Nick Masset, Arthur Rhodes, and Francisco Cordero don’t jump off the page. However, they’ve become the centerpiece of a bullpen that’s usually effective. Masset and Rhodes each have a K/BB ratio of around 3, a WHIP under 1.25 (Rhodes’ is under 1), and average a strikeout per inning. Cordero, the closer, has been solid for years. Yes, he can be wild at times, but he’s effective.

There’s also a kid who’s been receiving massive attention the past week or so: Cuban defector Aroldis Chapman. He’s appeared in three games, and has consistently thrown over 100-mph, reaching as high as 105. To go along with that, he’s got a Randy Johnson-like slider and comes from a deceptive angle which makes it even harder for hitters to pick up the ball. Talk about no chance. This guy is going to be what Francisco Rodriguez was for the Anaheim Angels back in 2002 and what David Price was for Tampa Bay two years ago.

Onto the starters, where again, there are no big names. They have a six pack of starters who could ultimately start in the playoffs. My bets would be on Bronson Arroyo (the only one with major playoff experience and their leader in wins with 14), Johnny Cueto (the only strikeout pitcher on the team), and Travis Wood (a young lefty who’s won five of his last seven starts). If Aaron Harang or Mike Leake recover from their respective injuries in time, Wood may go the bullpen or become the 4th starter.

Now onto the strengths. The Reds do one thing better than any NL team, and that’s hit. They lead the NL in team Batting Average, Runs Scored, and OPS. This helps make up for their deficiencies in pitching because the rotation can count on getting five runs a game to work with.

The individuals doing the mashing are little more well known than the pitching staff. Joey Votto made headlines during the All-Star break for leading the league in HR, but requiring a win in fan voting to make the team. He’s now become a serious MVP candidate (with an outside shot at winning the Triple Crown along with Albert Pujols), currently in the top 3 in HR, RBI, and BA (32-98-.321) and leading the league in OPS (1.013). If it weren’t for Pujols, he’d be the best first baseman in the National League.

The supporting cast is led by third-baseman Scott Rolen; Votto’s protection in the lineup. His numbers aren’t eye-popping: 19-78-.297, but he keeps pitchers from consistently walking Votto. Rolen’s also the one guy on the team who’s played a major role in winning a World Series when he did so with the Cardinals back in 2006.

As for everyone else, four other starters including Rolen and Votto are hitting above .260 (Orlando Cabrera, Brandon Phillips, Jay Bruce, and Jonny Gomes), four other starters have over 15 HR (Bruce, Phillips, Drew Stubbs, and Gomes), and four have over ten steals (Stubbs, Cabrera, Votto, and Phillips, though not Rolen).

Pretty solid, right? That would be most teams biggest strength? Most teams would sell their souls to have an offense that potent.

Funny thing is, that’s NOT their biggest strength. That would be their fielding.

While the Reds have the best hitting team in the National League, their fielding is the best in all of baseball. As a team, they have the fewest errors and the best fielding percentage in the majors. No starter has more than ten errors (Orlando Cabrera, the team’s shortstop, has ten exactly) or a fielding percentage lower than .977.

Scott Rolen will most likely win another Gold Glove at third, and there are a few other players who have a chance at winning one. The catchers are also adequate at keeping runners from stealing.

This team just doesn’t throw the ball around. They don’t make stupid mistakes, which further benefits the pitching staff. Keep the ball in the park, and chances are the defense will have a chance to make the play. Keep the ball on the ground, and it’s a virtual certainty. When the stakes are at the highest level in the playoffs, being able to field the routine ground ball is monumental (just ask Cubs fans about Alex Gonzalez, the real goat in the Steve Bartman game).

Are the Reds the prohibitive favorite in the National League? Probably not. Do I think they deserve a better chance than people may be giving them? Absolutely.

The teams’ strengths are able to make up for their weakness, which are closer to being average than bad. If I were a playoff team, I would want absolutely nothing to do with the Reds come October.

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It’s one of the most amazing stories of the 2010 baseball season. Omar Infante, a career utility player, has stepped into a starting role with the Atlanta Braves and is threatening to become one of the most unlikely batting title winners in baseball history.

On July 30th, the Braves All-Star second baseman, Martin Prado, broke his finger sliding into home plate.   Prado landed on the 15-day DL and Infante was inserted into the starting lineup at second base.

Since that day Infante has hit .363 with a .400 on-base and a .513 slugging percentage. 

He’s scored 29 runs, hit five home runs and thrown in three stolen bases to boot.  Since July 29th, he’s had 23 multi-hit games and at one point, hit safely in 14 straight. 

On August 10th, Chipper Jones was lost for the season when he tore his ACL making a dazzling play at third base.  The injury assured that Infante would remain at second base and Prado would play third upon his return. 

Infante has been an absolute life-saver for the Braves, playing in every game since that July 29th date.  In all but two of those games he’s batted lead-off and helped Atlanta maintain their NL East lead.   

Even before Prado and Chipper’s injury, Infante was a valuable asset for the Braves.  In the 73 prior games, Infante started 40 of them, playing five different positions: 2B, SS, 3B, LF and RF.  He hit .330 in those games, including a .429 mark in July.

With Infante‘s insertion into the starting role and his continued prowess at the plate, his chances of winning the batting title have become a distinct possibility.

In order to qualify for the batting title, a player must record 502 plate appearances.  Infante is presently hitting a NL best .343 and  stands at 393 PAs with 25 games remaining on the Braves schedule.  If he continues his pace of 4.6 plate appearances per game, achieved since he became a full-time starter, Infante will finish with 512 plate appearances.  He’ll obviously have to play every game to make this mark, but even if he doesn’t he can still win the batting title.

How you ask? 

Well it’s simple.  If Infante finishes with say, 490 appearances, Major League Baseball will add 12 at-bats to his total and recalculate his batting average. These at-bats are considered hitless ones.

Tony Gwynn won a batting title in this manner in 1996 when he recorded 498 plate appearances and 451 at-bats.  His average of .364 was reduced to .359 and he still led the National League. 

Prior to this season, Infante was only a .264 career hitter (though he did hit .305 last year).  The important fact to remember with Infante though, is that he is only 28 years old.  Players often reach their peak around that age, a fact that’s even more true for Infante, who’s body has less wear than others because of his reduced role in prior seasons. 

Carlos Gonzalez, with an assist from Coors field, is Infante’s main competition.  He’s hitting .337 to Infante’s .343.  Joey Votto is a distant third at .321. 

It’s difficult to determine who the most unlikely batting title winner in NL history is. 

Al Oliver, a name few know, won the title with Montreal in 1982.  But he hit over .300 eleven times in his career.  Another Atlanta Brave, Ralph Garr won the title in 1974 (Garr was also 28 when he accomplished the feat).  Rico Carty also did it for the Braves in 1970.  Very few people outside of Atlanta, remember these names. 

In the American League, Bill Mueller hit .326 in 2003.  He was a .286 career hitter before that.   Mueller was also out of baseball three seasons later. 

The only distant comparison for Infante is Snuffy Stirnweiss.  Stirnweiss played for the Yankees in 1945 when baseball was severely depleted by the departure of players to World War II.  Stirnweiss hit .309 in 1945. He never hit above .256 again and hit only .268 for his career. 

With Infante‘s hitting showing no signs of slowing down and a decent shot at 502 plate appearances, he has a very real chance to become one of the most unlikely batting champions in baseball history 

I’d love to hear some readers thoughts about whether or not Infante might be the most unlikely batting champ in the long history of baseball and whether or not he has a legitimate chance at the feat.

You can view the history of NL and AL batting champs, going all the way back to when Levi Meyerle hit .492 in 1871, here. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Another wacky week of baseball. The ever-annoying Nyjer Morgan decided to slam into the Marlins catcher one too many times.

After being thrown at, Morgan decided to charge the mound and MLB‘s second brawl of the season occurred.

More violent than Reds vs. Cardinals, Morgan got in a few head shots before getting knocked down by the entire Marlins team.

Aroldis Chapman of the Reds made his major league debut this week. He arrived in a blaze of glory, hitting 103 on the radar gun multiple times.

He already owns the two fastest pitches in MLB since ’06. He has thrown three scoreless innings in a middle relief role. It will be interesting to watch how Chapman will be used down the stretch.

In other news, the Padres are in the midst of a predictable collapse, losers of 10 in a row.

The Yankees continue to stomp the AL while the Rays follow their lead. the Reds are still rolling as the Cardinals fade to black.

The Phillies are breathing down the Braves neck and the NL Wild Card is still up for grabs.

The ’10 baseball season has been fun, but the stretch run should provide even more excitement.

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With news that Cardinals outfielder Colby Rasmus has requested a trade, a team with an already cloudy future did not get any clearer. 

Here are five reasons why Cardinal fans’ motto for the rest of the season should be “playoffs or bust.”

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