Marco’s Baseball Blog-O-Roonie Fall 2026
Shall we gather at the River?...and observe what may wind up being considered the greatest roster (pitchers, hitters and defenders 1 through 26 ) of “ ALL TIME”.
The Jolly Trolley Dodgers are the hammer for all the humble little nails cluttering up the landscape of pro baseball teams circa 2026.The Dodgers have played within the rules. They are evidently capable of buying any player who is for sale. The rules support this . Trouble is, when you have 5 teams that are competitive and 25 more that are just hanging out, you’re kind of squelching the suspense of the trade deadline.
“Oh well, we’ll play for second place.” say the nails. But nothing is more un-American than playing for second place. “Victory or death! Maybe we’ll get lucky in the draft…” Meanwhile the Dodgers sign every super star for massive amounts of deferred money.
The all time best rotation in baseball history? The Orioles ‘71 team had 4 pitchers who won at least 20 games:
Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Pat Dobson and Mike Cuellar.
There was also a great staff in Cleveland in the late ‘40s early ‘50s: Bob Lemon, Early Wynn, Mike Garcia, Art Houtteman, Hal Newhouser and Bob Feller with Satchel Paige in relief.
The Dodgers can now send out: Ohtani as a spot starter,
Yamamoto as number 1 ace, Wrobleski and Blake Snell as middle starters and Tarik Skubal just coming on board. And don’t forget Tyler Glasnow who would be the Numero Uno for most teams.
There is a template for what kind of players are being bred and nurtured in the third century of baseball. The chosen are about 6’1” feet tall, weight 220-240 pounds with muscles enough to jerk fastballs over the short fences that the new generation of ballparks reward. The preferred offensive philosophy is to fill your lineup with chunky monkeys and let them go for the long ball. More subtle skills have been devalued. The run and gun offenses of the seventies and eighties are extinct.
Teams load up and time the lively ball that is always fresh. The fences are reachable for everybody. The pitchers are throwing fast and faster and that speed becomes distance as the would be sluggers play “boom! chaka-laka-laka” on the bat barrels. Even oppo pop flies will get out of Dodge if the batters have learned their launch angles.
Enough variety. Just this banal outcome theory: strike outs are acceptable. Walks inevitable. Home runs adored. Don’t steal. Don’t bunt. Don’t choke up. (Barry Bonds choked up and I didn’t see you complain.)
But just when baseball starts to show signs of the Death of a Thousand Cuts…
The Dodgers get brilliant pitching from their entire staff and win the Series in 7 over a stubborn Toronto squad. Game 7 of 2025 is one of the best games in Series history. Who’d a thunk it?
CATCHERS: A few words about catchers. Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners is hitting .172. He hit 60 round trippers last year...an all time high for catchers. This year he’s hit 20 and the Mariners are dragging through the summer making very little noise. What happened?
Cal is a catcher and catchers rarely leap to offensive glory in modern baseball. Why? Because catchers get hurt. You hear people talk about “5 tool” players and players are evaluated on that basis. The skills they are rated on are hitting, power hitting, running, fielding and throwing.
But there are actually at least two more attributes that make up a player. One is Leadership. Inspiration, clutch performance, morale boosting, using personal charisma to affect the performance of teammates. The seventh attribute is Stamina. Consistency of Performance, Durability, Health.
Lou Gehrig. Cal Ripken. Warren Spahn. Eddie Murray. They bring talent that doesn’t miss games. Byron Buxton. Jake DeGrom. Giancarlo Stanton. Hall of Fame talents who can’t play half the schedule. (We applaud them because they’re great. We just wish they were around more.)
Now here is the difference between regular players and catchers.
Catchers get hurt every game they play. Consider the jobs a catcher
has to perform…
1/ The first duty of a catcher is to work with his pitchers to prepare a game plan for hitters they are going to face. If he can’t do that we have to get a new catcher. It doesn’t matter if Cal Raleigh hits 60 homers in a season. If Cal can’t call a game and help stop Mike Trout the Mariners still can’t win.
2/ The second must for a catcher is in the name. Cal has to catch the pitches. No passed balls please. Today’s pitching strategies lean heavily on drop balls, sinkers, curves and sliders that often bounce. A catcher has to leap to his feet and get the ball where it’s safe. He has to stop those kind of pitches and entice a feeble result from that hitter.
But our catcher has to protect himself. The defensive players who are out on the field with the catcher only handle the ball on a few occasions each game. The catcher handles the ball EVERY BATTER! If all he does is snag the pitches in his mitt he’s working harder than anybody else on the field except pitchers.
Now...each player on defense has certain duties to perform . The shortstop covers the left side out to short center field. Imagine a magic circle with the player in the middle. The catchers duties include foul pops that can be gloved leaning into the stands. He also has to react to bunts and be running down to back up first base on ground balls. After that he goes back behind the dish and catches a few hundred mph four-seamers and one or two sinkers.
If the batter fouls one back...back is usually right in the catcher’s face mask. Four or five a game is about par for shots to the grill. It’s the hands that are vulnerable as well. How many broken fingers...split fingernails...bruised hamates and the like ...come in every game. Johnny Bench got tired of taking foul tips off his mandibles and started receiving pitches with his throwing hand behind his leg to avoid those unpredictable fouls. His other hand was mush from catching Don Gullet and Tom Seaver.
*Another thing that catchers are expected to do is guard the plate. To which end the unwritten rules of baseball in the good old days went like this...a base runner shouldn’t initiate contact with the fielder covering first... A runner going to second is expected to obstruct the fielder covering second base by hitting said fielder in an effort to disrupt the play...A runner to third however cannot crash into the fielder at third ...third base is therefore different from the other 3 bases...and third basemen seem to want to fight if a baserunner comes in spikes high. A runner coming home is expected to take advantage of his momentum to wipe the catcher. This play knocks catchers out of the major leagues...see Buster Posey. *post Ipso Facto maximum unwritten rules dumbness for two hundred years!
*(wiped out at home plate collision with three fractures and a much shorter career. The Brass finally updated these rules to avoid these kinds of injuries.)
3/ Catchers are born not made. You’ve got to have an “A” throwing arm on arrival. Periodically some team like the Cardinals is going to sign a Lou Brock or a Vince Coleman. A very fast runner who will steal over a hundred bases. Most of his success will be the pitcher’s fault. For the last forty years you won’t have seen a catcher who can’t throw a pea on SB attempts. Just to even things up.
4/ Offense. There have been a lot of catchers who had a full career as a good- field-no-hit kind of specialist. Very few catchers are team leaders on offense. So when you get one like Cal Raleigh who can take charge on defense and also hit 60 ring-a-dingers it sort of gets noticed. Some more catching prodigies who hit?
King Kelly
Mickey Cochrane (2 MVP)
Roy Campanella (3 MVPs)
Yogi Berra (3 MVPs)
Bill Dickey
Elston Howard (MVP)
Gabby Hartnett (MVP)
Salvador Perez
Johnny Bench (2 MVPs)
Pudge Rodriguez (MVP)
Thurman Munson (MVP)
Joe Mauer (MVP)
Buster Posey (MVP)
Ernie Lombardi (MVP)
Mike Piazza
Bob O’Farrell (MVP)*(he was NL MVP for the Cardinals in 1926. He threw out Babe Ruth stealing to end the ‘26 series. Hardly mentioned anymore but a strong player and GREAT catcher.)
PLAYOFFS: (AL) Tampa has to be favored straight down the line. They have home court advantage over everybody. They have rested starters and a fairly good bullpen. They play Little Ball effectively with one Beast augmenting. That would be MVP candidate Junior Caminero.
The Yankees can win if Aaron Judge gets healthy enough to at least play DH. I think they will handle Boston because the bats have gone silent in the Red Sox batting order in the absence of Ceddanne Rafaele and Willson Contreras.
You can only get so hot for so long. At least the Red Sox turned around their walking disaster at the beginning of this season and had the winning streak that boosted them into the Playoffs. 2027 should be a full return to relevancy by Boston.
Cleveland has done their usual trick of hitting just enough flair singles for Jose Ramirez to knock them in. They always get hot about now and then face a series of strong pitchers and lose in the playoffs.
Houston? Texas Rangers? Tie goes to Houston because of Houston winning the season series. Don’t get your hopes up though. Not enough guns in the rotations.
And a big hand for the surprising White Sox! From 100+ defeats in 2025 to a spot in the playoffs. If they can keep their Asian Contingency healthy and their team excited about winning. I myself can’t see it but I get it wrong once in awhile...
I think Tampa Rays will win the AL playoffs... Aaron Judge is hurt and that usually cooks Yankee geese.
NL: So that’s bad news for the Lord High Gods of the Game. You know...the ones who always make sure the Yankees and the Dodgers always get the most desirable game slot in your television access? Oh...you really thought it was the players on the field?
If the Yankees don’t win (and they probably won’t) at least the Red Sox should carry the banner of lucrative media support by a traditional baseball power. Ix-nay...very little chance.
So what to do? If you are a network exec, pray for the Dodgers. The Dodgers have the rotation, the bullpen and a lineup with plenty of thunder. They also have seasoned playoff players mixed in with some excellent young players. But I don’t think they’ll win.
The Milwaukee Brewers won 101games (plus whatever they do this weekend). Their lineup has power (6 double figure circuit clout sluggers) and speed (7 double figure base-thieves). They also have a manager who will insist that they hustle (catcher William Contreras dogged it on a double play grounder and got lit up by Pat Murphy). The Brew Crew has home advantage throughout the playoffs.
They also have the second coming of the Big Unit. That would be Jacob Misiorowski. The ERA and K leader of the majors is the tall, thin shadow looming over this year’s playoffs. He gives the Brewers the edge in every game he starts.
Do the Chicago Cubs have a shot? Pete CA will not be pitched to. He’ll have to hold back on the wild swings and take his walks. The other Cubbies have to produce. I don’t think the pitching staff will be able to hold off the other contenders.
I like the Braves and Dodgers to mix it up and see if one of them can handle the Brew Crew.
The Nights of the Living Dead...Phillies are living the nightmare all right. Lose 5 in a row instead of winning a clincher? Surely not? It’s The End for this Phillies team. They had the players, pitchers, home run heroes and clutch players...but can they win one to get into the Playoffs?
The Diamondbacks are ever pesky but I don’t see them putting this one in the miracles column. Padres are a big tease...but this is the closest they’ve been to looking like a champ in years.
