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2022 Season Recap
There would be no title defense in the 2022 playoffs as the defending world champs Atlanta battled to stay close to .500 all season long. Instead, the NL East was won in a major upset with the Washington National putting together a 91-71 campaign to win their first pennant since 2017. The Nats were carried by one of the best offenses in baseball. The trio of RF Juan Soto (.294, 42 HR, 107 RB), 1B Josh Bell (.275, 34 HR, 102 RBI) and DH Nelson Cruz (.238, 21 HR, 84 RBI) powered this club to the playoffs.
Another surprise emerged in the NL Central where the Chicago Cubs bounced back from a 71 win 2021 season to capture the pennant. Seiya Suzuki lived up to the hype slashing .279/.373/.545 while smashing 36 long balls and driving in 101 runs. They were able to hold off a Reds team no one expected to compete in 2022. Despite injuries mounting up and a suspect offense, Cincy was able to return to the playoffs for the 2nd time in 3 seasons.
The best race took place in the NL West where the Dodgers took home the crown once again but almost faltered down the stretch following a 12-16 September. You have to imagine fans in Atlanta had a hard time watching former beloved superstar 1B Freddie Freeman (.289, 38 HR, 139 RBI) power this Dodgers lineup to another pennant title. Both San Diego and San Francisco came close to upending LA but both were able to earn trips to the postseason.
In the AL, the Yankees looked liked the Yankees of old coming just a game shy of 100 wins. Their rotation was the best in the American League led by a devastating 1-2 punch of Gerrit Cole (19-6, 2.83 ERA) and Luis Severino (18-4, 3.17 ERA). Aaron Judge slugged 53 HRs to help pace a New York offense that spent a lot of time striking out.
For the 3rd straight year the White Sox are headed to the postseason. They posted the 3rd best record in all of baseball this past fall in large part due to one of the best pitching staffs and bullpens in all of the MLB. Lucas Giolito (18-7, 3.67 ERA) provided ace stuff at the top of the rotation while Liam Hendricks (42 SV, 3.27 ERA) shut things down in the late innings.
It wasn’t easy but the Angels FINALLY found their way back into the playoffs for the first time since 2014 winning the AL West pennant. Mike Trout struggled with strikeouts in 2022 but still posted a ridiculous 8.1 WAR thanks to a .399 OBP, 41 HRs and 86 RBIs. Finally baseball fans would get to see Trout and Shohei Otani play some October baseball!
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