Baseball 2026

Once again, spring is here - it was here for real for a couple days this week, though it's back under freezing again. Does 2026 have another snowstorm lurking? probably - but who cares? it's baseball season. I am looking forward to it - the Crimson Hose being a fascinating squad once more. Last year in general was pretty entertaining. Can they keep it going? Here then are my not very well informed guesses as to what happens this year. 

AL East:

1. Boston Red Sox - honestly, I don't know if I believe it; I am putting them here because I want them to win,a nd want to be able to crow if they do. In fact, I think they are good enough - but I think the Jays and Yankees are as good as last year, and more than capable of taking it. Thee sox should be good - they have a very solid looking rotation, and bunches of extra arms; they have a decent lineup, and a ocuple guys who could really step up. They have Roman Anthony who has all the makings of a genuine stud. Somethign about him feels like the second coming of Yaz - that's a good thing to have.

2. NY Yankees - I don't like it, but they were good enough last year, for all their troubles, and they'll have Cole back - I think all three fo these teams are going to the post-season, but the Yanks might be the best regular season team.

3. Toronto Blue Jays - an inning or so short of a World Series title and - they're close to the same. Again - all three should be post season bound, and they have been there before - they feel like the favorites to come out fo the American League over all. 

4. Baltimore Orioles - they picked up Pete Alonso, they have their young core, who were not as great last year as expected, but can still play. I would not be surprised if they were better than this - good enough for the last wild card spot? could well be. Though it is not a certainty.

5. Tampa Bay Rays - they are the Rays, they are back in the Trop, which is sure to be a boost, if only because any visitors view it with dread. I don't think they are likely to challenge for the post season, but it isn't impossible.

AL Central:

1. Detroit Tigers - they kept most of the team together. They looked like world beaters for a while last year, then dropped off the plant, then saved it at the bell, and played all right in the playoffs. I think they will be around this year, won't drop like that, and might have an easier time of it.

2. Cleveland Guardians - they came out of nowhere to get to the post season - can they again? I think the Tigers will be more consistent, and good, so it would be very hard. They do know how to hang around though, and they don't have anyone throwing games this year, that might help.

3. KC Royals - they have some talent, around Bobby Witt, around their good young pitching - get healthy, hit the ball and they might be okay. I think they have a hard hill to climb to reach the post season though.

4. Chicago White Sox - there is no reason to pick them here, except they did improve by 20 runs last year so another 10 is not impossible. Some youth coming into its own, who knows. 70 wins would be like the World Series for them, though.

5. Minnesota Twins - they have been imposing theist couple years, already lost a starter - I don't see much happening here, besides lots of offers for Joe Ryan.

AL West:

1. Seattle Mariners - they seem pretty well established as the cream out here. I don't see much reason for a regression as a team. Maybe this si their year!

2. Texas Rangers - will they stay healthy? can they get 160 innings from DeGrom and Eovaldi each? will Seager play all year? if things go right, they could be pretty good - they could also disappear. 

3. Houston Astros - they seem to be on the way out - though still dangerous. There is still plenty of talent, I suppose - some of it aging - maybe. I don't see them getting all that far - they don't look like they will be better than last year. The breaks in either direction could change things, but I see mediocrity.

4) Athletics - they will hammer the ball. Kurts, Rooker, Wilson, Langeliers, etc - they will hammer the ball. Do they have any pitching? will any of their pitchers make their sanity rolls pitching in Sacramento? Good question. But I could see them getting past a couple teams in the west.

5) California Angels - I don't think they are necessarily terrible. They certainly are not good. But one of these years Mike Trout is going to be happy and is going to have one pf those Remember Me seasons - if anyone else shows up, they might be better. Meaning - the west is a crap shoot,a nd most of these teams could almost be respectable in spite fo themselves.

NL East:

1) Philadelphia Phillies - this might depend on Zach Wheeler recovering sooner rather than later - but they have pitching, hitting - they have a team. I don't see as much potential for chaos as I go a bit further north up the coast. 

2) NY Mets - I don't want to pick them this high. They rearranged all the parts, some obviously better, some not so much, all of it with the potential for chaos. They have talent, though, and might well keep it together for once.

3) Atlanta Braves - they disappeared last year - will they come back? Acuna might be healthy, right? Olson and Riley and company are all decent - they have Sale and such in the rotation - they could be fine. They could be a good deal less than fine, if they keep losing pitchers though. 

4) Miami Marlins - I am know baseball better these days than the last couple years, but the Marlins might be the limit - I don't know if I can name a single player on the roster. Sandy Alcantera maybe? I think they have the makings of a passable mediocre team; more than that would be a shock.

5) Washington Nationals - I can name a couple of them! one anyway - James Wood! wait - CJ Abrams? Two then? I don't expect anything from them, but they might get into the 70s as well, I don't know.

NL Central:

1) Milwaukee Brewers - maybe a risk, but I think they will find their way back to the top of the Central. Maybe not top fo the majors, but they should still hold their own. Lots of depth and good players everywhere. They should be fine.

2) Chicago Cubs - they have talent, yes, but they are the Cubs and - I don't know. I actually saw most of their first game, and they did not inspire. I know they have talent, but I don't know if it is going to be enough.

3) Cincinnati Reds - they don't seem to have gotten better or worse - they were not that great last year. I think they will lurk where they were - low 80s, nip the playoff spot if no one else wants it. 

4) Pittsburgh Pirates - they have Skenes, they have some other players - they stunk the building out in their opener, but that was a pretty freaky inning, I don't see a lot of that coming. I don't know if the defense is as bad as it looked or if that was just the New York sun - I don't know. I think they are all right, I don't think they are going to win anything though. 

5) St Louis Cardinals - uh oh - another team I can't name a single player on? Ryne Stanek! I picked him up in fantasy, when he got his first save! I Alsop have Alec Burleson on a fantasy team, though it comes as a revelation that he is on the Cards. That's all I need to say here I think.

NL West:

1. LA Dodgers - will they win three on the trot? it was bloody close last year - there are still several teams that could match them in a 4 game series - it will be hard. Will they? they could. This may  cause some consternation, but I have a hard time being unhappy about teams that use their resources to become a better team. God knows plenty of them try, but the Dodgers are actually good at it. And honestly - if they win this year, that would give Mookie 5 rings, which matches Derek Jeter, and how can that be bad? (Will I carry this grudge to my grave? I will. Could Mookie have won four rings for Boston? he might have had a harder time, but he should have gotten a couple or three - match Papi and Pedroia (minus Manny Machado). The last few years in Bean town would have been a lot more fun and competitive with Mookie Betts on the team.) 

2. SD Padres - they should be in the wild card hunt. I say should. I see Nick Pivetta is back to normal. Still - they have talent, can they play together? they should be solid, but not very interesting.

3. Arizona Diamondbacks - they have some good players; they have been shedding them the last couple years, but still have the core. I don't expect a lot, but they usually hang around .500 and with some breaks can challenge for more. without the breaks - say goodbye to Ketel Marte.

4. SF Giants - mediocrity on the west coast. I don't see anything likely to change out there. Raffy Devers? I mean - might get some nice home run numbers but that's about all.

5. Colorado Rockies - I would hope they couldn't be any worse.

And filling in the blanks:

Playoffs = NY, Detroit, Seattle, Boston, Toronto and - Baltimore? don't ask me to pick the owner. I will say Boston, because that is what I want. though again - almost any of those teams except the Yankees would be more than satisfying.

NL = Phillies, Brewers, Dodgers - Mets, Padres and probably the Cubs. Dodgers would win through. I hope so, unless the Brew crew finally get there.

AL Awards: MVP - still Judge's to lose, but he's going to get company from Witt, Anthony and maybe Kurtz any time now. Cy Young - this year, I think Crochet takes it, though Skull is still the real deal. Rookie? McGonagle? right? I don't really know.

NL: MVP - remains Ohtani's to lose; when he does - Acuna, if he's completely recovered. Cy Young - Skenes should be, though he laid an egg yesterday; will the bunkers carry forwa4rd enough to hurt his chances? Christopher Sanchez looks like the real deal again. Sale still has the arm, Yamamoto's no slouch. Rookie - not sure - maybe Konnor Griffin, if the Pirates decide they need him up. 

Anniversary and Consequences

It has been five years since Donald Trump tried to overthrow the government. He failed then, but we did not hold him accountable, and he is back in charge, and fucking things up as bad as ever.

Venezuela? This is naked aggression, serving no good purpose. What does the administration (one hesitates to say "Trump" in this case, because there is no there there anymore, and everyone knows it) think they will get out of this? Oil? I suppose there is a chance, but the chaos created is more likely to make it more expensive than less. The drug running gag was never real. An excuse to deport hispanics? I am sure this is Stephen Miller's dream, but they have been doing that for a year, this isn't likely to help that much. I don't know. All we are doing is risking the creation of a long, ugly, occupation, alienation from even more of the world - for no gain, and without even the flimsy make believe excuses we used to invade Iraq in 2003. 

That said - talking about Venezuela means there is less talk about the Epstein files. Less talk about Trump's dementia. Less talk about the sagging economy. Less talk about ICE. Less talk about Jack Smith and January 6, 2021. All this fills up the airwaves with noise about Venezuela, giving the press, especially TV news, the excitement of a war - so, yes, it is a distraction.

But it is not likely to be a very effective distraction. The Epstein files are too big a deal to stop being an issue. Trump's dementia is not getting better, and this just reminds everyone how old and feeble he is. He and his cronies can't help themselves from reminding everyone what idiots they are - using this as an excuse to threaten Cuba and Mexico and Denmark and god knows who else - everything about it reminds us that Trump and his boys are like petty gangsters beating up random citizens to get the rest to pay them off. They might say they are defending Democracy in Venezuela, but they immediately start talking about stealing Greenland - I guess Democracy isn't the issue. None of this can go well - the rest of the world suffers, but Trump's gang won't get any benefits. The economy is not going to get better. The situation in Venezuela is far more likely to descend into chaos and violence than not. 

Of course, what it really means, is likely that Madura's check hasn't cleared yet. Trump has pardoned plenty of monsters already, sometimes for ideology, but usually, for ransom. Kidnaping Madura makes most sense on those terms - snatch him, and wait for someone to pay Trump and company off. They probably think they will get the oil out of this, as a bribe to not kidnap anyone else - but this is only going to work as long as people keep paying. 

Enough. End by saying that obviously Trump should be impeached over this. At some point, congress is going to have to stop calculating their odds, and just fight against him, any way than can. Trump should have been in prison in 2021; he should have been frog-marched out of the White House on January 6, 2021. When we didn't that, we should have made a point of getting him into stir as quickly as was seemly afterwards. We did not, and are paying for it. This time - we will have to do better, or we are going to have to deal with some scumbag imitator every 4 years for perpetuity. Treat him like the traitor he is. 

Rebooting the Calendar

Happy new year, world. 

I am not sorry to see 2025 go. 2025 sucked. From beginning to end - dominated by Donald Trump, doing all he can to fuck this country up six ways to Sunday, in the most embarrassing, shameful, idiotic way imaginable - what a nightmare. Is there any way this gets better? Well, there will be mid-terms this year, presumably, and if Trump doesn't send in the army, he is likely to lose all the congressional support he has. Though for that to matter, congress and Democrats have to do something - not just fend off the worst, but find a way to break the son of a bitch. I don't know. They should have done that in 2021 - he should have been frog-marched from the White House, probably on January 7, but January 21 would have worked. Letting him and his minions get away with trying to overthrow the government brought us to the disaster we are in today.

That's Trump. My pessimism about Democrats might be a function of being in Maine, and watching the ancient and infuriating Susan Collins running against the equally ancient, but usually pretty respectable Janet Mills, though Mills is likely to slot in with all the other ancient and respectable Democrats in congress. Who wants that? Unfortunately the most prominent alternative to those two is Graham Plattner, a guy who thought it was a good idea to get the Third SS Panzer badge emblazoned on his chest. Sure, it was a long time ago and he was drunk in Croatia, where I imagine this happens all the time - still, man, still! It took him until this year to do anything about it, and he ran his mouth more than once in those years and - I don't know. If he had ever served in any elected office in his life, we would at least have a track record to look at, but no. He's an "outsider"! He talks a good game - Bernie bro stuff - but that's talk, and a particularly cheap kind of talk at that. To me, he comes off as a shameless opportunist whose only real value is his own personal advancement. It is convenient for him to play the outsider, and to his credit he's playing the lefty outsider, but in the extremely unlikely event he ended up in Washington, I'd put my money on him turning into, at best, John Fetterman, at worst, Tulsi Gabbard. Though apparently he plans to wear a suit. 

What a hell hole this country has become.

Well, there is more to life than politics. There is, for example, Sport. As it happened, 2025 was a pretty entertaining year for sport. A very cool baseball season, with the local nine doing well, producing one of the most exciting young players in years, in Roman Anthony - promising to hang around. But all of baseball was fun this year - a fun season, a fantastic post season, lots of good young players coming up - it promises to stay fun, at least until they shut it down for a strike or lockout in a couple years. But there's a couple years before that happens. Beyond baseball, it has been a pretty good year locally - the C's are respectable, even with their best player out for most of the year, the B's are competent again, and the Patsies are back on top as if the post Brady years never happened. How thrilling!

2026 is also when the World Cup comes back to the US. Normally, that would be thrilling, but this year - yikes. No. The tournament itself is ridiculous, bloated and confusing, covering three countries and way too many teams. I haven't followed soccer close enough to know what to expect, and there isn't a lot making me do so. That and the fact that this is three straight world cups help in dictatorships. FIFA, of course, paid their proper bribe to the grifter in chief, but that is to be expected. Still - when push comes to shove I am more likely than not to get caught up in the fun. Maybe.

And? There is tech. My tech year has been a shit show. IPad dead; TV receiver dead; Mac mini dead; laptop screen dead - the cat bit it. Thanks, cat! That was fixed at least. And last week, my coffee grinder died! maybe the most horrible failure of them all! Alas - the wide world of technology does not seem to be doing any better. Everything is AI this and AI that, and it all sucks. This might even be made worse by the ways generative AI poisons the very idea of AI - which, I am told, can do many good things in other uses. I don't know enough to judge. I do know that that there are not a lot of technologies in 2025 that aero better than the same techs were in 2015 or 2005 even. Yeah, faster, lighter, sometimes cheaper - but I have seen people drop laptops and shatter the screens completely and the machines keep on working for years - mine died because the cat bit it!

All right; that's enough. It is time for 2026, which has almost infinite room to get better, though has not lack of ways to get worse. Let's hope for the best and get on with it. This year, let me try to be a better person. Try to post more often, once again; eat better, get more exercise, read more, write more, see more movies, pat the cat, be nice to people, backup my work (oh god) and go Red Sox! Good luck, 2026, you're going to need it.