Philadelphia Phillies: 95-57, 1st Place in NL East
On paper, and on these cards, the Phillies look like a tough draw. Philadelphia posted the second-best record in the majors and led the NL East every day from May 3 to season’s end en route to their first division title in thirteen years.
The Phillies were 62-33 leading into the final weekend before the All-Star break. They were 33-34 the rest of the way. Including the playoffs, they went 34-37 over a span nearly the length of a half-season. Somewhere along the way, the Phillies stopped being the team that lost only five of its first 30 series. The starting pitching began to show signs of mortality, the early leads weren't as plentiful, the situational hitting less consistent.
They spent the entire second half showing they weren't that team of destiny anymore, that their first 3½ months might have been flukily hot. And they proved it in the NLDS, losing three of four to a Mets team that thoroughly outplayed them in all phases of the game.
This result was somewhat unexpected, unless you were paying attention to how the two teams were playing at the time. Philadelphia had the best or second-best starting rotation and the best or second-best bullpen that made it into the playoffs, Zack Wheeler challenged Chris Sale for the National League Cy Young Award, Aaron Nola had a great season and Cristopher Sánchez (with his super changeup) and Ranger Suárez(with his five-pitch mix and command) rounded out a tough group of starters, and they had two All-Star firemen in Hoffman and Strahm who could pitch in high-stress situations. Offensively, Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, Alec Brohm and Trea Turner anchored a lineup that could explode but also slump. But it all went for naught against a surging Mets team that ended their season, 4-1, in game four of the NLDS in New York.
2024 Milwaukee Brewers SPBB Cards
Milwaukee Brewers: 93-69, 1st Place in NL Central
Since 2018, the Milwaukee Brewers have ranked third in the National League with 580 regular season wins, have booked six trips to the post-season and have claimed four division titles. But with just one playoff series win to show for it, the Brewers have been unable to solve the puzzle of October baseball. They got their chance this year against the New York Mets, who continued to surprise the postseason in what was widely considered a transition season.
Milwaukee cruised to the NL Central title and the third best record in the NL behind one of the best bullpens in baseball and the emergence of multiple star-level contributors in the lineup. The Brewers bullpen had been solid all year long and entered the post-season firing on all cylinders. The relief crew was headlined by Devin Williams, Joel Payamps and Aaron Ashby and ranked among the NL leaders in ERA (2.72), strikeout minus walk percentage (18.3) and HR/9 (0.81) since the All-Star break. On the offensive side, Jackson Chourio slashed .310/.363/.552 with 12 homers in the second half to rank 10th in baseball in fWAR over that span, producing a formidable middle-of-the-order trio alongside Willy Adames and William Contreras. The Brewers, second in the NL in steals, had three other active players with at least 20 stolen bases this season: Blake Perkins (23), Jackson Chourio (22) and Willy Adames (21).
The short straw was the pitching. After losing Corbin Burnes to the Baltimore Orioles and Brandon Woodruff to shoulder surgery in the 23-24 off-season, the Brewers rotation was full of question marks behind Freddy Peralta entering 2024. And while the likes of Colin Rea and Tobias Myers stepped up to help carry Milwaukee through the regular season, the Brewers still didn’t have a definitive number 2 starter behind Peralta. The shortness of the rotation overexposed the relief corps, resulting in Pete Alonso's historic, clutch home run in the ninth inning in Game 3 of the NL Wild Card Series that sent the Brewers packing.
2024 San Diego Padres SPBB Cards
San Diego Padres: 93-69, 2nd Place in NL West
The Padres could do very similar things with their starting nine as the Dodgers, and while they were not quite as stacked, nobody was an easy out. The only below-average hitter in their starting lineup was Xander Bogaerts, but even he had a track record of being a great hitter. CF Jackson Merrill (.292, 24 HR, 90 RBIs) would have won Rookie of the Year in any season where Paul Skenes wasn’t also pitching. Manny Machado (.275, 29 HR, 105 RBI) had a 122 wRC+ on the season, after an elbow injury slowed his start, and he had a 141 wRC+ and .869 OPS going all the way back to the middle of May. Fernando Tatis, Jr. missed two months with a stress reaction in his right leg, but had an .868 OPS after returning from the Injured List in the beginning of September. Jurickson Profar (.280, 94 R, 24 HR, 85 RBI) had a career year with a .839 OPS. DH Luis Arraez had a bit of a down year with a .739 OPS, but still had 200 hits and won his third consecutive batting title (.314).
With Dylan Cease, Michael King and Joe Musgrove, the Padres had a pitching staff built to challenge the Dodgers, and challenge they did, holding a 2-1 lead in the NLDS before succumbing in Game 5 to LA. But the Padres won 93 Games and gave LA all they could handle in their third such matchup since 2020.
2024 Atlanta Braves SPBB Cards
2024 Atlanta Braves; 89-73, 2nd Place in NL East
The Atlanta Braves' 2024 season was plagued by injuries and underperformance, leading to a disappointing finish. It is a shame, because the Braves were as good as anyone when healthy.
The Braves lost key players early in the season, including RF Acuña Jr., who tore his ACL in May, and SP Spencer Strider, who underwent season-ending elbow surgery after just two starts. Although Strider was injured the Braves pitching was still very strong. Not only was the Braves pitching good, they had the best ERA and most strikeouts in MLB. 2B Ozzie Albies and 3B Austin Riley were also out for about a third of the season each. 1B Matt Olson, who had a career-best season in 2023, underperformed in 2024, dropping from .283, 54 HR and 139 RBI to .247, 29 HR and 98 RBI. At one point the once potent lineup just stopped hitting, forcing a last day doubleheader with the Mets that gave Atlanta a second game reprieve and a tiebreaker win over Arizona.
Chris Sale won the Triple Crown and the NL Cy Young, leading the National League in wins, strikeouts, and ERA. However, he was unable to pitch in the wild-card round due to back spasms, forcing Atlanta to try second tier pitching against the ever- dangerous Padres lineup in the NL Wild Card round. This did not end well, with San Diego bouncing the Braves in two quick games.
2024 Kansas City Royals: 86-76, 2nd Place in AL Central
The 2023 Royals only eked out 56 wins and were largely unwatchable. In 2024, the team won an even 30 games more and at points looked like a legitimate threat to take the division. They became the first team in Major League Baseball history to go from 100 losses to winning a playoff series. This team was fun to watch, and it had stars. Gold Glove SS Bobby Witt Jr. (.332, 211 H, 32 HR 125 R, 109 RBI was the MVP runner-up. Both Cole Ragans (11-9, 3.14, 223 K) (2nd) and Seth Lugo (16-9, 3.00, 181K) (4th) ended up in the top five of the AL Cy Young voting. Salvador Perez (.271, 27 HR, 104 RBI) was great, again. The Royals got to play in the second round of the October playoffs rather than to perform a sort of a death march as they had the previous September.
But it can be true that such a season can be both fantastic and frustrating—fantastic because of the outcome versus the prior year’s results, but frustrating because of this year’s emerging expectations confounded by what the Royals did in the final stretch, when they lost 18 of their last 29 regular season games and also got bumped from the playoffs at home. With four excellent starters the Royals were set up as well as any team in on the AL side for a deep run, but while they were competitive in every game in the postseason, their play in the final analysis boiled down to “feisty, but overmatched.”
2024 Houston Astros: 88-73, 1st Place in AL West
The Astros won the AL West for the fourth season in a row and the seventh time in the past eight years. It wasn’t a smooth ride to the top, as Houston started slowly, and sat a game behind the Seattle Mariners at the All-Star break. But the two teams moved in opposite directions over the second half, and the Astros mostly cruised in September.
The club was led by its pitching staff, which ranked sixth in baseball with a 3.74 ERA. Framber Valdez (15-7, 2.91) continued to be one of baseball’s steadiest starters and led the Astros in innings and wins. Hunter Brown (11-9) recovered from a disappointing rookie year to lead the team in strikeouts and post solid ratios (3.49 ERA, 1.27 WHIP). And Ronel Blanco (13-6, 2.80) was one of baseball’s biggest surprises, winning the fifth rotation spot at the end of spring training and finishing the season fourth in the majors in ERA. The bullpen, led by closer Josh Hader and setup men Bryan Abreu, Tayler Scott and Ryan Pressly, was even more effective than the rotation.
Yordan Alvarez (.308, 35 HR, 86 RBI) continued to be the driving force on offense. The 27-year-old placed no lower than sixth in baseball in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. He was supported by leadoff man Jose Altuve, who experienced some decline but still hit .295 and was a 20-20 player. Kyle Tucker was also a dominant force (.993 OPS), despite missing three months due to fractured shin.
The Astros, improbably, were the first team eliminated from the 2024 postseason. The Detroit Tigers swept them 2-0 in the wild-card round. Houston’s remarkable string of seven consecutive ALCS appearances was over.
2024 Baltimore Orioles SPBB Cards
2024 Baltimore Orioles, 91-71, 2nd Place in AL East
Given the fact that Baltimore won 100 games last year and added one the game’s top arms in Corbin Burnes to headline their rotation in the off-season, the Orioles had a disappointing 2024. The preseason favorite to win the American League East ended up three games behind the Yankees. They did secure the AL’s top Wild Card seed.
The O’s had their share of firepower at the plate with SS Gunnar Henderson (.282/.366/.531, 37 HR) and RF Anthony Santander (44 HR) and an ace on the mound in Corbin Burnes, while Albert Suárez had a solid year with a 3.74 ERA. But there was inconsistency in the bullpen. With a 4.24 cumulative ERA, the O’s bullpen ranked 23rd in MLB. Craig Kimbrel, signed in the offseason by the Orioles, was supposed to step up to be the main stopper; instead, he pitched to a 5.33 ERA before getting DFA’d.
It was a deep lineup, with 2B Jordan Westburg, RF Colton Cowser, DH Ryan O’Hearn, 1B Ryan Mountcastle, and C Adley Rustchman all having had OPS+ figures over 100. But when that lineup stopped hitting late in the season, it set the stage for the Orioles to be swept by the Kansas City Royals in the AL Wildcard Round.
