2021 National League lineal turns East

The Dodgers, San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants are among the early leaders in the 2021 race for the National League lineal championship, but the prize rested in the East as the All-Star break arrived.

The National League traveling championship spent the first two months of the season on the West Coast, so the Dodgers, San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants are among the contenders at the All-Star break.

But the break came with the championship crawling along the East Coast, passing successively to the Washington Nationals, the Miami Marlins, the Atlanta Braves and, later, the New York Mets. The Mets are the title holder at the pause, and they will put it on the line at home against the Atlanta Braves July 26-29.

It seems, though, that no team east of the San Joaquin Valley has the goods to sustain a championship streak. Perhaps the Milwaukee Brewers can do it, but they, and the St. Louis Cardinals, are the two clubs in the NL yet to play for this championship.

The Giants controlled the championship for most of a month, from May 9 to June 6, playing for it consistently during that period. In that time, the Giants won the title twice and defended it three times, losing only to a challenge to the Dodgers, but immediately winning it back in a counter-challenge.

Then the Giants ventured to Washington and lost two of three June 11-13. The title has been in the east ever since.

Rockies rise to 2019 NL traveling title

The Colorado Rockies secured a berth in the 2021 Super League by winning the 2019 National League traveling championship on criteria.

Trying to work out the best way of determining the best lineal championship performance at the end of a sports season has proved, not surprisingly, to be a continuous process. Difficulties lie in many folds, for there are many ways to value these performances.

So, we'll keep tweaking until we think we have it right, or close enough to it. For the league-wide lineal baseball championships in 2019, we decided to make a slight adjustment, not in the criteria for determining the year's champion, but in the criteria for deciding which teams get to be considered.

For 2018, the first year, the requirement was at least two championships and at least three defenses, or one championship with six defenses. Second thoughts have ensued, complaining that the criteria under-valued championship defenses, which amounted to over-valuing championships (relative to defenses). Ideally, we want criteria that equally values challenging for the championship successfully, defending the championship successfully and competing successfully against the top contenders.

Anyway, the decision was made now to reduce the number of necessary defenses for a team with one championship down from six to four. So, two championships and three defenses comes to the same as one championship and four defenses. Either way, it's five series wins for the championship.

Along the same lines, then, we'll put the other qualifying levels at three championships with two defenses, four championships and one defense, and five championships with no defenses. In addition, however, any team that has won at least one championship will have its number of required defenses reduced by one if it has never failed a championship challenge. In other words, a team that only had one chance to challenge for the championship and succeeded needs only three defenses to qualify. A team with one title in two challenges still would need four defenses.

Tedious, we know, but it needs to be on the record. Going forward, that's how we'll run the lineal championships in baseball. We already have, however, published the inter-league championship for 2019, so we did that one the old way, but it would not have changed the outcome. In the National League, though, it amounted to two teams qualifying for the 2019 stat-off that would not have made it otherwise, and it made a difference.

Take a look again, if you'd like, at the standings and results from the National League in 2019, or any league in any year, and ask yourself which team should be named the champion. It's usually not obvious. We used to just eyeball it, but now we need a defensible decision method so we can have a more defensible decision, as the result of that decision determines a Super League berth for the next year.

First, as we've explained before, we have to decide which teams go into the criteria mix, in effect, becoming the finalists for the annual lineal championship. By the criteria we have just laid out, we get four clubs -- the Atlanta Braves, Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers and Washington Nationals.

Now, we set out the criteria. All four teams are considered by each criterion. The best team gets the full point for the criterion. If two or more teams finish tied at the top in some category, they split the point evenly. We have seven criteria. The team with the most criteria points wins. If it's tied, then we go to head-to-team among the teams that are tied. If it's still tied after that, we declare co-champions and the Elite Division berth goes to the team that has gone longest since being in the Elite Division. If it's still tied after that, then we declare a co-champion and no team goes to the Elite Division.

Next, we lay out the criteria and list the team that won, with the winning total, or average, if that's what it is:

1. Most championships. (Colorado, 4).

2. Most title defenses per championship. (Washington, Milwaukee, four each).

3. Best winning percentage in traveling championship games. (Atlanta, .641).

4. Most victories per time playing for the championship. (Milwaukee, 2.375).

5. Most games as champion per time playing for the championship. (Washington, 2.43).

6. Fewest failed challenges. (Colorado, 0).

7. Head-to-head record in traveling championship games (Colorado, 10-4. Others were Atlanta 7-8, Washington 4-5 and Milwaukee 3-7).

Add it all up and the Rockies won three categories of the seven, Milwaukee and Washington each won 1.5 and Atlanta won one. 

Thus, the Rockies win the championship for the season, and the Elite Division berth, which they needed, as they didn't qualify in the pyramid.

We like the criteria system because if you ask the criteria why the Rockies won the championship, the criteria gives you a straight answer: Because the Rockies won the most titles, they won the title every time they challenged for it, they demolished the other contenders head-to-head for the title and no other team can make an equivalent case. All of that is right there in the information provided by the standings and results, but we need criteria to put that information through relevant questioning.

The Rockies did most of their work in April, taking the prize from the San Diego Padres on the road, then defending the championship four times. It would be the only four title defenses the Rockies would register all season, but three of them were against Atlanta, Milwaukee and Washington, saddling each with a failed challenge. That would loom huge on Criterion No. 6, which Colorado won almost entirely through that run of games.

The Rockies held on for 17 games of defense before losing it to the Arizona Diamondbacks in May. The Braves immediately snatched the prize from Arizona and tore out four defenses amounting to 15 games of title defense, pulling nearly even with the Rockies.

However, the Washington Nationals who took the championship with a two-game sweep from Atlanta May 28-29, then mounted a 17-game defense before the Braves took it back by winning two of three in Washington June 21-23. With the victory, the Braves not only stopped Washington at 17, but they also picked up the four games of defense, bringing themselves to the  lead at 19, when they immediately split four with the Chicago Cubs, who took the tiebreaker.

Colorado returned to the fray in July rather fortunately. After winning the prize from the Reds, the Rockies immediately lost four straight to the San Francisco Giants. So, they get dinged for failing to defend, but they still claimed four games of defense, launching ahead of the Braves with 21.

Another victory in late August added seven games for the Braves, bringing their total to 26 before they visited Colorado on Aug. 26 to make up a game postponed by weather in April. By simply winning that game, 3-1, on a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth, the Rockies also added four games of defense despite being immediately swept four games by the Pittsburgh Pirates, so now they were up to 25, needing one more to tie the Braves. In addition, the Rockies stopped the Braves from accumulating more numbers.

Within a week, the Milwaukee Brewers won the title with a four-game sweep of the Florida Marlins, starting a torrid 15-2 title run with four title defenses that took them all the way from nowhere to the criteria leader before they visited Colorado for the final series of the regular season, Sept. 27-29.

The stakes were clear. The winner of the series would win the lineal title for the year. After the Rockies claimed an 11-7 win in the opener, they clinched the next day with a 3-2 win on Trevor Story's tenth-inning homer against Matt Albers.

D-Backs nudge Dodger in NL traveling title decision

Because a new league is being introduced, new criteria are needed to make firmer decisions about who actually is the Team of the Year in these baseball traveling championships. The criteria worked out badly in 2018 for the Dodgers.

The introduction of a new championship division that would over-arch the traveling, pyramid and regional baseball championships on these pages will impose the most dramatic adjustments on the traveling championships.

The traveling titles shall continue to function as always, but the process of deciding which team is the best traveling championship team of the season has long been in need of refinement. Until now, the need has never been pressing and the decision has been more amusing than not. The process wasn't designed altogether for justice or accountability. After all, absolutely nothing was riding on being named Team of the Year.

The brand new elite division changes that, holding open a championship berth for each of the several traveling champions -- those tracking the two major leagues and the one across the major leagues, all of which will enter their ninth year in 2019, and the new titles going through our mythical West, East, North and South Leagues. The new leagues are running traveling championships for the first time in 2019, so their winners will be in the mix for the 2020 Elite Division.

When we say each of these traveling competitions receives a "championship berth," we mean that the champion is guaranteed entry into the Elite Division, not that the traveling competition gets a berth. That is, if the season's traveling champ in some league has qualified by some other means, the next team down doesn't receive an invitation.

Needing some kind of objective, measurable criteria by which to determine a champion, it turns out we have plenty to take from the information published here. Thus, the following seven criteria are set out for determining the championship. Whatever team comes out on top in the most criteria is the champion.

First, of course, it's necessary to winnow down our participants to the few contenders who meet some minimum standard. To be eligible for the "stat-off," a team must have won at least two championships and posted at least three defenses, or one championship with at least six defenses. That will lop off 80 percent of the teams and still include everyone who could plausibly claim to be the best.

Next, the criteria:

1. Most championships.

2. Most title defenses per championship.

3. Best winning percentage in traveling championship games.

4. Most victories per time playing for the championship.

5. Most games as champion per time playing for the championship.

6. Fewest failed challenges.

7. Head-to-head record in traveling championship games.

In the event that no winner is decided through this process, the trump criterion shall be head-to-head record. If there is no head-to-head, then we shall revert to total championships plus successful defenses, then total games of championship.

It makes a difference, which comes through when we look at the traveling title among National League clubs in 2018. Any other year, we would look at these standings and the Dodgers stand out as, obviously, the Team of the Year. How often do we see 48 games in a baseball season with a traveling championship? Four titles in one year? 

So, we apply the criteria and, you know, the criteria generate an evidence base amounting to an argument for the team they select, and they give due credit to the Dodgers for four titles and 48 games with the title -- and, yet, it's not the Dodgers. It's the Arizona Diamondbacks.

So, just as in the First Division, the Dodgers are denied entry to the Elite Division for their inability to handle the Arizona squad. It came down to head-to-head. By the criteria, the Diamondbacks and Dodgers came up even, each winning three. But one of the categories belonging to the Diamondbacks trumps the rest.

1. Most championships (Dodgers four, Arizona two).

2. Most title defenses per championship (Arizona 3.5, Dodgers 2.5).

3. Best winning percentage in traveling championship games (Arizona .595, Dodgers .560).

4. Most victories per time playing for the championship (Dodgers 1.85, Arizona 1.83).

5. Most games as champion per time playing for the championship (Dodgers 2.4, Arizona 2.33).

6. Fewest failed challenges (one each).

7. Head-to-head record in traveling championship games (Arizona, 9-4).

In addition to importing the title from 2017, the Dodgers won four more and held the title at some point in every month of the season except August. With 48 games of title defense, the Dodgers far outpaced the second-best team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, who had 28.

Though the Dodgers whipped Arizona in the standings, the Diamondbacks whipped the Dodgers on the field during this competition. The two clubs met four times for the championship, with the Diamondbacks winning three and the other ending in a 2-2 draw.

Two of those Arizona victories ended Dodger championships. The first of those was a three-game sweep in Arizona April 2-4 to take the title to the desert for a 25-game defense that included turning back a challenge from the Dodgers April 13-15 at Dodger Stadium. Another Diamondbacks victory ended a 13-game Dodger title run in September.

The one time the Diamondbacks didn't win, it was just barely. A four-game series in Arizona had to go into tiebreakers. The first, total runs, was tied, 15-15. The second is total strikeouts, which went 35-32 for the Dodgers.

Cards capture 2018 interleague travel title with torrid finish

The St. Louis Cardinals, who once could not lose the traveling championship among the National League clubs, finally have an undisputed crown across the big leagues after a strong finish to their 2018 season.

The St. Louis Cardinals dominated the early years of the National League traveling championship, topping the standings in each of its first five seasons. But their laurels in the traveling title across all of baseball have been limited to a disputed decision over the Boston Red Sox in 2013.

The Cardinals finally won the big league traveler, decisively, in 2018, with a title run that consumed all of August. The Cards knocked the Cincinnati Reds off the top position long before Cincinnati thwarted their ninth defense attempt Aug. 31-Sept. 2 in St. Louis by winning two of three.

The Reds still could have caught the Cardinals with four or five defenses, but they couldn't even start the first one, losing a three-game sweep to the Pittsburgh Pirates Sept. 3-5 in Pittsburgh. The Cardinals finished with 32 games of title defense, compared with 20 for the Reds. The Cardinals were 28-15 in title games, well ahead of the second-place Reds at 15-10.

The title had spent all but 10 days in the American League when the Reds put a two-game sweep on the Detroit Tigers in Cincinnati June 19-20. The Reds succeeded with three title defenses before dropping two of three to the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field July 6-8.

Dodgers drop Cubs at NL traveler finish

The Chicago Cubs stormed through September so fiercely that they went to October with a chance to for Team of the Year in the National League traveling championship. But the Dodgers put a stop to that in the National League Championship Series.

The Chicago Cubs turned a season nowhere near the 2017 National League (NL) traveling championship into a photo finish at the end. But they fell short in their bid to wrest the season title from the Dodgers during the NL Championship Series (NLCS).

The final numbers show the Cubs with 27 games of title defense, compared with 23 for the Dodgers. That puts the Cubs on top of the final standings, but does it make them Team of the Year?

The Cubs won the title twice and defended it five times in seven tries. But the Dodgers won four championships, even though they managed only four defenses in seven tries. The Dodgers played for the title 12 times, fashioning a 27-13 record in those games, while the Cubs were 22-17 in their 11 tries for the championship.

Most of all, though, in the end, when season honors were on the line, the Dodgers thumped the Cubs in a five-game NLCS. So, even though the Cubs are on top of the standings, the Dodgers have most else in their favor, including the prize at the end of the season. The Dodgers are Team of the Year.

But the Cubs were the better story. As the Cubs began a three-game series at Wrigley Field against the New York Mets on Sept. 12, they were a sorry 4-8 in games for the NL traveler, including one title with no defenses, as well as two other failed attempts at the crown.

The Cubs then went streaking, sweeping the Mets, then the St. Louis Cardinals at home, winning three out of four on the road against the Milwaukee Brewers, then winning three of four in St. Louis. Back home to end the regular season, the Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds two out of three.

Coincidentally, the Cubs held a mere two-game lead in the NL Central as the Sept. 12 games began, so their rally to the end conferred the additional benefit of a division title, which they won by six games. From Sept. 12 to the end of the regular season, the Cubs were 14-3 with five series victories.  

The Cubs took the prize through the NL Division Series (NLDS), defeating the Washington Nationals in five games. But the Dodgers, taking the Cubs down so decisively with four wins in a five-game NLCS, rightly claimed the title at the end.

Braves find bats in June for long NL traveler run

Suddenly hitting like they haven't hit in years, the Atlanta Braves are on a long journey with the National League traveling championship, scoring 1.7 runs per game more than they had all season since visiting Washington earlier this month.

Ender Inciarte batted .352 on a just-completed Atlanta Braves homestand and has added 101 points to his batting average since April 23 (Arturo Pardavila III/Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license [UC International crop]).

You wouldn't expect a banjo-hitting club like the Atlanta Braves to get well against a powerful pitching staff such as that of the Washington Nationals, but look what happened.

The Braves went to Washington on June 12 off of three consecutive games in which they scored one run. Then, the Braves won two of three against the Nationals, scoring 29 runs in the three games. In the first game, an 11-10 win, they knocked out Stephen Strasburg with six runs in five innings. In the third, a 13-2 win, they beat up Tanner Roark with seven runs in five innings.

Not incidentally, the Braves won the traveling championship in that series. And they have maintained it now for three defenses. During this run of winning and maintaining the championship, the Braves averaged 6.1 runs per game, and that's with two shutouts included.

The Braves not only are 9-4 in this run of games, but they batted .289 with an .801 OPS while averaging 6.1 runs per game. They have scored 22 percent of their runs in these 13 games, bringing their runs per game from 4.4 to 4.69, which puts them just past the big league average of 4.68. They also have raised their batting average to .268 and their OPS to .747.

Many players have contributed. Matt Adams, acquired on May 20 after an injury to first baseman Freddie Freeman, joined the club with 12 homers in his first 31 games with the Braves. He also has 16 two-out RBI with the Braves.

But the Braves are getting hits all over their infield. Second baseman Brandon Phillips entered games of June 24 with a batting average of .333 (47-for-141) and a .382 on-base percentage dating to May 16. He hit home runs in three consecutive games last week.

The shortstop, Dansby Swanson, entered the June 25 games with an eight-game hitting streak, and, since June 7, batted .348 (23-for-66) with a .397 on-base percentage. The third baseman, Johan Camargo, was called up for the third time this season on June 2. He appears to have claimed his position since then put together a five-game hitting streak from June 16-20, with the last four of those being multi-hit games. He batted .352 (12-for-34) on a 10-game homestand the Braves completed on June 25. They won seven of those games.

Ender Inciarte batted .341 (15-for-44) during the homestand. He now has two or more hits in five of his last eight games, he leads the big leagues with 64 hits and he has 30 multi-hit games. Inciarte has added 101 points to his batting average since April 23, raising it to .309.

The homestand featured National League traveling championship defenses against the Miami Marlins, the San Francisco Giants and the Milwaukee Brewers.

Now, the Braves go on the road, to San Diego, where they will put the title on the line against the San Diego Padres in a three-games series Tuesday through Thursday.

Dodgers dominate to capture NL traveling title

The Dodgers are finishing May by making a big move with the National League traveling championship. Hitting and pitching at a high level, the Dodgers are angling to become the third team this year to defend the title.

Cody Bellinger hit two homers for the Dodgers in a four-game stretch for the Dodgers while they played for the National League traveling championship (Johnmaxmena2/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license).

Closing out May, the Dodgers are playing their best baseball of the 2017 season. With five straight wins through May 29, the Dodgers aren't just winning. They are dominating.

It happens that the last four of those victories coincide with the traveling championship across the National League. The Dodgers now hold the title for the second time this season.

The Chicago Cubs arrived at Dodger Stadium with the NL traveling title on May 26, but it wasn't long before the Dodgers took it away. The Dodgers won three straight from the Cubs by a combined score of 18-4.

The Dodgers began a four-game series in St. Louis on May 30 with a 5-1 win against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Looking a little more closely at this four-game run by the Dodgers, we can see how sharp they've been against the defending World Champions and another club that has been a king in the NL for this entire century.

In those four games, the Dodgers hit 10 home runs. Balance has been key. Chase Utley and Cody Bellinger were the only Dodgers with two homers in this small run, so six players hit the other six homers.

As the composite batting numbers from the four games show (courtesy of baseball-reference.com), the Dodgers batted only .250. But 16 walks and 10 homers papers over a lot of batted-ball outs. They also paper over a lot of non-batted outs. The Dodgers struck out 41 times in these four games, the one disturbing trend across the team.

Pitcher by pitcher, start by start – and especially reliever by reliever – the Dodgers were all but untouchable. Their staff ERA in the four games was 1.25

On May 26, Dodgers left-hander Alex Wood pitched five shutout innings. He won, raising his mark to 6-0 and dropping his ERA to 1.69. Pedro Baez and Chris Hatcher each pitched two shutout relief innings to secure a 4-0 win.

The next day, Brandon McCarthy pitched six shutout innings, improving his numbers to 5-1 and 3.28. Ross Stripling finished a 5-0 win against the Cubs with three shutout innings.

On May 28, all of America anticipated a pitcher's duel between Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers and Jon Lester of the Cubs. But Lester lasted not even four innings, and Kershaw hung around for barely more than that. Four Dodgers relievers combined for 4 2/3 hitless, shutout innings in a 9-4 Dodgers win.

On to St. Louis. On May 29, Dodgers starter Rich Hill gave up one run in five innings. Four Dodgers relievers combined for four shutout innings in a 5-1 win for the Dodgers.

The pitching numbers (from baseball-reference.com) are here, but one key set of numbers isn't. In these four games, the Dodgers produced 15 shutout relief innings.

Long-term, the Dodgers won't hold up if four out of five starts last only five innings. Their batters can't be striking out 10 times per game, either. Short-term, though, the Dodgers rolled up key wins against strong competition. And dominated with the NL traveling championship.

Famously, the Cardinals have owned the traveling championship in the NL since it launched in 2011. But the early indications in 2017 show that we could see different results.

The Cardinals whiffed on their first try at the NL traveler when they lost two of three at home to the San Francisco Giants May 19-21. With their Monday loss to the Dodgers, the Cardinals lost four of their first five games with the NL traveler this season.

The leading teams so far in 2017 are the Dodgers, the Giants and the Miami Marlins. The Marlins notched a title with three defenses in April. The Giants have a title with two defenses in May.

The Dodgers, Giants, Marlins, Cubs, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds all have won titles this season. But the Marlins and Giants are the only clubs to successfully defend it.

The Dodgers and Giants are the only clubs that have won it twice this season.