Swing and Misses

1. Swing: Texas Rangers won in 7 games v Houston Astros in a series that was one more competitive and saw them win due to the depth and star-making of Adolis Garcia and the starters helping keep hitters like Jeremy Pena and Kyle Tucker to not driving in runs, as Tucker had over .400 batting average but did not even drive in a run and only scoring 2 runs. While Pena was kept under a .160 batting average and .192 on-base percentage,a year after winning the ALCS MVP, Pena barely got on base and didn't contribute to the offense. This is credited to Rangers starters Nathan Eovaldi and Jordan Montgomery. Montgomery, who was a trade deadline acquisition from the St. Louis Cardinals, was a huge reason why Astro's offense was shut down, because Monty struck out Yordan Alvarez 3 times in game 1. In a combined start, he threw a 1.29 ERA in 3 appearances and struck out 10 batters and only allowing 2 runs. Two years after losing 110 games, through prospect developing, free agents and trade. They've gone to the World Series through the work of GM Chris Young and Coach Bruce Bochy, who came out of retirement.

2. Miss: Phillies. After upsetting the Atlanta Braves for the second straight year in the NLDS, the Phillies got some momentum winning the first 2 games against the D-Backs. They would go back on the road to play in Arizona, and that's where it fell apart and Diamondbacks started winning games and taking advantage of the Phillies offense not scoring runs. In games 3 and 4, where they would score runs in the late game against Craig Kimbrel. One payer who would not contribute was Nick Castellanos who did not have a hit after his home run in Game 1. Then Game 6 and 7 was where the offense was the big players just didn't hit when they needed in critical situations like Harper flying out in 7th inning of Game 7 where they were down with 2 runners on base, were in NLCS game 5 in 2022 Harer hit a game-winning hr that sent the Phillies to the world series. So the offense that hit 15 hr in 4 games in the postseason, let them down in key spots.

3. Swing: Ravens. Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens starting 6 weeks into the season was iffy at times, where some games vs the Bengals looked like a super bowl team with one of the best offenses in football. Then they would show that potential vs the Detroit Lions. They would put up 38 points and 503 yards of offense. This is what Ravens offense would look like at its best when the receivers arent dropping passes from Lamar Jackson. Lamar would pass for 357 yards and throw 3 TD and not Interceptions. Also running for 36 yards on 9 attempts. Ravens are showing what kind of team they can be when not playing down to competition

4. Miss: NBA and load management. Coming into the 23-24 NBA season, the league's office and owners put rules into place to stop players was constantly resting by nationally televised games and just regular games. Like putting minumum games to play to win awards, and also putting fines and suspensions as punishment for resting on nationally televised games. While these rules are in place, the load management of players rest has started. Devin Booker resting versus the Lakers playing on TNT and Jimmy Butler resting against the Timberwolves. Just a few days into the season, load management is still a problem even with rules in place.

5. Swing: Adolis Garcia. The 2023 postseason had some star-making moments but one that it made Adolis Garcia into a postseason hero. In ALCS vs Astros, he would 5 hr in 4 games. He homered in 4 straight games. This included being hit in game 5, which would make what he did in the series more personal and would wake him up and the Rangers. He would hit a Grandslam in game 6 and 2 hr in game 7 which would push the Rangers to the World Series and Garcia would win the 2023 ALCS MVP. Putting Garcia on the map as one of the best clutch hitters in the game.