MLB trends Who have been baseballs best

The All-Star break is in the rearview Jay Bruce Jersey mirror and the chaos of the trade deadline is only two days away. We're in crunch time now. We've reached the second half of the regular season and the dog days of the summer are right around the corner. As part of our weekly series breaking down trends acro s the league, . This week we're going to shift gears a bit and look back at the 2020-21 seasons combined, which conveniently work out to 162 games played for most teams. We're going to look at one "season" spanning two calendar years. Let's get to it. Not every team has played exactly 162 games since Opening Day 2020 but most are in the ballpark. The were on the low end at 157 games played going into Tuesday. Several teams were right at 162 games. Because we have an uneven number of games played, we'll round to 162 for some teams. Got it?First up, here are the combined 2020-21 standings for the American League AL EastAL CentralAL West1. : 101-61 (.623) 1. : 95-67 (.586) 1. : 93-69 (.574) 2. : 87-75 (.537) 2. : 87-75 (.537) 2. : 91-71 (.561) 3. : 86-76 (.531) 3. : 80-82 (.494) 3. : 82-80 (.506) 4. Toronto Blue Jays: 84-78 (.519) 4. : 71-91 (.438) 4. : 77-85 (.475) 5. : 60-102 (.370) 5. : 71-91 (.438) 5. : 58-104 (.358) The Twins won the AL Central last season Tug McGraw Jersey yet slip all the way to third place (with a sub-.500 record) because he's had such a poor season this year. On the flip side, the Red Sox had the fourth worst record in baseball last season, yet their succe s this year vaults them all the way into second place in the AL East, and a tie with Cleveland for the second wild card spot.Last year's 29-31 record is enough to keep the Astros out of first place in the AL West in our combined 2020-21 standings, but only barely. The A's are hanging on to a slim two-game lead. The Mariners are objectively hilarious. They're two games over .500 the last two seasons despite being outscored by 98 runs. 98 runs! That run differential says they should be closer to 70-92. Crazy. Not surprisingly, the Rangers still hold the worst record in the American League. They had the worst record in the league last year and they were only one game ahead of the Orioles for the worst record in the league this season going into Tuesday. I can't imagine the Royals feel good about having the same 2020-21 record as the Tigers after spending money this past offseason. Now here are the combined 2020-21 National League standings: NL EastNL CentralNL West1. : 85-77 (.525) 1. : 88-74 (.544) 1. : 106-57 (.646) 2. : 81-81 (.500) 2. : 85-77 (.525) 2. : 95-67 (.586) 3. : 80-82 (.491) 3. : 83-79 (.513) 3. : 93-69 (.572) 4. : 75-87 (.463) 4. : 82-80 (.506) 4. : 70-92 (.431) 5. : 72-90 (.447) 5. : 58-104 (.358) 5. : 56-106 (.348) Hoo boy, look at that NL West. The three best teams in the league (and three of the five best teams in baseball) reside in the same division. Noah Syndergaard Jersey The Giants went 29-31 last season, remember. They finished tied with the Brewers for the No. 8 postseason spot, but Milwaukee held the tiebreaker and went to the postseason while the Giants went home. San Francisco now has baseball's best record. The NL East is oppre sively mediocre. The Braves have the best 2020-21 record in the division and that record would land them in place in the AL East and NL West. Four of the other five divisions have at least three teams with winning records. The NL East has one. And finally, congrats to the D-Backs. They'll hold the No. 1 pick in the draft thanks to their combined 2020-21 record. Too bad this isn't real life and that doesn't matter at all. Last year used an expanded 16-team postseason field to account for the shortened season (teams had le s time to let their true talent shine through in the regular season) and also to make more money after losing revenue during the pandemic. It was fine. I don't really want to see an expanded postseason again, but during the pandemic season, it was fine. MLB is going back to the standard 10-team postseason format this year, and since our combined 2020-21 records approximate a full 162-game, that's the postseason format we'll use here. Here's the bracket: AMERICAN LEAGUE Wild Card Game: Cleveland (wins hypothetical tiebreaker over Red Sox via qualifying for 2020 postseason) at Astros ALDS1: Wild Card Game winner at Rays ALDS2: Athletics at White Sox NATIONAL LEAGUE Wild Card Game: Giants at Padres NLDS1: Wild Todd Frazier Jersey Card Game winner at Dodgers NLDS2: Braves at Brewers That AL bracket is definitely not what MLB wants. No Yankees and no Red Sox, so two of your biggest ratings drivers are out. The White Sox are good and fun though, so this postseason would be their time to shine and jump into the national spotlight. Also, basically everyone outside Houston will tune in to hate-watch the Astros. The NL bracket, on the other hand, is pretty excellent. You have a dynamite Wild Card Game that sets up an NL West showdown in the NLDS, plus you get that Milwaukee pitching staff against a very fun Braves lineup. I'm an AL guy (long live the DH) but the NL bracket is far more appealing in our 2020-21 hypothetical. That's where the action would be. We all wasted a lot of breath discu sing the po sibility that someone would hit .400 during Dwight Gooden Jersey the shortened 60-game season and no one came close. led baseball with a .364 batting average and it goes to show how difficult it is to hit .400. Even in an abbreviated season, no one sniffed it. Players need 3.1 plate appearances per team game to qualify for the batting title, or 502 plate appearances in a 162-game season. Since our combined 2020-21 records cover 162 games (or thereabouts), we'll stick with 502 plate appearances as our cutoff. Here are the 2020-21 leaders in the triple-slash categories: Batting averageOn-base percentageSlugging percentageOPS+1. : .326 1. : .444 1. Jr.: .614 1. Juan Soto: 179 2. : .320 2. : .420 2. Jr.: .591 2. Fernando Tatis Jr.: 170 3. Juan Soto: .312 3. : .40