As always we just want to speak on the world before addressing baseball. Our stance is quite simple. Black Lives Matter. If you truly stand for equality, do everything you can to be an effective ally. We support progressive change and leaders trying to reform systematic oppression.
Now baseball.
The Owners are threatening to start a season with as little as 50-60 games if the players don’t agree to another salary cut. They are allowing states to decide if fans are allowed in the stadium for games. They seem to be going back on all earlier promises out of frustration of losing the negotiations in the publics’ eyes.
But what would a 60 game season look like? Well we took a look at the standings and Dodger stats after 60 games to see how different this year may be. Especially for the Dodgers and their historic (and disappointing) 2019.
Standings
We took the standings as of June 2nd because that is when the Dodgers played their 60th game. We understand that not every team had played exactly 60 games but for us, the world revolves around the Dodgers.
The Division winners on June 2nd are the Twins, Astros, and Yankees for the AL. The Dodgers, Brewers, and Phillies for the NL. The Wild Cards are the Rays, Rangers, Cubs, and Braves.
The AL stayed exactly the same besides the Rangers taking the A’s place in the wild card. The NL however completely shifted outside of the Dodgers. The Braves went on to win the East with WS champions Nationals somehow coming back to win 93 games and the Wild Card spot. The Cardinals overtook the Brewers pushing them to the WC and leaving the Cubs in the dust. Not to mention the Phillies who fell to 4th in the East, just above the Marlins.
Overall, of the 10 teams that made playoffs 3 would’ve not been there. Including the 2019 Champs. And 9 out of 10 teams would’ve been seeded differently. In short, the playoffs would’ve been almost 100% different. Funny for us, the Dodgers are the only team that wouldn’t have been affected.
Players Stats And Awards
These were the top 10 players by WAR on June 2nd. Cody Bellinger and Mike Trout were still the MVPs. Cody would’ve finished the season batting .376 because of his crazy hot start. His wRC+ of 203 would tie Barry Bonds in 2004 for 6th highest of all time.
However, we’re reminded how hot Joey Gallo was before breaking his hand. ROY Alonso stays but is joined now by Brandon Lowe of the Rays in the AL.
More importantly, this also gives us a baseline of what kind of counting stats we can roughly expect from league leaders if the 60 game season is enacted.
Stat Leaders on June 2nd (VS Full Season Leaders)
HRs: Christian Yelich 22 in 53 games (Alonso 53)
Runs: Trevor Story 53 in 57 games (Betts 135)
RBIs: Josh Bell 53 in 58 games (Rendon 126)
SBs: Adalberto Mondesi 21 in 58 games (Smith 46)
AVG: Cody Bellinger .376 in 58 games (Anderson .335)
OBP: Mike Trout .467 in 55 games (Trout .438)
SLG: Cody Bellinger .733 in 58 games (Yelich .671)
OPS: Cody Bellinger 1.195 in 58 games (Yelich 1.100)
The leaders changed in every category outside of OBP with Trout and the Counting Stat per game average came down closer to the mean. This means that in a 60 game season, we could see some record breaking average stats.
Pitcher Stats and Awards
Here are the top 10 ERA leaders on June 2nd. 2019 AL Cy Young Winner Verlander would still at least be in the discussion. However, the NL Winner Jacob Degrom ranked 31st at the time with a 3.49 ERA. Ryu would’ve been a lock for the Cy Young if the season had ended at 60 games. His ERA would be one of the lowest ever in the modern era.
Pitching Stat Leaders on June 2nd (Vs Full Season Leaders)
ERA: Ryu 1.48 (Ryu 2.32)
WHIP: Verlander 0.73 (Verlander 0.80)
AVG: Verlander .146 (Verlander .172)
SO: Scherzer 117 (Cole 326)
Wins: Verlander /Domingo German 9 each (Verlander 21)
Saves: Kirby Yates 22 (Yates 41)
WAR: Scherzer 3.5 (Minor 7.8)
Here we don’t see the leaders changing as often, but starting pitchers only pitch about 32 games a year if they pitch the whole season. Most pitchers do not anymore. Also pitchers starts are largely affected by the team they play for. Even though the leaders didn’t necessarily change their stats still did, and usually for the worse.
Overall the same goes for pitchers as hitters. A 60 game season could lead to new disproportionate stat leaders. We didn’t even touch on relievers because it’s very possible a few pitchers would finish the year with a 0 ERA.
Conclusion
A 60 game season would’ve meant a different World Series champion, different playoffs, extreme stat leaders, a litany of awards changing hands, and much much more we cannot even try to predict. Just for starters, all the pitchers who faced innings limits, injuries that happened throughout the year are more meaningful.
Dodger Dynasty 
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