Will home runs continue at absurd rates when baseball returns?

Pete Alonso led MLB with 53 homers in 2019.

Editor's note: I apologize for the radio silence on this blog as of late. I don't want to get caught up in the speculation of whether there will be a 2020 baseball season. I don't know. You don't know. Nobody knows, so why spend any time on it? I will try to do a better job in May of posting things that I find interesting about the great American game.

One of the things I'll be watching when baseball returns is whether home run totals continue to spike in video game-like fashion, as they did in 2019.

Most of us already are familiar with the absurd numbers. The 2018 New York Yankees set a single-season home run record, hitting 267 as a team. That record lasted one year, as four teams surpassed that total in 2019.

The Minnesota Twins hit an almost-unbelievable 307 homers as a team, followed by the Yankees (306), Houston Astros (288) and Los Angeles Dodgers (279).

Individual home run totals reached ridiculous heights as well, with 58 players totaling 30 home runs or more. How much of an outlier is that? Consider this chart:

Players with 30-plus home runs
2019: 58
2018: 27
2017: 41
2016: 38
2015: 20

A whopping 31 more players hit 30-plus homers in 2019 when compared to 2018. That total of 58 is even more than 2000, perhaps the height of the steroids era, when 47 players topped the 30-homer plateau.

Then there's this:

Players with 40-plus home runs
2019: 10
2018: 3
2017: 5
2016: 8
2015: 9

Ten players hitting 40-plus homers in 2019 pales in comparison to 2000, when 16 guys reached that milestone. But it's still a significant jump to go from three 40-home run hitters to 10 in one year's time.

Here's something else crazy to chew on while you're waiting out the COVID-19 pandemic: Before 2019, only 47 teams in the history of Major League Baseball hit 226 home runs in a season. In 2019, the league *average* was 226 homers -- that's equivalent to 25 home runs per spot in the batting order.

We already know we won't have a full 2020 season to use as a point of comparison, but if baseball resumes and we have, say, a 100-game season, if you see teams getting up to 140 or 150 home runs as a lineup, that's about the threshold where we'll be able to say the long-ball trend has continued.

Pete Alonso, Yordan Alvarez win Rookie of the Year awards

Pete Alonso

There wasn't much drama in this year's Rookie of the Year awards, was there?

Pete Alonso of the New York Mets collected 29 of the 30 first-place votes to win the National League honor, while Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros was a unanimous choice in the American League.

Alonso set a MLB rookie record with 53 home runs and batted .260/.358/.583 with 120 RBIs in 161 games. The previous record for rookie homers was set only two seasons ago, when Aaron Judge hit 52 in 2017.

Atlanta pitcher Mike Soroka got the other NL first-place vote and finished second, as he went 13-4 with a 2.68 ERA in 29 starts for the NL East champion Braves. San Diego shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. placed third in the balloting, despite playing only 84 games.

Tatis Jr. batted .317/.379/.590 with 22 home runs, 53 RBIs and 16 stolen bases in those 84 games, and he plays a premiere defensive position. If he had stayed healthy for a full season, it might have been a tight race between him and Alonso.

However, Alonso is the deserving winner because he produced at a high level and appeared in every Mets game but one.

In the American League, Alvarez also did not play a full season. He was not called up until June 9 and appeared in only 87 games. But, he batted .313/.412/.655 with 27 home runs and 78 RBIs while playing for the AL champion Astros. That's outstanding production in a pennant race, and it's impossible to argue with this selection.

Baltimore pitcher John Means finished second in the voting, going 12-11 with a 3.60 ERA in 31 games (27 starts). Given that the Orioles went 54-108, it is not too shabby for a rookie to finish over .500.

Tampa Bay's Brandon Lowe placed third after batting .270/.336/.514 with 17 home runs in 82 games. Lowe got injured and only played six games after the All-Star break, which essentially killed his candidacy for the award.

Actually, I'm a little surprised the Sox's Eloy Jimenez finished fourth and behind Lowe. Jimenez had an uneven season, but he did finish with 31 home runs and 79 RBIs in 122 games. I would have thought that would be enough for a top-three finish in a weak rookie crop, but the voters decided otherwise.

Regardless, none of these AL rookies played as well as Alvarez, and really, if you don't have a case for first (Jimenez doesn't), it probably isn't worth too much discussion.

White Sox representatives help American League win All-Star Game

White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito entered Tuesday's All-Star Game in the fourth inning and immediately walked Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman on four pitches.

None of the four pitches were anywhere close to being a strike, and Giolito's 3-0 pitch was so high it almost sailed over catcher Gary Sanchez's head.

I nervously shifted a little bit in my seat as I watched on TV. The American League was clinging to a 1-0 lead at the time, and as a fan, I never want a Sox pitcher to be the reason the AL loses the game.

Fortunately, Giolito made a nice recovery. He struck out Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder Cody Bellinger, who is the best player in the National League this season, on a 2-2 changeup for the first out. Four pitches later, Giolito was out of the inning.

He induced a grounder to third base off the bat of Colorado's Nolan Arenado for the second out. Pittsburgh first baseman Josh Bell then grounded out to second, stranding Freeman at second base.

Giolito threw only 13 pitches. He preserved the 1-0 lead, and the AL went on to beat the National League, 4-3, for its seventh straight victory in the midsummer classic. The AL has won 19 of the past 23 games -- a string of dominance reminiscent of what the NL did when I was a kid.

Sox catcher James McCann also contributed to the victory, singling in his only at-bat in the seventh inning. The hit to right-center moved Oakland third baseman Matt Chapman, who had walked, from first to third with nobody out. Chapman eventually scored when Xander Bogaerts grounded into a double play. That was part of a two-run inning that gave the AL a 4-1 edge.

The NL got two in the eighth on a two-out, two-run single by the New York Mets' Pete Alonso, but New York Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman struck out the side in the ninth to wrap up the AL win.

What about Jose Abreu, you ask? Well, he grounded into a double play in his only at-bat in the bottom of the eighth, but at least he hit it hard (103 mph exit velocity) -- right at NL shortstop Paul DeJong.

So, it wasn't a perfect night for Sox representatives, but it was a good night. Giolito and McCann contributed, and the AL won. I'll take it.