A few Sunday random takes

When three teams that each won division titles and more than 100 games last year all lost in their first playoff series and went a combined 1-9 last October, the theory was that the long layoff was an issue.

This year three of the four division winners, teams that once again had five-day layoffs before opening their Division Series, won to advance to the League Championship Series.

In 2023, the 104-win Atlanta Braves and the 101-win Orioles and Dodgers went out quick in the postseason.

But this year three division winners - the Yankees, Dodgers and Guardians - are moving on. The Los Angeles Dodgers shut out San Diego in Game 4 and Game 5 to advance to face the Mets for the National League Championship. The American League series, which starts at Yankee Stadium on Monday, has New York versus Cleveland. 

So much for the theory that the five-day layoff is too much to overcome. That narrative was fun while it lasted. 

The Orioles have had quick playoff outs for two years in a row now, once with the layoff and once without. 

When the 100-win teams did not advance last year the layoff seemed a problem. But this year it was not for the 98-win Dodgers, the 94-win Yankees and the 92-win Guardians.

By the way, last year the AL East went 0-7 in the postseason with Toronto, Tampa Bay and Baltimore all losing. That record went to 0-9 this year after the O's series with Kansas City. But - and it pains one to say this - the Yankees got the division in the win column, going 3-1 versus the Royals. But the AL East is still 3-10 in October the last two years.

The dollars: When it comes to the payrolls of the four teams still alive in the playoffs, the Mets come in tops at $335 million, with the Dodgers are $325 million, the Yankees $302 million and Cleveland at $103 million, per The Sporting News. 

According to Sportrac, this year the Orioles and Guardians were ranked 22nd and 23rd in the majors in team payroll. Sportrac has the O's at $110 million and Cleveland at $107 million.

The Dodgers: Maybe next October the Orioles can look to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who won a combined 211 games in 2022 and 2023, and then lost in the NL Division Series twice, going 1-6. 

Maybe the O's can look to them because of those playoff failures that they turned around this time.

With their 2-0 win in Game 5 versus San Diego Friday night, Los Angeles pitched shutouts in the last two games of that series and ended the series with 24 straight scoreless innings. This after San Diego had scored 21 runs in the first 20 innings of that series.

The Dodgers bullpen pitched to a 2.10 ERA in the five-game set over 25 2/3 innings. Former Oriole Evan Phillips pitched 4 1/3 scoreless versus the Padres.

Since the 2022 season, Philips has a 2.21 ERA over 179 innings for the Dodgers with 0.916 WHIP, 2.3 walks per nine innings and 10.4 strikeouts per nine.

O's make coaching changes: Whether they were fired, their contracts were not renewed or what exactly we should call it - the club hasn't told us exactly - the O's are not retaining three coaches.

Not returning next year are co-hitting coach Ryan Fuller, on the O's big league staff since 2022, bench coach Fredi González and major league coach José Hernández, both with the staff since 2019. González just completed his fifth year on the O's staff and 35th as a coach or manager in baseball.

The Orioles have not announced or commented on the changes and are not likely to provide much insight as the reasons for the moves. 

They came pretty swiftly, just a bit over a week since their season ended in the playoffs versus Kansas City.

I feel it is hard for a writer to know the effectiveness and the impact a coach might have or not have. We see their work each night at 7 p.m. but we never see all they do leading up to that, which is obviously considerable. 

Could more staff changes be coming? It is certainly possible, but it would seem more likely to me that this will be it.