Still to this day, we are infatuated with studying the fall of great civilizations, the Romans, the Mayans, the Sumerians, the Persians and the Incas, to name a few.
One day, perhaps our children will walk into a history class in college and study the fall of the 2023 Crox Sox.
On June 18 after Week 11, the Crox Sox were 162-116-34 and sitting in sole possession of first place in the American League. He had a 3.5-game lead on Breakfast, 22-game lead on Choo and 28.5 game lead over Topton.
It was a hard fall from glory, and I have to say, I understand a little more why he disappeared in the offseason.
Who wouldn't want to get away and forget the 2023 Crox Sox?
But it turns out, there's more to Crox's disappearance.
"Last year was an added benefit to the process," Crox said. "Similar to the Flyers of the 23-24 season, we stuck with the process and picked up some valuable experience while exceeding early expectations. While I feel the Flyers can keep it going, the younger core of the Calcetines de Cocodrilos just weren’t ready for the full on grind. Lots of late hours with the strength and conditioning coaches this year paired with the experience from last year sets these boys up for going the distance."
And those late hours — of falling asleep instead of making trade talk with the night owls of the JLB — led to a fairly stagnant offseason. It wasn't until the day before the keeper deadline that he made a big move, adding Masataka Yoshida to his Soxy roster.
At the end of the day, though, his patience may have paid off. The S-Scale has the Crox Sox sitting in a good spot and ready to compete, which isn't surprising to the offseason's hibernating bear.
"Never a shadow of a doubt," he said, stretching after a long winter's slumber. "Last year was a transition year for the squad. Opportunity presented itself to get a little younger in certain areas while keeping the core together and we did just that. A lack of moves this offseason were more to do with the activity that took place over the 18 months prior to that."
Looking at the 2024 Crox Sox, it's easy to see why he'll be in the mix for sure.
He has a solid lineup that has a decent mix of power and run production. His only knock would be the age of some of the key players, Christian Yelich, Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story and Nick Castellanos, but they all (outside of Story) had strong seasons in 2023 and they were key in the Crox Sox rise to first place.
"The old heads," Crox said, realizing their age in relation to his but continuing on anyway, "Nolan and Yeli had solid years last year. While they may not be the years we’ve grown accustomed too from yesteryear, they don’t need to carry this team anymore and just need to focus on playing baseball. Yeli made significant strides from the 2 years prior so I’m really hoping he can keep this trajectory going."
Yelich had his best season since 2019, batting .278 with 19 homers, 76 RBIs, 78 walks, 106 runs and 28 stolen bases.
Arenado had his lowest home run total since 2014, but he was still rather productive on a bad Cardinals team with 26 HRs and 93 RBIs. One would think that the Cardinals should be able to get on base a little more in 2024 and help him drive in some more runs.
In any case, he's going to rely on some sort of strong offensive output from them, but he'll also need the young guys — particularly Royce Lewis and Luis Robert — to stay healthy for the season and take another step forward. They both have 30-plus-homer potential and I have to say I'm really excited for what Lewis can do this season.
"He’s exciting to watch," Crox said. "I’m not going to set expectations higher than Fantrax's already high expectations, but for me it’s more a matter of health for him. If he can get a full season in, I see him living up to the hype and posted 25-plus/100 with perhaps sprinkling in 90 runs. Who knows, maybe he makes Arenado available mid-season for a team to make a run."
On the pitching side, I think the Crox is set up nicely to compete with the top teams. He has five starting pitchers who could hit the coveted 200 strikeouts this year, and he has some young starters who are on the cusp in Brayan Bello and Bobby Miller. They may not reach 200 this year but they are certainly in line to have an impact.
"I’ve always gone big on pitching and it always bites me in a** with injuries," Crox said. "That’s what changed the strategy about a year and half ago where it was to focus on developing younger arms vs going all-in on bigger ones. I’m excited about this group and that side of the roster made keep selections really hard. They’ve got a solid vet presence in the locker room to learn from so I can see this group going toe to toe with anyone’s."
I agree. And this year, I think they not only go toe-to-toe, but I think they perform wire-to-wire.
And if it ends in a World Series title? Well, that'd certainly be one for the history books.
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