Rozner: Year of baseball superteams never happened

Predictions have many widows.

And, eternally, hindsight has many geniuses.

This is baseball, as it has always been, but never more so than in this era of hypersensitivity and instant overreaction.

It was to be the year of the "superteam," a boring 2018 season in which there would be no division races, when seven teams would win 100 games and dozens of bottom feeders would serve only as fodder for the clubs that could not possibly lose.

But a funny thing happened on the way to those coronations.

The 95-win Cubs did not cruise in the Central Division and, in fact, lost in Game 163 to the Brewers, who nearly made it to the World Series as something far less than a perfect club.

The 82-win Nationals didn't skate to their division title. Their season was over by the all-star break, the young Braves winning the East by 8 games.

The 92-win Dodgers were pressed by the Rockies and Diamondbacks to the very end, also having to win a Game 163 against Colorado. As late as May 16, Los Angeles was 16-26 and 8½ games out of first.

The Yankees were the team of teams, compared often to the '27 Yanks in the preseason and certain to win the World Series. They didn't even win the A.L. East or a playoff series. They did win 100 games, to their credit, but landed 8 games back of Boston.

The Astros were supposed to stroll in the West but did no such thing. Houston finally pulled away in September and won 103 games, joining the Red Sox and Yanks in the 100-win club.

The Indians did have an easy time in the dreadful Central, but won 91 games and never really looked as if they could handle the best of the American League.

Superteams? Depends on your definition, probably, but struggling to win a division doesn't sound like a superteam, which leaves only the Red Sox, and even they have flaws.

Point is, this baseball season wasn't nearly the tragedy it was made out to be in March, when there were screams for salary caps, salary floors and immediate changes to the CBA.

Eight months is a long time to play baseball, and there will be injuries and poor performances that affect even the best teams.

And that brings us back to the Cubs, condemned by the experts to spend the off-season under the giant umbrella of failure.

Of course there is disappointment. No one feels that more than Theo Epstein.

But good luck building a perfect team and have it in perfect form going into the postseason. Not even the Red Sox and Dodgers could have said that a few weeks ago.

The defending-champion Astros appeared to have the fewest flaws of any club on October 1, but injuries to Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa really hurt them in the playoffs.

Sorry, but that's baseball.

The Cubs were a surprise in 2015 and had it all going their way before running into Daniel Murphy and a sizzling Mets starting rotation in the NLCS.

It was about as good as it gets in 2016, clinching early and having a chance to rest before the tournament began, but the Cubs were exhausted in 2017 and the Washington series left them with nothing in the tank when they got to Los Angeles.

The Cubs talked a lot about that last winter and in spring training this year, needing to get it done on time so that they could relax and recharge before October, keeping some powder dry for when it mattered most.

But it was far from perfect. They didn't pitch in the first half, stressing the bullpen, and they didn't hit in the second half, stressing the entire staff.

They fought to the end, but Milwaukee simply wasn't going to lose a game when it mattered and the Brewers earned that division title.

So how do you get it right? How do you ensure the best ending to the season? How do you find the ideal posture just before the postseason?

The answer is you probably don't. It's nearly impossible.

There are no perfect teams and there is no guarantee that you're healthy, hitting and pitching as you begin the playoffs.

If you don't win the last game of the playoffs, you look for ways to get better and do all you can to find the depth that protects you from poor performance and injuries.

That's what makes the notion of superteams laughable, because just when you think you have all you need, there will be 10 problems you didn't foresee.

Lots of good teams make the playoffs, but without health it doesn't much matter.

In another week, there will be one champion and nine playoff teams believing they were close to winning it all, wondering how they can be just a little bit better in 2019.

But, hey, nobody's perfect.