How Did You Feel About the 2015 Season? (National League)

Hello friends, and welcome to the National League version of Monday’s American League poll post. This is part of a little project, and after this I’m done gathering information, which means you’re done having to participate. (You don’t have to participate. But please do!) I don’t know exactly where the project is going to go, but I know I’d love to have the data.

I’ll copy and paste. This post is for fans of teams in the National League. If there are multiple teams you hold near and dear, feel free to vote in multiple polls. If you consider yourself more a fan of the game in general, then you can either sit this out, or vote in the poll for the team you feel most strongly about.

All I want to know: how did you feel about the 2015 season? As far as following your favorite team was concerned, how would you rate your overall fan experience? Use whatever criteria you like. How you feel is how you feel — vote according to that feeling. How was the regular season? Did the end spoil the middle? Did your team have a bunch of exciting young players? Did you love going to the ballpark? I understand there’s a lot of input here — there are months of individual days, each day with its own feeling. I just want to know your overall grade, as you reflect on the season that was. There are no wrong answers. Unless you lie to me for no reason.

All the polls are below. Click a team name to go straight to that part and bypass the others.

Braves
Brewers
Cardinals
Cubs
Diamondbacks
Dodgers
Giants
Marlins
Mets
Nationals
Padres
Phillies
Pirates
Reds
Rockies

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Braves

Give this to the Braves — though they weren’t expected to be very good, they were a .500 ballclub for a little more than half the year. On July 7, they were just four back in the division, and a half-game behind the Mets. From then on, they were baseball’s worst team, coming within spitting distance of 100 losses. They were last in the league in power and last in the league in runs, and they also ranked 13th in the NL in runs allowed, which they’d never done before. Some good things are happening in the system. Fewer have happened at the highest level.

Brewers

Two years ago, the Brewers topped out at 19 games above .500, and they finished up just two. This year, the Brewers decided to make a whole season out of the previous season’s second half, collapsing immediately out of the gate and never really recovering. In more promising news, some good things were seen from Taylor Jungmann and Jimmy Nelson. The Carlos Gomez trade was solid, bringing in a good amount of new, young ability. Domingo Santana wasn’t terrible. Yet the Brewers were irrelevant all year, and looking up in the standings would suggest the short-term future doesn’t look a lot better.

Cardinals

No Adam Wainwright, and still the Cardinals finished with baseball’s best record. No Adam Wainwright, and so many assorted other injuries, for that matter. The Cardinals hadn’t won 100 games in a decade. In their worst month, they went 15-13. That is, outside of October, when they finished the regular season 0-3 before losing three of four games in the NLDS to the Cubs. They spent the year holding the Cubs off, until the Cubs went and passed them by anyway. That’s a little kick in the ass.

Cubs

Sort of the NL’s version of the Astros. A little easier to see coming. Unlike with the Astros, Cubs fans don’t have to spend the offseason thinking about a playoff series they let get away. Unlike with the Astros, Cubs fans do have to spend the offseason thinking about a playoff series in which they got trounced. So many things went right; so many things are there to look forward to. In one sense, it’d been a while since the Cubs felt so close to the World Series. In another sense, they felt awful far away.

Diamondbacks

I can’t tell if it’s extra hard for the Diamondbacks to earn respect, but they definitely don’t get a lot of attention, aside from when Dave Stewart says something controversial. In fairness, they were something of an unremarkable baseball team, never having a good month or a bad one. The team was never a serious contender, but it did have the distinct privilege of playing Paul Goldschmidt every day. A.J. Pollock and David Peralta played every day. Patrick Corbin returned to join some other interesting young pitchers. This isn’t a wasteland, even though the Arizona desert ought to be.

Dodgers

After the middle of April, the Dodgers spent exactly one day out of first place — May 29. They were picked to win the West, and they did win the West, and they held off all the Giants’ challenges. They survived a number of injuries to win 92 games, but still there was this sense of underperformance, and it didn’t help anything that they got knocked out by the Mets in five games. The burden of expectations is such that it’s harder to be pleased. The Dodgers came with higher expectations than possibly anyone.

Giants

I don’t know what you make of a season like this. The Giants were pretty good, and were it not for a number of injuries, they would’ve finished better. The whole infield looks awesome when it’s healthy, and just for good measure fans got to see a Chris Heston no-hitter (on TV). Madison Bumgarner didn’t look worn down in the least from his 2014 innings total. Yet the pitching overall wasn’t very good, and the injuries happened, and the team didn’t make the playoffs after winning the World Series. After winning its third World Series in five freaking years. How much does any disappointment register? This is why I’m polling you, and not myself.

Marlins

To think, a good number of people thought they’d contend. And, wouldn’t you know it, but Dee Gordon quieted all his skeptics, and Adeiny Hechavarria turned himself into a capable double-play partner. Justin Bour emerged, and Christian Yelich cemented himself as one of the better young outfielders in baseball. But Giancarlo Stanton got hurt again. Jose Fernandez made just 11 starts. And while that left 151 other starts, I don’t really know who made any of them, because every pitcher hurt. I haven’t even mentioned the Dan Jennings stuff but I wouldn’t know where to begin.

Mets

July hit such an incredible low. At that point the Mets looked like a genuine laughingstock. I don’t know if Wilmer Flores was crying because he thought he’d been traded, or because he thought he hadn’t been. But it all went away. It was all rescued. The Mets got to play two and a half months of dream baseball, before losing a World Series where they led in every game.

Nationals

Probably the only team with expectations on the level of the Dodgers. With that in mind, then, relatively speaking, the Dodgers were a runaway success. Nationals fans got to witness one of the great breakthrough performances of all time, with Bryce Harper justifying every last teaspoon of hype, but I wonder if it could even be fully enjoyed and appreciated given the greater context of a team taking on water. Nine times out of 10, a team built like these Nationals has a strong regular season. This time, a team built like these Nationals went on to be these Nationals.

Padres

The 2014 – 2015 offseason fan experience, at least, would’ve rated through the roof. In the Padres’ best month, they went 13-11. In that month, they were outscored.

Phillies

Everyone knew they’d be dreadful. I’m sure the Phillies themselves, on some level, knew they’d be dreadful. There wasn’t any mystery about this. Things were going to be shuffled around, some stuff shipped out and some stuff brought in, and the only difference between the Phillies and the dry cleaner across the street from me is that the Phillies couldn’t literally close up shop while doing remodeling. With low expectations, it’s easier to find things to feel okay about. And the Cole Hamels trade was a big one, with the Phillies adding to an increasingly promising system.

Pirates

The last three years, the Pirates have won the second-most games in baseball, yet they’ve played just seven games in the playoffs. Unfortunate circumstances led to facing Jake Arrieta in a winner-take-all. Different unfortunate circumstances led to having to do that without Jung-ho Kang. Every Pirates fan said goodbye to 2015 with a sense of frustration. But 98 wins is 98 wins. It’s a long season, and the Pirates were awesome for most of it.

Reds

Not every team gets to use Aroldis Chapman. Not every team gets to use Joey Votto. Not every team gets to experience a few months of the good version of Johnny Cueto. Not every team gets to experience a few months of the good version of Todd Frazier. This is because not every team is the Reds. For that, just about every single other team is currently thankful.

Rockies

It’s not that the Rockies haven’t figured out how to win. They made the playoffs in 2007, they made the playoffs in 2009, and they finished over .500 in 2010. The problem is that too many of the players have been bad. This year, you could see some potential changing of the guard, with Nolan Arenado breaking out. The top of the farm system is promising, and more talent will be acquired when the Rockies deal Carlos Gonzalez. But it was overall a miserable year, again. A year that forced the Rockies into trading Troy Tulowitzki. It doesn’t feel good to trade a Troy Tulowitzki.