Category: Baseball
Top Contending Teams Struggling with Defense
The National League Wild Card race is heating up, with eight teams in contention and separated by just four and a half games in the standings. Among these teams are five below .500 squads, struggling with their flaws on a daily basis. Some of these teams are facing challenges due to their defensive shortcomings. Team…
Is the Trend of Delayed Steals Accelerating in Baseball?
Sam Greene/The Enquirer-USA TODAY NETWORK A few weeks ago, I wrote about Ryan McMahon’s first stolen base of the season. McMahon, whose sprint speed was recently downgraded from the 19th percentile to the 18th, managed that first bag by way of a delayed steal. By completely dismissing McMahon as a threat, the Pirates presented him…
The Art of Strategic Risk-Taking in Baserunning
Like most things in baseball, baserunning is a blend of skills and smarts. It helps to be one of the faster guys in the league, but there are players who provide above average value on the bases despite not having above average speed, as instincts and feel can often make the difference between being safe…
Brecht and Yesavage Share Optimism for Future Success in the First Round
Lee Navin/For the Register-USA TODAY NETWORK Last season, the college baseball game of the year was the national semifinal matchup between LSU and Wake Forest. It pitted the first two pitchers chosen in that year’s draft — Paul Skenes and Rhett Lowder — against one another, with a berth in the College World Series final…
Top 42 Prospects in the Kansas City Royals Organization
Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Kansas City Royals. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as my own observations. This is the fourth year we’re delineating between two anticipated relief roles, the abbreviations for which you’ll see in the “position” column below:…
Red Sox Players Urging Front Office to Make Moves at Trade Deadline
(Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) Before the 2024 MLB season started, the Boston Red Sox were seen as a team transitioning from rebuilding to being true contenders. That philosophy probably justified their offseason decision to trade away pitcher Chris Sale for infielder Vaughn Grissom, for example. The season started and the Red Sox looked exactly…
Navigating the Midseason Slump: Challenges and Opportunities on the Field
Remember back in 2021 when Gen Z tried to tell everyone to move their side parts to the middle and swap their skinny jeans for a looser variety? While most Millennials responded with outward indigence, offline they begrudgingly tried on high-waisted mom jeans and posted up in the bathroom blowing out their hair in a…
The Top Defensive Teams in Baseball Right Now
Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports The Guardians rate as one of baseball’s bigger surprises. After finishing 76-86 last year — their worst record since 2012 — they’ve rebounded to go 57-33 thus far, and entered Wednesday with the AL’s best record. Their offense is much more potent than it was last year, and despite losing ace…
An Updated Look at the 2024 MLB Draft Rankings
Jeffrey Camarati-USA TODAY Sports The amateur draft is this weekend and I’ve done a top-to-bottom refresh and expansion of my draft prospect rankings, which you can see on The Board. Please go read those blurbs and explore the tool grade section of The Board to get a better idea of my thoughts on the players….
Seaver King Shares Strategies for Building Relationships and Impacting Baseball Success
When I was in Phoenix for the Draft Combine, I kept running into Seaver King’s friends. “That’s my homie,” said JJ Wetherholt, the West Virginia infielder and presumptive top-five pick. He and King played together on Team USA last summer, and Wetherholt said King was the person he’d been looking forward to seeing most at…