(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) The Los Angeles Angels are one of the worst teams in baseball. By record (26-41), the Angels are better than just five squads in the whole league. If this were an isolated event, fans wouldn’t be so worried. However, the team hasn’t made the postseason since 2014. Since that year,…
(Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images) The 2024 Atlanta Braves aren’t as good as their 2023 edition. There is no shame in that: not every team is capable of winning 104 games with ease. However, the situation is starting to become worrisome in Atlanta, as they lost their fifth straight game on Wednesday. They dropped three…
(Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images) Back on May 29, the New York Mets made a decision regarding their closer, Edwin Diaz. He had struggled for a few games leading to that date, even blowing a few save chances in the process. The team placed him on the 15-day injured list with a right shoulder…
(Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images) In MLB, when an injured player is deemed healthy to play in games, he is allotted a specific number of rehab days to give him time to get back to full speed. Once that time passes, the team will need to make a roster move to include the player…
At any given point in the season, it’s not too hard to figure out which hitters are performing the best and which the worst — various leaderboards do a good job of that. But particularly when it’s early in the season and the samples are on the smaller side, it’s easy to miss when a…
Dan Szymborski is a senior writer for FanGraphs and the developer of the ZiPS projection system. He was a writer for ESPN.com from 2010-2018, a regular guest on a number of radio shows and podcasts, and a voting BBWAA member. He also maintains a terrible Twitter account at @DSzymborski.
Luke Raley, a big, strong outfielder for the Seattle Mariners, stands at 6-foot-4 and weighs 235 pounds. He hails from Ohio and has a background in tree-cutting. Known for his massive arm strength, he has consistently achieved high exit velocities in recent seasons. Former teammates describe him as a “big ball of muscle” with a…
The Brewers always seem to have a good bullpen. They have an anchor at the top – either Josh Hader or Devin Williams – and a smattering of other arms behind them that complement what the team is doing. Historically, they’ve used those bullpen arms to back up the weaker members of their rotation as…
Daniel Kucin Jr.-USA TODAY Sports Among the panoply of stats created by Statcast and similar tracking tools in recent years are a whole class of stats sometimes called the “expected stats.” These types of numbers elicit decidedly mixed feelings among fans – especially when they suggest their favorite team’s best player is overachieving – but…
Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports George Kirby had Javier Báez right where he wanted him. It was October 3, 2022, the last start of Kirby’s excellent rookie year, and Kirby had Báez, the king of chasing sliders off the plate, in an 0-2 count. His catcher, Cal Raleigh, set up off the plate, suggesting that Kirby…
