Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports A year ago, the Yankees were battling to avoid their first losing season since 1992. With the arrival of Jasson Domínguez, a promising young center fielder known as “The Martian” for his impressive skills, they hoped for a bright future. However, Domínguez suffered an injury early on, leading to the acquisition…
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports You might be a bit surprised to learn just how rare 3-0 counts are. As of Tuesday morning, there had been 155,045 plate appearances in the 2024 season, and just 5,852 of them, or 3.8%, had gone 3-0. That means that each team should expect to see a 3-0 count just…
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports Podcasts hosted by athletes — I don’t know about all that. But I did enjoy a recent clip from Mookie Betts’ podcast where he was talking to Cal Raleigh, who was comparing Zack Wheeler — perhaps the best pitcher in baseball — to his batterymate Bryan Woo. “[Wheeler] is kind of…
The English language is full to overflowing with sailing idioms: Obvious ones, like “even-keeled,” and others, like “three square meals,” that hide in plain sight. And there’s a good reason. Our language originates from a nation of sailors. England’s global empire was built on, and maintained by, the strength of its navy and commercial shipping…
Welcome back to Top of the Order, where every Tuesday and Friday I’ll be starting your baseball day with some news, notes, and thoughts about the game we love. The long weekend gave me an opportunity to do a few things: (a) eat a whole bunch of food, (b) watch a whole bunch of baseball,…
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley discuss various baseball topics, including Shohei Ohtani, Ronald Acuña Jr., and measuring power/speed excellence. They also talk about the struggles of the White Sox under Grady Sizemore, hippos, A-Rod’s relationships, double plates/bases, older hitters, player predictions, and more. Later, they speak with Matthew DeSantis and Ramon Riesgo of the Bhutan…
Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports When Michael King’s season got off to a slow start, it was pretty easy to find the things that were going wrong. The walks, the homers, the short outings: I wouldn’t blame an analyst for doubting him. Oh, wait, that was me doubting King? Well that’s awkward, because he’s been exceptional…
Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports The Cardinals survived Willson Contreras‘ first extended absence due to injury, going 24-16 while their catcher/designated hitter was sidelined for six weeks due to a fractured left forearm. Despite his loss, the ineffectiveness of cornerstones Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, and a host of other issues, they were still in contention…
As the regular season enters its final month, there are several teams hovering on the edge of the playoff picture, making the postseason races quite exciting as the 2024 campaign comes to a close. This season, our power rankings have been revamped to be more reactive to teams’ performance throughout the season. We have adopted…
Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports In the pre-PitchCom era, major league teams had more rigorous protocols for protecting their signs than your bank has for securing your account. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that some teams’ custom PitchCom audio clips are read in a modified pig latin created by a pitching strategy staffer. That the…
