Stephen Brashear-USA TODAY Sports Let’s start with a riddle: Team A and Team B have both played 98 games this season. Due to the vagaries of extra innings and unplayed bottoms of ninths, Team A’s pitchers have thrown four more innings than Team B’s pitchers. However, Team B’s pitchers have faced 259 more batters than…
Matt Strahm making the All-Star team as a setup man with no saves is a bit of an anomaly. Especially because he didn’t take the Aaron Crow route — his team had its proverbial bases covered. The Phillies are no. 1 in baseball in pitcher WAR. They’re no. 1 by a huge margin in starter…
(Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images) This year’s MLB All-Star Game uniforms featured National Leaguers wearing a navy base with light blue lettering while the American League donned a sandy base with red sleeves and lettering. For players and fans alike, they were an eyesore. Some All-Stars expressed their desire for participants to return to the…
(Photo by Eric Espada/Getty Images) There is little question in 2024 that the Philadelphia Phillies will once again be playing October baseball. The team sports the best record in the majors and has a comfortable cushion over the second-place Atlanta Braves in the NL East. The pitching staff is the best in the sport, and…
(Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images) With the All-Star Game behind us and the season’s second half ahead, it’s high time to dust off predictions for the game’s major awards. Near the top of that list is the Cy Young, and the National League in 2024 has a fascinating race for the honor. According to…
Strength up the middle is important to any contender, but with so many teams still in the hunt for a playoff spot, it’s no surprise some of them have weak spots. Sometimes, it’s easier for a team to convince itself that the metrics aren’t fully capturing the strength of a light-hitting player’s defense if they’re…
Imagine an auction that takes place between three bidders. The item in question? An envelope filled with money. All three bidders employ teams of analysts that attempt to ascertain how much money is in the envelope, based on a variety of evidence that isn’t important for this analogy. Each bidder thus arrives at an estimate…
One of my enduring memories of watching the All-Star game as a child — a child who became a baseball fan in a time before high-speed internet, social media, or even interleague play — was learning about all the players I’d been unable to see throughout the regular season. That included the American League and…
One of the enjoyable aspects of baseball (and life in general) is the ability to spot something unique that only you are paying attention to. Last Wednesday, the Twins suffered their first loss to the White Sox after winning the first eight matchups. The bird made an appearance during the first inning, perched on a…
Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the Home Run Derby, the Futures Game and skills competition, Globe Field Field, All-Star uniforms, and more reflections from All-Star Week, then (34:18) discuss a challenge-system-driven change to broadcast K-zone displays, Chris Sale‘s aversion to pitch-calling, quantifying game-calling, David Fletcher‘s latest knuckleballing, using a position-player pitcher against a…
