Dusty Baker retired. He's now a pretty sure bet to be elected to the HOF as a manager or a Rule B candidate. It also happened last week that Craig Breslow became President of Baseball Operations of the Red Sox. We talked about that as well as Bob Melvin going…
Before the season did you pick the Rangers to play the D'Backs in the World Series this year? We didn't. But then NOBODY else did either! Both teams vanquished their LCS foes in 7 games and finally we had some exciting playoff baseball! We recap the LCS and all the…
Game 6 of the ALCS will be played after this episode was recorded and Game 6 of the NLCS will happen tonight - Monday night. Finally the LCS had some real live excitement and drama! We talk about that and we talk about the Marlins power play that caused excellent…
The 5 teams having the best regular season records in MLB this season - Braves, Dodgers, Orioles, Brewers, and Twins are all out of the playoffs and went 1-13 in the games that they played. Is the playoff system instituted in 2022 a failure? Some think so and we talk…
We thought the amazing double play turned in by Atlanta's Michael Harris to Austin Riley to Matt Olson would propel the Braves into the NLCS. Nick Castellanos had other ideas. That combined with great pitching from Wheeler, Nola and the Phillies bullpen put them back into the NLCS vs. the…
MLB won't do its 2023 MVP, Cy Young, ROY and other awards until after the World Series. So we decided that since the awards are for the regular season only we'd release our picks now. After all we should not be swayed by great playoff performances as we think voters…
The Wild Card Series were mostly a snore-fest unless your team was the winner. All the series were wrapped up in 2 games. Tampa Bay Rays didn't need to travel after they lost 2 straight at home in front of meager playoff crowds. The Jays could not pitch well enough…
It was great to receive so many responses to our podcast Episode 434 from last week on Total Bases Per Plate Appearance. We wanted to go further with it and apparently listeners want that too. So we've created another new stat - Bases created per plate appearance. This stat includes…
And suddenly the 2023 season is all over. Pitch clocks, larger bases, limits to shifting the infield all proved to be welcome and significant changes in MLB. The 2023 Braves have reason to claim they are the greatest hitting team of all time. The Marlins & D'Backs are back in…
We love that Hank Aaron has the most Total Bases in baseball history. In fact the list of players for all-time Total Bases is filled with Hall of Famers and would-be HOFers. Mark recently wrote an article on Total Bases per Plate Appearance - sort of a new way to…
This week was very full. The Rays and St. Pete have come to a deal for a brand-new domed but artificial turf stadium in a private/public partnership for reportedly $1.3B . Great news for the city and the team. Blue Jays Yusei Kikuchi said he became injured due to not…
Why don't players bunt? Is it a lost art in baseball? Was baseball better when there were 8 teams in each league and only one league champion that would represent the league in the World Series? We debate and contemplate whether today's baseball is the best it's ever been. The…
Mike Rizzo is back in for the Nationals, and Chaim Bloom is out for the Red Sox. Cole Ragans fell down for and on the Royals, and a knuckleballer finally reappeared and got a win in MLB. Have you ever pondered the paradox of the LA Angels - a team…
Since the division races and wild card chases have not changed all that much from last week this week we talk about the also-rans. The teams that are waiting for next year or even the years after that. We also talk about the rookies and there are some really good…
The Marlins won 47% of their games and 2 WS when they were the Florida Marlins. Once they changed their name to the Miami Marlins they win at a 43% pace and have only made the playoffs once in the pandemic season of 2020. This week we dive into the…
Babe Ruth & Barry Bonds. They are two of the greatest hitters who ever played and that cannot be argued. Who was better? That depends on your point of view so we decided to argue - Mark mostly for Ruth, Gordon mostly for Bonds. The more we talked about their…
What was the signature moment of the past week in #MLB? Was it Alex Cobb's near no-hitter? Bryce Harper's 300th HR? Ronald Acuna's 121.2 MPH home run - the hardest hit ball in 5 years? We talked about all of those and the state of the races in all the…
Thankfully bloodying a fellow MLB player is no longer something of which to be proud. That was the case in the earlier days of baseball. Baseball is still played hard and sometimes it still can get dirty but on the field dirty play happens much less frequently. With the advent…
Which was the bigger story this week - Shohei Ohtani's UCL injury ending his pitching for 2023 and into 2024, or Stephen Strasburg's retirement? Strasburg's story is one of what could have been. Ohtani is THE story of this season and what will happen given that he is due for…
Are players less weird today than they used to be? Surely today's players with their understanding of social media are more sensitive to public opinion. We already had episode 106 'Baseball Oddballs' https://www.buzzsprout.com/1066072/4412837 in which we talked about Bill 'Spaceman' Lee and Bill Veeck to name a couple. No midgets…
We often discuss historical aspects of baseball and we love doing that, but we're fans and we watch what's going on in baseball at the moment. So this week we're starting a weekly Monday wrap-up show on what happened in MLB last week. We will try to keep it to…
Kind of a loaded question isn't it? In this episode we start with a short run through what's interesting in MLB this past week. Then we discuss the history of baseball commissioners before current commissioner Rob Manfred. Manfred truly raises the ire of so many baseball fans. Is he the…
Entering the AL East in 1977 the Blue Jays did not always play inside. Like most expansion teams they started slowly but won a World Series (actually 2 back to back) 16 years after their founding. The Jays have had some HOFers and also some bizarre incidents in their history.…
The trading deadline has passed and for some teams making bold moves has brought their fans hope for the rest of the season and the playoffs. We talk about baseball mascots - the history, the oddity, and a few bizarre events involving well-known mascots. But we had to let our…