2016 slayed a lot of demons for the Cubs. Considering that their prior WS championships were back-to-back in 1907 and 1908. They have a winning record all-time and 11 pennants since 1901. Born as the Chicago White Stockings (but not the White Sox) the Cubs have fewer all-time great players…
The 2020 Pandemic season changed (finally) baseball forever with the ending of rained out games. No longer were legitimate accomplishments expunged when games were less than 4 1/2 innings. Forfeited games are more rare today but surprisingly there have been a few since 1970. Babe Ruth would have had 716…
The Orioles were born the Milwaukee Brewers as an original AL franchise in 1901. They left for St. Louis after one year and became the St. Louis Browns for the next 52 years before finally decamping for Baltimore in 1954. They never won a World Series in in St. Louis…
We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! The 2024 HOF ballot came out this week and there are some very compelling names that are appearing on ballots. Adrian Beltre and Joe Mauer are strong 1st year candidates and holdovers like Todd Helton and Billy Wagner are hoping this is their…
Who is the greatest National of all-time? Some might say Walter Johnson since when he was with the Senators they were also called the Nationals. But Ryan Zimmerman has a claim as does Max Scherzer. And then there's Gary Carter, and Andre Dawson, and Tim Raines, and Vlad Guerrero Sr..…
The Twins were once the Washington Senators AND at the same the the Washington Nationals. The team actually won the 1924 World Series while being called the Nationals! Even though they were actually the Senators. Because the Twins - who moved to Minneapolis in 1961, won 2 WS in 5…
We've already had a bunch of manager hirings and firings. With that are several 1st time MLB managers like Joe Espada of the Astros and Carlos Mendoza of the Mets. Can it really be expected that a 1st year manager can lead a team all the way to a World…
Fans and players have said good-bye to future HOFer Miguel Cabrera and a host of other very well-known players who ended their careers in this just completed 2023 season. We love talking about them! Correction: Ryan Goins was an infielder not a pitcher. You can also listen https://www.buzzsprout.com/1066072/13907757 to our…
While they are not an original National League team the Philadelphia Phillies have been in the league since 1883 only 7 years after the birth of the NL. They've won 2 WS in 141 years but 2 WS in the past 43 years so it doesn't seem as bad as…
The Texas Rangers born as the 2nd Washington Senators have finally won a World Series! A dispatching of the upstart Arizona Diamondbacks in 5 games was for any fans anti-climactic after two very exciting LCS clashes. Unsung heroes abounded for Texas but not for Arizona even though the D'Backs outhit…
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…