major-league-baseball Page 14 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Pujols hits No. 698, and the lies Cardinals fans tell themselves
No, the lie I’m referring to is not the one Max Kellerman spouted to win a fake debate on ESPN. I’m talking about the one St. Louis supporters wholeheartedly believe: If Pujols doesn’t leave the shadow of the Arch, the second half of his career plays out better. ...

Do Americans really care about soccer? We’ll find out
The unbearable heat of Qatar pushed the FIFA World Cup out of the summer months for the first time in the tournament’s history. In 2022, the quadrennial footballing soccer showcase won’t crown a new champion before jackets come out of closets across America. The upcoming global event will run from N...

Tony La Russa was every bit the human gallstone you thought he was
It could end up being the pacemaker that saved Chicago, going down in history along with other objects we revere like a lamp next to a cow, disco records, and all the dirt we moved to reverse the flow of the Chicago River to send our shit to St. Louis (where it belongs and they deserve) to name a fe...

Should the Rays, Jays, and Mariners race to the bottom?
We knew the new baseball playoff system, with the addition of a third wildcard team, would create quirks. In a vacuum, it works because all division winners are considered equal. But in reality, where people play the games, they very much are not. Teams are hard to judge on just their record, becaus...

Rockies’ C.J. Cron helps baseball beat mountain traffic
C.J. Cron’s rise in Major League Baseball has been slow but steady. He’s 32 and has played for five teams and is in the middle of his second year with the Rockies. He made his first All-Star game this summer. Yet, the biggest, or should I say longest, individual play of his career took place Friday ...

MLB pushing long overdue rule changes for 2023
So far in 2022, the batting average across MLB is .243 — the lowest mark for the entire league since 1968. On-base percentage sits at .312 — the lowest mark since 1972. Slugging percentage is currently at .395 — the lowest since 2014. OPS is at .707, once again, the lowest since 2014. It’s no secret...

It was Molina and Wainwright, not Pujols, making Cardinals fans verklempt Thursday
The issue I have with nostalgia is it makes people sentimental. Having a deep conversation with anyone is right next to “root canal” on my list of things that I actively avoid. If you’re going to melt into a puddle of tears, I need a 5-foot buffer minimum, and I’m going to slowly back peddle to the ...

Dominican Republic prospects pissed after Angels alter their deals
It’s not uncommon for Major League Baseball teams to sign international players at a young age. While there are certain restrictions in place to prevent teams from signing Americans until they’ve turned 16, international players are under fewer restrictions. Players in countries like the Dominican R...

Mets fans know better than to smile
As soon as Mets fans let their guards down and enjoyed Timmy Trumpet a little too much, we all knew what was coming next. The team’s lead in the NL East has been dwindling for going on three weeks, and now after losing three straight — two to the Nats and one to the Pirates — New York and Atlanta ar...

Does anybody actually want to win the NL Wild Card?
The MLB postseason starts in just over a month. In the National League, four of the six spots have all but been secured. The Dodgers will easily win the NL West, the Cardinals will win the NL Central, and the Mets and Braves will battle it out for the NL East title ultimately pushing one of them int...

Greater need for Angels sale as Ohtani continues to amaze
The Los Angeles Angels should be appointment television viewing. Two of their players have won half of the American League MVP awards since 2014. The most recent winner of that award — Shohei Ohtani — is playing baseball in a way in which the NFL equivalent would be Patrick Mahomes putting up T.J. W...

Aaron Judge is the king, but not for the reasons some New York dips**t thinks
It’s going to be a month of this. Aaron Judge has 50+ homers by Sept. 1, one of the very few to accomplish said feat. And with all baseball records, there are going to be self-appointed gatekeepers who have decided it is their purpose to keep the hordes at bay from sullying something sacred. There i...

How far are MLB players willing to go for their minor league counterparts?
Before I get tossed in the same bin with Buster Olney or Jeff Passan or some other water-carrying stooge for MLB owners, let me scratch and claw for escape from that right off the bat. The MLBPA reaching out to minor league players, and starting the process to welcome them into the union, is a very ...

The Los Angeles Dodgers, the greatest team of all time
The Dodgers won on Sunday. Which really isn’t news, they do that a lot. Beating the Miami Marlins isn’t really cause for celebration either, as it’s far more of a function than an accomplishment. And yet, zoom out and it is pretty startling what the Dodgers have accomplished....

Strawberry, not Mays, deserved to have his number retired by the Mets
Willie Mays was a great player....

The Julio Rodríguez deal happened quickly, but it’s absolutely worth it
As of writing this, Mariners’ outfielder and 2022 All-Star Julio Rodríguez has played in 109 career games. He’s had 463 career plate appearances and has already earned himself $210 million guaranteed, and potentially more than $450 million in total. Over how many years? We don’t really know....

What the new MLB schedule could mean for MLB’s future
Yesterday, Major League Baseball released its 2023 schedule. The biggest news to come from the release is that for the first time ever, all 30 teams will play one another in a single season....