major-league-baseball Page 31 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
No wild-card chaos
Most seasons, on the last day, we hope for some kind of chaos to hit MLB’s playoff system. I think, deep down, it’s because people want to see the wild-card sham proven to be just that. Because having teams play a game just to play a game to get into the playoffs after 162 games and six months is pr...
Four-way wild card tie still very much a possibility
So, this is the scenario that Major League Baseball dreamed about when it scheduled all the games on the last day of the regular season for 3 p.m. Eastern....
Rockies take fast, easy way out on GM ‘search’
When Jeff Bridich and the Rockies “mutually agreed” that the general manager was stepping down in April, the team announcement made a promise about the future....
Order out and settle in: Today is gonna be a really good baseball day (and night)
All of the games in Major League Baseball are scheduled for 3 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, so that if and when playoff races come down to Game 162, nobody has an advantage of taking the field already knowing what their pennant race rivals have done....
When is the best time to pay attention to baseball?
Baseball season is six months long, and reaching its dramatic conclusion this weekend, with the American League wild cards and the winner of the National League West still to be decided....
The Cubs are the dumbest
There are people out there, who — unlike me — didn’t fire the Cubs as a fan back in July after they completed their three-year sandbagging of the roster that brought them their first World Series win in 108 years. That should have been enough to see Wrigley be more desolate than the Atacama, but tha...
Rays playing 5D chess up in here
Analytics have taken over the world of baseball. Depending on who you ask, you’ll get one of three responses:...
Devin Williams to miss postseason for dumbest of reasons
In the dumbest injury at the worst time department, we’d like to announce Brewers reliever Devin Williams as this year’s recipient....
Javy Báez has quietly turned his season around with the Mets
It’s easy to forget that the Mets have existed recently. The biggest news coming out of Queens since they’ve fallen out of playoff contention have been Francisco Lindor and Javy Báez’s “thumbs down” debacle, Jacob deGrom getting hurt more often than Mr. Glass from Invincible, and a TikTok trend invo...
Massive regular-season win streaks mean nothing in the playoffs
The Cardinals’ team-record winning streak has gotten St. Louis into the playoffs, but the old saying in baseball is that momentum is only the next day’s starting pitcher, and as good as the Redbirds have been in September, bringing home a first World Series championship since 2011 remains a longshot...
Lighten up, Wainwright
I understand that every team in every sport is desperate to make the “only the guys in this room believed in us” the rallying cry of their team. It’s easier to think you’re the underdog, and when you’re a professional athlete you need anything and everything to drive through an interminable season. ...
Is Giancarlo Stanton officially a Yankee yet? Asking for absolutely nobody
While it’s hard to take any joy out of the Yankees being good unless you’re from the Tri-State Area, it has been worth a smile to see Giancarlo Stanton absolutely carry the Yankees to a playoff berth this month. ...
MVP debates make my ass weary
I’ve come to the conclusion that a big part of being a member of the baseball media is just justifying your existence. Which is why they spend most of the time turning stuff into a debate that isn’t really a debate. Nothing is worse than individual awards, where distilling what “valuable” means has ...
Rooting for maximum chaos in the AL wild-card race
With just six days left in the MLB regular season, the AL wild card race is tighter than Batman’s tights. Five teams, all within four-and-a-half games. These are the types of races dreams are made of. We’ve even got a few series between the teams involved. It’s all lining up perfectly, just as Major...
The last thing we need is a Maple Leafs docuseries
The whole behind-the-scenes docuseries has been a bit played out. Hard Knocks started it, and it came to hockey almost a decade ago with the 24/7 series that tracked the two teams in that given year’s Winter Classic for the month leading up to the New Year’s Day game. Some of it was compelling stuff...
This Juan Soto hot streak is way, way, <i>way</i> better than you realize
Shohei Ohtani is the best player in baseball. Mike Trout is the best pure position player in baseball. Juan Soto is the best hitter in baseball, and as much as I love Mike Trout… he’s not close. Juan Soto is doing something Trout has never done. In Juan Soto’s last 40 games, he has an OPS of 1.253 a...
Another Oakland A’s window is closing without much to show for it
Considering the constraints (some of them self-imposed, admittedly), it’s kind of amazing how often the A’s can reinvent themselves and put together a window of contention. The problem is those windows don’t tend to lead anywhere....
We are witnessing a multi-team choke for the ages
When August began, the Mets were in first place in the National League East, which was the fifth-best record in the Senior Circuit. The Padres were right ahead of them, holding the second wild-card position as the Giants and Dodgers battled at the top of the West. And the Reds, though seven and a ha...
Max Scherzer trade to Dodgers is one of the greatest deadline deals of all time
Where does Max Scherzer to the Dodgers rank among MLB’s best deadline deals?...
Cardinals do what they do… unfortunately
You can always be sure that when a division or league comes up mediocre, the St. Louis Cardinals will be there to just barely rise above the muck. It’s their oeuvre. ...