players Page 48 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Vlad, Fernando, Francisco and more: The players who’ll make this baseball season interesting
Every year we discuss how baseball’s become boring, how it could grow more enjoyable for younger fans, and how we long for legitimate progress of our national pastime. ...

What to expect in the NL West
Can the Dodgers break the single-season wins record? Can the upstart Padres with Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis, Jr. run down L.A.?...

No one seems to care that Kevin Durant is a homophobe
I made jokes about it yesterday, and that’s really all the effort I was prepared to give it. And yet, another day rolled by after Michael Rapaport (who I assume just walked off the set of another charity MTV softball game as that’s still what he does, right?) revealed the heinous and disgusting mess...

Deadspin’s MLB Gambling Guide/Futures Bets to make for the 2021 season
One year ago, as the coronavirus pandemic resided through its infant stages, the baseball world was looking on helplessly and having to wrestle with the thought that there might not be a season....

AL Central Preview: Which is it, Luis Robert?
The White Sox are probably the second-most fascinating team heading into the 2021 season. They haven’t quite cannonballed into the pool and ruined the buffet the way the San Diego Padres have — a team they will always be linked to thanks to Fernando Tatis Jr. and the rampant screen-punching amongst ...

NL West Preview: The Rise of San Diego, the reign of L.A.
With Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado, the Padres have the best left side of the infield in baseball and two MVP candidates to lead their lineup....

NL Central Preview: Smell the glove
The teams in the NL Central seem to be going completely anarchist punk these days. In a league where everyone is trying to hit more homers and amass more power, the top of this division’s strength is going to be defense, the absence of runs and hits, the cooler. When is that the case with one baseba...

With Francisco Lindor and Anthony Rizzo seeking extensions, it's a tale of two owners
Lindor-palooza has apparently begun. News broke last night that the Mets have offered Francisco Lindor a 10-year, $325 million extension to his deal that ends after the season. Lindor is apparently after a 12-year, $385 million deal. As always, both sides are making noise about negotiations being cu...

MLB and MLBPA need to pull All-Star Game out of Georgia after passing ‘Jim Crow’-era voting laws
Major League Baseball should take action....

Jarred Kelenic reassignment means Mariners aren't even hiding service time manipulation
Jarred Kelenic is a future star for the Mariners, who have not been to the playoffs since 2001. The centerpiece of the trade in which Seattle dumped Robinson Canó’s salary on the Mets, Kelenic came to spring training this year, got a real, not just happy-to-be-in-camp uniform number, 10, and then we...

Mike Bell, of famed baseball family, who scrapped his way to majors, dies of kidney cancer
Without ever having met Mike Bell, who died on Friday at the age of 46 from kidney cancer, the story of his baseball life says a lot....

Jack Leiter nearly twirls second no-no in a row, but (rightly) pulled on pitch count
Tim Corbin is the only person in college baseball who can stop Jack Leiter right now, and on Friday night, he did....

MLB continues to fail at marketing its product
Just a question — do you know when MLB Opening Day is? No, seriously, without looking, when is baseball back? Have you heard or seen any advertising? I sure as hell haven’t. Coming out of a year of isolation and quarantine, where we as the sports fans are clamoring for sports back on our screens, yo...

Scott Servais channels humanity, tells idiotic Trevor Bauer where he can stick it
We’ve said plenty here about Trevor Bauer, mostly about him being a colossal jerk, so “Trevor Bauer is a colossal jerk” isn’t news, especially around these parts....

Dodgers fans buy billboard outside Fenway to taunt... someone
I wouldn’t sit here and try to argue that Red Sox Nation is undeserving of being kicked while they’re down. They’ve had it their way for a very long time, though they would say they didn’t have it their way for a much longer period of time. And obviously, there isn’t anyone they didn’t annoy even ju...

Al Leiter’s kid Jack is a chip off the old ‘no-no’ block
The Yankees knew what they were doing when they drafted Jack Leiter in the 20th round two years ago. But they also couldn’t convince Al Leiter’s son to forego college. Pretty much everyone in college baseball outside of Vanderbilt wishes they had....

Derek Jeter won’t rest until the Marlins are as boring as he is
For a team that’s won two World Series, the Marlins existence has been rather unspectacular. Other than those wins, all they’re known for is trading players away. First in 1998, then Marcell Ozuna, Giancarlo Stanton, and Christian Yelich. Whatever happened in between has been covered by the sands of...

Carlos Carrasco suffers hamstring strain, confirming the Mets are still the Mets
There’s this dude; we’ll call him Felix. Felix was ecstatic when the New York Mets acquired his favorite player, Franciso Lindor, along with Carlos Carrasco, in early January. Felix told his co-workers about how he and his father Julio were exchanging celebratory texts regarding the news. Felix is n...

Pro golfers look like you and me with horrible showings at The Players Championship
If you’ve ever held a golf club (mini golf included) you know how frustrating the game can be. The pros usually make it look easy, but in the span of 10 minutes, we got to see a reflection of our hopeless selves on the screen....

Swing and a miss … and a welt … as Yanks’ Darren O’Day gets a K on a HBP
Darren O’Day has been in the major leagues since 2008, he was an All-Star in 2015, and he’s been to the postseason with Texas, Baltimore, and Atlanta. The well-traveled and well-decorated righty reliever signed with the Yankees this offseason, and his role in the New York bullpen is clear....