Only two teams have lost more than 2,000 individual player games to injury, per Baseball Prospectus’ database: the Dodgers and the Astros. It's remarkable that each could win their division anyway.

Worth monitoring. Sasaki has made a few interesting tweaks to his arsenal since the last time he pitched in MLB, including mothballing his slider in favor of a new cutter that he has (in a small sample) shown a better feel for locating.

Ignoring 2020, which never happened, this will be the fifth straight season in which the league hits under .250. That's happened just twice before: 1965-69, and 1904-10.

MLB is adopting a new dead period for draft-eligible players. No scouting, evaluating, video-gathering or data-gathering for high school players from Oct. 15-Jan. 15 and for college players from Nov. 15-Jan. 15. All the details: www.baseballamerica.com/stories/mlb-...

It's a great time to hop on and subscribe to The Bandwagon. @hannahrkeyser.bsky.social and I will be collecting the most interesting thoughts and stories all the way through the stretch run and the postseason. Consider joining us. ➡️ bandwagon.substack.com

Yankees are the 2nd MLB team in the last 75 years to have 2 relievers allow 4+ ER and get 0 outs in a game. The Angels also did it on August 31, 1999 vs Indians

Wow. Jackson Holliday homered with two outs in the ninth inning to end Yoshinobu Yamamoto's no-hitter.

We're hiring a full-time prospect writer. Come work with Eric and the rest of the FanGraphs crew!

Interested to see where this goes. In MLB, cities like Montreal and San Diego have been denied equity in franchises.

Nestor Cortes this year has given up three homers in a span of three pitches, three homers in four pitches, and three homers in nine pitches

Home runs hit 120+ mph, in Statcast era (since 2015): Oneil Cruz: 122.9 mph (5/25/25) Giancarlo Stanton: 121.7 mph (8/9/18) Giancarlo Stanton: 121.3 mph (7/25/20) Ronald Acuña Jr: 121.2 mph (9/2/23) Aaron Judge: 121.1 mph (6/10/17) Shohei Ohtani: 120.0 mph (tonight)

Went with an assortment of randos who have stuck in my head for whatever reason:

On this Labor Day, thinking back to this outstanding feature on Curt Flood that SABR published a few years ago, interspersed with clips of Flood’s oral history interview, part of a larger project on baseball and the Supreme Court: sabr.org/supreme-cour...

Per SABR’s list, the 2025 Atlanta Braves are the first pro baseball team — at any level! — to allow a 4-HR game twice in the same season since the 1948 LaMesa Lobos (West Texas-New Mexico League). cc: @slangsonsports.bsky.social sabr.org/research/art...

Next, @bradleywoodrum.bsky.social said he wanted to write about Japanese baseball, and I said sure. Instead he built an entire model around predicting how NPB hitters deal with velocity, and used it to supply a guess at who the next promising import might be.

Incoming Rays shortstop Carson Williams has legitimate star upside thanks to his defense and power. Key will be improving his bat-to-ball skills after he whiffed on close to 40% of his swings in Triple-A. (For reference, no qualified MLB hitter this season is over 36%.)

Incoming Pirates righty Bubba Chandler has a terrific fastball. Averaged 98 mph in Triple-A and benefits from a combination of good rise and a low release height—similar, in a sense, to what Shota Imanaga and Freddy Peralta (among others) have going on. The rest of his arsenal needs more refinement.

The Brewers really might beat out grounders all the way to the World Series: pebblehunting.substack.com/p/can-you-wi...

really liked this one from @jrodrigues39.bsky.social on hitters who have a big difference on contact points vs FBs and breaking balls: www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article...

Concession workers at Fenway Park are now warning of an indefinite strike. First these workers who feed Red Sox fans struck for three days, but if food and beverage vendor Aramark doesn’t offer a new labor contract the next walk out could be much longer. www.yahoo.com/news/article...

“He deked it like he was going to drop it... I saw him watching Goldie the whole time... I’ve done it here many times.” Jazz wasn’t guessing—he was reading the situation and believed he was countering a defensive tactic that has become increasingly common" jrod20033.substack.com/p/weaponizin...

A high-ranking evaluator once told me that AJ Preller excels at trading prospects he doesn’t like. I think, in reality, he might just dislike all prospects. Good stat here from @zcrizer.bsky.social: bandwagon.substack.com/p/53-how-do-...

Joshua is one of the best public baseball analysts going, complete with ample experience within the game. Always learn something new from him. Highly recommended follow.

Two days left in July, two days left to hit my mark in Project 250, trying to add 250 new subscribers to the rolls. Check out the site for all kinds of free excerpts and full archive pieces, and join thousands of happy subscribers (and three grumps). www.joesheehan.com/p/project-25...

I wrote about Ichiro as a player, a legend, and a stand-up comic. I don't imagine it'll spoil anything for me to say here that I think he's the coolest and most interesting baseball player I've ever seen. defector.com/ichiro-saved...

BREAKING: Concession workers at Fenway are on strike. This is the first walkout in the 113 year history of the Boston Red Sox’s stadium. These essential workers will be on strike as the World Series champion Dodgers come to town this weekend.

Wrote about the dangers lurking in the on-deck circle pebblehunting.substack.com/p/whats-on-d...

We’ve got a good one today. 👀 @hannahrkeyser.bsky.social got the vibe from the Phillies’ clubhouse labor talk with Rob Manfred. bandwagon.substack.com/p/the-philli...

I recognize this to be the point, but my goodness advertisers are becoming obnoxious with their behind-the-plate designs.

Spent a bit of time at the WNBA All-Star Game chatting with a new basketball fan: Harvard economist Claudia Goldin, who has been advising the WNBA players in their labor negotiations, part of a more robust strategy this year from the union

walk-off no-swing catcher's interference

Under the potential new rules, the best swing-off hitter in baseball would add more wins from taking three swings every two weeks than an average player does in 162 games. The league's top five o'clock slugger would be as valuable as an elite closer. Ran some fun simulations in today's Lewsletter:

In 3 batters, the NL All-Stars have given Paul Skenes more run support than he has received in 7 of his 20 starts this year.

From last month:

The results weren't good, but it's happening—at a glance, this appears to be the first time all season he threw more changeups than heaters in an appearance.

I don’t know when/how Matt sleeps, but he’s about as prolific and insightful as any ballwriter going these days.

In case you wanted your existential despair to be caused by trivial reasons for once: the Vernon Wells trade turns 15 next January.

I feel you should know that Gorman Thomas had an absurd number of baseball cards in which he was photographed staring contemplatively into the middle distance. 🧵

Suspect the Rays will have Baker reduce his fastball usage.

The Nationals decision to fire Mike Rizzo just one week before the team picks 1-1 in the 2025 MLB Draft is fascinating timing, but there are previous examples where something like this has happened before, including the 2009 Nationals. www.baseballamerica.com/stories/with...

Baseball is a flat circle (from this 2001 article): www.espn.com/mlb/columns/...)

33 home runs from a switch-hitting catcher before the calendar has flipped to July is truly mind boggling. Cal Raleigh is having a historic season.

We are heartbroken to learn of the passing of Hall of Famer Dave Parker. A legendary Pirate, Parker spent 11 years in a Pirates uniform, winning 2 batting titles, an MVP award and a World Series Championship in 1979.

96+ mph Sliders Thrown In A Career, Starting Pitchers 11: Jacob Misiorowski (241 career pitches) 17: Every other SP in MLB combined for 2008-2025

I have a tough time believing people can't get their sports fix on Bluesky. There are so many starter packs. NBA: bsky.app/starter-pack... WNBA: bsky.app/starter-pack... NFL: bsky.app/starter-pack... NHL: bsky.app/starter-pack... MLB: bsky.app/starter-pack... Soccer: bsky.app/starter-pack...

When Emmet Sheehan starts Wednesday for the Dodgers, it'll be 620 days after his last major league game (2023 NLDS G1). That's only the fourth-longest wait in between games on the Dodgers this season: Dustin May (April 1): 685 days Tony Gonsolin (April 20): 621 days Shohei Ohtani (Monday) 663 days

Ranked Gage Wood 20th last week and noted that if he stays healthy—far from a guarantee given his history—he has the traits to become the best pitcher in this class.

All the helmets in the game, & Why they spit in their gloves pebblehunting.substack.com/p/bonked-you...

@rjandersonwrites.com MLB Draft rankings! www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/202...

This is awesome! Plex has a channel that streams KBO games 24/7 with English commentary (AI-generated dubbing, but English nonetheless).