Good for Andy Pages on getting "championship saving catch" in as a career defining moment before the world heard about "unknowingly foiling gambling plot by swinging at extremely obvious ball"

Murakami checked in at No. 7. Massive power and swing-and-miss issues. Long-term positional questions, too, but he's young and has middle-of-the-order upside in a weaker free-agent class.

DePodesta is, undeniably, a trailblazer directly responsible for the modern executive. He has a whale of a challenge in front of him—modernizing that Rockies organization; solving Coors Field; and so on. Tall task for anyone, let alone somebody nearly a decade removed from an MLB front office.

Here's my ranking of this year's top 50 MLB free agents: www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/ran...

This season had some obvious borderline mythical moments (including Yamamoto last night). But I keep returning to the idea that if a team had given away an owner bobblehead during a disappointing season, say, 50 or 60 years ago, we’d still be referring to that incident by some cutesy name.

Did not expect one of the best paragraphs I’d read about baseball would come from an Irish newspaper www.irishexaminer.com/sport-column...

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who started Game 6, got more outs in Game 7 than starter Shohei Ohtani

This is the sixth straight season in which a Will Smith wins a World Series:   2025: C Will Smith (LAD) 2024: C Will Smith (LAD) 2023: LHP Will Smith (TEX) 2022: LHP Will Smith (HOU) 2021: LHP Will Smith (ATL) 2020: C Will Smith (LAD)

How could you not be romantic about baseball, the only sport that requires rulebook citing to explain why the league’s best player is (likely) starting the season’s biggest game.

Good stat from @mikeaxisa.bsky.social: "The most swings and misses on a splitter in a single game in the pitch tracking era (since 2008) is 20 by Gausman back in 2023. Only 20 times on record has a guy gotten as many as 15 whiffs on the split in a game. Gausman's at 11 through two innings."

“F the players,” Murray responded, according to the MLBPA documents. “I’m still so pissed off I can’t see straight.” “We need them to be kissed (sic) off at their leadership,” Courtney replied. “Believe me, it is priority for me,” Murray said. www.nytimes.com/athletic/676...

Only 4 pitchers have recorded a Pitcher’s Cycle — striking out every batter in the opposing lineup — in the World Series: Trey Yesavage, 2025 G5 Randy Johnson, 2001 G2 Bob Gibson, 1968 G1 Jesse Barnes, 1921 G6

We, as a society, have not solved much recently. But take heart: Blake Snell no longer gets pulled too early in World Series games.

Twins are hiring Derek Shelton as the new manager. Shelton served as the Twins' bench coach under both Paul Molitor and Rocco Baldelli before leaving after the 2019 season to become the Pirates' manager. Shelton had a 306-440 (.410) record during six seasons in Pittsburgh and was fired in mid-May.

If they're giving Ohtani the full Bonds treatment, at the top of maybe the best lineup in baseball, I think Pedro Feliz, Bengie Molina, Edgardo Alfonzo and J.T. Snow are off the hook

The Dodgers are in the World Series, McCarthyism is back, and there isn't nearly enough housing to go around—all of which makes this a good time to read Stealing Home. www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/eric-...

This is Kiké Hernández's 86th postseason game with the Dodgers, which is tied for most in franchise history I enjoyed his reaction to finding that out last week www.truebluela.com/los-angeles-...

I have a soft spot for Don Mattingly because he's on the record as 1994 being his best last chance at a World Series, but deciding the more important thing was to support a strike authorization vote and strike if necessary that year, as the game the young guys would inherit mattered more.

At 22 years and 88 days old, Trey Yesavage will be the second-youngest Game 1 starting pitcher in World Series history, older than only: 1947 Ralph Branca: 21y 267d

Notable for the obvious reason—college coach to MLB—but also because Vitello never played pro ball. Rightly or not, teams generally prioritize individuals with some level of experience, in the minors or above.

Make that "to homer thrice in a single playoff game."

Per CBS Sports' research, Ohtani is the first starting pitcher to ever homer twice in a single playoff game.

All these years later, it’s still hard to believe Ohtani exists. Preposterous as a concept and yet.

New A HOLLYWOOD ENDING excerpt up at @theathletic.com on the 2019 AD trade. Highlights: • Pelinka telling David Griffin that Jeanie doesn’t know what pick swaps are. • Linda Rambis' role in negotiations. • Klutch leveraging a Pelinka cap error into a KCP deal. 🔗 www.nytimes.com/athletic/672...

Do you want to work in Sports at the San Francisco Chronicle? Our summer internship application has opened up & we'd love to see yours. The previous 4 sports interns all landed jobs in the industry; we gear this internship to help make sure you will too! eevd.fa.us6.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Dodgers' top 4 starters have, combined, 30 seasons in the majors. They've qualified for the ERA total, combined, four times. The fact that they're all healthy at the same time right now is either a very well executed plan, or just atrocious luck for Milwaukee.

The owners have and will always push for a salary cap, no matter what happens on the field. There’s no amount of competitive balance, perceived or actual, that will deter that—because competitive balance isn’t the actual goal.

At their lowest point this year, Becky Hammon had Aces’ players start doing their own scouting reports and putting together practice plans. She thought it would be temporary. It helped them turn everything around: www.si.com/wnba/aces-lo...

Time to settle this the way they used to settle 14-inning games in the regular season before the automatic runner: with a backup infielder on the mound for one team, and a 31-year-old rookie who is gonna get DFAed in the morning for the other.

A.J. Pierzynski has never sounded more like Charlie Kelly explaining Bird Law than he did just now talking about pitching strategy.

The Essential Rockies: pebblehunting.substack.com/p/the-seven-...

All of Kyle Tucker's HRs between 2023-2025 vs where he hit the ball tonight

That was the first postseason series in history to end on a walkoff error. What a crushing way for any team to end a season. Bill Buckner might come to mind, but that was only Game 6.

Had the terrible realization that Scott Boras will weave “Motor City,” “engine,” and “purrs” into the same sentence when he talks this winter about a potential Tarik Skubal extension.

Watching last night's games, I was reminded of this research I published last year, suggesting that teams' increasingly aggressive bullpen usage was backfiring as managers overwork and overexpose their best relievers. Letting Garrett Crochet throw a career-high 117 pitches is one way to avoid this!

Most plate appearances in a postseason nine-inning game, scoring one or fewer runs: 43, Tigers, 10/1/2025 41, -dians, 9/30/1954 41, Tigers, 10/5/1934 Three tied with 40

George Valera is authoring a fun story. He was a top prospect not long ago, but he couldn't stay healthy. Guardians waived around this time last year and he passed through untouched. Received the call late in the season and has showcased strength and eye versus righties.

You almost have to admire the Rockies’ loyalty to their front office members. Their assistant general managers have each been with the organization since at least 2006. Furthermore, they haven’t hired a GM from outside of the franchise since 1999. Looks like that last part will change this winter.

Never a good sign when your offense enables Blake Snell to be efficient.

Yoshida is the first Red Sox pinch-hitter *ever* to have a swing that turned a deficit into a lead in the postseason.

The contact play has gained popularity around the league because of some favorable break-even calculations—if you watched the Guardians this summer, you saw them run it all the time.. But when it doesn't work out, it really doesn't work out.

Tigers led the majors in extra bases taken (during the run of play) and outs made on the bases—even a few of their tugboats attempted 10-plus tag-ups; Guardians, meanwhile, led the majors in outfield assists and outfield throwing errors. Runs could be at a premium, amplifying mistakes by either.

Hey now, a few weeks ago the Guardians had only two players with an OPS+ of 100 or better, no matter their plate appearances. These days, they’re up to four thanks to the Halpin and Valera promotions (53 combined PA).

On the Fever, living and dying by Kelsey Mitchell, as ever:

Jason Benetti just described Troy Melton as a “classic rock fan” because he knew the words to a Blink-182 song. Never felt more like dust.

Few organizations do a better job of identifying and enhancing a given player’s strengths. It’s also interesting how the Brewers don’t seem to lock in on certain profiles, the way other (highly successful) front offices do. Impressive group, impressive run.

Myths to dispel about the ABS system. Myth: It will make games longer Myth: Catcher framing is now obsolete Myth: Full ABS is now right around the corner. That and more here: www.baseballamerica.com/stories/11-t...

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.