Oh great, it’s time for “the Tigers should just give Tarik Skubal to the Dodgers” discourse. Because small and mid market teams only matter and are only talked about when they have the potential to enrich superteams. How about…the Tigers should extend Tarik Skubal and keep him in Detroit forever.

The thing about the Manfred Runner (or ties, if you prefer them) in the regular season is that you have a completely different perspective on this if you have ever worked at sports games. There’s a reason people who work in the game prefer it

imagine if this ends on a walkoff bunt

The 3-2 pitch with two on and no outs never gets the credit it deserves as a do or die high leverage pitch

this is where I'm at. while I don't love the aesthetic of the extra innings runner, I really don't think there is a need for 18-inning games in the regular season, no one wants to put in a double shift for free, no one wants to stay up to watch. in the playoffs, though? all bets are off

Tarik Skubal is the most fun to watch pitcher in MLB in a long time. It’s insane stuff, high tempo, no walks, fiery personality…

Javy Báez, you can never make me hate you

If you’ve been reading The Tennessean’s fall baseball coverage then today’s exhibition lineup makes complete sense to you: www.tennessean.com/story/sports...

Does anyone know why the winning percentage for the team that forced a winner take all game is higher in said WTA than you would expect? (e.g. in a 5-game playoff series the game 4 winner has also won game 5 almost 60% of the time). Is the sample still too small or is there an actual reason?

My barre instructors have started working The Life of a Showgirl into their playlists and honestly it is great music to work out to, with both some good work and stretching songs. I don’t even mean this in a bad way per se 😭

Do it for Cade

I’ve said this before but I think pitchers should be trained to never ever throw the ball to second when there’s a play at first, because it’s a 50/50 shot the ball ends up in center field. Just throw it to first. Thus, I think Ashby made the right play even if he maybe could’ve gotten Kelly

I don’t think anyone actually knows what a check swing is (myself included). My evidence is that you will never find a TV booth that disagrees with a check swing call, ever. Whatever the ump calls is ruled correct by confirmation bias

I hate the Dodgers and I have hated the Dodgers for a very long time but they truly do excel at finding new ways to make me hate them every day. This year it’s making people fawn over the worst strategy regularly used in the MLB playoffs (starters in relief)

That is twice this week I have done a workout after a Phillies/Dodgers game started, then come back only to find the game still scoreless

I think all the time about that Athletic study from a few years back about which positions stars matter at. And it found that on defense and OL, performance matched up really well with recruiting ranking, but for QBs, RBs and WRs stars scarcely mattered at all

🚨Mega fall baseball notebook🚨 Here’s your rundown on the #VandyBoys fall so far, chock full of tidbits on breakout candidates, top freshmen (it might not be who you think!), transfers to watch, position battles and more: www.tennessean.com/story/sports...

I enjoyed the Taylor’s Versions and there are some I do legitimately prefer to the originals (Treacherous + Begin Again 🤌) but I’m also glad I can no longer feel guilt about the originals of ATW, Wonderland, New Romantics, You Are In Love…

If you prefer the Taylor’s Version of All Too Well to the original, you are also wrong

the only watchable LDS series deserves a game 5!

Angry Cubs fans should be required to name which pitcher they would’ve started instead of Shota. Cause I’m really curious to hear the responses 😭😭

In Nashville the neighborhoods run the gamut from downtown to “walkable urban neighborhood but not downtown and you need a car to get downtown” to “basically a suburb in the city limits”

The thing with the Cubs and Kyle Tucker is that it’s been pretty well accepted for like two months that it’s probably for the best for all sides that they part ways?

The SEC sends out its voters in the women's basketball preseason poll a list of "players to consider" where each team submits its top players for consideration and it's really getting me that LSU submitted 6 players (more than they can even start) and Auburn submitted zero

Here is a list of SEC baseball players on Division Series rosters. The 10 players come from 8 different schools. Five of the 8 Division Series teams have an SEC player, but the Phillies have 4 while no one else has more than 2

MLB playoff scheduling makes no damn sense and they should schedule it like college baseball regionals (If the host team is in Eastern time, automatically give them the earlier timeslot. Vice versa with Pacific time. If Central or Mountain time, look at their opponent time zone.)

They were kidnapped by Kanye West and had to get rescued

kids these days are too young to remember elementary school friends writing fanfiction stories about being rescued from a kidnapping by Kanye West

Happy LSU week! When I was asked to devise a narrative wherein Vanderbilt wins a national title, this was one of the games I had the most fun with. My favorite anecdote:

Remember when everyone wanted the Tigers to trade Skubal and the Blue Jays to trade Vladdy? Baseball is more fun when small/mid market teams try, run it back with their stars + build around them instead of funneling them to wannabe superteams!

Vanderbilt legend Joey Cora loves aggressive baserunning as much as I do

This ALDS is the only of the LDSes where I can tolerate both teams, so I am rooting for whatever gets this to five games

tired: PSL season wired: nutty latte season

Alabama was 90% over Vanderbilt

“If we play our game,” Diego Pavia said in the lead up to Alabama, “it won’t be close.” He may not have been wrong, but Vanderbilt didn’t play its game, and that’s the toughest pill to swallow: www.tennessean.com/story/sports...

Texas, Louisville

i don't know ball

#VandyBoys landed three top-100 commits in the class of 2027 today with twins Derek and Ryan Yormack and catcher Broder Katke. All three players had previously been committed to Duke. They're the first blue-chips Vanderbilt has landed in its 2027 class: www.tennessean.com/story/sports...

Vandy's offense is legit good, but I'm concerned about the inconsistency on defense (they have yet to put four good quarters together) and both teams have some key defenders out. I think this will be a high scoring game, but I'm seeing too many 21-17 type predictions

I don’t have a good handle on the Bama/Vandy game but I am pretty confident most of y’all’s score predictions are too low. I’m thinking both teams over 30…maybe over 40

both the 2016 Cubs and 2025 Cubs have a similar roster construction strategy of putting pitchers who don't miss that many bats in front of an Elite defense and I feel like it was pretty well understood in 2016 but nine years later it's broken people's brains because they're so used to defense = luck

Something I appreciated about the Cubs/Padres game + series is that it laid bare the difference between having an elite defense and not. It’s not usually that easy to see in one game or a small handful of games but the Cubs won those two games by 4 runs + saved at least that many with defense.

life of a showgirl livetweet begins now

That was a great explanation of what a kick change is on the Cubs/Padres broadcast

I don’t think I would’ve survived elementary school without the gifted program I was in starting in third grade. I was one of those students who was bored so I acted out, and I wasn’t mature enough to skip a grade

The reds and dodgers both deserve to lose for being so married to starters in relief in the wild card of all things. The other six wild card teams have continued on without this stuff! Let’s kill this trend!

Hey now this is what happens to me in OOTP every time I make the playoffs! Except my star also gets injured and there is at least one 3-2-3 double play per series

As someone who has covered SEC baseball for 4 years… A “small ball” offense is not the same thing as having no offense. The Brewers are a small ball offense. The Guardians don’t have an offense. There’s a difference between small ball bc you can and small ball bc you have to

today has been like a Friday night in the SEC for all the best reasons