BR Kerry's mention of scoring a game at Wrigley with his son reminds me of my experience at Wrigley.
'Bout 20 years ago, my wife and I were in Chicago so she could attend a work-related conference. I planned ahead and bought online a ticket to a Cubs-Cardinals game for one of the afternoons. What I could find at an acceptable price was way up high, way down the right field line. I had a great view of the RF. Home plate? Not so much. It was a cold, rainy early June day, so naturally Dusty Baker sent Carlos Zambrano back out to go over 100 pitches with a 12-4 lead in the 8th...
Got to my seat a couple of batters in. All around me were families, a couple of which included kids learning to score. Since I also keep a scorebook, the guy behind me (also with his kids) kept tapping me on the shoulder and asking me questions about things like the pitch counts, and how the pitchers were doing against leadoff hitters each inning.
A couple of innings in, four college students came up and filled in the four empty seats in front of me. They were from St. Louis, decided to come up and bought tickets online the night before. The ringleader refused all attempts to get him to say how much they had paid for them. They got a bit of a (good-natured, since the Cubs were winning handily...) razzing from the Cubs fans around, and took it well.
All in all, one of the most fun times I've ever had at a ballgame. Wrigley is not the fanciest, most luxurious park, but the fans make the experience.
Orioles are in need of an intense, positive locker room presence and I think they got that with Alonso - a big lead-by-example guy that plays through injuries and plans to be in the lineup every single day. The Holliday news is a bummer, and boy, we would've loved another starter, but I think the O's could really make a big splash (see what I did there, O's fans?) and comeback this season.
Justin Verlander is six months older than me, making him the only player older than me in MLB (assuming Rich Hill and Jesse Chavez don't sign), so I'm rooting for him to pitch again this year. And maybe for another five or ten years?
Wow... I think you missed some things in the "10 things" section I think merited more discussion than some of the ones you mentioned. Framber Valdez going to Detroit feels HUGE to me. Justin Verlander is going to be the #4 or #5 starter on that team. That should be a wonderful rotation this year.
And the Mets pitching! Getting the guy who won the most games in the Majors last year (Freddy Peralta), as well as the guy who was just two years ago considered arguably the best reliever in the sport (Devin Williams), all while LOSING a guy who was in that latter conversation (Edwin Diaz) feels like a lot of whiplash and interest in Queens.
It wasn't big enough to merit a top-ten placement... but the Brewers-Red Sox deal wherein Caleb Durbin and Andruw Monasterio head to an overcrowded Red Sox infield might've been the rare deal that actually made both teams worse... so that's interesting. As a Brewers fan, I'm ASSUMING the team made this deal because they think Jesus Made is for real, and that they plan to move Joey Ortiz back to third (where he hit better, anyway). If we see Made on the field this year, all is forgiven, as far as I'm concerned. Dude RAKED as a teenager in high-A last year, so I'm thinking this could be a really great thing. But it might be a short-term disaster for the 2026 Brewers. Still... don't count them out!
I'm a Yankee's fan (if only I could watch them) with the wife a Phillies. I could take your paragraph about them, change a few names and she would rant the exact same thing haha.
And yes, the best time of the year with pitchers and catcher report! With technically a sport to start watching next week haha
I'm excited to see Luis Arraez in San Francisco. I know the conventional wisdom is that he is a terrible fielder, especially at second. Well, FanGraphs has him for his career at second base in over 300 games at -2.0 runs below average by UZR. That matches my eye test watching him as a Twin. He is an average second baseman defensively, not terrible.
He is also a winner. When he came up with the Twins they jumped something over 10 wins that year. When he left for Miami, the Twins dropped 10 wins and Miami jumped 10 wins. When he left Miami for San Diego, Miami dropped 10 wins and San Diego jumped 10 wins. I predict the same will happen this year. San Diego will be worse and San Francisco will be better.
Buster Posey knows something about baseball. Getting hits is a good thing. Luiz Arraez is the best player in baseball at that.
It's fun to think that Arraez is more valuable than he really is, but what happened to his "winner" ability in 2021, 2022, and 2025? Getting hits is a good thing. Not making outs is a *better* thing. Arraez makes outs at the same rate as Brandon Nimmo and has less power. The Giants know they can't use him at 1B, because an MLB team cannot have an average hitter with no power playing 1B. I hope it works out, but with Arraez at 2B and Bogaerts at SS, their middle infield is likely going to hurt them. Buster Posey was a great player. Time will tell if he really understands how to put together a winning baseball team, a much different skill.
What's up with this epidemic of hamate bone injuries? Just in the last couple of days, Francisco Lindor, Corbin Carroll, and Jackson Holiday. Spring training just started and stars are dropping like flies, and it's the same injury.
Hamate injuries can be devastating. Like “strained lat” or “bruised toe,” it doesn’t sound serious, but it interferes with the most essential function of a ballplayer and can be a season-killer.
That's wild. I had to google "hamate bone". I wonder why they didn't just say broken wrist? Is it because hamate bone injuries, even with surgery, will heal faster? All I know is, hitters with broken wrists never come back 100%. Tough break for the O's and season hasn't even started yet.
The reason I know what a hamate bone is is because Pablo Sandoval broke his twice while swinging a bat. First one hand then the other after he recovered. He did it the same way both times because he switch hit.
Joe! Thank you so much for the Bob Costas episode! After the debacle that was the all-basketball show (I'm a Sonics fan, so the NBA folded in 2008) this was a banger way to get back into the swing of things. You and Bob are national baseball treasures, sometimes I can even overlook Mike's RedSox fandom to admit he's pretty good too.
Made my donation - looking forward to all the Randy Johnson cards you can find!
The ten quick thoughts section reminded me of being a kid and finally seeing the new baseball preview issues on the shelf at the grocery store, and excitedly diving in to see all the stars who changed teams listed on their new rosters.
BR Kerry's mention of scoring a game at Wrigley with his son reminds me of my experience at Wrigley.
'Bout 20 years ago, my wife and I were in Chicago so she could attend a work-related conference. I planned ahead and bought online a ticket to a Cubs-Cardinals game for one of the afternoons. What I could find at an acceptable price was way up high, way down the right field line. I had a great view of the RF. Home plate? Not so much. It was a cold, rainy early June day, so naturally Dusty Baker sent Carlos Zambrano back out to go over 100 pitches with a 12-4 lead in the 8th...
Got to my seat a couple of batters in. All around me were families, a couple of which included kids learning to score. Since I also keep a scorebook, the guy behind me (also with his kids) kept tapping me on the shoulder and asking me questions about things like the pitch counts, and how the pitchers were doing against leadoff hitters each inning.
A couple of innings in, four college students came up and filled in the four empty seats in front of me. They were from St. Louis, decided to come up and bought tickets online the night before. The ringleader refused all attempts to get him to say how much they had paid for them. They got a bit of a (good-natured, since the Cubs were winning handily...) razzing from the Cubs fans around, and took it well.
All in all, one of the most fun times I've ever had at a ballgame. Wrigley is not the fanciest, most luxurious park, but the fans make the experience.
Orioles are in need of an intense, positive locker room presence and I think they got that with Alonso - a big lead-by-example guy that plays through injuries and plans to be in the lineup every single day. The Holliday news is a bummer, and boy, we would've loved another starter, but I think the O's could really make a big splash (see what I did there, O's fans?) and comeback this season.
Justin Verlander is six months older than me, making him the only player older than me in MLB (assuming Rich Hill and Jesse Chavez don't sign), so I'm rooting for him to pitch again this year. And maybe for another five or ten years?
"Polar Bear" is a really good nickname for Pete Alonso. But that was from his Mets days.
Now that he is the big, burly dinger-bashing first baseman for the Orioles, I think he should be known as Boog Alonso.
I also have a face blindness for Paul Goldschmidt. Even now with him being on the hated Yankees, I always think, who is this guy.
The Yankees added Brian Cashman's favorite free once again: A great player already on the team who's returning from a long-term injury.
Wow... I think you missed some things in the "10 things" section I think merited more discussion than some of the ones you mentioned. Framber Valdez going to Detroit feels HUGE to me. Justin Verlander is going to be the #4 or #5 starter on that team. That should be a wonderful rotation this year.
And the Mets pitching! Getting the guy who won the most games in the Majors last year (Freddy Peralta), as well as the guy who was just two years ago considered arguably the best reliever in the sport (Devin Williams), all while LOSING a guy who was in that latter conversation (Edwin Diaz) feels like a lot of whiplash and interest in Queens.
It wasn't big enough to merit a top-ten placement... but the Brewers-Red Sox deal wherein Caleb Durbin and Andruw Monasterio head to an overcrowded Red Sox infield might've been the rare deal that actually made both teams worse... so that's interesting. As a Brewers fan, I'm ASSUMING the team made this deal because they think Jesus Made is for real, and that they plan to move Joey Ortiz back to third (where he hit better, anyway). If we see Made on the field this year, all is forgiven, as far as I'm concerned. Dude RAKED as a teenager in high-A last year, so I'm thinking this could be a really great thing. But it might be a short-term disaster for the 2026 Brewers. Still... don't count them out!
I'm a Yankee's fan (if only I could watch them) with the wife a Phillies. I could take your paragraph about them, change a few names and she would rant the exact same thing haha.
And yes, the best time of the year with pitchers and catcher report! With technically a sport to start watching next week haha
I'm excited to see Luis Arraez in San Francisco. I know the conventional wisdom is that he is a terrible fielder, especially at second. Well, FanGraphs has him for his career at second base in over 300 games at -2.0 runs below average by UZR. That matches my eye test watching him as a Twin. He is an average second baseman defensively, not terrible.
He is also a winner. When he came up with the Twins they jumped something over 10 wins that year. When he left for Miami, the Twins dropped 10 wins and Miami jumped 10 wins. When he left Miami for San Diego, Miami dropped 10 wins and San Diego jumped 10 wins. I predict the same will happen this year. San Diego will be worse and San Francisco will be better.
Buster Posey knows something about baseball. Getting hits is a good thing. Luiz Arraez is the best player in baseball at that.
It's fun to think that Arraez is more valuable than he really is, but what happened to his "winner" ability in 2021, 2022, and 2025? Getting hits is a good thing. Not making outs is a *better* thing. Arraez makes outs at the same rate as Brandon Nimmo and has less power. The Giants know they can't use him at 1B, because an MLB team cannot have an average hitter with no power playing 1B. I hope it works out, but with Arraez at 2B and Bogaerts at SS, their middle infield is likely going to hurt them. Buster Posey was a great player. Time will tell if he really understands how to put together a winning baseball team, a much different skill.
I hope so.
What's up with this epidemic of hamate bone injuries? Just in the last couple of days, Francisco Lindor, Corbin Carroll, and Jackson Holiday. Spring training just started and stars are dropping like flies, and it's the same injury.
Hamate injuries can be devastating. Like “strained lat” or “bruised toe,” it doesn’t sound serious, but it interferes with the most essential function of a ballplayer and can be a season-killer.
That's wild. I had to google "hamate bone". I wonder why they didn't just say broken wrist? Is it because hamate bone injuries, even with surgery, will heal faster? All I know is, hitters with broken wrists never come back 100%. Tough break for the O's and season hasn't even started yet.
The reason I know what a hamate bone is is because Pablo Sandoval broke his twice while swinging a bat. First one hand then the other after he recovered. He did it the same way both times because he switch hit.
I can't believe this is how I found out Corbin Carroll broke his hamate bone. Ugh. He's on my list of "on deck" notifications in the MLB app.
Joe! Thank you so much for the Bob Costas episode! After the debacle that was the all-basketball show (I'm a Sonics fan, so the NBA folded in 2008) this was a banger way to get back into the swing of things. You and Bob are national baseball treasures, sometimes I can even overlook Mike's RedSox fandom to admit he's pretty good too.
Made my donation - looking forward to all the Randy Johnson cards you can find!
The best four words of the year: Pitchers and Catchers report
The best two words of the year (a tie): Opening Day & Play Ball!
“Game Seven.”
The day the Cubs' pitchers and catchers report is my second favorite secular holiday. The first, of course, is Opening Day.
The ten quick thoughts section reminded me of being a kid and finally seeing the new baseball preview issues on the shelf at the grocery store, and excitedly diving in to see all the stars who changed teams listed on their new rosters.