Hi Everyone —
We don’t often talk about our matchmaking abilities, but this week I heard from not one but TWO couples who met through the magic of JoeBlogs.
Brilliant Reader Mike is a passionate Cubs fan. His girlfriend Anna Lea was born in Switzerland and says that she spent “thirty-plus blissful years of absolutely not caring about sports.” But love conquers all, or so they say, and Mike took Anna Lea to a couple of baseball games, she sort of liked it, and then she picked up the Baseball 100 because that’s what you’re supposed to do, and one morning not too long ago, Mike noticed his girlfriend looking at him curiously.
“I have a question,” she asked.
“Whoa, this is never good,” Mike thought.
“Who do you think was more hated in their own time, Ty Cobb or Barry Bonds,” she asked.
Mike and Anna Lea were just married.
Then there’s Lee, who flew in from Portland to see our Why We Love Baseball event in Kansas City a couple of years ago. He invited an old high school friend who lived in Kansas City. That turned into their first date, and after discussing unofficial team nicknames and arguing about various baseball things, they are getting married in November.
I’m not saying reading JoeBlogs might give you your happily ever after.
I’m saying reading JoeBlogs definitely will give you your happily ever after.
I’ll admit it: I’m having way too much fun making old-fashioned baseball magazine covers. I spent too much time on this one, but I like how it turned out.
National League East
Where we stand
Philadelphia leads the division by six games and has more or less a 100% chance of making the postseason for the fourth straight season. The Mets had been in freefall, losing 14 of 16 at one point, but they seem to have righted the ship, and they pounded the Phillies Monday night — they have a better than 50/50 shot of playing in October. The Marlins, Braves, and Nationals are all varying degrees of bad, but the stories connected to their struggles are very different. Miami is actually playing better than anyone expected. The Braves are playing much worse than anyone expected. And the Nationals continue their lifeless march to nowhere.
Rambling thoughts
When the Phillies signed Trea Turner coming off their pennant-winning 2022 season, I boldly and quite confidently predicted he would win the MVP award. Instead, he flatlined, hit just .239/.292/.380 through mid-August and seemed like a lost soul. You might remember that he was revived by a fan movement — those famously hard-bitten Phillies fans chose to support him, and he played like an MVP the rest of the season.
Last year was the reverse — he started off gangbusters, then got hurt, missed six weeks, and limped to the finish line.
This year, the Phillies are getting the Trea Turner I imagined. He’s not going to win the MVP award because, you know, Shohei (and because Kyle Schwarber has emerged as the Phillies’ MVP of choice), but he’s hitting .300 or so, he leads the league in hits, he might be the best baserunner in the game, and he might be playing fantastic defense at shortstop. I say “might be,” because the big defensive systems disagree. Quickly, Baseball-Reference WAR and Fangraphs WAR use different defensive measures.
Baseball-Reference focuses on DRS — Defensive Runs Saved — and Turner’s DRS is about league average. Because of this he has a good but not exceptional 4.6 bWAR.
Fangraphs, as I understand it, leans on Statcast numbers, particularly Outs Above Average, and here Turner shines. His 14 OAA is elite, and his fWAR is 5.9, tying him for the league lead with Shohei.
I personally lean toward the Fangraphs model. I think Turner has been as valuable as anybody in the league …
It occurs to me that appreciating Juan Soto’s greatness requires a little work …
The Art of Appreciating Juan Soto
From Soto's brilliance to Ohtani's annual miracles — and a few oddities in between (yes, Pirates, we mean you!) -- keep reading for pennant race fun. Subscribe today and get a free copy of the JoeBlogs Reader, a collection of our most beloved stories.
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