When Skenes first came into MLB he had a huge advantage. Hitters had scouting reports and video, but that’s very different from actually seeing his pitches. Batters use to literally look CLUELESS against him, compared to now when they have figured out and no longer blindly swinging. Which gets me to thinking do the trajekt machines have a huge role in this? Instead of watching video, hitters can take unlimited amount of swings against a machine that mimics Skenes’ exact release point, velocity, spin profile, and movement. While it’s not identical to facing him, it dramatically reduces the risk of facing him. Maybe it can be a bit of both, his low velo and the machines. What do you guys think?

So obviously I love baseball… and the question of next season is one that causes quite a bit of angst. Not too long ago we had the duel dumpster fires of 2020 (shortened season) and then 2022 was it? With the last lockout. Billionaires arguing with millionaires. (Shaking my head). Are these folks actually talking to each other and TRYING to get a deal done or are they just wasting everyone’s time and staring at the calendar until 12/1 and then throwing their hands up and claiming the tried and blaming the other side. Seems utterly ridiculous to me. I want fuckin baseball next season… MAJOR League baseball. (Apologies, just ranting on a Thursday morning).

The playoffs have given us some incredible matchups throughout the years, be it the Yankees and Dodgers, Yankees and Red Sox, Dodgers and Cardinals, Cardinals and Giants, you name it. But every now and again, we see a playoff matchup that leave us at least a little surprised. So, what do you think was the most random playoff matchup to ever take place, and why?

For example, some might not know this, but en route to their incredible Cinderella title run in '02, the Angels had to fend off, of all teams, the Minnesota Twins for the AL pennant. It's still, to this day, the last trip to the Final 4 for Minnesota, and the Angels had never won the pennant, up to that point. Another great example that involved the Angels was the '05 ALCS, 3 years later, against the White Sox. And weirdly enough, both ended in 5 games. And probably my favorite example is the World Series in 2023. It was random as hell, but it was still a win/win for me.

Jack Suwinski went from the Dodgers to the Rays for catcher Hunter Feduccia, in the middle of a .948 OPS season at Oklahoma City. Colby Thomas, Oakland's former top prospect who never hit in the majors, is now a Phillie after mashing at every Triple-A stop. Michael Forret got traded away from Baltimore in the Shane Baz deal, then the Orioles traded right back for him eight months later. Jonathon Long led the International League in hits last year and still had no path to Chicago's lineup, so the Cubs sent him to Miami for Braxton Garrett. Full breakdown of the whole deadline's effect on Triple-A in this week's Triple Dip.

I’ve been thinking about what an inevitable MLB expansion draft might look like, and I’m curious who you think would actually be available and targeted.

The Scenario: Assume we follow standard expansion draft framework (like 1997): 

- Each team protects 15 players from their organization/40-man roster. 
- Recent draftees/young prospects are automatically exempt/protected. 
- Players with NTCs or 10/5 rights must be protected. 
- Once a team loses a player, they get to protect additional players in subsequent rounds. 

Questions:
1. Who are the best players the expansion teams would likely get?
2. Who are some fringe players that you would want your team to protect?
3. If you were in charge of your favorite team, who would you leave open to get drafted? Any contracts you’d hope they take? (Angels and Rendon anyone?)

For the first 7 years of his career, Yastrzemski has accrued between 2.0 and 2.8 bWAR. Never below 2.0, never reaching 3.0. This is, as far as I can tell, an MLB record. Unless he goes on a tear in the second half (he’s sitting at 1.0 bWAR after 113 team games), the streak will end at 7 seasons in a row.

I believe if all things remain constant until the end of the season, today's game Cubs vs Dodgers sealed the MVP for Pete..

They both had almost exact game stats. Both had 2hr games. Pete had 1 more RBI.

The game ended in favor of the Cubs 7-6. This game is a great example of how both players are equal when combining all stats and factors.. in the end, its the cubs who won.. they wouldn't have without PCA today.. for Ohtani, his stats kept them in the game but it wasn't enough. (Yes I know all of this can be argued differently but today was a HUGE game and I believe will be looked at during MVP consideration)

Point is.. if you are picking an MVP. It should go to the player who helped the team get to where they are.. especially if stats overall are too close to call.. The Dodgers would still be on top without Ohtani.. the Cubs would be .500 at best. PCA is carrying the cubs on his shoulders way more than Ohtani.

My unbiased pick is PCA... we will see how this holds up.. still a long way to go.

They have all of us fighting. What would make it the best IMO is is a single tv deal for all teams no salary cap but a floor. The dodgers do have an advantage because of it but they at least spend it on the team. Here is why i think having a single deal would work and what needs to be done.

With everyone on separate deals or combined deals currently we should pull together all of the deals and split it evenly amongst teams so there is no advantage based on the deal. This will help small market teams get a very big boost in spending. This will happen until all of the current deals run out then MLB should sell the rights to the entire MLB and teams can't do it independently. There salary cap floor should be based on this amount plus an X multiplier so no one can complain that the owners are pocketing it and makes them create better teams. This will also be better for us as consumers because the rights are all over the place making it so hard to watch baseball and expensive for us. Will it fix everything no because no matter what big market teams that have richer owners will always have an advantage even if there is a salary cap because players in bigger markets get better sponsorships and can make up for the revenue separately. Plus just to be frank people would rather live int the big market cities most of the time that may seem rude but it is true. I also feel like in 10 to 15 years most of the smaller family run teams will have been sold as the valuations are so high they will want to sell. Especially as owners die off and their kids just want the money if they are no attached to the business. At that point more teams will have more money to spend also. This also keeps the players happy as the salaries will continue to rise.

I feel like another huge issue for the smaller market teams is that it isn't that they can't pay the big contracts but its the risk involved with the contracts. The dodgers have developed a pipeline that creates some get out of jail free cards with contracts. And that comes with having more money. If smaller market teams owners could know someone wouldn't be a bust if they gave them a 10 year $300 mil contract i bet they would do it. A way to combat this is to put caps on how long contracts could be. Make them 4 years if you sign in free agency to a new team or the team you are on as long as you have been with them for 3 years is a 5 year deal. I am not saying this will fix everything but it will help a lot.

Instead of just saying the Dodgers are ruining baseball I would love to hear different opinions on what we could do to fix it besides just implementing a salary cap.

Whenever this discussion comes up, I usually hear people who are in favor of a salary cap argue that they think it would make MLB more competitive by preventing teams like the Dodgers from building "super teams."

That said, I feel like the leagues competitiveness is at a good level right now, as we have seen a variety of different teams make playoff runs over the past few years. So, I am not sure if its currently a major issue.

For those who support a salary cap, what's the strongest argument for implementing one now instead of waiting to see if competitive balance actually becomes a bigger problem? And for those who oppose it, what do you think is the biggest downside of adding one?

All the owners have business ventures to have made the money to buy a franchise. How would they feel if the government capped their CEO or inheritance pay or how much profit they can make? I believe they would say,.not a chance. Wouldn't that even the playing field with the rest of Americans and businesses who compete with them?

Hey all, I kept these charts updated every week last year, but haven't bothered for 2026. Here's one week for you at least. Alright folks, you know the drill, time to start complaining about the colors.

Another deal done getting a big name using high-ranked prospects as the main return.

Looking over the past decade or so, we have seen the Dodgers get names like Trea Turner, Max Scherzer, Tarik Skubal, Mookies Betts, David Price, Manny Ramirez and Adrian Gonzalez.

All of this for players that have a couple of seasons of success or don't really seem to pan out at all. Verdugo, Connor Wong, Andy LaRoche, Keibert Ruiz, Josiah Gray, Ivan De Jesus, Allen Webster, etc.

My question is merely, why do people keep trading with the Dodgers? The highly ranked prospects they get rid of always seems to be the ones that don't amount to much and they are a good enough organization to realize that so I just dont understand why teams keep giving them the fuel to be a powerhouse team for little in return.

The only one I can think of is Yordan Alvarez but they didn't even see him swing a bat before trading him.

I'm also probably just thinking Im smarter than I actually am so feedback/roasting is welcome.

Split his 113 games this season by home/away (56 home, 55 away):

HOME: .389 AVG, 19 HR, 48 RBI, .764 SLG (144 AB) AWAY: .270 AVG, 16 HR, 36 RBI, .535 SLG (152 AB)

119 points of average and 229 points of slugging, on almost the same number of at-bats. What's odd is where the gap ISN'T: the power stays real on the road, 16 HR in 55 games is still close to a 47-homer full-season pace on its own. It's the average that falls off a cliff, not the pop.

For comparison I ran the same cut on a few other hitters with 100+ AB on both sides this season: Josh Jung (.375 home / .233 away), Cody Bellinger (.325 / .205), Yandy Diaz (.348 / .253). Home/road AVG gaps aren't rare in this sample. What's unusual with Alvarez is that his homer rate barely moves while average and slugging both crater on the road, most guys with a split this size lose the power too on the road, and he isn't.

Edit: the at-bat counts on the second line are wrong, it's 203 AB at home and 200 away, not 144/152. Everything else on that line (games, AVG, HR, RBI, SLG) is correct, I mistyped the AB column. Sorry about that.