Among the more robust RBI men in the game this year, there are four who belong to a family of sorts: let’s call it the Al Simmons Club (you’ll see why later on). Among other notables both hidden inside and blaring out of his Hall of Fame statistical record, Simmons […]
The 1895 Baltimore Orioles won more games than any other NL club that year and did so with a young array of talent that shimmers even when looking from a perch more than 125 years removed. By Baseball Reference’s accounting and evaluation, that club had a trio of position players […]
In every campaign from 1995 through 2002, Mike Piazza withstood the rigors of catching to emerge, by the end of the regular season, with at least 30 homers as part of his show and tell demonstration of what he did for the spring, summer and early part of fall. That’s […]
One week ago, Dodgers southpaw Clayton Kershaw layered in another rewrite to his work-in-progress Hall of Fame plaque – one more victory to expand his difference between career wins and losses to a plus 120; five more strikeouts to creep within a dozen punchouts of an even 3,000; yet another […]
As of right now, the big league leaderboard for OPS fans out to reveal a dozen players with a mark above .900. The reigning MVPs – Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani – are there, holding down the top two slots. Kyle Schwarber makes the cut as he positions himself for […]
After Chris Sale and Tarik Skubal made the 2024 season the first ever in which left-handed Triple Crown winners emerged from both the AL and NL, the pair have contributed to sculpting this current campaign into another celebration of those who deliver pitches from the port side. This year provides […]
Scooping up all the seasons from 1893 through 2024 and then sifting through to keep only the most productive offensive campaigns from catchers, one would be left with just 68 lines that were styled in the form of at least 100 games behind the plate and an OPS of at […]
In 1963, outfielder Leon Wagner produced 26 home runs for his Angels club. It was a strong number, good enough to tie Daddy Wags for ninth in the AL, but was also a fairly steep drop from the previous season, when the first-time All-Star clocked 37. Wagner’s tally in ’63 […]
Sometimes, a player’s line doesn’t need the author’s flourishes – the adjectives, the superlatives, the flow-y and show-y. The numbers, with perhaps just a little context, are all that’s required to … sing. Here’s one such story – just the facts. On June 25, 1987, the visiting Reds lost […]
The Aaron Judge carnival of wonders, the thumping by Cal Raleigh and Kyle Schwarber, the walloping and run-scoring fusillade from Shohei Ohtani. In a sense, the 2025 campaign has been largely consumed with the bombers, whether their explosions have been confined to four-baggers or just an integral part of the […]