Leaguebook
MLB
... Ratings
0
Fan contributions
On June 7th, 2010, the Washington Nationals opened the 2010 MLB Draft by selecting Bryce Harper out of the College of Southern Nevada. Harper, dubbed baseball’s “Chosen One” by Sports Illustrated, won the 2010 Golden Spikes Award in his brief collegiate tenure before being drafted. He was just 17 years old. The first round of the 2010 MLB Draft featured many notable players, some of whom still headline the league today. Jameson Taillon went second to the Pirates, before Manny Machado was drafted third to the Orioles. Pitchers Drew Pomeranz and Matt Harvey finish the headlines for the Top 10 selections, being selected by the Indians and Mets respectively. Here are other notable selections you may recognize: 12: Yasmani Grandal, Reds 13: Chris Sale, White Sox 23: Christian Yelich, Marlins 38: Noah Syndergaard, Blue Jays 44: Nick Castellanos, Tigers 104: J.T. Realmuto, Marlins 140: Russell Wilson, Rockies (yes the QB) 269: Whit Merrifield, Royals 272: Jacob deGrom, Mets 348: Adam Duvall, Giants 352: Joc Pederson, Dodgers 356: Robbie Ray, Nationals 941: Kevin Kiermaier, Rays Additionally, while he did not sign with the team, Aaron Judge was selected 935th overall by the Oakland Athletics.
Baseball. It's historic in many ways. The MLB has been the premier baseball league for years, beginning in 1876. It's been 26 years since the MLB started their first season of the millennium. It's been a quarter of a century. The Expos moved to Washington. The Astros rebalanced the MLB. No-hitters. Perfect games. Champions. Runners-up. Surprises. Disappointments. Lockouts. Pandemics. Home runs. Outs. Strikes. Balls. Some things changed. Some things stayed the same. 30 MLB teams. It's been a quarter of a century. Where are we now? Welcome. To Major League Baseball.
I figured I'd combine both first and second place's season into one DYK because there will be a lot of comparison. So, if you look up the voting on baseball reference, you will see the winner was Brewers legend Ryan Braun, who posted only a 2.0 WAR season. In a close second was Rockies legend Troy Tulowitzki, who recorded a monstrous 6.8 WAR. So why did Braun win it over Troy T? Well if we look at their offensive stats we will see they both drove in near 100 runs, but we will also that Braun hit 10 more dingers and had an OPS nearly .200 points higher than Troy. But now you ask, why such a massive difference in WAR despite the much better offense? Defense. Troy T was arguably the best defensive shortstop in 2007 racking up nearly 4 defensive WAR. Braun was a different story. He recorded a mlb leading TWENTY SIX errors at 3B, leading to him racking up nearly -3 defensive WAR. Truly two sides of the same coin, perfectly illustrated by the fact that Braun only won the race by one vote.
This day, 1979, the Phillies beat the Cubs 22 to 23 — that’s right, 22 to 23, an absolutely wild extra-inning slugfest. There were 11 Homers, 50 Hits, and 45 Runs. Though only 14,952 people were there to witness this game, it has still marked its spot in history
Only real ones get it
Today marked the first ever dinger in the history of mankind that can be proven to be caught by a traffic cone! Let’s go Buccos!!!!
On May 6, 1915, a 20 year old Boston Red Sox pitcher by the name of Babe Ruth stepped up to the plate in the top of the third inning against the New York Yankees at the Polo Grounds and made history. With the score tied 0-0, Ruth launched the first pitch he saw from Yankees hurler Jack Warhop deep into the second tier of the right field grandstand for his first major league home run; a solo shot that gave the Sox a brief lead. But Ruth wasn’t done. The game turned into a 13-inning marathon, and the young lefty stayed on the mound for all 12⅓ innings (!) in a complete game effort. Despite scattering 10 hits and striking out three while allowing just two earned runs, Ruth took the hard luck loss as the Yankees walked it off 4-3 in the 13th. Ruth finished the day 3-for-5 at the plate, boosting his batting average to .417. This performance was an early glimpse of the legendary power that would eventually transform him from an elite pitcher into baseball’s greatest slugger all while wearing a Boston Red Sox uniform. The Sultan of Swat’s journey to 714 career home runs had just begun!
On May 5, 1904, Cy Young delivered baseball perfection. The 37-year-old Boston Americans pitcher retired all 27 Philadelphia Athletics batters he faced - no hits, no walks, no errors - in a 3-0 shutout at Huntington Avenue Grounds. It was the first perfect game in "modern" Major League Baseball history (under the current 60'6" pitching distance rules established in 1903). Young struck out 8 batters, the game lasted just 83 minutes, and a crowd of 10,267 watched the epic duel against fellow future Hall of Famer Rube Waddell. Legend says after striking out Waddell for the final out, Young shouted, “How do you like that, you hayseed?”. Unfathomable levels of smack talk for that era. Cy's masterpiece kicked off a then-record 45-inning scoreless streak (which included 24 consecutive hitless innings, still an MLB record). Young later called it the greatest day of his legendary career.
There are 19 qualified hitters in MLB who currently lack a home run this season. Here are the Top 10 as ranked by OPS: 1. Justin Crawford — .777 2. Chandler Simpson — .741 3. Bobby Witt Jr. — .726 4. Luis Arraez — .703 5. Jeff McNeil — .702 6. Ernie Clement — .700 7. Fernando Tatis Jr. — .644 8. Nick Gonzales — .603 9. Mike Yastrzemski — .598 10. Matt McLain — .567
Picture these two scenarios: Scenario A: You're up 5-2 heading into the ninth. Your closer comes in to lock down the opposing offense. Immediately he gives up 2 home runs. He finally settles in and gets 2 outs, but then the jitters strike again. he walks 3 batters. Bases loaded. The next batter comes up, and rips a ball into the center field gap. It looks like its game over, but the center fielder lays out for a superhuman dive to save the game, and you win. Scenario B: You come into the 9th up 5-4. Your regular closer struggles, and allows the opposing team to load the bases. The manager decides that's enough, and brings in a new reliever. He immediately gets all 3 guys out, somehow holding on to win the game. Now who pitched better? Its Player B, by a mile. Yet those two games count exactly the same in their statsheet. They both get a save. Yet MLB fans continue to worship the save as the one stat that marks a reliever's worth. Take John Franco for example. He is 7th all time on the saves leaderboard. But if you really dive deep into it, he's no more than an above average relief pitcher that got lucky on good teams throughout his career. He had a career ERA of 2.89 and a WAR of 23 in 21 years. Sure, he had the longevity, but theres at least 100 all time relievers I'd rather have as my closer than him. The only reason he reached such high save numbers is because he stuck around in the league 5 years longer than he should've just to try and climb the leaderboard.
Yesterday on April 13 2026 the MLB played 10 games and the action did not disappoint. There were 7 games that had 10+ runs, walk offs, pitching duels, and multi homer games. In the Yankees and Angels game the final score was 10-11 with a Mike Trout 2 home run game, Arron Judge 2 home run game, and a game tying home run in the bottom of the ninth which later lead to a walk off. The Pirates put up 16 on the Nationals in a 16-5 win. The Twins put up 13 on the Red Sox in a 13-6 win. 11 of the Twins runs came in the first two innings. The Phillies put up 13 runs in a 13-7 victory over the cubs. And the Marlins had 10 runs in a 10-4 win over the Braves. There was also low scoring games as well. The dodgers took down the Mets in a 4-0 win. Justin Wrobleski pitched 8 scoreless innings only allowing 2 hits. In total, there was 144 runs, 187 hits, 34 home runs, and a batting average of .275. The average batting average per day is .240 -.250. All of this happened in 10 baseball games.
On April 13th, 1963, Pete Rose tripled for his first MLB hit. 21 years later, on April 13th, 1984, Pete Rose collected his 4,000th MLB hit. Personally, I don’t want to celebrate this piece of shit too much, so let’s look back on Rose’s controversial legacy. Court documents allege that in the 1970s Rose had a sexual relationship with a minor who was under the age of 16, the age of consent in Ohio. Rose was in his mid-30s during the relationship. This constitutes to statutory rape. It’s also alleged that Rose had relations with girls between 12 and 14 during spring trainings down in Florida. When asked about the scandal by Alex Coffey, a female reporter from The Philadelphia Inquirer, in August 2022, Rose replied, “It was 55 years ago, babe”. Rose was penalized with permanent ineligibility from baseball in August of 1989 after being found to have bet on baseball games while playing for and managing the Cincinnati Reds. After over a decade of denial, Rose admitted his guilt in 2004. Rose applied for reinstatement in 1992, 1998, 2015, 2020 (in wake of the Houston Astros sign stealing scandal), and 2023 before his death in September 2024. On February 28th, 2025, United States President and fellow child rapist Donald Trump posthumously pardoned Pete Rose, but remained vague in what crimes would be annulled. Trump also criticized MLB for Rose’s ban. Commissioner Rob Manfred met with Trump in April of that year, and confirmed that Rose and his lifetime ban were discussed. A month later, Manfred instituted a change that made permanent eligibility expires after death, caving to the political pressure applied from the Commander in Queef. So yes, Rose collected two notable hits during his baseball on April 13th.
The following MLB teams currently have a 6-7 record: Athletics Toronto Blue Jays Chicago Cubs Baltimore Orioles Philadelphia Phillies Tampa Bay Rays
We’ve enjoyed a decent sample size of baseball, and it’s already clear to see: ABS challenges are a true skill to master. Catchers have been challenging pitches more than batters or pitchers thus far, and it feels like those who excel with challenges could be looked at more favorably when Gold Gloves are being discussed. Anyways, here is every catcher who is perfect thus far when challenging a pitch: Dillon Dingler: 7 for 7 J.T. Realmuto: 5 for 5 Mitch Garver: 3 for 3 Gary Sanchez, Adley Rutschman, Jeferson Quero: 2 for 2 This fails to mention some other challenge-happy catchers. Logan O’Hoppe is already 10 for 12 on challenges for the Angels, having the most successful challenges of any player in MLB. Agustin Ramirez is also 7 for 9, and Hunter Goodman is 6 for 8. So what will matter more? ABS Challenge accuracy or volume? It’ll be an interesting discussion as ABS takes its maiden voyage through the season.
The pirates roatation is the only rotation so far to not allow a home run, through their first 9 games! Who would have thought? and how long will it last? sneaky good rotation
It took years of strong stances to finally rip some control away from the greedy owners. One of the best examples came in 1966. Baseball players were ruled tyrannically by the Reserve Clause for a long time. The Reserve Clause was a part of every MLB player’s contract. In short, teams were able to automatically renew a player’s contract with the same salary and term no matter what. In order to take full advantage of this, teams only signed 1-year contracts. In practice, a ball player could have a great rookie year, get a small pay raise because they have basically no negotiating power, have a sophomore slump and have their salary slashed instantly. It was a win-win for the owners. They got to keep their best players until they were no good while paying them very little. Not even the best players could overcome that system. However, 2 pitchers found a way to beat it. Heading into the 1966 season, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale were the 2 best pitchers on the reigning World Series champion Dodgers. However, because of what I explained earlier, they both had to renegotiate their contracts prior to Spring Training. Of course, they both wanted a raise. Valid requests considering Koufax won the Cy Young award and World Series MVP in the previous year while Drysdale had finished 5th in MVP voting. The Dodgers GM Buzzie Bavasi was not interested in giving them the raise they wanted, but knew their importance to the club, so he cooked up a devious plan. Back in those days, players negotiated their own contracts. There were no agents, so Bavasi’s plan was to guilt them using each other. When Koufax would come in and make a demand, Bavasi would say “Drysdale isn’t asking for that much”. When Drysdale would come in and make his own demand, Bavasi would say “Koufax isn’t asking for that much”. On the surface, it seemed like a good plan. There was just 1 small problem. Don and Sandy were good friends and hung out regularly. One night at dinner, they talked about their contract negotiations and quickly realized what Bavasi was doing. So they made a pact. After that night, they went up to the Dodgers offices and told Bavasi that they would negotiate their contracts as a pair. They immediately demanded a 3-year 1 million dollar contract to be split evenly. Willie Mays was the highest paid player with a $125K salary, they were asking for $167K per year over 3 years. The Dodgers refused to negotiate with both players at once, but Don had a plan for that. His wife was an actress and she had suggested, during that dinner, having her agent, J. William Hayes, represent them. The pair agreed and told the Dodgers that Hayes would negotiate for them. Hayes also gave the pitchers advice on how to handle this sort of predicament. Most notably, he insisted they avoid the media at all costs as many of them were much more sympathetic to the Dodgers and their owner. The pitchers followed through on his advice, never spoke to the media and sat out of Spring Training. Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley was incensed. “I admire the boys’ strategy. And we can’t do without them, even for a little while. But we can’t give in to them. There are too many agents hanging around Hollywood looking for clients." Koufax and Drysdale also accounted for the possibility of the Dodgers playing hardball. They both signed up to act in the movie Warning Shot. It was a safety net in preparation for the possibility of sitting out a season to get what they wanted. Koufax and Drysdale remained firm while O’Malley threatened to trade the pitchers if they negotiated through an agent and made their teammates call the pitchers and convince them to come to Spring Training. The situation reached defcon 1 when Hayes had unearthed a California state law that essentially made the Reserve Clause illegal. When O’Malley discovered this, he told Bavasi and the pair immediately became much more welcoming to the players’ demands. The pitchers were now allowed to negotiate as a pair. Koufax was unable to attend and trusted Drysdale to handle it himself. The holdout finally ended when Koufax signed for $125K and Drysdale signed for $115K, both 1-year contracts. Sadly, Koufax pitched his very last season in 1966 and Drysdale retired just a few years later. This holdout had a greater impact than either of their careers. This was undeniable proof of the power the players could have. In the same year of this holdout, Marvin Miller became the very first executive of the MLBPA after being approved by the players. Miller used the Koufax-Drysdale holdout as proof of the importance and power that came from unionizing. It also appears that Koufax and Drysdale put fear into the owners’ hearts. One of the first requests they made when negotiating the very first collective bargaining agreement was to ban players from teaming up to hold out. Miller’s MLBPA immediately became one of the strongest unions. Just 10 years later, the Reserve Clause died and free agency was established.
Dodgers pitcher Dustin May had been recovering from Tommy John Surgery and was getting closer in his journey to recovery. He was a promising young pitcher, every now and then he would have an elite start having everyone question who is this guy and why is his hair so red? Well, in July 2024 Dustin May was eating a salad with his family when he felt a sharp pain in this throat. After the pain was gone he did not think anything of it. But his wife insisted for him to get it checked out. It turned out he had torn his esophagus on a piece of lettuce getting stuck in his throat. He had to have emergency surgery and that set him back even more. Today May has been traded and trying to find his identity. He is currently on the st. Louis Cardinals and struggling. He is healthy now and I wish him the best of luck. Moral of the story, chew your food.
On April 4th, 1948, two baseball legends had a 90 foot race from third plate to home. Connie Mack, the longtime manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, challenged Clark Griffith, the owner of the Washington Senators, to the race. It was officiated by baseball’s commissioner, A.B. “Happy” Chandler. The race was staged with all the fanfare of a major event. It was held prior to an exhibition game between the A’s and Senators. With fans assembled, an ambulance came through the left field gate and halted at home plate. Out stepped a doctor and two nurses followed by Mack and Griffith. The two and Chandler made brief speeches at home plate before being escorted to third base. Griffith stepped off sprightly enough and Mack skipped along in stride until they reached the end of the course. Chandler declared the race a tie as both crossed home plate at the same time.
Did you know that Justin Crawford recorded his first RBI in MLB on a walkoff single, in the tenth inning of a game where the Phillies had been trailing in up until the bottom of the ninth inning?
The NL East is the first division in MLB history to have all of its teams start 1-0. Four of the five teams in the division opened up their seasons at home, with the Washington Nationals earning a win at Wrigley Field. Many people are saying that the NL East is the greatest division of all time, and quite frankly, they aren't wrong.
