Looked more closely at stuff-surgers Aaron Nola, Emmet Sheehan, Noah Cameron, Jack Flaherty, Sean Burke, and Justin Wrobleski nytimes.com/athletic/7342665…
A couple changes within baseball have led to an uptick of — how do I put this delicately — foul balls to catchers' nether regions.
"It takes your soul with it."
"You have to be a tough motherfucker."
Catcher in the Writhe: A deep dive into gonadic grief
nytimes.com/athletic/7343059…
ALT Padres Win Graphic. The background of the graphic is brown. In the center of the graphic, there is a photo of Samad Taylor. He is wearing the Padres home white pinstripe uniform. There is a gold outline around the photo. Beneath the photo, there are gold and white stripes. On top of this photo, there is text that says, “PADRES WIN”. Beneath this text is today’s final score: Reds 2, Padres 6. Beneath the score is today’s date: June 8, 2026. Beneath the date is the “For the Faithful” logo.
The San Diego Padres over their last month:
.190 AVG | .268 OBP | .318 SLG | .587 OPS
Zack Greinke in his career:
.225 AVG | .262 OBP | .336 SLG | .598 OPS
What kind of life has Dusty Baker lived? I interviewed him in advance of his upcoming autobiography, “Crossroads.”
These are the names he casually mentioned over the course of two hours:
(In alphabetical order, give or take)
Free and unlocked 🔓for all to read:
Dusty Baker’s rollicking new memoir is out this week, so I paid a visit to the future Hall of Famer — and heard even more jaw-dropping tales
nytimes.com/athletic/7334220…
Since his extended break, Durbin's come back with a bit more uppercut in his swing at contact, and he's just swinging the bat much more often in general. Big sample of being bad and unlucky, small sample of being average and lucky.
Major league injury days lost are a fraction compared to what's going on in the minors, of course, since there are so many more minor leaguers. But some teams rise to the top however you look at the injury list data. What's going on with the Yankees, Mets, and Orioles?
With @Britt_Ghiroli -- why do certain teams seem to have an injury problem in the minor leagues? We talked to GMs, trainers, coaches, and analysts to try and figure it out: nytimes.com/athletic/7330754…
The Dodgers rotation ranks first in the majors in strikeouts (341) and WHIP (1.04) and own the best collective ERA in the NL (3.06). They're averaging almost an inning more per start this year compared to last. Their commitment to a six-man staff is why:
nytimes.com/athletic/7328762…
Joey Votto hired an analytics specialist in 2015 to map pitchers' stuff, umpire tendencies and more in an effort to better control the strike zone 📊🤯
The @Reds great slashed .320/.449/.577 in the years he mentioned using the data.
One of the finer points of the MLBPA's proposal last week: the union asked MLB to publicly release some financial information, including how much each team gets in local revenue sharing.
On "opening the books," in this @chadjennings22 mailbag:
nytimes.com/athletic/7327993…