The period between the 1964 World Series loss and the return to the Fall Classic in 1976 is a bit of a wasteland in Yankees’ history. Thanks in large part to the disaster that was CBS ownership, the Yankees had some of their worst years during that time. Things started to turn around by the start of the 1970s, as young players like Thurman Munson began to develop.

However, it’s not as if the Yankees had no good players in that down era. It’s not as if the children following the team didn’t have their idols. One of them is Joe Pepitone, whose birthday we celebrate today.

Joseph Anthony “Joe” Pepitone
Born: October 9, 1940 (Brooklyn, NY)
Died: March 13, 2023 (Kansas City, MO)
Yankees Tenure: 1962-69

Joe Pepitone was born on October 9, 1940, in the very city he would go on play in professionally. The oldest of three boys, he grew up in Brooklyn with his parents Willie and Angelina. Although Joe said he loved and admired his father, the elder Pepitone could be abusive, both physically and emotionally. In one particular incident, Joe telling his father “I hate you!” caused Willie to hurl an ash tray in the direction of his son. It didn’t hit Joe, but it smashed against the wall, causing shards to fly in his eyes. There was no permanent damage, but the physical abuse did end after that harrowing incident. His father passed away in 1958, just a day after Joe had told his mom that “I wish he’d die” after another blowup between the two of them.

Pepitone was introduced to baseball by an uncle, and honed his game playing in the sandlots of New York City. A star in high school at Manual Training High School (now John Jay High School), Pepitone also played for Nathan’s Hot Dog semipro team when he began to catch the eyes of scouts. However, he had another nearly life-altering incident before he began his professional career.

In March 1958, just weeks before Pepitone would begin in minor league career, he was shot in an incident at his high school. A classmate had found a gun on the docks, and had pointed it — possibly, hopefully jokingly — at Pepitone, who didn’t know what was happening, tried backing away. The gun accidentally went off, and Pepitone had been shot straight through the stomach. Thankfully, Pepitone somehow escaped mostly uninjured, and signed for the Yankees shortly after that.

After signing with the Yankees, Pepitone rocketed through the minor leauges, and made the majors after impressing following a spring training with the big league team in 1962. Early on, Pepitone’s playing time was sparse with Bill “Moose” Skowron entrenched as the Yankees’ first baseman. As the calendar turned to May, manager Ralph Houk began to use him more, often deploying him in the outfield. However, after struggles and a disciplinary incident, the Yankees sent the youngster back down to the minors. He put up big numbers there and got called back up, although he wouldn’t appear in the 1962 World Series, which would be the Yankees’ last Fall Classic victory until 1977.

The 1963 season would go on to be a breakthrough one for Pepitone. He slugged 27 home runs and was named an All-Star, starting the game at first base. Pepitone would end up making the All-Star team in 1964 and ‘65 as well, along with helping the Yankees to the 1963 and ‘64 AL pennants. They lost both those series, though and Pepitone would never appear in the postseason again.

Over the next couple years, Pepitone became a star for the Yankees. However, with the stars of the 1950s and early 60s dynasty aging out, the team began to go the wrong way in the standings. With a career 105 OPS+ while on the Yankees, Pepitone was hardly ever the problem on the field. However, he could often be a bit of one off it. He gained the reputation as a bit of a party boy and had a habit of showing up late and having disagreements with managers. Between that and the fact that he was one of the higher earners on a bad Yankees’ team, the decision was eventually made to trade him. In December 1969, he was sent to the Astros for Curt Blefary.

Pepitone had a couple stops after his Yankee career, most notably with the Cubs from 1970-73. After his MLB career ended, he had a brief stint with the Yakult Atoms in Japan. He eventually returned to the Bronx as a coach, and was credited with helping Don Mattingly master first base defensively. However, his off-field issues remained, and he even did prison time after a 1988 drug conviction. He later released a fairly candid autobiography, where he spoke at length about his issues, and how they led to the end of three marriages and kept him from being an even better player.

In later years, Pepitone became something of a pop culture reference point. He was mentioned on occasions on “Seinfield” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” with noted Yankee fan Larry David right in the age range to remember Pepitone’s peak.

He was also the subject of a mention in a flashback scene in “The Sopranos.”

Tree RBI.

In his later years, Pepitone settled in Kansas City, where he was living with one of his children. He often made time to return to Yankees alumni events though, including Old-Timers’ Day in the Bronx. Pepitone passed away in KC at the age of 82 in 2023.

Nobody will mistake Joe Pepitone for a Baseball Hall of Famer, his stats weren’t remotely there. However, for Yankees’ fans of the time, watching a local kid make good, you couldn’t have told them otherwise.

See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.

You could never count the 2026 Diamondbacks team out. Even right up until the last weekend of the season when they were all but written off weeks earlier, this team was still giving us reason to be invested and watch meaningful baseball games. But how good was this team really? What went good? What went bad? And most importantly what needs to be addressed so that we are still watching baseball in the playoffs at this time next season? Lets get started.

Team Overview

First, lets look at the season stats. The 2026 Dbacks managed to win 86 games despite scoring about the same amount of runs as they allowed at 739 scored vs 730 allowed. This is good for a Pythagorean wins total of 81.9 wins so it could be argued that this team overperformed by about 4 wins. That 4 win overperformance vs Pythagorean is 5th highest in MLB. Lets start with the offense. If we look at the trends, the 739 runs was about 52 runs fewer than 2025, and 147 runs less than when they lead the league in offense with 886 runs in 2024. On the run prevention side we see the opposite trend with this team going from 26th in runs allowed in 2024 to 17th in 2026.

Simply put, the offense got worse and the run prevention got better and this team had the same result being a mid 80s win team and just missing the 3rd wild card spot. But lets dig a little deeper shall we?

What Went Right

1. Bullpen- Starting with what went best and perhaps the surprise of the season, the bullpen. There are many metrics used to evaluate relief pitchers, but I love win probability added (WPA) and this group went from 30th in 2025 to 5th. Part of WPA is timing and this bullpen was 4th in Clutch which was worth about 4 wins which is roughly the whole gap over Pythagorean. So when looking at reasons as to why this team was better than its Pythagorean, it could very well be this bullpen entirely making it the MVP of this season for me. The most surprising find I made was Juan Morillo, Brandyn Garcia, and Justin Martinez were worth more WPA (4.05) than the big 3 of Ketel Marte, Geraldo Perdomo, and Corbin Carroll (WPA 3.17). That speaks to how clutch this bullpen was and how not clutch the big 3 was. Maybe we have a new big 3 in 2027 and they come out of the bullpen? Garcia was elite against lefties with a .182 xwOBA and still good against righties with a .264. And his stuff+ backs up the results with a 130 sweeper and a 117 sinker. Martinez looked great in his return from 2nd Tommy John with a 101.8 avg fastball velocity in September, the highest of his career. He did spray the ball around a little bit more than you would like with an 18% BB, however it was only 13 innings so maybe we can chalk it up to some rust. Stuff+ tends to settle faster than many of the other metrics so his stuff+ of 127.5 for 2026 is both really encouraging and completely absurd. For context, among relievers with 10+ innings pitched, JMart’s 127.5 stuff+ ranks 3rd in all of baseball! Aside from the excitement of seeing JMart back, Juan Morillo and Jonathan Loaisiga were the backbone of the group and the glue that held it together giving this team a combined 131.1 innings of 2.33 high leverage relief innings. Worth about 2.7 fWAR combined. Absolutely huge.

2. The Defense- Next up for what went right, the defense. You noticed coming into this season that the front office started referring to ‘run prevention’ rather than pitching? That wasn’t by mistake. They doubled down on their inability to limit hard contact in years past by building an elite defensive team that likely propped up a below average pitching group that still allowed a lot of contact once again in 2026. The defense was +36 in Outs Above Average (3rd in MLB) which equates to about 29 fielding runs or roughly 3 wins. What propelled this defense vs previous seasons? An unsung hero of the defense this season was Geraldo Perdomo who alone was worth +18 Def. Bullpen and defense were difficult to rank which one was more critical to this team in 2026 especially when you consider the starters allowed the 3rd highest contact in baseball in 2026. One thing is for sure, this team would’ve looked a lot different without this defense.

3. Gabriel Moreno finally broke out! Ever since he was batting 3rd in the world series run in 2023, fans have been dreaming of what Gabriel Moreno could look like if things clicked and he was able to stay healthy, and in 2026 fans finally got to see just that! Aside from winning the batting title and being the first catcher to accomplish the feat since Buster Posey, Gabi lead the team with 5.4fWAR. Most importantly his breakout season is backed up by the numbers with a 141 wRC+ and a .363 xwOBA so this wasn’t a fluke by any means. And he was still the superb defender we have grown accustomed to. This was a player finally putting it all together and reaching his star potential. A huge development to add another player with star potential to the middle of this lineup and anchoring the defense with Perdomo.

4. Unlikely Rotation Heroes- The rotation was saved by the most unlikely of sorts. Eduardo Rodriguez was able to have a breakout season and earn almost the entirety of his contract in 1 year putting up 3.2 WAR with a 16-7 record and a sparkling 2.89 ERA in 189 innings. Another not fun exercise you can do with yourself if you want to get into the spooky season spirit a little early is where would this team have been without ERod? Now the only reason for me he is a little lower in this list is that I believe at least a significant portion of the ERod breakout was due to the defense being so good (4.27 xERA), but still you cant take anything away from what he was able to do. The other rotation savior was Michael Soroka. Perhaps the most important signing of the 2025 offseason, Soroka came in and was worth 2.7 WAR in just 116 innings, but lead the rotation with a 3.19 FIP. Without ERod and Soroka’s breakouts, this rotation would’ve sunk this season early in the season.

5. A strong Second Half Surge- For the second straight season this team seemed to surge in the second half going 37-29 after the break. However, it wasn’t for the reasons you maybe would’ve thought as it wasn’t really due to the reinforcements finally arriving, it was genuinely because this team was just playing better baseball. Specifically, the offense went from 4.33 runs/game (19th) before the allstar break to 4.89 runs/game (4th) after. This was the second biggest improvement in baseball over that span.

This was largely driven by the team’s xwOBA jumping from 26th to 5th due to a couple of factors: chase rate dropped 2.2 points, barells rose .9 points (2nd biggest rise) and hard hit rose 1.6 points (3rd biggest rise). About 85% of this improvement came simply from who was batting vs the same hitters improving. Guys like Lourdes Gurreil Jr, Adrian Del Castillo, Alek Thomas, and LuJames Groover saw significantly less PA while guys like Lars Nootbaar, Tim Tawa, and James McCann saw more. Of positive note here, Corbin Carroll’s fastball whiff rate fell from 27.6% to 21.9% while his xwOBA held so its likely the late “slump” was bad luck and nothing more.

Summary

All in all, despite missing the playoffs there was much to be excited about in 2026 and there is foundation to build upon for 2027. Was this team likely a little bit better than it should’ve been? Probably yes. And for that we should be thankful. The season definitely could’ve been much worse. Next week I will be bad cop and cover the dreaded what went wrong.

Last time:

Yoshinobu Yamamoto versus Chris Sale should be a duel of the ages. The problem is we saw that duel play out on August 27, when Sale made a first-inning home run stand up in a complete-game shutout. In order to retake control of this series, the Dodgers need to take advantage of their supposed depth to do something that they haven’t done all year: win in Atlanta.

They’ll have two tries to do it.

About that…Yamamoto did it in one, and then some. Now, like Godot, the Dodgers wait before heading to Milwaukee.

That’s Shogun Yamamoto, Bane of Toronto, to you

The last general to be this successful in Atlanta was arguably William Tecumseh Sherman. As for the Dodgers’ chances, Yoshinobu Yamamoto is what happened; that’s what.

Yamamoto tossed any thoughts of a 2022 redux out the window in another dominant performance. Moreover, he got run support on the road. Two amazing statistics popped up from Yamamoto’s Game 3 gem, mostly concerning Yamamoto’s dominance on the road when he actually gets run support.

First, in his MLB career, he is 34-0 in the playoffs and regular season when he gets at least three runs of run support. It should be at least 35-0, if one recalls a certainly cool night in Baltimore last year.

Second, Yamamoto is the first pitcher in MLB history to earn the victory in his last five straight postseason appearances while not allowing more than a single run or walk in any of them. All five of these appearances have been on the road.

• Game 2 ‘25 NLCS @ Milwaukee
• Game 2 ‘25 WS @ Toronto
• Game 6 ‘25 WS @ Toronto
• Game 7 ‘25 WS @ Toronto
• Game 3 ‘26 NLDS @ Atlanta

Third, per Baseball Reference, in 2026, he is 0-9 when the Dodgers fail to score more than two runs in his starts. But the main point is, on the road, he finds another gear. Remember, he didn’t have his best no-hitter/perfect game bids at Dodger Stadium; it was on the road (in the aforementioned Baltimore in 2025 and the South Side of Chicago in 2026).

• Home (2026) .190/.247/.350 against in 16 games, 14 HR allowed, 106 K vs 24 BB
• Away (2026) .171/.225/.255 against in 12 games, 6 HR allowed, 76 K vs 18 BB

At this point, the Dodgers could slot in the rotation for the NLCS to be:

• Game 1 — @ MKE, Tarik Skubal
• Game 2 — @ MKE, Yamamoto
• Game 3 — vs. MKE, Blake Snell
• Game 4 — vs. MKE, Tyler Glasnow
• Game 5, if necessary — @ MKE, Tarik Skubal
• Game 6, if necessary — @ MKE, Yamamoto
• Game 7, if necessary — @ MKE, Blake Snell / Johnny Wholestaff

Still, it’s food for thought for later.

Chopped Atlanta’s season short

Turns out the actual cost I warned about last time was a single leverage game. Yes, the Dodgers ground down Chris Sale and outlasted Tyler Mahle. But had the Dodgers taken care of business, this series would have ended in a sweep.

Maybe it could have gone sideways; maybe it should have. But the fact is that it didn’t, and all my benchmarks for disappointment have been cleared.

Still, the extra, leverage game allowed the Dodgers to score by another method apart from home run. Errors and singles — in this economy?!? From Andy Pages, no less?!? Pages’ postseason splits were brutal before the last two games, and that description is generous. It’s worth noting that Pages’ single was a seeing-eye grounder, barely over 92 mph.

If I have said it once during this postseason, I will say it a thousand times: I don’t care how hard you hit into an out; I don’t care how hard you throw ball four. There is value in adjusting to what the defense gives you and passing the baton to sustain an actual rally.

In the best-case scenario, Game 4 might have provided an opportunity to smooth out some rougher edges before the seemingly destined rematch with the Milwaukee Brewers starting Sunday in Cream City.

One last note before switching gears: after Atlanta bested Philadelphia in the Wild Card Round, I stumbled across some footage of The ATL locals proclaiming that they wanted the Dodgers. It didn’t seem to get much traction when I posted it here.

They got the Dodgers alright. Mission accomplished. It doesn’t help that Atlanta matched a level of offensive futility with runners in scoring position not seen since the 1966 Los Angeles Dodgers, who were infamously swept by the Baltimore Orioles.

When you make the 2025 Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series look like an offensive juggernaut with runners in scoring position (3 for 17 in Game 7 alone), something has gone awry.

Knowing the Senior Circuit

Meanwhile, in the two other series that concluded on October 7, there were matchups of Goofus (New York Yankees, San Diego Padres) versus Gallant (Tampa Bay Rays, Milwaukee Brewers). To the surprise of no one, Gallant eliminated Goofus on the same night in both contests.

The Yankees being bested by the same flaws that doomed them in 2024 is both unsurprising and funny. I have had my finger on the Padres’ pulse for a while now:

It’s this current group of [Padres] players who are as unlikeable and obnoxious as any bunch I can recall. The funny thing is that if they had actually done anything to justify the attitude, I would accept it as the winner’s prerogative.

Since they haven’t won anything, it’s just obnoxious.

Yes, they have been playing well in September, and their bullpen is formidable. I wanted the Dodgers to trade for Mason Miller last year. I even went to Sutter Health Park on his bobblehead day to get both the bobblehead and art for the subsequent Guide entry. Oh well.

The Padres have to get past the Cubs, which is an oddly compelling matchup that could easily fill a five-game or even seven-game series. Alas, it’s only three games as an amuse-bouche.

We don’t need extra playoffs; we need to savor what we have.

Seeing the Padres send the Cubs packing would likely be quite satisfying. In some respects, I am honestly rooting for every game to go to extra innings, and if a wayward meteor or an errant probe looking for whales happened by, who is to complain?

I was rightfully proud of that last reference that seemed to sail by without notice. If you can’t make a Star Trek IV reference, especially when I used to work right by Chinatown in San Francisco, then what are we all doing here? Once again, me:

The just reward of that hypothetical Padres’ victory is that the Brewers are waiting, looming, if not salivating, for the winner. Most likely, the Padres’ dreams are smashed in Cream City, but not until giving the Brewers all that they can handle.

I goofed slightly in thinking this series would go five games, maybe forcing wunderkind Jacob Misiorowski into Game 5 service. Alas, the forecasts of mice and men.

And then, as if to make my point a week after I made, YouTuber Steve Linkowski provided two minutes of distilled video ambrosia summarizing the last half-decade of San Diego failure.

A deeper write-up of the upcoming Dodgers/Brewers revenge matchup will come soon, but, per Sarah Langs, it’s the twelfth time since LCS play began that there has been the same pairing of LCS opponents in consecutive years. From 1976 to 1978, it was Groundhog Day for Kansas City in facing off with the New York Yankees.

Per my follow-up check, in five of the last six matchups, the loser of round 1 won the rematch, à la Rocky II. I noticed it; now you get to notice it. Of course, the one time where there was no revenge was the Dodgers getting flattened by the Phillies in 2008 and 2009, which feels like such ancient history that it bears no further mention.

I think Milwaukee is better this time around, both in personnel and in health. Anyone expecting another waltz to another Fall Classic likely will be sorely disappointed by the actual dogfight awaiting over the next week.

At the beginning of the year, I made a series of forecasts that I published online but did not make that much of a fuss about, apart from predicting 92 regular-season Dodger victories.

I have generally enjoyed these playoffs so far, even when the Dodgers are triggering past summer traumas. I have learned something so far: when it comes to Junior Circuit, I know somewhere between diddly and squat.

But when it comes to the National League, I generally know what I’m talking about.

Anticipating the Future…

• Byes: Toronto, Seattle, Philadelphia, Dodgers
• Wild Card: Texas over Detroit, Boston over New York, Milwaukee over Chicago, Atlanta over New York
• Division Series: Toronto over Texas, Seattle over Boston, Philadelphia over Milwaukee, Los Angeles over Atlanta
• Championship Series: Seattle over Toronto, Los Angeles over Philadelphia
• World Series: Dodgers over Mariners in five — you say “Next year in Seattle” long enough, eventually you have to commit to the bit.

…Compared to what actually happened

As to the matchups, my NL bracket is looking significantly better than my AL bracket.

• Wild Card: Boston over New York in 3 (oops), Houston over Chicago in 2 (oops), San Diego over Chicago in 3 (darn Cubs), Atlanta over Philadelphia in 2 (Philly had some life, huh)
• Division Series: Tampa over Boston in 4 (right result, wrong opponent, wrong length), Houston over Cleveland in 4 (the White Sox building a 2-0 lead just to cough it up is so funny), Milwaukee over San Diego in 5 (bums!), Los Angeles over Atlanta in 4
• Championship Series: Tampa over Houston in 6, Los Angeles over Milwaukee in 6
• World Series: Los Angeles over Tampa in 5. It’s 2020 all over again, except this time, the Dodgers clinch at the Trop.

I don’t claim to be perfect, and I own up to when I make a mistake. However, my takes are never generally hysterical (see The California Post), and if one needs to feel better, or, at the very least, marvel at how some people somehow continue to work in this field for pay, we return to the predictive powers of Ben Verlander.

It’s arguable that when Dave Roberts calls someone his “pick to click,” it actually is a pronouncement of doom. But when Ben Verlander picks a team to win, that act truly is a figurative death sentence. His lack of predictive power is truly astounding. In 2025, in the preseason, he predicted Atlanta would beat Houston, before switching in the playoffs to the Phillies beating Seattle.

Behold what he came up with for this year.

On Wednesday night, the figurative champagne corks were popped as the Yankees were eliminated, putting the final nail in this bit and begging the question of whether he actually watches baseball.

The Pittsburgh Pirates outfield in 2026 had a few consistent pieces, but overall this was a group that saw a lot of turnover and a lot of opportunities for young players to prove their worth.

The mainstays

One of the more impressive stat lines this year has to do with the former All-Star Bryan Reynolds. At age 31 Reynolds completed another season with consistent solid production, and he did all of that while also appearing in 162 games for the first time in his career. Reynolds was the first Pirate to play in all 162 contests since Jason Bay completed that feat in 2005. He was also just one of seven major leaguers to achieve that in 2026. As he tends to do, Reynolds once again quietly put together a solid campaign that included 17 home runs and a .261 batting average.

It’s unfortunate that Oneil Cruz dealt with the injuries that he did in 2026 because he was on pace to have an absolutely monster season. Cruz initially landed on the 10-day IL for a hand fracture but was then upgraded to the 60-day, thus limiting his action to just 97 games, his lowest amount of appearances since 2023. Despite the time he missed he still finished with one of his finest statistical seasons to date. Across the board his slash line was much improved as he hit .280/.368/.486 with a .854 OPS. Not to mention he hit 20 or more home runs for the third straight season and also had 30 or more stolen bases for the second straight year.

New blood to keep and build with

It was a huge surprise when Esmerlyn Valdez stepped on the major league scene and started tearing the covers off of baseballs. He quickly became a powerful fixture in Pittsburgh’s lineup notching 17 home runs in his rookie season. Be that as it may he did dramatically cool off after his hot July, and looked lost at times in August and September. However, very few have come out firing like that in their rookie year and there’s reason to keep Valdez around and develop him into a better every day hitter for the Pirates. Valdez took home National League Rookie Of The Month honors for July.

Jake Mangum proved to be a great spark plug at times for the Buccos. He was awarded the team’s Heart and Hustle Award in 2026, and certainly embodies the qualities that it takes to receive that honor. Mangum finished his second major league season with a slash line of .276/.331/.363 and set new career highs for homers, triples, doubles and total bases. He did strike out 29 more times this season compared to last with the nearly 20 more appearances, but overall Mangum was reliable down the stretch, and should certainly be brought back in 2027.

Additional pieces who may or may not be with Pittsburgh in 2027

Several other fringe players made appearances in the outfield for the Pirates in 2026, but outside of Jhostynxon Garcia many of them will likely be relegated back to the minor leagues or shipped off to other organizations.

Garcia remains the outlier because of his age. At just 23-years-old Garcia still has time to develop into the player that he was projected to be when the Boston Red Sox signed him in 2019 out of Venezuela. In 2026 he battled injuries and was up and down the Pirates’ organization, and only ended up appearing in Pittsburgh for 20 games. In that span he was unremarkable. While he was very successful at the minor league ranks this season, he had a lowly .167 batting average at the major league level and had 16 strikeouts in 48 at-bats. He’s shown that he has the pop and explosiveness to succeed at the next level, he just hasn’t been able to put all those pieces together to this point.

The real fringe players were guys like Tyler Calihan, Billy Cook and Ronny Simon. At this point in their careers something catastrophic would have to happen for them to be brought on as full time outfielders for a major league organization . Calihan and Cook are both already 27-years old and are largely career minor leaguers. Cook did appear in 87 games for Pittsburgh this season which is by far the most major league action he’s seen in his career, but he was overall a below average ballplayer.

Callihan was traded for in early March and saw action in 40 major league contests this year and was mostly average. He slashed .211/.283/.389 with a .672 OPS. Not a bad player, but certainly more of a rotational piece than a mainstay.

Simon is another career minor league player and only appeared in 21 games for the Pirates in 2026. He certainly wasn’t bad, and did seem to make the most of his opportunity, but he will not be viewed in the same light as a guy like Valdez who will almost definitely be on the big league roster in 2027.

Ryan O’Hearn, Jared Triolo and Nick Yorke also had their fair share of appearances in the outfield, but were more prominently used in the team’s infield.

The Pirates’s outfield has a good foundation, and could be viewed as great with one above average rotational piece and a fully healthy season from Cruz.