Category: Baseball

There is one thing I would suggest Phillies fans, myself included, do more of this year.

Zoom out.

Here in Philly, we can be a bit myopic when it comes to our sports teams. We are immersed in the day-to-day, week-to-week, monthly and yearly frustrations that come with following a baseball team with great intensity, and it is easy to lose the forest for the trees.

Like you, I was not happy with the off-season. After a second straight first round playoff exit and three consecutive highly disappointing postseasons overall, the 2026 Phils are largely the same squad as the ‘25, ‘24 and ‘23 teams, at least in terms of its core.

The starting rotation still features Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Cristopher Sanchez. The best players in the lineup remain Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, Bryson Stott, Brandon Marsh and Alec Bohm. The bullpen changes on a yearly basis, but that’s largely true for most teams. Everyone’s a year older, with yet another postseason frustration on which to chew.

We wanted change because it feels like this particular group has hit a brick wall. Teams that stick together this long don’t usually suddenly break through in Year No. 5. But it’s fair to note the Philadelphia Phillies are the two-time defending NL East champions and have been to the playoffs four straight years. This group did advance to a World Series in ‘22 and nearly got back there again in ‘23. And they won the NL East by a whopping 13 games a year ago.

Nationally, baseball analysts and the public are much higher on the Phils than the hardcore fanbase. This week, ESPN released their ranking of the Top 100 players in the league, and the Dodgers led the way with 8 players in the Top 100. But guess which team had the second-most? Yep, your Phils, with 7 (Sanchez, Schwarber, Turner, Harper, Luzardo, Jhoan Duran, Wheeler). That’s a lot!

MLB’s Mike Petriello released his Tier Rankings of all 30 teams, and while the Dodgers were in the top tier all by their lonesome, guess which tier the Phillies fell into? Yep, Tier 2, along with the Cubs (the only other NL team mentioned), Blue Jays, Mariners, Red Sox, Tigers and Yankees. That’s pretty great!

On my Hittin’ Season podcast from WHYY this week, MLB.com’s Mike Petriello joined me to offer his thoughts on why the Phillies largely chose to “run it back” in 2026, and why it’s important for us, as fans, to zoom out a bit and observe the rest of the league, too.

“You know, it’s funny. So I live in New York, but I’m not a Yankees fan, but I hear a lot of Yankees chatter and it’s the exact same conversation. Yankees and Phillies, right? We’re running it back and this is terrible. And it’s like, well, you’re running back a 96 win team in Philly and a 94 win team in New York. And every Phillies fan demanded Kyle Schwarber come back and every Yankees fan demanded Cody Bellinger come back. And at a certain point, if you’re bringing back players you wanted on a very good team, how many more moves are there to be made?

Yankees fans were furious. ‘We need a new shortstop.’ It’s like, shortstops don’t exist! You literally cannot go and find a shortstop right now. For the Phillies, I think it’s a little bit different just because I don’t mind them bringing back Schwarber, I don’t mind them bringing back JT Realmuto, because there just weren’t any other good options.”

And while Petriello did not like the Phillies’ plan for the outfield, specifically the move to acquire Adolis Garcia in free agency and place Justin Crawford in center without a real back-up plan, he called Brandon Marsh and his 2025 second half “underrated” and noted Bryson Stott’s outstanding second half after making a mechanical adjustment.

Things to consider.

While we’re nervous about a seemingly less stable starting rotation, Petriello believes the Phillies’ cadre of starters appear to still be the best in the division.

“The team that I’m out the most on rotation-wise is Atlanta, for sure. Just because of the pitching injuries. And I don’t know what [Spencer] Strider is and Chris Sale has been amazing, but he’s also going to be, what, 38? And [he] doesn’t exactly have a long track record recently of staying healthy. So that scares me the most. I think there’s huge disaster risk right there.

And between the Mets and the Phillies… I guess I’m still going to take the Phillies because it sounds like Wheeler won’t miss that much time. You know, it’s hard to know if he’s going to be “ace” [Zack] Wheeler, or just pretty good. I’m cautiously optimistic about [Aaron] Nola. I think Cris Sanchez is great and always underrated. I really like [Jesus] Luzardo. You know, even if [Andrew] Painter is only a number five, you’re not asking him to be an ace, right? The Pirates are asking Connor Griffin to be Bobby Witt right now and the Phillies are not asking that of Painter.

So I guess I would take the Phillies, then the Mets, then the Braves.“

This is perspective that gets lost when everyone is neck-deep in the echo chamber. Like you, I have a tendency to zero in on the minutia of what’s happening with the Phils, which is why it’s always great to get an outsider’s perspective, something I try to do a lot of on Hittin’ Season.

It’s easy to be down on the Phillies after a disappointing October and off-season. So let’s all make an effort to zoom out a bit more in 2026 and listen to folks who aren’t as emotionally invested in this team as we are.

It might save our sanity and maybe, just maybe, make us smarter baseball fans, too.

Double your pleasure, double your fun! More taste! Less filling! And other appropriate advertising jingles of the seventies. For Arizona plays two games this afternoon. Attention will probably be focused on the White Sox game, because you can at least listen to that, through a dbacks.com livestream, hosted by Chris Garagiola alongside Jake Lamb. The Brewers game is in Maryvale, which is basically the “Here be dragons” of Spring Training venues [Look, I used to live near 35th Avenue, I’m not judging], and so results will be transmitted back to the outside world through semaphore flags.

Here are the two line-ups.

Couple of bits of good news out of camp regarding our injured list this morning. Nick Piecoro says “Corbin Carroll is already taking live at-bats as he works his way back from hamate surgery.” And Alex Weiner reports, “Merrill Kelly came out of his bullpen session feeling good, and he will throw live batting practice on Sunday, per Torey Lovullo.” Finally, this:

The Texas Rangers welcome the hated Seattle Mariners to Surprise for an Arizona-flavored AL West battle.

RHP Jack Leiter will take the mound for Texas opposite fellow notable former first-round SEC hurler Kade Anderson. The lefty for Seattle is fresh off leading LSU to a championship last summer, while Leiter made his name with Vanderbilt earlier this decade.

The Mariners have a radio feed, otherwise you can follow along on Gameday. First pitch from Surprise Stadium is scheduled for 2:05 pm CT.

Go Rangers!

We got another game today, a quick turnaround from last night’s massacre at Camelback Ranch. Matchups and injuries later in March aside, the top two-thirds of this lineup could be close to what you see on Opening Day in Milwaukee:

Anthony Kay, top lefty on the staff at least for the moment, gets his third shot at the Cactus League.

Ballgame is at 2:10 p.m. CT, and is another Gameday event, unless you subscribe to MLB radio feeds that will deliver you the Giants’ broadcast.

In other developments, the White Sox re-upped everyone on the 40-man roster not already under contract for 2026, basically all the pre-arb guys playing for (relative) pennies:

And finally, the WBC is underway, with White Sox infielder Curtis Mead (three-run homer) playing a major role in Australia’s 5-1 win over Czechia.

As graybeard Alexei Ramírez sat on the bench, Yoán Moncada hit a two-run homer to provide the winning margin for Cuba in its 3-1 win over Panama.

Munetaka Murakami, hitting sixth, went 1-for-3 and scored three times in Japan’s 13-0 “10-run rule” win over Chinese Taipei.

In today’s Moose Tracks, poster chicagomariner shared an instant classic quote from Josh Naylor on his new teammate, Brendan Donovan.

“He has, like, a boring game, but he’s so elite at it.”

Rarely has 12 words captured the essence of what has made baseball hum for generations for many fans. While the last 30 years has seen a very gradual shift in the acceptance of boisterous celebrations and allowing players to express their individuality more, baseball culture still has a large place in its heart for the no-frills, lunch-pail type ballplayer who quietly excels at their position, with the bat, or both. Yes, these descriptors often fall along racial lines and have a long, long history of coded racism, which we will not be discussing in the comments, but I feel obliged to mention here because otherwise I’m part of the problem of normalizing the narrative.

I digress! So, Josh Naylor, who himself is politely Canadian off the field and occasionally very demonstrative on the field, has recognized and tagged Donovan as one of those elite yet boring type of ballplayers. Disgraced former Mariners Team President Kevin Mather once infamously described pitcher Marco Gonzales as “boring” in the Rotary Club meeting Zoom video that got him removed from the organization. While I don’t think Marco was quite elite during his time with the Mariners, he was certainly effective for a few seasons and one of the better pitchers the team had during a tough stretch of rebuilding.

So my question for y’all is, what other Mariners players come to mind as “boring, yet elite” ballplayers? Let’s hear some picks in the comments, and feel free to stray from the Mariners because I can already think of plenty of other MLB players, most notably that guy in Anaheim who loves weather.

The Miami Marlins are somewhat like cicadas. Every couple years, they emerge and make the playoffs, only to then immediately go back underground for a while. Unfortunately, the Yankees caught one of the worst years of that cicada infestation in 2003.

Recently, the Marlins made the playoffs in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, and then somewhat more legitimately in 2023. Those appearances didn’t end up leading to anything substantial and the Marlins dipped to below .500-dom, sending Jazz Chisholm Jr. to the Yankees in the process.

Going into 2026, it’s tough to expect that this will be a year where the cicadas emerge.

Miami Marlins

2025 record: 79-83 (3rd in NL East)
2026 FanGraphs projection: 75-87 (4th in NL East)

At least prior to the new season, it sure does appear like the 2026 season will be a year of the Marlins seeing what they have. For position players, all but two of their expected Opening Day roster (at least according to FanGraphs) are under 27, and the two that aren’t are only 28. The pitching side of things has a bit more experience and guys you’ve heard of, but a bunch of them are probably candidates to be flipped in a trade if they’re good and the team isn’t going anywhere this season.

At the top of Miami’s rotation will still be 2022 NL Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara. Between injury and a bit of a decline, he hasn’t been close to that pitcher since winning the award in 2022, and has been below average in general since 2023, when he was pretty good. He’s set to be a free agent after this season, so it’s hard to imagine any scenario where he ends the year in a Marlins jersey. If he looks good again, he probably becomes a top trade target. Even if he’s not great, there will probably be some team who tries to take him on a low risk deal and figure out if they can unlock the former All-Star that he was.

Elsewhere, the Marlins already cashed in on one particular rotation trade piece in sending Edward Cabrera to the Cubs. They signed Chris Paddack to the one-year contract, so if he shows anything, he could be another one that gets flipped if he’s even somewhat good.

As far as position players go, as mentioned this’ll probably be a year of development. Of the young players on their roster, Otto López and Xavier Edwards have both shown promise in the field, but the Marlins will hope they can show something at the plate, while they hope for improvement of a little bit of everything from former Yankees prospect Agustín Ramírez. In the aforementioned trade with the Cubs, Miami picked up Owen Cassie, who debuted for Chicago last year and is still making appearances on top 100 prospect lists. Besides him, several of the Marlins’ highest rated prospects are in the higher levels of the minors, so we could see several of them get callups this year.

The best hitter the Marlins had last season was outfielder Kyle Stowers. Age-wise, he falls outside of that group of 26 and below players, but he’s still early enough into his service time that they don’t have to make any decision yet. That being said, he’s nearing arbitration, and it wouldn’t be shocking given the Marlins’ history if they do something with him before a potential pay rise. Other than him, Miami doesn’t have a ton of position players you’d want to spend big on, but maybe someone can play themselves up in esteem.

At least as of now, I can’t say that there will be many Marlins games I’ll be intrigued to watch, but as a former Yankees radio broadcaster would say “you can’t predict baseball,” so who knows.

More Pinstripe Alley MLB team season previews can be found here.

The Cincinnati Reds will roll out lefty Andrew Abbott for another tune-up start today when they take on the San Francisco Giants at their stadium over in Scottsdale, Arizona. They’ll also be up against an old friend as righty Tyler Mahle takes the mound for the Giants.

The Reds, who still refuse to post anywhere but on the cesspool that is Twitter, posted their lineup earlier this afternoon, and we’ll get to see Sal Stewart play 2B on the day.

See is a bit dishonest, actually. This game will not be televised anywhere, so you’re going to have to simply use your imagination to glean anything from how Sal looks defensively out there today. You will be able to listen to the game courtesy of 700 WLW and the Reds Radio Network, so task your ears with doing the heavy lifting if you can find the time.

First pitch is set for 3:05 PM ET.

Go Reds!

The Brewers return to Cactus League action Friday after an exciting 10–8 victory over the Colorado Rockies. Today’s game pits Milwaukee against the Arizona Diamondbacks for the first time this spring.

Chad Patrick is on the mound for the Brewers on the heels of Pat Murphy’s declaration that Patrick “will be in the rotation” to start the year. The right-hander showed up when called upon last year, putting up a 3.53 ERA in the regular season and a 2.00 ERA in six playoff games. Also scheduled to pitch today for the Crew are Jared Koenig and Peter Strzelecki. Pitching for the Diamondbacks is lefty Mitch Bratt, who had a 3.38 ERA in Double-A last year.

Today’s lineup is one you’ll probably never see in the regular season. Jake Bauers is leading off followed by Brandon Lockridge and Christian Yelich, who homered and reached base three times in his spring debut on Wednesday. A trio of offseason acquisitions — Akil Baddoo, Reese McGuire, and David Hamilton — will follow Yelich. Prospects Luis Lara and Jesús Made are hitting seventh and eighth, respectively. Hitting ninth and playing second base today is Greg Jones, who the Brewers signed to a minor league contract in the offseason.

Today’s game will be broadcast via radio on WTMJ 640 and the Brewers Radio Network. First pitch is set for 2:10 p.m.

One of two remaining unbeaten teams nationally, the No. 3 Texas Longhorns face off against the USC Upstate Spartans for the first time this weekend at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin as head coach Jim Schlossnagle’s team plays its final series before SEC play starts next week when the Ole Miss Rebels trip to the Forty Acres.

The weekend series marks the end of a nine-game road swing for the Spartans and the program’s first trip west of the Mississippi River as USC Upstate arrives with a 7-7 record in the midst of a two-game losing streak and at 4-6 on the road this season helmed by second-year head coach Kane Sweeney.

Last year, the longtime Spartans assistant led USC Upstate to its first-ever Big South regular season and tournament titles behind a powerful offense that ranked second nationally in hits (685) and runs (569), third in scoring (9.5), seventh in doubles (140), 10th in batting average (.315), and 19th in HBP (114), home runs (101), on-base percentage (.418), and slugging percentage (.524).

The head coach’s brother, Johnny, is the team’s standout designated hitter who was a first-team All-American last season with a slash line of .345/.500/.701 with 15 doubles, 18 home runs, and a program-record 82 RBI.

This year, the Spartans are still hitting well at .296 as a team, but don’t have a ton of power with 11 home runs — no player has more than two home runs on the year. Third baseman Jake Armsey is the team’s leading hitter at .354 with 10 RBI and 13 walks while center fielder Henry Zenor bats .333 with a team-high 13 RBI.

On the mound, the probable starters are left-hander Chris Torres (0-1; 8.25 ERA), right-hander Brent Stukes (2-1; 6.28 ERA), and right-hander Max Bianchini (1-1; 7.43 ERA) for a staff that has struggled on the way to a 6.03 ERA and 1.56 WHIP, allowing 18 home runs and 31 doubles. Redshirt freshman right-hander Jacob Kirby has started his career with four successful outings, posting a 0.00 ERA over 12.0 innings, striking out seven while limiting opponents to a .171 batting average.

The weekend rotation remains the same for Texas with senior right-hander Ruger Riojas (3-0, 1.12 ERA) takes the mound after a sensational start to the season — the UTSA transfer ranks fourth nationally with 30 strikeouts, recording at least nine in all three of his outings, including a career-high 11 in last Friday’s win over Coastal Carolina. Opponents are only batting .127 against the 6’0, 195-pounder.

The Horns have looked like a complete team early, outscoring its 12 opponents 109-22 with the help of a pitching staff that has allowed only 19 earned runs in 100 innings with the country’s second-best ERA (1.71) and WHIP (0.94), ranking 10th in OPS (1.012) and 13th in average (.330) nationally, and boasting a .988 fielding percentage that is tied for seventh-best nationally.

The start times are 6:30 p.m. Central on Friday, 2 p.m. Central on Saturday, and noon Central on Sunday, although storms forecast for Saturday afternoon could impact the game. All three games air on SEC Network+.

As we head into the third weekend of Spring Training, the A’s are at home to face off against the NL West’s Colorado Rockies.  The teams will go at it at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, Arizona today at 12:05 PST.  The 4-7 A’s have had some life in their bats this past week, scoring 40 runs since the calendar turned the page to March. And while I’m the first to say those run totals are meaningless in the big picture of things, it also fuels my belief that the offense is going to produce, and the success or failure of this 2026 club will rest upon the arms of the pitching staff.

J.T. Ginn will get the first shot at the Rockies today. He’s got a win with two starts and five innings this spring without giving up a run.  He’ll go up against Chase Dollander for the Rockies. Dollander has also started two games and gone four innings with a 2.25 ERA.

Jeff McNeil falls into the leadoff spot today since Nick Kurtz isn’t in the starting lineup. I think many of us assumed this would be the reality even when Kurtz was playing. It will be interesting to see if this is a change just for today or a sign of the future batting order.

Dollander will face this lineup for the A’s today:

Ginn will go up against this batting order for the Rox today:

Follow the Game:
Listen:
A’s Cast, Talk 650 KSTE

It’s been a little bit of a tougher week for the Colorado Rockies in the pitching department this past week. Offense across the league has been making an impact in the Arizona weather, and Rockies pitching has fallen into some old traps as they try to work through new pitches and find command.

Chase Dollander (0-0, 2.25 ERA) is one such pitcher trying to find himself in camp early on. While Dollander’s numbers are solid enough in the four-inning sample size, it’s clear that he’s been having trouble putting hitters away once he gets to two strikes. Lengthy at-bats and deep counts have shown he needs to dial things in and find a way to put hitters away with the strikeout. Still, he’s getting ground balls, and there is improvement as he battles for a roster spot.

J.T. Ginn (1-0, 0.00 ERA) will take the ball for the Athletics. Through two starts, Ginn has allowed just one hit over five innings with five strikeouts and two walks. The 26-year-old righty appeared in 23 games, including 16 starts, with the A’s last season while posting a 5.08 ERA in 90 1/3 innings. He’s off to a strong start in camp, but his command was a little iffy last season, meaning the Rockies can try to continue working on their plate discipline in this game.

First Pitch: 1:05 MST

TV: None

Radio: Athletics – A’s Cast

Lineups:

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If it is not obvious, the Dodgers and the United States are merely borrowing Shohei Ohtani, as most recently evidenced by Ohtani’s recent batting practice session at the Tokyo Dome in preparation for the upcoming World Baseball Classic.

With that in mind, in November 2025, MLB announced a documentary film about the 2025 Tokyo Series, titled Homecoming: The Tokyo Series. The documentary is billed as an examination of baseball in Japan with intersecting stories involving the five Japanese players who participated in the 2025 opening series: Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, Shota Imanaga, and Seiya Suzuki.

Per MLB.com:

Baseball might be America’s pastime, but it is also an omnipresent part of everyday life in Japan.

Never was that more clear than during Major League Baseball’s Tokyo Series between the Cubs and Dodgers that opened the 2025 regular season this past March. That two-game series — headlined by Japanese superstars Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, Shota Imanaga and Seiya Suzuki — and the impact of baseball all around the country is the focus of a new documentary that will be coming to movie theaters soon.

“Homecoming: The Tokyo Series” celebrates the intersection of culture and global sport, illuminating how baseball unites beyond borders. Produced by Supper Club and in coordination with MLB Studios and BD4, Banijay Americas’ premium documentary label, the documentary will be shown in theaters on Feb. 23 and 24, distributed by Fathom Entertainment.

The documentary had a two-day limited theatrical run in theaters in late February 2026. For those who missed the documentary in theaters, CNN announced that the network would exclusively bring the documentary to its new streaming offering on March 27.

As we have covered, the 2025 Tokyo Series was both a massive cultural event in Japan and a runaway financial hit, leaving the sport wondering when Tokyo Series 2: Electric Boogaloo will happen with the Cubs and Dodgers.

There has been only one review of the film by Shikhar Verma of High on Films, who rated the film 3.5 out of 5. True Blue LA was provided with a screener of Homecoming: The Tokyo Series, and I watched the 90-minute documentary twice for this review.

Review of Homecoming: The Tokyo Series

The film barely scratches the surface of what it was like to experience the 2025 Tokyo Series. If I had to describe the film in a single sentence, it would be “atmospheric but light in substance.”

This criticism is not to say that the documentary is bad or not worth watching. The documentary suffers greatly from not deciding on a focal point, of which there are many. If you want a coherent story or narrative from this documentary, you will be disappointed. Here is how the film was described in its theatrical release:

Homecoming: The Tokyo Series explores Japan’s deep bond with baseball, culminating in the 2025 MLB Opening Day games in Tokyo as hometown heroes Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, Shota Imanaga, and Seiya Suzuki return to where their baseball dreams began. Through the lives of those shaped by the game, the film reveals how baseball bridges generations, connects nations, and reflects the balance between tradition and modern life. More than a chronicle of a sporting event, it is a portrait of a nation’s enduring love for baseball and the pride of watching its stars come home.

I would have loved to have watched that film, because the film I watched does not match this synopsis.

What happens when you do not pick a lane

The best way to describe Homecoming: The Tokyo Series is a mish-mash of two films with little overlap. If Director Sterman could pick a lane, I think the documentary would be infinitely more coherent.

On the one hand, you have a series of slice-of-life vignettes between a mother and adult son, Yasuko and Toru Tanahara, running a youth baseball team in Osaka, a player on the team and his father in Osaka, respectively Kanato and Shogo, superfan and salon owner, Hironobou Kanno, in Oshu (Ohtani’s hometown), owner of a glove restoration business, Re-Birth, Tomohiro Yonezawaya, in Ota (a ward inside Tokyo), master craftsman of bats for Mizuno, Tamio Nawa, in Yoro, discussing their individual stories and love affairs with baseball in Japan.

None of these threads end up at the Tokyo Dome to watch the Tokyo Series, or even overlap, which is a shame given the passion involved and appropriateness of the conclusion, considering the gravity of the homecoming happening in the literal background. The closest we get to an overlap of our cast and Tokyo Series is when Mr. Kanno is shown watching Game 2 of the Tokyo Series at home. Given how little the Tokyo Series is discussed or covered in this portion of the movie, you can excise it entirely and still have a lovely, atmospheric documentary on Japanese baseball, both in its place in Japanese culture and history.

To play Devil’s Advocate for a moment, tickets to the Tokyo Series were notoriously hard to get, even with all the efforts made to make the tickets available for Japanese locals. The face value for my Game 1 ticket was 32000 yen (about $212.84). Even with an anti-scalping law on the books, I paid exponentially more; therefore, gathering tickets for as many subjects as the film had was likely not feasible.

In the film’s other part, you have American expatriates like Jason Coskrey of The Japan Times, Jim Allen, a longtime freelance columnist, and Meghan Montemurro, Cubs domestic beat writer for the Chicago Tribune, discussing the nuances and characteristics of Japanese baseball with the backdrop of the Tokyo Series. In what had to be a logistics-driven decision, this portion of the film is largely Cubs-centric, with Montemurro going to the Cubs’ team dinner before the series and an off-site visit to a Japanese elementary school with former Cubs Derrek Lee and Kosuke Fukudome on March 19.

However, the inarguable main story of the Tokyo Series is Ohtani’s return to Japan, but the documentary is either unwilling or unable to give the topic the attention it deserves. Ohtani in Japan is a cross between The Beatles, Michael Jordan, and Babe Ruth: a blend of cultural zeitgeist and omnipresent history. One cannot overstate the imprint Ohtani has made and continues to make in Japan. One can see this impact in the sheer volume of advertisements in which Ohtani appears, which is not surprising given that he made $100 million from advertisements last year, leading all athletes worldwide in 2025.

Put another way, in the days leading up to the Tokyo Series, thousands of fans filled the Tokyo Dome just to watch the Dodgers and Ohtani practice. Not play, practice.

Per Bill Plunkett of The Orange County Register on March 14, 2025:

MLB put tickets on sale for Friday’s workouts at the 55,000-seat facility known as “The Big Egg” and capped the crowd at approximately 10,000. Tickets priced at 2,000 yen (about $13) were gone within an hour and 10,507 showed up to watch their favorite team – say it in your best Allen Iverson voice – practice.

The Dodgers’ Tokyo Series opponents, the Chicago Cubs, worked out earlier in the day Friday in front of a much smaller crowd. For the Dodgers’ workout, the fans showed up, indeed painting the lower level of the seating area in Dodger blue.

A group of Japanese fans seated behind the Dodgers’ dugout were so ardent in their support they called out the names of players as they jogged out of the dugout onto the field, regardless of their stature – from All-Star outfielder Teoscar Hernandez to relief pitcher Anthony Banda…

When the star of the show, Ohtani, emerged from the dugout to do some running drills – he rarely takes batting practice on the field and didn’t Friday – his appearance drew a gasp from the crowd and then loud applause. His every move on the field during his brief appearance was shown on the large video board in center field.

“I really feel the excitement of the country with the games being played here,” Yamamoto said.

One would be oblivious to these facts if relying solely on Homecoming: The Tokyo Series. With no disrespect to Yamamoto, Sasaki, Suzuki, or Imanaga, if any or all of these players were not present, the Tokyo Series would have still gone on with nary a blip. Not so for Ohtani, as he’s that central to the overall narrative.

While Tokyo was gripped by Tokyo Series fervor, folks recognized my Dodgers cap and surmised I was there, even though I was as far away as Kumamoto. The U.S. equivalent is someone being able to figure out what you are doing in the country based on your appearance in Portland, Oregon, or Salt Lake City, Utah, for a contemporaneous event at Dodger Stadium.

In the documentary, Ohtani’s hometown is briefly featured, and a snippet of the media day press conferences is included. Accordingly, Ohtani’s absence is omnipresent in the documentary, except when the actual Tokyo Series is shown. In the vignettes about Japanese baseball, his absence, except as a figure of admiration or motivation, makes sense, since famous athletes are generally not daily fixtures in our everyday lives.

But for the portion of the film focusing on the lead-up to the Tokyo Series, it is an utterly inexcusable decision.

To further illustrate this point, imagine a hypothetical documentary about the 2025 World Series, but set from the Toronto Blue Jays’ point of view. Further imagine that the focal point was not Vladimir Guerrero Jr. or Ernie Clement (who both had a stellar series), or even Jeff Hoffman (the tragedy of the closer who blew it), but rather Kevin Gausman (the pitcher who got beat twice) or Brendon Little (he was there largely as an observer except for one solitary moment).

This hypothetical documentary would be a confusing watch because of an inherent flaw in its construction stemming from the wrong focus; instead, say MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Anecdotally, I saw far more Dodgers gear and fans than Cubs fans, and if pressed to estimate, I would put the split at around 85/15 in favor of the Dodgers during the weeks I was in Japan.

Homecoming: The Tokyo Series has the same faulty construction of viewpoint; whether to make the Cubs the focal point of the Tokyo Series coverage was a choice between logistics and directorial discretion, and it remains open.

Playing fast and loose with the truth

Ultimately, the documentary’s odd lack of focus is not its only flaw. In many ways, the regular-season games between the Dodgers and the Cubs are arguably an afterthought. The fact that Ohtani et al. returned to Japan to play games is more important than the actual results, which saw the Dodgers sweep.

The real story is that the Tokyo Series happened at all and, in general, was a celebration of and for Japan. Accordingly, Japanese players are becoming more common in MLB. To its credit, Homecoming: The Tokyo Series gets these facts correct during this portion of its runtime.

However, Coskrey, Allen, and Montemurro discuss the unique characteristics and energy of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), which is generally a loud, musical, and energetic affair. Japanese baseball can almost be thought of as a martial art, with an emphasis on small-ball fundamentals over the three-true outcome currently embraced in MLB.

This rowdy energy from the crowd was certainly present during the exhibition games between the Dodgers, Cubs, Tokyo Giants, and Hanshin Tigers.

It is worth noting that the Tigers won both of their exhibition games against the Cubs and Dodgers by shutout. And one would expect that energy to be present during the actual Tokyo Series, except it was not.

In a decision to fudge with the facts to support the narrative that NPB is loud and rowdy, Homecoming: The Tokyo Series decides to play fast and loose with the facts, pumping in crowd noise during the game sections and weirdly festishing the pregame activities by playing around with the chronological order of things.

First, while the exhibition games did live up to NPB’s reputation, the Tokyo Series had more in common with COVID-era baseball or The Masters through the aggressive, omnipresent silence from the crowd for most of the series, especially Game 1. This observation is not criticism, as the crowds were respectful and excited when any of the Japanese players played.

The first at-bat of the season was Shohei Ohtani. One would expect this crowd to be rowdy in rapturous joy. Instead, the atmosphere was generally quiet, rapt awe, as demonstrated below, which persisted for large portions of both games. Generally, fans did loosen up as the games went on, but it was a far cry from what I had come to expect from an NPB stadium.

As an aside, fans watching Ohtani practice and play at the Tokyo Dome now have loosened up considerably, even though restrictions on amateur or non-official videography and photography have emerged.

Here is what I said about the Tokyo Dome’s atmosphere at the time:

I was expecting a rowdy, NPB-like atmosphere with bands, chanting, singing, and general tomfoolery over two days. Instead, I got two nights at The Masters.

The observation is not a criticism but a realization that I had an imperfect understanding of Japanese baseball fans. If you wanted to experience what NPB is known for in the Tokyo Series, your best bet would have been to watch the exhibition games against the Hanshin Tigers or Yomiuri Giants.

In my observation, the local fans were far more invested in the returning players, most notably Shohei Ohtani. They would react when any of the five returning Japanese stars were in the game or in a pinch. The rest of the time? Not so much.

During the highlights of Game 1, Homecoming: The Tokyo Series makes the bizarre decision to show the pregame festivities of Game 2, featuring taiko drums and traditional Japanese garb, as if they were part of Game 1, which is factually incorrect.

Game 1’s actual festivities? A celebration of baseball and Pokémon, complete with five-foot-tall Pikachu wearing road grey Los Angeles jerseys and home white Chicago jerseys. Each starting player was introduced with both his name and an associated, unique Mega Pokémon. For example, Ohtani had Mega Garchomp, Pete Crow-Armstrong had Mega Lucario, and Max Muncy had Mega Gengar.

Eventually, Homecoming: The Tokyo Series uses footage from Game 1, where you can see the Pikachus in the background, so there was no reason to fudge the timeline of events.

Final Score

For what it’s worth, Homecoming: The Tokyo Series never rises to meet the sum of its parts, which is a disappointment. Those unaware of the film’s faults will likely leave cinemas wondering what they just watched.

The film promised a story worth telling that I would greatly like to see on the screen someday. For its scope, the film has only generalities and slice-of-life vignettes rather than a cohesive narrative, much to its detriment.

For those who wish to re-experience what it was like in Tokyo during those days, I would recommend visiting my previously submitted essays, the Talk Dodgers to Me podcast’s Tokyo episode on the adventures of hosts Melissa Myer, Jaclyn Ruiz, and Aly Parker, and journalist Molly Knight’s Substack essays on the topic.

Today we look at the Cubs’ veteran swingman.

Cascade, Iowa-born Colin Rea is a well-traveled player, having had stints as a Padre, Marlin, Cub, Brewer, and Cub again. In seven years in the majors, he’s amassed a 1.9 bWAR (4.4 fWAR), a record of 37-27, a 4.41 ERA, 91 home runs, 182 bases on balls, 493 strikeouts, and 2 saves in 126 games, with 103 of them being starts.

He didn’t play very much with San Diego, who picked him in the 12th round in 2011, and was injured after going to Miami in 2016. He didn’t play in 2017-2019, resurfacing with the Cubs in 2020, where he didn’t really distinguish himself but showed enough for the Brewers to pick him up for the 2021 season. He spent 2022 in Japan and returned to Milwaukee, where he pitched quite a bit, and turned in decent seasons — especially his 2024 season, when he posted a 16-7 record, with a 4.29 ERA and 1.9 bWAR (0.8 fWAR).

He pitched for the Cubs in 2025, turning in an 11-7 record with similar statistics, and is expected to once again post similar stats, with his innings count is expected to be about half of that of the previous three years, in the 80 to 85 range, providing insurance against injury to the members of the Opening Day rotation. He is not expected to start as often as previously. (The exception is ZiPS, who expect overall similar performance.)

His SO/9 is usually in the 7-7.5 range. He doesn’t walk too many people, doesn’t give up a ton of home runs, and can be depended on to keep his team in the game. Most of his WAR stems from the last three years, lending credence to the view that his time in Japan really helped his cause. He’s 35, will be 36 in July, and who knows how much more time he has in The Show, but for now, he’s a perfectly cromulent sixth or seventh man, paired with Javier Assad, who fills a similar role.

Rea has all the pitches. He throws a four-seam fastball that sits 94-95, and in 2025 also fired a splitfinger, a sinker, slider, sweeper, curve, and cutter, in order of frequency. He throws a lot of first-pitch strikes.

We’ll see how long he keeps it up.

Almost nine years ago to this day, I wrote about the history of the World Baseball Classic, fearing its end and opining for its more thorough embrace. I opened with this:

The World Baseball Classic (WBC) should, ostensibly, be important. It’s a huge tournament that occurs only once every four years and features some of the best Major League Baseball talents and national stars, all competing to best represent their country. The preliminary rounds take place throughout the world, which theoretically should make them more accessible to a wider audience, and a number of MLB’s greatest international talents first gained fame on the Classic’s stage.

So why is it nearly impossible to find in-depth information on the WBC? What is the fate of the World Baseball Classic beyond 2017? Would changes to the tournament give it greater success, and is it even worthwhile to implement those changes? Why have they considered ending the WBC after this year?

Reporting to you now from 2026, I’m blown away by how different things are. There is no shortage of content or information about the WBC; many of the game’s biggest stars are competing; there were exhibition games all over the world against MLB teams. Heck, you can watch the games with relative ease and even hear some good announcers while you watch! It is an unmitigated joy to witness global baseball elevated in this way.

Here at LL, our intent is to create some game threads for the tournament, where you can caterwaul to your heart’s content about anything from Eduard Bazardo facing Andruw Jones’ son, Fernando Tatis Jr. looking radiant in the República Dominicana colors, Cal Raleigh catching Tarik Skubal or any number of other beautifully absurd WBC phenomena. But in the meantime, we thought it might be helpful to assemble a one-stop shop for all your WBC links and information. Enjoy!

• Brilliant Meet at the Mitt podcast listener Josh was inspired by our WBC talk in the latest episode and created this incredible site that allows you to easily click on an MLB team and see which players will be playing for which countries – and to then see what players might be playing on any given day. Plus a link to Gameday for said game. PLUS which network the game is being broadcast on!
• It’s truly amazing.
  • Since this is a volcano blog Mariners site, here’s a quick (there are 16, tied for first-most in MLB, plus two in the pitching pool for later play, italicized) list of M’s players and their teams.
    • Pedro Da Costa Lemos – Brazil
    • Josh Naylor – Canada
    • Guillo Zuñiga – Colombia
    • Michael Arroyo – Colombia
    • Julio Rodríguez – Dominican Republic
    • Luis Castillo – Dominican Republic
    • Charlie Beilenson – Israel
    • Dominic Canzone – Italy
    • Miles Mastrobuoni – Italy
    • Dane Dunning – Korea
    • Andrés Muñoz – Mexico
    • Randy Arozarena – Mexico
    • Dylan Wilson – Netherlands
    • Abdiel Mendoza – Panama
    • Cal Raleigh – USA
    • Gabe Speier – USA
    • Eduard Bazardo – Venezuela
    • Jhonathan Diaz – Venezuela
• Pool play began March 4 and runs until March 11. Quarterfinals and semifinals happen March 13 to 16 and the championship game is on March 17 at 5 p.m. PT. Here’s a simple link to the schedule.
  • Pool A (San Juan, Puerto Rico): Puerto Rico, Panama, Canada, Cuba, Colombia
  • Pool B (Houston): USA, Brazil, Italy, Great Britain, Mexico
  • Pool C (Tokyo): Japan, Chinese Taipei, Korea, Australia, Czechia
  • Pool D (Miami): Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Netherlands, Israel, Nicaragua
• You can keep track of the standings here.
• Curious about the rules within the tournament? Here’s a remarkably thorough breakdown of everything from player eligibility, to pitch limits (because yes, there are pitch limits. Gotta protect from The Sog), to tie break scenarios.
• Michael Clair, of MLB.com, has been covering baseball on a global scale for many years now (including a brilliant book about Czechia’s magical 2023 WBC run) and has a great archive of articles and is an excellent follow on whatever your preferred platform may be.
• Need some background music to get yourself jazzed for the WBC? Great news, they just dropped their first-ever WBC Soundtrack.

When Justin Crawford started out Grapefruit League games with a few strong games, there was a distinct sentiment that the rookie should not only be in the team’s starting lineup, but he should be batting at the very top of it from day one.

I understand the sentiment, because based on his performance in the minors last year, he is well suited to the leadoff spot. He had a .411 on-base percentage with 46 stolen bases.

The sentiment makes less sense when you remember that the Phillies already have a good leadoff hitter in Trea Turner, who is also very fast and won a batting title in 2025. But the move isn’t really about getting Turner out of the leadoff spot as much as it is getting Alec Bohm out of the cleanup spot.

One of the biggest narratives of the offseason was getting protection in the lineup for Bryce Harper in the three-hole. (This narrative has been partly fueled by Harper himself.) It’s clear that most people do not think that Bohm and his 15 home runs a year power belong in the cleanup spot, even though as has been written, the notion of what a “cleanup hitter” is has changed over the years.

Let’s take a look back to 1998. Back then, lineups were generally constructed as such:

• Fastest guy on the team batted leadoff
• Second was a guy without much power but usually put the ball in play
• Three-hole was the overall best hitter
• Cleanup was the biggest power hitter
• Batting fifth was the second biggest power threat

The Phillies of that year had a young shortstop named Desi Relaford. Normally, manager Terry Francona (exhibit A for never hiring a rookie manager) batted Relaford low in the lineup. But Relaford theoretically matched the expectations of a two-hole hitter, so every once in a while, Francona would try him out in that role.

It generally didn’t go well. In 21 games batting second that season, Relaford put up a .144/.179/.189 slash line. I’m not sure if the move caused Relaford’s downfall, or he was always destined to fail. He batted almost exclusively lower in the lineup the following season and continued to hit poorly. (He was eventually moved to help make room for another shortstop prospect named Jimmy Rollins who actually did succeed at the top of the lineup. To his credit, Relaford had a couple of decent seasons as a utility man for the Mets and Mariners a few years later.)

Last year, the Phillies similarly tried to get a new hitter into the mix at the top of the order. From April 11 to the first week of June, Bryson Stott was the team’s primary leadoff hitter. It went well at first, but soon, Stott’s production cratered. He went into a slump that lasted three months, even after he was moved out of the leadoff spot.

Did the lineup switch cause Stott’s slump? On one hand, he hit poorly throughout most of 2024 as well, so it isn’t like a lengthy slump was completely out of character. On the other hand, it’s possible that he was pressing a bit, trying too hard to justify his spot in the lineup? Or maybe he tried to be too patient at the plate, which isn’t necessarily a great strategy for a hitter with proven trouble hitting elite fastballs.

That is why I don’t necessarily want to rush Crawford to the top of the lineup. He’s got enough pressure as a rookie starter for a playoff contender. It isn’t that imperative to get Bohm out of the top four spots in the lineup to potentially harm a young player’s development.

Perhaps Crawford will start off the season strongly and replicate his minor league performance with the Phillies. If that happens, I could see them being tempted to move him up, especially if the Phillies’ offense isn’t doing well overall. But to avoid Crawford being another Desi Relaford, they need to be sure he can handle it, and the leash should be very short.