Mar 28, 2026; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Angel Zerpa (61) throws a pitch in the in the seventh inning against the Chicago White Sox at American Family Field. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-Imagn Images | Benny Sieu-Imagn Images
The Milwaukee Brewers, coming off a strong 5-1 homestand featuring a sweep of the White Sox and a series win over the Rays, will look to continue their momentum on the road against the Kansas City Royals. The Royals have also gotten off to a solid start, as they’re 3-2 entering Thursday’s series finale against the Twins.
The Brewers are still without a few key players, as Andrew Vaughn and Jackson Chourio are both out for a few weeks with hand injuries. Quinn Priester (May), Rob Zastryzny (on rehab assignment), and Craig Yoho (mid-April) are also on the IL, while outfielders Steward Berroa and Akil Baddoo will likely be sent to Triple-A whenever they’re ready to return (Berroa in April, Baddoo in June).
Kansas City is without closer Carlos Estévez, who suffered a left foot contusion on a comebacker in the ninth inning last weekend. Infielder Michael Massey is also out with a calf strain, while pitchers Stephen Kolek, James McArthur, and Alec Marsh are also shelved (Marsh likely for the season).
Through two series, the Brewer offense is led by Brice Turang’s nine hits, while Jake Bauers and Gary Sánchez have each slugged a pair of homers to lead the team. Sánchez, despite playing in only three games (six at-bats) is hitting .500/.625/1.500 with those two homers and a pair of walks. Turang has added a homer and a team-best four doubles, and David Hamilton leads the team with four steals. Christian Yelich and William Contreras are the other key contributors, while Sal Frelick has gotten off to a slow start. As a team, the Brewers are hitting .279/.378/.448 (.826 OPS ranks third in MLB) with eight homers (tied for fifth), 45 runs scored (tied for first), and 15 steals (first).
Kyle Isbel leads Kansas City’s offense with two homers thus far, as he’s hitting .571 on the season with a team-best eight hits in 14 at-bats. Maikel Garcia is hitting .313/.429/.375 with five hits, while Bobby Witt Jr. and Jac Caglianone have also added five hits apiece. Salvador Perez is still a threat offensively, and the Royals also feature former Brewer Isaac Collins, Jonathan India, Carter Jensen, Vinnie Pasquantino, and Lane Thomas. As a team, the Royals are hitting .244/.319/.400 (.719 OPS ranks ninth) with six homers (tied for 14th), 22 runs scored (tied for 22nd), and six steals (fifth).
Grant Anderson and Aaron Ashby lead the Brewer bullpen with four appearances each. Anderson hasn’t allowed a run and has struck out six over five frames, while Ashby has allowed one run (a solo homer) and struck out nine over 5 2/3 innings. DL Hall, former Royal Ángel Zerpa, Jared Koenig, and Abner Uribe have also held opponents scoreless, while Trevor Megill and Jake Woodford have the only other blemishes for this bullpen with one run allowed each. As a staff, the Brewers have a 2.83 team ERA (tied for fourth), including a 4.45 starter ERA (21st) and a 1.05 reliever ERA (second). They’ve struck out 76 batters (tied for third) over 54 innings.
Lucas Erceg is one of the few bright spots in Kansas City’s bullpen so far, with three scoreless outings spanning 2 2/3 innings with a pair of saves. Former Brewer Nick Mears, Matt Strahm, and Steven Cruz are the only other relievers to not allow a run, totaling just 4 1/3 innings between them. Bailey Falter (five runs in 3 1/3 innings), Alex Lange (two runs in 1 1/3 innings), Daniel Lynch (three runs, but only one earned, in two innings), and John Schreiber (one run in two innings) have all had a rough go of it early in the season, though Schreiber does have the team’s other save. As a staff, the Royals have a 4.36 team ERA (23rd), including a 1.98 starter ERA (third) and an 8.44 reliever ERA (28th). They’ve struck out 40 batters (27th) over 43 1/3 innings.
Probable Pitchers
Friday, April 3 @ 6:45 p.m.: RHP Chad Patrick (0-0, 2.08 ERA, 5.02 FIP) vs. RHP Michael Wacha (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 1.34 FIP)
Patrick had a pretty meh start of the season, throwing 4 1/3 innings in Saturday night’s win over the White Sox. He allowed just one run but gave up five hits and a walk with four strikeouts. Patrick made his first MLB start against the Royals almost exactly one year ago, on April 1, when he allowed no runs on three hits and three walks with five strikeouts over 4 2/3 innings.
Wacha, 34, is in his 14th MLB season with his sixth MLB team. This is his third year with the Royals, who he has a 3.54 ERA and 3.61 FIP over 61 starts with. In his season debut last weekend, he went six scoreless frames against the Braves, allowing three hits and a walk with seven strikeouts on just 80 pitches. A familiar opponent for Milwaukee, Wacha has faced the Crew 17 times (16 starts), with a 4.16 ERA and 81 strikeouts over 84 1/3 innings. This is his first start against Milwaukee since 2023, when he was with the Padres.
Sproat got off to a rough start in his Brewer debut on Sunday, as he allowed seven runs on six hits (including three homers) and four walks with three strikeouts over just three innings. Luckily, Milwaukee’s offense bailed him out to deliver a late comeback win. This will mark his first career start against Kansas City.
Lugo, 36, also had a scoreless start against the Braves last weekend, though he has a win to show for it. The 6’4” righty went 6 1/3 innings in that one, allowing five hits and no walks with three strikeouts. The AL Cy Young runner-up in 2024, Lugo has made 10 appearances (two starts) against Milwaukee, with a 2.31 ERA and 26 strikeouts over 23 1/3 innings, including 6 2/3 innings with three runs allowed (two earned) and five strikeouts while with the Royals in 2024.
Sunday, April 5 @ 1:10 p.m.: LHP Kyle Harrison (0-0, 1.80 ERA, 3.17 FIP) vs. LHP Kris Bubic (1-0, 1.50 ERA, 5.50 FIP)
Unlike Sproat, Harrison had a solid Brewer debut on Monday night against the Rays, despite the fact that Milwaukee lost that one. He allowed just one run (a leadoff homer by Yandy Díaz) on four hits and a walk while striking out eight. His lone appearance against Kansas City came last year while with the Giants, a relief outing that spanned 1 1/3 innings with one run allowed and a pair of strikeouts.
Bubic, 28, is in his seventh MLB season, all with the Royals. An All-Star last year, he got off to a solid start once again this season, allowing one run on a pair of hits and three walks while striking out four against the Twins on Monday. He’s made three career starts against Milwaukee, allowing no earned runs (one earned) over 17 1/3 innings with 19 strikeouts, including six shutout frames with eight strikeouts in a win last season.
How to Watch & Listen
Friday, April 3: Exclusively on Apple TV; listen via radio on the Brewers Radio Network (620 WTMJ in Milwaukee)
Saturday, April 4: Brewers TV, nationally on FS1; listen via radio on the Brewers Radio Network (620 WTMJ in Milwaukee)
Sunday, April 5: Brewers TV; listen via radio on the Brewers Radio Network (620 WTMJ in Milwaukee)
Prediction
This is a tough battle, with Milwaukee’s younger arms going up against three veterans for Kansas City. The Royals are a pretty evenly matched team on paper, so I’ll give them the edge at home and say K.C. wins two of three this weekend.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 27: In this Aerial view, "The Samurai of the Diamond" mural by Robert Vargas featuring Los Angeles Dodgers Japanese pitchers Shohei Ohtani (17), Yoshinobu Yamamoto (18) and Roki Sasaki (11) at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel on March 27, 2026 in Torrance, California. (Photo by Kirby Lee/Getty Images) | Getty Images
In total, the trio against Cleveland allowed three runs in 16 innings, with 12 strikeouts and six walks. The Dodgers became the first team in Major League Baseball history to start a Japanese pitcher in three consecutive games, per Elias.
“These are three great men. They are all different. This is a special time in Major League Baseball, certainly with the Japanese players we’re fortunate to have, and around the league,” manager Dave Roberts said Wednesday. “It’s an honor to know that I managed these three guys.”
This is the second year all three have been Dodgers teammates, but the timing never worked out in 2025 for all three to be in the rotation at the same time. Ohtani was rehabbing from his second Tommy John surgery and didn’t get into a game until mid-June. Sasaki went on the injured list in May and didn’t return until September, and by then there was only room for him in the bullpen.
Fourteen Japanese players were on opening day rosters this season, matching 2010 for second-most in a season, behind only the 16 Japanese players on 2008 opening day rosters.
Having three Japanese starting pitchers on the same team in any season is rare enough, as only 35 pitchers born in Japan have started a game in MLB. Yamamoto, Ohtani, and Sasaki are only the third such trio in major league history, joining the 2001 Montreal Expos (11 starts by Masato Yoshii, 10 by Tomo Ohka, and three from Hideki Irabu) and 2003 Dodgers (33 from Hideo Nomo, 27 by Kazuhisa Ishii, and two by Masao Kida).
Yamamoto, Ohtani, and Sasaki combined for 52 starts last season, tied for second-most in a season by Japanese pitchers on one team.
FORT WORTH, TEXAS - JULY 14: Major League Baseball commissioner Robert D. Manfred Jr. announces the pick for the Kansas City Royals at the 2024 MLB Draft at Cowtown Coliseum on July 14, 2024 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Royals will have $15,954,000 to spend on draftees this summer, the sixth-largest draft bonus pool in baseball. The Pirates will have the most money to spend, with a record pool of $19,130,700. The Royals benefit from being selected for the sixth pick through the MLB Draft lottery, the measure instituted to discourage tanking.
The MLB Draft bonus pool is essentially a capped spending system that limits how much each team can spend on signing its draft picks. Each draft slot position is assigned a dollar value, and the slot values for the first ten rounds are added to comprise each team’s “bonus pool.” The Royals will also receive a Competitive Balance pick in Round A due to being a small market team. They will pick sixth only in the first round, the remaining rounds are determined by reverse order of last year’s standings.
1st round (#6 overall) – $7,746,100
Competitive Balance Round A (#30) – $3,190,500
2nd round (#56) – $1,721,700
3rd round (#91) – $872,900
4th round (#119) – $651,500
5th round (#151) – $476,900
6th round (#180) – $367,600
7th round (#209) – $289,900
8th round (#239) – $233,400
9th round (#269) – $207,900
10th round (#299) – $195,600
Teams that exceed their bonus pool face a penalty. Clubs that outspend their allotment by 0-5 percent pay a 75 percent tax on the overage. At higher thresholds, teams lose future selections: a first-rounder and a 75 percent tax for surpassing their pool by more than 5 and up to 10 percent; a first- and a second-rounder and a 100 percent tax for more than 10 and up to 15 percent; and two first-rounders and a 100 percent tax for more than 15 percent.
Teams are not required to spend the slot value on a particular draft pick, but can allocate the bonus pool as they see fit. Many teams will skimp on some picks, in order to offer other picks money well over slot. Having a larger bonus allows a team more flexibility in their strategy. If a player does not sign, the team loses that bonus slot value from their pool. You can find complete slot values and each team’s bonus pool here.
The 2026 MLB Draft will begin on July 11-12 in Philadelphia as part of the All-Star Week celebrations.
Before I begin, I should let you know that this article is mostly just venting. Major League Baseball hasn’t listened to me when I’ve written on this topic before and I’m pretty sure they’re not going to listen now.
Nevertheless, I persist.
March 26 is too early to play baseball in northern cities. Period, full stop. I’m sure those of you who live in the Chicago area are familiar with this meme. This version was posted eight years ago, but is still absolutely relevant:
No question, we are somewhere between “spring of deception” and “third winter,” and after all the rain we’re about to get over the next few days, it will definitely be “mud season.” (The White Sox called off their scheduled home opener Thursday because of a forecast of heavy rain; they rescheduled for Friday.)
“Spring of deception” was in evidence Monday evening at Wrigley Field, when the game time temperature was 77 and more than 36,000 paid to see the Cubs defeat the Angels. I was told that there were thousands of walk-up tickets sold that night, and given that the paid crowd Tuesday was about 26,000, that tracks. Even with that 77-degree temperature, the average game-time temp for the six-game homestand just ended was 51.5 degrees. That’s barely tolerable for this time of year, and take that day out and the average for the other five games was 46.4. Yuck.
Further, Wednesday afternoon’s game was played in 39-degree weather with a reported sustained wind speed of 21 miles per hour, blowing in. That was just the 10th game in Wrigley Field history (where there’s officially recorded weather data) with both a temp that low and a wind speed that high:
I remember that 1997 game well. It was Opening Day, and the 29-degree temperature remains the lowest ever recorded at a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. It was impossible to not be freezing that afternoon. The famous 14-10 comeback win over the Braves in 2018 was a game played in possibly the worst conditions ever at Wrigley, given that a light rain fell throughout the game and they never stopped play.
The Cubs have a three-game series against the Pirates next weekend at Wrigley after the current road trip, then hit the road again for a three-game set in Philadelphia before returning for a seven-game homestand against the Mets and Phillies beginning April 17. By then, maybe, we’ll begin to have decent weather in Chicago.
March 26 (actually, March 25 if you include the Giants/Yankees season opener in San Francisco) is far too early to start the MLB season. Why are we here? In part, because recent CBA’s between MLB owners and players have mandated a certain number of off days during the regular season. Now, I’m not opposed to that; rest days are a good idea for players. But adding those extra off days has also added several days to the regular season’s length, which this year spans 187 days from March 25 to Sept. 27. Ten years ago, the regular season length was 182 days, and if you remember shorter seasons that began in mid-April and ended before October, that was in the days of scheduled doubleheaders. For example, 60 years ago in 1966, the season was 171 days long (April 12 to Oct. 2), but the Cubs had 10 scheduled doubleheaders that year. That’s simply not possible in baseball in 2026.
The expanded postseason then lasts almost five weeks. MLB hasn’t set a postseason schedule for this year yet, but if it mirrors last year’s, Game 7 of the World Series would be played on Oct. 31.
If MLB wanted to have a schedule that made more sense by the calendar, they’d push it back about 10 days. Typically, the weather in northern cities is better in October than it is in April. The problem with that: TV networks don’t want the World Series pushing too far into November, because that is “ratings sweep month” and they want their entertainment shows there, not baseball.
Some will say that if the league insists on scheduling games in northern cities in March, they should at least be divisional games, where the team would come into town later in the year and you’d at least have a potential makeup date for a postponement. That would be slightly better than scheduling, for example, the Nationals and Angels… but it’s still dumb when there are alternative ideas.
So what are those alternative ideas?
The way I see it, there are two possible solutions.
The first is shortening the season, which I wrote about here a few weeks ago. This is undoubtedly going to happen once MLB expands to 32 teams, which will likely not happen until the Rays stadium situation is settled, so we could be five years or more away from that. Even so, when that happens and the regular season is shortened, we are likely going to have an expanded postseason, which would eat up some or all of the saved time from shortening the regular season. Thus that isn’t necessarily going to push the regular season start date back into April, where it belongs.
The second is something that’s been resisted by MLB and its teams for quite some time, but it’s also something I think has to happen if the league is going to insist on playing almost a week’s worth of games in March: Play all of them in warm weather cities or cities with stadiums with roofs. It was especially dumb, for example, to have the Angels playing in Chicago this week. Not only did that risk postponement, but with a team that has its home 2,000 miles from Chicago, that made potential makeup dates difficult because the Angels schedule is more West Coast-centric. The league was lucky that rain didn’t interrupt the last two games of the series given dire forecasts, but the Tuesday and Wednesday games were played in awful conditions that weren’t fair to fans, gameday staff or players.
Here are the MLB teams that I would consider to be either located in warm-weather cities or with indoor stadiums: Blue Jays, Rays, Astros, Rangers, Angels, Mariners, A’s, Marlins, Braves, Brewers, Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Giants and Padres. That’s 14 of the 30 teams. The following MLB cities are what I would consider “mid-latitude” locations, places where it can generally be warm enough in late March/early April to host games: Kansas City, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Baltimore and Washington. The league could rotate those five cities, one every five years, in joining the other 14 to host games over the first week.
Yes, I’ve heard the objections:
Those cities don’t want all the early season games; kids are still in school, people aren’t on vacations, etc.
Teams don’t necessarily want to start on the road every single year
To which I say, “Too bad.” It’s just too cold and potentially wet in most northern cities to play baseball there in March. Granted, this sort of bad weather can — and does! — happen in those cities well into April, but at least the chances of good weather are better in April than in March.
I think the teams/cities noted above need to suck it up and host the first week of games. Every single year. MLB is a $12 billion business, they could make it worth those cities’ while to be the hosts for a week at the beginning of the season, instead of (for example) seeing Wrigley Field with announced crowds of 25,000, maybe a third of whom are actually in the ballpark.
Beyond the fact that playing in cold conditions like this is inconsiderate to fans, gameday staff and players, it doesn’t make for good baseball. You saw quite a number of routine pop flies that should have been caught at Wrigley over the first homestand drop untouched. Cold weather makes it more difficult for players to get loose and risks injury.
All right, I’ve had my 1,400 words of venting. What do you think?
ATLANTA, GA - JULY 13: The Nike RBI kids announce Tate Southisene as the twenty-second overall pick by the Atlanta Braves during the 2025 MLB Draft presented by Nike at Coca-Cola Roxy on Sunday, July 13, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
While we were watching Chris Sale beat the flu and the Athletics, the 2026 MLB Draft pools were released. The draft order was finalized in December, now we get the pools. The Braves will receive a pool of $15,870,800 for the picks in July’s Rule 4 Amateur Draft. That’s up from $9,081,100 from last year. So that 6.8 million dollars more. Having a lousy injury-plagued season and receiving a Prospect Promotion Incentive Pick by promoting Drake Baldwin, last year’s Rookie of the Year, has its benefits.
The Braves will have the seventh highest pool in 2026. Teams almost always outspend those allotments by 5 percent, which is the maximum that teams can spend until incurring penalties. So that would give the Braves $16,664,340 to work with. They have three picks in the top 50 by owning the 9th, 26th, and 48th. That Prospect Promotion Incentive Pick was pushed forward 5 picks due to competitive balance tax infractions by the Mets, Yankees, Phillies, Blue Jays, and Dodgers. For example, the Dodgers will have less than 4 million to spend on this year’s draft, but I don’t know that they care.
The minor league staff willl have a much better idea of who the Braves will be able to take. My understanding is that the juiciest position player position are typically found in the top ten. The Braves pick ninth, but waiving around that PPI pick money might lure a better prize than that pick location might suggest. So if you’ve been pining for a hot position player prospect, this might be your year.
Info on all the teams is here, and the order of the draft pools is below. But it’s exciting news, and maybe the Braves will find a new star come July.
NEW YORK - OCTOBER 19: Pitcher Jon Lieber #22 of the New York Yankees throws a pitch against the Boston Red Sox in the first inning during game six of the American League Championship Series on October 19, 2004 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images) | Getty Images
It’s hard to make your mark on a franchise in a single season. Juan Soto is one of the Yankees’ most prominent one-and-done players, finishing third in 2024 AL MVP voting and helping lead his team to the pennant in his sole year in pinstripes, but he’s a notable exception. Jon Lieber spent 14 years in the big leagues, quietly establishing himself as one of the game’s most reliable right-handed starters. And, in an era that saw the Yankees take fliers on many flashier veteran hurlers, his single year in the Bronx was an unqualified success.
Jonathan Ray Lieber Born: April 2, 1970 (Council Bluffs, IA) Yankees Tenure: 2004
An Iowa native, Lieber was taken by the Royals out of the University of South Alabama as a second-rounder in 1992. He only spent a year and a half in Kansas City’s system, showing enough to make himself a trade chip that brought back Pirates closer Stan Belinda. Lieber reached the Show at the age of 24 in ’94, spending three seasons as a swingman before settling into a full-time starting role for his final two years in Pittsburgh, even earning an Opening Day nod in ’97.
Before the 1999 season, the right-hander was shipped off again, this time to Chicago for outfielder Brant Brown (fresh off an error that nearly cost them a Wild Card berth in ’98). Lieber would find his greatest success on the North Side, making his sole All-Star team in 2001 while winning 20 games and finishing fourth in NL Cy Young Award voting for a Cubs team that fell just a few games shy of the playoffs.
Lieber’s next season was derailed by a UCL injury that required Tommy John surgery in August and would keep him out for all of 2003 as well. “He was hurt from Day 1,” Joe Girardi, his catcher with the Cubs, later said of that fateful season. “But he tried to suck it up and pitch, because the thing about Jon is he really thinks about the team first. He kept telling me he didn’t want to let the team down. I kept telling him: ‘Liebs, if you’re hurt, you’re hurt. You’ve got to get it taken care of.’”
With an aging 2003 rotation that featured a 41-year-old Roger Clemens and 40-year-old David Wells, the Yankees were a logical fit to sign the relatively youthful 33-year-old Lieber to a two-year, $3.5 million deal, content with the knowledge that he would not be able to contribute until ’04. “I could have cussed the world out, but I totally believe everything happens for a reason,” Lieber said, looking back on his career-altering injury. “That’s why I’m here in New York.”
With Clemens, Wells, and Andy Pettitte all departing to free agency after the 2003 campaign, Lieber had a spot in the rotation waiting for him upon his return. The Yankees’ brain trust said everything you would expect them to about their on-the-mend starter. “From everybody I’ve talked to, he has absolutely no ifs on his résumé at this point,” said manager Joe Torre said. “He’s 100 percent,” added GM Brian Cashman. Still, given his age and long layoff from pitching, Lieber had to be considered something of a question mark entering the ’04 season.
Waylaid by a groin injury suffered during spring training, the veteran did not make his Yankees debut until May, when he went eight innings and earned the victory against the team that drafted him, Kansas City. He would go on to have the kind of sturdy season the Yankees would have hoped for, tossing 16 quality starts in 27 outings and pitching to a slightly-above-average 104 ERA+ in 176.2 innings. He wasn’t blowing anyone anyway, but he didn’t waste anyone’s time with walks, leading the majors with a 0.9 BB/9.
Despite slotting near the middle or back end of a star-studded staff for most of the season, Lieber cracked the playoff rotation after the Yankees won nine of his final 10 starts. He was a workhorse too, pitching into the eighth on five different occasions — most impressively firing eight innings of two-hit, one-run ball on 93 pitches in a win against the future playoff opponent Red Sox on September 18th before faltering in the ninth. Lieber even held that formidable lineup hitless until David Ortiz broke it up two outs into the seventh.
Lieber’s rock-solid reliability stood in contrast to the likes of Kevin Brown, who broke his hand punching a clubhouse wall; Javier Vázquez, who collapsed after an All-Star first half; and Esteban Loaiza, whose 8.50 ERA made him one of the worst Trade Deadline acquisitions in franchise history. Although skipper Joe Torre would have to dabble in postseason starts for Brown and Vázquez, but he felt much more confortable deploying the likes of Lieber and Mike Mussina in the opening contests. Remarkably, after toiling for a decade on subpar teams, 2004 would be the first—and, ultimately, only—playoff action of the 34-year-old’s career.
Lieber’s first postseason start came with the Yankees down 1-0 to the Twins in the ALDS following a Johan Santana gem in the opener. He staked Minnesota to a 3-1 lead by the second inning, but he settled in with the Yankees’ season beginning to approach the brink, holding the Twins there until the seventh inning, when he departed with two outs and a 4-3 lead. After Mariano Rivera uncharacteristically blew the lead in the eighth, Lieber would not factor into the decision, though his gutty performance played a key role in an eventual 12-inning victory. New York won the next two games at the Metrodome to advance to the ALCS for the sixth time in seven years.
But it was in Game 2 of the ALCS when the veteran would turn in the performance of a career. With his team up 1-0 in the series, Lieber was tasked with opposing Pedro Martínez, the longtime Yankee foil who had just earned his seventh top-five Cy Young finish in eight seasons. The journeyman would outduel the future Hall of Famer, holding Boston to two hits and no runs through seven innings.
Lieber allowed a single to lead off the eighth who would eventually come around to score, ending his night. For his part, Pedro allowed a pedestrian three runs in six innings as the Yankees squeaked out a 3-1 victory with the help of a long ball from fellow 2004 newcomer John Olerud.
By the time Lieber came back around to pitch in Game 6, of course, the series had taken a turn for the worse. He kept the Yankees in the game, allowing four runs in 7.1 innings, but Curt Schilling and his bloody sock would carry the day. The ignominy of the Yankees’ historic collapse in that series effectively wiped the first three games from the collective memory of the Yankees faithful, an unfortunate fate for Lieber, whose dethroning of Martínez would likely occupy a place in the team’s lore had they gone on to win the pennant. There were multiple reasons why that series went awry; Lieber wasn’t really one of them.
On the strength of his comeback campaign, Lieber signed a three-year, $21 million deal with the Phillies that offseason. While there was some interest in a Yankees reunion, New York opted to let him walk as part of another rotation remodel that saw them trade for Randy Johnson and bring aboard free agents Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright. The results were decidedly mixed (to be kind), and there’s a fair argument that—even putting Pavano aside since his reputation was better at the time—the Yanks should have at least re-signed Lieber over adding the inconsistent Wright on an identical deal. The latter’s 2004 in Atlanta was better than Lieber’s by some numbers, but it was also such an outlier compared to his ineffective and injury-ravaged 1999–2003. Alas.
Lieber joined a Phillies team that was gradually building an impressive young core under manager Charlie Manuel with Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Cole Hamels. He pitched to a league-average level in his three seasons in Philly, but he missed out on their incredible 2007 NL East comeback to dethrone the Mets because he ruptured a tendon in his ankle during a start in late June. Lieber’s season was over and he could only cheer from the sidelines during the thrilling September comeback. One year later, those Phillies won it all for just the team’s second World Series title in franchise history — though Lieber had officially moved on.
At age-38 in 2008, Lieber elected to return home with the Cubs for his 14th and final season. He mostly pitched out of the bullpen for Lou Piniella’s NL Central winners, but for the second-straight year, October eluded him anyway. Lieber went to the shelf with a right foot strain in mid-July and made just one more appearance in September before leaving the field for good. The Cubs were swept by the Dodgers in the NLDS, and Lieber officially hung up his spikes.
Lieber finished his big-league tenure with 131 wins and 2,198 innings pitched, markers of his long, consistent career. He spent more time with each of his four other franchises and is only somewhat remembered for donning the pinstripes. Still, his steady hand and reliability were a godsend for the 2004 Yankees, who nearly won the pennant in no small part due to his efforts. Join us in wishing a very happy birthday to one of the great one-year Yankees, Jon Lieber.
See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.
GOODYEAR, ARIZONA - MARCH 16, 2026: Kahl Stephen #32 of the Cleveland Guardians throws a pitch during a minor league spring training game against the Texas Rangers at Goodyear Ballpark on March 16, 2026 in Goodyear, Arizona. (Photo by Chris Bernacchi/Diamond Images via Getty Images) | Diamond Images/Getty Images
Today is the first day that all Cleveland Guardians’ minor league affiliates will play baseball (weather-permitting) – rejoice!
The new look Hill City Howlers will take on the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers at 7pm ET in Lynchburg, Virginia. Joey Oakie will take the mound for the Howlers after opening some eyes in the Spring Breakout game with electric stuff.
The Showtime Lake County Captains open at home against the West Michigan Whitecaps at 6:35PM where Justin Campbell will take the mound for the Captains. Campbell was an exciting arm when the Guardians drafted him in , but he has yet to be seen in minor league affiliated baseball due to a series of unfortunate injuries. It’ll be exciting for Campbell, for the Guardians’ organization and for Guardians’ fans to see him pitch tonight and show if he’s still got some of the potential he had when they drafted him.
The Akron Rubber Ducks also open at home against the Reading Fightin’ Phils at 6:35PM ET. Most excitingly for me, Khal Stephen takes the mound for the Ducks. I had been concerned about Stephen’s health when he did not make an appearance in any major league spring training games or in the spring breakout game, but it appears he is ready to go. He was the return for the Guardians’ trading of Shane Bieber to the Blue Jays, and he has some very Bieber-like traits. Stephen having a strong first half would go a long way in strengthening the upper level depth of this organization for starting pitching.
Finally, the Columbus Clippers are set to return to action tonight as well at 6:15PM, with lovable Pedro Avila taking the mound for the Guardians’ Triple-A affiliate as they take on the Indianapolis Indians (now without Konnor Griffin who got a promotion to the Pirates today). Every day, I wait to see Travis Bazzana get on track because, when he does, I think a promotion will be in the offing before long. However, for now, Juan Brito has been hitting the ball very well and may force the issue for his own promotion at some point. Also, Daniel Espino had another scoreless outing last night and I never lose the appreciation for seeing that young man overcoming his own host of injuries and showing his immense talent and potential.
If you have an MLB subscription, you can watch all these games with it. Also, even if you don’t, if you have the MLB app, the Columbus game is the free game of the day. Which game are you most excited about today, and which prospects do you most look forward to seeing as minor league season begins? Let us know in the comments below!
When Pittsburgh Pirates fans show up to PNC Park on Friday for the 2026 home opener, they're going to be greeted by perhaps the most celebratory atmosphere in decades after the team announced on Thursday that they will be promoting top prospect Konnor Griffin in time for the game.
Griffin is the top prospect in baseball according to most prospect ranking sites and seemed primed to make the Pirates' Opening Day roster when Spring Training began. However, the 19-year-old struggled with his swing decisions, posting just a 68% contact rate overall and a 15% swinging strike rate while hitting .171/.261/.488 with a 28.3% strikeout rate. The Pirates sent him down to Triple-A with the expressed instruction of continuing to work on his approach.
So far, so good on that front as Griffin has gone 7-for-16 (.438) in five games at Triple-A with three steals, and five walks compared to just four strikeouts. That early success, when paired with the Pirates' shortstops' underwhelming start to the season, led the organization to finally decide that it was time to simply see what their talented 19-year-old could do. ESPN's Buster Olney also reported that Griffin and the Pirates were “deep” in contract negotiations, so perhaps this move will coincide with an agreement being struck in the near future.
In the meantime, Griffin will take the field with sky-high expectations. Last season, he hit .333/.415/.527 with 21 home runs, 117 runs scored, and 65 steals in 122 games across three levels. He had a 50% hard-hit rate in spring training and crushed a few balls over 100 mph, which hints at the plus raw tools he has.
However, we also need to acknowledge that this is a 19-year-old who will immediately become the youngest player on an MLB roster and the first teenage position player in Major League Baseball since Juan Soto debuted in 2018. On Opening Day this season, Didier Fuentes of the Braves was the youngest player at 20 years and nine months old. Griffin won't turn 20 until April 24th. Griffin also posted just a 72% contact rate with a 12.6% swinging strike rate in his 21 games at Double-A last season, so there may be some contact issues early on as he adapts to MLB starting pitcher.
Yet, even with all those caveats, Griffin's first game will be appointment viewing. He has vaulted back into the betting favorite for NL Rookie of the Year, and all eyes will be on Pittsburgh at 4:12 pm ET on Friday afternoon.
BRADENTON, FL - MARCH 20: Konnor Griffin #75 of the Pittsburgh Pirates stands on the field to receive the 2025 Minor League Baseball Rawlings Gold Glove Award prior to the game between the Detroit Tigers and the Pittsburgh Pirates at LECOM Park on Friday, March 20, 2026 in Bradenton, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
Konnor Griffin, Pittsburgh Pirates minor league shortstop and consensus #1 prospect in MLB, is being promoted to the big leagues, per multiple reports.
Griffin, who turns 20 later this month, was the #9 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft. He split the 2025 season between low-A, high-A and AA, putting up a .333/.415/.527 slash line between the three levels and stealing 65 bases in 78 attempts. In five games at AAA to start the 2026 season, he slashed .438/.571/.625.
While Griffin spent most of the 2025 season playing shortstop, he also played center field, and the sense seems to be that he would be very good at either position. Jared Triolo has started the first five games of the season at shortstop for the Pirates, but he’s not a long-term solution at the position, and Griffin will presumably take over as the team’s regular shortstop.
There was talk that Griffin might start the season in the majors for 2026. The Pirates’ home opener is Friday, and it may be that the Pirates wanted him to make his major league debut at home. Calling him up now rather than at the start of the season doesn’t change anything from a team control perspective, and the team and Griffin have reportedly been engaging in discussions on a long-term contract, which would moot team control issues anyway.
PORT ST. LUCIE, FLORIDA - MARCH 20, 2026: A view of the stadium prior to a spring training game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Mets at Clover Park on March 20, 2026 in Port St. Lucie, Florida. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images) | Diamond Images/Getty Images
2025 First Half Record: 34-31 (1/4, Florida State League East Division)
2025 Second Half Record: 43-22 (1/4 Florida State League East Division)
Over the last few years, the St. Lucie Mets weren’t a particularly great team. That changed last season, as the team won the Florida State League East Division with a not-exactly-dominant 34-31 record, benefiting from an extremely weak division; St. Lucie was the only team in the FSL East to finish the first half over .500. The team had a much better second half, going 43-22, steamrolling through the rest of the Florida State League and once again winning the division.
The St. Lucie Mets played the Daytona Tortugas in the FSL East Divisional Series, but fell two games to one in the best-of-three series, ending their season. St. Lucie had a 20-10 record against them during the season, but Daytona’s pitchers stepped up, not allowing more than two runs in any of the three contests and shutting out the Mets in the clincher.
Luis Rivera will be returning as his second year as the St. Lucie Mets manager. Joining him will be Jonathon Cramman, who will be serving as bench coach, David Mervis, who will be serving as pitching coach, and Bryan Muniz, who will be serving as hitting coach. Cramman will be replacing 2025 bench coach Jonathan Jones, Mervis will be replacing 2025 pitching coach Luis Alvarado, and Muniz will be replacing 2025 hitting coach Devin DeYoung.
The 2026 season will be the first season that Cramman is employed by the Mets. Prior to joining the organization, Cramman was involved in various aspects of baseball in Great Britain, where he was a former player who transitioned to coaching in 2019 and has found himself in multiple roles since.
The 2026 season will also be the first season that Mervis is employed by the Mets. Prior to joining the organization, he was the assistant coach/pitching coach for the University of North Alabama from 2023-2025 and a pitching development coordinator at the University of Delaware in 2022.
The 2026 season will be the second season that Muniz is employed by the Mets; he was the Brooklyn Cyclones hitting coach in 2025. Prior to joining the Mets, he was a coach in the Houston Astros organization from 2020-2024, an assistant coach at the King’s Way Academy in West Palm Beach, Florida from 2019-2020 and an assistant coach at Suncoast Community High School in Riviera Beach, Florida, from 2017-2019.
The St. Lucie Mets will be opening the 2026 season against the Palm Beach Cardinals at Roger Dean Stadium tonight. Here’s their Opening Day roster.
Philadelphia's Dick Sisler trots home in the top of the tenth inning of the game against Brooklyn, Oct.1, and teammate Del Ennis steps up to make with the congratulatory handshake. Up to this pint it was a 1-1 tie. Phils took the game, 4-1, after making 3 runs in this frame. Dodger catcher Roy Campanella, umpire Larry Goetz, Phils' centerfielder Richie Ashburn, (1) and Phils' first sacker Eddie Waitkus (4) are at the plate. Philly batboy is unidentified.
In honor of the Philadelphia Phillies playing host to the 2026 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park, we here at The Good Phight are launching a yearlong series that focuses on the history of the Phillies and the All-Star Game.Check back regularly for posts about the Phillies participation (or lack thereof) in the Midsummer Classic over its history.
It’s time to move on to the 1950s in our look at all of the one and done All-Stars in Phillies history. The fifties started off strong for the Phillies with achieving their first pennant in 35 years, but they promptly slid back into mediocrity not long after and eventually back to last place. But hey, if you’ve been following along with the rest of this seriesso far, mediocrity was an upgrade!
Jim Konstanty, 1950
We’ll start off with a player that was a member of those 1950 pennant winning Whiz Kids, even if by that time he was a bit of an elder statesman. Casimir James Konstanty was a multi-talented athlete. He was named captain of the basketball, baseball, and football teams his senior year at Arcade High School in upstate New York. Konstanty especially excelled at baseball, being named team MVP in both his junior and senior years while playing all over the diamond. All of this helped earn Konstanty a partial scholarship to Syracuse University.
Following his graduation in 1939, Konstanty went into semi-pro ball, eventually converting to pitching full-time in 1940 at the recommendation of his manager, fellow Syracuse alumnus George Minor. Not long after, Konstanty was signed to the Syracuse Chiefs, the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. By 1943, Konstanty was considering quitting baseball and teaching full-time but was convinced to stick around with the possibility of a chance to play for the Reds on the table. Sure enough, Konstanty pitched well enough to earn a spot with the Reds in June of 1944 at the age of 27. He had a modest rookie season, pitching in 20 games with 12 starts and sporting a 2.80 ERA across 112.2 IP.
But Konstanty’s career then went on hold in 1945 when he was drafted into the Navy. He continued pitching for his base team and was discharged in early 1946 but was traded to the Boston Braves soon after opening day. Konstanty appeared in just 10 games with Boston though, as he struggled early and the Braves decided to send him to the Toronto Maple Leafs in Triple-A to make room for a young up-and comer named Warren Spahn. During the offseason after an uneven year at Triple-A, Konstanty went for a ride with his neighbor and local undertaker Andy Skinner. As it turned out, Skinner was also an avid bowler who was able to help Konstanty improve his slider and changeup thanks to his knowledge of spins. This partnership would last the rest of Konstanty’s baseball career.
Konstanty remained with Toronto for the next two years, but his manager Eddie Sawyer opted to move the righty to the bullpen in 1948. Later that season when Sawyer was hired as manager of the Phillies, he convinced the team to acquire Konstanty, and the latter made his return to the Majors with the Phillies on September 14th, 1948. He entered in the eighth with the Phillies down 8-0 to the Cardinals and two men on with no outs. Konstanty escaped that jam by inducing two pop-ups and nabbing the runner on first in a run down. He went on to appear in six games for Philadelphia and allow only one run across 9.2 IP.
Konstanty emerged as a bullpen anchor for the Phillies in 1949, appearing in 53 games and posting a 9-5 record with a 3.25 ERA in 97 innings. He even added a walk-off hit to finish off a sweep of the Cubs on June 16th. Manager Sawyer allowed Konstanty to hit in the ninth following a late Phillies rally to tie the game at 3-3 in the eighth. Konstanty collected a one-out, two strike single just over the second baseman’s head, allowing the winning run to score.
But the soft tossing reliever’s finest work would come in 1950. The now 33-year-old slammed the door on Phillies win after Phillies win, as the team began to surge into the pennant race by May. Konstanty, who was 7-3 with a 3.21 ERA through 36 appearances, was named to the 1950 All-Star roster along with teammates Robin Roberts, Willie “Puddin’ Head” Jones, and Dick Sisler. Roberts started the game for the NL on the mound at Comiskey Park, but Konstanty came on in relief in the sixth and retired all three hitters he faced, including strikeouts of Detroit’s Hoot Evers and Cleveland’s Jim Hegan. The game ultimately went 14 innings before the Cardinals’ Red Schoendienst homered off of Ted Gray to give the NL the winning run.
Konstanty returned to the Phillies and had an incredible second half following another meeting with his old bowler friend. He appeared in 38 games in the second half and owned a 2.02 ERA across an astounding 84.2 innings in relief, including a 22 1/3 inning scoreless streak. He lost the scoreless streak when he allowed a tying home run to the Pirates’ Ralph Kiner in the bottom of the 10thh inning on August 25th. But Konstanty remained in the game to pitch a full nine innings in relief and added an RBI single in the 15th in a 9-7 win.
The Phillies would ride Konstanty and the rest of a fantastic pitching staff to the pennant. Konstanty was a surprise starter for Game 1 of the World Series and completed eight innings while allowing just one run in his first start since 1946. But that one run was all the Yankees needed, as the Phillies bats could only muster two hits off of Vic Raschi. Ultimately, the Yankees finished off the sweep and dispatched the surprising Phillies team. But Konstanty was awarded a consolation prize after the season, as he was named the National League MVP, becoming the first relief pitcher in history to win the award in either league. He was a near unanimous winner, receiving 18 of out of 24 first place votes and 85% of the overall vote. Stan Musial, who finished second, only received one first place vote.
But much like the rest of the Phillies, Konstanty took a step back in 1951 with a 4.05 ERA in 58 games. He would remain in Philadelphia until being acquired off waivers in 1954 by those very Yankees that defeated him in the World Series. Konstanty reached the World Series again with New York in 1955, but this time he did not appear in the series as the Yankees lost in seven games to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Konstanty was later released by the Yankees in 1956 and signed with the Cardinals with whom he appeared in 27 games. St. Louis also released Konstanty after 1956, and he ultimately retired in 1957 after a brief stint with the San Francisco Seals in the Pacific Coast League. He then went into coaching where he mentored a young Steve Carlton in the Cardinals farm system.
Dick Sisler, 1950
Like his teammate Konstanty, Dick Sisler was another of the elder statesman of the Whiz Kids who made it onto the 1950 All-Star roster. But before that, he was born as the son of Major Leaguer George Sisler, a star of the dead ball era and Hall of Famer whose 41-game hitting streak in 1922 was the longest in American League history until it was surpassed by Joe DiMaggio in 1941. Dick was actually born during one of his father’s finest seasons in 1920, when the elder Sisler collected his first of two batting titles with a .407 average and set the then MLB record for hits in a season with 257.
Baseball was a dominant force in the family, much to the chagrin of Frances Sisler, the only daughter of the clan. Some of Dick’s earliest memories include seeing legends like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig on the field up close or going for ice cream with Rogers Hornsby. He signed his first professional contract with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1939 despite only being in college for barely over a year. Dick would spend the next four years in the Cardinals’ farm system before enlisting in the Navy in 1942 and serving three years as a physical instructor at Bainbridge Naval Training Center. Sisler got back to baseball in late 1945 by playing winter ball in Havana, Cuba where he became known as “the Babe Ruth of Cuba” and even earned an invite to a house party held by a fan known as Ernest Hemingway.
Despite his own success, Sisler was constantly compared to his father. He remarked to the Wisconsin State Journal on the eve of his MLB debut in 1946 that being George Sisler’s son was a “handicap” and that it was unfair to be compared to his father because “players like him come very seldom and never in one family.” For his part though, Sisler did acknowledge in the same interview how his family name gave him advantages, saying “I don’t suppose I’d have been signed by a big-league club as soon as I was had I not been a Sisler.”
Sisler made his MLB debut on April 16th against the Pirates, going 1-3 with a double. He would continue to start at first for the Cardinals until a hand injury in June forced him out of the lineup. Sisler wouldn’t get his everyday 1B job back, as Stan Musial shifted there from left field and took over the regular starting gig. Sisler would head out to left after his return and was utilized in a platoon. He’d finish his rookie season with an underwhelming .260 average and 3 home runs in 83 games. Sisler would play just 46 games with the Cardinals in 1947 before being traded to the Phillies in 1948.
In Philadelphia, Sisler was able to slide back into being an everyday first baseman, and he thrived with his new team. He finished his first year with the Phillies hitting .274 with 11 home runs in 121 games. However, his starting job once again appeared to be in jeopardy to start 1949, as the Phillies acquired first baseman Eddie Waitkus in a trade with the Cubs. Sisler was once again sent back to the outfield but struggled to find playing time amongst a group that included Richie Ashburn, Del Ennis, and Bill Nicholson.
But that all changed the night of June 14th, 1949, when Waitkus was shot in the chest by a mentally unstable woman in his Chicago hotel room in what became one of the first widely publicized cases of stalking. He would survive and go on to play six more years in the Majors, but Waitkus was lost for the rest of the 1949 season. Sisler would then be tasked with playing first base the rest of the season and finished the year hitting .289 with 7 home runs.
Waitkus was given the starting first base job back in 1950, forcing Sisler once again to fight for time in the outfield. But this time, determined to improve himself as an outfielder in the spring, Sisler won a starting job in left field and went on to have the best season of his career. He was hitting .325 with nine home runs by early July and was named to the NL All-Star team. Sisler didn’t have as much of an impact on the game as his teammates Robin Roberts and Jim Konstanty did, but he did appear as a pinch hitter for Don Newcombe in the top of the sixth and singled off of Bob Lemon before being replaced by pinch runner Pee Wee Reese.
Sisler returned to the Phillies and cooled off some, but the team was surging towards the NL pennant. However, despite having a seven-game lead over the Dodgers in late September, losses in the Phillies rotation led to that lead narrowing to just one game with one game left on the schedule. That game just so happened to be against the Dodgers in Brooklyn. Robin Roberts started on two days’ rest and pitched into the tenth inning of a 1-1 game. In the top of the tenth batting for himself, Roberts singled before Waitkus added a base hit of his own. Richie Ashburn then attempted to bunt the runners over, but Roberts was out at third. Nevertheless, two men were on with one out when Sisler came up to the plate.
That’s when the son who couldn’t escape his father’s shadow finally emerged with a legendary moment of his own. Sisler blasted a three-run homer to left off of Newcombe, the man he pinch hit for in the All-Star game, to give the Phillies a 4-1 lead and ultimately their first National League pennant since 1915. It was arguably the most impactful home run in Phillies history until perhaps being matched when Bryce Harper accomplished a similar pennant-clinching feat in 2022. Alas, just like Harper’s Phillies in 2022, Sisler’s Phillies in 1950 were not able to finish the job in the World Series. But at least Sisler got a shout out from his old friend Hemingway in The Old Man and the Sea, a novella the famed writer began working on just three months after Sisler’s famous home run.
Sisler had a decent year in 1951, but the Phillies were not able to recapture the magic of the previous season and finished under .500. He was then traded to the Reds following the season before being traded to the Cardinals merely one month into the 1952 season. All in all, Sisler hit .256 with 13 home runs in 130 games split between the two teams in 1952. But in 1953, he once again lost his starting job at first base, this time to 24-year-old phenom Steve Bilko. Sisler would appear in only 32 games with the Cardinals in 1953 before being sent to the Columbus Red Birds in Triple-A. He’d bounce around the minors for six more years before retiring from playing in 1960, never again to play a game in the Majors. Sisler did make it back to the Majors as a coach however, becoming the Reds hitting coach in 1961 and taking over as interim manager in 1962 when manager Fred Hutchinson was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Sisler was officially named manager in 1965, joining his father once again as the first father-son manager combination in MLB history.
Jack Sanford, 1957
Sometimes all you need is a chip on your shoulder to succeed. People underestimated Jack Sanford for much of his life, starting in high school when he wasn’t even the number one pitcher on his team. When the Boston Braves expressed interest in signing the Massachusetts native out of high school, his own manager, who was also a scout for the Braves, advised them against it, declaring that Sanford wasn’t much of a prospect.
But that didn’t deter Nancy Sanford, Jack’s sister who played on a local softball team. She encouraged him to go try out for the Red Sox and made sure to pack him a bag and see him on to the trolley to ensure he would go. The Red Sox declined to sign Sanford, believing he was too small, but a scout for the Phillies that was in attendance had his interest piqued. The Phillies then moved to sign Sanford in 1947, but they did not offer him a bonus in the deal like they did with pitchers Curt Simmons and Robin Roberts in the same signing class.
Sanford then experienced a growth spurt his first few seasons in the minors to bring him to just around six feet tall and 190 pounds. He performed well enough to earn an invitation to big league camp in 1954, but he was not given a spot on the major league team. Sanford, who had already earned a reputation of having a very short-fused temper, did not take it too well. He was issued a suspension during the 1954 season when pitching for Syracuse when he refused to come out of a game despite his manager trying to take him out.
But that didn’t deter Sanford’s desire to prove everyone wrong, as he continued to work in Triple-A to earn a spot with the Phillies. However, he quickly found out that there’s at least one entity that doesn’t much care what your desires are when he was drafted into the U.S. Army in October 1954. Sanford was trained as a missile tactician but mostly spent his service time playing for the baseball team at Fort Bliss, Texas. That time in the Army seemingly convinced the Phillies to give him a shot at the Majors, as they decided to bring him up for the last month of the 1956 season. Manager Mayo Smith had to look up records to even know who Sanford was but that didn’t deter him from using Sanford as a starter in the second game of a doubleheader against the Cubs on September 16th.
Sanford pitched seven innings in his MLB debut, allowing one run on four hits with four strikeouts despite walking eight batters. Nevertheless, the performance was enough to make his manager ask why the Phillies didn’t claim his services before the Army did and to declare that Sanford will be on the Phillies to begin 1957 no matter what, saying “someone will have to chop off his arm or something to convince me he can’t pitch in the majors.”
Despite finally accomplishing his goal, Sanford still had a roadblock in his way with an injury in his pitching hand he suffered in a fight while in the Army. His hand would occasionally go numb, and at first surgery was recommended but ultimately Sanford was given medication to treat the injury. But throughout the rest of his career his hand would sometimes go numb in cold weather and he was forced to use a hand warmer on the bench.
Smith was true to his word and Sanford made the 1957 Phillies out of training camp. He rewarded his manager’s faith by winning five of his first six starts and sporting a 10-2 record with a 3.20 ERA and a league-best 96 strikeouts by the All-Star break. Sanford was named to the 1957 All-Star team along with teammate Curt Simmons, becoming the only rookie pitcher named to the NL’s squad. Simmons started the game at St, Louis’ Busch Stadium, but Sanford did get to make an appearance in the top of the sixth.
Sanford entered to replace Milwaukee’s Lew Burdette with the AL up 2-0. He got Ted Williams to fly out for the first out but then ran into trouble, allowing a double to the Yankees’ Bill Skowron before a wild pitch with Yogi Berra at the plate moved Skowron to third. Berra promptly singled to left to bring in Skowron, pushing the AL’s lead to 3-0. But Sanford was able to get the Red Sox’ Frank Malzone and the Orioles’ Billy Loes to groundout to escape the inning. The AL would go on to win 6-5 after a pushing their lead to 6-2 heading into the ninth and barely staving off a late NL rally while sixteen suspected ticket scalpers were arrested outside of the stadium.
Sanford returned to the Phillies and continued his strong season, pitching to a 2.98 ERA in his final 18 starts but was saddled with a 9-8 record as the Phillies went 38-36 and sagged out of contention, finishing third in the NL. Sanford led all of baseball in strikeouts by the end of the season and finished with a 19-8 record and a 3.08 ERA in 236.2 innings. He was named NL Rookie of the Year, becoming the first in the history of the Phillies. He received 16 of 24 first place votes and finished ahead of teammate Ed Bouchee who finished in second place with four first place votes. Sanford joked to the Inquirer that he “must’ve been the oldest in history” to win the award, as he was 28 years old in 1957. He was actually the second oldest to that point, as the Boston Braves’ Sam Jethroe won at age 30 in 1950.
1958 was a disappointment for both Sanford and the Phillies, as he pitched to a 4.44 ERA in 186.1 innings. That was enough to convince the Phillies that Sanford would never replicate his rookie season, and they shipped him off to the Giants in the winter for pitcher Ruben Gomez and backup catcher Valmy Thomas. Phillies owner Robert Carpenter later called it the worst trade he ever made, as Sanford went on to have a good career with the Giants, compiling a record of 85-62 and a 3.59 ERA across six full seasons with the Giants before a mid-season trade sent him to the Angels in 1965.
But Sanford’s career as a starter was nearing its end at that point, and he was converted to a reliever in 1966. He was once again traded mind-season in 1967, this time going to the Kansas City Athletics. But he would appear in only 10 games with Kansas City and sported a 6.55 ERA before being released in August. His former manager in Kansas City brought Sanford along to his new job as manager in Cleveland as a pitching coach, but Sanford quit after two seasons to go work at a golf club in Florida where he eventually worked as a director.
WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 12: Shay Whitcomb #10 of the Houston Astros bats during spring training workouts at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches on February 12, 2026 in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo by Houston Astros/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Another day of minor league baseball is in the books. See the results below.
AAA: Sugar Land Space Cowboys (4-1) won 10-3 (BOX SCORE)
Sugar Land jumped out to an early lead scoring 5 runs in the 2nd inning on a Trammell 2 run double and Whitcomb 3 run HR. J. Alexander got the start but struggled a bit allowing 3 runs over 3.2 innings. The offense would rally again in the 6th inning scoring 5 runs on a Trammell sac bunt, Whitcomb 2 run HR and then Alexander 2 run HR. The bullpen was great with JP France tossing 2.1 scoreless innings and then Santa, Cosgrove and Knorr all throwing scoreless innings as they closed out the 10-3 win.
ARLINGTON, TX - MAY 15: Cody Bradford #61 of the Texas Rangers warms up in the bullpen prior to his Major League debut game against the Atlanta Braves at Globe Life Field on May 15, 2023 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ben Ludeman/Texas Rangers/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Rangers fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
It is an off day for Your Texas Rangers, who just completed a 4-2 road trip to start the season.
So far the Rangers have not had to make any roster moves, which is a good thing a week into the season. Eventually, though, whether due to injury or ineffectiveness, there will be a need to summon reinforcements from the minors, and the bullpen is usually the area that sees the most churn.
Our question today — the first time the Rangers have to summon a reliever from AAA, who do you think they will turn to? Who will be the first reliever called up to the majors?
The Pittsburgh Pirates announced on their social media account that Griffin, the league’s number one prospect, will be making his debut on Friday when the team hosts the Baltimore Orioles.
Griffin was a strong candidate to make the team out of spring training, but the Pirates opted against it; however, the organization could not keep the 19-year-old shortstop down for long. Griffin was chosen with the number nine overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft out of high school, and he has tore his way through the minor leagues in his brief time as a professional. In five games with AAA-Indianapolis this season, he has seven hits in 16 at-bats, proving that he belongs with the big league club.
BD Community, what do you think of Griffin’s promotion? How excited are you to see him with the Bucs? Chime in the comment section below.
Steven Gerrard "regrets" leaving Rangers for Aston Villa but says he was unimpressed with the Ibrox club's ambition after winning the league.
The Liverpool legend guided Rangers to their first top-flight title in 10 years in 2021, an unbeaten league campaign in which they finished 25 points ahead of Celtic.
Just six months later Gerrard departed to join English Premier League side Villa, where he lasted less than a year before being sacked.
"The level was a big jump," Gerrard admitted on The Overlap.
"I probably didn't realise at the time when I made that decision. In hindsight I would have stayed at Rangers longer and got more experience. Now, sitting here, I regret [leaving when I did].
"The conversations with Rangers after we won [the league], the recruitment and finance chats we were having, it didn't feel like Rangers were ready to go again.
"It was a bit more like, 'Oh, let's settle this and fix that and do that.' The promises weren't as strong as what I thought they would be.
"Then the Premier League offer and opportunity comes in, it's tough. It's tough to say no to Villa, a great club. I have nothing bad to say about them."
