Baseball News
A.J. Ewing – CF
Francisco Lindor – SS
Bo Bichette – 3B
Carson Benge – RF
Jared Young – 1B
Marcus Semien – 2B
Brett Baty – LF
Jorge Polanco – DH
Francisco Alvarez – C
SP: Sean Manaea – LHP
Dylan Crews – RF
Andres Chaparro – 1B
Brady House – 3B
CJ Abrams – SS
Harry Ford – C
Jacob Young – CF
Daylen Lile – DH
Nasim Nunez – 2B
Andrew Pinckney – LF
SP: Brad Lord – RHP
First pitch: 4:10 PM EDT
TV: SNY
Radio: Audacy Mets Radio WHSQ 880AM, Audacy App, 92.3 HD2
After taking the first game of the series behind another deep Kyle Freeland start and Zac Veen firepower, the Colorado Rockies (49-73) try to continue their three-game road winning streak with a Saturday afternoon contest by the bay against the San Francisco Giants (50-72). A win would give the Rockies their 50th victory of the season and bring them even with the Giants for fourth in the division.
Leading the way for the Rockies is Michael Lorenzen (3-10 across 24 starts, 6.83 ERA, 1.875 WHIP, 81 strikeouts). Lorenzen’s performances have ebbed and flowed throughout the season. He has consistently given up a fair number of hits each game and has varied in his ability to limit the run damage. In his last start, he gave up eight hits but only surrendered two earned runs. In the start before that, however, he allowed seven earned runs on seven hits, only lasting three innings in a 13-9 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. Over his last handful of games, his longest outing was just 4.1 innings pitched.
Lorenzen has squared off with the Giants twice this season. Back at the end of May, he went 3.2 innings with three earned runs on five hits, as the Rockies beat the Giants 8-6. More recently, he went five innings and gave up just one earned run on five hits in a 3-1 loss in July. He’ll aim to keep traffic on the basepaths to a minimum and limit San Francisco’s offense as he did in his other outings against the club.
Logan Webb gets the start for the Giants (7-7 across 21 starts, 3.59 ERA, 1.083 WHIP, 103 strikeouts). Webb has been extremely strong as of late. He’s notched two wins in his last three starts and kept runs at two or fewer in that stretch. He’s also gone deep into games, going six or more innings in his last six starts. Although San Francisco took the loss in his last game, Webb did his part, allowing just one run over eight innings of work.
Good news for the Rockies: Webb hasn’t been at his best in his two starts against Colorado this season. He was better in the first of the two, allowing only one run on three hits in 4.1 innings as the Rockies beat the Giants 8-6. His second start against Colorado, though, is his worst of the season. In a July matchup at Coors Field, Webb allowed 11 hits resulting in 7 runs and took the loss as the Giants fell 15-3.
As Colorado did with Zac Veen, the Giants are turning to a prospect tearing it up in the minors, with recently promoted outfielder Turner Hill making his MLB debut today after building a 26-game hitting streak with the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats.
Both teams are in very similar positions late in the season. The Rockies carry a good bit of momentum on their side into today’s matchup. With a slew of hot bats in the lineup, they hope to add to the win column.
First Pitch: 2:05 p.m. MDT
TV: Rockies.TV
Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 FM and KNRV 1150 (Spanish)
Giants SB Nation Site: McCovey Chronicles
Lineups:
Sign up for a user account and get:
Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!
Joshua Báez made sure his major league debut somehow exceeded the wild expectations that preceded it.
Báez's emotional journey to the St. Louis Cardinals' lineup culminated Saturday, Aug. 15 when he made major league history by homering three times in his first three major league at-bats, including a towering two-run home run on the first pitch he saw from Chicago Cubs left-hander Matthew Boyd at Wrigley Field.
It's the first time any player has homered three times in his MLB debut.
That first homer, a 449-foot blast to dead center field, sent the visiting dugout into padding-pounding pandemonium and the more than two dozen family members on hand from around the USA and Dominican Republic into unabashed glee. Yet it was only the beginning of a power show that drove the Cardinals to an 8-4 victory over the Cubs.
Báez Bombs are here, St. Louis! 💣 pic.twitter.com/TENioKu6gr
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) August 15, 2026
In his second at-bat, Báez led off the fourth inning by clubbing a full-count Boyd changeup 382 feet into the third row of Wrigley's left field bleachers. He battled back from an 0-2 count and didn't see a single fastball from Boyd, who'd hoped to mix up the lefty with a mix of off-speed pitches.
Until he hung one.
TWO HOMERS FOR JOSHUA BÁEZ IN HIS BIG LEAGUE DEBUT! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/ojdN2pyy4x
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) August 15, 2026
Báez, 21, came into the game the Cardinals' No. 3 prospect, yet that designation might have to be updated after his debut.
That's because on his third trip to the plate - with Boyd, amazingly, still on the hill, increasingly becoming a more significant footnote to history - Báez found his third set of bleachers.
This time, it was to right field, off a Boyd slider, a two-run shot that gave the Cardinals a 6-3 lead. At this point, the giddiness gave way to utter disbelief. Cardinals DH Ivan Herrera simply clutched the sides of his head with his two hands, a reaction echoing Thomas Hill's tearful gratitude when Duke's Christian Laettner hit that shot back in 1992.
MAJOR LEAGUE HISTORY!!
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) August 15, 2026
THREE homers for Joshua Báez in his MLB debut! pic.twitter.com/aaxFwtSQku
Báez was a third-round pick of the Cardinals in 2021, out of Dexter School in Brookline, Mass. He was midway through his second full pro season, at Class A Palm Beach, when his father, Jose Manuel, who'd had a profound impact on his baseball development, passed away.
Báez continued climbing the Cardinals' system and the prospect charts, rising to No. 56 in Baseball America's top 100 ratings this summer. And then came June 16, and the third anniversary of his father's death.
The Cardinals outfield prospect marked the occasion by hitting four home runs for Class AAA Memphis, pointing to the sky after each of them.
"I was just trying to push through, and it's just insane I was able to hit four home runs in one night," he said then.
It was a significant step in doubling down on his 2025 power breakout, when he hit 20 homers and got on the Cardinals' big league radar. This year, he's crushed 34 home runs and driven in 90 runs for Memphis, all but daring the Cardinals to ignore him.
That's proven impossible with every level Báez climbs. And now, he's reached the highest in historic fashion.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cardinals' Joshua Báez becomes first to homer three times in MLB debut | Watch
Many roster moves happened today, check the post below this one for the details.
Rickey (no e) Tiedemann (two e’s) sounds thrilled to be up with the Jays:
Today’s Lineup:
Low-scoring affairs have dominated the scoresheet in recent Yankee games, and with Cam Schlittler on the mound, we might very well be in line for another one. None of these low-scoring losses were more curhsing than the last time Schlittler appeared in a game, seeing his seven magnificent innings of one-run ball with double-digit strikeouts go to waste as the Yankees fell to the Braves 2-1.
Responsible for a 10-6 record on the season, Schlittler comes into this game hoping to avoid a fourth straight Yankees loss in his start, something that hasn’t happened since he first came up to the big leagues last season. It should be noted he hasn’t taken the loss in any of them, twice deserving a lot more than what he got in offensive support.
One of the aspects that has limited the Yankees’ regular-season goals has been this team’s struggles inside the division. After yesterday’s loss to the Jays, the only team against which the Yankees hold a winning record in the AL East is the Baltimore Orioles, playing .500 ball in their eight games versus Toronto, outscoring them by just a single run.
Don’t look now, but having won four out of their last five against the Red Sox and Yankees, the Blue Jays—who seemed to be in a lost season not so long ago—are now only one game back of the last AL Wild Card spot. Benefiting from an egregious lack of depth in the AL playoff picture, and despite having sold at the deadline, the Jays carry more than enough of a core to be a more dangerous club than the ones fighting for these final Wild Card spots.
Lastly, in a coincidence that doesn’t spark good memories, Schlittler will be opposed by a bullpen game just like in Game 4 of last year’s ALDS, this one with Brydon Fisher as the opener.
How to watch
Location: Rogers Centre — Toronto, ON
First pitch: 3:07 pm ET
TV broadcast: YES, Sportsnet, TVA Sports
Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280 (NYY), SN590 THE FAN (TOR)
For updates, follow us on BlueSky, Twitter, and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.
Sign up for a user account and get:
Sign up for a user account and get:
Aaron Judge still has a long road ahead to returning to the Yankees from a fractured rib injury, but the slugger recently took a step in the right direction.
According to manager Aaron Boone, who spoke to reporters before New York continues its series against the Blue Jays in Toronto on Saturday, Judge played catch for the first time during his rehab process Friday.
While it's certainly good news for Judge and the Yanks, the outfielder still has a ways to go in building up to full baseball activities. Regardless, it's good to hear that he has at least begun that process and is getting closer to a return.
Judge hasn't played in a game since May 31, although the fractured rib can likely be traced back to April when he made a diving attempt in the outfield. Before his injury, the 34-year-old was having a bit of a down season for his standards but still had 17 home runs and a .907 OPS.
More importantly, with Judge in the lineup, New York's offense was in a groove, but since landing on the IL, the Yankees have struggled to score runs consistently, including in their 3-1 loss to the Blue Jays on Friday night.
LOS ANGLES — Edwin Díaz likely won’t be available to pitch for the remainder of the weekend against the Milwaukee Brewers, after pitching on each of the last two nights, with extended outings both nights. He walked a tightrope on Friday night, loading the bases in the ninth inning, but somehow survived to earn the save. It wasn’t a good outing by any means, but all parties believe Díaz is at least heading in the right direction.
Díaz since returning from the injured list has one clean outing in six tries, with seven runs allowed in 4 2/3 innings. One night after allowing three runs in a blown save to the Brewers, he walked two batters and hit another, loading the bases in the ninth inning. This time he escaped without damage, helped by a fantastic play by second baseman Tommy Edman for the second out of the frame. A grounder to shortstop Mookie Betts ended it.
“It was good for him to work his way out of it, and obviously he was a hitter away,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Even with that last hitter, I wanted to see him try to fight through it and get through it. I was happy that he finished what he started.
Díaz said his posture on the mound was something he was working on, that his misses were more off the plate than in the middle of the strike zone to get punished.
“I’m leaning too much toward the right-handed hitter. Instead of straight down the plate, today was way better,” Díaz said. “My fastball ride was way batter than yesterday. I’m going in a good direction, so keep getting better and keep getting better.”
There’s still a lot to work on for Díaz, who threw only 11 strikes in his 26 pitches on Friday.
“It wasn’t pretty, I watched the inning too,” Roberts said.
“The strength department and the pitching side of things, he’s kind of detected some things I think we could clean up, so that’s encouraging,” Roberts added. “We started that process today. Hopefully with a couple days off to kind of work through that, we’ll see an even better version going forward.”
Díaz and Tanner Scott have each pitched five times in the last eight days, something that happened only four times this season in the Dodgers bullpen before this stretch — by Scott (April 21-28, May 23-30), Alex Vesia (June 10-17), and Evan Phillips (August 2-9). If Vesia, Phillips or Jack Dreyer pitch on Saturday, they will have also pitched five times in eight days.
It’s been a busy time for the Dodgers bullpen.
“That’s the hard part, that a lot of people don’t have the information on availability and workload, and redlining guys, trying to keep guys healthy. I don’t have everyone available every single night, and what’s the cost of that night versus the next two or three games and looking also at the rest of the season,” Roberts said. “Those things I gotta think through, and when you peel that layer back, then your options get a little bit smaller. Then you’re talking about lanes and what’s the best for a particular pitcher. All those things matter.”
To Roberts’ point, it’s likely that Scott wouldn’t be available on Saturday either, in addition to Díaz, as no Dodgers reliever has pitched on three consecutive days this season. And if Vesia pitches Saturday, he’d be the first Dodger in 2026 to pitch four times in five days.
That’s a long way of saying Saturday is a day for Justin Wrobleski to eat as many innings as possible, whether he turns around his recent funk or not.
Want to get more Covers content? Add us as a preferred source on your Google account here.
The Arizona Diamondbacks and Atlanta Braves continue their weekend series Saturday night at Truist Park, with Eduardo Rodriguez facing Grant Holmes.
Both starters carry respectable ERAs, but their underlying profiles point to more offensive upside than the surface numbers suggest. We are backing Atlanta while also targeting the Over and a Corbin Carroll long ball.
Read on for our Diamondbacks vs. Braves predictions and MLB picks for Saturday, Aug. 15.
The Atlanta Braves are my moneyline pick behind the better offensive matchup. I'd play them down to -150.
Eduardo Rodriguez's 2.70 ERA looks strong, but his .336 xwOBA and .445 xSLG allowed suggest hitters have made better contact than the results indicate.
The Braves also bring significantly more power than the Arizona Diamondbacks, entering the series with 164 home runs and a .420 SLG. Rodriguez has survived some of that contact, however Atlanta has the power profile to turn it into extra-base damage.
Grant Holmes carries his own contact concerns, but the Braves' lineup gives him more run support to work with. This could be a bit of a slugfest and I generally favor the ATL in such scenarios.
Give me the Braves for my tenth two-unit of the year.
COVERS INTEL: Eduardo Rodriguez throws his four-seam fastball 39.2% of the time, making it easily his most-used pitch. Opponents have a .473 xSLG against it with a 42.9% hard-hit rate.The starter ERAs point toward a pitchers' game, but the underlying contact suggests otherwise.
Grant Holmes owns a 3.47 ERA despite a 4.76 xERA, bottom 20 percentile 42.1% hard-hit rate, and 9.1% barrel rate. Rodriguez has his own separation between results and expected production, with opponents carrying a .445 xSLG against him.
The Braves should get the best of the Arizona DBacks but it won’t come without allowing runs. Both starters have allowed enough damaging contact to make a total of 9 playable, especially with temperatures near 90 degrees at first pitch.
I’d play this up to 9.5.
This is a rare situation where the pitching we're backing could be the most homer vulnerable As mentioned, that's because of the 42%+ hard-hit rate that Holmes carries coming into this matchup. Corbin Carroll is poised to take advantage of that.
Holmes throws his slider, four-seamer, and cutter 74.8% of the time, led by a slider at 36.3%.
Carroll owns a .573 xSLG and 58.8% hard-hit rate against sliders, along with a .400 xSLG against four-seamers and .487 xSLG against cutters. He has also generated positive run value against all three pitch types.
Holmes will have to live in areas of his arsenal that match Carroll’s strongest contact profile, making him the best Arizona power target.
First-pitch temperatures are forecast around 90 degrees, with readings staying in the upper 80s through most of the game and a chance of thunderstorms later in the evening. That kind of heat is a mild boost for offense because warmer air is less dense, giving well-struck fly balls a little more carry.
The Atlanta Braves have hit the 1st Five Innings (F5) Run Line in 18 of their last 23 games at home (+13.00 Units / 48% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Diamondbacks vs. Braves.
| Location | Truist Park, Atlanta, GA |
| Date | Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026 |
| First pitch | 7:15 p.m. ET |
| TV | FOX |
| Diamondbacks starting pitcher | Eduardo Rodriguez (11-4, 2.70 ERA) |
| Braves starting pitcher | Grant Holmes (7-4, 3.47 ERA) |
Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change.
Not intended for use in MA.
Affiliate Disclosure: Our team of experts has thoroughly researched and handpicked each product that appears on our website. We may receive compensation if you sign up through our links.
This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.
Hickory starter Mason McConnaughey allowed two runs in two innings, striking out one and walking one. Aneudis Mejia allowed a homer in 0.2 IP. Geury Rodriguez struck out two in 3.1 shutout innings.
Josh Springer doubled. Yolfran Castillo was 2 for 4 with a stolen base. Jay McQueen had a pair of hits. Dewar Tovar homered. Kaden Carpenter had a hit and a walk. Marco Argudin and Paulino Santana each had a hit.
Caden Scarborough had a difficult outing for Hub City, allowing eight runs in 4.2 IP, including a homer, with two Ks.
Gleider Figuereo had a pair of dobules. Eduardo Mejia had a hit.
For Frisco, Josh Trentadue allowed three runs in 2.1 IP, allowing a homer, walking two and striking out four. Eric Loomis allowed five runs, includinga pair of homers, in 0.2 IP, walking one and striking out one. Bryan Magdaleno walked one in 1.1 scoreless innings.
Round Rock starter David Davalillo had his best start of the season, needing just 76 pitches to face the minimum through six innings with 7 Ks, allowing just one hit, which was erased on a double play. Ryan Lobus allowed a run in an inning of work, walking one and striking out one. Wilian Bormie struck out one and walked one in a shutout inning.
John Taylor had a hit, a walk and a stolen base.
The Braves got all they needed from the pitching staff Friday, but couldn’t do anything on offense. Today’s game features a pitching matchup between Eduardo Rodriguez and Grant Holmes.
Rodriguez has a massive gulf between his 2.70 ERA and his 4.41 xFIP. I trust the xFIP more than the ERA to tell us how good he actually has been, but that is an impressively large gap through 143.1 innings. His strikeouts have cratered to a tiny 6.34 K/9, but he remains a serviceable MLB starter. His five-pitch arsenal of four-seamer, changeup, cutter, curveball, and sinker all look fairly average in terms of movement, with sub-average extension. That said, he has been locating those pitches well in the spots you would want for each pitch. The Braves’ offense would do well to hit a couple homers off of him, taking advantage of the high contact rate.
Meanwhile, Grant Holmes is coming off of two productive outings of 6.0 innings each. The team would obviously love to see that depth again, but I think that is unlikely to come with another 2 strikeout performance like last time, Grant will need to miss a few more bats to be reasonably expected to be that productive again. That slider continues to be an absolute weapon for him and we’ll have to hope it can vex the Diamondbacks during this tough stretch of games for Atlanta.
Game Info
Game Time: Saturday, August 15, 7:15 PM ET
Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA
Watch: FOX
Radio/Audio: 680 AM/93.7 FM The Fan, La Mejor 1600/1460/1130 AM
It’s game 2 of the weekend series as the St. Louis Cardinals battle the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Cardinals will give the ball to Michael McGreevy while the Chicago Cubs will start Matthew Boyd. It’s also the Major League debut for Joshua Baez. First pitch is set for 1:20pm central time with the game broadcast available through Cardinals.tv.
Sign up for a user account and get:
I thought the Jays and I had an understanding, I would play tennis on Saturday mornings and they wouldn’t make any news while I play.
Anyway:
Vladimir Guerrero has been put on the 7-day concussion IL. Concussions are terrible things. My youngest son got play playing rugby and it ended his rugby playing. He had a rough time of it. I hope Vlad is only out those seven days.
Paul Sewald has been activated for today’s game.
Lazaro Estrada was optioned to Buffalo, but then DFAed.
Rickety Tiedmann has been recalled from Buffalo. He’ll be in the pen. He was #5 on our prospect list. He’s missed most of this season because of injuries.
Chase Lee was optioned.
Daz Cameron was added to the 40-man roster and called up to the Jays. Daz signed with us as a free agent back in July. He’s played for Detroit, Oakland and Milwaukee. In 160 MLB games, he has a .200/.258/.326 line with 15 steals (0 times caught) and 11 home runs. In 23 games in Buffalo, he hit .367/.462/.582 with 10 steals and 3 home runs. He plays all three outfield spot. He’s mostly played center field, but has played left and right. Some pure speed will be nice (if he gets on base).
Today’s Vladless lineup. Braydon Fisher was to be the opener.
Welcome back to Rays Reacts. We asked, you voted. This time, we inquired on your confidence in the Rays starting rotation, which as a question conjures playoff considerations.
Practically, many teams skate by with just three plus starting pitchers, so personally I’m not too worried about how the rotation shakes out down the stretch. Despite losing Griffin Jax to injury — he recently got an injection in his elbow, and has resumed throwing at 120 feet — Rasmussen and Martinez are solid, Sugar Shane just pitched three clean innings in Durham on a rehab start, the Rays are settling Peralta into the Rays way, and Seymour is over-achieving expectations for a pitcher with 14 career starts at the MLB level.
I’m confident, but more importantly, how did y’all feel?
Minor concerns is fair!
Jax and McClanahan are indeed injured, Seymour was recently in the bullpen, and Peralta is new. It’s reasonable to be concerned at least a little bit.
If you are feeling confident, you are welcomed to place some responsible bets on the strength of that confidence through FanDuel, who sponsors this series.
Go Rays!
Time/Place: 1:10 p.m., Comerica Park
SB Nation Site:South Side Sox
Media: Detroit SportsNet, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network
Pitching Matchup: RHP Troy Melton (7-1, 1.46 ERA) vs. LHP Anthony Kay (9-5, 3.96 ERA)
| Player | G | IP | K% | BB% | GB% | FIP | fWAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Melton | 13 | 80 | 22.5 | 7.8 | 41.2 | 3.63 | 1.5 |
| Kay | 24 | 116.0 | 18.1 | 8.3 | 44.6 | 4.79 | 0.9 |
Sign up for a user account and get:
While he’s been better of late, Trent Grisham slumped in much of the early going of the season. That became a bit more problematic than it would be as he’s spent much of this season as the Yankees’ leadoff hitter. Through Wednesday, Grisham was posting a .678 OPS while hitting first in the Yankees’ order,
The thing is, those struggles haven’t been as prevalent in pretty much any other spot in the lineup. In all other plate appearances besides the ones in the one hole, Grisham had a .854 OPS going into Thursday. This got me thinking about the randomness that often come within season splits. However, I was intrigued by the opposite of what’s happening to Grisham this year. I wanted to know what seasons Yankees’ players had where they absolutely went off while hitting in one particular spot in the batting order.
To try and figure this out, we’ll mainly be using two statistics available via Baseball Reference: tOPS+ and sOPS+. What tOPS+ does is measure how you did in a certain split compared to your overall numbers for the season. For example, a 120 tOPS+ means you were 20 percent better than in a given split than your overall numbers. Meanwhile, sOPS+ compares numbers in a certain split to the major league average. A 120 there means your numbers in that split were 20 percent better than the league average within that same split. We’re also going to put a minimum of 100 plate appearances on this to get a look at players who legitimately played there a bunch, and not just ones who had like one at-bat in a spot and happened to homer.
Batting 1st: 1957 Hank Bauer (143 tOPS+, 171 sOPS+)
Hall of Fame shortstop Phil Rizzuto had the highest tOPS+ in this spot with 154 in 1954, but he didn’t actually hit all that great there (sub .700 OPS), he just did better there than anywhere else in one of the final years of his career. Instead, we’ll go with Bauer, who might have not have had the typical description of a traditional leadoff hitter and put up a .776 OPS overall for the season. However, he hit 16 of his 18 homers when Casey Stengel put him first in the order.
Batting 2nd: 1920 Bob Meusel (167 tOPS+, 228 sOPS+)
When I saw Meusel was especially dominant hitting second in 1920, my initial thought that he probably got a boost from hitting directly in front of Babe Ruth. However most of the time, Ruth was fourth in the lineup with Wally Pipp batting third. Pipp was very much respected in his day, but Meusel just happened to go off whenever he was second in the order, hitting .414/.436/.739.
Batting 3rd: 2022 Gleyber Torres (174 tOPS+, 171 sOPS+)
While 2022 was a few years after his juiced-ball peak, he was still an above-average hitter that year. He did especially well hitting third, which often came with the benefit of hitting after one of Aaron Judge, Anthony Rizzo, or Giancarlo Stanton. In 119 plate appearances there, he had a 1.050 OPS, including a third of all his walks on the year.
Batting 4th: 2018 Didi Gregorius (173 tOPS+, 187 sOPS+)
The 2018 campaign was the first one with Stanton on the team, and the Yankees often elected to hit him third with Judge in the two spot. That left Gregorius as an unconventional cleanup hitter, although you might not have known that he was if you just looked at his stats there. Hitting behind the two large boys helped Didi to a career year, as he had a .748 slugging percentage in the cleanup spot.
Batting 5th: 2023 Harrison Bader (163 tOPS+, 120 sOPS+)
With that 120 sOPS+, Bader was genuinely better hitting fifth than most other hitting there. He was also just so much better there than when he hit anywhere else. His .826 OPS in the five hole in 2023 isn’t awe-inspiring, but it’s funny how much better it is than his overall .643 with the Yankees that year, which ultimately got him waived in late August. This might be the purest form of what I was trying to find in making this lineup.
Batting 6th: 1987 Gary Ward (189 tOPS+, 159 sOPS+)
However, we have now immediately found someone that may be an even purer form. Gary Ward’s 1987 with the Yankees wasn’t especially great either, as his .675 OPS graded out to a 78 OPS+. However, hit him sixth and he turned into a legit slugger. He had 131 hits and 16 home runs in total that year, but if prorate what he did in the six hole and map out what he would’ve done over the whole season, he would’ve had 174 hits and 36 homers.
Batting 7th: 1950 Cliff Mapes (150 tOPS+, 161 sOPS+)
If Mapes was specifically hitting seventh in 1950, he became an absolutely on-base machine. He drew 17 walks there in 124 plate appearances, posting a .402 OBP. That’s almost as high as his slugging for the entire 1950 season: .421.
Batting 8th: 1999 Jorge Posada (170 tOPS+, 182 sOPS+)
Posada’s big breakout would come in the 2000 season, as he was still a below average hitter on the whole in the 1999. However, he showed signs of what was to come in the future, specifically hitting eighth in 1999. Sixteen of his 33 extra-base hits came there, as his 1.004 OPS was nearly 300 points higher than his overall season one.
Batting 9th: 2019 Mike Tauchman (157 tOPS+, 272 sOPS+)
Mike Tauchman was one of the embodiments of the 2019 “Next Man Up” Yankees where it seemed like everyone who got playing time ended up contributing in a positive way. Acquired in a then-quiet deal with the Rockies for reliever Phillip Diehl at the end of spring training, the Sock Man’s overall season numbers that year were very good, but in the nine hole especially, he hit .356/.440/.683.