Category: Sports News

If you have been a Camden Chat regular over the years, you are probably familiar with our annual contest. Each year in March, we post a series of questions to get you thinking about the season ahead. This past March, we had 282 of Camden Chat’s finest submit their answers to 30 questions, and we had a pretty large group of first place finishers.

With 19 answers correct, congratulations go out to Melvinmora, J(O’s)elskil, OldOsFan, DJDrP, and PaulFolk! You five have proven your brilliance and may commence gloating immediately. One of these winners is my husband! I’ll let you guess who.

Eight entrants had 18 correct answers, including our boss Mark Brown, AKA Eat More Esskay. Fun fact, the worse the Orioles do in a season, the higher Mark scores in this contest.* As for me, I finished in 63rd place with 15 correct.

*I did not check my work on this over multiple seasons, but you have to admit it sounds right.

To see the full results and find your score, click over to the results spreadsheet. It is sorted by number correct, so the easiest way is to CTRL+F your name. Check it out and let us know how you did in the comments!

The full questions and answers are below. This year was tough, as so many answers brought back all the troubles the team had. But on the bright side, next year our expectations will be so low that it’ll be easier to be pleased with the results.

Which will be higher?

1. Innings pitched by Shane Baz or Grayson Rodriguez? Baz – 179.2; Grayson – 98.2 – Baz was a vast improvement over Rodriguez. No only did he pitch 81 more innings, but his ERA was 1.91 runs lower. (97.5% answered correctly)
2. Games played by guys named Tyler or guys named Jackson? Jackson – 200 (Hollday – 98, Jeremiah – 102), Tyler – 128 (O’Neill – 85, Wells – 43). This race was actually tied about halfway through the season before Team Jackson pulled away. (72% answered correctly)
3. Saves by Ryan Helsley or starts by Zach Eflin? Helsley – 8, Eflin – 1. Both of these answers make me sad. (84% answered correctly)
4. OPS+ for Pete Alonso or Kyle Schwarber? Alonso – 149, Schwarber – 128. We love you, Pete! (51.4%)
5. Colton Cowser K% or Cedric Mullins stolen bases? Cowser – 30.9%, Mullins – 21. Cowser struck out at the rate we pretty much expected. Mullins had a poor year on the basepaths. He stole 21 bases and was caught 10 times. (81.2%)
6. Taylor Ward bWAR or Trevor Rogers ERA? Rogers – 4.03, Ward – 2.7. Rogers’s number was higher than I expected and Ward’s was about what I expected. (47.2%)
7. Chris Bassitt HR allowed or Coby Mayo HR hit? Mayo – 24, Bassitt – 10. Next year we’ll probably do an O/U on Mayo homers. (65.6%)
8. Dean Kremer BB or Blaze Alexander GS? Alexander – 74, Kremer – 11. This one was lopsided by both Blaze’s unexpectedly good play and Dean’s unexpected trade. (73%)
9. OBP by Dylan Beavers or Ramón Laureano? Beavers – .307, Laureano – .286. Beavers essentially replaced Laureano in the lineup, and proved a better hitter this year. It was a low bar to cross; Laureano was not only bad at the plate, but he missed about 2/3 of the season with injury. (60.6%)
10. Playoff games at Camden Yards or Orioles with 30+ HR? 30+ homers – 1 (Pete!); Playoff games – 0. This one is a bummer (61%)

Over/Under

This section is pretty depressing.

1. Gunnar Henderson SLG: .4995 – Under – .404 (21.6%)
2. Orioles wins: 85 ½ – Under – 79 (12.8%)
3. Number of starting pitchers used: 12 ½ – Under – 10 (79.8%)
4. Jackson Holliday OPS: .7245 – Under – .640 (42.6%)
5. Kyle Bradish ERA: 2.755 – Over – 4.12 (74.5%)

Yes/No

This section stumped people as a whole. Look at those low percentages of right answers!

1. Will Jordan Westburg play a Major League game in 2026? No (27.7%)
2. Will Samuel Basallo make >50 starts at catcher? Yes (69.1%)
3. Will Adley Rutschman finish with at least 2 bWAR? No – 1.9 (6%)
4. Will the team ERA be under 4.00? No – 4.08 (41.1%)
5. Will Ryan Mountcastle be in the organization on Sept 27th? Yes (19.5%)

Multiple Choice(71/3%)

1. Who will make the second-most starts at first base? Alonso – 142, Mayo – 13, Basallo – 4, Mountcastle – 2 (17.7%)
2. Which pitcher listed will make the most starts? Brandon Young – 28, Trey Gibson – 8, Cade Povich – 7, Albert Suarez – 0. Young will no longer be lumped in with this tier of pitcher. (8.2%)
3. Which of the following prospects will have the most stolen bases in the minors? Enrique Bradfield – 44, Aron Estrada – 8, Vance Honeycutt – 38, Nate George – 15. Estrada’s steals went down as his power went up. George only played 20 games and still had 15 steals. (71.3%)
4. Against which AL East team will the Orioles have the most wins? Rays 8, Jays – 7, Red Sox – 4, Yankees – 3. The Orioles had a winning record against the team with the most wins in the AL. Baseball is funny. (59.6%)
5. Which relief pitcher will have the most losses? Helsley – 4, Wells – 2, Akin – , Cano – 3, Somebody else (Wolfram) – 4 (33.7%). If you chose Helsley or Wolfram, you got the points. Considering he missed so much time with injury, how did Helsley end up leading this category?

For the first time in contest history, we included questions about yearly awards, which are not announced until after the postseason. This was a mistake on our part, because the Orioles are not getting any awards. The questions are on the spreadsheet linked at the top of the page but have no scores. IF someone ends up winning (lol!) I’ll come back and issue an addendum.

Thank you to everyone who played this year! I hope you had fun and we’ll see you in the spring for the 2027 contest.

The Atlanta Braves punched their ticket to the National League Division Series after defeating the Philadelphia Phillies 6-2 on Thursday night. Ray Kerr made his postseason debut, giving the Braves everything they asked for and more. He went 3.1 innings and allowed just one hit. He walked one and struck out two. 

The Braves’ bats came up huge, too, and Atlanta took control early after Michael Harris II’s three-run shot in the first inning. Ozzie Albies and Matt Olson homered later in the game to tack on some insurance.

Up next, the Braves head to LA and go toe-to-toe with the Dodgers. The series gets underway Saturday afternoon.

MLB News:

Cleveland Guardians right-hander Colin Holderman will miss the remainder of the postseason. He is scheduled to have surgery on his right wrist.

From the Feed:

Cast your vote for Braves Player of the Game here!

At The Star, Sam McDowell looked at some of what went wrong this season:

They will not become a playoff team merely by getting healthier. (And shouldn’t this season prove there is no guarantee they will get healthier anyway?) The Royals were indeed decimated by injuries, to be clear, but they decimated their own season long before the injuries took the wheel. They were 22-37 through May, back when everyone they expected to be part of the lineup was still part of it, other than Jonathan India…

Think of this: In games in which Witt, Pasquantino and Garcia all appeared, the Royals went 30-44. Two numbers should stand out there. They only had 74 games with all three players healthy — and they won just 40.5% of them…

There are three perceived locks for next year’s rotation — Michael Wacha, Noah Cameron and Seth Lugo. When they were on the mound, the Royals were 36-59 this season.

Pete Grathoff wrote about how Denny Matthews almost wasn’t the voice of the Royals:

“I was still a little bit intimidated by Mr. K, but he … said you’re going to have other opportunities, and you’re going to have decisions to make as you work your way through this business, and he said, you have to weigh them carefully, and then you’ll make a decision,” Matthews recalled.

“He said, ‘We like the way you do the games, and you can stay here as long as you want.’ And I thought, ‘Wow, this is just after my third year, so that’s pretty strong.’ And again, there was no reason for me to move because I was very comfortable. I love the city, I love the organization and everybody in it. And if you’re unhappy in your job, you’re probably looking to move. I’ve never been unhappy in my job. Period. So here we are, 58 years later. But I had no idea. Chicago, St. Louis, oh boy, let’s go. That’s my dream job. Still is. I could still do it.”

While it’s technically a blog, I think I’ll add Joel Goldberg’s blog entry to the “official” section of today’s Rumblings. He reflects on the finished season:

My son Mason may have described it best. He spent his first season working on the Royals television home production crew and told me he was sad it was over. He compared it to the last day of school when you realize you’re not going to see that same group of people all together for a while…

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve also learned that my post-season evaluation goes beyond the actual job. Taking better care of myself physically and mentally is critical to the stamina that baseball season demands, and that becomes even more important as I shift gears into speaking. My natural tendency is to fill the void left by baseball with another schedule, another goal, and another list of things I want to accomplish.

Tired of complaing about the Royals? Now you can do something about it! Join the Royals analytics staff (2 positions open):

Job Summary: The Kansas City Royals are seeking a highly motivated and creative analyst to join the organization. Working under the direction of the Director of Research & Development, Christine Harris, the analyst will be fully integrated into the Major League clubhouse to provide resources, answers, and ideas to the Major League Pitching group. The successful candidate will combine analytical expertise and clear communication skills to translate baseball data into insights that give The Royals an edge when our pitchers step onto the mound.

Darragh McDonald at MLBTR looks at players with club options for next year:

Kansas City Royals

• Carlos Estévez, RHP: $13MM club option ($2MM buyout)

2026 was a nightmare season for Estevez. He made one bad appearance to start the year, allowing six earned runs in a third of an inning. He spent the rest of the season on the injured list, meaning he finished the campaign with an awful ERA of 162.00. He underwent shoulder surgery last month and has an unclear timeline. Even before this injury-marred year, there were concerns. While he posted a 2.45 ERA in 2025, his strikeout rate was way down at 20.1%. It’s an easy call for the Royals to let Estevez walk.

• Tony Gonsolin, RHP: $2.5MM club option (no buyout)

Gonsolin has been in the injury wilderness for a while. Due to various woes, including Tommy John surgery, he only made eight appearances over the 2024-26 seasons. That includes one outing for the Royals late this year. Gonsolin was a steady rotation member for the Dodgers once upon a time, with a 2.51 ERA in 572 2/3 innings from 2019 to 2022. The option price is modest but it’s hard to know what to make of Gonsolin after so much time off. It’s a reasonable gamble if the Royals think he’ll be healthy next year.

How about some news around the league?

Braves/Phillies Game 3 finished after I finished writing this. So we’ll just mark it as “LATE” and you can check out the score on your own.

After rumors of MLB investigating a potential Grand Teton game leaked out, Manfred says it’s not happening.

Astros manager Joe Espada’s contract ran out last night. He’d like to return, but the Astros have not indicated his status as they sink back into the 20th century. (NOTE: This is not a commentary on him but on how their owner has started inserting himself into baseball decisions more and more)

Sigh. The Cubs won again in court, strong-arming yet another Wrigley rooftop owner. I’m sure they’ll be bought out shortly.

Blog time!

A number of major Royals blogs looked back at the season.

David Lesky ($) put the end-of-year presser in perspective with previous years:

You might remember that at the 2023 press conference, we learned that the Royals planned to sign multiple relievers and two starters. They did just that. The bullpen additions didn’t work out great, with Will Smith and Chris Stratton struggling, though John Schreiber did work out for a while. The starting pitching additions were pretty spectacular, at least in 2024 when it comes to Seth Lugo and for the last three years when it comes to Michael Wacha.

This year, I thought the answers were a little less definitive, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t plenty to take away from the comments, which came mostly from JJ Picollo, with some from Matt Quatraro. There was a lot of talk about processes, about winning in 2027 and beyond, and about some staff changes that we’ve discussed in this space quite a few times. Let’s just take it in order.

Craig Brown also added his annotations to the press conference:

Picollo opened the presser noting that not only would Zumwalt not be returning to the dugout, but almost the entire major league medical staff—Head Athletic Trainer Kyle Turner, Assistant Athletic Trainer Chris DeLucia and Major League Rehab Coordinator Jeff Blum—would be leaving the club. Also moving to a minor league role is Melissa Lambert who was Director of Behaviorial Science.

This feels pretty seismic. Turner had been with the Royals for 17 years. DeLucia was with the team for 20 years and Blum was here for 19 years. The trio had all been in their current positions for five seasons. Lambert is returning to a focus on the minor leagues after four seasons in her role in the dugout. She’s been with the team since 2020.

So did Preston Farr at Eight One Six:

Much like they did with Rooker and O’Hearn, the Royals have gotten back to whiffing on player evaluation. They shipped off Jonathan Bowlan for Matt Strahm just to watch Bowlan become a key piece of the Phillies bullpen. They sent Evan Sisk to acquire Bailey Falter. Sisk pitched to a 3.04 ERA for the Pirates this season across 44.2 IP. Two relievers worth an fWAR or so aren’t franchise altering players, but they’d surely have helped this team more this season than either player they were traded for.

Trade deadlines have shifted back to snoozefests in true Dayton Moore fashion. When the Royals should be capitalizing on any value possible, they instead cling to any chance at 81-81 they can get. It’s just an extension of the player loyalty that’s become two sides of a coin for the Royals. On one-hand, it helps to attract a certain type of free agent. On the other hand, it gives you the current version of Seth Lugo. Picollo has preached loyalty when choosing not to trade aging veterans like Seth Lugo or Michael Wacha. That loyalty led to a Lugo extension that has become one of the worst moves in the entire J.J. Picollo era.

Last, but not least, Kevin O’Brien at Royals Keep:

According to Picollo, the move wasn’t due to Zumwalt’s performance, but to the team’s confidence in assistant hitting coaches Dawson and Thames moving forward. Both coaches replaced Keoni DeRenne and Joe Dillon last offseason, and the Royals offense improved from ranking 24th in wRC+ in 2025 (93) to 19th this season (98).

Rumors suggested Dawson and Thames took on greater responsibilities during the season, likely in preparation for Zumwalt’s eventual move back to Minor League player development. Zumwalt found success in this role with former colleague Drew Saylor, but Saylor struggled solo in the Director position after Zumwalt moved up to the Majors. The position has remained vacant for the past year, suggesting the Royals may have been eyeing Zumwalt to return regardless of how the team fared offensively.

Picollo praised Zumwalt’s work and noted that his tenure as hitting coach was never meant to be long-term.

Blog Wrapup:

• Darin Watson at U.L.’s Toothpick: This Date In Royals History–1976 Edition: October 1 – It’s probably not how they thought it would happen, but the Royals are AL West champions
• Matthew Swigonski at KOK: Vinnie Pasquantino’s strong finish gives the Royals a reason to dream big

I’m going to try something different today. I liked the idea when I came up with it, but it’s been sitting in my queue for a couple of months as I’ve struggled with how to refine it. If it works out, I have another idea that is similar-ish and I’ll trot it out sometime next year. But if you don’t like it, well, it’s the offseason and you’re not going to see me the next two weeks and your refund check is in the mail.

Today’s topic is “shoes”. I’m a very light sneakerhead, with a heavy emphasis on the “light” part. I typically have 6 pairs of shoes at any given time, depending on how you’re counting: the current pair, the next pair I’m breaking in, the old pair for lawn work, a nice pair, sandals, and rain boots. Do the rain boots count? I don’t think they should. I also usually have 2-4 pairs in reserve in my closet, which are in line to become “the next pair”.

Why do I have “shoes in reserve”, as my wife calls them? Well, it’s hard for me to find shoes. What sizes are easy to find? Up to 12. Grumble: it used to be up to 13. Second grumble: somewhere in the last 5-10 years, Nike started vanity sizing so that everything went down about a half size. My feet that used to fit in a 13 now require a 14. Sure, feet flatten with age, and it’s not uncommon to gain a size. However, I don’t think I’m there yet. A pair of old 13s at my parents’ house still fit me decades later and I can wear 13s in some other brands. Regardless, since 13s /and/ 14s are hard to find now, it doesn’t matter.

NOTE: I think I’ve also complained here that the same thing happened to t-shirts: some old 2008 XLs are now larger than some 2026 2XLs and almost all 2008 XLs are larger than any 2026 XLs. But I digress.

Growing up, clothes were generally cheap for me. I’ve always been a t-shirt and jeans guy. Really, though, growing up in Houston, I was a t-shirt and shorts guy. One year in high school, a girl counted the number of days I wore long pants – it was less than 20. I thought it was because I was a curiosity; my wife thinks it might have been something more and I was cutely naive as I’ve always been. The long and short (that’s two bad puns already) of it is – because my clothes were cheap and I am not fashionable, my parents indulged me ever so slightly on shoes.

A couple of words of warning about today’s post. First off, there are going to be a lot of pictures and social media posts. It’s going to be a lot easier to show than to tell for this OT. I’m going to try and use as many embedded pictures from our standard Getty/USA Today archives, but some pictures were only available on social media. Also, there’s not a lot of shoe talk in “mainstream” news sources, Wikipedia, or the like. I’m relying a lot on blogs and fansites, so these sources aren’t quite as vetted as my usual standard. Finally, a lot of these shoes are pre-internet or early internet so there just aren’t many sources to link to.

You’ve been warned. Let’s dive in!

The first “big name” sneakers I remember wearing were the Air Tech Challenge III. I didn’t know their name at the time. But I knew they were the awesome neon shoes that Andre Agassi wore. Look at those beauties! They just scream early 90s. We had just moved to Houston, I was starting middle school, and wanted something to help fit in. Spoiler: I was a big nerd then just like I am today and nothing was going to help that. However, the shoes didn’t hurt and they were comfy. I liked them so much I got a second pair the next year when I wore out/outgrew these. This was a shoe faux pas, apparently. Whatever – I liked them. We’ll talk more about Nike and re-releases later, but it looks like the last time these were available was 2015.

This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive history of shoes, just of my shoes. But if we can take a detour through some sneaker history, so much the better. Near as I can tell, Converse was the first major athletic shoe company, with the Chuck Taylor All-Stars dominating in the 60s and 70s. Chucks never fit me – I needed more ankle support – but there’s no denying their iconic shoe status. However: “Converse lost its athletic shoe monopoly from the 1970s onward, as new competitors, including Puma, Adidas, and Nike, grew in popularity.” FYI: Converse is now owned by Nike.

In the 80s and 90s, Nike and Reebok battled for the crown: “By mid-decade, Reebok’s sales were about $1 billion, and it overtook Nike, Inc. as the largest athletic shoe manufacturer in the US before losing the top position in 1988”.

In 1989, Rebook released the Reebok Pump and they were one of the major shoes of the early 90s: ”In February 1991, Dee Brown inflated his Reebok Pumps in front of a national audience before scoring a title-winning dunk during the 1991 NBA Slam Dunk Contest”. Shaq’s explosion onto the NBA scene further popularized the brand before it got stale later in the decade. I don’t remember which Pumps I had – it might have even been the Omni Lites in the picture above. I’m not familiar with “That Good Dubai”, which described itself as a society/culture magazine and now appears defunct. But they had a nice retrospective on the Pump back in 2014.

We live in the insane age of Shohei Ohtani. I can’t imagine how giddy that adolescent me would be if I told him there would be another Babe Ruth in our lifetime: a player good enough to win MVPs for hitting while also being a great pitcher when healthy. Heck, adult me is pretty giddy about that. Though much less so now that he’s with the Dodgers juggernaut.

Then again, growing up, there were a number of players who were in both the MLB and the NFL, which seems unfathomable today. Of course, everyone remembers the iconic Bo Jackson, his career(s) cut short by injury. Not many remember DJ Dozier or Chad Hutchinson. Brian Jordan played a lot more baseball than football. And then there was Deion Sanders.

I didn’t really care for Deion the player, but his Air Diamond Turf was my second favorite shoe of all time. Ignore the cleats in the picture above. Nike made a wildly popular cross-trainer version, too. I loved the shape of those 90s cross-trainers, though they have mostly fallen out of fashion. Low tops didn’t have enough support for me, high tops were too heavy, but the 3/4 or mid-tops were just right. Not only were they comfortable, but they were also stylish with a little gold mesh “window” on the side that looked cool. I liked the red and black colorway shown there. Later, I would also get the “emerald” colorway, which looked even better, replacing the red accents with absolutely gorgeous emerald green ones. They even re-released them last year, but now cost more than $200 on the secondary market.

I looked through our entire picture archive and couldn’t find a clear picture of the Air Max Penny 1. Thankfully, Sneaker Freaker has a full writeup, including a discussion on the Lil’ Penny ad campaign. I had those exact ones featured at the top of the page and they were gorgeous. A great balance of black and white, just enough blue accent to give it color, a beautiful jeweled swoosh, the giant air max air pocket, a little air “porthole” on the bottom, and a new logo. Those were some great shoes and I had forgotten all about them until I went digging through old shoe sites to try and remember which shoes I had owned.

In the picture above, but Shaq and Penny were in the process of being dispatched by my beloved Houston Rockets in the 1995 NBA Finals. NBA Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon did not have a high-profile shoe for his fans. In fact, he went the other direction, as chronicled in this 2015 article from The Guardian: “How Hakeem Olajuwon tried and failed to stop the 90s sneaker killings”. Hakeem released a $40 shoe from Spalding because “a mother with four children can’t afford to spend $400 on shoes that will wear out in a couple of months”. Unfortunately, without a massive advertising push from the likes of Nike or Reebok, it bombed. In Houston, they were harder to come by: I only saw them out in the wild once or twice and never got them, sadly. Olajuwon would later buy up a mansion in southeast Houston and turn it into a high-end boutique store, featuring a high-end luxury shoe. However, the mansion is now gone, and I can’t find anything about DR34M brand. (NOTE: Frustratingly, I ran across a bunch of garbage stories with unverifiable information about Hakeem’s shoes that appeared to be written by AI. Finally, I stumbled upon Spalding as the manufacturer and I started making headway on this part of the story.)

I don’t remember a lot about my shoes of the late 90s and early 00s, when I went off to school and had to buy shoes with my own money. One memory I had from that time was the Eastbay catalog. This 2019 walk down memory lane from Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times gives you a sense of what it was like if you weren’t around or it wasn’t your scene:

Lakers forward Lance Stephenson, a former Brooklyn streetball legend, studied the Eastbay texts just as Tucker did, marking up his favorite pairs in pen even if he knew he’d never get his hands on them. Now a nine-year veteran who has earned more than $30 million, designer shoes and limited releases spill out of Stephenson’s locker.

“I would circle all the shoes I liked but I never got them,” Stephenson said. “I was a sneakerhead; I always liked sneakers. When that book would come out and you could see all the sneakers before they even come out, it was like you were seeing [the future].

When I started working in IT, I started with casual dress shoes. But I soon realized that The Shawshank Redemptionhad it right: “Neither did I… I mean, seriously, how often do you really look at a mans shoes?” Then I started looking for comfortable shoes. If I was going to be driving to customer sites and walking around all day, I needed to be comfortable. That’s when I started cheating with my work shoes: they could be athletic shoes, so long as they were mostly black. If I could splash on some subtle color, so much the better. In 2009, I found the perfect shoe.

The Nike Air Griffey Max 1 is one of the best shoes of all time. It’s extremely comfortable and durable. It’s been re-released in a multitude of color, ranging from the two original Mariners colorways to a Los Angeles sunset-inspired colorway to an HBCU colorway to his all-white Hall of Fame induction colorway. A Cincinnati Reds colorway is set to re-release next week. But the one that worked for my work was the 2010 Triple Black colorway. I bought one pair and beat them up for a couple of years before getting another on sale and doing it all over again. If they want to re-release them again, I’ll go buy them again (if I can find them – but complaining about intentional scarcity in modern shoe releases is a rant for another day). I went this same route with the Kyrie 4 Blackout colorway in 2018. I also really liked those shoes – they were less comfy than the Griffeys, but also lighter.

Honestly, I don’t like the Air Jordan 1. I can’t deny its place in history or its iconic look. But it’s made with a lot of old tech, before the sneaker wars really pushed technology forward in the early-mid 90s. Give me an 11 or an 8 (Aqua!) or a 13. Maybe that’s why I landed on the Jordan 6 Rings shoes sometime in the mid 2010s: “The Jordan 6 Rings (aka Jordan Six Rings, Or Montells) is a combination of the seven Air Jordan shoes that Michael Jordan wore during his 6 championship seasons. That includes the Air Jordan 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13 and 14.”

It’s hard to know what will be an “iconic”shoe going forward and I’ve been shopping more in the bargain bin, of late. Really, it’s not even the bargain bin so much as what Nike, Adidas, Reebok, et al., have available in size 14 in mid/high top at their outlet stores. We have a half dozen Nike Factory stores around the Houston area. However, my favorite is the Clearance store in Pasadena – this is where the excess shoes from all the other Factory stores go to die. If you go when the store opens, you’ll have to fight through sneakerheads and scalpers, grabbing armfuls of rare finds to resell or add to the collection. Me, I’m just looking for something that fits and, often, I have to ask an employee to go into the back and just bring out whatever they have in 14 that’s mid or high top. It’s a relaxing experience for me and something I like to do on my birthday.

Here’s what I’ve been wearing the last few years:

I liked the look and feel of these Giannis Zoom Freak 4s, but they didn’t have enough ankle support and I wore through the bottom of the shoes. My best-fitting shoe of the last few years is the LeBron Witness VII. They take a little time to break in, but, once you do, they’re comfy and breathe well. They’re just a good, all-purpose shoe and they can be found for around $50 on a good day, so long as you’re not picky about colorways. My current dress shoe is the previous version, the Witness 6, with the “Black Volt” colorway. It’s not as comfortable as the VIIs (yes, they are named the “6” and “VII”), but they’re the perfect color balance for my dress shoes: mostly black but with a splash of color. Looping back around to where we all started, the “next shoe” that I’m starting to break in is a pair of KD17s in a promotional colorway called “Game Royal”. It’s awfully blue and it taking a little bit to get comfortable in, but I think it’ll be a good shoe and it was reasonably priced at the Outlet store.

If you want to read more, this was a nice, long walk down memory lane.

The Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake is just about a month away. I might have scored tickets to one of the Zelda 40th anniversary concerts this week, too.

How about the Kakariko Village theme?

Good morning, baseball fans!

The 2026 MLB Playoffs continue this weekend, as the National League and American League Division Series begin tomorrow.

As of the time this is being written, the final game of the Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves series has not yet been played. I will try to update that information if I get a chance to but as of right now I don’t yet know who will be playing against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Also, as with the rest of the games so far, national radio coverage will be available on ESPN Radio.

Saturday

10:00 a.m. PT – Chicago White Sox vs. Cleveland Guardians – TBS/HBO Max

1:00 p.m. PT – Atlanta/Philadelphia vs. Dodgers – Fox/Fox One

3:30 p.m. PT – New York Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays – TBS/HBO Max

5:30 p.m. PT – San Diego Padres vs. Milwaukee Brewers – Fox Sports 1/Fox One

Sunday

1:00 p.m. PT – Padres vs. Brewers – Fox Sports 1/Fox One

5:00 p.m. PT – Atlanta/Philadelphia vs. Dodgers – Fox Sports 1/Fox One

Who are you rooting for this weekend?

Meet the Mets

Tim Britton spoke to other executives around the league as he broke down what’s gone wrong for David Stearns in his time with the Mets and what he might be able to do to turn things around.

Danny Abriano offers up a step-by-step guide to fixing the Mets’ roster.

Around the National League East

The Phillies’ season came to an end as the Braves’ core came up big in a 6-2 win in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series.

Around Major League Baseball

Sonny Gray was frustrated about being pulled from the Red Sox’ Game 2 loss to the Yankees in the fifth inning on Wednesday night.

Gray wasn’t the only player on Boston’s roster to express frustration after that game, as the team’s in-game decisions and use of data were questioned by Willson Contreras.

The Orioles’ approach to managing injuries hasn’t worked out well for them.

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

Allison McCague wrote up the final pitcher performance meter of the season.

This Date in Mets History

Mike Piazza played his final game as a Met on this date in 2005.

During the Orioles’ frenzied trade deadline selloff in 2025, one of the last deals to come in under the wire was the biggest of them all: a seven-player swap that sent Ryan O’Hearn and Ramón Laureano to the Padres for five prospects.

It was a trade that, even in a lost season for the Birds, brought grumbling from a large swath of the fan base. O’Hearn and Laureano were two of the Orioles’ most productive bats, and while O’Hearn was a pending free agent, Laureano was under team control for another season, irking O’s fans who wondered why the club would give up on a potentially valuable piece for 2026. (It didn’t quite turn out that way, as Laureano struggled to a .660 OPS for San Diego this year before suffering a season-ending labrum injury in May.)

Still, Mike Elias found the package of prospects the Padres offered as a deal too good to pass up. The headliner was the towering lefty Boston Bateman, now one of the Birds’ best pitching prospects, whom we’ll discuss in a separate article. Two others, infielder Cobb Hightower and righty Tyson Neighbors, won’t appear on many prospect lists. Hightower played just 18 games this season before undergoing ACL surgery, while Neighbors bombed to an 8.82 ERA in 33 minor league games this year.

Then there’s the other two prospects from the trade. Victor Figueroa and Brandon Butterworth aren’t household names, and they don’t possess the kind of high-ceiling potential that Bateman does. But both of them delivered performances in 2026 that put them on the radar as possible future big leaguers.

Let’s start with Butterworth, who has shown himself to be more than just the guy whose name reminds me of pancakes. The Padres’ 12th-round pick in 2024 out of NC State, Butterworth was having a solid season offensively in High-A when the O’s acquired him last July, posting a .782 OPS and ranking third in the league with 155 total bases. Still, it wasn’t his bat that made him intriguing.

FanGraphs, which ranked Butterworth as the Orioles’ #27 prospect in May, praised him as a “plus glove” with “great hands and a strong arm.” The article’s co-authors, Eric Longenhagen and Brendan Gawlowski, wrote, “He has plenty of range for the position, but what really stands out is the speed with which he gobbles a grounder, transfers, and fires accurately from any angle.”

Butterworth is a versatile defender, too. In the minors this season, he started at least eight games apiece at five different positions: second base, shortstop, third base, left field, and center field, with shortstop (33 games) being his most frequent one. “Whatever gets me in the lineup, I’ll catch if you guys need me to, it doesn’t matter,” Butterworth told PressBoxOnline. His defensive prowess was enough for Longenhagen and Gawlowski to project him as a future utility infielder, but they cautioned, “Butterworth isn’t going to hit much.”

Maybe he’s not. But you wouldn’t know it from his 2026 performance at the plate. Starting the season at Double-A Chesapeake, where he’d posted just a .677 OPS in 34 games last year, Butterworth erupted. In 52 games, he posted a .269/.377/.497 line — all career highs — and bashed 10 home runs and 22 extra-base hits.

Butterworth’s season was interrupted by a knee injury in early May that sidelined him for two months. Once he returned to the Baysox, he was more locked in than ever. During his first 27 games back from the IL, Butterworth his .294 with a .953 OPS. That hot streak earned him a promotion to Triple-A Norfolk, where, at 24, he was more than three years younger than the average player. He struggled to acclimate there, batting .208/.296/.396 in 28 games.

Because of Butterworth’s extended IL stint this season, the Orioles are sending him to the Arizona Fall League to get some more reps. There doesn’t seem to be much question that his glove is major league ready, but the 5-foot-9 utility man will need to prove he can hit enough to be worthy of a bench spot in the bigs. He’s held his own, and occasionally thrived, at every rung of the minor league ladder so far. Triple-A will the next task for him to conquer, with an eye on a potential late-2027 big league debut.

Butterworth’s fellow trade acquisition, Figueroa, is a very different type of player. His defense isn’t his ticket to the majors. Nor is he going to slap-hit the ball with a contact-oriented approach. The 6-foot-5 first baseman does one thing above all else: mash lots of dingers.

Figueroa’s 27 home runs this season were the most of any Orioles minor leaguer. He blasted 22 of them for High-A Frederick before a late-July promotion to Chesapeake, where he hit five more. It was a dramatic improvement over his 2025 performance, when he went homerless in 98 PAs after joining the O’s organization.

The 22-year-old, an 18th-round Padres pick in 2024 from Florida SouthWestern State College, clocked in at #33 in FanGraphs’ rankings in May. “Figueroa has real thunder in his hands and enough juice to hit for power the opposite way, which he must because his swing’s length causes him to spray most of his well-struck contact that way,” write Longenhagen and Gawlowski. “He’s a stiff-legged guy and below-average athlete, a one-tool player with enough power to carry some value despite his issues.”

Chief among those issues: the strikeouts. Figueroa fanned in more than 30% of his plate appearances this year, racking up 155 Ks in all. Anyone striking out that much in the minors is going to have a very difficult path to the majors, so Figueroa will need to cut down the swing-and-miss to have a future as anything more than an organizational player.

The lefty-swinging Figueroa also had rather drastic splits. He crushed right-handers to the tune of a .935 OPS, hitting 24 homers against them. Versus southpaws, Figueroa’s OPS was nearly 300 points lower (.638), and he totaled only three roundtrippers in 109 PAs.

Let’s be clear here. Neither Figueroa nor Butterworth represents a star in the making for the Orioles. The odds are against either of them having an extended major league career, if they make it to the bigs at all. But if you squint, you can make out a scenario where one or both of them contributes in some way, Butterworth as a useful utility guy and Figueroa as a bench bat with some pop.

It may not be sexy, but every team needs a few players who can serve as complementary pieces to the team’s biggest stars. Now the Orioles need to work on actually getting big stars, but that’s a story for another time.

Good morning, Rockies fans!

Back in 2007, the Rockies did the unthinkable. They punched their postseason ticket after a remarkable winning streak at the end of the season. They rode that winning streak all the way to the World Series. Then it all came crashing down.

After a losing season and surrounded by other teams celebrating advancing to the Division Series, it’s helpful to think about the good times occasionally. And no one tells the story better than the manager who helped make it happen:

After that lovely trip down memory lane, it’s time to return to the present. Here’s the Rockies news and information from around MLB. At least some of it is happy.

Rockies News & Links

Cleveland fans thank Rockies’ Hunter Goodman by donating to local charity that helps kids | 9News

When Hunter Goodman hit two homers to help the Rockies beat the White Sox on Sept. 25, it directly led to the Cleveland Guardians winning the American League Central. The Cleveland fans found a gracious and creative way to say thank you to the Rockies All-Star catcher. Over 700 fans combined to donate $22,000 to Clothes to Kids of Denver.

Renck: Rockies’ Walker Monfort understands fans’ frustration with average 12 percent season-ticket increase, explains decision | Denver Post ($)

It’s hard to square four straight 100-loss seasons with an increased price for tickets. Citing lower ticket prices than other mid-market teams and increased costs, Walker Monfort told Troy Renck that the Rockies had to “narrow the gap” to justify the 12% jump. It’s a hard case to make with the terrible ending to the 2026 season. Walker might soon find himself in the company of his father when it comes to drawing the ire of Rockies fans.

Every MLB Pitching Prospect Who Added 2+ MPH Fastball Velocity In 2026 | Baseball America ($)

It’s rare to find Rockies in best-of-MLB lists, but 20-year-old RHP Sandy Ozuna did. The prospect, who the Rockies signed out of the Dominican Republic in June of 2023, is No. 1 in most added fastball velocity.

Following the requirement that a player had to throw at least 50 fastballs in 2025 and 100 in 2026, and comparing average velocities, Ozuna bumped up his fastball 9.5 mph. More Rockies made the list as well, including Yanzel Correa (+4.2 mph), Onofer De La Cruz (+3.5 mph), Gleiderson Mendoza (+3.4 mph), Efrain Cubilla (+2.9 mph), Sean Sullivan (+2.8 mph), Victor Castellano +2.4 mph), Nick Frasso (+2.1 mph), Odarlin Cruz (+2 mph) and Eric Veras (+2 mph).

Paul DePodesta Makes Rockies’ Offseason Intentions Clear After 104-Loss Season | Sports Illustrated

Another postmortem and offseason focus analysis. This one recaps some of what Thomas Harding wrote on MLB.com.

Around Baseball

What you need to know about the Division Series matchups | MLB.com

Guardians vs. White Sox. Rays vs. Yankees. Brewers vs. Padres. Dodgers vs. Braves.

The Division Series is here. All four series will begin action on Saturday.

Diamondbacks retaining Torey Lovullo as manager | ESPN.com

Arizona signed Torey Lovullo to a two-year contract on Thursday. Lovullo is the Diamondbacks all-time winningest manager with a 750-768 record. He’ll be back in 2027 after Arizona just missed the playoffs in 2026.

How major heat wave with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees could affect Dodgers’ NLDS this weekend | CBSSports.com

October doesn’t seem to be bringing fall. With records in the 80s in Denver expected for the next week, it will be even hotter in Los Angeles. The Dodgers and Braves will play at 1 p.m. Pacific Time when it is expected to be 98 degrees. Even worse, the “RealFeel” heat index is forecast to be 105 degrees for Saturday.

Is this the Dodgers’ last ride? Aging vets, new landscape could hasten the end of a dynasty | The Athletic ($)

The Rockies, the rest of the NL West and most MLB fans, I would expect, are really hoping the answer is yes. Katie Woo got really good quotes from Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, who point to last chances and closing windows. The stars are in their mid-30s, like many on the team. While the pending post-primes and retirements could point to signs of hope, we all know how good the Dodgers farm system is.

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Yankees outfielder Trent Grisham has been nursing right hamstring issues since the summer. Two injured list stints and many missed games later, the problem appears to be mostly behind him, as he was activated on time for the AL Wild Card Series against the Boston Red Sox. We say ‘mostly’ because, even though the Yankees have deemed him healthy enough to play, we have no idea if he’s actually close to 100 percent, and the one thing we know for sure is he didn’t seem fully himself in the first series of the postseason.

He was fine at the plate, notching two hits and a walk in Wednesday’s Game 2, but he didn’t look the part in center field. He has been far from his 2020 and 2022 Gold Glove-winning versions in the last two seasons, but the image he projected in the Wild Card round was much, much worse.

Consider this play in particular:

The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner noted that Grisham’s sprint speed when attacking and fielding that ball was 23.5 ft/s. He was so slow that Nate Eaton took advantage and turned it into a double when it should have been a single. For reference, Kirschner reported that just three players had a slower average sprint speed than that this season, and all of them are what you would consider slow catchers: Christian Vázquez, José Trevino, and Sandy León.

Of course, the fact that he was so slow to the ball doesn’t necessarily mean that he can’t run faster. Maybe he was too confident and didn’t think Eaton would go for it. Or, perhaps, he was still tentative when running because he didn’t want to risk aggravating an injury that was already deemed a Grade 2 hamstring strain just over a month ago.

In any case, it’s definitely cause for concern. The Yankees would be better off handing regular center field duties to rookie Spencer Jones, who is younger and more athletic, and only using Grisham sparingly at the position if needed. This is not to say he should or shouldn’t be on the AL Division Series roster, but he is just not a starting center fielder at the highest level anymore. Not with two straight years of subpar performance there, not with a bum hamstring, and certainly not against the Rays.

When you face a team like the Rays, used to maximizing its strengths and attacking the opposing squad’s weaknesses, every little detail counts. Having a well below-average defender cover the most important outfield position regularly is, at this point, in this series, and against this particular rival, malpractice.

Grisham used to be a very, very solid defensive center fielder. The two aforementioned awards prove it. However, his decline started in 2025, when he finished with -11 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) and -2 Outs Above Average (OAA) in center field. The 2026 campaign wasn’t much better. He posted -8 DRS and -6 OAA this year, in 961.1 innings. Evidently, he doesn’t have the range he used to have, and the hamstring(s) could be behind his regression with the glove. This season, Grisham ranked in the 18th percentile in Fielding Run Value, even worse than last year’s 30th percentile. His lousy range (OAA) had him in the 10th percentile.

The fact that he’s about to turn 30 — center fielders tend to decline relatively quickly with the glove — plus his injuries, have led to Grisham not being the defensive player he used to be. He suffered a left hamstring issue last year and experienced countless setbacks with the right hamstring in 2026.

Grisham’s bat and, especially, his power can still make an impact against top competition. The same can’t be said about his glove, and the Yankees should act accordingly.