Category: Sports News

Back in August, I began a series here at Pinstripe Alley where I was going to put together an All-Star Yankee team of players who were born in a given month. Since then, we as a staff have started doing daily posts for the year 2026, highlighting a Yankee from history whose birthday happens to land on that day. So what better way to put a cap on a month’s worth of birthday posts then by using the all-month teams as a way to look back on who we covered? And maybe some we didn’t cover who shared a birthday with someone else?

With that in mind, here are my choices for the All-April Birthday Yankee Team. Also, we haven’t always named a manager to go with these clubs, but April presents a perfect opportunity with Hall of Fame skipper Joe McCarthy.

Pitcher: Catfish Hunter (April 8th birthday post)

There are a couple of decent pitching options for April, including my No. 2 choice Phil Niekro. However, the pitcher for this team probably has to be Catfish. Other than his ridiculous 1975, Hunter’s Yankee tenure didn’t come during his prime, but everyone who played for the team in that era credits him for helping turn the team culture into a championship-winning one by the end of 1970s.

Catcher: Bob Watson (April 10th birthday post)

OK, so Watson only played 10 career MLB games at catcher, and all came well before his stint with the Yankees. However, there’s not a ton of other good option for backstops, and Team April can also rely on him for his front office expertice.

First Baseman: Don Mattingly (April 20th birthday post)

Between Watson and the guy who we’re putting at DH later on, first base for the April team has some pretty good depth. However, there’s only one choice for this team’s starter we can make: Donnie Baseball.

Second Baseman: Spike Owen

We didn’t profile Owen as part of the Birthday Series and he more played on the left side of the infield in his career, but middle infield depth for the April team is pretty shallow. He was a 13-year big-leaguer in the ’80s and ’90s, most notably with the Mariners, Red Sox, and Expos, and in 1993, he was one of the Yankees’ last regulars at shortstop before a guy named Derek came along.

Shortstop: Anthony Volpe

As frustrating as his MLB career has often been, he’s a pretty clear no-doubt pick for April’s shortstop, considering who we picked for second base.

Third Baseman: Wid Conroy (April 5th Birthday Post)

Conroy was a NL pennant-winning player with the 103-win 1902 Pirates, in the final year before the World Series came into existence. He then hopped over to the AL to play with the then New York Highlanders in their first year of existence in 1903.

Left Field: David Justice (April 14th birthday post)

The 2000 trade for Justice deservedly goes down as one of the best midseason deals in team history. He provided a much needed spark to the Yankees’ lineup, allowing them to complete a World Series three-peat.

Center Field: Carlos Beltrán (April 24th birthday post)

OK yes, Beltrán wasn’t much of a center fielder when he finally came to the Yankees, as his three years in the Bronx came in his age 37-39 years. However, he was an excellent center fielder in his prime, which helped him gain election into the Hall of Fame in this year’s class.

Right Field: Aaron Judge(you’ll never believe who the birthday post is for tomorrow – Ed.)

I’ve heard of that guy.

Designated Hitter: Mark Teixeira (April 11th birthday post)

“Tex” probably could’ve been the starting first baseman for a lot of the other month’s teams. However with Mattingly around, we’ll just stick Teixeira over at DH.

There’s my personal picks for April, but less us know how would line up a Yankees’ team with April birthdays.

They couldn’t have announce this before I hit publish on the last post?

Trey Yesavage will make Tuesday’s start for the Jays, against the Red Sox. That doesn’t quite lineup with Max Scherzer’s next start, which would be Wednesday if the rotation stayed the same.

Whoops, now I see that Eric Lauer is being moved to the pen. I’d imagine they will try to hold him to piggy back with Scherzer, but I shouldn’t try to outguess them. Yesavage has been hit pretty hard in his 12 rehab innings, but is throwing as hard as ever.

Lauer, I’d imagine, won’t be pleased to be the one losing his spot in the rotation, but he has done well in the long relief role (or at least what the team considers a long relief role). They do need someone to go three or more innings out of the pen. If they had someone who could have gone three yesterday, it would have helped out.

Welcome back, Trey.

I guess the headline says it, Nathan Lukes hits the IL with a left hamstring strain. Yohendrick Piñango gets the call up. Yimi Garcia was moved to the 60-day IL to make room for Yohendrick.

Piñango is hitting .288/.370/.488 with 3 home runs in 22 games. He is a left-handed batter and also throws left-handed. He’s split time between left and right field, which surprised me because they usually place lefties in right field. I’m interested to see him place. He’s on the bench for today’s game.

Yohendrick is #13 on our top 40 prospects list this year. Tom M wrote:

The return for Nate Pearson at the 2024 deadline didn’t look like much at the time. Pinango signed with the Cubs out of Venezuela in 2018, and while he lit up the DSL the next summer he was pretty unremarkable over the three minor league seasons following the pandemic. A torrid first month of the 2024 season at A+ popped him onto the radar and probably lead to the trade. He bombed in his first 33 games in the Jays system, posting a .518 OPS at AA New Hampshire. It all came together in 2025, though. Pinango torched the Eastern league to the tune of .298/.406/.522, earning a promotion to AAA Buffalo. He cooled down there, but still posted a roughly average line with lots of walks, solid K numbers, and some pop.

Pinango has always been a solid contact hitter, but his breakout was fueled by trading an aggressive approach for a very selective one. He now watches more strikes than would be ideal, but he rarely chases and waits on pitches he can hammer. As for the hammering part, his max exit velocity in Buffalo was over 115mph. Only 30 major leaguers last year could say the same. his 91.9mph average exit velocity and 47.6% hard hit rate were both comfortably plus. The lone offensive knock on him is that while he hits enough fly balls, his best power comes a low angles, producing line drives and hard grounders instead of home runs. If he can fix that, he could be a cleanup calibre hitter, and even if he can’t the combination of patience, contact and strength is enough for a viable offensive profile.

There’s a lot of pressure on the bat, as Pinango is a below average runner whose ugly routes and iffy arm make him a liability even in left field. If it comes together offensively he can be a regular regardless, but anything short and he’s likely a bench bat or not an MLB player.

I hope we get to see him play some.

Today’s lineup against a lefty. Okamoto moves up.

Max Scherzer on ‘getting punched in the face’. Really, he can’t say much else, but I don’t know if there is anything left in that arm. The team hasn’t announced if Trey Yesavage will make one more minor league start or if he’ll be put in Scherzer’s (or Lauer’s) spot next time through the rotation.

The Detroit Tigers dropped their series opener against the Cincinnati Reds, 9-8, in a walk-off on Friday night after building an early lead and sitting through a two-hour rain delay.

On Saturday, they look to even things up behind right-hander Jack Flaherty. Opposite him on the mound for Cincinnati is fellow righty Brady Singer. Here’s a quick look at how they match up.

Detroit Tigers (14-13) vs. Cincinnati Reds (17-9)

Time (ET): 7:15 p.m.
Place: Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati, Ohio
SB Nation Site:Red Reporter
Media: FOX, Tigers Radio Network

Game 28: RHP Jack Flaherty (0-1, 3.47 ERA) vs. RHP Brady Singer (1-1, 5.32 ERA)

FLAHERTY

SINGER

I was wrong.

When the White Sox signed Munetaka Murakami to a two-year, $34-million deal, I immediately jumped to the conclusion that something was wrong with him. A cursory glance at his NPB stats snowballed into a statistical analysis on his hypothetical impact on the 2025 Sox before he even stepped foot in the batter’s box, and ultimately landed on a conclusion that Murakami would be underwhelming.

While my predictions and assessments were grounded in logical projections and modeling, I’ll quote Dodgers and Blue Jays managers Dave Roberts and John Schneider from their latest interview with Jeff Passan: “Baseball happened.”

Murakami’s first 26 games in the big leagues has far exceeded expectations. While he unfortunately has lived up to his expectation of being an all-or-nothing hitter with a 40.3% whiff rate and 32.1% strikeout rate (ranked in the bottom-first and -eighth percentiles), his “all” has been nothing short of historic. Murakami’s healthy .256/.398/.622 slash line and towering 1.020 OPS indicate that he’s already near his ceiling of being the Japanese Babe Ruth.

Before the Sox’s 5-4 win over the Nationals, Murakami’s name was already etched in the history books for tying Shohei Ohtani’s record for most consecutive games with a home run by any Japanese-born player, owning the longest MLB rookie home run streak, and tying the franchise record homering in five consecutive games.

But his 11th home run was different.

Coming off the bat at 104 mph and traveling 415 feet, Murakami’s elegant and seemingly effortless lefty swing on Friday night flipped a switch numerically and emotionally:

MURAKAMI IS NOW TIED FOR THE LEAGUE LEAD IN HOMERS 🔥 https://t.co/RezIEx9y8Lpic.twitter.com/jRi8hyasEj

— MLB (@MLB) April 25, 2026

Murakami is now tied with Houston’s Yordan Alvarez for the most home runs in baseball and ranked among MLB’s Top 10 in wOBA (.430), xwOBA (.433), barrel percentage (25.5%) and hard hit percentage (65.5%). You can’t deny that the stats themselves are impressive, but attitude and passion can’t be boiled down into a single measure. What my math failed to account for is how Murakami’s presence on the team would impact the team’s momentum. 

His Statcast 11 run value, measuring run creation, has rubbed off on his teammates and fueled Chicago’s palpable shift in style and grittiness that hasn’t been felt in years. The Sox have won 11 games before April has concluded, marking the first time since 2021 that Sox have finished with double digits in the win column at this point. And in 2021, the Sox went on to win the AL Central for the first time in 13 years. The excitement radiating off the players is felt by Sox fans who have endured anything but for the last three years, and now the rest of baseball is noticing.

For the next two years, Murakami isn’t just here to trend and collect his cash. He’s here to make a statement about himself and the Sox. Even when he invariably faces tough stretches, Murakami has already earned every penny in his contract by simply giving Sox fans hope that this new chapter is finally here. For that alone, Murakami has soared beyond expectations this spring, and I couldn’t be happier that my calculations didn’t account for this.

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The Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers both feature Top-5 offenses, which were on full display in a 10 run series opener.

My Cubs vs. Dodgers predictions see another high-scoring affair in the cards Saturday night.

Let’s take a closer look at my daily MLB picks for April 25.

Who will win Cubs vs Dodgers today: Dodgers (-140)

Colin Rea has pitched very well for the Chicago Cubs but his two best starts came against an 8-18 Philadelphia Phillies team.

There are also a couple of concerns in his numbers. For one, he ranks 26th among today’s projected starters in soft contact rate. He’s not generating much.

That’s not a great recipe heading into a matchup with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who rank first in hard hit rate against righties this season.

He also ranks 40th percentile or worst in whiffs and K%. He doesn’t miss many bats, and that could lead to problems against a powerful Dodgers offense.

COVERS INTEL:Six Dodgers batters possess a wOBA of .360 or higher against Rea’s pitch mix.

Cubs vs Dodgers Over/Under pick: Over 9.5 (+100)

The Dodgers rank first in average, second in OBP, and fourth in runs per game. They also hit the ball as hard as anybody, and Rea has not induced a lot of soft contact.

Chicago should score plenty of runs as well. They have plated at least six runs in six consecutive road games, and 4+ in eight of 10 away dates this season.

Dodgers starter Roki Sasaki is sporting a 6.11 ERA and allowing more than two homers per nine innings, which doesn’t set up well facing a Cubs team that slots fifth in homers.

Cubs vs Dodgers odds

• Moneyline: Chicago (+130) | Los Angeles (-150)
• Run line: Chicago +1.5 (-145) | Los Angeles -1.5 (+125)
• Over/Under: Over 9.5 (+100) | Under 9.5 (-120)

Cubs vs Dodgers trend

The Los Angeles Dodgers have hit the Moneyline in 35 of their last 50 games (+6.45 Units / 7% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Cubs vs. Dodgers.

How to watch Cubs vs Dodgers and game info

Cubs vs Dodgers latest injuries

Cubs vs Dodgers weather

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The Dodgers offense spent most of the last week wasting an incredible stretch by the starting rotation, coupled with a suddenly vulnerable bullpen having their worst week of the season. That fueled five losses over the last seven games, and now the Dodgers on Saturday turn to Roki Sasaki, the black sheep of the rotation still looking for some semblance of success to build on.

Los Angeles scored eight runs in their last four games, with four of those runs scored on Friday night though none after the fourth inning. The Dodgers inability to tack on runs has cost them dearly during this dismal stretch, which includes three or fewer runs in six of their last 12 games.

Shohei Ohtani is hitless in his last 12 at-bats, has two hits in 20 at-bats since his last extra-base hit, and is 7-for-43 (.163) since his last home run 13 days ago. Teoscar Hernández is also hitless in his last 12 at-bats and two for his last 28. Even Andy Pages after his impossibly hot start has three hits in his last 25 at-bats.

Signing Edwin Díaz was an attempt to improve on a Dodgers bullpen that was mostly a weakness in 2024, but with a diminished Díaz ineffective for two weeks and now sidelined for three months after arthroscopic elbow surgery, the Dodgers are relying on mostly the same cast of characters from last year.

Their four relievers they’ve used in the highest-leverage spots all had their worst games of the season this week. Jack Dreyer got a slider crushed for a three-run home run on Wednesday by Patrick Bailey, who owns a 19 wRC+ this season (and 73 wRC+ in his major league career). Alex Vesia, Blake Treinen, and Tanner Scott coughed up a 4-0 lead in Friday night’s stunning loss to the Cubs.

That’s a recipe for losing games this week that saw Dodgers starters deliver two of the top eight game scores on the team this season — Emmet Sheehan 70 game score (6 1/3 IP, 1 R, 10 K Friday), Ohtani 69 game score (6 scoreless IP, 7 K Wednesday) — plus another seven-inning start by Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Tuesday in San Francisco.

Sasaki has four of the Dodgers’ worst six game scores in his starts this season, and enters his Saturday start on his bobblehead night with a 6.11 ERA and 5.67 xERA. Among the 302 major league pitchers with at least 10 innings this season, Sasaki ranks 256th in ERA, 264th in xERA, and 246th with a 5.9-percent strikeout minus walk rate.

The Dodgers are committed to letting Sasaki figure things out in the majors, with his last start coming the closest with one run allowed through four innings at Coors Field, but he was unable to finish the fifth inning. With Blake Snell likely needing three more minor league rehab starts before returning, and with River Ryan on the minor league injured list with a hamstring issue, the Dodgers don’t really have other options than Sasaki for a little bit.

Sasaki has recorded between 12 and 15 outs in his four starts this season, so Saturday sure feels like a day for Jake Eder to soak up some innings in relief and then get optioned back to Triple-A Oklahoma City to make room for a fresh arm on Sunday with four more games in this stretch of 13 games in 13 days.

Saturday game info

• Teams: Dodgers vs. Cubs
• Ballpark: Dodger Stadium
• Time: 4:15 p.m.
• TV: Fox (Joe Davis, John Smoltz)
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)