Category: Sports News

Meet the Mets

Despite allowing two solo homers, Kodai Senga had a really good outing in his spring debut yesterday. “Really good signs,” manager Carlos Mendoza said of Senga’s performance. “We saw it from the very beginning when we’re watching live BPs on the backfield. It’s not something that I’ve seen the two years that I’ve been here. On the first day 94-95 [mph], and then Day One, when he’s playing in a real game, and you see 97-98 and just how sharp he was. He’s healthy, and we can see it now.”

Senga has also shown an upbeat demeanor this spring that is indicative of how good he feels.

Robert Stock, who experienced shoulder discomfort after throwing for Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic, has thoracic outlet syndrome and will need surgery. He hopes to be back by the end of the season, but was told he has the “bad” kind of TOS in which the artery is compressed.

Veteran reliever Craig Kimbrel is pulling out all of the stops and tinkering with his repertoire to try to make the Mets.

Around the National League East

Charlie Wright of MLB Trade Rumors checked in on the battle for the final spot on the Phillies’ roster.

Battery Power took a look back at their bold predictions for the Braves’ 2025 season, which mostly did not turn out looking so great.

Federal Baseball remarked upon the fact that Cionel Perez and (former Met) Drew Smith were late additions to the Nationals’ bullpen picture, but yet among the more impressive arms so far this spring.

Around Major League Baseball

Yesterday was a World Baseball Classic day for the ages. There had never been a walk-off home run in the history of the tournament, but yesterday there were two in one day. First, Ozzie Albies’ walk-off three-run shot helped the Netherlands stun Nicaragua and then Puerto Rico narrowly avoided an upset at the hands of Panama in extras thanks to Darell Hernaiz’s no-doubt walk-off homer.

Most of the other games yesterday were not as tight, but still filled with exciting moments. After falling behind early and being held scoreless for the first four frames, a huge fifth inning helped propel Team USA to a 9-1 win over Great Britain.

Luis Arraez hit two home runs in Venezuela’s thrashing of Israel.

Italy was also dominant yesterday, slugging their way to a decisive 8-0 victory over Brazil.

Canada defeated Colombia 8-2 thanks to an Owen Caissie homer and a strong performance by Michael Soroka.

Earlier this morning, Japan, who had already advanced to the knockout stage with their thrilling victory over Korea yesterday, came from behind to beat Australia and secure the top seed out of Pool C.

Ace Tarik Skubal told USA Today Sports that the Tigers did not make him a long-term offer this offseason. Skubal is currently with Team USA for the World Baseball Classic and had planned to make one start and return to camp, but he is now considering pitching deeper into the tournament.

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

Lukas Vlahos previewed Vidal Brujan’s season as he vies to make the team.

This Date in Mets History

On this date in 1966, Casey Stengel was elected to the Hall of Fame.

The Washington Nationals have made sweeping changes in the last year. After nearly two decades with the organization, Mike Rizzo was let go in July and the Nationals decided to go in a new direction. That new direction led by Paul Toboni aims to be on the cutting edge, which is a stark contrast to the old school nature of the previous regime.

Fans and people like myself have been speculating all offseason about who will benefit the most from these changes. After a couple weeks of Spring Training, I think the pitching staff will be the biggest beneficiaries in the short term. The hitting development could be a longer term process.

This makes sense because it is easier to make changes as a pitcher. With all the technology out there, it is easy to learn a new pitch or make a mechanical tweak. Those minor changes can transform a pitcher overnight. For example, Cade Cavalli has already added multiple new pitches and looks better against right handed hitters so far. It is tougher for a hitter to make those overnight changes.

The Nats are going to need to see these changes produce quick results because the pitching staff was a disaster in 2025. Their 5.35 staff ERA was the second worst in baseball, only behind the Rockies. The Nats also traded away their de facto ace MacKenzie Gore this offseason. Despite that, I think the Nats will see major improvements.

One of the big reasons for that is an overhaul in pitch usage. The Nats have made it clear this spring that they will be cutting fastball usage. In Spring Training, the Nats are throwing fewer fastballs than just about anyone. This comes after a season where the Nats were near the top of the league in fastball usage. 

I think this change will pay off in a big way. Nats pitchers were simply throwing their fastballs way too much. It would be understandable if the Nats pitching staff was full of guys with elite heaters, but that was not the case. A lot of Nats pitchers with mediocre fastballs were throwing the pitch at a very high rate.

That led to a lot of loud contact and inflated ERA’s. This spring Nats pitchers have held hitters to a .175 average and have 132 strikeouts in 123 innings. Obviously, that is not sustainable, but I do think Nats pitchers are not giving in as much. One side effect of this is an inflated walk rate, which I think could be an issue for the Nats. However, I think the benefits of this new approach will outweigh the potential downsides.

Nats pitchers have been raving about the new technology and the work that new pitching coach Simon Mathews has put in. In their interviews, Nationals pitchers have been wide-eyed talking about things like horizontal movement or seam shift effects. It is a very different tune from previous years. 

I am not going to sit here and say the Nats will have an elite, or even average pitching staff. They do not have that kind of talent yet. However, I would be stunned if they are as bad as last year. The Nats should not have a team ERA that starts with a 5 in 2026. 

The improvement is going to come from a new approach rather than flashy new signings. I think guys like Cade Cavalli, Cole Henry and Orlando Ribalta are ready to step up and take on bigger roles. All of these guys throw hard, but their success will come from their secondary pitches, not their power fastballs.

We may see bumps along the way, but I am bought into the Nationals new forward thinking vision. There should be some improvements across the board, but the pitchers will find better results faster. There is a lot of low hanging fruit for the new development team on the pitching side. A few easy changes could help a lot of these Nationals arms. I cannot wait to see their plan come together. While the Nats probably won’t be a good team, I think we will see a lot of developmental wins this season.

While he had a perfectly nice major league career, the name Jim Bouton is probably only going to evoke one thing, and it’s not his pitching. While he was able to get the chance to do it because he was a major league pitcher of some regard, Bouton is most famous for his 1970 book “Ball Four” along with journalist Leonard Shecter.

While “Ball Four” is a diary of his 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots, Bouton spends plenty of time on the lesser seen side of baseball teams and the players that make them up. Some of that behind the scenes info wasn’t the most flattering, and some beloved players — including the Yankees’ Mickey Mantle — were among those mentioned. The book was massively controversial at the time, and led to Bouton essentially being blackballed.

However, there’s more to Bouton than just the book. After all, you don’t get to write a tell all like that if you’re not interesting.

James Alan “Jim” Bouton
Born: March 8, 1939 (Newark, NJ)
Died: July 10, 2019 (Great Barrington, MA)
Yankees Tenure: 1962-68

Born in New Jersey in 1939, Bouton grew to love baseball from an early age. He grew up a fan of the New York Giants and would often go with his brother to the Polo Grounds to try and hunt down souvenirs. His family later moved to Illinois, where he attended high school.

In sporting pursuits, Bouton was a bit of slow burner, as he was never the biggest or most athletic. But by his senior year, he had become good enough to get a spot on the freshman baseball team at Western Michigan University. He was also good enough to catch the eye of professional scouts too though, and the Yankees eventually got him to sign a deal in December 1958.

Bouton’s pro career got off to a bit of a rocky start in his first season in 1959, but he rebounded with excellent years in 1960 and ‘61 between the Greensboro Yankees of the Carolina League and the Amarillo Gold Sox of the Texas League. While he had been a late bloomer coming up, he was now a fast riser and got an invite to spring training with the big league Yankees for 1962.

Over the course of that spring, Bouton impressed the team, and ended up getting one of the last spots on the roster to start the season. He made his MLB debut out of the bullpen on April 8th, and he would spend the year as a bit of a swingman, making 16 starts and 20 bullpen appearances. He was a bit below average on the season, but he would win a ring, as the Yankees beat the Giants in the 1962 World Series. Bouton didn’t appear in the series, though.

In 1963, Bouton would produce his career best individual season. He again started the year in a swingman role, but an impressive opening to the season soon got him regular starts. Bouton would go on to make 30 starts in the 1963 season, as he put up a 2.53 ERA (140 ERA+) in 249.1 innings. He made his first and only All-Star team that year and even got MVP votes, finishing 16th. He helped the Yankees to another pennant, and he was very impressive in his World Series debut, holding the Dodgers to just one run in seven innings in Game 3. However, the offense—as was the theme of the series—got shut out by Don Drysdale. They lost the game and the series in a sweep that saw them score just four runs, never even mustering a lead.

The following season, Bouton was very good again, posting a 3.02 ERA (120 ERA+) in a league-leading 37 starts. That year in the World Series, he was very good again, allowing just three earned runs over 17.1 innings. He was the winning pitcher in Game 3 (a complete-game triumph once Mickey Mantle walked it off) and Game 6, but the Yankees won just one other game in the series and lost to the Cardinals in 7.

Those would be the final two postseasons starts for Bouton. While he and some others drew the hope that the next generation of young Yankees would be able to replicate the previous stars, they could not. While he was still good in 1966, the rest of his career saw him post below average stats. The root cause of that probably had something to do with injury, as he first came down with a sore bicep in 1965 and according to him, he never really got over that.

Following a couple down years, the Yankees sold him to the expansion Seattle Pilots in 1968. The franchise began their first season the following year, but Bouton struggled there as well, eventually getting traded to the Astros in August. During that season, Bouton had begun taking copious notes.

Throughout his career in New York, Bouton got the reputation as someone who would give good quotes and was often outspoken about social issues of the day. He became friends with some reporters, including Shecter, with whom he developed the idea for a season diary of his 1969.

The book was eventually released during the 1970 season to mixed reviews. While Bouton often spoke glowingly about Mantle and some other revered figures of baseball, he also didn’t pull many punches. He was candid about some of the things he saw around baseball, such as the hard drinking, womanizing, and use of amphetamines. Players—especially many of Bouton’s former Yankee teammate—were enraged at the content, and that would spill over into the public. Bouton was booed upon returning to New York to play the Mets. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn even tried to strong-arm the pitcher into signing a statement that the book was fiction, although Bouton refused.

Meanwhile on the mound, Bouton was struggling to the tune of a 5.40 ERA, getting sent down to the minors. While his pitching wasn’t doing him any favors, having written the book probably precluded him from getting other chances, and he retired later that year. He eventually went deeper into the media side of things, becoming a sportscaster and releasing more books.

Despite what many people of the time thought, Bouton truly did love baseball. After a couple years, he got the itch and returned to the minor leagues. Following a couple years there, the Braves gave him a chance, and Bouton returned to the majors in 1978, eight years after his last appearance. He put up a 4.97 ERA in five games for Atlanta before retiring for good.

In time, “Ball Four” has come to be seen as a classic of baseball literature. While some of his teammates probably never forgave him, some did. Despite a lot of the hubbub around the book coming from passages about Mantle, even he eventually reconciled with Bouton. The pitcher sent Mantle condolences after Mickey’s son had died, and the two made amends. There had been long-standing rumors that Mantle had strong armed the Yankees into not inviting the pitcher back to events like Old-Timers’ Day, but the outfielder strongly denied that.

Bouton would eventually return to Old-Timers’ Day. In 1998, his son published an open letter to the Yankees asking the team to finally invite their former starter back, as the pitcher was badly grieving his daughter, who had passed away in 1997 in a car crash. The team eventually did so, and Bouton got a nice hand upon his return in 1998.

Bouton eventually passed away in 2019. While “Ball Four” itself remains ground-breaking, a hidden message in it remains that baseball players — including Bouton himself — are human.

See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.

For much of the offseason, Carson Benge has seemingly been guaranteed a starting spot in the outfield somewhere. It looked like it might be center field when the Mets were pursuing Kyle Tucker. Then it looked like it was going to be a corner (first left, then right) once Luis Robert was acquired. Sure MJ Melendez was kicking around, but the job was more or less Benge’s to lose.

Then the Mets signed Mike Tauchman to a minor league deal in the middle of February, very late in the offseason. The 35-year-old veteran outfielder promptly displaced Benge in the locker room and has mentioned repeatedly that the Mets were very clear about the path to the major league roster. Put another way, this sure seems like a minor league deal in name only, a roster manipulation ploy where Tauchman is all but guaranteed to make the major league roster out of camp.

In a vacuum, it’s a very nice little move. Tauchman is coming off a season with a 115 wRC over 385 PA for the White Sox, numbers largely backed by his expected metrics. He’s been an above average hitter each of the last three seasons, posting an OBP over .350 while playing scratch defense in an outfield corner. He’s also not got much of a platoon split, making him a viable option against both righties and lefties. Compared to other similar players (e.g., Mike Yastrzemski with the Braves) it’s an absolute steal, even if he is 35 and could theoretically fall off a cliff at any moment.

Tauchman’s role on the roster is a touch less clear. The Mets do have a pathway to playing time in a corner and at DH in theory, but Brett Baty and the aforementioned Benge figured to be key players in those spots (as do other players like Mark Vientos and Ronny Mauricio, who are shockingly still on the roster). Maybe Benge hasn’t looked as hot as the team hoped this spring and Tauchman is meant to serve as a hedge there, or even an early season starter. Maybe they wanted another body in the DH picture to allow Baty to function more as a super-sub who isn’t starting every day. Maybe Tauchman is just meant to be a nice bench bat.

Best guess, Benge will still be the opening day starting in right, but I’d fully expect Tauchman to make the team as a reserve outfielder who sees 2 – 3 starts per week at DH or on the grass. He’s certainly not shown any signs of aging in Spring Training to this point, so you can likely expect some strong, OBP-heavy contributions in a part-time role. In other words, literally Mike Tauchman.

Happy Sunday everybody! This morning I will be on the way down to Phoenix for a few days of Phoenix sunshine and Spring Training baseball! My phone battery is going to get worked to within an inch of its life trying to stream as much WBC as possible. Really looking forward to seeing the result of the Australia-Japan game when I wake up in the morning (I will NOT be waking up for this one). After last night’s wild Chinese Taipei-Korea game, Pool C looks like it’s the most open group in the tournament. Which two teams do you think are moving on from Pool C?

In Mariners news…

• Mariners legend James Paxton has put his Major League career firmly in the rearview, but is committed to giving everything he can to Team Canada.
• Shannon Drayer met up with Adam Bernero, the Mariners mental performance coach, to learn about how he gets the best out of the players.

In the World Baseball Classic…

• The highlight of an incredible day of tournament baseball was this absolutely electric walk-off homerun by Puerto Rico’s Darell Hernáiz in front of the home crowd in San Juan.

• Hernaiz’ walk-off was the second of the day, and only the second walk-off homerun in the history of the World Baseball Classic, because Ozzie Albies hit a walk-off three-run homerun for the Netherlands to beat Nicaragua just a few hours before.

• Team Italy appears to be rather blatantly making use of PEDs (Performance Enhancing Drip).

• Luis Arraez slugging .200 points higher in WBC games than he does in across his MLB career is so awesome.

Around the league…

• Tarik Skubal revealed that the Tigers have not approached him with a contract offer, something I could’ve told you based on the totality of the Tigers 2025 offseason processes.
• Red Sox infielder Romy González may miss a significant portion of the 2026 season due to persistent pain in his left shoulder.
• The Angels are very optimistic that Lucas Ramírez’ WBC success will lead to a successful minor league season.
• Tim Kurkijan was forced to remember one of his all-time worst takes, and couldn’t even think of anything believable to blame.

Have hope, White Sox fans! Or at least fairly young White Sox fans. AI is on your side!

Yep. Or, at least, the ChatGPT version of AI.

My son, Will, sent me a link to an intense bit of research that shows the Chicago White Sox will indeed win the World Series. Maybe even sooner than you think, depending on how big a pessimist you are.

The information is currently on many types of social media, but apparently originated with the site collegebaseballhub.com. They say they asked famed artificial intelligence source ChatGPT to name the World Series winners for the next half-century and, by golly, the White Sox showed up!

Take a look at this chart, and rejoice:

If you look long enough, you’ll see that the White Sox will be hoisting that trophy again in 2055! If that seems a trifle long wait, bear in mind the first time AI predictions were run and the results hit the web, the Sox didn’t win the World Series until 2070. So this set of predictions is cutting 15 years off your wait. Even better, the other version had the Cubs winning it all in 2030 while this one doesn’t have them on the list at all.

You may note the Sox only get to be champions after many teams that don’t exist, coming in right after the Packers and ahead of something called Forest, and also few years after the four-year title run of North Japan (no doubt a team with offspring of Ichiro Suzuki and Shohei Ohtani). That may be discouraging, but it’s still a 2055 championship instead of 2070.

Now, of course, ChatGPT and other forms of AI are like any search engines in that they only answer the question or request they get, so wording is crucial. Will tried a direct White Sox question and was told 2040 was a possibility, which is barely long to wait at all by Sox fan standards. I don’t know how he worded the question, but I tried “When will the World Series next win the World Series” and the response was rather mealy-mouthed:

There’s no reliable way to predict when the White Sox will next win the World Series. Championship windows shift with roster moves, player development, injuries, and front‑office strategy.As of now, the best answer is: It’s uncertain, but possible once their young core matures and the team rebuilds into contention again.

Well, that’s a whole lot better. And a change of phrase hinted at a possibility sometime in the 2030s. So I also asked Microsoft’s Copilot and got a very long answer, the gist of which was:

Predicting a specific year is impossible—and no reputable projection attempts to. But based on:

• current roster construction,
• farm system trajectory,
• and comparative league strength,

the earliest plausible window is several years out, and only if their rebuild accelerates dramatically.

Not really encouraging, but not a total shot to the gut, either.

Now 2070, or even 2055, is a tad far out for those of us in the geriatric set, but you young whippersnappers may yet have an opportunity to see a White Sox World Series win on the south side or in Nashville or northwest Indiana or Shanghai or wherever they may be playing, and good luck to you.

Of course, any AI is only as good as the information it gathers, which means one absolutely critical piece of information is bound to be missing because they weren’t looking for it — just how long Jerry Reinsdrof will live.

Reinsdorf is 89, and even if he hangs on to be 100 just to spite the players and fans he hates, 2070 or 2055 would appear to be a stretch. But 2040 would appear to be possible, because if he died at 100 that would be three years later.

“Three years after Jerry Reinsdorf dies” may be the best guess at a White Sox championship, because that gives enough time for a new owner to clear out the organizational incompetents who only have their jobs because of where they firmly secure their lips, and to sign a star-level free agent or two. But it’s understandable that AI systems don’t want to appear ghoulish, what with their need for political support and all. At least not yet.

So, 2055 or 2070 it is. You might want to hold off if you get an email from the White Sox trying to sell you World Series tickets.

It was a rough day for San Diego Padres pitchers in Goodyear, Ariz. on Saturday. The Padres were on the road to face the Cleveland Guardians with one of their top pitchers on the mound in Michael King. It was only King’s second start of Spring Training and after a diving attempt by center fielder Bryce Johnson on a ball that landed in the outfield and rolled all the way to the wall allowing Steven Kwan to reach third base, it looked as though it was not going to be a good day. King would allow Kwan to score in the bottom of the first but limited the damage to one run. He would finish his day on the mound with 3.2 innings pitched with three earned runs allowed on three hits with two walks and two strikeouts.

Garrett Hawkins, who had been having a solid spring season, followed King and allowed two runs on two hits in 0.2 innings pitched. He also allowed a walk and failed to record any strikeouts. Carter Loewen did not fare much better following Hawkins. He also worked 0.2 innings and allowed two runs on three hits with a walk and a strikeout.

The first three pitchers for the Padres combined with the San Diego offense, which had one run on 10 hits, took the loss in Goodyear at the hands of the Guardians, 7-1. The Padres will look for better performances from the pitching staff when they play the Cincinnati Reds at the Peoria Sports Complex on Sunday at 12:10 p.m.

Padres News:

• Position battles have been the story of Spring Training for the Padres. Cheri Bell of Gaslamp Ball provides a snapshot of each competition and some insight with regard to how she believes each position will be decided. AJ Cassavell of Padres.com, like Bell, looked at the competitions in Spring Training for the Padres. He focused on the players competing for the fifth starter spot in the rotation.

• The Padres have a new manager who appears young and energetic in his dealings with the media. Craig Stammen took the job as the San Diego skipper and brought in many of his own coaches and the Padres players seem to be enjoying the new atmosphere of the clubhouse.

• Freddy Fermin continues to swing a hot bat for the Padres and Bradgley Rodriguez continues to push for a bullpen spot. Meanwhile, Ty France has quietly put together as solid spring and could be pushing for one of the last if not the last coveted roster spot.

Baseball News:

• The Detroit Tigers reportedly did not make a long-term offer to ace pitcher Tarik Skubal. The ace pitcher also hinted at possibly pitching in more than one game in the WBC.

WBC News:

• Kyle Schwarber hit a monster home run when the US faced Great Britain and it ignited the team as the US cruised to a win.
• Puerto Rico hit a walk-off home run to top Panama.
• Ozzy Albies hit a walk-off home run to lift Netherlands over Nicaragua.
• Luis Arraez homered to lead Venezuela over Israel.  
• Chinese Taipei knocked off Korea in extra-innings.
• Italy shutout Brazil and Canada got a win over Colombia.