Category: Sports News

The Brewers do not hit many home runs. When play starts on Friday, they’ll be last in the majors. While I’d be surprised if the Brewers finish the season in last — remember, Jackson Chourio, Christian Yelich, and Andrew Vaughn have all missed significant time, and they’ve closed the gap somewhat in the last week — it does seem like power isn’t going to be a major strength for this team.

But even if I don’t believe the Brewers are going to finish last in the league in homers, it got my twisted baseball-history brain working. I wanted to know: has a team that finished last in homers ever won the World Series?

The answer is yes, but it’s only happened five times, and two of those occurred more than 100 years ago. But surprisingly, the most recent occurrence isn’t from all that long ago. Let’s look back.

Ancient history: 1906 White Sox

I’d argue that the first two instances shouldn’t really count. The first is the 1906 Chicago White Sox, in what was just the third World Series ever played.

If you aren’t familiar with how baseball was played in 1906, get ready for some numbers.

The White Sox hit seven home runs in 1906.

The league leaders that season, the Philadelphia Athletics, hit 32. The A’s played in Columbia Park, where it was 340 feet down the left field line and — wait for it — 280 feet down the right field line.

Teams just didn’t hit homers in 1906, or, really, in any season prior to 1920. So even though the White Sox finished 16^th out of 16 in home runs, they were an above-average offense, at least from a run-scoring aspect — they were sixth in the league in runs scored (and fifth in stolen bases).

Chicago was led by one of baseball history’s most underrated players, the Hall-of-Fame shortstop George Davis; he was 35 in 1906 but led the team with a 120 OPS+ and still had a sterling defensive reputation. The pitching staff had a couple of stalwarts, as well: Big Ed Walsh was on the younger side of his career but was one of four White Sox starters to throw over 200 innings with an ERA+ of at least 109. But Walsh was not Chicago’s best starter that year: that would be Guy “Doc” White, who went 18-6 with a league-leading 1.52 ERA.

So, Chicago didn’t hit homers, but they played good defense, ran the bases well, and pitched well.

Not-quite-as-ancient history: 1924 Nationals

This team also maybe shouldn’t count. The 1924 season is technically outside of the Deadball Era, but barely: no team in baseball hit 100 homers, and only three had more than 72. The Yankees led the league with 98, but 46 of those were hit by one guy.

So, while the Nationals did have the fewest homers in the league — just 22 — they were not a bad offensive team. Their leader that season was the Hall of Famer Leon “Goose” Goslin. He put up a .344/.421/.516 batting line (143 OPS+) and did lead the team with 12 home runs, but he also hit 30 doubles and 17 triples and led the American League with 129 RBIs. Another Hall-of-Fame outfielder, Sam Rice, also played for that team; he hit only one homer (of his 2,987 career hits, just 34 were home runs), but had 39 doubles and 14 triples.

But the player who was really carrying the team, along with Goslin, was arguably the greatest pitcher of all time, who, at age 36, was having a last hurrah: Walter Johnson.

In 1924, the Big Train led the AL in almost everything. He won the pitching Triple Crown with 23 wins, a 2.72 ERA (149 ERA+), and 158 strikeouts, and also led the league in FIP, WHIP, hits per nine, strikeouts per nine, strikeout-to-walk ratio, and shutouts.

A couple other starting pitchers played well for the Nationals, particularly Tom Zachary, but they also boasted a unique weapon for the time: an elite bullpen piece. Firpo Marberry threw 195 innings in 50 games (14 of which were starts) and technically led the league in saves (though that stat wasn’t kept track of for several more decades) with a 132 ERA+.

It was the pitching that really stood out for Washington: they led the majors with a 122 ERA+, way ahead of the next-best AL team. But that wasn’t all they did for run prevention: while it’s hard to know for sure, basic fielding metrics suggest they were the best defensive team in the league. Their shortstop, Roger Peckinpaugh, was not only the subject of a good Joey Votto bit but is credited as the 1924 league leader in dWAR by Baseball Reference.

Modern-ish times: 1965 Dodgers

The next team isn’t from the Deadball Era, but it’s from the closest thing this side of the 1920s.

There’s not a ton of mystery here: the 1965 Dodgers had peak Sandy Koufax. They also got good seasons from two other starters, Claude Osteen and another Hall-of-Famer, Don Drysdale. Out of the bullpen, the Dodgers had a major weapon, Ron Perranoski, in a fireman role.

Offensively that Dodger team was dreadful, but they found a way. They had just an 89 OPS+ and no player on the team had more than 12 home runs, but they were by FAR the league leaders in stolen bases: 172 of them, with second place at just 110. The reason for that was the shortstop, Maury Wills. Wills had already won an MVP in 1962, and he finished third in 1965 on the strength of his league-leading 94 steals (more than all but four other teams). Wills was also a good fielder, as were center fielder Willie Davis, second baseman Jim Lefebvre, and catcher John Roseboro.

The Dodgers really didn’t have anyone who could hit, though. Second baseman Jim Gilliam, who stands out among players of his time for having a high walk rate, led the team with a 121 OPS+; he played only 111 games and hit just .280 with only 27 extra-base hits in total, but he had a .374 OBP, and it was a bad offensive era and a bad offensive ballpark.

This is a clear example of a team that was led by its pitching staff. They led in team ERA by a fairly significant margin; that was partially boosted by Dodger Stadium, but they were just behind the league-leading Pirates in ERA+. They were also first in FIP, and that, combined with one of the best defenses in the league, is what put the Dodgers in the World Series. Koufax did the rest.

A painful memory: 1982 Cardinals

I swear I was not expecting this when I started researching this project, but one of the three teams in the last 100 years to win the World Series with the fewest homers is also the only team to ever beat the Brewers in the World Series.

It was a matchup of extremes. The Cards were dead last in homers with just 67, while the Brewers were the most powerful team in baseball and hit 216 homers, 30 more than anyone else. The Brewers had a 121 OPS+, best in the league by a lot, while the Cardinals were at 95.

That 95 OPS+ mark, though, was far from worst in the league — it was tied for 15^th, just below the middle of the pack (remember there were 26 teams then). While the Cardinals didn’t hit homers, they did several other things well: they were second in the league in stolen bases, tied for second in triples, and seventh in walks.

They also played excellent defense, something that’s becoming a trend here. This was Ozzie Smith’s first season in St. Louis. He won a Gold Glove, and Baseball Reference has him as the league’s best defensive player that season. Keith Hernandez also won a Gold Glove at first base, second baseman Tom Herr probably should have, and third baseman Ken Oberkfell could also flash some leather.

Those Cardinals were interesting as far as this exercise goes because unlike the teams we’ve already looked at, they had a good-but-not-great pitching staff. They were third in the league in ERA, but several other teams were close behind; their FIP was a solid but not spectacular 10^th in the league. Among their starting pitchers, only Joaquín Andújar stood out: he really did have a fantastic year and went 15-10 with a 2.47 ERA (148 ERA+) and was seventh in Cy Young voting.

But no one else in the rotation stands out, and while Bruce Sutter did lead the majors in saves (36), he had a middling 2.90 ERA (126 ERA+) and significantly worse FIP (3.63). In those bonkers times, though, when awards voters were fetishizing saves, Sutter finished third — ahead of Andújar! — in CYA voting.

Modern times: 2012 Giants

This is the one that’s kind of hard to believe. The first thought that came to my mind was that this must’ve been one of those Giants teams with a fantastic pitching staff, but that’s not the case — Tim Lincecum, the back-to-back Cy Young winner in 2008 and 2009, had already fallen off a cliff, and the 22-year-old Madison Bumgarner wasn’t yet much of a contributor (at least until the Giants were actually in the World Series). Matt Cain was the team’s best starter, but he’d had other better years.

Sergio Romo had an excellent season out of the bullpen, but the Giants’ closer situation was in flux all year; the team leader in saves was Santiago Casilla, who had a 4.14 FIP and 125 ERA+ while picking up 25 suspenseful saves. (The Giants did make Romo the closer before the postseason, and he was nails in October: he finished his 10-game postseason run with a 0.84 ERA, and he saved three of four games in the Giants’ sweep of Detroit.)

It’s still a little difficult to understand this team’s success, but the most compelling reason is that Buster Posey was 100% deserving of the MVP award he won in 2012. Posey won a batting title and led the majors in OPS+ (171), he hit 39 doubles and 24 homers, and he led the NL with 7.6 WAR via Baseball Reference. But FanGraphs’ framing-influenced numbers think he was even better than that and have him with 9.8 WAR in 2012, the best season ever by a catcher via fWAR.

San Francisco also got a big partial season from Melky Cabrera, who hit .346/.390/.516 in 113 games and would’ve won the batting title had he qualified, but he was suspended for steroid use in August of that season and missed the playoffs. Center fielder Ángel Pagán had the best full offensive season of his career. Pablo Sandoval played pretty well (in only 108 games). Brandon Belt had a 123 OPS+ and 27 doubles but homered only seven times. Marco Scutaro only played 61 games but hit an astronomical .362.

It was a lot of decent offensive players who just didn’t hit homers. San Francisco hit only 103 home runs (the Yankees led the way with 245), but they were 10^th in doubles, first in triples, 10^th in stolen bases, and fifth in batting average. They had several part-time players who performed quite well, so when starters were missing time, the gap between them and their backups was small. They also play in a tough ballpark.

Put all of that together, and despite being last in homers, the Giants were fourth in OPS+. They were a good offensive team; they just didn’t do it the way we’ve gotten used to. Honestly, they were good in a way that should look familiar to fans of the 2025-26 Brewers.

The bad news

So, there are the reasons to be optimistic that even if the Brewers don’t get out of the home run basement, they can still compete.

Now the reason to be pessimistic: recent trends suggest that this might not be possible anymore.

Since 2020, all six World Series winners have finished in the top four in baseball in homers:

2020 Dodgers: 1^st
2021 Braves: 3^rd
2022 Astros: 4^th
2023 Rangers: 4^th
2024 Dodgers: 3^rd
2025 Dodgers: 2^nd

This unsurprisingly aligns with the trends that some fans bemoan in modern times: that players have stopped putting the ball in play to sell out for the home run.

In the past — not that long ago — teams that struggled with the long ball could adapt and find a different approach. But in modern times, when parades of anonymous pitchers with unhittable stuff arrive in waves, we could be reaching a point where that alternative approach is difficult to find, particularly in the postseason as pitcher usage gets more extreme. In those low-scoring playoff environments, when stringing hits together becomes tougher, it helps immensely to have guys who can run into one.

It doesn’t mean it’s impossible, though. The 2025 Brewers were 22^nd in home runs but third in runs scored. The 2026 version of the team is, as of Wednesday, last in homers but seventh in runs scored. But there’s likely to be some difficulty in maintaining that disparity long term, and the postseason question will linger until it doesn’t anymore.

These past examples prove that winning with a low-power team can be done if other aspects of the game are in place. Those other aspects — speed, defense, pitching — are all present in this iteration of the Brewers. They were last year, too. It might just be a matter of things clicking into place at the right time.

Good morning, baseball fans!

It’s an off day for the San Francisco Giants today, so I wanted to touch on a topic that I’ve been thinking about for a while.

At this point, I can only assume that most people familiar with baseball are also at least somewhat familiar with the Savannah Bananas, and the league that was created around them called Banana Ball. If not, it’s a fast-paced version of baseball with an emphasis on entertainment value and fan engagement.

The rules are a bit different, but not so much that a fan of traditional baseball cannot follow the game. There’s an emphasis on trick plays and entertaining the crowds (both at the parks and those watching online). But that doesn’t take away from the on-field product at all, it just adds to it.

I recently had the chance to have a brief conversation with the founder of Banana Ball, Jesse Cole. You may know Cole as the dude that’s always in the yellow tux and top hat, featured in a lot of promotional materials for the league.

During the conversation, I told Cole that I think MLB should absolutely be taking notes from Banana Ball in terms of growing the game. What they are doing to engage new audiences is some of the best work I’ve seen from any league.

What works about it, in my opinion, is that it’s not intended to be gatekept. And what I mean by that is something that I think a lot of women who are sports fans can relate to. You have to prove you belong there, you don’t just get to be a fan because you like the team. I’ve had many experiences where I tell a male acquaintance that I was a Giants fan and I would get presented with a pop quiz to prove it.

And I feel like MLB in general kind of leans into that gatekeeping, whether they realize/intend it or not. Women are grudgingly allowed in the fandom, but not really catered to as a legitimate part of the audience.

Meanwhile, Banana Ball is not only catering to their female fans, they’re making the league as accessible and inviting as possible. And the game play is electric, there is never a dull moment for fans. If you go to a Banana Ball game, you know with absolute certainty that you’re going to have a great time, regardless of how the game plays out.

The same cannot necessarily be said for MLB games. Before the game I went to last month, the last five games I had attended in person were complete shut out losses by the Giants. And I had to pay about $300-400 and travel several hours for the pleasure of sitting through those games with dull, lifeless eyes watching a dull, lifeless team.

The Giants’ past offensive woes aside, with the cost of everything skyrocketing these days, entertainment value is assuredly going to become much more of a factor in terms of people planning to spend money on sports outings.

And listen, I’m not here to say that MLB should have dancing umpires and outfielders doing backflips. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with traditional baseball existing as it is, and having the more exhibition style league exist as a separate thing.

But MLB would be doing themselves a massive disservice to not take notes from how Banana Ball markets to all audiences, and focuses on appealing to a wide demographic of people by creating a fun environment for everyone. It’s a massively successful league that is only growing in popularity and talent.

Just this week, former MLB player Jackie Bradley, Jr. announced that he would be joining the Indianapolis Clowns, a team in the Banana Ball league. They also have the biggest stars of the upcoming Women’s Professional Baseball League, a former Broadway actor, and are so popular that they will have a player on the upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars.

The kind of astronomical growth that Banana Ball has seen over the last few years should absolutely be studied by MLB. They’d be silly not to. Given the game’s decline in popularity, sticking to the traditional route of “playing the game the right way” and policing anything that could remotely be considered fun or an individual’s personality is not going to cut it.

1905
Frank Smith tossed a one-hitter, the first of his career and fifth in White Sox history.

The proceedings didn’t begin as a Smith masterpiece, as the righty actually trailed in the game after walking Senators leadoff man Charlie Jones, Jones sacrificed to second by Hunter Hill, then driven home on a Jake Stahl (with throngs … OK, 117 fans … from his hometown of Champaign, Ill. present) single. But that was the first and only Washington hit for the game, and later on Smith helped his own cause with a double (the only extra-base hit in the contest) in the fifth inning, sacrificed to third by Fielder Jones, and scoring on a bobbled ground ball at shortstop — the second and decisive Sox run of the game.

Smith would throw two more one-hitters in his White Sox career, and only Doc White, Ed Walsh and Billy Pierce have more all-time South Side one-hitters than him.

1915
Red Faber won his seventh straight game in a 17-inning win over the Red Sox at Comiskey Park, 3-2. Both Faber and Boston loser Carl Mays, rotation members, came on in relief and essentially pitched a second complete game on the day.

Faber went 10 scoreless innings on six hits, giving up one walk and whiffing eight to improve to 9-2. The White Sox as a team stood at 20-12, alone in first place in the American League.

The 17 innings were played in three hours, 25 minutes!

1943
The White Sox won the fastest nine-inning game they’ve ever played, 1-0 over the Senators at Comiskey Park. Johnny Humphries threw a three-hitter in a game that took just one hour, 29 minutes. Humphries in fact scored the game’s only run, doubling to lead off the fifth and getting singled home by Thurman Tucker.

1956
The White Sox made a six-player blockbuster trade with Baltimore, sending George Kell, Mike Fornieles, Connie Johnson and Bob Nieman to the Orioles for Dave Philley and Jim Wilson.

Philley, an outfielder and first baseman who’d spent his first seven season in the majors with the White Sox, part of seven seasons, had a poor finish to 1956 (-0.4 WAR, .701 OPS) and was swapped to Detroit in June 1957. Right-handed starter Wilson, presumably the headliner of the deal for the White Sox, was coming off of a stellar 1955 season with the Orioles but was mediocre in Chicago (0.8 WAR, 9-12, 4.06 ERA); he pitched for the ascendant White Sox in 1957 and 1958 as well, but saw his MLB career end after 1958.

Kell, a (very dubious) future Hall-of-Famer, was at the very end of his career yet still produced at a better-than-average clip for the remainder of 1956 and 1957. Fornieles was a swingman who could both start and close games, an average pitcher who nonetheless extended his career until 1963, mostly with Boston.

But the gems of this trade were Nieman and Johnson. Nieman was seeing no playing time in Chicago but broke out into stardom with the Orioles in 1956, putting up 4.0 WAR in just 114 games (.322/.442/.497); the left fielder would go on to a solid 17.4, WAR career over 12 seasons, 14.4 WAR coming with Baltimore. Johnson was a late bloomer who was very strong as a right-handed starter for the White Sox in 1955 and outright blooming in Baltimore, putting up 6.4 WAR and a 3.42 ERA in 87 games for the Orioles through 1958 to end his MLB career.

Although GM Frank Lane made his share of trade steals, but this one was a clear loss on his ledger, getting the two worst players of the trade for his trouble.

1980
Despite a 3-2 loss to Minnesota, the White Sox remained in first place in the AL West, at 22-16. Nearly 34,000 fans showed up at Comiskey Park on a 65° Wednesday night, excited over the prospect of fielding a competitive squad once again. Down 3-1 in the ninth, the White Sox put runners on the corners with one out but could only muster an RBI ground out and strikeout to end the game.

It was the start of a four-game losing streak that bounced the White Sox from first the next day. The White Sox would bid goodbye to a winning record a month later, but in a weak AL West stuck in and out of second place past the All-Star break, with a record as poor as 39-44.

The second half was a full free-fall, with a 32-49 record, as the White Sox finished the year in fifth place, at 70-90-2. Britt Burns, at 21, was brilliant for the club (15-13, 2.84 ERA, 11 complete games, and a 7.0 WAR that remains tied for 25th among all franchise seasons) and Chet Lemon had another solid year (4.2 WAR), but that was about it for a floundering franchise.

2009
The White Sox tied their team record for worst defeat when they were annihilated, 20-1, by the Twins at U.S. Cellular Field. The 19-run margin was first set on May 10, 2002 in Anaheim. 

Bartolo Colón, Lance Broadway and Jimmy Gobble gave up all the runs. Colón at least had something of an excuse — of the eight runs he allowed, seven were unearned!

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The Cleveland Guardians look to finish a four-game sweep and push their winning streak to six when they visit the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park this afternoon.

I’ll break down why I’m taking the visitors to break out the brooms in my Guardians vs. Tigers predictions and MLB picks for Thursday, May 21.

Who will win Guardians vs Tigers today: Guardians moneyline (+100)

The Cleveland Guardians come into the series finale as a slight underdog, but there’s plenty to like about the visitors in this matchup.

The Detroit Tigers are banged up, missing three starters in Gleyber Torres, Javier Baez, and Kerry Carpenter. Unsurprisingly, Detroit is 2-13 over its last 15 contests while mustering a mere 2.47 runs per game through that span.  

The Guardians, meanwhile, are 8-1 over their last nine, ranking second in runs scored (102) and third in on-base percentage (.347) among all teams this month.

COVERS INTEL: The Tigers are hitting .215 vs. left-handed pitching, the third-worst mark in the majors. Not ideal with Joey Cantillo on the bump for Cleveland.

Guardians vs Tigers Over/Under pick: Under 7.5 (-125)

Detroit has a dismal offense, but also a solid starter on the hill today in Casey Mize.

Mize, who has allowed one earned run or fewer in five of seven starts, carries a stingy 2.43 ERA and ranks in the 85th percentile in xBA (.211).

The Tigers can’t score, Mize won’t give up a ton, and both teams have bullpens with a sub-4.00 ERA. That all adds up to a third straight meeting with Under 7.5 runs.

Guardians vs Tigers odds

• Moneyline: Guardians +108 | Tigers -113
• Run line: Guardians -1.5 (+178) | Tigers +1.5 (-186)
• Over/Under: Over 7.5 (+117) | Under 7.5 (-122)

Guardians vs Tigers trend

Detroit has cashed the Under in five of its last six games. Find more MLB betting trends for Guardians vs. Tigers.

How to watch Guardians vs Tigers and game info

Guardians vs Tigers latest injuries

Guardians vs Tigers weather

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The Pittsburgh Pirates got a much-need 7-0 win last night over the St.Louis Cardinals. Carmen Mlodzinski pitched a stellar five innings, the bullpen got it done for a change, and Konnor Griffin went 4-for-5 at the plate with 3 runs scored on the evening. That stat line made Griffin the second-youngest player to have 4 hits an 3 runs in a game in the last 85 years. The only player younger to do it was Juan Soto. Pretty dang good company for Konnor.

In addition, Griffin raised his average on the year to .278, which is a far cry from the slow start he had, when some of us were questioning if he really should have been brought up from the Minors. I think he’s proving that is was the right decision.

In addition, Griffin has 3 homers on the year, 20 RBIs, and 10 stolen bases, as well as a .405 slugging percentage and a .738 OPS. Those aren’t earth-shattering numbers, but I think it’s pretty clear that not only does Konnor belong, he’s got every ounce of potential that we had hoped for.

Griffin wasn’t the only Buc blasting at the plate last night. Nick Gonzales went 2-for-4 to lift his average to .318 on the season. Spencer Horwitz hit his 4th homer of the year. And Endy Rodriguez went 2-for-3 at the plate and is now hitting .333 over limited action. Even Jhostynxon Garcia got in on the act, going 2-for-3 on the night. The Pirates showed off their improved batting order up and down the lineup, finishing with 15 team hits on the evening, but it was Griffin who stole the show, adding his name to the record books already as a 20-year-old rookie.

It’s been a long time since we’ve had optimism for the future like the Bucs do now, but with Paul Skenes and now Konnor Griffin leading the youth brigade for the Bucs, the future finally appears bright.