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Spring training is approaching fast, and with it the storylines for the 2026 Philadelphia Phillies season are starting to form. One of the predominant ones so far is the impending influx of youth that is due to make its way to the Major League roster from the farm. It’s something the Phillies haven’t seen in quite some time, so it will no doubt be one of the biggest themes of the spring.

One of those youths to be leading the movement is Justin Crawford. It is widely expected, and the team has almost confirmed as much by their words and their actions, that Crawford will be the team’s everyday starting center fielder when camp breaks in late March. It will likely be a highly anticipated debut, as calls for Crawford’s promotion reached a fever pitch last year before the team acquired Harrison Bader in a deadline trade with the Minnesota Twins.

Recent prospect rankings all have Crawford sitting somewhere among the top 50 to 60 prospects in baseball and among the top for outfielders. He has performed well at every level in the Minor Leagues, capped off with his 2025 season at Triple-A where he hit .334 with an .863 OPS across 112 games. But as you’re no doubt aware by now, he has some flaws that include a high groundball rate and a very “work-in-progress” look in center field.

Nevertheless, Crawford figures to get plenty of chances to prove himself at the Major League level in 2026. As mentioned before, he projects to start in center field and likely bat ninth in the Phillies lineup. If he can get on base with any sort of consistency, he could be a major run scoring factor with his speed on the bases ahead of the top of the order.

FanGraphs’ ZIPS projection for Crawford in 2026 is a .286/.337/.390 batting line with 1.5 WAR. If we use that as a baseline, what are your realistic expectations for Justin Crawford in 2026? Will he outperform those projections or underperform? Will he take the starting CF job and run with it, or will he struggle out of the gate? What’s your prediction for a final batting line?

On Wednesday, the Detroit Tigers made the biggest addition of the Scott Harris era. After a pretty quiet offseason that drew a ton of frustration from the fanbase, they made one of the biggest moves of the offseason by signing left-handed free agent starter to a three year deal worth $115 million. Valdez will have the ability to opt out after the second year, giving him some freedom to pursue his next deal in the 2027-2028 offseason, after the next CBA is completed.

This is a huge move for the Tigers and it came right out of the blue on Wednesday evening. Valdez elevates the Tigers from a slightly above average team into a good one with a much more durable pitching staff, whose playoff odds will skyrocket after this move. The Tigers are instantly two wins better, and possibly more as the cascading effect of pushing starters into the bullpen adds up over the course of the season. Maybe more to the point, this is a move designed to make the Tigers better in October and beyond as well.

For four years straight, Valdez has ranked as one of the top 15 pitchers in baseball. His durability, command, and high ground ball rates enable him to eat up innings, prevent home runs, and generally make it very difficult for teams to drop a big number on him. Not only is he rocking a clean 3.21 ERA and 3.29 FIP combination in that timespan, he’s also averaging over six innings per start, which isn’t so easy to find these days. Valdez is going to be a godsend to A.J. Hinch as he can deploy his bullpen aggressively knowing he’s got Skubal and Valdez to keep them more rested on their start days.

Valdez has averaged roughly 60 percent ground balls over that four year span. Typically he keeps opponents’ line drive rates low as well, making it very tough for them to do any major damage. Beyond the batted ball table, his walk rates are average, so even when he does give up homers or extra base hits, he isn’t hurting himself much by putting people on base to be driven in either.

Valdez hasn’t been too victimized by the Crawford Boxes in Houston. It’s possible Comerica Park would have held a couple of home runs in 2025, but the difference isn’t that significant. Below is a chart of all Valdez’s fly balls allowed, with Comerica Park’s dimensions overlaid. One or two balls may heve left Comerica that Minute Maid Park held in play. So it probably balances out. Valdez only allowed 15 home runs across 31 starts in 2025 anyway.

Valdez’s strikeout rates need to hold up

If there’s a question mark with Valdez, it’s whether he can continue to strike out an above average amount of hitters. His strikeout rates have dipped a little bit each year since his peak in 2023. His command and the consistency of his sinker say that walks and homers aren’t going to be an issue and he should be able to sustain his performance into his mid-30’s in both respects. The question is whether the whiffs will hold up or whether hitters will start putting the ball in play a little more in the years ahead. He doesn’t feature the nasty slider or splitter, nor the high 90’s gas that typically leads to huge whiff rates.

Bolstering the strikeout argument is the steadiness of his whiff rates over the past four years. He’s posted whiff rates of 11.3, 11.6, 11.4, and 11.5 percent over those seasons. So there’s no sign of a falloff. More importantly, his whiffs come from the curveball and the changeup. So the moderate decline in fastball velocity since his peak isn’t really involved there too much. The curveball drew a whopping 43.7 percent whiff rate in 2025, while the changeup was at 28.7 percent, which is solid. He will mix in the odd slider as well, but while that pitch has at times been effective, he’s really relegated it to a rarely thrown fourth pitch over the last two seasons.

Valdez leads with his sinker, which he typically used 45 percent of the time. He averaged 93.7 mph with it in 2025, which is still pretty good gas for a lefty starter, but pedestrian compared to the league’s starters overall. His second most used offering is his curveball, which he threw 33 percent of the time in 2025. The 79-80 mph breaker has good depth and can add tilt to it and vary the break against hitters of either hand, but it’s his main secondary weapon against lefties. He’ll mix in the more average changeup against right-handed hitters.

His peak sinker velocity was 95.7 mph in 2023. The past two seasons that’s dipped to 94.5 mph in 2024 and 93.7 mph in 2025. That’s not an ideal trend, but again, it hasn’t impacted his underlying performance. He gives up plenty of hard contact against it, but hardly any of it is in the air and it’s not the pitch he racks up his whiffs against in the first place. The sinker only accounts for 12-14 percent of his whiffs in recent years, so as long as he’s keeping the ball on the ground with it and surpressing home runs, the whole package looks very sustainable.

The movement profiles on the sinker, curveball, and changeup have all remained steady over the past few years as well. So short of an injury or some real disaster in terms of his stuff, the results should continue to be very good.

Advantages and disadvantages in moving to Detroit

While I don’t think the change in ballparks is going to have much of an effect based on the spray charts up above, pitching in a little cold weather in the spring is probably to his advantage. Hitters hate a nasty sinkerballer in cold weather and Valdez is outstanding in terms of setting hitters up and jamming them with sinkers that numb hands and get beaten into the ground. The rare one that gets lifted may be smothered a bit by the cold weather early in the year. So, I wouldn’t expect Valdez to be better in Comerica Park, but it is a factor that could help him early on as long as he’s as comfortable throwing in colder weather as hitters are uncomfortable hitting in it.

While we’re big fans of the Tigers’ coaching staff, Houston is typically well coached on the pitching side. It’s doubtful that Chris Fetter and Robin Lund are going to squeeze much extra out of Valdez that the Astros didn’t get to. However, he will get a major upgrade in catchers going from Victor Caratini and a cast of depth catchers to Dillon Dingler and Jake Rogers. Valdez thrives by pounding the bottom edges of the zone for strikes and weak contact, and Dingler in particular got a lot better at getting low strikes over the past two years. The catching upgrade in Detroit is going to be good for Framber Valdez.

The big fly in the ointment is that the Tigers infield isn’t as good as defensively. DRS says the difference isn’t that great, but per Outs Above Average via Statcast, the Astros infield collected 38 more OAA than the Tigers did last year. There really are no signs of a defensive upgrade coming for the Tigers either. Until some of the kids arrive, they’re basically running back the same infield. Gleyber Torres played through a hernia for two months, so perhaps his defensive numbers will rebound somewhat, but they also played Zach McKinstry a lot at third base. If Colt Keith plays a lot more third base and McKinstry is at shortstop, things could look worse rather than better. The imminent arrival of Kevin McGonigle isn’t going to change that equation a whole lot unless he’s playing second base. Either way, Valdez is probably going to give up a few more hits over the course of the season than he did with the Astros infield behind him.

All around, there are advantages in pitching for the Tigers for Valdez, but most of them may be negated by worse infield play. The Tigers are really just looking for the same results for two or three years, however, and on that front things look pretty positive. He should have no trouble giving the Tigers 3.0-4.0 fWAR seasons unless a real physical breakdown occurs. Valdez keeps himself in shape and is pretty ferociously competitive and hard-working by reputation, with some chip on his shoulder, but it’s all the luck of the draw where pitcher injuries are concerned.

Putting Valdez into the Tigers rotation alongside Tarik Skubal gives them a case to have the best 1-2 punch and perhaps the best starting rotation in all of baseball. It improves their bullpen and their pitching depth for 2025 by pushing guys like Troy Melton, Drew Anderson, and Keider Montero to the pen until they’re needed to fill in a rotation spot. Valdez also offers the Tigers a good starting pitcher to keep leading the way beyond 2026 once Tarik Skubal presumably departs in free agency.

The 2026 Detroit Tigers now look like more of a force to be reckoned with in the American League and hopefully deep into October. They aren’t a powerhouse yet but they project like a good team and perhaps the class of the AL If they get some help from their top prospects by season’s end, and have a successful trade deadline, they may even be a problem for the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers. For now, it’s just great to see more serious commitment from ownership and the front office to try to win right now, while developing post-Skubal contingencies at the same time.

Last week, Red Sox fans Damon Campagna, Lily Rose Smith and Patrick Spaulding filed a class-action lawsuit against the team in U.S. District Court, alleging that it charged illegal junk fees from at least 2022 through 2024 and used “drip pricing” to inflate the stated costs for tickets. I believe them.

To be clear, I believed them as soon as I saw the first headline about all this. As I am not a court of law, I am under no obligation to find the team innocent until proven guilty. I relish doing the opposite, in fact. I nonetheless read the criminal complaint. After doing so, I still believe them, but I am now angry.

To be clear, I am not just mad at the Red Sox, who in this writer’s opinion are obviously guilty of the charges, and who stopped the scheme before last season likely because of its obvious illegality and/or because the team was finally good enough, after a self-induced swoon, to render it unnecessary. I am also mad at myself for having paid junk fees like this over and over, having accepted it as the cost of doing business when holding bad actors accountable is at least theoretically possible. 

All of which is to say that the complaint is the extreme, uncut good stuff, and an incredible look at how the team allegedly squeezed money equally from high- and low-priced ticket buyers through what appears to be an algorithmic, inconsistently applied process. The plaintiffs claim there were two interrelated mechanisms at work: “drip-pricing,” in which a good’s full cost is slowly increased throughout the buying process, and “junk fees,” which are exactly what they sound like and include absurdities like “Per-Ticket Fees” and “Order Fees.”

These practices differ insofar as legitimate fees (like taxes) can be used in a drip pricing scheme, but that’s about it. It’s really about the marriage of the two; specifically, it’s about how the team allegedly leveraged “drip pricing” to add variably priced “Per-Ticket Fees” and a flat, usually $7 “Order Fee” to rip off buyers from the front row to the last. The Red Sox, naturally, did not comment on the suit, only saying that they team “always follows the law.” 

It’s a good thing, then, that the complaint covers at least a portion of that silence up front, noting that “the team never even pretended that these fees covered anything of value to buyers independent of the tickets the buyers had already shown interest in purchasing.” It also notes that “Per-Ticket Fees” varied depending on the price of the originally chosen seat – running from $.50 for cheaper options to $8.50 for more expensive ones – and the opponent, correctly saying that “it does not cost the Red Sox more to issue a ticket to a game against the Yankees than to a game against the Brewers,” despite the costs differing. It also takes on the “Order Fees,” flatly stating that “it does not cost the Red Sox $7 to process each” transaction.

All told, the complaint alleges that if the team sold 2.5 million tickets per year with average junk fees of $4 per ticket, they’d have pocketed $6 million in the event that only 20% of inventory was “tainted” this way. Given that the team happened to *coincidentally* close down sales at its Fenway Park box office in 2022 – where one could previously bypass “Order Fees” – that number is likely far closer to 100% than 20% (my words) and “the actual damages are likely far in excess of that amount” (theirs). The complaint says the team’s actions constitute “unfair or deceptive acts or practices” under Massachusetts law.

Putting aside the legal issue, anyone charging an “Order Fee” for the convenience of buying a ticket online is theoretically acting amorally; perhaps it would be one thing for a struggling business to do it, but that doesn’t describe the Red Sox. No matter how the court rules, the team is already guilty of being shitty to its fans. Not was — is. Two tickets to this year’s April 6 game against the Brewers will run you $8.75 each in fees, which are ridiculous even if they are now stated up-front alongside the ostensible “face value” of the ticket. April 22nd against the Yankees? $11.75 each. You get the picture. The Sox have stopped hiding the fact they have extortionate pricing practices, but it doesn’t make them virtuous.

And yet, they’re happy to do business this way, because they think it’s the right way. Maybe it is. Their house, their rules, after all. I don’t expect much will change going forward, but if they lose this lawsuit – and frankly, I don’t know how they’d win it – they’ll just increase the up-front fees going forward to recoup the difference. They say you can’t predict baseball, and in most cases they’re right. This is the exception to the rule. Without legislation and enforcement, the Sox will continue to steal as much from us as they possibly can. It sucks!

Meet the Mets

Newest Met Freddy Peralta is already in camp and said he will not pitch for the Dominican Republic in the upcoming World Baseball Classic.

Nolan McLean also reported early and is looking forward to his first big league camp.

Spring training officially starts next week and Anthony DiComo wrote an handy guide for everything fans need to know when it gets under way.

The Pirates are reportedly interested in acquiring Brett Baty or Mark Vientos but no trade involving either player is imminent.

Seven Mets prospects made Baseball Prospectus’s top 101 Prospect list.

Around the National League East

The Braves released their non-roster invitee list made up of both prospects and veterans hoping to make the team out of camp.

Jim Bowden gave the Marlins a solid grade after the moves president of baseball operations Peter Bendix made this offseason.

Despite being the reigning division champions, the Phillies will have a tough battle on their hands this season with the other teams in the divison improving over the winter.

Around Major League Baseball

The Tigers reportedly signed free agent Framber Valdez to a three-year deal worth $115 million.

Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal had his arbitration hearing and the ruling is expected shortly.

Former Tiger hero Mickey Lolich passed away at the age of 85.

The Red Sox signed infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa to a one-year, $6 million contract.

The fight over control of the Padres between the widow of late owner Peter Seidler and his brothers appears to be over but the club could still end up being sold.

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

Brian Salvatore previewed Christian Scott’s season.

Nolan McLean is Steve Sypa’s number one prospect in the Mets system.

This Date in Mets History

On this date in 1903 the team’s first owner, Joan Payson, was born.

We’re only days away from Orioles pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training to prepare for the 2026 season. It’s the time of year when optimism abounds and fans everywhere can hope for the best from their favorite team. The O’s are no exception, and yesterday you let us know what most excites you about the 2026 Orioles.

Still, even as hope springs eternal, we know that not everything will go according to plan this season. Look no further than the 2025 Orioles for an example of how a few glaring weaknesses can torpedo a team’s high expectations. So now we’d like to hear from you: as of today, what’s your biggest concern about the 2026 Orioles?

For me, the answer is the defense, particularly the outfield defense. Right now the O’s seem to be lined up to have below-average defenders at every outfield spot, at least when Dylan Beavers isn’t starting. Their two new additions to the lineup, Pete Alonso and Taylor Ward, are coming off of subpar defensive seasons, joining a group of holdovers who weren’t particularly stellar with the leather last year. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll tank the Orioles’ season, but it’s something to keep an eye on.

How about you, Camden Chatters? What are you concerned about? Do the starting pitching and/or bullpen feel a little light? Are you unconvinced that the offense will rebound from its 2025 malaise, even with Alonso and Ward on board? Let us know in the comments.

MLB Now always runs their Top 10 at every position before the season starts. Wednesday was Third Baseman day.

According to The Shredder, Max Muncy is #2 on their list, ahead of Manny Machado, Alex Bregman, and Bo Bichette, among others. That may come as a surprise to some fans, who complained about Muncy’s defense last season. The older Max Muncy, not to be confused with the one on the Athletics, appeared in 100 games last season, with a slash line of .243/.376/.470/.846 with 19 homers. He had a 3.6 WAR, the highest of his last four seasons.

While he has missed a lot of time due to injury over the last two seasons, he also is top three in walk rate in the Majors. In that same time frame, among all third basemen, he was 1st in OBP, walk percentage and xwOBA, fourth in slugging, second in wRC+, and seventh in WAR,

Muncy will turn 36 in August and will be a free agent at the end of the season. Ranked #2 in all of baseball is not too shabby if a bit unexpected, and hopefully it will propel him to signing another contract with the team and retiring in Dodger Blue. One thing we definitely know is that he will retire with more World Series rings than Machado.

Eric talked about the state of the Dodgers infield yesterday.

After wildfires ripped through Pacific Palisades and Altadena last January, Governor Gavin Newsom announced in front of Dodger Stadium that there would be an initiative called LA Rises, to which philanthropists and the private sector could donate to, to help those affected recover.

Mark Walter, Chairman and controlling owner of the Dodgers, announced that he along with two of his charities, his family foundation and the Dodgers’ foundation, would donate up to $100 million. To date, only $7.8 million has been donated. LA Rises itself has only delivered $20 million to date. Bill Shaikin of the LA Times covers why that is so, and if any further money is coming to those who really need it.

Happy Anniversary to us! Six years ago, on February 4th, the Dodgers made the big move to bring Mookie Betts and David Price to the Dodgers. Mookie now has four World Series rings and will retire in Dodger Blue. Another masterclass move by Andrew Friedman.

Mike Petriello at MLB has a great article about how moving the fences at the K may help the Royals.

Consider this: That’s approximately four homers more per season for Perez over the past half-decade. He’s played the equivalent of 12 full seasons, counting partial years across his 14-year career. Were you to apply four homers to each of those 12 seasons – and you shouldn’t, really, because he’s a player who has aged and changed over time, but bear with us here – that’s 48 more.

In reality, the career gap between Perez’s 132 home-field homers and 171 road dingers is 39, which isn’t all that far off from the roughly estimated missing 48. Perez has 303 career homers as it is, 14 behind George Brett for the franchise record. But playing with these dimensions all along, he might have already cracked the 350 mark, or at least be close to doing so.

Michael Baumann at Fangraphs writes about what Jac Caglianone needs to do in his second MLB season.

Caglianone was so awful in his first taste of major league action — and so unbelievably dominant at every step before then — that I wouldn’t ask him to make dramatic changes to his swing or approach based on a third of a season. The batted ball numbers being what they were, I’d give him some rope and see how much of the ugliness of last year off-gasses on its own.

But if that doesn’t happen, the Royals will still be at least one big bat away from being able to make a run. Whether Caglianone can put his rookie year behind him — and to what extent — could end up swinging the AL Central race.

Jaylon Thompson writes about the strengths and weaknesses of the infield.

However, second base is the position to watch. The Royals expect Jonathan India to draw the bulk of the playing time at the keystone spot. He is a tenured veteran but was inconsistent during his first season with the Royals.

India admitted he didn’t feel comfortable in his new environment. He needed time to adjust to the Royals, Kauffman Stadium and his new situation. India also battled through nagging injuries that sapped his effectiveness.

The Royals pondered whether to non-tender India this offseason. They ultimately decided to keep him and bank on a resurgent 2026 campaign. Now, India will operate alongside teammate Michael Massey at second base.

Kevin O’Brien at Royals Keep lists five Royals sleeper pitching prospects to watch.

The Tigers sign Framber Valdez to a three-year, $115 million deal.

Outfielder Miguel Andujar signs a one-year, $4 million contract with the Padres.

The Red Sox sign Isaiah Kiner-Falefa to a one-year, $6 million deal.

Pittsburgh signs pitcher Mike Clevinger to a minor league deal.

Zac Gallen would love to return to the Diamondbacks.

Former Diamondbacks outfielder David Peralta retires.

The Pirates are interested in Marcell Ozuna.

Who are the favorites heading into the World Baseball Classic?

The family of late Padres owner Peter Seidler works out a partial agreement on ownership of the team.

Frank Thomas is mad at the White Sox for omitting him from a Black History Month social media post.

Detroit Tigers World Series hero Mickey Lolich dies at age 85.

A look at the relationship between pitch framing and pitch blocking.

The Dallas Mavericks trade Anthony Davis to Washington.

The Washington Post dismantles its sports section.

An enormous pair of hot blobs deep inside Earth may shape our magnetic fields.

China is banning hidden door handles over safety concerns.

A look back at some of the most talked-about Super Bowl halftime shows.

Your song of the day is Prince and the Revolution with Let’s Go Crazy.

Good morning, baseball fans!

As we approach Spring Training and the beginning of the season, we’re going to be doing some questions for y’all about your thoughts about the San Francisco Giants and baseball in general!

Today’s question is kind of an odd one, but interesting to examine, at least for me. Which season changed the way you watch baseball?

For me, this question has multiple answers. I guess the first one would be 1993 because that was the season that Barry Bonds signed with the team and instantly became my favorite player, which made me begin to pay a lot more attention to the game.

The next answer would be 2000, because that was both the year that Oracle Park opened, and the first time I went to a Giants game in person. My dad’s company had season tickets, so we ended up going about once a week and seeing the action in person made me not just fall even more in love with the game, it made me fall in love with the ballpark. As someone who has moved more times than I can count, the ballpark still feels like home in a way that most places I’ve lived never did.

I think 2002 has to go on the list as well, because that was the first time I truly understood sports pain and sadness. While it didn’t help me avoid it in the future, it was the first time baseball truly broke my heart.

I think I would have to also say 2015, for me personally. I had just moved to a completely different part of the state so I had a lot more free time than I used to. And after having just watched them win three World Series championships, I really, really dug in on my love of the team. I started watching every single game religiously, and started keeping a scorecard for most of them. It’s also the year that I joined the community of McCovey Chronicles and decided that I wanted to write like Grant. I’ll never achieve that last part, but he did hire me to write here so I guess I did something right!

Which season changed the way you watch baseball?

Giancarlo Stanton sits 47 home runs away from 500 for his career, that nice round number that counts for quite a bit in Hall of Fame discussion. It does feel like that chase will come right down to the wire, with Stanton’s contract running through the 2027 season but with some kind of labor stoppage likely after the CBA expires in November, Big G might miss #500 because he’ll just run out of games. He’ll be 38 trying to find a roster spot in 2028 — the Yankees do have a club option for that year — and teams already have to pencil in some IL time for him every year.

Some other Yankees are also looking up at milestone achievements though, and we can expect some big ones in 2026. Barring injury, Aaron Judge should hit hit 400th home run and score his 1000th run in MLB, needing 32 and 127 respectively. That 400th dinger comes with a little something extra; if Judge can hit 32 home runs in less than 621 at-bats, he’ll eclipse that mark — pun intended, as McGwire did it in 4726 ABs — faster than any player in Major League history.

It’s rather remarkable that we should expect all three accomplishments, the 400th homer, the AB constraint, and the 1000 runs scored, to come in one season because that’s just how good Aaron Judge has been in this peak of his career. 32 home runs would be seen as a significant step back from his usual production, and Aaron’s passed 127 runs scored in 2025, 2022 and 2017, while falling five short in 2024. FanGraphs’ Depth Charts projects Judge to blast past 400 home runs, but not quite reach 1000 runs scored, but projection systems often struggle when a player is so far above the typical MLB baseline.

Max Fried, meanwhile, needs just eight wins to hit 100 for his career, while his fellow lefty Carlos Rodón needs seven. Both should be reachable in 2026, although questions about when exactly Rodón will return from elbow surgery linger. Depth Charts pegs him for 28 starts, which would mean missing about the first month of the season, and that feels appropriate to the Yankees’ level of caution. If he’s back before that and as effective as he was last year, both southpaws should get over the century mark.

Lastly, there’s a very, very outside chance Gerrit Cole crosses a major strikeout threshold, as he sits 249 punchouts short of 2500. I think this is likely to be a scenario like Stanton’s mentioned above, where we will probably have to wait and see how many games get played in 2027 before we can accurately project when or if Cole will ever get to that number. He hasn’t struck out that many men since 2022, and coming off of Tommy John surgery at 35, I expect the Yankees to be even more careful with the righty than they’ll be with Rodón. Still, a 1 percent chance of something happening is worth the fantasy.

What’s really striking when you do posts like this is how many players the Yankees have that are building very real Hall of Fame cases for themselves. Fried and Rodón aren’t there yet of course, but Stanton and Judge and Cole will all get serious consideration and likely enshrinement if their careers wrap up with some grace and without a crater. That the Yankees could assemble so much talent over multiple seasons and have no rings to show for it though, is perhaps more of an indictment of the organization than anything else.

Continuing our February Daily Question series, we’re beginning today’s conversation with the question, “When did you become a tried and true Brewer fan?

For me, someone born at the turn of the century, I (thankfully) haven’t had to endure many terrible seasons. I fell in love with baseball when I was five, but moreso from playing it rather than watching it. The 2007 and 2008 seasons were the first time I really remember Brewer baseball, following their playoff races down the stretch.

For that reason, CC Sabathia quickly became my favorite Brewer, and he’s remained somewhere in my top 10 list ever since (I’ve mentioned this before, but Sal Frelick is No. 1, simply because his last name is so close to mine). That fandom from 2007 and 2008 grew into the 2010s, stretching into the modern era of Milwaukee’s consistent playoff competitiveness.

I went to playoff games at Miller Park/American Family Field with my dad in 2018, 2021, 2023, and 2024, including the heartbreaking NL Wild Card loss to the Mets in 2024, which also turned out to be my dad’s last game as he passed away from Parkinson’s disease & Lewy body dementia in January 2025.

I made sure to honor his memory in the 2025 playoffs, going to a pair of Brewers NLDS wins over the Cubs (including the epic Game 5) and Game 1 of the NLCS against the Dodgers with friends and family.

All that to say, my love for the Brewers is bigger than ever, even if they sometimes (often) disappoint me in the postseason.

When did your love of the Crew begin?

Weigh in in the comments, and join us throughout the month as we keep these conversations rolling into spring training. Have a question you’d like to ask in a future BCB Daily Question? Drop one in the comments, and we may use it later this month.