You got a date Friday night? It’s okay if you don’t. The Boston Celtics have a date with the Brooklyn Nets, and you can watch. I’m here to prepare you for this game with a handful of plays, matchups, and tactics that could decide the winner. Let’s get into it.
Over the Hedge
Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez loves to play on the front foot. Despite the youth of his roster and the transient nature of many of the role players, he’s going to get aggressive in order to pressure his opponents. That involves a lot of hedging in pick-and-rolls when his team is facing pull-up shooters.
That’s a tactic in which the roll man defender rises above the screen to disrupt the ballhandler’s momentum, then retreats to cover his own man. Typically, this involves someone stunting the roller or providing early help if a pass comes over the top. It takes away easy pull-up threes (something the Celtics thrive on), but it exposes them to easier roll reads. Here’s the gamble Fernandez took in their last game: the Nets will live with whatever happens on the roll instead of letting the trigger-happy Celtics guards get easy three-point looks. Neemias Queta took that strategy and put it in the dirt.
The Nets love throwing a hedge at shooting ballhandlers. That makes Neemias Queta's short-roll decision making and lob catching awfully important for Friday's game pic.twitter.com/a7hgxcPFuj
In very typical Fernandez fashion, this scheme ratchets up the pressure on both teams. Queta has to roll into the right spot and receive a good pass from his guard. The Nets have to rotate properly to stop the roll, then cover the immediate passing options. Queta has to decide where to pass, and his teammates need to cut/relocate into space to help with his read. It’s a fragile chain of events for both sides and whoever executes on that chain of events will be at a big advantage.
Pressure Flare
Flare screens are a pet action for the Celtics. When you have a plethora of shooters and good screeners, it’s an easy way to generate threes and drives. Facing a Nets team that plays four rookies in the rotation, even your simplest actions can cause communication problems. Flare-based actions created all kinds of problems for Brooklyn in the last matchup.
Boston threw a heavy dose of flare screens at the Nets in their last matchup. Make the young team communicate, and you're likely to get some decent looks. Expecting more of the same tomorrow pic.twitter.com/pQKMsG45j2
Brooklyn is 29th in defensive rim attempt frequency and 21st in defensive rim FG% according to Cleaning the Glass. It doesn’t take much to break the paint against this team; Joe Mazzulla can lean on easy actions to drum up drives. Look for plenty of flare screens on Friday night.
Lockdown Neem
The Nets have a problem with rim pressure on defense, but not as much on offense. Seven of their rotation players have rim rates at 50% or better this season. Perimeter prevention is important, but some of these Nets are going to get to the rim sooner than later. This is another pressure point for Neemias Queta, who needs to be his best rim-protecting self on Friday. Luckily for the Celtics, he was that guy in their November matchups.
Neemias Queta's rim protection will be a big swing factor tomorrow night against the Nets pic.twitter.com/JmSB2og4N9
Timely rotations and big blocks can hamstring a Nets offense that has been on life support recently. If Neem gets active early and deters them from venturing into his paint, that’ll go a long way towards the win.
I hope you feel a bit more prepared for this game. Now kick back and bask in some Celtics excellence.
For the second consecutive year and for the fourth time since 2022, Shohei Ohtani was named as the best player in baseball by MLB Network entering the 2026 season. Ohtani beat out Aaron Judge for a second consecutive year, with Bobby Witt Jr. once again placing third behind the pair of two-time reigning MVPs.
Ohtani has had arguably the best start to his Dodgers tenure over his first two seasons, as he won the NL MVP in both 2024 and 2025 while helping the Dodgers become the first repeat champions in 25 years. He became the first Dodger to hit 50 home runs in a season in 2024 (finishing with 54) and outdid himself this past season with a new franchise single-season home run record of 55. Not to mention the fact that he became the founding member of the 50-50 club, a feat that no other player has come close to achieving thus far.
Ohtani was named the best player in baseball following the 2021 and 2022 season, but finished as runner-up to Ronald Acuña Jr. following the 2023 season after the latter posted the first 40-70 season in baseball history. Three other Dodgers finished in the top-20 of MLB Network’s list, with Will Smith ranked at no. 20, Mookie Betts at no. 18 and Yoshinobu Yamamoto at no. 13. Both Freddie Freeman and Kyle Tucker placed just outside the top-20, coming in at no. 22 and 21 respectively.
Links
Dylan Hernandez and Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times (soon to be with the California Post) appeared on The Show with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman to discuss the Dodgers offseason. During the episode, the four discussed the enigmatic Ohtani and how it’s been a challenge to understand what he is like as a person and off the field.
Per Hernandez: “In all this time that I’ve known [Ohtani], I’ve never had a human-to-human conversation with him— it’s always been athlete-to-reporter. That’s very rare… He’s a complete mystery. I’ve never seen anybody quite like this.”
Jayson Stark of The Athletic provides a sneak peak into the 2027 Hall of Fame class, with notable names such as Buster Posey and Jon Lester entering their first year of eligibility. Chase Utley, who finished with 59.1 percent of votes on the 2026 ballot, still has a long ways to go, but Stark argues that Utley’s career hit total could give him a compelling case considering Posey, a three-time champion and the 2012 NL MVP, retired with 1500 hits to his name.
It’s a big leap from 59.1 percent to 75 percent, so 2027 might be a longshot for election. But if Posey is about to get elected with only 1,500 hits, Utley’s 1,855 won’t feel like much of an obstacle anymore.
While the Toronto Maple Leafs will be looking to exact revenge on Mitch Marner and the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday, Toronto got no favors from their incoming opponents, who fell to the Boston Bruins 4-3 on Thursday.
The Bruins picked up two points in the standings to increase their lead on the Leafs for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference by three. It should be noted that the Leafs (57 points in 50 games) have a game in hand on the Bruins (60 points in 51 games).
Eastern Conference Wild Card standings per NHL.com
Meanwhile, the Buffalo Sabres, who hold the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, picked up a 4-2 win on the road against the Montreal Canadiens. The Sabres have 61 points in 50 games. The only thing that could have been worse for Toronto is if the game had gone to overtime and the Canadiens squeaked out a point. However, that was not the case here.
The defending Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers picked up a 2-1 shootout victory over the Winnipeg Jets. They moved to just two points back of the Leafs in the Eastern Conference standings with 55 points in 49 games while also having a game in hand on Toronto. As far as tiebreakers go, if Florida gets level with Toronto, the Panthers have five more regulation wins in Toronto and that serves as the first tiebreaker.
The good news for Toronto is that the Ottawa Senators fell 5-3 to the Nashville Predators. Ottawa remains four points back of the Leafs.
As it turns out, scoring three goals in less than a minute is a winning strategy!
The Bruins scored three goals in a 52-second span of the first period, added another in the second, then held off a late Vegas charge to earn a 4-3 win at TD Garden.
The first two goals of the game, one by Charlie McAvoy and one by Elias Lindholm, came just 30 seconds apart during a costly double-minor to Vegas’s Tomas Hertl.
David Pastrnak led the way on offense for the B’s, recording a goal and two assists.
Joonas Korpisalo made 30 saves in the win. The Finnish netminder has won his last four starts and six of his last eight.
McAvoy got the scoring started just nine seconds into the aforementioned double minor, making it 1-0 Bruins.
The Bruins grinders forced a turnover a few seconds after the ensuing puck drop, and Tanner Jeannot capitalized with great shot to beat Akira Schmid and make it 3-0 Bruins.
After falling behind 6-0 in Dallas on Tuesday night, the Bruins decided to take the opposite approach on Thursday night and go ahead 4-0. It seems like that might be a better strategy. Thank you for reading my analysis.
Per Judd Sirrott on the NESN broadcast, the Golden Knights came into last night’s game with one the best road penalty kills in the league, making B’s doubly successful power play even more impressive.
While the recent (until Dallas) winning run was a team effort, Korpisalo has been quietly good for a while now. While he might like the Dorofeyev goal back, he made a few big saves early in the first period prior to the B’s goal-scoring outburst. While Korpisalo had his struggles earlier in the season, he has rounded into form of late.
Lindholm and Morgan Geekie also had multi-point nights for the B’s, with Lindholm having a goal and an assist and Geekie having two assists.
The B’s managed to hold Vegas to a 1-for-4 mark on their own power plays, an impressive feat against the league’s fourth-best power play.
The B’s will be back in action on Saturday night, hosting the Montreal Canadiens at TD Garden.
On February 1, 2025, former Mavericks GM Nico Harrison changed the lives of everyone associated with the Dallas Mavericks when he traded Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers in the most shocking trade in recent sports history.
The move sparked immediate outrage and shock from the entire league and resulted in Harrison’s firing nine months later — a swift, but necessary resolution to one of the most shocking betrayals to a fanbase from a sports executive in league history.
Now, nearly a year later, the Lakers will be coming to Dallas for the second time since the trade commenced. Los Angeles’ first trip back — a 112-97 April 9 Lakers win where Dončić dominated the Mavericks to cheers from the American Airlines Center crowd — felt like something out of a sports movie. Home fans rooting for an opposing player throughout the game is exceptionally rare, especially in modern sports, yet it happened in April and I expect it to happen again Saturday.
It’s been a year unlike any other in sports fandom. Here’s a look back at a 12-month span that forever altered the Dallas Mavericks, from the fans to the players to the front office.
February 1, 2025, 11:12 CST: The Tweet
Late in the evening of February 1, ESPN’s Shams Charania shocked the world when he announced the Dallas Mavericks were trading Dončić, Maxi Kleber, and Markieff Morris to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick in a three-team deal that included the Utah Jazz.
Fans across all teams immediately thought the tweet was a farce. “Has Shams been hacked?” started trending on social media and Charania told the Old Man and the Three podcast that his phone was blowing up with questions about if he’d been hacked.
“I answered five people on phone calls, texts I couldn’t, it was literally up to 300 messages,” he recalled.
But the trade was real, stunning the world. ESPN’s Tim MacMahon reported that night that Harrison “believed defense wins championships” and that the Mavericks had “major concerns” about moving forward with Dončić due to his “constant conditioning issues.”
February 8, 2025: Davis makes debut after fans protest trade
A week later, the Mavericks hosted the Houston Rockets in Anthony Davis’ debut as a Maverick, but the headlines that day weren’t focused on the game; it was on the scene outside the arena.
Thousands of fans flooded Victory Plaza outside the arena to protest the historic trade. People held signs, chanted “Fire Nico” and voiced their displeasure at the move. Inside the arena, Davis and the Mavericks defeated the Rockets, but the Mavericks’ new star exited the game in the third quarter with an injury.
For many, the trade was a turning point, ticket sales declined 40% that season after the trade. In November, the team’s 24-season streak of sellout games was snapped.
February 25, 2025: Dončić faces Mavericks for first time
Dallas traveled to Los Angeles to play the Lakers three weeks later with Harrison in attendance. The Lakers defeated the Mavericks, 107-99, with Dončić securing a triple double in the win. Davis missed the game with an injury.
Inside Crypto.com arena,“ Thank you, Nico!” chants erupted from the Lakers faithful. Harrison was in attendance for the game, and it was likely the last public sporting event where he’d ever receive a positive reception.
April 9, 2025: Dončić returns to Dallas
Two months after the trade, Dončić returned to American Airlines Center in one of the most surreal games I’ve ever witnessed as a fan. Purple and gold jerseys flooded AAC — which wasn’t uncommon for a Lakers road game, Los Angeles has one of the fiercest fanbases in the NBA — but most of the jerseys had one name: Dončić.
Purple and gold meshed with navy blue and white with the same name donned across the back. The Mavericks played a video tribute before the game for Dončić, who teared up on the sidelines as fans applauded the then-25 year old’s tenure in Dallas that included a 2022 Western Conference Finals run and a 2024 NBA Finals run.
Then, the game started, and if you thought Dončić would start slow due to the emotionof the game, he quickly showed the fans and the world just how big a mistake the Mavericks made.
He lit up the Mavericks, scoring 45 points on 16-28 shooting, including 7-10 from three-point range. Dallas fans erupted with every made basket, almost as if to rebel against their own team. Dončić added eight rebounds, six assists and four steals for good measure, and the Lakers clinched a playoff spot while Dallas dropped yet another game, a common theme for the post-Dončić era.
“It was little bit of both happy and angry, but it’s nice to see some familiar faces here,” Dončić said after the game. “…I really appreciate the fans.”
May 12, 2025: Mavericks win draft lottery
The Dallas Mavericks defied all odds and won the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery, despite having just a 1.8% chance to secure the No. 1 pick. It was the first time in franchise history Dallas had moved up in the draft lottery and it put them in position to draft Cooper Flagg.
In June, Dallas did just that, drafting Flagg with the No. 1 pick and beginning a new era of Mavericks basketball. The front office made it clear they were trying to move on and turn over a new leaf. The fans were not yet ready to do so.
November 10, 2025: Tensions boil over
Harrison had tried for nine months to outlast the fan outrage, hoping a flashy new rookie and visions of him, Davis, and Kyrie Irving would soothe fan’s rage.
It did not.
On November 10, tensions boiled over when the Mavericks faced off against the Milwaukee Bucks. Dallas blew a 13-point 4th-quarter lead, but had a chance to tie the game late after P.J. Washington, who had pleaded with fans to stop their chants during the game, stepped to the line to shoot three free throws with Dallas down 3.
Time seemed to stand still in that moment. With Davis watching from the sidelines with yet another injury, the fans staged their final stage of revolt. They no longer cared if their team won or lost. They only cared about Harrison being gone. Nothing else mattered.
That was when team governor Patrick Dumont knew enough was enough.
November 11, 2025: Harrison fired
Harrison was fired the next morning and the Mavericks named two co-GM’s, Matt Ricardi and Michael Finley, to lead the front office while they began a search for a new permanent general manager.
After four years as GM, a run that saw Dallas reach the WCF and NBA Finals, Harrison was out just nine months after the trade. Some things are too big to escape, and Harrison learned that the hard way.
January 24, 2026: Dončić returns again
A year ago, Dallas was a title contender looking to get back to the NBA Finals while the Lakers were facing questions about the direction of their franchise with two aging stars and a lack of appealing draft capital.
Now, everything has flipped.
Los Angeles, fifth in the West, now looks to establish themselves as the contender while Dallas starts a years-long rebuild. Flagg’s quick ascension will provide some comfort for Mavericks fans and gives a glimpse into what the future can hold, but the Mavericks are years away from being in the Finals, while Dončić looks to lead his second franchise to the championship series, hopefully this time with a different ending.
After a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, the Houston Rockets head to Detroit to take on a Pistons team that can be the first to sweep Houston this season.
These teams met back in October, and even with Jalen Duren getting ejected early, the Rockets allowed the Pistons to play their own style and never let Houston get going. Now, the Pistons are leading the Eastern Conference quite comfortably and the Rockets are trying to stay out of the play-in spots in the West.
The Rockets have been terrible on the second nights of back-to-backs, they finally got a win last week against the Anthony Edwards-less Minnesota Timberwolves. Will they get win #2 tonight?
The Cleveland Cavaliers are playing their first game of the season against the Sacramento Kings. They’ll be at home tonight. Cleveland went 0-2 against the Kings last year.
Defense
After spending two weeks in the bottom-10 of defense rating, Cleveland snapped back to being elite when they held the Charlotte Hornets to just 87 points in their latest win.
I couldn’t say this was all due to the Cavaliers’ defense. The Hornets also happened to shoot well below their expected percentage. Especially on open three-point attempts. But hey, luck is part of this thing. And I thought the Cavs did a fine job of protecting the paint and leaving Charlotte with few options other than chucking threes on a night where they simply didn’t have it.
Replicating this effort against the Kings should be feasible. This is a far less dangerous offense, with SAC ranking 28th in offensive rating this season. Of course, you can’t take anything for granted in the NBA, but I’d be upset if the Cavs didn’t turn in another strong defensive performance tonight.
Taking Care of the Ball
This is becoming an issue.
Cleveland has turned the ball over at an unusual rate this season. They rank 13th in turnover percentage, which isn’t awful, but it’s a steep decline from being fourth last season. Part of this is that they don’t have as many capable ball-handlers and playmakers as before. Injuries to Darius Garland and Max Strus, combined with losing Ty Jerome and Caris LeVert, have mattered.
The Cavs had 20 turnovers in Charlotte, 21 turnovers against the OKC Thunder, and 18 turnovers in Philly. This is a trend that can’t continue if they want to stack wins.
Evan Mobley’s Usage
I’m repeating one of my points from our last preview. Mobley has to be involved for the full length of the game. I really don’t want ot keep writing about this.
We saw Mobley get to his spots effortlessly in the first half against the Hornets. For him to finish the second half with only 1 point on two field goal attempts is a crime. This is a problem the team has long neglected. It’s time we see them finally address this and put their best foot forward.
In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a trend making its way around social media where folks are posting pictures of themselves from 2016 to compare where they are in 2026. I’m not usually one to hop onto trends, but considering the state of the Colorado Rockies and how much has happened in 10 years (both to the Rockies and in the world), I thought it might be worth revisiting.
2016
In 2016, the Rockies finished 75-87, solidly third in the NL West ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres. It also marked a seven-game improvement from 2015, where they finished 68-94 and fourth in the NL West.
Walt Weiss was entering his fourth year as manager. Jeff Bridich was entering his second year as general manager. Zach Wilson served as the farm director, and Bill Schmidt as the scouting director.
Ahead of the season, they made a number of moves that proved important later down the line. Here are some of the highlights:
Tommy Kahnle was traded to the Chicago White Sox for Yency Almonte
Mark Reynolds and Gerardo Parra signed as free agents
Corey Dickerson was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays for Jake McGee and Germán Márquez
Tony Wolters was selected off waivers from the Cleveland Indians
Trevor Story was named the Abby Greer Award winner after batting .378 with 17 runs, four doubles, one triple, six home runs and 13 RBI in 17 spring training games. He had his official coming out party on Opening Day against the Arizona Diamondbacks, when he famously hit two home runs in back-to-back at-bats against the recently-signed Zack Greinke. (I was at that game — my first-ever Opening Day — and the Dbacks fans got real quiet after the third inning.)
Story would go on to hit home runs in each of his first four MLB games, setting an MLB rookie record. He also tied the MLB rookie record for home runs in the month of April (10) and was named the National League’s Rookie of the Month for April that year. He nearly made the All-Star Game, but unfortunately suffered a season-ending thumb injury in August. Story finished fourth in Rookie of the Year voting. Nolan Arenado and Carlos González ended up representing the Rockies in the Midsummer Classic.
Story wasn’t the only Rockie to make his MLB debut in 2016, but was one of 12:
Tony Wolters (April 5)
Carlos Estévez (April 23)
Tyler Andeson (June 12)
David Dahl (July 25)
Matt Carasiti (Aug. 12)
Jeff Hoffman (Aug. 20)
Stephen Cardullo (Aug. 26)
Raimel Tapia (Sept. 2)
Pat Valaika (Sept. 6)
Jordan Patterson (Sept. 8)
Germán Márquez (Sept. 8)
Of those, only Carlos Estévez and Jeff Hoffman are currently on MLB rosters. Wolters, Dahl, Carasiti, Cardullo, Valaika and Patterson have all retired; Anderson and Márquez are free agents; and Tapia plays in the Mexican League.
Another highlight of the 2016 season was the emergence of Jon Gray. Gray made his debut in August 2015, but tossed arguably one of the best performances by a Rockies pitcher at Coors Field on September 17 when he tossed a complete-game, 16-strike performance against the Padres. He finished as a finalist for MLB’s Best Performance Award, but ultimately lost to Max Scherzer’s 20-strikeout performance.
Overall, the Rockies had a very middling 2016 season.
They finished around .500 in nearly every month of the season, but collapsed in August and September. They went 23-34 in the final 2+ months, and were 40-48 in the first half. Their best record came in July when they went 15-12, but their highest-scoring month came in August when they scored 173 runs.
Entering 2026, the Rockies have a lot of work to do.
They are coming off a 43-119 season that set a lot of really bad records across Major League Baseball. In the middle of it, they fired Bud Black and named Warren Schaeffer as interim manager (and he has since been named permanent successor). Bill Schmidt also resigned, and many front office executives have departed. Paul DePodesta was named President of Baseball Operations, and Josh Byrnes was named general manager. They have hired an entirely new coaching staff, and only five faces remain from 2025: Schaeffer, Ron Gideon (in a new role as assistant bench coach), Jordan Pacheco, Andy González and Kyle Cunningham.
As far as transactions go, the Rockies have made a flurry of roster moves since DePodesta et al have come aboard. I wrote about most of them on December 8, but they have made more since then. Notably, they claimed Keegan Thompson off waivers from the Cincinnati Reds, traded for Jake McCarthy, signed free agent Michael Lorenzen, DFA’d and traded Bradley Blalock, and signed free agent Willi Castro.
Closing Thoughts
A lot has happened since 2016. Of the current roster, there are zero players who were on the active roster in 2016. Kyle Freeland and Antonio Senzatela are the longest-tenured Rockies, and they both debuted in 2017.
Since 2016, Rockies fans have been treated to highlights like the back-to-back playoff appearances and lowlights like three-straight 100-plus loss seasons. The All-Star Game also came to Colorado in 2021 after the 2020 season was drastically reduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There was also a brief lockout from December 1, 2021 until March 10, 2022 which caused a shortened spring training and a postponed Opening Day.
Entering 2026, the Rockies will not be competitive and will likely lose 100+ games for the fourth-straight year.
However, they appear to have a direction for the first time in a long time.
The Rockies have always been notoriously insular, but finally changed course this offseason in the wake of an embarrassing 2025 campaign. Dick and Walker Monfort recently spoke with Sports Business Journal about their new charge, and Ben Fisher breaks down what they said.
The World Baseball Classic is coming around in 2026, and players are starting to declare their intents to play. Antonio Senzatela has committed to Team Venezuela, as has Germán Márquez. In 2023, the Rockies had five players participate: Justin Lawrence (Panama), Daniel Bard (USA), Kyle Freeland (USA), Alan Trejo (Mexico), Elias Díaz (Colombia), and Michael Petersen (Great Britain).
Witt was listed among the 10 best big-leaguers for the 2026 season by MLB Network. He ranked No. 3 for the second year in a row alongside such fellow stars as Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani and Tarik Skubal.
Four Royals rank inside the top 100 this year. Maikel Garcia (No. 65), Cole Ragans (No. 89) and Vinnie Pasquantino (No. 93) were also honored.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and Interim Jackson County Executive Phil LeVota both confirmed to The Star that Gov. Mike Kehoe invited them to the closed-door meeting, which occurred Wednesday afternoon in Kehoe’s Jefferson City office.
Both officials touted the gathering as a sign that Kansas City, Jackson County and Missouri were united around a plan to keep the Royals inside state lines. That acknowledgement appears to center the state’s plan around Jackson County as opposed to another potential spot in Clay County.
Here is a list of players the Royals employed with negative WAR totals as calculated by Fangraphs:
(list, “led” by Jac at -1.6 WAR)
That’s -6.8 fWAR spanning 1,789 plate appearances and 122.2 innings. The pitching side isn’t bad at all. The 122.2 innings represent just 8.5 percent of all innings. The hitting side, though? That’s not what you want. Those nearly 1,800 plate appearances accounted for 29.8 percent of all plate appearances. Of the 10 bats listed, only Massey and Melendez weren’t negatives defensively. They were negatives offensively. It’s a big group. Let’s see how the rest of the playoff teams fared in terms of percentage of plate appearances taken up by negative value players:
Frazier’s return to Kansas City was a huge boost to the Royals’ lineup. He posted a 98 wRC+ and 0.6 fWAR in 197 plate appearances, and the Royals went 35-30 in the second half (after going 47-50 prior to the All-Star Break). Overall, Frazier posted an 89 wRC+ and 0.7 fWAR in 459 plate appearances with Pittsburgh and Kansas City last year. Hence, he showed that he still has something left in the tank, especially for a team with playoff aspirations.
When I left the country, Mariah Carey was on the radio and there were only 2 Avatar movies. I’m sure nothing has arbitrarily changed with pediatric vaccine schedules and the food pyramid. Nicolas Maduro was President of Venezuela, María Corina Machado still had her Nobel Peace Prize, and there were no threats of military action against Greenland, Iran, or Minneapolis. Also, I wonder who was in the Epstein Files. I’m sure that was a bombshell since the DOJ was legally bound to release all of them by December 19th.
But we’re a Royals blog, gosh darn it. And this definitely is NOT a shamelessly transparent attempt to kill two birds with one stone: catching me up on Royals offseason news while not having to come up with a new OT topic for today.
December 5th was before the winter Meetings. I linked to an article from ESPN’s Bradford Doolittle. It listed the Royals early offseason movement.
So far: The Royals re-signed catcher Salvador Perez, tendered a contract to and re-signed infielder Jonathan India, and traded for outfielder Kameron Misner and starter Mason Black.
Misner and Black were both acquired in minor trades in mid November. The former was acquired for our good friend, Cash Considerations (or PTBNL). The latter for a 24yo high-A pitcher.
One day after Mike Yastrzemski signs with the Braves, the Royals make their first free agent signing: Lane Thomas. Then the big news: Maikel Garcia signed a contract extension for 5/$57.5M with a 6th year club option. Early in the new year, the Royals also extended manager Matt Quatraro’s contract. There were also a number of minor league signings sprinkled in that I’m not mentioning individually.
A few days later, JJ struck again. He traded lefty bullpen arm Angel Zerpa to the Brewers for OF Isaac Collins and RP Nick Mears. I don’t quite get this one from Milwaukee’s point of view, but they just keep winning so I probably should try to figure it out. Next, the Royals replaced Zerpa with old friend Matt Strahm. Jonathan Bowlan was sent to the Phillies in that trade.
Carlos Beltran was elected to the Hall of Fame and Alex Gordon got 1 vote before falling off the ballot. Andruw Jones and Jeff Kent will be joining him for this summer’s induction.
What about the stadium search? Cool – the Royals are moving the fence in for the new stadium! …Oh, wait, that’s for Kauffman.
Maybe these stadium search headlines can tell me how it’s going:
Fortunately, the finances of baseball are a-ok! The Royals opted out of their TV deal because Main Street Sports Group (aka FanDuel Sports Kansas City) can’t pay the bills.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers signed .266/.377/.464 Kyle Tucker for an AAV record 4/$240M. In essence, he’s going to cost them more than $100M in 2026 when factoring in the luxury tax. Meanwhile, practically every team is calling the Dodgers moves obscene. That includes the Yankees, who re-signed Cody Bellinger for 5/$162.5M; the Mets, who stole Bo Bichette away from the Blue Jays for 3/$126M; and the Red Sox, who signed Ranger Suarez away from the Phillies for 5/$130M. Yay?
For Song of the Day, last week, Nintendo offered a 7-day free trial of Madden 26. Madden games don’t make it to Nintendo very often: maybe once per generation. So I was pretty happy to try it out.
Everyone else spends hours as a GM, trying to break the trading, drafting, and training system and not playing a single down of football, right? While you’re on the menu screens, music is constantly playing. Sports games have been doing this for a while. A couple of years ago, I mentioned how I discovered Fall Out Boy from one of the NBA2K games. Here’s a track list for the Madden 26 soundtrack. It ranges from Judas Priest to Wolfmother to Run DMC to N.E.R.D. to Lil Nas X.
We’ve mentioned Mammoth (WVH) a couple of times in this space. “Don’t Back Down” is on the soundtrack and it’s one of the biggest songs from their first album. If you watch this and the two other songs I’ve linked to (bel0w), you get the mostly complete story of the Wolfs to date (not much happens in this video, though).
Baseball, in many cases, can serve as a very effective microcosm for the world and the country it inhabits. From social progression, justice, or the dawn of the information age, baseball has often travelled right along with the world surrounding it. Looking back, that means we can find stories that are nearly impossible to imagine in the modern world, a description the would fit that of Johnny Sturm quite well.
Born in 1916, Sturm played a mostly full season in his rookie campaign with the Yankees, and would never again play on a major league field after. It was due to circumstances mostly out of his control, in an unfortunate story, as Sturm’s Yankee tenure would last just a single year. His performance on its own was unimpressive, but Sturm stands as in interesting landmark for a time that feels long gone.
Johnny Sturm Born: January 23, 1916 (St. Louis, MO) Died: October 8, 2004 (St. Louis, MO) Yankees Tenure: 1941
Johnny Sturm grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and began his professional career in the minor leagues in 1936. After five seasons at various levels in the Yankees’ organization, Sturm would finally get his chance with the big club in 1941. In the post-Lou Gehrig era, the team had struggled to fill the impossibly large void. Babe Dahlgren, who replaced Gehrig, was sent to Boston after the 1940 season, which prompted another change at the position. The Yankees first moved Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Gordon over to first, though it was a move that proved ineffective.
The Yankees eventually moved Gordon back to second, opening a spot for Sturm at first base. The club had struggled out of the gate, and likely hoped the move would help them take a step forward. Incidentally, the day the Yankees slid Sturm into the lineup was also the day Joe DiMaggio began his record-setting hitting streak.
On the whole, Sturm’s performance at the plate during the ‘41 season left plenty to be desired. The Yankee first baseman slashed .239/.293/.300 for just a 58 OPS+ in his rookie season. But, the season didn’t come without its bright spots. In June of ‘41, Sturm belted a two-run homer in the second game of a double-header, which kickstarted a run of 40 home runs in 25 games for the Bombers as a squad.
He also played a role in the World Series that year. Sturm went 6-for-21 in the five games, pitching in with a pair of RBI in the victorious Fall Classic effort for New York. It wasn’t the flashiest of campaigns, but doing his part for a winning World Series squad is certainly something on its own.
The offseason that followed was an eventful one for Sturm. He was married shortly after the successful World Series, and not long after, with the United States then fully entrenched in World War II, Sturm enlisted in the military. He was stationed at a base in Missouri and, fittingly, assumed the duty of building baseball fields and managing the post’s baseball team.
Sturm was obviously away from the team on Opening Day the following year, when his career took a turn for the worse. While operating a tractor, he made an ill-fated move which ultimately caused the amputation of the tip of his index finger on his right arm.
Post-recovery, Sturm served until November of 1945, stationed overseas for the latter part of his service. He attempted to make a return to professional baseball in 1946, with plenty of factors working against him. Having missed four seasons of play, and now playing with a significantly altered right hand, it was an uphill battle for Sturm.
Now 30 years old, Sturm had trouble reacclimating, and was unable to reclaim his former spot, and was forced to toil in the minor leagues. He remained in the Yankees organization through the 1949 season, eventually as a player-manager for the Joplin Miners (and actually putting up some solid numbers).
That would be the end of professional baseball for Sturm, however, as the missed time and injury trouble were too much to overcome for the first baseman. It was a stint with the Yankees cut too short by unfortunate circumstances, and it creates an interesting looking resume, as he was the last of just six players in MLB history to have 500-plus plate appearances in their lone season. A career like Sturm’s feels like something that only could have happened in the past, and serves as an interesting piece of baseball history.
Despite his turbulent experience in professional baseball, Sturm lived to be 88 years old. Born on this day in 1916, his story is one of a kind in Yankees history.
David Stearns, who spoke to the media about the trade yesterday, didn’t want to speculate on a potential extension with Peralta, for whom he’s traded twice in his front office career.
Here’s how the Mets’ trade for Freddy Peralta—alongside the Yankees’ signing of Cody Bellinger—affects the market for the remainder of the offseason.
Neither the Mets nor the Yankees think they could meet the high asking price for Tigers ace Tarik Skubal in a trade.
Will Leitch looks at teams that missed the postseason in 2025 but might make it in 2026, and you likely won’t be surprised to hear that the Mets are included.
The Twins signed left-handed reliever Taylor Rogers—not to be confused with his twin brother Tyler, who finished last season with the Mets—to a one-year, $2 million deal.
Our countdown of the Mets’ top prospects continued with number ten: Jack Wenninger.
This Date in Mets History
Legendary Mets broadcast Ralph Kiner finally got his place in Cooperstown when he was elected to the Hall of Fame for his fantastic career as a player on this date in 1975.
With the news earlier this week that (briefly) former San Francisco Giants outfielder Carlos Beltrán will be inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame this year, there was unfortunately bad news for another former Giants outfielder.
Hunter Pence, the very definition of a Forever Giant, did not receive enough votes to keep his campaign alive. Players have to receive five percent of the votes to stay on the ballot, and Pence received only two total votes.
While this is a bummer to hear, it isn’t necessarily a surprise.
Pence was (and remains) a beloved Giants player who had a huge hand in helping the team secure two of their three World Series championships in the 2010s. But his career numbers weren’t quite the caliber they’d need to be to be successful in this endeavor.
That’s not a knock to Pence, or any player that doesn’t get the votes. It’s an arduous process filled with arbitrary preferences by those with the power to cast a vote. Maybe one player per year gets in, two if we’re lucky. And there seems to be no rhyme or reason to most of it.
So while I’m bummed, I still think we have plenty to celebrate Pence for.
Earlier, I described the various technologies that I’ve found are being used in baseball in general, and mostly, by the Cardinals. As I followed the trail of breadcrumbs around, I began to discover that it wasn’t so much the technology the Cardinals had fallen behind in (yes, there was and still are some deficits there), but what really had shown up was that the Cardinals lacked the people behind the curtain, and in the few places they had the people, there wasn’t a lot of cohesion and coordination. Not out of any sinister bureaucratic plot, but likely people spread too thin to be engaged in and knowledgeable about all the various moving parts of an organization.
The People Behind the Curtain
As with all tech, there needs to be people to set up the tech, make it work, integrate it with other tech and so on. It can be one whole job to know about and take care of the Force Plates technology and gather some data with it. It can be a whole ‘nuther job (and a separate specialty) to know about and take care of the Kinatrax system. Both produce mounds of data.
But how does one interpret and synthesize the data and make it actionable? I might know about Force Plate technology, but now I need to know something about…pitching. And what makes the act of pitching efficient (or inefficient)?
Then a third someone needs to bring the two tech domains together and understand how the Ground Force reading from the Force Plates can be seen affecting the kinetic chain reactions observed in the Kinatrax system. And with that, someone needs to understand anatomy and physiology of the human body. On top, someone needs to figure out what the readings mean and how they might need to be different.
Then you need another specialty in physical therapy or physical training to work with players to develop isolated exercises that get muscles trained to operate differently than the current habit (no easy feat!). It turns out, you can’t just tell a pitcher they need to lengthen their stride ¼” and rotate their hips .2 seconds earlier to get things more efficiently synced up.
Enter, Carl Kochan, Director of Performance, St. Louis Baseball Cardinals, LLC.
Anyone have any idea of who this is? I did not. He replaced Robert Butler, the prior Director just over a year ago. From what I can tell, his charter is to reach across various stovepipes in the organization to develop a working performance model for players that addresses travel and fatigue management and in-game demands (high demand for pitchers/catchers and very bursty demand for other players). In a 3-hour game, a position player might actually exert an acute work load for 5-10 minutes. Pitchers and catchers? The opposite.
His charter seems to focus on the minor league side, and includes tech people, nutrition specialists, medical coordinators, physical therapists, rehab specialists and trainers. He certainly has to reach wider than that if the coaches and development side of the organization is going to be in sync with the performance side.
In the Performance Department underneath Mr. Kochan, there are 3 strength and conditioning folks plus a coordinator, 2 rehab folks plus 3 medical coordinators (one of these in the DSL), 4 MiLB trainers, a nutritionist and 4 performance science experts. Total of nineteen folks. Just in the Performance Department. Want to guess how many of these positions existed in 2020? If you have a guess of two, you are spot on.
Here is a current opening in this organization (via Indeed.com):
Are you passionate about biomechanics and baseball? The St. Louis Cardinals are looking for a Biomechanist to join their Performance Department and support player development through advanced motion analysis and player tracking technologies. This is your opportunity to play a key role in integrating science with on-field performance! (location: Jupiter FLA) Key Responsibilities: • Lead motion capture assessments and equipment setup • Analyze biomechanics and in-game tracking data • Create actionable reports for individualized player plans • Collaborate across performance and player development teams • Support research initiatives and sport science equipment management Basic Qualifications: • Bachelor’s in biomechanics, engineering, or exercise science • Experience with kinematic/kinetic data capture and analysis
Indeed.com
Did you see the part in the job opening about collaborating with the player development team? Let’s look there. They currently have 29 staff members, led by Larry Day. This includes pitching, hitting and field coordinators, various minor league hitting and pitching coordinators and assistant coaches. How many did they have in these roles in 2020? None. As recently as 2024, they had sixteen. Just about doubled in size in the last 18 months. As near as I can tell, all but one of the original 16 are gone, except one. Jose Oquendo. As near as I can tell, this is where the complete tear-down and rebuild occurred.
The ocean of data
As you might suspect, all these technologies produce mountains of data. This creates challenges consistent with what other industries are encountering … managing “big data”. An organization can be awash with data but be unaware of what the most useful bits and pieces are.
There is a lot of scientific rigor in a group like this, which probably creates some interesting culture rubs with old-school baseball guys and the players themselves. Paul DeJong probably would be an exception here.
These guys are looking at challenges like where do they not have information they should? How can the data they collect contribute to improved strength and conditioning. Arm care appears to be a major focus of these efforts, pre-game, in-game AND post-game.
Another challenge is integrating this stuff across the levels of the organization and a need to improve consistency with player feedback. It probably doesn’t help if a player hears one thing at Driveline and another thing in the pitching lab at Jupiter.
Another challenge, right now they have no centralized repository for biomech data. It is hard to get a common understanding if the different professions and aptitudes can’t even access the data.
Playing from behind, catching up and getting ahead
With all this data capture, there is greater visibility in more intricate detail, but not necessarily more knowledge in how to react to the inputs they are getting. For instance, they might get a shoulder measurement from force plates that tells the reaction force of pitchers arm at full extension. So what? Is there benefit in custom tailoring a workout regime to increase that force? What does it mean if that force measures at 5% lower the data after a start from the day before? Does that indicate fatigue or low-level injury? Normal or aberrant?
What seems to come through all the noise is that this data is used to two different ends: 1) to help keep the players healthy and 2) to help them identify ways to optimize their performance.
A Case Study: Mathew Liberatore
I suppose most people remember that mid-season (early June, actually) start Liberatore had where his velocity cratered and he got hit hard by a not typically hard-hitting Kansas City lineup? The decline was so abrupt many worried he was hurt. They put him through a battery of physical tests, checking for injury and came up empty. Then they looked at the bio-mechanics data (ie. the advanced video) from the start and came up with some issues in how his mechanics were “out of sync” (his words) and the expectation that this was caused more by overall “fatigue issues” (again, his words).
In this new modern world, they use this data to develop specific conditioning programs to reduce these issues (and they take time to implement). Simply put, you no longer are left with observations like “he is opening up too soon and the arm is dragging through”. Now they can see if that is occurring because of his stride, his hip rotation, the torso rotation, shoulder, arm angle, whatever. Unconfirmed, but I’d bet Libby has spent this off-season working to improve strength and stamina and getting the kinetic chain to sync and stay synced during acute workloads exceeding an hour.
The last challenge – working across the stovepipes
Almost all organization hierarchies have stove pipes and they can create cultural boundaries that can be difficult to cross. When the Cardinals hired multiple new people (Pierpoint, Day, Cerfolio, Kochan) in the 2024-2025 off-season, the common theme among them was their mission was to get the different parts of the organization to work together better.
It’s not hard to imagine some old school coach in some far-off minor league town not quite embracing or trusting a new PT regime a player has adopted coming out of the hitting or pitching lab. The players themselves don’t always embrace. I think it was Joshua Baez who said something along the lines of having gotten information overload and needing to simplify things to make the gains he has made.
There has always been a natural rivalry between scouting and development. Now you add in all the tech and performance guys and complexity expands. Plus, the geographic distances. Palm Beach, Peoria, Springfield, Memphis and St. Louis can all be hard to keep in sync, particularly when the technology and the knowledge of how to apply is uneven across those boundaries.
The last stovepipe I observe is cultural and linguistic. This stuff is hard enough for all the English speakers. I’m sure many people see this stuff as Greek to them. A good segment of the Cardinal prospects speak English as a second language, or not at all. They clearly did not have enough Spanish speakers in camp this past spring, and the few they had were very busy running from field to field trying to translate coaching instructions. I wonder how many ESL types were inside the labs doing the same.
Summary
The technology evolution that is sweeping baseball swamped St. Louis and they are just getting their organizational stuff together in this area. Lots of change. Likely lots more will change.
Capturing all this has been daunting and I am aware that I’m just scratching the surface. Meanwhile, the environment I observe changes as I observe. My learning goal in this arena is to see if I can get a tour of this stuff when I’m Jupiter next month. Wish me luck.
Happy Friday everyone, lots of fun little tidbits for you in our news of the day. We’ve got some more thoughts and discussion about the Hall of Fame inductees, including some bold sentiments from Carlos Beltran about why he doesn’t want to be defined by the Astros cheating scandal. Plus, two big starting pitcher trades see moves being made for the Rangers and Mets (of course, what aren’t the Mets doing these days?)
On the topic of starting pitchers, there’s also some Hall of Fame debate about whether or not they’re being snubbed by Cooperstown.
Carlos Beltrán is the first player drafted out of Puerto Rico to be elected to the Hall of Fame — the first five Puerto Rican Hall of Famers were all signed as free agents before Puerto Rico was incorporated into MLB's amateur draft in 1989.
After the mostly-promising but late-season collapse of 20222024 1984, the Minnesota Twins sagged to 77-85 in 1985. Things got worse in ‘86: 71-91, 6th in the AL West—21 GB the West-winning California Angels. The average draw of 15,000 per Metrodome contest—2nd-worst in AL attendance coffers—presented a lot of bad baseball for Bob Kurtz & Harmon Killebrew (on TV) and Herb Carneal & Joe Angel (on the dial) to cover, but also some signs that pieces were falling into place for a promising future.
Pitching (90 ERA+)
With the exception of ever-stalwart Bert Blyleven (17-14, 271.2 IP, 107 ERA+)—who even still gave up an MLB-record 50 home runs—and up-and-coming Frank Viola (16-13, 245.2 IP, 95 ERA+), pitching was this club’s Achilles heel.
Mike Smithson, Neal Heaton, & Mark Portugal were far worse than Rik Aalbert & Frankie out of the starting rotation. The pen at least had solid seasons from Keith Atherton (114 ERA+) & Roy Lee Jackson (111 ERA+)—but for some unknown reason still gave Ron Davis 38.2 IP, which of course netted a 47 ERA+. John Butcher (70 IP, 68 ERA+) wasn’t much more effective.
Offense (103 OPS+)
The quintet of Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Gary Gaetti, Tom Brunansky, & Roy Smalley all eclipsed 20 dingers, cultivating the Homer Dome reputation.
Especially stand-out were Puck (5.7 WAR, 223 H, 119 R, 37 2B, 31 HR, 96 RBI, 20 SB, .328 BA, 142 OPS+, Gold Glove) & the G-Man (5.8 WAR, 34 2B, 34 HR, 108 RBI, .287 BA, 131 OPS+, Gold Glove).
The most memorable moments from ‘86…
May 30: Smalley homers from both sides of the plate
Puck representing MN at the All-Star game in the Astrodome
August 1: Kirby hits for the cycle AND Blyleven records his 3,000th strikeout!
None of this was good enough to keep the Twins in contention—especially with a dispiriting 11 walk-off losses thrown into the mix. So in compiling a 59-80 record by September 12, manager Ray Miller was relieved of his duties after 1.93 seasons of top-step service. This led to the hiring of 36-year old skipper Tom Kelly—who presided over a 12-11 ‘86 denouement.
Of final note: The ‘86 Twins were horrific on the road—28-53. But at the Metrodome: 43-38.
The franchise was at a fulcrum: while seemingly set up with talent on the field, a new young manager, and an ability to dominate at home, two straight disappointing seasons after the promise of 1984 did not exactly inspire a ton of confidence for what 1987 would bring.
