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MLB’s best team from a year ago gets set to take on MLB’s worst team from a year ago as the Brewers and Colorado Rockies square off in today’s Cactus League action.

Lefty Robert Gasser gets the start today for the Brewers. This will be his second Cactus League outing this year. In his first, Gasser had a crisp one inning with one strikeout on 11 pitches. We’re seeing the starting pitchers getting stretched out to three innings this week so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Gasser throw that many today. Following Gasser will be Coleman Crow, Craig Yoho, Jacob Waguespack, and Sammy Peralta. Yoho was slated to go yesterday, but Sproat, Henderson, and Drohan each went three innings and he wasn’t needed. On the mound for the Rockies is righty Michael Lorenzen.

The Brewers lineup will have a lot of starters at the top. Garrett Mitchell will lead off followed by Sal Frelick, Jake Bauers, Blake Perkins, and Luis Rengifo. Then a couple of prospects in Brock Wilken at first base, Jeferson Quero behind the plate, and Cooper Pratt at shortstop. Non-roster invite Eddys Leonard rounds out the lineup at second base.

First pitch will be at 2:10 PM CT and can be heard only on a webcast on Brewers.com.

Today's Cactus Crew

📻: https://t.co/Nvy2XgSTzH#ThisIsMyCrewpic.twitter.com/pWC85D1OrM

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) March 5, 2026

Welcome Tyler Freeman👋 pic.twitter.com/9XlgNwJYfo

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) March 5, 2026

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Pittsburgh Pirates, March 5, 2026, 1:05 p.m. ET

Location: LECOM Park, Bradenton, Florida

Broadcast: SportsNet Pittsburgh

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The Pittsburgh Pirates are at home hosting the St. Louis Cardinals this afternoon at beautiful LECOM Park.

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Growing up, the first player to actually become my favorite player was Steve Cox. I remember seeing him react like a cat at first base and making ridiculous looking plays; naturally I considered him the best player on the team.

Actually looking back, he was just replacement level but darnit I think he was great. Overall he hit .262/.340/.417 with 39 HR, registering a 99 wRC+ and accruing 1.1 fWAR over 1399 plate appearances.

Anyways

First pitch against the Baltimore Orioles is at 1:05 at Charlotte Sports Park and the Rays will be proving radio coverage.

Here are the lineups. For the Phillies:

It's a Luzardo day! pic.twitter.com/d5ziIRwPO8

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) March 5, 2026

For the Red Sox:

Headed up to Clearwater. pic.twitter.com/n0qlM3bx0e

— Red Sox (@RedSox) March 5, 2026

Let’s talk about it.

It feels like the Athletics are on the precipice of something great. For all the difficulties the organization has had with its ugly breakup with the city of Oakland and the will-they-won’t-they future in Las Vegas, the actual on-field baseball product looks very promising. There’s a very strong core already established on the position player side of things and the team has done very well to lock up a lot of those young stars to long-term contract extensions.

The pitching staff is definitely a few steps behind the position player core which is a big reason why they’re not projected to be in the AL Wild Card mix this year. Their temporary home in West Sacramento played a very significant role in boosting offense to the detriment of the home team’s pitchers in 2025 and it’ll continue to be a factor as long as they’re stuck in limbo there. The result is a pretty lopsided roster — it’s very possible the A’s will outslug all of their opponents, but they’ll be fighting an uphill battle with a pitching staff that’s allergic to preventing runs.

Position	Athletics Projected WAR	Mariners Projected WAR	Edge
Catcher	3.1	6.1	Mariners
First Base	3.6	2.9	Athletics
Second Base	3.0	2.7	Athletics
Shortstop	3.7	2.8	Athletics
Third Base	2.0	3.0	Mariners
Left Field	2.4	2.2	Athletics
Center Field	2.6	6.0	Mariners
Right Field	2.3	2.0	Athletics
Designated Hitter	3.0	1.6	Athletics
Starting Pitching	10.2	14.2	Mariners
Relief Pitching	1.4	3.4	Mariners
Total	25.7	46.8	Mariners

The contours of how the Athletics and Mariners lineup against each other are actually pretty interesting. The A’s hold the projected advantage at six of the nine field positions but the M’s are projected to earn 3.6 fWAR more in total from their position players. Such is the advantage of Seattle’s superstars at catcher and center field. And as you can see from each position’s projected fWAR, the Athletics don’t have that caliber of superstar at any position like the Mariners do — each position has an above average projection but no elite contributor. The pitching is the problem. It’s a long shot but if they manage to develop one of their back-end starters into a mid-rotation arm, it would go a long way towards pulling their pitching staff out of the depths of misery. 

Just like their stadium situation, the A’s big league roster is in a state of limbo, not yet fully realized but making steady progress towards something tangible. If enough things break their way this year, they could sneak into the AL Wild Card picture, but they’re more likely to play the role of very dangerous spoiler for their rivals in the division. —JM

2026 FanGraphs Depth Charts projections: 78.7-83.3, 4th in AL West, 25.3% playoff odds

2026 PECOTA projections: 76.9-85.1, 4th in AL West, 10.8% playoff odds

If It All Goes Right

Youth hasn’t got anything to do with chronological age. It’s times of hope and happiness. – Wallace Stegner, Crossing to Safety

Warner L. Thomas is (finally) alone in the elevator and all he can do is laugh. 

At the silly West Sacramento peasants scuttling all over this place.

At the gaudy green and yellow pin affixed to the lapel of his light gray custom suit.

At the way the universe really does continue to cast him in an ever-radiant beam of sunlight.

Seven years ago, his predecessor signed a contract locking in 15 years of naming rights for this dinky little ballpark. The amount wasn’t made public and, frankly, Warner can’t be bothered to learn or care, but it was certainly less than a decade of his salary. Warner can’t be bothered with much of this pomp and circumstance, to be honest. When this place became Sutter Health Park, home of the Lake Rats or whatever the hell they were called, he was down in Louisiana, far too busy orchestrating a steady monopoly on healthcare in the state to think about a b-side city in California, let alone baseball.

But a year after he was hired as President and CEO, a baseball team – one of the real ones, not like the Lake Rats – announced they would be playing their games for the next three years at Sutter Health Park. It was an embarrassment of marketing and PR riches simply thrown into their laps. They’d paid for naming rights to a ballpark for babies, and now they were namechecked constantly on a national level.

Most audacious of all? The team had been good this year. Good enough that an October wind had caused goosebumps to break out uncomfortably across the top of his exposed head as he’d loitered importantly on the field before the game. Everyone around him there had looked young and vibrant, evidence of their vitality clearly displayed beneath garish yellow and green. Warren felt small alongside these men, which he did not like, and confused, which he liked even less. Why was someone talking about churning 50 tubs of butter? How are they yelling for someone named Rook, while also jabbering to a child, who looks nothing like the aforementioned Rook, about an AL Rookie Race? None of that matters to Warner, though. He has done what is required of him, and soon (he hopes; the sounds the elevator makes do not give him confidence) he will be sipping something dark and expensive in the indoor portion of a suite. He’ll be able to see the sell out crowd, the teeming masses of yellow, and green, and teal, but he won’t have to actually be near them. Just as he likes it.

What a time of hope and happiness, indeed. —IM

If It All Goes Wrong

Home is a notion that only nations of the homeless fully appreciate and only the uprooted comprehend. – Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

To know a home is to leave it, a thing that can only be understood in its absence. Two years in, it starts to weigh on them. In visible ways: the running list in the group chat of visitor clubhouses, always cramped and small and smelly, that are nicer than their so-called home clubhouse. In less visible ways, too, ways that crawl under their skin and stay there: ATH the only line in the box score, a jarring contrast against the other teams known by their city names. What is a place without a name? What is a team?

It’s hard not to feel a twinge of jealousy, visiting other ballparks packed to the brim with hometown fans. They’d played angry that first year, putting an exclamation point on the fact that it might be a minor-league park but they were still major-league players. In the second year of this, with no promise of it ending soon, they’re still angry, still defiant, but also so tired. Tired of the subpar facilities, tired of the snide remarks, tired of living minor-league lives in West Sacramento. They’ve all worked hard, proven themselves, just as much as any other player in the league; they all know they deserve better. At the same time, they all know that doesn’t change anything, that the decision is made above their heads. They all tell themselves they’re fine with it, because what choice do they have? 

Rooker, Butler, and Soderstrom started them off, signing extensions that promised a future, to themselves, to A’s fans everywhere, and to their teammates. Next off-season, Wilson and Kurtz follow. This is a core. This is a future. Everything else might be shifting sands around them but this foundation is ironclad.

The cracks appear in mid-May, during a brutal stretch, 19 games in 20 days. They don’t have to leave California, technically, but it feels like they’ve traveled all over. It starts with two interleague series, always weird, and they manage to sweep the Cardinals but then get demolished by the Giants in a sweep, their orange-and-black fans swarming all over Sutter Health Park. Then a four-game set at Anaheim, objectively a worse team than them, but they struggle towards a split, the big red A looming above like it’s taunting them. From there they go to San Diego, the ballpark jammed full for a weekend series, fans crowded into every available space soaking up the late spring sunshine, and this is what it should be like. They scrape out one win in the series and they’re lucky for that, a ninth-inning two-run go-ahead blast by Kurtz that feels like they could get back on track, at least until they’re steamrolled in Sunday’s finale. A sell-out crowd in San Diego watches the Padres dismantle the A’s pitching staff. They have to bring out a position player to pitch the bottom of the eighth. The San Diego fans are insufferable. The mood on the flight home is poisonous. 

They go back home, but it doesn’t feel like it. Mariners fans descend on the ballpark for their first series of the year, teal just as prominent as kelly green in the stands. It’s like they’re back in Mesa at Hohokam. They lose the series, slip further back in the AL West. Then the Yankees come to town, with their media circus and their massive staff and their legions of fans who line the ballpark in stark black and white, chanting MVP every time Judge steps on the field. Soderstrom gets into it with a Judge fan in left field and gets fined. Then in the series finale, Wilson, facing a flamethrowing Yankees reliever with terrible command, takes an inside pitch off his wrist and they can all hear the sick crack of the bone breaking. McNeil, who’s standing in the on-deck circle, charges the mound and they’re brawling, an empty-the-bullpens, highlights-on-ESPN kind of brawl. They get swept.

Sometimes moments like these are turning points, bringing the team together to battle through adversity. That’s not what happens here. Everything has become too much. They have exceeded the angle of repose, the highest things can be piled up before they start to slip apart. When you don’t have a home base, everything is on shifting ground.

They finish fourth in the AL West. The timeline is adjusted on the ballpark, adjusted again. A lockout looms. A cold comfort: they don’t have anywhere to be locked out from. —KP

The Michigan Wolverines baseball team continued their strong start to the season last weekend with a series win at San Diego. Taking 2-of-3 brought the Wolverines’ record to 6-4 overall on the young season, with three wins coming against ranked teams.

Michigan stayed put in California, having played at Cal State Northridge on Tuesday. The Wolverines will also face Pepperdine in a three-game series this weekend. Let’s take a look at what happened against the Matadors, and then preview the upcoming series at Pepperdine.

Michigan vs. Cal State Northridge recap

The Wolverines and Matadors needed extra innings to decide the outcome of the game, and it was Cal State Northridge coming out on top, 9-8, in 12 innings on Tuesday.

After the Matadors scored a run in the second to get things started, Michigan exploded for six runs in the top of the third inning thanks to a Jack Laffitte RBI single, a Colby Turner RBI double, a Brenden Stressler two-run single and then a Cade Ladehoff home run. All of a sudden, the Wolverines were up 6-1.

Turner hit another RBI double to plate two more to Michigan up, 8-1, but Cal State Northridge answered with a run in the fifth, five runs in the sixth and another run in the eighth to tie the game up at 8-8. The Matadors hit the game-winning single in the 12th to seal the deal.

Michigan vs. Pepperdine preview

The big matchup of the week will be this weekend against the Pepperdine Waves. The Waves have struggled mightily so far to start the year, getting out to a 2-9 start. They were swept by USC to begin the season, and then beat Fresno State once before losing the next two to the Bulldogs. Pepperdine’s most recent series was against Yale, and the Bulldogs took 2-of-3.

Like Michigan, Pepperdine also had a Tuesday game this week. The Waves went on the road to take on Cal Poly and got obliterated, 12-2.

It’s not a big surprise to see Pepperdine get off to a rough start, as its 2025 season was a struggle. The Waves finished with an ugly 12-42 record last season. They failed to qualify for the WCC Tournament.

Most of these California schools are solid given the year-round warmth, but Pepperdine is one that is struggling right now.

Players to watch

Pepperdine has struggled offensively this season, and there are no players on the team hitting above .300. First baseman James Dell’Amico has been the most consistent, as he is hitting .281 after 32 at-bats. However, power isn’t a big strength of his, as he has zero extra-base hits and only two RBIs. Infielder Joshua Woodworth is hitting .294, but he only has 17 plate appearances on the year.

On the mound, Michigan will likely see Casey Euper, Collin Valentine and Tommy Scavone starting for the Waves. Euper has been sensational so far this year, as he currently has a 0.87 ERA through 10.1 innings. He has given up just five hits and one earned run with four strikeouts and three walks.

Valentine has also been terrific this year. He currently has a 2.35 ERA with 15.1 innings pitched. He has allowed 14 hits and four earned runs with six strikeouts and five walks. Lastly, Scavone has given up eight earned runs in 15 innings pitched for a 4.80 ERA. He has been a strikeout machine, however, ringing up 16 batters so far while only walking six. He has given up 10 hits.

Despite the offensive struggles, Pepperdine has a solid pitching rotation that will present a challenge for Michigan. However, the Waves have issues out of the bullpen, so if the Wolverines are able to get to the starters early in the game, that would go a long way in winning at least a couple games in this series. It would be pretty disappointing if Michigan doesn’t win at least two.

Series schedule

• Thursday, March 5: 4:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+
• Friday, March 6: 4:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+
• Saturday, March 7: 4 p.m. ET, ESPN+

Ricky Tiedemann is a 23-year-old, left-handed pitcher. The Jays picked him in the third round of the 2021 draft. He was added to the 40-man roster on November 18th, 2025. He’ll be using his first option year this year.

As you know, he had Tommy John surgery in August of 2024, missing all of the 2025 season. And, just to add to our worries, he’s been on the shelf this spring, since February 24, because of elbow soreness. The team said that an MRI came back clean. They also said that he could be shut down for but I haven’t seen anything suggesting he is throwing again.

I’m ok with them taking things slowly. It isn’t all that unusual for some soreness when coming back from Tommy John.

Until the Tommy John, he was progressing very nicely. In 2024 he was #1 on our prospect list. Tom M wrote:

2023 was derailed by injuries, including shoulder soreness that delayed his debut by a couple of weeks and a bicep strain that knocked him out from early May through late July. In the 44 innings he managed, mostly at AA, he was as comically dominant as ever, posting a 44% strikeout rate and a 1.68 FIP. He got 18 more innings of work in the Arizona Fall League.
Tiedemann has the prototype power pitcher’s frame at 6’4” and a broad shouldered 220lbs. He throws from the far first base side of the rubber with a slingy delivery and low, wide arm slot that makes the ball feel like it’s coming straight at righties and from behind lefties’ ears. That release point complements the big horizontal movement on all three of his pitches. The fastball sits 94-96 and touches 98 without much vertical rise but with huge arm side run. His best secondary has been a changeup with depth and run, although it backed up a bit in 2023. His slider is a big sweeper, again with huge horizontal break (so much that hitters are sometimes able to lay off it because it looks like a ball inside before breaking all the way across the zone and being called a ball outside), which he has great feel to land in the zone for strikes. It’s three pitches that can all be plus, although he hasn’t regularly had all three sharp at the same time yet. Tiedemann’s command never quite locked in in 2023 with all the disruptions, but in spite of a somewhat unorthodox delivery it could wind up being average or a little above with time.

Unfortunately, the ‘derailed by injuries’ has been a continuing thing.

When he has pitched, he’s been terrific. In 41 minor league starts, 140 innings, he has 226 strikeouts and 68 walks.

He is only 23. There is lots of time for him to right the ship. There has been several pitchers who had injuries troubles when they were young and still went on to have a great career (I can almost hear people saying back that there have been lot of pitchers who had injury troubles when they were young and never got their careers back on track. Both are true).

If his arm can’t stand up to the stress of being a start, a left-handed reliever who can throw 98 mph isn’t a bad thing to have on your pitching staff.

MLB Pipeline still lists him as our number 5 prospect. They say:

Prior to the injury, Tiedemann had come into camp at 245 pounds and was bulked up closer to 255 by mid-season, but now he’s about 15 pounds above his listed weight of 220, a much more natural and athletic size for a pitcher. This has helped him become more fluid on the mound again. While 32 starts and 200 innings may never be in the cards for Tiedemann, that’s just fine. He’ll build up in a bulk role this season when he’s ready to roll, and while all of this comes with a “but” related to his health, he still has as much raw talent as any player in the Blue Jays’ system.

The Houston Astros (2-6-3) travel to Jupiter, FL to take on the Miami Marlins (4-6).

RHP Tatsuya Imai is set to make his second start of the Spring and will be opposed by 2022 NL Cy Young Award winner RHP Sandy Alcantara.

ABOUT IMAI: In January, the Astros signed free agent RHP Tatsuya Imai to a three-year deal.

In his Spring debut on Feb. 26 vs. NYM, he tossed a scoreless 1.0 inning (10 pitches). Imai, 27, has been one of the top starting pitchers in Japan in recent years. In 2025, he was an All-Star for the Seibu Lions in the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization (NPB), where he went 10-5 with a 1.92 ERA (35ER/163.2IP) in 24 games.

Among qualified pitchers, Imai posted the lowest WHIP (0.89) in the Pacific League, while ranking second with 178 strikeouts in his 163.2 innings pitched. Imai has been an NPB All-Star three times in his career (2021, 2024, 2025) that has spanned parts of eight seasons (2018-25). He went 58-45 overall with a 3.15 ERA (337ER/963.2IP) in 159 games in the NPB.

TODAY’S POTENTIAL RELIEVERS: RHP Spencer Arrighetti, LHP Tom Cosgrove, RHP Anthony Maldonado, LHP Steven Okert, RHP Logan VanWey, RHP Amos Willingham and RHP Sam Carlson.

VS. THE MARLINS: Today will mark the second of five Grapefruit League matchups between the Astros and Marlins this Spring. The clubs will also meet for a Spring Breakout exhibition on March 19 at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches. The Astros are 1-0 vs. the Marlins this Spring.

TODAY’S ROSTER MOVES: Prior to today’s game, the Astros optioned LHP Colton Gordon and RHP Miguel Ullola to minor league camp. The Astros now have 59 players in camp, including 21 non-roster invites – 32 pitchers, seven catchers, 11 infielders and nine outfielders.

ASTROS IN THE WBC: IF Shay Whitcomb is off to a fantastic start for Team Korea in this year’s WBC, going 2×4 with a pair of homers and three RBI in the team’s opener vs. Team Czechia this morning at the Tokyo Dome in Japan.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Thursday, March 5, 12:10 p.m. CST

Location: Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium, Jupiter, FL.

TV: none

Streaming: MLB.com (audio only)

Radio: KBME 790 AM/94.5 FM HD-2

#45 on the hill.

⚾️: 12:10 PM CT | 1:10 ET
📺: none 🙁
🎙️: @SportsTalk790#ChaseTheFight x @PalmBeachesFLpic.twitter.com/hcnMNUPaQB

— Houston Astros (@astros) March 5, 2026

More baseball in Jupiter 😎

👂: https://t.co/jUTgbN4KBU | MLB App
⏰: 1:10 PM ET pic.twitter.com/opon0gmdqE

— Miami Marlins (@Marlins) March 5, 2026