As Aaron Judge crowned a season to remember in Arlington, Texas, by whistling his American League-record-setting 62nd home run on Tuesday night — a 100 mph moonshot that lofted over the left-field wall at Globe Life Field — the debate over how we should remember his performance smoldered on. Some pointed to the oft-repeated “AL […]
St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt is no stranger to the Most Valuable Player discussion. Now in his 12th season, he’s been a top-three vote getter in three different years (albeit all with his former team, the Arizona Diamondbacks). But this year is different. Goldschmidt isn’t just among the game’s top performers; statistically, he […]
It was less a baseball game, by the sixth and seventh and eighth innings, than a conference-room presentation, with the pitches as bullet points and the batters walking to the plate and jogging back to the dugout, screen-left, like slideshow graphics. “Taking It For A Spin: The Outsized Efficacy of the Breaking Ball in the […]
Some MLB pitchers have fastballs that can reach triple digits, pushing the limits of what is possible for the human body. Others have breaking balls that disappear, making hitters look like Little Leaguers at the plate. A select few can do both, and within that group, only the most elite can keep it up for […]
Perhaps a homecoming was all he needed. “I think I’m here for a reason,” Albert Pujols had said back in March, upon rejoining the St. Louis Cardinals — the franchise he’d spent his first 11 seasons with — after a decade away. “They believe I can still play this game, and they believe I can […]