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Thank you, Joe Panik

For nearly as long as I can remember, whenever anyone asked me who was my favorite baseball player, I said Jorge Posada. He was the player I wanted to emulate from the time I was little. Like Jorge, I didn’t wear batting gloves. Like Jorge, I slightly hunched over in my batting stance (until I ...

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Gleyber Torres Looks Better Than Ever

In 2019, Gleyber Torres was a second-year player who made his second All-Star team and finished the season with 38 home runs. He was the Yankees’ breakout star in that postseason, leading the team with a 1.078 OPS in nine playoff games. He was just 22 years old, and it was reasonable to expect his ...

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Christian Yelich Is Back in MVP Form

First, there were signs of life. In the April 25 edition of our MLB Power Rankings, Will Laws wrote about Christian Yelich’s rough start to the season in his blurb for the Brewers. At the time, Yelich had a .192/.302/.327 slash line and just one home run. “That’s not a great start for those ...

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Five-Tool Newsletter: Inside MLB’s Eventful Week

MLB announced this afternoon that it has suspended Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer 324 games, or the length of two full regular seasons, for violating its domestic violence policy. This is the biggest story in baseball today, so I’ll use the beginning of this newsletter to share Stephanie ...

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Ohtani, Pujols and Other MLB Notes From the First Two Weeks

Happy two weeks of baseball! The early stretch of the 2022 season has provided us with some of the best and worst of what this game has to offer. Some of those highlights include Vladimir Guerrero Jr. swatting three home runs against the Yankees, Clayton Kershaw shoving in his first start and ...

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