Baseball’s Greatest (and Worst) is sort of 4 and a half years outdated. I began this text on Labor Day 2020, and I’ve issued not less than one new version each week since then. My common output is 2 tales per week, although I’ve prolonged myself to 5 on a number of events.
At the moment’s submission brings my whole variety of entries since September 2020 to exactly 500. I’m marking the milestone by harkening again to 11 tales that attracted excessive ranges of reader curiosity.
This menu is restricted to the 2020-2023 span, since 2024’s tales appear to be too current for memory. Click on on any underlined headline to return to the unique piece.
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No. 9: Information, not fiction (September 29, 2020)
The 2020 season was the weirdest ever. Two months, 60 video games, no journey past a staff’s part of the continent. The playoffs have been performed as if a full intraleague schedule had been performed, which wasn’t the case in any respect. I proposed that we acknowledge actuality: There have been three leagues, not two, in 2020.
No. 15: The true greatness of Joe Morgan (October 20, 2020)
Joe Morgan, who died in October 2020, was really one of many biggest gamers of any period. I proved the purpose by inspecting his super 1976 season for the Cincinnati Reds.
No. 50: Prime beginning pitchers of the twenty first century (February 19, 2021)
So who would it not be? Randy Johnson? Clayton Kershaw? Max Scherzer? Justin Verlander? My 10-part system gave the nod to Kershaw after analyzing all starters between 2000 and 2020. Verlander was the runner-up.
No. 65: Placing Sandy Koufax in a time machine (April 13, 2021)
Sandy Koufax was a strike-throwing machine in an period when strikeouts have been a lot more durable to return by. He’d most likely have a subject day if he have been reincarnated in right now’s free-swinging setting. I did the maths, and the reply was what you’ll count on. Koufax would have dominated the 2020s.
No. 124: Overdue honors (November 5, 2021)
I prompt that 15 golf equipment wanted to retire the uniform numbers of deserving gamers and managers who had been ignored to that time. A few of that recommendation was subsequently accepted — as with the Dodgers and Fernando Valenzuela — however most of it nonetheless applies right now.
No. 167: Worst fan help within the Fashionable Period (April 5, 2022)
“What else do you must do to attract followers on this place?” Tampa Bay star Evan Longoria requested plaintively after the Rays made the playoffs in 2010. No one has ever discovered a solution. My calculations decided that the Rays have acquired the worst help from any fan base within the majors.
No. 214: Worst batters of all time, kind of (September 16, 2022)
I examined batting information at five-year intervals from 1876 to the current, figuring out the worst hitter in every league throughout every half-decade. The one participant to complete final in two separate durations was Joe DeMaestri, a shortstop who kicked across the American League within the Nineteen Fifties.
No. 275: Why Tommy McCarthy? (April 7, 2023)
Not everyone who has been enshrined within the Corridor of Fame deserved the respect. That was very true of Tommy McCarthy, a nineteenth century outfielder who was elected to Cooperstown in 1946. I made up my mind that McCarthy had the very weakest resumé of any of the corridor’s inductees.
No. 302: TTDMS: 5 innings for a win (Could 16, 2023)
Considered one of my occasional options is abbreviated TTDMS, which stands for “issues that don’t make sense.” That’s actually true of the rule that requires a beginning pitcher to work 5 innings to qualify for a win, whereas a reliever must throw solely a single pitch to be in line for a W.
No. 373: Greatest choices for MLB enlargement (August 23, 2023)
If and when Rob Manfred decides it’s time to increase, Main League Baseball ought to grant franchises to Montreal and Charlotte. I reached that conclusion after analyzing the relative deserves of 37 American, Canadian, Caribbean, and Mexican markets which might be presently exterior the MLB umbrella.
No. 404: Put together to desert Florida (October 17, 2023)
I obtained on Tampa Bay’s case once more on this story, and I added Miami for good measure. Each markets have confirmed to be utterly apathetic about baseball. I prompt that it was time for the main leagues to go for the clever course of abandoning Florida.
