Blame the Manager

I must be the last one who can complain about managerial firings. You see, in October 1969, as a ten-year-old, I wrote to the Reds then general manager, Bob Howsam, to state my dismay about the firing of manager Dave Bristol. Mr. Howsam replied three weeks later that while he appreciated my fan interest, his new hire, Sparky Anderson, would be a capable replacement in 1970. He was clearly right; I was clearly wrong. But late last month, two managers, the Phillies’ Rob Thomson and Red Sox’ Alex Cora, were both relieved of their duties less than 30 games into the season. Talk about a short leash!

The late April dismissals of Thomson and Cora were surprising. They were not, however, the earliest firings in recent history. In 2018, the Reds dismissed skipper Bryan Price after just eighteen games. Their 3-15 start was their worst one since 1931. The Tigers management in 2002 acted even more quickly.  Phil Garner, a major leaguer for 16 seasons, managed the Brewers for eight seasons prior to helming Detroit in 2000.  After an 0-6 start to the 2002 season, Phil was given the heave-ho. Last month’s cannings of Thomson and Cora were the third and fourth earliest in an MLB season.

We saw a similar story in Philadelphia in 2022. The Phillies fired manager Joe Girardi after the team’s 22-29 start. Girardi was in his third season as the Philadelphia skipper. Joe, a former major league catcher, started his managerial career in 2006 with the Florida Marlins, leading a team with the lowest payroll in baseball to playoff contention and his Manager of the Year award. Girardi also led the Yankees to the 2009 world championship. But below .500 was not good enough for the Phils’ GM Dave Dombrowski in 2022 and he gave Rob Thomson the early nod. Thomson then led Philadelphia to the World Series in 2022. Now, as Phillies president, Dombrowski hopes his lack of patience pays off again this year. He’s called on former Yankee great Don Mattingly, the 2020 Manager of the Year (also with the Marlins), to lead the team on an interim basis. Interestingly, Mattingly now reports to his son, GM Preston Mattingly.

Yes, some crazy goings on in Philadelphia, especially when Dombrowski admitted that his first choice, Alex Cora, had declined the position. Cora had been dismissed two days earlier by the Red Sox and already had made it to the top of the manager in waiting list. Why so? Many in the baseball world think of Cora as one of the top skippers in the game. After a 14-year playing career ended in 2011 with the Nationals, Alex turned to coaching. In 2017, he was the bench coach for the Astros when Houston won the World Series, and then managed the Red Sox to the World Series championship in his first season as a manager in 2018. His .534 winning percentage as a manager is top notch.

In Boston, in addition to losing Cora at the helm, most of the coaches were let go as well. Reportedly, Boston chief baseball officer Craig Breslow spoke to the players briefly about his spring cleaning in a clubhouse meeting before introducing new manager Chad Tracy. Unusually, the players reacted harshly and went to the media with their concerns. Star shortstop Trevor Story questioned the direction of the franchise. Pitcher Garrett Whitlock noted that “they made it very clear that we get paid to play baseball, and we need to just focus on playing baseball”.  Rising star Roman Anthony, just 21 years old, had this to say: “At the end of the day, when we take the field, it’s on us. It’s not AC’s (Cora’s) job to go out there and do the things that we’re expecting to do as players”.

From the front office perspective, blaming the manager is the name of the game. Both the Phillies and the Red Sox were pre-season favorites to contend for their respective division crowns and two of the top five highest paid teams in the game. A dreadful April needed some short of a shake-up. In a 2025 article written by Will Leitch called “Skipper Review: In Baseball, Blame the Manager”, Leitch takes a deep dive into the history of managerial firings in baseball. He notes that the very name of the position, “manager”, suggests the “inherent powerlessness” of the position. Baseball managers, in Leitch’s view, are essentially middle managers carrying out the whims of the owners and executives. If there are more losses than wins, show the middle managers the door.

Leitch makes another interesting point about the change in who now oversees managerial moves. The trend in baseball is to fill front offices with college-educated analytics, the so-called Ivy League GMs, instead of former players or those with scouting backgrounds. Gone are the days where managers answered directly to owners. One of the most controversial skippers in MLB history, Billy Martin, helmed six different MLB teams in his 20 years of managing, including five separate stints with the Yankees.  Billy’s Yankees had a winning record in all five of his stops with New York, but each time he was fired or resigned under fire due to a dispute with Yankee owner George Steinbrenner. Midway through the 1978 season he was forced to resign when he said this about Yankees star player, Reggie Jackson, and Steinbrenner:  “one’s a born liar, and the other’s convicted.”  Shortly thereafter, the Yankees announced that Martin would return as manager someday.  He managed the New Yorkers four times during the next four seasons, all for less than one year. 

It's also interesting how a manager gets to keep his job under the right circumstances. The two longest tenured managers in the AL today are Kevin Cash, Rays (since 2014), and Aaron Boone, Yankees (since 2017). Cash led Tampa to the 2020 World Series against the Dodgers, and by all accounts made a critical mistake by pulling his star pitcher, Blake Snell, after only 73 pitches in an elimination game. Cash withstood the clamor, and is noted today as a manager who gets the most out of a squad with payroll deficiencies. Boone got the nod to manage the Yankees in 2017 due to his astute commentary on Yankees broadcasts. He had no prior managerial experience. Boone’s Pinstripers have never won it all despite having one of baseball’s highest payrolls. It’s just impossible to know why and when the axe might fall.

The colorful, late Yankees and Mets manager, Casey Stengel, summed up managing the best: “If you don’t win, you’re going to be fired. If you do win, you’ve only put off the day you’re going to be fired.” Yes indeed, blame the manager!

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Challenge Me!

I remember that evening well. I was 15 years old and reporting to the pre-season umpire meeting for my first paying job. After a talk by the lead supervisor, I received a face mask, t-shirt, indicator (to record balls, strikes, and outs by hand), and scorecards (an umpire’s version of time sheets). One of the more veteran kids told me something to the effect that “remember, you get paid by the game, not by the hour”. Good advice. From that day forward, I always made sure that when I served as a home plate umpire, I called, when possible, a fair amount of strikes. Some might call it a wide zone. I thought of it as my gift to those attending youth baseball games.

In the early days of  baseball, there was no such thing as a “ball”. Pitchers were instructed to make sure the batters hit the baseball. Since pitchers didn’t always comply, organized baseball soon began to penalize a pitcher for throwing three unhittable pitches and deemed it a ball. A pitcher was allowed only three “balls” per batter.  In effect, it would take nine errant pitches to advance the batter to first base. By 1880 eight unfair pitches became a base on balls, and in 1884 six were required. It wasn’t until 1887 when the National League and its companion league, the American Association, actually agreed to a strike zone. In 1889, baseball finally mandated that four balls outside the strike zone would constitute a walk.

For a pitcher, it’s so important to throw strikes. I still remember the words from my managers in the dugout when I walked a batter, “we can’t help you if you walk them”. Indeed, how many times do you find yourself grimacing when your favorite team’s pitcher walks a leadoff batter to begin an inning?! Statistics bear out the importance of it. A key metric in “The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball” authored by three baseball historians is “run expectancy”. The metric looks at the 24 possible baserunner/out scenarios, for example, bases empty with no outs. In that case, a team has a 46.1% chance of scoring a run in any given inning. When the leadoff batter walks, the run expectancy jumps to 83.1% and the anguish for the fielding team begins.

With the advent of the automatic balls strikes (ABS) system this year, we now have a new dynamic in calling balls and strikes. No longer is the pace of the game solely in the hands of whether a home plate umpire is a “pitcher’s ump” or a “hitter’s ump”, but technology is literally looking over our shoulders. MLB has had to rewrite the strike zone to accommodate ABS. The Official Rules of Baseball has long maintained that the strike zone is from the middle of a batter’s torso to just below his kneecap, leaving much discretion in how an umpire sees the zone in the batter’s stance. Now, it’s much more precise. The zone starts at 27% of a batter’s height and stretches to 53.5%, top to bottom. In width, the ABS zone is, of course, 17 inches wide, matching the width of home plate.

What’s the impact of the new ABS strike zone? In April batters took walks in historic numbers. Walk rates were around 10%, a 16% hike over 2025. The trend indicates that in 2026 we may see the highest walk rate in 75 years. Some teams are clearly taking advantage of the new zone, including the Yankees, Brewers, and Angels, which are averaging over 12% of the team at-bats. And the craziest numbers are the individual ones. These MLB stars are walking an unbelievable amount of times to the plate – Mike Trout, Angels (73.9%); Ben Rice, Yankees (62.2%); Munetaka Murakami, White Sox (59.8%); and Nick Kurtz, Athletics (57.8%). 

What is the player’s reaction to the new strike zone? It depends on whom you ask. James McCann, Arizona’s catcher, believes that the zone is “tighter than usual” because umpires are receiving much feedback on whether a pitch is a strike or a ball.  Pitcher Paul Sewald, also of the Diamondbacks, admitted that “it is a tough time to be a pitcher”, joking that there are “balls flying everywhere”. The hitters see it a little differently. The Yankees’ Cody Bellinger calls the April increase in walks a “short sample size”. The Cubs’ Nico Hoerner noted that hitters are benefitting short term by laying off pitches at the top of the zone but adjustments will soon be made.

Have we seen a rules change similarly impact the game before? Most definitely. Reacting to the dominance of pitchers in the 1960s era, most particularly Bob Gibson’s record 1.12 ERA in 1968, MLB lowered the mound for the 1969 season. The walk rate increased from 7.6% to 9.1%. We all remember the effect of the new pitch clock rule in 2023. Stolen bases skyrocketed in 2023 and remain high, even after teams have had three years to adjust.

What’s interesting about the new ABS zone is that it seems to run counter to the MLB objective that triggered the pitch clock rule – speed up the game!  The early numbers, based on April play, show that games are being played on an average of 2 hours, 42 minutes, about six minutes more than the 2024 and 2025 pace. Yes, it’s slight, but something to be mindful of, especially when baseball is doing all it can to spur fan interest.

I’ve seen most recently a couple videos of home plate umpires responding to dugouts disputing called balls and strikes with the words “challenge me”! Yes, if the team hasn’t run its course on the number of challenges it has that game, the batter, catcher, or pitcher could have certainly challenged the call. But, for me, it seems like umpires are thinking of the ABS system as overreaching and they are more brazen than usual.  Maybe the new advice to umpires is not that you aren’t paid by the hour, but rather call the game in a way that they won’t challenge you.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Upside Down

Yeah, I’m still one of those. I get the newspaper delivered to my driveway each morning. Every good day starts that way. Sometime during my second cup of coffee, I make it to the Sports section, and in particular, page 4. You see, that’s where I find the NL and AL Standings, the pitching lineups for the day, and many of the box scores from the night before. It’s not a casual glance, mind you, but 15-20 minutes of poring through the material, thinking about the what ifs, and finding my favorite teams in the standings. After the first month of MLB play, it seems to me in many ways those standings are upside down.

One of the fun stories at my happy place, Wrigley Field, is the history of the team flags flying on what looks to be a ship’s mast on top of the manual scoreboard. Those flags, or pennants, are placed in order based on the current standings. Prior to 1962, when there were only 8 National League teams, the four teams on the left side were in the “first division” (first four places) and the four teams on the right side in the “second division”.  Five flags on each side proudly flew when the NL expanded to ten teams in 1962. Then in 1969, division play began with six pennants on the left exhibiting the NL East standings, and six teams on the right, the NL West. Nowadays, with 15 teams in the league, there are five pennants on the left (NL West), five in the middle (NL Central), and five on the right (NL East), all trying to reach the top spots. This is how the term “pennant race” in baseball was coined.

With the Dodgers’ 15-4 start, it’s been no surprise which pennant has remained atop the left side for most of this season. It’s difficult to keep your pennant flying at the top for the entire season. Indeed, there have been only five teams in MLB history that have gone “wire to wire”.  The first such team was the 1927 Yankees, widely considered the best team ever with their “Murderer’s Row” lineup and a roster that included nine future Hall of Famers, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig among them. The ’84 Tigers are on this list as well, along with the 1995 Brooklyn Dodgers, 1990 Reds, and 2005 White Sox. I know that much of baseball is hoping that the Padres continue their hot streak of the past two weeks and replace LA at the top of the NL West.

Does a hot start mean a stand-out season and a championship awaits in October?  Sometimes, but certainly not always.  Of the ten hottest starts in MLB history, two were by American League teams that set regular season win records, first by New York in 1998 with 114, and then topped by Seattle three years later with 116. The ’98 Yanks won the World Series, but the ’01 Mariners fell short.  My favorite two hot starts had one thing in common.  Both the 1970 Reds (starting 22-6 with a 70-30 record at the All-Star Break) and the 1984 Tigers (starting with a blistering 35-5 record) were managed by Sparky Anderson.  While Detroit captured the crown in 1984, a very hot Orioles team dominated the Reds in the 1970 Series.

Positioning the pennants in the NL Central race so far this season is driving the Wrigley manual scoreboard operator crazy. All five teams have been over .500 for much of the season and essentially switching spots at the top (and bottom) of the standings daily. Before the season, most experts predicted the Cubs to win the division, but the Pirates and Reds were given some of the ink as well. One should never count out the Brewers. All four teams show much promise. And what about the Cardinals?! My St. Louis blog followers are basking in their early season surprise. No division race has ever ended in MLB history with all five teams above .500. Maybe this is the year!

The NL East? Clearly upside down. In March the question baseball analysts discussed was whether the Phillies or the Mets would win the division. Now the discussion turns to which team will finish in last place. New York, with baseball’s highest payroll at $364 million this season, just came off of a 12-game losing streak and Philadelphia almost matched it with ten straight. The Mets have clearly missed Juan Soto who just returned this past week, while the Phillies’ pitching staff has been decimated by injuries. At the top of the division with the only winning record sits Atlanta whose winning ways have featured clutch hitting, team defense and speed, and a solid bullpen. Their flag is faltering a little this week with the news that their closer, Raisel Iglesias, was placed on the Injured List.

Moving to the American League, it’s topsy turvy as well. How many of you would have thought that four weeks into the season the teams in last place in the division races would be Boston (AL East), Kansas City (AL Central), and Houston (AL West)? There is only one team in the American League that appears to be separating themselves from the others, and of course it’s the Yankees. The Pinstripers have the league’s best record, eight games over .500 at 18-10.

I heard a commentator say recently that you can’t win a division during the first month, but you certainly can lose one. In my mind, the outcome of each game, whether in April or September, has the same impact on the standings. It’s a long 162, and may the best pennants rise to the top. 

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Tommy John

I attended my grandson’s baseball game last week and overheard that his pitch count was 38 after two innings. What that means nowadays is that during the next inning he would need to be replaced since the 50-pitch limit would be enforced. The care and concern for youth pitchers today is on high alert. When I was about his age, there was no such thing as pitch counts or innings limits. If you were the team’s pitcher, you got the ball. The only care we received was through home remedies. I recall my Dad putting in a chin up bar in our basement so that I could stretch out after outings. I didn’t care for that bar very much. In addition, I would take salt pills to restore the weight I lost pitching in a game during hot summer days. One name changed the rules for all of us who have had the enjoyment of pitching – Tommy John.

In 1974, after years of study by Dodgers’ team physician and orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Frank Jobe, Dodger pitcher Tommy John became the first patient of Jobe’s to undergo ulner collateral ligament (UCL) reconstruction (now known appropriately as “Tommy John Surgery”).  Dr. Jobe took a tendon from John’s wrist, drilled holes into his ulna and humerus bones, and grafted the tendon in a figure-eight design held together by anchors. It was truly experimental surgery meant to counteract John’s persistent pain in his left, throwing elbow. It wasn’t until 1978 when the next Tommy John Surgery would be performed by Dr. Jobe.

The surgery was very meaningful in John’s pitching career. In 1961, at 18 years old, Tommy John was signed by the Indians because of his dynamic curveball. He debuted in the MLB with Cleveland in 1963, and then was traded to the White Sox. 1965 was his first year as a full-time starting pitcher. His career took off in 1968 when he was named an AL All-Star and posted a 1.98 ERA.  Traded to the Dodgers in 1972, John led the National League in winning percentage in 1973 (.696) and 1974 (.814) before his ’74 season abruptly ended when he tore his UCL. You might recall another Dodger pitcher with a terrific curveball a decade before whose career prematurely ended with elbow ailments, Sandy Koufax. Dr. Jobe often remarked that if the surgery had been developed years earlier, it would have been known as “Sandy Koufax Surgery”. In any event, the 1974 surgery prolonged Tommy John’s career for 15 more years, as he retired in 1989 with a career 288-231 win-loss record, 3.34 ERA, and four All-Star nods.

Tommy John Surgery has been a career saver for many MLB pitchers. Foremost among them is Hall of Famer John Smoltz. Smoltz played in 21 MLB seasons, all but the last one with the Braves. Smoltzie began his career in 1988 as a starter, one of Atlanta’s dominant three along with Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine. The threesome led the Braves to the 1995 World Series championship. The next year Smoltz won the NL Cy Young with a record of 24-8. In 2000, he underwent Tommy John Surgery. His mound comeback in 2001 saw him outside the Atlanta rotation and in a new role as the team’s closer. Close, he did, recording 55 saves in 2002, becoming only the second pitcher in MLB history to have both a 20-win season and a 50-save season. Dennis Eckersly is the other one.

Another HOF’er who had successful Tommy John Surgery was actually a position player, Paul Molitor. Molitor’s 21-year playing career (1978-1998) included fifteen years with the Brewers, but also three years with both the Blue Jays and Twins. Most of his acolades occurred after his Tommy John Surgery in 1984. Molitor was a 7-time All-Star and the World Series MVP in 1993. Throughout his career he was known for his hitting prowess (lifetime batting average of .306) and speed (504 stolen bases). The only other Hall of Famer who had Tommy John Surgery was relief pitcher Billy Wagner, who starred principally for the Houston Astros.

While rare, some players unfortunately never recovered from Tommy John Surgery. Jose Rijo of the Reds tops that list. From 1988 to 1993, Rijo was one of the supreme pitchers in baseball, on the leaders’ lists in ERA, strikeouts, and wins each year. He is most known for leading Cincinnati to an upset, four-game sweep of Oakland in the 1990 World Series, where Jose’s Games 1 and 4 dominance secured him the Series MVP award. Elbow injuries sidelined him in 1995 and he had the surgery in August that year. While Rijo came back to pitch in portions of 1997-2001, he was never the same.

Since the first Tommy John Surgery in 1974, almost 2,500 professional baseball players have undergone the procedure. Indeed, approximately 38% of active MLB pitchers today have had it. The percentage continues to grow; about 27% of MLB pitchers a decade ago had it. Those numbers don’t even including the individuals who have had more than one procedure. 30% of the patients need a second one along the way. While those are alarming statistics, the prevalence of the surgery on our youth is staggering. Around two-thirds of Tommy John Surgeries are performed on athletes between 16 and 20 years old. Some patients have even been in Little League.

The rise in these surgeries is the result of many things, but mostly due to the intensity of higher velocity pitching. Throwing a baseball, especially pitching one, is not a natural motion. In one of the leading medical articles, “What Doctors Wish Patients Knew about Tommy John Surgery”, Sara Berg in 2024 points to the prevailing research that the harder one throws a baseball, there is more torque and stress on the elbow. Yet, we keep upping the game and demanding that pitchers throw harder and harder. And the fix just can’t be to just have the surgery. Dr. Vasilios Moutzouros, an orthopedic surgeon at Henry Ford Health and a leading expert, says this in Berg’s report: “It’s not the easiest surgery because the elbow is a really difficult joint to operate on.” While the success rate is high (90% get back to throw), outcomes are worse with each additional procedure and the recovery time is lengthy (12-16 months).

How does baseball prevent the injury? For our youth, warming up properly, rest, limiting pitches and innings, and playing other sports are part of the recipe. At the professional level, the careful development of pitchers through the system is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. Yet, the injuries continue to mount and seasons are lost. Most recently, the Cubs’ pitching phenom, Cade Horton, underwent his second Tommy John Surgery and is projected to be out of action until sometime late next summer. It’s a plight that many pitchers and teams at all levels continue to have.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Worst Feeling

Umpiring is a tough job, especially behind the plate. Keeping your concentration for 250-300 pitches a game is very difficult. As chronicled in prior blog pieces, I’ve been in those umpiring cleats. Sometimes, you just miss a pitch. And when you do, you know! You can see it in the reaction of the players and coaches. Believe me, you know. It’s one of the worst feelings in the world. For the first time in MLB history, umpires now have some added corrective lenses in the automatic balls strikes (ABS) system. Just a couple weeks into the season, it’s clear that ABS is here to stay.

MLB and the Major League Baseball Umpires Association have always seemed to resist video review of calls on the field. Indeed, the NFL, NBA, and NHL all had some sort of review system in place before MLB developed instant replay during the 2008 season. Beginning that season, only the umpire crew chief could initiate a review. The umpiring crew would huddle on the field, review a video feed, and then decide whether to uphold a call. Of course, it wasn’t just any call. Only home run calls could be reviewed.

It wasn’t until 2014 when the current replay system was instituted to include more than just home run calls. Managers are given one challenge a game (which you do maintain if you are correct) on a wide variety of plays (fair/foul calls, tag plays, catch/trap calls, etc.).  From the eighth inning on, the umpire crew chief can also initiate a review. With the expansion of the replay system, baseball fans and commentators began to offer criticism on which plays are reviewable and how much time it takes to make a review decision. In addition, in view of today’s HD television and the imaged strike zone, umpire performance has been scrutinized more and more each season.

TrackMan, a radar-based system to call balls and strikes, came onto the baseball scene less than ten years ago. In 2019 the Atlantic League tested the technology for its college player summer league. While the new system had some mixed reaction early in the season, it seemed to gain favor as the season wore on. Later that year, the Arizona Fall League adopted TrackMan with even greater success. ESPN baseball insider Buster Olney opined that technology would replace home plate umpires calling balls and strikes by 2023. 

Over the past few seasons minor league baseball has experimented with the ABS system. ABS does not utilize robot umpires, as Olney predicted and others feared, but rather technology to assist umpires in calling balls and strikes. TrackMan’s radar tracking has been replaced by camera-based tracking, called Hawk-Eye. Hawk-Eye has been found to be more accurate for determining the strike zone. High-resolution cameras are mounted in 12 different locations in each ballpark. During spring training play last year, MLB used the new technology at a handful of Cactus and Grapefruit League ballparks.

ABS will be in place for the entire MLB 2026 season. The system sets up a strike zone box for each player based on a natural batting stance. So if you crouch as a batter, it’s to your detriment. Each team gets two challenges that are triggered by a touch of the head by the batter, catcher, or pitcher. If your challenge is correct, you maintain it. What we see in the early days of ABS is that managers are allowing catchers and batters to use the system, but not often pitchers. We also see a trend developing that teams are saving their challenges for the later innings to make sure they are available when the game is on the line. One important feature stands out – the calls are made in a timely fashion.

So how have the teams been faring with the challenges? The early numbers suggest an overall MLB success rate of 55.9% (based on the 542 challenges made in the first two weeks of the season). Fielding teams are winning 59.7% of the challenges, while batters are winning 49.8%. There have been only 13 challenges by pitchers, six successful. If you are a fan of the Tigers, you have to be pleased with ABS since Detroit is winning challenges at the highest rate of any team (75%), followed by the Diamondbacks (71%) and the Orioles and Reds (both at 67%).

Home plate umpire accountability is at the heart of the matter going forward. Last season, without ABS, analysts determined a 94.2% accuracy rate on balls and strikes for MLB home plate umpires. With 100% accuracy seemingly now in play, some umpires are feeling the heat. Maybe ABS outcomes will influence fall playoff assignments for umpires. It’s hard to know at this point.

By an assortment of standards – fairness, accuracy, timeliness – ABS is a big success. MLB has to be especially pleased with fan reception. The reaction in the ballpark when the video board shows whether the pitch is in the zone or not has brought a new dimension to fan attendance. Unfortunately, home plate umpires have taken the brunt of the novelty of the new system. Since some umpires are getting more calls overturned than others, they indeed must be having the worst feeling of all.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Dark Cloud

The MLB season is ten games in, but I must say that I’m still feeling the euphoria of my spring training adventure in Arizona. Oh, how I yearn for those sun-drenched days without a cloud in the sky. That is especially true given the cold and rainy weather of the Midwest during baseball’s opening week, a story for another time. Looking ahead though, a dark cloud looms over spring training in 2027 and the regular season. You see, the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between MLB and the MLB Players Association (MLBPA) is scheduled to expire on December 1, 2026. Most everyone in baseball is counting on some sort of work stoppage in 2027, threatening once again the game we all love.

The history of baseball strikes and lockouts goes back to the first one in 1972, a thirteen day strike by the players in early April of the season. The strike concerned the players’ pension fund, and resulted in the cancellation of 86 games. None of the cancelled games were rescheduled. Crazily, since the Tigers were able to play one more game that season than the Red Sox, Detroit won the AL East over Boston by a ½ game. The 1970s saw two other work stoppages – a February, 1973 lockout and a March, 1976 lockout of the players, both of which were for eighteen days and during spring training. No regular season games were impacted. The major characters in these labor disputes, Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and MLBPA union director Marvin Miller, would be at center stage for some difficult times ahead.

For many of us the 1981 MLB strike is the first one we remember. At issue was free agent compensation. The owners wanted some sort of compensation for losing a free agent to another team, while the players argued that any limit on free agency would affect its value. The strike began on June 12 and ended on July 31, resulting in the cancellation of one-third of the season. The compromise was that teams who lost a “premium” free agent could grab a player left unprotected from all MLB teams, not just the signing team. The strike though left a scar on the game. MLB decided to play two split seasons with the division winners of each split getting into the playoffs. Unfortunately, teams such as the Reds and Cardinals won the overall records in their respective divisions but neither one of the split seasons, and were left out of the postseason. More importantly, the strike hurt the game itself as fan discord was reflected in decreased attendance at MLB ballparks.

The 1990s was also a decade of labor turmoil and fan discontent. In 1990, MLB locked out the players for 32 days beginning in February, basically eliminating spring training. The season began a week later than scheduled, but this time MLB accommodated a 162-game schedule by ending the season three days late. The owners called for a revenue sharing plan where 48% of the players’ salaries would be paid from, and also for the first time proposed a salary cap on all teams. Ultimately, the parties agreed to form a committee to “study” revenue sharing. Just four years later, baseball experienced its longest work stoppage ever as a strike began on August 12, 1994, and was not suspended until April 2, 1995, 235 days later. 948 games were cancelled, including the 1994 World Series, and the 1995 season was reduced to a 144-game schedule. The core issue concerned the owners’ continuing desire to impose a salary cap, which was never resolved and remains at the center of the conflict between the owners and players today.

The most recent work stoppage is the 2021-2022 lockout. When the CBA ended at midnight on December 1, 2021, the owners immediately locked out the players after months of stalled negotiations. Interestingly, in the month prior to the lockout, owners scrambled to sign the premiere free agents at a record total of $1.9 billion. At the crux of the dispute were compensation for young players and the owners’ demand to narrow the disparity of each team’s combined salary with a minimum of $100 million per team and an incremental luxury tax beginning at $180 million. The lockout, which began on December 2, lasted over three months, shortening spring training and rescheduling the first two weeks of the season to later dates. In the settlement, league minimum salaries were increased by 23% but the ball was essentially pushed down the road on teams’ combined salary concerns. An incremental luxury tax was instituted at a higher level, topping off at $242 million this year. If you have kept track of free agent signings during the past offseason, you know that many teams seem unfazed about the luxury tax. Many say that the Dodgers signing of Kyle Tucker for four years at $240 million will be the contract that pushes MLB owners over the edge.

With that as background, a dark cloud at midnight, December 1, 2026, seems almost inevitable. Baseball will come to a standstill on the issue of a salary cap. In July 2025, Commissioner Rob Manfred toured the clubhouses of many MLB teams and was confronted quite harshly by Phillies’ star Bryce Harper who in essence suggested that a salary cap is a non-starter and would be worth 162 games to fight off. While the MLBPA opposes a cap, the union seems to support a salary floor. A salary floor would force lower revenue teams to spend more. To put this all in perspective, other U.S. professional sports have caps in place. Both the NFL and NHL have a strict hard cap, an absolute maximum limit that teams cannot exceed.

Is there a possible solution to baseball’s dilemma? Maybe we explore a hard cap and floor at the same time. I’ve heard several experts propose that baseball institute, in today’s dollars, a maximum cap of $280 million and a floor of $140 million per team. Looking at the available numbers from 2025, this kind of cap would only impact the Dodgers, Mets, Yankees, and Phillies, while the floor would push 12 teams, almost half the number of MLB teams, to spend more and hopefully be more competitive. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of the Dodgers dominating the payroll and World Series landscapes.

In the past week or so, I think we are seeing some owners plan ahead for a work stoppage. Young, future stars are being signed by the lower revenue teams to long term contracts. The Brewers signed future star infielder Cooper Pratt to an eight-year deal through 2033. Seattle followed suit with an eight-year, $95 million deal for its top prospect, shortstop Colt Emerson. And just last Thursday, the rumor hit the market that the Pirates are close to signing MLB’s #1 prospect, Konnor Griffin, to a nine-year, $140 million deal. The owners are getting firm commitments from players before the possibility of a work stoppage. Maybe there are some partly sunny skies ahead.

If there is a prolonged, work stoppage in 2027, what am I going to do? What will be there to write about? In late June 1981, my wife and I honeymooned at a luxurious (smile) family resort in central Tennessee. We began our drive back home to St. Louis while the 1981 strike was just three weeks old. She knew then that baseball would always be a big part of my life when I persuaded her that we stop for a night in Peducah, Kentucky, to watch a low minor leagues game. I was already missing baseball and in need of a little fix. Ominous, storm clouds lifted that night right around first pitch. Hopefully, in 2027, the dark cloud won’t be there to stay.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Spring Training Observations

Your Baseball Bench Coach is back for the blog’s eighth season! Over the last several weeks I did another spring training jaunt to Arizona. This spring I did not attend all of the Cactus League sites like last year, but I did see a lot of baseball at Sloan Park and a handful of other ballparks. I thought I would concentrate on some topics I hope you will find of interest when you plan to visit. For fans the goal of the games is to relax and soak up the sun. It truly doesn’t matter whether your favorite team wins or loses. My guess is that while you are reading this, you probably have no idea which team “won” the Cactus League this year. For the players, especially those who know they will be on their team’s MLB roster, the idea simply is to get some work in prior to the long 162. Let’s reflect on Spring ’26 before we tackle the regular season that is upon us.

Early spring training games present a test for a fan’s loyalty. Don’t count on seeing your favorite players in the game for more than three to four innings, if at all. I saw the Athletics play the Guardians in the first week at Hohokam Park and two on field items stood out. The A’s starter, Luis Severino, pitched the first two innings and left the game after just 15 pitches. Amazingly, his first pitch was recorded at 99 mph. Pitchers do a lot of offseason work now and can easily fall into form. Their goal is to build up their innings as the spring moves forward. The term you often hear is “stretching” them out. On the hitter’s side, the Athletics power hitter, first baseman Nick Kurtz, led off so that he could quickly get 2 at bats before leaving the game in the third inning. Don’t miss the first part of the game in a concession stand line! You might be sorry.

It was unseasonably hot in Phoenix this spring, so finding the right seat is so important for your fan experience. I made the mistake in past years of not checking beforehand where the “shaded” seats are at the training sites. On this late February game at Hohokam it was 87 degrees at game time so I was glad I had done the quick research and found the perfect seat in the upper section behind home plate in the shade. For the most part, stay away from the lower sections in the Cactus League where your best friend needs to be sunscreen. There are parks, like Goodyear where the Reds and Guardians train, that it is almost impossible to get shaded seats. Of course, you can always sit in the outfield berms where ticket prices are more affordable. Bring a blanket to sit on and enjoy the afternoon in the sun.

The ballparks themselves you might find interesting. Some of them, such as Scottsdale Stadium (Giants), Tempe Diablo Stadium (Angels), and Hohokam Park (Athletics), are very old school. The two newest ones, Salt River Fields (home of the Diamondbacks and Rockies), and Sloan Park (Cubs), are modern in every way and draw better crowds than some MLB ballparks do. The dimensions of the parks (sometimes you will see 430 feet to dead center) are larger than MLB sites. The baseball carries better in the hot weather so the designers adjusted accordingly. And the best part of it all is that there is clearly less glitz in the Cactus League ballparks – smaller scoreboards; no constant feed of statistics; and less over the top promotions. Just sit back and enjoy the day!

That is not to say that the food offerings at Cactus League ballparks are disappointing. Quite the opposite. It seems like each park has its wonderful, feature foods. Sloan Park offers Chicago style hotdogs, making Mesa the Wrigleyville of the West. (Note: you can also find Lou Malnati’s and Portillo’s throughout the Phoenix area.) Hohokam Park features pretzels shaped like a mustache, clearly giving the fans a throwback moment to the Athletics of the 1970s and their facial hair. Goodyear features Skyline chili dogs for the many Reds fans who visit. My favorite though is lemonade at Scottsdale Stadium. The vendors love to say, “lemonade, lemonade, just like your Grandma made.” It just makes you feel good about being there.

The baseball topic this spring of course is the advent of the ABS (automated ball strike) system. It was tried at a couple Cactus League ballparks last spring and throughout the minor league systems over the last few years. ABS will be in place for the entire MLB 2026 season. The system sets up a strike zone box for each player based on a natural batting stance. Each team gets two challenges that are triggered by a touch of the head by the batter, catcher, or pitcher. If your challenge is correct, you maintain it. The word around the league is that only catchers and certain batters will have the license to challenge. I’ve heard a couple managers muse that “pitchers think every pitch is a strike”. So far, it has been a great success! Not only does it catch erroneous home plate umpire calls, but it is done in an expeditious way. ABS is here to stay.

About halfway through this spring’s games, the World Baseball Classic had its impact. MLB filled the rosters of the many international teams, including Venezuela, the eventual winner. While the WBC did create opportunities to play for those who weren’t invited, managers struggled with how much work pitchers should get before and after the competition. Inevitably, there were a handful of injuries at the WBC, including the one suffered by Cubs’ All-Star hitter, Seiya Suzuki, who starts the season on the Injured List.

When the spring games entered the final week, the focus shifted to the soon to be opening of MLB 2026. Starting pitchers had longer outings, positional players took more at bats, and some players fought for the last few spots on the roster. What I found very interesting is that there were many split squad games played in the last two weeks. That’s where half of your team plays a home game while the other half travels to a road site. This allows ample playing time for all. In addition, you find starting pitchers getting pitching assignments against the other league’s teams, not their own league or division opponents. You never want to show too much of your stuff if you don’t have to.

Spring training baseball can be summed up in a single word, “relax”.  If you haven’t gone on a spring break outing to the Cactus League or Grapefruit League, or it’s been too long between visits, put it on your list. You won’t regret it. 

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Playoffs 2025

The 2025 Wild Card playoff games begin tomorrow and start what baseball fans hope to be an October to remember. The final seedings were not decided until just yesterday. Let’s take a look at all 12 entrants this year sorted through their respective seedings:

Milwaukee Brewers (NL).  The Brew Crew won their 4th NL Central title in five years and had the most wins in the entire MLB. Every year I doubt this team, but they seem to find a way to win like no other team in baseball. Led by Christian Yelich and William Contreras, both the offense and defense are really solid. Their pitching strength is in the bullpen. If you are trailing them late in the game, Trevor McGill and Abner Uribe will shut the door. Their Achilles heal is starting pitching. With Brandon Woodruff and Jose Quintana on the IL, Freddy Peralta and Jacob MIsorowski need to come up big for Milwaukee to go deep into the playoffs.

Toronto Blue Jays (AL).  I’ve only seen Toronto play a handful of times all season, but they are truly fun to watch. They have a powerful lineup with the likes of George Springer, Dante Bichette, and Vladimir Guerrero in the 1-3 slots. Don’t get in a high scoring game with this bunch. Their starting four pitchers, Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber, Chris Bassitt, and Max Scherzer, are formidable but a little unpredictable. Who knows, there could be a little “Max Magic” in the air just like the 2019 Nationals experienced.

Philadelphia Phillies (NL). The Phils’ starting lineup is packed with some big names – Harper, Realmuto, Bohm, and Castellanos, but how many teams can also boast the NL batting champion (Trea Turner) and NL HR and RBIs leader (Kyle Schwarber). Powerful is the word. It’s hard not to put their starting staff in the elite category when on any given day Christopher Sanchez, Ranger Suarez, Aaron Nola, or Jesus Luzardo will take the hill. Philadelphia’s bullpen was bolstered by the trade deadline acquisition of Jhoan Duran from the Twins. The Phillies are primed to make a serious run at the title.

Seattle Mariners (AL). The Mariners got hot at the right time, sweeping the Astros in Houston in a key 3-game series down the stretch. Their offense has excelled all year behind the power of Cal Raleigh and all around play of Julio Rodriguez.  Throw in the acquisitions of Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor at the trade deadline and this team thrived in August and September. You have to like their pitching too with Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert, and George Kirby. Grab some Seattle coffee and enjoy them in the playoffs.

Los Angeles Dodgers (NL). Yes, the 2024 World Champions won the NL West this year again, but for whatever reason, I’m just not sold on them this year. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking. Their lineup too is full of stars headed by Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman. And maybe their starting staff is ranked at the top of list, featuring Yamamoto, Glasnow, Snell, and Kershaw. While it would be a good story if Kershaw turns his playoff performances around with a solid 2025, I just don’t see it happening. Ohtani on the mound in some fashion is certainly a wild card. Don’t count them out, but also don’t count them in.

Cleveland Guardians (AL). Cleveland has been the surprise team of the second half! On July 9, they were 15 ½ games behind Detroit. Going into September, they were still 9 ½ games back. While they needed a series win over the Tigers this past week and a Tigers collapse to win the division, they won the AL Central and go into the AL playoffs with tons of momentum. So who is on this upstart team? Two of my favorite players, the most consistent third baseman in the game, Jose Ramirez, and one of the top left fielders and leadoff hitters, Steven Kwan. Despite having no big names on the mound, consistent starts in the last four weeks have led them to the September promised land. Will that continue in October?

Chicago Cubs (NL). Full disclosure, I’ve seen this team play 90% of its games this season, and have truly enjoyed the ride. The first half of the season was remarkable with an offense matched by no other team. Kyle Tucker, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Carson Kelly and Seiya Suzuki led the way, but were certainly assisted by Michael Busch, Nico Hoerner (who finished 2nd in the NL in batting), and Dansby Swanson. Rookie third baseman Matt Shaw had a solid second half. The Cubs withstood injuries to its starting staff all season, and now look to them for some clutch October outings. Lefties Imanaga and Boyd have been stalwarts, and rookie Cade Horton has been sensational but is now on the IL. The bullpen has been good for most of the year, led by Brad Keller and closer Daniel Palencia. The bullpen and health of Kyle Tucker will be the keys to their October success story.

New York Yankees (AL). It’s difficult not to start with anyone other than Aaron Judge, the leader of the team and the best player in the AL. He is surrounded by a star-studded lineup, including Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt, Ben Rice, and Jazz Chisholm. The trade deadline acquisition of Ryan McMahon from the Rockies clearly helped. The bullpen was bolstered mid-year with David Bednar.  The fortune of last year’s AL champs will rest upon the starting staff. While Max Fried and Carlos Rodon give the Pinstripers a one-two punch on the front end, looking for a quality 3rd and 4th starter will be the challenge. It’s difficult to see this team repeating as AL champs.

San Diego Padres (NL).  The Padres went all in at the trade deadline, landing a closer in Mason Miller and some help at first base (Ryan O’Hearn) and left field (Ramon Laureano). These additions supplemented the incredible core of Tatis, Arraez, and Machado! The Padres put on a late season surge but couldn’t catch up to the Dodgers. Their starting staff has some big names, Dylan Cease, Nick Pavetta, Michael King, and Yu Darvish, but only Pavetta and King starred this season. When San Diego visits Wrigley Field this week, they will provide a formidable test for the Cubs.

Boston Red Sox (AL).  This is another AL team that was pretty well counted out in the first half, but came to life in the second. It seemed like they were cashing in their chips when they traded Rafael Devers to the Giants, but in an odd way the trade seemed to ignite the club. They have some names in the everyday lineup you will know – Trevor Story; Alex Bregman; Nathaniel Lowe; and Wil Abreu. What makes them a threat in the postseason is that their ace pitcher, Garrett Crochet, is surrounded by some quality, veteran starters, Lucas Giolito and Dustin May.

Cincinnati Reds (NL). I watched a lot of Reds games too along the way this season, and not in my wildest dreams did I see their surge to the playoffs in the last two weeks coming. Their lineup lacked power until recently when Spencer Steer got hot. Their best player, shortstop Elly De La Cruz, had a tough year from the right side of the plate and certainly in the field. And yet, they kept afloat around .500 for most of the season, and their winning streak in the last two weeks got them the final playoff slot. What makes this group a team that other NL teams would just as soon not play is its deep starting staff, headed by Hunter Greene and his cohorts Singer, Abbott, and Lodolo.

Detroit Tigers (AL). I had the Tigers penciled (maybe, penned) in the number one overall AL slot for most of the year. Their September fall caused Detroit to fall back into the #6 slot on the AL side. They are still a formidable team, with a lineup of Gleyber Torres, Riley Greene, and Spencer Torkelson. Where they are really dangerous is on the mound with the 2024 AL Cy Young winner, Tarik Skubal, leading the way. Casey Mize is a quality #2 and veteran Jack Flaherty fills out the rotation. It will be interesting to see if this team rebounds in October.

Until next season,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Realignment

Note: Some of the history in this article comes from a prior blog piece “Balanced Schedule” published in April 2023.

While there are AL division races still to be settled and wild card spots in both leagues up for grabs, all eyes after this week will turn to October playoff baseball. The current NL and AL teams, scheduling, and playoff formats are understood by baseball fans, but times may be changing soon. In an interview on Sunday Night Baseball on August 17, 2025, Commissioner Rob Manfred discussed the possibility of a revamped landscape in terms of league structure, scheduling, and playoff formats. The long tradition of storied franchises in the National and American Leagues playing in the World Series might even be in play.

Why is realignment an issue at all? Currently, MLB has 30 teams, 15 in the NL and 15 in the AL. MLB is looking at expansion by adding two more teams and making it a perfect rounding of 32. The possible expansion cities most talked about today include Nashville, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Montreal. What this would do is create for each league two divisions of eight teams or four divisions of four teams. Manfred has maintained that realignment should focus on grouping teams geographically to minimize travel distances. He has stated: “We could save a lot of wear and tear on our players in terms of travel.” That’s a hard take for me given the chartered jets teams travel in nowadays. The pessimist says that Manfred is looking at ways to revive baseball if there is a work stoppage in 2026.

There’s a lot to sort out here, but let’s first look at the history. For me, the history of MLB scheduling starts with the early 1960s – two leagues (AL and NL) and no interleague games.  The World Series was just that, a time that the AL and NL pennant winners would face each other for the first time in the season.  In 1969 MLB introduced divisional play, two divisional winners playing in league championship series with the winners meeting up in the Series.  The first MLB regular season interleague games did not take place until 1997.  For the next fifteen years, interleague play consisted of one division in each league playing a division in the other league.

Up until 2012, baseball attempted to keep interleague play from deciding pennant races.  All interleague games were played prior to the All-Star Game.  What happened though is that interleague play reduced the number of games played by each team against non-divisional league opponents. Indeed, each team was playing between 16 to 20 games annually against each divisional opponent, making up nearly half of each team’s regular season calendar.  As the playoff format introduced additional wild card entrants in each league, the better teams in divisions that were top-heavy had a greater chance in making the playoffs since they could beat up on the also rans.  Something had to change.

Enter the 2023 balanced schedule. The schedule now in place reduces the number of games against division rivals to 13, totaling 52 games; adds more same league games, given that each team will play six games against six opponents and seven games against four opponents in the same league, a total of 64; and 46 interleague games.  It’s the same 162, except spread out more evenly.  The playoff impact, of course, is that strength of schedule within one team’s division becomes less of a factor.

The biggest change has been the number of interleague games, where teams have gone from 20 annually to 46.  The spirit of the balanced schedule was to make the game more fan-friendly, providing fans with the opportunity to see more opponent matchups. Natural interleague rivals, such as the Angels-Dodgers, Guardians-Reds, Yankees-Mets, and White Sox-Cubs, include home and away series, while the other interleague games are at the respective teams’ home ballparks on alternating seasons. Of course, the concern has been that the storied, long-time rivalries have been reduced from 19 games to 13, such as the Cubs vs. Cardinals NL rivalry.

All of this may take an abrupt right turn if Manfred’s vision of realignment becomes reality. In terms of geographic realignment. I’ve seen many proposals, most of which have the two teams in the three cities with crosstown rivlaries, NYC, Chicago, and LA, facing off in the same divisions. The crazy piece is that the city rivals will land in divisions in either the AL or NL, upending a longstanding tradition for one of the city rivals. Most of the proposals find the natural rivalries, Red Sox vs. Yankees and Cubs vs. Cardinals, maintained in the same division, but more than one proposal breaks up the Dodgers vs. Giants rivalry if there are eight, 4-team divisions. One proposal has the Mets, Yankees, Red Sox, and Phillies all in one division, kind of a top heavy, big spending grouping in today’s game. Even crazier is a proposed structure which lands both the Pirates and Reds, two of the longest tenured NL franchises, in the “AL South”.

Scheduling, including the length of the season, will be in play. If there is indeed an eight division format, a 156-game season might make most sense since each team might have 12 games against division rivals (36 games), six games against the other intraleague teams (72 games), and three games against teams in the other league (48 games). Sounds easy right, but nothing has ever been easy in MLB scheduling. It’s difficult to imagine the owners and MLB Players Association agreeing to a reduction in games.

As to playoff action, I would be a proponent of just four division winners in an eight team per division format or eight division winners in a four team per division format getting into October action. We could return to the days of having teams competing for the division titles on an in or out basis. Owners though are not going to let that happen with all of the revenue on the table in the playoffs. We will see at least 12 teams get in just like the MLB today and hope that 16 teams, like the NBA and NHL, do not. Maybe the landing spot will be 14 teams in the playoffs, and similar to the NFL, the NL and AL teams with best records getting a bye. Your head begins to spin just thinking about all of the possibilities.

So here’s to the 2030 World Series where the AL Reds face the NL White Sox!

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Curveball

One of my fondest memories is attending a baseball fantasy camp in February 1999, a chance to spend an entire week in Florida playing a slate of games with my new-found 72 baseball friends and forming teams coached by former Reds players. My coach was Pat Zachary, a pitcher who helped Cincinnati win the World Series in 1976. Pat’s Texas drawl and sense of humor kept me laughing through a series of weekday doubleheaders in which I was the starting pitcher for the morning games. Late in the week I was clearly tired and couldn’t seem to get my fastball by a hitter who fouled off five consecutive pitches. From the dugout I heard Pat yell, “Hey Gieseke, give him the hook.” Knowing that the entire ballpark had heard his comment, I decided anyway to abide by his wishes and serve my curveball to the plate. About 300 feet later, I knew it was the wrong choice. Pat belly laughed from the dugout.

A curveball is a pitch designed to keep hitters off balance by creating downward spin as the ball approaches the plate. It can go by many names – hook; breaking ball; deuce; No.2 (the catcher signals the pitch by putting two fingers down); Uncle Charlie; and nowadays a slurve or sweeper. What you don’t want to throw is a “hanger” which I did back in 1999 that has little downward movement and seems to be served up to the batter on a silver platter. The physics of the pitch is called the Magnus effect with the goal of delivering it to the plate with topspin, creating a pressure zone on top of the ball that causes it to move downward in flight. The most common way to grip a curveball  is to position your middle finger along one of the seams and snap the ball downward on release. 

The history of the curveball is an interesting one. Many point to Candy Cummings, a pitcher in the 1860s and 1870s, as the inventor. John Thorn, who is the official historian of MLB, credits Joseph McElroy Mann of Princeton University as the first college pitcher who threw one. Crazily, when pitchers started to master the pitch, they were considered to be too deceptive. Harvard University actually banned the pitch for its team claiming that it was a dishonest practice unworthy of its players. Pitchers soon though adopted the pitch as part of their arsenal, since it created  lots of swings and misses, and of course strikeouts. As for me, I fell in love with it as a 12-year old pitcher. It was my out pitch, and little did I know or care how much stress it placed on my shoulder.

There are some all-time great pitchers who are famous for their curveballs. At the top of the list is Sandy Koufax, who pitched for the Dodgers from 1955 through 1966. What is often untold is that Koufax was just an average pitcher in his early years, described by sportswriters as one having a great but wild fastball. Until he perfected the curveball. From 1961 to 1966, Koufax had the best six seasons on the mound than anyone in baseball, ever! His achievements include – 3 Cy Youngs (1963, 1965, and 1966); five times NL ERA leader (1962-1966); four times NL strikeout leader (1961, 1963, 1965, and 1966); two times World Series MVP (1963 and 1965); four no-hitters and a perfect game. He was simply unhittable, mostly because he had a curveball that would move close to 20 inches as it arrived at the plate. Unfortunately, his career came to an untimely end after the 1966 season when he experienced chronic pain in his left elbow.

Around that same period another pitcher picked up the curveball gauntlet who experienced much more longevity, Nolan Ryan. Ryan began his career in 1996 with the Mets and ended it in 1993 with the Rangers, with two other stops along the way (Angels and Astros). Most think of Ryan as this dominating, 100+ mph fastball pitcher, which he was, setting the all-time strikeout record of 5,714 Ks. He was also known for perfecting the 12-6 curveball, dropping his curveballs straight down at the plate at a high velocity. He simply overpowered batters, setting the all-time batting average against record of .204. Ryan recorded seven no-hitters in his HOF career, yet never threw a perfect game and even more amazingly, never received the Cy Young. 

Today, another Dodger, Clayton Kershaw, is the one most known for having an unhittable curveball. Kershaw began in 2008 with LA, and has remained a Dodger for his entire career. Just this season, Clayton recorded his 3,000th strikeout. His career numbers are outstanding – first pitcher to lead MLB in ERA for four consecutive seasons; a 3-time NL wins and strikeouts leader; and a 2.52 career ERA, the second-lowest in baseball history. His win-loss record is an amazing 221-96!  Yet, many see him now as the pitcher who hasn’t fared well in post-season play (4.49 ERA) and now struggling to baffle hitters with an assortment of breaking balls thrown at different arm angles and speeds.

In baseball today, curveball usage has seen a steep decline. The statistics are overwhelming. The overall MLB rate dropped from 10.7% in 2019 to 8.1% last year. Indeed, there were 22,962 fewer curveballs in 2024 than five years ago. The Athletics, making it sort of a no-no mantra for its pitching staff, has seen their pitchers use curveballs at a rate of just 2.5% this season.

So why the huge drop off? In short, it’s all about velocity nowadays. Average four-seam fastballs (throwing the fastball across the seams for an upward motion) are clocked at 94.4 mph this season up from 91.9 mph just fifteen seasons ago. Indeed, they are now used 22.6% of the time, compared to 15.6% in 2008. And basically, almost every pitch in the repertoire of pitches today are thrown at high speeds to overpower the hitter. The new motto on the mound is throw hard for as long as you can until the next fireballer replaces you. Yankees star pitcher Gerrit Cole said it best: “As you’re an amateur going to the big leagues guys are looking at velo. Velo is important and it pays.” 

One of today’s only true curveball pitchers, Charlie Morton, received much attention at the trade deadline (traded on July 31 from the Orioles to the Tigers) because of his consistency in taking the ball every fifth day as a starter. He actually leads MLB in curveball usage at 39%. Morton often tells the story of learning the pitch at an early age from his dad, saying that “you basically throw it like you’re re-throwing a knife”. The knife image is way too vivid for me, since I’ve had the wonderful experience of having two replacement shoulder surgeries in the last fifteen years. Advice from your Coach to the children and grandchildren out there: don’t throw the pitch until you are at least 18 years old and do so only 2.5% of the time!

Until September 22,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Female Umps

• Note: Portions of the historical content of this piece are from a prior blog article, “You’re Out”.

My first managerial job was in 1993 when I led my oldest daughter’s fastpitch softball team. The team’s leadoff batter and one of our pitchers was a quiet, yet confident, girl named Kelly. She was the perfect leader – attended each practice and game, hustled on every play, and cheered with and encouraged her teammates. It was a joy to coach her. Years later I attended a game umpired by a young woman with a long ponytail who was definitely in charge and in the correct position on every play. It was Kelly! She had become an umpire to earn a few bucks on the side. We both smiled as we chatted after the game and caught up a little. Kelly, I’m sure, is smiling broadly today.

On August 9th Jen Pawol became the first woman ever to umpire an MLB game. She was the first base umpire in the first game of a doubleheader between the Marlins and Braves in Atlanta. With 50 family members and friends in full support in the stands, her first game by all accounts went smoothly. Braves manager Brian Snitker said simply: “You can tell she knows what she does.” The umpire cap she wore that day is on its way to the Hall of Fame. And on the next day, Pawol manned home plate in the series finale. In her words: “The dream actually came true today.” 

Jen’s path to the big leagues is an interesting one. In college she starred as a softball catcher for Hofstra University while umpiring softball games on the side at $15/game. As a player, she was a member of the gold medal winning U.S. team in the Women’s Baseball World Series. She continued to umpire softball games part time for 11 years.  In 2016, she attended formal umpire training in Vero Beach, FL, and her performance landed her an umpire spot in the Gulf Coast League the next year. She migrated her way through the minors, landing a job at the Triple-A level beginning in 2023. Jen became the first woman umpire at AAA in 34 years.

Pawol also has a right to smile in securing a spot in the MLB this season. An MLB umpire is one of the highest paid officials in professional sports.  A first-year umpire starts in the $100,000s while veteran umps often earn three times that annual salary. In the playoffs an MLB umpire can make around $20,000 per game, a little more than Jen’s $15 per game umpiring softball. Turnover is low, which is good for those who have made it to the big leagues and bad for those struggling in the minor leagues to get there.  For umpires toiling in the minor leagues the road is long, the pay is barely adequate, and most often there is a dead end sign ahead.

I wish I could say that I have followed the careers of MLB umpires.  Yes, some last names ring a bell, especially when they span across two generations and 50+ years of service, such as these father and son combinations – Ed and Paul Runge; Tom and Brian Gorman; and Shag and Jerry Crawford.  But just like everyone else, my memory of umpires concerns bad calls.  In Game 1 of the 1970 World Series between Cincinnati and Baltimore a controversial call made by home plate umpire Ken Burkhart is still painful to remember.  As the Reds Bernie Carbo ran home avoiding the tag of Orioles catcher Elrod Hendricks, Burkhardt raised his fist in the air signaling an out. Fifty years later I can still hear Reds manager Sparky Anderson screaming “there’s no way possible” at Burkhart.

And then there was “The Call” in the 1985 World Series that decided the Missouri interstate match-up between St. Louis and Kansas City.  The Cardinals led 3 games to 2 with a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 6.  Jorge Orta, the Royals leadoff batter, hit a bouncing ball toward Cardinals first baseman Jack Clark who tossed it to pitcher Todd Worrell, clearly beating Orta to the bag.  Yet, instead of raising his fist for an out, first base umpire Don Denkinger signaled safe.  The Royals won the game 2-1 and dominated Game 7 in 11-0 fashion, setting off a celebration on the wrong side of the state.

The 1970 and 1985 World Series calls would have been most probably overturned in today’s replay review.  When the system expanded in 2014 to include more than just disputed home run calls, baseball fans and commentators have offered endless criticism on what plays are reviewable and how much time it takes to make a review decision.  Since we have state of the art technology available now, I contend that we should be able to correct as many missed calls on the field as possible. The issue is putting in place a system that is fair, transparent, and timely. 

Over the past few seasons minor league baseball has experimented with an Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) system with much success. ABS does not utilize robot umpires, as some feared, but rather technology to assist umpires in calling balls and strikes. During spring training play this year, MLB incorporated a challenge system. Challenges to calls can only be made on the field by the pitcher, catcher, or batter, and needs to be done so quickly. MLB is working toward implementing ABS next season. 

ABS doesn’t and shouldn’t replace umpires, especially the likes of Jen Pawol and other female umpires arriving someday soon in the big leagues. Let’s keep Jen and Kelly smiling.

Until next Monday, 

your Baseball Bench Coach

Winning the Trade Deadline

The July 31 Trade Deadline is kind of tricky. For teams in playoff contention, it’s time to add a key player or two for the stretch run. If you are out of contention, maybe you put up a “for sale” sign and try to land a player who will help in future years. And if you are on the fence, all you can do is take the temperature of the market and see what side the grass is greener. It’s difficult to judge winners/losers of the Trade Deadline until the October playoffs or maybe even years later. But let’s give it a shot three weeks after the deadline and find the eight “winners”.

Athletics. When your team is on the losing side of games more often not, maybe you don’t need one of the best closers in the game, Mason Miller. The Athletics swung for the fence and traded Miller to San Diego for one of the top prospects in baseball, shortstop Leo De Vries. When De Vries was just 13 years old, scouts raved at his potential. Now 22, he has the power, speed, and rocket arm to be a top five player someday soon. Watch for him in Vegas!

Phillies. Philadelphia has been riding high all year with elite starting pitching and an all-star studded lineup. Their big need was a closer, and they landed one, Jhoan Duran, of the Twins. It was simply a matter of the rich getting richer. Before acquiring Duran, the Phillies’ top closer, Jordan Romano, had only eight saves with a plus 6 ERA. Duran has been putting on a show out of the bullpen since the trade, but suffered a minor injury setback this past weekend.

Mariners. Seattle’s success this season has had a simple recipe – solid pitching, great defense, and a whole lot of Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez. They needed some more punch in the lineup to overtake the Astros in the AL West, and the Mariners’ GM Jerry Dipoto gave them just that! Acquiring two sluggers, Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor, from Arizona in two separate transactions may have provided an AL pennant in Seattle’s immediate future.

Padres. The aforementioned trade for Mason Miller gave the San Diego clubhouse a morale boost, but the club did more than just the headliner. Their three other needs, left field, DH, and catcher, were met in other transactions with the Orioles and the Royals. Ryan O’Hearn, Ramon Laureano, and Freddy Fermin, not glamorous names but solid performers, are now Padres as well. San Diego has surged in the NL West during the past three weeks, and much of it is the result of the deadline moves.

Cardinals. St. Louis has had a teeter totter 2025. Not many experts gave them much of a chance before the year began, and their early season troubles showed why. The Cardinals though had a good May and June, and found themselves in playoff contention. They came back to earth in July, and probably it was a good thing since they became a deadline seller, the most prominent of which was sending their own closer, Ryan Helsley, to the Mets. They made the second biggest prospect pick up in so doing, landing third baseman, Jesus Baez. Baez has huge power, and Busch Stadium will soon be his launching pad.

Twins. Okay, I know you are questioning my analysis when most deadline lists you may have read suggest Minnesota was a big time July 31 “loser”. Sometimes though, especially when you are a mid-market team, you need to cash in on players you won’t be able to sign and land some future stars. The Twins acquired the top catching prospect on the market, Eduardo Tait, in the Duran deal from the Phillies. Another addition is Mick Abel, a starting pitcher, in that same deal. Look for the battery of Abel and Tait at Target Field very soon!

Reds. Cincinnati is another so called mid-market team, often unwilling to make a bold move to push them across the playoff line. Very quietly, the Reds landed three players at the deadline that may get them the #6 slot in the NL playoff field – Ke’Bryan Hayes, the top defensive third baseman in the game, from Pittsburgh; Miguel Andujar, a slugger from Oakland that gives the team some much needed pop; and Zach Littell, a solid starting pitcher from Tampa who adds to the team’s strength.

Yankees. I hesitate to place New York in a winner’s list, since the team has underperformed over the past three weeks. Their GM, Brian Cashman, has been getting a lot of heat in the New York media over the past five years for not making moves at the deadline. He certainly did this year, as the Yankees landed seven players to add to their big league roster. No huge names though, but solid ones, such as Ryan McMahon from the Rockies and David Bednar from the Pirates.

How did your favorite MLB team do at the deadline? 

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Ryno

Cubs nation and the baseball world have been in mourning during the past few weeks with the news of the passing of baseball great Ryne Sandberg, affectionately known as “Ryno”. His battle with cancer over the last two years ended his life, but not the spirit he shared with his beloved Cubs family. Since his passing, the conversation at Wrigley and among all Cubs fans is how Ryno touched our lives. To a person, Ryno is remembered as gracious, always there to shake your hand with a warm smile, and often willing to talk a little baseball, the game he dearly loved.

Ryno’s baseball numbers are off the charts, earning him a spot in the Hall of Fame in 2005. He’s at the top of the list in all-time second basemen in terms of hitting for average, power, and fielding prowess – 1984 NL MVP; career .285 batting average; 282 HRs; ten consecutive All-Star appearances; nine consecutive Gold Gloves; and a .989 fielding percentage. The list of plaudits could go on and on.

Sandberg’s story though is much more than the numbers. He began his MLB career as a shortstop for the Phillies in 1981. Prior to the 1982 season, Chicago GM Dallas Green orchestrated one of the best trades in Cubs history, sending SS Ivan DeJesus to Philadelphia for Larry Bowa and Ryno. While Sandberg started slowly as a Cub in 1982, playing third base and weathering an early hitting slump, his career blossomed in 1983 when he became a stalwart at second base. His Cubs though finished in fifth place in the division and attendance at Wrigley Field remained sparse.

1984 was a whole different story. Sandberg in his NL MVP year lifted the team and the ballpark on his back. For the first time since 1945, the Cubs were in the playoffs, winning the NL East. Attendance soared at Wrigley, with over 2 million fans watching their Cubbies, breaking the all-time attendance record at the historic ballpark. And Ryno, well, he led the team with a .314 batting average; 200 hits; 114 runs scored; 19 HRs; and 84 RBIs! The number that really sticks out that year is 19 triples, quite a feat at the Friendly Confines.

1984 may be remembered most by the so-called “Sandberg Game”, a nationally televised game on June 23, featuring the Cubs against their bitter rivals, the Cardinals, at Wrigley. The game went back and forth, as the Cubs trailed 9-8 in the bottom of the ninth against former Cub and then Cardinals closer, Bruce Sutter.  Sandberg tied the game with a homer into the left field bleachers, and then unbelievably, tied it again in the bottom of the 10th, also against Sutter, with a two-run blast. Ryno remarked years later that the two swings were the only times in his career that he intentionally swung six inches under the pitch to match Sutter’s dropping, split finger fastball. As Bob Costas aptly said, not many players have a game named after him.

In Cubs lore, 1990 might have been a season named after Sandberg based on his play on the field. While batting second in the Chicago lineup, he led the NL with 40 HRs and knocked in 100 runs. Defensively, he played error free baseball for 123 consecutive games! At the All-Star Game that year hosted by the Cubs at Wrigley, he even won the home run derby, launching a handful of HRs onto Waveland Avenue. The early 1990s saw continued success, but in 1994 his numbers dropped and Ryno surprisingly decided to retire mid-season. He did come back for two more seasons, 1996 and 1997, his final two as a player.

I’ve watched many Hall of Fame speeches, but none was better Ryno’s address in 2005. He emphasized playing baseball the right way, which to him meant not only following proper fundamentals but respecting your teammates and the game itself. It came at a time when baseball was still reeling from the news of players abusing steroids and posting numbers the game had not seen before. Famously, in his remarks, Sandberg stated: “(L)earning how to bunt, hit and run and turning two is more important than knowing where to find the little red light on the dugout camera.” Those words remain so true today.

Sandberg’s baseball career did not end there, as he soon decided to take his “right way” approach to instructing young players. Unselfishly, he began managing at the lowest level in the Cubs organization in 2007, the Class A Peoria Chiefs. After two seasons there, he managed the Double A Tennessee Smokies. Then in 2010, he took the helm of AAA Iowa Cubs, where he was named Pacific Coast League Manager of the Year. Unfortunately, he never got the opportunity to manage the Cubs, but left in 2011 to return to his first team, the Phillies. He managed their AAA team before heading to Philadelphia as third base coach in 2012 and as manager (2013-2015).

Ryno returned home to Chicago in 2016, serving as a team ambassador and often appearing at spring training to assist young players. I recall fondly his visit to Sloan Park this past spring. Today’s Cubs adored Ryno. When his statue was unveiled outside the ballpark on June 23, 2024, the 40th anniversary of the Sandberg Game, the entire team watched the festivities from a ramp overlooking the ceremony. Indeed, the statue characterizes his approach to the game, as he sits in a defensive crouch ready for the next play. Of all the comments in the baseball world over the past two weeks memorializing Ryne’s passing, current Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner captured it best: “It was never about him, ever. It was just truly love of the game of baseball.” 

I, too, have a Ryno story. In January 2023 on the day before the Cubs would announce that Sandberg would receive a statue, I had the pleasure of being in the Cubs clubhouse in a group that included Ryno and another all-time Cub great, Andre Dawson. A Cubs official demonstrated the use of a batting cage where a pitcher’s type of pitch, speed, and release point coud be simulated. Dawson turned to Sandberg and simply remarked, “if we would have had this, we would have hit .350 every year”.

Somehow, Ryno has always hit 1.000 in everything he gave to the game he loved. What is your favorite Sandberg memory?

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Baseball Fans

I’ve been a baseball fan all my life. My earliest memory is the last day of the 1964 season when the Cardinals, Phillies, and Reds all had a chance to win the National League. My Dad drove our family to his work friend’s home so we could all watch the Reds game on their “big TV”. I remember how disappointed everyone was that the Reds season ended that afternoon. My fandom began that day though. I’m sure you’ve heard that “fan” is short for “fanatic”, someone who supports a team with an intense level of devotion. Being a baseball fan can be joyous or frustrating, sometimes during the same game or even the same inning. Once you become one, you are in it, for better or worse, for the good or the bad. 

Bad fan experiences start with the story of Steve Bartman.  Recently, I watched the ESPN documentary “Catching Hell” on the misfortunate incident 22 years ago. We all know the story. In the eighth inning of Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS between Florida and Chicago at Wrigley, Cubs outfielder Moises Alou attempted to make a catch near a wall in foul territory. The ball was deflected by a Cubs fan, Bartman. The leftfield line umpire ruled no fan interference. The Cubs went on to lose the game and the NLCS. Bartman became the target of fan furor at the game and thereafter. In 2016 the Cubs extended a World Series ring to Bartman as an olive branch. Bartman graciously accepted with these words: “I humbly receive the ring not only as a symbol of one of the most historic achievements in sports, but as an important reminder for how we should treat each other in today’s society.” Bartman is a class act.

Not so classy acts involve fan interference in an intentional way. In 2005 at Fenway Park a Red Sox fan reached over the outfield wall and swung at Yankees outfielder Gary Sheffield trying to make a catch. The fan struck Sheffield in the mouth and was ejected from the game. He was not arrested.  Just last October at Yankee Stadium in the World Series, the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts attempted to catch a foul ball when two Yankees fans interfered, one grabbing his glove and the other prying the ball out. The umpired ruled fan interference, the fans were ejected, and are now banned from MLB games. In both instances, fan intensity crossed the line. MLB has announced that it will take a strong stance against any fan interference going forward.

Historically, there are some fun stories.  Fans used to be allowed onto the field while the games were played.  In the early 1900s when the grandstands were packed at ballparks such as Wrigley, teams allowed fans to stand in the outfield and hold ropes to serve as outfield barriers instead of the walls we know today. Over the rope a home run, under the rope a double. Of course, the outfield fans enjoyed a little game of home field advantage, pushing the ropes forward or back depending upon which team was hitting.  Newer ballpark designs and fan safety concerns triggered the end of such practices in the 1920s.

Just about a week ago baseball was reminded of another crazy practice in Wrigley history. You see, in the 1960s fans, many of whom had one too many alcoholic beverages, often would jump over the outfield wall onto the field after Cubs wins, and sometimes during the games. Chicago constructed a basket at the top of its outfield wall in 1970 to counteract the practice. In a July 21, 2025, game between the Royals and Cubs, a Cubs fan tumbled into the basket to get a home run hit by KC’s Jac Caglianone. Unfortunately, the fan needed some assistance in getting out of the basket. The basket had served the purpose for which it was constructed 55 years ago.

Fan safety is a big part of the equation. On May 19, 2019, at Houston’s Minute Maid Park, in a game between the Cubs and the Astros, a 2-year old girl was struck in the head by a foul ball, suffering severe damage. While the Astros and her family reached a financial settlement two years later, the incident triggered fan safety analysis and the need for expanded protective netting in all MLB ballparks. Most recently, the expanded netting has been extended to minor league ballparks as well. The onus though is still on fans to be aware of foul balls hit into the seating area. If there ever was a good example for getting off your cellphone and watching the event you paid to see, attending a baseball game should be at the top of the list.

And then there’s the absolute worst kind of fan, the heckler. I recall going to a game years ago with business colleagues when one of them spent a great deal of time heckling opposing players. I couldn’t believe it. Heckling turned dark blue at Rate Field recently when a 22-year old White Sox fan continued to espouse derogatory comments at Diamondbacks’ star, Ketel Marte. The comments concerned Marte’s mother, and Marte was clearly shaken by the matter. He was tearing at the mound when Arizona manager Torey Luvullo hugged him in a show of support. Luvullo asked that the fan be ejected from the game, and White Sox personnel quickly did so. 

Baseball did all the right things in the aftermath of the incident. The fan has been indefinitely suspended from all MLB ballparks. The next night at Rate Field the White Sox displayed this message: “Baseball is family. The White Sox community supports Ketel Marte.” Luvollo himself was truly family to Marte, serving as a father-like figure at a time when Marte needed him the most. And Luvullo captured the moment in words we fans always need to keep in mind when we attend games: “We need better baseball fans. Baseball deserves better.”

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

HOF 2025 Inductees

About 20 years ago I spent three glorious days in Cooperstown, New York, visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame. I read every word of every exhibit on the three floors of the museum. Whether Pete Rose should be in the Hall of Fame was also a topic of discussion back then. The odd thing is that he truly was featured in the museum as there was a large Big Red Machine exhibit on the first floor. He just didn’t have a plaque in the exhibit hall downstairs. And crazily, he was also there on the streets of Cooperstown that week. I found him signing autographs at a souvenir store on the main street. Of course, with his passing last fall, Rose will never get to see the plaque that someday will honor his career. 

Yesterday another former Red, Dave Parker, was one of several new HOF inductees. Unfortunately, the Cobra was inducted posthumously as he died 29 days before Sunday’s ceremony. Parker grew up in Cincinnati near Crosley Field, not that far from the Western Hills area where Rose was raised. Parker was a tremendous athlete, starring in football but ultimately deciding to play baseball professionally. Pittsburgh was glad he did, since he starred in right field for the Pirates for 11 of his 19 MLB seasons. Dave was a powerful hitter (339 HRs and 2,712 hits), seven time All-Star, and the 1978 NL MVP.  He was also a truly great outfielder, throwing out 72 runners on the bases during a five year span (1975-1979). You might recall his incredible throws in the 1979 All-Star Game gunning down two AL players.

Parker was a selection of the HOF Classic Baseball Era Committee which gives star players another look after they are no longer eligible for the ballot process of the Baseball Writers. Another such inductee on Sunday was Dick Allen (known early in his career as Richie Allen), who starred on six teams during his 15-year career (1963-1977), most notably the Phillies and the White Sox. Allen was a seven time All-Star as well, the 1964 AL Rookie of the Year, and the 1972 AL MVP. Two images I have of Allen. He used to wear his batting helmet in the field while he played first base. Also, his bat was incredibly big, over 40 inches long and 40 ounces in weight, unheard of today. Allen died in 2020.

Parker and Allen are among several players in MLB history to enter HOF posthumously. I find it frustrating how selective baseball is in honoring the great ones. It seems like you either are or you aren’t a Hall of Famer. I never understood why Ron Santo was a late inductee. His numbers were HOF solid – nine time All-Star, winner of the Gold Glove as a third baseman for five consecutive seasons, and an exceptional hitter (342 HRs in his 15 seasons). Santo was also a wonderful broadcaster alongside Harry Caray in the Cubs’ booth. Yet, he passed in 2010 at the age of 70, still waiting to hear about his HOF election. He was selected for entry into the Hall in December 2021 by the Golden Era Committee. 

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America did elect three players for induction this season, Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, and Billy Wagner. Ichiro is the headliner for me. His story is quite unique. He starred for nine seasons for the Orix BlueWave in Japan before beginning his career as a Mariner in 2001. In his first year, Suzuki won the AL batting title, led the league in stolen bases, and was named Rookie of the Year and AL MVP! Over his MLB career he received 17 consecutive selections as an All-Star, collected 3,089 hits, had a batting average of .353, and won ten consecutive Gold Gloves. Suzuki was also my youngest daughter’s favorite player. Together, we attended a Seattle vs. Kansas City game at Kauffman Stadium in the prime of his career. We sat closely behind the Mariners dugout. Suzuki graciously flipped a baseball to her, a lasting memory and wonderful keepsake. 

CC Sabathia was a dominating, lefthanded pitcher from 2001 to 2019. His first eight seasons were with Cleveland where he led them to a 2007 division title. In 2009, he signed a $161 million contract with the Yankees, making him the highest paid pitcher in baseball. He delivered big time, leading MLB in wins in 2009 and 2010 and New York to a World Series championship in his first year there. CC is a member of the prestigious 3,000 K club, garnering 3,093 strikeouts and a 251-161 record in his career. One of my friends loves to tell the story of seeing Sabathia at Wrigley Field about nine years ago. Sabathia is a large man, but somehow went unnoticed as he walked by a crowd in street clothes in route to the Clubhouse.

The least represented position in HOF is certainly relief pitcher. The tide has begun to change over the past 15 years with the election of Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, and Bruce Sutter, among some others. Today’s game has clearly evolved on the mound with a huge focus on the relief corps. Billy Wagner’s entry into the Hall yesterday is significant. Wagner’s 15-year career spanned four teams, but for me he was an Astro. The numbers are remarkable – 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings (highest ever for an MLB pitcher with 900+ innings); a career 2.31 ERA; and one of just eight pitchers in baseball history with over 400 saves (422). Welcome to Cooperstown! 

There was another HOF entrant Sunday, Tom Hamilton, the 2025 recipient of the Ford Frick Award. The award is extended annually for excellence in broadcasting. Hamilton earned the highest point total ever for broadcasters by HOF’s Frick Award Committee. Hamilton is the longtime announcer of the Cleveland Guardians, joining the broadcasting booth in 1990. He has called over 100 postseason games. Tom is one of the finest gentlemen and easy listens in the game. He’s been in the broadcasting booth for three different Cleveland teams in the World Series, yet hasn’t captured a World Series ring yet. Here’s hoping he does someday soon. 

When Commissioner Manfred lifted the ban on Rose’s HOF eligibility a few months ago, word came that the earliest Pete might be granted Cooperstown plaque status is 2027.  What stands in the way is the voting members of the Hall. Rose, like Parker, Allen, Santo, and others, will never get to enjoy it. It’s kind of a shame. 

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

Baseball Bench Coach

Your Baseball Bench Coach will return on Monday, July 28, 2025.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

3,000 Ks

Last week we witnessed something in baseball that might not happen only a few times again, if at all. The Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw recorded his career 3,000th strikeout. It wasn’t an easy hill to climb for Kershaw this year. He started the season on the IL, then worked his way back into the Los Angeles rotation a few months ago. The proud lefty is no longer overpowering hitters, but rather using a lot of finesse. Against the White Sox at Dodger Stadium last week, he needed only 3 Ks to reach 3,000. After five innings his line read 92 pitches and just two strikeouts. Manager Dave Roberts decided to give him one more inning to break the record before the sold out, home crowd. On Kershaw’s 100th pitch, Chicago’s Vinny Capra took a Kershaw slider for strike three and Clayton joined the exclusive club. 

Why so exclusive? There have been only 20 pitchers in MLB history who have reached 3,000 career strikeouts. To accomplish the feat, a pitcher needs much longevity. Indeed, Kershaw became only the third pitcher all-time to reach the club with just one team. Walter Johnson and Bob Gibson were the other two. The names include the who’s who of MLB mound stars – Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton, Randy Johnson, and Greg Maddux, just to name a few. Getting into the club is pretty much a sure-fire ticket into the Hall of Fame. 15 of the 20 are already in the HOF, three are still active (Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, and Kershaw) and not eligible yet, and two, Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling, remain outside the doors.

Kershaw’s career has been truly a remarkable one. The Dodgers selected him seventh overall in the 2006 MLB draft. 2011 marked an early highlight of his career when he won the pitching Triple Crown (wins, ERA, and strikeouts) and was named the NL Cy Young winner. Clayton led all of MLB in ERA four consecutive years (2011-2014). In June 2014, he pitched his only career no-hitter. He captured the NL MVP award that year as well. Kershaw has a career win-loss record of 216-94 and ERA of 2.52, the second lowest ERA among starters in over 100 years. While he did win a world championship in 2020, his struggles in postseason play (4.49 ERA overall) always seem to be a focus. What we don’t always acknowledge is that he is one of the real gems in the game off the field with tons of volunteer efforts.

The Giants’ Justin Verlander has 3,476 strikeouts and counting. You need to blink twice when you see his 2025 win-loss record of 0-7! His career too has been outstanding. Detroit selected him #2 overall in the 2004 MLB draft. Verlander dominated on the mound for the Tigers in his first 12 seasons leading the team to several AL Central championships and two AL pennants (2006 and 2012). After being traded to the Astros, Verlander became a world champion in 2017 as Houston won it all. He was named the ALCS MVP and was one of the co-winners of the Babe Ruth Award in the Series. Verlander’s career win-loss record is 262-153 with an ERA of 3.33. Next stop, Cooperstown!

Also headed to upstate New York five years after his career is Max Scherzer. I have followed his career closely since he was a high school pitcher in Chesterfield, MO, where I spent much of my adult life. He lit up the radar guns then, and certainly has done so throughout his MLB career. Scherzer was the number 11 overall pick in the 2006 draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Max has won three Cy Young awards, pitched two no-hitters (both in 2015), and has been on two World Series winners (Nationals in 2019 and Rangers in 2023). In terms of strikeouts, Scherzer pitching for Washington tied the all-time nine inning record of 20 against his former Tigers team in 2016. His career record is 216-112 with 3,423 strikeouts to date. This year with a little health he may be on the mound again in the Series as his Blue Jays team has rallied to take control of the AL East over the past few weeks.

Two current standout pitchers in their mid-thirties, Chris Sale (36) and Gerrit Cole (34), have legitimate shots at getting into the 3,000 Ks club before the end of their careers. The White Sox made Sale the 13th overall pick in 2010. He actually debuted for Chicago that very same season. Sale was an AL All-Star for seven straight seasons (2012-2018) and a 2018 Series winner with the Red Sox. Chris reached 2,000 strikeouts in just 1,626 innings pitched, the fastest ever. His career K record is at 2,528 and moving up quickly as he is having a great season with the Braves. Cole, on the other hand, is stalled at 2,251, finding himself on the IL for his 2025 season with the Yankees. Similar to the Pirates recent phenom, Paul Skenes, Gerrit was selected #1 overall by Pittsburgh. In September 2019, while with the Astros, Cole became the 18th pitcher in MLB history to strike out 300 in a season. Follow both of these two on their journey to 3,000!

The cupboard seems to be bare after that. Innings pitched by star pitchers during a season have gone down dramatically, and as a result, so have the number of strikeouts for the season leaders. Some of it is the number of injuries sustained by pitchers in today’s game. Also part of it is the plethora of 100 mph relievers ready to take over the game from the sixth to the ninth innings. A good example is a game this past week when each of the four Milwaukee flamethrowers who pitched in the game averaged over 99 mph fastballs! Right now the Padres’ Dylan Cease is the under 30 leader in career strikeouts with just 1,133 strikeouts. Cease is 29 years old. When Kershaw turned 30, he already had 2,120. The exclusive 3,000 club demands longevity. We may not see it again. It may be lights out for one of our favorite clubs.

Until the Monday after next,

your Baseball Bench Coach

P.S. Your Coach is taking his own All-Star Break this coming week and will return on July 28.

Ready for the Show

My favorite baseball movie is Bull Durham, the 1988 fictional film of a minor league team, the Durham Bulls, and its players and fans. Indeed, Sports Illustrated has ranked it as the #1 sports movie of all time.  One of the main story lines is the relationship between a longtime minor league catcher, Crash Davis (played by Kevin Costner) and a rookie phenom pitcher, Ebby Calvin LaLoosh (played by Tim Robbins), who is not so affectionately nicknamed by Davis as “Meat”. Meat has major league talent with a terrific fastball, but needs much refinement. Davis talks very fondly of his one shot at the big leagues (‘the 21 greatest days of my life”), and it’s his job to get LaLoosh “Ready for the Show”. After a tough start to the season, the rookie finds his groove mid-season and gets the MLB call-up.

I enjoyed following MLB fireballer pitchers as a little boy in the 1960s. I grew up being a huge fan of Jim Maloney of the Reds, who had a dynamite fastball (recording over 200 strikeouts during several seasons) and threw two no-hitters. Maloney would match up often with the #1s of other teams, such as Marichal (Giants), Jenkins (Cubs), Koufax (Dodgers), and Gibson (Cardinals). Last week during a lazy summer afternoon I settled into the sofa and watched a pitcher’s duel between two of today’s young fireballers, the Pirates’ Paul Skenes and the Brewers’ Jacob Misiorowski. Both pitchers consistently were clocked at over 100 mph in the game. While Misiorowski and Milwaukee won this first matchup between the phenoms, 4-0, my guess is that there will be many more duels to come.

Misiorowski attended little known Crowder College for two years before committing to LSU. When Milwaukee drafted him in the second round in 2022, he decided to go pro instead of teaming up with Skenes at LSU. Jacob has been reaching 100 mph with his fastball for a few years in the minors. This season he put his entire repertoire together in Triple-A with the Nashville Sounds, posting a 2.13 ERA. Just over 3 weeks ago, he began his Brewers career in a big way with an MLB record 11-inning hitless streak. Currently, Misiorowski is 3-1 with a 3.20 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 19 innings. He looks to be clearly Ready for the Show. 

Skenes made a big splash onto the national scene in his junior year in college. LSU won the national championship in 2023 with Skenes as the national collegiate pitcher of the year and most outstanding player in the College World Series. Paul was selected first overall by the Pirates and made his way through the Pittsburgh farm system in just one season. Skenes arrived to the Show in May last year and was certainly ready. He was named the starting pitcher for the NL squad at the All-Star Game, only the fifth rookie in MLB history to make the start. In his rookie season last year, Paul had a record of 11-3, 1.96 ERA, and recorded 170 strikeouts and just 32 walks. His overpowering style has continued this year but with little Pittsburgh run support. Incredibly, he has a 1.44 ERA over his last ten starts but only one win to show for it.

The NL Central has two other young, phenom pitchers, the Cubs’ Cade Horton and the Reds’ Chase Burns. In 2022, Chicago selected Horton seventh overall in the MLB draft. Like Skenes, Cade starred in college at a big time program, Oklahoma. Touted as the top pitching prospect in the Cubs system, he started this season at Triple-A Iowa. He didn’t disappoint. With the Iowa Cubs he had a 1.24 ERA in six starts, and soon found himself in the major league rotation. Since Horton was promoted in May, he has a record of 3-2 with 38 strikeouts in 52 innings, including seven shutout innings in his last start. The Cubs are hoping that his dominance on the mound carries well into October.

Burns also blasted onto the national pitching landscape as a dominant pitcher at Tennessee and Wake Forest. Cincinnati made him the second overall pick in 2024. He literally skyrocketed through the Reds system in 2025 – three starts in Single A Dayton; eight appearances at AA Chattanooga; and two starts for AAA Louisville. Less than two weeks ago, Burns made his first major league start in Cincinnati against a tough opponent, the New York Yankees. He became the first pitcher since 1961 to strike out 5 consecutive batters to open his career, including his “favorite one” in the first inning against Aaron Judge. While Burns suffered a setback in his second start, he rebounded yesterday in Philadelphia with a strong outing.

Misiorowski, Skenes, Horton, and Burns. I truly hope there is not a “Wayne Simpson story” for any of them. You see, Simpson made the Reds’ starting rotation as a rookie in 1970. Also a fireballer, he started the season 13-1 and was the only rookie in the 1970 MLB All-Star Game. Based on his pitching motion, many deemed him the next Bob Gibson. In the latter half of the 1970 season, he injured his rotator cuff and truly never recovered. His career win-loss record was 36-31 with a 4.37 ERA. I hope today’s pitching phenoms are not only Ready for the Show, but also able to sustain outstanding careers in major league baseball. 

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach

A Maddux

September 7, 1986. I traveled that day to Cincinnati on business and had the good fortune of having the Reds in town that night to play the Cubs. In a reversal of roles, I took my parents to see the game. While I had heard that Chicago was starting a rookie pitcher, I didn’t know much about him. Turns out that it was the first start of Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux’s career. Maddux was just twenty years old. I must admit that I have only faint recollection of the game, but the record books show that the Cubbies won 11-3 and Maddux pitched a complete, 9-inning game, giving up just 3 hits. He would go on to pitch 108 more complete games in his career. This one though was not “a Maddux”.

So what is “a Maddux”? When a pitcher throws a 9-innings or more shutout with fewer than 100 pitches. Baseball writer Jason Lukehart started the statistic in 2012 and it was named after his favorite pitcher for good reason. Greg Maddux accomplished the feat thirteen times in his career, the most ever. It’s a fairly new stat, since actual pitch count data wasn’t available until 1988.  In that year alone, there were 25 times when a pitcher threw one. The only time it was done in extra innings was in 2003 when Roy Halladay had “a Maddux” in a 10-inning game.

The pitching career of Greg Maddux is full of other remarkable records. Among them, he won the Cy Young four years in a row (1992-1995). During those years, his ERA was 1.98. Overall, he touted a 3.16 ERA, a record of 355-227, and had 3,371 strikeouts, one of only ten pitchers in MLB history to have over 300 wins and 300 Ks.  He was truly a Gold Glover on the mound, winning the award the most times of any player in history (18). While he did pitch for the Dodgers and the Padres, his career success of course was with two teams, the Cubs and Braves. His jersey number 31 is retired by both clubs. Interestingly, in his last start in his maiden season (1986) he threw a complete game win over his older brother, Mike, and the Phillies. It happened to be Mike’s rookie season too.

Zane Smith, a lefty who pitched for four teams in 13 seasons (1984-1996), pitched “a Maddux” seven times, the second most ever. Smith is tied with Greg for the most in a single season with three. Zane’s early success was also as a Brave when he led Atlanta with 15 wins in 1987. I remember him mostly when he starred for the Pirates during their 1990 pennant drive. Pittsburgh rode Smith’s left arm down the stretch as he threw three complete game wins in September, including a one-hitter over the division rival Mets.

Complete games of under 100 pitches are a rarity nowadays. Max Fried, now a Yankee after eight seasons also with the Braves, is the leader among active pitchers in throwing “a Maddux” three times. Fried is one of the more dominant pitchers in this era, sporting an overall 83-38 record with an ERA of under 3. Like Maddux, Max is a Gold Glover on the mound, winning the award three consecutive seasons (2020-2022). Last season as a Brave, Fried threw “a Maddux”, one of only two in 2024. This year he has a record of 10-2 with an ERA of 1.92 which just might land him the starting job for the AL All-Stars in a few weeks.

In 2025 we have witnessed “a Maddux” on two occasions. This past Friday the Cardinals’ Sonny Gray threw a one-hit, complete game 5-0 shutout against the Guardians. Gray needed only 89 pitches, the first time since 2021 when “a Maddux” was recorded under 90 pitches. Max Fried hurled that one! The other was in the season’s first week. On April 1, Nathan Eovaldi of the Texas Rangers needed only 99 pitches to beat the Reds 1-0 in a complete game. The fun thing about his opening week performance is that Eovaldi is under the tutelage of the Rangers’ pitching coach, Mike Maddux. After the game, Eovaldi exclaimed, “When I heard it was 99 pitches, I was like (sweet), it’s great to throw a Maddux.”  Mike Maddux joked, “I had a feeling this name would come up.”

When I think of low pitch counts and complete games today, my thoughts turn to the “the Professor”, Kyle Hendriks. He starred for the Cubs for eleven seasons (2014-2024) and now is on the hill for the Angels. Similar to Maddux, Kyle made his MLB debut against the Reds in Cincinnati somewhat late in the season (July). Hendriks finished 2014 with a 7-2 win-loss record and an ERA of 2.46. Hendriks’ most accomplished season has to be 2016, when he went 16-8 with an ERA of 2.13, the lowest in baseball. The Cubbies captured the world title behind his stellar pitching.

Just six seasons ago, on May 3, 2019, Kendriks threw one of the most masterful games ever, an 81 pitch, 4-0 complete game win over the Cardinals, a true “Maddux”.  I happened to be at Wrigley that afternoon with my oldest daughter on a “catch up with each other’s life” outing. We didn’t have much time to chat though, since the game was completed so quickly. Sometimes, “a Maddux” gets in the way.

Until next Monday, 

your Baseball Bench Coach

Picked Off

Late in my Knothole (Little League) career my team acquired another pitcher. Let me call him “Lefty”. I was a little apprehensive about his joining the team at first since it might cut into my innings on the mound. We soon became great friends and teammates. We were a one-two punch; he was lefthanded and I was righthanded. Often, we would each pitch 3-4 innings in a game which would put our opponents on their heels. Lefty was more of a power pitcher; my out pitch was a curveball. Lefty though had one big advantage over me. He had a tremendous pick off move, something that many lefthanded pitchers love to exploit. 

From a pitcher’s perspective, there are several reasons to execute a pickoff attempt. The obvious one is to actually pick off the baserunner and record an out. That’s not always so easy, especially with alert baserunners. Sometimes, the reputation of having a good pickoff throw holds the baserunner closer to the bag and prevents a steal attempt. In situations late in games when the offense may be attempting a bunt, it’s often good for a pitcher to attempt a pickoff to see if the batter will show his hand by squaring for a bunt. And then there’s the old delay tactic, a signal from the dugout to try a pickoff to buy more time for a reliever to warm up.

The big advantage lefthanded pitchers have is in the mechanics. With a runner on first, a righthanded pitcher must first step with his left, non-pivot foot toward the base.  A lefty can make the attempt as part of his regular pitching motion, and simply needs to be careful not to cross his right leg beyond his left one. It can be really deceptive. With a runner on second base, the mechanics are not so different for right and lefthanded pitchers. You can either use a “spin move”, where you spin 180 degrees toward second, or an “inside move” where you try and mimic your normal leg kick to the plate. With runners on first and third base, righties with moderate success used to step off the rubber, fake a throw to third, and then peg a throw to first. MLB made that technique illegal about ten years ago.

Pickoff records are kind of imprecise since they are not an official, MLB statistic. Historically, box scores did not make a distinction between being picked off and caught stealing. A more reknown “Lefty” is hall of famer Steve Carlton, who leads MLB with 145 career pickoffs during his 23-year career. Carlton’s overall stats include a 329-244 win-loss record, an ERA of 3.22, and 4,136 strikeouts. He was a ten-time All-Star and two-time World Series champion. In addition to his career wins and strikeouts at the top of the MLB all-time leaders, Steve was the first pitcher to win four Cy Young awards. One last record to go along with his career pickoffs is that Carlton committed the most career balks of any pitcher with 90. Sometimes that lefty deception went a little too far.

There have been other top lefthanded MLB pitchers quite good with the pickoff move. Andy Pettitte, who spent his 16-year career on the hill mostly with the Yankees, is an example. Pettitte won five World Series as a New Yorker and is MLB’s all-time postseason leader with 19 wins. He had an excellent pickoff move, recording 101 of them in his stellar career. Another includes Mark Buehrle, who starred on the mound for the Chicago White Sox.

Two active MLB lefties are also noteworthy. Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers, who many consider one of the greatest of all time, has an unbelievable 214-94 record with a 2.51 ERA, and is the on the verge of topping the 3,000 strikeout mark. His pickoff move is widely regarded as one of the best in the game. A somewhat lesser known star, Max Fried, is now pitching for the Yankees after eight years with the Braves. His record is sterling at 82-38, and a lot of the reason for it is his Gold Gloves on the mound (three so far), including his control of baserunners and exceptional pickoff move. Don’t stray too far with Max on the rubber!

Matthew Boyd of the Cubs and his remarkable pickoff move may hold one of the keys to Chicago’s success this season. With the starting staff decimated by the season-ending injury to Justin Steele and seven-week absence of Shota Imanaga, Boyd and Jamison Taillon have been asked to shoulder the load. Boyd’s first half finds him at 6-3 with a 2.84 ERA. In his second to last start, he picked off a baserunner for the third straight game and has done so already six times in 2025! According to Boyd, he developed his move at age 9 when he was at a baseball camp. His instructor at  the time apparently joked “if you don’t like someone, you hit him and then pick him off”. The HBP is not in Boyd’s repertoire at the big league level. 

Picking off a baserunner has become harder with the new MLB rules. Pitchers are only allowed two pickoff attempts per plate appearance before a balk is called. With unlimited pickoff attempts, pitchers used to have the ability to disrupt a baserunner’s timing by showing different moves. Today, the limit on attempts includes “disengagements”, for example, simply stepping off the rubber. With the advent of the pitch clock, a baserunner can see how much time a pitcher has left to throw to the plate or to the base. Holding a baserunner by not going into a throwing motion is indeed impacted as well.

My friend Lefty and I saw each other at a team gathering a few years ago and reminisced about our pitching days together. Lefty went on to play in college. He was an accomplished hitter too. He told me about an embarrassing moment during his freshman year. You see, he led off an inning by lining a base hit into the  gap in right center field. An upperclassman shortstop on the opposing team signaled for him to slow down since it had been ruled a ground rule double. In fact, there had been no such call. As Lefty nonchalantly stepped toward the bag, the shortstop applied the tag. Lefty was picked off. Sometimes, even the best ones are.  

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach