Baseball’s Greatest (and Worst) is sort of 4 and a half years outdated.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