Who Needs Bryce Harper When You Have Aaron Hicks?
It once seemed inevitable that the New York Yankees would sign Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper when he became a free agent at the end of this season. Though Harper has been injured and...
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Forget Starting Pitchers. It’s Bullpen Season.
This Major League Baseball postseason, and in particular this wild-card round, might represent a tipping point in pitching strategy. Relievers accounted for a record 17,415⅓ innings this season,...
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We Break Down Each MLB Playoff Matchup (And Predict The World Series)
gfoster (Geoff Foster, sports editor): Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s postseason MLB chat. We are done with the one-game wild-card playoffs. We are done with the one-game playoffs to figure out who would...
View ArticleDid Aaron Boone Forget That The Yankees’ Bullpen Was Historically Good?
The power of the major league manager is in decline, and the role has changed in baseball’s information age. More and more power is concentrated in the front office, which constructs rosters and sets...
View ArticleThe Yankees Snapped Up This Offseason’s Best Pitcher
The New York Yankees tried to trade last winter for Gerrit Cole, arguably the top starting pitcher available. They were not willing to to meet the Pittsburgh Pirates’ asking price. Cole landed in...
View ArticleThe 2019 Favorites And Breakout Picks For The American League
Welcome to our two-part guide to the 2019 MLB season through the lens of our MLB prediction model. In each division, we’ll outline the key teams in the division race, discuss the incoming players who...
View ArticleThis Is The Yankees’ Best — And Last — Chance To Win A Title In The 2010s
Most franchises would be envious of a decade like the one that the New York Yankees have enjoyed during the 2010s. The Bronx Bombers’ record of 872-669 is the best in baseball over that span,1 and the...
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The Teams That Should Be Buying And Selling At This Year’s Baseball Trade...
Major league teams are on the clock and must decide whether they want to buy or sell — and this decision comes with perhaps more urgency than in any previous July. MLB’s annual trade deadline is one...
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Can We Play NBA Jam … With MLB Teams?
It takes an entire 25-man roster to make a winning baseball team — just ask the defending-champion Boston Red Sox. Sure, Boston had plenty of top-line talent at its disposal, but it also got key...
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Who Got Better At The MLB Trade Deadline?
gfoster (Geoff Foster, sports editor): The trade deadline has come and passed. All the pieces are now in place for the remainder of the season. So let’s talk some baseball! I think this deadline period...
View ArticleThe Red Sox Were The Toast Of Baseball Last Year. Now They’re Just Toast.
If the Boston Red Sox harbored any hopes of returning to the playoffs after last year’s magical World Series run, they knew they’d need to make a very strong push over the regular season’s last couple...
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The Twins’ Magical Run Will Likely Go Through The Yankees. (Because Of Course.)
If you’re looking for feel-good stories this baseball season, it’s tough to top the Minnesota Twins. Picked by our model — and others — to finish a distant second in the American League Central, with...
View ArticleThe World Series Will Probably Be A Classic Rematch
This year’s MLB playoffs are rife with juicy storylines and potential rematches. It’s one of the deepest fields of great teams ever — a record four ballclubs won 100 or more games in 2019. And in the...
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It Was Always Going To Be Astros-Yankees, Wasn’t It?
MLB’s 2019 postseason has had more than its share of surprises, from Washington’s amazing comebacks — and the Dodgers’ meltdowns — to St. Louis’s 10-run first inning in a do-or-die game against...
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DJ LeMahieu Is The New Derek Jeter
On the 161st Street subway platform, and massed in and around Yankee Stadium for Games 3 and 4 of the American League Championship Series, plenty of fans were adorned in Yankee jerseys bearing No. 2,...
View ArticleWould The Expos Have Won The 1994 World Series?
As soon as New York Yankees reliever Bob Wickman heard the ball leave Larry Walker’s bat, he knew it was trouble. Walker, the Montreal Expos’ 27-year-old right fielder, had been hitting well enough in...
View ArticleThe Astros Are Hitting Like The 1927 Yankees
WASHINGTON — On the Astros’ charter flight to Washington, D.C., last week, after they had fallen to an 0-2 deficit in the World Series, Houston hitters held discussions at 30,000 feet about how they...
View ArticleFree-Agent Aces Like Gerrit Cole Often Deliver The Championship Goods
SAN DIEGO — Gerrit Cole was a fan of the New York Yankees as a kid. The Yankees have also long been admirers of Cole, drafting him in the first round in 2008 when Cole was then a high school senior....
View ArticleDerek Jeter’s Hall Of Fame Case Was Never In Doubt. But Larry Walker’s Was...
That Derek Jeter did not become baseball’s second unanimous selection to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday, a year after its first such selection, was something of a surprise. Jeter’s failure to...
View Article5 Questions For MLB (That Don’t Involve Sign-Stealing)
After an offseason focused on the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, pitchers and catchers have reported to camps across Florida and Arizona this week, and Major League Baseball is hoping to turn...
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