Archive for Guardians

Playoff losses can follow several different scripts, from the wire-to-wire blowouts that breed prolonged helplessness to the back-and-forth affairs that provide just enough hope before snatching it away at the end. But somewhere in the middle, there is the type of game that seems like a team can and should win, only for a few things to break the other way in such a fashion that its fans do not rage, do not cry, but instead climb aboard the doomsday hamster wheel of here we go again.

With their 4-3 loss to the Chicago White Sox in Game 2 of the American League Division Series, the Cleveland Guardians are now 2-7 in their last nine home playoff games. Those perilously loyal Cleveland fans, clad in red and blue jerseys bearing several different names — both on the front and the back — have seen their team repeatedly fall flat, dating back to that famous rain delay in 2016. But in this decade, they’ve also seen their team lose an ALDS Game 4 to the Yankees in 2022 that would have clinched the series, another loss to the Yankees in 2024 when Juan Soto simply decided he was too good of a hitter not to break their hearts, and two crushing Wild Card Series losses at home in 2025 to a division rival. In 2026, with no guarantee that they’ll be coming back for another game this year, the Guardians have added two more defeats at the hands of an AL Central foe, this time coming off a bye.

The White Sox won this game by eschewing the home run ball they relied on all summer and opting for Guards Ball. They had just three of the 10 hardest-hit balls of the game. Their opening pitcher did not get out of the first inning. But twice they scored from second on a single, went 3-for-8 with runners in scoring position (as opposed to Cleveland’s fatal 0-for-5), and rode a scorching hot reliever to probably their biggest victory since the 2005 championship march.

Ironically, this game began with a bit of Guards Ball from the home team that seemed a little too on the nose. Steven Kwan kicked things off with a roller through the right side that left the bat at 84.8 mph. José Ramírez then worked a walk, and Chase DeLauter followed with a productive out. That spelled the end of the night for Anthony Kay, who was replaced by Sean Newcomb. When Newcomb promptly missed the zone with his first two pitches to Jo Adell, the White Sox bench opted to put Adell on intentionally, loading the bases and setting up a double play. Newcomb was able to induce a grounder from Nathaniel Lowe next, but the type that bounces way up in the air rather than skimming along the dirt. It was also, apparently, the type of grounder that triggers a horrendous throwing error, giving Cleveland two easy runs.

The buildup to that calamitous moment wasn’t entirely Newcomb’s fault, as Kay was responsible for the lead runners and recorded one solitary out on just 17 pitches, both fewer than the four outs on 22 pitches he gave Chicago as a reliever in Game 1. What the White Sox do with Kay for the rest of the series may come down entirely to game situations; his Game 2 performance inspired negative confidence, and it seems he’s better suited for plug-and-play outings out of the bullpen, particularly with Davis Martin, Hagen Smith and/or Erick Fedde, and Sean Burke now lined up for the bulk roles should this series go all the way to Game 5.

For the first half of this game, Newcomb’s blunder looked like it would be the defining play. But the true inflection points came in the bottom of the fifth and the top of the sixth. Cleveland, clinging to a 2-1 lead, sent its best hitters to the plate in the home half of the fifth. Not only did that trio — Kwan, Ramírez, and DeLauter — go down in order, they did so without getting a ball out of the infield. Up to that point, the game was following a favorable script for the Guardians. They were gifted an early lead, had their starting pitcher, Gavin Williams, in the rocking chair, and were primed to put pressure on Chicago’s pitching staff. The exact pocket of the lineup that Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt would want at the plate for that situation wilted, and it felt like the White Sox were headed back to their dugout knowing their opponent had squandered their chance to properly put them away.

Within minutes, things began unraveling in Cleveland like the night Mike Love gave his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame speech. Miguel Vargas chased Williams by thwacking his 98th pitch of the night into left field for a sharp leadoff single. The Guardians then turned to lefty Erik Sabrowski, a very qualified fireman who came oh so close to extinguishing the flames. Sabrowski retired Munetaka Murakami and walked Randal Grichuk. No harm, no foul. But perhaps the biggest pitch of the night was one that did not get put in play or result in a strikeout. Rather, it was a wild pitch that pushed Vargas and Grichuk to third and second base, respectively. While Sabrowski did well to dig out of a 2-0 hole and pop Tommy Pham up for the second out, the next batter ambushed him.

Braden Montgomery’s first-pitch double was a wondrous display of hitting. It also would not have given Chicago the lead if not for Sabrowski’s wild pitch. One inning after Cleveland’s biggest (and some would say only) offensive threats failed to do anything, a defense-first rookie with an 89 wRC+ delivered the biggest blow of the night for Chicago. Fellow youngster Chase Meidroth then slapped an opposite-field single off Hunter Gaddis to make it 4-2 White Sox, and the here we go again feeling blew through Progressive Field like a vicious Lake Erie wind. Both Montgomery and Meidroth’s RBI knocks came on fastballs, pitch selections that Cleveland might like to have back. In the regular season, Montgomery had a .379 xwOBA against fastballs, and he was facing a pitcher in Sabrowski who hadn’t allowed a hit all year to righties on his slider. Meidroth — who whiffs on fastballs just 15.7% of the time, compared to 23.5% on breaking stuff and 29.3% on offspeed pitches — probably should have seen exclusively sliders and changeups from Gaddis.

The cruelty of this game for the Guardians is found in Williams’ stat line. Their flamethrowing Big Rig sat 99 mph on his fastball, generated 22 whiffs on 40 swings, and finished with 11 strikeouts. Apart from the three walks that drove his pitch count up — one of which helped the White Sox plate their first run in the fourth inning — Williams did everything that could have been asked of him, handing things over to a more than capable bullpen. It not only wasn’t enough, but it will be lost to history because of what Burke did.

Burke is a starting pitcher by trade, one who made 27 starts for the White Sox this year and led the team in innings. Starting pitchers, notorious creatures of habit that they are, typically don’t like following an opener. They especially don’t like entering a game mid-inning with a runner on base. But that’s exactly what Burke did in his spectacular Game 2 showing. When White Sox skipper Will Venable gave his early-inning interview on the television broadcast, he plainly stated that the plan was to have Kay and Newcomb get through DeLauter a second time. DeLauter singled in his second at-bat, immediately shooting Venable out of the dugout to go get Newcomb, as planned. But if you pumped Venable with truth serum, he’d likely tell you he was feeling a bit queasy about that plan now putting Burke in a dirty inning. Burke’s response to this adversity wasn’t as sexy as escaping a bases-loaded jam or coming on for a multi-inning save, but his subsequent strikeouts of both Adell and Lowe is the type of thing that should get a proper segment if this White Sox run turns documentary worthy. He goes to bed knowing he covered 5 1/3 innings while surrendering just one hit, and also that the Pope must be thrilled with him.

The Guardians, meanwhile, do not have papal fandom or many shreds of optimism on their side, both narratively and statistically. They lost two home games with their two best pitchers on the hill. Two of the three runs they’ve scored this series have come from a pitcher fielding his position and suddenly contracting Joel Zumaya Disease. They now have to win two games at Rate Field in Chicago, which will not only be completely bananas, but is a venue where they lost four of their six games this year. Maybe they can cling to the idea that Adell’s ultimately fruitless eighth-inning triple will unlock his swing, or that Grant Taylor has been so overworked that he can’t possibly continue pitching this well.

But once you start playing that mental game, it’s probably not going to happen for you, the same way it hasn’t happened for Cleveland in the postseason all decade.

Ike Irish is among the more intriguing prospects currently playing in the Arizona Fall League — and not just because of a promising bat that produced a .286/.388/.528 slash line with 15 home runs and a 135 wRC+ over 343 plate appearances with High-A Frederick. Ranked seventh in the Baltimore Orioles system with a 45 FV, the 23-year-old outfielder/first baseman got a new lease on life when he moved out from behind the dish.

The story behind Irish’s positional change isn’t as simple as his not possessing the requisite skills to one day catch at the highest level. He had already begun transitioning by the time the Orioles drafted him 19th overall in 2025 out of Auburn University, and one of the reasons was an issue that is clinically defined as a psycho-neuromuscular impediment affecting the execution of fine motor skills during sport performance.

More on that in moment.

“It was always in the back of my head,” said Irish, who is in the AFL partly to make up at-bats lost due to a torn meniscus suffered in late July. “In college, we had conversations after my sophomore year: Is catching what we really want to do? At the end of the day, I believe in my bat, and I didn’t really believe in my defense. I want my bat to perform, so I think the decision for me was a no-brainer. I play this game because I love to hit.”

It reached the point where he hated to catch. Struggling to master mechanical intricacies played a part, but as he went on to explain, it wasn’t the main reason. Read the rest of this entry »

When the Chicago White Sox pushed aside the Houston Astros in a Wild Card sweep, they set up a tilt against a familiar opponent. The Cleveland Guardians are the hereditary rulers of the AL Central, and they nipped the Sox by a single game this year. But other than playing in the same division and having nearly the same record, the two teams present quite the clash in styles. The White Sox are a group of young guys who hit home runs. The Guardians are a group of veterans who play small ball. It’s so compelling that it’s hard to find any other way to look at the series.

The difference between the two teams was on display immediately in Game 1. The Guardians sent Parker Messick to the mound for his first playoff start. He’s one of the best starters in baseball, and he’d be the Rookie of the Year favorite if Kevin McGonigle weren’t from another planet. The White Sox countered with opener Hagen Smith, coming off of an electric three innings against Houston. The White Sox aren’t deploying a “rotation” in the way you’d normally think of one; they’re heavy on multi-inning relievers and light on true starters, so their games are mix-and-match, while the Guardians hope to run their starter out for a decent stretch, then turn the game over to a series of one-inning relievers.

That’s the kind of game plan you can execute against the White Sox if you’re sharp enough. Messick came out a bit scattershot, walking Miguel Vargas and surrendering a hard-hit single to Munetaka Murakami in the first. But he also posted six strikeouts through the first three scoreless innings, the exact kind of numbers you’d expect against the aggressive White Sox lineup. Messick leans on his fastball, and he works the edges. That mattered more today, because to put it charitably, home plate umpire Cory Blaser’s strike zone was uneven. Five of those six strikeouts came on called strike threes, though White Sox hitters were clearly under dugout orders not to challenge early. A particularly egregious pitch to Randal Grichuk – 3-2 count, two inches off the plate outside – got Messick out of the third, and quite frankly, the combination of stuff and zone looked incredibly inhospitable to the White Sox. Read the rest of this entry »

The “mediocrity” of the American League made their muddled standings and September races for the postseason an object of derision. At least as far as the AL Central was concerned, though, that was not the case on my couch. All four of the division’s competitive clubs were must-watch TV down the stretch. Three of the Central’s teams finished with positive run differentials. Minnesota and Detroit had frustrating and disappointing seasons, but both have cores of exciting young talent that made them incredibly watchable, and despite taking different routes at the trade deadline, both fought to stay in the postseason picture through August.

However, had either of those teams usurped the White Sox or Guardians, both of which hovered around the division lead all season, it would have felt unjust. The White Sox got off to a bad start and were 6-12 in mid-April, then went on a heater in May (pummeling Seattle, Detroit and Minnesota) and began to jockey with Cleveland for the division lead. The Guardians hit a snag and fell away from the Sox in July, only to resurge after the trade deadline and ultimately claim the division title on the regular season’s penultimate day. It gave Cleveland a playoff bye and forced the White Sox to play a road Wild Card Series in Houston, home of the AL West (an actually bad division) champion Astros. The White Sox swept Houston with relative ease and now head to Cleveland to settle the score after both their head-to-head season series (which the Guardians won 7-6) and overall records were separated by just one game.

Read the rest of this entry »

In basketball, the biggest offensive threat is usually guarded by the other team’s best defender. A football team’s most dynamic wide receiver has to worry about lining up across from an All-Pro cornerback. But in this sick and twisted sport, sometimes good-on-good instead becomes good-on-whoever-we-have-available. For the 2026 crop of Division Series, there is no shortage of micro matchups — both because the soft underbelly of every roster typically gets exposed in the postseason, and because every organization’s horde of spreadsheet nerds will be combing through information looking for advantages — that may or may not seal a team’s fate.

San Diego Padres vs. Milwaukee Brewers: Run Game vs. Run Game

The Padres and Brewers series will feature a lot of things: two cities that love beer, a blinding amount of yellow arm sleeves and rally towels, and a bunch of basepath thievery.

Both of these teams finished top five in total stolen bases this year, each employing a crew of bandits that will surely look to continue their heist. The Padres were one of just five major league teams to have multiple players swipe at least 25 bags, as Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill took 38 and 27, respectively. Xander Bogaerts, who was not much of a basestealer until arriving in San Diego in 2023, has also joined the party. His 22 steals in 2026 — during his age-33 season, impressively — marked a new single-season best, topping the previous career high of 20 he set in 2025. And while neither received enough playing time to put up those kinds of numbers, speedy outfielders Samad Taylor and Jase Bowen both have elite sprint speed and solid base-stealing acumen. Read the rest of this entry »

Cade Smith is one of the game’s most dominant closers. Since debuting with the Cleveland Guardians in 2024, the 27-year-old right-hander from Abbotsford, British Columbia boasts a 2.26 ERA, a 1.84 FIP, and a 35.5% strikeout rate over 219 appearances comprising 233 innings. Moreover, he enters October on the heels of his best season to date. Not only did Smith forge a 1.95 ERA over 74 frames, his 41 saves tied him with Tampa Bay’s Bryan Baker for the most in the majors.

His development is a testament to his raw talent and work ethic, but also to the Guardians’ highly regarded pitching program. When Smith signed with Cleveland as an amateur free agent in 2020 following the pandemic-truncated five-round draft, he barely resembled the pitcher he is today. The University of Hawaii product now features a 97.5-mph heater that ranked in the 91st percentile for velocity this year, a devastating bat-missing splitter, and a sweeper that elicited a .133 xBA.

A lot has changed over the years.

“When Cade entered the organization he was a low-90s pitcher with no secondary stuff,” explained Guardians bullpen coach Caleb Longshore, who previously tutored Smith as both a minor league pitching coach and coordinator. “We identified some things in his delivery that he has leaned into over the years, and we’ve seen a steady year-over-year increase in velocity. He started working on the splitter in 2023, in [Double-A] Akron, when [now big league assistant pitching coach] Brad Goldberg was there.”

Smith’s relationship with Longshore and Goldberg was a point of interest when I spoke with him in the final week of the regular season. Read the rest of this entry »

Direct link to application (please see job details below):

2027 Baseball Technology Fellowship

2027 Baseball Technology Fellowship

Location: Goodyear, Arizona, United States

Primary Purpose:
The Cleveland Guardians Fellowship program is designed to accelerate the pace of development and impact for people interested in working for our organization. Fellowship roles are focused on solving complex challenges, which involve developing innovative approaches, tools, and techniques to meaningfully drive the organization forward. Fellows will contribute to work across multiple departments and will be encouraged to use a suite of internal and proprietary resources.

We are seeking Fellows to join our Baseball Technology department. Each Fellow will work full-time with one of our minor league affiliates (Columbus, Akron, Lake County, Hill City, and Arizona Complex) and report to the Baseball Technology, Player Development, and Baseball Operations departments. Fellows will be expected to manage the collection of multiple data streams and operate as a resource for both coaches and players. This position will include travel to away games.

This Fellowship combines hands-on technology operations, video and data collection, real-time troubleshooting, staff support, and baseball analysis. The strongest candidates will be curious, creative, and open-minded, with a willingness to execute essential daily processes, respond to unexpected challenges, communicate clearly, and build strong relationships across a collaborative environment. They will also have opportunities to explore new ideas, present complex topics to a wide range of audiences, and take initiative on research that advances the Guardians’ organizational procedures and philosophies.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities
Baseball Technology:

• Oversee operations of bat/ball/player tracking systems and emerging sports science technologies.
• Manage pre-game, in-game, and post-game video processes.
• Assist with the interpretation & distribution of the data and video collected.
• Assist the Information Systems team with Baseball Technology related troubleshooting and support.

Coaching Staff Support:

• Support affiliate coaching staff with Advance Scouting Process.
• Assist affiliate staff with assorted administrative tasks (i.e. daily scheduling, team travel, player housing).
• Assist Minor League field staff with pre-game activities.

Baseball Development and Analysis:

• Collaborate with coaching staff, Player Development, and Baseball Operations to monitor player goals and player progress.
• Perform ad hoc research and analysis, both at the request of staff and independently.
• Communicate findings and insights to Minor League Coaches, Players, and Player Development and Baseball Operations Departments.

Requirements:
The Cleveland Guardians are committed to developing and maintaining an environment that embraces all forms of diversity to enrich our core values, enhance our competitive position, strengthen our impact within our community, and foster a greater sense of belonging for our employees.

In this spirit, we know studies have shown that people from historically underserved groups – including women and people of color – are less likely to apply for jobs unless they believe they meet every one of the qualifications as described in a job description. We are most interested in finding the best candidate for the job and understand that candidate may bring certain skills and experiences to the role that are not listed above, but that would add tremendous value to our organization. We would encourage you to apply, even if you don’t believe you meet every one of our qualifications described.

• Bachelor’s degree or Prior Professional Experience.
• Demonstrated passion for at least one of baseball technology, scouting, baseball analytics, sports science, hitting or pitching analysis and/or biomechanics, strength and conditioning, motor learning, or other baseball/softball related field.

Skills:

• Organization: Ability to create, maintain and execute a schedule effectively.
• Work Ethic: A relentless drive to collect more and better information.
• Passion: Demonstrate a clear passion for the game, teammates, the organization, and learning.
• Resourcefulness: Identify available resources to solve problems and better understand organizational philosophies.
• Strategic Thinking: Employ a problem-solving mindset focused on long term impact.
• Time Management: Ability to prioritize in a fast-paced environment.
• Collaboration: Partner with staff and players. Exhibit excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Adaptability: Remain effective when schedules, priorities, technology, or staff needs change unexpectedly.

Preferred Experience:
While we are looking for a variety of diverse skill sets for this role, we know that past Fellows who have thrived in this role possessed certain skills that are best aligned to the game of baseball. If you have demonstrated experience with any of the following, you may be better positioned to thrive in this role.

• Conversational Spanish or better a plus.
• Experience with video editing software a plus.
• Experience with SQL and statistical software (i.e. R, Python, Stata, SAS) a plus.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office.
• Working knowledge of advanced baseball statistics and publicly available research.

Standard Requirements:

• Represents the Cleveland Guardians in a positive fashion to all business partners and the general public.
• Reads, speaks, comprehends, and communicates English effectively in all communications.

• Ability to develop and maintain successful working relationships with members in all departments of the organization.
• Ability to act according to the organizational values and service excellence at all times.
• Ability to work with diverse populations and have a demonstrated commitment to social justice.
• Ability to walk, sit or stand for an entire shift.
• Ability to work extended days and hours, including holidays and weekends.
• Ability to move throughout all areas and levels of the Ballpark.
• Ability to work in a diverse and changing environment.
• Occasional physical activity such as lifting and carrying boxes up to 25 lbs.

About Us:
In Baseball Technology, our shared goal is to identify and develop diverse players and front office teammates who contribute to our mission. By working together effectively and collaboratively, we create a family atmosphere that supports learning as we strive for excellence in everything we do. We believe that we will achieve our goals by making evidence-based decisions and creating environments that support our people and empower them to learn.

To Apply
To apply, please follow this link.

The content in this posting was created and provided solely by the Cleveland Guardians.

Credit the Phillies for trying. When I highlighted the worst defenses among contending teams in early July, they were the poster boys, scoring worse than any team besides the decidedly non-contending Rockies in the multi-metric methodology I’ve used for the past four seasons. But when the August 3 trade deadline arrived, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski took a step to improve that shoddy defense, acquiring second baseman Luis Arraez from the Giants and setting off a game of musical chairs that sent incumbent second baseman Bryson Stott to third base, third baseman Alec Bohm to first, and first baseman Bryce Harper to right field. The defense at those spots mostly improved, but last Thursday, with the Phillies in the midst of what would become a 2-6 skid that nearly cost them a Wild Card berth, Arraez sprained his left ankle while trying to avoid a tag at first base. On Monday, interim manager Don Mattingly announced that the 29-year-old infielder will be left off the roster for the team’s Wild Card Series against the Braves.

How Mattingly will proceed with his lineup is unclear. In the three games Arraez missed — including Sunday’s playoff berth-clinching win over the Rays — Edmundo Sosa started at third base twice while Stott returned to second, while in the other game, Bohm and Harper moved back to their original positions as well; they lost that one 12-1.

Below I’ll take a closer look at the metrics underlying the Phillies’ defensive configurations, but long story short, they rate as the playoff team with the worst defense, as they did last year and in 2023. Read the rest of this entry »

Chase DeLauter is having a strong rookie season. The top hitter on a Cleveland Guardians team that ranks in the bottom half of the junior circuit in runs scored, he has 16 home runs to go with a .287/.363/.457 slash line and a 131 wRC+ over 559 plate appearances. His production — thanks in part to good health — doesn’t come as a surprise. As Eric Longenhagen and Brendan Gawlowski wrote when ranking him atop our 2026 Guardians Top Prospect list, “The oft-injured DeLauter has only played 140 professional games… [but] projects as a middle-of-the-order hitter.”

Approach-wise, he is a hitter who doesn’t get too deep into the weeds when it comes to his craft (my recent conversation with him brought to mind this summer’s Talks Hitting interview with Mike Trout). I had gotten that impression speaking to DeLauter three years ago when he was playing for the High-A Lake County Captains, and not much has changed.

“I try not to think too much about my swing,” the 24-year-old outfielder told me last week. “Of course, there are small adjustments here and there, but I’ve swung the same way my whole life. It’s what got me here, and it is what’s going to carry me through. I’m the same dude, the same guy.”

What works works, but at the same time, the 2022 first-rounder out of James Madison University now has access to more data than ever before. He must tap into it. Right?

“I don’t like looking at that stuff,” DeLauter stated. “I’m more old-school. It’s about what feels good [and] what looks good. That’s what I care about. There are guys who play that kind of game, but they’re better thinkers. I’m not that good of a thinker for things like that. For me, it’s about trusting my roots.”

Fair enough, but even so, he’d been in the lineup against hard-throwing left-hander Payton Tolle the night before, and now he was about to go up against right-handed spin monster Sonny Gray. The approach against such disparate hurlers can’t be exactly the same?

“I mean, it is though,” DeLauter replied to my supposition. “Sit on a fastball and [bleeping] hit it. Whatever they throw me in the strike zone, whether it’s the fastball or something else, if it looks good, I’m going. My goal is to hit the ball as hard as I can and pray to the baseball gods that they take care of it.

“I mean, I’m not going up there blindly,” he went on to clarify. “I am looking at the report in the dugout before I go up to the plate. I have their fastball velocity in the back of my mind, but outside of that, I basically just go up there and hit.”

And again, DeLauter has been hitting very well. With October baseball on the doorstep, how would he assess his season to date?

“My only goal for the year was to stay as healthy as possible and contribute any way that I can,” DeLauter said. “I wanted to play as many games as I could. I’ve had some nicks and bruises here and there, but overall I have done a good job of managing myself, obviously with the help of our staff. I grade my season as a success in that way. The numbers are going to fluctuate from year to year. For me, availability is the best ability. That’s what I’m chasing.”

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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS

Chase Utley went 1 for 19 against Jake Arrieta.

Justin Turner went 1 for 23 against Jon Lester.

Fernando Tatis Jr. went 1 for 15 against Kyle Hendricks.

Cody Ross went 1 for 15 against Jason Hammel.

Jim Thome went 0 for 18 against John Lackey.

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Pete Crow-Armstrong has batted out of the leadoff position for much of the season, and it’s hard to argue with the results. The Chicago Cubs have scored the most runs in the senior circuit, and the presumptive NL MVP has dominated opposing pitchers to the tune of a 156 wRC+. Moreover, PCA has launched 45 home runs and swiped 41 bags.

I was on hand when Craig Counsell addressed the 24-year-old superstar’s spot in the batting order in late August. One of the things he touched on was the value of having an especially dangerous hitter at the plate to begin the game.

“I think that’s real,” the Cubs manager said in reply to Jeff Agrest of the Chicago Sun-Times (apologies if I’m misremembering who broached the subject). “Jim Leyland used to talk about that a little bit. He led off Cliff Floyd in 1998, I believe. There was just a presence there for the opposing pitcher immediately, from the get-go, that I thought he was right about. Pete is absolutely providing that.”

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The Cubs won a Wild Card series against the San Diego Padres last year, only to then lose to the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLDS. How are they set up to perform in the about-to-begin postseason? Jed Hoyer, the team’s president of baseball operations, was pragmatic when I asked him that question on Friday.

“I’ve been doing this too long to try to predict that,” Hoyer stated. “There are years you go in feeling fantastic — everyone is healthy, everything is lined up — and you play poorly. There are also years where things are in question and you go in and play great. In the playoffs you’re playing against a really good opponent. We’re a really good team, but trying to predict how we are going to perform based on how we’re performing now… I don’t think that really ever bears fruit. Like I said, we have a good team and we’re going to play a good team. Hopefully we’ll show our our best selves when we get there.”

The Cubs came into today’s regular season finale having lost 11 of their last 18 games.

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A quiz:

Every active franchise has thrown at least one no-hitter in the modern era (since 1901). Which franchise has produced the most no-hitters?

Bonus question: Which pitcher threw the most no-hitters for that franchise?

The answer can be found below.

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NEWS NOTES

SABR announced the finalists for its Dorothy Seymour Mills Lifetime Achievement Award. More information on the finalists — Sarah Langs, Jeneane “Lefty” Lesko, Maud Nelson, Janet Marie Smith, and Lisa Turbitt — can be found here.

Denny Matthews called his 8,000th game for the Kansas City Royals on Friday. The 83-year-old broadcaster was behind the mic when the franchise played its first game in 1969, and he plans to return for his 59th season in 2027.

The Detroit Tigers announced multi-year contract extensions with television play-by-play voice Jason Benetti and radio play-by-play voice Dan Dickerson. As Tigers fans can attest, both are among the best in the business.

Jim Rittwage, a right-hander who logged a 4.15 ERA over 26 innings while appearing in eight games for the Cleveland Indians in 1970, died on August 28 at age 81 (per Baseball Player Passings). On September 25 of that year he moved from the mound to third base for three batters, then returned to the hill. Six days earlier he’d gone the distance in his only career start, earning his lone win.

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The answer to the quiz is the Dodgers, with 22. The answer to the bonus question is Sandy Koufax, with four.

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Anthony Seigler was solid with the stick this season. Serving in a part-time role with the Boston Red Sox, the 27-year-old infielder not only logged a 102 wRC+ over 173 plate appearances, he contributed multiple clutch hits along the way.

Who most stood out among the pitchers he faced?

“I would say Dylan Cease and Yoshinobu Yamamoto,” Seigler told me recently. “One of those two. Pick your poison. Both know how to command the zone and keep you off balance. It’s fun to compete against them, but yeah, those are two pitchers where I was like, ‘Wow, that’s a pretty good arm.’”

Seigler went 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts versus Yamamoto, and 0-for-3 with a strikeout and a walk versus Cease. Outside the similarities noted above, how do the right-handers compare?

“As far as movement type and how they’re going to attack you, they’re different,” said Seigler. “Yamamoto has great stuff and can overpower you, but he’s really more moving the ball around, moving your eyes. He does that really well. Cease is more like a power pitcher. He has a great mix. But they both know how to locate and keep you off balance. That’s what makes them difficult, and why they’re two of the best pitchers in [MLB].”

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Some have speculated that the Arizona Diamondbacks will part ways with Torey Lovullo if the team fails to reach the postseason. Were that to happen — the Snakes’ fate will be determined this afternoon — assigning blame to the franchise’s all-time-winningest manager seems a stretch at best. Despite multiple issues beyond his control — Ketel Marte’s AWOL episode is especially notable — Lovullo’s club comes into the final day of the campaign with 86 wins, a total exceeding that of three AL playoff-qualifiers. Dismissing him on an October-or-bust premise would be unwarranted.

Those things said, I recently talked to Lovullo about the collaborative relationship he has with his bench coach, Jeff Banister. In-game decisions are a big part of it.

“They’re fast-moving conversations,” explained Lovullo, who is in his 10th season at the helm in Arizona. “Banny gives me simple reminders. He gives me suggestions. He gives me his gut feel. Then we chop it up as fast as we possibly can to make the decision within the game.

“We trust our instincts and we trust the matchups,” the veteran manager went on to say. “We’re drawing from the same resources throughout the course of the game. Projections for certain matchups are provided to us. We’re looking at the same data points, and we’re watching the game with the same type of eyes, so we come to some really fast conclusions. Putting the guys in the best position isn’t easy, but we draw from a lot of resources and are looking through the same scope every single inning.”

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FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Ja-wook Koo is slashing .369/.456/.576 with 15 home runs and a 174 wRC+ for the KBO’s Samsung Lions. The 33-year-old outfielder played for Team Korea in this year’s WBC.

Yeong Hyun Park is 6-0 with 27 saves and a 2.54 ERA over 56-and-two-thirds innings for the KBO’s KT Wiz. The 22-year-old right-hander, who also represented Korea in the WBC, has 87 saves across the past three seasons.

Andrés Machado is 3-1 with 35 saves and a 1.20 ERA over 52-and-a-third innings for NPB’s Orix Buffaloes. A member of Team Venezuela in this year’s WBC, the 33-year-old right-hander pitched for the Kansas City Royals in 2017, and for the Washington Nationals from 2021-2023.

Darwinzon Hernández has a 1.51 ERA, a 2.70 FIP, and a 29.9% strikeout rate over 44 appearances comprising 41-and-third innings for NPB’s Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. The 29-year-old Venezuelan southpaw pitched for the Boston Red Sox from 2019-2022.

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A few accomplishments, milestones, and leaders:

Matt Olson is poised to play in his 944th consecutive game today. In doing so, he will have appeared in all 162 in each of the past five seasons.

Kenley Jansen goes into the final game of the season with 498 career saves, Manny Machado with 399 career home runs.

Pete Alonso leads the junior circuit in home runs (43) and RBIs (113). Along with Yordan Alvarez Junior Caminero, and Pete Crow-Armstrong, Alonso is the only player in MLB to both drive in and score at least 100 runs.

Gabriel Moreno leads the senior circuit with a .311 batting average, while Luis Arraez — the three-time batting champion is unlikely to play today due to an ankle injury — is at .310. If Moreno finishes on top he will be the first catcher to lead the league since Buster Posey in 2012.

Eduardo Valencia’s .344 batting average and 180 wRC+ are tops in the junior circuit among batters who have come to the plate at least 100 times. The Detroit Tigers rookie has 134 PAs.

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Left on the cutting-room floor from Tuesday’s Challenging Career Quiz installment with Ron Coomer were his memories of a southpaw who amassed 219 wins and 42.5 WAR while pitching for six teams over 20 big-league seasons.

“I remember some good matchups against guys who played the cat-and-mouse game with you,” the infielder-turned-Chicago-Cubs-broadcast-analyst told me. “Kenny Rogers was one guy like that. He was great at pitching to a side of the plate. The ball would get there in three different ways. It would get there this way, that way, the other way, cutting it, sinking it — and they would all be on the inside corner or just off the inside corner. He would knock you down, too. There was that intimidation factor he wanted to play with you. And he was good. He ended up being my teammate and I got to watch it from third base. There would be someone at the plate and I’d be thinking, ‘This guy doesn’t have a chance.’”

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A random obscure former player snapshot:

Scott Loucks recorded the first of his 21 career hits for a team that reached the postseason for the first time in franchise history. Pinch-hitting for Joaquin Andujar on September 3, 1980, the Anchorage, Alaska-born outfielder stroked a single off of John Candelaria in a 10-4 Houston Astros loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium. The knock came in his initial time at the dish. Two days earlier, he had made his MLB debut as a late-inning defensive replacement for longtime Astros stalwart Terry Puhl.

Five years later, he notched the last of his hits in flip-flopped fashion. Wrapping up his 73-game major-league tenure in a Pirates uniform, Loucks lashed a double off of Houston southpaw Bob Knepper in a late-May affair at the Astrodome. His geographical background also bears noting. One of 13 Alaska natives in MLB history, Loucks attended high school in Hawaii, a state that has produced 50 big-leaguers.

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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE

The Athletic’s C. Trent Rosecrans and Ken Rosenthal teamed up to explain why the Cincinnati Reds remain in limbo while other small-market clubs succeed.

Jarren Duran has 20 home runs, 21 stolen bases, and a 70 wRC+. Talk Sox’s Maddie Landis explained how the outfielder’s 20/20 season is the worst in MLB’s live-ball era.

Lookout Landing’s Kate Preusser checked in with Mississauga, Ontario native Josh Naylor, who is wrapping up his first full season as a Seattle Mariner.

Former Chicago White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper passed away earlier this week at age 70. Scott Merkin has the story at MLB.com.

MLB.com’s Thomas Harding wrote about how the Rockies’ rotation shortcomings have the club searching for answers going into 2027.

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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS

Eight pitchers have been credited with 15 or more wins this season, with none of them reaching the 20 mark. In 1976, a total of 34 pitchers were credited with 15 or more wins, with eight of them reaching the 20 mark.

Justin Verlander has fanned 3,560 batters and allowed 374 home runs. Max Scherzer (who is scheduled to pitch today) has fanned 3,550 batters and allowed 369 home runs.

The five teams in the AL West have combined for a minus-469 run differential.

Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Chandler Simpson has stolen 46 bases in 60 attempts.. The Houston Astros have stolen 50 bases in 72 attempts as a team.

The Cleveland Guardians are the only team that hasn’t had a batter hit at least 20 home runs this season. Angel Martinez leads the club with 18.

Chicago White Sox pitchers have plunked 90 batters, the most in the majors. White Sox batters have reached base via a HPB a total of 100 times, tying them with the Los Angeles Angels for the most in the majors.

Colson Montgomery’s 225 strikeouts are the most in a single season in MLB history. Moreover, since July 28 the 24-year-old shortstop is batting .150 and has fanned 94 times in 218 trips to the plate. Over that same span, Munetaka Murakami is batting .167 and has fanned 97 times in 245 trips to the plate.

On today’s date in 1935, the Chicago Cubs won their 21st consecutive game — and their 100th on the season — to clinch the National League pennant. Stan Hack tripled home the deciding run in the ninth inning of the 5-3 conquest of the St. Louis Cardinals.

On today’s date in 1964, Johnny Callison launched three home runs, only to have his effort go for naught as the Philadelphia Phillies fell to the Milwaukee Braves by a score of 12-8. The defeat, their seventh in a row, knocked the Phillies out of first place. They went on to lose the next three, completing a collapse from what had been a six-and-half-game lead with just 14 games remaining on the schedule.

On tomorrow’s date in 1911, the New York Highlanders (they became known as the Yankees two years later) stole 15 bases and were caught stealing five times in a 19-12 win over the St. Louis Browns.

Players born on today’s date include Bo Hart, a second baseman whose MLB career comprised 88 games for the St. Louis Cardinals across the 2003-2004 seasons. The Creswell, Oregon native began with a bang… only to fizzle and fade away. Hart went 28-for-68 (.412) over his first 15 contests, then just 56-for-241 (.232) thereafter. His given first name was Bodhi.

Also born on today’s date was Doug Konieczny, who along with Steve Gromek, Ted Kazanski, John Paciorek, and Tom Paciorek, is one of five players in MLB history to have attended Hamtramck, Michigan’s St. Ladislaus High School. A right-hander, Konieczny went 7-18 with a 4.93 ERA over 221 innings with the Houston Astros from 1973-1977.

We’ve made it to the final weekend of the regular season, and while all but two of the 12 playoff teams have been determined, two divisions titles and one Wild Card berth are still up for grabs. Both the Guardians and White Sox have already clinched a spot in the American League bracket, but only one game separates them in the standings. Cleveland, the first-place team, needs to win the division outright because Chicago owns the tiebreaker. The stakes are high; the victor earns the second seed in the league, a first-round bye, and home-field advantage in the Division Series, while the loser has to play the entire best-of-three Wild Card Series on the road.

The club that finishes second will face either the Astros or the Rangers, who both lost Friday night and fell to 79-81. There’s a very real chance that AL West winner will become the first playoff team ever to finish a full-length season with a losing record. Houston holds the tiebreaker. This race is emblematic of two things wrong with the current rules: 1) We should not allow losing teams to make the postseason, and 2) ties should be settled by one-game playoffs, not math. As if to provide further support for my second point, over in the National League, the surging Diamondbacks are making a last-gasp bid to overcome the reeling Phillies for the final Wild Card spot. Riding a six-game winning streak into Saturday, Arizona is just one game behind the Phillies, but crucially, the Snakes would get in if they finish with the same record. The two teams split their six regular-season matchups — head-to-head record is the first tiebreaker — but the Diamondbacks have the better intra-divisional record, which is the second tiebreaker. Goofy! It’s still going to be a fun baseball weekend, and the playoffs are sure to be a thrill, but think of how much more excitement there would be if we had not one, not two, but three Game 163s on Monday. What could have been.

Before we get to this week’s mailbag, I have one quick programming note. We’ll still be doing our weekly mailbag during the postseason, but we might move around the specific day it runs depending on the playoff schedule. As we did last year, our plan is to do a mailbag before every postseason round, beginning with the Division Series. Also, in case you missed David Appelman’s announcement from Thursday, this year you will need a FanGraphs Membership to read our postseason coverage. You can find all the details in David’s post, but considering our mailbags are also exclusive to FanGraphs Members, most of you reading this probably won’t notice the change. However, what you will notice and appreciate is the other major part of David’s announcement: This October, we’re committed to having staff at every World Series game, allowing for additional reported work and greater access to players and team personnel, with more in-person coverage throughout the earlier rounds as well. In recent years, we’ve had in-person World Series coverage only when the games were played in a city where one of our writers lived. Now, we’ll be there no matter what. If you aren’t yet a Member and would like to both keep reading this mailbag and get access to our postseason coverage, you can sign up for a Membership here. It’s the best way to experience the site and support our staff, and it comes with a bunch of other great benefits. Also, if you’d like to ask a question for an upcoming mailbag, send me an email at mailbag@fangraphs.com. Read the rest of this entry »