FanGraphs Weekly Mailbag: July 11, 2026
Happy Draft Weekend everyone! The draft broadcast begins at 1 p.m. ET today, with the first four rounds scheduled for Day 1. Then, tomorrow, the draft resumes at 11:30 a.m. ET for rounds 5-20.
As always, FanGraphs has you covered with everything you need to know before, during, and after the draft. Eric Longenhagen, Brendan Gawlowski, Michael Baumann, and Meg Rowley are in Philadelphia providing coverage throughout the weekend. You can find all of our draft coverage here, or by using the navigation widget at the top of our homepage and in our draft pieces. Eric and Brendan’s updated draft rankings are available on The Board, where you’ll also find players’ scouting reports and tool grades. You can read Eric’s draft preview here, and his first mock draft here. Provided he has enough new information to merit one, his second mock draft will run today before the first round, so be on the lookout for that, too. Meanwhile, Michael wrote three excellent draft features, which you can read here, here, and here. Also, be sure to join our Day 1 draft chat, where the FanGraphs crew will be answering your questions and providing updates and analysis beginning at 1 p.m ET.
That’s the last you’ll read about the draft in this mailbag. Instead, we’ll be answering your questions about Pete Crow-Armstrong, Aaron Ashby’s propensity for wins, and games with the highest rates of true outcomes for one team. Plus, I’ll provide the answers to last week’s trivia questions about baseball stats featuring the number 250. But first, I’d like to remind you that this mailbag is exclusive to FanGraphs Members. If you aren’t yet a Member and would like to keep reading, you can sign up for a Membership here. It’s the best way to both 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.
Matt is the associate editor of FanGraphs. Previously, he was the baseball editor at Sports Illustrated. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Men’s Health, Baseball Prospectus, and Lindy’s Sports Magazine. Follow him on Twitter @ByMattMartell and Blue Sky @mattmartell.bsky.social.
Of course it’s easy to pick the under on something like a reliever winning twenty games (even if they are already at 12 W after 93 team games), but it seems like Ashby’s usage pattern has changed somewhat as the season has gone along from being a multi inning fireman to being more of the high leverage lefty who gets the 7th/8th inning along with Abner Uribe depending on the match ups.
He had seven of his wins through the first 37 team games, here are his splits for that opening stretch…
18 G | 25 IP | 1.02 gmLI
entered in the 5th (x2), 6th (x7), 7th (x3), 8th (x4) and once each in the 9th and as an opener.
And then his splits since then when he has gotten five wins in 56 team games…
26 G | 29.2 IP | 1.52 gmLI
entered in the 6th (x4), 7th (x8), 8th (x11), 9th (x2), and 10th (x1)
Most like a reliever will record 8ish wins from now to the end of the year, and that’ll be the highest total. It would be very random if it ends up being Ashby.
The answer to the trivia question is also the MLB player with the most hits a season who previously played for the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team.
Edit: whoops I was wrong, as he only had 240, but the second part is still almost surely true.
Per a quick google search, Monte Harrison committed to play WR for the Huskers before choosing baseball. He made the majors for a couple cups of coffee before returning to football and played the last 2 years at Arkansas
>>Our play-by-play database is complete back to 1974,
>>so that’s what I’ll be using for today
Question: Does this mean that prior to 1974 there is no play-by-play database, or does it mean that the play-by-play database is only 85% complete or something like that?
Hey that’s me! Thanks for answering my question(s), Davy.
“PCA’s competition for best month ever is literally Babe Ruth. Seems good.” That says it all!
“Lefty O’Doul is the only player to record at least 250 hits in a single season who is not in the Hall of Fame. In 1929, he led all AL/NL players with 254 hits, a .398 batting average, and a .465 on-base percentage. He also ripped 32 home runs, stole 76 bases, and posted a 156 wRC+.”
He drew 76 walks. (Only stole 2 bases.)
Thanks, Jon — I misread the columns. I’ve updated the mailbag and issued a correction.