2026 Misc MLB News Thread

[edfunderburk]

SportsBall (@_sportsball) • Instagram reel

WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM

---

73K likes, 1,249 comments - _sportsball on May 29, 2026: "Proposed salary cap and floor in MLB ⚾️ Data from MLB".

 

[Brian]

Boston sweeps Yankees 4 in a row.  Life can be incredibly unpredictable. 

[SeaBass]

On 6/26/2026 at 4:03 PM, Jim French Stepstool said:

And if that happened, hoooo would be next? They tried CC, Trebelhorn, Sveum, Jim Lefebvre who were all on the Brewers' payroll & all at least briefly managed here.

Kenny Macha? He seems a little Madden-ish.

Rickie Weeks obviously

[Jim French Stepstool]

13 hours ago, Brian said:

Boston sweeps Yankees 4 in a row.  Life can be incredibly unpredictable. 

..........helped by a HR on Saturday by Anthony Seigler, of all people (as @markedman5 mentioned). For now at least, they're feeling a little bit better about dealing with Milwaukee.

[wiguy94]

Stone Garrett just shared an insane story about Josh Naylor

https://x.com/supastario/status/2071743472608952785

 

[Samurai Bucky]

17 hours ago, wiguy94 said:

Stone Garrett just shared an insane story about Josh Naylor

https://x.com/supastario/status/2071743472608952785

 

This one beats the suitcase injury, or the dreaded Salad Knife injury that Molitor had.  Crazy stuff.

[Dragonbait]

Or the feared Salad Tongs.

[nate82]

The Padres suck:

[owbc]

11 minutes ago, nate82 said:

The Padres suck:

It was really 15-3 before the position players came in. Dansby Swanson is on some kind of heater right now.

[liveforoctober]

 

This is my favorite thing. Can you imagine if Sanchez did this in the 1st inning? The IGT would implode.

[HarryDoyle]

 

[Dragonbait]

Not sad to see him go, but wish it wasn't due to getting hurt. 

[markedman5]

 

[HarryDoyle]

40 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

 

Coincidence?

 

[HarryDoyle]

and...

 

 

[liveforoctober]

Forgive me if this was posted elsewhere, but with the Holiday weekend madness I wasn't as on top of the news cycle and missed this myself...

 

Posted without additional commentary..

[Zad Fnark]

The Cubs seem obsessed with getting any Brewers castoffs.  As if some magic pixie dust will still stick to them.

[Jim French Stepstool]

On 7/5/2026 at 2:43 PM, markedman5 said:

 

None of them had to worry about being labeled 'worst umpire in MLB' as long as Angel Hernandez was around. Now that he isn't..........time to pull the plug.

[RWeeksFan23]

1 hour ago, Zad Fnark said:

The Cubs seem obsessed with getting any Brewers castoffs.  As if some magic pixie dust will still stick to them.

Maybe we can return the favor by claiming Bryse Wilson who they just DFAd

[TURBO]

2 hours ago, Zad Fnark said:

The Cubs seem obsessed with getting any Brewers castoffs.  As if some magic pixie dust will still stick to them.

Guess they didn't learn their lesson from paying CC all that $$.

[ELCABALLO45]

Not sure if this is the correct place to put this but. Incase you were curious on what WAR to trust more. Baseball reference or Fangraphs. I give you bWAR

ERA

Miz - 1.47

Sanchez - 2.62

 

ERA+

Miz - 290

Sanchez - 173

 

Strikeouts

Miz - 156

Sanchez - 137

 

WHIP

Miz - 0.779

Sanchez - 1.163 

 

FIP 

Miz - 1.97

Sanchez - 2.67

 

bWAR 

Sanchez - 4.9

Miz - 4.2 

[sveumrules]

1 hour ago, ELCABALLO45 said:

Not sure if this is the correct place to put this but. Incase you were curious on what WAR to trust more. Baseball reference or Fangraphs. I give you bWAR

 

ERA

Miz - 1.47

Sanchez - 2.62

 

ERA+

Miz - 290

Sanchez - 173

 

Strikeouts

Miz - 156

Sanchez - 137

 

WHIP

Miz - 0.779

Sanchez - 1.163 

 

FIP 

Miz - 1.97

Sanchez - 2.67

 

bWAR 

Sanchez - 4.9

Miz - 4.2 

There are a few different factors contributing to Sanchez having higher WAR on BRef than Misio.

The first is straight up quantity. Sanchez has 16.1 extra IP and WAR is a counting stat so that gives him an edge there.

The others have more to do with the adjustments that BRef makes in an attempt to account for quality of opponents and team defense. Sanchez has faced a tougher slate (4.72 vs 4.57 RA9opp) with a worse defense behind him (-0.26 vs +0.20 RA9def) so he gets extra credit while Misio gets dinged some in the BRef calcs.

Their intentions are understandable, but I think those different adjustments just end up making things more convoluted. FanGraphs is much more straight up with just innings and FIP for their fWAR or innings and RA9 for their rWAR.

Misio
104 IP of 35 ERA- | 46 FIP-
4.7 rWAR | 4.3 fWAR

Sanchez
120.1 IP of 61 ERA- | 62 FIP-
3.9 rWAR | 3.8 fWAR

[SeaBass]

ESPN published an article recently by Bradford Doolittle that, among other things, touched on the differences between both bWAR and fWAR and I thought it really clarified for me why the two exist and why they both matter. It's worth a read. But this snippet is part of what made me think of it.

Quote

 

The differences are a product of different inputs, the decisions made on which ones to use and about how to use them.

Researcher, analyst and former Toronto Blue Jays consultant Sean Smith -- known in internet circles as Rally Monkey -- created a version of the WAR framework that was adopted by Baseball Reference, and he sees the biggest contrasts in how the different systems divide credit and blame between pitching and fielding.

"Almost every time you see a difference between players, it comes down to the defensive number," said Smith, whose book "WAR in PIECES" explains the past, present and possible future of every facet of the framework. He maintains a reworked version of WAR and other win-based metrics at BaseballProjection.com.

Baseball Reference and FanGraphs see the contrast as a feature, not a bug, and they might be right.

"It's definitely a feature," said Tom Tango, database architect of stats for MLB Advanced Media, whose seminal work on calculating WAR helped build the foundation of the current, public-facing versions of the system. "I'm not there to tell them what they should think. I'm simply saying, well, if you care about this, then this is how you should construct the WAR, and if you care about the other thing, that's how you should construct the WAR. FanGraphs and Baseball Reference have taken two polar opposite views, which to me is fantastic. Because then I know that the true answer is somewhere between the two."

In a nutshell, FanGraphs WAR functions as a true talent estimate that works well for projecting forward and making economic valuations. The Baseball Reference version is more a matter of divvying up credit -- describing what actually happened. That's an oversimplification but gets at something essential.

"FanGraphs is based on process," Seattle Mariners president Jerry Dipoto said. "It's what you do. Baseball Reference, on the other hand, is based on results."

Among those echoing that observation is Sean Forman, president of Sports Reference L.L.C., which operates Baseball Reference.

"I don't know if [FanGraphs] would agree, but for me the main difference is that B-R's version tries to explain what happened on the field," Forman wrote in an email. "While FanGraphs focuses more on the players' skill level."

 

TLDR: FanGraphs is trying more to evaluate a player's projectable skill level while BRef is more results based or what already happened. Both have their perspectives and by contrasting them you can kind of come up with a number in the middle that is fairly accurate (if that's what you're interested in doing).

[Playing Catch]

3 hours ago, SeaBass said:

ESPN published an article recently by Bradford Doolittle that, among other things, touched on the differences between both bWAR and fWAR and I thought it really clarified for me why the two exist and why they both matter. It's worth a read. But this snippet is part of what made me think of it.

TLDR: FanGraphs is trying more to evaluate a player's projectable skill level while BRef is more results based or what already happened. Both have their perspectives and by contrasting them you can kind of come up with a number in the middle that is fairly accurate (if that's what you're interested in doing).

Thanks for sharing this. I think it makes great sense, and makes it easier to understand those numbers.

[formerlybis]

Looking ahead, I see that Konnor Griffin, the Buccos' prized rookie, suffered a torn tendon in his ring finger which may put him out a month. They're deciding whether he plays through it or not, though, so we'll see if he plays this weekend or not.