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The 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot

In Major League Baseball by Rice Cube20 Comments

The BBWAA announced the writers ballot today, which will give another pool of candidates assuming the Veterans Committee actually elects somebody this cycle. Here is the link and I’ll list my preferred candidates below: Should be near unanimous: Ichiro Suzuki Will probably get in first ballot: CC Sabathia Holdover guys I’d vote for: Bobby Abreu, Carlos Beltrán, Andruw Jones, Manny …

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Pennant Chase In Progress

In Major League Baseball, Playoffs by Rice Cube113 Comments

I feel like the term “pennant chase” is used kind of to describe the race to the postseason during the regular season, but you don’t actually get to win a pennant until you are the last team standing in the league championship series. I guess you also don’t get a pennant once you win the World Series because the prize …

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About the MLB Postseason…

In Major League Baseball, Playoffs by Rice Cube48 Comments

So we were talking about the way the MLB playoff system is set up in the previous post, and given how three of the road teams just advanced this past week, two of them relatively easily, I guess part of the calculus is trying to figure out a way to ensure the home team has a greater advantage. Then, once …

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In Before Getting the Live Chicken

In Major League Baseball by Rice Cube132 Comments

In between searching for new employment and whatever else is going on in real life right now, I thought I’d temper some expectations and doom with some math. Funny enough, the only mention of “math” in the OV archives is one of the old comics about Joe Mather of all people, but I’m too lazy to grab something math-y from …

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Return of the Starting Pitcher?

In Major League Baseball by Rice Cube57 Comments

As pitchers continue to pile up on the injured list shelf, and seemingly a new Tommy John announcement every few days, this random thing just came out: The league has discussed a limit to the size of pitching staffs and the double-hook DH, according to sources familiar with the discussion. There is some belief around the game, however, that one idea …

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The 2024 Hall of Fame Class

In Major League Baseball by Rice Cube51 Comments

Perhaps it is coincidental that the National Baseball Hall of Fame would announce its inductees in the same week as we got the Oscar and Razzie nominations (I have opinions on those too), but the time has come to welcome more icons into the shrine of humans who were very good at this baseball thing. We know from earlier that …

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The 2024 HOF Ballot

In Major League Baseball by Rice Cube4 Comments

So the National Baseball Hall of Fame just revealed the official writers ballot for this coming HOF class: I can’t tell you what to do (or think, or vote for if you even had a vote), but for me I believe I would do the following, with hearty apologies to those who missed the cut: I can see a few …