One of the biggest benefits is the extra practices the team gets between the end of the season and the bowl game.

Also, with the increased emphasis in platooning, most guys have their off days dictating by the opposing SP. It wouldn’t make sense to run the same lineup Mon-Sat and then a different one Sun when you are playing righty-lefty matchups.

I was waiting for Tulo’s Mullet to write a proper farewell.

Thanks for sharing, Samer. Rick’s writing is what kept me coming back when I started reading Deadspin.

With Bellinger and Yelich in the NL, Trout should win the AL MVP.

Many of those figures range from unlikely to outright lies. This may be a "less bad" deal for Calgary, but don't fool yourself into thinking they will make money off this.

Correct, it was 80 games so he could come back in September but is ineligible for the playoffs.

Never forget.

Ley was a commenter. I remember a Friday chat a year or so ago that mentioned a couple others.

What’s a 5th best starter?

Games 3, 4, 5 in the League Championship Series and World Series are played on consecutive days.

They just won 2 of 3 against the Yankees when those were the last of 20 games in 20 days including six against Houston. They definitely have the odds against them since they will probably play the wild card game to lead into a potential 5 game set with Sale and Price looming. However, Treinen, Trivino, Familia,…

At one point, Clay Travis was a coworker to the entire staff of Deadspin. So, kudos to them for not brawling in the office.

Nice breakdown, Dr. EL. Getting into the weeds a bit here, but going from 21.6% to 25.7% probably shouldn’t be viewed as a 4% increase in your chance of tying the game. Better way to look at it would be 25.7/21.6 = 1.19, so increasing your chances of scoring the tying run by 19%. That might change the break even point…

Puk had Tommy John Surgery a few weeks ago.

Wagner being so far below Hoffman is criminal. Wagner had a better career WHIP than Rivera and if you lower the minimum IP from 1000 to 900 he is the all time leader in K/9 and it’s not even close.

It feels impossible to get through to sports fans in Sacramento about this. Most of them are convinced the Kings arena was a great deal for the city and are willing to do whatever it takes for these jamokes wearing soccer scarves with suits to get a stadium. The Sac Bee has been awful about this issue.

The Jack Cust photo is some really inspired work.

This is fantastic, Emma.

The Nationals had 4 of the top 20 SP in pitches per start this year.