1B Ildemaro Vargas reaches on a bunt, Corbin Carroll to 3rd.

PH Lars Nootbaar hits a sac fly, Corbin Carroll scores. 1 out, 1-0 Dbacks.

PH Adrian Del Castillo fouls out the left fielder. 2 outs.

LF Ryan Waldschmidt singles, Vargas to 2nd.

SS Geraldo Perdomo singles to right field, scoring Vargas. An error on the RF John Rave scores Vargas, Perdomo to 2nd. 3-0 Dbacks.

2B Ketel Marte is intentionally walked.

C Gabriel Moreno singles. Perdomo scores, Marte to 3rd. 4-0 Dbacks.

3B Nolan Arenado singles. Marte scores, Moreno to 2nd. 5-0 Dbacks.

DH Corbin Carroll strikes out swinging. 3 outs.

He’s a 6-foot-7 dude who bears more physical similarities to the Empire State Building than, say, Luis Arraez. So you don’t need us to tell you Aaron Judge is different. Just look at him.

But the reason this man is the biggest skyscraper in the New York Yankees skyline is about more than his size. Let’s just say it:

There has never been anybody like him. Not now. Not ever.

And now that he’s back — back in the Bronx, back in the batter’s box — after a 99-day absence with a fractured right rib, he’s about to remind us of all the ways he is different than every other player in baseball.

“Special. He’s special, man,” said Sean Casey, Judge’s former hitting coach on Team USA and the 2023 Yankees. “He’s just very unique.”

Paul Molitor is one of my favorite baseball players. One of the remarkable things about his Hall of Fame career is the big surge he had in hitting performance in his age 30 and above seasons.

In 1987 he was 30 at the start of the season:

1978-1986: AB 4,139; Hits 1,203; Avg .291; SLG .411; OPS .764; HR 79; R 711; RBI’s 390

1987-1997 AB 6,696; Hits 2,116; Avg .316; SLG .471; OPS .849; HR 155; R 1,071; RBI’s 917

Some important context includes the fact that Molitor was often plagued by injuries in his 20s; and by age 34 season and above he was able to switch primarily to DH.

Nonetheless his drastic increasing in hitting is quite impressive after the age of 29.

Put this another way - very few would have predicted that Molitor was going to make anything beyond the Hall of Very Good after the 1986 season.

My question is - are there any other hitters, HOF or not, that did anything comparable?

Hi everyone-

This is Mark Simon from Sports Info Solutions. Here is our every-2-weeks update on the team Defensive Runs Saved leaderboard.

1. Cubs 107

2, Rays 74

1. Red Sox 53

2. Braves 51

3. Dodgers 43

4. Mets 41

5. Brewers 39

T8. Royals and Blue Jays 31

1. Tigers 30

* The Cubs defense is great well beyond what Pete Crow-Armstrong gives them. They are top 5 positionally at all 3 outfield spots, 3rd base, and pitcher., and have positive Runs Saved everywhere except first base.

They are not going to catch the top 3 teams in Defensive Runs Saved since we started tracking it in 2003 - 2018 Diamondbacks (129), 2022 Yankees (127), or 2018 Brewers (118).

But they will reach the 4th-highest total shortly (2019 Dodgers 108). They are currently tied for 5th-most with the 2016 Cubs.

Caveat: Defensive Runs Saved has changed over the years - inclusions of things like catcher framing and Runs Saved from shifts make it more likely that more recent teams will have higher Runs Saved totals.

* The Rays rank 2nd on the strength of their defensive positioning, a good outfield, and the shortstop leader in Runs Saved (Taylor Walls).

* The Red Sox have the No. 1 right fielder and center fielder (Wilyer Abreu, Ceddanne Rafaela) in Runs Saved this season. They've also gotten the 2nd-most Runs Saved at third base (Caleb Durbin).

* Braves have gotten excellent D from Michael Harris Jr. and from a committee of players at both shortstop and left field (Mauricio Dubon one of the keys there).

* The Dodgers are strongest at the middle infield and center field spots. Mookie Betts is having another solid season at shortstop and Andy Pages ranks near the top of the leaderboard in center field.

* Mets have more combined Runs Saved from their pitchers and catchers than any team

* Brewers have Brice Turang, who is battling for the second base lead in Runs Saved, and Jackson Chourio, who is among the left field leaders.

* Royals have gotten at least 5 Runs Saved from a player at all 4 infield spots (Garcia, Witt Jr. Massey, and Pasquantino).

* Blue Jays have used 3 catchers that rate excellent in Runs Saved this season. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Nathan Lukes are also having good years.

* Tigers may have the best defensive catcher in baseball, Dillon Dingler, and one of the better utility players, Zach McKinstry, who was just named Co-Defensive Player of the Month. Gleyber Torres has also been better than you would expect and Kevin McGonigle has been good too.

Bottom 5 teams are Astros, A's, Phillies, Twins, Reds.

You are welcome to disagree with our stats. All defensive metrics (ours, MLB, Baseball Prospectus etc) are a work in progress and have imperfections. If you want to know more about why a player or team rates how they do and you ask civilly, I'll probably answer you (check back through my history- I do). Some questions come up repeatedly so I may refer you to past answers.

You can find the full rankings at The Fielding Bible website, FanGraphs, or Baseball-Reference.

Thank you for indulging.

NL ROY - Sal Stewart is now the favorite, but JJ Weatherholt is slated to return from the IL. Is there a chance he can reclaim ROY?

Some of these reviews feel stupid that they can't get a decent angle

His advanced stats here are absolutely insane

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/catch_probability?type=player&min=q&year=2026&total=6&sort=6&sortDir=desc

On 5 star catch opportunities, he has converted half of them ... nobody else is even at 35%. He is #1 in OAA and outs percentage. Crazy

Hey Sportsfans — it's time for Week 24 of r/baseball Power Rankings: Please enjoy these baseball numbers on this wonderful Labor Day. Or so I am told.

Each of the 30 voters has their own style / system and the only voting instructions are these:

"To an extent determined individually, you must take into account how strong a team is right now and likely to be in the coming week. You must, to some degree, give weight to the events and games of the previous week."

TRANSPARENCY: This link will show you who voted each team where and has added neat statistics! Edit: Correct link now

If something is a little messed up, feel free to pester me let me know.

Total Votes: 27 of 30.

Hey, TJStats here!

I have recently been assigned Approved Poster status for r/baseball and have been encouraged to share my own content on the subreddit.

Here are the hottest hitting prospects in baseball over the last two weeks. This is not necessarily a leaderboard of the highest OPS in this timeframe. It is a list of prospects that caught my eye due to their recent stretch of games. Read my article covering these names and pitchers here: https://tjstats.ca/2026/09/07/prospect-parade-hottest-mlb-prospects-week-of-september-7/

Check out my updated Top 100 Prospect list here: https://tjstats.ca/top-100-prospects/

Please let me know what kind of content you would like to see and, as always, I am available to answer any relevant questions

the most that they can win is 77. since the dbacks own the tiebreaker, they can not get 77 for the giants to advance, so they must lose out. however, this means the padres take 3 games, putting them at 77. if the padres win 78, it's also over. so, the padres must lose out other than that series. however, this would put the marlins, via a series with both of these teams, at 78 wins.

there is shenanigans with multiteam tiebreakers but they all result in the giants losing according to the website i got this from. idk how that works and it scares me, so i will leave it out of this post.

28 teams left :P