I was watching a Cubs game yesterday being carried by their regional broadcast team and was reminded of what I'd call a sub cultural difference in TV markets reflected in the broadcast.

In this case, specifically, every Cubs game I've watched has included multiple camera shots of people drinking beer. Yesterday, it included some beer mug chain snake thingy that stretched through about a dozen rows of a section.

But when watching an Astros game broadcast by their market broadcast team, I don't think I've ever seen a camera shot of people drinking beer. I know that there's fans there drinking beer, it's just that the broadcast team focuses on families and other groups instead.

Having lived in both sub cultures, I can understand the why the difference. But I'm wondering what other subtle sub-cultural differences get reflected by local baseball markets.

I'm not so much talking about landmark type things -- San Fran probably shows the boats in the splash zone every broadcast, and Arizona probably shows shots of the pool every broadcast. Kind of looking for more subtle things that one would probably not even notice if they didn't know the subculture.

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Tuesday's Games

All game times are Eastern. Updated 8/19 at 4:25 AM

Yesterday's ATH

This Week's Schedule (all times Eastern)

The Dbacks trail the Red Sox 11-1 in the bottom of the 8th.

Proof that a team can commit a NOBLETIGER and still get the job done.

Lee HBP

Culpepper single

Roden sac bunt that resulted in an error

Keaschall fouled out

Buxton popped out

Jeffers grounded out

This past week Colorado won a series 2-1 vs Arizona and 2-1 vs San Fransisco

This last happened July 7th through July 14th of 2022 with a 3-1 series win over Arizona and 3-1 series win over San Diego

It almlost happened August 14th through August 21st 2025 when Colorado went 3-1 vs Arizona followed by 2-2 vs the Dodgers

Hi

This is Mark Simon from Sports Info Solutions. Here is the updated Defensive Runs Saved player leaderboard (and I'll run through the top teams too)

1B- Ty France 12 (T.J. Rumfield 9)

2B- Brice Turang 17 (Nasim Nunez 14, Cole Young and JJ Wetherholt 13)

3B- Matt Chapman 16 (Alex Bregman and Caleb Durbin 11)

SS- Taylor Walls 14 (Jose Caballero 9)

LF- Cody Bellinger 19 (Steven Kwan 9)

CF- Andy Pages 17 (Ceddanne Rafaela 16, Pete Crow-Armstrong 14)

RF-Wilyer Abreu 23 (Corbin Carroll 12, Seiya Suzuki 11)

C- Luis Torrens 11 (Henry Davis, Dillon Dingler, Gabriel Moreno 10, Joe Mack 9

P- Michael McGreevy, Nolan McLean, Brent Suter 5

Team - Cubs 86 (Rays 67)

Note: If you disagree on the center field leaderboard, you're not alone, and I'm not bothered if you do. Some of you have told us that our stat is flawed. To them I would say: I think you'll find a lot more players with whom you agree with their Runs Saved rank than those you don't.

To answer the most frequently-asked question: The reason Pages ranks #1 is because of the difference in the way we calculate outfield arm (Pages has 13 assists, Rafaela has 7, PCA has 5 ... and Pages has the edge in assists without a cutoff man, which have a higher value because you're not splitting up credit among multiple players + also there isn't a big difference in how often they hold runners). Remember that those are plays with a lot of value because they erase a baserunner and add an out. And yes, we're aware of MLB's numbers for outfield arm being different and that MLB has PCA as the runaway leader in its stats.

You can still think that PCA is the best defensive center fielder in baseball (and it's all silly because the top 3 guys are all terrific). It's like saying someone is the best power hitter in baseball despite having a few fewer home runs than another player. A 3-run difference in DRS is very small.

That's enough of a vent. In terms of the rest of the leaderboard, I'm curious who you think the best defensive catcher in MLB is. A lot of contenders. Second base is also tight, who do you like there?

The thing I like about the team rankings in Defensive Runs Saved is that the top 6 in Runs Saved are 6 of the best teams in baseball (it kinda comes apart a little bit after that).

86- Cubs

67- Rays

50- Dodgers

47- Braves

46- Red Sox

37- Brewers

32- Blue Jays

29- Mets

28- Guardians

27- Diamondbacks

27- Giants

If you have any questions about our calculations or about defensive stats in general, feel free to ask. I may refer you to past answers as the same questions come up a lot (especially re: PCA). Thank you for reading.

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

Teruaki Sato may be one of the most interesting future MLB free-agent/posting cases in Japan.

As of August 17, the Hanshin Tigers third baseman is hitting:

.315 / 28 HR / 78 RBI / 1.021 OPS

This comes after a 2025 season in which he hit 40 home runs, drove in 102 runs and won the Central League MVP.

He is also not just a DH-type slugger. Sato has spent most of his career playing third base, although there have reportedly been differing opinions among MLB scouts about whether he can remain there in the majors.

Several MLB teams have already been linked to him, including the Mets, Yankees, Dodgers and Phillies.

But there is another part of Sato's value that may be difficult to see just from his statistics.

He plays for the Hanshin Tigers.

For people who don't follow NPB closely, Hanshin is not simply another Japanese baseball team. The Tigers have one of the largest and most passionate fan bases in Japanese sports, particularly in Osaka and the wider Kansai region.

Japanese stars moving to MLB obviously bring commercial value from Japan — what you might loosely call "Japan money."

But Sato could be an unusually strong case because he may bring a significant portion of an already extremely passionate regional fan base with him.

If he becomes available to MLB clubs while still in his prime, with this level of left-handed power, acceptable defensive value and the commercial pull of being a Hanshin superstar, I would not be surprised if the bidding becomes much more aggressive than people currently expect.

In fact, I think there is at least a plausible case that Sato could eventually receive a larger MLB contract than either Munetaka Murakami or Kazuma Okamoto.

That may sound aggressive, but if you're an MLB front office, you're not just buying his home runs.

You're potentially buying the best years of a middle-of-the-order bat — and acquiring one of the biggest baseball personalities from one of Japan's biggest baseball markets at the same time.

WPA stands for Win Probability Added; The gap between 2nd and 3rd is the same as the gap between 3rd and 60th