VOLUME:LII ... 15 Mar 2026
LATEST NEWS
COMMISSIONER NOTES:
Just a short newsletter this time because in two weeks our opening day newsletter with Dickie V and Chris Russo will be here. Not only their views but we will have your thoughts on the coming season. It's a fun edition and I hope you get a chuckle or two... Trading as usual after the draft has slowed to a crawl. Just some minor fixes are going on now... A post-draft review shows that we left 11 C starters with over 100 innings. Six short inning A* (all with a 'w') still free agents. Four B* with over 50 innings and 20 C* with over 50 innings. The position players not picked that you could put a not exciting team on the field would be (C) Pedro Pages (1B) Josh Bell (2B) Jonathan India (3B) Nolan Gorman, (SS) Chase Meidroth, (OF) Max Kepler, Lars Nootbaar, Nick Castellanos.
Here's a few things about this card set
PITCHERS: A starters (16), B starters (43), AC* relievers (7), A* relievers (46), ZZ control (3), Has W (83), Fewest SP innings (14 - Yesavage), Fewest RP innings (15 - McFarland)
HITTERS: Triple 1's (3 - Cal Raleigh, Giancarlo Stanton, Sal Stewart), Double 1s' (22), Five power (10), 7 on 55 (6 - Andujar, Aranda, Bichette, R Gonzalez, Judge, J Wilson), Most 11's (3 - Chandler Simpson), Most 14* (4 - Jose Caballero), Most 42 (2) Caleb Durbin, Most 31's (3 - Mookie Betts & Luis Arraez), Most 24's (5 - Junior Caminero), Most 13's (13 - Carson Williams), Fewest 13's (0 - Luis Arraez), One 9 (7 - Basallo, Carroll, Cowser, O Cruz, Kayfus, Volpe, Wallner), Most 2nd col 1's (34 - Matt McLain), Most 2nd col 11's (27 - Cal Raleigh!?!), Best card might be Judge 1-1-0-0-0-7-10-14x5 and the worst could be Dalton Rushing 0-6-14x2
... IMPORTANT DATES ...
- March 14 (Sat) - Cutdown to 36
- March 15 (Sun) - Opening Day
- July 29-31 - Trade Window
- October 1 - Playoffs
- February 6, 2027 (Sat) Next draft
THE SHOW
I'm sure you know this is a World Baseball Classic year. If not it's going to be from March 7 thru March 17. This year 20 teams coming from Americas (11), Asia (3), Europe (5), Oceania (1). Spring Training games began February 21st and continues thru the WBC until March 24. The first MLB 2026 game is March 25 for the Yankees at Giants and the rest the following day. Planning ahead sees the All-Star game on July 14th in Philadelphia. The end of regular season September 27. Playoffs begin September 29th and the World Series starts on October 23rd..... MLBPA really shook everyone up when Exec Director Tony Clark resigned after a personal item was exposed and maybe it has something to do with the FBI looking into alleged illegal use of Licensing Fees. Bruce Meyer, the chief negotiator for labor contracts with the owners moved up to the top slot.
WILL IT WORK: In 2022 the "ghost runner" came to be for extra innings. In the 4 years before
it the average extra innings game was 11.2 innings and 60 games went at least 12 innings. In the 4 years since, it's 10.4 innings with 19 games going at least 12. Then in 2023 the pitch clock came about along with the 3 batter reliever rule. The year before it the average game was 3 hrs and 4 minutes. In 2025 the average game was 2 hrs
and 38 minutes. Now we are going to have Automated Balls and Strikes. It's been around in the minors since 2019 with an average of 13.4 seconds needed to answer the challenge. To define each players
strike zone every player was officially sized as to his height down into centimeters. Because people shrink during the day, each measurement must be done between 10AM and noon. The player must have his back against the wall, knees exposed, heels together and no slouching. That players strike zone will begin 53.5 % from the top of his head and 27 % from his toes. Hopefully the ABS works as good as the previous two
innovations.