Newsletter Excerpt, June 5, 2026 -- "White Socking"

 

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider.

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Twenty-nine players came to the plate for the 2024 White Sox; just three have played for this year’s squad, and one of those, Lenyn Sosa, was traded in early April. That turnover, a mix of trades, free-agent signings, and player development, has produced a top-five offense by weighted on-base average with one of the youngest lineups in the game. The team’s top six players by Baseball Reference WAR are all 26 and younger. Munetaka Murakami, whose two-year, $34-million contract seemed like an indictment of his skills, has turned out to be a huge win for the Sox with a .240/.378/.560 line and 20 homers. Miguel Vargas, acquired from the Dodgers in ’24, has finally broken out with a .242/.368/.502 line and an exceptional 45/40 K/BB. The team is 25-15 when 2024 fifth-rounder Sam Antonacci and his .383 OBP are in the lineup. Just two seasons after posting that .278 OBP, the Sox are eighth in baseball with a .325 mark. 

 

 

Newsletter Excerpt, June 2, 2026 -- "It Begins"

 

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $79.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card. (Zelle users, please email me for details.)

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There’s no midpoint between these two offers because they’re on different axes. The average of 26 and a Volkswagen is a lockout. The owners have gone to the mattresses over a payroll cap only once, back in 1994. Doing so cost us all a World Series, and the owners botched their labor strategy so badly the entire system was thrown out in court. Ever since then, though, they’ve slowly gained the upper hand over the market for players, and the current system -- the one they’re trying to throw out -- is the best for MLB owners since 1975. 

Newsletter Excerpt, June 1, 2026 -- "Offense Check-In"

 

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $79.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card. (Zelle users, please email me for details.)

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May 2026, even with the big weekend, sticks out in the 30-team era. Outside of extra innings, the league hit .238, third-lowest of any month since 1998. The other two months, though, come with very big asterisks: April of 2021 and 2022, when hitters had shortened spring trainings owing to the pandemic and the owners’ lockout, respectively. Not sure how big a deal that is? The third month on the list is July 2020, again with hitters not granted much in the way of exhibition reps. The league hit .232, .231, and .233 in those three months, and I’m comfortable calling all of them “special circumstances.”

So May 2026 is the worst month for batting average since 1998.