Newsletter Excerpt, June 12, 2026 -- "Potpourri"

 

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Neck-stepping time? (Remix) Braves at Mets. The Mets are in last place, 15 games behind the Braves, and pretty much need to sweep here to have any hope of chasing the Bravos down. They catch the Braves down Ronald Acuña Jr. and Drake Baldwin. Frankly, the Braves have a lot of waiver bait in their lineup most nights, and that’s not counting Austin Riley, declining for a third straight season at age 29. Still, just avoiding a sweep at Citi Field could limit the Mets to a wild-card chase.

Two years ago today, the Mets were also eight games under .500 at 29-37, 17 1/2 games out of first. They closed 60-36 and got to within two wins of the World Series. It’s a very long season.

 

 

 

Newsletter Excerpt, June 10, 2026 -- "No Country for Old Men"

 

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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Look around the league. You can’t swing a stick without seeing a veteran collapsing at 32 or 33. Jake Cronenworth, 32, is hitting .144/.272/.196. Trevor Story, 33, was at .206/.244/.303 when he got hurt. Dansby Swanson and Corey Seager are both under a 90 OPS+ at 32. Mookie Betts slipped a year ago at 32 and now, at 33, is hitting .190/.259/.365. Manny Machado is also 33 and hitting .171/.253/.342. You don’t want to ask how much longer any of these players’ contracts run.

Baseball, more than ever before, is about raw physical talent. How hard can you throw it, how fast can you spin it, how quickly can you get your bat to it, how far can you hit it? A game that had, for more than a century, plenty of room for nuance now has very little. Hitters who could adapt to declining hand-eye coordination and reaction time now find themselves with no room to maneuver. The pitchers are just too good, they’re too well-trained, they’re too able to expend every ounce of energy on every pitch, with durability no longer part of the job.

 

 

 

Newsletter Excerpt, June 8, 2026 -- "Not cRISP Baseball"

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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Scoring runs is a bit about performing in RISP situations, but it’s more about creating them. The Cubs (tenth in R/G) are second in baseball in plate appearances with runners in scoring position, behind only the Pirates (sixth). The Brewers (third), Nationals (first), and Twins (ninth) round out the top five. If you keep generating these opportunities by getting runners into scoring position, you’re going to score runs, even when it doesn’t feel like it. At the bottom of the list in PA with RISP, you have the Padres (last in R/G), Phillies (25th), Mets (23rd), Rangers (26th), and Tigers (28th). 

 

 

 

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"

 

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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.

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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.