Newsletter Excerpt, September 2, 2026 -- "Something Fishy?"

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The post-deadline Marlins have been getting by with pitching. Their starters, led by Alcantara, have a league-leading 2.67 ERA since the deadline. (Their 3.64 FIP is seventh.) All five starters have ERAs of 3.46 or lower, FIPs of 4.24 or lower. Getting good work from the anonymous back end of Janson Junk, Tyler Phillips, and Ryan Gusto has been their biggest edge in the wake of season-ending injuries to Meyer, Robby Snelling, and top prospect Thomas White. That the Marlins have been able to get such good work from no-names would seem to be an endorsement of the Marlins’ decision to call pitches from the dugout, a controversial practice that is nonetheless gaining a foothold.

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Newsletter Excerpt, September 1, 2026 -- "Dan Wilson Returns"

 

 

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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A manager’s first job, above all else, is to put his players in position to succeed. In the tenth inning last night, Wilson repeatedly put his players in position to fail, and in doing so showed a total lack of understanding of game state. The Robles bunt, the choice of Criswell, walking the bases loaded...that’s a stack of errors you just don’t see any more. Wilson, though, is falling deeper and deeper into a hole. I don’t want to argue he cost the Mariners the game -- Bazardo’s inability to close out hitters and Rodriguez’s misplay did more damage -- but how he managed the tenth did make it more likely they would lose.

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Newsletter Excerpt, August 31, 2026 -- "Oh, Canada?"

 

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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The Jays, who traded Kevin Gausman and Daulton Varsho at the deadline, are 16-10 since then, and have won 14 of their last 22. An offense that was bottom-five in MLB for four months (.243/.305/.380, 92 wRC+), with the worst isolated power in the league (136 SLG - AVG), hasn’t hit for any more power -- a 134 ISO, even worse -- but has picked up almost 20 points of BABIP while striking out even less. The Jays have a 99 wRC+, middle of the pack, in August, and a 110 mark, fourth in the game, since August 7. It looks, in fact, a little bit like the offense they rode to 94 wins last year:

                  AVG   OBP   SLG    K%  BABIP   ISO

2025             .265  .333  .427   18%   .298  .162

2026 since 8/7   .271  .333  .413   18%   .310  .143

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Newsletter Excerpt, August 25, 2026 -- "Hunter Greene and Paul Skenes"

 

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Skenes knows about The Demon, and he’s making changes to stay out of its clutches. Sitting 97, and more than that struggling with command and location of his many secondary pitches, Skenes has had the roughest stretch of his career since the middle of May: a 5.06 ERA and 3.31 FIP in 17 starts. His average four-seamer has come in at 96.7 mph in that time. What doesn’t come up as much is what happened before that: Skenes started the year with a 1.98 ERA and 2.48 FIP in nine starts...and his four-seamer averaged 97.2 mph. For all the focus on this midseason slump and the concomitant loss of velocity, no one noticed that Skenes had dialed back his four-seamer without any loss of effectiveness for almost two months from Opening Day. 

Paul Skenes hasn’t lost velocity. Paul Skenes intentionally dialed back his velocity in an attempt to not end up like Hunter Greene.

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Newsletter Excerpt, August 24, 2026 -- "Nine"

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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The Phillies lost eight of nine at the end of July and 15 of 25 coming out of the All-Star break. They were briefly clinging to a tie for the third wild-card slot with the Diamondbacks. The schedule, though, turned kind, coughing up three fringe contenders in the Twins, Marlins, and Cardinals. The Phillies’ hitters took advantage. They’ve scored at least four runs in every game of the streak, and at least six runs in eight of the nine games. They’ve stolen a few games along the way; a week ago Sunday, they trailed the Twins 5-0 after five innings, only to win 7-5. They were down 3-1 to the Marlins Tuesday in an eventual 6-4 win. Two of the three wins over the Cards were of the comeback variety.

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Newsletter Excerpt, August 22, 2026 -- "History in Sacramento?"

 

 

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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Assuming no rainouts, the A’s would have to lose 28 of their last 33 games to have the worst second-half record ever at 13-53 (.1969). Remember that teams play fewer second-half games than they used to, due to schedule changes brought about by expanded playoffs. That sounds like a big lift, but remember that this team just lost 42 of 53 with Soderstrom, Wilson, and Kurtz for some of those games.

Let’s broaden the definition of “half” to the correct version, which will please Ben Lindbergh. These are the worst teams in baseball over the final 81 games of a full season, since 1961, when the schedule went to 162 games in the AL (it would go to 162 games in the NL in 1962).

Collapse (worst last-81 winning percentage, since 1961)

Mets         1962   17  63   .213

White Sox    2024   20  61   .247

Tigers       2019   20  61   .247

Astros       2013   21  60   .263

Mets         1965   21  59   .263

*some percentages are off because of ties

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