Newsletter Excerpt, July 31, 2020 -- "The Shape of the Game"

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. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

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"Prior to 2015, we’d never had fewer than 70% of plate appearances end in a ball in play. We are rapidly heading for a game in which fewer than 60% of plate appearances do. Tell me all you want about exit velocity and spin rates and pitcher GIFs; that’s not a game that’s going to entertain people."

Newsletter Excerpt, July 29, 2020 -- "Nate Pearson Arrives!"

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. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

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"Pearson projects to be among the most watchable pitchers in the game. We’ve lost some of that in recent years of course, between the use of openers and the diminished workloads of even the game’s best starters. Pearson, though, can be in that latter category, can be Chris Sale or Max Scherzer, who even in their developmental years could make you stop what you were doing and just stare in awe. Pearson has that kind of stuff, so whatever the stat lines are between now and October, he’ll be at the top of any 'What I’m Watching' list every five or six days."

Newsletter Excerpt, July 28, 2020 -- "It's Time"

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. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

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"We have threats to health and safety, both to players and support staff. We have threats to the competitive integrity of the season. It is inevitable that there will be more of both as a thousand people fly around the country in a pandemic.

"It’s time for the league to cut its losses and call off the season."

Newsletter Excerpt, July 26, 2020 -- "Seasonish Preview 2020: AL Central"

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. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

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"Dolan has had the absolute privilege of paying Francisco Lindor, a superstar and by all accounts a wonderful person, a tiny fraction of his market value for years. The entire point of operating a baseball team is to come up with players like Lindor and have them play for you for a long, long time. Dolan, with plenty of time to make that happen, and more money than Croesus, has not done so, and seems unlikely to ever do so. It will be a blow to the team, to the franchise, to the city when Lindor leaves or is traded, one cushioned only by the knowledge that this front office has, time and again, produced more young talent and more winning baseball teams, in spite of the owner."

Newsletter Excerpt, July 25, 2020 -- "Seasonish Preview 2020: NL Central"

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. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

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"I’ve been thinking a lot about that Josh Hader/Juan Soto confrontation last October. The Brewers were the darlings in that moment, pushing to Game Seven of the 2018 NLCS, making a spirited run to reach the playoffs without Yelich, going to D.C. and taking an early lead on Max Scherzer. It wasn’t likely that Soto would get to Hader, who is so hard for lefties to hit. Soto did, though, and the Nationals won that game, won 11 more, and now are champions. The Brewers’ moment seemed maybe to have passed them by. That changes a bit with playoff expansion, but I wonder if those two elimination games in ’18 and ’19 were where this story peaked."

Newsletter Excerpt, July 24, 2020 -- "Seasonish Preview 2020: AL West"

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. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for nearly 25 years.

Your subscription gets you the newsletter and various related features two to five days a week, more than 150 mailings (more than 200,000 words) a year full of smart, fun baseball writing that you can't find in the mainstream. Subscribers can also access the new Slack workspace, to talk baseball with me and hundreds of other Newsletter subscribers.

You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $49.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

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"The Mariners, famously, have the longest streak in major pro sports without a playoff appearance, last making it in 2001. The playoff expansion is an invitation for them to change that by being more aggressive, but it’s not clear they will be. They could get needed reps for their best prospect, outfielder Jarred Kelenic, and possibly make the MLB team better, but they don’t appear set to do that."