Newsletter Excerpt, June 13, 2019 -- "The Rangers"

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 more than 20 years.

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"This is a team whose young hitters have stagnated, and whose offense is largely being carried by players who haven’t hit like this in years. As good as their top two starters have been, there’s very little depth behind them, although the June plan sure looks a lot better than the April one did. Their third-order record, and their projected playoff chances, reflect the reality: This is a team in transition that has had a lot of things go its way in 2019. Come July 20, they’ll be better off looking to turn Minor, Choo, Pence, Shawn Kelley, and the other thirtysomethings into 2022 Rangers than trying to ride them to a road game against Chris Sale or Blake Snell or James Paxton."

Newsletter Excerpt, June 11, 2019 -- "Who Says No?"

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 more than 20 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.

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"Unfortunately for Trout, it was enough to contribute to a win that pushed the Angels to just 32-35. They’re 13 games behind the Astros in the AL West, four games behind the Rangers and three other teams for the second wild-card slot. Trout hasn’t played in a postseason game since 2014; Bellinger, about four years his junior, has played in 31 since then. Trout has never played in a World Series game; Bellinger has played in the last 12 and is the favorite to extend that streak. Watching the two of them last night sharing a field, one maybe the greatest player ever, one matching him shot for shot for two months at 23 years old, I wondered what it would look like for them to change places."

"Cody Bellinger for Mike Trout. Who says no?"

Newsletter Excerpt, June 7, 2019 -- "Craig Kimbrel"

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 more than 20 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.

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"So I look at Kimbrel and see a reliever who is losing a little fastball velocity and a little breaking-ball command. He’s throwing fewer strikes and the ones he throws are a bit more hittable. Kimbrel started at such a high level that he’s been able to maintain a reasonable level of effectiveness, but the arrows aren’t pointing in the right direction. I said often this winter that while the focus, with respect to Kimbrel, was on the free-agent market and its issues, there were also perfectly good baseball reasons to avoid signing him for the costs involved. I’ll stand by that today."

All-Star Ballot

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 more than 20 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 $39.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

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American League

1B: Carlos Santana, Indians
2B: Jose Altuve, Astros
3B: Alex Bregman, Astros
SS: Francisco Lindor, Indians
C: Gary Sanchez, Yankees
OF: Mike Trout, Angels
OF: Mookie Betts, Red Sox
OF: George Springer, Astros
DH: J.D. Martinez, Red Sox

National League

1B: Freddie Freeman, Braves
2B: Ketel Marte, Diamondbacks
3B: Nolan Arenado, Rockies
SS: Javier Baez, Cubs
C: Willson Contreras, Cubs
OF: Christian Yelich, Brewers
OF: Cody Bellinger, Dodgers
OF: Ronald Acuña Jr., Braves

Newsletter Excerpt, June 4, 2019 -- "The MVP Machine"

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 more than 20 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 $39.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

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"The MVP Machine describes an entirely different world, a playercentric one in which all talent can be undervalued, in which all players have the agency to become not what the scouts or the stats say they are, but whatever they’re willing to put in the work to become. It introduces a cast of characters who are new to the game, outsiders like Driveline Baseball’s Kyle Boddy and the Ball Yard’s Doug Latta, who practice independent thinking and use rafts of new technology to develop the skills players already have. Even those teachers, though, aren’t the stars of the book."

Newsletter Excerpt, June 3, 2019 -- "Signing Day"

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 more than 20 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 $39.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card.

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"The Royals and Dodgers led the way on baseball’s signing day, combining to commit nearly $100 million to amateurs in the first hours of the market. The Royals emphasized pitching, while the Dodgers loaded up on bats and, as has become their wont, focused on talent from Southern California. The biggest deal of the day, however, was made by the Rangers, who, 34 years after making Bobby Witt the third pick of the 1985 draft, signed the right-hander’s son to a contract featuring a $12 million bonus and salary escalators that could pay the shortstop $46 million through 2028."