Baseball Connection

Sometimes it pays to lose a player to free agency. If you extend a player a qualifying offer and he rejects it to become a free agent, you get a supplemental draft pick. Most of these picks land between the first and second round, so there is plenty of talent to be found. Teams have drafted elite players like Mike Soroka, Jack Flaherty, Blake Snell, and Aaron Judge through this route. All this (and more) on today's episode.

Chris Archer will miss the entire 2020 season after undergoing thoracic outlet surgery. The Pirates made a trade to acquire Chris Archer in 2018. That move has proven to be the worst trade in franchise history. Archer was one of the top arms in the American League, and the Pirates thought they were offloading some failed prospects. Unfortunately, those prospects became stars for the Rays, while Archer has struggled mightily. All this on today's episode.

Tim Lincecum was one of the first homegrown Giants stars that ushered in their dominance early last decade. He burst onto the scene by winning back-to-back Cy Young awards in 2008 and 2009. Lincecum's peak was short but he was easily the best pitcher in baseball and managed to rack up some serious hardware. We take a look back at Lincecum's impact. All this (and more) on today's episode.

Would you rather have a short but dominant career, or a long, stable, but unspectacular one? The former was precisely what happened to Brandon Webb. For a three-year stretch from 2006-2008, Webb was the most dominant pitcher in baseball. He was an innings-eater who won a Cy Young and came in 2nd place twice in that stretch - which comprised half of his entire career. We take a look at just how good Brandon Webb was. All this on today's episode.

Sports are one of the biggest platforms in our society. Athletes have a very powerful voice. In a league like Major League Baseball where African Americans are a minority, black players often don't feel as empowered to make bold statements about the deeply-rooted racial injustice affecting their community. This can and should change because baseball's general audience is precisely who can help foster this much-needed reform. All this (and much more) on today's episode.

In baseball, there are always some matchups that just don't work out well for a hitter. Even the all-time greats have their kryptonite. Sometimes there's just something about the way a certain pitcher throws that causes difficult timing or makes it tough to see pitches well enough. We take a look at some of these matchups, and it involves the likes of Willie Mays, Babe Ruth, and Stan Musial. All this on today's episode.

The MLB Draft is around the corner. Looking back at the history of the draft, who is the best player drafted from each state (plus Canada and Puerto Rico)? We take a look during today's episode.

Mike Trout recently said that Max Scherzer is the best pitcher he's ever faced. The numbers definitely agree with that. Scherzer is an elite power pitcher and he certainly knows how to get the best player in the world out. What is it that makes this matchup so difficult for Trout? All this on today's episode.

The Detroit Tigers were a powerhouse for a solid stretch in the early 2010's. Looking back, it's remarkable to consider just how much talent they had on those teams. After failing to win a World Series and needing to rebuild, they traded their last big pieces in 2017 when the dealt J.D. Martinez, Justin Upton, and Justin Verlander. Not a single player received in those trades has produced at the MLB level. Are the Tigers poorly run, or are they just unlucky? All this on today's episode.

The longest home run streak to begin a season is four games. Six different players have done it. We saw it as recently as Christian Yelich last season, and it first occurred when Willie Mays did it in 1971. Let's take a look at each of these streaks on today's episode.