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Baseball

Japan Is the WBC Standard — So Why Is the U.S. Favored?
Odds have the Americans as heavy World Baseball Classic favorites for 2026, but historical dominance suggests "Samurai Japan" (侍ジャパン) is being…
 • Neil Paine
The Strike Zone We (Think We) Want
MLB's official introduction of Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) challenges highlights the tension between the rules of the game in theory and in practice.
 • Neil Paine
What Carlos Beltrán — and Especially Andruw Jones — Say About the Hall of Fame's Evolving Standards
Cooperstown's two new center fielders show why milestone totals matter less than they once did — and how modern value metrics can rewrite a Hall of Fame…
 • Neil Paine
What I Learned From the 344 Posts I Wrote in 2025
I categorized every post I published in 2025 by type and sport to see what I actually spent the year writing about — then picked out the stories that…
 • Neil Paine
The Chiefs Are Doing the Weirdest "Relocation" in Pro Sports History
Is it a short commute of a stadium-switch or a full-blown franchise move? Yes.
 • Neil Paine
That Time Matt Kemp (Briefly) Had a 10-WAR Season
A quirk in early WAR once placed the new Hall of Fame candidate among the inner-circle greats — until the stat evolved and brought him back down to…
 • Neil Paine
How to Crown — or Deny — a Champion
On back-to-back days, MLB and NASCAR delivered championships with high drama — and confusion over whether the best (or most deserving) truly won.
 • Neil Paine
The Golden Age of Ohtani
With back-to-back rings, 17.6 WAR across 2 seasons and hits + innings in the same World Series, Ohtani's 2024-25 stands as one of baseball's greatest…
 • Neil Paine
The Dodgers Just Became MLB’s First NBA-Style Champion
With money and megastars — but also regular-season load management usually reserved for basketball — L.A. eventually tamed the postseason... but it…
 • Neil Paine
⚾ 2025 MLB Elo Power Ratings, Playoff Odds & Wins Above Replacement (WAR) rankings 📈
The following table is a list of MLB teams with their Elo ratings and their predicted wins throughout the 2025 season.
 • Neil Paine
Can the Dodgers Still Save Their Superteam Season?
Once overwhelming favorites to repeat as champions, L.A. now trails the Blue Jays 3-2 in the World Series — and needs everything, from aces and stars to…
 • Neil Paine
What We’ve Learned So Far From the 2025 World Series
After a split in Toronto, the Fall Classic heads to Los Angeles all tied up. Here’s what we’ve learned — and what will determine where the series goes…
 • Neil Paine
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