Maybe Derek Shelton should be manager of the year for the American League. His Minnesota Twins aren’t going to finish much better than they did in 2025 but they contended just about all season in the American league Central and who the hell are these guys? I mean, we knew Ryan Jeffers and Josh Bell somewhat but Luke Keaschall is not what we call a household name. Neither is Brooks Lee, who was named after Brooks Robinson, or even Kody Clemens, who hits for some power and is the son of a famous pitcher. It’s the last week of the regular season and all of the pundits are naming the awards winners they like for 2026 so I’m going with Shelton and not selecting any of the others except maybe Buster Posey for Floundering Executive of the Year.
Summer is now officially gone and we hope you had a good one. We know that orthopedic surgeons that repair broken baseball players have done well this season and that the New York Mets and the people who work for President Dithers have not.The initial season of the ABS was very good and we all got to see how easy calling balls and strikes isn’t. Replay Review gets a D-minus. It takes too long (which is even worse in soccer, which has perpetual motion as one of its strong points) and we should not be turning every human function, including the fun ones, over to imperfect machines. People still crave honest work.
Taking the fun out of things was a strong theme this year. Those of us who capture games on the MLB network are happy for the wide variety of options made available every day. However, the veritable plethora of ads for pharmaceutical remedies for diseases known or unknown have spread like a relentless weed, as they say. Mixed with all of the fast food ads, they threaten to make an anorexic out of me. That’s small potatoes, as the Philanderer-IN-Chief would say, compared to the shock and awe of having a “prediction” (gamble your cash away) outfit become a “partner” of MLB. Also, shame, shame on LaBron James and Derek Jeter for participating in this cruel deception.
Saving the beautiful things for last, the successful seasons being enjoyed by the Tampa Bay Rays, the Milwaukee Brewers, and the Atlanta Braves demonstrate that it is still possible to win by having an intelligent plan, hiring smart baseball people, and sticking with it. The resurrection of the running game and the art of bunting is a welcome improvement as well, Taking the good with the bad, the exciting revival of the Chicago White Sox under Will Venable has been a fun counter to the sad and sudden fading of the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners. And, oh yeah! Pete Crow- Armstrong!
