Got two strikes on Juan Soto? The battle is just beginning
In 2016, the year Juan Soto arrived in professional baseball, the Nationals were striking out too much. Not the big league team. The entire organization.
So Minor League hitting coordinator Troy Gingrich instituted a new rule throughout the Nats' system: Every hitter must have a two-strike approach.
A 17-year-old Soto...
Juan Soto
Why you don't need to look like Judge or Ohtani to slug HRs
As Mookie Betts came to bat in the fourth inning on March 28 -- his second game back from the illness that cost him 20 pounds and forced him to miss the Tokyo Series -- the Dodgers television broadcast relayed an interesting nugget.
"He's measuring 'getting better' \[by\] more than...
Mookie Betts
José Ramírez
Jose Altuve
Alex Bregman
Francisco Lindor
7 pitches? 8? Explaining Skenes' expanding arsenal
Less than a year into his Major League career, Paul Skenes might already be the best pitcher in baseball.
That's not hyperbole. He’s one of 79 pitchers to throw at least 140 innings since his May 11, 2024, debut, and among them he’s first in ERA, second in strikeout rate,...
Paul Skenes
How this All-Star pitcher is leveling up ... again
Mariners starter Logan Gilbert seems poised to continue his rise in 2025, with the help of a pitch built to drop.
No pitcher who faced at least 400 batters last season was tougher to reach base against than Gilbert (.235 OBP), a fact made even more impressive when you consider...
Logan Gilbert
The new-look swing behind Rice's hot start
Aaron Boone is right: Ben Rice rakes....
Ben Rice
Change your stance: 8 hitters moving in the box
You’re definitely familiar with hearing “best shape of his life,” an annual spring tradition. Pitchers have their own version, which is usually something like “I have a new pitch.” Let’s talk about the batting equivalent – or, at least, the one that isn’t “I’m swinging a bat that’s shaped like...
Jorge Polanco
Elly De La Cruz
Brice Turang
Cody Bellinger
Spencer Torkelson
MJ Melendez
Andres Gimenez
This top prospect is already validating the hype
Some top prospects are drafted. Others are made. This is a story about the latter, and about what you really can learn from the first few days of a long Major League season.
Welcome to the path of Boston's Kristian Campbell. In his first weekend in the Majors, the 22-year-old...
Kristian Campbell
The secret to doing damage as a hitter? It lies in the point of contact
“You make your money when you hit the ball out front,” Twins outfielder Walker Jenkins, the No. 3 overall prospect in baseball, told FanGraphs recently. “That’s where you’re going to produce more damage, more power.”
If that seems like accepted hitting strategy today – since so many batters are trying...
Justin Turner
Isaac Paredes
Juan Soto
MLB's most interesting and extreme batting stances
For generations, baseball fans have loved talking about batting stances, the stranger the better – even if, as the 2024 Brewers reminded us, most of the stances aren’t quite so strange anymore.
We’ve never really had a way to compare and contrast the various stances across the game, though, to...
Rafael Devers
Giancarlo Stanton
Steven Kwan
Ryan McMahon
Matt Vierling
Ozzie Albies
Elly De La Cruz
Jazz Chisholm Jr.
Victor Robles
Addison Barger
Jarren Duran
Jose Altuve
15 Spring Training stat lines that matter
It's always tough -- maybe even impossible -- to predict which Spring Training performances will carry over to the regular season. But we try to do it anyway.
With domestic Opening Day less than a week away, let's try to pick out some of the players whose stellar springs will...
Juan Soto
Mike Trout
Corbin Carroll
Adley Rutschman
Bo Bichette
Cody Bellinger
Wyatt Langford
Jackson Chourio
James Wood
Garrett Crochet
Sandy Alcantara
Spencer Schwellenbach
Robbie Ray
Clay Holmes
Jack Leiter
