And at the @wsj.com, @jareddiamond.bsky.social has more on the phenomenon this morning.

🗣️ Someone told me we're calling the phenomenon "trampoline deals." www.wsj.com/sports/baseb...

Given where he will end this year, Hernández is all but a certainty to be voted in by my peers. Pettitte will be close, but given the typical 10th-year bump, it's possible.

Hilarious quote by famous Miami football capitalist Nevin Shapiro to @jareddiamond.bsky.social

“I was definitely ahead of the curve.”

www.wsj.com/sports/footb...

The Days of the 300-Win Hall of Famer Are Gone Forever Shorter starts, fewer victories, and higher earned run averages mean that voters are reconsidering what it takes for pitchers to get into Cooperstown.

The fact that Félix Hernández, Andy Pettitte and even Cole Hamels could all be Hall-of-Famers at some point is proof that the standards for pitchers in Cooperstown are (understandably) changing.

Thanks to @jayjaffe.bsky.social & @notmrtibbs.com for their help with this.

www.wsj.com/sports/baseb...

Rob Hill, the Dodgers' director of pitching, used what I thought was a pretty smart metaphor to explain what had happened to Roki Sasaki's pitching mechanics in recent years.

Lately, he has seemed pretty confident in what direction he's heading.

wsj.com/sports/baseb...

💸💸 Should Sports Fear "The Big One?" 💸💸 YouTube video by Mike Vorkunov

Sports gambling has taken over sports

Now, sports has something to fear

Guest: @jareddiamond.bsky.social

WATCH AND SUBSCRIBE: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XigD...

Podcast form: open.spotify.com/episode/2Dyg...

Jared Diamond identifies the Padres' postseason Achilles' heel It's a baseball-heavy episode today.

🚨Thursday Pod🚨

The Laureano news hurts.

GUEST: We caught up with @jareddiamond.bsky.social on the “Sac Diego Padres” chances in the postseason; Big Dumper & robot umps.

A great convo on today’s @section1904.com:

section1904.com/2025/09/jare...

The World Series Contender That’s Bringing Back the Bunt The San Diego Padres have discovered a winning formula this season by taking an unexpected trip into baseball’s past.

The Padres have more sacrifice bunts than any team in more than a decade.

This is the story of the World Series contender that is bringing back the old-school baseball strategy that everyone thought was left for dead.

www.wsj.com/sports/baseb...

Major League Baseball Braces for a Fight Over a Salary Cap MLB’s labor contract doesn’t expire until after the 2026 season, but the rhetoric between team owners and players is already heating up, stoking fears about the possibility of a prolonged work stoppag...

I wrote about the upcoming labor fight over a salary cap in baseball. It will not be the last time I wrote about the upcoming labor right over a salary cap in baseball.

www.wsj.com/sports/baseb...

The Speed Demon Who’s Quickly Becoming Baseball’s Most Exciting Player Chandler Simpson defies everything teams look for in the modern game. But he’s so blindingly fast that it may not matter.

Really good article from @jareddiamond.bsky.social on Chandler Simpson. There are guys with speed, and then there is Simpson. Will his skillset play in the majors? www.wsj.com/sports/baseb...

The Real Mystery Surrounding Pope Leo: Cubs Disciple or White Sox Believer? Both franchises pounced on signs that the next leader was one of them.

If you need any proof that the first American pope in history is a man of faith, consider this proof: He appears to be a White Sox team -- a team that could desperately use some divine intervention these days.

www.wsj.com/sports/baseb...

Trump Believes Pete Rose Will Soon Be Eligible for Hall of Fame After Meeting With Rob Manfred The MLB Commissioner visited the president at the White House last month and the issue of Rose’s presence on the permanently ineligible list was among their topics of conversation.

SCOOP: Since Donald Trump's White House meeting with Rob Manfred, the president has been telling others that the commissioner is, in fact, going to reinstate Pete Rose.

An MLB spokesman says Rose's application for reinstatement is still pending.

Seems like a big deal.

www.wsj.com/sports/baseb...

Trump Believes Pete Rose Will Soon Be Eligible for Hall of Fame After Meeting With Rob Manfred The MLB Commissioner visited the president at the White House last month and the issue of Rose’s presence on the permanently ineligible list was among their topics of conversation.

SCOOP: Since Donald Trump's White House meeting with Rob Manfred, the president has been telling others that the commissioner is, in fact, going to reinstate Pete Rose.

An MLB spokesman says Rose's application for reinstatement is still pending.

Seems like a big deal.

www.wsj.com/sports/baseb...

MLB has been doing its best to ignore this for years.

The MIT Scientist Behind the ‘Torpedo Bats’ That Are Blowing Up Baseball The Yankees just clobbered a MLB record 15 home runs in their first three games thanks in part to a new style of bat developed by a 48-year-old physicist.

The most interesting man in baseball: Aaron Leanhardt.

Great article by @jareddiamond.bsky.social @wsj.com

www.wsj.com/sports/baseb...

Baseball’s Wealth Gap Has Become a Chasm—and Is Stretching the Sport to Its Breaking Point As a new season gets under way, the financial disparity between MLB’s 30 teams has never been greater, alienating fans, distorting the game and making a long work stoppage all but inevitable

In this story: The Wall Street Journal obtained info from the most recent MLB team financial report, from 2023.

About third of teams reported an EBITDA of $20-$55M.
About a third reported losses over $20M+
The remainder roughly broke even.

wsj.com/sports/baseb...

Baseball’s Wealth Gap Has Become a Chasm—and Is Stretching the Sport to Its Breaking Point As a new season gets under way, the financial disparity between MLB’s 30 teams has never been greater, alienating fans, distorting the game and making a long work stoppage all but inevitable

Based on Gini coefficient, a widely used measure of economic inequality, the baseball economic landscape is the most unequal of any season on record.

As the 2025 season begins, it is clear that the wealth gap is the defining issue of this era.

wsj.com/sports/baseb...

Robot Umpires Have Come to MLB—and They’re Making Players Look Completely Clueless The new computerized system is being tested during spring training, leading to a series of challenges from players who don’t know the strike zone quite as well as they think.

Wrote about the Rules for ABS. One thing is certain: Lots of players are going to find out they don’t know the zone as well as they thought.

“There are people that will be humbled, probably. As they should be.”

www.wsj.com/sports/baseb...

The $392 Million Superteam That Won’t Stop Spending Money The defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers already had the deepest roster in MLB. They went on an offseason spending spree anyway.

Wrote about the team with the $392 million payroll.

www.wsj.com/sports/baseb...

With Clayton Kershaw's signing official, Spotrac lists the Dodgers' luxury tax payroll as approximately $392.5 million.

The Force in Women’s Sports That’s Even More Powerful Than Caitlin Clark Denver will be named the winner of a new women’s pro soccer franchise—beating Clark’s Cincinnati bid in part because it plans to build a stadium.

NEW: Caitlin Clark bid to be an owner in a Cincinnati professional women’s soccer team.

Her bid lost, in large part because of an extraordinary building boom sweeping women’s sports:
www.wsj.com/sports/socce...

The Star Player Being Kept Out of Cooperstown by a Trash Can Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner were voted into Cooperstown, while Carlos Beltrán fell short for the third consecutive year for his role in the 2017 Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal.

Carlos Beltrán is one of just five players with 400 homers and 300 steals. Statistically, he is undeniably deserving a spot in Cooperstown.

Yet for the third straight year, Beltrán was kept out — because of the sign-stealing scandal that won't go away.

www.wsj.com/sports/baseb...

The Star Player Being Kept Out of Cooperstown by a Trash Can Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner were voted into Cooperstown, while Carlos Beltrán fell short for the third consecutive year for his role in the 2017 Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal.

Carlos Beltrán is one of just five players with 400 homers and 300 steals. Statistically, he is undeniably deserving a spot in Cooperstown.

Yet for the third straight year, Beltrán was kept out — because of the sign-stealing scandal that won't go away.

www.wsj.com/sports/baseb...

The results of this @mlbtraderumors.bsky.social are super fascinating to me.

The Eight Minutes That Will Decide the College Football Season In college football, the team that scores more in the last four minutes of the second quarter and first four minutes of third wins 70% of the time. Nobody plays better in the ‘middle eight’ than Notre...

Sometimes I cover football.

www.wsj.com/sports/footb...

Today's lesson: WSJ readers really, really like football.

The Game-Changing Play That Sent Notre Dame to the National Title Game The Fighting Irish came through when it mattered in their playoff semifinal against Penn State by relying on the one skill they perform better than any other team in the country.

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla.—

www.wsj.com/sports/footb...

Hi from Dania Beach, Fla.

I wrote about a football coach who never wins big games except he won two playoff games and is one win away from the national title, which kind of makes no sense.

wsj.com/sports/footb...

The Most Beleaguered Quarterback in College Football Finally Earns His Spurs Quinn Ewers has spent the entire season hearing people call for him to be benched in favor of his backup. On Wednesday, in the playoff quarterfinals, he showed exactly why he’s still QB1.

Wrote about a quarterback from Texas.

www.wsj.com/sports/footb...

The Oregon Ducks’ Secret Army of Nerds They don’t have the résumés of major college coaches and they’re paid next to nothing. But this group of little-known football obsessives are working to transform Oregon into a powerhouse.

I wrote about nerds.

www.wsj.com/sports/footb...