Well, we believe in exit velocity, bat flips, launch angles, stealing home, the hanging curveball, Big League Chew, sausage races, and that unwritten rules of any kind are self-indulgent, overrated crap. We believe Greg Maddux was an actual wizard. We believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment protecting minor league baseball and that pitch framing is both an art and a science. We believe in the sweet spot, making WARP not war, letting your closer chase a two-inning save, and we believe love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too.
Besides Aaron Judge, who is one player who’s never participated in the WBC before we’d love to see in a Team USA uniform and why?
Chris Landers: There are so many tantalizing answers here, but I simply can’t pass up Bryce Harper. He was bummed to miss out on the 2023 edition due to his elbow injury, and we already know that he saves his best for the game’s biggest stages. All due respect to Judge, there might not be an American hitter I’d rather have up with the game on the line, and he might be swinging a star-spangled bat while he does it.
Robert Murray: I’ll also go with Bryce Harper. He’s a generational player, a Hall of Fame player, and is one of the biggest stars in baseball. He’s meant for Team USA.
Adam Weinrib: Let’s get Kyle Higashioka an at-bat this year! What does a guy have to do to get a plate appearance in this town?! What about the electric James Wood of the Washington Nationals, who can play the Bobby Witt Jr. “still green, but not green enough to be left off the roster” role in 2026, tantalizing in every BP session he participates in?
Zachary Rotman: It’s not as if he’s had any chances, but can we get Paul Skenes in the WBC please? I don’t care if he can only go three innings in a given start, just let me see his video game-like stuff against the best of the best. Team USA did not have great representation on the pitching front in 2023, and hopefully that changes this time around.
Eric Cole: I’m with Adam here on the James Wood train as he is a star in the making and I am honor-bound to not wish anything good for a Phillies player (Harper would be great, too). I do want to give some love to a non-Team USA option in Jackson Chourio. This guy is a stud and seeing him do his thing in the WBC would be a delight.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how concerned should Atlanta Braves fans be at this point in the season?
Chris Landers: I’m at about a 6 with Atlanta right now. Not because I think they’ll finish below .500 or miss the playoffs entirely; their offense has been pretty snake-bitten by bad luck and injury so far this year, and Spencer Strider’s return will be a huge boost. But even if the bats wake up, and even if Strider hits the ground running, I’m just not sure that this Braves pitching staff has enough bullets to survive deep into October. The bullpen is a capital-C Concern right now, and while that can always be fixed at the trade deadline, that’s tough to bank on. Throw in questionable depth behind the big three of Strider, Chris Sale and Spencer Schwellenbach, and it’s tough to see them hanging with the Dodgers, Phillies or Mets in a postseason series.
Robert Murray: Put me at a 4. I think their concerns are valid and real, but they just got Spencer Strider back and Ronald Acuña Jr. won’t be too far behind. So they’ll have elite reinforcements coming. But this team isn’t the same as it was a couple seasons ago and the bullpen is a huge concern. Things will be better in Atlanta … I’m just skeptical it’ll result in a division title.
Adam Weinrib: Higher than Robert! I’m around a 6.5-7. It also depends on what we’re concerned about here. I can’t rule them out of the playoff mix, even while their record is in the proverbial toilet, but with that bullpen/scrounging for relievers/showing me Bryce Elder on a regular basis, what kind of ceiling are they aiming for? It’s also difficult to even wedge them into the postseason bracket, given the four great-to-elite-teams in the NL West.
Zachary Rotman: I think I’m around where Robert is, at the 4-5 range. Their chances of winning the division might be slim, but as we know far too well, you don’t have to win the division to win the World Series. With three Wild Card spots, getting into the playoffs, assuming they start to turn things around when the reinforcements of Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuña Jr. arrive, shouldn’t be too difficult. Their lineup is a lot better than it has shown thus far, and their rotation should be quite good too, especially with Strider in the mix. Their bullpen is a mess, but that can be addressed in July.There’s simply too much talent in this Braves core to count them out in mid-April.
Eric Cole: I am the resident Braves guy here, so I am definitely the saddest of the bunch right now, but I am only in the 5-6 range as well in terms of worry. I just don’t think this team can be this bad over 162 games as there is too much talent on the roster. They just got Spencer Strider back and will get Ronald Acuna Jr. back in around a month. If they don’t have a winning record by the end of May, sound the alarms.
The Padres are the class of the NL Best as of this writing. Just how serious of a threat are they and the Giants to the Dodgers long term?
Chris Landers: The Padres actually strike me as a team that no one will want to face come playoff time. I’d be stunned if they outlasted the Dodgers in the NL West over a 162-game marathon, but I wouldn’t be stunned at all if things broke right and they toppled L.A. in a rematch of last year’s NLDS. This version of Fernando Tatis Jr. is capable of taking over a series all by himself, they can send Dylan Cease and Michael King to the mound two times apiece and, most importantly, Robert Suarez, Jason Adam and Jeremiah Estrada might be the nastiest late-inning trio in the league. They were agonizingly close to upsetting the Dodgers a few months ago, and they have the formula to do it again.
Robert Murray: The Padres are a very real threat, and how could they not be? The hitting is terrific. The pitching is there. Mike Shildt is a terrific manager and has this team humming. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the Padres represented the National League in the World Series. I think they’re that good.
Adam Weinrib: I believe the Los Angeles Dodgers will win this division when the dust settles, but so far, they have been a bit reminiscent of previous Yankees teams that have slugged their way to the top of the AL East, but found slug more difficult to come by under October’s bright lights. If anything, the Padres and Giants and Diamondbacks will make them more battle-tested when they exit the regular season, though. Rival fans should be rooting for the NL West to get worse (half-kidding).
Zachary Rotman: The Padres are scary. Fernando Tatis Jr. looks to be all the way back, Manny Machado is playing like the superstar he once was, and Jackson Merrill was tearing the cover off the ball before his injury. Their bullpen, led by the three-headed monster of Robert Suarez, Jeremiah Estrada, and Jason Adam is absurdly good and fun to watch. Their rotation can be good as well with Michael King and Dylan Cease leading the way, but I worry about the depth behind them, especially with Yu Darvish injured. That lack of starting pitching depth makes me skeptical that they can outlast the Dodgers in a grueling 162-game NL West, but as Chris mentioned, I would not be shocked if San Diego made things incredibly difficult for the Dodgers in October. The Giants, on the other hand, are a fun story that I do not buy in the slightest yet. I need to see much more from the likes of Jung Hoo Lee and Wilmer Flores in particular before I hop on that bandwagon.
Eric Cole: I never really understood the doom and gloom around the Padres heading into the 2025 season. I get that the ownership situation stinks at the moment and it kept them from being aggressive last offseason, but they didn’t lose very much from the team that was probably the best team in baseball by the end of the season last year. Not for nothing, they have been doing all of this with Jackson Merrill being on the shelf for a while as well. I think they have a good shot of winning the NL West, but it will be close.
In a poll conducted by The Athletic, 40 executives ranked the best front offices in MLB. Pick one team that is ranked too high, another that is too low, and explain why:
Chris Landers: Are we sure that the Yankees are a top-five front office? I promise I don’t mean this in a talk-radio sort of way; I’m more than willing to acknowledge that Brian Cashman has his strengths, and that the team remains on the cutting edge analytically in ways that have paid dividends on the margins of player development. But they entered this season with around $128 million in payroll tied up in Giancarlo Stanton, Carlos Rodon, Marcus Stroman, DJ LeMahieu, Cody Bellinger and [shudders] Aaron Hicks. That is … less-than-ideal resource allocation!
On the other hand, loath as I am to admit it, the Mets not ranking in the top 10 strikes me as a little silly. (New York came in at No. 11.) Sure, David Stearns has only begun to remake that franchise in his image, but his track record in Milwaukee – and the massive strides he’s made over just 18 months or so in Queens, particularly overhauling the team’s pitching development – deserves a bit more respect.
Robert Murray: Too high: the Yankees. Brian Cashman is a very good executive. But that roster this season … leaves a lot to be desired. Too low: the Padres. How the hell is AJ Preller and that front office ranked No. 10? He’s arguably the best executive at finding hidden talent and always stocking the farm system. Yeah, he’s made some questionable deals. But his teams always compete. They should be top-five, not tenth.
Adam Weinrib: Going to pile on the Yankees here. It’s often said that Brian Cashman would be hired in a second if New York ever chose to pull the plug on their continuity. Would he? By who? You can blame bad injury luck all you want, but he committed to the somewhat redundant Giancarlo Stanton rather than waiting to chase ideal Yankee Bryce Harper the next winter and, like Chris noted, he’s piled up a remarkable amount of dead Hal Steinbrenner money in recent years. Steinbrenner is right; you don’t need a $300 million payroll to win a World Series. But, given the amount of zombie cash on his current ledger, Brian Cashman sure does! Add in his numerous nothing-for-nothing trades in recent years (it would be tough to purposefully target the wrong deadline addition this often), and you’ve got a receding influence on the game.
Too low? Uh, Chris Young and the Rangers at 13. That 2023 World Champion was built on a blend of analytical bravado and, “What do we need? Let’s go get it, then.” That second half is exactly what Brian Cashman’s recent resumé lacks - sorry, sorry, I’m trying to delete it.
Zachary Rotman: As much as I’d love to disagree with everyone, I have to say that the Yankees are indeed too high. There are far too many holes on the Yankees’ roster year after year with the amount of money invested to justify putting Cashman this high. Injuries have not been kind to them, but it’s not as if they’re much kinder to the rest of the league. Cashman does deserve credit for building consistent postseason teams, but that’s not why he’s there. He’s there and is allowed to spend ~$300 million to win World Series’. He simply has not been doing that over the past decade and a half.
As for too low, am I biased for picking the Mets? It’s a newer front office, but we can’t ignore what David Stearns did with very little in Milwaukee, and in his first year with big market resources, he guided a team that Steve Cohen said was “in transition” to just two wins shy of a World Series berth. Now, the Mets’ pitching development is at the forefront of the team’s success. They lead the majors in rotation ERA by a sizable margin thanks in large part to players nobody (including myself) believed in 18-ish months ago. That surely won’t last all year, but clearly, this rotation is going to be much better than anyone expected, just like last season. Seemingly everything Stearns has touched in Flushing has turned to gold. I mean, Griffin Canning has a 3.43 ERA in four starts after leading AL qualifiers in that statistic last season. Adding what he’s built in such a short time in Queens to what he accomplished during his tenure in Milwaukee, and it’s insane that the Mets aren’t in the top 10 of this list. They will be at this time next year, if not in the top 5.
Eric Cole: I also think Brian Cashman has been incredibly overrated and a lack of turnover at the top levels for the Yankees has been a big reason why they have had trouble getting over the hump the last several years. That said, I think the current iteration of the Rays’ front office is getting a tad too much credit here at #2. Yes, they won a lot of trades previously and work well with limited funds, but they have also lost a lot of people from their front office in recent years and haven’t won a playoff series since 2020. Not saying they don’t have a good front office, but the brain drain has been real for Tampa and most of what they are celebrated for happened a few years ago which makes #2 feel pretty high. There is a good chance that 2025 will be their second straight season with a losing record unless they try to make some real moves at the deadline.