Did you see this?
If it's Sunday, it's time for our weekly look at some of the best and most interesting things I've seen over the last 7 days
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FACE TIME
Old friend John Perrotto, who has written about the Pirates and Major League Baseball for decades, catches up with Elroy Face, one of the game’s great relief pitchers in the 1950s and 1960s, who is still going strong at age 95 and was inducted into the Pirates Hall of Fame last weekend.
ABS SYSTEM GETTING CLOSER?
J.J. Cooper of Baseball America writes about interesting tweaks being made to the Automated Ball-Strike system and the pitch clock at Triple-A over the final month of the season.
WINNING BETTS
Mookie Betts is having another MVP-caliber season for the Dodgers, and when he returned to Boston as a Dodger for the first time last week, The Athletic wrote a piece about the major impact he’s making off the field as well.
SPEAKING OF MOOKIE…
I wrote a little over 2 weeks ago about what was shaping up to be a historic 3-man race for the NL MVP award among season-long front runner Ronald Acuña Jr., his Atlanta teammate Matt Olson and former Brave Freddie Freeman. And then Freeman’s Dodgers teammate Mookie Betts put together the best month of his illustrious career. Has he come from 4th place and moved into the driver’s seat with a month to go? Mike Petriello of MLB.com thinks he has.
FOREVER 21
With the MLB draft reduced from 50 rounds to 20 since 2021, you can’t help but wonder who may no be left to sign as a non-drafted free agent or who may fall through the cracks altogether. MLB.com has the story of a 21st-round pick who’s helping to lead the Astros to yet another trip to the postseason.
TURNER’S TURNAROUND
FoxSports.com tells the story of how a Philadelphia sports talk radio producer helped Trea Turner find his footing and get his first season as a Phillie on track after a painful start.
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ICYMI
VFTB shattered our previous record for most views in a single month in August, and the last 2 weeks have been our biggest weeks ever on the site. Thanks to all for your continued support, particularly our subscribers, whether you joined us in March or just this week.
In case you didn’t check out VFTB daily, here’s what you missed during our 2nd consecutive record-breaking week:
Our latest Hey, Geff'! Mailbag dropped Tuesday.
The Marlins had one last shot to add to their roster for the final month this past week via waivers.
Shout it from the rooftops: Their 2nd-half collapse has made it painfully obvious that the Marlins must make significant lineup upgrades if they expect to contend in 2024.
A look at Eury Perez’s debut season.
With tight races everywhere you look, how will MLB break any potential ties in 2023?
While you’re here…
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Thanks for the link to the ABS article. With the techies firmly in charge, ABS seems to me to be an ineluctable part of MLB very soon. The StatCast box is simply too visible highlighting the umpires' human limitations and catchers' framing machinations.