The WARmonger

Predicting the 2025 Gold Glove Award winners As with the MVP and Cy Young Awards, the Rawlings Gold Glove Awards will often feature familiar faces, as certain players' reputations continue to shine. But sometimes, new names join the mix to stake...

MLB released Gold Glove predictions today! I agree with almost all of them, only vary on NL LF and maybe AL 1B.

And I'm pretty sure Andrés Giménez isn't eligible at AL 2B (not enough innings through 138 team games), but they have him winning.

www.mlb.com/astros/news/...

Aaron Boone continues his meteoric rise up the career manager ejection leaderboard!

With #43 yesterday, he is now tied with Joe Girardi. Legendary names ahead!

Pete Crow-Armstrong is up to 13 five-star catches this season, with no other outfielder having more than six!

After the recent recalibration of difficult plays, the season record for five-star grabs is 17 by Byron Buxton in 2017.

Rich Hill is more than nine years older than Madison Bumgarner.

Umpires With The Highest Batter OPS

1) Clint Vondrak (.798)
2) Brock Ballou (.788)
3) Chad Whitson (.783)
4) Chris Conroy (.783)
5) Jim Wolf (.770)
6) Mike Muchlinski (.765)
7) Laz Diaz (.763)
8) Tripp Gibson (.760)
9) Andy Fletcher (.760)
10) Doug Eddings (.759)

From today's @baseball_ref faces:

Ron Hunt led the league in times hit by pitch SEVEN seasons in a row, from 1968-1974! He was plunked an incredible 50 times in 1971.

Hunt is 6th all-time in HBP, despite playing fewer than 1,500 games.

Aaron Judge already has the 6th best hitting season of the last five years, it's only July 10th.
(by FanGraphs batting value)

Pete Crow-Armstrong has made 16.4% of the five-star catches (<= 25%) in the league this season.

There have been 61, PCA has ten of them.

Five-Star Catches:
PCA- 10
V Scott, Jr.- 3
H Bader- 3
W Abreu- 3

The only TEAM that is even close is the Red Sox (8)

From Baseball Savant/Statcast

“Oscar Charleston could have played on any big-league team in history if he had been given the opportunity. He could hit, run and throw. I’ve seen all the great players in the many years I’ve been around and have yet to see one any greater than Charleston.” - Honus Wagner

It is July 1, 2025, just past the midway point of the season.

MLB pitchers have already thrown more 96+ MPH pitches than the entire seasons of 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014.

And fastball usage is down from that time. Just 55% in 2025, all those years fastballs were more than 62% of pitches.

Denzel Clarke has played nine (9!) games, and is tied for 13th in fielding run value (FRV) with 4. He has 3 defensive runs saved. There's certainly some margin for error here with just nine games, but those numbers are special.

Clarke also had this 5% ball knocked out of his glove by the wall:

A jump of 11.8 feet above average on this ball is just wild:

Thanks to Stathead span finder for the search

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Only one player in baseball history has a 162-game span with 45+ homers and 75+ stolen bases.

Eric Davis has SEVENTY of them (overlapping).

His highs are 50/94 and 45/100!

In 1935, he hit .372 with a 7-3 pitching record to lead the NY Cubans to the Negro National League 2nd half title.

The Cubans lost a 7-game series to the Pittsburgh Crawfords (featuring Gibson, Bell, Charleston, Johnson), which some consider the greatest team ever.
-Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

“He was the only guy I ever saw who could play all nine positions, manage, run and switch-hit.” - Hall of Famer Johnny Mize said of Dihigo.

Johnny Mize said Dihigo was better than any other ballplayer he had ever seen. Mize played with and against DiMaggio, Musial, Mantle, etc.

Martín Dihigo is one of the greatest baseball players of all-time. "El Inmortal" was born on this day in 1906.

He isn't just a Hall of Famer, he's in FIVE of them! Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela, DR, and USA. He was inducted in Cooperstown in 1977, the first Cuban player to receive the honor.

It is May 21st in the 2025 season.

Major league starting pitchers have already thrown more 97+ MPH pitches than all of the full seasons from 2008 to 2012:

A representative Yandy Diaz swing:

Always one of the lowest attack angles, and always near the top of smashed ground-out leaderboards!

Graphic from new Baseball Savant swing path and attack angle data.

Pete Rose might have to get 14 or 15 committee votes to get in.

Don’t believe me? Google “Pete Rose 14 or 15” and see for yourself.

Pete Crow-Armstrong's FRV (fielding run value) ranks 25th among major league outfielders since the start of the 2018 season.

Pete Crow-Armstrong was a sophomore in high school in 2018.

This ball yesterday had a 70% catch probability, and he made it look completely routine. +4 feet of jump above average. True routine plays are above 90%.

Javy Baez's transition to center field has been impressive!

He's not qualified for leaderboards yet, but he's going to be near the top. 4 DRS and 2 FRV in just 127 innings out there this season.

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Greatest Second Basemen of All-Time*:
1) Ty Cobb
2) Albert Pujols
3) Mickey Mantle
4) Roberto Clemente
5) Ivan Rodriguez
6) Mel Ott
7) Don Mattingly
8) Kirby Puckett
9) Harmon Killebrew
10) Jorge Posada

*Min 1 game at 2B, Max 25 games at 2B

Good news and bad news here for Brooks Baldwin...

Bad News:
- This ball had a catch probability of 85%

Good News:
- This highlight begins with a glimpse of Dick Allen in Sox powder blue!
- He ran faster than any player has this year on any play, at 33.4 ft/sec!

We're still in April, and starting pitchers have already thrown more 98+ MPH pitches than the entire seasons of 2011 and 2012:

Sorry, don't check in here nearly as often. Which play? Nick is always making easy plays look tough, but I love his effort!

Dillon Dingler set the new season standard yesterday for the fastest throw on a catcher assist! An 88.1 MPH dart out of one knee stance to nail Bobby Witt Jr.!

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