The Baseball Listicle Lineup for February 7-21, 2023
My favorite baseball articles, many in the form of "listicles", from the past two weeks
Issue #67
Latest edition of this regular feature here at Now Taking the Field—a roundup of my favorite recent baseball articles. Somewhat similar to my own writing topics, I tend to like “listicles” the best—articles that are either written in list form or that make heavy use of lists and charts of data, players, rankings, etc. I’ll of course include other favorite baseball articles in these weekly round-ups, but you’ll find most will be of that type. I’ll especially be focusing on articles by other Substack baseball authors, and articles directly from MLB.com itself, but I sometimes do read articles from other sources too.
Here are my favorite articles for the week February 7-21, starting with articles written by other baseball-focused Substack authors:
.300 Ain't What It Used To Be, by Joe Posnanski at JoeBlogs, 2/20/2023
The Greatest Black Baseball Players in National League History, by Matt Whitener, first article at Here's the Pitch: the IBWAA Newsletter, 2/17/2023
Tim McCarver and the Beauty of Baseball, by Joe Posnanski at JoeBlogs, 2/16/2023
20 Reasons Why Babe Ruth Might Actually Be Underrated, by Paul Semendinger, at Here's the Pitch: the IBWAA Newsletter, 2/16/2023
Running Down the Rule Changes, by Joe Posnanski at JoeBlogs, 2/15/2023
5 Valentine's Cards to Warm Your February Cockles, by Wax Pack Gods, 2/12/2023
The Trouble with Trea Turner, by Ben Hatch at Brain Baseball, 2/11/2023
BAPP - A Better Triple Slash Line, by Eli Ben-Porat at Eli’s Baseball Research, 2/11/2023
JonPGH Fantasy Sports - Fantasy Baseball Position Tier Articles so far:
Beyond Substack, these were my favorite articles from the writers at MLB.com these past two weeks:
How 9 teams can defy their playoff probabilities, by Thomas Harrigan, 2/21/2023
1 big (but reasonable) goal for each team, by Will Leitch, 2/21/2023
Top Rookie of the Year candidates in each league, by Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo, 2/21/2023
The players with the most to prove in '23, by MLB.com writers, 2/19/2023
Look for these 5 guys to lead MLB in homers, by MLB.com writers, 2/18/2023
The offseason's most improved teams, by Mike Petriello, 2/18/2023
These 30 prospects are vying for jobs in Spring Training, by Jim Callis, Jonathan Mayo and Sam Dykstra, 2/17/2023
How the projected standings agree (and how they don't), by Thomas Harrigan, 2/17/2023
Here's the most interesting guy at each camp, by Anthony Castrovince, 2/16/2023
5 breakout pitcher candidates to watch in 2023, by MLB.com writers, 2/15/2023
Predicting the AL East with 10 key questions, by Will Leitch, 2/15/2023
An inside look at how the new rules will work, by Anthony Castrovince, 2/15/2023
5 innovations adopted from the Negro Leagues, by Matt Kelly, 2/15/2023
Which new manager has the toughest job?, by Will Leitch, 2/14/2023
Each team's top Spring Training storyline, by MLB.com writers, 2/14/2023
These 5 hitters are poised to break out this season, by MLB.com writers, 2/13/2023
Brothers who have faced each other in postseason, by Sarah Langs, 2/11/2023
These 10 teams won the offseason, by Anthony Castrovince, 2/11/2023
10 who picked diamond over gridiron, by Paul Casella, 2/10/2023
A behind-the-scenes look at how the pitch timer works, by Anthony Castrovince, 2/7/2023
And finally, if you are interested in daily, yet quick-read, baseball-related email newsletters, you can’t go wrong with these three:
Baseball Reference Newsletter - recaps of yesterday's top performers, a look ahead at today's games, unique milestones and Stathead spotlights, and "On This Day" and "Born This Day" lists.
MLB Morning Lineup - links to the latest articles, videos, and more from MLB
Horsehide Trivia - a challenging baseball trivia question each day, from D. Bruce Brown
Did you know? I wrote a book with the same title as this Substack newsletter / blog: Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises. It was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports, the publisher of the annual Bill James Handbook and other popular titles. You can learn more about it at www.NowTakingTheField.com, or buy directly at Amazon and other booksellers.
