LeBron James is 0-5 all-time against this player: 0-4 in the regular season and 0-1 in the playoffs.
Who is TJ Leaf?
I just heard a great one the other day:
Who are the four MLB players to record at least one career win and a 50 HR season (not necessarily in the same year)?
Babe Ruth
Shohei Ohtani
Jimmie Foxx
Chris Davis
Who has the most career home runs against Paul Skenes, and how many do they have?
The Cubs’ Michael Busch, with 2.
Since the regular season has concluded, and he’s the presumptive MVP in the National League, here’s a Pete Crow-Armstrong question (according to MLB Network’s Sarah Langs:
He’s the second player to lead the league in home runs (with ties included) and have at least 40 steals in a season.
Who was the first?
Ty Cobb
Crow-Armstrong is only 25 next year and is the kind of player who ages well.
As a huge Cub fan, I’m ecstatic to see what he could be if he reaches his full potential.
Part 1: Since 2000, two men have won baseball’s MVP award despite never playing a major league game with the MLB team they originally signed with. Name them.
Part 2: What makes this question topical?
I have no idea.
Edit: if you’re including being drafted and signed by one franchise before making their debut with another, the Part 2 of your question is topical because Pete Crow-Armstrong would be the third.
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This one astounded me when when I heard it, and I heard it from one of the pitchers involved, and googled it to double-check:
Over their careers, John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Pedro Martinez struck out over 12,000 batters combined.
How many times did Tony Gwynn strike out against those four pitchers combined?
Three. Glavine struck him out once. Smoltz got him twice.
I don’t think anyone (aside from @Superdude who recused himself) has figured this one out, so I’ll repost it.
I’m clueless as well. And Google and AI are giving me conflicting answers.
Being the fan of the team I am, I’ve known this answer since the last millinium.
Well, then, stop teasing and hit me with it, brother.
Oh sorry, as the team they both played for (yes, they also both played for the same MLB team) was just eliminated from the playoffs, so I went right to bed in a depressed state. At that is, of course, the New York Yankees. The players were Don Larsen, who pitched a perfect game in the World Series in 1956 and David Wells, who pitched one in the regular season in 1998. The Yankees also won the WS that year. Larsen’s perfect game may not show up on some records listings, since it happened in the post-season. Larsen and Wells went to the same high school in San Diego decades apart.
interestingly, David Cone also pitched a perfect game the Yankees the season following Wells’ in 1999, and the Yankees also won that year. And assuming I haven’t missed some the past few years, I think these 3 are still the only teams to have won a World Series in the same season that they had a perfect game.
The New York Yankees have been swept twice in a five-game playoff series. Once was obviously in 2026. When was the other one and by which team?
1980, by the Kansas City Royals
Which team had the most 100 loss seasons in a row and identify who and when.
Philadelphia Phillies (5 straight: 1938–1942)
David Cone threw his perfect game on Yogi Berra Day at Yankee Stadium. Don Larsen threw the first pitch to Yogi before the game.
And, of course, Yogi Berra was the catcher for Larsen in 1956.
Since we’re on the topic, who is the only MLB catcher to catch 2 perfect games. For those who don’t know baseball well, for most of baseball history, catchers “call” the game, which means they signal which pitch to throw for the pitcher. So they are a big part of successful perfect games. So a catcher being the one to catch 2 perfect games (out of a total of 24 in MLB history) is pretty exceptional.
With PitchCom that can change, but historically catchers have had a huge impact on successful pitcher performance.
Maybe I could have phrased the question better? @Superdude has the right idea–an MVP who never played in the majors for the team that signed him. The two answers I know of are both Joshes and probably rank among the less well-remembered of the twenty-first century MVPs:
--Josh Donaldson signed with the Cubs, played in their minor league system for a spell, then was traded to Oakland before getting in a game with Chicago. He won an MVP some time later with Toronto.
--Josh Hamilton was drafted and signed by Tampa Bay and spent several years in their system without appearing in a major league game. He eventually won an MVP with Texas.
It’s possible there’s a third I missed; if so, sorry.
Yes, Crow-Armstrong will fall into this category as well, having been signed by the Mets (for whom he never played); also the favorite for AL MVP, Yordan Alvarez, was signed by the Dodgers and never played for them either. After about a quarter century of just two (I think), we may be set to add two more.