Rubbing Mud

Rubbing Mud: Paxton’s Patterns

One change, and a little more trust in his dominant raw stuff, could take James Paxton even higher.

Hitters like Miguel Sano, Marcell Ozuna, and Starlin Castro refuse to make things easy on pitchers.

Did the Astros right-hander stumble into a breakout season?

Cardinals teammates Matt Carpenter and Tommy Pham provide two sides to the same story.

Defensive positions need not be as they have always been.

Keynan Middleton vs. Byron Buxton, and the camera angles that showed it.

Until next year, that is.

How does the best pitcher of this era stack up against the greats from the previous three decades?

Is the dominant Jake Arrieta from 2015 and part of 2016 still lurking, underneath an ugly ERA?

Teams have smartened up about sacrifice bunts, but every once in a while managers just can't help themselves.

Since when does Colorado have too many capable pitchers?

After plenty of ups and downs, the Marlins outfielder is setting himself free.

Thinking about bat sizes, by way of the great Roger Angell.

Cincinnati views the rookie left-hander as a long-term building block, but maybe he's in the wrong role.

Ryan Schimpf has 28 homers in 366 at-bats and barely anyone has noticed, maybe because the ball is juiced everywhere.

As more and more teams go heavy into catcher framing, improvements are obvious and the margins are shrinking.