Welcome to Pinstripe Alley’s coverage of the 2026 World Baseball Classic! We previewed Pool A, Pool B, Pool C, and Pool D in the linked articles. Since the first several days of the WBC feature a bevy of games, we’ll be recapping them in batches. Enjoy! It was wall-to-wall baseball on Friday, the WBC truly exploding into action with eight […]
about 1 month ago
· 3 reads
Good morning, all! We’re still basking in the glow of the eight glorious World Baseball Classic games yesterday, and guess what? We get eight more today, and then seven more tomorrow and Monday, respectively, before the fire hose of baseball is turned down a bit. But for now, here’s how it feels: Anyway, we’re keeping […]
about 1 month ago
· 4 reads
MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: Carlos Lagrange has been turning heads this spring, and joining the list is his most esteemed colleague in Gerrit Cole. The youngster hit triple digits on the radar gun several times during a live BP session Friday afternoon, and the Cy Young winner was simply blown away. “I’ve hit 101 in […]
about 1 month ago
· 4 reads
Expectations were high for Cam Schlittler’s first spring start, and he did not disappoint. Over 2.1 innings and 39 pitches, he struck out four Rays and looked really good while doing it. Meanwhile, Trent Grisham came up clutch on offense, driving in two runs on a single in the second inning. The rest of the […]
about 1 month ago
· 4 reads
Welcome to Pinstripe Alley’s coverage of the 2026 World Baseball Classic! We previewed Pool A, Pool B, Pool C, and Pool D in the linked articles. Since the first several days of the WBC feature a bevy of games, we’ll be recapping them in batches. Enjoy! Friday marked the first full slate of World Baseball […]
about 1 month ago
· 1 reads
Hey everyone! It’s good to be back. Speaking of back, so are the Yankees, and they’ll be looking to wash away the aftertaste of yesterday’s 15-0 drubbing at the hands of the Twins. Their opponents today will be the Rays, with Cam Schlittler making his spring debut against Joe Boyle. It’s hard to overstate the […]
about 1 month ago
· 4 reads
Good afternoon everyone, it’s time to dive back into the mailbag and answer some of your questions. Remember to send in your questions for our weekly call by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com. Don H. asks: I’m just so tired of the Yankees letting players languish in the minors, until their play by or […]
about 1 month ago
· 3 reads
The Miami Marlins are somewhat like cicadas. Every couple years, they emerge and make the playoffs, only to then immediately go back underground for a while. Unfortunately, the Yankees caught one of the worst years of that cicada infestation in 2003. Recently, the Marlins made the playoffs in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, and then somewhat […]
about 1 month ago
· 5 reads
The backup catcher is a fickle creature. Outside of an occasional opportunity to warm up pitchers in between innings, or perhaps to enter in the late innings after their manager mercifully pinch-ran for the starting backstop, they might only be seen once a week when they draw a start. Like a backup quarterback in the […]
about 1 month ago
· 5 reads
Welcome to Pinstripe Alley’s coverage of the 2026 World Baseball Classic! We previewed Pool A, Pool B, Pool C, and Pool D in the linked articles. Since the first several days of the WBC feature a bevy of games, we’ll be recapping them in batches. Enjoy! The WBC officially kicked off on Wednesday night (ET) […]
about 1 month ago
· 1 reads
On May 3, 2025, Anthony Volpe’s luck took a turn for the worse. That day, he hurt his left shoulder while diving for a ball in the performance of his defensive duties. He felt a pop that turned out to be a torn labrum, re-aggravating the injury in September and managing the discomfort while playing. […]
about 1 month ago
· 5 reads
Welcome to Pinstripe Alley’s coverage of the 2026 World Baseball Classic! We previewed Pool A, Pool B, Pool C, and Pool D in the linked articles. Since the first several days of the WBC feature a bevy of games, we’ll be recapping them in batches. Enjoy! The WBC officially kicked off on Wednesday night (ET) […]
about 1 month ago
· 3 reads
Spring training can often bring us some strange sights as players that have been with one or two franchises long-term suddenly pop up in new uniforms. Seeing stars change teams at their peak and don their new threads is one thing, but the guys who have been through most of their careers before popping up […]
about 1 month ago
· 4 reads
New York Daily News | Peter Sblendorio: On May 12th of last year, utilityman Oswaldo Cabrera broke his ankle in one of the more gruesome injuries you’ll watch in real time. It’s taken quite a bit of rehab for Cabrera in the ensuing ten months, but he’ll finally play something close to competitive ball today, […]
about 1 month ago
· 3 reads
Opening Day may still be weeks away, but we’re just hours from the World Baseball Classic bringing us high-stakes, international baseball. Yesterday, Peter kicked off our preview coverage of the WBC, analyzing the five teams that make up Pool A. Today, we’ll turn our attention to Pool B, which will see Italy, Mexico, Great Britain, […]
about 1 month ago
· 2 reads
The 2026 World Baseball Classic has technically already begun as you read this, as Australia beat Chinese Taipei in the opener, 3-0. However, Pool C is the only member of the quartet actually underway, so we have time to look ahead at the final batch of clubs, Pool D. As Matt discussed yesterday, Pool C […]
about 1 month ago
· 1 reads
Much of the baseball world is gearing up for the World Baseball Classic, but there’s another fun preseason date on coming up on the calendar: MLB’s Spring Breakout. Now in its third year, the Spring Breakout games feature rosters that consist only of each team’s prospects, who get a chance to showcase their abilities against […]
about 1 month ago
· 4 reads
All good things must come to an end, and a nine-game winning streak in Grapefruit League/exhibition play only really registers so much as “good.” The Yankees lost a fake baseball game for the first time since February 22nd, and they did so with a starting pitcher who will probably not be a starter for them […]
about 1 month ago
· 3 reads
The Yankees are back at their home-away-from-home field, and they’ll stay on TV as well for the second straight day following their George Lombard Jr.-led victory over the Red Sox yesterday. The Twins are rolling into Tampa today, and they’ll be facing one of the depth arms on the pitching staff in Paul Blackburn. Blackburn […]
about 1 month ago
· 4 reads
For a while now, it’s felt like most of the National League Central is just a step behind. In four of the last five seasons, the Milwaukee Brewers have walked away division champions, oftentimes by some distance. The only exception in the span was the St. Louis Cardinals, back in 2022. However, since that 2022 […]
about 1 month ago
· 2 reads
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was perhaps no better rivalry in MLB than the Yankees and Royals. They seemingly met every postseason in the ALCS for the right to represent the Junior Circuit in the World Series, the Yankees usually coming out on top of those yearly meetings. A mainstay of those […]
about 1 month ago
· 4 reads
Giancarlo Stanton is one of the most powerful hitters in the history of baseball. No player hits the ball harder or farther. Nobody swings the bat with the sheer force that he does. If injuries didn’t cost him big chunks of his Yankees tenure, there’s no telling how many home runs he would have. But […]
about 1 month ago
· 3 reads
There’s nothing like the early days of spring to get the imagination going. Pitchers show up with new pitches, hitters show up with improved swings and approaches, everyone is in the best shape of their lives, and hope springs, well, eternal. Among those bright spring training traditions is letting one’s optimism run wild when it […]
about 1 month ago
· 3 reads
It’s perhaps an obvious baseball truism but when you pitch well and hit home runs, you’re going to win a lot of baseball games. Team Australia did precisely that Wednesday night at the World Baseball Classic, tossing a shutout and hitting a couple of huge round-trippers en route to a tournament-opening win over Chinese Taipei […]
about 1 month ago
· 3 reads
MLB.com | Ian Browne: George Lombard Jr.’s strong spring continued Wednesday as he took Red Sox ace Garret Crochet deep to lead off a Grapefruit League game. The Yankees’ top prospect pulled the ball 392 feet and it exited his bat at 104.2 mph. Crochet was “just trying to push it up in the zone […]
about 1 month ago
· 3 reads