Sports
A simple, restorative baseball game. Plus: Trade-deadline weirdness
The Windup Newsletter 
The Field of Dreams game was a blowout, but the presentation was still cool. Plus: Stark’s Weird & Wild column takes aim at the trade deadline, we look at which teams are (over/under)performing compared to their expected win-loss record and we have another Baseball Card of the Week.
I’m Levi Weaver — welcome to The Windup!
Field of Dreams: A love letter to baseball
Was it a good game? Not really (the Phillies beat the Twins 7-1). Does that matter? Not to me! I, like many baseball fans, am a sucker for a bit of nostalgia sprinkled into my 162-game marathon.
Do I want the sport to go back to a time when an 82 mph fastball and a sprint speed of “He keeps falling down” was good enough to make it to the big leagues? No, no, no. Count me among those who feel grateful to live in the era of Shohei Ohtani and Jacob Misiorowski.
But one look at those Phillies uniforms and 26 Hall of Famers walking out of a cornfield? Oh heck yeah. Let’s put this modern game in a nostalgic setting for a night and remember why we all love baseball on a fundamental level. No mega-scoreboards, no fireworks after a home run, no multi-purpose facilities waiting for the game to end so they can set up for the Imagine Dragons concert tomorrow.
Just baseball, man. Playing catch. Hitting dingers into the cornfield — as Kyle Schwarber did not once, but twice, to retake the MLB lead (37). Is it a bit overwrought, with all the “have a catch” talk? Sure. But who cares?
More Field of Dreams:
Middle Relief: Oddities of this last trade deadline
Today, we have an excerpt from Jayson Stark’s Weird & Wild column, which has all the usual weirdness from the sport, but also weighs in on some trade-deadline weirdness!
You might think the trade deadline doesn’t fit the usual Weird and Wild motif around here. If you do, you’re just not paying enough attention.
The Angels … traded for two prospects named (what else) Angel. That would be Angel Arredondo and Angel Rivero. And here you thought Mike Trout was Mr. Angel.
The Padres … already employed one of the two big leaguers in the modern era named France (Ty). They then gobbled up the other (J.P.) after the Astros jettisoned him. Vive la France!
The Phillies … already had one multi-time batting champ in their lineup (Trea Turner). They then traded for another (Luis Arraez). That puts them in the esteemed company of the only two other teams in the free-agent era (1976-present) that have ever made a midseason trade like that: The 1986 Reds had Dave Parker and traded for their next player-manager, Pete Rose. … And the 1979 Pirates also had Parker on the premises, then traded for Bill Madlock.
The Dodgers … already had one two-time Cy Young winner on the payroll (Blake Snell). Word may have reached you that they just traded for another (Tarik Skubal). They, too, are in rare territory, and it would be rarer if it weren’t for … um, themselves.
Only two previous teams in the free-agent era had ever dealt for a multi-time Cy Young winner midseason when they already had one in stock.
One was the 2023 Rangers. They had Jacob deGrom drawing a paycheck, then traded for Max Scherzer. But speaking of Scherzer, now all these worlds are about to collide.
In 2021, these very same Dodgers were the pioneers of this load-up-on-Cys strategy. They were already the happy home of Clayton Kershaw, but they decided it might be tough to eke by with just one multi-time Cy Young. So they traded for … everyone’s favorite hired gun, Scherzer. And that’s it for this list, except for one little …
Asterisk alert! The 1986 White Sox had Tom Seaver on their roster, then added Steve Carlton to their Cy Young collection. But the Phillies had just released Carlton, so no trades were necessary. Is that the same thing as Skubal/Snell, deGrom/Scherzer or Scherzer/Kershaw? Sorry, that’s a definite no!
The Rays … always seem to enjoy confusing the outside world with the challenge of trying to identify their mysterious players. So one more time at this deadline, they set out to do that yet again.
They already had a Taylor Walls on the roster and a Tyler Wall running their clubhouse operations. So (of course) they then made a strategic trade with the Orioles for reliever Tyler Wells. But that left one momentous question: How did they let Taylor Ward get away? (Hat tip: the Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin.)
For the rest, click here!
Luck: Who’s better than their record?
In yesterday’s Windup, we checked in on which teams would be in the playoffs if the season started six weeks ago, just to see who is trending up as the season heads into the final quarter.
Today, I want to do a similar exercise, but instead of “the last six weeks,” I want to look at each team’s XW/L — “expected win-loss,” aka, “Pythagorean winning percentage.”
It’s based on several stats (you can read up on them here if you’re curious), but the short explanation is: Which teams have been lucky or unlucky, based on their other stats?
Here’s what a playoff bracket would look like if wins and losses were based entirely on XW/L:
It’s reassuring to see that — aside from some wild-card shuffling — it’s basically going the way it should. Also, could the Tigers be a more fascinating team this year? Their XW/L is equal to the Yankees and Red Sox. Sheesh.
Speaking of which: Here are your top five luckiest and unluckiest teams. The higher the number, the more games the peripherals say they should have lost (sorry, Rays). Likewise, the further into negative numbers you get, the more games the models think they should have won.
Takeaways:
- The AL West is even worse than we thought. Even the Astros are outperforming their peripherals.
- I think the Tigers (-10?!?) are going to make the playoffs. And oh, look at that: They (60-61) leapfrogged the Rangers (60-62) last night and are currently the third AL Wild Card.
- Are the Red Sox going to win the AL East after firing their manager?
Baseball Card of the Week: 1999 Upper Deck David Ortiz
This was before he became “Big Papi” in Boston, but after he was “David Arias,” who was (literally) the PTBNL from the Mariners to the Twins in a trade for Dave Hollins.
Can you imagine being the Twins, who — no offense, Dave Hollins — robbed the Mariners blind for the guy who would someday be a 10-time All-Star, a World Series MVP and a Hall of Famer … but before he did any of that, released him?
To be fair, Ortiz was worth just 2.6 bWAR in six seasons in Minnesota. By comparison, he was worth 3.4 in his first season in Boston — a light-switch difference.
Oh, and about that trivia question, since the answer is no longer available at upperdeck.com …
The answer was (and remains) five:
- Tony Oliva, 1964
- Rod Carew, 1967
- John Castino, 1979
- Chuck Knoblauch, 1991
- Marty Cordova, 1995
Handshakes and High Fives
A follow-up on yesterday’s section on Paul Skenes: Eno Sarris did his best to solve the problem, and you don’t need me to tell you Eno-on-pitchers is a more insightful read than Levi-on-pitchers.
This week’s mailbag has Stephen Nesbitt riffing on readers’ submissions for Team MVPs.
“Is it illegal? Nope. Do others act in better faith? Sure.” Jesus Canó tells us about the players from this year’s draft that the Braves signed to $500 bonuses.
Before the season, Yankees 2B Jazz Chisholm proclaimed his goal to become the sport’s second 50/50 hitter. As we enter the final quarter of the season, he’s as perplexed as anyone about why he’s struggling.
Could we see broken bats from the Royals turned into Catan board game pieces? Keith Law dives into the game’s burgeoning popularity among pro athletes.
Awful news for Reds starter Hunter Greene: He’s expected to miss all of 2027 after his second Tommy John surgery.
Benches cleared in Chicago when White Sox starter Davis Martin hit Reds first baseman Sal Stewart in the helmet with a pitch.
Earlier this year, it seemed the Brewers had definitively won the Kyle Harrison trade. Well, it’s August now, and that trade seems like the fuel for Boston’s second-half scorcher. (But on that note, as Steve Buckley tells us, Payton Tolle has also been a joy in Boston.)
God bless the overthinkers: It seems like Alex Bregman might have figured things out in Chicago.
Off the wall: New Phoebe Bridgers album drops today.
Most-clicked in our last Windup: Britt Ghiroli’s sit-down with Buster Posey in San Francisco.
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