8:00 AM ET Sam MillerESPN.com Close ESPN baseball columnist/feature writerFormer editor-in-chief of Baseball ProspectusCo-author of “The Only Rule Is It Has To Work” What is the smallest, oddest, most omnipresent detail about baseball that we take totally for granted? Is it that there is a front of the batter’s box to keep batters from moving
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7:08 AM ET You love baseball. Tim Kurkjian loves baseball. So while we await its return, every day we’ll provide you with a story or two tied to this date in baseball history. ON THIS DATE IN 1979, Adrian Beltre was born. Beltre’s eyes, that famous stare, made him look mean and unapproachable to strangers.
12:15 AM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” Major League Baseball and its players are increasingly focused on a plan that could allow the them to start the season as early as May and has the support of high-ranking federal
8:00 AM ET Of course we love Major League Baseball prospects. Maybe it’s not fair that we pay so much attention and make silly comments like comparing a young player to Ken Griffey Jr. or saying this kid throws harder than Nolan Ryan, thus implying he might be the next Nolan Ryan. But we do
7:00 AM ET As we advance into the later rounds of our Second-Chance World Series, things are taking on a 1990s flavor, with half of our survivors coming from the decade of grunge, Michael Jordan and backward ball caps. It’s probably just a coincidence. But one thing we do know is that in this era
7:15 AM ET After an elite eight marked by one if-it-were-real historic comeback, we’re down to the two LCS matchups. While we’ll let you discover the identity of the four remaining teams by reading on, it seems to be a quartet of survivors appropriate to the theme of this tournament. All four were very good,
8:45 AM ET Jeff Passan Close ESPN ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” Alden Gonzalez Close ESPN Staff Writer Joined ESPN in 2016 to cover the Los Angeles Rams Previously covered the Angels for MLB.com HALFWAY ACROSS THE WORLD, in the country that thus
12:35 PM ET The word from the White House was that the president wanted baseball and other professional sports to resume to help keep the country moving forward, to provide at least a few minutes a day for a devastated nation to think about something other than the consuming horrors and death toll. In the
9:00 AM ET The Yankees, Dodgers, Athletics and Cardinals have combined to win 53 World Series, so it feels right that all four franchises have been knocked out of a tournament all about second chances as we begin our 32-team sim tourney of the best squad from every franchise to never win it all. It
3:41 PM ET Associated Press Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander says he will donate his weekly paycheck during the coronavirus shutdown to organizations that are helping with relief efforts. Verlander and wife Kate Upton made the announcement Saturday in an Instagram post. The couple said it would pick an organization each week and highlight its
3:13 PM ET Major League Baseball teams can now contact amateur prospects using electronic communication and gather data and video on players, but they remain barred from attending in-person activities and holding tryouts as they prepare for the 2020 draft and international signing period, according to a memo obtained by ESPN. The memo, sent to
10:21 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper and New York Mets pitcher Steven Matz are the latest baseball players to make donations to coronavirus relief efforts. Harper and his wife, Kayla, are giving $500,000 to Direct Relief and Three Square in his hometown of Las Vegas and to Philabundance
5:18 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — About 370 players who were at big league spring training with minor league contracts will get advance payments of up to $50,000 each from the Major League Baseball Players Association. The money approved Friday by the union’s executive board will be in addition to $400 weekly allowances
7:00 AM ET A month ago, when the world still felt predictable and baseball important, Dusty Baker and AJ Hinch were two sides of a damaged coin. The Houston Astros were the disgrace of baseball, a once extremely valuable currency in sharp decline. The Astros fired Hinch, who was without objection serving the yearlong suspension
7:33 PM ET Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Justin Turner has a lot of time on his hands these days, and has come up with a novel idea for deciding extra-inning games once the regular season starts. Taking a cue from NHL shootouts, Turner suggested that baseball go to a home run derby if a game
6:45 AM ET No matter how many times your team wins it all, it doesn’t every quite erase the memory of the one that got away. As a Royals fan, to an embarrassing degree my happiness over them winning the 2015 World Series was hampered by the unshakable memory of Alex Gordon being stranded on
7:39 AM ET You love baseball. Tim Kurkjian loves baseball. So while we await its return, every day we’ll provide you with a story or two tied to this date in baseball history. ON THIS DATE IN 2001, Ichiro made his Major League Baseball debut. Ichiro Suzuki was the first position player from Japan to
12:57 AM ET LOS ANGELES — Twice a week, beginning Friday morning, Brandon McDaniel, the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ director of player performance, will stream 30-minute workouts through the team’s social media outlets for everyone to partake. He wants to help fans stay in shape while they’re stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic. He wants