What a shock! Few foresaw the Rangers defeating the Diamondbacks in the 2023 World Series. We certainly did not. Despite trying to predict the outcome of the last nine MLB seasons, we continue to know nothing. We were incredibly bad in 2023. The season was filled with great stories and terrible collapses. The Mets were the Mets and baseball was its usual unpredictable self. We may have been terrible at predicting the season, but how bad was it?  Really bad. Our scoring system is designed to clearly show who is the best at predicting the baseball season before the first pitch is thrown. Po ..read more

Teams are successful when they develop talent, not simply purchase free agents. The George Steinbrenner Yankees were often accused of buying championships, but they did develop talent. Success is turning draft picks and international signings into Major League players. The Rookie of the Year Award recognizes the best first year player in each league. Created in 1947, there was a single Award for the first two seasons, but since 1949 each league has a winner. While it is an individual award, the Rookie of the Year Award should also be viewed as an organizational award. If a franchise is consist ..read more

The Regular Season is over and the Postseason has arrived.  The easy wins are in the past. October is only for teams that earned the right to play for a title. The Braves have been on a roll all season. The Dodgers and Orioles are dangerous. None of this matters, because anything is possible in the Postseason. The 2022 Phillies are proof that a run to the World Series is all about timing. Yes, Philadelphia came up short last October but no one expected them to play for the National League pennant, much less the World Series. The Postseason is truly unpredictable, which is why October is t ..read more

It is once again time for our feeble attempt at predicting the future. What will happen during the 2023 MLB season? No one knows for sure, but we offer our best guesses. If history is any guide our predictions will be horribly wrong. Wrong during the Regular Season and wrong during the Postseason. One thing we are certain of is our friend Jason is giving his predictions for the first time. Time will tell if he is any better at predicting the future than the rest of us. We like to think we have a basic understanding of baseball and the Major Leagues, but ultimately we are human and humans are b ..read more

Baseball ain’t what it used to be. How many times have you heard this complaint by someone who is aggravated by the current state of the game? Baseball is forever evolving, this makes the game better over time. Not every change is good, but baseball is better today than it was in the 1890’s.   Not every player is Hall of Famer Wee Willie Keller. In 1899 he set an unbreakable record. In 570 At Bats, Keller struck out twice. It is not unusual for players to strike out twice in a single game. Keller’s 285 At Bats per Strikeout will never be approached. In 1995, Tony Gwynn was the last p ..read more

Surprising no one, we were wrong. We were wrong last year and the year before that and the year before that. It is almost certain we will be wrong this year and next year. Trying to be positive, we are consistent. The 2022 season was unpredictable, as we will demonstrate below.  Looking back at our predictions before the 2022 season, if you made it to the Postseason, you had a chance. You can run up the score in October. The Regular Season is one point for a correct prediction of each team’s final divisional standing. The scoring system changes in the Postseason: two points for predicting ..read more

The 2023 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot is filled with talented players who spent at least a decade playing on a Major League diamond. The election results will be announced tomorrow, January 24th. As is tradition, The Winning Run has filled out its own officially unofficial ballot. We have been writing about baseball for more than a decade, but we lack the credentials to be full voting members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). No matter, we humbly submit our ballot anyway. There are 28 candidates on the 2023 Hall of Fame ballot. Each hopes to join Fred McGriff, who was el ..read more

We are getting a 162 game season after all. Despite the offseason drama, baseball is settling back into normalcy. The new CBA is in place and medical science is catching up with the pandemic, allowing baseball to continue uninterrupted. The offseason lockout meant the free agent and trade markets were condensed. This created a buzz around certain teams. Were these off season moves enough to bring them a World Series championship? Time will tell.  American League East Derek Jesse John Kevin Bernie The Winning Run Blue Jays Poutine Commandos * Yankees Jays Rays Blue Jays Rays Steve I ..read more

Once the face of the Dust Bowl, Oklahoma is now thriving. The Sooner State also continues building its baseball legacy. 297 Oklahomans have played in the Major Leagues. The greatest pitcher born in Oklahoma is Harry Brecheen. His 42.23 career WAR is the 38th highest among pitching state and territory leaders. The greatest position player from the Sooner State is among the greatest ever. Mickey Mantle’s 110.17 career WAR is the 10th highest among position player leaders. Combined Oklahoma has 152.40 WAR, ranking the Sooner State 19th in the United States of Baseball.  Harry Brecheen earned ..read more

North Dakota has the fourth smallest population and is the least visited state in America. The winters can be brutal on the Great Plains, yet the Peace Garden State has sent 20 players to the Majors. The greatest pitcher born in North Dakota is Rick Helling. His 20.95 career WAR ranks 50th among state and territory leaders. The greatest position player from North Dakota is Darin Erstad. His 32.29 career WAR ranks 45th. Combined, North Dakota has a 53.24 WAR, ranking it 49th in the United States of Baseball.  There are many ways someone can be involved with baseball and Rick Helling was no ..read more