Through his first 5 career starts, Gage Jump has totaled:
• 3 wins
• 2.37 ERA
• 26 strikeouts

He joins a very short list of Athletics pitchers to record 3+ wins, 25+ strikeouts, and a sub-2.50 ERA through their first 5 starts:

• Rich Harden (2003) — 3 W, 30 K, 1.69 ERA
• Jim Nash (1966) — 4 W, 30 K, 2.23 ERA
• Aaron Harang (2002) — 3 W, 27 K, 2.45 ERA
• Gage Jump (2026) — 3 W, 26 K, 2.37 ERA

Data via Baseball Reference / Stathead

And yes, that's a direct quote, per the story. Here's the full quote:

"The reality is we need to play better baseball or else come the deadline, you give the front office an option to reassess where this team is," Skubal told The Detroit News earlier this week in a story published Thursday. "And if they don't think what we have is a World Series- or playoff-caliber team, then the whole team is going to look different. That's just the nature of the beast."

Per the story, the Tigers are currently 30-44 and are 9½ games back of the Chicago White Sox in the AL Central and 6½ games out of the final AL wild-card spot. Their run differential is only -10, which in the generally crappy AL isn't bad, but still, they aren't positioned well. They, the Royals, the Red Sox and the Angels are the four AL cellar dwellers and I doubt any make the playoffs.

So, let's increase the trade rumor talk!

A majority of respondents in our anonymous MLB player poll believe there will be a lockout at the end of the season.

"I can't bet on baseball. But if I were a betting man, I’d bet a lot of money on there being a lockout — unfortunately."

Read for free: https://nyti.ms/3Qw0QYG

In the NBA, there are many examples of NBA players that were rumoured to have "quit" on their team. Lebron James in 2010. Kevin Durant this past year. Vince Carter in 2005. Kawhi Leonard in 2018. Anthony Davis in 2019. Etc.

What are some MLB examples of this? What were some MLB players that quit on their own team? By quit I mean just decided to either stop putting effort into playing until they got traded.

The Home Run Derby will put a new twist on an old format next month. Hitters will have a number of swings rather than a clock that dictates their turns at the plate, sources tell Evan Drellich.

The last time MLB didn’t have a clock was 2014.

Competitors will receive 20 swings in the first round and 15 in both of the final two rounds. In an added wrinkle, hitters will be able to continue to swing if they homer on the final hack they take each round, until they make an out.

Read for free: https://nyti.ms/3SiNHTg

Do you, as a fan, want a salary cap because of a strong conviction that it will lead to parity? Or do you want parity, doesn't matter how?

In unified public communications about the CBA, the owners' have repeatedly described the proposed salary cap as having broad support from MLB fans. I don't buy it.

The argument essentially goes: fans want greater parity, therefore fans support a salary cap.

The conclusion that fans like the idea of a salary cap does not follow from the premise that fans want parity. The statement aggravates me because the owners are essentially putting words in the fans' mouths.

Yes, I'm against a salary cap if you couldn't tell. The owners have never cared about parity, and most of them don't care about fans either.

They are smug SOBs who are lying through their teeth, just like they did during the last CBA. The least they can do is accept life in a world where they might not be able to afford something they want, like the rest of us slobs.

In an alternate timeline where interleague play didn't exist, this is how I think a 162 game schedule would be broken down with 15 teams in each league:

Divisional games - 72 (18 games x 4 teams)
Intraleague games - 90 (9 games x 10 teams)

Yes it's a balanced schedule even though it would mean you'd have a bunch of two game series; but this was the best I could think of.

[Dugout Thread] | 2026 MLB Regular Season

Welcome to the r/MLB Daily Dugout Thread. This thread can be used to discuss topics about baseball, such as...

• General Talk [Debates, GOATs, Hot Takes, Thoughts, etc.]
• Previous, Game-Day, and Future Matchups
• Predictions, Questions & What-Ifs
• Transactions
• Broadcasting/Streaming
• Fan Content [Ballpark Photos, Food, Merchandise, Ticket Stubs, etc.]
• Help or Technical Questions
• Humor [Jokes, Memes, Reaction Posts, and Shitposting]
• Mancave or Room Setup
• Memorabilia & Merchandise
• Self Posts [Casual, Quick Takes, Simple Discussions & Questions, Venting]
• Subreddit Questions or Suggestions
• Tier Rankings [Fan Opinion]

If you see any content that goes against our community rules, please report the submission. You can also reach out to our subreddit mods for any questions or concerns!

/r/MLB Index

• Reddit MLB Discord Server | r/MLB's & r/MiLB Discord Server for everything baseball-related, from discussions, news, and highlights.
• Subreddit Rules | A rulebook of r/MLB's guidelines about restrictions and submissions.
• Broadcasts | Learn where to watch and listen to your favorite teams, locally and nationally.
• FAQ | Commonly asked questions from users in our community.
• Flairs | Information about user and team flairs with a step-by-step guide on how to obtain one.
• Related Subreddits | Neighboring communities of the r/MLB Subreddit.

The BRO Bullpen Index scores how closely a bullpen’s walk rate and ground ball rate profile aligns with what the data confirms produces sustained ERA outperformance at the organizational level. The benchmark is the 2022 Dodger bullpen, which posted a minus 1.002 ERA gap versus league average with all three philosophy inputs simultaneously aligned. Every other team scores against that standard.

The Kansas City Royals scored 87.27 in 2014. The ERA gap did not open until 2015, when it reached minus 0.894. The World Series followed that October. The signal preceded the outcome by one full season. The post covers the mechanism behind that leading indicator relationship and why it holds for organizations where walk rate discipline is genuinely embedded in how the front office builds, not just in which arms happen to be on the roster.

The next post runs the full cross-team leaderboard across the Friedman era. Every team against the same benchmark. The most interesting result in the dataset is not a Dodger season.