The Baseball Buffet for 10/19/2025

Issue #428

The goal with The Baseball Buffet series is to provide the best daily dose of relevant baseball info in a smart-brevity format (mostly short bullets, getting to the point, with quick analysis/insights.) Think of it like what baseball fans of a certain age would look forward to in their morning newspaper’s sports section each day!

⚾ Welcome! ⚾

The 206th day of the season ended up being a day off, since the Dodgers swept the Brewers in four games. They await whoever wins the ALCS, where the Mariners currently lead the Blue Jays three games to two.

Reader Survey

As the 2025 season winds down, I am conducting a reader survey! I did one very early during the season, and that gave me valuable insights that helped me add new features throughout the past several months. The number of readers of The Baseball Buffet has continued to grow significantly throughout the season, so I want to do a similar reader survey again, so I can get your feedback and plan for both the offseason and for the 2026 season too! It only takes two minutes — thanks in advance for your feedback.

Active Leaders

With no games to report on above, today I’ll cover the active leaders for both runs and RBI. First up, here are the active players (12) with 1,000+ runs:

• 1,379 - Freddie Freeman

• 1,290 - Andrew McCutchen

• 1,280 - Paul Goldschmidt

• 1,236 - Jose Altuve

• 1,196 - Mike Trout

• 1,166 - Mookie Betts

• 1,154 - Bryce Harper

• 1,107 - Carlos Santana

• 1,082 - Manny Machado

• 1,033 - Christian Yelich

• 1,011 - Francisco Lindor

• 1,001 - José Ramírez

Then similarly here are the active players (10) with 1,000+ RBI:

• 1,322 - Freddie Freeman

• 1,232 - Paul Goldschmidt

• 1,184 - Nolan Arenado

• 1,169 - Giancarlo Stanton

• 1,152 - Andrew McCutchen

• 1,144 - Manny Machado

• 1,136 - Carlos Santana

• 1,051 - Bryce Harper

• 1,018 - Mike Trout

• 1,016 - Salvador Perez

Today’s Trivia Question

George Springer’s latest HR was his 22nd postseason homer, and tied him with Bernie Williams for fourth all-time. Who are the three players with more postseason HR?

On this day in baseball history…

Here is what stands out to me for this day in baseball history. Unless otherwise noted, the descriptions are from baseball-reference.com.

📅 On October 19…

• 1946: The Yankees gave up Joe Gordon in a trade for pitcher Allie Reynolds. “The New York Yankees acquire pitcher Allie Reynolds from the Cleveland Indians for former American League MVP Joe Gordon and third baseman Eddie Bockman. Reynolds has struggled with Cleveland, losing 15 of 16 decisions during the season. He will reverse his fortunes in 1947, winning 19 games for the World Series champion Yankees.”

• 1949: The White Sox trade with the Philadelphia Athletics to acquire 21-year old Nellie Fox. “The Chicago White Sox make one of the best trades in franchise history when they acquire future Hall of Fame second baseman Nellie Fox for backup catcher Joe Tipton. Fox will win the American League MVP in 1959.”

• 1987: Billy Martin is hired to manage the Yankees for the fifth time. “Controversial Billy Martin is named manager of the Yankees for a fifth time, replacing Lou Piniella, who replaced Martin and is moved to general manager. Piniella led the Yankees to an 89-73 record in 1987, fourth in the AL East.”

• 2004: The bloody sock game. “Curt Schilling, pitching on a dislocated ankle tendon held down by three sutures put in the day before, gives up one run over seven innings as the Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees, 4-2, to save their season for the third day in a row and force a winner-take-all Game 7 in their American League Championship Series.”

🎂 Today’s Birthday Boys 🎉

Mordecai Brown (1876)

• Hall of Famer

• 14-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1903-1916, mostly with the Cubs, but with brief stints with five other clubs

• Led the NL with a microscopic 1.04 ERA in 1906

• Had 20+ wins six times, including a 29-9 record in 1908, and a 27-9 mark in 1909

• Nicknamed "Three Finger Brown" because of a farm-machinery accident in his youth, where he lost parts of two fingers on his right hand. As a pitcher, he leveraged this fact to throw a unique curveball.

• Overall had a 239-130 (.648) record, a 2.06 ERA, and a 138 ERA+

José Bautista (1980)

• 15-year major league career, spanning from 2004-2018

• He was drafted by the Pirates in the 20th round in 2000, and his career was slow to develop. He showed power in the minors, but also struck out a lot, and that led him to be moved around between several clubs, including the Pirates, Orioles, Rays, Royals, and back to the Pirates.

• After later being traded from the Pirates to the Blue Jays, getting more playing time, and making some adjustments to his swing, he finally broke out in his age-29 season to lead the AL with 54 HR to go with 109 runs and 124 RBI. He led the AL again with 43 HR in 2011, while also pacing the league with 132 walks, the result of much greater plate discipline he had developed by then.

• Six-time All-Star

• Had 25+ HR six times, 100+ RBI four times, and 100+ runs four times

• Overall had 344 HR, 1,022 runs, 975 RBI, a .247/.361/.475 slash line, and a 124 OPS+

Michael Young (1976)

• 14-year major league career, spanning from 2000-2013, almost all with the Rangers

• Started out as a 2B, then shifted to SS, then later to 3B, winning a Gold Glove Award as a SS in 2008

• Seven-time All-Star

• A high-average hitter, he led the AL with a .331 average and 221 hits in 2005

• Scored 100+ runs four times, and had some power, hitting 20+ HR four times

• Overall had 185 HR, 1,137 runs, 1,030 RBI, a .300/.346/.441 slash line, and a 104 OPS+

Keith Foulke (1972)

• 11-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1997-2008, mostly with the White Sox, Red Sox, and A's

• Was an All-Star in 2003 when he had a 2.08 ERA and led the AL with 43 saves

• Posted 30+ saves four times

• During his six-year peak from 1999-2004 (a high-offensive era) he had a 2.43 ERA, 195 ERA+, and 171 saves

• Was a key member of the 2004 Boston Red Sox World Series champions, with 32 saves and a 2.17 ERA during the regular season, and 3 saves and a 0.64 ERA in 14 innings in the postseason

• Overall had 191 saves, a 3.33 ERA, and a 140 ERA+

Bob O'Farrell (1896)

• 21-year major league career as a catcher, spanning from 1915-1935, mostly with the Cubs, Cardinals, and Giants

• Only played 100+ games in four seasons, but provided great defense behind the plate and was a capable batsman, hitting .324 in 1922 and .319 with career highs of 12 HR and 84 RBI in 1923

• In 1926 he won the NL MVP Award after batting .293, with 7 HR and 9 triples and helping lead the Cardinals to the World Series championship over the powerful New York Yankees. Indeed, he threw out Babe Ruth trying to steal second base for the final out in game seven.

• Overall he had a .273 average and .360 OBP for his career

Mark Davis (1960)

• 15-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1980-1997, mostly with the Giants, Padres, Royals, and Phillies

• After beginning as a starter, had more success as a reliever, first with the Giants, and then as a closer for the Padres.

• Was an All-Star in 1988 with a 2.01 ERA and 28 saves, and then again in 1989 when he took home the NL Cy Young Award after posting a 1.85 ERA and a league-leading 44 saves

• He struggled after that, with a 5.37 ERA and only 11 saves in 208 games over his final six seasons

• Overall had 96 saves and a 4.17 career ERA

Currently active players who were born on October 19 include TOR Anthony Santender, ATH Zack Gelof, SDP Bryan Hoeing, and STL Tyler Matzek.

Today’s Matchups

Today we have game six of the ALCS, back in Toronto:

• SEA vs. TOR at 8:03pm ET - Seattle will try to make their first World Series with Logan Gilbert who has a 2.45 ERA, 11 K in 11 IP in the postseason, and had a 3.44 ERA and 173 K in 131 IP during the regular season. Toronto will fight to play a game seven by pinning their hopes on 22-year old rookie Trey Yesavage, who has had moments of brilliance in his first five major league starts, but was roughed up by the Mariners on Monday, giving up 5 runs in 4 innings.

⚾ Enjoy the game today! ⚾
 

Today’s Trivia Answer

The three players with more post-season HR than George Springer and Bernie Williams, each of whom have 22, are as follows:

• 29 - Manny Ramírez

• 27 - Jose Altuve

• 23 - Kyle Schwarber

Good Reads

Here I am providing one or more links to baseball articles I’ve enjoyed recently, whether by writers at MLB.com or elsewhere.

• Mariners-Blue Jays ALCS Game 6 FAQ (8 p.m. ET, FS1), at MLB, 10/18/2025

• 5 ways Ohtani could make World Series history, by Anthony Castrovince at MLB, 10/18/2025

See recent issues of The Baseball Buffet for more recent good reads!

Did you know? I wrote a 600+ page book with the same title as this newsletter/blog? Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports. It is available at Amazon and most other major booksellers.

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