The Baseball Buffet for 10/22/2025

Issue #432

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 210th day of the season was a day of rest before the World Series gets underway in Toronto, when the visiting Dodgers will face the Blue Jays.

Reader Survey

As the 2025 season winds down, I am conducting a reader survey! I am interested in feedback so I can plan for both the offseason and for the 2026 season too. After mentioning this in the past three days’ newsletters I’ve already gotten over 300 responses, which is a great start. But if you’ve not participated yet, I’d love to hear from you… it only takes two minutes, so thanks in advance for your feedback!

Active Leaders

I took a look at the active leaders in pitching WHIP (walks + hits, per innings pitched), and I was impressed to see the top guys have all pitched for quite a long time. This leaderboard is only for those with 1,000+ innings, but the top eight are all 34+ years old. Guys that are younger are all lower on the list. Its almost as if… keeping guys off the bases is a good strategy for longevity as a pitcher! (ha!)

• 0.986 - Jacob deGrom

• 1.018 - Clayton Kershaw

• 1.046 - Chris Sale

• 1.084 - Max Scherzer

• 1.089 - Gerrit Cole

• 1.135 - Justin Verlander

• 1.137 - Zack Wheeler

• 1.138 - Yu Darvish

• 1.149 - Aaron Nola

• 1.152 - Max Fried

Today’s Trivia Question

The above active WHIP leaderboard is actually quite impressive. Considering only pitchers since 1920 (the beginning of the so-called Live-Ball era), deGrom, Kershaw, Sale, Scherzer, and Cole are all in the top-10 list for pitchers with 1,000+ innings. Indeed, deGrom ranks first overall. How many of the other five in the top-10 can you name (lowest WHIP for pitchers since 1920, with 1,000+ innings)?

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 22…

• 1845: The first published baseball box score. “The first known box score appears in the New York Morning News a month after the first set of rules are written by Alexander Cartwright and some of his fellow New York Knickerbockers.”

• 1960: The Giants vs. Giants exhibition game. “The San Francisco Giants lose to their Tokyo counterparts, the Yomiuri Giants, 1-0, in the first of a 16-game exhibition series. San Francisco will lose again, 2-1, to the Japan All-Stars tomorrow, but will finish the series with 11 wins, four losses, and one tie.”

• 1972: The A’s win the World Series; first time for the franchise in 42 years. “The Athletics defeat Cincinnati, 3 - 2, to win their first World Series since the franchise's move to Oakland. Gene Tenace, named Series MVP, drives in two of Oakland's runs. Future Hall of Fame pitcher Jim "Catfish" Hunter earns the victory in relief.”

• 1974: The Yankees and Giants trade popular outfielders. “The New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants trade popular outfielders, drawing the ire of their fans. The Giants send Bobby Bonds to New York for Bobby Murcer. Bonds will play one season for the Yankees before being traded to the California Angels, while Murcer will last only two years with the Giants before being dealt to the Chicago Cubs.”

• 1975: The Reds win their first World Series in 35 years. “In a fitting finish to one of the most classic World Series ever played, the Cincinnati Reds beat the Boston Red Sox in a thrilling Game 7 victory, 4-3. Joe Morgan's 9th-inning looping single scoring Ken Griffey proves to be the decisive hit.”

🎂 Today’s Birthday Boys 🎉

Jimmie Foxx (1907)

• Hall of Famer

• 20-year major league career, spanning from 1925-1945, starting with 11 years for the Philadelphia Athletics, then seven for the Boston Red Sox

• Played sparingly in the majors in his first three seasons, at ages 17-19

• Started out as a catcher but quickly shifted to 1B, where his offensive production rivaled that of contemporary Lou Gehrig

• Three-time AL MVP, in 1932 and 1933 for the Athletics, and then in 1938 for the Red Sox

• Nine-time All-Star, including in 1933 when he won the AL Triple Crown with 48 HR, 163 RBI, and a .356 average

• Led the AL with 58 HR and 169 RBI in 1932, and with a career high 175 RBI in 1938

• Although he struck out a fair amount relative to his era, leading the AL seven times, he also walked a lot with seven seasons of 100+ BB

• Was a major run producer, with 100+ runs in 11 seasons, and 100+ RBI in 13 seasons

• Overall had 534 HR, 1,922 RBI, 1,751 runs, a .325/.428/.609 slash line, and a 163 OPS+

Ichiro Suzuki (1973)

• Hall of Famer

• 19-year major league career, spanning from 2001-2019, mostly with the Mariners, and then three seasons for the Marlins, and parts of three seasons with the Yankees

• Started in his home Japanese League at the age of 18, and played there from 1992-2000, batting an impressive .353 with 1,278 hits

• Debuted with Seattle in 2001 and earned both AL Rookie of the Year and AL MVP awards after leading the league with 242 hits, 56 SB, and a .350 average

• Led the AL with a .372 average in 2004, while setting a new all-time single season hits record with 262

• Had 200+ hits in 10 consecutive seasons, leading the AL seven times

• Scored 100+ runs in eight consecutive seasons, and had 25+ SB in 12 consecutive seasons

• All-Star and Gold Glove Winner in his first 10 seasons in the majors

• Overall in MLB had 3,089 hits, 1,420 runs, 509 SB, a .311/.355/.402 slash line, and a 107 OPS+

Robinson Canó (1982)

• 17-year major league career, spanning from 2005-2022, mostly with the Yankees, Mariners, and Mets (missed 2021 season due to PED suspension)

• Eight-time All-Star, and won two Gold Glove Awards at 2B

• Hit 20+ HR eight times, hit 40+ doubles seven times, scored 100+ runs five times, and had 100+ RBI four times

• Overall had 335 HR, 1,306 RBI, 1,262 runs, a .301/.351/.488 slash line, and a 124 OPS+

Wilbur Wood (1941)

• 17-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1961-1978

• Pitched sparingly during his first five seasons for Boston and Pittsburgh, then after a full year in the minors, was traded to the White Sox. There he added a knuckleball to his fastball and curveball, having gotten some help from veteran knuckleball specialist Hoyt Wilhelm.

• Was an effective reliever from 1967-1970, then converted to being a starter and pitching frequently since his knuckleball didn't stress his arm.

• Won 20+ games each year from 1971-1974, including leading the AL with 24 wins in both 1972 and 1973

• Three-time All-Star

• Overall had a 164-156 record, 57 saves, a 3.24 ERA, and a 114 ERA+

Corbin Burnes (1994)

• Pitched for the Brewers from 2018-2023, first as a reliever, and then became a starter in the short 2020 season and won the NL Cy Young Award in 2021 after leading the league with a 2.43 ERA along with 234 K in only 167 IP

• Traded to the Orioles before the 2024 season, and then signed as a free agent with the Diamondbacks for the 2025 season

• Has been an All-Star four times so far, and is recovering from Tommy John surgery which ended his 2025 campaign early

• Overall so far has a 63-38 (.624) record, a 3.15 ERA, and a 132 ERA+

Darren O'Day (1982)

• 15-year major league pitching career, spanning from 2008-2022, including seven seasons with the Orioles, and the rest spread across five clubs

• Threw with a side-arm delivery, and was a consistently good setup man and relief specialist

• Had six very effective seasons with an ERA between 2.28 or lower, including a career best 1.52 ERA in 2015 when he was selected as an All-Star for the Orioles

• Overall had a 2.59 career ERA and a 167 ERA+

Currently active players who were born on October 22 include AZ Geraldo Perdomo and SFG Jerar Encarnación.

Today’s Matchups

No game today, as we continue to await the start of the World Series, between the Dodgers and Blue Jays, which will begin on Friday in Toronto. So far, the Dodgers have announced their starter for Game 1 will be Blake Snell, while as of the time of this writing the Blue Jays haven’t made a starter choice yet.

How has Blake Snell fared against current Blue Jays’ hitters? Overall, pretty well… here are their numbers:

• George Springer, 4-15, HR

• Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 2-9, double

• Daulton Varsho, 2-8, double

• Bo Bichette, 1-7

• Anthony Santander, 1-6, HR

• Myles Straw, 1-6

• Ernie Clement, 1-5

• Davis Schneider, 1-4

• Isaiah Kiner-Falefa, 0-3

• Alejandro Kirk, 2-3

⚾ I hope you enjoyed the newsletter today!⚾
 

Today’s Trivia Answer

Here is the top-10 for lowest WHIP for pitchers since 1920 with 1,000+ innings:

• 0.986 - Jacob deGrom

• 1.000 - Mariano Rivera

• 1.018 - Clayton Kershaw

• 1.046 - Chris Sale

• 1.054 - Pedro Martínez

• 1.058 - Trevor Hoffman

• 1.084 - Max Scherzer

• 1.089 - Gerrit Cole

• 1.096 - Stephen Strasburg

• 1.101 - Juan Marichal

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.

• Breaking down 'The Decision', by Joe Posnanski at JoeBlogs, 10/21/2025

• Sho, Vladdy among the 8 players who could pivot this Series, by Will Leitch at MLB, 10/21/2025

• The juiciest World Series storylines, by Thomas Harrigan at MLB, 10/21/2025

• The strength-vs-strength battle that will decide the World Series, by Mike Petriello at MLB, 10/21/2025

• Best rookie postseason performances, by Jonathan Mayo, Jim Callis, and Mike Rosenbaum at MLB, 10/19/2025

• Players with best postseason performances, by Matt Kelly and Manny Randhawa at MLB, 10/20/2025

• The greatest single-game World Series performances of all time, by Jason Foster at MLB, 10/21/2025

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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