The Baseball Buffet for 7/25/2025

Issue #346

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 120th day of the season featured a short slate of Thursday games:

• BAL 4, CLE 3 - The Orioles jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning, including a 2-run HR by Ramón Laureano, his third in the last four games. Charlie Morton pitched fairly well (6.2 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 7 K), but let up two HR to Cleveland leadoff hitter Steven Kwan. The game was tied 3-3 through six, then in the top of the seventh, with runners on first and third, Gunnar Henderson singled to right field, driving in Alex Jackson. Gregory Soto later came in and struck out two in the ninth for his 1st save on the year.

• TOR 11, DET 4 - Jahmai Jones hit a HR for Detroit in the first inning, but Eric Lauer otherwise pitched eight strong innings (8 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K). Chad Green let up three runs in the ninth, including Spencer Torkelson’s 22nd HR of the year, but that wasn’t near enough as the Jays had scored 11 runs in frames six through eight. Toronto had HR from Ernie Clement, Joey Loperfido, and Nathan Lukes, and Vladimir Guerrero went 3-5 with a double.

• SDP 7, STL 9 - We had two veteran starting pitchers in this one, but neither performed very well: Sonny Gray (5 IP, 11 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 0 BB, 5 K) and Yu Darvish (3.1 IP, 8 H, 8 ER, 2 BB, 3 K). For the Padres, Fernando Tatis Jr. hit his 17th HR of the year, and Manny Machado hit his 19th. The Cardinals did most of their damage in the second inning, with a pair of 3-run HR by Brendan Donovan and Willson Contreras. Ivan Herrera added a solo HR in the 6th, and Ryan Helsley struck out two in the ninth inning to lock down his 20th save.

• ATH 5, HOU 2 - Houston starter Jason Alexander allowed 11 hits and 5 runs in six innings of work, including a HR by Luis Urías. Meanwhile, Luis Severino pitched well (7 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K) and Mason Miller got the last four outs for his 20th save.

• SEA 4, LAA 2 - Julio Rodriguez hit his 15th HR, and Randy Arozarena hit his 19th, both off Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi (4.2 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K). Jorge Polanco added a solo HR in the 8th as an insurance run, while Seattle starter Logan Evans did pretty well (5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K) and Andrés Muñoz took care of the ninth for his 23rd save.
  
  Something I hadn’t noticed this year, but seems noteworthy: for all of his HR heroics as a catcher, Cal Raleigh has now also scampered around the bases and somehow has 12 steals. That is twice as many as he had last year, and he only had one total SB in his first three seasons. At 28 years old now, Raleigh is doing everything!

Standings

I am providing current standings as part of The Baseball Buffet (regular standings by division most days, wild-card standings on Wednesdays) The image below is a modified version of the text-based standings at Plain Text Sports, and here also is a link to the official standings at MLB.com.

With only five games yesterday, there wasn’t much movement in the standings.

• The Blue Jays took over the sole lead for best record in the AL.

• The Mariners gained one game on the Astros in the AL West.

Today’s Trivia Question

As I noted above, Cal Raleigh not only has 39 HR this year, he also somehow has 12 SB, twice as many as his previous career high of 6 last year. At this point it seems unlikely he’ll get to 20 SB to join the 20/20 club. But it made me wonder: how many players who played 51% or more of the games in a season as a catcher did make the 20/20 HR/SB club? Turns out there have been two: can you name them? (Hint: Both have been in the past 30 years).

Who’s on the move?

In this section I won’t list 26th-man moves, or every time a team shuttles relievers back and forth to AAA to keep a stock of fresh arms in the bullpen. I’ll focus on the biggest, more impactful demotions, promotions, and injury list changes (for a full list, see all the latest MLB transactions).

➕ Sent on a Rehab Assignment

• MIL SP Robert Gasser

• CHW 1B Ryan Noda

• BOS RP Zack Kelly

• HOU SP Cristian Javier

• BAL SP Kyle Bradish

• TEX 1B/OF Joc Pederson

• HOU LF Jacob Melton

• CHC SP Javier Assad

• SFG 2B Christian Koss

• BAL 1B Ryan Mountcastle

🤕 Placed on the IL

• BAL RP Felix Bautista - 15-day IL (right shoulder discomfort)

➡️ Traded

• The Diamondbacks have traded 1B Josh Naylor to the Mariners for two prospects, LHP Brandyn Garcia (just made his MLB debut last week) and RHP Ashton Izzi (High-A level).

League Leaders

Unlike the runs scored leaderboard, the RBI leaderboard continues to be tight, especially in the AL where Judge and Raleigh are tied.

• 86 - AZ Eugenio Suárez

• 84 - NYY Aaron Judge

• 84 - SEA Cal Raleigh

• 81 - CHC Seiya Suzuki

• 80 - NYM Pete Alonso

• 79 - DET Riley Greene

• 78 - PHI Kyle Schwarber

• 76 - LAA Taylor Ward

• 74 - CHC Pete Crow-Armstrong

• 73 - SFG Rafael Devers

On this day in baseball history…

Here is what stands out to me for this day in baseball history (for a longer list, see the feature at the Baseball Almanac or the Bullpen feature at Baseball-Reference.com):

📅 On July 25…

• 1930: Two triple-steals in one game. As described at baseball-reference.com, “The A's pull off triple steals twice in one game against the Indians. Al Simmons, Bing Miller, and Dib Williams are the base thieves in the 1st inning, and Mickey Cochrane, Simmons, and Jimmie Foxx steal together in the 4th.”

• 1941: Lefty Grove wins his 300th game. As described at baseball-reference.com, “Forty-one-year-old Lefty Grove wins his 300th game as the Boston Red Sox defeat the Cleveland Indians, 10-6, before a Fenway Park Ladies Day crowd of 16,000. Though he will make six more starts, this will be Grove's last career win.”

• 1956: Roberto Clemente hits a walk-off, inside-the-park, grand slam. As described at baseball-reference.com, “Pittsburgh's right fielder Roberto Clemente hits Cubs reliever Jim Brosnan's first pitch off the cage surrounding the base of Forbes Field's left field light tower, just to the right of the scoreboard, then circles the bases just in time to become the first big league player in the post-Deadball Era to hit a walk-off, inside-the-park grand slam, turning a three-run 9th-inning deficit into a dramatic win. It is Clemente's first career grand slam.”

• 2015: Cole Hamels throws a no-hitter. As described at baseball-reference.com, “Cole Hamels of the Phillies no-hits the Cubs, 5-0, at Wrigley Field. It is the first time the Cubs have been victims of a no-hitter since 1965.”

🎂 Today’s Birthday Boys🎉

• Billy Wagner (1971) is a Hall of Famer who had a 16-year major league career as a relief pitcher, spanning from 1995-2010 and primarily spent with the Astros, Phillies, and Mets. He was Houston’s first-round (12th overall) draft pick in 1993, and had his first full major league season in 1996 posting a 2.44 ERA. He became the Astros regular closer the following year, the first of 12 in which he’d post 20+ saves. A seven-time All-Star, Wagner was a high-strikeout pitcher who had some really fantastic numbers such as 39 saves with a 1.57 ERA and 124 K in 74.2 IP in 1999, 44 saves with a 1.78 ERA and 105 K in 86 IP in 2003, and then in his age-38 and final season in 2010 with the Braves when he had 37 saves with a 1.43 ERA and 104 K in 69.1 IP. His final regular season game that season came on October 3rd, and he struck out all four batters he faced, three of them looking. He retired with 422 saves, and an impressive 2.31 ERA and 187 ERA+. His son Will Wagner is currently in his second season as an infielder with the Blue Jays.

• Doug Drabek (1962) had a 13-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1986-1998 and mostly spent with the Pirates and Astros. While with Pittsburgh he won the NL Cy Young Award in 1990 after leading the NL in wins with a 22-6 record to go with a 2.76 ERA. He was an All-Star for Houston in 1994, ending that season with a 2.84 ERA and coming in fourth in the CYA voting. Although he lost three games for the Pirates in the 1992 NLCS, he was quite effective in the NLCS the two previous years, posting a 1.15 ERA across 4 starts and 31.1 IP. Overall, Drabek had a 155-134 (.536) record and a 3.73 ERA.

• Javier Vázquez (1976) had a 14-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1998-2011, starting with six seasons in Montreal and then eight years with five other clubs. Very durable during his career, he started between 25-34 games every season, and had between 10-16 wins twelve times. He posted 200+ strikeouts five times, and overall had a 165-160 record, 4.22 ERA, and 105 ERA+.

Today’s Matchups

A full slate of Friday games (15), so we have lots of possibilities. Some games and pitchers that jump out to me are:

• PHI vs. NYY is the start of an interesting series between two teams very much in the hunt, with game 1 pitchers being Taijuan Walker (3.75 ERA, 53 K in 62.1 IP) and Will Warren (4.91 ERA, 117 K in 99 IP).

• TOR vs. DET is game two of the four-game series between two division leaders, and starters this time are José Berríos (3.87 ERA, 102 K in 121 IP) and Keider Montero (4.28 ERA, 50 K in 69.1 IP).

• CHC vs. CHW is game one of an inter-league Chicago series, and features Shota Imanaga (2.40 ERA, 53 K in 75 IP) up against Adrian Houser (1.89 ERA, 44 K in 62 IP) who has been very impressive this year but had a rough game last time out against Pittsburgh.

• NYM vs. SFG features two solid starters in Clay Holmes (3.48 ERA, 86 K In 108.2 IP) and Logan Webb (3.08 ERA, 140 K in 131.1 IP)

Other notables toeing the rubber today are MIL Freddy Peralta, SDP Nick Pivetta, TEX Nathan Eovaldi, WAS MacKenzie Gore, and SEA Bryan Woo.

HR Watch

Predicting who might hit a HR on any given day is a challenge. But here are a few to consider based on opposing SP past performance:

• NYY Aaron Judge, 4-13 with 4 HR vs. PHI Taijuan Walker

• TOR George Springer, small sample but is 3-3 with 2 HR and a double vs. DET Keider Montero

• LAA Jo Adell, small sample but is 3-3 with 2 HR vs. SEA Bryan Woo

• SDP Manny Machado, 4-17 with 2 HR and a double vs. STL Miles Mikolas

Hits Watch

If you play MLB’s Beat the Streak mobile game, or otherwise bet on/parlay players to collect hits, I’ll try to provide some good options in this section. In addition to the HR Watch guys listed above, here are some others to consider based on opposing SP past performance:

• NYY Jazz Chisholm Jr., 7-15 with 3 doubles vs. PHI Taijuan Walker

• NYM Starling Marte, 7-15 with a double vs. SFG Logan Webb

• SDP Jose Iglesias, 6-12 vs. STL Miles Mikolas

• TEX Josh Jung, small sample but is 4-6 with a HR and a double vs. ATL Joey Wentz

Who is streaking?

Active hit streaks

• 17 - MIL Jackson Chourio

• 12 - HOU Victor Caratini

• 11 - ATH Nick Kurtz

• 9 - CHW Luis Robert

• 9- CIN Matt McLain

• 8 - COL Mickey Moniak

• 7 - SDP Luis Arraez

• 7 - TBR Junior Caminero

• 7 - ATL Matt Olson

HR streaks

• 5 - LAD Shohei Ohtani

• 2 - WAS Josh Bell

• 2 - TEX Corey Seager

• 2 - CHW Colson Montgomery

• 2 - PHI Kyle Schwarber

Who might struggle today?

Betting against any given player to not get a hit is tough, as guys in the starting lineup get at least one hit in a game more often than not. That said, here are some guys who clearly have struggled against their opposing SP today:

• NYM Pete Alonso, 2-16 with 6 K though one hit was a HR vs. SFG Logan Webb

• NYM Brandon Nimmo, 1-17 with 5 K though the hit was a HR vs. SFG Logan Webb

• KCR Maikel Garcia, 1-13 with 3 K vs. CLE Gavin Williams

• KCR MJ Melendez, 2-14 with 5 K vs. CLE Gavin Williams

• KCR Bobby Witt Jr., 2-15 with 3 K vs. CLE Gavin Williams

• SEA Luke Raley, 0-10 with 3 K vs. LAA José Soriano

• DET Javier Báez, 1-13 with 2 K though the hit was a HR vs. TOR José Berríos

• CHC Nico Hoerner, 1-10 with 3 K vs. CHW Adrian Houser

⚾ Enjoy the games today!⚾
 

Today’s Trivia Answer

Cal Raleigh has 39 HR and 12 SB, so has an outside shot at making the 20/20 HR/SB cluba as a catcher this year. The only two players who have played 51% or more of their games in a season as a catcher and made the 20/20 club are:

• TEX Iván Rodríguez in 1999 with 35 HR and 25 SB

• PHI J.T. Realmuto in 2022 with 22 HR and 21 SB

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.

• Stats of the Week: From Skubal to Sho to a Rockies shutout, by Sarah Lanks at MLB, 7/24/2025

• The players most likely to be traded are ..., by Mark Feinsand at MLB, 7/24/2025

• Flamethrowing relievers could define this Trade Deadline, by Thomas Harrigan at MLB, 7/24/2025

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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