The Baseball Listicle Lineup for April 5-19, 2023

Issue #80

Latest edition of this regular feature here at Now Taking the Field—a roundup of my favorite recent baseball articles. Somewhat similar to my own writing topics, I tend to like “listicles” the best—articles that are either written in list form or that make heavy use of lists and charts of data, players, rankings, etc. I’ll of course include other favorite baseball articles in these weekly round-ups, but you’ll find most will be of that type. I’ll especially be focusing on articles by other Substack baseball authors, and articles directly from MLB.com itself, but I sometimes do read articles from other sources too.

Here are my favorite articles for the week April 4-19, starting with articles written by other baseball-focused Substack authors:

• Expansion class of 1977, by G. Scott Thomas, at Baseball's Best (and Worst), 4/19/2023

• Remembering Tim McCarver, by Matthew Veasey, at Here's the Pitch: the IBWAA Newsletter, 4/19/2023

• Counting with Kershaw, by Joe Posnanski at JoeBlogs, 4/19/2023

• Coming Attractions, by G. Scott Thomas, at Baseball's Best (and Worst), 4/18/2023

• Some Thoughts on Pitch Counts, by Joe Posnanski at JoeBlogs, 4/18/2023

• 5 Tired Tax(ed) Day Baseball Cards, by Wax Pack Gods, 4/16/2023

• ‘Little Engine That Could’ Grows Into Huge Locomotive, by Dan Schlossberg, second article at Here's the Pitch: the IBWAA Newsletter, 4/15/2023

• The Golden Age Of Hitting Pitchers: 1920-1960, by Russ Walsh, at Here's the Pitch: the IBWAA Newsletter, 4/12/2023

• Expansion class of 1969, by G. Scott Thomas, at Baseball's Best (and Worst), 4/12/2023

• Sensible scheduling, by G. Scott Thomas, at Baseball's Best (and Worst), 4/11/2023

• Expansion class of 1961-1962, by G. Scott Thomas, at Baseball's Best (and Worst), 4/5/2023

Beyond Substack, these were my favorite articles from the writers at MLB.com these past two weeks:

• 9 amazing stats about Kershaw's 200 career victories, by Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru and Cole Jacobson, 4/19/2023

• The hot new pitch that's sweeping across the Majors, by Mike Petriello, 4/19/2023

• Here are the 6 most surprising stars so far in '23, by Will Leitch, 4/19/2023

• The biggest surprise for every team so far in 2023, by Will Leitch, 4/14/2023

• Will these sluggers join the 500-HR club?, by MLB writers, 4/13/2023

• These 5 Top 100 prospects could be called up next, by Jonathan Mayo, 4/11/2023

• Fun early season stats so far in 2023, by MLB writers, 4/9/2023

• These 10 hitters are off to scorching starts, by Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru, 4/8/2023

• Key trends to take away from season's 1st week, by Mike Petriello, 4/7/2023

• 2023 has already given us these 10 mind-blowing stats, by Sarah Langs, 4/6/2023

• SB success rate is up ... and it could set a new record, by David Adler, 4/5/2023

• Early impressions that are turning heads, by Will Leitch, 4/5/2023

And finally, if you are interested in daily, yet quick-read, baseball-related email newsletters, you can’t go wrong with these three:

• Baseball Reference Newsletter - recaps of yesterday's top performers, a look ahead at today's games, unique milestones and Stathead spotlights, and "On This Day" and "Born This Day" lists.

• MLB Morning Lineup - links to the latest articles, videos, and more from MLB

• Horsehide Trivia - a challenging baseball trivia question each day, from D. Bruce Brown

Did you know? I wrote a book with the same title as this Substack newsletter / blog: Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises. It was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports, the publisher of the annual Bill James Handbook and other popular titles. You can learn more about it at www.NowTakingTheField.com, or buy directly at Amazon and other booksellers.