The Baseball Listicle Lineup for January 1-15, 2025

Issue #214

The latest edition of a regular feature here at Now Taking the Field—a roundup of my favorite recent baseball articles, many though not all in the form of “listicles”—articles framed around a list of some sort or other. I continue to focus this for now on articles by other Substack baseball authors, and articles directly from MLB.com itself.

Here are my favorite articles for the weeks January 1-15, 2025, starting with articles written by other baseball-focused Substack authors:

• Hall of Fame Ballot: The Five Percenters, by at 1/14/2025

• Finding the Cliffs: Shortstop and Outfield, by at 1/13/2025

• 5 Baseball Cards that Growl from the Ivy, at 1/12/2025

• Valentine’s Day Gift: The Wonderful Watercolors of Gifted Baseball Artist James Fiorentino, by Dan Schlossberg, at 1/11/2025

• Still No ‘300 Club’ Membership For Justin Verlander, by Dan Schlossberg, at 1/11/2025

• Question... What are my go-to baseball stats?, by at 1/10/2025

• Finding the Cliffs: Second and Third Base, by at 1/10/2025

• Will the Real Corbin Carroll Please Stand Up?, by at 1/8/2025

• Finding the Cliffs: Catcher and First Base, by at 1/8/2025

• Did the Reds upgrade with Gavin Lux?, by at 1/7/2025

• Checking Chunks: A High Level View of Early Drafts, by at 1/6/2025

• 5 Baseball Cards Tailor-Made for the Diamond, at 1/5/2025

• Most Times Up In a Season—Without Ever Striking Out, by Andrew Sharp, at 1/4/2025

• Return of Injured Players Will Impact 2025 Title Chases, by Dan Schlossberg, at 1/4/2025

• The Hall, and Second Chances, by at 1/3/2025

• 3 Red Sox New Year’s Resolutions, at 1/1/2025

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

• Who landed top talent on Day 1 of the '25 int'l signing period?, by Jesse Borek, 1/15/2025

• Which teams are most likely to repeat as division champs? We rank 'em, by Will Leitch, 1/14/2025

• Here are the Top 10 catching prospects for 2025, by Sam Dykstra, 1/14/2025

• The 40 likely Hall of Famers you'll see in 2025, by Mike Petriello, 1/10/2025

• 10 free agents from last year with something to prove, by Thomas Harrigan, 1/10/2025

• 10 players who could be 2025 versions of '24's breakout stars, by David Adler, 1/10/2025

• Sasaki's potential landing spots: Ranking the contenders, by Mike Petriello, 1/8/2025

• 10 prospects impacted by trades—even though they weren't in them, by Sam Dykstra, 1/7/2025

• Who will win the next 10 World Series? Here are some educated guesses, by Will Leitch, 1/7/2025

• Here are the best players of the 2000s ... so far, by Manny Randhawa, 1/5/2025

• 8 teams with the most work to do in new year, by Brent Maguire, 1/5/2025

• 10 of the biggest 'What if?' seasons in history, by Brian Murphy, 1/4/2025

• Which players will define baseball in 2025?, by Will Leitch, 1/3/2025

• These batting stances are truly unforgettable, by Anthony Castrovince, 1/1/2025

• One potential breakout prospect for each organization in 2025, by Jim Callis, Sam Dykstra, and Jonathan Mayo, 1/1/2025

• Predicting the major award winners for 2025, by Anthony Castrovince, 1/1/2025

• 1 question each team needs to answer before Spring Training, by MLB.com writers, 1/1/2025

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.