The Baseball Listicle Lineup for June 3-17, 2023

Issue #98

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 weeks June 3-17, 2023, starting with articles written by other baseball-focused Substack authors:

• The Yankees’ “Mount Rushmores” by Paul Semendinger, and En Route to Record Season, Ohtani Gets Monthly Salute From Hometown, by Dan Schlossberg, at 6/16/2023

• Rob Manfred Speaks, Nation Groans, by Molly Knight, at 6/16/2023

• Friday Rewind: Manfred Is Not the Man, by Joe Posnanski 6/16/2023

• Time for MLB Realignment?, by Thomas Holmes at 6/12/2023

• Diamondbacks, Reds Enter Summer Leading Baseball in Vibes, by Molly Knight, at 6/11/2023

• 5 Rookie Cards that Refuse to Stay Buried, by 6/11/2023

• Greatest Hitters Ever, by G. Scott Thomas, at 6/7/2023

• Which All-Time MLB Stats Will Endure?, by Mark Kolier at 6/7/2023

• Exceeding expectations, by G. Scott Thomas, at 6/6/2023

• JoeBlogs Hall of Fame: The Fifth Class, by Joe Posnanski 6/6/2023

• 5 Catcher Cards that Changed the World, by 6/4/2023

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

• Here's a crazy -- but defensible -- All-Star ballot, by David Adler, 6/17/2023

• 1 Home Run Derby contender from each team, by Will Leitch, 6/16/2023

• Acuña, Ohtani, deep drives ... oh my! Take in 10 big stats of week, by Sarah Langs, 6/16/2023

• With 6 weeks to go, 5 ideal Trade Deadline fits, by MLB.com writers, 6/15/2023

• 10 players deserving of their first All-Star nod, by Will Leitch, 6/15/2023

• Here are the All-Star Ballot standings so far, by Brian Murphy, 6/12/2023

• The current MVP Award favorites are ..., by Thomas Harrigan, 6/12/2023

• These players deserve to be first-time ASG starters, by Brian Murphy, 6/11/2023

• 6 under-the-radar hitters with a rare blend of skills, by Cole Jacobson, 6/10/2023

• From Elly to Scherzer, here are 10 mind-blowing stats from this week, by Sarah Langs, 6/9/2023

• All-Star voters face toughest choices at these 5 spots, by Will Leitch, 6/9/2023

• 8 potential trade chips who've gotten hot, by Mark Feinsand, 6/8/2023

• Who is the most deserving All-Star on every team?, by Will Leitch, 6/6/2023

• These 9 players could use a change of scenery, by Mark Feinsand, 6/3/2023

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.