The Baseball Listicle Lineup for July 1-15, 2023

Issue #109

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 July 1-15, 2023, starting with articles written by other baseball-focused Substack authors:

• Friday Rewind: WAR, What Is It Good For?, by Joe Posnanski at 7/14/2023

• Trading Draft Picks, by 7/13/2023

• Era’s best first basemen, by G. Scott Thomas at 7/13/2023

• Dodgers Trade Targets: Relief Pitcher Department, by Howard Cole at 7/13/2023

• Half of a Cy, by G. Scott Thomas at 7/12/2023

• Comparing All-Star Lineups, by 7/11/2023

• Going Deep on the Home Run Derby, by Joe Posnanski at 7/11/2023

• 5 Baseball Cards that Need a Break, by 7/9/2023

• A Pitcher with Uniform Number 1? It’s Happened Before, by Andrew Sharp, and Why the Disabled List Isn’t the Disabled List, by Dan Schlossberg, at 7/8/2023

• Your Midseason National League Update, by Joe Posnanski at 7/6/2023

• Era’s best catchers, by G. Scott Thomas 7/6/2023

• The Anti-Home Run Derby: 8 Players I’d Love To See Battle It Out, by Elizabeth Muratore at 7/5/2023

• Your Midseason American League Update, by Joe Posnanski at 7/5/2023

• MLB First Half Observations, by Benjamin Chase at 7/3/2023

• Luis Arraez's Chances of Beating the Odds, by Ben Hatch at 7/3/2023

• 5 Baseball Cards That Cover Both Halves, by 7/2/2023

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

• 10 potential trade chips on the rise -- and where they could land, by Mark Feinsand, 7/15/2023

• Ranking division races for stretch run, by Will Leitch, 7/15/2023

• These injury recoveries will be most impactful in the second half, by by Henry Palattella, 7/14/2023

• Our favorite Draft picks -- one for each team, by Sam Dykstra, Jim Callis, and Jonathan Mayo, 7/13/2023

• One key second-half player to watch for each club, by MLB.com writers, 7/13/2023

• What each team learned in the first half, by MLB.com writers, 7/12/2023

• These teams scored the best '23 Draft hauls, by Jim Callis, 7/12/2023

• 7 second-half storylines to keep your eye on, by Manny Randhawa, 7/12/2023

• Here's who has been helped (or hurt) by the shift limits, by Mike Petriello, 7/12/2023

• 6 trade targets to watch after the break, by Mark Feinsand, 7/12/2023

• Which 2023 Draft prospects are on the fast track to the bigs?, by Jim Callis, 7/11/2023

• Team-by-team breakdown of the 2023 All-Stars, by MLB.com writers, 7/9/2023

• Among All-Stars, who's the best of the best?, by Will Leitch, 7/9/2023

• We are 100 days into a thrilling and historic season, by Manny Randhawa, 7/7/2023

• These are the top pitches of the first half of the season, by Brent Maguire, 7/7/2023

• Let's predict the 2028(!) All-Star lineups, by Will Leitch, 7/5/2023

• How the biggest recent Deadline rentals fared, by Henry Palattella, 7/2/2023

• ASG deep dive: 11 fun facts on this year's rosters, by Sarah Langs, 7/2/2023

• 9 unlikely All-Stars on this year's rosters, by Manny Randhawa, 7/2/2023

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.