Tag / Blue Jays

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Mariners All Time Leaders – Through 2025

marinersTo paraphrase from a famous movie, the one constant through all the years has been baseball.  As we head into 2026, we continue our look at the all-time leaders in both offensive and defensive categories for all 30 teams. Today, we take a deeper dive into the Seattle Mariners.

The Mariners began life in 1977, joining the American League along with the Toronto Blue Jays to settle a lawsuit over the Pilots move to Milwaukee.  I’ve seen 306 players wearing the Mariners uniform during the 46 games I’ve attended live, including the final night game at the original Comiskey Park, the first two games of their sweep of the White Sox in the 2000 ALDS, and a visit to T-Mobile Park in 2023.

Home Runs

Name Total
Kyle Seager 6
Franklin Gutierrez 3
Richie Sexson 3
Cal Raleigh 3

Hits

Name Total
Ichiro Suzuki 19
Kyle Seager 18
Michael Saunders 12

Runs

Name Total
Ichiro Suzuki 8
Raul Ibanez 6
Kyle Seager 6
Mitch Haniger 6
J.P. Crawford 6

RBI

Name Total
Kyle Seager 11
Mike Cameron 8
Alvin Davis 7
Mitch Haniger 7
Cal Raleigh 7

Doubles

Name Total
Michael Saunders 3
Mitch Haniger 3
9 tied with 2

Triples Continue reading →

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Selling Your Soul Part II

The White Sox finally made their deal with the devil, CME Group in this case, last Wednesday, agreeing to add an advertising patch to their jerseys as part of a multiyear deal to make the company the team’s “official global exchange.”  The patches are set to make their on-field debut on February 20, when Cactus League action kicks off.

For the home pinstripes, the blue logo will be set against a white background and black border with “CME” in black lettering.  On the road grays, the blue logo will appear on a matching gray background, again with “CME” in black lettering.  The alternate black jerseys and the City Connects will feature the blue logo on a black background with “CME” in white lettering.

The White Sox become one of the last MLB teams to strike a uniform patch deal, worth an average of $7-8 million with the largest deals, believed to be with the Yankees and Blue Jays, worth over $20 million.
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Blue Jays All Time Leaders – Through 2025

jaysnewTo paraphrase from a famous movie, the one constant through all the years has been baseball.  With the hot stove in full swing, we continue our look at the all-time leaders in both offensive and defensive categories for all 30 teams.  We continue today with the defending AL Champion Toronto Blue Jays.

The Blue Jays began life in 1977, joining the American League along with the Mariners.   I’ve seen 199 players wearing a Blue Jays uniform in the 32 of their games that I’ve attended live, including a 2015 visit to their home stadium in the country of Canada.

Home Runs

Name Total
Edwin Encarnacion 2
Josh Donaldson 2
Danny Jansen 2
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 2
Whit Merrifield 2

Hits

Name Total
Vernon Wells 16
Edwin Encarnacion 11
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 10
Bo Bichette 10

Runs

Name Total
Vernon Wells 7
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 7
Bo Bichette 6

RBI

Name Total
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 9
Edwin Encarnacion 8
Jose Bautista 8

Doubles

Name Total
Vernon Wells 6
Jose Bautista 4
Lyle Overbay 3
Adam Lind 3
Justin Smoak 3

Triples Continue reading →

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2025 BBWAA Award Predictions

The Baseball Writers of America have announced the finalists for their awards for the recently completed baseball season, which will be announced next week.  It is a good bet that few of my original predictions for the winners will be accurate.  Hopefully, these new predictions will be slightly better, especially since I’ll have a 33% chance of being right.

American League

Most Valuable Player: Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh, Jose Ramirez

Judge has won this award two of the last three seasons and his performance in 2025, when healthy, would ordinarily merit a third, but I have to believe Cal Raleigh, who became just the seventh player to reach the 60-home run mark and the first to do so while catching over 1000 innings, will bring home the award.

Cy Young Award: Hunter Brown, Garrett Crochet, Tarik Skubal

With all due respect to Brown, this is a two-way race.  Skubal seemed the obvious choice through much of the season, and I am guessing he will win, but Crochet probably made it much closer down the stretch.

Manager of the Year: John Schneider, Stephen Vogt, Dan Wilson

As usual, I didn’t make any predictions for this award prior to the season.  Schneider would be the obvious choice if voting were done today, after leading the Blue Jays within inches of a title.  Dan Wilson should also get some support for finally pushing the Mariners past the Astros.  But, if I had to guess, I would say Stephen Vogt will win, after the Guardians came out of nowhere to pass the Tigers for the AL Central crown after losing Emmanuel Clase to a gambling scandal mid-year.

Rookie of the Year: Roman Anthony, Nick Kurtz, Jacob Wilson

Another award I didn’t predict prior to the season.  Kurtz should run away and hide with this award after knocking 36 home runs with an OPS+ of 173.

National League

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2025 Final Standings

After fighting back of an 0-2 hole against the Brewers in the NLDS, the Cubs dropped the decisive Game 5 last night, bringing the 2025 Chicago baseball season to a close.  Despite blowing an early season lead in the NL Central, the Cubs held on to take the top Wild Card slot and managed to advance to the second round of the playoffs.  The White Sox managed to improve on their record-setting season from 2024 and managed to not be the worst team in MLB, but still managed to lose 100 games for the third straight year.  Overall, I managed to attend 39 games, tied for my thirteenth highest total.  Along the way, I managed to see 21 of the 30 teams.

2025 Team Records

Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
St. Louis Cardinals 2 0 1.000
Toronto Blue Jays 2 0 1.000
Houston Astros 1 0 1.000
Arizona Diamondbacks 1 0 1.000
Chicago Cubs 8 2 0.800
Cleveland Guardians 3 2 0.600
Miami Marlins 1 1 0.500
Baltimore Orioles 1 1 0.500
Boston Red Sox 1 1 0.500
New York Yankees 1 1 0.500
Kansas City Royals 1 1 0.500
Chicago White Sox 15 18 0.455
Continue reading →
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2025 Predictions Revisited

Six months ago, I made my annual predictions as to who would win what in the 2025 MLB season.  With the Division Series round in full swing, it is time to revisit those predictions and see what, if anything, I got right.

American League

East: Red Sox

While the Red Sox returned to the postseason as a wild card, the Blue Jays managed to take home their first division title since 2015.

Central: Guardians

The Tigers held first place for most of the season, but a late September surge by the Guardians gave them the crown.

West: Mariners

Hey, that’s two right now.  After years of falling short, the Mariners finally held off the Astros to take home their first division title since 2001.

Wild Cards: Rays, Twins, Orioles

Not a single correct guess here.  The Twins and Orioles bottomed out, while the Rays hung around the race for most of the season, but couldn’t make a run.  Instead, the Yankees, Red Sox, and Tigers topped the wild card standings.

AL Champion: Guardians

Well, their hot run couldn’t last forever.  Since the Guardians are out, the field looks to be wide open.  What a story it would be for the Mariners to make their first World Series appearance.

Cy Young: Garrett Crochet

While Tiger starter Tarik Skubal looks to be the front-runner, Crochet has a chance to get some support here.

MVP: Julio Rodriguez

It’s going to come down to Rodriguez’s teammate Cal Raleigh or Aaron Judge, who had another monster season.

National League

Continue reading →

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Looking Ahead To 2026

Eschewing their traditional day after the All-Star Game release, Major League Baseball released their tentative 2026 schedule on a random Tuesday at the end of August.  For the fourth year in a row, MLB is keeping with a balanced schedule, playing 52 games against division opponents, 64 games against non-division opponents in the same league, and 46 interleague games, with series against every team in the opposite league.  With a young and improving White Sox team already looking ahead to next year and the Cubs trying to lock down a Wild Card spot, the 2026 season looks like it could be an interesting one for the city of Chicago.  So, for one day, at least, let’s turn our attention to next summer for both teams.

The White Sox open their season on March 26, the earliest North American start in league history, under the dome in Milwaukee against the Brewers, followed by a trip to South Beach to face the Marlins.  They open up their home schedule against the Blue Jays on April 2.

Aside from the Brewers and Marlins, the interleague schedule sees the White Sox going on the road to face the Phillies, Cardinals, Diamondbacks, and Padres, while the Pirates, Reds, Dodgers, Braves, Mets, Rockies, and Nationals make their way to Rate Field.  The rivalry with their north side foes continues with a three-game weekend series at home Wrigley Field in mid-May followed by a weekday series at Wrigley Field in mid-August.

The White Sox wrap up the 2026 season in September with series against the Twins, Guardians, and Tigers, should it matter.  The season ends at home with a three-game series against the Rockies.

On the north side, the Cubs kick off their season at home against the Nationals and the Angels before heading out on the road in early April.  Aside from the Angels, the Cubs will host the Twins, A’s, Yankees, Blue Jays, and Tigers, while travelling to visit the Mariners, Orioles, Guardians, Red Sox, and Royals.

Twelve of their 24 games in September are against their NL Central rivals, with six coming against the Brewers, which could make a difference should the Cubs find themselves in contention once again.  They end the year with a three-game road trip to Boston to face the Red Sox.

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Crossing Sides Of Town

So far in 2025, Brad Keller, Mike Tauchman, Nicky Lopez, and Reese McGuire pushed the total of players I’ve seen take the field in person for both the Cubs and the White Sox to 47.  With the final round of crosstown kicking off tonight at Rate Field, here’s a look at those players, in alphabetical order.

David Aardsma

After posting a decent season with the Cubs in 2006, Aardsma was traded to the White Sox for Neal Cotts.  Aardsma lasted one season with the Sox, where he was unable to duplicate his success from the year before.

Jason Bere

Drafted by the White Sox in the 36th round in 1990, Bere debuted with the big-league club in 1993, finishing 2nd in Rookie of the Year voting.  After an All Star selection in 1994, injuries marred the remainder of his tenure on the South Side, which ended in 1998.  He resurfaced with the Cubs in 2001 and had a decent season, but he went 1-10 in 2002 before being let go.

Emilio Bonifacio

Bonifacio spent back-to-back partial seasons in Chicago, first for the Cubs in 2014 after signing as a free agent, where he played decently enough to be flipped at the trade deadline, along with James Russell, to the Braves for a young catching prospect by the name of Victor Caratini.  He returned to Chicago in 2015, signing with the White Sox, where he he did not do well at all, hitting .167 in 47 games before being released in August.

Welington Castillo

Debuting with the Cubs in 2010, Castillo spent time behind the plate for the Cubs until May of 2015, when, having been replaced in the starting lineup by Miguel Montero, he was flipped to the Mariners.  He returned to Chicago in 2018 after signing with the White Sox as a free agent.  On May 24th of that season, he was suspended 80 games for a violation of the PED policy.  The White Sox then cut bait following the 2019 season, shipping him off to the Rangers.

Neal Cotts

Acquired by the White Sox in the Billy Koch trade, he debuted with the team in 2003.  He was a key contributor in the bullpen during the 2005 championship season and was the only relief pitcher to appear in all 3 rounds of the playoffs that season.  Following the 2006 season, he was traded to the Cubs for David Aardsma, and he spent the next 3 injury filled seasons on the North Side.

Scott Eyre

Joining the White Sox organization in a 1994 trade with the Rangers, he debuted with the big-league team in 1997.  He split the next 4 seasons between the rotation and the bullpen, not to mention between Chicago and Charlotte, before being moved to the Blue Jays following the 2000 ALDS loss to the Mariners.  He joined the Cubs as a free agent for the 2006 season and enjoyed 2 seasons of relative success, before falling apart in 2008, when he was traded to the Phillies.

Clint Frazier

After missing the second half of 2021 with an injury, Frazier was DFA’d by the Yankees.  He signed a deal with the Cubs that offseason, though he notched just 45 plate appearances before being DFA’s once again.  He chose to finish the year in the Cubs system before becoming a free agent following the season.  After failing to catch on with the Rangers, he signed a minor league deal with the White Sox, eventually hitting .197 in 33 games with the big-league club.

Kosuke Fukudome Continue reading →

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Fitbit XI – Week 25

A great week which extended my 30,000-step week streak to nine while scoring my highest total in nearly a year.  The week got off to a strong start on Sunday, scoring 4500 steps.  A day off of work with a nighttime trip to Rate Field on Monday saw a nice increase, crossing my daily step goal with 8600 steps.  Another vacation day and another tilt between the Blue Jays and the White Sox on Tuesday left me just shy of my daily step goal with 7200 steps.  The end of my time off saw a big drop on Wednesday but still left me with 5300 steps.  Thursday saw me going back to work, leading to just 4300 steps.  The unveiling of Mark Buehrle’s statue on Friday put me back up to 6900 steps.  Another game, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the 2005 World Series champions, got me to 5300 steps on Saturday to wrap up the week.

Total steps: 42,281

Daily average: 6040.1

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2025 All Star Break Standings

We reach the traditional (if not numerical) midpoint of the 2025 baseball season as the Midsummer Classic lands in Atlanta for the third time.  As the stars of the baseball world gather at Truist Park for tonight’s showdown, it’s time to take a look at the team records for the 23 games, featuring 57% of the teams in the league, that I attended in the first half of the baseball season.

2025 Team Records

Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
Chicago Cubs 3 0 1.000
St. Louis Cardinals 2 0 1.000
Toronto Blue Jays 2 0 1.000
Houston Astros 1 0 1.000
Arizona Diamondbacks 1 0 1.000
Cleveland Guardians 2 1 0.667
Miami Marlins 1 1 0.500
Boston Red Sox 1 1 0.500
Kansas City Royals 1 1 0.500
Chicago White Sox 9 12 0.429
Milwaukee Brewers 0 1 0.000
San Diego Padres 0 1 0.000
Colorado Rockies 0 1 0.000
San Francisco Giants 0 1 0.000
Seattle Mariners 0 1 0.000
Texas Rangers 0 1 0.000
Los Angeles Angels 0 1 0.000