Baseball Prospectus | Rachel McDaniel: An interesting and thoughtful analysis of Mychal Givens working into and out of jams.
FanGraphs | Travis Sawchik: Here’s an interesting idea for the Reds: what if they just put Billy Hamilton on base more often? He has a 59 wRC+, so if they just put him in as a pinch hitter on the first non-Joey Votto on base, then it would cut down on about 20% of his plate appearances while maximizing his best tool, while also using his defense for most of the game.
The Ringer | Ben Lindbergh: The Mariners are fluking their way into playoff contention, and who cares? They’re better than a lot of other fluke teams, and while a lot of their over-performance is because of outplaying normal luck in close games, a lot of it also came from a ton of trades, and just plain ‘ole over-performance from starting players like Jean Segura and Mitch Haniger.
The Athletic | Jayson Stark ($): Baseball is likely going to considering expansion soon, and that means a host of other changes are likely on the table as well: universal designated hitter, new divisions, changed schedules, changed playoffs, are all among the changes considered that would be rolled out with two new teams.