Like all of you, over the last few weeks, I've had plenty of time to think. Between the TV watching, the news reading, the board game playing, the many hours of FaceTime talking, and the sleeping, I've been thinking. Put that way, it certainly seems like I've had a lot more to do than what it has felt like in actuality. But even with all of these engaging "activities," I've had plenty of time to think.

Of course, my mind often drifts to baseball. As COVID-19 has seemingly shut the entire world down (as it should, stay home!), baseball was no exception. Major League Baseball shuttered operations indefinitely in the middle of spring training, with the initial hope being that the league could return just a couple weeks following the scheduled Opening Day, which, unfortunately, was today. 

In the time since, the CDC announced recommendations to halt all gatherings of more than 50 people since mid-May, with the current counsel being no more than 10. Almost every college and university has moved online for the remainder of the academic year, and Virginia became the second state to shutter public schools until September earlier this week. This is certainly something that is much bigger than baseball, but baseball is impacted all the same. 

Here's a link to all of the articles that I have published at FanGraphs.

​--Devan Fink

For the Phillies, this entire offseason has centered around two words: stupid money. John Middleton, the Phillies’ principal owner and managing partner, used that wording to discuss the upcoming offseason back at its inception this past November.

Middleton’s direct quote was certainly a tad more elegant than just that. As he told USA Today, “We’re going into this expecting to spend money. And maybe even be a little bit stupid about it.’’

With those two sentences, the Phillies earned the label “team stupid money” and have worked diligently this offseason to make that come true, bringing in plenty of talent around the roster through both free agent signings and trades, all with the idea that one of the marquee free agents — Bryce Harper or Manny Machado — could be convinced to sign in Philadelphia with those piles of dough.
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Click here to read the full article on Beyond The Box Score.

As put best by whomever was running the Beyond The Box Score Twitter account at the time, “Our long, national nightmare is halfway over.”

On Tuesday, the San Diego Padres and infielder Manny Machado agreed to a ten-year, $300 million contract, the largest free agent contract in the history of American sports, Jeff Passan of ESPN and Mark Feinsand of MLB.com were the first to report.

Click here to read the full article on Beyond The Box Score.

Ian Desmond is changing positions in 2019.

This past December, the Rockies brought in free agent Daniel Murphy on a two-year, $24 million contract to play first base, the position where Desmond made 131 of his 149 starts last season.

So, when Bud Black announced last Thursday that Desmond will primarily be playing center field next season, the news of a position change was far from a shock.

Click here to read the full article on Beyond The Box Score.