https://diamondcentric.net/news-rumors/major-league-baseball/page/9/?d=1enhttps://diamondcentric.net/news-rumors/major-league-baseball/who-to-watch-in-the-wbc-bregman-at-the-hot-corner-bogaerts-leads-the-netherlands-r6658/The U.S. faces Great Britain in its second World Baseball Classic game Saturday in Houston, but there are a couple of key clashes on tap, at least if these teams want to advance out of pool play. The Netherlands, a dark horse candidate to get out of the top-heavy Pool D in Miami, lost its o...6658Sat, 07 Mar 2026 12:18:02 +0000https://diamondcentric.net/news-rumors/major-league-baseball/javier-sanojas-go-ahead-homer-leads-venezuela-to-victory-over-the-netherlands-r6663/Venezuela wasted no time putting runs on the board in their first pool play game of the 2026 World Baseball Classic, where they defeated the Netherlands by a final score of 6-2. It was Javier Sanoja's second-inning home run that gave Venezuela a lead that they wouldn't look back on. Sanoja...6663Fri, 06 Mar 2026 22:17:02 +0000https://diamondcentric.net/news-rumors/major-league-baseball/who-to-watch-in-the-wbc-bobby-witt-jr-gets-us-started-jackson-chourio-launches-venezuela-r6609/Friday marks the first full day of competition in the sixth World Baseball Classic, with the three groups playing in the U.S. joining in on the action already underway in Tokyo. Defending champion Japan opens its title defense against Chinese Taipei, while the U.S., which lost to Japan in the 20...6609Fri, 06 Mar 2026 11:11:01 +0000https://diamondcentric.net/news-rumors/major-league-baseball/who-to-watch-in-the-wbc-travis-bazzana-leads-australia-into-opener-hyeseong-kim-anchors-south-korea-r6576/The World Baseball Classic begins March 4 with Pool C in Tokyo. This pool has a dramatic time difference, which is why some teams will play what seems like two games on the same day (see the schedule below), when in fact they are on different days. Tokyo is 14 hours ahead of Eastern time (soon t...6576Wed, 04 Mar 2026 16:13:02 +0000https://diamondcentric.net/news-rumors/major-league-baseball/the-fastball-arms-race-might-be-slowing-down-r6521/There was a time when a mid-90s fastball turned heads. Now it barely gets a second look. In today’s version of Major League Baseball, velocity is no longer a separator. It is a baseline expectation. Over the last twenty years, the sport has undergone a dramatic transformation in how pitcher...6521Tue, 03 Mar 2026 16:11:01 +0000https://diamondcentric.net/news-rumors/major-league-baseball/examining-early-returns-on-mlbs-new-abs-automated-ball-strike-challenge-system-r6515/The major leagues’ newest product-improvement innovation is in full spring training flower. Baseball purists may not like it, critics of the current state of umpiring might not think it goes far enough, and it doesn’t appear likely to offend Commissioner Rob Manfred’s game pace sensibilities....6515Sun, 01 Mar 2026 22:15:02 +0000https://diamondcentric.net/news-rumors/major-league-baseball/the-new-development-curve-is-changing-how-teams-think-about-prospects-r6324/Not long ago, player development felt like it followed a fairly rigid timeline. Top prospects dominated at every level on the way up and either established themselves in the big leagues by their mid-twenties or were quietly replaced by the next wave of hype. If you were not producing by 25, the...6324Mon, 23 Feb 2026 16:15:02 +0000https://diamondcentric.net/news-rumors/major-league-baseball/hawk-eye-at-the-plate-what-fans-need-to-know-about-the-automated-ball-strike-challenge-system-r6251/MLB is getting another rule change. The 2026 season will feature the Automated Ball-Strike system for the first time in regular-season play. Baseball has been using the system at various levels of the minor leagues for several years and gave major league players a taste of it in spring training...6251Thu, 19 Feb 2026 16:12:02 +0000https://diamondcentric.net/news-rumors/major-league-baseball/building-the-ultimate-baseball-team-with-anime-characters-r6084/I have been a purveyor of anime for most of my adult life. (God knows I would be insufferable if I heavily consumed the genre as a young child.) Anime incites strong emotions – most people either love it or hate it. I think the genre is heavily misconstrued. The discourse centers on the otaku su...6084Wed, 18 Feb 2026 16:11:02 +0000https://diamondcentric.net/news-rumors/major-league-baseball/chaos-at-the-top-what-tony-clarks-exit-means-for-the-mlbpa-the-2026-cba-r6212/Tony Clark is set to resign from his position as executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director. The Athletic was the first to report Clark's decision to resign. The decision for Clark to resign comes after the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the E...6212Tue, 17 Feb 2026 21:15:00 +0000https://diamondcentric.net/news-rumors/major-league-baseball/a-random-2010-home-run-clip-sent-me-down-a-baseball-rabbit-hole-r6121/If you are one of the few real humans still exploring the flaming cesspool now known as X, the everything app, you know the tasty little algorithm will serve you posts you did not ask for but are going to be force fed anyway, like the villains in Bird Box. This is the benefit of the “For Yo...6121Tue, 17 Feb 2026 16:12:01 +0000https://diamondcentric.net/news-rumors/major-league-baseball/3-free-agent-relievers-who-can-still-help-would-be-contenders-in-2026-r6189/Of all the segments of the MLB free-agent market, the relief pitching one moved fastest. By the time the calendar flipped to 2026, there were relatively few high-leverage arms left on what hadn't been an especially robust market in the first place. Even as January and February progressed, there...6189Mon, 16 Feb 2026 19:09:02 +0000