VOLUME:LII ... 1 June 2026
LATEST NEWS
I was sorry to have Jim Kockler resign at the end of last month. Jim said it was due to health reasons and did not go into further detail. I did ask if he wanted a temporary pause and he replied with a firm no. Jim is a terrific guy and I hope at some point in the future he can return to the league. As you know from my emails his replacement will be Darrell Skogen. Darrell's been around a while and is in his mid-70s. He's been playing APBA since 1962. A former league commissioner he's been in the TBL since 2003 and the LDBA since 2018. He's done replays of seasons 1954-1975. He's one of the founding fathers of the TCAPBA Baseball tournament that plays in the Twin Cities twice a year, first week in both April and October. Darrell says, "I pride myself on the ability to build a team back in two to three years no matter how bad a shape it is in when I begin with it. The fun is in creating the teams; the play itself is just the residual of that building. I have two championships in all the leagues I have played in since 1979, but I have a string of division championships and wild card appearances that meets my need to be close to the top when all is said and done. Looks like I have some work with this team--rolling up my sleeves and getting ready to go.".... I welcome Darrell and his Minnesota Magicians as they begin a long stay in our league.
We had two no-hitter last month. Tyler Glasnow (Atl) tossed a 4bb/11k one at Philadelphia. Matt Liberatore (Iro) had a 2bb/9k outing at Rochester. We also had two new records. Kentucky batters got drilled 9 times (at home/4g) vs Rochester and it should be noted that they hit Rochester batters 6 times. The other record was set by Eugenio Suarez (Ottawa) who whiffed 14 times (away/5g) at San Luis Obispo. Both of those records set during on-line games.
HARWELL DIV:
Albuquerque continues to lead here. They were 10-8 (3-6 online) last month and now have a 5 game lead. The Horsemen are +44 in run differential and have the leagues best team batting avg (239)... In 2nd place, somehow with a whopping -115 run diff the worst batting team batting average, is San Luis Obispo. It's not that they have great pitching either because they are one of the worst in ERA. Clutch baby! The Stallions were 6-12 (3-6 online) last month and are 5 back... Just a game behind them in 3rd is Kentucky after going 9-9 (5-4 online) last month. The Blue Grass Boppers are +11 in run diff... Chesapeake has 4th place ten out of first after going 6-12 (3-6 face to face) in May. El Birdos are -17 in run diff... At the bottom one behind El Birdos is Atlanta and their train wreck home record of 9-20. The Black Crackers were 7-11 last month and are -13 in run diff.
CARAY DIV:
It's still quite the three team battle going on in this group with just one game separating the top three. Lake Forest is tied for first after a 17-10 (11-8 online) month. The Timbers have a +50 run diff... Tied with them is Rochester who were 17-10 (10-8 online) last month. The Robins are +64 in run diff... Just a game behind those is Syracuse who were 18-9 (6-3 online) in May. The Blue's run diff is +64 as they try to ride hitting over mediocre pitching... Philadelphia is 4th but only 5 back of the top two. The Quakers were 14-13 last month and their run diff is dead even... In the cellar is Laurel Highlands, 16 games out. The Mustangs had a 12-15 (6-3 online) month and a terrible -90 in run diff.
ALLEN DIV:
Ottawa still top dog in this division sporting a 3 game lead. The Fat Cats had a 13-14 (7-11 online) month. They hit the ball hard! League best in OPS (746), most dingers (131), most total bases and the best run diff of +76 and a league best 2.86 ERA... Bennett Run holding down 2nd after going a very nice 18-9 in May and making this a race. The Boilermakers only +2 in run diff... In 3rd, just a game behind Ben Run is Burnsville. The Blaze were 15-11 last month and their run diff is +67... In fourth is Sarasota 13 games out of first. The BucO's were 12-15 last month and are -44 in run diff... Dead last and 21 games back is the old Iron City now Minnesota boys. They were sad 6-21 last month and their -104 run diff is the worst in the league as is their ERA.
TEAM STATS:
What stands out? Just three teams have scored 300 runs and Syracuse's 332 the best while San Luis Obispo is the only team under 200 runs at 181. Only three teams have a 300 OBP and Albuquerque's 315 is tops. Two teams have over 1000 total bases and Ottawa's 1013 in 10 better than Syracuse. Syracuse at 259 (135-9-115) has one more extra base hit than Ottawa. Burnsville is number one is putting runners on base with 758. Laurel Highlands has the most steals (61) which isn't a big deal for Bennett Run (20). Albuquerque, Kentucky & Rochester batter get hit a lot. Nobody is better than Lake Forest in hitting into doubleplays but Bennett Run is pretty good at it too. San Luis Obispo offense isn't very offensive. They're dead last in team batting (198), runs scored (181), extra base hits (157), total bases (654) and runners on base (537) but they seldom hit into doubleplays..... Only Ottawa & Burnsville have team ERA's in the twos while Iron City (Minnesota) is almost at five. Lake Forest completes a lot of games. Burnsville tosses a bunch of shutouts. Iron City (Minnesota) tops in gopher balls but Philly is not bad but Ottawa and Burnsville pitchers are really good at keeping it on the ground. Free passes galore handed out in Laurel Highlands. Syracuse staff whiffs a ton of batters. Nobody has a WHIP under 1.00 but Ottawa is at that number.
PLAYER STATS:
Aaron Judge (Syr) still the man in hitting. Number 99 is the only one hitting over 300 (353), over 400 OBP (429), over 700 SLG (766) and over 1000 OPS (1195). Shohei Ohtani (Syr) on top in ribbies, Judge and Schwarber (Ken) chasing him. Cal Raleigh (Ott) is one better, at 25, than Judge in hitting bombs. Freddie Freeman (Phi) top dog in hits. Two guys with 20+ steals, Elly De La Cruz (LHi) is tied with Juan Soto (Lak) at 21. Michael Busch (Ott) and Aaron Judge (Syr) the only ones with 40 extra base hits. Nobody is better than Ian Happ (Sar) in drawing walks. The breeze courtesy of James Wood (Phi) who's whiffed almost 100 times already. Jackson Holliday (Sar) league worst 149 batting average isn't making his rookie season look good but some well known names with him on that worst batting average list such as Albies, Bellinger, Betts..... Pitching side of the boards show four with in ERA's in the ones. Paul Skenes (Bur) the best at 1.29, followed by Kershaw (Ott), Holmes (Bur) and Rodon (Che). Garrett Crochet (Roc) & Nick Lodolo (Phi) both at 9-1 records. Skenes (Bur) way, way out in front in racking up K's. We have 9 pitchers with WHIP under one and Carlos Rodon (Che) the best at 0.62. In the stat head area, not only does he have a cool name but Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Lak) is on tops in K/9 at 12.8 but Jesus Luzardo (Syr) is also over 12 per 9. Paul Skenes (Bur) is the only one with K/BB ratio in the sixes. Carlos Rodon (Che) is allowing less than four hits per 9. If you think Spencer Strider (Min) and his 7.35 ERA is horrific, what about Noah Cameron (SLO) and his 7.74 ERA?. Think fans pack the house when Colin Rea (Che) takes the hill? He's 1-9 in WL.
PLAYERS PAGE TWO:
Nobody has scored yet on Kyle Finnegan (LHi) who's ERA stands at 0.00 after 11.3ip but Jimmy Herget (Roc) ain't bad with a 0.53 after 34.0ip. In 1967 the Beatles released "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club" and in 1967 the Packers beat the Chiefs is Super Bowl I and in 1967 the Big Mac came out at 45 cents and Corbin Burnes (Lak) has a league worst 19.67 ERA after two starts for 3.7 innings. That said, he does have a league best 17.2 K/9 rate on 7 k's. Shawn Armstrong (Ott) has a 5-0 WL record and at 0-6 we have Bailey Ober (Min) & Jordan Leasure (LHi). Luke Weaver (Bur) has been in 48 games. Four pitchers, Mitch Keller (Sar), Drew Rasmussen, Will Warren (Syr) and Gavin Williams (Alb) have 3 complete games. Merrill Kelly (Roc) has been touched up for 22 bombs in 83.7ip while no one got Jimmy Herget (Roc) in 34.0ip. Robbie Ray (SLO) has given out 39 walks in 70.0ip and no one has ever walked on Cole Sands (Atl) in 8.0ip. Tanner Scott (Che) has 1 bb and 18k's for a league best 18.0 K/BB rate..... Edgar Quero (Alb) is even better than Judge with a 500 batting avg (1h/2ab) and Yainer Diaz (Syr) is looking for a hit after 8 at bats. Just Sayin' Brandon Lowe (Syr) is 18 for 142 which is a 127 batting avg. How is he playing? Gavin Lux (Min) still looking for an extra base hit after 39 ab's. Franciso Lindor (Roc) has scored 48 runs and Colt Keith (Bur) has yet to score in 7 games. Jacob Wilson (Ben) has been caught 6 times in 10 tries while Jake Mangum (LHi) or Corbin Carroll (Atl) are perfect 16 for 16. Francisco Lindor (Roc) has been drilled 15 times and at 0 in 290 plate apps is Mike Yastrzemski (Sar). Tyler Soderstom (Min) has 6 sac flies and of the leagues 10 bunts, Masyn Winn (Lak) has 2. Ketel Marte (Lak) & Pete Alonso (Roc) have hit into 13 GiDP's and that has never happened in 185 PA's for Alejandro Kirk (Atl). Dansby Swanson (Ott) has made 16 errors.
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THE SHOW
From Jayson Stark
All you had to do was look at the minor-league data to predict we’d hear those magic words, ball four, a little more this season. But this much more? Who knew! Thanks to the newfangled robotized strike zone that is empowering the Automated Ball-Strike challenge system (ABS), we’re seeing one of the biggest explosions in walk rates in the last 75 years.
- MOST WALKS PER GAME SINCE 1951
- 2000 — 3.75
- 1999 — 3.68
- 1955 — 3.66
- 2026 — 3.59
So at this rate, we’re headed for over 2,000 more walks this year than last year. Is that good? But wait. It’s actually worse than that. What if we ignore intentional walks and just look at the rate of unintentional walks? Intentional walks became an official stat in 1955. Take a look at the rate of unintentional walks in the 72 seasons since, calculated by percentage of all plate appearances.
- 2026 — 9.09% .. 2000 — 8.94% .. 1999 — 8.88%
Oh, no. That chart just told us this is the highest rate of unintentional walks since that became an actual thing. But the reason it’s happening isn’t that those robot umps love to walk the walk. It’s that they’ve literally shrunk the strike zone. And that’s a reminder that ABS is doing more than just calling balls and strikes.
According to a fantastic analysis of this trend by FanGraphs’ Ben Clemens, the league-wide strike zone, for the average hitter, is 3 inches shorter than it was in 2025 — with most of that lopped off the top. This strike zone is also being called more accurately than ever before, because … well, robots. So the walks epidemic is now a runaway bullet train — and it is affecting almost every game and every team. “We’re starting to cross the threshold where walk rates around the league are just bizarre,” one AL executive said. “It’s one thing when you look up in the first week of the season and you see teams roll out two or three relievers with as many walks as innings pitched. But now it’s everybody across the league.”
That exec suggested we check how many games there have been already where a team walked at least 10 hitters. He was definitely onto something.
10-WALK GAMES* (2024-6)(2025-5)(2026-18) thru first 40 games
Yikes. But that’s just part of the ABS story. The other half of this tale is that … Walks are up because swings are down. Hitters this season are swinging at only 46.7% of all pitches thrown. If that keeps up, it would be the lowest rate since the shortened 2020 season — and the lowest over a full season since 2018. So what does that mean? If we project the current rate of takes per inning over the innings total for a full season, we could be headed for somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 fewer pitches swung at than last season. Again: Is that good? Um, not that good
The consensus among the execs we talked to is that veteran hitters are only now starting to catch on to how much smaller the robotized strike zone is — and where. So a couple of those execs predicted that as this season goes on, hitters will actually swing even less than they’ve been hacking so far. That leads to a critical question that everyone in this sport should be mulling. Can we agree that more walks/fewer swings is the opposite of what most of us would define as the best version of baseball? If we can, then how should the sport respond to this? On the field, the answer was almost unanimous: “I think teams are going to start to adapt to it and just demand their pitchers throw the ball over the plate,” said one exec.
But the bigger question is: Will the league respond? Will it tweak the strike zone, as it did numerous times in the minor leagues while it was experimenting with ABS — hoping it can drive strike rates up and walk rates down, and somehow get more balls in play? That didn’t work in the minors, but does that mean more tweaks are off the table in the big leagues? “I don’t know,” one NL exec said. “I just don’t know what’s important to them. It will be really interesting to see how all of this plays out in terms of: Do the fans like this version of the game? And I don’t know that answer. I do know they love ABS, so you’re not getting rid of that. “I can tell you, from being at the ballpark, that it used to be all sorts of random things that would excite fans: a home run, a good throw from the outfield to third base, whatever. But now it’s like, the largest cheer you have every game is the winner of ‘Ball or strike?’ on every challenge.”