Jackson Roberts Articles - Page 2

The Major League Baseball season has officially passed its halfway point. We know the MLB All-Star rosters. We have standings that matter. And every team is soon going to have to decide what to do at the all-important trade deadline. Needless to say, it’s a big week for the MLB Power Rankings. And we saw […]

There’s truly no team in professional sports like the New York Mets. Every season is a soap opera, which we mean in the best possible way. Just think—already this season, the Mets have given us the Jorge López meltdown, a Grimace-fueled winning streak, Edwin Diaz’s sticky stuff ejection, an on-field concert from a journeyman infielder, […]

There’s been a surprising amount of chatter about the Washington Nationals not being sellers at this season’s trade deadline. Sorry to say this, but that would be a huge mistake. This team has overachieved at times, and that’s cause to be very excited about the 2025 season and beyond. CJ Abrams has taken a big […]

The MLB All-Star Game is fast approaching, and the rosters are starting to come into focus. With the starters being named Wednesday, all eyes shift to the player ballots, where the remaining 23 players on both the American League and National League squads will be selected by their peers. Naturally, deserving players will be left […]

As is the case with many teams in this wacky 2024 Major League Baseball season, it’s very difficult to say what the San Francisco Giants should do at the trade deadline. By any objective measure, it’s been a disappointing season in the City by the Bay. The Giants are 41-44, even after a 5-2 week, […]

Holy cow, did June really go by that fast? The 2024 Major League Baseball season has officially reached its halfway point and in a show of impeccable timing, it’s once again time for a new edition of the MLB power rankings. This week’s biggest risers were the San Francisco Giants, who won back-to-back home series […]

When things are going bad in Major League Baseball, they’re going really bad. And that still applies to the defending World Series champions Texas Rangers. It’s been a brutal season for the Rangers, who have felt all the effects of a classic championship hangover. After suffering their sixth-straight loss Saturday, they have a 37-46 record, […]

The 2024 season is turning into an unmitigated disaster for the Chicago Cubs. After a 17-9 start, they’ve been one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball since early May, plummeting to 38-45, dead last in the National League Central. Coming into the season, the Cubs had grand plans to achieve postseason glory. They […]

The past two weeks have been something of a fever dream for Boston Red Sox fans. What looked like a third straight mediocre season has turned on a dime, and it’s changing the way everyone sees this team heading into the second half. Yes, the Red Sox have won 10 of their last 13. Yes, […]

The Kansas City Royals were one of the surprise teams of the first half of the Major League Baseball season. But lately, they’ve quietly suffered a humbling losing stretch that has left their grand plans of making October in the lurch. Now obviously, the Royals aren’t out of the hunt. In fact, they finished play […]

You know what? Maybe it’s time to stop talking about this Houston Astros season like it’s been a total disaster. Though they still sit two games below .500, the Astros have gone 26-16 since mid-May, the fourth-best record in Major League Baseball in that 42-game span. But because Houston put itself in such a big […]

A captivating season continues into the last week of June as the Major League Baseball season rolls on. We’re just three weeks from the All-Star Game now, after which the trade deadline follows soon after, so the 2024  MLB Power Rankings are starting to heat up in a major way. The biggest risers this week, […]

No matter one’s opinion of the San Diego Padres, it cannot be said that the team isn’t exciting. They’ve been both surprising and disappointing at various moments. For the better part of two seasons, that has left them in the league’s awkward middle class. After lighting up Major League Baseball the past two years with […]

The Baltimore Orioles are flying high. After a dominant series win over the rival New York Yankees in the Bronx, the O’s and their fans have their sights firmly set on a World Series in 2024. But it’s Major League Baseball, so winning it all is never easy. With the MLB trade deadline starting to […]

The Philadelphia Phillies are sitting pretty. With the National League’s best record, a sturdy lineup, and the best starting rotation in Major League Baseball, one might think there’s not much this team needs to do at the trade deadline. But sometimes being good is the enemy of being great, and as close as the Phillies […]

The 2024 season has been confounding for the Boston Red Sox and their fans. They’ve played some great baseball. They’ve also played some terrible baseball. And when you’re the general manager of one of the most confusing teams around, it can be difficult to figure out what to do at the trade deadline. Luckily, we’re […]

When you think you have the 2024 Major League Baseball season figured out, that’s likely when you’re the farthest away from the truth. It was yet another topsy-turvy week around the league and accordingly, there were some big shakeups in the MLB Power Rankings. The big winners of the week were the St. Louis Cardinals, […]

The Chicago Cubs are in a tailspin. Following their 1-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago has dropped to 33-37, two games back of those Cardinals for a playoff spot, and are in danger of losing their ninth series in the past 10 tries. It’s obvious the offense needs a facelift and the Cubs […]

The 2024 season has thus far been worse than even the most pessimistic Texas Rangers fan could have predicted. Entering play Thursday, the defending World Series champs were 32-35, 6.5 games behind the first-place Seattle Mariners. Fortunately, the MLB trade deadline is a time for all teams with any hope of contention to make the […]

The Philadelphia Phillies are one of Major League Baseball’s best teams, while the Chicago White Sox are one of the worst. And while the Phillies need outfield help, the White Sox also happen to have two of the most appealing trade candidates in the outfield at this year’s deadline. Does that sound like a perfect […]

The Toronto Blue Jays are officially in do-or-die mode as the calendar approaches mid-June. If they play well for the next three weeks, they could easily be buyers at the trade deadline. If not, it could be the end of a promising young core up in Canada. In that second scenario, a blockbuster deal could […]

Everyone across the game of baseball, from writers to fans to front-office members, seems to be unable to fathom a world where the Houston Astros could possibly be sellers at this year’s trade deadline. And when a team has made it to the league championship series the past seven years in a row, that’s justifiable. […]

At the beginning of a Major League Baseball season, every team looks good on paper. And usually, about half of the league is good while the other half is bad, so at some point, the separation becomes clear. But perhaps this season, more than half of the league is actually bad? We’ve played over 40% […]

Miami Marlins infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. has had a turbulent career in Major League Baseball thus far. He’s been on awful teams and some not-so-awful teams. He’s played second base and he’s played center field. He’s been on the cover of MLB The Show and he’s been on the injured list. And perhaps soon, he […]

Every day of the month of June feels like it carries enormous weight for the future of the Toronto Blue Jays. Every win is another step closer to reaffirming that the current roster has the talent for one more playoff push. But with every loss, the uncertainty about who will remain on the roster beyond […]

The 2024 Chicago White Sox are shaping up to be one of the worst Major League Baseball teams ever. Entering play Thursday, the Southsiders are 15-47, riding a 13-game losing streak, and are in danger of breaking the 2003 Detroit Tigers’ record for fewest wins in a 162-game season (43). But there is exactly one […]

The MLB trade deadline is the ultimate benchmark in a Major League Baseball season, so it’s never too early to start thinking about how and when the action might unfold. With under two months to go until July 31, that day when frenzied trades continue to flow in right up until 6 p.m., we at […]

June is off and running around Major League Baseball and the best pitchers in the game are still hurtling along at a breakneck pace. The 2024 season has been a particularly excellent one for pitching, as run scoring and OPS’s are down across the league and there’s been a refreshing mix of expected stars and […]

The Boston Red Sox have something cooking these days. They’ve got Rafael Devers, one of the league’s best all-around hitters. They’ve got an exciting core of young position players, both on the field at Fenway Park and climbing quickly through the prospect ranks. And under first-year pitching coach Andrew Bailey, they’ve got a pitching staff […]

What’s up with all the lackluster teams across Major League Baseball this season? We’ve finished two full calendar months and are more than a third of the way done with the games, and to this point, only 11 teams have winning records. In case you’ve forgotten, there are 12 teams in the postseason nowadays. So […]

The Los Angeles Angels may not be having the type of season they wanted, but at least they have some clarity. With Mike Trout injured once again, the pitching staff in shambles and the young lineup taking its lumps, this is a team in the early stages of a painful rebuild. Unfortunately, the window of […]

Every month matters in a Major League Baseball season, but for some teams, certain months take on an even greater significance. In 2024, June is one of those months for the Toronto Blue Jays — a potentially pivotal moment in the club’s history. Toronto sits at 27-30 after their 8-1 shellacking at the hands of […]

If you like really streaky baseball teams, the 2024 Minnesota Twins are for you. This season has been an absolute roller-coaster for the 2023 AL Central champs, from the 7-13 start to the immediate 12-game winning streak to everything that’s happened since. Every week brings a new mood to the Land of 10,000 Lakes, but […]

The month of May always seems like it flies by in the MLB. We spend all of April overanalyzing every little thing that happens across the league and then half of the time the results in May flip all of our thoughts on their heads. And while there may be jockeying up and down the […]

We rarely talk about the Oakland Athletics in granular baseball terms nowadays, and for good reason. Their last three years have been a real-life version of the plot of Major League but without any of the winning. And with the drama of their impending moves to Sacramento and then maybe Las Vegas, it can be […]

Perhaps the understatement of the century would be to say it’s been a bad week for the New York Mets. If you want to expand the timeline a bit, it’s been a bad week in a horrible season in a cursed era of Mets baseball, one that dates back to the dawn of the 21st […]

Living life as a Cleveland Guardians fan right now must be a constant fight to suspend disbelief about the good fortunes of the franchise. They’re 18 games over .500. They’re in first place in one of the toughest divisions in Major League Baseball. And oh, by the way, they have the number one overall pick […]

We can all marvel at the regular season spectacle that is Shohei Ohtani’s first year in Hollywood, but the truth is that for the Los Angeles Dodgers, nothing matters at all until October. Fifteen years of excellence has led to only one championship and when all you’re after is trophies, you have to jump at […]

Making the playoffs in Major League Baseball, which used to be a hugely difficult achievement, has gotten a lot easier in the past five years. With the expansion of the MLB postseason to six teams per league, suddenly a lot more organizations are thinking of playoffs on a yearly basis, but with the knowledge in […]