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NewsJoe Posnanski is a No. 1 New York Times best-selling author, an Emmy Award-winning writer and has been awarded National Sportswriter of the Year.
 | This was going to be the season of inevitability. Everybody thought so … and was depressed by the realization. One of the wonderful things about baseball is that it resists predictability. No team has repeated as champion in almost two decades. Surprising and disappointing teams always come along to give the season some buzz.
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 | Here was Sparky Lyle arriving to save the moment, to save the day, a gunslinger coming to clean up the town, a pro wrestler coming to clear out the ring, a cavalryman coming to take the hill, a rock and roll band taking the stage. This needed music.
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 | You might remember this: Didi Gregorius couldn't hit. That was his distinguishing feature. He could field, but he couldn't hit.
More» Gregorius powers Yanks with two home runs |
 | Joe Mauer got his 2,000th hit exactly as he should get his 2,000th hit, and all of it happening just 8.4 miles from Mauer's high school if you decide to walk it (a little longer if you go via Minnehaha Avenue).
More» Mauer knocks historic 2,000th hit |
 | As the years have gone by, Branch Rickey has mostly been reduced to the man who signed Jackie Robinson and told him, "I'm looking for a ballplayer with guts enough not to fight back."
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 | Over the last 26 starts (going back to June 1 of last year) Corey Kluber has pitched 189 1/3 innings. And he has been absurdly good -- his ERA over that stretch is 1.62. His record is 16-3.
More» Kluber K's 13 over eight scoreless frames |
 | Comedy writer Eric Stangel nailed the mood Sunday when he tweeted out: "We are so close to seeing the think piece 'if Ohtani the pitcher faced Ohtani the hitter, who would win?'"
More»Ohtani crushes three HRs, throws near perfecto |
 | On Throwback Thursday, we go back to 1993 -- to the Expansion Draft that started the Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins, both of whom played their first ever games 25 years ago Thursday.
More» Nied notches Rockies' first-ever strikeout |
 | Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was not an athlete, and he did not have the time nor inclination to become a devoted baseball fan. But he understood the power of the game and what it meant to America. In this way, he believed in baseball. And in the end, baseball believed in him.
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 | In many ways, Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen has been the surest thing in baseball the past few years. Jansen's consistency is staggering. He strikes out 14 batters per nine innings, he walks almost nobody, his 1.91 career FIP is second lowest in baseball history (min. 200 IP) behind only Craig Kimbrel.
More» Roberts, Jansen discuss 15th inning loss |
 | When Ted Williams first saw the shift the Cleveland manager Lou Boudreau had created to defend him in 1946, he started laughing. Literally. He stood inside the batter's box, and he doubled over in laughter. "If teams started doing that against me," he joked with reporters after the game, "I'll start hitting right handed."
More» Sisco lays down bunt single for second hit |
 | Opening Days are made for overreaction. If you can't observe a wild and wonderful Opening Day like Thursday's without considering the possibility of Matt Davidson hitting 486 home runs this year or Yankees announcer John Sterling calling every Giancarlo Stanton home run in a different language, well, what's the point? So let's ask the 10 questions sparked by this year's zany Opening Day.
More»MLB puts on an Opening Day for the ages |
 | If you go up to any general manager in baseball and ask, "What is your hope for 2018?" he will inevitably respond, "Stay healthy." That's always the grandest hope of GMs, because it is the one thing that they have so little control over.
More»Rizzo talks about his expectations for Harper in 2018 |
 | Let's make some crazy predictions for all 30 teams. Admittedly, some are crazier than others, and for each, we have a Plausibility Quotient (PQ), to determine if the prediction is Half-Crazy, Crazy or Insane.
More»Posnanski on every MLB team sharing Opening Day |
 | Tragedy was at the heart of Opening Day in 1968. You have to go back that long -- 50 years -- to find the only other time every baseball team in the Majors opened on the same day. This will happen Thursday as a gigantic nationwide celebration of the game.
More»Carl Yastrzemski homers twice on Opening Day in 1968 |
 | The Astros have all the weapons at the plate and on the mound to defend their title, and the mentality to avoid complacency.
More» Correa on 2018 Spring Training |
 | For all the talk of Shohei Ohtani being the best two-way prospect ever, Ken Brett came first.
More»Before Ohtani, there was Ken Brett |
 | There's something pretty exciting happening with the New York Mets right now: For the first time since … um ... for the first time, all five members of the homegrown rotation -- the Dream Rotation as it is sometimes called -- are healthy. You don't want to say it too loudly, because, you know, bad luck. But it's really happening.
More» Syndergaard strikes out five in seven frames |
 | Kyle Schwarber is mashing the ball this spring, which surprises absolutely nobody. Then, let's be honest, would it have surprised if he was hitting .111 and striking out once every two times he comes to the plate? No, probably not.
More» Schwarber on offseason nutrition |
 | This is the season. Yes, maybe we have said that before. Maybe we thought it would be last season, or two seasons ago. But that's OK. This is the season.
More» Harper has lofty goals |
