Grant Brisbee

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Grant Brisbee

Pull up a list of major leaguers who have played 1,000 games before turning 29. Sort them by adjusted OPS (OPS+), which accounts for league-wide scoring levels and ballparks. Focus on the first 200 names. Now you have a list of All-Stars, with a lot of Hall of Famers mixed in. That’s the elevator pitch for Rafael Devers. Among players who played a lot of games before turning 30, Devers was among the best hitters.

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Grant Brisbee

On the way back to my tent, my phone buzzed and scared the hell out of me. It was a dedicated camera and nothing more after two days of no service, but somewhere between the lake and the campground was a patch of land that satellites had not forgotten. A few messages got through, including a push notification from the MLB app. “GIANTS TO ACQUIRE RAFAEL DEVERS”About 361 days out of the year — Christmas included — the response would have been immediate and battle-tested.

3 weeks ago | nytimes.com | Grant Brisbee

After their 4-2 win on Sunday, the Giants are averaging four runs per game in June. They averaged 3.8 runs per game in May. That month-over-month increase of .2 runs is known as a "trend" in statistics, which means the Giants are likely to set a major-league record with 7.8 runs per game sometime in the middle of the 2027 season. It'll be so much fun, just you wait. Until then, the story of the 2025 Giants is coming into focus. The good news is that their pitching staff can prevent runs.

4 weeks ago | nytimes.com | Grant Brisbee

Editor's note: The Athletic is marking 2025 by naming an MLB All-Quarter Century Team, selected by Jayson Stark. We're inviting readers to take our survey and make their picks for the best players at each position since 2000, with the results announced in an upcoming story. Some of our beat writers are picking All-Quarter Century Teams for the teams they cover. Check this page to find all of our All-Quarter Century Team coverage.

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Grant Brisbee

You're not going to want to hear this, but the Tigers didn't sweep the Giants out of Detroit because they're an empirically better baseball team. They're a good team, possibly a better team overall, and certainly a better team right now, but there are more similarities than differences between the two rosters. There's one difference that can explain an awful lot, though. We'll get to that difference, but let's get the gory details out of the way first.