Michael Salfino

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Michael Salfino

The 2025 NFL Draft is drawing near. Rookies will soon have an official home, but they have unofficial landing spots courtesy of all the industry mock drafts. The NFL Mock Draft Database puts together a consensus mock draft, assigning players to the team that a plurality of mock drafts predict will be their landing spot. Rookie performance is like real estate - location, location, location.

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Michael Salfino

We all have fringe players in our leagues who are on our roster bubbles. The Statcast data I cite is a good check on our Captain Hook impulses. The expected data perfectly describes how hitters and pitchers should be faring based on Ks, walks, contact quality and batted-ball trajectory. The data is all team and ballpark-neutral. Let's look at the hitters you should not worry about in shallow formats, despite actual stats that may have you itching to make a move.

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Michael Salfino

Roger Maris' chase of Babe Ruth 's single-season home run record in 1961 is a seminal moment in baseball history. It captured the imagination of the sports public at the time and has since been dramatized in a hit movie, the title of which contained the most famous asterisk in history. The jersey Maris wore in one of the key moments of his historic 61 home run season is on display at Sotheby's starting today, at its York Avenue location in New York City.

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Michael Salfino

One of the joys of collecting is to find a group of like-minded passionate people in the smallest corners of the hobby. You can't find one smaller than the Topps 1977 Mexican Football set. Sold mostly in Mexico City in late 1977 and 1978, the cards parallel the 1977 Topps set issued in the United States, but with team names and card backs translated into Spanish. So the Bears are the Osos, the Giants are the Gigantes, and the Browns are the Cafes. Even the position abbreviations are translated.

2 weeks ago | nytimes.com | Michael Salfino

It's a little too early to take data from the 2025 MLB season too seriously. Moves should now be made for reasons of injury and playing time. Generally, the best advice for the first month is, "Don't just do something! Stand there!"Most of you now play in weekly head-to-head leagues, though. So you often have to pick someone up for starts just to win the week. You may have a fringe hitter sitting out over the weekend, and since the hitting pool is so deep, you may just need the at-bats that day.