Rosa Parks (1913–2005) – Known as the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement,” Rosa Parks became a national icon when she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated Montgomery bus in 1955. Her quiet act of defiance sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a pivotal moment in the movement that led to a Supreme Court ruling declaring bus segregation unconstitutional. Parks was active in the NAACP and continued her advocacy work throughout her life. Her strength, dignity, and unwavering commitment to equal rights made her a symbol of American perseverance and moral clarity.
Before her famous act of defiance, Parks had already been deeply involved in civil rights activism, including investigating sexual assaults against Black women. In one 1944 case, she worked with the NAACP to advocate for Recy Taylor, a Black woman who was gang-raped by white men in Alabama. Parks’ work on this case showed her long-standing commitment to justice for all, particularly for the voiceless.
Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know for today’s games, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Today’s edition is brought to you by David Adler.
First base defense is always underappreciated. Heck, even Joey Votto says so, and we tend to trust Joey Votto’s opinions about baseball … even if he’s a little biased this time, since he was a first baseman, after all.
Well, we’re here to help, Joey.
We’ve got a cool new leaderboard up on Baseball Savant today that should bring us one step closer to properly appreciating first basemen for all the value they bring to the table.
We’re measuring every first baseman’s skill at receiving throws. Your first thought is probably: Who’s the best at scoops? And that’s absolutely on there. But so are all the other types of throws a first baseman has to catch: high throws, low throws, wide throws, throws that bounce far in front of the bag and, last but not least, throws that are on target.
The big new stat here is “Receiving Outs Above Average” — which tells you how many outs a first baseman saves for his team with his receiving skill. We also keep track of the total number of plays first basemen successfully make in each category of throw — total scoops, total high throws handled and so on.
Why does it matter?
Catching the throw is the one thing a first baseman has to do the most often. The majority of their plays are about receiving throws from their fellow infielders and turning them into putouts.
As Votto puts it, “The first baseman can make or break a good infield with their receiving skills.” But we never had a good way to account for that skill. Now, our fielding stats finally include the impact of a first baseman’s No. 1 duty. That’s big for painting a complete picture of Major League fielding.
Who’s the best receiving first baseman?
But let’s get to the good stuff: Which first basemen rank at the top of the receiving leaderboard?
This season, you might be interested to know that the No. 1 first baseman is Alec Burleson, who’s saved the Cardinals +7 runs with his great receiving.
And for the full five-plus seasons we have first base receiving data, the best of the best are the two names you might expect: Freddie Freeman and Matt Olson.
We always want a new stat to match up with the eye test, and that’s exactly what we’ve got here. Both Olson and Freeman are Gold Glove-winning first basemen with sterling defensive reputations.
Which first basemen have a tough time?
The guys at the bottom of the leaderboard also make sense. Since the start of last season, for example, the bottom three receiving first basemen are Bryce Harper, Luis Arraez and Rafael Devers — all players who moved to first base from other positions.
What about scoops?
Everyone loves a good scoop. It’s the flashiest play a first baseman makes, for sure, and we’ve got some good names on the scoops leaderboard.
The top five scoopers since 2021 are led by Olson (76 scoops), and also include Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (67) and Pete Alonso (57) — all first basemen who have a reputation for their scooping ability.
We also got the chance to talk to Matt Olsonhimself before we launched the first base receiving leaderboard, and ask him about how he got so good at what he does.
One of the best tidbits is how the Braves star approaches catching a throw. Olson hates when first basemen do the splits.
“The biggest thing for me is just to go get the ball,” Olson told us. “Especially with how many challenges there are and how close the challenges are. See, a lot of guys, they do splits out to catch the ball. But if you do a split, you can’t reach with your upper body. So for me, not getting as far with the front leg, and reaching with my upper half instead, you catch the ball further out. And hopefully, doing that, you’re able to get more bang-bang plays.”
We think the proof is in the pudding. Olson’s receiving numbers are great, and he is phenomenal at stretching. Watch him go out and get this throw from Dansby Swanson at short a few years ago. It’s a thing of beauty:
We also liked this quote from Olson about how catching throws can be an unsung skill for a first baseman, even though it’s a huge part of the game — echoing Votto’s thoughts on how the first base position is underrated.
“If I get five ground balls in a day, that’s a lot. I’m catching way more balls than that first,” Olson said. “I think it’s, like, people just assume we’re gonna do it. We’re kind of like the offensive linemen of baseball — it’s a ‘You don’t notice them unless you give up a sack’ kind of deal.”
The Giants pitcher making his MLB debut today has one of the best names in the game. That’s Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson — a 6-foot-1, 250-pound lefty who was one of the top names in our Minor League nickname bracketearlier this year and is looking to tow San Francisco to victory in his first career start. As if the name “Tugboat Wilkinson” wasn’t enough, he also throws an “Invisiball” — aka, a fastball that’s not super fast but disappears on hitters thanks to a deceptive delivery.
Max Scherzer (3,520 career strikeouts) is just 14 K’s behind Gaylord Perry for ninth place all-time. We’d certainly like to see him get there this season, so we’ll be watching how the 42-year-old fares against the American League-best Rays. Plus, the Jays are only a half-game out of a Wild Card spot now. They have a real shot, so these games matter.
After the Brewers’ historic 22-0 win over the Mariners last night — tied for the most lopsided shutout win in MLB since 1887 — we have to see what’s going to happen tonight. We assume it won’t be another one of the biggest blowouts in history, but hey, you can’t predict baseball.
A HISTORIC YEAR FOR JAPANESE SLUGGERS
Shohei Ohtani, Munetaka Murakami and Kazuma Okamoto all hit big home runs yesterday, and that got us thinking: Wow, it’s a great year for Japanese sluggers in MLB, isn’t it?
Turns out, that’s underselling it. This is probably the greatest year for Japanese sluggers in MLB ever, at least when you look at the number of stars who are shining in the Majors.
Murakami’s was his 29th of his rookie season and was an absolute moonshot, putting a literal dent in the scoreboardbeyond the left-center-field stands at Wrigley Field.
And we won’t forget about Seiya Suzuki, either, who didn’t homer yesterday but still has 22 this season.
This is already the first season in MLB history where four Japanese-born players have hit 20 home runs. And if even three of the four get to 30, that would also be a record. (Last year is the only time multiple Japanese sluggers have reached the 30-homer mark in the same season, with Ohtani and Suzuki doing it.)
And there could be more Japanese stars on the way, if players like Teruaki Sato come from Nippon Professional Baseball to MLB. It’s a golden age for international baseball talent.
NEW DOC ON BASEBALL’S ROLE POST-9/11
When America Took the Field, a new two-hour original documentary commemorating the 25th anniversary of the tragic events of Sept. 11th, 2001, will premiere on MLB Network on Thursday, Sept. 10 at 10 p.m. ET.
The documentary examines how baseball brought Americans together and provided a sense of hope, healing and normalcy in the aftermath of one of the darkest days in the nation’s history.
When America Took the Field highlights the unforgettable baseball moments in the aftermath of 9/11, such as Mike Piazza’s emotional home run at Shea Stadium on Sept. 21, 2001, President George W. Bush’s ceremonial first pitch before Game 3 of the 2001 World Series at Yankee Stadium and Jack Buck’s moving message to a grieving nation at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
A clip from the film, which will re-air on Sept. 11, 12 and 13 on MLB Network, can be viewed here.
Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know for today’s games, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Today’s edition is brought to you by David Adler.
Daniil Medvedev has thrown us all for a loop with his love of — and, apparently, his encyclopedic knowledge about — the Reds, of all teams.
Medvedev, who’s currently ranked the No. 7 men’s tennis player in the world, attended his first-ever baseball game last year at Great American Ball Park, after an early-round exit from the Cincinnati Open tennis tournament.
He’s been a Reds fan ever since.
“I was like, ‘Why haven’t I gone before?'” Medvedev told the Cincinnati Enquirer last week. “I started watching baseball more than any other sport, except tennis. Since they were the first team I saw live, why not be a Cincinnati Reds fan?”
Since Medvedev is back in town to play the 2026 Cincinnati Open this week, the Reds brought him out to the ballgame yesterday to throw out the first pitch. He threw a perfect strike, naturally.
And don’t you dare question Medvedev’s ball knowledge. This guy brings receipts.
Medvedev got a series of trivia questions on 2026 Reds stats, and he nailed every single one. Team record? Check. Home run leader? No problem, Sal Stewart. Batting average? That’d be Elly De La Cruz. Wins? “Chase Burns, it’s too easy.”
Not only did Medvedev know the answer to every question, he knew Stewart’s home run total and Burns’ record exactly, plus De La Cruz’s batting average and Burns’ ERA to within a few points.
“I know pretty much every player and every stat,” Medvedev told the Enquirer. “When I’m a fan of something, I like to really be into it. That’s my team.”
Next he’ll be telling us he eats Skyline Chili between sets.
Carlos Rodón returns for tonight’s series opener against the Yankees’ AL East rivals after missing about a month and a half with left elbow inflammation. His return comes at an opportune time for the Yankees, who just had to put Max Fried back on the injured listwith a bone bruise in his pitching elbow. Rodón has a 3.30 ERA in nine starts this season, with 52 strikeouts in 46 1/3 innings.
The Brewers just showed the Dodgers who’s boss, taking three of four games from the reigning champs to clinch the season series against L.A. Milwaukee has a series against the other top dog in the National League, the Braves, coming up later this week, but the Brew Crew can’t look past a Mariners team hoping to get back into the playoff race after taking two of three from the Astros.
That’s because of the mustard Benge put on those throws. The first one was 99.9 mph. The second one? 103.9 mph.
Heck, with throws like that, we think Benge just might have the best arm in the whole league. But let’s see what the numbers say …
By average arm strength, he’s “only” fourth
Benge’s average arm strength on max-effort throws this season is 96 mph on the dot, which ranks behind only Jac Caglianone (98.5 mph), Oneil Cruz (97.8 mph) and fellow rookie Cole Carrigg (96.8 mph) among players with at least 100 throws this season.
But by MAX arm strength, he’s No. 1
That 103.9 mph assist from last night, though? That was the hardest throw by any fielder this season. Even Caglianone hasn’t broken the 103 mph mark. Benge’s high-end arm strength is second to none.
Plus, we haven’t seen an assist like that one in a while
Benge’s 103.9 mph throw home was the third-fastest tracked outfield assist in the entire Statcast era, which goes back to 2015. And it’s the fastest one in nearly a decade.
Benge is the only player with multiple 100-plus mph outfield assists this season — since he also had one at exactly 100 on July 24.
Let alone two in the same inning
Benge is also the first player with two 99-plus mph outfield assists in a single inning since Statcast started tracking, and only the second to do so in a single game (Bradley Zimmer did it in 2017).
If there was an arm strength contest between all the best outfielders in the Majors, we definitely like Benge’s chances.
What do we mean by that? Well, here are a few of the entries.
No rest? No problem for Yamamoto
We’ll start with a recent one: Yoshinobu Yamamoto coming out of the bullpen on zero days’ rest to win Game 7 of last year’s World Series for the Dodgers.
CC carries the Brew Crew to October
CC Sabathia was a beast for the Brewers after they traded for him at the 2008 Deadline — including a complete game to beat the Cubsin the regular-season finale and clinch Milwaukee’s first postseason appearance since 1982.
A back-and-forth White Sox-Cubs opener ended as it began: with a HR from Pete Crow-Armstrong, whose 2 blasts and SB gave him back-to-back 30-30 seasons in a riveting matchup both teams hope is a prelude to something bigger.
Now that MLB Pipeline has refreshed its prospect lists, it’s time to see who is tops at every spot on the field — and with five graduations, there’s been plenty of change since the season started.
Winning Player of the Week honors is a big deal for all big leaguers, but it’s quickly becoming old hat for this week’s winners — Orioles first baseman Pete Alonso and D-backs right fielder Corbin Carroll.
A decade before he reached The Show with the Mariners, Brock Rodden made the most of his quick wit and athleticism to save his grandfather from severe injury, distracting and subduing an angry bull on an Oklahoma farm.
Ernie Clement and the red-hot Blue Jays travel to St. Petersburg to battle Junior Caminero and the AL East-leading Rays at 6:30 p.m. ET (or Cardinals vs. Reds).
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RJ Hamster 