The National League is loaded with pitchers having big seasons, but don't overlook Zack Wheeler, who has been on a strikeout binge with 44 in 28.2 innings over his past four starts. And note that he went at least seven innings in all four of those outings. His strikeout rate is up from 18.4% last season to easily a career high of 31.1%. -- SchoenfieldSWIM CAP

However significant players' reliance on sticky stuff has become, and regardless of how responsible teams and the league were for enabling another cheating scandal to burrow its way into baseball, the efforts to rid the game of grip enhancers have arrived and will begin in earnest June 21, sources said.

Baserunners have a lot to learn, about rules, about cutting a bag, about anticipating. They are so athletic and so fast, they should run the bases better than in any other era in history. Still, it's fair to say that we don't have nearly as many great baserunners as we used to. We have few who can compare to Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Molitor, Robin Yount, Cal Ripken Jr., Rickey Henderson, Don Baylor, Phil Bradley, Larry Walker, Don Mattingly and Scott Rolen.

Rizzo isn’t the only member of the Cubs who is against the life-saving COVID vaccine, either adamantly or hesitantly. Jake Arrieta, Jason Heyward, and Eric Sogard have all gone on record as saying they’re not going to get vaccinated and do not believe in doing so.MLB

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Rather than either respectfully declining to comment or passing on this one, Cole basically said he didn’t know how to answer that question and he’d be happy to have a conversation with MLB about it down the road. Okay then? Since then Yankees fans have been quick to defend him, while others are ripping the team for it.NFL

Nothing seems to personify this more than the reveal of the Nike City Connect uniforms, of which the White Sox are the clearcut winners. On the heels of the Sox showing off uniforms that are not only cool but seem representative of the community the team calls its own, the Cubs released predictably sanitized one-size-fits-all uniforms that truly represent what the Ricketts family has done in commercializing the historic neighborhood around Wrigley Field.

The Dodgers called up outfielder Luke Raley from their triple-A team at Oklahoma City to fill Muncy’s spot on the roster.NHL