MLB.com: Yesterday afternoon, Major League Baseball announced the finalists for this year’s Hank Aaron Award. Recognizing the two best offensive performances (one in each league), the award is conferred through a fan vote and a panel consisting of journalists and former players. Yankees first baseman/designated hitter Ben Rice finds himself as one of this year’s finalists, hoping to make it the three straight season (and fourth in five years) that a Yankees slugger takes home the award (Aaron Judge
won it in 2022, 2024, and 2025). Other nominees include Baltimore’s Pete Alonso, Houston’s Yordan Alvarez (the likely favorite), and Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr.
The Athletic | Clark Gilmore: Clarke Gilmore, a current member of the Savannah Bananas and a former teammate of Ben Rice at Dartmouth, penned a guest article for The Athletic’s Peak newsletter, a series focusing on the mental side of sports. As you might have guessed based on the nature of the series, Gilmore spoke not about Rice’s physical prowess, but on his “consistency” that dated back to his college days — and could be seen not only on the diamond, but in much more mundane things, such as Mario Kart in the dorms.
FanGraphs | Matt Martell: Turning our attention from one Massachusetts boy to another, Cam Schlittler came out with a completely unexpected strategy against the Red Sox in Game 1 of the ALWC: the typically fastball-dominant youngster threw 32 curveballs — a whopping 27.4 percent of the time (during the regular season, he threw it just 9.8 percent of the time). The start was the culmination of a year-long process in which the Cy Young favorite working to turn his curveball into a veritable weapon, one that can can make him a dangerous pitcher not just now, but going forward.
