Diamondbacks News
(Sporting News) Diamondbacks’ James McCann sets absurd position player pitching record
McCann has set a mark by pitching more times before the end of April as a position player than anyone in MLB history, according to Baseball Reference’s Jessica Brand.
The long-time major league catcher has already thrown in four games, including Thursday’s blowout loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.
(MLB.com) Brewers await MRI results after low velocity prompts Woodruff’s early exit
Woodruff’s first pitch of the game was
a four-seamer at 84.2 mph, and it didn’t improve as he tried to settle into his outing. He worked around a leadoff walk with a pair of strikeouts in a scoreless first inning, then didn’t touch 85 mph with any of his pitches in the second while retiring a batter and surrendered a single to start the frame.
In hindsight, the first signs that something was amiss may have appeared in Woodruff’s previous outing against the Pirates, when 59 of his 71 pitches were varieties of fastballs. His four-seamer averaged 92.9 mph — which was actually up a tick — but he was part of the decision to come out of the game after only five innings, according to Murphy.
(Clutchpoints) Diamondbacks’ Ildemaro Vargas ties Venezuelan-born history in blowout loss to Brewers
Despite Milwaukee Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff being pulled after just 1.1 innings, they still blew out the Arizona Diamondbacks 13-1 on Thursday. But in the process, Diamondbacks infielder Ildemaro Vargas made Venezuelan history.
Vargas went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles in the loss. He extended his hitting streak to 26, which ties the record for longest by a Venezuelan-born player, originally set by Wilson Ramos in 2019, via independent journalist Francys Romero.
(SI.com) Ildemaro Vargas Is Forcing MLB Fans to Pay Attention
Vargas’ .378 batting average is 20 points higher than Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays, who has the second-best batting average in baseball at .358. Vargas’ .378 batting average is 42 points ahead of Xavier Edwards of the Miami Marlins, who is in second place in the National League in batting average at .336.
MLB News
With the 2026 MLB season only a month old, both the players and owners are already looking to the future. The league’s collective-bargaining agreement (CBA) expires at the end of the season, and both sides are expected to engage in multiple contentious rounds of negotiation.
In an effort to get ahead of that, the owners and MLBPA will reportedly start meeting in the coming weeks, per The Athletic. At the center of those talks is a salary cap, which the owners are eager to implement.
[Ed. Note] And so it begins
We’re roughly one month into the 2026 Major League Baseball regular season, and that means it’s time for a league-wide check-in. Specifically, we’re going to highlight 10 baseball entities that qualify as “pleasant surprises” thus far. What’s a surprise? Something that’s gone contrary to general expectations. What’s the pleasant part of this? It means the player/team/etc has exceeded expectations in a positive way.
Now let’s look at 10 pleasant baseball surprises that stand out through the first month of the season. We’ll proceed in no particular order, just like time itself …
[Ed. Note] No Ildemaro Vargas. List invalid.
(MLB.com) Phillies the first team in 22 years to walk off twice in a doubleheader
The Phillies swept the Giants in Thursday’s doubleheader at Citizens Bank Park with a 3-2 walk-off victory in Game 1 and a 6-5 walk-off victory in 10 innings in Game 2, leading them to a 3-0 start under interim manager Don Mattingly.
It was the first time the Phillies had two walk-off wins on the same day since July 24, 1998, against the Marlins. The last team to accomplish the feat was the Pirates on May 28, 2004, against the Cubs.
