Baseball

8/10/2026 |  MLB Power Rankings: Dodgers proving they're far from infallible, so who will take advantage? (CBS Sports) Like it or not -- and I definitely do not -- the rest of the 2026 Major League Baseball season will be defined by the Los Angeles Dodgers. All roads lead to the Dodgers easily making the playoffs again, which means the two-time defending champions will either join the '70s Athletics and multiple generations of Yankees teams as a threepeat champion or they'll be knocked off. 

8/10/2026 |  The Yankees May Be Turning Things Around at the Perfect Time (DEADSPIN) They are the envy of baseball. Or scourge depending on vantage point.
In the coming days, the Los Angeles Dodgers also will become even more of a nightmare when they add more talent to a roster already bursting with it.
After left-handed trade addition Tarik Skubal made his Dodgers debut on Tuesday, left-hander Blake Snell (elbow) is set to return from the injured list soon after pitching just three innings this season.
Right-hander Tyler Glasnow (back) should be back around the start of September, along with catcher Will Smith (neck).

8/10/2026 |  Players returning from injury who could swing MLB's playoff races (ESPN) You can count on at least two things at Major League Baseball's trade deadline:
1. A flurry of deals in the final hours.
2. The key decision-maker for a team that did relatively little saying something like: Our big additions will be getting Player X and Player Y back from the injured list.
To fans disappointed that their teams didn't bring in major talent from the outside, it's often a maddening rationalization. But it's also a very real factor. And that might be even more the case in 2026, a year in which the standings are so muddled that 23 teams entered August within four games of a playoff spot.
This year's trade deadline brought its usual final burst, with 42 trades involving 118 players engineered on the final day. But don't dismiss those internal additions as an empty platitude. Some of them will wind up making a major difference.

8/10/2026 |  Are The Phillies The Dodgers' Biggest Challenger? We Examine The NL Post-Deadline (Fox Sports) One week after the MLB Trade Deadline, one key contender will show off its new-look lineup on national TV.
The National League is still chasing the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Milwaukee Brewers will begin the week with the best record in baseball, but Los Angeles won the deadline by adding two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal at the trade deadline.

8/7/2026 |  Where all 30 MLB teams stand after 2026 trade deadline (ESPN) The All-Star break, the Hall of Fame induction and the trade deadline have all come and gone since we last convened for a Stock Watch. Each of those touchstone events is distinctive and intrinsic to the annual rhythm of the baseball calendar. But now that they are behind us, we can focus on what this is all about: the playoff races.