BY J.A. SCHWARTZ In his first season as manager of the Padres, Bob Melvin recently had the very delicate task of navigating a major league locker room full of players fraught with anxiety as the trade deadline approached. General Manager A. J. Preller, who is among the most driven and …

BY J.A. SCHWARTZ Even though the narrative around Deshaun Watson in the context of a possible trade has focused on how women would react to his acquisition, why should men feel differently about his alleged behavior? Each of the franchises in the league has female fans. Most NFL owners, coaches, …

BY J.A. SCHWARTZ The A’s lost their ninth straight game Sunday, losing 4-3 to the red-hot Twins who captured their ninth consecutive victory at Target Field in front of 14,295 on a damp Mother’s Day in Minneapolis. Many players from both teams featured pink highlights to their uniforms (socks, gloves, …

BY J.A. SCHWARTZ The National League West was home to the two best teams in the majors last year during the regular season. The San Francisco Giants set a franchise record with 107 wins, and won the division by a single game over the Dodgers. The Giants finally wrested the …

BY J.A. SCHWARTZ Houston has advanced to the American League Championship in each of the past five seasons, winning the AL pennant in 2017, 2019 and 2021. Their lone World Series win championship came in 2017, and has been tainted by their sign-stealing scandal, but they’ve still won the division …

BY J.A. SCHWARTZ The Cubs were the last team to represent the National League Central in the fall classic in 2016, bringing home the World Series trophy for its long-suffering fans for the first time in 108 years. In the five seasons since, no Central team has managed to win …

BY J.A. SCHWARTZ The National League East produced the World Series champion last year for the second time in three seasons, and since the Red Sox won the 2018 title, NL teams have claimed the last three championships. Atlanta recovered from a slow start to vanquish Houston in the Fall …

BY J.A. SCHWARTZ Coming off a 2021 season that saw them finish a full 13 games ahead of their closest competitors, the Indians, the Chicago White Sox enter this season as clear favorites to repeat as American League Central champions. That result will never happen again, since the Cleveland franchise …

BY J.A. SCHWARTZ The American League East may well feature four of the top six teams in the league in 2022, with only the White Sox and perhaps Houston as being likely to win more games than the goliaths in the East. The Tampa Bay Rays are the defending AL …

BY J.A. SCHWARTZ The Oakland A’s have indicated their intentions about the 2022 season with a flurry of trades that may not be fully complete even when their season begins on April 7th. Despite qualifying for the playoffs three straight years, including a division title in the shortened 2020 campaign, …