If Painter can regain even a few inches of extension and restore the fastball characteristics that made him a top prospect, the ceiling remains unchanged: a legitimate top-of-the-rotation starter capable of competing for Cy Young Awards. The underlying talent is still present; the challenge is recapturing the delivery that once allowed all of those traits to play at their maximum level.

...in addition to Gage Wood (see attached BLOG post) there is another arm quietly climbing the organizational ladder who deserves far more attention: right-hander Alex McFarlane.

Coming into 2026, the Royals had legitimate aspirations of winning the AL Central. They were coming off consecutive competitive seasons, had an MVP-caliber superstar in Bobby Witt Jr., an established rotation, and expected offensive improvement from both veterans and young players. Instead, the season has been one of the most disappointing in baseball.

No single statistic can fully evaluate pitchers, but PVIS offers a balanced, practical approach that combines traditional statistics with contextual analysis. In an era where baseball is increasingly driven by analytics, PVIS provides a simple but meaningful way to understand a pitcher’s true impact on his team.

“Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.”

...through the first 41 games of 2026, Harper is quietly building a statistical profile that looks surprisingly close to that MVP campaign.

For the Phillies, that matters more than almost anything else. Because recent Phillies history shows a clear pattern: When Alec Bohm is productive, the Phillies become a much more complete and dangerous baseball team.

Remember, during the offseason on the Romantic About Baseball podcast, I was vocal about how the Phillies should let Schwarber walk, pursue Bregman and/or Tucker full bore, and call up Crawford to revamp this lineup. At this point, you have to look at the lineup and understand that their "running it back approach" is an utter failure.

The difference between competing and winning often comes down to how well a program can turn information into action.

AI detection tools may seem like a solution, but right now, they are far from that. More importantly, how we use them can shape how students experience school. If we’re not careful, we risk creating classrooms built on suspicion instead of trust.

In many schools, conflict is something to manage quickly: resolve the issue, restore order, and move on. Matthew 18 advises differently.

We can slice this a hundred different ways — dive into advanced metrics, argue over matchup splits, debate lineup construction philosophy — and all of it has value. But when you strip it all down, evaluating an offense really comes back to something much more fundamental: Which teams can string together tough, competitive at-bats from 1 through 9… and do it consistently enough to generate runs against quality pitching? Because that’s the separator. Not just star power at the

When we talk about leadership in schools, we often think in silos. Administration leads vision. But real organizational leadership doesn’t live in silos. It lives in alignment.

Artificial Intelligence is no longer on the horizon. It’s here, and your students are using it. Your teachers are experimenting with it. Are you still trying to make sense of it?

There’s a moment in leadership that doesn’t show up in your metrics.

As we barrel toward the final stretch of the 2025 MLB season, the MVP races in both leagues are heating up. And this season, it is not...

In 2025, the Kansas City Royals are looking to make another surprise push into the post-season a la 2024! In 2025, they’re not just...

The Philadelphia Phillies went for power and fire by selecting Gage Wood with their first-round pick in the 2025 First-Year Player...

In the land of cheesesteaks, Rocky Balboa, and passionate sports fans, Kyle Schwarber has quickly become a cherished figure among the...

The Kansas City Royals made a statement by selecting Sean Gamble with the 23rd overall pick in the 2025 First-Year Player Draft....