TODAY’S TRUE NONSENSE

04JULY2026: First, truly, and most non-sensical, today is Independence Day in our beautiful U.S.A. Happy 250th Birthday America!!

Now, here’s the True Nonsense for 4th of July: With most teams having played 85+ games (just over half the season), there are still only six of the fifteen American League teams with a record of at least .500. Parity, we presume.

The Los Angeles Dodgers lead all MLB with a 58-31 record, good for a .652 clip, which projects to a 105+ win pace. With the depth of that lineup and rotation and salaries, we here at VFTD consider that underwhelming, despite being an historically significant large win total.

The Chicago White Sox are NOT the worst team in baseball. That would their division rival, Kansas City Royals, who are the only team sub-.400 with a 35-53 record and .398 win percentage. In fact, if the playoffs started today, the AL Central second-place ChiSox (just a game behind Cleveland) would be on the road at Yankee Stadium to take on the Bronx Bombers in a best of three Wild Card Series! This is a far cry from their last two seasons which resulted in an amazingly poor 223 combined losses!!

Looking at some player statistics, Philly Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber paces MLB with 30 round-trippers and is on pace for 55 HRs. Another player pushing to 60 is ALWAYS fun!!…..Washington National, James Wood, leads the way slashing 46 Extra Base Hits with an extremely well-balanced blend of 1 triple, 22 doubles, and 23 HRs. Tune in to see this big kid swat some offerings whenever you can. Plus, he’s racked up 13 steals, and his team is decent now too at three games over .500!!…..

…..And in WAR leaders, there may be a surprise atop of MLB. It is Christopher Sanchez, ace pitcher for the Phillies who boasts a 5.8 WAR with a 10-2 record, 2.00 ERA, and 1.08 WHIP in 117 IP. Shohei Ohtani is next at 5.4 (he’s always being tracked for you), so keep your eyes on Cubbie Pete Crow-Armstrong, who is at 5.1 after an all-time great month of June (batted .381, 40 hits, 11 HR, 20 RBI, 8 Steals, and 21 Runs), and Bobby Witt Jr. (MLB-best 29 Steals with an .832 OPS) continues to be an incredible all-around player at 4.8 in a weakened Royals lineup…..

…..Jacob Misiorowski from Milwaukee’s Brew Crew is out of control. He is leading MLB starting pitchers in the following categories: 1.47 ERA, 156 K’s, 0.78 WHIP, and .150 batting average against. Good luck trying to get on base vs. ‘The Miz’…..Next, L.A. Angel, Mike Trout, leads all Centerfielders in Walks at 66 (20 more than anyone else), is third in both HRs at 17 and OPS at .866…..Hunter Goodman from Colorado, leads all Cathers in HRs at an astounding 27 and has snagged five stolen bases for the fun of it…..Jordan Alvarez. The DH-extraordinaire out of Houston has absolutely obliterated the baseball this year. He has batted .319 in an era of sub-.250 averages while accumulating 101 hits, 27 HR, 61 RBI, 59 BB to just 66 K’s, and leading all batters with a 1.056 OPS, good for an .085 point lead!! That is throwback type hitting…..

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19NOV2025: Rochester, New York native, Ernie Clement of the Toronto Blue Jays led MLB in Defensive WAR (wins above replacement) in 2025 with a total of 2.9. He played mostly at the hot corner and the keystone corner but did appear at shortstop as well as first base for several games each to round out the infield positions. Looking back at the last 30+ MLB seasons, the highest D-WAR was 5.2 by Andrelton Simmons of the Los Angeles Angels. He played 158 games at shortstop and won his third, of five career, Gold Gloves…..