Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know for today's games, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Today's edition is brought to you by David Adler.
Tarik Skubal is the Very Big Obvious No. 1 starting pitcher on the trade market. But how to compare everybody else?
There are a lot of other arms out there. If you're a contender on the hunt for pitching in the final weeks before the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline, how do you decide which trade target best fits your team's needs?
We're here to help.
With Baseball Savant's new Player Comparison Tool, we can stack up all the top trade candidates side by side and see who's the best at what.
Check this out. Here are nine of the top starting pitcher trade candidates that could be available -- non-Skubal division -- and their MLB percentile rankings in a whole bunch of different pitching stats:
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There are a lot of nuggets to be gleaned here. For example:
- If you want a high-strikeout, low-walk ace, Joe Ryan fits the bill
The Twins ace leads our group in both strikeout rate and walk rate, which is a very good combination. (Yes, even after Ryan gave up six home runs to the Guardians in that crazy game the other day.) Ryan's 27.8% strikeout rate ranks in the 83rd percentile of MLB pitchers, and his 5.3% walk rate ranks in the 93rd percentile. There's a gap of over 20 percentage points between Ryan's K% and BB%, which is top-10 among qualified starters.
- For strong underlying numbers, look at Casey Mize
The other Tigers starter who might be traded is having a career year (even though he's dealing with a couple of minor ailments after his last start). Mize is sporting a 2.79 ERA and striking out over a batter per inning. Statcast's quality of contact metrics also like what Mize is doing, indicating that his success is deserved. Mize has the lowest expected ERA, 3.14, of any starter in our comparison, a mark that ranks in the top 10 among pitchers who've faced at least 300 batters this season, right behind Skubal and in the middle of a group of aces.
The Player Comparison Tool is fully customizable, by the way, so feel free to swap in your own favorite trade candidates in place of the ones we picked out, or pick out different stats you want to see.
And soon there'll be even more good stuff in there -- like pitch arsenal stats. We'll give you a sneak peek of what that looks like for our starting pitcher trade candidates:
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Here are three games to watch tonight. Go to MLB.com/Watch for info on how to watch every game this season.
Dodgers at Phillies (6:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)
The Dodgers and Phillies split the first two games of this NLDS rematch, so the series comes down to tonight's rubber game. The two biggest bats in the series, Shohei Ohtani and Kyle Schwarber, have yet to really come alive, so hopefully this is the day for some fireworks.
Pirates at Yankees (7:05 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)
Today is the first time the Yankees have had a healthy Gerrit Cole and Max Fried in the rotation together. And wouldn't you know it, they're both pitching. Cole struck out 11 across seven innings of three-run ball in the first game of today's split doubleheader, and Fried will try to follow his lead in the nightcap. Fried has been out since May 14 with a bone bruise in his left elbow. His return will be a big boost for the Yanks.
Orioles at Red Sox (7:10 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)
The Red Sox have now won 15 games in a row after beating the Orioles in Game 1 of today's doubleheader at Fenway Park. It's just the eighth winning streak of 15-plus games within a single season in the Expansion Era (since 1961). Boston's win streak is also tied with the 1946 Sox for the longest in franchise history. The 2026 squad can break that mark in Game 2 tonight.
Tigers at Cubs (8:10 p.m. ET, ESPN)
One of MLB's streakiest teams early in the season, the Cubs have settled down and have been playing good baseball for a while now. They hold the top NL Wild Card spot, they've won eight of their last 10 series, and they're looking for their fourth straight series win in tonight's rubber game against Detroit. The Tigers, meanwhile, have to keep winning if they want to avoid dealing Tarik Skubal and more at the Trade Deadline.
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SHE'S A VET IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE |
Kelly Maxwell can strike you out one day and save your pet's life the next.
She's an Athletes Unlimited Softball League star, a former Team USA player, a national champion and collegiate All-American at Oklahoma and … a veterinarian?
We didn't think there was any crossover between those two fields, but Maxwell is the exception. She's a pitcher for the Portland Cascade -- who play in the AUSL playoffs tomorrow night -- and she also just completed her first year of veterinary school at LSU.
"I love science and medicine," Maxwell said. "The pressure that comes from softball, I found it in medicine, too. Being able to diagnose, or if you're in the operating room, you have to make quick decisions and problem solve. And I've always loved animals."
Growing up in Friendswood, Texas, Maxwell spent hours on her grandfather's small farm, surrounded by horses, cattle and family dogs. Her fascination with animals naturally evolved into an interest in veterinary medicine.
As you might imagine, things can get a little busy when Maxwell is juggling softball and veterinary school. But she makes it happen.
"There are some exam weeks I can't make it to the field at all -- just to the gym to lift," she said. "But I do my best to stay consistent because softball has taught me time management, resilience and how to perform under pressure."
She's a vet on and off the field.
Read Perla Paredes' story on Maxwell's journey here >>
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TRADE RUMORS: BUILDING A SKUBAL PACKAGE
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We're bringing you all the latest trade rumors up until the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline. Today, we're looking at potential Tarik Skubal trade packages.
The question of whether the Tigers will trade Tarik Skubal continues to dominate the rumor mill.
On the one hand, there seems to be "growing sentiment among rival executives" that Detroit will try to keep Skubal and make a playoff push. On the other, plenty of MLB insiders still think Skubal is more likely to be traded than not.
But ignore the "will-they-won't-they" aspect for a second. If the Tigers did want to trade Skubal, what type of package would it take to land him?
A report today from The Athletic gives us a glimpse into what such a package might look like. Multiple rival executives briefed on the Tigers' thinking told Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon that the Tigers could deal Skubal for a young, MLB-ready starting pitcher and multiple prospects.
The Athletic mentions the Yankees' Ryan Weathers and the Phillies' Andrew Painter as two names that could fit the "young, MLB-ready starting pitcher" bill. But other rival evaluators told ESPN's Alden Gonzalez that the Dodgers might be the best match for the Tigers in a Skubal deal.
See more of today's trade rumors here >>
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Here are the news and notes from around the Majors.
• The way last night's Dodgers-Phillies game ended is too chaotic to fully explain here. The way too short version is: J.T. Realmuto's baserunning gaffe produced an extremely chaotic, and game-ending, 5-2-6-4 double play. But you're just going to have to go watch it for yourself.
• If that double play wasn't enough for you … how about a triple play? The Marlins turned the first one of the 2026 season against the Astros yesterday. Jose Altuve was the victim, as his ground ball down the third-base line in the eighth inning was tailor-made for Miami to third-to-second-to-first for all three outs.
• Watching Fernando Tatis Jr. absolutely annihilate a 474-foot home run in Atlanta last night -- the longest homer in MLB this year -- it's kind of funny to think back about how the Padres star didn't hit a single home run for the first 55 games of the season.
• José Ramírez is back with the Guardians tonight. The star third baseman missed a little over a month after suffering a left hamate fracture on June 13 against the Tigers. The Guardians, who hold the second AL Wild Card spot and are just percentage points behind the White Sox in the AL Central race, have to feel good about getting J-Ram back for the playoff push.
• Bobby Witt Jr. is headed to the injured list with lower back tightness, the first time the Royals superstar has gone on the IL as a Major Leaguer. "It's just kind of one of those things where the type of way I play, I couldn't be myself out there," Witt said. "And I couldn’t even be 50% of myself."
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IRON HORSE TO SILVER SCREEN |
It's been 84 years since Gary Cooper’s Oscar-nominated portrayal of Yankees legend Lou Gehrig in "The Pride of the Yankees."
But the Iron Horse is set to get the silver screen treatment once again -- played by one of Hollywood's biggest stars.
Actor Glen Powell is attached to play Gehrig in an untitled film about the baseball icon, according to a report by Deadline. The movie will be directed by Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater, and "Saturday Night Live" creator and lifelong Yankees fan Lorne Michaels is one of the film's producers.
See more details on the upcoming Gehrig movie here >>
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