TBC Site News

+ New Baseball Card set added to the Baseball Cards section:

2025 Topps Update. 350 cards with many rookies, rookie debuts, traded players and others who were not listed in the base 2025 Topps set. Nick Kurtz and Drake Baldwin are among the rookies. Many later-season debuts are not included and will be in the 2026 set, coming in a few months. (Anthony, Caglianone, Misiorowski, Tong, McLean etc)

+ You'll start to notice player names at the top of the page (and in browser title), gradually change to include accents and suffixes. They won't be updated (yet) in the data grids and I'm not sure if I ever will. But every night, a few hundred players will be updated with their name listed as it should be listed.

+ The University of Massachusetts baseball team is going with 2 Head Coaches for the 2026 season. Max Weir and Brandon Shileikis will guide the Minutemen. Will there be 2 men standing at third base? Will 2 men run out to argue with the Umpires? Will they change pitchers, 1 indicating lefty and the other righty? I have questions...

But seriously, I've seen this a couple of times in JUCO but have no idea how it works functionally. I know Michael Scott and Jim Halpert tried it on The Office and that didn't go so well. I am sure there is a good reason for this. According to the Mid-American Conference web site (yes, UMass is now in the MAC), they are "acting" co-head coaches. Both have been UMass assistants at some point.

> You know I live in Canada. I do not like winter. I like heat. Maybe not Florida heat in July. But I like hot days. I like the sun.

Where I live. In Canada. It snows. This year, it snows lots. It started in mid-November. Not abnormal. But usually it disappears. It melts. Like a magic trick, it goes bye-bye. But it stayed. Like a talkative guest who won't leave your house. It won't stop. The snow keeps coming. Every 2nd day. Why do I tell you this? Because I decided, in all of my infinite wisdom, because I work from home, because I don't like having to clean/move my cars on demand, (I decided) to shovel my own driveway and not hire a company with tractors.

I just got back inside. 2nd time today. Heavy snow at the bottom of the driveway because the city piles the street snow in front of driveways. Haha it says as it passes by. A guffaw maybe. I went out at 11:30am and ran out of steam. You see...let me tell you something you may not know. Its one thing to shovel snow and gently throw it onto the side of your driveway. If you live in Maryland, maybe you have done that before. And its another thing to have heavy wet snow, and maybe if you live in Dover, Delaware, maybe you've done that too and just gently tossed that onto the side of your driveway, with a bit more gusto. BUT, its ANOTHER thing to have to heave that snow 6 feet in the air over the existing snowbanks from the other 42 times that you had to shovel snow earlier this winter (and fall!!!).

Its my own fault. I did this to myself. I have no one to blame. This is ALL my doing. And I'll likely do it again next year because its fun, its great exercise and it feels GREAT when its done!

+ Added 2026 arbitration contracts signed thus far. Thanks to MLB Trade Rumors for their great coverage! Not all players have signed. Many will be headed towards the icky arbitration process if they can't settle in the next little while.

+ The International Free Agent signing period is starting in a couple of days. If you're a super-fan, maybe you know some of the names. I'm a super-fan but I don't know any of the names. So maybe I'm not a super-fan. Signings and bonuses will be added over the next few weeks. I call these UDFA's. Undrafted Free Agents.

+ Thanks to "TB" for his TBC PREMIUM renewal and to "TL" for becoming a new PREMIUM subscriber! Always appreciated! I'll say it again: If you visit the site daily,

> I failed out of college. Twice. I didn't know I had ADHD. I had always breezed through school. I got passing grades in boring subjects and killed it the one's I liked. Math. Gym. Music. English. I studied Accounting in University. I don't know why. I hated it. I skipped classes. There was a management accounting class that I never attended beyond the first day. I didn't drop it. I even went to the exam. I carry guilt for that. I failed out after that. I failed out twice. Accounting was sludge.

After the 2nd time, I went back. At 26. I begged them. Same school. Same degree. Different major. I switched to Management Information Systems (MIS). Hybrid of computer science/business. I learned about web programming. Databases. SQL. Applications. Working with users. Testing. Fixing bugs. I went to school at night. After my day job where i was a handyman computer guy at a company with no computer guys. MIS was pavement.

I graduated in 3 years. I got all my credits. I stood on the stage in the Bell Centre (Then called the Molson Centre)...yes, we spell centre r-e in Canada ... I was 28 years old. I was about to get married. And I got my degree. It was hard. It was long. It took a decade.

Its just a piece of paper but it represents something. School is hard. Its hard on brains. Its even harder on ADHD brains. I got through it. The deep sludge. Like I was being peppered by machine gun fire by the enemy. Like I was going to get wounded at any moment. And I did get wounded. Twice. But I took 1 step at a time. I kept going. And little did I know, and I would learn this later in life, that there wasn't an enemy manning the machine gun. It was me.

A summary of the last 5 NCAA D1 seasons by Conference.

The list considers only non-conference games and ranks by overall winning percentage for these games in an attempt to rank conference strength. Although the list does not consider quality of opposition/strength of schedule, over the 5 years and with a sizeable number of schools per conference, the winning percentage should be statistically significant.

The list will update at the conclusion of each D1 college baseball season.

+ Another new baseball card set. 2023 Topps Heritage. That's 725 scans front and back. 501-725 are considered to be high numbers. 401-500 are short prints. 26,300 card sets on the site.

+ There's a player in the Reds system whose parents MAY have been Mariners fans although he hails from Mexico. Ichiro Cano Hernandez. We got Ichiro Suzuki, Robinson Cano and Felix Hernandez all in one name. Although the TBC page has him as Ichiro Cano, you can see his full name on his 2025 Bowman Card

> I worked from a Starbucks today. My son's starbucks. My son was not working but he randomly appeared with a similar intention to me. I called his name. He sat with me. He gave me a broken sugar cookie for free. It was of a heart. "You broke my heart" Is aid. "It's free" he replied "Just eat it". He let me change the Starbucks music playlist from the Starbucks iPad. I changed the vibe in the store. I felt so powerful. I controlled Starbucks.

> Do you watch The Traitors? I don't watch a lot of reality shows. I used to watch Survivor but then got bored. I watched Amazing Race before COVID made it weird. I watch what my wife watches but tune out to work. The Voice. Dancing with the Stars. But I recommend The Traitors. I'm watching the US Version. I find it fun. The people are fun. The host is fun. The theme is fun. Its just fun.

+ There are now 26,000 card scans in the TBC Cards Database.

+ Thanks to "RB" for subscribing to TBC PREMIUM.


+ When you subscribe to TBC PREMIUM (Only $24/year), you get access to the TBC Player Tracker. The Tracker is a great way to keep track of MLB or Minor Leaguers on a daily basis. Who would benefit from the Tracker's 200 players?

Fantasy Baseball Players
Baseball Card Collectors Tracking Prospects
Player Agents
Baseball Scouts and personnel
College Coaches and Recruiters
Fans of a particular team
Curious fans
More!

> Did you hear that hearing aids are nothing but trouble? I don't wear them. My father does. He and my mother went to the Hearing Aid place. To fix them. They get fixed. It was bad weather. It was snowing. It was snowing a lot. My mother, spry and young-looking for her age was leading my father, who is not spry and not young-looking, at the front of the building. She fell. She felt a crack. She broke her hip.

3 days later. Picture it. Mother in hospital. Father at home. We're checking on him daily. I have the keys. I open the front door of the building. I ascend. I open the door of the apartment. It opens but stops. The chain is on. The apartment is dark. I call in. Helloooooo. Nothing. I call on his cell phone. I call on his landline. Nothing. Did he fall? Is he sleeping? Is he unable to hear me? I call the police. They come quickly. Break the chain and enter.

They return with an explanation. "Your father fell while trying to pick up his hearing aid."

Now both parents are in the same hospital. They are together but apart. I visit him a few days later. Still in the ER. Awaiting placement somewhere temporary. I talk to him. He doesn't respond. In fact, he doesn't hear me. I ask him if he can hear me. I say it louder. He responds no. He says "My hearing aid doesn't work."

And so I take a chair. Bring out the phone, open the eBay app and start shopping for Rookie Cards, all while lamenting how much I despise hearing aids.

An up-to-date listing of the most recent 50 MLB Contract Extensions.

A contract extension is considered to be a contract where a player's existing team extends his tenure with the team through a new contract with new terms.

Most extensions are to reward young players who have performed well. Their extension typically keeps them past their arbitration and/or into their Free Agent seasons. Contract extensions can also be given in other situations.

The list includes players only. Manager, Coach and Executive salaries are not tracked.

+ Added the 1977 Topps baseball card set to the Baseball Cards section. This includes front/back scans for the 660 cards in this set. There are currently 25,916 total cards with scans in the database.

+ Small change to the MLB Team Game Logs view on team pages. Added filters for Extra-Inning Games, Wins and Losses. Filters are only available to TBC PREMIUM Subscribers.

+ Fixed an issue on Boxscore pages where the umpires were not linking correctly. Also a reminder that there is an Umpires section with some basic game metrics available for comparison.

+ Thanks to "ES" for subscribing to TBC PREMIUM. The only thing I love as much as new subscribers is renewing subscribers ... and that's where "GK" Comes in! Thanks to both of you!

> Did you ever realize that you're a community of you's. Think like an athlete. A baseball player. Think like Connor Joe. Why Connor Joe? He looks cool, that's why. Present day Connor Joe has many Connor Joe's before him to thank. The work that earlier versions of Connor Joe put in. Additionally, present day Connor Joe, already slightly different than the one who thanked his predecessors, has a responsibility to future Connor Joe's. 2027 Connor Joe. 2028 Connor Joe. Retired Connor Joe. Grandpa Connor Joe. Tomorrow's Connor Joe. He has a responsibility to 80 year-old Connor Joe. Will 80-year old Connor Joe be able to walk unassisted. Get up on his own if he falls? Will there even be an 80-year old Connor Joe?

Picture a community of Connor Joe's across time. All looking cool. Flowing hair. Eye black. Stubble. All standing chronologically on an extended timeline. Each Connor Joe separate but connected to the other Connor Joe's. Each decision COnnor Joe makes has an impact on those ahead of him. You can see it happen in real-time on this timeline. You can visibly SEE the future Connor Joe's getting slightly weaker when Joe makes a bad decision and you can see them getting stronger when he makes a healthier choice.

So lets do this. Starting today. Make the April 14,2026 version of you the best it can be by dropping hundreds of little positive decisions into a bucket. You don't have to be perfect. More healthy than unhealthy. Pick a goal and make the tiny little decisions that drive you towards that goal. I promise you they will add up. Zoom in on the April 14,2026 version of you and picture his/her level of contentment. Their state of Regulation. And now, remembering that this is someone in your community, make that first decision that will strengthen that version of you.

+ There's a page on The Baseball Cube for Active Alumni per High School. Please don't hesitate to suggest a data view!

+ Thanks to "TN" for his custom data purchase. He asked for something specific to his baseball career needs and we only charged him $25. Also thanks to "DN" for renewing his TBC PREMIUM subscription for another year.

+ Did you know that TBC also has Minor League Boxscores and game logs since 2015?

+ Did you know that D1 College Baseball will be starting in 40 days?

> I work a lot. I don't know why. Or I might know why. Only the Universe knows the truth. I like to work. I like entering data. I like listing cards. I like programming. I like packaging cards. I like running data queries. I like it all. I LOVE it all. I wake up each morning excited. Refreshed. Every day. No Sabbath. No day of rest. Burnout is not a risk because I love it. Every day of the year. If I am prevented from working, I have a physical reaction. I can't tell if this is a superpower or a disorder.

If you read my posts, you'll know I work everywhere. Anywhere. In my office of course. On the couch, watching tv with Mrs. Cube. In bed sometimes, trying to slow down. YES, I work to slow down from that same work.

I work in Starbucks. I work in the car on road trips (while passengering). In hotel rooms. In hotel lobbies. I work outside on my porch in the 3 acceptable seasons. In the park. I work in the passenger seat of my car parked in front of a lake or a river. I worked at my kids music lessons. At the stables, in the cold, for horseback riding lessons. I have worked in a gazebo overlooking a river. On picnic tables. In airports. On airplanes. On cruise ships.

I activate accounts on my phone. I re-list cards at boring social events. I shop eBay the moment boredom strikes. Work fills in the gaps of my life. Like sand on rocks. Work will find the gaps.

But I am learning, slowly, almost reluctantly, that those gaps hold value. The gaps are scary to me. That's where the ideas come from. That's where you process your emotions. That's where you are with yourself, near yourself, learning about yourself.

And so maybe, that's my message from this post. It wasn't when I started. But it is now. Protect the gaps.

These are the top 50 "active" Major Leaguers with the most career stolen bases. The list is dynamic and is updated daily during the season. A player is considered active if he has Major League experience in last 2 years and is not labelled as retired.

+ Added a new Baseball Card set to the Cards section.

2024 Topps Archives includes 300 cards for the 2023 season's best stars and rookies as well as many historical superstars/HOFers. Babe Ruth and Ted Williams are included, among others. Card designs are from historical Topps Baseball Card sets from 1961,1970 and 1994. In this way, Archives is similar to Heritage and can be confusing since there can be overlap. Heritage does not include historical players and sticks to 1 year to replicate. Seeing current players with old Topps designs always gives me a thrill and transports me to different periods of my life.

+ Thanks to our first new subscriber of 2026. "TN" has subscribed to TBC PREMIUM. Only $24/year! The 2nd subcriber was "HP"! Thanks to both of you for getting TBC off to a great start in '26!

If you're a frequent visitor to the site, I strongly recommend subscribing to TBC PREMIUM. Of COURSE I want more subscribers...but truthfully, I use the site for my own baseball research and the difference between using PREMIUM vs the free version of the site is worth the small investment. The site is faster, smoother and has more functionality. Even if you don't care about the Tracker or the Research Applications. Its a dopamine-inducing experience!

> Happy New Year fellow Baseball Fans! Any resolutions? Me? Nope. Never. I don't believe in them other than the surge of dopamine that come from making them. The feeling that YES, I have acknowledged what is hurting me and I have now made plans to make that change. But I will ONLY make that change when an arbitrary date appears. I will defer it and make today more palatable as a result. I'll start after I have recovered from the final binge and the New Year's partying. Maybe on the 6th? That FEELING of acknowldgement is important as is the PLAN. But to rely fully on will power is not a good strategy. A strategy of deprivation has never worked for me. Counting calories, depriving myself of sugar or alcohol or caffeine, forcing myself to work out. None of that has ever worked for me because it relies fully on will power and discipline. On a good day without stressors, its possible. But when the stressors hit, and they will, the system will want to soothe through those old habits and your will power will slowly (or quickly) disintegrate. Those habits were there in the first place for a reason. They worked!

> So I spent New Year's at a friend's house. An hour away. We played board games. We had ribs and drank a bit of wine. But truthfully, I wasn't into it. I was tired. I was spent. The family drama. The bad cold. The external demands. The Site. The Cards. All of it. But I went through the motions. I was a good friend. I was a good husband. We stayed past midnight.

But when we left, we were greeted with a snowstorm. The first snow of 2026 of course and maybe the 22nd instance of snow since mid-November. To put that in perspective, a couple of years ago, we had a green Christmas. I was running in my shorts and t-shirt on Christmas Eve. It was ludicrous. Preposterous. Absolutely Amazing. But winter has come early and often this year. From all directions. And to have to brush off my car at midnight + 30 with a temperature of -13 celsius (9 degrees farenheit) with a an hour-long drive...correction...now an hour and 30 minutes, on uncleared roads with New Year's party-ers going home...it just hit me like a ton of bricks and I mentally shut down. I'll talk about shutdowns in a future post.

I got home at 2:25am. I slept until 10. Next I had to attack a driveway with 3 cars, 1 completely iced over from a prior freezing rain event followed by a trip to visit TBC's parents in their rehab center. Hoping for calmer days ahead!

These are the Junior Colleges who have had at least 1 draft pick in the last 10 MLB drafts.

The list aggregates the number of draft picks for all rounds of the draft. Players may have been drafted multiple times out of the same school. The list excludes players signing as an undrafted free agent.

Note that the player must have been drafted while attending the Junior College. There are many players who have transferred to 4-year schools before subsequently being drafted. They are excluded from this report.

The list is dynamic and will be up-to-date upon page load.

+ Esteury Ruiz was traded to the Marlins this week. Why does this matter to me? Ruiz is fast. He stole 67 bases for the A's in 2023. He stole 62 in the minors last year and 85 in 2022. And so of course, no power? Wrong. Far from Judge-ian numbers but he has 73 career minor league homers and a .290 career batting average. If it were the 80s, Ruiz would be on an NL roster. But with only 4-5 bench players per team per game in today's baseball, Ruiz isn't a lock.

There needs to be a place in MLB for Ruiz and the "specialists". The answer? Either reduce pitching roster slots or increase bench player/active roster spots by 2. Allow specialists to specialize. But how? Allow re-entry. Wait? What? Is this softball? The re-entry rule would allow teams to use bench players once per game, at any point, to enter for a player who can re-enter at any point afterwards. Starters can return to the lineup once per game. Replacement players are "burned" once they come out of the game. They are no longer available. BUT, it would make room for speed demons, pure hitters and one-dimensional power hitters. It would keep everyone guessing and open up opportunities for optimizing offensive situations. The rule would not apply to pitchers.

An example. Its the 6th inning and you have a rally going. You're down by 2, the bases are loaded and you're at the 9th spot in the order. You have Luis Arraez on the bench. You pinch-hit for your fleet-footed, defensive-wizard of a shortstop and you insert Arraez. You let him bat and he singles and the rally continues for a bit. You decide to shift players and leave Arraez at 1st to get another at bat. He grounds out and you pull him for your defensive-wizard and end the game with defense but you managed to optimize Luis Arraez by giving him 2 at bats in 3 innings in a 9-inning game.

+ Thanks to "MK" for signing up to TBC PREMIUM ... Thanks to "JG" for adding 100 players to his TBC Tracker Account (PREMIUM subscription required) ... Thanks to "BR" for purchasing NCAA D1 College Baseball Statistics (recent 5 seasons)

> I'm working from a Starbucks. We're in that limbo area of the year. After Christmas. The machine has slowed down. The engine is idling. Vacations abound. Relationship prioritization. Sensible rest.

I have never liked this time of year. I like the sound of a strong engine. When it stops, I'm forced to reflect. I get antsy. Agitated. I feel an emptiness. Ideally, I should reflect upon the year. Write down notes. Take a rest. See what can be improved. Take many deep breaths. Prioritize Relationships. Take a vacation. Get some sensible rest. But I'm not sensible. I am governed by my own engine that still has me perplexed. I am not ready to stop my engine even if the world's idles.

New Years, to me, is just another obligated celebration. Its meaningless other than the 4th character of YYYY doing a ++. I don't live in the flow of culture or society. I am separate. Either by choice...or not.

So yes. I am working. I am doing what I do on May 3rd or September 27th. I did this on Christmas Day and will do it on New Year's Day. I did this on my birthday and will do it on every holiday and every day and every cruise and on every road trip.

And now I wait anxiously for the whir of the world's engine to start once again.

+ Added a new dataset. Minor League Rule 5 Draft Picks from 1998-2025. Listed with pick number, selecting team, original team and the phase (AA,AAA). The data is in the Rule 5 section under Draft.

+ The TBC Card Store is meeting expectations. The 1st card sold was a pair of 2023 Topps Gunnar Henderson rookie cards. If you collect cards, you can support TBC by buying a card or 2 from the store!

Since the store opened earlier in 2025, TBC has sold 1414 cards through 416 orders. Although the long-term plan is to create a business model to make a small profit on the hobby, the current plan is simply to enjoy the process of ripping and selling ... using the proceeds of the sales to support the ripping. Eventually I would like to learn to make a profit although from what I am learning, it is hard work. But then again, so was TBC.

If you're in Canada and have a small collection of cards that you want to ditch, let me know. I'm exploring the idea of purchasing small collections.

> I am so dedicated to those who buy cards from me that I braved an unsalted driveway and a barely salted downhill street to mail the 15 cards ordered over the weekend.

I stomped the 3 front of the TBC Office Complex until the ice disentegrated under my manly Canadian boots. And then I gently and gingerly moved down the driveway, holding on to dear life to the parked cars. Holding mirrors. Smudging windows. Maybe I grapped a windshield wiper? I grabbed the mail key from the 2nd car. Maybe a card or 2 arrived?

When the cars were no longer helpful, I still had 15 feet of driveway, downhill, with no vehicular support. I moved slowly. A truck stopped on the road to either watch or protect itself from my adventure. I took my baby steps down the driveway. Arms out. I'm in shape. I run. I'm spry enough. But I assumed I was going down at some point. The only question was how injured would I be.

I made it to the barely salted road. I switched to a strut and then my foot slipped and my arms swung around like Witney Carson on Dancing with the Stars. I kept my cool. I stayed on my feet. I knew that truck was behind me. Did he see? My hood blocked all peripheral vision. I was now emotionally distant from my manly foot stomp on the stairs. Seems like days ago. The truck behind me backed into a driveway and turned around. He saw what he needed to see, the headlights shaking their heads slowly.

I made it to the mailbox using my tunnel vision. 2 steps away, I did another Witney Carson move. Maybe a Paso Doble? Maybe an Argentian Tango? No. I think it was a quickstep. I dutifully pushed the 9 envelopes through the thin slot. Taking my time. One at a time. Reading the names on the envelopes. Quietly thanking them. I checked my mailbox and found 3 late Christmas cards. Crap. No baseball cards. As I turned to head back to the icy road/dance floor, some red pants flashed into my range of vision. "Bonjour" said the pants. "Bonjour" I replied without swinging my head around. Did he see the quickstep? How long was he standing there? I slowly walked back up the hill, feeling defeated, trying to find the path of least resistance. There was no more dancing for me. I slowly made my way back up the driveway and made a mental note to buy salt or else nobody would be able to deliver ordered Baseball Cards up my driveway. I put the mail key back in the car and slowly did the Nursing Home cha-cha up the driveway to the path up the stairs created by some manly man a few minutes earlier.

This is a dynamic list of Japanese-born players currently on an MLB Roster. The list includes players on the MLB active roster or an MLB injured list.