June 2026 Newsletter
By Gilbert D. Martinez
Chapter Commissioner
Four intrepid chapter members gathered to watch the Texas Volts host the Portland Cascade in a second-season match of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League at Dell Diamond on Sunday.
Though the Volts were doused by the Cascade, 5-2, we got to see the Cascade’s Megan Grant, the reigning NCAA Division I single-season home run leader with 42 this past season for the UCLA Bruins. True to form, she notched two home runs, including a two-run home run in the fourth inning, leading Portland to victory.
1977 UCLA alumni Jerry Miller alerted the group to watch for Grant’s big bat, and she did not disappoint (well, she may have disappointed the home fans because, unfortunately for them, Grant played for the visiting team).
According to game notes provided by the AUSL, Grant became the ninth player in AUSL regular season history to hit two home runs in a game, and, after game play on Sunday, led the league with six home runs.
With the loss, the Volts dropped to 3-10 on the season, which runs through July 20. The Volts are one of six teams in the league, including the Cascade, Utah Talons, Oklahoma City Spark, Chicago Bandits and Carolina Blaze.
The Volts took an early 2-1 lead in the first inning on infielder (3B) Jennifer Lis’ two-RBI single. But the Volts struggled against Cascade starter Carley Hoover (1-0) and reliever Kelly Maxwell the rest of the way.
The Hornsby group pondered electric-related puns to play on the Volts name. For example, Jerry wondered if Volts pitcher Ally Carda and catcher Dejah Mulipola would constitute a “9-Volt-battery.”
It was the 235th consecutive month in which the chapter has had a monthly meeting, a streak dating to December 2006.
Awardatron update!
[Note: Ryan Pollack shared his third update of the season in the Awardatron contest to the email list on Tuesday.]
By Ryan Pollack
Baseball fans! It’s so good to write to you again. Can you believe the season is already halfway over?
AL MVP
Favorites: Witt Jr., Alvarez, Kurtz
Honestly Aaron Judge is still on the list of favorites despite having been on the IL for the past month. But I’m going to go with Nick Kurtz here because the projection systems I’m looking at don’t know that there’s currently no timetable for Judge’s return. Plus, I mean let’s be honest, we’re all tired of hearing about him. Right??
I first heard about Nick Kurtz last year when he hit 4 HR in a game. Before then I, well, hadn’t heard of him. I’d heard of his teammate Jacob Wilson, who’d had a strong start to the 2025 season and was the ROY favorite at the time. He was on nearly all of our ballots after the All-Star Break. But then Kurtz had that amazing game and hasn’t looked back.
Entering today’s game Kurtz has a batting line of .279/.423/.525 with 19 HR and a 159 wRC+. This is slightly below last year’s performance of 170 wRC+; the drop in power is partially offset by an increase in OBP, which itself is driven by an increase in walk rate from 12.9% to 19.4%. Just think about that – nearly 1 out of every 5 times Kurtz comes to the plate, he walks. Major league average is more like 1 in every 11-12 PA’s. Pitchers respect his power and Kurtz is disciplined enough to take what he gets.
NL MVP
Favorites: Ohtani, Crow-Armstrong, Carroll
I did not think PCA was this good. Last year he walked a paltry 4.5% of the time and slugged an outlandish (for a speedy outfielder) .481 with 30 dingers. His wRC+ of 109 was above average and when coupled with his position and defense made him a very valuable player. But the walk rate told me he lacked the discipline to truly succeed in a sustainable way.
Well this year PCA has proved me wrong. After a slow start (88 wRC+ in March/April) he hit for a 117 wRC+ in May and then tore the cover off the ball in June with a 228 wRC+. Unbelievable. He’ll end the first half with a park-adjusted batting line ~42% better than league average. And oh yeah he’s also notched 14 outs above average in CF. And he is walking 9.9% of the time, a sharp increase from last year, indicating that his plate discipline is much better and therefore that his offensive gains will stick.
AL Cy Young
Favorites: Schlittler, Cease, Rasmussen
I haven’t seen any conversation about Drew Rasmussen so I’ll talk about him. The only thing I know about him is that he plays for the Rays and that in 2022, he took a perfect game against us (the Orioles) into the 9th inning. Okay, so that’s two things.
Rasmussen has a strong ERA at 2.45 but his xERA of 2.96 indicates he’s benefitting from some good fortune. A quick glance at his low .236 BABIP and high 79.8% strand rate confirm the suspicion. Still, a moderate decline would be a win for the Rays and could net Rasmussen a Top-5 Cy Young finish, something I’m sure he’d be proud of at 30 years old and coming off a couple injury-plagued years.
NL Cy Young
Favorites: Misiorowski, Sánchez, Sale
Well, I have to talk about The Miz, which (because I’m old) makes me think of that guy who was on MTV’s Real World many years ago and who wanted to be (and ultimately became, I think) a pro wrestler. I think you all know the drill – he (Jacob, not the wrestler guy) regularly hits 104 MPH in a game and has passed Paul Skenes for the title of “young phenom who throws really really hard in in NL Central”. Misiorowski is striking out 38.8% of batters, which is top-shelf reliever territory but with a starter’s workload, and walking only 7.2% of hitters. And remember when I said that Rasmussen stranding 79.8% of runners is high? The Miz is leaving a whopping 84.2% of runners on base. But given his strikeout stuff, I’m inclined to believe this rate can be sustained for a whole season.
AL Rookie of the Year
Favorites: McGonigle, Messick, Peters
All I have to say about Parker Messick is that I’m glad he’s doing really well, because when he took a no-hitter into the 9th inning against the Orioles in April I was like “who the f is this guy? I’ve never heard of him before!” And that was back when I still expected something out of the team this season. So now that he’s in the conversation for the AL ROY award, at least I know we weren’t dominated by some scrub but by someone who’s actually talented (not that it matters for our won-loss record at the end of the day).
NL Rookie of the Year
Favorites: Wetherholt, McLean, Rumfield
The Rockies may be on the road to nowhere at the moment, buft you can’t blame TJ Rumfield. The 26 year old first baseman is hitting .294/.372/.491. Playing half his game in Denver means his wRC+ is only 127, but that’s still very good.
Glancing at Rumfield’s player page for this analysis tells me that he, like yours truly, went to Virginia Tech. So I’ll be rooting for him.
AL Manager of the Year
Favorites: Cash, Vogt, Venable
Since last we spoke, the White Sox have vaulted into first place in the AL Central, if by only one game over the Guardians. They are getting contributions up and down the lineup. Miguel Vargas has broken out with a downballot MVP season at 3.0 WAR already on the strength of a 140 wRC+ (and he’s actually underperforming his batted-ball launch angle and exit velocity). Colson Montgomery is hitting bombs right alongside Murakami, and Chase Meidroth is having a solid season right behind him. On the pitching side, Davis Martin is getting lucky but the results on the field are very good, and Sean Burke is solidifying the spot right behind him.
Projection sites still have the White Sox missing the postseason, but it’s been a fun ride for them to this point, the AL is very weak this year, and there’s plenty of baseball left to play.
NL Manager of the Year
Favorites: Murphy, Mattingly, Counsell
I’m not sure whether any manager has won the award after his predecessor was fired mid-season, but Don Mattingly could do so with his Phillies. Under his tenure the Phillies have gone from also-ran to solid contenders. After going 12-19 in March and April, they’ve since gone an absurd 35-18. Thomson was fired on April 28th so it’s a very clean correlation from March/April under his leadership to May/June under Mattingly’s. But is it causal? I suppose we’ll never know, but Mattingly’s going to get credit all the same.
Ironically Thomson himself received similar praise when he took over from Joe Girardi who was fired on June 3, 2022. The Phillies had gone 22-29 to that point but ended up doing well enough after the change to appear in the World Series. Can’t wait to see who replaces Mattingly in May of 2030!
Predicatron update: Walsh tops out!
[Jim Baker shared this update on June 21, the most recent update. Because of his travel plans, his next update is slightly delayed.]
Oh, look at us: scoring points again like we know something about baseball. Aren’t we proud of ourselves and our 25-point per-player average increase?
Well, we should be. It’s quite an accomplishment, especially after last week and some of the other weeks we’ve had to endure in this most trying of seasons.
In any event, we have a new leader in the person of Mr. Walsh. He outpointed previous leader Mr. Robinson 31 to 27, which was just enough for him to take a one-point lead in the contest. Mr. Robinson maintains his grip on the Mike Harrell Division lead, however, one of the 23-point variety over his closest pursuer, Ms. Martinez.
Things are a lot tighter in the Tom Wancho Division, however. Mr. McIntosh and Mr. Gay are eight points back of the lead with our Player of the Week Mr. Pollack just one point behind them. With 36 points, he bested Mr. Dillon (35) and last week’s recipient, Mr. Wancho (34), to carry home the award.
Don’t look now, but the Marlins and Nationals are both over .500, an eventuality that was not on our Bingo cards (or, more accurately, our Predictatron ballots).
The Marlins are only costing us nine points apiece on average, which is not disastrous, but certainly not ideal. The best Miami pick belongs to Mr. Wancho, who said they’d win 82 games. The most-damaging Miami pick is in the hands of Mr. Dillon, who predicted a 59-win season for them. Nobody had them as their Lock.
The Nationals are more of a problem for this contest, hitting us up for 18 points each on average. Mr. Dillon gets some compensation for his Marlins pick here, possessing the best Nats tab on the block at 74 wins. The most-damaging D.C. dosage belongs to Mr. Pollack, who Locked them at 67 wins, which is costing him 32 points at the moment. The least-accurate Washington pick belongs to Mr. McIntosh who foretold a 56-win season for them.
Surely both can’t keep this up the rest of the way, can they? We’re very close to the half-way point and it would be most disruptive to this contest if both or even one of these teams kept this going the rest of the way.
Through games of Sunday, June 21 or 47.6 percent of the 2026 season:
Next meeting
We stick to the ball field for our next monthly meeting, shifting south to Wolff Municipal Stadium, home of the San Antonio Missions!
Please join us at 6:05 p.m. Sunday, July 26, when the Missions (Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres) host the Frisco RoughRiders (Double-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers). We’ll soon share a link with ticket location on the email list.