The Baseball Listicle Lineup for January 1-15, 2025

Issue #214

The latest edition of a regular feature here at Now Taking the Field—a roundup of my favorite recent baseball articles, many though not all in the form of “listicles”—articles framed around a list of some sort or other. I continue to focus this for now on articles by other Substack baseball authors, and articles directly from MLB.com itself.

Here are my favorite articles for the weeks January 1-15, 2025, starting with articles written by other baseball-focused Substack authors:

• Hall of Fame Ballot: The Five Percenters, by at 1/14/2025

• Finding the Cliffs: Shortstop and Outfield, by at 1/13/2025

• 5 Baseball Cards that Growl from the Ivy, at 1/12/2025

• Valentine’s Day Gift: The Wonderful Watercolors of Gifted Baseball Artist James Fiorentino, by Dan Schlossberg, at 1/11/2025

• Still No ‘300 Club’ Membership For Justin Verlander, by Dan Schlossberg, at 1/11/2025

• Question... What are my go-to baseball stats?, by at 1/10/2025

• Finding the Cliffs: Second and Third Base, by at 1/10/2025

• Will the Real Corbin Carroll Please Stand Up?, by at 1/8/2025

• Finding the Cliffs: Catcher and First Base, by at 1/8/2025

• Did the Reds upgrade with Gavin Lux?, by at 1/7/2025

• Checking Chunks: A High Level View of Early Drafts, by at 1/6/2025

• 5 Baseball Cards Tailor-Made for the Diamond, at 1/5/2025

• Most Times Up In a Season—Without Ever Striking Out, by Andrew Sharp, at 1/4/2025

• Return of Injured Players Will Impact 2025 Title Chases, by Dan Schlossberg, at 1/4/2025

• The Hall, and Second Chances, by at 1/3/2025

• 3 Red Sox New Year’s Resolutions, at 1/1/2025

Beyond Substack, these were my favorite articles from the writers at MLB.com these past two weeks:

• Who landed top talent on Day 1 of the '25 int'l signing period?, by Jesse Borek, 1/15/2025

• Which teams are most likely to repeat as division champs? We rank 'em, by Will Leitch, 1/14/2025

• Here are the Top 10 catching prospects for 2025, by Sam Dykstra, 1/14/2025

• The 40 likely Hall of Famers you'll see in 2025, by Mike Petriello, 1/10/2025

• 10 free agents from last year with something to prove, by Thomas Harrigan, 1/10/2025

• 10 players who could be 2025 versions of '24's breakout stars, by David Adler, 1/10/2025

• Sasaki's potential landing spots: Ranking the contenders, by Mike Petriello, 1/8/2025

• 10 prospects impacted by trades—even