Listen to much of the recent conversation around the playoffs and you'll find yourself slipping into a mindset that assumes October success is completely random. A total crapshoot. However, when we think about player performance, is there really much of a difference between playing a regular season game on October 2 and a postseason game four days later on October 6? Well, at the risk of sounding too simplistic, I believe the best predictor of an individual's postseason performance is... wait for it... his recent performance. In other words, if a player is hitting well in September chances are he'll hit pretty well in October. 

What can we learn from the death of one of the brightest stars in baseball? In these moments following a tragedy, the typical response is to focus on the fragile nature of life and the fact that none of us are guaranteed another day. And while that’s true and perhaps appropriate, I think we can learn the most and remember Fernández the best by focusing not on how he died but on how he lived.

Over the course of the last couple weeks, I've grown increasingly interested in writing about the intersection of law and sports. Several things have contributed to this. With sports law on my mind, I set out to find the most interesting legal cases in baseball history. This is my no means an exhaustive list, but here are three that I found compelling.

After hearing about the awesomeness of Baseball Reference's Play Index tool for years, I finally decided to cough over the $30 and try out a one year subscription. So far, so good.

My first research topic: is there a precedent for Andrew McCutchen's disastrous 2016 season?

Here is my "Three Up, Three Down" for the month of July. The Trade Deadline has passed, playoff races are forming, and we're entering the final two months of the regular season.