bdj610's 2026 End of Year MLB All-Star Teams...The Starting Pitchers

Yesterday, I named the bullpens for each of my 2026 End of the Year All-Star Teams. Now it's time to name the starters.

To recap, here is my American League relief corps:

• Bryan Baker, Rays
• Aroldis Chapman, Red Sox
• Tyler Rogers, Blue Jays
• Cade Smith, Guardians
• Louis Varland, Blue Jays

and the National League bullpen:

• Jhoan Duran, Phillies
• Raisel Iglesias, Braves
• Trevor Megill, Brewers
• Mason Miller, Padres
• Adrian Morejon, Padres

So, who would they be relieving???

Starting with the American League six-man rotation, we have (in alphabetical order):

2026 Topps Drew Rasmussen #64

• Dylan Cease, Blue Jays (11-6, 2.40 ERA, 239 K's, 1.10 WHIP, #547)
• Sonny Gray, Red Sox (18-5, 2.72 ERA, 149 K's, 1.15 WHIP, #US199)
• Nick Martinez, Rays (15-6, 3.10 ERA, 109 K's, 1.09 WHIP, #US336)
• Drew Rasmussen, Rays (16-5, 2.67 ERA, 174 K's, 0.91 WHIP, #64)
• Cam Schlittler, Yankees (14-6, 1.95 ERA, 239 K's, 0.92 WHIP, #111)
• Gavin Williams, Guardians (14-8, 3.76 ERA, 248 K's, 1.11 WHIP, #254)

Honorable mentions go out to (meaning, if I had more space, I'd would have added) Taj Bradley of the Twins (12-6, 3.73, 205 K's), and Parker Messick of the Guardians (12-9, 2.56, 193 K's). I really was struggling between Bradley and Nick Martinez, but Martinez had the better year. 

In the National League, my All-Star six man rotation includes:

2026 Topps Jacob Misiorowski #10

• Chase Burns, Reds (15-3, 2.86 ERA, 185 K's, 1.17 WHIP, #312)
• Jacob Misiorowski, Brewers (16-5, 1.80 ERA, 252 K's, 0.80 WHIP, #10)
• Eduardo Rodriguez, Diamondbacks (16-7, 2.89 ERA, 143 K's, 1.24 WHIP, #417)
• Chris Sale, Braves (14-9, 2.16 ERA, 200 K's, 0.98 WHIP, #427)
• Cristopher Sánchez, Phillies (18-7, 2.91 ERA, 231 K's, 1.20 WHIP, #325)
• Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodgers (14-9, 2.53 ERA, 182 K's, 0.87 WHIP, #90)

After the year he had, how could you NOT put The Miz onto this All-Star Team??! Sale was also on the 2014 AL team, so he's the second bridge player between the 11-year gap (along with Aroldis Chapman). Honorable mentions go out to Braxton Ashcroft of the Pirates (14-6, 3.65 ERA, 173 K's), and Jesús Luzardo of the Phillies (14-5, 2.86 ERA, 221 K's). 

So the pitching staffs are done. Next, we'll get to the position players. The first step is to ensure that every team has a representative, regardless of what position he plays. At this point, ten AL teams and eight teams from the NL need to have a player. I have a few people in mind. Who will they be? Tune in some time tomorrow and find out.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

bdj610's 2026 End of Year MLB All-Star Teams...The Relief Pitchers

It's been forever and a day since I last did one of these (I believe the last one I did was in 2014). The reason? As ridiculous as it sounds, I lost my spreadsheets saved on a flash drive and it was too much work (from 1988 to 2014, so 26 years worth of work) to get it up and running again. So I stopped. A childhood dream that grew with me was somehow lost. 

I plan on making up for that. Eleven seasons worth of it. Eventually.

But I digress.

But for now as the first set of wild card playoffs go into full swing tonight, why not resurrect what was my favorite time of the year, the naming of bdj610's End of the Year All-Star Teams.

If you want to know what the heck I'm talking about and why I have created All-Star Teams for both leagues since I was 12 years old, please review the introduction and brief history (ahem...brief???) as to why I did this every year for the 26 years.

Quick rules on how I comprise the teams:

• Two teams, one American League team, and one National League team
• There are 36 spots on each team (three first basemen, three second basemen, three third basemen, three shortstops, nine outfielders, three catchers, six starting pitchers, four relief pitchers/closers, one relief pitcher/set-up, and one DH)
• Every team gets a representative. No exceptions. If a player gets snubbed by a guy who is only there because a team needed a rep, then that's sadly the way it goes.

Things that happened when I last did this (in 2014):

• The Cubs won a World Series!!!
• The Cleveland Indians were renamed the Cleveland Guardians
• The Oakland Athletics existed (they're currently just the Athletics until they move to Las Vegas)
• The DH is now in both leagues (When I last did this exercise, only the AL had a DH position, and the player I selected as the DH for the NL was the best hitter who didn't make the team at any other position).
• Some guy managed to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season (and in 1988, 40-40 was a relatively new concept).
• I could go on and on, but...

Back to the point.

This is going to be a four-post process. Today, I will announce the bullpen staffs for each team.

Why start with the bullpens?

Because it's relatively simple. The top four guys with the most saves are automatically on the teams. Usually.

So let's start with the American League closers. On this year's team are (with their 2026 Topps cards...including Update Series):

• Bryan Baker, Rays (4-2, 1.44, 41/44 in saves/opportunities, #US287)
• Cade Smith, Guardians (1-3, 1.44, 41/46 saves/opportunities, #622)
• Aroldis Chapman, Red Sox (3-4, 1.92, 35/37 saves/opportunities, #656)
• Louis Varland, Blue Jays (5-6, 1.27, 35/37 saves/opportunities, #US210)

2026 Topps Cade Smith #622

These four players led the American League in saves, (the fifth was David Bednar, who had 35 saves as well, with a 7-3 record, and a 2.47 ERA). Chapman was on my 2014 NL All-Star team, so he's a bridge between the last time I made one of these and now. Others I had considered were actual 2026 All-Star Jacob Latz of the Rangers (3-4, 2.13 ERA, 30/34 saves/opportunities, 0.73 WHIP) and Josh Hader of the Astros (4-2, 1.01 ERA, 26/26 saves/opportunities).

The National League closers for the 2026 team are:

• Mason Miller, Padres (5-2, 1.67, 38/41 saves/opportunities, #179)
• Raisel Iglesias, Braves (1-2, 2.55, 34/37 saves/opportunities, #396)
• Jhoan Duran, Phillies (2-6, 1.82, 33/35 saves/opportunities, #83)
• Trevor Megill, Brewers (3-3, 2.63, 30/33 saves/opportunities, #141)

2026 Topps Mason Miller #179

These four have a combined WHIP ((walks + hits)/innings pitched) of 0.964! When given the opportunity to save games, these guys were almost unhittable). Others almost considered were Riley O'Brien of the Cardinals (3-9, 4.08, 38/46 saves/opportunities), Tanner Scott of the Dodgers (1-6, 2.69, 25/29 saves/opportunities), and Emilio Pagán of the Reds (5-1, 3.38, 25/28 saves/opportunities).

When I first started naming players to All-Star teams, I only considered closers for the bullpen roles. Since then I've added middle relievers, the guys who barely ever get any baseball cards, to the squads. They've been an important part of any All-Star bullpen (and even in the World Baseball Classic, bullpens consist of really good middle relievers to go complement the closers). So many great pitching performances this year by so many different players, it's just so hard to choose just one player to fill this spot. But one spot is available on both sides for a middle reliever. When all was said and done though, the two players I selected were more than qualified to make it onto the respective teams.

The AL Middle Reliever for the 2026 team is Tyler Rogers of the Blue Jays (#US117). He tied for the AL lead n holds with 33, earned a 2-3 record, had an ERA of 1.77, struck out 40 batters, and even saved 4/8 games in 71 innings of work. Others up for consideration included Rays reliever Kevin Kelly (6-4, 2.44 ERA, 63 K's, 0.90 WHIP, 33 holds), and Hunter Gaddis of the Guardians (6-3, 2.98, 57 K's, 32 holds).

The NL Middle Reliever for the 2026 team is the Padres' Adrian Morejon (#US154). His 28 holds were good for second in the NL, but a 9-3 record (which also means that he kept opposing teams down before the Padres would rally), along with a 2.83 ERA, 107 strikeouts, 3/8 in saves/opportunities, and a 1.08 WHIP was more than enough to get him added as the middle reliever. The only other pitcher in consideration for this spot was Dylan Lee of the Braves (6-1, 3.09 ERA, 77 K's, league leading 31 holds).

So right now, we've named the bullpens for each team. Who will fill out the rest of the rosters? Tomorrow, I will name the six starting pitchers that will round out the pitching staffs on each team.

By Thursday, every team will get a representative as I announce just some of the players who will take spots on both leagues' rosters.

And finally on Friday, I will round out the rest of the rosters and introduce the complete American and National League teams.

Wait and see. It's going to look good I promise.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

2026 Topps Update...Ready for Round 3??!

 

Image of the 2026 Topps Update Series Retail Box

It won't be long now before the 2026 MLB season comes to a close and the hype over the Update Series begins. And there is a lot to unpack.

2026 Topps Update Travis Bazzana #US75

The checklist for the end-of-the-year set came out earlier this week, and well...

The player selection is great, I'm not against that. Topps is even bringing back the update series SP cards, akin to the SP rookie additions in series 2, in the form of Tarik Skubal and Adley Rutschmann (definitely will get my hands on these once they hit the Bay). What I don't get, however, is the format of the base checklist.

To wit...

The checklist, for the first time ever, is broken down into categories:

• Veterans I
• Veterans II
• Rookies
• Rookie Debut
• Veteran Combos
• Season Highlights

The Veterans I section, includes (doing a quick count...) 96 players. Veterans II consists of (doing another quick count, which is just me copying and pasting the .pdf to an Excel spreadsheet) 99 players. Going down the line, you have 85 Rookies, 40  Rookie Debut cards, 16 Veteran Combo cards, and 14 Season Highlights cards. That's 350 cards in the base set. Which is great and all...but...

What's the difference between Veterans I and Veterans II??!

2026 Topps Update Walker Buehler #US213, part of the Veterans II group.

I had first thought that the Veterans I section included players who were in either Series 1 or 2, and the Veterans II section consists of players who wasn't in either series. But that isn't true because while players such as Mauricio Dubón (191 in S1, US8 in Update) and Alex Bregman (135 in S1, US25 in Update) appeared earlier on cards earlier in the year, players such as Miguel Amaya, Antonio Senzatela, and even Zac Gallen did not. 

The 99 players in the Veterans II section? Just from a sampling based off the 2026 MLB All-Stars who didn't have cards prior to the game in July, Max Mayer, Bryan Baker, Jacob Latz, and Louis Varland all are part of this group. Later additions such as Iván Herrera and Nick Martinez are part of this group as well. But both Willson Contreras and Tristan Peters are in this group as well, and they had cards in the main set (under different teams, so it's no surprise they're here too). 

So that can't be it. With that said, was there a real reason why the 195 veterans were grouped off in this way? Maybe someone who has knowledge way above my pay grade can explain. 

Or maybe I'm making too much of a big deal out of it...I don't know...

Beyond the base set, let's go over the insert sets whose cards will be distributed throughout the packs and boxes of Update Series.

Among the basic insert sets coming to Update will be the 25-card Stat Stars, a newly-titled 35-card playoffs-themed set called Autumn Ascensions (I think...only because rookie card subjects Munetaka Murakami, Travis Bazzana, and JJ Wetherholt are in this set and as far as I can tell have yet to make the playoffs in MLB), Topps Black Gold returns for another end-of-the-year appearance, 25 cards in all. The Hobby/Jumbo exclusive Mystical set returns as well with another 25 subject set. Fifty players from the All-Star Game are featured in the annual All-Star Game insert set. Which is great and all, but if Shohei Ohtani wasn't even in Philly for the festivities, why is he part of this set? Same for Vladimir Guerrero, Jr.

First Pitch concludes with five more celebrities, including someone many Filipinos outside of the Hobby will jump at the chance to acquire, boxing legend (and senator) Manny Pacquiao. The celebration of 1991 Topps baseball also concludes with another 50-card set. The ever popular Stars of MLB set concludes with another 26 cards (funny enough, no Titans of the Game in this one).

2026 Topps Update 1991 Topps Munetaka Murakami #U91-22

The Costco sets will return for the first time in Update Series. So expect another 90-card Flagship Collection and 10-card Bulk Order to appear in bonus packs. There is also a 10-card Rookie Sensations set that is exclusive to the "Club Box", but there is at this time, no way to tell if this is going to be an SP insert set or a basic one.

The product goes live on October 14, 2026, less than four weeks from the day this post goes live. I can't wait to get back into the swing of things.  The chase for 593 cards will begin then. As of now, the 6-inch binder is 2/3rd's full and just needs the SP Rookie Variations (Kevin McGonigle, JJ Wetherholt, Carson Benge, and Justin Crawford) to finish out Series 2. 

Then the fun will begin.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Twenty-Five Years Ago Today...

I wrote this post on September 11, 2018. It is now eight-years later. The memories of where we were and what my wife and I were doing on what had started as a regular Tuesday morning with a newborn daughter are still there. Faded due to time, but still there.

It's almost an afterthought.

I say almost because for many, the memories are still fresh in their minds. They're haunting. And I can only imagine that some still do not look forward to this day on the calendar.

It's Tuesday. The same day it happened seventeen years ago. Most seniors in high school now weren't even born when it happened. For most of us, life has definitely moved on. We knew where we were when it happened. I was on my way to work, my wife and daughter were getting ready for another day at home...maybe going shopping. We had the news on as we normally did before switching to PBS kids when images of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center first appeared...then the second. Let's just say not much work was going to be done that day...and we were preparing for a food show.

But I think about today. My daughter, just over a year old when it happened, starts college next week. I am typing this up while on break from orientation now. My son, now a junior in high school, wasn't even born.

In school, they learn about the events of September 11, 2001. It's a history lesson for them. They learn about what happened based on what is written on a page, what they see on a video, what they read online. It is sad yes. The chain of events, the heightened awareness, security at the airport, the news, all of it, is normal to them.

But prior to what happened seventeen years ago, it wasn't.

We weren't always at war. We didn't need to take our shoes off at the airports. We didn't have to worry about our safety to that extreme.

I wrote the words below in 2011. For that article, and when I re-ran the story since, I used the total number of people I had heard to have died due to the events of that day, not including those who heinously perpetrated the attacks. That number was 2,974. Depending on where you read it, it could have been 2,977. Tallies since then have brought the number up to 2,980. But regardless of the number, that's too many lives lost.

Every year, I try to come back and honor the memories of the people for whom this country still mourns, and think how the events on that fateful day changed the course of American history, seventeen years since. By the time this posts goes live, it is nightfall...seventeen years after that the final plane crashed in a field somewhere in Pennsylvania.



Two thousand nine hundred seventy-four.

2,974.

That's the number of people who lost their lives when everything was finally taken into account. Countless lives were affected by this national tragedy. Even if you didn't know anybody on those planes, at the World Trade Center, or the Pentagon, you grieved along with those who did. You stood there in shock, in a daze, just glued to the television or radio.

Our lives have not been the same since. My daughter, now eleven, asks what we (her parents) were doing that morning. "We were just going about our lives," was my reply. "We watched the morning news, getting ready for work, and couldn't believe what we were seeing on the screen." She was just over a year old. She couldn't have understood what was going on then. But she will learn that what she sees as "normal" now, really wasn't before that Tuesday morning.

Two thousand nine hundred seventy-four. It is the number of reasons why we never forget what happened seventeen years ago today.

On this day, the seventeenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, my family and I send our prayers to those who lost loved ones that Tuesday morning. We pray, and will continue to pray for:

the children who lost their parents that day.

the children who would never meet their fathers because of the events of that day.

the firefighters and policemen and women who risk their lives doing their jobs, running into the face of dangers as many are running in the opposite direction.

those servicemen and women fighting for our freedoms away from home, whether or not we agree with the conflicts they battle.

for our leaders, regardless of their affiliation, that they make the right choices to keep the citizens of our country, and others, safe.

And finally, we pray for peace. Peace amongst ourselves as family, as a community, as a nation.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama