Jack Janes

ANAHEIM, Calif. — “That’s all you need, is an iPad!” home plate umpire Erich Bacchus yelled at Angels interim manager Ray Montgomery after ejecting him from the game in late July.

Montgomery was irate because Luis Rengifo struck out looking while not seeing a single pitch in the strike zone in a critical spot in the game. Rengifo represented the tying run in the eighth inning, and New York Mets closer Edwin Díaz got the call on three back-door sliders that were all in the same spot, a few inches off the plate.

Bacchus had a point. It’s much easier to see where pitches end up after the fact, as opposed to in real time, with how fast and how much pitches move these days. But it wasn’t always this way.

SCOTTSDALE – To many, a season plagued by injuries feels like a wasted year. But to Pittsburgh Pirates pitching prospect Derek Diamond, it was an opportunity.

In his first season pitching from the bullpen, Diamond was limited to 19 1/3 innings in 2025 due to injury. Just two seasons earlier, he pitched 119 ⅔ innings in Class A and A+ and finished with 95 2/3 innings last year in Class A+.

Diamond noted that this is the first season in his life that he missed significant time because of injury, and it ate away at him mentally.

PHOENIX — Atlanta Braves prospect Nacho Alvarez Jr. chased a slider outside of the strike zone, and it chased him from the lineup for two weeks.

As Alvarez reached out with his swing, he felt a sharp pain in his side.

“My left side just blew up,” Alvarez said.

Infielder Alvarez, 22, was sent to the injured list with a strained oblique, an injury that is becoming more common among hitters with each passing year.

TEMPE – It was 10 years ago when Joey Daccord sat in coach Greg Powers’ office at Oceanside Ice Arena while on an official visit to Arizona State. At the time, the Sun Devils hadn’t played a game of Division I hockey, and the rink they played at was far below Division I standards.

Daccord grew up in the Boston area and knew what a great college hockey program was supposed to look like. He could easily have been turned off by what he saw at Oceanside and looked for a school in the East, but Daccord was able to look beyond the dusty, cramped arena.

He saw the foundation Powers was building and the vision ASU had for what the Sun Devils hockey program could become.

PHOENIX – Right-handed relief pitcher Ryan Thompson had to take down a “Snakes Alive” sign hanging from his locker sooner than he wanted.

That slogan was the rallying cry of Arizona Diamondbacks fans and something that resonated with the players when the team took the Valley by storm in the 2023 season. Arizona had a 57-59 record in the middle of August that season and went on a miraculous run to a World Series appearance.

And it appeared the Diamondbacks might catch lightning in a bottle again this year as the “Snakes Alive” mantra resurfaced.