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PITTSBURGH — Jake Arrieta’s baseball life is a series of events that are cast against those from last summer, the absurd jumble of numbers that established him as one of baseball’s best pitchers. Sample: When Arrieta walked four batters in a start last week, it was tempting to point out that he had walked four batters in the entirety of September last year. His starts are events. His development is…

Four weeks into the season, we’re bound to see some surprising player performances. With the sample size of games in the books still relatively small, statistical leaderboards both well known and more obscure can leave us downright confused. So let’s delve into a few of those weird leaderboards. Here are five players doing things you’d have never thought possible so far this year. Walk rate: Odubel Herrera Odubel Herrera (right)…

Note: Don’t whiff on this special FanDuel offer. Win your first contest or get your money back (up to $10) to keep playing. Try FanDuel now! It’s May, you know, which means at least one thing: We can no longer use the excuse “it’s only April.” A quick survey of the leaderboards, though, tells us the excuse was justified. Even now, there’s still plenty of statistical weirdness going on —…

PITTSBURGH — Jake Arrieta’s baseball life is a series of events that are cast against those from last summer, the absurd jumble of numbers that established him as one of baseball’s best pitchers. Sample: When Arrieta walked four batters in a start last week, it was tempting to point out that he had walked four batters in the entirety of September last year. His starts are events. His development is…

FEDERAL WAY — Christian Jones likes simple things. He’s never eaten a hamburger or a hot dog because there’s “too much going on” between the buns. The Federal Way senior baseball player is sharp, smart, self aware. He’s got a 3.9 GPA and bats lefty, although he’s otherwise right-handed. “Left side is where the money’s at,” Jones said with a laugh before a game last week. He’s also a people…

By: Andrew Joseph | May 3, 2016 11:09 pm Follow @andyj0seph

Dusty Baker and his son, Darren, at batting cages near Sacramento this winter. (Photo by John McDonnell / The Washington Post) KANSAS CITY — Once the school year ends, Dusty Baker’s 17-year-old son, Darren, will join his dad in D.C. Darren, best remembered as the little bat boy whom J.T. Snow picked up and carried away from home plate in the midst of a play during the 2002 World Series, loves baseball….

Note: Don’t whiff on this special FanDuel offer. Win your first contest or get your money back (up to $10) to keep playing. Try FanDuel now! It’s May, you know, which means at least one thing: We can no longer use the excuse “it’s only April.” A quick survey of the leaderboards, though, tells us the excuse was justified. Even now, there’s still plenty of statistical weirdness going on —…

Photo via George Frey/Getty. Over the past decade, television broadcasters have bet that DVR-proof live sports will remain highly profitable, and shelled out tens of billions of dollars to acquire broadcast rights to the NFL, NBA, MLB, Olympics, World Cup, college football and basketball, and all other sports imaginable. Fox, CBS, and NBC all created sports-only cable channels, and the Longhorn Network, SEC Network, Big 10 Network, and Pac-12 Network…

Sports Authority is still pursuing a “robust” sale process and is not yet ready to settle for liquidation, attorneys for the sporting goods retailer told a federal bankruptcy judge on Tuesday. Judge Mary Walrath could have forced the retail giant into Chapter 7 liquidation. Last week, she struck down $595 million in bankruptcy financing that did not account for rent and administrative fees, but Sports Authority and its lenders ironed…

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the executive producer of a three-part series on NASCAR, its personalities and its history.(Photo: Mark J. Rebilas, USA TODAY Sports) MOORESVILLE, N.C. – NASCAR fans have heard about men like Raymond Parks and Red Byron, stock car racing pioneers who helped shape the sport. But most don’t know exactly what they did in NASCAR’s early days, and their personalities are even more of an unknown. Dale…

CANTON, N.Y. — St. Lawrence announced on Tuesday that Mark Morris has been named the third Charles W. Appleton II Hockey Coach and 14th overall in the men’s hockey program effective immediately. Currently, Morris serves as head coach for the Charlotte Checkers, a team in the American Hockey League (AHL) and affiliate for the National Hockey League (NHL) Carolina Hurricanes. Men’s ice hockey is a NCAA Division I sport at…

Going into her eighth Olympics, former shooting champion Nino Salukvadze has plenty of reasons to be proud of her long career. She has something even more special to celebrate in Rio de Janeiro: She and her 18-year-old son will both be competing. While there have been previous cases of parents and their children competing at the same games, this is believed to be the first time a mother and son…

NASCAR Chairman & CEO Brian France has gone from Talladega, Alabama, to Los Angeles over the past several days, taking in and sending out a wide view of the sport in the process.   France kicked off a Drivers Council meeting at Talladega on Friday, then served on a prestigious speaking panel for sports business leaders in L.A. on Monday   The initial stop was well-received by both the drivers…

Note: Don’t whiff on this special FanDuel offer. Win your first contest or get your money back (up to $10) to keep playing. Try FanDuel now! We’re now through April and people will begin to take 2016 stats more seriously. In some ways I’m OK with that, but I’d hardly take them as a replacement for numbers over the last three years. The Toronto Blue Jays are a fine example…

Sean approaches pitching with the same studious desire to stay one step ahead. No one else on the Stompers’ staff shakes off signs as often. “I always know what I want to throw, and it’s difficult for the catcher to be thinking along the same lines as me,” he says. (“The slider’s the one I like,” I hear him remind his battery mate Andrew Parker, semi-sarcastically, before a game.) But…

About 100 scouts and executives descended upon Puerto Rico this week to watch high school shortstop Delvin Perez, a possible top-five pick in the June draft. One of the officials texted a picture of bug spray with 30 percent DEET, accompanied by a two-word caption: “I’m prepared.” The fear of Zika virus, palpable as ever in the aftermath of the Center for Disease Control report this week that linked a…

The family of a 5-year-old Afghan boy who received autographed shirts from his soccer hero Lionel Messi was forced to leave Afghanistan amid constant telephone threats and a menacing Taliban letter, the boy’s father said Tuesday. Mohammad Arif Ahmadi — whose son grabbed headlines when he was photographed wearing a homemade Argentina shirt with No. 10 on the back — said they have moved to neighboring Pakistan and settled…