The trade deadline has come and gone and dozens of deals were made in the preceding week<\/a>. Now that all the midsummer pomp and circumstance (draft, All-Star Game, trade deadline, etc.) is in the rearview mirror, it’s time to focus on the actual baseball being played on the field. We’re in the dog days of August now. Soon, the postseason and award races will really heat up.<\/p>\n Here now are three things going on across the league that are worth keeping an eye on the rest of the season.<\/p>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n For all the complaints about the Dodgers<\/a> ruining baseball, their two big offseason pickups — Edwin D\u00edaz<\/a> and Kyle Tucker<\/a> — haven’t done a whole lot this season. Tucker is barely above water as a league-average hitter, and D\u00edaz has been shaky around elbow surgery. He’s allowed a run in four of his six appearances since returning from the injured list. <\/p>\n “In my opinion, if we can’t trust Edwin D\u00edaz in the postseason, then we’re going to have big problems,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after D\u00edaz surrendered a walk-off home run to Ryan Waldschmidt<\/a> this past weekend (via the Orange County Register<\/a>). “I have to give him every opportunity to get comfortable, get back, cut his teeth, dust the rust off, whatever way you want to look at it in that role. I have to look at it that way.” <\/p>\n Two things stand out about D\u00edaz post-elbow surgery. One, his already low arm slot has dropped from 17 degrees last year to 10 degrees since returning from the injured list. That has cut into the pitch’s induced vertical break, which, in English, means it has flattened out a bit. D\u00edaz is also down some velocity as he’s not yet fully built up after surgery. That hasn’t helped. <\/p>\n And two, D\u00edaz is locating his slider poorly. Look at that pitch Waldschmidt hit out the other day. That was a cement mixer that just spun in the middle of the zone. No bite, no nothing. About as bad a slider as D\u00edaz has ever thrown. Here is his slider location heat map since returning from elbow surgery: <\/p>\n A small sample size, admittedly, but that’s too many hittable sliders middle-up and too many easy takes below the zone. At his best, D\u00edaz dots the knees with his slider, and that down-and-away corner to righties. For the most part, he’s left the slider right down the middle of the zone. D\u00edaz has never been a control master. He usually out-stuffs hitters, and he can’t do that right now. <\/p>\n The Dodgers are in no danger of missing the postseason. The question is whether they can get D\u00edaz right before October, or if this is something that will take an offseason to address. Thanks to Statcast’s new arm angle data, we now know it’s not unusual for a pitcher to return from elbow surgery with a lower slot. It rarely corrects in-season, though. It often takes a winter to address it. <\/p>\n D\u00edaz threw a 1-2-3 ninth inning with a one-run lead Monday, but was still wild in the zone, and he did give up a loud fly ball to center on a mistake 0-2 fastball to Isaac Collins<\/a>. It was one of those “good results, bad process” outings. It’s clear D\u00edaz still isn’t where the Dodgers need him. They have six weeks and change to get him right before the postseason. <\/p>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n With Aaron Judge<\/a> injured, Astros<\/a> star Yordan Alvarez<\/a> stands as baseball’s best hitter, and not by a small margin either. Going into Tuesday, Alvarez led baseball in batting average by five points, on-base percentage by 39 points, slugging percentage by 73 points, and OPS+ by 38 points. With his MLB-leading home run total and American League-leading RBI total, he has a real shot at the Triple Crown. <\/p>\n Alvarez leads baseball in another category as well: intentional walks. He’d been put on intentionally 23 times going into Tuesday’s games, well ahead of second-place Shohei Ohtani<\/a> (16). Mike Trout<\/a> and Junior Caminero<\/a> are the only other players with even 10 intentional walks. Alvarez’s 23 intentional walks are already the most by a player other than Judge since Juan Soto<\/a> had 23 in 2021. <\/p>\n Here are the last five players with 23 intentional walks in a season: <\/p>\n Judge’s 36 intentional walks last year are the AL single-season record. Alvarez is on pace for 31, but as is often the case with these things, the pace has picked up in recent weeks. Alvarez has been intentionally walked 10 times in Houston’s last 23 games. He had 13 intentional walks in the team’s first 97 games. As the postseason races heat up, teams will pitch to him less and less. <\/p>\n The Astros are battling for the AL West title, and there’s a chance the division sends only one team to the postseason. It could be division title or bust for the Astros, Mariners<\/a>, and Rangers<\/a>. Houston has five games remaining with the Mariners (including three this coming weekend) but, weirdly, none with the Rangers. Their season series is complete. The Astros won it 9-4. <\/p>\n Furthermore, the Astros have series remaining with the Braves<\/a>, Diamondbacks<\/a>, White Sox<\/a>, and Yankees<\/a>. They’re all competing for something, be it a wild-card spot, division title, or Wild Card Series bye. Teams don’t like giving out free baserunners, but in this case, Alvarez is so dominant a hitter that they’re more open to it. He’s got a shot at 30 intentional walks, if not Judge’s AL record. <\/p>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n Few teams are playing as well as the D-backs right now. Going into Tuesday, Arizona was 19-9 in its previous 28 games, putting the team in the second wild-card spot and in position to reach the postseason for only the second time since 2017. They’ve done that even with a small army of pitchers on the injured list, most notably Corbin Burnes<\/a> and AJ Puk<\/a>. <\/p>\n The D-backs are in wild-card position despite getting the absolute worst first base production in the sport. They’ve used 10 different players at first base, led by Ildemaro Vargas<\/a>‘ 62 games at the position. Since his 24-game hitting streak to open the season<\/a><\/span>, Vargas has hit .219\/.275\/.293 in 80 games. That won’t cut it at first base, a position with a very high bar on offense. <\/p>\n Here are the numbers on Arizona’s first basemen: <\/p>\n What’s wrong with Edwin D\u00edaz? <\/h2>\n
![\"player](\"https:\/\/sportshub.cbsistatic.com\/i\/r\/2026\/03\/03\/d8bdff5b-b0bf-4f1e-9441-2dc45769b211\/thumbnail\/100x100\/4ec988dd42416a6b98bdad0cd72f4e7b\/2117203.png\")
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\n Baseball Savant
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<\/figure>\n Yordan Alvarez’s flirtation with history <\/h2>\n
![\"player](\"https:\/\/sportshub.cbsistatic.com\/i\/r\/2026\/02\/20\/e74f7f36-80e9-4aa1-ae22-a00bc873d188\/thumbnail\/100x100\/5b2483cc6a0b3e3e6b84d67fc41818b1\/2507341.png\")
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![\"team](\"https:\/\/sports.cbsimg.net\/fly\/images\/team-logos\/330.svg\")
<\/figure>\n Arizona’s first base problem <\/h2>\n