There’s always something fascinating going on in the world of baseball—and there’s always something new. Every Friday morning throughout the season, heading into the weekend, inspired by Zach Lowe’s terrific “10 Things I Like” NBA column for ESPN, we present the Five Fascinations, five fun things going on in the baseball world. Also, we’d like to shout out the always excellent Ben Clemens at FanGraphs, another progenitor of a similar format. Submit your personal fascinations to [email protected], or just yell at me about mine.

When do we start worrying about the Braves?

After the Dodgers made all their big offseason moves, there was a large contingent of Smart Baseball Fans (a self-appointed title) who snickered, “Yeah, but there’s still no better team than the Braves.” It was a reasonable point. The Braves won 104 games last year, brought back essentially the same team and even added Chris Sale, almost as a luxury item. The 2023 Braves had one of the best offenses of all time; even if they regressed slightly, this was still a team that was likely going to run away with the NL East and that was probably going to win 100 games again. No sweat, no problem.

Well, after they salvaged their final game against the Orioles on Thursday afternoon and avoided a sweep, the Braves have lost five of six and have plummeted all the way nine games behind the first-place Phillies. Forget the NL East: Are we sure the Braves are going to hang onto their NL Wild Card spot? They’re only 3 1/2 games up on the Giants. Obviously, the losses of Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider were massive blows to this team, but that’s hardly the totality of it. Other than Marcell Ozuna -- who has, remarkably, been one of the best hitters in baseball -- the entire offense is way down, from Ozzie Albies to Michael Harris II to Matt Olson to, especially, Austin Riley, whose slugging percentage has dropped nearly 230 points from last season. A year after all that "Best Offense Ever" talk, Atlanta is 13th in MLB in OPS, 17th in OBP and 19th in runs. It has actually been their pitching that has saved them, particularly Reynaldo López and Sale.

You’d have to think this is as bad as it’ll get for the Braves -- the National League is very forgiving -- but this is quite the turn of events. Atlanta was supposed to be set up for the next decade. Now we’re beginning to question whether that surprising and wonderful 2021 title will be all they get.

Are the Padres separating themselves?

It’s difficult to overstate how frustrating the 2023 Padres season was. A team stacked with superstars -- with the payroll to match -- and with a fanbase that was filled with excitement after taking out the Dodgers in the playoffs the previous season ended up not only missing the playoffs, but doing it the most brutal possible way. The 2023 Padres outscored their opponents by 104 runs -- the NL champion D-backs were outscored, remember? -- but were punishingly inept in clutch situations, going 9-23 in one-run games and 2-12 in extra-inning games. San Diego was a team that made you tear your hair out. And then, this offseason, they traded Juan Soto and lost reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell to free agency. How could 2024 not be worse?

While no one will confuse San Diego with Philadelphia or Los Angeles just yet -- particularly now that Xander Bogaerts is out -- it’s fair to say the vibes for this 2024 Padres team are much better. After their three-game sweep of the A’s, the Padres are comfortably ensconced above the NL Wild Card scrum, two games over .500 (37-35) heading into an East Coast swing this week. Their rotation has been adequate rather than spectacular and is staying afloat even without Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove -- and their bullpen has been wobbly outside of Robert Suarez, who has been fantastic.

But who saw the offense losing those guys and getting a slow start from Manny Machado and still improving? Part of it is step-forward seasons for Jake Cronenworth and Jackson Merrill -- who hit a stirring walk-off homer on Wednesday -- along with the trade for Luis Arraez. But it also turns out the Padres do have two superstars on this team who are carrying them. The first is Fernando Tatis Jr., who sure looks back to his pre-suspension self; he has even explicitly noted that his “Swag” is back -- and, hey, that’s a relief.

But it really shouldn’t be overstated how incredible Jurickson Profar, of all people, has been. The former top overall prospect had settled into the journeyman portion of his career until this year when, at the age of 31, he's become one of the best players in baseball. He’s hitting .324, he's second on the team in homers, and he’s actually first in the entire National League in OBP. (He’s behind only the Yankees' Aaron Judge and Soto in that category.)

• Jurickson Profar making All-Star bid for son Khairy

The Padres are winning. They’re better than last year. The fans are giddy. New manager Mike Shildt looks like a genius. The Padres are not the superstar-packed team they were last year. But they may be enough to do something that team didn’t: Make the playoffs.

Royals show their relentlessness vs. Yanks

Longtime Royals fans -- like, fans who have loved this team since the 1970s when Whitey Herzog was managing them -- will forever grimace when their team plays the Yankees. The Royals lost to the Yankees in the ALCS four times in five years from '76-80, and that’s not even accounting for all that pine tar business. The Royals have won two World Series since then, but their fans’ eyes will still nevertheless twitch every time they see pinstripes.

For three days at Kaufmann Stadium this week, all those memories came rushing back. The Yankees stomped the Royals, 25-8, in the first three games of their four-game set, a splash of cold water. The Royals are on pace for 92 wins, which would be a 35-win improvement on last year’s 56-106 team -- but were the Yankees exposing them? For 8 1/2 innings on Thursday, it sure looked that way, with the Royals down 3-2 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth against Clay Holmes.

But if you’re a Royals fan who thinks this team may be special, you may have seen some real proof of it Thursday. With MJ Melendez on first base, Kyle Isbel -- down to his last strike -- singled into center field. That brought up Maikel Garcia, who had been 2-for-16 for the series, facing one of the best closers in baseball. On a 2-0 pitch, Garcia ripped a hit down the third base line, scoring Melendez and a sprinting Isbel for a desperately needed walk-off win.

It was the last game before an extended nine-game road trip out west, including three at Dodger Stadium this weekend, and it avoided what would have been a crushing sweep. This franchise hasn’t reached the playoffs since winning the World Series in 2015, but that drought really might end this year.

The Rickwood Field Negro League jerseys look amazing

For all the love that teams' City Connect jerseys get, for good reason, I’ll confess an affinity to a throwback jersey: Nothing looks sharper than one of today’s players dressed like one of yesterday’s. Which is why I was elated to see the reveal of the jerseys that the Giants and Cardinals will be wearing for their game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala., next Thursday.

They’re the old San Francisco Sea Lions and St. Louis Stars Negro League jerseys and I can’t stop looking at them: All jerseys should have animals on the front of them like the Sea Lions’ do. It should be a terrific event in Birmingham, with the refitted Rickwood Field, which holds 8,300 fans, hosting the first AL/NL game in Alabama. It’s also a stadium that Willie Mays played at when he played for the Birmingham Black Barons. The current Birmingham Barons, the Double-A affiliate of the White Sox, will play their own game, in their own fantastic Negro League uniforms, on Tuesday. Those are incredible, too.

A Sunday for dads, and kids

I had a wonderful time watching baseball with my mom a few weeks ago for Mother’s Day, but I hope you’ll forgive me having a special soft spot for this Sunday. I am, after all, a father myself. I once wrote a whole book about fatherhood and baseball, before I even was a father; this is right in my personal strike zone. Now, to have the opportunity to spend a Sunday watching baseball with both my father and my sons remains the thrill of my lifetime -- the central reason I love baseball as much as I do.

My father taught me to love baseball, just like his father taught him to love baseball, just like I’ve taught my two sons to love baseball. This is not a special or unique family story: The bond of baseball between fathers and sons over generations is one of the foundational pillars of this sport. I can’t imagine baseball without my dad, and I suspect many of you can’t either. Father’s Day and baseball are inextricable in our household, and always will be. So Happy Father’s Day, everyone. May you be so fortunate to watch it with your dad, or your kids -- or, if you’re like me, both.

Plus: fun series of the weekend -- Yankees at Red Sox

It’s a fun rivalry weekend, actually: The Cardinals also have three games at Wrigley Field, including the Roku MLB Sunday Leadoff game. But it’s always a big deal when the Red Sox and Yankees face off, even if there’s another series coming between the teams, at Yankee Stadium, over July 4 weekend. The Red Sox are in the middle of a gauntlet, facing the two best teams in baseball as they try to stay afloat in the Wild Card race; after a tough series against the Phillies this week, they now get the smoking-hot Yankees, who just won three out of four in Kansas City. Fenway should be in a frenzy for this one.