Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast - Effectively Wild Episode 1523: Do Try This at Home

Episode Date: April 3, 2020

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the response to FanGraphs’ request for financial support, discuss the latest news about minor league pay, Tommy John surgeries, college eligibility, the possibility of baseball coming back, Astros suspensions, and the suspiciously lively ball, and unveil a Stat Blast song cover and a Stat Blast about the longest […]

🎵 Oh, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, Fangraph's doing? How has the response been to the public plea earlier this week? Is Fangraph saved, at least for now? delight that they seem to be having at enjoying the site at free, which is great. I'm glad that people feel like they're getting something out of signing up for memberships and helping us out. So we're still going to keep asking. We're not out of the woods. There's still no baseball. And as such, our traffic is still lower, but the response has been really amazing. And we just want to thank everyone for rallying. Like any community, like any family, sometimes the baseball internet community fights or gripes or is snarky with each other, but we also tend to rally pretty beautifully and it makes me very grateful to be a part of this community and it makes me recognize how lucky Fangraphs is to have the readership we do. And so, yeah.

Yeah. It's got to be gratifying, particularly at a time like this is to have the readership we do. And so, yeah. Yeah. It's got to be gratifying, particularly at a time like this, to have many people coming to you asking, how can I give you more of my money? Yeah. Which many people have done. They're like, I bought a subscription, so now I want to give you some more money. So how can I do that? Yeah. We're going to, yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty amazing.

I was talking with David Appelman about it, and I said to him something I expressed on Twitter, which is that I think part of what has made this entire global pandemic, which still feels like such a ridiculous phrase to say casually in conversation, but I think part of what has made this all so scary and awful, apart from the obvious stuff, that, you know, doing the responsible thing and staying at home means that you have an experience of being disconnected from the people and places that you would normally see every day and visit every day and talk to. And so in addition to helping to ensure that there will be a fangrass when baseball comes back, the response to this has just made me feel very connected to people in a way that's been really lovely for reasons that don't have anything to do with work. So that part's been good. Yes, there have been a lot of questions about other ways that folks who are already members can help. And we're going to have some updates on that in the next couple of days. Hopefully by the end of this week, what is a week? But hopefully by the end of this week,

we will have it set up so that folks can gift memberships to other readers, which has the nice double benefit of helping out Fangraphs, but also ensuring that other readers who maybe aren't in a position to buy memberships themselves can enjoy the site ad-free. So we'll have that up and running shortly. And then I think next week we're going to have a special announcement about how existing members who don't want to do that as a way of helping out, but are interested in sort of helping the site can do so. So there is more to come. We apologize in advance for continuing to ask for people's assistance. But hopefully this ensures that when baseball is back, we will be ready for it and around. And in the meantime, we're going to keep writing stuff

that we hope folks find interesting and helps to distract them a little bit when they need a distraction, but also inform them about the state of baseball as it currently stands. And keep podcasting and chatting. And everyone at the site is going to stream. I know. I now have a Twitch account. Ben, the pandemic.

Strange days. Yeah, man. A lot of weird stuff happens in a pandemic. Yeah. It's Twitch. Yeah. The times, they are awful and wild and very, very weird. Yeah.

Well, we have an interview coming up later in this episode that I think we both enjoyed very much. And it is with Jose Vasquez, who is the Texas Rangers Major League Strength and Conditioning coach. He has been in that position since early 2006, but obviously has not had to deal with that phrase again, a global pandemic. And we were kind of curious about what players are doing and what teams are doing to help those players stay in shape while they're waiting for the season, hopefully to start at some point. How do you keep the gains that you made, the strength gains in spring training so that you're not starting totally from scratch if and when the season starts up again. And how do you work out given that you can't go to a gym, you can't participate in group activities. And so teams are also getting creative

and are trying to help players train remotely and using some technology and distributing workout plans and using whatever equipment players have on hand. So we talked to Jose about all of that and just about how his job has changed in general over the past almost 20 years that he has been doing this for big league teams. So I think it's really interesting. So I'm glad we got to talk to him. Yeah, you never know. People are often very good at their job and then talking about it is a whole separate skill. You never know how forthcoming team folks are going to be. It's a really interesting conversation, so I'm excited that we're going to get to share that with folks.

Yeah, so we will get to that shortly. Before we do, I guess since it's the end of the week, we can do a quick COVID roundup of our own, just following up on some stories that we've discussed on the podcast lately. of our own, just following up on some stories that we've discussed on the podcast lately. So there have been some developments with minor league pay, namely that minor leaguers are getting paid, at least to some extent, which is good. So baseball teams agreed, MLP teams agreed to pay minor leaguers $400 a week through the end of May, which comes with medical benefits and obviously $400 to say that that's great news. There's some dissonance there because it's not a lot of money, but it is better than no money. And I guess for some minor leaguers, like lower level minor leaguers, it's actually a raise, which is sort of sad, but is true. So, I mean, this is kind of what minor leaguers get paid.

I guess, you know, AAA players, this is a pay cut for them. But if you're a rookie leaguer or an A-ball or something, you're living large right now with your $400 a week. So, at least teams are paying something and there are benefits there. And that reduces at least a little of the uncertainty or at least keeps it to the normal level that minor leaguers are used to at this time of year. And obviously it's not great. And a lot of people, non-minor leaguers, are losing their jobs and having their pay cut these days. So it is not exclusive to minor leaguers or to baseball. to baseball, but this is something and some major leaguers have nicely started to step up and kind of cover what is not being covered by MLB teams here. It's unfortunate that they have to, but

nice that they are motivated to do that. Because when we talked to Garrett Procious, we were asking him why more major leaguers don't get involved. And he was talking about how there's often this mentality of, well, I had to scrimp and save to get through the minors, and that's why I got to the big leagues. It's this crucible. You have to prove yourself. You have to starve. You have to room with five other people.

And that's how you prove that you have major league medal or whatever, or just sort of spiteful, like, well, I had to go through it, so they should have to go through it too. And at least a couple of major leaguers have said no it'd be nice if they didn't have to go through that to the same extent so daniel murphy has donated a hundred thousand dollars to more than baseball and shinsu chu is donating a thousand dollars of his own money to each rangers minor leaguer which is like almost 200 players. And he had already donated to pandemic relief in South Korea. So very cool of Shin Tsu-chu. Yeah.

You know, we discussed the bummer that is the lack of solidarity that can sometimes exist between major leaguers and minor leaguers. minor leaguers. And it is really heartening to see a couple of guys step up and take seriously both the responsibility they have and also, you know, acknowledge that they're in a position to help. And so they want to. I think it's really wonderful that they're doing that. It is unfortunate that baseball is not immune from sort of a broader cultural issue we're having, which is that the pandemic is revealing other problems that we're sort of waiting, sitting in wait for folks to notice. So the fact that this constitutes a pay raise for some minor leaguers should probably leave folks scratching their heads that $400 a week could be a raise. But it is certainly something, you know, we might not view it to be a sufficient response, given how much, you know, we would like to see minor leaguers get paid under normal circumstances. But it is definitely something at a time when, you know, these guys are in a weird spot, unlike a lot of folks who unfortunately have lost their jobs and can apply for unemployment.

If they're still under contract for a team, they're often not eligible for unemployment benefits. So they could really find themselves in a bad fix. So it's nice to see something being done, even if we wish that it were more. Yeah. And Chu was quoted as saying, I will never forget the minor leagues. In 2005, I'd skip meals on the road, save the meal money, and use it to buy diapers for my son. Oh, geez. Yeah. So he is trying to lessen some of that hardship for some players. And for a team, it's not a huge expense for an individual player. I mean, granted, Shin Choo Choo has a large contract, but still, it's a very nice gesture and it will help some people. per team roughly to give all of their minor leaguers $400 a week through the end of May and the benefits. Maybe that doesn't include the benefits, but that's not a lot of money for a team under typical circumstances. Granted, teams will at least at some point have some financial hit

from missing a lot of games or even possibly a season too, but $400,000 is less than the major league minimum salary for one player. So it would not be prohibitive, at least under normal circumstances. Yeah. Would that we were all in a position to, on a relative basis, help folks out so cheaply. Yeah. And Adam Wainwright too had also previously donated $250,000 also. So it's nice to see some major leaguers stepping up in that way. We also talked about sort of the ethical considerations when it comes to Tommy John surgery at this time when elective surgeries have been suspended. And Cindergard had his surgery and Chris Sale had his surgery. And there's been a lot of discussion and debate about that. And Emma Batchelary wrote a good article about it for Sports Illustrated and talked to some medical ethicists about it and quickly received a tweet from Pete Alonso, who kind of came at her, I guess, or at critics of Cindergard to say that, well, it's a specialized surgery. And the people who are performing the surgery are not the ones who would be on the front lines dealing with the pandemic. But of course, as many other people pointed out to him, yes, but they are maybe using some supplies

that those people are using or other resources that are really at a premium right now. So I did see that Dr. James Andrews, perhaps the most noted Tommy John surgery performer at this time, did decide to suspend surgery for baseball players or Tommy John surgeries, at least in Florida. So I don't know if that's public pressure or whether he just decided that was the right thing to do or that he had to do it. But if you want to get your Tommy John surgery in, hopefully you already did because it might get tougher to do that than he had to do it. But if you want to get your Tommy John surgery in, hopefully you already did because it might get tougher to do that than it has been to this point. Yeah, I think my favorite part of Pete Alonzo's, and I don't mean to pick on him,

but he also responded in a public way. So yeah, he's on the record. I think my favorite part of his tweet to Emma was, who's to judge someone's medical needs in order to perform their job? And it's like, well, the medical ethicists that are in this article, that's their job. Their job is to do exactly this. They are, in fact, exactly the people who we would ask to judge this question. They are asked to judge questions like this quite often. And then I guess the last thing that was relevant to a previous discussion of ours was we were talking to Eric Langenhagen last week about how this affects amateur players, particularly seniors. The fact that the draft has really been curtailed this year and that there may be fewer minor league teams and that bonuses have been reduced, especially for seniors. teams and that bonuses have been reduced, especially for seniors. And there was news that the NCAA did grant an extra year of eligibility to Division I athletes, spring

athletes following in the footsteps of Divisions II and III and the NAIA. And so if this was your last year of eligibility as a college baseball player, you now will have an additional year of eligibility, which means that you could reenter the draft next year, which is good news if you are a senior who is unlucky enough to have been ready to enter the draft this year. going to be a backlog like the draft may be shortened to begin with bonuses are not going to be climbing and then there's going to be a bunch of juniors and high school players and guys who would have perhaps been drafted this year who will not and so they'll be back in the draft next year along with the regular people who would normally be eligible to be drafted and so there's going to be kind of a glut of potential draftees there. So still a tough time, but a little less tough than it might have been. Yeah. And it'll be interesting to see how things play out on the scholarship front. One of the

other things that was announced as part of that is that the number of players on scholarship can sort of be expanded for seniors and schools are going to be able to decide for themselves on an athlete by athlete basis if they extend continued scholarship aid to would-be seniors, I guess. So there will be some guys who are able to take advantage of that, but you can imagine that especially at less prominent programs where there might not be as much money to go around, especially for baseball, that they might find themselves in a tight spot. So it'll be interesting to see how that unfolds. I would imagine that, you know, like Vandy will be able to find money for their guys,

but when you get into some of the smaller programs, it might be trickier. So it'll be something that we have to continue to watch and see how guys make their decisions around that. Yeah. So other than that, people have been trying to watch and see how guys make their decisions around that. So yeah. So other than that, people have been trying to read the tea leaves and project when baseball might be back, but there's obviously nothing concrete to report there. There was a report about the possibility that baseball might come back on July 1st and they'd play a hundred game season, but hasn't really been substantiated by anyone other than some unnamed sources, I think.

So it seems like everyone is just still sort of guessing and speculating, which makes sense because we're kind of guessing and speculating about everything at this point. But nothing that's happened in the past week makes you more optimistic about baseball being able to come back in timely fashion or any fashion at all this year, I suppose. But everyone's still waiting and hoping. Yeah, I think the only thing that might, and this might sound counterintuitive, and obviously the state by state situation is going to be shifting because everyone's operating under their own stay-at-home orders. But seeing more consistent and stringent stay-at-home orders despite forcing folks to literally stay at home longer seems like it might do a lot to

help hasten any sports return rate, especially as that seems to be critical to flattening the curve. So it's nice that Florida has decided that COVID-19 is serious and that they ought to stay at home and not go to the beach. Right. Yeah. And then there hasn't been too much other hard news, but I did see a report from Buster Olney that said that if the season is canceled, Jeff Luno and A.J. Hinch, their suspensions would be considered to have been served, even though there was no actual season that they missed.

And I saw that the report said that because the suspensions are tied to the end of the 2020 postseason rather than a specific number of games, it would be considered that way. Although, again, if there is no 2020 postseason, then I guess you could say that that hasn't actually happened. postseason, then I guess you could say that that hasn't actually happened. But the point is that they were essentially suspended for a season's worth of baseball or a year or a season. And that amount of time has passed. And I don't know, for Luno, it's not like he was going to get hired immediately anyway, I don't think. If at all. If at all. And right. So that's the question. It's like, you know, will anyone give him a chance and in what capacity and will he even want to work in baseball anymore? And I don't know that whether he's actually suspended

or not for another year really affects his job prospects because it's just, you know, will some team think that the stain has faded enough to hire him or that they can hide him in some less publicly visible position? Then I just, I don't know that it has all that much to do with how much time he has actually served in terms of whether there are games going on or not. So for him, I don't know that it matters all that much for Hinch, who maybe has a more realistic chance at getting his old job back or the equivalent of his old job. Maybe it matters

a little, but again, I think it's more about the passage of time than the number of games really for them because they're not players who are serving a specific number of games or missing out on accruing stats during those games. So I don't know that I'm outraged about this. I mean, if you weren't outraged about the suspensions themselves initially, then I don't know that this actually changes that much in my mind. Yeah, I've seen people on Twitter, which, you know, it's just dangerous to look at Twitter. It's just a bad idea generally. Having some irritation at this. And I can appreciate the initial emotional response to these guys maybe getting away with one, if you want to put it that way.

But I would encourage people to think about how much unilateral authority to change the terms of an existing suspension we really want the commissioner's office to have. Yeah. to change the terms of an existing suspension. We really want the commissioner's office to have. I don't know that we want baseball's commissioner to be more like Roger Goodell. That seems like a bad idea. And it doesn't seem like a great situation for labor to sort of give that authority to the commissioner to sort of monkey with suspension lengths based on world events.

So I think we just kind of have to eat this one, at least in the initial reporting of the agreement between MLB and the MLBPA. Jeff Passan noted, and I think we talked about this on the pod, that for players who are serving drug suspensions, if there is a 2020 season, they will serve those suspensions when baseball resumes. If there is no 2020 season, those suspensions will not extend into 2021. So this seems to be a pretty consistent approach to how the league is dealing with suspensions of various kinds. And I think that especially because we want to look at the 2020 season, regardless of how much of it is played and say that players will, for example, accrue

service time during that stretch, we probably don't want to discount whatever portion of the season or just the idea of a season at all as meaning something in the passage of time and sort of the checking of boxes. So it is eye-rolly did, you know, we could perhaps say that the language used in the initial suspension was inelegant and imprecise and that they would have been better for specifying a number of games or what have you. But I think we have to just live with this one. You can still boo the Astros in 2020 or 2021. No one's going to look at you and say, well, the time on that is up. That time is your time. You get to decide how long that time goes. But I think that as sort

of viscerally irritating as it might be, this is probably the right approach to take given the other suspensions and service time questions and whatnot that have been floating around lately. Yeah. And there is a reputational hit that these two guys took deservedly that I don't think really fades. And I know that Manfred sort of used that kind of public square criticism to justify the lack of suspensions for the Astros players, which there were many, I think, valid or at least understandable reasons why the Astros players were not suspended and why it was easier to suspend and or fire Luno and Hinch. But I think in the case of players,

yeah, people boo them and mock them and think less of them. But also they're playing every day and they're playing at least half the time in front of friendly fans and they're getting applauded and cheered and they're making lots of money to play baseball and that's probably not going to be affected. Whereas with Hinch and Luno, you know, they're not on the field every day. They're sort of, they're employed for their leadership and planning abilities or perceived abilities. And I don't know that that actually, that the failure to extend their suspension will actually make us think any more highly of them in the long term.

So I think they're just going to have this stick with them for the same amount of time, regardless of whether they are actually suspended or not. So it is kind of odd to think about how so many of the things that we talked about and thought about constantly over the offseason just got totally wiped away by the postponement of baseball. I mean, how much did we talk about the Mookie Betts trade and about the Astros and what will the response to the Astros be this season and how will the Astros players play and all that stuff? You know, if the season is canceled, then it's just, it's completely wiped away and we have to reevaluate all of that or just forget about it i mean the mookie bets trade obviously if there's no season this year we've talked about how that will kind of work out in the red sox favor even though the initial response to the trade was very negative yeah And with the Astros, yes, if the season does

resume at some point, or even if it resumes next spring, people will still boo them and bear grudge. But I think that will be kind of diluted by just this long delay without baseball and how happy everyone is to have baseball back and the separation in time from when we were all super worked up about the Astros to whenever baseball actually returns and just, you know, maybe a pandemic putting things in perspective where, yes, we're angry at the Astros for what they did, but it wasn't life or death, unlike a lot of the decisions that are being made right now in other aspects of life. So, you know, I think maybe they will get off a little easy there just in that they won't bear the full brunt of what they would have bored. But, you know,

we talk about all this stuff for months and months and we break it down to the last detail and then some major disruptive life event comes along and it's not even really a consideration anymore, or it don't feel weighty now. And it'll be nice to have them feel important in a way that they just don't at the moment. But people are going to still boo the Astros. I'd offer as evidence of this, the fact that Ryan Braun was implicated in PED stuff in like 2013. And he still gets booed in visiting ballparks by people, just by folks out in the community, you know, farmers and cobblers and IT supervisors. So people are going to be able to express their good-natured frustration. I think that this does not materially, as you said, materially change the long-term

employability of either Jeff Luna or AJ Hinch. And we should, of course, feel free to feel however we feel and to roll our eyes at the whole thing. But don't fret. I wonder what the ball is doing with its pandemic time. Is the ball getting swole? Is it out there working out? What kind of ball are we going to get? Remember when we didn't know What kind of ball are we going to get? Remember when we didn't know what kind of baseball we were going to get? Yeah, there was actually some news about that. Well, sort of news about that, that I did actually mean to mention. Bradford William Davis of the Daily News wrote an article this week about some

findings that Dr. Meredith Wills had come up with about last year's playoff ball. And Meredith has been on the podcast before to talk about how she has dissected baseballs and tried to figure out why there has been less drag on the ball. And she evidently has found that it seems like there were some earlier season balls mixed in to the 2019 postseason balls, which would contradict what MLB said about those balls being the same supply that was used in the 2019 regular season. And she was able to open those balls up and use some identifiers she found to seemingly place some of those balls as perhaps a mix of 2019 and definitely 2018 and maybe even further back baseballs. This was something that she told the audience at the Sabre Analytics Conference. And if that's true, that would,

again, contradict what MLB and or Rawlings said at the time and further corroborate what we all thought we saw and what the data said that Rob Arthur came up with to show that there was actually reduced drag on the ball. But I mean, that would be either nefarious or extremely sloppy if they just happened to let these old balls into the supply when the postseason started. And that just seems so sloppy that it makes you wonder whether they did that on purpose, It seems so sloppy that it makes you wonder whether they did that on purpose because it seems like it would be hard to have that be a mistake. But the balls have batch codes that tell you when they were manufactured. And Meredith has kind of cracked that code and found that they were identical to baseballs that were dated during the 2018 regular season so if that's the case that would help explain why suddenly we saw a real change in how the ball was carrying and maybe it makes you mad all over again if you were a team that seemingly got hurt by that if you're remembering you know will smith's deep fly ball to the warning track that didn't go out or if you're ronald acuna who's

you know still getting criticized for not running out a ball that probably would have been gone during the regular season and then suddenly the balls change, maybe this explains why that happened. Ben, I just can't wait until this is the supply chain flub that we care about again. Yeah, exactly. That's going to feel so good. We're going to be riled up about the ball. We're going to be like, you decided to get jacked during your pandemic quarantine instead of riding King Lear. Look back on bad choices and weird supply chain issues. And, oh, it's going to feel so good. Yeah. It's going to feel great. I agree.

And meanwhile, people are just making do with MLB The Show or Stratomatic or out of the park baseball or whatever floats their boat. But it's been sort of fun to see people sort of simulating the season. And I know Baseball Reference is doing that and is putting out the data. And there are people who are actually playing fantasy leagues that are based on that simulated data. So people are desperate. They need baseball. They're getting baseball wherever they can. Maybe we'll do an episode later on about how people are coping with this.

But last thing before we get to the interview, I do have a stat blast because Sam and I did not do one earlier this week. And I'm going to get a little help here with the song because I mentioned this in the outro to one of last week's episodes, but one of our listeners and Facebook group members, Paul Moorhead, is running a StatBlast Song Covers concert. So last week, Jesse, my wife, came in and covered her own song and performed the StatBlast Song live, but there is an ongoing contest here where listeners are coming up with their own covers of the StatBlast Song in many different styles. and it's been really fun for me and Jesse to hear those songs. And Paul even chipped in a little small cash prize to the person who is deemed to have made the best StatBlast cover, but I've enjoyed them all thus far.

We have some very talented listeners, so I'm going to use some of the covers on the show for a little while now to share with you the creativity and brilliance of our listeners. And I'm just going to go in chronological order here. So the first person I saw post a cover was Benjamin James Cartmel, and he posted a video of himself. I will link to the thread where people are posting these videos in case you want to make your own or sound files. And this is Ben's version of the StatBlast song. Take me out of data set. Sort it by something like ERA minus or OPS plus. Tease out tidbits, analyze it for us.

analyze it for us. We'll take a data set sorted by something like ERA- or OBS+. And then we'll tease out some interesting tidbit, discuss it at length, and analyze it for us in amazing ways Here's today's stat blast Oh All right, thank you to Ben And I also have to thank a listener For the stat blast question this week This comes from Andrew Vodden And he says Since the Giants participated In the alleged blackballing of Barry Bonds, they have not had the same opening day starting left fielder in consecutive years.

So he is speculating that there is a curse of Barry Bonds here, that ever since the Giants did not resign Bonds the last time, they have had a different left fielder every opening day. the last time they have had a different left fielder every opening day. And so he lists their opening day left fielders here from 2008 through 2019. They've gone Dave Roberts, Fred Lewis, Mark DeRosa, Pat Burrell, Aubrey Huff, Andres Torres, Michael Morse, Nori Aoki, Angel Pagan, Jarrett Parker, Hunter Pence, and Connor Joe. And Andrew continues 2020 whenever it starts or 2021 will be the 13th year without the same opening day starter at a position. I believe Connor Joe is now in the Dodgers organization. Andrew says, is this a record? If not, what is the record? So is the curse of Barry Bonds a thing? Is this notable? I've also reached out to a listener to help me answer this question. So this is just listeners contributing the song, the question, and the answer, outsourcing everything to query it. And he has occasionally popped up in the Facebook group to answer listeners' questions. Just post them in there, and then he does the research, which is a very nice service to the community. And Adam was also intrigued by this question,

and so he crunched the numbers, and he came up with an answer here. And there are multiple ways, I guess, to have a streak of different opening day players at a particular position. So it could either be the Giants case, where it is completely unique players every single year, no repeats at all, or you could have a streak of different players at that position every year, but some repeats within that streak.

So for instance, if the Giants had Hunter Pence in left field in 2018 and then a different player in left field 2019, if Hunter Pence were to get an opening day start in left field this year, then that would break the streak if you're talking about no repeats, but it would continue if you were just talking about consecutive years. So there are multiple ways to look at it, and Adam looked at it both ways. is to look at it and Adam looked at it both ways and the longest streak that has happened allowing repeats but no consecutive repeats is 26 years so the curse of Barry Bonds not a record in fact it's like half as long as the record the record goes to and Adam did it by franchise here. So the Baltimore Orioles of 1958, they snapped a streak that had extended for 26 years that started with the 1933 St. Louis Browns. So the Browns became the Orioles in the 50s. That entire time, 33 to 58, they had different left fielders every single year. And during that time, so it was Carl Reynolds was

their opening day left fielder in 33, and then Gene Woodling in 58, and that snapped the streak. And I think it's interesting that this is also a left fielder streak. One would expect left field to be a position where this might be more likely to happen just because, I don't know, you don't have as many sort of dedicated left fielders. Like there's no left field skill set really in the way that most other positions do. You know, it's just kind of where you stick someone typically who isn't that great an outfielder, but also doesn't have that great an arm.

There are exceptions, obviously, but you know, every other position has like a body type that you associated with it or a certain skill that goes with it. Whereas left field is just kind of where you stick people who don't really fit everywhere else. So it makes seasons. So you would expect that having no continuity is something that would probably be correlated with not a great team on the whole. And then you go down from there. Now, this is an interesting one. The next longest streak is for pitchers, 24 years. The Cincinnati Reds went from 1955 to 1978 with no repeat opening day starters. Yeah, so Art Fowler in 55, Tom Seaver in 78 broke the streak. And I think that makes a lot of sense because I often hear the Reds talked about as a franchise that just has not had great pitchers in their whole history.

If you look up the best Reds pitcher In franchise history at Baseball Reference It's Noodles Han With 45.8 Career War Noodles Han We are blessed You're going back a ways for Noodles Han He last played for the Reds in 1905

And really it's like all old timey Players who are at the top of this list And it's you know Epa Rixey and Dolph Luque and Bucky Walters and Frank Dwyer, not household names. And the only recent one is Jose Rijo at 36.4 War. So it's just a franchise that has not had great pitchers, has not really developed them or kept them. And so I'm not surprised that they would be the team to have this streak And just reading down the list here of streaks of at least 15 years We've got the Tigers, again, left field, 1942 to 1961

That's 20 years Barney McCoskey to Rocky Colavito Then you've got the Orioles again So the 96 Orioles to the 2014 Orioles And this is actually, oh, this is THs, the Orioles, Bobby Bonilla to Delman Young. It's a 19-season streak. Then you've got the 1948 to 1966 White Sox at third base, 19-year streak at third base, Luke Appling to Don Buford. 19-year streak at third base, Luke Appling to Don Buford. And you've got the athletics, the Philadelphia athletics at that time, 18 years. Again, pitcher from 1897 to 1914, Al Orth to Pete Alexander.

The Yankees, wouldn't really expect to see Yankees on this list, but the next two are Yankees. So left field Yankees, 1920 to 36, 17 years, Duffy Lewis to Roy Johnson. That's a time when they had other legendary outfielders. And then also Yankees right field in 1919 to 1935, 17 years, Sammy Vick, George Selkirk. I think Ruth was going from left to right. He played some of both. I think they wanted to keep him out of the sunfield at a certain point so that it wouldn't affect his hitting, or so they thought.

And the Tigers again, 51 to 66. This is at catcher from Joe Ginsberg to Bill Freehan, 16 years. And the Dodgers, 44 to 59 in left field again, 16 years. Augie Galen to Wally Moon. And just a couple more here. The White Sox, 36 to 51. Pitcher again, 16 years, Augie Galen to Wally Moon And just a couple more here The White Sox, 36-51 Pitcher, again, 16 years That's John Whitehead to Billy Pierce

And the Dodgers, again 27-41, left field 15 years from Jigger Stats To Joe Medwick Can I say Jigger? Is it okay to say Jigger? I don't know what Jigger stands for I'm looking at his Sabre bio, and it says, let's see,

the Stats family had apparently lived very briefly in Alabama, and young Arnold picked up the nickname Jigger, which became transformed the way nicknames sometimes do to become Jigger. So now my next question is, is it okay for me to say Jigger? Because he was coming from Alabama. Let's see. Jigger is like a mite. It's like an insect of yeah i think so and and uh jigger is like you used to make cocktails yes that's true all right jigger's a thing in in fishing too you know like uh it's got it's got a big shot guy a little shot guy and they're attached to each other and you use them to make drinks.

Yeah. I think. Yeah. In fact, there's a scene from Party Down where jiggers come up and there's a similar misunderstanding because someone overhears the word and thinks it's something else. I'm not having fun yet. Make it a double. You got it. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. The host has specifically requested no doubles.

One jigger only. What? I don't want you serving them two jiggers come on ron what i believe the preferred term is a jig rose i don't think it's a bad rule of thumb to uh you know cast a weary eye toward uh nicknames of the past always good to check especially words that sound like this so yes okay i think we can we can say that safely we do not need to edit that out all right and then the last one is uh the reds oh the reds again head starter yeah 1893 to 1907 they went 15 years with the different opening day starters too so that's that so the the

Giants are really nowhere close on that one but there is also the question of streaks with all new starters so no repeats at any point during the streak of non-consecutive years so the longest here the the Giants are actually pretty close, but not quite there. So the longest, maybe unsurprisingly, is the same as the longest for the last way of looking at this. So the Orioles had their 26 season streak of no consecutive starters. And then with all new starters, they went 16 years. That is the longest. So 1940, when they were still the Browns, to 55, when they were the Orioles, I think they went 16 years. Joe Gallagher to Gil Cohen with no repeats at all.

And then very next on the list, we have an active streak. And it is not the Giants. It is not the curse of Barry Bonds. It is the curse of Eric Young. I don't know who it's the curse of. Actually, let's call it the curse of Klesko. Ryan Klesko is actually a teammate of Barry Bonds in Bonds' final season and also Klesko's final season.

But before that, he was the left fielder on opening day for this team the year before the streak started. It's a division rival of the Giants, the San Diego Padres. They have gone 14 years also at left field with no repeats at all in left. Interesting. From Eric Young to Will Myers. And this streak will also continue if we have a season because Tommy Pham presumably will be out there. And this will get to 15 years, which would leave them one year short of the longest streak ever.

So that's something to get excited about, Padres fans. This fits too, because we've talked about the Padres and the anonymity of their position players over the years. And obviously, they've been quite mediocre over much of the last 15 years or so. And so yeah, 14-year streak for the Padres. And the Giants, as mentioned, are still at 12 years. And the only other ones in between, the Phillies again, 1937 to 50, 14 years A's from 2001 to 2013, they went 13 years, Johnny Damon to Jonas Cespedes, Phillies, left field again, Phillies, 84 to 96 was 13 years. Then you get to the Giants, and you also had the Angels just wrapped up a 12-year stretch from 2005 to 2016 at DH from Tim Salmon to Albert Pujols. So I'll put all of this online if people are interested in perusing the list. It's also kind of interesting to see how long the longest streaks were at other positions. So I mentioned DH, I mentioned left field,

I mentioned right field, I mentioned catcher. The longest second base streak is 14 years, the 2001 to 14 Rockies from Todd Walker to DJ LeMayhew. Shortstop, you've got a 14-year stretch from 22 to 35, the Red Sox. You don't really have first base. I don't see any first baseman on here with very long streaks. Interesting. Yeah, there's an 11-year first baseman streak, but I would have sort of expected that to be a position where you saw more of these guys. Yeah, because you'd expect that it might serve a similar function to left in that as guys are moving down the defensive spectrum, they find their way to first, and so you'd have some turnover there. Although, I guess, you know,

you'd still need to, there are obviously exceptions to this, but generally the requirements for your bat there are going to be pretty stringent. So maybe that helps to stabilize it some. I don't know. That's interesting. It is. All right. So thanks to Adam for the answers. Thanks to Andrew for the questions. Thanks to Ben for the song. Andrew also asked, by the way, in what season will the Giants have someone start in left field for their second consecutive opening day? So when will the curse of Perry Pons be broken? And boy, I don't know. It could be a while because the Giants are really in a phase where they could have a lot of turnover. It's not like they have a centerpiece out there right now or a top left field prospect or someone who might stay there

for years so i'll say 2023 so i'll say they'll have a different left fielder this year if there is one and next year and the year after but then maybe that will be the giants left fielder of the future or at least the left fielder of two consecutive seasons so now we can take a quick break and we'll be right back with Rangers strength and conditioning coach Jose Vasquez. Give me strength to move along Give me strength to realize she's gone All right, we are joined now by Jose Vasquez, who is the Texas Rangers strength and conditioning coach. Hey, Jose, how are you?

Good, how are you? We're doing all right. And I'm very curious about what your professional life is like right now, because you've been a big league strength coach for quite a while now with the Rangers and before that for a few years with the Mets, but you have not had to deal with anything quite like this. No one has. And I wonder what challenges that is posing for you right now as you try to keep the players more or less in shape and prepared for a season if and when one starts? Yeah, the biggest challenge I would say is that we

can't be around them. You know, even in the offseason, we can still visit them. They have access to equipment. They have more facilities. They have the ability to do more so not only are we limited by distance but we're limited by the equipment and the facilities available to these guys so it's a very strange way to ensure that these guys are exercising when when some of them don't have places to go and how often are you communicating with them and what form is that communication taking are you guys doing skype calls like the one we're doing often are you communicating with them and what form is that communication taking? Are you guys doing Skype calls like the one we're doing now? Are you texting? How are you communicating advice to these guys right now?

Well, right now, yeah, as a staff, as a staff, we are all been, we have all decided that as a group, we're all going to be part of communicating with these guys to make sure that these guys have what they need you know make sure they're healthy obviously first make sure that they and just to see if they have equipment available if they have a training partner somebody that can play catch with if it's a pitcher somebody a catcher that can catch them so as a staff we're all right now together making phone calls, making video calls, sending out texts, sending out equipment. I mean, right now, today, later this afternoon, I'm going to go down to the new stadium and grab some small equipment and start sending guys tubing and supplements and things like that. So it's a group effort as a staff to make sure that we're at least touching base with these guys in whatever form possible.

Yeah. And we were actually initially supposed to talk to you at a different time today, and then it turned out that you needed to train a player. So what will that entail? Are you usually doing one-on-one video sessions or are you doing group sessions and what form do those workouts take actually well a couple of things that i am working on not necessarily working with a player is for it's a staff meeting video video staff meeting to go over the position players so the last few days we've been going over what we're talking about right now is what are we going to do how we're going to do it what's allowed what's not allowed what do we have available to us who's who needs what and so this afternoon it so happens that's going to be the the position players and part of what i have to do this afternoon too is

continue to make workouts online making videos of workouts making videos of things that they can do at home and so and then also setting up trying to find some of the pitchers a portable mound just to see if they can something that they could use at home and be able to throw bullpens at home so a number of things today I don't have necessarily have a player to work with but I have a few players that I have to set up on different things and I'm curious how much are pitchers actually engaged in a regimented throwing program? We don't know how long this delay is going to last. And I think one of the big questions that everyone has is how long it's going to take pitchers to be ready for the season when it does start and sort of how they're approaching what is proving to be a really strange break.

So I'm curious, how much are they actually throwing versus just focusing on more basic and sort of how they're approaching what is proving to be a really strange break. So I'm curious, how much are they actually throwing versus just focusing on more basic physical maintenance? Well, from our pitching coach, the guidelines that were given, they were told to play catch six days a week, Monday through Saturday, and with whatever distance they can have. I mean, some guys have fields, some guys have backyards. And then try to set up a bullpen on Tuesdays and Fridays, or at least twice a week somewhere, so that they at least have some sort of game-like throwing.

So the guidelines for now are just play catch Monday through Saturday, and then try to throw two bullpens a week. No more than 35 pitches, I believe, was the number to simulate at least two innings. So that's what we have right now. Yeah. So as you alluded to, guys have different resources at their disposal, and maybe you're not working as closely with minor leaguers.

We've seen some minor leaguers posting their workouts online, and they're just using whatever they can and doing whatever they can and doing whatever they can because they may not have much money or much space available to them. With big leaguers, I imagine some guys who've been around for a while might have their own private workout equipment or facility that they can use, others maybe not. So have players been pretty proactive about reaching out to you and your staff and saying, here's what I have, what can I do? Or is the direction kind of coming from you as more of a top-down recommendation? Actually, both. As you know, in any organization, business or whatever, you have different types of

people, people that are very independent, and they're going to do their job with or without you. And then there's going to be the ones that are just going to wait're going to do their job with or without you. And then there's going to be the ones that are just going to wait on you to tell them what to do. So, you know, with, with obviously the, the, the financial structure with, with guys, those guys that have, you know, that made good money. A lot of these guys have invested in facilities at home. So they have space to throw nice equipment, you know, they, they can ride this out for a long time at home so they have space to throw nice equipment you know they can ride

this out for a long time at home and be fine whereas you got the guys that don't have that much money or perhaps haven't invested in a home gym are the ones that are having a hard time so you know the first thing is the individual some guys are just very very independent very responsible and then they seek out help right away and there are guys that we have to chase down and ask them, hey, what's available to you? Do you need help? Do you need equipment?

Do you need this? Do you need that? So it's been a combination of all those things. I'm curious kind of how often your staff thinks they're going to be reevaluating the timelines for returning and then how that's going to impact the advice you might be giving guys about what they should be doing at any given moment. Because I would imagine, I've never been a strength and conditioning coach, so you can tell me that I'm thinking about this the wrong way,

but I would imagine that, you know, a two month delay might mean one particular approach to training. A six month delay might mean something very different. So how are you guys thinking about that variability in timeline as a staff? Yeah, no, that's a very good point. The biggest, the most difficult part of this whole thing is when you design a program and when you're trying to give advice to someone about an exercise program, you have to have a goal, a goal date in mind, an event. So off-season goes into spring training, spring training goes into the season.

Since right now we don't know a starting date, it's hard to feel comfortable giving out advice. Hey, you're going to work out for the next two months and you're going to peak at this month. So right now we're going on no information. So what we're trying to tell guys is try to maintain the level of fitness that you gain in spring training and kind of keep it at a medium pace. It's not quite the same intensity and amount of work that an off-season would be because, you know, at any given moment, we might say, hey, we got, we're going to start in the next month, but it's not as light as an

in-season program would be because there's still some building up to do. In spite of the unknown has to be to get back up to speed for most players just in terms of physical fitness and preparation for the season? And, you know, if this delay does extend for months, is there a certain point where you are just sort of starting from scratch? Or can you just kind of maintain whatever gains or preparation was done in Florida and and arizona this year yeah i agree that guys do stay in shape longer i believe that guys know a little bit more about this stuff and they know that if they're not in shape they're going to be left behind because now it's it's the normal when i first started 19 years ago my job was to get guys in the weight room. Now my job is to try to get them to not do so much. So today's player, they work out a lot. They do more.

They keep a level of fitness that's a lot higher than before. So I feel like if they maintain a medium-paced, medium-intensity fitness program throughout this time, I think they'll be okay at whatever time we start. The challenge is trying to guide the pitchers on how much to throw, you know, how to build up their innings. Because like I said, we don't have a starting date and the pitching coaches rely on the schedule to build somebody's arm up so that could be that could be challenging but from the things that we've discussed and the things that i've heard about the type of season that we may have that there's going to be special

rules for pitcher usage it's going to be a more of a college type scenario where everything's going to be shorter and it's shorter and we're not going to need as many players. We're going to have all kinds of substitution rules that are going to be different. So if they stay in shape, if they stay the course right now, they should be fine because there will be special rules to accommodate for this situation. What would be the greatest potential risk when the season hopefully does start up again? And we'll see how long the training period prior to opening day will be, but who would be kind of at the greatest risk or what type of injury would you be especially

wary of given this long layoff and then trying to ramp up again? Obviously, arms is always the thing at the top of the list. i believe the starters are the ones that most risk because they need the most build-up and then from a position player standpoint i believe their legs will be the biggest thing you know a lot of a lot of guys made the mistake that they feel that if they're running a treadmill or getting an elliptical and they're moving their legs that that's that's a sufficient exercise. And it's not running on grass. It's a completely different feel or stress on the muscles than it is on the treadmill. So my biggest concerns are arm injuries and leg injuries

for the position players. Hopefully people have been following your advice and engaged in an exercise that mimics something close to actual baseball. But I'm curious if any of the players, and you obviously don't have to name them, have engaged in any particularly creative forms of exercise that you've had to dissuade them from pursuing? know most of the guys that i've talked to and and the staff has talked to it seems like guys are doing the right things i guess the only concern is is the guys that tend to do too much and some guys when they get bored they can they can overdo it because of you know they don't have anything else to do but stay at home and work out so they might overdo certain things so the only concern is just the guys that might overdo it too soon, because really, we don't have a starting date. So you guys may be working out too hard, if anything, for what's really happening. And we're all adjusting to sort of a new normal of

working conditions. And I'm curious, just for you personally, what has working from home been like for you? I can't imagine that that has been a typical experience over the course of your career yeah uh well i guess the two biggest things that i i take away from this is number one this is the time of the year where i see the see my family the least and now i'm home all the time and i'm when i'm with them more than i've ever been so i spring training and, beginning of the season is a very challenging time for the family because I'm gone a lot. The workload is very heavy. So I, it's always been a hard time with family around this time of the year. So this is kind of a blessing just to be with them at a time where nothing's going on. I can concentrate on them.

I can do homework. I can work out with my girls that play sports and so i get to i get to have a better quality family time the first thing and the second thing you know with the technology today with social media podcasts and things like this of this nature because i have a lot of assistance and i have a lot of help i sometimes i feel inadequate with some of the social media posting and videos and program design that everybody does on YouTube and all that stuff. So it's given me an opportunity to sit in front of the computer and do those things for myself and be able to make programs. And this morning I shot a video out of my backyard and was able to add it to the team builder app that we're using and and so i'm kind of excited to spend some time in front of the computer and learn learn some things that i haven't done to this point in the last few years so um those two things are positives for me

the one thing i do miss i do miss coaching i do miss being around the guys i do miss being around the staff and you know a coach doesn't have players to coach is not a coach so not not being able to coach is kind of boring making out workout programs to put online and social media to me that's not as exciting as being with a guy in the weight room teaching him teaching him how to do things. So to me, that's the biggest drawback. And how are you staying in shape personally? What are the most effective workouts you can do under the circumstances?

Well, you know, as a strength coach, I collect a lot of stuff. So I got my garage. I got weights. I got kettlebells in my movie room. I got some jujitsu matsbells in my movie room. I got some jiu-jitsu mats. I practice jiu-jitsu, so I'm able to get on the mats and practice drills. I've been teaching my kids. So, I mean, I get up every morning and do a little bit of something.

So the other big change, I guess, since you started this job is the way that technology and data have come into the game and have really had an impact on strength and conditioning too. A lot of teams have sports science departments or high performance departments that are bringing some technology and data to that process. And you just mentioned Team Builder, which we actually got in touch with you through a representative for Team Builder, which is a platform that the Rangers use and that other mlb teams use and other teams in major sports use so i guess what part has that played in this remote training and then just in general has technology made this any easier with the devices or the tracking that is now available to players and to teams? Yeah, well, like I said, the technology and the strength and conditioning world has been a game changer.

It makes the ability to communicate and design programs for players much, much more efficient, a lot faster. We've been using it for about three years, and we've created a lot of different workout calendars on the program. So in a way, we're kind of ready for this. We have so many workouts on there that if you don't have equipment, well, a way we're kind of ready for this we we have so many workouts on there that if you don't have equipment well boom we got a workout for you and and all we got to do is just change the calendar on your profile and it'll appear in your phone within a matter of

seconds i had a player last week i was mowing the yard and he called me he called me and he wanted a workout bodyweight workout to do at home because he didn't have a place to go and i stopped what i was doing got on my computer five minutes later a few clicks of the button he's got a workout so you can't you can't beat that kind of that kind of system so the technology has definitely helped us you know but in a way sometimes it's scary because it just changes so fast. Every year is a different software and every year is a different type of thing. And sometimes when you're working with people, you don't have time to work with computers. So if I don't pay attention to some of that stuff, then I get left behind.

So this time, this situation has forced me to sit in front of a computer and learn some of this stuff. Yeah. In general, I don't know if you're able to do this stuff under these circumstances, but do you try to incorporate wearable devices or tracking sleep or preparation for workouts or calories expended or any of that? I know that that's more prevalent maybe in the minors because major league guys kind of have an option of what they want to use or not use. But has that been helpful for you and has that changed your job in a significant way? Yeah, well, it's been helpful in that we can gather more information on guys. I think we're able to create a larger profile as to what the player is, how the player functions.

I'll put it that way. You know, is the guy high energy? Is he low energy? Does he spend a lot of calories? Does he not recover well? Does he not sleep well? Is he powerful? Is he explosive? Is he strong? So all this technology, all these wearables, all these types of sports science technology gives us a better picture better picture what the how the player functions and it helps us to hopefully determine what the player needs most they all need how to throw the ball and catch the ball and you know that's obvious and do it better but as an athlete

this information gives us a good picture about where to start with a certain guy you know and and when it comes to because we know so much now I think the biggest the most important thing for me is knowing where to start and knowing what to prioritize you know in the past we baseball players just lift the weights because they wanted to get strong okay well that makes sense in theory but then you realize that there's such a thing as too much strength. And instead of creating strength, you're creating stiffness. And now you're no longer flexible. And now you no longer move well.

So this information gives us an idea, all right, with this guy, we need to work on flexibility before we work on strength. Or this guy, this guy needs to learn how to take care of himself a little bit better. This guy needs to learn how to take care of himself a little bit better. This guy needs to recover more. Or this guy needs to start all his workouts with this kind of warm-up to facilitate this movement. And this sports science technology gives us a better picture on how to start. It gives you, it's kind of like a GPS to where this player needs to go. If you don't have step one, sometimes you start step five and then you realize,

oh, wait a minute, we've been going the wrong way with this guy. So we should have been doing this all along. So with what we know now, we can do that a little bit better. We still got a long ways to go because still a lot of people claim they understand that stuff.

But I don't know about you, but the human machine is the most complicated machine there is. And I don't care how much technology we throw at these guys. These guys are very complicated and very complex. But with this technology, I think we're getting closer. And it's always my hope that the players feel that we're using this technology for their benefit and not for their detriment and not to try to break them down.

But I feel like we're headed in the right direction. We just need to be a little bit cautious and patient with a little bit of this stuff so that we don't turn these guys into lab rats. But I feel like the more information we have on a player, the better job we could do to help the player achieve whatever he needs. Yeah. And it has been increasingly common for players to go to off-season facilities, whether it's a place like driveline or maybe somewhere just closer to home.

And obviously that's been beneficial for some players. But from the team's perspective, do you try to kind of keep tabs on that, try to become part of that process and monitor what they're doing, make sure they're going to a place that is legitimate and knows what it's doing, and then not, I guess, contradicting what that place is telling them to do so that when they show up for spring training, suddenly they're asked to undo those things or you find out that they've been doing things that you don't approve of? to undo those things or you find out that they've been doing things that you don't approve of? Yeah. First thing I would say about that, how I handle all that, I try to insert myself, so to speak. I try to insert myself into the situation because I feel that every program, every exercise, it works at some point with a certain guy and everything works within, within any, in its own context.

And I think that the problem with some of this stuff today is you have a program and it works for you. And then now you start telling all your buddies, but you're six, five, 250 pounds. And your buddy is five, nine,

170. And he's less than that. And you're right-handed and so well but everybody needs this program and so that that that's the biggest problem with a lot of these programs that these guys get into is they claim that they individualize stuff but from my experience what I've seen every time guys get evaluated they come back with the same program very very similar and so I try to insert myself in these situations so that I can educate the guy the best that I can when they get into these programs because a lot of times they they really buy in and they get really attached to these these programs and then when they realize that it's not working or when they realize that the amount of work that

they were doing in the off season now they can't do the same amount of work during the season those people that are that were training them weren't are not around anymore and it's me trying me and them trying to uh figure this out together so so i try to insert myself in those situations get to know all the big names in the industry you know try to find ways to connect with those people because again you know in a way we need each other I need people like that because I can't be everywhere and those people like that need me because sometimes I do need to refer people out and I need to have a network of people that I trust out of you know out there so I can have relationships and be able to get this information without it becoming some sort of a competition between me and them.

So it's a challenge. It's growing because these facilities are popping up everywhere. So I need to get in touch with a lot more people now than I did before. But I just try to get myself involved somehow. And I think the last thing I wanted to ask, I think about the 2014 Rangers team a lot. That was a challenging year for you too. Not for these reasons, but because there was just a huge rash of injuries that year.

And it was really tough because the Rangers had been so successful and then kind of fell into fifth place and largely because a lot of great players were unavailable that year. And I think you won the Nolan Ryan award that year, right from your peers who were, you know, recognizing, I guess, what you had to deal with and the job that you did. But when something like that happens, or, you know, when it happens the other way, when someone like Mike Miner maybe comes back from kind of an injury plagued portion of his career and becomes a really durable starter

for the Rangers and you figure something there is working well, how much do you sort of, I guess, feel responsibility for the injuries that a team does or doesn't suffer? You know, if you go through a really rough year like that, do you examine what you're doing and think, am I exacerbating this? Is there something I should be doing that I'm not? Or do you just sort of accept that these things are going to happen no matter what you do? And some years you're going to get lucky with injuries and some years the opposite? Well, no, I mean, I do take responsibility for all of it. I don't shy away from the responsibility that it's given me, but I have been around long enough to be able to evaluate everything in context. Every injury has a story of its own.

Every player that had an injury that year, you know, had a situation that was unique to that individual. had a situation that was unique to that individual. And the unfortunate thing is when things are written about an injury-plagued year, the injuries, it's written in a way that it seems like it was a rash of injuries. There was a group of injuries. There was a number of injuries. And what is not written, because I don't think there's enough time, is each individual guy had a specific situation. You know, one situation, the guy went in the corner and ran for the ball and he twisted an ankle and broke it.

There was a guy that came from another team that had a prior condition that just flared up on us under our care and nobody knew about it you know there was a there was another situation where a guy had a something with his shoulder and didn't tell anybody until the middle of the game and so there was a lot of different situations that were unique and so like i said i take responsibility for all those things but i take each individual injury and and evaluate the context where it comes from. You know, was it a soft tissue? Was it self-inflicted? Was it an accident?

Was it something we knew about, something that we didn't know about? So, you know, it's a unique situation. I accept that there's some things that are going to happen when it comes to the relationship that I have with John Daniels. It just boils down on that relationship, really. Does he trust my expertise? Does he trust my ability to evaluate each situation for what it is? Is he comfortable with the effort that I'm putting forth trying to prevent these things? Am I evaluating the problems the right way?

prevent these things? Am I evaluating the problems the right way? You know, so it's kind of a, it's a hard, it's a hard situation to be in because there's a lot of things that we can't control. So as long as, as long as John Daniels feels comfortable with the things that I can't control and I'm addressing those things, then it gives me peace of mind and it helps me to process some of that stuff because yeah, that year was pretty tough and that year was pretty stressful it was one thing after another and it was one of those years that we i had all these grand plans to use all this technology that i had planned to prevent injuries and as soon as this stuff happened all that stuff was out the window i mean we went straight to rehab mode so it's a situation that's hard to explain sometimes yeah why those

things happen but but it just boils down to my ability to process and prevent the things that can be you know done something about and does my general manager trust me and that's what it right i guess it's easy to make a coach a scapegoat you know if the team doesn't hit you change the hitting coach if a team doesn't hit, you change the hitting coach. If a team doesn't pitch, you change the pitching coach. If a team gets injured a lot, maybe you change the trainer, the strength and conditioning coach. So obviously the Rangers didn't do that. And that speaks to the confidence that they must have had in you. So I was going to let you go, but you just raised one more question in my mind when you mentioned that a player was not fully forthright about an injury and that that ended up coming back to bite them.

That's something that's really hard to eradicate in the majors. It's just so competitive and athletes are so competitive and they never want to give you a reason not to play them or to take time off. But how do you try to create a culture where players do feel that they can come forward and tell you about problems before they become even worse? And is that an area where technology can help? Because if you're measuring certain aspects of players' performance, then maybe it's easier to detect when something is going wrong, whereas before you might have had to just rely on whether the player was going to open up about it or not i'd say my my first thought on that would would be that each each player you need to develop a relationship with them you know and that's sometimes with some guys it could be at the first hello first handshake and some guys it takes years to get them to trust you so it just starts with trust being able to connect to that player being able to to develop a connection with that player that that player knows that we

care and we care for them as a person and not just as a player so it just starts with that. And then it's also our job to, I don't want to say sell, I'm losing my words here, but to explain the technology in a way that it makes them feel like, you know what? I need that stuff. I need to find out what I really need to work on as opposed to, oh, these guys are just using that stuff so that I don't get arbitration, which is a typical comment that I've heard over the years since some of this stuff started coming out. So, you know, our responsibility to explain what we're doing with these guys.

And so between those two things, I feel like that's where this stuff lies is do they feel that you care and do you have the tools to figure out what they need? And so if they got feels like you care and they feel confidence like, oh, man, they got this gadget and they got this thing, then, yeah, man, they can help me. And so they're more comfortable with you and then they're a little more forthright and they don't hide stuff.

All right. Well, I'm sorry for your sake that you're not able to do the coaching that you're used to right now, but the fact that you have time to do interviews worked out well for us and our listeners. So thank you very much, Jose. This was really enlightening and best of luck with preparing everyone for what will hopefully be a season at some point. Awesome. Thank you for having me. Stay safe. All right. Speaking of Rangers players who are trying to stay in shape, Joey Gallo posted a TikTok of himself taking batting practice

in what appears to be his luxury high-rise apartment. I'll link to it on the show page, but he has a bucket of balls and then a tee and then a net that he is hitting into. And it just says, I'm sorry, neighbors, for the sound, I guess, but it makes me nervous to watch. I guess it's perfectly safe. I guess there's no way that the ball could not go into the net. It's right in front of the tee, but Gallo hits the ball so hard, and he has floor-to-ceiling windows, and I'm just imagining him drilling one of these baseballs through the net and through a window and out onto the street and hitting someone on the head. It's very anxiety-inducing, but got to make do with what you have.

You may also be interested in an article that friend of the show Lindsay Adler wrote for The Athletic about how the Yankees pitchers are training and keeping track of their remote workouts. Quoting from her article here, this is about Matt Blake, the Yankees' new pitching coach. Lindsay writes that Blake conferred with other pitching coaches throughout the league about how they intended to handle the pitchers in their own organizations. Normally, baseball can be secretive and protective at the major league level, Blake said, but I think there's a sense of community among the group right now because we're all in this together and there's really no playbook we can look at for this. The Yankees decided to put together a document in Google Drive and share it with the pitchers, asking them to log what work they had done each day.

This is different from the typical dynamic during the offseason. Pitchers can function semi-autonomously on a program they've developed with their organization or independently, and typically check in with the coaching staff periodically. With the current situation forcing everyone to make decisions quickly and to accommodate a range of circumstances, Yankees coaching staff felt it would be best to have everyone's programs accessible in one place. They kind of go in and kind of have some level of accountability for themselves to write down what they're doing and kind of see what the other guys are doing, Blake said. We have a 30-day log that guys are filling out so we can almost crowdsource what our

options are for these guys as far as what they are capable of doing where they're at, warm weather or cold weather, whether they have access to a facility or not. All right, that will do it for today and for this week. Thank you for listening, and thank you for supporting the podcast if you already have. And for those of you who have not but would like to, you can go to patreon.com slash effectivelywild and sign up to pledge some small monthly amount and help keep the podcast going and get yourself access to some perks, as have the following five listeners and supporters. Brian Riley, Ben Harmon, Matthew Felling, Tim Frederick, and Kevin Clark. Thanks to all of you.

You can join our Facebook group at facebook.com slash groups slash effectively wild. You can rate, review, and subscribe to Effectively Wild on iTunes and other podcast platforms. Wild on iTunes and other podcast platforms. Keep your questions and comments for me and Meg and Sam coming via email at podcastandfangraphs.com or via the Patreon messaging system if you are a supporter. Thanks to Dylan Higgins for his editing assistance. If you're looking for some reading material, the paperback edition of my book with Travis Sochick, The MVP Machine, How Baseball's New Nonconformists Are Using Data to Build Better Players comes out next week, April 7th. It includes a new lengthy afterword. So even if you've already read the book in hardcover or in some digital format,

there's something new for you there. We hope you have as good and as safe a weekend as you can, and we will be back to talk to you early next week. I'm not brave enough I'm not strong enough I'm not brave enough To say walk my way