Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast - Effectively Wild Episode 2119: The All-Time BP Annual Guessing Game

Episode Date: February 2, 2024

Ben Lindbergh, Meg Rowley, and Baseball Prospectus editor-in-chief Craig Goldstein and managing editor Patrick Dubuque banter about editing, discuss the Orioles’ impending change in ownership (10:25), examine the newly released Baseball Prospectus 2024 (22:01), and then play a guessing/Remembering Some Guys game in which they each read aloud book comments about six unidentified players apiece, […]

Hey everyone, just a quick note before we get going. The episode you're about to hear was recorded before the Baltimore Orioles traded for Corbin Burns. Yes, you heard that right. The Orioles made a trade, a notable trade, a trade that vaulted them all the way up from 24th in starting pitcher war the last time we talked about it to 12th.

They just leapfrogged half the teams in front of them in a single Burns. They also vaulted, if you can call it that, over the Pirates from second lowest competitive balance tax figure to third lowest. See, that wasn't so hard. I mention this because you're about to hear us talk about the Orioles' ownership situation. You will hear us express some cautious optimism.

Knowing what we know now, we might have been even more optimistic. Orioles fans, I give you permission to throw caution to the winds, at least for right now. Be happy. Your team made a trade. We got an email after that trade from Patreon supporter J-Mad who said, Ben, last week you went on a John Angelos rant and in the last two days

we've gotten rid of Angelos and added Corbin Burns. Is this real? I'm going to need you to harness this newfound power for even more good in the future. This is amazing. Is it correlation? Is it causation?

I'll let you be the judge. We will talk about that trade with the Brewers for Burns in exchange for Joey Ortiz, D.L. Hall, and a competitive balance pick next time, but my ranting days are done for now, at least on this particular topic. Thus ends this oz-timistic intro to the intro. Let's get started. Well, it's moments like these that make you ask, how can you not be horny about baseball? Every take hot and hotter, entwining and abutting, watch him climb big mountain, nothing's about nothing, every stitch wet with sweat, breaking balls back, door me on effectively, wow, how

can you not be horny? When it comes to podcasts, how can you not be horny? When it comes to podcasts, how can you not be horny? Hello and welcome to episode 2199 of Effectively Wild, a baseball podcast from Fangraphs presented by our Patreon supporters. I am Den Lindberg of The Ringer, joined by Meg Rowley of Fangraphs. Hello, Meg. Hello. And we are joined by two friends of the show, friends of ours. Meg's counterpart at Baseball Prospectus, managing editor of BP, at least titular counterpart. I don't know if the seniority, the ranking here, perhaps not.

But in terms of title, the managing editor of Baseball Prospectus, Patrick Dubuque, is here. Hello, Patrick. Wow. Good morning. I'm confused. You should have managing edited my introduction there. But what I was attempting to convey is that we are also joined by the number one on the editorial totem pole at Baseball Prospectus. Okay. The editor-in-chief

who outranks you, Patrick. Don't even try to contradict Craig Goldstein when he lays down the law about what is going to run at Baseball Prospectus. His word goes, the buck stops with him. It's true. When it comes to Patrick and I, and I'm going to say this in honor of Vanderpump Rules returning this week, I'm the to say this in honor of Vanderpump Rules returning this week. I'm the number one guy in the group. Yeah. I'm sure you're constantly coming to blows and overruling Patrick. Well, I mean, especially when it comes to whether a number one needs to be represented as no and a period and a space and then the number one or whether it should be a pound sign.

Those are what our disagreements are about. The Saber Style Guide, I believe, says no, period. That is what we use. Lowercase n. Who's the pound sign advocate, though? I actually am not the pound sign. No, but that's the type. It's indicative of the type. If you want to know the true thing that it comes down to is, and it does relate to numbers, is Patrick wants to write out nearly every number.

Oh, that's bad. So, in my defense, some numbers are numbers and some numbers are ideas. Yeah, yeah. Okay. When a number is an idea, like when I say I'm 30 and I'm'm not then that doesn't represent necessarily numerical age it could just mean a feeling of being 30 and that's an important distinction here's the thing patrick tried to use this to me on i believe 12 and also 17 that's no yeah like like a a million like that strikes me as more of an ideas dumper than like, sure. Yeah. But like, 17 is just like, that's just a number, Patrick. It is until I'm editor-in-chief.

Oh, boy. Yeah. Oh, boy. Over Craig's dead body. I've basically traded him a three-year reign on that type of stuff so that I don't have to do S apostrophe S everywhere, which I understand is correct, but I hate it. Oh, I'm an S apostrophe move on person too. Oh, okay. That's so exciting.

I was expecting to be admonished for my take there. No, you're right about that. I think that's my preference also. Yeah. I still remembered how to abbreviate number according to the BP style from my own days as the top dog at Baseball Perspectives, but those days are long gone. Are you just a senior editor now? We've got so many different types of editors on this. Just a measly senior editor. I've come down in the world since my

editor-in-chief days. I've been demoted multiple rungs. My favorite is when I do radio or something with Mike Farron and he calls me the executive editor of Fangraphs, which has never, ever been my title, but I think it's nice. It sounds nice. Yeah, it's jazzy. And so I just haven't had the heart to correct him. Ben, you say demoted,

but it's like going from a senior in high school to a freshman in college. A little bit. Is it? Yeah, I don't know. Smaller fish, bigger pond sort of situation potentially. Yeah. Well, as scintillating as it would be for listeners to hear us talk about our titles and whether we write out or put numerical values for numbers, we could probably

move on. Although I should say, I guess that you guys have a new product out. That is why we have you on. I mean, we're always happy to have you on. But we have you on because, specifically, Baseball Perspectives has a new annual out this week, officially. Although, that's kind of a moving target, I guess, when the annual comes out. It seems to spread out over a period of several weeks. People start getting the annual before the street date, and some people get it after the street date. I saw some annuals turning up in the wilds days ago, if not weeks ago, so it's out there. Yeah.

The first one I think I saw was at least like a week ago that was shipped, which was far sooner than I had anticipated. Yeah. I will also – I will say I did get one note. Someone said, I got mine, but it's backwards and upside down. Really? And I thought, oh, dear. Yeah. You hope that's an isolated occurrence? I really hope so. But Ben, I got to tell you, I can't imagine that it is. It seems it would be really hard to pick one of them. We're trying to sell copies of the Baseball Perspectives Annual on this podcast. We're not trying to sell copies of the baseball prospectus annual on this podcast

we're not trying to tell people that it might be well i just want to warn people like first of all baseball person i don't i don't get to i'm not involved in the printing so i'm just gonna but just be aware and like we're gonna fix it is what i'm gonna tell you you'll get one that's a normal one but maybe it'll be like a like a misprinted card yeah it's an error card just a complete recall of the baseball perspective saying it's the deal murphy wait i want to make sure i understand the issue at play here it's just that the the internal book and the cover are not oriented properly toward one another? Is that the issue here? Yeah. The message I received said,

I received my beautiful and much anticipated book, and it is printed upside down and backwards. Still beautiful, though. If it's upside, I mean, upside down, that seems like a, you know, I don't want to tell this person how to read, but that seems like an easy problem to sort out. Just flip it over.

Skill issue? Should I write back skill issue? No, I think you should be nice to them because they seem to not be trying to give you the business about it. But also, like, I would just encourage that person to feel less stress because you can just flip it over, you know, and then it's just a book. Yeah, but I do think it is printed right to left is the hard part. Oh, right to left is, that's pretty funny. Yeah. Wow.

See, I remember the year when there was no index. People were upset about that. We had to do a supplementary index. And then, of course, notoriously, the very first year, there was no Cardinals chapter. But this would be up there in the annual annals. Have you heard from anyone who got a book that is not upside down and backwards? Yes. Okay.

All right. It's not all of them, at least. Right. What I said internally was that I can't imagine it is the only one printed like this. I hope it is one of very few shipped like this. Right, right. Yeah. only one printed like this. I hope it is one of very few shipped like this.

Right, right. Yeah. Well, don't want to discourage anyone from buying this lovely, possibly upside down and backwards, but still beautiful book. And it will be a collector's item if it is shipped to you that way. And all the words will be there in some form. So that's the important part. And really, when it comes to this book, the editorial hierarchy is reversed because Patrick Dubuque, I think, outranks Craig Goldstein, who's a measly associate editor on this book. It is edited. The names on the cover are Patrick Dubuque, Brian Grosnick, and Ginny Searle, which I guess means that we could more readily blame Patrick for the backwards and upside down printing, although that is probably the publisher's fault, if anyone's. You can blame me for the order that the teams are in the book, forwards or backwards, which is another source of constant contention.

Yes, always. Hot topic. Yeah. I'm an alphabetical man myself. We are back to alphabetical. Yeah. Good. Congratulations.

You're welcome, Ben. Unless everything's backwards, in which case I guess it's the opposite of alphabetical man. We are back to alphabetical. Good. Congratulations. You're welcome, Ben. Everything's backwards, in which case, I guess it's the opposite of alphabetical, but that would also be alphabetical in a way. So that would work just as well. Anyway, it's annual season. We're very happy that it's annual season. We'll talk about the book and what's inside it, whichever way it's printed in just a moment. Though I should say that the cover boy is Adley Rutschman, which is topical because the one banter topic that we have today before we get to our exercise, we're playing a bit of a game, an annual guessing game. Our one banter topic is that the Orioles are or are about to be or will at some unspecified point when their current owner perishes and expires.

I mean, look, that's what it is. It's true. It's grim. Not trying to be irreverent here. That's what the contract calls for here. Peter Angelos, he could stick it out for years and years and nothing might change in terms of the majority ownership here. But the owners are going to be different at some point.

And that, at least in the abstract, is good news because it can't get worse. We have certainly talked about John Angelos a lot on this podcast. I look forward to potentially talking about him less at some point. I look forward to potentially talking about him less at some point. However, owners are always a bit of a black box, much like the annual, which may be backwards and upside down. You never know which way the— John Angelos was backwards and upside down. He was. Yeah.

And you never know with an owner. There's sometimes a cipher, too, until they're actually in the chair and they start spending or not. But there is a lot of optimism on the part of Orioles fans, which I think is understandable and to some degree justified. The new control person will be David Rubenstein. And there's a lot we could say about David Rubenstein. He's a billionaire, obviously. and there's a lot we could say about David Rubenstein. He's a billionaire, obviously.

You'd have to be to purchase a team for more than a billion dollars, although less than $2 billion. There are a couple billionaires involved here. They're both private equity people. That did give some people pause, but David Rubenstein is a Baltimore native. He is an Oriole rooter. There are reasons for optimism about his...

It sounds like he goes out and hunts them. You know, like he's rooting them. Yeah. Or worse. Wrestling them from their nest. Yeah. But what do you guys make of this? How happy should Orioles fans be? Because I don't want to

harsh their vibe. It's been bad enough. We've done recent Orioles rants, multiple editions of that on this podcast. So I'm happy to let them have their day. But Craig, what would you say about this as someone who at least has lived in roughly that geographical area? Yeah, I am a once inin-future Maryland resident. I am currently a Marylander. I think this is good news. I don't want to get over my skis about it. You don't know how any of these guys are going to act,

but it is hard to imagine it being significantly worse than the current John Angelos tenure. And I think, yeah, it can be, right? It can be John Fisher, which he was kind of trying to be, right? It seemed like he wanted to maybe move the team and was trying to hold the city hostage and that kind of stuff. So like, it can't get much worse.

As far as what we do know about Rubenstein, like you said, he's from Baltimore. He seems to be at least somewhat grounded in Baltimore. He cares about sports. I mean, I like to make fun as a UNC fan for basketball. I think the worst thing about him, even understanding his private equity background, is that he went to Duke. But he is, I believe, like he goes to their games, right like he he is involved in sports he's a sports fan i also like again not to be grim but he's 74 um and i don't know that you you necessarily buy your hometown team and then are like go for austerity at 74 just because like it's a good investment now i will say

that like i am not a billionaire and they are built different, right? I mean, I kind of said this about Jerry Reinstorf recently, like he's trying to get a new stadium and it's like, buddy, you're in the 80s. Like why? Why pulling off one last grift? But like, you know, that's possible. Maybe it's the case. I don't know. But it does seem like he and this all sounds so weird, but I guess billionaires are weird. Like, he bought the Magna Carta and then donated it to the Smithsonian. interests and goes about pursuing them. He was potentially going to be involved in buying the Nationals. Then obviously, he seems to have made a pivot to the Orioles. Yeah, I mean, I do think this is good news. I don't know that it necessarily heralds like the Dodgers, right? I mean, this is just not as big a market. It's going to they have a very different TV deal situation, you know,

all of that kind of stuff. But I do think there's reasons to be optimistic, despite the private equity background, which I saw kind of people making, you know, making hay of a little bit. But, you know, Mark Walter comes from private equity. Peter Seidler came from private equity. Steve Cohen comes from private equity, right? Like, there are a lot of big spenders with with private equity backgrounds in the in the majors. You can also point to Bruce Sherman in Miami as the other end of that. He's probably somewhere in between that. Right. Those three guys and Bruce Sherman. But I guess the point is, like, even even in that situation, if he's somewhere in between them, that's a big step up in terms of potential spending compared to the Angelos, the recent

Angelos tenure. Yeah, I think that like, you know, I saw people getting excited because he tweeted and they're like, it's like Uncle Steve. And I'm like, we don't need to do that news cycle again, do we? Like, we don't have to do the Uncle Steve thing again. But I think that where I've landed is landed is you know they have to show us what they are going to understand their obligations to be in terms of spending but i think that you know to let orioles fans like breathe easy i guess or be excited like it i cannot stress

enough how little it would take for the for them to spend in a way that would help this team be better in the immediate future. It's just, it would take such a small investment, and it sounds like he's interested in doing more than that. I mean, he, in his little tweet, had the good paragraph, right, which is like, yay, we want to bring a World Series back to Baltimore. And then he had the private equity paragraph that that was like and we will spur economic growth and we can catalyze development so like you know semi-concerting yeah we can only ever be ourselves um and i guess time will tell sort of which of those paragraphs his tenure sort of balances toward more than the other but um i think that

it's a good it's a good development because like I said, particularly with the team that they have in place right now, you don't have to spend very much to get a good bit better and sort of push them up the East rankings. Ben, do you feel personally responsible for the team getting sold after your two very impassioned rants? You had feelings and then good stuff happened. Do you feel good about that? I'd be happy to take credit if I drove him away. Yeah. If he was just so scathed by my scathing critique that he decided to pack up and leave. That'd be a nice little legacy for me.

I think this was in the works for a while, though. Probably predated my recent Orioles rants. a while, though. Probably predated my recent Orioles rants. But yeah. It almost scuttled the deal, the deal between the state and the Orioles, right? It came out that they might be being sold. And then John Angelos had to look at various state legislators in the eye and lie to them and say, I'm not going to do that. I'm not selling the team. He's going to say, I'm not going to do that. I'm not selling the team. He's going to say, I'm not selling a majority of the team, is what he said. And he's only selling 40% for now. But yeah, I mean, you've had multiple. The state treasurer came out and was like, this guy lied. Brooke Learman, who's a state official, came out and said,

he's incredibly disrespectful. But also also we crafted an agreement essentially assuming he was lying to us. So it's all very good. Yeah, that's great. The one thing I was going to say was that even if they're not adding right now, even if this ends up being a wasted offseason because it's only 40% control of the team to the new owners right now and they don't add with what's left of the offseason. You know, Angelos was making a lot of noise around how hard it would be to extend Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rushman and, you know, the very exciting young players that are on this

team. And I feel like at the very least, that becomes extremely more likely, if not probable, least, that becomes extremely more likely, if not probable, under this ownership, even if they're not going to go hog wild in free agency, that you have a better chance of keeping kind of the current stars of the team on a longer basis. Yeah. Well, I mean, we don't know very much about the new owner. So my thoughts are mostly about Angelos. And I haven't moved in 15 years. And one of the reasons I haven't is because I'm terrified of what I would have to do to my house in order to move. All the things that I should have been fixing, I should have fixed 15 years ago because I've been living here but just never got to. And I can't help but think about Angelos who, you know, knew he was selling the team. And then also, like, had to make sure that he got that Dollar Park Village, you know, sewed into his contract.

had to make sure that he got that Ballpark Village sewed into his contract. The amount of labor he went into to try and make sure that some future owner would get to have the usual capitalist trappings of owning a ballpark, and then just immediately selling it afterwards, it's kind of the most honest work he has ever done as far as owning this team. Which I just am a little impressed by, despite everything else. Yeah, I guess he was doing it for his purchase price purposes, more so than for him to enjoy it long term. But the purchase price turned out to be pretty similar to the valuation anyway, which is a bit odd to me. I don't know. Yeah, it seems semi-underwhelming, if anything, the purchase price, $1.725 billion. Is that it? But I mean, it's still a nice rate of return, as Rob Maines wrote at your website, Baseball Prospectus, just today, but maybe a little less overwhelming than

we're used to with ballpark or stadium or franchise figures. Yeah. Especially given that, you know, the price tag that has been put on those expansion teams that are coming around the corner any day now, they're supposed to be above 2 million or 2 billion. Right. So interesting to me, but. Yeah. Well, we'll see. I'm happy that Orioles fans are happy tentatively, cautiously. I think cautiously is probably wise, but I think there's basis to be semi-excited. It seems like you could do worse. Yes.

Has the Carlisle group been accused of various war profiteering activities? Yes. But is he quite a philanthropist in his personal life? Also, yes. So, yeah, you know, bit of this, bit of that, I guess. The fro-yo is good and bad. I think we can assume that he refused to show the books that he promised that were in the warehouse because they were all printed backwards and upside down. He realized he didn't want to embarrass himself.

That probably is why. So, the annual. I'm pleased that there is yet another edition. This is the 29th, is that right? That is correct. What a tradition, an annual tradition, some might say. And I look forward to receiving the hard copy, however it's printed, and adding it to my now multiple shelves of Baseball Prospectus annuals going all the way back. I'm not really a collector of many physical objects, but I love just adding a new annual each year to my hoard

and then just kind of rubbing my hands together as I gaze on all the annuals just arrayed in a row. You could be a billionaire, Ben. I feel like you've got some traits here. I mean, that 96th annual, there are only like 200 copies printed. I know one was recently acquired by somebody. How much? That I don't know. Was it the new owner of the Baltimore Orioles? And did he immediately donate it?

He's donating to the Smithsonian. And the 96th annual? Yeah, I'd love to know what that nest egg is looking like for me. But I could never part with it. It's a prized possession from BP's Dave Pease years ago, which I cherish. But it's always so nice when the annual comes out again, because what can we count on in these days of disordered media environments and treasured institutions coming to an end and private equity possibly playing a role in that at times. And yet the BP annual endures and abides and soldiers on year by year. And that just brings warm, fuzzy feelings to my heart because, you know,

the Bill James handbook just ended. And obviously the Bill James Handbook was much more stats based than the BP Annual. And so they ultimately felt that a lot of its utility had been moved to online, although it was still nice to have a hard copy to flip through. But the BP Annual still going strong. It's just always a right of spring. It's a sign that the season is coming and it's just good. Also, it's just a good, entertaining book, especially when it's printed the right way. How many players roughly are featured this year? It's 2,100, I want to say. Yeah.

We got to do something about that. It's a lot of players. It's a lot of middle relievers. I don't know if you know this, but there are more baseball players every year. Yeah, yeah, right. And I don't just mean like historically, like they just, we just, there are more major leaguers every year. Yes. Well, they have humongous stat boxes now.

Since everybody gets called up and brought down, you know, all these stat boxes are nine lines long. My main concern with the book now is basically pagination. And I'm constantly, like I spent, I think, 12 hours straight the last day trying to get all the boxes to fit neatly on pages so the paragraphs weren't cut in half. And you missed that it was backwards. Interesting. Missed the parts for the trees there. I started really, really hating teams for demoting players for like a week and just giving taking up an extra line in the book each each page. Very selfish of them.

Yeah. Well, if anyone has somehow avoided knowing what a BP annual is or what's in one, do you want to give the pitch? Sure. So what it is, is a catalog of essays about each team. Theoretically, it's very loosely about each team sometimes, but sometimes it's about the team as it was, sometimes it's about the team as it is, sometimes it's the team as the basis of an elaborate metaphor that may or may not be about baseball or life or a tree. Then it also includes a few other essays, the fungos that are kind of miscellaneous essays about the state of the game, stuff like that. And then we have the comments. We have basically, I want to say 40 to 45 full comments that are paragraph long on each player with the statistics and their next year's Pocota projection. each on each player with the statistics and their next year's Pocota projection.

And then we have a few stingers at the end for each chapter. Uh, usually the one-liners that are my favorite writing in the book. And then you have the top prospects, the top one to one and some various miscellaneous stuff at the very end. But, uh, yeah, it's a great question. It's a, it's a very useful, uh, coffee table in the sense that like, I never, as a kid understood why coffee table books existed. It seemed like just I'm first of all, like, you know, that's something just to knock off a table when you're a kid, but like has something just to have by the table when you're watching a game

and having another team play and saying, oh, who's this guy? And being able to look up what we have to say about him. It's a great thing for that. Yeah. You don't need the coffee table itself, just the book. It doesn't have to go on a coffee table. You can just put your coffee on the book. It's just shy of 600 pages. Yeah. It's like Kramer's coffee table book. Thank you for being impressed that I got it under 600 pages because that was a lot of work.

Yeah. What kind of page stock are you using this year? You must have sliced that pretty thin uh no it's actually the the stock is the same it's not it's not like 20 was it 2015 2015 was the the the year that was yeah every annual has something about it it was a slim year yeah yeah every annual has something about it um i do have to say that i like on top of what patrick said uh he mentioned some miscellaneous stuff but there are four to five uh essays not tied to teams there's one this year about how we've adapted our like hitting uh like our prospect evaluation especially around hitters

uh as certain data has become more available uh Rob Maines almost always takes one of these, we call them Fungos, but again, they're just kind of non, I say it's not tied to teams. He's looked at kind of how the zombie runner rule has impacted things. He does a lot of putting a season into context. I don't know, Patrick, you wrote the average of everything, or you reprised it to give people context on all these various stats that we include. It can be hard to know what's good or what's bad. And so there's a bunch of tables indicating the top and bottom ends, who's in the middle. He puts player names to all of those, things like

that. It is, as you guys are saying, it's just very useful. And then the writing is really, really good. It features a bunch of really good writers. Some you know, some you don't. Some you might know but don't realize you do. One example that I'm fond of, the Red Sox essay this year is written by the screenwriter for the 2023 movie Air. So many people may have seen or know about that, but he wrote our Boston essay, and he has roots as a baseball blogger. So that was fun. There are other examples of things like that. But it's just it's a really fun and I mean it

sounds like bragging since I'm involved but like it really is just a well made well written and produced thing when you get it not upside down and backwards well and yeah like yes the statistics are online which is why we've definitely tried to pivot and focus more on the writing

which I think you know is good and makes it worth it still. Yeah, it's a good season preview resource. It's something I think a lot of people, as they listen to our team previews, when we do those series before the season starts on Effectively Wild, people will read those annual chapters or essays as we go. People will read those annual chapters or essays as we go. And it's also handy to have around during the season, too, because, again, more than 2,000 players in there and you definitely do not know all of them. So when they show up, then you can flip open to the appropriate page in the annual and you can suddenly know something about them. And that's nice. So it's a great coffee table book. It's also a great bathroom book, which I do not say to insult the literary quality. It's an honor. It's an honor. Yeah. No, that's where you do a lot of your great reading if you're me. So that's where you want it. And you can pick it up. You can open to any page. You can flip through it or you can go in order. Everyone consumes the annual in a different fashion, but they're all good fashions. I think we're going to say that everyone consumes something else.

I was going to say, you know, sometimes you've had a lot of Brussels sprouts and you just need a book. You need a book that matches the amount of time you're, you know, indisposed. Yes. Never been so concerned about my co-host. Patrick, I'm happy to hear you defend the line out because my favorite piece of writing I think I've ever done was Pat Venditti's line out that one year. Everybody has a line out that they love. Yeah. I think about it like once every couple of months, actually. You know, I'm like, that was good work, Meg. Good for you.

We should make a haul of line outs, I think. That's one of the problems. Oh, yeah. Oh, Patrick. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Get on that. Good article idea. Oh, Patrick. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Get on that.

Good article idea. So, go get it. Put it wherever you want, in your coffee table, in your bathroom. I'm not suggesting use it as toilet paper or anything. I have a bidet. No, you know what? Do it and buy another one. You can use the upside down and backwards one as toilet paper.

Maybe. Go get a usual copy. Did you say you have a bidet? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He has a bidet. I've written about it. Yeah.

Yep. Talked about it a lot on the pod. Weird way to find out you don't listen to the pod, Craig. I've been very forthright in the fact that I barely leave my house and thus do not consume podcasts very much anymore. Yeah, that can be a problem for podcasts listening. All right. Anyway. So we are here to do an exercise.

While we do this exercise, while the two head honchos at baseballprospectus.com are engaged like this, who's next in the line of succession since we're talking about the hierarchy? Who's the speaker of the House of Baseball prospectus? If you two are incapacitated on this podcast. Yeah. We're not doing the drinking part of the game. Is our designated survivor? Yeah, right.

Designated editor if there's an urgent typo while we're recording. I think it would have to be Jimmy. Well, yeah. We have a masthead, Ben. You can check. I looked at the masthead, but it just says editors after the top two. I thought I did update it. Edit thyself, Craig.

I'm glad we established my title so well at the beginning of this. No one would know. Back me up. Is Patrick not listed as managing editor? He is, yes. But Ginny is listed as just one of the great massive editors who are undifferentiated from each other. All right. Yeah. Yes.

I don't know that we even have a masthead, so, you know, we're doing fine. So, we're not playing the annual drinking game, I don't think. I mean, you're all welcome to drink. I'm not playing the drinking game. It's 1238 where I am. I have work to do after this. Yeah. You all welcome to drink. I'm not playing the drinking game. It's 1238 where I am. I have work to do after this. Yeah, you still have to edit. But that is a tradition like the annual drinking game, which I honestly have never played.

I appreciate it, but I've never been called upon to play it. We have not played it on this podcast. We're basically going to be playing it without the drinking. Maybe it's a little less fun that way, but we're going to be doing. You can drink at home. Yeah. Anyone can. Yeah.

The drinking game doesn't work because really you should not want to lose. And therefore, really what we should have set up is just like pickle juice or something. Like something. Right. Well, no, you get to make other people drink if you get it right. Pickle juice is good. Okay. right like well no you get to make other people drink if you get it right well that's good uh okay um i don't know brussels sprouts deep in water i don't you know we can figure something out but uh the one time i did play the drinking game it involved a bottle of cotton candy vodka

that somebody who's fault was that well somebody left it at my house and i had to get rid of it and so it did like it worked it made me want to win, which I did not. I'll never forget that. Wow. With or without beverages, which may or may not be alcoholic, we're playing stump the Schwab here with the Baseball Perspectives Annual, basically. So we are going to read comments and we are going to keep the players they concern anonymous, unidentified, and it will be on everyone else playing, including you, the listener, to try to guess the identity of the player whose comment we are reading. However, for added difficulty and in greater

recognition of the annual's long and storied history, we're not going to limit it to this latest annual. We're going all the way back. This can be from any year in the annual's history, which again extends to 1996. That's 29 years, 29 annuals. Now we can talk about whether we're going to give hints, whether we're going to say what year the comic comes from, whether we're going to restrict ourselves to players of a certain career accomplishment level, let's say, but we're opening it up. We're going to remember some guys or possibly fail to remember some guys. We're going to not remember some guys.

Yeah. More likely we will be forgetting some guys and we will be reminded of some guys too late. But that's the way this will work. Each of us has selected six comments from various years, including one comment from this latest annual. But only one from this latest annual. Only one. Only one. Because we don't want to step on other iterations of the game, Ben. No, but we did want to promote the latest incarnation.

Yes. And then the other three will try to name that player. And I guess we didn't talk at length about the scoring system here, but I guess if you stump the other three, you get a point. And if you name the player, you get a point. I don't know if that's going to work out or not. It doesn't have to be balanced. It doesn't really matter because it's about the journey, not so much the score at the end of it. I will also note, just for people who are not familiar, we remove the player's name from the comment, but also any other extremely identifying context.

So someone might leave in a prior team name, but if it's a dead giveaway, they might remove it. It just depends on the situation, but that's the basics of it. I will also note, we are doing the 2024 annual drinking game in which people will be drinking on, I believe it's the For All You Kids podcast on Sunday. So that'll be out early next week if you want another dose of this. Okay. And arguably a rowdier dose than this one.

A rowdier dose and it's from this year. So you might know more of the players. Yeah. Okay. Well, this will whet your appetite for that or whet your whistle. I don't know. That sounds obscene somehow, but it's really not. It's just about drinking. I'm going to humbly vote that we do include the air because one of the things that I believe the truisms of this game is that it is harder than it feels like.

Oh, it's impossible. When you're picking comments, it seems like it's easy. I'm not going to get any. I'm just establishing here. I would be shocked if I guessed anything. I mean, I'm trying to lower expectations, but also my expectations really are low. And with my selections here, I'm not going super obscure. We talked about whether we should have a cutoff for career warp, but we did not really agree on whether to do that or not but i i've sort of i've kept it to you know names you would know like players of a certain fame right so it won't be super obvious but it won't be super obscure either can i ask a question of the the current bp contingent on this pod is warpa the preferred pronunciation of your marquee stat no but i but I was trying to... I think he was trying to do like war slash P. P. Yeah.

I was trying to be accommodating and polite to our guests and the different name of their win value metric which has a P on the end. As with anything that I'm involved in, Meg, I think people should just say it how they want. You know, I'll just answer. That's fine. I do pronounce your defensive metric derp and I will be doing that as I read one of these comments.

I don't know if that was intended or not, but it's derp to me. It was the very first thing that I asked Craig about it, but. It's drip. No, it's fine. Derp is. Yeah. Okay. All right. it's drip no it's fine yeah okay all right well you guys want to go first since this is your book and uh you're the guest also you're the you're the editor sure i'll go first all right

yeah patrick has an unfair advantage when it comes to the 2024 comments or just higher expectations one of the two true no to be clear uh when you know To be clear, in the editing process, I edit one third of the comments. So I have a 33% chance of forgetting something I directly edited as opposed to the others. Alright, so this first one is going to be from the 2020 annual.

Okay. In an early season episode of Effectively Wild, Ben Lindbergh declared that this player is as watchable of a player as there is, quote, for a non-star player. This first part held up as he again dazzled with a sublime collection of moonshots, lasers, and tremendous catches, including a memorable home run robbery that preserved a no-hitter for his pitcher. But Player Name isn't just a ball player who shines occasionally anymore. He's a star in his own right. But Player Name isn't just a ball player who shines occasionally anymore.

He's a star in his own right. And in an era where the big bashers run amok, Player Name's well-rounded game makes him a rare five-tool player. His team was somehow able to acquire this guy for a minor leaguer starter named Brandon Bailey. And it's turned into one of the low-key steals of the decade. Well, you would think I would know this because... Okay, I have a guess I don't recall really saying that specifically

but I the preserving a no hitter clue rings a bell so I will hazard a guess here I guess unless anyone else we're not like buzzing in you can go first. That's all right.

Go ahead, Ben. Is it Ramon Laureano? That is correct. It is Ramon Laureano. Wow. Okay. Wow. All right.

I'm more impressed that you remember anything from 2020. Well, really, that was from before 2020. No, 2019, before the pandemic. Oh, I see. Yes. If not for that clue, I do not think I would have remembered this, even though I was quoted in this comment. I was somehow leaning towards Randy or Rosarena. Yeah.

It was quite entertaining. And when you said, like, acquired for a minor league pitcher, I was like, ooh, am I right? And then it was Brandon Bailey. And I was like, no, that's not right. But I don't know who it is. All right. Well, I'm on the board. I did not expect to it was Brandon Bailey. And I was like, no, that's not right. But I don't know who it is. All right. Well, I'm on the board. I did not expect to be on the board.

That's exciting. I should mention that Craig provided us with a enormous spreadsheet of every BP annual comment ever. Yeah, well, I was going to say research assistance to Robert L. Credit for research assistance. Okay. Thank you, Robert.

Who pulled this. Yeah. cards on the website. So I noted this though, because I did sort of a mini stat blast based on just having this incredible wealth of BP player comments here. First of all, if you're wondering how many BP player comments have there been in the past 29 editions, there have been 51,820. That's how many rows are in the spreadsheet, at least, assuming it's complete. It's possible we're missing some, yeah. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Don't take it as gospel, but roughly that. And if you're wondering, well, how many words does that amount to? I calculated that with an Excel formula I had never heard of before, but gave me that answer, which is 4,710,316.

And I was going to do the math to be like, do you know how many books that is? And then I remembered it's 29 books. That's what we're doing here. I should note, Lindbergh is in the book, in the collector of books six times. Okay, you just saved me a search because I was going to name search. I do want to note that just the first comment in the spreadsheet, and I will note that from 1996 to 2003, we don't have the player names to them right now.

We could have gotten them, but I told Robert, like, it's all right. We'll be okay. But the first one is just a line out from 1996, and it just says, yet another non-hitting catcher for the card system. Yeah. Okay, that's mine for everybody. Yeah, right. Yeah, you can tell most of them because they will say the name. But it's, yeah, it's kind of tough to tell.

I also was able to look up since I had the cumulative word count there, which I think, by the way, so this spreadsheet does not actually include the 2024 edition, right? Correct. So that was actually an underestimate, which means I think that next year, probably the 30th edition, we will go over 5 million cumulative words just in player comments alone, let alone the essays and everything. But I sorted by the shortest and longest comments because I was curious. Shortest and longest comments ever. And I'll tell you the shortest annual comments ever. So one of them also from 1996 just says Journeyman Catcher. Don't know the name.

There's no name. So but that is the shortest. Now, you know, line outs are shorter than full comments. I don't remember if they had a distinction then in 96, but there is more variability probably in the comment length back then. But that's the shortest, two words. However, there are two three-word entries from more recent editions, and they were both highly amusing, I think. So, the 2014 comment or line out for Pedro Feliciano just says, Pedro Feliciano, again?

Again? Three words. And then from the 2016 edition, the line out for Christian Turnip Seed says, Christian Turnip Seed, y'all. Fantastic. The soul of wit. Listen, sometimes we're tired. Yeah. Honestly, I forgot about Christian Turtupseed.

I do, yeah. How did I not know that name? The longest ever annual comment comes in at 590 words. Oh, my God. It's an article. Basically, it hails from 1996, so they haven't maybe quite gotten the format down yet. And it is, I would say, a screed against Joe Carter. Oh, my gosh. You know, BP, the caustic wit of BP, the us against the world, you know, outsider mentality when BP was outsiders.

And the first part is just like about various trade rumors. It's just very conversational. We're just chatting about Joe Carter here. And then the entire second half of it is like various lists on which Joe Carter ranks low. It's an article. Yeah. So it says that many people will tell you as far as Carter the player is concerned, it says like hundreds of words into the comment. Many people will tell you he's capping off a great Hall of Fame career. And then it says unprintable expletive.

tapping off a great Hall of Fame career. And then it says, unprintable expletive. And then it says, here's how he ranks in various important categories. And it was not high in most of them. And there's like a long list of names that he is below in all of these statistical categories, just to really drive home the point that Joe Carter, not as good as the mainstream fans of 1996 would have you think. Take that, beloved millionaire. Yeah. That's really the difference between now and 1996. The only difference is just the more measured tone that we take when it comes to perhaps

players whose stats don't match the rep. And there's probably not as much of a divergence between stats and rep anymore to begin with. But if there were a player who we thought was perhaps somewhat overrated by the hoi polloi, we probably would not be so exercised by it. We probably would not say unprintable expletive. You know, we might provide the— We'd printable expletive. We might provide the... We'd print that expletive. Yeah, I was going to say, that's the big difference. It would not anger us

as much, I think. We've all kind of calmed down now that we're not outsiders sniping because we're not let in the inside. To defend our 1.0 friends real quickly, I've been doing a lot of research for a series that I've been doing this off season called TI 94 and I'm doing a lot of research on 1993 baseball

transactions and man, the actual sports writers were a lot meaner back then too. Oh yeah. Yeah. Anytime a guy got paid more like $2 more than he was worth as a player, uh, the knives came out. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. The second longest comment, by the way, is 2005 Cole Hamill's 507 words. And it's all about whether his elbow was injured or not. Riveting stuff, I'm sure. I know. It holds up really well.

And it says, we're the sorts of people who react to fear by attempting to collect as much information about a situation as possible. And in the absence of complete information, it's at least worthwhile to attempt to prevent misinformation, even if it takes half a page to do it. So there was BP. So there was some cognition. Some awareness. Yeah, there was. This was perhaps a lot.

Yes. A bit self-deprecating. But BP combating misinformation in 2023 and 96 and 2005, just with slightly different tones. Okay. Craig, you want to go? Sure. This is from the 2004 annual. Okay.

For all intents and purposes, the player should be a star by now. He was among the best hitters. I picked this one. Are you kidding? That's so great. I thought to myself, like, should I bring a backup? And I thought, no. There are 51,000 of these.

How is this possible? That's so funny. I have seven. Ben, if you would like this one, I can start somewhere else. Except, well, you know the answer to this one. I will abstain. Nice, easy point for you. No, I can start somewhere else. Except, well, you know the answer to this one. Well, I do, and I will abstain. Nice, easy point for you. No, I can abstain on that one.

I mean, I could probably quickly. Well, I guess we have to. I mean, I have it. I did six and forgot to do one from 2024. Okay, one way or another, I guess we got to do you back up. Would you like to take over? Otherwise, I just get a free point. I'll have something else.

No, you go. Just do one of your other ones. Yeah. I'll start over for everybody. For all intents and purposes, the player should be a star by now. He was among the best hitters in the league at every level throughout the minors, and he was doing it when most boys his age were working to get to this position in that other, less wholesome way.

So what happened? It's tough to tell. He doesn't appear to have any off-the-field issues. Despite reaching the majors at a young age, he wasn't rushed. Like Andrew Jones, the player will often look brilliant for weeks at a time, then regress for no apparent reason, leaving analysts scratching their heads. At 25, he still has some breakout potential left but he's living proof that forecasting isn't an exact science. I know, I know. Patrick or Meg?

No, I don't have anything for it. Now, I will say in the drinking game we do allow people to purchase a hint which is usually the division of the the player for for a uh for a sip of the beverage but obviously we're not drinking but i'm drinking a grapefruit seltzer if you'd if you'd like i can it's a non-alcoholic seltzer to be but are you enjoying it meg it's a warm seltzer okay um well it's on its way you know know, it's like on the edge of viability as seltzers go, probably. Can we have the division?

The NL West. Oh. The 2004 NL West. Man. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if I'm going to embarrass myself. I'm going to say Adrian Beltran.

That is correct. Oh my gosh.. I don't know. I'm going to embarrass myself. I'm going to say Adrian Beltran. That is correct. Oh, my gosh. Ding, ding, ding. Wow. I picked this both because of his recent entry into the Hall of Fame, because he's a Dodger, and I'm a Dodgers fan. And also, I just really liked he has some breakout potential left. And it's like, but who knows? And then his 2004 was actually fantastic.

Yep. Yeah. I like the, he was doing it when most boys his age were working to get to third base in that other less wholesome way. Yeah, I wasn't sure if that was too much of a giveaway. I was going to read the third base part if I read it, but that sounds like a Steve Goldman line to me.

I don't know if it was, but it smacks of Steve. It's a good one. Okay. Wow. I feel like mine are too easy. That's good. That's what we need. I'm surprised we're two for two here. Okay. This is from 2000. I also have some that are like, I'm realizing maybe too recent, but this one's from 2009. So few pitchers can produce the kind of numbers that this pitcher has by pitching his way. He throws his fastball less than 40% of the time, using it as more of a trick pitch to

throw hitters off when they're looking for his changeup or slider. The scouting term for this is pitching backwards, and even those who can do it well are generally relegated to back-of-the-rotation status. He is different than most backwards pitchers, however. He actually has good velocity, his command is impeccable, and his changeup really is that good. He makes it look easy, and he should be an above-average starter for quite some time. He's pitching backwards what the annual's publisher is doing this year.

Oh! I was thinking of that mediocre joke for most of the second half of that comment, and thus I did not hear part of the clue. Do you need a reread of any of those sentences, Ben? Do you need a reread of any of those sentences, Ben? So 2009, he doesn't throw a lot of fastballs. And what else? He's different than most backward pitchers, however. He actually has good velocity.

His command is impeccable and his changeup really is that good. He makes it look easy and he should be an above average starter for quite some time. I have a guess, but I will wait for everyone else who has not had a chance to guess yet. Well, I had a chance to guess already, and I don't have one, so you can go as far as I'm concerned. Can I get a division? It would be the AL East. Oh, I no longer have a guess. I had a thought, but it was not AL East.

I don't know. I had a thought most of the way not AL East. I don't know. I had a thought most of the way, and then the last sentence said, change up. And I was, yeah. Now, I don't know. I don't have a good guess for this. And you were worried it was too easy. Well, some of my other ones are easier than this. This is arguably my hardest one. I was going to honor Sestouli and guess Corey Kluber.

No, it's not Corey Kluber. Ben? You've stumped the panel. It's James Shields. James Shields. Oh, I'm embarrassed. Big game James, the astronaut lion. I was like, did I remember when he started moving around?

I did. I did. All right. All right. Point for Meg. Okay, I did. All right. All right. Point for Meg. Okay. My turn? All right.

I am going one year earlier, 2008. For most of last year, the magic was back. Player, now somewhere between 40 and 60 years old, was changing speeds with a plum, snapping off curves and using his deception to maximum advantage. Then at the end of August, his foot started hurting and that was that. Player made just one start in September, was rocked, and didn't reappear until the final week of the season. Restricted to the pen, he made three appearances but didn't pitch more than an inning and a third in any of them. Following offseason bunion surgery, Player will be back in the rotation in 2008. Though he'll pitch well at times, he won't make it all the way through the season.

Still, half a season of player is better than none. The team just has to be prepared for the other half. God. Review your mental lists of baseball bunion surgery. Yeah, see, this could be like the oldest sounding thing i've ever said in my life you don't really hear about bunions anymore my mom had a bunion oh well i haven't heard about it till now ben sorry if you didn't want me to talk about that on the podcast mom anyway she doesn't have a bunion anymore

she got that thing lopped off yeah well yeah Well, yeah. No, I mean, sure. But I feel like they were like a common thing people dealt with for a while. Maybe people's shoes didn't fit as well. I don't know. People were on their feet more. Who knows? Just like, I don't know who this player is. Yeah. Oft injured.

Foot issue. The magic was back, which implied. The magic was back is why yeah i feel like that's a hint here he was old between 40 and 60 the comment said oh right okay uh i'm but he was a starter so he can't i have a guess like jesse or roscoe whatever. I have a guess, but I really don't know if I'm right. I have a guess and I'm pretty sure I'm not. And I'm maybe just leaning on the age part in a way that is like too soon in this individual's biography. I don't remember if this was an issue he had. I know there were issues. I don't know if this was an issue he had. I knew that there were, I know there were issues.

I don't know if this was the issue. Can I guess? Is it Bartolo? It's just not Bartolo. I know. Yeah. He was oft injured at that time, but it was more, it was arm stuff more, right? Yeah.

And he was merely in his mid thirties at that time. Yeah. This is what I'm saying. I was like. I have a guess. Okay what I'm saying. I was like, oh, man. I have a guess. Okay. I'm going to guess John Smoltz. Not John Smoltz.

Yeah, okay. He was old. Doesn't he feel like he has bunions, though? It would explain a lot about his personality. Patrick, who's your guess that you think is wrong? I'm going to think it's Roger Clemens. Not Roger Clemens. Yeah, I thought about Clemens too.

All right. I have stumped the panel. The answer is El Duque. Orlando Hernandez. That checks out. Was the very first player who came to my mind for whatever reason of all the possible players. I thought El Duque. I liked El Duque. So during his Mets era, which I frankly had forgotten about, but he finished pretty strong with the Mets in 2007. And then this comment said that he'd be in the rotation in 2008, but only for half a season. As it turned out, he did not pitch in the majors in 2008 or in any subsequent season. So that was the end for him. But he had bunion surgery, I guess, because of his like leg kick and plant, or at least that was what another BP annual comment implied. So yeah, I'll do K. now and again, as if to underscore how huge and remote parts of this world can be, scientists will rediscover species previously thought lost to time. From the coelacanth, a prehistoric

fish believed to have disappeared with the dinosaurs but was found off the coast of South Africa in 1938. This is not helping me so far. To Wallace's giant bee, a giant bee, last seen in the late 1970s before turning up in Indonesia in 2019, there are plenty of creatures who didn't vanish so much as go into hiding. So it was for this pitch, which on June 24th, 2023, returned to the majors after a two-year absence.

Can I, can I, wait, we probably multiple people know. What do we do? Yeah, I'm sure. This one might be too easy. I have a guess. All right, let's, can we say it? Just everyone say it once.

One, two. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Do we say it on one no one ever synchronizes do we do three two and then finish reading the comment three two one yes all right so it was for this pitch which on june 24th 2023 returned to the majors after a two-year absence out of the right hand of player name, who in his first MLB start tossed 13 of them against the Nationals. The results were nothing special, which is also true of his season as a whole. But regardless, he is now keeper of the flame.

The torch passed to him for as long as he can keep it burning. Given his otherwise pedestrian arsenal, a 91-mile-per-hour fastball, and some dubious breakers, that may not be for long. Okay. So we're doing three, two, and then on one? No, we're doing on one? Okay, fine. That's fine. This is why we have to clarify. So we're saying the one and then

the name? We're saying the one and then the name for podcast purposes. Okay. One less person talking when everyone says their answer. Three, two, one. waldron what do you have something to say did i hear it patrick was i slightly behind no actually you constantly we were all perfectly synchronized

you're perfectly synchronized I don't know what you're talking about points to each of us well done I would say his season was something special in fact I would quibble with that that author who is you know John Taylor disgracing the annual

by his overly critical nature. John, shameful. Anyway. Okay, Craig's up. By the way, is anyone keeping score? No. I thought you were. I thought you were the one who kept making note of points. Don't you have people to do that for you?

Yeah, don't you? We do have official scorekeepers. Despite not being up on podcast news, I was told there was a passing of the torch on the scorekeeping front. I'll tell you, I have one point. I have one. I have one, assuming Waldron got me one.

Yeah, Waldron and Laureano I have. So I've got, oh wait, and then I stumped you with my pick. So I've got three points. Wow. Okay, all right. Let's each try to endeavor to keep track of our own score. Everyone's score is too much, but okay.

All right. Craig. I will go 2012. After playing just as poorly in Minnesota, the player was acquired by this team this past winter for a pair of non-prospects, and the results were tremendous. for a pair of non-prospects, and the results were tremendous. The player took advantage of the home park's cozy left field, posting a career-high 30 round-trippers to go with the return of his fielding prowess, resulting in 4.4 warp, almost identical to his 2008 season.

Despite his success, Pocota is doubtful. And wrong. In 2009, the player had some mechanical problems that caused his swing to get too long and hampered his ability to pull the ball. The result was too many balls to straightaway center, the deepest part of most ballparks. In 2010, he made adjustments, but he experienced several power-sapping wrist injuries and saw his fly ball rate plummet. Health, reformed mechanics, a career-high fly ball percentage, and the park's friendly dimensions mean the player's power should repeat. I think I might know this one. Wait, I'm trying to—I have a mental image.

I don't want to put too much on the nose here, but we have a ringer, I feel like. Did you—wait, did that include position in it? Did that come in? It did not. Is he a second baseman? That is not how I conceive of him. Possibly played that. No, he actually never played that position. Never.

Okay. So it's not Danny Tartable. A little after Tartable. A little after Tartable's time. I'm thinking of the guy who was an all-star and he like...

He was an all-star twice in his career. Yeah. What is the name? Brian? What? Brian? career uh what is the name brian what it's not not brian okay would you like a division uh didn't you say something about the twins it was twins in 2011 it was playing poorly in minnesota i left that in as a hint. The player was acquired by a different team. I see.

Okay. Then, yeah, I guess. The AL East. Brian Roberts. It is not Brian Roberts. Not a second base. Not a second base, but not named Brian. But other than that, I don't know.

I'm just going to try to figure out who I was thinking of now. I thought there were a lot of hints in this one. Yeah, there are. I'm just bad at this game. I have a guess. I'm going to guess J.J. Hardy. That is correct. Holy crap.

Wow. What a pull. Yeah. I picked this one in part because, well, for a couple of reasons. Yeah, I picked this one in part because, well, for a couple of reasons. One was that they talked about the ballpark's cozy left field, which no longer exists. And I thought that was fun. That's tricky. And then also because it specifically said Pakoda was wrong.

And then he proceeded to post an 81 OPS plus and slugged 389 in 2012. You may credit me for knowing that. It is for the most shameful of reasons. 81 OPS plus and slug 389. But yeah, you may, you may credit me for knowing that it is for the most shameful of reasons. I did play fantasy baseball in 2011 and did have JJ Hardy on my team on that year. So I'd lived through the 81 OPS. He was good in 80 in 2011.

Oh yeah. Sorry. It was 2012. It's the 2012 year that I remember. Okay. I remembered who I was trying to remember. Who? Brian Dozier.

Oh, okay. Which was not the answer. Yeah, right, Minnesota second baseman. Sure. Yeah. Okay. I mean, Brian Roberts is very close, really. Yeah.

He didn't play for Minnesota, but aside from that. Yeah, no. Okay. I didn't anticipate having to give the year, okay? Okay? Okay. I thought I wouldn anticipate having to give the year. Okay? Okay? Okay. I thought I wouldn't have to give the year. You don't want...

If you think it makes it too easy to give the year, then don't. You can omit. We'll see how we do. We could ask for it as a hint. Okay. Okay. Fair, fair, fair. Okay.

This eighth rounder has... This is still too easy. I'm reading it anyway. It's fine. This... Meg, I already have a guess, by the way. I also have... I have a name in mind. We'll do it anyway. It's fine. Meg, I already have a guess by the way. I also have a name in mind. We'll do a 3-2-1.

You already have a guess. Do the guess. Before she reads the comment? All we know is 8th rounder. Okay, go ahead. I hate myself. This 8th rounder has taken Walter Pro Ball winning the California

League MVP last year he has mashed 53 home runs and 812 career at bats the simultaneous cause and downside of all that production is the uppercut swing and massive strength are frequently combined to launch the ball but also result in a concerning number of strikeouts more experienced pitchers in a

less offense crazy environment than the Cal League could use this player's approach against him. Massive uppercut is also the sum of his baseball skills as his speed and mobility. He has the speed and mobility of a very firm pudding. He's the classic all bat no field first baseman. Probably we're sure about the latter part, but he still

has to survive the double A test before we feel secure about the former. Wait, did you just say a position there at the end? Yeah. Yes. Wait, what was the position? First base. First base.

Oh, well, that's not good for my guess. I'm very confident. I don't know, because I got anchored to thinking about someone who I associated with an uppercut very strongly, and then it's not him. I don't know. If guys know you can you could do a three two one great you go ahead and take a guess i'm not confident enough to make it to do a three two one paul goldschmidt yeah all right i should have excluded the round right was that oh yeah yeah i guess it when the the player i thought of when you said eighth round although now i'm

wondering if if they are, was Matt Moore. I thought this might have been a Matt Moore comment, which I think was an eighth rounder. But then obviously was a bad hitter. Yeah. Is Paul Goldschmidt the only putting to a stolen 10 bases in a season? He's also... Yeah, well, it's also a step for how wrong it is, right?

Right, yeah. That's why I picked it. I thought it was funny. I thought it was good. Yeah, it's a good one. Yeah. I think you're humoring me, but I'll take it. Were you going to guess Goldsmith Patrick, I assume? No, I was not. I was going to guess somebody actually slow.

Okay, yeah. I was going to guess Ryan Schimpf. That was a good call. That doesn't sound like a name I would prioritize. Even if you weren't going to, I appreciate you bringing up his name in the podcast. It always helps. As soon as you said extreme uppercut, too many strokeouts, I was like, well, that can only be Ryan Schimpf. I do need to say, one of my favorite all-time baseball pieces is Sam Miller.

I think it was just a Diamondbacks preview one year. Just wrote about how people get better and it's not as linear as we think. And it was all about Paul Goldschmidt getting better in every facet of baseball. It's just a tremendous piece of writing. Okay. I think every comment that compares someone's speed to an inanimate object is also a Steve Goldman trademark, I think, because he has entertained me many times with those. I remember one, I think he comped the late career Carlton Fisk in The Outfield to an action figure that you push out and just pose with his glove pointing to the sky, and he could catch it if it happens to fall into his glove.

I forget the exact wording, but that one tickled me at the time. All right, my guy is from 1996, first edition. And this was the second player who came to my mind after El Duque, for whatever reason. Since I'm someone who loved watching Gene Tennis, Gorman Thomas, and Rob Deere, it won't surprise anyone that I love watching player hit. Signing him for as little as team did, and has again, can be chalked up to geographic advantage. He supposedly finished as a regular catcher, and I've always thought it was very interesting how, media perception-wise,

player went from being the young catcher that all of Oakland's pitchers asked for over Mike Heath to the waiver wire for not hitting to earning an all-hit bad-glove reputation. So the clues in here, 96. He's compared to some three true outcome types. He was with the A's as a younger man. I have a guess. His reputation went from

good glove, no hit to the opposite of that. Yeah, this is going to be Patrick still. I'm going to go with Fruit Loops. Fruit Loops it is. Mickey Tettleton. Yes. I don't know'm gonna go with i'm gonna go with fruit loops fruit loops it is all right mickey tettleton yes i don't know why my brain summoned mickey tettleton after lduke i've just always enjoyed mickey tettleton i just always liked mickey tettleton i mean i was kind of terrified you

picked my guy uh because i was going to do 96 next and like even though the chances are one in 600 has already happened once so yeah yeah I was ready for it. Yeah. The first player name mention I omitted was actually a player nickname mention. It's worse than 1 in 600, Patrick. It's like 1 in 1800 to 2000. The 96th annual didn't actually do comments for everybody. Yeah. There was some. They just left blank.

And there were fewer major leaguers back then. We're going to go to 2004. Okay. In two years, one of the Molina brothers will be backing up this guy, one of the two best catching prospects in the game, along with Guillermo Quiris, not named Joe Maurer. Player name pounded the Midwest League at 19, had a very good month in AA at 20.

Great age for league performance. He's still getting reps behind the plate. Player name wasn't a full-time catcher until reaching the pros, but his defense is already considered an asset. That he was a shortstop in high school also may mitigate the usual concerns about the development of high school catchers. He may be the best of the big four Angels prospects. Okay. There are a lot of clues.

I can't believe you did a prospect one. That is messed up. Number one. I specifically did not do any of this. I'm terrible at auditory reading comprehension with these comments I'm finding. It's a rough game for you. Yeah. I do better if I were reading these than listening because I just zone out and listen to the

like pleasant person reading the thing. And then I'm like, oh, I was supposed to pay attention to that. So, Midwest League, Angels, big four prospects, obviously a catcher, high school shortstop. Or, yeah, high school shortstop. I mean, I have a name. What year was this? 2004. Well, that's probably too early for my name.

But I assume this is someone who went on to do something. Yes, I would not pick a prospect who busted. Yeah. This guy made it. I feel like I should know this, and I just cannot come up with, like, catching prospect for the Angels in 2004. I have a guess, just because he's an Angels catcher. That's all I'm going on here. And I know that would have been,

see, my initial thought was Hank Conger. And then I realized that that was going to be too early for Hank Conger. And then I thought, well, maybe it's Mike Napoli. But then I thought that's probably too late for Mike Napoli. But then when I thought Mike Napoli, I thought about his counterpart, Jeff Mathis. Yeah, Jeff Mathis was going to be my guess.

Yep. Well, you're both correct. It is Jeff Mathis. Wow. Honestly, he crossed my mind, but I was not going to get... I'm not claiming a point. Jeff Mathis. Okay. All right. It crossed my mind mostly because it's Patrick. Yeah. But then I thought, that doesn't sound right.

Good one. Didn't recall that he was a shortstop previously. I did not know that. I also did not know he was like a big four prospect. Yeah, he was a legitimately good hitter. And then after that year, Jeff Mathis, the hitter, showed up are the other big four that's what i want to know yeah i also did not remember i thought he was maybe on the angels later in his career for some reason i don't know why well i hope it's fun for the listeners who know things that we don't to lord it over us

silently or or to yell it in the privacy of their own home or wherever they are. If they're in public, you can do that too. Okay. Craig? I'll go with 2017. Okay. If you thought The Walking Dead had 2016's ugliest moment with a bat, you didn't catch much of this player as a hitter. The defensive Wunderkind finished 51st in true average

among catchers, with at least 150 point appearances, behind Juan Centeno, Kevin Ploiecki, and the sentient remains of AJ Ellis. Seriously, the players at bats were so lifeless Peter King kept asking baristas if they'd heard about them.

Our catching metrics love him as a framer, but his arm looked more good than legendary in his first post-Tommy John season. And his much-valued rapport with the pitching staff? It mattered so much in April that the team screwed with a top prospect, but so little by July that the player lost playing time

to Ryan Hannigan and Brian frickin' Holiday. In the era of three-year contracts for Jason Castro, players like this player have value. But his bat needs some quality alone time with Melisandre if he is to be anything more than a backup. Wow. Stuffed with pop culture references of the era here. Yes. Hmm. Okay.

I will admit to picking this mostly for the Peter King reference. What year again? 2017. Do I get a point if I guess the author? 2017. No. Okay. You said the name Ryan.

But it should give you a clue. You said the name Ryan Hannigan, right? I did. Oh, wait, no. Is it Christian Vasquez? It is Christian Vasquez. Wow. I was not going to guess that. Good one. Yes! I was like, I knew

the team. I knew the year. Did not know the name. Yeah, the one other thing is that it said, like, the team screwed with, he named Blake Swihart, but I removed that. Yeah, that would have been for a context. That would have told me all sorts of things I already knew. Man. Yes!

Wow. Nice. Okay. I feel very powerful. It helps because I also he named about eight other catchers, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Process of elimination. 100%. I would have guessed wrong had that not been in there. And the Hannigan.

This describes Hannigan and Holiday and Lowecki, perhaps. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Okay, wow. Meg's turn. Fresh off that triumph. She's so powerful.

My God. Okay, this is from 2014. Everybody's favorite substitute, this player appeared in 119 games, mostly as a defensive replacement and pinch runner, though he did not run as often as expected. Despite hitting below the Mendoza line, he walked at a decent rate considering opposing pitchers have little reason not to throw him strikes. Do not be surprised if he lands in a front office after he tries to go flat, his tires go flat, rather, and expect his Wikipedia page to crack 20,000 words before then. I can read it again, less rushed and with fewer errors, if that would be helpful to any of you. Well, so it's just defensive replacement. Very fast. A Wikipedia page. Yeah, what is that?

Wikipedia page. Yeah is that Wikipedia page thought it might cue someone wait oh well wait is it but the rest of it does I mean I remember hmm the person I most associate with overly long Wikipedia

pages is Carson Sestouli it's not Carson is it Jared Dyson? No oh good guess though overly long Wikipedia pages is Carson Sestouli. It's not Carson. Is it Jared Dyson? No. Oh, good guess, though. I associate long Wikipedia pages with Stephen Vogt. It is not Stephen Vogt. That's not him.

No, that doesn't fit. It also ends up in a front office. I was going to say Willie Bloomquist. No, it's not Willie. You're going to find that error funny in a second. This is not it, but Scott puts Sednick. No. Everybody's guessed, right?

Yeah, you win. Is it Sam Folt now that I've guessed? It's Sam Folt. Oh, God damn it. Yeah, well. Man. Which makes Willie Bloomquist as a guest very funny to me, given the differences. I just interviewed Sam Fold recently.

I know. Yeah, he was quoted on this podcast. Okay, well, it is my turn. podcast. Okay. Well, it is my turn. So I guess if I can find the right tab, which is doubtful, then I would do my 2024. Player is a capable bat with a capable glove or a weak bat with a strong glove or a strong bat with a weak glove, depending on what one's narrative desires. So I thought that would make it tough for you because he could be anything, apparently. He again overperformed his expected stat cast output notably, and DRC Plus is displeased with his more free-swinging approach, which sent his walk rate down to half of league

average and his strikeout rate up to that level. Derp and DRS see his defense as roughly average too. On the other hand, if not for missing a month with a hit by pitch injury, Player likely would have led all infielders in stat-cast fielding run value, and he did improve his quality of contact notably. At this point, Player either has a lackluster 3.1 warp in two full seasons, a reasonable 4.0 baseball reference war, or an exceptional 6.7 fan graphs war. Well, I didn't edit this one. Missed a month with a hit by pitch. He's either good or not good.

He's either got a good glove or not. He's got a good bat or not. When you said it's two seasons, right? So he's either got a good glove or not. He's got a good bat or not. When you said it's two seasons, right? So he's like young. And an infielder. Well, I said, yeah, I mean, I guess. Is it just the past two seasons? I guess it said in two full seasons.

So make of that what you will. I have a guess. Okay, hazard it. Isak Bredis? No. Oh, that I have a guess. Okay. Hazard it. Isak Paredes? No. That's a good guess. Anyone else want to? Hold on.

I'm thinking. I'm thinking. Stop brushing me. Can we get the division? Okay. You can get the division. The division is NL West. It's your specialty, Craig.

Mr. Month with a hit by pitch. Ryan McMahon? Nope. Yeah. We do. We do hate Ryan McMahon. Well, that's a good one. Ryan McMahon.

No, not Ryan McMahon. No, I know, but I'm thinking about Ryan McMahon. Mr. Month with a hit-by-pitch. I feel like that should be giving me a clearer answer. I feel like I'm going to be annoyed because it's probably going to be someone I go, ah, immediately. I don't know, Ben. The answer is Tyro Estrada. No, I would have gotten that, so that's fine.

Oh, okay. I forgot that he missed him. Yeah, I mean, I thought about him, but... I did not. Okay. Well, why? Okay. Okay.

All right. 1986 again. Oh, my God. Player name, or Fonzie, as he's known on RecSport Baseball, is the baseball equivalent of a lottery winner. It could just as easily have been Kevin Raymer. MVP? Don't make me laugh. It's probably better than a league average hitter, but only just.

It isn't likely to maintain it. When this team develops a legitimate big stick, records are going to fall like so many dead birds. It's a great place to see a game, and it's a lot of fun watching runs score, but if you're fooling yourself if you think performances are comparable. Player name is this generation's Tony Armas, but with a different kind of really neat hair. Defense is better than the numbers indicate. The park helps other people's fly balls and line drives too.

Interested in learning more? Read The Physics of Baseball by Robert Adair. I have a guess, but... I started thinking about Edgardo Alfonso as soon as you said Fonzie. That's who I thought. The rest doesn't make sense. Yeah, probably not. It also feels like he wouldn't read that if that was the...

If it was the name. Right. Yeah, right. So, is this a Happy Days reference? Is there a player named Winkler? Jesse Winker is too young for that. Yeah, he's too young. I don't know.

Yeah, I got nothing. I don't know. All right. I can't believe this stumped everyone. It's Dante Bichette. Dante Bichette. Wait, where did the Fonzie come in? I have no idea.

The Fonzie was really a red herring for me here. I was fixated on the Fonzie. I'm glad I left that in. Is it something about hits? I don't. You'll have to ask she and the next Gap Academy. They're doing a BP founder panel at the Sabre Analytics Conference. We had to crash the panel just to ask who wrote this.

Why Dante Bichette? Fonzie? What's the connection there? Someone will know probably. There's probably something to this. All right. Craig? Let's do 2016.

The player's Wikipedia page alleges that, in no particular order, he accepted, quote, wine and sex, end quote, from the mafia in exchange for throwing games in another league, once spoiled a Steve Traxell no-hitter,

embezzled $1.6 million as part of a beef noodle soup restaurant scandal, recorded the fastest ever pitch by his nationality at 100 miles per hour, made two Olympic teams, was banned from the Australian Baseball League, and went eight years between MLB appearances. Can you believe Steve Traxell almost threw a no-hitter? Wait, that was so many clues. That have nothing, that have very little to do.

I actually edited this one. Oh, my God. Wait, this is, oh, this was a this year one? 2016. It was the first year I edited. The first year I edited. Okay. Years between.

I can give a clue if you have like truly no idea based on the nationality. Yeah. Yeah. Wait. Wait, but you said, didn't you say something about Australian Olympic team? He was banned from the Australian Baseball League. Banned from the Australian Baseball League? Okay.

You're going to give us nationality? I'll take it. I will if you want. Yeah. Taiwanese. He has recorded the fastest ever pitch by a Taiwanese pitcher. Wait, eight years? I can't believe you're making me guess this.

It's one of the best comments ever. It's one of the best comments ever. It is one of the greatest comments ever. Okay. Jiming Wong was not out of the majors for that long and also didn't do all those other things. Initially, I was thinking Hong Chi Kuo because he had a colorful history, but that's not – wait, is it Hong Chi Kuo? Wait, is it? I don't know if you're guessing or what. Hong Chi Kuo was the first name that came to my mind because I remembered that he was involved.

I've read his Wikipedia page on the podcast, I think, because he was involved with, like, match fixing or something, right? Well, I think... But I didn't think he was gone for eight years. I think you're thinking of the player that it is, but it is not Hong Chi Kuo. Wait, who am I thinking of? But he is from Taiwan, so that is a good poll. Well, you did tell me that.

Meg, you got anything? I don't know. Yeah. Okay. All right. Is it Chin Hui Sao? It is. All right.

How? Yeah, it did not have that. Well, he edited it. I don't think Pat did it. I would not have known. Yeah. I mean, look, I understand that he is not extremely well-known, but you have to admit, these are very incredible.

It's a great comment. that he is not extremely well-known. But you have to admit, these are very incredible comments. We're not actually trying to prove anything here, except that there's good writing in the annual, and I feel like that helps to advance the cause, even if it's not in this year's edition. Okay. Meg? Okay, this is my 2024. This player has amalgamated enough secondary skills

to make it increasingly hard to argue against his worthiness on the bottom of an active big league roster. He's both exceptionally quick and a savvy base runner. His switch hitting offers more flexibility when it comes to pinch hitting assignments. He's played every defensive position besides catcher as a pro. And in 2023, his play discipline improved markedly as he cut down on strikeouts while continuing to take a heavy number of free passes, enabling more opportunities for his speed to advance bases in a way his bat What year was this? This is from this year. This year.

I really should pay closer attention to the words. May I buy a division? AL West. Is it Dylan Moore? No. Okay. Was it Ezekiel Dren? No.

You've stumped the panel. Craig, you were very close. It's Sam Haggerty. I was deciding between them, and I went with more because he was more famous. If it's a player Meg mentioned, then it's got to be Sam Haggerty. Just betting the odds. Probably your most excited player on this podcast. I thought Dylan more, I don't know.

I just felt like he played a little bit more. I was legitimately deciding between them. Ben, I thought that he should never be plan A at any position would tip you. Yeah, no, that should have been the giveaway. I had to issue an apology to Sam Haggerty literally on our last episode. And his name is now Ham Saggerty. That's another thing you should know. Okay, I'm going and mine is from 2006.

Empiricist David Hume had a wonderful method of evaluating arguments. When faced with an extraordinary claim, he considered the truth value of its opposite. If the opposite claim is even more extraordinary, he knew to reject the greater miracle. Here's an example of the Hume test in action. miracle. Here's an example of the Hume test in action. As a 33-year-old, Player posted the second highest equivalent average in team history among players with significant playing time, a mark that was also 25 points higher than his previous best. Player had the second highest slugging percentage behind Derek Lee and ahead of Albert Pujols. Of all NL players with more than 300 plate appearances, it was more than 100 points higher than his previous high in slugging percentage.

Based on that showing, player got a two-year deal that could block the development of younger, better first baseman. I'm giving you that. Does player's career year in a carefully managed role indicate he's more valuable in the short term

than the development of 23-year-old minor league stud, and I guess I'm going to give you this name too, Connor Jackson. As long as the team name continue to accept the greater miracle that player will maintain his 05 rates and they're better off with him in the lineup, things will not improve as quickly as they could.

I've got this one. Wow. I mean, I know the team. The name I had doesn't make any sense. All right. Patrick, go ahead. All right. Well, the fun fact is that this guy is written for the annual.

Yes. It is Tony Clark. Yes. He wrote the foreword for last year's annual. Indeed. All right. Well done, Patrick. All right.

Second to last one. Okay. This one's from 2017. We are in the golden age of shortstops. Were, I guess. Much like in 1996 when we had Jeter, A-Rod, Garcia-Para, Tejada, Ripken, and Larkin, today we're enjoying Lindor, Correa, Seager, Russell, Machado, and Bogerts. Player name is basically Omar Vizquel, which is convenient, since Vizquel is the Tigers' infield coach. Vizquel is not remembered as one of this generation's greatest shortstops. But when someone brings up the name, you immediately think, oh yeah, little guy with Cleveland, he was good. And you're strictly referring to his defense. Images of slick highlights appear in your head out of nowhere.

It's the same works for player name. Great instincts, strong wrists, and can throw the ball powerfully no matter which direction his body's moving. He's a delight to have on your team. Unless it's a fantasy team. Okay, I might know this one. I think I might. Maybe? I have a guess. I have a guess.

Alright, so we're going to do 3-2-1 this one then. Okay. Alright. Not on one. Not on one. Not on one. Not on one. 3, 2, 1. Jose Iglesias. Hey, I knew it was you. Okay.

Craig, you're up. I'm going to go to 2017. Jose Iglesias. Coming off the least successful career as an angel since Lucifer, Jose Iglesias. games are to the guy who shares his last name with this player, or simple sentences are to another guy who shares this last name with this player. But our guy with this last name was once again in platoon heaven against righties, reaching base at a 400 plus clip and hitting for solid power. Having exercised the angels and demons of his 2015 campaign, the player seemed well positioned to spend the next few seasons as the 22nd or 23rd best

player on some team's roster. Life could be worse. Did you say worst career as an Angel? Coming off the least successful career as an Angel since Lucifer. Harsh. There may be some editorial

license there. Thank you. I understand. Do you mean to say there's hyperbole in the annual sometimes? You knock me over. I mean, I will say this. It was one year as an angel, and it was really bad.

And platoon guy, right? Yes, correct. I have a guess. I don't have an against right Yes, correct. I have a guess. Platoon haven't against righties. I think I have a guy who is the worst than the guy that this person is. So if you all have a guess, are we doing a three, two, one? I don't have one. Against righties.

Yes. Imagine being able to remember what hand anybody throws against righties takes my guess out so no I don't have a guess I don't think I have a guess I remember that this is a platoon guy but I can't even remember which way is it Matt Joyce

it is Matt Joyce good job alright yeah okay yeah yeah just remembering some guys yeah Matt Joyce wow Oh, wow. Good job. All right. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Just remembering some guys. Yeah. Matt Joyce.

Wow. By the way, that year as an angel, a 60 OPS plus. He had 174 and slugged 291. This beautiful stuff right there. Yeah. Is it my turn? Yes. Do you want to comment?

Okay. I am not going to give you the year on this unless you ask for it for a clue. Okay? Okay. Aside from a 34 homer, 21 steal outbursts as a healthy 24-year-old in 1999, and that one time he hit two grand slams in one inning, Sr.'s career wound up being frustratingly short on highlights for a player with such tantalizing tools. After flashing a similar ceiling in his full-season debut,

Sr's son is teeming with the same kind of potential to which his old man once laid claim. The calling card is his bat as he shows plus power, a smooth swing, and burgeoning pit recognition, but he also brings good defense at short and plus speed to the table. Despite a double-A cameo at the end of the season, it will be a few more years before we might be looking at a special player for his team. For now, though, we'll have to settle for calling him the best prospect in a stacked farm system. Well, I think I know this one. I think we do. Three, two, one.

Okay. Three, two, one. Fernando Tatis Jr. Yeah, yeah. See, I told you mine were too easy. Yeah, once you said the two grand slams in one inning, that significantly narrowed it down to one possible person. It could be the son of, yeah.

Okay. My guy is from 2010. Guy is from 2010. For the second straight year, player used his devastating fastball changeup combination to lead the majors in strikeout rate among pitchers with 140 or more innings pitched. The surprising part of that sentence isn't the strikeouts, it's the innings.

Never before has player pitched that much in successive seasons, and the team deserve credit for keeping their fragile investment on the mound as much as they did. A few more home runs than usual and a career-high BABIP caused some ERA inflation, but player stuff remains as dominating as ever. Now a free agent, his ideal destination is a contender that doesn't need many innings from him to reach the postseason, but can't afford to pay him like a full-time starter. The team once thought that described them, but player may be a luxury item only the biggest spenders can afford. This is a good comment. Yeah.

I mean, like, I have a guess, but I don't think the timeline matches up. I have the right name, but for the wrong era. My first thought was Eric Bedard. But I don't know. He wasn't a change-up guy, but it was like, you know, often injured, lots of strikeouts. Fits the profile

in some ways. Yeah, mine's the other way. He's too young. This is going to be frustrating. I'm going to be annoyed. I didn't get it. I will say this game in general

when it's pitchers there's just so many freaking pitchers. Remembering what they all throw. Yeah. Meg, are you okay if I guess? Yeah if i guess or do you want to go ahead i'm gonna go with scherzer nope yeah my my the one that's wrong is chris sale which uh feels like that describes him really well but yeah all right meg gotta guess no i don't know

yeah i don't have a guess i I'm sorry. I don't know. Rich Harden. Rich Harden. Good pick. Yeah, that makes sense. I wouldn't have gotten that. Yep. I'm Matt. I was right. Yep.

Yeah. I would have guessed Ben Sheets probably. Yeah, that's a good one too. I would have been wrong with my own comment. But he's purple, right? He's a purple man. Yeah, that's true. All right.

My last one. And I'm sorry in advance. 2015 is the year for this one. It pains to admit this, but the truth is unavoidable. Player name is more of an org guy than a prospect at this point. A slap first hitter, scouts are divided on his hit tool, but he displays 25 grade power at best, and most feel that he'll never stick at shortstop. And while player name has received plenty of headlines over the years, and his intangibles are undeniable, one can't avoid the fact that he's been developing the organization for an eternity. At this rate, he might not even see time at the major league level in 2015,

or perhaps ever. Well, I'm guessing he did. Okay. So I know, I mean, Patrick, I feel I should remove myself. You want to remove yourself in this one? I believe this is one you wrote. It is one I wrote. Yes. Okay. So I know. Yeah, I will. Okay.

Craig is recused. It was very late. And I was like, I'm just, I know it's tacky, but I'm going to take one of my own because I remember it. I don't know. I don't know. All right. Go ahead. Sorry. It don't know. All right. Go ahead. Sorry.

It's Derek Jeter. Oh. Yeah. Really? Yeah, the joke was that he was done. Wow. It was the comment I wrote after he'd retired and that he couldn't play baseball anymore. That is cruel.

Yeah, sorry. I feel so cheap. I'm still going to take the point, though. That's fine. All right. Okay, so. That's fine. Alright. Okay, so I have not done my 2024, so I do have an extra one, but I will do my 2024.

Okay. 82.3, 79.1, 76.1. Those were the average velocity of the player's throws each year from 2020 through 2022. At that rate of decline, he'd have been throwing barely softball speed by the end of his contract. Elbow surgery reversed the trend, and

his arm averaged 81.2 miles per hour in 2023. That was still only in the 25th percentile, but it was enough to shift him back to the six. Now the players' team finally has a shortstop who rakes. six. Now the player's team finally has a shortstop who rakes. What's that? He doesn't rake anymore? There's no surgical fix for that. After so-so offensive seasons in 2021 and 2022, he swung at air more often than a windmill. The 168 plate appearances he managed aren't enough for a referendum on an eight-year veteran, but with four years remaining on his deal, this contract has the potential to bounce, just like too many of his throws to first i have a guess i have a guess too i have a guess all right ready three two one trevor story yep we all got it okay that was it was easy but like i said i forgot 2024 so i found one it's quite basic

all right meg oh last one i'm not giving you the year for this one either this player suddenly and startlingly exploded onto the professional baseball scene he took the lemons of being drafted one of the worst possible years and made lemonade by slicing and dicing his way through each fruitful level of the minors he bombarded minor league hitters with eye-popping velocity, tearing through all four full-season levels, mostly at AA, before earning a cup of coffee in the majors. In his first inning as a big leaguer, his fastball topped out at 100 and it became immediately clear why his team decided he could potentially help them out in October. He didn't end up pitching in the playoffs at any point and is likely to resume a role in the starting rotation next year. Aside from the blazing fastball, he offers a plus breaking ball with sharp downward tilt and slurpy break.

He hasn't had to use a third pitch much, and while two-pitch starters are more and more common these days, he might well be suited for leaf dominance when it is all said and done. What year is this? Yeah, she won't tell us. Oh, right. We'll give you a division, though, if you want. Sure. Okay. Does give you a division, though, if you want. Sure. Okay.

Does everyone want a division? I'll take a division. Is everyone interested in a division? It's the NL East. NL East. NL East. Oh, I think I have a guess. Yeah, I have a strong feeling.

I don't know if I do. Do I? No. Do you? I don't think I do. All right. So, Patrick? All right.

You want a three, two, one? Yeah. Three, two, one. Orion Kirkring. Spencer Strider. It's Spencer Strider. It was Spencer Strider? Oh, yeah. I thought of Spencer Strider. It's Spencer Strider. It was Spencer Strider? Yeah.

I thought of Spencer Strider when you said there are more two pitch pitchers these days. And then I don't know why I didn't say Spencer Strider. But I was thinking like— The relief dominance thing was supposed to throw you off. Yeah. I was thinking like this would have been after Strider. I feel like Meg was picking ones where the author was wrong I did that a lot

yeah without the brand Meg well no but like this is the thing it's just so hard and even when it's wrong like the process behind it is often sound so it's fine I was thinking like Spencer Strider

has been the pitcher who has established that you can get away with two pitches, and so that this would not actually be Spencer Strider himself. So the big thing was the 2020 draft. Yeah, that's what I thought. I even put a note on that down and then completely ignored it. Do you want my one, the one I have extra? Yeah.

Oh, no. Ben's got his own right yeah oh Ben's one more sorry Ben go first okay I just quickly came up with a replacement

for the Adrian Beltre one that Craig also picked so this is from 1997 and the question comment says only 37

I thought player was at least 80 or so helped fill some gaps for the team last season, but his future is darker than Gordon Liddy's heart. He knows how to pitch, but it's hard to get people out when you walk nearly as many as you strike out, and he's pricier than the youngsters at this point. Will undoubtedly be dredged up and poured onto the mound a few times for somebody this year okay i have a guess okay i don't i will let other people think i also have to think

stephen goldman wrote this i would have thought that except that i this is probably before Oh, that's true. Yeah. But the Gordon Liddy reference. Yeah. Okay. So it's an old guy. Yeah, I have a guess. Yeah, I guess I have a guess as well. I don't have a guess. I feel pretty good about mine. I don't actually know anything other than

it's just completely context from how it was written. Okay. All right. Go for it, Greg. Three, two, one. Go for it, Greg. You guys first. Oil can void?

No. Oh, okay. Okay. That's the right era, though. I'm trying to think of my, I'm trying to go through my 1983 soft cars in my head. Right was my thought. No, Boyd's the right era. He's just retired.

Okay. His arm gave out. Yeah. Well, no, but yeah, but he finished in 91, which like if I knew anything about history, I should have known. He was the right age. It was like dredged up and poured on the mound is what made me. Yeah. And all the pitchers I'm thinking of were guys that got started too young to be 37 in 1997.

Everybody, the problem is that all those guys broke that's what the 80s did to pitchers i'm thinking like mark guvaza and like uh sid fernandez and they all they were they were they were broken by then yeah um no teddy aguero he's he was gone too sorry i i i will feel. This is the first one where I actually would feel bad. So I'm trying to give it some shot. I could give you the team. Yeah, give me the division. Division's all I need. Okay.

So I guess. I guess. No, actually it won't even help because I won't know when you played at 37. I'm trying to think where you played at. The team I omitted helped fill some gaps for the Cards last season. Yeah. So 37 years old with the Cardinals. Cardinals in 2006.

Adam Lane. 96. Yeah. I'm going to go. I have a guess. I have a guess. I have a guess. Okay.

Go ahead. I'm going to say it's Andy Benes. It's not. It's Mike Morgan. Oh. Oh a guess. Okay, go ahead. I'm going to say it's Andy Benes. It's not. It's Mike Morgan. Oh. Oh. Okay. Yeah.

Craig said Jesse Orozco earlier in passing, and I think of Mike Morgan as the right-handed Jesse Orozco. Yeah, that's legit. Yeah. Okay. Do you want my extra? My bonus one? It doesn't have to count. It's a tiebreaker.

Oh, that's true. That's a good idea. So, I had nine. I think I also have nine. I think I have five. I honestly forgot to keep track. I might not even have five. I think you had five, Greg.

Okay. But I don't have nine. All right. So yes, we do need yours. Okay. All right. Well, here it is. Here it is.

Do you want the year or should I withhold that because you're such experts? You decide. I'll take it. All right, 2009. 2009. Every year has been a surprise with this player. He exploded onto the scene after getting picked via the Rule 5 draft in 2006, and then followed that up by crossing the 30 homer mark in 2007.

For 2008, the shock value was in his first half line of 286-374-605, as it put him alongside Chase Utley as one of the position's premier sluggers. His second half did not go so well, with the player hitting just 225-344-398 from June 29th onward. If you listen to the man himself, a sprained ankle suffered the day before hampered his ability to hit the rest of the year. self, a sprained ankle suffered the day before hampered his ability to hit the rest of the year. With a winter's rest, he should be back to his old slugging self come opening day. Whether he remains at the position for another year of poor fielding or moves to an infield corner is one of the team's key decisions.

Okay. I have a guess. So there's a lot of clues in there. Yeah. There's a lot of clues. That's a good one. Um, Ben, I'm going to let you guess. Well, I sort of clues in there. Yeah, there's a lot of clues. That's a good one. Ben, I'm going to let you guess. Well, I sort of stopped listening after.

I was reading it so well, right? Yeah, it was mesmerizing. After the rule five. Rule five, yeah. And then there was like hit 30 homers or something. Yes, correct. So I think I know. Should I say it? Yeah, go for it.

Do you have a guess? I don't feel strong enough for my guess to do a 3-2-1, so. Is it Josh Hamilton? It is not. Brutal. Okay, well, this is going to be really disappointing when I also get it wrong and we just end with a tie. No, I have more clues if you get it wrong. I give you a clue.

It's okay to end with a tie. I'm advocated for ties okay. Yeah, I'm fine with a tie too. I'm like, I'm happy with it. I, I, I feel like I should know. I feel like at some point I sat down and went, I'm going to spend 30 minutes figuring out who all the good rule five players ever were.

And then, you know, I feel like it was very valuable for me to do that. And then I forgot it all. Um, I, I'm going to say a guard. Alfonso.

That is incorrect. Well, so Josh, first of all, Ben, Josh Hamilton was an outfielder. And this has put him alongside Chase Utley as one of the position's premier sluggers. I had stopped listening by that point. Oh, positions. I didn't hear positions. Well, Edgardo Alfonso, I think, qualifies. He's famous for what his last name means in Swedish. There's a famous fun fact.

You are a good dude. Making sounds. Just making sounds. Nobody? No, none. Dan Ugla. Oh, yeah. What does his name mean in Swedish?

Owl. Owl. I just comped Colt Keith to him the other day. Wow. Yeah. Oh, yeah. What does his name mean in Swedish? Owl. Is it something? Owl. I just comped Colt Keith to him the other day. Wow. Yeah. All right. But like in appearance.

He too will be forgotten apparently. Wow. So rude to Colt Keith. Well, tie goes to neither of us or both of us. No, tie goes to both of us. Both of us. Yeah. Yeah.

Congrats, guys. We're setting an example here. We don't need to change the rules in some sort of wonky, sudden death, shootout, zombie runner nonsense. We will accept the tie and walk away. Well played game. Enjoyed it. Where can people purchase this Find Baseball Prospectus annual of yours and where should they? There is a books page on baseball prospectus.com. It's in the dropdown under features. There are multiple places. You can go to Amazon.

You can go straight from our distributor. That is the best deal for us. And I believe gets shipped first. I will also note Amazon, I meant to mention this. Amazon, I think is quoting a delivery date in April, which is not correct. It's being delivered now. So in whatever form, but it's before April.

But yeah, so you can get it there. I believe it's also at Barnes & Noble. It should be at bookshop.org, but last I checked, I didn't see it, but it usually is there at some point. It's basically wherever books are sold. It should be available. Please go and get it.

Play this game with your friends. Feel free to drink alongside it if you are of drinking age. Or make sure your seltzer is appropriately warm. And inclination, correct. I can't believe you had cotton candy vodka that one time. Who brought that to that party, Patrick? Who knows? I mean, it may have just

been planted there. I remember Meg was going on the Lambrusco, which I feel like you felt like it was a mistake at some point. I mean, like, here's the thing. The quantity makes the poison, really. And so I think sucking out loud at the game was really the bigger mistake because it just meant that I got hammered. Okay. Well, thanks for playing.

Thanks for editing. Gotta read them all, add it to your collection. Go get it now. All right. By the way, just in case you've been wondering about this, I got to the bottom of the Dante Bichette nickname mystery. Why was he referred to as Fonzie in the 1996 BP annual? Well, it's because his first name is Alphonse. Alphonse Dante Bichette. I made some inquiries and Dave Pease, formerly of Baseball Prospectus, was the one who popularized this or tried to. He thought Fonzie sounded ridiculous. I guess it did. And so Dave said, I tried very hard to make it a thing pre-BP. Eventually, I guess he stopped trying to make Fonzie happen. But now we know. I'm going to guess that we've already received emails from people who knew that Dante Bichette's first name was Alphonse and wrote in before they got to the outro.

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