Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast - Effectively Wild Episode 2420: The Stories We Missed in 2025 (NL Edition)

Episode Date: December 30, 2025

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about a smattering of recent transactions and then (20:17) discuss at least one listener-nominated topic about each National League team that wasn’t previously covered on the podcast in 2025. Audio intro: Luke Lillard, “Effectively Wild Theme” Audio outro: Sean .P, “Effectively Wild Theme” Link to MLB.com on Soderstrom Link to MLBTR on Soderstrom Link to MLBTR on Refsnyder Link to The Athletic on Refsnyder Link to “the grink” tweet Link to Fowler SABR bio Link to 1925 article on Fowler Link to NL stories spreadsheet  Sponsor Us on Patreon  Give a Gift Subscription  Email Us: [e-mail]  Effectively Wild Subreddit  Effectively Wild Wiki  Apple Podcasts Feed   Spotify Feed  YouTube Playlist  Facebook Group  Bluesky Account  Twitter Account  Get Our Merch! var SERVER_DATA = Object.assign(SERVER_DATA || {}); Source

They'll still be speaking statistically, rambling romantically, pontificating pedantically, banter and bodily, drafting discerningly, giggling, giddling, giddly, equalling, effectively wild. Hello, and welcome to episode 2420 of Effectively Wild, a fancraft spaceball podcast brought to you by our Patreon supporters. I'm Meg Rowley of Fangraps, and I'm joined by Ben Lindberg of the ringer. Ben, how are you? you buddy. Happy to have you back. Welcome back. Thanks. Thank you. Hope the week in the mountains was restorative. It was, you know, it's so quiet up there. You can hear the river. There was snow. There was snow on Christmas. Oh, nice. Yeah, we got snow the day after Christmas, which was not perfect but close. It's been snowy a lot lately, which I very much appreciate. So, nice to have you back. Thanks. And we're going to do some stories that we missed

in 2025, as we do at the end of every year. We have not missed too many transactions. Well, you missed some while you were in the mountains, but we didn't miss too many major ones here at Effectively Wild. Though you missed the windfall that Morikami's contract gained you in the free agent contracts over underdrafts, just catapulted you from negative territory to a commanding lead. Yeah, I, I, uh,

You know, look how they massacred my boy. I feel bad. Last year, it was so nice, you know, because I was down big, which felt not good. And then Juan Soto, like, dramatically exceeded trade rumors expectations. And then I pulled into a lead that I would not relinquish. And that felt better than this, where it's like, you know, when you're, when you're, when you're, outperforming Ben because Murakami is underperforming his expected market. Like, my stakes, you know, low.

I can appreciate them being low. Stakes for him, so high. So I felt bad about that. But, you know, there's still some distance yet to travel. And you could still, you know, you've got Kyle Tucker on the board. That's a big one for you. Yeah. Though I think he's unlikely to underperform that prediction by as much as Murakami.

Tommy did. Yeah. Rough stuff. Yeah, well, we'll see. The biggest transaction that has happened since I last recorded was Tyler Soderstrom's, well, I guess I may have mentioned it briefly on an intro, but didn't banter about Tyler Soderstrom's extension, which became public knowledge on Christmas Day. Yeah.

And it didn't go official until the following Monday, which is when we're speaking. But I always wonder when a significant. transaction like that occurs on Christmas Day, or at least is reported on Christmas Day. Yeah. I don't know when they actually agreed and signed the papers. Sure. Of course, it wasn't official yet. And so any paperwork that had to be completed could have waited for a few days after Christmas.

But I always wonder about the sequence of events. I haven't seen it reported that led to that coming to light on Christmas of all days, especially because he wasn't a free agent signing. With a new team, he could have signed an extension anytime, right? Anytime. Yeah, like he could have done it any time between now and spring training, anytime since the end of the season. But no, seven-year, $86 million deal, which is a franchise record. Yeah.

And yet it breaks on Christmas. So I always wonder, like, I mean, it's a good presents to give yourself. And I guess both parties are hopefully happy with that signing. But I just always wonder, like, Couldn't you just kick the can down the road a week? Just feel like, let's wrap it up next week or let's wrap it. I mean, no, I don't, not that many reporters are covering the A's. For all, I know this was agreed to a few days earlier and it just slipped out then.

But, yeah, I always wonder about how that happens exactly. It's particularly funny to your point when it's an extension, you know, the degree to which there is urgency. you know and and I want to compliment the broader community of executives in major league baseball everyone so well behaved you know seemingly so fond of their families and I don't want to impugn the good folks you work for the A's when it's an extension it's like hey you've been talking for a while maybe you just send a little text you know on Christmas Ben I don't know about you but I I send some time text. I sent some, hey, Merry Christmas. I sent some wishing you a Merry Mary Mary. Hope that the day is merry and bright. And so maybe, you know, they're sitting there and the Christmas beast is not ready or the goose or whatever other, you know, traditions they might have. And then there's just like a little, hey, how's it going? Because was it passing that reported it? Who reported the extension? I think it was passing. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, hey, Jeff, Merry, Mary. I mean,

you know, I hope you're having a good holiday season. But by the way, you know, who else is having a good holiday season, Tyler Sutterstrom? And maybe it was as simple as that. So a low effort kind of a deal. I mean, not to get done potentially, but to communicate anyway. Yeah. So, yeah.

Yeah, well, he's a career A. I mean, it's not that long a career, but he was drafted by the A's. Now he'll be with the A's for quite a while. And he had himself a heck of a year. It was his first full season in the majors. Sure did. He won 25 WRC Plus. Yeah.

He was worth more than three war. And he is only 24 still. He's a young 24. He turned 24 about a month ago. So I would be pretty bullish about that A's young position player core, which is one reason why I hope they figure out their situation and where they're going to be playing to some people's satisfaction at least just because this team could be good, could be quite compelling by the time. they are supposedly moving. So, you know, you look at the extensions that they've signed already, Soderstrom and Rooker and others. And you figure they're probably working on more, I would imagine.

They'd be interested in discussing things with other young players, young bats. But that lineup, you know, pretty impressive. Suddenly Kurtz arrives and just the other talent there all somewhat young. But, you know, like Butler signed the extension, Jacob Wilson. Right. Yeah, it's a pretty entertaining team at least sometimes, at least at the plate. Put it this way. I am set up to once again overestimate their potential and like have them be a sneaky wildcard pick.

I anticipate being disappointed, but I'm going to talk myself into it, Ben. You know, I'm going to talk myself into it. The pitching piece of it is still wanting. You know, I don't know, given, you know, Severino's experience, that they are likely to persuade free agents there without a massive overpay. And even then, they might just be kind of out of luck. But it's a good group. You know, that position player group is a good group. And if they are able to make some progress this year, they might put themselves in a position where, like, you know, this is an imperfect comparison for a number of reasons.

reasons, but, you know, when the Mariners signed Robinson Canow, they had to pay a premium to get Robbie to come to Seattle. They paid that premium, but they had to, like, put themselves in a position to pay a premium, if that makes sense, right? You have to have sort of passed a threshold of viability as a franchise. I think the A's are approaching that. I really do. So, congratulations, West Sacramento A's. You have now put yourselves in a spot where, in a year, You can write a check that's 20% bigger than the market would otherwise bear, but you know, you'll have some fun baseball on the back end of it. I guess it says something or it should that players who are already on the A's seem to want to stay there. I get why it would maybe require an extra boost to an offer to get someone to come there.

But once you're there, if you've maybe always been there, if that's the team that's given you your shot, then seemingly they've done enough for those guys to want to. stick around despite all the uncertainty. So that's something, at least. And so did he had an interesting progression because, you know, of course, he was drafted as a catcher and then he started the season as the first baseman, but then Kurtz showed up and then they moved him to left field, which he had not played as a pro previously. And granted, I guess it's the easiest position in theory on the field, or at least in the outfield, you get, you know, fewer opportunities, less involvement than at any other position.

And often it is sort of where you stash someone who's not that great at anything else. But, you know, he started out there 100 games and he ended up being a gold glove finalist for which, you know, low bar, I guess, defensive left fielder. But still, he rated quite well out there relative to the baseline, which is not that great, but still. It's a bar to clear, right? Yes. It's still impressive if you've never played the position before. Yeah. Yeah. So I, you know, my sense when we have talked to Friend of the Pot for Rucker is that the clubhouse seems to gel well. They seem to like each other. You know, the experience of leaving Oakland was upsetting, but I think kind of brought a cohesion to the group. We have talked ad nauseum probably at this point about the challenges that the A's face and continue to.

to face. And I don't think that all of those are sort of expunged from the record because they have an exciting position player group. But it isn't all bad. And it does feel like there is enough of a remove from some of those broader like institutional issues for lack of a better or franchise issues, ownership issues, that the guys in that clubhouse are able to sort of just have a coherent and cohesive unit. So I don't know. It seems okay. Yeah, I could see it being a bonding experience to go through all that just with your teammates, but not necessarily with your team. Like, you can bond with your teammates against your team, if anything, but that doesn't seem to be

quite what has happened for days. So, okay. Well, I hope that they get good. And so they develop a fan base who can count on watching them for a while and some stability and certainty. What else has happened? Let's see, Pete Fairbanks left one. Florida team for another, went to the Marlins, actually worked out well for him because the

raise declined an $11 million option for him. Very weird. And he signed for $13 million with the Marlins, which I don't know if it was worth the hassle or if he liked being a member of the raise or whatever. But it's fairly rare, not unheard of that someone gets their option declined and then makes more money on the open market. But you could make sense, I guess, because it's the raise. Yeah.

Yeah, I think there's a team adjustment to expectation there that's useful. Then again, I guess the Marlins aren't exactly big spenders either. But the race at least have a history of finding pitching and making effective relievers. And so maybe they think we don't have to pay that, but some other team might. That seems to be what happened here. By the way, I would like just to come up with an example of you cited the Robinson Canoe signing. That's sort of just like statement signing where it's like we're changing the narrative about the team. I always think of Jason Worth signing with the Nationals. That was a big one.

Yeah, that's a great example. What else fits that description? Other people can write in and let us know. And I wonder how often that actually precedes success. Like when you change the narrative, does the narrative really change? Like, are you then able to sign a bunch of other free agents at market rate and does it proceed and foreshadow some success by the team? It's not like the nationals signed Jason Worth and suddenly got great. I mean, they won the world. series like eight years later or something so it's probably not exactly cause and effects but but i like i like that practice what about uh manny machado in san diego oh yeah yeah that's that's a good one i think it's like it's a statement signing do-over because their their statement signing was

supposed to be osmer yeah i guess that's true but they they they were undeterred by that not you know sort of resulting on the kind of production they were expecting and they went out and signed they went out and signed Machado

yeah that's a good one and that was a prelude to some success I suppose and certainly some star power okay yeah submit other good examples if you're listening to this

and yelling at us to cite some specific signing what else happened the Orioles brought back Zach Eflin and will surely hope that he will pitch better and more for them

than he did this past year The Cubs signed Hunter Harvey, which I thought that was a nice little move because that was just one year, six million. And he didn't pitch a whole lot in 2025. He had various injuries. But when he has been healthy, he has been one of the more effective relievers. So, yeah, I don't mind that as a by-low kind of move. And let's see. Well, the Reds plucked an athletic of their own with JJ Blende, the man.

Mariners signed Rob Reff Snyder a week ago. That was a record contract for Ref Snyder, which in his case was one year, six and a half million. He's, I wonder what the record for a record contract is age-wise, because he's coming up on 35, I think, and this is just a one-year deal. So I wonder, you know, it's like Rich Hill-esque to sort of backload your earnings in your career. But I don't know. How does he fit into the Mariners mix? He's, you know, he's been good of late for the Red Sox just as like a part-time platoon bat, role player, clubhouse guy fits in well.

Yeah. It's pretty hard for a one-year deal of that size to be a bad contract, even if he doesn't end up hitting particularly well, because it's like $6 million. I will be interested to see how his bat translates to T-Mobile, but in terms of the roster fit, I, you know, for a $6 million signing, I quite like it. He pairs well with Dominic Canzone as a platoon. You know, they announced him as a first baseman and outfielder, which suggests to me that they might use him to shield Josh Naylor from tough lefties. This isn't any kind of groundbreaking analysis here, but I think it's fine. I think it's a tidy bit of business. So, yeah, he's, He's turning 35 in March, so this would be his age 35 season.

And, yeah, he's never made more than 2.1, which was his salary in 2025, and he's tripling that or more in his age 35 season. So that's kind of, it's got to be kind of uncommon. I guess it's because of the shape of his career, he just cleared seven years of service time. Yeah. So because he didn't exactly debut that late, but he just was a part. heart time player and up and down for years and years and kind of has gotten established late in his career and has had a career high playing time late in his career. So just hitting free agency at this stage, I guess, if it takes you a while to accru service time, then

inevitably you're going to have a big contract late in your career when you really reach free agency. But by that point, often you're not that good anymore. So you might not actually command more. So kind of atypical. And whatever. I guess I mentioned, but didn't discuss in any depth, that the Pirates signed Ryan O'Hern for two years and 29 million, which is, sadly, a Pirates franchise record for a position player, for a free agent position player. So it's not a big number, but, you know, we've been hearing all offseason pirates primed to spend, and they did, I guess. And, you know, they've made some trades. We talked about the three-way trade. they were involved in while you were off.

Rhino-Hern, you know, it's not really an inspiring addition. But as we said when we talked about that three-way trade, it's like the bar is so low for offense for the pirates that just getting a kind of competent hitter is an improvement. It's just not exciting. He's coming off a career best year, but he's also 32. I don't know how much he helps them in the way. the long run or even in the short run, frankly, but it's something, you know, avoid that grievance. Yeah, well, and look, avoid that grievance, sure. And, you know, he had a year where he was,

you know, able to, to hit well from both sides of the plate in a way that has kind of not been true for him throughout the course of his career. He's often been platooned, but he hit lefties pretty well. It's a perfectly respectable signing, you know. He was a top 50 free agent for us. Like, he's a real bat. He'll help to extend their lineup. Like, I, you know, I don't want to be overly harsh on the pirates in moments where they do something good. Like, this is, this is nice. Now, for most teams, Ryan O'Hern might be a complimentary signing as opposed to like the marquee guy that they get. And we're still feeling the difference between the pirates and other clubs in sort of the magnitude of this for their lineup relative to what, you know, a real contender

would do. But like, he's a respectable bat. You know, that's a, that's a respectable signing. I think it's fine. Like, I, I continue to wish that they would do more, the fact that a two-year $29 million for agent signing has any sort of place in, like, Pirates history is pretty embarrassing. But that doesn't mean that he's an embarrassing addition to their club. You know, this is a guy who's had, like, a 120, 127-ish WRC Plus over the last couple of years. Like, that's a useful guy.

That's a useful guy. again, on any club, it was like a really useful guy for them. Now, is he going to be able to, like, crush lefties pretty well going forward? Probably not. Will he run a 330 babb going forward?

But, like, you know, he was one of the better available bats on the trade market this past summer. So he's respectable. It's respectable, Ben. I guess you could say that Spencer Horowitz is kind of a younger version of him that they already have.

He projects to be better than O'Hern. But O'Hern can't. play outfields if that's how they end up using him though that would not be an inspiring defensive outfield no sure would not be yeah you're better off at least be aging yeah and Brian Reynolds and O'Hern that would be that would be rough but uh at least they spent something it's just yeah I don't know it's not maybe the highest impact move that they could have made or position that they could have made it at but uh again if they're not nutting at this particular time, then we'll give them credit for that.

We'll give them something. All right, so at the end of every year, we usually devote an episode or two. This time, we'll do it in two episodes, just two stories that we missed, we overlooked, we didn't talk about in the preceding 12 months, and I put a call out on all the various channels and ask people to submit stuff, and people nominate various stories, and sometimes we end up with one thing, and sometimes we end up with a few, and sometimes it's silly. It could be anything. It could be an unsung player who had a pretty productive ear.

It could be some statistical quirk or obscure record or heartwarming debut. You never know, really. But we talk about a lot of things here on effectively while we don't talk about all of the things, though. And because we try to have at least one story for every team, these might not be news to you. If it's about your team and you're following things on a local level, then you're super plugged in. You know all of this stuff, but on a national level, it might not be as well known. And maybe we knew it, came across it, but just didn't mention it on the podcast. Maybe we did, and I completely forgot.

We did a lot of podcasts this year. Who knows? I sure did. But maybe, could we start with the National League? Sure. It doesn't really matter. But if we do NL today and AL tomorrow, we just, you know, AL always gets to go first. It seems like, it's like alphabetical.

I don't know what it is, but National League has seniority. It's the senior circuit. It's the senior circuit. Yeah, so Junior Circuit can go on the next episode. And we'll just go through the teams alphabetically here, and I will shout out the people who submitted these things were applicable. So we'll start with the Braves. And I should say, bear with me, because this is always one of the more labor-intensive preparation processes for effectively while,

because I'm trying to solicit all these submissions and then trying to record them. I have a massive spreadsheet with all these links and names and notes and such, and I will link to that on the show page if you want to check out any of the links here. And I end up doing a fair bit of reading and opening of tabs. But I guess the main story, we got a bunch of Braves submissions from Jorge and Paul and Sammy. And some people wanted us to talk about Ozzy Alper. for various reasons, really. And some people wanted us to talk about how he had a big down year.

Trey, for instance, wrote in, said one player whose underperformance went a bit under the radar was Ozzy Albiz. He missed time in 2024 due to injury, was back up to 157 games and 667 plate appearances in 2025. It was easily his worst full season at 1.3 Fancraft's War in his lowest at WRC Plus in any season at 87. At just 28 years old, still, I was really surprised. by his season, it's possible that lingering effects of injuries hampered him, but he honestly

just looked, cooked at the plate, watching him on a daily basis. Atlanta has been lost at shortstop for a few years now, but this year made me concern about both middle infield spots. And then, I guess, more optimistically, we got one submission for Ozzy Albies and his second half surge, which started about a year after his wrist injury, and then, of course, his hemate got shattered, so that put a stop to the surge. So it was an up and down year for him, more down than up, probably. Another little tidbit I discovered while I was reading about Ozzy Albee's player I've quite enjoyed in the past. And we've talked about how he had this below market extension and everything.

Though I guess if he keeps playing poorly, then maybe it won't be so below market. But he was the farthest back in the box of any hitter and also the closest to the plate of any hitter. or any qualified hitter on the baseball savant leaderboard this year, which I guess is a blow to my one-size-fits-all blanket. Everyone should move farther back in the box note. That seemingly didn't really help him all that much this year. But the real headline, I think, about Ozzy Albies, is that he has huge aquariums.

Aquaria, I don't know, but he has huge fish tanks in his house. He loves fish. And this is not new that he has huge aquariums in his house. There was an MLB.com story about this back in 2023, but he got even bigger. He got an even bigger fish tank that he didn't get it even bigger, but the fish tanks that he got. So he got a 6,000 gallon aquarium this year. A 6,000 gallon. Yeah.

How does, Ben, how does that compare inside? So, like, the aquarium in the First Mission Impossible movie. Is it the same size? I can tell you. I think it's probably smaller than that. It's smaller than that. Yeah. So in his house in Marietta, Georgia, he has a coiffish pond, which is always nice and soothing.

But then in 2023, he had three tanks, 550, 450, and 450 gallons, fresh water. The biggest was 12 feet long. The other were eight feet long, and apparently his grandfather used to keep coyfish when he was a little kid. That's nice. Yeah, and so it was, you know, and he grew up in Kursau and clear waters and reefs, and so it reminded him of home and his upbringing, and he loved animals and wildlife and the sea and such. And so, like, these tanks barely fit Ozzy Albies, and I know that because there is a picture of him. in one of the tanks, and he was, like, lying in it. So that's how big his pre-existing tanks.

So much smaller than the Mission Impossible tank. Much smaller, yes. And he doesn't just have fish. He has turtles. He has, yeah, he's got all sorts of, he's got a shark in there, like a small shark, but, you know, fresh water shark. But he's got names for them and everything. Oh, sure. There is fish.

He takes care of them, his wife, his mother-in-law, you know, they've tricked them out with reefs and artificial driftwood and such. And he said, yeah, it's relaxing. It's not a hard thing to do. It's easy. But this year he upgraded, he supersized, and he got this 6,000 gallon tank. Wow. And, yeah, it's like this custom job.

And there's a company that does this for celebrities, I guess. They do, like, custom installations, and they go to your house, and they build this big, fancy thing. 6,000 gallons. And my only objection to this is that it's in his garage, or at least one of his garages. I don't know if he has multiple garages. And so I'll send you a picture on Instagram and you can look through the various tabs here. And so it does seem to be a bit awkwardly positioned because it's like it seems to be right next to where he keeps his car. And so when he parks his car in here, it's like jutting up against the aquarium.

Actually, I don't know if you can see it in the thing I just sent you. But other places you can see it, the car is just like right up against the glass. Like, be careful. Don't pull in too far. Or, you know, there will be a fish massacre. Sea life would be just gasping for air. Yeah. And so he has all this aquarium equipment.

And then also, like, I guess he has an EV. And so there's all this charging equipment for the car, and it's all kind of crammed into this garage, which makes me think it would be hard to appreciate the scenery if he has a car in there because it takes up all the space that you would be standing in front of the aquarium to admire the soothing sea life. But other than that, I think it's nice that he has this hobby, and it seems to bring him joy. And I guess he needed some joy as he was struggling this season. Yeah. My understanding is that both Oziawis and his wife, they do like a lot of sort of rescue and wildlife and animal related charity work. It seems like this is a pretty consistent through line for them because I think they do a lot of like dog and shelter work in the greater Atlanta area. But yet it is an odd spot to have it. oh, why is all the Paul brothers on this, on this company? Yeah, I think they have a giant aquarium too. What is it?

See, it's like Ozzy Albies and then a bunch of guys who seem like they aspire to be bond villains. What's up with that? Like, come on now. Come on now. Here's another page where you can, and again, this will be in my massive spreadsheet with all the links, but you can see how it's like the car is parked directly in front of the aquarium. It's like the car barely fits. in front of the massive aquarium when the garage door is close.

Yeah, but maybe it's not going to live there. You know, maybe. It's temporary. I don't know how portable this thing is. Maybe, maybe, no, no, the aquarium is going to live there. The car famously mobile. Yeah, maybe the car is only being included in the photos for scale because they were like anticipating my question of express this fish tank

in first mission impossible movie fish tank terms and they're like well that's a useless frame of reference for many people but everyone knows what this car is so maybe maybe the car is for scale or maybe his wife was like hey I support these these fishy impulses you have but I can't have the entire living room taken up by this fish tank you know maybe this was the compromise Yeah, there are only so many places to fit a 6,000-gallon aquarium. Do they need natural light fish? Are they – well, I guess, you know, if you're in the sea, it's sort of filtered light anyway. So you're not – it's not like a house plant.

I'm worried I'm killing a house plant in. Anyway, that's not the purpose of this conversation. But – It's a nice setup, and I envy it. I wish I had an aquarium. I like – when I worked – You're an aquarium guy, huh? Yeah, when I worked briefly at Bloomberg Sports years and years and years ago.

They had fish tanks all over the office, and it was very nice. It was distracting, I mean, because I would just go and stand and stare at the fish. They had famously, infamously, an open floor plan, which I do not care for in a working environment. Amen, brother. I'm hopefully post office in my life. I hope at least an office that I have to commute to. But I did appreciate the fish tanks. I miss the free snacks and the fish tanks.

That's about it. So someday. I'll have a fish tank again, but probably not 6,000 gallons. That's maybe a bit too big. Yeah, I mean, 6,000 gallons, that's just a New York City apartment. You're just describing. Right, exactly. Like a studio apartment.

Yeah, I don't think I have the square footage for this. No. Other stories that were submitted for the Braves, some people mentioned the hockey, the ex-hockey player connection for this franchise. Tom Glaven famously grew up playing hockey and Drake Baldwin, the same. I don't know if that's really that noteworthy. I mean, it's interesting that Drake Baldwin has a hockey past, but Claven and Baldwin, it's two players separated by decades. I'm not sure that's quite enough to make it about the Braves, really. And Tyler Kinley had a great second half and maybe had some pitch uses changes.

It's true. He went from the Rockies to the Braves, and his ERA was like five and a half for the Rockies and sub one, I think. think with Atlanta, although he had almost identical ex-fips with the two teams. So I don't know how different he actually was under the hood. Time will tell. Yes. And minor leaguer Jacob Gomez of the Braves organization, he was released for shoplifting sports cards. This is kind of an unusual story. He was, yeah, he was arrested and released from the Rome Braves, the Rome emperors, that is, after he was caught shoplifting $60 worth of collectible sports cards from a Walmart. So that's an odd story. I don't know if there were additional

details, but he actually had pretty good stats overall. So I don't know if there was more to the story or there's zero tolerance policy for shoplifting or what. But he evidently took NFL cards out of a box, put them in his shorts pocket in August. And he was reported. He paid for other items at the register. So he didn't slip out entirely, but he paid for other things, but not for the football cards. And then they reviewed the surveillance video. They nailed him.

and that was that for his Braves career. So that seems like an ill-advised decision. I don't know what else is going on there, but that was a weird one. Yeah. Also, the freeze, you know, the famous between-nings entertainer beat the freeze, the very fast guy in the suit,

who, yeah, gives a head start to the fan and then almost inevitably catches up with that fan and makes them look sort of silly. the freeze has stepped down and Atlanta is auditioning new freeze candidates for 2026. I had the freeze on the Ringer MLB show years ago when that promotion was first introduced and it was sort of a sensation. That was like 2017. Yeah. And I think it's been the same Nigel Tulton. I think it's been the original freeze all that time. But he's a flag football coach and a special education paraprofessional at an Atlanta area high school.

So he's moved on from being the freeze to teaching and high school coaching. Cool. Yeah, I guess it's not the first time that they've replaced the freeze, I suppose. You know, it's tough to tell when the freeze is inside the suit. It's just a fast guy in the freeze suit. But that's what the original freeze, whom I once interviewed, has gone on to. That's cool. Yeah.

Lastly, for the Braves, and this will come up again for the division rival Mets below. But the Braves set a record. Well, they actually tied a record because the Mets had set the record earlier this same season. But most pitchers used in a season, 46 pitchers used by both the Braves and the Mets this year. And the Braves set a record for overall position players. No, just overall players used. There were 71 Atlanta Braves this year. I think it was when Charlie Morton debuted for them at the very end of the season before he retired.

He was the 71st player, which broke the record, used the 70 used by the Marlins last year and the Orioles this year. So that's why these records are not quite so exciting because they're broken basically every season at this point. Sure, sure. You know, the minor league shuttle and pitcher usage these days and guys getting optioned and called up repeatedly. So the bar keeps being raised here. But it is currently the high bar, the Braves, which is a testament, I suppose, to their disappointing season. Yeah. I mentioned the Orioles there and the Braves.

Things did not go great for those teams this year. They were sort of similarly disappointing relative to expectations, and it's not the more of the merrier when it comes to teams generally. It's, you know, not really strength than numbers. Like, if you use a lot of players, typically that's bad because you had a lot of injuries or you had a lot of underperforming players whom you had to replace. Yeah, too bad. Yep. Okay. That was a lot of brave stories.

We will not have as many, but we just happened to have a bunch of submissions for. The Braves for whatever reason. So that was well covered. Okay, for the Brewers, we got an email from listener John here who suggested maybe that the Brewers have now played more games as a National League team than as an American League team. I don't know that. Yeah. I didn't realize that they had passed that threshold. That's interesting because it entirely depends when you started following baseball or a team, whether you just sort of think of them as belonging to one league.

or another. And I think of the Brewers as a National League team. So, you know, I don't know how old you have to be to kind of still have to remind yourself that, oh, right, yeah, they're a National League team. But I'm not that old, I guess. I think of them as a National League team. I think, I think I do. Part of it is that, like, I think of them and the Mariners as being sort of coupled, and it's, which would, you might think, make me think of them as an AL team, but it's like, no, then they're in, like, opposition to one another. I don't know. I have a funny little, funny little pilots, you know, tie in there. So, anyway. Yeah. When we started following baseball, the Brewers were in the American League. They didn't move to the NL until 1998. So I, I remember that, but that's most of my life and the vast majority of my life as a baseball follower ago. Yeah. So they have. rebranded themselves as a National League team in my mind and and also just in terms of total games plate. So, yeah, okay. And John also suggested Andrew Vaughn's 1.422 win probably added

in his first five Brewers games, the second highest with a new franchise in the retro sheet era to Boob Fowler. Boob? Did you say boob? I did say boob, yeah. Boob. Boob Fowler. Yeah, though, that's not a typo.

What a boob. Boob Fowler. How do you end up with a nickname like that? Boob. It's a good question. His actual name, according to baseball reference, is Joseph Chester Fowler. That makes me think that boob isn't complimentary. The funny thing is that under nicknames, baseball reference, lists gink, as in was the gink there.

As in the gink? Oh, boy. That was not the gink. I mean, close enough, yeah. But, I mean, it lists gink as his nickname, but clearly Boob is also his nickname because that is not his given name. But, yeah, I'll see if I can find out where Boob came from. It's interesting because his baseball reference bullpen page says Joseph Chet Fowler. Chet there listed as his nickname for Chester.

So he's got multiple nicknames that are not. actually listed as his nickname on the baseball reference page is chet a nickname for chester also how many do you know a single do you know a single chester do you know any chester i do not no chet chester's seems to have fallen kind of out of fashion chet chet is a name that people have yeah the baseball reference bullpen page just says he was called boob and gink and then you you got to give me more than that i mean yeah i know Tell me why, though. It really makes me think that his teammates didn't like him. I mean, no offense, boob.

Yeah. Because isn't your cause him on a boob, they're kind of like a fuddy daddy. They're like a, they're like a boob, you know? Yeah, it could be just kind of a, you know, blunderer or something. Yeah, blunderer. His saber bio leads with Joseph Chester Fowler was known as boob by some and gink by others. But the nickname, the Waco, Texas native preferred, was simply Chet. And then, again, does not allow.

on the boob or the gink. It appears to be a pretty short bio, but I mean, do a little legwork here. So anyway, I guess I'm going to have to do more research or dig into the newspaper archives or something. But anyway, Boob Fowler. Obviously, we talked plenty about Andrew Vaughn and his resurgence with the Brewers this year. But I did not know the fun fact about it being the second best start in the first five games with a franchise. Trailing only Boob Fowler of the 1923 Reds, who was at 1.443, WPA, just ahead of Vaughn. Boop. Yes.

Also, John tells us that the Brewer scored exactly one run in each of the first six innings on May 17th, tying the Retro-Sheet-era record since 1901. Also, the Brewers' 56 runs that had no run-batted-in were the most for a team since 2000, when Colorado had 63 and Cleveland had 61. And also, I can't recall whether or not you mentioned that the Brewers scored 101 unearned runs. I don't think that we did, but those things probably go hand in hand, the lack of RBI, the unearned runs. And the fast guys and a bunch of fasts. Right. Yeah. And Sam wrote about that at some point this season, how they just sort of managed to hit batted balls that should not have led to good things for them but did.

They just beat out routine ground balls, seemingly routine ground balls, or they forced the. other team into errors or they just lucked out with errors and maybe that luck ran out in the nLCS i don't know but uh they did have a knack throughout the season for just hitting lots of balls on the ground and just beating them out you know give them credit uh hustle was partly responsible but a hundred one unearned runs and that was by far the most in the majors the marlins were second with 83 so just about uh an eighth of their runs scored this year we're unearned. So, you know, but maybe they did earn it in a way. I don't want to completely take it away by being fast. Yeah. I think the league average was something like 36 unearned run. So they

they really outstripped everyone by a lot. So good for them. Or maybe that wasn't a final season stat. I think the league average was 36. That was when someone unearthed that stat and around the All-Star break. So that's not actually true. But still, They did exceed the second place team. They made them a distant second. So that's a good collection of fun facts for the Brewers. The Cardinals, I had to dig deep here. I struggled, which I think was appropriate because they were the team that we talked about least this season, we determined.

And I guess that might mean, well, we talked about them least, there should be more stories about them that we didn't mention because we just didn't mention anything about them. But Cardinals fans wrote in to tell us that we didn't miss much. there just wasn't a whole lot to talk about with the Cardinals. So I could skip them, but I won't. I have a few things that were submitted or mentioned in our Discord group or that I dug up myself. One interesting thing that I saw in a post at the local Cardinals Sports Illustrated site by Kurt Bishop, he pointed out that the 2025 Cardinals really resembled the 2007 Cardinals in a lot of ways. So they had a 78 and 84 record the same as the 2007 team.

And they were both poised for a transition. They were on the precipice of a transition. And so following the 2007 season, John Mosellack replaced Walt Jock as GM. And this year, Heim Bloom is replacing Moseilac. And they're doing some front office restructuring. Also, following 2007, maybe going along with the. disappointing season and the change in leadership. There were some big trades that happened.

So Scott Rowland was traded and Jim Edmonds was traded. And this winter, of course, Sunny Gray has already been dealt and Wilson Contreras and maybe Nolan Aronado will follow at some point if they find a taker for him this year. So I guess you could say that that bodes well maybe for the Cardinals coming out of things and, you know, Winning a World Series a few years down the road, as they did in 2011, but there certainly are some parallels there. Sure. Also, they had a lot of catchers this year.

They were carrying three catchers for a lot of the season, which I was sort of look a scantzat, carrying three catchers. It seems like more catchers than you can really regularly use. Well, but if it's the first to get her, Ben, then you have one left over. I know. But how often does that happen? So it seems to be planning for a contingency that probably that glass will not be broken.

You said that, but now all the Cardinals catchers are going to get hurt next year. And I want everyone to know it is Ben's fault and he doesn't feel bad about it. I encourage them to be incautious, just risk it all on carrying two catchers. But it does create some traffic, as Derek Gould noted at some point this season.

And they had Ivan Herrera, who was one of their better hitters. And I guess, you know, he could play DH sometimes, but you kind of have to rotate people or else someone just never plays. But at one point, they did have five catchers on their 40 man. That's a lot. Yeah, it really is. And not all of them were in the majors, maybe. But on the 40 man, like that. Right.

It's not a lot. Yeah, it's not as precious. I don't want to. Real estate sounds like I'm talking about people as like a piece of land. But you know what I mean? Like those spots are not as precious as they are on the 26th, but it's pretty close. Pretty close. And it's an impactful spot.

There's a meaningful. It's meaningful. Yes. And I think they did then jettison one of them last month. Yo Helpozo, I think, is no longer in the mix. But, but yeah, they had a lot of catchers. They had Pedro Pajas. They had Yvonne Herrera.

They had Jimmy Crooks hanging around. And then a couple of their top prospects, Leonardo Bernal and Renal Rodriguez, they were both catchers. And, of course, I'm not even counting Wilson Contreras, who was around. He did not catch this season, but he could have if pressed into service, but he wouldn't have been pressed into service because they had so many catchers again. So now they will presumably have fewer catchers, except I guess some of those prospects could come up and create another catcher. jam. Wow. Logjam.

Yeah. They're just, they're trying to replace Yadi still somehow. Just let's, maybe if they could just, uh,

Frankenstein them all together and Voltron them into, into one. Maybe that would fill the Yadi sized hole in the Cardinals' hearts, but, uh, not yet. And lastly, Nick Rakeh had a,

a good story for them. It's, it's spelled R-A-Q-U-E-T. So I wasn't sure if it was, uh, racket or racquet, but it does appear to be rakay. Oh. Yeah.

Sounds sort of classier. I used to watch this old British sitcom with my grandma. We used to watch called Keeping Up Appearances. Okay. And the lead character was named Hyacinth Bucket. Hyacinth. And it was spelled like Bucket, but she would always say bouquet because she was putting on airs a little bit. Yeah.

But Nick Raquet, he debuted in September. And I don't know. he should have been a meet a major leaguer for us at some point because he was just a classic case. He was like out of baseball entirely. You know, he was, he got knocked around in the Arizona Fall League in 2019 and he was just done. And he went to Indy Ball. He was, I think, out of baseball entirely for a few years. He became an accountant, you know, the whole thing.

Got it. Yeah, during COVID, like he had a finance degree. and so he decided to become an enterprise risk consultant for Ernst & Young, and he just did that, and he didn't think about baseball for a while, and then the classic story. He found himself at a local youth baseball facility, first as a coach and batting practice pitcher, and then throwing bullpens, and then he noticed that he was actually feeling pretty good out there throwing, and then suddenly he got a job in the Atlantic League for the York Revolution. and pitch pretty well, and then, yeah, he made it all the way back. But that's kind of the classic, like, out of baseball for a few years, and then you're doing something baseball adjacent, and you realize, oh, my arm's feeling pretty good, actually. Sometimes it's like you had injuries, and somehow they resolved themselves while you were

inactive, and then suddenly, like, all the kids are encouraging you to try out or something because you're firing it in there and then you're, you know, making demo audition videos and yeah that that sort of story happens a few times per season and it's always delightful so i don't mean to sound jaded about it so congrats to nick rakey the cubs okay this was one submitted by michael i was aware of this i heard about it but i i don't think we talked about it but it was a jim de chaise and boog shambi event where uh mozzarella sticks were it out for everybody because in the fifth inning of a Cubs Brewer's game in late August, William Contreras came to the plate, two on, one out, and Jim DeShay's and Booghambi,

Cubs broadcasters were talking about this, and DeShay said, I mentioned somewhat flippantly yesterday that I feel like at least once a game, William Contreras hits a ground ball to shortstop, this would be an ideal time for that to happen. And Boog made it interesting and said, J.D., how about this? If he hits a ground ball to short to start the 6-4-3, will you buy mozzarella sticks for everybody at the corner tap room? And DeShay's agreed, and Boog said he'd split the cost.

And then, lo and behold, on the very next pitch, on the ground, let's go! Monsorale sticks for everybody! Carter Tapro meet up! Flip it and fire it. Matzzi sticks Contreras hit a ground ball to shortstop Danzby Swanson tossed it to second

Nico Horner had the relay threw it to first 6-4-3 and DeShays yelled mozzarella sticks for everybody and it was the corner tap room in Cascade Iowa which is the hometown of Cubs pitcher Colin Ray

who induced the ground ball and the corner tap room had cheese sticks on its menu Okay. And so Boog said corner tap room eat up. And later in the game, I think they had like a live feed. I know I saw some footage from the corner tap room of everybody enjoying their complimentary cheese sticks. And then late in the game, Boog and DeShay's got their own order of mozzarella sticks from the Wrigley Field concession stands.

It was not like shipped in from Cascade, Iowa in the middle of a game. So that's fun. You know, and we talk all the time about baseball predictions. and how common they are. And they decided to make it count, you know, have some steaks or some sticks, cheese sticks in this case. So that's always fun, you know, because we talk about how you can casually just predict things, but rarely is it actually on the record, on a broadcast, preserve for posterity,

everyone can hear it, and then you make it interesting and also appetizing. So that was fun. Are you a fan of mozzarella sticks? Not particularly. Is it because they're two? Do you find it to be an overwhelming amount of stringy cheese? Yeah, I think so. I don't mind just having like a string cheese sort of.

I like mozzarella just in general. But yeah, I don't know that I would go for the corner tap rooms brand. But I'm glad for everyone who got some free cheese sticks. Okay. Diamondbacks. This was submitted, I believe, on Blue Sky by M.V. Perdomo. was the username. The Diamondbacks broke the record for most players with a save in a single season. And this is another one that the bar keeps getting raised. And so it might not sound that

interesting, except that they broke it by a lot. They didn't just break it by one. 17 different Diamondbacks got a save this year. And the previous record was 14, which had been set by the raise in 2021 and then tied by the Dodgers in 2024. So, yeah, if it had just been 15 or something, well, maybe we would have mentioned it, but it wouldn't have been that interesting, but 17. Yeah. Yeah, you break the previous record by three. I mean, that's somewhat notable.

So, yeah, this is a trend, just fewer designated save getters and, you know, people are less precious about who's getting the save, and it's just all based on matchups, and there's not as much of a one pitcher is anointed as your closer and would be offended if anyone else ever got that opportunity. And so it happens. But 17 is still a lot. Yeah. Well, and you know part of the problem was that for much of the year the gink wasn't there. Yes, exactly. And so that contributed to some of it. The lack of gink. They were without the gink, you know. M.V. Pardomo said it pretty much perfectly encapsulated our season. So I guess you probably don't want.

I mean, the Dodgers tied the record in 2024 and they won the World Series, but, and, you know, they actually had a pretty good pull pen by the time the playoffs rolled around at least. So it's, I wouldn't say it's necessarily as closely correlated with being bad as just using a lot of players in general, as I mentioned earlier. But it's probably not great. Yeah, 17, you probably had a bunch of injuries and you were going through save getters. Yeah. Well, and like, Puck got hurt, you know, and needed Tommy John. So he was out for much of the year. And it was, you know, they were just, they were, they were quite injured. Their arms were quite injured just across the board. Yeah, the Diamondbacks were 28th in Bullpen War. That sounds right. Yeah, sub-replacement level. Oh, yeah, that sounds right.

Better than only the Nationals and the Rockies. Martinez got hurt. That's right. Martinez needed T.J., and not long after. And not long. after so it's just uh yeah pretty bad they were actually pretty bad twenty ninth in bullpen wind probability added or subtracted in their case better than only the white socks woofda yeah that's a good one okay and uh michael another diamond beck's story it was a snack item that i also probably would not have but the churro dog at chase field i don't know whether you risked no it risked it all on a churro dog it seemed like it was obviously not going to be good, the truro dog.

It looked like impossible for it to not be dry. It just seemed like it was going to... It was a tru... And I already regret what I'm about to say. I don't want to open up a hot dog as a sandwich. It's not a bun. It's just... It's the same...

You can't have shape consistency and try to make it a hot dog, you know? And I'm not saying you have to make it a sandwich, but you need connective tissue. But with the... I still think that their concessions are pretty subpar, just across the board. Sorry, DeBax. I know you're trying.

You're trying new stuff. You're trying to put other stuff in there. But I maintain that it's not good. Bring me at the carving station. Why is the carving station never an option anymore? And why is every IPA in your stadium a hazy? And they're not all, but most of them, the ones on draft are. What's up with that?

And most of the time, I'm not drinking a beer when I'm at Chase because they're in a professional capacity. But if I go to a game and I want to sit and have a beer and a normal piece of food, what options do I have? Very few. Very few. Well, I'm not always tickled by the, I mean, it's a viral story every year. It's just what's the, like the most unhealthy kind of. What's the biggest thing seems to be? Yeah, biggest, highest caloric content, just like, you know, what the most decadent, conspicuous.

consumption kind of food stuff that's like the most most American food that we could possibly construct. And the churro dog at Chase was the sequel to the 18 inch bacon and cheese stuffed corn dog from 24. So they went with something sweeter, I guess, in this case. The calorie count was 1117 on the churro dog. Really? Yeah, this is, it begins with the base of a long john chocolate glazed.

donut. This is filled with a warm cinnamon churro, top it off with frozen yogurt, caramel, and chocolate sauce, and you have the ultimate combination for an epic sugar rush. My goodness. So there's no actual hot dog in there. It's not so it's a dessert

item. I thought it was a, like they were trying to make it a, so the churro is the hot dog. It's in the shape of a dog, but it's well, because it's no actual. Right, but there's so. So it's in the shape of a churro. Yeah, I guess so. So, okay, so here's a word to the wise for all you uh folks maybe visiting the phoenix area there are so many good places to eat

downtown there's like so much good food downtown so if you have time you're going to a game eat dinner beforehand and then go to the game you know you're like mere blocks from the the from pizzeria bianco and bar bianco is open much more often now so if you have to wait which you often do it's fine because you can just go next door and have a drink at bar bianco and and wait for them to buzz you, and then it'll be great. You know, go do, go. I'm just so spoiled by the concessions at pretty much every pro-sports venue in the greater Seattle area.

I was home for Christmas. We went to the Seahawks game, lost years off my life, years off of my whole life, Ben, you know, waiting for that game to conclude. But before it did and before the Seahawks tried to kill me, I had a, I had like a Japanese curry at at lumen field it was delicious the chicken so tender so anyway all that to say i need uh i need chase to up its game and you know what state farm stadium not much better not much better you know get get it together there's so much good food in the valley none of it is none of it is manifesting itself in our sports venues what's up with that do a bit of drop well the challenge has been issued

okay dodgers we didn't really get many submissions for dodgers i had just What could we possibly have not talked about? I know. We got emails complaining about how much we talked about the Dodgers. Yeah, so I didn't have one for the Dodgers. And some people in the Discord group were like, you could just skip the Dodgers. So there's no overlooked story possibly for the Dodgers this year. But Craig Goldstein came up clutch with a buzzer beating one here.

And I was not aware of this one. It's a minor story as any story about the Dodgers that we didn't discuss this year would have to be. But Jack Dreyer was a, or is a Rubik's Cube expert. Oh. I did not know this. Yeah. So Jack Dreyer had sort of an unsung season nationally. He had a very good year.

He did. I think he was second on the Dodgers in Relief War after Justin Robleski. So the actually good Dodgers relievers were not the ones that they were supposed to be. I know. And they weren't the ones that Dave went to most often in the postseason either. Exactly. Right. Yeah.

And right, and even the, by WPA, it was, it was not the higher-paid marque guys either. Anyway, so Dreyer was good. That might be an overlook story in itself. But also, he is a great Rubik's cuber, and he spread his affection for the Rubik's cube to the rest of the clubhouse. This was a somewhat big spring training story about the Dodgers. I'm just looking, there was an athletic piece about this or an LA Times piece, I think, but here's an MLB.com. version, the more you look around the clubhouse at Camelback Ranch, the more you'll notice the odd Rubik's cube partially completed sitting in a locker or on the arm of a chair, at the

center of it all is Dreyer, who has found his expertise with the three-dimensional puzzle to be an unlikely bonding tool. I historically have been kind of made fun of or ostracized for nerdy stuff like that, like in college, Dreyer said. But here, guys are very encouraging and open arms, that kind of thing. I think it's cool that we have so many guys who have at least a minimal interest in the Rubik's cube. At least a minimal interest. What constitutes a minimal interest in the... I don't know. I guess that they don't

ostracize him for... Like not chucking it at his head. Yeah. I bet the Dodgers PR was like, yeah, push the Rubik's Cube story, because then they'll stop talking about how much money we're spending. Yeah, maybe. And he beat Tommy Edmund in a head-to-head contest

of Rubik's cubing. He can complete the puzzle in 20 seconds, which I guess that's good. I don't know. I've seen like the true competitive experts do it, and it's like instantaneous. It's like they start the clock and they're done, basically. So I don't think he's quite competitive level, but certainly faster than I could do one. I love that the Stanford grad is the one he had to best.

That's pretty funny. He makes art out of the Rubik's Cube, and this actually happened in 2024. He made a painting or a portrait of. of Shohei Otani composed entirely of Rubik's cubes. And that was reported by John Heyman, who claimed that Dreyer could solve the cube in 14 seconds. So we have some differing times here. I don't know if he got slower or what, but he got hooked on Rubik's cubes when he was a sophomore in high school. But it wasn't until college that he began exploring the artistic side with a surplus of time and cubes on his hand.

He slowly but surely developed the skills to recreate images. in mosaic form. Interesting. Yeah, that's unique. That's interesting. I like it. Okay. Okay.

I never really got into Rubik's cubing myself. I didn't either. Jesse likes it. She knows the patterns and how to do it, and I never really tried. I don't know if we even had a Rubik's cube. Tony Gonsolin got into it. He knew how to solve a cube, but he's getting faster. Yamamoto got into it, and he hopes to have some of the beginners completing cubes on

their own by the end of spring. I hope that happens. I'm not sure. But he had a very successful season. So that's that. Dave Roberts was not into the cube. He said part of my strength is I know my weaknesses. There's like a hundred six different combinations or something like that.

And I don't have the bandwidth to approach that yet. So maybe next year, Dave can get into it too. Maybe if he got into it with that particular pitcher, he would have a different bullpins running. That's true. Maybe he would have remembered that Jack Dreyer existed. Like, oh, wait, Jack Dreyer. Jack Dreyer.

The guy who taught me how to do Rubik's cubes. I should put him into the game sometime. Okay. Well, there's an innocuous Dodger story that no one can be upset about. Jack Jarr likes Rubik's cubes. Okay. Well done. Giants, we got some submissions from Sean and Joe and Alfred and Jessica.

One of them was Logan Webb and his increased strikeout getting. And evidently, he credited Justin Verlander for helping him record more strikeouts. This is interesting because I think we may actually have talked about the fact that Verlander credited Logan Webb for giving him a good attitude about spring training struggles because Logan Webb had had a really rough spring training in 2024 and then was fine in the season. And so he kind of gave Justin Verlander some perspective on that, which Verlanders had helped him because he had a rough spring. He then continued to have a rough early start of the season at least. Yeah. The backhand was fine, though. Yeah, eventually.

And Logan Webb has talked about this. He talked about it last month on a show called Splash Hit Territory with Susan Slesser, but he's talked about it maybe multiple times. And he has credited Verlander. He advocated for resigning Verlander. He said, I'd love to have Justin back that he helped so much with the scouting. The scouting part of things helped me so much. Not only just mentality, the scouting part of it, seeing,

reading different things that I might not know. I haven't seen before. And he was asked about his increased strikeout rate. He said, maybe it's a fluke. I won the gold glove. I was the worst defender and I won the gold glove. And I'm not a strikeout guy and I struck out more guys than I ever have. But that's kind of an evolution thing. You're trying to get better in certain ways. Definitely, I think Justin was a big part of the strikeouts going up, finding new ways to get strikes early in counts, throwing different pitches. I felt like before I'd get in trouble with it, where I would just kind of heavily lean on my change-up, and it's the eighth or ninth time the guy's seen it in a game. It's probably not going to be as effective. And learning I can

throw other pitches and different counts, I thought that was really cool. You'd think someone would have mentioned that to him at some point, but I guess he had a lot of success, so not knowing that. Anyway, he added some VLO, too, I guess. So, you know, maybe that was part of it. I really like Logan Webb. He seems like. like he has a nice way about him, you know? Yeah, yeah, I enjoy him as a pitcher as well. But I was like veteran mentorship, you know, not that Logan Webb was like a young guy, but he had plenty of experience and success too.

But when Justin Verlender, the ultimate experienced veteran comes along, he might have something to teach you, even if you're very good. And Webb in another piece said at the end of day, it's a copycat league. And I've heard that quote copied many times. so you know it's true. You're trying to emulate what other teams or other guys do, so how lucky am I? I get to sit next to JV every day.

And Verlander said it happens by osmosis. We've talked about some of the ways to scout a lineup. That's helped. Maybe you're not relying on the strikeout, but you know where to go when you find yourself in the situation to go for it. The great thing is it's not changing his mentality. He's still efficient.

And who knows, it might get him more innings. Instead of tinkering around with a guy who's fouling off your sinker and change up, it's like, okay, let's put him away and move on to the next guy. And that is quite true, actually. The idea that pitching to contact is more efficient, overrated, because sometimes you pitch to contact and it becomes a hit. You get their strikeouts.

It might take more pitches per batter faced, but you'll face fewer batters in theory. Some guys just have great feel and the ability to adapt on the fly, and he's obviously one of those guys. It'll benefit him for the rest of his career. So we'll see how sticky that is. And if Ferlander doesn't come back, whether Logan Webb is able to. to continue to apply the lessons. But, yeah, he did have a 26% strikeout rate. And that was a career high by a few percentage points,

I guess, except for 2021, which he kind of had the same strike out rate that year. So maybe that ruins the narrative. He didn't pitch quite as many innings that year. But he has shown that capacity in the past. But it was a career year. Yeah, he had a career high fan grafts war. He was excellent. All right.

And then Joe wanted us to know this. Okay, so this is a dispatch from the mascot news, which is always very, you know, close to our hearts. But there were some developments involving Lucille this year. Okay. So Joe says in 2024, mascot Lucille was officially inducted into the mascot Hall of Fame. The occasion was commemorated this July with a delightful pregame ceremony that included other mascot Hall of Famers, such as the Philly Fanatic and Mr. Met, as well as Crazy Crab, the previous mascot or anti-mascott of the Giants, and Lucille's parents.

That's nice, nice that they could come. Arguably the biggest viral moment of the summer was the infamous Coldplay Kiss Cam that caught the CEO of Astronomer Mid-affair. Lucille's ceremony was merely 11 days later at near peak virality of this moment, and marketing decided to have some fun with it. where the kiss cam revealed Lucille's mother canoeling with crazy crab. It was hilarious, but also very sad. This is among the greatest days in Lucille's life.

He's reached the pinnacle of his career, celebrated his years of hard work to become recognized as an elite talent, surrounded by friends and family, and in the middle of the game, he discovers that his mother is having an affair with his predecessor. Truly tragic, as far as I know, there was no follow-up to this story about his parents getting a divorce or seeking counseling, but what a revelation for poor Lou on this special day. Okay, so I have a couple of things about this, and then I will move on, but I simply can't resist the invitation to comment on mascot chakatery. First of all, did you know that Lucille is a boy seal? Did you know that Lucile was a he boy seal?

I think I didn't know that because it sounds like Lucille, but it's spelled like Lou, L-O-U, and then seal, so I assumed that that Lou was a boy seal I didn't know for sure I assumed it was a girl seal I assumed because like Lucille is like the play

the play on words is about seal but also Lucille Right I thought it was a But I guess it's given name We still haven't gone to the bottom of Boog Fowler But Lucille's given name

Is Luigi Francisco seal So Lou is short from Luigi Yeah But they were like we can't call him Luigi anymore Because I guess I'm a different association now So, um, probably he was Lou before that, but, but yeah, yeah, I mean, clearly they have proven themselves sensitive to moments of virality.

It's true. So, yeah, watch out for that. But also, that is, I'm sorry, I'm going to do a big swear. And, and Shane, I want you to leave it in. So everyone, you know, you know, put your, put your mouth on. That's like the most fucked up thing I've ever heard in my entire life that they were like, we have to, first of all, this. Does anyone even know that Lucille has parents? Why would you assume that Lucille has parents?

What happened to Crazy Crab? Why was Crazy Crab Geneson? Crazy Crab is like an 80-grade mascot name. You should just have Crazy Crab. Also, why would you take this moment of like celebration and you're going to, you're going to cheapen it with this viral bullshit? You're going to, what is that? That's insane.

I have some notes for the marketing department with why would you do why would you also the the Times is a follow-up story with that lady made me feel bad for her but I I what why would you

because people are learning for the first time one that Lucille is a boy too that Lucille see I keep wanting to say she because Lucille is a woman's name you know and you could call a lady Lou as a nickname like

And then you're learning that Lucille has parents. People need to stop assuming that we care about like the the familial situation of mascots. But once you introduce a familial situation, I want to see an intact mascot family. Like, why are we, we don't need to give them tragic backstories. And we don't need to make the tragic backstory interspecies infidelity. Like, seals eat crabs. So why are you having an affair with a crab? Crazier or no?

It's not an objection to the crazy. That's not the problem here. It's a crab. You can't. How does that fit? That doesn't fit. How do you consummate your affair? Seal to crab, you know?

They're only the same size because they're mascots in the real world. Interspecies relations. Yeah, it's just anatomically challenging. But, yeah, hopefully the seals work things out and maybe this made them stronger. And then to have no follow-up. I don't know. Criminal. I hate it.

Mad. Crazy Crab was hated and retired after a single season, I think. Why did people hate Crazy Crab? Items were thrown at Crazy Crab because Crazy Crab was like supposed to be a heel. Okay. You know, it was supposed to be hated and booed. But then the fans kind of took it too far, I think, and the team was bad. And so it's just abuse was hurled on Crazy Crab.

I think Crazy Crab is so cute. Anyway, it's an important story that Joe brought to our attention. And as Joe says, while this may not have anything to do with the on-filled product, players, or Sabermetrics, this is a personal story of a key member of the Giants family whose life potentially crumbled before our eyes. And the story deserves a moment of recognition, if for no other reason than to give proper due to Lucille, mascot Hall of Famer. And I guess, sadly, the physical location of the mascot Hall of Fame, I think, closed in 2014. So I don't know. I think it still exists online in some form. Maybe it'll reopen, but the physical location, I believe, closed.

So maybe Lucille was part of the last class to be inducted the year that it actually. And they sullied the occasion with familial drama? This was the following year. That the possible affair came to light because he was inducted in 2024. But this was a 2025 story. too much you've gone too far you've tried to do too many things that's a lot of loo lore that i just dumped on you there so well i mean apart from anything else i'm glad to know that lou is a boy because now i'll refer to him probably been calling why do you name it lucile and make it a boy

though i again you guys need to go back to the drawing board you're you're out of control Jessica also noted that Raphael Devers played in 163 games in 2025, which is not unprecedented, but is amusing nonetheless. And also, Jessica noted he became the second player ever to go above 162 in a season in which he played in both leagues. So I had not known a bit of trivia, joining Todd Zeal in 1996 with the Orioles and Phillies. And not only that, but both Devers and Zeal played third base and first base. because, of course, Devers famously did eventually play some first base. And finally, another giant story that was submitted, we happen to have a bunch of those. Matt Chapman has Tourette syndrome.

Oh, I didn't know that. No, me neither. This was just one of those. Oh, didn't know that. And that's why we didn't talk about it on this podcast. But, yeah, I was not aware that he had dealt with that. And I guess it's the fact that I'll just read from Susan Sly. Lesser's story here, headline Giants Matt Chapman on his life with Tourette syndrome.

You can still accomplish anything. Sixth grade was probably the worst Chapman's dad, Jim said. Matt got teased a lot. His mom was a teacher at the school. We weren't even aware of the extent of it. We were shocked when he found out what he had to endure. It was really upsetting. So he was bullied as a child, even into his teens, even as a star athlete.

Yeah. And evidently, he kept that to himself, didn't. want to talk to his parents, but he's just opening up about this, I guess, publicly now at age seven, he was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome. And he said, I've dealt with it my whole life, something that I was not thrilled about when I was younger. Kids can be rough. That was not fun. But it's made me who I am, so I'm not embarrassed by it. And he said, when he got to the big leagues, he was pretty shy about it. He didn't talk about it. But now he's just more comfortable talking about it. And so that's great.

Yeah, when he was a kid, he was rubbing his face, constantly vocalizing involuntarily in kindergarten, and, you know, he didn't know what it meant. But there was a player in the major leagues, Jim Eisenreich, that his dad was able to use as an example to say this is not going to hinder you from doing anything you want to do. Some precedent there. But, yeah, the sudden movements and sounds made him a target for classmates. Some with Tourette's syndrome can see it dramatically affect their daily lives. including Eisenreich, whose career was interrupted for a few years for treatment, and then he came back to play.

But when you're a kid, you don't understand. Chapman said you just don't want to be different. And there were some medications that he tried, but they made him tired and groggy. His symptoms were more pronounced back there, kind of more violent ticks. And then by the time he grew up a bit, most people just didn't know, I guess, and didn't notice. But he's developed methods for dealing with involuntary movements, including breathing exercises and shaking himself out when he feels any extra stress, which can bring on twitching. He usually does a quick shake before he gets in the batters box, which I had not noticed, but that's something that I'll look at from now on and notice maybe. And he says mostly he just doesn't think about it now.

He's so comfortable that he doesn't avoid potential triggers. Drinking a lot of coffee, he said probably doesn't help. but he likes to drink coffee and gets him amped up and there's a minor facial tick I guess but given that it can cause involuntary movements like that I guess it's maybe even more impressive that he has not only made it to the majors but has been like one of the best defenders

and incredibly just in his generation certainly yeah so I did not know that and I guess most people didn't and now we do okay well I'm glad he's talking about it yeah it's nice okay A story from the Marlins, this is submitted by Daniel, and it's sort of a Yankee story as much as it is a Marlin story, but we'll take what we can get here. Daniel says, I don't remember if you took any time to cover the Marlins Yankee series in Miami after the trade deadline, but that's my nomination for a story for the fish. I'm married to an Orioles fan, and we were treated to some major shot in Freud, watching the Yankees' trade-enhanced bullpen collapse, particularly the game on August 4th. I think it was also one of the best attended series in Marlins' ballpark history.

I'm not going to use the sponsored name for the park. So, yeah, this was just a big collapse for the Yankees right after the trade deadline. I'm seeing a story here. Fox Sports about it headlined, is the miserable Marlin series the new normal for the third place Yankees? And the answer is no, not really. I guess that was a better just law at work there. But the Yankees ultimately rebounded and ended up making the playoffs, though not quite winning the division. But, yes, they did make all those bullpen editions, and then all those guys were bad right away.

And they had just a really tough series with the Marlins, who, you know, they had a somewhat successful relative to expectations, at least season of their own. So maybe they have things that they could feel good about other than sort of playing spoiler. for the Yankees or contributing to the Yankees' low point of the season. But it was August 1st to 3rd, and the Marlins won, I think, 13 to 12, and then there was a 2-0 game, I think, and the Yankees dropped to 3rd. And this was like, yeah, the Yankees were ahead, I think, like 6-0 and 12 to 10, and then they lost 13 to 12.

I remember that game. Yes, and it was Camille de Valle and David Bednar and Jake Bird allowed Yeah, like everybody really bit it. Yeah. Yeah, that was bad. I think Deval took the loss. Oh, and then I think Jose Caballero, who was another edition, I think, made an error in that game. So, yeah, that was really bad.

And then the Yankees... He stole base leaders, Jose Guerrero, to you. Right. And then the Yankees offense cratered, and I think it was maybe the first time in Marlins' franchise history that they had swept a series against the Yankees. Of course, they've, you know, beat them in a world series. so that's something. Sure. But, yeah, and I guess for a while they weren't playing each other all that much.

But, yeah, that was maybe when the 2025 Yankees bottomed out. And I guess maybe that means it's when the 2025 Marins topped out, at least, in feeling good about things. Okay. They ended up, look, man, they exceeded expectations. They were respectable ball clubs, especially in the second half. Technically, mathematically, in contention until very late in the season. Yeah. Yeah.

They did good baseball in the second half. Yeah. Dennis, Patrients, Supporter submitted that the 2025 METs broke the all-time record for pitchers used in a season with 46, which I mentioned earlier. And so they broke the record, but they didn't hold it at least alone for long because the Braves then equaled that tally later in the very same season. So maybe that makes it a little less noteworthy, but we're noting it nonetheless. Dennis wrote a little longer about it. I don't know that you talked about the fact that the Mets broke the all-time record for pitchers used in the season with 46.

I know you've talked more generally about their 2025 pitching collapse and the broader trend of teams churning through more and more pitchers but I think there are a couple things that elevate this story

first and most obviously even though it's part of a larger trend all-time record will always elevate a story also this is coming off a year when they got in trouble with the league for faking pitcher injuries, you know,

phantom injuries to give themselves more roster flexibility is that timing coincidental or a direct result of increased scrutiny is it a failure of Carlos Mendoza to manage a bullpen

thereby causing injuries. Adam Anavino who pitched for him in 2024 and as when he was a Yankees bench coach earlier didn't mince words he has no idea

what he's doing when it comes to bullpen guys and how to keep them healthy or even how to care about them at all. There's no communication there there's no feel

there. There's no bedside manner. How do you really feel? Adam? Yeah. So, yeah, there was and then Dennis says could it have been a factor in Edwin Diaz leaving for Los Angeles?

I was just about to say, yeah. Yeah, I have no idea. But, yeah, it was noteworthy that Otavino just totally let loose on Mendoza. Yeah, it didn't hold back at all. And there was an athletic story about this after the Otavino criticism that tried to see, like, was there something? Because I think the Mets had six Tommy John surgeries or five TJs and one flexor tend. in surgery. So a lot of injuries, which, you know, who doesn't have some injuries, but that was a lot for one year. And then the criticism, I know that there were a lot of fans who thought

Carlos Mendoza was just bad at managing a bullpen, just like for other reasons, but also, yeah. And so they looked at this at the athletic and found that it was hard to find real red flags, like over the past two years, the Mets ranked 21st in relief appearances on consecutive days. Of the 58 pitchers who have appeared in 70 more games in either of the last two seasons, three were Mets and all of them were trade deadline acquisitions who were already on pace for that many games when acquired. Of the 62 pitchers who've compiled at least 70 innings and relief in either of the past two seasons, only one was a MET, and that was a deadline acquisition. And, you know, there were guys getting hurt, so that makes it hard to accumulate innings or appearances, I guess.

But even if you look by month or anything, I guess the Mets don't super stand out here. So it's hard to detect exactly. But if you go case by case and they do to find, like, are there specific circumstances where they push someone too far or too fast or rush someone back from an injury and maybe or like where there are issues with rehab assignments, guys having to shut down rehab assignments and restart? And I don't know, it's hard to figure from afar, really. And then there's the communication issue, which is very hard to assess, obviously, but has been reported elsewhere. I guess, you know, if players are airing that publicly and are feeling that way, then I guess there's some kind of communication breakdown, whoever's fault it was.

But yeah, so this has been written about, but it's a point of contention. And then lastly, for the Mets, someone submitted. Jonah Tong's weird Canadian grilled cheese recipe. So I will just run this by you. Yeah, let's find out together. So his weird grilled cheese. We might have very different opinions of this, given our relative food proclivities.

Right. Yeah. So let's see. Okay, so he expanded on his past claims that maple syrup is the secret to a perfect grilled cheese. Oh, boy. Yeah. So he said,

combination on earth. I don't know what about the cheese, the butter, the bread, toasted with a sweet maple syrup. The darker, the better chef's kiss. According to Tong, making the grilled cheese starts with greasing the pan with butter before placing in fresh-baked white bread and American cheese. You brown it on both sides. You make sure it's crispy but soft on the inside because the cheese melts. Then you grab your maple syrup. This has to be Canadian. If it's Vermont, it doesn't count. There's a difference. The grilled cheese is then cut into strips. and dipped into a bowl of syrup like a French toast stick. Oh, okay.

Okay. Sorry, I have feedback about this, which is the people should do what they like. Yes. And remember, he's Canadian, of course. He's Canadian. He's Canadian. He's the Canadian canon. So that's why he has a very nationalistic attitude toward the specific syrup.

So I think that actually the most objectionable part of his recipe, and here I'm going to run a foul of a great many people, Canadian and not, I'm not a fan of American cheese, you know, it's, you use some. I feel like it's, it's generic, it's bland, I don't mind it. Right, it doesn't taste like anything. It just like, yeah. It's just like oil. Right.

Now, it's not objectionable to me. Well, it's objectionable because it's, it's nothing, right? Like, yeah. And in a grill, now, I think that there is a place for American cheese on like a, like a breakfast sandwich you know if you want to do now I still prefer chatter personally personally and I know people have melting preferences around cheddar versus American I am aware of your melting objections but I prefer cheddar cheese personally a sharper extra sharp it's my my jam but on a on a sausage egg and cheese delightful on a grilled cheese

the cheese is really the thing you're trying to do. So, like, you need the cheese to do a little something, to have a little, to have presents, you know, to have kick. So, you know, that's my, that's actually the issue for me. Now, I wouldn't probably do maple syrup with, because I'm a savory gal. I wouldn't do it personally, but I don't think it's that wild. Now, having said all of that,

you'll perhaps be on surprise by me offering this. I do appreciate how persnickety he's being about it, because when you have food that you like a particular way, you should get to have it that way, even if I think it's bonkers. So I respect that. I love how there's a difference. Is it the variety of, like, of maple tree that yields the difference?

Do you think? Probably, right? between Canadian maple syrup and Vermont maple syrup. Because Vermont is famous for its maple syrup, not as famous as Canada, but like it is a notable export of the state of Vermont. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. Well, I approve of his choices. That's fine with me if he wants to.

You don't approve. They're not mine, but you wouldn't make them, but I wouldn't. But I support his right to enjoy his maple syrup with his grilled cheese. That's okay. Okay. We have the Padres. No, the Nationals. I don't want to skip over the Nationals. Listener Dan says, I nominate Dalen Lyle for the Nationals. I mean, yeah. A second round pick in 2021. He's been consistently overshadowed as a prospect by the players the Nets got in the Soto and Scherzer slash Turner deals.

Not to mention James Wood and Dylan Cruz, but Lyle made it to the majors for 91 games this past season and in 351 played appearances put up in 845 OPS. and a 132 WRC plus for someone whose arrival was not anticipated by fans at all going into the season, he endeared himself to them as one of the few bright spots in a pretty unwatchable 2025 season. I might even offer him as a true breakout candidate for 2026, even by Ben's standards. Well, now you're playing with fire, but... So I think that he was too notable of a story to count in... We wrote multiple features on him. I don't think we talked about him, though, on the podcast, or I don't remember talking about him.

I don't remember if we talked to it. I don't remember what we talk about on the podcast famously. But I guess maybe we didn't ever talk. But didn't we talk about him on the podcast? Not that I recall. I don't know. I thought we had. I maybe mentioned him within the context of not including him on my rookie of the year ballot.

But if I did, it was probably a very brief mention. So maybe he does count. But he's like a, he was like a story story. He was like a story, you know, for people and places and things. Yeah, a little more notable than Jack Dreyer's Rubik's cubes. Sure. Although people wrote stories about that. So maybe by my own criteria, that doesn't matter.

Yes. Well, everything we're talking about today was discussed by someone at some point or we wouldn't even know about it. But, yeah, he had a heck of a season. He had a heck of a season. Hit well in the minors, too, even before he was in the majors. And, yeah, that is 299, 347, 498. Not too shabby for an age 22 season.

Don't talk about his fielding. Everything will be fine. Well, yeah. I guess we're trying to focus on the positive, I guess. But, yeah, the fielding was not great. Oh, yeah. So negative 10 from stack cast in 600 plus innings in the outfield. But, yeah.

More than made up. up for it with his bat. Yeah, really, really hit well. All right. Good for a while. Good for the nationals. Nice find there. And the Padres didn't get many submissions for the Padres. So I, I freelanced and did a little research myself. And one thing I did not know about the Padres is that they led MLB in sacrifice bunt by a lot. Yeah. Yeah. I knew that. Yeah, I did not. I loved a Sacrifice Bunt. Yeah. Yeah, really.

So they laid down, let's see, I had this 48 Sacrifice Buntz during the regular season. That's a lot. Yeah, the second place team, which was the Diamondbacks, 37. That's a really big gap. So, yeah, I mean, that's still stylistically a big differentiator among teams. Yeah. And you have the Padres with 48, and then the Orioles had four. So it's like, you know, different personnel and different offenses and everything.

But that's largely at that point going to be your manager's just preferences or your front office or whatever. But yeah, yeah. So I imagine that that will change with a new manager in place. But, yeah, 48. Let's see what the leader in 2024 was only 34. So, yeah, for this era, that's a real, that's a real throwback. I'm going back a few seasons here to see the last year when a team had as many as 48 sack buntz. And it is 2021, the Rockies had 48 on the dot as well.

But, I mean, you know, that's probably too many sack price buntz, but also the Padres really were lacking in the power production department. Yeah. They were 28th. home runs and isolated power, which I probably would not have guessed and, yeah, certainly would not have expected coming into the season because they should have had a lot of firepower, you'd think. I mean, even with Petco Park, that's just, that's a lot. But like, Machado hit 27, but then Bogart's hit 11 and Jackson Merrill hit 16.

He missed some time. Tatis hit 25. You know, so it just, yeah, like, no one hit many dingers. And so they just ended up being sort of a small ball team, weirdly, even with all the hitting stars that they had on the roster. The Thumpas. Yep. Okay. For the Phillies, another team that we've talked about a lot, perhaps too much in some ways.

But, yeah, I ran this by a few people, including Michael Bowman. And one, I think the unsung Tanner Banks, who was a stall. In their bullpen, but just not a big name. So he had himself a very solid season. He was second to the recently traded Matt Strom on the team in reliever win probability added. And how often did we think about or talk about Tanner Banks? Not often at all. Only to try to get a really bad father of the bride joke going.

Yeah, right. So now we have given him his due, very solid season. And shout out to Philly's prospect, Justin Crawford, who won a batting title in the International League. It's hard to say in the IL now because immediately people think of the injured list. Yeah, but he had a high batting. He actually led the minor leagues in batting average with a minimum of 400 at bats. So that's good. And I don't know if he's like, I mean, he's, you know, still a highly touted prospect for

them. I don't know whether he's the outfielder of the future or the center fielder of the future. He's playing some left down there, still primarily center, but he batted 334 and stole 46 bases. And, you know, they've been trying to figure out their

outfield and their outfield defense for quite a while now, and it's been sort of a revolving door. So it would help if you could keep up that kind of offensive performance and also play a decent center. That would help fill a hole there that they've been trying to plug repeatedly for a while.

So we'll see if he fits in. And then also shout out to the Phillies and the Twins really for syncing up on the Yohan Duran entrance ritual, which was traded along with Duran from Minnesota. Yeah. And Matt Gelb did a good story about this for The Athletic about just everything that had to happen, like Twins PR guy, Dustin Moore. horse, just like, you know, helping out there was like a transition team with the twins and the Phillies. And so they traded the entrance along with the player, which I think is cool. You know, it's nice.

Like, I guess you could say that's like intellectual property of the twins or something, or you could say, well, he has to reestablish the entrance routine with a new team or something. But no, when you trade for a closer, now you're trading for the whole entrance experience. Now, I wonder whether the whole, like, Timmy Trumpet, Nets entrance for Diaz will go with him to the Dodgers. Like, that would feel wrong in a sense. I don't know. Yeah. But in this case.

Some of Diaz's stuff, now, I don't think the Timmy trumpet. I'm trying to remember if the Timmy trumpet of it all was part of his Seattle entrance. But, like, some of the graphics they used in New York, I think, were a remnant of his. entrance from Seattle, I think there's some precedent for connective tissue there. And it's like you associated so strongly with the player. Like, can you imagine if you're, you know, I don't know, you're Devin Williams and they play the Timmy trumpet thing while you're trying to come out? That's, that would be odd. It would be so, it would be weird. Like, establish your own identity. Now, maybe Edwin Diaz wants a new thing, you know? Maybe he doesn't want to have that as connective tissue.

But maybe it is. Who knows? Yeah, right. And I think they left it up to Duran and Morse, the twins guy, asked if he wanted to take it with him and he said yes. And then Morse got approval, ran it up the chain. And everyone decided that it was for the greater good of baseball for it to stay alive. And, yeah, I'm sure for years it's been common for closers to take their entrance song with them.

It's just that when there's a whole, you know, pageantry associated with it. Yeah, like choreography, like you got to, yeah, you can't recreate it or it would be tough to do. I think particularly when the player in question has been traded, it's a nice, it's a nice thing to do, right? Because it's, he didn't choose, now, it seems like he's quite happy to have made the transition. He took to the Phillies quite well, but he didn't make the choice to leave Minnesota. He was sent to Philly. Yeah. So it's a nice, you know, smoothing of the way.

Right. Okay. Pirates, a few things submitted by Robert, Justin, John, Noel. One of them was Andrew McCutcheon brought back fighten necklaces to the Pirates Clubhouse. The fight necklaces were almost extinct. And then they kind of made a comeback this year, sort of like a throwback nostalgia thing. But I think it's okay because it's kind of like, you know, no one takes it seriously now. It's just, it's purely a fashion statement. It's purely a stylistic thing. And it's often the older. players who remember a time when players did this often and they're just kind of, because it was like a big thing, you know, the mid-2000s or so, and there were all these hollum claims about aqua-titanium technology and the body's bioelectric current and all this stuff. And it was not since, obviously, but then, you know, it's kind of, it's retro now, right? And so it brings you back to when everyone was wearing these things. And as long as, I guess, the players involved are not bamboo.

then they're not boobs, then, you know, if they just want to sport a fightin and McCutcheon wants to bring it back for old times' sake, then fine. And I guess they scored 10 runs after they brought it back. And so they kept wearing him for a while. Well, it's not raw milk, so I think it's fine. Yeah, it's not hurting anyone. So it's okay. Also, one of our listeners noted with Henry Davis's 283 played appearances of 41 WRC plus ball this year, he has become the worst hitting first overall pick of all time, aside from the few dudes who never made it at all. That's an important distinction, but still.

Davis's career, WRC plus of 53 after 660 plate appearances. Next worst seems to be Sean Abner at 61, Tim Foley at 62, and Al Chambers at 77. If Davis performs as the 85 WRC Plus true talent player that Steamer sees him as, then he can get out of the basement in about 258-point appearances. So not an auspicious offensive start for Henry Davis. And then a couple stories that I was aware of, but we may not have mentioned the Bucco Bricks scandal for the pirates. So, yeah, there was this whole investigation surrounding PNC Park and the pirates and Bucco Bric's. bricks. And so there were like commemorative bricks that people, before PNC opened in 2001. Right. You bought a brick and your name would be on it somewhere or something. Yes, some personalized brick.

And then in 2024, there was a sidewalk replacement project that was approved. And then the construction company removed the bricks with instructions not to treat them as construction debris. The bucko bricks were set aside, then shrink wrapped on a pallet. 32 pallets of bricks were handed over to the pirates. The construction company continued with the sidewalk replacement project. And so when the project was completed in March, fans started asking questions about their missing Bucco bricks. And then, scandal, the bricks were found at a recycling facility. But they were found?

They were found. Were they all found? Well, they were just there, like where stuff building materials are brought to be recycled. And so they basically did just trash them. And this was a big thing. And KDCA did a investigation. And then there was some damage control. And Bob Nutting personally apologized to fans for this,

saying that he was embarrassed by how the situation was handled with the Bucco Bricks. And it was a mistake and it was disrespectful. And then the team offered free replica bricks as a sign of goodwill. And, you know, so people are pissed about the buck of bricks. And maybe it's not the same even if you get a replica replacement brick. And then there was like, you know, no public funds were used to dispose of the commemorative bricks. Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

So it was a, it was a whole thing that, you know, made fans who were already upset with the pirates. Even more. Even more upset. Yeah. That's fascinating, though, because how illuminating. We've learned what Bob Nutting will apologize for. Yeah, it's true. I mean, like, you do get little bits of information about these guys when they have scandals like this, where it's like, oh, this is really going a step too far.

Another thing early in the spring, in the same vein, the pirates apologized to the family of Roberta Clemente because they replaced a tribute to Clemente on the right field wall at PNC with an ad. With an ad. Yes. And so. Chick-fil-A, maybe? Was it a chick-fellet? No, I think it was some sort of beer. Oh, surfside cocktails, I think that was what it was. Yeah, so there was a number 21 logo.

And then the pirates apologized for this too. So multiple mea couple's pirate's president, Travis Williams, said it was an oversight, not to keep the number 21 logo when the advertisement was added to the pad. And, yeah, this was like, you know, the family of Clemente was offended by this. Yeah. And they said, you know, it wasn't intended to diminish his logo and that the space had been used for ads before. And they put the Clemente logo out there in 2022 when they didn't have a sponsorship after COVID. And like, I don't know how many people were even aware that it was there.

But then when they replaced it and they didn't keep the logo, then that became a big issue. I take them at their word that it had been used as advertising space previously. but when you have a guy whose legacy means so much not only to your team but to baseball more generally whenever you make decisions that involve his likeness or his number or his name you just have to bring an extra level of scrutiny to bear on those choices he can't be a filler or anything right like he can't be like yeah we'll put we'll put clemente's number up there it's like if you're making that choice, then guess what? That's where his number lives. Like, you can't, you can't go back on that. That's something that everyone from the, you know, the most senior to the most junior member of your

staff just has to be trained on, because it's, it is a small thing in the grand scheme, but nothing with Clemente is a small thing in any scheme. So you just kind of have a reverence there. What a bad on forced error. Yep. And then the last two will be pretty quick. The Reds, We will not ignore the Reds in our recap of stories. It would be so funny if we did. I will read two submissions from listener Ian, who says I have a couple items from a very confusing Red season that I don't think came up on the pod. The biggest story was the Hunter Green injury saga, complete with a piece from Red's beat reporter Mark Sheldon that claimed that Green was slow rolling his return from a groin injury despite a clean MRI. Sheldon carrying a septic system's worth of black water for the organization.

finishes the piece with this stunning sentiment for a guy with a long-term contract who says he wants to be a leader, Green needs to start showing it and get back on the field. I almost have to commend him on his candidness here, and if he weren't so breathtakingly wrong-handed about it, I'd almost respect it. At least it seemed to crystallize fan support of Hunter,

at least in the online circles I'm aware of. I was not aware of that. I knew that Green had missed some time, but I didn't know that there was controversy about... Controversy. He had a great season. He did. Yeah, yeah. And I'm always very skeptical whenever there's like a so-and-so is not coming back and, you know, just like it's healthy but is not playing. That's, I doubt it, you know.

I doubt it. These guys really want to play mostly. So, I mean, you know, there may be the occasional situation where someone is not devoting their full efforts to getting back on the field. That's such a crummy thing to put out into the atmosphere if it's not true. hard to tell from outside. Now, maybe if you're stating that, you're hearing that from sources who are disgruntled about it and maybe they know something, but I don't know. Also, big contract, it's $53 million, whatever fight.

On a lighter note, Ian says, I want to shout out a fan, especially in a season of spotlights on weird and bad fan behavior. In the run-up to the playoffs, the Reds were wrapping up their penultimate series of the year with three games against the Pirates. Paul Skeens had just shut down Sincey the day before and lowered his season of R8 a 1.97, and the Reds couldn't complete the comeback in extra innings, putting a major damper on postseason hopes. In game three, Nicolidolo struck out 12 in six and a third, but the hero of the game was indisputably Noelty Marte, who robbed Brian Reynolds of a woodie game-tying

solo homer in the top of the ninth. Fantastic play. That I remember, and I think you mentioned. However, Ian said, this catch got plenty of coverage, yes, but the unsung hero was the Reds fan in the hoodie and backward cap, who had the ball knowledge to get the heck out of the way, despite being technically entitled to a ball that was clearly over the fence, hats off to you, fella. Yeah. Yeah, good job, guy. That's true.

Yeah, the opposite of the fans who were trying to make it about themselves and get every ball that they could get their hands on. Yeah, that's good. That's great. That's home field advantage at work when you have a fan who makes the heads-up play to not interfere like that in a crucial play. Man, that was a hell of a catch. Yep.

That was a hell of a catch. And lastly, the Rockies. This was submitted by Brad, who, I think, acknowledge that these were not that noteworthy, but again, we'll take what we could get. Sure. We talked about the Rockies being bad plenty this year. I guess Brad was trying to look on the upside here, but Ezekiel Tovar hit four doubles in a game on August 1st, which Brad says, I find interesting for not being notable. More than 50 guys have hit four doubles in a nine-inning MLB game, but none has hit five yet.

That's kind of interesting. It is interesting. Brendan Donovan of the Cardinals hit four a month later. I guess that could have been my Cardinals, fun fact. But, yeah, lots of four double games, but no five double games in a regulation-length game. And finally, from Brad, Michael Tolia set a franchise record. Again, bottom of the barrel here, set a franchise record for consecutive starts at first base, surpassing Andres Gala Raga.

So the big cat has been supplanted by Michael Tolia. However, Tolia was demoted and designated for assignment within the year. So, yeah, that's the aftermath of the record setting. Starts at first base for the Rockies record. Anyway, that's the National League. Those are a bunch of stories that we had not talked about until this time. We'll do AL next time. Well, in case you were wondering, I did indeed look up Boob Valer.

And I found an article in the Minneapolis Star Saturday, July 11th, 1925, headline, How come that boob stuff? Fowler, a college graduate, got his start in Texas. And the story reads, I guess I got the nickname of boob from my looks. I know I've had it ever since I played my first game of baseball. That's Chester J. Boob Fowler's explanation of the peculiar moniker that he has been carrying around with himself for a number of years. He got the nickname the first time he stepped on a diamond, and it has stayed with him ever. since. I guess he was called Monk. Also, he says, I don't know where they get the monk name. I never had

it before I came to Minneapolis, but names don't bother me anyway. It's the old base hits and fielding records that interest me. Fowler is a college graduate, so that boob stuff shouldn't go. But he doesn't mind it. He got his baseball start at the Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, where most good ball players come from. Not that specific university, presumably. The story ends. He doesn't mind that boob stuff, but how come with a college graduate? They're very fixated on the fact that he was a college graduate, which, I guess in those days, suggested that one wasn't a boob, but something about his appearance must have struck his teammates as boob-like. Perhaps he looked a little dimmer than he was. Seemingly, no boob, though, no dummy, a smart guy with an

inapt nickname. Glad he didn't mind it. Okay, that will do it for today. Thanks, as always, for listening. You can support the podcast on Patreon by going to patreon.com slash effectively wild, and signing up to pled some monthly or yearly amount to help keep the podcast going. Help us stay ad-free and get yourself access to some perks. As have the following five listeners, Lydia M, Sarah Thornquist, Ben Peters, Carmen Muller, and Ninja Origami. Thanks to all of you. Patreon perks include access to the effectively wild Discord group for patrons only, monthly bonus episodes, playoff live streams, prioritized email answers, shoutouts at the end of episodes, personalized messages, discounts on merch and ad-free fancrafts memberships, and so much more. Check out all

the offerings at patreon.com slash effectively wild. If you are Patreon supporter, you can message us through the Patreon site. If not, you can contact us via email. Send your questions, comments, intro, and outro themes to podcast at Fangraphs.com. You can rate, review, and subscribe to Effectively Wild on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube music, and other podcast platforms. You can join our Facebook group at Facebook.com slash group slash effectively wild. You can find the Effectively Wild subreddit at our slash Effectively Wild. You can check the show notes in the podcast posted fan graphs or the episode description in your podcast app for links to the stories and stats we cited today. Thanks to Shane McKeon for his editing and production assistants. We'll be back with

another episode soon. Talk to you then. Infectious be wild Infectious be wild Infectious be wild Invexies me wild