Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast - Effectively Wild Episode 2463: Filled to the Brim

Episode Date: April 10, 2026

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Jorge Soler charging the mound against Reynaldo López and whether a team could dupe an opposing ace into getting ejected, Konnor Griffin’s extension becoming official, whether Jose Altuve is benefiting from the reshaped strike zone, a wave of MLB injuries, teams whose playoff odds have changed the most in the first two weeks of the season, Tony Vitello’s PR performance, the debut of brimless hats, a few follow-ups, and more. Audio intro: Cory Brent, “Effectively Wild Theme” Audio outro: The Shirey Brothers, “Effectively Wild Theme” Link to Cease vs. Ohtani game Link to brawl story Link to suspensions story Link to Soler vs. López stats Link to Bois database Link to Bois spreadsheet Link to “aggro” wiki Link to Armadillidiidae wiki Link to Dan S. on Griffin Link to MLBTR on Griffin Link to Olney’s deleted tweet Link to Rosenthal on Griffin Link to marriage/divorce stats Link to Woodrum on the strike zone Link to Seidler on Altuve Link to wRC+ leaderboard Link to batter challenges leaderboard Link to Altuve called-strike rate Link to Judge called-strike rate Link to Altuve mistake-strike rate Link to Judge mistake-strike rate Link to five-year out-of-zone-strike rate Link to five-year in-zone-ball rate Link to Petriello on height 1 Link to Petriello on height 2 Link to banging-scheme player data Link to report on Altuve’s sign-stealing Link to FG post on recent injuries Link to Dan S. on slow starts Link to demure/mindful meme Link to playoff odds changes Link to Red Sox panic Link to Breslow quote Link to Ben on ex-player GMs Link to most consecutive one-run losses Link to Ben on dugout game-calling Link to Vitello article 1 Link to Vitello article 2 Link to Vitello article 3 Link to Vitello article 4 Link to Vitello article 5 Link to Chapman/Schmitt clip Link to Alcantara/McCullough story Link to Rockies start story Link to Sheehan on Caissie Link to Walker’s hot start Link to new City Connects Link to White Sox giveaway hat Link to mitre wiki Link to Baumann post Link to Rangers statue post Link to Jake hat photo Link to Jordan hat photo Link to “Yankee with no brim” clip Link to 2025 Jensen article Link to new Jensen celly Link to Jensen celly video Link to May sunglasses clip Link to Igawa post Link to “sled dog” post Link to Jackson photo 1 Link to Jackson photo 2 Link to 2025 Jackson HR Link to MLBTR on Davitt Link to Davitt on EW Link to date blast image 1 Link to date blast image 2 Link to date blast image 3 Link to date blast image 4  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

Cease was effectively wild early. He's really settled in, and Shohei has been effectively wild the whole game. Hello and welcome to episode 2463 of Effectively Wild, the baseball podcast from Fangraphs, presented by our Patreon supporters. I am Ben Lindberg of the Ringer, joined by Meg Raleigh of FanGraphs. Hello, Meg. Hello. Let's charge straight into this episode like Jorge Holare, Jorge Saler, charging. at Reinaldo Lopez. You're having a really great, totally flawless time. Yes. Yes. No one has

heard me make any mistakes where this intro is concerned. So we'll just continue to just full speed ahead and throw some haymakers podcast-wise. So this mound charge, which was, according to John Boyce, who has developed a database of mound charges, this is the first mound charging in the majors in four years. Wow. Yeah, it's endangered. It's almost extinct. Obviously, there are stiffer penalties when it comes to mound charging.

There didn't really used to be rules against this. There have been rules against it for a while, automatic ejection. But they're cracking down on it now. We haven't seen it as much. And maybe that's for the best. Maybe that's nice. It certainly gets people engaged. People are always interested in a mound charge.

But we're in favor of a little less aggression and fisticuffs in general. Yeah. But in this case, we had a double suspension, both Saler who did the charging and Rinaldo Lopez, who was the charged. They both received seven game suspensions, which they both appealed. And Lopez's at least has been dropped down to five games. And given that he is a starting pitcher, that's pretty toothless. That means he might not actually miss anything, maybe. He still loses pay, though.

Yeah, that's true. But we got a question prompted by this man. charging that I thought was kind of interesting. This is from Dylan, who says a coworker and I were debriefing after the Saler Lopez dust up and came up with a scenario we'd like to get your thoughts on. We found it curious that Lopez was ejected after being involved in the brawl. Of course, this is standard practice by all accounts, and we can't remember the last time a player was involved in a fight and not ejected. But Lopez really had no choice in the matter. Once Saler charged at him, he had to defend himself, only to get run from the game. Also, it's not like to be a

like he was ejected for the pitch being up and in. He was ejected for his participation in the brawl. Yeah. Which I guess is true. He's not necessarily completely blameless. We can get into that in a second. But Dylan continues, that brings me to our question. Say a team has their ace on the bump in a must-win game for the opponent.

What would stop a batter on the opposing team from taking faux exception to a pitch inside, charging the mound, and getting the other team's ace prematurely bounced from the game via ejection? would there be any way for the pitcher who did nothing wrong in this case to keep himself in the game? If he just ran away from the charging batter, would he be allowed to stay in? I think he would, but could he live down the indignity of fleeing from a fight? Because all kinds of macho considerations come into play here. Yeah, I worry that this is an exploitable vulnerability, you know? Because the way, the way to avoid it is to assert one status as a small bean.

And I don't know that many of these, many of these men will opt for that. Now, I also don't think that Jorge Saler is just like looking around going, you know, tonight's a good night for fighting. I imagine that there were some words set, you know? I imagine. Yeah. There were definitely some words said. We don't know what words, but he's, by all accounts, a somewhat peaceable man, typically.

Yeah. Yeah, I don't think Jorge Saler has a reputation for being a rabble rouser or an instigator. Now, that doesn't mean that he has to charge the mound. We are advocates on this podcast of emotional regulation in the workplace where one can offer it. but I don't suspect that he was completely unaware of what might happen, right? You don't, or if you are, I'll say this and I'm going to do a swear, don't talk shit if you're not trying to start shit, you know? Like, don't, don't do that.

That's a recipe for problems. So I do suspect that this is an exploitable vulnerability, although I imagine the reaction on the field would be very different. So maybe this is a circumstance that is unlikely to arise just by virtue of the fact that, you know, words were said.

And so this was, you know, this was a, hey, we're going to do this. Okay, we're going to do this kind of a situation and not, I'm just standing here. What's your damage, Heather? How many references can I fit into one little exchange here? But I suspect it would be somewhat exploitable. But we've also seen, I guess we have also seen players go,

what? What? What? What? Yeah. Yeah. That's true. They don't necessarily run.

They don't tuck tail. Or crumple. You know, they don't, they don't like a, like a roly polly bug. Right. Just curl up in a ball. Yeah. Thank you for knowing what I meant because I'm given to understand that how one refers to that particular kind of insight has a regional flavor to it. Yeah.

What do you call those, a roly pulley bugs? Do you call them rolly poli bugs? I'd probably say a pill bug, actually. I think that's the split. I think that's the East West split on that or Roli Polly Polly, but you probably say catty corner. Yeah, I guess I do. But apparently the pill bug or Roli Polly Bug is from the family Armadillo D-Di.

They put Armadillo in the name? That's awesome. Yeah, I love it. How about that? I have no idea. It curls up as a protective measure. They're like, you know what that looks like. That looks like an armadillo.

We got to call it that. That's great. So you can do that. You could pull in armadilla didi, maybe. That's hard to say. I don't think you would get suspended if you did just sort of, if you just took a dive or just backed away or something, unless you were seen to have instigated it, which in Lopez's case. So the history here, this was not unprovoked. Of course, Lopez says.

that he didn't throw on purpose and his manager said that he didn't throw on purpose. Walt Weiss, by the way, just he got in there, you know? Oh, yeah. He was trying to hold back Saler. Saler's a large man. Big guy, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And Walt Weiss is just like doing the holding back. Walt Weiss is in there. Mike Trout is on the other side. And look, we could we could all, you know, have a moment of concern there just given how fragile he has proven to be. But I do think that that an under-reacted. rated role in the fisticuffs.

And, you know, we, we spend all this time talking about the bullpens coming out from the outfield because it's funny. And that's, that's fine. But an underrated role in the de-escalation of the benches clearing brawl. And this was as close to an actual brawl as we've gotten in a little while. Although there's been some fighting in the early going here. Anyway, is the guy who's built like. Like Trout, and I think, you know, just to invoke an AOS comp here, you know, Julio Rodriguez has sort of played this role in various Mariners Astros conflagrations where it's like the guy who looks like he could credibly play like linebacker who just gets in there and is like, look, I will lift you up and move you if I need to, but we're going to be, we're going to be done with this nonsense now. And, you know, Trout has just like the veteran authority to. do that and also does look like he's, you know, could play linebacker, although I would worry about

him getting just pulverized, getting his various injuries over the years. Yes. Yeah. So there's a history here. There's a better pitcher matchup history, namely that Saler has just absolutely owned Lopez. Yeah. So they have faced each other 26 times. And Saler is 14 for 23.

Oh, wow. With five home runs. Yeah. Wow. It's been a massacre. Yeah, absolute massacre. That's a 2045 OPS. Beautiful.

So Salaire has completely crushed Lopez. Yeah. No hitter who has faced Lopez more than seven times has hit him that hard. And Siler has faced him 26 times. So that's the history. And Salaer had hit a home run off of Lopez earlier in that game in the first inning. And then Lopez hit him with a 96 mile per hour fastball the next time. And then in this inciting incident, Lopez threw one high and tight.

He said it wasn't on purpose. And Walsz said it wasn't on purpose. But you can understand, I suppose, why Salaer would reach the opposite conclusion. Sure. And also, Salaer was sort of staring at him. And what Salaer said was, I asked him if everything was okay. And the answer he gave me, I didn't like it. That's why I went out there.

So I don't know exactly what the answer was, but he didn't like it. So just saying, you know, Lopez may be some incriminating circumstances there. Maybe it was not completely innocent. And then, of course, he did, you could say in self-defense, but he did throw some punches. None of these punches really landed. No. Like in baseball brawls, the connection rate, the hit rate, it's got to be extremely low. And I don't know if that's just because these are not practiced professional fighters.

or because their heart's not really in it and they're just trying to make a show of it more than they are actually trying to hurt someone. And they recognize the consequences of actually hurting someone. You've probably run that suspension up even more. So even in the heat of the moment, even if they're seeing red, they don't quite pull their punches, but sort of, you know, maybe it's a mutual, let's make this look good kind of thing. But yeah, if you could document that, I don't know if John Boyce has run those numbers, but I'm guessing it would not be high. But it was sort of self-defense. He still had the ball in his hand as he was throwing a punch. Yeah.

But Dylan's strategy here of just sort of having a sacrificial lamb, kind of like, you know, in video games, I guess you'd call it going agro, getting agro, pulling agro. It's like when you attract attention from an enemy, you know. And so if you're just like a tank, like a character who can take a lot of damage, then you will go agro and you'll just get one of the. NPCs to attack you and you're kind of almost creating a diversion like you're baiting, you're luring the NPC into a trap and then everyone else can go about their business. So if you did that and you could have your number nine hitter, you could have your worst hitter, you could even just have them in the lineup specifically to dupe the opposing ace into getting himself ejected. Now, if it's a must-win game, if it's a playoff game, high stakes,

the umpires are probably going to go a little easier, be a little more lenient when it comes to, well, are we going to actually change the course of this game by taking out a great pitcher in the first inning? Maybe we'll just allow, you know, be a bit more liberal in what we allow here. But yeah, I think if someone charges you and you fend them off and you meet punches with punches, then I think probably you'd be headed for ejection too. So, you know, it's not the worst. It'd be an underhanded way to win. I mean, I'd like to think that teams just for sportsmanship reasons would not want to stoop to the level of just trying to get someone thrown out in this way, intentionally provoking them. But would it work? Maybe. Yeah. And again, I want to, I don't want to overstate the case. I think the circumstances under which it happens are narrow because, again, you need to, you need to be, well, you'd need to be intimidating.

right? So it can't just be any you know, guy in the nine hole. Like you kind of, I think you have to be built like Jorge Salar because if if what you're doing is instigating a brawl from first principles, basically, right? There's no, there's no pitch that

preceded it that was borderline and a little too close for comfort. The guy hasn't said anything. No one's mother has been invoked. Yeah. If you're just like saying, hey, I'm going to, I'm going to pull agro. I don't Yeah, I think that...

This is one way to say it. Pull agro. Okay. Well, we're going to leave that alone, but it's going to be in the back of my head the rest of the day, and I am going to be worried about gamers. But if you're going to pull agro, you have to, like, in some ways, like, inspire almost a self-defense reaction from whoever is on the mound, right? To be like, oh, okay, holy shit, we're doing this. I guess I got to respond.

You know, I wonder if you're almost triggering the fight or flight more than you are, like, insulting the particular brand of masculinity we see most often in the big league context. We're like, ah! So, yeah. So if you had maybe your weakest hitter who was also... Right. I'm just envisioning the pitcher, like, doing the thing that older siblings do where they, like, hold their... This isn't familiar to you, but, like, like, you... imagine a movie you've seen, you know, where you hold your younger sibling out by their forehead, basically, and they're trying to swing at you.

Yeah, yeah. They're like, all right, buddy. Like, tire yourself out here. Let's get tuckered and move on with our day. You know, like, it is, as I talk about it more, I think, maybe a narrower circumstance. And I wonder if the umpire would be like, hey, what are you doing, man? Because sometimes, you know, this is an unerated part of this, um, of this, um, of this, like, little fight that Craig Goldstein pointed out,

Jonah Heim was just like, this is not my freaking problem, you guys. Like, what are you doing? You, you, I'm not getting in the middle of this. And often a catcher will come out and sort of try to play cop. And sometimes the umpire just gets out there right away. The fact that Saler was allowed to charge as churgy as he was is kind of surprising to me. And I wonder if the home plate umpire was like, that's a big man. I'm not, look, we'll you guys.

Walt, you get in there. Yeah. Yeah. Come on. Walt, isn't this your problem? And it's funny because Salar, I mean, Solera was a brave for a while. Yeah, it's true. Well, I think if you were transparently trying to do this and drawing someone into a fight, then maybe it wouldn't work so well.

Yeah. Or if you did, you have to fight fire with fire, fight fists with fists probably. And if you just sort of stood there and stood your ground on the mound. But, yeah, maybe just. fended them off in a fairly nonviolent de-escalatory way, then maybe you wouldn't immediately be ejected, especially if they were trying to, now if they waited until a pitch got away from you or something and there was one inside just to make it look a little more convincing than maybe, but if it's just a pitch down the middle and you're like, you know, trying to turn it

into a thing. Right. At a certain point, it's like, hey, just focus on your plate appearance, guy. Yes, yes. This is all this subterfuge, all this potential drawn. Just just focus on the task at hand and try to hit this guy. That's probably a better use of your time and energy than trying to trick him into a fight. You know, like, come on.

Be a, you know what? Be a man, you know. Be a grown-ass man and just do your job. Just do your job. Well, we know a grown-ass man who is still a teenager, but nonetheless, we know. now the extension is official. Yeah. And Connor Griffin is a Pittsburgh pirate for many, many years.

And they have not really stuck their necks out here. Their giant, thick, massive necks. They have awarded an extension to Griffin that I think if he turns into anything like the player he's supposed to, will work out quite well for the pirates, which is not to say that this is highway robbery or anything. I think it's, you know, it's an approach. appropriate term and everything. I think it should work out well for the pirates as long as Griffin turns into the kind of player.

Everyone thinks he will. Then, yeah, I think, you know, they'll be getting him at quite a discount here. But it's nine years. It's $140 million. There are some escalators and incentives. MVP escalators could go up another $10 million max. But that's it. And it's pretty simple.

There are no options. There are no deferrals. Nothing like that. There's a $12 million signing bonus that's paid out over a few years. But basically, that's that. And this will make him a free agent after his age 28 season. So entering his age 29 season, this buys out his first three free agent years. But he will reach free agency, barring a subsequent extension early enough to have a massive mega deal here. And that's on purpose. His agents, I think we're looking out for him there. And he can double dip and get even more rich at some point. But yeah, I mean, I'm happy for Pirates fans who now do not have to start some mental countdown clock here and can just enjoy Conner Griffin being a Pittsburgh pirate for years and years. And obviously he and his representatives were happy and satisfied with the terms. And it is the biggest contract in Pirates history, which is not saying much.

But it's not saying nothing either. Yeah. And it does make me wonder, will this make it easier for them to convince others to stay? Is Paul Skeen suddenly thinking, huh, okay, well, if Conner's just sticking around for years to come, then maybe this is somewhere I would want to be or even other free agents they might try to woo in future off-season. Maybe just having that foundational franchise player locked up for. years to come. Maybe that makes that a more appealing proposition. But yeah, the deal is done as we sort of expected to paste on all the buzz and the smoke that there would be some fire here. Yeah, buzz and smoke and buzz and smoke. So I think a couple of things about this. I do, I don't know that it won't necessarily sway skeins in particular. But I think that you are making a statement

about your credibility as a franchise by committing a dollar amount that big. Now, you need the next big contract to really seal the deal on that, right? If you have a guy, if you have one guy on your roster making that much, you know, and what a strange.

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how odd it must be to be this young man who is soon to be 20 but is not yet 20, right? to be this young man and to be the highest paid guy in the clubhouse by like a not small margin, that has to be profoundly strange. A guy with 22 big league played appearances to his name, you know, and you're the guy with the biggest contract in the room. That has to be at least a little bit odd.

And imagine being 19 and just being set for life personally and professionally. Right. I can't imagine being married at 19. We won't linger. We're not going to linger on that conversation because it's none of my business, but I'm just saying all the very... No, it's just get everything done. Just get it all out of the way. It's just generational wealth, you know, sign a long-term deal with your employer, sign a long-term deal with your high school sweetheart, a lifetime deal you hope, you vow, you know? long-term deal. Now, I suppose that one could argue, well, hey, there are guys who are making more money this year in that clubhouse. There's exactly one. Thanks, Mitch Keller.

But it has, that has to be a profoundly strange thing. I guess the other thing I would say is, like, it does speak to, and I'm, I'm not trying to, like, this is going to make it sound like I'm like nagging Pirates fans or given the front office, the business. And I can just imagine the people in the Pirates front office being like, Meg, shut up. Can't we do anything right? This is not that. I think it speaks to the profound confidence that the pirates have.

And I think that that is a justifiable confidence. Like, we love this kid, right? Everybody loves this kid. Everybody thinks, and I'm saying kid, and I know that that's a silly thing. because he's married and, like, has a $140 million contract. But, like, he is a very young, young man. Yeah, he is just speed running life milestones, but, yes, he is still very young. He's still quite young.

And I think it speaks to the profound confidence they have. And you might think, oh, that's obvious. But there are teams in baseball and not just the Dodgers, where if a large contract goes sideways on them, it's not good, but it's survivable. Pittsburgh has decided they are not in that category of team, right? If a $140 million contract goes south on them, that's like profoundly destabilizing to their future payroll picture. So they trust this guy. They think that this is the dude.

And I think that they're going to be proven correct on that score, right? I think that Connor Griffin is going to be a franchise altering player for them. I do think it makes it easier for them to say with a straight, face to the next free agent they want to sign, hey, we're serious here. We think that we have the beginnings of something really special. The proof is going to be in the pudding on that. And there are bad teams that have like one guy who's getting paid. So they do need to continue to supplement their existing big league roster with viable role players. They need to draft and develop well. They need to do other stuff. This is not a sufficient condition for franchise success.

but I do think that keeping guys like Connor Griffin around is a necessary condition and they are satisfying that. And I'm sure they're like, hey, bring your agreements now, MLBPA. You know, I'm sure that there's some strategy to it in that respect too. But, you know, giving your fan base a dude and saying, you can go, you can go by this guy's jersey. You can do that. And you can feel confident in that choice. that is, I think, a really important thing and no disrespect to Brian Reynolds. But I think that the odds that Connor Griffin is relevant to the national conversation of baseball in a way that really only skeins is otherwise on this team.

And that's not meant to disrespect their other good pitchers. But like, they got two now. That's very exciting. Yeah. They might be able to go do something now, you know. And hey, as we're recording this on Thursday, they're 7 and 5, you know? Oh, yeah. You know what they have a better record then?

The Seattle Mariners. They too. Yeah. We'll get to that later. But. And the Detroit Tigers, right? There are a bunch of teams that we thought were going to be like big, big, and there's, you know, kind of floundering in the early going here, whether, you know,

those fortunes will continue all season. I'm sure we'll talk about. but it's quite exciting. 19. I just, can I offer, can I say something? Everybody, the circle of trust, ready for everyone? There are lots of reasons why people opt not to consume alcohol, and I think that those are perfectly fine reasons one should not feel pressure to do that.

I do wonder if it's like a not unreasonable life rule to say that you maybe should at least have the option to do that legally at your wedding before you get. I'm just, it's very, I'm just saying it's. very young. It's very young, but also many happy returns, you know, to your contract, to your wedding. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, obviously the success rates marriage-wise, when you get married that young tend to be a little lower, but probably... I bet they're higher, though, for big leaguers to get married that young. Yeah, because especially if you sign a ginormous extension, because money can be a real source of stress in a relationship, right? And,

It shouldn't be now for Connor Griffin. No, I would think not. So I hope it goes well. And yes, I would imagine that the success rates in this particular demo diverge from the average pretty meaningfully. Yeah, baseball players, they have to grow up early in a lot of respects. They do. Especially if you're that good, that young. So, yeah, the pirates, they have the sixth most starting pitcher war thus far.

It's very early, but it has more or less looked like, yeah, they have good starting pitching, and do they have enough of everything else? The bullpen has been quite bad, and the position players have been middle of the pack, but that's why you call up Connor Griffin, I guess, and hope for the best. And Dan Simborski ran the Zips projected terms, and Zips suggested eight years and $142 million, so one year less. And that year is pretty important because that would be a free agent year tacked on the end. and he's projected to be a star.

And so Dan said that, you know, Zips would tack on another 40 million for one more year. So that's why I say it's perhaps a little light. And if he turns into one of the best players of baseball, then, yeah, it'll be a pretty steep discount. But he'll do okay. And also he'll get another bite at the Apple. And I am interested because the timing of this is curious, of course, because as we noted last time, Buster only reported that this extension was done. last week Thursday before Griffin actually made his major league debut.

And then he deleted that tweet and there was no more about it. And in Ken Rosenthal's piece for The Athletic, he notes, a contract agreement before his major league debut would have nullified the prospect promotion incentive eligibility, as we said last time. But one person briefed on the negotiations said the deal was not completed until 6.30 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday night. That one person was Bob Nutick. I don't know, you know, probably someone.

Now, I'm sure that's technically true. I'm sure that they didn't sign on the dotted line until Tuesday night or whenever because they wanted to preserve that PPI. And I don't particularly care. I'm not the PPI police here. So, you know, like if this deal was agreed to and for all intents and purposes done before he was actually called up and then they held off on announcing it so that they could get the extension while still retaining the eligibility for those incentives.

I mean, you know, it's on MLB to crack down on that if it wants to. I don't particularly care. I'm not super scandalized by that. But, you know, it's curious timing, right? When only predicted or reported the exact terms last week before his debut. And then that was announced until days later, like, clearly there was some sort of framework in place, right? And so if I were MLB and I were trying to be a stickler for these regulations, I probably would do some investigating about whether this is actually, you know, eligible for that or not and satisfies all those conditions. But, hey, if they get away with it, I guess good for them.

I wonder, and I say this without any inside information, but I wonder if there is a fairly robust mole hunt going on in the Pirate. Pirates front office because, I mean, somebody talked to Buster and delete, you know, you can delete all the tweets you want, buddy. Like, we all love that tweet. We saw that tweet. And so, you know, sort of jumping the gun on that leak could have very real implications for that front office. Now, at the end of the day, you've decided that you're going to keep Connor Griffin around.

So you don't have the, like, service time consideration that they, ended up kind of botching with skeins where he just ended up getting a full year of service anyway, even though he wasn't brought up within the time frame for a PPI pick. So, you know, you don't care about that. You know exactly how much service time you have with Connor Griffin. You've made a decision about that. But that draft pick is valuable, particularly for a franchise that still has, as we've noted, work to do to bolster the big league roster.

And so, uh, that might be really good. they could have made. Mm-hmm. So. Yes. Yeah, you don't want to, if you're trying to do a little bit of, you know, let's sit on this news until. Right. Yeah.

And then that comes out. That could, yeah, that could be bad. You'd probably want to investigate how that happened. So anyway, head on a swivel. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Pirates front office. So one little ABS observation here.

There was some question before the season about how this would affect players at the top or bottom of the height scale. Yes. And people were saying, well, will this help Jose Altuve? Will this help the smaller hitters? Or will this help Aaron Judge and the big hitters? Anyone with a notably non-standard strike zone who maybe was getting jobbed previously. What a lovely way of putting that. What a nice non-judgmental way of putting that.

Yeah, non-standard. Could be a supersized strike zone. Could be a honey-I-shunk-the-strike zone. But one way or another, you know, you were going to be getting some pitches called strikes on you that probably weren't quite fair just because it's hard for umpires to have individualized zones for everyone and dramatically different sized people. And Mike Petriello wrote about this a couple times just using the AAA data and the spring training data. and his conclusion was that this would help the shorter guys and not necessarily the taller guys. He just looked at the challenge rates and it just seemed like the shorter guys were having more success with challenging than the taller guys. And so that was kind of his conclusion.

And that seems to have been borne out in Jose Altuve's case, at least, because he's off to a fantastic start. He's one of the top 10 hitters in baseball this year. He has a 204 WRC plus as we speak here on Thursday afternoon in 13 games. And also, he is getting a more favorable strike zone called. So this does seem to be playing out the way that one would have expected. And not necessarily just directly from challenges he has issued, although he has been one of the more frequent challengers. He actually said, I think, coming into the year that he did. didn't expect to challenge that much, but he trails the major league leader by one. He has issued

four challenges, and he has been correct three times. So although looking at where those challenges were, you might expect that they would have been on high pitches that were called strikes on him. They actually weren't. They were on low pitches or pitches to the side, but they have gone his way more often than not those challenges. I think it's less because of the specific pitches that he is challenged. And just because I think umpires are just more mindful of this now because they know that the challenge system is there and that if they screw this up, they're going to get embarrassed in front of everyone. And so you can kind of see it if you look at baseball savant. So I looked all seasons.

This is what, 16th major league season. So I looked at just the call. strike rate on pitches that he is taken. And this year, it's 29.4%. That is the second lowest called strike rate on taken pitches on Altovae. Only 2016 was lower. And then if you get more specific and you do pitches that were not in the strike zone, in the rulebook zone, that were called strikes on him, pitches that he took. This year, only four point. 0.9% of pitches that he took outside the rulebook zone have been called strikes. And that is the lowest rate of his career thus far.

And, you know, small sample, we're talking five called strikes out of 102 total pitches satisfying these criteria. So, you know, change it by a couple pitches and outcomes and this would look different. But it is, I think, meaningful maybe that this is the lowest rate thus far of his career. And I think this is actually paying dividends for him. And he has walked more often than he has struck out. He has walked way more than he's ever walked in a full season before. I'm not saying these numbers are going to hold up in that he's suddenly going to be a 200 WRC plus and almost 400 Babbat guy or that he's going to be walking a one Soto rate or anything like that. It's a hot start to a season.

It's 57 plate appearances. But coupled with the expectation that this would benefit him. And coupled with the observation that he is getting more favorable calls than he had in the past, I think there's something to this. I think there's some signal amid the noise here. And, you know, he's obviously on the downside of his career here and the backside of his career. And last year, he had a weak year at the plate. It was a down year by his standards. And he's 35.

And so, you know, almost 36 turns 36 in a month or so. and there is a question of how much does he have left and obviously defense not really his strong suit. I think this could kind of give him a second wind maybe and help compensate somewhat for declining skills. You know, you have this like perfect storm with him where he has a non-standard strikes thing. Yeah. And also is sort of on the downside of his career and the margins matter more there, right? or maybe it's better said that you have less margin for error. And so if you are able to extract small concessions in the count,

well, that can matter for anyone and particularly maybe for someone like L2A, where it's like if you can boost your own base person, you just have a better, maybe more reliable way to have value at the plate. I could see that making a difference. my suspicion would be that it is more about bringing that non-standard zone in line with a standard zone than it is like any particular boost or degradation relative to skill. But it does make sense to me that it wouldn't matter more, you know? Yeah, yeah. And Bradley Woodrum wrote this week for BP about the strike zone.

And it seems to be a bit taller and skinnier this season as I'm. empires have been more mindful of this. Because really, the zone itself has changed. It's confusing because the rules say that it's still a 3D zone and just if you pass through any part of that space, then it's a strike the way it was before. They haven't really changed the rulebook definition of the zone. It's just that there's this ABS zone, which is sort of separate because it is just a flat plane in the middle of the plate and it's customized more precisely. now and calibrated based on the actual measurements of the hitter. And so you do have sort of separate definitions of the zone now, but I think the definition

of the zone that umpires are using on all pitches now is very much influenced by the definition of the zone for challenge purposes because now they're subject to challenges on any pitch. So they kind of have to call it the way that it is according to the challenge system all the time. So it has been actually a bit taller and skinnier in general. general, but for Altuve specifically, and there was another BPP piece about Al Tuve this week by Jared Seidler, I think for Altuve, it has led to a bit of a lower zone just because he's not having a standard strike zone called on him, even though he has smaller. So that's interesting,

because imagine if it turns out if he does have sort of a resurgence here, and it turns out that actually, yeah, he was kind of playing on hard mode all those years, not just by being, shorter than the typical player, but because he was actually having an unfair disadvantage because umpires weren't calling the strike zone on him the way that it should have been called. That would make his career look even more impressive in retrospect. And statistically, I mean, he's, I think, a Hall of Famer as it is, assuming that he does not get dinged too much for the banging scheme. And I don't know, given that Beltron is in now and that there's reporting about

Altuvei, you know, not doing anything to stop the banging scheme, but also not really making that much use of it himself. And there's reporting about that. Also, there's the actual audio and he was not getting the bangs as much during his plate appearances as a lot of other players were. So if you give him any special dispensation for that or if you just time passes and it's not seen as a disqualifying thing, then I think he'd be bound for Cooperstown anyway. But if this sort of props up this decline phase of his career, then that would make his accomplishments look even more impressive, especially because then we could apply that in theory to all the past seasons and say, wow, he was that good even though he had this going against him. Imagine if he had had this, quote unquote, fair zone the entire time, then he might have been that much better. So, yeah, it's just, it's impressive, you know. aside from the banging scheme, stain, I have quite enjoyed Jose Altuve's career.

It's just, we're always in favor of non-standard sized players, right? And non-standard skill sets and everything. So I'm happy that a player shaped like him can not just make it to the majors, but succeed and be excellent there. We've said this before, but we'll keep saying it. It is truly one of the coolest things about baseball that there are. so many different kinds of bodies that can, you know, look and do, and not just like make it to the majors, not just hang on at the major league level, but succeed and really thrive there and be, you know, future Hall of Famers. It is one of the profoundly cool things about the sport.

I do wonder what El Tuvae's Hall of Fame discourse is going to be like. I don't think that we have, we have really gotten like the full, flavor of a banging scheme player. You know, with Beltron, it was like he was at the end of his career. You know, he hadn't been a participant in that. I think there's this suspicion that, you know, there was malfeasance we didn't know about and that it is kind of coloring the way that some people engage with and understand the success that players on that team had before the banging scheme was uncovered and, you know,

maybe it will continue to affect them in perpetuity. I don't know. So it'll be interesting to see sort of how we talk about how we talk about these guys. And the idea that we might introduce a narrative of like, actually, El Tuvei might have been even better if it hadn't been unfair is, that is going to short circuit a particular kind of online person's brain. I just want you to be prepared for what that discourse is going to be like. No pun intended. No pun intended. I will not make fun of the short kings.

He, you know, it's so funny because it's like he, he was a. party to this massive, you know, destabilizing, terrible thing. But he's honest about his height. So, like, who can you really know the heart of a man? Although he did stand there next to Bregman and let him just say, yeah, I'm six foot. And I was like, all right, buddy. But maybe that's just like, you got to, you got to live in a clubhouse, you know? Yeah, I can't be like, you see this, you see this fellow shortish king over here.

And this is not a knock on the short kings. Okay. This is, that's not, I'm not trying to take it. any non-standard zone. Beautiful. You know, we don't have judgment. We have admiration. It's a harder thing to do, you know, really.

It's like, what? You look at Aaron Judge. You're like, of course he's good at baseball. Look at that giant man. Although the Strikes Zone thing is, I can hear the Yankees fans being like, has it's been unfair the whole time. What if Aaron Judge's zone has been unfair at this whole time? Yes.

You ever think of that, Ben? Yes. And I'll talk about that in a second. It's true. Beltron, that was his. the last year of his career, he didn't do anything to burnish his Hall of Fame credentials when he was with the Astros, if anything, just the opposite. I mean, just purely as a player because he was bad that year. He was a sub-replacement-level player.

So his Hall-Fame... He was too busy cheating. Maybe. So his Hall-Fame resume performance-wise was set before he got there. On the other hand, he was seen as one of the instigators and one of the architects of that scheme. So that's what really held him back, I think. But didn't hold him back for that long, obviously. No, I did not.

Yeah, when it comes to judge, so, because that's another where, okay, he's already established himself as maybe the best hitter ever, best right-handed hitter ever. Imagine if he, too, was, and he was getting jobbed sometimes, obviously, because of his height. But I think not as much as Al-Tufe was. Like, if you just, so I looked over the past five seasons, 21 to 25, and looked at the highest rate of called strikes on taking pitches outside the strike zone. And Al-Tu-Ve was close to the top 10. He was 11th minimum, I don't know, 2,000 pitches.

There were like 240 qualifiers. And Al-Tu-Ve was 11th with 7.5% of those pitches were called strikes erroneously on him. Whereas Judge was more kind of, he was still elevated, but not as elevated as Al-2-Ve, ironically. But yeah, he was like in the top 50, but wasn't getting job quite as often as Altuve was. And Judge over the same spin actually had one of the highest rates of in-zone ball calls because he just has such a huge zone that there were balls that should have been called strikes that weren't. And then if you look at this year, I think there's not as much of a case that he's getting a much more favorable zone to. If you look at just the called strike rate for him on pitches outside the zone.

own, it's not notably lower than it usually is. It's kind of middle of the pack in all the seasons of his career. And if you look at just the called strike rate period on called pitches this year, it's not that notable. In fact, it's still pretty high. It's the second highest, I guess, rate. He's been, he's had 32.1 percent called strikes just on pitches that he has taken this year, which is the second highest of his career after 2016. So, yeah, it's not as notable a difference. And he hasn't challenged as much either. He's only challenged twice.

He's been right both times. And both times it was pitches just below the zone. Yeah. And he got them overturned after they were called strikes and they were actually balls. But, you know, I think it should help him maybe a little bit. And he's off to a good start. I mean, he's got a 144 WRC Plus, which is like, Ho-hum for Aaron Judge.

Not too shabby, though. Very good for just about anyone else. But yeah, given what Petriolo found previously, I think it seems like this will probably benefit the short kings, maybe more than the tall kings. And in fact, the guy who I think had the highest rate of called strikes outside the zone on taking pitches, at least if you set the minimum to a thousand, was Nick Matrigal, who is also a short king and a guy that I was hoping. hoping would be good and then hasn't been.

But, yeah, 11.2% of pitches on Nick Madrigal that he has taken outside the zone were called strikes over the past five seasons. So he needs the challenge system too. Anyway, early returns, small sample caveats abound. But it does appear that that is holding up and that the short guys are getting a boost, which, you know, they need because it's still a slight disadvantage, you know. They need a boost? Yeah, a little booster seat. They need a boost? Okay, so we said last time that we would take a look now that we're two full weeks into the season.

You know, some people, they do the panic meter and the confirmation bias check-ins after one week or one weekend even. But not us, not us here effectively. Wow, we're very demure, very mindful. And so we wait two full weeks to do our should you panic. about these teams. And I won't even call it that, really. We're just looking at the teams that have hurt themselves or helped themselves the most. And we'll look at the changes since opening day, according to the Fancraft's playoff odds. And this is largely based on who has won and lost games, but also injuries. Injuries are coming to play here. And there's been a wave of

pretty demoralizing injuries. Yeah. Everyone is hurt. It's been pretty bad. I mean. I, Ben, I do not care for it. Everybody is hurt. What is going on? A lot of stars, a lot of load-bearing members of rosters, as you might say. Cade Horton, done for the year, having UCL surgery. I mean, that's a big. Yeah, a big blow to the Cubs, big blow to the Orioles.

Matthew Boyd also on the IAL for the Cubs with a biceps issue. And then we talked about Cody Ponce last time and all the injuries before. following the Blue Jays. Alejandro Kirk also out for several weeks with a fracture. So that's. And then the Astros, Hunter Brown, shut down for a few weeks with shoulder issues. That's always scary. And Christian Javier removed from his most recent start with shoulder tightness too.

And then Juan Soto, not serious, but he's on the IL with a calf issue. Mookie Betz with an oblique issue. Yeah, it's just, it's one after another. So this is not good. And that plays into the playing time projection. and thus the playoff odds as well. But yeah, let's just look here. Changes since opening day.

We've have some double-digit changes. And, you know, it's hard to affect your fortunes one way or another. But as Dan Simborski documented in another recent post for fan graphs, headlined, yes, penance can be lost in April, it is true that, like, it's meaningful to have a dip in your playoff odds this early in the season. is a school of thought, as Dan noted in his piece, that it's just variance and everyone's bound to have hot streaks and cold streaks and slumps. And so it's just like you're just getting

one of those out of the way, basically. But I don't think that's actually the case. I mean, that's kind of almost a gambler's fallacy thing. Just because you have had a slow start to the season doesn't mean you're due and you're going to make it up later. And it means that you're probably true talent-wise, more or less the same as you were expected to be. It's not as if anyone has really affected their projections of their actual quality, but it's just some teams have banked wins and some teams have banked losses. And then you just sort of reset more or less and, okay, now we have the same rest of season projection, but we're starting from a different baseline than we were on opening day. And as Dan noted, that does actually affect things. And I thought

was clever of him, he put it into perspective by noting that the changes in playoff probability, after even one week in April, that's essentially equivalent to the changes that you see at the trade deadline. So we make such a fuss about trade deadline acquisitions and subtractions, but it doesn't mean that much usually because, you know, it's only a few months with that player. And so we've already seen teams now with two weeks into the season have their playoff odds, about twice as much as you would see for the top teams that change their fortunes at the trade deadline. So we should be making as much of these early season results as we do about that. And he looked at all the teams. So he found going back to over the past 20 years or so that he

has been running standing projections with Zips. And he found all 83 teams with a median outcome of 90 or more wins going into the season, and he looked at their worst performances in April, 26 of them finished the month with a losing record, and he says for most of those teams, it wasn't just getting one of their faded bad runs over and done with early from a preseason average projected win total of 92.5 wins, they had an average finish of 85.2 wins,

with slightly less than a third of them, eight of 26, finishing with at least 90 wins, and only three of the 26 came back and beat their preseason win projections after their slow starts. So, yeah. Not to depress anyone whose team is off to a terrible start. It's not insuperable, but it's also not meaningless. So the teams that have hurt their fortunes the most and the teams that have helped their fortunes the most tend to be corresponding ones that are going head to head with the ones that have hurt their fortunes. but the Red Sox.

So they have salvaged their start slightly since we alluded to it last time. They've won a couple games, but they're still four and eight on the season, and it's been pretty rough for them. And they're down 13.2 percentage points of playoff odds, and they're also in the double digits in division odds. And that's rough in the AL East,

which is expected to be competitive as ever. they have been helped by the fact that the Blue Jays have also lost about 8.4% percentage points and are themselves off to a rough start, 5 and 7 with the aforementioned injuries. So that has kind of blunted the impact of the Red Sox low start, maybe, but it has been frustrating, I think, for a lot of Red Sox fans because the expectations for this team were, I think, appropriately high. Yeah, I think I pick them to win the World Series before the season started. I immediately flush all of my predictions when it happens. Of all of the teams that have had a bad go of it in the early going,

I think this is the one that has surprised me the most just because my expectations were so high. And I thought that all their pitching would be good if only because they had so much of it. And yet, they have allowed four and a half runs a game. They have a negative run differential. It's not the words run differential in the sport. Oh, white socks, buddies.

But then the blueshies are right there. What a weird beginning, you know? It feels very topsy-turvy, and I don't mean to discount any of what you just said, which is really what Dan has said. I think that that's right, that it, you know, maybe it doesn't alter your true. talent expectation of a team. But it's not nothing, right?

It's not nothing in terms of your, you know, sort of season long expectation of a club. But some of these teams, I have, they're, what, Ben? Yeah. Yeah, it's not great. Except for the White Sox at negative 29 from a differential perspective. You're like, that seems right. You know, that, yep, that's where I. It's not great when your, your opening day starter, Shane Smith has already been optioned to

the minors, about a week into April. that's not ideal. Yeah. Yeah, their projected run differential is negative 115, which feels bad, I would expect. Oh, no, that's the rest of season. Their projected full season run differential is negative 144. That's the white socks, not the red socks. But, you know, what if all the socks are going to do badly?

What if the Pope can't, you know, this is just proof that the Pope has, like, has bigger fish to fry. The Pope's not like trying to intervene. Did you see the Pope hat? Yes, I see they're giving away the Pope hat. Yes. Doesn't that feel a little risky? Doesn't I feel a little? I saw it. I saw it and I was like, slightly sacrilegious maybe. But I don't know about that. I know they ran it by him. I mean, maybe he's all for it. He's, you know, he's a sports pope. I hope more than anything that the Pope was too busy doing more important stuff to be like, yeah, I'll approve the promo. I bet they probably taught to whoever the archbishop of Chicago is, though. I bet they must have run it up some Catholic flagpole, right? He has been photographed wearing a white socks cap in the full Pope regalia. But not, but not, yeah.

He hasn't altered the Pope hat, though. That I'm sure has a specific name. Anyway, the Red Sox. Yeah, it's deboralizing start because you start. the season and hopes are high. And then you blow a bunch of games and, you know, Durbin's not hitting. And it's just, but I wouldn't make too much of it, even though I just said that it is actually meaningful. But I wouldn't. But I do think that of the clubs that had playoff, not just aspirations, but I think expectations, right? I think that Boston probably assumed going into the season we're going to play in October.

And to be clear, that may well still come to pass. But I think that to your point, of all the teams that are like kind of unshaky ground, the ones in the ALEs are the ones that I would be the most alarmed by internally if I worked for one of those clubs, just because it is such a knockdown, drag out kind of it. And of course, a stupid Yankees are up there at the top at eight and four, which neither of us wanted to draft in the fun draft. Well, we said they'd be good, just maybe that they wouldn't be that fun. That they'd be boring. I guess you'd call the Pope had a mitre.

A mitre. Yeah, I saw Bauman make a pun about Sergio Mitre, which is spelled the same way as the Pope had. But not said the same way. Yeah. Works better in print. Yeah. not used to that, Ben. I'm still not used to the Chicago Pope because every time, you know, the Pope speaks in an official capacity, I, well, I'm never listening to the Pope. Not like I'm not

listening. Like, I think, you know, as popes go, I'm in on this Pope so far. So I don't mean it like I'm not paying attention to or minding what he says, although I don't really like mind the Pope. That's not my thing. Don't disrespect intended. But I'm not here. I'm not here. him, right? I'm not like listening to audio of the Pope. I'm just like reading statements. And they read like Pope's statements. They read like the pontiff. And then I have to remember that he like has an opinion on Jerry Rinesdorf. That's wild. It's still wild. I am not totally convinced because if listeners remember, I was on vacation when this Pope was named the Pope, like when the smoke came out of the chimney and everything. And normally,

when when I'm on vacation, something happens online where I just have to, as I said, pretend to pretend to understand it for the rest of my life. Like the Rizzler still don't know if I have that quite figured out. Or Riz generally. Are those related? Don't tell me. I'm not convinced that this Pope isn't just a big long prank on me, but I'm being pranked in a nice way. And J.D. Vance is being is being pranked like in a way that feels like divine retribution. So maybe it's all. Maybe it's fine. Maybe it's fine. You know? Yeah, no. Did you hear Craig Breslo's quote? I thought you were going to say something about J.D. Vancey. I was like, I have and it is the least charismatic terrifying thing I've ever heard in my life. That's not what you're going to say, though. Least charismatic is debatable

because Craig Breslo, you cannot say that even as a joke. That is so mean to Craig Breslo. To compare, I'm sorry, this episode is off the rails. You cannot compare. I've got no problem with Craig Breslo. I've interviewed him. There's the key difference. Sure, but in terms of just pure speaking charisma. I have confidence in Craig Bresel's ability to go into a donut shop and order like a normal human being.

Maybe so. Can that say the same thing about our vice president? But when he talks about his baseball team, it sounds, it's the most, you know how we talk about like front office speak? Yes. And he just has the most. I know. So that kind of the idea of deployment.

our players in a way that maximizes positive outcomes by creating the most favorable matchups that we can is a term, you know, that I would call optimization. And I think that's synthesizing analytical information. It's synthesizing the real-time feedback that we would be getting from our players and our coaches who are interacting with each other every single day to ensure that we're doing that and making sure that we're not leaving wins on the table. And it's odd because he's a former player. I know. And I know that he was, you know, analytically oriented and everything as a player. But did he talk like this when he was in uniform, like in a clubhouse?

Was it, what were the other players thinking? Is he overcompensating for the fact that he's a former player? And so he's like, I got to turn up the front office speak to 11 here. I don't know if you know this, but he did go to Yale. Yeah, I'm aware because it was mentioned every time he pitched during his career. But even so, yeah, it's the most like business-brained kind of just talking about optimizing whatever, you know. You know, and it's, I think, frustrating when your team is off to a slow start and then the guy who's in charge of your team is like coming up with this word salad that you just kind of, again, you don't want panic. You want a steady hand at the tiller, you know?

You don't want someone to be visibly upset because you want to project confidence and they have every reason to be confidence. Right. It's a good team. Yeah. But also, I don't know, if you want a little sort of commiserating. or empathizing or something or just acknowledging in some more comprehensible way

that things are not going well, that you're not going to get that from Craig Preslo. So it's, I don't know, from a PR perspective. I think a lot about the moment in that Netflix documentary and you're like, which one? They're making cuts in camp. You know, they're deciding the final cuts to like send guys down to minor league camp. And there are only so many ways to tell a guy, you're not making the big

league roster, right? And so I don't want to overstate the case. But because of the fact that we have footage of it, we just know that he said the same exact thing. Like, he decided this is how I'm going to communicate this. And there's something necessarily wrong with that. It's just that we don't normally get to see that conversation play out. And so, you know, back to back to back to back to back to back to back. And it's just the same way of saying it. And again, there are only so many ways to say it. It's not necessarily a problem. But I think about that scene a lot because I think he is starting to read to people in a way that is very kind of robotic. Yes. And part of this is, you know, part of this is that the Mariners are rolling Jerry out as much anymore, right? They're having Justin Hollander talk to the media.

And so, like, you know, Breslo is sort of filling a void. He's filling a business tech brain void that typically Jerry is happy to run into. Yeah. It is funny, though, that they're both former pitchers. And so I do wonder if there is a little bit of, I've got to fit in and not seem like a jock or something. And so I'm going to go completely in the other direction. Maybe. I don't know. I do think, I do think that the, you know, the Yale, the Yale part of this is not to be understated. Yeah. But Jerry, Jerry's not even an Ivy League guy. He's not an Ivy League guy. He's a Virginia Commonwealth University guy. Right. But he might be, it's funny. It's like,

what are you, what are you overcompensating for, you know? Like, Jerry might feel out of place as a former player who doesn't have sort of a prestigious pedigree, right? Whereas, you know, many, as you have written to great effect and I think better than anyone, like, you know, a lot of these former player types who are heading front offices now, you know, dispositionally and sort of resume-wise, not all that different from the typical CV of the guys running the show who didn't come up through the player pool. who knows, who knows? Yeah, I try to avoid the front office speak where I can.

I almost referred to MLB right-sizing Jose Al-Tuvae strike zone, but, you know, I always roll my eyes when a company lays off a bunch of people and they say, oh, we're not downsizing, we're right-sizing. But maybe that actually applies in Jose Al-Tuvae's strike zone case. But that whole term, yeah, it just carries associations that I want to avoid. Okay, the team that has hurt its fortunes, the second most in the early going unfortunately is

mixed Mariners. Yeah. Mariners off to a four and nine start so they're down also about 13 percentage points of playoff odds and yeah, it's been bad. They have not been

scoring much. Cowles off to a rough start. Julio, as ever, is off to a rough start. When does he ever look good early in the season? But he's looked particularly bad. thus far. One of these years, one of these years, he's just going to get off to a good start and have an amazing season, but not this year seemingly. So, yeah, we actually, mini-stap blast. We got a question the other day about the Mariners and their string of one-run losses.

This came from listener Michael, who said, April 7th, as I'm sure Meg knows, the Mariners lost their fourth straight one-run game despite a complete game from George Kirby. Although I'm tempted to ask a stats question about Kirby's knack for paying homage to King Felix. What I need to know is this. What is the MLB record for most consecutive one-run losses? Are the Mariners chasing yet another historical milestone in futility? A cursory Google search didn't turn anything up, so I'm coming to the experts. Well, the experts went to baseball references stathead tool and found that this was not a record. The record is seven, seven consecutive one-run losses.

And that was the Washington, well, the Washington team, I guess baseball reference calls them the nationals in 1919. And, yeah, they lost seven consecutive games by one run. And they lost a lot of games in general. They were 56, 84, and two, two ties that year. So that's not good. But four is not that notable. It's rare, obviously, but nothing historic. It's happened 223 times going back to 1898, including six times now in total by the Mariners,

as recently as 2020 and 2024. So not even really that new for the Mariners. The good news is they have snapped this streak because the game after that, they lost three nothing. Yeah. So now they've lost five in a row, but also they scored zero runs. Yeah. But they lost by more, which I guess is worse. but at least they snapped this streak.

Anyway, offensive futility. It has also been a demoralizing start for a team that was seen as maybe the best in the league. It hasn't been good. It's so strange because I was, you know, I was traveling. And then like yesterday, it was all day games. And so I haven't seen with my human eyes a lot of this futility. But it does feel early in the season to be like, sure. They're leading the Rangers now, but what's to come?

It's fine, though, because generally, you know, they really do well when they're playing the Astros in Houston. So I'm sure the next run here will go well. I don't care for it. You know, I really don't. I feel like I was a really good sport about Joe Adele and the robbing of the home runs. Because I don't want the young man's career to be a problem, but also enough already, all right? You guys, boys, boys, gentlemen. Squarespace and runs.

Squarespace and runs. You know, and like, Naylor has like a negative WRC plus. That's never good, you know? That's never good. No. It's bad enough that you don't even have to do the, like, you don't want your first baseman to have a, no, it's bad. No matter what position. I mean, like, good Lord.

But, um, so that's bad. Yeah. As long as you're intact, because I think the beds will come around. You know, I think they'll start scoring some runs. Sure. And as long as injuries haven't hit you hard, there's a limit to how upset I would be. But the only other team that is in double-digit percentage points down in playoff odds since the start of the season is the Cubs. Now, the Cubs are off to a six-and-sixth start, which doesn't sound so bad, but they're down about 11 percentage points.

And they're injured. And they're injured, yeah. And right, and those are some serious injuries. Right, yeah. That would dismay me more, you know? I mean, I think I'd rather be four and nine with all my guys healthy than six and six and having lost Kate Horton for the year and Boyd being injured and everything else. So, yeah, that's a double whammy. That's kind of an insult to injury.

I believe it was when they were four and eight. It was pointed out maybe by John Schneer. who's a smart guy who works for the team that they started that same way last year and the season ended up going just fine for them not World Series fine but like a successful season by any reasonable measure so it's not like it can't be done

and I do think that you know when you're when you're healthy and you theoretically still have reinforcements on the way and also you know a good farm system albeit a top heavy one to trade from. Like, you know, you have the means to to theoretically write the ship as long as people start hitting. And despite the early success of some of the other teams in that division, I think, correctly understood to be a more winnable division than, say, the ALE East. So, you know,

but also, I can't say I like it. I can't say I particularly care for it. How do you, sorry, We were talking about the Rangers even tangentially. How do you feel about these city connects? I'm sorry to derail us, but. I don't have particularly strong opinions on most jerseys, as you know. Yeah, you're not a jerseyman, really. I think they've maybe used up some of their better ideas in previous years. I think we can be done.

I do like the, I like the Baltimore ones. I think the new Baltimore ones are pretty spiffy. Part of that is just that I really didn't like the last. run that they have. But I like the Baltimore ones. I think that the Atlanta ones are good, but like, I still think we can just take a little break from that particular shade of blue and it would be okay. Are there a lot of gamers in SINCi? Because these still read to me like streamer, like outfits, like if you took a team of streamers and set up to some. Yeah. Yeah. If they were, if they were full agro, what did you say? Pulling agro. If they were pulling out.

Drawing agro? Drawing agro. Draw. I feel out of remove from that culture. I do. I feel like I'm at a distance. But yeah. So I don't know. They're better, I think, as a whole.

But it's a lot of them. And like many of them all at once. I don't like the Brewers ones. The Brewers ones are bad. I'm whispering. And then the Rangers ones, I guess. Yes.

You take that statue out, though, you know? Yeah. Like, what are we doing here? That would be nice. Yes. Okay. And then I left out one other slow starter that's in double digit negative territory. And that's the tigers.

You mentioned. Yeah. They're four and eight. They just got swept by the twins. Yeah, they did. So, and on the other end of things, so the guardians are eight and five. And because the tigers have been so bad and the guardians have been good, they're up 20.8 percentage points. They're the top gainer.

And then the Rangers who have been the beneficiaries of the Mariners slow start. They're 7 and 5. They're up 16. Yeah. And two percentage points. And the Brewers, they might not have great city connects, according to you. But they are 8 and 4 and they're up 10.7%. So again, it's, you know, Cubs are off to a slow start and tigers and mariners.

And thus the Guardians and Rangers and Brewers and the Yankees because of the Blue Jays and Red Sox slow starts. And the Yankees being 8 and 3 or whatever, they're in four. they're also up about 10 percentage points. So those are the big gainers. And yeah, again, like Tigers, how much does that concern me? Not enormously. I still think that these are all good teams. But they are now kind of at a deficit.

And now they have dug themselves a little bit of a hole that they have to climb out of. Yeah. And, you know, I think that of all the, like we don't need to keep harping on how poor the central is. But like speaking of winnable divisions, you know. Yeah. And I think that's a good club and they'll find their way. But I did watch the Diamondbacks like beat Terrick Scouble in person.

So, you know. Yeah. Yeah, you got to see a pitcher's duel as advertised. But Zach Allen was even better, I guess. Yeah. How many, I should have staff lasted this. It was, it was funny to watch the Diamondbacks. People were like, when was that start?

Hey, we had to take a pause because I had to travel. And I watched it in person. Left-on-left home run made the difference in that game. How exciting. The other decliners, the Blue Jays, we have touched on the reasons for that, but they're down about eight percentage points injured. And then the Giants are off to a five and eight start, and they're down about seven percentage points.

And no one was expecting too much of the Giants. People were expecting 500. out of them, and they've been worse than 500. But yeah, Tony Fitello has been not reassuring anyone who was worried about how he would adjust to the big leagues. And I don't want to make too much of this either, but, and maybe like people are kind of hyper-focusing on everything he says because it's such an unusual situation, and he's the first guy to really make this exact transition.

but it has felt like a little lack of feel when it comes to the way that he talks about stuff because it seems like he hasn't really let go of his college coaching career. And he doesn't have to on a personal level. Like he can continue to cherish that time or hold grudges from that time. But he keeps dredging up these issues from his college career. And this was happening in spring training. when he was kind of picking bones about just like how it was reported that he was taking this giant's job and seeming to criticize that it was reported that he would be taking the job before he actually decided to take it. But then he did take it and he took it quite quickly after the report.

I get that maybe it was kind of awkward because he hadn't told people perhaps. And so it was the news broke before he had broken the news himself to his colleagues or players or whatever. But then he was, I think, asked for comment in that report. And so he had to know that it was coming. And it's also just like old news. No one cares other than you, you know? And so for him to, and he was bringing up like this gripe he had with, you know, runners calls on runners in the baseline or whatever and throws.

and was hearkening back to times that he had been upset about this in his college career. And he doesn't have to pretend that he wasn't a college coach. He was an accomplished successful college coach. But I just can't help but think that for players in his clubhouse, they're just not going to be particularly impressed by that or like might not want to feel like their coaches, their manager's head is still sort of in college. It's like, hey, this is the big leagues, you know? Yeah.

And if the knock on him was going to be that he hadn't played or coached at this level, then would you want to be constantly reminding everyone that that's your background? So that coupled with the slow start for the team and then talking about like little issues. I mean, there was the Chapman in the mound visit telling Casey Schmidt to catch the effing ball. Right. And, you know, maybe that's just a veteran with a little tough love for a rookie or whatever. But and then Chapman made his own mental mistake. And then Vitello came out and said like there had been a few clubhouse issues, but they were minor.

But also like why even mention them then? And to like make it sound like there's a bigger issue than there is. And then also him talking about Kanye or I don't know. Like just it's he's kind of an oversherer maybe. And I don't know, quoting Kanye at this point. I don't want everyone to sound like Craig Breslo. So it's, I guess, to the advantage of press and fans to, like, hear the authentic thoughts of these managers, I don't want everyone to sound like a robot and be so buttoned up that they never say anything interesting.

But I don't know. It just doesn't seem like he's helping his case. And this is probably something where if they were off to a better start, this would not be a bigger issue. But he keeps, he's quite can. And he keeps raising eyebrows with his comments. Like he already doesn't have the background of any other major league manager, but also he's not sounding like any other major league manager. And maybe he's just leaning into, well, I'm different and I'm going to sound different. And if the team were winning, maybe that would be endearing and charming and people would embrace it.

And we'd be talking about Tony Ball or whatever. Right. But as it is, since people were kind of like waiting for him to screw up, you know, and just like also sounding like he is making a lot of the fact that the team is struggling early on and in kind of a college coach way and like delivering pep talks to the team. And I don't know. It just sounds a little bit Bush League. I think, you know, part of it is a very dramatic shift in both the. current and projected a competitive picture for the team he's dealing with. Like, Tennessee is like a powerhouse.

And also, you know, there are full-time professional reporters who cover college baseball. So I don't mean to suggest that the only people he's interacting with are like, you know, kids on the student paper. And also, there are plenty of really good student journalists. So there are any number of ways in which I don't want to sound like I'm being insulting here. but like I do wonder how much of this is an adjustment. So like, hey, you're standing in front of like a professional beat and they're going to have questions for you every day, you know. They are often going to concern why your club isn't winning because your club isn't.

So I think there are just any number of things separate and apart from the managerial differences of being a manager versus a coach, which is like the split, right? You talk about college coaches and you talk about big league managers. And I think that there are any number of things that are just different. That isn't to say that he can't grow into that role. That isn't to say that he's like a disaster or that the higher is a disaster. But it is a little surprising to be seemingly kind of caught off guard by the way that he is, you know, going to have to interact with the media that the expectations will have some of the potential pitfalls. It's like, why are you, why do you seem surprised by this?

And it does kind of strike me as, as him being a little bit surprised at times where it's like, hey, Tony, yeah, they're going to, you're going to have to talk to him every day, you know, and they're going to want to know about the game you just won, like that, you know, so I have been a little stymied by it because it did seem, at least in the initial going, like they were trying to position him well. you know, he traveled with guys from the club, like they went to Asia in the offseason, and we saw him walking around winter meetings, and he and Buster, like, glued at the hip, and it's just a little bit odd. It's like, yeah, guess what, it's April 9th. No one cares about what the press coverage was when you got hired. Like, you got to, you got a game today, you know? You got to take care of business right now.

I mean, they don't have a game today as we're recording, but you know what I'm. Yeah, and he was talking about how it was just like after they got shut out a couple times, which is not how you want to start, but not that big a deal. And he said it's emotional in the clubhouse and there are a lot of tryhards. He's calling his players tryhards as if they're just pressing or something. And it's just a little stream of consciousness, I guess. He just kind of just says whatever's on his mind in this very not media trained kind of way. and just divulging to say like there were a few clubhouse issues and then he's like, and we were able to keep them from you guys, which is great.

A couple things we were able to keep from you guys, which was great. But then you're revealing that you kept things that were happy. Why even say them then? So I don't know. Maybe he'll get used to it and the team will start winning a bit more and it just won't be that big a deal. And it's like, you know, I appreciate that the separation that we're implying between the majors and the college ranks is like, perhaps not quite as clean as we're suggesting. You do, you're dealing with professionals. And I, I understand that the distinction between a professional and an amateur these days is, is,

uh, less stark than it used to be. But, you know, there's still coaching that goes on at the big league level. You still have to mentor. You still, there, like, there are aspects of being a college coach that I could see being an incredibly valuable in a big league setting, even as you're having to navigate the reality of these being professionals and many of them on that roster big league veterans, you know, like you still have an opportunity to teach and to coach and to bring guys up. Like that still happens there. And it's not like he's the only one on that coaching staff. So you have other people who have experience in that context.

But surely you didn't disclose every like unflattering or contentious moment at Tennessee, right? And, you know, they were a bunch of college kids. They would probably be knuckleheads in ways that would horrify them. Yeah. Knowing the vibe of that clubhouse, I wouldn't be shocked. So, and by that clubhouse, I mean the Tennessee clubhouse. So I just think that, like, you know, we're seeing the rough edges. And we are particularly mindful of them because the team isn't playing especially well.

And it could all sort itself out. But it does feel, well, like a less professional outfit than you might expect. from a big league manager, but, you know. Yeah. Okay. And the pirates are up about nine percentage points, too, for reasons we have touched on. Twins are up a little bit. Marlins are up a little bit.

Even though they had some clubhouse discord too, because Clayton McCullough pulled Sandy Alcantra from a start. Alcantra was going for his second consecutive Maddox, which would have been quite special. I think the first pitcher to do that since Maddox himself. but he was not able to finish that out, and he got pulled when he got in a little bit of a jam in the ninth, and then Marlon's bullpen coughed it up, and Sandy was displeased that he hadn't been consulted before being yanked and made some comments to that effect.

Also, I'm confused about what they're doing. Joshian pointed this out in his newsletter, but they're pretty strictly platooning Owen Casey and just not having him start against lefties, which just seems weird, because, you know, why not see if he can hit them? He hit them okay in the minors. And you're bringing in Austin Slater, who hasn't even hit lefties himself that well lately and isn't a big part of your future.

And Casey's like a cornerstone you just made a big trade for and he's hit perfectly fine. So it's weird, weird to put a guy like that. It's a strange. There is kind of a weird. There's maybe a little bit of weird work, you know? Like, I like that they're trying stuff, but I don't like the stuff they're trying. I know. It's like, do you know what I mean?

Yeah, the pitch calling from the bench is spreading. The twins are now toying with it in the minors. And it's like not rooting against any particular players involved in this. It's not their decision. And some of them are fine with it. But since I don't really want this to catch on, I'm kind of like, well, if the Marlins weren't doing so well, maybe they would decide to stop this. but they're doing fine. I think I saw that several players on the Dodgers were like, that's a bad idea.

And I was like, listen to them. Oh, yeah. And some of the Yankees have said it. Right. Listen to them. And look, again, I think it might benefit teams that try it. And the Marlins are off to a good start. And hey, the Rockies are off to a good start.

For them, they have not changed their playoff odds one iota. No. But they're six and six. They're still at 0.1%. hits to make the playoffs, but it took them until May to win their sixth game last year. So they haven't gone. This is like their best starts since like 2020. Two, I think.

Yeah. They're 500 through their first 12 games. Yeah, they haven't done that since 2022 when they started eight and four. And even that year, they lost 94 games and we're a last place team. But if they only lost 94 games this year, that would be a success. So good for them, you know, they've been playing like a credible baseball team. lately, so that's exciting. But yeah, and, you know, we'll talk maybe about some surprising players, too, like Jordan Walker. Is this the real Jordan Walker? He's hit five homers. Are we

finally seeing the blossoming of Jordan Walker? But the Cardinals haven't changed their playoff odds fortunes that much, but they're seven and five. That's nice. But yeah, it's the veteran teams. It's like the Dodgers, the Yankees. Yeah, they've said they don't want to change anything and call pitches from the bench because, well, they have a lot of experienced good, high-priced players, and the teams are playing well. So sure, they're going to say that. And that's why I think this started with the Marlins and the Rockies. Like, these are teams that didn't have as much writing on it or just were desperate or didn't have established players who could push back on it. And I get that, you know, it's kind of a collaborative process. It's not purely an edict,

but even so, I think there's a lot of pressure on young players, even if you say, say, this is a suggestion. It's not a demand. Well, how often are you going to go against that, especially if you haven't developed the knack of calling these pitches yourself, really? So, anyway, we will continue to track this and we'll do periodic check-ins on the playoff odds fortunes. I did want to ask you, since we talked about new look jerseys and we talked about the Pope hat, what do you make of this incipient trend toward brimless hats, which, you know, you may have seen our pal Jake Mintz snapped a pick of Edwin Diaz

who was wearing a brimless hat and Diaz said that Tanner Scott also of the Dodgers started this trend and it is not a beanie, it's just a cap can you even call it a cap? It's a hat with the brim just sliced off. It looks sort of like a fez hat. It does. It looks like that.

Did you see Jordan's version? in which, you know, credit where it's due, Jordan did not do the seam ripping there. His lovely wife, Bailey did shots to Bailey. Hi, Bailey. Okay, so first of all, if I'm Edwin Diaz, I'm not following any trend that Tanner Scott strikes until such a time that I feel confident that that doesn't involve like, you know, cooties or a curse or bad vibes. Sorry, Tanner, you were very good and then you were not. and I don't know where you're going to fall this year. You know, I feel nervous about following.

Now, it's gone okay so far. It's gone okay so far. So two ERA, but four and two thirds. You're confident after four and two thirds that you know what the implications, the vibe implications of following a Tanner Scout render. I wouldn't feel confident in that. I got a ERA over four last year. Stay away from him, Edwin.

Also, just turn your cap around. What are, what is the, what is, what are we solving for? Okay. Ken Griffey Jr. is one of the coolest people to ever live. And he just turned that, are you so offended by foul territory that you have to cut the thing just off? That's a little dig at foul territory, which I don't mean as a dig, but maybe I do. What are you guys doing over there?

What's with all the backwards baseball caps? What's going on? Yeah, it's definitely a different look. And I know that there was a, it's like a kind of viral video several years ago where a guy had a Yankee cap with no brim. And so I don't know if that was the inspiration because that was like 2020. Probably not. So there was a long lag there. But I had not seen actual big leaguers implying this look before.

I don't know. I don't hate it. I don't have strong opinions on this because much of the. because I'm not a jersey opinion haveer. I don't wear caps. I'm not a hat wearer. And I'd probably be more likely to wear one if it didn't have a brim, maybe, just because I feel like to. You're just describing a beanie that doesn't have a function.

Like, I think that's true. It's like, why not just wear a beanie? What is it doing? What is it meant to do? Are you cold? If you're cold, wear something designed to actually insulate you. I'm skeptical you are cold because you play in law. play in Los Angeles.

Although, you know, it's not like they played all of their games at home. And it did rain that one day. But still, what is the purpose? Because you're not, you're not shielding your eyes. The backwards baseball cap, in addition to having a tradition of being cool, also, like, it can, you know, it like shades your neck, which is, you know, an area that sometimes people forget to sunscreen. And then they get, they, then they get burned back there. And that's not good.

So, okay, but you're not shading anything. It looks weird. It looks. It looks weird for now. And then if it becomes common, it won't look weird anymore. It's like, you know, the really big hats? Have you seen these really, like the, what are those about? What are, what's that about?

I don't know. It doesn't offend me, though. I think it's just, I mean, there's no utility to it. Clearly, you're removing the part of. the cap that offered some utility to players. But I think it's purely just a fashion statement. It's purely like, wouldn't this be silly and perhaps fun? Players are, they can be copycats.

I'm guessing that this will catch on to some extent. Why? I don't know. Why? It looks stupid. I mean, I don't know. No. I don't mind it.

I'm taking a stand against this. I think it's, I think it's doofy. I think you're really. You're ruining those caps. You're ruining them. Unless you think you're improving them. Also, did Tanner Scott, like, bring a seam ripper from home? Who's doing the alteration?

Is this something that you're imposing on a poor clubby to take the brim off your... And how do you explain it? Like, I know that Edwin Diaz did it, and we know that because of Jake. And that's fine. But he did it because Tanner Scott did it. Why did Tanner Scott do it? What is Tanner Scott's justification for this? I don't know.

I don't understand. Yeah. I don't like it. I think it looks dumb. I think you look silly. Just having a cap is not strictly necessary, right? I mean, you know, people were wearing caps on night games. I guess, okay, maybe the lights could get in your eyes or something.

But I think the utility of the cap is probably a bit overblown anyway. But it has all utility. It has all utility. other contexts. It's part of the uniform, which is why you wear it at night. I understand that it has different lesser utility at night because, sure, maybe you're worried about

the lights, but you're probably not worried about the lights. But it's part of the uniform. You would look naked without it. And, you know, we already have the pants, right? You're already basically naked out there because they haven't fixed the pants. They're doing

all these city connects still have transparent pants. They still have share He insists that they were always like that. They were not only like that. No! I'm slamming my keyboard down. I don't like it. I think I understand that there are a lot of kinds of hats.

And not all the hats are about utility. Some of them are about beauty. They're about it looking pretty. They're about it looking. This is why I don't wear hats mostly because I don't care about making fashion statements. And I wouldn't make good ones if I did, probably. I'm going to say something. And I want to preface it by reminding you that we are friends and you are dear to me.

But if I could speak to Edwin Diaz and Tanner Scott and anyone else who's, this man doesn't care about fashion, he just said that. And he thinks this is good. So like make up that what you will. Okay. Just like take that piece of information in. And I am no fashionista. Okay. And I famously like very ugly hats.

Sometimes I'm like that that hat's ugly. Give it to me. But I'm here to say this is a bridge too far, even for me a person who doesn't, who isn't turned off by ugly hats. Some hats are ugly and I'm like, I don't know. I kind of need that.

I have some hats. And I've been told, I'm like, I need that hat. And then someone will be like, you're not going to wear that. And I'm like, yes, I will. And then I don't. But I have it. And I look at it.

I'm like, that's ugly. Yeah. I don't know if it's good. I'm not necessarily endorsing it. I'm neutral. I'm indifferent. I think it's fine. I need an articulation of what about it, you, not you, Tanner, Scott.

What do you like Tanner? And the problem is the Tanner is pitching well in like limited action, certainly. But he's pitching, he's pitching well. And I'm sure that that's a great relief to him and a tremendous relief to the Dodgers and a really great relief to Dodgers. But it's like, what do you? why did you do it? What did, why did you do it? What inspired you to do it?

Why were you like, I should do that? And again, did he do it? Or did he make someone else do his crafts for him? In which case, why? If this catches on, presumably they will just start selling hats like this, right? And we'll just have rimless hats that you could buy. I am making such a why face about that. I just don't understand.

So many, like baseball caps are great. And there are so many good ones. And even the ugly ones will keep the sun out of your eyes. And it's like if you're going to do creative stuff with hats, then move off of the cab genre entirely. There are so many different kinds of hats. It's true. And other caps, yeah, if you're removing the bill, other caps would probably be more comfortable anyway. Right.

So that's one reason. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A couple final follow-ups here on things we've discussed while we're talking about pictures and fashion states. We got an email from Eli Sussman of Fish on First, the Marlins site, responding to your comment that we don't usually see pitchers wear sunglasses. And Eli says on episode 2462, you guys very briefly discussed why pitchers never wear sunglasses. Well, the unorthodox Marlins have a prospect who does.

I was in attendance for their spring breakout game last month and noticed them on right-hander Aden May. Here he is after that game explaining that they are prescription lenses. he found out at the 2024 draft combine that he had impaired vision but was, quote, too stubborn to address it until now and has turned it into a fashion statement. He has continued to wear them during the minor league season. And there's at least a little precedent for this because I was reminded that Keogawa used to sometimes wear sunglasses when he was with the Yankees. And I think in his case he did it because in Japan, he had pitched much better in night games than in day games. And so when he pitched in day games, he wore sunglasses not to block out the sun necessarily, but to simulate night games. Yeah, I'm not sure how well that worked in his case.

But yeah, in both of these cases, though, it's still there's some reason other than just wanting to block the sun, which is the reason why a lot of players wear sunglasses. You need more than that if you're a pitcher. I guess that it's not sufficient. you need a prescription, so you have to wear some sort of glasses, so you might as well, or you're trying to make it look darker to fool yourself into thinking that it's a night game or something. There's always some sort of explanation, some extenuating circumstance. But, yeah, it's not totally unprecedented. Also, we talked last time about Patrick Corbyn.

He's actually starting Friday for the Blue Jays. So it turns out not a long lead time there. He's just about ready already, which means, yeah, bump up the innings, estimates, accordingly. But John Schneider, Blue Jays manager, this was posted by Keegan Matheson, who covers the Blue Jays for MLB.com. John Schneider, on the feedback he got about Patrick Corbin from old teammate Max Scherzer. I think Max actually called him a sled dog. It was the first time I've heard that. I guess he just kind of does what he's told and pulls the sled. So Patrick Corbin, a sled dog, according to Max Scherzer, which I guess that's what we're going. I guess that's

what we were saying. More or less, he takes the ball, you know, he just stays in harness. You tell him to run, and he just runs. And I guess that's what you want when everyone else on your staff is injured. That's so funny. Yeah. Also, Slit dog. Yeah, we talked about Carter Jensen and his oversleeping. And listener Paul wrote in to say, when you were wondering if Carter had a person at home and later noting it's often these players first times living alone, And it reminded me that when Jensen was a late season call up last year, he lived with his parents for at least part of that time since he's a Kansas City native. And Paul says, my siblings and I were joking that this wouldn't have happened to him last year

because his mom would have woken him up. It's true. That's probably part of why this doesn't happen more often. Also, Paul says, it seems like the Royals have moved on to the friendly razing stage of this story because since the incident, the team hit celebration has become the nighty night laying your head on the pillow move, which I think is pretty funny. And Jensen did that himself the other day, and other players have done that too. So now they're doing the, you know, put your head on your hands thing after you get on base.

So that's fun. I like, you know, message was sent and they did the rebuke and now everyone can laugh about it, hopefully. And if incorporated it into their, yeah, and for Jensen to poke some fun at himself, a little self-deprecating humor. I like that. So, you know, that's a happy ending to the story maybe. And then also an email from listener Jonti, who wrote in to say the discussions on episode 2460 and 62 about starting pitchers staying eyewashingly serious during ring ceremonies made me think of a game back on August 27, 2021, when Andre Jackson, then of the Dodgers, was warming up for his second big league appearance after having made his major league debut 11 days prior. Sportsnet, LA, the Dodgers RSN did a segment about him on their show Backstage Dodgers. The stadium will often play segments of backstage Dodgers before games, and the one about Jackson's debut was playing on the day he was set to make his second career appearance.

This was happening while Jackson was in left field doing some early warm-up tosses. Indeeringly, Jackson stopped to watch himself on the big screen. My partner, Linda, was there for the game and captured the moment, and he sends us some photos of this. Of course, this is not nearly the same level of pomp and crowd attention as a ring ceremony, but I appreciated Jackson showing us he's a normal person, just taking it in. And in retrospect, I always had an inexplicable little fondness for a guy who pitched 39 innings for the team I follow. I think this little human moment explains it. And a postscript, Andre Jackson ended up playing for NPB's Yokohama Bay Stars for a couple years.

And in 2025, while wearing number 42, he hit a home run and his celebration was infectiously joyous. And I will link to that too. He was a pitcher because they still have pitcher hitting there. And, yeah, he was quite happy. So he's a man who enjoys his triumphs and takes a moment to drink them in. And that's nice because, you know, if you're Andre Jackson and you're not going to be there that long, maybe. I mean, I don't know if he was thinking that. But he should have savored that moment because you can't count on there being.

anymore. Yeah, I think that's right. I think that, you know, it can be so fleeting, so so good in. Okay. Congrats to White Sox right-hander Duncan Davitt, my guest on episode 2419 back in December. As you might recall, he is not just a pitcher. He's also a sports writer on the side. Had a great conversation with him and expected that at some point I would be able to wish him congratulations for making the majors this season, and I didn't have to wait long. He has been summoned to try to improve that White Sox run differential. So a new one, minted major leaguer we have already met. Another fun little mini blast by Patreon supporter TRW in the Stapblast channel of our Discord group. Well, not so fun if you're a Tigers fan, as TRW is, but the Tigers won on

April 4th, bringing their record to 4 and 4. Since then, they've lost 5 straight, meaning that their record was 4 and 5th, which is April 5th in month-month day-day format. Four and 6th on April 6th, 4 and 7th, 4 and 8th, 4 and 8th, and 4 in 9th, and 4 in 9th, this is the longest such streak since the 1904 Philadelphia Phillies, who went from 5 and 18 on May 18th to 5 and 23 on May 23rd. And that streak of 6 ties the longest ever streak of record matching date in month date format. If you go by day and then month format, the record is 8 set by the 1939 Yankees starting on May 14th, 1949, ending on May 21st, and they went from 14 and 5 to 21 and 5.

TRW says, the schedule makes these streaks impossible in certain years, basically the entire second half of the 20th century. They became possible again only in recent years, and they've really flourished. 2020 is the only season in which a month, month, day, day, or day, month, streak happened in August. In month and then day format, all other streaks happened in April or May. In day and then month format, there were a couple that happened in June. Otherwise, all in April or May, usually an early season phenomenon. So if the Tigers lose again on Friday, they could set a record, a record-related record.

And one more late-breaking follow-up on the outro to our preceding episode. I talked about how Andy Dirks has been referring to some pulled batted balls, some pulled hits as good pieces of hitting or nice pieces of hitting, counter to the convention, that that phrase be reserved for going the other way, not trying to do too much, etc. Jason Benetti informed me that Dirk's is not doing that on purpose to try to reclaim that phrase. However, listener Brad wrote in to say, Boog and J.D., in the Cubs TV booth, had an extended conversation last year about the phrase, good piece of hitting, how it's typically used when a player has a weak hit away from his pole side. Then they started saying it when someone hit a ringing double or homer because that's when we actually should be complimenting a hitter. Well done. Boog and J.D.

Boog went to my high school, so you know he's a great guy. And we'll know that you're great if you support this podcast on Patreon, which you can do in time for our next episode, which will be a subscriber-only full episode, by going to patreon.com slash effectively wild, and signing up to pledge 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. Andy Kim's, Adam Barber, Wiley McLeod, Ben Etter, and Shane. Thanks to all of you. Patreon perks include the aforementioned. weekly subscriber only episode, our monthly subscriber only bonus pod, our Discord group for patrons only, our exclusive live streams, personalized messages, prioritized email answers, fan graphs, memberships, and much more. Check out all the offerings at patreon.com slash effectively wild. I am grateful for you all. Other podcasts that I have done have come and gone, always subject to the whims of other decision makers,

but not this one, and that's thanks to the listeners who have stepped up to support it. And also now to get some good stuff too. If you are a 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 join our Facebook group at facebook.com slash. Effectively Wild. You can rate, review, and subscribe to Effectively Wild on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube music, and other podcast platforms. You can find the Effectively Wild subreddit at our slash Effectively Wild.

And you can check the show notes in the podcast post at FanGrafts or Patreon or the episode description in your podcast app for links to the stories and stats. we've cited today. Thanks to Shane McKeon for his editing and production assistance. We will be back with one more episode before the end of the week, which means we will talk to you soon.