Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast - Effectively Wild Episode 2471: Rushing to Judgement

Episode Date: May 1, 2026

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, please visit our Patreon. Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about whether Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing is the new reigning redass of MLB, and the first in-depth he-said, they-said mud-slinging about Craig Breslow and Boston’s coaching cull. Then (35:19) they Stat Blast about the longest streaks of series wins and non-losses to start a season (or at any point in a season), lapping the league in run differential, and batterymates who were previously exchanged in a trade, before bringing on Ben Clemens of FanGraphs (49:36) to talk about whether Munetaka Murakami’s hot start is sustainable (and if so, why he was widely underestimated), how the strike zone has been shrunk and reshaped in the ABS era—somewhat counterintuitively, not just because of overturned calls—and the potential short/long-term effects on scoring. Audio intro: El Warren, “Effectively Wild Theme” Audio interstitial: Kite Person, “Effectively Wild Theme” Audio outro: Jonathan Crymes, “Effectively Wild Theme 2” Link to “redass” definition Link to Carig on “redass” Link to Rushing timeline Link to “fishy” comment clip Link to “fishy” comment article Link to Rockies celebration Link to Lee incident clip Link to Rushing denial Link to Lee incident article Link to Amaya incident clip Link to Hoerner comments Link to Rushing’s slide Link to Arraez comments Link to timeout request Link to 2015 Williams feature Link to Breslow/Boston report Link to fatberg wiki Link to streaks spreadsheet Link to Columbus Solons wiki Link to traded batterymates Link to Ben’s catchers research Link to Shackleton wiki Link to Clemens on Murakami Link to chase rate leaderboard Link to Passan on Ohtani in 2018 Link to Passan’s follow-up Link to Clemens on the strike zone Link to strike zone definition Link to Trueblood on the strike zone Link to Trueblood on challenges Link to Sam on 3-0 autostrikes Link to 2025 buffer zone change Link to ump accuracy over time Link to Ben on umpire grading Link to kernel regression wiki Link to 2024-26 MLB rates Link to 2025 MLB rates through same date Link to 2024 MLB rates through same date Link to highest full-season rates Link to Federer Hawk-Eye stance 1 Link to Federer Hawk-Eye stance 2  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

Hello and welcome to episode 2473 of Effectively Wild, a baseball podcast from Fangraphs presented by our Patreon supporters. I am Ben Minberg of the Ringer, joined by Meg Rally of Fangraphs. Hello, Nick. Hello. Meg, there's a new red ass in town. I think MLB has a new reigning red ass. A new reigning red ass. For anyone who's unfamiliar with the term, I will read.

No, not as far as we know. We can't speak to that part. I guess it's how one might act if ones but we're red and that we're causing discomfort. Is that the etymology of this? I don't, you know what? I don't want to know the answer to that. Probably better not to know. Could be, you know, could go bad in a couple of different directions.

That feels like it could be problematic. Well, Dickson Baseball Dictionary defines Redass as a tough. angry, intense player, a player who plays hard, a raging competitor who hates to lose. That was not the word I thought was going to come after. Yeah, well, it's not the word that a lot of people would use probably. And, yeah, Mark Corrig wrote a piece about red assery at the athletic several years ago and talk to players how they would define it and I will link to that. But it goes back quite a ways.

I mean, the red ass has been. been with us for almost a century or so. The actual red ass has been with us a lot longer. But the terminology, probably time immemorial, as long as there have been human beings, there have been red asses. But the baseball red ass, I think, yes, it's all those things in the Dixon dictionary. But I think there is also, there's an element of unreasonability to it. Yes. Like, you know, it's not just that you are an intense competitor. But also, you're kind of over the top. You're just, you're agro. It's like settle down, dude.

Yeah. Right. You're taking umbrage at things that no offense was intended, right? You kind of have a short fuse, all of those things. Yeah. The new reigning red ass is Dalton rushing. I love that. I got to give you a timeline of rushing related incidents here.

So they extend beyond the Rockies accusation, basically, of them cheating in some way? Yeah. Yeah, that was maybe the beginning of it. Yeah. So that was one of them. So in mid-April, Dalton Rushing strongly implied that the Rockies were cheating, sign stealing. Because, yeah, the Rockies beat the Dodgers and Rushing said, I think it's odd that some of those hitters that do what they do, they go up there and they're on the first pitch that was thrown. So it's a little fishy, but I'll wear it.

And then, of course, the Rockies co-opted this and they turned the fishy things. the fishy thing into one of their cellies, right? Yeah. So good on them. Perfect. No notes. Yeah. Can I pause for you first?

I read the end of that quote again. Okay. It is. So it's a little fishy, but I'll wear it. Uh-huh. Yeah. If you're going to wear it, you know, say anything about it, buddy. You keep those thoughts on the inside of your brain.

Yes. Yeah. I don't make excuses, but. But. then insert excuse, which is okay. Sometimes excuses are good excuses, but don't pretend that you're not making one. And then, yeah, he said some other stuff, but basically he's calling into question whether they were on the level. And you know what? Maybe they were just good at it? Or maybe that was on you as a game caller or who knows what. Now, the most entertaining thing

is that Dave Roberts, rushing's manager, instantly undercut him. He said he didn't think there was anything fishy going on. So that was fun. And then, you know, because he probably just wanted to not add fuel to the fire and have some sort of division rivalry here and, you know, why make this more than it is. So then a few days after that, the Dodgers were playing another divisional opponent, the Giants, and Junghu Lee slid into home plate and seemed to hurt himself. He wasn't seriously injured, but he was, you know, writhing around a little and on his back for a bit. And it wasn't clear that he wasn't seriously hurt. Right.

And Dalton Rushing, while walking away after the out was recorded, appeared to say. And I don't think I have any special lip reading skill, but it was widely interpreted as him saying, fuck him. At Junghuli, basically. Yeah. Oh, no. Yes. And this became a whole thing because there was subsequently retaliation, because Logan Webb

who insisted that he had not seen the clip of rushing purportedly saying this about Webb's teammate. Rushing was hit by a pitch by Logan Webb, and then rushing kind of escalated with a hard slide into Willie Adamas at second on a double play ball. And Louisa Rize said it's not good baseball. It's not clean baseball there. So he thought that was a dirty takeout slide. And opinions varied. There were people who said,

look, it's tit for tad and it's hard nodes baseball or whatever. And, you know, it's not the biggest deal in the world, but it appeared to be instigated by rushing saying this. And rushing denied that he said it. But then Dave Roberts appeared to undercut him again. This is my favorite subplot of this running theme. Don't be confused, young man. I do not have your back in any of this.

Yes. which I think is actually good managing. I do too. I think Dave Roberts is handling this well. I was like, come on, bud. Yeah. And so Roberts, you know, when the giant said that the hit by pitch wasn't intentional, Roberts said it probably was intentional.

And for me, rushing said what he said. I don't think he meant it to personally. But they see it. Social media catches it. Webby's an old school guy and he's protecting his teammates. So Roberts was simultaneously defending rushing by saying, Yeah, the Giants probably hit him on purpose. And also they definitely saw this clip.

But then also saying, yeah, he said what he said. You know, so, okay. And now the third part of this trilogy, April 26th, Rushing throws out Miguel Amaya of the Cubs on a stolen base attempt and appeared to call Amaya a fat fuck. What? Yeah. And Rushing has not confirmed this, but Nico Horner, who was. was at the plate when rushing allegedly said this confirmed that he said that that the lip reading was correct that everyone did he just say fat fuck yeah nico horner said yeah he said that and horner said

i wish i had confronted him i was pretty taken aback so like evidently he didn't say anything because he was just like what like what yeah he was like did you just say that so maybe i mean assuming this is not some sort of like involuntary i mean you know, it's not like some Tourette's sort of situation or something. Like evidently, the way that he seems to celebrate any accomplishment on the field is by being like, fuck him. And apologies to Shane for making you bleep so many times, but it's Dalton Rushings' fault. So then there was another incident a couple of days later where... Another one?

Well, in this case, he appeared to have a point because he was called out by an umpire for having requested a timeout but not being granted. it and so rushing struck out on a pitch clock violation. And when they showed the replay of this, rushing appeared to have requested the timeout and said time out, please, and like even made eye contact with the umpire. So it was kind of perplexing that he was not granted time. So I was, I'll defend him on that one, but he did get upset about that maybe reasonably. But these other cases, I, like, is this just kind of casual for him? I get being competitive and in the moment, tensions are high and, you know, Giants Dodgers.

There's plenty of history and everything. But this is extreme just to curse out guys and insult them. And like when Lee is possibly hurt and like he didn't do it. It's not like there was any affront that we know of. It's like he's personally offended. He didn't collide with rushing either. No. He just looked like he may be hurt.

hurt himself. I remember that play because I thought, oh, God, here we go again, you know, because he's dealt with such bad injury look since he's come over. And why is he cursing out Miguel Amaya? Is it like he takes it personally that Amaya thought that he could run on him or so? Like, does he have that big a chip on his shoulder that he's just personally affronted anytime any competitor tries to do something while he's on the field. And so it's just, it's a lot. So, I mean, I don't know whether this was the case with rushing last year because he was up he played 53 games for the Dodgers last year as a backup. Right. But he played fairly sparingly and also he didn't hit.

He had a 62 WRC plus. And so maybe I just wasn't noticing him as much or maybe he wasn't feeling himself as much. And so maybe now he's off to a fantastic start. Yeah. It's 15 games. It's 52 player purchases, but he's hit seven homers. He has a 244 WRC plus. So maybe he's feeling his oats a little bit, and he's like, yeah, now I've really arrived. I mean, he turned 25 in February. He's still a pretty young guy, but also it's just like Dalton rushing. I mean, of all the superstars on the Dodgers, he's one of the more anonymous guys. And like, a lot of those guys are not super agro really. I mean, Freddie Freeman, Shoyotani. Like, you know, these guys are greats. And they're not treating opponents like this.

So it's a little bit much for me. And I don't care for that at all. I don't, obviously, I don't know Dalton rushing, so I can't speak to the particulars of his personality. You know, he was a second rounder. But he, like, he was a very highly regarded prospect. Oh, yeah. It was all sudden done. Like, he graduated as a top 10 guy for us.

And I don't think we were alone in that place. meant, you know, I think that everyone sort of rightly wondered how is the playing time going to fall out because the Dodgers famously have Will Smith and he's not going anywhere. But like he was like a 60 FV prospect for us. So I. Yeah. He played a little left in the minors. So you could always, I mean, not that there's a vacancy immediately, but at some point there might be. Right. And you know, I think people, especially after Otani came on the scene, it's like, well, what do you normally do with a guy like that? You. If you can't play him at first base because of Freddie Freeman, maybe DHS. Well, they're hard to do that on the Dodgers. But if that is motivating some sort of grumpiness, well, that hardly seems like Zhang Hu Lee's problem. I just, you know, there are all kinds of people, Ben, in the world. I'm getting sick.

It's going to be evident in this little bit of our conversation that I have some brain fog roll winning. But there are all kinds of people. and they react to stimulus in all kinds of ways. And some of that reaction, I think, can be a little involuntary, but also you're an adult. You can do little work there to maybe have some. You can be happy, you know?

This is a thing I often wish that professional athletes, particularly male professional athletes, would internalize. I want folks to do their feelings. be honest about them, but also there's doing your feelings and then there's having your feelings at someone. And as soon as the focus of the attention shifts to other people, you do have new obligations. And mostly I just wish that guys could sometimes react to good things happening on the field in a way that read legibly as like excitement and happiness rather than the big anger reaction. Because a lot of the things.

time that is what it reads as and you don't need to call someone a fat fuck come on man like yeah yeah have some respect for your union brothers yes also you're 25 not to not to invoke britches but aren't you getting a little big for yours maybe i think so yeah and maybe it's because he's having this hot start to the season and some professional athletes not exclusively professional athletes but some of them motivate themselves this way. Sure. And they fuel themselves on affronts or perceived a front. Right.

And sometimes they invent fictional affronts. They're fabricated affronts. You know, it's the nobody believed on us. It's like, everybody believed in you. What are you talking about? But you're, you were top 10 global prospect. You play for the Los Angeles Dodgers. What is your damage here, Dalton?

Right. I don't understand. Yeah. I don't understand. And it's possible that this is. performance enhancing for him. You know, now if he were doing this last year, and perhaps he was, and I just wasn't as aware of it, I don't know, or maybe because it was his first year in the big leagues, and he wasn't hitting then,

and he was just trying to break in. Maybe he toned it down a bit. But if he were doing this act and not producing, well, that would be one thing. If he is hitting as well as he is and this is happening, then maybe you put up with it. But I like the way that Dave has handled it, which is. too. Don't publicly show up your guy, you know, don't like accuse him of being immature or rebuke him that way. But kind of do that publicly. Right. Send a subtle signal, you know, or just behind closed doors, sit him down at some point and say, you know, we don't have to play this way. Because, yeah, you can burn out, I guess, this way if you're constantly angry. So Redass can be performance enhancing and it really depends on the guy, I guess. Some people, they just always have to have someone who's sliding them, someone to be mad at.

It's not enough just to compete. And other guys, that could actually impair their performance because it would distract them and they'd be seeing red and they wouldn't be focusing. Yeah. Red ass and eyes. Yes. And they wouldn't be focusing on their performance. And they'd basically be on tilt, right? And it would get them off their game.

So maybe rushing is the type who can channel this. We will see. I would be curious to hear. I've seen some reactions, but I'd be happy to hear any from our listeners, how this is landing with Dodgers fans. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes this can endear you to a fan base

because he's our red ass, you know? And so you hate that guy when he's playing for other teams. But when he's your guy and he's sticking it to your opponents and importantly, he's hitting. Right. Then you're thinking, okay, fine, we'll put up with this or we'll even embrace it. We like to see this sort of spirit

because maybe we feel that personally. Yeah, fuck the giants. Yeah, express our thoughts, right? But then also, I think even most Dodgers fans who have a grudge against the Giants, I don't know that they would necessarily be like cursing Juncoe Lee when he's down and possibly hurt. Like, he didn't do anything.

Yeah. What did he do? I've had two thoughts in the last two minutes that made me almost laugh really hard. You know, it's like, You know the expression, rose-colored glasses. And so I was getting ready to say red-colored glasses, but then my rapidly declining sign cognition just said ass-colored glasses.

You have ass-colored glasses. Well, we talked about glass-ass, so why not? Glass glasses, ass glasses. Ass glasses. You have ass-colored glasses. But then also I thought the demographic of human I associate most with having a red ass is babies. Well, yeah. Babies will get like, they get like diaper rash and, you know, and so that, I was like, Dalton and Dalton is the Dodgers baby.

And it's like, you know, you'll clean up, you'll take care of your own babies, diaper rash. But you wouldn't, you wouldn't be, you wouldn't feel compelled to do that for other people's babies. I mean, maybe you would because it's like, oh, it's a little baby. You need to help it because you can't do it itself because it's a. Because it's a baby. But Dalton is 25. Yeah, I think he can wipe. He can use some dude wipes.

He's not a baby. Yeah, dude wipes. See, dude wipes are the perfect analogy for this moment because it's like, are you guys okay. Also, everyone, I know it says that you can flush those, but you shouldn't. Yeah, that's a recipe for Fatbergs. Oh, right. That's right.

Anyway, we're recording on a Thursday, but this is effectively our Friday episode. because it's the last one of the week. So we've embraced the spirit of the thing. I wonder if I have a full-blown fever yet if that's an hour or two away from now. But Dalton, man, hey, chill. And part of it might be the problem, quote, unquote, of his circumstance, which is, you know,

everything's going great for Dalton rushing right now. And things are mostly going well for the Dodgers, although they no longer have been ringered in baseball. And they're tied with the Reds for the second best record in the National League. So maybe they're feeling a bit on tilt themselves, although they are still leading the Padres, if only slightly, in the NOS. So maybe, you know, you get into a spot where if being a red ass is important to your in-game psychology and ability to motivate, well, what are your problems, you know?

You don't have any baseball problems. really. I can't, again, I don't know Dalton, so I can't speak to whether or not he has any, like, being a human being problems. But you don't have any baseball problems. You're the Dodgers. You're a player on the Dodgers playing well. So maybe you have to resort to this extreme of red assery to get up for it. But to that, I would say, you got to find it in yourself, buddy, you know. You got to find, now I feel like I'm talking to him like he's a baby. Yeah. Yeah. And I know nothing about that. him and I mean this behavior this this public persona this competitive persona does not make me want to know him on a personal level it makes me think maybe we wouldn't get along great yeah there are some players who just turn into competitive monsters on the field and then off the field they're nice easy going guys it's possible you know rich hill one of our favorites right he's like on his start day i don't think leon joe hill would call anyone a fat fuck no he's he's he's intent to

a different way. It's inwardly directed more so than, yeah. So it's a different kind of. Yeah. And so, yeah. And I think the thing, and it seems, I agree with you, like I appreciate the way that Roberts is handling this and it suggests to me an identification of it as a potential issue. The thing about being a red ass in a way that competitors take note of is that the consequences of that red assery don't tend to be limited to you. You know, if it gets that a hand. If it gets out of hand. hand, you might not be the only one there potentially spiking or whatever. Yes, you might be wearing one. It's a distraction. It's a storyline. Other people are going to be, yeah, they're going to have to answer for it at least or give their opinions on it. And you're Dalton rushing. Like you're off to a strong start, but you're pretty low on the pecking order here,

right? Like you're low on the hierarchy of seniority and stardom. Right. So just I'll find a different. It's like, you know how in acting there are all of these, there are different approaches, right, to being an actor, different ways of locating the feeling that you need in order to apply your craft. He's the Jeremy Strong of the touches. Right. I was like, and is red assery and being method are they, I'm drawing a parallel that I think is actually not methodologically sound, but is personality. sound if you get my drift. So you need to, you need a different approach, Dalton. You have to locate, you need to

go back and find like some other Eastern European named method to locating the motivation, assuming that's what it is. And I guess for Dalton rushing's sake and for the sake of others

who might enjoy Dalton rushing, you kind of hope that that's what it is because otherwise Otherwise, one might be let to conclude that you're just a dick. Yes, it's possible. Which, again, might be possible. We don't want to impugn the young man's character because we don't know him. But I also would say the indicators you're supplying us with, Dalton, you should pick different indicators.

These ones don't cast you in a good light. You appear to be indifferent to the potential suffering of others and kind of a jerk in circumstances that don't merit it. So tighten up, buddy. Whether this is ultimately good makeup or bad makeup in a baseball sense, it depends. And time will tell. But I don't gravitate toward this type of player personally. There are people who maybe they're wired that way and they see themselves in that guy or they just, you know, and I like to see some evidence of caring.

I've even talked about, okay, if my team has a rivalry with another team, even though it's sort of silly, some amount of fraternization almost kind of breaks the k-fabe of, oh, we're really trying to beat these guys and we care about this rivalry. But this turns me off, and I'm not at all wired this way, and this is like antithetical to my makeup and personality. And so I tend to gravitate toward, you know, Bernie Williams was my favorite player. Now, it's like I liked Paul O'Neill when I was a kid, too. Sure. And Paul O'Neill was more this way, you know, not necessarily exactly to this degree, but he would throw things, you know, he would, break bats, he would toss stuff.

And a lot of people didn't like Paul O'Neill because he would do that stuff. And Yankees fans loved him. Oh, he's the warrior, right? Because he's our guy who gets pissed. And so those were the two poles, really. And I liked both of those guys. But Bernie was my main man because he presented as just placid and serene and always just competent and clutch and just like different from the typical baseball player.

And he was even bullied and picked on by the monster Mel Hall. early in Bernie's career. And I appreciated that because it was sort of like, oh, this is what I would be like if I were this good at baseball, you know, or the late Garrett Anderson, RIP, who just died too young and was also someone I really appreciated watching from afar because he just kind of went about his business. And, you know, he was good, not spectacular, but solid. and like always just kind of represented the team well and he was durable and he was always

going to be there and he would give you his production. And so I just, I like that type of player more so than the guy who is just going at everyone at all times. And I appreciate that about Shohei Otani, the fact that he's so prenaturally talented and yet he's incredibly courteous of everyone at all times. And like he clearly cares and he wears his heart in his sleeve and he'll pump his fist. and he'll shout and everything. But it's never meant to put anyone else down.

And he's constantly, like, you know, expressing concern for people and, like, picking up trash on the field. All this stuff where, like, he could be a red ass and he could be big-timing everyone. And he would get away with it because he's maybe the best ever. Yeah. And so, I don't know. Maybe model yourself more on that, Dalton rushing. And, like, I think that baseball and sports.

sports generally, there's a place for the heel, right? There's a place for the guy. The Bregman. Or like, you know, who's been. But not the cheating part, hopefully. Yeah. Well, and then once you do the cheating part, the heel thing reads totally differently, right? And it, you know, it ruins it.

Or like, to pick a slightly more obscure player, Jose Caviero does a fantastic job. And this has become less pronounced over time just because, you know, guys are more comfortable with the pitch clock. But, like, you know, there are rules about how the pitcher has to be, like, alert to the batter. Jose Cabiero is a master at messing with guys' timing and stepping out at just the right moment. And, you know, he did this when he was a mariner. And that was when I first noticed it. And then when, you know, he's continued that as he has moved through the various teams of the AAL East. And it really bugs guys.

It bugs opposing pitchers quite a lot, and it's delightful. But it's not, he's not being, I mean, I guess he is being a dick in a way, right? Because he's, but he's engaging adversarialially with the opponent within the confines of the rules of the game, right? And I think that that is fun and can be interesting. And other fans of other teams probably hate that behavior. Yeah. But it's baseball behavior, right? And you don't have to be everybody's best friend.

And I don't have a requirement of stoicism. I think if you're, you know, have a more sort of fiery base personality, that's fine. Yeah. You don't have to be addicted people. You know, like, that's where I think this feels like, and it's just like, hey, man, like, what? I'm just laying here potentially hurt. I'm just, you already got me out, you know. Yeah.

You did your, you did the job. You can do a little like, yeah. When you throw a guy out on the bases, that's great. That's exciting. You don't have to be a, and like, in a way that's so personal, too. I know. Why are you doing? Yeah.

So hopefully it's just growing pains and learning curve. Why is it always catchers too? Settle down rook. Yeah. Often it is. It's not always catchers, but it is often catchers. They're kind of the field generals. They're the enforcers, right?

Yeah. And to be clear, I like the boisterous, ebullient guys, too, even though that's not me so much. It's not just that I like the, quiet types, the stoic guys, but also the cheerful, joyous ones. Right. Just not so much the angry red-ass ones. But, you know, in moderation, just not quite like this.

Anyway. Speaking of Bregman, he was quoted in an article I read at the athletic with four bylines, and you know it's serious when you got four bylines on the athletic report. And it is maybe the most in-depth of the Boston firings post-mortems. Yeah, because we were talking to Alex. earlier this week about, well, what's going to come out next and who's going to be saying what? So the athletic has inside Craig Breslo's stunning Red Sox House Cleaning, quote, it's his show bylined by Chad Jennings, Jen McAfrey, Patrick Mooney, and Ken Rosenthal. And it is very much the airing the dirty laundry that we sort of forecasted would be coming.

So lots of anonymous quotes from people who are or have been with the Red Sox. And then lots of Craig Breslo saying, no, that's not what I was thinking or that's not what I was doing. But, yeah, basically it's the takeaway is that according to these sources, Breslo, bad boss, annoying boss, lack of feel, got on people's nerves. And what I asked Alex about, which is, do you think that he was looking for a reason here that he kind of wanted to install his own guys? And Alex didn't necessarily think that was the case. And Breslo denies that that's the case. but these sources say that that was the case. And maybe if they're the jilted, spurned, dismissed parties,

then maybe they would think that. And that's something pretty to tell yourself. So it's never really conclusive with he said, he said, they said, whatever. But that's the basic dirt and takeaway is one source says he wanted to fire everybody who is here before he got here. That's what he has now. and he has conducted this purge, particularly of the hitting side. And Breslo, you know, there's some robotic business speak in here about how, no, it's not that. And we're just reassessing constantly.

And, you know, nothing personal. It's just all objective. And, you know, it's not in practice ever really like that either. So I'm sure the middle ground is somewhere in between. But it does sound like there was some annoying, busy work going on at least. Like it says at one point last year, according to people involved, Breslo asked the Red Sox coaching staff to begin documenting every pregame hitting and defensive drill done by each player, which some coaches found excessive and time consuming, further fueling a perceived lack of trust between the staff and the front office, which is probably familiar to anyone who has had a boss who got on their nerves at times. And it's just like the principles seem sort of sound. Like, let's track what we are doing here so that we can evaluate it and see.

who's getting help and who's not getting help. So, yeah, I guess that makes sense on some level, but then also, like, every interaction has to be measured and charted, and then how much paperwork is that? And that's constantly having to keep track of all that stuff. And maybe that takes you out of the moment, and is anyone actually going to be using that in any real way? So I don't know.

We've all had that experience. Maybe the goal makes some sense, but the methods are just a bit onerous, perhaps. So it's really interesting that it's like lack of feel is the knock against a guy who was a player for a long time for the Red Sox even. And so you would think that even if he is not the typical player, he would know how things would resonate with players or repel players. And maybe he knows and just doesn't care. But that has backfired. Yeah.

They don't teach that at Yale. But even if they didn't teach it at Yale, they teach it in baseball clubhouses, which he was a part of for a long time. Yeah. It's a weird thing that this archetype seems to still be so prevalent when like the people management part of it, we just, we just know how important that is. And we, we've had enough of these, I would think. And, you know, there are plenty of clubs that have guys with low feel running their front offices that are very successful. So it's not like it can't be done. But I think that we know that it helps to have a little bit of feel and that people want to feel

valued and want to have their opinion respected. And that's not to say that like, there weren't improvements that could have been made from a dev perspective or a management perspective. You know, when I, when we read Evans' book about the Astros, I think I said this at the time. Like, one of the people I came away being like, I don't know how, how I feel about this guy was core. So like, you know, I think there are a lot of ways that you could interpret. him as a person that you know so i don't mean to be like yeah i'm not trying to like pound the table for alex quora i don't know but it does seem like there as we said when we talked about it the through line that seems to be emerging in braslo's tenure with the redsox is that in circumstances

where difficult decisions have to be made and there is a delicate sort of bit of communication to do to try to minimize the damage from those decisions, he tends to flame the fires rather than put them out. And that's a problem, you know? That's a leadership failure. And you would think that the people least likely to have feel would be me and Sam running the Sonoma stoppers, right? Like, it's, you know, you'd think if you're hiring a 12-year big leaguer, you'd get the feel at least, whether he's good at other aspects of the job, who knows. And it's not as if former player executives have always been player friendly, far from it in some cases, but at least relating to players, you'd think that they would have a handle on that. And so I wonder if he's overcompensating

because he is a former player. And so he's being more McKinsey MBA-brained just because of that background to impress his higher-ups or something. Who knows? Maybe he's pressing, but whatever it is, it doesn't seem to be working on an interpersonal level, at least. So maybe more to come. But we expected some dirty laundry. And there it is, hanging on the clothesline. So we have a guest today. We are bringing on other Ben, Ben Clemens, who is going to talk to us about the strike zone. The strike zone is different and also the same.

So it is being called differently and not just because of the challenge system. And it is smaller and it is differently shaped. And that is having some effects when it comes to offense and walk rate, et cetera. And so we will talk to Ben. Ben about that and also about the enigma, who is Munitake Morikami, and whether he can keep this up and why the scouting reports were wrong if, in fact, they were wrong. But perhaps it's too soon to say. So we will dive into all of that with Ben. And I will segue to Ben with a stat blast. That'll do it for the free preview of today's effectively wild. Thank you for listening.

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