Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast - Effectively Wild Episode 2486: Has the Clutch Code Been Cracked?

Episode Date: June 2, 2026

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Fernando Tatis Jr.’s first home run of the season, injuries to Munetaka Murakami and Craig Kimbrel, a crotch-related suspension precedent, the mystery of Julio Rodriguez’s defense, Roki Sasaki’s surge, the phenomenon of National Anthem standoffs, Carmen Mlodzinski’s brief relief revolt, whether Victor Wembanyama would be a good pitcher, Aaron Ashby’s weirdly winning ways, (1:04:19) whether the Brewers have somehow solved clutch hitting, and the possibility of a Craig Breslow “interpreter.” Audio intro: Cory Brent, “Effectively Wild Theme” Audio outro: Nate Emerson, “Effectively Wild Theme” Link to Tatis HR Link to Tatis HR website Link to Kimbrel injury news Link to MLBTR on Murakami Link to Murakami injury play Link to BP on Gonzalez Link to Elly injury news Link to Pérez injury news Link to gracilis muscle wiki Link to Papelbon article 1 Link to Papelbon article 2 Link to Papelbon article 3 Link to Julio’s defense at Savant Link to Julio’s defense at FG Link to May leaders in pitcher WAR Link to Wrobleski spreadies article Link to standoff ejections article Link to standoff ejections article Link to Mlodzinski article 1 Link to Mlodzinski article 2 Link to Mlodzinski article 3 Link to team SP WAR Link to team RP WAR Link to Pirates pitcher WAR leaders Link to Jaso EW wiki Link to Jaso on EW Link to Wemby baseball photo post Link to Wemby baseball photo Link to Shelob wiki Link to Wemby’s Yankee Stadium visit Link to Wemby’s first pitch video Link to Wemby height article 1 Link to Wemby height article 2 Link to pitcher win leaders Link to Ashby’s game log Link to single-season RP leaders Link to Face obit Link to Sheehan on clutch Link to Episode 2263 wiki Link to Brewers clutch data Link to 2026 tOPS+ w/RISP Link to Brooklyn clutch streak Link to New York clutch streak Link to Philly clutch streak Link to Gumbel distribution wiki Link to Clay Davenport’s adjusted standings Link to BaseRuns standings page Link to Dan S. on the Brewers Link to Brewers wOBA w/RISP Link to Brewers wOBA w/no RISP Link to Brewers xWOBA w/RISP Link to Brewers xWOBA w/no RISP Link to Brewers wOBA w/RISP at home Link to Brewers wOBA w/RISP on the road Link to Brewers BABIP w/RISP Link to Brewers BABIP w/no RISP Link to Brewers Whiff% w/RISP Link to Brewers Whiff% w/no RISP Link to Brewers Pull% w/RISP Link to Brewers Pull% w/no RISP Link to Super Saiyan wiki Link to Marmol on Brewers sign-stealing Link to Brewers sign-stealing rumor Link to “man in white” story 1 Link to “man in white” story 2 Link to “man in white” story 3 EW sign-stealing history episode Link to Healey on Breslow Link to “anger translator” sketch Link to Brown trade news Link to Yankees scoring stat 1 Link to Yankees scoring stat 2 Link to Mlodzinski update 1 Link to Mlodzinski update 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 2486 of Effectively Wild a Baseball podcast from Fangraphs presented by our Patreon supporters. I am Ben Lindberg of the Ringer, joined by Meg Rally of Fangraphs. Hello, Meg. Oh, hello. Well, a couple quick updates for everyone. First, last time, we talked about how one of our listeners had created a website to inform everyone about whether Fernetto Tati's Jr. had hit a home run.

and that podcast was posted on Saturday, and that website had to be updated on Saturday because Fernando Tati's Jr. hit a home run. So now if you go to, has Fernando Tati's Jr. hit a home run yet? Dotstreamlit. dot app, you will see in big glowing green letters. Yes, all caps.

He finally did. Good for him. Good for you, Fernando. You finally went deep again. Went deep again. He looked so relieved. You know, the body language was that of a man who probably knew, like, with 95% coffins. Yeah, I'm going to hit at least one more in my career.

But had, like, that 5% sort of nagging doubt where it's like, but is he? Am I for once? Yeah, I know. You go 55 games and roughly 240 plate appearances. That's a long time you might start to question. Even if you've been a fairly prolific home run hitter, both pre and post PEDs, you might start to think, do I just have warning track power now? Am I cursed? Is this an effectively wild hypothetical witch sort of situation?

Right. When he finally hit one, though, he did not get cheated. That thing went 451 feet. Yeah. He whacked it. Yeah. So that's nice. We can all get off of Tati's home run watch.

I mean, he has one. That's not good either. but one is meaningfully different from zero. It is, you know, it's just like a whole bunch more home run. It feels like the beginning of something, you know. It is funny, though, because Kyle Shriver is 22, you know, and Jordan Alvarez is 20 as says Murakami, although he's on the aisle now, so it might be a bit until we see him,

him bop one. But yeah, there are some boppers who have been bopping. And Tatis has not been among them, so I'm sure he's relieved. I am bummed about Murakami because he's just been one of the most fascinating storylines of the season. And now he's out four to six weeks. And the White Sox have been so fun too. And they've called up prospect Jacob Gonzalez.

So that'll be interesting for their fans too. but yeah, a month, month and a half without Murakami, I don't know if I can make it. That's tough. I've gotten quite attached to that man. Well, and this is among the very least important parts of it, especially since that team is sort of surprisingly competitive and has been bopping. But I was starting to hope that we would see Marikami participate in the derby.

And you have to imagine that that's out of the question now. So we'll have to wait another year until we, get Murakami home run derby appearance, or at least the potential for one. I don't know what his interest was in participating in that event, but I was hoping that he would decide to do it. Yeah, I had not considered that. I guess if he returns on the shorter end of that time frame. There's no way they let him do it.

Yeah, probably not. Come on. Come on. Yeah. I don't know if the home run derby is seen as a risk factor for hamstrings, but I guess it could be. I mean, it's unnatural. You're just kind of, you're not running is the thing.

Right. So maybe it wouldn't be seen. seen as something that would stress the hamstring. You could imagine other injuries it might induce because you're really, you're swinging as hard as you possibly can repeatedly. But running was what got him in trouble here. He was trying to beat out a double play. And he did.

But this is why I sort of tongue in cheek say never hustle. Yeah, let him love. You know, would have been better if he had trotted down first. If he had been out, had not beaten out the double play, but had not missed the next four to six weeks. On balance, you'd rather have that out and him not out. Correct. I imagine, though, that they will say, hey, why don't you take advantage of the time to rest up a buddy and make sure that that's fully 100%. Yeah, probably. But it's a bummer because I did want to see whether he could sustain this excellent start and how good he could be for

the full season. And we will resume the Morikami watch when he returns. But yeah, it's going to be rough. The other update is that Craig Kimbril is now injured. He made his race debut. He pitched a scoreless inning with a couple K's. I was thinking he was deemining and then

suddenly he is on the IL with a wrist strain. So yeah, sad. I worry that we did a little light magic on our most recent string of episodes and didn't realize it. As soon as I saw that, I

of course had to alert you because I know that you're very invested in these things. But yeah, between Kimbril getting hurt, the rays are bad now, you know, there's like lose into the angels all the time. I think we've done some damage. It's our fault. It could be, yeah. I wish we could just do away with hamstrings somehow. That would be bad.

Obviously, you need hamstrings. But hamstring injuries at least because Ellie tweaked his hamstring too. And I guess you're a parrot. as his stretching related injury turned out not to be his hamstring. He thought it was, but it was a gracilis, a muscle I was not familiar with. A gracilis? Yeah, every now and then, there's an injury update that I just think. Am I saying the word correctly?

Gracillis? I believe so. Grisleis. I write gracilis strain. It's a muscle on the inner thigh. Every now and then, I just, I think they're messing with us. They're trolling. It's just like you invented it.

a new part of the anatomy that I had never heard of. Crescylus. Yeah, right, Grisillus strain. So he's out for quite a while. So that's why you never stretch because you could hurt your gracilis, a muscle that certainly exists. The most superficial muscle on the medial side of the thigh. It is thin, flattened, and broad above proximal and narrow and tapered below distal. Yeah.

Huh. Wow. I learned a lot about anatomy from following sports. I haven't gone to medical school or anything, but just at least awareness of body parts, that's about the extent of it. But I would not have known about the old Grisillus, if not for Uri Peres.

The muscle ad ducts medially rotates with hip flexion, laterally rotates, and flexes the hip as above, and also aids in flexion of the knee. Yeah, obviously. Obviously. Free functioning flap is clinical significance. Well, didn't you just say what the clinical significant? I tracked that. I mean, what questions do you possibly have Wikipedia? I don't need to look at the inside of the muscle. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Grisillis. That sounds like a cheap cut of meat, you know? Yeah. Like a, like, oh.

Like, uh, because of gristle problem more than anything else. Yeah. Hmm. Wow. Grisillus. Talk to me about Julio Rodriguez's defense because. You know. Julio's hitting.

He's hitting well. Yeah. He's hitting. Quite well. Like he often hits at least over a full season. He's got a 125 WRC plus. That's right in that Julio range. And yet the war.

And that includes his slow start. That includes a slow. start, yeah, the perennial slow start. But a, but a, but a, but a, but a briefer slow start. That's true. Yes. Like a two week like a little swoon and then he was off to the races. Got it out of his system sooner than usual. However, his war is not what one would expect, given that level of offense and a center fielder because his defense, which is always

graded out very well or elite even, has been below average, according to. to Stackast, F-R-V, DRS. They all have him well below average. And I'm not accustomed to seeing him in that range. And it's not as if he's getting old or something. He's been with us for a while, but he's still just 25 years old. Yeah. Well, and it's funny you say range because that appears to be the problem for him,

at least as far as the metrics are concerned. It's so it's an interesting thing. and I'm not trying to, you know, defend the young man in a way that doesn't comport with the eye test, but it is not something that has stood out to me visually as him sort of being less rangy than in years past. I suppose we have to entertain the possibility that he started eating chocolate again. You know, that was... I mean, he offered that anecdote back when he was a prospect. I'm not trying to impute Julio or say anything.

His physique remains impressive. No, that diet shaming. No, not at all. But he said he gave up chocolate when he was a prospect because he was starting to fill out in a way that was not bad, but just made him less agile out there, less speedy. And so he gave up chocolate. And I was like, wow, Julio loves his job a lot more than I love mine,

which isn't to say I don't love my job, but for chocolate, I don't know, we never talked about it. So it is one of those things that I was surprised by. And I was looking at, it's so funny that you asked that because I was looking at his player page today. and was like, oh, wow, that's surprising to me because I have not thought him to look particularly unranging. It looks like Stacast is pegging it to sort of lateral movement

toward first base and his movement back as being less good. But I don't know. I don't quite know how to account for it. Now I'm going to watch for it. I will find a way to blame this on Randy. Just want everyone to. You ready. Okay.

It's striking because you look at his savant percentiles and his arm strength and arm value are unchanged from last year, as is his sprint speeds, basically, as a runner. Yeah, he's not slowing. And the other part of it that I found striking when I was looking at this earlier is that not an obvious meaningful change in how he's positioned in center field. Like his average starting distance in center is pretty simple. not only distance, but sort of where that starting point is, quite similar to in years past. Now, his depth in feet is like a difference of a foot, you know? Is that enough? I don't know.

It would appear that, you know, Stacast doesn't love the way that he is angled. So maybe he is positioned largely the same, but is slightly angled in a way that is diminishing his ability to, like, get a good jump and run a direct route. It is quite odd. It's a mystery and I don't care for it. Yeah, because Stackcast should account for his starting position anyway. So I don't know if that would ding him. It might hurt the Mariners, but not necessarily his metrics.

Right. I was just trying to understand what is different this year. And he's just in his no-fly zone. Yeah. It's a precipitous decline in the percentile as far as his range rating because he's gone from 90s. 27th percentile last year to fifth this year while his arm strength, arm value, sprint speed are largely unchanged. So it is perplexing.

I am not that worried about it because it does appear that his tools are intact. And also, if you look at some of the components of his jumps, for instance, it doesn't seem that those have changed that much either because there's a outfielder jump section on the baseball savant player page for Julio. and his reaction times, his burst ratings, his roots, all of that appears pretty much in line with where he has been. And overall, the jump is a little worse, fewer feet versus average, fewer feet covered. It's not a huge difference. But maybe it's enough. I guess small margins make a big difference. But because a lot of those metrics seem more or less in line with where he has been in previous.

seasons. I wonder if it is just sort of a sample size plus opportunities just sort of skewed. Maybe he's missed some easy ones and that's just kind of thrown off the numbers because you could almost have, it's like when we look at expected weighted on base versus weighted on base. We don't really have equivalent of that for defense, I guess, where we just kind of look at the underlying components and say, well, should he have been good? You know, more of like a true talent rating almost based on the underlying skills. So you almost need like an X-F-R-V or something so that you could kind of compare to, well, should he have been worse or less valuable given the inputs and given the physical performance?

Because I wonder if it is that he has just flubbed a few plays that he normally would get to or even did get to but just didn't complete the catch for whatever reason because yeah the underlying numbers just don't look all that different so that does make me more optimistic that uh what's going on this will correct itself most likely yeah the good news is is that everything else that you usually worry about with julio early in the season of a lack of offense that seems to have corrected itself so if you can just get the the glove under control which has not been an issue historically I guess he's not running very much on the bases, I mean, either. He's been a bit below average as a base runner.

He's stolen five bases in seven attempts. I don't know if that's connected, but again, his sprint speed, it's down a little bit, but the percentile is... Not the way that you really worry about. Yeah, it's still roughly in the range he's been in before. Yeah. I don't know whether the lack of trying to steal reflects something, some sort of nagging something or other that has manifested on deep. defense, but not so much at the plate. It's possible.

But yeah, looking at the underlying components, I'm not too worried about it. Now I'm going to have a weird obsession. And, hey, the Mariners in first place by two and a half games, right? So if they can just get Julio's defense straightened out, then maybe they'll run away with this thing. I mean, maybe run away. I mean, he is as fast as ever, I suppose. It's sort of possible. But it's good if you care.

about them winning, which I ostensibly do. It's nice that they're above 500. I would like it. It's a weird thing because you want there to be surprises in a season, right? If our preseason projections are spot on, well, that feels smart, I guess, but it's a little bit boring. But you want pleasant surprises more than I think you want glaring disappointments. We talked about this a bit on our last episode. Like I would much rather our surprises come in the form of like, wow, the rays, look at that. How does that make any sense as opposed to like, my God, what's happening with the Mets? Although they're no longer in last place in the Italy, so maybe we reverse jinks them. Could be. All right. Last time we talked about Abner Ribe and his crotch chop suspension. Yes. I was wondering if there was any precedent. And I still don't know if there is a crotch chop suspension on the books before this. But as some folks reminded me, there was a crotch grab suspension that was levied against Jonathan Papelbon in 2014. This was not the choking incident.

This was the, I guess it was a form of choking, but not the choking Price Harper. But Jonathan Papelban in 2014, he was suspended seven games and fined for making a lewd gesture. And MLB.com described it as he rather aggressively adjusted himself. before he entered the Phillies dugout. He rather aggressively adjusted himself. Yes, yes. Okay. That's great.

Yeah. Now, it wasn't a seven-gamer solely for that. Wait, I was going to say. Yes, that would have been stiff, so to speak. He also, he bumped Joe West. He made a little contact with Joe West, so that was part of it. But he was grabbing his crotch in respect. response to jeers from the crowd, or at least that is how Joe West perceived it.

Okay. West said he made an obscene gesture. He had no business doing that. He's got to be more professional than that. And that's why he was ejected because the model of professionalism, Cowboy Joe. So that's a little bit different, I think, than what happened to Uribe, where it was not directed at the fans. And it wasn't a grabbing. It was a chopping.

And also there was no ump-p-p-p-pub. bump involved in Aribay's situation. They do get very worked up about ump bumps. Oh, yes. They really, their level of tolerance for that is quite low. I think that, uh,

to your point, we can only ever be ourselves, right? And I think that was part of Jonathan Papalban's problem. Um, there was pre-existing papal boning that had gone on here. There was a, a pattern of behavior.

Yes. You know? What's that? happens. Papple pattern. Papple pattern bond. Pappell pattern bond. Pappell pattern. I will work on that. I will work on it. Okay. Speaking of ejections, we had a few this weekend because of a national anthem stare down standoff. Oh. Yeah. I thought we were going to talk about college baseball for a second. That was going to fall right over. Yeah, that would have been quite a surprise. But no, it was on Saturday. Three players were ejected. from the Ray's Angels game. And actually, they were ejected before the Ray's Angels game.

Oh, good grief. Because it was a National Anthem standoff. And it was Angels Reliever, Brent Suter, and Ray's pitcher Stephen Wilson and Manuel Rodriguez. And they really committed to the bit and they were out there. And they were out there

even when Ray's starter, Drew Rasmussen, was warming up. And they were accompanied by Ray's mascots, Raymond and DJ Kitty, who were not ejected from the game because I guess hijinks part of their job description. I feel like I'm having a stroke. It seems like a double standard to ejects the players but not the mascots, but then I guess it's an appropriate double standard.

I love that your problem with this is that they didn't bounce DJ Kitty. You're offended on behalf of, you know, equally applied justice. Yeah. I don't understand the Anthem Staredown phenomena. I don't get that at all. It has never made sense to me. What are you trying to prove? It is absurd.

It doesn't make sense. I don't understand. Which I think is why I like it. Although it's the typical baseball player thing where I think it was a funny bit and that they have just run it into the ground because they just do it over and over again. But it's still. Yeah, it's still sort of funny, though. Because it's so strange.

It's just, why are we doing this? I always wonder about. how they coordinate it when it's, because it's players from different teams, opposing teams. And so is it that they know each other, or they were teammates before or something? Or is there a text chain? Are they, like, is it just spontaneous?

They just, they see each other and they, there's a glint in each other's eye, and they just catch each other's gaze, and they say, oh, we're facing off, we're staring down. Or do they pre-plan it? I assume there's some level of coordination here. And in this case, there was no, cost to this really because

the pitchers were all probably unavailable for that game anyway because the raised guys are rehabbing there on the IL anyway so they've been sidelined they weren't going to pitch so were they ejected because they were on the field is that that was the

issue yeah and Souter probably wasn't going to pitch because he threw 25 pitches in an inning in two thirds on Friday Friday night so they were probably all just out and so they decided to do this what's the downside. And yeah, at some point, it's just like delay of game.

It's just disruption of the proceedings we're trying to play. And you're just standing in front of your dugouts. But Ben, you've failed to answer the broader question. What's the point of it, though? To be silly, I guess. I don't understand. I don't understand it as a, as a, are you saying something? Are you trying to say anything?

No, I don't think you're making any sort of. statement. I don't think it's a rebel without a cause kind of situation, I think. I don't. Okay. I guess it's, yeah, it's just it's defiance. But we acknowledge that it's kind of dumb though, right? We acknowledge it. It's dumb, it's dumb, but funny. Brent Suter, he's kind of a jokester. He's the one who's always doing the same impressions of like, you know, Will Ferrell doing Harry Carey or whatever. So, okay. You're helping me to calibrate humor in the case of Brent Sway. Yeah. A hopeful way. I don't know. I don't I don't have anything against him. I just, this is one of those things that happens sometimes where I feel completely disconnected from what other people find funny. And I don't like that very much. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Souter, he's a big environmentalist. He's like an environmental activist. Yeah, I like that too. Yeah. But so this, I don't know. It's, it's just one of those weird baseball traditions. And so I kind of, I value it on that level. I guess it's just. We have the normal routine and what would happen if suddenly a few players were just conscientious objectors to the beginning of the baseball game and everything's off kilter.

And it's sort of like what if the mundane proceedings? What if we just didn't do that? It's like Bartle be the scrivener or something. But in a baseball context, it's just what if you withdrew from the normal niceties and you just said, nope, I'm going to stand here in defiance of the game. of the game beginning. Right. Yeah. Okay.

I still don't get it. And I think I find it kind of doofy. But okay. Okay. I just want to know how they coordinate this or whether they coordinate this. Is it ever spontaneous? Is it planned? I think it's kind of funnier if it is spontaneous.

Well, sure. But it's probably not because how would that happen? You're just kind of looking across. There must be some relationship there. How could you leave such great humor to chant? you know. Yeah. So then if you've planned it in advance,

because it's not some sort of demonstration or something, you're not making any kind of point. So then if you've planned your hijinks in advance, then I think it loses a little luster. Yeah, right. It's just, it's too rehearsed or practiced, pre-planned. It should be just. It's a failed bit.

It's not actual hijinks. The fever seized us and we just, we saw him standing over there. and it was like a bullseeing red or something and we just had to stay in there until he left and he refused to leave. That would be funnier to me, maybe. But, you know, it's a baseball bit.

All the baseball pranks have been done before and they're passed down through the ages. There's something nice about that, but there's also something extremely unoriginal and unventive about that. Yeah. Hmm. I'm going to have to think about it. I mean, I won't because it's not funny

and that's in keeping. But that's in keeping with baseball players, you know? Yeah. Like a lot of the time, they're not very funny. No. Okay. So I don't know if you noticed this, but did you perhaps happen to see who was the most valuable Dodgers pitcher in May? It was not, Shohei Otone.

Was it Justin Rubleski? It was not actually. No, you thought I was going because Justin Robleski. I thought you were going to get horny about spreadsheet. and I was going to have to be a bit of a... Yeah, Justin Rebleski outed himself as a spreadies guy. Yes. But, you know, Brebia was there first.

Yeah, then all the stat nerds on baseball, blue sky. We're like, oh, my God. I know. Is he fricking with us? Are we going to kiss? Because it's 2026, right? Like, the baseball players are very stat savvy. They're not necessarily all opening up Excel after they start to enter a bunch of stuff

about how they pitch, like Justin Rebliski. he is or like John Brebio was when he was rehabbing. But they're all, I get why we reacted like this when it was Brian Bannister in 2010 or whatever it was, you know, when he's talking about FIPP and stuff. And then it was, wow, a player is actually looking at this stuff that we're looking at. This is so exciting and flattering. Whereas now they're all kind of doing that. So it's not new and novel anymore, even if they're not looking at a spreadsheet or

creating their own spreadsheet. They're looking at someone else's spreadsheets. Right. Yeah, maybe we're acting too thirsty or flattered or something. I act like we've been there before. I'm just saying that like, don't be such a cheap date, you know. That's all I'm saying. I also, and then I will allow you to continue with your quizzing of various Dodgers picture.

I also will just say, like, you know, we should display a skeptic. skepticism toward like let's be less charmed by guys you know i'm just i'm not saying justin rubelleski's a bad guy or anything like that i don't know anything about the young man but i just we can all take a minute i feel like i'm being a real bummer by saying they're not funny and that we shouldn't be so charmed by but it is just such a predictable little reaction it's like it is yeah yeah just yeah yeah he's he's quite effective yeah yeah yeah yeah And he was the second most valuable Dodgers pitcher in May, but he was not the first. And it was not the obvious candidate.

It was not Otani. It was not Yamamoto. It was Roki Sasaki. No way. It was. Roki Sasaki led the Dodgers in Fancraft's War in May. And he wasn't the Miz. He wasn't Christopher Sanchez, but he was pretty effective.

He started five games. 28 and a third innings with a 3.180RA and a 3.3-2-fip. And maybe this says more about the Dodgers pitching staff lately that this was the best. He was the 33rd most valuable pitcher in baseball, but he was the best on the Dodgers. And he had his best start state side. He strung together multiple effective starts. It seems like I'm damning with faint praise or this is a backhand compliment or something. But he was pretty good.

He was pretty effective, especially for someone who was sort of penciled in as the fifth starter. So that's an encouraging sign for the Dodgers. Because if they could get Roki right, even if he's not elite or ace-like, even if he were just a good serviceable starter, that would be a big improvement. Yes. And he got the command, the control, under control. He walked 1.9 per 9, Rokey in five starts. while still striking out about a better printing and sitting 97 or so, it's pretty encouraging. Yeah, I think it's just a useful reminder that, and you know, I'm not saying that he will sustain this forever.

And I want to be careful to not overcorrect in the pro-Roki direction, not that I'm anti, but just because he happens to be a Dodger. But I do think that it's useful to remember that these things can take a slightly, non-linear course and that adjustment can happen over time in a way that feels like a guy is behind and then you look up one day and you're like, oh, he's actually been very effective for a while now. We will always, I imagine, judge his performance relative to the pre-posting expectation of him, which was that he was going to be this transcendent talent, sort of a continuation of the line that they really started with Yamamoto when he came over. But, you know, it just, it can take a minute.

It can take a beat to get kind of acclimated to something. And you can also, and this is sort of in keeping with some recent conversations we've had about like, how do we think about young players? Like, you can be a useful and productive, even maybe integral piece and not quite be like as good as Yamamoto. So I think just letting it kind of breathe for him is probably the order of the day and see where it goes next after, you know, hitters have had time to adjust to his adjustment. But if the Dodgers do get him straightened out and then get Snell and Glassnow back at some point

and they could certainly use the-Hopia. Yeah. I mean, you'll be shocked to learn. Formidable group when healthy. Yeah, I know. Yeah, everyone's like, finally the Dodgers will have their fully effective rotation. That's what everyone has been rooting for all this time. Well, we're talking about rotations. We might as well talk about Carmen Maginsky. So I don't know if you have followed the Pirates rotation drama, but late last week, Jared Jones returned. So that's exciting. He didn't have a very good first start off the IL. He had had several effective starts on his rehab assignment. But yeah, a bit of a rude reintroduction to the majors. But, someone had to go because even though, as I always say, you can never have enough pitching,

the pirates did, at least briefly, have enough starting pitching. Starting pitching. And maybe too much. They had an excess of starting pitching. And so someone had to go. And that someone, the odd man out, was Carmen Maginski, which is rough for him because he's been quite effective, actually. And he's been the fourth most valuable pitcher on the Pirates this year. And I guess has basically also been their fourth starter.

So that tracks and Skeens and Ashcraft have been fantastic. And Mitch Keller's been good. And then Maginsky. Now, Bubba Chandler has not been very good. He's had individual starts that were pretty impressive. But on the whole, he hasn't been great. But the Pirates elected to keep him in the rotation and move Midgents. Mijinsky, which you can kind of understand because Mijinsky has worked in relief.

He's been the bulk guy in a couple starts after an opener, and he was effective in that role. And also, Chandler, it's hard to break this to Mijinsky, I guess, but Chandler was the bigger prospect. Right. And is seen as having the higher ceiling and was effective last year. So the idea is let's not mess with the top prospect. We will move Mijinsky to the pen. And the pirates could use, I said you can never have enough pitching, they could use some simple pen pitching.

So they have the fourth most war by starters this year, but 19th by relievers. And that's with a couple of extended effective outings by Michinsky in relief. Okay. So makes sense to move him, but he balked at that. Not literally, but he didn't balk because he wasn't on the mound. he decided that he was unavailable. Physically, mentally, he sort of opted out of being available out of the bullpen. And he conveyed that to the pirates.

And they said, well, we need bullpen help. And also we can't play a man down. So if you just will not post, then we will have to put you on the restricted list. And that's what they did, which is pretty rare. Usually when a player's on the restricted list, it's bad news. They misbehaved in some serious legal way often, but this is not that serious. But it's out of the norm. It's a mini Derek Bell operation shutdown, but brief, probably, and not as dramatic.

But Ben Charington did a radio hit, and he was talking about the decision to move Muginski to the bullpen, which I think Cherrickton said was sort of endorsed or. led by the coaching staff, and Charrington said that, not surprisingly, he didn't agree with that decision, Muginski. We want players to be honest about how they feel about decisions. Then it's our job to work with them to get them into a spot where, okay, we've disagreed on this, we've made the decision, let's go win games. That's a process sometimes.

My belief is that Carmen Mijinsky is going to pitch a lot of meaningful innings for this team this year, and he's going to help us win games. I'm looking forward to that. He's a very tough-minded, strong-willed guy. That's part of what makes him successful, et cetera. So they're trying to downplay it, and Don Kelly's talking about how he's a competitor, and he's going to be out there, and he's going to help the team win and all of that. So they don't want to blow this up into something more than it is,

and I imagine Viginski will soon accept his fate and his lot in life, and we'll pitch out of the bullpen, and it won't really spiral from here. But it's pretty rare that we see this happen. Sometimes we see a player grouse about something. But fairly rare that they just said, no, I'm not doing it, even for a day, if that's how long it was. Well, and it's interesting, too, when you think about it, sort of in conversation with the decision to keep Chandler in the rotation because he had expressed frustration. He came up at the tail end of August last year. That's right.

Yeah. And he had expressed frustration in the lead up to his call up that. he had not yet been brought up to to the majors. And, you know, it was an interesting thing because, like, he was clearly very talented and was a top prospect and, and what have you. But had been, you know, he was a 60 for us entering the season because he had just, like, barely held on to his rookie eligibility from an active roster day's perspective last year. But it wasn't like his 2025 at tributtal.

AAA was totally pristine. His sort of peripherals and underlying metrics, other estimators were better than his ERA, but he wasn't like running a sub 2 ERA or AAA or anything like that. But he looked ready, and it's like, hey, you got to like make this guy figure it out in the majors at some point, and he got brought up and he appeared in seven games, but he also pitched him relief a little bit.

And so I wonder how intertwined these decisions are where they're like, well, you know, we want to keep Bubba in the rotation. We want to give him big league run. We want to make sure that he's taking the ball when his turn comes up. But in order to do that, you have to kind of pull a similar disgruntled over-roll move with another guy. So they're just funny to sort of consider next to one another. But you're right.

It's like, you know, other than legal trouble or visa trouble will be the other thing that gets guys on the restricted list, right? Like when a player is having immigration related issues, you know, this happens around spring training every year where it's like getting the visa stuff sort of takes a little longer than was anticipated. Like sometimes a guy will go on the list for that reason where it's like he hasn't done anything wrong. There's just this hang up and he's not available to report when he's supposed to. But yeah, like the in-season restricted list for not for without a, you know, police report. Yeah. Doesn't happen very often. It's interesting because doing that, you know, I'm sure that this stuff would have gotten out anyway.

But once you make that move, there's no hope that you're keeping any of this drama in-house because you have to account for the restricted list placement, right? Like people are going to say, why is he on the restricted list? Did he do? Something you don't want to leave the impression that he, you know, stole a car or whatever, you know. So I don't know the right way to deal with that. but I do think that it is a good reminder that like these are guys with, I'm going to sound patronizing when I say it this way and I don't mean to, like hopes and dreams. Like they want to, they want to get big league run. They want to be a big league starter. They want to be the dude.

Having pitchers assume roles that aren't kind of in keeping with their own expectations of their career doesn't mean that it's necessarily the wrong decision, but it can have personnel consequences. When we talk about why we can't fully gauge the value of a manager, it's stuff like this, you know, which like, I don't know what it's going super great. But, you know, it's stuff like this where it's like you need to be able to keep in balance the egos of a bunch of like very driven, very talented, incredibly confident young men. Good luck. You know, it's kind of amazing that there aren't more problems like this, not because I think, you know, baseball players are like uniquely hot-headed or anything like that, although I'm sure some of them are. But it's just a, it seems like a ready mix for that kind of a, you know.

Yeah. And it's got to be tough when you're, Rijinsky and you're off to a strong start. And he pitched well last year or two. Sure. Pitched well his whole career, really. And he's been largely in the bullpen. He's been sort of a swing man in previous seasons. And so he's probably feeling, hey, I established myself as a starter.

I showed that I could do this. Right. And look at Bubba here with a near 5ERA and FIP. And they're telling me that the pirates are better with me getting demoted. And I'm sure they're pitching it and not unreasonably as, hey, we have a bigger need in relief right now. We need a long man. You can fill that hole for us. And that's true.

But it's still seen historically as a demotion. and it's something that could affect your earnings in the future. Sure. And so, yeah, hard for him. Yeah, and it's not like he's some aged veteran or something. He's 27 years old and he's only in his fourth big league year. So even though Chandler's in his second year and his 23, he's probably thinking, well, I'm not past myself by date or anything. Maybe I can establish myself as a starter.

And so that's tough when you're like, we know you've been better with this guy, but we think that long-term, this guy will be better. Like, we kind of care about him more. We look at his long-term outlook more favorably than we do at yours. That's a tough message to send. So I do understand, but this has been going on since the beginning of baseball and the beginning of sports. And sometimes you do have to just sort of not like it, but lump it. You just have to kind of accept it and figure that at some point a spot will open up again.

Right. or I'll be on another team or whatever it is or you just have to resign yourself to it and hopefully embrace the role and say I'll just excel in this role and I'll help the team and maybe I'll work my way back to starting or whatever it is because it doesn't reflect well on you to balk at it to such a degree that you're just kind of checked out for a game even if it's just one game and from what I've read it's not like he's a bad guy or anything it's just that yeah and as I was reading at MLB.com The description of him was he's very much a unique dude, as people have learned deadhead, sort of a hippie, spends his off-seasons in Hawaii or other remote places, grew up without technology, and loves getting away from it. I guess he's getting away from it now while he's on the restricted list. Convicted in how he wants to do things. Now, I've ranted on the bonus pods about how I don't like describing. Yeah, convicted. Stop.

But, but yeah, this is an example of how he is. I guess, convinced he is set in his ways that this is the way he wants to do things or not do things. But he sounds like the heir to another Pirates player in Effectively Wild Legend, John Jaso. Yeah. Who was known for his quote, such as this game and such as life. And of course, appeared on the podcast and had that sort of attitude to him. But it is interesting. He's kind of like this late back guy, but also hyper competitive.

I guess that's not a unique. mix of traits for a professional athlete. But anyway, I'm sure they'll get it straightened out and they'll all get on the same page, or at least he will not be so vocal or demonstrative about his displeasure, because you'd prefer for this sort of thing to be handled in-house and behind closed doors. Yeah, I think what I would say to him if he were like a person in my life I were offering advice to is I can sympathize with why you feel put upon in this moment. and it may, I don't think it's unreasonable to view it as sort of an unfair situation,

even if there's a rationale that isn't, you know, like malevolent or anything on the part of the pirates. Having said that, like, you should approach situations like this strategically. And the best way for you to get back into a rotation is to pitch well and demonstrate that you can. If you're in long relief and, you know, show that you have a start. Ritter's repertoire, well, the next time there's an injury in the Pittsburgh rotation, you're going to slot into that spot.

And, you know, this isn't exactly a team that's been shy about trading guys in the past. So even if you're not showcasing yourself for them, showcase yourself for the rest of the week so that you might draw some trade interest if you're worried about it. And again, like, this stuff can take time. Like Seattle is dealing with sort of a similar situation where they are trying to figure out, you know, how to do. deploy Luis Castillo in a way that makes him maximally effective and sort of protects him from the third time through the order effects, which have been pretty intense for him this season, that gives Bryce Miller a slightly lighter workload. But all of that stuff is being forced by the fact that like Emerson Hancock has been good this year.

Right. And so if I were a friend of Carman's, I would be like, you know, be like Emerson Hancock. Emerson Hancock was kind of an also-ran from prospect perspective. It was supposed to be good, got hurt, you know, hasn't been able to sort of elevate himself. And all of a sudden this year, you know, got put in the rotation because Bryce Miller was on the IL. And then he just pitched so well that they're like, well, we can't remove him from the rotation. He has a 2780 array and like a 35-fip. Like he's been one of their better, more reliable starters.

and so they kind of rejiggered things. And it wasn't just Hancock's performance. Like I said, like they have to deal with the reality of an aging Luis Castillo. They have to figure out how to make sure that, like, Bryce Miller doesn't get hurt again. So they've been having Miller and Castillo kind of piggyback. And like, Luis Castillo's a veteran and was, you know, was their frontline starter for a lot of years before the young guys came up. And so I'm sure that they're having to manage some egos around that stuff too. but if I knew

Kerman Mugensky, I'd be like, hey, this doesn't have to be all, end all decision. Like, you need to like have a strategic approach to it, which isn't to say again that it doesn't isn't unfair or doesn't feel unfair, but like, I think when you're a guy in this circumstance, you do end up better off if you try

to make the best of it with an understanding that it is probably not a permanent decision. If that changes, then, like, you know, that sucks. Yeah. Well, good problem to have for the pirates, at least, in excess of starting pitching. Not the way that it's been handled. No, it's true.

But a surplus of starting pitching. Yeah, that's not something the pirates have always had or that any team always can count on. So, yeah, the dream of the all-homegrown pirates only in their career, effective starting rotation, And it's been fulfilled thus far. It's been quite impressive. And if they could get Jared Jones right, too, and also get Chandler to be his best self more consistently. That would be pretty exciting.

Yeah. Okay. I don't know why it made the rounds this weekend, but I saw a lot of people citing Wembe holding a baseball. Did you see? I don't know why, because this was a photo from, I think, three years ago or something. But there is just... But they just made the finals.

Yeah, I guess that. That's why I guess everyone was just talking about Wembe. And so for whatever reason, people were sharing this picture of him grasping a baseball in his giant hand. And I saw a lot of people speculating about how good he would be as a pitcher because he has this gigantic hand. I will link to the photo and send it to you as well. But it is, it's just ridiculous. It's just like. All you can do is laugh at it.

I mean, it's really just what else do you do, but laugh at it. It's just a tiny little baseball grasp. It's like his fingernails are like as big as the baseball when you put them together. It's just, it's like a giant spider or something is grasping the ball. It's like Shilab. I don't know. It's just like what, it's hard for me to imagine this because I wonder whether it's at the point where this would actually be an impediment to his success because I saw a lot of people

saying imagine how much spin he would get on this thing because sometimes having long fingers is cited as an advantage and people say that about Pedro Martinez, not a big guy, but long fingers or Satchel Page or Mariano Rivera and the idea is that you can just impart more spin because you've just got this grip, you can really just get some torque on that thing. And in his case, I guess it's like the ultimate example of that. But it might be overkill. It might be too much. Like it might be to the point where he wouldn't get any grip on this thing.

Because how would he even get the pads of his fingers on the ball? It's just like it's so buried in his palm. Yeah. I mean, who could teach him how to grip the ball? You know, like, you're right to say that there have been, it's hardly unprecedented for there to be big league pitchers who have big old mitts, you know, and can, could offer some insight there.

But, like, it would just be so fascinating to see how it moves off of his, God, the extension, that guy would get me. I know, that's what I was thinking too. He would release the ball so close to the plate. God. Yeah. Like, you'd, I mean, he's such.

an alien. He's just like a freak of a guy. This photo is from, I think, 2023 originally from June of that. It's, it's been a full three years. He has grown in that time, too. I don't know how much his fingers have grown, but he's gotten taller. He's taller? Yeah. There's been a whole thing about how tall actually is Wembe and just having to like remeasure him because he's, he's grown. Like he's listed at seven, four maybe, but he's, that has increased and also maybe he's taller than he's actually listed at because it's like he's just so so big he's he's he's

unmeasurable yeah he's just so tall who can get up there we have two-story buildings he's not unmeasurable but he is enormous I love that he's I have missed this bit of NBA related discourse my my main concern was that the spurs bounce okay C rip sonics but I didn't know that he was thought to be taller thought to have grown yeah yeah there's an article at the athletic last October, why Victor Wembeyanama's true height may be the NBA's biggest mystery. Well, okay, that's a very funny thing to say because it's like, well, it doesn't have to be a mystery at all just go, can't he just be measured? Well, he had been listed.

His official height had been 7.3 at some point. And then they up that to 7.4. And then the Spurs website briefly listed him at 7.5 before going back to 7.4, which they said was just a clerical error. And at some point it's immaterial. Does it even matter? He's huge. He's great. Like, 74, 75.

I don't know that it matters all that much. At this point, you don't really want him to get bigger because the only concern about him is his health, really. He can already just basically stand there and put the ball through the rim. So you just kind of don't want added strain on his joints and everything. Yeah. I do wonder how he. I do wonder how his body would hold up to the repeated stress of pitching. And, you know, like, he's not, my mental sort of catalog of incredibly tall basketball players is admittedly shallower.

It does not encompass the entire population because even, you know, as I get my RIP Sonics joke in, I was never, like, such a huge NBA fan that I was, like, watching every kid. game or anything like that. But like Wembe is appreciably less fragile looking than like like, like bowl. He was just such a spindly little guy. 7-7.

His listed height was 7-7 maneuver. And so like he looked very fragile at points because he was like your legs are not supposed to be that long. I mean not supposed to be that long, but it's just like arresting to see human legs

that long. It's like when those guys go to Turkey and get their legs lengthened, I'm like, you didn't watch Gattaca, you should. It didn't, he didn't like it. It was, that was outy for him. Anyway, Wemby has more to him than, than some of the other, like, very famous spindly tall guys, you know, and there have been a lot of tall men in the NBA, to be clear. I'm talking out of my ass a little bit here. Can you tell? I just don't know.

There's been a lot of tall men in the NBA, you say. Is that? It's just, breaking news. There's tall. But there's like tall and then there's tall. Yeah, right. You know what I mean?

He makes tall men look tiny. And he makes other men as tall or maybe around as tall as he is look skinny. Yeah. Like, whole bowl is more filled out than his dad was. Yeah. Anyway. He's bulked up a bit. But, yeah.

It's just certain aspects of him you'd think, wow, what an amazing picture he would make. but then, well, we do have one pitch that he threw. He threw a first pitch on a visit to Yankee Stadium three years ago. That's right. This is maybe when he held that ball. This was, I think, shortly before he was drafted. So he was 19. It wasn't good, right?

It was not good. No, I just sent it to you and O'L. The mechanics were horrendous, as you might expect, for a non-baseball player. Now, if he had trained as a baseball player, the way that he is trained as a baseball player. the way that he is trained as a basketball player? I just love to look out his face like, hey man, this isn't whatever. This isn't my project. This is not my sport.

Yeah. So even though basketball players are incredibly coordinated and athletic, in some respects, maybe more so than MLB players and fitter conditioned and all the rest, you can just see whenever they take hacks in the cage or throw a pitch, they just, they look like they've never done it before because in many cases they haven't. They haven't. Yeah. And so he has a lot.

dedicated himself to it. Also, I think there is a point at which it does impair your coordination. It's just like you've got such long limbs. The signals have to travel farther and back to your brain. And then you have to tell your body what to do. And we've seen that with some giant pitchers who are not as big as Wemby, but, you know, like your Randy Johnson's, they often have to kind of get their mechanics in whack before they can be effective.

And so he had all sorts of control issues and everything and then made mechanical changes and then was suddenly dominant. And obviously being as big as he was helped and probably helped him generate speed and certainly made him more intimidating and he had the extension and all the rest. But it took time for him to harness that

and really leverage that. So it was perhaps counterproductive at first. And then his hands are so big that I wonder whether It's just, it's too much. And instead of being able to impart more spin, he would have even less tactile control and feel for the pitch because the ball's just so teeny tiny.

Yeah, it would just get lost in there. It's like wearing a mitt or something. Right. I guess the coordination, the lack of practice, the gigantic hands. Now, of course, what makes him so special as a basketball player is that even though he is so gigantic, he doesn't play like that. I mean, he does in the good ways. but also the typical downsides of being that huge he doesn't have.

Like he has the athleticism coordination. He has touching finesse. Yeah, right. And that's what makes him such an outlier, not just the height, but the skill set that goes along with the height. And now that he's fully refining that, he's taking San Antonio to the finals. And boy, that's going to be a fun series.

Are you a Knicks guy, Ben? I'm not really, but I. Do you Bing-Bong? I mean, I think New York is just going to be so into this series that it will just be fun to follow. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I don't have a deep emotional connection to the next. But, but yeah, it's going to be fun to follow in Route 4 and just all the storylines and everything. It was a fun Spurs Thunder series and just all the discourse about flopping and all that went into that.

And Wembe just having amazing games and everything. But yeah, I don't think he, if he had to convert to pitching right now, let's put it this way. I don't think he would be as adept at pitching as Michael Jordan was at hitting, which was not very, but surprisingly. Yeah, but as everyone points out, it was pretty impressive for him to not have placed. No, I mean, I think Wemby would be a terrible. Oh, yes. Oh, definitely. Yeah, I think pitching would be the thing that he should gravitate to.

but I think he's picked the right career. I love it if he got in the box and they were like, hey, try to be short to the ball. And he's like, I haven't been short to anything in my entire life. Yeah, make your strike zone smaller if you can. Crouch over, bend double or something. Just, yeah. Yeah. It would be a sight to see, certainly.

Yeah. But, yeah, all you have to see to be disabused of the notion that, wow, Wembe would be an amazing pitcher is to look at the ceremonial first pitch he through. Now, his work ethic, his desire to be great. If he had applied that to baseball pitching, then maybe he could have been great. Maybe he has the raw materials. But there are also some things that could have held him back there. But yeah, it is wonderful just to see pictures of him in any other context.

Because in basketball, he already looks like an outlier, but he's so surrounded by giants that you don't get the full effect that you do when you see him in a civilian setting or on a baseball mound or something. And then you think, whoa, wow. Anyway, Wembe, okay. And now I have a couple Brewer's topics to take us home here. And one will just be a fact and another will be a mystery that I hope that people can help me solve. So we got an email from Ted O, Patreon supporter, who said, so I was looking at stats leaders as one does. The current Major League wins leader, pitcher wins, that is, is Aaron Ashby of the Brewers, a reliever. He is 9-0 in 26 appearances over 36 innings.

If he can make it to 20 wins, would he be the first pitcher who is primarily a reliever to do so? I certainly hope he does. Yeah, he's on pace to go 26 and 0 this season, which would be pretty impressive. And I think the relief record, the true reliever wins record, it's Roy Face, the late Roy face for the Pirates in 1959, and he won 18 games. And that was really something to do it in this day and age, though, I think would be particularly impressive. We just lost Roy Face at age 97 this past February. I was sorry to see him go.

But yeah, in 1959, he was 18 and 1. But back then, now he pitched 57 games, which is something you might see today. But he threw 93 in a third innings. So you probably wouldn't see that certainly with a guy who. in 57 games. I think we should see that. I think there's room for that. Maybe Carmen Maginsky.

Right, I was just going to say. Yeah, the new Roy face for the pirates. Just follow in his footsteps and have multi-inning outings and rack up wins. You could get more pitcher wins out of the bullpen maybe than you did starting these days. Carmen, it's possible. But it is pretty wild that Aaron Ashby has gone 9-0. He is leading the majors in pitcher wins. He's ahead of Chris Sale and Davis Martin and Gavin Williams.

And he's done it now, yeah, 26 games, 36 innings. And he's been quite effective, obviously. 2ERA, 2.19 FIP, good strikeout rate, all the rest. But this is quite improbable. There's just lots of in the right place at the right time and vulture wins and whatever. He did start one game, I guess, probably as an opener. but to get nine wins. Yeah.

That is really something. And Carmen Mitzky, I think the pirates have won eight of his 11 starts or games. He has led to wins in most of his outings for the pirates. But he's no Aaron Ashby when it comes to the pristine win-loss record. I love it. That's pretty impressive. This is why I still kind of enjoy that we have wins and losses and that they're measured the same way, because we've entertained questions about, well, should they change how you define a win

and guys aren't going as deep into games? So maybe they should lower the threshold. You shouldn't have to go five. Or maybe if you just throw the most innings in the game or something. And I get that, but I think, A, it doesn't matter that much because no one really pays attention to pitcher wins anymore, unless it's some fun statistical quirk or curiosity like Aaron Ashby. And also, in that vein, I think it's nice to have the consistency over time. I agree. Yeah, because if we just change the baseline and change the bar, it's good if only to be able to track differences in pitcher usage.

And guys not getting as many wins now. It would be totally skewed if you just sort of redefined the stat to conform to the modern pitcher usage model. I guess you could have a modern win and still report the old traditional win. But I don't know. I don't care enough. But, but Aaron Ashby, he's never had more than five wins in a season. Like last season, he was similarly effective. That's too funny.

And he pitched in 43 games, 66 and two thirds innings. But he went five and two that year. And now nine and oh. It's not like he's had some incredible knack for picking up wins in the past. So I'm sure this won't continue. But it's pretty fun while it's happening. It's a funny thing. I don't, I think as long as you don't make too much of it, that it doesn't tell you nothing.

And the year-over-year comparison is interesting and kind of fun, if only to highlight the limitations of the stat, right? But I like that we maintain a consistency to it, even if our understanding of its importance or sort of how much weight we place on it when trying to evaluate the quality of a guy changes appropriately over time. we learn more about the game. I don't know. I like that. Yeah, me too. He's pitched or entered in every inning from the fifth through the tenth. That's crazy.

He also started that one game. So he's been just a roving reliever. Wow. And they put him in and I guess he's a good luck charm. If nothing else for the Brewers, he's a pretty effective reliever and has been for a while. But this is something else. So we will be on Aaron Ashby, Winswatch, from now on and probably he won't have any more

now that we have brought this up. It'll be a reverse jinx. No, this is just a jinx. The Tatis was a reverse jinx. This will be a reverse, reverse jinx, which is just a jinx. Just a jinx. Yeah, I'm sure the brewers will keep winning.

And that is the question that I bring to you here. I have something that I will probably be writing and doing further reporting on. So consider this a first draft and a first crack at the topic. and I'm claiming it. I'm licking this topic. So it's got my germs all over it.

Yeah, the cupcake is yours. Yes. But this is about Brewer's clutchness and whether they have solved clutch, whether they have figured something out that enables them to hit well with runners in scoring position. And I was thinking of this

because the other day, Joshean had an edition of his newsletter, Joshean.com, and he was talking about teams that were and weren't doing well with runners in scoring position and how the Cubs were having trouble in that department. And Joe wrote, hitting and leverage spots isn't a skill over and above hitting.

No players and certainly no teams have an ability to map their performance to situations. However, performance with runners in scoring position, especially in close games, goes a long way toward winning a baseball game or toward winning baseball games. And then mentioned the Brewers, Padres and A's, all surprising us to one degree or another. are two, three, four when it comes to overachieving with runners in scoring position. The Red Sox, Giants, and Royals, all disappointments are at the other end of the scale. So this has been Sabermetric orthodoxy for a long time, and it's typically true. I don't disagree with Joe's larger takeaway here.

However, I'm starting to wonder whether the brewers are the exception to the certainly no teams have an ability to map their performance to situations, because they are really raking with runners and scoring position this year, and it is far from the first time that they have done this. They have shown a capacity to do this year in and year out for several seasons now. So this year, the brewers are hitting 284, 381, 4388. That's an 819 OPS with runners in scoring position. And they have the highest T OPS plus in that situation of any team. So that's just looking at their OPS in that situation versus their OPS overall,

and they've been 38% better with runners in scoring position. So it's a 138 T OPS plus, and that is leading the majors. And then you have the Diamondbacks next and the twins and the Padres and the Phillies, et cetera. Okay. If this were just one year, it would be noteworthy. It would help explain why the brewers are once again doing so well and surpassing expectations and projections. and scoring more than you might expect,

given their overall offensive abilities, because they're not a great hitting team. They're 19th in WRC Plus. They have a 97 WRC Plus, and yet they have punched above their weight. They're 268 runs scored. They're 11th in-run scored. So they have scored more runs than you would expect,

given their overall offensive inputs, because they have timed and sequenced, their production well. And they keep doing this because when I read that passage from Joe, I flashed back to an episode that you weren't on. I think you were in the mountains because it was the end of the year. And Hannah Kaiser was filling in. This was the very end of 2024. It was episode 2263. And we were doing the stories we missed for the National League. And we got a question about Brewers, runners-in-scoring position

production, and Ryan Nelson did a little mini stap blast at the time and found that the Brewers had the best T-O-PS Plus over a three-year span

of any team ever. And, yeah, Hannah was captivated by this and she was thinking, oh, someone has to write about this, the Brewers have figured out clutch. This must be a real thing. And I was,

similarly intrigued, but I thought, okay, well, three years, maybe even that's not sufficient. Well, now they're doing it again. Last year also, they were above average in that situation. And so I asked Ryan to run these numbers again. And the brewers now have the highest T OPS Plus ever over a three-year span, over a five-year span, and over a seven-year span. Wow. Yeah. So this is unparalleled. No other team has ever hit this well with runners in scoring position relative to their overall production over such a long time. So it was the 22 to 24 brewers are on top of the three-year spans. And also other brewer spans during this time are toward the top of the list. And then the five-year spans, it's 2020 to 2024. The brewers are on top with a T-OPS plus of 120.9. over those five seasons, over the three seasons span, it's 122.3.

And now over the seven season span, 2020 to 2026, it's 119.8. And that's the highest by quite a lot. Yeah. The Brooklyn from 1916 to 1922, they're the number two team in T OPS Plus over a seven season span. And they were at 116.2. So a 3.6 point T OPS Plus gap between the Brewers and the number two team. which might not sound like that much, but it actually is a lot when it comes to this.

Yeah. Yeah, because the difference between the brewers at number one and those Brooklyn teams at number two, even though it's only a few points, it's like the difference between the second place team and the 65th place team or something. You know, it's a big gap as these things go. So they've been doing this for a really long time,

and what Joe said is typically true. that there's no consistency here. Ryan looked at the year-to-year correlation of runners-in-scoring position T OPS Plus and found that there isn't one. It's a correlation of 0.04. It's nothing. Basically, it's negligible.

So if a team is good or bad at that in a given year, it doesn't really tell us anything in general about whether they'll be good at that the following year or whether they were good at that the previous year. And I've seen some other studies about this where they just divide a single single.

season into two, and even then, there's often no correlation between how a team hits with runners in scoring position in half of the year and how it hits in the second half of the year. And so Ryan and I were wondering, is this just a fluke? Is this statistically significant? How improbable is this? Is this just, well, you have enough teams and enough seasons. Sooner or later, somebody's bound to do this. So Ryan said, if you fit a normal distribution on the seven-year span data, the 2020-2020 to 2026 Brewers are 4.2 standard deviations above the mean, which would imply something like a one-in-50,000 chance that this is random and not an underlying trend of some sort. But he says normal distributions can get a bin unreliable or skewed

in the tails. So I found a metric called the Gumbull distribution. G-U-M-B-E-L. The Gumble distribution, not Bryant Gumble, not Greg Gumbull. I was just about to ask. Yeah, but the Gumble distribution, which I was not familiar with, and I guess Ryan wasn't either maybe, but seems like a useful tool here. So the Gumble distribution, rather than answering, how likely is it that the Brewers would have a 119.8 T OPS Plus over that seven season span, instead answers, how likely is it that the best seven-year span of? of all time would be that extreme. Okay. And so he says if we run that metric, it tells us that there is a 0.78% chance that the most

extreme streak would be this extreme if it were all truly random. So we can say with a very high degree of certainty that something they are doing is affecting their runners in scoring position T OPS Plus, whether it be their personnel, their strategy, or something else. And people have written about their runners and scoring position success. in individual seasons, but I don't know that anyone has really connected it over multiple seasons, even the way that I did back on that long ago episode. And I did ask, you know, one thing Ryan noticed is that T OPS Plus with runners in scoring

position has increased a bit over time, like the league hits a bit better relative to its overall production with runners in scoring position now than it used to for whatever reason. And so I asked, do we need to account for that? Is it just that the league hits better with runners and scoring position these days? So that makes the Brewers look more significant. And Ryan said, basically like a T OPS Plus plus. Right. Multiple levels of adjustment here.

And Ryan said that it doesn't make that much difference. So the overall average with runners and scoring position, the average TOPPS plus back to 1910 is 106. Over the past seven seasons, it's 108. So a couple points. But their 119.8 is still really significant, and their competitors aren't in that range. And if you apply the old Gumble to this,

the Gumble distribution. Famously. Yeah, and account for just the last seven years, then it's still 1.68%. So it's really, it's not that much less unlikely, though there's sample size issues there. So, and I guess you have to account for the fact that this seven-season span does encompass 2020, which was a 60-game season, and this season, which is also roughly a 60-game season thus far. So that does decrease the sample.

It's true. But they've been doing this long enough now that this appears to be repeatable for them. And I did ask Ryan about the longest stretches of consecutive seasons of being above average by any amount. relative to the league average T OPS Plus. And this is not the longest streak. The longest streak is eight years. So it was Brooklyn from 1915 to 1922, the Yankees from 1958 to 1965,

and the Phillies from 2008 to 2015. They all managed to be at least a hair above the league average TOPS plus with runners in scoring position. But in most cases, those were just small differences. Like they were a little bit better for a bunch of years in a row, whereas the brewers have been better a bunch of years in a row and buy a lot in some of those years. So they are out on an island.

They are a team unto themselves in this category. Did you guys look and see if there's any change to the sort of shape of their production in those circumstances versus in a... Yes, yes, I do have, yeah. If what you're trying to discern is, are there, they doing something, right? Like, do they have an approach in these circumstances that would account for their outsized production? That might be compelling, although, you know, I'm still skeptical, but is it, are they hitting the same way that they are in, in non-men

and scoring position situations? Yeah. I looked into that a little. I'd like to look into it more. And part of the reason that I'm, that's part of you licking the cupcake. Yes. And I'm, I'm, I'm bringing this up on the podcast because people might have good suggestions for things to look at or potential explanations here. But just to give people some sense, because I was curious about, okay, how much of the brewers seeming to exceed expectations every year is attributable to this quality. So I'm looking at 2020 to 26 just because that's the year that the brewer started consistently, unfailingly hitting better with. with runners in scoring position, but you could have some other sample of seasons if you if you cared to. But so over that 2020 to 2026 span, the Brewers have exceeded their preseason depth charts projections

by fan graphs by 47.4 wins, which is second most in baseball. First is the Dodgers who have exceeded their projections. it seems like by 70.3 wins. Now, in some cases, this is just, and Dan Siborski wrote about this last week, too, because he wrote a post about how the Brewers keep making Zips look bad, keep beating the Zips projections.

Yeah, it's his biggest mess consistently is... Yeah, so, and these depth charts, this is Zips plus Steamer, plus playing time projections from the Ruster Resource Crew, but he found that it's partly that the Brew, Brewers just seem to do a really good job of recognizing when someone is better than they were projected to be and then giving them a lot of playing time so that, yeah, maybe they're good at evaluating their guys or deviating from the plan when someone exceeds at least public expectations. We don't know what their internal expectations are. But when someone is better than they were projected to be, the Brewers seem to pivot to that player quickly.

And as Dan also mentioned, it can be that teams that do well, they also tend to improve themselves by adding at the deadline. They tend to be buyers. And that's not something that projection systems account for. They don't model that, oh, if this team is this good, it'll probably get even better because they'll be adding at the deadline. And that applies to a lot of the teams that are on top here, like the Dodgers or the Brewers for that instance. Next are the Guardians, another team that has perennially beaten projections, and then the Mariners are next, the rays, the Orioles. Anyway, the Brewers are second. So if we say 47 or so wins, they have been better than the preseason projections.

This tendency of theirs to hit better or to score more than their underlying offensive numbers would suggest has accounted for about 12 of those wins near as I can. figure. I looked at the base runs page at fan graphs, and it gives you kind of the deserved scoring versus the actual scoring. And then I also looked at Clay Davenport, Baseball Perspectus co-founder. He has a website, Claydavenport.com, where he has adjusted scoring and adjusted standings. And so I looked at all of that, and basically they have scored, according to Clay, 117 more runs than they, quote, unquote, should have. And according to base runs, 120 more runs than they should have. So those two measures are in close agreement.

So roughly 12 wins, if you do the 10 runs to a win kind of shorthand. So they've exceeded expectations by about 47 wins. Roughly 12 of that comes from scoring more than they should have given their actual offensive stats. So not even the fact that some of their guys just turn out to be better than projected, which seems to be another knack that the brewers maybe have too, is that they're good at player development and they can just, hey, give us Kyle Harrison, your prospect who has struggled,

we will turn him into a good pitcher, that kind of thing. So it's not just one thing that they have done, obviously, to be good and to surpass expectations. But this is maybe, I don't know, a quarter of it, something like that just seems to come from their clutchitude, the fact that they're just constantly hitting well in those big spots and only hitting well.

They have not shown the same, consistent knack for pitching well with runners in scoring position. So if they figured out clutch hitting, they haven't figured out clutch pitching or preventing clutch hitting. And I'll caveat. I'll stipulate that runners in scoring position, it's a little different from, say, high leverage. Often runners and scoring position situations are high leverage, but not always. You could have runners in scoring position situations in a blowout when you're winning or losing by a lot. And then, yeah, runners are in scoring position, but it's not actually high leverage. So I think they might be a little less outlying, if you look, just in terms of leverage,

which is what the Fangraph's clutch stat measures, for instance. So it depends how you define clutch, I guess. But by this one metric, they definitely have been singular in all of baseball history. Okay, so as to your question about what are they doing differently? Or are they doing anything differently? Yeah, right. Yeah. So one thing I wanted to just see, is the expected weighted on base different?

Like, do the underlying inputs here suggest that they are actually hitting better with runners in scoring position? Or are they just somehow getting better results with the same kind of quality of contact? Right. And that's interesting. So by weighted on base average, just by Purell, Wobah with runners in scoring position since 2020, they are second. in baseball, the second best hitting team in baseball with the runners in scoring position behind only the Dodgers who have had a much more star-studded lineup over that span. So the Dodgers have a 346 Wobah with runners in scoring position and the Brewers are number

two at 338. Now, if we look at runners not in scoring position, so you can do that split at Savant and I checked runner not on second and runner not on third, the Dodgers are still first overall So they have a 333 Wobah with runners in scoring position. So they're good all the time, regardless of the situation. But the Brewers are 21st. So they plummet all the way from second in baseball to with runners in scoring position to 21st with no runners in scoring position.

So, yeah, they go all the way from a 338 Wobah to a 306 Wobah. They're sandwiched between the Rockies and the Angels in non-runners in scoring position, Wobah, whereas they're between the Dodgers and the Braves with runners in scoring position. So that's just another way of representing how clutch they have been. Yeah. However, when it comes to the expected weighted on base, this is pretty interesting. So with runners in scoring position, they are eighth in X Wobah. So that's 324.

And with runners not in scoring position, they're 19th at 310. So that's a. much smaller split than the weighted on base, the actual results when you go to the expected. So they're 32 points better with runners in scoring position than without runners in scoring position looking at the actual results. But when you look at the expected results, the difference is only 14 points. So it's still something, but it's much less pronounced, which is interesting, which you might think, okay, they're just getting a little lucky, then it's not as if they're just crushing the ball. They're just getting results as if they're crushing the ball, maybe. So that's,

and it's, you know, a pretty big sample at this point too. So it's hard to just say small sample, but that does suggest that whatever they're doing is not fully being captured by the quality of contact or just expected to wait in on base. So that's one thing to factor in here. And then I did look at some other things. So a lot of it does seem to be a babit boost. Okay. They have a much higher babbip with runners in scoring position.

They have a 310 babbip over this seven season span, which is the best in baseball. And without runners in scoring position, same span, they are much worse. They're 21st with a 287 BABIP. So that accounts for a lot of the difference. It's a BABIP difference. And often we kind of default to, oh, BABIP luck, fluke. But that's not always the case when it's hitters in particular. Hitters, you know, they can kind of dictate their BABIP.

They're governing that much more than pitchers do. And that can be sensitive to a difference in approach or something. So I looked at some other things. I looked at whiff rate, for instance, and there doesn't appear to be any difference. They're not whiffing more or less. So I was wondering, like, are they just, you know, shortening up or not swinging as hard or something? I haven't looked at swing speed stuff or swing metrics yet, and we don't even have them for this whole span. But the whiff rate is the same.

I was wondering about maybe, like, pole percentage. Are they just going the other way or something? again, like staying within themselves, not trying to do too much, not trying to swing for the fences. I don't know. With runners in scoring position, they're 14th in pole rate. And with runners not in scoring position, they're 28th in pole rate. So that's maybe something. The actual numbers aren't that different.

It's like 38.6 versus 37, but the league averages are a little different in that spot. So they do fall from 14th to 28th, which suggests that, yeah, maybe relative to the league, They're pulling the ball a little less, and maybe they're just trying to not do too much, that kind of thing. But there's more that I could look into here, I'm sure, but there wasn't like a super obvious smoking gun. So it does suggest that whatever it is is not completely captured by Wobah X Woba, which might mean that it's a fluke. It's luck. Or might mean that there's just something that's not even being completely captured by that. But it's been going on long enough and has been pronounced enough that it does really make me start to think.

Even though my baseline, my prior is absolutely signal, not noise, and teams can't control this. The brewers are really making me question that in their case at this point. It's just I thought it was noteworthy when I first mentioned this in late 2024. before and now it's going on and it's even more demonstrated difference this year, just drastic. So I don't know. What do you think? Like, is this something? Have the brewers cracked the clutch code?

So, like, part of the under-projecting puzzle, one of the big pieces to that puzzle, as Dan noted, when he wrote about this last week, is that they do seem to just self-scout very, very well. Or maybe it's more accurate to say that a combination of their own self-scouting and sort of a willingness to give playing time to guys who might not be as high profile as other dudes puts them in a spot where they are always maximizing the production of the guys that they have on their roster. and maybe they're identifying something about them when they're drafting them or trading for them that they know they can help to bring out the best in those guys through their player development. So I'm sure that's part of it too. But I know that like when other Ben has looked at this from a, in terms of our projections, not just as it pertains to Zips, but like what are we not really accounting for in our

playoff odds, for instance, that might help to explain the, success that they've had. Some of it is like the kinds of things that they tend to be good at, you know, good base running. Yes. I'm going to say like situational hitting generally, which is sort of what you're trying to get at. Quality of depth, which speaks to Dan's partial explanation. Those are things that we tend to not be able to model particularly well or account for quite as well as maybe we should in the playoff odds and in the projections. So, I wonder if the answer to your question sort of lies in that same direction, right? That we're sort of, they are good at things that tend to lead to run scoring in those circumstances.

Now, the counter to that is you can score runs hitting homers famously. Yes. That's a good way to do it. And, you know, the power is kind of come and gone on that roster depending on its exact composition, which does change a good bit. But, you know, maybe there's something to the approach. That was part of why I was curious, like, are they doing things? Are there hitters doing things differently in those circumstances that suggest they have identified,

like, this is the approach to hitting that yields the best return in those moments or something like that. I'm skeptical of that because if it did, well, why wouldn't you just do that all this? time. That's always the thing. Yeah. Right. That's always the thing. So I'm fascinated, but I agree with you that it's like it's a, it's a persistent enough trend to at least invite the question and require some amount of explanation if what we're going to end up concluding is, and it's just kind of a fluky thing. It's like, well, that's sure a sticky fluke, as it were, you know, so I think it's a worthy question. I can't really account for it. I don't have a good instinctive answer other than some combination of the things that they are doing, that their hitters do well

showing some amount of resilience in those moments that gives them a little bit of a boost. And it would potentially, if that's the case, right, if it's an approach thing that you have a bunch of, like, speedy little athletes on that team. There's a bunch of, you know, I know Caleb Durbin's gone, but is, you know, though, you know, right? Like spiritually, isn't he still a brewer? Isn't he on the brewers? Even if he's not on the brewers, if those things help to account for some portion of their success with runners in scoring position, well, it would make sense to me that that would work, you know, to some degree and maybe to an outsized degree relative to other teams in the regular season. And then we tend to see, although not always, their offense dry up when it comes to October. And part of that is they got a bunch of little speedy guys. but when the quality of pitching improves in the postseason. And defense, yeah. And defense improves in the postseason,

well, suddenly, it's not that you can't score that way, but it's not necessarily as reliable as it once was. So I don't know, maybe that's the thing. Or maybe it's just a big trick, you know? It's a big trick that the baseball gods are playing on us trying to identify some actual skill hitter. But, you know, they got a lot of smart people working for that team. Yeah, and that's the thing.

I guess part of it is just, oh, because it's the Brewers, it seems more likely that they have figured something out than if it were just some other team that is not known to be, quote, unquote, smart or progressive or populated with former raise executives, you know, so that lends it a little credence. And of course, that could maybe mislead you because you're overly inclined to think, ooh, they have the one weird trick. They figured out clutch. Yeah, they know what's what. Yeah. But another way of putting it is with no runners in scoring position, their Wobah is four points lower than their expected Wobah. But with runners in scoring position, their Wobah is 14 points higher than their expected Wobah.

So they don't seem to have the same knack to outperform their Wobah in other spots, but in this spot they have. And so, yes, that is always what it comes down to. If you could do it at that time, why wouldn't you just always do it? And I guess the only answers would be one, there's like something that you can only do sparingly. Like, I don't know, you have to go super sion or something. Like you just, you have to power up. And so you can do it.

You have to pick your spots. Otherwise you would burn out. And so they just reserve it for this one time. Because if it were just, I don't know, swinging harder or something, you could imagine, okay, well, you can't swing that hard always because there'd be fatigue or injury. And so they just save it for these moments. maybe. But other than that, it's hard to come up with an answer. Or it's something unique about that situation and maybe about how your personnel conforms to that situation. The conditions are more conducive to you producing in that spot for whatever reason. And then you start to think,

well, what would that even be? What would that look like? You could imagine, okay, it's like maybe with a runner on first, the first baseman's holding that runner on and there's a hole opened up or something and you could be really good at just aiming for that hole in the infield or there's something, right? But like with runners in scoring position, with a runner on second or third, it's a whole jumble of spots. It's just as long as someone is at least on second, then I don't necessarily know, except for one thing, and that's sign stealing, right? Legal sign stealing, to be clear, not accusing the purses of anything nefarious here. Yeah. We're doing a bigger, we're doing a different kind of show than I thought what we were doing.

But could it be related to the brewers being adept at picking up signs when they have a runner at second or something and relaying that to the batter? I'm not saying they are. I have no proof that that's the case. It's just I'm trying to figure out, well, what's different about this situation that they've been so much better in? And one thing is that sometimes you can pick up the signs and relay them. And to be clear, they have exactly the same wobo with runners in scoring position at home.

and on the road just over this span. So it's not like they've done this only in Milwaukee, which might lead you to think, oh, it's an Astro's situation. It's a banging scheme. It's cameras. Whatever it is, they have excelled equally on the road as at home with runners in scoring position.

And in fact, because typically there's a home field advantage, I think they have the best Wobah in baseball on the road with runners and scoring position over this span. So could it be signed stuff? And this is relevant maybe to the Abner Uribe incident from last week because Uribe's explanation, which does actually seem to be backed up by the facts, is that he was upset. He was extra ostentatious here because Cardinals manager Ali Marmal was warning the Brewers about relaying signs. And he did seem to be doing this. and there's video of Marmal seeming to gesture to his ribs as if to say...

Right. Someone's going to wear one if you guys don't stop this. Yes. And when he was asked about that after the game, initially he said, I'd rather not blow anything out of proportion. I think it already has been, to be quite honest with you. But he was asked about it more.

And he said, I've got no issues telling you the full story. But I just think like anything these days it gets blown up. This is like an everyday occurrence. We felt like the Brewers were being pretty demonstrative about reliance. signs from the dugout. And so Marmel said, I looked over and I said, hey, you got to do it. Be smart. You're going to get somebody hurt while pointing to his ribs.

Like, what we're trying to do here, that was it. He said there was also an incident involving an unnamed Brewer's coach before the game concerning the sign relaying issue. And that same coach and Marmal spoke after the game, according to Marmel, who said he hadn't talked to Pat Murphy. So Marmel said the issue is settled. Now, I think, frankly, it's still for Marmal to signal, I'm going to plunk you on purpose is not great. I think if any one should be fined or suspended, it's him maybe.

I mean, maybe both. But him, if he's basically saying, knock it off or we're going to hit you, that's a threat. I understand that sign stealing since time of memorial, it's just been policed by the players, you know, this kind of legal sign stealing. I get it. and the hit by pitches, that's part of how players enforce these norms and codes and unwritten rules and everything. But the fact that Marmal was worked up about that, and I don't know exactly how he thought that the signs were being relayed from the dugout. I don't know if he means like a runner relaying it to the dugout and then to the batter or whether he was just saying, I guess he was suggesting that a coach or coaches were just picking this up and relaying it from the dugout.

So I don't know if it even needs to be necessarily a runner. standing on second and picking up the signals sort of thing. But, you know, there's been a little smoke and suggestions around the brewers and sign stealing and people have wondered about specific instances. So it could be, I suppose, that they are very good at this. But then again, even if they were, why would that show up in the Wobah but not the expected Wobah? Right. Because if it was that they know which pitches are coming and And thus they are dialed in on that pitch, then wouldn't it just be that they hit the ball harder and they don't swing when they shouldn't swing or whatever? And so that would just be reflected in the underlying performance as well.

So I don't know how to square those things. But I'm just laying it all out there. I have submitted interview requests for various brewers, players, and coaches. And we'll see if I'm able to talk to any of them. but I'm soliciting input, hypotheses, anything that might occur to people to suggest why or how this is happening. Because I'm fascinated by it because the viewers, they keep beating expectations every year and they keep defying gravity when it comes to hitting with runners and squirm position. And it's been going on long enough and pronounced enough that I am starting to suspect that they're onto something here. Hmm.

Yeah. Well, as we'll see. I guess we will see. So, yeah, please send me your analysis, send me your questions. And thank you also to Patreon supporter Ryan Topp, who I think was the first back in 2024 to suggest this as a topic and prompted the initial stat blast about how the Brewers, because Ryan's a Brewers fan and had noticed that the Brewers consistently were hitting with runners in scoring position better than at other times. And that was what prompted me and Ryan to

look into this initially and to follow up on it now. I also do not want to suggest any sort of rule violating behavior here. But it would be very funny if there were some underlying scandal. And it was a fan of the team that started the inquiry that exposed it. Like, oh, no, I should never pass that question. Yeah. I don't care how they're scoring. I'm just glad that they are. Yeah. There have been all sorts of. Scandals are suspected scandals of, yeah, man in white, just the like, you know, where the Blue Jays doing something at Rogers Center or just, yeah, and all this stuff, it's rarely actually substantiated, but obviously we know signs stealing legal or otherwise has

been a constant since the beginning of baseball. So we're all just hypervigilant about this in the post-banging scheme era. Anyway. All right. Well, I look forward to people. writing in to flesh this out in any way that they can and I will do some additional digging. But yeah, my spidey sense has been triggered. My hackles have been raised, not hackles, I guess.

But yeah, my awareness has been heightened by this. You're curious. I am quite curious, yeah. There you go. Did you see that Tim Healy writing for the Boston Globe, evidently, there are people in the Red Sox organization who think that Craig Breslo should have an interpreter. that like a Obama anchor interpreter, anger translator sort of, but for Breslo, kind of like I guess the Mariners have done with Jerry and Justin Hollander in recent years,

maybe, where it's like, yeah, let's have someone else speak for us. But according to Tim, multiple officials within the organization believe that Breslo might benefit from having an interpreter of sorts. And over the past month, he's made a concerted effort to have more conversations with players and clubhouse level personnel to tell them that he cares about them and winning and he's there to support them. But, yeah, evidently,

there are people who think that he's leaned way more into his Yale self than his player's self, in the words of Healy, which that seems to be undoubtedly true. I mean, we've talked about this, the business speak and the gobbledygook and the word salad and the buzzwords

that he deploys just habitually. And it's weird because he is a former player and you'd think that if he wanted to, he could at least speak passable clubhouse. And he just hasn't, at least, to the media. So maybe there are situations like the Mariners, perhaps, where when an executive keeps putting their foot in their mouth, that it might be better to have a different spokesperson for them. It's not ideal because that's supposed to be part of the job.

Yeah. But when they prove less than adept at that part of the job, then maybe you do have to find a different, messenger who's less likely to be shot. I do think that, you know, if I want to be sympathetic to the instinct, I do think that communicating both internally, which I think is honestly to the extent that it is a failure, the bigger failure and the bigger problem for both Breslo and the Red Sox, right? But, you know, to the extent that being able to communicate with the media is part of the

the Pobo's job, which I think it is, you know, I can imagine there being parts of that communication thread and obligation that you might excel at while you're sort of deficient in other ways. So maybe there are things that you look around and say, well, you know, he's really good at talking about whatever, pitching development or whatever it is. But when we are having to get into some of the nitty gritty of roster construction, were mindful, at least for now, that there have been some issues in the past. And I think when we talked about Breslo and, you know, some of the comments that he made subsequent to the Devers deal that didn't even really relate to the Devers deal, he's in this danger zone now

where it's like people are, and we do this with Jerry, and I'm hardly immune to the instinct. So, you know, I don't mean to like throw stones or anything. but you get used to interpreting everything that the guy says through this sort of like suspicious tech babble guy. This gets my hackles up. I don't like the way that this washes over me. And you can, I think, get in trouble and, you know, like everything, when you're, you know, a hammer, everything looks like a nail, right?

So maybe pulling him back from some of the areas where it has caused issues. in the past and letting him focus on sort of the particulars of the players themselves and how they're shaping their repertoires or whatever. Maybe that's a maybe that's a solution. Oh my god, the Eagles finally traded AJ Brown. Wow. All right. Well, the pirates reinstated Carmen Maginsky from the restricted list on Monday. He did some damage control in an interview with MLB.com. I want to do

what's best to help us win baseball games, he said. He did say, of course, I want to start and we'll always want that, but winning games takes precedence. So our short, local, not exactly nightmare is over. Update on a stat I relayed just last week on episode 2483. I noted that on May 23rd, the White Sox scored nine runs on five hits, and all five of those hits came in the fourth inning, which was the second most runs in a game by a team that got all of its hits in one inning. It was a record in a nine-plus inning game.

They were the only team to score nine-plus runs in a nine-plus-in-game in the modern era with all of their runs and hits coming in the same inning. However, on September 11th, 2021, the Blue Jays had all 11 of their runs and hits in the seventh inning. But it was a seven-inning game, the second game of a doubleheader. Well, we can wipe all of that away because the Yankees, barely more than a week after the White Sox, said we can top that. And on Sunday, they scored 13 runs on 11 hits,

and all of those hits came in the third inning. All of the runs, too. So new high score, most runs in a game by a team that got all of its hits in one inning. We did get a question from listener Kenny about whether the Yankees set another record, because in that third inning, they had 12 plate appearances before an out was recorded. But that was not unprecedented, per Sarah Lange's and Elias Sports Bureau. The first 12 Yankees' batters reaching safely was tied for the most consecutive batters to reach safely to start an inning before the first out. In the expansion era, 61 on.

The Red Sox did it. May 7, 2009 in the 6th inning. The Royals did it. August 2nd, 1986 in the 7th inning. So there have been so many seasons, so many teams, so. many games, so many innings that many improbable events have occurred previously. But that Sunday Yankees game was one of one in another respect. You can be one of fortunately more than one people who have decided to support this podcast on Patreon

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Check out all the offerings at patreon.com slash effectively wild. If you are a Patreon supporter, you can message us to the Patreon site. If not, you can contact us via email, send your questions, comments, intro, and outro themes to podcast at Fangraphs.com. You can rate, review, and subscribe to EffectivelyWild on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, music, and other podcast platforms. You can join our Facebook group at Facebook.com slash group slash effectively wild.

You can find the Effectively Wild subreddit at R slash Effectively Wild. And you can check the show notes in the podcast posted Fangraphs or Patreon or the episode description in your podcast app for links to the stories and stats we cited today. Thanks to Shane McKean for his editing and production assistance. We will be back with another episode soon. Talk to you a little later this week.