Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast - Effectively Wild Episode 2509: Won’t Stand for It

Episode Date: July 25, 2026

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, please visit our Patreon. Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about a Donald Trump claim about Shohei Ohtani, José Caballero’s battle with MLB about his pre-pitch routine, Yandy Díaz spurning ABS, James Wood’s impressive results with a seemingly suboptimal approach, whether the Nats would be better off if they hadn’t traded pitching prior to the season, David Rubenstein’s Orioles optimism, and Corbin Carroll’s triples pace. Then (1:04:45) they talk to EW listener Jacob Redmon, who found himself at the center of a viral video this week when he was slapped by a man who objected to his staying seated during the National Anthem, about how the incident developed, what the video didn’t show, and what he took from the experience. Finally (1:57:33), Ben talks to Kenny Lofton about his exclusion from the Hall of Fame, his Cooperstown-caliber career, and his oulook for induction. Audio intro: Harold Walker, “Effectively Wild Theme” Audio outro: Xavier LeBlanc, “Effectively Wild Theme” Link to Trump on Ohtani Link to Trump on Kershaw Link to White House visit recap Link to EW on Trump’s baseball career Link to Caballero video 1 Link to Caballero video 2 Link to Caballero video 3 Link to Caballero comments Link to Caballero article 1 Link to Caballero article 2 Link to Caballero article 3 Link to Caballero article 4 Link to Caballero article 5 Link to Caballero article 6 Link to “violation” comment Link to CloseCallSports video 1 Link to CloseCallSports video 2 Link to Stanky draft episode Link to Crizer on Yandy Link to Yandy article 1 Link to Santana article Link to MLBTR on Santana Link to Yandy article 2 Link to batting team challenges Link to Sam on bad challenges Link to BP piece on Wood Link to EW on Wood in 2025 Link to Nats WAR leaders Link to team hitting WAR Link to team pitching WAR Link to Rubenstein quote Link to Rubenstein quote thread Link to Carroll triples fact Link to triples park factor Link to “55 burgers” ITYSL sketch Link to National Anthem Link to slap video Link to Lucy Dacus tweet Link to Lucy Dacus shirt Link to Wednesday concert Link to Chavez video Link to Cubs statement Link to EW Episode 2189 Link to 2022 Hoerner homer Link to “third place” wiki Link to Ben on the Hall of Fame Link to Lofton highlights video Link to Lofton playoffs video Link to CF JAWS leaders  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, it's fair game, even Kee's dirty pants. And maybe if you're lucky, we'll co-call by the chance. You never know precisely where it's going to go. By definition, effectively wild. Hello and welcome to episode 2509 of Effectively Wild, a baseball podcast from Fancrafts, presented by our Patreon supporters. I am Ben Lindberg of the Ringer, joined by Meg Rally, of fan graphs. Hello, Meg.

Hello. I suppose I should also introduce myself as juror number four because the trial rolls on. It continues and so does effectively wild nonetheless. And we've got a lot to talk about today. We've got some exciting guests. We've got a bit of banter. And I'm excited because this weekend, Jesse and I are taking Sloan to her first ever baseball game. And of course, I will deliver a full report on our next episode.

Good. Shohiotani and the Dodgers are paying us a personal visit at City Field. Of course, they also visited the White House on Thursday, and I'm sure there's plenty we could say about that. But you know what? Maybe we'll move on. Trump did essentially order the occupation of part of Los Angeles last year, as I recall, but all is forgiven. I guess it's one of those delightful sports traditions, like the National Anthem before baseball games, which will play a prominent part on this podcast. but I wanted to draw your attention to one remark that President Trump made of a baseball nature,

and it was Shohei Otani related. And in contrast to the truth about many of the things, the president says, for example, just to give a very low stakes example, his contention that Clayton Kershaw is still pitching. Clayton Kershaw, where's Clayton? He's a winner. You talk about a winner? Fantastic. Look at that guy. I watched him beat a lot of our teams that we're supposed to do well. They didn't do too well against him.

And he's still pitching well, I'll bet, right? Well, he's spending time with the family now, sir. Well, yeah. But it is called ultimately talent, right? Yes. Would you say? Talent is the whole ball game. You could pitch right now.

If they needed you, you'd be out there, right? No. Maybe he was making a comment on how betting on baseball is a bad idea because you usually lose because he would lose that bet. He is not pitching as far as we know. And in fact, he was unsurprisingly in attendance, and he did inform the president that, no, he's not pitching and he has no desire or capacity to.

But putting aside many of the things the president says whose truth or lack thereof can be verified, we don't know for a fact that this particular assertion is false. Here's what he said about Shohei Otani. This was before the actual meeting in anticipation of the visit. I'll meet a man who's just about the best pitcher in baseball and just about the best hitter in baseball and just about the best fielder in the outfield in baseball.

Now, it's that last part in particular that I want to draw your attention to. And again, I've been in court all week, and so I'm really scrutinizing every statement for truth or falsehood and evaluating the evidence and all the rest of it. And, you know, I would allow, I would not object to saying he's just about the best pitcher and just about the best hitter. Sure. Close enough, right?

I wouldn't say that he is the best pitcher or the best hitter. Best player, I would certainly accept. But we'll stipulate to that part. Just about the best fielder in the outfield in baseball. Now, what are the odds that that is true? Because we can't quite disprove it, right? because it's certainly false in the sense that he has not played outfields, aside from a few strainings back when he was with the Angels and early in his professional career in Japan.

So he has not been the best fielder in terms of actual in-game demonstrated value, that we can conclusively say. But is there some possibility that were he to apply himself? And maybe not in his current state with his bum knee, but let's say at peak physical prowess that Shohei Otani might be capable of being the best fielder in the outfield in baseball? No. No. I'm sorry.

Like, I don't want to blame you for sundowning madmen. But, like, peak armstrong exists. What are we doing? What are you talking about? What are you doing, Ben? What are you doing, Ben? You know? Yeah.

And maybe PCA isn't your. your flavor. I bring up a cup because of some of our future conversation in this episode. But Sadon's right there, you know, like that's the other one that would come immediately to mind. So, no. And I don't say that to slight Otani. He's so big is the other thing, you know. He's out of practice. And the muscle memory, it does atrophy, you would think, after a while, you know. Yeah. It's just like. He has preterneternet. natural talent, but there's something to be said for getting reps out there, for being able to project the fight of the ball, all the rest of it.

And, like, I know that he was, at times in his earlier Big League career, like, a very effective base runner. But, like, we would always remark upon the fact that, like, he was surprisingly good, given his size. You know, he's, like, four inches taller than PCA. I think I want, like, a, I think that that's, like, the ice. ideal height to be a center fielder is like PCA's height because you're not like so short that it becomes a problem where you're like I have to scale this wall all the time but you're like you can

be nimble you know closer to balletic than Holking and to be clear there are guys who have a ton of can be both but a bigger build than like PCA doesn't still be your effective center fielders but I just think you want to be a little like you want to be a little zippy little zippy little zippy guy out there and he's not little he's six he's six foot but like yeah you know zippy say don't know zippy yeah it is yeah Yeah, and Otani's sprint speed is in the 56 percentile this year. Not that sprint speed is perfectly correlated with defensive value. But it's down, and it's probably down in large part because he's taking it easy. Right.

So if he were to apply himself, it becomes a question of, could he enter the outfield today and be the best fielder in the outfield in baseball? Almost certainly not. No. If he had applied himself from the start to that, then... Possibility. I wouldn't doubt him. A possibility, but don't you put that guy in a corner anyway? Well, he certainly has the arm, right?

He would have one of the best arms, if not the best arm in baseball. And he's, one would think, rangy and speedy. If he's dedicating himself solely to that and he is trained. I mean, that might be. You're rose-colored glasses. That might be what's happening here. But I just think the athletic potential of Shohei O'Conni, I would not doubt his ability to be among the best outfielders in baseball if that was something that he had been doing

regularly. I'm sure that's what President Trump was saying. I'm sure. Yeah. It is interesting to me, again, like what benefit is there to try to understand the mind of that man. But is that like weird, surprisingly good staff work? You know, because like the odds, I know that he likes to pretend he's a ball and then I was like, what is a record?

Did he just like land on the fact that Otani used to play the field in the outfield on accident? Is he just like alighting on one of the potential positions and picking that one? Or did somebody like slip him a note and like, you know, like, you know, back on day? I wonder. Yeah, because he played so sparingly. He never actually recorded a put out in the major leagues in MLB. And so probably he was just riffing. Maybe this was a weave.

Who knows? But yeah, I think this was probably. some number of Pinocchio's, but it is one of my few regrets about Otani, who has more than fulfilled my wildest dreams for his performance and potential in the majors, is that we can't really say to what degree this is true, because we just haven't really seen him out there. And probably we won't unless he suffers some serious pitching injury, in which case, maybe he will become a full-time outfielder, but even then, the man's 32 years old now. Well, yeah, and it's like it has to be a particular kind of injury, right?

Because if the thing that that sort of sidelines him, on the one hand, you're happy, not that you're happy he's been sideline, but it's like, oh, a lower body injury, okay, well, it's not his arm, right? He doesn't need another Tommy John. His shoulder's not goofed. Like, he doesn't have thoracic outlet syndrome. It's just his knee. But his knee limits him to the alternatives, too, right? Like he has to DH, presumably. They wouldn't want him out in the field with a bum knee.

I'm always surprised when the knee thing isn't dispositive for their stuff. Because, like, you do have to run the bases. He doesn't have that many home runs, you know? Yeah. Anyway. Anyway, we don't have to give the benefit of the doubt to Donald Trump in this situation or any for that matter. Right, not even one time. It did stand out to me.

You know, he has sort of a tenuous grasp of sports to a greater extent than many commanders in chief. Obviously, he played some baseball. That's been discussed uneffectively wild. It has been. The holes in his knowledge in this realm and others can be exposed quite quickly. I am happy for the people of Buffalo that they didn't have to contend with it. But the alternate history where the NFL just lets him buy the bills, I mean, it's a better world. I would throw the bills to the wolves.

It's not like they've won without him. Boy, that was a low blow. I don't know why the bills needs to catch that particular stray in this instance. I don't know. Stricken from the record. Withdrawn. I just speak in lawyer speaking now. Anyway.

You're a menace. Well, we will be dealing with a lot of ethical, weighty, moral issues on this episode. And, you know, maybe Donald Trump will have the opportunity to meet Pete Karr Armstrong next year because the Cubs will have won the World Series and he will reevaluate his outfield rankings. And if that were to come to pass. I suspect PCA is skipping that trip. I wonder. But our first guest today would be quite pleased, at least by the Cubs winning the World Series part, if not the rest of it, I imagine.

We will be joined a little later on this episode by Jacob Redmond. And Jacob Redmond is a figure who attained some worldwide or at least national prominence this week. If you saw the video from last weekend at a Cubs game where a fan opted to. sit during the national anthem and was slapped by a man behind him, who turned out to be a Vietnam veteran who took exception to that fan's decision to sit. Well, it just so happens that the slap-e, not the slap-er, as far as we know, is an effectively wild listener. And not only an effectively wild listener, but an effectively wild Patreon supporter. And he is breaking his silence on the podcast today. He has not spoken about this publicly. This is an effectively wild

exclusive. And we will talk to him about his side of the story and what this was like for him and what happened after the clip cuts off because there is much more to the story and what he took away from this experience and also just a little bit of Cubby's baseball. So it's a great conversation and I'm very happy that he reached out to us. And again, because I am in trust verify mode this week and all weeks, but this week in particular, we wanted to document that Jacob was who he said he was because in the video, you can't really see much beyond the back of his head. And he had not been publicly identified and had not self-identified prior to this point. So when we got an email from him, I took it at face value. I took it at face value. I.

assumed that this was not some sort of hoax an imposter, but we did do our best to verify that he was actually who he said he was. He was the fellow from the video, and he was very understanding and accommodating. And he sent us some documentary evidence to try to corroborate that he was who he said he was. And to be clear, making his claim more valid, I think, and more believable was the fact that he didn't invite himself on this episode. He did not. Hey, can I come on to talk about this?

He just wanted to share a few reflections. And then we asked whether he might be interested in talking about it on the show. And he thought about it a bit. He certainly did not seem like someone who was hungry for publicity here. And he also shared with us some other photos of himself at the same location on a different day at Rigley. And also his seats that he has sat in this area previously. and also sent us a photo of him wearing the outfit on a different day that he was wearing in this video. And finally, even sent us some text messages with timestamps from the instance after this incident

when he was informing his father and his sister of what had happened. So I'm in beyond a reasonable doubt mindset mode this week, but this is not a criminal matter. And I think he more than satisfied the preponderance of the evidence standard and probably went well beyond. that. So there's no way we can 100% verify, I suppose, and you always have to be careful in the age of deep fakes and what have you. But I do believe

that Jacob is who he says he was. Yes, the conversation did not strike me as one from someone who would fib about these things. And yes, he was a good sport about our repeated attempts to verify. It was him. Because I did say, I was like, we should probably make sure that this is actually the guy before we had to

responsible thing to do. Yes. We are nothing if not responsible. Yeah, we've done our very level best. We do our journalistic duties. Yes, we have done our fact finding and fact checking as far as we were able. And after that, there will be one more guest, and you may have heard of him. His name is Kenny Lofton. So I spoke to Kenny Lofton earlier this week because I was working on an article about the Hall of Fame. And I know that might be a bit out of character for me because I don't get too.

exercise about the Hall of Fame these days. But I got intrigued months ago, actually, by Michael Mountain because he hipped me to some little known history and nothing gets me going like little known historical precedent that is related to today. And it turns out that back in the 80s, in 1984, there was a bit of a ballot amnesty where a writer petitioned the BBWA and then the Hall of Fame to restore several players, 11 players, to the ballot after they had fallen off, after they had failed to get 5% support in consecutive seasons, as was the rule at the time. And it was a well-known writer at the time from St. Louis named Bob Brog. And he was just quite fond of Ken Boyer and was aggrieved that Ken Boyer was not a Hall of Famer and had fallen off the ballot and managed to get Ken Boyer and many other players back on the ballot. And as it turned out, none of them got in on the second chance either.

So it was all for not. Yeah. Ron Santo and Dick Allen were among them, but they had to, well, wait until after they passed, unfortunately, decades later to actually get in by other means. But there was precedent, and this actually came up in the 90s, too. There was some talk of restoring some players to the ballot. And so I was wondering whether this precedent might make it possible to do something similar now, because you had this historically anomalous period. in the mid-2010s to early 2020s when the ballot was backlogged and there was a log jam and a total traffic jam

because all of the PED players who were statistically overqualified but were PD pariahs and thus were not going to get in. But most of them, with the exception of, say, Rafael Pomerro, spent the maximum 10 years on the ballot. They lingered. Yes. And in so doing, they blocked a lot of other players potentially or absorbed. a lot of votes that could have gone to other candidates that I would consider qualified or close to qualified at least, certainly whom you would want to have more years on the ballot to maybe build some support the way that other candidates were able to.

Your Tim Raines and Bert Blylevens and Larry Walker's, et cetera. And Kenny Lofton didn't have that chance. He went one and done on the ballot for 2013, which was when Bonds, Clemens, and Sosa, all joined, joining Mark McGuire and Raphael Palmyra the holdovers. And so he really just drew the short straw when it came to his timing. And if I were a Hall of Fame voter, if I actively voted for the Hall of Fame, obviously I wasn't even eligible to when Kenny Lofton hit the ballot. But he meets my standards, I think, and probably clears it quite handily. And I always just enjoyed him as a player. And he has a lot of the hallmarks of a guy who gets overrated just because he's a great

all-around contributor. But I think were he to hit the ballot today at a less crowded time and with more appreciation for war and everything that sells him as a player, I think he would fare much better now. And I've been thinking about this because this weekend is Hall of Fame induction weekend. And Jeff Kent's going in, but so is Carlos Beltron and so is Andrew Jones. Lofton was teammates once with Kent. He was also teammates with Andrew Jones. And in fact, Lofton was so good with the glove that he actually pushed Andrew Jones to right field immediately before a decade-long stretch where Andrew Jones played no other position except center. And Kenny Lofton had a very comparable career to Beltron and Jones.

He slots in right between them on the all-time list of center fielders by war or jaws. So but for a quirk of timing, Kenny Lofton might have preceded them into the hall because, as I said, he has a lot of the hallmarks, no pun intended, and he would be welcoming them this weekend. Instead, he is watching from afar. And this isn't just solely, hey, I think Kenny often should be a Hall of Famer, so it's engineer a scenario. I do think that players like him, and there are others, right? Jim Edmonds and I don't know, Johann Santana, Tim Hudson, Joe Nathan, et cetera. Obviously, there are guys with some off-the-field issues as there have been for so many candidates, some serious. And I think that some of them putting that aside would have

strong cases and would be better recognized now than they were then and would just have more of a window, more of an opportunity. And because that was such an anomalous stretch, I think that there's precedent and maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to give them that shot, as opposed to hoping that maybe they get in someday via the ERAs committee. Because the thing is, only eight guys are on the ERIS committee ballot. And it's every three years for a certain group of candidates. And so, Kenny Lofton wasn't on the eight-player ballot last year. You know, Bonds was again, Clemens was again. Don Mattingly was for the umpteenth time.

Dale Murphy was for the umpteenth time. Lofton can't even get his case relitigated, really. And now he has to wait another couple of years, even to have a shot to be back on the ballot again. So it's really tough. So I asked him about it and I wrote about this. And I talked to a lot of other prominent people in the BB. and I got a comment from the Hall of Fame and all the rest of it. So you can read the lengthy in-depth article at the ringer.com.

And that includes quotes from Kenny. But I thought the conversation was interesting and I thought people might want to hear it. I emailed him. It took him 12 minutes to write back. And as you'll hear him say, he doesn't like to initiate this conversation. He doesn't want to campaign for himself or sound bitter about it. But if you ask him about it, he is more than that. and happy to share his thoughts. So I enjoyed talking to him, and you will hear a bit of that at the end

of the episode. So just a bit of banter before we get to Jacob. And then Kenny, we have Jose Caballero's behavior to litigate here and one or two other points. So Cabiero has been on trial in the Court of Public Opinion and podcast opinion like Jacob Redman this week. And this has been going on for a while now with Cabiero, the Yankee, who has a distinctive way of signaling that he is ready for a plate appearance or for a pitch and that he has satisfied the conditions and the rules and regulations pertaining to the pitch clock. And this has come to a head more than once over a period of months. There's a bit of gamesmanship going on. This keeps boiling over. and it really reached a fever pitch this week because he has been warned before about the behavior that he employs.

And he's even been punished for it, but now there has been a bit of a crackdown. And he objects to the way that this crackdown was implemented. So, I mean, benches cleared. There was an incident with the pirates where Dennis Santana, who subsequently has been designated for assignment, not because of this, I don't think, but. that has happened to him. He took exception to this. A lot of players have taken exception to this. And Cabiero has taken exception to how he has been treated by opposing players, by umpires, by the league, et cetera.

So would you like to lay out what exactly he does here and how the league and umpires responded to this this week? It's interesting that you say, Caballero, the Yankee. Jose Caboero has been trying to get under the skin of opposing pitchers since he was Jose Caboiero Seattle Mariner. Yes. Right. He did this when he was Jose Caboo, Tampa Bay Ray. But folks might recall that the pitch clock is a two-way street, right? The pitcher has to deliver a pitch within a certain amount of time.

The hitter has to be alert to the pitcher before he can deliver that pitch. that has to happen within a certain amount of time. Jose Cabrero is famous for waiting until the very last second, eight seconds before he is alert to the picture, meaning he's like looking to the pitcher, making eye contact as opposed to looking down at the plate or at his bat or what have you. And that has rankled many a pitcher over the years because they feel like they aren't quite sure when they are able to actually, you know, begin their, delivery basically, and that he's trying to throw him off, which he is.

He is. He has said that. Everybody knows what he's doing. Everybody knows what he's doing. He knows what he's doing. He, in the aftermath of this incident, both he and Aaron Boone talked about it being his preparation. But, like, he's trying to mess with them, right?

Yeah. He has also framed it in terms of just not wanting the pitcher to dictate the plate of clearance, basically, and to set the pace. he wants to wrestle some control back and have some agency and sort of set the tone, set the pace. But also, clearly it does get under opposing pitcher's skin. And that seems to be a feature for him. Right. And it is, you know, I think that it's important to note that, like, the part of the rule that was being cited by the umpires in this instance, like, it wasn't invented out of whole cloth the night that he and Santana got into it, right?

the relevant portion of the rule is conduct by a batterer's designed to deceive a pitcher into beginning their wind-up or coming to the supposition in violation of these regulations shall be considered, quote, circumvention. So there is like an idea that you are meant to sort of, you know, conduct yourself on rubly in the box or what have you. And when the umpires were asked about this, Brian Cuddy of the Athletic served as the pool reporter in this instance and asked Adrian Johnson and Quinn Walcott about it. Brendan said, is that circumvention the part of the rule where it says deceiving the pitcher? And they confirmed yes.

So basically what they said was that Cabrero has been warned all season and that they, meaning the umpire crew, was instructed not to warn him. They were instructed to violate him, which like as an aside, hey, like, there had to be a better way to phrase that. There has to be a better way to put that. That's what it is. It's a violation. this is Adrian Johnson speaking.

I'm off two minds about this because on the one hand, I think that what he is trying to do is to get under the skin of the opposing pitcher and sort of throw him off balance. And I think that if you read the letter of the law, that what he is doing is probably a violation of it, and there have been warnings that this behavior

is sort of brushing up against the boundary of the rule before, So on the one hand, he probably should know that this is behavior that at least is within the realm of what an umpire on any given night might call as a violation, right? And that he might be assessed a strike as a result of that. On the other hand, he does this all the time. He does this constantly. I'm pretty sure that the last time that Jose Cavalier was prospect eligible, that him doing this isn't his prospect blurb. So this has been sort of a long-standing thing, and the reason it seems to have come to a head in this particular instance

to have gone from the point of him being warned by the league, and we should get into the fact that, like, he and the Yankees are saying that, like, he did not receive further warning after the bench is cleared, right? They are maintaining that this new focus on enforcement is sort of news to them. So they have been sort of up in arms about it since this happened. But he did this. he was assessed a penalty

Dennis Santana took exception to it which was partly because of the situation Santana said he doesn't mind that he does this typically but he felt like in this situation when the Yankees were up by a few runs right I mean it was sort of an unwritten rules kind of running up the score

pressing an advantage sort of thing which it wasn't a blowout or anything so I think he maybe let himself get a bit more upset by it than he had to be. Yes. And, you know, then he, I think, got a ground ball double play. Like, he, he wasn't totally on tilt or anything, but obviously he was upset.

And then, you know, there's a conflagration, the bench is clear. And the, you know, I think the relevant quote from Quinn Walcott is it's talking about when he gets in the batter's box, he's not allowed in an order amount of time looking down, trying to get the pitcher to cause a violation. There's no other hitter that gets in the box and takes the amount of time that Kavayaro does while looking down and not making him. on eye contact with the pitcher. Obviously, it's caused a lot of problems in the past. It's not going to be allowed anymore. Again, like, I think that if you want to make a point of this

across the league and you regularly enforce it, part of, I think, Caboero's frustration that he spoke to after the fact was that he is of the opinion that there are plenty of other batters who do this same thing and are not kind of harangued about it, haven't been called for violations and assess strikes, and that, you know, he is just preparing to face the pitcher and to your point that he is trying to, in a situation where hitters have very little say in how a given plate appearance proceeds because they don't get to decide what pitch the pitcher is throwing to rest some control of the situation back from the pitcher and sort of be able to level the playing field a little bit. Now, I think that we can have a long conversation about sort of

what should we in a society be allowed to expect from enforcement authorities if there is a rule that is never enforced and then is enforced what we believe to be arbitrarily? And is that fair? And is the is the law as a living, breathing thing that dictates our interactions on a day-to-day basis? If the way that we all understand each other is different than the rule of the law and it's, not regularly enforceable? Is it a law at all? That's an interesting philosophical question. Here's what I think. I think he should be allowed to do this because it's fun. It's fun. It's fun that he does this. I think that sports benefit from the presence of a heel when the thing they're doing isn't really a problem. And I don't think this is really a problem. I think it's fine. I think most of the time it works out fine for the pitchers. You know how I know that? Do you think that what do you tell me what you think Jose Cabiro's stats I was just about to say

what do you think Jose Caboero's batting averages tell me what you think Jose Caboero's batting averages it's lower than you think given how big a stink the Pirates made about this he's saying 244 he's saying 244 he's striking out 22% of the time he's a 91 WRC plus I think that you let this man be let him be is he being a little bit of a dick yeah

that's why it's fun you know and and we shouldn't be we should be pleasant to each other But this, this to me falls within the realm of like acceptable like brinksmanship within the, the hitter pitcher matchup. And that matchup is so heavily tilted in the pitcher's favor, the vast majority of the time. Yeah, it's annoying. That's why he's doing it. Let him do it. She'll let him do it.

Now, I'll also say this. You don't get to be a little bit. I think that like the way forward for Caboero is to stop drawing attention to this and like stop doing it for a little while and then start doing it. again. That's the strategy because you can't, I understand that he can't say, well, yeah, I'm trying to annoy him. Because if he says that, then the fact that he is kind of circumventing the rule a little bit becomes obvious. So I get why he has to say what he's saying. And then we, being adults, can agree that he's lying, you know, or at least being, he's, he's, he's rendering a favorable version of the facts on behalf of his side. Also, I imagine that he has been

warned, like, I bet he's been more than a bunch. He has. Yeah. Yeah. And, well, I think if the edict actually has gone out that this will now no longer be tolerated then the ship may have sailed for him and maybe he can't get away with this anymore. We should do it again. I wouldn't have a huge problem with that as long as it's clearly communicated. And that's the thing where he and Boone and the Yankees have a legitimate gripe here.

If MLB did just decide that they are going to handle this differently without informing everyone ahead of time. And that's what the umpire suggested at least. Right. That's what the ump seemed to suggest. MLB declined to comment when the athletic asked about that specifically. But if it's the case that they did not actually inform the Yankees that something had changed about the enforcement, then I certainly understand Capiero being upset about having that just sort of sprung on him in the middle of a game in the middle of a season. Now, I'm not convinced that he is violating any rule as written.

I think, you know, we're at least receptive to pedantry and a little rules-lawyering going on here. And so on some level, I appreciate it. This is the sort of thing where if there's an afterlife, Eddie Stanky is smiling down or up from wherever he is on this kind of behavior. Well, it depends. Probably some of his opponents would have said up, not down. But that's the thing. These guys get on people's nerves, at least opposing players and fans' nerves. And I've seen some people suggest that Jose Cabiero is not good enough to be exhibiting this sort of behavior.

No, that's exactly why he should do it. That's right. If he were so good, then I would say, you don't need this little possible edge. But no, Jose Cabiero is exactly the sort of person who should be exploiting such an edge if, in fact, it actually is, which who the heck knows? I guess we'll find out if they make him stop doing this, whether he's any worse because his whole major league career has been. contained in the pitch clock era. So we don't really have a before and after. Right.

But maybe we will. But as written, I think that he is conforming to the expectation. If it's written somewhat ambiguously, I mean, if he just has to be alert to the pitcher with eight seconds and that's what he's doing, and that does seem to be what he's doing, now maybe it violates the spirit of the law more, perhaps. And if there is this thing about deception and trying to convince the pitcher to do something and not come set or whatever, I don't even, is it that so much as it is, I don't know, he's obviously trying to disrupt their rhythm somewhat, but would it qualify as deception? That's sort of subjective and open to interpretation. I think he's really fulfilling what he has to do.

And if your rule is written ambiguously, then that's kind of on you to let him. him get away with what would be considered an annoying behavior. I don't know that he's necessarily violating that. I also think, and this argument would not stand up in court. You know? Me on the jury. If I made this argument as a one-l, I'm getting the business from the professor up front. But, you know, and maybe this suggests that as a strategy, it's less effective than I'm giving it.

credit for necessarily. But I struggle to believe that any pitcher is surprised by this behavior at this point. This is what he does. Yes. If you're surprised, then you've outed yourself as someone who is not reading the scouting report. Right. And so can one really be undone by Jose Caballero at this point? I suggest not.

I also think that this is a testament. And, you know, the Buffalo Bills caught astray and now Anthony Volpe is going to. The degree. Wouldn't be the first time for. The degree of, like, defense that has been mustered on Jose Cabero's behalf. And I don't think that Aaron Boone, like, has it in for Anthony Volpe. Certainly not the way the Yankees fans do. You guys still need to chill out about that guy.

Good God, you are intense about him. But I think that Jose Cabero, in part because we like to root for heels when they're on our team. And also because he was, like, seen as this, like, Band-Aid, you know? It's like, Volpe is a disaster. And we have to send him. for the grace of Cabi. Right, exactly. And so I think that he has come to occupy an interesting sort of folk hero position in both the fan base and to some extent, the organization.

And so they are like, oh, we're going to. Because I seem to recall when Cabby wasn't a Yankee. And I think that this was last, did he get traded last year? Yes. And he was very good for the Yankees after they acquired him somewhat surprised. so while Vulpi was playing hurt and playing poorly. But I think that when he was still a Tampa Bay Ray, that he was pissing off Boone to know it.

He couldn't, you know, because again, we love heels when they're on our team. We all have, we all have that guy. I refer to Seattle Seahawks defense. I know what it means to have people who annoy others, but who you love. And he was getting the Blue Jays goat not long ago to. Oh, yeah, they were furious. Yeah. So this is, it's the.

perfect baseball controversy because it's so deeply silly. I mean, it's very unlikely that he's really deriving any significant advantage from this. And so it's much ado about barely anything. Exactly. No one's getting hurt. He's not thrown at a guy. He's not insulting anybody's mother. He's, he's just being a little bit of an annoying heel. He is, he is a lima bean sized pebble. Now, you could just say, isn't that just pebble size? And I'm saying, let me have my, have my bits. You're getting into loose bodies territory now. He's a pebble in the shoe. And look, you got to get those pebbles out because it's hard to walk with them in there.

You really do get annoyed by them. But it's great. I love it. I love how indignant everyone is. Yankees fans are all worked up. They're all in a ladder. And Aaron Boone was too, not that it takes much to work up Aaron Boone. I was going to say.

So he was awake. He said boys will be boys like after the heat of the moment as if he wasn't being one of the boys also. and that he wasn't as angry as anyone. Of course, he's standing up for his player, but I think it was sincere to a great degree too. That's so funny. Boys will be boys. I know.

I hate to break it to Yankees fans, but Volpe has been better than Cabrero this season specifically. This is why I'm telling people to like, you know, check yourself before you wreck yourself. Yeah. I have great affection for Jose Caboero. Again, I got to be on the good end of this. And it's so funny because if you had asked me,

I have his player page up now. And if you had asked me what Jose Cabrero's WRC Plus for the Mariners was in 2020, I would have been like 1.15, 99. 99. He's perfect. He's the perfect little heel player. And he's 5'9, so he's literally a little heel. He's a lima bean-sized heel of a player. I love him.

Yes. And look, I wouldn't really resent it if they do police this more strictly and say you can't do it anymore. Because I do want players if they can't. and find some sort of loophole and exploit it more power to them. But if it goes beyond that to the point where, look, the pitch clock is meant to shorten games, and this is inadvertently lengthening them because he's pissing people off everywhere he goes and their long delays as everyone figures out what the rules are and how to enforce it, and he complains and they complain, and you have a whole back and forth.

So in the best interest of baseball, maybe it is actually more valuable from a utilitarian perspective, to speed the game along than to allow free expression to Jose Caboero in this instance. But I do like when players act as individuals and when we don't enforce conformity. And so I like when they have their distinctive ticks

and everything. But maybe it gets to the point where this is actually not helping improve the spectator experience for anyone. This is just getting on everyone's nerves and you've got to get over yourself with this tickey-tac-tac-y-tac-tac-tac- guess that's true. But I will also say that, and this is the place where I think that

Cabby is like really overstating things, I don't see very many other players doing what he's doing. And so it's not like there's like a rash of pitch clock shenanigans that people are engaged in. And I just, you know, I. Yeah, that could strengthen the argument for preventing it, that it's just one guy. So is this worth all the trouble. Or it could bolster the argument for not making a fuss and doing anything about it because who cares ultimately? It's Jose Caballero and it's not spreading. Right. It feels like the hitter equivalent of having a really funky windup. And I understand sometimes the windups, they're too funky and you got to do something about those funky lineups. I think my fever's back.

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