Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast - Effectively Wild Episode 717: The WTF Washington Nationals

Episode Date: August 19, 2015

Ben and Sam discuss the Washington Nationals’ seemingly lost season, followed by special appearances from podcast legends Ryan Webb and Matt Albers....

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 I want to grab both your shoulders and shake, baby. Snap out of it. I get the feeling I left it too late, but baby, snap out of it. If I watch, don't continue to swing on the fact. Ladies and gentlemen, I'll be here waiting there so patiently for you to snap out of it. Good morning and welcome to episode 717 of Effectively Wild, the daily podcast from Baseball Prospectus presented by the Play Index at BaseballReference.com. I'm Ben Lindberg of Grantland joined by Sam Miller of Baseball Prospectus in my backyard. Hello.
Starting point is 00:00:46 Hey, Ben. This isn't even close to morning. This is probably the furthest from morning we have ever recorded. If you're going with the Price is Right model. Yes, I am. But people will probably hear this in the morning because we've missed the commute. So, how are you? Pretty good.
Starting point is 00:01:05 How are you? All right. Speak up. Speak up. There you go. Wait, where is my mic? Is my microphone on top here? It says Sam's on. This microphone literally says Sam's on. Yeah, I think About banter? Yeah. No, I saw that you wrote about Webb Albers. I sure did. I've thought for the last year, every time I've not had a topic over the last year, I've thought maybe I should write about Ryan Webb and Matt Albers and see whether my editor would be as interested in that as our listeners are. Was she? She was. And I have yet to not interest her in something that seems very effectively wildish and esoteric. She always goes for it. And I spoke to Webb and Albers and that piece is up at Grantland now. I will link to it.
Starting point is 00:02:06 But the upshot was that they know about their record, or Webb's record, which is now at 97 games finished without a save. And Albers is way behind at 86, which is still 10 more than any other pitcher has ever had. And they are very good sports about it. They'd like to have a save, I would say. Their preference would be to have a save, but they're not stressing about it. Huh. Well, yeah. Okay.
Starting point is 00:02:40 Yeah, so it was good to talk to them. They were aware of the record, but they were not aware of the extent to which it has become a thing. They didn't know that there was a banished to the pen Web Albers Fantasy League where people try to draft games finished and avoid saves. They were not aware of that, but they had the same sort of perspective on it that we do That they could easily have recorded a save at some point in their lives That it's largely random
Starting point is 00:03:13 That they haven't just picked up a three inning save at some point Or one of the other ways you can get a save Closer unavailable or even becoming a closer Webb is not a believer in the closer mentality. He thinks any pitcher who is in Major League Baseball can go out and get three innings or get three outs in the ninth inning. And he thinks that he could too if he were given the chance. I would love to poll Major League relievers
Starting point is 00:03:40 and see what the split is, what the breakdown is, of closers versus non-closers believing in the closer mentality yeah well you would there's a there's that old saying or i don't remember the saying exactly there's there's that old saying that i forget that i'm now going to butcher that says the the basic geez wow really all right the basic idea that it's almost impossible to change someone's mind if their financial interests are aligned with their original opinion. Yeah, right. And he actually sort of thinks there's like a swingman mentality
Starting point is 00:04:20 or whatever you would call Webb. Webb has pitched in every inning from the third through the ninth this year, as well as extra innings. And Albers has pitched in every inning from the fourth through the ninth, as well as extra innings. And Webb sort of, he sort of said the closer mentality thing about the job that he does. Like not that many people would be able to pitch in every inning and not be flustered by that. So I guess maybe whatever job you do, you think that not everyone can do it, except for podcasting.
Starting point is 00:04:55 We think anyone could do this better than we could. Anyway, interesting interview. Glad I got to talk to them about it. I think I will close this show with a clip or two from my interviews with them, just so you can hear Webb and Albers speaking about this record after all the many months of us speaking about them.
Starting point is 00:05:14 So, anything else? No. There is one thing that Marcel Azuna said that some people pointed out in the Facebook group. He was called up from triple a and he compared triple a to jail and uh maybe maybe that's a slight exaggeration but he was kind of kept there it it seemed like for maybe service time marlins related reasons and so they have
Starting point is 00:05:41 called him back up he obviously had a good year year, has not had a good year this year. And he had one interesting quote, which was, I know what happened when they sent me down. I knew that's coming. I don't go there for work because they know me. I don't need the work. One for 36, one for 100. Every big league player has it.
Starting point is 00:06:00 I have it and everybody has it. One for 100. Every big leaguer has that. Yeah. John Lester doesn't quite have that. He's at like one for 80 or something. Uh-huh. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:06:15 One for 100 is something that I don't think any big leaguer has. What was that? There was a quote that Mike Trout's dad once gave me that he knew that the 0 for 28s were coming or something like that. And he hasn't been like remotely close to that ever. Yeah. Well, isn't there some famous player had an 0 for 28, right? It was like Willie Mays. Willie Mays had one and Joe Morgan had a huge one. I think Joe Morgan had like an 0 for 56 or something absurd. Wow. Yeah, that's halfway to Marcelo Zuna's number. So John Lester. John Lester is one for 80, exactly. We didn't even talk about John Lester's pickoff throw last week.
Starting point is 00:07:01 Oh, I didn't know he had one. What did he do? It was his first one since his first start of the season and he threw it away he threw it wide very far wide really yeah seriously yeah wow it was an inning where he allowed like four stolen bases or something like that and he he finally threw over there and he threw it way wide and And he is, I think the last time I checked, on pace to allow the most stolen bases ever by a left-handed starting pitcher in a season. So that has happened. What we were wondering has happened, although he has still been an above-average starting pitcher because it seems like that's just— it can't hurt you that much.
Starting point is 00:07:45 It only hurts you to a certain extent if you're good enough at keeping guys off base. It doesn't matter how bad you are at controlling the running game. So hang on. So how far wide did he throw it? Well, we can pause for a Sam watches something no one else can see segment. Okay. It looks like Joe Morgan by the way
Starting point is 00:08:05 he had a 14 game hit list stretch where he went over 34 so he might have gone like over 40 if you include the first and last at bats in the previous and late last games I'm not sure and then he also had an over 31 stretch those are both pretty bad yeah but not as bad as I thought. Yeah. The longest, it looks like Willie Mays was only in like the low 20s, by the way. Oh, okay. Yeah, I thought it was 20-something. Yeah, the longest game streak, hitless game streak he had was seven, and that covered 19 and 17. Second Brewers hit.
Starting point is 00:08:42 And now Lester throws over and throws it away. Oh, wow, that's a bad throw Very bad He basically threw it where the base runners Was standing Before he got back to the base And so since then Was that his last start Or has he had a start since
Starting point is 00:09:02 That was August 13th So that was his last start Okay has he had a start since? That was August 13th, so that was his last start. Okay. Because now it feels even more like you ought to be able to go. I still don't understand why there hasn't been a team that stole like 14 bases against him in a game. I'm still waiting for it to get absurd. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:09:22 And it's still the weirdest thing about it that that hasn't happened. They stole five in that game. Yeah. I don't know what inning the pickoff attempt was, but they stole five and he caught one. He's caught four guys in his last five starts. Yeah, there was an inning in the Stumpers season or a game in the Stumpers season where the opposing catcher
Starting point is 00:09:43 was a guy who didn't normally play catcher, and we just ran and ran and ran and ran and stole eight bases, right? In a game. In a game. And there was no reason not to because we could have just kept doing it all day, and he just didn't have the skill that would allow him to catch anyone, really. So you would think that something similar would happen with with lester yeah thanks for telling me sure okay so we are gonna talk a little bit about the
Starting point is 00:10:13 nationals and every day that's gone by i thought maybe we should talk about the nationals and then they lose again and and the story gets even more confusing and surprising. And so we are going to talk about them now. They are 10-20 in the second half and 4-12 in August. So just in the last few weeks, they have gone from being a playoff favorite, really a very strong playoff favorite, even though their season had been regarded as slightly disappointing to that point. They were still in pretty good position, and I wrote something in the Grantland second half preview about, you know, are we going to
Starting point is 00:10:57 see the real Nationals that we all expected to see in the second half? They haven't been the juggernaut that some people projected, but there's still time for them to become that juggernaut by the playoffs and get their hurt players back healthy. And by the time October rolls around, maybe they'll actually be the Nationals that we thought we were going to see this spring. And instead, they have gone backwards in every way since the second half, and they are now long shots really by by any estimation they are uh according to bp's playoff odds as we record this they have 20 a 20 chance of making the playoffs and most of that almost all of that is a chance of winning the division and coming back and overtaking the
Starting point is 00:11:47 mets who have a four and a half game lead but uh they are under 500 the nationals are 58 and 59 today which is one of the more surprising if you were to open up the standings page right now, if you could show today's standings page to your April self, what do you think would be the most surprising result? Well, I can tell you that if I had a chance to show it to my April self... You'd be surprised that future Sam was there for one thing? Well, the one that I would most want past self to know so that I could just like hard code a fix in is the royals yeah uh now is that the most surprising is the royals more
Starting point is 00:12:34 surprising uh i don't know i mean it's definitely this the the surprises are the A's, the Nationals, and the Royals. Those are the three big ones, right? And maybe the Yankees. There are really a lot to choose from. Oh, and Boston. And Boston, and probably the Astros, right? Yeah, they're not. I mean, they're on...
Starting point is 00:13:01 I mean, 64 and 55. I didn't see that coming. They're nine games over 500. I mean, they're on pace to win, 64 and 55. I didn't see that coming. They're nine games over 500. I mean, they're on pace to win like 84 or 85, something like that. Right? What are they? They're 538. So, yeah, 87.
Starting point is 00:13:15 Okay. If they keep winning. But if... Sorry, when I say on pace, I mean, our playoff odds, our projections, we probably have them at 84, 85. Yeah. Yeah. So that's not that surprising.
Starting point is 00:13:28 I mean, didn't we already do this? We predicted them. Each of us projected them at like 80 or 81. Yeah, right. And there are tons of surprises. I mean, I'd be surprised that the Cardinals were 34 games over 500. I wouldn't be surprised that the Cardinals were in first place, but be surprised that they were on pace to win 100 something. And yeah, the teams you mentioned,
Starting point is 00:13:52 I'd be surprised that Seattle is 55 and 64. I'd be surprised. I'd probably be more surprised about where the Mariners are than where the A's are, because I thought the Mariners would be the best team in that division and I thought the A's would be okay so I'd be more surprised probably about the Mariners I'd be surprised about the Astros about the Tigers remember do you remember when my big weird uh unconventional pick in my predictions preseason predictions was the Tigers wasn't the White Sox no I had the Tigers in fourth oh and yeah right Wasn't it the White Sox? No, I had the Tigers in fourth. Oh, yeah, right. Well, you had the White Sox winning, right?
Starting point is 00:14:29 I think you had the White Sox winning. I think I did have the White Sox winning. So I got nothing about it. Sorry, I just want to be very clear. I got nothing, nothing about that division right, except the Tigers being bad. Yeah, I got nothing about any division right, except for the NL Central and maybe the NL West,
Starting point is 00:14:48 sort of, at least the teams that are on top. And lots of people predicted that the Indians would be very good this year, that they'd win the division. They were in last place, and they've probably played better than that, but still, they're in last place. So there's almost no division that isn't surprising you know other than the central and to some extent the west in the nl everything is weird but the nationals being under 500 it has to be one of the the weirder where does that rank
Starting point is 00:15:19 is that in your top three didn't we correct you might be wrong, but didn't we talk about how trading for Max Scherzer felt unnecessary? Yeah, sure. Yeah, one of the weird things about that trade was that they would take on seven years of a guy, basically a contract that you knew would hurt them by the end, to get really good in a year where they were already so good they didn't need him. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:44 It just felt so easy for them to walk to the NL East crown. Yeah. Why take anything out of your future to pursue it? Yeah, that's right. And we thought it would be a weak division, and it has been a weak division. And the Mets have been a little bit better than expected, but not extraordinarily better than expected but not extraordinarily better than expected so it is the Nationals just being very weak and I I didn't make any crazy
Starting point is 00:16:13 predictions for the Nationals I didn't come out and say they were going to win 105 games or even 100 games but but the fact that they are under 500 is definitely one of the more surprising things of the season. And Dave Cameron wrote about it, and he kind of broke down where they've gone wrong, which is, you know, everywhere, but most notably in the lineup. And the rotation has been worse than expected. You know, Strasburg, we've talked about Strasburg. He's missed a lot of time and was bad at the start of the season. Seems to be okay now. Gio Gonzalez hasn't been great, and Doug Pfister has sort of fallen apart. But Joe Ross has kind
Starting point is 00:16:58 of established himself as a viable starter. So this still seems like the best rotation in baseball, or on the short list if you were going to pick a rotation for the rest of the season but the lineup is weak and uh and Bryce Harper obviously has been way better than most people expected I guess there was the odd Bryce Harper breakout MVP pick but you certainly couldn't have expected him to do what he's done coming off of last season. So Harper's been great and a little less great lately, but still excellent. But everyone else has been pretty terrible. And Anthony Rendon has missed most of the season.
Starting point is 00:17:43 Jason Wirth has missed a ton of time and just has been very, very bad when he has not been missing time. And Ian Desmond was bad for quite a long time. And Wilson Ramos and Ryan Zimmerman has been bad. And he's had injury issues also. So it's partly injury issues and it's partly guys who are playing and are playing poorly. And maybe in some cases, they're playing through some sort of injury, but in other cases, they're not as far as we know. So it's just, I guess we, you know, some of it could have been predicted, perhaps, like Ryan Zimmerman not being all that great that maybe was sort of predictable
Starting point is 00:18:26 after last season but a lot of it is just not um and I I don't know if there's a a lesson that I can draw from the fact that they've been bad other than the usual humbling reminder that we don't know anything and that we can't take anything for granted and that when we talk about the unpredictability of prospects we're often talking about the unpredictability of baseball players mm-hmm because Ian Desmond there weren't many more sure things than Ian Desmond right yeah sure and and he's been horrible in all aspects. I mean, that's shocking. And Jason Wirth, like, was what? Hang on. He was an MVP vote getter the last two years. And he's hitting like Andrew Jones worst year right now. He's hitting like Brandon Wood
Starting point is 00:19:23 right now. Yeah. One year later. Yeah. I mean, these are the sorts of things that if you tried to predict them, you would be a horrible predictor. Yes, right. You're awful at predicting things. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:19:37 And Matt Williams comes in for a lot of criticism about his in-game management and maybe even about his clubhouse management so maybe that hasn't helped but it's also very hard to imagine that he has his presence has turned good veteran players into bad players wait what are the beefs on him clubhouse wise besides i guess true store and well that's not even him but yeah was unhappy and then they had the bryce harper thing last year yeah has there been more bryce harper this year he well there was there was some scolding of harper when he got ejected from that game but that that's not necessarily a sign of dissent or anything but um there were reports
Starting point is 00:20:27 earlier this month i think it was john hayman um said that many national player nationals players are unhappy with manager matt williams uh i can quote it said to be an unhappy scene around the nats as manager matt williams has not been well received by many players who find him not loose and never relaxed. So, and then players are wondering about Williams's bullpen choices, even going back to the Drew Storen decision in last year's NLDS and etc, etc. So, you know, maybe it's just the usual carping that comes up with a team that's not playing well. Or, I don't know, it's the age-old chemistry debate about which came first. But he has not distinguished himself tactically in a way that would make you happy with him regardless of how the players feel about him. So I don't know if there's a lesson other than the fact that as the Mets talk about,
Starting point is 00:21:27 you know, resting their starters down the stretch and workloads and monitoring and, you know, limiting their innings and that sort of thing. It's another Strasburg sort of reminder that maybe the Nationals at the time felt that they would have this great team for years and they'd have many more chances to be back in the playoffs. And whether the Strasburg shutdown actually cost them anything or not, that seemed to be part of the rationale that they'd be back. And now it's looking very unclear that they will be back this year. be back this year and this is this is the second time that the nationals of recent vintage have notably under achieved and people talked about the tigers when dave dombrowski was let go and whether the tigers are a disappointing team because they never won a world series in the last
Starting point is 00:22:23 you know four or however many years of winning division titles. And I don't see them as a disappointing team at all because they won a lot of regular season games. And they won some playoff series. And they won a lot of division titles. And those are all hard things to do. And it never quite felt like they put it all together maybe in one year that you know it just seemed like they were going to be so much better than the weak al central competition they never really blew them away but but they were one of the winningest teams over a
Starting point is 00:22:58 several season stretch whereas the nationals have now had a couple years during this run where they've been projected to be the best team in baseball and everyone thought they'd just sail into the same position this year and i wouldn't call it a make or break year or anything but you know they are getting closer to losing some guys they have free agents this year like jordan zimmerman and denard span and others and the strasburg yeah doug fister not that not that anyone would be sorry to see him go right now. And the Strasburg clock is ticking, and there's always some clock ticking. So it's probably fair to call the Nationals of the last few years disappointing. I don't know. Not that they'd be devastated to hear that I have authorized people to use that label on them. Well, no, they had back-to-back number one picks. Yeah. authorized people to use that label on them. They had
Starting point is 00:24:05 back-to-back number one picks. The two most hyped sure thing number one picks ever. And they had a huge market payroll. And they've missed the playoffs. They're likely to miss the playoffs
Starting point is 00:24:22 two of the four years. And basically their entire franchise existence up to now is two playoff appearances. And if that's all you get out of it, if they don't make the playoffs next year, then it would be certainly disappointing, this run. And I think it's fair to say. And two losses in the NLDS,
Starting point is 00:24:40 which I don't know that I necessarily distinguish between a, if a team wins 100 games and it loses in a five game series, I don't know that that would make me call them disappointing. But for many people, obviously it would, if they had won a World Series one of those years, then we would not call this disappointing. So the fact that it's been early exits both times that they have made it only reinforces that perception. Burn it down? Trade Harper? Yeah, they're not at that point, right?
Starting point is 00:25:15 They're not at the point where you say that they missed something, they missed their opportunity, and now they have to start over. No, so right now I looked yesterday and I think their expected winning percentage is 538, which if let's say we took that into next year on opening day, would make them a very serious playoff contender. It would basically make them the Astros of this year as a projection. And so that would be pretty good. And you mentioned that yes, there are free agents. They're losing Zimmerman who's a key loss, Spann who's an interesting loss, and Pfister who's no longer a loss and presumably, well, maybe they will.
Starting point is 00:25:56 Oh, and Desmond. So I don't know what their expected winning percentage drops to without those guys. What would you guess if you let's say they they replace those four guys with nobody getting more than two years uh so you know you're talking your your basic second or third tier free agent patches or triple a promotions what do you think the expected winning percentage is of that team? Probably not a lot lower. 5-30? I bet it's more than that.
Starting point is 00:26:29 I mean, Zimmerman is... I guess if you lose Zimmerman and don't replace him. Zimmerman and Desmond. I think Desmond probably still has good projections. I'm sure that that expected winning percentage is based on Ian Desmond playing like a normal Ian Desmond going forward. Let me check. Ian Desmond is projected to about two wins per season per full season uh so average shortstop uh yeah like roughly so I think more than 538
Starting point is 00:26:55 I don't know that it drops down to 500 I'd guess that they're like an 83 win team without those guys and so yeah that's not tear down for sure but what it's one more year till strasburg's a free agent and two more until harper is and so you definitely have to see a window for winning next year and i don't know i i agree with you but I also don't know that a 5-10 winning percentage team necessarily has a clear window. That's kind of the scariest place to be, right? A team with fairly big payroll, expiring contracts, and a 500 projection. What do you do with that? That's a challenge. Harper has three years, I think, by the way.
Starting point is 00:27:53 Does he have three? I thought he had two after this. After 2018, he's a free agent. Okay. Wow. That guy is young. Yeah, he sure is. Yeah, you're right. So yeah, what would you do? Do you go out and sign the two biggest free agents of the offseason and then all of a sudden you're the Red Sox
Starting point is 00:28:13 and you're wondering why can't their majors in public stand up? Are they the worst players? Yeah, well, you hopefully do better than that. No, they're all that. Every free agent is the worst player ever. Um, I, I guess you,
Starting point is 00:28:29 yeah, you, you probably bring in someone cause you can't afford not to you. You have to fill those spots and, and maybe, maybe they have enough guys that they don't necessarily need to go out and get an ace because we were talking about them having too many aces. And Ross has been good, and they've got Cole and Roark and all these guys.
Starting point is 00:28:52 So they could probably absorb that loss and still have one of the best rotations heading into next season. But you would think that they would bring in some sort of offense. but you would think that they would bring in some sort of offense. And it's also a reminder about the almost inevitable disappointment of the super rotation, which I think we talked about this spring and maybe when we did our Nationals preview episode. And the Nationals have the 10th best ERA from a rotation in baseball. And their FIP is about a half a run lower
Starting point is 00:29:28 than that. And maybe part of that is defense. Their peripherals seem to be better than their ERA. But still, when you put together a collection of just five aces where we're talking about how they have too many aces, it's still very likely to just go wrong. And, you know, I think it still probably is one of the best or the best rotations in baseball, but the results haven't really shown that so far. So even if you go into the air with Scherzer and Strasburg and Zimmerman and just Pfister and just all of these excellent starters and you're pushing starters who were really good last year into the bullpen, you still just might have a middle-of-the-pack rotation ERA because that's just what happens. So baseball is frustrating sometimes.
Starting point is 00:30:17 At least this year they did manage to turn Steven Souza into two awesome prospects. That's true. That's a coup. That might be the best move of the offseason Yeah, maybe so Alright So that's our possibly premature post-mortem Of the Washington Nationals And maybe they can salvage something
Starting point is 00:30:38 Over the last few weeks But if not I wonder if Is there another MVP candidate Who vultures votes from someone who believes in the has-to-be-a-playoff-team-to-win-an-MVP award. Well, if the Giants make it, there's going to be a huge Buster Posey push in the next month. Yeah, Granke and Kershaw split that vote, I guess. And Goldschmidt has the same non-playoff team problem that harper does so mccutcheon mccutcheon has the not only great numbers but the benefit of
Starting point is 00:31:12 the strange benefit of they came later in the season yeah the the the distribution bonus that some guys get yeah the giants have have I feel like maybe they have they have a few candidates right Brandon Crawford and Matt Duffy and maybe those guys would sort of split the vote I don't know yeah they might I don't know that I think that you could make the case that they should split the vote but I don't think that they will. I think it'll be fairly easy. They seem like the types who would win a beat writer elected team MVP.
Starting point is 00:31:53 Oh, yeah. No, you're right. They're the kind of guys who would win a team MVP but not get the beat writers votes for the actual MVP. I mean, you can certainly make really strong cases for them to get those votes. But to me, those are down ballot names at this point. Yeah, probably. Okay. Are we finished here? All right. We've been accumulating lots of emails. We will get to an email show soon. So send us some emails at podcast at baseball prospectus.com quick psa that we have been asked to pass on the saber seminar is this weekend in boston hopefully you have tickets already because
Starting point is 00:32:34 i think it's too late to buy tickets and so many people this week have asked me if i'm going to the saber seminar and every time i am disappointed anew that i'm not going to get to go but if you are going to get to go if you have tickets and you'll be there there is going to be a bp table of some sort and there's going to be a lot of stompers merchandise there so if you've been wanting to wear a stompers article of clothing and you haven't want to paid shipping costs and you happen to be at the saberer Seminar, which is an intersection of things that probably applies to seven people listening
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Starting point is 00:33:27 Get the discounted price of $30 on a one-year subscription. Facebook group, facebook.com slash groups slash effectivelywild. Rate, review, subscribe on iTunes. And I will leave you with a moment of zen from Matt Albers and Ryan Webb. You and Matt Albers are kind of competing for this record. And every time one of you guys comes in to finish a game, there are a bunch of tweets from people on the internet who are keeping track of this record. And there's even a website this year with a Ryan Webb-Matt Albers fantasy league where people drafted relievers, and they get points if they finish a game, and they lose points if they get a save. Are you aware of any of that? Yeah, I wasn't aware it was that in-depth.
Starting point is 00:34:08 But the one thing that I would say is that, you know, I'm fortunate to have been around long enough to have a record like that. So that's nice. Yeah, right. You know, I've played on a lot of teams that had bullpens that were, every time I went in, they had an established closer. And a lot of times, you know, I spent three years in Miami, and we were not scoring runs, not winning a lot of ballgames.
Starting point is 00:34:37 Yeah. You know, pitching in Baltimore last year, Britton and O'Day had that on lockdown. They were doing a great job. And so I think there just, you know, there was never many opportunities. And I, you know, pitched in a lot of close games and a lot of tie games and a lot of games we were down one, things like that. You know, maybe that opportunity will come one day.
Starting point is 00:35:02 It's not, you know, it's not something that I'm offended by or anything like that. I'm pretty sure I could go out and get three outs, no matter what the situation. If you get a chance at some point, what would a Ryan Webb save celebration look like? Would you shoot arrows off? Would you do anything? Would you shoot arrows off? Would you do anything? I assume it would probably be a lot like my other outings. I would just get the third out and shake my cousin's hand. I'm not going to do cartwheels out there or anything.
Starting point is 00:35:39 Maybe that's why it hasn't happened yet. Maybe you've got to have the celebration ready to go. I'll have to think about it. I'll start giving it some thought. I might have to step off the rubber for that last bout to think about what it is I'm going to do. So I talked to Ryan because he is the record holder in sort of a strange stat, which I don't know maybe you've heard of,
Starting point is 00:36:01 but he is the record holder for having the most career games finished without recording a save. And so you and he have kind of been going back and forth with this record. And every time one of you guys comes in to finish a game, there are a bunch of people on Twitter who are tracking it. And there's a website with a WebAlbers Fantasy League where people draft relievers and they get points if they finish a game and they lose points if they get a save. I don't know. Really? Yeah, no, I didn't. No, I had no idea. Yeah, I'm not. Twitter is a little bit after my time, so I'm not, I'm not really on Twitter and follow too much of that. But that, I mean, no, I knew that,
Starting point is 00:36:39 actually kind of knew about the record. You know, I played with Joe Smith in 2013 and I think he had, he might have had the record or he had a bunch of games without getting a save and he ended up getting a save at the beginning of that season. And that kind of brought my attention to it. So I was like, do you know you have a bunch of games without a save? And I don't think I ever had a save opportunity. Yeah, so what do you, how does that make you feel? I mean, do you wish that you could get off that leaderboard? I mean, it's, I mean, what's, I mean, what's going to change? I have one save instead of zero, you know, it's not, I mean, it's kind of funny, but you know, I just, you know, I guess I'm surprised I probably didn't, you know, throw three innings at the end of the game. Right, right.
Starting point is 00:37:22 You know, when we're winning, you know, it'd probably be more likely, but, you know, I mean, there's not, you know, not too many guys get of the game, you know, when we're winning, you know, it'd probably be more likely. But, you know, I mean, there's not too many guys get to save opportunities, you know, when you've got to, you know, I've been on teams with pretty established closers. So, you know, when you have that, the opportunities just aren't really there. And, you know, it's not, I mean, it's kind of one of those just fun baseball stats that you can kind of look at and, you know, because there's numbers everywhere in baseball. So, you know,
Starting point is 00:37:47 I think it's kind of cool. I'd like to get one. I mean, yeah, might as well. But we'll see.

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