Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast - Effectively Wild Episode 872: The April Prospect Primer

Episode Date: April 28, 2016

Ben and Sam talk to BP Minor League Editor Craig Goldstein about recent prospect call-ups and prospect call-ups to come.

Five days, five days, since you walked out the door Won't you please come home? I couldn't stand five more Hello and welcome to episode 872 of Effectively Wild, the daily podcast from Baseball Prospectus presented by our Patreon supporters and the Play Index at BaseballReference.com. I'm Ben Lindberg of FiveThirtyEight, joined by Sam Miller of Baseball Prospectus. Hello. Yo. It is a new-ish season, and one of the things that happens in a new-ish season is we get to meet new prospects. So there have been a bunch of prospect call-ups and debuts in april there are going to be a couple

more tomorrow and so to talk about those to do a little are you a primer man or a primer man sam well there's only one way to say the word so there are two ways no there's no there sure are there's not guessing you're a primer man Yeah Well I'm a primer man That's not how it's pronounced Ben In some countries it is What do you call it when there's a part of the song That like say there's a song at the beginning of the album And then later in the album They have another

Reprise Oh my you're kidding me Not a repriser But that's the word Well these are the new Not a repriser. But that's the word. Well, these are the new revelatory slash revelatory on this podcast. I'm a primer man, and therefore we are doing a prospect primer slash primer on the new players that we have come to see this season. And so to talk about that, to give us a little guided tour of these guys, we are talking to someone you are familiar with if you read Baseball Perspectives or listen to other BP podcasts, Craig Goldstein, who is BP's minor league editor. Hello, Craig.

Hello. So, well, first of all, is this season sort of like the day after Christmas for people who are interested in prospects after the enormous just onslaught wave of prospects who came to the majors last year? Sort of a historically unprecedented crop of debuts? Is this just a total letdown of the guys who are left after that wave? I don't think it's quite that bad. We've seen, I mean, we've had a BP top five prospect come up and who looks to stay up the rest of the year at this point. And so that's a pretty good way to go about it at this point. But if you wanted to call it, you know, Boxing Day to Christmas, I wouldn't say you're wrong. My girlfriend's family has a whole big party on Boxing Day. It's like bigger than Christmas for for them it's crazy that's less crazy than calling it primer and reprise and declaring that that's normal i i'm a primer man myself all right i'm stacking the deck that's why we had you on actually i genuinely don't even mind you call you saying primer i mind you claiming it's correct. Like it's fine.

I believe it is an accepted pronunciation. I have things in my life that I do that are wrong, you know. I just don't brag about them. I'm a bad flosser, okay. Now you know. It's my secret shame. It's secret because I don't brag about it. I don't like walk around going, you know, flossing is bad for you.

I remember there was a – remember that infomercial guy not he was kind of an infomercial guy I forget his name but like 10 years ago he was a pretty big deal because he had this book of like miracle cures and like his whole thing was that all the drugs were bad for you and that the only way you could get healthy was with his like you know like drinking you, lemon rinds instead of taking cancer pills. And I forget his name, but my... He probably died. In my family, my wife and I had a long running joke that we would say about 40 times a day, which was like one of the lines from his infomercial. The sun doesn't cause cancer.

Sunscreen causes cancer. This is you. All right. I will work on my pronunciation infomercial. So, Craig, BP usually runs a call-up post on the site whenever a prospect of note comes up. And I believe there have been nine of those thus far or in the next day or so. Give us your biggest prospect crush in this group. Is there anyone you've been following for a while, anyone whose story or stuff you like, or anyone you're particularly excited to see in the future? Yeah, Nomar Mazzara is quite easily atop that list for me. There's a lot of interesting guys below him,

but as I alluded to before, he's a top five prospect for us at BP on the 101. And it's just been something that's kind of a long time coming. He set the record for international bonuses when he signed with Texas in 2011. And at that point, even though he got more money than Ronald Guzman, who's only at AA for Texas, Guzman was kind of considered the better prospect.

And Mazzara has just kind of steadily, I say steadily, but he's in the majors, and I think he turned 21 last week. So steadily, but also quickly, just ascended the minor league ranks and become a more complete player. His defense was never his strong suit, but he's actually made some impressive plays in right field. And he's going to make it really hard for Texas to send him back to AAA once Shinsu Chu returns from his injury. Yeah.

So he is OPSing 906 right now. Not that you would expect that of any prospect or almost any player, but was the expectation that he would make a very smooth transition? It was not like a Joey Gallo kind of thing where it was expected that there would be some struggles? I think that's right. He's affectionately known online, courtesy of Tepid P, who's a affectionately known online courtesy of tepid p who's a rangers minor league aficionado and as the big chill he just kind of takes everything in stride he's very relaxed it's it i mean looking at him he's a huge guy so you wouldn't necessarily think this guy is is a young kid but he just has the demeanor of someone older and is very steady at the plate in the field, just takes whatever comes to him. And so his transition being relatively smooth, despite it being early, isn't a big surprise. I think 900 would be an aggressive mark to hit in terms of OPS,

in terms of expectations. But I certainly think that he's someone who I wouldn't expect a huge regression. And his biggest struggles right now is facing left-handed pitching. And he hasn't been as good against lefties in the majors. And that's not really a big surprise. He hasn't faced guys of that quality. And I do expect him to adjust at least to some degree and to continue mashing righties as his career continues. I'm looking at a headline right now. I believe it's the Dallas Morning News.

And the headline is, Nomar Mazzara is looking more and more like Mike Trout with every swing. Is that absurd just because of how wildly it misses? His neck is just getting thicker and thicker. Is that absurd because it just wildly overstates how good he is? Or is it also absurd because there's not much? Is there much of a similarity in the style of play in the style of prospect they are in the style of, you know, early career they should have? No, I mean, it's it Yes, it is crazy.

It's there's no there aren't many similarities between the two as prospects aside from being extremely good prospects or extremely good major leaguers. I think down the line, I wouldn't expect any sort of 10 war seasons out of Mazzara. I mean, first of all, just from a scouting standpoint, he doesn't have speed like Trout has speed. He's not a quick guy, and he's probably only going to slow down. Like I said, he just turned 21. He's a very large man as it is, and I wouldn't expect him to retain he's a very large man as it is, and I wouldn't expect him to retain, you know, the speed of his youth as he ages. So he's very much, he's already a corner outfielder. And, you know, I know Trout played corner when he came up at least a decent amount, but Mazzara couldn't play center. There

was speculation that he'd have to move to first down the line. I think that is somewhat further down the line than others, perhaps, but it's certainly a possibility. And so Mazar is very much about his bat first and foremost. And any contributions on defense, I think, are really at this point something of a bonus. And I guess for a top five prospect, the answer is probably both. But was that aggressive ranking more because of his ceiling or because of his probability of reaching whatever his ceiling is? I mean, is he a true middle of the order masher as much as anyone who was in the minors, at least until recently?

Yeah, I think being reasonably confident in, you know, a 285 plus hitter and 25 or more home runs is a really high bar. And I think the, and that's, I'm reasonably confident he can do that year in and year out. I think when you get to his ceiling, you're talking about someone who could be a 300 hitter. He's obviously, he's doing that in his first taste of the majors. And he's, he's been very good about making adjustments throughout his career. So I wouldn't put that out of the question. And I think he's got the raw power to certainly hit 30 plus, you know, whether those things come together and coalesce in a single season. And he, you know, he does something that's 315 and 35 homers. You know, that's harder to

predict, but I don't, I think he has a skill set that that could happen while being again, like I said, reasonably confident that he's somewhere closer to the 285 plus average 25 plus homer range. And that's why he ended up in our top five. It's why he was our top Rangers prospect. And that's not anything to sneeze at. I mean, they had Joey Gallo and they had Louis Brinson. And all of those guys are very good. So I think our placing Mazzara on top of those two was something of a statement of our belief of what he could do and how quickly he could do it. Maybe the answer to this next question is no more Mazzara, but if it isn't, or if it

is, you can give me the second best answer. Who among these prospects is the biggest upgrade for his team and or the biggest potential factor in a playoff race this season? So those are potentially different questions because a lot of the prospects who have come up or are coming up tomorrow are not necessarily on playoff teams. I mean, we're talking about guys like Max Kepler and Jose Barrios from the Twins. We're talking about Malik Smith on the Braves, Trevor Story. I don't think we wrote a call up, but obviously he's made a name for himself at this point for Colorado. So there are some guys on teams that aren't going to the playoffs. I don't think we wrote a call-up, but obviously he's made a name for himself at this point for Colorado. So there are some guys on teams that aren't going to the playoffs. I think

Barrios is probably one of the biggest upgrades immediately, but the Twins' start to the season doesn't really engender hope that they'll be a competitive playoff team. I still think going from a struggling Kyle Gibson or Tyler Duffy know tyler duffy i think is in their rotation at this point i i think burrios is a significant upgrade on on both of those guys or you know if you want to say ricky nolasco there are a lot of guys he's an upgrade on for minnesota um i i think he's ready right now i think he's his his production or or his stat line might not read as well due to some defensive issues. And we kind of saw that in his debut last night that, you know, Byron Buxton has been sent down. They don't really have a great defensive outfield at this point.

Danny Santana didn't get to a ball that Buxton probably would have that fell for a hit and went for runs. I think there was a misplay by Arcia that resulted in a run. And so it might not look it just for if you're looking at the stat line, but if you're watching these guys pitch and just the difference between giving the team a chance to win, I think Barrios is probably that guy if we're not talking about Mazzara. And is there a particular tool or pitch that stands out among these guys? Just one aspect of any of these players that will just immediately be eye-catching? game in the majors. I think he's, you know, I don't want to harp on him too much, but he's the guy to really look at. Malik Smith is a plus plus runner. That's certainly eye catching. I really, we did one for Blake Snell. I don't know when or if he'll be back up in the majors this year. I certainly think he has the talent to the, the rays are extremely methodical in how they promote their players. He ended up starting because Erasmo

Ramirez was used in emergency relief in a game, and so he was no longer able to start. And so they used Snell. But if you look at their track record, they keep pitchers in AAA, and really hitters too, in AAA until they really believe they're ready to succeed. I mean, if you can go back in their history, a guy like Desmond Jennings, I think, had over 1,000 AAA at-bats. So for Snell, he's only, I think, had seven or ten starts there. He has not had close to a full season. So I think he's a guy that you watch.

He was throwing a beautiful curveball in his debut. He used it to freeze up Brian Kahn multiple times. His fastball is really good. I think it borders on plus plus at times. So there are guys like that. But for Snell, I just don't know when or if. I don't think it's a given he'll be back up right after the Super 2 deadline passes in June just because of how the Rays do things.

But I do think if he was up, he would qualify as an answer to that question. We haven't talked about Max Kepler yet. He was up very briefly last year, and then he was called up again and got his call-up post this season. He is an interesting player because of his background and because of his skill set. Where do you stand on him? Yeah, I'm not as high on him as others in the prospect community, which shouldn't mean to say that I don't like them. I think the progress he's made in recent years is marked. And I don't know that I kind of tend to be a little slower to adjust to guys who make these huge improvements in a short time just because I like to see it

play out over a longer period of time before I buy in and that certainly leaves me behind on on certain guys and that could be the case with Kepler I'm just not to the point where I believe he's going to contribute meaningfully kind of this year although I think the experience of being at the major league level is obviously a valuable one in terms of development and i i think certainly think the upside is there for him to be able to hit for both average and power and he's a pretty athletic guy although i i know that our reports say that he he could end up at first base down down the line just because he's growing into this frame and is is going to be a bigger guy. I certainly think

that, you know, it might behoove the Twins to let him play in a corner. Again, their outfield defense is a problem, especially with Miguel Sano out there. And Sano actually made some nice plays at third last night, and he was able to do so last year as well. And I think Trevor Plouffe aside, their best lineup and defense going forward, you know, beyond 2016 might include Sano at third and Kepler in one of the corners. So I have a few questions about guys who are not up yet in three very different circumstances. Why is Trey Turner still in the minors? At this point, it's hard to say anything beyond stubbornness on the Nationals' part. He was up last year and logged not an insignificant number of days in terms of service time. So if they're really trying to hold back an extra year of retaining his rights and the ability to hold his rights in the future,

I think that they're costing themselves at this point because he's destroying AAA. He was very good at AAA last year. He definitely struggled in the majors, but at this point, they're running out Steven Drew and Danny Espinosa, and it's hard to imagine that even a struggling Trey Turner wouldn't be, or the Nationals wouldn't be better served by letting him take his lumps at the big league level and try and adjust than relying on the likes of Steven Drew. I don't have a good answer for you as to why. I think he's probably ready to face that test. I don't want to imply that there's going to be immediate success if and when he does get to the majors, as we saw last year. but I do think that it makes all the sense in the world for them to give him that chance now so that he's a little more suited to or adjusted to major league

pitching by the time that they're you know entering the playoffs if they continue their pace yeah if they were trying to keep an extra year of control they'd have to wait basically until June yeah I think it was like 40 days right something like yeah and that's just to that i mean that he'd still be a super two so they'd be saving you know a couple million bucks in the seven year forecast which hardly seems worth it yeah alex reyes is suspended do you know what he does while he's suspended is it the case that if you know if he were deemed to be ready and an upgrade in the Cardinals rotation, as soon as he's eligible, will he be in game shape? Can he like, is he allowed to be do like, I don't know where he is.

Is he pitching for the Sugarland Skeeters or something? My understanding is that he's in their spring training facility and I believe he can participate in extended spring. He was allowed to throw during spring training. And I think that continues along with extended spring. So I think physically, yeah, he could be deemed game ready, because he can be throwing with someone and around their facility. But I certainly think most teams would never, you know, do that without getting them into an actual game action ahead of time. Yeah. And if not for the suspension, is he a guy

who we would be talking about as being called up around this time? Or was he going to spend the better part of the year in double or triple A anyway, in your estimation? I would assume the latter. Again, you know, not exactly like the Rays, but the Cardinals. The Cardinals also benefit, and this is true of the Rays and their pitching prospects too, of generally having rotation depth. of the Rays and their pitching prospects too, of generally having rotation depth. And so they haven't always had the need to call on these guys at the first opportunity that they'd be ready. And we've seen that with guys like Carlos Martinez, who spent time in the bullpen, and

Trevor Rosenthal converted to the bullpen, and things like that. So I think Reyes, in all likelihood, I think it's more likely we see his debut as a reliever at this point, including the suspension. And I do think that he's a starter long term, but I don't think the Cardinals have a problem breaking in guys in that fashion, kind of the Earl Weaver fashion. And I do think that that probably was the case anyway, unless they ran into a number of injuries. But again, they do have a lot of AAA rotation depth in general.

So I think it was always a little unlikely that he'd come up early in the season as a starter. And is there anything that the Nationals are doing with Lucas Giolito in AA that suggests that they are keeping his innings down or keeping him like available for October for September for August? Not not to my knowledge. I saw him a week 10 days ago. And I mean, he he's only I don't think he's reached five innings yet. But he also at least in my one game viewing was fairly inefficient. He was getting hit a little bit and just he didn't look kind of at his best. So I think it just hasn't been the smoothest year

for Giolito so far and that his lack of innings is more a function of him not getting to those innings than him being prevented from throwing them. And if you do like watching starting pitcher prospects, tomorrow, Friday, will be a good day for you. There are two prospects debuting, Sean Minaya for the A's and Michael Fulmer for the Tigers. What do you expect from these guys and what are their arsenals and what are their skills and weaknesses? So Minaya was, he's been known for quite a while. He was the guy who the Royals kind of famously took at, I think, 34th overall. They took Hunter Dozier, which was a big surprise, I think in the top 10 and saved money to spend on Minaya, who kind of burst onto the scene as a Cape Cod League guy growing like 98. And he had never really shown that before in his college career. And I think he was at Indiana State. And he's famously battled, you know, numerous injuries,

he had a hip injury that kept him out. But he's kind of retained his health the last couple years and kind of established himself as a top tier pitching prospect, or, you know, maybe second tier pitching prospect, but still maybe second tier pitching prospect but still very good he can hit the upper 90s from the left side and i think he'll sit you know low to mid 90s his slider is the most obvious kind of fun pitch it's his best off speed pitch and he's got a change up that can be about average i i think really everything works off his fastball. If he can command it, and if he's not missing the zone, he's going to get guys to bite on the slider because it does kind of mimic the fastball, you know, a lot of the way to the plate and then has depth and break to

it. So he's someone who I think, again, you know, barring health, I would imagine he's going to be, I think he's going to be subject to the, you know, barring health, I would imagine he's going to be, I think he's going to be subject to the, you know, traditional struggles that rookies face. You know, they're facing better talent than they ever have before, for the most part. But I still do see relatively, I see some success in the relative immediate future for him. And I do think that he, I mean, Bob Melvin has said that he anticipates that he's going to be up for the long haul. So I wouldn't expect this to be a Blake Snell situation. As far as Fulmer, everything for him kind of depends on the quality of his slider. That kind

of took a major step forward in 2015, and his prospect status did uh as well and that's actually similar to another guy who i expect to be up later in the year a guy like cody reed but for the reds but fulmer i think is someone who i could have mentioned as you know having a major impact in a playoff race i the tigers are the tigers are a weird team they're kind of they're kind of like the the fantasy strategy stars and scrubs team. But he's a guy that, you know, their rotation is relatively thin. And that's kind of been a thing for them for years. But I think he's someone who can step in. And if his slider is as good as it was in 2015, he has the stuff to survive as a back-end starter in the major in the majors and that's

something that they haven't really had as a reliable option you know to call up from their minors the last several years so the other thing with fulmer though is uh health he hasn't always been healthy he missed significant parts of uh 2013 and 2014 so how long he can go into the season or how comfortable they are with him accruing innings is somewhat of an open question. Well, Edmis Diaz is hitting 468 with a 500 OBP and an 823 slugging percentage. I was hoping you wouldn't bring him up. Well, he didn't qualify for a prospect list or a prospect call-up post, and I assume there's a

reason for that and this is just Cardinals devil's magic yeah I you know I I don't have an explanation for what he's doing really I it doesn't make sense to me no like no part of it I mean he's hitting 468 he's walking more than he's striking out he's striking out four and a half percent again you know it's it's 20 games so that is what it is i can't explain this i i don't i i i he was someone who is over the last couple years people would bring up and i thought this was a good example of kind of someone who wasn't worth the couple million dollars that they spent to sign him at the time. So, you know, I'm happy to eat my hat, but the answer is I certainly don't know because I thought he was not worth the couple million they spent to sign him. The other guy who started with this incredible season, Trevor Story,

and who's now slowed down, normally what I would do, normally what people do here is they read you the hot start line and then the cold next stage line and say, which one one's closer and then you go somewhere in the middle. But I'm not going to let you have that. So what I'm going to do is read you the cold line, which is 167, 273, 354 after the first six games. So in the games, in the 14 or whatever games after that, he's got a 620 OPS in course.

And then his overall line, which is got a, you know, 620 OPS in Coors, all right? And then his overall line, which is the in the middle line, 241, 304, 651, which is a 9,655 OPS in Coors Field. So we got 955 OPS for a Coors Field hitter, 620 OPS for a Coors Field hitter. Which one of those is closer to what he is? I think the 620, honestly. I think contact was always the question with him. I think he's striking out like over 35% right now, something like that. We always talk about that it's a game of adjustment, and it's clear that the league is adjusting. I don't think he's incapable of adjusting back. He's gone through rough years in the minors and adjusted and worked his way up to kind of what we saw or what we're seeing at this point. But the power

is real. He's very much a power hitter. So if you told me he was going to slug 500, I wouldn't doubt it. But I think he's probably more of a 450. And I think his average is going to mean that his OBP is a lot closer to the low 300s. And so I guess that's a little closer to the 650 that we talked about than the 900. All right. And you are not one of these prospect people who stops paying attention to the prospects after they make the majors. It's like, all right, they made it. And now I don't care anymore. Who's the next guy? You continue to watch players after they make the major leagues. Is there anyone from last season's crop of prospects whose development you are paying particularly close attention to this year? Yeah, I think it's someone who there are a few guys I think that are pretty interesting.

I think I grew up a Dodgers fan. So Jock Peterson has been really interesting to me. Just his entire story as I think an 11th round pick originally, and he ended up a top prospect. He went 30-30 in AAA. And he was so good the first half of last year, 20 home runs, and then so, so bad that he barely got any playing time towards the end of the season into the postseason. And I think he's a relatively pivotal guy for LA. They're a very deep club and they have a lot of options. Guys like Enrique Hernandez can fill in and center Trace Thompson, who they acquired this offseason. But at the same time, if Peterson can play to the, I don't know, the 70th percentile of his abilities, he's probably a star, and that's a big difference maker in terms of their lineup.

I mean, if he can be an everyday guy rather than merely a platoon guy with huge strikeout rates, that's a significant piece in their lineup and adds to the depth of their lineup in a way that I don't think Enrique Hernandez or Trace Thompson really does. And so I think just the dichotomy of those two half seasons for him, I'd really like to see what I'm looking at what he's doing going forward this year and kind of where he's going to end up on that spectrum. So I think if I had one guy, that's probably him. His brother is in our book about 50 times too, by the way.

Oh, really? Yeah, Javier Baez's brother is in the book like one and a half times. As far as ballplayers, Javier's brother is better than Jock's brother, in my opinion. Yeah, I'm blanking on Jock's brother. I know he has Champ. Tiger. Tiger, right, that's right.

Tiger with a y right i did know that i knew there's tiger and champ and jock yeah uh hey uh why did you just bad mouth enrique hernandez i would have thought that we all love him i do i do love him i but he i i didn't intend to bad mouth him i i think you know jock jock Peterson at his, like I said, like 70th percentile of his kind of OFP or whatever you want to call it, is better than Enrique Hernandez. But I think his best ability is that he can be exactly what he is in a lot of different positions. So I don't think you want to rely on him to necessarily be a platoon guy so much as someone

who can fill in without much of a drop off kind of all over the field or in the lineup. Enrique Hernandez has out hit Mookie Betts in their careers. Well, that's I suppose that's a fact, but it's also something of a hot take. All right. And lastly, is there anyone Sam didn't ask about earlier who is slated to arrive sometime soon that you are looking forward to? So not throwing a ton right now, but I do think he has the chance to be up later this year. Robert Stevenson has been up twice for the Reds. Jesse Winker should come up at some point. All of these guys are top one-on-one prospects and are certainly interesting and worth watching.

I think the Astros' first base situation is going to be interesting. I know Tyler White got off to that great start, but A.J. Reid is kind of lying in wait. He's not been extremely productive in the immediate, you know, right to start the season. But I think whenever they deem him to be ready, he's probably a true talent upgrade over a guy like White. And I don't know if they might be interested in pushing his timetable up given their lackluster start to the season. You know, we mentioned Turner. I think other guys kind of towards the top of our list include Tyler Glass now, Orlando Arcia, and Tim Anderson, who, you know, all are, I think, top 20 prospects for us and have the ability to be impact guys.

I think Arcia, probably the least of them just because the Brewers aren't really playing for a ton. But Glasnow and Anderson could certainly have impacts on playoff races in the short term. Mookie Betts has produced one win above replacement every 110 plate appearances in his career. Enrique Hernandez has produced one win above replacement every 115 plate appearances in his career. Yeah, I mean, I think Enrique Hernandez is one of the... He's better than Jock Peterson, wouldn't you say? I would say he's been better than Jock Peterson, certainly. He also has the benefit, although Peterson has had this benefit as well,

of almost never playing against same side pitching or playing predominantly against opposite hand pitching, I should say. And he really does crush lefties, which helps. All right. Well, I would say that was a pretty good prospect primer. Would you say that was a pretty good prospect primer, Craig? I thought it was a great prospect primer. I don't even, you know, the thing that really, the genius, Ben, of what you've done here

is that you've turned this into a thing where I look like the crazy person who cares. When I'm not, you're gaslighting me. I'm just a guy who says the word and you're trying to convince me that this reality that I've always known is false or something. And it's making me agitated. And now I look unhinged. I look uncool. I look like I don't like myself right now. I don't like what I've been the last 37 minutes. And like this is really very crafty what you've done. You have taken the upper hand in this relationship. And all you've done to do it is mispronounce a word aggressively. That's all it took. And then reprise that pronunciation at the end of the podcast. Would you say it feels a little bit like don't obedience right now? Oh, I wouldn't.'t all right we are finished craig thank you

you can read craig's work at baseball prospectus you can hear him on other baseball prospectus podcasts you can follow him on twitter at cd goldstein thank you for coming on again thank you for having me all right you can support the podcast on Patreon by going to patreon.com slash effectively wild. Five people who have supported us already. Mark Eschen, Danny Pankratz, Lord Byron. Thank you, Lord Byron. Anton Bezdanejik. Sorry, Anton, if I primered the pronunciation of your name. And Joram Batner. Thanks. The countdown to our book publication continues. It is now at five days. May 3rd, next Tuesday, is when you can get your hands on The Only Rule Is It Has to Work, the book that Sam and I wrote about our experience last summer when we took over the second printing because of the pre-orders that many of you folks have placed. You can do so at Amazon or Barnes & Noble or your local bookstore. It will be available on CD and on Audible a couple weeks after that.

You can also pre-order that, and you can order a signed copy, if you'd like, from StompersBaseball.com. You can join our Facebook group at Facebook.com slash groups slash Effectively Wild, and you can rate and review and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. Get the discounted price of $30 on a one-year subscription to the Play Index by going to baseballreference.com and using the coupon code BP. And email us. Send us your questions or comments at podcasts at baseballperspectives.com or by messaging us through Patreon. We will be back with one more show for this week tomorrow. Not so happy this Monday I can beg and steal and borrow I'll be happy in five days

I'll be happy in five days