Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Acuña Jr. Knocked Over When Fans Rush the Field & Shots Fired at White Sox Game (Jimmy's 3 Things)

Episode Date: August 29, 2023

00:00 Intro00:33 Fans Run To Acuña 05:14 Shots Fired at White Sox Game11:01 Rangers Blown Saves21:40 Hitting Behind the Runner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to Jimmy's Three Things. It's Tuesday morning. I'm sipping on my coffee. I got three topics to discuss here in the next 20 minutes. We got security issues. I bundled two into one there. Rangers saves. Wow. Oh, my goodness. They're just doing construction right out the window, right behind me. That's got to be loud. I think there's going to be a man that pops up right behind my windows. I think I'm going to power through. All right. So the first time. topic we got is just security issues. And last night we had three fans run on the field. Two of them got close enough to Ronald O'Cuna Jr. to touch them. What a terrible look for security in Colorado. Here's the video of it. And for those just listening, you might have seen it. If not, I'll just walk you through it.

The first fan runs out and beats security there and just wants a selfie. scary though because the players have no idea what these fans want to do and unfortunately we've had some instances where fans have done terrible stuff we've had two umpires get beat up um we've had players get i don't know scary go read players reactions to this because and think about if you were there yourself and you're an opposing player and fans are running at you you have no idea what they have on you or what their intentions are this guy wanted a selfie and akuna kind of placates them like kind of just starts taking it with it him and then security rush them. The second security gets there, he's skinny or the first security's got the guy wrapped up high, but the guy is hugging a Cunuchin won't let go. Second security comes and like goes low on his legs, like tries to go dead weight in his legs, which not a good. And then the third security comes.

And now when that third security comes, they're all getting the one fan off of him. and on Ronald Acuna's other side where there's no security, another fan gets all the way out to him. And this dude was like trying to fight him at one point. Yeah, he runs and Ocunia's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. He runs straight at him. The security that was on the ground going ball and chain on the other fan's feet actually sets up a perfect tabletop.

So Ocunia's on the ground. You got four security out there, two fans, and they still are like wrestling all these guys. now players start coming out. A third fan did jump onto the field. Ocuna said he saw third, and Moylan, who was doing radio, said he saw third.

And then they did report that there was a third. He just didn't make it out there. From three different sections of the ballpark, what are we doing? What's going on? I know anyone listening to this isn't the type to run on the field probably, and it's usually not even like diehard fans.

It's usually the guys that wanted to do something else, but got dragged there by their friends or just kind of just assholes or psychos in general. But, I mean, if you know anyone in your group that you think would run on the field, explain to them why it's fucking dumb. Same goes for that guy that ran on the field to get to propose in L.A. earlier this year. And he got tackled pretty hard by security.

Yeah. Like, Akun you could have punched these dudes in the face, and I wouldn't have mind that. Because you don't know what their intentions are. Stay in the stands. As they're carrying this dude off, the second one, one. He's screaming and yelling and angry. And three security guards are pulling them away. Pretty ridiculous situation.

Ocuna's quotes on the matter were, this is the athletic article on it. Ocunia said, I was a little scared at first. I think the fans were out there asking for a picture, but security was able to get there, so I think everything's okay. Everyone's okay. I think there were three of them.

I saw someone else somewhere. But anyway, the second guy, he was asking for a picture, too. I couldn't say anything to him because at the point security was already there, and we were already kind of tangled up. And then they said, they asked him about safety and how's he feel, and he said, I don't know what to say because the truth is, I think the fans are in the stands, and I think at any moment they could charge the field.

I'd say the important thing is we're all okay. It's kind of crazy. Do better, Colorado. I know Peter Morland's riled up. I think he said, he was texting me about it last night, but he also said on the broadcast like, what do you say?

I'll call the game tomorrow from the bullpen. That stinks. It didn't stop Ocunae from going, what do you go, four for five with a walk or four for four of the walk yesterday. He went four for five with five RBIs collected his 60th and 61st stolen base and hit his 29th homer. So maybe it was a little good luck.

No, wasn't. Don't do it. Stop joking about it, Jimmy. But this is awesome. Um, Acuna needs one home run to become the first player in history to have at least 30 homers and 60 stolen bases in a season. That's insane. All right.

The second topic that involves stadium security is this shooting that happened at the White Sox game in the outfield seats where, if you haven't heard about this at all, it's so confusing. It's so weird. Two people were shot or got hit by. bullet. One lady got grazed in the abdomen and another lady the got shot bullet entered her thigh and then lodged into her calf. No one heard any shots. The game didn't stop. There wasn't that much commotion and they have found no gun and they don't know what happened yet. They're investigating it. People were saying that it could have been shots from outside the stadium that, you know, people just shooting in the air that fell down.

And then they said, no, we've dismissed that. That didn't happen. Because other people were saying that you can see the radar and there were shots fired in the area, but like seven blocks away from the stadium. It's really weird. There seems to be, in my opinion, an obvious answer as to what happened. But that hasn't been reported. So it's just kind of my speculation and a lot of other people as well.

But it's super, super weird. So the, I think, interim chief deputy, his name's Waller, said, we're dispelling lots of things. A shot coming from outside is something we've almost completely dispelled. We're still looking at every avenue. It's still under investigation. Something from inside. It could have happened that way.

We're looking at every avenue, exploring every lead and everything that we can get. So it kind of sounds like we got nothing. I don't know how you'd have nothing because yeah I don't understand that you guys right outside my window just drilling away at something there was another

like had the gun to get in the stadium probably someone who has clearance to bring a gun in the stadium or something it seems like accidental discharge is the fucking speculation that people would say but it's really weird the way they're reporting on this there was another report saying two sources

are saying that A woman concealed a small gun in her belly fat, and that's how she got it through security. I don't really, I don't believe really anything in this story, but someone did get shot at a stadium. And it's not prevalent. It seems like only White Sox fans are kind of like trying to track down this story or interest in it. Like someone got shot at a stadium. It's not good. It's a terrible look.

We don't even know how. There is video of it. I can show you that. It's not, it's from like way far. way, just the kind of like the commotion that happens. They, and the reporting on this has been pretty awful. You have to kind of read between the quotes and the lines. The police say that they requested for the game to stop and everyone to be evacuated,

but that was before they were on the scene. And they said, no, the white sock said, no, we're not going to do that. That was how it was like worded, but that's kind of just the inflammatory, like, click-baity wording because then the police chief afterwards said no before we got on the scene and knew what was really happening we just heard active shooter shots fired so we immediately said stop the game get everyone out of there then they said we'll hold up like there's no no one heard shots there's no commotion no one there's no gun it doesn't it doesn't feel like an active shooter look around and then the cops heard that they assessed it and they said yes I think

we'd create more frenzy in a stir if we do that than not so it was kind of the cop's decision people were trying to pin that on the white socks good or bad it was a group effort uh but the reporting on that is kind of like weird anyway watch the video here and i'll go to the section and no one's seriously injured so i think that's good to know let me see how big i can get this actually So it happens right. It's a woman and a man sitting in the bleachers halfway up and then there's a woman behind her.

I'm, I shouldn't even do this. I'm guessing those are the two involved. And at one point she just stands up. Like no one hears anything. No one reacts like they heard anything. But the woman in the hat kind of just looks down, looks down because something's in her calf and went through her thigh.

looks down, looks down, and then the guy in front of her is looking down, and then she stands up, and she's like, what the hell is that? I've been shot, and the woman behind her also stands up, and is like, looks around, looks around, looks around, and then a bunch of people call for help, and the woman behind her leaves. So it's very weird, very confusing. No one caused any commotion. If that was fired, have to be like a tiny gun inside of a,

Soundproof purse or something. I don't really understand. And I feel like it's not being made a giant deal when it kind of is a big deal. So anyway, those aren't really like on-field baseball play stories, so I figured I'd do the next two topics more Jimalytics or whatever. We have this tweet from Fox Sports. the Rangers currently have more blown saves than converted saves this season. I don't know how many teams have done this.

I don't know if this is like really crazy. They have 25 blown saves and 24 converted saves. They still have a great record. That's insane. So I went to just baseball reference and I'm looking at their stats and I was going to dance around and find some stuff here. If you go or is like the relief pitching page. Yeah.

Okay. So this is their relief pitching page. So Will Smith has had 26 save opportunities for blown saves. So Will Smith, majority of the time, been pretty good. 22 out of 26. The rest of the crew that have like gotten the ball in these situations are horrible. Let's do math. 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 1, 2, 3, 4, so 24.

So the 26 save opportunities went to Will Smith. 24 went to like, looks like 10 other guys. And of those 24, only three have been converted. LeClerc has two, and Eraldus Chapman has one. Alex, I'm going to butcher a lot of these names. Sorry, Rangers fans. Alex Spees, one save opportunity, one blown save. Yeri Rodriguez, Yeri, that's fun.

One save opportunity, one blown save. John King, one save opportunity, one blown save. Ian Kennedy, one save opportunity, one blown save. Brock Burke, one save opportunity, one blown save. Jonathan Hernandez, three save opportunities, three blown saves. Josh Spores, spores, four save opportunities, four blown safes. Grant Anderson, four save opportunities, four blown saves. That's incredible.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Those seven players, those seven players have 14 save opportunities between them and zero saves. What the heck? That's insane. Grant Anderson, when was he getting save opportunities? Let's see. his game log for this year. He got one against St. Louis, one against the Angels, one against the Astros, and one against

Boston. How are they blowing these? Grant Anderson came in in the top of the eighth inning. The Cardinals are up three to one. He walked Jordan Walker to start. He gave up a single to Gorman, a single to Edmund. Goldie lined out and then Nolan

Aronado hit a double game tied oh my God you know what someone on the Reddit page uh shit let me find this someone posted this to the baseball Reddit

and then underneath they had a bunch of cool stats like breaking it down um even more Rangers blown saves yeah Here it is.

Let me. They have, here it is, by Humphrey the Camel. Number of games where the Rangers have a save. 24. Number of games where the Rangers have blown a save.

23. That doesn't add up with the graphic. Oh, games, because they've blown multiple saves in the same game. Number of games where the Rangers blew a save, then went on to win. Five. Okay, that helps.

Number of games where the Rangers blew a save, went on to win. and got a save one. And then someone adds, the Rangers blew a save twice in the same game against the diamondbacks the other day. And then someone responded to that. We did that again yesterday.

So that's how the numbers get higher. That's crazy, man. That didn't even really make sense. Grant Anderson got another save. Oh, what the hell is this game? So, and sometimes they're not what you're thinking about. Like Grant Anderson gets a blown save in the seventh inning here by giving up a home run to Shohei to tie the game.

I was trying to find a way to do like a traditional save opportunity, like ninth inning up three runs or less. I know you can do it, but I couldn't do it quick enough for this video to find that. But hell, that stinks for the Rangers. What's Will Smith doing? Is he just been bad lately? Like what? Or is he back from injured?

or he's been around the whole year? Is he just been... Well, he's just on a fucking terrible stretch. No. Well, you know what? The good news is, very likely he can find his form in September. Dog Days of August are tough for a lot of relievers,

but yeah, he's been pretty brutal lately. Let's see if I can do Will Smith, baseball savant, and let's see what pitches are getting hit that haven't been... getting hit in the past because Will Smith had a really good, looks like he had a really good June and July. Well, he had a really good first four months of the season. I'll even go to, I'll give his first outings of August.

His first 40 outings, he had a 270 IRA, not that I care about reliever ERA, but got the job done a ton. And then his last nine outings, it's been awful. So let's see if, let's go to his pitch mix and see if anything's changed. Could be location. I'm going back to baseball reference. See, I walks. No, not that many walks in that stretch. Way more than usual.

But no, no, no, I don't think I'm going to pin it on walks. Let's go. On baseball, Savon, I can go look at his, we can go month by month, right? So we're going to look at his pitch mix. But on the month, month by month for this season. And then I'm going to go down here. here on the bottom and look at just, why does it have pitch group?

I don't want pitch group. I want pitches by month. Oh, he throws a lot of pitches for a reliever. Okay. So in August, what's getting hit? The curveball is getting hit pretty bad. 500 batting average against the curveball. Six hits, 12-up bats is a reliever,

so the sample sizes are smaller. and 750 slugging on the curveball. So the curveball has not been his friend in the month of August, nor has the sinker really. The four-seem fastball has been good, and he throws that the most. It's been really good. Maybe he needs to up that a little bit.

And let's look at the curveball. And the curveball in July was no issues at all with it. And the curveball in June was really good. And the curveball in May was bad. And the curveball in April was bad. So a curveball. So let's go game by game now. Curveball seems to be the issue for Will Smith trying to get saves of late.

Who's getting hits off of it? So his last outing, August 26th, two hits off the curveball. No, no, no. My bad. My bad. But my bad. That's not true. one more search. Baseball savant video search.

Pitchers, Will Smith on the Rangers. Pitch type, curveball, date August. I'm also going to go back to this graph here, and I'm going to look at the, I'm going to change this. So instead of looking at all the pitches, I just want to look at the curveball. and then I want to look to see if any of the metrics have changed month to month. So I want to look at the spin rate on it.

When his last outing, it plummeted, way below average. He had another outing or was below average on May 24th. Did it get hit on May 24th as well? Because we know there was a bad May. No. He threw it three times and it wasn't played. What about the break on it? No, it's all been somewhat the same.

Vertical break. Not finding much. Swing and miss. Stupid scatterpot. Chase percent. Nah, whatever. Didn't find much there. Will Smith curve balls in the month of August.

We have called straight, hit into play. Carlos Santana hit a single. We have... so I don't think he's got a single swing and miss on it if we do pitch breakdown all the curveballs he's thrown you have one width one foul ball uh taken 12 times one one hit

so I don't know it's kind of a nothing pitch then does he use that to get out usually because it's not working that way this time Let's move on. Will Smith, I think, is going to get better in September. Just, just why not, you know? He was good two months. And then the final, final thing I want to look at was I wanted to look at with the shift going, with the shift being banned and second baseman having to play traditional,

especially with lefties up, and speed being back in the game. I wanted to see which teams are hitting behind the runner. So this isn't going to be, I'm not, the way. I can search this isn't going to gauge if they're successful or not. It's just which teams and and by the results, can I see if there's team philosophies of like, hey, when there's a runner on first, we're going to run some hit runs. Try to hit the ball behind the runner. Try to hit it to first base, second base.

So what I did was, I put, you know, I'm searching for ground balls. I did line drives as well. When there's a runner on first, base. Runner on first base. Should I do no runner on second? Is that more true? Or would you still try?

I just do runner on first base, ground balls. I'm going to sort it by team. And then the batted ball location, right side of the infield, first base, second base. And I just want to see, I don't know if there's going to be huge results. The Nationals

and the Guardians, guardians make a ton of sense to be up there. They're sloppy. The Red Sox. are up there. How many times they've done this. And the guardians and the nationals are 190, 191 times the batter has hit behind the runner, or to the right side to advance the runner.

My Yankees are the lowest. That adds up to what I've been saying. They don't really do situational baseball at all. At all. Let's see. Cleveland, I'm going to look at their spray chart. How many hits? and I'll change it to see hits next.

Whoa. I just had a realization. What if I change it to right field? The batted ball location, right field, would that tell me? And if I keep it ground ball line dry, right field, would that still be the same? It lowers it a little. I'm going to click on, I'm going to go to the spray chart

and click to see if it's what we're talking about. Whoa. I just have a ton of hits. this way too. Okay, so there's runners on first. Runner on first and third here for the nationals. Fourth inning. They're losing by one.

Manassas is up. No way. The video just stops. They just clipped up the wrong time and see if the away broadcast has it. They're not going to have it either. What a, it's bullshit. I've got to find another one. Sucked?

Okay. Yeah. First to third. It's exactly what I was looking for. Situational, nice hitting one out, hits behind the runner. It's a hard line drive to right, and the guy goes first to third. So the nationals are doing that. The Guardians are doing that.

Diamondbacks are up there in the leaderboard. Blue Jays are fourth, Rangers are fifth, and then down at the bottom you have Yankees, A's, Padres, Pirates, Red Sox. Where the Red Sox were at the top when it was grounders to the infield, to the outfield there at the bottom. That's a big shift. Let me just pull up one of my Yankees and see. I want to see the spray chart on those guys because I don't even know how many hits they're getting. As Waldo Cabrera hits a sweeper.

Nice. I wonder if that's a hit. It's probably a hit even with the shift. They wouldn't play him that deep. If I change the search to hits, single, which team is going to excel at this? Oh, the Blue Jays bump up to second. The Mets bump up to the top five, and the bottom five stays the same, just rejumbled. Now what if we take away line drives and just ground balls through the infield? The Braves jump up. The Giants jump up. Cardinals, Royals. So the bottom five pretty much there.

Pirates, Cardinals, Royals, Yankees, Oakland. Adds up. It's not indicative of good teams, I don't think. Although nationals are playing real good ball lately. And the better teams are up top. But it's definitely indicative of best. bad teams like the, well, or fly ball teams. You get the twins and the Phillies.

They don't really hit ground balls a lot. What if I did this as pitch result? They used to have in-play run scores. I guess they don't have that anymore. They don't have that anymore. But they used to have what you could say, oh, here you go. Nope. Nope. So they don't have run scores anymore.

Anyway, all right. Good job by those teams for hitting it the other. way, I think that's going to start coming more into baseball again. When teams now knowing what the shift is and the rules, I think you're going to see some of the smart teams actually kind of configure their team for those abilities more and be better at it, which will lead to an even better brand of baseball. Those are Jimmy's...

Those are Jimmy's... See you guys. Thanks for watching.