Jake

A lot of pitchers are beginning to use high breaking balls because hitters rarely swing at them early in the count since they look like they will miss high. And somewhat surprisingly, hitters tend not to hit them super well when they do swing (as long as the pitch is actually high rather than middle height). I wonder whether hitters might adjust as it becomes more common though.

Failure to challenge earlier fooled Quero into thinking the strike zone is a lot taller than it is

I guess bringing Leasure in here means Seranthony is ready to go 3 days in a row

If he can just get the ball in the air a little bit I think he's a solid everyday player. If not, he's kind of a Leury Garcia type which isn't the worst thing.

Sox continue to be the better-managed, more fundamental team. Get used to it folks!

Ump is screwing us but too afraid to take challenges away from our pitchers

I saw him in ST

Really need to give teams three challenges

Tanner in his UC-Davis days :D

This lineup is just too deep to keep quiet for long

Mune has done really well on tough hops at 1B so far.

Tanner!

Which one of these teams is the defending AL champion?

Over multiple regimes we have tended to immediately give a start guys who have been called up, especially if it's their MLB debut. I assume this must be a relatively common practice but I don't follow any other team closely enough to say for sure.

IDK about official comms, but he's calling UFC events right now

If he was good enough to deserve 1-1 with last year's production, then IMO no not necessarily. I expect some regression to the mean with the clubhouse leader prospects (although that's partly because the top guy a year out is often overrated). If he can resist the regression that's probably a good sign.

Sox again the more fundamental team!

Sox the more fundamental team once again

Started whiffing a bit against better stuff

I think it's possible that a better stretch could have converted it but the throw was definitely as wide as it could be and still have any chance at all. The right play for Mune may have been to just come off the bag and try to tag the runner as he came by. It was definitely not the same kind of play as the one a few games ago even if the end result of Mune coming off the base was the same. I don't know if this is coaching or not but I felt Vargas was aligned too deeply there and it made the throw harder than it needed to be.

Luisangel's average swing speed this season is about the same as Luis Robert's. There's a lot more to hitting than getting the bat to move fast through the zone, but there are a lot of guys who can't swing it that hard. Tells you there's some power potential there...but he has some more work to do to get any kind of power production. The other thing that stands out to me is Acuna has put up some very high in-zone contact rates and not too bad chase rates. He just really needs to loft the ball if he wants to be successful. Would probably be worth trading some of that contact tool if it means getting the ball in the air more. Edgar Quero has the same issue except Edgar has no bat speed.

Obviously Ozzie isn't getting this honor without his managerial run, but I think sabermetrics have really validated his playing career. Defensive stats for the old days aren't perfect, but they have peak Ozzie Guillen as a defender producing a similar level of value that Ozzie Smith did at the peak of his powers. They don't make too many players like that anymore but he was a really good player for a pretty good stretch.

You play a competitive game and sometimes you end up on the right side of it. Bad things don't always have to happen.

It's baseball baby. It resists your narratives because of the overwhelming truth that s%*# happens

Peters is a guy who could have easily never gotten back to MLB after his 0 for 12 cup of coffee last year. Good for him to get a great moment before the window shuts, whenever that will be