Edgy MD

I tend to think that everybody who is a hitter is a first-base type. Heck, maybe Soto ends up there.

Even their own name kind of stinks.

Weird.

Strange, strange sidebar argument.

Billy Joel: And So it Goes What a depressing title, if you think about it. It suggests Billy Juckets is just some festering inevitability hanging over our culture that we are too dysfunctional to ever do anything about. Like global warming or gerrymandering, it just persists and persists and we just hope it goes away on its own, but are never surprised that it never does. The adults should have done something about this, we think, as we all turn 60.

Big-shot prospect (and filthy Canadian) Jonah Tong gave up no runs on three hits and two walks yesterday, striking out eight in five innings, to extend his all-minor-league-baseball-leading strikeout total. Rumble Ponies manager Reid Brigniac then pulled him from the game after 87 pitches and watched his team lose 3-2 after turning the game over to the bullpen. Should the headline there be how Binghamton lost as another starter failed to pitch beyond the fifth?

If I go to work two days in a row commuting ninety miles, I may create a pattern where each time, the first part of my commute costs $20 in gas and tolls, and the second third costs $15, and the third part costs $10. As I go through the commute, I am seeing progressively less expensive commuting conditions. Overall, during those two days, I am spending, on average, $0.50 a mile. If, on the third day, my boss calls me after the first part of my commute, and tells me that they are opting to close for the day and that I should not come in, I have spent $20 to go thirty miles, or $0.67 per mile. You can conclude that I am having trouble with my third commute, because my rate stat went up, but that would not be a logical conclusion, because my third commute is incomplete and I never got to continue through the less expensive parts of my commute. Similarly, if I am not a commuter, but an MLB starting pitcher, and I go through the Mets order two times, I may create another pattern. Each time, I give up a double to Soto batting third, a single to McNeil batting fifth, and a walk to Baty batting seventh. As such, as I go through the order, I tend to face progressively weaker batters, and so I do progressively better. I have a .708 OPS against those first two times through the order. I repeat my pattern the third time through the order, but now I am on a shorter leash. After the third double to Soto, my manager pulls me. I never get a chance to face those lesser batters, and my record shows that I have a 1.000 OPS against on that third trip through — even though my performance was the same. You can conclude that I am having trouble with my third third time through the order, because my rate stat went up, but that would not be a logical conclusion, because my third time through the order is incomplete, and I never got to continue through the weaker parts of the Mets lineup. I do believe there likely is something to be learned from measuring how a pitcher does his third time through the order, but I believe it is being measured (or, at least, reported) wrong. We are not correcting for the pitcher always facing the strongest fraction of a lineup the third time through the order. [FIMG=437]https://facts.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/26-facts-about-tolls-1739855071.jpg[/FIMG] [FIMG=303]https://wallpapers.com/images/hd/baseball-pitcher-in-action-jpg-8hkg6jcy4d7sqdsg.jpg[/FIMG]

I think the scenes in the dugout suggest pitchers do push back against being yanked, pretty frequently. But now they are not just pushing back against the manager, but against the culture.

They likely thought Holmes would blow up in the sixth, so they yanked him What they think is what I question. If you think a guy who is succeeding will fail, so you pull him, then the narrative should not be that pitchers have failed to pitch into the sixth. The narrative should be that the manager will not allow pitchers to pitch into the sixth.

Well, one thing you can do is send Holmes back out in the sixth yesterday. Even one more out matters a bunch.

I will sign up for some of that.

Yes, and I agree, but the using four or five relievers is as much what they want as it is something that is thrust upon them. I cannot conclude that somebody loses effectiveness after 75 pitches simply because that is when he is pulled. I think, also, industry-wide, way too much is made of third-time-through-the-order figures.

I kinda thought Nimmo walked on Strike Three.

The weird thing is that he was starting guys off with a ball all day. Pitching from behind but in control.

Hits look like that.

I need a hero.

Broadcast stays with the game through the ninth inning changeover.

Mullins batting. Should be bunting.

Gotta pinch-hit for Mullins and/or Torrens here, right?

The strike zone is starting to expand for this guy.

These guys need new walkup tunes.

The Hot Corner wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Man, what happened to Peterson's beard? I want to know what happened to Peterson? I find that the more perfect your offense forces your pitcher to be, the more prone he is to a big burning.

I just went down to make some lunch. I am back and they are still hitless?

The Mets need to be told the game is under way.

Man, what happened to Peterson's beard?