Talking baseball: Vol. 30
Carmen Mlodzsinki could learn a lot from fictional pitcher Mike McGreevey. Talk to the random fans at a baseball game. The hidden benefit to automated strike zones. And more baseball stuff!
The early 1990s unleashed a wave of kid-centric baseball movies that touched on a lot of different emotions.
Angels In The Outfield tried to make you believe in something.
The Sandlot was a nostalgia bomb that wanted to take you back to a simpler time in your life.
Rookie of the Year was just an absurd fantasy about an uncoordinated, untalented dork-ass kid that broke his arm and, somehow in his recovery, gained the ability to throw fastballs that no Major League player could touch.
And then there was Little Big League.
Little Big League was not only the best of this group of movies, it is also, in my completely unironic opinion, one of the best baseball movies ever made.
It is a baseball movie masterpiece.
It touches on all of the elements that the other movies focused on, but it also delivered a slightly more believable plot (a kid has a better chance at successfully managing a Major League Baseball team than he does playing for one) and had some of the best baseball-playing scenes in any baseball movie I have ever seen. The latter point was primarily because they focused their casting on people that could actually play baseball, and in many cases they went with actual baseball players. Former Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Kevin Elster was one of them.
Aside from the somewhat sensible plot, as well as the stunning visuals, it also featured some of the best baseball discussion and baseball writing that has appeared on the big screen. The situations and tendencies scene was 25 years ahead of its time, and a scene that I still go back to every time a team tries to bunt with one of its best hitters.
But for today’s purposes I am going to focus on a different scene in that movie.
It was when kid-manager Billy Haywood has to deal with disgruntled pitcher Mike McGreevey.
(I’M GOING SOMEWHERE WITH THIS, STICK WITH ME)
McGreevey is unhappy with his role playing on a team managed by a 12-year-old, and is plotting not only his exit from the Twins, but also sabotaging the season to embarrass Haywood into quitting.
When the pitching coach, Mac, threatens to bench McGreevey for his attitude and poor play, Haywood steps in and says no, we’re going to pitch you when its your turn, and you’re going to take the mound and do your job.
McGreevey, in his normal foul mood, says he might “forget” some of the scouting reports and not make his best pitches, so it might not be a good idea to play him.
It is at that point that Haywood asks Mac, “Hey Mac, what’s the going rate for absent-minded pitchers that can’t get anybody out?”
That served as a wake-up call to McGreevey, who promptly put his bullshit aside, instantly became a team-player again, and started getting people out.
I was thinking about this scene this week as the Pirates had to figure out how to deal with an obviously disgruntled Carmen Mlodzinski.
Mlodzinski was the odd-man out in the Pirate rotation when Jared Jones made his return, getting sent back to his previous role in the bullpen. The Pirates made this move despite the fact Mlodzinski has exceeded expectations this season, and despite the fact Bubba Chandler has struggled to find any sort of consistency and produce any sort of positive result.
If we are just looking at this strictly from a results oriented angle, Chandler would have been the guy to go.
He was not.
Mlodzinski was clearly frustrated over the move, giving a rather bizarre answer the day the move was announced, and then informing the Pirates he was not ready to pitch in his new role on Sunday. That led to the Pirates placing him on the restricted list, and both general manager Ben Cherington and manager Don Kelly trying to polish the turd and paint Mlodzinski in the best possible light without actually saying what everybody already knew — this guy’s being a giant diaper baby and didn’t want to pitch.
That’s what they COULD have said.
But they didn’t.
They were more professional about it.
I understand every layer of this.
I understand why the Pirates want Jones back in the rotation. He is coming back from surgery, is a starter by trade, has a starter’s arsenal of pitches, had a strong rookie year with flashes of dominance, and has some real long-term value as a starter. It makes sense to build him back up as a starter.
I understand why they want to keep Chandler in the rotation despite his inconsistencies and lack of results. Like Jones, he has a starter’s arsenal of pitches and electric stuff. The upside of those two guys is extremely high, and you want them to figure it out. You need them to figure it out. In Chandler’s case, there also wasn’t really a good option. Keeping him in the rotation is a risk. His lack of control makes him a terrible option for the bullpen. Going to Triple-A might help him produce better results, but it might not fix his actual issues. Triple-A hitters will chase his stuff out of the zone and he will miss bats. But it may not be in a good way.
I understand why they want Mlodzinski in the bullpen. The bullpen has been a mess all season, and despite his strong start Mlodzinski’s best (and most valuable) place is almost certainly in a relief role. He’s pitched better in that role over his career, he struggles to get through opposing lineups a second or third time, and his fielding independent pitching metrics are … concerning.
I also understand why he is mad about all of this. He sees himself as a starter. He has pitched well. There is in his mind (I am guessing) a significant financial advantage to being a starter versus a reliever. I get it. I am not mad about him being mad. He should be mad. He should be disappointed. He should be frustrated. You don’t get to the highest level of professional sports without having that sort of mindset and competitive drive. All understandable.
What I DON’T understand, is doing what he did on Sunday.
It was pretty clear the Pirates wanted him to piggyback off of Braxton Ashcraft’s start to start limiting Ashcraft’s innings a little bit. It was a solid plan. And then Mlodzinski informed the Pirates he was not ready to pitch in that role, despite having not pitched in a game since Monday.
There’s only one reason why a guy would be put on the restricted list for not being ready to pitch after five days of rest.
It’s because he didn’t want to pitch.
That’s when you go from being legitimately disappointed (and maybe even disgruntled) to a potential problem.
That’s when you’re not just sticking it to the decision-makers, you’re also sticking it to the other 25 guys in your locker room that had nothing to do with the decision being made.
The thing about this situation is Mlodzinski is still going to have opportunities to prove his worth and pitch in a LOT of big innings.
He is still going to have opportunities to make spot starts.
He is still going to get a lot of bulk innings where he can show that he is potentially more than just a reliever.
When you look at the current state of the Pirates rotation, both Mlodzinski and Wilber Dotel are going to become extremely important players for the Pirates in that bulk role.
You have one guy in Jones that is coming back from major surgery and is pitching big league games for the first time in a year-and-a-half. He is not only going to have some short outings due to pitch and innings limits, he is also going to have some starts like his debut game this year where he struggles.
You have another guy in Ashcraft that, for as dominant as he has been, is going to see some of his innings cut down here at some point to keep him on a more reasonable trajectory in terms of workload.
You have another guy in Chandler that is just wildly hit-and-miss.
There are going to be opportunities for both him and Dotel to pitch, and pitch a lot.
And do you know what teams, both the Pirates and elsewhere, are going to value?
A guy that demonstrates he can effectively pitch in a lot of different roles and situations just like that.
Do you know what is going to be a giant red flag for teams?
Whatever it is Mlodzinski did this week.
The role of pitchers is rapidly evolving into the point where there is a somewhat blurred line between what a starter and reliever even is anymore. I mean, yes, the guy that starts the game is “the starter,” but openers and bullpen games and bulk relief roles are becoming more and more common. We are at a point now where starters rarely go beyond five or six innings. We are at a point where high-leverage relievers are extraordinarily valued. We are at a point where guys coming out of the bullpen are relied on for multiple innings.
Hell, look at a guy like former Pirates relief pitcher Clay Holmes. He spent years pitching out of the Pirates and Yankees bullpens, and eventually become so effective in that role that the New York Mets paid him a ton of money to become a starter.
Over the next few months Mlodzinski is going to have ample opportunity to pitch multiple inning stretches and go three, four or five innings in a lot of games.
Just pitch well. Pitch well in your role, whatever it is. People will see it. People will value it. The opportunities that he is looking for will still be there for him in terms of role and finances in the future if he pitches well.
Nobody’s going to value the guy that quits on his team.
He has a chance to make everybody forget about this by doing his job. But it’s on him to actually do it.
Going to baseball games is always going to be my happy place. There’s just nothing better in Adam Gretz’s world than a comfortable spring or summer night, having a beer, wandering around a stadium and watching baseball. It’s just perfect. I especially like when it involves me meeting other people that enjoy the same thing.
A couple of weeks ago when the Pirates were hosting the Philadelphia Phillies, I encountered three guys in LSU gear that were out in the left field standing room area watching LSU-product Paul Skenes pitch.
I jokingly looked at them and asked, “are you guys from Louisiana?”
They immediately answered in the most Cajun accents that you could imagine and began immediately talking my ear off. They were in town for business and just happened to see that not only were the Pirates home, but that Skenes was also pitching.
We spent four innings talking about baseball and even discussed former Pirates second baseman and LSU legend Warren Morris, which is a player I had not thought about in at least 25 years. It was a true “remember some guys” moment, and it made the experience that much more fun.
At one point they invited me down to the Bayou and told me to come to a night LSU football game and they’ll feed me.
At the next home game, an emphatic 12-1 win over the Chicago Cubs, an older gentleman wearing a white jersey that simply said “Ballparks” across the front set up shop at a table in the concourse behind third base with a beer and two hot dogs. I noticed his jersey was covered in team patches, and on the back he had the No. 30 with “Chasing” in the nameplate. It was obvious he is counting down all 30 ballparks across Major League Baseball.
I also knew I had to ask him what his favorite was.
He did not hesitate to answer that it was Petco Park in San Diego, before adding “but fuck those guys, I’m a Dodgers fan.” He then begrudgingly told me that San Francisco was his second favorite, before again adding “but fuck those guys otherwise.”
His name is Mark, and he was visiting the east coast and hitting up a bunch of stadiums. He told me he was in Toronto over the weekend, made the trip down to Pittsburgh for the Tuesday night game against the Cubs, was driving up to Cleveland the next morning and then eventually making his way to Detroit.
He was also trying to figure out which ballpark had the best hot dog (to the surprise of no one that has had a PNC Park hot dog …. it did not score well).
I was living vicariously through him at the moment, and then told him about my baseball trip adventures, shared my favorites, and told him about how I have spent years putting a perpetual jinx on Shohei Ohtani every time I have gone to watch him play. He politely asked that I stay away when the Dodgers visit next week (I will do no such thing).
I have found over the years in my baseball park travels that if you see a person walking around the stadium in a random jersey that doesn’t involve any of the team’s playing, it’s generally a safe bet to strike up a conversation with them. They usually welcome it. They are not only the type of person that is almost certainly a true baseball psycho that just wants to talk baseball, but they are also probably wearing that random jersey because they WANT the attention and WANT somebody to mention it.
That’s why my Montreal Expos T-shirt is generally my “I am a random fan at a neutral ballpark” attire.
It always generates a discussion. It is usually enjoyable.
This type of thing just doesn’t really happen at other sporting events. Usually because other games don’t present the type of atmosphere where there is so much down time, or an atmosphere that is conducive to just wandering around.
This is also why I love going to baseball games even when your team’s ownership has been a perpetual stain on the sport. Yeah, I get not wanting to support them or give them your money. But you can’t let some shithead billionaire rob you of the things you love. You have to find some happiness.
Go to a baseball game. Talk to a guy in a Kansas City Royals jersey while you’re watching a Yankees-Orioles game. It will probably be fun.
The introduction of the ABS challenge system is the first step toward fully automated strike zones.
From a practical standpoint, I could take it or leave it.
I like accuracy.
But I can also deal with a little bit of the human element here.
Do it. Don’t do it. Just pick a lane and go with it.
Still, there is one aspect of a fully automated strike zone that is wildly appealing to me, and it would be the end of pitch-framing as we know it.
I think my oldest man take on baseball right now is that I absolutely hate the entire idea of pitch-framing, and everything that goes into the practice of it.
I am tired of watching catchers jerk their mitt halfway across the strike zone to try and full an umpire.
I am tired of the massive increase in catcher’s interference calls that are a direct result of catchers positioning themselves closer to the plate in order to try and steal more strikes.
I am tired of that keeping badly inferior hitters in the lineup.
Some quick rapid takes around the league.
Credit to Ben Cherington where it is due, but the Spencer Horwitz trade is looking like a steal. Horwitz is the definition of “professional hitter.” More walks than strike outs. Showing power. Getting on base. He is built for PNC Park.
After having the worst offense in the Major Leagues a year ago, with only one above average hitter (Horwitz), the Pirates now have a top-five offense in runs scored. A year ago Horwitz was the only player with an OPS+ over 100 (100 being a league average hitter), and they didn’t have anybody over 120. Entering play this week they have SEVEN players over 100, including five over 120 and four over 130. It is a legitimate, contending lineup. Horwitz? Been outstanding. Ryan O’Hearn? Outstanding. Brandon Lowe? Outstanding. Bryan Reynolds? Underrated season and mostly outstanding. Oneil Cruz? Maybe not the superstar you wanted him to be, but still outstanding. Konnor Griffin is figuring it out. Nick Gonzales, even though I am not sold on him long-term, has been productive. It’s a good lineup. They still need some better bench options and depth, but the starters are fantastic.
The National League Cy Young race is setting up to be tremendous. While I would anticipate Paul Skenes pitching his way back into the race, it is currently a three-pitcher race between Cristopher Sanchez (Philadelphia Phillies), Jacob Misiorowski (Milwaukee Brewers) and Ohtani (Dodgers). I am not sure I can confidently separate one of them from the other at this point. Sanchez has been especially dominant and is on one of the great all-time runs, having pitched 44 2/3 consecutive shutout innings.
Speaking of Cy Young pitchers, it’s going to be maddening when the Detroit Tigers trade Tarik Skubal to the Dodgers. I mean, that’s where this is going to end up, right?
When did Ben Rice become the better hitter in baseball? I don’t know if he will continue it, but right now he simply is.
Not sure there is going to be a funnier moment this season than the Tarps Off dudes in St. Louis having their “overrated” chant at Pete Crow-Armstrong get thrown back in their faces. The home run was funny enough. The failed attempt at throwing the ball back onto the field was the icing on the cake.
Not sure there is going to be a weirder injury this season than Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Jesus Sanchez leaving a game after being hit in the wrist by a ball thrown by a fan. It was reported that a young fan thought Sanchez wants to play catch with him during a stoppage, so the fan threw the ball to an unsuspecting Sanchez only to have it smack off his wrist and force him out of the game. The good news: not a major injury.
The Chicago White Sox: American League Central Division champions? I am starting to buy it.