Welcome to a different version of 5 Issues, my weekly column that highlights unusual and sometimes pleasant happenings from the final week of baseball. My very own baseball watching was a bit stilted this week, for the absolute best purpose. I went to 3 Giants video games, an thrilling occasion made attainable by low cost ticket offers, a good friend’s birthday, and a few final minute cancellations of non-baseball weekend plans. Two of these video games have been fairly terrible; Blake Snell obtained shelled Friday evening, after which Blake Snell’s replacements obtained shelled Wednesday afternoon.
The excellent news is, there’s nonetheless *a lot* good baseball happening on a regular basis that I had a lot within the tank to write down about. You don’t should look too far to seek out issues to love about baseball today. We’ve obtained new holidays, previous AL Central rivals, stadium gimmicks, and pure unadulterated velocity. As at all times, this column is impressed by Zach Lowe’s basketball column, Ten Issues (Zach impressed Will Leitch to start out his personal 5 Issues column over at MLB.com, in actual fact).
1. Jared Jones Day
There’s a brand new vacation making the rounds. It occurs each 5 days or so. Possibly you haven’t heard of it, during which case I’m very happy to introduce it to you. It’s referred to as Jared Jones Day, and I hope you’ll begin celebrating with me.
The customs of Jared Jones Day are fairly easy. When Pirates rookie Jared Jones pitches, we activate the opposing workforce’s broadcast. Then we watch the admiration, disbelief, and normal chaos that ensues as he makes lineups full {of professional} athletes appear to be uncoordinated rubes.
This vacation started in earnest for me when the Pirates visited the Mets final week. I turned on the Mets broadcast as a result of it’s considered one of my favorites, and all three broadcasters have been gobsmacked by Jones’s arsenal and strategy. Keith Hernandez was decreased to laughing at one significantly nasty slider. Jones went 5 one-hit innings, hanging out seven, and left destruction in his wake. The Mets appeared each bit as impressed because the broadcasters sounded.
It’s so enjoyable to look at Jones that I can’t blame these guys. His fastball defies gravity. He challenges hitters quite than losing pitches or giving up on at-bats. When he walks somebody, it’s regardless of his greatest efforts, and it means the hitter obtained to swing at a center-cut fastball someplace within the equation. His slider, then again, is a surgical device, slicing off the corners of the strike zone at 90 miles an hour.
This week’s statement of JJDay got here on Monday in opposition to the Brewers. Milwaukee’s announcers aren’t as fast to go with opponents because the Mets crew, however even nonetheless, they couldn’t maintain the admiration out of their voice as he blew William Contreras away with a 99-mph fastball situated completely on the higher fringe of the zone. And naturally, there was the piece de resistance, this pitch that Brice Turang won’t ever ever dwell down:
Jones wasn’t good by any means in his begin in opposition to the Brewers. He gave up a Rhys Hoskins solo shot – throw 100 up within the zone, and also you’re gonna surrender some bombs – and allowed six whole baserunners. However he went six innings with seven strikeouts and solely that single earned run, and made believers out of one other saying crew. By the third inning, they’d gone from studying his stats dispassionately to inventing a hypothetical advance scouting report: “nastiest pitcher attainable proper now.”
Finally, all of the groups within the league can have seen this man and it’ll be much less enjoyable. However for now, I’m having a blast seeing a brand new group of educated baseball folks encounter his incandescent expertise for the primary time and battle to seek out phrases to explain the majesty. And yet another time for the highway:
2. Energy on Energy
Monday afternoon within the Bronx, the A’s clung to a decent 2-0 lead. They’d taken that lead solely moments earlier than, within the high of the ninth inning, on a Zack Gelof residence run. However the Yankees lineup was ideally positioned to mount a comeback: Anthony Volpe, Juan Soto, and Aaron Decide have been due up. That’s not the hardest lineup you might face on this place – the Dodgers would really like a phrase – nevertheless it must be shut.
Fortunately for Oakland, their greatest participant occurs to be their nearer. Mason Miller is ridiculous. I’m unsure I’m promoting it sufficient by saying that, even. He throws 103 with motion, goes max effort on each pitch, and appears like a soccer participant who took up baseball as a pastime. You’ve by no means seen a person so hulking throw so arduous.
Miller shortly allotted with Volpe, tossing a number of sliders that Volpe fouled off earlier than blowing the doorways off with 103 up and away:
Sorry, Anthony, thanks for taking part in. Subsequent time, perhaps you’ll have time for a full swing in opposition to that heat-seeking missile.
Soto was subsequent up, and you’ll’t idiot round with him. He’s not the type of man to fall for the previous in-zone spin trick. Maybe earlier in his profession, that will have fooled him, however you’ll be able to’t throw comfortable in-zone stuff to somebody seeing the ball in addition to Soto is true now. So Miller went after him. First, he missed with one. Then, he got here again within the zone and obtained the get together began:
1-1? Feels like a fastball depend:
1-2? Feels like a 103-mph fastball depend:
Hey, like I mentioned, there’s actually no fooling Soto proper now. The one choice is to point out him your greatest and see what he can do about it. The factor is, Miller’s greatest is actually good.
Decide is mired in a hunch proper now, however he’s nonetheless Aaron freaking Decide. Miller was nonetheless all jacked up on fastballs after barreling by way of Soto. He began Decide off with some warmth as nicely:
Man, Decide appeared unhealthy on that second one. That’s the ability of 102 with good condition; it turns hitters into pretzels even after they’re on the lookout for a fastball. Miller in all probability counted on bending Decide inside out with a slider after that in a basic fast-then-slow plan. However Decide isn’t any dummy, and Miller’s sliders couldn’t get the job carried out:
That final one may have been an issue if the A’s have been solely up one run. Middle lower 88-mph pitches usually are not what it’s best to throw to the single-season AL residence run report holder. However Decide solely fouled it off, and that meant we obtained to see what everybody wished. Power in opposition to power. The most effective fastball in baseball in opposition to the pre-eminent energy hitter:
Ah, pleasant. Miller is a blast. I particularly like watching him in opposition to good hitters; nobody desires to see Tucker Barnhart attempt to hit 103, however Soto making an attempt to hit it’s gripping tv. The A’s are higher than anticipated this 12 months, and extra watchable too. Miller is a variety of the rationale why.
A fast observe: Miller obtained the highest of the Yankee order once more on Thursday night, after the half above was already written. He acquitted himself nicely – 1.1 innings, three strikeouts, one annoyed Soto bat slam – I simply don’t have any video for you.
3. Metropolis By The Bai-Ley
The Giants haven’t had the perfect farm system in baseball lately. Latest graduates like Luis Matos, Casey Schmitt, Joey Bart, and David Villar have been someplace in between position gamers and journeymen. However it hasn’t been all unhealthy. Patrick Bailey, the workforce’s first draft decide in 2020, appears like the subsequent nice homegrown Big. Final Saturday, I occurred to be on the park for a pleasant afternoon of baseball. The Giants celebrated Bailey with a bobblehead, and he had himself a day worthy of the festivities.
Bailey’s higher identified for his protection than his offense, however Saturday was an exception. Within the first, he dumped a comfortable liner to heart in opposition to Zac Gallen. Within the third, he prolonged the lead with a bloop double. That’s the type of hitter he was in 2023; good bat management however under common energy meant he was hitting his justifiable share of line drives, however not cashing a lot of them in for homers.
The Diamondbacks tied the sport within the fourth, however Bailey should have heard me, as a result of he provided all the ability you’ll be able to ask for within the fifth:
Splash hits are a beloved a part of Giants fan tradition. I’ve a Lou Seal splash hit counter bobblehead in my workplace, and the counter really works; the workforce and its followers make a giant deal out of them. This one was completely crushed, too; it’s a great factor he didn’t hit it two ft longer or that kayak might need began taking up water. A splash hit in your bobblehead day? That’s the type of factor that makes you a fan favourite out right here.
Bailey wasn’t carried out, although. He cracked a ground-rule double to left his subsequent time up for a real line-to-line energy show and completed the day 4-for-4 with 9 whole bases. All of the whereas, Bailey-centered segments performed on the Jumbotron. There was “Patrick Bailey solutions search engine auto-complete questions,” a staple this 12 months. “Does Patrick Bailey have an previous truck? In that case does it run good?” in all probability isn’t really an auto-complete phrase, however he gamely answered. If you happen to’re curious, he has a brand new truck, however he did affirm that it runs good.
Assume that’s just a little bit too self-centered of a phase for the massive tech capital of America? You’d love the subsequent phase: “Patrick Bailey reads AI poetry written about Patrick Bailey.” It was about as tortured as you’d anticipate, with a pressured rhyme scheme and loads of over-the-top descriptions of how Bailey makes the Giants higher. The Giants have been type sufficient to supply me a replica of the script; let’s simply say that the AI that got here up with “Within the squat he’s a fortress, stable and stout/Guiding his pitchers with a whisper, little doubt” might be not going to turn out to be the poet laureate anytime quickly. He stored a straight face by way of all of it, although, and drew some laughs from the group in consequence. That type of stage presence will repay when he’s inevitably doing advert reads for native companies for the subsequent decade.
He performs the appropriate place – Buster Posey began a convention of nice catchers and Bailey will get to draft off of his fan favourite standing — and he performs it nicely; his electrical throwing arm is a staple of Giants spotlight packages already. He can hit. He has sufficient comedian timing to please, or a minimum of amuse, the pleasant crowd regardless of the gimmicky segments. The love affair between SF and Bailey is simply beginning, and if I needed to guess, he’s going to be the subsequent generationally adored Big. “That point he smacked one into the cove on his bobblehead day” is the type of story that folks inform years after it occurred.
4. Elite Bat Management Used Ridiculously
Francisco Lindor is likely one of the greatest gamers of the final decade, and it’s not simply due to his protection. He’s a spectacular shortstop, and he’s additionally 17% higher than league common offensively. That’s not due to his gaudy uncooked energy or his spectacular management of the strike zone. It’s as a result of he has elite bat management. He hardly ever swings and misses, and he appears to get the barrel of the bat to all the pieces even when he’s fooled.
Monday evening, Lindor went above and past “regular” bat management. Need an instance of how Lindor doesn’t have elite strike zone recognition? He swung at this factor:
That yellow line exhibits the trajectory of the pitch that Camilo Doval threw Lindor within the ninth inning on Monday evening. You’ll be able to see from the faint outlines of different pitches that there was one thing bizarre about this one. It bounced ft, not inches, in entrance of the plate, and it was by no means near being a strike. You shouldn’t swing at pitches like these.
Why, then, is Lindor so good? He nonetheless put that ball in play:
I don’t actually know what to say about that one. That isn’t regular. That pitch bounced, and it wasn’t some big curveball that began at eye peak and simply fooled him. It was a sinker, with slight optimistic motion relative to spinless flight. Out of Doval’s hand, that ball appeared prefer it was going to hit the plate, and it didn’t even get that far. There weren’t two strikes or something. Lindor simply had one thing in his mind inform him to swing, and he’s so freaking good at making contact that he went full cricket and made it work.
I’m not saying everybody ought to do that. Actually, in all probability nobody ought to do that. Lindor reached base, however solely as a result of Doval dropped a flip from Wilmer Flores that there was in loads of time. Possibly the Giants have been pushed to distraction by fascinated by how Lindor may probably have put that ball into play. I do know I used to be.
5. Salvy Smashes
Salvador Perez is a surprisingly controversial participant. I feel that’s the case as a result of he’s good at one a part of catching protection – controlling the working recreation – and poor at framing, which is more durable to see on any given play. We predict he’s been value solely 16.6 WAR in his profession, whereas Baseball Reference’s calculation, which omits framing, has him at 34.3. That makes him a stats-versus-eye-test lightning rod.
That type of sucks, to be trustworthy, as a result of it takes away from what we needs to be specializing in: I really like watching him work on the plate. Out Of The Park Baseball options quotes about previous baseball gamers in its loading display screen, and one about Vladimir Guerrero at all times caught with me: “From his nostril to his toes, that’s how Vladdy goes.” He had a voracious urge for food for pitches to drive, and Perez is type of the identical. He swings at half the balls he sees and three quarters of the strikes. He doesn’t take pitches. He doesn’t hit grounders. He’s up there making an attempt to place one within the seats, each pitch, each at-bat.
Typically, that results in abysmal slumps. He principally by no means walks, and if issues aren’t clicking, meaning a variety of empty journeys to the plate. Final 12 months was the worst season of his profession offensively, and our harsh grading of his baserunning and protection left him under substitute stage. However I by no means obtained the sense that he was nearing the tip of the highway, and he’s come roaring again to this point in 2024, by no means extra so than within the final week, when he hit .435/.519/.783 for a 264 wRC+.
These are simply numbers. Watching it’s much more enjoyable. You’re not supposed to do that to Corbin Burnes when he dots the nook with a sinker:
You’re not supposed to tug a pitch on the far outer reaches of the plate down the left subject line, in opposition to Kevin Gausman no much less:
And I had to return earlier than this week for this one, however c’mon, that is outrageous:
When the printed in the reduction of to Luis Severino, he appeared bemused. “That one? OK.” That’s the Salvy impact. He’s up there making an attempt to make highlights for us. When he does, it’s tremendously enjoyable to look at. Could he proceed his wild-hacking, homer-hunting methods for years to come back.