It was a wonderful night time right here in Brooklyn on Wednesday, and though I couldn’t make it to Citi Subject in time for Mets-Nationals, I made a decision to go for a protracted stroll after which cease at a neighborhood sports activities bar to learn and watch some baseball. Naturally, the Mets had been on one of many TVs behind the bar, whereas the opposite was reserved for the Yankees, who had been set to play the Royals a short time later. That was a bummer for the 2 Crimson Sox followers sitting subsequent to me, Mike and Kathleen, however they had been resourceful. The bar has free wifi, so Mike pulled up Boston’s recreation in opposition to the Rays on his telephone. He and Kathleen didn’t know each other, however they acknowledged one another as fellow Sox followers from the weekend prior, once they had been each on the similar bar to look at Yankees-Crimson Sox. He moved over to the stool between Kathleen and I, in order that she and her associate Harry may additionally watch the sport. The 4 of us began speaking, and it seems Harry and I went to the identical highschool, although he graduated 4 years forward of me. Small world!
Anyway, someday between Marcelo Mayer’s first and second dwelling run of the sport, Kathleen mentioned to me, “The perfect factor about Crimson Sox followers is we concurrently love and hate the Sox, and we like to hate them, too.” I deliver this up as a result of I considered her description of Boston followers as I sat right down to reply the primary query on this week’s mailbag.
We’ll get to that in a second, however earlier than we do, I’d wish to remind all of you that whereas anybody can submit a query, this mailbag is unique to FanGraphs Members. In the event you aren’t but a Member and want to maintain studying, you may join a Membership right here. It’s one of the best ways to each expertise the positioning and assist our employees, and it comes with a bunch of different nice advantages. Additionally, in the event you’d wish to ask a query for subsequent week’s mailbag, ship me an electronic mail at mailbag@fangraphs.com.