On Wednesday afternoon, Paul Skenes and Jacob Misiorowski met in one of the vital thrilling pitching matchups of the season to this point. Skenes is the most effective pitcher in baseball, whereas Misiorowski is the hardest-throwing starter. It was must-see TV. Michael Baumann lined the occasion in probably the most Baumann means attainable, specializing in its hugeness — actually. “As impressed as I used to be with this show of firepower, awe at the way forward for pitching was not my main takeaway. No, watching Skenes and Misiorowski do battle made me really feel uneasy,” Baumann wrote. “See, these guys are enormous.” He adopted these phrases up with considered one of my favourite paragraphs within the illustrious annals of baseball writing:
That is too large. Each of them. The trendy baseball area was designed for Scots-Irish immigrants with unhealthy childhood vitamin and kidney illness. When 5-foot-11 Honus Wagner was the largest, strongest participant within the league. In case you instructed the founding fathers of baseball that in the future ballplayers would get so large they couldn’t borrow pants from Dave Bautista… effectively initially, I suppose you’d have to elucidate Dave Bautista to Abner Doubleday and Alexander Cartwright. You get my level.
I’m not going to put in writing in regards to the Skenes-Misiorowski matchup. What extra may I presumably add? As a substitute, I’ll start this week’s mailbag by answering a query about Misiorowski’s earth-shattering velocity. Earlier than I do, although, I’d wish to remind all of you that whereas anybody can submit a query, this mailbag is unique to FanGraphs Members. In case you aren’t but a Member and want to preserve studying, you’ll be able to join a Membership right here. It’s one of the best ways to each expertise the location and help our employees, and it comes with a bunch of different nice advantages. Additionally, should you’d wish to ask a query for subsequent week’s mailbag, ship me an e mail at mailbag@fangraphs.com.