MLB owners make a dumb offer & bunting is back. This week in Baseball Ep. 715 - 6.29.26

As we reach the halfway point of the major league season, the college season comes to a thrilling close. It's been an exciting week in baseball. Unless you're a Met fan, as we reach the halfway point, the All-Star game comes closer, the trading deadline looms. It's this week in baseball. So Oklahoma, after UNC make it a spirited affair, getting it all the way to the final game.

Just destroys them thirteen to two in the winner take all final game of the college world series. Congratulations to Oklahoma. They are this year's champions. And

we're gonna see and and that's

Yes, the changing how the draft works would be a very big impact to college because now if you're not an absolute top level prospect, you really want to go to college if they're going with this as a now.

That the owners you know are basically using the

I mean, let's be realistic here. The thing that the the the the proposal the owners have heard for said that per exactly zero percent chance of going in. Like, so I I think it's one of those situations in some respects, kind of like the San Francisco Giants pride night. It's interesting how both of these are situations where they're bad looks for baseball, but for completely different reasons. Like like whereas the this one with the MLB, this is just owners doing business. Like, yes, they're going to give an outlandish proposal because I'm

I'm pretty sure whenever we see the first player proposal, it's also going to be completely insane because that's how these things work and they go back and forth. So let's not make a big outrage about them just like like I don't think I don't think the owners put that forth seriously thinking they were gonna get any of that.

Let's put it this way. You think the owners want pro players not to be eligible at nineteen? They want nineteen year olds to be able to come up to the major leagues.

Right. If you're not signing with your team. If you're signing with your team, you can sign for a sixth year in their proposal. There's no more one solo fourteen year old

So so So qu question. Do you think Steve Cohen and the Dodger ownership group was in the room when they drafted that? Or do they think they were like, Hey, can you guys just like go outside for a minute while we slip this provision in?

⁓ that the the owners

basically are looking for the players association to s save them from themselves. You know, which you know, this is what we're gonna we're gonna limit everything so we can't spend the money, you know, that you know we've been spending all along because clearly we don't know how to stop ourselves from doing it and this is the only way. I don't think it's so much that they can't stop themselves from doing it, but rather for the first time we have a class divide in the ownership group. That is true. That suddenly now there are owners that have that are that are

There are owners that do not. There are owners that have and are willing. Right. Most of the owners have some of them have more. Well, when we talk about have in comparison, the money that Steve Cohen has to spend on certain things, in comparison to some of the ownership groups, they just simply don't like some of these ownership groups, yes, they have hundreds of millions of dollars, but when it comes to it's not like they have the ability to give out some of the contracts that these crazy teams do, which is why I could at least understand the idea that they're trying to put forward there. I don't think it'll go through because I don't think that's

That's the right way to solve it. But I don't think that there is a way that you're gonna solve it where everybody's gonna go. Yeah, that's a that's the fair way. And that's why there's gonna be a labor stoppage. And you know, if if we're I guess I'm saying if we're lucky, but you know, I guess I'm hoping worst case scenario is it's March twelfth, and they finally work something out and they have an abbreviated spring training, and and they either miss no gains or they miss a few games and then they play, and everybody's unhappy with what ended up being negotiated at the time. Right. That'll probably be like right. We'll agree to something just

So that we can play because the worst thing for both parties is that you just don't play a portion of next season. But the those the th that offer, so if you want to call it that from the the owners, it was just such a throwdown to say, look, we know you guys aren't going to accept this at all in any way. But let's just let's really go crazy. The thing that's concerning is they gave a proposal that is so far from anything being accepted, it's just like, okay, how far are we gonna have to go to actually get something that both sides would consider workable? Yeah, yeah. So and that, you know, actually that is

My story of the week because what I was most concerned about was like, okay, were they gonna throw out there something that's gonna plausible that they no, no, we don't want work anything out. If you slew out something plausible, that's the best thing that could happen for the players, because they could still be obstinate and then get something that's even more crazy for them. And I and I don't know, in a in a backwards way, I'll put it that way, I think they have united the players' association s more strongly than they might have been before this. Maybe that was the smart move by them because

Now at least the player organization understands what they're trying to negotiate for. Because I do not that I want to take the owner's side in this, but I do kind of understand where the owners like, okay, wait a second. You guys are kind of arguing out of both sides here. You want completely unlimited contracts at the top end, but then you also want constantly increasing contracts on the bottom end with guaranteed money and guaranteed years for everybody. It's like, okay, well, wait a second. We can't have it both ways. Well, and and and I guess it's just that the owner.

Only sport that doesn't have any kind of a salary cap is baseball, which is something the players hold dearly ⁓ to. and and and it shouldn't be held because of tradition necessarily. That's not the reason. It's just until you give the players a better deal than what they think they're getting by having complete and and and utter you know availability to make as much as one, they're not gonna come. So you gotta come a long way in the owner's side in terms of revenue sharing and things of that that's gonna make the players listen, and I don't think the owners will ever give that. Yeah. So that's why.

This is going to go on for a long time. So yeah, sad that it's going to be that way. And now we now we can really see what what the future what the future holds. And as we've you know continue to move through the season, it's been it's been an exciting run here. You know, we we've started to see, you know, we had Danzby Swanson of the Cubs drove in 15 runs in a series against the Mets. In three games against the Mets, he drove in 15 runs. Right. you know, that's that is pretty unusual for a guy to do that. For a guy, by the way, who going into the series was hitting 198. Right. He needed did that. You know, and obviously that series in part led to our first managerial discussion. No, no, not the first, because the the fired managers include Alex Cora. Right, right. I for you forget Cora went so early. And Rob Thompson of the and the Phillies and Don Mattingly since he took over, they have played great and they are back in it. Right. And now Andy Green takes over the Mets as Carlos Mendoza is the latest victim. Yeah, yeah. And and for the Mets and and I I think it's you know something that you had to do something. I think everybody understood

And I think people have put it, you can be a good guy like Mendoza and still deserve to be fired too. Right, right. Carlos Mendoza, human, great guy. Carlos Mendoza, the baseball manager, not a lot of evidence that there's a lot of greatness there right now. The performance was of the team on the field is a reflection of the manager. As much as the roster and the coaching change, look, the Mets didn't do me any favors. Probably the worst thing that I can say for Carlos Mendoza is that more so than the Mets were bad.

add in his era of baseball. They were an unpleasant, unfun team to watch in his era of baseball. And people stopped going to the ballpark to a degree. I I I was thinking the Brody Van Wagnen era was less painful than this. I don't know.

Painful. Right, right, right. If this this felt just was a truly uniquely unpleasant experience. Waiting in the wings, ⁓ and and of course when they hi hired Andy Green being a Met fan, I thought, okay, that's what I expected because I think we talked about this that Carlos Beltran, who's in the Mets organization, who once had very briefly had the Mets managerial job, shortest managerial job pulled back ⁓ right away. ⁓ he is the guy that we think would be be the next guy how Albert Pool Pulhos throws his name in there

Like I like to be Met's manager and I'm like Albert

Well he's been well it's only because he's been trying to sniff around the Cardinal job now for a little bit. I don't think he sniffs around, I just think he's a guy that you would want to hire. Well he wants it, but somehow he Ollie Marmal just keeps surviving over there or something. Well, right now you get fire and like they're actually doing well with with the Cardinals being there. So yeah, that would be very, very interesting. So that'll happen after the season. ⁓ and then one thing about Stearns, and we don't really talk about the Mets president of baseball operation.

he has another year and a half on his contract. He's about a year and a half in. and ⁓ I think that the good smart money was to say that he's not gonna get fired, because if you fire him after a year and a half, who's gonna want to come and work there to think that's all they're gonna give you? So there's a really good chance in my mind that he's gonna be there at least the three years of his contract, and then if it doesn't work out, they'll let him go then. But he fulfilled it and they can do that. But if they fire him before that, I think it makes it harder to bring in somebody who's gonna go, well, once you

You guys don't like what's going on, you're gonna kick my ass out the door. At the same time, if they're still in last place next July, I think you could very easily show David Stearns the door. I don't think any GM would like, man, no, he was just about to start turning it around. Yes, you could do it, but that would be symbolic. Right. It would be symbolic of like holy crap, you can't stink that long. The problem is in doing that is that your draft is now

That's why so if you fire a guy in the in in before the draft, then you don't have anybody in the Exactly. So it makes it awkward, you know, either way. But at a certain point, and I think a lot of times at a point fans don't want a guy fired, they want their pound of flesh. They want to see somebody excoriated for the sins of their team being bad, and so the manager, Okay, well we fired Mendoza, all right, the team still thinks. Well, we can't get rid of all the players, so yeah, guess David Stearns, you're next up.

They

fire the man the manager is the because you can't get rid of all the players. ⁓ the Mets are gonna get rid of some players. above them in the division, all the teams have a positive run differential, and and all of them are I mean and I include all of them in that, the Marlins and the Nationals. And they've played well this year. They've they've they've come a long way. The Nationals are a dynamic offense. They can't stop a cold when it comes to relief pitching, and the and the Phillies did something to them last week. So in three games in a row, ⁓ the Phillies hit home runs in the ninth inning to come back from

⁓ So that's like the first time that's happened in the major leagues in in I don't even know however many years. And there's also I think really the story we haven't mentioned yet is that there's a very good chance it is June twenty eighth as we record this. July is a few days away. Were you going to be guessing that the Chicago White Sox could be in first place still July? Still, and they have a positive run differential now. in They're the only team in their division. And the American League only has five teams, and one of those is just barely, and that would be the Mariners.

who just barely have scored more runs than they've given up. ⁓ and and so you know the American League's having a soft season ⁓ and and the the Guardians just had a nice series against I think the Yankees they played well against the Yankees are on a bit of a skid right now but the White Sox took over first place from the Guardians and it's still hard for any of us to believe that they're gonna be there at the end. But the more the Guardians kind of scuffle around and the rest of the teams look ⁓ you know Kansas City, Minnesota, you know, for sure ⁓ you know not

Look and Detroit, you know, who knows what's going to happen with them. ⁓ it there's a lot of meh in the American League, as we've talked about before. There's a lot of meh in baseball right now. Baseball feels very top heavy this season, really, outside of the couple of the top teams at the divisions, like the Dodgers and the Braves. It really feels like there's just a lot of mediocrity everywhere else right now. And and you know, the Yankees were they had a nice tight little three game lead they had built on the Rays, who were struggling a little bit, and all of sudden the Yankees lose ⁓ three in a row now to the Red Sox going into season.

Sunday night and the Rays win five in a row.

and the Rays are in first place and the Yankees are looking at him up at him at this point. And you know, the Yankees are injured. Grisham's coming back from the D the IL, I keep calling it the D L. old habits die hard there. ⁓ and ⁓ they're also gonna get back Ryan McMahon for what that's worth. They're not gonna get back Aaron Judge until August, it looks like ⁓ at this point. He's still injured, but the Yankees will be fine. They've got him. The best thing for the Yankees is that there's nobody else in the American League that looks absolutely amazing. So if

You're the Yankees, you're just like, okay, you know what? Kind of like last year, except unlike last year, we're gonna get Judge back instead of not getting Cole back. And I think they gotta believe we'll catch the Rays in the end. If you're the Yankees, you're just like the Yankees, and what we're seeing here with the Mets, because it's played a part of it on top of them being bad, is injuries are just such a big part of your baseball season. That if you're the Yankees, you're just like all we gotta do is survive until Aaron Judge is back, and then we're the team we're supposed to be. I saw today that the first place team of the Tampa Bay Rays, and then they have a nice positive run to

⁓ I I didn't realize how good, you know, you think Yandy Diaz is there, you know, he's a average hitter, the high average hitter, really good player, and all that. And I knew Junior Caminero was having a good year. I don't think you realize how good he did. I didn't realize how good the year was. The guy's got seven home runs in his last six games here, ⁓ as we're right, right Sunday. But better thing, he's hitting two ninety-two with twenty homers, twenty-two homers. So he did his twenty-second. So he hit two today. no, he did one today. Right, right. He's got a nine thirty-two OPS. But I look let's not sell Yandy Diaz short, because the guy's hitting three thirty-six with twelve home runs.

Runs himself with a nine thirty-one OPS. You're gonna tell me that guy's gonna probably hit three thirty this year with twenty-five homers. That's a pretty good season. You know, and you wonder why the Rays are doing so with a real mystery. That's not a mystery. Those guys can play. Yeah, right. And see Cedric Mullins is actually there. He's hitting two seven, but he's got eight homers for them in the outfield, more than he had for the Mets. I don't think you want to go there. But and and as the rest of the American League East scuffles, I I would, you know, the the Blue Jays were going along okay, and then they drop five straight and and and go five games under.

And and you wonder what's gonna happen there at this point. The Blue Jays look look like a team that was a young team that won on an in they had an injury-ish free year last year. But they look great last year. And then this year is just the year where everything goes l last year was the year with lots of things went right, and this is the year where lots of things have gone wrong. Cause for the most part, outside of Laddie underperforming, people are generally, when they're playing, are kind of doing what they're supposed to do. You know, they they they they didn't get much from you know, they got nothing from ⁓ Anthony Sun.

Tandera made that move last year and and he didn't really contribute. Erly Ernie Clemente is the starting second baseman in the American League, so he's certainly been doing well. And they you know, their their players, like you said, are still good. I I don't know what's wrong there ⁓ at this point, but it makes me think about the Blue Jays going at what point and and maybe because the American League is soft, it's gonna make people delay the old are we buyers or are we sellers as we get to the trade deadline, which is not until August third, you know, by the way. And and so

You the the the and you gotta have something you gotta that people wanna

Get from you. Also, if you're a seller, you gotta have something sellable. Right. And you also have to think about the timeline on which you're selling on. Because if you're the Blue Jays, you're a team that is trying to compete, presumably, next season. So trading away players for prospects doesn't make any sense because you're like, okay, cool. Well, we just sold high on, say, an Ernie Clement for some reason. Do we have a second base to replace him next year? Right, right. So And you're not gonna sell a young guy like that.

You're gonna try to sell somebody who's got a salary that you'd like to move so you can get other players going. But really we didn't have that player. Right, right, right. Like what you're thinking you're gonna get a lot for Max Scherzer at the deadline? Or Santander who doesn't play and gets paid a lot of money and ⁓ unfortunately the flip side is in major leagues because you don't have a salary cap, you can't salary dump guys. Trading away Santander's telebol contract has no impact because nobody wants to have an expiring contract on their books. And you know, and I I think the Orioles are in the same boat as as are the Blue Jays at this point.

point

and and and the Red Sox I think were sellers more than they were anything else before, but now they want a couple games. So we're not that far out, you know, you never know. You make a little run. You know, so I think all that means with the trade deadline as late as August third, ⁓ we're still not sure. And again, you better have something that you actually think somebody else wants before you think you're gonna be able to sell something. Right, right. You're gonna and you have to know what you're trying to get back here. Because just selling for selling's sake does if you're the Mets, selling for you have to know what you're the Mets are going to sell for sell's sake. Mets Mets are gonna sell for sell's sake because they have to

Right, right. We don't want these guys around. It's not working. Right, right, right. We've had this discussion many times where we go, okay, we like the outfield. ⁓ That's it. That's it. Everybody else, yeah, we can get rid of it. Lindor's our shortstop. Other than that, and Lindor is our shortstop, and I'm saying this lovingly, as much because we kind of have to have him be our shortstop as anything else. You can't you don't before guy gets hurt, and now we're ready to throw him on a scrap heap. He had two fantastic years in a row. Come on. Right, right. Right, right. What was happening at the first, you know, couple weeks of this season? What what about that April?

look like? You you want that to be your shorting store starting short stuff? Yeah, no, it was bad. And but we had the hand injury, so we gotta give him a little a little bit there. Maybe it was harder to come back from that than we thought. Anyway, I don't worry about that guy being basically every other position. But every other guy in the team I'm not not so sure about. And I think it's just interesting looking at what feels like a talent d like we're like the the baseball is better than ever. There's so many good players in the major leagues. Why do we have so many teams that stink? Yeah particularly th in this year

You know, it just seems like there are a lot of Lego Met teams, and then another one is the Giants, ⁓ and they can't get out of their own way. And they've got a a manager who seems like he is not really sure what to do, and he had the whole situation last week, which was all worked out, with Devers when he tried to pinch run for Devers, and Devers wouldn't come out of the game and pushed away the guy that came to pinch run for him. Going, This is your star, you're paying him like two hundred million dollars. And it's a misunderstanding. Well, let's put it misunderstanding. I didn't I say before the season I had questions about putting

That

kind of crew together there being like, okay, you got a rookie manager who's known for being weird and confrontational with one of the most mercurial players in baseball, with a young GM who kinda seems in over his head right now, based on like like right now, right now, I'm sorry, Buster Posey, that was one of the worst PR statements I think I've ever seen. Buster Posey is ⁓ is learning his way, as is Tony Vitello. And and and the Giants, you know, they they guess it should they trade Logan Webb, you know, and by the way, Logan Webb's got a great show on MLB Network, Logan's.

Webb and he actually comes and talks about what it's like to pitch and and what he's doing, what he's thinking, and it's really really worth listening to. He's a really s sharp guy. I like him a lot. but he would be a trade candidate for a team like the Giants, who are are are certainly not gonna make a run this year. But the but the let me let me just finish on the Giants. But the Giants since since May first, I saw this. San Francisco has a four sixty slugging percentage, which leads major league baseball. They went from the worst offensive baseball to the best offensive baseball. How does that happen? And how are they so bad if they've got a pitcher like Logan Webb and they've got the best opportunity?

Offensive baseball since May first. ⁓ and yeah, and they they only tied in runs tenth in runs, even though they've got the the highest slugging average. So they're obviously slugging okay, but not getting runs home at anywhere close to the same rate because being in the top third is is good, but it ain't like being number one. You gotta think about it. This is a team that has had the best offense in baseball since May first and their fourteen games under five hundred. Yeah.

Yeah, what's so so where do you w what do you what do you do with that? And you look at the leadership and go, There's something not right there. Right. And it seems like more than ever, leadership in team overall direction is more important than ever in baseball. It's part of the reasons why you look at a team like the Dodgers and the Brewers and feel like they're successful is because organizationally, from top to bottom, everybody in those those teams knows what their mission is and knows what they're trying to accomplish. Whereas I you look at a team like the Mets and sometimes it feels like they're everybody on that team is pulling.

Well I and I don't want to

get off here on a rant too much, but I I was I think I had a short ⁓ mention this to you where I thought okay the Mets certainly used hope over experience to make their their plan for this year, right? They hoped that Marcus Simeon was going to be the player that he he was, you know, before we hope we've talked about it. And so the problem the team that went back with the tried and true stuff we went, you know, well the Yankees are running it back. How can they do that? The Phillies are running it back. How can you know what running it back out this year are running it

back and it right right running it back the experience of knowing what guys can do is better than saying well the best Brett Beatty that we ever had or the best Mark Vientos we ever had the difference there with the Mets was it we weren't looking for the best Brett Beatty we've ever had. We were looking for a version of Brett Beatty we've never seen we had never seen we were looking for a version of Mark Vientos. We had never seen it for Alvarez to be the guy we've never seen we were looking for full seasons out of guys that have never put full seasons together. And like Bill Parcell

You are what your record says you are. It's the same thing to go off a hopeful about tangent thing. It's the same thing with Ronnie Mauricio. I think people love the idea of Ronnie Mauricio. When I watch the baseball player Ronnie Mauricio, all I can think is, why do we not have somebody else that is not him? And the Mets aren't the look, they're not every team can go up and down their roster and go, this guy was supposed to be the guy and all that. But but they were they were counting on so many people to have years that they had not had either ever or in literal years. So it's like can you really

Expect that? Can you really expect all can you really expect Marcus Simeon to show up and roll the clock back to Toronto Blue Jays time and suddenly be a completely different player? So, you know, meanwhile, you know, we took we talked about the class teams. You mentioned the Dodgers and the Brewers and the Braves, obviously. And I put the Phillies there too. They're they're they're so they've been playing such great baseball since Manley took over. But you know, it's kind of nice still to see the Pirates and and ⁓ are scuffling in it, you know. They're not Why is it nice to see them doing bad?

Badly.

They haven't they haven't fallen back, you know, they've they've hung around. ⁓ the Cubs I don't know what the Cubs are gonna do. I I

I I that that team kind of puzzles me at this point. But you know, even the Reds have kinda like, you know, they've had a little bit of a skid lately, but you know, the the Cardinals are are fading a little bit, but all that division is a fun division 'cause you've got five teams that are, you know, two of them that are really good, or one of them at least, and the other teams are are like they could beat the hell out of each other any given day. Right, right. It's a du i it's the Brewers sort of have separated themselves in that division. And it'll be interesting to see which team at that of the

Do they get a wild card out of the other four teams in that division? I think they will. Do they get a high enough good enough record to get be one of the three? I think there's a good chance they will purely because it's not like there's that there's not two. There's only two. If you say the Phillies have the one. There's not like there's another team besides the Phillies that are playing really well right now. Well, and then go to the West, and you know and you've got the Dodgers, and then you've got you know the Party. Well, but that's what I'm Is that anybody gonna murder they're in the same you're saying they're in the same bowl, though you have the Giants and the Rockies in that division too, as opposed to having four teams.

In in the central. Right, right, right, right, right. I'm more just saying that the central teams are just in that second and third wild card fight, assuming that the Philadelphia Phillies don't come back down to earth, that the Marlins and the Nationals, and then the Padres and the Diamondbacks are all in. So it's gonna be an exciting, you know, race for the wild card, unless one of those teams in that second wild card group suddenly just goes on a crazy hot streak, and all that does is make the race for the third wild card spot really exciting. That you you've got you got still have got half.

So that's why those teams we talked about in the NL Central, they still have a chance to to do so. There are a few teams, and I would include the Mets in those are yeah, no, this it's it's okay. A couple of those teams are gonna ⁓ if somebody's gonna go on a terrible ten game streak, all of a sudden they're gonna go two and eight and they're just gonna be gone. And that's gonna happen. At the expense though, the other team will have do at the expense of them too. So they'll benefit from Right. There'll be some team that played like the pirates will play the Reds in the like t in like two or three series really close.

together. The pirates will go like six and one. The reds are buried and the pirates are now flying high. Okay, so so quick quick fire question for you. Scooby gonna get traded before the trading deadline.

Will he get traded?

No. No. He'll he'll be a tiger after the trading deadline. He'll be a tiger after the trading deadline because because with him being hurt

It's gonna be too we you you you don't you're not teams aren't gonna wanna give up Reases for resources for a guy that is hurt who they also aren't gonna be sure they can re-sign. That's what they have to sign, right. That's too many too many levels. You don't think that necessarily means the Stegers are gonna sign and they'll just not trade him. Right, they're just not trade him more so because they're not gonna wanna send him away for like you're not gonna wanna send him away because then he's definitely not coming back. And maybe by not trading him you're able to keep him then. Okay. give me your two World Series teams right now.

Dodgers Yankees. Yeah, I'd say I'd say the same thing. I think it's pretty easy at the rematch of twenty twenty four. So ⁓ and that feel mostly feels easy because of the AL side of the equation. I agree. I think when it push comes to shove in the playoffs, not kind of the Yankees. Unless unless Judge is out the rest of the year. Yeah, I don't think that's that's that is not what I mean. But but that would that would immediately change if Judge is out and he's not coming back, then all of a sudden okay, American League's wide open. And next week maybe we'll talk about the All Star game, although I I I I I saw the new home run derby rules and all that kind of stuff. I just I don't know.

I don't care about any major sport all-star game, but I did want to finish out with my story of the week. Because as you were I I think this is the most interesting thing because we always talk about how the best pitch in baseball, it's not the best fastball, it's not the best curveball. It's strike one. Because if you look at it, when a player comes up from 2025 to 2026, we they tracked 2,888 and 64 640 plate appearances. When the c when the count started off at zero zero, your weighted on base average out of zero zero count was three twenty three.

So you actually had a pretty good chance of getting on right when you come up. Strike one drops to 274. Okay. So you see like about a you know a 50-point drop. Where the flip side is if you go, if you go to 1-0, it's you get 364. Is that on base or is that on Weighted on base. So the real best pitch, though, is not 0-1, is not strike one. It's strike two. Because going to 0-2, you're on base average, we waited on base 207.

Think about that. It's like a 70-point drop. Unless you got a bunch of pitchers like the Mess who can't put people away too. But wait, right. You can see that. Basically, whereas if you go to 3-0, you get on base 560. Yeah, but that wouldn't surprise anybody. 3-1, 486. 3-2, 381. 2-2. So the difference- this is the difference between a 2-2 ball and a 2-2 strike. 2-2, your chance of getting on base is 273. That's the same as 0-1, by the way. Right. 2-2 is the same as 0-1, but 3-2, 381.

So the difference as soon as you throw that third ball is o over a hundred points of chance. By throwing the third ball in a bat. And when you see, you know, hitters make strides as a few of them have this year, normally it's their selectivity that gets better and they're managing to not strike out as much as they did before. And all of a sudden guys like Junior Cameron, their strikeouts drop down, all this their production goes up. So that's what you're trying to do. And you're probably making those decisions on those pitches and you're you're you're making the most

Of those things. That's a good one. I like that. So okay. Well, ⁓ you know, we've got ⁓ wonder there was one more thing I wanted to mention. ⁓ no, the only thing about this bunting. Okay, this year bunting is up. Big a lot. That's what I thought. Okay, what's tell wrote a story? It's not. That's good. So it's up from it's 0.9 ⁓ bunts per game per per plate appearance. Okay. right, right, right. No, there's no way there's 0.9 back.

I'm sorry, there's j I I guess I can tell you right now, there is no way you're at zero point nine. Of all plate appearances. Okay, okay. Zero point nine ⁓ in twenty twenty six. Last year it was zero point seven. So that's a huge increase when you think about it on percentage basis. But it ain't that many buttons.

Right. You'd have to look at the number of actual bunts, but still that's about twenty five percent more bunts than it was last year, which I think is the teams when we talked about when they first started shifting all those years ago, where it's like, Why don't guys just like hit the ball into the shift? There's nobody within thirty feet of you. Just have to literally hit the ball over there and it's a free hit. No I would say all the time, it's not so easy. Right. But we've been saying that with bunting, where it's th look at where the guys are playing. Just drop a bunt and you're gonna get on. I think teams are finally starting to be willing to like, Okay, yeah, why not give that a shot? Well, I wonder training wise, you know, are they

focusing on it because I for so years so many years it was so out of fashion to Bunt that I imagine they weren't really working on it that much. Right. And maybe at the minor league levels or or and in the the developmental levels they're getting these guys to do that because it's a useful skill so and there's twenty five percent more than last year.