Transcript
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We're gonna crunch those stats. We're gonna talk about baseball sticky stuff and torpedo bats. We'll talk about it all. If you want good takes on baseball and life, just tune in to Ben
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and his lovely co host, Ben and Meg.
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It's Effectively Wild. Hello and welco. Welcome to episode 2477 of Effectively Wild, a baseball podcast from Fangraphs, presented by our Patreon supporters. I am Ben Lindbergh of the Ringer, joined by meg rally of fangraphs. Hello, Meg.
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Hello.
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Here's my attempt at a TikTok style POV meme. You know the POV where you say POV and then supposedly there's something from that person's POV, except usually they do it backwards and it's just POV, but then they just show someone doing something instead of showing that person's point of view. But pov, you're Spencer Jones, Yankees outfield prospect, and you're called up to make your major league debut replacing the injured Jason Dominguez. And you want to make a good first impression. And people are concerned about your strikeout rate for good reason, because it's been upwards of 30% in AAA. So maybe you come out swinging, maybe you come out not swinging. You don't want to strike out. Maybe you want to make some contact. You want to first game. So it's Friday, May 8, and your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is Jacob Misarowski. That's whom you have to face as the strikeout proud rookie. You have to face the guy who is basically the best at striking people out in the world. At least for starting pitchers, that seems unfair. So then you come out, you face Misarowski and. And the first pitch that you see from him is 103.6 miles per hour. Take it, you take it for a called strike and then you say, well, maybe I'll offer it one. And then the next one, you know, he dials it back a bit. This is a change of speeds. He takes something off. It's down to 102.3, but he still beats you. You swing through it. Then you say, okay, well you can't beat me twice with that cheddar. You better not come in there. Again, he throws you 103.6 again, you manage to get a piece of it. You foul it off and then down 1, 2, he throws you an 89 mile per hour curveball and you, you strike out in your first major league plate appearance. And everyone says, ah, see Spencer Jones contact issues, he's going to Strike out too much to succeed. He did. I think he tipped that last one. It was a foul tip. Strikeout. But nonetheless, I just, I felt for the guy, you know, like you don't want to come up and immediately confirm everyone's worst fears. Oh, yeah, Spencer Jones, he's the strikeout prone rookie. And then you draw the Miz. That's just. And not only the Miz, who's striking out 40% of batters. If he keeps this up, I think it would be the highest strikeout rate ever for a qualified starter, if he even is a qualified starter.
