To catch you up if you haven't been following this, I took to Reddit to ask communities if they found my "First Bowman Auto" card. I wasn't looking to get it for myself, I just wanted to see if anyone happened to pull it for their own collection. r/baseballcards pulled some magic and found the card and the guy who pulled it! It just so happened that the card was pulled 15 minutes away from my house! Billy (who pulled it) messaged me and my family asking if we wanted to meet up and trade for it, so I had to take the offer! Thank you guys again! I'll link the other posts in the comments if you'd like to look back.

BASICS:

Born: March 28, 1995

Jersey Number: 16

Bats: Right

Throws: Right

Position: Catcher

Drafted: 2016 by the Dodgers, 32nd overall pick

MLB Debut: May 28, 2019

Teams: Dodgers (2016-present)

Twitter: @will_smith30

Instagram: @will.smith

2024 STATS:

Games: 128

Batting Average: 0.248

OBP: 0.327

SLG: 0.433

OPS: 0.760

Runs: 77

Hits: 118

Doubles: 24

Triples: 2

Home Runs: 20

RBIs: 75

Stolen Bases: 1

CAREER STATS:

Games: 612

Batting Average: 0.258

OBP: 0.350

SLG: 0.472

OPS: 0.822

Runs: 349

Hits: 554

Doubles: 108

Triples: 9

Home Runs: 111

RBIs: 381

Stolen Bases: 10

2024 AWARDS:

All Star

CAREER AWARDS:

All Star - 2023

THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW:

He played baseball at University of Louisville.

He has a daughter.

At one point, the Dodgers were in talks to trade him to a team with another Will Smith, so that team would have had two Will Smiths.

His favorite player growing up was David Ortiz.

He was on Team USA in the 2023 WBC.

He likes golf.

His favorite movie is Remember the Titans.

2024 HIGHLIGHTS:

He got three homers in one game

He hit a homer in the World Series

He got four hits in one game

He was part of a four-homer inning for the Dodgers

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:

His first career homer

He once hit a homer off Will Smith the pitcher

WHY I LIKE HIM:

He's a good player and I'm glad he kept the tradition of the WS winning team having a Will Smith going!

PREVIOUS PLAYERS FEATURED:

11/8: Freddie Freeman 11/9: José Ramírez 11/10: Cal Raleigh 11/11: Brice Turang 11/12: Mauricio Dubon 11/13: Giancarlo Stanton 11/14: Francisco Lindor 11/15: Tommy Edman 11/16: Ketel Marte 11/17: Garrett Crochet 11/18: Chris Sale 11/19: Paul Skenes 11/20: Luis Gil 11/21: Tarik Skubal 11/22: Clayton Kershaw 11/23: Aaron Judge 11/24: Kris Bryant 11/25: Shohei Ohtani 11/26: Emmanuel Clase 11/27: Ryan Helsley 11/28-11/29: Break 11/30: Colton Cowser 12/1: Wilyer Abreu 12/2: Zack Littell 12/3: Vladimir Guerrero Jr 12/4: Bobby Witt Jr 12/5: Carlos Santana 12/6: Mookie Betts 12/7: Josh Smith 12/8: Tyler Anderson 12/9: Brent Rooker 12/10: Jackson Merrill 12/11: Patrick Bailey 12/12: Ian Happ 12/13: Teoscar Hernández 12/14: Hunter Greene 12/15: Bryce Harper 12/16: Jacob Young 12/17: Tanner Scott 12/18: Alex Bregman 12/19: Steven Kwan

I just really started following baseball rosters and offseason stuff last year, and I know last year was considered a very thin market for hitters. This offseason seems extremely flush--not in terms of top-tier guys necessarily (though I assume there's really only ever one or two of those at most), but in terms of mid-tier to upper-but-not-quite-top-tier batters.

We have, available now, Christian Walker, Anthony Santander, Teoscar Hernandez, Pete Alonso, Gleyber Torres, Alex Bregman, Jurickson Profar, and Joc Pederson for offense-first players coming off good or decent years under the age of 35. Add in guys like Santana, Turner, or Martinez who are over 35 and swung the bat well last season. Add in guys like Ha-Seong Kim and are defense-first guys who have shown the ability to hit at times. Add to that players like Jorge Polanco who have been very good coming off bad years or a couple bad years, but who are 31 or 32 and someone could take a flyer on a bounceback.

And that's not even getting into all of the batters who have been rumored to be on the market for trades by various teams (and obviously a number of them have been traded at this point).

So am I crazy, or is this year a really good year for teams to try and pick up offense? Or is this a normal offseason, and last year was unusually light in offensive talent? Or is my perception about last offseason just wrong? Does anyone have any numbers on this?

It’s getting pretty ridiculous. I turn on the NBA and the best teams are in Oklahoma, Memphis, and Cleveland.

How are small market teams supposed to compete with the Yankees and the Dodgers when they’re signing players for $500,000,000? That would put the Cincinnati Reds ownership into bankruptcy. They just don’t have that kind of money.

Now I understand there’s some exceptions to this, like KC, STL, CLE… but once the small market teams get good, they have to sell off their entire team and go through a massive rebuild because they can’t afford to keep their starters to the Yankees and the Dodgers.

It’s time for baseball to adopt a hard salary cap to keep a competitive balance. I don’t think the players’ union will ever agree to this; thus, baseball will continue being stacked against small market teams.

How does a player of Lofton's status fall off the ballot after one year?

https://www.fbcreports.com/post/kenny-lofton-a-hall-of-fame-case-forgotten

It’s clear that Aaron Judge and Juan Soto at the top, but is there anyone having such outstanding batter’s eye like that?

P/s: for me Bryce Harper and Corey Seager are also top-notch. Ohtani and Vlad Jr are not as good as those players tho, but still being very good on this stuff

P/s 2: I’ve found this metric called “SEAGER”, it seems to describe a much wider view on batters’ eye than just purely Chase% or Walk%

https://therealestmuto.shinyapps.io/Damage/

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Yesterday's ATH

This Week's Schedule (all times Eastern)

First: this post is a response to a post from five months ago, which can be found here: Casey at the Stats. I recommend you read that first, as this post will make substantially less sense if you don't.

I am a baseball lover. I am also a poet (a few small works have been published), which I like to think is part of the reason I am a baseball lover. And I found myself incensed by that poem. As all poets do in this sort of situation, I set out to write my own.

Thus, the below poem: "After Casey at the Stats." A small note on the name: it is named thus in part because it is meant to describe the events immediately after "Casey at the Stats." In poetry, however, when something inspires you to write a poem, one way to pay homage to the inspiration is to name your poem "After [that thing]," such as "After A Beautiful Evening" or "After the Mona Lisa." Please know that this is my way of saying that I admire the original very much, especially as it inspired a counterpoint in me.

AFTER "CASEY AT THE STATS"

© H. Tucker Cobey, 2024

The outlook was still poorly for the Mudville nine that day:
The scoreboard still read 4-2, with one out more to play.
And though the Nine had loaded up the bases, they thought that
It didn't seem to matter much: the kid was up to bat.

He'd come up from the minors when Dopp hit the Injured List;
He'd come into the game when Crane fell badly on his wrist.
He'd hoped that they'd all learn his name, which not one of them did;
He'd soon be sent back down, they thought—so they just called him "Kid."

The kid could flash the leather in the field, they all agreed;
He had a cannon for an arm, and sure, they liked his speed;
But OBP forsook him, and his power curve was flat—
In short, they'd rather have most anyone else at the bat.

The visitors knew all this too; and so Casey had took
His slow walk down the first base line; and all the field had shook
With boos from Mudville faithful, while the closer tipped his hat
With scoffing disdain at the poor kid coming up to bat.

A blush crept slowly 'cross the kid's unweathered, youthful face;
The dirt clogged slowly in his cleats from his slow walk-up pace;
And though he'd not yet even had the time to clear his head,
The pitcher hurled a quick pitch- and, "Strike one," the umpire said.

Inside the dugout, Mudville watched the whole sad scene play out;
"Strike two," then quickly followed; they all foresaw a rout;
Then Cooney elbowed Barrows, and in sotto voice he said,
"Forget what all the numbers say... this kid'll knock 'em dead."

Meanwhile, the boos rained down again; the rival pitcher sneered:
He knew he had this kid in hand; an ugly impulse reared,
And, rocking back, then coming home, he threw one high and in—
That tune the baseball experts call the music of the chin.

And when the kid stood slowly up, and while the pitcher smirked,
The fans all saw the bullying had not on this kid worked.
They saw the kid flushed red with rage, they saw his muscles strain;
They knew that this kid wouldn't let that ball go by again.

The shame has left the kid's young face; his teeth are clenched in hate;
He pounds with cruèl violence his bat upon the plate.
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the bat is shattered by the force of the kid's blow-

Oh, somewhere in this favoured land, Ohtani's hit a homer-
But here, today, the kid has proved "weak-hitting" a misnomer:
The kid has shown that, once again, despite the cries of critics—
Sometimes, so-called intangibles beat out the analytics.

From the Wikipedia article, there have been only 27 recorded instances of it happening.

It's very rare for position players to bat right-handed and throw left-handed. This makes sense, since throwing lefty is a disadvantage because it limits the positions you can play, but batting lefty is seen as favorable. A lot of natural righties would teach themselves to bat lefty, but there's no reason for a natural lefty to teach themselves to bat right.

But, there are a good number of left-handed pitchers who bat righty. Among notable ones in the majors right now are Tarik Skubal, Framber Valdez, Nestor Cortes, Sean Manaea, Bailey Falter and Jose Quintana.

Why is this so common among pitchers compared to position players?