Free For All Friday #3

Greetings from Grinnell, Iowa.

I am not in Grinnell in a homage to Baseball Reference founder Sean Forman, who received his undergraduate degree from Grinnell College, although given all of the incredible things Sean has done for baseball, an homage is in order.

I’m in Grinnell to watch my son graduate from the same excellent liberal arts school, with a B.A. in sociology and economics.

If you’ve followed me on Twitter for the last few years, you may have seen that my son played on the varsity men’s basketball team at Grinnell. He has a killer three-point shot and was part of the record-breaking team that attempted 111 three-pointers in a game last December. My son hit 8 three-pointers in the game for 24 points.

I’m immensely proud of my son for all of his accomplishments, but mostly because he’s an awesome human being—he’s kind, funny, diligent, and cares about the world around him. He’s a great friend, a leader, and a mentor.

I’m telling y’all this because my son is a big reason why you received this newsletter today. When I was toying with the idea of getting back to writing about baseball, he strongly encouraged me to do it. I’ve been thinking about this since seeing the Mother’s Day tributes by various MLB players to their moms—thanking them for a lifetime of carpools, snacks, support and hugs.

When out children are young, we, as parents, are their biggest cheerleaders. As our children mature into adults, they can become our biggest cheerleaders. Both my son and my daughter play that role. I hope you have cheerleaders in your life like I do.

I want to send a big thank you to everyone who has signed on as a paid subscriber. I appreciate your financial support and your kind words. I couldn’t keep doing this without you.

Today is free Friday at hanging sliders. So everyone—even those who haven’t paid for a subscription—receives the Friday newsletter. But let me encourage the free subscribers to sign up for a monthly or yearly subscription. I’m still giving the 20% discount, but it won’t last forever. Click here to get the 20% off discount.

Speed kills

In the Statcast era, we’ve become addicted to high velocity. We crave highlights of pitchers throwing 105 mph or more and batters sending home runs into the bleachers at 115 mph. Of course it’s fun to gawk at these seemingly super-human feats, even as they become more commonplace every day.

But as my friend Mark Simon and his colleagues as Sports Info Solutions documented this week, hard-hit line drives and ground balls have seriously injured 10 pitchers so far this season. MLB saw only 8 such serious injuries in the entire 2022 season and 6 in 2021. Certainly something to keep an eye on as the season progresses.

The flip side of high velocity is watching two 40-something players chasing each other to first base on a grounder to the right side. That’s what happened in Wednesday’s game between the Pirates and the Tigers in Detroit. Miguel Cabrera hit a slow grounder off Rich Hill and . . . .

This is, and will remain, one of my favorite highlights of the season.

Leaving for Vegas

If you subscribe to The Athletic, check out this terrific article by my friends Eno Sarris and Steve Berman filled with research and data detailing what kind of financial environment the Athletics are likely to find in Las Vegas. Headline: the A’s will be moving from a large media market to a small one, are unlikely to get any kind of regional sports network deal, and will have to compete with casinos, shows, and three other sports teams (the NHL’s Golden Knights, the NFL’s Raiders, and the WNBA’s Aces) to attract fans to a new ballpark. In the summer. When it’s 100 degrees out, on a good day.

Some like it hawt

The Cincinnati Reds are hosting the Yankees this weekend for a three-game series at Great American Ballpark. In tonight’s game, the Reds are debuting their city connect uniforms. Let me be the first of many to say: Yes. More of this, please. These unis are awesome. Deep colors. Graphic letters. Bold statement.

Here’s a screenshot of Nick Senzel in Cincy’s city connect jersey and cap after catching a pop up in the top of the 2nd inning.

The Reds tweeted out a photo of the matte black batting helmet and let me say: I have no use for anything like this bring it on. Fantastic.

He’s even better than you think

The aforementioned Baseball-Reference tweeted out earlier today an incredible stat. In his 13th season, Mike Trout has passed both Ken Griffey, Jr. and Pedro Martinez on the career bWAR list. If Trout stay’s healthy & continues to produce this season as he has so far (.280/.370/.524), he’ll pass Chipper Jones and possibly George Brett in the next few months. He’s only 31-years-old! I’m lucky enough to live in California and watch a lot of Angels game. And while the team can be frustrating to watch, I try to catch all of Trout’s and Ohtani’s at-bats. Make sure you find the time to watch Trout this season.

Enjoy the weekend!