Look, if you are looking for non-punny article titles, there are other places on the internet. I bid you adieu.
I am in my 30s and a father of 2 who only has had puns and Dad jokes in my arsenal since birth. Much like a 25 year-old baseball player, I am in my prime.
I have consumed a lot of media in the last 24 hours discussing the final portions of the loss to the Rays yesterday. In the moment, I described it as such:
However...here is the deal: David Ross made the right call putting in Mark Leiter Jr.
The Cubs, (yes they DFA'd him in January) have worked with a restructuring of his arsenal to make him extremely effective vs LHB in 2023. Baseball Savant shows a significant uptick in what they define has his splitter. I mean, why the hell not? The xBA (Expected Batting Average) by lefties on that pitch is .127!!!
That has seemed to be the story with him in his career, with the variance vs lefties being on his ability to effectively mix in the sinker. In addition, looking at his vertical movement analysis, it seems a diminished movement in the fastball and cutter may be keys to success with the sinker. I think of pitch shape and tunneling, who Kyle Hendricks is king of, and making pitches look the same out of the hand.
All nerd stuff aside (which I am starting to get really into), Leiter Jr. has been David Ross "lefty" out of the pen. Hayden's slugging percentage vs lefties this year has been poor and part of the reason he needs more command of the additional pitch in his arsenal.
Yes, Wesneski looked good yesterday, but the Rays had loaded up on righties to attack traditional splits vs Steele.
The Rays are the top offense in baseball. The Cubs have struggled to score runs and this was an opportunity to end Hayden's day on a high note and deploy your "lefty killer."
Yesterday was frustrating, but it is not at the feet of David Ross.
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