Of ruptures, deconcentrations and alcoholic controversies

AS EVERY ballplayer in the industry SAYS: “this is a business”. And you have to be prepared for when it happens. You adapt or you perish. There is no middle ground. While in 2022, Gurriel did not have the best season of his seven-year career in The Majors, his market value was pegged at $12 million. However, he barely got an “agonizing” minor league contract with the Miami Marlins, where he is trying to earn a starting job. A friend tells me he doesn’t understand how an undisputed starter and vital player on the last World Series champion is going to be sitting on the bench of one of the worst teams in the majors: “It’s crazy,” he says. Basic answer, Garret Cooper, the starting first baseman, is off to a great start with the lumber (.333 AVE/.378 OBP/.619 SLG). It behooves the 38-year-old Gurriel not to sit back and cry, just take every opportunity to show he has gas left in the tank. The Gurriel case only reaffirms the idea that players should put sentimentality aside and play for the highest bidder. It should matter little or nothing if you are called a mercenary. In the end, there will be a day when someone will tell you “you are no longer needed in the team”.

I WILL HAVE TO ACCEPT that the Astros will forever live with the stain of their sign-stealing scheme in 2017, when they won their first World Series. Something that seems ridiculous to me because several players have sworn and perjured that all teams use technology to steal signs (even is not advantage) and it is illogical to pretend that in the middle of the 21st century the modus operandi to do so is the same as it was in 1890. There is no alternative but to live with the (hypocritical) puritanism in baseball. What does strike me is how on this particular issue players and ex-players are so quick to shoot off their tongues with astounding ease. We already know that Mike Fiers, a pitcher who accepted the World Series championship ring and never said a peep while his teammates were stealing signs, was the one who ratted on his teammates, only when he left the team. Now it was retired catcher Evan Gattis’ turn to spill the beans on Twitter. Is it just me or does no one else remember the phrase “what happens in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse”.

GATTIS PUT MORE LOG ON THE FIRE when he claimed in a Twitter thread that he participated in the robbery. “I remember knowing what was coming against Kershaw,” Gattis tweeted in reference to opening for Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw in Game 5 of the 2017 World Series. “As a team we swung and missed only a handful of times against him.” (They only took 4 swings in the air in 94 pitches). And he answered “yes” after being asked if he knew the pitching coming when he connected on the home run that put his team up 1-0 against the New York Yankees in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series. Gattis later wanted to lower the temperature on his statements by writing, “Aaaaaaaaand I happen to say stupid things from time to time,” but in my opinion the wrong was already done. A guy of his profile can’t just spill his guts like that and then just pretend that people think it’s a joke. In life there are unbreakable codes and also limits that should not be crossed: snitching is one of them.

THERE WAS A TIME when Javier Baez was among the five most exciting players to watch, but in Major League Baseball it’s not as simple as it seems to remain. Baez, an exceptional player defensively, has decreased his offensive production with the Detroit Tigers after signing a six-year, $140 million contract in December 2021. It’s not appealing to watch him play struggling with his issues in the batter’s box or simply making mental errors that draw the ire of his manager A.J. Hinch. Already, the 30-year-old’s lack of concentration in the batter’s box is starting to be a concern. His first year with Detroit was a disaster and this second, he started where he left off in 2022. What’s wrong with him? Perhaps an answer could be found in his 54% pitch chase (chase contact), the worst of his 10-season MLB career. If he doesn’t have a defined hitting zone, it will be much easier to dominate him.

THE MEASURE TO EXTEND alcohol sales until the eighth inning this season, taken by some MLB teams in correspondence to the length of games being reduced by about 30 minutes by the pitching clock, pleased the drinkers, obviously. But not everyone in this story was too pleased by the decision. Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Matt Strahm believes Major League Baseball is making a mistake by agreeing to delay the “curfew” to have a beer. Strahm has his point, and a very valid one: “The reason we stopped [selling alcohol in] the seventh earlier was to give our fans time to sober up and drive home safely, right? So now, with a faster-paced game, and me just being a common sense guy, if the game is going to end faster, wouldn’t we move beer sales to the sixth inning to give our fans time to sober up and drive home?”