Dugout Study Hall – Expert layman Matt Goodwin (@TheCorkedMatt) and fake baseball economist Alexander Chase (@chase_rate) briefly discuss the Tim Anderson/Josh Donaldson situation, look at pitchers with the highest and lowest BABIPs against, and dive into some pitchers who have not performed as we expected, especially some of the higher ADP guys. Help us out with a FIVE STAR RATING and a REVIEW wherever you listen and ENJOY!
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Timestamps:
- Tim Anderson/Josh Donalson situation (01:31)
- Numbers of the Week: BABIPs against (13:10)
- Interpreting BABIP (21:58)
- Puzzling Pitchers (29:34)
- Good Stuff / Bad Results
- Just Bad
- Questionable Stuff / Good Results
- Surprising Pitchers Doing Well (52:50)
Note: Episode recorded on 05/24/22
I agree with 99% of your Donaldson take. But if he’s racist, then I want to cut him from my team. And that’s why I tried to take a careful look at it. Calling Anderson “Jackie” out of nowhere would be a very odd and improbable choice of a racist bait. I just think it is a much much higher probability that he was needling Anderson for calling himself the next Jackie Robinson, as he claims. And we don’t need to take his word for it. Tim Anderson says he’s Donaldson has been calling him Jackie ever since the article came out:
https://www.si.com/mlb/yankees/news/tim-anderson-told-josh-donaldson-stop-calling-him-jackie-robinson
I’ve been in locker rooms where if a young player called himself the next Jackie Robinson, he would NEVER hear the end of it.
Donaldson a jerk, yes. Incited the benches clearing incident yes. Deserved a suspension and a good punch in the face, yes. Racist, maybe he is. Maybe he oozes it in the locker room and we don’t see it. But the comment, with the context, is more likely personal than racist.
Thank you for sharing your perspective. I want to be clear that I don’t think I’m the right person to be the arbiter of what is or isn’t racist in this scenario.
Rather, I have a hard time understanding the need to defend it given the non-zero chance that it was race-based either in content or motivation. Plus it being bad behavior regardless.
I also get wanting to understand it, but we will likely never get that clarity.
Thanks so much for listening!
Just as you hypothesized, this is more about defending *myself* than it is about defending him. But not because I think or talk or act that way, but because of… fantasy baseball. As asinine as it is, it poses a bit of “crisis” for me and probably many others fantasy manages. Can I stomach having him on my team, or justify picking him up if he gets dropped, without being a hypocrite? I dug into the facts and decided I could — but I feel the need to explain my decision out loud (even though literally no one else cares) lest anyone think I am condoning racism. Other managers and most Yankee fans probably now feel the same way.