Michael Baumann

I don't think you could look anymore serious if you were trying to catch a human baby

After Game 3 Rout, the World Series Is (97.67%) Over blogs.fangraphs.com/after-game-3...

UPDATE: Brandon Woodruff To Pitch Ninth Inning of World Series Game 3

Oh wait Scientology HQ is the next town over this is probably less fun than I initially thought

Tom Cruise plays one oil baron and all of a sudden he's turning up in the middle of Florida

This is beyond BABIP Hell. I'm having an out-of-body experience.

The Beer Pong offense.

This is full Angels in the Outfield shit. From out of the inning down 2-0 to down 8-0 and on the second pitching change of the inning in the span of what felt like 45 seconds. Booser was out of the game before they read Peralta's line over the press box PA

2014 Postseason Madison Bumgarner: 1.03 ERA, opponents hit .153/.188/.219 2026 Postseason Robert Gasser: 0.69 ERA, opponents hit .152/.204/.152

This thing just did a lap of the field. This is a quantum technological leap in combined arms t-shirt warfare. This is the MiG-15 to the Phanatic's Hot Dog Technical's P-51

Nick Fortes to the plate, or if you're a musician, Nick ff

What a photo

Chandler Simpson is a teeny little guy but he took a big ol' pile of inertia directly into that fence.

If only somebody had done a deep dive into Simpson's dives literally earlier today...

Carly Pearce delivers the first anthem since the Army band in Game 2 of the NLCS that started in the right time signature and stayed there the whole song. It should not be this hard to do The Star-Spangled Banner in 3/4, and finally we get someone who proved it

Notes from Rays player intros: 1) South Jersey icon Caden Bodine's up to hang out with the big club 2) Big pop from the crowd for pitching coach Kyle Snyder. Rays fans know how important he is. If you don't, but would like to learn, read here:

Rays pregame hype video is being narrated by Jon Gruden. I'm a little bummed they didn't go for Stephen Garcia

Shoresy: That bottle of Sprite is gonna have to wait until the first of the month Jonesy's mom already used up all her minutes texting thirst to me my phone's got more pictures in a bathroom mirror than The Royal Tenenbaums

new @fangraphs.com: The bad send by the Rays third base coach was a Game 2 lowlight, but Liam Hicks has done a very good job on both sides of the ball for the Rays. he's just the second Wild Card era catcher to be traded in midseason and start regularly for a World Series team

What sets the Brewers and Rays apart from other teams is not just their scouting and use of analytics: It’s their ability to develop talent at the big league level. The coaches aren’t just tacticians, they’re educators, writes @baumann.bsky.social

I will concede it's more like twice a mile a half of fertile ground anymore

In Xanadu, did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree.

I think Rizzo would be one of the best GMs you could hire for the kind of org Jim Crane seems to want to run since he let Click go

Anyway, I'm gonna keep plugging this article mostly because it's the kind of thing they sent me on the road to do. It's only possible through the support of our members plus.fangraphs.com/product/fang...

One thing I didn't mention is both of these teams have ex-FanGraphs guys in their front offices, at least one of whom started out as a nerdspeak-to-jockspeak interpreter. You gotta do the scene from The Right Stuff where they put a window in the capsule

Hopefully you support @fangraphs.com to get the full lowdown but this is just really the crux of the whole deal.

Go read this @baumann.bsky.social story that really cuts at the heart of why the Brewers and Rays are here, at why they’re The Brewers and The Rays and other teams aren’t. It’s not a secret data weapon It’s a lot of secret human weapons. blogs.fangraphs.com/the-brewers-...

I don't know if I'd go that far but Evan Peters should be in everything

Having Seen Everything, the only thing I'm sure of is more of you need to watch American Animals

ICYMI, I wrote about how the Rays and Brewers coach up replacement-level big leaguers into All-Stars. It's an almost jarringly wholesome and earnest process

This is what the first line of Brighton Rock would've been if Graham Greene was from Florida

Been in Pinellas County for about half an hour, can't even check into my hotel yet, already seen a TV ad for Scientology

Some off-day grist for you: The Rays and Brewers can compete on the cheap because they're incredibly good at taking mediocre big leaguers and making them good. I spoke to some of the beneficiaries to get a sense of what it's like to get developed by the World Series combatants.

There Is No Defending Some of the Defense We Saw in Game 2 of the World Series blogs.fangraphs.com/there-is-no-...

I got a 1.07 in Fermi just now. I'm basically a Guild Navigator at this point Fermi.gg