Justin Havelock

The best hitter in the NL got snubbed from the All-Star Game. Smh

How did Mick Jagger not say "Please allow me to introduce myself"?

There should be a tribute to David Lynch, where they just show 60 seconds of a static shot of a steam filled underground corridor, with a flickering fluorescent light backed with ominous washing and a distant scream

And thus is the story of a manager not-so-quick,
Who knew in one round they risked becoming St. Di-

whoa Justin, we don't use that kind of language here!

4/4

The messages in chat continued to churn,
"They ran down the clock! Both times! And at the turn!"

"I'm sorry." They answered. "I've been busy at work,
I'll turn auto-pick on now. I know it drives people berserk!"

3/4

Analysts stayed awake past 2am all over the world,
With visions of championship banners being unfurled.

The next afternoon there arose such a clatter,
I sprang to my phone to see what was the matter.

Quickly my jaw dropped, my face was aghast,
Over a tiny green light despite eight hours past!

2/4

'Twas the night before TGFBI, and all through the house,
The only sound to be heard was the clicking of a mouse.

Queues were being set in draft rooms with care,
In the hopes that an auto-pick soon would be there.

1/4

Overcast outside so I'll be celebrating the 'planetary parade' the way it's truly meant to be done- by watching Disney's Hercules.

Six man rotations are like the Fellowship of the Ring.

It begins with many men and grand ambitions only to end with two dudes barely surviving.

Why is it that there's major baseball news every time I have a major Exercise Physiology test the next morning?

Mark down March 19th & April 16th on your calendars folks. My prognostication skills say there will be major scoops breaking on both of those days.

Alex Bregman is the only player to be 94th percentile or better in whiff rate each season since the start of 2018

White House bars AP reporter from Oval Office because of AP style policy on 'Gulf of America' The White House blocked an Associated Press reporter from attending an event in the Oval Office after demanding the news agency alter its style on the Gulf of Mexico, which President Donald Trump has ...

If we’re gonna play this game then I am unilaterally renaming the Apex Regional Landfill, the Donald Trump Sr. Presidential Library.

Please adjust your style guides accordingly.

apnews.com/article/trum...

For anyone else with midterms starting this week, remember:

You could show up an hour late, misspell your own name, eat the Scantron sheet and still outperform KC's offense in the Super Bowl.

Doing the racist chant sarcastically is still doing it

Patrick Mahomes is getting hit more than Mike Foltynewicz in a Game 5

I'm getting pumped for #PitchCon 2025! Starts this Thursday, 1/30 @ 11:00am ET.

Pitcher List's sixth annual ALS fundraiser where we host baseball panels and presentations across FOUR DAYS.

Check out the full schedule below 👇

Which are you looking forward to the most?

I had a dream last night that the #BlueJays got Andrés Giménez to restructure his contract to an $8M AAV (don't ask how/why).

Two key takeaways:

1) I have weird dreams.
2) Today is #PitchCon!

I typed "What if Al Gore was GM of the Blue Jays?" into ChatGPT in September and it successfully predicted this offseason.

The goal is to raise $10,000 toward ALS research through community contributions. Pitcher List does not take a cut of any contribution, and we ensure 100% of what we raise goes to the cause.

We've raised over $45,000 since our first PitchCon and are excited to eclipse $50,000!

I'm thrilled to announce that our annual ALS Fundraiser PITCHCON begins January 30th!

#PitchCon is a four-day online baseball conference hosting over 40 panels and presentations from 100+ baseball analysts. 44 Hours of baseball.

Here's what you can expect at PitchCon '25 🧵

Sasaki Sweepstakes Down to Blue Jays, Dodgers, and Padres That's right, the Toronto Blue Jays. From Toronto.

The Jays are one of three teams still in the running. How'd this happen?

✍️ @o-hill.bsky.social

What a great metaphor since America already plans on cutting funding to:

- Every group represented by the members of The Village People, except the cop
- YMCA programming
- The LGBTQ+ community
- Greenwich Village, in general
- Any curriculum that teaches the letters of the alphabet

Hopefully, this illustrates why context can make a difference, even when two players appear to have broadly similar profiles.

This is also why I'm bullish on Paredes going into 2025: he's a Pulled FB machine, which is going to play up in the best park for Pulled HR from right-handed hitters (5/5)

Isaac Paredes' 2024 Batted Ball Profile. He hits a lot of fly balls and pulled balls, and frequently both at the same time.

Compare that to Paredes' uber-efficient profile: he hits FB/LD *which are also pulled*, a TON (especially down the line). That's a more valuable profile, as shown by our 3-yr xwOBAcon for him of .371, despite having below average exit velo on those FB/LD (89.4mph; lg avg is 92.8). (4/5)

Daulton Varsho's 2024 Batted Ball Profile. He hits a lot of fly balls and a lot of pulled balls, though they don't always overlap

Varsho hits a ton of fly balls and pulls a ton of balls, but the he doesn't do *both* as often or pull them down the line. This is why our xwOBAcon calc (which includes spray) has Varsho at a merely ok .361 across the last 3 seasons (lg avg is .367). He hits a few too many Oppo FB & Pulled GB (3/5)

Daulton Varsho's 2024 Swing Speed Distribution. His swing is faster than league average.

Isaac Paredes' 2024 Swing Speed Distribution. His swing is slower than league average.

Daulton Varsho seems to be a better bet for power than Paredes, given those profiles: he has a higher avg bat speed (73.7mph vs 68.2), avg Exit Velo (86.1mph vs 85), *AND* barrel rate (6.2% vs 4.5%). The issue is Varsho's more granular batted-ball profile isn't optimized like Paredes' is (2/5)

Isaac Paredes' high-level batted ball metrics. Note the 96th percentile FB% & 97th percentile Pull%

Daulton Varsho's high-level batted ball metrics. Note the 99th percentile FB% & 95th percentile Pull%

Talked with @justinhavelock.bsky.social last night about how Isaac Paredes (1st pic) and Daulton Varsho (2nd) have surprisingly similar batted ball profiles if you only look at Pull/Cent/Oppo and LD/FB bins. Both hitters have run a 45+% Pull-rate and a 40+% FB-rate across the last 3 seasons (1/5)

I was thinking about this when I watched RETURN OF THE KING this week. How absolutely INSANE the discourse would be around the “I am no man” line from Eowyn if it came out today.

Springs is moving from the 16th gayest city in the U.S. to the 4th gayest city.

That is all.