Episode 1059: Is Your Bat Boned?

## Summary

*Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about a mid-start adjustment by Clayton Kershaw and answer listener emails about what constitutes a "jam," pitchers who’ve allowed the most first career hits, how to analyze player problems and improvements, team abbreviations, hitters who homer and bunt, left-handed infielders, whether bats could be causing the home-run surge, and more.*

## Topics

* Baseball terminology - What is a "jam"
* Jake Arrieta
* Giving up fist MLB hits
* 3 lettered team designations
* Bat construction and rubbing methods, bat boning
* Left handed infielders
* Best hitters who also sacrifice bunt

## Banter

* Clayton Kershaw's slider and mid game adjustments.

## Email Questions

* Eric Hartman: "While listening to the Orioles/Royals game Alec Asher entered with runners on first and second with 1 out. Joe Angell wondered if we "can get out of this jam". Following last week's discussion of a slugfest I'm now skeptical of misuse of any term and wonder what constitutes a jam. I don't think the given situation counts as a jam. For me, a jam is when a reliever can allow a run while still successfully retiring every batter they face. First and second with no out, and first and third with one out are jams. First and second with one out is no jam. Your thoughts?"

* Eric Hartman: "I'm at the Jays game and Bartolo Colon just gave up Mike Ohlman's) first MLB hit. This has led to a multi inning discussion trying to figure out how many players have had their first big league hit off of him. Using some very bad math we have estimated 18. Do you have any ideas how to query this?"

* Ryan: "I am also a sports writer. I am a main MLB contributor for Inside Injuries, a company devoted to analyzing and covering sports injuries, mainly for the purposes of fantasy sports. In a recent (less injury-focused) article that I wrote, I started a paragraph with the words “Jake Arrieta has not been very good” I went on to briefly analyze the fact that his PITCHf/x pitch values have decreased notably, and that the drop seems to coincide with a very large drop in velocity. I deudced that he may have changed his approach, or maybe it is an injury, but that whatever he was doing, it was not working. I felt proud of my very brief article, and posted it. Then, this afternoon, while reading on Fangraphs, I saw an article by Jeff Sullivan titled “Jake Arrieta Has Not Been Good.” After reading this article, I discovered that Jeff found a very different reason, that it was his foot placement while stretching towards home that was giving him troubles (I guess in a way this could be considered a change in approach). Jeff later noted that this could explain several other factors, including his reduced velocity. It was at that point that I realized maybe we didn’t have completely different reasons, that we both might be right, but that Jeff had simply gone a level deeper. So my question is this: At what point in your analysis do you know you’ve gotten to the true bottom of a question, that there is no level deeper? At face value, we can say “Jake Arrieta has been bad.” The we ask “Why?” And we reply “Because his velocity has dropped.” “Why?” “Because his plant foot has gotten out of line.” “Why?” You get my point. When do you stop asking why? Is it when you say “Because.” Or when you say “I don’t know.” Or is there simply a Eureka moment when you simply know you’ve gotten to the bottom of it."

* Marcus: "Here's a question of dubious value: do either of you have an opinion on why three-letter acronyms (initialisms) are shoehorned for every team? There is only one team in San Francisco, and yet instead of "SF," the Giants are "SFG" on B-R and "SFN" (although there's no SFA!) on BP. Likewise the sole team in St. Petersburg was once "TBD," and is now "TBR" or "TBA." Kudos to Fangraphs for just using team names. I noticed this happens with video games, too: the Gamecube was "GCN," PlayStation was "PSN," etc. There are bigger problems out there, but why use three letters when two would do? Are writers not told to use as few words and letters as needed?"
* Gregory: "I'm a few episodes behind the current Effectively Wild but I had a question that I thought you might be able to provide insight. I just finished listening to the juiced ball update episode (and read Ben's article) and was curious if there is weight to a potential difference in bat construction. I know of nothing different they could do, but I do remember a few years ago when all the maple bats were exploding and everyone was terrified of a potential stake driven through a pitcher/infielders heart out in the field. That problem seems to have gone away entirely. Has there perhaps been a change in bat production that has also caused an increase in batted ball velocity when struck appropriately?"

* Randall: "Given Ben's new article that the balls apparently aren't juiced, what about the bats? I can't remember if this possibility has already been debunked and I admittedly don't know anything about MLB bats. Do they all come from a single supplier?"

* John: "With the shift against lefty hitters putting an infielder in shallow right field, how long will it be until teams are comfortable developing or carrying left-handed throwing infielder on their roster? If your throws to first base are coming from that angle, the handedness of the thrower is either irrelevant or it could actually be beneficial to be a left-handed thrower, since it seems most of the throws to first are on balls hit to the fielder's left side. This really seems like a chance to open the door to more left-handed throwing position players who don't hit enough to be an outfielder of a first baseman."

## Stat Blast

Who are the best hitters with the most sacrifice bunts?

Eddie Collins (1916, 30 bunts & 1923, 30 bunts), Ray Chapman (1917, 67 bunts and 131 OPS+) and Bret Butler (1992, 24 bunts, 130 OPS+).

Rod Carew had 13 sacrifice bunts and a 153 wRC+ in 1974 and in addition to having the most sacrifice bunts was the best hitter on his team.

## Notes

* The episode intro song "Sleep Now In the Fire" is Matt Albers' walkup song
* Bartolo Colon has given up 11 first MLB hits
* Bryce Harper possibly rubbed a bat with a bone as part of rookie hazing.

## Links

* Effectively Wild Episode 1059: Is Your Bat Boned?
* Link to Ben's article about Kershaw’s slider
* Jake Arrieta Has Not Been Good by Jeff Sullivan
* Marucci Becomes Iconic As MLB's Favorite Bat by Hunter Atkins
* Bryce Harper Teams Up with Marucci and JustBats.com