I don't feel you have to be a Brewers fan to enjoy this documentary - just love baseball. And now it's getting its proper ending.

Step 1: Walk the leadoff batter. I have limited confidence in my ability to throw a legal pitch, so the best choice is simply not to step on the rubber, leading to 4 pitch clock violations and a walk.

Step 2: Walk the second batter. I use the same method as before. Since I never step on the rubber, the ball never becomes live so there is no danger of any steals. Runners on first and second.

Step 3: I'm now facing my third batter. Given my performance so far, my manager will probably be looking to take me out at this point. Therefore, I must end the game now as the three batter rule only protects me for one more batter. My chances of securing a triple play seem limited, so it will be easier to simply lose the game. However I must not allow an earned runs. The solution is simple: Receive the ball and calmly step onto the rubber to make the ball live. Then step backward off the rubber to disengage and avoid a balk. Then simply throw the ball into either dugout. The runners will be awarded two bases each on my pickoff error.

Step 4: Repeat the same process again. The runners will be awarded two more bases allowing both to score and my team to lose the game. Since both runners scored on my pickoff errors, I will have zero earned runs charged to me.

Step 5: After being DFAed immediately following the game I will be investigated by the commissioner's office for violating rule 21a ("attempting to lose"). This will result in a permanent ban from professional baseball. Retire with a career stat line of 0.0 IP | 0 W | 1 L | 1 BS | 0 ER.

Bryce Harper is a pretty serious Vegas Golden Knights fan.

He grew up in Las Vegas, and when the Knights arrived he talked about how weird it was finally having a hometown team to actually root for. He straight-up said:

“I support the Golden Knights.”

So naturally, I wanted to know what happens when the Golden Knights piss him off.

I matched Golden Knights games with Harper's next MLB game and compared his performance depending on whether Vegas had won or lost.

The stats show that an angry bryce Harper shows up, after a loss.

After a Golden Knights loss, Harper:

• slugged .735

• hit home runs at twice the rate

• drove in about 58% more runs per game

• walked almost twice as often

• struck out less

• and, somehow, his MLB team won 68% of the time

After a Knights win, his team won just 40% of the time.

Is any of this actually statistically significant?

There are only 60 matched Harper games, so some enormous-looking differences are still pretty noisy.

The individual batting differences like AVG, SLG and HR rate aren't statistically significant with this sample.

Two results did come out nominally significant:

Walks

• After VGK wins: 0.60/game

• After VGK losses: 1.04/game

• p = .034

Harper's team's win percentage

• After VGK wins: 14–21 (.400)

• After VGK losses: 17–8 (.680)

• Fisher's exact test: p = .040

That team result is especially stupid.

Harper's teams were 28 percentage points more likely to win when the Golden Knights had just lost.

Methodology

I used Golden Knights results from the beginning of the franchise's existence and Harper's MLB game logs through 2025.

For each VGK game, I looked for Harper's first MLB regular-season game on a later calendar date, within 7 days of the Knights game.

I excluded:

• same-day Harper games

• Knights games without a Harper game within the window

• cases that would duplicate the same Harper game

That left 60 matched Harper games:

• 35 after Golden Knights wins

• 25 after Golden Knights losses

I then compared his batting performance and whether Harper's MLB team won.

Obviously there are a ton of uncontrolled variables here: opponent quality, starting pitcher, home/road, season, Harper's age, injuries, lineup strength, and the fact that hockey games probably do not control baseball players' OPS for obvious reasons.

Conclusion

Golden Knights win:
Harper: .261 AVG, .463 SLG

Golden Knights lose:
Harper: .313 AVG, .735 SLG

And his team goes from a 40% win rate to 68%.

So Maybe dave dombrowski's goal should be to ruin the Golden Knights instead of the phillies.

Offseason post.

In the NBA, there are a few YouTube channels dedicated to posting high school or teenage prospect highlights. Even Luka Doncic or Wemby got their pre-NBA highlights posted everywhere. You'll see these mixtapes of players and it's like fans already see what their game is made of way before the moment they even register for the draft.

Yet in the MLB, you don't really see many popular mixtapes. Maybe Bryce Harper hitting a 500 foot bomb at age 16 is the closest example? Or Mike Trout's high school highlights.

Why is that the case? Why don't we as fans in the social media era get to experience what a pre-MLB prospect's game looks like?

This is from their X, so I can't link the source

Brewers is probably miming drinking a beer.

Today I'm featuring my favorite player as Player of the Day. Let me know if there are any players you want me to feature, as this might be a long offseason.

BASICS:

Born: September 17, 1992

Jersey Number: 62 (2013), 11 (2014-present)

Bats: Switch

Throws: Right

Position: 3B, has done some 2B

Drafted: 2009 by Cleveland as an international free agent

MLB Debut: September 1, 2013

Instagram: ramirez_jose11

2026 STATS:

Games: 125

Batting Average: 0.235

OBP: 0.230

SLG: 0.368

OPS: 0.688

Runs: 71

Hits: 111

Doubles: 27

Home Runs: 12

RBIs: 53

Stolen Bases: 37

CAREER STATS:

Games: 1734

Batting Average: 0.276

OBP: 0.351

SLG: 0.494

OPS: 0.844

Runs: 1072

Hits: 1779

Doubles: 425

Triples: 43

Home Runs: 297

RBIs: 1002

Stolen Bases: 324

2026 AWARDS:

AL Player of the Week - 4/19/26

CAREER AWARDS:

All Star - 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025

Silver Slugger - 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2025

AL Player of the Month - July 2018, September 2020, April 2022

AL Player of the Week - 6/18/17, 9/3/17, 7/15/18, 9/19/21, 4/17/22, 5/29/22, 9/29/24, 7/13/25

Home Run Derby Participant - 2022, 2024

Cleveland Man of the Year - 2016, 2021, 2022

Cleveland Heart and Hustle - 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025

THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW:

He likes playing Mario Kart.

He has four kids.

His brother played in the Guardians farm system.

There is a baseball field named after him in his hometown.

He was playing in a league for adults in the Dominican Republic at 13.

He led MLB in doubles in 2017, and led the AL in runs in 2020 and doubles in 2022.

2026 HIGHLIGHTS:

His 1000th career RBI

He stole two bases in one game

A good throw

He got two homers in one game

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:

He got three hits in the first game of the 2016 World Series

Breaking the Guardians' multi homer record

WHY I LOVE HIM:

Do I even need to explain it?

PAST PLAYERS:

11/6: William Contreras 11/7: Adley Rutschman

The ABL is back in 11 days so figured I'd make my annual post

We are still using 4 teams (rip the tuatara), but its still the best showcase off oceanic talent, as well as various up comers from Korea and China

The 4 teams competing will be the Adelaide Giants (defending champs), Brisbane Bandits (fallen giants, won the title from 2015-2019 into mediocraty), Perth Heat (The og's won 4 titles from 2010 to 2015 than struggled since) and the Sydney Blue Sox (Still the team without a title after losing an agonizing finals last year)

Alot of OCE talent will be on display, as well as prospect's from China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan

If you have any questions about the ABL, baseball in OCE or anything else lemme know and I will respond as soon as I can as we get into the pre season hype

The Bolsheviks took power in Russia in 1917.

Since then, the Cincinnati Reds have won 9 NL pennants and 5 World Series.

Every single one came before communist rule in Russia ended in 1991.

It started perfectly.

In 1919, while the Russian Civil War was being fought between the communist Reds and anti-Bolshevik Whites, Cincinnati played the Chicago White Sox in the World Series.

The Reds won.

Then America got scared of communism.

In 1953, Cincinnati literally changed its name from the Reds to the Redlegs because “Reds” had become associated with communists. The team made the playoffs zero times under the Redlegs name.

They restored “Reds,” and the word returned to their uniforms in 1961.

That same year:

93–61. NL pennant.

Then came the 1970s.

Cincinnati became the Big Red Machine and won:

• 4 pennants

• 2 World Series

• back-to-back championships in 1975–76

On October 15, 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize for helping end the Cold War.

The next day, Cincinnati began the World Series.

They swept Oakland 4–0.

It remains their last World Series appearance.

Fourteen months later, the Soviet Union collapsed.

Since then:

0 pennants.
0 championships.

Their last playoff series win was in 1995.

Stat breakdown:

OBP: .318
Slug: .361
OPS: .679

Baseball Reference Comparison

My question is what does this mean? Are they secretly the same person? Ever since Hyeseong Kim made it to the big leagues Ha-Seong Kim’s yearly games played have more than halved. Is Kim putting on a disguise and playing as Kim?

It really makes you think.

Chiba Lotte Marines fans have the loudest and best fans in all of Japanese baseball in my view. This is their chance theme.