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New York Times
28-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
What's it really like at a Sacramento A's game? Plus, lessons from an MLB Draft bust
The Windup Newsletter ⚾ | This is The Athletic's MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup directly in your inbox. Let's tag along as Sam Blum experiences — as the great Leonard Cohen put it — 'the minor fall, the major lift.' Plus: Cal Raleigh is having a boom season, Ken gives us notes on the Dodgers and Mets, and we hear from a first-round draft pick who never quite made it. I'm Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup! Sam Blum tucked his credential in his pocket and bought a ticket to Sutter Health Park in Sacramento to watch an A's game. After all, how often do you get a chance to experience big-league baseball in a minor-league park? (Actually, you've got a pretty big window of opportunity; the A's are there for at least the next three years. Advertisement But Blum didn't just sit there and eat his chicken tenders and drink his beer. He also spoke to a few fans to find out how they feel about the A's being hyper-local. Based on the ticket prices, it feels less like the city is welcoming an old friend for a stay, and more like the two sides are sharing a bunk bed in a European hostel: the accommodations are a bit subpar, there's an expiration date on the relationship and your interaction consists of some pleasantries and a silent prayer that they don't snore too loudly. Of course, by the eighth inning, there was a 'Let's go OAKLAND' chant — a veritable honk-shoo for the Sacramento City Council, I'm sure. One thing I found particularly interesting was the players being … pretty honest in their quotes. Here's starting pitcher Luis Severino: 'The field's not the best. The stadium is not the best, or has the accommodations of other stadiums. … We have a good record on the road versus at home. It's not easy. It's not what we thought it was going to be, but it's what we have right now.' Severino's right. The A's are 9-19 at home and 14-13 on the road. Leftover notes from Saturday's Dodgers-Mets broadcast on Fox: Shohei Ohtani — So much for the idea that Ohtani would abandon base stealing as he prepares to return to the mound. Another 50-50 season might be out of reach once he resumes pitching, but at his current pace, Ohtani would finish with 59 homers and 32 steals. And, while it stands to reason that he'll preserve energy as a pitcher by running less often, we've all learned it's foolish to set limits on him. For his career, Ohtani has stolen 156 bases in 197 attempts — a success rate of almost 80 percent. Dodgers urgency — The closeness of the NL West race influenced the Dodgers' recent decisions to part with their two longest-tenured veterans, Austin Barnes and Chris Taylor, for more talented, younger players. And while manager Dave Roberts surely would prefer that his club was not dealing with so many injuries, the added challenge is helping the Dodgers stay on edge. Roberts believes the team's late clinch last season benefited it in the postseason. And now, between the injuries, difficult current schedule and competitiveness of the division, he does not need to manufacture reasons to keep his players interested. Advertisement Juan Soto — Francisco Lindor, Carlos Beltrán and Mike Piazza all are examples of superstars who initially struggled with the Mets, and Soto's adjustment is even more complicated. His $765 million contract makes him a center of attention. He doesn't have Aaron Judge to shield him the way he did last season with the Yankees. And he felt the full brunt of his decision to leave the Yankees for the Mets last weekend at Yankee Stadium. The booing in the series finale was so loud, some with the Mets believe it got to Soto. For his part, Soto told me, 'Little by little, I'm settling in.' He went on to praise the Mets' coaches for helping him get more comfortable. Carlos Mendoza and Soto — Mendoza, the Mets' manager, is in a unique position to counsel Soto. Before assuming his current position, Mendoza spent 15 years in the Yankees organization. So, he understands the differences in the franchises, how they are run and how they are perceived. And he has talked to Soto about how with the Mets, they have a unique opportunity to build something. Not a replica of the Yankees, but a dominant franchise of their own. David Peterson — With a 2.79 ERA in 10 starts, Peterson is realizing his potential in part because of the surgery he underwent in November 2023 to repair a torn labrum in his left hip. Prior to the surgery, Peterson struggled to keep his back foot connected with the mound; it would slip off because his rotation was limited. Now that he's able to rotate better on his back leg, he can keep his foot connected longer. 'Everything starts from the ground up,' he said. 'Cleaning up stuff in the feet and the legs in turn helps with the upper half.' I've had a theory for a while now that once we get the automated ball-strike system in the big leagues, we'll slowly start to see more offensive production from catchers — framing will matter less, and when one skill begins to devalue, another usually takes its place. Until then, Cal Raleigh's 2025 season is an aberration, not the norm. The interesting thing about those results: Raleigh's 2.0 FRM (FanGraphs' pitch-framing stat) ranks eighth out of 19 qualified catchers. O'Hoppe ranks last, at -5.2, while Smith ranks 11th, at -0.2. And for the time being, that's still important. Even before last night's two-homer outburst, Raleigh was hitting .254/.372/.577 (.948), and his expected stats (you can find those here) suggest he's not getting particularly lucky. Wanna guess how many Mariners catchers have ever posted an OPS of .948 or higher in a season in which they took enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title? To quote the great Jayson Stark: 'That would be none.' In 2006, the San Diego Padres had the 17th pick in the draft. By then, future All-Stars like Clayton Kershaw, Tim Lincecum and Max Scherzer were already off the board, while names like Ian Kennedy, Daniel Bard and Adam Ottavino still remained. The Padres chose Matt Antonelli, a second baseman with a .324 career average (and a .935 OPS) during his three years at Wake Forest. Advertisement Antonelli did make the big leagues … for 21 games in 2008. Now 40, he's a guest writer today on our Peak desk and tells us the lessons he learned from those years coming up short of the expectations set by himself and others. I thought this one was extremely insightful: What feels like a loss can actually be relief in disguise: 'I lost a version of myself I had been building since I was 15 years old. But on the other side of heartbreak was something unexpected: freedom. Once my playing career ended, I felt an unexpected calmness for the first time in a long time. I was able to sit down and ask myself, 'What else am I good at? What do I care about? What do I really want to do?'' I believe the term is 'detachment,' and it's not an easy lesson to learn, especially if you're the sort of person whose personality is one big lifelong bulldog-bite on your desired outcome (a trait that does benefit a lot of athletes). Antonelli seems to have nailed the feeling of true acceptance. {{#if isSubscriber}}{{else}}(Remember: All links are free to read for Windup subscribers.){{/if}} The whole thing is definitely an interesting read — it's not a perspective we often get to see from pro athletes. So much for Matt Vierling's comeback; he's already back on the IL with shoulder inflammation. But in his place, newly activated Wenceel Pérez provided some magic. Have I seen articles like this before? Yes. Did I love every one of them? Also yes. Zack Meisel presents Carlos Santana trivia to Carlos Santana. Pete Crow-Armstrong's breakout season has another side effect: The Cubs are willing to discuss an extension, even in-season. That didn't take long: The Yankees already have a facial hair superstition. The Pohlads are 'making progress' on the sale of the Twins. Thing is, nobody has met the $1.7 billion asking price. Dan Hayes has details. Michael Conforto homered last night, but his season has been brutal. How much more grace will the Dodgers have? A real-life Ricky 'Wild Thing' Vaughn? Mitch Bannon tells us how Blue Jays prospect Gage Stanifer's pitching has improved with better vision. More All-Quarter Century teams: Blue Jays and Astros. Advertisement On the pods: MLB Network Radio's Mike Ferrin joins the boys this week in 'Starkville,' discussing The Athletic's MLB All-Quarter Century Team. Meanwhile, on 'Rates & Barrels,' Eno and DVR wonder if Michael King will reach Blake Snell territory (five years/$182M) when he hits free agency. Most-clicked in our last newsletter: The video of the weirdest baseball play I've ever seen. 📫 Love The Windup? Check out The Athletic's other newsletters.
New York Times
31-03-2025
- Climate
- New York Times
White Sox lose first series of season Sunday — the first of many to come — as runs dry up
CHICAGO — When the rain came Sunday to the South Side, it was late but not unexpected. Predicted showers for the rubber match of the Angels-White Sox series held off until the bottom of the seventh inning, but when the downpour came, it happened quickly. With wind and hail coming down, the Rate Field grounds crew couldn't get the tarp unfurled in time because it got stuck, and the result was a patchwork quilt of smaller tarps and a very wet field. We're getting close to the finished product. The White Sox have a lot of tarps. — Sam Blum (@SamBlum3) March 30, 2025 Groundskeeper Roger Bossard, the famed 'Sodfather,' said he's seen a lot in his days manning a tarp, but nothing like this. 'I've had some trying times in my career, eight inches of snow before opening day, stuff like that,' he told CHSN's Brooke Fletcher in the rare dugout interview with the groundskeeper. 'This one takes the cake. I don't ever remember hail while I was pulling the tarp, and I used close to four tons of drying compound. I'm so proud of the crew, we all hung together and everything turned out well.' Hard as it is to believe, Bossard later claimed the rain — which really didn't last that long, comparatively — was a weather event of historical proportions and he's worked here since 1967. Bossard: "I have to be honest with you. Disco Demolition is No. 1 on my hit list of course. This is probably No. 2. I've never run into where I had 3 inches of water on the infield and then got it ready. I'm proud of my crew and the job they did." — Scott Merkin (@scottmerkin) March 30, 2025 After a nearly three-hour rain delay, the field was dry enough and the White Sox and Angels resumed action. The aftermath was familiar: Sox hitters stranded some runners, a reliever gave up a homer and the Angels won, 3-2. Unlike last season, the Sox at least spent a few days without a losing record. Advertisement Four tons of drying compound to play 2 1/2 innings and lose a game? The team's RSN isn't being carried by Comcast yet, so they're already short on dough. I don't know how bad this will dent the budget, but I think the 2005 reunion later this summer is going to have a cash bar. If that turn of events happened last season — a tarp malfunction followed immediately by a late-inning loss — the takes would've pelted the Sox like the persistent hail that so vexed Bossard's crew. You know, #LOLSox and all that. But it's a new season on the South Side, a fresh start for a team in desperate need of a total makeover, so no one was ribbing them too hard. After all, the Sox proved the haters wrong by winning their first game of the season, 8-1, before ceding to said haters by losing the next two with almost no offense to speak of. Still, they only lost each game by a run, so is it too early to start whipping votes for Will Venable for manager of the year? Can the Sox pitch their way to meeting my bold prediction of 56 wins, equaling Mark Buehrle's jersey number in the year of his statue unveiling? Free, daily sports updates direct to your inbox. Free, daily sports updates direct to your inbox. Venable and his boss, general manager Chris Getz, can certainly be pleased with the results from their starting pitchers in the first series. Sean Burke and Jonathan Cannon each had scoreless outings (six and five innings, respectively) and Sunday's starter, Davis Martin, gave up two unearned runs in six innings. Veteran journeyman Martín Pérez starts in Monday's matinee against the Minnesota Twins and then the rotation's wild card, Rule 5 pick Shane Smith, starts Tuesday night. The pitching in the minors is the strength of the organization, and while big lefties Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith, along with hitters like Kyle Teel or Colson Montgomery, are more interesting to follow for Sox fans these days, don't sleep on this early series with the Twins. If the Sox are hoping to avoid total embarrassment at the big-league level, beating a divisional rival every once in a while would help. Advertisement Last year, the Sox went 10-42 against the AL Central, helping the Royals and Tigers make the playoffs as wild cards. The Twins won 12 of 13 against them, but still finished in fourth. Heck, the White Sox won only eight series in 2024, but how many times did they have a chance like Sunday? When the rain began, I was in the press box researching how many times the Sox lost the rubber game last year, mostly because I wasn't sure how many times they actually won one of the first two games of a series. As it turned out, it happened 17 times and the Sox went 5-12 in such games. That .294 winning percentage was actually better than the .253 that comes with a 41-121 record. OK, I promise I'll stop bringing up 2024! Soon. It was my first time at the park this season, so I spent a lot of time walking around before the game, doing important work like cataloguing the price of concessions, taking pictures of T-shirts and trying food. The vibes were good — except for the people booing former Sox disappointment Yoán Moncada — and it was a typical Sox Sunday crowd, busy but not packed, with the longest line coming at the concourse's balloon animal artist. An announced crowd of 19,951 showed up, which was an improvement of more than 2,000 from the team's first Sunday game last year. Overall, the first series drew about 7,500 fewer people over three games. The Opening Day crowd of 31,403 was the franchise's lowest since 1999 (not including the 2020-21 seasons), which portends a tough season at the gate. It'll be tough for the fans to get as angry about the team as they were the past few years, but malaise is a different story. The Sox are trying to combat this with another strong promotional calendar for its 125th anniversary season, and without recognizable names — the team only sells jerseys of three current players at the park: Luis Robert Jr., Andrew Vaughn and Andrew Benintendi — and winning baseball, free stuff will have to be a major draw. The Sox say brighter days are ahead, but first, a deluge of losses is on the way and I'm afraid the Sox will likely have as much success fighting that storm as Bossard's grounds crew did on Sunday. (Photo of Kyren Paris celebrating his home run in the eighth inning: David Banks / Imagn Images)
