Foul Ball!

Baseball is a very confusing sport. Fernando Tatis Jr has a .295 slugging percentage, which is bad, but he’s hitting the ball harder than anyone in the sport, which is good. Are we supposed to think he’s off to a bad start or an unlucky one? There are also confusing rules. On Monday night, a ground ball in the 9th inning appeared to be clearly foul. The umpires ruled it fair. Online arguing - pardon the redundancy - ensued. Regardless, Mason Miller’s streak ended against the Cubs. So what’s the deal? The Official MLB Rule Book suggests that was a foul ball. But wait! Apparently there’s something called the “Umpire Interpretation Manual”, which I had never heard of until today. There's precedent for that being a fair ball. Similarly seemingly obvious calls have led to online discussion in previous seasons. So…WTF? Thankfully, AJ Cassavell from MLB.Com is here to set us straight, despite feeling exhausted by the subject. We also talked about Mexico City, Manny Machado and what to make of Tatis’s ridiculously high exit velocity and ridiculously low launch angle. Per usual, AJ delivers. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dsmithshow.substack.com