Fernando Tatis Jr. is Bringing Joy Back to Baseball

https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/29510713/fernando-tatis-jr-bringing-joy-back-baseball

All the time Tatis spent fixing his foibles paid off. His swings and misses on pitches outside the zone are down by nearly 40% from his rookie season. After committing 18 errors last year, most of them on routine plays, Tatis came around to the idea that every play need not be flashy. He could take the proper angles. Use more feet, less arm. He has zero errors through 16 games this season. As his agent Roger Tomas tells Tatis, sometimes it's OK to be boring.

Perhaps that says as much about who Fernando Tatis Jr. is as anything: He has to actively work at being boring. It took a pandemic and an increasingly monitored set of protocols to keep him from unleashing new sets of choreographed handshakes to celebrate his and the Padres' triumphs. And even constrained -- or as constrained as he can get -- Tatis still manages to make antiseptic, fake-noise-infused, empty-stadium baseball feel urgent.

if at any point this thread title stops being true i will quietly resign

Going to lose an age-21 season that--only 18 games in, so who knows?--might have been in Trout-Pujols range.

just hit #10, not long after trout hit #10

the race to 74 is on

#11 grand slam

Just reading about this--3-0 count, big lead, people are upset.

Oh, please.

unwritten rules of baseball: no joy

he apologized for hitting a grand slam

Tingler, who knows Woodward well from their time together in the Texas organization, wasn’t quite so emphatic. But he spoke with Tatis after the home run and after the game called the moment “a learning opportunity.”

“Just to make sure we get the signs 3-0,” Tingler said. “He’s young, a free spirit and focused and all those things. That’s the last thing that we’ll ever take away. But it’s a learning opportunity.”

I'd feel the same at any time, but in this season ("season")? It's not like they desperately need a reason to care or anything.

Hey @tatis_jr listen up:

1) Keep swinging 3-0 if you want to, no matter what the game situation is
2) Keep hitting homers, no matter what the situation is
3) Keep bringing energy and flash to baseball and making it fun
4) The only thing you did wrong was apologize. Stop that.

— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) August 18, 2020

(NOTE: i'm not a Bauer-apologist, I think he's a dbag).

one of the interesting developments is:

https://www.mlb.com/news/ian-gibaut-chris-woodward-suspended

is there a precedent for a post-game suspension allthewhile not getting ejected for throwing behind someone? That seems highly unusual...

Up by 6 in the 4th inning, Fernando Tatis Jr. just stole third base with two outs on Gibaut

Tatis now leads the league in homers, rbi's, runs, and steals.

And middle fingers!

hehe

starting to think that trading James Shields for this guy was worth it

Taking this very, very rare opportunity to say "Trevor Bauer otm"

Up by 6 in the 4th inning, Fernando Tatis Jr. just stole third base with two outs on Ian Gibaut -- who threw behind Manny Machado last night one pitch after Tatis' 3-0 slam.

Tatis is single-handedly burning the sport's unwritten rulebook. I am here for it.

— AJ Cassavell (@AJCassavell) August 18, 2020

unwritten rules of baseball: no joy

― The GOAT Harold Land (Karl Malone), Tuesday, August 18, 2020 10:47 AM (eleven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

the crack of the bat. the scent of a verdant field. The excitement of the crowd. These are the things that piss base ball fans off the most

— wint (@dril) June 19, 2018

There's no one I'd rather get a fuck-them-all high-five from.

Fernando Tatis keep playing hard and playing great, it’s a pleasure to watch you play, love your success and the Padres rise to be a winner. Keep leading the way. It ain’t easy to hit Hrs. Keep bringing energy you have to the game, we need players like you. An All Star

— Reggie Jackson (@mroctober) August 18, 2020

I know a lot of candidates don’t always like to weigh in hot button controversial topics, but I think Tatis swinging on 3-0 was good actually.

— Jess Scarane for Senate (@JessforDelaware) August 18, 2020

💰💰https://t.co/nZd49IwCeF

— Jess Scarane for Senate (@JessforDelaware) August 18, 2020

FERNANDO TATIS JR TO THE ROOOOOOOOOOF 🤯🤯🤯🤯#FriarFaithful | @Padres pic.twitter.com/xeXDWsChbf

— Fox Sports Slam Diego (@FOXSportsSD) August 27, 2020

noted magician Fernando Tatis Jr. pic.twitter.com/Ckh8pV6gSg

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) September 9, 2020

I compared Tatis/Soto/Acuna for a Facebook post (pro-rated for 162 games):

Tatis: 44 HR, 31 SB, .301/.374/.582, 154 OPS+, 7.9 WAR
Soto: 36 HR, 12 SB, .295/.415/.557, 151 OPS+, 5.0 WAR
Acuna: 42 HR, 32 SB, .281/.371/.538 133 OPS+, 6.3 WAR

I was trying to think of three players this good at the same age (22/23--the range between Tatis and Acuna is a year and 15 days). I thought of Griffey/Thomas/Bonds, but Bonds was four or five years older than them; if you put aside what we know now, Griffey/Thomas/Gonzalez might be comparable. It's possible you'd have to go back to Mays/Aaron/Mantle, although Aaron was three years younger than the other two.

He's only played 75 games, but Bo Bichette--between Soto and Acuna in age--actually falls more or less within the same range:

Bichette: 35 HR, 17 SB, .307/.347/.549, 137 OPS+, 6.9 WAR

I miss Morbs.

.

Is there something inherently faulty with that comparison? The three seem pretty related to me. (Bichette is probably a stretch--letting hometown bias creep in there.)

Bichette is a very good player. I'm not offended. It's probably too early to give him 350 mil though.

Believe me, wasn't inferring that at all. I doubt a Jays fan would even formulate that kind of thought about any player--a willingness to throw around money hasn't been their trademark for quite some time (if it ever was...early '90s, maybe).

(I thought the objection was to linking Tatis/Soto/Acuna. Bichette was just an afterthought.)

I like Bichette as a comparison because he's an infielder.

Tatis, Acuna, and Soto are all awesome, but Bichette isn't that far off on a per-game basis.

How about Trout/Harper/Machado after the 2015 season?

They might be pretty close, yeah, I'm going to check that. I was fooling around earlier today with Griffey/Thomas/Gonzalez through their age 23 seasons (not quite synchronized--the gap is close to a year-and-half between Thomas and Griffey).

Griffey: 30 HR, 18 SB, .303/.375/.520, 146 OPS+, 6.7 WAR
Thomas: 29 HR, 1 SB, .321/.453/.547, 179 OPS+, 6.9 WAR
Gonzalez: 41 HR, 3 SB, .274/.326/.535, 137 OPS+, 4.0 WAR

Gonzalez was clearly inferior to those two and the current three because of his low OBP. I'd forgotten how great Thomas was, though--that's before his two MVP seasons. His OPS+ stood at 182 through his first eight seasons.

feel like soto is about to go on an incredible hitting tear, but as long as the others are playing SS/CF it's gonna be hard for him to compete in WAR

I forgot Acuna signed for 8 years / 100 millions already.

Actually, a bit of hindsight here but make it Trout/Machado/Betts after 2015

Was just about to post when you mentioned Betts. Through 2015 (the age gap is about a year and two months between Trout and Harper--Trout turns 24 in 2015, but after whatever deadline they set for such things, so it counts as his age 23 season on Baseball Reference).

Trout: 35 HR, 29 SB, .304/.397/.559, 169 OPS+, 9.2 WAR
Harper: 31 HR, 12 SB, .289/.384/.517, 144 OPS+, 6.3 WAR
Machado: 25 HR, 11 SB, .281/.330/.458, 114 OPS+, 6.1 WAR
Betts: 19 HR, 24 SB, .291/.348/.471, 119 OPS+, 6.9 WAR

Good comparison, although Machado and Betts are just getting going as hitters in 2015 (but make up for that in WAR on defense).

I did think of Trout/Harper earlier, but Machado/Betts slipped my mind as a third wheel.

(deadline is july 1 for 'age year')

Agree with you that WAR comparisons within each group become trickier when you've got Tatis (or Machado) in the infield, even with a positional adjustment--hard for Soto to keep up. Putting the three-year age gap aside, Mays/Aaron/Mantle makes more sense as a group.

a willingness to throw around money hasn't been their trademark for quite some time

This irl made me laugh. Last big extension for the jays was, I think, Vernon Wells.

https://www.mlb.com/news/fernando-tatis-jr-injured-on-strikeout

"A left shoulder subluxation"--hope that's less scary than it sounds.

if surgery will make his shoulder problems go away forever i hope he just gets it, the pads can probably take the wild card without him

has me thinking of manny machado's fucked up knees, hasn't been on the DL once since he had them taken care of in 2013

Dislocating your shoulder on a swing, damn. Reminds me of Sammy Sosa throwing his back out sneezing, which I did not comprehend as a possibility until I was 35.

all of that otm

in high school i played with a guy (his name was todd but everyone including teachers called him moose) who would maybe twice a year dislocate his shoulder throwing the ball. then he would just kneel on the ground in agony until his brother sprinted out to pop it back in, and then he would be fine. in retrospect that doesn't seem like an ideal process

and yeah i fucking dread sneezing now, for sammy-related reasons. most of the sound i make is pain, not sneeze

Anything you can do, eye can do better. pic.twitter.com/LzXWzzI0Ak

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) April 25, 2021

five homers in 2.5 games jeez

Three HR last night.

Thoughtful comment of the day:

“This whole Tatis stuff, man, it almost enrages me,” Papelbon said. “I worked my ass off so long and so hard and did it the right way. For me, to see something like that, it hurts me so bad.

“I’ll tell you right now: If I was pitching, every single time I face that dude I’m drilling him. I don’t care if I’m bringing in a run and losing the game.”

Waiting for John Rocker and Curt Schilling to weigh in.

Forgot about this thread

Fernando Tatis Jr. is bringing steroids back to baseball

A companion thread for my Stealing the Sign: the Carlos Correa Thread.

Speaking of whom, Correa provides thoughtful comment of the day, part II:

“Wow,” the slugger told media before Friday’s game. “If there’s one thing I don’t respect it’s a cheater. I’ll leave it at that.”

wow this thread title

Xp Correa quote was 'satire'

some mention on the Trout thread of how sad his career has been but the dude produced for a decade and when he's at the plate he can still tear it up. Tatis seems not so good now, idk, he was looking like the Trout to Guerrero's Harper for a minute and now he looks like the Kris Bryant to Guerrero's Harper.