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5 MLB Storylines We Gotta Talk About This Week: Drew Maggi Makes History and Jacob deGrom Repeats History

drew maggi

Welcome to MLB storylines we gotta talk about this week which will be a weekly deep dive into the random baseball-related stories that I want to talk to you guys about. This week we have Drew Maggi making his MLB debut at age 33 and Luis Robert Jr just not giving a single shit about the White Sox.

 

Here are the 5 MLB storylines we gotta talk about this week:

 

1. The Pirates are BACK

The Pittsburgh Pirates came into this season with the 27th lowest payroll in all of baseball which meant they had no intentions of dominating Major League Baseball yet here they are a month into the year sitting in first place in the NL Central and leading the National League in runs scored and in team ERA.

The vibes in Pittsburgh are incandescent. It started with bringing back 36-year-old Andrew McCutchen who was the 2013 NL MVP wearing a Pirates jersey and just seems like an overall great dude to have in your clubhouse.

Then the franchise finally decided to pull the trigger and sign Bryan Reynolds—who currently leads the team in hits and RBIs—to a big long-term contract proving that this organization is serious about winning, suddenly, and they care about making their players happy, suddenly.

But all of the good vibes led to their big Disney direct-to-DVD moment when lifelong minor leaguer, Drew Maggi, was called up and got his first major league hit.

The Pirates currently have the 2nd best record in the league and I see no signs of this team falling off a cliff. Shout out to Drew Maggi for being ready for over a decade and making the most of his opportunity when his number was called.

It’s rare but we literally just watched the best day of another human’s life happen right before our eyes. The Drew Maggi Disney Plus series is going to stink so bad and I’m going to watch every second of it while wearing a fake Drew Maggi jersey that I bought on Canal Street.

2. The Chicago White Sox are very much not back

On Sunday night, Andrew Vaughn hit a walk-off 3-run homer against the Devil Rays. Real exciting shit if you ignore the fact that they just lost 10 games in a row and looked like they had no desire to play baseball all year. Oh, it’s even less important after the White Sox gave up a 10-run inning to that same Devil Rays team the next before.

In 2020, Luis Robert Jr was a Rookie of the Year runner-up. He looked like he was poised to be a franchise cornerstone for the next decade. And he has completely given up on this team. Here he is walking to first on a very beatable ground ball:

Really tough not to feel bad for first-time manager, Pedro Grifol, who was put in a tough position of following behind elderly drunk asshole Tony LaRussa and taking over a roster that’s vacant of talent. Grifol clearly can’t motivate these players and his career is going to be nuked before it even started.

 

3. Last place Yankees

gerrit cole

The New York Yankees have quickly become the East Coast Angels led by two generational talents and 23 guys who are getting paid to hang out with them. Gerrit Cole is having one of the best starts to a season in his career and Aaron Judge is the only player in the batting lineup who, ya know, has a bat.

But after suffering a hip injury on his birthday last week, the Yankees must navigate without their reigning MVP. It’s not going great. On Sunday afternoon, the Yankees lost 2-15 to the Texas Rangers. Everyone on this team is slumping at the exact same time.

The Yankees ranked 23rd in runs scored, 27th in hits and 26th in on-base percentage. Maybe they should stop playing Willie fucking Calhoun every night.

Meanwhile, Sonny Gray is the best pitcher in baseball, Nathan Eovaldi just shut them out over the weekend and Miguel Andujar hit home runs in back-to-back games in his season debut for the Pirates. The former Yankees could form an All-Star team. The current Yankees are in last place.

Brian Cashman won’t see heaven.

4. The Kawhi of MLB

So far this season, Jacob deGrom with a 2.67 ERA and 45 Ks to just 4 walks in 6 starts. He’s second in baseball with 13.4 strikeouts per 9 innings. Safe to say, deGrom is once again performing like the best pitcher on the planet. And once again, he’s going to be watching games from the dugout for a while because of course he is.

Much like Kawhi Leonard, we are being robbed of one of the most talented athletes we’ve ever seen. If Kawhi’s knees weren’t made out of looseleaf paper, there is no doubt in my mind we would all collectively agree he’s the greatest wing player of his generation behind LeBron but ahead of Durant and Giannis but thanks to him being rendered unable to play basketball for longer than a month without needing physical therapy, Kawhi will be the best that never was.

Jacob deGrom is easily one of the greatest I’ve ever seen throw a baseball. He had the best fastball in the world for a few years. Every pitch he throws land directly where the catcher is setting up. And he’s mastered the psychology of an at-bat like changing a batter’s eye level and controlling how hard he swings with the perfect balance of offspeed pitches.

But man, his body cannot last an entire 162-game season without needing surgery. Sure, it’s only ‘inflammation’ right now but this is for sure going to lead to some season-ending procedure.

5. The standing ovation clause

Major League Baseball Baseball installed a pitch clock that has led to more good than bad. Games are quicker, there are no more excruciatingly long at-bats where the pitcher shakes off 10 catcher signs or the batter steps out of the box over and over again to take deep breaths.

We have more baserunning, more base hits and just more action overall. Baseball is a significantly better product this year than it has been in recent years.

Unfortunately, they didn’t account for human emotion.

When Cubs outfielder, Cody Bellinger, returned to Los Angeles, he received a standing ovation from the home crowd. The man won the Rookie of the Year and MVP trophies for the Dodgers. He was a member of their World Series team. And the crowd simply wanted to pay their respects to a legend.

He got a pitch clock violation and started the at-bat with a strike. Wonderful.

But Major League Baseball has implemented a brand new clause that allows players to receive standing ovations. As long as their team submits a standing ovation request 24 hours ahead of the game to the league office. That’s such a weird thing to predict a day in advance but the Seattle Mariners did it for Teoscar Hernandez’s return to Toronto.

I guess this is good(?)

 

 

 

 

 

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Written by thelesterlee

Creator of Deadseriousness. Diehard Knicks, Yankees and Giants fan who wants to create a sports and pop culture space that isn't the same copy and pasted AI content you see everywhere else.

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