5 MLB Storylines We Gotta Talk About This Week: Drew Smyly is Perfect Just the Way He Is

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 Smyly getting history stolen from him, a star being suspended, another star coming back from suspension and a former star applying for unemployment.

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

1. Yan Gomes, this is your tape

33-year-old Drew Smyly has had an up-and-down career. He started in Detroit as a 23-year-old rookie for a Jim Leyland-coached squad that lost to the Giants in the World Series. He was the 5th starter in a rotation that would go on to have 3 Cy Young winners (Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and Rick Porcello(lol)).

Drew Smyly would spend the rest of his career bouncing between teams as well as roles in the bullpen and starting sometimes. But for whatever reason, so far this season with the Cubs, Smyly has figured it all out.

Last Friday, over a decade of work finally all came together. Drew Smyly had a perfect game going against the Los Angeles Dodgers until the 8th inning when Cubs catcher, Yan Gomes, decided it was time to take matters into his own hands.

THIS is how Drew Smyly’s perfect game bid ends??? pic.twitter.com/AHaiPZ0pA7

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) April 21, 2023

Heartbreaking shit.

I understand why Yan Gomes went full speed for the ground ball before tackling Smyly to the Earth like Roman Reigns finishing off Brock Lesnar. When your starter has a perfect game going into the 8th inning, you’re on edge wanting to do everything in your power to help him but most importantly, you want to avoid being the asshole who makes the defensive mistake that ruins it all.

But by trying too hard to help, Gomes spilled wine all over the new white carpets and ruined the best moment of Smyly’s career.

As someone who has experienced countless failures in my life, I feel for Smyly but hope he doesn’t dwell on what could’ve been. To be honest, only big geeks know who’s thrown perfect games. In 2023, they’re really not that special anymore. Would’ve been cool to tell your kids or whatever but ultimately, no one would’ve remembered regardless. Nothing matters that much.

2. Return of the Mack

Fernando Tatis Jr is one of the most electric players in baseball who hasn’t appeared in a game since September 2021. He’s had surgeries on his wrist and shoulder and may or may not have taken HGH to help recover from those surgeries and was promptly caught with HGH in his system resulting in an 80-game suspension.

After recording just 1 hit in 9 at-bats (with 3 strikeouts) in his first two games back, Tatis Jr sent a baseball into orbit Saturday night against the Diamondbacks.

Fernando Tatis Jr. crushes his first HR of the season. pic.twitter.com/0cUksF3cty

— MLB (@MLB) April 23, 2023

The Padres would go on to win that game 5-3 because of course they did. Tatis Jr provides a much need edge and swagger to this already stacked All-Star team that seems to kind of just be going through the motions so far this year.

All this team needs is for Juan Soto to wake up and they’ll be a juggernaut.

3. Let pitchers use sticky stuff

I understand the importance for Major League Baseball to maintain a fair competitive balance and all that stuff but last week, Max Scherzer received a 10-game suspension because the umpires ruled his fingers were extra sticky and he used foreign substances to improve his grip on the ball.

Max Scherzer was ejected between innings after a heated conversation with the umpiring crew pic.twitter.com/mqMkOnzchb

— SNY (@SNYtv) April 19, 2023

Scherzer claimed that his hands were sticky from rosin and sweat but after the umpires told him to wash his hands and his fingers were still sticky, Scherzer claimed it was from the alcohol he used when washing his hands.

Here’s David Cone live on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball broadcast doing an experiment on the effect alcohol has on finger stickiness:

David Cone did a rosin experiment for Sunday Night Baseball. pic.twitter.com/9WoMCDPI67

— ESPN (@espn) April 24, 2023

Turns out alcohol helps maintain some stickiness and Scherzer was telling the truth but also the rule says you can’t use foreign substances soooo…

This rule is dumb and far too open for specific umpires’ discretion. Who gives a shit if a pitcher is using sticky stuff? Yes, offenses have been down in recent years so I get wanting to take the advantage out of the pitchers’ hands but the alternative is having a lot of pitchers throwing 100mph now with little to no control over where it’s going and a lot of batters getting their wrists and ribs broken by stray 2-seamers.

MLB has fixed the defensive shift rules. They’ve installed a pitch clock that hurries the pitchers up. Stolen bases are higher than they’ve been in years. Baseball is exciting again with these new rules. The sticky hands thing is a complete non-factor to any of that and no one watching the product would even know from the stands if a pitcher has an extra solid grip or whatever.

Let pitchers be sticky, man. Who cares?

4. End of an Era

Last week, the Arizona Diamondbacks designated future Hall of Famer, Madison Bumgarner, for assignment costing them $34 million but Bumgarner was so bad that this organization was willing to pay any dollar amount just to have him removed from the building.

Bumgarner had 4 starts this season. He recorded 3 losses, gave up 25 hits and 19 earned runs resulting in a 10.26 ERA and a 43 ERA+.

He was objectively one of the worst starting pitchers in baseball for a team that’s currently tied for first in one of the most brutal divisions in sports. Arizona didn’t have time to see if Bumgarner could figure it out. Especially since they have 24-year-old right-hander, Brandon Pfaadt waiting in AAA who has been ranked as one of the best pitching prospects in baseball.

Bumgarner helped the Giants win 3 World Series trophies but in the process, he pitched a bajillion innings and blew his arm out. Since 2000, Madison Bumgarner ranks 2nd in innings pitched among starters through age 26. For context, Bumgarner debuted when he was 19 and finished 2nd in innings pitched the season he was 26 which means his arm is COOKED today.

That was the last era of baseball when pitchers were allowed to just go 9 innings every start and no one gave a shit about pitch count or like, what would happen tomorrow. It was win that game with the best option you had which was often your starter.

It’s why guys like King Felix Hernandez, Jake Peavy and Bumgarner’s teammate Matt Cain, all aged like milk.

But Bumgarner deserves some blame for this himself. From everything I’ve read, Madison is an asshole who refused to ever change his approach. So when his fastball stopped being so fast, he never wanted to learn any other style of throwing. We see guys like Verlander and Kershaw survive that era by changing their approach while Bumgarner was a stubborn weirdo who would rather crash his ATV than evolve.

And now he’s unemployed until some organization tricks themselves into bringing in a super mega ultra washed Bumgarner.

5. “And the throw onto first…not in time”

This week I’ve been fascinated by the catcher position. For the last decade or so, their job was to call games, frame strikes and stop breaking balls from bouncing in the dirt past them to the wall. Occasionally, they had to pay attention to the runner at first base depending on who the runner was but for the most part, that part of their job description was irrelevant.

This explains why base runners have an 81% success rate stealing bases. That would be good for the highest stolen base percentage in Major League Baseball history.

People are going to complain about some unfair advantage to runners and they’ll be right—for now. It sucks that pitchers only have 2 throws onto first to keep the runners honest in order to keep the time of the game down but I think the pendulum will swing.

I’m confident the smart organizations are already telling their scouts to prioritize finding catchers who can throw to second quickly and accurately. It’ll become a crucial skill for starting catchers and you’ll see a lot of defensive guys with atrocious bats gain generational wealth off the strength of their ability to throw runners out.

I’m excited to see a new wave of Yadier Molina’s manifest themselves out of nowhere.

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