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Crying in Baseball: If You Love Soto, Let Him Go

From Juan Soto getting embarassed in The Bronx to an automatic strike zone that may not be so automatic, there IS crying in baseball, baybeee

juan soto

Welcome to Crying in Baseball, Deadseriousness’s weekly baseball column, where I cry and complain about all things Major League Baseball. This week, we’ve got Juan Soto’s sad return to The Bronx, an automatic strike zone that may not be so automatic and the return of Pete Rose.

 

Juan Soto: The One Who Got Away

juan soto

When the New York Yankees traded for Juan Soto before the 2024 season, it came with an almost guarantee the superstar on the last year of his contract would obviously re-sign with the Bronx Bombers—especially after he helped lead the club to its first World Series appearance in 15 years.

Juan Soto had the best season of his career with the Yankees.

Let’s quickly look at his numbers from his season uptown:

  • 41 homers (career-high)
  • 109 RBIs (one shy of his career-high)
  • 166 hits (career-high)
  • 128 runs (career-high AND led the Majors)
  • 328 total bases (career-high)
  • 8.1 WAR (career-high)

Soto was an All-Star, a Silver Slugger and finished 3rd in AL MVP voting.

He hit a 2-out, 3-run homer in extra innings against Cleveland in the ALCS to send the Yankees to the World Series. He was a legitimate hero here.

Yankees were preparing his plaque for Monument Park. His number was about to be retired.

And then he signed with the New York Mets, 10 miles away.

The Yankees offered a 16-year, $760 million contract.

Soto chose the Mets 15-year, $765 million deal, that came with an option to increase the total value to $805 million, free use of a luxury suite at Citi Field, 4 tickets behind home plate for all home games, and personal security for him and his family for both home and away games.

Juan Soto moved downtown for a few extra million and some nonsense perks that sound cool in contract negotiations but actually don’t matter in the long run.

Fast forward to this past weekend, where the New York Mets traveled up the street for the Subway Series against the Yankees. Two first-place teams with a brand new spice in their rivalry built around Juan Soto’s perceived treachery.

All weekend long, whenever Juan Soto jogged out to play the outfield, Yankees fans were in his ear with super creative and clever chants such as “Fuck Juan Soto!”

At one point, the fans all collectively turned their back on Soto.

 

A lot of this is performative by the fans, knowing all eyes would be focused on their reception of the former Yankee but their intentions aren’t important.

It clearly affected Soto, who played like he wanted to be inside playing PlayStation but his dad made him go to his Little League game because he had already committed to the team (and because his dad paid a lot of money for him to be on that field).

Soto went 1-for-10 with 3 Ks over the weekend as Yankees fans treated him like King’s Landing treated Cersei Lannister on her shame walk.

Juan Soto doesn’t deserve to be enemy No. 1 for Yankees fans. After a decade and a half of failing to sniff a World Series, Juan Soto teleported them there.

And the more you read about his free agency, the more it’s evident Soto’s decision to join the Mets was a group decision.

Voice of the Yankees, Michael Kay, has basically confirmed that.

It always felt as though the Yankees refused to give Soto special treatment and Steve Cohen and the Mets had no problem giving Juan whatever he requested.

No other star player has saved seats behind home plate for his family. The Soto’s got a ton of free shit from the Mets and I think the whole fam figured they get to stay in New York and it wouldn’t be a big deal.

I feel Juan.

I, too, would join the team that offered my folks the most free stuff possible.

Juan Soto grew up in the DR. I imagine the Sotos weren’t the richest family ever. And now Juan is one of the highest-paid athletes ever and his fam gets free food on gameday.

A Yankees writer called him the new Jose Altuve.

Jose Altuve and those Astros bums literally stole wins away from the Yankees.

Juan Soto helped the Yankees get to the World Series.

In what world do these two players belong in the same sentence?

Juan Soto was a Yankee for one magical year and I enjoyed every second of it.

Instead of hating your ex for daring to have a life without you, perhaps you should reflect back and be happy that you even got a chance to experience that relationship in the first place. Most people go their entire lives without watching a guy like Soto wear their team’s jersey.

I loved Juan Soto.

And he left me for Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso. And that’s okay.

The Yankees are doing just fine without him.

Good luck to Soto. Queens sucks.



The Machines Are Taking Over

juan soto

Arizona Diamondbacks Ace, Corbin Burnes, is a player representative in the competition committee planning to roll out Major League Baseball’s new Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS)—where a machine will replace the homeplate umpire to call balls and strikes more accurately and avoid dogshit calls like this one:

Or this one:

But Corbin Burnes has concerns after finding out the ABS may not be 1000% accurate.

The margin for error that caught Burnes’ attention means a slight disparity might exist between the exact location of each pitch and where the technology places it. So players are asking league officials about how large that disparity is, and whether it raises doubts about the value of using ABS. And those officials, at a meeting of the sport’s joint competition committee on May 1, acknowledged the margin for error’s presence.

Burnes, told The Athletic that the margin for error was close to a half-inch. In other words, the system could place a pitch that was one-tenth inside the strike zone four-tenths of an inch outside the strike zone. (Source)

And after reading more into this, I, too, questioned this new computer system.

What’s even the point of implementing a new system if the system has flaws?

Then I thought about it for exactly one (1) more second and realized I was being a caveman—terrified of change, willing to fight against my own interests out of fear. Shout out to Trump supporters. I bet that sounds familiar.

Once a night, an umpire will stand behind home plate, watch a ball almost hit the dirt and yell “STRIKE” like we all didn’t see the pitch almost hit the batter.

Once a night.

These umps make mistakes routinely.

Who cares if, maybe, perhaps, by chance, this new ABS is off by a percentage point?

THESE HUMAN UMPIRES ARE OFF BY FUCKING MILES. Often.

This is exactly like when the pitch clock came out and folks immediately jumped to the worst-case scenario, “What if the pitch clock runs down in the bottom of the 9th inning with the bases loaded and a full count, sending that game-winning runner home, huh? What if that happens?”

Then that pitcher should’ve thrown the ball on time.

A new system doesn’t need to be perfect—it just needs to be better than the current broken one—and from everything I read, the Automated Ball-Strike System is lightyears better than Angel Hernandez—who built an entire career off sucking at his job and claiming everyone hates him because he’s Latino or whatever.

Shout out to Corbin Burnes and all the autistic pitchers who will (loudly) complain when the ABS is inevitably installed but I will take this machine narrowly missing a Greg Maddux changeup off the corner of the plate over the current option of pitchers accidentally throwing the ball into Juan Soto’s family section and somehow getting a called strike three.

We can improve the game or we can complain about umpires.

Tough choice.

Pete Rose to the Hall of Fame?

juan soto

Recently, Major League Baseball lifted its lifetime ban on Pete Rose.

And I can take this time to explain whether or not I believe Pete Rose deserves to be in the Hall of Fame but instead, Fuck Pete Rose.

We don’t need to get in-depth on the legacy of a rapist and an overall oaf or we can say fuck him and keep it moving.

I’ll always choose the latter.

Fuck Pete Rose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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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