Trump can't dismiss Ron DeSantis — he's never faced a GOP candidate like this before - New York Post

On the night of Ron DeSantis’ campaign rollout, I was at a dinner talking politics with one of his supporters. As the man prepared to leave, he joked that “I’m going home to watch Ron DeSanctimonious.” Laughing and pointing to his head, the supporter said, “See, he’s even up here.”

“He” is Donald Trump, and he is in the head of every Republican voter and candidate. That’s what 800-pound gorillas do.

“DeSanctimonious” is, of course, Trump’s favorite put-down tag for the Florida governor. The mocking technique has served Trump well, just ask “low energy” Jeb Bush.

But DeSantis is no Jeb Bush and while it’s too soon to predict the outcome of a nomination race that will last a year, it’s certain that Trump is facing the best-funded, most successful and most prepared GOP opponent he’s ever faced. 

For a host of reasons, including that Trump soon will turn 77 and his schtick is tired while DeSantis is a party superstar at just 44 and eager for a fight, insulting nicknames aren’t going to do the trick this time.

Ron DeSantis has followed Trump as second in almost every GOP poll for 2024.

AP

In fact, to judge by DeSantis’ first days on the trail, he aims to flip the script and force Trump to play defense about his White House record. It’s a bold move that aims to undercut Trump’s claims of being a successful president despite being unfairly hounded by the media and Democrats. 

Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked DeSantis on his handling of COVID and his feud with Disney.

Getty Images

Counterpunch

Already the challenger is accusing the former president of being a big contributor to the enormous national debt, saying, “We’re $31 trillion in debt — and he added almost $8 trillion in debt in just four years as president.”

He also slammed Trump’s support for COVID lockdowns, saying “he turned the country over to [Dr. Anthony] Fauci in March of 2020 that destroyed millions of people’s lives.”

To top it off, DeSantis accused Trump of “moving to the left,” fighting words in a party where conservative voters dominate primaries.

Judging from its erratic responses, Trump’s camp seems to have been caught off-guard by the direct attacks. 

The former president hit back by saying New York’s scandal-plagued ex-governor, Andrew ­Cuomo, handled COVID better than DeSantis, a charge the Florida governor called “very bizarre.”

As the world knows, DeSantis’ Twitter announcement was marred by glitches, prompting gleeful declarations from Trump and Dems that the event was a disaster and a lasting metaphor for the campaign.

Yet the truth is that, glitches aside, tens of millions of people eventually heard or saw the conversation with Elon Musk and subsequent DeSantis ads and interviews. 

The campaign’s goal of being everywhere on Day One was reached — as was the goal of first-day fund­raising. The $8.2 million haul was nearly $2 million more than Joe Biden’s $6.3 million in 2019.

DeSantis and Trump have traded jabs across social media and in interviews.

AP

These are mere skirmishes, however, and Trump remains a heavy favorite to win the war for the nomination and get a rematch with Biden in the general election. 

A 2020 do-over is not what most voters want, but Biden and Trump have the biggest blocs of support in their parties.

Although the GOP field of candidates is larger because there is no incumbent, the primary is, even at this early stage, a two-person race. The likelihood of someone other than Trump or DeSantis winning is slim at best. 

Covering the field

For Trump, the more opponents the merrier, because he believes most of his vote share is secure and having four or five or six other rivals split the opposition vote makes it harder for DeSantis to come out on top in the hunt for delegates. 

But exactly how much of Trump’s vote is immune to the siren songs of others is the key question of the campaign. 

Is it the entire 50% or so that Trump is getting in most polls? Or is it closer to the 25% that many Republicans assume, including some in the DeSantis camp? 

The answer is crucial because nearly all polls suggest Trump has the nomination locked up if he can keep all or nearly all of the support he has. 

DeSantis has failed to get above 30% in most early polls for primaries.

via REUTERS

Consider that in national surveys, and those in the early states, Trump’s lead is at least 20 points and in some cases, twice that. For example, in six recent national polls, Trump’s margin over De­Santis ranges from 21 to 45 points and averages 33 points. 

In Iowa, where the caucus system is an important bellwether, a recent poll has Trump ahead by 42 points. 

His lead in the first primary, in New Hampshire, is 21 points and in the second, in South Carolina, it’s 25 points. 

DeSantis has yet to break 30% in any recent poll.

Moreover, the gap between them has widened, with more voters moving to Trump as his legal entanglements grew more serious. If the phenomenon holds, the completion of continuing investigations could boost Trump even more.

One example: A Manhattan felony trial stemming from hush money payments to Stormy Daniels is scheduled for next March — the height of primary season.

None of this is a secret to De­Santis, and his decision to take on Trump now reflects a self-confidence that never seems to flag. After completing a single term as governor, he got plenty of advice that he wait four more years before seeking the White House. 

Instead, his landslide re-election victory, after the thinnest of margins in his first statewide win, fueled DeSantis’ conviction that his time is now. He’s got a plan, a hot hand and he’s determined to play it. 

His popularity helped Florida Republicans win veto-proof margins in the state Legislature and enabled him to pass major reforms. Education was a top focus, and he expanded school choice and parental rights while limiting leftist indoctrination. His line that “Florida is where woke goes to die” sums up his attitude and his agenda.

Culture wars, even in solid red states, can have negative consequences, and two issues could haunt him.

Both Trump and DeSantis have directly attacked each other on their records and demeanor.

AP

His bitter feud with Disney and his signature on a bill allowing most abortions only through the first six weeks already are targets for Trump, and other candidates can be expected to pile on. Should he get to the general election, those items would be even fatter targets.

For now, DeSantis has plans and money to sustain him for battle through at least Super Tuesday, which is March 5 of next year. If he’s doing well and scoring delegates, his polls will rise and money follows polls.

In addition to the direct donations he is collecting, a soft-money super PAC named Never Back Down is aiming to raise and spend $200 million, including $80 million transferred from the governor’s state account.

The group is reportedly hiring door-to-door canvassers in 18 states and aims to contact every possible DeSantis supporter at least four times in the first four states.

That’s an ambitious, Democrat-like ground game, and despite the polls, Trump shouldn’t underestimate what he’s up against. He’s never faced a Republican like Ron DeSantis.

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Before Jeeps Became SUVs, They Looked Like This - The Wall Street Journal

By A.J. Baime | Photographs by Francesca Forquet for The Wall Street Journal

May 27, 2023 10:00 am ET

John Haglund, 74, a retired human resources executive and software entrepreneur living in South Pasadena, Calif., on his 1950 Willys Jeepster, as told to A.J. Baime.

Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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Five Things I Liked (Or Didn't Like) This Week, May 26 - Fangraphs

Five Things I Liked (Or Didn’t Like) This Week, May 26

by Ben Clemens

May 26, 2023

David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome to another installment of my weekly look at the plays and players that caught my eye. As usual, thanks go to Zach Lowe, who pioneered the concept for ESPN and is one of my favorite sports columnists. This week’s edition features fakes galore, a fun underdog story, outfield defense both good and bad, and a heaping helping of the Braves, Dodgers, and Rays. Let’s get to it.

1. Willy Adames, Dekemaster General
Baseball players love to pull off fun and unusual plays. You can see it in their faces when something unique happens. As far as I can tell from my last few years of baseball viewing, there’s no one this is more true of than Willy Adames. He’s a corner case waiting to happen, and I can’t get enough of it.

Here’s an example from recent memory: Adames is always ready to deceive the runner at second base after a steal. Tommy Edman stole second base against the Brewers earlier this month, getting such a clean jump off of Corbin Burnes that the catcher had no chance to nab him:

That’s a great play by Adames just to reel in the throw, which could easily have flown into center field. It wasn’t a particularly impactful time to keep Edman from reaching third base, what with two outs in the inning and all, but every 90 feet helps. But after making that spectacular play, Adames tried to make an even more spectacular one. He started gesturing towards the outfielder as if to say he’d lost the ball:

Watch closely, and you can see Adames subtly trying to sell it. He puts his glove in a position where the ball is less likely to peek through and keeps his eyes on the outfield. You can’t really tell from this GIF, but he clearly yelled something too. He went full-on cheesy in pursuit of selling it, even if Edman was never going to fall for it. Want proof? Edman shared a laugh with him after the play:

“Hey, nice try there,” he might have said. “I’ve played the middle infield too, you know.” That’s the kind of smile I usually save for when I’m playing poker with my friends and one of them bluffs into my unbeatable hand.

But to quote Michael Scott quoting Wayne Gretzky, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Adames lives by that quote, and he was back at it mere days later. This time, he got his man:

That play mostly looks strange at first glance. How in the world do you turn a double play on a popup? But look a little closer, and you’ll see Adames at work. Look at him calling for the ball:

Is that a particularly great fake? I mean, not to me. He looked over towards third to track the ball before truly committing to it. But Josh Lowe had his head down on the steal attempt, and by the time he picked up Adames, he was in “receive double play turn” position. He even bluffed one of those maybe-you’ll-fall-off-the-base tags:

Does that make sense on a force play? Not to me, and not to the Rays third base coach wildly gesticulating in the background. But baseball happens fast, and Lowe was dead to rights. He looked appropriately chagrined afterwards:

Watch Adames play, and you’re bound to see a few of these bluffs. They’re most fun when they work, but if you ask me, they’re pretty fun either way.

2. Highs and Lows From Gabriel Arias
There’s almost no worse org to be a part of if you’re a middle infield prospect than the Cleveland Guardians. Andrés Giménez and Amed Rosario have had the middle infield to themselves for years, and Giménez just signed a contract extension. The farm system is full of shortstops and second basemen (Tyler Freeman, Brayan Rocchio, Angel Martinez, the list goes on), and it’s not like they can just shift to third base; José Ramírez has that covered for the foreseeable future.

Gabriel Arias, our 10th-ranked prospect on the club, found a way around that logjam. Cleveland’s outfield is the reverse of the middle infield; it’s not Steven Kwan and two cardboard cutouts of Steven Kwan, but it’s not much better than that. If you want to find a spot in the major leagues with the Guardians, it helps to be an outfielder.

Arias, whose calling card is his excellent defense, doesn’t seem like an obvious fit for right field at first glance. But with Oscar Gonzalez back in the minors and Will Brennan benched, he’s getting a shot out there. He’s batting a middling .205/.287/.372, which is somehow still a huge upgrade on what Cleveland was getting out of the position before. But if he can keep his head above water offensively, he’s a lock to stick in right, because his throwing arm is one of the best in baseball.

Arias’ outfield defense first came to my attention in his second game in right field. He didn’t throw anyone out, but he made a few throws that made me press rewind. This one in particular shocked me in a good way:

Oh, you want another angle? Deal:

I was so impressed by Arias’ arm that when I went on Mark Simon’s Sports Info Solutions podcast, I made a point of bringing up his defense. And this was after only two games played in right field in the majors. With a few more under his belt – he’s up to 63 innings now – he’s starting to put together some highlight plays, and some lowlights too.

On Sunday against the Mets, Arias’ inexperience paid off when he bobbled a ball right into an outfield assist. This probably isn’t how you draw it up at home, but hey, it still counts in the scorebook:

Sure, he shouldn’t have bobbled that. Sure, he made a fairly standard relay throw. Sure, it was Gary Sánchez running. But hey, first outfield assist, and he nailed the cutoff man! That was fine, and he wasn’t done. If one is good, two is better:

This time, he opted for speed over power, uncorking a spinning two-hopper that was right on the money. That was far more impressive, even though he still didn’t dial in the throw perfectly. Running towards the foul line and throwing to second base is a difficult combination, and that was a situation where the ball had to be out of his hands almost as soon as he reached it to have any chance.

That’s not to say that it’s all been a success. As you can see in those two throws, Arias is still learning on the job, particularly when it comes to how outfield footwork differs from infield pivots. He’s particularly scattershot when trying to pull off quick turns and throws:

I’m not sure how this experiment will end just yet, but I want it to succeed. I’m a big fan of outfield assists, and I’m hoping that Arias will provide his fair share in the years to come. Hey, it’s more likely than beating out the 75 other contenders for the second base job.

3. Regular Season Grudge Matches
The sheer length of baseball’s regular season makes it unique. You have to win a ton of games to make the playoffs, and it doesn’t matter who they’re against. Four wins on an AL Central swing in August count the same as four against the Rays in June, though one set of four would presumably be far harder to acquire. When everyone has to play so many games, how you play is more important than who; the matchups work themselves out over the course of the year.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t like the occasional regular season clash between titans, though, and this week’s Braves-Dodgers series provided just what I was looking for. The Dodgers started strong, putting up eight runs on both Monday and Tuesday. They were hardly beating up on weak pitching, either; Spencer Strider might be the best pitcher in baseball right now, and Charlie Morton is arguably Atlanta’s second-best option. It didn’t hurt my enjoyment that Jason Heyward got in on the act in his first game in Atlanta as a Dodger:

The Braves didn’t take it lying down, though. The Dodgers looked like they were building towards a sweep when they tied Wednesday’s game 3-3 in the eighth inning. That didn’t last long:

Regular season showdowns don’t always work out this way. Sometimes the pitching matchups don’t cooperate or a star is injured. Sometimes one team or the other is scuffling. But the stars aligned for playoff-caliber baseball in May. Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, and Will Smith gave Atlanta pitching all it could handle. Ronald Acuña Jr., Sean Murphy, and Austin Riley did the same on the other side of the ledger. Bobby Miller’s debut was electric. Strider struck out 11 in a loss. Both teams were firing on all cylinders all series long.

Obviously, most matchups won’t be like this. The Braves were our preseason World Series favorites and the Dodgers are the freaking Dodgers. If you’re expecting a series like this before October, you’ll generally be disappointed. Not this week, though. This felt like an NLCS preview, subject to the whims and uncertainties of playoff baseball.

4. Randy Arozarena, Taking a Walk
You probably don’t think of Randy Arozarena as a patient hitter. That’s because most of his game feels extremely un-patient. He runs the bases with his hair on fire. He has a flair for the dramatic in the outfield. He tees off on fastballs. He strikes out a lot. The whole package just doesn’t feel particularly patient, you know?

Surprise! He’s actually always been on the patient side of things. He’s never swung at an above-average rate. He’s not particularly chase-prone. You’ve probably noticed his power this year, but he’s also excelling by taking pitches. He’s never chased bad pitches less frequently, and not coincidentally, he’s posting career-best walk and strikeout rates.

Those are the raw numbers, but I don’t think they tell the whole story. He stands at the plate like he doesn’t want to walk. He shuffles his feet after misses, keeping himself ready to hit:

He looks annoyed with himself after he takes something in the zone, which just screams “guy who swings out of his shoes” to me:

Even after he draws the walk, I’m left feeling like he wanted to get something to hit. Look at him toss the bat away:

If it’s a particularly important walk, he looks a bit less annoyed, though he manages to look cool anyway:

Am I projecting too much? It’s entirely possible. This is a lot of speculation. Maybe Arozarena loves taking walks. Maybe he talks about his favorite walks lovingly in the dugout between innings. I like imagining him as a man annoyed by his own skill, though. “Ugh, I like hitting, why must I take these bases for free?” It’s just another thing I love about watching the Rays in general, and Arozarena in particular.

5. Mickey Moniak’s Time to Shine
For a first overall draft pick, Mickey Moniak has hardly had a prototypical career. He made it to the big leagues in 2020, but only for a brief cup of coffee, and his career seemed to plateau after that. By 2022, he was completely out of the Phillies’ plans, and they traded him to the Angels for Noah Syndergaard. That didn’t fix things either; he was pretty bad in limited playing time with their big league club last year, though he lit up the PCL.

This being the Angels, they needed some extra outfielders. Taylor Ward has been quite bad this year; he has 200 plate appearances and exactly zero wins above replacement. Brett Phillips barely played before he was outrighted to Triple-A and he’s not exactly an offensive spark plug. Moniak was playing well in Salt Lake; the team almost had to give him a shot.

He took that opportunity, and now he’s running with it. Really, that might be an understatement. He’s batting .419/.438/.935 in 32 plate appearances. He’s already clubbed four home runs, equaling his entire previous major league total. He hit a ball 110 mph, nearly three miles an hour faster than his previous hardest batted ball. He’s already been worth 0.8 WAR by our calculations, which brings his career total up to… well, up to zero WAR, because he’d been 0.8 wins below replacement level in the majors before this year.

Look, he can’t possibly keep this going. He’s already struck out 11 times. He’s only walked once. He’s running a .563 BABIP, for goodness sake. Statcast thinks he should have a batting average in the .200s, not the .400s. There’s nowhere near enough data to say whether this is anything more than a hot streak, but I’m willing to bet it’s just that. His plate discipline is downright terrifying; you can’t chase pitches outside the strike zone 46.2% of the time and succeed. He’s not even a fearsome power hitter; even with his newfound pop, he’s only slightly above the major league average there.

So yes, this streak is going to come to an end. This will probably be the best 10-game stretch of his career. (To be fair, it would be the best 10-game stretch of a lot of players’ careers; if he played like this for a full season, he’d accumulate just over 15 WAR.) Knowing that it’s fleeting just makes me want to savor it more, though.

Moniak is playing like he feels the same way. He tears around the bases at every opportunity. He hunts spectacular plays in the outfield. He’s already robbed a home run:

And that’s not even his most impressive defensive attempt. That honor belongs to a home run robbery attempt that juuuuust missed:

Moniak’s road to the major leagues has been bumpy. The expectations that come with being the first overall pick were never really fair to him; the Phillies signed him to an under-slot bonus and used their savings to splurge elsewhere in the draft. The cancellation of the 2020 minor league season came at an awful time for his development. He’s caught bad break after bad break.

That might still be Moniak’s long-term story: the top draft pick who never made it. But regardless of what happens from here on out, the past two weeks have been magical. On a team with Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, he’s been the best hitter by a mile since joining the club. That’s pretty dang cool. I hope he’s enjoying every moment of it.

Those are the five things in baseball that most caught my eye this week. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did – hey, for once, it’s five likes and no dislikes. I’m taking a one-week break from the column next week (I’m traveling all weekend and won’t have my normal time to watch baseball for little weird things), but look for another installment on June 9. See you then.

How On Earth Is Geraldo Perdomo Pulling This Off?

 

Trea Turner’s Slide Has Not Been Smooth

Ben is a writer at FanGraphs. He can be found on Twitter @_Ben_Clemens.

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Five Things I Liked (Or Didn't Like) This Week, May 26 - Fangraphs

Five Things I Liked (Or Didn’t Like) This Week, May 26

by Ben Clemens

May 26, 2023

David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome to another installment of my weekly look at the plays and players that caught my eye. As usual, thanks go to Zach Lowe, who pioneered the concept for ESPN and is one of my favorite sports columnists. This week’s edition features fakes galore, a fun underdog story, outfield defense both good and bad, and a heaping helping of the Braves, Dodgers, and Rays. Let’s get to it.

1. Willy Adames, Dekemaster General
Baseball players love to pull off fun and unusual plays. You can see it in their faces when something unique happens. As far as I can tell from my last few years of baseball viewing, there’s no one this is more true of than Willy Adames. He’s a corner case waiting to happen, and I can’t get enough of it.

Here’s an example from recent memory: Adames is always ready to deceive the runner at second base after a steal. Tommy Edman stole second base against the Brewers earlier this month, getting such a clean jump off of Corbin Burnes that the catcher had no chance to nab him:

That’s a great play by Adames just to reel in the throw, which could easily have flown into center field. It wasn’t a particularly impactful time to keep Edman from reaching third base, what with two outs in the inning and all, but every 90 feet helps. But after making that spectacular play, Adames tried to make an even more spectacular one. He started gesturing towards the outfielder as if to say he’d lost the ball:

Watch closely, and you can see Adames subtly trying to sell it. He puts his glove in a position where the ball is less likely to peek through and keeps his eyes on the outfield. You can’t really tell from this GIF, but he clearly yelled something too. He went full-on cheesy in pursuit of selling it, even if Edman was never going to fall for it. Want proof? Edman shared a laugh with him after the play:

“Hey, nice try there,” he might have said. “I’ve played the middle infield too, you know.” That’s the kind of smile I usually save for when I’m playing poker with my friends and one of them bluffs into my unbeatable hand.

But to quote Michael Scott quoting Wayne Gretzky, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Adames lives by that quote, and he was back at it mere days later. This time, he got his man:

That play mostly looks strange at first glance. How in the world do you turn a double play on a popup? But look a little closer, and you’ll see Adames at work. Look at him calling for the ball:

Is that a particularly great fake? I mean, not to me. He looked over towards third to track the ball before truly committing to it. But Josh Lowe had his head down on the steal attempt, and by the time he picked up Adames, he was in “receive double play turn” position. He even bluffed one of those maybe-you’ll-fall-off-the-base tags:

Does that make sense on a force play? Not to me, and not to the Rays third base coach wildly gesticulating in the background. But baseball happens fast, and Lowe was dead to rights. He looked appropriately chagrined afterwards:

Watch Adames play, and you’re bound to see a few of these bluffs. They’re most fun when they work, but if you ask me, they’re pretty fun either way.

2. Highs and Lows From Gabriel Arias
There’s almost no worse org to be a part of if you’re a middle infield prospect than the Cleveland Guardians. Andrés Giménez and Amed Rosario have had the middle infield to themselves for years, and Giménez just signed a contract extension. The farm system is full of shortstops and second basemen (Tyler Freeman, Brayan Rocchio, Angel Martinez, the list goes on), and it’s not like they can just shift to third base; José Ramírez has that covered for the foreseeable future.

Gabriel Arias, our 10th-ranked prospect on the club, found a way around that logjam. Cleveland’s outfield is the reverse of the middle infield; it’s not Steven Kwan and two cardboard cutouts of Steven Kwan, but it’s not much better than that. If you want to find a spot in the major leagues with the Guardians, it helps to be an outfielder.

Arias, whose calling card is his excellent defense, doesn’t seem like an obvious fit for right field at first glance. But with Oscar Gonzalez back in the minors and Will Brennan benched, he’s getting a shot out there. He’s batting a middling .205/.287/.372, which is somehow still a huge upgrade on what Cleveland was getting out of the position before. But if he can keep his head above water offensively, he’s a lock to stick in right, because his throwing arm is one of the best in baseball.

Arias’ outfield defense first came to my attention in his second game in right field. He didn’t throw anyone out, but he made a few throws that made me press rewind. This one in particular shocked me in a good way:

Oh, you want another angle? Deal:

I was so impressed by Arias’ arm that when I went on Mark Simon’s Sports Info Solutions podcast, I made a point of bringing up his defense. And this was after only two games played in right field in the majors. With a few more under his belt – he’s up to 63 innings now – he’s starting to put together some highlight plays, and some lowlights too.

On Sunday against the Mets, Arias’ inexperience paid off when he bobbled a ball right into an outfield assist. This probably isn’t how you draw it up at home, but hey, it still counts in the scorebook:

Sure, he shouldn’t have bobbled that. Sure, he made a fairly standard relay throw. Sure, it was Gary Sánchez running. But hey, first outfield assist, and he nailed the cutoff man! That was fine, and he wasn’t done. If one is good, two is better:

This time, he opted for speed over power, uncorking a spinning two-hopper that was right on the money. That was far more impressive, even though he still didn’t dial in the throw perfectly. Running towards the foul line and throwing to second base is a difficult combination, and that was a situation where the ball had to be out of his hands almost as soon as he reached it to have any chance.

That’s not to say that it’s all been a success. As you can see in those two throws, Arias is still learning on the job, particularly when it comes to how outfield footwork differs from infield pivots. He’s particularly scattershot when trying to pull off quick turns and throws:

I’m not sure how this experiment will end just yet, but I want it to succeed. I’m a big fan of outfield assists, and I’m hoping that Arias will provide his fair share in the years to come. Hey, it’s more likely than beating out the 75 other contenders for the second base job.

3. Regular Season Grudge Matches
The sheer length of baseball’s regular season makes it unique. You have to win a ton of games to make the playoffs, and it doesn’t matter who they’re against. Four wins on an AL Central swing in August count the same as four against the Rays in June, though one set of four would presumably be far harder to acquire. When everyone has to play so many games, how you play is more important than who; the matchups work themselves out over the course of the year.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t like the occasional regular season clash between titans, though, and this week’s Braves-Dodgers series provided just what I was looking for. The Dodgers started strong, putting up eight runs on both Monday and Tuesday. They were hardly beating up on weak pitching, either; Spencer Strider might be the best pitcher in baseball right now, and Charlie Morton is arguably Atlanta’s second-best option. It didn’t hurt my enjoyment that Jason Heyward got in on the act in his first game in Atlanta as a Dodger:

The Braves didn’t take it lying down, though. The Dodgers looked like they were building towards a sweep when they tied Wednesday’s game 3-3 in the eighth inning. That didn’t last long:

Regular season showdowns don’t always work out this way. Sometimes the pitching matchups don’t cooperate or a star is injured. Sometimes one team or the other is scuffling. But the stars aligned for playoff-caliber baseball in May. Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, and Will Smith gave Atlanta pitching all it could handle. Ronald Acuña Jr., Sean Murphy, and Austin Riley did the same on the other side of the ledger. Bobby Miller’s debut was electric. Strider struck out 11 in a loss. Both teams were firing on all cylinders all series long.

Obviously, most matchups won’t be like this. The Braves were our preseason World Series favorites and the Dodgers are the freaking Dodgers. If you’re expecting a series like this before October, you’ll generally be disappointed. Not this week, though. This felt like an NLCS preview, subject to the whims and uncertainties of playoff baseball.

4. Randy Arozarena, Taking a Walk
You probably don’t think of Randy Arozarena as a patient hitter. That’s because most of his game feels extremely un-patient. He runs the bases with his hair on fire. He has a flair for the dramatic in the outfield. He tees off on fastballs. He strikes out a lot. The whole package just doesn’t feel particularly patient, you know?

Surprise! He’s actually always been on the patient side of things. He’s never swung at an above-average rate. He’s not particularly chase-prone. You’ve probably noticed his power this year, but he’s also excelling by taking pitches. He’s never chased bad pitches less frequently, and not coincidentally, he’s posting career-best walk and strikeout rates.

Those are the raw numbers, but I don’t think they tell the whole story. He stands at the plate like he doesn’t want to walk. He shuffles his feet after misses, keeping himself ready to hit:

He looks annoyed with himself after he takes something in the zone, which just screams “guy who swings out of his shoes” to me:

Even after he draws the walk, I’m left feeling like he wanted to get something to hit. Look at him toss the bat away:

If it’s a particularly important walk, he looks a bit less annoyed, though he manages to look cool anyway:

Am I projecting too much? It’s entirely possible. This is a lot of speculation. Maybe Arozarena loves taking walks. Maybe he talks about his favorite walks lovingly in the dugout between innings. I like imagining him as a man annoyed by his own skill, though. “Ugh, I like hitting, why must I take these bases for free?” It’s just another thing I love about watching the Rays in general, and Arozarena in particular.

5. Mickey Moniak’s Time to Shine
For a first overall draft pick, Mickey Moniak has hardly had a prototypical career. He made it to the big leagues in 2020, but only for a brief cup of coffee, and his career seemed to plateau after that. By 2022, he was completely out of the Phillies’ plans, and they traded him to the Angels for Noah Syndergaard. That didn’t fix things either; he was pretty bad in limited playing time with their big league club last year, though he lit up the PCL.

This being the Angels, they needed some extra outfielders. Taylor Ward has been quite bad this year; he has 200 plate appearances and exactly zero wins above replacement. Brett Phillips barely played before he was outrighted to Triple-A and he’s not exactly an offensive spark plug. Moniak was playing well in Salt Lake; the team almost had to give him a shot.

He took that opportunity, and now he’s running with it. Really, that might be an understatement. He’s batting .419/.438/.935 in 32 plate appearances. He’s already clubbed four home runs, equaling his entire previous major league total. He hit a ball 110 mph, nearly three miles an hour faster than his previous hardest batted ball. He’s already been worth 0.8 WAR by our calculations, which brings his career total up to… well, up to zero WAR, because he’d been 0.8 wins below replacement level in the majors before this year.

Look, he can’t possibly keep this going. He’s already struck out 11 times. He’s only walked once. He’s running a .563 BABIP, for goodness sake. Statcast thinks he should have a batting average in the .200s, not the .400s. There’s nowhere near enough data to say whether this is anything more than a hot streak, but I’m willing to bet it’s just that. His plate discipline is downright terrifying; you can’t chase pitches outside the strike zone 46.2% of the time and succeed. He’s not even a fearsome power hitter; even with his newfound pop, he’s only slightly above the major league average there.

So yes, this streak is going to come to an end. This will probably be the best 10-game stretch of his career. (To be fair, it would be the best 10-game stretch of a lot of players’ careers; if he played like this for a full season, he’d accumulate just over 15 WAR.) Knowing that it’s fleeting just makes me want to savor it more, though.

Moniak is playing like he feels the same way. He tears around the bases at every opportunity. He hunts spectacular plays in the outfield. He’s already robbed a home run:

And that’s not even his most impressive defensive attempt. That honor belongs to a home run robbery attempt that juuuuust missed:

Moniak’s road to the major leagues has been bumpy. The expectations that come with being the first overall pick were never really fair to him; the Phillies signed him to an under-slot bonus and used their savings to splurge elsewhere in the draft. The cancellation of the 2020 minor league season came at an awful time for his development. He’s caught bad break after bad break.

That might still be Moniak’s long-term story: the top draft pick who never made it. But regardless of what happens from here on out, the past two weeks have been magical. On a team with Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, he’s been the best hitter by a mile since joining the club. That’s pretty dang cool. I hope he’s enjoying every moment of it.

Those are the five things in baseball that most caught my eye this week. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did – hey, for once, it’s five likes and no dislikes. I’m taking a one-week break from the column next week (I’m traveling all weekend and won’t have my normal time to watch baseball for little weird things), but look for another installment on June 9. See you then.

How On Earth Is Geraldo Perdomo Pulling This Off?

 

Trea Turner’s Slide Has Not Been Smooth

Ben is a writer at FanGraphs. He can be found on Twitter @_Ben_Clemens.

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