Zach Crizer

@zcrizer

Baseball writer helping fans fan smarter. Read and subscribe to The Bandwagon: Bandwagon.ghost.io More of my work:

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Zach Crizer@zcrizer· 14d

Padres added a second definition for the term “pitching backwards” last night.

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· 16d

Speaking of fair trades: For less than $1 an issue, you can support an independent baseball newsletter that endeavors to make fans smarter, not angrier. bandwagon.ghost.io/the-move-mat...

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· 16d

Some MLB teams make huge changes as a matter of course. Others stick to their model, no matter what. Personality and reality collide at the trade deadline. This week, I charted propensity for action vs. what reality dictates. It's the Move Matrix. bandwagon.ghost.io/the-move-mat...

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· 17d

So, in summary of the very good @mattgelb.bsky.social report … basically the top 3 Phillies figure heads are *at minimum* apathetic toward one another. Seems bad, but I have considered it and … maybe in Philly these are ideal conditions. www.nytimes.com/athletic/747...

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· 18d

These are details that won't solve themselves. www.nytimes.com/athletic/747...

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· 21d

Working on a bit of a Bandwagon project for next week -- hat tip to @hannahrkeyser.bsky.social for nudging my rants into an actual idea -- called the Move Matrix. How does your team's countenance compare to how you think they should behave at the trade deadline? bandwagon.ghost.io/individual-g...

I know what I’ll be doing. Next week, I’m rolling out a feature I’m tentatively calling the Move Matrix. It tries to address the dueling dynamics of:
How reactive is your team constitutionally? Do they make big changes on a hair trigger? Do they hold steady regardless of their situation?
How bold should they be right now? Is it time to do something drastic (in either direction)? Or is wait-and-see the appropriate approach?
I’m interested to know if you have a lean on a description or a prescription for your team ahead of the trade deadline — keeping in mind it's not about buying vs. selling. Do they always leave you wanting more action? Do you wish they would chill out for a minute? Drop a comment, or send an email to hellobandwagon@gmail.com. Let me know where they should go on the matrix.

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· 22d

No, this isn't about LeBron lol. It's about Lu Dort, technically. But really about anyone and everyone who is a player who might mean more to you than a "mid-level trade exception." bandwagon.ghost.io/individual-g...

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· 22d

Babe Ruth on the Boston Braves in the last year of his career.

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· 25d

Included within: Streaks like this tend to happen for contenders, obviously, but boy did the Red Sox start from a low place. bandwagon.ghost.io/14-thoughts-...

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· 26d

Plus, my short, scathing review of that Netflix's approach to the Home Run Derby broadcast. bandwagon.ghost.io/half-and-half/

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· 26d

ICYMI: The rare ~Sunday~ Bandwagon examined how 6 of the worst hitters from 2025's second half became 6 of the best in the first half. ➡️: bandwagon.ghost.io/half-and-half/

Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong has been the most valuable position player in baseball, non-Shohei Ohtani division. Otto Lopez is rampaging toward a batting title in Miami, while playing premium shortstop defense. Ceddanne Rafaela is PCA Lite. Home Run Derby champ Jordan Walker is mashing. CJ Abrams is a key part in an electrified Nationals offense. Elly De La Cruz, more established than his compadres here, bounced back from a prolonged slump in a big way.
All of these players demonstrated ability in fits and starts before this season. All are 27 or under, could still be viewed as in their formative years. All except Lopez arrived in the major leagues with at least a degree of prospect acclaim.
They stumbled hard into the winter, but came back with a vengeance this spring. For these players, the night really was darkest just before the dawn. Are they two-faced, or truly changed?

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· 27d

Inside: Pete Crow-Armstrong improved in both of the major measurable ways a hitter can improve — plate discipline and bat speed — simultaneously. I wanted to know if those upticks in skill tend to stick. bandwagon.ghost.io/half-and-half/

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· Jul 10

ICYMI: I wrote about baseball's increasingly ubiquitous pitch movements charts. It's an explainer for both *How* and *Why* fans can engage with a new form of information presentation. bandwagon.ghost.io/is-this-a-pi...

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· Jul 9

I think if baseball has taught us anything, it's not that information must be old or simple to be interesting. It's that it needs time and conversation to become familiar. Only one place to start. bandwagon.ghost.io/is-this-a-pi...

Baseball's longest running obsession is collecting, storing and displaying information. People behind walls in the ballparks relayed the line score. Fans in the stands expounded upon it, scribbling coded details in scorebooks. Box scores in newspapers distributed the day-by-day results. Baseball cards commodified them, creating art for collectors who had to weather math class before they could get back to negotiating at recess. On and on, time and technology have updated the methods. The player pages at Baseball-Reference are the modern touchstone. Data — collected, stored and displayed in a familiar form — becomes identifiable and meaningful on its own.

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· Jul 7

Not saying but just saying: The last time AJ Hinch and a Cora had baseball-related philosophical differences ...

A photo of the Astros' tunnel where a TV and trash can allegedly powered the sign-stealing scandal.

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· Jul 7

Tired: Who’s the third-best team in the American League? Wired: Who’s the sixth-best team in the National League?

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· Jul 3

Why Paul Skenes looks mortal right now, and more. It's a roundup of baseball oddities and indignities for your holiday weekend enjoyment. bandwagon.ghost.io/whats-in-a-b...

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· Jul 2

Included herein: Dansby Swanson and Craig Counsell's grounded nature conspire to create the most productive run from a No. 9 hitter in a long time. 👀: bandwagon.ghost.io/whats-in-a-b...

The type of guy who bats ninth is almost indistinguishable from the type of guy who doesn’t bat at all. The bottom third of any major-league lineup is in flux by design. It’s platoon guys who shouldn’t face all types of pitchers. It’s bench guys giving a regular a day off. It’s defensive specialists who get the hook when real at-bats are needed. It’s veterans on their way down the hierarchy toward the bench, or young guys who get soft launched into the majors and quickly climb the ladder at the first sign of productivity. There are 69 batters who have taken at least 200 plate appearances this year in the top third of the order, and only 16 who have taken 200 plate appearances in the bottom third.
Swanson has strolled to the plate from the bottom third of the order more than anyone, 274 times. By the RBI count, he just had the most productive 10-game stretch of any No. 9 hitter since integration in 1947, and that elides the production in his one-off No. 8 game.
Maybe it’s because of Counsell’s steady hand, but here’s the list of the most productive RBI months in the 2020s by bottom-third hitters:

1. Swanson, June 2026: 22
2. Pete Crow-Armstrong, April 2025: 21
3. Swanson, August 2024: 20 (in a tie with 2021 Bobby Dalbec and 2025 Wilmer Flores)

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· Jun 28

Sorry to be cynical, but you've got to be an actual Grade A moron to live in the world in 2026 and then think, "Oh yeah, prediction markets will totally operate fairly." It's just like everything else — a ploy to separate normal people from their money — but dumber and more brazen.

By the time Mr. Gardarsson posted to Discord, on April 15, he was appalled. Voters who controlled the most UMA, known as whales, were swaying the vote. People who had voted “yes” in the first round were changing their vote to “no” for seemingly financial reasons. They didn’t want to get slashed.

The game theory behind the oracle had gone kerflooey. Its finely calibrated levers were producing the preferred answer of the voters with the deepest pockets.

On the Discord thread, Mr. Gardarsson delivered a brief lecture.

“UMA’s entire value proposition — the reason any of your tokens are worth anything — is that the Oracle resolves on truth. That’s the promise,” he posted. If whales can scare someone into voting whichever way they prefer, he went on, “then what is UMA? It’s not an oracle. It’s an auction. Whoever holds the most tokens decides reality, and everyone else falls in line out of self-preservation.”

Mr. Gardarsson realized that the oracle had a flaw that afflicted more than a few decision-making systems. It could be warped by money.

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· Jun 26

Hugh Freeze in a hospital bed in the press box, waving.

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· Jun 25

Eric Sogard, the 2015 Royals, Ernie Clement. Sometimes we want a little David with our Goliaths. bandwagon.ghost.io/the-faces-of...

What players deserve, by their statistical performances and by the standards of awards voting and arbitration and the free agent market and Hall of Fame balloting, is important. There is a huge amount of research and record-keeping and discourse devoted to deciphering a player’s contributions and earning power and, eventually, his significance.
What players mean to fans can’t be studied that directly. It dissolves under a microscope.
Sports are the original reality show, and if reality TV proves anything, it's that who we cheer for doesn't line up with achievement. We want the awe of Ohtani, but our enjoyment is amplified by the inkling that a particularly motivated normal-looking guy could overcome the obvious greatness gap and win.
We want significance, but we also want relatability. We want Goliath, but we really, really want to see David knock him down sometimes.

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· Jun 23

Somebody from the New York Times games crew was definitely at that Forest Hills Wilco show the other night.

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· Jun 23

Why the Astros should do a reload and the Tigers should push for October. bandwagon.ghost.io/selling-suns...

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· Jun 23

Also, unfortunately, we gotta talk about the Giants' Pride Night disgrace and a culture that's OK returning to its corner. bandwagon.ghost.io/selling-suns...

Back to the Giants for a minute: Several of their pitchers scrawled Bible verses across the front of their Pride Night caps to make it known that they do not respect the LGBTQ community and clearly did not want to participate in Pride Night. Doing it in San Francisco really diminishes any sliver of a chance that they haven’t had the chance to engage with and understand that community.
The Athletic’s Grant Brisbee summed it up pretty well:
Pride Night is about bringing more people into the group and telling them they belong in the same stadium, rooting for the same team. By resorting to “us” and “them” instead of truly understanding the humanity of the people asking for help, those who chose to make a statement on or with their hats completely missed the point. If anyone is looking to make the world better, they might try listening and understanding. Pride Night is about support and lifting human beings. Making it about something else — yourself, say, or the idea that some people aren’t as worthy of recognition or support — shows how little some people actually care about a message of love.
I’ve written about this before, in regard to Clayton Kershaw doing this. I hope that these players take another route, like Josh Hader did after being confronted with the ugliness of old tweets, and open themselves to their fellow humans, open themselves to reconsidering their actions. But the world right now seems intent on empowering them to take a bigoted stroll back to their corners, as if this is a fight and not a world we all walk along in, better together.

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· Jun 13

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· Jun 10

Root for a Brewers-Rays World Series to undermine MLB's salary cap narrative if you want. But today's Bandwagon is about why you're better off keeping the labor battle out of your fandom til the winter. Read, yell at me, agree, etc: bandwagon.ghost.io/emotional-la...

Pressed last week on the prospect of losing games to labor unrest, as MLB did in 1994 and 1995, commissioner Rob Manfred said, “We’re open to whatever ideas people have, but we need a realistic framework that addresses the fans’ concerns about competitive balance and you just can’t ignore that financial penalties have not gotten it done for us."
The implication is that the tides of public opinion are either important or interesting.
As much as some sort of baseball democracy would make for a fascinating showdown, in an era where at least portions of the discussion of labor issues have become more nuanced and more skeptical of the owners’ self-interested closed-book claims, fan takes on the matter are ultimately a river without a mill. There’s no lever for the actual fans’ actual thoughts to do anything.

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· Jun 10

Plus: The Cubs are upside down, the White Sox are levitating, and the Knicks are creating a timeless New York moment. bandwagon.ghost.io/emotional-la...

It starts as a communal will to watch the same thing together, but captured in a moment of reflection it turns into a sort of art, the type that can add the goosebump-inducing texture to history. When I first saw that image, I thought of the 1986 Mets run, or the Shot Heard Round the World or Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak. And then realized it was the current moment in New York.
Watching your town, adopted or lifelong or newly embraced, reach a long-awaited pinnacle is what sports are for. It might even be what cities are for.

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· Jun 10

The idea that fan sentiment will sway anyone, or that there's some rooting interest that will change the owners' money grab, is a waste of emotional energy better spent on the games. Unless you follow baseball for the labor gamesmanship, in which case have at it. bandwagon.ghost.io/emotional-la...

Fans don’t have a seat at that table or a stake in the discussions, per se. Fandom, like nature, abhors a vacuum. So there’s a temptation to paint the labor battle onto the game at large. Some might root for the Guardians-Brewers World Series to blow up MLB’s competitive balance narrative; others might whisper hopefully about a Dodgers three-peat, thinking it would deliver a salary cap and perhaps structurally require their team’s ownership group to behave more competitively. You can find folks reading labor implications into the trade deadline, contract decisions and more.
And I get it, the near-certain December lockout has been “looming” in headlines for a long time. This upcoming fight doesn’t need to be a dark cloud in the sky of your baseball season just yet, though. Sports fandom is at its best when you feel one with a larger team, a larger collective — when you contribute to a roar that rattles an opposing pitcher, or a standing ovation that lifts a slumping rookie.
Looking for a rooting interest in the labor clash is asking to be a pawn in someone else’s game. Probably a billionaire's.
Because here’s what’s going to happen: If the fans want a salary cap, the owners will pursue one because it would make them more money. If the fans don’t want a salary cap, the owners will pursue one because it would make them more money. The same gist, with inverse motivations, is true of the players, who are grizzled veterans of absorbing and weathering vitriol over their very public salaries to advocate for their value in a money-printing industry.

Zach Crizer@zcrizer· Jun 10

The White Sox broadcast having a full-blown 80s flashback night is going to make for a very funny time capsule of Braden Montgomery's walk-off homer in his MLB debut.