Episode 1: The History of the First Base War
Previous Episode: The Frame Game (April Recap)
The theories of the 2010s pitch-framing analysts are lost to history, purged after a reactionary movement seized sports media in 2031 and instituted the Heyman Doctrine, a brutal set of reforms that made the use of any advanced statistic less predictive than ERA punishable by death. But we do know that these statistics informed the 2014 Kansas City Royals’ decision to acquire Jose Molina from the Tampa Bay Rays. Molina, a month away from turning 39 at the time of the trade, could otherwise hardly be seen as a trade target for a team that hoped to save the future of baseball in 2014. He had a career OPS hovering around the low .600s and had never received more than 350 PAs in a season. If not for the pitch framing craze of the 2010s, why else would anyone trade for Jose Molina?
