We’re not 100 percent confident that these things will actually go down, yet we’ve nonetheless chosen to trust in whatever tea leaves that, in proper Lloyd Christmas fashion, say there’s a chance.
While Romano has already saved 11 games, he’s appeared in 13 of the Toronto Blue Jays’ 24 games.
Hader, meanwhile, is the first pitcher to go 10-for-10 in save opportunities to start a season since Jose Mesa in 2005.
If Hader is going to join K-Rod in the 60-Save Club, he will almost certainly have to surpass his career high of 61 appearances from 2019.
But whereas Hader used to be a multiframe fireman in his first three seasons, the Brewers have taken to using him exclusively for single innings in the last two seasons.
This is, of course, the second year in a row Rodon has started red-hot.
That’s about when Rodon, who has had shoulder and Tommy John surgeries in the last five years, began to break down.
As they’ve thus far tasked Rodon with pitching on four days’ rest only once, the Giants may have learned a lesson from that.
Otherwise, all he needs to do is keep throwing the ball by hitters.
This might seem like a random accomplishment, but only five players have ever drawn that many bases on balls in a single season.
Yet Soto did come close by drawing 145 free passes in 151 games last season.
One reason to believe that this pattern will hold is that Soto is likely to have less protection in the lineup come the trade deadline Aug.
If Soto’s path does lead to 150 walks, he would become the youngest player to cross that threshold.
At the outset of this season, it was a good bet that the American League MVP would come from the Los Angeles Angels.
That hasn’t happened since Johnny Bench, Pete Rose and Joe Morgan won for the “Big Red Machine” Cincinnati Reds in 1972, 1973 and 1975.
Even if Cincinnati gets on that track, however, it would still be on pace to lose 125 games.
It should be shocking that the Reds’ outlook is so grim, but it’s really not.
At the rate the team is going, aces Tyler Mahle and Luis Castillo might as well pack their bags.
The leaguewide strikeout rate is down to 22.9 percent, but that’s little comfort to hitters since basically every other measure of their effectiveness has taken a turn for the worse.
And there is no shortage of pitchers who could join the race once their ERAs more closely align with their dominance.
And yet, even a .234 average would still be below the .237 that the league hit back in 1968.
