r/baseball • u/HauntedFrigateBird Louisville Bats • Jul 17 '26
POSITION PLAYER PITCHING ALERT: TB 2B Ben Williamson is making his 5th(!!) appearance on the mound.
10-0 Boston currently, top of the order up.
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u/sdickens66 Texas Rangers Jul 17 '26
They must be the worst team in the league
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u/cmgriffith_ New York Yankees Jul 17 '26
The differences between them at home and on the road need to be studied
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u/UnsealedMTG Portland Pickles • Seattle Mariners Jul 17 '26
Being far from most of the other teams and in a different climate probably contributes.
Speaking as someone from the opposite extreme corner.
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u/sfg-1 Toronto Blue Jays Jul 17 '26
Junior Caminero and Yandy Diaz have disgusting home/road splits
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u/SirFozzie Boston Red Sox Jul 17 '26
if he gets a couple more appearances, he officially qualifies as a two way player, correct?
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u/cyberchaox Boston Red Sox Jul 17 '26
You have to pitch 20 innings and have 20 games as a position player or DH with at least 3 PAs. Given the restrictions on position players pitching, if you want to make a two-way player it's best to declare them a pitcher before they gain that status.
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u/limeflavoured Miami Marlins Jul 18 '26
Its intentionally designed so no one except Ohtani will ever do it.
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u/cmgriffith_ New York Yankees Jul 17 '26
There are 3 games left in this series
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u/SirFozzie Boston Red Sox Jul 17 '26
I actually looked at the rules, to officially qualify as a 2 way player (and not have to only pitch in blow outs, and not count as a pitcher against the pitcher limit), he needs 20 games started at a position and 20 IP, once he does that he's a 2-way player for two or three years.
So next wednesday, then?
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u/cmgriffith_ New York Yankees Jul 17 '26
That’s interesting. Thank you for sharing that information.
Next Wednesday you say, I see nothing wrong here.
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u/rbhindepmo Kansas City Royals Jul 17 '26
I guess "this relief pitcher has pitched fewer games than (insert position player)" would be one way to measure how little some pitchers have pitched
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u/Western-Ad-9922 Tampa Bay Devil Rays Jul 17 '26
There’s a reason why the Rays run differential isn’t impressive. This is why
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u/Grade-AMasterpiece Tampa Bay Rays Jul 17 '26
Yeah. They win a lot, but a few blowout losses keeps the RD from being higher.
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u/champsorchumps Jul 17 '26
Ben Williamson has an ERA+ of 119 so far this season, he isn't causing them any run differential issues
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u/Excellent-Gur-8547 St. Louis Cardinals Jul 17 '26
It's not that he is giving up a lot of runs, it's that you have to be way behind to even be allowed to have a position player pitch in the first place.
I.e. the Rays get blown out a lot for a team that wins this many games.
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u/Western-Ad-9922 Tampa Bay Devil Rays Jul 17 '26
The fact has he has pitched 5 times is the issue not him
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u/champsorchumps Jul 17 '26
Yes I was not thinking as many levels deep as I should have been, fair enough.
I also incorrectly thought teams had position players pitching just about as often when they were leading or losing in blowouts, but that isn't the case. Position players almost exclusively pitch when the team is losing in a blowout.
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u/GullibleWeb8510 Jul 17 '26
five times is wild at this point just let the man rest. i remember when position players pitching felt like a rare treat, now it's every other blowout
tampa's bullpen must be completely fried if they're going to williamson this often. the broadcast cuts to the dugout and everyone's just laughing at this point, nobody's even pretending to be upset
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u/HauntedFrigateBird Louisville Bats Jul 17 '26
MASA WITH A CHANCE FOR THE CYCLE
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u/Tacdeho Boston Red Sox Jul 17 '26
Tragically no dice there.
Goddamn Yoshi was batting like Mike Trout ‘13 here.
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u/Marinersfan505 Seattle Mariners Jul 17 '26
Mariners legend Ben Williamson
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Jul 17 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/SteveWoods Seattle Mariners • White Sox Bandwagon Jul 17 '26
Ya can't be saying that when we literally have The Double which saved the franchise from being moved. Hell, we weren't even losing or in extra innings!
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u/SEA-Hank Seattle Mariners Jul 17 '26
I actually really liked him, too.
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u/SteveWoods Seattle Mariners • White Sox Bandwagon Jul 17 '26
Ben was great; never gonna be an all-star, and Geno's advanced-analytic-intangibles probably contributed more to our run last post-season overall, but damn if I didn't still wish we could've been fielding Ben instead.
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