In basketball, a streetball player is a player that hogs the ball and tries to do a million dribbles.

What is the baseball equivalent of streetball player?

Step 1: Walk the leadoff batter. I have limited confidence in my ability to throw a legal pitch, so the best choice is simply not to step on the rubber, leading to 4 pitch clock violations and a walk.

Step 2: Walk the second batter. I use the same method as before. Since I never step on the rubber, the ball never becomes live so there is no danger of any steals. Runners on first and second.

Step 3: I'm now facing my third batter. Given my performance so far, my manager will probably be looking to take me out at this point. Therefore, I must end the game now as the three batter rule only protects me for one more batter. My chances of securing a triple play seem limited, so it will be easier to simply lose the game. However I must not allow an earned runs. The solution is simple: Receive the ball and calmly step onto the rubber to make the ball live. Then step backward off the rubber to disengage and avoid a balk. Then simply throw the ball into either dugout. The runners will be awarded two bases each on my pickoff error.

Step 4: Repeat the same process again. The runners will be awarded two more bases allowing both to score and my team to lose the game. Since both runners scored on my pickoff errors, I will have zero earned runs charged to me.

Step 5: After being DFAed immediately following the game I will be investigated by the commissioner's office for violating rule 21a ("attempting to lose"). This will result in a permanent ban from professional baseball. Retire with a career stat line of 0.0 IP | 0 W | 1 L | 1 BS | 0 ER.

Mid-season collapses are an integral aspect of baseball, as with every sport, it's more about how you finish than how you start. Usually, we see this term assigned towards teams that start out great, and then flame out, but these can also happen to single players, as well. So, what do you think is the greatest example of this, and why?

Now, I don't know how this holds up with other collapses from the past, but a strong recent example from my own team might be 2024 Clay Holmes. As late as June 9, he had an excellent 1.23 ERA (4 ER in 29.1, all 4 ER being on 5/20 vs. Seattle), and was 19-for-22 in save opps. But from that day on, he fell off a cliff as our closer, allowing a massive 4.81 ERA (18 ER in 33.2), blowing 10 saves (adding up to 13, a franchise record in a season), and losing his closer role in September to Luke Weaver, as a result of giving up Wyatt Langford's walk-off grand slam on the 3rd. Granted, he did redeem himself in a set-up/mid-relief role, putting up a solid 2.25 ERA in 13 playoff games, but he was the best closer in baseball just a couple months prior, so him even being in that role was surreal.

I remember when Manny Machado tried to play shortstop for the Dodgers and he was awful. One of the best Third baseman in the game couldn't do it.

Would other teams have moved instead? Would the open PCL have become a third major league? Would the AL and NL have’s absorbed some existing PCL teams?

Bryce Harper is a pretty serious Vegas Golden Knights fan.

He grew up in Las Vegas, and when the Knights arrived he talked about how weird it was finally having a hometown team to actually root for. He straight-up said:

“I support the Golden Knights.”

So naturally, I wanted to know what happens when the Golden Knights piss him off.

I matched Golden Knights games with Harper's next MLB game and compared his performance depending on whether Vegas had won or lost.

The stats show that an angry bryce Harper shows up, after a loss.

After a Golden Knights loss, Harper:

• slugged .735

• hit home runs at twice the rate

• drove in about 58% more runs per game

• walked almost twice as often

• struck out less

• and, somehow, his MLB team won 68% of the time

After a Knights win, his team won just 40% of the time.

Is any of this actually statistically significant?

There are only 60 matched Harper games, so some enormous-looking differences are still pretty noisy.

The individual batting differences like AVG, SLG and HR rate aren't statistically significant with this sample.

Two results did come out nominally significant:

Walks

• After VGK wins: 0.60/game

• After VGK losses: 1.04/game

• p = .034

Harper's team's win percentage

• After VGK wins: 14–21 (.400)

• After VGK losses: 17–8 (.680)

• Fisher's exact test: p = .040

That team result is especially stupid.

Harper's teams were 28 percentage points more likely to win when the Golden Knights had just lost.

Methodology

I used Golden Knights results from the beginning of the franchise's existence and Harper's MLB game logs through 2025.

For each VGK game, I looked for Harper's first MLB regular-season game on a later calendar date, within 7 days of the Knights game.

I excluded:

• same-day Harper games

• Knights games without a Harper game within the window

• cases that would duplicate the same Harper game

That left 60 matched Harper games:

• 35 after Golden Knights wins

• 25 after Golden Knights losses

I then compared his batting performance and whether Harper's MLB team won.

Obviously there are a ton of uncontrolled variables here: opponent quality, starting pitcher, home/road, season, Harper's age, injuries, lineup strength, and the fact that hockey games probably do not control baseball players' OPS for obvious reasons.

Conclusion

Golden Knights win:
Harper: .261 AVG, .463 SLG

Golden Knights lose:
Harper: .313 AVG, .735 SLG

And his team goes from a 40% win rate to 68%.

So Maybe dave dombrowski's goal should be to ruin the Golden Knights instead of the phillies.