Zach Crizer

New York

Baseball writer. Find my work at @optaanalystus, @dmagazine, @baseballpro. Formerly: @YahooSports, @MLB. Get in touch: [email protected]

Articles

#15: The Baltimore Orioles personality crisis, as described by the teams' fans

2 weeks ago | bandwagon.substack.com | Hannah Keyser |Zach Crizer

Hey it’s Hannah here. Did you see the video out of a rain delay in D.C. over the weekend in which one of the members of the grounds crew was essentially run over by the unfurling tarp? Here, in case you didn’t:Unfortunately for that guy, this is both tremendous content and the perfect excuse to promote a story I just had published at Front Office Sports about groundskeepers.
From Outfield to Shortstop, Mookie Betts is Rewriting His Hall of Fame Plaque

2 weeks ago | theanalyst.com | Zach Crizer

Mookie Betts has taken a unique path to playing shortstop for the Los Angeles Dodgers. In fact, it stands out even in the long history of Major League Baseball. In the summer of 2037, or thereabouts, a bronze plaque of Mookie Betts will be cast in Pittsburgh. An artist will have frozen his oft-beaming face for immortalization and a writer will have completed a potentially more challenging task: Condensing his career into roughly 10 lines of resume lines to remember.
#14 Relievers know everyone thinks they're what's wrong with baseball

3 weeks ago | bandwagon.substack.com | Hannah Keyser |Zach Crizer

Hey, it’s Zach. We launched The Bandwagon one month ago, as of tomorrow. and have not yet died of dysentery. First, thank you for coming along for the ride. We really could not be doing this without your support. If you haven’t already, consider becoming a paying subscriber or sharing The Bandwagon with a friend. Every new member adds to the experience. This week, we’re doing something new (and old).
#13: Behold the peak of Aaron Judge

3 weeks ago | bandwagon.substack.com | Hannah Keyser |Zach Crizer

Does this statistic mean anything? On Sunday, the scuffling Braves (8-13) beat the free-falling Twins (7-15). This was the Braves’ 11th consecutive victory over the Twins, dating back to August 6, 2019. That ties the longest active win streak against a specific opponent with the Rangers’ 11 straight victories over the White Sox.
Is Marcus Semien Sputtering or Breaking Down?

3 weeks ago | dmagazine.com | Zach Crizer |Mike Piellucci

When you make a major investment, you expect some form of payoff, but the vision can vary wildly. Take buying a car, for instance. Shopping for a Porsche is opting for flash: for thrills and emotional uplift and the envious eyes of drivers left in the dust. Browsing on the Volvo lot is something else. It’s a quest to exchange money for reliability, for peace of mind.
#8: (Kick) change for the sake of change

1 month ago | bandwagon.substack.com | Zach Crizer |Hannah Keyser

Hey, Hannah here and I have to issue a correction. I was in the Mets clubhouse on Monday and noticed Francisco Lindor was … wearing the same pants that he had sported for the home opener! The ones I was so enamored with that I led last newsletter with them! I wrote then that I wasn’t confident I had come up with the right brand and I was right to hedge because I had not. The jacket was Bottega Veneta but the pants — which were more denim-y than I realized — are Jacquemus.
We debate: Are the Dodgers too good for baseball’s own good?

1 month ago | bandwagon.substack.com | Hannah Keyser |Zach Crizer

I went to the Mets home opener on Friday and wore a mismatched oversized pink pantsuit from Me+Em. This is Hannah by the way, if you couldn’t already tell. Francisco Lindor was there as well. He aggressively stretched a single off the bat into a close-call double, scored, stole a base, did some other stuff I forget, and wore a very memorable outfit before changing into his uniform.
#6: Short memories and long contracts

1 month ago | bandwagon.substack.com | Hannah Keyser |Zach Crizer

Happy Friday, Zach here this morning. Extension season has been … extended, apparently. Since stateside Opening Day a week ago, the Padres have locked up NL Rookie of the Year runner-up Jackson Merrill for at least nine years. The Red Sox have secured offseason trade prize Garrett Crochet and top prospect Kristian Campbell long-term. And the Diamondbacks have re-upped star second baseman Ketel Marte.
The Tenuous, High-Stakes Partnership of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Blue Jays

1 month ago | theanalyst.com | Zach Crizer |Ana Gonzalez |Ana González

Will Toronto be able to ink him to a new contract? Will the Jays have to trade their star slugger? It’s crunch time for all parties involved in the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. saga. At least for now, you can say this much: They’re in it together. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Toronto Blue Jays have embarked on a crucial season with seismic implications for the would-be franchise player, the franchise that can’t seem to sign one, and the eager powers who could.
#4: Zach says the Astros won the Kyle Tucker trade

1 month ago | bandwagon.substack.com | Zach Crizer |Hannah Keyser

The bats are too good, folks. Hannah here and I know we said we weren’t going to just regurgitate the headlines, but everyone is obsessed with the bats that are not bigger, per se, but are more shapely in all the right places. They’re Rubenesque. The first weekend of the baseball season gave us our first unexpected storyline to sweep the sport. The Yankees are using bats shaped like a brontosauruses according to Monty Python and now they simply can’t stop hitting home runs.