FanGraphs Weekly Mailbag: April 18, 2026

What-ifs are a central a part of being a baseball fan. We love to contemplate how in a different way issues may’ve turned out if a star participant hadn’t gotten harm, or if a group had signed one free agent as an alternative of one other. Some what-ifs are the stuff of legend, just like the fabled night time within the late Nineteen Forties when, throughout a drunken dinner with Tom Yawkey at Toots Shor’s Midtown Manhattan joint, Yankees proprietor Dan Topping almost traded Joe DiMaggio to the Crimson Sox for Ted Williams. Others aren’t revealed till many years later, like when Barry Bonds stated on the Opening Night time Netflix broadcast final month that he would’ve performed for the Yankees as an alternative of the Giants if George Steinbrenner hadn’t given him a take-it-or-leave-it supply.

All of us have our personal private picks, too. Listed here are just a few of mine: What if the New York Metropolis newspapers hadn’t gone on strike in 1978? What if Eric Gregg hadn’t been the house plate umpire for Livan Hernandez’s begin in Sport 5 of the 1997 NLCS? What if Dottie Hinson hadn’t dropped the ball, or Jimmy Dugan had simply laid off the booze? Among the most vital what-ifs may’ve had a large influence on the world past baseball. What if the Black Sox hadn’t thrown the 1919 World Collection? What if Curt Flood hadn’t challenged the reserve clause? What if George W. Bush had been named commissioner of baseball?

We gained’t be inspecting any of the above what-ifs on this week’s mailbag, however three of the 4 questions we’re answering beneath are rooted in an alternate actuality, one through which Mookie Betts was all the time a shortstop, Ford Frick didn’t run Invoice Veeck out of baseball, and a beginning pitcher was precisely league common at the whole lot besides throwing strikes. The lone non-hypothetical query, which is the place we’ll start, seems at whether or not groups have extra success once they hit a grand slam than once they rating a minimum of 4 runs with out one. However first, I’d prefer to remind you that this mailbag is unique to FanGraphs Members. When you aren’t but a Member and wish to maintain studying, you’ll be able to join a Membership right here. It’s one of the best ways to each expertise the positioning and assist our employees, and it comes with a bunch of different nice advantages. Additionally, if you happen to’d prefer to ask a query for an upcoming mailbag, ship me an e mail at mailbag@fangraphs.com.