Welcome to Snyder’s Soapbox! Here, I pontificate about matters related to Major League Baseball on a weekly basis. Some of the topics will be pressing matters, some might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and most will be somewhere in between. The good thing about this website is that it’s free, and you are allowed to click away. If you stay, you’ll get smarter, though. That’s a money-back guarantee. Let’s get to it.
The 2026 season is less than a week old and I had a special version late last week, so there isn’t really anything in the form of one, big topic for a soapbox. Instead, I’m going to go with something I did two years ago and just run through a bunch of quick hits. Everything from two years ago still applies, so feel free to check that one out.Â
I’ve stored up a few more, though …
- “See, this is where analytics loses me.” You’ve heard this one, right? You might have even said it. I’ve done a deeper dive on people just blanket saying “the analytics” before and that all applies here. The main thing I don’t like here is the suggestion that you did like using advanced metrics, but then you saw one thing that didn’t perfectly line up and that was it. Now, you’re done. Really? Is that how it works? Hey, I’ve seen a lot of good movies in my day, but this is where movies lose me. No stat in baseball is perfect. I can find plenty of players with worse batting averages than lesser hitters. For example, Magglio Ordóñez had a higher career batting average (by eight points) than Willie Mays. Was he a better hitter? Absolutely not. Should I scoff and be all, “see, this is where batting average loses me!” Think about it.Â
- Have you ever noticed that on every single hit-by-pitch to a player on the home team you can find at least one dude in the crowd who immediately and angrily stands up with his outstretched arms high in the sky? It’s the “what the hell was that?!??!” pose, meaning the suggestion is the opposing pitcher did it on purpose and there needs to be retribution. It is utterly hilarious, especially when the game situation means there was no possible way the pitcher did it intentionally. You know, there are runners on first and second base in a tie game, the count is 2-2, the batter gets hit by a pitch and this dude jumps up all aghast. The best part is this guy is so confident that it was totally nefarious that he is beyond livid. High comedy.Â
- Remember in “The Simpsons Movie” when the entire city of Springfield was covered with a glass dome? We don’t need anything that size, but I would like to request a portable glass dome that can be placed over the top of ballparks and then we wouldn’t have to deal with rain. I don’t know if we could logistically make it work to warm things up when it’s too cold or cool things down when it’s too hot, but just give some coverage to the playing surface during rain. Let’s get a Kickstarter campaign going and raise billions for this. I’m in for a few thousands bucks. Yes, this is realistic and I’m dead serious — why do you ask?Â
- Should catcher framing actually be a skill that is admired? As things stand, I definitely give credit to the best framers and I love that we have stats on how many strikes the best catchers steal for their pitchers. If you sit around and think about it, though, this is a blatant attempt to deceive the game official into making an incorrect call. In other sports, that is reviled. People complain about flopping in basketball all the time. Isn’t framing baseball’s version of the flop? Especially the way it’s done nowadays. Catchers used to just hold their glove or even turn it a little and say they were “presenting” it to the umpire. These days, the best framers move their glove from far outside the zone and catch the ball as they are moving their glove into the zone. The moving target has to make it far more difficult on the umpires and, again, isn’t this just like flopping?Â
- Count me among the people who can’t get overly excited about a player trying to hit for the cycle. I love great offensive games, obviously, but I firmly believe that just because this particular feat was given a name that sounds cool to casual sports fans, it has grown far too much in stature over the years. What is a better offensive day: two doubles and two home runs or hitting for the cycle? The cycle is 10 total bases. Two doubles and two bombs is 12. What gets more attention, though? This is out of whack. One of my proudest moments as a player was when I had a single, triple and home run and then hit one in the gap and ran through a stop sign for a second triple. My coach wanted me to stop for a cycle. Why? No throw was going to beat me to third and a triple is better. Gimme the two triples in a game over a stupid cycle (oh, and settle down if you’re getting worked up over me running through a stop sign — I was 19 and it was summer ball and the game was a blowout). My colleague Dayn Perry last season came up with alternative cycles and these are all much better than the traditional one.
- Finally, there were a few dissenters on social media regarding my ABS takes and that’s totally fine. I understand that we are never going to be uniformly in favor of something new like this. There was, however, one comment in particular that stood out to me and people really need to stop doing this nonsense. The exact words don’t matter, but the suggestion was that anyone who disagrees with him doesn’t watch games and/or doesn’t understand the game. We’ve all seen this applied in so many different instances, right? Imagine the ego a person must possess in order to believe that “everyone agrees with my opinion unless they are ignorant.” It’s an opinion. Differences of opinion happen. Get over yourself. As for this specific subject, I watch games and understand the games and love ABS and I’m not even close to being alone here. You are wrong, sir.Â
Anyway, hopefully you enjoyed these and didn’t take the fun ones too seriously. It’s good to have baseball back. Embrace the grind.Â
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