Outside The Confines: Come get your small samples!

If there’s one thing baseball writers (and fans) love to do, it’s to make a huge deal out of small sample size numbers at the beginning of every season. There are (as you’ll see below) pieces all about red-hot rookie starts, which pitchers are basically ready to collect their Cy Young, and who the next generation of superstars will be.

And here’s the thing: some of this might be right. Sometimes you really can tell when someone is poised to have a career-making season. Other times you just can’t tell what the baseball gods have in store.

With that said, let’s jump into the links and see who is on everyone’s mind across baseball this week.

• Ben Clemens would like to remind us (and Joe Maddon) that you should never intentionally walk someone with the bases loaded. And just to make sure he made his point, he wrote about it twice.
• Matthew Leach looks at 11 rookies who are blowing us all away from the start of the season.
• Kiley McDaniel determines who the current team “aces” are, and who the next generation might be.
• Not a great turnout for the A’s. Fewer than 4000 fans in attendance.

• Jay Jaffe looks at a retooled Andrew Heaney.
• David Adler tries to determine the most unhittable pitches of the new season.
• A lot of people thought Freddie Freeman would be with the Braves forever, but Tom Verducci suggests that with the Dodgers, he’s precisely where he belongs.
• Stephen J. Nesbitt takes a look at what Miguel Cabrera has done to put himself in historic 3000-hit company, and what’s different about him this season. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Who asked for this?

• Rules exist to try to protect baserunners and catchers, which is why the Luke Voit/Tyler Stephenson home plate collision has Reds fans in a tizzy. Story by Mark Sheldon.
• MLB in Nashville? Wilton Jackson offers new details on the group hoping to bring the majors to the Dolly Parton State. (No, Dolly isn’t involved, but she’s my favorite part of Tennessee.)
• Sam Blum spotlights some embarrassing errors in recent Angels telecasts that emphasize the importance of in-person broadcasting. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Advertising jersey patches are coming, whether we like it or not.

• Nick Selbe looks at a pitch from Tigers’ reliever Rony Garcia that was so wild he left the game injured.
• Like it or not, MLB will continue to try making games shorter, and it appears that a pitch clock in the minors is helping shave off a whopping 20-minutes per game, shares Jeff Passan.
• Cam Booster thought he was done with baseball, but now he’s back in the minors and throwing triple-digits. Story by Zach Buchanan. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• The Mets have added a very cool new feature to their in-person game experience.

And tomorrow will be a better day, Buster. Make it so.