So, I got into this whole baseball thing because of my nephew, right? He’s a huge fan, always talking about his favorite players and teams. One day, he starts telling me about this guy, RJ Sales, who plays for the Detroit Tigers. Says he’s a right-handed pitcher, pretty good, apparently. I was like, “Okay, cool,” but I didn’t really get it. I mean, I used to play a little baseball back in high school, but that was ages ago.
But then I thought, “Why not?” Maybe I could get into it, too. It could be something fun to do with my nephew. So, I started looking this RJ Sales guy up.
- First, I just typed his name into the search bar. Found a bunch of articles and player profiles. This guy was a junior in 2024 and got picked by the Tigers in the 10th round of the draft. That’s something, I guess.
- Then I found out he’s assigned to the FCL Tigers. That’s the Florida Complex League, some kind of rookie-level thing, I think. Not the big leagues yet, but it’s a start.
- I also looked into his stats, I found a page with all his stats from 2022 to 2024, some info about his career. So much information! It had everything from college to the minor leagues. It’s kind of crazy how much they keep track of.
- Then there were these “expert consensus rankings.” I don’t know what half of it means, but it looks like people who know about baseball think he’s got potential. I discovered some “fantasy baseball advice” about him. So, people actually use this stuff to make decisions in their fantasy leagues, seems to be quite a big deal.
- I even found his address. Or, well, not his personal address, but the address of where he played: 4958 Riegal Road, Wilmington, 28403. Not that I’m going to show up there or anything!
I went down this rabbit hole, reading all about his stats, transactions, and even some “Statcast data” whatever that is. I even watched some videos of him pitching. I gotta say, he’s pretty impressive. The way he throws the ball, the speed, the accuracy… it’s like, wow. I can see why my nephew’s such a fan.
So yeah, that’s how I ended up spending hours learning about some baseball player I’d never heard of before. It’s kind of funny, but also kind of cool. I’m still not sure I totally understand all the details, but I’m starting to get why people are so into this sport. And hey, maybe now I can actually have a conversation with my nephew about it, and not feel like I have no idea what’s going on. That’s worth something, right? I might even go to a game sometime, who knows?
