More toxic air.

And maybe, someday in the future, it won’t be. The final out of the sixth proves elusive.

He averages 35 feet covered within the first three seconds of a ball’s flight, but if that first step is in the wrong direction, he has a lot of ground to make up to make a catch.

His first major league hit that night was a walk-off single to break a scoreless tie in the 13th inning against the Detroit Tigers. And sheltered in my room, all the windows closed and the purifier blasting on its highest setting, I watch as the Mariners and the A’s, who have now played in unfavorable air quality conditions in multiple states, take the field.

by Retrosheet. There is simply no other option other than to work, even if the very air itself is unsafe. [6], On August 3, 2018, the Athletics called up Laureano and he made his major league debut.

He has very quick reactions, and his quick sprint speed gives a decent burst off the bat, but he’s really struggled with running the correct routes. It’s possible more intelligent positioning could help alleviate his problems. The ballparks of the west are all open-air; the increasing heat and dryness, the decades of fire mismanagement, all suggest that there will certainly be more giant smoke clouds in our future.

It is inescapable. Oakland could be without center fielder Ramón Laureano for as many as six games depending upon the appeal of his suspension, ... according to Fangraphs' Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR). A mid-level prospect with the Astros, the strength of their big league outfield and the depth of their farm system pushed him out of the picture in Houston. [7] On August 20, 2018, he hit his first two major league home runs off Bartolo Colón in a 9-0 shutout victory over the Texas Rangers.

Instead of placing him on the 40-man roster to prevent his selection, the Astros traded Laureano to the Oakland Athletics in exchange for pitcher Brandon Bailey on November 20, 2017.

And with a flourish, he takes four consecutive balls. It looks, in the video of T-Mobile Park on my screen, much like it does outside my window.

And though baseball can be a very effective means of escaping the circumstances of the world outside the stadium — even this season, when the reminders of the pandemic are everywhere — it is impossible to find yourself escaping when the problem currently menacing the outside world is visible in the air itself, the air through which the players move, the air through which the baseball is to fly. Everything has a blurry red-gray haze: the players, the cardboard fans, the grass. It is still unnerving to see these baseball games played in noxious clouds. and play-by-play data provided by Baseball Info Solutions. Almost a month ago, when the fires started burning, MLB clarified their position on the cancellation of games due to air quality. The advanced defensive metrics back up what all those assists tell us. It isn’t long before a run scores, before the bases are loaded with two out, and Laureano hammers a pitch to center.

You probably remember this one: He hasn’t stopped throwing runners out with his rocket arm.

Over the past two years, he’s second in the majors in outfield assists behind Teoscar Hernández, who has almost 400 more innings in the field than Laureano. [15], In 2020, he batted .213/.338/.366 with 6 home runs, 25 RBIs, and an AL-leading 12 hit-by-pitch.

And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

Updated: Thursday, October 22, 2020 10:52 AM ET, Park Factors It was unsafe, they said, to make postal workers walk around in this environment. More death. The skies have gone deep red, then disappeared entirely. In 2019, Ramon Laureano muscled his way into the list of Oakland A’s core position players, alongside infielders Matt Chapman, Matt Olson and Marcus Semien. Pitcher Player Outs Base Score Inning - Top 9 LI WE; L Trivino: D Ruf: 0 ___ 6-0: Darin Ruf singled to first (Liner). There is precedent for such a thing happening. Through it all, they keep playing baseball. Jimmy Yacabonis is on the mound for the Mariners, and from the very first batter he faces — Tommy La Stella, who gets hit by a pitch — it’s clear that this is going to be a struggle. [10] In 2019, Laureano batted .288/.340/.521 with 24 home runs and 67 RBIs. All these defensive highlights have built a reputation for Laureano. All UZR (ultimate zone rating) calculations are provided courtesy of Mitchel Lichtman.

[2], Laureano played college baseball at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College and was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 16th round of the 2014 Major League Baseball draft. It looks so dense that you can almost smell it. In the fifth, it’s two home runs: one from José Marmolejos, one from Kyle Lewis, breaking an 0-for-13.

He returned to Corpus Christi in 2017 where he posted a .227 batting average with 11 home runs, 55 RBIs and 24 stolen bases. Athletics win probability for Saturday, September 19, 2020. Joakim Soria walks Dylan Moore, walks Ty France after him.

Laureano has all the tools to be a great center fielder, but he needs to learn the skills that will allow him to leverage those tools properly. Jesús Luzardo, the A’s starter for the first game, talks about gasping for breath. and play-by-play data provided by Baseball Info Solutions.

In Vancouver, Canada Post canceled all deliveries. More displacement.

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And I’m one of the lucky ones. He struck out in half of his plate appearances in the Wild Card round and made weak contact with the ball when he wasn’t swinging and missing. It draws instant comparisons to Ken Griffey Jr. And when we watch it again, when we return to it in highlight reels years in the future, it will always be partially obscured by the haze: pure elation, leaping and shouting and breathing in an atmosphere of visible poison. No air purifier will absorb all of the particles of ash.

The smoke is everywhere. All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. Last year, he didn’t really struggle with these kinds of batted balls over his head, but that’s changed this season. In August of last year, Ramón Laureano burst onto the scene with the Oakland Athletics.

And this, we are told, is what we have to look forward to in the summers of the future: More burning. The average center fielder positions himself around 321 feet from home plate, but Laureano’s average depth is around 318 feet. All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, But the plays that he doesn’t make usually don’t make the SportsCenter Top 10, and the defensive metrics account for all his plays, seen and unseen. There, the fires are still burning. Yesterday’s Giants-Mariners game was postponed.

In the first game, the Mariners, somehow, manage to stage a comeback, down 5-1 after four innings of a truncated seven-inning game. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous. You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. [13] He was suspended six games on August 11 due to the incident. Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted

Ramón Laureano. They burn more by the hour. Not when the skies above Oracle Park were thick with an eerie orange haze, not when ash blanketed the cars parked outside the Oakland Coliseum.

The other day, Baseball Savant released a new outfield defense metric called Outfielder Jump.

In Seattle, though, the Mariners are, unexpectedly, in the midst of a playoff push. And in the very first inning, something incredible happens. Northwestern minor league teams have done it in recent years; so have teams in the Australian Baseball League. Dozens are missing; dozens have been killed.

[4] Laureano finished 2016 with a combined .319 batting average along with 15 home runs, 73 RBIs and a .955 OPS in 116 total games between both teams. Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted And remember, he didn’t make his major league debut until well into last season, so he’s had far fewer innings to accumulate positive marks for his throws. He’s made four more outfield assists since the above tweet was posted, giving him 15 across 115 career games in center field. With your membership, we can continue to offer the content you've come to rely on and add to … Birthdate: 10/10/1994 (26 y, 9 d) Drafted: 2016 June Amateur Draft - Round: 3, Pick: 4, Overall: 81, Team: Colorado Rockies: Service Time: Statcast uses a ball’s hang time and the fielder’s distance from the ball’s landing spot to calculate a catch probability. On defense he led all major league center fielders in errors, with 7, and had the lowest fielding percentage of all major center fielders (.974). It’s a beautiful play. On May 7, 2019, Laureano robbed Joey Votto of a home run in the sixth inning against the Cincinnati Reds, which would aid Mike Fiers's second career no-hitter.