In case you weren’t paying attention as the Phillies played hungover baseball last night, Justin De Fratus (dee-freight-us) made his Major League debut in the ninth inning. His first pitch went something like this:
Deep breath, kid. It looks like a lazy fly in the box score (because numbers always tell the truth…).
De Fratus, who is going to need a nickname soon because I refuse to continually put that space in there, got out of the inning unscathed, allowing just one baserunner (a walk). What’s more, his brother, Chris, caught a foul ball… during his brother’s debut… while he was on the mound. I’m sure there is a SABR nerd who has the time to figure out the odds of that*, but we’ll go with this: they’re low. Very low.
Steve Bucci has your quotes: [Philly Sports Daily]
De Fratus was facing Cardinals centerfielder John Jay with two outs. He hung that slider, and Jay fouled it off — right into the waiting hands of Justin’s brother, Chris.
“He was sitting in the family section and he moved to get a better picture of me,” Justin said.
Perfect timing.
Nice work, D-Frat. Now, just pull up that hat so we can see your eyes.
*Maybe not. Moneyball, the story of one man's tactics that led a team to not win the World Series, comes out this week. I'd imagine most are pantsless in a windowless room somewhere.
9 Responses
I saw the non-catch before a replay was even needed. The call should have been incomplete to begin with. The Ref’s were very inconsistent with the way they called the game lastnight, but the eagles shot themselves in the foot.
I veto D-Frat
What’s with all the snark regarding SABR?
“This thing is different.” *confused look, followed by enraged glare* “DESTROY IT!”
It’s ruining baseball and blogs alike!
I like just “Frat” better. There’s so much more you can do with that shirt wise.
FR8
Fratbro
I don’t understand how SABR is “ruining” baseball. It’s just a different way to look at how people are performing. Let’s not be dramatic here.
don’t you know that RBI and Average are all the stats you ever need