This generation's Major League Baseball is built on information, on spin rate and spin axis, on launch angle, on pitch counts and anything you can measure in percentages, and all of it is about control. The more you know, the more that teams and players can control the preparation, the adjustments, the outcomes.
But players and staff members have never had less control than under the current circumstances, and hell, you could say that for just about everybody in this country. There's no certainty about when baseball will restart, or even when the players can go back to playing catch and sharing the same clubhouse with teammates without being at a heightened risk for infection with the coronavirus.
All they can do is wait for more concrete information to develop and stay as prepared as they possibly can while enveloped in murk. The calendar typically dictates their work and its pacing. For most players, there is October rest and the first acceleration in November, with the goal to be at full speed near the end of March. But now there are no timelines to work from, no pandemic handbook for players and teams to consult.
The players are working out as best they can under disparate conditions, and the teams track that work as best they can while physically divorced from the players. Ben Cherington, the general manager of the Pirates, outlined some of what his team is doing to monitor the players.
"We are trying to use all the tools we have, probably not that different than a lot of teams," he wrote in a text. Cherington is right about that; the Pirates' protocol is similar to those outlined by officials with other teams, with conference calls and tracking information collected by staffers.
"We've got points of contact between staff and all players -- major leaguers and minor leaguers -- and a shared document that updates several times a week with info from any touch point with a player," he said. "There is also a training video shared with those points of contact.
"We're using Zoom to do regular group calls between coaches and specific major-league player groups. We've got a secure website started to share skill development content with players virtually and are adding content to that weekly. We're also continuing all of our player education and cultural readiness curriculum virtually."
Derek Falvey, who heads baseball operations for the Twins, described the methodology as "by any means necessary and convenient for the guys."
"At the outset of all of this, the key was getting an understanding of what each player was going to have available to them," he said. "That wasn't uniform, obviously. Some guys have full gyms at home and can essentially go back to what it would be like in January as they ramped up to arrive in spring training. Others, because facilities they were using this offseason were shut down, had only what was available to them in their apartments.
"At that point you realize there is no standard plan as to how to handle this. Our performance staff, coaches and clubhouse staff connected on each individual player's needs and had as much equipment shipped to them as was reasonably possible from bands to throwing/hitting nets to balls, etc. That first step seemed most important -- who needs what.
"Our medical group has done a phenomenal job and connects with each of the players every day to ensure health and allows them to have a point of contact for any questions. [Manager] Rocco [Baldelli] and the staff split up calls daily. We're getting video back from some of the workouts, throwing programs, etc. It's all specific to the individual and what is available to them and what they're working to maintain with their position coach."
The players are also making do with what they have. Some have been shooed away from local high school fields, particularly pitchers "who are looking for a bump," as one official said. One veteran starting pitcher, seeking a place to throw, asked his next-door neighbor to serve as his catcher, but is now wary of hurting him.
Twins starting pitcher Randy Dobnak wrote, "Luckily, I'm in a small town and my wife is good friends with the athletic director at the school, and I can go to the indoor cage on rainy days.
"I've been throwing bullpens twice a week at the local high school field. One [session] is about 25-30 pitches, and the other about 55-60 in three different sets to try and simulate a game-like scenario.
"The guy that caught me during offseason comes to the field and catches me. I wipe the baseballs with Clorox wipes before and after, as well as making sure I wipe everything down I touch those days before leaving the field. The other four or five days that I go throw, it's just me and the net playing catch.
"I have been doing some body weight workouts three or four times a week, following a program my strength coaches have sent me. I don't have access to a gym other than some light weights that we have in the basement, so I mix that in with the workouts as well."
Astros shortstop Carlos Correa wrote, "I've been working out at my house. I've got all the equipment I need and I also have a batting cage, so I've been staying ready. I hit off the tee and my hitting coach is quarantined with us, so he throws me batting practice. I've been able to establish a routine -- work out in the morning and hit right after that."
At the outset of spring training, there was an open question in the Phillies organization about whether outfielder Andrew McCutchen would be ready to begin the scheduled opening of the season after blowing out his knee last year. But McCutchen reports that he feels excellent.
"I am in Florida continuing to train," he wrote. "Honestly, with the time off, it is giving me more time to be stronger and efficient with my workouts. Four-hour days of training Monday through Friday. Running, agilities, fly balls, weights, the whole nine. I feel amazing and only gonna get better."
The Twins' Trevor May throws into a net at a local park, erecting and breaking down the net on each trip. "I'm maintaining January intensity as much as possible," he wrote. "I have a makeshift gym in my office where I spend an hour each morning, with a yoga/lifting routine. Then I go throw ... I think it's working fairly well!"
The Dodgers' Gavin Lux joked that he feels as solitary as the Sylvester Stallone character Rocky Balboa while training in Wisconsin. "One of my good friends owns a gym, so I'm able to go work out alone there pretty much on a daily basis," he wrote, "and if I can't on a certain day, I have dumbbells, bands and a trap bar in my basement that I use. I've been hitting at my high school field when weather permits in Wisconsin, and hitting into a sock net in my garage."
The challenge that all front offices and players face is strangely undefined, but it's right in front of them. Rocky Balboa said: "If this is something you wanna do, and if this is something you gotta do, then you do it. Fighters fight."
And baseball players prepare for baseball, in whatever way they can, for whenever that day comes.
Notes from the Baseball Tonight podcast
• Pat Gillick, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2011 for his work as general manager of the Blue Jays, Orioles, Mariners and Phillies, will join the Baseball Tonight podcast Monday and tell the story of how one of the most significant trades in baseball history came together -- the swap of Fred McGriff and Tony Fernandez for Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter. Which raises this question: Based on the career production of the players involved, what were the biggest deals?
Using Roberto Alomar's career WAR of 67.0 as a baseline for the anchor player in trades, Sarah Langs of MLB.com sent along these rankings of deals in the expansion era (after 1961).
1. 1977, four-team trade involving Rangers, Pirates, Braves and Mets: 212.8 WAR -- Bert Blyleven (94.5), Willie Montanez (1.7), Tommy Boggs (2.4), Adrian Devine (2.7), Eddie Miller (-0.1), Tom Grieve (1.9), Nelson Norman (-0.7), Al Oliver (43.7), Jon Matlack (39.4), John Milner (12.5), Ken Henderson (14.8).
2. 1972, Dodgers and Angels: 208.8 WAR -- Frank Robinson (107.2), Billy Grabarkewitz (5.8), Bill Singer (18.7), Mike Strahler (0.9), Bobby Valentine (2.0), Ken McMullen (34.0), Andy Messersmith (40.2)
3. 1969, Twins and Indians: 205.7 WAR -- Graig Nettles (68), Dean Chance (29.9), Bob Miller (16.7), Ted Uhlaender (2.8), Luis Tiant (66.1), Stan Williams (22.2).
4. 1984, A's and Yankees: 202.8 WAR -- Rickey Henderson (111.2), Bert Bradley (-0.3), Tim Birtsas (0.9), Jay Howell (15.0), Stan Javier (25.4), Eric Plunk (13.5), Jose Rijo (36.5).
5. 1999, Blue Jays and Yankees: 200.9 WAR -- Roger Clemens (139.2), Homer Bush (3.0), Graeme Lloyd (5.2), David Wells (53.5).
6. 1990, Padres and Blue Jays: 184.5 WAR -- Roberto Alomar (67), Joe Carter (19.6), Tony Fernandez (45.3), Fred McGriff (52.6)
• Friday: Randy Johnson talks about fear, the 2001 World Series and the moment he threw the ball over the head of John Kruk.
• Thursday: George Brett discusses hitting, the best swing he ever took and the question of whether anyone will ever hit .400 again.
• Wednesday: Jim Palmer talks about pitching against Sandy Koufax in the World Series, and the question of retaliation.
• Tuesday: Mike Mussina talks about working in relief in the 2003 playoffs, his in-game adjustments and what the Orioles pitchers found when they ran a contractor's tape measure to the left-center-field wall in Camden Yards.
• Monday: Johnny Bench talks about J.T. Realmuto, the big trade that changed the Big Red Machine, and that team's place in history.
Paul Hembekides sent along these notes about Palmer: The Orioles were the winningest team in baseball during Earl Weaver's tenure as manager, and Palmer's durability enabled him to employ that famous four-man rotation. Palmer ranks third all time with 132 wins on three days' rest, behind only Walter Johnson and Warren Spahn, and posted a higher winning percentage than either of them in those starts.
Palmer never allowed back-to-back homers and never surrendered a grand slam. In fact, opponents posted an OPS of .432 against Palmer with the bases loaded. That is the lowest mark for any pitcher to face at least 100 batters in that circumstance since data became available in 1974.