FanGraphs Audio: Jon Bois on Dave Stieb, Louis Head on Pitching

Episode 965

On this edition of FanGraphs Audio, we welcome a documentarian to talk about a Blue Jays legend before speaking to a major league right-hander who’s on a new team.

  • To kick things off, Jay Jaffe welcomes Jon Bois of SB Nation and Secret Base. Jay just wrote about Dave Stieb, while Jon recently began a four-part series called “Captain Ahab: The Story of Dave Stieb,” chronicling the Toronto ace who excelled during the 1980s. Jay and Jon talk about why Stieb was underrated and didn’t get much Cy Young award love, as well as his numerous near-no-hitters before finally landing the one he was looking for. We also hear about Jon’s creative process and how he decided on this particular subject. [2:46]
  • After that, David Laurila welcomes Louis Head, right-hander for the Miami Marlins. The pair spoke last fall when Head was a 31-year-old in the midst of a breakout rookie season for the Tampa Bay Rays. Now, he has joined a different bullpen on the other side of Florida. Head tells us about his winding journey to the majors, which included calling it quits and selling solar panels door-to-door for a while, and how a different approach to his slider helped reshape his career. We also hear about a challenging debut, facing his old team, and what it was like to be optioned 12 times in a season. [39:48]

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Audio after the jump. (Approximate 63 minute play time.)





Dylan assists in producingFanGraphs Audio, Effectively Wild, and the FanGraphs Live Twitch channel. He also enjoys the Waxahachie Swap (RIP), the Air Bud principle, and the Oxford comma. You can Tweet him about any of those things @dhhiggins.

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