FanGraphs Q&A and Sunday Notes: The Best Quotes of 2025

In 2025, I once again had an opportunity to interview numerous people within the game. Many of their words were shared in my Sunday Notes column, while others came via an assortment of Q&As, feature stories, and my Old Scouting Reports Revisited series. Here is a selection of the best quotes from this year’s conversations, with the bolded lines linking to the pieces they were excerpted from.

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“Guys are thinking about the game in totally different ways now, and sometimes we lack the art. We lack focusing on the art. We’re thinking like robots instead of thinking like a human, and trying to make decisions based on another human being in a box. That’s the challenge of pitching.” — Max Scherzer, Toronto Blue Jays pitcher

“You see a lot of guys trying to chase that perfect swing. That’s hard to do when you have a guy throwing 99 and it’s running 20 inches, or sinking 20 inches. My thought is just, ‘Go up there and get the bat to the ball.’ Keep it that simple. Don’t try to chase the perfect swing.” — Kevin McGonigle, Detroit Tigers infield prospect

“We can measure the swing — most, if not all of it — and because we can measure it, we can track it. We can see if it is changing. What we can’t measure… actually, we can, but we’re not allowed to put eye-tracking glasses on players in-game. You don’t know what’s actually happening in the brain when it comes to decision-making.” — Dillon Lawson, Boston Red Sox hitting coach

“I remember Bill James saying that a player’s value is in his uniqueness. How unique is he to the pool of players? The decision-making process in today’s game, with the variety of different tools we have, allows us to better identify that uniqueness. Instead of looking at a pitcher and simply saying, ‘He’s a small righty,’ we can know why he is so effective. We can identify the valuable qualities within that uniqueness.” — Jerry Dipoto, Seattle Mariners, president of baseball operations

“What’s unique is becoming more normal now. But I guess the obvious answer would be that there is something about Bryan Woo’s fastball that is perplexing for hitters. And truthfully, while we know it’s good, we’re still surprised at just how good it is by the results.” — Trent Blank, Seattle Mariners director of pitching strategy

“I guess it’s ugly. I never thought it was ugly. My mom always told me I was super pretty. But ugliness… I would prefer to call it uniqueness. I’d rather we use kind words.” — Payton Tolle, Boston Red Sox pitcher

“I wouldn’t have been throwing 97-100 [mph] if it were 40-50 years ago. Even 10 years ago, we were talking about 93-94 being top of the league. The game is in a much different place now. If you throw 93-94, that’s hitting speed.” — Tarik Skubal, Detroit Tigers pitcher

“Kerry Wood wasn’t fun. His arm was extremely powerful, so it was not a fun game of catch on the receiving end. The velocity, the movement… he threw hard. It got on you really quick, and if you didn’t catch it right you felt it for awhile. It was an angry fastball.” — Mark Prior, Los Angeles Dodgers pitching coach

“Terry Forster yelled at Goose Gossage to go play catch that day, and Gossage said, ‘I’m done.’ Forster said, ‘What are you talking about?’ Gossage took off his glove and showed Forster his hand, which was about twice the size of a normal hand… He’d been crushing Gossage all year long, but Gossage hadn’t wanted him to know that he’d outdone him in a game of burnout.” — Steve Sparks, Houston Astros broadcaster

“I yanked it right down the middle, and he hit a homer. As soon as I let it go, the exclamation point above my head went off like in the Wii baseball game. It was, ‘Oh boy, that’s not good.’ He hit it a long way.” — Hunter Brown, Houston Astros pitcher

“Batting average is kind of taking a back seat — I think it could be coming back at some point, in which case you have to make an adjustment — but with the pitchers throwing so hard, and being so good, getting more bang for your buck when you do hit the ball is key. Guys like me need to have more of the FanGraphs-type stats in order to maximize our value.” — Dylan Moore, Seattle Mariners utility man

“The game tells you what you have to do. Now, these kids don’t listen to the game when it speaks to them. See what I’m saying? If a lot of these kids listened to the game when it spoke to them… what the game asks you to do is more important than what you want to do.” — Ron Washington, Los Angeles Angels manager

“My old rocker step was a lot toward the side — when I turned, my momentum went toward third base — and Yamamoto is straight backwards. He turns the back foot, and from there everything is just straight toward home plate. He’s very directional, so I figured, ‘All right, maybe I’ll give this a try.’” — Rhett Lowder, Cincinnati Reds pitcher

“I broke my funny bone. I threw that curveball to a guy named Kumar Rocker. You probably know him? We went to high school together, and were playing an intersquad. I threw him a curveball, he hit it about 400 feet, and I had surgery on my elbow two days later.” — Bubba Chandler, Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher

“If you go to a full ABS system, you’re going to develop more throwers and the injury rates are going to spike,” opined the 36-year-old Toronto Blue Jays right-hander. “Then you’ll have to go back to pitching. The only way to stay healthy is to pitch.” — Chris Bassitt, Toronto Blue Jays pitcher

“I faced some minor-league guys this spring. When you used to throw on back fields — the chainlink-fence league — all they’d do is hack. Now they’re coming up [through the minors] with ABS and are a little more aware of the strike zone.” — Jameson Taillon, Chicago Cubs pitcher

“Yeah, I guess so. I’ve been able to put together some good seasons, and I’m continuing to work at it. Man, it’s been a long time since I’ve thought about any of these [old scouting reports].” — Ian Happ, Chicago Cubs outfielder

“Interesting. Maybe somebody caught me on a bad day? I had pretty good command and I thought my breaking pitch was pretty consistent. Maybe it just wasn’t consistent through the framework of how they were projecting me at the next level.” — Matthew Boyd, Chicago Cubs pitcher

“That’s a great question, because stuff kind of gets you in the door. You need to have something that opens up eyes for scouts and gets you into that door. Once you’re in the door, if there are characteristics, or pitchability, that make a player unique, then you don’t have to chase the stuff as much.” — Chris Young, Texas Rangers president of baseball operations

“Teaching command is something we don’t do very well as an industry. We just teach them to miss bats. Command skills, I think, are something innate that we could help improve, especially in a world where there are only so many bullets in your arm to practice. But it’s a steeper curve to get to that level of command than there is to teach somebody to throw really hard.” — Brandon Gomes, Los Angeles Dodgers general manager

“Certain guys get more opportunities because of the data, and certain guys are more restricted because of the data. If I were with the Rays, I’d probably still be in [Triple-A] Durham. So yeah, I’m glad I’m here. I’m glad I’m able to pitch in the big leagues. It’s definitely more fun.” — Joe Ryan, Minnesota Twins pitcher

“I was on top of the world. It was like, ‘Oh my God, I might be the first-overall pick if I just continue what I’m doing for the rest of the season.’ It was the next outing, or maybe two outings later, where I hurt my elbow.” — Lucas Giolito, Boston Red Sox pitcher

“Some teams in the draft called to see if I would go as a pitcher. I wanted to play third base, though. I was never going to pitch. I don’t think my arm would have held, to be honest. I probably would have ended up having [Tommy John surgery].” — Matt Chapman, San Francisco Giants infielder

“My arm hurt all the time when I was pitching. It was never fun when I pitched, and I wanted to do something fun. I ended up backing out of the draft as a pitcher and just going in as a position player. I let people know, ‘Hey, if you’re going to draft me as a pitcher, I’m going to go to Mississippi State.’” — Austin Riley, Atlanta Braves infielder

“I’m a hitter, man. There are a lot of things that I believe make me who I am… You don’t want to be too stuck up on what you have going on, but at the same time, you want to believe in what you have going on.” — Termarr Johnson, Pittsburgh Pirates infield Prospect

“He would tell me, ‘I’m trying to set up this pitcher. I’m going to look bad on this breaking ball so he will throw it again.’ This was in A-ball, as a teenager. The guy would throw it again, and he’d hit a home run. The same swing you see now, he had then. Altuve took some donkey hacks.” — Rodney Linares, Tampa Bay Rays bench coach

“That mini version of myself was able to grow into this bigger version. That’s where it stemmed from. In my childhood, I was always short, playing up. I was small playing with the big boys, and felt like I needed to swing harder to keep up with them.” — Cody Bellinger, New York Yankees outfielder

“Short-season provided an avenue for them to get a little exposure to affiliate baseball. [Not having it] expedites the timeline for those guys. So yes, in a perfect world… development-wise, I think it hurts us more than it helps us.” — Paul Janish, Chicago White Sox farm director

“He might have doubled up changeups in one at-bat. His changeup is really good. He may have also doubled up on a sweeper once or twice, throwing one for a strike and another for a ball. He threw me a couple of pretty good sweepers.” — Nick Kurtz, Athletics first baseman

“The sweeper has also become a big pitch. I really don’t think it’s a new pitch — they maybe just use another adjective to describe it — but it is different than a true slider or a true curveball. When I think about people like Dave Stieb, his ball swept.” — Paul Molitor, Minnesota Twins broadcaster

“I haven’t really got on that bandwagon of supinators [versus] pronators, basically bucketing people. There are a lot of different ways that you can make the ball come off your hand, the kick-change being an example. Pronation and supination probably lead you down the road of certain types of pitches, but I think we can be way more creative than that.” — Desi Druschel, New York Mets pitching coach

“I threw one in the pen, and it wasn’t good. He was like, ‘Alright, let’s try this.’ It was the splinker grip that I have now, and Teel just about jumped up and down when I threw it the first time. He was like, ‘We’re throwing that in the game today.’ I did, and I think I got four or five punchouts with it.” — Hunter Dobbins, Boston Red Sox pitcher

“We were playing catch — I work out with him during the offseason — and he was just like, ‘Dude, get off the seam.’ I tried it, and it just took off, straight down. It was like, ‘OK, that’ll work.”— Chase Dollander, Colorado Rockies pitcher

“I was showing Charlie how I threw it. He was like, ‘Wow, man. I don’t want to sit here and tell you what to do, but you’ve got to be perfect — have perfect timing — for that pitch to move like you want it to.’ He was right. I would throw a pitch that moved like this, and the next one moved like that, yet they would feel the same.” — Spencer Schwellenbach, Atlanta Braves pitcher

“That was the honey hole, release height-wise. So, when I came in it was really high. I’d kind of been chasing Trackman numbers, but then I kind of figured things out and moved it back down.” — Tanner Bibee, Cleveland Guardians pitcher

“A Vulcan is just another way to create some friction and impact the baseball in a different way. If I were just to do a circle [change], I don’t think I would get quite the velo differential or the movement profile. I get more of the traditional changeup sidespin, but with the split grip.” — Joey Cantillo, Cleveland Guardians pitcher

“I spin the ball. I spin the ball better than anyone in baseball. That’s a fact. I still have enough velo to allow that to play. That’s a fact. I can take my fastball and go both ways with it, just as good as anyone. I still get my strikeouts.” — Sonny Gray, Boston Red Sox pitcher

“My manager pulled me into the office and said, ‘Hey, I need to talk to you.’ I was like, ‘Cool, let’s go chat.’ I was eating a bowl of Cap’n Crunch. Had just come in from shagging. Just a regular day. No problem.” — Kenya Huggins, Athletics pitching prospect

“My whole life, I’d had to breathe out of my mouth, because I couldn’t fully breathe out of my nose… In spring training, I thought I was going to pass out all the time. My mind was racing, but my body felt like it was falling asleep. It was a weird feeling. Not getting enough oxygen caused a lot of anxiety.” — Brooks Lee, Minnesota Twins infielder

“I started doing a deep dive into the mind-and-body connection. I went into a rabbit hole with that in 2020. I spent the whole year, basically, out in Arizona with Native American practices of meditation. It completely changed my in-game speed.” — Bowden Francis, Toronto Blue Jays pitcher

“I was shocked. That was the first year A.J. Preller was the GM, and I think the first time that I spoke to him was when he told me I was getting traded. I’d just had Tommy John, and then I got traded to the Braves.” — Max Fried, New York Yankees pitcher

“The economics of baseball have changed drastically. There is more revenue in the game, and higher payrolls, but there is also how you think about moving talent for talent. It’s much more based on economics than just pure ‘I think he’s a good baseball player.’” — John Mozeliak, St. Louis Cardinals president of baseball operations

“We have the largest scouting department in the industry. We value scouting significantly, and one of the mantras we live by is ‘evolve.’ Don’t be a dinosaur. You better keep up with the changes, or you’re going to wind up on the short end of things.” — Brian Cashman, New York Yankees Senior VP/GM

“You experiment with new information and technology, but very often the lived experience is more direction-correct,” Elias said. “Your experimentation can fail and lead you back to more conventional wisdom. It’s important to have a balance. You have to check your balances.” — Mike Elias, Baltimore Orioles president of baseball operations

“I love base running. I love good base running. It’s been a lost art. We got away from it with the slug factor; you don’t want to make an out on the bases, end rallies, whatever. But if you’re going to watch a game… I want action.” — Bruce Bochy, Texas Rangers manager

“Missing bats is good, so we want to miss bats. I think it starts with doing a really good job of staffing out with folks who can create a structure for our pitching staff, to put together a process for them to do so. Create a culture, not solely around that, but to be a big piece of it. It’s a debate that has been solved over time, right?” — Paul Toboni, Washington Nationals president of baseball operations

“Coors Field has been around since 1995 [and] they’ve tried a lot of things. I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. I want to understand what all of those things were and what they felt worked, and what didn’t. I don’t want to try things a second time if they’ve already tried them.” — Paul DePodesta, Colorado Rockies president of baseball operations

“You might be wearing an 0-for-30, and that’s where you want to end your career. If you tell yourself you’re going to slump, you’re going to slump. Conversely, if you tell yourself you’re going to play well, you’re going to play well. If you tell yourself you’re going to win, you’re going to win.” — Maui Ahuna, San Francisco Giants infield prospect

“I don’t know about the desire to play baseball going away. I don’t think that will ever happen. I think it’s just a recognition that it’s time.” — Charlie Morton, Baltimore Orioles pitcher

“I’m actually really only interested in whether Liverpool is going to take the Premier League championship or win the Champions League. Compared to that, I’m indifferent.” — Rocco Baldelli, Minnesota Twins manager