The Strike Zone is Shrinking

Rates & Barrels: A show about Baseball

The Athletic

Baseball, Sports

4.9 • 746 Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Eno, Trevor, and DVR discuss the strike zone, which is shrinking in 2025. They dig into why that changes have taken place and consider a few implications of that adjustment. Plus, they look at a trio of underperforming starting pitchers through the first month of the season including Zac Gallen, who may have started a turnaround Thursday against the Mets, Sandy Alcántara, and Aaron Nola. Story from Jayson Stark, Ken Rosenthal, Eno & several writers from The Athletic MLB team ($): https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6328105 Rundown2:32 Is The Strike Zone Really Shrinking?4:36 Where Is The Strike Zone Getting Smaller?13:23 Adjusting the Game to Increase Offense & Balls in Play20:52 Walk Rates Don't Fluctuate Much29:59 Zac Gallen: Adjustments Already Happening?38:16 Sandy Alcántara: A Typical Post Tommy John Command Lag?45:14 Aaron Nola: Is the Ceiling Coming Down Again?52:00 Eno's Greatest Fear Follow Eno on Bluesky: @enosarris.bsky.socialFollow DVR on Bluesky: @dvr.bsky.socialFollow Trevor on Bluesky: @iamtrevormay.bsky.social e-mail: [email protected] Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/FyBa9f3wFe Subscribe to The Athletic: theathletic.com/ratesandbarrels Hosts: Derek VanRiper & Eno Sarris With: Trevor May Producer: Brian Smith Executive Producer: Derek VanRiper Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Rates and barrels.
0:12.6	It's Thursday, May 1st, Derek Van Riper, Enoceris, Trevor May, all here with you on this episode.
0:19.3	We have a big question that's been bouncing around recently.
0:23.7	Is the strike zone changing this season?
0:27.5	Eno's going to dig into that here with us in just a couple of minutes.
0:30.9	We're going to talk about a few struggling pitchers, try to figure out why things did not go well for them over the course the first month of the season,
0:36.8	and try to forecast what is going to happen from this point forward. Gentlemen, quick question before we
0:43.1	get started, whose April did you have? How was your first month of the season? Do you have a comp to
0:49.2	somebody in the game right now? I feel like I had a Jorge Polanco sort of April. Kind of an
0:54.1	amazingly good month out of nowhere and everyone's just waiting for me to the game right now. I feel like I had a Jorge Polanco sort of April. Kind of an amazingly
0:54.8	good month out of nowhere and everyone's just waiting for me to come crashing back to Earth.
0:59.9	But how about you guys?
1:01.5	I did not have an Aaron Judge or Jorge Polanco. It's April. I've been just trying to figure it out.
1:08.9	Maybe even like a Tommy fan, April.
1:12.6	Just try to battle my way through a veteran season maybe near the end of my usefulness.
1:21.0	That's pretty bleak.
1:22.4	Pretty bleak, but interesting name polaro.
1:25.2	I'm trying to figure out where I am between, you know, Polanco and Kelnick.
1:31.9	I'm probably just middle of the road.
1:33.4	I think maybe I'm...
1:34.6	Who's average?
1:35.9	It's just having an average.
	...

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