{"id":34501,"date":"2022-06-03T02:34:07","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T02:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/mike-trout-joc-pederson-tommy-pham-mess-offers-fantasy-lessons\/"},"modified":"2022-06-03T02:34:07","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T02:34:07","slug":"mike-trout-joc-pederson-tommy-pham-mess-offers-fantasy-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/mike-trout-joc-pederson-tommy-pham-mess-offers-fantasy-lessons\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Trout, Joc Pederson, Tommy Pham mess offers fantasy lessons"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It is inarguably true that the biggest story in baseball over the past week has been a fantasy football saga. This fact probably tells us something about the relative popularity of MLB and the NFL, but let’s just set that question aside. My role here is not to explore such matters.<\/p>\n

Instead, as this nation’s foremost arbiter of petty fantasy disputes, I am here to bring some clarity to the Joc Pederson<\/strong>–Tommy Pham<\/strong> fiasco while offering a few takeaways that are broadly applicable to all leagues.<\/p>\n

First, we should enumerate the agreed upon facts of the case:<\/p>\n

*<\/strong> Pham slapped Pederson in the head during a brief but weird on-field encounter<\/a> prior to the Giants-Reds game on May 27, leading to a three-game suspension imposed by MLB;<\/p>\n

*<\/strong> The altercation stemmed from a months-old fantasy football feud which began when Pederson executed an injured reserve transaction that was allowed by his fantasy platform, but perhaps prohibited by the league’s rules, enraging Pham;<\/p>\n

*<\/strong> Pederson, who styles himself off the field as Adult Caillou, used the fantasy league’s group text to playfully tease various members of the Padres about the team’s late-season collapse, further enraging Pham;<\/p>\n

*<\/strong> The commissioner of the league in question happens to be Mike Trout<\/strong>a three-time MVP and irrefutably one of the greatest ballplayers of this or any era.<\/p>\n

We should also note that the league’s buy-in was $ 10,000, a substantial sum for most of us. But when we compare median US household income to the median income in a fantasy league consisting of Trout, Pham, Pederson, Manny Machado<\/strong>, Eric Hosmer<\/strong> and other prominent MLB players, this entry fee was basically the equivalent of $ 50- $ 75 for a normal human \u2014 not a completely trivial amount, but also not life-altering. Pham’s three-game suspension cost him over $ 100,000 in lost salary and he doesn’t exactly seem to be consumed by regret.<\/p>\n

This episode has drawn a ridiculous amount of attention, due in part to the names involved and also due to the fact that it’s so incredibly relatable. Anyone who’s participated in a longtime fantasy league understands the characters involved. We have a highly volatile manager who objects to almost anything that might benefit another player (Pham). We have a do-nothing, hands-off commissioner (Trout). And of course we have the manager who exploits any identifiable loophole or gray area in the league rules (Pederson).<\/p>\n