Eight years ago, at the tail end of a different era of the Orioles, Adam Jones had a terrible start to his season. After about five weeks of stinking it up, there was a widespread assumption that he must be playing through some kind of injury. Asked about this, Jones memorably replied, “Sometimes you suck, man. It happens. You suck sometimes in sports.” Jones batted .200/.269/.274 over his first 26 games. He definitely sucked.
The second half of Adley Rutschman’s 2024 season brings the Jones theory of baseball to mind. Repeatedly throughout and after a post-break stretch of baseball during which Rutschman batted .