When I talk to a manager, I often ask what I jokingly call "The Philosophical Question of the Day." This time, outside of the Cubs dugout during pregame, I injected myself into a conversation between Cubs manager Joe Maddon and former player and colleague Raul Ibanez to ask Maddon about the positioning of his center fielder, Dexter Fowler, compared to where Fowler played in the past.
"What caused you to play Dexter Fowler deeper?" I asked.
"The stats guys," (aka "The Analytics Department") Maddon said.
As a former center fielder, I was interested in Fowler, and I called a Cubs-Nationals game last year.