In this writer’s opinion the best song of 2021 is The Hold Steady’s Lanyards, from their new record Open Door Policy. The narrator is a depressed, failed actor, whose doctor prescribes lifestyle changes in hopes of helping him “make more healthy decisions”. I am not a doctor, and can’t speculate on Gary Sánchez’s lifestyle, but I hoped, in the aftermath of 2020, he would make better baseball decisions.
It’s similar to the changes Clint Frazier made, which I wrote about a month ago. Frazier understood there are certain pitches he could hit, and certain pitches he couldn’t hit, and by focusing on the pitches he could hit, he would have more productive at bats.