© Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports
There are few things as entertaining as two grown (subjective term) men swinging and mostly missing with virtual haymakers over Twitter. It’s immature and borderline delusional. While most sports remain sidelined, that type of pettiness between two athletes is some of the best entertainment we have.
In the wee hours of Monday night, Trevor Bauer and Aubrey Huff engaged in a masterpiece of childlike internet trash-talk. It began innocently, at least from Bauer’s perspective, when he urged fellow players to contact him to talk about the plan to resume MLB’s season. Huff immediately pointed to stats to take a random potshot.
Can we remind @BauerOutage of his career 4+ ERA, 3.5 BB per 9 innings, & 10 games over .500 winning % is a 4/5th starter salary in @mlb & maybe keep quiet before he’s exposed, please & thank you. He’s a great tweeter. #MLB pitcher? That’s debatable. https://t.co/JMf5oEgDKn
— Aubrey Huff (@aubrey_huff) June 23, 2020
That’s especially funny given that Huff later criticizes Bauer for bringing up advanced stats (WAR) and posted two videos on Tuesday rambling about how Bauer is a nerd and nerds have infiltrated baseball… after looking up WAR on Baseball Reference himself.
That first response from Huff was followed by Bauer implying Huff is desperate for attention and Huff replying that Bauer has low testosterone because he tweets a lot. After Huff brought up his World Series titles, Bauer, who calls Huff “pookie” and “Aubs,” brings up the fact that he has a 17.4 career WAR versus Huff’s 17.3 career WAR on Fangraphs. That leads to probably the most notable blow of the interaction, when Bauer calls Huff’s World Series Rings “participations trophies,” and that he’s proud of the “little guy.”
Huff batted .267 in the Giants’ 2010 postseason and .111 (one hit) in the 2012 postseason, after which he retired.
Those are cute participation trophies you have there Aubs! Thanks for sharing! Proud of you little guy! https://t.co/n6g8Suiyv1
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) June 23, 2020
After this, it goes on a while longer, with Huff later posting two, as previously stated, rambling videos, but not before pointing to Baseball Reference’s measure of WAR after criticizing advanced stats, because, by their measure, he has the higher career WAR. Seek the rest of the thread at your own peril.
Welcome to the world of advanced stats. There’s a lot to learn. They can be confusing to the uninitiated. I can teach you if you ask nicely, princess! Or we can just stick to your .111 batting average in the post season on your way to earning your participation trophy. https://t.co/QU6D2B56ZQ pic.twitter.com/ZZRpoyw8hz
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) June 23, 2020