Konnor Griffin, the ninth teenager debut. Plus: What should we call a game with no ABS challenges?

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Plus: Tyler Kepner introduces us to something that made my brain melt, Jayson Stark is asking for your input on some new nomenclature and we have our Baseball Card of the Week! I’m Levi Weaver — welcome to The Windup! The news broke just after yesterday’s Windup hit your inboxes: The Pirates are calling up the mega-prospect Griffin to face Kyle Bradish and the Orioles in Pittsburgh’s home opener (today at 4:12 p.m. ET). Griffin will be the first 19-year-old position player in the big leagues since Juan Soto in 2018. That made me wonder: How many position players have debuted before their 20th birthday this century? Griffin will be the ninth. Of the previous eight, two were brothers, and two were precisely the same age — and debuted the same year! Here’s the full list: The 6-foot-3, 222-pound Griffin, for what it’s worth, will turn 20 on April 24 (so, 19 years, 345 days). Every big leaguer has a story about how he got here, and what he overcame. For Griffin, the path to the pros was nearly derailed by a go-kart accident when he was eight. Cody Stavenhagen has the full story here, including how Griffin credits COVID-era backyard Blitzball as a development booster. The amount of hype around Griffin isn’t the sort you get very often. I’ll be at the ballpark for the Rangers’ home opener today, but you can bet my iPad will be tuned in for Baltimore vs. Pittsburgh. Let’s throw it to Jayson for some … Thanks to friend of the column Len Kasper, the great radio voice of the White Sox, for making sure we didn’t miss the old-school event of the year Wednesday in Miami. Here’s a prediction: We won’t see another game like this for the rest of the season. That’s because it contained all of this: But wait. You’re no doubt thinking: Didn’t we have three “Madduxes” just last season? We did indeed, courtesy of Tarik Skubal, Sonny Gray and Nathan Eovaldi. But here comes the grand finale. You know what we didn’t have in that game Wednesday? We didn’t see even one frigging challenge! It’s the first time that’s happened in any game in the ABS era, because plate ump Mike Muchlinski was that good, apparently. So here’s a round of applause for the man in blue. And now here’s a question we need your help with: Is it safe to assume we’ll see very few games this year with zero challenges? Let’s go with yes. So don’t we need a fun name for a game like that? Ab-so-freaking-lutely. All right, then. It’s time for the first reader poll in “Weird & Wild” history: What should we call a game with no challenges? Vote for your favorite in today’s full “Weird & Wild” column. Tyler Kepner’s “Sliders” column is always one of my favorite reads of the week. Not only because it jumps through a few different topics, but because the combination of topic (good nose for a story) and execution (dedication to digging a little deeper) is always top-tier. This week’s column starts with an interview of one of my favorite broadcasters, Jason Benetti, and ends with a 1999 video from Fenway that was so awkward it caused me physical unease to watch it. But in between, he tells us about Matthew Wolff, who recently gave the world “Pitchergami.” You may be familiar with the concept, thanks to football. “Scorigami” is when an NFL game ends in a score that has never happened before. This concept is similar, except it’s for pitching lines, and you can count me among the thousands who are utterly shocked to learn how common it is these days. For instance, would you believe that no pitcher in MLB history had ever, EVER finished a game with this line: 6 1/3 innings pitched, two hits, 0 ER, 0 walks, 7 strikeouts … until Cam Schlittler did it on April 1? Ever. Nobody’s ever done that fairly normal-looking thing. Furthermore, would you believe that it wasn’t the first one this year, but that there have now been 22 already? Or that it was Schlittler’s second one this year?? That’s right. Schlittler’s March 27 start (5 1/3 innings, 1 hit, 0 ER, 0 walks, 8 strikeouts) had also never been done before. It turns out that just with those five stats — innings, hits, earned runs, walks and strikeouts — there have been over 83,000 unique pitching lines in MLB history. This blew my mind. My ears are still over here smoking like a cartoon Wile E. Coyote as I type this. After yesterday’s dive into Koufax’s Baseball Reference Page, I had to pull this one out. It’s the one that came after Koufax’s 382-strikeout season, and (though nobody knew it at the time) it was the one that preceded his final year on the mound. This one isn’t worth much — you can see the damage on the edges and the corners — but as I’ve said about a few of these cards in the past, it’s that imperfection that is the reason I can own one of these at all. Anything over a PSA 5 is in the triple-digits, and a PSA 9 is well into the thousands. I think I paid $8 for this one. If you’re not in it for the money, I highly recommend buying old cards in bad shape, just to hold it in your hand for a bit. With so many extensions being signed by young players, the Mets have declined to do so with their young stars. Tim Britton explains why. And speaking of the Mets … their offense has been floundering since that Opening Day win. A couple series’ worth of games into the season, and we’re starting to get a sense of just how ABS is changing baseball. Cubs starter Cade Horton finished second in NL Rookie of the Year voting last year. Patrick Mooney tells us the Cubs’ plan for their home-grown star. Ken Rosenthal lays out the reasons that the Giants are under some pressure to succeed this year. Zack Meisel has a touching story about Kyle Manzardo and his mom Windy, who is finally able to watch her son play in person again. After going 4-10 with a 4.41 ERA in Japan last year, Trevor Bauer has signed with the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League. On the pods: DVR and Eno talk about the Griffin promotion, Shane Baz’s extension and how pitchers can impact a hitter’s bat speed. Most-clicked in our last newsletter: The story on Matt Chapman’s caught-on-camera lip reading moment. 📫 Love The Windup? Check out The Athletic’s other newsletters. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms