OC

MLB Daily Whiff Leaders 2026-04-04 1) Jesús Luzardo - 23 2) Tatsuya Imai - 18 3) Randy Vásquez - 14 4) Bryce Elder - 13 5) Emerson Hancock - 13

Fiber for gut health can be a difficult topic because it ultimately depends on the state of the gut in how useful it is. Zonulin is a good example. Fiber can be a regulator (through colonocyte energy), or it can be a promoter via increased inflammation in someone with SIBO. The important thing to note is that improving zonulin or leaky gut in healthy people is completely different from improving it in unhealthy people. This study excluded anyone with chronic health issues or who had taken vitamins or antibiotics within three months, so it was a healthy cohort. Zonulin at baseline, before the study, was in a good range (albeit the higher end of a good range); but it decreased further with the intervention. The outcome may have been very different in someone with poor gut health or very high zonulin. As I showed recently in the Stamford RCT on fiber, 1/3rd of subjects increased their inflammatory baseline. This is important because inflammation drives zonulin activity and leaky gut. But remember, it was only 1/3rd of subjects. When discussing zonulin activity, we have regulators and promoters. Regulators include things like ISCs, enterocyte/colonocyte energy status, fiber, vitamin D, zinc, and more. Then we have promoters: things like IL-6, toll-like receptors, gliadin from gluten, and immune issues like celiac disease. So what if a regulator is also a promoter? This is common in someone with SIBO. And it's where fiber becomes a double edged sword. Fiber regulates colonocyte energy, but it could also drive TLR4 and IL-6 in the presence of some types of SIBO. This study also has limitations, including no control group and insufficient accounting for dietary and lifestyle changes that come with higher fiber intake. Some of the benefits may not be directly attributable to fiber. In any case, there is sufficient outcome data and mechanistic support to say fiber supports gut health. But in my view, it won't be everyone. Gut issues are very common now. The key is understanding who can use it: what state the gut is in, whether it is tolerated now, and if not, why not, and what needs to change to allow tolerance.

A vintage Sandy Alcantara (MIA) start on Friday! Seven innings, no earned runs, and five strikeouts on 73 pitches

Baseball America ranked Dylan Crews ahead of Paul Skenes in the 2023 Draft. One of those guys couldn’t make the roster of a rebuilding team and the other is the reigning Cy Young Award winner and one of the best young pitchers ever. I think they need to answer for that.

There are three Jack Leiter sinkers with 19-21" of horizontal break. He threw all three in a row for a strikeout in one at-bat. As you can see, all other sinkers were 15" or less break. WHAT WAS THIS BLACK MAGIC

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Alek Manoah made his spring debut today That is all

Pro athletes are literally built differently. I went to high school with 2 successful MLB pitchers. Craziest story came from freshman year: During tryouts, one of the tests they had us do was to see how far we could throw a baseball. We walked out to the football practice field and lined up in the end zone. I threw 60-65 yards. Then a kid (the future pro) threw a ball out of the other end zone. As. A. Freshman. Every coach stopped what they were doing, handed him another ball and said “do it again”. And he did. By sophomore year he was throwing in the mid to upper 90’s. You cannot teach that kind of arm talent. You’re either born with it or you’re not. I was not.

Claude and I wrote 90,000 words today towards a book on The Universal Code. Insane. What a time to be alive.

Had a source tell me a while back that Waldrep has an outlier “lateral trunk tilt angle at release” which is basically the angle below. It’s why he throws with such a vertical slot, but this source also theorized outliers on this metric & others have greater injury risk. 🧵