Making a good fun fact is hard. There’s immense pressure to make what’s happening on the field seem unique and historical. You’re supposed to see something new in every baseball game and if it’s not something new, it’s the first time X has happened since Y. I’m guilty of this myself but the need to elevate what the players are doing occasionally leads to fun facts that aren’t actually that fun.

A few days ago it was revealed that Bruce Bochy, whose career spans from 1995-2019, had a managerial record of 1995-2019. Then the Mariners were revealed to have a record of 1995-2019 between the years 1995-2019. The Bochy one was sort of fun, but I’m sure it’s easy to find any team with a record that matches the span of years on any given day of the season if you can draw your endpoints anywhere.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell if a fact is actually fun, and this was the case with this Kevin Pillar fun fact. In Friday night’s game against the Marlins, the broadcast showed this graphic:

In case you can’t see the image, the fun fact reads:

“Currently leads Giants with 21 HR, 79 RBI, and 11 SB. Would become first player since at least 1920 to lead any MLB team in all three categories after starting season with a different club.”

This fun fact has a lot going for it. First, this hasn’t happened in nearly a century. Second, it’s hard to lead a team in home runs and steals not to mention RBI and it’s even harder to do it when you don’t play on the team for the full season.

However, there’s just as much going against it. The biggest thing is that it hasn’t even happened yet. Brandon Belt probably isn’t going to steal eight bases in the next two weeks, so Pillar’s lead is safe in that category. It would also take a heck of a run for Evan Longoria to close the 15 RBI gap. But if Longoria or Mike Yastrzemski passes Pillar in home runs by the end of the year, then the fun fact disappears.

You can’t have a fun fact that says he was the first player to lead in RBI and stolen bases. RBI doesn’t tell you anything about a player. Home runs and stolen bases are counting stats, yes, but they’re counting stats that actually representative of a player’s skills. To hit a home run, you have to have power. To steal a base, you have to be fast and good at reading pitchers. To get an RBI, you have to be there at the right place and right time.

The inclusion of RBI in this fun fact makes it somewhat suspect. In the last 100 years, has there been another player who came from another team midseason who led the team in home runs and stolen bases but not RBI. All fun facts lie in some regard. Is the fun fact lying in this way?

It’s certainly lying in the sense that it only applies to players who started the season with a different club. It’s not players who joined the team midway through. That would include free agents who sign after Opening Day. This is specifically limited to players who were traded or cut by their initial team.

The Kevin Pillar trade was unusual in that it happened in the first week of the season. How many trades including a player of Pillar’s ability have been traded in the first week of the season?Pillar played five games with Toronto before coming to San Francisco. He missed about as much time as he would have with a day-to-day injury or paternity leave, and we don’t have fun facts about guys who led the team while also suffering a bruise or having a child.

Not to mention that he has only needed 21 homers and 11 stolen bases to lead the team. There have been much worse teams than the San Francisco Giants throughout baseball history, but these team-leading numbers aren’t going to impress anyone on their own. You can’t say, “Kevin Pillar stole 11 bases in 2019” and expect someone to say, “Wow!” They will instead say, “Oh,” and “We’re closing soon, and you need to leave.”

This isn’t to take away from Kevin Pillar’s season, but I don’t think that we need to say that Pillar is the first player to lead the team in these three categories after starting the season on another team. I think we can just say that Pillar is leading the team in homers, RBIs, and stolen bases, and that does a fine enough job of conveying that he’s been pretty good. The rest makes me think more about the context rather than what he’s actually doing.