Rates & Barrels - All-Star Game starters, snubs, and Vlad Jr.'s Triple Crown bid

Episode Date: July 2, 2021

Eno, Britt & DVR discuss the All-Star Game starters as voted by the fans, including their surprise that Adam Frazier earned a nod while Cedric Mullins did not. Plus, Vlad Jr.'s bid for the Triple Crown, Team USA Olympic Roster selections, and more.  Follow Eno on Twitter: @enosarris Follow Britt on Twitter: @Britt_Ghiroli Follow DVR on Twitter: @DerekVanRiper e-mail: [e-mail] Subscribe to the Rates & Barrels YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RatesBarrels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Rates and Barrels presented by Topps. Check out Topps Project 70, celebrating 70 years of Topps baseball cards. Derek Van Ryper, Richard Rowley, Eno Saris here with you on this Friday. Friday, July 2nd. That is the day. That is the date. It's only confirmed to me by my computer. I honestly don't know what day it is.

Two out of three of us are in completely different places. I feel like I'm podcasting with one shoe on, if that makes sense. I guess what I'm saying is I'm sitting in a chair that is not mine, at a desk that is not mine, at a laptop I don't normally use, and everything looks and sounds and feels weird. But I'm happy to be talking to you guys because there's a lot going on right now. All-star selections have been revealed, the starters for both the AL and the NL, so we'll dig into that. We've got a nice holiday weekend in front of us, so we'll answer a few sticky stuff questions that have come into the mailbag in the last couple of days, and we'll

talk about beer of the month. It's time. It's a perfect day for beer of the month. Some fun stuff here today and a hot dog eating contest prop maybe if we have time as well because why not? When in Rome... The grossest thing we do as a race. It's a...

What is that? It's so gross. I can't even watch it. I agree. It's reached a level where it's pretty bad. In the 1960s when it was just actually eating a hot dog and not dunking it in water and tearing it apart, it was probably like the winner could eat three or

four and that was cool. Like, oh, you ate four hot dogs. Here's a trophy. I wonder if it ever was that low. It was a little bit like the sticky stuff thing right like it's gross because we science the crap out of it right like yeah i saw something where he was like joey chestnut was talking about like his or no i think it was the japanese guy was talking about his method and he was like or like it's crazy likes the one that like goes up and down and he was talking about his method and he was like, or like it's crazy. Like it's the one that like goes up and down. And he was talking about like,

I do that to like, keep like push to tamp the stuff down and like the water. And then there was like a whole discussion about like, if you puke, it only counts if you eat the puke back. And I was just like, Oh, stop,

stop. You guys in like a few hundred years they're going to study this race and they're going to say this is what they did for fun and I just think that's all you need to know they are going to be amazed that we made it that far into the future when they look back at how stupid we collectively

all are in the present day on that happy note though let's start with the All-Star selections because those were announced on Thursday, and we were going to talk about players that we felt deserved to be on the team anyway. Looking at the AL starters, Sal Perez behind the plate, Vlad Jr., an All-Star for the first time at first base. You got Marcus Simeon, Rafael Devers, and Xander Bogarts on the left side of the infield. Trout Judge Teoscar Hernandez, another Blue Jay in the starting lineup.

And of course, Shohei Otani as the DH. A lot of talk about him possibly pitching in the All-Star game as well as hitting, which would be, I think, a first at least in 100 years. I have never seen that. I didn't think we'd ever see that. They didn't have all-star games when ruth was around right no they no they started in i believe i wrote about this the other day when i wrote about dave martinez getting snubbed i think they started in the 30s does that sound right

because they only year they missed was the year for the war so actually i'm almost positive it started in the 30s um i was i was surprised that uh it was the star selection for simeon and castellanos i kind of just assumed that they would have been selected like maybe even in like the adagio mold is like here's our tiger here's our you know on a bad oakland team maybe like here's our a you know, on a bad Oakland team, maybe like, here's our A, you know, but no, first ones, great season. First selection for both of them. Yeah, the NL starters, Buster Posey, Freddie Freeman, Adam Frazier at second base,

probably the biggest surprise on either of the two starting lineups. Nolan Arenado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Ronald Acuna Jr., Castellanos and Winker, as you mentioned, Eno. I'm being unfair to Frazier, though. He got voted in. Yeah, he got voted in. This is not the, like, we need a pirate.

Right? No, they don't even need to do that, which is actually nice. Well, I mean, why did Tiasco Hernandez get voted in? Yeah. You're talking about a poor defensive player with okay offensive stats. Yeah. I'm going to go on a tirade here a little bit and mention Cedric Mullins.

Yes, more Cedric Mullins propaganda. My main issue is that in a just world, it wouldn't even be close. The guy has the best war among all AL outfielders. So I understand why Mike Trout and Aaron Judge, with those get voted in, they're big names. In Judge's case, it doesn't matter what he does. He's going to get voted in, right? Whatever.

Big market, yeah. However, explain to me how a guy with just over a one war in Toronto beats a guy with a 3.7 war in Baltimore. Explain to me how that even remotely happens. When you look at Mullins defensively, he's better. When you look at him offensively, it's not even close. If you're just going to look at one stat, people treat war as the all-encompassing stat. And his war is better than trouts and better than judges and

better much better than hernandez so outside of the fact that baltimore is a small market the team is terrible they didn't really do much but put his face on a few donuts and said vote for said um outside the fact that maybe i was the only person eating the donuts and drinking the orange kool-aid um you, it's not really fair. They're going to get a token Oriole in, but this shouldn't have been a token job. Damn it. This should have been an actual worthy thing.

And I'm upset. I am bothered by this. Well, it's a, it's a tough outfield in the national league with Castellanos and Winker, both having like sort of MVP stuff. So I can understand why maybe Brian Reynolds didn't make it to be the pirate.

And I'm not trying to be a war absolutist, but Cronenworth, he has like 0.2 more war than Frazier. I'm not saying it's based on war. But I do think what's interesting is you have these markets, right? I think the market is a big deal right like that's always that's what we're talking about with judge and you have cronenworth um and muncie who are in bigger markets

at least in terms of like all-star voting i think you know whether or not san diego is a big market is a big discussion, but I would say there are bigger markets for votes than Pittsburgh, right? I guess I'm just a little bit surprised it's not Cronenworth or Muncy playing second base for the National League team.

How much of this is a matter of timing, though? Because Muncy's been red hot in the last couple of weeks, and he missed some time previously. So if he'd gone on this binge just a couple of weeks ago, it might have been easier for him to claim that spot. I mean, again, by war, clearly the best second base capable player in the NL. Ozzy Albee's also playing really well. It just seems like, I don't know what it is about him. He doesn't stand out as a star on that team as much as he probably should because of Acuna.

He's an amazing player in his own right, kind of on pace for about a 30-20 season at second base. I mean, he'd be a perfectly fine selection too, but Adam Frazier has had a good year. I just think he probably should have been a backup. I love the batting average. He's hitting

326. It's pretty empty, though. Yeah, not a lot of power, not a lot of speed. I mean, moves around a little bit. I just don't understand why he's a starter. That's a big upset. Congrats to him. I hope he enjoys it. I just think it's not the best selection based on performance to this point in the season.

And that's what this is. This isn't a career achievement award. It's just who has been the best in the league to this point in the season. And that's what this is. This isn't a career achievement award. It's just who has been the best in the league to this point in the season. Who's had the best first half? And I think to break ties, maybe you can look back at the previous season if you have to, if you've got two comparable players.

Otherwise, maybe you go on career as the second tiebreaker. But it really should be about what's happening this year in a showcase of the game's best players right now. Yeah, no Juan Soto, no Mookie Betts in the outfield in the NFL. I mean, I'm sorry. If I'm making an all-star team, yeah, like I'm

those guys are in it. Those guys are starting. I want to see those guys play. And I understand Soto has been human for a good chunk of this season, but he's still Juan Soto. And I just think the point of the all-star game is for the game to be celebrated on a national stage you want your best players there um you want your best healthy

players there right like they need to do away somehow there needs to be a is there a minimum of games played in order to get voted in there should be like as long as you're on the ballot you're good yeah like mike trout obviously has a minimum to get will not play like so then you see this shuffling that i think is unnecessary right like they go 10 down because everyone declines or is hurt the guys who get voted in so like in what world was brian buxton who was great but then hurt and then came back and got hurt in the first game got outvoted got more votes than Cedric Mullins. Right. So I think we need to change a little something with the requirements here.

Like, like to get the batting title, you have to have a minimum plate appearances. Why couldn't we do the same thing here? Also, if like people are like, who cares? It's an exhibition. It does matter though, because you know you know we're gonna be hall of fame voters you know at some point and like maybe i won't necessarily count the all-star appearances um but people will so now you're talking about like what if ozzy albies has a borderline hall of fame case in his you know when he ends he ends his career, which he could, like, if he keeps this up, he would have kind of a borderline.

Like it's all about longevity for the hall of fame, but like, let's say he keeps it up, but he gets snubbed three or four times in his best years and doesn't make the all-star and he gets to the end. He has a borderline case, but he's only been an all-star once, you know, somebody is not voting for him because they're like, well, I was the only an all-star once. Well, because Adam Frazier was once, you know, you know, this other guy was, and it, you know, we didn't, we didn't really nail down the requirements and we, you know, the voting

was just sort of haphazard a lot of times it seems. And so sorry, Ozzy Alves, you're not a hall of famer. You know what I mean? That seems kind of crappy. It's not that crazy, right? No, it's not. And you know what? I know we talked about the stacked outfield already, but like Michael Brantley with Houston, doesn't he deserve a nod? I think Brantley, if you're making a list of most underappreciated players, especially if we really focus on just offense and throughout defense, Brantley's pretty

high on that list. He's a very good player. He's been a consistently good player, and he's really done a good job staying healthy the last couple of years too. Injuries really plagued him throughout the back part of his career in Cleveland, but he has turned into one of the more consistent offensive players in the game over the last couple of years. Maybe it's because the eye-popping home run totals aren't there. Maybe that's what people look at with Brantley and kind of used to dismiss him, but absolutely a deserving player. And I think just to your point on Mullins, Britt, I mean, I think there's a very good chance. It's something people have been kicking around on Twitter the last couple of days. Cedric Mullins is probably going to get a chance

to replace Mike Trout in the starting lineup, right? Trout's not going to play in this game because he's in the 60-day IL. So there's a very good chance that Mullins ends up in the starting lineup, even though the voting public didn't get this right. Yes, that's true. But I guess I'm just wondering, like, it's an honor to these guys to be voted in as starters. I don't think people realize that either. honor to these guys to be voted in as starters. I don't think people realize that either. Back when we used to be allowed in the clubhouses,

it was a big deal. When it used to get announced, not during a game, like last night these got announced during a game, but it used to get announced in the morning and it would be embargoed. Yeah, it'd be like embargoed. The guys would find out before the game, get called into the office, and then later at 4 p.m.,

I think on a Sunday sunday or something it used to be announced and guys take pride in that in in being voted in like cedric mullins is still going to enjoy it if he gets to go in place of mike trout however cedric mullins yeah cedric mullins has had a better season than mike trout which is maybe a phrase you won't ever be able to utter again at any other point in time. And I just think that's, it's a little unfortunate. I also just feel bad for guys like Joey Gallo where,

you know, war says he's having a great season, you know, all this, a 20% walk rate, 20 homers, just a really good all around player. And he just doesn't have a good badge.

So he just never, you know, he's just not going to all around player. And he just doesn't have a good badge. So he just never, you know, he's just not going to get voted in. And it's just one stat, you know? Yeah. Yeah. He strikes out a little bit too much,

but he's a, he's an all, like he's an all-star level player for me. Joey Gallo, like dude hits rockets, moon shots. I think there's a little bit of, we talked about with Muncie going on with him too, though,

where Gallo has been red hot for a few weeks. Had that production ticked up a little sooner, that might have caught the attention of more people casting a ballot. But how would we fix this? I like, Britt, there was some actually concrete stuff in there about plate appearances and maybe the only batting title qualifier can be taught. It can be on the ballot. Maybe that sort of thing. I don't, we don't know if that's how that works right now or, or, uh,

maybe take them off the ballot when they're on the IL. Like if they're, if they're going to be on the IL, if they're scheduled to be on the IL through the all-star game, just take them off the ballot. Then Cedric Mullins kind of gets voted in and feels the pride of being voted in right because then you just sort of remove those votes but then i guess that's uh mean to trout because then he doesn't make the all-star game because he was hurt but he's hurt do you think mike trout believes in his heart that he deserves to be a starter at the All-Star game this year? Right.

I don't. Yeah. That's a good point. Yeah. So I like that. But we don't want to take the votes out of the people's hands, do we? I don't think there's a good way to do that because MLB likes to drum up support, right? So they like the fans to feel involved.

drum up support, right? So they like the fans to feel involved. I have long thought that the fans should only vote for the reserves and that the players and the peers in the game should do the starters and the fans should do the reserves. But I don't see that changing. Yeah, because then, okay, then the

Aaron Judges of the world get their automatic ticket to go, right? And not saying that Aaron Judge shouldn't be in the All-Star game. I think he should. But we've seen cases where Red Sox and Yankees, who absolutely don't deserve to go, right? And not saying that Aaron Judge shouldn't be in the All-Star game. I think he should. But we've seen cases where Red Sox and Yankees who absolutely don't deserve to go just get voted in because they're fan favorites. Like how many All-Star games did Derek Jeter go to? Where he wasn't even doing that well. Yes. So I think like you want to put those big names, big market names on the team somewhere, fine. But the starts

I think should be up to the coaches and the players, just the peers. Maybe there's something we can do as media too where we elevate something else to the importance of All-Star. There's first team selections, right?

At the end of the season? They do that right first team for well it's a basketball thing you know like yeah yeah they don't do that in major league baseball it's something that it's done in other sports it's done at lower levels i mean if you're in high school you make first team all conference that's a big deal yeah i think we should do that because that is a little bit more then Then I might care about that for Hall of Fame voting. You know what I'm saying? Like, oh, he had like six, you know, first team selections.

That's better too because it's the end of the season, right? Like, and you can look at an all-encompassing thing. And then if you sort of elevate that, then you kind of take some of the importance away from the all-star selection in terms of Hall of Fame and career accolades you you give them something else we're like oh yeah cedric mullins was the first team al outfielder uh that year you know uh and you give them that reward that's based on their play uh because a lot of the awards that we do have are kind of like all or nothing you're either you're either the best hitter in baseball

or maybe like a finalist you can maybe talk that like if you're if you are a top three MVP, like award getter, like getter like that, you might be able to put that on your resume, basically. But, you know, if we had first team selections, then then the all star game, you can be like, fine. He was he was not an all star, but Ozzie Albies was a first teamer or even second teamer. I mean, like, why not do that? Give people that had really good seasons all around the diamonds some love. Yeah, I like that. In a weird way, I mean, I know it's the Midsummer Classic. It's when the game's always been played.

It'd be better if the game was played at the end of the season for these purposes. But then you get into the situation like you have with the Pro Bowl in the NFL where no one wants to play and you get teams that are going to go to the Super Bowl that aren't playing. It's like the third and fourth selections in each position end up oftentimes getting those chances. It's the worst. Like when? What?

It's really bad. The Super Bowl? Yeah, it's bad. It's all the other players that aren't good enough to be in the Super Bowl? Yeah, it's bad. It's all the other players that aren't good enough to be in the Super Bowl? Not the best guys, but all the other guys. Yeah, it's not. Just the guys who would show up again before the Super Bowl.

Aside from the fact that the game doesn't lend itself to playing exhibitions without hurting people badly. You can't actually play hard in that game. It's a total mess so you think the baseball all-star game actually looks the closest to the regular like people slag it all the time but like i think it actually might look the closest to regular play yes because like the end like the pace of play in the nba all-star game is one third, one half the speed of a regular season game.

I mean, it is very, very laid back. No, but also there's no defense at all. So the pace is like a little bit lower, but then the score is like 160. It's like, what is this? This is a basketball game, you know? Right. Yeah, and the hockey All-Star game is the same way where it's like, you'll get 20 goals in the all-star game, which is kind of fun.

Is that a regular score? Like you're playing to eight or something? Yeah. And then the pro bowl comes in low because no one can do anything. So I would agree with you that this is the one that looks the most like the actual game that we're watching throughout the season. Other names that I thought were kind of interesting, Adelise Garcia, do you think he gets in as a reserve or do you think he falls just short because Gallo or one of the other Rangers gets in instead? Yeah, I think the Rangers are too bad of a team to have that many guys. I would guess that he would fall short because again, it's the unfortunate thing of if you're a bad team with a couple of good players, you're kind of in that weird spot, right?

You're the only one who's going. Yeah, so Brian Reynolds is probably not going, right? That's brutal because he's so much more deserving than Frazier. He's having a better season than Frazier. Yeah, exactly. And he could, if a lot of guys opt out. You just never know. Obviously, we've heard for a while that DeGrom won't pitch, right?

So you're going to start to see teams that don't want their pitchers pitching. So that's going to change here a little bit, I think, too. But yeah, that's part of the... NL outfield, Wayne Castellanos are going to want to go. It's their first one. Yeah. Yep, for sure. Yeah.

Yeah, so that's not going to open up a spot for Reynolds. And Acuna, I think, will probably want to go. I do think. Because he loves it. Yes. Here's the other thing. There should be a DH in the NL selected. Maybe that's the player with the most votes who didn't get voted in to start at any other position.

What would you say should be the criteria for a DH being added? You've got it. It's like a util spot in fantasy where you just, you know, the leading vote getter didn't make it. I wonder, do we have that? J.D. Martinez should be the guy, right? That would be my... Well, they voted one in for the AL, but they don't vote one in for the NL. Yeah, and they should.

And it's like, you're going to use one, so why not just either put players... I don't know how you decide to put guys on the ballot as DHs for a league that doesn't have it. Now, this problem could go away in 2022. This could be the last time this is ever an issue. If they said, hey, Brian Reynolds, you

had the most votes of anybody who didn't get voted as a starter, you've been selected as the NL's DH, starting DH for the game as a result of being the highest vote-getter. They didn't give us raw votes. I think they did in the initial press release.

I'm looking at the email. They have the votes. You are? Maybe it's in the PDF here. Do you guys have a favorite thing about the All-Star game, by the way? Is there any one aspect of it? I mean, I know we've been a little more tech savvy in recent years with some of the things

that have happened around the game and home run derbies change. Like the new format for the derby from a couple of years ago, the head to head bracket style. I think my favorite thing is the derby actually. Ever since I went, I used to make fun of it because the whole Chris Berman, how many homers can you watch thing. But then I was at the one where stanton hit it out of petco

uh and uh i was in the stands like i i left the press box i because i didn't have to write about it anymore so i just i was sitting in the stands watching stanton pitches and i was like this is fun actually i turned around on a complete and then and since that one we've had a lot of sort of close fun match-ups you know and uh yeah so i i think my favorite thing is the derby i think it's gonna be fun this year especially because trey mancini got invited to do it and so that's gonna be like a cool feel-good story right like the guy can't stage three cancer last year now he's participating um i think it's gonna be fun yeah i mean i and and he's not totally out of his league right he's a

guy who's hit home runs it's not like he's some welterweight that they just threw in there so um i think it's gonna be cool to watch i normally don't get that excited about it but we're going you know and i are going and I think it's an event that's cooler live than on TV. I think on TV, it's kind of like cool. I'm watching like BP. Um, I think it's much cooler to be there.

It's only my second all-star game, but I remember, um, in DC a few years ago being like, okay, this is a much cooler event. Live, um,

would recommend if anyone has the, the, the means or whatever to go. I think it's more fun than the All-Star game to attend live. I think the All-Star game very quickly becomes not a good game. Yeah. Yeah. Plus there's like on-field camaraderie.

They do an okay job of showing it on TV, but there are a lot of players on the field. Yes. And in the dugouts and stuff. Like the All-Stars come. So you actually get to see the All-Stars, but you see them in a way that you don't during the all-star game they're like hanging out and like giving each other high fives and stuff and like yeah like prince fielder's son or whatever is

there and yeah it's cool it's a it's a kind of a cool feeling um we're details uh it looks like a five to seven p.m if anybody's listening in Denver, 5 to 7 p.m. on Sunday after the Futures game. We're going to be at Tivoli Brewing and we're going to play wiffle ball beers and we'll have at least drugs. It seems like a really fun way to spend your Sunday evening afternoon. So hope we get to see you there. Yes, we lost you for a moment at at least. What did you say after at least? Me?

Yeah, you froze. Oh, well that's too bad. So you didn't get the whole thing about Tivoli Brewing? We got the time and the place, but you said at least and then you cut it. Oh, okay. So we're going to be at Tivoli Brewing 5-7. We're going to be at Tivoli Brewing, 5-7. We're going to be playing Wiffle Ball.

There will be at least one food truck there. We're going to have food, Wiffle Ball, beer, Sunday afternoon in Denver. It's like 10 minutes walk from the ballpark. Seems like

it'll be a fun time. Anybody in Denver, come on down. Awesome. At least, I it seems like it'll be a fun time. So anybody in Denver, come on down. Awesome. At least, I'm like, it could be anything. It's Ido's party that he's put together. We're going to have at least 10 jugglers on the scene to do tricks for us? I don't know. I don't know what kind of stuff you've got lined

up. I don't know why it'd be jugglers exactly, but glad you guys got that put together because those live gatherings are a lot of fun. Right. Yes. I had no idea where you could have been going with that. One more All-Star related thought. Vlad Jr.,

again, first time selection, is he going to win the Triple Crown? It's just semi related to the All-Star game. What do you think about the possibility of this actually happening? It's amazing. I think he could. It's possible. And the fact that we're even talking about that is crazy.

Here's something that's crazy, even crazier. He's projected to do it. Projections are usually like the sane guy in the room. They're like, no, he's going to regress. He's projected to do it, to hit the most homers in baseball the rest of the way. He's projected to have the best batting average in baseball the rest of the way. And he's projected to have the most RBI in baseball the rest of the way.

The projections say he's going to do it, which is just crazy. That's like the 50th percentile outcome is he wins the Triple Crown. So I think that's nuts and then we're gonna have the most impossible voting choice ever uh for mvp you know it'll be a reprise of the miguel caprera situation uh where you've got a guy who won the triple crown and then a guy who you know won seven games on the mound and hit 35, maybe 50 homers. I hope I don't have that one. I really don't give me manager of the year.

Give me NL Cy Young, you know, just something simple. I say that. And I say that in the Grom could hit the IL tomorrow or something. But, you know, I think. Have you guys, I don't know how much you guys have delved into this, but what's crazy to me this year and I keep forgetting is that the draft is the same week as the All-Star week,

which apparently has really angered a lot of front offices who usually take their family. That's like the only time if you're a baseball ops guy you can go on a family vacation and now it is like the draft i've heard from multiple guys like this is awful but i also think for a sport really trying to prop up its draft it's kind of going to be overwhelmed and overshadowed by the all-star stuff a little bit what do you guys think yeah and the futures it's like the same day as the futures game so it's like okay same day as the Futures game, so it's like, okay, well, we don't care about our minor league All-Stars

or no one's going to see that game or you have to choose between watching the minor league All-Stars and the draft. No, those should be lined up where the Futures game plays into the draft, right? The draft's going to be primetime Sunday night. Futures game's in the afternoon.

I don't get this. Why is the Futures game only seven innings? I know pitchers just invite more. Showcase the guys for nine innings. It's one of the few chances you get to see most of these guys on TV before they become big leaguers. Right. Perplexing.

We are aware of it, though, because Keith Law is going to have the busiest three days of his life, I think. Yeah. I just, I don't know. With the news cycle, like say something crazy happens at the All-Star game, then all the, like usually the draft takes place in June. We're not at the trade deadline. The games are important, but they're not critical, right?

It's not like every, we're scoreboard watching at that point in time. critical right it's not like every we're scoreboard watching at that point in time so i guess i'm just really curious about the change because it felt like the draft had a little bit of a stage in june and here it's just going to get swallowed up by there were some awkward but there were some awkward things in in um in june too where like they'd be playing in the college world series and you'd get drafted. Remember? Yeah, that's not perfect when you've got teams still playing the final few series of that, and you draft a player, and you're like, man, I hope this guy doesn't get hurt, especially pitchers, but anybody could get hurt in those games.

I think having the draft stand on its own makes more sense to me than making it a part of All-Star Weekend. I'm curious to see if there's a coverage-related marker they're looking for. If they say, oh, actually, the viewership was up having this on the Sunday before the All-Star game, so we're going to keep it there. Or if between the negative feedback from front offices and a possible lower rating, they say, actually, no, June was just fine. We're going back to June because I don't have any, I don't recall seeing any reports that this is a permanent change.

This seems like a thing that will be decided on probably in the next few weeks for next season. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure they'll be looking at ratings. Yeah. It's just interesting to me. The change is interesting. Will it end up being better?

I don't know. Maybe I just think, I just think there's already a lot going on that week, but I do. Like, I don't want to set aside the, I don't want to laugh at the front office thing. It's like,

it's a tough job. You don't get paid that well. It is. It's really like hardcore for nine months a year. Like they do get to take a break. Like after the winter meetings, they get to have about like a three week time where they can take a break. But it's also the holidays when everybody else is traveling, too. Like it's not like super easy to travel then, you know.

Oh, well, you get Christmas off. Oh, thanks. Yeah. You don't want to opt into extra travel. You got to go see family because your family's far away. Okay, you travel around the holidays, but generally, I don't think people elect to get on an airplane around that time of year. It's not

pleasant from what I'm told, but strange to say the least. Looking forward to a ton of things all happening at once, though, next weekend. More baseball than you can wave a stick at, I think is the expression. Not sure why people are waving sticks. It's a really stupid expression.

It's no good. Never again. Never again. Breaking news. Oh, no. What do we have now? Breaking news. USA Baseball announces their Olympic

rosters. It's an interesting group because, you know, it's during baseball season. It's like, there's no Mike Trout. It's, it's,

yeah. I would say that the standout names are Nick Allen, the shortstop for the A's. Interesting that he's going to go play Olympic baseball when people in Oakland are like, he should be in Oakland. Tristan Casas is a good infielder for the Red Sox. Glaba Starling is a baseball player.

Uh, Scott, uh, Scott Casper, you got these, you got a couple of old guys like a Todd Frazier, Scott Casimir, Edwin Jackson, uh,

David Robertson are on this. Um, but on the pitching side, you do have Shane Baz, uh, and Simeon Woods Richardson and a rise ball superstar, Joe Ryan, uh,

from the Rays. So I would say it could be worse like, you know, it's an interesting collection of players and they could win. I think they could win. Yeah, I agree. Baz and Richardson as their aces.

I don't know if they have the pop that you'd expect, but maybe Frazier can run into a few And maybe Kassus will be their third Their number three hitter I could see it working out I'd say it's veteran laden

You've got guys who have gone to the World Series before You've got guys who have won the World Series before Jackson Has as well Robertson has You mentioned a lot of these names you know but they've got three of the top 100 prospects which is decent decent haul I think the coaching staff's really strong here Mike Socha obviously managed the Angels forever veteran manager Dave Wallace

is the pitching coach a dear friend of mine also just a really strong astute baseball mind longtime Atlanta Braves. He was with the Orioles. I think he's got 25, 30 years of big league pitching experience, coaching experience. He's been down at Eric Cressy's working with Brad Peacock and Chris Tillman and guys trying to get back to the big leagues. I think it's a fairly as strong of a roster as it can be keeping in mind for people that aren't aware if you're on the 40 man roster you cannot be eligible for this so as you know joked no mike trout but also just a lot of guys that aren't even in the big leagues were not eligible for this as

well um what's kind of unfortunate here adam jones left off the list um i spoke with him a little bit yesterday obviously disappointed he's playing in Japan right now. That iconic catch of him robbing Manny Machado was such a big deal at the last Olympics. He should be on it. He would actually be better than some of the players listed.

He wasn't selected. He didn't really go into detail with me, but he wasn't selected. It really would have been kind of the cherry on top of the sundae, I think, of his career. That would have been fun. And, you know, not for nothing, I would say the Japanese team are the favorites. I'm looking at who's on this team. Tanaka was the headliner, but Sugano is on the team.

headliner, but Sugano is on the team. We've got the Japanese home run leader, Muniteka Murakami, is on it. So I feel like they picked an all-star team. So if you've got the Japanese all-star team against the non-40-man American baseball team, I would say the Japanese are the favorites. Seems very reasonable. Yeah, it's really interesting that that mix of players does include those two prospect pitchers in particular. Boz is having an amazing year in the minors, so I'm really curious to see what he does on that stage and also curious to see if or when the Rays want to make him a part of their 2021 plans, even if they want to break him in as a multi-inning reliever

and then shift him back into their rotation for the start of next season. That doesn't seem far-fetched based on how well he is pitched over the course of the season. We had a bunch of sticky stuff questions come in. One from OJ, who we avoided a quarrel with a few weeks ago, and he writes, Over the past two years, there was a lot of talk about the death of the sinker, and much analysis of pitchers was that so-and-so should lean into his four-seamer and ditch his two-seamer.

Is it possible that the same physics that improved four-seamers, the increased ride you could get, was damaging two-seamers, preventing them from dropping as much as you'd prefer? It doesn't seem as if you could clean up your grip between pitches after all, so you'd get higher spin on everything. Thanks for your consideration. Nice having everyone back together again. OJ. What do you think about that?

One thing that was interesting was when I checked out, when I was writing about the sticky stuff, the state of the game right now, I found a piece by Travis Sochik where he actually mentioned that something like 10% of pitchers have actually already made a significant switch between their four seamers and their singers like there's already more sinkers in the game now than there were there were a month ago. So there was a month ago. So I think it's happening already. I don't know.

The physics of pitches is just a really tough one. I do think he's right, though. Spin or sink. And so if you are chasing spin, you're not going to have to sink. That's, I guess, where the sort of difference between a two-seamer and a sinker comes in. A lot of people with high spin, high four-spin,

high spin four-seamers were throwing two-seamers that didn't sink. So, yeah, I guess he's right. Yeah, we should get more sinkers. I don't know if they're all going to look like Strowman's, though. We may get some crappy sinkers, too. Yeah. I don't know if they're all going to look like Strowman's though. We may get some crappy

sinkers too. Yeah. You were mentioning yesterday, I think we were talking about Tarek Skubal and the changes he was making too. The sinker was part of the adjustments. I think it's, at the very least, a situation where you can't look at a sinker as the primary fastball and just

run away the way we might have in the last couple of years. You have to be a little more careful about I think, about doing that. Not that you should have been doing that all along, but I think that was becoming one of the reactions people were starting to have to that pitch. Thanks for that question, OJ. Greg wanted to know, he writes, maybe this is an absurdly stupid question. I didn't think it was a stupid question, but has MLB experimented with gloves as an alternative to sticky stuff for grip enhancement would pitchers lose too much feel if they had to wear gloves on their pitching hands batters wear them wide receivers wear them in football why can't pitchers gloves seem like they'd be easier

to monitor and regulate than various sticky substances thoughts Greg now like my initial thought is just pitchers wouldn't like to not be able to feel the ball on their skin. That's why it hasn't happened. But from a tech standpoint, Britt, this doesn't seem that ridiculous. You could probably get a very specialized glove that actually does give you the grip you want without having to deal with... This isn't the worst idea I've ever heard by any stretch of the imagination, but have you ever even heard of anyone experimenting with something like this? First off,

I want to let him know that I ask absurdly stupid questions for a living all day. And this was not even in the vortex. I'll ask a stupider one at some point today. I'm sure I haven't. My, what jumps to mind is where guys put the tack guys are very sensitive or some guys are very sensitive about where they put the sticky stuff. Some guys, and this is the reason there might be a problem, even with just a sticky ball, is some guys only like it on certain fingers.

Some guys like it on their whole hand. Some guys cannot deal with a sticky palm. And also these guys are supposed to be fielding. So now imagine if they get a ground ball back at them and they can't get the ball out of their glove. So this has some, in my opinion, significant drawbacks in that regard. And then the gloves are actually harder for MLB to regulate than baseballs. Baseballs are made by MLB in one process. Gloves come from different manufacturers depending on who sponsors you.

different manufacturers depending on who sponsors you. Rawlings, Mizuno, not saying that these companies would cheat, but also saying that guys couldn't slip a clubby $100 and tell them to spray some extra stuff on their glove. This is actually a lot easier because they have their gloves in their locker. This is actually

a lot easier to manipulate than a baseball would be. I think so. And then you'd also have second order effects where you'd probably have like a science race. You've had this. Who'd get the best tacky glove? The wide receiver gloves are these days apparently

are helping doing these sort of one-handed catches that are so amazing that tacky ass gloves is why here. So if you started to have the kind of wide receiver glove science race for pitching, I think we would just jump right back into what we were just trying to get

out of. I just like the idea of thinking about solving the problem in a different way. Having so many issues, getting the ball where we want it. So I like the creativity from Greg's question. One more question. This one came from Michael.

He wrote, everyone is focused on the spin rate changes in the fallout from MLB's question. One more question. This one came from Michael. He wrote, everyone is focused on the spin rate changes in the fallout from MLB's crackdown and sticky stuff, but is there anyone showing a marked difference in command plus that might be tied to this? Thinking specifically of guys like Aroldis Chapman who are scuffling of late

and don't seem to be able to find the plate. Might command changes be a bigger deal than spin rate? What do you think about that one? That is actually what I said on Starkville, was that it's possible the pitchers were right, and this is more about command than spin, because if you look at the numbers,

strikeout rate is down from 24 to 23.4. It's not actually that much. It's kind of what we predicted when we wrote that piece. We said it would go down, but not that much. It's in the realm of normal fluctuations in strikeout rate over the course of a season in league strikeout rate. So you could almost say strikeout rate is unchanged. However, walk rate has gone from like 8% to like 9.5% or something,

which is a larger variation than you normally see in walk rate. Walk rate is usually very steady around eight and a half, you know, over the course of the history of baseball. So it's a little bit of a walk explosion. And when you're watching, like it often seems to be, like if you think about like what, like Garrett Richards and Earl's chat, when their sort of implosions are happening, it seems like they just can't command the ball. Barrett Richards and Earl is chatting when, when they're sort of implosions are happening. You're it's,

it seems like they just can't, they can't command the ball. You're like, Oh man, what if pitchers were right? So, uh, yeah,

that, that part is, uh, is true. Also, I asked command plus to, to the guy, the makers of command plus stats to do it.

Uh, I need to get them to do a more recent update, but, um, they saw an effect uh in the first week of the stinky stuff crackdown uh like what what should have been league average command was already down to sort of like instead of 100 being league average it was already down to like 97 so they're you know it's definitely possible yeah which again means it's a great question yeah which again means is it the ball? Is it the fact that guys aren't taught to command now?

Are guys – you know, now we're in the weeds again with this a little bit. You know, what came first? Is it probably a combination of everything, right? If you just promote guys who are spinning the ball – and guys have talked about this for years in clubhouses, that guys aren't taught to command the baseball anymore to get to the big leagues so is it because they don't have their their their security blanket anymore that helps uh is it because they didn't learn that necessary skill is it a combination of things i don't know yeah is it because front office is fetishized uh spin rate too much. Right. Yeah.

More questions than answers at this point as a kind of, as we expected when this crackdown started, we're talking about like second and third order effects from something that was instituted like a week and a half ago. So like, we're going to have to, we're going to wait a little bit to see what actually shakes out. I think in terms of results on the field,

we can see that for sure sure, spin is down. Yeah, there has been a clear impact, but we haven't seen the full weight of the impact just yet. Thanks a lot for the sticky stuff questions. Let's get to beer of the month. I feel like we missed June completely, so maybe we'll get one early July and late July. You look like you might have had a few beers yesterday. Thanks. Yes, yes, I did.

Did any of them merit beer of the month selection? Yes, yes. We had a great meetup last night at North Park Brewing in San Diego. Thanks for anybody who came by. It seemed like there were mostly Rates and Barrels listeners, so a real shout out to all of you. That was really fun. Had great conversations. Some ideas for pieces, some ideas for some stuff to ask people.

So that was really fun. And the beer that, uh, I will choose is, uh, their hop foo, uh, which has a kind of a cool backstory. It, uh, was, it is like the brewer's dream. It's like the, what happened was this was like a, an award-winning homebrew that kept winning awards and it actually got him the seed money to start North Park Brewing. And it actually got him the seed money to start North Bar Brewing. So that was, Hop Fu is the, is like how he got his job. And so it's a really nice West Coast IPA. So that's it.

It was, you know, it's everyone's sort of rags to riches kind of dream. You know, I was making this in my basement and now I've got a brewery. So it was, brewery so it was uh it was it was a fun time i think okay nice nice um so i don't know if i've ever mentioned this on the show but we live walking distance to the guinness brewery um there's there's two there's one in ireland which i went to when i went to ireland uh last two years ago i guess and um hopefully today if all goes well on the reporting front, I'll join friends at Guinness later. And usually I do a little sampling

of all the stuff that goes around. As it gets hotter, and it's been brutally hot here in the DC, Maryland area, I usually switch to the lighter, like Guinness Blonde. Probably what I'll end up doing. But the last time I was there,

I had, my husband thinks this is disgusting. You guys are beer experts. So I'm, I'm going to rely on you guys. I had like a nitro beer. It was half cold brew, like half coffee and half beer. And I thought it was delicious. Like the upper and downer, probably not great for you, but it tasted like chocolate. I mean, you don't drink beer for the health benefits i've had a beer like that you know without the coffee part that do have the nitro thing like left-hand milk stout has a little nitro nitrous thing in it um and those are great it wasn't it like super smooth like just uh like thick and smooth like creamy like the texture of nitrile beers is amazing it's so good yeah

yes yes really good like you okay yeah so i'll probably if i'm feeling real crazy or like i'll probably get that because i had that last time and it was just i had that in a pretzel and i was like this is living yes please please get that it is wellerved. I wish I could have one of those because I'm all for coffee and beer being put together in any means possible. That sounds terrific. My selection does work well with the typical

July heat. It's been gross in a lot of parts of the country. The beer I'm recommending is Kid Kolsch from New Glarus Brewing. Unfortunately, you can only get it in Wisconsin. That helps absolutely no one. I'm recommending is Kid Kolsch. It's from New Glarus Brewing. Unfortunately, you can only get it in Wisconsin, so that helps absolutely no one. So I'm just going to say any Kolsch from any local brewery that you like, it's worth trying. It's a lower ABV. It's lighter and refreshing, a little bit fruity at the end, very well balanced.

Just a great style that I think doesn't get a lot of appreciation. In a world where IPAs and stouts have dominated for a long time, the Kolsch is kind of a forgotten, lost art sort of thing. New Glarus does a great one, but obviously 98% of you can't get New Glarus Kid Kolsch where you are, so I highly recommend

a local Kolsch. The Kolsch is cool because it has the sort of feeling of a lager, but it's got a little bit more taste, I think. It's a little bit sweet, a little bit crisp. I like it. It's a good spirit. As a German, I think I was born to like that beer.

You can get flavors in it, too. There's another brewery here, Carbon 4, that does a watermelon one. America, as F, is the name of the beer. Obviously, it's made for the 4th of July. Good for this weekend, too. A beer specifically designed for the 4th of July. We mentioned it up top. Hot dog eating contest this week.

I just thought it was interesting to bring this up from an odds perspective because we thought the NL Cy Young award odds for DeGrom were pretty ridiculous as DeGrom being a huge favorite. Joey Chestnut is minus $5,000 to win. You have to bet $5,000 on Joey Chestnut to win $100.

To win $100. What do you got? Who's like the second best? You just take the field at plus $1,100. You get everybody else in the field for plus 1100. I mean, something could go

wrong for Joey. Yeah. We were just talking about the whole vomit situation. I mean, plus 1100 on the field. If I had to bet it, that's the side I would go on. The over-under for Joey is 73.5 hot dogs and it's minus 225 on the over. It's the side I would go on. The over-under for Joey is 73.5 hot dogs, and it's minus 225

on the over. It's plus 170 on the under. It's so gross. What? 225? No, it's 75. He's minus 225 to go over 73.5 hot dogs. I misheard for a second. I was like, 225 hot dogs. Oh, God.

Yeah. Even 75, though, is gross. Too many. Way too many. It's about 73 too many, I think. I don't care what you put on your hot dog. What could you eat 75 of? Like 75 fries, maybe.

Could you eat anything? 75 of anything? French fries. 75? French fries, like tiny little chocolate chip cookies, like the Entenmann ones maybe. That's still a lot of cookies. That would be a lot of cookies. I love nuggets, but 75 nuggets?

Yeah, 75 is a lot. Did I ever tell you guys about the 18 Wheeler dealer that we had in college? It was basically our chicken nugget basket that they had over at the dorm food service place. It was 18 rings of chicken. How gross

and processed is that with fries? We had a kid that would eat... I don't even want to begin to think about it. He would eat two full baskets and then try to get remnants of other people's baskets, which was a feat of strength. It wasn't like he was a person that ate a lot all the time.

He just loved the 18-wheeler dealer so much that he would clean house and take down like 6,000 calories. So that's sort of my competitive eating story for today. But we got to go. We hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday weekend. If you don't have a subscription to The Athletic, you can get one for $3.99 a month at theathletic.com slash ratesandbarrels. Lots of great content there, including the great reporting that Britt and Katie Strang have done on the Trevor Bauer story that Eno and I talked a bit about on yesterday's show.

Lots of other great coverage, of course, to check out as well. On Twitter, she's at Britt underscore Droli. He's at Eno Saris, and I am at Derek Van Ryper. That's going to wrap things up for this episode of Rates and Barrels. We are back with you on Wednesday. Thanks for listening.