Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 2026 MLB Cy Young Draft! w/ Eno Sarris | 1099

Episode Date: March 9, 2026

 Start your free online visit today at https://Hims.com/talkin for your personalized ED treatment options. Use our code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKIN2026. Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount Save on essentials. Save the everyday with Amazon. URL: https://www.amazon.com Here’s what’s new in ‘26: Road To The Show: Road To Cooperstown Expanded Amateur Years feat. 11 new colleges Bear Down Pitching Big Zone Hitting Diamond Dynasty: The World Baseball Classic* Over 500 new gameplay animations Revamped Trade Experience in Franchise Mode Storylines: Negro Leagues Season 4* Early Access starts March 13th, 2026 Available March 17th, 2026 Get 10% off your Digital Deluxe Edition pre-order if you’ve bought any digital version of MLB The Show since ‘21.**                           *Internet connection required. **Discount reflected in cart. Must be signed into your account. Only applies to same platform purchases. For Nintendo Switch, since MLB® The Show™ 22.   Coach Trev and Talkin’ Jake invite The Athletic’s Eno Sarris to draft pitchers who they think will win the 2026 Cy Young! Who do you have in your lineup?Also Jake and Trev talk World Baseball Classic with Joez McFly live from the stadium!   0:00 Intro 4:00 Last years results 7:00  draft starts 54:00 Who we left off 1:01:00 WBC Coverage Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. It's time for a tradition unlike any other. It's the Cy Young Draft. Eno Seris is here. Trevor Plouf, the Californians. Let's talk ball. Christopher Sanchez. Yoshita in the WBC.

Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. I am Jake Storelli. That is Trevor Plouf. And the guest of honor today is Enosaris from Rates and Barrels, the athletic, the baseball world. I know Treves, Treves crush on him kind of started with sandwiches and beer. And now we are here running back to Cy Young draft. So, Eno, how are you? Yeah, I interviewed him once for a beer magazine when he was with the A's. That was fun. Yeah, it was fun. And we used to, like, hang out a lot more in person. And now we're just so busy potting that we never get to do it. I just

see you online. Yeah, you can't travel that well with all these things. What's up? What's going on with rates and barrels? I know you just recorded and I know brickeroli, T2, Trevor May, Jed Lowry's involved. What's going on over there? Yeah, we're just, we went to daily now. So we've just, Mondays and Fridays, a little bit more like news and fantasy.

And then Wednesdays and Thursdays, we chop it up with former big leaguers, kind of breaking down like mechanics and nerdy stuff. I kind of come with like the, I'm the analyst, you know, energy and like, you should throw it here. And Trevor's like, I can't throw that pitch there.

What are you talking about? Jed's like, stop, stop, shut up about tilt. You know, so. It's perfect. It's good energy. And on Tuesdays, we kind of like use a lot of the athletics writers and go to whatever stories they're doing. So we're having fun.

We did a rebrand of it. And they bought us, they gave us wardrobe balance and they gave us, you know, clothes. And they took us to Chase Field. We have like a professional. musician doing our new intro music and they took all these pictures of us and just one funny little thing happened. You know, like, I don't know if you've done photo shoots like this, maybe like for your wedding or whatever when like the photographer's like, smile more, smile less,

smile with your teeth, you know, smile with your eyes, you know, like that stuff, right? And so at some point he says smile with your eyes and I'm doing it. And he says, look at each other. And I look at Derek with the smiling eyes look. And he's like, like, whoa, whoa, stop it. I think you, I think that you look at your wife that way. I was like, well, at least I was, you know, making love to the camera, I guess. You were doing it. Oh, oh, you've a wardrobe budget?

That's what I got out of this. Yeah. Hey, it's not super fancy. It's like Zara. Zara level. A little Zara ad. Yeah, there is, there is. We have a sneaky one.

Me, Trev and Johnboy did a photo shoot for Apple one day. We're going to have to dig out those pictures once a year because we're in like matching outfits. The tones are the same. Oh, yeah. That's a little bit like us. Yeah, they'd like to do that. Yeah. Trev looked great.

Me and John Boy, that was his most natural uncomfortable area. And for some reason, I ended up slightly uncomfortable where that would normally be kind of a sweet spot for me. But okay. So we've all sold out. that's fine. Oh, okay. Eno. That's AI generated.

I love it. I look like a toad that's come to life. Jimmy looks like an 1800s golfer. They shouldn't have put you down low. That's kind of where I live. That's where I live, Poppy. All right. With that, what better way to tee up the 2026,

Sy Young draft. We have to know to know where we're going. We have to know where we're been. No, we don't need to talk about that. John Mayor. Last year, Little Poppy took the bell.

It's okay. I was coming off the last place finished the year before. That Paul Skeen's guy helped me out in the first round. Then, I don't know if you guys remember this, I took Shane McClanahan basically right after

there was notification. He got banged up. Yeah. And I just played through it. I was a little salty in that moment. I was a little surprised, actually, given that. I remember, that's what I remember of our draft. But then it was, it was me that it got hit by the injury bug the worst, I guess.

It wasn't a proud moment. I followed that with Snell, who missed time. Hunter Brown, who was my one player who had not received a vote in any Syung end of year voting. And then Zach Wheeler, my fifth pick, who got one vote last year. Eno, you had Crochet who had never received a vote the year before. So I think you were trying to game the game there a little bit that way. Logan Gilbert, Corbyn. How did I lose for crochet?

He almost won the Cy Young. I know. And if he was named Scoobel, does he win last year? We could talk about that another time if we want. Corbin Burns, DeGrom and Cole Riggins, who got banged up. Could see him this year. Could see him. I meant in this draft.

And then Trevor had Scoobes. Roki Sasaki. deep sea fishing a little bit. Dylan Sees got the big contract. Chris Sale and then Logan Webb, who got you 47 points late. So there's the graphic on the screen for the YouTube. And yeah, we go with the actual Cy Young points.

We did think about adding a no-skine scoble rule this year, which I think could have added a nice element. But then crochet is kind of in that conversation. I think we're just going to do a speedy first round, and we've decided to go, I guess, reverse order from last year, that Eno, you have the guest of honor. I'm going to say you have to pick between Skeens and School, but maybe you have a crochet argument.

I don't know. No, I'm going to take Paul Skeens. And maybe it's just because I'm nervous about last year with how the injury just ran through all through my picks. I'm going to take Skeens because I just get the, I think he's a hoss. He just looks like a guy who's going to put up, he's going to post,

he's going to pose those innings. Scoob will have some injury history in his past. So if I'm going to be scared about anything this year, apparently it's going to be injury. I don't know how I'm going to get out of this without, you know, an injured pitcher, but I'm going to try.

It's every front office. What's on? Can you tell us something about skeins? Because, you know, Trev played in the league. I missed out a little bit. But like, what for Skeens this year? Like, what do we even look for? Like, what's next?

I think he's kind of trending towards a little bit of like a Hugh Darvich situation where he's got like he's got multiple changeups. I think he might end up being one of the first guys to throw three changeups. I mean, he's got the splinker and the straight change. All he's to do is learn the kick change and, you know, but I, what I like about him is it's a really wide mix, you know, not to besmirch crochet or anything, but, you know, he's, he's like three or four pitch types behind Paul schemes. you know, so I would just look for mix. He's got to keep that velo high because the four seam doesn't have great shape, so he needs to have good velo on it. But I would just be really interested in hearing about what new pitches he's featuring this year.

He does seem just like a host, like you said. Like he just wants the ball. He just wants to go to work. Love that about him, which leads me to my pick here. And I was trying to convince myself to go Garrett Crochet, and I wanted it to be a little bit of a hot take. Plus, there's a possibility that, like, the WBC, that kind of going this hard, this early, kind of scares me a little bit.

And I do think Scoobble is going to pitch again for Team USA after that first start against Great Britain. Ken Rosenthal, like, I think initially I was appalled by what he did, but eventually I think we're all going to thank him because he's going to be the reason that Scoobill pitches again. That's true. But then I remember Garrett Crochet plays in the ALE East, and I just think there's too many big bats there.

And then I remember where Terrick Scoobel plays in the ALE Central, and there's less big bats there. So I am going to go, Terrick Scoobel. Is he going to go three Pete? Like, that seems insane to me. It almost makes me want to, and I say it out loud, it makes me want to go Garrett Crochet, but there's just something about him. You talk about skeins and being a workhorse. I mean, Scoob's last year, 199 and two-thirds inning.

I bet he wants to get to that 200 mark this year. He's the guy. He's the pick. He's the number two pick. Yeah. You laid it out pretty well. I guess, you know, they hear my thoughts a lot. You got anything else on Scoobel?

No, I mean, I do think that there could be a role in the WBC this year in, you know, how injury I think. You know, I just, I hate this. I don't even want to say. I already said it too much. But you know what I mean? Like, it's just they, you know, aren't. normally throwing it this high intensity at this point of the year. And you can ready yourself for that by like, you know,

starting earlier in the year. But, um, I mean, just watch scoble kind of stomping around in the dugout like, that's not normal for March 9th. It's a good point. And yeah, it may just, uh,

may just lead just some fatigue or something because, you know, it's, you normally March 9th, you're slapping butts and going to play some golf afterwards. Can still do that. Um, yeah, I,

me. Yeah, I just love where Scoobel's personality has gotten to in the game is really fun for me. And yeah, I don't know. I'm excited to see, I'm excited to see, is this going to just be kind of one of those crazy two to three year peaks? Or how long can he kind of sustain whatever this is? Because it's, it's so dominant, man. And it's so fun. And like the, my yelling at guys when they're rounding the bases and stuff, it feels like, it feels like, like that perfect, I don't know, what you want competition to be, Treb? He's kind of, he's kind of got a little bit of bum garner in him a little bit, right? Ooh, I like that. A little red assery in there.

There was a thought for me like, okay, like, yes, he's going into his walk year. Is there any point where, you know, he's going to be able to kind of coast into the offseason, but he won't be able to. I mean, the tigers are probably going to have to win the division. I don't see a wild card coming out of the central. Like, they are going to keep him the entire time, unless something goes crazy wrong for that. He's going to be there,

and he's going to have to go through the end of the season, full bore. So he's the guy. Yeah, I guess maybe the other spin here is that maybe he puts together some sort of CC 2008, where we're like, He won the WBC, you know, got the gold medal. Is it a gold medal? I don't know. They win the WBC.

He carries the Tigers to Cy Young slash MVP4, and then they go in the playoffs. That CCC season always blows my mind because he was just pitching every third day for the Brewers, just as a hired gun. I guess I can make the pick quick teaser. It's brought to you by MLB, the show. We're picking our Sigh-Young candidates and seeing how they stack up against their Diamond Dynasty ratings.

Garrett Crochet, even if you're new to MLB the show, he's pretty good in there. He's the third highest-ranked starting pitcher, 11th overall. Led the AL and innings pitched and K's per nine. Pretty good combo. So, yeah, if you're a gamer, you already know that little leg kick adds a little extra to it. And just everything he throws. So go check out MLB the show 26. Pre-orders available March 17th on PlayStation 5, Xbox series S&X, Nintendo Switch.

rated E for everyone. Yeah, I'll stop doing this at some point in the draft. But like we said, these are kind of the big three right now throughout baseball. Is the next evolution for crochet? Is it finding another pitch? Because if your pitch mix is going to be slightly limited, that limits you? Or what's next for him? Yeah, I think it's that changeup.

But, you know, he told me over the course of last season, I talked to him a couple times about his changeup. And he said, you know, I've been trying to find one. I said he didn't like the way the splitter fell. He said it hurt a little bit. So he wasn't, you know, everyone was like, oh, he should be a splitter guy. He's like, you know, he's two finger dominant. He's a fastball slider guy. He should, he should learn a splitter.

What he did instead was just, you know, the distinction between what a splitter and what a changeup is is kind of going away. We're getting just, you know, you can move the fingers along the ball and places that look kind of like a splitter. So I think he just found a place this offseason where he can throw something that has great movement and doesn't hurt. So, you know, this changeup that he's throwing right now could be the separator. But these guys are so good that it really is just about, you know, innings, maybe a tiny bit of luck when you're trying to differentiate between the two. I voted for the AL-Syeung. I actually almost, and I, that actually, now that I say that, oh, insider trading. No, I would never do that.

I would never do that. I actually for a second thought about voting for crochet because baseball prospectus numbers, which account for the quality of opposition, had crochet as better than scoble. That's, again, I said it, I said it in a clickbaity five foot seven. who does a podcast way, but like, I don't know if, if they're, if Jesse you switch the names and scubel was coming off winning the Cy Young, it just would have been an interesting combo between, you know, kind of marking yourself on baseball history, a back-to-back Cy Young winner. I don't think it landed there. I do think, I do think, I do think school

season was a little better, but I don't know, maybe an interesting thought exercise for those at home. I don't know how much to value, like, sense of opposition, because, not like scoobble chose right you know he just he's just playing the woods was handed him you know so 083 whip for scoo um all right so now the draft basically begins we we basically teed up the whole episode so in a way did i finagle the one pick people are saying um let's see i i don't think i have a couple options i like for guys that haven't received a si young vote um i guess do i need to to fade crochet or skeins or scoble at all. No, I think I'll go, I think the next guy who stands out for me,

and I think it comes down to innings and health a little bit. I'll go with Christopher Sanchez. He's been an iconic figure on this show, because Trev saw him in person one time and said, I think he was at that time listed six four, and I think he's now listed. He was listed at six one. He's listed at six one, which I think,

We've debunked that myth. Man, he's just amazing. I think he gets overshadowed because we know the other guys in that Philly's rotation just a little better. But what he has turned into in this league, and hey, I guess you could play a WBC card with him if you want. Last year, am I seeing an 8B war? Like what? I know that's probably not the first pitcher number we jumped to, but 32 starts. The 202 innings, I love after 180.

won the year before that. Christopher Sanchez. I thought you might go Hunter Brown there, but I knew if it wasn't him, it was Christopher Sanchez. We do love what he's able to do. I think that his, like, lore is only growing, and there is something,

and I'm not going to put you on the spot like Jake does. But there is, you know, there is something about left-handed pitchers in this league. And when you have, like, dominant lefties, it just, there's something that hits a little different there. They're just, they're kind of

rare so when you see one, I mean, look, we have three of the top four picks right now are these left-handed starters who have just kind of separated themselves for the masses. They're so rare. We used to talk about in the big leagues, if you throw, and Glenn Perkins

said this to me one time and it stuck with me. If you throw 90 and you're a lefty, like you're going to have a job for a long time. I think the Vilos probably went up on that a little bit. But when you watch this guy throw, I mean, he's, he's just different. Yeah, we had to, in the Stuff Plus model,

which just looks at the shapes of pitches and spits out of quality, like shapes and velos, we had to actually like put our finger on it and say, is lefty worth more? You know, like because we just found that, you know, like it wasn't lining up right. We had to, with results and stuff. So yeah, lefties.

And I've asked a bunch of people about it, you know, Riley, you know, said we just, yeah, I think with the three batter rule, like we don't see as many situations. lefties, you know, in the league anymore. I think that also with pitch design, the thing that we're getting to the most right now is change-ups. I think they're improving the most right now at pitch design. And so that's something that can help the lefties, neutralize varieties. But we're seeing some of the best numbers by lefties ever. And it's, yeah, I'm now jealous. You guys both have

lefties and I don't have one. I need a lefty. There was an article that just came out and I'm going to do it so I want to even I'll just kind of paraphrase what's going on there just talking about how they believe that spin isn't really how hitters are picking up balls even though that's a common

you know theme when you talked to hitters hey I saw the spin saw the lack of spin whatever it is but it's more about like body orientation and I'll go old school like yeah like when things look different you're able to pick up pitches like that's

that's been around forever. When you have a tall, lefty like that, you just don't see a lot of them. And so, like, yeah, it's going to be a little bit more deceptive. Your ability to pick up the baseball is going to be off. It's coming from just a completely different spot than you're used to looking. So, I mean, that obviously helps with a guy like Sanchez. Yeah. Yeah, that it was something that came out of cricket a long time ago,

but it's been sort of recently reaffirmed is that pre-release information is more important than release and post-release. When guys would always say I pick it up out of the hand, I'm like, good for you. I don't. That seems really late, right? Like there's a lot of information before that. And the spin thing, the spin thing, I also, I mean, I think you can pick up, and this goes against this article that I think you can pick up changeups and splitters.

And that is out of the hand and spacing on the ball and just lack of rotation. finger sometimes. Yeah. And again, people talk about the red dot on sliders, right? That's a spin thing. See, that to me,

man, I don't know. You never saw that. I always thought it's arm action. So if your body looks the same and you're whipping the arm through the release point, like that doesn't matter

if there's a red dot and I'd never pick that up like that. Oh, so that's another, another one for pre-release information right there. Yeah. I'm going to go righty. Screw these lefties.

Okay. I'm going to safe pick here. And it's the guy that I did pick last year. But a guy that just consistently throws over 200 innings, I'll read you the last four years, sci 11, side 2, sci 6, side 4. Like, I'm getting points this year with my guy

who's also a dog, wants the ball in Logan Webb. I mean, he's just a guy that is going to be there, who's going to give me value in this draft. And honestly, I respect his game. Like, 200-ending. doesn't mean 200 innings like it used to. It means like 250 innings, basically.

The new benchmark is 175 innings, in my opinion. It's like, that's the new 200. So the fact that this guy is able to do that consistently is just a real testament to what kind of pitcher he is. Yeah. You have a relationship with him, right? You know? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. You had a what? We had a child. We had a child together. No, there's just the there's this awesome the way that the clubhouse is in San Francisco. There's he's in the corner and they put all the starters around him. And there's usually like an there's like a like one empty stall or whatever, you know?

So there's like just space there. And he's the kind of it's the pitcher's corner and it's just my favorite place to be in the world almost. Because we're just like they're just chopping it up. But like he's, I don't know people give him enough credit for being smart, you know, smart about pitching the way he is. So he's on top of like recent trends. He's talking about different machines and like rehab things and what people are doing. And he's got his own theories. You know, he's, he's really smart dude. And I think he's got the highest floor in the game. It's a great sinker, great change up, great park. It's just, you know, it all comes together. And he's, he's posting endings. And he cares a lot about health. So I think that's a really good pick. Yeah. I mean, he's not like everyone thinks of me. has a ground ball pitcher, but 26.2K percentage last year is the second highest of his career. So he's figuring that out as well. I mean, he just kind of does it all. It's crazy. The fact he was 192 innings, 163 strikeouts in 2022 to last year, 207, 224. Yeah, to credit to everything you just said, you know, and he doesn't get, we still think like,

Logan, watch your hands on the sinker. And it's like, man, he kind of does it all. You know, you get back to back picks. all right well i'm going to go with yoshinomu yamamoto um you know i just think he's got this nice pitch mix uh he's got a dodgers team's going to get him wins and the the you know in terms of injury anybody could go down maybe he could he's been fairly clean so far but what is interesting about the dodgers is that that rotation needs somebody to kind of post you know like you might give show hey 130 innings 140 innings Blake Snell's going to get, you know, your 110, you know, Sheehan, you're going to give

122. Somebody needs to step forward like Young Motor did last year and give him 160, 180 innings. And part of the Cy Young thing is having enough innings. That's the part that that's the hardest about picking someone who's never had votes before, is that, you know, you got to pick somebody who maybe hasn't had the innings so far. But, and I'm tempted with my next pick to to go for somebody who doesn't have a votes yet. But I want I want my gams. I want my thighs. I want my quads. So Hunter Brown come on down. I want I want my big boys. That's how I'm going to avoid injury this year. I'm just going to put Yamamoto between two real big boys and and hope everyone stays clean. That's those are two great picks right there. Yamamoto saw a young three last

year a hunter brown saved jake in the draft um just yeah two studs two studs right he doesn't like the characterization there he won he won the draft oh yeah i guess you're right phrase that pretty differently um i was so i just hunter hunter brown hunter brown listed six two two 20 thoughts and it seems big in that okay and i was going to mention this with crochet um him and judge i have as one, two, just biggest body boys in the game. Who, who am I, I, I guess I haven't seen skeins in person. Who else, who else am I missing? I know.

Big boys in the game? I just, just like, there was a lot of things we can measure. Just like overall, overall, like, thickness, height, and size. Like, Judge, like, when Judge first came to the Yankees, it was, oh, Judge and Stanton, and then you saw them side by side, and you're like, oh, my God, like, judge is so much thicker. head to toe. And the only guy I've seen built like Judge is crochet and he might be a little bigger and just like pitchery that I don't know. I have those as the one two in the game. I think I think show hey has a big presence about him as well. Like he's bigger than you think he is. Yeah,

he definitely is. Uh, Felix Bautista is a mountain, dude. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah. Literally his nickname, isn't it? Yeah. Then there's the there's the big short stops that I don't think they fit as much because they're, they're lankier and skinnier, but like Ellie and O'Neill Cruz. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I haven't,

Felix is a good one. He's, he's been missing for a little too much. Come back, big fella. There's a, there was some concern with Hunter Brown and the second half last year. The strikeout minus walk wasn't as good.

But, you know, his ERA was exactly the same in the first and second half. And I think if you're a pitcher where you're getting the exact same results and, you know, your strikeout on this walk isn't quite as good. Like, I don't think you're motivated to change that much. You know, you're just like, no, it's working. What, what do I need to care? But he does have like a fastball heavy mix. And he's talking about working on his curveball the spring. He's using it more. He's striking a guys out more in the spring. And I've always just thought that his breaking balls are really good. And so if he does run into any trouble with the fastball heavy approach, I actually think he can just go to the breaking balls. So I think he has second and third accent. I don't think last year was the best he'll ever do, in other words. Love it.

Coach? I think I'm going to go with my guy who's never received a vote. And I'm in between two guys. I have the pick, but I was in between two guys. I was thinking of going Trey you savage. But there's one guy I like watching more. And he's got a bigger repertoire, which you kind of just alluded to.

I think that's kind of the way that, especially with pitch design, and I don't want to say how easy it is now, but it's a lot easier than it used to be. Norm McLean threw six pitches last year. Nice. 2, 9%, but still, like what I always say, like you get to that 10% mark,

it's something that you have to look out for. And when you watch this guy throw, I mean, he looks dominant. He's on Team USA right now in eight games last year, a 206, a 104 whip, like he just he kind of like looks the part i like the low arm angle that he's got like he just kind of everything's deceptive and that breaker right there is absolutely filthy so uh again you mentioned like somebody needs to step up someone needs to step up in this met's uh rotation and him and him and

freddie together i think will be really really special i am worried about innings and if they try to limit some uh because that's what organizations tend to do but i don't think they're going to be in a position to do that this year i think this is a team that's going to be fighting for a playoff spot, and I think he's going to be a big part of if they get in. So I'm going to go, Nolan McLean here with my guy

who has never received a vote. Nice. Yeah. He kind of feels like he's from a different era a little bit. I don't know if it's the goatee, but like I feel like I expect him dueling against Jack Morris or something like that. Okay.

Yeah, that's my analytics. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, that thing moves. These bitches we're looking at right now are filthy. Yeah, that's the best spin rate on a curveball and baseball. And yeah. Silly. Silly.

Crazy sweeper. This episode is sponsored by Seekkeek. The MLB regular season is a pro, I mean, it's almost here, people. And not to mention the NBA is actually in a real fun spot right now. NHL March madness, it's going to be a fun month in the World Cup this summer. And that's why we want to give a shout out to our friends over at Seekek. 35 million downloads, 70,000. listed events. Seatkeek is the number one rated ticketing app. Scale of one to 10, green means good,

red means bad. You got it. You just learned how to use the app. And you just learned how to save 10% using code Talking 2026. That's Talking 2026, 10% off any tickets with Talking 2026 at Seatgeek, whether you've used one before or you haven't. So download the app, punch it in, go check out Seat geek. Noel McLean was one of the guys I was think I wanted to leave the draft with with the no-sai young votes. Good job, Trev. Hey, we came up with our own theory on this show.

I mean, I know we're 10 years away from taking over the Rockies and Eno and Trevor May figure out how to pitch in Colorado and we'll you guys knock yourselves out. Let's keep running the lefty theory. I'll go with McKenzie Gore. I think the breakout happened. I think he just ran out of steam. obviously there's there's the clear line in his splits last year i think is his first 19 starts dominance the crazy strikeout numbers uh and then literally went on the i l i think is just like

sore arm just like tired which makes sense and okay as that can be equal parts scary uh we can kind of do that for any pitcher and um hey i don't you know again you you're the guy with actual data that back stuff up currently on the show but like at texas just feels like a to pitch and not hit right now. I don't know if that's going to turn. I don't know if the cement's going to dry in the stadium and we'll tell a different story, but it feels like guys pitch there.

You mentioned the pitching corner in San Francisco. The pitching corner in Texas seems pretty goddamn cool that I'll take a chance on McKenzie Gore. Yeah, there's a fascinating thing going on there because Texas is becoming more pitcher-friendly with every year. And so you would think it's a dome, how is that happening? You know, par factors aren't supposed to work that way. But my working theory right now is that domes make outfield defense easier because there's less wind and you're not trying to adjust to the wind.

And with that, we know that recently outfield defense has gotten even like basically outfield batting average to the outfield has gone down more than batting average in the infield in the era of shifts. Right. So the outfield shifts are actually been more effective than infield shifts. And so you put those two things together and you can say, oh, okay, they've really dialed in how to defend the outfield in Texas and that's made it a pitcher's part. That's my working theory right now. I love an outfield shift band because, yeah,

I mean, we want to see these, like, just like the same thing as we do in the infield. We want to see these guys make plays. We don't want to see them just standing there, catching a pop-up. Some of the most electric plays in baseball are when outfielers are on their horse going after ball in the gap.

But until that happens, I'm interested in that theory, though. Why is this because no sun and no wind element? Is that why you're saying that for the outfielders? Yeah, I mean, we also see a stuff plus benefit. So pitchers stuff is better in domes because there's no crosswind for them. Yeah. You know, there's that that affects them.

But I would, you know, listen, I've never been a major league outfielder. But I would assume that, you know, you see it in the way sometimes pop-ups attract. Like you saw it probably in Oakland sometimes when you're, you know, that ball gets up high and you're, you think you're going, you're running this way. And then you start you, you see it sometimes. You're watching a guy track along that they're going one direction. They come all the way back. That's all wind. So I figure like it's got to be easier if you don't have to do all that. Plus. Yeah, you're the hard of sure read. If you're in a sure read and if you're playing in the elements, whether, you know, some people don't believe in high skies. I'm telling you that that's real. Uh, Arizona just, it's a, it's a theory. It's a, it's a. It's a. It's a. It's a. It's a. It's a. It's a. It's a. It's a. It's a. It's a. It's a. It's a. It's a. It's a. It It's like a white sky, you know, it's like blue, but it's white. It feels like just really glaringly cloudless and just like one color in a way that might be hard to, yeah. We were looking at it. The reds were just both biffing balls left and right in the outfield. And we were just like looking up with the sky.

That looks daunting up there. It's been in the news a lot. Who said it earlier today, or earlier this season that we need to take a look at. Is it Tommy Pham? Did he say that? About what? But wind and son and how we need to bring that into defensive metrics. I think it was Tommy Fam.

It was. Yeah, we wrote a piece called Fam graphs. Yes, exactly. About all the things that Tommy Fam questioned about the stats. I mean, he blows up my phone on the regular, just being like, you know, Sprint speed sucks. It's a hustle stat. Can you tell Tommy Fam that me and Jake both like him a lot?

we're in high school all over again yeah no it's just funny because he's he's got legitimate gripes with different stats and i've got a i've got yeah it is i've got a big story uh coming i'm working on a big story right now uh that that came from something he said too so yeah he's got because he's really he's like speaking of like clubhouse stuff like you know some people i think think that people don't like um Tommy fan in the clubhouse and stuff. And he's made some poor decisions in his life. But he's also really smart when it comes to baseball.

And he's so smart that he like, you know, he understands all the metrics. He understands all the tech, but he questions all of it. And he does it in a public way that involves his teammates so that they all get smarter and does they consider things they would never have considered in terms of training. And they start to be critical.

of like, you know, even stats that are given to them. I mean, he can be maybe a handful if you're a coach. But if he's, if he like agrees with you, then he will, he'll spread that gospel. You know, like he's, he's really, he makes every clubhouse smarter. Isn't that what we need for progress in society? You can't just go along with things. You got a question. Let's go, Tommy fan.

Yeah. We finally hit that point of the program. Hey, man, whatever. Had a one war last year, age 37, got on base at a 330 clip, like, back to what you're talking about. Gore was a, Gore was in front of the worst defense in baseball last year. Like that.

You know, and I don't like that for him, but I like it for this year. Yeah. And now, and now he's in a place that's the way he's to defend. He's a fly ball guy. It's great pick.

I mean, there's also, you know, he's going to go from a place that's not known for pitching, pitch design, pitch coaching. And, you know, they're trying. They're getting better. But,

uh, you know, I could see him making a couple tweaks. and then just really just being better because the defense behind him is better and all the other things are better. Okay, great pick by me. Everyone agrees.

I was thinking, I almost went righty for a second and then I remember the new theory. I'll double up, I just flip flat between two guys. You know what? I'll play some stadium factor here. I don't know if I believe in it,

but I'll go for Amber Valdez. If I'm looking for innings, if I'm looking for lefty, if I'm looking for from Houston to Detroit over a given year. You know, he's got his old dogs, Hinch, and Verlander looking over him. I don't know. I'm honestly, the lefty theory is a partial joke. Mostly I'm playing the innings there.

Like Framber's going to go out there. He's going to bang that curveball and he should rack up numbers like he does every year. Yeah, I mean, he's got some things in common with Logan Webb in terms of just super high floor. and, you know, good stuff and better strikeout rate than you expect from a guy with like a 68% ground ball rate. Yeah, we went back and forth on this. I talked about this a lot with Chris Rose. The fact that more head coaches weren't just like banging on a table to sign Framber Valdez, because I do believe, and tell me what you think, do you think he got knocked because of this like,

what we'll call like attitude issues last year crossing up his catcher? Do you think he got knocked in free agency because of that? Yes. I think teams were out on that, right? So if I'm a head coach, my job is to manage men. That's what you do as a head coach. The fact there weren't more guys being like, I want that guy. He's a dog when he's on the mount.

I can make sure he's not an asshole in the clubhouse. But look at the guy who did bang the table in the end for him, a guy who had him before. Yeah, so he knows him. Right. So I think, you know, I think it hurt him a little bit, but he ended up where he was because of the comfort factor there with his manager. But one piece of evidence I can have that it mattered is that they put out his like agency put out a video. You often put out videos, hype videos. We're like, look at like how awesome my free agent is.

But their hype video spent like two minutes about how awesome their free agent was and literally like 35 minutes on how good of a person he was. Yes. We talked about a lot. But I'm just saying basically I'm just calling out all the managers who didn't step up because this guy is a stud. Yeah, like, you know, have some have some faith in your managing abilities, right? Yes. So funny. Guy with one of the most fun like curveballs when it's right.

35 minutes of. Yeah, but he's friendly. Yeah. Did he just B roll up him like walking on shaking people's hand? It is. It's so much of it. It's all this stuff. It's him back home.

I did. I saw it. Yeah, because they took it down. It's a, he's got to, took it down after we put it in our story. That's funny. We hadn't linked in our story.

I would have watched that. I would have watched that like if I'm start to finish, no doubt. How do I know? It's him with his barber. You know, he's getting a haircut. It's him walking down the neighborhood shaking hands and stuff. And it tries to, it says that like he came from,

he was so poor and it shows like his childhood house and stuff. And it sort of gives the idea that like, you know, some of what you're reading is just, you know, him being super intense and being, you know, having to have overcome all of this to get to where he is, that you're just misreading him.

And I think to some extent that could be it. I mean, one of the things that he did, even in that moment where he crossed up his guy, his, is his catcher on purpose. Allegedly, allegedly, allegedly. I don't know, maybe it really looked like it. But, uh, but, uh, but, but one of the things he does that makes everyone sure that he did it on purpose

is he, he turns around and, and like shows his back to the catcher. But apparently he'd been coached on, you know, his countenance and games because he's got, he's gotten mad at other players and stuff. And he's gotten mad at it. So he's actually gotten some psychological counseling about like if you're, if you're in this moment, like breathe, get off the mound, walk around, you know, try to get back out of the moment, try to just like.

So maybe he was kind of doing his like, I need to chill out. Obviously I need to chill out. So I'm going to, and not so much like I don't give a crap about that human being. But I just think he's a really, he like is an intense competitor that loses it sometimes. And there are plenty of people like that. We always root for guys for random reasons on this show. The reason we started noticing Framber, obviously he was doing well when he was younger, but he had the smallest glove I've ever seen on a picture.

He like latched on to that. Here's Framber with a tiny glove. And then he turned into who he kind of. turned into so we've been huge fans of framer from the get-go yeah um but yeah i thought that was just hilarious i'm glad you picked him though jake because i know who i think i know who you were going for oh and i'm gonna i'm gonna take this safe pick right here i'm going all safe bro good for you i'm going with a guy who's my friend who have known for a long time who gets ground balls who doesn't allow homers who is experiencing some of the best velo of his career right now and that's my good friend max

freed. I'm sticking with the lefty mark. But this guys, he's an absolute stud. He doesn't get enough credit for how fucking good he is. I know he got the deal. He got some money. But I don't think people that you just don't see him constantly in the best

pictures of like the year or like this this decade. You don't see him in those conversations a lot. And I think he should be. The number speak for themselves. Yeah, man. Yeah. I was just really impressed with how much the Yankees, you know, had for him when they got him.

I mean, he changed his curb ball, which he's thrown forever. His curve ball was different. His sinker was different. His changeup was different. Like, they had a lot of little tweaks. And it may just look like he was the same as ever last year, but he was even better, actually, under the, under the hood. Yeah. It's so good.

It was awesome getting to watch him pretty much every star. And yeah, I mean, finish Syung 4 and Syung 2nd in 2022. but yeah, Trev, where I get caught up and I normally, I use these numbers to Butterknife, Brandon Woodruff normally to show how good he has been. But yeah, if you do starting pitcher since 2020, who have had over 100 starts, Max Fried has the best ERA.

It's 282. It's him, Burns, Kershaw, Wheeler, Scoobel. So I know it's not predictive, but I like my pitcher to have that stat. You know, you get your fourth round pick and then your final pick of the draft. Okay. Well, I'm nervous about this, not from a standpoint of how good they are. I'm just nervous that there's been a little bit of like one had a forearm strain.

Forearm strains are, you know, predictive of worse stuff. And the other guy has been, you know, had little things here or there. And they're on the same team. But they get me a guy who's never gotten votes before and a guy who has to be considered one of the favorites for the Say Young. So I'm going with Logan Gilbert and Brian Wu. Nice. That's my combo.

And I love them for different reasons. Gilbert has like almost a seven and a half foot extension. He's just, he's just like putting the ball in your face off the mound. I think he's really developed a persona. He talks about he has this name for that he's, he's Walter on the mound on game days and stuff. So he like adopts this like,

you know, demeanor on game days. And he's just a, he's kind of a, your competitor on on game days and he's just the like the nicest dude otherwise um and he's got this splitter you know that i think is just a really amazing pitch and then brian woo is i don't think there's another pitcher in baseball like brian woo actually he basically throws his two fast balls 80% of the time and he plays them off each other with excellent command um so woo's a little bit different

than anybody else i just think that he can maybe take the breaking balls another step forward but it's just amazing command and nobody's figured it out yet. So I'm going with Wu and Gilbert and I'm going with the Mariners. You know, I got an update from our rules committee. Both have received Sy Young votes. When did Wu get votes? I looked at last year. Last year. Last year, he was fifth in the Sy Young. Okay. All right. So I'm sorry. All right. All right. I will take Wu out. And you can leave in the stuff about being nervous about health and stuff, but I'm not nervous about the stuff.

I have four guys projected for a sub-ERA this year. Skeens, Scoobel, Crochet, and Chase Burns. Wow, okay. I like Chase Burns. I thought that's where you were going with when you said, you got a guy who has received votes. I thought you were going to say Lodolo and Green. Oh, that's good.

That's good, too. Yeah. The vet's good. Hunter now is dealing with a little forearm. I think it's just bones spurs, right? Hopefully. But, yeah, the Burns is, I told Burns that and he, he was like, let's go. Always good to butter him up with a stat, dude.

When he, when he was doing that stuff at, where did he go to Vanderbilt? Wake Forest? Yeah. You went to Wake? When he was doing that stuff in college, I always say this, Mike, these guys, they have no idea. They're going to come into Pro Ball. They're going to get lit up. And they're not going to be acting like this because it's just different in Pro Ball.

The guys won't let you do that. And now that I'm like rooting for him to be that guy, I think I've just gone absolutely so soft in my old age. I go the opposite way of when you're an old head. You're supposed to be like, no, man, back of my day. Now I'm like, dude, I want to see that out of this guy because that's just who he is. That's how he pitches. I want to see him do that. He's one of my guys to look out for this year too.

I think he does have electric stuff. the entire Reds staff. I mean, if Hunter Green is healthy, they have a, they have a real, real nice shot this year. So I like that.

And Burns, Burns has like kind of like the, the Spencer Strider, fastball slider, dominant, you know, those two, but he has been throwing a kick change.

I don't think it's actually new, but I think he's just throwing it a lot this spring to get a better feel on it. I mean, I do, I would like him over time to expand the repertoire. You know, it's really hard to get to keep going as a fastball slider guy.

But those two pitches are so good. And you get a little bit of fire out of him still. We want a little more. We talked about- Look at that. Come on. Those last two pitches are unfair. We talked about like, I was mentioned earlier about like just like arm action

and what it means to a hitter. Like when he's coming at you and he's throwing that fastball to that slider, it's the same arm action. It's just so intense. it forces you into some bad swing decisions. Because it just gets you ramped up. There's so much coming at you. That's why Scoobo is so good too.

It's like there's just, it's like a freight train coming at you. And it gets you a little jittery in the box where like it makes you make bad swing decisions. You speed up because they're sped up. And in reality, as a hitter, you're always supposed to tell yourself like the faster that he's going, the slower you need to be,

it just, it doesn't work that way. You just end up getting sped up. And I'm a big Burns fan, so I like that big. I hope he's got the endings. Today's episode is sponsored by HIMS. HIMS can't help you fold a fitted sheet,

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Trev, your final pick. You know where I'm going with this one. I have to have my Minnesota twin on the roster. my off-season hang pal. Did we have coffee a few times? Yes. Did I set him up with the entire off-season program? Yes.

My guy, Joe Ryan. I hope he's with the twins all year. I don't think it's going to happen. I think he ends up getting traded this year. Let's hope not. But he's going to be pitching and pitching well. Like, you know, just those strikes. He's just got that kind of that low arm slot.

He can work the top of the zone. It's a pitch that plays, especially with a guy that has his command. command. So I'm just in on Joe Ryan. I feel like he just had a baby. He's had success in the league. I think his confidence, I know it's already high because he's just a stud. It's, it's at a new level this year. I think he's going to hit some some heights that we haven't seen from him. So yeah. You called your shot on that one. His offseason workout plan. If I'm a twins fan, I'm a little nervous about that. No. Okay. I mean,

I'll explain. He needed somewhere to work out. So I set him up at I made some phone calls. He ended up pitching at Pepperdine in the offseason. Said he loved it. Workout facility, all that stuff. If you're in L.A. and you need some help, you know, they got a call. Great update there.

The only thing that makes me nervous about Joe Ryan is that the new ABS strike zone, you know, is there's something going on at the top of the zone. And that's where Ryan lives. So I just don't, I don't, I don't, on that pitch. He does. And he's lived there for his whole life.

So I think he has good command up there and he can take advantage of it. But the new strike zone, there's some strikes to be had that have been called incorrectly on the corners. But the top, the middle top is going to get lower. So some pitchers are like, oh, it's way lower. And it is a little bit lower now. I'm just so curious about all that because I think what you're talking about, possibly that's like a Joe tapping his hat on that. I don't think there's going to be many hitters that are going to have the green light. to actually do it.

Like I'm curious how many challenges we're going to get per game. Are we going to get the two per game and then maybe we see some in the ninth? I don't know how many we're going to see. The brewers, they just had that card that they tried for like a day

where they put the green. So it's a situation where the hitter was allowed to and then a red if he wasn't. Yeah, I think they won't even need the cards because they'll basically be like, don't do it until we tell you it's okay. Like legroom games and stuff. Yeah.

but they said they're not allowed to even do that. It has to be in the spirit of the rules what Pat Murphy came out and said. They told him. So I'm wondering if they're even able to like, they might have to have the third base coach be like, yeah, maybe that sign. No, not on this one, yeah.

But I do think there'll be not that many. In AAA, they had two overturned calls per game. Okay. So I think that that's what, four challenges. It's two per team. That's going to be the average. By the way, Joe Ryan ended up the 3-4 last year. He had like two blow-up starts that really cost him in that category.

And you know, one was against the Royals. I wasn't calling that game. Whatever. Chasing down the division with another team or something like that. We love Joe Ryan. Man, you got, you know, you guys start breaking into ABS. I got my last pick here. And I'm kind of like, wait, I don't, I want to listen to what they're saying. That's going to be so much fun. I mean, I think in the end, it'll be less of a impact on any given. one pitcher or one hitter because it's yes if you think about a two per game you know what like if he has 30 starts and there's like one challenge while he's pitching you know it's like what how many so 15 balls might get changed or 20 20 calls might get called on changed them in the entire season I don't know how I don't think that'll make or break his season yeah and then it's got to be in the

situation and it has to be a borderline borderline pitch in it yeah that the the numbers that have to go into that you'd like to think aren't going to but I don't know. I just want some rogue hitter to challenge too many times and the coach come out and say he's never allowed the challenge again. I can't wait for him. I'm going to happen. In ABS benching. That'll happen at some

point right. Man. Why is it going to be dropped Peterson? I don't know. Man, when I was doing my lefty theory, I actually thought about rounding this out with Chris Sale, who

got an extension this offseason. I'm going to flip it and I'll bring in my one righty and I just, I believe in strikeouts and I believe in baseball players when they're pissy and they feel baseball being a bad time. I'll go Spencer Strider, man. He comes back last year. Doesn't get Spencer Strider results, man. A 4-4-5 ERA, 125 innings, but obviously he was coming off of injury. 20, man. He won 20 games, 281 strikeouts.

And I just think, again, kind of like I laid out, when you feel baseball being a bad time and he gets his body back and he's a little built up and he's a little more healthy and ready to go, I'm just playing the strikeout game there that, I don't know, we kind of lost track of the whole Braves team for how bad they started last year. And I don't know, this guy was supposed to almost break baseball with the way he was striking people out, that maybe that comes back. I mean, the VILO was down like two miles an hour from that 2023 season. So maybe maybe that's just it if he gets that back.

But his fastball got crushed last year, absolutely demolished. Yeah, I think the shape is is back a little bit on his pitches, but the Velo not quite. So I'm really interested to see what he's going to do this year. There's just such a, you know, he's also spent all this time rehabbing where he's probably been focusing on his mechanics. he's been focusing on secondary pitches, you know, could be the best his curve or change looks this year, you know, and that might be really meaningful him to spread it back out and be more of a four-pitch guy.

I don't know that we're going to go back all the way to dominant two-pitch strider like he was when he first came up. That was amazing. That's where Chase gets to go this year, I think. Yeah, a lot of rehab on the arm mechanics skipping leg day. Is that what you're saying right now? No, no, no. I would love to see a measure off between Skins and Strider on the quads.

He's got some quads on that guy. Trev, you nailed it too originally when Strider came up and he's also his feet are just massive. It just feels like, it feels like reset the video game or something. I don't think the graphics are right. Like you put the wrong top on the wrong bottom. Yeah. I guess I'm so jealous of all your lefties though. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Look at that. Look at all those lefties. I don't have a single one. Part of me is mad. I didn't finish it with sale. I also, like you mentioned, Brian, Wu on the way through.

I think the one I was telling myself he was going to be my pick, Hunter Green, but again, we're sadly at this point playing injuries over performance, which I don't love that. For my young guy, I was considering Yuri Perez.

Yeah. And Jacob Mizorowski. Yeah. Just two guys who thought about this stuff. What don't? Could you, I actually talking to Dalton who makes her sheet for the show. I was like, in my head, Yuri was my lock for hasn't received a pick.

I guess what, I guess give me a little something on Yuri. What wasn't there or what should we be looking for? Because I just see a 6-8 monster. No, he's, he's amazing. I mean, I don't know exactly how many innings he'll throw. And then he had this weird thing where he gave up almost two homers per nine on the road last year. I don't think that's a deal. I don't think he's just like a Miami guy.

I think he'll iron all that out. But, you know, that's just the thing that happened last year that he needs to figure out. Yeah. And we're only taking 15 guys here. Yeah. So I know we always say, oh, we left this guy off. We left that guy off. Like, oh, Ranger Suarez has a receipt of Cy Young vote. Why isn't he in our draft?

Like, 15 people. Yeah. Gavin Williams hive raise up. Yeah, we could just, if we started just thrown out names, I mean, Avaldi was insane last year. Yeah, Evaldi de Gras, not even mentioned in this. show. Yeah. Yeah.

The years. The years. Cole Reagan. How about this one for not mentioned and I don't think. Oh, he did. Freddie Peralta got votes last year. But, you know, there's a guy who, even with the votes, he's going into a great stadium for his, you know, his abilities, you know, going to a top team. And he's been just a really steady performer, actually, last few years.

The innings thing, like they're kind of, the Mets are potentially one year of him, like let him go. They kind of need him to be the guy. All right. That rounds it out. Trev with Scouble, Logan Webb, McLean, Freed, Ryan, Eno, Paul Skinnes, Yoshinobu, Yamamoto, Hunter Brown, Logan Gilbert, and Chase Burns, myself with Crochet, Christopher Sanchez, McKenzie Gore, Framber Valdez, and Spencer Shrider. Eno, this was awesome, dude.

What else, what else you got coming up that we should be looking for, or Rocky's front office or what? I'm, uh, I'm actually holding out for an expansion team. I think I, I like to join, I want to join the expansion team. I just think it would be fun to build something up from whether, you know, you're not dealing with, oh, the guys I've always done it this way, you know, just like, do you have aspirations for that, you know, is Portland, you know, is Portland, you know, how this all ends?

God damn it. I almost, I got, I got real close. Yeah, I almost took a job. With Kent Disclose. I'm not going to say it. What about Utah? It's me and you in Utah. We got that guy that owns all the sports teams up there.

In the summertime, we're doing ball. Me and you are skiing together in Deer Valley in the winter. That's it. That's it. Yeah, I like it. There's some elevation stuff there, I think. Although Salt Lakes of Valley. I don't know. Yeah, that are Portland, man. Yeah, we'll have some time.

What do I have coming up? I have my ranks coming up again. I'm going to do, I'm going to look at some young pitchers that are turning my heads this spring, you know, in terms of stuff plus like this guy, Matthew Livertoe has been a guy that I've had my eye on and he hasn't like popped in the stuff model for a long time. He's just had a lot of pitches. He's got some refinement. He's the opening he started for the Cardinals. And all of a sudden now, then all of a sudden now he's a top 10 guy by spring spring training stuff plus wow uh yeah and he former big prospect from the raise so if it comes to get and these goddamn lefties that's right i did uh and this is final i i think it was like the depths of winter baseball and i was watching melb network and i forget if it was steve it was one of the former GMs and they were just like, you know, lefties take a little more time to develop. And I was like, God damn it. That's that that was passed down from some GM in the 1970s that passed it. Oh my God. Especially like long, what's it? Long lanky levers.

Sometimes, you know, it takes a while to put him in the right place. Yes. Wait, guys, we're going back to all this. All the analytics are bringing us back to old school baseball, babe. Put the ball and play at work. Have, have lots of pitches. Is that crazy? No. This might just work. Yeah. We need it.

We just need a crusade against old announcers who are like analytics as like just a general like word that it's like all encompassing. I'm like what like how do I don't understand how doesn't register for these guys. Could they be like less negative about the game that we love? Like aren't they paid to be the ambassadors? Like let's be positive at the game we love, you know? Well, now that I'm getting national broadcast deal. Maybe the new wave is coming. Oh, boy.

Should have ended it at the Salt Lake team. Eno, we're unabashedly Googled it to make sure I had that word. Like, big Eno fans, look forward to seeing you. Whenever we do see you, winter meetings, wherever we get to see you. And let's do this more. I don't know. I don't know. We'll reach out.

I'm all right. He's sick of pot. I know. It's at Eno Saras and all the socials, right? Nice. That's right. Yeah. Thank you, Eno.

We're talking WBC powered by Amazon, just like Amazon is ready to save the day when life throws you a curveball. Let's talk about the game saving moments from Pool D with Joe's McFly. Joe's McFly is live. I think David Ortiz is walking towards him right now. Joe's what's going on down there? Edwin and Carnacion right there. What's up to me? Everything's great, man.

But it's kind of surreal what's going on right here. And the stadium's been awesome. I don't know how it's been at every other stadium, but over here it has been absolutely lit. You, fan base-wise, obviously, your DR has been reping strong. Heard great things about the Mexico squad. I think they're in Houston. What have you seen in Miami?

Miami has been great. It's been, I mean, Venezuela's a lot is, it's been awesome. just a lot of different people not afraid to show their culture, which is great outside of the stadium before every game. It's like whoever the home team is, they're playing a lot of their songs and things like that. That's great.

It's like they're trying to showcase the culture. If there is one fan base, I've got to give a lot of props to it's definitely the is definitely the Nicaragua crowd. They were super loud. In games like against the Dominican Republic, Like maybe they weren't the best per se, like, you know, D.R. 1, but the loud, the crowd was so loud, especially early. My heart broke for them against the Netherlands. It really did.

Hey, Joe's, Joe's. Are we getting, like, a ton of people like yourself, like Dominican Americans or Venezuelan Americans or, like, people like traveling from Venezuela, traveling from the Dominican to be at the stadium? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've seen a guy that he said he came here from Spain. I've seen somebody said that they came here from like all over the place to be here. And that's pretty awesome. People from DR, which is not that far from, you know, that's like D.R. is like a hopping to skip away.

It's like, yeah, here. But, you know, just people trying to rap, just be part of this vibe. And even people that have no teams here are like here just for the sake of, I think I see like these, this Japanese couple. And they were like, yeah, let's go. You know, Delo Mio, I'm Japanese, but I love the Dominique. What stealing fans? I don't know what's going on.

It's a vibe right now. It's a vibe. Oh, my God. What have been the, what have your guys game highlights been that, you're down there? Who are you with from John Boy Media? I'm out here with,

oh man, that's an error phrase. I'm out here, it's looking crazy. I'm out here with Shelfi and Jimmy Norb. And shout out to the, behind the, scene's crew as well, like Ronnie and

I can't even think I remember. Kevin is here. Yeah. And also Beyondie as well. And we're having a blast. It was so late. I got to extend my trip by a day, by two days. Hey, Junior Caminero, if he the most electric player in the tournament right now, like his emotion, his swing, everything.

I feel like he's like kind of de facto becoming. He's not the face of the DR. He's not the face of the DR. team. I know that, but is he like the star that's going to like rise the most because of this tournament? The emotional plug. You know what's funny? I was asking, I was asking a couple of the players and a couple of the vets that were around that was saying, how does this, how could this help somebody's development? And he's like a lot. These is basically every single day is like high stakes situation and all of that stuff. So it's, you know, a lot of that stuff is the experience

that you're going to be getting. You know, come playoff time or come. come like big games that matter because every game matters because you're playing for your country. Joe's, we'll get you out of here because you're, I mean, you're quite literally at the game right now, but you just mentioned you extended your trip. There's a big game. Wednesday night? Big time. Can you lay it out for the people a little bit?

Listen, there was a rivalry. It's been a rivalry. It's been going back for a while, a couple of World Baseball classics. And now everything's been building. I feel like that's been the storyline of this tournament. Venezuela, Republic of Dominican, when are they going to meet? And they're going to meet tomorrow night at 8. And the fans want it from both sides.

I've been here Venezuela saying, you know, I want the Dominican. And the Dominican fans saying, you care of Venezuela, which means that they want, they want Venezuela. So I don't know. Someone's going to have that on their face. I just hope it's Venezuela.

Hey, Joe, as Team USA is representative. You're Keira La Dome, baby. That's all I want. Let's go. Be Mexico tonight, then we talk, right? Mexico's not a slouch. Mexico's not a slouch. Respect, respect.

Man, that's where this WBC, as we got some Joe's McFly highlights in the crowd going right now. It feels like in a way it's been rolling and it's like about to start. Puerto Rico, Cuba, U.S. Mexico, DR versus Venezuela. Will that Italy-U.S. game matter?

And then that's not even, that brings us to the quarter semis and finals. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I wish I was here for those, but we will be streaming, though. So make sure you guys tune in for that. Me and Mero are having a blast covering this on J.M. Baseball, too. And it's been fun. Just bringing out, like, the fun part of everything.

And, oh, man, they might hit a grand slam right here, right now, got bases loaded. And they might mercy this game again. So it's been awesome. I just love this whole vibe and this tournament. Make sure we let's figure out the Olympics. People took vice-harper's votes way too out of context. I don't think he's not saying he doesn't like World Baseball Classic. He's saying that he wants the Olympics too.

Figure it out. That's what he's saying. What a, shout out to Suilli de Peltes, by the way. Shout out to Swilly Deportes, right? You got to teach her some Espaniel, man. She needs it. She's Mexican. I know Mexicans that look exactly like her, by the way.

Exactly. From the eyes to everything, by the way. That tight Joe's shot is killing me. Joe's McFly, live from the scene. Like he mentioned, if you haven't seen his show with Mero yet, 10 out of 10 entertainment, all the stuff on social media. Thank you, Joseph. Go enjoy the rest of your time in Miami.

Yes, it'll be good. I won't miss the Grand Slam. Nama Lou. And thank you to our partners at Amazon Shop. Amazon save on the essentials, save the every day. Honestly, coach, I just, I kind of want to hear a couple of your WBC thoughts. We haven't really talked to WBC. What do you got? I don't even want to tee it up more than that. It's been great. I mean, the storylines are there. The emotion is there. And I'm not even talking about like the nature of which the Latin American teams play with,

which is obviously electric and really good for the sport. I'm talking about, I mean, the other side of it. The Nicaraguan pitcher that gives up the homer to the Netherlands, like that emotion there. We heard reports of Travis Pisana and not even be able to talk after Australia loses that game to Korea by just enough run so they don't advance. It just means so much and you can really, really see it in the gameplay. And you're right. Coach, pool play has been fantastic. Fantastic. dude. Somehow, like we're still getting entertaining games even though clearly there's talent level

discrepancies between some of these squad. We're still getting entertaining games and moments which I think are a massive part of the WBC once the quarterfinal start. It's going to be so good. And this is where I disagree with Joe's a little bit about Harper's comments. And if you didn't see him, I mean, basically he said, hey, the WBC is great, but it's not the Olympics. I know more eyeballs globally around the Olympics,

but I think the Olympic committee did us dirty. And I don't think that we need to, you know, reward them. We built this ourselves. We built the WBC and it's flourishing. So I know that he wants to talk about getting guys in that 2028 Olympics in L.A. I'm down with that. But the timing of it is bad. Like, we don't need to talk about it right now.

Like, just wait. Like, we're in the middle of something that's extremely, popular. It's really pushing our sport into new levels. I think that it's just, yeah, unfortunate timing. I'm not like faulting Bryce for it. I just didn't think it was the right, the right time to bring it up. But I mean, it's, I've been glued. I'm trying to like, sometimes I try to shelter myself from baseball when we're not in the season because we have to watch so much baseball. But I can't. It's like hard to look away from these games. They're so good. I'm planning my evenings around them. I'm telling my friends, you've got to watch

this game. It's it's something like I don't usually do as far as like really telling, hey, you got to watch this matchup. I don't say that until the playoffs of the, of Major League Baseball. So it's different, man. Yeah, I've, I've loved it watching Canada Panama last night and you've got old dog James Paxton grinding out there. He looks great. He's not that old. I know. I mean, technically retire. I mean, Trev, this is literally of you were like, you know what, team France is calling. I'm going to man the hot corner for a week and play against all these dudes.

Like I. Vince Worley is throwing up zeros against the U.S. There was another, who was the other Canadian reliever that came in and closed the game? I just talked about him on Wake and Jake, former MLB. Surely not an ax for it at all. He should be there. No, it wasn't. It wasn't axe.

Axe daddy. Who was it? I have the Canadian pitcherless. Like Chelser Cuthbert is out there for, was he for Nicaragua? Philippa Amont, retired in 2019 on his farm, came out just to shut it down for a little bit. Is Oliver Perez not on Team Mexico? Because he should. He's there in some way.

No, I really enjoy, especially because even, okay, so the teams that are getting housed right now, like Brazil's baseball program isn't here yet. And hopefully, again, with the WBC and hopefully the Olympics in a few years, those other countries get there. But, like, honestly, Canada's perfect for me because I've got enough major leaguers between Tyone, Soroka. I've got enough, like, prospecty guys, like Gene, who was pitching for them last night, seventh round pick for them, Bradfield, Jr., running around in the, like,

that Canada Panama game was a perfect example of just, like, the right amount of talent on the field, this funky, matchup, playing for the countries. And yeah, you're mentioning the tears and the sadness. I mean, Chinese Taipei crying because Taiwan. Taiwan depends who's saying it. World baseball classic. I know that, like, they cried after winning just to stay alive.

Like, they weren't advancing, but they had hope. And, like, I don't know. You just, you don't get that everywhere. So it's- Joseph Contreras. Now, yeah, son of a big leaguer. he's in high school in Georgia. He's a senior in high school,

and he's pitching against Aaron Judge, Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwerber, like the who's who of the big leagues. He's in the high school. I know. You don't get that. And he was successful.

Yeah, I got him. Got him. Got him. I think it's also the other perspective I do like, here's Philippe Beaumont, got his two chickens in his hand and left. But yeah, I guess it also brings into perspective how, and Trev, maybe this is where you can walk tall after this. How good you have to be to be a major leaguer when it's like, oh, yeah, you know, this guy's in, he never made it past double A.

He throws 93 or he always had major league defense, but he could never hit a curveball. Like, it just, it's such a tough sport. You have to hit on basically every note. It was cool reading up on Jared Young from Canada yesterday. I know he's back in the bigs, but like his story is pretty well. Every one of these guys' stories pretty wild. And I guess that's kind of the beauty of it. They've done a really good job of capturing stories and moments.

And I think that's what resonates, especially gets traction online. That's kind of the society we live in now. You've got to have some clips, man. The Show Hey, Grand Slam clip, like the amount of views that thing got. That was a big topic. but moments are so good in the WBC that we're talking. I mean, this is, I told Chris Rose this this morning. Like, think about like the people that are covering this that don't usually cover baseball.

The Pat McAfee show is just all over it with this. And there was a crazy story about him and like getting Logan Webb. They were like on a tour bus together. And he was like, you got to play for Team USA. Like, so shout up Pat McAfee. Even like, you know, even like a barstool sport, they don't really cover baseball. like they're they're talking about it on some of their big shows and it's like that's what this does man it just opens the world to like this beautiful game and we're on such a earmuffs we're on such a fucking hot streak in this game what are they gonna do after this season you tell me right now look at look me in the eye all you owners and rob manfred look me in the eye and tell me you're gonna stop games with the fucking heater that we're on right now you can't Can't.

Can't. Do not do that. I agree. I agree with me. Trevor Plouf, thank you. Everyone go tweet or give Eno some love. That Puerto Rico walkoff was insane. Joe's McFly, our eye in the sky.

We'll be back. It's almost baseball. What are we doing? It is baseball. Jake sucks. Let me give you a couple of these Canadian coaches, Trev. Hidden coach Justin Moreno. Pitching coach Paul.

Quantral. Yep. First base coach Russell Martin. Third base coach, Stubby Clap. Does it get better? It does not. I mean, just the ball talk going on in there. Kiki's been to five World Series. He said WBC is better. Whoops.