Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 207 | Voicemails: Bellinger's Slump, Ohtani's Future, and Kangaroo Courts

Episode Date: September 17, 2020

Jomboy, Jake, & Plouffe are answering your voicemails! Now that we're starting to see the results, what do we make of the new postseason format? Has Juan Soto missed too much time for MVP consideration? What do MLB managers do? What happened to Cody Bellinger? Do the Rockies deserve more praise? What is Shohei Ohtani's future if the injuries persist? Did Plouffe's locker rooms have fun games? Leave us a voicemail at 917-426-2796 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices 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 the voicemail episode. Whatever you guys want to talk about, we will be talking about it. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to Talking Baseball. Thank you very much for hanging out with us for a little bit. Tuning in. Thank you to everyone that called.

My name is Jimmy. We got Trevor coming us from Hidden Hills. We got Jake from the Bronx, producer BBD's in the Bronx. They're at the Roosevelt Studios. That's RSVL. T.S. Trev's at his house. I'm at my home. And we're ready to talk some baseball. Is that, is that correct, Trev? I'm ready to talk baseball, man. We've been kind of talking baseball all morning. Yeah. Talking a little bit of politics before we went live. Like,

I don't know if we want to just throw that in here. I know everyone loves to hear other people talk about politics. So that can be fun. I hate hearing myself talk about it. I do too. Jake, how are you doing? I'm doing well. I'm doing well. I was having a bad hair day, so I put on my backwards Bernie hat, so now I'm just having a dushy look day, which is kind of my normal day. So I'm doing all right, excited to talk some baseball with you, gals. Guys, I had a, just a realization, because we do our sharp stats talking yanks, like analytics episode, and we do that once a, week during the regular season. And we only have two left. Like, the season's ending, man.

And it's, I don't know, you just have those different things that remind you of it. And it's a crazy year. We've seen, what, 40, 45, 46 games from some of these teams. And, like, it's about to be the end of the season. It's bizarre. It is crazy. I mean, some teams have 10 games left. Yeah.

I'm a I'm cautiously excited about the playoffs and what that means for us content wise because I have no idea yet like Trev we're going to have to do a show every day but we also do the pregame show every day I mean so this is just a glimpse into the big conversation we have to have off air because last year we Jake and I did a show every morning at 10 a.m. just recap the games that happened the night before. In the playoffs. That's how we did it. Then a pregame.

I don't know. We didn't do pregame show. Like, I don't know how, I don't know what we're going to do. It's a, I mean, are we just going to be doing a three-hour block of baseball talk

and then chop it into two different shows? Like, I have no idea. I think everything else on my agenda besides talking baseball, talking yanks and breakdowns will be, I don't know, but it's crazy. Like, we're about to get into a hell of a stretch.

So I'm excited about it. As long as I get asked. Coach, I'm ready for it. Put me in, coach. I'm ready. Play ball. I poured myself a cup of coffee way before the pregame show, which is like an hour and a half ago. And I forgot to drink it.

Dang. So. Okay. All right. BBD, how are you doing? Yeah. I'm well. I think this is a good time to begin the voice.

I don't care either. Which hat do you think would look best on you? Of these three? Yeah. I mean, I have hats like the Bernie hat, but I'd have the most fun in Trevor's hat. Yeah, this is a fun hat. I like when I look at you guys on the TV, it kind of feels like what my picture would be if I died in the Hunger Games. Yeah.

That's for the live viewer, so. Oh, shit. Let's hit that first voicemail. How about it? Let's get it. Hey, guys, this Tyler from Lubbock, Texas. is a big Braves fan, lifelong fan, so don't give me any crap for it.

You got a couple questions about MLB. First thing today, September 14th, we started the playoffs today. We've got three teams at 500 or less. I think we got the Phillies at one game above, just one game above 500. So is the expanded playoffs actually good for baseball? Another thing is the blackout restrictions.

What's up with those? I thought those were supposed to push fans to the stadiums. Obviously, that's not happened this year. What's going on with that? What do you all think? Maybe this is more of a rant, but what y'all's stake on it? Thanks. All right, a couple things.

Expanded playoffs. Love the accent. Lubbock, Texas. Is that where he's from? Lubbock, Texas Tech, baby. Expanded playoffs. It's exciting for this season. It really, and, you know, Manfred basically came out and said,

we're going to have it because all the owners want it. And we know the owners want it. It, you know, 162 game season means something. If you have over 50% of the teams getting in, 162 game season means nothing. Like if, if, if, if teams, are punting games in the 60 game season and, you know, putting guys on the IL when they don't 100% need to be on the IL for a 60 game season. I mean, 160 game season, you just may have

straight like punt months. Like, yeah, we'll steal outs here, steal outs there, steal wins here, bad lineup Fridays, backup Mondays, you know, who knows, because it doesn't matter at all if the only, so, you know, the tournament-style playoffs I think is good this year, but I don't think it's good for baseball unless they lower the amount of regular season games to like 100. Because I still think 60 is even too short for this expanded playoffs. We're kind of like feeling that right now with how many bad teams there are. Also the unbalanced schedules, but maybe if they drop it to 100, which they won't. then it would make sense, but I don't know.

What do you think? Drop the season to 100 games? Yeah, they're not going to do that because it's money. Oh, no. They'll never do that. But that's the only way it would make sense to have 16 teams in the playoffs. There is no chance they can keep this. I don't care what Rob Manfred says.

I will go to New York to the MNB's office and yell at Rob Manfred face-to-face if he decides to do that. I promise you I will because I think it's so. stupid. And it's good timing that we had, was it James from Lubbock? Wherever it was. Maybe. I don't know if that was it either. But a good time to ask that question.

Taylor? Lark. Tyler. Tyler. Tyler. Tyler. Tyler and James, same thing. Tyler, foolish baseball and I had an exchange about this last night on my Twitter. Bailey? He was basically saying 60 game season's fine

for the expanded playoff. It said, but given 162 games to find true talent level, it's irresponsible to give sub-500 teams a shot, a short series to knock out a powerhouse. And I totally agree with them. I said, tell them, except for the 12 teams. He said 12 teams, maybe if there was first round buys. I don't like 12 teams.

And I told them, I barely like 10 teams. Because when you play 162 games and you have two teams battling that with one game, it makes a mockery of the season. Now, the other four teams, obviously, they get to, you know, enjoy not having to play in that game. But it's too much already. I get the fans like the wild. I even as a fan like the wild card game,

but as a player, you can't like that. You can't like that at all. You battle all year. You win 96 games and then you have to go play one freaking game. So to think that we'd have 16 teams over 16 teams over 162 games would be, honestly, that is the death of baseball. That would be the death. death of baseball, the same way that basketball sucks during the regular season.

Because everybody makes the playoffs. The same thing would happen to baseball. No one would give a shit. So then all these games... That's why I'm saying... Yeah. Yes. It can't happen.

It can't happen. It'd have to shorten the regular season by a lot. Otherwise... And they won't do that. Otherwise, why would you tune in to April and May baseball? Honestly, if... Seriously, that... ...over 50% of the league makes it.

Like, if you're not a die-hard fan, why would you tune in? That's when you turn up the blackout restrictions because people aren't going to the game. So that's how you really grow it. Yeah, no, 16's too many. 16's too many and it gets scary when Manfred comes out with that quote. And again, this all turns into stuff that's going to be on the negotiating table. I mean, like Jimmy's saying, if the owners come to the table and say they want this as a new format,

the players probably come back and say, all right, 81 games. and that's how you start another angry conversation between these two groups. I do think there will be a way to scratch everyone's back, but baseball, the players and the owners are so terrible at that. I don't see it happening because I would like to see maybe the one and two teams and each league get rewarded with a buy of sorts. I don't know what that looks like. I'm not great with playoff formats.

But if there is a way that you can reward those teams for excellency in the regular, season that is a grind, 162, it's brutal. It's absolutely brutal. That, you know, I don't know if it's two play in wild card games or I don't know if the one and two get excluded from three game series. I don't know. I think there is a way to do it and you can a reward, you should be rewarding the elite teams. I just don't think a buy is a reward. You know, you see it time and time again, man. It's like get hot, close to playoffs and continue to roll. And those teams that have a four-day layoff, five-day layoff, man, it just hurts their chances. Like, eight teams is cool, man. Eight teams is cool. I get that you're going to exclude, like, some really good teams at that

point. So, like, I'm okay with 10. And the problem you have with 10 and not having a wild card, one-game wild-card game is the layoff. Because if you wanted to do a three-game set with those two wild-card teams, which I think is the fairest thing to do, you're going to have teams waiting around. So, I mean, there are some hurdles here, but adding teams, making it 16 for a regular 16-16-2-game season, would be the death of baseball.

Jim, what's the home-and-home wild-card thing from one of the leagues overseas? Top seed has to win one game, lower seed has to win two. And it's both games are at the higher seeds place. All three games would be at the higher seed place, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I think there's something, but it's not this for a regular season. That would be cool. I mean, people act like that's crazy.

It's really not that crazy. If you're the, like right now, the one in the eight seed, They should have done that this year. The one seed should just have to win one game. If the Rays play the eight seed, who's the eight seed right now? White Sox are the one, Cleveland's the eight. Okay, so then White Sox have to win one game. If they win the first game, White Sox advance.

They're the one seed. They should be given a benefit for being the one seed. If the White Sox lose the first game, well, now the next game, now that's do or die. My counter to all of this is like baseball is meant to be played in a real series. Well, you know, like even a three-game series, like we've been talking about that for a long time. Like a team could sneak up, man. It's not a real series. So many people.

They got to figure something out. So many people that I went to and heard their opinions on the playoffs and how there's no off days in the ALCS. We're all excited because they said, this is a real test. of a roster. Yeah. And it usually, and the playoffs usually isn't. The playoffs is usually just a test of your top tier roster. And this is an actual test, which is a good point.

Like, there's very, there's a lot to it. It is different than any other year, but so is this year. So I found that like an interesting thing because that was not our takeaway, our instant reaction. And then it was some other people's and, you know, it's all different. Can I say, I don't love that take. I understand what the baseball truest are saying. Buck, Showalter.

been saying this for years, just to anyone that'll listen to them, that, you know, we play a regular season that's built completely different. But you could say that about any sport. I mean, football playoffs, you know, it's not guys 50 through 53 on the roster. I mean, you've got, you know, your 11 guys on offense, 11 on defense. NBA, you know, it's not about your 15th guy on the bench. I don't think I want baseball playoffs be decided by the 26 guy in the roster. I think if you can use them right.

That's just a third, fourth and fifth pitcher. Right, but I don't know. I do think there are some parallels there that, I don't know. I'm a big Scott Van Pelt, how good is your good guy? And I think the baseball playoffs does bring that out. Yeah, but this would also counteract a lot of the platoon splits, the teams to try to take advantage analytically. Like, you've got to fill out a roster, bro.

You've got to pay guys to come pitch for you. Like, they would put a huge emphasis on starting pitching, which we've gotten away from completely. over the last few years. We're starting to do openers. We're letting guys go two times through the order. It would change the game completely if we just stuck to, you know, seven game series or like you're saying this year, you know,

a five game series would know off this. So, I mean, it's something they're going to have to tackle. That might be a great way to bring back the starting pitcher and stop some of this bullpen stuff because so many good teams, you know, they invest in their top couple of us. And then they invest in a couple bullpen guys, and that is how they're going to survive. If you do play it consecutively, yeah, give me more starting pitching. I mean, think about Jack Morris.

I think bullpenning's bad for the sport. Yes. Entertainment-wise, obviously, you know, the analytics say it's better when you're trying to compete and win as a team. But if you're talking entertainment-wise, I've said this a bunch. If you bring new fans or young kids to the game and there's a new pitcher every inning, that's just a less fun thing to watch. Imagine going to a Broadway play and they change the lead actress out every five minutes.

You'd be like, I can't fucking follow this. How much do you love when a starter's like grinding it out in like the seventh inning? Like trying to figure out anything to get through that order again. Like flipping up a curveball, he's only thrown once, you know, in the last two weeks. Like, you know, like I love stuff like that. Like figure out a way to grind through it

and get it done. I think America likes that too. Like that's kind of like what we're... Go America. Wow. We like the grinders, man. The last thing I'll share, and we've shared this a bunch, we'll share it again when it comes up in the future.

Owners, what they want, 10 teams, 12 teams, 16 teams. Someone in the patron chat said, expand the league. They want more than 50% of teams in the postseason. that's the number that they want. Basketball, more than 50% of teams. Hockey, more than 50% of teams.

That's, it's not like we want more teams. No, we want, that's what the number they're focusing on. So that's the bummer of it all. Expansion wouldn't help. The second part of this question, which we were taking forever to answer now, was about the blackouts. I mean, that's a bunch of contracts.

Like, you know, the, once those contracts are up with the local TV providers or whatever, hopefully then they restructure it so they don't have as many blockouts or blockouts at all, would have been pretty ridiculous or hard, I guess, to fight that front when they were fighting a ton of other fronts as well. I mean, it's stupid, but it's not, it's not about making people go to the game. it's about the cable companies will pay more when you guarantee they can't watch it on the internet. There's nothing to do with making people go to the game. That's like a false thing. That's what I was going to say. It's not like a, oh man, I can't watch the game at home.

I got to go to it. No, that's not how it works. That's not why they're blocking people in Iowa from Cubs games. Yeah. It just doesn't make any sense when you're trying to get eyeballs on the sport. you're taking money over eyeballs but eyeballs translates to more money and that's that's what i was going to say do you guys because i think anyone who's like us in baseball media you won't find a single person that likes the blackouts because there's only

30 people collecting on the checks that they get from them do you think there is any conversation that because trev i i truly do believe if you open up more eyeballs if you lose a little bit on the tv revenue you're going to make up for it in a lot of other places. Do you think anybody's having that conversation slash believes that? Yes. Okay. These are businessmen.

We talk about that a lot when we were a labor dispute pod. Like, they're going to check every single angle and whatever makes them money, that's what they're going to do. So hopefully they kind of take a look at the long picture here, because I think that's what it takes. Like, yeah, you might lose some money up front. But long term, getting more eyeballs in the sport

makes sense. You know, there's different revenue streams you can explore if you get rid of the blackouts. And I think they will look at it. They heard everybody complain about it, especially this year. So, I mean, look, this is a lot of stuff they had to figure out in baseball. To anyone listening to the show, BPD, can you put like the criminal voice code or effect on my voice here? So no one can tell it's me? If you know how to use Google, you can watch any game at any time, anywhere on your phone, iPod, or a laptop.

Well, thanks, friendly robot. Who's that? I don't know who that guy. Quit coming in here and giving illegal advice, dickhead. Wow. I don't like that guy. I have nothing to do with that guy. Yeah, yeah, it's bad.

It's scary. This is a robot. Next voicemail. Next. Hey, what's up, guys? My name's Hayes. I'm a Braves fan from Nashville to the C. So first thing, Freddie Freeman MVP, I'm calling it right now.

Second thing, I want to talk a little bit about Juan Soto. So his numbers are ridiculous. But I'm kind of wondering what you guys think about how his sample size will affect his MVP chances. Because he's only had, I think, two thirds the at bat, per se, Freddie Freeman has. and doesn't have nearly the war. So I just want to get y'all's opinion on how his defensive and lack of playing time will affect his MVP odds. Even though his numbers are ridiculous, I personally don't think he's a frontrunner right now. And he is qualified for the stats now, but I just want to get your opinion on how that will affect his chances.

Thanks, guys. Love the show. Thank you. His numbers are ridiculous, by the way. Yes. I don't even, like I, the website that I found that Jake and I like the graphs on, I mean, they don't even have him in the top five. Yeah, he's not, I don't know the numbers in the comparison, but. I'll give you the numbers now, Jim.

He has 11 homers through 117. Itbats, which is amazing. 476 on base 726 slugging for a 1.202-213 OPS plus. I mean, he's doing it. Those are ridiculous stats. But because, yeah, it doesn't have the amount, the accumulation, he'll get some MVP votes, but he's not going to, he won't be able to jump guys unless he just goes even more insane at the end of the year. Like, it's a very slim chance, in my opinion.

Well, how many games do they have left to play? Let's see. MLB standings. So he's played in 33 games, and remember he had the whole fake COVID. Yeah, I think they have 14 left, the Nationals. I mean, that's just tough to make up. Even if he plays every game, which I don't know if he does, that lands him at what? 47? Yeah.

Here's Freddie Freeman, though. Here's what he leads the league in right now. He's played 49 games, doesn't lead the league in that. doubles with 18, RBIs with 46, batting average at 352, 465 on base percentage, 188 OPS plus, Lease League and all those. I don't think Soto's qualified, apparently, because he does not have bold numbers in his stat column. Yeah. So, I mean, Freeman is...

I'll give the cop out. Fourth in the MVP voting in 2018, eighth in the MVP voting in 2019. Could be his year. I'll give the cop out. I mean, some teams have 15 games left, some have 10 games left. Even if it's 10, that's technically one sixth of this season, which normally would be like a month of baseball. So, I mean, I think it's going to be decided down the stretch.

If Soto can go nuts, give it a shot. Mookie Betts is leading the NL in war right now. And I feel like we haven't talked a ton of Mookie, but war speaks. And I do think, I don't know, I think a lot of voters, the analytics are so heavily involved this year, but I think there is going to be feel. Like jumping to the AL real quick,

I think Luke Voight's going to get ALMVP love because he's carried the offense. He might lead the league in home runs. But I think in war right now, he's like 30th in the American League because he's kind of a clunky first baseman. So I think you'll see guys like that get slightly more love than you would in other years,

but I don't know. It's going to be decided in the next two weeks. Fernando Tatis, can't forget about him. Yeah, I have bets as a favorite right now. I mean, he's got a three war, which is half a war ahead of any other NL position player. Yeah, I mean, those four guys were mentioning, and Conforto has a 2.4 war, Yostramski's done it, Dansby Swanson, who challenged to get it going this year, got it going this year,

year. So there's some good players, but yeah, Betts probably is in the lead with Freeman right behind him. I would say those are the one and twos right now. Tatis, too. Mookie leads the NL and homers and he's an all-world defender. Right now it's Mookie plus 250, Freeman plus 450.

Oh, Tatis plus 124. They just have them in a weird order. Really? So if they still believe in the Padres. hey, maybe Dodgers split some LA votes and Tatis has it. He's got the flash, you know, and the team. And the riders say that doesn't matter. It freaking matters. He's got to get a little hot, too.

Hasn't he kind of cooled down recently? He's cooled down. I don't know. I don't have the stats right in front of the last 10 days or whatever. But, I mean, he's 969 OPS right now, and he was definitely over a thousand. Not too long ago. but still leads a league in home runs and runs. Yeah, his last eight games are pretty poor.

Last 14 days he's hitting 200. Last seven days he's hitting 095. So again, like, how are your next 10 games? I'm buying all the stock. I don't think Soto can get there to answer the question officially. And they're going to be in last place. Yeah, what's that? Tatease, last year, 379 OBP.

this year, 376. Last year, 590 slugging. This year, 594 slugging. OPS last year, 969. This year, 969. So this is kind of who he is. It's really good. Good job Padres on that trade.

James Shields. Where to go. Hey, Nat's fans, be loud about Soto because his numbers are disgusting. I love Sala. 27 walks, 21 strikeouts. someone was asking us about trading cards and stuff when we were doing talking Yankshake

I don't remember that Soto's like my guy like if you're going to invest in one of these guys' cards and hold it over Robert over Tatis who's other big guys that do it it's one Soto that's my he's young enough

and he is a monster Jim you get to buy one current player's baseball card who you're getting Alejandro Kirk Next, caller, BBD. Questions for Trevor? So I had a high school coach that was a pro-ball player, and he was more of a hands-off,

you know, kind of a passive manager, didn't really get on you about things. I was just wondering at the major league level how hands-on is a manager towards his players. Does he just set the line up and forget it, or does he interact with guys more so than the hit? coach. Go Reds. Thanks guys. Go Reds.

I mean, typically a manager is hands off. At the Major League level, they're more of a therapist. They are a face of the club. They answer questions about the club. They make some decisions during the game. That's gone kind of by the wayside lately. But they are not typically hands-on when it comes to time in the cage, defensive work. You'll have them there every once in a while. But even Paul Molitor, who's one of the best hitters of all time, was very

hands-off. He didn't want to step on anybody's toes. He would tell me that all the time. So they typically will say, we have a hitting coach for a reason. We have an infield coach for a reason. We have a pitching coach for a reason. They lend their helping hand when they see fit, but most of the time they're doing the other shit. And I think that's the right way to approach it. Isn't it pretty normal though? I'm genuine question that the manager would be hands on with the coaches and there's the coaches are hands on with the players.

Isn't that the normal flow chart? Like managers manage who's below them. Yeah, but they are specialists in their field. So the manager will just kind of, you know, they'll check in. And everyone reports up. they'll report but yeah like you're not going to be in the cage and you know I don't think Boone is in the cage even though he was a hitter oh yeah yeah yeah I wouldn't I don't expect that I think that the manager gets

reports from the hitting coach hey this guy's been looking good here this guy's been struggling with this and then the manager takes that info into his game decisions yes as far as going out and doing drills and whatnot a manager will be out there overlooking and he'll i mean it's in the it's in the title man he manages yeah but he's not coaching i don't think that's a mock i think i think that's yeah it's not how it works like you know he he gets a report from the bullpen coach to let him know who looks good out there and what's the vibe out there he gets a report from all from the coaches that's kind of how it works and i don't they don't make lineups right now right there are certain guys who you know have experience like

you know, Gerardi was a catcher. So if he wants to go and help the catchers, like that's, he might do that. Not a lot of designated catching coaches on teams. So you can see someone doing that

or there's not really many pitchers, ex-pitchers that are managers, huh? Is there any right now? Is Bud Black? Yeah, is Bud Black? Those guys would maybe be a little bit more hands-on because they would be,

considered, you know, specialists in that field, but they got a lot of shit to do too. So they delegate and usually it's coaches are coaching. I've got a dumb Jake anecdote really quickly that maybe this will help out a young listener is I remember Trev, your USC Trojans when they were in their prime, Pete Carroll. Young Jake heard that Pete Carroll didn't make his players run sprints at practice. And young Jake thought that was awesome. I was like, what? Pete Carroll doesn't make his players run sprint

And I just never put two and two together That it was like Hey if you want to be professional You want to be show You do your work And then you come to practice and get your thing done And that's what professional athletes do Not chubby kids playing JV soccer

So that's just a little insight That's why you know When you go from the minor leagues To the big leagues everything changes You're supposed to do it on your own. You have your team to do it. The minor league is they'll push you and make you do shit. But when you get to the biggest,

you should have that established already. You are a professional. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And know what else changed last week, Trev? It was sure nice seeing the football teams back on the gridiron. Lucky for us, that was just week one. There's no better place to get in on the action with Draft King's Sportsbook.

America's top-rated sportsbook gap. To add to the excitement, of week two. Draf King Sportsbook is bringing back their can't miss offer. If you haven't tried Drafking Sportsbook yet, head to the app store now because you don't want to miss this. Draft King Sportsbook is giving way all new users the chance to turn one dollhair into $100 doll hairs when they bet on any team.

That's right. One dollar on any team. And if that team wins, you get a cool, Benjamin. How can you pass that up? If you're new to Draft King Sportsbook, head to the app now to scout their latest offers. bet with Draft King's Sportsbook a sportsbook that goes wherever you go. Draft Kings is safe, reliable, secure, making it easy for you to deposit and withdraw your money at your convenience. Download the top-rated Draft King's Sportsbook app now and use promo code Jamboy when you sign up to get this can't miss offer.

Pick any team during week two, bet $1 on them win 100. And that's if they win. That's $1 to win $100 when you use promo code Jamboy during sign-up. For a limited time only, only at Draft King's Sportsbook must be 21 or older, New Jersey only eligibility restrictions apply. See draftkings.com slash sportsbook for details gaming prom. Call 1-800 gambler. Wow, huge.

Bang. Next voice, ma'am. Up 8% of that. Seahawks. Hey, Jim, Jake, Trevor, big, big, big fan of the show. Thanks for everything you guys do. Also a big Dodgers fan coming to you from L.A. I want to talk about Cody Bellinger.

You know, he came out in 2017, the huge rookie season. 18 was a down year. 19 was obviously a huge MVP season for him. But if you actually look at the numbers, I'm pretty sure his OPS declined actually every single month. So he had a really, really hot start, but definitely tailed off. And obviously, in the playoffs, didn't really show up. And in 2020, he hasn't been any better. And if you notice, I think he's standing a lot closer to the plate,

and I don't know why someone doesn't just tell him to back up a bit. But anyways, his OPS, I think, is the biggest drop of any player this season. So just want to get your guys' thoughts. Love the show. Thanks again. Jake sucks. Thanks. Let's see you, Jeff.

Cody Bellinger. Yeah. His numbers are pretty bad, Jake. Yeah. And like our caller said, last year, his OPS did. tick down every single month. It's kind of like very neatly done. Yeah, and it's it's getting in the splits now doing doing what you can. He actually had a pretty okay August. I mean, he had a 927 OPS. The book ends eight games in July and 11 in September have been atrocious around it.

Honestly, for Cody, and this is where things, and again, where I started today, you know, if this was a normal season, we'd be saying, you know what? Like, we're still before the All-Star break. Like, you know, Cody Bellinger could still have a world-class second half and turning around. He's not going to have that this year, and that's going to lead to a lot of crazy conversations in all these sports towns, because a lot of people are going to have these small sample sizes that jump off the map. And Cody's one of them right now.

For him, man, it's all going to come to October. He's got terrible postseason numbers, 178 and a 560. OPS and 36 career postseason games. So if Cody keeps doing what he's doing this year, it's kind of a shrug. If he comes into the postseason and he rakes, LA's going to love him. If he struggles

in the postseason, oh boy. They're going to come out with the knives big time. Yeah, I think the biggest difference I'm seeing is, I don't know if you guys remember this, but 2018, they were sitting him against lefties. And he came out and said, I want to play. Like he thinks he thought he deserved to play against everyone. Dave Roberts gave him that opportunity in 2019 and I don't, I don't have, I don't have the numbers,

but I knew he did a lot better. Obviously, he won the MVP in 2019. But then if you go back to a splits this year, he's struggling against lefties. So that has something to do with it. I agree with you, Jake. Like, yeah, like usually you'd give guys like this time and they'll figure it out in this, sprint of a season, things can snowball. He does have that upright stance that leads to a lot of head movement. And if your timing isn't exactly right when you do stuff like that, you're going to have,

you're going to have trouble. And I haven't watched enough Dodger games to know if they're exploiting him in a certain zone or pitching him differently this year. I got to imagine, you know, the book was already out last year and he said, screw the book. So, you know, it could be as simple as adjustment as him starting a little earlier or maybe not being so upright. I know Yelich has been kind of struggling with that, finding out, finding his, the happy medium of being upright and then being in a hitter's position. Because if you just look, I mean, look at my head. I'm standing you up right.

And then I'm coming down. I mean, trying to track a ball like that is tough. And he clearly hasn't been perfect with his timing, which a lot of times that when you do something like that, you've got to be perfect with your timing. So I think he's got to figure out something against lefties. That's been a, it's been a huge thing. He hasn't exactly let the world on fire against righties either. But I believe in him. He hasn't been handling fastballs. According to some of the advanced numbers, he slugged 669 on fastballs last season. It's currently slugging 339 on fastballs this

season. So that's a timing issue. Yeah. And then he's chasing a touch more. this year. And that's a, that all adds up to like the way he stands in the box. And that straight up and down thing, man, you've got to be so right with your timing when you do that. So I don't know.

I mean, the season looks kind of lost for him. It is about the postseason. And he's kind of historically struggled there. So hopefully, you know, maybe flip the script, save it off for the post season.

John, I think you said this a little bit last year, too. Those first couple postseason games for Cody are going to be big. If his first that bad, he pops a double down the line. If you're Cody, you're saying, all right, I'm about to have the best postseason of my life. First two games. Yeah. If you go one for eight, your first two games or 0 for eight, I don't think that's a whole come out of.

Yeah. Because there's a lot of weight on that. You know, like the stones are already on his shoulders. and he can either remove them right away or just put like double the weight in those first two games. So I'm kind of, I'm curious to see and I guess we shouldn't spend too much more time on this one,

but Bellinger did, you know, he made a huge adjustment and here he's talking about it. This is before they came back. So before the season, talking about how he's a little pigeon-toe keeping his front hip in. He says, I've never had that much time and I got a chance to work on my swing

and it could be a blessing in the long run. He's not making a big adjustment. There's always small points you're swinging that you realize make you good. You make an adjustment and you do it in the cage and that's what they were doing all during COVID. You're in the cage. You can do a lot of things. We've talked about that a lot.

Bringing it into the game is a different thing. So it seems to me like he made this adjustment has just said, I'm going to stick with it. But, you know, trial by fire, man. At the baby level, it's hard to do. If you're not feeling right and you just try to stick through it, I mean, you're going to have a season, like, kind of like what he's having. So it'd be interesting if someone got in his ear and was like, hey, Cody,

maybe we should just like go back to what you were doing last year. I know a guy. I know a guy who's a little bit of a ball player whisperer. Who was almost the Dodgers coach. Yeah. Thank God. Oh, my goodness. I would be miserable.

Yeah. All right, what's the next voice, Moe? Hey, John Boy, Jake, Trevor. This is Austin. I'm a rock fan, just like my boy, Jakey, over here. And I just want to hear some Rockies love. More specifically, let's talk about this storyline that's going on right now. They've been, they've had some very high highs and some very low lows.

More specifically, I think their seasons, took a rough turn once they had that first D-back series when the bats started flying and they started coming back a little bit and then the Giants happened and they just keep getting hammered. Do you think that they can make a turn, a turn for the best for the playoffs? I'm really interested to hear what you have to say about this, Trevor. Jake does not suck. He's a Rocks fan. Thanks, bye. Wow. Well, we kind of did this in the free.

I didn't listen to that. He wants to talk about the rocks and their chances in the postseason, and he asked for some rocks love. So thank you for calling in, but I'll give you the opposite right way. You might not get that. Rockies are bullshit, man. I'd be so mad about Rockies fan. It feels like it's another fan base out there complacent with not being competitive.

The Giants are ahead of you. The Padres just rebuilt in your face. traded ahead of you for every piece at the deadline and is now so much better than you and you were supposed to be the second best team in the West. You have all these stud players. This is your window. The pitching was doing pretty well for a while.

I'm not like too up to date with it. Just optics wise, if I'm a Rockies fan, I'm mad right now. And it's, I don't know what the fan base feelings are, but it feels like they're a little complacent. Like, they were, supposed to be good, Jake. This is their window to be good. They're fourth in their division fighting for a bullshit wild card spot that only exists

in a freaky season. I don't get it. They should be really good. They were also, they ended up being bad last year. They were 171 game, something like that. Part of it too, like I'm saying back-to-back years. Oh yeah. And they are. And that's why, you know, they were excited for this season and they are on the brink. I mean, if they don't get to this dance, which again has been expanded to them. I mean, it's going to be full, you know, full rebuild, I think. I think, you know, Aeronado's been looking to get moved the past couple years. Story, Blackman is awesome, but he's also running out of steam.

Charlie, I think, needs to find a DH spot somewhere. And yeah, man, I love that spin zone by my guy. Let's Go Rocks. He says they run hot and cold. If you remember, they open up the season 11 and 3. go rocks. And then after that, they went on a 10-and-22 stretch. So, yeah, you can get hot and cold, or you could just get cold.

I'll say this, and I've been saying this on every pre-game show, so I got to stop saying it. They've got, they're 22 and 25, so how many games do they have left? 13, 14, 13. That's math, bro. That was quick. If you go 10 and 3, you save your season. Nine and four, you save your season.

Bad news, you got the Dodgers coming up. That doesn't look good. You go to Arizona. Again, they stink and they should be giving up. So I'm just saying there's five teams in the NL saying right now, if we finish strong, you know, we're going to make the playoffs. The Rockies are giving themselves that same speech. And I will say this, you know, talk about the three least sexy starting.

pitchers that are probably having a decent year. Antonio Sensatella has a 2.3 war. Kyle Freeland with a 2.2 war. And then our guy Hermann Marquez is pretty good himself. So I get it, Rocky's fans. You could talk yourself into it, but you better have a good two weeks, because otherwise I think a lot of those guys are going to be leaving for Dodge.

Yeah, I mean, you just have like the Mariners and the Giants having the same thoughts that you just laid out and that's not the company you're supposed to be keeping. What was it that he wanted me to comment on just that in general? I was sorry, I was doing some research and I had missed, I kind of missed it. Yeah, and it was the rocks. Just those rocks.

I don't know. They signed Matt Kemp. Like, I love Matt. But like, the Padres went and got Mike Clevenger. You know, like, let's make some moves like that. If you want to, you can put a winning team out there, you got to make some win moves. And I love the players they have there.

They got some really good, but they should move them. They can't do it this year. Move all of them. Rebuilt. I hate saying that. I hate that word. But, dude, whatever they're doing is not working. Yeah, man.

I'll say the fun story that's probably not on a lot of people's radars is Josh Fuentes has been playing first base for them, and he's been playing pretty well. He's Aronado's cousin. literally cousins. That's really cool. I think he was like unscouted, undrafted. Yeah, he wasn't a big prospect.

He just started working out with his damn cousin who's really good at baseball and that worked out for him. So I don't know. It sucks at our guy David Dahl, man. After such a good last year, he's struggled. Daniel Murphy's been an atrocious signing and that's a lot of Rocky fans point towards that because in their heads, the Rockies only have so much money to spend. And Daniel Murphy was some of that money. and if you look at their bullpen, I mean, my God, guys,

if they didn't have Daniel Bard, who was out of the league for six years, I mean, their bullpen is atrocious. So in their head is a good... I knew you'd like that. I knew you'd like that, yeah. I need to put some respect on that, Kevin's name. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that.

Yeah, what was that, Trev? It's not really assigning that a winning team would do necessarily, but he's been pretty good. Yeah. Got that Coors boost, baby. Get Hot Rocks. 38 games he's played? Yeah.

He's like their primary DH. Yeah. I mean, honestly, I didn't know that he was playing that much. 753 OPS, six homers, 21 RBIs. I mean, he's not doing, he's doing a lot better than I would have guessed. Probably. And. Probably shouldn't be playing that much.

Rihanna. Rihanna. Hey, he's crushing lefties. Matt Kemp with the 887 OPS for. lefties. There you go, babe. Good for him, man. He is actually a really cool, nice guy. Hot. Yeah. Pretty eyes. Do we have more voice mouths?

Two more. Baggies are up 3-0, Jake. Ooh, that's Brum. EFL Cup. Hey, talking baseball. It's Tommy G. calling in from Oklahoma City, lifelong Astros fan. But I don't want to talk about the Astros right now

because that just makes me sad to think about them. It's hard to root for him. I want to talk about my favorite player, Shohei Otani. He's with the Angels. I don't know if you guys know. He's with the Angels injured batting horribly. He's getting scared, backing out of the box. He's uncomfortable to play.

He's getting frustrated. What is the future for Shohei Otani? Does he need to switch to full-time DH? Put him out in right field because he's got a hell of an arm. Let me know what you guys think about Shohei. his career prospects, how it's going to pan out. Maybe if I might even get to see him as an astro. All right, guys.

Love the podcast. Jake sucks. Ooh. Hmm. I have no idea. I was asking brother-in-law, Brad, about Otani. Yeah. No idea.

What do you do? I should know way more. My former agent is his agent. Oh. But I typically don't just go, hey, how is Otani doing? Well, maybe. But, I would say this, and this is league-wide for me.

Like, if you're struggling this year, I'm not going to hold it against you, man. Oh. Weird season, different for your body in terms of when you got started, you know, what were you doing during that downtime? Then you got to be, like, secluded in your hotel room. Everything is strange. Some people will take advantage of it and are doing really well this year. and some people are going to struggle with it. I'm not going to hold it against him.

He's an all-world player. I mean, there's been people saying he's, he's C.C. Sabathia said he's the best player on the planet because he can do both. Obviously, he's hurt and can't do both right now. He's not hitting either. But when he's right, that's the kind of player he is.

I'm going to give him a pass for this year. Some of a shit team. What are you doing in the future, though, Trev? I mean, do you, is pitching out of his, repertoire because he throws a hundred miles per hour isn't that more valuable than a bat can't aren't bats an easier

commodity than a guy who can throw 100 as a starter? Yeah, yes. Yes, it's more valuable to have him as a starter. I could see him doing a bullpen thing. They're going to try to continue to start him 100%.

That's where like you said, that's the value. But if it's too much, stress on the arm and he doesn't really come back the way they want him to. I could see them doing a Shohei closing things out, high leverage Shohei, whatever it is. I'm not giving up on this guy. I don't think anybody that's an Angels fan should, or like Shohei. Yeah, I just, I don't think you can bullpen him because then you want him playing in the field. And then what's he going to, is going to warm up with the guy between innings or something?

I don't know. You keep him stretched out to be a starter. You say he had some injuries, and then you figure it out from there. I'll give him some credit in a year he's not hitting it all. Seven stolen bases, no caught stealings. So, Shohay's still out there trying to get it. And yeah, man, he's a special talent. They're all tail-in double steals. All double-scented. Wow.

Yeah, man, it's, I mean, look at his pitching stats on this year, are 1.2 innings pitch to 30, 37 ERA. So, Trev, unfortunately, I think I'm going to end up hating the saying, you just said, but like for Shohei Otani, this year kind of doesn't matter. You know, bring it next year. All's forgotten. I just hate that there's going to be so many guys saying that through this offseason into next year.

But yeah, man. There's going to be 28 teams that say that. Oh, yeah. Team who wins the World Series isn't going to say it, and the team who won't win the World Series isn't going to say it. But everyone else is going to say, whatever. That was a fun, weird year. Next year is real again.

And I think that person also wanted to hear if Shohei would end up on Houston. Yeah, if that's what you need to hear to, like, better your day when he hits free agency in 2024, absolutely. How does that work? If they wanted the DHM and then bring him in high leverage or whatever, they would lose the DH, right? And the pitchers would have to hit. Then you could, you have to, you have.

have pinch hitters. Maybe, I mean, maybe. He just hit? He is the pitcher. Yeah, but I'm saying. After that, then it would be the pitcher, yeah. You'd have to pinch hit for. Well, you just have him close out games.

He becomes the closer. He becomes the closer, like only in the game situation. He goes from DH to 789 guy. And he's still hitting and he's pitching now. I mean, he gets his last at bat in the seventh inning, comes out for another right fielder, head straight to the pen. I mean, that's a good time. what if he's like

has a chance to drive in a run but it's going to put him up by four he's like no fuck that I'm gonna bunt here I need to get this save get my R numbers up stat pad and pod we got one more beavers

Joe John Boy Media Kyle Vodano giving you guys a call again I got a question for Trevor this time was wondering if in the locker room there's any or in the clubhouse any kind of games you guys did

I asked that When I was playing college ball Our coach Former Minor Leaguer did Kangaroo Court We did something called Cowboy Up On the road trips We had

Somebody who was trying to go to the bathroom On the bus walking to the back Someone yelled Cowboy up And everyone would stand up And try to fuck him up I'm sure you guys aren't doing that You guys got a lot more money riding And a lot bigger guys

But Then he was telling me about leaning trash cans full of pissing shit up on people's doors in the hotels and then knock and then when they open it all stills out. Let me know if you guys did anything fun like that, anything you're willing to share. Thanks to everything, guys. Later. Dang.

The rest of that food is your way. BPD started losing it. I don't know if you guys could see that in the corner. So, Trev, yeah, tell us your stories like that. Kangaroo courts a thing. we had I think most controversial thing that we would do

on the bus we'd have whoever was the MC they would do a thing called hotline bling and it was a chance for people to say what they wanted to say anonymously

what they would do is they would text something to whoever is the MC the MC was not allowed to reveal where this came from get a night he'd get the text and he'd read it over the um read it over like the loudspeaker on the bus and i'll never forget my favorite this is big leagues okay um so you know we have a very diverse league we have you know guys that uh english is their second language so you get the text going and usually these guys can speak it a little bit more than they can write it So one of the text was, one of the text was like, so-and-so, you know, whoever was the guy, has, has shit of the mouth.

Like, what does that mean? What does that mean? So we go and ask, you were like, okay, like, can somebody, like, figure out what does that mean? He's trying to say this guy has bad breath and needs to brush his teeth. But that's how it came out. He has shit of the mouth. So then for the rest of the year, I'm not going to name who the guy was. We always tell, man, you got shit of the mouth today.

Like, go brush your teeth. It was so funny. What did it mean? Bad breath. Like bad breath. Shit of the mouth or something. It was so good. But that was a fucked up one because people would say need things.

Did you ever get got? Oh, all the time. Oh, all the time. People love to mess with me. I have no range at their base, all this stuff. So it got a little personal, but that's fun. You got to be able to have thick skin. So stuff like that.

No shit and piss on the doors. I mean, like I didn't get a joke in college ones, but it wasn't shit and piss, just garbage. Yeah. We would order room service to people's rooms. That was fun. Just like send a bunch of shit to their room. They'd be like, I didn't order this.

That's not as cool as the shit of the mouth. And who's the teammate you've seen naked the most, Dozier? I've seen everybody. I've seen a lot of dudes naked. Phil Hughes a lot. Oh. Hughes, he was confident.

He was, uh, stand tall. Everybody is, man. Yeah, it's true. You can't hide it. Yeah. You can't hide it, man. Oh, mine hides it.

You've got the showers. You got the showers. Mm. Mm. So that was the last one? Yeah. Hughes was never like walking back from the bathroom on the bus

and then everyone will kick his ass you know you'll prank we never did that we never did that one um yeah a few guys get naked on the bus that's weird

that's like a 20 year old college thing yeah to minor leagues bus rides in the minor that too just kicking the shit out of each other yeah there's some

when you go on the road trips in the minor league, some silly, silly shit happens on the bus. Because it's long bus rides and people are like delirious from the season. It's a little wild. It's good to be young and dumb. Yeah. Sure is. All right.

Well, thank you guys, everyone that called in and left a voicemail. We appreciate you. Thank you to the patrons for hanging out with us live. Enjoy the baseball. We'll be back on Friday with the series recap.