Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 298 | Who Will Break Out in 2021?

Episode Date: March 11, 2021

Go to https://kushydreams.com/​​ and use Promo Code 'BASEBALL' for 20% off your next order Jomboy, Jake, & Plouffe each picked a pitcher and a hitter that could be poised for a breakout this season. Who did they pick? Presented by DraftKings 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.

I know exactly who you're doing. Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. We are choosing our breakout stars for the 2021 season. And Treb knows who we're doing, I guess. Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball presented by Draft Kings. Thank you very much for tuning in and hanging out with us for a little bit. My name is Jimmy. Sit next to me as Jake.

We got Trev wearing tie-dye coming from California. And BBD, the producer in the corner, rocking a Talking Yank. Zip up. How about that? We also said we weren't going to do outfits on the show anymore after the... Well, you can't flex your zip up. Well, you started talking about Trevor's tie-dye. Wow.

Well, Trevor's tie-dye. And I was like, well, you're going to bring that in. We sell this. Yes, I can't do outfits anymore. I ran into a big problem where I didn't put a comma in a correct place. Sounded bad for the audio-only people. That was hilarious. If you want to see the outfits we're wearing, come to YouTube and check it out.

To the two, baby. Anyway, this episode of Talking Baseball, we have so many special people that I want to shout out for supporting us. And the first name already is a trip. What is that? Rogelio? Roheelio. Roheelio. Morphin.

I'm going to call him Raj. Raj Morphan. Patrick Morgan. Bob. There's an easy one for me. Bob. Corbin Simmons. Yara Kasam.

Scott Castiano. Nolan. A.J. Lyonberger. It's cool. Alec Pavone. Oh, that's very close to a name that Jake and I use as a joke. Scovone, Povone.

Kitt Clement. Love that. Kit Clement sounds like... That's a baseball name. No, that is. That's like an 1800s, California, like, you know, came from the West baseball name. The league really didn't know where it was heading until Kit Clement came up. Yes, perfect.

Francisco Brach from Germany. How about that? Thank you, Fran. Kevin Stringer, Dylan C. de Baca, Joseph Sullivan, Bruce Ginkle, Kyle Weigel, Anthony Vitty, Heth, DeGaghanth, Heath, Dagenhart, Jeremy, I have PTSD with that name because my neighbor when I was a young kid, his name was Jeremy, and I had a wicked, terrible speech impediment. I couldn't pronounce my J's or my R's. call them Bormi going to Bormi's house Go to Bormi's house And wait you Instead of Jeremy you said Bore me

How does that even work? I just told you I said my B's my Js is Bs I had a very bad speech in family Me The garage I would say the barrage And my parents didn't know what I was saying It's in the barrage Yeah

I went to a trailer They held a piece of stick on my tongue And then I had to fight against the stick and like get it out of my mouth. There's a lot of tongue workouts for me. And Zach Smith. Thank you. Those are most recent patrons.

Appreciate them very much. Patrons growing like crazy. People are supporting like crazy. Jake and I do a Polaroid session. Like, how many do we take? We do like three packs of Polaroids a day. Just taking pictures. We're so good at model.

One of one. Yeah. One of one. Authenticated. Sell it in 20 years for a million bucks. Done. We have a fun episode. excited about this. We decided that we're each going to present a breakout player, a pitcher,

and a hitter, and we didn't put a lot of parameters on this. No. So it can be a prospect. It could be an older guy that hasn't really broken out yet. There's a lot of different ways everyone could go. And I know Trev and I, a bit nervous. Like, I hope, hope you guys don't shit on it. Well, A, we, we, before we started this, we, what was the phrase? We're going to have a nice packed? A nice pack. We're having a nice pack. There would be no friendly, bullying on our show today. We're going to be nice about everything. I think, you know, we might rule out a couple guys because there's so many ways you could do it.

Treve originally delivered it as like buying stock on guys, which, hey, if you buy a stock on a guy who's got a good stock, but you think it's going to go higher, that's an angle. I think we're leaning more breakouty, but interested to see where you guys are. And Trev, right at the opening saying, I think I know who your guys are when Jim, you also mentioned right before that that you did put your guys on the sheet so you could see them I have not looked at the sheet. That's fine. And Trev, A, you look great, I love you.

B, I'm still reeling from the Donaldson Exchange. I don't know how you're doing, man. I mean, when he dropped that 70-30, it kind of hurt me. So, like, how are you, bro? Explain what happened, first off, for anyone that doesn't know. Well, I mean, I think a lot of people who listen to this show know, I did the Gary video and he's been doing really well. So then I said, okay, I'm going to do a Chris Davis video.

I'm going to fix Chris Davis his swing. So I put the video out. And I don't know how Donaldson saw this. He might follow the sequence Twitter page, but he watched the video. He's a hitting nut. He's a hitting nut. Yeah. So then, I mean, I'm just enjoying my evening.

And then, you know, Josh decided he wanted the comment on it. And then I got a text from Jake. and I got a text from Dan, like, hey, you got to come on here and talk to Josh because Josh wants to give you his breakdown. So that's when the exchange started. Josh kind of said he liked the video. And a lot of the things he mentioned that he thinks Chris needs to do. I did mention the video, but it's funny when you talk with people,

even two hitters who play third base for the Minnesota twins. Our hitting language is different. So I think we're saying the same things. His is a little more mechanically, driven and technical or mine's more of like maybe old school ball lingo.

But we went back and forth, man. I thought we were a really good discussion. And then the Halloween day, we got all the leads together. And you can go read on the Sequence Twitter page. Pretty cool. Got a little choppy on us, but the sequence

Twitter page has it. And Sequence had its best day in podcast history yesterday. So Sequence is blowing up. You're fixing swings. Everyone go checkouts. You're saving careers. You're saving lives.

Chris Davis, oh for two so far. So he hasn't watched the video yet. He's hurt. Yeah, he's 0 for two. Trev, I don't. He's hurt. He's,

no, he's not even going to be ready for opening day, which stinks. But hopefully during this time, he's going to watch it. Trev, you know there's a couple things

that genuinely impress me about you. Your wife. Not sure again, why she's kind of with you, but okay. Two, whenever I first, find out a fun fact about you in like a baseball like when i remember when i saw you had an at bat

against mariano riva i was like jesus christ trev stepped in the box against mo like that's insane i always love that um and then three i've always been impressed that whenever we've talked about this and even just like when we were still feeling each other out and you hated me for sure um i was like do you have the itch at all like you know i i feel like you know you see a guy or you feel good one day and you've just you've kind of been no like i've i'm comfortable man i had a nice career i'm not doing the minor league thing i got a nice family um when donaldson dropped that 70 30 on you was there any like well should i get in the cage and and again 70 30 he's talking about your weight distribution you were 70% back and 30% forward so you weren't balanced over the over the plate

correct yeah that's what he was talking about and you know it's It's not universal that you have to be a 50-50 guy. But for Josh and the way that he swings, that's what he does. That's how he's able to get that rubber band effect. He starts 50-50. He gathers. Then it allows him to have the separation between lower body and upper body. And that's where a lot of his power comes from.

A lot of... So, yes, I was a 70-30 guy. My weight was back because I had that problem where I drifted forward with my head and my upper body. So I try to counter that by starting back, pushing my hands back a little bit. But, you know, that could get you, if you're not perfectly synced up, it could get you in trouble.

So, you know, Josh was trying to help me out. And he said, hey, you should have called me. And then now that I do think back, I should have called them. Should have. Not easy to do. Well, I understood a lot of that lingo because I read that book last summer,

King Swings by Jared Diamond, all about the hitting revolution and all those terms. So, like, he wasn't using a lot of commas in his tweets, JD. So it was a little even more hard. to understand what he was saying. But like, yes, yes, no hitter.

I didn't know about that. But I know what that is because I read that book. It's basically like you got to be able to be going after every pitch, yes, yes. And then at the last second, choose not to swing. Where Chris Davis is very much the Barry Bond's effect, which is a different where, you know, if you're swinging, you're swinging fully. You're never like stopping at this point, which is a lot of like Donaldson will, you'll see them just start and then stop at the last second.

Harry Bond's like, every single time I swing, I'm giving my A swing as hard as I can. That's why, you know, two different approaches. He's giving, he's giving his A swing. He just means yes, yes, no, just means continuously staying aggressive, not being passive in the box at all. Because, you know, now all this data on pitchers and all this stuff, you have to be ready to get that one pitch. In the big leagues, you might get one pitch in a bat. You might not get any pitches to hit in a bat, but you have to be ready. if you do get the pitch.

So that's kind of what the yes, yes, no thing means. It's cool. Go check it out. All right. Let's get to this. Our breakout players. We're doing pitchers first. Does anyone want to go first?

So I will open up with mine, just research-wise. I did a lot of research. And then I realized today, as I sat down, I didn't do if they've played in spring yet, if they're injured in spring yet, and that I'm really scared. Like, I should do a quick look. But I'm too deep.

I can't pivot at this point. So I was like, shit. They'll get healthy. Yeah, they'll get healthy. Do you guys want me to give you mine or do you want to go first, Jake? I want you or Trev to go first because I was planning on going last because I wanted to see how you guys played out because I've got options all over the board. My head was running wild. You know, I get a little more geeky than you guys into some of these deep cut players.

But I know your angle. I'm interested to see what you got. Well, that's, well, and my angle's a little weird. So Treb, you go first. You said you loved your pitcher. I'll go first. I'll go first. I want to like almost like right in our group chat who I think your hitter is.

I think I have it nailed down. You can guess in a minute. Yeah. Okay. For my hitter or for, excuse me, for my pitcher. Now this is a guy who's kind of been on the breakout train for quite some time. And he's in an organization that kind of needs him to break out. And there was a really fun article that came out on the athletic about him and Jesus Lazzardo.

So that might give it away, but I'm going A.J. Puck. Okay. Mr. Iowa himself ready to break out. The article I'm referencing, it just came out in the athletic. He has had some injuries, missed 2020, and then he went to Florida to work out with your guy's guy, Cressie. And while he was there, Jesus Lazzardo has a house, and he ended up moving in with Jesus Lazzardo.

So they've been playing roommate the entire. offseason. He's been going to Cressie. And the funny thing about the article is, this has really nothing to do with the breakout, but it's funny to mention it. He started going to family dinners with the Luzardo's, his parents live five minutes from him,

and they started just crushing Arapas. And if you know what A.J. Puck looks like. He is listed at 67-248. That's much thicker than I would have given him credit for, because he looks like a bean pole. He's 6-7, super skinny.

So I think the weight thing for me is kind of funny. Like he's putting on some weight when a lot of guys are, and this was mentioned in the article, Eugenio Suarez was getting off the Arepa train. AJ Puck is now on the Arepa train. But this guy is, they wanted to be a starter, but they kind of have a rotation set. So my feeling is in 2021,

he's probably going to have to start out in some kind of multiple inning relief role. And then maybe he works his way into the starting rotation if he's healthy and everything's going well. But this is the kind of guy that come September down the playoff stretch and into the postseason, they could be leaning on this guy. I think they planned to be in a lot in a way.

I like that, Trev. I saw him when he first came into camp with the A's when I was there in spring. training in 2017. Super nice guy. He's got the hair, the look, everything. He looks like he's from Iowa. But I think this is the year where he comes up and he breaks out. Okay.

So. You think the haircut helps him? He got the haircut. Kind of like, you know, no fungus on your shower. That's going to last because I feel like in Oakland, everything ends up growing back out once you're in the show. Yeah, no barbers.

Yeah. Romo will help with that. Trev, I love it. because one of the things I love, and as I was kind of trying to think of my guys is, there's a, you know, everyone loves the shiny new object. And him and Lazzardo kind of were 1A, 1B, these two lefties who sling it. If you look at Pucks minor league numbers, I mean, they're disgusting. Like the strikeout numbers are insane.

You don't see guys do that almost a 13K per nine while starting through the minors. the guy's gross I think if he and I really like what you said with this season Treve where innings are going to be juggled and the A's kind of have some other starters if he can mix in a few starts

get built up for that and maybe he becomes a super weapon for him kind of in that hater role his stuff kind of can be haterish I like that as a guy to kind of break out on the platform for a team that should be either around the wild card

or you know the AOL West if they do it right that's what I have been envisioned as as a weapon. A hybrid starter reliever kind of guy, maybe he comes in and gets some of those high leverage endings because he's a different look for hitters. Six-seven's tough righty or lefty, but when it's a lefty, it's even tougher. You just don't see guys like that too often.

So he's kind of got that freakish build. He's got this stuff. He's healthy this year. and from all accounts he put in the work in the off season and it's it's it's put up or shut up time he's about to turn 26 like it's it's his time to go and around this time is that's when you start to get that real kind of a adult confidence and especially when you you know he had a little bit of time in 2019 missed 2020 he's itching and raring to go and I think this is kind of like it's It's preparation, mixed with maturity, mixed with Arapas.

I don't know. I just, when I was going through these guys, this is the one that stood out to me. And I'm looking forward to seeing him and kind of how they end up using him throughout the year. I like it. Yeah. I like it. When I was doing my research, I looked at a lot of articles of like each breakout star from every team. and you see a lot of the same names

and you just see a lot of the top prospects. So I don't, I mean, I don't know if you're taking like Nate Pearson, Jake, but he's on everyone's list. So if you want to go find those guys, like I think we're kind of staying away from Nate Pearson, Casey Mize, Lazzardo, like those are a lot of the big guys this year. And not saying they're not going to break out and have huge years. I was trying to find a different angle.

I wanted to find the guys that have been in the season, in the league. They have a couple seasons under their belt, but they haven't become the best of their potential or they have not been like a name yet, you know what I mean? So that was where I searched for guys that have been around that, you know, I think maybe like this is a year they do something big. I'm staying in the same division as you, Trevor, and I'm going with Yusei Kikuchi. Usei is technically on a contract year. Like he has a big, weird option that the Mariners can take, that they'd have him for like four more years, or he could be pitching for a trade or pitching for his career in the U.S., right?

Last year, you say bumped up his fastball by like four miles per hour, and it stayed. And all of his peripherals last year got so much better than in 2019, right? his FIP improved from 571 to 330, which would put him among the top 25 pitchers in the MLB. Is this banging just incredibly loud? Yeah, yeah. Can we... How about that?

Can we shut the window right there? Is it shut? Got the AC running. I can roll it, baby. There's a guy hammering right outside the window. He's going to town. He's in, like, the top five for fastball velocity as a lefty or some quote like that. Like, he throws 95 miles per hour as a lefty.

now. His ex-ERA, like all his expected numbers were good. It was a 351, but he had like a 5-ERA. He was an 86 percentile at missing barrels. His width percentage was 72nd percentile. All his peripherals were good. Opponent slugging percentage, 81st percentile. What happened was he ran into a big inning almost every game. I mean, I think 20, he gave up 20. I think 20 of them came in multiple run innings. And in a third of his starts, he had an inning where he gave up four runs. That's a bad, that's a, that's an ERA killing machine right there.

Because he walked too many guys. It was just nibbling and walking guys like crazy. Like, I think he walked six guys in one game, four guys in one game. So I am hoping, and he said in some quotes himself that it was a mentality thing and that he just needs to attack and change. and he said it was like really difficult and he wasn't like being open with the rest of the team because language barriers and stuff. So if all the peripherals come to be real,

Kikuchi could be pitching really well into a trade piece at the deadline. So I'm kind of eye in him and hoping that he lives up to the expected numbers. He didn't live up to him last year because he gave up the big inning way too often. Yeah, so I like it, John. Your guy, you say Kukuchi, I say Kukuchi. I don't know. If you know this, I don't know if this was our group chat or if this was sidebar, but I have some, not insight, but something from a big name around baseball,

Trev's guy Jeff Passon. He said, he's like, yeah, Kukuchi does everything. He just, he thinks it's a location thing with the wildness and those big innings. Yeah. If he can not leave the big one over the dish to get hit, like he can do everything else. I mean, I didn't watch his starts, so I don't really know. And Seattle's fans, like, let me know, obviously. Yeah.

But the way it looks like is if he gets runners on base, and we see this from a lot of pitchers that come over from Japan, like, you know, the game slows down, they start nibbling a little, they don't attack as much. Because usually pitchers that come up from Japan don't have 95-mile-per-hour stuff. It's much more Tanaka, 92 fastball, with a lot of extra pitches. his pitch mix is fastball, slider, curve.

I think he did a cutter last year as well. So he's just got to locate better. And like I think he said, it's a mentality thing. I like it. Pitch out of Seattle. Live up to those expected numbers. What I like about him, and I know this is a friendly pod,

we're being nice here. Friend pod. I don't like a lot of the stuff about the pitch mix, but I do like what you're saying about the motivation. factor. Like he's got to go. Yeah, I'm a big believer in contract years. I mean, like you're not, they're not going to give him $16.5 million. No. He puts up a five again. No. And then he's not to go back to any, and maybe he wants to stay here and continue playing in the States and he'll find another team. But I know because I played with a few of the guys that

came over from Japan, they don't want to go back, man. They don't want to go back and without success. This is a big deal for them. They could stay in Japan. and continue to dominate. But these guys at the top of the game that come over, they want to have success here because it proves to them and everybody in Japan that they're one of the elite players in the world. And they don't want to have to go back and do that.

So the motivation factor is huge. And you know what? He's in a tough division. He's in a really tough division to be a left-hander. So he's got to figure some things out. I think location is a huge part of it. As a lefty, when you have a bunch of right-handed guys, and we look at all the lineups that he's going to have to go up against.

You have to face Trout and Rendon. He's going to have to face Bregman, Karea, Al-Tuve, all those guys. If you're a left-de and you're not locating, I mean, just go look at all the splits for those guys. They're going to crush you. So, yes, location has to be there. And he's in a rotation. You convince me.

I'm a guy that I'll be rooting for this year to go do it, because I know what he's going through mentally from playing with a few of those guys. And he's in a rotation full of lefties. So there's a lot of people to talk to and get scouting reports from. Like, hey, Paxton, how did you pitch this guy? Hey, Marco, how did you pitch this guy? Hey, Justice, how did you pitch this guy? Like, it's all lefties.

So they can bounce ideas off each other and they can trade secrets about like, you know, how did you have success? So I like that. What he doesn't have to do, Jim, for lefties to have success, especially when you're facing three lefties in a row, you start to feel really comfortable. Lefties who pitch well in the big leagues command the inside part of the plate against righties. They're able to expand the zone in to open up away.

But if you miss in, it's going to get crushed. So hopefully that's what he's been working on. I would take two miles an hour if the fastball, if the location is better if I was him. Yeah, when he threw it, it was like, you know, he was mostly, it was like 80% fastballs last year, I think, you know, is between the cutter, between the cutter and the four seamer. So, you know, but, yeah, that was my pick.

I want, you know, how guys have different facilities, and there's QB camps, and there's different baseball stuff. We just talked about Cressy. I want Lanselin, when he retires from baseball, to have Lanslin's farm. And every couple years, he picks five pitchers to come out. there and he teaches them how to do different things with their fastball. Yeah.

It's just a fastball camp. It's in the middle of like a farm in Missouri or wherever he's at. And it's just fastball season. Bring Bartolo Colonna how to cut it a little bit. Bart and Lance Lynn. They're the two trainers. Did you go over his expected stats? Cacucci?

They had to be better than what his numbers were. They were very good. Sorry, I missed that. Yeah, no, no. That's, yeah. It was the basis for him. a lot of what I was saying. He was in the top percentile and his expected stats were almost half of his results

because it was all walks and big innings. So if he can just avoid, I mean, he pitched nine games in three of those games, all of the runs that he gave up came in one inning. It was a four run inning. It's not good. It was like if he got into trouble, he could not get out of it. And that's why they're happy with the work you put in and all the articles are read. And they said, like, it's a mentality thing.

That's what like service said and all that. So we'll see. And ERA in 2020 is dumb. I mean, you're only got, you had 10 starts. So, I like it. After I'm looking at the, like, kind of like you said, the checkouts per nine, the walks per nine, homers per nine, hits per nine, everything was down.

The area, the ERA was still there just because of a couple bad endings. Yep. I love it. Jake, who you got? I love you guys. I, you know, again, dodging some of the big names. Get your Garrett Crochet out of here. Everyone's in on him.

Shane McClanahan on the raise. I think I could have played that card, but I think enough people saw him in the postseason. And if you're a lefty that pumps a hunch on the raise, I think you're going to be seen. I'm going with another Florida guy. And Trev, this might get a little confusing because you know, who's the Twins Closer?

Taylor Rogers? His brother is Tyler Rogers. Tianti. And I'm going with a Trevor. Trevor Rogers on the Florida Fish, Fish with Arms. He is currently their fifth starter. He's 23 years old. He got a taste last year.

He's a big boy. 6-5-220, 23. And so his ERA got a little jacked up last year. It was only seven starts, 28 innings. One of those starts, he got rocked by the Phillies. Eight runs, three innings pitched. Otherwise, he was pretty solid. And so here's my thing.

Baseball's got a way of being baseball, right? And these fish with arms, Alcantara, Lopez, Eliezer, Six-sto. I think baseball's familiar with a lot of those guys. If you're in baseball, I know they're the fish and they're doing everything they can. Rogers, man, he was a first-round pick. He gets the call. His fastball ticked up. I think his fastball's sitting in 95-ish, 96 on a good day.

And he's got the stuff he pitched against our Yankees last year. It was three innings shutout towards the end of September, which is what it is. And hey, all of these guys are going to have pitching inning limitations this year. This guy's currently listed as their fifth starter. And I just think, you know, there's not going to be, if you're playing the Marlins, every day you come to the office, you're going to have a tough battle. He's the lefty on that staff. And the other thing that I really like is, so he got to,

his taste of the major league. By the way, struck out 39 guys in 28 innings. Hello, like that. He got roughed up. He got knocked around a little bit, but it's really just that one bad day. There's another one in there. But here's what I like.

He faced, and we talked about this with the Central Divisions last year, he faced lineups every day last year. This is who his starts were against. Mets, Mets, Rays, Philly, Boston, Atlanta, and the Yankees. He saw lineups every start. It's a little different than when we look at like, you know, the Reds or the, the, who were we looking at like Darvish? And it was like Reds, Pirates, Royals, Tigers, Pirates. It's a different B.

So I think, you know, A, he pitches in a pitcher's park. That always helps a little bit. I think, you know, you get out of division some of the games this year. You're still being the division. And I like that, you know, he doesn't have to be the guy. Everyone's looking at Sixtho. Everyone's looking at Alcantara. Everyone's looking at those other guys.

I think this guy's legit. I love that we kind of ended up with all Southpaws. And I think if this guy wasn't in Miami, I think he would be, we probably would have talked about him a little more, but partially because of that, we don't. So I love a good Trevor. And if you're a T. Rogers and pitching right now,

it's a good time to be in the MLB. Yeah, something that he didn't do well last year, was second time through the rotation, looking at the number. the first time he faced guys, he held him to a 715 OPS, which isn't amazing, it's average, but it spiked up in the second time to like a 9-8, and then if you saw him a third time, one dot.

Also, first 25 pitches in the game, really good. Then 25 through 50 got jacked, and then if he was in there after the 50th pitch, like crazy, bad, which is normal, like not, it's not for first time through, especially facing those lineups. They know how to make the adjustment, little better than you as a rookie. So I like that. His expected numbers are on par with like kind of what we were saying about Cacucci, Jake. Like his expected slugging was like half what the result was. It was like

344 and then the slugging was 627. Yeah. So he ran into a little bit of bad luck. So I like that pick. I wasn't on my radar at all. So I'm glad he was a little fastball heavy too last year. So I think that I think he was close to 60% fastball. So as you as you realize in the show, I don't think you can pump it that until you go to Lance Lynn's fastball camp in the woods and Bart shows up but he wasn't invited Not invited but like you Oh lives out there

Fastball camp comes out of the wilderness Shirtless Glove on baseball on the other hand Just like tossing it The dream Heard this is a fastball camp Trevor All south paused for us

I like the 12 and a half K's per 9 That's the most he's ever had in his career So that bumped up when he got to the show Which tells me maybe he figures something now with the balls, which I like. Maybe he'll continue that. Yeah, I mean, all these guys, you just want to see him go out and play right now. That's what I'm feeling. I'm like, yes, they have the stuff. You read the articles about the work they've put in and we have a little bit of

footage on them, but let's go see what these guys do in a full season. I think that's what we're all excited. Besides Kikouche, we've seen him, but for the guy, the younger guys, puck and Rogers here, put in a full season. You know, find out. I like seeing what guys do their second year. You come up, nobody knows what you got. Then I developed a book. And then it's up to them to figure out how to stay in the big leagues.

Yeah. And those are the guys, I mean, like, if you can figure it out, you can figure it out. Fish with arms, Jake. Fish with arms. Watch a little more of the change. Another, like, rotation he can kind of lean on there. Like, you know, they got some guys that have got dudes, man. is just a little bit ahead of them.

Making me rethink the Marlins, checking out that pitching staff again. All right, before we get to hitters, I got to tell you about Cushy Dreams. Cushy Dreams is a big supporter of what we're doing here because, you know, watching baseball day in and day out, you're going to go through the gambit of emotions. What's the quote I had?

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Smoke your CBD with promo code baseball. I'll go first on the hitters unless Trevor you're dying to. I know you were kind of searching and scratching. Well, can Trevor guess? No, I... Yeah, you're not going to guess, man. Yeah, I'm going to. I doubt it.

I guess. I'm not going to. I doubt it. Kyle Schwerber. No, no, he's broken out. It would be like a re-breakout. You were talking about like platoon and getting a guy in full season. I am.

I am. And before I give it, like, we'll shout out all the players that the audience is going to be like, how did you not say him? Like Bobby Dalbach, but he's on everyone's list. He's not under the radar. Like, if you're not expected. key Brian Hayes and Dahlbach and Bomb and

Mount Castle to break out like you know there are names you should know but we're trying to I was trying to go a little deeper or a little different than all of those so there's a lot of those but I am taking my favorite name in baseball Austin Slater Wow

Austin Slater I told you I was looking for the Justin Turner the 29 year old like breakout type stuff and the changes that Justin Turner that Austin Slater made last year were pretty significant changes in the way he swings and he had really good results last year for the Giants.

So I'm excited to see a full season of those changes. Trev, look at some of his numbers. Like his launch angle, so like, you know, where he comes to the plane and makes contact with the ball, it was in 2017, 1.3, 2.6, 3.5. Last year, a completely different swing.

10.9. way higher. He was barreling balls at a much higher rate. His expected stats jumped up a lot more. So, like, he changed something, put it together. He had a 914 OPS last year, a 152 OPS plus. So if you want to say that's his breakout year, I don't think Austin Slater's on anyone's minds, though.

I love it. So the Giants, like Trev says, development over there, changing the swings. Getting some love for my development take with the Giants. Yes. When you look at his swing path, and a change was made last year, and there was tangible results in the short season,

so I want to put him on the radar as maybe a guy that will have those results continue next year. Is it going to be the next? Yes. Yaz was the same way. The older guy breaking out, now people are like, he got MVP votes, a lot of them. Is Austin Slater going to be the next yes?

I like that. I don't know what they're doing over there. We shout out the hitting coaches before, but continue to do the work, you guys. Maybe it's getting chas. Can you do an unplug, re-plug? Your mic just went alien on us. And, Treve, I'll pick up where you were talking about

about those Giants coaches, because I've been on that with you this whole time. I think the Giants coaches are the key to their season this year. No, man, we talked about it. I mean, there is something in the water, and that ties to the coaches a little bit. I mean, think about Donnie Barrels. who has been getting some love.

And, you know, yes, and we are starting to get to a point where it's like, hey, if you're a hitter that things haven't been kind of going your way, San Fran might be the place to check out, especially if Austin Slater does it again this year. Because, yeah, I mean, last year he went from a 334 career on base guy, got on base at a 408 clip, 914, like. Yeah, yeah. So, Treb, you'll like these. I know you like K and walk percentage.

his K percentage dropped nine points from 30 to 21. His walk percentage upped up to four points from 11 to 15. So just like overall having better at bats and then like, you know, the barrel, the launch angle, everything kind of ticked up. So I think there was a big change made. Maybe he went to see one of those swing doctors. And let's see. What's that?

He's a Stanford. He's a Stanford guy. Yeah. So like, you know, we mentioned that smart guy. We mentioned Donaldson already at the start of the show. He went to a swing doctor, totally retooled his swing. We mentioned Turner. Same exact thing.

Went to, what's his name? Soy. What's his name? Soybean. What's the hitting coach? Who Turner went to? No, no, no. Turner.

Turner, yeah, Turner. He didn't go to Van Scooyick. That's who the Dodgers have. He went to Doug Lada. Yeah. J.D. went to another guy that they don't like each other anymore. Van Schuyick, who is the Dodgers hitting coach now. Yeah.

So I don't know. Austin Slater. I was looking for guys that have bounced around. Like this, he's played a handful of games for four years now. But nothing, nothing you're really going to write home about. And maybe this is the area he's like an everyday bad. It's also, man, another one of those things. It's like it's either you do it or you don't do it.

You do it or you go home for a guy like that. Like he's Arb eligible in 2022. Time to start making some money. He's probably out of options. I don't know if we can find that out. That's always a big time in someone's career. Like, hey, I'm at options, and the next time I struggle and they need a body, I can be a guy, and then I'm out of the organization.

And once you get taken off a 40-man roster at that age, it's hard to get put back on one. So I like when you're talking, you took two guys. He has one option left. And Slater, yeah, it's time for these guys, and that is a big motivating factor, 100%. So, yeah, man, player development mixed with a little sense of urgency. Go get it on. Austin Slater. I'm in for that. And like you mentioned, great 90s name. Yeah. And I'm building off of the name thing, A, West Coast John coming out, I always love that.

B, he, if we want, I think this is a Trevor Plufangle, guy kind of moved around a lot in the minors and early MLB career. Last year, he was only playing corner outfield. I mean, in the minors, he was playing infield. He even played a little infield at the show level. get that infield out of here. It's done. Done. I'm playing corner outfield and I'm hitting baseballs. Who wants it? The Giants also changed their dimensions and stuff,

which helped out a lot of the offensive numbers over there. But the swing and contact rates are also different. So it's not just ballpark factor. He put the ball in the air a lot more. I know you alluded to that with his launch angle. That's drastic change. That's a huge change. And that's going to, I mean, that's going to pump your numbers up.

right away. But then everything else is good too. So I like it, Jen. This is a deep cut right here. A real deep cut. I did a lot of... 408 OBP, bro. I did a lot of research for this one. I just didn't check, like, how he's doing in spring or if he's been injured or anything like that. So that's where I might have fucked up.

Well, the comments will let me know. Trev, I'm excited. I'll text Longo about him and see what we got. Love that. We'll update this. Flex. I'm excited for you, Treve. I know the hitter was putting you in a little bit of a whirlwind because you like a lot of the guys. You like the Alec Bones. you're a Ryan Mount Castle truther,

but who'd, who'd you end up landing on? Oh, I think I scared. Well, I wanted to make sure you guys can hear me. Can you hear me? Yeah, something's going on. I can hear you. Your video went out for a second there. Is that damn raccoon messing with your internet?

I don't know what's going on, you guys. I apologize for this. It's really horrible. It makes me feel really bad. Do you want me to go or do you want to go today? You're good right now? Do you have your cell phone by that blue box? Because don't do that.

I don't know. Maybe take your pants. That does mess it up, but I don't know if that's what it is. I do have pants on, so maybe that's the problem. Lyer. I will go and you knew I was going to have to bring it back to my Twinkies at some point. I got to show some love. We already talked about this guy on the show.

He has one game in the big leagues. Yes. The 2020 playoffs. What was my favorite outfield in all of the big, and all of the big leagues had to get a new cast member once Eddie Rosario left. So I'm bringing in Alex Kierloff as my breakout in 2021. And there's a lot of things to like about this guy. If you ever go, Jim, I love what when you say,

I went to these Reddit forums and I read what the fans are saying about him. I have the same thing with the twins. I know what websites to go to to read and get the in-depth coverage. They all love this guy. Alex Kirilloff, lefty hitter, kind of built from like an old school mold, more of an average hitter, but he's got the pop too, and I think the pop is coming. He's been a doubles guy in the minor leagues. He's hit 20 homers at one level, but I think everyone says the pop is coming as well.

So you're talking about a guy that can get around the 300 average mark and still hit homers. That's a guy that I'm buying into. and he's going to get every single opportunity to play, which is another big thing. When you're talking about a breakout star, they've got to have the ability to play. So it seems like the left field is going to be his no matter what. I'm curious to see because he doesn't,

he hasn't started his clock yet. Like, is there any, and what I've been reading, this answer is no to this. Is there any way that he doesn't start the year in the show? I'm not sure. I don't think that twins will do that. Definitely.

just because of that reason. Never rule out funny business. But this is my guy. This is the guy that I think will be like middle of the order for the twins for years to come. And he missed 2000, all of 2020 because he was at the alternate site. Then he came up for that one game

against Houston in the wild card. He ended up getting a knock, which is amazing. but 2019, the year before that, he had some lingering health issues. His last full season was in 2018 and he absolutely just crushed. And it was in two leagues, the Midwest League and the Florida State League, you just don't hit there. Those are not hitters leagues. It's very tough to put up good seasons and he did that there.

Obviously, they think he's ready. They brought up in the playoffs. He's going to get a run, like I said, at the job. I think he's going to run away with it. Well, right now he's gotten the most. at bats in spring in twins camp. So they're giving him a lot of opportunities. He hasn't done much with those at bats yet.

And who knows how much they're really thinking and putting stock into those. But they're definitely giving him the opportunities. But, you know, if service time is a thing, Trev, and there's only one more year of the CBA, you can't. I'll be mad if that happens. Yeah. Be real mad if that happens. How about this?

But I mean, if he has a bad spring, they're just going to say that. How about the twins go full Padres? They just buy out the years. They make a nice little team deal. give you a little change. We trusted you enough to call you up in the postseason game. We believe in your kid. Here's the kingery. Here's the, you know, who else got that? Albies. He got a more than that. They have a lot of stuff they got to do over there. Here's the one thing that made me pick this guy. And I'm going to give a shout out to my guy. Seth. Seth tweets.

I've known him forever. Even when I was in the minor leagues, this guy was interviewing people, really good dude. He put out a tweet saying prediction. Alex Kirillov will win multiple batting titles and an MVP in his career.

Mark that down. This is a guy that follows the minor leagueers very closely. Obviously it's a huge bold take but I don't see him putting stuff like that out there very often. Need all his other predictions. All right, Seth.

I was going to do a hitter that has something in common with Kirilloff. I don't know if Jake's taking him, so. I got, you're good. I was going to do Paschae more postseason at Bats than regular season at Bats, kind of got thrown into the thick of it. And I think I like that experience for a guy on the Braves. So, and he got a hit. Like once he got the starting gig, I think he got a hit in the first four

games that he was starting. And he was just like, as cold as you can be. He didn't have no, had like four MLB at Bats in the regular season. And was starting in the AL or the NLCS and got some hits. So I was going to do Pasha, but I wanted to stick with doing guys that have been bumping around and have a breakout. I love it. I did a gambit, fellas.

Treve, great stuff. Love the twins. Also, Treve, I think you have to mention he's from Pittsburgh, so he's got that little, he's gritty. Oh, yeah, yeah. Gritty and he's gritty. He's gritty. You think the twins...

The lefty, he's always around. So, Twins hitting coach, read that thread between you and J.D. and quit. I guess I'm not needed. So we're done. Yeah. He's probably like, thank you, Josh. I think your cell phone being moved from the blue boxes.

Might have been the solution, which is hilarious. Yeah. Kris. I did the gambit on this. All right. I looked at Pache. I looked at young thick, Austin. I had a young dick.

Young thick, Austin. Right. There's so many young third base. It almost eliminated all the third basement. Key Boom. All those guys. I almost went high end. Two high end guys, I think, are better than people expect.

Eloi Jimenez. I'm in on Vladito. I think he could be a batting title guy this year. I thought there would be pushback, but I wanted to do like, you know, this is when we see what we thought we were going to see. Then I kind of went deep cuts. I was looking at Brendan Rogers on Colorado. And I was like nobody wants to hear about the rapids. And I can't go Rogers and Rogers.

I ended up back on Vladito's Blue Jays, and it's a guy I love. I think you guys know them. There's a lot of big names on this team. Right now, FanGraps has this guy penciled in the eight hole in D.H. I love me some rowdy to less. Oh, you went there. I love me some rowdy to us. Skinny, rowdy?

I love me rowdy to less. Is he skinny? He better not be. A, not too skinny. No, he's still. He slimmed up. Everyone slimmed up a little bit. He did. He looked great. Rowdy always looked great.

Here's what we got going on with Rowdy Telez. If you're not familiar, you know, came up with this young baby Jay's crew. He was playing some first base. Hit a little bit when he first got called up in 2018. 2019 was, man. Just, you know, kind of average across the board. Last year, I think it clicked. And there's a couple things I like here with Rowdy Telez.

all, he hates playing the field. I've seen it. I watched it. Yankees, Jay's games. You look at him at first base. Some first basemen are happy to be out there networking, chatting it up. He's miserable. Now Vladdy slimmed down. He's at first base. Rowdy's penciled in for the DH spot. Rowdy, his babbip last year, as a lefty, was pretty low. It was a 227 and he still had a 9-10 OPS. from that side of the play. So I could see that Babib sneaking up a little more. And circling back on the DH thing, Rowdy last year, while he was DHing, he had a 950 OPS. When he was at first, he was 885. So it's small sample, small year, passes the eye test. A lot of people had him in trade rumors this year and the other team would always get mad.

You think we're trading X for Rowdy to Les? I think that might come back to you. He turns 26 on March 16th, so a couple days. He's young enough. This guy's a hitter. He's a show hitter. It shows. And he got better as the year went on last year. He had a 9-17 OPS in August, a one dot in September.

I think Rowdy figured it out. I think he got comfortable. And again, on the Trevor Rogers' expectations thing, you think of all those other guys. I think Routy Telez is a hitter. I think he might be the next, like, great DH for the league. for the next decade or so. Wow. Not even breakout decade or so.

He's got to walk a lot more. I mean, he cut down the Ks last year. Like he cut him in half the K percentage. But that OBP, like, you know, you look at his career stats and you're like, oh, they're pretty good. It's like, the OBP needs to come up. He's above average in chase rating or in chasing, but he's also below average in making contact when he chases. So he eliminates that aspect of his game and gets more control of

the zone. I think you have it. And he showed a little of that last year. The OBP went up to 346, and that comes with hitters with age. So I think that's coming too. I like the story of him maturing into a all-around hitter, not just kind of a swing and hit-it-far kind of guy. I got to see Rowdy and AAA a little bit back in the day and I always like this swing. I think it's a good swing that he can learn how to do that for him. Now it's just having the right approach. And like you said, Jake, last year,

it looks like he figured some things out. This is another guy, yeah, I definitely want to see how he does the whole, there's a book on you now, pitchers are going to make adjustments, what's your adjustment, what's your chest move going to be? is he going to have to be more aggressive early? Is he going to have to work counts more?

Is he going to have to use the opposite field a little more? It's going to be up to him to see how the pitchers approach him this year over a full 162. But he definitely has the ability. He's a California guy, so you know I love that. And he's surrounded by a bunch of good young talented hitters that, and I'm not saying he's like, doesn't want them to perform,

bit of competition with all these guys there, man. Like all these guys are trying to establish themselves and make money. You got Boba Chet, he's the flashy one. Vlad Guerrero Jr. gets all the headlines. You got Kevin Biggio, who, you know, is another one of those guys. It gets a lot of headlines. Rowdy, you know, he's kind of put on the back burner, and that drives you. That fuels you.

So if he uses that the correct way, what I'm, if I'm rowdy, the way I'm thinking about this, hey, you guys all do really well, then I'm going to, I'm going to drive it. all of you in. Like, go get on base. Go do your thing. And I'm going to be the one that reaps all the benefits and drives you in. So I dig it. I'm curious to see the approach this year. See, full balled now?

I know he was battling the hair for a while now. You know, there was there's some pictures that weren't fun for a little bit. And then I think he shaved it off and went full bald, which, I mean, it's just like a menacing look. Yeah. So

I hope he stayed full bald. I'm a bald, D.H. Routy Teles guy. Yeah. How do you get your nickname to be your name? Like, his name is Ryan, John. He kicked a lot in the womb. So, like, he had, they were calling

Rowdy before he was even born. That's great. Like, I would love if, I don't really have a nickname, but if, like, if I had a cool nickname, like, Rowdy and, like, people just started to call me that, like, he doesn't have to, like, when he introduces himself, he doesn't say, I'm Ryan John. He says, I'm Rowdy, right?

You never know It's probably a battle for him My sister is a nickname Who goes by a nickname that's very odd and weird And we moved every three years So it was a battle for her To be like actually people call me Ritzy Like what

Or Or I'm sure Routy deals with people being like I can't believe your parents name me Routy And he has to be like No they didn't Like come on Like my sister's like He seems like his parents

Names Routy It fits him It fits It fits like it works If it didn't fit him so much, it wouldn't have stuck. And Rowdy-Tales is going to be a great, like, know-how if we said 90s baseball names right now, I'd be grotten and grown in like, oh, Mark Groot's Atlantic.

I love that. Like, Rowdy-T-Les in 20 years is going to be a name that we're like, oh, baseball guy. And, yeah, man, I just, you know, this guy's played a little over a full season of Major League Baseball, 169 games, nice, BPD, a 11-OPS plus, a 797 OPS, and that's with like figuring it out, I think. So I think if you do those over, you know, 130 games, you could be looking at a 30-home or Rowdy-Tales.

Okay. I'm in on it. I'm going to be watching him very closely this year. Hot. Where's he going to be in that lineup? So that's the crazy thing. I think he finds a way to sneak up a little bit. I think they try to do some balance stuff.

They can do so many things. You can do different things with Kevin and is Simeon MVP Simeon or is he, you know, a 780 OPS Simeon? I don't know, man, but that's the other, I think, expectations thing. I think Rowdy starts low and then I think as injuries and stuff happens, I think he works his way up. Is anyone battling him in the D.H spot? Is anyone taking at bats?

They got Gritchick as kind of the bonus outfielder right now, but Tiles has the good lefty split. So I don't know You wonder how injuries and rest days come up But I think Rowdy's Routy's got a spot He batted all over last year Seven times in the three hole

Four times in the four hole Eight times in the five hole Five times in the six hole Four times in the eight hole So it's pretty even split Rowdy Raute That's great name

Like if they ever get to a chant Where they ever get to a point Where they can chant his name Rowdy Rowdy Sounds like Rudy, which makes it a little bit. And our heads click. Yeah, that's a channel.

You can be the Canadian Rudy. Where's Rowdy from? Rowdy, Rowdy, Rowdy, Rowdy, Rowdy. Elk Grove, Northern California. Hell yeah. NorCal. What of it? Lifted trucks.

It looks. Smoking punts. Yeah, Rowdy's one of those guys that's like praying that they're in the CBA. They say universal B.A. extend his career It's happening Hates being in the field All right

And that's what we got Those are our six guys Again we didn't want to do The ones that you can find On like every article So if you want If you want the guys that like If you're not a diehard baseball fan

You listen to get all your information I love you No Luis Robert Yeah Like Luis Robert Robert was high on a lot of lists There's a lot of guys out there That I was just like

Yeah He's like the top prospect. Yeah, Gavin Lux was on every list. Wander was on some list. Nate Pearson was on every list. McKenzie Gore. McKenzie Gear was on every list. Yeah, yeah.

Dylan Carlson was on a lot of lists. I almost went with him, too. I hope he's awesome. I thought you were going to go with him. Because he would be the switch hitter that would change the whole dynamic of that team. I almost went Harry Bader. I got lost baiting. You like Harry Bader.

I do. You love Harry Bader. I think defensively he plays either way, and I think he figured out I'm just going to swing big. So I think he's going to be a 25 homer. The OPS is okay, and he's just going to cover terrain in the outfield. Yeah, you're not a Harry Bader, though, thanks to Manscaped. No.

Keep it fresh. Yeah, I did. Oh, no. Oh, no. I thought you were doing it. That QS trim. Tight. All right, thank you guys very much for tuning in.

As always, we are all. going on vacation this weekend. Yeah. We're actually all, well, I don't know if you're flying trapped. Jake and I are flying out out today. I'm not. We're gone as soon as this episode's over, which is about five seconds.

So we all will enjoy our vacations because pretty soon, weekends are just not a thing for us anymore. BBD's not going on vacation, so follow him on Twitter. How about that? You like that, BBD? I'll hook you up.

I'm kind of a race. I'll hook you up. At Big Baby Davis underscore. One letter is different. You figure it out. Escape the room. Chick socks.