Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 303 | Minor Leagues Trying Out New Rules?

Episode Date: March 16, 2021

Each level of the minor leagues will be trying out some new rules this season, including rules to limit the shift! Jomboy, Jake, & Plouffe are breaking them down. 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.

Hello and welcome to talking baseball. MLB is implementing a bunch of rule changes in the minors, and we are going to discuss them. Let's do it. Hello and welcome to talk in baseball. Thank you very much for joining us today. As always, we're presented by Draft Kings. My name is Jimmy.

His name is Jake, Trevor. Wow, glasses. You guys both got like the very similar shape sunglasses on. I feel jealous. Trevor's got hat glasses on And BBD looking good with his Stubble Beard, not fully beard yet

Plaid jacket I like that jacket We're doing everyone doing good Jake, how are you? John Boy with the not a math pod shirt The Asheville Torres hats Outfits were back baby Doing well, man, doing well

Glad to have you home It's been quite the travel for you Survival mode at the office I was in charge so I put Zach in charge. I said, Zach, I'm fucking panicking. Help me. And yeah, I've got, I'm rocking the hot boy glasses.

I bought three pairs of them off Amazon, part of my fashion committee. So I've got these in the bag now. It does ruin my wake in Jake shirt. I do think that's hilarious, though, I want. I do want someone on the subway to look at me and be like, what's happening? Wrong glasses. You look like a fool. So, doing pretty well.

Baseball hot in the streets. people talking about the face of baseball hot in the streets. Speaking of the face of baseball, now stepping up to the mic, number 24, Trevor, ploof. I got to ask the fashion committee, are they okay with you shopping for your clothes on Amazon? Is that?

Yes, Trevor. Is we doing that? It's 2018, man, grow up. I'm just curious because I'm yet to buy a piece of clothing on Amazon and I buy everything else, so maybe I'll start to look. I don't know. Check it out. I got to check it out.

We did this online the other day, and my fashion committee asked you about a pair of glasses you were wearing, and those are kind of not in the budget right now, but these for $10 bucks are in the budget because the twins forgot to reimburse me for my work there. My boy, Jake. That is my boy, Jake. I'm happy to have everyone back, though.

I know we all were traveling, doing some fun things. I saw a picture of your bare chest on the IG, Jake. Wow. It kind of got the juices flowing. And now you can see, I am like, I got high tea. High tea for the app today. I am fresh off a plane. Jake went to a nudist bar. So everyone had good weekends. Did you go to a nudist bar, Trev? I didn't. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to Olivia Plufe, your queen. Oh, thank you for reminding me. Happy birthday, Olivia. She's not listening right now, but I'll make sure to tell her that we mentioned it. You might be listening.

We are live. All right. This episode is brought to you by a bunch of special people. Hillary Wiskin. That's a cool name. Luke Hatakak. What was that, Jim? Hatakita.

Luke Hatakita. That's a fun name if you figure it out. Yeah. Mark Eugling. Nick O'Neill. Weldon Will. Eddie. Queller Aguilar.

Oh, my, Jim. How would you say that? How would you say that name? I had a coach with that name. It's Quayar, but... What is it? Roll the L's Quayar. Quayar Aguar?

Queller is... That's a tough one. Jared Wells. Drew Kempin. Eric Branky. Owen Spino. Or Spino. Eric Howard.

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Thanks, guys. You got me going today, man. The boys are back. It's a lot of names. Baseball's close. We're juiced up, man. It's a lot of names. Good hashtag good vibes pod.

If people want to start putting the phonetic spelling of their names when they sign up, I'm here for it. Please, let's start doing it. I got a good laugh. Because it's one of my favorite parts of this show. I got a good laugh on our last episode. We did the truce, the friend's truce. Like nobody could be mean about our sleeper players. Yeah.

And someone commented like five minutes later. I made a joke about how Trevor's coverage. Yeah, Olivia's too hot for Trevor. And that's that consensus. That's not a being rude thing. That's just. I mean, yeah, but. Did you see my turd?

Mac? Yeah, I did. Pretty good. That guy's unapproachable. You can't talk to that. Oh, I will say this. When you were in that outfit, no one came up and talked to you, Trev. They did, though, Jim. Listen, I swear this happened.

Any guy knows this is a rarity. Another male came up to me and said, dude, I got to say, like, he said this, your swag is off the charts. He's like, I'm very, I'm very impressed with your outfit. Yes, yes. He came up to me.

I swear he said that. I was walking past Yankee Stadium the other day on my way to work. Guy came up to me and said, dude, I think you should be an outfielder. I know it sounds like I'm joking, but he really did say that. It caught me off guard.

You punch you in the face? Hey, thank you, man. That's really nice to say that. I was actually very much enjoying the comments on your Instagram today, Treve. I don't know if you saw, but Archer was in there. A couple other MLB Greats.

Dickerson was in there. there and they were they were giving you love they were like you know not a lot of guys can pull that off and you do so take credit for that thank you i feel i feel good at all myself that's great that's one of the keys to life all right well we got a bunch of rule changes that we're going to discuss today they're they're being implemented in the minor leagues they've uh provided a lot of people with conversations to be had there's what six of them one two three four five six the big one is the shift we'll save that to the end because i think it's the biggest conversation will start off with the one that I think

we will have the least to say. In AAA, the sizes of each base will be increased from 15 inch squares to 18 inch squares. Least to say. Yeah. I don't like it. You don't like, here we go. No, I'm serious.

Like, I get what they're trying to do. And so I guess we should mention what they're trying to do, right? They're trying to avoid collisions, contact around the bases, to keep everyone on the field, right? That's the only reason they would be. Increased stolen bases, I think, is what they said. That too, but also increasing stolen bases and action. Why would you?

See, to me, that doesn't make any sense. You're going to make it easy. And we're going to go on, and more of these rules are all geared towards that. But for this one, I thought, like, if that's your reasoning that you want to get more people to steal and you're going to have more safe calls at second base, third base, I guess this works. To me, I thought it was more of like avoiding collisions around the base,

especially at first base. And if that was the case, then I would have said, we might have to have a rectangle base at first base. Because I don't think it should come closer at all. I think the length between the bases is perfect. Now it's going to be a few inches shorter, right? Well, it's going to be... I'd rather just be out more and give more guys a bigger lane to run to, I guess.

It's going to be like a couple inches. I don't think this makes a difference. I laughed out loud when I read this one because I was like, oh my God, what genius suggested this? I had a very good image of him holding up a normal base and then holding up a base three inches bigger. You know, kind of like...

This is the future. Yeah. Honestly, guys, think about it, though. I know it won't matter because everyone's going to be using these bases, but think about some of the calls throughout baseball history that would have been changed. especially with instant replay.

Now, this might not matter if there's no instant replay, but with instant replay, I feel like it's going to, it could have altered some of baseball. I love the Ken Burns documentary on baseball. Like in the whole first 10 minutes or 50 minutes, there's waxing poetic about baseball, and I love it.

And there's one dude on there, like a baseball story who says, they just chose 90 feet and it's the perfect distance. Think of how many bang, bang plays there are. And I want to tell that, dude, like, if it was 85 feet, there'd still be bang, bang, for a bang bang place.

Think of how many guys are out by a step. Like, that's not like a, it's kind of just jumping the gun there. It feels right. It's beautiful. It's something that people say romantically. It's the perfect distance. It's going to change things, though. I mean, look, I just think of this.

If a guy's on the fringe of being an excellent runner and then like a good runner, the good runner is going to like jump up a little bit and the amount of times he gets on base. And I don't know. They probably did some research on this. what does the two inches do? And I think some of the fan graph article you said, you guys sent over, said it's not going to change much.

But in my mind, I'm like, dude, it could change something. I can speak pretty well on what the extra two inches can do. And it's going to be, honestly, you're not going to, I was just going to say, honestly, you're not going to feel it. But, yeah, on those bang, bang plays. And, hey, how about this? Maybe some creative slides. If you're a good slider, you get a little extra bag to grab.

No, I mean, this won't be noticed at all. This is happening in what, AAA? So why are we doing it then? If this doesn't do anything, why are we doing it? Well, hold on. I'm absolutely hate it. It's a testing ground. Don't be that person that gets mad about tests.

Like, test the craziest shit you want. Yeah, but first of all, it's in AAA. It's not just like in the Atlantic League or something like that. So it's in AAA, and if it's that close, that means they want to do it. I just, you guys just spent, you know, the last couple of minutes. saying it's not going to change anything. It's all going to be the same. So what are we doing then?

So if it doesn't change anything, they'll just be like, all right, whatever. I don't put a second bag like softball, if you want to avoid collisions. I don't care about that. People would be up in.

Only at first. Only, obviously only at first. I'm in on that. People would be up in, people are up in arms about everything. I want to say, across the board,

all these changes, I think are in great spirit of what they're trying to accomplish, where the one better minimum, I think, and just false, like, spirit, whatever, and same with, like, can't step out. They were doing dumb shit.

All of these, whether they actually get implemented in MLB or not, I'm happy they're testing them out and the thought process that they're having. But, you know, some people feel like to be a baseball fan, you can't allow yourself to want progress or change. I'm in on the double bag to get people not running in the line. Like, there's strategy to run inside the line when guys have tough plays to make.

You could almost get rid of that. With a delo bag, it's stay outside the foul line. I think the only thing I'd be interested to see, and this is why they got to test it at a lower level is like it would be the ground balls to first, right, that are going to hit the bag, which, hey, that's a few plays. But as we're talking about and we're implementing these rules, if it's kind of impossible to see if the ball would have hit the fair part of the bag

or the foul part of the bag, I don't know. But I'm in on that because why are we even risking that? Like just go the 90 feet to first base and let's not worry about first baseman and runners just getting. Like that's kind of the worst playing baseball right now. Yeah. A runner sprinting to first and an innocent first baseman just getting ready to get popped. Like, yeah, I don't need that. Yeah, it's no fun.

I mean, you have to position yourself the right way. You have to know what balls to go after. I mean, you could break a wrist easily. Yeah. All right. Okay. Well, that's the base is being three inches bigger. in AAA.

I don't get it. You guys want to go, I mean, electric strike zone. We've probably talked about this in the past. I mean, this is coming to MLB, and they're just, they're just, they did it in the independent league. They're going to do it in low A. And they're just, you know, maybe it's in five years, maybe it's in two. Whenever they perfect it and they think the technology is the same strike zone that they want,

like I know in the independent league, the strike zone was much different because if you threw a breaking pitch that just clipped that. front corner. It really was never at the knees. It clipped the zone like on the way down before it reached the batter. So they had to change it a little bit. But I don't know. I mean, yeah, this this Fangraphs article we keep referencing. We should give a shout out. Brendan Gowlowski and Kevin Goldstein. Do some really, really good thoughts on it. Yeah, I mean, electronic strike zones is coming. They have the over under as 2023, which man, that seems like a crazy number. But that's also two years away, man. So it's going to be interesting to see how that develops.

And I don't know. For me, I still like having the home played up, and it feels like there should be a challenge system. I think that is the easiest way to keep the game moving and make this a worthwhile solution. And it's almost a little fun, right? Like if that two-two pitch is there doesn't get called and your manager throws the challenge flag and you get punched out of the inning,

that gets my juices going. So I don't know. I'm sure one day in baseball it's going to be fully automated, but that's a, it is going to be a scary day for a lot of reasons. Yeah, I think they're going to bypass the challenge and just take, go straight to everything's electric. I'm, I can't wait. I hate sitting with bad rules or bad calls. I'm not sure how to feel about it. I like the challenge.

I like what you guys are saying. I like, I like maybe not all the time, because that would be annoying because they miss a ton of pitches, you know. But you, Jimmy, you also don't. When they show strike zones on the broadcast, you don't think those are real at all. Just that ESPN one. Like the ESPN zone? No, those aren't.

Those aren't. Yeah. They're going to be using something like that. No, it's different than that. They already, that's what they used in, it's like what they use for tennis and shit. Right. Here's what people don't,

aren't thinking about, especially hitters. I talk to a lot of hitters and they want this because they feel like they're getting slided and they might, you know, an umpire misses a call they're pissed they want to get the call right the problem with it is yeah you want to get the call right but the idea of the strike zone that we have is not the idea of the strike zone that's coming with an automated strike zone and we we know now pitchers and the technology i mean it's all the tech and baseball helps pitchers very few things in tech help hitters like we're getting this VR thing where you can try to take some live at bats but it's that that's not close man i mean i know that There are some that are getting there, but the ones that I've used aren't close. We're going to get these pitchers exploiting the strike cell big time.

Like they're going to be working on it all offseason. They're going to be dropping that stupid Ephis curveball to the top. They're going to do exactly what Jim saying. They're going to be aiming for that bottom portion where it's just barely clips. They're going to exploit this and hitters are going to have to figure something out. Well, once unless they get it dialed in where everyone can agree, I think initially hitters are going to be like, what just happened? agree with that. I think they're waiting to get it dialed in to where it's closer to what we're

actually having being implemented now. But once there's a strike zone and it's basically like backyard wiffleball or like how the wiffball is like, you know, like obviously it's a little different because wiffle ball is if you hit it, it doesn't matter when it crossed the plate. But if it's just like known, it's going to be such a better system. I agree if it's good and everyone learns it. I'm just saying initially it's initially. But eventually, but eventually. when people learn it and like it's just hey we all baseball's played like this is the game it's going to be so much better than dealing with what we're dealing with now well and that's that is the other part of the conversation though because as you know we're we're going to eventually get to shifts and the

whole thing about baseball is that the game adjust the game adapts and you see the old gregg maddox highlights where he's got what was it eric gregg behind the play and maddox is he's in the other batters box getting the call and now you you look at But back then, anything above the belt was not a strike. Now the strikes on's going back up. You get that high fastball called up there. So that is going to be the crazy thing that they have to make sure you're right. Because if you're calling balls and strikes to Altuve and judge, how does that zone work?

You know, is it in their stance? Is it how they normally stand? That's going to be a weird adjustment period. It's got to be different for everybody. It's going to be. It's got to be. what's it called custom to every body type if they're doing electronic strike zones

it can just be like a box and you know I mean they could be doing this the same with the pitch timer where and we can combine them now where you implement it in the minors so eventually everyone that comes up to the majors they know what they're dealing with and some guys will get grandfathered in and that'll be

a tough time for them but like the pitch timer they've had a pitch timer in the minor leagues forever so a lot of the pitchers that are coming up have faster tempos and play to that speed one of the rule changes is that in low A, West, they're going to drop the pitch timer all the way down to 15 seconds. Currently, it's 20 seconds in double A and AAA. And I don't know, do you guys, I'm in favor of this. Like, get them while they're young to start keeping this game moving quicker.

But implementing at the MLB, like, you know, once those kids start playing with it, then it won't be a problem. Yeah, I've played with it. I enjoy it. I think it's a 20 second timer that I did and now they're taking five off of it to do 15. It's, I think the game flows better. It, it just kind of keeps you on your toes.

I don't think you, you don't really notice it a ton where you're like, wow, this is going really fast, but at the same time, there is a better pace. I will say this, it's not very show. Like, I know you guys love, like these at bats, like these long at bats and you got the hitter, and you can tell he's thinking along with the pitcher, and you got the catcher and the pitcher trying to get on the same page,

and there's batting gloves being, you know, like those real show at bats, that you can't have them anymore. Well, they can still, like, step out to reset the clock and stuff. Like, there's still gamesmanship. The umpires, yeah, the umpires like are pretty, they're going to nip that in the butt eventually, too. Like, the goal of this is to keep it moving. Yeah.

It's, it is needed, man. It's really neat. I mean, we're, you know, we do baseball stuff for a living at this point, And there's times, man, when that relief pitcher comes in, that hunky dude who's got to be perfect and he can't hold on a base runner and the game just stops that you're sitting there like, this is bad. This is a bad product. So, yeah, in on the pitch clock, I, Trev, kind of what you were saying about it not being show. I need very specific locations for it because I also don't like my pitcher staring at it. If I've got a pitcher that I don't fully trust and he's looking over the catcher's shoulder and it's,

going five, four, three, two, one. Like, you're giving up a, you're about to get rocked. I don't believe in you. So. Well, they just have to be on the mound, though. They don't have to be, like, throw the ball by the time. They just have to be engaged on the rubber. So, like, it doesn't make them rush. And I guess the early studies have shown that the 15, 20 minutes of just lag time that

MLB has claimed is the problem with baseball and it's not. It does get rid of a chunk of that. And, hey, when we were watching the old baseball, games. I mean, they get it and go and you could feel it. And it felt better. Lanslin. All those pictures are more fun to watch. I was laughing before thinking if the slightly bigger base does like feel

bigger next to like the Altovae types. It's going to be a bad thing. Think about this though. How cool would it be if we did that? We implement it. But then there was like you got like three show at bats a game where like these guys could take their time. So like if judge is facing whoever and you want to see this matchup, you're like hey, you guys take your time

because this is entertainment. Judge versus DeGrom, you're like, timer's off, boys, like, do your freaking thing. I really think there should be some thought put into that because if you're trying to emphasize entertainment and there are times that are more entertaining than others, like, let's focus a spotlight on that a little bit. Full-blown timeouts, Trev. Is that where you're going?

Tie game after the seventh ending, there's no timer anymore. Bam. Something like that. Within three. Yeah, I don't mind this. And this is low A and just, groom pitchers to work faster. There was a Japanese show.

Someone on the, which I knew his name to shout him out on the baseball, Reddit translates a lot of Japanese, like baseball content into English. And it was the, who was the dude that was on the Blue Jays? It was really funny. Oh.

I am Japanese. Kawasaki. He was a short step. Yeah. Yeah. Him and Kogi were doing the podcast and they were talking about their favorite baseball players. And he said Mark Burley.

and he said he loved watching Mark Burley pitch. He said there's this big fat guy that pitched really fast and just through fastballs. And yeah, he said and got people out just with tempo. And he said that Burley would use one of those shoulder strap belt things to like to hold up his gut, like to support his belly. And then run, sprints. And he asked him like Burley like, what are you wearing? And he says, oh, well, you know, running's the best way to keep my heart rate up. but I'm fat, so it's bad for my knees if I don't wear this harness.

And he was like, why do you need to get your heart rate up? And Burley said, do you see the speed at which I pitch? So maybe these minor league pitchers about to get their, their tempo and heart rate. Like, it's just like everyone's just going to be going quicker. That was a good story out in whatever Japanese podcast that was or show. I love that you're in deep like that. Yeah.

You're checking out Japanese baseball podcasts. Munanori Kawasaki And he has one career Major League home run against Mark Burley A friend of Trevor Ploose Hughes A big boy of Hughes's ilk

A relief pitcher I don't know Whatever may Little Philly's juice Mill 1 Tommy Hunter Tommy big game Hunter Tommy's almost straight heaters up there

Come on Tommy Hey, you know what, we could segue that Mark Burley conversation into this step-off. Step off. Step off. Step off. Yeah.

High-A pitchers will be required to disengage the rubber before attempting a pick-off throw. Violations will result in a balk. So this one is basically just making a balk way more easier for anyone to identify and eliminating the Andy Pettit

lefty pick-off move, deception. This is huge. Big, big change. I'm off for it. I don't want to hear anyone to argue about if it was a balk or if it wasn't balk. If you go watch Andy Pettettits pickoffs from the 90s, they're like all balks. It's kind of like unfair that he didn't get called on those.

So I don't, I'm, this will clear up a lot of confusion in baseball fandom. You can be the biggest diehard baseball fan and still have no idea. Like someone like will ask you like, Jimmy, you're big baseball fan. Do you think that was a balk? And I'm like, I don't know. I have no fucking idea. The umpire is. don't know either dude it's just a feel thing for them but this is a huge story because of guys like

andy pedd it because of guys like mark burleigh i mean what a huge advantage for a lefty to be able to have a move like that from the day that i had any sort of voice on a big big team in spring training i would go to the pitching coach be like why aren't all of our lefties working on their pickoff move every single day. It eliminates the run game completely. It shuts it down. You're going to keep guys from scoring position. Mark Burley was in Andy Pedd.

I mean, those are two of the best guys out of it. You get a guy in first base. Okay, who cares? She's not going to run. And if he does, I'm going to pick them off because I can hang. I can read it. So now we're getting rid of it. And now, I mean, going first move on a leftee, that's, that's, it's not even going

first move on a lefty anymore. It's just going. It's awesome. Like, I think that the advantage that they've had. held was such an advantage and now it kind of evens the playing field. I'm for this because I like evening the playing field for everybody. And lefties had a huge advantage without it. And they're trying to just get more running, which I agree.

The game needs more action, needs more hitting runs or stolen bases. It's desperate for that. I'm going to go know on you guys, mostly personal reasons here. A, I do like when sports have a little bit of a gray area. The football rule when the defense makes you fumble through the end zone and they get the rock, I'm all for that. It's a little weird. It's a Hail Mary. Lefties, and growing up with Andy Petit, and seeing when a lefty has a good move, it's such a neutralizer. And that's also where I know part of this is coming from.

I mean, if lefties couldn't throw over first, I'd still be in the show. I'd still be snagging second whenever I wanted it. and you guys know an even deeper cut for me. I've been calling for a righty pickoff to third in a big game for so long now. Because Trev, you say they don't have the advantage. The righties have the advantage to third base. Well, the risk there is much different. There's nobody holding the runner on, Jake, and no one's stealing home.

It's sports. It's competition. Treve, you've never given a sign. Hey, tap the hat. I'm going to third. You get the third out of the inning. Like that's sports. Oh man, that's not.

The risk analysis guy right there is like, I mean, if you fuck up, it's a run. Yeah, if you get them out, you win the game. That's sports. Jake, lefties, the reason it's a big deal. It's not because a lefty has a good pickup move and picks you off when you're not stealing. I mean, that does happen, but it's not what it's for. It's guys taking off on going first move, and then they can just read it and throw the ball over. They don't have to go home.

That's the biggest advantage. What do you think I was trying to do on the base path, man? No one's taking off stealing home, and then the guy reads and picks over a third. Everyone's taking these dumb leads off of thirds with these ridiculous shifts now, man. You run a play, you're out of an inning. Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am. I love this rule. Those lefties, you know, I'm just not a big fan of pitchers in general.

Yeah. This is just another one of those rules that always benefited them, and now we're about to run up the score on them. Yeah. Not me personally. I'm all for clarity. in no gray area. So, I mean, make a rule that everyone in the crowd can know, yeah, he didn't step off.

That's illegal. And it leads to more stolen bases and more caught stealing and more action. I'm all for it. So I don't care about this one. And even if it doesn't work out, even if they're like, you know what, we're not going to do it? I like that they're trying that one out. Throw out a third, boys. I mean, I did an interview with Jeff Nelson yesterday.

and the Jeff Nelson pickoff move that got made illegal like what five years ago fake to third throw to first fake to third throw to first because it never worked and it was just boring boring well it's funny because

the rule was you can't deceive the runner so then they changed that because a righty was deceiving the runner at first base but then her left he deceives the runner every single time he picks his leg up and picks to first I don't know it's just

I'm happy with this This also means there's no What do they call that move When the pitcher does it to second base Spaghetti do they call it spaghetti or something I forget what they called it The Worley Bird? You know what I'm talking about?

Raghetti The same thing at second base You get there, you pick your knee up And you just Yeah I don't know I'm never That's called the Worley Bird in my home I don't know if that has a name

I mean a spaghetti I came up in my mind I'm just mad Raghetti If that rule happens soon I'm not going to be podcast with you guys. I'm going to be in camp. I'm going to be Greg Allen. Again, like all these have such little ripple effects like that. Like stolen base,

um, stolen bases are like the ability to steal bases will be valued much more. We talk about the electronic strike zone. All these catchers getting on one knee and going from the ground up and stealing strikes. Sorry. Learn a new slant. You got to hit now. Or at least you got to work on your arm or something, you can't just steal strikes and be in the big leagues for 10 years. Yeah, and let's well, you put running, the running game, go back into the game and now catchers maybe can't worry about framing as much. They got

to peg that dude out at second. Well, they won't have to if there's electronic strikes on these. Go on catch and be ready to throw every single time, right? That's a more fun baseball for me you're describing. Catchers ready to gun, players ready to run. That's more fun to watch. Catcher arm talent gets valued through the roof.

Terra is going to be in the show forever. Ever. Ever. Well, that leads us into the one that I think is the one where I was like, oh, that's wild. A pickoff limit. You only get three chances to pick the dude off. If you take the third chance to pick the runner off and you don't pick them off, it's a balk and the runner gets to advance anyway. So this is this one, I understand the goal. the goal is to have more stolen bases, more action on the base paths.

I do think this gets them to that goal. It seems a little crazy. I'm in on this one. I'm in. Like why throwing over to first is ridiculous that there are zero rules on it. They could literally do that all day. They do. They can't, though.

They can't, though, because the crowd will boo you out of the stadium. Good. Good. Let me tell you something. That hurts the pitchers. They do not want to be booed. You know how fragile the egos are on a pitcher? I sure do. Every day. I don't know.

There's no rules. How could you like no rules? No, I mean, there's when a guy throws over 10 times, and he's not even throwing with an intent to, like, pick the guy off, when they just lollipop it to first base because they're getting saving time for reliever or because he's scared to pitch, like, that sucks. I'm all for changing it. But I mean, I don't know.

And now tie in. It doesn't happen that often, though. Now tie in how I'm keeping the lefties they can throw over. You've got a lefty with a good pickoff move. You've got a speedster on first base. And I would tighten it up even more. You only get one chance at a base runner. So if you're a good base runner and you get back on that pickoff move,

he can't throw over. I got a question for you. Games within the game. That's what we like. I got a question for you. Yeah. This is a serious. freaking question for both of you.

Say they implement this or whatever. Where are they doing this at? This one is in low A. Low A, yeah. Put this one an independent ball first. No offense to my indie ball guys. I love you. My brother was an indie ball guy.

Wow. Chilicothe paint. No big deal. Chila coffee paint? Chill a coffee paint. Yeah. Chili coffee paint. It's a horse.

Oh, okay. That's a horse, Jake. Chill of coffee paint. Anyways, think about this. Just just, just. just get into the zone okay picture picks over once boom safe

he's like dang I could pick this guy off he's trying to steal boom picks over again now it's two times no one in the right mind is ever gonna pick over the third time no ever okay it'd be tip if they did though so think about this

what are runners going to be doing they're going to get into like sprint stances at first base And they're going to get off 12, 15 feet. It's going to be... They're not going to get off that much because they can, the pitcher can still just throw it to first base going to a rundown or whatever.

I kind of like the idea of, all right, hey, he's picked off twice. You know, you know, it's always cool when they put in the pinch runner and you're like, dude, he's going. Like, get ready. It's catcher versus runner right now. Exactly what's going to happen. That's a really fun feeling in a baseball game. and they're trying to make that happen more.

So I don't hate it. I just, this is the one where I think, whatever. You'd have to get the rules right. It is very tricky. But, man, how many times you see that speedster comes in? It should be the most exciting moment in the game. And instead you get five throws over to first.

Now you've got the hitters board. The fans are bored. It's not good for the game. Fans love to boo something, though. So you're taking that away from the fans too. And don't tell me you guys aren't at the stadium being like, boo. I know you are, Jake.

I know you are. Yeah, because I don't want them throwing over to first anymore. Boring. It is really. I think about like real game application of this. It sounds good on paper, whatever. But like to me, thinking about like that two times picking off, now what is a pitcher going to do that and then pitch out?

Dude, I fucking love it, man. So be careful. Be careful with your throws to first. Like that's the whole thing. Dude, Trev. Now you've got two pickoff attempts. He's been saved twice. Now the whole stadium knows this batter's running.

Do you put the hit and run on? Does the defense in motion? Is it have to be a fastball only because the guy's going to steal? But then the fastball for the hit and run makes easier. You're like, I kind of like where that's going. Maybe part of the change is everything. It does. That's too much of a pain.

It's too much forced that moment. Like that moment's cool. So this is the one where I'm the most like, I have no idea. seems a little nuts, but you just, you'd have to get the rules right. So you got to mess around with it. So we'll go to the Indy League. We can't ruin Trev's low-A baseball, but. I mean, they already took away a bunch of, like, low-level minor leagues.

There's only four leagues now. Yeah, you were in favor of that. You rooted for that. I was in favor. I'm just saying you don't have to make it a laboratory for Manfred's, like, whacked out tests. Like, hey, like, these guys are trying to develop into big leaguers. Like, if they need to play a game there a certain way.

now a sudden you're going to change it year to year. You know what? You know what the... One year you have one set of rules, double a, another set of rules. You know, the only one I agree with you there is I think the electric strike zone should stay in the independent league. Isn't that why they have the Atlantic League?

Yeah, it's supposed to be their science league. It's supposed to be their science league. I don't know what happened to it though. Shout out Indyball guys. I don't want to seem like I'm coming off on indie ball guys. I'm not. Okay. He's not. I think that's all of them besides the shift. So let's get into that.

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let me see that grip that's it the you darvish grip yeah it's the this is the two darvish oh my god who I would light you up yeah trev yeah you better

pumping 58 over here oh my mom all right the shift I was in the airport and they were blaring the heat even though it was already hot outside so sweaty gross in the airport

fighting with people on Twitter about the shift. So let's do it again. Kick it to Trev, man. Trev was running hot on the interstate too. Both you guys. I was in deep with like a lot of people. In AA, teams will require, teams will be

required to position four players in the infield. Each player must have both feet in front of the outer boundary of the infield dirt. So no one, infielders have to start on the dirt. In the second half of the season, MLB may also require that teams keep two infielders on each side of second base, though that is not a requirement at the outset.

So they're implementing, they're banning the shift in AA. I'm very excited to see the results of this. It's going to be much more fun baseball. I was getting so frustrated with baseball fans for being so anti this, or at least testing it out. Like, you know, the DH, for everyone saying like, Don't ruin the game. The game hasn't changed in years.

It has. They implemented the DH in what, the 70s? In the 60s, they moved the mound back to make it hard of her pitchers. Like, these are big changes that have been made. We haven't made any big changes in like 60 years. And the talent and skill set is so much different. And I'll kick it to you, Trev, because you're going to have more to say on this. But the biggest thing you have, the big.

thing that people say is like, the game should correct itself. Guys should just hit the other way. Well, we're like 15 years deep into this. And players are actively telling you, I'm not going to hit it the other way. I'm just going to try and hit it in the air over the shift because that's what the numbers tell me I should do. Trying to hit it over the shift is better for my team than hitting it on the ground and a single the other way. So are we just going to wait another 15 years until like at this point you gave players 15 years to adapt and change and correct itself? And players said, we have no interest in that.

We're just going to keep doing it this way. So now it's the league's time to be like, all right, cool, you beat us. You outplayed the game. But it's a worst product for our audience. So we're going to shift it up a little bit. Great job on the defensive strategy. You kind of made the game boring, though. So we're nixing that.

That's my thought. Yeah, and there's just a million ways, at least my mind goes on this, because initially I was in the camp who let defenses do whatever they want. Like you have the data, you need to use it. Like, why wouldn't you use it? But I agree with you, Jim.

I think just the outcome of using the data like that has made the game less fun to watch. For sure. weird is people are correct when they say if you just tried to go the other way or bunt it or something like the schist would would correct themselves they are correct about that now for some guys like david or tis could bunt all day they would not they would they wouldn't change everything but they would change it slightly so like whoever's on the left side of the infield now would end up coming in more and to defend against it a little bit, or at least to show it. So they would change a little bit. I agree with you, a guy like David Ortiz, he's kind of like the no-brainer. But the guy that's getting shifted just because his, you know, his 300 plate appearance

spray chart says to get shifted, if he starts to show Bunt or go the other way, they will take that shift away. And even though, and this is the weird part is even though the defense's data says, we don't care about a base hit. Like, they're trying to prevent extra base hits. and then they're trying to put themselves where you hit the ball most. But for some reason, and I don't know if this is like an on-field thing versus like a computer thing, like a data thing, if you even show button, there's going to be someone on the top step

being like third baseman, like come in, like at least show them something. They don't want to give it away for free even though the data says go ahead. You can take your base hit because it's hard to string together three base hits to score that run. So it's a weird thing for me. I was on that camp of no, don't tell a defense what to do. Like, this is the game, this is the game. And I swear it was Bob Costas, man. When he came on and started talking about how we're not letting our athletes be athletes on defense.

And then, you know, it's been kind of popular around the guys run a league are saying the same thing. Buster Posey said the same thing. He's talking about Brandon Crawford, like let Brandon Crawford be Brandon Crawford. Like let him go get a ball. Bob was talking about specifically about the outfield, talking about, letting those guys instead of standing in place where like a guy hits the ball all the time like let's have somebody go get that ball like that's fun for fans then and then and then londor came out with something so it's it's a heavily debated topic right now but i think if i'm just thinking about it as a

as a lover of the game a lover of the game i think the shift needs to be brought down dramatically We need to see our athletes being athletes on defense. I think that's the best case that you can make against leaving the shift up or not. Yeah. And you're right. I mean, Bob Costas brainwashed us all. I mean, literally, hey, he was upside down on our screen and just having his voice in our ears was a weird form of hypnotization I've never seen.

Yeah, man. So going back to what I said when I was referenced. the pickoff rules and getting it right. You got to get these rules right. And that's why they're demoing this stuff in the minors to see how it plays. And that's why they left that addendum for the second half of the season. And I actually really like you got to have two guys on each side of the second base bag. Because, I mean, right, you know, a lot of the focus is on the lefties

and kind of that T-cup martini shift that's developed where guys are literally fielding singles in short right field, making the throw to first. and, you know, every big lefty power hitter has felt it for the last 10 years or so. The Riteys are getting shifted on, too. You know, we reference the Yanks a lot because that's kind of what we've built all this on. But you look at Judge and Stanton, there's four guys standing on the infield. Three of them are just covering the whole left side. Like protect the Ritey's too.

So I'm interested to see how this goes. I want guys on each side of the bag. and you talked about where Bob brainwashed you, I'm in on the outfielders too. I just don't know how you do it because in the infield, you lay it out the second base bag is the divider. Line guys wherever you want in the dirt. Knock yourselves out and that can be your form of shifting.

And there's a way to do it, and it'll be fun to see short stops going up against the bag for the lefty and trying to get over there to make the play. There's another form of strategy there that you can still, have defensive game plans while trying to do this. The outfielders, I just don't know what it is because... You literally have to draw a line. A baseball field's beautiful, and I don't want more lines on the baseball field.

You've got to draw. I love me. That's how they want to do it, Jake. I don't... I know. It's crazy to think about that. But there has to be a way to do it where the umpires can keep an eye on it, and guys are kind of in zones.

Because I used to love when center fielers and left field, right field, they'd play shallow sometimes and they'd do this, and the other. That's kind of gone from the game too. I mean, how many times do you see the outfielders just standing on the warning track? Especially when you can shift someone to shallow left or shallow right. Exactly. So I don't know how to do the outfield. That's the only part I'm missing right now, but I love being on the dirt and I love having two guys on each side of the bag and figure me out a way to do the outfield. I just, I don't like the lines, baby. That green's so pretty though. You can do like a little light green. You wouldn't have to be a white line, right?

circle. Defense is the most exciting part of baseball. And, you know, that ground ball up the middle, when it's a guy diving to stop it and then flipping it to the second basement who's covering, like, that's really exciting. When it's a guy standing right there, it's boring. And so many people continue to say, like, just have the hitters hit it the other way. Go listen to Ian Hap on the compound. And Ian Hap tell you that he's like, I could try to hit it the other way.

and I probably get a single 80% of the time, but my coaches and our risk prevention coach, who does all the data, tells me it's more beneficial to try and hit a double 40% of time than a single 80% of time. So it's just off the table. And that's why the players are telling you, I could get that easy single.

It's not the best part of my game. And it's not, and so it's just frustrating because what are we going to do? watch 10 years of guys hitting singles and the shift not stopping and nothing really happening. Like, let's just get baseball highlights the best way we can. And even Lindor said, let me do me. Like, put me on the starting block and then I'll go fetch the ball. And that's more exciting.

So I'm all in favor, man. The shift fucking sucks. I hate. You know, and someone else told me like, how is this going to make more action? I said, well, you know that ball that gets hit to shallow right field? that's an automatic single. Instead, it's caught and we didn't see anyone move. Like you saw the second basement in shallow right and didn't even move an inch to catch it.

Well, if that's a single drops in front of the fielder, now you have a run around first. Now you have a hit and run. Or now you have an outfielder having the field ball and fucking gun the dude out at third. Or now you have a double play. Or now you have all, like there's just so much more action besides taking all the athleticism away. guy just stands or catches it. Now there's no base runner and you're on to the next. I think it's,

I love baseball, but for anyone new, like no new fans are coming to the product they have right now, really. It takes like someone like Tatisan. He's kind of one in a million. I mean, he's tagging up on fucking pop-ups to the infield. That's what these changes are trying to get more of. Action.

Yeah, I was going to say the pitchers, you know, that are probably watching this. some of them are going to say, well, you know, we want the defenses where they're going to hit the ball. Like you're going to take that away for me. Those same guys, A, are either telling their coaches, I don't want the shift on. There's a ton of pitchers. They're like, no, do not shift. Like, this is how I want. And if you're, if you have enough time, they will, I assume the guys that at least I had taught to, you know, they'll make some changes for you. But, you know, when those pitchers get a groundball to shortstop where the shortstop usually is,

and the ball goes through, you know, they're all throwing their hands up, like, I can't believe these shit. So you can't have it both ways. I also, but I do believe, I believe that this, I believe that letting, having zones for defenders, I think is, I think that's the way to go. I, a zone that you need to be in. Yeah.

One of you two said this, and I full on this now, get those cards out of the outfielder's hands. Oh. Or just baseball's a weird sport now. There's too much. Pitchers have them on. They went full analytics. It was how can we get an advantage in any part of the sport?

The outfield are looking at a card and then like, I mean, my dad took a video of Cole Cahoon doing it because he would thought it was like so weird. He would look at the card and then he would pace like five steps and count them out and then put a divot in the ground and then pace five steps back and then look at the card and then paste two steps back. I mean, what the hell is that? That's not like your athletic ability and your athletic reaction time playing baseball. that's a dude on a computer playing the sport for you.

It's like a simulated game. Exactly. That's exactly what it is, Jeff. So get those cards out of outfielders' hands. That's lame too. I'll say this for the baseball corrects himself, people. I would have loved if there was a team out there that said, you know what, let's go beat the shift every play, babe, and see what happens. I wish that team did it and we got to saw it, but guess what?

Nobody's doing that. No one cares. That's not how guys get paid. That's not how anyone cares. So, yeah, it sucks. I get it. You know, you know, you should. Ron Coomer used to be able to hit it the other way.

Well, sorry. Uncle Ron's not in the league anymore. And Ron Coomer could only do that because guys' fastballs were 88. Now that's a good change-up in today's baseball. Barely. Yeah, like I don't know. Ron Cumer, though. What a lot?

Shout out Ron. You know I love me at two. So, Corey Kosky, the way he used to handle the stick. A lot of people were like fighting with me saying the shift won't change the three true outcome baseball that we're in.

Like the shift isn't going to bring back the single. But in this Fangraphs article, and a lot of other data, it suggests that it very much will. Yeah. The shift took away the single not because of defensive reasons because batters admittedly

stop swinging for singles or trying to hit it. You got to hit it over the shift. Yeah. And they can't hit through the shift. They shift in that lefty teacup, whatever you want to call it, because the ball goes there more. Yeah. I had a... Guys are still trying to hit.

I had a discussion on Twitter about this. And, you know, I talked about how, like, you know, ground balls are... There have always been death, or especially death now. So now you have to try to put the ball in the air. And because of that, you know, the three-true outcome game is here. And this guy came and said, well, the shift isn't really doing that. You know, ground balls, OPS of ground balls is... been about the same for the last 20 years.

So I said, yeah, I understand that. But, you know, like you said, Jim, guys aren't trying to hit line drives anymore. They're trying to hit the ball in the air over the shift. I mean, theoretically, there's still plenty of big leagues that are trying to hit line drives. They're just trying to square the ball up. But what front offices want you to do is they want you to slug and how you slug is hit it in the air. And he said that the overshifts that they are doing don't even, the data shows that they don't even really change the game.

Like you are going to hit into a few more outs when you're shifting. So that's why teams do it just to get, you know, those few extra outs. Because why wouldn't you? Because you're always trying to find those little margins, right? And my response to the guy was saving a few outs in the game already dominated by pitching seems like not enough of a reason to keep the shift for me. Like if you're looking at it as someone that wants to grow the game in baseball, the shift then has to go.

If you're eliminating these awesome defensive highlights to save a few outs in a game, I just don't think that's enough overall to have that stay. Like we need the game to grow. We need highlights. That's what people want to see now. They want those 10 second, 20 second highlights on their phone. And defensively, like we always talk about those are the best highlights. That's how you see an athlete move in our game.

Yeah. So I just don't think what teams are getting. is enough to keep it going. And the stat cast data was that the WIF rates were higher for batters that had an extreme shift than batters that were played straight up because they're just trying to hit it over the shift. They're swinging harder, which leads more to the three true outcomes. So we'll see how goes in AA.

I'm excited to, I'm not going to watch any double-a games, but I'm excited to hear about it, at least. I think we'll get there. Are you ever sick of hearing that Ted Williams got shifted? Like, that's all anybody ever says. I mean, they say the same three lines, people that... It's really hard to listen to all of them. They're professional athletes just hit it the other way.

Well, they've come out and they've said that they're not going to do that. So now it's up to the game. You don't pay you to do that either. Yeah. All right. DJ had to scratch and claw to get, you know, his 90-mill by going six years. if he was a masher with a lower average and a higher slug, he'd probably could have got that money easier.

People pay for home runs. Interesting. Yeah, that's all. So we're all against it, huh? I am very surprised at how much in the last three years I've started to really hate that aspect of baseball. I didn't think I would be here. I was, you know, five years ago,

I was the other side of this argument. And I was like, oh, it's strategy, you know, blah, blah. But now, like, I really hate when the outfielders look at those cards. I'm like, that's not athleticism. And the fact that you could, like, they just take any player and they're like, yes, stay in there in the infield. We can guarantee that you don't need to use your range because of the science. Like, that's not athleticism. We want to see these dudes react and make crazy plays, not go, you know, smalls out there and just put their hand up and pray.

we've talked about this on the show too it's cute when one or two teams is doing it when the rays are doing something or the A's like it's cute oh that's awesome they're thinking differently but when every team is doing it it's not cute anymore and like when we were at the World Series I'm just remembering this and you could see the whole field we were sitting in right field don't you remember when Turner would run from third

to short right field just because there was two strikes on them now and then he'd run back Jake and I are sitting there like, what is this? Yeah. Like this isn't exciting or like this doesn't serve the fans. And that's, I think that goes to the point more. Think about what you just said. The A's or Rays are these teams that have been viewed as the innovators for years.

Those teams didn't try to beat the shift because that ain't how it works. So it's a it's just, it's not going to change. And the defensive highlights, the defensive prowess, like think about any sport you watch. You have football players that are good at different things. You have linebackers that can rush the passer. You can have guys that can cover. Like, that's fun. That turns into team dynamics. Like, I think today the Reds were trying Eugenio Suarez at shortstop, which, hey, Eugenio, if you can go pick it, dog, prove me wrong. But I think you're a power hit in 50 homer type third baseman type when you're right. And, you know, I think I do appreciate the Reds not being

shy like they got moose to play second base and everyone is like all right moose let's see it and he's actually been solid over there but you know give us always a sneaky good defender though he's sexy too that's the biggest thing for me but um give me guys that can can do it all or have their specialties and like let's let's appreciate it i appreciate if you're a young catcher change your game like that's kind of my takeaway from all this like think about the change the change of what's valuable. Like, it's going to change. Catchers, work on your throwing arm.

Get out of your, you can't be on one knee anymore. Get up off your button. You're ready to throw. It's kind of funny because the Yankees' first round pick, Austin Wells. He's like they're putting him through the training right now to retool how he, how he catches with the one knee on the ground for framing. And I almost want to DM and be like, dude, by the time you make it, like framing might not be even part of the game. Like maybe let him, maybe let him know like this doesn't.

matter. That's the craziest thing is these organizations, they know that this is coming and framing is going to be nothing and they're still doing it and it looks, oh man,

that's going to be really funny. Can't fool a computer. People ever shift on you, Trev? Did you ever look up and a team shifted and you were like, wait,

why the fuck are they doing that? That's what my numbers say? Second baseman up the middle. That was it. That's all they did. Yeah, that's basically what righties get. You get the second baseman

right at the middle. I'll tell you who it affected the most I've ever seen. Like, of all the people I saw got shifted, the one that really, really affected was Joe Mauer. And I saw the royals were like the first team to figure him out. They would bring Alex Gordon in like short, short left field and on the line. And all these balls that he used to spray over there,

there used to be base hits, Gordon's all over them. And then they would move the third base been over to short and the short stuff would be behind second base. and all those base hits on the ground balls up the middle, gone. And he was like one of the first guys that, like, they figured out how to play Joe Mower. And, you know, Lord knows what he would have hit if that was going on all those years.

Like he's a batting title guy. Like, he probably wouldn't have won batting titles if they were shifting like that. Because he got so many of those hits down the line up the middle. And as the shift developed, you know, think about him, like Mark Tashara guys that you were taught, if you got a fastball you could handle on the inside part of the plate and pull it through the first basement and the second basement,

and that was a hit. You know, it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks, and I think you saw a lot of guys, you know, Tashara was like a 280 hitter, and then he came over and he was like a 225, 230 guy, which, you know, I would love, and I wonder if fan graphs, and I'm sure a lot of people otherwise know out there that are in the analytics game, like,

if the shifts, if they went full shift rules, like which hitters would we just look at in a totally different light? Full shift, like take it away? Yeah, like a lot of the rules we talked about. Two guys on a side and the infield, blah, blah, blah. You know, I'm sure there's a couple big lefties. I'm sure there's a couple big righties. A couple guys on the Yankees.

I always found it was the one up the middle. I mean, you learn your entire life. Like hit the ball back out the box. That's a knock. Like your swing is good when you're hit. hitting the ball back at the middle, but then now you're like, blood I'm out also. They put a guy right there.

Bring back. Bring back defense. Yes. Constant defense. Go watch a game. What was one of the World Series we watched? Like the twins, what year were the Twins won the World Series? 84.

88.91, I think. So, okay, there you go. That's even more recent than 1984. 87 and 91? Go watch the style of baseball that was played back then. So much more fun. I love baseball. now. I don't want it to come off like I'm just complaining about the current state of the sport.

I just think it can get better and more fans will come and younger kids will come to watch the highlight spot. Like you're saying baseball, baseball people get so hot on baseball because America's pastime. Every rule has changes. The NBA changes in the rules. The NBA, the NFL changes their rules. It happens. It's going to be okay. It's to improve the sport. You still got people clamoring for pitchers to hit. Yeah. So like you just got to understand that half of the opinions you just got to throw out. Because anyone that's still like, I want my players to play two ways are so far, like, they're like 50 years out of progress and change that you can't even like,

almost like, okay, you don't get to say. Yeah, because they're like, oh, we want to see managers make decisions. I don't want to see managers. Like I want the players to decide the game. I don't want to see the stench of the front office out there on the field. I love it when they're like, you know, just make the pitchers learn how to hit. Okay, so you want mediocrisy on both sides of the ball instead of special talent on both? I do think if baseball just blew that one.

I think athletes can be special and there could be crops of Otanis, but like we blew it. Like the ship sailed, so I'm fine with it. It's just too hard to special. You have to specialize in that when you get to that level. When guys are so good. And they just stop doing it. I get it. I mean, do any football fans complain that the kicker also isn't a quarterback?

I mean, one day kickers and punters will be the same guy to save positions. I'm on the record for that, so yes. It is cool when guys can play both plays. But couldn't his quarterback also play defense? Does any other sport have the nonsense that, like, some baseball fans have? Yeah. Yeah, we just don't. We're just not in it.

People have been watching pitchers hit for so long and just laying down bunts. and automatic outs or swinging and missing. And instead of being like, you know what, I don't think this is going to work out, there's still people saying like, why don't they just learn how it hit? Because it's that easy. The sport just blew past it and it's never coming back.

Yeah. If I never have to see a pitcher, put a button-up jacket on when he was running the basis ever again, I will be happy. It is the worst look in all. all the sports and I can't believe a pitcher would ever even say, yeah, give me my code.

Treb, I'm with you there. I think it's like kind of a fun, unique thing, but I can't imagine that, like, pitchers did it, like, pitchers did it in a way to like, look at me, I'm special, but it came off so different. It came off like, yeah, dude, look at you. Yeah. You're special.

You can't run the base. You can't run the base of a jacket on. But pitchers definitely thought they were flexing and being cool, but it was like, the lamest flex and maybe the lamest flex in professional sports was a pitcher getting the first base

and be like, give my jacket, I'm cold out here. Don Trell. Incredible. Don Trell Willis, last 60 games, 101 at bats,

307 batting average, 352, 877 OPS. Hell, some of those guys could have been special enough to do it. We blew past it because pitching is so valuable

and so tough to come by. Okay, give me his career line. no. They don't tell them. I hit 244. Probably better than I did. No.

No. What's your career batting average? I don't know. It's 240-something. Hopefully I'm just like a little bit above it. BPD, your favorite baseball reference page? 242. Oh, he hit better than me.

You had a higher OPS, Trev. Thank you. Singles aren't a thing in your day. They're all. I was not. Singles were not. They didn't want me on first base. I clogged the bases.

155 career doubles. Different. That's all. That's all we got. Four triples in 2015, Triv. Four triples, Trev? What's up with that? I don't know.

Honestly, there were times before I really realized how important OPS was, I'd rather have a double than a triple because you pad that stat line instead of like kind of spreading the numbers out. I was adding to one column. I like that. But then it's really stupid to do that,

you're leaving a base out there. Do you ever come close to getting the cycle? You know, I think I had a game where I had like, I didn't have a single. I might have four hits all extra base and I didn't have a single. Oh, so that's better. So you're just saying, yeah, I did one thing better.

I mean, having four hits and having them all be extra base hits is better. Maybe that wasn't a dream. I could have been a fever dream as well, so I wouldn't give them credit for that yet. We'll have to look at it. We'll have our R&D department look into it. I could have dreamed that, seriously. I get it, man.

All right. That's all. Any last words? Love. Love? Okay. Sequence out today. Oh, what's the sequence on?

I did my first homer. Dan has this whole list of things about my career that he wants me to do. So I did my first homer. Kind of a cool story. Then I have one coming out. So it's a good one. Go watch it. And then on Thursday, I think I think I have the best episode of sequence yet.

Wow. In my opinion. And Jake's top. top 10 third baseman came out? How much heat did you get for that? Don't get Trev started. We already had a discussion. Trev not happy with Gio or Shell on the list. Oh, you just haven't looked at his numbers? Well, Chris Bryant, Chris Bryant's off the list. Gior O'Shell is on the list. I did look at the numbers. And Jake is using a one season sample size. So two seasons.

One's a half season. Third base is hard. Third base is hard. I'll show you the two season sample size. It's not favorable to Gio. It is, though. It is. Don't make me a Gio hater. This is what I don't freaking like about this. I like Gio. Now you're making me talk. Did you get any?

What was some other crap you got? Honestly, the lists have been getting really well received, which I think the most angry response was Colan Wong wasn't on the top to be list. And that's kind of fair. Like, I'm a big Colan Wong fan. It got tight there. But, I mean, third base is a mess. You combine a third baseman so you could put Gio or shella.

No. There's two after Gio because Devers. and Suarez are both crazy hitters. But another time. Another time. Okay. My worst third baseman was like the rude one, right? Yeah.

Young and young. Yeah. Felt bad about it, but what are you going to do? Three for three errors. Tough times. My dad overheard me listening to it and he said that that can't be true. I watched him do the research on it. I think someone tweeted us that like he's not playing third base anymore.

Well, yeah. Yeah. I don't, I think you play. Makes sense. I mean, yeah. It was all throwing errors. Go D-Backs. D-Backs up!

What are they doing? Oh, Trevor opened up an episode talking about the Diamondbacks. Yeah. That's the Little League team he's coaching. So someone got really excited, D-Backs fan. I got D-Backs fans real mad at us with the TPP. Oh, yeah. Do you think it's the part where you said,

couldn't name a play? on the team. Yeah. And then like we got like one star review from a Diamondbacks fan. I was like the Diamondbacks hate was unreal. But I wasn't giving hate. I was just saying I, you're saying I'm wrong for this.

I know nothing about you guys. I'm going to actively try for like a little bit. Huge. They just never come up anywhere. Is Baumgartner pitching? Big time. He's pitching well in spring training? Yeah.

That's exciting. My dinembacks are one and two is not a great start to the season.