Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 329 | How to Fix the Rockies

Episode Date: April 28, 2021

Head over to https://bluechew.com and try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code 'BASEBALL' at checkout Go to https://magicspoon.com/baseball to grab the new limited edition Birthday Cake or a custom bundle today! Use our promo code 'BASEBALL' to save $5 off your order Jomboy, Jake, & Plouffe talk about how to fix the Colorado Rockies after Jeff Bridich resigned Monday. The guys also break down the biggest surprise teams of April and see who has a legit chance to make a run! 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 midweek episode. Jake's going to fix the Rockies. Trevor's going to check in on the standings and I'm just going to listen and enjoy. Let's do it. And welcome to Talking Baseball presented by Draft Kings. It's the midweek episode. It's episode number 329. How about that?

We're really crushing it. Go us. We're at the end of April here. Coming in at the end of the first month of the season. excited to talk about some things with my friends here. My name's Jimmy. Jake is sitting next to me looking fabulous. We'll get into that.

Trevor out there on the West Coast, which is not the best coast, but it's a coast. Some people might think it's the best coast. And they're allowed to. And BBD is wearing Franklin and Marshall diplomats shirt. What the hell?

What is that? That's why I worked before here. Oh, what is diplomats? Well, diplomat is like a politician. Yeah, but like that's a jersey for a politician. It's the mascot. They are the diplomat. The Franklin and Marshall diplomats.

That's God awful. Come on. School is founded by Ben Franklin and John Marshall. Franklin and Marshall's cool. Diplomats is. It's Ben Franklin's mascot. You can't have sports teams. If you're named the diplomat, you just can't sports team.

I don't work there anymore for a reason, man. Debate Club, great name for debate club. Sports team? I don't know if you can have a, where are the diplomats? Go disqual. man. Go dips is great. You've won me over. Dip up. Yeah, I'm back on it now. Yeah, go. Go dips. It's really good. Anyway, what's going on, everybody? Jake, how are you doing?

Doing well, James, Trevor, big, beautiful baby, David. Everybody in the chat right now, we appreciate you guys. I obviously feel good. I mean, you dress out, you play, and I'm an 11 out of 10 right now. So a little bit of the back story. There's a cool boy shop right by Yankee Stadium. And they, yeah, a little ad. Sammy's. I'll give him it. And me and Zach went over there.

It'll be in the vlog if you want some good behind the scenes of two guys kind of out of their element. But yeah, I mean, a combination of a good salesman, an incredible outfit. a human with the inability to say no. And that's how you get this bad boy. So I'll be wearing this outfit a lot. Can you stand up and BB is going to go a wide chat for everyone watching at home?

And so what we've got here is obviously on Jake's right side of the body is the ocean. Okay. With some sailboats. You have the sand, the shore is coming down the umbrella with the beach, beach, what are those called? Beach balls. No, what are those Umbrillas? Beach umbrellas, that's the word I'm looking for.

And then kind of like the city, shoreline real estate and palm trees is up on his shoulders. So it's, uh, is that a specific, uh, beach town? Is it just a generic beach town? That's a great question. Trevor.

I didn't ask that. Well, there's mountains, uh, in the background. If I had to guess, I'd say Monaco, but I don't know if that's a beach town.

It's like, yeah, it looks like Chile. It's a, an island beach town for sure. I like to frequent Chile after the baseball season. I never have, but I think I'd like to. Chili's amazing. We'll just take the coast. Thank you. A couple things. One, Zach is never out of his element, so I don't know why you

lumped him in with you right there. That's fair. That's fair. And number two, I think you look great. Like when I got the full shot of it right there, it changed for me. The shirt on its own, maybe not so much, but with the shorts, it's screaming. Big Dick energy. Yeah. Well, yeah, yeah. I think if you had a big dick, you wouldn't be able to hide it in this outfit. I could hide my big dick if I had one.

All right. Well, if you wanted one, you could always sign up for Blue Chew, kind of pivots into our first ad, which I'm just going to do now because that worked perfectly. Blue Chew. Jake, you look like a guy that would love some, I don't know. know if you could say this in an ad. They have a lot of do not, so I'm not even going to say it. Yeah. I'm going to steer clear of that and just...

I would like some blue chew if that's what you're getting to. Yeah, I was going to add. Yep. Yeah. You would love some blue choo in that outfit. So, um, blue chew is intended for males only. Facts. Weird.

It's a weird bullet point that I read first. Blue Chew's tablets help with stronger and longer lasting erections. You get into that. However, they do not direct... I don't, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, uh, Blue Chew is a unique online service that delivers the same active ingredients as Viagra and Seales, but in chewable form and at a fraction of the cost.

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Oh, really? Yeah, he's in the club too. So he was pretty excited. I got out of that club when I was 16. But I was in it for a while. I was in it for a very long time. I would just throw up. Did you guys use water?

Yeah. I still can't dry swallow pills. That blows my mind when people can do that. That honestly blows my mind with people can dry swallow pills. I used to empty the pills and put it in yogurt and try to eat that. It was a bad time. I used to have to do it before a dentist. All three of you are in that club?

Well, I got out of it, but I was 16 and I thought I was way too old. Chris Rose still being in that club is. I ruined a babysitter's. Oh, yeah, Yankees. Oh. I hate the wrong. That's my grandma. She used to smash up pills and put them in an apple sauce for me.

So good timing. My allergies became bad enough that like I just kind of had to. Blue chew. Blue Chew, we could all use Blue Chew, so could Chris Rose. Chris Rose, you don't need to be able to swallow pills to use Blue Chew. So that's great. We've got a special deal for our listeners. Try Blue Chew free when you use our promo code baseball.

Checkout, just pay $5 shipping. That's BluCu.com promo code baseball to receive your first month free. And we thank Blue Chew for sponsoring the podcast. Thanks, Blue Chew. Thanks, Blue Chew. Trev, how you doing? Are you settling back in in California? Yeah, man. Things are going well. Got a kind of a hectic day. We're getting the vaccines done this week. So we kind of staggered them. I'm going to be on Daddy Duty, House Duty, everything today as I let my beautiful wife recuperate.

Nice. So things are good, though, man. I got my gloves on here and my bat. I'm getting ready. I've mentioned this before, but I'm getting ready to go to Minutes. Minnesota to do a celebrity softball charity event with Mower. Oops. And so I have to start practicing. I can't embarrass myself. You guys saw me at California Strong when I did the- Just request column at a pitch deal.

Oh, no. Oh my God. I told Twinsman, you got to watch out. I told it. I didn't know it was going to be that bad. Yeah. Oh, it's bad. But I kind of embarrassed myself at California Strong.

I popped up. I wasn't happy about it. So I'm going to start training now. So I don't embarrass me. You popped up at California Strong because Dallas Braden went way deep. I know, but he like plays in a league. Like I got at least like give myself some swing. So I'm taking care of it.

It's a video of C.C. Sabathia playing softball in Central Park last night. And he just like went so deep. How sneaky fit is Dallas Braden, man? He's a caveman. Like if you actually look at him, he is a living caveman. kind of he took a shirt off for us on facetine that one day and we were like hey Dallas you look good man

is he still saving bees I haven't seen any bees updates you know he's uh this big big Dallas Braden episode right now but he's up in Oakland he's he's up there for the seasons I don't think he can bring the bees I think he's got to leave him I don't know

yeah maybe he's got a bee babysitter he hilarious if he brought the bees into the Oakland stadium that's the only thing that stadium's missing. Nice little beating. I'm sure. I'm sure it's happened there. So are you going to go to the cage, Treve? There's like an indoor facility that I'll probably go to. Okay. Um, or there's like a, a field that if I really want to see my angle, my launch angle, I need to go outside and do it. So I, I have some things in the works and people that I'm going to be working with. But I'm taking it seriously, man. I love that. Love it. Jake.

Should we send Dan out with him? Yes. Minnesota? Okay. Jake, we have, we got breaking news last time we were recording that Jeff Brittich stepped down. Did you see? Okay, so he stepped down. That's like the official thing.

Did you see that someone purple row that's a diamond, that's a, um, or Rockies. Careful with that. They're the same team. Careful with that. I'm starting to separate them. Diamondbacks have a winning record right now. Go, Debacks. Dback up.

What I'm trying to say. is. Yeah. The press release says that they mutually agreed to step down, which everyone clearly already knows that means they forced him to resign because they were going to fire him and they allowed him to save face. Someone tweeted at Purple Row like the night before just heard from Dick's buddy, British is gone after this game, which kind of, it's just funny because it was, and they were like,

yeah, okay, dude. And then like, it became true. So you got fired, but they are using the word resign. And I'm very interested in like why or how or are they trying to see the scapegoat Because it seems like they're both at fault here trying to save face before the All-Star game and get better blood. I don't know. But a lot of people are tweeting including Passing. Passing.

About how. You want to throw it? Passing. About how this is like a great destination for a creative GM. Yes. because there are some tools. It's not a regular old ballpark and an atmosphere, but you have to get creative to play to the strengths of the situation in Colorado.

Jake is a big online GM. Utpa. Out of the park baseball. So Jake, if you were the Rockies GM, and this is what you want to talk about, what would your fixes, how would you navigate building a team around the ballpark, around the atmosphere, around the air conditions.

So a couple things to paint the picture here. like my t-shirt and shorts today. Let's go back. I want to go back to winter meetings really quick. Our guy, Eno Saris. We love Eno. He's the best. Oh, my God, he's the best.

Bitches let me drop on my breasts. Eno, we had him on. What did you say at the second? That was some little dicky. Eno, Blue Chew. A great song. When Eno came on for winter meetings, I threw in,

because Eno's the best. We, like, had nothing prepared within. just because we knew he's awesome, and he came on with a couple beers, and, like, go pick up his kids after. And we started talking rocks, because obviously. And so I didn't realize this. I casually threw out to Eno, like, let's have some fun. Like, how do we fix the Rockies?

What I didn't know, because I'm bad at my job, Enosaris has been on this for a while. Enosaris wrote an article for ESPN in 2015 on the Coors Effect. And how that affects things. It affects how it affects things. So we've mentioned this a lot on the show, and every time I say it, I mention it in passing, the Coors Effect and what that is.

And we have a lot of smart baseball fans that listen, and you guys probably already know, because I've said it a lot, but the Coors Effect works both ways, and we're still figuring out how significantly. And you're a transverted Coors Effect guy. I'm trans. When we got DJ LaMayhew, we talked to a Rockies guy

My guy Drew Creasman He and he said the Coors Effect And he talked about it And he's like DJ's going to be great for you guys You guys are going to love him Flash forward a few years He was right But what that means is we all looked at it

For about 20 years Coors Field and said Oh you go there you're going to hit huh You're with the Rockies You're going to be a stud Fantasy baseball Verdeed Coors Effect guy Go get your Rockies

So for years we saw these Rockies hitters and they had these significant splits, the biggest splits of any Major League team. And we just naturally assumed, because humans are dumb, that these Rocky players weren't as good as other players. They're just racking up stats and cores. Other teams would visit cores and they would hit. It took us about two decades to figure out like maybe there's more going on here. And so I've talked about it with DJ LaMayhew.

I've hoped on it, and I believe it's happening with Nolan Aeronado, that there is a problem with these Rockies hitters when they go on the road. Everyone gets Coorsfield. It's the altitude. The ball doesn't spin as much, and there are some fun twists there. Like pitchers throw more fastballs, which also affects the Rockies when they go on the road because they're dialed up for more fastball. There's so many moving parts of this.

I would look up Enos Seris's articles. He's written them with ESPN. He's written them now with the athletic. And so let's fast forward to British a little bit. Yeah. A, there's another article that Eno wrote about the Rockies. They gutted their analytics department about two years ago. How'd that work out for you, guys?

So basically they were the only team in baseball operating without an analytics department. They didn't like gut it and replace it. They just said, cabosh. I'd have to look into it a little more. I think there's guys there that are analytics team, but they, like, reduced it. And it's just not major league quality for what it should be. We see all these teams.

The Yankees at a pitching facility. The Dodgers, it's part of why they've been so good. Like, there's so many ways you can dice up the sport and the numbers and all of it. So I threw out to Eno, last winter meetings. I was like, how do we fix these Rockies? And there's different theories. And it's so much fun. And that's what Passing says.

If you're a baseball geek in your core, just think about all the different things you can test out. And we've never really seen them test anything. There was the one year they said they were going to shorten starting pitchers' leashes. They said they were only going to let their starters go like four and now kind of look where baseball is. But I think on the back end of that, they didn't factor in, well, A, you still need good ballplayers. B, what that does to the rest of your bullpen. and I know that's a topic that Jimmy's kind of been on and maybe we'll deep dive into that next week

about starting pitching length, but why isn't anyone having fun with the Rockies? Like, A, I think if you're any person who gets the basic concepts I just talked about, if we're just looking to have pure fun and entertainment and see where the chips lie, why haven't the Rockies gone all power hitters and home run hitters and just have some fun with it?

I don't think that's the solution. But holy smokes, what a product that would be, and you can, you know, you basically start playing the video game. We haven't really seen that happen. We've obviously seen them have good ball players, and a lot of this does link back to having good ball players. They've got the biggest outfield in Major League Baseball. It's huge.

Produces the most triples, almost year and year out. Because to factor in for the ball flying more, they made a bigger outfield. So for me, this gets back into a huge. donation in the chat. Thank you. Once the Homer draft back, we do it. We do it on Twitter. Homer Draft is on Twitter every single day. Go Sox. Thank you.

Go Sox 333. Huge. Talking Yanks is currently not losing. I said, let's do things we can control. And I think one of the things that you can control, altitude, wherever you go, does not matter, defense and speed. And so you mentioned speed, and I just mentioned that home run video game. example I just made up. Speed gets away from that a little bit, but those are constant. Wherever you go, you can play good defense and you can have good speed. And that's what Eno said. Eno tacked on the

speed for me a little more than I had it because he said whenever you're a team going to Colorado, you should make it pure hell for them. The other team coming in instead of their eyes lighting up and saying, I'm going to have my biggest series of the year and hit four home runs, they should say, God damn it. The pitchers are miserable anyways. If you're running on them, if you're making it hell, if you're making highlight real plays, that's a bad time for the opponent. So I love that. I love making a little bit of Agent of Chaos baseball. The other thing I think the Rockies need to look into, and he's the only starting pitcher, well, Kyle Freeland had one year of success. Hermann Marquez is really good. is really good.

He is racked up a pretty massive war in his time with the Rockies. 14.8 war. If you measure that up against other pitchers since 2017, it banks. Like, it is up there with a lot of really good starting pitchers. And this is factoring in the core's effect for him, which kind of starts bringing us to the pitcher side. A, Hermann Marquez has been so good for them. How is he not a guy they've locked up?

You know, we talk about extensions and lockers, and locking these guys up early and taking chances, especially teams that pretend to be mid-market franchises, how could you not have this guy who's pitching well for your franchise? He has a 43 and 31 record, which, okay, we're going to record, but that's because his ERA is jacked up. It's a point and a half higher at Colorado than it is when he's on the road. He's a 3-5 road guy.

Like, how is that guy not extended? If you're trying to build something here, in a franchise that is constantly fighting for pitching. I don't know. I still think the pitching I don't have the perfect solution on. Lance Lance. Talent always plays. We looked at Lance Lynn and how he peppers fastballs.

I mean, I do think Lance is a little bit of the outlier, but he was a free agent recently, and free agents normally take the highest contract you offer. The Rockies should send a scout to Lance Lynn's fastball farm every winter. If there's going to be more fastball. I mean, that's a pitch that plays. The fastball actually kind of ticks up a little bit at course. So there's something to do with the fastballs. I know the slider has been proven to be a little successful. I'd like to think with the fastball usage, you could pair that with a lot of change-up guys,

and the change-up is widely regarded as kind of the best pitch when it's executed properly in Major League Baseball. I would love to see the Rockies at least experiment with theories. Or again, when we start getting into, to the fun of baseball. If you're the Rockies, the most basic one, 12-year-old Jake playing video games, the controller vibrating on his body, feeling new feelings he's never felt before. I would get a bunch of groundball pitchers,

and I would get the best defensive infield, and I'd say, let's see what we could do with that pitching. The fact the Rockies haven't truly done something like that, at least try it, figure it out. Because if I'm a Rockies fan, and I find out about the Coors effect when things were really coming to light around 2015, I would be so mad.

The franchise I root for has been playing with arms tied behind its back for 20 years, and I want my team to have a fair shot. Never mind how nasty the Dodgers are year and year out, and oh, by the way, the Padres look like they're going to be pretty good for the next five, ten years or so. So that was a long-winded with a lot of good information

and a lot of weird information. but I don't know, man. Talk more about your vibrations. Jimmy knows. Tony Hawk Pro Skater. Yeah, auto grind mode. I don't talk about that. Hermann Marquez is locked up, isn't he?

That's the only question I have. Didn't they sign him to a five-year deal? They bought out as arbitration and gave him like real money. They tacked on a couple more, but he's not like a couple more. Team option for 2014. I mean, he's been there since 2017, but he got a cup of coffee. He's got, they have him until 20. He's a free agent 2024 with the team option.

So they have him for three more years after this year. He's there, but I mean, I'd still like to see even a little more of that, man. I mean, come on. This guy's been good. They've got him locked up through age 29, which is, you know, an extra year of arbitration or so. Do they have an identity? Like, that's what I get, like, you know, like certain teams, they know what they like. Like right now the Yankees like righties who go opo and let the ball travel deep into the zone.

That's why they got Voight. That's why they got DJ. They've gone away from the lefty power bat, which used to be what they wanted forever. And now they like righties, let the ball travel. And whether I agree with it or disagree with it, at least I know that the analytics department came together and said, these are the players we're looking for. I don't know. I mean, I would ask Rockies fans, like, is there a through line between the guys they pick up?

where they trade for or whatever. Like, is there any unifying factor of the skill sets? And other teams have other things that they look for as well. You know, obviously the Rays look for guys that can play multiple positions and have really good splits. Like, they don't care if you can hit both arms. They just want you to hit one arm really good. Like, that's kind of what the Rays analytics department has said.

This is our type of lineup. And I think a lot of teams do But I don't know if the Rockies do Obviously it's a dark spot for me I mentioned Treve your rocks But if any team was to have one It should be them is kind of the point

Yeah I like your reference You know teams should be scared to go in there and play Like there should be some sort of advantage To having that stadium Because I know in the NFL teams don't want to go in And play the Broncos It's a nightmare for them Having to adjust to the altitude

I know there's not as much sprinting in baseball as there is in football, so you're not going to be as winded necessarily. But I think there is a way to take advantage. And all we ever talk about, especially on the pitching side is, you know, the pitchers get to control the variables in the game. And there are some, you know, different variables as far as, you know, I'm reading this article right now as you're talking about this with a bunch of words that are way too big for me.

Yeah. But they're talking about like the Magnus effect on the Magnus. this force of a ball. So what you said is true. Fastballs are going to be a little bit faster. There's a little bit less drag there, but this article is saying, you know,

they're using Fenway as a, as the counter argument stadium here. And they're saying a baseball loses 10% of its speed at Fenway and it loses 8% of its speed at cores. And they're saying that is, that effect is small. And what the biggest difference would be is, and I think everyone knows this,

on breaking pitches. Now, this article is referencing Fenway, and they're saying an 18-inch typical breaking pitch at Fenway, due to the Magnus Force, will break only about 82% as much at course. So a 4-inch difference, that's a huge difference in a breaking pitch. So we kind of talked about this. I was talking about this with Rose after the pass and tweet. You know, how could you exploit that? And I think what you said is true.

Like you need to have a bunch of ground ball pitchers. Or you can go the exact opposite way. A bunch of guys that spin the crap out of the ball at the top of the zone. And then hitters, I think you got to get a bunch of guys that hit the ball in the air. Or at least try something like that. I do agree like this is something, the more and more I think about Passon's tweet saying there needs to be someone creative to get in. There's someone really smart to really look at the effect and figure something. something out. You could do that. And then we would be talking about those pesky

rockies, like who the hell wants to go into course instead of what happens now is the opposite. Everybody wants to go into cores. Like you said, the outfield is huge. When you go out to the plate, is it called course field still? Yeah. Okay. When you go to the plate at course field, you look at the outfielders. They look like they're a million miles away. There's so much space. People always think, oh, you go there to hit home runs. You go there to hit singles too. because there's just so much open space you get those hits there. So it's interesting.

They're going to have to blow this whole thing up, obviously. I think that's the plan anyway. I am. I am. I mean, I think that was the plan all along. I think he's coming on the show soon.

Add. Okay. Let's go. They're going to have to ground up here. And I would love them to do something like that where they just do, like we're talking about the raise, you know,

we know they have an identity. I would love for the Colorado Rockies to have an identity. You know what? It would give opportunities to some players that maybe get lost amongst all the other teams. Maybe they'll be successful at course field. And someone, I mean,

someone's going to come into this job and have to think about this. I'm curious to see who it's going to be. You said go with all power bats. I'd go with all contact speed guys. Because they, there's so many, like every year they lead in triples. Right now there's been 13 triples hit at course field.

The next is Wrigley with seven and six away teams, six away players have it triples. So like more away, there's been more visiting triples at cores than almost any other ballpark total, home and away. Well, and so, A, all of this will spin back to talent a little bit. Like, the great, great rocky teams, the really good rocky teams from 2018, you know, they go to the DS, they, you know, lost the one-game playoff, blah, blah, blah. You know, Nolan Aeronado, Trevor Story, Charlie Blackman. I mean, those guys pretty much play. And Eno talked about that a little bit.

Like, you know, a star is going to be a star, but it's impossible to get a team filled with stars. So that's where it just blows my mind. Something that just popped into my head, Treve, when you were talking, was you talk about the altitude. And, you know, there's Ryan Clark famously, like, couldn't play against the Broncos because he had some. some bloodstream stuff, those dangerous for them to play.

Teams Denver Nuggets have a huge home court advantage. You mentioned the pitchers, how the game is their hands. Why aren't we trying out a system of, like I just got it right now, defense. We talked about that. Speed a little bit. Those play anywhere. How about guys that see a ton of pitches? So that way, you're wearing art these starting pitchers because they're going to be the ones who get more fatigued.

so then you can get into the underbelly of these bullpins. It's kind of been the formula of a lot of the good Yankees teams, a lot of good baseball teams try to do that. So I just don't get, if you're the Rockies, how are you not experimenting with these kind of things? Because there's got to be a formula out there. In any game, in any sport, there's ways to find advantages. I have one.

Jimmy's got one right now. Yeah, this is a bad idea. That would be fun. Okay. So you know how the Rays have, they care about splits. They have their lefty lineup, their righty lineup a lot. Sure. The Rockies go.

First, they have to find a lot of starting pitchers that can go deep so they can have a small bullpen because that's the key. You can't have a lot of arms. And then you have a huge bench, maybe like a five, six-man bench. And then you have a home lineup and an away lineup. And like only the top four hitters play at home end away. And then the other five guys that get at bats, they just play home or away.

They get 81 games each, just like some of the raised players, and then you don't have the cores effect. Like, oh, I don't play at home. I just play on the road. Then the ball never breaks more or breaks less. You're seeing the same type of pitches. You don't have to go back to that. We talked with David Dahl, and he said that when they go on the road,

they spend so much time on that pitching machine that emulates breaking pitches because they don't see a lot of breaking pitches at home. And if they do, they don't actually sharply break. So you just have a home crew and an away crew. Kind of like spring training. Or you have pitchers that should have more success at Corse Field. And, like, you know, kind of taming that in a little bit. Like, there's something to that, especially with we see pitchers ride in the bus

up and down towards the back end of the bullpen. Like, have your pitchers that, you know, their stuff plays up a little bit at cores, whether they've got a lights out fastball or whatever it is. Or if you have a guy that's got, you know, a really good curveball, the home set might not be great for him. But get ready when we go on the road to San Francisco, because we're going to need you, But, like, these things are pretty basic. You know, we've got a Stanford man and a couple CCSU guys here,

brainstorming what the solution is. And I think we've done more, put more effort into that than the Rockies have. And since they've started. I have a question that I'm, you just call me a Stanford man, which I am not. I'm a USC guy. Could I want to Stanford? Of course. Kidding me?

I'm dead serious about this because it's going to segue into a point I want to make is the atmosphere the same if you're inside like you said you mentioned the Nuggets have an advantage is the same like altitude yeah you're up there okay I don't think Jimmy's making me a bad face they don't I just eating my mic they don't pump oxygen into the Nugget Stadium it's not a casino I was curious I don't know if it's the same thing if you're indoors outdoors They should do that. You still get tired if you're indoors. Why don't sporting events do that like casinos?

Pump Aaron there? Yeah. Home court advantage. I cost money. Yeah. Make everyone more awake, buy more stuff. So. Let's say start out in casinos places.

Oh yeah. Every sporting event's going to have a casino soon, right? Every professional baseball stadium is soon going to be like a racetrack where you can walk up to a window and place bets like in live time, right? Doesn't really have it? Like you can run up to a window and be like, I want the over and the third. third inning after the second inning ends. Let's finish this and then let's talk about Rob Manfred and what he said a little bit. Okay.

Because that was incredible. But so my point here is we always reference now the Edritonic cameras and the goo that pitchers are using and they're able to shape pitches and create pitches and do all this stuff. Why aren't the Rockies having their players? Maybe some of their young guys go into Colorado during the offseason and have an elite training facility there and pitch design. Like, hey, this is, this is our, these are our circumstances. This is the altitude.

This is the Magnus Force. This is all the things that play. Let's go, let's go figure some things out. Because if they just spent a few years doing that, they could have a system. Like, this is what you do. This is how you make the ball move the way it's supposed to move here. I guarantee they could do it because, you know, the technology is there. So maybe they've thought about that.

and Jake, maybe to your point, maybe they fucking haven't. And if that's the case, my God, like, let's get somebody in there that can forward think like that. There's just probably my closing note. And, you know, I think everything is top-down driven and ownership. And a lot of people have opinions on Dick Monfort. And you could Google some things. What you call them?

Yes. And put yours together. Dick Manfort? Monfort. Oh. I'd like to... Monfort. Do people call it?

him that? So I just looked up... Probably some terrible fans that call him that. I looked up Eno's... Enos, Seres. Man fart. There's got to be fans that call him that. He wrote it with Nick Groke. Nick Groke? I'm sure how you pronounce that. So December 9th,

which was right around the time of our winter meetings. Didn't we do it December 7th? Could have been? So they were working on this article for a harbor. I always remember. According to multiple sources, four of the six members of the Rockies research and development team have left since the end of last season. Essentially knee-capping in analytics department that was already amongst the smallest and least effective in baseball. Ooh, burn. There you go. Knee capping. Well, wasn't the

wasn't the A's analytics department just like three guys? Having a good time. Having a good time. Just three guys. There's just kind of working. Hey, chat, I'm going to put this article that I read. I already linked it once. I'll link it again. It's pretty interesting because it kind of breaks down what we're talking about is in a better way. It is. I can explain it better than we can because I don't really know some of these terms, but I'm linking it right now. Treve, it does start getting in the heavy stuff.

Like if we do decide to take over the Rockies, which I should have mentioned this earlier, I've decided that GM of the Rockies is my retirement job. Just go to sports management worldwide. Like we're, yeah, like we're going to, you know, we're going to churn out and crank out next 20, 25 years, whatever it is. and then, yeah, I'll take the Rocky's GM gig. And we'll need a couple nerds because they've got to get through some of the words,

like the Magnus Opus or whatever you're just talking about. But we're going to get there. So Foolish, Foolish will be there. Yeah. Eno, me, you. Foolish, Eno. Eno is going to be the Caesar Thumb. Jimmy will be so rich by then.

He won't even want it. I'm going to be here. He's a commissioner. No, I'm just going to be a heckler. Yeah. We'll put you in front. Like office linebacker, but kind of just like the office dickhead. How about you heckle the opponent team?

That's never as fun. Okay. Do you think, do you, like, this is all coming up now. And, you know, when a big wig like Jeff pass and put something out there, it gets a lot of traction. Do you think Theo Epstein read that tweet and was like, hmm? Hmm. No, he's. I can conquer the Coors effect.

No, he's coming for the. Does he want to be commissioner, but... I think Theo sees your fucking words, Jimmy. I think Theo sees it and he says... What's the next biggest gap? The Indians? Theo's the GM of the Indians next year. Yeah, but the Rockies and everyone in the World Series, right? They have the cores effect going on.

You could get creative. This is the job for Theo. He's going to the Indians because he likes breaking curses. He likes finding the team with the longest World Series curse, and then he's got a 10-year rule. And those are the Theo rules. Like, go to the team with the longest curse, and then I win them a World Series.

No, it's a five-year rule. He only stays with one team for five years or ten years? Yes. He has a rule, whatever than ten. So he says, I'm not going to stay anywhere more than ten years. So he's going to the Indians next. It's going to be fantastic. It's like Leonardo DiCaprio.

Once you're 25, way too old for him. I think he wants Cleveland because he knows the sauce that works. I think he'd be a little scared of Colorado because he has to no team. sauce. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So that's fixing the Colorado Rockies. We're only like 15 more minutes left, Trev, kind of. Charlie Blackman, career OPS at home, 979, away 745. You think Charlie Blackman's a 745 on the road type of hitter. You're wrong. You're wrong. All right. Trev wants to take a look at the standings because we got a lot of teams that we didn't think we're real that are leading right now. So we've got to figure it out. But first I've got to tell you about Magic Spoon cereal. I eat a lot of this now. There's, like, boxes on mine and Jake's Ted Lassow desk that I just kind of stick my hand in and eat all time.

It was my lunch yesterday. It was your lunch yesterday? Yeah, Magic Spoon gets consumed. So growing up cereal is one of the best parts of being a kid. But, you know, some of us had to give it up because we realized it was full of sugar and junk. Going down the cereal aisle, I just went shopping with Katie the other day. It saddens me, like, as an American almost, which I know is, like, very pretentious and annoying. But, like, they literally have churro cereal.

Yeah. There's a churro cereal and like cinnamon toast and it's just candy and there's twinky cereal now. It's insane. Well, if you want to eat cereal, not feel like a bag of shit. Magic Spoon. I think that's their official slogan or they're going to tell me to never say that again. It's got zero grams of sugar, 13 to 14 grams of protein and only four net grams of carbs in each serving. Only 140 calories of serving.

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the offer is now good anywhere in the U.S. or in Canada, but only when you use our code at checkout. Remember, get your next delicious bowl of gilt-free cereal at magic spoon.com slash baseball and use the code baseball to save $5. Final update. I did message Eno this morning and I was like, hey, the thing I'm going to talk about this today was reading some of your old articles any new stuff or anything to add and he was like not really some pitches and losing

movement blah blah blah um he said the only thing he doesn't have in there he thinks he thinks there's a sleep strategy that could help the rock so you know yeah yeah that's what i'm talking about just some good old fashioned pot and a nap that's what you mean every night you know what i mean legal there. Yeah, sure is. Team microdosing. All right. Dallas Braden's in the front office. Okay. All right, back to my point. I'm looking at the standings.

We did our over-unders pre-season. A lot of the teams at the top of the standing, and mind you, we're a month in now. A lot of teams at the top of the standings, we were pretty bearish on pre-season. And I wanted to make a point here. and then we'll go into I want to make a point

and then we'll talk about which one of these teams a surprise team at the top of the same do you think we'll be there at the end like who's legit who's not legit but think about this right now in the in the NL the playoffs would go

met to the top of the division brewers of the top of the division I'll just say the Dodgers and the Giants they're tied but I'll just give it to the Dodgers so those are the three teams winning the division the wild card teams would be Giants, obviously, at 15 and 9. But then there be three teams tied for that second wildcard spot.

Jimmy's Arizona Diamondbacks? BBD's Pittsburgh Pirates are two of them. We shit on both those teams. And they are basically, like we said, the Pittsburgh Pirates have a 58 over-under win total. They're already at 12. 12 and 11. No way anybody saw this coming.

The Diamondbacks, been pitching their face off, Zach Gowan and Bumgardner doing it, 12 and 11. It's nuts right now. A lot of the teams we thought were going to be good. Twins, Yankees, they've been horseshit. So, get the Red Sox to the top of the East Division, Royals are the top of the Central,

A's at the top of the West. Of the Red Sox, the Royals, the Giants, and I guess I'll throw the Mariners in there sitting at 1311. Is there one of those teams that you think will be there at the end? of the year. And if so, which one? All right. So say them again, the,

the giants, the Mariners. The Royals and the Red Sox. The Red Sox, I think, can be in the mix for sure. That's my number one out of all those that I think, yep, they can be in the wild card,

race, they can be in playoff hunt at the end of the season, for sure, without a doubt. The Giants, no. I think they've, I think the Giants have been good, but none of their pitching has been good. Their hitting hasn't been good.

The Padres have played a lot of games against the Dodgers, and I don't think the Giants have yet. So I think the Padres now don't see the Dodgers again until August or late June. So I think the Padres may have a hell of a summer beaten up on all the other teams where they've kind of been planning and strategizing and dealing with injuries and big series against Dodgers.

Now they won 3 or 4 against Dodgers, so it's not like they're losing to the Dodgers, but still it's just like, that seems to be the mindset right now, and Tatis getting injured and then coming back. And I think the Dodgers, I think the Padres have not found that sweet spot yet of like, yep, we're rolling.

And they're still not even doing it poorly. So, but I would say the Red Sox are my number one that I think are going to be in the mix. I like that. We did this on IG Live with C. Rose ad. He asked, of the Royals and the Giants, do you think either of those teams will be buyers at the deadline? Royals of the Giants?

Royals of the Giants. My answer was no. I said, I think, and he made a good point. He said the Giants, he thinks could be sellers of the deadline, that that was their plan all along. They did a bunch of these one-year deals with these pitchers. Now they're performing well, and that's exactly what they wanted. They can now ship these guys out to teams that are,

to be actual contenders at the end of the year. Rosie says he thinks the Royals will be buyers at the deadline and they'll be looking for some of that pitching. So maybe the Giants sending some of those starters over to the Royals could put them over the hump. I kind of agree. The Central right now, ALE Central is a mess. Like could the Royals be opportunistic in a year where it seems like it's down?

It's an interesting take because we looked at the Royals lineup. We said, hey, congrats for them for going for it a little bit. They went and got some guys. They constructed a pretty damn good lineup. But right now, man, they're sitting at 14 and 8. They're playing ball. And yeah, adding a starting pitcher, we could just be totally, this could be an instance where a team is two or three years ahead of their window.

And they said, screw it. The window's open now. Let's open it some more. Yeah. I'd like to see the Royals play some more teams as well. They're eight and seven against teams with the 500 or about. record, which is pretty good. And Jim, to your point, Boston,

nine and five against teams with a 500 or better record. Boston got high. I just like the confidence that Boston's playing with and the fun and the swagger. And pitching's been good. I think the Royals, I like their offense a lot. I don't know if it's in their best interest to be buyers. I'm curious how it plays out. But like, you know, if Danny Duffy keeps pitching well.

for two more months. I think you trade him at the highest value he's had in five years. And that's probably the smartest thing and the best way to help the future of your club. Yeah, but we know the Royals aren't thinking that way. The Royals went out in free agency and they started this whole thing.

I know they've been rewarding. They got Carlos Santana. They got Ben Intendi. They signed Mike Minor. So the royals in their front office said because they don't consider themselves a mid-market team, they consider themselves a small market team, that they have to operate differently, and because there were so many teams tanking slash,

after that year of excitement and big free agency and all of these teams competing, we stumbled into this year that was a lot of teams aren't. A lot of teams kind of dipped. And the Royals saw that and said, hey, you know, we've got some. young guys we like, let's make some move. So they got Carlos Santana, they got Mike Minor, they got Benny, and they've only got Whitmer. Well, Whitmerfield, who might be one of the most well-respected guys in the game by baseball players. I forget. I think it was G. Alito on Chris Rose's rotation who said, like, he's one of the best players in the league, and it just

doesn't talk about. He's always hitting. He always plays defense where he is. Like, there's not a lot of guys you can say that about. Santana got hot recently and he's doing well. Other than that, the rest of the offense hasn't done too, too much. Alberto Mondesi hasn't played a game for them, and he's supposed to be a dynamic baseball player for them, offensively, defensively. And they have a formula.

They've got a back end of the bullpen that's nice, man. Stamont, Holland, Barlow, Zimmer, Wade Davis, like, you know, Wade Davis, you know him from yesteryear. Same with Greg Holland. and the other guys you might not be familiar with, but you should get there because they're good. So they've got a recipe if they can get enough from their starting pitching, which if Danny Duffy can stay not even around this,

but if he can be good, the other guys, Brad Keller, who's supposed to be there, one, he hasn't gotten off to a hot start. So the Royals have gone off to a good start. The twins are in a little bit of a disarray right now, and there's wins to be had, and their front office is supporting this team. So you mentioned the confidence the Red Sox,

playing with right now. I think the Royals have that too. This team has been empowered. And I'm very interested to see where they're at during the All-Star break because I think like they were in free agency, I think this team will be geared up to make whatever moves around the edges to take them to the next level. So I'm in on the Royals fighting for an AL wild card spot. I think the one thing we need to think about is all these teams, you know, talking about that tax threshold, don't want to go over it. Like maybe some of these guys are going to going to be available at a discount because some of the big players aren't going to be there like the yankees aren't going to be adding anybody of significance they don't want to go over the the threshold so

some of these yeah sorry about that sorry about talk and i know you guys like him best base runner in baseball um so you know i think there is a there is a to borrow jake phrase there is a world where a couple of these teams sneak in they get a few players and we're going to be looking back being like man how did we miss that? Or why did everybody miss that? Red Sox are going to, and then the last, the last thing I want to, I want to ask you guys, because I know we, we have a kind of a strict time limit right now. Our two teams, your guys, Yanks, my Twinkies. I know you're, I know you're a Rattler guy, you're a snake guy now, but we're just, we'll talk about the Yanks, okay? Yankees and Twins, both sit at the bottom of the divisions. Who's got the better chance to finish the top of the division?

Yankees. Or it could be neither. Both. They both have the chance. Seems like the twins. I don't know the full, I don't know fully what's going on twins, but if Columais has lost them a lot of games,

so that's such an easy fix. Stop using him until like, you know. Make it better. Like, you know, it seems like the easier fix. Yeah, he's are starting slowly, slowly get better. So, I mean, like a week ago, there was no signs of life. Well, games against the Orioles and you guys are back on the train?

No, they, they only won one game against the Orioles. They took three out of four against Cleveland And reeling And Cleveland has good pitching And they looked competent Going against them Like it's just changing Yesterday they swung at pitches in the zone

Yesterday was the first time It felt like the offense Was like fuck it We gotta change something Because the first time through the lineup Every single batter Besides Higie who doesn't need to do this Because he's the only one hitting

Swung at the first or second pitch No matter where it was thrown Or what pitch it was They just It seemed like a team like hey, we just got to swing today because they just haven't been swinging. So I felt good about that. And then Kluber gave a good start.

Yankees get Voit back last year's home run champ. That should change the lineup dynamic a little bit. And the other thing that we appreciated, but we more lived in fear of as Yankee fans. Like, Kluber and Tyone, man, these guys haven't pitched. So this first month for them is like literally get on the mound and see what I still got in my right arm. So Kluber had a nice star yesterday. Tyones look solid. So they get VoIP back as well with some other slow starts.

Honestly, the Yankees record should probably be worse than it is. So as Yankee fans, if they can finish up this Baltimore series strong, they've got Detroit at home. You know, you start, you're around 500. It's a 500 month, whatever. The Twinkies, you know, they called up Kiroloff. Their lineups... These are looking bad.

Their lineups been kind of doing it, like Buxton's in the MVP race right now. A couple guys. A couple guys. Nelson Cruz is hitting it on the screws, and he's homering tonight. And I just think the other part of that equation, the White Sox were supposed to be the twins' big contender this year. And they kind of look around what we expected, and we'll see if the upstart Royals do anything. Jim, you nailed it on the Giants. I think that division is just brutal, although I love their coaching staff with Trev. and they just traded for literally my two favorite Yankees.

So, like, well, not literally. They're thinking like they could do it. I swear, they're not backing down. I don't know. I want to take the last five minutes. And one, ask San Francisco Giants fans to tell me some honest scouting on Wondi Peralta, since he's going to be with the Yankees for the next three seasons. Give it to me.

And in return, I will tell you some fun things about Mike Talkman to look for. He can play all three outfield positions, and he plays them really well. He hasn't been thrown out in the best. base paths yet. Defensively in base running, you're going to have a lot of fun. He tracks baseballs down like a linebacker, kind of like... Free safety. How Petey tracked down the quarterback, and remember the Titans, when he's just running very

stiff like this. Like, give me that ball, Petey, give that ball! Jump on like a starving man, on. Christmas ham, or whatever that quote is. That's how he plays the outfield. It's really fun. And then his interviews are thorough. Thoreau.

And we had him on the show. And he's read all the Game of Thrones books. He's like, he reads like, he's into like Reddit theories and Reddit forums. Like he's very thorough. And with a buzz cut, he looks like a little kid. So that's the Mike Tockman Scouting Report. He was injured last year, so he didn't hit anything.

But he's usually good against Lefty. So that's the Mike Talkman Scouting Report. They traded him for Wondi Peralta. I need in return from Giants fans, Wondi Peralta scouting Port. And like, not just like he sucks. You're going to hate him. Like, give me the goods.

Yeah. Let me know what's going on. Baseball Sabant. Yeah. And I think that's it. That's the show. Good job, everyone. Anything else we missed?

BPD? Any parting words? I miss you, Mike Talkman. Yeah. Oh, man. I've been clamoring the last three days for Mike Talkman to start getting starts and platoon with Clint Frazier. But now that's gone. So.

Our last like three talking innings episodes have had like five minutes each. Start Talkman. I'd like them to stop. Get Talkman some more games. And now it's impossible. Red So, five and five in their last 10. Stay in until you get sale back.

That's the plan. Yeah. All right. Goodbye. Farewell. Al-Vieter Thane and all that good stuff.