Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 344 | The Talkin' Baseball All Star Team

Episode Date: June 2, 2021

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Hello and welcome to talking baseball. It's the midweek episode, and we are naming the April plus May all-star team. Let's do it. Hello and welcome to talking baseball. My name is Jimmy sitting next to me is Jake in California. We got Trevin behind the desk. We got producer Bug Bug Dude. And it's brought to you by Draft Kings as always.

Do we have any patrons that I need to shout out? Let me click on the list right quick. check it out and Sophia Reyes I think I already did these right did I do? Connor Schoenfeld yeah I feel like I did Schoenfeld

Tommy Dats oh I did these Zachary Brine yeah great job I had a perfect game yeah thank you very much to them Trevor how are you doing? I'm doing great Jim I appreciate you asking that I had a big morning

I had to go to the pet store get some crickets then to the grocery store to get some charred all to feed my bearded dragon. Teddy's eating crickets again? Yeah. Beard of dragons, 15-year pets.

It's quite the commitment. Damn. That's where I met. How was your last night, Trevor Plouf? You were in attendance at a Major League Baseball game. Yeah, it was cool. You know, Jack, J. Flair, pitching in L.A. He asked me if I was going to come watch and pitch.

I said, leave me some tickets and I'll come watch a pitch. And sure enough, he did. so I brought Olivia down there. It was cool, man. Dodger Stadium had a nice little rebuild out in center field, kind of like a walkway, kind of just a place to go hang. So I hadn't seen that yet.

That was nice. And the reduced capacity is fucking awesome, dude. Like, there's no lines. Like, you can go get around, but there's still enough people where it feels like you're at a ball game. So we had a good time. And then good pitchers duel.

Jack pitched well. Bauer also pitched well. And unfortunately, Jack had to leave early, something in his side. I don't know if they've come out with all of it today, but he looked good. Yeah, didn't he have like nine punchies through four or something like that? Yeah, he had just two mistakes.

He got behind 1-0 to, I think it was Taylor and Lux, I believe, and they just jumped on heaters, just got him. When you were at the Cruz, man. When you were at the race game, you said it looked like a beach ball. You said you understand why people think it's an easy game. Did this feel the same way? It did, and I hate that.

I hate it, man. I told Olivia, I said, I really feel like there's a couple guys I'm still better than out there. But then, like, I really think about it, Jim. I'm like, no, that's not the case. She gassed you up right back? She said, of course you are. She goes, you want to make a comeback? I said, I know what?

I don't. I am part of the greatest baseball podcast to ever be on this earth. So I'd rather just do that. You didn't get any love from the talking baseball faithfuls, did you? I did. And that was actually very cool because I'm in a mask and I'm in L.A. and nobody cares about me in L.A. But apparently I'm wrong. One of our listeners came up and said, Trevor. And I looked. He said, hey man, can I get a picture? I was like, how did you know it was me? I'm sunglasses, hat, mask. And he's oh, I listen this morning or, yes, I listened this morning. I knew you were going to be at the game. So I want to look for you. And here you are. So pretty cool. pretty cool. Got that, you know,

shout out. Walking around, you can tell just by the outfit. And anyone that sees Treve at a future event, make sure you address him in a robot voice. I think that'd be funny. Hello, Trevor. I listen to the podcast all the time.

I like when people come and say they listen to us. That's cool. And that's happened a bunch in L.A., which is, to me, it's a little shocking. I know we have a lot of fans in New York. No, California, Dodgers fans. Strong. Yeah, they're into it.

man. So it's been, it's been, that's happened quite a few times now and that's really cool. And it was really cool because it happened in front of Olivia. So she thinks I'm super cool. Need that. Which is nice. Yeah, that's awesome. Jake, how are you doing? So Olivia think I'm cool yet? I don't think cool is like the word. No, that never came up. Yeah, she likes you though. We'll never came up. Okay. Yeah. I'm good. I'm good. It's a holiday Tuesday as we record this. And yeah, summer's happening. I think that's kind of crazy. analytics

summer's happening it's nice out today it's not that hot so I'm excited didn't rain what's the holiday Tuesday yesterday was a holiday it's the Tuesday after a holiday I believe that's what he meant

yeah today isn't a holiday yesterday was today not a holiday not a holiday all right at the end of the month of April I gave you guys my April all-star team I kind of half-assed it because I did it last second

admittedly this I did last night I was up till 2 a.m. doing this because I had a long day. And we're going to track it. So it's not April All-Stars. I don't care about that. I care about, like, you know, at the end of June, it's going to be for the first three months. And then, you know, and at the end of the year, we'll see who won the whole season. And it'd be fun to track who came, who went, every position, ALNL. So that's what we're doing today. And it's brought to you by Rise.

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I don't have my phone on me. Otherwise, I would let you guys know what my sleep debt is because I have RISE. I bought a Fitbit just to make it work better because sleep's important to me. And I got to make sure that I'm healthy and get an energy. And it tells me when I'm groggy. And it tells me when I'm, you know, the sleep debt I'm kind of like pretty into. I had five hours of sleep debt at one point. I was like, oh my God, I got sleep in tomorrow.

I'm at seven and a half right now. Uh-oh. Oh, boy. And that is up from. I slept a lot this weekend. Beauty's at 9.7 of hours of sleep debt? Too much sex. You're going to have to go into like a bear cave slumber to work that.

The first like two weeks we had it, I never once like improved it more than like 0.3. And this weekend I finally got there. Man. And that's still I cut it from 13 to like seven. What are you doing? Yeah. I don't know. I feel like I sleep like more than I ever have.

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For seven days. Whether you want to become a morning person, wake up more or fresh, be less exhausted during the day or improve your productivity and daily energy. Rise is the power behind your next best day. That's rise.com slash baseball to try RISE app free. seven days. All right. We're going to start in the A-L. We're going to start in the infield.

Last month, after the month of April, the first baseman from the American League on my All-Star team was Vladdy Jr. And now, adding the month of May to the equation, the first baseman on the American League All-Star team is Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Pretty good. He is leading the league, not just first baseman. He's leading the league. And on base percentage, slugging, OPS, total bases, and home runs.

Against other first baseman, he's just, it's not even a discussion. If anyone wants to argue with it, you're wrong on this specific case. It's Vlad E Jr. Vlad is one of the couple of these guys who are consensus, consensus. What you're basically doing here, Jim, I think we might change this to the all league. teams because that's kind of what you're doing. You're doing the All League AL, the All League NL, and I think we should give out official awards at the end of the year. What's the difference?

Well, All-Stars kind of already taken. Like, and you're doing this to kind of show that the All-Star game shouldn't be the vote. The All-Star game is always wrong. Right. So this should be like the John Boy All-League team. Vlad's at consensus. And yeah, yeah, we should give the guys actual awards and stuff, and then baseball reference will put them in at the end of the year. I believe they will. Vlad, you can't debate. Yeah.

Second place in the ALE is fun for first basement, but Vlad is head and shoulders, knees and toes. Yeah. Knees and toes. Got anything on Vlad, Trev? He looks like, I mean, I feel bad for you guys because you said he was going to hit under 28 homers,

whatever the hell it was. I didn't say that. Yeah. Okay, Jake said that. And you were right. You said, look, this guy is a complete hitter. And I think the only thing you forgot about was he's a freaking wagon.

I don't care if he slimmed down. Vladdy Vladdy or whatever. This guy's got power. He'll continue to have power. And I know he's kind of going off right now, but if you look, is Babbit, baby, only 317. All this stuff is sustainable.

That's the cool part about it. You know, he's not just going off and having some ridiculous luck run. Like, he's barreling the shit out of the ball and he's doing it at an alarming rate. So I don't know, man. Like, what? I don't know what he did different.

I think leaning out has helped him develop power, which is awesome to see. So he's been off. I think he's even leading the league in war, F-war is right, right? He's up there. Yeah, he might be. I don't see anybody else above him. And yeah, Trev, maybe I'll

have Kyle or someone dig up the quote, but I took that under on the homers and said and if he goes over, I'm happy because that means he's an absolute stud. And guess what? He's back in the names with Tatis and Acuna and all those guys because it's beautiful.

His strikeout rate is good. His walk rate is good. Like he's just seeing the ball. Like when you're, when he is able to pick up every single pitch you're thrown, he feels really good. That's a really fun place to be right now for him. Congrats to Vladdy. Yes.

All right. Now, second base in the AL after the first month, there was, is a shit show. No one stood out at all. Nick Solac won it with the Rangers just April. You go to April plus May and we have a standout winner. It's Marcus Simeon. I mean, without a doubt, he leads the league and hits, not just second baseman. So the right side of the infield for the Blue Jays is the John Boy Media All League team thus far.

He's got a 915 OPS, 915 OPS, a 152. OPS plus, 297 batting, average 365 on base percentage, eight stolen bases, zero caught stealing. He is playing well. Jay's right side of the infield. How about it? And hey, kudos to him. Kudos to the Blue Jays, one year 18 mil.

That's kind of a big risk for a team like the Jays. And hey, if Simeon keeps this up, he re-enters free agency, having another big year under his belt. that would be awesome for him because he would get the four, five-year payday that dude deserves. Yeah, and he switched positions. So now he's even more valuable. He played shortstop.

We know he can do that. He can pick it there. He's also proving he plays second base, which is extremely valuable to these teams. I got to go back and look like what mechanical adjustments did he make in 2019 and 2021? Because all the other years, you know, he's been okay. But then those two years he's been,

or these two years, have been incredible. I wonder if I can go back and see something different at the plate or something like that. Maybe in a future sequence, Ed? Maybe. Keep going on the American League infield. In April, the winner at shortstop was Carlos Correa. And I kind of did it because it was very close.

And I already gave third base to Devers. I didn't want to. So then Bogart's defense was hurting him a little bit. They were kind of close on offense. but you know I'm taking it more serious now than I did this first month. Yeah, you are. And in April plus May, it's Bogarts. For me, I'm interested to see if you guys have an argument on this one.

But he is leading all of short stops in like every slash line, I believe. He's got a 952 OPS, 162 OPS plus, 32686 on base. He's hit 10 home runs so far. He's playing well. Love it. I don't think there's any debate about the shortstop position either. And he's like, we talk about this all the time with him. He's so underrated.

Like, I don't know how this guy flies under the radar up in freaking Boston in a big market with a name like Xander, like BX, man. Like he's just, and he's a shortstop. I don't understand that. I don't know what's going on, but he's an absolute stud. I'd love to have some Boston people. And hey, maybe in the comments, let us know. The defense, he's grading out pretty well defensively.

I wonder if there's been any visible changes or if he just kind of had a good month picking it or what's going on. But yeah, he is offensively. Holy crap. Maybe he's not underrated. Maybe he's, I don't know. Do people talk about him and we just don't hear it? I think he's a little underrated. I will say this.

And okay, so now all the Red Sox fans about to leave a comment are going to be mad. like Bogarts has never been the guy that scares you. Like I think it's going to be one of the next guys on the list or, you know, going back to some of the earlier teams when Poppy or Padroyo were still there. Like Bogarts was never the guy, which I think hurts him a little bit. I don't know if that's rude.

I don't think so. I don't know. I guess a lot of times people, if we're talking about Radsox people, they said the same things about Jeter. Like he's never the best guy on his team. And like that's kind of the vaneer. going for there. Like, he's not the guy you're most scared of as an opponent.

I mean, the guy's sitting in 28, he's 28 years old. He's making $20 million this year. He's already accumulated 26.6.6 career war. Where do you think he ends up? No idea. Do you think he's a 40 war guy? Like, do you think he gets up there? Sure. Keep hitting.

I, uh, I don't even know Zander Bogartz. To your point, Trev. You give me a lot of Red Sox. I can close my eyes and picture they're in the stance and their batting stance and how they take pictures and their mannerisms and like even Benny, J.D., Devers. Yeah, I have like a blank spot when Zander's up. Like I can't imagine him hitting. J.B.J. I have in my head.

So it's just kind of a blank spot for me. I don't know why. I'm not trying to be rude about it. Yeah. He's never been a Red Sox that I've honed in on ever. I think he was always a little overshadowed. I mean mookie to Ortiz or Ortiz to Muki. And now, like, I think the hefty lefty gets a lot of the love too.

Might be coming up next. Yep. We will go move on to about a... Oh. Got an airdrop. In April, at third base, Raphael Devers, was representing the American League. And in April plus May, he's there.

So you have an AL East infield. You got Blue Jays on the right side. You got Red Sox on the left side. Now, I believe Trevor has an argument or a counter or something to this one. I'm willing to hear you out, Trev. You may persuade me. You may not. But I currently have Devers as the third baseman for the American League.

Jake, Treve, any thoughts? any any you had mentioned Wendell Trev is see that's the thing is I don't know what position Joey plays oh now that they called up walls Wendell's played more third base I think for this we'll keep Wendell as third okay I mean I you know I like Joy Wendell he grades out he's right now sitting 17th overall

in war but I don't think he should be over Devers I was just saying is there a utility spot because Joy spoiler isn't listed on the All-Star team. Gotcha. I wasn't saying he's better than Devers. Trev's thinking of adding a utilil spot for a versatile guy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, okay. Interesting as we grow. He's played 42 games at third, 12 at short. I think the guy that, Jim, I think Devers is the pick for now because you look at the hitting stats and they, you know, they're powerful and I guess they're a little more traditional. The Homers kind of wins it.

But I think White Sox fans would say Yon Mankata. War-wise, he's grading out really well. And it looks like, you know, he's getting on base more than Devers. He doesn't have the same pop. The WRC Plus is similar. I don't personally know if Moncada's defense is good enough to jump him over the 10 more homers Devers has for him. I would lean Devers here.

Yeah, I mean, I looked at Moncada. He was the number two I had in my head. but, you know, this is a results-based ranking. So projected numbers, any X numbers I don't care about at all. And counting numbers I do care about. And Devers has more doubles, more home runs, more RBIs, more stolen bases. He's got a higher slugging and a higher OPS Plus. So for me is pretty...

Moncada is listed above him in F-war, and I guess it's solely defensively because, you know, I think the base running is, you got a little bit of base running advantage, got a little bit of defensive advantage, and then it says their offense is graded the same, which I don't understand because Devers looks like in all those numbers has blown him out of the water. Yeah, yeah, I think any baseball fan would trade 10 homers,

more extra base hits for, he's getting on base at a real high clip, 421, but you'd still want Devers. Yeah. And last time around like Devers defense was a net neutral or negative or, but it's positive now. Yeah, they still. They have it as positive. So that's your AL infield.

Two Blue Jays, two Red Sox. How about it? A.O. East. You look up my eyes to. You know, you know, Mancada. What's that? You've opened my eyes a little bit to Moncada. I don't pay enough attention to him.

I don't think. Kind of a hot dude and he's playing with the white socks. He's having a hell of a year. He's beloved by the team. Like they did Moncata. They did Moncada Travel Day, which was really funny. And yeah, he's got that one monster season where he put up a big war. And then he got COVID.

And he was actually one of the players that openly talked about how it affected him and it weakened him and that kind of stuff. So, yeah, I mean, if we're talking overlooked guys, when you think of the White Sox, he's not one of the names you jump to. and maybe people should. I still take Devers. Devers is 24 freaking years old. And he's funny when you watch him play. Moncada is Cuban, so you know I love the Cuban baseball players. Makes it tough for me, but I'll still, all the endeavors for sure. Appreciate that.

All right. Next up, I'm going to do catcher. I'm going to stay in the infield, but I'm going to do catcher, and this is the trickiest, the trickiest one in 8.5. April, it was Salvi Perez, I believe. And in April plus May, I'm going to give it to Salvador Perez again. But Zanino is right on his ass. And the only problem is Zanino hasn't played a lot of games because they were platooning him with Mahia, Mahia. Zanina has won the job.

He started much more in May. and some of his numbers, he, you know, he has more home runs than Salvi, and he's got 90 less plate appearances. But he's got more home runs. Perez hasn't been batting average. Perez hasn't been on base percentage. Zeno hasn't been slugging. Zanino has him in OPS.

Zanino is crushing him in OPS Plus. But he just hasn't played that many games. So if Zanino has another month at starter and it keeps going, I'd expect him to be your AL guy. But I'm giving it to Salvador Perez for now. But it was the biggest, most interesting one for me. So I'm interested to see your guy's opinion here. T. Payne?

Eileen Zunino here, if I'm looking at the overall numbers defensively. I love, look, I love watching Salo play defense. I've seen him win a zillion gold gloves. So I don't exactly know how they track. I mean, I know how they track catchers defense. But sometimes I'm like, it doesn't make that much sense to me. Zunino, is blowing Sal out of the water in that regard.

And I always look at the Babbitt, man. Can both these guys sustain their offensive outputs? Zino's got a 231 Babbitt, which is kind of his fault because he does strike out a lot. So that kind of leads to, I'm projecting Zanino to be better, but Babb isn't results-based. It's not what happened. It's what could have happened. If you're just going offensive stats, then maybe, I don't know, I think Zunino, has it won. And what this is really open my eyes to

is that there's a lot of really good catchers in the National League and not a lot of really good catchers in the American Bigg. Bingo. There are no good catchers in the American League. Jim, you kind of know how I feel about Big Z, but the games, you're right, availability,

but he's got him in the counting stats too. He's got more homers. More homers. Yeah. Same amount of runs. But Salvy playing every day giving you a 276 batting average. with the seven, you know, who would you rather have on your team? And it's just because the Zanino hasn't given the chance,

but like Salvi's been great for them. To have a catcher play that many games day in, day out, and have positive slash lines and positive OPS Plus. And the AL is just not there. And I would love to know in Royals, fan, hey, maybe these will start being our most interactive things, is that Salvi, of all the catchers on top of the list, he rates out the worst defensively.

And Trev, you were just talking how, you know, Salvador Perez, gold glove catcher. I wonder if that's something Royals fans feel or if that's just two months of defensive analytics and Salvi Perez is still Salvin Perez. I have no idea. So if you guys both are voting for Zanino, Zanino will get the spot if you guys cast official votes. I would lean Zunino just because, you know, we're talking batting average. I get that. but then take it a step to their on-base percentage. Sal's walking a 2.3% clip.

That's crazy. So, like, he has a 305 on-base percentage to Zanino's 290, both not great. But I would lean, yeah, I guess the Rays are probably helping him with his pitch framing a ton. That seems like something that they would do. Like, the edge they're trying to find,

where Sal's more like, I'm an old-school dude, I'll do it my way. I don't think he... I don't know. I haven't watched enough Sal lately. Is he doing the one-leg thing? Is he stealing a low strike? It seems like he's probably not.

For me, the games played. Just get you. Salvador Perez is helping his team almost every day. Zanino, not really his fault, but he's just not there. I mean, in May alone, Perez had 111 played appearances to Zanino 67. If Zanino played every single day, would that confirm that he's,

can he still do this if he's playing every day? Because it's a grind as a catcher. So that's where it gets really tricky for me. But I don't mind either pick. I would vote Salvi. If you guys both vote Zanino. Zanino will get the John Boy Media, April plus May, all league catching spot.

I'll leave it to Jakey here because I'll say Zunino. To your point, Jim, Sal's the only one with those kind of plate appearances. Every other catcher is around with Zunino. So, I can't fault Zunino for that because he doesn't write the line on car. I'm sure he wants to catch as much as possible, but that's not the way the race do business. So my vote will be Zunino for this team.

I'm torn, man. That Zanino not writing his name sticks. I do love Salvi. And I've got a battle in my head going between the guy who could get the Lifetime Award and the guy, you know, this could be Big Z's last award if another mouth goes south. He's also at Zanino, a lot of his home runs are big home runs. Kimmy Zanino. Big homers.

He's earned it. He's in first place too. Yeah, I mean, the race. The race were the team of the month of May. So big Zee. Nine of his 12 home runs. Zanino have come in three run games or less. I like it.

I was going to say a couple other guys in the discussion. Mitch Garvers turned it around. He's been swinging the bat really well after a slow start. then, you know, guys like Yasmani, he's kind of always around. I mean, he's got the LBP, but... I think this race might get fun, Trev. I think that's kind of what you're saying. I think Yosmani, you're looking at that 127 Babbip would not be surprised if his numbers turn around.

There's a sleeper chance. Gary Sanchez starts getting some more runs. He's had a couple good games. Salvi, Garver, like you said. So I don't think it's decided. A lot of ball to play. Yep. All right, let's move on to the American League outfield, three outfield spots,

not by specific position, just by outfield in general. I just had to cancel one because I looked at his game log and he hasn't played the outfield all months. So I, if you guys are looking at the sheet, so I have a third spot open for everything. But there's two, there's two that you can't argue. It's Adolice Garcia and Aaron Judge. They are, yeah, you can't argue them. They are two of the top. I mean, Buxton, Trout, and Mullins were the April ones.

Buckson got injured, Trout got injured, and Mullins tapered off a little bit of his crazy start. Aaron Judge has a 170 OPS Plus. That's the highest OPS Plus on this All-Star team besides Vladdy Jr. Adelisse Garcia's got 149. Adelis has 16 home runs, 41 RBI, six stolen bases. He's got a 9-1. 1-1 OPS.

He's having himself a hell of a year. Judge has 13 home runs. He's got a 301 batting average, a 398 on base percentage, a 961 OPS. So those two are there in the American League. The third spot, it could go so many ways. It's a really open field. The two options I bet there are meta. and Cana.

And they're kind of like... I got another one for us. I mean, just looking at the names here, Luriano. Luriano gets a lot for his defense. That's okay. That means something. It does.

It does. Why don't you want to take that into consideration? What's the reasoning for that? My thing is, I like looking at how they've been offensively and then finding, that group, that's all, and then out of that group seeing who's also helping on defense. I'd rather, especially, I'd rather look that way where, like, Luriano doesn't make that pack.

He only makes that pack because of his defense. I don't think he's that far off. He's close to the pack. I mean, 137 WRC plus, 11 homers, eight swipes. And the defense does jump out. I'm between, for me, it would be Luriano or Trout stays. I know he's been hurt, but I mean, if you ended, if the season ended today, if we're, no, you can't do that. You can't do that. He hasn't played it at all. 36 games. You could say that about Buxton then, too, because he still leads all this award. It would still be Busting and Trout then. They still lead.

I would, I'm leaning Luriano and I like, I like the Luriano, uh, Kana debate a little bit. Like, that's kind of fun. I've got to be honest. I had never thought that Mark Kana was going to turn into the player that he's turned into. I know he could hit a little bit, but he's, he's like, he's like. kind of a mainstay for a team that wins 96 freaking games a year. Yeah. My vote goes to Oriano. Hanager's kind of up there. You've been raking. And then Tucker is the other one. But yeah, it's kind of open field out there with the injuries to the other big guys.

Let me pull it up. Who did I say Hanager and Tucker? I'm pulling up all their stats side by side so I can see them. I got them all up here. What do you want to know, Jim? I want to know OPS Plus and slugging. So Kana's got the highest OPS plus. Oriano, I think, is slugging higher than any of those guys, except for Hanager.

Yeah, Hanager's leading in slugging. Hanager's leading in OPS. Kana's leading in on base percentage. And Mullins is leading in batting average. Hanager's leading in home runs. Oh, dude, I might go Hanager. He's got 13 doubles. He's got 13 doubles, 14 home runs,

261 batting average. 314 OBP, that's pretty bad, but the slugging is high. 143 OPS plus. I don't know. I think it's laser for me, man. I mean, the offense is in the same boat. The guys we're talking about now, Hanager, Meadows.

Luriano's offense is in the boat with those guys. And if you, so like you were saying, when you take a step back and you say, okay, defensively, what are we doing? He's the guy that clearly jumps out on the list compared to those guys. Yes. Whether it's analytics or just the general eye test, you go to a game and you see what Loriano does out there. Yeah, he's a wow guy. I have a question for Jake.

How do you look simultaneously both like Tyler Wade and Ruehauer, and Ramon Laureano. It's tough. How does that work? You're a special talent. I've been getting some random ones lately. God, someone, who was it? Someone compared me to,

they tagged me on Instagram. I'll see if I can find it. It was definitely a weird one. But yeah, no, it's, I mean. Ted Cruz. So many. Hey now, you always have to go politics. Oh, I got tagged in Luis Erius.

yesterday on the brewers. So. I don't know. Just a lot of hot boys. Maybe on well-dressed Wednesday. Yeah. Okay. All right.

So Luriano's in? End of May. Well, what happened was when I had Judge and Adelisse in there, like everyone had an OPS above 149 was like the lowest. And Luriano was like 130. So that was the first. first number I looked at. That's why I said when I originally looked at it. I was like, oh, he's lower or whatever. All right. You guys want to do pitching? Do you care?

The AL's pretty easy. Let's just announce your team. We don't have to go over it. Yeah, okay. My AL starters, Garrett Cole. He's got the lowest, he's got 11 game started with the 178 ERA. That's the most game starts with the lowest ERA. And that's really all I care about there. And then I have Lance Lynn as my backup starter. He's only started nine games because he had to miss a couple weeks, but he's got a 1-3-7 ERA. I mean, that's crazy.

You just love his fuck-you fastball. Hot. Just say it. I love it. I don't value pitching the same way, I think probably majority of, I'm more impressed with a pitcher that succeeds without striking out people. Deeper in the games, keep the infield awake. I know a lot of people just go straight to that K percentage.

I do not. I don't care. Strike out the same as a ground ball. All right. So that, oh, that's your AL. I have some relievers here. I have Chapman and Hendrix, Scott Barlow, Emmanuel Claese, and James Cairnchack. As my bullpen. As good as Hendrix has been, you know, I know he got broken off a decent contract, but how many teams are kicking themselves for not taking that contract? Like, Bowpen is such a big deal in today's game, and there was a guy out there, fresh off reliever of the year award.

You know, you saw what he did in the playoffs coming back, though, and all those damn pitches didn't matter. His stuff still played the same. And now that it seems like a bargain for the white sucks to me. Hendricks had a clean May, 13 games, zero earned runs. So that is your John Boy Media, April plus May, all league team. and it was brought to you by Manscaped. They got the brand new lawnmower 4.0 and ultra-smooth package.

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Man's, that's great. It's really good. All right, let's go to the National League. We've got to kind of go a little faster here. Buster Posey's the catcher. I forgot about him because he didn't come up on the qualified searches last in April.

So it's kind of a fake anyway. And I forgot catch a half-asset. Buster Posey is easily the National League catcher. You cannot debate it. He's a 190 OPS plus. He's got a 1.028 OPS. 4-15 on base 331 batting average She is the National League starting catcher

It's fucking nuts what he's doing It's fucking incredible What a bounce back Smith and Real Mudo Sneaking up on him You're right Trev The catchers are in the NL this year baby It's insane what they're doing there

I also I don't think you can debate The National League first baseman I'm interested to see if anyone wants to it's Max Muncie Muncie. Muncie wins all. I don't know who it was in April. Was it Muncie?

No, I gave it to Aguilar. But it's Max Muncie. There's nobody even close to him, what he's doing right. No, he's got a 4-42 on base percentage, 281 batting average, and a 563 slugging. He's got 13 home runs, 47 hits. Yeah, he's, and he stole the base. How about that?

Overlooked. And he can play other positions. too. Like you can just plug them somewhere else, third base, second base. Like that's freaking insane that you can do that. You can't do that with anybody else. Dodgers infield. No offense to Reese Hoskins, but you're not going to put Reese Hoskins, Philly's infield, one of my best friends. I love Reese, but you can't put him at second base or third base. Yeah. It's pretty awesome. All right. Second base. Now, I think this one's interesting because Jake perked up when he saw what I had in here.

And in April, in the National League, I gave it the Jazz Chisholm. I liked having those guys together. In April plus May, I'm giving it to Adam Frazier of the Pirates, which I was surprised that I did this. But Jake asked me when he saw this, and I did have a reasoning, and I've forgotten it twice now. But yeah, I'm Adam Frazier. He's my second baseman.

332, 391, I think are some of the biggest reasons why. And he's slugging a little too, 471 slugging. The other guy that jumps, well, there's two guys. One, I don't know his position eligibility would be Ryan McMahon. I think we're labeling him a third baseman, which is tough for him. But I know the Padres fans want to hear it. We talked about him the other day, the Crohn Zone. There we did.

Croninworth. I think him and Frasier are toe to toe. Yeah. Fraser has Croninworth beat in batting average, on base percentage, slugging OPS, OPS plus. So that's why I was like, oh, I thought I was going to have to make more of a case. It's like they have the same amount of RBIs. Cronomworth has five home runs. Fraser has two.

Frasier has 17 doubles to Cronomworth's 12. So yeah, I was surprised. I thought it was going to be Croningworth. And then I looked at the numbers. I like, oh, it's Frazier. it's Adam Frazier I like Adam Frazier I think it's a good pick I also want to throw in there

just a little wild card Eddie Escobar my guy down in Arizona Jake's snakes baby he's I think second in the league in RBI so he's in contention I think people look at that a lot too you're driving and runs you're driving and runs so he's not Adam Frazier

you're not replacing Adam Frazier on your team but I want to give a quick shout out to the snakes yeah I wonder how much run months he gets at second base going forward with the pool host team. Yeah, and this is another one that the defense comes into play. Pirates fans, Adam Frazier has rated out pretty bad defensively. Is that been visible or not? Because that's what I don't know from not watching Pirates game.

And then Croninworth grades out as one of the elite and Padre fans talk about him like he is. So I'm assuming there's a defensive gap there. I don't know if that makes up some of the offensive stuff. I'm good with Frashe. Even when Muncie starts the game at second, he always ends it at first, so I think he'll stay more innings at first. He's only in May,

he only started one, oh no, okay. It was only one for a while, and now it's four games at second where he didn't go to first. If Muncie was a Mario Kart person, he'd be Bowser. Like, that's what he looks like on the field. Like he's big.

He's just a little... Never mind. You chunky chunk. Oh. NL short. That's a good thing. NL shortstop is you can't debate it. It's for Anartatis Jr.

The dude has a like 700 slugging. A 300 batting average. Let's see. The updated is 299 batting. 383 on base percentage. 708 slugging. I mean, he's insane. And he's exciting.

So he needs to be at the. Elstar game. Yeah. And I think his defense will figure itself out. I think a lot of times he just makes crazy plays and he's, his body moves in ways that he just needs to control it just a little more. And I think eventually he will. And I think he'll rate out elite defensively at some point in his career. Trey Turner had it in a, after just April. Tatea has it after April plus May. Trey Turner hive where yeah, don't care. Oh, so he's such a step. He's awesome. But I, you know, He made a play. He made, wait, can I just tell you this play?

I'm sorry, it's fresh of my mind. He made this play the other day. Coming in on a ball, a runner on second base. He comes in on a ball, bare hands it with his right hand, obviously. And it was Colton Wong was running. Flips it like an option over to the third baseman. Like going the opposite way, flips it over that way. Colton Wong, they tag him.

He ends up coming off the base, gets him out. But if you haven't seen that highlight, go check that highlight out. I've never seen a shortstop make that play. Tray Turner. How about it? I just want to tell Tatease is the guy. Brandon Crawford, having a great year. Good for him.

I think he's in a contract year, too, if I remember that right. So that's going to be an interesting one. By the way, him and Garrett Cole family. And our own, Mickey Rojas, having a nice little year. Chris Rose rotation. But yeah, Tatee is in another world. Yep. Yeah.

All right. Third baseman for your NL team. after just April. We moved it around a lot, but eventually I gave it to Chris Bryant because I wanted to have more people to put in the outfield.

So Chris Bryant won the third base job. Now if Chris Bryant was still playing third base, he'd win the third base job, but he didn't play third all of May. So he's out of contention for that. And so your NL third baseman is Austin Riley, young thick.

That's who I'm going with. Is thick? this. You have Aeronado, who's there. But Austin Riley has Aeronado in average. She's got him in on base percentage. She's got him in slugging. Aronado's got him in slugging.

Does he? I don't. Sorry, I was looking at Longoria. No, Riley's got him in every category. Yeah, especially Babbip, 394. Hey, they're dropping, baby. I think it's going to come down a little bit. It's tough for me. I like Aeronado.

Then Longo's right behind both of them. You know I love my long-go. So I think you can go either way there. Aronado or Riley. I like that you're giving it to the young guy. He needs that confidence. Yeah, I'm with that. I think St. Louis will be not happy with us.

But Aronado can do a little more, and I think he will. But for now, let's reward Young Thick. Kind of same as Zanino for me. Good job. he's really started crushing and Aronado I think I saw he's leading the league in doubles turn a couple of those into yackers

and I think he can put this in his rear view but good for Austin Riley man yeah he needed it I got two notes and it's not that drastic he is leading and he's there all the categories they're they're equal Aronado first position player

out doing his thing before the game yesterday I was like who is that. Why are you out so early? It was Aronado. Taking care of his body, man. He's going to play for a long damn time. All right. Other note, Turner is a stud and they fucking love him in L.A.

Yes. Your outfield consists of two reds. Castianos and Winker are there. And Chris Bryant is your National League Outfield. And all of those guys kind of

are dominating. They're way out of head. I feel like we got to pick a red, man. They're both better than the rest. You shouldn't harm them. What do you mean? Acuna is right there. I kind of need Ronnie on there.

Yeah. Acuna is leading. I think Acuna has to be on the team. He's not on my team. You guys can vote him. I mean, these guys have a better average, better on base percentage, better slugging. better OPS plus.

They have better runs created plus. They're better and everything. He has three more home runs than Winker. No. That's just for Star Appeal alone, which is not what we're doing. That's what MLB does. Seed appeal, baby. I don't think it's Star Appeal.

He's also leads Winker in War. 2-8 for Castellanos, 2-7 for Bryant, 2-4 for Acuna and 2-2 for Winker. Six bags. Is that the difference? Boll on bases? Talking swag level, that's we got a Cooney in a landslide.

It's tough, man. Yeah, this wasn't tough for me. Interesting how you think it's not tough. He's fourth in all the slash lines. There's three guys ahead of them in average. You're definitely just an offensive guy for the outfield. It's the outfield. That's your thing.

Anyone can play out there. If your defense, if you're, the corner outfields, if you're good at defense is a plus. If you're net neutral, no one gets shit. They throw guys out there that don't play the outfield. Well, that's... It's Castianos and Winker. I think that's going away, though.

I think baseball, the way it's played now, with people trying to hit the ball in the air because, you know, they're trying to slug. Like, you need a good outfield. They can go get it. You know if you have a bad outfield, Jim, it's a bad time. Yeah, a lot of teams have bad outfields

because no one cares about that right now. Colorado Rockies, right, Jake? Yeah. Yankee. Bad, bad. A yanks. Sincey. No, I mean, they're both, right.

I mean, their numbers are nuts. Their numbers are nuts. I wonder Reds, like, do Reds fans, if you had a gun to your head, because I know we had Winker Fever for a while, like a lot of people trying to get his name out there, are these guys just 1A and 1B? Like, are Cincinnati fans not picking an alliance, or is there a guy that jumps out a little more on a get?

Like, is one guy streakier than the other? Does one guy have three home or days So it doesn't feel is spread out I genuinely have no idea Their numbers are beastly Yeah I mean In the end of the year Acuna might

And probably will beat him out But I think it's tough to I think the star appeal is winning over Not the numbers there He's got Brian and Slugging That's kind of it Yeah you can leave it I'm okay with it

It hurts I think if you guys are in agreement, I'll go with it, but I do want to say to my Braves Nation that I would have had a Cooney in there, probably over Winker. It's the beauty of us checking in every month. Trent Grisham. Yeah, Grisham was up there for me. I think I want, I mean, dude, Winkers got 348, 411, 635. Got the second highest OPS is very deserving.

Offense guy. Give me winker then. They play in a little, tiny little ballpark. Oh, stadium card late. I'm sorry. Wow. Hey, Tyler O'Neill, by the way, because we can talk about a good, you know, good outfit.

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Call 1-800 gambler in Indiana, 1-800-9 with it. I have Brandon Woodruff as my starter. He started 11 games. He has a 1-27 ERA. He's insane. And very good.

And then Now, Jake, you want a de Grom here. He's only started eight games, so he didn't make my list. And I put Kevin Gossman here. He started 11 games. He has a 1-4 ERA. He has yet to hand the ball to his bullpen in a losing effort. He has yet to walk off the mound, and his team is behind in the game.

he's the only pitcher in the NL that's crazy to me every time he hands the relief pitchers the ball it's either tied or they're winning and is all 11 starts but yeah de Grom can be there too

I don't really care but he only got eight starts so that's why he fell off yeah I kind of need DeGrom on there I mean Lance Lance has nine in the AL de Grom ZRA is 071 Like, we're just, I think it's the opposite of the Akoon effect before.

Like, we're so blinded by how good DeGrom is. He just didn't come up in my searches because he's only, he doesn't have the innings that I did. Yeah. But obviously DeGrom would be on there. They'd take more than two starters, so I just only did too. Are we not talking about Wheeler at all? We're just going to throw him in the trash? Wheels up.

Because I like looking at the expected stuff too. Yeah, but that's, that's. I'm a result Results based You can't do that for this If it's like looking at it If it's com if it's comparable No

But like if they're too good ERAs You can go to this is this No Because you don't win games on expected stuff If you're looking at damn wins And win percentage in ERA Like that's that's too old school For me in pitching dude

But I like FIP I like looking at FIP Yeah I totally disagree Because you can you could you can get played into that. Like your defense matters. But this is like the MVP.

You would vote the MVP on on expected shit, not results. If it was close, I would go, if it was close, I would go to those and say, okay, maybe your hard hit rates better.

Like maybe you deserved better stats. Like, we can measure that stuff now, Jim. I think that has to be taken into a case. You're in the majority. I hate it. I think it just rewards strikeout pitchers

and not guys who just have quick games and put the ball and play, like Lance Lynn and Mark Burley, who I think is more impressive. Yeah, I think the problem is the numbers. The numbers are numbers. And that's, okay, you guys can put that on a shirt. Don't worry about it. The numbers are numbers.

And what they don't account for is the guys that are doing something different. Lance Lynn throws 90% heaters and makes them cut different directions. His analytics are not going to grade out the same as everyone else in the league. Zach Britton, for years, the analytic geeks were all over Zach Britain because, oh, the guys put it in play against them. Well, guess what? That's what he wants. He makes you put it on the deck 80% of the time to the league's weakest contact. So you need to take those into consideration, but I'm with Jim.

When you're giving out an award, especially an award as prestigious as this, you can only do what the numbers give you. And it might even go back to some yogisisms like, hit. it where they ain't. So if your Babbitt right right, Trev, it's probably going to come down. But I'll penalize you when it comes down right now if they're dropping. They're dropping, babe. I also don't like Babbitt. I've been off on Babbitt

for a year now. He's off the Babbitt. I mean, I think for me it's... Babbitt just means you're predictable. Like Gary Sanchez always has a crazy low Babbib and people say he's incredibly unlucky and you watch him day and day out. No, he's not. It's just fucking predictable.

He hits the ball in the same spot every time. So they put the fielder in that spot. Don't reward him because his bad bit makes it look like he's unlucky. Just because they put the left fielder on the warning track doesn't mean that Gary's good. I mean, now you're talking about people should be able to place the ball where they want to. That's not the case. Well, I'm just saying better players hit the ball all over and have a spray chart. It's tying in the analytics of it all.

Like Gary Sanchez, you know, if you hit a rocket to the wall, but the defense plays you out there, that's not bad luck. Like, that's the scouting report on you after a certain point. I think bad. Of course that's bad luck. Of course that's bad luck. Dude, you can't control where you hit the ball. You're trying to hit it as hard as you can.

Trevor, this is what shifts are. You play the percentages. If Gary Sanchez, 30% of the time, hits long fly balls to left field, then you play your outfielder there. That's not bad luck. that's playing. You just said long, that's different.

Long fly balls are different than a laser to left field like you just said. Well, I mean, before they had the things, they would play not standing on the warning track, and it would be a bouncer to the wall. I think pitching is a little different than hitting as well. I think the expected stuff, because you can measure, you know, expected batting average on balls, hard hit percentage, all that stuff.

I think you have to take it into account. Because defense really freaking matters when you're a pitcher. If you have a really good defense behind you, all your numbers are going to be better. If you're a really bad defense behind you, all your numbers are going to be worse. You're pitching with guys on base more often.

You know that you can't rely on getting a ground ball. You can't be confident in that. So I think there's a lot of things that come into play. I'm okay with who you pick. Galsman's obviously had a great year. I'm just saying Wheeler should be in the conversation. Yeah. I mean, his ERA is a whole point higher than the other three.

Outdated. So is his fit? dated Trev I'll bring back win percentage for the team when you're on the mound Oh Like Gosman staying in the game

No matter what the score is The other team scored two Okay I'll hold them to just one or low Other team scored three All right I'll hold them two or low That matters I like If we start talking about

Free agents and trades Give me all the expected stats Give me all the Wobah And the hard hit rate if we're trying to predict how this dude's going to play for you in the next two months or the next seasons, I am 100% there. But awards, that's results based for me. And I think that the shift has gotten too loud.

Like DeGra or Cole with the Astros should have won the Cy Young. The Astros won like the last 17 games that he started. And that matters. But the nerds completely said it doesn't matter because, and gave it to Verlander. It's like, that's so stupid. like if he's on the mound and you win every time he's on the mound that matters but there's he only can control one fast of the game

like you have to score runs to win so like if he was getting better run support and like was able to be in an easier mindset because of it that's different that has nothing to do with him that's everything to do about the offense so I think pitching is one of those things man there's so many ways you can slice it and dice and I'm okay with what you guys are doing

And like the real all-star team does have like more slots that we're filling out here. Yeah, everyone is a prestigious team. Yeah. That's still changing. Wheeler had a monster. There might be a util guy next time around. I might just call it the Joey Wendell Award. And it just goes to Joey Wendell.

Only Joey Wendell. What was his Twitter bio? God, family baseball? My brothers beat me up. I still can't believe that story. I didn't do NL relievers Because I got pretty tired and bored It was 2 a.m.

And I was like, I don't give a fuck Because I did the A.R. Relievers and I was like, that was a waste of time. I don't think anyone really cares. There's so many. I have no stats in front of me. I wonder if I could guess who the best NLRRUruder. Well, what happened was Kitridge for the raise comes up

as like one of the best. And then I went to see like when they use him and it's not really the most high leverage situation. So then I was like, well, I don't give a fuck then. but then I also kind of like he should be rewarded because he doesn't choose that and he does his job so it's too confusing for me

that's why they don't even let the public vote on that they used to now the manager always chooses not pitchers for what manager always chooses the relief pitchers so like it'll then we get voted in back in the day I don't think they were subject to fan vote

they could I mean maybe they could have and I don't remember Dave Roberts will choose and uh Kevin Cash. Ned Yost. So maybe Kevin Cash will pay Kittridge. Look at that.

Good luck, Kittridge. I think Alex Reyes is probably... I thought about that. Then I looked at the numbers. He's really good. I would say Alex Reyes. Mark Wilansson, I saw that the other day. He's doing really well.

He's the NL closer. He's been insane. Yeah, I did that. Yeah. I don't understand it. I like Melanson. All right, let's do that. Melanson and Ray is, bam.

Dude, Malanson's game log is nuts. He's giving up two earned runs on the season. And one of them, they put him out there for two innings. And I think he gave it up in his second inning, so I don't even care about that. It's making $3 million this year. What the freak. No, no, he gave it up in his first.

But yeah, Malanson's been crazy. These are league and saves right now, 17 saves. By the way, they were talking Eric Gagnier at the Dodger game last night. 58 consecutive, I think is the record, and he did that. He had something like 52 in one season, 52 for 52. Perfect here. Cy Young, I think, right? That's it.

That's the all-league team. Managers? Just quick? Dave Roberts and. Gabe Kepler. Gabe. Let's go. Gabe Kapler's my two votes for Gabe.

Gabe wins. You know what I'll do it by? Trave, I'll do it by the, what's the Pythagorean? What's it called? Ooh. Pythagorean theorem.

Now you're doing expected stats. Yeah. Wow. One of why? Because you told me that this stat is how you judge managers. It is? Yeah. Well, it would be the difference.

Yeah. Outperforming. Right. Yeah, I never knew about this really. You told us this. back of that you looked at it. Okay. Let's see.

So luck factor. Ooh, Mariners have a lot of luck. I don't know how to, I don't know what, I don't know what I'm looking at. Okay. Gabe's got it in the NL. Let me just. Hot. Let me just.

Yeah. Sultry. Cash and Gabe. I'm giving it to him. Cash is one of the, one of the teams that is playing better than their Pythagr win-loss. So he's lucky. That would be,

that would be to his credit. If your team is better than your Pythagorean theorem, that would mean you have good managing. Yeah, they've won losses. If you're in the game management's good. That's, that's a thought process.

I think I'll give it to Tony Laruso. Whoa, Treff. I don't know, man. Oakland, Oakland has outperformed. Oh, no. So Beaumel. Bowmel and Cat Trebs guys. Well, according to this, it's Seattle, Oakland, and St. Louis for manager of the year.

If you want to go. Sheltie. Was it Bill James that did this? I don't know. Go down on Bill James. I'll give it to Shilty because he's been pretty fun. Okay. I vote Gabe, but I'll give it to Shilt because he made a cool video.

Yeah. And there you go. All right. Thank you guys very much for tuning in. We'll be back on Friday. I won't be here. I'm flying to California. So we might have a third or we may not.

Bug, bug, dude, do not even think about getting a rectangle on Friday. Asylum time. Inmates running the asylum. By Jake Stock.