Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 347 | Luckiest & Unluckiest Players, RISP Stats, and Memorable MLB Debuts

Episode Date: June 9, 2021

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Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. It's the midweek episode, and each of us has a little something we'd like to discuss with each other. Buzz good. Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball, presented by Draft Kings. We got a fun episode today. My name is Jimmy. I got Jake sitting right next to me. Trevor in California and producer BBD behind the desk.

We're going to be talking about lucky and unlucky guys. runners in scoring position stats and fun debuts on today's midweek episode. And we're all incredibly fired up about it, including you guys at home. As I click to see if we got any new patrons, we do. But I think I said all these already. I did. We don't. I said them all.

You've been heard. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. And thank you to dug out mugs. We're sponsoring the show And a lot of the things we do here And sending us these mugs that have our logo right on it You can get it

If you have your own personal logo You can have them put that on there If you have a picture of Jake's face You really want on a mug You can put that on there Kind of ugly mug on an ugly mug type situation Two negatives equal positive The mug comes out looking beautiful

Jake gives it to his future children As a present They are mad in their teenage years they throw it in a campfire. It hurts my soul. They covet it, the ashes of it in their older years. I'm in my recliner chair. I already checked out from life.

Well, you're upset. Thanks, dugout mugs. Yeah, thanks. Code John Boy gets you 35% off all MLB dugout mugs, wind-up season openers, and knob shots. They're pretty cool. If your dad gets one for you, I guess, don't burn it in your teenage years because you're upset at your dad.

like Jake's future kids, well. Well, if he put Jake's face on it, what are you supposed to do with the damn thing? I scare the neighbors. Why did two negatives equal a positive? Oh, math pod early. Don't get it. Early math pod.

I thought they don't. They do. I thought it's always two wrongs don't equal right. Well. Well, that's spiritually. You're talking about math? Tough to say. It's a tough start to the show.

trying to do math. Anyway, thanks, Doug Out Mugs. Trev, how you doing? I'm doing great. You know,

I got my poker game tonight, so I did a few things. Last night I watched some Lord of the Rings because I need to get my Tolkien baseball references up. I have a ton now. Like,

Lord of the Rings and life go hand in hand. And baseball in life go hand. So two negatives make a positive. This is exactly what we're talking about right now.

I don't know if the math. No, that's math. I don't know if the math. Yeah, and also, yeah, the poker game tonight, I'm mentally preparing for that. It's a big one. I'm excited for it. I can't believe you're watching Lord of the Rings to study for it.

Should I watch Lord of the Rings so I can understand what you're saying when you deliver them? If you haven't watched it, yeah. I mean, it's... I know nothing about the story at all. Like Star Wars I've never seen, but at least I know the general gist of like good guys, bad guys. I know the big twist. Like Lord of the Rings,

I know. Besides the gibberish you speak, to me, I can't even follow along with what you say because I know, like, I don't know. There's hobbits. That's all I know. Bang. I respect Star Wars. I do. I respect George Lucas and the world that he's created.

I just think that the Tolkien universe is a little bit more unique. I don't know. They're both great. What am I saying? But I'm also reading the books because I'm, I've only read The Hobbit before, and I need to read the books to be a true Tolkien expert. So I started that yesterday as well. And then you need to read the biographies about the books and about everything.

And then I sent you guys some like fan fiction. What if Gandalf took the ring? See, I don't know what that means. That's like, that's why, you know, I think if there's Star Wars, I know what it means. Greatest Trilogy of all time, Trev. Talk about, this is a big ad for the next talking baseball. Big ad. Stay tuned.

What do you think the greatest trilogy of all time is, Jake? Probably Star Wars. I mean, that feels like the OG that kind of opened up. OG. That led into Lord of the Rings and things that are talked to be a matter. It's way older than Star Wars? It's way older than Star Wars. Isn't Lord of the Rings from like to 1800s?

Nobody reads books. No, it's like the early 1900s, 1930s, I think. Who wrote the, what are his initials? Something, something. J. R. Tolkien. Someone put a TPP Tolkien in our last chat, and I like that. Trevor Paul Blue. Let's talk some baseball.

Yeah, Mighty Ducks is my favorite trilogy. Geek crap. Also written in the 1800s, a little-known fact. That was different tale. It was about ducks. I'm in a bad lead off today, fellas. Because you know what I do. I keep this show on track.

And, you know, our midweek episode, we normally grab some topics, or we grabbed Eno. When we're talking about sticky stuff, Eno, Sarah, the best Trevor Story, whoops. So I was like, okay, what do I want to talk about on today's talk? What do I want to talk about on today's talking baseball? As I left the Shire and looked at, went online to see what there was. And I said, okay, you know, Yankeesland is a bad time right now.

our yanks are drifting towards 500, things are tight. A couple articles came out of expected stats and what's going to get better, how does it get better? And I thought, you know, about two plus months in, we're sneaking up on All-Star Break and things like that. We're sneaking up on the halfway point of the season. This is a good time, especially fantasy baseball, if you're looking for value. Who's lucky? Who's unlucky? And I know, you know, we've had some talks on here about Babip and, and some things like that.

And like we said, they're units that should be used to measure performance going forward or something to look for. You know, I'm not going to discredit a guy who had a 400 BABIP because guess what? His hits were dropping. And maybe he was roping them around and sure, maybe it'll come down a little. Maybe they're having a great year. So it's kind of knowing what to do with those expected stats. And so what I did, I went to baseball Savant, if you've heard of that site.

and I wanted to get some of the numbers. I got some of the stat cast, and I looked at some different things. I looked at, I did some pitchers and some hitters, baseball. I figured you guys might like that. And I was looking at the different expected batting stats between batting average, expected slugging, and ex-Woba, which gets a little geeky, but it's one of the preferred stats of analytics. I'm more of a wool bacon guy.

You're an ex-Wol-Bacon guy? Mm-hmm. Treb bacon or sausage Three, two, one Bacon Okay So when dress up as For Halloween

I think bacon's easier That uh You know more of a flat guy You guys are more of a round Oh okay And so that makes sense Back to what you were saying Back to what I was saying

So I was going through the different numbers And you know It's actually if you go to baseball Savant. Savant. Expected statistics. Leaderboard. And it's got a really good way to sort it.

It actually sorts, you can sort it by the difference. So that really helped a lot. But I wanted to get some big names for you guys. Did you go and thinking you were going to do a lot of math? I thought there was a chance I had to do some math. And we all know the negative, negative thing, positive situation. So I'm glad we dodged that. Let's, Trev, we're a positive pod.

Let's do some guys that have been getting a little unlucky. So we should be expecting. them to turn it around a little bit. And there was one, so, you know, a couple of these guys are going to be obvious. You say, do you really need advanced stats to say a guy like this is going to get better going forward? One of the names that jumped out as getting very unlucky so far this season is Frederick. Frederick Freeman, holy smokes.

Right now, Freddie, his... His expected batting average is a 297, which, hey, when you think of Freddie Freeman, you know, not even necessarily MV-free, which he was last year, you think of Freddie Freeman as a hitter in that range, you know, a pretty elite guy. Freddie Freeman this year, hitting 229. So that is a, you know, quick math off the top of my head, 068 point difference. And you see it across the board, his expected slugging, his, ex-Woba, everything has been skewed down from where he should be. You know, he's slugging 449.

His expected slugging is 573. So Freddie Freeman, all the advanced stats would tell you he's pretty much doing the same thing as last year, but man, the results on the field are telling that differently. So, hey, a little bit of good news for Braves fans. How about that? That is good news for them. Treve? You still in Tolkien World?

trying to figure out who to compare Freddie Freeman to? We talked about this on the All-Star episode. We talked about expected stats. Basically, you guys told me to go shove them. And now here we are talking about expected stats. You're not that dense, Treve. Listen, use your ears. It's Freddie Freeman.

Should he be considered for the All-Star game? No, because the thing that we did was based on results because it's April and May. Now Jake is saying, moving on with the year, who may be having a good June? and then their results would get them on the June. Not a hard concept. So do you... Well, I'm just asking you if you think he should be considered for the All-Star team now that you have context. No, because the results get the All-Star bid, not the expected stats.

Okay. I mean, Trevor. You know, we're saying if you're in your fantasy baseball league and your buddy who drafted Freddie Freeman and he's hitting 229 and he's ready to cut mode, go get him. Because the expected stats are telling you that's going to turn around. For the All-Star game, or the John Boy Media All-Basball team, we need to see the stats. Like, this could, there's a world, Trev. There's a world.

Where these stats could continue the whole year. And we say, well, Freddie Freeman had a really unlucky year. We can't reward him for that. We can't say you were the expected stats champion. We would say, oh, next year we're not too worried about Freddie because those expected stats were there. Are we on the same page? Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wanted to make that clear because we had a different discussion.

No, we had the same exact discussion. It's a very similar discussion to this. Same exact discussion. So Braves. Didn't we also make Yosmani Grandel our catcher for the All-Star team? We did not. No. We did not.

Who was it? It was between Salvi and Zanino. We went Zanino. I know. We did Zunino. So. I voted for Salvi. I mean, just listen to us and maybe Salvi will get it next month.

A couple two homer games. Trev, I've got good news for you. Tell me. There is one guy who jumped off a little more than the other, but they are outfielder teammates. Kierilof and Kepler. Both have numbers so far this year. Kepler is hitting 212.

His expecting batting average is 261. It's the same thing with the slugging. And, or excuse me, those were Kepler steps. I think I said that. A Kirloff, 238, he's looking like a 295 hitter, says the expected set. It's a 580x slugging, currently slugging 410. So those numbers in the pot say Kirillov is getting, I mean, slugging wise, one of the most screwed hitters in baseball right now.

So Twins fans, I'm trying to cheer you guys up too. I love the red bubbles. When I go to a baseball savant page or what do you call a savant page? Yes. When the guy has got the red bubbles, that's really good. Max Kepler got a lot of red bubbles. A little bit of pink shading, but mostly, you know, red. So that's how I conceptualize all of this.

Now I'm going to go to Kirillov, so I'm curious. How many red bubbles is he going to have? This is good news because twin fans. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. One of the biggest beat writer, not a beat writer, blogger, is that still a term? Yeah.

It is. It's still a term. Aaron Gleeman, I believe, wrote this article big time in the Twinsphere. He said this might be the most disappointing team in franchise history. Wow. That's what's going on. You guys think Yankee Land is bad right now. Well, luckily they're teeing it up this week.

So one of those fan bases will be just an absolute disaster. So unlucky, and I can just rattle off a couple that stood out. Kyle Tucker for Houston, who started to turn his season around. He was big time unlucky. It's starting to come together. Confordo for the Mets. Juan Soto, and I thought this one was interesting, because we've mentioned him a couple times on potential trade stuff.

We'll see what the Royals do. Jorge Soler. Jorge Soler. Has been one of the more unlucky hitter. So we'll see if they end up being sellers at the deadline. Soler last year, if maybe if those expected stats start to catch up a little bit, they can get something for him.

But those are the big names that jumped out. There have been 18 balls put in play with an expected batting average of 950 or higher. How many players do you think have two of those 18? They've done it twice. Let's see. To have an expecting batting average at high, you've got to hit the ball pretty hard. Makes me think Stanton is involved. And maybe if you take.

It's definitely one of them. Or Gary. A lot of you. Yankees. I asked how many, not. How many guys have two? I'd say three. Yes. Look at that. Jake's the smartest guy in the room. Savant. Trev drops to fourth. Wow. He's in a room alone. Who are they? Acuna has two. Matt Carpenter has two and Bryce Harper has two. Matt Carpenter getting, the stats say he's getting really unlucky. I know he's been having, the past couple years haven't been the Matt Carpenter. We remember, you know, putting up big numbers. Hey, I, I

I hope those numbers are come back because when Matt Carpenter's good, he's a really fun ball player. So I didn't- Matt Carpenter has two above 9-70 expected. That's tough. I'm just going higher and higher. I'm at 9-80 now. Okay. Carpenter has one gun. I'm trying to find what's the highest expected that hasn't been a hit and how did it happen?

When I get there, I'll let you know. Okay. No one's got 9-90. All right. So let me, I've got a couple throwers on here. Treve, I know we hate pitchers because they're soft. So, it's soft. So these are the unlucky guys.

We're expecting the numbers to turn around a little bit for them. I got a pair of ALE East guys and a name that, again, gets a lot of trade rumors, and this team hates whenever we mention it. Erod for the Sox, he makes the list. And man, that was kind of an eye-opening thing for him. him because we, you know, when we talk about the Red Sox upstart, upstart start, that's good English. You know, you would have expected Erod would have had it going. He has been unlucky as this season has gone on.

I just had the numbers in front of me. Jameson Tyone for the Yankees was kind of surprising for me, and I remembered that when we had our guy, you know, Saris on, he said Tyone's numbers checked out. so I thought that was interesting. Erod currently has a 2.03 difference in his ERA and his expected ERA. ERA has a 559. The analytics say he should be at a 356, which is much more in... That's scary.

That's a much more in tune with kind of who E.R.D. is as a pitcher. You know, he's got a couple big warriors in there. So Red Sox fans, you know, we've talked about them. Are they going to be trading at the deadline? Does sale come back and look like anything? Man, hell if E. turns it around with what they're currently doing, which the stats say he has,

that would be huge for them. Well, it's the Alex Cora effect. My God. Nottingham just got designated by the Mariners. So the Brewers are going to pick them up. I mean, at a certain... That's a crazy year. At a certain point, is that just funny business?

Like, if I'm another team, I would just throw an appeal out there just to see if something sticks. If the brewers pick him up, man, it's, come on. He played five games with Milwaukee. They designated him. He played eight games with Seattle. Ten games with Seattle. They designated him.

Isn't there something else in spring it happened to, right? I think one of them DFA'd him before the end of spring training, and he latched on. Man. He should just have two team privileges. Like there should be a rule at this point. April 28th, selected off waivers by the Mariners from the Brewer. So in April 28th, he went from Brewers to Mariners.

On May 2nd, he is purchased by the Brewers from the Mariners. Goes back to the Mariners. On May 20th, the Mariners select him off waivers again from the Brewers. And now the Brewers have designated him. And if the Mariners come calling, or the Mariners have designated him, if the brewers come calling. He's already there. What's going on?

He's already on a plane. They let him know and he was like, Milwaukee? Yeah. See you guys in two weeks. Man. Baseball life, man. Okay. So the other guy didn't mention Luis Castillo with the Reds who's been having a bad start to the year.

You know, his ERA right now is in the six. It's expected to be around a four flat. So, you know, if the Reds were to become sellers, his name always gets in the mix. Reds fans hate that because he's been their young ace. but it'll interest to see if his numbers track back because that could be another guy that you could hear a lot of rumors about on the deadline. And if you're the Reds and if the unluckiness continues,

they're not going to sell him at a bad value anyways. So I don't know. I thought those were some names of notes. Names of notes. Yep. Ah, do. Treve. C sharp.

How much, I mean, we know that most, front offices are very analytically driven. They love expected numbers. They live off these things. We, at this company, really like results. Two out of three at least.

I mean, I like results too. I'm not saying I don't like results. I'm not punch the computer screen right in your stupid face. I also like results. Okay. Where is the line?

I also like expected. Where's the line when it comes to making trades? Like are you looking for a guy that has had bad luck? And you say, we can have this guy come over. He's, it's going to regress to the mean. Like, well, let's go get this guy. Or do you still have to have a little bit of result oriented, you know, whatever you want to call it?

Well, you have to have some. Well, that's, I think the game of being a GM, right, is you look mostly at results, but you hope. Mostly at expected. Sorry. You look mostly at expected. and then in free agency, you pay for the results, not for the expected because that's kind of how it's going, which is so it's a little backwards.

Used to be that way. And I think it still sometimes is. But for trades, definitely expected. I think it's probably 70, 30. Like that's what the Yankees do when they go get guys like Talkman and Voight. They're not basing those guys off their minor league results. They're basing them off the stat cast numbers and the hard hit rate and that stuff. Everyone is trying to be smarter than everybody else.

But if you all have the same numbers, you're all doing the same damn thing. Don't you got a zag when everyone's ziggin? You know I am. And that's where... Jake's a straight line runner, to be honest. Trev, what I would say is, I'm agile. Yeah, but point A to point B for you. Agile.

I jukeed Ben Lee once in college. I can still picture it. Nice. Trev, I think what it is, it's GMs, and because, you know, you're talking about value going forward, it's expected. It's expected. If I trade for player X, I want to know what I'm expected to get from them. I think you do, you put the results in a bucket, and you try to quantify it to that player a little bit. My easiest example is always Zach Britton.

Zach Britton never grades out as good as his FIP or as good as the expected stuff because he throws 80% of a hard sinker that is kind of unmatched in baseball. So when you try to line him up with every other number, it's not going to make sense. And so that's where I actually, so I did players who have been lucky, and I'm going to be quick because that means, if they're lucky, that means their numbers are expected to come downhill a little bit.

And we don't want that. We want every player to thrive. A lot of rude of you. But there's an example of a pitcher on this list, who I actually didn't put on. He's got some of the worst expected numbers in baseball, but I think when you think about who this pitcher is, you can start to say, yeah, he might not grade out well. Brett Anderson.

Brett Anderson obviously does not grade out well because he doesn't strike anyone out, but he's the definition of a crafty-lefty. So obviously, today's numbers are going to hate him. But what does a team do every year? They throw him five-mill, he goes and throws a bunch of innings for them. And that's Brett Anderson. So he's also not very good on Twitter. We've had a little beef.

Oh, wow. Oh, that's right. Well, you beef about it. He's a Star Wars guy? No, he, uh, I called him soft. Well, he's a pitcher. Yeah. Yeah.

You're a pitcherist. He was responding to me saying pictures are soft. So he didn't like that? So then he cried and I said, look, this is an example of crying. Oh, I remember that. And then recess happened and you guys had to go back to language arts. I probably would really like him if I met him But I just I'm going off his Twitter

You would really like him if you met him And then you'd walk away 10 feet And you go, oh, I'd take that guy yard And I'd say me too, man Yeah Soft throwing lefty BPD we got numbers I'm on it

Research department's on it One time I was working a wedding I was working a wedding And Brett Anderson was a starter For the Yankees And he uh They blew him up in the first inning And I was

Now he's starting against the And I was thankful for him to making it a laffer because then I didn't have to check my phone while I was working a wedding. Trevor. So that's my memory of Brett Anderson. Two for seven double and a triple. Wow. That's 286 batting average. What year was the triple in?

It's an exactly 1,000 OPS. So, wow. Grats, I'm going to go find when the triple was. It was the last AB against him 2014. It was July 13. in the top of the fifth inning. That's huge. Sorry about that one.

That's a one daughter. The double and triple were the same game. So you solved them. Whoops. Oh, I was 0 for five going into that game. Yeah. Oh. So 2012, you face him for the first time.

Why not the second? Hard contact. Good. Second at bad that game, triple play. What? Ah, yeah, I remember that. Triv, you hit into a triple play and you hit a triple off of him.

It kind of negates every. Yeah. Triple. Yeah, Josh Donaldson started it. They were in for a bun. And I hit a chopper right at him. Triple and a triple. I mean, it was like the easiest triple play.

So it wasn't a line drops. Like on third base. He feels on third base. It was essentially a double play, but his foot was also touched third base. I would have to see like that out for being honest. Do you know who was the first baseman on that triple play? Derek Barton.

NL home run leader, Chris Carter. Wow. Hot. I like Chris Carter. Guys who have been lucky, Joey Wendell, Will Myers, a Roserana, Moose, we would never say that. Jared Walsh, Cedric Mullins, Austin Riley. Austin Riley, interesting. Just a little bit. A little bit.

Head of his fan club. Yeah. A couple pitchers, Marco Gonzalez, Danny Duffy, who's been so good this year. He's another guy that I'm not sure. I think he could defy analytics a little bit. bit with what he's about. But again, another name that could be trade deadline stuff. Ryan Weathers, who was the youngest starting pitcher in the league for a little bit. Second time around, interested to see how that plays out. And then I did a little bonus work

for you guys because you know that's who I am. And I did the guys who are most accurate to their stats. And I wanted to compliment guys. So Mitch Hanager, who's having a huge year, just missed the JM All Baseball team. Everything lines. up. It's beautiful. Chris Taylor, who Dodger fans always rave about, we always rave about. Adelis Garcia, the breakout star for Texas. Everything expected is in line. So that's huge. And then a little mini shout out, Tyler Naquin, who's having a little bit of a, Nakene. Nakene. Having a breakout year. And then the pitcher, Zach Wheeler, who's been absolutely shoving for years. He was kind of an analytics king that didn't have too much of the breakout

out results. He is matched up. Pablo Lopez. The ERA shows he's getting a little lucky, but I think the expected batting average and expecting slugging were both on the nose. So some nerds going to have to explain that to me. And then the only bad note, Kyle Hendrix, it's kind of been bad, and they say it lines up. So I'm interested to see how that plays out. Good stuff. And Trev, if your ball just had a little more hop to it, Would have bounced right over, J.D.'s head. A couple ribbies. Probably scored on RBI.

I don't know who was running on second. I think it was more no, so probably not. He's scoring. First pitch curveball. Yeah, a bad swing, huh? You were really... Tough one, you know. You were really...

I don't... There's batting stance in 2012. You're really loaded. 70-30 guy. Yeah. No, this was looking like 90-10. Yeah, I was really pre-loaded. back there. I had a lot of success with it

for a little bit. A lot of success. No why you use that stance, Trev? Your butt looked phenomenal. It was a good angle. Dude, I was trying to do anything to survive. That's why I was using that stance. It was like, this feels good. I'm doing it. You know, it worked out for a little bit. I tried to go back to that in 2017, and I became the worst hitter

in baseball. You did go back to that in 2017. Brett Anderson fist pumped pretty hard after. it. Ooh. Triple play. That's fair. I knew that in three years I was going to get my OPS up to a one daughter. So I think I won on Twitter and on the field.

That's nice. Good job. I'm trying to, why'd you have to go into the content game? Yeah. I'm trying to find your triple against him. And all it is is sequence videos. Whoops.

And, uh, okay. This, this headline is Trevor Proofs. scores on his own triple. Do you remember this play? Colorado. Yes. Wow. That is this triple.

Yeah. This was, Jake, look at this. This is 2014. This is hot, Trev. Ooh. Yeah. Big eye black. Got the beard.

Oh, no load at all. Trev. You're almost in like Donaldson Turner. You're just standing straight up like a pencil. Yeah. Completely different batting stance. trying to do anything man I'm telling you guys

Deep fly to dead center Can't track it down Booming around second Into third Looking great And then it almost hits you in the elbow And then it goes right into the dugout And you score

I think it did hit me in the elbow You looked show That was yeah that is That's such show Trev How you look here Compared to the 2012 clip I was making some money I was established

Prior to that I remember that because I was in a little bit of a funk and Josh Willingham and I went to like T.J. Max or what's the other one? Coles. Marshalls? Marshalls. And we bought these matching

beach shirts. They were like literally like a picture of like the ocean and the beach and then we wore them under our jersey. And so I started raking. So I had to keep wearing it. It was ridiculous. it's pretty good and that's my story you had a double already in the first inning of this game was it like floral it's just a picture of a beach

yeah it was like just a picture of it like your day's like a whole shirt oh no like the whole shirt was an actual picture like his matching shirt button down but not a button down yeah but a real picture not like a painted picture like it was like a photograph yeah not your fake shit Jake

okay um Did you always kiss your hand before pitches came in? Yeah, what's that? It's not a kiss? Yeah, I think so. I think so. I don't know, man. Enough about me.

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My topic's pretty quick, guys. You go around baseball fans, you go spend a week or a month with every different fan. You'll hear every fan base complain about the same thing. we play to the level of our competition. That's one of them. We suck with runners in scoring position. Every team says that.

So, if I can find my notes here, I am here to let you know if you're allowed to say that or not. Okay? And there's a couple ways to calculate this. Some are easy, but like, you know, the Dodgers leave a lot of guys. on base when they have runners on base. On average, the Dodgers leave four runners on base a game.

But that doesn't mean the Dodgers are bad. That means the Dodgers put a hell of a lot of people on base. So that's pretty good. Traffic is what Booney likes to say a lot. So I just went straight up. Runners in scoring position, runners on second and third, or just second or just third, how many hits does your team have?

The Dodgers have the most hits with runners in scoring position in an MLB this year. So yeah, they're leaving guys out there, but they also have the most hits. So the Dodgers are just getting guys on base nonstop. So you can't really complain. That's a good, a good thing. The White Sox are second.

They're second in the league for left on base. Who? The Dodgers. So, yeah, the stat I had was per, like, average, per game. not a cumulative. Jake Snake's leading the way. Teaser. With a 30%

Sorry, go ahead, Jim. You're good. You're good. The Dodgers are like way ahead in average, a full run, and they are way ahead in hits. They have 44 hits with runners and scoring musicians. White Sox come in second with 33. Angels come in third with 31,

Giants and race. So all playoff teams besides the Angels there, but pitching is not. or hitting is not the Angels problem. So you guys, you're not allowed to complain. Your team is doing pretty well. They're getting guys on base. The teams again.

So Dodgers. White Sox. White Sox. Angels. Angels. Giants. Rays. Top five.

I like that mix. Yeah. Because if you're the Angels. I think Angels should be allowed to complain about whatever they want. Yeah, that's fair. I would start your complaints everywhere else, pitching front office. Yeah.

Maybe the first thing you cite. Trade trail. Angels need everyone. they can get, I guess. Raise fans. Can't afford to leave them out there. You can't. Yeah, don't complain about your guys doing it.

Complain about your stadium. Dodgers and White Sox, pretty elite teams. You have absolutely nothing to complain about. All right, the teams that should be complaining. Giants are hot in the streets. The Oakland A's only have 13 hits with runners in scoring position. Ooh. Same with the Cleveland Indians.

The Washington Nats are bad. The Brewers are bad. Milwaukee and New York Mets. Those are the six. There's a three-way tie for a fourth, though. So that's just, they just have not a lot of hits with runners in scoring position. And then Cleveland leaves the fewest amount of runners on,

or Cleveland and Seattle leave the fewest amount of runners on base. Now, the Angels also leave the fewest amount of runners on base on average. So they're actually pretty good when they do get runners on base. Getting hits with runners on there Because they're not leaving a lot of guys out there And they're getting a lot of hits. You wonder if their good season slows down. The Angels?

I picked up on it after. I should have. Matt's hurt. That was rude. Yeah. Sorry, Nate. I don't feel good about it. Yankees leave the fifth fewest

And the royals leave the fourth fewest on base. Which, again, you want to leave guys on base. You want to put 18 guys on base and score nine of them. Right. That's like I think the stat, so obviously took my angels dig, but I think you said Cleveland leaves the least amount of runners on base and they have the least amount of hits. Which they're hitting, I mean. So they just don't do offense. Yeah.

Fran Mills out. They traded Frankie. It's Jose Ramirez versus the world. All right. Next thing I looked at, because I always like this, runner on third base, less than two outs. how many teams, what teams have gotten the most. I did hits or Sack, Bunt Sack Fly. So just scored the runner.

I guess there's some hits that won't score the runner, like a hot shot right at third base where he holds the runner and throws the first. Feels like an out liar. But I'm still counting that as a positive at bat because you pass the baton and keep the game going, blah, blah. You didn't get out. The Cubs lead the way. So we're just going to say good result with a runner on third,

less than two outs. Cubs lead the way. They've had 58 at-bats with a runner on third less than two outs that have resulted in a hit or a run. White Sox are right underneath them. So those Chicago teams know how to hit with a runner on third. Kansas City is good at that. Podgers are good at that. Houston's good at that. Cleveland, the Yankees, the Brewers, the Mets are the worst at this.

New York, raise up. And Cleveland's the worst. Everything just shows that Cleveland sucks at doing offense. Yeah. And I will say, Jim, that is, I understand with runners in scoring position, your overall numbers are always going to be a little bit higher. Because of the lack of the ability to shift in those situations, the pitcher feeling a little bit of pressure,

but it is still a learned situation. When you're a hitter, you'll see a lot of young guys go up there and not have success, expand the zone. The biggest thing that you have to do as a hitter in those situations is to realize that that guy on the mound is the one that's in trouble. And you've got to get him in the zone. He'll still try to make, because they're still trying to make you swing and miss. So they try to make you expand the zone.

The good hitters, the guys that just get the job done, don't try to do too much, and they get the guys in the zone. And you can swing early. A lot of people think it's the opposite way where you need to see some pitches. You don't want to see some pitches. You want to just get the pitch in the strike zone and hammer that thing.

Some guys that come to my mind that are really good at doing that, I think if you ask any big league hitter, he'll say him, Miguel Cabrera. Like he's a guy that clearly is usually, you know, back in his day, at the top of the RBI list because he knows how to hit in those situations.

He's okay with punching one to right field. Is he trying to do that? Shit, maybe sometimes. But he just understands the situation. And I do think it really is something you have to learn to do. Did you or did teammates of yours ever get frustrated with another teammate for, say, you know, tie game, it's late, and runner on third, less than two outs, and you got guys clearly swinging for the fence?

Like, dude, we don't need that. Like, did that ever come to fruition? Yeah, because you need to have the approach. Yeah, we preach an approach in that situation. You're using the big part of the field. Okay, like, you don't, if you're the kind of guy that is a one swing guy

that just tries to hit the ball hard, that's fine. You know, but just get him in the zone. I think that's the biggest thing there is if you're swinging out of the zone and you're jumpy, that's going to tell me that you're not ready to hit in that situation. You need to calm the fuck down and let the guy come to you. That's what ever, you know, Morneau was really good.

Mowers really good in those situations. That's all that would ever preach is. Slow the game down. In that situation, that's when you have to be the most relaxed. Act like you're in control because in those situations, obviously the pitcher's in a jam. And it's hard to think that way as a hitter because you're trying to get this job done. But once you can kind of figure that out, then it becomes really fun. Love it. Yeah. I love it as well.

So there you go. I'm sorry. Cleveland, Chicago White Sox. Are they just, they are, are they the best team in the league? Yes. Well, I mean, in the A. Are they better than the Dodgers?

Well, I mean, the Giants are the best team in all of baseball, record-wise. Yeah. They did lose long ago, though. Is there in spirit? Called up Tyro Estrada, your guy to the IL, my guy to the show.

Bullets up? Yeah. Prince. Wow. Prince. Was killing it in AAA, by the way. Was he? Like nuts. What do you, like 380, be a batting average, 480 on base percentage?

I can bring it up. Or is it better than that? 381 batting average, so just better than 380. 1.063 in AAA, 25 games. That West Coast is it in the PCL? I think they renamed it or this AAA West. I think it's the PCL. I don't know why baseball reference.

has it named that way unless they change the name. It's strange. I don't know. That's up the top of my head. I don't know. Longo was having his best offensive year according to OPS Plus. Did you see the injury too? It's dumb. I didn't see it. Yeah, he went too far. Chopper between him and Crawford. It looks pretty clearly like it's Crawford's ball. They just collide. Damn. You're taught as a third basin to go get whatever you can, but his was also

a little deeper than you want to go. Like if you're charging the ball and it's going to be on the grass that you can cut that off. But I think there was just a little miscommunication of maybe where Crawford was playing and he didn't see it or something. But it was tough man because like I said, he was crushing it. Speaking of crushing it. Cereal.

I crushed cereal. At night because I like it a lot. And my favorite cereal is magic spoon cereal, Trev. Want to why? Because I don't got to feel guilty when I eat it. Because healthy. And I can eat a whole box in one sitting and feel just fine about myself because I know that I've eaten zero grams of sugar, 13 to 14 grams of protein, and only 4 net grams of carbs in each serving.

Only 140 calories a serving. It's keto-friendly, gluten-free, grain-free, soy-free, low-carb, and GMO-free. Build your own box. Available flavors to build your very custom bundle or cocoa, fruity, frosted, peanut butter, blueberry and cinnamon. Still haven't tried the cinnamon. So I'm excited. Or the blueberry.

Yeah. We should order a box for the office, like a bundle for the office. I'm ready. And when we do, we'll use code baseball. We'll go to magic spoon.com slash baseball. We'll grab ourselves a custom bundle of cereal. We'll try it whenever it arrives. We'll be sure to use promo code baseball at checkout to save $5 off the order.

And if we don't like it, which we won't because we've already tried it, Magic Spoon has a 100% happiness guarantee. We could just send it back. They wouldn't even ask a single question, Jake. But we're not going to do it because we've already tried it and we know we like it. So get your next. Good. Good.

get your next delicious bowl of guilt-free cereal at magic spoon.com slash baseball and use the code baseball to save $5. Trevor has a very fun topic. Baseball. He has left. He's coming back when his mic is rejoined or whatever the new process is. And we are going to talk about good memories, Trev. What do you got? Well, today, as we're recording this, which is Tuesday, June 8th.

I believe it's the 10-year anniversary of Stephen Strasbourg's electric debut. And it's strange because I feel like I don't really pay attention to debuts that often. But for some reason, I remember this. Like it was a huge baseball moment. I don't know, do you guys feel the same way? Do you remember this debut? Dude, I drove to Syracuse or Buffalo? I think Syracuse

to go to a Strasbourg minor league game because he was such a big deal. Like he was going to revolutionize the game. He was, yeah, I mean, Strasbourg fever was a very real thing. Yeah, so a little background on him, didn't get drafted out of high school. Then he went to San Diego and got on some sort of like weight program,

put on a bunch of weight. and became just like the undisputed number one pick. He struck out 23 batters one game against Utah. So that's pretty cool. He was part of the 2008 Olympic team, the only amateur on that team, which is pretty cool. Ends up being the number one overall pick in 2009. 11 starts in the minor leagues, 1.3, 65Ks and 55 innings.

And then they decided it was damn time. And at that time, the nationals, like we think of the nationals. It's a pretty good program. Organization, excuse me. They won the World Series. So now everyone kind of holds them in that regard. At that time, not doing too well, not selling a lot of tickets until they bring this guy up. Brings him up, sold out, 40,000 tickets sold. 40,315 tickets sold the next night.

I mean, it says, yeah, those 22,000 more than the next night. And tickets were going for like a premium. It was like a big freaking deal. And of course he, you know, lives up to all the freaking hype. And I tried to get you to have the clip of the audio up. Do you have that? This crowd is crazy. Swazberg's first major league strikeout.

And it ends his first major league inning. One, two, three. Can we do that or not? I don't have it here, I think, on the final episode. they might have just heard it. Seven innings, four hits, no walks, and a nationals record, 14Ks. And if BBD does end up linking some clips in there,

you're just going to see the place was just absolutely electric. And it was Strasbourg mania. And, you know, I really think he's lived up to everything. He's been one of the best pitchers in the game for a long time. He got the bag. Some people might say, he's not the best pitcher so he didn't live up to it I really feel like how much better can you be

than Steven Strasbourg has been and always dealt with some injuries and stuff like that but one of the more electric debut so it got me thinking you know what were some some other ones but before I go to that do you do you guys want to talk about any of your recollection from that night

you said you saw him pitching Syracuse I also faced him in AAA that year Jake oh wow and he was a different just a different pitcher man I didn't see anything It looked anything close to him As far as any other pitchers in AAA

Big boy He had the big calves I remember noticing that He wore the pants up Big calves And we'll just come at you And I don't know what his spin rate is Seems to me like he had a lot of spin on his fastball

Because that's the thing got on you And then he had one of those curveballs That popped kind of out of his hand And out of the hand It seems slow and then there is some point where it just catches the air and just completely disappears

you don't see too many of those types of pitches. A.J. Burnett is one of the best sliders I've ever seen. His did that the other guy with a pitcher for the... Josh Beckett's curveball. Same thing. It looked like it floated for the first halfway to the plate and then

it just seemed like the seams caught. I don't know if that makes any sense to you guys? Then it does? And then it just goes foo-f! Gone. And it was really impressive. I believe I had like an infield hit off him. Hell yeah. Like a swinging bun.

Yeah, I was pretty happy with myself. He, uh, Straussberg, fastball spin rate has never been, uh, since they've been tracking it, uh, above average,

but the curve has always been really high. So maybe it plays off the curve being so, so well, so good. Yeah, I don't know. Like, it just seemed like it got on you.

I know that's not exactly what high spin rate does. Um, but his, his fastball seemed like it got on you. Maybe he releases it close. Like he's one of those people that has a close release point. I don't know. My only thing is, yeah, hype is a son of a bitch, huh?

Like, you don't, you. My mind says like, oh, yeah, maybe he didn't live up to what he was supposed to be. But he's got 12 seasons with a 3-2-1 ERA. Maybe I just didn't follow closely enough. But I, yeah, I mean, I guess it's because he never got like the Cy Young or never like been the, the number one pitcher in the league for a year. It really sways the way your brain thinks. But, yeah, Strasbourg's careers very well.

And the Strasbourg rules kind of overruled, like his performance in those early years. Like more talk was not the handling of him than his results, which was kind of shitty. Well, and it's also the second fiddle factor a little bit. I mean, Scher comes over in 2016 when he's, at Max Scherzer. He won back-to-back size his second and third year in Washington

comes over in 2015, excuse me. So yeah, I mean, the guy had an incredible career. It is one of those weird things because I, you know, I give Harper a lot of credit. I give LeBron the most credit I give LeBron to for being in the spotlight that young and still living up to everything he has is really unreal. And then, yeah, Harper and Strasbourg kind of link together through that organization. I mean, Trev, I'm not a great memory guy, just bad brain.

But yeah, I just, the hype train was so, so real on him. And it was just, it was like Rolling Stone picks up no moss. Like at San Diego State, he was doing stuff that hadn't happened. So he goes to the minor leagues and he was dropping dick there. He had a one ERA at AA, one ERA at AAA. so it was just like it never stopped there was never the hiccup where even the gnats probably could have if they even wanted to put on the brakes and say like oh yeah you know every this game gets to everybody like he's he's gonna have to work on some stuff at double a for a little bit never really happened

so he comes up and yeah i don't know again 2010 if they showed it on ESPN or if they were just showing highlights or what it was but you know to come out and do that i can only imagine you know and what he was feeling. Is baseball hotter in the streets then? Because I remember talking with my high school buddies, and everyone knew who Steven Chosberg was, and he was a college pitcher. Does that happen?

I mean, I guess, does everyone know who lighter and Kumar Rocker? Rocker are, or is it just baseball fans? Because my friends weren't baseball fans. It's not as much as Strasbourg. It's not as much as Strasbourg. There was all those stories about how he drives the same car from when he was a freshman, even though he signed the signing bonus,

he likes his old beat-up car. And I was like, man, that's not really that much of anything. Dude likes his car. It wasn't like a bad car. It was just like, you would have upgraded. And it's like, why? When there's a consensus 1-1, I think we really know about it,

especially when it's a pitcher that can come and help you quickly. Maybe Mark Capel made everyone stop paying attention to consensus 1-1s. Hey. And then, you know, 2019 comes around and the three-headed monster runs through the league. And they get out to a bad start. I mean, Strasbourg at that point, let's see, his stats were, he led the league in wins. He led the league in in in innings pitch, was the fifth Cy Young boat getter and 15th an MVP. Dude, Mark.

Capel still pitching, maybe. Did you know that? Chasing the dream. For the Phillies? He didn't pitch in eight. 18, 19, or 20, but he's back. So it's a return. Maybe there's injuries, I have no idea.

And hey, we talk about different ways to measure a career sometimes. I mean, you know, Strasbourg, three-time All-Star, World Series MVP, that was a big thing. Trev, you know when it's all said and done? His contract runs till age 37, so, hey, maybe he's got more in the tank. But if he calls it then, you know how many zeros went in the bank account? Of course I had this subject. Yeah, I know. I did not know it's this much.

Holy shit. So I believe if he retires after this contract, it should be around. I'm not a math pot. I think it's close to about 355 mil. Yes. Throwing a baseball. I did not know as that much, bro.

That's not bad. That doesn't even count the Monty, San Diego State was giving him. Hey. Oh, my God. Gosh, dude, think about that. He's going to make more than Grinky. $50 million more than Grinky. Better museum in the basement.

Yeah, I wonder what he's got. Trains. Yeah. Or like a snail collection or something. Someone commented on our last, we're talking about Grinky, and they're like, it's even funnier because they're joking about the sword thing,

but he really collects swords. Wait, does he really collect swords? Yeah. If I Googled Zach Grinke's swords? Zach Ranky's sorts and someone comes up. I think so. According to this YouTube commenter, while you Google that,

I want to move on. I'm going to get two more debuts. All right. Okay. One is kind of interesting because prior to the season, we were told, look out for the brewer's rotation.

We have Brandon Woodruff, Corbyn Burns, but the wild card was a guy named Freddie Peralta. It's pretty damn good this year, right? Yeah. he's 25 years old actually just turned 25 years old 6 and 1 with a 225.875 whip I mean the guy he's he's doing it 92 Ks and 64

innings well if you would have paid attention to his debut and Jimmy I know you're going to love this one I know it 5 and 2 thirds innings pitch okay not great right five and two thirds no runs one hit 13 MF and K's and only two walks. Now, the part that you're going to love, Jim, you threw 98 pitches. Most of them were forcing fastballs, and I guess we already talked about this a little bit.

Tell them how many of those 90 pitches, 98 pitches, were forcing fastballs. 90. Dropped some curves. Hey, I should find, where to have that up? I want to go find it and see when the curves came. You know what I mean? When the curves came.

That's really cool. I mean, for me, it was in high school. No. My shape? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, the curve. Sophomore year?

I get it now. Yeah. Bringing it back to Strasbourg, he became only the fifth pitcher in the modern live ball era to strike out at least 13 batters in his majorly debut, joining Strasbourg. And then some guys we're not going to know, J.R. Richard, Carl Spooner, who you might know, Jake, and Cliff Melton. Cliff Melton? J.R. Richard had.

You know him, right? From the 30s? No. I don't know him. No, no. Clifford Melton. And the last one I want to talk about, because I know the guy and played against them coming up in the minor leagues.

I think most people know this story. But we're talking debuts and fun ones, and this one's probably going to be put into a movie at some point. At least it should be. Daniel M-Fing, Nava, Boston Red Sox. grand slam on the first pitch he ever saw magical debut his story's crazy he

tried to walk on to a junior college team they said no but you can be the equipment manager he ended up being the equipment manager can finally convince his coach to let him play went off I think led the league in hitting at some point still didn't get a chance went to independent wall finally got picked up by the Red Sox

ranked in the minor leagues came up and then as BBD said he carved himself out a nice little career there. You know, played in parts of seven years. But that one pitch, he'll live in Red Sox Infamy forever. And like I said, probably eventually gets at least a 30 for 30 done on him because the guy decided, hey, I'm not going to let that first pitch go by me.

And cracked it out of the dang park in Fenway in front of the home crowd for a grand slam. And hopefully BBD in post you'll be putting that up as well. But it's an awesome moment. I think you guys remember that one? Yeah, I remember the Nava Grand Slam really well. That was really cool. I think our guy, Coach Ballgame, has a really good video clip about that that I think you can see on his tube or Twitter.

Yeah, it doesn't get better than that. You know, for a doll, this Freddie Peralta start. So he threw two curve balls in the first inning. One was to doll, one was to Bloss. Blackman. And then in the second inning, he threw one curveball to Carlos Gonzalez. I thought they would maybe come later, not earlier. But now we're at three in the first two innings, and he only threw eight. And then he threw back to back to David Dahl, which that seems mean. You've only thrown three in your first 40 pitches, and then you hit Dahl with back-to-back curves.

Not nice of Freddie. He threw three curveballs in the third inning. So you're at six curveballs in the three innings. That's so weird. When did he like use it? The catcher just throwing down one. Who was the catcher? The catcher for the Milwaukee Burr. The catcher for the Milwaukee Burrs on May 18th, 2018 was Manny Pina.

Just throwing the one down. One. One. One point did not even give the sign. Brooks Pounders. That's an interesting feeling, right? Love me some Brooks Pounder. Brooks Pounder.

in this game. Yes, for the Rockies. Yes. I believe he went to high school with someone that's on the Brewers now or something. His name came up recently in a search I did and I was like, Brooks, Pounders. I forgot about that. Ryan Ron, O for five, four Ks in this game. Fuck it, Rye.

Connor Cannon. I know we've already talked to you at nausea in this episode, but like your MLB debut, What actually jumps out? Like, if I say Trevor, MLB debut, I give you a couple IPAs. You have a little cushy dreams in you. Is it the crowd? Is it the first A-B?

Is it taking the field? Is it kissing your mom after the game? Me kissing your mom after the game. Firm handshake from your dad? Everything is just so clean in the big leagues. And the minor leagues is so dirty. so you go and I probably had new spikes on I got a uniform that fits me correctly

and you go out in the field is perfectly manicured and the cups are placed perfectly in the dugout and the towels are there and everything's where it's supposed to be it's the show I think that's the first thing that comes to my mind like you run out in the field it is immaculate you can't play in other fields

once you play in a major league baseball if you're like oh this is what it's supposed to be like And then you go back and you try to play on these crappy minor league fields, no offense. A lot of them are like that. It makes it tough. That's the thing that really jumped out to me right away was obviously you're there. The crowd's cool, nervous a little bit. But everything is just perfect.

It's beautiful. Yeah. I had a great debut. We have talked about it. We need to go over that again. Do you want to talk about some more? Talk about my debut? No, stop, stop.

No, Treve. Jake's debut is going to be great. Billy Crystal style. 60 years old, spring training, fouls off a pitch, stadium erupts, he forfeits. Not breathing well. No, I, because, you know, we went down to see the Savannah bananas and we were on their field and we're like, oh, nothing better than a baseball field. And I think, like, a show field would probably feel even different. The lights, too.

The lights are just so much better. You're playing in daytime at nighttime. It's, man, you got me a little emotional right now. I'm going to lick some grass. All right, well, that's the episode. Thanks, everyone, for tuning in. Are you all LEDs at your house, Trev, lightwise? I am.

Okay, good. Are you? No. They're expensive, but worth it. In the comments, please leave what kind of light bulbs you have at your house. High pressure sodium. Yeah. Nothing but light bulbs in the comments

Incandescent Oh, yeah Hey David Doll hit a homer in that game Dude Yeah, halogen light bulbs