Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 373 | Talkin' Baseball's July All-League Team

Episode Date: August 4, 2021

Jomboy, Jake, & Plouffe update their All-League rosters for the AL (3:20) and NL (31:45) now that July is over! Go to https://magicspoon/baseball to grab your delicious cereal and try it today! Use promo code 'BASEBALL' at checkout for $5 off your first order Go to https://getroman.com/talkin now to get $15 off your first month Presented by DraftKings Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to talking baseball. It's that time of the year. A month has ended. So we have to update the month by month talking to baseball all star team. Not all star team. Hello and welcome to talking baseball brought to you by Draft Kings. Thank you very much for joining us for the midweek episode. My name is Jimmy.

Sit next to me is Jake. I got Trevor in California and producer BPD in, the corner. It's not the all-star team. We changed the name. That was what it was originally. It's the all talking baseball team, the all John Boy Media team. The old John Boy Media team. Month-by-month update. Excited to do it. Jake, how are you doing? James, Trevor, BPD, everyone premiering the chat. Everyone who's alive. Snaps for you. Have a good day. Keep on breathing.

Doing well. Doing well. Baseball continuing. to be hot in the streets. And I'm hot. Trev. You are hot. You look good today. Thank you. We posted that video of you not too long ago.

Like, you had hair that was not good. I think it was quarantine here. It just didn't look great on you. But looking pretty good now. I'm all right. I had the most plain sandwich I've ever had in my life for...

Eno's going to be mad at you. Yeah, it was a straight turkey on some... Children's bread with like a slice of cheddar. It was great. It reminded me of like a luncheon. Like a luncheon. Dry.

Gross. But it did the job. Okay. That's where I'm at. Happy for you. James, how are you doing? I'm good.

Busy, but good. My house is getting painted. So I think I'm going to kick out of the bedroom this tonight. Did you pick a white? Is it a white? What are you doing? I picked nothing.

I believe Katie's going white. I think the people that lived in the house before us had some pretty colorful bedrooms. Okay. So I think she wants to just blank canvas at all. I think we're going white everywhere. White's tough. There's a lot of different variations of white, you know? Yeah.

There's grays. There's tans. There's, it's too bright. It's too dark. It's. I have no idea. I guess I'll find out when I see it. I honestly wasn't part of the decision making,

which I find. I didn't want to be. They hand you that booklet of all the paint colors. That's decision fatigue. When someone wants to know what decision fatigue is, like, that is it. Get handed that and say, which white do you like the best? You'd be like, uh, you just get paralyzed. It also, they don't look anything like they do on the sheet.

Like, you have to put it on the wall to know what it looks like. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's go. We're going to run through this. We're going to run through the American League first, which is brought to you, by Magic Spoon cereal.

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Get your delicious next bowl of guilt-free cereal at magic spoon.com slash baseball. Use code baseball to save $5. Let's go to the AL. Treb, there are some debates to be had this month in these positions. So a little rundown. We'll start at AL Catcher. Salvi Perez had it after April. After April and May, Mike Zanino got the nod.

After April, May, and June, Zanino, kept it. After April, May, June plus July, I have Salvi taking it back. Jake and I went through this. Zanino's got more homers, I believe, or he had some numbers on him. Salvi's just played way more games. He's in there every day. Uh, his numbers are good. So Salvi's getting it. This is back and forth. Takes it back. It takes it back. I'm looking at all the numbers right now, Jim. And I like this episode because it puts me on some people I'm not usually on. What about Sean Murphy?

We're not looking at him. His war is super high. Defensively, he's the guy guy. Yeah, it's all defensive war. I think, and Trev, I like the way you said it. I mean, what we kind of have to do is the best, the number one, most viewed watch, the number one baseball show in the world. world, we need to check on Sean Murphy's defense because you're right. The war numbers love

them. They put him over the top. Offensively, he's kind of in a different league. So I don't know. When I think defensive catchers in baseball, my brain doesn't jump to Sean Murphy, but I don't watch the Oakland A's every day. And he's a young catcher. So he could be that guy. I don't know. I kind to need to watch because his offensive numbers don't stand with the other guys, but the defensive metrics love this dude. Now, are we, we're totally discounting like a guy like a Stasi because he hasn't played enough? Yeah. I mean, I need to look up his game log. Is it his fault or is he just not getting, was he hurt? Well, they're the angels, so just assume the worst. He also doesn't have the numbers, Stacey, right? Like, even if...

Looks like he was hurt, um, a lot of April, came back and then was hurt all of May. And he's been healthy since. Yeah, 10 home runs and 159 of bats is something. It's a power game right now, though. I mean, there's, there's a lot of dudes around baseball. You know, Tiger fans would be screaming at you. Eric Haas, uh, the rookie,

He's got 18 homers in 59 games. So I do think the games come into play, especially at this part of the season, I kind of wasn't about it early because a lot still had to sort itself out. But man, when you do get into the games here, Salvi's out there. He's got 104 on the season. Vasquez is 93. Murphy is there kind of with games 87, but he almost rates out negative offensively. So all of his war and stuff comes from defense.

When you get all of the body of works there, it comes down to Salvi. I mean, Yasmani has an argument, but he's only played 63. So I don't know. I'm kind of going with availability and having a good year in Salvador. This time around, I ran into a new thing that I like judging him by as well. And, you know, because there's people, there's old school people. And then there's new school and there's all this. when you look at this.

And I've always liked OPS and OPS Plus and runs created plus. Like I value those. And then I look at war. But when you see a guy like Sean Murphy lead in war, you're like way hold up. You still need a hit. I like now looking at the slash line and seeing a positive in each line. Like batting average doesn't mean a whole bunch alone if you're slugging is 300. But if, you know, Salvy here, he's the only catcher of the top class that you look at

his batting average, you're like, yeah, that plays. His on base percentage is low. But yes, Mani's the only one that has a really, really good on base percentage of the catchers. It's 305. The batting average is 277. Slugging's 512. So like all three are in a range where you're like, yeah, good. And down the road, I kind of have been doing that a lot.

Like, you know, because the batting average, I think, tells you day in, day out. Like, you know, is it not feast or famine, which I think is important. Yeah. So Salve gets it. I think people are probably going to not like this take of mind, but as far as like pitch framing and defensive numbers for catchers, a lot of it can rely on umpires and like their judgment. You know, like can you just basically can you deceive this umpire?

And there's as we know a few umpires in the lead to get deceived a little bit more than others. So I don't really love the pitch framing and stuff like that. I know it affects the ball game. So, I mean, as much as Sean Murphy's, and he's kind of like, I mean, his war is heading shoulders above Sal, but I do agree, like, Sal, if he just walked a little bit, Sal, come on. It's boring. It's dingers, babe.

The 2% walk rate. And that's where, you know, you mentioned Max Stasi, and it's kind of eye-opening some of the splits, but get behind the dish every day. And I hope the angels let them do that, because that's a part of it, man. We might be looking at Max Sassy next August. If Salvi only played 75 games and he had a little extra rest when he had a sore chicken wing or whatever he's got going on,

maybe his numbers at the dish look a little better. So play him. Play that man. Okay. Play that man. All right. First base in the American League is as easy as it gets. After April, it was Vladdy.

After April and May, it was Vladdy. After April, May and June, it was Vladdy. After April, May, June, and July, it is Vladdy. looking like he's going to go pole to pole with first base in the American League. His numbers are nuts. He's got a 328 average, 423 on base percentage, 6.59 slugging. So see what I'm saying? Every single one of those checks off as like, excellent.

Yeah, it's not even close. Not even good. Like every slash line is excellent for Vladie. If Otani didn't exist, we would be talking about Vladito a lot more. Yeah. And he's going to talk about a good amount. Right. But that's the point. Like people are starting to post stuff about how special his season really is. All right.

Second base has been kind of a mess. If you remember, Nick Solak got it after April. You got designated just recently, I believe. Then Simeon took it. Then Simeon took it. And now I think we left this for a debate or a vote because Simeon and Altuve. are really close, really, really close. They both, Simmian's played 10 more games. He's got 21 more plate appearances.

They both have 25 home runs. Altuve has scored more runs. Simeon has one more RBI. Simeon stolen more bases. Simeon has a worse walk percentage and a worse K percentage. Altuvai's got better walk, better K. 275 batting average for Simeon. 277 for Altuvei.

340 on base for Simeon 354 for Altuve. Simeon is out slugging him by 20 points. Simeon ranks out better defensively, so his war is higher. But man, Wobah's close. Runs created plus is close. I think it's a simian. It is, but it's close. The offensive numbers are close, but look, the guy, and surprisingly, I thought Al-Tube would grade

out better base running or steal more bases. He must have been banged up this year. But when you're better than someone at two of the categories of baseball, I think you get the nod. He's running the base is better. He's playing better defense at a position. He's not even really supposed to be. playing. So I think

I'll go Marcus here. Even though Al-TiVeva, I mean, that's off. Hell of a year. That's, the offensive numbers are eerily similar, and Al-Tuve has played 10 less games, which, again, that almost becomes... For the home runs and stuff. What do you do? Yeah, they have the same exact amount

of home runs. You're right, Trev. Simian has them. Even if it came down to offense, because Simian's got the defensive lean analytically, which you know, still is what it is sometimes. He still technically has him in some of the,

and a lot of the offensive stuff. So Marcus, you stay. Good job by Marcus Simian. Go get that bag this offseason. Toronto stays on the right side. Big bag. So much money. All right, we have an ALE East versus Houston Astro battle at shortstop again

with Correa and Bogarts. They've been going all season. If you remember, I gave it Correa because of defense after April. April plus. May. It went to Zander. Correa took it back in a vote. I voted for Zander. Both of you voted for Correa last month. And now I have it as Bogarts again. I don't know if you want to go digging, Trev. I'm interested in your input here. You as well, Jake. I'm Bogatz. Like you said, with the slash lines, he's got him every step of the way. That's the biggest thing. He's got

Bogart's has Correa in every slash line. Man. Yeah, hard to argue against that. Yeah. I mean, he's another one of those guys. You look at his baseball reference page. Like, okay. Okay.

I'll go Xander for sure. I like what Karea has done. I love his attitude or he's like, I love the bad attitude. But Xander's got this one. There's two months left too. These guys are going back and forth every month. But right now, Zander's winning an AL shortstop.

And for the four. time in a row. Devers holds down the AL third base and Boston has the left side of the infield. The AL East has the infield after four months. Did they start in the All-Star game? They did, right? I believe so. Great. That's awesome, man. We were doing a lot of stuff in Denver.

Yeah, only other note on the short stops, watch out if Flo Pichette can put together a couple months. and then Toronto could have three. Right now, Bo Bichette's offensive numbers track a little better than Correa. Defensively is getting hurt, so. But that's fun. He's got homers, ribbies, runs, stolen bases on those guys. Sneak in there, Bo. Hot.

He's hotter than both of them, too. The Bocherts is pretty good. Xander pretty hot. Got that money, too. And he could have got a lot more money. Tim Anderson and that's a lot of money. far behind either. He's in the ballpark. There was an

article about how he is just a Babbib Wonder player. Like he it's not a fluke, it's not luck, it's just kind of hitter he is. He's like led the league in Babbitt by a wide margin for like the last four years. Does Babbit take into play speed? No, no. It doesn't take into account anything. It's just literally the batting average of your ball is in play.

So it seems like an easy reason to understand why he'd good at Babbitt. Speed and, you know, each player's swing generates different stuff. Like Babbitt. And it's from the right side, yeah. Like, you know, if you hit a ball 70 miles per hour at a certain angle, it doesn't grade out well to Babbitt. But also, there's a big gap between infielders and outfielders.

That's where the ball drops. So if you hit it there, hit it where they ain't, man. But there's no grading out for Babb Bip. That's like you're talking expected batting average. Babib is just literally the batting average when you put the ball in play. So it takes out walks and strikeouts. Right. So expected batting average what you're talking about you.

But yeah, he... Did it where they are. Everybody wrong. Yeah, that's real. That's real, man. Some people got that. I did not have that. Me either.

All right, American League outfield. Ooh. Do we do right left and center? No, just three outfielders. And let's see. I'll go through the history here. Early on, it was Buxton Trout and Cedric Mullins. Then Adelice Garcia snuck in with Aaron Judge and Luriano with Buxin and Trout getting hurt.

Mullen's judge stayed again with Adelis after three months. And now Mollins and Judge stay again. That's pretty clear. You can't really argue against the two of them. But third is interesting. And Jake and I both gravitated towards the same guy. it's a different type of production. We're going with Brantley.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this, Trev. Or Trev getting mixed emotions right now. A little bit. A little bit. Dude, Brantley's got a... Let's talk you to... I could be persuaded because there is another guy who stands out. But Trev, you know maybe why we're a little nervous about it.

Sure, I know why you guys are. You don't want to show that side of you. Tell the people. Well, you don't want to show your Yankee Bob. and he's not really a Yankee bias. He just, he's like, just came over,

guys. Uh, yeah, so this is where, most of his stats are with, with the Rangers. Yeah, talking about Joey.

Joey Gallo. Yeah, yeah. But this is where I was looking at slash lines. Like, um, I think I'd rather Brantley than Gallo on my team. You sneaky love batting average gym.

It's okay to admit it. No, I'd like when it, I'd like when it's also good, uh, the rest. Like, you know,

when Ronald, Teres had a 310 batting average, but his slugging was 250 and his on base was 290. Well, what are you doing? I don't give a fuck about that. But when the other ones match up, like, he's got a 331 batting average, Brandy, he's got 384 on base percentage. Both of those are excellent.

And then the 477 slugging, you know, if it was 500, be excellent. But 477 is good. Leads him with an 860 OPS, which is better than Gallows. Like his OPS is better than GALUS, his OPS Plus is better than GALOS, and that means he's doing it day and day out, much more of going to impact every game than Gallo. So I do appreciate that. I mean, I've learned to just not even look at batting average.

I look at OPS, excuse me, on-base percentage and slugging than obviously the OPS. It just to me that it, batting average can mean so many different things. things. You can square balls up and not get hits. You can do a lot of things in wrong and get a hit. I think the on-base percentage to me means the most. He is obviously really good then. He's always been really good in that. He's never going to have a crazy high slugging percentage because he's more of a doubles guy. Like the years that those balls have gotten out of the ballparks, he's had a better slugging percentage. I just don't think that he overtakes Joey in that department. I just, I think there's those three guys at the top there that are leading

in war, Mullen's Gallo and Judge, I kind of have separated themselves a little bit. I guess the part that's tough for me is, you know, you think Joey Gallo, you think on base and power, right? So on base, Michael Brantley has him. Michael Brantley, 384, 374. Slugging Joey Gallo 480? Brantley's 477. He's 0.03 behind Joey Gallo, which I think the real difference maker here, because it actually is kind of a fun new age offense versus old age a little bit is the defense where Joey Gallo is supposed to be special. You know, he's got gold glove in the bag where Brantley, that was never his forte, and he's up there in age a little bit.

So I don't know, man. You know, 25 homers to 6. You guys are talking about games played. I mean, Joey's got him by 16 games played. the production's been a little bit more because he does hit those homers. I think Joey's got it. I like the, I like the argument a little bit.

I love Dr. Smooth. Brantley is one of my favorite swings in all of baseball, but I think Joey's earned this one. So that's my vote. I did my classic hitless, walkless, hit by pitchless sack fly sack hitless thing. If anyone doesn't remember, it's like how many games did you just do nothing?

Like you didn't do anything. For Gallo, he's played in 99 games and he has 18. Nothing games. For Brantley, he's played in 83 games and he has 14. Closer than I would have thought. But what's 14 divided by 83? Is that it was? Yeah.

Matt, Pod. Joey made that nice catch the other night Now I don't know I think Joey's got it I mean you can talk about Kiki How about that kind of a ball player man He could really go play anywhere I like that

You say that about some guys He could play anywhere Kike can play anywhere Kiki and a guy in the NL are going to be begging for a Util spot by the end of the year because it's messed up After my walkless hitless

17% of the games for Brantley nothing, 18% for Gallo. That's pretty close. I'm going Gallo. Gallo, we just need to make sure we weren't Yankee homers. Let's go, Trev. I was really pushing for not Gallo.

Let's go, Trev. The only one I can say is Canna because he just said hi to me and was your friend. Complementary of what we're doing. And he didn't really want to come say hi to me because there was other people around, but he did. And that means a lot to me. So thank you.

Out of the park. Mark, go follow him. We'll keep him in mind. Otani's the DH and the AL. And Lance Lynn's my starter. Damn right he is. Yeah. Two less games than...

O'Tonnie is a joke. A joke. Like, I know we talk about him, but... You see Otani slugging percentage, Trev? It's not even... It's like, come on, man. Does he have the highest in the league? Okay, he has to.

I was going to say, no one can have higher than that. 667 slugging. Do you know what that means? What does that mean, Trev? It means... Every time he goes up to the plate, he gets two-third of a base. Okay, Stanford guy, huh? Like, just think about that.

That's insane. Sounds like you and Fort Myers. Okay. I've never thought about it that way, and you kind of broken my brain. So if a guy has a 500 slugging, that means every time he goes to the plate, he gets half a base. So if he was, that means over the course of a game. You mean, that's right. I don't want to, like.

That means over the course of the game, you'd have two bases. Over the course of a regular game with two-up bats, you'd have two. bases. Yeah. Like if you go one, five hundred signs. Only two plate appearances, yeah. So Tani, every three

played appearances gets two bases. Yes. Math bod. Official. If you go one for four with a double, what would your slugging be? I'll find out because

Joey Gallo did that last. It would be 500. So, okay. So the way I was thinking about it was correct. Yeah. Although Joey Gallow just did that the last two games and they have his slugging percentage

as 571. Oh, he went one for 3-1 game. Okay. Aha. Lance Lynch, your starter in the AL. He's been so good. I love him, man. Why is he grabbing his nuts so much this year, though?

He always has, man. He's just so good. I feel like it's like more now. Because he's been so good every game. And he's on the team with Tony the Russo as the manager. And, you know, Tim Anderson, bad flip in. And like that team is just going to allow people to be themselves.

And Lance Lynn's a nut-grabbing motherfucker. And if the war geeks come out on this one and you're wondering, Lance Lynn, I don't know, there's some other. Derek Cole has a three-nine war. This is where, and we've done this past episodes, and the batting average conversation is actually a more fun one because of the day-per-day participation. And if you tie it into on-base and slugging,

that's a good convo. ERA is still the earn runs allowed. And Lance Lynn has a 207. Next in the batch is 287 with our guy Gibby who just switched leagues. So then it's Sean Mania, who's 301. Hell yeah for Mania. So, pitcher war is a thing, and I get it, and, you know, you do some X-FIP and expected stuff. Lance Lin also should be graded a little differently because he's a different pitcher.

so sometimes his numbers don't show the same way. But I will take his 19 starts with a 207 over 21 and a 301, or 21 and a 311 from Cole. I mean, oh, damn. Like, looking at the numbers here, this is, again, I love this episode because I find stuff like this. Yovaldi, I mean, he's sort of in,

he should be better. Like, he should be way better. He's giving up a babbip of 327. League average has got to be way less than that. Babbip. Yeah, I mean, the other guys around him are a little lower. Maybe not. But you also, again, that's Babbip should be individual.

You know, what's your babbip year and year out? Like you said with Tim Anderson, like his babbip should be graded on a different scale because it's now proven three years in a row that he's a little different. It's different I am running into something interesting about Lanslin's game logs Okay

He has faced I don't think he's faced a lot of above average Offensive teams Ooh the Central coming back Oh no At all That's Jimmy Liddick's coming Where are the Angels ranked

Oh boy Tani's good He's got that left on base percentage way above anybody else. Ecstasy's good every other game. Oh, smokes, guys. Oh. Lance Lins run the gauntlet of bad teams.

He hasn't... Oh, no. Lance. Hold on. St. Louis. Is they above average? No. Tampa. Yes.

Like half, yeah. And Toronto. They're good. Okay, so he's played... He's had 19 games. He's had three against above average. offenses according to team OPS plus.

So Lance said three against above average. Now can we real quick see how we did against those three? Tampa Bay, six innings pitch, three earned runs. Uh-oh. Quality start. The next one he has faced is Toronto, which is the second highest.

Seven innings pitch, one earn run. There you go, Lance. And then the Astros, he faced the Astros once. Four innings pitch, six earn runs. Hmm. Are the twins below average now? Yes. Oh, no, they're actually, their offense has been...

I thought they could hit. Oh, shit, never mind. Yeah. Oh, and, okay, he's got four against the twins. I didn't even check the twins. I just saw the twins. I thought they were bad. I got you, Minnesota.

Well, that jumps it up to seven games out of his 19. Joe Maurer, give me the invite. And his games against the twins are all good outings. So, okay. Of course they are. We dodge that bullet. Some to watch maybe. Kind of.

Something to watch. He hasn't faced a lot of. He's probably going to get a Yankees start coming up. Not that they're hitting right now. There's a world where the worst... The offense that are above average. Yeah. The offenses that are above average so far this season are the Red Sox, the Rays, the Giants, the

Giants, the Padres, the White Sox, the Dodgers, the Nationals, the Twins, the Blue Jays, and the Astros. Nationals, how about you? Can I be on the record of saying something? Yes. On August 4th. 2021. I believe there is a world to borrow Jakeism

where the White Sox absolutely steamroll every single team in the playoffs and just win the World Series very easily. Ton of the Eursa effect, huh? The TLR effect. No, they're just that damn good. And if they get La Pantera back,

there's no one stopping them. It'd be a pretty cool story. I'd appreciate it, them coming out of nowhere and just being amazing. Out of nowhere, what? How many years did that take? Well, yeah, but they've made some moves recently. Sure. And like the, yeah.

It took a little bit. Like in 2019, we were saying, oh, they're good, but they got to actually win now. Well, that's what I'm elite teams these days. You have to make extra extra moves. You got to add mooky bets. You got to add Liam Hendricks and Craig Kimbril on the back of your. bullpen. Oh my God. All right. Let's move to the National League, which is going to be brought to you by Roman.

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Trev, it's straightforward. It's easy. Yes. You take care of your ed. Get Roman. slash t a l k i n save 15 dollars on your first month of treatment i think you're maybe maybe you've got a leum hendricks roman can be your kregg kimbril yeah you know what i'm saying yeah put you over the top that can be your let's go mm-hmm okay you said privacy there and it kind of got me going a little bit

I had a nun. Privacy guy. Sister Eva, he used to say, appreciate. She was like Scottish or something. Yeah, privacy. There's some people in English. There's a singer that I listen to. It says privacy and vitamins.

We've talked about it a couple times when I did. Yeah, vitamins. That's another good one. She used to slap me with a ruler. What? Did you grow up in the 60s? How much you pay for that? I don't know if that actually happened.

But in my mind, it happened. She was not nice to me. You went to Catholic school? Yeah. So did I. A bunch of nuns, man. Those nuns. Sister Nadine was our nun.

She was a saint. She was awesome. She was a principal. I got to be principal for a day. Of course you did. Oh, my God. Well, I won it, Trev. There was a tree full of

Tutsi pops and the bottom of the Tutsi Pop raw color. And there was only one the color green. And I pulled it. Mrs. O'Brien gave a wallet. Here's your, Christmas card. $500 bucks in there. No, dude, because I was about to pull

the red Tootsie Pop. And then I changed my mind. I was in first grade of time. And I said, I, no, I actually want. And I said, grab the green one. No, no, I want a, the brown Tootsie Pop is my favorite flavor. But I didn't know it here. Root beer, yeah.

So I pulled that one and it was the big winner. So I got the big principal for today. Got to make the announcements, which was actually terrifying. for me because I had a huge speech impediment when I was a kid. I was really shy. Sorry to laugh at you every time you say that. Makes up for it every day. You are, I don't know.

It's a crazy story. Holy shit. Roopier candies, excellent. I miss those a lot. All right. Buster Pose, he's your catcher. NL. Games aren't fully there.

He's older, though. When he does play, he's so good. Like his slash line numbers are stupid, Trev. He's got a 424 on base percentage of 544 slugging from the catching position. He's doing it. There ain't nobody around him. That's nuts.

Except for Will Smith, and that's why you trade your number one catching prospect because you have Will Smith already. And if your number one prospect becomes even half of what Will Smith is, you'd be happy. And Buster been banged up a little bit. there's actually a nice little, a little chase going on. Will Smith, Real Mudo, and shout out to Omar Narvaez. Yes. He's been doing it this year.

So go catch him. Ash Ketcham. First baseman catch balls as well. And Max Monty's been moving around a lot. He's been starting games at second, a good amount recently. But he's still, unless you guys protest, the John Boy Media All League, National League first baseman. I believe he's...

We've let him do this before, right? Obviously. Yeah, I gave it to Aguilar after April. Then I think it's Muncie's... It's been Muncie's spot since then. His on-base percentage is crazy. But it is getting interesting because the Dodgers are getting more and more versatile as we go.

And in July, I believe he started more games at second than first. That puts a wrinkle in things, Jim. The Dodgers are putting a lot of wrinkles in things currently. Mookie Betts? Second base? I like giving it to Muncie. I mean, he is, I love the story.

He's absolutely destroying the baseball this year. Got that good, low center of gravity, baby. Yeah, he's been good. second base I believe there was a discussion here Jake it got interesting because there's one guy who's just pissing us off because he's so versatile he's going to make us at a util spot Chris Taylor um his numbers are great this year he was an all-star they move him around everywhere he's been playing shortstop recently because uh tray turner's still doing COVID stuff and he hasn't come over yet uh Chris Taylor has like an argument an outfield argument it's kind of messy which I think kicks it to the Crohn's own, Croninworth, who's got the offensive stats.

And yeah, Frazier's falling off. Albies is trying to pick it up, but I think we're kind of living in the crone zone right now. You know what we should do? I think it's kind of annoying to do it during the season, but definitely at the end when we get to the end of September, if we remember, or maybe the end of August, we do a U-Till spot.

Yes. But you have to have, like, three positions with double-digit starts. Okay. You have to play there. It's got to be real. I think ESPN baseball does, like, 15 starts at a position to be available at that one. For fantasy leagues. They all differ, yeah.

I think it's 10 was the number. So at the end of the year, 10 starts at three different positions gets you eligible to win. Starts? Starts. Okay. Yeah, yeah, because I don't give shit if you just go play. somewhere to end a game. Okay.

I like Taylor, but I don't think he can be considered to second base, and he's played more games in the outfield than he has at second base. Yeah, so we have to take that in consideration.

It's Crohn and Worth. The Crone Zone. Crown Zone, let's go. Jake! We need it. You're excited? Lord knows we need him. Taylor has more than

ten appearances at four different positions. Don't know starts. No. I don't know. I haven't looked at the starts, but just by appearances, 45 at second, 22 at short, 10 and left, 44 in center. Okay. A Michigan guy.

Drafted in the seventh round by the race. They knew. He was, okay, so he was part of the deal. Is he part of the Snell deal? No, because he was on the Pagers last year. When did he go over there? Now I'm curious. I should know this.

Cronenworth. Tommy Fam. Yeah, it was. fam there's a couple other pieces in there yes Xavier Edwards and Hunter Renfro right that was the slap dick video

yeah and Esteban Curals huge all right that's shortstop it's still yes who's been right about that what there's someone that was right about that Blake's now yeah

I mean I don't know how Xavier Ed is doing but he was the main piece that they got got back. Yeah. Renfro. They had Renfro and they. Xavier Edwards is in

AA. Doing all right. 75. Okay, never mind. I'm an idiot. I take that back. Xavier,

I actually have some of your baseball cards. We don't doubt the race. It's a rule on this show. That's true. Tatis is still locking down shortstop. Now, we'll see what happens.

You know, if he doesn't play the rest of the year, by the end of the year, by the end of August, does he get the bump? Does he get off? We got to, we'll figure it out. But right now, Tatee still has shortstop locked up. Trey Turner on his heels, also not playing currently.

Yeah. Heading over to L.A. soon. Special love to Crawford. You got to throw some love at them. Craw Daddy. Those older Giants. Crawd Daddy fighting the fight all year, man. You know what I like about Brandon Crawford?

He has his own style, his own look. Like that wet hair. I don't know. I always got the Jays on, right? Like nice Nike's. Like Brandon Crawford. Well, let's slide over to third. Because there is a vote.

A vote here. It's so close, Trev, between Justin Turner and Manny Machado. The offensive numbers are crazy. One of them has 145 OPS plus. The other has 143. OPS, you're looking at 882 versus 890. Slugging 521, 506. But the person that's winning and slugging by 20 points is losing and on base percentage by 20 points.

Mm-hmm. And batting average by 15. Same amount of home runs. Same amount of games. It's so close. I hate to do this to my boy, JT, but I think I got to go Machado here. Because it's so close offensively that you just say whoever's better at defense. Is that the thought process?

I think both of them offensively are people who are like, I want them at the dish in a big spot. So you can't really give a lean there. But I do think Machado's defense does impact the game more than JT's does. It could win you a game. I mean, not the JTs can't. He's not bad out there. I know he hasn't graded great this year.

He still can pick it over there. But Machado can literally change the game. And you've seen where they've put him on shifts. Like literally he plays right field sometimes. which is interesting. I got to give the nod to, oh, Mani Machado there.

Machado is, you know, there's not a lot of players in the league that have a fear factor on defense. Like, if I'm a hitter, I almost say like, I don't want to hit it that way.

I do not want to hit it near that guy. No. So that's, Trev, I'm kind of with you. I think Mani gets it. And I think he's leading the league in Ribby's, which if you take out a,

so the numbers I read and. included the first or second game in August for the actual exercise we're doing April, May, June, July. They have the same exact games played and same exact OPS, both at 883. West Coast, third base. Isn't that crazy, though? Yeah. It's wild. Same games played, same OPS.

I agree with you guys, obviously, because it's so close that you do just have to look at, okay, well, who's helping the game more on defense since the offense is. We're just old media, man. that's how Jets got his gold gloves. Are you seen the jump throw? That's a great throw that every single short set makes now. Every time I look at Turner's numbers, I'm like, damn, man. Like, I love the story.

I love everything about it. He's like literally turned himself into a hero in Los Angeles. So J.T., you didn't win July's All-League team from John Boy Media, but you're still a hero in L.A., so take some solace in that. Who had it last month? Turner had it last month, the month before that. It was Austin Riley, and in April, it was Chris Bryant. So that's changed every single month.

NL. Third Baseman has changed every single month. I think it's been a conversation with Justin Turner just about all those days. Yeah, he's been in a conversation every time. They're consistent as hell, man. That can just hit. All right. Speaking of change, the National League outfield, some absolute studs have entered the conversation, Trev.

You know I love studs. Man, it was Acuna Harper Winker. Then it was Castianos Bryant Winker. Then it was Castianos Winker Acuna. Now, Acuna's out and he's out for the season. So for me, he's out. We did that with Trout and Buxton. You know, because he's, by the end of the year, he's not going to be there.

Patis, there's a hope of a return. Yeah. And he's so special he could, he'd get back. You have Bryce Harper has stormed back into the conversation. I don't know if you saw what Bryce Harper just did in the month of July, but it was impressive. In the month of July, Bryce Harper had a one dot OPS of 452 on base percentage. percentage. In 25

games started, a 452 on base percentage and a 571 slugging 11 doubles, three home runs. Not a lot of home runs, but a lot of doubles. And yeah, he's crazy now. 12 stolen bases, too. Can't forget about that.

That's a lot. Price. What's he steal usually? Let me look this up, man. Oh, Bryce. The other guy is Juan Soto. Connected. He has also stormed into the conversation.

But there's a lot of options here. Jake, who are the other options? Man, and you want to talk slash lines with those guys? My goodness. Man, the NL outfield is crazy. I mean, Brian Reynolds is still doing it. He deserves love. Both those guys in Cincinnati,

Castellanos and Winker. Their offensive stats are crazy. Chris Bryant, I mean, just moved over to the Cubbies to the Giants. We saw him get that Homer. He's a little behind pace of the other guys here. Man, I'm kind of a Harper-Soto Brian Reynolds because that feels like an actual outfield and the numbers play. But, I mean, you can make an argument for six guys.

If we don't include Chris Taylor. Right. At second base, because we said he played two. much outfield. I think he has to be in the conversation here. Right, but that's his numbers offensively kind of don't play with these guys, Treff. They mirror Brian Reynolds, almost to a T, dude. I mean, look at this. He's got him in RBIs. They have 17 and 18 homers. The run scored. Taylor's got him by a ton because he plays for the Dodgers. RBI's, Taylor's got him by two. The K percentage. The walk percentage is similar.

everything is similar, man. 141 weighted runs created plus for Taylor and 143 for Brian Brown. So I think he's on the team, if not absolutely in the discussion. I was in a similar boat. I mean, I think slash line Reynolds kind of clips them. I mean, I think end of September, if you get the, if you get that util spot going, Chris Taylor, I'll pencil you in. It's brutal, man.

It's brutal. If you want to talk util spot stuff, Brian. Chris Taylor had 10 appearances at four positions. Brian has 10 starts at five positions. Oh my God. Chris Taylor's going to get screwed. I think if I get to vote now, I'm going Chris Taylor. Why are you going Taylor?

Well, because I think he's deserving to be on the team. And we said he can't be on second base because he's played too much outfield. So now he's with the outfielders. And his slash lines line up with all these guys. And it's not just about offense. Like we know that. Like his base running is, you know. So who are your three?

I would say Taylor Reynolds Harper right now. No Soto? He's not there yet for me. No. No, I mean, I love Juan Soto. And I think like if we do this cumulatively at the end of the year, he will be there. But I think Taylor's got to be in there right now. I don't watch a lot of Pirates baseball.

So Brian Reynolds, I just, I haven't seen him play enough. I seen him go get the ball. Why no Soto? Because of the games? I mean, Soto's got. Better everything. I think you can make a case for Soto, obviously. Yeah, I mean, games, I guess, is the only thing I'm looking at.

Yeah, Soto's got a 428 on base percentage, a 932 OPS, and a 160 OPS plus. All right, you sold me. I mean, Soto's numbers are nuts. The games are lower. I get that by seven, though. It's not that much. And then Reynolds has Taylor 2. which is tough for Taylor,

but Reynolds has a higher batting average on base percentage, slugging OPS, and OPS plus than Taylor. For me, it's Soto, Harper, Reynolds. Taylor does get... Give Taylor the U-Till. And then Taylor gets the U-Til.

Okay, okay. But as soon as Reynolds gets bumped from outfield, he's going to sneak the O-TU-Till from Taylor. So you're going Reynolds, Harper, Soto. Yeah. I think so. I'll do that.

I could agree with that. And Chris Taylor gets the U-Till. The U-Tel. Since there's no D-H. A-L gets the D-H, and I'll get the U-H. We have rules. There's rules. All J-M-T team.

And then the pitcher is, now, Trev, you can decide here. It's either Walker Bueller or Brandon Woodruff. They're both crazy. I am going right now. I'm going to look at some stats. Trevor Plouffe, former third baseman, Minnesota Twins.

He's looking. At the numbers. Formerly a thick daddy. He shakes his head. I mean, yes. Yes. I'm looking at the numbers. I'm looking at Zach Wheeler being not included in that.

Dude, pitcher war. I don't... I'm not just talking about war. Expected ERA? No, no, no, expected because we're doing results-based stuff. FIP? But they're so close. A 245 and a 226 is so close, Jim.

And some lining stuff comes in. It's a conversation. Yeah, so you can't just disregard him. That's so close. Like a point two is one double not being caught. And I think if we check out like the good teams list again, I think we're going to end up in a weird area. I don't know.

Because Wheeler's got Woodruff and Bueller and K's per nine. I mean, their walks per nine are exactly the same. He's got him in home runs per nine. He's thrown the most innings. They all have the same amount of game started. Weiler been doing it. For me, it's Bueller. Lowest ERA, which is what I care about.

You don't like field and independent pitching? It's a team. I do, but... Because at the end of the day... You know the infield defense he's working with. Sorry, B.B.D. Shots fire. That was a technical foul.

Late. That matters a lot. the pitchers, you know. Let me go see which pitcher has given up more than three runs the most. Wheeler kind of didn't have a great month. So what? This is cumulative, right?

All right. So Wheeler's given up four runs or more four times. They've all started the same amount of games. Woodruff has given up four runs or more twice. But one time, or Woodruff, one time he gave up five, one time he gave up four. Wheeler's never given up five runs in the game. but he's given up four, four times. Bueller has given up, same as Woodruff, four once, five once.

They're very, I mean, they're so close. 19 out of 21 times they go three runs or less for Walker and Woodruff. That's crazy. So then Wheeler has three games with three, and Woodruff has three games with three. What the fuck? How many with two? one, two, three, four, five.

All right, Walker has six games with two earned runs. Woodruff has only three. Woodruff wins. I'm going to say my vote is for Zach Wheeler. 13 games Woodruff has allowed one run or fewer. Only 10 for Bueller and 10 for Wheeler. I have pivoted completely brandy. Woodruff.

10 games or what did I say? 13 out of his 21 games, one earned run or fewer? Does Zachary Harrison Wheeler have an early settlement? Sneaky? Zachary Harrison Wheeler? My votes for Brandon Woodruff. That's crazy. That's insane.

Also, 1301 innings pitched. So Bueller's pitched a couple more innings on average, but it's only four. Why are you not including Zach in this? You're only saying Bueller and Woodruff. Zach has been better than these guys in a lot of the categories you talk about you pitch more ratings. Because he had more games with four and runs and three-runs.

Like... How about this? I pick one, you pick one. Jake has to be deciding. I'm Woodruff. He's Bueller, you're really. I'm Bueller, yeah. So B-B-B-D, who are you?

B-B-D? B-B-D? Oh, no. The simulation. stimulation, Bueller, because he has more Best Friend Awards. Wow.

Oh, my is pod. Let's go. Zach, I'm your guy. I'm sticking out for you. I don't even know you. We've done an interview with Woodruff. We've done an interview with... Not on this show.

Have we done Woodruff? Or just do those? I think you did Burns. You have another one in two minutes. They just gave us running a smidge behind, which worked out. Dude, I'm so impressed with Brandon Woodruff's game lock. He's a stud. Imagine that?

I wasn't sure of the Milwaukee Brewers pitching staff before the season. Way to go. 16 of his 21 games, it'd be embarrassing if you lost. Two runs or fewer. That's embarrassing to lose that. And that goes for Walker as well. He just has a lot more with two. But Walker has more.

Wait, Walker has more shutouts. He's got seven shutouts. Woodruff went to we. Beeler High School. And Woodruff only has four shutouts. I'm back on Walker. Oh, my God. It's Walker Beeler.

Walker Beeler. Shutouts? Well, not complete games. Didn't allow a run. Walker, congrats. Here we have it. That's insane. He Brian Hayes.

Check sucks.