Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 426 | Talkin' Baseball with Ian Happ

Episode Date: November 10, 2021

Use code 'JOMBOY' at https://dugoutmugs.com to get 30% OFF Go to https://magicspoon.com/baseball to grab a custom bundle of cereal and use promo code 'BASEBALL' for $5 OFF your order Timestamps: 4:00 - Josh Donaldson 9:00 - Happ's 2020 15:45 - Wade Miley 19:30 - How to Play in the Cold Months 26:00 - Offseason Goals & Defensive Metrics 35:00 - Trevor's Advice 47:00 - Switch Hitting 58:15 - Two Players to Fight 1:02:00 - Articles 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 a very special episode of Talking Baseball. We are joined by another podcaster in Hap. Let's do it. Thank you for having. Welcome back to Talking Baseball as we come live from the Draft King Studio in the Bronx, Trevor Plouf out on the left coast, and podcaster, part-time weatherman, also. play some outfield for the Cubs at times.

Ian Hap coming live from Arizona? Arizona. You never know where you're going to find me in the country. I'm just floating around. I'm all over the place. Also, I feel like I didn't get the memo that once the music hits, I'm supposed to do something, like Trevor had sunglasses or bobbing. Next time I might come on, I'll be ready. Well, I don't want to get you and you and Trevor beefing early, although beforehand we were talking everything,

crypto, a couple ballplayers just yucking it up. And Trevor Plouf was just on your show The Compound. And there was a funny moment where Trevor did ask if you guys were ever going to have Josh Donaldson on. And then he was on a couple episodes ago. And Trevor, to your, I do want to protect you, you said, like, I was commenting on the post I saw it. I saw a lot of it, but that was a tough moment.

That was a tough moment. It was tough because I thought that as a part of John Boy Media, he cared enough to at least listen to every episode. But if there's like a blurb on Twitter, maybe just know who the guests were in the last couple days, but. Yeah. This is slippery slope here, Ian. Don't let me start asking about our episodes on talking baseball, man.

I will say this. I remember the episode. episode very well. Donaldson had some unreal quotes and I did interact with some stuff on Twitter. I sometimes partake in the devil's lettuce and short term memory sometimes leaves me. It's not my fault. You would be surprised when I'm going through my offseason workouts. I'll throw in the headphones and throw a little talking baseball. See what the boys are chatting about. Got to keep up. Okay. We, uh, we love that Happers. Thank you. Thanks for hopping on. The other funny part.

as I'll throw Trev under the bus quickly again. Trev hops on. You know, you guys had been asking for a little while. And then you guys, he comes on. You hit him up a couple hours before. He pops on. Trevor Ploof, the man. And then about 24 hours later, he cashes in his chip.

And he's like, hey, Happer. Why don't you hop on talking baseball? I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure he said, can you cover for me, too? I'm pretty sure he was like, can you cover for me? So obviously Jimmy's out. I was like, yeah, I would, me and Jake will get after it. And then I log on and here's Trevor.

So I feel a little hookwink here. He was a little gamesmanship. No gamesmanship. I do want to go over a quote that Josh Donaldson said on the pod. Wow. Do we lose him? A little freeze frame. Did he just freeze after that?

Oh. Somebody take a piece. picture of that freeze frame that's a creepy freeze frame huh really is those glasses are scared he looks like a dinosaur have you ever asked him about the stuff that's behind him and what it all means we uh it's kind of my back you're kind of back trev are you back i think so what the freak man did you guys hear my quote that josh dalton said that i remember literally the whole quote is missing okay he said i may not be migo cabrera but in your lineup i'm Miguel Cabrero.

I love that. That's very much a JD thought process. That's an all-time quote. And it was very early in his career. And he said it to the manager. And I can't even imagine, like I can't imagine early in my career going up to, obviously it was a little,

the cubby lineup. I was definitely not them go to Ferrer of the cubby lineup when I first came up. But it to go up to like a Joe Madden or Bob Belved and just be like, I'm your three-hitter. Yes. And so when I played in Oakland, I heard stories from everybody about Josh Donaldson and the back and force that him and Billy Bean would have in the clubhouse. And that is, Donaldson's one of a kind. I mean, I know he's polarizing. Like, some people like really don't like him. I personally really do like him. And I think he's very smart. And I think that, like, you just kind of got to like let him be himself. But he's got some funny stuff with him and Billy. Like, we got to get into that. Next time we have him on one of our shows, we got to get into that. I appreciate how candid he is. He's willing to tell all the stories.

He's not hiding anything. And he speaks very intelligently about hitting. And I think early on when he started talking about it, it was a very foreign thought process. It's become much more accepted now with hitting Twitter and the hitting gurus and all of the different thought processes. And that stuff has leaked into the minor leagues and baseball. So his stuff is much more accepted now. but he articulates what he's talking about in a way that it's very palatable. Like you can, it's digestible for so many, like even for kids, which is impressive.

Love it. We had a good laugh one time casually in a tweet. Josh Donaldson corrected Trevor Ploof's like 2017 batting stance. That just cracked us up because it's like, come on, man. And then you're right. Like, it's pretty, I mean, if anyone's from the baseball world's been following his Twitter, You know, Josh Thompson doesn't hold back, but, you know, right before the sticky stuff went off, JD was on Twitter saying, like, I got a list of dudes doing it.

And it's like, whoa. And I mean, it kind of turned out he was right, because right after that, the game locked down on it. So it can be a lot, but we also appreciate it. I know he hopped on with you. He'll probably be on here at some point. He hopped on with our girl Ashland to talk some stuff. So he is in it, man, and he's one of a kind is definitely. the right way to put it.

Treve, I thought you had some all-time quotes on the sticky stuff too. I thought you're a, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, sure, you're, I love that. I'm, I want to be the protector of the hitter's realm on Twitter. Like, I will, I will die on Twitter to protect hitters Twitter, if that makes sense. Because pitchers, man, they get all the benefit of the debt. We talk about this so much. Like, I will go. Like, I will, I will, I will, I will, No unwritten rule favors a hitter. It all favors the pitcher.

They already win 70% time. They're babies. Don't get me started on pitchers, especially starting pitchers. I can roll with some relievers because they're essentially everyday players. Like they got to lace those things up every day for the most part. Starting pitchers and I, we just don't get along. The bottom line. If a pitcher is only winning 70% of the time, they're not pitching very long.

If you have a 300 batting average against, you're not in the league very long. That's like they're succeeding, you know, 75 to 80% of the time. But I do think this is an idea for you, Trev, maybe, you know how pitching ninjas out there? He's always showing hitters getting diced up. I want somebody to make a Twitter that is just launched homers every night. It's just, it's like the sword. Like you need to do the opposite where like the pitcher puts his head down. Name that something.

I'm going to create a I'm going to create a bot that every time pitching ninja puts a guy on with a nasty pitch my bot is going to show that guy giving up a homer yes just right underneath I think I don't know how to do that

because I'm not I'm a high school grad but somebody can figure that out we'll put prize men on that too he's doing posters and then he'll do that next JD's JD's all time quote and then we should probably stop talking about Josh Johnson, but this all-time quote

is if hitting is the hardest thing to do in all those sports, what does that make pitching? You can't come back from that. Tell me what you can say to that. Nothing. Nothing. I think me and BBD just had the realization that we have two hitters on, so it's going to be a tough day for pitchers.

A tough day for David Cohn. any pitchers related to us. Peter Moyland, don't tune into this. Happer, we're excited to talk to you. We'll talk some U, some Cubs, some offseason, all of the baseball stuff. Yeah, let's just get into it. And Trev was actually not supposed to be here today. I was tough on him in the open. This is his flu game. He's under the weather, which got him away from his family. So he's doing the podcast?

or am I misreading that? Don't worry about me. I'm not worried about that, but I am worried about dugout mugs. They have, guys, we've been telling you about dugout mugs. They were with us through all the live streams through the postseason. Happer's colleague, peer, Zach Short, came with us for a day, Shorty, and unfortunately nice guy. Really enjoyed my time with him.

Dugout Mugs, what they're telling you today, because we've been telling you, these mugs fly. Why? They're nervous. They're like, we're going to sell out. So today, we're telling you about the wind-up. They're wind-up wine mug glass. A mini baseball bat turned into a six-ounce wine mug. You know, Trev's a wine guy. He actually owes Ian Hap a bottle of wine.

Maybe we'll have to send him the wind-up mug to drink that out of. Again, it is the perfect gift. If you've seen any of dugout mugs products, it's just the perfect, gift for any baseball fan. Go check out their wind-up mugs. It's code Johnboy 30% off at dugout mugs.com. Code Johnboy 30% off dugsout mugs.com. And again, they said, like, do this before they sell out.

So they will sell out, and it's the perfect holiday season gift. Treve, have you eyed any of the bottles of wine yet? Are you still thinking? Well, he wants a French red, so we're going to go Bordeaux. I just got his address yesterday as of 7.13 a.m. It's one three. No, I'm just kidding. It really does start with one three, though.

I won't read the rest of it. Please don't say anymore. But I got a few ideas. I'm going to get it out to you, man. Look, I run at a little slower pace than some people. And it's not because I'm not, you know, prioritizing you. It's just that I have two small children and a wife that drain me physically and mentally all the time. I love them, but I get, you know, it's tough.

That's an excuse that nobody can ever call you on. Yeah, I do have a wine sponsorship, but you won the French Red. Love that you have a wine. My wine sponsorship is not of the French varietal. I love seeing you on Instagram walking around with the glass of wine. What does? He had such a casual flex. I do have a wine sponsor, but to get you that French red. And BBD is going to be out for the next 10 minutes because you said every time my wife drains me. So he's, he'll be back in a little bit.

Send our best to Olivia. Happer, crazy season for you. We don't, I think a lot of the people here probably know the story. You tough first few months. And then you went. And I know you guys just talked about it on the compound. You talked about a little blooper hit, and then you go nuts. You end up with the 101 OPS Plus, which you said, you know, is kind of important to you because you've done that every year.

I guess exhaling a couple weeks after, how are you feeling about the year? And then, you know, I guess the Cubs in general, you know, we saw you in person, and it was after the trade deadline. And if baseball is a tough sport, it's a lot tougher of a sport when you trade away Anthony Rizzo's and Javi Baez and those kind of guys. So where are you at? Just kind of summing up years in the 2021 Cubs season. Yeah, for me, obviously the first couple months were horrible. It was the first, you know, April was brutal.

May, Nico and I collide and coming back from that. And actually, the numbers in May were pretty good when I came back. And then June and July were just miserable. And so getting that those last two months to really like, I was hitting 160, I think, in August 11th, 12th, like to be able to turn it around enough to get to some numbers that were respectable that were just above league average. It was a big deal for me those last two months, setting some career highs, doubles, homers, like those things, those counting stats, especially once you're out of it,

like those those mean a lot to players. And so to be able to kind of set some of those and set that expectation for next year to even kind of surpass some of those clips was really nice. But it's a learning experience. You know, for me, the last time I had a full season was in 18, which is kind of crazy to think about. But I got called up in May and 17, had a full season in 18, was not playing every day,

but got over 400 of bats. And then 19 started in the minors and was only up mid-July, and then 20, obviously, with the 60 game season. So it was like learning how to play a full season again. and having that realization that like, hey, if you have a bad couple of months, especially Wrigley, April, May is brutal. So if you can make it through those months, you know, without being in the gutter and feeling like you're completely and totally lost,

like there's time to make it up. And that's kind of a really different mental space than what I was in because if you're, and once you're hitting 180 in the end of May or June, you're kind of just really scrambling. So, you know, for me, it was a learning experience in a bunch of different ways. But, you know, the body was good the whole year and swing ended up really good. So going to the off season, like, that's awesome for me. I think the Covey's obviously tough to lose your friends.

Like, you have friends he played with for five, six years. And to lose those guys, it's an easy. But it was kind of that's part of the cycle for us. And some of the guys that have been there for a while, me and Jason, Kyle and Willie were kind of, kind of boatie were kind of caught in the cycle, but happy to be, you know, a cubby and be able to see kind of that next wave and what it looks like. And I think this offseason will determine a lot of how quickly that happens. But there's players out there, you know, that can make an impact right away. Love it. Love it. Yeah. And I know your cubby's kind of already,

they made one of the first moves of the offseason, Wade Miley coming over, a guy that you probably saw a few times this year. I should have been a little. bit further on research and development on that. But indivision comes over from the Reds. And I mean, that's got to be, hey, you know, it can't have too many arms. And some of the numbers for Wade Miley, absolutely loved them last year. So that's got to be exciting. And you got to feel like that's got to set a tone, kind of like you just alluded to, like, you know, Chicago Cubs. Like, you just reset kind of the old guard did move out. And that division still seems like not out of the realm at all for the Cubs to get into.

Yeah, I think there's a couple teams in the division that are probably in slightly a reset mode. And then you have, in Gearless Chicago Cups, you need to compete over here. The fan base expects it now. We set the expectation, especially at the last, you know, five or the last six being in the playoffs

and then this year. So I think that's the expectation. I've heard awesome things about Miley through Mariznick who played with him, a couple other dudes that he's just an awesome guy. But he dominated the cubbies. If you look up his, whatever his splits are against the cubbies in the last, since I've been in the big leagues, when he was with the Brewers, when he was with the Reds, he

dominated us. So that's how you go and get him. And now hopefully he dominates everybody else. I got your stats up right now. I am pouring through your baseball reference page. I've done this before, but now that it's right in front of me. I got a few questions for you. Please.

You grew up in Pittsburgh, right? So you've been, you're a cold weather kind of product. Yeah. But did you, my question, I guess is, because I grew up in Southern California,

we never played baseball. We played baseball year-round, but it's ever really that cold. Did you cold, like the winter months, you're not playing baseball. Inside. Are you?

Inside, but you're, high school baseball, you, You, yeah, all right. Let me, I'll answer the quest. Let me start at the beginning here. In the winter months, you're inside on turf in a massive warehouse.

And then, but your high school season is 20 games, 10 of those are in freezing cold. You're playing in snow. You're shoveling the field. And then I went to Cincinnati, and the college baseball season starts in February, which is ludicrous. And, you know, we would go to the south, but you come back to practice in the cold. You know, in March, you're playing midweek with Kent State and it's frigid. Like, we played in snow every year. But I, the myth of like, you grew up in the north, you should like the cold.

I hate the cold. I left as soon as I could. It's miserable. I hate playing in the cold. I hate wearing 17 layers. I don't like being cold. I think the guys that go out there and play when it's snowing with short sleeves or psychopaths. I think they have a screw loose and I don't understand it.

This is where I wanted to go with this question. This is great. segue there, you and you're pro. April and March, you stink. I think that's true. And this is your, you're by far a better hitter than I ever was and your numbers are great. Pretty much in every other month, May, June, July, August, September, great. But the 580 OPS in April in March is like an outlier. So I guess my question is, I know how I kind of tried to handle it. And it was brutal for me as well. If you looked at my stats,

I bet you in April in March I stunk too. But like what do you think are some things you could do to get over that? Like you don't like wearing the layers. So that's out. Like what are things you're trying to think of so you don't have to start off your season looking up at those numbers? I went through the exact same thing. So I know what it's like to look at your freaking numbers.

Like, dude, it's freezing. I can't hit. But what's on your mind for that? So there's a couple things. things. I've only done it twice, which is crazy. True. Going into year six, and I've only had two April's. Yeah, not a lot of games.

Yeah, because it was only 18 and 21. So when you have to take three years in between April's to remember how to do it, I've never been able to try it back to back and see if I can build off, hopefully next year I'll get a chance to play in April for back-to-back years to see if I can flip the script a little bit. But I, you know, I think watching some guys like watching Riz do it because Riz is like notorious for stinking until June and then really turning it around to being the best player ever in the second half. And so like when you come to the park and it doesn't even matter if it's 50 degrees when the wind's blowing dead in your face at 20 and you and then the shift and like you feel like there's 85 guys standing out there and there's no grass to hit it in. I think one of the things that we talked about a little bit is like trying to take your singles and Josh talked about this I think on our podcast trying to take your singles early in April and like really not not trying to launch like but also if you do catch a ball that's supposed to be a homer like you have to be okay with that you can't get upset that you hit if you looked at the like expected batting average or like if you look at some of the metrics for especially at Wrigley for like balls that were hit that.

probably would have been homers, but were knocked down by the wind, like some 101 to 106, like fly balls that were outs. Like, there was like five or six homers that I had in the first two months of the year that weren't homers. And when that happens, it's just such a mind fuck. So it's like getting yourself to a point where you're okay with that. You really accept it because you know that the next five months are going to be like, if you can just crawl April in the low 200s with a couple homers, I had one homer and one

double. That's interesting. And that really I was like, what's going on? So you're saying you'd rather look at the expected stats because sometimes the elements play. I tried that.

Like, you can try to convince yourself the expectives are good. Like there's only so much time you can do that for before. It's like, all right. Yeah, because they don't show them on the Jumbotron, bro.

They're showing you the real numbers. Yeah. And I think it's just like knowing that there's five months ahead of you, knowing it's not going to ruin you. So if you can just, and being okay with like, if you leave April, hitting 220 because everybody tries to leave April hitting 310 because you see guys around the league

doing it like there's somebody at some point in April who's hitting 450 and you're like well that guy's going to have the best year of his life you know the guy from the white socks you're mean who yeah he was hitting a billion in April and then by the end of the year like you know in the big league's like there's stories like that every year right so it's like understanding that if you go out and you're just, for as bad as I am in April, 220 with a 700 OPS next year would be wonderful. And like knowing that if you can build off that for the rest of the year, that your numbers at the end are going to look fantastic.

That's crazy. It's something that as a fan, which again, I'm a former ballplayer too like you guys, but as a fan, you know, that's tough to wrap your head around because especially when you say, you're mean, he's playing. playing across town too um but rigly is like a whole different atmosphere and uh yeah man the the mental juggle that that has to put you through um god it's it's bizarre is there anything physical that you that you want to that you want to try next year like some guys do like the baby oil under their sleeves of the baby oil you know i uh i uh i uh i

I've had times in the box at Wrigley where you're standing up there and you're holding the bat and you can feel the wind pushing the bat down. You feel like you're like tensed, like Benzobris tensed to try to hold the bat just up. And I think that's one of the things. I think just like sometimes giving in just being so loose that you're like a couple bloopers today is the best way to go about this. Like a couple just really gross knocks is the best way to try to attack the day to day. And walking is big in April. I did that a lot this year. Just try to limit your bats.

But from the physical standpoint, I'm up for anything. A little baby oil, a little hot stuff. I'm jock at one point. This is a good one. Jock at one point before the season because he had never played in, you know, he's California dude, grew up, played in California. and LA.

So he goes and orders heated socks and a heated vest battery packs before this season. I love it. And they were a little

bulky. It didn't really work out but he tried he went for it. People will try anything, man. One of my favorite things is to see how guys

combat that because it's miserable. The one thing I started to do was I was like, who's tougher? Me or the guy on the mound?

like I can be I'm better and cold than that guy is he doesn't like the cold more than I don't like the cold that's the mentality I started having and I think at the end I started doing a lot better in April because of that I like that I like that a lot you know what the mentality I've taken is which is probably not the right way to go about it is god damn it I have to go stand out here for three outs and this guy just gets to go sit in the hot dugout come out and throw 15 to 20 pitches and run his ass back in and put a jacket on. Oh, don't get me started on pitchers wearing jet. Okay. Hey, stop. Stop.

Stop. That's how, I mean, Jimmy almost got canceled by jacket culture for that. Jacket Twitter came for Jimmy's head. So, like, we,

we just can't go there. Habber, one of my favorite questions is always the, like, what are your personal offseason goals this year? Is it, are you bulking up? Are you trying to get more athletic?

Are you working on, just are you changing anything with the stance? Like what are your off-season goals this year? Good question. I, from a physical standpoint, I've been fortunate in my career to be really healthy. And so my physical, you know, off-season has been pretty consistent. I really don't like to make a lot of changes from the physical aspect because I think guys start making changes, start doing some things. And that's where injuries come in.

So what my off-season usually looks like, I try to, First three, four weeks, eat healthy, lose weight, get down from like the end of the season weight, probably 10, 15 pounds, 15 is maybe a lot, and then build it back up. So as I start to work out, start to lift heavier, start to eat more, and then put that good weight back on so that I'm kind of in a, my range for spring training is like 205 to 210. Like if I'm there in spring training, feeling really, really healthy and fast, like that's good. So that's the physical side. And then from a hitting standpoint, like I try to keep it really simple.

I started to hit really early before the worst year of my career. So I will never do that again. So I'd like to kind of wait until almost January to hit. Start really slow. I think there's some stuff I'm going to try or work on writing this year. you know and a lot of it is a lot of it is mental a lot of it is like the way you're framing

getting into the box and the confidence and some freedom because it got a little stuck just with not being as free and kind of trying to manipulate the ball and not get beat instead of going out there and competing so some of that stuff I don't want to work on right-handed from a swing standpoint and from the outfield

the defensive metrics are real. They've always kind of blown my mind. I don't really understand them at all. So trying to work on some of those things from outfield perspective, just jump, see that reaction time be a little bit better. I think it's going to be a big one for me from a defensive standpoint.

I can't keep looking up at like a horrendous defensive war that I don't understand. Yeah, that's brutal. I don't know, Trev, is any of that speaking to you? Any off-season Trev stuff to give? Well, first I want to apologize, I'm battling my landscapers out here. So if you hear some lawnmowers like you're probably hearing right now that are going on. The defensive metric stuff is, I love that you're approaching it that way.

Like you understand maybe it's not showing up for you, but you want to know why. I think that's the biggest thing that ballplayers need to figure out is, okay, my metrics aren't there, but why aren't they there? What can I do to make them better? I did that one time. I'm talking baseball fans have definitely hurt. heard this story before, but I went to Twitter, this guy, Mark Simon, I said, Mark, I feel like I'm playing balls out defense out here.

And my numbers aren't where they need to be. Like, what do I got to do, dude? And he made one suggestion to me. He said, at third base, guard the line. He goes, if you don't give up extra base hits down there, your numbers are going to go up. I simply moved a step over towards the line and all my numbers shot up. because I wasn't allowing extra base hits. So like honestly, if I'm you, you just got to go to someone who does understand the metrics,

whether that's someone in the organization or not, and then just kind of ask like, hey, what's my, and maybe you already know the reason and now you just have to fix it. But to me, that was like, it was crazy. I was like, I just have to move over a little bit and my numbers are going to go up. And sure enough, they did. So defensive metrics make no sense to me, and I don't understand them at all. I would like, I would like whoever created them to have to like have a YouTube video where they explain all of it.

But like if you play in Kansas City and you have this massive outfield, you know, you're going to be able to run down balls that have a higher expected batting average that are supposed to be doubles and homers and whatever. And Riggily, with the wind blowing out, there's stuff that hits. off the wall or is like gets out at 365 and you don't have the ability to go get that ball and track it down. I don't know if that, and I don't even know if that plays in. It blows my mind. But for me, like that part of defense, like I feel like I'm great at keeping guys off second base, you know, making sure that like cutting balls off and making sure getting balls into second quickly and like communicating with the outfield being in the right place so that we don't have to like run down balls so that we're where the guys are going to take.

hit it most often. But trying to figure out what part of those defensive metrics you can manipulate a little bit to make yourself look better from a defensive perspective. I had a great conversation. This was years ago with, I worked out with Drew Stubbs in Austin. And Stubbs was telling me about when he was playing. And, you know, one year, him and I think Dernard Span were like one, two as far as center fielders, like defensive metrics, everything looked great.

Awesome. The next year, they're like 17, 18. He goes, we're not different guys. We're the same athletes. We haven't changed. If you use the eye test, you would still say those are two of the best center fielders in baseball. But the defensive metrics had them being the best to one of the worst. It makes no sense.

Yeah, I'm going to set you up with Mark. Mark is going to be DMing you, so look out for that. He's going to come and tell you exactly what you need to do, and I'm guaranteeing your numbers are going to shoot up, and you know what that means, baby? Paid. Pay that, man. Or crypto.

Crypto's coming up second half of the podcast. Yeah, man, it's a conversation that a lot of fans aren't truly ready to have because it's this weird mix. There's the old-school generation of baseball fans that will just never care. Like they've enjoyed baseball a certain way for the first 40-plus years of their life, so they're just not going to change how they view a good outfielder. If they cut off the ball, if they make the throw, they're just going straight. I test. Meanwhile, there's this new generation of

people, kids, younger people that are really into baseball and part of the reason they are into it is the analytical side. And I don't want this to be shots fired to those people because there are a lot of our fans and it has such a great spot in the game. And if that's a good way to grow the game as well, like it's kind of a fun outlet. Like there's a new generation of fans that do view it kind of numerically, and it is finding a way to mold that, but it's kind of funny because these defensive stats are so new, they're not perfect. They're evolving every year that to try to use them as a

religion as we do with OPS, which by the way, that's not a crazy science project. That's on base plus slugging. But that's still advanced and that's new age. And that's what a lot of these younger fans have been built up on that they try to use an outs above average or UZR or some of these other crazy ones. And, you know, I end up sounding like the old guys because I don't fully understand those and they're tough. And every year you hear like, here are the biggest outliers this year from UZR. And it's like, oh, yeah, that guy's a really good defender.

Why does Gio Rochella rate out poorly? Like I've seen that guy make third base plays that like only Hall of Famers make. it's evolving and the new age fans just need to appreciate that more. I think it's crazy that a stat that changes every year on how it's measured and evaluated, like the defensive metrics, like defensive war, guys get paid off that. It's crazy because when you go into arbitration hearing, you know, it can be argued that you are a bad defender or it affects your overall war. So like even if your offensive war is great, but you have this like horrendous defensive

war it brings your your total war down and then you're being evaluated and paid off of what that number is for a stat that nobody understands and can be very easily manipulated it's like does that make a lot of sense it doesn't no it doesn't make any sense but that's the world we live in and mark simon just got a dm for mark simon so expect a dm for mark simon that fantastic look at this people helping people uh Fellas, we got a lot more silly stuff to talk about. Again, we're ending with crypto, as always. Let me tell you about Magic Spoon real quick. Again, I think a lot of the talking baseball people already know,

you heard the noise Trevor Plouf just made. Spoon me, baby. Magic Spoon. It's a healthy cereal. I was just going to make a rumor that Ian Hap goes on it after the season to lose some weight because there's zero grams of sugar. There's 13 to 14 grams of protein. It's keto-friendly, gluten-free, grain-free, soy-free, low-carb.

And I know you probably hear those words when you hear about other foods, and you're like, oh, well, I'm not going to eat that because it probably tastes bad. Magic Spoon is really good. They've got cocoa, fruity, frosted, peanut butter, blueberry, cinnamon, cookies and cream, maple waffle. And if you think we're like busting balls, we've eaten this live on J.JR. You could see our reaction. It's some of the worst content.

we've ever made. We are just eating cereal into a microphone. So as a consumer, that had to be tough. It was truly the first time we ever tried it. We guys, it's a true honest reaction. Yes. It was good. No, it's, uh, we're scared. Jimmy has, you're going to try something healthy. Jimmy O'Brien has one of the worst poker faces I've ever seen. You guys might know him as John Boy. Um, we both signed up. We're subscribed. We get the, the four packs every month. And you get to pick what's in there between if you like the fruity, if you like the frosted, the maple water. We always tell you about. Go to magic spoon.com slash baseball.

It's a pretty good code. And yeah, you'll get $5 off your order with MagicSpoon. MagicSpoon.com slash baseball. And use the code baseball. $5 off. So go check that out. You can eat Magic Spoon out of your wind-up dugout mug. You really can.

I don't see why not. I want you to know that was one of the best ad reads I've ever heard. I, uh, you haven't heard our Roman ad reads. I was thinking about you guys actually doing a show where you're eating cereal into a microphone. Yeah. Did it. It, uh, again, content wise might have been tough, especially there's some audio only people on that one. But, um, I think where it landed was a good place.

Definitely kept eating beyond the segment they paid for. Yeah. Yeah. Having the rest of the episode and everyone just had to deal with it. Yeah. And then, yeah, it just turned. until we actually liked it, so each of us took turns eating. Trev, I didn't tell you I was going to do this, but no, no, no, you're going to like this.

You know, this offseason, you became coach Trev, last off season, excuse me. You know, you took some different guys under your wings. You got some of those young L.A. guys you got connections to. Treve, I've got a young guy here, 27 years old. Happy belated hap? Did your birthday just happen? Did I see that? August. We saw him right after it. It is a second

happy, a second happy belated birthday. Trev, you know, you're year two arm now. Switch hitting, power, working on stuff. What, uh, what would coach Trev? You're throwing the arm around Happer. What are you telling him? Let's hear it.

Oh, I can't tell him anything he doesn't already know. This guy's established, dude. You know, the best thing you can do as a baseball players be on the field, that's it. I mean, that's how you get all, anybody that has good stats at the end of the year, just played a lot of games. Essentially,

like you have to be on the field to get those counting stats up, the homers, the RBIs. Obviously, you're not going to get judged completely on that in arbitration, but you kind of are getting judged completely on that in arbitration because it's all about comps. So I don't know, man, you know everything. I got nothing for you, bro. Wow.

It is, it is all about the counting stats. This was the first year in my career that I've been able to get 500 bats. And that's huge. Like just getting enough at bats to be able to, like no chance I hit 25 homers if I don't get those at bats. You know, and you're fighting for bats at the end of the year, you know, having to go like, like, hey, you know, especially when you're way out of it, having to go like, I'm going to play every day down the stretch.

Like, don't want the off days because you want to get those counting stats up. You want to be there. You're going to be available and you want to prove like that. I think that's kind of the learn that from Riz and some of those guys that I played with. but like that's the biggest honor in baseball is to be an everyday dude like to have 500 of bats every year plus to play 150 plus every year like it's not easy to do uh they don't let many guys do it anymore so to be able to kind of say that that's you know that's something that you do on a yearly basis like that's when you're established like that's when you're a guy and uh

this is the first time my career that i've been able to do it and i was pretty proud of that yeah i mean that's that's i think that's the biggest thing just staying on the field, whether that means you have to change up things in your diet or not going out or something like that. I mean, that's kind of what it was for me. At one point, it's like I have my soft tissue stuff was my Achilles heel, you know, so you have to stay hydrated. And that means you can't be drinking beers all the time.

You can't be drinking wine all the time, you know, even though you're not getting, you're not getting drunk, you're not hung over, but like your muscles, they need to be hydrated. That was my thing. so I think finding your thing to stay on the field is the biggest, whatever that is. Play, man. That's it. Play.

And then maybe figure out the April stuff. Because we talk about this, man. Defensive metrics. Defensive metrics. April, if you look up and you're able to look at the Jumbotron, I tell people this all the time, whether you say it or not, seeing crappy numbers on the Jumbotron affects you as a hitter.

So if you can get through April, with like a 280 up there or you know a couple homers that is key maybe because the I mean your months are incredible bro your splits are incredible it's just a little bit of April that's all yeah I also know like if I hit 250 the other numbers are going to look really good yeah it's like not not always trying there's only going to be a couple guys in the league that are hitting 300 every year and like you can be a really productive player hitting 250 to If I hit $2.75, it's going to look silly. It's crazy.

And I think we originally turned our heads. We talked to Kevin Bigio. And we were like, hey, so what's your stat that you look at for yourself? And he said batting average. And you're like, wait, like, you're kind of known for being this crazy on base guy. Like, you know, that's kind of your, like, special talent. But it's because if the batting average is there, he knows everything else. else is there. So it sounds like you're basically saying the same thing. Yeah. And I think where I've

gotten caught up in the past is trying to hit like being disappointed when it's not 280, 290, 300. Because I've had times or months in my career where it has, you know, I'll hit probably my August numbers, I don't know, throughout my career, probably pretty close to 300. Like it's, there's someone to know what they are. Don't you tell me. I would make me feel really good. You don't have any that are close to batting average 300 but your other numbers are really good. Other numbers are really good. Your highest is in August at 252.

That's your batting average though. So for instance, May you hit 246 but your OPS is at 905. So who cares about? That's what I'm saying. If I just hit in the mid 200s of OPS is there. But for me like being okay with that, like not looking up at the board and seeing 240, 250 and being like, that's not good enough. Being able to go, go one for four.

That's a great day in the big leagues. It's really hard to hit in the big leagues. Really hard. Also, Cabin and I played together Harwich Mariners, 2015, 2014, 2014, got really close. We were good friends. He wears number eight now. I were number eight now. Wow.

Big fan of Cap and Bigio. Two studs. Is his Twitter handle still doing it Bigio? Because that was our favorite thing for a while. It still is, yes. Doing it Bigio 23. So he just took his AOL screen name and put it to his Twitter account. That's just all time.

The big and Bigio is all caps. Ian's like, what's AOL? I've never heard of that before. I was on the AOL machine. Trev, you, I wanted to give you credit for this. when you were on the compound, you said that when you were in the minor leagues looking for housing, you didn't have smartphones. And I want to give you credit and, like, power for saying that, because some people don't know that world.

They don't know that world. You can't just pull up, I couldn't pull up Zillow and see what was around me for rent. You know, you had to, like, cold call places using, you know. Getting taxis in, like, non-cities, getting taxis in New Britain, Connecticut. Like, I remember that. BPD will never know. I never know Everyone's got everything at their fingertips now

And it's okay I'm not back in my day Anybody here Because this presents This generation has their own problems Bro that we didn't have to deal with too Let's attack pitchers Let's attack all of our fans

Basically the next generation Yep Who else do we need to take down Can I take someone down Here we go I'm gonna mess up his name I think it's Walter Herzog Whitey

Whitey Whitey had some big quotes over the week Dude, if you have to say, if you start a sentence with back in the old days, stop, shut up. Just stop talking. I mean, Treve, we don't need to hear about the game being two and a half hours, bro. Who cares? It's not the game.

The game changes, bro. What was the quote? I need to know the quote. So let's get a couple things out there. Whitey Herzog, I believe, is Hall of Famer legend. He is 90 years old. Which that's- Beyond the clouds.

That's okay. Colleen. I'm not going to be. I've already made it a life's mission not to be that person. We're going to be those people. I'm so ready. No, we're not. I'm going to be mad dog.

Like, people are going to look at me and be like, he's off his rocker. You might be, but it ain't going to be here because I'm going to fire you. Okay. Before you get to that point somehow. Me and baby John baby. That's huge. Happer, I got one more serious one, and then we'll just get as weird as possible before Trev takes down another 90-year-old Hall of Famer.

We did an episode this year. We'd do our recap episodes after the series, and then we'd do them midweek, and we'd come up kind of with interesting topics. The people liked it more than we thought, so we were just like, hey, you know, if anyone's got something you're feeling, like, let's roll it, and we'll see what happens.

Hold on one second. Hold on one second. Whitey Herzog is in the Hall of Fame as a manager. Okay. Trev, I don't. What do you want to hear? right now. Stop

disrespecting the game, bro. Just because it's a little bit different. It's the game still, guys. It's baseball. Your Hall of Fame, you've reaped the benefits of this game. Don't come tear it down because you're in a bad mood one day. Come on, man. His name is Dorel Norman Elvert Herzog, Treff.

The guy knew people from the Titanic. Happer, you're a switch hitter. Titanic, I felt wrong. We did an episode That was about Basically it was about Cedric Mullins How he switched it

This year he went nut job And he only hit lefty this year Now you have some splits I mean I don't have to tell you you know them And you're saying part of your goals this offseason Is to focus on the right side And straighten it out a little bit Has there been any deep end thoughts

like would I ever bag it or is it like let's just improve or I'd love to know that thought process from you yeah I'm I've considered it I guess not for very long I know Tucker barnhart did too he went all left I it's it's a tough thing because the game it doesn't like left-handed only bats especially unproven left-handed only bats because there's just so much platooning and I watch guys go through it early in their career. So like to to make that switch, you have to have like Zedric did, you have to have super commitment from the team. Like you, the team has to be completely and totally on board. They basically have to say like, hey, we're going to roll you out there for 500, 600,

at bats. And even if you just stink against lefties, like we're going to let you figure it out because and figuring that out at the big league level is about as hard as it gets. So that's one thing. The second thing is I think I can hit right hand. Like I really do believe that. that. I've kind of fallen victim to the platoon, even though I'm a switch hitter. You know, Albert Elmore and I platooned early in my career. And then, you know, you get, if you don't have success right-handed, you get platooned pretty quick because every team has that fourth outfitter or, you know, when I was playing second or whatever that does have a lot of success against lefties. And that guy has to play too. So you have to go out there and prove that

you can do it in order to get the abats. Amazingly, like my numbers from, 17 right-handed, we're pretty good. And it's kind of, you know, not getting as many of bats or opportunities or whatever. And then kind of, you know, so I know that the ability is there, but it's that you have to believe that the ability is there. You have to believe that you can go do it. Kind of the last four or five years, I guess I've gotten myself in a place where I feel like you have to prove something when you go out there right-handed.

You feel like you have to get the hits. And you might be getting at bats once a week. You might be getting the bats every two weeks. you might be getting, you know, a couple days in a row where you actually get to hit right-handed and feeling like if you don't succeed, baseball is a sport where, let's say I get 10 right-handed at bats in a week or two weeks. You're less than that probably. Yeah.

Then you have one lefty starter a week, maybe. Yeah. So if you have to end your, and you're trying to prove it off one lefty starter a week plus some nasty reliever that's coming in throwing some shit from. the dugout and you and then you're trying to evaluate yourself on that and go all right well i have to have you know two or three hits um out of those 10 at bats and once you start you know you go over 10 and you go fuck i'm only going to get 100 150 at bats right-handed this year those things start to add up so it's really going in there and believing that you can do it believing

that you have the ability to hit right-handed and have success um and and then letting the results happen because I've done it at the big league level. I haven't done it for a while really well, but I've done it at some point, so I know it's in there. It's just really believing in it. And I think it was pretty good. I had kind of a mindset change mid-August, and I think the numbers from mid-August,

maybe September right-handed were not too bad. They were kind of back in line with what they should look like. You know what's interesting is a couple things. I love switch hitters. I want to pick your brain on this a little bit. But I'm looking versus a left-handed starter. You're great. 778 OPS.

So I think some of the times coming in facing some of those nasty lefties, like you're saying, that have different arm angles. You're not getting exposed to that a ton. Seems to maybe have been some of the fallback. My question, I guess, is, and this is a little out there, but that's what we do here. Are there any lefties that you'd consider hitting left-handed against? Like, say they have some reverse splits? And if so, have you done it?

I haven't done it. I've never done it, but I have thought about it. Like who? Who's the guy that would do that? If I ever face Kershaw again, I would strongly consider hitting left-handed. Interesting. Wow. His cutter and heater to righties, they just, they play so similarly.

And I am also a victim right-handed to swinging hit balls in off the plate. Like, that's something that I've really tried hard to stop doing. So he is a tough matchup. I think I'm over five or over six. with all punchouts. I have not put the ball in play. I've hit some really hard foul balls, killed some people,

but have not actually put a ball in play. So, like, he's a dude, like talking to Riz and talking to Schwerber, like they feel like that cutter is easier, slider, I guess, when it's lefties, it's easier for them to just really get him close. And Riz has had some success against him.

So it's like, if I get an opportunity, I probably never will. That's like usually a game where they're like, you're down. But if I would get that opportunity, I might try it there. Brett Suter was another one. Brent Suter was a dude that was like, hey, maybe I should just try to get up there left. He can swing down.

I got a couple hits off him, I think, this year. Maybe if they probably weren't hit that hard, but they were hits. But he was a guy that I was like, he had me domed up for two or three years. It was just like, good, it was just not even close. yeah marianna rivero they talked about that with guys like lefties had a much tougher time with the cutter so it's kind of like the same thing your time with kershah lefties and that cutter weren't very good righties didn't do very well either but there's something that you would consider yeah and joe with zobrist they would have times where joe madden would he would basically tell zoh like hey this is a really good opportunity this guy's uh splits like you should try it and zoe did it a hand full times in his career for this, which is just, we're so obvious that he tried it. And for your last two off-suter. Whoops.

Mindset change, I'm telling you. That's all it is. I like that. Man, that's funny because, yeah, I think a lot of the reverse split pitchers we see these days are guys with kind of like a wipeout change-up, because that pitch is moving the other way. But the cutter is kind of the pivot pitch, it sounds like. And I have, I love what you said.

because it also switch hitting becomes a numbers game. If every team, let's say 90% of ball clubs have a fourth outfielder or a guy that can play the outfield that's a right-handed hitter, you've now potentially lost that opportunity to play. So, yeah, I mean, you have to believe in yourself to be able to do it, but you could be taking away playing time for yourself and circling back to what we said before. being out there is the key.

When you talk about sample size and baseball, you know, if I get 500 at bats of the course of the year, it's probably 20 to 25% of those are going to be right-handed, maybe a little bit higher, but definitely not, definitely not 40%. 40% is way too high. So like sample size in baseball, 150 of bats can look very, very different just based on a few days.

You know, you have a couple good days. Like if you have a couple really good right-handed days where you get three or four hits, that skews the entire thing. And the reverse is true too. So it's looking at those stats year to year, it doesn't always tell the complete story about how good the abouts were or where.

So for my focus is always right-handed, trying to put together good at bats, trying to get on base. And I think one of the points about, It's not only cutters, but left-handers, for some, I don't know why it's, it's so severe. Lefties in the game, especially left-hand relievers now, are throwing so far across their body. Hater's a great example. I'm trying to think that dude from the Mets that was nasty all year, that left team.

Yep. Yeah. Like dudes are throwing, they're basically stepping into the dugout and then throwing across their body at an angle across the plate. that is so severe that the ball feels like it's any other batters box, and it's the corner, and then that ball in is basically chasing you in. So that's become a very common thing, and then it's trying to figure out, because when you're coming up, the lefties in the minor leagues are sync and high school in college, are sinker change up, maybe a slider.

So everything's going away from you. It's very easy to get that ball on the air to the pole side, like that was where I really had success. and you get to the big leagues and it's the opposite. The sinker change-up guy doesn't exist. Wade by this is a great example of a guy who's really good at it, but that's because he has a nasty cutter. But there just aren't that many of those dudes anymore in the game.

Those guys are mop-up guys now and you pray to the baseball gods that you find a few of them during the year, but they're not pitching high leverage. And the dudes that are sinker change-up versus split guys are nasty. They have made it through this revolution in baseball because they are so good. You're talking about Shreve, McFarland, like those dudes, they have a pitch that has such late downward angle that they've made it through and their stuff is different now. Like it used to be similar to a lot of guys. Now it's very different because that doesn't exist in the games. When you

see the sinker change up guy you're going i got to remember how to hit a sinker in the change i got to remember how to hit a ball that's going down instead of once rising to hit me in the chin so that it's now learning from for me right-handed with limited at bats how to attack that guy that has the rising you know it's basically like a left-handed Craig kimbril who is with a low slot coming up on an angle and trying to figure out how to impact that ball how to get it into play with some height in the air. Like it's a very different when you're going through that process,

not having the abats to learn because it's all your brain trying to figure out, all right, how do I get the bat to this ball? How do I put it in play? Like that's, once you get some of those abats, once you get that feeling and have some success with it, that's when you can really start to take off, but it's just getting enough of those abats to be able to do it.

Look at you. You always call Zach Short the hitting nerd. That was there? That's a serious baseball talk. This is serious ball talk. This is not where we're used to on the show, man. Can I make it silly? I think we probably have to go see.

Yeah, what do you got, Trev? Well, this is a C-Rose question. I answered it this morning. I'll give you guys my answer, then I want to hear your guys' answer. You said, give me two baseball players. He said retired, but I say anybody. two baseball players that you'd like to see square off in the ring against each other.

So my answer was A-Rod versus Josh Donaldson. I love that matchup right there. A-Rod hates home runs, even though he's one of the best home-runs of all time. Josh Donaldson swing Revolution King. Can talk baseball, talk A-Rod under the table. for sure, but can he fight him? I'd love to see you. This is a bout of fisticuffs you're talking about.

Yes. The actual fight. Okay. Yes. I want to go M.MA. I'm going to go M.MA. Okay. Because I don't want to just do boxing.

So I want Josh Donaldson, A, Rod. I'm curious. I think I'll kick it to Jake first, and then maybe we'll give half her a little time. I was just like Hap, I was prepared for this question. The first two names that jumped to my mind were you and Whitey Herzog. I love that But that seems off the table That guy had a headlock

Oh thick boy ploof I thought he would take this cane And hit you right over the head He might I don't know I'm trying to think Trying to think current guys What's the chat?

The chat's got to be putting up some good stuff You know what? Give me Give me some old man pitchers Because I think that would be a good Stand up fight that would be like a like wayne right versus verlander like they they would just exchange like right hand punches over and over until someone drops um that's where mine jumped so okay how about

this one i got another one i want to give out how about carlos carea versus cody balinger do you guys remember the interview the interview yeah no hell he's a peace guy man yeah that's a good He doesn't feel any of the punches. Let it hap, because you put him on the spot and it looks like he's found one, so I'm pretty excited. I have a few. I have John Lackey versus any umpire. Okay. I also have John Lackey versus anybody that swings first pitch.

I think Wilson Contreras versus, uh, Wilson's crazy. Maybe Wilson versus like Amir Garrett. maybe hobby versus Mayor Garrett. Amiric Garrett wants to fight everybody. Everybody. I told you guys when he started calling them the big dick swinging, badass motherfuckers, I said you can't do that in April, bro,

because it's too exhausting to have that team mantra. You can't be the big dick swinging dudes the entire year. It just doesn't work. So you learned his lesson, I think. Everybody, it's whoever's hot at the end. You've got to get hot in September. I'm ready. Oh, man.

I'm ready for the Cubbies to do it. Scherzer versus Madbom in the chat. That's a pretty good one right there. Madbom's like scary, though. Jake versus Tyler O'Neill, similar bodies. 13 minutes ago, Konseko tweeted. That's some interesting news about Alex Rodriguez. Here we go.

We're live. I guess, last semi-real question, are you tracking anything this free agency? Are you trapped? Because I know you're, A, you're deep in the game. Like, you care about the game. I think that's one of the things we like about you. You care about the well-being, like the actual, the player side of things

and how guys are getting taken care of and stuff. And obviously there's a Cubs side of it too. And there's probably a personal side. I mean, you're what? Two years away from free agency? Are you starting to eye guys of maybe similar ilk to see what's going down? Where's your head at there? Yeah, not as much that.

think it's so much can happen in two years and you do a lot of your platform your dictates a lot of how that goes on a personal level but i definitely have friends that are going through it you know all the guys that left the cubbies are going through it so it's rooting hard for those guys to get paid as much as they possibly can i i think the the spectrum of people talking and writing about the contracts for this offseason and the numbers are hilarious i don't know where somebody wrote an article that had like rude like rude numbers for how much guys were going to get paid like absurdly low and to think that some of these dudes with the careers that they've had with the performances they have put up with track records like I don't know as it's just being

a player that you take offense to it but like when somebody comes on who's never played the game and then it's like this guy is worth half of what he's actually worth get I get So that's, I could go for an hour on how much that fires me. I think that might be Trev's favorite trade in you. I think you both have very strong players protector of the game, which is a good thing. And yeah, man, it's so funny with those articles, because I love them. Like, let's go back for me. Like, I was working a desk job for seven years.

So if I could get my hands on one of those articles and distract myself for 15 minutes, I was going to do it. And I actually, Kylie McDaniel, who he mostly does, I think, prospect stuff for ESPN. I'm not sure if he's doing more now. But he had his article, and I clicked it and got in there. And I think biggest payday, he had Correa, like, coming in around 300 mil. And it's like, okay, yeah, I mean, that's an interesting conversation with all the short stops. You know, I think that could be a fun one all day.

But everything else after it seemed pretty light. Like, I think he had Robbie Ray for like a four for 78. And I was like, what? The dude just won the Cy Young. He's got gold on his baseball reference for having the most K-per-9 of any starting pitching. You're telling me there's not going to be one, two, five teams that talk themselves into Robbie Ray.

He's like a pitching coach's dream. And Patrick Corbyn a couple years ago gets five for 125. So I don't know what goes into those articles. A lot of them, I guess, are clicky, and you need to be on either end of the spectrum to be clicky. But I don't know. you know exactly where they come from bro these are these are teams telling

people to put out suppressed salaries and on the other flip side of it because i'll be honest an on pod there are some reporters that are under agents thumb and they're going to put out ungodly numbers the other way so like you just read everything you read as far as projections for free agent signings take with a grain of salt it's just yeah there's agendas everywhere except talking baseball and compound and all our stuff we have.

I just, I think it's bad for the game when you have people, fans, and it's going to happen. It will always happen, but it's bad for the game when you have fans going, oh my God, why would you ever pay that guy so much? It's just not, it's not good for the game. It's not what baseball needs. Baseball needs people not only rooting for guys to get paid, but rooting for. like teams and players to like each other going through these negotiations like baseball needs baseball fans like want to have want the game like you just want everything everybody to be

happy you want teams to go out and pay good players so that they can compete you want all 30 teams it's not going to happen ever but you want as many as possible let's say 20 25 teams going out every off season and at least paying some good players to come and help their team win next year because that is what fires up a fan base. And the worst thing for any fan base is to be going through an offseason going, we're not ready. We can't, why would we ever pay this guy because we're not going to win enough games? Like that's, it's just not good for the game. You want every fan base to want to see good players play and good players get paid because it's very difficult just to even get to free agency. It just doesn't happen that much.

We talked about it on compound. Braves winning this year is excellent. those mid-market teams fan bases because you can't sell bullshit to a fan base after that. These guys were below 500 at the midpoint of the season. Alex Anthopoulos went out and said

I'm going to reshape my entire outfield and then went in one World Series. So like that argument is out the window now. The team has got to compete and continue to compete. If your team sells off in June or July,

you got to call bullshit on that because you can point to now the last two full season champions. The Nationals and the Braves were both not good baseball teams necessarily in the beginning part of the year. So you can't say we're selling anymore

because look at what these teams have done. I'm stoked that that happened. Don't let your team sell you on that shit. Sorry. No, it's good, Trev. Let the hate flow through you. Happer, we told you 45 to an hour. I think we cleared that.

What else do we need to get out there? I think you're attending a family wedding this weekend. You want to give some love, give some compound love. You said before this Rizzo kept texting you that he was going to take a Yankees discount, which that's really weird. But whatever. You know, he did love his time in New York. I would say that.

He loved his time in New York. And he fits in New York. I don't know. He looks good in that. You need not great with the Navy shoes, though. Make him look a little dumpy. Yeah. It shortens your legs.

That's why you're right. White and gray, Tony. White and gray. Yeah. You know, I, there you go, Jake. I started wearing white batting gloves on the. road. Do you want to know why? And I'm so embarrassed at this, but I don't hide

anything. Because it was an A-Rod move, but I used to freaking love watching A-Rod. White batting gloves. You remember it. B.BD. Hit the music on you for that. Turn the music off, B.B.D. We got to tell people to go see the go check out the compound

with Happer, Zach Short, Dakota Mekis, producer Tom. Baseball. A-Rod. Sometimes, we'll see. How are you feeling with the compound, Hap? What's any offseason plans? Yeah, we got some offseason plans.

Tom's working on posters and actually getting us video. We've had a lot of requests for video. We are working on how to best do that. But it's been great. We've had wonderful guests like Trevor Plouffe and we were falling into a rhythm. We're loving it. It's a man, it's, it's a crew. Zach Short, Dakota's kind of booming Midwest voice coming in.

It's, you guys are a fun pod. It's not just, it's some people think it's a Cubs pod. No, it's like all a baseball. It's not a Cubs pod. It's all a baseball and it's life. I mean, Dakota's story the other day about his going to the Michigan State Michigan game. That was fantastic.

And yeah, if you're, if you're anyone that's in this world, which you are, you're listening to a YouTube or podcast show, you'd enjoy the compound. So, I appreciate that. If you're in this world, you will enjoy the compound. Like that? We're trying to, we're trying to get the video for a little bit more exposure. I think if we can get some video out there, we can get Dakota's big head into one of these squares. Yes. I think then, you know, we'll get some people to jump on board because we do, we have a nice little following in Chicago, but it is.

It's more than that. You know, we don't talk Cubs baseball that much. We talk a little bit about when stuff's happening, but we try to talk more about the rest of the game and life. Zach Short, my guy, picking it, picking it for the Tigers this year. Six homers last year, whoops. Those hands don't sleep. Carlos Correa and Zach Short up the middle.

That's what people are saying. Correa's already a Yankee with Rizzo and Schwerber and Verlander. That's just unofficial yet, but I can't tweet that out. I have Verlander to the Braves as of right now, I'm just saying. Happer, go enjoy some golf, wedding stuff, whatever else you got going on. We appreciate you hopping on. Enjoy the offseason, dude. If you need anything, let us know besides the posters and the video and everything else.

And we have to get some posters in here. But thanks for hopping on, man. And we'll see you soon. Appreciate you, fellas. I need one of those hats. He's one of those Johnboy hats to rock around. Get your hat. Jonathan India has one.

What else? It's time to talk about crypto. Crypto. I got this one. Jax. Crypto's up. Go. We rich, baby.

Let's make our own crypto. Jom coin? Compoin. Big baby coin. Promoted on computers and tweeters. Eaters and heaters pod coming soon.