Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 472 | Opening Day is TOMORROW

Episode Date: April 6, 2022

Watch Trevor Plouffe make his 2022 World Series prediction LIVE April 6th at 6:30pm: https://www.youtube.com/c/TalkinBaseball Visit https://athleticgreens.com/baseball to get a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. Go to http://getroman.com/YANKS today, and if you’re prescribed, get $15 off your first month of ED treatment Use code YANKS for $20 off your first SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/YANKS Timestamps: 5:15 - Jose Ramirez Extended with Cleveland 16:00 - Opening Day Starters 29:30 - What Cities Do Opening Day Right 40:00 - Austin Meadows Traded to Detroit 48:45 - Trevor Watched the Dodgers 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. Opening day is among us. It's tomorrow. For some teams, not all of them. Let's talk about the baseball. D-minus intro. Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. The last episode of the off-season, I believe, and what a doozy of an off-season it was. It's brought to you by Seatkeek, myself, Jimmy.

We got Jake sitting across the table from me. Trevor Ploof back from the dead in California, producer BBD in the corner brought to you by Seat Geek. As always, also special announcement that this will not be the only live stream from this channel today on the YouTube. Make sure you come back, I believe around 6.30 Eastern time. Trevor Plouf will be making his World Series prediction. Last year, he got it correct. he's the prophet and he's going to give it again

on a live stream presented by Draft Kings tonight was supposed to be in person but he got Ebola or E. coli what did you get? I think I got both of them. I'm still feeling a little under the weather but I'm playing through it.

We had a nice little team meeting this morning. I did my baseball today. But yes, I am locked in with the pick. I think five people on the planet now know it. You two are not part of that. BPD also not part of that, unless there were some leaks. But I'm hoping there wasn't. I am very excited.

I think people are going to be, you know, like, I think they're going to write this to my pick. Okay. Okay. As soon as your pick is live, you will be able to go to the drafting sports per gap immediately after the announcement and bet it. And you'd be a fool not to because it hit last year.

So if it hits two years in a row and you didn't. didn't do that, you're going to feel, even if you put a dollar down, whatever it is, I mean, if you hit again, Trev, and someone didn't turn their dollar into $100 or whatever it is. Yes. Like, it's just going to be a bad time. I'd like to point out, I'm not forced gambling on anyone, but you might want to put a penny down on this. In 2020, I picked the raise, and they did not win the World Series because Kevin Cash took

Blake Snell out of the game. Yes, yes, yes. But they were in the World Series. So, you know, there's some history there. in history. Jake, how are you doing? James Trev, BBD? What's going on? Chat. Opening day of baseball in 25 hours. 25 hours, exciting stuff. And yeah, like Jim mentioned, you know, last talking baseball off-season podcast episode, but we do have Trev's prediction tonight. So we'll see you guys there. Be a lot of fun. Trev, the outfit he has picked out,

you guys are going to go nuts. You guys are going to go nuts. It's crazy. But yeah, I'm juiced up. I mean, bummer about our Yanks. Yanks got pushed from Thursday to Friyei. Tough weekend. Tough J.M. Week, if we're being honest, we got punched in the dick a little bit.

Me and Jimbo both have weddings. Rosie, we initially wanted him out for opening day. He's going on some sex capade or something. Treves got the ease just up and down his body. It's leaking onto my face a little bit. Crazy opening week at John Boy Media, but excited. The baseball's back, man. I'm sad.

Jimmy's sad. I'm not going to be able to watch opening day for the first time in 20 years. Because I'm on a plane. Well, it happens. Fucking lockout. Then they, so there's no lockout. It's a second weekend. Sure, I can fly during that.

Then the lockout happens. Then they say, we're canceling the first two weeks. So I say, yeah, let's go to the wedding. You know, either it's, it doesn't look like there's going to be baseball at all. And they come back and they say, no, that's now opening weekend. Like, all right, well, I fly Friday. So this is perfect Thursday, opening day, fly Friday, watch Saturday, Sunday, and Cali. Now rain out, not going to be able to watch opening day of my team for the first time.

And I counted 20 years. It's two days. It's very sad. It's two days on my calendar that I've never missed. Christmas opening day. I'm sad. Maybe, maybe you're going to get a little bit of it on the plane. There are TVs now on these planes.

Maybe. It's MLB network. So maybe. Where are you flying? I'm not going to ask you for your flight info, but hopefully for your sake, they do have it. I don't know my flight info.

So. Okay. So, sad. We got some baseball news this morning. Some interesting baseball news. Did you guys hear? J-Ram? We thought Trader Joe's might have hooked him.

I thought he might be on the move. Turns out they were trying to trade them really bad. And then they decided, oh, never mind. We'll sign them to an extension. They had $0 on the books after this year. Now they have, what did he get? J-Ram with the Guardians. 5.124.

So he'll be there. Biggest contract the Guardians have ever given out? Yeah. I think it's the first $100 million contract they've ever given out. By more than double. Edwin was their leader in the clubhouse with 60 mil. Trev, I ran a little hot on this earlier. I've come down, but I want to hear what you've got, Big Daddy.

This is your guy. Yeah, no, I saw this guy blossom into the player that he's become, which is, you know, an elite player in Major League Baseball. And that's, like, not a statement that I toss around. I don't just give the elite status around. Like, he really is. And I don't think he's underrated. I think he's, I said this early on baseball today.

Like, and I forgot what I said. He's under the radar. How about that? Okay. And, but I think it's good for the guardians, dude. Because these things can turn around quickly. Like, if you trade Jose Ramirez, your fan base is now, like, what are we doing? But you keep him and you maybe can build around him.

I looked at the free agent class next year. There's a few guys. but like they've always been able to develop pitching. You have J-RAM now that you're going to build around on your offensive side. So go get some guys. Like I think that they can turn this around rather quickly. C-Ros did say that the Padres were hot on him.

He said he talked to somebody with the Padres and said what they offered. He wouldn't tell me exactly who it was. So maybe if you guys go tag C-Rose and ask him, what was that trade that didn't go down? But it didn't end up happening. And I think the Guardians said, you know what, if this wasn't going to happen, let's sign him up, let's do this.

And I think it's the right move. A couple things. Congrats Jose Ramirez. There's still an argument that that contract extension is a bit of a bargain for the numbers this guy puts up. I forgot, it's still, it's an extension. So he still has the option next year. So that's one of his prime years. So I started comparing it to some judge stuff in Yankee land,

because everyone, every Yankee fan is hoping that extension drops. The judge extension would probably be a little bit bigger because of that prime year on J. Ram's current deal. I was just a little frustrated. Four Guardians fans, we talked about it in their preview, that this team, you're right, Trev, not only can things change fast in baseball, especially if one or two young guys take a leap,

like that changes the whole dynamic. I mean, there's a couple smaller moves that this team could have done, that I just feel like we would have talked about them so much more exciting in the AL Central, especially with the retooled twins. And, you know, Trev, you come back at us, rightfully so sometimes. We're tough on the AL Central. There's just been a couple years where the big dog in the Central hasn't gotten challenged,

and in recent years we do feel like that's affected their playoff success. Where if the Indians, the Guardians, excuse me, even if they took a couple flyers on guys like Jack Peterson or some, some MLB vets that still have that potential to give you a full season around Fran Mill and Jose Ramirez and some of the other guys, you could really start to buy into this team. Because like we've talked about, as an organization of creating baseball players and pitchers, they've been pretty good.

So it just sucks that think about that direction. It was either trade Jose Ramirez and get prospects or lock them up, lock them up to the deal that they were. okay with giving. Like they, that almost shows it wasn't a like, well, we're going for it these next two years. So I don't know. I guess the direction of the Guardians and some of their payroll stuff still drives me nuts. I'm happy for Jose Ramirez, man.

That guy's got 100 mil coming his way. He is one of the best players in baseball. It's locked up. That's secured. And I'm happy for Guardians fans for locking up their guy. But there's just a, there's just a little twinge that like you could have added two free agents or so, you know, and not like bag, bag guys, like $8, $10 million a year guys, that you could really look at this Guardians team and get excited. And that's just not how

this front office operates. So a little emotional roller coaster for me. He apparently wanted to stay in Cleveland. That's why it's a team-friendlyer deal. I mean, Chapman just signed his extension, I think, was 25 mil a year for two years. And this comes out to 24.8 mil a year for J-RAM in the five-year extension. I was trying to rack my head around that. Like, Mani, he's getting 30 a year, right, when he was younger and longer contract, different thing, but I'm trying to think about all these shortstop

just got pretty good money. Machado? What are you talking about? Mani got 30 at third baseman. Danny Machado. But this lawf's the... Seeger, Simeon. Yeah, all of their yearly was higher than 24-8, right?

He didn't have the leverage. He's got two more years before they have to do anything. I know. He did get a full no-trade clause. That means something. If you're going to waive your no-trade clause, there's a lot of things you could work into the next team that they'll have to do for you. So maybe that's what he's thinking on it.

Yeah, it's just, I don't know. What was the A-AV, James, you said it? It's 24.8 a year. So look, I think it's a leverage money. But if this guy has repeats his last two years or hits, or hits for his, you know, MLB average the next two years, he's going to be 30 years old as a free agent. I mean, I think he gets more money.

But he bet, but I guess comfort and just having it locked up as a thing. I'm surprised that he took this. I'm not surprised because. like I said, there are two blank years in front of you, not blank years, but two years where, you know, you don't have the control. And a lot of things can happen in those years. And yeah, you can take out an insurance policy and say, I'm going to be worth this. So I'll pay this and guarantee myself, at least some chunk of change if I do get hurt. And it's not really, there's really aren't many career-ending injuries as a position player. It's more for pitchers to do that. But I think

when you can say, you know what, I'm going to make, you know, whatever it is now. probably 175 million he'll end up making in his career like a guy coming from the DR. It's just it's enough and he likes he's comfortable where he's at. I think it was for him almost a no-brainer. It's nice locked up money. But we heard the Chapman rumor of him turning down pretty decent money. You know, people get floated offers a lot. I would have guessed he wanted out and wanted to get traded and then play himself into a huge.

So I'm just, it's up to him. He can do whatever he wants. I'm just surprised that this is what he wanted. I think people need to realize like that, not realize they know, but when you do come from a place, when you come from Venezuela or the Dominican, that dollar's going to go a lot longer over there.

And I don't want teams to try to exploit that. And I don't think agents let that happen. But I think when he just wanted to be secure, man. He's 30 years old now almost. Like he wanted to be secure. I get that. I'm just surprised he wanted to stay in Cleveland. There's two years of risk.

There's two years of risk that basically he's achieved a lifelong goal already. And I know we throw around underrated, overrated, stuff like that around, mostly underrated because we like hyping guys up if I'm being completely honest. Go look at this dude. Stap page. He's on track for the Hall of Fame. Like two more prime years. This guy is a Hall of Fame baseball player.

So, dude, what a win for the Guardians. and yeah, those two years of risk. And like we're also saying, I laughed in the shower this morning because I was like, he likes Cleveland. But just picture being from the Dominican Republic. And then you're living in Cleveland,

maybe he doesn't want to live in other towns. He found a home there. He's been there for a while. Like, with all the trade rumors swirling and everything around him too, like. They will continue to swirl with this contract. If he went somewhere else, if he went somewhere else for two years

and didn't have the same level of success, then what kind of extension is he looking at? He's at what he knows. I mean, good for him. And yeah, it's just those two years of risk. And that's why I mentally I was comparing it to Aaron Judge before. But you can't because there's two years. That next year, another year in his prime at $13 million.

Yeah. Hey, y'all say this, for the people in Cleveland. I've had many of fun nights in Cleveland. So Jake and I had a fun night. It kind of gets a bad rap. How about that? You're right. We watched Prince Fielder hit a grand slam in Cleveland.

And there was Firework night as well. I mean, I wasn't there, but I'm glad you had fun. Oh, my gosh. Fireworks. Oh, yeah, you weren't there. It was on a cross-country war trip. Tough. Maybe he really likes the rock and roll Hall of Fame.

It was with Krause. I also had a good night in Cleveland. It was Garrett Schmidt. He came through. Nice. It's what I'm saying. It's like the only time we've hung out. Maybe J-RAM just, like, found out a little hidden gem there.

Only time we've hung out since high school. The bar scene, this was a. this was in 2009, but the bar scene outside the stadium was nice. Oh, yeah. From stadium to stadium, Cleveland is an awesome like six blocks. Yeah. Yeah, it was a nice area. That place is great.

Okay, we're in on Cleveland. Casino? Let's go! Oh, I'm out on the casino because I've never won money there. It's out on the casino. That's why you've got to go next time. Yeah. Oh, you're right.

I'm in. I'm back in on the casino. We got a new sponsor here. It's Athletic Greens. Jake and I have dabbled in the athletic green space before some Blitzball games. Helps us out. Helps us out a ton. You know. What is it, you may ask?

Well, with one delicious scoop of AG1, you're absorbing 75 high-quality vitamins, minerals, whole food, source, superfoods, and probiotics. Help you start your day right, Trev. A lot of people, a lot of athletes taking athletic greens. If you're not athletic, you're not athletic, you're not. you can still take it, but I don't know. This special blend of ingredient supports your gut health. Trev needs that.

Your nervous system, your immune system, your energy, recovery, focus, and aging, all the things. I gave it to my baby recently. He started walking. That was nuts. It was awesome. Contains less than one gram of sugar, no GMOs, no tasty chemicals or any artificial anything, while still tasting good. It costs you less than $3 a day, so you're investing in your health,

and it's cheaper than your cold brew habit. Shots fires. am I cold brew having. Right now it's time to reclaim your health and arm your immune system with convenient daily nutrition. It's just one scoop in a cup of water every day. That's it.

I could use some water right now. To make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a free one-year supply of immune-supporting vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athletic greens.com slash baseball. Again, that is athletic greens. com slash baseball to take ownership over your health

and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. Free one-year supply of immune supporting vitamin D and five free travel packs for the first purchase. All right. Athletic Greens. A.G. Welcome to the club. I need it. Yeah. Let's go A-G.

Send me a package out here. A-G. Naming my boss at Domino's. You lose a couple pounds. Dude. 191 this morning. You look good, slightly more evil. The skinnier you get, the more evil you get.

I think that's it, right? Yeah. Jake said you looked like a evil... Evil soccer coach. That's your vibe. Like you're the soccer coach. Like the town hired you to teach the nine-year-olds. And you're in a league that every other coach is just a dad of a kid.

You're friends. I'm like they hired me to coach the team. Yes. Yeah. And you're foreign. Yeah. My agent is back to baseball. Okay.

Nes Belello, Shohei Otani's agent. He's a pretty good player. Coach my, he was a coach for hire. he was that evil coach to my brother. Growing up. Then he became my agent. Now he's show his agent. He won't return my phone calls.

But whatever. Yeah. Whatever. Whatever. Shout out, Ness. Whatever. Do you guys want to talk about the opening day starters?

You're dialed on this. I think it's interesting to just go around the league. Tell you who's got the pill. Some people are doing it for the first time ever. That's an honor. I'll go through them. If you guys have anything you want to say, say it. Jose Berrios is the opening day starter for the Blue Jays at home versus the Texas Rangers.

It's his third time getting the opening day start. John Means for the Orioles, that makes sense. What order are you going in if you don't mind me asking? Whatever order this website is hesitant. No idea what that is. He's going to get up against Shane McClanahan, first time opening day starter for his race. He's pretty good. Did you mention Texas's opening day starter? No, for some reason, they don't have that there. But I think it's...

Our guy. No. No, he's getting the home start, I believe. Oh, I thought he was getting the... I thought Hearn was getting the home opener start. Taylor Hearn starting the home opener. John Gray will be the opening day pitcher for Texas. John Gray versus Jose Berrios.

So good day for the J names. Jose, John. and John so far. Shane McClanahan. In New York, it's going to be Garrett Cole versus Nathan Avaldi. Cole's fourth time. Avaldi's third time.

The last time Cole pitched, he was facing off against Nathan Avaldi. Last time the Yankees played, they were facing, it was the same exact matchup. It's kind of a storyline there. That's cool. In the central, the Royals,

Zach Granky. It's just like a reminder. Like, oh, yeah. Not only he's there, he's their guy now. He's the top. It's a six-time versus Shane Bieber for the Guardians, his third time. For the Tigers, E-Rod, and it's his first time.

So, claps for E-Rod. Another first-timer is Joe Ryan for Trev's twins. Trev, you got any, like, you got the inside on this guy? What's going on? He throws the high ball. Ball doesn't come down. Actually, I saw a video, you know, like the spring train. any side profile videos of the reporters take of the bullpen sessions?

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. James, you love those. So I saw a couple of them. And, you know, this one angle, you know, it was a real good angle. You know those, Jake. You could really just see it. You can see it's just when guys have that little rise, you know, it's not rise that just stays up. You can kind of just see the way they get out there and get extended.

That's what he does. gets extension, gets the rise. I'm excited to watch him pitch through a full season with the twins. And man, like they're kind of need him. So, like, this is nice. Has any pitcher this has had to happen in the history of baseball, but first ever MLB start is opening day? That has had to have happened at some point, right?

Their first start was an opening day start? Yeah, because this is Joe Ryan's fifth start ever. start ever in his career? It'll be the first pitcher since Jose Guzman with the 86 Rangers to make an opening day start within his first six career starts. Does anyone, does it go on to say anyone who did it? No, that's it.

There's got to be someone who's done that, I wonder. I mean, they, yeah. The White Sox, Lucas Gialito. They're doing this by division, Jake. I get it now. Okay. Lucas Giolyto. It's his third opening day start.

Claps to him. Our guy. Yeah. Well, let me three claps. In the West, Frankie Montas, his second. And Shohei Otani, his first ever opening day start for show. That's really exciting. And what the Angels and the Dodgers I've been doing is really exciting.

My Angel fans are getting rowdy. Get around. The angel fans are nuts right now. They are jumping up and down. out of control. I feel like I started a forest fire. They've been rowdy. They're a rowdy bunch.

Not like this. I don't blame them. Dude, imagine having to root for that team when you have a guy like Mike Trout and then you get Shohei and you're like, can we get some fucking pitching? And it took this long.

And now look, they signed a shitload of pitchers. I hope it works out for them. And Shoah's one in the Syangang, which I've said noted many times. Framber, by the way, versus Shohei, which is.

Two different kinds of sexy. That's what do you like, ladies? Yeah, girls. And a lot of guys. A girl's not dating them back to back. And if she is, she's getting a lot of like, what, what's going on? What is your type? It's two different kinds of sex.

She goes for straight personality. I like this girl. It's vibe. It's not dating you. You're too middle. You don't lean either way. I love that. That's probably my favorite matchup right there.

That's going to be the nightcap. That's going to be fun. Mike gets silly on Twitter a little late. Yeah, you need a drink with that matchup. Don't you? Maybe a little... I'm not going to say it. Treve, would you rather face...

You don't like McClanahan v. Means? I do. That's a good one. I do. Whose face? What would you rather face? I mean, Trevor, you'd rather phrase Framber just because he's a lefty?

Oh my God, yeah. Heavy shay. You don't want to see that like splitter and 100 miles an hour? No, I don't want that. Okay. Joe Ryan will be facing off against Robbie Ray also getting his first opening day start. So both of them. First time, Mariners, uh, twins.

That got postponed already, right? It did. Yes. Uh, great job. The Rangers are tossing John Gray out there, uh, was we noted earlier. And now let's go to the National League. The Braves. Max Free.

Our guy. On Toe in the Slap this week. Yeah. On Toe on the Slap. It's his second opening day start, and he did it last year. So two in a row. For the Marlins, Sandy Alcantara. Arcanta?

It's his third time. Seems high to me, but he's been around. Patrick Corbyn gets the start. For the Nats, it's its second time. Is it going up against Scherzer potentially with a rainout? I think Scherzer was supposed to pitch the second game of the series. So if they get rained out, I feel like Scherzer gets the pill. Isn't that an Apple TV game?

The Friday night Mets game, as noted by Steve Cohen, will be on Apple TV free for all users. Is it every Friday? It's not every Mets game. They have a game every Friday. They have a game every Friday. I think this first one is free. So if Thursday gets Rained out,

tomorrow get screened out. Yes, I believe shirts are probably will pitch. Got to, right? Yeah. Either way, he's going to be on that Friday night game. There you go. Why are they? Okay. They should not put games behind a payroll. I pay wall?

Yeah. I don't have to check if I have Apple TV. I'm not sure I do. I think I do. Is Apple Plus? Is that the same thing? If you're out of market, is it just going to be on MLB TV? and you just get that link we'll find out i'm watching some guy on my this website i'm on interesting he's talking there's no volume but i hate him oh okay what's he look like and i think i don't know i'm just going to scroll past okay that was a close call um Oliver Perez made the diamond backs 40 years old

Aaron nola's getting the start for phillies says fifth yeah opening day start he's like He's the real deal, dude. This is a no-brainer, Corbyn Burns. First, though. So the two Si-Young winners get to pill on opening day, and that makes sense, obviously, but both their first opening day start. Who was the Brewer's opening up to start last year?

Woodruff? Woodruff, yeah. Woodruff and Burns. He'll be going up against... Freddie, next year. He'll be going up against Kyle Hendricks, Cubs Brewers, third opening day start.

That'll be the first game. 220. Yeah, that'll be the first game now. Eastern Standard. Cardinals at Pirates, or no, it's Pirates at Cardinals. Adam Wainwright, his sixth, versus J.T. Brewbaker, his first.

Snap and curse. And Freed will be facing off with versus Molly. He gets the start for the Reds because Castile. He's got shoulder so Mali gets the nod. First opening day start. And then Mad Bum, his eighth.

That might be the most. That might be the guy who's got done it the most. Mad Bum gets his eighth opening day start. He will be going up against you Darvish. That's a matchup that's great four years ago. Hey. It is. I think it's good now.

It's great four years ago. I agree, James. Yeah, it's not anything shocking. have both having huge bounce back years. I'd love that. Huge what? Bounce back years. Walker Bueller, also his first opening days.

That guy named Kershaw there for a while. Logan Webb, also his first opening day start. That's cool. Kyle Freeland for the Rockies. And it says the Mets hadn't been announced yet, but I think it was going to be like McGill, but I think that it's going to get rained out now and then it probably shares her versus Corbin,

which is a fun thing. So a lot of first time opening day starters. You just got me so hyped to watch fucking baseball, dude. I know we are the number one labor pod and we do what we have to do in times of desperation. But look, this is talking baseball. I don't want to talk lawyers. I don't want to talk freaking legalities anymore. We're done with that shit.

Five years of labor peace. Let's go. It's just straight up ball talk now, James. And you made it move a little bit. Okay. there's something cool about getting the pill on opening day. There's something cool about opening day. I'll be on a plane for the Yanks.

I won't be able to watch her. I'm pissed off. If you want to go, you want to get some last second tickets. Zitkeek still probably has them. Go to the app. Use code John Boy and you can get $20 off. Actually, it's code talking. T-A-L-K-I-N.

You can get $20 off your first order. You know, there's probably some still available. $20 off your first purchase of the promo code, Talking, T-L-K-I-N. Make sure you click the link in the screen. to download the app, they'll let you know if they're good seats, if they're bad seats, all about them. What cities go all out for opening day? Like I know Detroit does. It's like a holiday there. Like I know the Yankees, like New York doesn't. New York's too big to get overtaken

by anything besides like the marathon maybe because it just closes traffic down. Obviously it's a big deal. Like people have fun. But Jake's lived in. Opening day is opening Day. Colorado. Yeah. My rocks roll it out. Like you're saying, it's, you know, it's basically 50-50 if you're talking to one of your co-workers that day, like, oh, I'm going.

It's a local holiday. Dallas, it's a little different. It's a shit show. It's insane. My buddy Jared sends me videos every year. I mean, they just do it Texas style. Like, they've got this party bus and there's lusges and amps. Like, it's closer to a music festival.

festival than what you picture opening day baseball. But they get Dallas and Fort Worth, so you get a mix there. The Bay Area. They're days. I lived there. It wasn't like a parade day or anything like that. When I lived in Illinois, I was young, so I don't remember, but I don't think it's the same.

Riggley's got to be. Yeah, Riggily's got to be. You would think it could be so cold. Yeah. But I know that any... Yeah. It's anywhere with cold weather, because this is like, this is... this is spring.

This is baseball's here. It's supposed to mark the start of, you know, when the weather gets better. Yeah. I remember, I mean, people in Minnesota are lined up like. So Arlington.

Very early. Someone said, sandwichers going to open and go hard for opening day, but in, they don't in comparison to what we're talking about. Like, if you talk to people from Michigan, people that won't watch another game

go out and celebrate opening day. Yes. Like they leave their office to celebrate opening day, and they won't watch or, know the result of another game of the season. And that's not how it is in New York and that's not how it is in Oakland or San Francisco where I lived.

I don't know. Does L.A.? L.A. is also too crazy. Some people are saying St. Louis. It's not like that. Because you can't tailgate or anything either. Yeah, I've heard St. Louis. I was just going to ask,

Atlanta. Toronto is a good one. Toronto is a really, really good one. Yeah, this year. Holy smokes. Any special. day in Toronto, like doesn't matter what it is. Like, if it's a special day, like Canada Day or opening day, it is fucking nuts. Plus this Blue Jays squad, the expectations and coming full house back from Kovie and stuff,

that's going to be. Is Atlanta doing like rings and stuff? I think they play at home opening night. Probably. So expect that game not to start on time. But yeah, they should. They should give out rings. Sometimes they don't do it on opening day.

Sometimes they do it a little later in the season because they know they're going to sell tickets on opening day, but they don't know they're going to sell tickets on April 15th. So then they just do the ring ceremony another day because it's another marquee event. Let's see, quick. Jake, can I interest you in a little nugget that I found from Braves Ashland last night? April 11th looks like our ring ceremony. Sounds good. Actually, Saturday, April.

I'm getting conflicting results. What do you have from our girl? Ashland. There is a cheeseburger that you can buy that's $20,000 or $25,000 that comes with a World Series ring. I heard Moyland got too. I thought you'd be interested in that. Yeah. I am.

Just the burger. That's tough, man. Do they put it in the meat? It's like a surprise? I dig through. Yeah. Yeah, I don't want like a, like I don't know. Even if it's like an exact World Series ring, it's not a World Series ring. Like, what are you doing at that point? You know?

Like, I think it's- Some people are really rich from crypto. It's so Bitcoin people doing this. It's super cool that organizations, like, you know, you talk to a lot of people within the Braves organization who get rings and like, you know, there are people that book the travel. Like, yeah, they deserve to get a ring. Like, they were a part of the team that got everything done that year to, like, to buy a World Series ring. I don't know. That doesn't feel right. No. Unless you get out of pawn shop,

then it feels right. Right. That's fair game. Mm-hmm. Loose ball. BPD found the the baseball reference for players

who made their debut on opening day. Do you want to hear? There's three guys who did it. One, is a Hall of Famer. Okay. And the other two are not.

The most recent is like 1940. Oh, okay. So it's not in your lifetime. So it's not Steven Strauss. It's got... No. This needs to happen. Is it someone that came forward from the Negro leagues?

No. I don't believe... No. I have the three names here. You will know one of them. Two of them have the... same nickname. And one of those is the one you're going to know. We had a Ford. No, but same team.

Lefty Grove. Yes, Lefty Grove. Jake nailed it. Lefty Grove made his debut. April 14th, Philadelphia Athletics versus Boston. He went 3.2 innings pitched, allowed six hits and four earned runs. Bad start. Tough.

Defense let him down that day. His team did come back and win 9 to 8 at the end of the game. So great job by him. If you want to do a quick teammate name check real quick, just because there's probably some fun ones. Max, Jimmy, Frank Stan, Red Eddie, Bill Al, Bing Miller, Jim, Chick Galloway, a cheater. Cy Perkins, Lefty Grove. The other guy is Al Gerhauser.

also nickname Lefty. He also got lit up. Four innings pitched five earn runs. So we're not looking good. And then Jim Bagby, two-time All-Star, six innings pitched, three earned runs. So maybe that's the best one. We have some Dodgers fans in the chat

saying that Fernando Van Sullas's first start was on opening day, but he did make some relief appearances prior. Okay. So close. Okay. Yeah, looks like 10 games in 1980, and then 1981. He was the opening day starter. Fernando Valenzuela.

That legend is still in L.A., man. I mean, yeah, I haven't looked at this game log in a while for Fernando. Have you ever looked at his game log that season when he started starting? His first eight games, eight complete games. he went the distance in his first eight games and allowed four earned runs over the course of those 72 innings pitched and the Dodgers won every single game I mean that's a that's like a sneaky

sports go back in time and relive something holy smokes oh my God I'm looking at it right now the game log from his 1981 season I mean, you could go because there's another complete game on June 1st. So out of his first 12 starts, he had eight complete games with a 1-90 ERA. And the team went nine and two. He gave up seven runs and three and two-thirds and his ERA ballooned to 189.

Yeah. The Braves got him. He was muggy. It was in Atlanta. It was hot. Maybe it was a little slippery. No, whatever. Fernando.

Yeah. And it was a single fest, man. No one of them you got extra base hits. Fly ball. Single, single, single, walk, single, ground out, single, hit by pitch. And they took him out of the game. My brother used to play against, I think his son in high school.

And he would come to the games and, like, dude, like, people would just not leave this guy alone. Just wouldn't leave him alone. And he had to, like, go, like, walk and, like, go, like, away from everybody. because it's the fucking legend. Yeah. We did have a trade. Let's talk about the one of the bigger, a decent size trade that happened in baseball,

brought to you by Roman, because a lot of teams, they said we're not ready for the season. We got to make some trades. Talked about it while you were gone, Trev. A lot of the trades were just one guy for one guy, no money, no prospects, like very basic simple trades just because they just were not

ready for the season. And it was coming quick. So if you need to come quick and be ready, you got to go to get roman.com slash talking. And if you're prescribed, you get $15 off your first month of ED treatment. ED is more common than most people think. In fact,

52% of men between the ages 40 and 70 will experience some form of ED. So when that moment for intimacy, arrives, you got to be ready. Roman system is completely confident. and totally discreet. You get a free online evaluation ongoing care for erectile disunction, all from the comfort and privacy of your home.

It ships to you free with two-day shipping. It's straightforward, convenient, discreet. Get Roman.com slash talking, complete an online visit. Take care of your ED without leaving your home. Complete an online visit today with connect to connect with a U.S. licensed healthcare professional. Get Roman.com slash talking today. Yes?

I think if we did like an athlete greens, with a Roman, you're like, that's it, baby. I'd pay for a seat for that on Seatkeek. And watch the Trevor Ploof Prediction Show later. I like it. I mean, I'm in on all of that. I did just see that Fernando Tatis and Cody Bellinger are going to be advertising the Dairy Queen Blizzard this year

as the official treat of the MLB. Huge. Fernando's huge. I know this is a monthly jakey rant, but like he makes Cody Bellinger look small. I watched Cody last night. We talked about that a little bit. Could you get into some ball?

Tell me. Are we going into the trade? Let's talk about the trade. The Ray's traded Austin Meadows, Meds to the Tigers, where his brother is. Yeah. This is,

a little bit like the Adomis trade because they're trying, more so they're trying to make room for their prospect. What's his, I'm blanking out his name. Low. Another low. Yeah, the low,

the low kid. Josh Lowe, is it? They need a room for him. Meadows makes $4 million. I don't think it's truly a salary dump, although it's always part of it there with them. But it's a decent size trade. Like Meadows good.

and it just gets treated like, eh, like it was a Joelle Relievers or backup catcher reliever swap, you know, because it's the raise and that's just what they do. But they get, who'd they get in return for him? They got Isaac Paredes and a competitive balance round B selection. So I think it's going to be like in the 50s or something like that. Yeah, I never heard that term before.

The B, like a B draft pick or something like that. Yeah. Jake, do you have thoughts on this one? It's after the first round in between, it's in between the first and second rounds. Paredes is a name I know. Infield guy. He was a top 100 prospect.

Like right on the border, 2019, 2020. We'll see what Ray's voodoo magic they tap into him. Maybe some opportunity for Zach Short, our guy, compound. I hate it. and the words of my guy, Joe's McFly, I hate it. I can't think rationally about the race anymore. I like to, when we talk Yankees, Jim,

when we do talking Yanks, like I try to be, sometimes we say things that are Yankee fans. A lot of the time I try to be rational and think of the Yankees in a scope and compare them to other teams and try to give an honest assessment. Other times I try to be a fan.

The Rays, man, I just don't know. Austin Meadows is a really good baseball player, and I'm sure this Josh Lowe kid, you know, he probably is too. But he's also a rookie. And Austin Meadows, part of the reason I was drinking the Ray's Kool-Aid last year was I really liked where their lineup got to. Because day in, day out, that lineup is there,

and the race find a way to pitch. That's why I liked him. The formula worked again. They have Wanderfranco. The super prospect that they locked up, Kids got a chance to be some sort of different type of special for the raise. I mean, the kind of money they gave him shows that they expect him to be better than Longoria, Crawford, some of the guys that have come out of that Ray's factory.

It just drives me nuts. I mean, the second four through nine in their lineup, there's nothing that's a lock. Although I got on Mike Zanino's stat page last year, and God, he had a monster year. The rays operate differently. I set it in their TPP. I can't tell. I think bias has got in because I don't truly believe this, but I think this is the year they get snake-bitten.

Like Tyler Glass now is supposed to be a part of this team. They traded Meadows. Like those are two elite guys on both sides of the ball, and the rays are going to ray when they pitch, and I know that. But the division is so tough this year. I hate it for the raise. hate it for Ray's fans. And Tigers, good for you.

I think you got a good one. I think Austin Meadows can really hit. And again, it kind of goes back to the Alec Central. The Tigers took another step. I wish the Guardians took another step with J-RAM that would make that division a lot more fun. Bring some balance to the lefty bat, a lefty home run hitter for the Tigers.

They got switch hitters and stuff, but some lefty pop. Meds has been good. His career numbers are good. I mean, I'm pro player, so obviously I don't like the race. I just think any race fan is just sucking up to the owners. Yeah, I don't know how to feel about this.

I'm thinking about it from the race perspective. Tiger's perspective, great. Great. You got a guy to come in and Riley Green has hurt a little bit. So you kind of like, maybe you're saying, look, we'll get off to a good start. I mean, you have control of him through, what, 2025 as well. So I think it's good for the Tigers. You got a good ball player.

There's no doubt about it. The raise, what they're thinking is, he's what? This is his first year. He's making our money. He's making like $4 million. They say, we got a guy that's making whatever the minimum is now, $700,000, who we think if we, you know, give him some time can replicate those numbers. Meadows has never been like an OBP guy.

He had one, 2019. I think he had like a much higher OBP than he's ever had in his career kind of boistering some of his numbers, bolstering some of his numbers, career numbers. So I think they are looking at it as maybe this is the opportune time to go and get something there, especially since we have someone that can come up and do it. Defensively, Meadows isn't going to win in the awards. You know, I think he was going to be,

is he going to be deaching a lot in Tampa Bay? I think like a chunk. They love their special defensive outfielders too, so I think him and Randy. The only thing with the Tigers is he's not going to be deaching. So, you know, we're going to have to see how he goody, out there. It's a difficult outfield to play. Specifically right field. It's really tough. He's not going to play center field, obviously. So maybe they, maybe they swap and do something. I kind of like

it for both sides. It fits what the raise do. The rays are raising. And then the tigers are getting a player that can really, you know, impact their season this year and for the next two years. So I like, I like the trade for everybody. Meadows, the 2019 jumps out as a little bit of an outlier, although, you know, last year, 27 home runs, two-war season. Last year, he couldn't hit lefties. In his 29 breakout year, he hit lefties a little less than Ritees, like 100 points down on the OPS. Last year against Ritees, 251, 336, and 871 OPS.

Against Ritees, you're going to see a lot of those. Against Lefties last year, he had a 563 OPS. So how many abats do they give him a lot? 189. So, like, he... They didn't. and still him with confidence. He was out, exactly.

They anti-raised him. So it'll be interesting to see because in 2019 he did hit lefties. He had an 800 OPS. So was it a hole in his swing for a year? Did something funky happen? Or, I mean, does he start leaning more of the way of platoon? But either way, you get the good side of the platoon. I mean, you're going to see 120, 130 games,

a right-handed starting pitching. And Austin Meadows is going to be like a high-eight's, uh, sneaking near nine's OPS guy, which there's not a ton of those. in the league. So, yeah, man, the rays have me irrational. Ooh. Don't count the rays out. I can't believe you, man. I'm not, I'm not, but... Wander Franco. The other three teams should be better.

B. Lau. The best to ever do it, Randy a Roseraine. Quite literally. I have the raise winning. Did we take the over? I believe I did, yes. I took the over. Isn't the over something ridiculous? like eight yeah it was low it was low like Nate and Josh you want to talk belly you want to talk ball we got a couple

minutes left just real quick I watched the Dodger Angel game last night there's a few observations that I have one the Dodgers we didn't give enough credit to Bobby Miller who was their prospect that I know we talked about him on the TPP but I had no idea who he was I never seen a pitch

you just you know read fan graphs and you know whatever the guy on the mount is electric. Did you get a chance to check him out? I just know he's your guy. I saw your tweets last night. I was happy for you. I'm happy you put foolish in his place quickly.

After you tweeted about him, I am the popular Twitter guy now. After you tweeted about him, I went and watched. He's kind of like Walker Bueller's younger brother who like is just overconfident because he grew up around Walker. And Walker's kind of got the quiet pissed off Moxie. And Bobby Miller's got like the more. because he knew Walker would protect him in fights, so he was a little more loud and in your face about it.

I think they're both Kentucky guys. Yeah. He went to Louisville. He pitched with McKenzie Gore. Yeah. At Louisville. And I've been to Louisville. And you can make some tough motherfuckers at Louisville.

I'll tell you that right now. He was dropping F bombs. He was, there was one at bat. And you're going to watch one at bat of this guy. It's not the show Hey Otani Strikeout to start the game. off. It's what he did to Joe Adele, his first to bet. He abused him with heaters. It was, it was, like, I felt bad. Like, Adele's was so behind these balls and they looked so heavy on his hands that

just, he had no chance. Now, Bobby does have more pitches. I think his secondary stuff, obviously, it needs some work. It needs some refining, but this guy's going to be a stud. And then Dustin May isn't to come back. And, like, the Dodgers just aren't going to stop, man. They're just not going to stop. Because what other organization has a starter blowing a hunch out there with that kind of moxie that just comes up and just looks like he's ready to go already? Like that doesn't happen in many organizations. Everyone's scrambling to find fifth starters. The Dodgers are like, we got a guy waiting in the wings who would be your number two. Like, it's crazy.

So go Dodgers. He'll be up at some point this year throwing meaningful innings. And I just want everyone to know that I'm on him first. Belly I don't know his spring numbers I think they're pretty bad I will say this

he was missing he got two heaters from somebody I forget who was pitching that were like down and in where lefties need to freaking hit homers

and he missed him but his barrel was there like he was getting his barrel to the ball his approach he's really tightened everything up because I think he's really trying to see the ball

like as long as he can right now it's going to come if he continues to do that and get his barrel to the ball the timing is still a little behind right now but that'll come if he continues to approach his at-bats

like he is now we're not going to see 2000 what was it 19 when he won the MVP we're not going to see that guy again necessarily, but like this guy can be like an 850 OPS guy like that. So the spring stats almost tell the storyline of a guy who's trying to swing his way out of a

slump or just swing repeatedly until he gets his swing where he wants it. Struck out a lot, didn't he. He walked once. Struck out 18 times, got five hits, none of them extra base hits like that they're glaring. But spring training. It is spring training. And again, like the swings that I saw last night look very controlled. Like he's he's trying to hone it in a lot. A lot of excess movement has been taking out. So when guys get to that point, which I'm sure like in spring,

he was hoping to come back and have some success. You don't. You panic a little bit. And then you're like, okay, what can I do to get back just to put the barrel on the ball? Once he finds that and I want to say this, he got a, a knock, like a bloop single knock. And it was a good like two strike, like kind of jam shot. The ball got deep on them. Those are the kind of hits that get you going. Like when you let a ball travel and you get jam, but you still get a knock, it makes you, it makes you your brain

able to like say, okay, I can like way back. And if I do get beat, I can still muscle the ball out there. So this is a positive Bellinger rant, okay? I think, I think, I think it's coming for him. So the Dodgers are just going to be scary, basically. Scary Dodgers. I think that's Dodgers Angels World Series. It's on. We just saw a preview. It's going to be fantastic. All right. Hey, we'll be back later tonight for Trevor's prediction of who's going to win the World Series. It's going to be, I mean, it's a dozy. I don't want to know, Trev. I want to be genuinely surprised. I knew you had a lean way back when we were in Arizona, but I think that's been scratched by some of the moves that have happened, but maybe I'm wrong. There's been a lot of action.

I'll find out tonight. YouTube, this channel, talking baseball tonight. We'll be doing a quick live prediction ceremony for Trevor Plouffe. Thank you guys very much for tuning in. Jake, any last words? See you guys later. Excited. Are Padres sad? No, after Jose Ramirez, they didn't get on them.

They have the Dair Queen. Jaxos.