Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 474 | Alec Bohm's Comments, Pitch Framing, & Standout Rookies

Episode Date: April 13, 2022

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Hello and welcome to talking baseball. It's the midweek episode. I've got a topic. Jake's got a topic. We all got topics. We got to talk about. I fucking hate this place. Hello and welcome to talking baseball.

Brought to you by Seat Geek. My name is Jimmy. Sitting next to me is Jake. Trevor, coming up in California. And BBD in the corner. Yesterday, or I should say Monday, we did the first series, cap of the season, I thought it went swimmingly. It was very exciting. And now we'll be our first

midweek episode. There are some consistence here like the monthly awards. We'll get into looking at, you know, versus the over under. And that's a good fun way to check in on teams, maybe some interviews here and there. And sometimes it's just we all choose a topic we want to talk about. I chose the easy one today because we're talking about Alec Baum, hating a place. But Jake,

first, let's hear how Trevor's doing. Trev. Hey, guys. Yeah, let's talk about hating places. Right now,

I'm in a place that I love sitting, talking ball with you guys. The Alec Baum situation will be fun to talk about. Jake wants to talk about catchers. I think I'm going to talk

a little bit about the rookie class that we got going on and see if any of these guys, guys are going to get a full year service time. They're going to be some service time manipulation. So a lot of fun things to talk about. But me and myself, I'm doing great, man.

I'm excited that baseball is upon us. I've watched more baseball this year already than I have in a long time. I'm just like jazzed out about the whole damn thing. I love it. Jake, what are you feeling, man? BBD, Trev, James, Los Chat,

families, pets. Pets? I'm doing well. I actually, uh, coming in hot, uh, coming in hot today. Uh, I don't know if it was watching an ugly Yankee game the other night, uh, you know, when we're looking for topics, tough for me, uh, you know, people forget, uh, little weird old jakes got a little stat head side to them. Um, I got in the numbers, uh, on some of the catchers and, uh, I'm coming hot on the catching

position. So, I think we'll get there. I think our guy, Baum did steal the show last night. Yeah. Viral. Yeah. People are saying.

No, it was pretty big. That's my topic. We can just get into that. Because then Jake's hot. Do we want to end happy? Trev seems like a nice ending. Happy topic. Young guys?

Service time manipulation. I don't know. No. I mean, we can get into it. Oh, I thought it was. When we get into it, Jake. Okay. All right.

It's a hot up. It's a hot up. We all fucking. I can hate this place. I don't. Hey, if you were booing and then sharing for bomb, I hope you bought your tickets for the game from Seatke because they're the sponsor of this show. And you can get $20 off.

If you use them at you by using code talking, go to the app, download the app. They rate every ticket. They let you know, hey, this is a good booing territory. This is a bad booing territory. I don't know if they have a boo-meater, but maybe they do. Anyway, I just bought two tickets for the Yankees game this week versus the Blue Jays. It was easy. It was simple.

I'm going. If you didn't see, Alec Baum made three errors in one inning. He's off to a rough start. His career's kind of off after a highly touted, like rough start. Now it's still early and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Not damning him or anything.

But Phillies fans are kind of like, come on, dude. So they're booing. They're booing. And then he finally makes a play. I actually haven't seen the play he made. It was off your guy Suarez. Yeah, well, he did Ranger dirty, so.

It was like a chopper right to him. He was up on the grass. Pretty, I mean, an easy play. Okay. So then you see him mouth to Didi. I fucking hate this place. Whenever lip reading gets involved, my Twitter blows up.

So I spent all night just slow mooring it, reading it, seeing it, but I didn't want to, like, respond because place, please, and plays, same exact thing when you lead someone's ribs,

when you read someone's ribs, when you read someone's. lips like that's the same motion if you do it like please is a little wider than the a which is a little vertical but it's very similar so some people say he could have say i hate these plays like those plays that were coming to them or um can we end this please and i didn't i didn't know i was like they're all the same in his post game press conference he comes out and says no i did say i fucking hate this place and i love all of it dude and i think Phillies fans are mostly going to love all of it now.

And I saw, I went through a lot of Phillies fans and, and it was like, they're like, really, they're like, good, at least it bits it. And I think this is universal. I mean, three errors. Getting booed. You finally make a routine play and they sarcastically cheer you. There's one response to that scenario for me. And it's, fuck these guys.

You motherfuckers. And if you can't, if you can't appreciate that or like understand it or get in the head of that, you just, you know, these are humans and he's a human and imagine that. Imagine your, like, you know, your boss tells you to go unjam the printer and it, you think you fix it jams. Think you fix it again jams. Then you finally get it. It worked.

you turn around and one of your employees is just giving you a golf clap like good job you finally did it you would say under your breath i fucking hate this place and you wouldn't really mean it it's just in the moment or maybe he does but either way i think it's so human i love that he admitted to it i wonder if pr told him to or not because he could easily said no i said i hate these plays because i always have a tough time with all these plays but he didn't so i'm interested trev you've definitely had to utter words like that about you know know, when times were rough to yourself and getting caught. So I'm interested in both of your guys' opinions,

but I thought it was entertaining and funny, and I love that he owned up to it. Dude, I was trying to think about for him, like what could he say where the malding is the same? I mean, if he had that in his pocket, I hate these plays, man, I think he probably would have just said that. He probably couldn't think of something.

He should have called you, bro, and said, what can I change this to? but if you do see the video and you actually did say that, you kind of feel like you're dead to rights a little bit. And at that point, you kind of do what you have to do what he did. And, you know, yeah, he showcased a ton of maturity there post game.

You know, on the field, you know, I talked about Philly. You know, these places, Philly, Boston, New York, you know, it's, they are, they're more difficult to play in than other places. That's just the bottom line. It doesn't mean the fans are bad or the fans are better. It's just that the fans are louder and they let you know how they feel pretty, you know, pretty much right away. I think one of the reasons he was able to come and just say, yeah, I said it,

was he's been having some, well, I mean, six plate appearances, but he's six for six in played appearances. He hasn't, he's got on base every single time. So he's been able to separate the offense from the defense. and when you can do that, you feel a little bit better about yourself. If he was struggling and say it was 0 for 4 or 0 for 6, whatever it was, you'd probably be a little bit more defensive. I think this is the maturity coming out.

Last year he brought his offensive struggles out to defense and vice versa, and this is something that he's had to work on, being able to separate the two. So he's been able to do that. You know, we've seen this from time to time. I'm looking up in a BBD if you can get up maybe a video of it. Remember Tyler Collins? That name might not ring a bell to a lot of people, but if I said the Detroit Tigers outfielder that flipped off the crowd,

you might remember him. So that's a, I mean, it's essentially the same thing, except, you know, the bird is a little bit more, I guess, vulgar than just saying, I fucking hate this place. But you know what? Like you said, he probably did hate it. And it's not Philly that he hates. He hates the fact that he's botching these ground balls in front of everybody.

It could have been at his high school game, you know, the place where he's most comfortable. If you're playing like shit on one side of the ball and the fans are booing you and like your team's counting on you, you're going to hate that place. So I think everyone's got to kind of feel for the guy a little bit. It's pretty easy to put yourself in his shoes, especially after. after him coming out and just saying, yeah, I admit it. My emotions got the best to me. I think that's what he said, which is, that's the truth, dude. And you know what?

It's fucking refreshing to hear that in an interview from a player instead of him trying to hide. Yeah, I think the internet did great. The internet kind of landed right where you guys were. You know, everyone was wondering and everyone was kind of doing the like, no way he said that. And all the plays, place, all that debacle. Yeah, I would love.

to talk to Alec and know if he got word from the PR that there's a spin zone that you could say, I hate these plays. Either way, he owns up to it, and our society respects that. Like, good for you, dude. And yeah, I mean, I think you have to tell the story a little more. This is a number three overall pick.

This is, that's a real pick. Like, that's a real, real pick. And by the way, Nebraska guy goes to Wichita State. Sixth College, big boy, Kansas. We're having fun. Gets called up, rises through the minors, joins the Phillies in 2020, 44 games.

And remember, that was the 60-game season. How's your 881 OPS? 338 batting average. The dude went nuts. When BBD made his Phillies infield pick, I said, BPD, if you're really going to lean into this Phillies infield, I think you've got to lean into Alec Baum

being like a breakout third-based star. 2021 kind of a disaster. 647 OPEC. P.S. Some defensive struggles we come to find out. And he basically kind of lost his job to another prospect this year. Bryson Stott came in. We're talking about him and the TPP,

and he's the third baseman now, shortstop playing third, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And you're right. I mean, as tough as tough of an inning you can have defensively, things fall apart, TFA. Trev interested about the hitting side. I mean, it's a small sample, but you're right. He's feeling like he's getting it done there. And yeah, man, I mean, hey, go get it, young fella, 25 saying, yeah, I'm having a bad time.

I'm having a bad time. I'm shocked. I mean, how can you play? I guess here's my thing. And this is where the story is going to really unravel. A, does he continue to hit this year? At what level? how much playing time does he get?

Part of this Philly season and lineup and everything going on. I don't know. I don't know. You better perform because then, like you said, Alec Baum could become Tyler Collins. None of us even raised our eyebrows, and we're like, Tyler Collins, Tyro Collins, there's nothing there.

So, yeah, I mean, talk's fun. I could also say talk is cheap. I feel like that's a popular one. Let's see what goes on with Alec Baum. Because, you know, if he starts to struggle and he ends up in Redding, what do you think Philly fans are going to be saying to him in Redding, in Philly? Like, I appreciate you being noble, but, dude, to be on an MLB field and saying, like, I fucking hate it here, I don't know.

That's a little tough. And how many times pitchers or infielders or catchers, we talk about how, like, baseball players are so self-conscious about being talking? I love that he's saying it. Like I'm having a bad time. Throw the glove up and tell Didi. Dedy, one of the happiest ballplayers ever. I don't know.

Hey, I hope he goes nuts. And I hope he becomes kind of a Philly icon. Because does everyone in Philly kind of hated in Philly? I feel like that's kind of a Philly dynamic. That's the top comment on like the Reddit post is like, are you from Philly if you don't say, I fucking hate this place? That's the whole Northeast. Welcome to Philly.

If you go to any Northeast high school at any point, it's just nonstop kids saying, I can't wait to get the. fuck out of here. Maybe in the Midwest, too. When I moved to California, that was the only high school I went to where kids were not saying that. They were like, oh, California. It's the best. Like, why would I ever leave California? And I was like, this is weird. I was like, I went to high school and middle school and many other states and every other kid in America says, I hate my state. So I have a group of friends that just like moved to San Diego just because they were like, I got to do something. Yeah.

They didn't have jobs and stuff. They were just like, I got to get out of here. So yeah, I mean, hey, you're on your way to either be. You're on your way to being a Philly legend. It's just which route are you going to take? I think they're making shirts already. Oh, yeah. I mean, well.

Actually, they are. I saw shirts, but it's funny. There's a couple things. One, like sneaky hot boy, like he had the thing on with the hair last night.

He was owning up to things. I said, you know what? You're kind of moving up my list. How important is that? Well, we'll let you guys decide. Number two,

what if he just really fucking leaned into it? What if he was like, bro, does anybody on this fucking team play defense? We're here to bang, baby. Don't worry about my three errors. We won the game. And that thing, let me tell you, if they lose that game and they don't have

five runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to come back and beat the meds, I think this whole thing is different. I think there's more negative energy focused on bomb. I think there's, I don't know if he comes out and actually says that. I said that. But I think

the victory, and I've said it here on the show, before. Winning trumps everything. Like, winning can cure all in the big league. So, you know, Phillies need to keep winning, and then this will just become a non-issue. We'll probably forget about this by the end of the year. But, oh, yeah, remember when he said, I hate this place?

That's if they keep winning. That's if he keeps raking, which I hope happens. Winning's always a cure. Winning always helps. I love that. If Phillies went full, like defense literally doesn't matter. I mean, that's... They already have done that's as electric as it gets.

Yeah, ma'am. Go be good, Al-Qam. Didn't the Mets do this last year? Didn't Javier buy us? Tell Mets fans? What do you say to the Mets fans last year? He gave... Oh, he gave the Mets fans the thumbs down.

Yeah, oh, that's right. And Al-East, baby. Tough place to be a fan. Yeah, I mean, look, the way he handled it was great. He didn't make up some sort of, story about a raccoon. Yeah.

You know, like he or like a rat or whatever they were talking about last year. So I guess to put a bow on it, bad job in the field. Like let's go out and get some throws across the diamond. Stop rushing. Get your footwork in order. Let's relax. Take D.D out with you. Get some extra work in.

Maybe for like a week fucking straight. Go take some grounders, right? And then, you know, from there, just, keep breaking, bro. That's all that really matters. Jim, any clothes on it? No, I mean, he has to do well. He can't make more errors the next three days.

Like, he has to have, like, an error-free couple of stretch now, especially today, Wednesday, you know. They end up taking him out at the end of the game. I believe they put in Camargo. Yeah, but that's, I mean, that's, he's not going to be the defensive replacement, but he just can't make. three errors in an inning again. Yeah, I mean, that's, I'll tell you, man,

you start getting taken out for a defense replacement. You start to feel pretty bad about yourself. And like whether that fires him up to go work and I'm not saying this guy doesn't work. In fact, I don't know what his pregame routine is. I tweeted out last night about like having throwing issues. I did go through those at shortstop. I was asked by a reporter in Minnesota if I had the yips point blank to my face. So I do know how to work through it and how to figure it out.

And really it's just repetition. Like he's got the muscle memory already there. He's how many ground balls has he fielded? How many times has he thrown across the diamond? A lot. Sometimes your brain gets in the way and you have to get that out and just let your body like retake control. And I think that's kind of where he's at.

And he's just got to figure it out, man. Just go fire a few across the diamond. Doesn't matter where they go. Just get that feeling back. I can't wait to see the next chapter of the story. I mean, to come off, you know, as electric as kind of a rookie season as you can have, to a fairly rough sophomore season, he's now played 161 major league games over those three years. He's got a full 161.

The stats are actually pretty nice. 278, 340 is 730 OPS, but the more recent stats are tough. go out there and ball out, dude, and become a Philly legend in the fun way. What do you think Castellanos said to him after that? I really want to know. Like, did Castellanos go out to him and was like, hey, man, say whatever you want? Who cares? Or was he like, let's tone it down a little bit?

I think he probably said the former. I think he's a big tone it down guy. No, he's not a toned down guy. There's no, that clubhouse isn't really a toned down place. like it's let's go. Like, Gibby's there. Gibby has changed since he went to Fifth. Girl.

He used to be nice old Gibb in Minnesota. He goes to Philly, it hardened him up a little bit. Love that. Sometimes he won't even answer my text anymore. Damn, dog. Used to be all about it. What's up, Gibb? No, what I think Castellanos told him.

I think Castellanos told him, have an 800 OPS, and you're good, dude. Yeah. Them's the rules in Philly this year. Them's the rules. Then he probably told him the eat is... Is he too big, though? It's too big to play infield, 6-5?

Six-five's tough. Maybe that's what... Part of the problem. Maybe that's what Castiano's told him. Kick out to the corner outfield, bro. I've been there, dude. Yeah. I watched very closely Castiano's play third base.

It was not what you want. I can say that. Castiano 6-4, bomb 6-5. The sentiment, the last... I've been with the Phillies. Phillies fans for a little while now. The sentiment's been he's going to end up in left field eventually. Okay.

How many left fielders are they going to have on that team? A lot. They're a team full of left fielders. The path there seems murky. They can still shift this year, so might as well, like, just figure that out. A team full of left field is. What do they just put them all in the field? Just for like one in bat.

Everyone went to left field. I'm like, this is actually where we feel most comfortable. The Philly left fielders New team name Damn Red Zoner just said something else I won't play it Because it's not a topic today

But I'm pretty interested to hear it He was asked to follow up on his comments And apparently his response is even worse I want to get Trev too hot though I don't know if you've seen that I want to get hot Let's go let's get hot Red Zoner with a couple tough ones today

Red Zoner was asked how he feels about upset fans and he said, well, they better be careful what they ask for, because what would they do if they own the team? What would someone who, if I sell the team to who? And what are they going to do? The only way to make it profitable is to move it out of this city. So be careful what you ask for. Something like that.

The devil you know, huh? Yeah, that's basically what he's saying. Jeez. Yeah. Oh, that sounds like a bunch of horseshit to me. That's what that sounds like, hey, buddy, run your fucking business. better. I'm going to stop cursing. That was like my third F-bom.

It's been a big curse in episode. Bomb kind of set us up. Why am I doing that? A bomb, which is floodgates open. Knows the other thing, Cassiano's still a bomb? He's like, get your athletic greens. Yeah, drink up. Don't you remember that?

No, I heard it. I was a different whole different thing, though. It was, they were in the sauna and it was athletic greens talk. He probably looked at him. He was like, hey, dude, with one delicious scoop of AG1, athletic greens. You're absorbing 75 high-quality vitamins. Minerals.

How many? How many? Sore. Superfoods and probiotics. 75. Vida-blue. If he wore 75. To help you start your day, right,

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Your health guy, Trev. Why'd you say I care about getting older? I guess I do. You're a little where I think we all are. Yeah, yeah. You know, I've been reading a lot about these scientists and what they're doing with these cells and then like,

they're able to like regenerate new cells now are you talking about your cells your cells inside your body i want regenerated regenerated new cells my body that's why i like to hang out young guys dude like the young ball players that just give me the youth the youths the youths all right i mean look guys we got two more

topics to get to what do you want to do jakey boy me or you What do you want, Poppy? You feeling good? I like you going first. You're a prototypical leadoff hitter. Look at the way you're built. Yeah. Haven't seen me.

You and Josh Donaldson. Haven't seen me and Nick Madrigal in the same room, have you? Here's the deal. You know, one of my favorite things about podcast and doing shows is running in topics. I used to, when I was strictly a listener to shows, a lot of sports, a lot of Bill Simmons, Rissillo, a lot of Boston guys. And one of the things I actually hated was they always compared things to Boston sports because that's what they watched and follow.

Unfortunately, I am now dipping my toe into something further that's been a baseball topic, but it's because of my Yankees this year. At the catching position, they have gone with Kyle Higashioca, friend of ours, awesome dude. Jose Trevino, they played a trade for him right before the season, and they actually traded for a prospect, Ben Rortfet. But all of those three are incredible pitch framers. Trev, we've talked about pitch framing on the show before. Cheaters.

And we've heard, we've talked to different organizations now and how much they value pitch framing. We've heard rumors around the fact that if you steal 10 strikes, that's the equivalent to like a run. So, and when we've talked about hitters in the past, whether it's Gary Sanchez, a real moot, guys who do hit from, the catcher position, or your catcher, who maybe their stats don't jump off the page and compare to other players, the catching position, it's hard to hit. It's physical abuse. The ball is heading at

them each pitch. I had a little snap last night. I'm over pitch framing. I know we've talked. I know we've talked about electronic strike zone and all that. I'm ready because pitch framing needs to be out of the game, because it's not a part of the game. We're trying to trick old men umpires. There's a 21-year-old veteran umpire last night. Won't name names. And basically, the whole job of the catcher is try to trick that old man into thinking a ball is a strike.

It's outside of what baseball should be. It's driving me nuts. And I went into some of the catcher hitting numbers, which, by the way, we're trying to add more hitting to the game to the game. the sport, right? This is why we're trying to ban shifts. You know, a lot of the objectives we're trying to do is create more action in the game. Of catchers, last year and this year, playing 50% of the games, I went OPS Plus. We've got 12 guys with 100 or better OPS Plus.

Two of those guys are 100 on the nose. So it's 10 guys over 100 OPS Plus. I went through all the other positions. The only other position that's close to that is 14, the shortstop position. They had 14 players with 100 or better OPS Plus. First base had 28 guys last year. Get me an electronic strike zone. Now that teams are seeing that catchers, because of the wear and tear on the body,

they can't get the hitting production, they're now getting pitch framers to try to steal and get an advantage that way. And it's bad for the sport. it's not a good product. We're trying to trick old men into calling more strikes. It's not good for baseball. I love how passionate you are. I was a catcher growing up,

and my favorite player is a catcher, and I will say this. The art of framing a pitch is a skill and cool, and when you see them like real quick with it, it's fluid. There's kind of like poetry in motion to some of them, and it is interesting and fun to watch. I couldn't agree with you more, Jake,

so it might be a boring topic. They are punting offense because, like, we heard this. All right, so we heard this, Trev. I don't know if we shared this. You probably have. We talk about everything to everybody all the time. Front offices believe in defensive runs saved so much that Gary Sanchez, negative 16 defensive run saved last year.

and they think even though he can hit RBIs and hit home runs, he came out net neutral or still negative on the runs swing, where Higgy and Trevino and RortVet, they are like 10 defensive runs saved plus, right? And even if they're neutral or bad at offense, they still think there's a way to come out on top there. We found out that they have a percentage of each, strike stolen.

Like each strike stolen, they have a calculation that it is 10% of a run. So if you steal 10 pitches over the course of the 170 thrown in the game or 150 thrown in the game, then you basically score to run.

So who cares if you go 0 for 3 with a walk, you still got an RBI, basically, the other way. And that's what we were told teams are doing now at the catcher position. And yeah, it's not fun to watch. It's not fun to watch. I would combat it a few different ways as a hitter. I think it's gotten much more prominent since I've

been out of the game. But if I knew a guy was, you know, good at that, bringing balls back into the zone, presenting them as strikes to the empire. I would literally go my first abet, you know, what's up? I'd say, what's up to the catcher? And then say, John was the emperor. Hey, John, you know, this guy likes to steal a lot of strikes. It's going to mess up your end. numbers. Like don't let him bring that ball back in the strike zone. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. And then I get in the box. Just putting it in the umpire's mind. Like, don't let this dude influence your calls by his body position, the way he brings it back, all that good stuff. Thing is, is I, while I'm kind of with teams in the way that they are thinking, just because it's, like you mentioned, Jake,

there's just, it's hard to find a good hitting catcher. It just really is. So if you're trying to play this card, we're like, hey, we have enough offense. Now we need some good defense up the middle, whether it's center field and we just put a guy that can go get it. And then, yeah, our catcher and sometimes our second base and our shortstop are kind of like that. You prefer not to be. You prefer to have everyone bang, but I think those are the positions where you say, okay, we could sneak some defense in there. The problem with catch framing stats to me is they fluctuate too much from year to year. and it's not necessarily because a guy is getting better or worse at it,

although that could be the case. I think there could be, there's a lot of outliers and intangibles that go along with it. Like, who's your umpires? Maybe you just run into a great run of crap umpires who like just want to get the game over with and have, you know, a history of calling balls out of the strike zone strikes.

Okay, that's definitely a possibility. But the more prevalent one, the one that makes more sense is, who's your pitching staff? It's a lot easier to steal strikes if you have guys that can pinpoint location. Braun used to tell me this all the time.

He said like Lou Croy, when he was not, I'm going to get this mixed up. I don't know if it's where he came from, he was really good and then got bad in Milwaukee or where he came from, he was really bad and got good to Milwaukee. But the difference is you have one pitching staff that is kind of location based

where maybe the guys aren't throwing as hard and they're just basically trying to spot get guys to chase pitches. Your pitch framing is going to be much better on a squad like that. They're going to give you more pitches right around the corners that you're able to pull back into the zone,

up from the bottom, down from the top, whatever may be. If you're on a team and your staff is full of flame throwers who just chucked the ball up there and throw nasty pitches, you're not bringing any of those back into the strikes zone. You can't present those strikes.

so like unless you better have a real firm grasp on what your pitching staff does and then bring in a guy like I guess you can marry it and like like a baker would put all the ingredients together and make a beautiful cheesecake. Oh, it sounds so good to me right now. But there's just so many things that kind of influence that where it's like I don't know, man. I think pitch, I think pitch framings BS. It's going to be out of the game. is when we get an automated strike zone.

So, like, people are going to look back at this episode, April 13th talking baseball episode, and they're going to say, that was dumb. They were talking about that because now it doesn't matter. You can put a boot back there. That's where I snapped. I mean, that's where I snapped. The technology is close, if not there. Jim's got me watching some cricket.

They got some bang up technology. Let's bring some of that over. We can make it work. The fact that, at the end of the day, I'm Jake. I'm always making jokes. Jake's always making jokes. Jokey the Jake. Catch framing is literally trying to trick an old man

that is standing behind the fight. Is that good for the sport? Some of them are young. So I posted, speaking of cricket, I posted a video showing that in cricket, they have like an honor code and you get points for spirit of the game, upholding the spirit of the game

and the umpires review each team. And sure it's corny, but they abide by it. And it's a gentleman's game and blah, blah. And this dude made a catch and the um said out good catch. And he said, nah, you should probably review that. I don't think it caught it. Professional athlete.

This guy's 40 years old, professional athlete. So they review it. He didn't catch it. And that's normal over there. And so I posted it. And in the breakdown, I say, you know, over in America, we have a saying called Yain Sheet and Yen Shrine. trying like Derek Jeter gets they say he got hit by a pitch and he takes his base and afterwards he

he says in the post game like what am i going to do like i'm you know i got to help the team and we kind of accepted and and all that and i got comments from a lot of people like from india or from england that are cricket fans are like i've never heard the saying ain't cheating ain't trying and that is so sad that that's what you guys say they're like they were like they were like i couldn't have side more when i heard that that's a saying in american sports and i was just like jesus christ we are a really weird country, huh? And, uh, four year old to say that.

Yeah. Like, I've been saying it. It's a fun saying, but, you know, if you get the call, take the call. And then,

um, and then I have foreign fans now, watching a lot of the breakdowns. And I did one about how the white socks catcher was, or was trying to or, uh, no, there's the,

who the Cubs play, brewers catcher. It was trying to, you know, steal the strike and frame it against half. And I saw some comments from, um, you know,

people that aren't American, that are watching the breakdowns. And they're like, so that catcher's just lying to the um, knowingly and like flabbergasted by it. And man, having fans that aren't baseball fans in the comment section of my breakdowns on Twitter and Facebook and YouTube has been pretty eye-opening on how the American like mindset works. It's like, wait. Winning.

I know. And it's not, I don't, I don't, I don't, I understand it. I like it sometimes. it is funny to me when I read that and someone's like what and other countries are just like not built that way yeah it's weird you're gonna you're gonna change everyone all these cricket players are going to be watching your videos like dude I'm not gonna I'm not gonna tell them that I didn't catch that ball they get like like like fans don't like them like they're like proud of being good people yeah yeah oh what's that about yeah not into that um yeah and by the way I think

uh with the catching being the worst hitting position if we can, I threw out, I threw this out there a couple years ago. I don't think it's a weird hill to die on. If there's no runners on base, let's get a little chair for the catchers to sit on. Let's save some knees. Seriously, like, end of the day, why does it matter? I think a catcher calling pitches, I think that's really important. I think that's a really important skill.

If we can teach catchers at, awesome. When runners get on base, let's get catchers with some badass arms. Like, let's worry about that. that worry about catching it and throwing it because guess what that's good baseball i don't give a bleep about pitch framing we're tricking old men i kind of agree with you if there's nobody on base let's put one of those blitzball things behind if you hit it's a strike the umpire can go take a break too that that dude's old he needs a water break we have a lot of science and technology that guess what being 225 pounds and squatting for three hours every night,

not good for you. Doesn't work over time. I'm going to sell it to MLB right now, okay? Because this is the only thing they understand. It's another place to put ads. Put a little blitzball thing there. You put an ad on it. Yes, yes.

That's all we need. Now we're talking. Eventually, you're talking about catching, the catching position being the worst hitting position on the field. Eventually, it's going to be the best hitting position on the field. When we have automated strike zones, you think there's going to be almost no defense played from the catching position

because you can basically stand up to get ready for a stolen base. Why squat? Why would I squat? Get me a meat sack that can hit with a cannon back there. Just an absolute canon. I mean, did I just miss it? I was catching up on something, but you think they're going to sit on stools?

Did you say that? Yeah, we just did down. Yeah, okay, sorry. Trev sold it. He said he said. sell ads on the chair. Oh, yeah. So ads on the chair,

or if you do a blitzball type strike zone, you get the umpire out of there and the catcher out. I will say this. We got a strike zone. I will say this. I can't have a catcher sitting on chair. I can't do it.

I'm in for automatic. What's the difference between that and the knee savers? Uh, well, knee savers are known punk if you wear those. That's the problem. Why is that? I've asked catchers.

I'm just joking. I wore him growing up and I didn't use them. You don't really use them when you're catching. You just use them in between pitches when you're kind of just like squatting down. They're like, not a lot of catchers are like sitting on those during the action of the pitch. Let's invent something that's easier for a catcher then because the knee saver is like, if you talk to any, I mean, I got to look around the league now because maybe it's changed.

I don't think there's any because you really don't use them that much. They don't, if you use them, you get laughed at kind of. Like, you're not a real catcher. They don't really do anything because to use them, you have to be in an even deeper squat. So like your weight might be safe. So we should fix them. Yeah. I mean, catchers can just kneel in between pitches.

Who cares? I can squat for a long time because I caught growing up. And it does, like, guys can do it. Jake, I'm interested in this now. Okay, you got my mind spinning. No runners on base. Get the chair. No runner's on base.

Runner gets on first. You got the catcher that only likes being in his chair, so he's pissed off. He's got to bring his chair to the dugout. I have to do this now. Teddy is starting to pitch, and like he always wants to throw bad or something. me. I got to be the guy. I got to be the catcher. I sit on a bucket sometimes, can't do it.

I squat down. I like that, but it does get tiresome. So what I haven't started to do is just get on two knees and just sit there. I think, why don't we see catchers doing that? Like, why do they have to squat? We're pitch frayman. Do you mean the pain, yeah, just like in the splits on his knees? I love squatting. So strange. I squat sometimes just to like, Jimmy's good at squat. Get in a new position. Good for you. I just do it. because I used to do it to get out of this chair. I might do it now because my packet. We don't have a pull-up bar in the office anymore,

and I never realized how much that saved my back. Because after every show, I would just hang from it and correct the city. Ooh, yeah. We need one of those things. Last night I couldn't, like, walk because we did so many shows and I was just hunched over. Lurched.

Yeah. Treve, I got to tell you what, man. I'm Roman ready to hear what you're about to tell us with, especially some of these young guys. Holy smokes J-Rod when he popped up. on the broadcast the other night. I was pretty close to Roman Ready. And if you're having trouble with your penis getting hard,

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Yeah. Treb, what do you got? Things have been hard around here, if you know what I mean? Oh. I think I fully understand it. I think I can't. I either do or don't. I don't know.

Maybe you guys don't get it. Look, my topic is, it's simple. I want to talk about this rookie class a little bit. I want to talk about kind of why it seems like we're seeing so many of these talented rookies. And then at the end, I'm going to ask you guys to give me kind of who your favorite rookie has been so far. I know it's four games. I get it. But we're seeing these guys in spring training.

And then now they're in the show. Basically, look, we had all the CBA talks going on, and one of the biggest topics was service time manipulation, teams leaving their top prospects down for a couple of weeks to make sure they got an extra year of service time out of him. Well, you know, didn't really want that. As players, you want, and as fans, anybody that's a fan of baseball should want the best players on the field. Now, according to, I believe his name is Matt Eddie, I got to look this up real quick. I want to give credit where credit is due. Yeah, Matt Eddy of Baseball America, and he took a look at the data from this year.

10 of Baseball America's top 100 prospects made opening day rosters. That'd be the second largest number in their data set since 1990. So we're already liking that. Now, it's one year. So, like, it could just be an anomaly where we have a bunch of really good rookies or this could actually be working. And what's going on with the CBA? I think that's important to know maybe why teams are doing this.

I guess we should mention the rosters are expanded right now. So it's hard to justify keeping someone down when there's 28 spots available. You know, you kind of have to bring your guys now, but teams still could do it under the guise of needing more seasoning in AAA, blah, blah, blah. But 10 of these guys are up there right now. Now, what is, why are the clubs incentivized? well, you know, they love draft picks.

Teams fucking love draft picks, more than they love prospects. They love the prospect of drafting a prospect more than they love a prospect. Get that in your mind. I don't know. That just confused me right there. Anyways, so under the prospect promotion incentive,

that is what we are calling this thing. Prospect promotion of incentive, teams can earn an extra draft pick, an extra pick in the draft if a rookie eligible player with 60 days or fewer, so rookie, is included on a preseason top 100 prospect list by two or more of Baseball America, ESPN, or MLB.com.

That's interesting. I did not know that. So if your guy is listed as a top 100 prospect on two or more of these lists, preseason, and then they go on to finish high in the rookie of the year voting, that team will receive a draft pick. Now, if the international draft is, implemented, they can also earn a selection in the second or third, a selection if they finish second

or third in rookie of the year or fourth or fifth in the Sight Young. The team can gain at most one PPI pick in the average draft and three total PPI picks for an individual prospect, two international and one amateur with them. This is a lot going on here. Anyways, basically they can, if their guy is good and ends up high in the rookie of the year voting, they're going to get a pick in next year's draft. Which, you know, I think. think is a good way to incentivize these teams that just mentioned how much they like this. So now we're seeing all these guys come up. And we all know kind of like the big names. We got Spencer Torkelson, who just got his first career hit, I believe, this morning.

We're recording this on Tuesday, April 12th, just got his first career hit. We've seen guys like Julio Rodriguez come up. Jeremy Pena's come up and just looked amazing. And then a guy like Stephen Kwan, who I got to admit, didn't know who this guy was. I don't know if you guys did, if he was on your radar. but he's come up and all he's done is had like a 780 on base percentage through four games. So my question to you guys is, do you think this is working? Or do you think this is a strong class and it was just going to happen regardless? And then two, which one of these guys would you want to have on your team?

Is it a big bopper like Torkelson? Is it a Hunter Green who can lead your rotation? is it a Bobby Witt Jr. who looks to be the face of your franchise and can play middle infield? What are you looking for in a rookie? I'll start by asking you, do you think this is actually going to work and we're going to see prospects more often up in the big leagues? No. I think it's working for this year because they have to write the wrong. The same reason Manfred gave Bow's headphones out to all the players. So you think this is just strictly like, hey, we have the CBA.

just like play nice for a year. Let's play nice for a year. Yeah. Yes. 100%. Let's not, let's, if we don't, the articles will be endless. There was a couple, I mean, the pirates have not abided by this. They've kept down on Neil Cruz, another guy that they're keeping down as well.

Every other team seems to kind of be on board this year. Thank you, boy. Pittsburgh and Baltimore, two of the better run franchises are keeping their guys down. I don't know. We're going to find out. Like, I hope so. I hope that's incentive enough. I really do because the fact that Spencer Torkelson is playing for the Tigers makes me want to watch him.

I want to watch Julio Rodriguez. C.J. Abrams on the Padres. Like, let me see what you got, kid. Say a Suzuki, kind of an outlier, but counts similarly. Yeah, I guess my thing, and I'd have to read some of those rules a little more is like, why does it have to be top 100 guys? Like if you've got a rookie that's ready to come up, I don't really care where he's ranked.

And if there's a team that's more incentivized, Stephen Kwan, I don't think he was top 100 anywhere. So, hell, the fact that he got the call, and if he keeps this going, I would like the Guardians to get rewarded for that, a franchise I've been tough on for some of the way they've treated things. So if we can get, again, I'd like to, to break things down to pretty basic Jake stuff when I'm not making jokes, which I always am.

Let's get the best players on the field. O'Neill Cruz should be playing in Pittsburgh. Adley Rushman should be playing in Baltimore. So whatever needs to happen to make that go down is necessary for the success of the sport. So I don't know. It really is, I mean, like you said, that stat from 1990 with the top prospects, you wonder how much does it tie to the Padres. Like this is kind of a do-or-die year for them.

So they made the call on Abrams. And Tatis got hurt. That was opening day rosters, which I don't know if was Abrams on the opening. He was on the opening day. He was very last minute. So I'm not sure how that all went down. Bobby Wood Jr., Julio Rodriguez,

Kansas, they've been operating a little differently. The Mariners, this is a go year for them. And they've got quotes out there saying they were literally, planning on keeping him down, so you wonder how that ties in. But yeah, man, I hope this is the future. And, I mean, for the Stephen Kwan types or whoever else it might be, like, however we can get teams to give them a shot to go, I'm in on it. If you're the best player in the organization, you should be out there.

That's kind of a, feels ridiculous that I have to say that. Yes, it does. A little bit. And the second part would be we see a lot of these guys come up. They're definitely playing different positions, different types of impact players. There's pitchers, there's power hitters. There's a guy like Stephen Kwan who doesn't swing and miss who gets on base at an incredible clip. What are you looking for?

Not like based on what the Yankees need. I know that's kind of where your head will probably go. But who do you think has a bigger chance for success? A guy coming up that's a starting pitch. a guy that's just a bat like a Torkelson kind of guy or a guy like Bobby Wood Jr. who's a shortstop and can hit and maybe you think about moving him all over the place.

What would you prefer? I mean, I think it's Bobby Whit in the landslide. I mean, a guy can play shortstop. That means he can play third. He can play second. He can probably move him to the corner outfielders. Hell, some can even go to center field. And most guys you see on a baseball field came up as shortstop.

If you were to look around infields and say, what did you play your first year in the minor? I don't know the percentages on it, but I would guess it's like 50% played shortstop when they're in rookie ball. So if you have a guy that makes it to the show as a shortstop, he might not last.

It might be like Labor Torres or Trevor Ploof or whatever, but put him at the corner, let him get fat. It'll hit you some homers. I used a pH there, Treff. Ooh, I'm going starting pitcher. I'm just so cynical. I'm so cynical on those evens. even if they're good.

I know. Like you've got to be good for four years. For me. Yeah. I think when you have a guy coming up that's, that has the stuff of Hunter Green, you can say that's going to play. As long as you can locate it even a little bit and you can develop some

secondary pitches, I'm taking that all day long. Cost control. Pitching is the most expensive thing in baseball. It costs more in prospect capital and in the free agent market. So if you're getting. one of those guys making whatever the league minimum is now, $750,000 and you have them controlled for six years.

Again, it's going to bring us back to the Reds. What is you doing, baby? Like, you got a guy like this. This is the guy to look out for it. And I think that was kind of where I was going. Like, I think at the end of this year, we're going to have some really, really strong rookie performances, just because this class is so strong.

But I think we're going to see like a Hunter Green and be like, oh, shit. Like, this is the guy. Yeah, I mean, the pitcher thing gets really fun, really quick. like, you know, the Yankee fans, you jump back to Java. Like, if you got that electric young guy that can come up, if Hunter Green comes up, I mean, our guy, we just got mowed down by Alec Manoa the other night. Man, is that young dude fun?

Even his stats last year when he was a rookie. So, you know, if you're giving me one season, it's probably one of those young pitchers. Like, you know, hey, go out there, be electric, let it eat, and let's see what you got, kid. Over the lifetime of the career, I think you got better investments in Bobby Witt and Julio Rodriguez, C.J. Abrams, those guys. And, hey, again, I know it's a loophole here. I'm drinking so much Seia Kool-Aid. Stephen Brault talked about him on Rose Rotation the other day.

He, again, these small sample sizes. He looks pretty in control of his at-bats. You know, we've talked about how velocity is sometimes the struggle. That's something a monoccurable. that's something to monitor. But Seam Brothal says, like, this dude's built. Like, this dude's roped up. You know, I'm so excited to see what he can become because of how big that can be for baseball. But yeah, I mean, if you're buying a long-term stock,

give me one of the young infield guys probably. And then if it's for one year, light me up from the mound. Like make every day Hunter Green Day. Like, that gets me juiced up. Cece was like on a tour with all these guys. He went, he went, saw Hunter's debut in Atlanta. Then he was watching Taylor Hearn pitch when T. Hearn did the home opener for the Rangers. Like, what's going on with that, man?

These are his guys? Are they CAA clients maybe, something like that? Because Amber is working with CAA now, I believe, right? His wife. Yeah, yeah. Hearn is. Must be it. Yeah.

So, yeah, so it's 100. And he says he loves the game still. I know he's an ambassador, but he's working for the... Specialist. He's working for MLB now. Yeah. Yeah, he's building a bridge. He's got some baseball connections.

That is the midweek episode. I think we crushed it again. Yeah. Just a job well done by the three of us. We'll be back on Friday live to recap some series and have some fun. Good job by everyone today, especially any listener out there named Bob Now

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