Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 479 | White Sox Sliding, Angel Hernandez, and Lots of Sweeps

Episode Date: April 25, 2022

Use code TALKIN for $20 off your first SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKIN Timestamps: 3:15 - NL Recap 7:45 - NL Standings 9:30 - Brewers-Phillies (Angel Hernandez) 15:30 - Marlins-Braves 16:45 - Mets-DBacks 18:30 - Cardinals-Reds 19:45 - Dodgers-Padres 23:30 - AL Recap 29:00 - AL Standings 29:45 - White Sox-Twins 33:00 - Royals-Mariners 35:00 - Guardians-Yankees 39:00 - Red Sox-Rays 40:15 - Blue Jays-Astros 43:15 - Orioles-Angels 45:30 - IL Recap (Rockies-Tigers) 47:30 - Miguel Cabrera 49:30 - Standout Performances 1:00:00 - Slump Watch 1:04:00 - En Fuego 1:07:30 - JP Crawford 1:11:00 - Tyler Zombro 1:12:30 - Austin Meadows 1:17:00 - Elevator Talk: Oakland A's If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visit http://ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visit OPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA). 21+ (18+ NH/WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/NH/NJ/NY/OR/ PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Min. $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See http://draftkings.com/sportsbook for details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to talking baseball. It's April 25th. The White Sox can't win and the Mariners are sweeping. A lot of sweeps, actually. Let's talk some baseball. Hello and welcome to talking baseball brought to you by Seat Geek. My name is Jimmy. Sit next to me is Jake in California.

We got Trevor Plouk. And behind the dish, we have BPD producing the episode. As I said, this is brought to you by Seat Geek. And if you download the app now, and use code talking. You can get $20 off. First purchase at Seat Geek, $20 off your first purchase, the promo code Talking.

Make sure you click the link in the description. Download the app. They got seats. You can go sit there and geek out about some baseball. Jake and I went to some games over the weekend. It was fun. So thanks to Seat Geek sponsoring the show and hooking up the audience.

20 bucks off. Tickets to games. Jake, how you doing? James. Trev, BBD, I'm doing well. Baseball, a hot weekend. A hot weekend for baseball in the streets. Yeah, you mentioned Seekek.

I found my new favorite seats at the stadium. A little second deck behind home plate. You can kind of see down on the field, but you can see like pitches and reactions and stuff. So I'm excited for that going forward. Seatkeek, let's figure something out. And I'm good, man. I mean, you know, sometimes we try to hide our Yankees side in here,

but Yankees, little sweeperoo in the Bronx. That was fun. We were at that. Your baby's first game at the stadium, got the certificate. And, yeah, have been, you know, after the Yanx play, I've been usually bringing up a game on my phone while having doing whatever evening activity I'm up to these days. So, yeah, got to see a lot of good action.

I mean, a lot of homers, Buxton and Belly, stealing headlines. a lot of walk-off winners, so I'm good. Trevor, can you tell me like what's up out west, dog? I love being in this seat talking ball with you three dudes and the Chet's popping off. It's a beautiful sunny day out here in Calabasas. I'm excited about all the baseball that went down. I actually got to watch quite a bit of it. I saw a lot of those walk-offs you mentioned live. Yeah, man, I'm just in a good place right now. I think. We got a lot of fun stuff to talk about. So let's ask James how he's doing and then let's get right into it.

I'm good. Going through the notes and looking back, it seems like a lot of sweeps. We usually have a sweep week we declare sweep week. I don't know if this is it. I'm excited because I didn't fully check out the NL, but I, the AL and the I had my eyes on this morning as I was going through everything. So I think we might have it. I don't know, Jay.

Catch me up on the. National League. Let me know what happened. Let's do it. Let's start reverse Kronpot. It's the last taste in our mouth last night. Angel Hernandez, the breakdown's coming, people, he's working on it. Audio in soon.

It was an incredible pitching matchup, and that's where I get all hot and bothered. Lauer, how's your six innings? 13 punchies. On the other side, Nola seven innings, one-hit ball. And what are we doing? We're talking about the umpire after the game. Brewers took that game to decide the series. They take two out of three in Philly.

Hey, Phillies, I know it's early. We got to start winning some series, babe. Brewers, they do Brewers things. They win the series. Yelly, big sack fly. Connected, Treve, you talk about it. Dodgers, Padres in San Diego, and the Dodgers, two out of three.

That middle game, 10 innings, the Padres won it on Darvish Day. Otherwise, the Dodgers take the bookends. Belly? Kershaw? It turns out these Dodgers still might be pretty damn good. Man, if Belly's doing it from the bottom of their line is, sheesh. Dodgers take two out of three.

Giants, sweet-sweak, they sweep the nationals. Like a lot of teams are going to do this year. starting to worry about this Nationals title run. Giants are dominant, man. 7-1-5-2-12-3. They just straight up, beat up on them. Corbin. We won't talk about the Nats.

We won't talk about the Nats. We'll talk about Jack Peterson with a two-homer game. Web shoves. The Giants are back, baby. They're winning games. They're winning series. Gabe Kapler, hot. We know this.

Cardinals, the dirty birds. They take two out of three from the Reds. You're going to hear that. a lot this year. Fortitude in game one to win four to two. Five o in the second one. And then the Reds, hey, they took the finale, Nick Ladolo Reds. He's one of their young guys that they have hopes for. Doesn't really matter. Goldschmidt did his thing. Seven hits in the series. Cardinals pitch the whole way. Cardinals doing it. Here's one. Braves? They lose two out of three. To the Marlins, the fish with arms come into town. They win another series. Braves.

Raves off to a little sluggish start, a little seven and ten for them. They won the first game, but the Marlins took the second two, and they put some runs on the board. I like that. Kupalup, Jim, your guy, big go-ahead two-run single. And then Baby Jesus Lazzardo, he has another good start. So these Marlins, man, they're a pesky team. They were Trev's biggest fringe world series team,

and they're winning some ball games. Good for them. And then Los Mets, Jim. Best record in baseball. They take two out of three from my snakes. They snake to winning game one in ten innings. Snakes always win on Saturdays. It's a story early Saturdays for the snakes.

And then the Mets McGill, man. How about him? 6.2 to earn runs. Mets are winning a lot of ball games. Buck Show Walter. We love it. Jim, this is your outlier series, the last series from the National League.

You saw the headlines. Cubs win 21. nothing over the Pirates. Ah, the Pirates, come on. Pirates took the other three games. Pirates win 4-3, 4-2 to 2, 4-3 in the final game. So Cubs steal the headline with the 21-0 blowout. They lose three out of four in Rigley. Go Pirates go. Cole Tucker, still a beautiful, beautiful man, special. And then Bednar, the closer there. He told his guys and the other team. Yeah, he gave him the little Trevor Ploof. Don't throw that blitz ball here, kid.

A little F you, a little F me. Good for the Pirates. Good for baseball. Should mention this about DeGrom. He's going, he's getting a CT scan. He's getting the MRI today on Shea Station Jolly Olive's birthday. Mets fans are going to be finding out more about their season today than maybe they did in their series.

And that's what happened in the national. Hey, hey, hey. Where the monkeys. Like to monkey around. Where does that leave the National League? New York Mets. Ahead in the east by a lot there, 12 and 5. How about that?

St. Louis Cardinals. Ahead in the loss column and win percentage over the brewers, but the brewers have more wins. So those two teams have been dancing like that. So for a while. And the Dodgers are ahead in the west. They are 11 and 4. Giants are 11 and 5.

Rockies 10 and 5. Which means and the Padres 10 and 7. So the West, the NOS has four teams with double-digit wins. And the East and the Central only have won a piece. So how about the Rockies and the Padres hanging with the Dodgers and the Giants as of now? Not bad. Trabbs West Coast. Yeah.

It is my West Coast. It really is kind of shocking when you're looking at the standings right now. Some of these teams we knew would be at the bottom. Some of these teams we knew would be at the top, that NL East. Kind of a mess right now, huh? It's brutal. I mean, we're going to talk about it more when we get to, like,

the AL Central, where the standings just straight up flipped recently. It's still early enough in the season where you're going to see that. But, you know, I think the way I phrased it on Wake and Jake this morning is when you get to May, your goal in May shouldn't be to get back over 500, you know? If you can trickle into May around 500 or at 500, then your goal is like, let's climb the standings. If you're coming in, you know, four or five games under,

that's a climb. You need a hot couple weeks to get over that. So we'll see. I think, like, what's the highlight series? Do we just want to get Brewers, Phillies, over with because we kind of got to talk about Angel. Quick, at least. Yeah, he's just terrible hump.

I don't understand why he has to hunt behind the dish. I kind of said this last year. Like, we got D.H. In the NL now. If they got to keep Angel around because he's not bad enough at first, second, or third, or knowing the rules, or they just got to keep him around, I don't understand why it's

you're a major league ump and you have to dump home plate. Like why does every hump have to do it? Clearly he's awful at it. Like awful, awful, awful. We were at spring training and the players were doing live A-Bs where the catcher was calling balls and strikes

and the catcher called an outside pitch a strike and all the players just started yelling angel at him. Angel, angel. Like that's how bad this guy is. that everybody just lives, I don't, I don't understand why it's so strict. Like if you can't, there has to be a step between you're an ump and you get home plate and you're not an up.

You should have to test into it. I agree, but we know we've talked about this plenty of times on our show. Like these umpires have full protection. I mean, there's nothing you can do. They are an umpire as long as they want to be an umpire. Like a driver's license. It's insane. So, yeah, look, Angel stole the show.

But this is a good series, too, like three close ball games. I think two good teams. I know the Phillies haven't exactly gotten off the start they want. But you got, like, the Brew crew just pitching. Still haven't hit this year at all. But they got a guy Lauer. All of a sudden comes out, 13Ks. Like, what are, they don't need more pitching.

Is Angel. Any two strike? You think that was? Yes, I just. watch the whole game. Any two strike pitch was a, the strike zone opened up like crazy, especially if there was two. I guess you're right about that. That's why I was like looking at the stands. I was like, oh, Lauer's like, no, I just watch that. It was any two, two out two strikes, Trev was just strike three. And that's why I thought Angel was just bad.

Like, I thought he was just inept. And now after like looking at that, I'm like, wait, does he know what he's doing? He's just calling a quick game? Like, is he just getting away with it? Well, everyone knows I got a bad strikes and I'll just make this game go quick because it was the first three innings I believe all ended with strikeout looking there's a there's a video of him leaving the stadium and someone's yelling at him and he's got a big old smile on his face and Jim you're right I mean this is like the end of talented mr. Ripley and we're either he's a he's a media genius that knew it was Sunday night baseball and wanted to get his name hot in the streets again or he has no idea what's going on and he just lives in a state

of bliss and missing baseball calls and dictating a game. I don't know. Either way, it's a nightmare for the sport. I think it's just there's so much comedy, yet at the same time I can just get worn out that Sunday night baseball, like kind of baseball's one platform where nationally baseball should succeed. Like it's Sunday night. You know, if people want to go watch the basketball playoffs, sure, knock yourself out.

But there's one baseball game on. If you want to hook in baseball fans, you added David Korn, of the booth. Love Coney. He's awesome. Go tow that slab with him. But the fact that we're sitting here after another Sunday night baseball and the story's Angel Hernandez is like, I'm just exhausted. And there's no solution. It just kind of sucks. So I don't know. I don't know. I just wait. I'm just waiting for him to retire. That's exciting.

Something on the Phillies, Trev. They are better than they're showing. They've the hardest strength of schedule so far out of any other team. So they, and it doesn't end, which is the scary part. And we talked about this on their PPP, but I mean, they got Colorado for four, Mets for three. Then they get two against Texas. That's nice. Then they get Mets for four. Then they have to go West Coast play Seattle, Dodgers, Padres, Dodgers, Braves, Mets, Giants.

Their May is as hard as their April. So I don't know what the second half of the Phillies looks like, but I, I guess, got to guess it gets a little easier, but they have the, the hardest strength of schedule so far out of any team, um, them and the Rockies combined, but the Rockies are coming out a little bit better than them, 10 and 5 instead of 6 and 10. But, you know, hold on hope for that, Phillies fans. And it's really early.

It's really early. And yeah, like they, they've been swinging the bats okay, uh, that's kind of been pitching just okay, but you're talking about this tough part of their schedule. You got to be better than, okay and one of those facets to win some ball games. Like you see the Brewers, they're not hitting for anything, but they're pitching the shit out of the ball. Yeah. But the Marlins.

I still like this Phillies team. Losing to the Marlins hurt them, but then the Marlins are winning series. They just beat the Brewers. The Braves Braves in a series. It's the NLE East bloodbath. There's going to be fluctuations throughout the year. But yeah, I mean, the Marlins are a pivot teams of sort.

Like, Jazz Chisham is balling out. this year? Is he the superstar that his swag says he is? My guy, Hazu Sanchez, he's still doing it. And we talked about those arms. I mean, this team, because of their pitching, has a chance in every series. Are they going to hit enough? Is that division going to be too much? But they just took two out of three from the Braves, who the Braves, you know, they're excited that the Phillies are struggling just a little bit more because there's not a lot of eyes on them. I will say this, Braves fans, everyone I've been interacting, mixing it up on the internet, they're still calm. I guess they're still okay with the process, except Ashland. Look at last year. I'm going to say,

there's a few people. Yeah, there's a big asterisk with, with my girl Ashland, but you know, they're still, they still have a little bit of the World Series glow, but I think we're another like, disappointing two out of three away from Braves fans being like, hey, like, we got to go. They've had, again, they've had some good play, you know, like their offense is good. Matt Olson's been like a guy. If Matt Olson was struggling and they were losing games like this, I think it would be a different story. They'd be like, we need Freddie. Like, what the fuck did you guys do to us?

But because Matt Olson is good, I think there's still a lot of hope there. Everyone knows it's very early. It's, it is easy to, like, rush to judgment. I see how fans can do that of teams. Like, we just look bad. We look bad.

But it's 162. Like, this is a long damn season. The cream rises to the top. And the Braves last year proved that. Yeah, looking at the Marlins roster here. I just didn't realize how many Jays they had going on. Jacob, Jesus, Jazz, Joey, Jorge. Hey, Zeus, John, Jesus.

Just a lot of Jays. Yeah, I mean, Jeter. Wow, he's out. Kimang. The other thing. Yeah, the sale. If we're going east to west by accident, the Mets, two out of three from the D-backs,

and that's obvious. My snakes are figuring stuff out. But Marte playing a fun brand of baseball. And the Mets are still... McGill's the story in the Mets for me. They're pitching incredible as a team. Both New York teams are, pitching really well. Mets starting pitchers are third and ERA so far. And that offense,

fourth and batting average, second and on base percentage, like the Mets, there's a reason they have the best record in baseball right now. McGill's crazy. And the snakes having to play them on the schedule. I mean, you know, I'm going to talk to the schedule people. Is that fair that the snakes had to play the Mets? That's not fair. It's messed up. Go Mets go. We said this NL East was going to be beating up on each other. You know, the team that wins the division might have 90 wins blah blah blah blah blah and that's like enough with that i'm the bully they're the bully right now now the bully sometimes gets punched in the face you know like when i first met jake i had a punch him right in the face and trying to bully me

and now look at us we're best friends so we'll see what happens again 162 people but the met sure look they got i'm not giving all the credit to buck show walter like you did when you were reading these notes, but they got a good clubhouse atmosphere, it seems like. Everyone's pulling for each other. Trevor May on the Rose rotation, talking about Eddie Escobar and the Fogodeau dinner. I like it. I like what's going on.

We weren't sure if it was going to work, but it seems to be working so far. The Reds don't get swept, so I think that deserves claps. Nick Lodolo with his first big league win. Good for him. And Art Warren. I He sounds like a man from a different time Yes

Yeah he covered boxing in the 80s The 1880s He has a pen and a notepad on him at all times He's an observer My guy Goldie showed That guy Something uh something was for a long time Yeah

Something that you might hear about later in the episode Wink Nudge No homers in that series Cards Reds A homerless three days for both teams. That's insane. And it was in Cincinnati? Yeah.

Holy moly. Jolly Olive did a whole video on Aristides. Yeah. About the rise and fall, which I was like just wondering about. So go check out Jolly Olive's video. And Shay Station, if you're a Mets fan,

because they're having fun. Jerry sent Jolly flowers today, Trev. Yeah. It's his birthday. Yeah. Happy birthday, Jolly. Jerry sent him. I want to send him flowers,

so show. So show. Cardinals fans. they're already sitting at the top of the division with the brewers. Things are good in St. Louis. I talked to my boy J. Flair. He said things are progressing very nicely. So Braves getting the Kuna back, boom.

Cardinals getting J. Flair back. Boom. I don't know what else. Dodgers, Podgers. Did you see the videos of the Dodgers fans in San Diego? Yeah. One of the bigger fan takeovers I've seen. there's a lot it happens a lot but that was

they showed a video of like the home run the crowd Jesus Christ it was good because the weekend series you can go down to San Diego it's like two and a half hour drive yeah down the 405 to 5 but yeah it was great series I got to watch some of that as well Kirshah Manaya didn't end up being fun but that's like a fun

matchup hopefully see that again mania before the gang got to see his brother who's in the military that was kind of a cool moment. I love Mania, dude. He looks really good in San Diego. The uni just looks good on him. I think Belly looking good. Yeah.

Your guy. All the MVP's, I was going to make it into an award, but Mookie, Trout, belly, I think all had two homer games this weekend. We stumbled into this on baseball today. The Dodgers, as good as they've been, Like they've been getting nothing from Trey Turner, Justin Turner, Mookie Betts, and Will Smith.

Those are like their four best hitters. And like, I mean, Belly's going off. They have other guys in that line. And Freddie obviously going off. It's so deep. It's ridiculous. No, it's the kind of the pendulum swing of baseball. Like, it's tough to stay hot.

So it's kind of funny. There's a lot of teams that the guys who either had the good first week and a half are now, they're slowing down. And now the guys who have the slow first week and a half. are starting to go. Kind of the baseball pendulum there. But yeah, man, I mean, Kershaw is shoving. Bellinger has an OPS in the Nines.

I don't know. I don't know what you do with that. And yeah, I love, you know, when there is a weekend series, I'll head out at like 11. I'll go on the 405 to try to miss the traffic. And I'll get down there in like two hours, grab some tacos by the airport, and then go to the game and just rip up the weekend.

do you know. Gaslight. Driving in the sun. Gas lamp district. I go to gaslight. Halfway down there yesterday. The kind of the normies go to gas. Actually, like, we tore up to gaslam district on scooters back in the winter of 19.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Treve, you ready to do the AL? People don't know. I want to make this point. Someone was yelling at me saying it was cap that Tray Turner's been going off. But I mean, he's got a 701 OPS. Is it career 847?

I'm trying to say people is. He may be doing things on the field to make him valuable, valuable. He hasn't hit his offensive stride yet. That's a good thing. Like the Dodgers are a fucking menace, dude. Someone said he's going off? He's probably starting to get hot.

That's kind of the baseball pendulum. Someone telling I don't cap out there. I take offense to that as an older person. What are you, did you said he's not high yet? He's not hot yet. I said both Turner's, Will Smith, and Mookiee Betts. Like really haven't given. in what they can give, obviously.

Turner will get hot. This isn't hot. He's got a 185B batting average 241 on base in his last seven games. Don't come at me if I didn't cap the wrong way. Don't cap, Trev. Which one's good or bad? Which one's lying? Cap is lies or truth?

Cap would be the lie. No cap is the truth. No cap. Am I what I said? Damn. I think I had that wrong. To the A. Pirates 500.

Let's go. All right, Trev. Tell me what happened in the American League. I know because I thought I was doing it today. Well, my friends, our Blue Jays went down into Space City, and they took two of three from the Houston Astros. It went four three, three, two Blue Jays, before our guy Jeremy Pena said game.

And the Astros took the third game, eight to seven, in ten. Blue Jays had ten extra base hits and six homers. Astros had nine extra base hits and three homers. Neither starting pitchers did that well. That's because these offenses are fucking legit. Flattie had six hits. Espinall had three extra base hits with two homers. On the Astros sides, Brantley had six hits with a homer and double. Bregman kind of went off. Five hits with a homer. Gurreel. These teams are just damn good. Verlander, six things pitched with three earned runs in game one. Our guy, Matt Chappie, had to go ahead double in the ninth in that one.

Springer hits the lead off home run in Houston in game two. It's his first back facing Houston since leaving. And this one, Espinall had to go ahead home run in the seventh. And then like I mentioned, Jeremy Pena, against our guy, Romano. In the third game, goes dead freaking central to stave off the sweep. But the Blue Jays take two out of three. Speaking of sweeps, you guys were here for this one.

The Guardians went into the Bronx and got their ass cleaned. to one Yankees, five to four Yankees before the beat down happened, 10 to two on Sunday. Tyone looked really good in game one. Five innings pitch with only one earned run. King. Your guy's king. You fucking love him right now. Three shutout endings with eight K's. That's ridiculous. Judge had two homers in that game. In game two, two, two, two years, four years. Nextor Cortez, six innings pitch with two earned runs. Kiner Folefah, game-tying double. Torres had the walk-off hit. And then it was kind of bad for the fans, but that was a good game at least.

And in game three, Cole came out. Was he rubbing his butt? We're going to talk about that in a little bit, but he went six and two-thirds with no earned runs. Gallo, first extra base hit, an RBI of the season. The Yankees just dominated this one and got the sweep. Speaking of sweeps, my twins, White Sox coming to town, big series for them. The twins sweep, two-one twins, nine-two-twins, six, four twins in the tenth on that Buxton. We got to talk a lot about Buck.

I'm sure we will in a little bit. Kopec and over. Nice start in the first game. Both went five innings pitched. One run for over. None for Kopeck. The twins score of tying and the go-ahead runs in the eighth on throwing airs by Anderson. And I'm Brady.

That's a tough one for the White Sox. In game two, Buckson goes four for four with a homer. Hey, your guy Bundy, guess what he did? Five innings pitch, no earned runs. Let's go. Archer starts the last one. Gialito comes back from the IL. He goes forwardings pitch with one earned run.

Bucks and had two homers in that game, including the walkoff. So twins get the sweep there. Go, twins, go. Red Sox go down to Tampa. Rays take two of three, four three Red Sox. Three, two, raise in ten. That was the Keirmeier walkoff. And the raise win, the rubber match, five to two.

In the first game, Wander, still doing it. Two home runs. Second game, that was the Keirmeier walkoff home run. And the bottom half, that was. was one story had that tough air and extended the game. Kierremyer took advantage of that. And then the last game, Margot had the go-ahead RBI ground up in the fifth inning. In the race held on to take two or three from the Red Sox.

Wander Franco is a freaking problem. Mariners sweep the Royals because the mariners are good. I'm going to say Chris Flexen's name and Lager Guildert's name and J.P. Crawford's name because that's what Mariners fans want. 4-1 Mariners, 13-7 Mariners, and then 5-4. Thank you very much in 12. Flex and go seven innings pitch one and run in game one. Rodriguez with a two run double and Kellynick with a two run triple back to back.

It's the future. That's what our notes say. I love that. Game two, Brash does his thing. Actually, he does it. Four and two thirds with three earned runs. I thought he had a better start than that. Mariner's score six and eighth to take the lead.

Rodriguez with a go-ahead walk. He was fired up. Winker with a two-run double. France with a three-run homer. We'll talk more about Thai France later. And then game three, Winker has the, Game tying sack by the 10th and the walk-off single in the 12th Mariners sweep. I got to keep going.

Orioles at Angels. Orioles go in and take two of three from the Halos. Oh, my goodness. Isn't the Orioles year? What's that? I just can't talk about that. Halos losing to the Orioles series. It just time ran out, I guess.

Can't talk about it. Is time ran out already? I went too long. I told you these notes were there was too much information for me. Orioles take two or three from the Angels. We'll talk a little bit about it. Rangers take two or three from the A's. That's what happened in the AL.

I'm sorry for going long. snaps for me, please. Snatched your place. I can't hear the music. Okay. It's all good. These notes were too much. They're the same amount.

I just bullet pointed them. Don't touch my notes anymore. You guys. Keep your hands off each other. What do you want to start? Put them on me. I told you guys everything that happened, every single pitch. We don't have to talk about the Oriangles series.

Nothing happened there. Rangers took two out of three from the A's. West Coast. Rangers Athletics. Ooh. Did you watch? Here's the standings. The Yankees and the Blue Jays are tied for first place in the east,

both with 10 wins apiece. And the Central, the Twins lead the division with an 8-8 record. So the Central doing central things. And in the West, you have the Mariners leading with a 10-and-6 record. You have three teams with double-digit wins in the American League as opposed to six in the National League. So beating up on each other a little bit more. in the AL.

Angels winning record. A's have a winning record. Rays have a winning record. How about that central treb? The White Sox can't win a damn game. And the defense has been atrocious. Anderson can't get into a rhythm, just getting suspended every other day.

He's getting he opened the game up with the two-game suspension. And then he just got a, I don't know when he's going to serve it or if he served it already, but he got another one game for flipping the bird to the crowd. Oops. And they made, they have 18 errors already, I believe, as a team. They made four in this three game series. Just killing their pitchers.

They were up in two of the games and then they get beat. So can I ask you about the Bucson home run? Sure. Because they asked Tony LaRousse of this. Why the hell would you throw that 3-1 pitch to Byron Bucson with first base open? And his run doesn't matter because there's runners on base already. and if they score the game's over, they asked Larousse to that.

He gave an answer. I don't agree with it at all. What did he say? He said that Arise was up next. He was doing good, yeah. And Arise is hot, and Arise hits fast balls and puts the ball in play.

So if you walk Bucks in to put the bases loaded, now you have your pitcher has to throw fast balls to a fastball hitter. But, dude, you need two outs. You need a. ball in play to turn two and now you get the force. It's a, it's not like neither situation you're going to find good odds. But to throw a 3-1 fastball to Buxton with first base open is a little crazy to me.

I saw the replay and I was like, why did they throw that? Yeah, I don't know if I necessarily care about them trying to pitch to them. But yeah, the fastball is the wrong pitch there. Like, if anything, throw a 3-1 slider. Maybe he chases it. Maybe he's geared up for a fastball and just kind of has soft contact on there or whatever. Don't flash the fours and give him first, but you have to throw a swing and miss pitch there. He's just locked in right now.

And I know he's, I think maybe another part of why Tony did that was the first three of bats weren't very good. I know he hit a home run against one of the relievers and his previous abat. I don't know. I'm trying to defend Tony the Roos. I don't know why. It was just a stupid thing. Don't throw him a 3-1 heater. He put it the fourth deck over, 4669.

feet or something like that. Like he's on another level right now. He is, he has everything working for him. So shout out byron and just, Rocco Bell Deli called him the best player in baseball yesterday. And like, you know what?

You could really make the argument. If we're talking about right now at this very moment, I think he does, he's at the elite level of more parts of baseball than any other player, even show him. Shoot, they're together. They're together. Him and Showhair like this for them.

might even hear about him later. Credit to arise. Let me finish this. Does show I have a platinum glove? No, he does. So I don't know how many runs Byron saves a year. I don't know what that equates to as far as being a pitcher or two. I don't know.

How's he on the mound? Credit to arise for being so hot that it becomes, if Tony Lewis really thinks that or not, it becomes a conversation. He had a four-hit day in the game before that, I believe. So, hey, Twinkies. Again, pivot teams of this baseball season, they are the biggest one. And, hey, I know it's ugly.

I know it's Hale Central. It's 8 and 8, but they're up there. So stay up there, man. Trev, your twins, it looks like you're raising your hand. Byron Bucks and Aaron Gleeman wrote a great article about him. I'm reading an excerpt from the article. His per game war, obviously we know he hasn't been on the field, he's been hurt.

His per game more totals during any of these periods I'm about to read. He leads MLB in wins per game since 2019, since 2020, and since 2021. So when he's on the field, he's the most valuable player in baseball. That's crazy. I hear about him later. The Mariners, I thought was cool for the Mariners was there in the game one, Julio and Kelow. Nick had back to back to RBI extra base hits. So kind of I put that in the notes, Trev,

because again, I thought I was doing the AL, the future. Ah, Eugenio Suarez gets hot. He goes six for 12 this series. And Winker. I have him under 98 and a half RBIs. All of a sudden, this guy's going to drive in 140 runs this year. And Winker hits the big shot in game three. So the new faces, the rookies and the trades coming together.

All the while, Ty France and J.P. Crawford. still led them and hits this weekend. So thank you, San Diego. Mariners, if they weren't named the Mariners, I think we'd talk about this team in a little bit of a different light. There's talent all over the place. Yeah. Sweet week.

How are you guys feeling about ICF now? Like, I feel like he's endeared himself to Twins fans, or excuse me, the Yankee fans, kind of like out of nowhere, like all of a sudden. Definitely better. Like, he said he was pressing. and he was putting a lot of pressure on himself that first weekend at Yankee Stadium. How do you feel when a ground ball's hit to him?

Because that's a meter that you have. Is it better now? Yeah, he's good at going to his right. Okay. It's the balls up the middle that he was really shaky on. But yeah, I mean, I still don't think he's like a, he's a good, good. Like, he's good.

I'm not going to, I don't think he's going to rate on any, top five. I think Joey Gallo and Kiner Foleffa cheated out the gold glove system somehow, or like defensive war. It was that third base, so we haven't seen him there. Yeah, he gives a third base. Hey, Kiner Folefa, his last 10 games, he's hitting 424 and 960 OPS,

and he had a game-saving, game-tying hit off of a manual class A. That was impressive. One of the nastiest closers in the game. So, yeah, you could put, you could put some of my most, disliked ex-girlfriends and pinstripes, and if they go 424 for 10 games, I'm going to be rooting for him pretty hard. That played appearance against Class A. I mean, Class A had him, what's the term, dead to rights?

And just absolutely zoo to pitch up and in. And like, I don't want to say he hit his bat, but if he threw one down in the way, he was probably out, big mistake, but that's what you're supposed to do as a hitter. I'm not saying anyway, that's what you're supposed to do as a hitter. He's not an over-the-outfield guy. So for him to turn on 100 mile per hour and put it to the fence, I mean, I didn't even know he had it in him. So I was pretty happy about that.

It's very impressive. I feel like people are going to misconstrue what I said. Like he just hit a mistake. Well, we got to do that. He gets the guy like that, yeah. Hakees didn't do that for a couple years. And then, and then Class A didn't want to throw his fastball again. So he goes like slider, slider, slider, and Torres gets that and the next step out to get the win.

And then Yankees fans embarrassed himself, which I made a breakdown about, Jake and I talked to Nausemavam about talking Yanks and Trev talked on Rose Rotation. So all of us were kind of tapped out on it. But I think we all share the same sentiment. It sucks. It sucks. You can go find our full thoughts on the other shows.

We're not going to do it here because not a fun comment. What I'll give you a full thought on? Yankees pitching people. It's real. It's real. It's fun. Nestor. Garrett has his bounce back.

Tyone five innings, one earned, gets overlooked. And the bullpen's been disgusting. The pitching is very. real in the Bronx. Dodgers, Giants, Yankees, one, two, three runs aloud so far this season. Which is kind of weird. Just don't think of them as that. Twins starting pitching, don't be sleeping on them. I think they lead the league in a lot of stats.

They're seventh in runs allowed right now. That's the overall pitching. Second and whip. Go twins. I got to ask you guys. Yeah. Because we are, you know, we're a national baseball pot. We have to cover these teams fairly. Garrett Cole has stuff on his buddy, seen reaching. There's pictures, there's video about it. James, did you go ahead and look at the spin? Is it change?

Didn't change. Okay. That's good. Yeah, I'm trying to look. It ticked up 100 RPM. And the game before that was in Detroit when it was freezing. So I, that's nothing. Okay.

I'm happy. I don't want to see it's, I don't want to see him continue the way he was pitching. I also don't want to see him have that big spike in spin rate. So that's good. He had a good outing and it was a small. Treve, we did some turkey math on it. And the Yankees took the first two weeks of the season as a second spring training.

Their pitchers came in built up to 60 pitches, Trev. I mean, that's so why Garrett Cole was so sad his last start. He was like, this is my first start of the year. and then he got rocked by the tigers slash walk the ballpark. So I think he came into the last game with a little more juice. The Yankees got a big lead and he got to open it up from there. Let's move on. Reyes, Red Sox.

Rays take two or three because that's just what they do. They also go. Story's air was tough. Yeah, the raise also, they throw a no hitter, right? Through nine, yeah. Through nine. They throw a combined no hitter on bullpen day, then lose it. And then good for Kiermeier to fight back and not lose.

that game. Kluber gave up 10 hits in his start for the raise and not a lot of innings, I believe. Five. Innings pitch 11 hits, it says on our sheet. Not good. I think the story for the season, I think that I'd take from this series, Shane McClanahan looks like he's full tilt, seven innings pitch to earn runs. He might be the next raise starting pitcher we're really, really talking about. And on the other side, Garrett Whitlock, four innings pitched,

zero earned run as the Red Sox are stretching him out. Are they going to put him in the rotation? I think he is. Oh, I'm thinking of Hawk. I'm sorry. I get those, because they have like the Kay's,

Hawk Whitlock and Hawk, sometimes I just mix him up. The Astros have not looked good. They're below 500. Their starting pitchers are getting roughed up. I really like their rotation. a bunch. They're adding Luis Garcia to the rotation and they're going to go with a six man for the next month or so.

They have a crazy stretch. They have a 33 games in 34-day stretch. So they're adding a six-pitcher. A lot of teams are going to have these stretches because of the lockout. And a lot of the off days became game days. And then a lot of the game days became double-header days. And I wonder if each team we're going to see this. Add a six pitcher or just go through spot starts.

It was something I didn't think about. I saw there adding Luis Garcia, and I was like, why? And I read the quote about, well, they were like, we knew we were doing this from spring when we saw the schedule. So now I'm interested. I want to go look at the Yankees and other fans go look at yours. If you have a, when is your dense, each team is going to have just a dense, no off day schedule.

I wonder when, and then I wonder if you got to use a six pitcher. Some teams don't have a guy. Houston definitely has the pitching depth to do it. another guy that's helped them stop the sweep, Pena, lose Carlos Correa. Yankees don't want them. They got IKF. Astros don't want him.

They got Jeremy Pena. People were talking about him being a superstar. And I mentioned that before the season, and Chris Rose says, what are they supposed to say? Obviously, they're going to hype this guy. But people don't use that word with young people a lot. You're not going to call someone a superstar unless they have some tools. And this guy clearly does.

because off to be like a really, really good start with them. The Astros, like they need somebody else to come up and just be a guy. I think the fun thing to watch for Pena, it's something that John likes a lot. He'd been doing a lot of it from the 7-8 spot in the lineup. They slid him up. They gave him a few games that lead off to mired results, and then they slid him back down to 8, and he hits the game-winning Homer.

So something to watch, if the young guy feels a little more comfortable in the bottom of the lineup, if you can crack the top of that Astros lineup, that's always a fun game to play with a young player. Does he have the best nickname in the league? La Tormenta. Specialty? Oh.

That's really good. That's really good. Oh. La tormento men. Jeremy Joan Pena. How about that? Joan? J-O-A-N.

He was born in the Dominican, or was born in the Dominican, but then grew up in the States. up in Rhode Island and then went to college in Maine I got to hear the story I got to yeah we got to dig deeper into that okay okay sure will that's like very different places the angels

lost to the Orioles I know we already covered this you don't want to talk about that we have to talk about people get so mad when we don't I've become a villain in birds territory understandably so I was a little harsh to them I didn't fully realize it, and then I felt their emotion. So I'm a little sorry for that.

Their race to 50 wins this year. They've been pitching well. I want to give the Orioles some love. They've been pitching well. Zimmerman. Bruce Zimmerman is off to an awesome start to this season. 10th and runs aloud at the Orioles. Go Birds Go.

And, yeah, everything was lining up for an awesome comeback in game two. Angels had some people on the bases, and then Trout and Shohei were coming out. Show Hay got called out on a terrible ump call. I was on the couch. I was on the moon watching Shohei. But whatever, go birds go. Like, Orioles fans, I guess that's what got misconstrued.

I'm rooting for you guys to be a better team. You've just been so bad. I'll tell you something about your angels, though? Yes. They haven't played a good team this season. Not our game. Opposite of the Phillies. They've had the easiest schedule in MLB.

They, and they play. And obviously, this changes when teams get good or bad. Houston, I think eventually will be above 500 team, and then their games against them will count. But as of now, they haven't played a team that's playing good ball. So something of note, I guess. And then they play Cleveland, thanks to the Yankees, Cleveland is now a losing team.

So if the Angels beat them, it will stay. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. You got to talk about the Mariners. Where did? Mariners fans get real upset. They're getting love in the episode. You've got to stop looking at the chat. We talk.

Trev loves the chat. I did the whole fucking thing about it. Oh, you're Henneau and Kellnick and Julio. Oh, we already talked about him? Yeah. Yeah, we did a whole thing. Did a whole thing on him. The chat will say, talk about the Mariners until 420 out there.

Nonstop. I just, I think we're good. Yeah, the only thing I'd say was that Blue Jay's Astro Stairs. Blue Jays won it. That first game was really fun, too. Springer hit a homer off Erlander, and then Bragman followed it in the first inning and hit a two-run homer. So some old friends mixing it up.

Vizio is struck. struggling. Mania is... He's traded. Awesome. Yeah. Espinel's playing awesome. Speaking of Blue Jays and trades, let me tell you a little bit about the interleague recap. One, two, one, two, three, four.

The Rockies went to Detroit and took two out of three from the Tigers. They lost the first game where Scooball went six innings pitch, zero earned runs. Cabrera got his 3,000th hit. the first at bat of the game and Torkelson's hit a three-run home run. The Tigers had a goddamn party. They won 13-0 hung over for the next two days, so the Rockies won three to two, where Gombers said, I'll go six things pitch, zero-run runs. It looked fun.

And then in game three, Cool says, I'll go six and pitch, one earned run. Not as good. And Gritchie, trade it from the Blue Jays, hits a two-run home run, his first of the season, but his numbers on the year are out of control. He is doing well. Rockies win two out of three in the interleague play. These are no longer Jake's Rocks. This is Kelsey Wingers.

Kelsey Wingers rocks. That's as fair as it gets. It's Kelsey's Rocks. Kelsey and Jake's Rocks. Kelsey and Jake's Rocks. Kelsey and Jake is out. 10 and 5 or some shit. Rockies doing it?

Are Rockies fans happy? A lot of home games. We're happy. We expect greatness, but we're happy. Gritchick, 405 batting average 452 on base. Nuts. He is playing well for Kelsey Winger-Trocks. Had a good spring, too.

Shows how it's important spring training is. Except it doesn't matter at all. Look at belly. Yeah, man. Good brand of baseball. Good energy from me and California. Kelsey. You're like on the dinerbacks and the angels now.

You got to let Kelsey have her thing, you know. Yeah, it's Kelsey's team. Shout out Miguel Cabrera, ground ball, through the hole on the right side for 3,000. Seeing him do that quite a bit. The man can let the ball travel. I talked a lot about him on baseball today. So I kind of want to hear, where does,

when you think of Miguel Cabrera, James, like where does your head go? Mariana Rivera. I've said that before. Yikes fan. It just was the one guy. He hits a homer off Mariano Rivera, and Mariano Rivera turns around and goes, how?

So that is the image that I think, because I've never seen Marianne River turn around and go, how? Like, I made my pitch. You know, it wasn't Marco. It wasn't Marco Scuderow turning on a missed spot and getting the homer. It was like, what? So that's what I think.

I watched a little highlight thing about Miggie last night, and they were talking about, that at bat and how you know he fouls two balls i think i didn't even did a sequence episode on this but fouls two balls off his foot everyone's laughing at him like this is like high intensity moment but you know people know miggy's not like that he can he's calm and cool and collected because he knows more often than not he's going to have a good at bat but the pitch before that one mariana pulls one way away after had been he'd been busting him in the entire bet so he pulls one way away and and that's like miggy you know victor martinez was like miggy knew at that moment

he was going to try to come back in. And Mariano didn't exactly hit his spot. He kind of left it a little bit more over the plate than when he wanted. But that's just who he is. Like being able to realize, hey, he's coming back in. Here it is. Bam. Homer. I mean, he's incredible.

3,000 hits. It's one of the conversations, baseball A. Antonio Sanzatella, fellow Venezuelan gives up the hit. So that's something there. Jose Iglesias gave him the big hug, former teammate. That was nice. And yeah, I know it's, you know, the hot. topic, clicky article, but who's going to be next to 3,000.

There's really not much on the horizon, man. It's pretty nuts. If I was a betting man, I think I'd put 20 on Vladito, and he's had a year of big league success, basically. Well, you can bet on him, Jake. Where can I, Jim? Draft Kings. That's where you can place that bet.

Download the drafting sportsbook app now. Use promo code John Boy, bet just $5 and win $200 and free bets if your team wins their game. Promal code John Boy, draft king, sportsbook, and official sports betting partner of the Major League Baseball. 21 plus restrictions apply and will be trademarks used with permission. See show notes for details coming from the drafting studios here in Manhattan. And one quick note before we move on to standouts. The Rockies are four and one on the road right now.

Good for them. And they have not lost a series all season. So two things that I, how do you win? You win series. They go to Philly next for four. four games set. So easy chance to just take the split and still not lose a series ever. Love it.

All right, let's go to stand-down performance. I'm going to go first because I really... Ooh. Well, because, oh, let me tell you why. Wow. Okay, Alpha. All right, go. Mine already went.

It was Byron Buxton. Trev gave the whole speech. he's the most special player in the world outside of Shohei Otani when he's healthy the numbers have gone ridiculous I threw out my early season Flyer MVP bet

because if he plays 130 games he's going to be top three at least the dude is a freak show on wheels he follows up his four hit day not a bad day at the stadium with a two homer day and the second is the walkoff that we've talked about We saw him go down and slap the ground about a week ago, about a week ago,

and we were sad. We're like, Buckson gets hurt. I hate it. I hate it. When he's out there, he's got two multi-homer games on the season now. You could talk about all his offense, and that's before you get to the otherworldly defense he plays and, like, just his general speed and everything.

So glad Buckdadi's back in healthy. Glad he's back dominating baseball when he's out there. leading the twins to first place in the central. Go check out his batting stances over the years. It's just taking him a while to find something that works. I know he got messed with a lot. I was there to see it. They wanted them to hit the ball on the ground and run.

And that is dumb because Byron Buckson leads the major leagues in slugging over the last three years, 17 points ahead of Mike Trout and 50 points ahead of everybody else. That's from the Aaron Gleman article as well that I stole. stole your guy, all this stuff. But he's found something that works for him. He's very confident in what he's doing right now. And I think this is just as long as he's on the field,

he'll be producing at this rate. Like this isn't like a flash in the pan one week, good week. Like this is who he can be. Bang. Bang. Who's your standout performer, Trev? People have been talking on my Twitter. They say, you got to mention Thai friends.

So here is. me mentioning Ty France. I'm going to go with one game of the series. I think it was game two, five for six with a homer with five RBIs. He does follow that up the next day with a three for five with a homer and two RBIs. So the guy's absolutely going off. You know,

he gets traded over from San Diego to the Mariners. San Diego could surely use him, you know, out there offensively. He's 511, which means he's 510, 2, 15. So he's stocky and thick like you like him, Jake, right now he's batting 375 with a 460 OBP he's got a 1.11 OPS

So go tie France, go keep it up and he's from Downey which is in California. You know who else is from Downey? Who? Probably my favorite player, Evan Longoria. Wow. So shout out Downey for producing just some excellent ballplayers.

Go Thai France, go Mariners, go J.P. Crawford. Adam Fraser got traded there too What? We'll talk next We'll talk about it Okay Ty France hits man

Ty France San Diego State He had a fun college life Geez Go Aztex Go Cardinal Stanford man Yeah you're right

Me and you both I Well I don't I didn't None of them On our list here It's a good list. It is the proper list.

I'm not knocking the list. But I just didn't find any of that really stood out to me at all. Okay. In any way, which is kind of odd. I just kind of, they all got kind of knocked like bad opponents or this or that or fucking Angel Hernandez was calling everything a strike. So I went, I just found who pitched the most endings with the highest strike percentage because I like, I'm on a kick right now where I just want guys to throw strikes. Fill in the zone. Fill the zone.

So it's Dylan Bundy, which I didn't. Wow. I didn't work backwards there. I just literally went over the weekend. Who pitched the most innings and through the most highest percent strikes? My guy. And yeah, Dylan Bundy threw five innings 75 percent strikes. So good for him, a good outing for Trev's twins, old bug eater himself, Dylan Bundy.

And someone else puked on the mound, so he's not the most recent player to puke on a mound. So that's a good thing for Bundy as well. Throw strikes. Like in the second inning, ground out, ground out, ground up. I'm big, I'm hot on this right now, Trev. Just fill the zone up. Just get out on balls and play and stop trying to strike everyone out every at bat. Because pitch counts.

You know why? Because teams are not letting guys go deep right now because they started the season, especially our Yankees, not letting guys throw a lot of pitches at all. So if you try to strike everyone out, you need at least three pitches per. you can get outs on the first or second pitch, you're in a great spot. I mean, this is like what people used to talk about in baseball.

Like this isn't something like, you know, no, I know, but I'm just really, it's funny to, the, it's revolutionary now.

Because pitch, exactly, but pitch counts are going down to fucking 70. Yeah. So get outs quick. I mean, Bundy only went five innings, but I,

I stumbled across this or upon this on baseball today. We're talking about, um, them intentionally walking, Miguel Cabrera, that was the Yankees. I think one intentional walks should not be in the game anymore. I think it's stupid. And I think people will say, well, they'll just unintentionally intentionally walk.

And okay, I get that. I think walks need to be somehow more than just one base. And I don't know how you do that. You can't give them two bases. Maybe you can. But I really like the idea of that, especially as offense is down the way it is, pitchers having all the advantages. We've talked about that a ton.

I don't need to go into that. We're going to hear about the ball that's happening right now, what's going on with the ball in a little bit. But I think that should be the next major thing we talk about in the game that would help the product on the field is Wox being something else than just one base. You're behind Sir Jake here who tweeted this out last year and said, how do we get rid of walks? And me and your hitting coach had a great conversation, Josh Donaldson.

Man, I said this every time. Like I said this last week. After we played cricket against these professional world-class cricket players in the warehouse last week, the video will be coming out soon. And we're pitching to them. And the at bad ends because I walked them and they're like, what? And we feel bad. And we're like, well, just hang around. Like, okay, keep going.

It's like, yeah, how do we? That's a really boring result. It's some mind-opening stuff. I can't even get it out because I don't have the brain for it. But yeah, people are scared of change. And I get the argument when a bad. wins a cool walk and they foul off a two two pitch and they earn that walk it's like yeah that's badass but you're right intentional walks are soft so unintentional intentional walks those are just as soft so

yeah man it's uh it it obviously scares people but if you start award awarding doubles as walks whoo-hoo maybe you have walks would be out of the game pretty your first two walks of the game are just regular one basis and after that you start going up I love intentional walks. I want to ask, I want to ask starting pitchers, especially like guys that made it to the show. Obviously, they were the best pitchers in their area. When the first time they had to intentionally walk someone. And how do that feel? Like you're trying to be an A type dude, an alpha out there. And your manager goes, nah, son, like, you're not good enough right now to face this guy. Just put him on. Like, that's a shot to the heart a little bit. Yeah, but sometimes it's like the alpha move to understand like, right? Fuck you. I'll take the look at it. But it's such, it's so,

ridiculous, man. It's so ridiculous. And I'd ever thought about it that way as a player, as, you know, now I talk about baseball all the time and my perspective has changed a little bit. But I'm just going to, anytime a pitcher has to walk someone intentionally, it's soft. I'm going to give them the, I need like a tweet, you're soft and just send it out. Oh, we'll get, we should get one of our social people to be on that. Yeah. And just every time there's an intentional walk, you retweet it. Dylan Bundy faced 19 batters. He, the at bat ended before the fifth pitch. 11 times. So that's my style of pitching these days, I guess.

Bring me Lance Lynn. I had a whole moment where I was like, give me Lance Lynn back. I got sad. Fill in the zone. When's he coming back, White Sox fans? That's going to be our front office takeover. Jimmy's going to come in and say fill up the zone. And then the other thing we found for the Yankees the other day is that day game,

getaway games, they basically punt. And I think they were what, like 13 and, 20 something. Or like 10 and 30. 10 and 21 or something like that. And so we would just come in and we'd say, hey, we attack these day games. We just found 10 wins.

Yeah. We can find you. We got 10 wins on the schedule for you. What's up, analytics? Coming for your ass. All right. Let's move on to the next thing we do, which is sad.

Oh, no. Clump watch, Jake. Can you tell me who is, we put on slump watch? and if anyone's coming off. So I kept some friends on Slump Watch. Brandon Lau, B-Low. Can't be a streaky guy.

He stays cold. He throws up a 1-for-10 this series. Numbers on the year can't be looking too, too good for our guy. Underrated is one of the great power hitters. Or good power hitters in baseball. Yeah, pretty great. I think he stays. It's tough, motivating a ray.

Always feels a little weird for me. Yeah, no, we like B-Low. We've got to get him going. Jake Croninworth, I think he gets a... Claps. Three for 11. Homer. Homer gets him to claps.

Also, three walks and a hit by pitch. So what's you going to do? Right. What's you going to do? I'm taking them off, deleted. Put him in our rear view. Joey Votto, Jim. I kept Votto on here because he's doing all the social media stuff.

I know our Reds might not be a big part of the picture going forward. Hey, Bibi, do you think the audience would like if we just like put this part? if we uh if joey vato keeps doing his tweet about the library stuff yeah oh my god what a great tweet that is he's in and out whoa who was that um he has a 500 on base percentage because he walked three times because he's joey vato so joey vato so joey vado gets some claps he's off he's in our rear view um the yass man off yesmani gondal i think he comes off a little two for eight with a walk he's compared to all the

other white socks like you know that team's in a funk so he comes off a sack fly getting the job done one firm golf clap which is almost insulting actually and then Mitch Garver this was Trev's request last episode because we like some Mitch Garver and he goes one for nine five K so I think

this might be his last stay on Slump Watch because otherwise it's slow start new city and we might want to also ground it into double play go watch your sequence video go feel yourself a little bit Mitchie come on I'm a text. Check for cancer.

You're feeling yourself. Sequence. You got lumps and shit. Sequence Blitzball video. Maybe you and me someday. Chris Bryant, O for 11. Eddie Escobar, O for 12. My guy.

Nelson Cruz, O for 10. Brian Reynolds, one for 14. And J. Ram, against R. Yanks, put up a one for 11 spot. I mean, J. Ram, he just faced, you know, third best pitching team in the league, best pitching team in all of the AL right now. So, I mean, what you're going to do?

It's just a tough start. They also pitched around him a bunch. so I actually really don't think he's slumping. I have one request and then I'll let you do the rest. I'm going to put my guy 5 to a light on here, Eddie Escobar. He's a, I think he's a streaky guy. So I think, you know what? Sometimes these are going to happen.

And we're going to get him off for Shea Station. It's Jolly Olive's birthday. So I'm going to put him on Slump Watch so we can get him out of here. Okay, can I have my run request? Nelson Cruz. I need Nelson Cruz traded at the deadline. And so I need him to just be popping home. and doing his thing.

It's early. I think he's going to get traded even if he's awful because what else are you going to do? But I'd like him to get traded and we'd be excited about it. So I just need him to come out of this slump. Trev, do you want to throw Bryant Reynolds or J-Ram on? Yeah, let's do Brian Reynolds. All right.

Same thing. We just want to get him traded. Well, I think he's just too good to be playing like this. Let's go, man. I know it's hard to get yourself up when you're playing for a team that's not trained. trying to win necessarily. You're not trying to win.

You know what I'm saying. Chris Brian and Jose Ramirez dodge the knife, but. Well, I mean, you want to be on. You want to be on. They're too good. They're too good. Yeah.

Dirt nasty's on Fuego. That means I'm on fire, baby. Like Waco. Run through it, buddy. Let me tell you if you've heard any of these names during this episode of Talking Baseball. Byron Buxton, how's your six for nine, B, B, B, D,

three homer, seven RBI. all-world team, Byron Buxton. Typhranes. Eight for 15, two homers, also seven RBI. Mike Trout, heard of them. Six for 12, two homers. Jock Peterson, young jock, boing. Five for seven, two homers.

Michael Brantley, he feels like he could always be on here, a little six for 12. Nico Horner, pad those stats in a 21-0 game kid, eight for 12. Paul Goldschmidt, casual seven-for-fif. 14. Randall Gritchick, Jim, I think you mentioned him. Kelsey Wingerert's rocks. They went to high school together. He put up a five for seven in this series. And Charlie Blackman. Hey, Charlie Blackman, you see what he did the other day? He was five for nine with a homer. Doubling four ribbyes?

Chuck Nasty. This guy's got so many ribbies that call him the frog. Ribby. Back after this. That was a newspaper writer talking to himself. Yeah. Yeah. It's just practicing is reading his column out loud. When he goes into town, yeah. This is TikTok McCockland. All right. Awards. Jake, you also get us by anyone?

Are we through? We're through. Then go watch Geogessor. We just had a killer Geogessor come out today. 60 minutes to win it. Man. John Boy, Jake TV. It's incredible content.

It really is. I think you'll get hooked. Promise me this. If you're at work and you need a back, It gives a background. It's a great at-work background task. Yes. And then you will get sucked in.

Promise, promise everyone that listens that they will test. It's on the YouTube channel, John Boy, Jake, TV. It's me, Jake, Zach, and Flag Guy. And we have uniforms, Trev. And we did a Sailor Send-Off, which is Dynamite, shows,

texted us the next day. He was like, we got to do more Sailor Send-offs. And then we did a hero's welcome. Yeah. you'll understand it's i'm going to go watch it like and i'm having everyone stick your pinky out and pinky promise close it in now you don't do it now you're sure i mean it's bbd what was the term you used you said it felt like a landmark event for the company like i really for that series it really did all right now you got me hooked i'm going to go check it out i mean there was a pack

of there's a pack of mustard on the lines anyway jake what's uh uh your award a quick shout out Miguel Castro just gave Aaron Judge the happy birthday Instagram posts. It's of note because it's a day early, but love that. Getting ahead of it, Miguel Castro. Yeah, first to market. New guy on the team. That's just smart.

I'm giving out. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Did they have an off day today today? Yeah. Oh, baby. That means the boys were out last night. That's why he's wishing him happy birthday. Oh, yeah.

And McKell had no idea. No idea. He just thought it was today. Yeah. Why do we celebrate then? I'm giving out popular word the are you hearing me or are you listening to me

award are you hearing me or are you listening to me? What's that movie quote? I see the words coming out of your mouth but I don't hear what you're saying. There's something like that. Oh, that's Chris Tucker.

You're Rush Hour 2. Do you understand the words? I don't understand the words that are coming out of my mouth. Let's just make sure we get. Chris Tucker. No, that's not the quote I'm thinking about. Yeah, you are thinking. I see your lips moving, but I'm not making out the word.

That's happy, or Adam Sandler. Yeah, yeah. I see your lips moving, but I can't make out the words. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good job. Anyways, I am giving out this award to a player that you may have heard about on this show before. Are you hearing me or listening to me? Okay.

There is a baseball player named J.P. Crawford. Hmm. Give me that sound clip. You hear me, but you ain't listening. Does that remember the Titans? Probably. You need to watch Remember the Titans. That's the theme of this week.

Maybe tonight. We'll see. Great movie. J.P. Crawford, Trev. You guys were teammates in Philly. You said, Young Stud. Defense. Special defense at shortstop

that only few guys in the world can really do. We underappreciate to be good at the shortstop position. You have to be a certain type of athletic with a certain type of arm, with a certain type of instincts. And we say, you know what? A little lefty shortstop that could slap it around a little. It's got a gold glove, by the way.

Shorten season, don't care, JP. Show people it. This season in 16 games, our guy, J.P. Crofford, 352, 471.01. 0.4-5 OPS in the beautiful Pacific Northwest while playing that kind of quality defense at the shortstop position. And man, he got a little contract extension. I want a dude deserved just Lions reached out to me and said, give J.P.

Crawford some love, so I'm doing it. He signed a little five-year $51 million contract extension. Guess what? He's making that look like a bargain right now. He's racking up war. He's that kind of player. A little 215 WRC plus to get the season started. J.P. Crawford, I know it's turned into a joke on the show a little bit to bring him up.

But like you said, Trev, these Mariners fans are feisty. They are happy that they've got a winning team in Seattle right now. They're yelling at us about Thai France and El Gill and all these guys. Julio, J.P. Crawford. man we mention him every show and here he deserves a little more love because he's having an incredible start to the season very nice very nice donka trev you have an award to give out um i do but i would first want to give a fillies what is you doing baby letting j p croffert go i know you got jean sigura and he's been good in his own right but jean i like jp croffler you know that

I am going to give an award. I'm going to pull an audible because we kind of talked about the ball and offense being down. And we've had Meredith Willis, Dr. Meredith Willis on here talking about the balls. Who knows? Next week, they can be golf balls. Right now they're dead balls. I don't want to talk about it anymore. So my award now is this like a happy award, like a way to go.

And really like an inspirational story. I'm not trying to make light of this at all. It's truly an inspirational story. Our guy, Tyler Zomber. bro. May not ring a bell for a lot of baseball fans, but he's a pitcher in the Tampa Bay Ray's organization that last year got nailed in the head with a line drive. I think it was 104 miles an hour off the bat.

Got rushed immediately to the Duke University Hospital. He had 16 plates and 32 screws put into his head. And as a pitcher, you know, that's tough to come back from. That ball coming at you like that, putting you out like that. But he made his comeback. and got back on the mound for the AAA Durham team. And I just wanted to give him a shout out for working his way back, for getting back, you know, on the proverbial saddle.

And I think it's a bright story that needs to be, or it's a story that needs to have some light shone upon it. Shout out, Tyler, way to go. We're all behind you. And you guys got a career like 3-1 in the minor leagues. Tampa Bay Rays, bring the guy up. They probably will. Probably.

Uh, great job. That's nice of you. Nice, Treve. Yeah. Got a lot screws in this hat. I don't even understand it. That's a lot. 104 off the bat to the dome. Ouch.

I am giving the 1981 Chevy Malibu award. Okay, nice car. Yeah. Do you know any facts about it? No. Okay. Do you ever have a Malibu? Trev?

I had a Mercury Mystique, then a Cadillac, a 93 Cadillac DeVille, and then a G-wagon. and then Tahoe's and now an escalade. I had a Ford Explorer, and that's obvious. My family had a Ford Explorer, too. Horrible cars. Two Ford Explorers. Love my Ford Explorer.

My company car in Denver was a Chevy Malibu. And then I got fire. Was it in 1981? It wasn't. 1981 is the last three on the tree car, manual, which I did a lot of research on today. Because Austin Meadows, continues to hit triples in clutch situations.

And it was just a little wrinkle I found out about that I thought was interesting. He hit a triple this series against Colomé, a closer, to make it a 3-2 game, tying run on third base. They didn't, he didn't get to score. This struck out the next batter. Earlier this year, he hit a triple off of Liam Hendricks,

the closer in a tie game in the ninth. So Austin Meadows And the clutch is just hitting triples He actually There probably be homers at some ballparks He found that little You know in Detroit The right field kind of cuts out

So twice he's just put the ball there And then got the third. So I Whatever the overunders on Meadows triples I think you go up on it He gets seven in Tampa Now he's got that little lane out there Finds that gap

And if there's a closer in He'll probably hit another That's what he does Go triples Triples That's a nice You're right That's a nice little alley

For him out there In right center Yeah I even have a triple In that right center guy Oh hell yes Whoops Hey I was gonna say something

Oh yeah James you didn't feel like Your Ford Explorer Wasn't a tip over Every time you drove it That's what I felt No but my sister's Ford Escape Is like one of the most tipable

Was like in like the early OTS Was the most typical Um SUV or one-up and she flipped her Ford Escape. I don't, on the highway. I don't want that. No, I love my Ford Explorer. I just beat the shit out of it, man.

It's practical. There's enough room and it's small enough where it's like... I played hockey, so like me and my linemates would throw our bags in the trunk. We all fit in the car. Ford Explorer. It's a good times, man. Look good times. Traded it in for Impreza at one point. Hated that car.

Hated it. Impraza. It sold the impraza after like a year and bought a 2004 used Ford Explorer because that's how much I hated my brand new Impresa. I mean the fuck out of this car. Okay. This car talk right here is getting me nice hot and all this. Well, who's our best friend of the week?

Lexis is my favorite car. Lexus, wow. It's apper. Wow. Co-worker home with a year, four for ten. Three walks. Double as well. He's doing it.

He's such a businessman, too. God. He's got his hand in everything. Kind of hot, sneaky hot boy probably won't make our list, but, you know, that's not. No shame to that. Makes the John Boy video. It's a show look. It's a show look.

The hair is well manicured. It's a little too corporate for me. I need them to step outside of the box. Ooh, okay. You want them to get like the, you're right. Anyap could throw on a suit and give handshakes at the business meeting. He needs a little, a little flare. Okay, I'll talk to him.

Talk to him. All right. Let's go to elevator talk. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, one last thing. I forgot to bring it up. I actually mentioned Trevor Story and his throwing air. I got to be honest with you.

I know it wasn't a great throw. Bobby Daubeck had very, very bad footwork around the base, and I want people to know that when you're talking about it with your friends, say, you know what, Trevor's story's throw, not great, but Dahlbeck's footwork around the base, not, that was kind of the problem. So you sound like a smarter baseball fan if you know that, because that's true. Shots fire to Bobby. Let's, uh, you want to show him the wheel, B, B, D?

We'll put a minute on the clock, elevator talk. Go listen to the compound podcast, obviously. Happer. He'll tell you all about his hot streak, how he's more proud of the three walks than the one homer probably. Let's go on some wine too. He's really mad at us trying to eliminate the walk from his sport. Here we go.

A minute on the clock, if you get an elevator of a fan wearing this hat, here's some shit to say, Hey, the Oakland Athletics. Did you see their attendance announcement? 3,000 fans. Uh, it's a double-edged sword good for A's fans for not showing up to a team that completely abandoned them, but also this is going to lead to them moving because that's what the Oakland fans want.

So I don't know what the conversations are in the Bay Area. Like I got buddies that are A's fans. And when I went out there, they were just kind of like, uh, like, no, not watching, which is so sad. And meanwhile, we're playing, it's a boycott. We're playing a brand of baseball. We're out to a nine and eight record. We're starting out hot.

Sean Murphy behind the dish Sheldon Noisy Making it bang Stephen Piscati What team is he going to end up on this year And all that ties to I guess if there's a couple young guys That deserve love and their staff

Dalton Jeffries and Paul Blackburn Maybe not in your books They're both off to awesome starts 117-1-8 ERA For Jeffries and Blackburn Respectively They have the Bay Area series coming up

What do they call that? against the Giants. They're going to San Francisco to play the Giants. Two games set. Giants are a better team, but if they can get bragging rights, just get some bragging rights for a little bit. Jake sucks. Thank you guys for tuning in.

Appreciate you. We'll be back Wednesday with the midweek episode and then Friday to recap the weekly series. Remember this dance move? Still do it.