Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 483 | Talkin' Baseball's April All-Star Team

Episode Date: May 4, 2022

Use code TALKIN for $20 off your first SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKIN Go to http://getroman.com/TALKIN  today, and if you’re prescribed, get $15 off your first month of ED treatment. 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 talk in baseball. It's a very important episode. It's prestigious. Players are winning pedals. Hello and welcome to talking baseball presented by Seedkeek. We are giving away awards today. The panel of award giver-awayers include myself, Jake, to my left, Trevor in California, producer BPD behind the dish.

It's the J-M award show for the month of May. It's brought to you by Seatkeek. You go to Seatkeek, you download the app, you go to the website, you find a game you want to go to. Treves going to a game tonight, or as you listened to this yesterday, so maybe he got good seats. You can use code talking, T-A-L-K-I-N

and get $20 off your first order of seats. You know, you buy $100 tickets. You get $20 off. Wow. That's a different. Free beer. Yeah, basically free beer. So thanks to Seatkeek, appreciate them.

Go to the app, download them. Trevor has his hand up, so I'll go to him first. Treve, you have a question. Also, hello, how are you, are you excited to be giving away pedals? Ed. Yes, great. But I want to talk about Seatgeek. Not only are they green dots and red dots, but like the better deals are even bigger green dots.

So like you don't have to, it's not just one little green dots. It's like, oh, that one's a big green dot. Got to click on that. That's going to be the biggest savings. I really like that feature. So I'm doing great. I love these episodes. I love pumping guys up.

I love talking about how good guys are doing. And I love rewarding them with what we've come up with now. And it's going to be a pedal. Yep. And guys, you don't want just one pedal. Like one pedal's nice. No.

But like you want to collect, you want to collect the flower. So here's to all these guys getting their first petals today. May you collect many of them. and create your own flower. Jake, how are you doing? Trevor, James, BBD, excited to talk about all your beautiful flowers today

and how they were gotten rid of. It's a huge day. It's a huge day. It's one of the bigger days in talking baseball history, IMO. You know, we have a group of guys here, all with our different awards. Blitzball MVP, first round pick,

moat, owner of a moat, owner of a goat. And together, these first groupings of all JM team, these are the only guys eligible for the Silver Daisy. And the pressure's getting to me, I can only imagine how these dudes played through April. It's tough. It's a lot of pressure. Now, I want to catch people up that joined us

that weren't with us last year. This segment started out of, it was one of, here's one of my, like it was my thing when we each bring a thing. I said I wanted to give out the best player of the month. Kind of a shot at the All-Star game, because I think the All-Star game is bullshit and is seen in the wrong light

because it's really the best two and a half months. And then in retrospect, he was an All-Star that year. And it's like, well, Bieber was an All-Star last year and he didn't even play the second half. It's like All-Star game doesn't mean anything. I had something sneaky mean happen that I want to get off my chest. What happened? My sweet chest asked me the other day.

Beautiful. Talking baseball. And she asked me if Trevor was ever an All-Star. Wow. And I said no. I said no. I said that's not what it's all about. And this is where I felt bad.

It actually hasn't gotten bad yet. She asked me, she said, was Peter an All-Star, referencing Peter Moylan. And I said, no, but he should have been one year. So just my knee-jerk reaction, because Peter's adamant about that because he had a monster second half. I forget which year.

Well, maybe Trev has a year where he's like, I should have been an all-star. I think Trev, you know, a good first half away, he was playing in the goddamn cold in Minnesota. I want to let my guy get hot. You would have had some daisies, though. Well, not daisies, but pedals. I had some years I could have been an all-star,

listen, okay, I had 19 homers at the break one year. That's a lot of homers, especially back then when I played in the other deadball era. So there is pretty good, Trev. Who was who beat you out? Like who was? I don't know. A rod? There was one time every Royal made the All-Star team because they were doing fan voting.

And that was ridiculous, man. That was a problem. Anyway, so it does. It hurts. It hurts. Here's the situation. It's not like these people are the best player of the month of May. At the end of April, it's not the best players the month of April.

it's the best May plus April. So when you get to the end of September, it's who had the best year. And those people get a daisy. Now they collect pedals along the way. So we're giving out pedals now. So if you, you know, so last year I'm looking at it right now, Marcus Simeon, he got a daisy,

but only five of his six pedals are silver. Because he did not get a pedal. April. Nick Solac got a pedal, but he doesn't have a daisy to put it on. He just has a little, he wears it as a necklace. You know, it's just the silver pedal, but no stem. And there's nothing wrong with having just a pedal. It's still. Yeah, it's cool. So my question for you, Jake, is, say Marcus Simeon wins a pedal, right? Are we going to allow him to put that on his last year's daisy? And then he says, I have a silver daisy over two years now. No, right? I don't think so. I don't know if we're going to get another silver daisy when.

or it's Flattie Guerrero went pole to pole last year. He's got a daisy, all six petals are silver. It seems like one or two guys a year. I don't know. And two might be high. We got a couple last year. I have good news and bad news. Okay.

I think the daisy should change colors every year. That way, Marcus Simeon can, on his silver daisy, say, hey, I had four silver petals, and I also had two lavender petals that gave me a full daisy. And like a full daisy, it's kind of like a golfer winning all four majors or something like that. Like you say you did it,

but you didn't do it in the same year. Maybe the center of the daisy changes colors. I think the pedals have to be silver. Okay. I like the silver petals. I think this is a one-year thing. Silver daisy is like, so you can't combine use.

You can't take a pedal from one year and put it on your daisy from year. If you collect six petals, over your career, I think you can say, I have a lifetime. Yeah. Like a career. I have a day. I have a career.

A career. It's like a fun party comment. You can have. Like a cumulative silver daisy. Like there can be really special players that rack up four daisies over their life. Four cumulative daisies. They never have the one year. A lot of slow starters that never got able to.

What Vladdi Guerrera is wearing and he is wearing it when he gets it, it is prestigious to win six. petals out of six possible pedals and then have your daisy be completely silvered out. What if we just call it the Vladdy? I mean, Sai Young Award is named after Cy Young. Vladdy's a pretty lot to be a good player. Silver Daisy is pretty cool on copyright stuff.

I like the Silver Daisy. Listen, and it's an honor system. We don't have, it's an honor system. I think Trevin and I are saying, say, yeah,

you can't just say have a silver daisy because you won the amounts of pedals. This is that you can't, stolen valor has. no place in this. I think, you understand? Yeah. Maybe it's, maybe it becomes a platinum daisy

if it's just one year. The silver turns. We're getting too far into this. Okay. Let's get out some fucking awards. Yeah, yeah, let's go. Let's go. We're going to do the AL first.

We're going to award a catcher, first baseman, second baseman, third baseman, a shortstop. Last year we just did outfield positions, but we are going to do left field, center field, and right field, because centerfield needs to be by its own. And then we will do starting pitcher.

Relievers are off. And we kind of, Util, but I kind of, they... Now that the DH is in... Now that the DH is in... Util are eligible for DH. If you're like a Chris Taylor type, maybe. That was our whole conversation

last year. Maybe, yeah, I don't know. We'll figure it out. Figure it out. Jake. Place your bets on who will be this year's Silver Daisy winners at the Draft King's sports book. The first part of that sentence was a lie. They won't let you bet on that.

But there's a lot of other things you can bet on, especially because they're the sports bidding partner of Major League Baseball. You can bet $5 on any team to win on any given day, and you get $200 in free bets if they do. They still have their free play, their daily fantasy games, if sports gambling is not legal on your stay yet.

By the way, it probably will be. Trev, you're going to like this. A weed shop is open on my street now. Apparently they infiltrated the city. Weed gambling. The Jake Story Ellie Lifestyle is coming to you. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app now and use promo code John Boy.

Bet you is $5 and win $200 in free bets. If your team wins their game, that's promo code John Boy at Drafking Sportsbook and official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball 21 plus restrictions apply MLB trademarks used with permission. See show notes for details. Let's open it up.

The catching position always an interesting one because there's not a lot of good catchers in the league when it comes to hitting and well-roundedness and all of that. In the American League, a familiar name sits atop the standings, is when you look at war, when you look at OPS, but none of the other numbers are great anywhere. I don't know what you guys are feeling.

Sean Murphy comes up for me. I think, James, I'm going to stop you right there. You got to lower the qualified. I did. I lowered the qualified to 50. Now, did you lower it more than that? 50 is a lot of bats for right now. Okay, well, how low did you go?

How low can you go? I went to 30 plate appearances. And you're going to be surprised you missed a guy that's probably deserving of this award. And his name is Jonah Heim, the Texas Rangers. Whoa. Yeah. The reason he has missed some games.

Can't hold him, you can't hold him back for this. It was paternity leave. So I think at the beginning of the season, he was working his way in, and I think they're just being silly with him, has been playing every day, went on paternity league, but his numbers are far and above,

offensively good, better than everybody else, and he's still, and he's doing it defensively as well. Same amount of war as your guy, Sean Murphy, according to Fangraphs. What's his,

my internet just crapped out of me, I guess, or whatever. What's his, he's played in 10 games, which is less than half of what Murphy has played in. 36 plate appearances going into today when Murphy has

91 but what he's done with those how many played it is he has 36 it's not a lot also we might need to just pause until our internet comes back this is an impossible to show to do if we can't use the internet yeah are we what's going on yo you're internet on the yeah laptop yeah hey fan graphs crashed on us during the one segment we rely on it a thousand percent so we had to take a quick break baseball reference guys now we figure out how to find it kind of and we're back it's the the A hell catcher discussion, Trev, and it's a fucking dozy to open up the show. You want Jonah Heim.

You say that he went on paternity leave. That doesn't, shouldn't count against him. Jake, can you explain the dilemma here? Okay, everybody talking Jake here. You know me. This is important. I'm always making jokes, right? Always joking.

You heard him at the start of the show. We are in a goddamn predicament. I think we all have it down to three. there is Jonah Heim for your Texas Rangers. He has not played a lot of baseball, but when he has, he's looked really good, Trev. We love that for Jonah Heim. We love it. Tom Murphy from my Seattle Mariners.

He's kind of the same. I'll be honest. Their stats are eerily similar that I don't really know what to do with it. We could go back and forth all day. There's some ups and downs. Tom Murphy has one RBI on the year. But his numbers are great when he's played. Everything else is great.

And there's probably some analytical geek kids saying RBI don't matter. They kind of do. It's a way to score runs. I started off a rant. Circumstantial, bro. I started off a rant saying that it could not be this person that I have fully landed on. I'm going Sean Murphy. He has played 20 plus games, double the action.

The OPS is OPS. Okay. And that's kind of all it takes right now. That's all I've got. I ask him. Fangraphs is back. No way. God damn.

We knew that was going to happen. Oh, my good. Hey, what's going on in Seattle? Like, Rayleigh was catching and he's out. And now Luis Turenz is out. But why aren't they playing Murphy? more. Tom Murphy when he's got a 385,

500 on base percentage in the 11 games he's played. These are things we need to know. Okay. Well, Seattle, let me know what's going on in your catching position. And then Jonah Heim also great numbers, Shreve, but he just hasn't played. I am also going

with Sean Murphy. Oh, my gosh. Because he's, dude, he's been playing, Trev. These guys, if their team isn't starting them every day, is Jonah Heim, is he playing is only the paternity leave stuff

that kept him out or is it a platoon situation it was the beginning of the year platoon situation I believe he's now given himself you know more of the playing time look you can't fault this guy for having sex

he's 6 4-220 he's got the hair like you read about like I'm not going to hold that against him when he's there he's producing hit the grand slam off show hey He's played back-to-back games once. I can't give him. That's not his fault.

He doesn't write the lineup. Well, I mean, you know, a pedal winner demands they leave it out of the hands. I don't know what's going on. But all I know is that our guy, the other Murphy, is playing every day. And he's out of all the catchers that play every day, having the best results. Hold it, James.

We had 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 26, 27th, then he went on paternity leave. He came back. So I just, I'm going Johnaheim. You guys have already made your decision and you guys have already made the decision. Wait, why is he not playing right now? Because he's part of the Texas Rangers organization. They don't know what's going on. I mean, sorry, Rangers fans.

Garver's the starter. Garver's the starter. I get that, but at least this guy's got to play. Wait, Travis, is he not even on the roster now? because Huff started two days ago and Garber started... He was on paternity leave James. So at the beginning of the year, he just wasn't playing because he's a backup.

He's not getting my goal. Heim activated yesterday. Sean Murphy. It's a sad pedal to start with. You guys pick Sean Murphy. I have to go with it. This is a democracy. And last season we get,

especially at the catcher position, a lot of credit went to Salvey for playing literally every day. He's played 22 games. It's the most of any. It's most by so much. Catcher in the AL. Salby and Kirk have played 21. He's got better numbers than those guys.

I mean, our fucking, our pedal winner's got a 202 batting average and a 253 on base percentage. I mean, Zanino was there for a little last year. So I'm saying, we're a different type of award system here. I think, you know, we can think outside the box a little bit, like giving a backup catcher a pedal. I don't know.

I don't know if you can do that. That's not. You laugh at the thought of it. My vote's. Is it just because he's got the, like the butt? He was a meme. He became famous for his butt. I guess that alone deserves a Daisy.

Or a Daisy a pedal. Let's move on. It's Sean Murphy. And what a whirlwind start to the to the JM Awards right now. We're going to go to American League first basements. Okay. I think there's two options. Are we doing this show All American League?

Well, and then at the end of it, we do the National League. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Fine. American League first. There's two guys on my list. Both have played 21 games. Very similar plate appearances here. Thai France has more hits than Anthony Rizzo.

Rizzo leads with homers with nine. Rizzo has more doubles. Rizzo has more runs. Rizzo has two stolen bases. Ty France and Rizzo both have 21 RBIs. If you're looking at slash lines, Ty Frans averages. his on base percentages higher. His slugging is less. His OPS is less. His runs created plus is less.

Jim, I'm going to, I might just shoot this in the foot to start. I'm going to lay down my sword. Couple noble soldiers in battle here. I can't accurately speak about Anthony Rizzo and Thai France. Let's be honest. I am a Yankees fan. Trev, I feel bad about all the Jonah Haim nonsense. Trevor, you have my vote for the AL First Baseman. Which this one is. Which gives you the majority. That's why I felt. Yeah.

That's why I felt bad shooting you in the foot. I'm out. I don't get a vote here. Because how do you split this up? I will say. If you're looking for bold, Trevor, I know you like bold. Thai France leads the league in played appearances,

and we just gave availability a good, you know, measure of success. He leads the league and hits. singles. Thai France. This is where I run into a little conundrum here because you can talk about how important both of these guys

have been to their team. I'm going to get slammed for this, for sure. I think Anthony Rizzo answering was answering the bell or answering the call, whatever that's saying is, after like

Yankee fans being so disappointed in them not getting like the free agents. I think him playing the way he's played, endearing himself to the fan base, I think Anthony Rizzo is going to get my vote here. I think he's going to get the pedal for April. I love you, Ty, France. I know what you've done for your team too.

Not taking anything away from you, bro. But I'm going Rizzo here. Imagine being Seattle, and you're like Murphy and France got this wrapped up. And now they're pedalless. I will say it's incredibly closed. I think if you gave these numbers to a blind panel, I think it would go a lot of different ways.

Rizzo's got the better walk percentage. France has the better K percentage. OPS better for Rizzo. Thai France has more B-war. So, all right, I mean, Trev had Jake's vote, which meant it was his decision. He chose Rizzo. Congrats, Anthony.

Didn't Cameron May have been famously say those pinstripes are a little heavy? He did. He did say that. He did say that. Go Rizzle go. Sorry, Mariners fans. We love you and J.P. Crawford.

I wonder if this next is going to make you change your mind a little because in AL, second base, DJ LaMayhew is up there. So are two guardians. I mean, that's where this whole thing gets chaotic. I've got Owen Miller. and Andres Jimenez, which I'm going to have to get in the box scores a little bit. What do you have that you're qualified at?

Oh, so I'm back on Fangraphs, which they have their own sorting system that I'm trusting. So I need to see. Isn't Owen Miller a first baseman? Those guys aren't coming up for me on second baseman on fan graphs. No? No. They are for me.

They are for me. This is why I love this show. What do you have the quality? You just have it as they're qualified? Yes. Yeah. With the date range? with April, yeah, March April.

I have DJ. I know, I did, I lowered the plate appearances. Okay. So, there we go. Found it. So he has played five games. He's a first baseman. Yeah, so Owen Miller is out of this conversation.

He's only played five games in the second base compared to 12 as a first baseman. I think we got to go back with position players. I think we got to go back to like the qualified. It's still a little tricky early in the season. Early in the season, yeah, I think we can go and give, you know, whatever you want to set the benchmark at. But Owen Miller being this as a second baseman with only five games played is not. We can't do that. Jimenez has played second base 11 games this year.

DJ? I think he's done the same at shortstop. Yeah, DJ's moved around too, right? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know how many he's been at. But Adam Fraser's on the Mariners? Big trade. I mean, I think Jimenez has outplayed DJ at second.

DJ looks like has 10 and 10 second and third. This is ridiculous. What is wrong with people these days? Play one position. All right. So if it's between Jimenez and DJ, is that kind of where we landed? I think so.

All right. I'll give you some comparison numbers here. In F-war, Jimenez leads DJ by a decimal or whatever. DJ has 81 played appearances. Jimenez has 49. 22 hits for DJ, 16. Five doubles for DJ. One for Jimenez.

He's got two triples. They both have two home runs. DJ scored 13 runs. Andres Jimenez has 11 RBIs. The DJs eight. He also has a stolen base. 2% walk rate and 7% walk rate for both of them, respectively.

That's pretty bad. Let's see. Slash line for Jimenez. is 340, 341, 574. DJ has him beat in on base percentage. Out of those, that's all. He has him beat in and runs created plus. So it's 32 more played appearances for DJ.

Only two more games. So I think that's just roster construction, lineup construction. He's not getting as many at-bats as DJ is and their offense is worse. My God. We're not going to talk about espional for the Js. He's not even going to get considered.

He's been nice. I mean, his hitting stats are on a different level. Yeah, no. He's a step below those guys. And don't get me wrong, Blue J fans, every time we've played him this year, it seems like that guy is everywhere. But the hitting numbers, I mean, we're talking about, you know.

He's played 19 games or 23 games. He started 19 at the second base position. She's really the only true second baseman we have right now. So now you're going to try to true second base. I'm just saying, like, we have to figure all this out. Second base is of what's going on? I am a little like feeling a bias pulling at me towards potential silver daisy winners. And I don't have Andres Jimenez as a guy that can win the sixth pedal.

And that's not fair. I shouldn't be doing that. No, that's not how we run things here. That's, I know, I'm, hey, it's nice to me to be honest. Andres Jimenez is a good, good young ball player, you know, we don't know what he is. Jimenez. He's, you know, he's 23 years old. This could be his lead to league in triples.

Espionaut of 781 OPS last year. Okay. This guy, you know, not a, this is a potential guy that could run it. Not that we think about that. Stole the job from Kevin Bizio, but we don't think about that. Come on. He's played in all the games this year. You're pushing Espinall, dude?

I'm just saying we have to. to think about this. This is a discussion about who we're going to give a pedal to. I mean, Jimenez is starting at short and second base. DJ's starting at third and second base. I think he's still more second base games than DJ. I'm going with

Espinall. That's my vote. Are you winning me over? I just feel like we are going to have like a utility ish award and then we can add some of these guys. We're not. We're not going to add him to the DH.

No. So that's the only problem now is if we start penalizing guys for moving around, it's not their fault. Exactly. And you were on time for that. Jake seems like he fell into something. What do you got, Jake? I say we don't release this episode. I'm solved.

I like it. I am going with. God damn it. I'm going DJ. Why? Give you a reasoning. I'd rather not. I'd rather not. Oh, shit, man.

I was going Jimenez. I was going Jimenez. I ended up on baseball savant. That's not a pretty place for Jimenez. I think what actually won me over is being at the top of the lineup. And I mean, I will double check where Jimenez has been. but DJ has been setting the tone for the Yankees lineup. That's why he has a lot more played appearances.

Jimenez has been hitting 9th, 8th, 5th, 8th, 8th, 7th, 8th. Does that tie into Treves? You know, it's not his. He's just doing what he can. But that tie into mine will make yourself, you know, make them force you to be at the top. Jimenez has started above the 7th spot once. Six total played appearances above that spot in the...

order. I'm not going to be ashamed of being a year. I'm changing my vote. What's your vote now, Trev? I'm going him and his. Hey, I was on Jimenez for a while. I'm on Jimenez. I locked DJ.

Now it's up to me. His offensive statistics are just... Your vote was removed last round and now you hoed the power. I don't like it. I liked what I didn't matter. I was hoping Trev changed to you. So you said Jimenez's baseball savants ugly?

I wouldn't even go over there, dude. We are not predicting stats, guys. So to put that into the pedal, it's so rude. You know what I'm going to do then? You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go to baseball. I'm going to see the B-Ref. All right?

I'm going to see the B-ref. I'm on it. What do you want? Now, wait, I don't even think these guys are going to come up in the way I was searching on baseball reference because I was doing 75% of the games that they've played. I'll drop that. I'll drop that the 50 real quick. Actually, for catchers, I changed it.

is you had to play 10 games, which was bizarre. Hmm. Just trying to get, this is tough, guys. For me, like Jimenez became a second base when I saw he played the most games at second base. Like are we going to be talking about Jimenez at shortstop in a minute? No, because he's played more games at second base.

Jimenez has more B-war than DJ. Give it to him. I like him. and he leads the league in triples. 577 slugging, 3.46 batting average. I can't pick rooting for a silver daisy at the end. Jimenez has had a better month of April. Congrats. Accountability.

All right. Well, shit. Let's move on. Okay. Shortstop position. I'll tee it off for you guys. I think there are three options and Andres Jimenez. Wander Franco went nut job this month.

He is your war leader. He went toe to toe with literally our show's guy, J.P. Crawford. Their stats are, I mean, are arm and arm. If not J.P. Crawford being better offensively while he's known for his glove, yet the defensive numbers like Wander, and Jeremy Payne, he deserves a big shout out. out. But his numbers aren't on the same level at all. Zander Bogarts.

Jeez. To me, it's Wander, J.P., and I think there is a winner here. Yeah, I have a winner between the two. And I think it's our guy. It's our guy, J.P. Crawford. He has more B-War than Wander-Franco. He has a higher batting average significantly.

Read the triple slash, Jim. Like, sometimes we get too far away from this. Wander's hit 313, batting average isn't really. JP hit 360. Those are, that's a, that's a pretty big gap. Yeah, that's significant. If you were hitting 50 points better than someone on your Twinsdays and they said, hey, we're the same batting average.

Would you say this? Yeah, because once you're over 300, it's all the same. Yeah. No. Yeah. Let me tell you. I mean, look, we can, we can give the JP. You know I love JP.

I wanted to point out one thing. You guys are going to hate me for this. I'm just, I think I'm going heal this episode. Jeremy Paine, you know, I understand his overall triple stat line doesn't look great, but as bad up is 2.35. That thing is about to bust wide open. Meanwhile, JP, our guy, 375, that's very robust. How come we're not talking about Xander?

We are. The hitting stats are there outside of the power. Not sure what's going on there. He's slugging 500. He's playing great. I mean, I just... Only one homer, maybe Jake's looking at. You put those number...

I mean, JP's out slugging him by 73 points. Like I, and, you know, I know the defensive analytics aren't there for either of them right now, but J.P. Crawford is a guy that has gold in his bag. Well, Sander does not. I'm going J.P. Crawford. His slash line is the best. He has the most B-war. He's showing up every day.

I mean, I think it is. What's your vote, truck? I think it is close. We don't have a consensus yet. I'd love a consensus. It's JP. Let's go. All right.

Talk about some young, talented shortstops in the American League, dude. Wander and Pena? Jesus. Jeter. That was easy. We got through one. I think the next one's super easy as well. Okay.

And then Gail, third baseman is a guy who last year, this guy, how many pedals? Like last year, this guy got a stem and a daisy. And I think it was the daisy with the least amount of silver petals. because Devers won the first four pedals, but then Jose won August and then April through August and then the whole year, April through September. So he has last year a two silver pedal, Daisy.

He's got a third pedal now. It's on a new Daisy, but it's Jose Ramirez. I mean, it's easy, right? This one is done. He was the American League player of the month. So. Okay. Yeah.

And that counts all the positions. That helps. That's all the positions, yeah. another consensus beautiful stuff and then he came out and he also talked about his contracts and he just wanted to be in cleveland he knew he gave up more money and that's really endeared him to fans i don't people really love that when guys do that for some reason but i'm gonna skip to centerfield okay and then come back to the corners all right uh some fun names here you have a guy named mike trout yes 323 batting average highest among a lson centerfielders. 447 on base. Highest among AL centerfielders. 694 slugging.

Second highest among AL centerfielders. 1.141 OPS. Highest among AL centerfielders. Whatever else you want to look at. He's highest among AL centerfielders. And Jim, you said fun names. Springer, Judge Buxton, mild flaws, even having a nice start for the

guardians, but, um, hit me, motherfucker. Uh, it's Mike Trout. It's Mike Trout. He's back. He's healthy. Trev thoughts, disagreements, agreements. Um, yeah, I think Mike's going to get it this month. He's got my vote.

I will say, you know, bucks on pace with him, miss some games with that, uh, I don't even know what it ended up being. Some leg injury in that slide in, Boston, but, um, I think it's going to be difficult. for Mike to get a silver daisy,

although if there's anybody that's like you want to see you get a silver daisy, it's Mike Trout. But Buxon's on his heels, and those other guys you mentioned too. Consensus. Yep. Way to go, Troutter.

Let's, you're going to do right field first? Or left? Does that work better in your brain? Let's go left. Okay. Let's go left. And this one's, I feel like we're about to walk into another doozy.

The names that are popping up for me. I think they're the two guys that deserve the most discussion at the top. I see a third guy all of a sudden. I'm just going to start name and names, and you guys say something. Jordon Alvarez, he would be your power player from left field this month, a 621 slug.

He missed some time, but we know that can be a plus and a minus. Stephen Kwan, one of the stories of this young season. No homers, Jordan says, I'm big and strong, but how's your 354-4-59 from the young outfielder? And then, like, our guy, Austin Meadows had a solid month with no pop. Austin Hayes is just a pest. Ben and Tendi hit 373.

So I'll let you guys run. I think it becomes Kwan and Yordan, but you guys tell me. Oh, boy. Yardons only started seven games in left field. Yeah, he's has 11 days of D.H. He's going to be in a D-H conversation. I don't think he belongs. That's fine.

Seven games. That's fine. Yeah. Isn't enough. So he's out, actually. Okay. In left field. How many has Kwan played in left field?

Because remember, it is important for us that they actually are playing in left field. I got it. I got you. That's a great point, Trevor. Kwan. Kwan's got one, two. He's got 13. He's got 13.

Yeah. Okay. And I don't know if he's, he played right field once. So 13 out of his 16 games. So yeah, he's a left fielder. I'm,

my votes, Kwan. I have 13 out of 14 games. No, no, no, you're right, right,

then I believe what you guys are telling me is that would the only person really giving an argument for Kwan be Benintendi? Yeah, I think so. Benintendi has one. Benintendi only has three extra,

base hits on the season? Slapping it around. George, we heard George Brett talking about it. He was just beating the shift to start the month. Your corner outfielder. Wow. Kind of. Kwan also won American League rookie of the month.

Six extra base hits for Kwan. Double. Double. It's double. It's Kwan. It's Kwan. I think it's Kwan. Congratulations to Kwan.

Good job, kid. First month eligible and he grabs it. That's pretty badass, dude. Good job, Stephen Kwan. Moves us over to Rightfield. I hope this isn't insane. Oh, wow. Oh, wow.

We have a winner? I think so. Trev, this is a guy you talked about recently that he jumps off the map. I got to check this how many times he's played. We'll check the games, but if you want to say his name and talk about him, that'd be great. Say your name, Taylor Ward.

Yeah. It's not Tyler Wade. It's Taylor Ward. How many games he played? 17. 16 games. 16 starts all in right field. Oh, yeah.

I think it's actually 15 out of 15 not counting the last two. Yeah. There's a, I mean, yeah, he's run away with it offensively. This is a guy whose manager didn't want to start him. And he forced his hand and said not only start me, bat me lead off in front of Otani and Trout and Walsh and Rendon, a guy that they wanted on the bench. So that kind of goes into what we're saying and like, hey, make it not your coach's option. And he can just take this pedal and go rub it in Joe Madden's face.

Fourth outfielders don't get pedals, playa. So, you know, I'm going Taylor Ward. George Springer, nice month. Is he considered the right fielder now? Him and Judge are both doing the center field, right field thing. I think Springer is even more center field. and he's shifting weight to right. Yeah.

Something like that. Springer, I think starts all his games. Kepler's had a good month as well, and he's played primarily right field. But this award goes to Taylor Ward. 392, 500, 784 slugg. What the fuck is Fangraphs?

You just play one game? Springer started two games in Wrightfield. Yeah. I didn't think it was going to be that low. I think he's been shifting over late, like BPD said that maybe the games. Yeah, the games. Game started, I think.

Anyone can finish a game at a position. I saw Chris Carter finish in right field three different times. You cannot spell Taylor Ward without a ward. Wow. Wow. That's a great point, Triff. Meaningful. Okay.

D.H. In the American League, moving on. It's been smooth sailing for a little bit. For a little bit. We're good. That second base thing was just hurt me. It was a deep cut. It hurt me deep inside.

D.H. I'm curious about this one, too. Yeah, I bet you are. Well, you're on. we already know that he's he's pretty good eligible um they have bxton on the list has he been dhing i know thanks he has a few games because of when he came back from the injury bxton would turn down you have four four starts in dh so it doesn't count he would turn down our pet uh i think it's yord on then i think well actually jd's numbers are

oh jd what are you doing you got no what jd got it's 481 sluggins you're done i don't think we i don't think it's your don't and and this guy yordawn is probably my pick for a guy to get a silver daisy this year wow i was going to say that i think outfield might be the hardest silver daisy to get because i mean we have some names that just completely got left off this list well this is d h though what you mean well outfield d h i guess they're all uh j d's going to be in the d h stand's going to be the d h like there's some heavy hitters in the a l d h category Um, Buxton, Judge Springer, Vaughn, Ben Intendi,

names we didn't say. Tough. Yeah. Tough. Wow. What an American League. Rizzo? Yeah, Rizzo got one.

We have to do a starting pitcher, right? Yeah, I kind of, boo, whatever, boring, but it's Gossman probably. Without looking, I'm going to guess it's Gossman. five games started, hasn't walked anybody. Has a 227 ERA. Logan Gilbert has a 064 ERA. Yeah, Logan Gilbert got pitcher of the year, pitcher of the month.

Logan Gilbert is 4 and 0, which. Gossmann's last start came May 1st. Yeah, I don't have it on here. So it's four starts. Oh, when I changed a pitcher, it changed it. It took away my date. thing. I know I'm actually really upset about that. I think I'll repose everything.

It's Gilbert then, you know, Lancel. Joe Ryan actually is in this, but it's Gilbert. We got a 0-40 ERA. He started four games. He's won three of them. Has the team won all four? The team is won all four. I mean, that is

I'm having trouble with my fan grass again. Any contradicting thoughts here? In the month of April, I mean, he allowed one earned run. Joe Ryan, credit to him. I think he's the other guy that deserves to be in the conversation, but I think Gilbert was what, one run better? And when it comes down to giving out a pedal, like that's what it comes down to.

It can get scary. It's low, Gil. Joe Ryan allowed three runs, Low Gilbert around two. So one run, but no, no, no. Logan Gilbert allowed one. And Joe Ryan allowed three. So, yeah.

23 innings for Joe Ryan and 22.1 for Logel. I'm Logan Gilbert. Seattle has won every game he started. Well, I'm not Logan Gilbert, but I'm... I'm voting for Logan Gilbert. I'm also voting for Logan Gilbert. I think we did well. Good job, Logan Gilbert.

Now, we've had a lot of hiccups, and we're running late. So I don't want you to pause the show. Start the Adderade and NL for me. I'm about to pee myself. Jimmy's about to pee himself because he hasn't been taking his Roman. He got in touch with one of the licensed professionals at Roman, and they said, wow, you need this, dude. And you might be at home looking for someone to relate to.

And you're like, that's why I kind of like this Johnboy guy. because actually 52% of men, ages 40 to 70, will experience some form of ED. The benefits of ED treatment can help you reconnect with your partner. Trev knows what I'm talking about. And rediscover the joy of sex. I like that a lot.

It's kind of like, would you rather have a big old hard silver daisy? Or would you rather not have one at all? You're going to want that big old hard. Silver, Daisy, and Trev, you should go to get Roman.com slash talking now to speak to a U.S. licensed healthcare professional about erectile dysfunction, get $15 off your first month of treatment and the stigma.

Be Roman ready. What are you doing? We've got a solution for you. Get roman.com slash talking. If you're prescribed, get $15 off your first month of ED treatment. Get Roman. Treff Yeah, I got to go back to our AL starting pitcher

Oh no My fan grass was not pulling up I just agreed with you too Because you're saying all this stuff What Gossman's done Right I don't think we can overlook He hasn't walked anybody yet That's fine

Everything is there man Except what the ERA The runs he's allowed to score yes defense plays a factor into that sometimes i don't know man if you if you look at at phipp and ex phip like i mean the only thing is separating is era if you look at war he's he's he's crushing logan gilbert he's doubled his war he's doubled his f war you're fine to give your vote i think there's two votes already in the clubhouse so i'm just curious how james you didn't hear me but i didn't have fangrass up it wasn't working for me so i just agreed with you

you guys, but I'm switching my vote for AL starting pitcher. I'm going to go Gosman. He hasn't walked anybody. He's the only thing separating those two is, you know, the earned run, the ERA. Yeah, which is how the games are won and lost, though. Gossman's double this guy's war. I love Logan Gilbert. I understand he won a pitcher of the month in the American League, but I'm changing

my vote. So Gilbert can have the pedal, but I want to be on record as I'm having Gossman. That's fine. I don't even understand. He hasn't fucking walked anybody. I don't understand your line of thought there at all. I mean, he's giving up runs in three of his four games. Logan Gilbert has given up runs in one of his four.

He's got three shutouts. You can't, you literally cannot lose if your pitcher doesn't allow runs. It's the most important thing. James, we've already had this discussion on this show before. What Trev wants to do with his vote is fantastic. Thank you. I don't get it. It just almost will be forgotten in history.

Yeah, no one will care, but I'll all know. But you'll be proud. that's and hey I think we might see Gossman again because some of the stuff you reference are predicting stats but yeah I'm excited for that day to come um what's their what's their B war I think for now we have to head to the national league catchers um which I'm hoping is a lot more fun than the American league and it looks like early returns is that it is um make sure we have our April March April separators on um Couple names you might expect J.T. Realmudo.

It looks like he's going to have an argument. Travis Darno for the Braves. He's been one of the Braves going early this season. A couple West Coast guys, Will Smith, Joey Bart, Wilson Contreras, having a nice time. There's a lot of guys. Hey, I'm proud of the NL catcher crop. They're giving us a little bit more to chew on than the American League. So good job NL catchers on the hole.

On the hole. Do you have a lien here? I'm still getting my sheet up here. Okay. Get some more. I'm still organizing. Let's see. J.T.

The base running likes real mood. Logan Gilbert leads in B-War. Wow. I just like, you know I like strikeout to walk ratio. Also leads in ERA plus. Wow. B-war. I'm worried that people aren't going to trust your votes anymore after that one,

Tref. Hey. Okay. Trev's always been with the analytics guys. You know that. What, it comes to pitchers. I know when I'm standing out there. Yeah.

And this motherfucker's striking everyone out makes my job a lot easier too. And not walking people either. I'm not taking anything away from Logan Gilbert. He's been fantastic. I just wanted to give my vote to Gosman. What he's done is. I'm not taking anything away from Gosman.

I've been singing his praises. All right, we got NL Catcher. This is a mess. How come every time you click something on Fangraphs, it changes everything. Anyway. This is a mess. I think I'm going to Wilson Contreras.

Jake, I thought you said this wasn't a mess. It wasn't a mess from the fact that I think we have to diagnose Jonah Heim's nine games played. It's a mess from the fact that the catchers in the NL are kind of doing it. I mean, it's kind of a pick-your-flavor ice cream. I mean, between real mood, oh, darno. I mean, slugging wise. You guys are in a real pickle here

because you really value games played that you gave it to Sean Murphy. So now you can't be Travis No can't be in there. That was 22 to 8. You know, there's a little wiggle room over that. Joey Bart's been playing a good brand of baseball. Only 13 games, though, so he can't be included. This is where we run into difficulties.

You guys put yourself in these... Trev, how about you shove it up your ass? I'll go real moot because he's been out there for games. And three still on bases. I was going to go real moot as well because it's like middle of the order starting every game.

Like a part... I mean, he's one of the only like catchers. It's like a part of the team. Wow. You know what I'm saying. Wilson Contreras is my vote. On the billboard in the middle of all. Where's Wilson's conturas batting?

Having a nice start to the year? Probably three or four for that team, I'd assume, right? Wilson Contreras, 250, 354, a 426 slug. It's not too shabby. Pretty nice April for the kid. He's walking. That's good. That's, you know, that's something you like out of your catcher.

Kind of funny, darn no might have been eliminated. Zero walk so far. Yeah, see that. See that. It's kind of funny. Hasn't walked. Just hadn't happened. Not even by accident.

Catcher's always tough. Look, I think we, have to say that. People listening to this or watching this, we have a difficult time ranking catchers here. There's no doubt about it. I got Johnny Bench career highest war, B-war.

Real Mudo's got the highest B-war. I think he's, whatever, I'm going Rumao. Hasn't grind into a single double play. Contreras is grounded into five. Wow. Just, you know, if you're going to make an out, don't take someone down with you.

It's 10 outs right there. It's 10 outs. Five songs. Oh, man. I love. talking ball with you guys. Three stolen bases from J.T. Realmudo. How about that? Everyone knows hitting

into ground ball into double plays just means you hit the ball hard. 14 runs. You guys are hilarious. The way you think about the game, I love it. Let's never talk about catchers again. You guys voted JT, I voted Wilson. JT. Congratulations. You're a stunning

individual. You have been on my hot playlist. Wilson has not. So I guess, you know, it makes sense. Get pitch framing out of the game and get me a bunch of meat sacks back there that hit. Yeah. Trev, first base, I think is a conversation you're going to like a lot, because I think we're going to be talking about one of your guy guys. I don't know if he knows you're his guy guy guy, but you love this guy. Eric Cosmer, what a month. At one point, I was one of his guy guys. I think he's outgrowing me a little bit. He likes more famous people. As this show grows,

he'll probably come crawling back asking for forgiveness for not getting invited to his wedding. I understand. Yeah, I mean, this is a two, three horse race, I would say, right? Caj, C.J. Crohn. CJ's been doing his thing, and then Freeman. Josh Bell's kind of right there. Matt Olson. Man, looking good. So, yeah, I mean, there's some guys here, no doubt.

Hosmer leads in batting average. Yeah. And OPS. Pretty close on base percentage. Josh Bell has him by 0.003 points. I think it's Hosmer. I don't think you need to overcomplicate it and I think good for him.

Most hits. You know, six doubles, three homers, 10 RBI, 14 RBIs, 10 runs. He's involved. He's doing a lot. Going Hosmer. CJ Crone deserves some love. But yeah, Hoss just out did him, man.

389, 4.57. And I'll reference, I said, Anthony Rizzo, proven all the haters wrong. Eric Hosmer obviously doing the same thing right now. Get him. A couple less. I know, oh, I want to look this like, because I know there was like a point where it was like,

Haas was like every other year doing his thing. Like he had like positive war, negative war, positive war, positive war, positive war. And I'm looking at it up right now. No, he's been positive the last three years. Never mind. Whoops. The second baseman.

Tommy Edmund. Trev, you mentioned him on an episode the other day. He had an incredible month of April. Jazz Chisholm Jr. Also with incredible month of April. I think Jeff McNeil deserves to have a conversation, 328, 32. Scher's a sparring partner?

Sure, sir. Sure, sir, sir's guy. And, yeah, I think the other guy's trying to get in the mix, Ozzie, Croninworth, just not enough on the offensive side of the ball, which we tend to like to reward here at talking baseball. Fellas, where are we dropping? Something interesting is Cesar Hernandez leads the league in games at the games,

played appearances, at-bats, and singles. You're not on the list because that's not enough. No. But it's a lot of bold. and a line for a guy who war-wise is ranked eighth at the position in the league. He's out there. This is a super interesting one for me.

Why his second base always so difficult? I am going to like looking at a lot of factors here. Jazz Chisholm intrigues me a lot. His speed is a weapon. I've been big onto that. He's got three triples. he's got five stolen bases, I believe. It's got the most RBIs out of anyone on the list.

So there's enough to sing his praises and give him the award, but I think Tommy Edmund hasn't beat, and Tommy Edm's having kind of an all-around, like he has the pop, he has the stolen bases. He has the run scored. He has the RBIs. Got more games played. He just got hurt.

That wasn't the month of April. Those are the two for me. me and I'm going to dance around and see if anything stands out while I also listen to your arguments for whoever you're arguing for. Yeah, he did, he did just come out of a game. Hopefully that doesn't affect him too much. But like now James, are you thinking about, wow, if I give it to jazz, he's got a good chance to run it. Like, I hope that's not going through your mind right now. It's not. I am leaning jazz, but it's not going through my mind. But I, right now, I'm digging and listening very open minded. This, yeah, this is difficult.

I am currently leaning Tommy Edmund Tommy Edmund And Holy Shaz Chisholm Their stats are just eerily close On a lot of fronts I love jazz chisholm

I'm wondering right now if I'm just Can I tell you something freaky Trying to reverse engineer myself on this But yeah Jim you can always I went to the batting orders for each teams to see, you know, which guy's been in the meat of the lineup, leading off, doing a role, you know?

Tommy Edmund started the year batting ninth, a couple six in there, a couple six spots. On April 23rd, they said, we can't not do this anymore. Edmund, you're our leadoff hitter. It's important. Jazz Chisham started the year batting ninth,

a couple eighth whole spots, six, seven. On April 21st, the Marble, said, we can't do this anymore. You're our leadoff hitter. So both guys have a similar story in how much they're helping, you know, the construction and the roster or the lineup.

So I found no answers there. Yeah. Tommy Edmund. I feel like Jeff McNeil is just getting, he's not even getting mentioned here. Like, his stats are pretty similar to both these guys. He's just getting slightly outgunned, I think. I love Jeff McNeil, 328, 392.

Only one home run and only one stolen base. And the other guys are... The other guys are high-level defenders. And grabbing bags way more. I mean, they got more extra base hits and more stolen bases than McNeil. So that's a difference maker for me. Like I see that and I'm like, well, these guys are... They hit a single, it can be a double.

Treve? What's your vote? Do you have full thoughts? I feel like I haven't heard an argument from you. I'm looking at all, I'm looking at all the stats right here. I love second base is always tough for me because what do you want a second baseman to do?

Like I think other positions you kind of, you know, okay, we want the corner of those. We want more slugging out of them. Don't really care about the defense. So it goes second base. I think defense is a big priority. And Tommy Edmunds just got his gold glove and like it's playing crazy ball there.

I kind of just, that's kind of how I'm leaning right now. I feel like I'm prioritizing defense and jazz and him are really close there as well. So it's, I think, you know, I wanted to give McNeil some love, but I do agree with both of you guys that Jazz and Tommy Ebben are the ones we're deciding between. Jazz with just more pop playing similar defense. I think I'm going to have to lean him. I know my friend Jack Flores me really disappointed because he really likes Tommy Ebman, but. Defense similar. Pop goes to jazz, both running the base as well. I'm going jazz.

I'm looking up one final thing that hopefully will give me a lean in any way. My vote confidently is for Tommy Edmund. God, I should have voted before you vote. I'm in this tough fucking spot. Yeah, it's tough. Tommy Edmund? I just looked at some of the stats, guys. which I was trying to decipher this.

Tommy Edmund is a switch hitter. I'm not sure how familiar you guys are with Tom. Or the ability to switch it. Against Ritees this year, a couple homers, 321, 446 and 899 OPS. Against lefties, 263 batting average, a 579 slugging in 842 OPS. Jazz Chisham.

verse right-handed pitchers 333, 393, 1.116. Against lefties. And now I'm very interested here. Jazz Chisholm only has nine plate appearances, which I believe is some platoony type stuff because the Marlins have Bertie and Miggie Row. Don't you remember that going down? It's hitting 125, 365.

361 OPS and only eight at bats. Edmund's got my vote. I also looked into the base running numbers. Tommy Edmund has not been thrown out stealing and has one more steal than Jazz Chisholm. Jazz Chisholm was thrown out one time. So that one caught stealing, that's, wow, tough. Hurts the percentage right there.

Yeah. Tommy Edmund has gone first to third, or first to home four times already. So he's bringing a lot to table. The switch hitting in the splits. And he doesn't sit versus a batter where Jazz has taken lefty days off. Great argument by Jake.

I don't think that's happening anymore. But it was the big thing that he did at the beginning. Yeah. I went for, I said, defense similar and then pop. So I chose jazz based on the slugging, basically. I thought I was jazz the whole way until the last two. I love the triples. I love the extra basis taken.

But then I saw Tommy's kind of doing that too. Tommy's kind of doing that too. You have to have opportunities to do that. Yeah. Like the person has to hit the ball in the right space for you to take the extra base. Yeah, but so it's. Yeah. Jazz actually has 100%.

Whatever. It's tough. There's a tough one. The second basements have been tough. Let's move on the shortstop. Please. Is this going to be easy? Oh, BPD just said no

Oh, he said, I think so I think it's Lindor Frankie I think it's Lindor Joe Wendell popped up I think it's Lindor I think it's Lindor Lindor is a 282 batting average

367 on base 482 slugging 850 OPS Leads in F war I think it's Lindor Defense power speed smiles Smiles Trem anyone else jumping off the

map for you. Of course I'm going to mention my guy Willie. Sure. Yeah, the triple slash line isn't there because of the low batting average on base percentage, but he has produced pop and RBI. I'm not going to say RBIs anymore. I keep thinking about that. He's produced more RBI. That sounds weird. I don't like saying that. He's produced more RBI's. Okay. But I do agree with you guys that Frankie's getting my vote for April, consensus pick. Congratulations. I mean, let's just sing Lindor's praises a little bit. He started every game. I mean, no fights yet in the tunnel.

That's good. He has started every game at shortstop. Oh, okay. Besides one, he DH'd once. I mean, that's of note for me. I do appreciate that. RBI, RBIs. Rbitts.

Ribbits. Whippets. Wow. Are we ready to talk about third base? Good job, Frankie. Good job, Frankie. I mean, Haswang Kim has the highest OPS Plus. Filled in nicely.

This is not going to be fun for us, guys. You boys know I love third baseman. Nobody else on the panel has any ties to the third base position. There are two heavyweights. I mean, this is Tyson, Foreman, Jackson, Game 6. Mani Machado has had an incredible April, 22 games, 386, 453, 614 slug. The defense is there for Mani.

You're saying, hey, who could even challenge this? How about Nolan Aronado? 375 batting average, a 444 on base, a 681 slugging. And if you like defense, you're probably familiar with him too. I believe I have my pick. I have my pick, and I'm not going to go third. and get trapped again. I'm taking,

Mani Machado. Nolan has him in slugging and Nolan has him in OPS. But they, that's two home runs. Like the counting, or difference. Aronado has six home runs.

Mani has four. In April, I don't know, Aronado is only one. Only five. Yeah. Yeah. Only one more home run.

So the numbers are a little different then. So it's not that much. different. Meanwhile, Mani has more hits than him. He has more run scored, which you got to be on base. Mani has stolen four bases. He has a higher batting average on base percentage. We know he does, they know they both do it at defense. I'm putting my vote because I don't want to be stuck at the third again. Manning Chavez my vote. I thought I was going to have more of an argument for Aronado. He did win the National League player of the month. Now looking at the stats, I'm not sure. Why, man, he wasn't considered for that award.

League, league don't like them. Both these guys have unsustainable Babbip. So that's fine. This is an award show that doesn't care about that. That's predictive. I'm going to Mani. I think it's kind of, like as I'm going through the stats, he only has two games at the DH position,

the rest of at their base. So he gets it. He's even running the bases. What's up with that? It's a sweet, man, with how little base running is really, in baseball seeing manny machado still swiping four bags you don't think of him like that um and yeah with everything else being the same that's that's enough of a different difference maker for me go manny go manny machado mind you yeah it's still only 29 years old he's not even 30 yet he's been in a

league forever that's kind of ridiculous really good 10 years in the show already that's has been his life. 30 years old, third of his life in his show. A couple more games than Nolan as well. It's not the deciding factor. Okay, so wait a minute. Why did Aaronado win player of the month? What was the separator there?

Trevor, you're starting to see why we give out these damn awards and we care so much. The league doesn't like Manny Machado. That's why. All right. I got a lot of friends that like him. Okay. Me too. Center field, we go.

Aronado hasn't stolen a base Doesn't take He's only scored I mean the Run a little Nolan Let those legs He did ignite a brawl

Threw someone out He got a cool clip He threw a catcher out of the way Yeah he came off looking bad In that clip for me though Because he didn't hit him And it wasn't even that close And he's got a history of doing this two other times

And the pitcher wasn't even looking at him right? Yeah he's kind of not even like paying attention. It happens. I do think it was like a message pitch. But it wasn't. Everything's a message. What's going on these days?

Everything's a message. Wow. All right. Congrats to Manny. Center field we go. I'm worried. Let's go. Jake's snakes are here.

What are you worried about? This doesn't look clean, man. This just doesn't look clean. There's a lot of guys here. Brandon Nimmo from your New York Mets. Dalton Varshow. Showtime from My Snakes doing it from Centerfield and Catcher. Harry Bader, I can't say that on TV.

Jesus Sanchez, my guy from the fish. He had himself a nice little month. I think after that it starts to tail off. This is a hodgepodge of hodgepodge. I don't really know what to do, and it's probably because I've never really known what to do with Brandon Nimmo. Every time I look at Brandon Nimmo's stats, I'm like, dude, are you awesome?

But every time I watch him, I'm like, dude, are you awesome? And I know this is an April team, but did Rob Acuna. Was it last night? Incredible play in centerfield. So I have some recency bias in my brain right now. May doesn't exist to me. He leads in weighted runs, created plus, and F-war. he's got second most homers.

He's got three homers. Not a lot of RBIs. I don't know. No stolen bases. This is a crap shoot right here, huh? They're all so similar. Now, the good thing about Nimmo is like Gritchick,

I kind of have out. He started nine games in center field. I think he started more in right field. He comes up on the list. He started eight in right field. Randall had a nice month, huh? Yeah. But Nimmo is a true centerfielder, which I do want to reward.

He started 18 games in center field. He hasn't started one in left field. He hasn't started one in right field. You're good enough that your team says you're our center fielder. With Starling Marte on the roster, by the way. Yeah. And Mets fans, like, are you mad about that? Is he not a good centerfielder?

Would you rather someone else? I don't know. He missed a four-game. stint and then came back. But he's been the lead-off hitter, center fielder for the Mets in their incredibly great season to rely on your center fielder

because you look around the numbers we're getting. It's not the same as other positions we've seen. I'm going to go Nimmo. I'll go Nimo with a special shout out to Hazie Sanchez and what he's been doing. I like Big Boys, 6-3-2-20. He started all of his game. in center fields,

leads in RBIs. He also has three home runs. So shout out to him, but my vote will go to Brandon Nimmo, and that's two, two Mets right now with pedals. How about that? Nimmo and Lindor,

top of that lineup. Yeah, I think he deserves it at the end of the day. Shout out Jesus, Sanchez. And Dalton Varshow, let's go, kid. Getting punished first four games at catcher this year. I know. It should be like a special enhancer. The offensive numbers aren't.

No. Now, a guy we talked about is eligible again. You're going to left field? Yes. Sorry, did I do that wrong? No, you're good. I want to clarify for the people. A guy that was in a conversation for another position

is now in this conversation. I have to check the numbers here. Because McNeil, and he started nine games in left field. I don't know if I can keep my bias out of this. You don't like McNeil, I know it. No. Started 11 games. I love McNeil.

You don't like him. He started 11 games at second base. Jim, the next guy on the list is Ian Hap, our colleague. That was my concern. Yeah, that's incredible April. You're also got engaged. I kind of play sports like Jeff McNeil. I kind of put on that hardo.

You're way more Jeff McNeil than Ian Hap. That's 100% for sure. Jakey Harder. James is more like jerks and pro far. I'm more happer. Jerks and pro far. Yeah, you play the game with reckless abandonment, James. I love it.

You're Markana. And very versatile. What did you call Markana? Treff. Okay. Me and Mark have shared many lovely dinners together. It's a foodie. Beautiful.

And he'd take Max Fried way up top. So in May. In May. May doesn't exist to me. Haps played 18 games in left field. Ben, clean up 11 times. There's one other caveat to all this.

Yeah. And it rests on where was Jock Peterson playing? Because boy, did he have in April. Oh, wow. Oh, shit. Jack Peterson games played this year. 12 and left 4 and right

That's a majority And DH only a couple None Nata Jock says I'm out there fam He's a he's a defensive player Shoot Okay

Jock's got them in homers They're the same runs Hap leads in RBI's The slugging is out of this world for Jock Teammates Happ leads teammates for half the season. What's so no, Jake?

I mean, Jack got hurt. He only played so many games because he got hurt. He was the left-fielder batting cleanup for the Giants.

Look at the sluggings. Yeah, you want your left fielder to slug. I mean, the whole... Not the whole slash lines. I mean, look at the OPS. Look at the...

The look on my face is I texted a, gentleman yesterday and said, congrats on getting engaged. Yeah. I did too. And now, I'm about to give a pedal to Jack Peterson when they had similar months, but Jack did it, dude. And I hate that I'm so good for the damn people of this show.

So unbiased. You know what I'm going to do right now just because this is entertaining. I'm going to go Ian Hamm. You care about B-Wor, Ian Hap, 1.1BWR, Jack Peterson, 0.0.0.0.0.0. five. I'm going Hap. Ian Hap, switch hits. I'm Hap. I'm Ian Hap. What happened, Jake? Oh, dude, B-Wore stuff. I mean, that's how you can't argue against that. You're, okay. We have established that we're a B-war company, but anyways, I'm going Hap. I thought I was going to make it difficult for James, but you're not really switching, are you? I have been Hap all along. I've loved the way he's supposed to here. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, Jack got hurt.

Otherwise, maybe, you know, they didn't play full month. The game's played here. He didn't play full month tough. I might be seeing Jock later today, but the good thing is this episode comes out tomorrow. It's huge. He won't be mad at me. And let me check one more thing just to make sure it's right because it feels right. Jock's another guy.

He doesn't play versus lefties. Oh. Jock's had three at bats versus lefties this year. Meanwhile, Hap. Hap's out there every day, dude. You're a switch hitter. It's a switch hitter. Happ has 20 more played appearances.

I would like to see our friend Ian steal a base. Like Ian, like that's fucking steal a base, bro. It's always been Ian Hap. Well, Jock comes up on the right-fielders, but he's not allowed because he only started four games in right-field. Unless we really need one. No, Suzuki's been pretty good. You won rookie of the month?

Are we straight? Are you telling me we're about to be straight, Cubbin? Yeah. I don't know. Get in there and look around. Jock, half illegal. We've talked about him enough. Sayas Suzuki, you're right. Really nice month by him, 529 slugging a 405 on base. Hey, 20 games in right field. I don't know if he's played a game not in right field.

I was just looking at Juan Soto and Sayas slash line has beaten his. Suzuki DH once. Otherwise, all of his games have been in right field. and he's got the numbers, right? It's kind of not a discussion. It's not. It's not. I mean, I'm seeing these names. Castellanos, Harper, Betts,

Jack Peterson, stop bringing it up. It's Say, Suzuki. It is. Congrats. That's our first time, like, first time you could get a pedal and you did. Wow.

Nice, sir. And now we are on to DH. The National League DH. The first ever National League DH award. Wow. Interesting stuff. Going to go on here, I believe.

We have, I'm looking at, now how's this work? Are we just doing extras? Or do they have to have like a good amount of DH? I think they have to DH a little bit. That's how we treat it in America. Because we might have one here then that. I think it's got to be more DH than other spots.

The names that are currently jumping off. the map. Daniel Vogel back. Oh, no, Trev? Yeah, I mean, you're thinking about DHS, you're thinking about usually you see like typical names in the D.H. spot and we are

not seeing that here. Guys, that's what happens when you open it up to 15 more positions, I guess, right? Is it not Pete Alonzo, Charlie Blackman, Connor Joe? Price Harper's not allowed in this, right?

he's done he's he's an outfielder he's no he's a dh he's dh like 16 times this year because he's been beat up that's true but he's i guess he's not a dh but because he's been beat up he is a dh and i mean how do we rank that he's dh 15 times and more than 12 of the last 14 games he's been the dh like but he won't okay here's my question he's not going to be a dh the entire year So, but if he goes, D.H. pedal. But I think you're five because he doesn't have the numbers. There's guys with, like, Volglybeck has better numbers than him. Last year, I think Chris Bryant got pedals at both third base and the outfield spots.

Does it count as one daisy then? It can. Yeah, it can. It's on one chain. Okay. Yeah, you can. No, no, you can get a silver daisy and get it at different positions. As long as you won every month.

Great. I think. Great. I don't know. Yeah. We have no fucking clue. It's Vogelbach. I mean, I know it's, well, in a way, it is the sexiest name on here.

311, 3703-508. D-Hing, which is a requirement for this. And I know he was, like, leading off a lot. Like, I think any of the boxes we've been checking off along the way, big Dan Vogelbeck has been checking those boxes. unbelievable that he's leading off I mean I was watching a broadcast

and they were like talking about it I get it you want your lead off guy to get on base but what about when the next guy puts one through the hole like you're supposed to need to score I don't know

it's hilarious good for it's how much is Pete Alonzo DH'd it's a lot more first base than DH for him just my parameters for a DH is production. He doesn't even,

Alonzo didn't even come off my list. I don't think or is he way down. Alonzo's DH one, three, four, five, six times. He doesn't count. Yeah, he doesn't count.

It's, it's struggle back, right? What, what, what, I'm with it. I'm just,

I want more production. Eight RBIs doesn't really do it for me in a month. He's batting lead off. Yeah, I know. I'm just saying it's, it's a weird. way to look at a DH.

It's a run score. It is a weird way to look at a DH. Yeah. So it's like I'm looking for production numbers because that's what I'm valuing out of a DH. But if you're bidding your DH lead off, it's just a makes it a weird thing. I think honestly,

the guy that would have the best argument would be Connor Joe. I was looking at Connor Joe. He's going to get a shout of mouth. Conner playing around the field a little bit too. He's more DH than any other spot. His numbers are similar to Vogi. I do think Vogi just hasn't beat, though. God, they're very similar.

Only eight games started at D.H for Connor Joe. So, I mean, that's more than he has at any other spot. But Voguey's got like 20 or whatever. Vogi almost wins because he's the only D.H in the National League. Like, it qualifies Connor Joe, but it's also when you go up against it. Like, he's... And that's fine. He's got seven left field and eight D.H.

Shout out Albert Pooholz. Let's mention this guy, okay? Like, shout out Albert Poole's for, like, being a productive place. player and like feeling good again in St. Louis. It's a bogey for me. Locked. Boogie. Hoof.

Wow. Now we go to picture. And fan graphs changes everything. So we have to reset the dates. Oh, mine did it this time. Why did you just click pitcher hitting and not actual picture? Oh, that's, that's right. I think go to pitch you now.

Dude, you're going to fan graphs roast them like that? Yeah. I got you. I went to pitch her. I went to toggle the pitcher. The only reason I know that is why is that even possible? Why is it even possible anymore?

No pitchers fucking hit because they stopped caring about it and now they complain they don't have to face another pitcher. I hate starting pitchers so much. Pablo Lopez. Pretty good. Yeah, you guys do this one.

Okay. It looked like it between Pablo Lopez and Rodon maybe Kyle Wright Lopez Musgrove's been really good too Pablo has got the most innings innings pitched right

unless you got another start in May we love innings pitched James Yeh No I've got McGill with more in April than Musgrove Oh McGill You know who leads in B-war

Which I saw this earlier today and it's by a big margin is Merrill Kelly of Jake's snakes. Merrill Kelly's at an incredible month. He also has the fifth start. There's an exclusive club of nine starters in the NL that have five starts. So if that can give you a boost,

Merrill Kelly, 28.1 innings, a 127 ERA, yet to give up a homer. Pablo Lopez has won the ERA, A race, and again, it's a nutty one. It's a 039. Carlos Rodan is a 117, and he's been a little more

dominant as we look at some of the numbers with the strikeouts and such. He also hasn't given up a home. Muskro's out. I think Muskro's out. Face the regs twice. Oof. Out. This is a tough one. Pablo did win, pitcher of the year for National League. N.B. gave that award out.

I like Kyle Wright. You guys haven't talked about him. No, he deserves to be talked about. Braves have won every start that he has thrown. He's got 24 innings in four games, only three earned runs, 34 strikeouts, six walks. Also hasn't given up home run. Also have not given up a home run.

I like Rodon. I kind of like Rodon. Let's get in the game. Wait, Pablo Lopez, 23, innings pitched. You guys.

Fuck, these are all close. What's up? Pablo's only given up one run. I know. So you guys, like, you can't,

you can't talk about the American League pitcher and say he's only given up zero runs or whatever and then not do that with the National League. Well, in the American League, it wasn't close. It was,

it was Gosman had like seven, and he had zero. This is, this is one versus three for Rodon. or that's triple i don't know if you guys know one versus three for Kyle right um check that math bbd triple not a numbers company um Kyle Wright's got the strikeouts with rodon rodon is the least amount of hits given up he's walked eight Kyle right has walked six

Pablo Lopez well it's Pablo Lopez for me yeah I'm gonna lock that in there I mean he's he's he's he's he's walked four guys. He hasn't given up a home run yet. He hasn't hit a batter yet. No one's getting free bases off of them. Average is like three point something hits a game. Is Madison Bumgarner up here too? What?

Bum's been really good. You know, also Clayton Kershaw's got a little bit of an argument, Trev. Man, the end of pictures. I'm bringing up Mad Bum. He's in the five starts club, Jake. Right. Only three earned runs. He has got two homers.

I mean, you know, he's going to get some homers. He walks and people, not a lot of strikeouts. He can't be involved in this. He's walked too many people. He doesn't strike out anybody. They've lost three. They've lost three of his games. I mean, he's given up six runs.

Yeah, I think Merrill Kelly's got Mad Bum. Mad Bum's out. So far, I'm only comparing these new pitchers to Pablo Lopez. Lopez beat Rodon, beat right. He just beat Bum. Now it's Pablo Lopez versus Kelly in my head. And we'll see what happens here. Five starts.

That fifth start really helps him. It's his best start of the season. And he's just snuck it in there in April 30th. Sure did. Four run runs, three shutouts. You like those six more innings, dog? It's a little circumstantial. You can get up a lot of hits.

A lot of hits. Not a lot. A lot of hits. Pablo for me. My votes locked. Unless I just, hold on, who's Kelly done it against? Trevor Goof.

Padres, Astros. Oh, shit. Might be Kelly. Kelly has faced. Padres, Astros, Nationals, Dodgers, Cardinals. Four playoff potential teams there.

Lopez has faced. Okay, wait. No. Giants. Phillies, Cardinals. Mm. Nats. It's back to Pablo.

I'm locked. Pablo, congratulations on your first pedal, buddy. Merrill Kelly. You were going to do Merrill? I knew that was coming. I knew that was coming. Congrats to Pablo. It's a really good month.

Man, that's the awards. It's wild. We did it. That's wild. Biggest surprise, Jake, real quick, looking at them. Let's see I mean Vogue really snuck up on us

We found there's no DHS in the National League essentially They don't know how to utilize them yet They didn't know what are they yeah What's going on with you guys I guess I mean it seems like it was a couple days ago But Andre Semenez That one snuck up on me

Yeah he won it Yeah Yeah That one really There's also no second baseman in the American League That makes a lot of sense actually Jay's been pretty good. He's just playing a lot of positions.

Jimenez is arguably, DJ's arguably the Yankees third baseman. Jimenez is arguably the Guardian's shortstop, which, uh, who would that have left? Who was the second baseman for the AO then? DJ.

If we eliminated DJ and Jimenez, it would have been Espinal. Yes. Who's, who's been okay? He's been good. Um, I don't know.

I'm, I'm having. I'll, how about this? Here's my spin. How about Angels in the Alph? Field. Two Angels and a Guardian? The guys I'm most happy to see.

J.P. Crawford. Mike Trout. Back at it. And Inhap. I never wavered. No, never. Logan Gilbert, I want to just say, I believe you're a great pitcher, okay?

Sometimes you just got to roll with what you're thinking. My views on starting pitchers are very much different, but I understand that. pitcher's tough. Congrats to the congratulated. That's the award show. We'll be back at the end of May. See if any of these guys, do it again.

Stick around. Oh, how about this? Treve, you like this. This is some good Trevor Pluth bullshit. You got to lock in one guy to be back. End of May. Who are you locking in? Romudo.

You're going real moodo. Mm-hmm. I'll go Lindor. You're Don. Okay. It's my guy. He's my pick for Silver Daisy this year. It's a tough crowd.

And we're not using our bias. We're so anti-Silver-Dazy bias that we're actually tip the scale the other way. Making it impossible. That being said, J-RAM goes Silver Dazy. Easy this year.