Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 486 | Checking in on the Big Free Agent Signings + Where is the Offense?

Episode Date: May 11, 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. Visit athleticgreens.com/compound to get a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 5:45 Checking the Free Agent Signings 12:30 Rangers: Seager & Semien 19:45 Kris Bryant 24:15 Freddie Freeman 28:45 Trevor Story & Red Sox Brutal Start 41:00 Carlos Correa 42:45 Javy Baez 47:40 Where is All the Offense? 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. Players only T-Ploof, J. Swizzy, BPD. We're fixing baseball. No, we're not actually. We're talking about a lot of baseball today. Hello and welcome back to Talking Baseball. That's not John Boy, you're right. It's Thick Daddy Jake with Trev.

BBD in the corner producing his butt off. Welcome to Talking Baseball presented by Seat. geek you love baseball we love baseball why don't you have a seat with seat geek they show you the good seats they got the they got the street light system telling you if it's a good seat or a bad seat treb what are you just about to say i love the size of the bubbles bigger the green bubble the better the deal baby it just makes it really easy to go in there and get yourself you know a value everyone wants to feel like they get some sort of value see keek makes it easy for you to see if you are or not. Big old bubble butt. Use code talking, $20 off your tickets at Seat Geek with your first

purchase. Code Talking, that's 20 bucks off. Seat Geek. Go check them out. Thanks, Seatkeek. Trev, I'm excited. A little bit of craziness today. John Boy Media, always something going on. John Malama Ding Dong had to dip. You know, stuff going on, people. I don't think, don't think I tell you more than that. Does it have to do something with Wef Wazos? I don't know. It doesn't. But imagine if it did.

So it's me and Trev, our midweek topics episode. I think we're going to cover some hitting and pitching across the league. Trev, you want to dig back into the free agents a little bit and see who's thriving and who's not as much thriving as we say here. Trevor Plouffe, how are you, my friend? You know, buyer's remorse is a real thing. Sometimes you pay a lot for something and then you get home and you're like, maybe I didn't need this.

Maybe I don't look as good in this shirt as I did in the store. The lighting was just right back then. So we'll just take a look at some of those. I think that's kind of what my topic will be. And you and I feel like throughout this episode, Jackie Boy, and BBD as well, we'll go all. off on a few little walks, you know, little tangents through the baseball sphere, see what we land. I mean, you're kind of a psychedelic kind of guy. Maybe we'll reach back into that brain

ears and just pick some of those ideas out, throw them to the people and see what happens. I love it. I'm a buyer's remorse, Trev. I'm trying to, uh, I was digging through my brain, like the last time I had serious buyer's remorse. A couple of my well-dressed Wednesday fits. Um, they were instant like, I'm only going to wear this once, huh? And I'm paying for this T-shirt that has a hole in it. So I'm trying, you got any big ones? Any big buyers or mores? Did you ever have like a car you weren't into or something?

Yeah, but, you know, I had a, I bought a G-wagon when I was 18. Right after I signed, I went from... I would like to know that, Trevor Ploof. Yeah, I went from Mercury Mystique to a G-wagon. And, you know, it was a really bad car. I didn't like it. I did have buyer's remorse on that. The windows never worked.

It would shut off on me unexpectedly. But I also reap some benefits. People thought that was cool because I had it, specifically the female species. But, yeah, you know, I mean, everyone's going to have it from time to time. But that doesn't mean it was a bad purchase. That's what I'm going to say. I like that. Yeah, that was a, I had a Chevy Cobalt.

I used to call the Brobalt and Two Door. windows rolled up and down. That was not a single Jake struggled in that. Yeah, single Jake struggled in that car. But we lived to fight on another day, you know. You know, you got to go through that. I think it's important, you know. It's life, man.

You know? My Mercury Mystique used to, when an idle, it would shake really bad. But when it drove, it was smooth, like butter. So I'd have to try to, like, time up the stoplights and the stop science. I tried to kind of roll into it because if I did, you know, put the brakes on too hard, started shaking on me. Then that was, uh, wasn't a good look. Well, let's roll into this episode. BBD, you ever have buyer's remorse? Yes. Anything good? Eh. Okay. Just, no stories come to mind, but. You felt the emotion. Yes. There's always that extra sushi

roll that you ordered. Like, I didn't need that. See, that's where I think you're in my cores differ. And speaking of, Trev, are you Roman ready for this episode? I know you are. You were pretty hype. We had a little FaceTime last night and just like, we got to bring it today. Like, it's game day. It's game day.

Like, we got to win the series. And you can win your series at home with Roman. if you're going into the bedroom and you don't believe in your free agent signing, I would maybe talk to Roman. I would talk to one of their U.S. license health care professionals, who by the way, 52% of men ages 40 to 70 will experience some form of ED. We're getting rid of the stigma, all right? Please.

Whether it's a Chevy cobalt, a G-wagon, it doesn't matter. As long as it's hard. It's running. As long as it's running, if your car's not running when you want it to run, you got somewhere to be, you got to finish up somewhere. Go to Roman, get Roman.com slash talking. Get 15 months off your first month of treatment. Get Roman.com slash talking.

Be Roman ready. 15 bucks off your first month of ED treatment. Sometimes a shabby cobalt's all you need to get the job. Oh, there is a lot of people. people who like the Chevy Coalball, all right? I mean, Milford, Connecticut, around

20, 2013. Get Roman.com. Thanks, Roman. Trev, do you want to, you want a bad lead? Are you trying to get on, or are you trying to drive home runs today? You want to, you want to go, or you want me to go?

I'll lead off. Get it. I like that. I like getting to the plate knowing I'm going to get a heater that first pitch. you know what I mean. Sometimes one-nothing is how you start the game off. Brian Dozier, Jock Jones, one-nothing type guys. Who else is a one-nothing-type guy? I love Jack Jones.

Honestly, the one that jumps to my head in Yankee land is Afonzo Soriano. I was going to say Soriano, yeah. Like, that was-Roman-ready with that bad? You shitting me? He's got a hammer. Treve, you're saying? I have a question because this is going to, you know, change the order a little bit. We're going to go over the top free agent signings.

We're just going to check in on these guys, see how they're doing. See if the fan base and then, you know, the front office and the team has buyers or more, you know, I'm probably going to lean no because we're still just one month into a lot of these deals. But it's fun to check in on them. Now, do you want to go average value, average annual value or total money? I think I'm a total money guy. I think at the end of the day, that's what's going in your bank account. So, and yeah, Trev, I love the idea.

I think, you know, one month in baseball is, it's a weird mix of something and nothing at the same time. And, you know, I think this might be therapeutic for, you know, at some point we're probably going to talk about like a Trevor story. And, hey, you know, it's one month. It's one month. But some people are happy with their purchase. So run where you want, Trev. I think we'll start off with the most happy. And he's not going to be on this list because of total.

a value of his contract. It's Carlos Rodon. Signed to the two year 44. He's got the opt-out after this year if he reaches a certain amount of endings. I believe it's 110 innings. And, you know, if he stays healthy, there's no doubt he's going to do that. And he's going to break the bank.

I mean, the way he's pitching right now, checking in on him, he pitched last night at 12-Ks, excuse me, pitched on Monday night, had 12-Ks. 4-1 with a 1-8.9-14-wills. that's uh there's no buyer's remorse there you're running back to the store seeing if they still got any of those and you're going to buy some extra for when you run out of carlos rodon his so right off the right off the rip it's just giants are doing it his baseball savant is off the charts uh you know the formula was there we talked about it all off season how this guy was a big prospect he had some shoulder stuff he absolutely shoved to look like he ran out of gas

he signed a deal with San Francisco that we've talked about their training staff and their coaching staff, taking care of the older athletes while also helping them achieve higher levels. And yeah, man, his baseball savant is lit up red, as good of a start as you can ask for, the 1-8-E-R-A, striking out 53 guys in 35 innings. Like, who is this, dude? And yeah, man, if he hits free agency like this and what was it,

110 innings? Yeah. This guy's going to get a bag bag and deservedly so. So this is the second year in a row that Giants have done something like this. Last year it was Gosman. He was, what was he last year? One year 18 or something like that?

They qualifying offered him. So yeah, I think it was right around. And then what do they have him before that? I think he was finishing out his contract. So it was probably just a little below that. because I think he had one, not one breakout year, but we can get in there. Let's see. Gossman made, not topic here a little bit, but.

Gossman 9 mil in 2020, 18 and 2021. So yeah. So yeah, he went from 9 to 18, 9, and then he got the payday with Toronto. Yeah. Well, two years in a row where they're just getting a very, I mean, the dollars are there, $18, $22 million, but you're not, you know, locked into some big contract. And this is exactly what they want to do.

They would sign guys like this every single year. If they had a chance and now it's two for two for them, they're going to do it again next year. We'll see who it's going to be. Maybe after we dive through these free agents, we'll go and check out who the 2023 Gossman and Rodon is going to be because the fucking giants are going to find them. That's for sure.

And Trev, you always depict this well, but like we have a number in our head for contracts for the best players and, you know, the bar gets set. set but you know if we see uh kevin gossman or carlos rhodan and they pitch well one year 20 million that's worse more than that um because we we always talk about the lifetime of the contract and if if a guy is doing that year one and they signed a five year contract it's you know that could be a 40 million dollar return it's it's tough to measure it perfectly i know some of the worst stats try to do that but yeah man like that's

That's incredible value. 100%. Let's go to the list a little bit. First, the biggest free agent signing, total value in dollars, was Corey Seeger. The Texas Rangers signed for 10 years, $325 million, less than Tom Brady is going to get paid to broadcast games. That's nuts, dude.

What is that? I'm in. I'll do research for you, Tom. Corey Seeger with the Rangers Rangers not off to a hot start and you know what Teiger kind of I'll say has been average I'm not worried about him at all okay you know again I try to tell this to you all the time if you start off like this right now you know the OPS isn't there 645 231 batting average he's at 94 OPS plus we'll kind of get into that a little bit later with your topic but he was getting it going towards the end of April and then the last four

games he went over to bring his numbers down a little bit. I think he's going to be fine. He's already racked up 0.6 war. You know, if you average that over six months, you're looking at a 3-6 player. And, you know, that's not what they're paying him to be. You're paying him to be more of like a 5 to 7 type guy. But I believe he's going to get going and his numbers would be. I think the Rangers are completely fine with this. Seeger, and you're right, Triv, we're going to talk about this a little bit. He's off to a slow a slowish start for his standards, but it's nothing, nothing to go nuts about. A good week and we're back.

Exactly. He's got a couple homers there clearly, obviously the numbers are below his standard. He's a career 861 OPS. But hitting his down across the league, and, you know, I think he looks like Corey Seeger. You're right. I mean, the fact he's still racking up positive war and on pace for, like you're saying, a three, four war season when he hasn't really gone going. and I think that's fine,

and I don't think Texas is worried there. Your guy, Marcus, I could see people raising some eyebrows a little bit. It's a tough start. Seven years, 25 a year tickets to 175 M's. And Marcus has not played well to start the year. Do you have his page up? I do. He's 178, 244, a 234 slug, a 4-7.

77 OPS. He hasn't gotten that home run yet. I know you love Marcus Simeon. I love what he did his last two full seasons and everything you say about him as a work ethic guy and a guy guy. For me, it's got to be feeling that new contract a little bit and seeing the zero in the homer column. Like when Marcus Simeon does hit his first homer, like I don't know if you if you do daily drafting stuff or whatever you do. But if you've watched baseball before, like when one happens, it feels like the gates will come off. But also, Trev, his career numbers are on a different level than a simian. So buyer's remorse, you can't fully be there yet. It's one month of baseball, but you're asking questions. One month into a seven-year deal, you better not be panicking.

Yeah, but yeah, you're not level what you're seeing them. And if you're going over his game, He just never really got the ball rolling this year. You know, early on, I always liked to have like one big game where I got, I don't know, three, four hits. Then you felt like, you know, I could have a little stretch where maybe I went 050 with the walk and it doesn't affect you. But when you're, I'm looking at his game logs now, just a lot of one first, one first, one first, then you start mixing the ophers, oh, for his, ophers, oh, for it.

Then your numbers start to look the way they look. And then you're looking at the jumbotron and things start to snowball from there. He's a phenomenal worker. I'm not really worried about him. But if you're Texas right now and you're the Texas Rangers fans, I'd say your buyer's remorse level is somewhere in the middle.

I think you're thinking about it a little bit. I'm not saying you should. I'm saying, what's the zeitgeist? Yeah, I'm trying to think of the good, weird, jakey comparison. I feel like Marcus Simeon right now is like, like a five wood in the golf bag. that you were like, well, you know, I hit my four iron that far,

but it's a nice club. So let me get it. And the first couple times, you just topped it down the fairway and it ain't happening. Marcus would get it going. I mean, he opened up May with three straight two-hit games, and then he ran into the buzzsaw of the Yankees. Whoops.

But, yeah. And Treb, we keep teasing. it a little bit. Like, I'm going to talk about how hitting is just down across the league and some of the numbers behind it that, like, all these guys that we're going to mention, like, Marcus has dug a little bit of a hole. But two good weeks, he's an above league average player this year. Like, the hitting is so, so far down, but we'll continue shopping.

I have another note on Simeon. Last year, you know, it was an incredible year. on May 1st, a month into the season, about where we are now, he had a 665 OPS, 217, 27, 294, 371 slash line. He had a lot more homers mixed in 5 versus 0. It took him that first full month to really get going a year ago. Okay. Here's what I worry a little bit is that I'm not saying he needs motivation.

I don't know. I don't think he is that person that needs the motivation of winning, but they're not going to win there. And I don't, sometimes I think, you know, when you're a ball player and you get into a rut, one way to get out of it is think about, dude, I'm just going to do whatever I can to help this team win a ball game. If those wins are few and far between, right,

and you can't really tell yourself that, you know, we'll see how he answers the bell. I think he's going to be fine. Like if there was anybody else, I'd have a little bit more doubt in my mind, but it's a great stat you brought up there, BPD. So now maybe Texas Rangers fans, buyers remorse levels,

a little bit less than average. Just a little bit below that. They're like we spent a lot of money, but I think it's going to be worth it. And you know what? I want to take something back. When I mentioned Corey Seeger before, you know, I said, I said his numbers are in a different world than Simeon.

And offensively, they kind of are. Marcus Simeon's a guy that's racked up a lot of war. He's got more war than Seeger. It was like 28 to 21. So, you know. He had some big, big years, Marcus, like eight, eight, uh, war years, man. His, his big years are big. So, hey, uh, field the ball.

His outs above average are low right now. His sprint speed is still 90 thirds per centile. So dude's, dude's still athletic. That's up from 87th last year. So I, he's a guy. I think you just circle that and say when that, when that one does happen, in the Homer column. I wouldn't be shocked if there's a four homer week coming.

Go, Marcus. We love you, man. Love stud. Hot. Moving on, we've got to Chris Bryant from Kelsey Winger. It's Rocks. Seven years, 182 M's. That's 26 a year.

And, you know, I'll let you go with this one. You know, this is the Rockies. Formerly your team. Now you're a snake guy. How's the feeling out there in Rocky Land? I'll give you the stats. He is right now currently as we're taping this, not playing. Got a sword back.

I think he's going to get a quarter zone shot in it. So you got to kind of take that into account. Seven years you got him for. And right now, it's not looking too hot. Hasn't played well defensively and a 689 OPS, no homers for 93 OPS plus. So off the bat, off the rip. Formerly my rocks. Yes.

It's always a tricky conversation. Chris Bryant, MVP in the bag. For me, the weirdest part is left-fielder, Chris Bryant. Some of his outfield stuff ain't there right now, and it's okay. So, you know, Trevor Story, who we're going to talk about, or whether it's going back to Nolan Aronado, like it seemed like he kind of had a guy there. it's way too early to jump to conclusions.

Like his numbers and you factor in the injury and the fact that they were winning games, like not a completely awful start. For me, it's still just a fit in how everything went down there. But yeah, I mean, Chris Bryant was apparently their guy and the Rockies think they know something about winning at home now. So I don't know. There's no reason to twist the knife or buyer's remorse.

I guess the only thing would be, for me, it would still be Nolan Aeronado. I'm biased to good third baseman. I mean, that's part of our connection, Trev. That it just feels like Nolan Aeronado, who was your guy, could still be in house if you just handled things a little differently. And instead, you know, we're talking about Chris Bryant and, you know, playing left field in the next seven years. I'm not too worried about him.

again, a 281, 338 on base. Comparatively around the league, that ain't bad right now. Yeah, and he hasn't played in two and a half weeks. I understand why people would say, okay, well, this is not great. But think about where the Rockies are. Yeah. They're hitting the crap out of the ball. Okay?

And as we're taping this, 16 and 13, and now that's a daunting division that they play in. But you've got to say to yourself, hey, our offenses looked really good. and this has been without any help from Chris Bryan. So when he comes back, you know, get his back healthy. He did have the cortisone shot. So hopefully that brings things down.

You get him back. Maybe you keep going. Maybe he's the guy when he comes back, keeps this shit going the right way. So I think I'll go the other way. I don't think there's much buyers or more. So I think people are happy in Colorado that they sign somebody. Like you got to be happy about that.

You want your team to make moves. This guy's a really good ball player. Colorado spin is work. Colorado spin is we're winning games and we don't even have them yet. So yeah, they're good. They're good. That Kelsey Winger. Chris Bryant's the like, they bought a blender to lose some weight and they already dropped

two pounds, but they only used to blender once. Yeah. Like they're still waiting to get in there. Okay. We're going to skip Freddie Freeman. Yeah. They're happy. Not much to discuss.

Not much to discuss six years 162, 27 Ms a year. The guy's going off. He's a stud. And you know what? He's really helped their team when a lot of their regulars have not been performing up to their standards. You got Freddie Freeman here, 918 OPS. He's got the 4.3 on base percentage, which is what he does, you know, at an elite rate is get on base. Racked up 1.2 war already.

Dodgers are happy. They maneuvered this perfectly. Are Dodgers fans ever mad? I don't know. I think Dodger fans kind of live the life. I think they just, they enjoy the summer with a hint of baseball. And then they're like, all right, postseason time, let's rock.

That sounds pretty nice. And, yeah, I texted Moylan the other day because I was watching the Sunday night game. And Freddie, he got a change-up, a low-and-away change-up that a bunch of hitters would roll over. and he flicked it in the gap for like a double. And I texted him, I was like, dude, could Freddie hit 400? And he's like, if he wanted to, like, he could give that a run. Like, he's that good with the bat. But he'll hit a couple homers and just hit 310 too.

You got to love Freddie. He's like one of the class examples of when people say, oh, you got to get your A swing off. Like, whoa, bro. Sometimes you can't get your A swing off. Sometimes you don't have your A swing. The A swing is gone from your back. bro. So Freddie, like you're talking about, I know that swing. Everyone knows that swing.

Keeps his hands through the ball long enough where he can poke it out to left. Shortens up when he needs to. He just puts the barrel on the ball. And you know what's, you know what, man? Like when you get done with baseball, you start to think about all these things that you could have done. It's so easy. I should just done that. There was a lot of times in my career where I adopted like a two strike approach. right, kind of spread out a little bit. It wasn't drastic. I wasn't just trying to play pepper, but spread out a little bit, choke up a little bit. All you're trying to do is put the barrel on the ball.

There are times where you feel lost, and the only thing you could tell yourself was just try to put the barrel on the ball. And there's a lot of times you do that. You hit some of the farthest home runs you ever hit. Yeah. It's a weird thing. And then you start to tell yourself,

I can just do this all the time. And then you get away from it because you start to feel good again. And you take your ace swing and you strike out a bunch. Freddie. he got all the swings in the bag love freddie dodgers are happy no buyer's remorse at all you think two strikes choking up ever comes back it's they oh it's still here in the game you have to watch you got to watch the guys they'll still do it all this all this talk

no man i don't i really don't believe it's a three out guys are not trying to hit home runs every time they go to the plate contrary to what every single person says okay you can't you can't do it the pitching is too good. You will be absolutely exposed. Now you can put yourself in the right positions. I understand that. But there are times, man, where that A-swing ain't there. I like, I mean, like a Joy Vado. I mean, some of the best hitters in the freaking game have two-strike approaches. It's true. I guess. Miguel Cabrera. I mean, you're right. You're naming some of the best hitters in the game. And the whole conversation around those guys are so good. They're different. There is a whole other tier, a mid-tier of baseball players that are getting big shifts and they get two strikes and they're still swinging for the fence that, like, I don't know.

They say they get paid for the homer, so they go for the homer. I don't know. You just like to see it. I'd like to see it a little more. I'd like if I flipped on a channel and I was watching my snakes or whoever I'm watching late night, you know, on the moon a little bit. and it's two strikes and you see a guy like, all right, I got to put this ball in play. I would have, going back, things I would have changed about myself offensively. I would have battled way more with two strikes, way more with two strikes,

because I feel like if you can just work some counts there, get a few knocks here and there, work it, get a walk. Like, it's all about confidence, man. And instead of walking back with a, you know, three or four, pitch strikeout you battle you see five or six pitches that's going to help you next to bet too um or you get that knock and then it like you know takes some some pressure off you then you can go up there and say fuck it all out i'm gonna go i'm gonna go out here all ambush this pitch try to hit one like it all goes hand in hand man like i i would have went back and tried to really buckle down with two

strikes oh that's that's what we should have done today just relived your whole baseball life just oh my god just yelling at myself why didn't you do this You idiots, dude. Why didn't you listen to Burt Blylevin? Why didn't Josh Donaldson tell me anything while I was playing? God, I hate you, Josh. Getting coach Josh Donaldson. Jeez, man.

All right. Moving on, Dodgers, happy. They're happy. This is the guy that I think we'll want to talk about quite a bit. We're talking about Trevor's story. Boston Red Sox, get their guy. I move them to second base because they got a shortstop. 140 M's over six years,

23.3.3 a year. Trevor's story has been not very good to start the year. Now, we had him on our show, and after we interviewed him, we don't do a lot of interviews anymore, everyone knows that. But after we had him on the show, we're talking about this free agency,

and we're like, hey, man, can't wait for you to go somewhere. He didn't go anywhere. do you think he's struggling more mentally than physically right now like adjusting to Boston and kind of just going through that whole process was new for him or do you think it's just early on and some things mechanically aren't right because right now I'll give you the slash line 276 on base 545 OPS he's at the 60 OPS plus still hasn't hit a homer negative 0.5 war So it's been tough.

My Red Sox fans, you guys obviously know better than me. I grew up with a lot of Red Sox fans. It feels like that whole lineup except three dudes have the Idis right now that like it's just not happening. And I don't know. There's something I very much believe in in baseball that like it's, there's some old baseball phrases that sound really dumb, but I think are very true.

and like good hitting's contagious. Like that pass the baton feeling. Like I think that's a very real thing. I don't know how you bottle it. And yeah, it matters who you are. Like if Bogart's endeavors double and they pass me the twig, it doesn't mean I'm going to get a hit. But like when your offense is wired that way,

it's a feeling. And right now it just sounds like Boston's offense is just a mess. They're trying to figure out everything around Devers, Bogart's and J.D. And it's all a mess, whether it's Story or Kike or Doogie or whoever it is, Boabee Dahlbeck. I'll be honest, I don't really know what to do with this because I wanted the Yankees to get Trevor Story. I thought he could be their solution at Shortsop.

I guess I didn't look too far into the arm stuff because I know that's still a conversation. But the other thing that's kind of looming, Trevin, we'll see how things go in Boston. a legitimate hole. This isn't this isn't Jake the Yankees fan being like, oh, the Red Sox. Like, no, they dug a hole. They're like 10 games back. I don't know what you do with Trevor's story.

You run them out there. What do you have to do, bro? You have to. But I guess the other thing that's lurking in this, Trev, is the Xander Bogart's part where he's in the last year of his deal. And they're talking about, well, if story builds up and looks good, is he the Bogart's replacement?

that. If Boston, if the ship sank and they're out of it by the deadline, I don't know. A lot of those conversations get really weird. You're obviously not punting on Trevor Story after a bad month and a month where the league wasn't hitting a lot. I don't know. I don't know. I believe in talent.

His sprint speed is still a high level. He's got Max Exit Velo. Everything else is down. But yeah, I mean, do I think he's, feeling a little more pressure playing in a market like Boston with a big boy contract than being in Colorado where he became the superstar he is. Yeah, absolutely. I'm not worried yet. I understand how you can be absolutely frustrated as a Red Sox fan because some of the things that he's doing are just tough to watch. You know, he's swinging and missing a lot. Yeah.

his whiff rate is up to his career, whiff rate. And I think some of the events that I've seen him have, a lot of the pitchers are just kind of nibbling and making him try to chase the ball. And when you're in that rut like he is, you're trying to dig yourself out and guys aren't giving you good pitches to hit and they're kind of nibbling and you're trying to press and do things. It's the snowball effect.

So, you know, how are you going to get a lot of? have a slump. I mean, we talk about Joey Votto's freaking quote about a baseball slump about as good as you can do. You know, it feels like you're in a labyrinth. You're all by yourself. You get out the labyrinth, only to find it leads to another labyrinth. It's just how it is. So he's feeling alone. He wants to get out of

himself. But the way you get out of a slump is seeing more pitches, working more counts. Letting the ball, like it sounds stupid in old school, but like letting the ball travel like a lot. and like getting jammed and beat. Miguel Cabrera told me that. Like when you are struggling,

like you just have to let the ball get as deep as possible. You are going to get jammed at some points. But like it's what you have to do. So mechanically, I think there are some things that he might have to work on, getting back on time. Because when he is swinging, he's whiffing.

That tells me he's in between pitches. But I also think, you know, it's playing in Boston and it's different. And there are some expectations that come along with playing for a franchise like that. It's a different vibe than Colorado, bro. It's a hugely different vibe. There's one other thing that we're missing. He's playing second base for the first time.

Like, you think that's not in his head? That's another thing. I mean, after watching Glaver Torres and how that guy plays defense at shortstop and second base, I mean, this is kind of reversed, but Trevor Story had played 733 games. James at shortstop at the major league level coming into this year. He had played zero at second base. And now he's the starting second baseman for the Boston Red Sox. That'll twist you up, man.

That'll twist you up. You're doing a lot of thinking. That's a completely different play. Second base, everything's basically reversed. You know, turning a double play, going from shortstop to second base, is very difficult. Even just starting the double play, the way that you have to go, the opposite way that you're used to at shortstop.

Everything moves to your glove side at shortstop. You know, all your plays are that way. Second baseman, it's not that way. I mean, the throw for a double play is completely different. So you have to think about stuff like that. You're lining up differently in shifts. Your blunt responsibilities are different. Your relay responsibilities are different.

You're seeing just a completely different atmosphere, you know. When guys hook balls, it goes towards a line. So it's shortstop. A guy hooks a ball. It's going towards the to the left field line. At second base, you know, it's just different, man. Like everything is different there. So, yeah, that is a big part of the adjustment.

But I think he's just, he's just, he's good enough where he's going to make the adjustment. And we're going to be sitting here laughing about how on May 11th, we talked that he was struggling. I really, really believe that because, I mean, honestly, mainly, two reasons. One, he has a track record. Two, the interview we did with him, like seeing who he is as a person. and the mentality that he has, he'll be okay. I think so, too. Byers' remorse level for Boston fans right now, pretty high.

They're nervous. They're nervous, especially with Xander having to get paid after this year and still some taste of mookie in their mouth. Ooh, that was a weird phrase. And yeah, Trev, this is one of my short king, like, deepest, darkest secrets. You know, second base is kind of the short king position. BPD has some second baseman pride in him.

That was his position as a youth. I hated second base. It felt like I was looking at the field the wrong way. Like short, third, center, left, right. Even your short king had a couple first base innings back in the day. Second base was the least comfortable I was ever on a baseball field. It's interesting, man. It just feels backwards.

Treve, no, it doesn't feel backwards. Some athletic greens. Yeah, I need that. Trev, let's like let this rip. Like, hot boy summer's coming. And I think we got to just go full tilt with our AG1. Athletic Greens. What if you want more energy?

Trevor, are you hard pressed on time? How many kids did you pick up today? Two kids. Two kids. That takes time. It takes time, bro. Athletic greens. It's delicious.

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With athletic greens, you're investing in an all-in-one nutritional insurance. That sounds good. I just heard Glassnow on the Rose rotation talking about getting right. And I was like, if Tyler Glass now is worried about getting his body more right, maybe I need to be more worried. What's wrong, that guy? I love him. He's a chill out, all right?

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Yeah, Glass and I was talking about like, feeling better and recovering. And I was like, God damn it, dude. The guy wakes up and feels great every single day. He feels really good. Like comparatively, like relatively speaking to like probably how I feel when I wake up. Like it's like he's getting off and like on a magic carpet or something just floating around. And I'm like lugging some rock behind me or something.

You know what I mean? That's how I feel when I wake up in the morning. If Tyler Glass now woke up in my body, he would just like slap himself till he was bleeding in the face like wake up wake up talks about how much he likes to feel good yeah he wouldn't enjoy i like that too he'd be like man jake my eyes are a little groggy okay let me let me run through a few more guys who i think we don't need to really go over a lot and then i'm going to go to one last guy which is segue perfect into your topic perfect uh the biggest average salary this year is max shirzer at 43.3 ms no buyer's remorse whatsoever he's he's totally

changed the clubhouse culture there. He's pitched his ass off. Max Scherzer, met fans. You are happy. Uncle Stevie did you right. The most happy. Good for them. Justin Verlander, 25 Mill. Over two years, they're happy.

Dude, remember all that? Like the Yankees were in, a few teams were in, and he locked up two for 25, and we all, eh, eh, uh, he looks locked in, dude. Five starts in, he's got a 193. yeah, they're happy. No buyer's remorse there whatsoever. One more. We'll go to Carlos Correa of my twins. You got him on the deal. It's 35.1 average. He has the opt-out after this year. It's probably going to happen. I'd imagine. I'd say they're happy. I don't think there's any buyer's remorse there. I also think he's changed the culture a little bit there. I love what he's doing when he's talking about Byron Buxton saying this is his team. He didn't come in there and say, hey, this is my team. He said, this is Buck's team. And I'm here. to help. And I like that mentality. I mean, probably because he knows he's not going to be there. Although

there are reports saying that he's looking to stay there, don't know how much I believe those reports. But I don't think there's any buyer's remorse there either. I know he was close, you know, with the with the hand thing, but he's okay. So, you know, one of my close friends, I think they put him on. He's on. Did they put him on? I think like an hour ago, yeah. Oh, live reaction. Live reaction. You know, one of my close friends, you mentioned staying in Minnesota.

You know, I saw him hanging out at Joe Mowers spot last summer, and it looked like a nice place to live if you got Carlos Correa's type of money. So maybe he gets comfy there. And yeah, Carlos Correa, the stats don't look pretty. 11 OPS Plus, like while being banged up. So, yeah, no remorse. He's kind of like, he's house money right now.

It did just put him on. Damn. He'll be back. He'll be back. I don't think it's anything big. I hope not. What are they saying right here? Retroactive to May 6th, finger contusion.

Okay. So that's, you can get him right. He's going to miss the series with the Astros, but it's okay. Oh, that's kind of funny. So here's the guy I want to talk about that we'll go into your thing. Bias. Now he signed for six years, 140,

23.3.3 a year. And he's another guy, kind of a culture changer, I believe. 284 OBP, 382 Sluggy for a 666. Look out, Satan. OPS for the 101 OPS plus.

So he has been 1% above league average offensively, you know what he brings defensively as well. Tiger's not off to a great start. Still think they're pretty happy with this signing. Jake? This is one that I would deflect to Tiger fans a little bit. You know, the numbers are telling an interesting story, and I think you're right, my story that I will tell,

hopefully if there are Tiger fans, mad at El Mago. You're right, like this start is fine. comparatively across the league. And, you know, I think the Detroit Tigers have a lot other problems other than Harvey Baez right now. Their offense as a whole hasn't been clicking. They're 29th in OPS. They're 30th in homers.

They're 29th and stolen bases. So you start reading some of that and you start finger-pointing a little bit. But, no, I think they, you know, Hobby Baez has been like the third best. hit her on their team. So I think you're right. I think they're fine with him. Someone might have to research this. What is going on in Detroit? Like, have they just played freezing cold games? They have 11 homers on the year. One, tough place to hit. Two, yeah, freezing cold during April and early May, no doubt about it. They have three guys that have multiple home runs on the year. Yeah. And you know,

know it's not like they'd have a bunch of like punching judy guys either i mean spencer torkelson's supposed to be one of the premier power hitters in the game right now i mean at least that's what his billing is he's got three home runs he leads the team hobby bias two and then uh candelaria with two but but do they just sent him down he was not doing well you know miggie's working his way through you know his last few years here scope man those numbers that's really tough Robbie Grossman you know

has kind of been I mean he's been above average we can talk about that in a little bit but as far as hobby you know I think he's shown enough at you know 23 million obviously is a lot of money but for a guy that you can kind of

count on to he's going to be one of the faces of your franchise especially when Miggy goes I think that he'll establish himself as that a couple years left in his prime I would say he's got about four, four years left in his prime, where he can go do it defensively as well. I think you're fine with it.

You know, the season's been disappointing, but I don't think Hobby Baez is the reason it's been disappointing. No, go look at that Tiger stat page. Holy smokes. They've had some injuries to their pitching as well, and it just hasn't been their year at all. Man, that's tough. That's one of those Tiger fans.

my guy Ray originally reached out last year before they got it going. It became a joke on the show. I guess reach out some more. And let me know, has it just been tough? I guess it looks like their bullpen's been pretty good. So I guess you could hang your hat on that a little bit. But, I mean, they're also 8 and 20 right now. And the baseball reference page agrees with that.

Well, I saw Panetta pitch on Monday. Oh, says he's 6-7-280. I don't, I think we might have to, he might have to check that. He's a big boy. That's a big boy out on that mound.

If you want to get John Boy going, Noah, this will pick everyone's dad tomorrow. Tweet it John Boy and say, hey, could you post a little video describing Michael Paneda's body? Because it's really a wonder

of the world to him. Yeah, big Mike. Hey, 21 innings 343. All right. Let's go, Big Mike. He's not the problem. Oh, man. We don't body shame here. We don't body shame.

So, Harvey Baez. We talked about the devil's OPS he's got. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Segues perfectly into your topic here. You want to talk about league offense and how it's been down. So that's 666.

OPS typically you think hey not very good you got to put you got to put a seven on it you got turn seven with me if you want to be like close to league average well no 666 is getting you 101 OPS plus right now trev it's insane and and the tigers have as a whole may be the perfect example and before I get into this last thing we want to shout out today if you don't know we got boxing now inside boxing live our guy dan canobio um he does man he's uh he's got a really funny personality he kind of gives off this tough italian long island dad but he's got kind of like a cute side to him um and he's just he's from the boxing world he comes from a boxing family and he's had huge guest tyson dame lillard uh ryan garcia check out some follow counts on that dude

Canello and Canello just got beat this weekend. And dude, he, the way we talk about baseball, he talks about boxing. His eyes light up. He says there's always a story. There's always a drama. He loves it. Head over to John Boy Boxing YouTube channel. Check it out.

Inside Boxing Live is on all the favorite podcast apps and all that. Dan's great dude. You might remember him from the Blitzball battle as well. Trevor, we talked last night. And, you know, we're honest with the people. We were like, we got to, like, people are listening to talking baseball. We got to start bringing the heat. Dude, it's like.

Sometimes I don't, I can't even, I don't understand how many people listen to our show. It's very humbling. Big numbers, bro. Yeah. That it was kind of like, you know what? I kind of feel like Trevor's story right now. Kind of, you're above first. You're above Trevor's story.

that no Trev like we we got through the first month of the season like spring training happened quick then we're playing games and like you know I think we still have a winning record like you know we probably put up like a 16 and 12 but we're talking baseball you know we should be the first team to 20 wins that's what we do um all of that was symbolic symbolical and we had our topics episode today and I said what do I want to talk about and Treve It's hitting. I mean, we're hitters. Blitz ball, pro ball, wherever you play. We hit. That's what we do. Get in the box. Trev, hitting around the league just seems so down that I was like, all right,

what's the right way to do this? Because we can do all the spills, pitching's better, V-Lo's up, the sticky stuff, all that. Cold weather. We love talking about cold weather. I sent something over to you guys at 8.07 a.m. I think the pre-workout was kicking in pretty hard because I was at the gym. And I was like, you know what?

I want to see, is there an easy way to look up the over-under results from so far this season? Like, am I just dreaming this? Because it feels like every time you tune into a baseball game, or if you look at the MLB app, it's like, well, all right, it's 1-0 in L.A. and it's 0-0 in the 6th in Detroit. Trev, there are five teams in baseball this year that the over is hitting over 50% of the time.

Seattle, Philly, St. Louis, Atlanta, Cleveland, and Cincinnati at a 68% clip. And I don't think that's because of their offense. I think that's unfortunately because of their pitch. pitching. Nineteen-one if you've taken the over in Cincinnati. Important to some of the gambling crew. I'm not even going down that road, Trevor. Because I'm going down the fact that there's one, two, there's three teams that are at 50% clips on the over-under. Shout out Cubs, Rockies, and Giants. Everybody else. Over two-thirds

of the league, the games are hitting the under, which again, people, Vegas plays for keeps. They're not throwing lines out there just to mess around or I think this guy's going to get a couple of hits today because he looked good in BP. They're playing for Kish. This is real.

The Houston Astros 21 and 8 going under. Boston. That's surprising. 20 and 9 going under. Those two teams are opposite. sense. Yeah.

Boston, not hitting. Houston's pitching so well that they're going under. Detroit, 19 and 9. Baltimore, 19 and 9. My snakes, because they're pitching so damn good, are 1910 and 1, if you're betting the under. So I felt good. I was like, okay, the unders hit in all around the league.

Offense is down. I wanted to bring this to teams and players. I went to baseball savon. I looked at some pitch speed stuff. Not as crazy as I thought. Velo across the league, it's similar to where it is. There's no big spikes. I think, you know, the spikes slowed down as the sticky stuff kind of a little bit here,

a little bit there. Whatever. Trevor, there are some guys this year because we look at our players. I kept saying Josh Donaldson's off to a slow start this season. Josh Donaldson's on my Yankees. You're hitting coach. You wish you was your hitting coach sooner. Bringer of rain.

Guys got an MVP trophy at home. Triv, how much does he have in the bank account? You want to guess? Oh, that's a good one. Okay, okay. He made 90-something when this contract. And I want to say going through arbitration, he probably made another 30.

So I'm going to go like 120, $4 million. Career to date 142. Josh Donaldson. That's so much money. So much money. Anyways, Josh Donaldson this year is hitting $220,

a $336 on base, a $352 slug. This is a guy with a career 502 slugging. Trevor, OPS Plus, which I know a lot of people probably know, but on base plus, on base plus, on base plus sluging, but adjusted to the player's ballpark,

so we get everything on a level playing field here. He's a 107 plus right now. He's 7% better than your average hitter. Now, it's still below Josh Donaldson standards. He's been 128, 132 the past couple years. But I wanted to dig up a couple players and a couple stat lines that ties into what you were talking to, that this year,

and I don't know how deep we want to go into this, Trev, because I think there's a whole conversation that the balls are dead. I think there's a whole conversation that pitching is just sprinting past hitting right now, and there's kind of, there's no pitchers in the league anymore that you feast off of, like those guys used to exist. But there's got to be something else going on, whether it's spring training or more hitters on the roster,

because Trev, these are some guys with positive OPS pluses. 246 batting average. 317 on base, a 342 slugging for a 660 OPS. 660. That was our guy in a very important trade, Adam Frazier. He's got a 102 OPS plus. And that's above average right now. And Trev, I'm not throwing Adam.

Frazier under the bus. I thought it was funny that his name popped up. But man, and like after seeing the Detroit Tigers and seeing some of these other numbers of what is like a league average player right now, I'm just a little worried, man. And like I know how proud you are about hitting and how much we low key, high key hate pitchers. Starters. Starting pitchers, excuse me. the other stat line before I fully kick it to you was my guy Glaver Torres Glaber Torres is hitting 220 with a 258 on base

a 427 slugging he's got a 685 OPS he's a 102 OPS plus he's above average league hitter with a 220 batting average and a 258 on base Trev, it just doesn't feel right. It doesn't all add up. And I don't even know where to go next with it.

I sent some weird DMs to Enosaris this morning. Where is your brain at? I don't know if it's hitting in general or just to start the year or what. But it's not good, man. I have an article up here. And I'm going to start with saying that I don't like the offense being down. I don't think it makes for a better game. I think everyone can kind of agree on that.

We've touched on a couple of different reasons why I think it is so. The technology the pitchers have right now is just far and above better than what hitters have, and they're able to use it at a much quicker pace than what hitters can do, and mostly because they control the variables. I mean, these guys are the ones that have the ball in their hand, and it's up to the hitters to adjust. and when you have a group that just has better tools, faster tools,

I mean, they're going to come out on top. I mean, do any facet of life, basically. So that's one big reason. I think that the hitters have to find some way to adjust to that. Don't know what it is.

This one dude keeps sending me this pitching machine that you can recreate pitches. I don't give a shit about that because there's no arm on the thing. So go ahead and get your timing off of that. Good luck. I don't know what hitters can do. As far as the tech,

I have no clue. The only thing I can think about is VR, and it has to be so dialed in. I know there's a few stories around the league about these foam ball machines, and that's kind of what hitters are trying to do now. For anybody that doesn't know, it's these pitching machines that you can just crank up

to super high speeds. They throw these foam balls. They can kind of mimic the rise a little bit of a guy with elite spin on a four seam, or you can just crank it up and throw nasty sliders all while it being low impact type training. Because when you do that with a regular ball, you can take and train your eyes, but if you want to put a swing on something, one bad swing can just jar you and you just want to get out of the cage as quick as possible. So I think that's smart.

So, you know, that's one thing. You know, training the eyes is big for hitters and maybe we start doing that more. I don't know. I think mainly baseballs, the baseballs, the baseballs. balls are just not what they used to be. They're not flying. I think that everyone knows that. They don't pass the eye test. According to Dr. Meredith, they also are just being manufactured differently. Go check her out and all her studies about it. Here's some facts I got from this article at overtime heroics.net. The article is written by Stuart Carruthers. I want to give credit there.

Here's some facts. 2021 batting average 24th, 2022. This is through May 4th. 232. Slugging percentage from 411 to 370 on base plus slugging 728 down to 677. These are league averages. Plate appearances per home run. In 2021, it was 30 plate appearances, 30.6 plate appearances for every home run. Right now we're up to 41 plate appearances per home run.

The exit velocity is the same at 88.8. So the ball's coming off. The launch angle's relatively the same. 12.6 degrees last year, 12.5 degrees this year. So we should be seeing all these slugging numbers line up. They don't line up because, well, the ball's dead. And the runs per game, Jake, four and a half runs per game last year.

We're down to 4.08 through 2022. So when you're hitting the ball just as hard at the same launch angle and you're slugging's down like that. And you can still shift the same way and a lot of the same defenders are still there and same ballparks. I guess we can talk about Baltimore's park maybe having an effect on it a little bit.

Tiny this little bit. It's kind of funny. It's the balls. It's the freaking balls, man. You see these guys. Like even Josh Naylor, I know there was some win there in Chicago, but the ball that he hit,

it was the 11th inning Homer, three-run shot. He hit it low enough where the wind shouldn't mess with that ball in right field there. Barely got out. And he smacked that ball.

I just, you see you guys talking about it, tweeting about it. Josh Chisholms brought it up. I don't know what we do. You're mixing this elite tech for pitchers with a dead ball and this is what's going to happen.

Do you wish Josh Naylor played with a little more intensity? I love it, man. That was nuts. I told, I told Rosie, you know, that little section right next to the visitors dugout in Chicago on the south side. It can be ruthless, dude. I think they just let people like kind of come down as the game goes on.

I mean, I know that there's been people thrown out of that section when I was playing a game there for some, they were got a little rambunctious, a little too much alcohol, started, you know, using profanity, talking about people's like wives and stuff like that. It wasn't good. but I'm okay with people talking crap, and I think they were. They were just kind of making fun of them a little bit. And as a ball player,

you just got to kind of accept it, and you try to do what he did. Yeah. He did it. He sure did. Josh Naylor, he's got a little bit of that story. Ellie build to him thick, thick in the right places. So, Trev, you think if we went juicy balls tomorrow

that we're fine? like that's the difference maker right now? I mean, yeah, probably. Yeah. I think so. I think still, you know, you're going to see strikeouts up. I mean, they've been going, they've been rising year after year after year for quite some time.

The pitchers are going to be better. I think offensive numbers are going to struggle a little bit because of that. But not this drastic. You know, it's not this drastic. I think they're, I mean, it's pretty clear here that we're dealing with a, a dead ball. Man, and I guess the part where I start getting just frustrated and spinning in circles a little bit is I compared some stats today.

I went to 2018 because 2018 was one of the not-juiced ball years. I think it was 2017 and 19 for sure. And then 2020 was a grab bag. That was fun. 2018, Giancarlo Stan, you know, a premier all-time power hit. like good chance at the Hall of Fame, 500 homers, all of it. It was his first year with the Yankees. So he was kind of learned in the league,

but he looked like Giancarlo's Stanton for the most part. 38 homers, 266, 343, a 509 slugging, 852 OPS. He was a 130 OPS plus, 130, so he's 30% better than your league average hitter. Kind of adds up, right? Dude's a freak. Right now this year, DJ LaMayhew, a very different type of ball player.

And hey, you know, we've had a lot of talks about DJ LaMayhew in his own right. 283-359, a 402 slugging. He's a 129 OPS plus, a 761 OPS. And he's 29% better than your average league hitter. And it's just people love offense. Look at the NBA right now. Look at the three-point shots.

Look at the NFL. and look at a Chief's game or a Chargers game, and when they're the bills, that Bill's Chiefs game, it's offense. The analytics and everything the sport is doing is pushing towards offense where baseball, it kind of felt that way with the juice balls. Like, oh, okay, baseball's got some juicy balls.

That's going to be some offense. With the pitching technology and where the baseballs are at, it's just not right, and it's not good for the game. Like, there are too many nights when I look at, at the score, the scoreboard, and these pitchers are too good, that if you're giving them this ball, that yeah, you're going to look up in the fifth inning and it's zero, zero, and then we're kicking it to guys in the bullpen that throw 97. Like, it's not great for the sport.

I'm interested to see if I had to bet on it, I would not be surprised if there is a moment this season where one of our midweek episodes is like, well, the juicies are back. like I a thousand percent think that's going to happen and I also think that's the most ridiculous thing in the world what what are we doing and then they're going to say oh it's just the weather it's too cold in April the balls don't fly got hot balls are going now limited spring training guys are finally seeing the ball you know and you know what a lot of that could be a fact you know last year the numbers

through April were you know kind of not where they are now this article also references that if you want to talk about it But that was sticky stuff season, no? Like prime sticky stuff season? They're not as drastic. I'm just saying through April last year. Everything was still, that batting average was the same.

Slugging was up 20 points. Obviously, OPS was up 20 points. Runs were still four in a third a game. And the plate appearances were still down per homer. So not as drastic as a season total. So it does make me think that we're going to have some better offensive numbers as, you know, the weather warms up. But until they change the balls, and they, and they can, like you said, like,

we've, we know that there have been different years used, different balls constructed and manufactured in different years used in one season. So you're going to have, it was like a mixed bag type of thing. Right now it seems that we've gotten one ball, a consistent ball. It's just dead. Ian Hap has even quoted in here saying that it's for sure. the ball. This is coming from the compound podcast. Go check that out. Ian

Hap, Dakota Mex, and Zach Short with Tom Prysman as the producer there. Look at that. Quote from Ian from his podcast. Yeah, there's dead balls. We were in Atlanta. I watched some guys hit some balls in the 107s, 109s, 105s, outs,

all outs, and the ball flies there. So, I don't know, man. It seems stupid that we're talking about this, but it's part of the game. And as far fixing offense and trying hitters trying to catch up to pitchers, I don't know what it's going to take, man. I really, really don't. Some really, I don't know what you want to call it.

Corky or maybe some futuristic, some combination of those two type of training methods. It's something that's not out there right now that's going to help combat what pitchers have. Because, you know, for them to be able to make up pitches, thin air now kind of is scary man and they can zig they can zig when they see hitters zagging so quickly now you know instead of vertical drop on pitches now everyone wants horizontal stuff because hitters were adjusting to the vertical stuff so now they want horizontal and then the hitters are going to catch up to that and they're like now we're going to go back to the 12-6s in the top of the zone again it's it's a chess match and and it seems like

the pitchers kind of like have way more pieces to to lose. Does that make any sense? No, that's just, I was, I was, I was hunting for a weird Jake one and I was worried when you got to chess, but you described it right. Like it was, it's a chess game if like, the hitters had no knights or bishops. Yeah. And like, and they were just going out there and like,

fuck it, bro, we'll try. Yeah, all right, get out there, pawns. Trev, I'm not ready to die on this hill, but it's a thought I've had multiple times. Do you know when they made the distance to the plate 60 feet, 6 inches? Like what year? I don't.

Long time ago. 1893. Hey. No, stop. I don't even want to hear you. Treve, I haven't done enough research. I'm not on this hill yet. But guess what they weren't doing in 1893?

Throwing 80 miles per hour? Like, we got guys that are pumping. I don't know. You don't know that. There's some footage back then of like a horse and like a guy throwing a ball and a horse is running pretty fast. Trev, I'm going to come out to L.A. They used to think the curveball was an optical illusion, bro,

until they'd like put some rings and they threw a ball. ball through it. Like, what were people thinking? Treb, I think. People just like, sorry. This off season, I'm going to come out. I'm going to come back to your shed back there. We're going to get medicated and we're going to watch that horse racing the pitch video.

And I mean, that's just a million views. It's just a million views. What were we doing? What were we doing? What were we about back then? Hitter's got to figure it out, though. Look, this is the thing. hitters don't complain as much as pitchers.

So I don't want this to come off as us whining at the pitchers. I just want to find a solution for hitters that we can catch up and even the playing field a little bit right now because we are losing. We are losing out there. And all these MFers that are crushing the ball right now, share your secrets, please. Right?

That's the other side of this coin that I guess my, well, this won't be my closing point. Shout out to the Taylor Wards, the Mani Machadoes. Those guys are both triple crowning right now. Trout and Bucks. Jose Ramirez, nobody's surprise. I guess all the Cleveland young guys that are hitting, like hats off to you dudes.

And Trev, one of the other reasons I ended up here and wanted to do this as a topic, it's because it attached to our last episode. Julio Rodriguez, the young star, future star for the Seattle Mariners. we talked about his star and what do you do? He's 255, 319, 349, a 668 OPS. That's 104 OPS plus. That's 4% better than your average player as a rookie.

And by the way, he leads to the league in stolen bases. He's got 10 swipes. So like, we're sitting here having conversations like, is it going to click? How's he doing? What's it look like? And meanwhile, this guy who's 21 years old, is achieving at a higher than average level.

So it's a month then. A lot is going to change. Whether we're talking big money free agents, whether talking young bloods, whether we're talking getting out of a slump, or I don't know what you do with all the guys that are hitting. Like, that's insane. Those guys deserve a trophy.

But yeah, man, I just, I need, I love good pitching. I just need a little more, need a little more bingo out there. on the flip side of this if you're a bad starting picture right now you got no one to blame but yourself I put those cameras on me right now

let me get naked put those dots all over me let's put the cameras on me let's figure some stuff out I mean there are so many ways to improve yourself as a pitcher right now so many ways so if you're not you're not getting done as a starter right now I would go and get in the lab real quick get in the lab

Trev, anything else you need to get off your chest, Big Daddy? I mean, we've covered a lot. Holy smokes. You know, I just, I love baseball, man. It's been fun getting out to the parks, see Rose and I. As this comes out, we'll be headed down to Anaheim. I'm going to see Trout and Otani and get out to a park. Get out to a park and go see a game.

You know, I think that's important. Baseball is meant to be watched in person. It really is. Are you guys... Are you guys pushing P? Pee? P's? Oh, yeah.

Are you gonna like... Are you gonna like C.O. Tani, dude? He's starting tomorrow, so probably not. But maybe there's... There is talk that we might be seeing Michael. And that'd be really fun. Jealousy does not look good on me. If you're a hitter, last point.

the only thing you can do right now that will benefit you in a long run is going and training your eyes for high velo go to a cage go to a machine that you can pump up as high as you can just go watch the balls take a hundred pitches don't even fucking swing boom boom boom boom more your eyes see it your body will adjust your body's quick enough to catch up to these pitches it's your eyes so go do that that's what we have right now as hit Go see as high a velo and as nasty a pitchers on these pitching machines as you can. I think that's the kind of like the best way to remedy how good these pitchers are becoming. Maybe go watch some Blitzball, the one-on-one league, the Blitzball battle, and maybe you can pick up some tips there

from other hitters you see and you like. Trev, players only, baby. Nice chopping it up with you today. Chop cheese You got it, B.BD, you got this one. Jick sucks. Oh, he hit it. Ask John Boy for that Michael Panade of body mid.