Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Aaron Judge Didn't Cheat & Home Run Derby to End the All-Star Game | 663

Episode Date: May 17, 2023

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Hello and welcome to Talkin' Baseball. Blue Jays and Yankees are fighting about so much nothing. And new All-Star Game rules, new money, relievers, other stuff, fun stuff. It's the midweek episode. Hello and welcome to Talkin Baseball, brought to you by Seatheek. Use code Talking over there. No Trevor Plouf today because he is a big leaguer. in the booth now yeah well not in the booth but he will be in the booth but he wasn't in the booth

he was on the sidelines uh you got a crazy game to start off but yeah he's doing he's doing uh the real gig jake how about that we're uh we're happy for him um no i saw i got a good chuckle this morning i saw on his instagram story posted uh himself holding the mic with just twins twins win so you know he's he's in He's in it. He's officially in it with his twins. And yeah, getting a 12-inning game as his first one, I think that'll, that'll be a funny asterisk for him to tell people years and years down the road. Years and years down the road.

Jim, I'm running a little hot. I was getting here pretty early this morning. And I pre-ordered some Starbys. Nightmare in there. You can tell it was going to be a nightmare. 25 minutes waiting for my coffee. All right, whatever. So that whole time you're like brewing.

It's like literally brewing Walking by our office There's a dunks And I said you know what I'm a little I'm a little hungry And screw starbs Screw them So I ordered some dunks

Took 25 minutes So I lost an hour To both coffee chains this morning Both on the go coffee chain So besides that Feeling good Hit a hole in one on a golf simulator last night Yeah

Pretty impressive Put put put or a real thing? Butt put? Which was it? I was, it was a real simulator, but it's just weird

because you're like, I don't know, I just hit a ball into a wall. Like I didn't have a hole in one, but people were like, kind of celebrating like I did. And I was like, people were you with a group?

There was just like, there was just people there and it's like, you know, in golf if you hit a hole in one. People are like, you tell Nikki. Um, oh,

I don't know if Nikki knows yet. Okay. Um, but like, hole in one trick shot. Like he's a, he's a famous guy. He was there.

He was like on cloud nine for me. What do you mean he was there? Were you at an event? Yeah. Five Iron had an opening. That the one right by me. Oh, nice. Yeah.

Coozines was there. Tiki was there. Really? Yeah. It was kind of cool. And I told Tiga, I was like, hey, you challenged us to Blitzball. And he's like, yeah. He's like, we'll figure it out.

Yeah. He was really cool. I was like, did you ever play? He's like, no. He's like football and wrestling. He's like, wrestling told me a lot. And I was like, are we about to wrestle? We're all the line.

Are we cool? Tiki? He wants to rest with you. And Jake's about to learn a lot. Yeah. Well, I'm running hot because it's the middle of the day for me. I got up at four and I've been working since five. So I've just, you know, basically lunchtime for me. Right. I'm also excited to chat about baseball.

I love. I wish Trev was here because, one, there's some Yankees, Blue Jay stuff that is kind of the top story in baseball right now. And we get it from both sides. Oh, you're dodging it. Oh, you don't talk about it. Oh, no one do this on talking yanks. Right. I'm sure either way.

Sure either way. But we'll do bullet points. because we are going to talk about it on talking yanks more. And then we have the new new rules. You know, so where LaborPod comes back and some funky All-Star Game rules and then some milestones that I think are like, you know, what to watch for, maybe possibly that are fun. That's the show. That's the show.

Now you've, if you just read glossaries of books and then you tap out, you're done. Thing. That's what will happen. Yeah. If you're a headline only guy, you've got them. Let's do the Yankees Jays stuff a lot because we got Aaron Judge accusive cheating. We got Domingo Hermann kicked out due to cheating. Yeah.

Yeah. He did cheat. The, I mean, I don't know. The Blue Jays, I don't know, like, embarrassed themselves a little bit. It sucks because I'm a Yankees fan. But, like, Judge looks to the side before. the pitch is delivered. Obviously, looking for intel.

Like, there's no doubt, even before it became official, that he was, like, getting info from somewhere else about the forthcoming pitch. Yeah, I think you need to preface that a little better before coming at the Jays a little bit, because some people might not even think we did, like, admit that. Like, we very much think that Aaron,

Aaron Judge, he was talking to Rizzo before he came up. Like, they think they had a tip on the catcher. Or actually, maybe we should phrase it like Buster. Yeah. Well, we know what happened now. It's all out there. Yeah. Like they had a tip on the pitcher and Judge was looking sideways to get it because it was being relayed to him.

Yes. Which is legal and part of the sport. You should hope your team is doing that. Yeah. So one of the things I learned from Trev is that if you're not playing or if you're a starting pitcher on the dugout, you are looking for tips the entire. That's like your job. Right.

As a bench player is like to be looking for tips and tells to. tell the batter. The announcers are like, and I don't fault the Blue Jays announcers at all. People are giving them a hard time, but it's weird what Judge did. He would be like, what's that? Where's he looking as the pitcher winds up?

They were like, we don't want to cause any allegations. Obviously, you're going to. But yes, it's weird that he was looking to the side as the pitch. I don't fault them at all. Once they do notice that, yeah, that's a weird thing. And then it's awesome that they're like, they go, oh, he just did it again.

And he hits a home. Moran. It's like, that was awesome. What voice was that? That was Buck Martinez. Yeah, it's a little bit of how you phrase it and not what you say, how you say it. And I, you know, again, fast forwarding to Buster's tweet that we've been laughing about for 24 hours now. It's just we live, baseball has been littered with cheating throughout the entire sport that, you know, Buster only, who is a legend short king, Mount Rushmore of baseball, didn't want to put. in the tweet that the Jays could have been tipping their pitches. Instead, he started the Civil War again?

Yeah. You know, they were betraying the identity of the forthcoming pitch. So anyway, two of those words, like, shouldn't be used anymore. So Schneider of the Blue Jays, the manager, he comes out and says, oh, we got to watch where the base coaches are standing because that's part of the issue here. in the history of baseball, the base coaches have never stood in that box. Like, if you've ever been to a game live,

they have never stood in that box. And at any level. No, like never close. The third base coach never stands in that box. If he does, he's not doing it on purpose. It just happens to be where he wants to be. But they're either, like, way back, if they're scared of, like, Stanton being up.

Or if there's a runner on second, they're way more towards home plate because they want to be able to get in his eye line as he's rounding for it. I mean, there's a reason it's not a fully complete box. It's a bracket. But then during the game, they start jawn with the Yankees third base coach about not standing in the box.

And I said on my post game recap, like, if you're going to do that, you've got to go pull your third base coach aside and be like, I know you usually don't stand in the box, but going to need you to be firm in that box today. Otherwise, you're going to make us look like fools. The next inning, the Blue Jays third base coach comes out, does not stand in the box. And then Boone's like jokingly giving shit. back. Yeah.

And it is half, or it, maybe more than half, like they're being petty. Like Boone when he was doing that back was, like, wasn't really mad or is mad, but it's a petty mad.

And Schneider said that they were like, jokingly giving Rojas shit. Like it was half petty, half tongue and cheek, but then Rojas likes was like shut up and then it became real. So the whole thing was just really silly. And then it comes out, the pitcher,

who judge hit the home, runoff comes out and admits to, is it Rosenthal's article? I believe Rosenthal. He's like, yes, I was tipping. I take my hand out of my glove in my windup and the first base coach can see the grip I'm holding the ball with. He said also my whole pacing and delivery was different for each pitch. So, okay, you got a lot going on.

Come on, Jay Jackson. You're triple tipping your pitches, man. So it's just gamesmanship. So the Blue Jays can be upset that the first base coach is helping give signs because they don't want that to happen. But they also know it's not illegal and that they would do it as well. So I don't know. The whole situation is kind of really funny.

Yeah. And, you know, both teams who Jim, the past couple years, whenever the Yankees do something, I don't know, over the top or trash talkie, you get pretty frustrated because it's always bitten them in the butt. This is a little different. But just the look of Domingo Hermann getting ejected the next day is tough when all the internet talked about was,

you know, are the Yankees cheating for 24 hours? That's not great. And hey, this whole thing for the Blue Jays, like, you know, we've goofed and gaffed about it. I think all baseball fans have that, you know, the Blue Jays, the popcorn, and this is the movie, and then they haven't won a playoff game. Like, hey, man, Blue Jays, you guys got to go.

Like, you guys have to do something. You know, the ALEs, it was, you know, the Yankees were in, last place. Well, guess what? They're now tied with the Blue Jays. Like, if the Blue Jays aren't careful, think about who this Blue Jays team is. They were supposed to be next.

Vlad, Bichette, they went out and got Springer. They got pitchers that, like, hey, man, a really good team, two really good teams in the American League are going to be left out. You guys need to, like, win games and go and not yell at third base coaches. Yeah, well, they like yelling.

They like causing scenes. But I was glad because when the Yankees yell, they got their manager fire. last year and we're like good when the yank went because he was he didn't have any hutspah so that's why schneider's shown all the hutspah yeah i sat next to shiter and uh demonstration once we said hi um but but um the blue jays are still good they've been a little weird this first two games in series and uh they could win the next two easily but they should have won yesterday when the yankees had to do all that pitching and they didn't and it's kind of bad but anyway the whole like

back and forth. And, like, I'm building the breakdown, but there's more to come. There's two more games. And this whole thing has been so petty. The Domingo Hermann stuff, he gets ejected. The quote, the umpire said is the same as the Phil Cousy group was sure. He's like, stickiest things I've ever seen. Yeah.

Which it feels like that's the, what they're being told to say. It's just so subjective. And I, I, I, what's the sickiest thing you've ever touched? Treesap, probably. Yeah, that's a good one. It's Domingo Hermon. Touched spider tag. Domingo Hermon had stuff on his hands.

Tresop? Sticier than spider attack, but I don't think it sticks to the second object. It's different stickiness. It just sticks to your skin. It's different. Super glue pretty sticky too. Yeah.

But see, it doesn't stick to the next thing. I don't know. Oh, I don't know if that's an adhesive, but I don't know if it's sticky. That's a very interesting. It's an interesting lane.

Like Velcro adhesive, sticky insert magnets very sticky. Like I've touched a magnet that's, probably the stigids are but it's a different thing yeah what is sticky slimy sticky I don't know what I was saying

yeah we got caught in the stickiness a little bit Hermann sheeted is what I'm saying but the umpires should have to say more than it wasn't Rajin and it was the stickiest thing I've ever felt because that if if a third person gets ejected and then a third umpire says that

then we're just like okay so this is just your line yeah like you need to give us more than it was, I could, I, the only thing I do know is that was not Rajin, and it was the stickiest thing I've ever felt. Okay, man, that's nothing. Like, if this was law or like,

even a parking ticket, like, I don't know how fast she was going. There's a fastest car I've ever seen. That's not. When it holds up in admissible. No, I mean, we talked about this the first time with like Scherzer and stuff. Like, shouldn't they have like a Schwab test or something?

Like, literally there's technology and science, right? Like, give me like a Dr. Foucher type like give me some guy in a lap coat at every every stadium i can get you that mr sticky we'll call i got some guys uh got some coats mr sticky and a doctor coat at baseball games i mean that's a it's a whole other thing all this stuff is kind of shady jim but you know it's not shady my eyes shady rays oh i love shady rays i just put on a pair and it completes my cult leader work that i've been working on lately shady rays they're the best in the bizdale um world club class product, and they're good.

Like, there's some of those expensive brands out there that you got to really empty the wallet for, not shady rays and not with this deal they're giving you. They're affordable as is, but with Code Talking, you're getting 50% off two plus pairs of polarized sunglasses. Summer's basically here. It's been hot out. Go get yourself a pair of sunglasses. Go get yourself two.

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Yeah. Whoops. Whoops. Not Trevor. No. Not sideline Trevor. Yeah. Side show Trevor, some would say.

Side show Trevor, no. No. He doesn't like, he hates that. He's looked great in every picture. He has a great. You know what, Trevor is sincerely going to hate that we're about to do some labor potting without him. Yeah.

Because he's a big labor pot enthusiast. He likes getting down to the nitty gritty. And we got some updates from the collective bargaining agreement. Collective bargaining agreement. Put on your thinking caps because we're about to go to school. No, but everyone's getting more money. money money money money the major league minimum salary is being raised jake 700 grand if you become a professional a lot of money baseball player if you dedicate your life probably from age 12 to could be 24 man

could be 23 25 uh you know if you dedicate your whole life to one profession Yeah. And one skill set. And then you get promoted to the top 1% of all people who attempt that. Right. You will make $700,000. I wonder how that goes for other industries. Like if I'm the top 1% of all fabricators, you know, just a welding guru.

What am I making? Fabricators. Yeah, what am I making? Yeah, I mean, if you're doing elite level jobs, like, because you'd be doing what? stuff at big buildings and stuff? Yeah. I don't know. Do you repair the Statue of Liberty?

Probably also a great... What's that made out of? Fabricator... Copper. Green copper? Like, stop lying. What's it made out of? Fabricator high-end salary.

Before we dive further into that. Oh, shit. It's not what I thought. Always be happy about that. I don't... It's not 700 grand. The more money in baseball, the better. And it's always funny, dude.

like they're contractors basically, so they get paid city by city. So they were joking the other day because the Rays played the Yankees and the Mets. And normally, if they're at home, their paychecks are Florida tax-free paychecks. Instead, they were in New York and got New York taxes for like a week.

So it's, imagine if you're the minor league guy that gets called up that week because you get paid for those games. Starting pitchers if you miss a series and start pitchers. They get paid day by day. But that's nice because there's always been a fun fact

I've said at Yankee Stadium where their billboard on the outfield wall, they get a million dollars for a billboard for the whole season. And when Oswaldo Cabrero was standing out there, I was like, that guy, they pay that guy half of that billboard behind him. And there's 12 or 15 billboards. Just shuffle that money over. Like the outfield wall, Ying Stadium makes $15 million. So when you really put judges 40,

in the context. Yeah, I've got a buddy that works at Gillette. I might be able to get the actual number on that. I think it's somewhere around there. You pay as Waldo Cabrera. Yeah. A Yankee. No, it's good, and it's a reminder that, yeah, that's a ton of money,

but these guys do work for it. And the average MLB career is still like three years. So, you know, to put in every day of your life until age, you know, 29 for most of these guys. it's great. Like Trevor, Trevor Ploo's still like a young, healthy man, and he doesn't play baseball anymore. He's a sideline reporter.

Yeah, you got to max out those earnings. You got to max out the earnings. Lord knows MLB is. And, again, imagine, you know, the fake narrative that baseball's dying, which, by the way, look at our whole company and stuff and just look at everything around baseball. Like, if it came out, baseball salaries were going down,

there's your red flag. Like, that would be a real. really bad sign. So this is good and it's, you know, hilarious that these negotiations still kind of went on and we're getting finished. I have a real big question about the minor league salaries. The one I have highlighted here, do we have Passon or Trev available to just like call and ask real quick?

You want me to call Jeff Passing out of the blue? Because that's one of my favorite activities. Yeah. Because if I have a take that I, I, I, I will share if... We just want to cross our... If the numbers are correct. If he doesn't pick up...

I mean... He shouldn't. If he doesn't. 10 o'clock. Maybe 9 o'clock for him. We'll start reading out that phone number. Hi, this is Jeff Passett from ESPN. From ESPN. Sweet voicemail, dude.

That was a deep voice. Hi, this is Jeff. He either took a deep breath. That was six days. Oh, this is... He did. He did a voice. He did like an old school.

Dude, nothing's worse than trying to do your outgoing message and fucking it up. And then you're on your sixth take. And you're like, what is this? Who cares? At doctor period urgent? Yes. Nah, we're recording and had some dumb CBA questions. I don't even know how to search out this thing.

So the minor league salaries have all doubled per se, right? Like, I think basically. Basically, the minimum... At least doubled, I believe, is the tagline I saw. For players on their first end will be contract, their minimum league, minimum salaries. So does that mean even A ball? So I don't think so, because look at the bullet below that,

because that has minimum rookie ball A ball salary. But that's last year. Because it... Minimum salaries will rise from 4,000 to 19 at rookie ball, 11,000 to 26 at low A, 11 to 27, high A. So when you get the AAA, it's I copy past

March but that doesn't align with the numbers we have here Right but I think that's the That's the MLB part of this that was throwing me off before I think this is for like You know you mentioned a Cole Calhoun Yeah He gets he gets paid

You know over a hundred grand To be a Yankees minor leaguer right now At least So on your way up You're so So for players on their first MLB contract. So that means they make it to the 40 man?

I would think so. Like I think in your first pursuit of being a major leaguer and making it to a 40 man. Because they option the contract, right? Yeah. They sign. So if you make it to the 40 man now, while on the 40 man, your minimum is 57 grand. Yes. Okay.

So to put it in, yeah, okay. Yes, because they're still in the minors. It's still... They're still in the minors, but they're on an MLB contract because they're on the 40-man roster. Where, like the AAA salary before... So if you're in AAA now, it says you're making 35,000 grand. Last year it was 17.

35 grand. And now, if you're in AAA, not on the 40-man, but in AAA, you're making 35 grand. If they select you to the 40-man roster, now you're making 57. It's a 20 grand increase, the way I'm reading this. I guess if we're interpreting this right, and if you're looking for how this could be affecting your baseball team,

what I'm currently getting is, especially for, you know, knowing how teams check their finances, that you might see more young guys get opportunities because if the debate is, do I want to pay, I can't believe Cole Calhoun continues to be the example here, but he's currently in Yankees AAA, so that's who we're using. Um, would we rather pay Cole Calhoun, you know, a hundred grand plus to be at AAA or a guy on their first majorly contract who's a kid just got out to the 40 man. You pay him half of that.

You just, you, you have the exact opposite and, and negative, uh, side of the take that I have. But we're not in disagreeance. I agree with you. But you're kind of like reigning on my fun parade where I was going to say that the term career minor. leager is now a real nice career because if you make it to the 40 man but you can't stick your quadruple a player right now if you sign a second deal you know like a non-roster invitee to camp and then didn't make the club so you sign a minor league deal but you've already had service time your minimum salary is 114 grand if your wife you know 10 years ago was saying honey we can't

afford to live. Like, I call up her friend Cratsy. He's probably like, what the fuck? Yeah. I was making 20 grand. Nick, he's probably happy. Nick Birdie just got called up the other day and he had like an emotional tweet that was going viral because he was like, thanks to my wife that like, let me pursue this for

the last. Let me try it one more time. Now that Drew Maggie's and those guys. Like, you can. And your, your negative spin, which is correct, is that they're not going to be given as many chances because now they cost more money. But if a team is with. to pay these guys to be on as quadruple a players to like load up their triple a

the term career minor leaguer exists because in 2026 and i guess all these numbers are somewhat the same because it's inflation based on 127 grand so instead of being like i don't know i got to go home to the wife and kid and pursue a new career dude you're not making 127 grand right out the gate in another career unless you were you know mike messina graduate from yale with a great degree just chose baseball. But yeah, career minor leagers is a real cool job. Yeah, you mentioned Eric Crats. Sean Casimir.

Casimir was the guy that got called up from the Braves after not playing since he was on the Padres in 2008 in 2021. Like, you know, from 08 to 21, he was making very little money playing minor league baseball. But I think you're correct on the flip side that these guys just won't exist anymore. Might get nipped in the bud a little bit. Yeah. Maybe the career minor leaguer actually won't exist because.

teams are going to be like, there will be a couple, and there will be like a cool passing article in 20 years. It'll be like, I lived a nice life. I think it's really going to have to be a quadruple A player that, like, is taxi squad. Like Maggie got called up,

but he did a lot where I think he was never in contention. And same with Casimir. So like maybe those guys. Well, and I think the other thing that maybe you'll see is that maybe there will be one of these guys in each org who's almost a player coach. Because I think that's what Casmar basically was. for the Braves that I think he retired and then the Braves hired him as a minor league coach

the next year. So maybe you have like one of those guys in your organization who's almost the Nick Swisher, throwing the arm around all the young guys and stays in the mix. And then you call him up for Schlitz and giggles when you, I think like on a lot of the minor league teams, they like having a guy who's like being to the show. And like he's actually like an older dude. Like I can like peach the young kids stuff. There's also this bonus program. That is a little confusing. The commissioner's office set aside 50 million to distribute among pre-arbitration players, so in the first three years of being a MLB player. At the conclusion of the season, players classified as foreign professionals includes Kodaisanga, Yoshida, are excluded. That's the part

that's new. What? Because they already made, because they're like signed a free agent contract. Payment amounts are determined by awards won and statistical achievement. So they There's some like a lot. Okay. So last year was the first year of this. Yeah. That's cool. You win a prize.

You get it. The only thing is they're giving out money for, uh, if you get like all MLB awards, which is not the all star. It's their kind of J.M baseball or all J.M. awards. But if you get the all MLB award and you don't show up to the,

uh, ceremony like the Emmys, like if you win an Oscar, but you don't show up to the Oscars, baseball saying, fuck you, you're out. No bonus money for you.

Yeah. They won't. You better show up to our event. They want to put it on a show. Look nice and promote it. Otherwise, you're not getting this 10 grand. NBA's done this for years that, you know, depending on what you, all NBA teams,

that can change your contract. Had 150 great games earned you this bonus, but your best friends getting married and you can't make it. No money for you, sucker. I mean, this is voted on by baseball writers of America. So if you're like not liked. Yeah, be nice. Well, it's a good lesson in all life, you know.

Don't piss people off. Try to be nice. people. The All-Star game tiebreaker is the big one. Jam, this is, baseball's making a big bet here. Ooh. This is basically the newest thing. And I place my bets at the Draft King Sportsbook,

and right now you can place $5 on a game. And you'll get $150 in bonus bets. Bong. That's easy enough. So if you're looking to get in, this is pretty good. They've got their same game parlayes. Why don't you join in the big league action now at Draft King Sportsbook?

download the app, sign up with code talking. New customers can bet just $5 and get $150. Bonus bets instantly, only a drafting sports book with promo code talking. Jim, and you're talking about this All-Star game tiebreaker? Yeah, we're going to a swing off. How about that? If the All-Star game is tied after nine innings, each team shall pick three players to participate in a home-run derby tiebreaker.

Each player gets three swings out of an unlimited amount of pitches to hit as many home runs as they can. The team with the most home runs out of its three selected players wins. So if the National League, each guy hits one, and the American League two guys hit none, but one guy hits three, tie game. And then they would send just one guy out three swings until someone wins, I think.

This is fun. I hope it happens this year. If you're Manfred, you almost pay for a tie. Like you're completely, you know, you make sure. You make this happen. Yeah. You just go by the office and say, whatever you can't. Tag game would sure be nice.

Yeah. You know, we talked about this a little bit when we've done some of our rule change episodes. And, uh, all-star game is great for this. Like if an all-star game ends and it's, you know, Joe, Jotani and Vladi versus. All-Star games are designed to get new eyes. Pete Alonzo. The home run derby is designed to get new eyes. like little kids.

So if they see a home, you're going to tune in, even if you hate it, and it's ridiculous, you're going to tune in, and the people that don't follow at all the little kids are going to tune in.

They're going to fucking love it. The selection committee when you announce which three guys got, you know, he, I thought he left the game in the seventh inning. Does that have to be the nine remaining or anyone on the bench?

I don't know. I think they can pick any three, the manager can pick any three they want. Wow. And there's like, he chose himself. They upped the award money for like the winning All-Star team

which is part of this. So it's like, I think for a full game guys aren't gonna make like diving catches for that but Yeah, might get excited for the home run derby, bench gets into it, you get a little extra cheddar if you win. Yeah, and it,

I guess I'm interested to see it. And you know, it's the hometown all-stars that year is always a thing. Like it would be really cool if, you know, say, say it was in Texas, this year and they brought up Simeon Seeger and Lowe

and it was like, oh my God, the Texas Rangers. I don't know, it's fun, it's the All-Star game. You're right, you will watch it. And again, we talked about this potentially with real games. It's off the deep end, but we went, if you remember, we went to our hockey playoff run last year, Jim, and we saw, or we went to a regular season game.

I think it was your brother's birthday. Yeah. And we saw a penalty shoot out in person, and we're like, this is sick. It wasn't great hockey, and, you know, it's a complaint with soccer and, you know, hockey as well, but it's an entertaining way to wrap the game up. Regular season games, this would be tough. Although I do, this gets me a little closer to the regular season, extra innings,

send whatever three you want to the plate. Like, I think that would be sick. I know it's not pure baseball, but again. I have a different idea. What if we do like a bunt and sack fly competition? You just start with the runner on second. Okay. Someone's got to bunt them over and then you hit a sack fly to send them in.

Would that be more exciting to you than power? I liked your video with We Got Ice Bunting. I had a baseball bunt, but it on cement. Tough to bun on cement. Yeah, you had to foul ball it. Yeah. So that's what happened there. Yeah, I'm excited about this.

Because why not? Like, it's the All-Star game. It literally doesn't matter. It quite literally does not matter. Last year's All-Star Game MVP, Giancarlo Stanton. Hometown hero. Didn't it play the rest of the year? Basically.

He didn't play again until whatever he got back. Come on. I don't know. He started the second half on the IL. The last segment of the episode that I thought was cool and also dies if we don't talk about it right now was an article from MLB.com written by Anthony Castro, Vince.

Castro Vinci. Yeah, Vinci is how I really wanted to say. We talked about a couple of his articles this off season. Okay. Well, he's got a list of, maybe we won't grab all of these. I don't want to do the whole article on him because we got seven in our sheet and how many did he put out?

No, he put out more than seven. So there's a couple you're not going to go. Did he, wait, what are we doing? Milestones. Oh, milestones, milesons. Because these might, the pace might die after today. Right. Like even,

even Arias, we were getting all horned up because, like, two weeks ago, he was sitting at 420 and we're like, damn, like, all right, he's already down to 386, which, like, he had a punk. What did he did? He had a 12-game hitting streak and he's dropped from like 440 to 390. 400, such a sicko number. Yeah.

The 20 and 23, the 20-3, Tampa Bay Razor on Pace to be the first team to ever win 120 games. Game of a ban or no. I don't think that's going to happen. No, at least it's pretty nasty. They still have five more pitchers. that have to get hurt, and they had the easiest schedule ever. I do.

I'm interested that they're on pace to break the home run record, and that passes the sniff test a little bit. Like, their lineup, home runs are up, and their lineup is great. And their relievers are good, too, but they just get hurt, like crazy. But also, it's really...

Go out there and throw as hard as you can for as long as you can. We'll let you know when you're done. You're done. I.L. Minor leagues, get paid a little more. Welcome to Ray's baseball. And Yankees baseball, to be honest.

And on most teams. I think that's kind of every team. No, it's not. The Yankees and the Rays are like reliever injury teams like crazy. Yeah. Like crazy. And it's philosophy driven. Like the Rays pitchers have signed there and said,

I know I'll probably get injured, but I'm excited to learn what I'm going to learn. Yeah. Learn your secrets. I think it's a few more teams too, like the Dodgers. Any team that pushes their bullpen. And every team, probably every fan base, thinks their team is on that list, too.

I don't know. The Yankees have had every reliever. If you look at the relievers on the I-John, like within three years of each other. When they decided to be a reliever-heavy team. And the raise are the same one. Anyway, Acuna Jr. on pace to be the first player ever with 30 homers and 60 steals.

Does that do something for you? I think that does something for me. If it was 40 and 60? We haven't, in our baseball lifetimes, we haven't seen, like, the woe stolen base number. And I feel like when it starts with a six, I think that starts to make you say woe. But I mean, the 30 homers.

30 homers in 60 steals is pretty. What's the closest, do you think? Well, the closest anybody has ever come was Eric Davis with 37 homers and 50 steals for the 1987 Reds. Like Barry Bonds, 33 and 52. Can I give you a couple numbers? Pirates Barry. Ricky Henderson, all-time Sloan,

leader, you know, and a legend. By the way, he's got a 2865 homer season. He has a 2887 home season. Ricky Henderson stole 130 bases in 1982. Yeah, he was running. Buck 30, people. No grass. That's insane.

It's turf. Like, pump that into my veins. Ricky Henderson is an all-time inner circle, like, making a starting nine lineup, I think he's the leadoff hitter for the all-time baseball team. So I was going to say I want to see another Ricky and I don't think we'll get that. I want someone that can steal bases like that again. Like every time first pitch, I'm gone, Pop. Yeah, like everybody knows every time they're on first and second.

I don't care who's up. Then we need to do mine and Treves OPS where if you get a single and a stolen base changes in the world of OPS, not your counting stats. Right. changes your single to add a total base. Or even at least half. What do we say? OPSS?

OPSS. OPS Plus S? Yeah. We've always gotten hung up here. But yeah. Yeah. Know how like, they should make that.

If they can change a slider to a sweeper just for the fuck of it, then make OPS plus S and credit us. Well, we were... Our friends at pitcherless invented, like the swinging strike thing, right? I think the... I think so.

The, uh, the, uh, The swing and miss percentage on pitches. With percentage? I think they, like, did that. I don't think so. I think we'd be surprised. Very early in the year.

I mean, that's not an algorithm. That's just, like, how many times did you swing and how many times did you miss? Right. We're not creating an algorithm either, but we're keeping track of, like, a stat that now gets kept track of. That's what they did.

We're, like, very, very early in the year when Volpe kind of hadn't gone at all yet, like for any sort of stress. but he'd swipe some bags. I did like a OPSS for him. And it was like, I brought him up like a buck 50 on the OPS scale. Cullen bases are back.

Go, Ronnie, go. It's fun. So the next one I feel smells like bullshit to me. Okay. Ozzy Albies is on pace to be the shortest, lightest player to hit 40 home runs. Come on. What's Ozzy Albies listed as?

I think he's listed. 5-8-165? Tainty monster. Yeah? It's got listed 5-8-165. I know my short kings. That? I would, I think I'd have Willie over him on the height.

All right. Well, he's listed five. I guess 40 in a season's a ton. 40's a big boy number. I thought it was going to be, I thought the sentence was going to lead to career numbers and I was about to be like, no way.

But 40's pretty big. that. Okay, go him go. Who would be his contenders? What was Kirby Puck? Did he ever pop 40? Probably not. So he's probably short, but Kirby was thick. Like Kirby was probably... 5-8-178. And that was a lie. No, he was all air. Like Al-Tuve has 2-31

Homer years. So... Oh, yeah. What's his weight listed? His weight... Is this his shortest and light? He's listed 5-6-166. Okay. So Alby's has him by a pound listed weight. Two weeks, two chunk. Get on the scale, fellas.

He was wearing his boxers. All right. Alby's just hopped on nude. The 2023 New York Mets have hit exactly zero first inning home runs this season. Their disaster, huh? No. The fewest first inning home runs in a full season came from the 1980. Cardinals with two.

What's going on? Have you seen like all those stats? Verlander got booed. Is it getting Metsy? So Verlander got booed as he walked off the mound yesterday. He didn't have a good outing. And then they did a trivia question in between innings and the answer was Verlander and they booed him again.

Is what the tweet said. That's what the tweet said. Like the trivia. His first two starts brought his name. His first start at City Field. They're not, they're clearly. not booing just Verlander in those books? They're booing like what the hell's going on, not specifically him, but like the entire

situation. Truth serum. Justin Verlander right now, would he just resign with Houston? I nod at my head, yes quietly. All right, that's the today's episode. That's the midweek. Appreciate you guys for tuning in. Thank you very much.

We'll see you next time. Driver's song. Click another video. Why not? Won't hurt you. Don't even got to keep watching that one. Just keep it running in the background.