Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - ABS Challenge System has been AWESOME for MLB | 1107

Episode Date: April 1, 2026

https://fanaticsmarkets.onelink.me/3MFw?af_xp=email&pid=jomboy&af_dp=fanmarkets%3A%2F%2Fhomepage&af_channel=partnerships&af_click_lookback=7d Book your next trip at https://www.bestwestern.com This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Sign up and get 10% off at https://betterhelp.com/TALKINBASEBALL   Talkin’ Jake is joined by the great Chris Rose to talk all things ABS, rookies who they think will break out, teams they’ve already flipped on, extensions and more!   0:00 Intro 5:40 ABS challenge system 13:30 CB Bucknor 18:10 Umpire psychology 22:40 Rose’s Guardians 25:40 Rookies who can breakout 40:00 Are there any teams you’ve flip flopped on? 58:26 Colt Emerson and Cooper Pratt extensions   Event contracts carry risk of total loss and changing prices. Not good  for all investors. Not available in all states. Must be 21+. See Important Disclosures in Fanatics Markets app. Customers are introduced to Crypto.com by Paragon Global Markets, LLC, d/b/a Fanatics Markets IB, an Introducing Broker registered with the CFTC and a Member of the NFA. 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 today. That's right. Chris Rose is here. We're hitting all the big topics. Teams were into, players were into, and no Trevor Pleas. Let's talk ball. None. None. Cooper crap. Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball presented by Fanatics Markets, where fans trade on sports. Fanatics markets available now on the app stores. I am Jake Storyelli. Rob Sharako is producing. Dalt getting the info together. And Chris Rose is our handsome California joining us today on talking baseball. Rosie, how are you? No, no, no. You definitely go down in looks. Definitely go down in net worth. Yeah, all these things.

Intelligence might be a coin flip. Sense of humor, probably both tied for last in the office. So, you know, I apologize. If you were looking for something special today on our YouTube channel and that handsome dude, you got the guy on the back nine. There are a couple significant others that catch the background of the show that are like, oh, I don't know. What's today's episode?

No, Chris Rose. A, net worth depending some of your early investments. Right. Because I, you know, well, Trev's got some new friends that I feel like he's now in that other world of investing. He's playing at a different level. Yeah. All that stuff. So he might have you there.

And I don't know. Sometimes those Chris Rose best damn sports show picks come out. It's like, okay, Chris Rose. On TV early. Yeah. That's always the funny stuff. People will send me a picture from 2002 and say, I mean, I got to be you age. Like, wow, really that happens over 24 years?

Yeah. I didn't know. It couldn't. If we did that with some of the people in our office, some of them wouldn't be born yet. Uh, some of the, some of the, some of the players were probably going to talk today. Uh, I saw the year South Stewart was born and I was a little shook, a little shook by that one today that. Yeah, we're, uh, we're going to aim. I don't want to say aim wide today, but Chris, you and I don't get to talk a lot of ball in front of the mics.

I mean, we, we both share Treve. We kind of, we have a nice, you get him on the weekends. Yes. Yes. Uh, every other weekend. And that, yeah, and we both, we're both grinders that, and you have Trev knowledge-wise. He didn't even go to college. And you're a proud Miami of Ohio.

The Chiracroko shriek. The Chiracco giggled. He could have gone to college. I wouldn't have gone either if somebody had made me the 20th pick in the 2004 draft. I'll be honest with you. That's fair. Wouldn't have done it. But if he had gone to Stanford, he wouldn't be talking about a men's college basketball team.

that won an NCAA tournament game this year and was undefeated for most of the year. Your Miami of Ohio Red Hawks, baby. We're just Miami University. Okay, I'm sorry. People go, wait, Miami, that down in Florida, and I always tell them that Miami was a university before Florida was a state, established 1809. And one of five schools ever, by the way,

to have both the president of the United States and a Super Bowl winning quarterback. Dalton answered that as soon as you started that speech. And it was powerful. And I'm happy for you. And, yeah, we'll see if we mix in any other sports. I think it's going to be heavy baseball. You know, I'm happy with my Yukon Huskies. Dad attended there.

So I can, I'm allowed to support in the college sports ranks. And yeah, I have a very fond memory. We filmed one of our Blitzball battles. Chris Rose at dinner watching his Red Hawks. Like, because you just love ball. And that's how I know I'm excited to talk to you about these first week of games, Chris Rose, because another secret I leak out on, I'd say two episodes a year. We'll talk about covering all these games.

And I remember as talking baseball was taken off, I asked you, I was like, Rosie, what, what's like, are there any tricks or secrets to like keeping up with the baseball season? It's a lot. And you're like, I watch a lot of games. Watch a lot of, that's the secret. That's the secret. It's true. You know, it pays to not have much else in your life.

Particularly when your kids are grown and stuff. Like I've done all that stuff. Last night. Now, Josh still lives at home because he works in Los Angeles and we didn't have to, we didn't want to subsidize an extra place. Once again, there's a financial tip. Nice. If you have an extra room in your house and one of your kids is going to live in the city

in which you live as well, give them the room. Nice. Give them the room. But we just sat. We watched ball all night long. Kind of tuned in, obviously, to our guardians who are out here on the West Coast. taking on the Dodgers and Shohei Otani, who was back on the mound for the first time in 2026.

So, yeah, I mean, just watch as much as you can. A little scoreless streak going for Shohei, just to get it started again. Yeah, well, let's start with, it's the big topic of the year so far because it's completely changed the sport. If there was a segment on this on Best Damn in 02, you guys probably would have laughed it off the stage.

Tom Arnold would have had a good. one-liner, we would have moved on because we saw robotums. I mean, we're here, Rosie. Obviously, you know, on baseball today, on talking baseball, on everywhere, it's the topic because it's such a big change in the sport. I guess I want to hear your general, where are you at with it? Are you ready for more? Like, John Boy is saying, like, John Boy is ready to go full ABS.

And I kind of my contrarian was fighting it. And now I'm like, hey, if we're just getting calls right and everyone agrees, maybe that's right. So where are you at with ABS? I love it. I love the excitement of it. I've talked to a bunch of players. I've talked to a couple of managers. I went and saw the Guardians the other day and asked Stephen vote.

I think we're actually going to put out a short about it and how they deal with it strategically. By the way, every team in the world can tell me they've had a bunch of meetings on how to deploy this. Yeah. That's a lie. that is a lie. Oh, okay. If you're watching the games, you've got guys that are doing the total wrong counts,

like an O-O pitch. Why would you ever tap your head on an O-O pitch? I'll tell you. That could change in it bad. 1-0-0-1? I'll tap on O-O. Okay. No way.

1-1. Something to make it, I would even go like, I could be persuaded into, two one. But one one is the one is the count that changes an entire bat, right? They've proven it statistically that the difference between one and two and two and one is, is enormous. But they also are just, it's carte blanche. You know every time, I don't care who you're a fan of. You know the people who know the strike zone and who don't on your team. And then situational baseball,

we don't really have it a ton in this sport. We certainly haven't thought about it a lot, right? we talk in the NFL circles about situational football and playing well and putting together a four-minute drive at the end of a game if you can and guys falling down in bounds when they could have gotten a few extra yards but it's more important to keep the clock running well if you have one challenge left and you're leading the game five four in the top of the ninth and you know that your closers about to come on in a safe situation why would you ever tap your end? head at the plate ever you want to leave that for your catcher and pitcher to utilize in the bottom of the knife and i've seen it several times where guys just they don't even think about it

so for me the fun part is being able to yell at the tv because people don't understand when to use the challenge and how to effectively use the challenge that's the side of it past the umpires which i know we'll get to but for me yeah i would be okay with i think eventually expanding this thing I think we've really got to see how it's working out. And I wouldn't mind changing it during the season. NFL changes rules all the time during the season. Like, do we need to have 16 meetings about it and get approved by this and that in order to change the rule? No, let's just go for it.

So, okay, Chris Rose, because, yeah, we, Dahl has some great stats for us on the sheet. Right, right now, the 2-2 count has been the most challenged count with 27. Number two is OO. Don't get it. So I guess here's my thing. And a couple of their stats, because this isn't necessarily my strength, but it's good for the people to know. Catchers are getting them right at a 64% clip, essentially.

Hitters at a 42. Pitchers, I mean, there's still just been very few pitcher ones. My guy, Max Fried got one last night. Great start, by the way. Can people talk about Max Fried more than I do? Because it's just been the best starting pitcher, ERA-W-S since 2020, if you like that. So yeah, I mean, Pula actually, we, we said, give us a dark horse to win the Cy Young.

And he's not even really a dark horse because he is. He shouldn't be. That's the problem. Right. Like, if he, and now I'm the problem, because I was going to say if he ever sneaks one out, you know, sneaking out a Cy Young award. I don't, it would very much change the perspective on Max Reed, who's just had an amazing career up into this point. wearing an Andy Pettit shirt after the game. Okay, that was a little Yankees.

That was a little Yankees stuff leaking out. Well, maybe he was an Astros Andy Petit fan. Hey, now. Easy with that. Easy with that. He was there for three years. It's not like he'd six games for him. He's a proud Texan, and I love that for Andy.

But he's a Yankee. I guess for me, and this is probably too laissez-faire, but I guess would you have a clause for your team, Chris Rose, of like egregious misses? because we had the CB Buckner night. Another, I obviously, I watch more Yankees baseball, although they were on the West Coast, so I had the whole 7 to 940 MLB big inning rolling

that I was watching a lot of ball. Trent Grisham is two for two this year because he's had two high curve balls that have crossed at his shoulders that got called for strikes. If you're a manager, kind of where you started was, hey, we have to be situational about this. Would you have a clause for an egregious miss call or no?

What I would do is I would divide the locker room and move guys' lockers around. So if your locker is on this side when you walk in, you are allowed to challenge. If your locker has been placed on this side, you're not allowed to tap your head. You're out. By the way, Rob, this video is we're showing right now is making me ill. A little um, please not use that cam ever again. That was gross. A little l'am.

For those of you that were audio only, we were showing ump cam while trying to figure out where the pitch was up in San Francisco. And that was, didn't, made my stomach. A little drama mean, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So look, they're trying to give their guys freedom. But they know which guys are morons when they get into a batters box. Right.

We know it from watching our team. And they know it from watching their players the way that they do. Like the last four or five challenges for my guardians have been Anhelle, Martinez, sure, Gabriel Arias, Brian Rokio, Bo Naler. Like you don't hear me saying Stephen Kwan, a guy who's been screwed out of more balls from lefty on lefty than anybody in baseball the last couple of years. Like, no, he's not the one that. that's hit in his head. It's all these guys that don't know the strike zone. And they keep losing it. And the ball ends up right in the center of the square. I'm like, it's not even clipping edges

here at this point. But it makes it all fun. It's another element of the game. In fact, voter told me, he said, that's the part of the game in the stadium that has gotten the most reaction. Yeah. It's not necessarily a huge home run or something. It's like everybody gets so fired up when a call gets overturned. You know, the home team is challenging and a call gets overturned and they're like, this is great. Today's episode is sponsored by Best Western Hotels and Resorts. Life's a trip, so why not make the most of it? Four thousand Best Western hotels worldwide. They're there for every detour destination and unexpected turn along the way. A great stay isn't just about where you sleep. It's where the journey takes you next. And if you stay three nights at a Best Western,

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Pack your bag, cue up the playlist and book more of what matters most. Life's a trip. Make the most of it at bestwestern.com. Yeah, the CB Buckner scene was. a little tough because that's almost that's our that's our society going too far that's a classic case of you know i i like when the right call gets made and it gets overturned that's kind of it's been probably the best part of abs is there it stopped there's no argument like there's very little times in our society right now that everyone's like hey we just agree on this this is good to go that when

they do the abs call and if it just nicks that zone or if it just misses everyone's like all right These are the rules. And now let's roll with it. Buckner got close to taunting an old man, which I don't support. But it's also, it is what it is, man. And right now he's currently the leader in the clubhouse of having the toughest 2026 season. Well, let's see here. You had eight calls challenged.

Six were overturned in your time behind home plate. Then last night in Milwaukee, the Jake Bowers play, I have no idea what the hell happened. If you listen to the Brewers call on TV, for people that don't know what happened, there was an errant throw by Tampa Bay. Bowers, you know, reaches on an air. And they go back and Buckner says he missed first base.

Now, if you see that we're showing the play, you can see it clearly. He didn't even come close. He almost at the center of the bag with his foot. Yes. So Milwaukee had to check. challenge and it got overturned quickly and you could see CB like, oh my God, what was I doing here? You know, the announcers said he wasn't even looking at the bag. Like, how can you make that

egregious a call? The best part of this video are the two manager shots afterward of Kevin Cash and Pat Murphy looking and smirking at one another. Like, can you believe that he fucking missed that? It is, Robbie, let this play out if this full clip goes. after CB is, he wanted no, here it is. Watch Cash and Murphy. How great is that? Just a couple, a couple old doggs just laughing it up, first week of the season.

This game was a lot of fun, by the way. Bowers and Sanchez, the brewers just are relentless. And yeah, I guess the other evolution, because every team currently has a different philosophy. like we've seen right now the late innings, the top four innings and challenge pitches are 6, 7, 9th. That, you know, I expect to see that continue as you're talking. If you're talking count leverage, you've got to talk game leverage as well.

Right. And then I think the part that's really interesting, and I don't know if my guy the John Beano's got his fingers on this one yet, but the pitch types, 40 for 60 on four seam fastballs, which, okay, that kind of makes sense, right? That's the straightest of the pitches. Two seam fastballs, 11 for 33. A lot of movement on those bad boys.

Sliders, 11 for 25. So changeups on the other hand, 9 for 14. So it's going to be very interesting as those stats start to develop. For me, I start to get worried the more you put in players' heads, the more you have to think. And that I try to keep it simple stupid where it's like, hey, if it's a ball that gets called a strike, I'll let you have it.

But when you have guys playing with emotions and you have guys playing for their contracts and you have, I don't know, just that little thought of maybe, you're right, you can end up putting your team in a bad position. I guess I want to see more of it because, again, my Yankees have been pretty good at it so far this year that they haven't been penalized. Like I think the Red Sox yesterday after the fifth inning

were out of challenges or one of the games I was watching. So like that's when things are going to get really interesting and we're going to have, that's when we're going to have our manager blow up. But I don't know. I haven't felt that part of it yet. No, that part's true. Plus, it's so new, right? We're just a week into this thing.

So we're all kind of still settling into how to use it, what it means, when to use it. So for me, there's two interesting aspects. You brought up one of them, which is overloading the baseball brain. Okay. There are some guys who love it and are fully equipped. There are other guys whose heads will literally explode as they're walking to home. Yeah. And that could be a problem. The other side of this, because I always wanted to delve into sports psychology is what is this doing to our umpires? Yeah, man. Right. Um,

we already have a negative thought about umpires and referees. Like you're always trying to screw us. We very rarely walk away from a game and was like, boy, that was a well umpired game. Very clean. Well, excellent officiating. I loved every bit of it. No, we're all bitching about some sort of call that was made. Even if the umpire was. right behind the home plate. There's always one or two. Like, oh, you get nailed on that one. Well, now these guys are on pins and needles back there. And I actually texted with an umpire recently. And I said, how did it go behind the home plate? He said, well, I got, you know, I got overturned on three or four. And I said, listen, man, I know you don't want to hear

this, but I actually think it's going to show eventually how good you guys are. Yeah. Really. As long as we as fans have some perspective here, our favorite quarterbacks don't go 22 of 22 through the first three quarters. They miss fire. So they are, even the best in the world are inaccurate at some point. So we have to understand that the umpires are going to miss a certain number of calls. As long as they embrace that, hey, it's okay to miss it. I didn't like what the Yankees did the other night.

Like when Esther Brooke was screwing it up, and they're like, hey, you got to change your zone. Or you could keep challenging and win. Yeah. I mean, I think you can only start bitching once you lose all your challenges. That's what I would say. No words from the dugout until you lose all your challenges. Then we can get back to complaining unless it's a check swing or something that you can't challenge. And there have been less words from the dugout. That's that's been a surprising, a wrinkle that I've enjoyed. Because normally, I don't know, if you, I think if you, if I think about myself watching a normal baseball game and I see the douging.

or I love a starting pitcher on an off day who starts barking a little bit. In my head, I enjoy that. Haven't missed it. Like, I haven't been watching the game sitting on the couch and being like, oh, God, I wish we got that cutscene of Andrew Abbott, pissy in the dugout. Like, I haven't missed that at all. I haven't missed the complaining in general. Like, I just, there hasn't been a ton of it.

And, yeah, the fact that it is for me and how my brain processes things, the thought that, okay, everyone kind of likes this. We're getting calls right. I don't know. I never thought I was a fully automated strikes zone guy, but it definitely has me questioning it. Or my earliest one would be go to three challenges just because I do think teams are just being a little gun shy.

I think they're just a little bit. I agree. I know you mentioned that Murderer's Row in the Guardians lineup, that I would love if I don't want, Brian Rochio being horrified that if an umpire misses a call by half a foot, if he's horrified to hit his head where he has an opportunity to get a two-oh count where Brian Rochio might be able to drive a ball and change his season stats.

Like I just... Well, there's a guy who doesn't watch enough guardians base. Right there. I understand what you're saying. Have you come across anybody who doesn't like the system as a fan? Oh, interesting. Maybe the implementation, like how it's being used, I can understand that. But is there anybody who's like, God, I wish they would just go back to what we had last year?

Because I haven't. No, I mean, we interviewed Booney yesterday and he was kind of against it and he's still not in love with it, which is ironic. And we were kind of trying to unpack that because it's, I don't know. That sounds like a therapy issue. It was. And I went, as you know, Chris Rose, I go deep that I was talking to the Boone's being a historic baseball franchise that umpires have kind of been with them throughout the journey of baseball that maybe there's something about that but no i i haven't heard anyone i guess the complaint is people

want more right like yeah so that's that's a good sign that's a good sign um rosy i do want to i don't know if you want to put a minute 30 or two minutes on the clock if you want to give us some guards and i don't know if this leads into some chase de lauder talk but what i guess what are you seeing from your guard dogs this year. Listen, man. Oh, no, no, don't start with that. I love my team. I sat through, for people that don't know,

I sat through the 80s, which was a horrific Indians decade of baseball. Just pathetic. The first 23 years of my life, this team finished no higher than fourth in their division. Now, a few things you got to keep in mind.

They were part of the then American League East that had seven teams. But still, they couldn't even fall into a third place finish one year. The first 23 years of my life, that's almost a quarter century where they were out of it every season. I mean, just to chime in a little bit, because I only caught, I caught three months of the 80s, but they made a famous baseball movie about a bad baseball franchise that happened to be your franchise. It came out my senior year in high school. Oh, man. Is that your favorite movie ever then? It's one of them.

I mean, it's still on TV. If I'm flipping through and it's on, I will definitely watch it, curl up and watch it. Nice. So it came out right around this time. It was like toward the end of spring training, beginning of the baseball season. And we go to the theater. And in Cleveland, as I mentioned, we never sniffed the playoffs.

It was like going to a playoff game, I imagine. The people were standing and cheering. and when Jake Taylor squares around to bunt, the drive in the winning run against your hated Yankees, the place went nuts. I'm telling you, it was freaky. We were such losers back then. This is all we had to cheer for was a fucking movie.

Not the real thing. Then we all walked to our cars, and there was like 18 inches of snow on the ground. We were like, yeah, that's... Welcome to Cleveland. Yeah. I'm going to go buy my Corbyn-Bernson jersey now. Nice.

Go get him, Roger, Dorn. Dorn. Um, okay. So that was talking Guardians. Um, yeah, that was it. Basically, a lot of young guys, if Bezana's not up here by the middle to end of May, people will have a riot. Okay. Okay. That's the one thing to look out for.

Who's the, who's the Guardians pitcher that we're going to look up at June 1st and be like, oh, okay, so they've, they've done this again. Well, it was kind of Gavin Williams, the second half of last year. There's a lot of people that are running hot on Joey Cantillo. Um, I mean, I think Parker Messick, you saw it the other night. He must throw an invisible because he throws like 92. He was hitting a little hotter the other night against the Dodgers.

But six shutout innings, no walks against them on Monday night. He's a guy who I watched his, I think he made seven starts last year. I was like, okay, this guy's got something. He doesn't throw 98. He looks like he walked out of the cornfield. Nice. In Field of Dreams. Like that.

Real high socks. like big ass, you know, country boy. So he's the guy that I think you could probably keep your eye on this year. Okay, I like that. I guess who else of the young dudes? Because it's been the story. And Chris, I gave a weird sports speech because I think you'll agree with this. I consume a ton of sports, football, NBA, college, all of it.

That I always laugh when they cut to one of those a desk show that the goal, I would say 80% of the time, one of the sign-off lines is like, look at the young talent in this league. The future of the NFL is in great hands. And you could do that. NBA, you do that with any sport that I think it's a little corny because you're obviously listening to people that love the sport. So I try to call myself out.

But after the opening weekend where the most home runs by rookies on opening weekend. The highest OPS since 1900. The slug highest since 1900. What went on the year 1900 on the nose? What was that season like? They're the story of opening weekend. So I guess who are a guy or guys, because De Lauder stole the headlines, Rosie, but there's a ton of guys crushing it. Yeah. By the way, Delauder followed the ball off his foot in his first at bat last night. And for people that have followed him. It's been injuries that kept him from getting up here quicker, including a broken foot. So he left the game. He finished the abat, tried to limp to first on a ground ball.

Josh and I looked at each other. He wanted to cry. He wanted to cry. So De Lauder, to me, is taking a back seat, to be honest with you, to another guy that plays his home games in the state of Ohio. And Sal Stewart, I am a huge, huge fan of his. We got a little taste of it last year. Limited time, but it's a few things. First of all, the way he attacks the baseball and can go, you know, to right center as easily as he can, left center, which is really, really impressive. He hit another Homer yesterday. He's already got nine hits. He's got 18 total bases. There's only one other red that has even double digits in terms of total bases, and that's Ellie Daylick Cruz. But I want to go a little bit more big picture here. We know that the

Reds have had some left-handed hitting pop over the years and guys that can really swing it, right? Joey Votto, who retired a few years ago, by the way, I cannot wait to hear him on national TV. I think he's going to be awesome. The big donkey, you know, Adam Dunn was a guy who would hit it out of the stadium. Jay Bruce. Jay Bruce is another one. Those are all guys that were drafted and developed by the Cincinnati Reds. So it got me thinking, what happened to the right-handed pop?

Because this is what they were looking for in the office. season. It's one of the reasons they brought back A. E. E. E. E. E. E. Hennio Suarez. This is the guy we're going to be talking about at the end of the season that is really, I think, one of the best hitters in baseball. Not just as helped maybe elevate the Cincinnati Reds, but one of the young guys who's are going to say, man, I wish we had Sal Stewart for a number of reasons. Listen to the four guys that the Reds, four right-handed hitters that the Reds have drafted that have hit at least 30 homers in their uniform. Oh, boy. Johnny Bench

Okay Barry Larkin Yeah Eric Davis and Todd Frazier's the most recent one Now you've got two Hall of Famers A guy who was in my opinion on a Hall of Fame trajectory

if he had stayed healthy in Eric Davis He was really probably one of the five most talented players I've ever seen in my lifetime And Todd Frazier Who was an all-star home run derby champ Had great pop We all know him, we love him That's a pretty day

damn good group. This guy is going to join them. And I love the, if you listen to his postgame interviews, did you listen to him the other day when A. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. E. Henio Suarez had a bigot, bat. Might have been opening day when they lost to the Red Sox. Yeah. Wasn't successful. And Sal Stuart was at his locker. And he goes, that's the guy I want up in a key situation. This is a 22-year-old. Yes. He wasn't like, like, yeah, you know, we had a lot. chances, like all the generic bullshit. He's like, that's the guy I won up with the game on the line. And what

happens a couple days later, Suarez hits a late inning home run to give them the lead and eventually the win. And I was like, oh my God. On top of being a really good baseball player, he knows what he's talking about. And he said the same thing last night after they lost. The only thing I can't get past

are his caterpillar eyebrows. He's got to call Nelson Cruz or something to get those things trimmed down. That's where I have to fight back on you, Rosie. I I think the caterpillar eyebrows go well with his mustache when he has it. I think that pairs perfectly. I'll start with the ridiculous illetics because I'm pivoting off of your eyebrows. Sal Stewart's an amazing baseball name.

And by the way, it plays in Cincinnati. It plays with 6-1-224 as he's listed. And the fella can hit, Rosie. Like, you know, it's, I like, you know, as we talk baseball through the long, off season. Sometimes we find ourselves talking in circles that it's that guy looks like a, that guy's hitterish. I mean, McGonagall

came up and the scouting report was, he looks hitterish. Like if you've just watched baseball, you're like, yeah, don't, if you put something in the zone to that a little fucker, shout out Dusty Baker, McGonigle's going to do something to it and it's probably going to be productive because he almost,

that kid looks so good, I eliminated him from this exercise. Like, I think if you're out on McGonagall, I got nothing for you. Stuart, and I, Dalton was asking, he was like, hey, Jake, who, you know, for you and Rosie doing this exercise, who would, who would you pick? Mine was South Stewart. I, uh, I, so I have another one. I planned. But man, he's a, I think he turned 22 in December. I'm, Trevor used to have a theory about Cuban ball players that he was like, if I, if I had a front office gig, I would bring in his many Cuban ball players.

I could because those guys are just dogs. Well, America kind of has a version of that in Miami and Miami ball players, man. Like, give me Zach Netto and Sal Stewart on a baseball team, and we will figure it out. They have a certain level of swag to him. There's a certain level of baseball that just feels natural in him that, yeah, man, he's got some power, but it feels like he's just trying to hit. And I know that might sound dumb to some people. And the other thing that if you look at pretty much any great hitter in this league,

we're going with five games of stats. Six walks, three strikeouts. Sal's seeing the ball pretty well. Sign me up, man. Sign me up. I'm a huge fan of his. Did we ever get a picture, Robbie, of the Sal Stewart eyebrows? Let's get that up.

We slide that in or not. And if Matt. Those are, that's like U.S. Open rough right there. That's you hit Bobby Golf's cord there. Yeah, I mean, I think I would be considered part of the, the thick, thick eyebrow gang. So maybe that's where I'm getting a little defensive here. I mean, if we could get a zoom in shot,

my eyes when they get in the sun. Okay, we'll work on something after this. Yeah. We'll get a story alley shot. Let's go, Matt. Let's go Matt McLean. Like, let's go Cincinnati Reds should have an offense. and all we've talked about for a year and a half is how talented their pitchers are.

Like if something can click here, and it should, and that's why they've been a little bit of a frustrating team for the past couple years. Yeah. I'm going to, I told you, I love the pick. He was going to be my pick. Well, you know, the oldest trick in the game, Rosie, is I'm going to take a combo. Because Dalt had Justin Crawford on the sheet, which I was like, Oh, yeah, Justin Crawford, I don't know.

Speed, we love baseball lineage. Is Dombrowski learning from his lessons, although he's already paid a ton of guys that these young guys are going to fit in? So I was going to go Justin Crawford, and then last night, I think a stronger pick might have prevailed themselves, Andrew Painter, who, if I'm going to start off

where I started with Sal Stewart, if you're looking for a baseball name for a pitcher, Andrew Painter, I think this one might work. And for how often we use the term like hitterish or guy looks like a ballplayer, has anyone looked more like out of a pitching lab than Andrew Painter? 6'7, a little long, almost that no emotion that you kind of need to be a logical pitcher during an illogical game. Andrew Painter looked phenomenal last night, got up 98 miles per hour.

featured three pitches through five pitches. And this guy, his name has been mentioned with all the top pitching prospects for years now. And yeah, I guess, you know, Justin Crawford's off to a fine start. He's four for 12, legged out an infield single for his first hit, which that has to be the most common first hit. I just feel like there's so many guys that get to the show and you feel them really craving that first hit and running it out. that I honestly, I don't know. I don't know what the full year of Justin Crawford,

like if I had to bet on either of these guys, give me a painter for the full year, just because with that kind of profile from a pitching prospect. But I don't know, man, in a way, the Phillies, they wanted Bichet, and we saw that whole thing play out. They were in on these two dudes being a part of this Phillies team that we're talking about. We're looking at the main guys becoming 32, 33.

with Schwerber and Harper and Turner. These guys were going to be a part of this team, and they've looked apart so far. It's interesting because you bring up Painter. One of the questions we're asking on today's edition of baseball today, go check that out. Plufe, for some reason, want to do that show, not this one. I don't know.

Maybe you guys can huddle up on. What was that? Don't know. I'm just reporting facts. Yeah. Little locker room. Little locker rooms. We're going to have to figure that out behind the scenes.

I mean, we're not even a full week in yet and we're already fractured. Crazy. Hey, I know baseball's back, but Wednesday. Why don't you guys reach out to Papa Rosie? All right. All right, Trev. Anyway, we're going to ask the question. Is Philly going to be known more for its rotation than its lineup?

Which when you, I don't think, as they were putting together, that monster lineup, you went, boy. let's focus on the pitching, but I think that's what we're going to end up talking about a lot this year. We'll see. Yeah, Painter was great last night. What was the, I hope he had the over on mom shots.

Yeah, by the way. Careful with mom shots. Well, you know what I'm talking about. First of all, that is, that is my neighborhood.

You know, so you can keep it going as far as I know. I'm like, well, did my demographic. Because you joked about it. We had a little group chat going last night. Did you check the age?

Do you, Well, I didn't know exactly how to How to do that without being a total claimer. Yeah, no, that's fair. You know, when you start hopping on social media and things like that, you could accidentally hit a like button. Yeah. Or follow.

And then it just isn't worth it. Yes. Just isn't worth it at all. Yes. So I was, I was curious. I mean, Andrew Painter is younger than one of your son? Yes. Yeah, he's, how old is he?

23? I think he just turned 23. 22. He's 22. Yeah, no, he's right in between Josh and Brady. Crazy. Yeah, so she's younger than I am. I'll play that game.

She's definitely younger. Okay. That's our analytics. Justin Crawford also 22, by the way. Which is just, that's insane. No, I, I, um, I think, I think your baseball today question is kind of easy, Rosie, because if Taiwan Walker gets subbed out for Zach Wheeler. Yeah.

And I'm looking at Sanchez, Nola, Lazzardo. Wheeler Painter. Pretty good. It's no contest, man. And it's for Phillies. But we will still focus on the Philly offense because that's really what has kept them from getting back to the World Series

has been their postseason approach at the plate. Well, it's, I'll tell you what. It, depending how you, what, Rose Color lenses, you look through the, new segment, new social media segment. Chris Rose. Oh.

Hey, man, you get F. Trey Turner, Schwerver, Harper. I don't, baseball fans aren't going to argue with you. Maybe Dumbrowski with Harper at the end. Bomstott Adoles Garcia. Like, that's not where we were at with the Phillies lineup. Adoles Garcia does have a moment yesterday where he makes that Philly ballpark look small.

Looks like he fouls a pit. hitch off and it leaves the stadium. So again, Kudel, we talk about El Bombie a little different in a couple months. I hope so because, my God, that postseason was one of the most incredible things we've ever seen. But that's three years ago. I know. So I, yeah, I think the answer is easy.

And I, before the season, when I was talking myself in or out on the Phillies, and I was, you know, because last year the Braves, like we came into the season with the Braves being a top three team. so you're trying to look around and be like, who can, a lot can happen in a baseball season. I was wondering if the Phillies could be that team. When I looked at the pitching, including the bullpen, I was like, no, I think they have enough here.

I think they sneaky have one of the best bullpins in baseball. I think those starters can go toe to toe with anyone. And that's before you get to the lineup that was supposed to be what this Philly team was built around that. They're going to be there. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Financial stress can impact a lot more than just our bank accounts. it can take a serious toll on mental health and relationships

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Sign up. Get 10% off with betterhelp.com slash talking baseball. That's better help, help.com slash talking baseball. I guess, Rosie, that's a natural little segue there. I want to zoom out to the teams a little bit. Are there, and it's, so dumb. It's so dumb. To be five games in and to have your opinions change on a team is just ridiculous. So I'll preface that exercise by saying let's do it. Is there a team, I guess good or bad

that you watch these first couple games and you've, as we talked a lot this offseason, a lot of offseason baseball talk that you can convince yourself in anything. Is there one team that I guess you're doing a head tilt or has changed your view of them. Yes. In terms of watchability. Okay. I thought that the Cardinals were going to be horrific to watch this year. Okay.

Now, I still do not trust this rotation. It just, yeah. There's way too many question marks, I think. What they're trying to do, what Chaim is trying to do is find, the tent poles of his organization so that as he has ripped off the band-aid and gotten rid of these expensive players by just throwing more money at them to leave St. Louis, he's trying to find the next generation that he can pair with Weatherholt and Berluson, who, by the way, Alec Berluson is a guy that we never mentioned.

But that is a good baseball player who has continuously gotten better. Like I loved that home run that he hit the other day against Tampa Bay where he just stood there and looked into his dugout and gave it the flex. He's been a good ball player. His biggest problem was the Cardinals felt like they had a player generator for a little bit between him, Donovan. Who am I missing? Nolan Gorman. You were just like, okay, these kind of powerful, meaty lefties that all play different positions a little bit. Yeah, that hurt.

Carlson was another one that was in that group. That hurt like all of those guys. which is ridiculous, but go on. Yeah, so for a while, I was like, you know, the city of St. Louis has been treated to so much good baseball over the last several decades. And I went in the offseason. I remember I said, when was the last time they lost like 95 games in a year? Because that could really happen with the way that the NL Central, I thought had improved, right? The pirates had actually poured some money into their offense to pair with that pitching staff.

the Cubs awesome. The Brewers led the league in regular season wins a year ago. And we think that the Reds with that pitching staff should be good. So we were like, boy, the Cardinals are going to be a distant fifth in this division. By the way, they still might finish last. But I think that 95 losses is out of play. And I think you have to go back like maybe 100 years or something to see that in the Cardinals ledger. Like they didn't have one see. I remember earlier in the show, I talked about how the Indians never finished higher.

than fourth. Well, the Cardinals were never shitting down their leg for a whole season where the Cardinals fans had to get excited for something else. Here, they're more watchable. They're a more watchable team. And Weatherhole is that dude's a baller, man. He's

another one of those guys from that 2024 draft class where you're like, that's going to be a fun one to follow. That's, I love the choice, Rosie, because I, you know, when we do our team profile and projections, we do some some over unders we do an episode before the season where we, you know,

try to, try to lock in some picks. For me, I, it wasn't the sexiest pick, which, you know, kind of, kind of where I live. The Cardinals over, I think it was 69 and a half, which you talked about this franchise's history, they don't dip below that a lot. And I know, I know this is a little Jakellitics again, but like, dude, putting Weatherholt on the team, that matters. Yes, it does. We're looking at, you know, Connor Griffin watch.

You're talking about Travis Bazzano watch, although I know you gave your sad guardian speech, that stat that they have the third highest winning percentage over the last decade is insane. Well, behind only the Dodgers and your Yankees. That's what's crazy. Yeah. That's insane. That they, unfortunately, aren't in the conversation. Yeah, as I looked at this roster, I was like, okay, so we're going to give the kid a look,

which Weatherholt's supposed to be in that McGonigal Griffin territory. I don't, you know, I don't know how it's going to sort out, but a real ball player. A lot of people really like Ivan Herrera. As you go up and down, you meant, like, Burleson, like, I guess the game I started to play was like, are these guys a major leaguer? And like, Mason win, I don't know how it sorts out. That dude's a major leaguer. He could be a high-end major leaguer.

Like, his double play throw last night, like, that's freak show stuff. that you're right we just came too far to Jordan Walker I know like it was pretty clunky but this guy had the prospect profile the young guys that we're hyping up right now didn't Jordan Walker have a nuts first game and we're like all right saint this is when we still respected who the St. Louis Cardinals were we're like look at the Jordan Walker's the next Dave Winfield that's exactly that's exactly the guy was thinking about in my head I was like My God, enormous outfielder.

Are we finishing each other's sandwiches? Oh. That, like, you know, could Jordan Walker be the kind of post? He's 23. Like, we just get into this weird spot with sports. As I looked at this roster, you're right. The pitching's scary. Although it's kind of like, what, can you give me a seventh, eighth, ninth inning in Jojo Romero,

Riley O'Brien, Stannick, I know Spanson's gotten hit around early on, but like, I don't know. I guess I was getting frustrated as there was actual pirates hype this year that I wasn't bought into. I realize the dogs they have in their rotation, but organizationally,

if you, I didn't see too much difference. I hope I'm wrong again, Pittsburgh. Like, I want it to work up there. But I, as we, went team by team. I didn't see a crazy, the Cardinals could have a better season than the pirates. And I feel like two weeks ago, that sounded sinful to say. And I, there's a lot of baseball to go. But they have a, they have a baseball team. This isn't, when we've looked around at a couple of those teams the past couple years that you're like, oh my God, what are the white socks rolling out

this year? They were nowhere near that, nowhere near that. Can I give you, by the way, the 2024 first round draft picks. I need you to. Okay. So Bazana went one. Chase Burns, who's up, went to and just got his first show win. Congratulations. Charlie Condon, who had some injuries

in the Rockies minor league system, but had a good spring. Kind of stopped paying attention to the Rockies after about March 3rd, but you understand what I'm saying. Nick Kurtz, heard he had a nice year last year. Yeah. I don't know anything about Hagen Smith. Jack Caglione.

J.J. Weatherholt, Christian Moore, who kind of has shot through the system with the Angels, Connor Griffin at 9, and then Seaver King, who I don't know much about, 10th to the Nationals. But the other names that you're familiar with, or certainly are about to be, Braden Montgomery,

James Tibbs, who's been traded a couple of times in the Devers and the Dustin May deal and is now raking for the Dodgers' AAA affiliate. Cam Smith, Carson Benj, Trey I Savage. I mean, look at all the guys who have already not just appeared, but massively contributed at this level. It never was that way.

Yeah. You don't even have to, I don't have to say even when I was growing up, when you were growing up. Correct. Guys were never here within a year and a half of their draft date, ever. And now these guys are not just participants. they're like centerpieces in some cases. Yeah, I started doing a little spin,

trying to process this with all the young talent. And like I said, I tried to be as fair as possible because every sport, look at our young talent. Then I was like, no, this feels a little different. I think at its core, it has to do with Velo is everywhere now. that I think going back to 2006, there'd be some guys that would make it to the big leagues and just be horrified by starting pitching.

I think you could probably go further than that. You'd probably go like 2014, 2015. Maybe you can even go more recent. I think these guys at some point went to a camp where they saw some 17-year-old throwing 100. Absolutely. And then they went to the cage and they hit off 100. that they're, I don't know.

I think I'm excited for this next generation of hitters that if you're throwing 93-94 up there, just watch your head. Well, I can just tell you this. So Brady's a sophomore in college, played four years of high school baseball. We were in the same league as Sierra Canyon. For people that are familiar with that out of Los Angeles, it's better known as a basketball school, but it has become a baseball factory to some degree as well.

they had three kids on their team that threw at least 93, including one guy who threw 99. I mean, go back and just throw on an old on YouTube, throw on an old baseball game from the late 80s, early 90s. You won't find relievers. Maybe every team had a reliever that did that. Maybe. Maybe.

Not three. I can tell you that. If someone came out of the bullpen and was throwing, like Armando Benitez was throwing 97 and you were like, holy, everyone. Like, it was kind of sit down on the couch and don't talk to me. Like, I got to see what this looks like. Now it's just, it's insane. I have something, this is borderline rude.

Ryan Weathers made his Yankee debut the other night. Speaking of Velo and arm talent, there's a lefty that throws 98, and we'll see how the Yanks can tap into them. Although my Yanks are throwing the pill right now at a historic rate. Tied for Best five games to start a baseball season. So watch out. They showed some highlights of his father, David Weathers. Stormy Weathers, who I'd remember the name.

He was on a couple of those Yankees teams. pitched from 91 to 09. Yes, no joke. I did not have that in my book. Rosie, they showed some of his highlights, and it looked like a different sport. It was a different sport, and he was a guy who had a dad bod before he was a dad.

Yes. So that was kind of the beauty of the sport back then. You know, it's not like these days everybody's fucking fit, looks like an animal. You're right. It looks like a different. Everything about it looks like a different sport. The tempo of it. Here he is. I mean, again, this is that, that highlight shot. Rob, replay that. Like to challenge that.

I mean, that's Javier Lopez. It's two strikes. But that's one, a very different strike zone, I think affected that at bat. But that is not the wipeout slider we've been watching in today's baseball. No. That's the wipe your ass slider. And that's, you know, that's 1996. And I guess I want this to end in a complimentary way. Throwing that in 1996, he stayed in the league till 2009 and was effective.

Yes. And was effective. And now his son's in the league. So I'm not trying to throw shots fired at all. But they showed that, like, as the midgame. And you know, his dad pitched in the league. Connie's talking about playing with them. And I was like, wow, that's a, it is a completely different sport.

And that's why, again, if I wanted to build on this theory a little bit, I think we saw some guys in those late 20 teens, early 2020s, that the VLO was their problem and the VLO caught up that it kind of shortened their career, where I think you kind to just have to be ready for it. Like if you're, if you're 19-20, a top baseball prospect, I don't think you can, I don't think you can be a prospect. And it's like, well, yeah, he struggles with 94. No, like that's, I don't think that's in the cards.

Although, wasn't Murakami, wasn't Murakami supposed to struggle with Vilo? It doesn't seem. Yeah, I mean, supposedly that was the word on it. Now, when he hits the ball, it goes far, ball go far. Ball go far. It does. It goes way far. And I'm excited to see what he does.

And I'm going to be more interested to see how many contenders are kicking their own asses for not signing him. Yes. And I'm, I don't know. I'm very much rooting for him because I just want to get to a point where it's like, hey, if you're good over there, I think you're going to be good over here. And he's, we've kind of been there. He's like the final test. that, I mean, from breaking the home run record,

I know he took a step back and there were Velo questions, but like, I'd, again, it's five days in scouting. Looks like a ball player. Like, there was some, there was some body type concerns. Like, looks pretty good in the uni. Right. I'm not concerned about that. He made a couple nice plays at first.

I'm not entering him in the Arnold Classic in Columbus, Ohio. Just go mash the ball. There was a, yeah. You know, Okamoto, same thing. thing like that that dude's off to a gang buster start and he's actually made a bunch of plays over a third base too and another rosy i get i actually get frustrated because we because that was part of his scouting report like you know not not sure where he's going to settle in and then we looked it up and i think he was a two-time gold glove third base guy over there and and then we watch a couple highlights and

it was kind of you know i'm not a scout but it seems like it's working for him um well hold on are you saying that we overthought something in baseball? No, no, no, no, that's not. Stop that. That's not us. Seriously, if we, if we took eight guys and ladies from the John Boy media offices, sure. And started to run a team.

Okay. How would we do in terms of talent evaluation? Interesting. You know, Trev would want to be the manager. I'm not so sure I'd want to be the manager, but he'd want to be the manager. That's too much work. he'd want to be a special advisor or like the third hitting coach

Okay Yeah Again How would we do? I would like to think we'd put together We would need a pitching guru So like we don't have an actual nerd Like I do believe the pitching analytics

You need a nerd Like look around the teams around the league There are certain teams That if a guy comes to their organization They're going to tap into them That you know if I'm allowed to bring in like a guest of Johnboy Media, if I could get an Enos Saris,

I genuinely think, I think we'd be able to compete. I mean, would you extend the 401k possibilities to Eno just to get them on staff? Yeah, absolutely. I love Eno. He's so. Now you're just giving shit away.

So, yeah, I don't know. The company will be all right, right, Jim? Courtney. You have to get approved by the board. Yeah, I don't. Today on the docket. Every now and then I... So yeah, Jake...

We are pitching guru for our fictitious team that we don't have. Jake was running a little hot. And he gave Enosaris a 401K for the Nashville stars. I'd like to think it's not... We've gotten to meet some people in the sport. I know you met some people in the sport. There's very few that I've... There's a couple nerdy guys that I've met,

and I've been like, you operate on a different level. and I think it's good to have those guys as a part of your organization because I do not operate that way and I think it's good to get some group thoughts for certain things. But no, man, it's a lot of them are, I don't say normal dudes, but people that put in work to get this opportunity to get to a place that's kind of any job.

Now, I want to say this, because I know we have to move on because I have to get to a show eventually in a half hour. But I think the area where we would struggle to put together a good infrastructure. We don't have anybody to run infield or throw BP. I'm worried about that. I think Trev could do that.

Oh, if we could trick. You need multiples. Yeah, that's true. You're throwing BP for us. You need like five people to throw batting practice. I mean, first name that came to mind, Jimmy Norp's dad, Barney Norp. If we can get him in the mix. Great.

Actually, in the brief time I got to talk to him, he did say, I believe he should elbow and something else gave out because he was throwing so much batting practice to Jimmy Norp's AAU team. And to simulate 80 miles per hour, which played in the Midwest AAU circuit, he was throwing from about 10 feet away, about full rip. I'm just happy Barney Norp got mentioned. I guess Rosie, yeah, I mean, we're hitting. We got deep in the episode because we like talking ball.

I guess if you have anything, we had to pure minor league players get big league contracts. Colt Emerson with the Mariners, who he got, I shouldn't say he got the real one. Eight years, $95 million, that is the most for a player who has not played an inning of Major League Baseball. And then the Brewers, which we always, that makes you do a little extra head tilt. They gave Cooper Pratt an eight-year 50.75 million. So, I mean, those of us that are in the game, we've seen a lot of these for the guys that haven't played Major League Baseball yet, Colt Keith, Jackson Churillo,

Luis Robert, Evan White, Eloy Jimenez, Scott Kingery, fighting to play on the Cubs. I love that. I love that. And a talking baseball favorite, John Singleton, I mean, I would also count a lot of these guys, like Christian Campbell had six days. Samuel Bessio had five days.

So there's Corbin Carroll's name comes up. Raphaelah. Roman Anthony now has one of these that. We've seen this around baseball, Rosie. It is a way to control the arbitration years and usually one or two of the non-arbitration years where you get them in their prime. I guess what is your reaction to these?

I love them. I love the gamble. I love the story. side of it. For me, I want to start with Pratt. Because when a team like the brewers in the payroll situation they're in, this is an enormous risk. Yeah. And he is not, he, the first thing you read on him when you go through his scouting report is the glove is ready. Now, that's not going to get fans super exciting. Even though it's a huge part of the game and can shoot your war right up the charts, if you are a really good fielding shortstop,

and by the way, it can earn you $180 million contract like Danes B. Swanson. So to be able to get this guy for possibly $51 million over six years, if that's the way it ends up playing out, sorry, it's eight years over for $51 million. Sorry, I didn't want to shortchange him in the years. I'm fine with it. And if he can grow into a 12 to 15 homer guy, even better. To me, the fascinating part of that is when you look at the Brewers' top prospects, and they've got four of the top 62, Pratt is the fourth one.

And the thing that makes it super interesting, they're all presumed middle infielders, right? Jesus made is a top five prospect. Now, granted, he's only 18 years old. And he looks like he's about 12 if you've ever seen him interviewed. But he's a guy who's presumably going to be a big part of this. Louise Pena, Jet Williams, who just came over in the Peralta deal from New York. So the fact that they decided to give this guy the money made me go, okay, where are they going? Now, you're not going to give an 18 or a 19 year old, this sort of contract.

You know, this kid a little bit older, to me, it's just an interesting story to follow. Cole Emerson is a guy. I visited Mariners camp in the spring and they were talking about him there. They were like, you just got to deal with it. I don't know if you saw this, but Dan Wilson was asked what it meant for J.P. Crawford, who's been banged up. So I didn't, I didn't see this. I did have a laugh on the broadcast because, you know, baseball news comes, and this is where I want your thoughts, because mostly for me, I'm like, hey, good, good job, dude, you just got a lot of money to play baseball. That's kind of my reaction to a lot of these.

Michael Kay on the Yankees broadcast was like, how about a day for J.P. Crawford? Like, that's, that's an interesting one. Well, it's just something that they're going to have to get on the same page about because JP is now 31 years old. This is the last year of his contract. He's no dummy. He's been around this game. He knows exactly what this means for him that he's living on borrowed time out there.

I mean, would it even shock you if they're not hitting the ball the way that they expect to that he gets moved on from during the year? year if there's an injury somewhere around the league at shortstop and you need a guy who's been there and done it wouldn't shock me no it's um it would be very interesting for a Seattle franchise that you know last year it kind of happened like they had the juice they made the postseason they were one of the best teams they were a swing away from going to the world series that i don't know it would get interesting to me if you know j p crawford it has been one of the more stable offensive shortstop options.

You know, if you move on and, you know, you mentioned Nick Kurtz before, his first three weeks in the big leagues were pretty brutal. And then he was one of the best hitters, if not the best hitter in the league. Yeah, it'd be interesting for a Seattle team that has, who has tried to change their year-in-year-out expectations that, I don't know. I mean, the scouting report I heard was an infield Corbyn Carroll. So if that's true, you know, JP, have a good half of a season somewhere. go get yourself another bag and we'll figure it out.

But yeah, you're playing with, you're playing with a little bit of fire. Can be for this year. But I love the idea. I hope that my guardians do this with Travis Vizana. I doubt that they will. But we'll see. I think there's probably a few other teams where there are,

you know, there are guys already out there where you, you know, Colt Keith got his money. You mentioned him. And McGonagall is a guy that will run circles around that dude. So if you're Tiger's fan, you're like, well, are we even trying with McGonagall? Wouldn't that make sense to go do? It's, man, it's one of those funny things where it's every situation is different, right?

Like, were they getting offers in that area? Do they want to get the hell out of Dodge in six years and they already have themselves getting a $500 million contract? Do they, what's their family they came from that maybe a chate, securing a dollar? dollar right now isn't a top priority. It's, uh, yeah. Well, to me, the most interesting aspect of the entire thing is what does it mean for Connor Griffin and the Pittsburgh Pirates? To me, that's, that's kind of where the discussion should start and finish because he's the

we had the discussion at the end of spring training. Like we'd heard that they're conversing about a contract, but they're not really close. And for God's sakes, I think he just turned 20, didn't he? Right, or is he still 19? I had him mentally as 19. Let's see. 19 and 342 days. So April 24th, get everyone's,

they'll call him up that day. That's Pirates Baseball. Well, on the day that he turns 20, my oldest brother turns 70. How's that? Bob Rose still waiting 100 million from the Pittsburgh Pirates. I was debating. I didn't know if it was Pete Rose or not.

No. Pete turned 60. this year, though. So we got some milestone birthdays in the Rose household. Happy birthday to your Pete Rose. Thank you. Yeah, Connor Griffin. I'm, um, and the pirates. Again, I, I kind of sold on them this off season and their opening weekend and what was going on in the outfield and all of it. It felt very pirity. I hope it turns out to be wrong. And I hope Brandon Lau continues and O'Hern, like those signs, those, those moves have looked good. But yeah, give me, give me Connor Griffin in the show.

want to get excited about it. And I think I never followed up on this, but I think he would be the first 19-year-old American player since Harper. Sure. I think so. Dalton's given a semi-confident

head nod, but... So what, that was 2012, April of 2012? Yeah. So, you know, over a decade. Like, I want to get that level of excitement for Connor Griffin, but the pirates have a comma and the whole Bryce Harper thing is insane if we replayed all of that with him going to college early and being on

magazines. It was, that was, that was like a whole, there's a whole different world, literally. And it has lived up to every second of it. Right. Um, him and LeBron, man. I, okay, people probably don't want the Harper LeBron comparison right now, but, um, dude, that's, it is one of the most impressive things. Why wouldn't you want the Harper LeBron? Uh, I don't know. That's, that should be the opening. That's our, that's what the social team wants. That's not, that's not my sweet spot. That's what the, ooh, we finally got it. And I think LeBron's had a little better career than Harper if we're actually playing that game. But it's also way easier to affect the trajectory of an NBA franchise than it is baseball. And we're like, people forget six years ago,

Bryce Harper was kind of an injury prone potential ball player and that's gone away a little bit. Yeah, that was some freak stuff. Speaking of freak stuff Like smell Nice Look at that reference Freak stuff from Chris Rose Your host

Of baseball today The Voice of the warehouse At John Boy Media We've got a big one coming up Next weekend It won't be out for a little longer So I won't tease that What else you got, Rosie?

I got some NFL stuff That's happening Yes You know we got the drafts coming up for people that have been following along, NFL Network was just sold to Disney. Wow. I'm officially a Disney employee as of today.

Congrats. Yeah, well, I think we get, like, park tickets. So I think that's a good thing. You know, a free set of Mickey ears, maybe. That's nice. Cool. Yeah, we'll see how that all goes.

Two other things, which is fun. Number one, American Gladiators. Yes. coming out on Amazon Prime. Two weeks from Friday. We just put out the promo. It's on my social media. If you want to see it, it looks great.

And it was a ton of fun to do it. Okay. I want to get in. Is it like a late night? Like, when should I be watching American Glass? Is it like, should I have an energy drink and get ready to fist fight someone? Or should it be like? Probably closer to that than anything.

Okay. So the Yankees have a hard loss. It's 10.30 p.m. I still need to let it out, get my American Gladiator on. Yeah. Robbie found the promo. Here we go. Let's go.

Oh, yeah. It's better with the sound. Robbie, can you get the sound or no? There's the Miz. You and the Cleveland guy. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. The theme song by Jelly Roll.

That's how you know. Yeah. Did we get a picture of you in the leotard or no? Yeah, that didn't happen. Okay. Yeah. You can see the gladiator bodies compared to the Rose body. Yeah, it's ready.

So there's, you know, for people that you're not old enough to have watched the original American. I caught some. I caught some. I don't know if they were replays, but like American Gladiator was something on television that I consumed. Yeah. So games like Jowston, Atlas Fear, those are back. There's some new games that are a ton of fun, including one that happens 100 feet into the air. It's pretty good stuff.

So I'm super excited for that. I think they release, not exactly sure how many episodes they release on the first night on April 17th. But first season is 10 episodes, I believe. So we ended up shooting two seasons worth. That's how they do it these days. But it's good. It's fun. For those of you that are fans of the warehouse games, you might hear some familiar lines.

Yeah. Okay. I like to see Jake get out there. You actually would be a fantastic competitor. I mean, there's been rumors about doing something like this in the warehouse. I guess for the next season of that, if they need someone. There it is. There it is.

I'm going to clip for 0.6 seconds. We have seen that expression before. Sure have. Normally, Story Ellie with a drive to center. I think you said you had one more thing. Or was it was it? Yeah, Battlebots is coming back. Wow.

Is it the more of Chris Rose? It's crazy. So it's going to be on YouTube. YouTube. Okay. Yeah, it's essentially, think of it as a tournament of champions. It's called the Pro League. It's the 24 best robots that we're getting together.

And so we're shooting that over several weekends coming up in Las Vegas. You can go get tickets to them. April 17th, 24th. And May 1st, the weekends. My nephews have become Battlebots fans. I mean, they literally think, they basically look at it as if Transformers, the movie was real.

Like they're like this is this is insane. I'll be checking that out with them. Gladiators after a Yankees lost. Baseball today, basically every day with part-time co-host Trevor Ploof. That was real. He's going to be there today.

We're going to have to discuss why he shows that show over this one. That's insane. I am very interested in that. Well, me and Matthew were going to go on the beach. Chris Rose, you're the best. No, you're awesome. I always love coming on this show. It's nice to get a little different energy, to be honest with it.

Hey, man, if you need, I know, I know I'm a busy guy, but if you need a body for one day, I know, I know we might have a Dalton super sub this Friday coming up. We're very excited. It's a spot start. Now, he knows that he's, you know, he's like, he's still has options remaining. Yeah. And so that's the, you know, he's the spot start. But that's how career is blossomed.

Right. You know. Make a day out of it. Absolutely. He'll be ready. But I'm training for it. If you need me, I can hop over there. Great seeing you, Chris Rose.

You are the best. We love you. Thank you for everybody for having me. I know that this is a sacred show. It is the number one baseball podcast in the world. And I always appreciate being able to give the old man insights. So thank you. We've got some stormy weathers.

Thanks, Rosie. You got it, brother. All right. Before we get you guys out of here, it's time to look at some of the baseball markets presented by Fanatics markets. The two we're going to look at. Little Colorado, Toronto. The Blue Jays are rolling. Me and Rosie got a little lost in the sauce.

I was going to give Toronto a little apology because I don't know. It just felt like a lot of things went right last year. It feels like a lot of things are going right this year. And they're facing the rocks who are struggling out of the gate. And, man, Freeland. going against that lineup and just that contact-inducing Toronto Blue Jays. I don't know. It's not looking too good for the rocks currently get traded at 27%.

So if you believe, if you think Freeland's got something up his sleeve besides that Rocky Mountain tattoo, go check them out on the marketplace. And then the second game we're looking at today, Minnesota, Missy Trev against Kansas City. Hello, Vinny. This is our closest one today. Again, you're just trading against other people out there. It's got the twins at 52% KC at 49. Noah Cameron making his debut this season against Joe Ryan getting his second start.

Here's the only thing I'll say. Kansas City, no one on the team has more than one homer. I think that's got to change today. We're about a week into the season. Go check it out. Fanatics markets available now in app stores. Holy Toledo. How about a little Wednesday,

Hey, how are you? Opening, second opening day for us. We get our opening day midweek episode. Everyone go tweet at or comment on Insta at Chris Rose. He's the best. He loves it. He loves ball. And so to you, if you're listening to this.

We'll be back Friday. Friday recap. Another opening day, basically. I stink. Trev. I'm home. How do we miss you? It was a.

me Matthew Jimmy my friend Kyle Jeff I'm going