Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Buying or Selling Hot Starts At Each Position!

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

Use code TALKIN2025 for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKIN2025. Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discountDownload the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use promo code JMBASEBALLVisit https://www.directv.com/jomboy to learn more!Coach Trev and Talkin' Jake discuss which guys are having a hot start to the season and if they can sustain it or not, Francisco Lindor getting his 1,500th hit and what it will take to make the Hall of Fame and what other active players are coming up on big milestones!0:00 Intro4:00 Apology to the fans about Mondays episode5:28 Buying or Selling these hot starts5:51 First baseman - Soderstrom or Torkelson11:45 Catcher position - Logan O’Hoppe vs Dillon Dingler13:40 Second Base - Brendan Donovan vs Brice Turang18:15 Shortstop: Jacob Wilson, Anthony Volpe, Geraldo Perdomo22:15 Volpe or Perdomo - Trev likes Volpe25:46 2025 defenses aret terrible?28:50 Third Base - Maikel Garcia or Jorge Polanco30:25 Outfield - Kameron Misner Jake Mangum Wilyer Abreu Sal Frelick Trent Grisham34:50 DH and Pitcher talk35:00 Lindor gets 1,500 career hit36:50 Can Lindor get to the HOF?38:08 How many 3,000 hit guys are we going to see?39:00 Guys who actually have a chance to break 3,000 hit club43:00 Altuve can be there50:00 Bet the Cycle 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. Hot or not, who are we buying into? Also, milestone watch a little bit and everything else. Talking ball. That's what we do, Coach. Any pitcher at Sutterfield. Hunter Goodman. Homer.

Rockies catcher? I have a story about that. Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. Present you by Seat Geek Code Talk in 2025. Jake Storyellie, Trevor Plouf. Rob Chiraco producing his butt off. We are talking baseball. April 9th, we are going to go through some players at different positions

who are getting off to crazy starts. And if we're locked in, if we're bought in, or if we're not, which sometimes we don't love saying on this show, but we also have to be real with the people. Speaking of real with the people, it's Trevor Plouffe. How are you? What does that even mean? I'm always real.

I guess that's what it means. I don't know. I'm a real person. Yeah, well. Sometimes I wonder if they're, like certain people that I pass by like, are you real? Right.

Sim. I have, I have those thoughts. Are you just like, you know, like a computer generated image just walking by for the simulation? But I'm real. Right.

Or maybe I'm not. I guess we'll never really truly know. Jake, I'm excited to talk some ball in this episode. This is real talking ball. We're going to talk about some, some fast starts. Are they sustainable?

Maybe some changes. Savant's got this incredible. new thing on a baseball savante is where you look at batting stances and you can kind of toggle the years and see the adjustments i am fascinated by it i've been going and seeing who has the the narrowest stance who's got the widest stance can i just real quick think about people in the league who do you think has the widest stance in baseball widest god i don't know and i've i've clicked around that a little bit i the only guy who's on my mind right now because it's just such a wide six stance is Ozzy Albies from both sides.

But he's definitely not the wide. I don't think he's got the widest body to do it. I think that's the problem is I don't think he's that big. Distance between feet, Luis Montos. Wow. 44.6 inches, I believe. How about that? It's working for him.

I know you saw our guy, I show speed recently. He was overseas. and there's like robots that are like breakdancing and stuff. So you know, you're talking about different things you might be walking past on the streets. Robots, aliens. Whoa, okay. You just want a different way. I do know I show speed.

Yeah. You're hip. The fanatics event. I could not believe how famous he was. Yeah. Way more famous than Tom Brady or anybody else. Created a mob. Hey, we've got one more note before we get into ball.

after we said I show speed. And Trev, I'll let you go. I'll try to be quick with words. Not always my strength. But last episode and just the show in general, we try to do more topics. We try to get talking baseball to more people. And the number one thing that maybe we got away from just a little bit is we want to be the best show we can be.

And that people have consumed and consumed for years that Friday, we're going to try to get more recap. We got to make it tighter. Like just being real with you guys, like algorithmically and some stuff we have to care about as a company, the show's got to be tighter. And we can be. So, again, some series might be tight. But we also want to talk ball with you guys. And we want to talk this series that happened.

And when your team had a big weekend, Sox fans, you were right to be a little mad at us. Like your team went nuts. We'll hear of Brayu stolen my heart. So that's it. Friday and next Monday, we're going to try to rip it old school. a little tighter. Treve, anything else?

Your must. Monday show was shit. And again, yeah, so it's almost like baseball. The analytics got involved a little too much. We tried a new stance. We didn't like it.

It didn't work. Just want to talk ball with everybody. We're going to do our best to make sure we're talking about every single team. We're going to go back to more of what you're used to. Because we both left that show feeling like, I don't know if I really thought. It's not us a little bit. A little bit.

A little bit. A little bit. So that's really it. But Wednesdays Epps are obviously different than the Monday, Friday. We're going to get into some fun stuff today. So with that, let's get into some breakout or fake out, as I like to call it. And it's with Seat Geek. I mention them off the rip.

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Coach, we initially laid this out. We told Dalton, or lead researchers as job title, I have no clue. We were like, hey, give us some options at position. Like, let's do a little mono and mono. And I'll be honest with you, some positions we're not going to deep diving because you and me are in lockstep on, but we'll give them a shout out along the way. Let's start with one that I know you are passionate about. Let's go to first base.

Oh, we're going to first base. I don't want to go to first base because I know how, juicy this is for you because we've got two top prospects. One guy I've gotten lucky enough to watch the past couple days. Spencer Torkelson, and I know we've done this a couple times. You say top prospect, Spencer Torkelson? I mean, one one pick, dude. I'm just saying this guy is it's 2025 now. 2020. Okay. Well, we've done this a couple times. Is the breakout happening? I think I picked him before last season to hit 40 plus homers. Didn't happen.

He looks amazing and I know we're going to get into some real numbers, but if you're into swagger and how you're feeling, Torkelson feels good. We put him up against Tyler Soderstrom. Tyler Soderstrom for the athletics has been incredible. Six homers this season tied with Judgy. I watched him play last night, got ran into it at first base. looked like it could have been ugly, got up,

saw him the next inning, running the bases, baby. And he's crushing it. He's killing relief pitchers. He's leaning MLB in war. So I guess of these two guys, Trev, who are you more bought in on? Overall, I'm probably more bought in on Soderstrom. You know, he's a little younger.

The stance for me, when I look at him and, like, his approach to the plate, it's very repeatable. He's kind of, like, locked in, and I believe in his ability to get the barrel to the ball consistently. And that's kind of what we've seen from him as of late. It's just very direct. But I want to talk about Torkelson.

If you want to go on Sotom, you can, but I'm going to talk about Torkelson. He didn't, you know, look, again, yes, we've been waiting for Torkelson to go off and become this hitter that everyone thought he was going to be. When he was taken 1-1, it was, hey, he's not just a power hitter. He's a guy that's going to be, you know, Miggie Cab's S, where he's going to be a complete hitter. And that just hasn't worked. In fact, he's got 0.5 war this year to bring his career total to 0.4. So, you know, before this year, he'd been less than the replacement player.

So some things he had to do. He narrowed his stance out a little bit. feeling was, and he talked about this, he wanted to be more athletic. And I think that's, it's interesting. When you talk to guys about that, actually, you just had a discussion about that with my son. When a guy is feeling stuck at the plate, when he's feeling like he's not himself, a lot of the times that's what guys will do. They'll stand more straight up, although he's kind of bent over a little more. But the two things to get more athletic in the box, if someone tells you, I want to get more athletic in the box, they usually stand up and

narrow their stance and just allows them to kind of move their body more when I'm spread out big time I'm kind of like hunkered down my feet are really firmly in the ground and I'm really focusing on standing like still and I want to not move that much and sometimes you get there and you just you feel like you lose your athleticism so he's narrowed his stance up a little bit made some adjustments this is coming after um this is coming after an off season where they basically said like Colt Keith is going to first base. We signed Glaver Torres and your position's like gone. Like you and you're going to have like earn playing time.

And now through, you know, whatever it is, 10 games, he's played a bunch of games at first base. He's basically hit himself back into the plan. So I'm more on Torkelson. I like the adjustments that he's made. And again, I, I'm hoping this is the year for him. I'm hoping to. I guess I have a little ex-girlfriend here because he, he, He hurt me a little bit last year, and pitchers have adjusted to him before.

I'm not saying it's going to happen again. He's 25 years old. I'm in on both these guys. I think Torkelson's story sick. I'm always going to bet on talent. I just think Soderstrom has the same story, and I might even ballpark him, Trev, because I know we've sent a couple late-night texts about what's going on with the athletics in Sacramento

that, hey, baseball is going to come and get these guys. They're going to makeouts. Like, they're going to go through a slump. Soderstrom's got a nice little thing going where every time he goes home, his team might score double digits. That's a nice thing to have in the back of your head. And also, like, this guy was a first-round pick out of high school.

He's 23 years old. And he played 60 games last year, and he had a 114 OPS Plus. So, like, this could just be the natural progression that if I had to be. pick, I would buy Soder Shrum stock for this year. I agree with that. Like overall, I think I'm more confident in Sotorstrom being that guy for his career, but I like the adjustments. Troakleston is made bringing that back. Five games at Sutter Park. What are we calling it? Sutter field,

whatever it is. Five overs. I've been telling people, you want to sprinkle a little bit on the over. Every single home game for the A's probably a good idea. Nine runs in the first inning last night. Yeah. That was a that was the late night. MLB Network game. A little shout out to MLB Network, man. I've been watching their four-screen beginning thing. If I'm being super honest in my heart, I think like I could crush that. That sometimes they don't have like an electrician work in the seat going game to game. But it's a really good way to get your baseball knowledge. Treve, let's do one quick. I think we could be a minute on it. I skip the catcher position because,

again, when Dolan was filling this out, the two catchers he put on the sheet, and always a reminder for talking baseball, if you've got your guy that you think we should be talking about in this episode, comment them below, let us know why we should be talking about them. But we had to sort it down a little bit. So they put Dylan Dingler on here, big Tigers episode. I remember, I'm not a big draft guy,

but I remember when Dingler got drafted. He was supposed to be a first round pick. He slid to the second round, the Ohio State, hitter will he catch? He's up and he's hit in 1.119 OPS. The only problem for us, Trev, is he's paired with Logan O'Hopi here that if that's the catcher battle, you and me are going O'Hopi all day. Going O'Hopi, a couple things that he needs to do.

His savant page is hilarious. I mean, top half, expected woe, expected batting average, barrel percentage, hard hit, all red in the 90th percentile. But things that he needs to work on. the chase rate, the whiff rate, the K rate, the walk rate. They're all ice cold, 13th percentile. So, like, that's going to be his challenge as he gets more into his big league career is, look, man, this guy, he can hit the ball, he's got pop.

Now it's like, it's pitch recognition, it's not chasing, all these things that usually do come with more bats will help him, like, go to that next level. I think he can do it. And again, I've said this before on the show. I mean, I think it was last episode. Like, we're, we might be like in the golden age of offensive catchers right now. Pretty fun to watch him hit, though. Four straight games with a homer comes off the bench last night,

which tough to bench a guy doing that, but catcher stuff, and gets a big pinch in the ninth inning that Logan O'Hoppy is finding it. Go dingler, go, dingler, go. Trev, second base, I'm interested to kick to you, because again, these are two guys that have done stuff at the major league level. Brendan Donovan currently second in the NL with 17 hits only behind Kyle Tucker, first in batting average, second in OPS, killing it on the road. He's paired with Bryce Terang, which again, we had, you know,

a five-plus war season out of him last year. Now he did get hot last year and he really limped down the stretch that I guess I'm interested to see your scope on both these dudes. Brandon Donovan's a hitter. Right? He's hit his entire career. So I don't know if we really need to include him Because what we're trying to do is, hey, is this fast start legit?

Right. He's, I feel like he's like, he is a legitimate hitter in the big. So I'll talk terrain a little bit. What's interesting is he was really struggling. And then I don't know if you remember we talked about his walk-off bunt. Mm-hmm. Okay, what happened after the walk-up bun? He started gnashing.

Okay, Rod. I'm just telling you sometimes you got to have something good happen to you on the field and then things change. He also made some batting stance changes. He's narrowed himself up in an effort to get some more power. So when you have a guy

who can really play the contact game and has really good back control the way that Terang does, if you want to add a little bit more power, that's what you would do. You would narrow up a little bit So you can have a little bit more movement.

So you can get a little bit more load. And I can go into the ball instead of, again, being so spread out and a little more stagnant. So Terang has done that. And right now, he is, you know, he's crushing the ball. Yeah. Going to the opposite field against Ritey's with, hey, God, we laugh sometimes about baseball coming back. But that's, you know, they used to teach the speedy guys that, Trev. And so I won't say that's all the success

Because like you're saying, you know, those three homers that he pissed on That's what really changes your OPS and the whole stat line Terang looks really good By the way, the Brewers are kind of back I think they went up to six and five last night So that opening sweep is gone And yeah, if you're someone listening and you're like, Brendan Donovan, they're giving this guy that career 119 OPS Plus

that like he's the numbers have landed where they have that is there more in there? I think there is. I think some of the Cardinals ick from the last couple years, which kind of feels like it's gone. I know it's a long season, but

I've got a career 780 OPS. Right? Like that's where these guys are just two different cats. Like Terang is going to play amazing defense, slap it around. I don't think there's big OPS numbers. in that bad. I could be wrong because if there are, he's like a seven war player. I think Donovan could be a middle of the order, 800s OPS guy that at the second base position,

you just don't see a lot of that. And don't sleep. Brennan Donovan's got a gold glove. Whoops. What was it? I think that was that the utility gold glove? Was that I forget. That was his rookie year. Rob's on it. I love a utility gold glove. It's got to love a util gold glove. Trev, let's get second. because this is what we do. And part of that is with our friends at DirecTV. Direct TV, today's episode is sponsored by DirectTV. If you're ready to experience baseball like never before,

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delivering the crack of the bat. Roar the crowd right into your living room. Ready to transform your baseball watching experience. Head to directtv.com slash John Boy or scan the QR code on the screen to learn more. Treve, where I was initially going with that was the shortstop. position. I like this.

I've got three youngens. Although, I think Dahlin was doing this just to suck up to you. He threw Boba's shit on the bottom. I know who that is. I know who that is. I've actually looked at Boba Schett's numbers. You go, let me look at Bichette's numbers. I'll let you Bichette bait.

Jacob Wilson, who kind of surprised us all, like when you're talking a lot of prospects, even for the 2025 season. Jacob Wilson felt like he didn't come up till late. He's the starting shortstop for your athletics. We love his dad, we found out on this program. And we like a 12-game hit streak to start the season, hitting 400, not seeing any pitches.

He is swinging and hitting. Anthony Volpe's on the list. Okay, I'm interested. The barrels are up. The slugging is up. Was one of the guys circled with torpedo bats early on. And then we play for rings in the desert. That extension before the season,

Geraldo Pardomo, a hundredth percentile and whiff percentage. Louisa Rize and Pardomo. We don't talk about him like that. So with those three, Trev, I want to know what you got. I want to talk to Jacob Wilson because he is an interesting player. to me. You mentioned he is up there hacking. He is not seeing pitches. Two point eight seven

pitches per plate appearance lowest in the AL. I talked yesterday to Trevor May. How about that? Wow. When on his show, we're talking about that stat in particular, like swinging early. And my dad used to tell me that all the time. That's like the one thing my dad told me about baseball. I mean, he obviously worked with me. But like I remember that more than anything. He's like, go swing at the first pitch. It's usually the best pitch hit. I don't know how great of advice that was. I don't know. But like, be aggressive, I think is what it is. He's

very aggressive. And you watch him hit. He is not like some of these other guys where they're like, I got to make sure I am here in the box. And look, he is just up there swinging, bro. Big leg kick early. He gets his barrel to everything. Like you watching some of these abats. Like last night,

you and I were both watching the Padres game. and C's was the entire A's team was first pitch swinging against him. That was like the plan. But it didn't matter what pitch it was either for Jacob Wilson, man. Sliders, fastballs up there, ready to hack. And he has like his ability to put his barrel on the baseball is special. Now, is he going to have to make some adjustments at some point? Maybe.

But the like if you're able to do that, if you're able to have barrel awareness the way he does, you can get away with a lot of mechanically, like stuff that's quote unquote mechanically wrong. So I am all in on him. I think he plays the game in a really, really fun way. And if you haven't like watched them because they're the A's, they're West Coast and they're the A's, give him a chance.

I think that you'd really like the way he plays. That the pitch of stuff is scary because it feels like that's, the pitcher start making a little bit of an adjustment and you're going to start getting some junk and then you start doing the whole dance. Yeah, swinging early. I was daydreaming about that last night, maybe teaching a young Jake one day.

Dude, I kind of grew up with the on-base percent of Jankies that I would watch the games, and they're like, look how many pitches Bernie and O'Neill take. And it's like, well, they're awesome. Go up there and hit the ball. Altoove, I think, is the best example, dude. Like, he wants to murder that first pitch. And then once he's in the at-bat, he kind of has a normal at-bat.

I guess Volpe and Perdomar are left out there, Trev. I don't know. I'm not saying you got to pick one to be your shortstop, but where do you jump? I like Volpe. Okay. So we'll go Volpe here. You know, obviously, has he continued to use the torpedo bat

because we saw last night, Elida de Cruz is off of it. I think he's continued to use it, right? Yes, Volpe's continuing to use it. So six barrels in his first nine games, he didn't get his six barrel until May 12th last year. That was his 41st game.

So I guess moving the barrel to where you usually hit the ball is a good thing for Volpe. He's one of the guys where it makes sense. I told people the bats are not going to be a big deal in a month or so. But for a guy, like a specific type of player, they can really help.

And Anthony Volpe, I think, is one of those guys who see in that. So I don't want to give all the credit to the bat. But I think in his instance, there is a lot of credit to, be given to that. As far as, especially as far as you're talking about extra base hits and a little bit of increase in power because you want to hit the ball off the barrel, I think it makes sense for him. It does. He, Volpe had a really good postseason. You still want to believe in stuff like that.

He's still very young. Like, the light bulb could fully go off. It just depends what does that mean. And Yankee fans are finding out too. Like, he's got a little bit of popping that bat. Like, he really does. that are you a Dozier in his game? Okay, I like that. But, I mean, think about what you're also saying there. I mean, Daddy Dozier put up a 40-bird or one season, right? Jeez.

So, I don't know if he's got that in him. Yeah, maybe we'll bring that back. I don't know what the hell happened. Bring that back. I honestly, man, if you're at work today and your board, go check out Perdomo's baseball savant page because it's its own type of beautiful. And I just think it's maybe that's the light bulb.

Some people need to think about this guy. Seeing him next to a rise, I was like, oh, yeah. Like, if you want, you could get caught up on the fact that Perdomo 15 career home runs. The OPS lands in a gentle spot because of that. But he is just trying to put the stick on the ball and make action happen, almost like an old school shortstop. And his role on that debacks. team there's a reason he's beloved yeah yeah uh i believe in yesterday's game levello gets tossed

and then banister comes out and he's arguing like i i love i love the dimebacks love their coaching stuff and perdomo is uh it's a lot of fun and i think you look man sometimes when you get a deal start to chill out a little bit and the game becomes fun again and it becomes a little less like stressful and then like that could open guys up big time I think the game's always been a little chill for him from what I see. Yeah, I could see that. But I would say this, like, there's some teams that would see Perdomo and be like,

we need you to start hitting the ball harder and turning on balls and we need to get that launch up and you need to hit homers. The debacks just extended them. We love what you're doing. That matters. Because not everyone's a freaking power hitter, man. Like, don't get me started on this. You know I'll get you started.

Me and Trev had some good old man texts last night about how bad defense is in baseball now. I can see that being a midweek episode. There are some things I get wrong on this show, Jake. Right. We talk a lot. I get some things wrong. I also get some things right.

Yes. Last year when I talked about bunning and how nobody knows how to defend it, we are seeing that in spades this year. And I actually think we are seeing more teams bunting, like the smart teams, because they know that. It's, it's, okay, I'll be tight. It's so funny, and this was my light bulb that I've probably had before,

but the light bulb went on again. To be a major leaguer and play a position, you used to have to prove you could play that position. Like, they kind of didn't care about your OPS. It was, can you play that position, and then we'll let you go hit? Now it's the reverse. We're just hunting hitters. It's like, Jose Iglesias at age 35, got his first left field start last night.

What? I wanted to do a segment on this. I'm glad you brought it up. Bobby, maybe get a split screen of Jose Altova and Jose Iglesias in left field. What are we doing? These are our infielders, guys. Like, they have the Altuva experience in left field, I don't think has gone great. Jose Iglesias was kind of like they needed that to happen.

By the way, they got them out of there, thanks to a couple injuries. Oscar. That game was crazy. Yeah. Okay. Let me just go back to my original point. Jose Iglesias and Jose Al Tuvae belong in the infancy. Okay. Let's stop that experiment. It's not really what the Padres are trying to do.

I don't think. Yeah. There was more of like Jackson Merrill was on the IL and Gonzalez hadn't gotten there yet, I think is what happened. But seeing those guys, I'm like, it's to your point. like they're not outfielders man like and i don't even think like altuba didn't work out in the off season as an outfieler did he that was like a spring training thing do you remember there was a tweet that he like gave his second base club to a fan that sounded super sad reading it not like cool um get our get our short kings back in the infield yeah and then yeah you just have these

weird moments of like okay so yeah the great teams you need great talent to be great all that, but also like, we're never talking about Dodgers, Phillies, like, playing out of position. Like, I know the Phillies haven't been great defensively a couple of years. I don't know. Have guys that can play the positions, and that's going to help you when guys are laying down bunts in the eighth inning and Renhifo's lost anyways. I think about Kyle Schwabber doesn't have a position, right? Just hit. Right.

When that play at first base, when he just underhanded the ball way over. the pitcher's head. And then he made a play and the crowd cheered him. And he was like saying thank you. Like that's. Right. Keep people where they're supposed to be. It's a little both sides.

Trev, let's get through these last couple. Third base doesn't have much for me. Because I, these are two guys I'd never lumped together. It's Michael Garcia and Jorge Polanco. I'm glad Polanco's off to a hot star. I couldn't believe he re-signed with Seattle after having one of his worst seasons there and, you know, all that info coming out about it's hard to hit at Seattle. Harry Polanco, go look at the baseball reference.

He's been that same guy. That Garcia, I guess that's where there's more question marks for me, but you're my third baseman. I like the adjustments Polanco's made. And there actually is a great article by Mike Petriello on MLB.com about batting stances. Like I said, there's a new section on baseball savant where you can go and toggle all these different stances. It's like, to me, it's fascinating. I've been, I've been on it all morning. Polanco widen his stance a little bit and then closed it off.

So to me, what that means is he wasn't necessarily seeing the ball last year. He was a little open, a little bit more narrow. And he needed to kind of get back to that context. So maybe he was trying to, you know, hit for a little bit more power. It's kind of what he has always been. but at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, you got to like focus on the ball a little bit more, right? You can't see the ball.

So what you would do is you'd spread out a little bit more, you'd close yourself off a little more and put your nose in. It's fun. Now you know about that. That's fun. But you've got to stay in. And that's exactly what he's done in its work so far. That was good, Trev.

In the outfield, again, we're not going to go around the horn. And again, Dahl did a great job on this sheet. I guess there was a couple names that jumped out to me. First of all, I had my first raise fear last night because I'm seeing these guys. Both made the list. Cameron Meisner and Jake Mangum, which just feels like we're scouting like a Texas high school football team.

Like, what the hell is that? But both of these guys are going nut-jobbing on the list. Wheelierre, Breu can be on every list you make this year. He's incredible. And then our guy, Sal Freelick ended up on the list too. So again, I know I just threw a smattering of guys at you for the outfield. So wherever you want to go. So I'm scared to do this one because I feel like we've talked to too much of Yankees already.

But they've made a ton of adjustments, man. And this is, screw the Yankees. Nobody wants to hear it. Yeah, yeah. They were a team that all we talked about was, man, their lineup stinks besides judge. That's what everyone said. And like, I don't think that was that bad of analysis, to be honest with you. A lot of guys had to prove things.

Trent Grisham has made massive adjustments where he's now becoming like a guy for the Yankees. That's exactly what they needed. Ben Rice has made some adjustments to his stance as well. So I think all of these guys. are doing well. If I had to pick a couple that are going to be mainstays, obviously it's Willier-Brary. He's been there and done that. I've been watching a lot of

Harrison Bader, obviously with my twins. He's been like, him and Willie Castro are the only good players on the twins right now. It's great. Walner's done okay. Need a little bit more power out of him. But I don't know where I just went with that. But Bader looks really good. And I

still believe that he needs to be like an everyday player. And he wasn't really going to be that for the twins, but now he is going to be that for the twins. In left field, swing looks good for him. Right now, it looks like

anything over the plate he's covering. He's really, really staying on the ball. And you can even tell by watching his swing, if you're on the mound, it doesn't look like there's a lot of places to beat him right now. And there are times

when you watch a hitter, you're like, oh my God, just like throw that guy a slider away. He's going to wave at it. I watched Mark Kana do it against the twins yesterday. I was like Pablo Lopez doing a few sliders. I had no chance. Right now Harrison Bader is so like locked in and comfortable with what he's doing in the box. Like it doesn't seem like he has a hole. So I think his fast start, 300 batting average 956 OPS.

I don't know if that's all sustainable, but it wouldn't be surprised me if we're, it wouldn't surprise me if we're seeing Harrison Bader like in the 800s OPS this year. Like he looks like he's found something. Trev, I'm blanking on the guy's name. He's one of the twins, like, writers who's on Twitter a lot, X. There's Aaron Gleeman. I think it was Gleeman. We referenced him quite a bit.

Yes. Trev, he had a tweet the other day. Twins last 50 games? 15 and 35. Yeah, it's bad. They ended very, very poorly last year in start. started off poorly this year. White Sox, the only MLB team worse than that.

So I'm putting that out there. I was on my couch. That's fine. Look, the roster is good. Like, there's guys that have done good things. They have not competed well as a team. It looks flat. My guy, Eddie Julian's swing is not where it needs to be.

Carlos Correa has some issues right now. He's hitting the wall hard, but on the ground too much. Like, he's closed himself off too much with his shoulders. I kind of need to get down to the field if we're being honest. Do they have a new hitting coach? I don't know what my relationship with him is going to be like, but I'm going to be in the cage, dude. Like, I like to be in the cage.

Unless he tells me I can't, I'm going to be in. I don't tell people what to do. I just like seeing guys hit. Right. And I'd rather do that than go to the manager scrum. How about that? There you go. Yes, thousand percent.

Okay. Coach, there's Ben Rice, Kyle Manzardo, a couple of DH studs right now. You love Manzardo, I love Rice. And then pitchers, I don't know. A good arm's a good arm. We could talk about them another day. Nick Ladolo, the Cincinnati Reds, 50th career start on Tuesday.

308 strikeouts are the fifth most by a left-handed pitcher through their first 50 outings. I mean, that's not how I think of Nick Ladolo. I know he's good. I know he's talented. But again, if you're buying into formerly my Reds, Lidolo Hunter Green. Such a funky team.

Trev, we also had a nice milestone the other night that got us thinking a little bit. Francisco Lindor gets his 15th career hit the 670th member of the 1500th career hit club. And again, there's a formula here. You got to play a lot. You got to hit a lot. Lindor failed to record 150 hits just once in 20. 2021, excluding the 2020 season. Trev, these numbers were jarring.

Only one player with got to 3,000 hits in the 2020s. It was Miggy Cabs. Five players in the 2010s. Four in the 2000. So like this used to be the, you've had a good career, you slapped it around. As baseball has changed, this is going away a little bit. That leads into, I think, a fun conversation. Is Lindor going to get to three?

Is he a Hall of Fame or there's a couple other guys? So I think he is going to end up being a Hall of Famer. Already amassed 50 war, obviously he plays a great shortstop. And he posts, man. That's one thing you can say about Lindor is he plays games. That's kind of what you have to do to put up those counting stats. So is 3,000 attainable for him? I honestly don't think it is.

It's a lot of hits to get when you enter your 30s. Like usually things slow down. Hopefully they won't for him. It's still just a lot of hits, Jake, to get. He has signed through 2031. So he's going to play for another six years after this. And then we'll see if he hangs it up and goes and hangs in his basement. I suggest a lot of people do that and let the kids play.

But it'd be interesting to see if he does stick around and try to get to that mark. But I don't think he needs that, Jake, to get to the Hall of Fame. I think he's going to amass enough war to get in there. He's already got more war than a lot of people that are in the Hall of Fame. So I think if he continues and stays healthy over the next five, six years, I think he will get there just by not volume, but quality of play through a number of years. I think he's going to be that.

I think some of the conversation around this is how many more 3,000 hit guys are we going to see? Like is it going to become like a 300 win club? Is it going to become something that is a relic of the past where we just don't see it anymore? The numbers, as you mentioned, are kind of pointing to that as pitching gets better and the advancements in tech and the advantage

the pitchers continue to have, like is it going to take away from that? I think there's a little bit, that is part of the reason why he would do that. And then the other reason was the careers are getting shorter, man. Like they're not paying guys when you get older. It's become a younger person's game. And to reach 3,000 hits, I mean, you're talking,

It's 20 seasons of 150 hits. I think that's the right, Matt. I think I crushed you right there. It's just you have to play and you have to be, someone has to give you a contract to play in the big leagues and then you have to continue to produce. So I think we're, you know, some guys that still have a chance,

like Machado, Bogart, Smokie Betts, they're on quicker paces than Francisco Lendores, but older. I just, I think it's going to enter that. The 3,000 hit club is going to enter that category of like the 300 win club where it's just how many more guys are we're going to see in that? Like probably not a lot. Yeah, I'm kind of glad you said it, Trev. Lindor, the safer bet is very much no.

The 30s are hard. This is where I get, some people don't understand my argument, but, you know, go look at Bonds and Griffey through 30. Go look at them after 30, and, you know, one guy was on the stuff, one guy wasn't. For me, shortstop, Lindorra isn't going to be a Hall of Fame. By shortstop war, the only guys ahead of him that aren't in the Hall of Fame, your guy, Bert Campanaris, which, hey, maybe we'll get that right one day. He's three war ahead.

Bill Dallin, who I'm not familiar, I think he retired in 1910. Get him in the hall. He should be in here. How do you know what his war was from 1910? I mean, that's, you want to lose me and Trev for an hour and a half. That's insane. I am so out on that. Trev, you know who he's sandwiched between Jeter and Ozzy Smith?

So if Bill Dallin was that ball player, I need him in the hall. How do we know what his defensive metrics were? Don't. The only other. I got to know that seriously, someone in the comments, if you were a statistically inclined person, please let me know how we know defensive metrics from the 19, like, hundreds,

1910s. I need to know. The only other guy, Alex Rodriguez, who's not in for a different reason. So if Lindor I don't want to say trickles in, because that feels weird. But if his, you know, he has a couple more years at his peak and then father time

starts to happen, let's say he gets 15 more career war. I mean, you're looking at him right next to Ernie Banks. So yeah, I think he's going to get in there. The hits are a lot. I like Machado. You mentioned having the contract. Man, he goes till 2033, and he's another just like steady Eddie puts up the same stats every year. So there's 24 guys with 1,500 hits or more that are active. And if I'm going through this list, like Jose Ramirez might do it. He's, he's 32 and he's got 1,5009 hits.

That's going to be difficult to, actually, now that I really think about it. Yeah, like Ozuna's on it, Stanton's on, and Hayward, like none of these guys are going to get there. They're too old. Yelich is probably not going to get there. He's at 1595. Castellanos, love you, dog.

I don't think you're going to get there. You need another 1,400 hits. I don't think he wants to. I don't think he wants to either. So, yeah, really. looking at this list like Altuve is 35 and he's got 2248 hits

I think I can actually see him wanting to hang on and get that it's going to take a lot it's going to take a big effort but I think I could see him doing that and other than that like I don't know you said Machado he's got 1915 he's 32 I don't think he wants to he's got the contract there he's got the contract I know the contract's there but he might be like hey guys

I'm out. I'm good. I don't need the money. He doesn't need the money, by the way. So if I'm looking at the list, I'm like, I think like Altuve is my best bet?

Yeah, Altuve, again, there's the caveat here. Freddie Freeman's there too. Guys used to chase stats like this that, you know, a couple, I don't want to say sad years, but, you know, if Altuvae was willing to bop around

on a couple different teams to rack up a hundred, 140 hit seasons, then yeah, I think he could do that. I don't know if he'll want to do that. I guess his legacy conversation is a slightly interesting one. But yeah, I mean, and I guess the other thing is just don't bet against Mookie. Because, again, he's got so much other stuff going on that, like, why would he? But also, I just saw him start playing shortstop, and he looks amazing.

So if that was something he wanted, if he want to go back to Boston for a final three years and just rack up some hits he could um he'll do something super cool he'll like be the he's not leaving l-a baby once you get a taste of LA let me tell you that once you move out yeah say it to my face say it to my face I do have before we move on I do have the hit leaders stat page up right here on my phone because we were we were going to do that like top five in each category see if it's sustainable uh Kyle Tucker leaves the league with 19 hits. George Springer.

Yeah. Who's bawling to start the year. Defensively and offensively. He's third was 17. Altuve and Bregman both have 16. What team did all those guys play for? Oh. Could have had all of them.

Right. They have one of them now. Man, I'd love, I don't know if we'd ever get the honest answer out of George, but dude, that's got to feel so. good bro like you're getting a little older you're 35 you had a nice second half to kind of save your season a little bit or after a tough start to come out 459 the first 10 games that's got to feel so good so good we highlighted the first award was george spinger making that play yeah in right field uh alan rodin was out in right field the other day and same exact play happened he just zoos

the ball and everybody scored and i'm like this is This is the defensive war that I understand. Right. It looked like one run saved. Good for George. Good for everyone. I want to make my Tampa Bay Rays joke again, just because, again, I can't.

Jake Magum feels like the quarterback and Cameron Meisen, or Cameron Meisner's, his tight end, and they're just unstoppable. And they might be. I'm on the raise, guys. They might be. Trev, we've got a couple notes we want to hit quick, and one's kind of sad and serious,

so we'll do it in our best fashion. The rest of the episode is brought to you by the Draft King Sportsbook. I've told you guys, weather's warming up, except in New York, but baseball's here. And you can live bet games, you can pre-bet the game. However you want to do it, you can do all of it at the Draft King Sportsbook. Right now, all new customers who bet $5 will get $150 in bonus bets instantly. when you use code jam baseball.

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Four additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.com slash audio. All right, let's do a little bet the cycle. It's Wednesday, so we're betting the cycle brought to you by Draft Kings. You know it's code jam baseball when you sign up. But Rob said you found a little, he's found a little Bill Dallin defensive. search? Yeah, well, I found

within Reddit, someone posted, how the heck do we have D-War valuations for players in the 1900s. Someone wrote, it's not as precise, but we know the number of balls in play, whether they were fly balls or ground balls, assists, or put-outs, there are a large enough

data set to know roughly how many balls in play are hit to which position on average and can then infer about how many plays a player at that their given position should have made that year. And that's it. I'm out.

So it's like, it's a little, it's, it's very broad, but. Can you, can you do my defensive war that way? Take away all the video and just see how many balls I fielded. I had a great fielding percentage one year. I think I might have led the A.L. at third base. Now, was I a 10 more player that year? You might have been, and Treve, I let these days go, but all I hear about on early Yankees' Twitter,

or was Derek Jeter was the worst defensive shortstop of all time. And I don't know. If he gets the Bill Dahlin treatment, a lot of those numbers could change. We could save that for a round of way. I love Jets. We love Jets. My original AIM username was Jeet Goes Deep.

Everyone was like, what the hell is that? Why didn't you put the R in there? Yes, he did. Yes, he did. Trev, let's bet the cycle. This is where we pick a single, double, triple Homer. Each one increases in difficulty. You bet on lead off or you want the double?

I'm a doubles guy. Yeah, you are. And that's where I'm going to take the safe one. Nico Horner getting a hit tonight versus the Texas Rangers. Horner's hit in 350s. He's looked really good early on. And a really good four-for-eight career against Tyler Mali. Also, I guess if you need to spice up your single,

RBI in five straight games for Horner. I got another single for you. Bet the over of the A's game if they're at home. Say it again, okay? That's three triples. Three singles, excuse me. There you go. I'll take the double.

I got Corbyn Burns to get his first win. As a dime back, he's actually facing the Brewers this weekend. A little bit of revenge game. Is it a revenge game? I don't know. It's only a second career start versus the Brewers. He had one when he was with the Orioles. He went five innings pitch, two runs with five Ks.

in that. I can't wait to watch it. To be honest with you. We love a little redemption. Speaking of, Marlins and Reds on the road to win. We said triples are pretty hard to hit, huh? Marlins and Reds on the road today.

Hey, if we're trying to get that triple, Nick Martinez, sure, go use that qualifying offer. And Marlins, oh, God, it's against the Mets. Hey, we're going for triples. We're going for triples. Last Homer, we hit. We said Devers was going to start raking again. He's done that.

He actually has the most open stance of anyone in the big of me. Ozzy Albies is like second or third. I think that's what you're talking about, open stance. Sure. Just so you know, clear that up. This one is also, yeah, homers are also difficult to hit. So we're going to go for some white socks love here. We're going to have Lou Bob, Luis Robert Jr.

and Andrew Vaughn to Homer versus the Guardians today against Logan Allen. Andrew Vaughan has really good numbers against him, 8 for 17 with three doubles and a homer, and then Luis Robert also has great numbers. Five for 12, no homers, but two doubles and 1.0.O.PS. So I guess we're saying the White Sox are to come out swinging for that homer. Let's go, man. They've got a couple pitchers this year.

Yeah. Some power righty chain jumps. coming out of there? White Sox watchable? It's all watchable and we thank you guys for watching with us today. Thank you guys so much.

We'll be back Friday like we told you. We're going back to go forward. Yucking. Yuckin ball. I suck. Make sure you share, subscribe, comment, all that stuff really does help. We appreciate you guys.

Forgotten rotten. What an election. Game 1 in the warehouse for Forgotten Rotten. Same for baggage, game 1. Go check it out. We got some surprises in that. I sent you guys out this morning. Me, Volpe?