Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Chicago Cubs Sign Shota Imanaga | 765

Episode Date: January 10, 2024

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Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. The Cubs finally sign a player. Shoto I'managa, if I pronounced it correctly. I don't know if it did. Shata. Shota. Well, it says Shoto right on the words I'm looking at on the screen. So I got got a sabotage.

Hello and welcome to talking baseball. Thank you very much for joining us today. It's brought to you by Seatgeek. You can use Code Talking over there. Download the app. Use Code Talking. and you get $20 off your first purchase. You can go to any event.

See your sport. See the ballet. See the dance. See all of that. My name's Jimmy. Jake is sitting next to me. Trev in the middle. Bdd behind the dish.

And I got got by, I mean, spelled Shota, right? But on our sheet, it's Shoto, Soto on the mind all the time. Jake, how are you? Got Burgundyed there. We talked about it all leading up. And then the screen words got you. Trev, Jim, Davis. Make sure you go to Siki.

Code talking. It's $20 off your first purchase. Download the app. Go to a Cubs game. Go see the new Southpaw on the north side. Yeah. I don't know. Hey, stove's kind of rolling.

We're jazzy this morning. Some strome into the Yankees rumors going on. And Imanaga. I'maaga. Inaga. I'ma. So excited to talk about it. Cubs.

They were supposed to be one of the biggest players this free agency, and I guess they can still kind of be. They make their first move. So I'm excited to talk a little NL Central with the fellas. Trev, what's going on out west? A little bit chilly this morning. I have a coffee cup that might bring back some memories for you guys. Do you want to see?

Oh. The Seattle All-Star game. We were there together. Not I. I was drinking it. Jimmy wasn't. Jimmy wasn't that's right. So thanks.

Wow. Thanks. Well, Jimmy, you missed out, big guy. Now I got to deal with that all day. Yeah. So a little clarification for everybody. We hear and listen and read the comments and people get mad at us for mispronouncing names. I'm a guy who has a weird last name.

I mean, I had a broadcaster in the big days called me Plief. My last name is Plouf. I don't care about it. Never did. But people seem to care about us mispronouncing names. So we had Dalton put out a pronunciation key. He's going to do it for the season on some of the more tough names. Right now we have Shoda imanaga.

That's the correct way to pronounce it. So we're trying people. That's all I'm saying. And Jake, you took my forkball at top. That was tough. I think you saw, I telegraphed it getting the grip in, I think. James. What are you doing, big guy?

I'm good. I'm doing well. Is he weak? storm coming apparently that didn't really come. But some of my tree, some of my tree branches fell. It was really loud and windy. You got snow. Yeah, last week we got snow.

Snowman's fully melted now. It's a bummer. But we did get snow last. Weather's become a joke, dude. It's all for clicks, just like everything else. I love storms. It was really breezy. There was some wind.

Yeah. It's supposed to go until 6 p.m. tonight in New Jersey. The weather has become a joke. Yes. I mean, think about it. All for clicks. I get it. Weather clicks, man. Are you going to click if they say, oh, there's going to be some winds and some rain? Or if you say, this storm could knock out all in New York City, click? Well, it's all prerative, man. You got to blame the people that sue the weather people for not preparing them in case the worst case.

Now they got to prep for the worst case, so they avoid the lawsuits. So it's, you know, what's wrong? Society or the system. Yes. Yes. Okay. Let's talk cubs. The Cubs. Cubs Fest happened. And, uh, hasn't happened yet. No.

That poster's crazy. I, yeah. People ripping it online. I didn't see any like online. You just texted it. Uh, yeah,

a couple things. I think Dom, that the guy that does the shirts with Happer and stuff. Like, yeah, everyone, everyone that looked at that was like, this is off.

They had the manager and the general manager. Yeah. As the, is Jet Horror General Manager? She have a different title. Probably. The head of baseball. Yeah.

As their headliners. And then like, Ian Hap was the second row. Fergie Jenkins was like the third row. They had Hall of Famers on the bottom row. Carrie Wood was the second to last row. And really small. And obnoxiously small.

It's supposed to be a lot of the Palluzer thing. They screwed that up. Or maybe counsel and where are the stars? That's why we go to the games. I don't know what to say about. I mean, I saw the exact same thing you did. I just shoved it off to the side because I'd go, whatever, who cares? But then when you brought it up and we're really pointing it out, I mean, it is ridiculous.

That's ridiculous. There's no way Craig Counsel wants that. There's no way. He's from Wisconsin, dude. He doesn't care about stuff like that. It's a good point. Maybe he's, maybe this is the new Craig Counsel. If he starts dressing like Gabe Kapler and the dugout, we're in trouble.

Oh, no, no, no, no. Yeah. Well, they got a pitcher. They got. Shota Imanaga. Correct, Trev? Yeah. Okay.

Good stuff. What's the deal? It's 15 a year. Do we have the full details yet at all? Full full details are now. It sounds like whenever it does come out, it's going to be very complicated, but it seems like a base of two years 15 per. And it sounds like four for 60.

That would make it. Is very on the table as an escalator and can max out at 80 is a report. saw two years 15 per that seems that seems like the that seems like the baseline okay two for 30 30 four for 60 or somewhere in between sounds like it'll ultimately be reported as a two for 30 with options escalators whatever incentives very much what most starting pitchers have been getting this offseason somewhere between 15 and 17 so it makes sense. I mean, I know you're

curious, James, you're a contract. I'm curious to see what the escalators are, you know, where the opt-outs are, all these things, because I think it is going to be a unique type of contract, but the money lines up for what we've seen this off-season so far. Yeah, it pays to be

a mystery, you know? Like Michael Waka got two years 13 mil. Gibby got one year. That's such a good point, James, because, like, if you just pitched last year and you didn't really make any changes and you just did your thing, that's not as cool as you had five terrible months.

And then that last month in September, you added the sweeper. And now, hey, I'm a different pitcher. Pay me like that different pitcher. That's what happened with Manaya, basically. I know he did it for a little bit more prolonged of a time with the sweeper, but you're totally right, dude. Like if you have any, if you're not pitching well, the first four or five months, just create a new pitch in September

and say, look, I'm a new guy now. Don't worry about those stats that I put up earlier in the season. What did the Dodgers give Heaney when they first sign him after he did the Yankees? Because he worked on a sweeper all offseason. That was like the big thing. And he did pitch well for the Dodgers in that year. I think he was a one year something. I think he got more 8.8.88.5.

Yeah. First deal of that for agency. Yeah. Got it done quick. Yeah, I don't know. it's not like a crazy signing, but because he's foreign in a mystery, and because baseball fans are starved,

people were acting like it was crazy. Like, no one went crazy over like Gialito. We're like, we're going to run and headlight an episode. I agree. I agree. I think there are some things that he does really well. Like if you get into the statistics,

like he's a strikeout guy, but he also doesn't walk people. So you can get excited about that. I think everyone that watches baseball enjoys a strikeout pitcher that doesn't walk people. I went through the video, I watched the WBC outing against the USA earlier this year.

I watched some highlights from the last couple years. My take, my I test take, I test plus is my stat that I use, Eno. Shout out Eno Saris. He is a guy that can keep you off balance. He kind of uses all the quadrants of the plate. He's basically a two-pitched guy or a three-pitched guy, but he throws a lot of fastballs and sliders, and then he has a split two.

I'm assuming that'll play up. in Majorly Baseball because there's not a lot of splitters so it becomes kind of like James said like a mystery pitch and that becomes difficult but hey it's hard to control that thing and if you start to see it enough like it's some of the mystery goes away from it so I think you know my take on him is he's got a really good chance

to be a middle of rotation guy like maybe with some upside to be a two if the strikeout numbers continue and he doesn't give up homers you know playing and Wrigley against better competition. I think he's a guy you can trust during the season

and if he had to start a playoff game but yeah, this is great. I'm not worried about him walking the park or, you know, this or that.

I think he's going to be a very, very, and I don't mean this in a negative way, it's going to sound like it, but a very, very serviceable starting pitcher in the big leagues. That's a compliment people.

That's what's getting guys paid. That's what's getting guys paid. I think, I think it's interesting that this is the Cubs first move of this offseason. And, you know, I mentioned Stroman before, and there's rumors going around about him right now. Stroman, for the first three months of last year, when the Cubs kind of, remember, they saved their season at the end

to not trade away, Belly and Stroman. Stroman was an all-JM pitcher for us. So I know he got hurt, and then he got, you know, he had a couple bad outings, was hurt, tries to fight back for the end of the season. So for the Cubs that were an 83 win team last year, they needed to replace that. They bring in Imanaga.

So, you know, like you're saying, you're comparing them to Waka and some other MLB vets that have signed this free agency. You know, is he going to be able to give the Cubs that? I think that's the first question because that's, everyone's saying three to five. If you're high on Imanaga, you think he could be a three and, you know, the low arm slot, he throws a splitter.

I mean, a lefty splitter. That's, you know, unicornish of a pitch almost. And, yeah, he pitched in that WBC game. I've been on a big, like, the rest of the world is catching up to U.S. baseball. And I think the other big thing was, look at Sanga last year. Sangha's big year. You know, Yamamoto is younger, A, which is always a big part of free agency. And his stuff, which they think we can measure all the pitching stuff,

Yamamoto expected to be like, great. He got paid, the Dodgers paid more for him than any pitcher in baseball history. So Imanaga, who, you know, a couple steps down from that, but still in the ballpark,

they're going to take a chance on him. And it is a little bit of the unknown and maybe that first season, guys haven't seen his slot, they haven't seen anything. Riggly, it's tough to hit early. You know, this guy could be clicking early on, but you have to be,

scared he gives up a lot of homers over there and Trev like you said you know at everyone at the big league level can mesh can just mash compared to maybe some of the back ends of the lineups of the local team there so you got to be worried about the homers especially when summer hits in Wrigley they get a pitcher that should give them innings like he's never thrown above 170 I like this stat from Dalton innings wise he's never thrown 170 but seven out of eight years, he's thrown 140. So you got a guy that, you know, with a fastball sitting where it sits, supposedly the location's pretty good.

It's going to have to be at this level. Otherwise, you know, I know Trev before, I think last night you were talking about a take-em-up top stat that if he's throwing 90 over the middle, you know, that that ball ends up in the streets of Chicago. So it's going to be interesting to watch. Like, Japan, they won the WBC. came over was great. Otani's come over and been great.

This guy, I don't think, is supposed to be in this class. And that's where when that two-for-thirty number came out, that's the interesting part, right? Because for what starting pitchers are going for, you know, what were Gibby's final stat lines last year? Gibby had a four-seven-three ERA, 33 starts. So that's kind of where we're at in that price rank. Yeah, probably like Kakucci, four, five, we're not in the rotation.

I mean, I just can't understand all the data crunching and we're doing. The dude's never thrown an MLB baseball. Like his ride in the WBC was great. I would gather most pitchers was because they played with the pre-tacked ball. If you saw when you say Kikuchi came over, the amount of pine tar he had on his hat because he was playing with a baseball that wasn't tack was insane. Most Japanese pitchers come over and they lose their splitter a little. bit or it changes saying is different because he's more of a forkball because the ball's bigger the ball's

bigger the ball's slip more slipperier so like all this data crunching i'm just kind of like what are we doing the dude has not thrown this piece of equipment yet let's track that data it hasn't happened uh i kind of feel bad for the pitchers that are in mlb that like are performing and got less than this deal because there's no ooh factor to it so that's i guess where like i hear the number i'm like what but yeah there's so many articles everyone like about all the numbers I'm like

he hasn't thrown the ball yet we kind of see that from time to time guys that have trouble in the States then they go over to either the KBO or in Japan

and they have success there and all of a sudden they're signing a three year you know deal I totally agree and I wonder if if you know you're posting

or getting posted is there any part of you like do they say, hey, like, I'll throw a bullpen with an NLB ball and you guys can track the numbers, or do they not do that? I would hope they do that. You'd have to assume they do that. But, like, I don't think it's being their best interest to do it.

Like, no, we're good. Like, if you got my numbers, that's what you get. Because are you going to throw a bullpen? Like, Cashman goes out to see Yamamoto. Yamamoto's not throwing a bullpen for Cashman, right? Probably not. I think Yamamoto was working out at, like, UCLA, so maybe he had to, some open bullpen sessions or maybe they share the data of the times he pitched well.

I don't know. Could see both sides. I kind of, you know, in my head, what just ran through is like when the NFL draft comes around, like the top quarterback doesn't really throw for anyone. He does his own thing. But if you're kind of that next tier, you want to show you can do all the drills and this and the other. So maybe it's a situation like that, but just speculative.

A DMD know, because I want to know if he knows off. hand, like in the World Baseball Classic, were MLB pitchers, did they have more induced vertical break? Because the ball was better. Remember everyone was saying, why don't we just use this? This is better? A lot of the pitchers like the ball because, yeah, it's just

show and go. Grab the ball, you don't have to tack it up or anything like that. Can we have a discussion about balls real quick? Yes. Always. I mean, we talk about this all the time. I found out via some discussions you brought up quarterbacks. Like in the

in college, you know, they all use different brand balls. Some use Adidas, some use Nike, whatever. But then each of those has, you know, a girthy ball and a slimmer ball. I got that. So it's the same thing for them, like coming out.

Like you don't know how you're going to handle an NFL football. And it's, it's, they talk about that a lot. And I don't think we talk about that enough in baseball. I know we bring it up because we talk about things. like that, but it's so freaking different. And I don't understand why. We got to have a universal baseball people. I'm talking, I'm talking from high school on up. We need to have a universal baseball. I know that the brands will be different. So the manufacturing might be different,

but let's like try to get it as universal as possible. It doesn't make any sense to have different baseball. It's tough when MLB owns the company that produces the MLB baseball, which is the inferior product amongst consumers. But if Rawlings puts out a lot of baseballs for amateur and college as well, we should just have one baseball. They say they're working on that and testing a bunch of pre-tac and they say that they bring them to the clubhouses in spring training. Do you like this? Do you like this?

And eventually we might get to a place. But they do say that they are working on that. I just don't know how it might take a while. I had one other thing to say. I think, oh, yeah. Well, I feel like we kind of have bashed him a little bit. I'm not trying to back. I'm more upset with the

contract prices in comparison to other dudes that have been the MLB than I am about him. I think he's a very good pitcher, which I like. His stuff is good. He watch it. He does have a little life on it.

Like, he's spotting. He's setting guys up. He's doing all the things that you have to do as a majorly pitcher, probably even a little bit better than some of the guys we had mentioned. Like he's a pitcher. And I like that.

And he's got enough stuff where it can play, but he's going to have to, I think he's not to elevate his game. I really do. Like, you're going to have to come over here and make some adjustments, whether that's mid-season, whether that's in spring training, whatever it is, if he can make those adjustments and, like, you know, change.

He's 30 years old. He's been pitching the same way for a long time. Now he's come over to a completely different place. You talked about the balls. He's got to be able to make adjustments. If he can make adjustments, I mean, I think he's going to be just fine. and he does throw more of a forkball.

I watched the grip than a splitter. I don't know why they call his a splitter and Sanga as a forkball. He's he's forking it. I can't even freaking do it. I like that. You did it. Yeah. Split doesn't have to do that wife. Coney showed me.

Split is here, right? Split is this one. Doesn't even need to be that much. Well, I'm saying like two fingers here. Yeah, it's just a fork is here. I thought it had to be pretty wide, but when Connie showed me how he threw his, it was just both fingers on the outside of both laces, but kind of barely, yeah.

Yeah, it was very comfortable to do it. And me and Conan... That makes more sense. More control. All about your thumb, Cohn said. You got to tuck that. Where is his thumb? So if you tuck it under, like,

or on the base of the ball, it's going to go down more. Curl it in. Yeah. Yeah, like that. In the middle of the bottom of the ball. It's going to go more... I feel like I have no control like that.

Yeah. But if you put it on the side, it's going to go more armside run. That's what Connie told me his did, which I thought was very cool. This feels more like I got control of the ball. This is, can't slip out of my fingers.

That's what I do in Blitzball when I throw the one that goes down. I tuck my thought. It's so weird to throw. Yeah. So, Manaya was doing in that clip coming out on Jam baseball. Yeah, Manaya throws his four seam. We saw a picture with his thumb completely tucked like that at the base of the ball.

he's a giant so he probably big hands yeah his tucked thumb is probably the size of my thumb I think he's from Indiana isn't that weird I guess so can you just think like Islander with the name I think I think California

and then I think he's from Indiana well I mean like his roots yeah yeah so that's Iimanaga I hope he's good I the other thing is like he has this that everyone talking about is this low slot but it's not crazy low It's just kind of like the height of a 5-2 guy throwing.

So I'm interested in that as well. This is a fun one. I mean, I think kind of like I said with Yamamoto, I think the best thing that happened for both of these guys is Sanga's last year. And I don't know. I'm very interested to see these next steps for Japanese baseball players. Because remember, you know, I gave my Jakey speech on Yoshita last year.

I was like, you know, we don't know a lot about this guy. Maybe it clicks, maybe it doesn't. right and then we saw him in the WBC and we're like look at this fucker like this guy can play a little ball so i don't know i'd like to think japan's caught up and i i think kind of where you started jim i think where maybe the cubs landed is like hey this worst case this guy is back end you know if if if we need a long relief bounce back into the rotation guy cool but he probably does have some upside potential that maybe they look at a Waka or they look at a gibby and they say, you know, that person doesn't have that.

Where Imanaga, if he comes over and he does anything like, you know, almost ticks up like Sanga did last year, you get a really good ball player. Yeah. The Homer scare me. Well, yeah, his splits against Rites are apparently not good. The Homer scare me. The homer numbers in Japan, not necessarily a homer forward offense of the environment there. Yeah, and I think, it's a flag.

I think 90% of them came against Ritees or 85% someone that came against Ritees. And that scared the Yankees off. He's going to face a lot of Ritees. So I'm interested to see. Hopefully he outperforms it. But it's been a crazy bidding war of numbers for him to come in low. It's kind of like, whoa. Yeah, that's interesting.

You thought that was low? Passing tweeted out over 100 mil Everything was sounding like you're going to have to like Straight up commit five years to him And there's still teams desperate for pitching That didn't compete with that Or drive the Cubs up So

We gotta see what this deal is for real Because I think we're just I think we're just getting some The bare bones of it I'm very excited for the final number To come out and be able to really chew on it Yeah Remember how weird Kikuchi's deal was

Yeah maybe it's like that I love this you know the mystery is such a fun part of it like even Yamamoto like we can all expect that guy's been pretty good his stuff is electric but we don't know

we don't know people like you know Yoshita he came out and was great the first couple months and he really he really slid back a lot yeah you know like they just I love the unknown a Cuban ball player comes over

they don't really defect anymore I don't think. But like back in the day, you get a Cuban ball player. Let's see. Sometimes I can't wait to see this guy. The Little League World Series coached in the middle of the Little League World Series last year. Good friend. Peace, dudes.

Thanks for getting me here with your talent, 12 year olds, but I'm out. Yeah, I'm been baffled about the way Eno and the people that I trust are somewhat talking about his skill set because it's like, yeah, it's fastball sits 91, 94. And I'm like, okay, that's below average these days for a pitcher. And it's always in the zone. Like, okay, that's not good. And his release point is five foot four inches. I'm like, okay, those guys usually don't make it out of minors.

Like all those statute gave me are of guys that don't make it out on minors. I talked about it before the show, but like, you know. It's like Davy Garcia from the left side. It is. I think that's a comp. Dude, Davey was a big prospect, all right. Fake. All the Yankees prospects are fake.

Seth Lugo, I believe, is a comp for that. In the White Tucks pen right now. Big year coming. What do you go, Davey was? Maybe. Is that the Lugo? I think. Ride used to mean something, guys. Like, you know, when Patriot first started, you know,

learning about spin rate and using it to their advantage and figuring out how to get more RPM so they can get a little bit more late life on the ball, then it meant something. But everyone is doing that now. Everyone's kind of throwing the top of the zone. Everyone's trying to get ride the best they can. Guys are dropping their arm slots down. You know, you put yourself in front of a slow-mo camera.

change your grip and your arm slot and your new pitcher. Like this stuff, the ride isn't new anymore. Hitters are adjusting to it. The posture is different. You know, you have these machines where you can mimic spin rate, shape, everything. So like this isn't the surprise or like the advantage necessarily that they used to be. So that's good. That's why the sinkers are coming back into the game because guys have made the adjustment, you know, to hit at the top of the zone and to hit that fastball that kind of had that.

you know, that late life doesn't come down necessarily. So it's... So, I'm just very curious. Yeah, Seth Lugo is a five feet six inch release point. I think his is five, four. Or I don't know what. It's something around there. Seth Lugo been good.

Yeah. Hopefully he shows and wins a Sall Young, and then he can put us all in his hype video. You know, who's got a similar release to Imanaga? Oh, five six. Marker Stroman. No, maybe, but he's from the right side. From the left side?

Chris Sale. But actually, it's lower than his five feet two inches. But that's like a condor. Praying mantis coming at you. Do you want to talk NL Central? Quick. I'd like to a little bit. I think the NL Central's in a funny area right now

because the Cubs for me, you know, this was supposed to, to be their offseason and maybe there's more coming. But right now, the offense still lost belly, who was their MVP last year. They replaced Stroman with Imanaga, who, you know, for half a season, Stroman was like NL. Sy Youngworthy.

So I, you know, don't know how you value the replacement there. I know Jordan Wicks came on the scene and he looked good and they've got some expectations for him. And then the Brewers, who were the class of the central last year, 92 wins. Everyone kind of got scared because are they trading burns and Domas? They hadn't done that yet. They're still there.

The Cardinals revamped their pitching coming off one of the more horrid seasons we've ever seen. And the Cincinnati Reds, who had their upstart season, 82 wins, they've actually been one of the teams that spent the most in free agency. They've spent over 100 mil, and they have their young core. So I don't know. I think it's funny. like we kind of anticipated the Brewers doing like a full reset, but they haven't really done that yet.

The Cubs have, are they the same team as last year? I don't think they've gotten to that point yet, which was an 83 win team. And then the Cubs, or excuse me, the Reds, kind of like I teed up. In theory, they should be better. So I don't know. A little jazzy NL Central talk before we get the TPP ranking vote out to the world. Yeah, it's not really fair for us, I guess, to talk about

what's happening in 2024 because we haven't scoured the 40 men's and done the TPPs like you're talking about. But I mean, just from what we know and the signings and stuff, we briefly were talking about this before the show started and we said, who do you think is going to win the NL Central? I'm curious. I have it up right now from,

oh, our guys at Draft Kings. Do you want to know like the rankings they have for the 2024 Enal Central? Okay, that's a fun game. Brewers first. Jake? I don't think they have the Brewers first

because I think they still want to trade Burns or Draft Kings is assuming they're gonna I would guess Cubs is their favorite. So it's interesting this Citamon has a bunch of the different sports books and most of them have the Cardinals as number one. And I mentioned, I said,

if I had the pixel on right now, I'd pick the Cardinals. They have them as, most of them as number one. Draft Kings actually has the Cubs at plus 185, Cardinals at plus 190. So basically 1A, 1B. And the Brewers, every single book has them as third in the NL Central.

So no Reds? Reds are all fourth. Yeah, the Reds rotation isn't good. Well, no, excuse me. There's one book that has two books that have them locked with the brewers. Interesting. I like the brewers still,

bullpen and rotation until they trade burns. I like the brewers. Obviously, the Cardinals have talent, and I do think Sunny Gray changes some of that staff, interested in Lynn and Gibby and how much time they get innings they get and their depth,

because they were really shallow at pitching, but I don't know. I would have to look into their depth of who they have coming up. But I think they can compete. Obviously, we don't know. I thought they were going to win it easy or win it being in it last year and they tanked. But I would say it's Cubs, Brewers, Cardinals.

Okay. Your Cubs Brewers Cardinals, Jake is, were you brew crew? I think I'm Reds. I love their lineup. Reds won. Yeah. I think if their lineup takes any bit of a leap and they're pitching, they've signed some guys and Green Ashcraft and Ashcraft and

are all good and young. Green wasn't good last year. No, but he's young. He's still 24. He has streaks of greatness. He struck out 152 and 112 innings that like that. The leap is coming at some point. Like no one's ever really thrown like him.

That I don't know. I like their high-end potential. And they might not be done. Well, but I know that's not the game. but like Jonathan India supposedly is like an expendable piece for them if they want to. So like they've got they've got ways they can go with this thing. I'd probably go Cardinals, Rewers, Reds, Cubs as we stand right now. Sorry, pirates.

But the Cardinals could just absolutely bite me again. I was championing them early, you know, last year and they just had the worst season. I think that's probably going to be one of the bigger storylines that we look at, early on in the year is what the fuck are the Cardinals doing? Like, what are they back? Big first month. Or are they just bad? Big first month. I mean, Jollyall just did the video on the, on the, what now feels like a random awesome year by the Giants who might,

maybe in two years we get the, what was that random awful year for the Cardinals video? Yeah, maybe. Yeah. The offensive numbers on that team were not bad in hindsight. I think they addressed the pitching. I kind of believe that counts back. Hascraft and I last year said We'd rather have the Cardinals

Offense than the Braves offense That was probably in May or something like that It turned out obviously the Braves One of the best offenses of all time So tough take for us But the Cardinals have the players I think Ashcraft had a great second half I'm trying to figure it out

Ashcraft's fun He's young Abbott Yes he had a horrible first half And a great second half And then Hunter Green I want to see If they make him throw a sinker need some sort of step up from him his fastball gets rocked by Ritey's

because it's just straight yes fastball slider I think you gotta you gotta get a little sinker I'm still working on my next stat next advanced stat would I pump you plus okay I'm still working on iron out the kinks a little bit

right would you pump Hunter Green's fastball I mean in give me like a spring training then yes I need to like get Back in the day. You're in shape. All right.

But if you throw, no offense, Hunter Green. Sits 98. I was never a Velo guy. So maybe. Maybe not. Right on right. Velo. Gave up 12 homers on it last year.

Gave up 17 homers on the year before. Nobody cares about Velo if it's straight over the plate. Nobody. Yeah. I mean, even a guy who probably, I think if you look to my numbers, probably struggle with higher velocity in my time, If you were thrown straight, I mean, it's just about, you know, getting your timing. Right.

He's hit 313 and slugged 586 versus a fastball. So I think they got to put some sink on that or cut. I mean. That's crazy. Yeah. Well, that's, I said it when I watched his first game. I was like, I mean, everyone just hypes up Velo a lot. But it's like, we can't just do that.

Remember Farnsworth? So what all you got to do If you put some cut and you lose two miles per hour And you have a 96 cutter or a 96 sinker That's way more effective than 98 forcing Especially they just say the margin for air is Is bigger when you throw harder That's it

That's why guys try to throw hard Name small miss small Oh I need to watch that movie again Yeah you do All right P Heath Ledger And Mel Gibson The British dude is such a good villain.

Oh, love that. Green Dragoons. He is a good villain. So good. Did he die? It's fucked up. Well, go watch the Patriot. Malfoy's dad in the Harry Potter series.

And if you're in New York on January 29th, maybe come to our event. Yeah, almost sold out, I think. Getting down to the wire. See you there, Trev? Make it a couple three days? Monday. Monday, January 29th. Well, I have an event at my own.

I'll be at Twinsfest. If you work in Manhattan, leave your office, head to downtown social, grab a beer, listen to Booney. Spend a long weekend in the city. Screw it. We're going to do a segment called Boone tears you apart and have you stand up and say, Boone insult this man. Oh, I like that.

Yeah, I don't know if Boone wants to do it, but we'll see it. He's been fighting it. It's a raffle item. I love you guys. Make anything for charity. I want to see you over at Boone's for Christmas next year. I just want this to be a real nice relationship. I like that.

Can't do that. James would like it. A lot of ball. Yeah. Seat geek. Goodbye. Seat geek. See ya. I think Eamonog is going to be good.

Excited to check it out. Greg Shog.