Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - CONCERNED About the Defending Champs? | Weekly Recap | 841

Episode Date: May 24, 2024

Use code TALKIN10 for 10% off tickets on SeatGeek. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKIN10*Up to $25 offControl Body Odor ANYWHERE with @shop.mando and get $5 off your Starter Pack (that’s over 40% off) with promo TALKIN at ShopMando.com! #mandopodThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://betterhelp.com/TALKINBASEBALL and get on your way to being your best self.Check Out Wake n Jake on YouTube, the Dan Patrick Show Network, and anywhere you get your podcasts https://www.youtube.com/@WakeNJake +++++Timestamps:0:00 Little League Stories & Happy Memorial Day4:00 National League Recap12:20 NL Standings14:20 Jean Shorts15:50 Phillies SWEEP the Rangers19:50 Concerned for the Texas Rangers?23:13 Giants and Pirates Played a CRAZY Series, What's Oneil Cruz ABOUT?33:25 Braves Beat the Cubs36:10 Cardinals SWEEP Orioles38:10 Twins Beat Nats38:45 Luis Arraez is AWESOME for San Diego41:30 DBacks Beat Dodgers with Openers?44:55 American League Recap49:55 AL Standings51:30 Yankees-Mariners Split, Julio Needs to HIT55:30 Royals & Guardians SWEEP59:25 Red Sox Sweep Tampa1:06:10 Tyler Anderson's Texas Two-Step1:08:25 Bobby Witt Jr. Should Win MVP1:13:15 En Fuego1:20:40 Injury Updates1:22:20 Christian Yelich Swipes Home Like it's Little League1:32:15 How Will Cardinals and Orioles React to this Sweep? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to talking baseball. The Orioles finally got swept. It happened. Braves are back, question mark. It's Memorial Day, people. It's Memorial Day. Phillies are nasty. Royals are nasty.

Submarine pitcher. Groundball, shortstop, no play. Damn it. O'Neill Cruz is hitting baseball. Hello, and welcome to, Talking baseball. A happy Memorial Day to you and yours. Maybe this can get you through a drive this weekend.

Maybe this can, maybe you're on the beach for the first time. Ooh. Just listening to some yucking ball with the boys and one of those boys. Is Trevor Plouf out in Calabasas, California? Just go up to the gate, say, I know Coach Trev. You know what they'll say to you? Sorry. It's hard to get.

get in this neighborhood. Yes, look, Memorial Day. One of my favorite holidays, number one, because I do love this country and I do love the troops and, you know, I understand the sacrifices that make this the best country in the world. It's also the unofficial beginning of summer, I would say, for most people. Not in Los Angeles right now. It's been gloomy for like literally three weeks straight.

It's the weirdest thing. But I'm excited for a good weekend. I got a lot of youth baseball. Teddy's got a big tournament and he's very, very excited about it. And I want to tell him, bro, you're eight years old. None of this means anything, but I'm not going to see that. It means everything.

Him right now it does. It means everything. We had a great little session in the backyard last night. It was awesome. I mean, Trev, those Little League stories, if I was meeting up with some of my buddies this weekend, we'd be talking about how our buddy, a different gym, a great pitcher,

his family had a trip to France, which I'm dressed like a Frenchman today. He missed the championship game. They lost. That gets talked about in out of amount. That's Little League ball. I agree. Actually, now that I think about it,

I have stories like that as well. But I meant more for the parents. Like, don't make it mean too much. Just relax. Sidebar, real quick. Pop, pop. Your hair, last two Eps has been crushing it.

So whatever you're, are doing now, like bottle that up? Because you don't always have this. No, no, no. This is a little bit of an optical illusion in person. Last Step's hair, yes, Fuego. And we'll get to that part of the episode, Jake's hair and Fuego. Today it's not great. It's videoing a little better. Okay. And I think the shirt is so much of a distraction that the hair plays with it. I can't believe it's gloomy out west. Memorial Day out east is a funny one. Because if, if you're If you get a sunny Memorial Day, which we're getting, the Northeast loses their mind. Like, summer's here.

We've been caged. Let's go. You're going to gurneys, all right? Everyone's going to gurneys in the Hamptons and Montauk. We did our post-college house in beautiful Milford, Connecticut. And I have a Milford connection in a second. Like the boys are, we're 24. We just got a house together.

It's a new town. There's new bars. There's new people. to meet Memorial Day, 40s and raining. It was awful. Like we set up like a pop-up tent in our backyard and it was like, it was a bad time. It's just a straight up bad time. But it was the best of times because that's also what you need to be doing.

So hope everyone has a fun weekend. There was some awesome ball played this week. You mentioned Giants Pirates. What the hell was that? A lot of good action. in the National League, and that's where we start on Fridays. Treve, I mentioned there is a Milford connection. Know who's a big Milford guy?

I don't. Dan Patrick. Dan Patrick, they're set up in Milford, Connecticut now. And we are now partners. Where is Milford? Milford. It's on the beautiful Connecticut shoreline. Oh, that's nice.

If you leave the city, you go past, you know, Your Greenwich, BVD, Stanford. You get your way to Milford, Connecticut. And Dan Patrick's show, we're, partnered with them now, with them and IHart podcast, IHart Media. Awaken Jake with me and Bebs. That is now with the Dan Patrick show. And Jimmy's three things that you see with talking baseball. And we didn't know, like, we got a boost from them.

Dan Patrick, that name, that name travels. So that's been huge for us and huge for them because they're linked with us as well. So go check out those shows or Dan Patrick. And yeah, we appreciate them. They appreciate us. And that's life. If you, shout out Dan Patrick, big fan, obviously. If you would have said, hey, Trev, does Connecticut have a coastline?

I'm like, what? Yeah. That east coast, the northeast coast, it's just a jumble of, you guys, who divided the state lines? Like, who decided where that was going to happen? Because I'm looking at it right now, and I still don't understand it, whatever. It's literally like pilgrims. People from, like, 400 years ago that, like, didn't think well.

And we just, like, we just like, kept those lines. California. That's it. Honestly, if you're someone grinding through the workday today, appreciate you. Go, like, look at old maps of the U.S. when it was like, Louisiana is the whole left of the country. Oh, do you know what that was called Jake? Come on, you got it. Louisiana purchase? Like, what are we talking about?

Okay. Um, let's, I think we're better about talking National League baseball than that. So let's, let's do that a little bit. The Chicago Cubbies in the Atlanta Braves teed it up for three at beautiful Wrigley Field. And the Cubbies, Miso Horner, he hits the walk off in game one. And the Braves kind of, I don't want to say they won that game because credit to the Cubs bullpen, 5.1 scoreless, but the Braves couldn't get the hit. O for 14 with runners in scoring position. Yikes.

But they brought that the remaining game. Six run seven, started off by Zach Short. Okay, compound. Sure, there is an Ozuna three-run homer, but Zach Short's RBI single. Braves get it done in that one with Max Freed leading the way his second complete game of the season How paid is he about to get? Oh God, I don't know if he even knows what to do with that kind of money.

Braves, they get the sweep. Kyle Hendrix kicked to the bullpen in Cubbyland. Yo. No who's not in the bullpen anymore? Ranger Suarez. And he and Shota are going toe to toe. is it just a good time to be kind of like a, is Ranger short? Is it him and Shoda?

Is it a good time to be like a short lefty? I think he's sneaky tall. I think he's like six foot. Really? Well, we'll look shorter though. Phillies, you don't care because he gives you seven innings, one run, 10 K's. You know all the, you know all the Phillies offense,

except Edmundo Sosa, who gives them a couple big games in this series, and Paschae. Final game. Rangers Juarez. Yeah, I don't know. Play shorter. He does. By 10.

Rangers Suarez does play shorter. But the team does not. They sweep the Texas Rangers. Texas Rangers record, not looking so pretty right now, says the Italian. Phillies continue to roll. Dodgers, they take game one

against the snakes. Yoshinobu Yamamoto does it again. The Dodgers, they're on a win streak, four games. They're going to keep... Oh, the snakes. Rally. Brandon fought with a decent start. Young Jock, boing.

He homers against his former mates. Do people even remember Jack Peterson the Dodger? I do. Of course. Christian Walker. And Cotell Marte. Ctele Marte 20-game hit streak? That guy doesn't stop 21 after he gets it done in the final game.

Dodgers, the back. end of that lineup again as the snakes win the series. The Baltimore Orioles have never been swept with Adley Rushman. That is over. In the regular season. And who did it? Your St. Louis Cardinals, obviously. Sunny Gray, Sir Lance Linolat.

He goes six-inning zero earned runs. In Gibby, it's only four innings. and zero earn with three runs. What's going on, Cardinals' defense? They don't care. They're winning ball games. Michael Ciani. Okay, tell me more about this guy.

He's playing some center field for them in a four RBI day. Orioles get swept. St. Louis does the sweeping. We'll talk more about that later on. Chaos in Pittsburgh. In the first game, the Pirates are down. Six to two entering the ninth. They come back with a couple RBI hits,

and they walk it off Nick Gonzalez in the 10th. Sure, sure, sure. Game two, Los Hibito-Hantes. Pirates scored five in the fourth to go up five-nothing. The Giants come back, and then they put up a big number and extras after Chapman throws 12 straight balls. That's a bad time.

but then Joey Bart, Redemption, Grand Slam against his former team. It's Paul Skeen's Day. The pirates are riding high, but they're not holding on. They blow it. And Matt Chapman, the Bay Area fans, they're posting apologies to Maddie Chapman. They come back and win two out of three, chaos in Pittsburgh. I told you this NL was snack. Your twins take two out of three from the Nats, some tough graphics online.

about Joey Gallo and Luis Arise, if you want to look those up. Buck Daddy's back to Homer game treb. Joe Ryan, that picture of you and him getting out of the lake, getting posted a lot. Getting posted a lot. I don't think you or him mind, if I'm being honest. Twins, I guess they handle their business on getaway day. Kepler and Correa Homer. Padres, I mentioned them.

Luis Arise cannot stop hitting. That's kind of what he's known for, but he's got to. got a little bit of Padres a juice. Reds won that first game and then they lose the next two, including an extras to San Diego, Tatis with the hit. Waldron keeps striking people out. More knucklers. Have had an inappropriate joke.

Hard pass for now. Reds keep getting hit and losing players. And then the Marlins, they took two out of three from the Brewers. You can't predict baseball, Susan. How about Baby Jesus Lizardo? with eight-inning shutpiece and jazz with the only run in that final game. A Josh Bell walk-off, where will he be playing baseball? Brewers, I don't think they care for now.

That's what happened in a juicy National League. I wish I could go somewhere to get some standings. What were we going to say about knuckles? I don't just relax. It was bad. There's a reason I pulled back. I'm happy you did. I got the standing.

Do you want them? I got them. You need them. All right, we'll start in the end. And at least because it's Friday, that's what we do, the Phillies. But they only play bad teams. They're 37 and 14 people. What do you want them to do?

I don't know if we're going to talk a lot about that series, but Bryce Harper, that Homer he hit and like the cameraman like panning out and the skyline of Philly and like the sunset. It was beautiful. There's 37 and 14. Like I mentioned Atlanta six freaking games behind them. They're 29 and 18 though. They're doing their thing.

21 and 27, the third place, Washington Nationals in this east. The Mets, 21 and 28 in Miami, 17 and 34, after taking two or three from the brew crew. Speaking of the brew crew, they're in first place, Jake, did you know that? In the Central, they're 28 and 21, two games ahead of those Cubs. Who are the Cubs? That's what I want to know. They're 27 and 24, two games back. St. Louis, they are sweeping.

St. Louis fans are all in my mentions. We're back, we're back. Really? 23 and 20. Yeah. Wow. I'm like, dude, I picked you guys to win the NL Central. I've had your back. I'm best friends with Kyle Gibson.

Just because I think Oli Marmal is like a psycho a little bit. Oh, right. Actually, I'm on his side. I forgot about that. They're 23 and 26. Pittsburgh 23 and 28. And the Reds, man, talk about disappointing. 20 and 38 and a half games back.

now. In the West, the Dodgers, they lost two out of three. They're still 33 and 19, six and a half games up on the Padres. We're over 500 at 27 and 26. The Giants make him moves, 25 and 26. Arizona, making moves. They're at 24 and 26. And the Rockies, your snakes, or I mean,

excuse me, your rocks. That was weird. 16 and 33, and that's the standings in the National League. Sometimes snakes hang out Thunder rocks. Jake snakes, your rocks. You have so many teams, Pop.

I know. And there's some people that love that shtick and there's other people that just don't get it. They're just, yeah. How could you do that? How can you like the Reds?

Can you like the Reds, Rockies and the Snakes? We need to hire someone that is like, you know, you know the stereotype, Yankees, the Lakers. Okay.

Cowboys fan. Yeah. We need that. Yeah. And I just want to pick their brain because you know they're wearing jean shorts for sure. Shout out Joe's McFly.

Got some people that are close. I think gene shorts are in now. Like I don't want them to be in, but these fashion companies are cut off jeans shorts are in. Man, if a hot boy like gets a nice pair of jean shorts, sometimes it plays. It's like kind of European.

Yeah, I went shopping with Eddie Julian and Kyle Farmer, and Julian was looking at some clothes. I'm like, I'm like, I don't, even you, bud, you're a big leaguer, like this French Canadian stud. I don't know if you can pull all this stuff off. Like Eddie Julian, he's got the Canadian card, he can pull that off. Kyle Farmer can't be touching the jorts. See, I'm like actually on the opposite side of that because Kyle Farmer's just a redneck. Right, but that's, then it's like real. Like you can't be wearing fashionable.

They're not fashionable. Yes. Speaking of fashionable, the Phillies almost haven't been fashionable. this year. And I do think this is kind of high and tight. Sorry, Rangers fans. Well, unless it's Ranger Suarez fans. Because he, along with Shoda, have been probably the two best pitchers in the National League. And yeah, dude, it feels like the Phillies are last year's Braves. Like, it's almost boring to talk about because Zach Wheeler, seven innings two, Ranger dealing,

Bryce Harper, Homer, Alec Bome, bunch of RBIs. We try not to get bored with the big teams. You know, before the season, if we said there's a recap app

where Philly sweeps Texas, would be like, wow, we got to hammer that home. Both these teams kind of played to what they've been playing. I'm doing schedule watch

because people are so concerned with who they're playing. I mean, Jake, do you know where they go next? Where's that? Colorado. Oh, oh.

If they don't sweep this series, people are going to lose their mind. Lose the series. They go to Colorado, and then they go to the Giants. Both those teams are under 500. Then they have St. Louis at home. They're under 500.

I don't know when, like, look, they're taking care of business people. Like, that's all I care about. The winning percentage is there. They're six games up on the Braves. Eventually, they're going to have to play all these teams and guess what? Like this is a good baseball team.

Great. Like that's just stop with all this shit. Okay, it is a great baseball team. But yeah, they, what are they? You got six in a row now? Six in a row and they have, just going back to the Monday, the 13th,

I'm looking at a nine out of the last 10. I mean, some of the numbers you're putting out there are crazy. I think it's like 22 out of 26 or something like that. Like they are winning, winning at a historic clip right now. like on pace or even ahead of pace of the 2001 Mariners. Is that what it was?

Your 2000. Is that the right year? Yeah. Rob Thompson had some quotes about that. You're saying we don't care. We're going to stick and grind. You know what he said? And what did they do?

Nice. And the reporters are, oh, they won 116 games. He goes, and then what? So he got a little bit of like, you know, adolescent with the reporter. bro but that's what it is and i talked about this a little bit on baseball today it's like these guys have been to the world series and lost yes once and talk to anybody that's done that once you once you approach like you know the c s is and and the world series once you get there that's all that's all you have the taste for it's like when uh you know like on an african safari

and these lions finally eat a human and all of a sudden that's all they got a taste for taste for I don't want a hyena suck. I'm over hyenaed. Gazzal's, ugh, give me human. That's what this is like. My dog noodle, it was a family secret for a while, but he, there's a dead bird in Central Park, and he got it in his mouth.

And I was like, I got to get this bird out of his mouth. And in the process, you know, he's still young enough and feisty enough that he knew he just got, like, the golden goose figuratively. So I'm really wrestling to get this bird out of his mouth. And one of his teeth catches me and there's a little bit of blood. And that, well, A, I was like, okay, do I have to get like tested and stuff? I don't know.

There was a bird. You probably not. I mean, I. Yes. And then I was, I don't know. That night, me and noodle were staring at each other. I was wondering if he kind of had the taste for me. Okay, enough about my.

Oh, man. Enough about me. Any where are you at concern rise with the Rangers Lost four straight and they've lost 10 out of 12 I mean look we can talk about all the people coming back in the pitching staff and Corey Seeger's got to get it going A lot of people who performed well for the Rangers last year

You know aren't doing that this year Evan Carter Not you know He's not a world beater like he was the last month and a half of the season and into the playoffs. You know, Corey Seeger anytime he was on the baseball field last year, he's the best player by far.

It felt like he was hitting a home run every single game. He's not doing that. You can talk about the pitching staff and guys they're hoping to get back. The bullpen has been crap except for who was it, Yates and Robertson. Like it's

like they, I think there's better days coming for the Rangers. Like I think we're going to see some of that positive regression. But that's it, man. There's been some underperformances. There's been some, I mean, Jase Jung is out. It's a Jase or Josh?

What did I just mess up? Josh. Yeah, my bad. Josh Jung's been out and, you know, he's the guy that they lean on. And White Langford wasn't the guy that everyone thought he was going to be. I mean, I was convinced on him and he hasn't performed. So it's like, you know, it's one of those things, man. And like, it's weird because I feel like in this baseball season,

you can talk about some teams and you're like, all right, they're done already. And then some teams are like, dude, it's only May 24th. Like there's plenty of baseball left. I think this is one of those teams. We're like, dude, World Series Hangover, underperformances, injuries. It's been kind of a lot of different punches thrown at the Rangers right now. And they're still, what, are they three games under 500? Is that what it is?

24 and 27, yeah. Yeah. I'd be all right if I was a Rangers, but you'd have to really have perspective on the season, but I'd like, okay, like this isn't, we're not 16 and 30 something. Like, we're kind of right where we need to be and you're hoping for some of these performances to step up.

Yeah, there's so many teams in that, like, looking for their gear territory. I'll, unfortunately, I'll lump your twins in because if you do take out the White Sox stuff. The Red Sox have kind of had a gear, but like the race, Rangers, Blue Jays, Detroit, Houston? And then on the NL side, like Cubs, Padres,

Giants, Debacks, Cardinals, pirates, like all these teams are looking for that, that one really hot streak that can kind of carry you at least until the deadline. And yeah, Texas is in that boat. They do have reinforcements coming. Yeah, they need a couple guys to either, like, play above their skis a little bit.

and maybe that's Seeger. Maybe that's Carter kicking into gear. Adolis, Adolus' stats are starting to get to where he lives. In the Phillies, Jeff Hoffman with his fourth save of the season. Never mind that whole lineup. Let's see, Trevor. Hey, there was one crazy series in baseball this week. And it happened in San Francisco and Pittsburgh,

which two teams we don't know where they're. bingo cards are going to land this year. Like we said, if either of these teams reels off a 9 and 1, they're going to be a big part of this season. Two extra inning games. Which, and those two probably

weren't the craziest games of the series. So I'll let you go because I know you dove into this and you threw on your McCutcheon shirt for this up. I did. I did. Throw on my catch shirt. He had a lead-off homer for them. But the first game, O'Neill Cruz

like kind of Jekyllim Hyde-ish game because he does drop a pop-up first and third I believe it was three and two two out so if people are running he drops the pop-up both runs end up scoring so that you know that's

not what you want pop you don't need to be dropping pop-ups right but the pirates come back they score four in the ninth Luciano the short start for the Giants had a chance to end the game. Cutch hits him a ground ball like a kind of a tailor-made double-played.

And Cutch, he gets down the line pretty good, but you could turn a double play on him. Lose it. So that allows O'Neill Cruz to tie the game. That's that 120 mile an hour freaking, I mean, did you see that thing? That was, it was hit so hard. I couldn't believe it, how fast it got to that right-field wall. a big right field wall in Pittsburgh one hopped it but it was like

it looked like a normal person hitting that ball that's like a three or four hopper because it wasn't like that high it was like low and it just there was so much speed behind it insane and then Nick Gonzalez with the walk off I want to ask pirates

I want to ask Pirates fans O'Neil Cruz like just where are we at straight up you know like what's the defense feel like day and day out What does, I mean, the biggest thing when I look at stats, and even when I picture O'Neal Cruz, Trev, this year versus righties, O'Neill Cruz is 308, 362, and 869 OPS. Like, yes, like, O'Neill Cruz.

Vers lefties this year, 11-batting average, a 143 on base, a 365 OPS. So, I don't know, like I've been talking about jock a lot of, recently who early jock peterson had a lot of like numbers like this we've seen we've seen uh you know cedric mullen stops which hitting at some point like it what what do you do he's just so toolzy yeah but it seems like some of like the areas where you could really where you refine yourself and become like a superstar like he's got to figure some of that out like he does everything so powerfully.

Like average exit veto, 99th percentile, bat speed, 100th percentile, barrel percentage, great, 98%. But he chases. He swings and misses a lot. He doesn't walk a lot. His range isn't great, his arm is good. Like, it's like most things. Like, those areas where, like,

and we talk about this, and I don't think this is him, but, like, we talk about, like, showcase baseball. And I've heard, you know, I talked to Blake Snell about that. I don't think he's showcased baseball. I think this is just naturally what he does. Yes. But it's like the refinement has to come for him to take that next step.

Yeah, and I think, you know, this has been a topic that's been on your mind and maybe we episodeify it at some point of, you know, fundamentals around, blah, blah, blah. I mean, for this guy, he's one of the guys that that can almost be okay for. Because you're talking about. Not if you want to take the next. step it's not. Right. And that's the refinement of it. And what's his

OPS at 720 or something like that? 723. He had out's above average. He's negative there and it's like, you know, like you, for him What kind of ball player do you want to be? For him, it's one of the guys, okay, you made it to the majors and you look like

this and we get why. You're right. To get to another level, he's got to do that. And we've kind of seen like Ellie de la Cruz has done that. That that's where I want You know, remember there used to be fodder, like, hey, this guy's too big. Should he, should we just kick him to the corner outfield? Like, I've seen players mentally playing shortstop is a real thing that,

Oh my God. I don't know. If you can get more out of this guy offensively, like, I don't even know if that's on the table in Pittsburgh. So that's where I'm asking their fans, like what, give me some Pittsburgh opinions. Because they now, they have a new freak on the mound that it's like, hey, Sunday, Skeens Day, Joey Bart, Redemption Grand Slam. And then that all goes away. Yeah, it's second game's tough for the Pirates

because Reynolds hits the Grand Slam. Five unanswered for the Giants after that. My boy, Chappies in the mix. Late Night Lamont ties the game and the Giants score four in the 10th to basically put the game away. Then it was Skeen's Day, like you're talking about. And I love this because they're like,

oh, he didn't have his best stuff. He only struck out three people, but he went six in his pitch, one-earned run. Like, what kind of fucking, like, where are we, we need to relax with this guy. Like, the expectations, and he's done it to himself, but we put crazy expectations.

This guy is a rookie. I'm in. How many starts is his third career start, fourth career start? He goes six in he's pitched, one earned run, and because he doesn't strike out 10, we're like, oh, he didn't have, he's not great. Like, come on, people. This guy's an absolute freak.

Anyway, kick him to the bullpen. This was the Bart Revenge game, which I loved. The Grand Slam. Bebs, can you find the video? Can we put the video up? I should have told you before, but he does this little, he hits it, nosy gets it.

And then he gives like a little spear down, dead center. Dead center, yeah. A little like shimmy almost. Like, that had to feel so, freaking good. That was in the bottom of the fourth. Beavs is working on it. There was six, two pirates in the eighth, and then this is, oh, here it is. Oh, you like that? You like the lean?

Yeah, because it's against your former team. And he said, Susan Slusser, shout out Susan Schleser, probably one of my favorite writers in all of baseball. She talked to him after that. He said, I don't hold any ill will. And she mentions that he never was like that when he was with the Giants either. Like always said the right thing. things. But you know that. It feels good inside. It doesn't matter if you didn't perform

with your former team. They let you go and you get a little something like that. That shimmy just, that just gets me so good. So yeah, six, two pirates in the eighth.

And then this is what happens, Jake. Single single, chappy home run. Now all of a sudden, it is 6-5. Double. single, single, Homer, double single. And then Chapman comes in.

You mentioned all the balls he threw. Pass ball, a wild pitch, gets to run a third, then wisely has the go-ahead single, and the Giants win the game. It's tough for the pirates. Tough for the pirates. Maddie Chapman has changed the trajectory of his season. A little 2.2 war.

Yeah. He made the end of the game which was I believe so that was game two then he made an incredible play to save the game. It was like a laser down the line he like knocks it down and like one of the only people that can make that throw and still get the out is Matt Chapman throws the shit out of the ball to first base

like so his fingerprints were all over this series. Matt Chapman looks like he throws a riser to first base. Oh, it's nasty, bro. Like, it's how, when you hear the nerds talk about, like, well, you can't throw a fastball that rises because of gravity, and you're like, okay, we get it. I don't believe that, by the way. Watch this play.

Look at this. That ball should bounce twice. Watch this play, though. Like, how does this not get down the line? That ball should bounce twice. Who knows how he picked it up? Like, is that four scenes, a two scenes doesn't matter with him. um...

Bam! Oh my gosh, that's silly. I, uh, I won't be mean to either of these players. Um, yeah, a couple of Yankees, third baseman of pass and coming back

as DJ LaMayhew's about to come back. DJ LaMayhew, great, all-around talented baseball player, doesn't have special arm strength. He has a couple highlights at third that if you put him next to that play, you'd say, oh my God. And then the Yankees had ICF play third,

who very versatile, athletic player. But watching different third baseman's arm strength, I mean, Matt Chapman. Dude, if he keeps these numbers up, you're looking at a six-war season, that little one-year opt-out contract he signed, he starts looking more like a third-based Marcus Simeon trajectory, We'll see.

We'll see. Some fun baseball out in the bay. Trev, man, we're deep in it. We always are. We can crank through some of these real quick and get to the American League, okay? Yeah, I mean, the American League's not too juicy, so that's where I don't want to leave too much behind.

Like Braves Cubs are two big teams. Again, like you kind of said the Braves, we talked before we started recording, and it was like, man, freed complete game. They shut them out on the final game too. Again, if they don't put up an 0 for 14 with runners in scoring position, we're probably talking about a sweep that maybe Cubs fans are happy they walked away with one in this one, the way they played.

but Cubs have been really good and they got beat by the Braves. We're waiting for them to kick into full gear. So I think, you know, this is something to look at if you're the Cubs. I mean, I think this is a very good roster, but the offense hadn't showed up in May. 29th and batting average in May so far, 25th and slugging at 363 in May, and then with runners in scoring position.

This is, I mean, this is what makes or breaks your most. month or your season is what are you doing when you get the runners on? You mentioned that over whatever the heck it was, but you're hitting 178 with runners and scoring position in May. That's got to be the most frustrating thing, obviously for the team, but for a fan base. When you're watching these games, you're like, okay, here we go. And nothing. 259 slug with runners in scoring position. I guess that doesn't even matter. To me, runners are scoring position? What are you hitting? What's your batting average? 178 last in the show

What's their record in May? I think they've been shut out Five out of the past 25 games So that's, you know, goose eggs And you're still sitting 27 and 24 Record in May is, I'm getting it up right now 9 and 12

I mean That's why people Like a big week for them coming up You know, if you can win a couple ball games, make it a 500 month, wash your hands and move on. If you struggle the next week, it's a bad May. What are, okay, following up on that, I wonder, I didn't want to do a lot of central this episode,

because I feel like we've been doing a lot of central. We've been doing it. And I don't know how much that moves the needle, if I'm being honest. But I want to see what's the, what have the Brewers technically been at this month. They're 10 in 10 in May. So the two top dogs in the NL Central have slowed down pretty significantly, which has kept, I don't want to say in the mix, but I love that you got Cardinals fans barking at you because Wild Cardinals, which seems unreal, they are very much, I think they're now a game and a half back or two back in the wild card. They sweep the baby

O's. Hey, snaps for them. The O's hadn't had that happened in a long time. And I don't know. I think St. Louis eight and two in their last 10, this is a team that's been begging for anything like this. And they've got it for now. Yeah, the offense has been getting it going. I think that was the biggest thing is we need some guys to step up. They've been able to do that, you know, good pitching during this series, as you mentioned. Aren't you going to to talk about this later. I'm going to talk about this a little more later, yeah. Okay.

Well, hey, man. If we went through it now without people would have been a little sad. Sure, sure. Mason, win, you're the real deal. That's kind of like my biggest take of way. When I watch the Cardinals play, I love watching and play defense. Offensive he's been there as well. And Sunny Gray, stud.

Absolute stud. Absolute stud. Like, what the heck is going on? I guess he's kind of always been that way. he's always been his bad just like one bad season in New York and everyone was like His worst three months were in New York City

And everyone's like Sunny Gray Yeah he's like And I think being short hurts him If I'm being real He's not a city slicker bro All right It's a Vandy boy Everyone knows that

Dorses Twins Figure out who you are We got a hit Buck hitting two homers Is really nice But both these teams I mean, the offenses came in kind of struggling.

They were both, I think the twins had a seven game losing streak. The Nats had a five game losing streak coming into the series. First game, they absolutely pounded the twins pitching. And then after that, they figured it out. Woods Richardson has been really good. Joe Ryan was really good. He had some weird, like, winking stuff going on. I was like, what are you doing out there?

Okay. And he said that Nolan Ryan says you got to be a little crazy out there. I don't throw as hard as Nolan Ryan. so I'm playing it up a little bit. I said, okay, dude. Wow. You're hot. You only get away with this stuff because you're hot.

Lucky because you're hot. Hey, no, it's a good way to get fans to like you. Hmm. When you're traded over the team, go 31 for 74, a 419 batting average, a 449 on base, a 962 OPS, because that's what Luisarize has done atop the lineup. It's a little bit right now, Good team, bad team.

Some of these Reds numbers are disgusting. And we saw David Bell get hot because they've been losing a bunch of players to hit by pitches. Jake Fraley was the one in this one. But A, the Padres are feeling good. They traded. They added a significant piece to the top of their lineup. Matt Waldron is punching people. What would we be saying if they didn't win this game in extra innings?

but and the Reds, they've lost 17 of their last 21. Yeah, it hasn't been good there at all. For the Padres, I want to kind of go on them. Bogart's, I don't know he's out for the season, but for the majority of the season. Did they say he's out for the season? I don't think they said they hope he can be back by the end of the summer, but he will be out an extended period for sure.

So now they have the decision to make because we know like they're a team full of short stops, essentially. for the first few games, Arise went and played second base. I think last night, Croninworth was at second base. Arise did play some first base with a twin, so maybe that's something they figure out. I really believe they want to leave the D.H. spot open.

I think teams want to leave their D.H. spot open as much as possible, just to rotate guys through. So, like, if Croninworth goes to second base, maybe he's a better defender and Arise can play first base. Maybe that's how they go. I mentioned, like, you know, do they bring pro far? from the outfield, you'd probably just leave him alone and let him do what he's doing, right?

Don't change things up. You could take Jackson, Merrill, Tatease, or pro far and put him at second base. They would all do fine there, but leave those guys out there. Maybe that means Tyler Wade gets a shot, or, you know, we'll see how that goes. But that's definitely an issue

and not to address it going forward. I don't think they want to rise playing out there every single day. Just defensively, it's no one. Padres, they've struggled versus lefties a little bit. Interested to see that coming up in their next series against the New York Yankees. So that should be a fun one over the weekend if you're looking for something to tune into. And yeah, my Reds, hey, you can point to a lot of things, a lot of injuries,

but you either need those guys to come back or you've got to start to go at some point. Because you're starting, you're entering a very dangerous territory. Yes, yes. You've been in a very dangerous territory. Trev, I think the last NL one that we really have to have to hit. Dodgers snakes. Oh, no, we didn't do Dodgers or? No, not really.

And hey, my snakes, let's go. Snaps, I love them rolling two openers out against the Dodgers. I think especially if their bottom of their lineup is struggling, you're almost doubling down on that. Like, hey, those three bad men, ooh, should that be a shirt? Three wise men, three bad men at the top of their lineup. Make the game as hellish for them as possible.

Because if you can do that, you put even more pressure on the bottom of the lineup, which now this is like the second or third time this year that we've seen them almost be the Dodgers Achilles heel. And credit to my snakes for Cattell has just been bawling out for a while. we've talked about jock last episode. I want to stop here real quick because we came across this also.

Cotel Marte, 21 game hit streak. His average has dropped. Like 20 points during it. He's only getting, he's hitting, or getting one hit a game. Same thing with Corby and Carroll. You can say, oh, Corbyn Carroll is five-game hitting streak. Here we go.

He's hitting 217 in that five-game hit streak. Like, it's like, we need a little bit more. I mean, Corbyn Carroll, I think, is maybe the key to the Diamondback season, right? Like if he doesn't figure it out and can't come around and Rose has mentioned, like, is he injured? Like, is his shoulder messed up? Like, if he doesn't figure it out, it's going to be tough for him.

He's got a 557 OPS right now, Jake. Yeah. Yeah, I know. I know. I know a lot of people are assuming injury and maybe it is. I don't know. Maybe baseball.

is just sick. And if he does kick, because Kattel's been awesome this year. Yeah, I don't know. That's a tough one. That's a tough one. Yeah, Shinobu. Yeah, I'm kind of good.

I'm kind of good. I'm going to talk more about some of the Brewers stuff. The last game was pretty awesome. He was Peralta versus Lozardo, and I think Jazz hit a lead-off homer. That was the only run of the game. And the guy in pitching just, I mean,

Paralto went seven, Lazzardo goes eight, like, here we go. Josh Bell, nice walk-up, single. They're celebrating like they won a lot of games. They're still very much not in intention. But Josh Bell's like, hey, if I keep playing like this, I can't. I'll find myself somewhere.

We're about to find ourselves in the American League. This show is brought to you by Better Help. What's something that you need to get off your chest? We all carry around different stressors, big and small. When we keep them bottled up, it can start affect us negatively. Therapy is a safe space to get things off your chest and figure out how to work through whatever's weighing you down. If you're thinking about starting therapy, give better help a try entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Feel out a brief questionnaire, get matched with a licensed therapist, and switch anytime, no additional charge.

Get it off your chest with better help. Visit betterhelp.com slash talking baseball. Today to get 10% off your first month. That's better help. H-E-LP.com slash talking baseball. There's a link in the description. In the American League, we start off, obviously, with the New York Yankees, because they take two and a half from the Seattle Mariners. They win the first game, but they lose it.

Clay Holmes blows the save. Two infield choppers. Mariners fans, I'm busting your balls. We split four. The Mariners were the Mariners. Man, they can pitch. Brian Wu. Comes back, limited pitch count looks good.

Juan Soto and Aaron Judge. It's starting to look special. Judge has been going nuts. I think he's having the best 17-game streak of his career right now. Reminder, that guy broke the AL home run record. Pulpy looks good. Luis Heel. Two good American League teams.

I like that. Might be one good American League team, and this one will never be Royals. That's what the tigers are saying, because they got swept. And the Royals did it on both sides. They scored eight runs in all three games. Bobby Witt, Jr., you're going to hear more about him coming up. Coleriggins. Who, Coleriggins?

Coal Rygans. Oh, I know Co. Six innings, one hit 12Ks. Freddie Fermin. Jesus was a carpenter, but it wasn't enough. Tigers get swept. They're starting to slide a little bit, and the Royal's, they're starting to look. Mid Carpenter. Impressive.

Oh, ho. Oh. The Boston Red Sox. They sweep the Tampa Bay Rays in Tampa. Place that's been a little bit of a house of horrors for them. Got to be careful when you say that. Red Sox swept the rays at the Trout first time since 2019. They've been two and 15 since 2022. Raphael Devers, he just kept hitting homers. Good game planned by him.

Tanner Halk, seven innings shut. Bayo, Cooper Chriswell, Redemption Series. I don't know, Sox. You guys have been impressing more than a lot of other teams in the race. You have been not, although you're eerily close in the standing. So that's baseball. Halos take two out of three from Houston. The one game Houston wins.

Kyle Tucker hits two homers and Pena walks him off, which he's got a lot of those. in his short history. But the Angels, Shenuel, Shenuel, Logan, O'Hoppy. Sons on the ball.

Shana well. Shana well. I bet. Tyler Alexander, eight innings, one earned run. Kyron Paris, he's a top one Hyundai prospect.

Sure. Astros blew a 6-1 lead in that first game. We keep thinking it's happening and then it doesn't. The team it's been happening for all year, your Cleveland Guard does.

They sweep the Metropolitan's Jose Ramirez shirt. David Fry hasn't stopped. I know Chris Rose keeps thinking he will. Your guy Ben lively. My guy, Jose Ramirez. This is kind of a Jose Ramirez shirt I'm wearing right now. Good team beats bad team.

Okay. Blue Jays, they take two out of three from the White Sox. Good for them. They somewhat handle their business. They get Garrett Croix-Shade. Oh, man, he's put up a couple big performances this year. Eloy gets hurt again. Chris Bassett shoves. You'll hear him on the Chris Rose rotation. In the series, everyone's talking about. Two extra inning games. 10 to 9 in the 11th,

as the Oakland A's take two out of three from the Rockies. My God. Ryan Feltoner looks talented. Austin Gomber shoved. You know, Ryan McMahon, Max Schumann. I don't know. I don't know. I don't But that's what happened in the American League. Hey, Mason Miller gave up a run. First time since March. Thank you. Okay. And it was on an infield hit.

Hayes fans, you're not going to like this. I think Mason Miller's gross. I think there's another, not another shoe that's going to drop to him, but he's not going to remain invincible. Like, I think maybe he will. Maybe I'm wrong. There's a person in our office that has,

said Mason Miller might be the best pitcher to ever touch the field. And I just want to see a little more. I just want to see a little more. I think it's fair to, I mean, I don't know if it's fair to say. Have you watched at all? He makes people look stupid. It's pretty scary. Would you like to face that?

Literally no. Literally no. Do you want the standings by a chance spot? I need them. I need them. In the American League, we're to start in the East because that's what we do on a Friday. The New York, Yankees. That's why you got that freaking chest hair popping out like you do, because you're

confident like the Yanks are 35 and 17. Baltimore, three games behind. They're at 30 and 18. Those Red Sox, they're sweeping. 26 and 24, Tampa Bay Reig, gut swept 25 and 26 in Toronto. 23 and 26. In the Central, the Guardians, I don't get it. I don't know. I feel like always hit with runners. Bebers, can you look at what they hit with runners and scoring position, please? Because I feel like they always get the big hit. 33 and 17. The Royals, one and a half behind them, 32 and 19.

Let me repeat that for the people. The Royals, 32 and 19. My twins, 26 and 23. The Tigers, Jack Flaherty's Tigers. Jesus' Tigers, 23 and 27. And the White Sox, 15 and 36. Out West, Seattle, still in first place. 27 and 24.

They're the only team. Above 500. In that whole division. Texas 24 and 27, Houston, 22, and 28. Oakland, 21 and 31. And the Angels, bringing up the rear at 20 and 30. Beaver's hit me. Doing one sort.

One sort. I got a quick one to give Beeb some time. Currently 13 teams above 500. That includes the Padres one game above. Crazy. Where we drop and pop? Pop lock and drop it. Give us the Yankees.

Seattle series, let's go. I mean, man, it's one of those things where, again, we can't talk about every team, every episode. Like, the Seattle Mariners can pitch a lot. It's almost every dude who's starting the game is scary. Get to what you want to say. Peter Lonzo to the Mariners. Let's go.

I mean, they could use that. Although impressive Thai France at bat to help win them game one. No, I think Mariners fans will be... Dude, the Mariners team, they... I forget if it was a Garen or who, but they were like, we think we have a World Series staff. We need to hit more.

They've been saying that. Yeah, like no lies detected. Meanwhile, with the Yankees, they're getting... They're starting pitching. I think 15 straight starts with like two runs or less. They've done a historical. starting pitching with Judge and Soto. So that's what Yankee fans are higher than ever.

Whether they're getting contributions from someone else, whether it's Volpe, Verdugo, Rizzo, Stanton hit one to a very rare area. And Trev, go look at his numbers. They're better than you think. Okay. That the Yankees, the Yankees are built for it. it's going to be interesting to see where they are at the end of the season.

Seattle, they look good. Their pitching can be special. They need more hitting. Julio Rodriguez. Yes. My goodness, dude. What is happening? He has seven extra base hits on the year.

Five doubles. Two homers. He's got 12 walks to 62 strikeouts. Pop, he's on base percentage. is almost higher than his slug. He's got 306 on base to a 312 slug. That in itself, right there, is the biggest problem that Mariners have.

Like, you can talk about, hey, yeah, that he more hitting besides him, but like the guy that's supposed to be your MVP, the caliber player, is doing this. And I'm sure Mariners fans are sick of hearing about it. But like, we talked about Corbyn Carroll needs to go, and he needs to go for sure, but, like, Julio, that's crazy, man. Yeah, it's, that's like a bad season.

We did some of this before the year, but his rookie year, he had a bad April, but after that he was good. Last year, Julio was like below league average till July. So I, and then he went nuts. And then he ends up with six and a half war. So I, Seattle, yeah, that's got to be, they slid him down. down the lineup for the first time, so we'll see there, but they need him to be an MVP caliber player, and I think they would really benefit, because that's going to happen at some point,

I just don't know when. I would love for them to get a lefty masher to pair up with him. Like, even if it was a guy like Jock, but they didn't get him. They didn't get him. They didn't get him. Cleveland has the highest OPS with runners in scoring position as a team the highest WRC plus as a team of the second highest batting average behind your Kansas City Royals they're

probably you would say the best runners and scoring position offense seems that way the I test also backs it up T-pluce eye test also backs that up every freaking time somebody's on base. Second lowest strikeout rate with runners in scoring position.

They're walking a good amount, a top 10 walking team with runners in scoring position. Well, let's double down, Trev, because these are two teams we've been talking about a chunk. Royal sweep and the guard dog sweep. Both at home, both against teams that are kind of heading the wrong direction and the Tigers and the Mets.

But did the, the Royal. are starting to have special, like when you look at a lot of their, you see a Cole Reagan start. You're like, ooh, it's got a chance to be double-digit strikeouts, tough day at the office. Bobby Witt is putting together an MVP campaign. For Cleveland, it's not as clear because they just win. Well, their bullpen has been, the bullpen's been incredible.

So, like, you know, for instance, in the first game, I don't think they had a hit after the fourth inning, but doesn't matter. their bullpen has been that good. So I think that's the biggest thing for Cleveland. I'll go Cleveland, maybe you'll talk about Kennedy. For Cleveland, it's timely hitting. They can play defense.

And their starting pitchers have given them enough. Bullpen's been great. And that's it. I mean, that is the recipe. A couple guys, I don't want to say overperforming, but guys like you're talking about David Fry. Like, when you get contributions like, that and then you add in all these things

like I'm talking about with the timely hitting in the bullpen it's how you stack wins it's how you win series man and it's how you are able to sustain those ways when you lose a guy like Shane Bieber it's like okay well that's great but I mean that you can say like is that sustainable like is the bullpen going to be this good all year are you going to be able to hit with runners in scoring position and lead the league in OPS and all these things

all year long. Like maybe, I don't know. Like, maybe they have a bunch of dogs in there and this is what they focus on. And Stephen freaking vote has him playing like crazy. And he's saying wild stuff like Austin Hedges is the heart and soul of the team.

I love it. Like, what they have going on there is if you're a Guardians fan, it's amazing. So I'll do some Royals love quick. They get to Scoobel, broke up a 14-game unbeaten streak. So that's a nice notch in the belt to have for your team.

Bobby Witt, I'm going to talk about more in a second. Michael Garcia, four hits and a nine-game hit streak at one point. Like, they've got the good juice, man. I mean, Chris Stratton four-out save out of the bullpen. Guardians lead the league in bullpen ERA. They lead the league and bullpen whip. they lead the league and bullpen average against. It's kind of how you do it.

I wonder how many innings. And they are 12th at innings pitch, but it's all kind of close together there. That's where you want to be. You mentioned vote and hedges, another dumb Yankee thing that I want to plug you into and maybe the people. Luis Heel, the young pitcher for them,

has gone insane. Yeah, he's nest. And it's also correlated if you like dumb baseball stuff, and I'll, you know, I'm 2% of this because it ties into my catcher theory. His hot streak has lined up with him working with Jose Trevino, the veteran catcher, instead of Austin Wells. So again, if you like dumb baseball things and a catcher driving the bus or bringing in the wild horse, that's been happening a little bit.

And it's been really cool to see. I like that. Yeah, right? Treve, I think the only other thing in the ale that really has to be hit, the Sox Sweep Tampa, and we just keep doing a... Reds... If you took away some of the jerseys and expectations, the Redsacs have... Redsacs have had a lot of series where you're like,

damn, dude, like... Tanner Halk, Defer's fully kicked into gear. they sweep the raise at the trap which has been a bad place for them yeah it's been it's been really bad I believe before this series they were 5 and 22 going back to 2021 at the trop look their eighth and OPS

matched that along with their starting pitching like this is a this is a team that's going to be in the mix the entire season long and they've dealt with with injuries man like so like you you kind of have to give it up to them and I think about this from a Red Sox fan's perspective. The pitching has been so good, right?

You're starting pitching, which was, you know, you bring in Andrew Bailey, he's doing all these things, snaps for him, but you also gave away Chris Sayle. Yeah. And it's like, what could have been if he was back, or maybe he needed a change of scenery? I don't know what it was. But yeah, they are running hot, man.

And what kind of moves can you expect them to make? right? Like are they going to be in the discussion for bringing in a bat or are they going to be in the discussion for bringing in like a shortstop? Like is Boba's shit going to go there? We didn't even talk about that whole thing. They started to talk. I doubt he goes there.

I don't think that's what they need right now. And Bo, although he's been hitting well since May 8th, I have met a one dot since May 8th. I don't know if he fits there. But anyways, allow Seidon-Rofield to go back out to center field. I think that'd be nice. But you have guys like that. Will Middobrox is calling for

Williur Abrae you First of all, shout out Will Middilbrooks. I have tuned into a few games now just because he's calling them he does a good job. And we're Instagram friends and him and I both have hot wives

and we're kind of like the same person if you think about it. You can connect a lot of dots between you. We had podcasts. We call games. I'm more handsome than him. It's not that big of a deal. But he's on the Williur-Brayu rookie of the year train.

He needs to be in the discussion. And I will say he's, I went first couple times I laid eyes on that kid. I said, this guy's got something special, man. So shout out to them. And yeah, shout out to the Red Sox. Red Sox, they have a couple, you know, if you're a run differential guy,

they've been, they're better than a lot of teams in run differential, which technically has them like unlucky this year in some baseball stats. They also have a losing record at home, which was surprising. 10 and 13 at Fenway. So again, you could spin a lot of these things negative or positive.

Their record against teams better than 500 is awful. They're 7 and 15. But in a year that... This is nuts. Okay. How many teams this year do you think have a winning record against teams better than 500? How many teams have... have a winning record against teams with a winning record above 500?

How many teams have a winning record against teams who are better than 500? You said only 13 teams are above 500. Oh, context clues. I am going to say six? Six, Trev. Look at you. I know ball. And by the way, me and me.

at Will Midderbrooks, no ball. The Dodgers are 9 and 8 against teams with a record over 500. So if they were to drop their next one, they would be five. Again, some assumptions there. The San Diego Padres are 14 and 10 against the good teams. Okay. The Yankees are 10 and 7. The guards are 14 and 7.

Philadelphia Phillies, 4 and 2. 4 and 2. That's crazy. And the Baltimore Orioles are 16 and 6. Wow. The Guardians also have 17 wins from their bullpen. So I love that for them. Me and Will Midderwarks also played for the Rangers and the Phillies.

Like, what's going on here? Simulation type stuff. Okay. I am over it. Hey, Toronto, we're not talking much about your white socks. Two out of three because the bigger conversation is Bowen Vladdy and trade offers. and I think we're going to have time to talk about that.

And, I mean, that Rockies Athletics here. I mean, Tovar's two-homer game. Ryan Feltoner's high fastball. The walk-off walk. No. Let's go on to the second half of the show. Sorry, Trev. You know, I'm sorry.

But the second half of the show is brought to you by Mando. Oh, yeah. I'm wearing Manny. Mando right now. Mando has been my, if I've got to do something afterward, it's my work deodorant.

I got it in my little locker over here, throw it on. And they, this is them asking, do you hate foul balls? Oh, yes. Because that's where Mando has kind of brought this thing. It's whole body deodorant. You know, put a little in your pits,

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Shop Mando. M-A-N-D-O dot-com Link in the description Go pick up What they're putting down Which brings us You just re-upped your Mando I needed it I was thinking I needed my Mando

Trev this brings us to Stand-out performances Who stood out this week Brought to you by Mando I have so many people I want to shout out here But I'm going to

Going with one. And it's a left-handed pitcher by the name of Tyler Anderson. And I'm not just going with his start against the Astros because he's actually been in Texas for his last two starts. So I'm calling it the Texas two-step. Can you show me a two-step real quick, Jake? I don't know how to two-step. I was bad.

It was bad. He went up against the Rangers at Arlington and then went up against Houston at Houston for the Texas two-step. 15 innings pitched in those two games. Eight hits, two earned runs, eight Ks. Let me repeat that. Against the Astros, against the Rangers, back-to-back starts. 15 innings pitched, eight hits, two earned runs, eight Ks.

He's having a hell of a season. On the season on a whole, he has two-eight war already, according to baseball reference. A 252 ERA and 10 games started, a 1057 whip, and this is all, which I like, not a strikeout guy. 64 to third innings pitched 44 strike counts but he's limiting hits does it good when he hits well shout out Angels

defense I guess behind him as well but he has a stud man and you know he got that paid after was he with the he was with the Dodgers for that one year right is that what it was and then got paid and you know people were wondering is this good for the Angels

hell of a start to the year this year yeah I mean depending where I think a lot of of people think the Halo season could be going, could be an interesting deadline guy. I mean, he's cheap. Yeah. Three for 39. So you're talking about 13 a year.

That's good math. That was great math. Yeah. 39, not a number you divide. Not a great year last year. No. No. No.

25 games started. But he's turned around this year. Sometimes that's baseball. Trev. It is. Trev, I'm going to give mine to... Probably the favorite for AL MVP right now. Oh, okay, hold on.

Al MVP? American League MVP. I know you're not going to Yankee. You would not do that. You're smart enough to not do that. Sal Perez. His teammate. Oh.

Bobby Witt Jr. Bobby Witt Jr., how's your three and a half war early on this season? he's a shortstop who can pick the position, which that's rare as Mr. Clean with Hair. Shout out Weezy. Bobby Wood Jr. top prospect, and he's been good, right? Like, man, this guy, he's got wheels. We've seen the pop.

The second half last year, Trev, and when we do the TPPs, it's like, well, you know, look at this and what's going to happen here? Bobby Witt Jr., the light bulb felt like it went up. You know when it went off? When he hit that walk-off Homer. Was that off Duran? Who was that off of? He got to an inside fastball.

Yeah, it was. I think it was a walk-up Grand Slam. It was gross. And he... And somebody, and the little girl was there to watch him. That reaction from the stands. I don't... I could find the stats from that day.

But in the second half last year, Bobby Witt went 301, 343, and 906 OPS. Yeah, it was off of Duran. ball inside and he got to it. He went nuts in the second half. It looked like the light bulb went off all of it. This year he's kind of running that back. He's got a 9-1-5 OPS, 16 stolen bases, seven home runs, six triples.

Like, triples are really good, triples are best. that, like, Bobby Witt, I could see the Yankees guys splitting votes, like, you know, Soto Judge. Right now in the West, they're not giving us an MVP candidate, really. Gunner Henderson is the only other one. Gunner, sure.

But, you know, if Jose Ramirez is going to just finish top five, I don't know, I saw our guy, Shelfy, posted a short that was, if there is an MLB redraft today, Bobby Whit Jr. would be his one-one pick. That's ridiculous, by the way. Okay. Well, if it's not... Well...

Joe Otani. We can't just exclude Shohei from every single conversation. Like, I think Bobby Whit deserves to be in the conversation, but it's Shoah and then I guess everybody else. There's an age thing to be played. Bobby Wood's 23. I don't care. I don't care.

What do you draft? for 15 years down the road. I'm putting together a dynasty, bro. Then you just go with Shohei Otani. I'm sorry. I mean, I like, it's not like I don't, don't take this as I'm saying, Bobby Witt isn't a good,

I can play here. That's how we're taking it. That's how everyone's taking it. I love Bobby Wood Jr. Him and I talk on Instagram, okay? Do you? No.

Okay. No. Sal Perez, by the way, 401 OBP, 952 OPS. nine homers, 39 runs driven in. He, to me, is the reason the Royals are doing what they're doing.

I'm just saying, it wasn't for sale. Bobby Whit, 154K follows. Okay, Bobby. I just followed. Let's see if he does the foul back. You didn't even following Bobby Whit Jr.? I thought he'd follow me first. That was one of those things.

Yeah, you know, I was just waiting for him. I didn't want to come off too far. Trev. Bobby Wood Jr., I didn't even mention his day. Two Homer, six RBI stolen base. Could have gone to Raius for two games. Dillon Moore had a two homer day. Your guy Buck Daddy.

Boe knows. There's a ton of pitchers. Max Reed, Lazzardo. Cole Riggins. Hi, Col Riggins. Have you seen this new Royals pitcher, Cole Riggins? Oh, you know, Cole? He kind of reminds me of a left-handed Jacob de Grom.

What is that? What is what? Just the conversation in the Midwest to South right now? Trabb, this is... Cole Regan's is a hot boy name. That's what it is. This is the list you want to be on. Dirt nasties on Fuego.

That means I'm on fire, baby. Like Waco. Kind of been off to Fuego, if I'm being honest with the people. Really? Who have seen me light up something that was like a baseball bat on this program. Interesting. Kind of off of it. Okay.

Help is wealth. Yes, this is a list you want to be on. To start out for this series, we're talking about Luis Arise again. That guy, 10 for 14 into three games against Cincinnati, a double a homer, three runs driven in. He becomes the fifth Padre ever to have consecutive games with four plus hits in the first.

Who? John Jay. Wow. In 2016, Arise has 31 hits. in his first 17 games with this new team. It's the most of any player in his first 17 games in franchise history. Wow. Bobby Witt, he just talked about him.

He went six for 12 in the series, two doubles, two homers, eight ribbies. He's a stud. How about J.T. Rie Almuto? Another hot boy. Cole Regan's or J.T. or Muto? I don't know, man. Is Cole Reagan's hot? It's a good quote.

I mean, I think... You look that up. I'll talk about the stats. Five for 12 for JT. Two homers, four runs driven in. He extended his hitting street. to a career high, 13 games. Okay, JT. I had JT on my hot boy list

and people are not feeling. I said, you just have to be around him. Sometimes it's an aura. I'm a big JT is hot. It's an aura. Catcher, he's taking command. That's what ladies want. Come on.

Like I know. I've been out of the game so long. This is what women like. Let me tell you what women want. All right, fellas. a woman wants. I met your wife when you guys were what young 20s. She was 19. I was 21. This is what, this is what women like. I still don't know what she likes. I'm like, oh man. I try my hardest and I think maybe

that's what she likes. Yeah. For the week, try your hardest and ask nicely. I'm a good husband, people. I really am. For the week, David Frye, why did he only go seven for 11? How many walks did this guy have? I think they don't even play him. Six runs driven in four walks. Two hit by pitches. That's what it was. He had six non-played

appearances, or not a bads, excuse me. Out of 277 players with 100 played appearances this season, David Frye has the highest OPS in the big leagues. He's tied with the highest he's tied for the highest weight of runs greater plus with

Shohei freaking O. Tony. David Frye puts some respect on his name, C. Rose. I can't believe it. How about Dylan Moore of the Seattle Mariners? Hey, Julio, who? Dylan went nine for 21, four doubles, three homers, six runs driven in for the 1.619

OPS. How about Jesus Lazzardo, Miami? Starting pitcher. Jesus Lizard. We all know this guy. Two games started, 14nings pitch, eight hits. No earned runs, no walks, 11 Ks. I get so fired up when I see zero walks.

Yeah. It just does something for me, people. And this, and this is a list you want to be on. I'm going to call an audible here too and add a person because I can't believe we haven't talked about this guy yet. That'll be at the end.

First, Kyle Tucker is on the list. 14 for 39. That Abraham Lincoln motherfucker. Four doubles, six homers, 11 runs driven in. 11 runs scored 15 walks for the 1.4 over the last two weeks. 15 walks. Is he not your 1-1-1? He has an argument, but positionally, I really like Bobby Whiff.

He's in the first round. Too tall. Garret Crochet, by the way, this guy should be, like, the best pitcher in baseball. I don't know what goes on with him from time to time. He loses it every once in a while. But if you watch this guy throw, holy shit, he needs. needs to be traded somewhere. Three games started. Three and no, 17nings pitch, 10 hits, zero and runs, four walks, 21Ks. He's thrown 57 in two-thirds innings this season, and that eclips his previous

career high, 54 and a third he threw in 2021. That's because people, he's a starter this year. Yeah. That's going to change things. Reliever, Taylor Scott from the Houston Astros. He pitched in six games. He had one hold, eight and two-thirds innings pitch, only four hits. No earned runs, one walk to 11Ks. Shout out Taylor Scott. That's T-A-Y-L-E-R, which is an interesting way to spell Taylor. And that might be a typo. No, that is Taylor Scott, the only MLB player from South Africa.

Okay. So that's why his name is spelled like that. I am going to add my dear friend and a person that grew up in the same area. I believe we played high school ball against each other. I was a couple years older than him. Up to Shamanad High. Played for the Blue Jays. Oh.

Do you not know where I'm going with this? I... I thought you were going... I thought you were going Stanton. I thought you were going Stanton for a second, but now you're going Matt Chapman. He played for Boston. He played for Colorado.

He played for the New York Mets. He played for the L.A. Dodgers. He played for the Braves. He played for the White Sox. Now he's playing for the Angels. Is this Peeloff? Rice Peeloff, Kevin, freaking Pilar. Since he's been traded over to the Angels,

you're gonna, these stats are nuts. 14 games, he's hitting 426 with a 460 OBP, a 766 slugging for the 1.226 OPS. Four homers, 17 runs driven in in those games, 239 OPS plus. Kevin Pilar deserves to be on Inflago. Wow. I think he hates me, but I like him.

Pilar and Tommy fam. I think they're both, they'll both end up on probably different teams again and can super contribute or could not. I did see some, I think the Astros and Rays, which in April had horrible bullpens. I think they've been like the top two bullpens. And just a little something,

I know where we're yanking Chris Rose's chain. which, you know, it's in his contract. We have to do that. David Fry this year. Treve, you know, we see guys get hot, and that it is what it is. And, hey, maybe we're seeing a David Fry breakout. You know, the walk to strikeouts are there?

Like, everything's there. So I don't know. This is what you need sometimes in a baseball season. He's going nuts. Love that. The AL Zotani. David Frye. Trev, incredible, Enfuego, the best segment of the show. The worst segment of the show is the IL update.

You mentioned Bogart's. That's a significant one. We're talked about it. We're interested to see their next moves. Eloy Jimenez ended up back here, man, and I've said that this year. I've said that a lot since we've had this segment. I wonder what the future looks like for him. Emilio in his pagan ways John Means and John Gray Bad time to be a John

John means with the forearm That's always a little nervous Estuary Ruiz goes to the aisle Remember that's how the brewer's got William Contreras What we like returning from the aisle It's always been a J.P. Crawford show He's back Back for Seattle. Try tip JP

Hopefully he can give them something at the top of that Mariners lineup Brandon Lau is back. That's huge. Big drip. Tyler McGill. Jilly Weamer. Dan's Bay.

Back for your cubbies. Chris Bryant. Former cubby. Patrick Bailey. Joe Musgrove. Chris McCorm. Okay. Blake Snell.

Pepeio. We had a lot of dudes come back. I love the IL segment. I love the IL segment. Snaps. Health is wealth this Memorial Day weekend. Make sure you guys. take care about it.

Take care about it. Let's start Memorial Day the right way. Oh, what? What do you think Kelse is doing this weekend? Probably watching ball. Probably watching ball. Shout out Casey, too. Yeah, always.

Casey, just go have a few pops, Case. I'd love to have a couple beers with Casey. We talk pitching. He showed me how to, like, get my body right. I'm not feeling great about myself right now. Okay. I'm not either. A couple beers recently.

I had this, like, neck thing, so I had to take some time off working out. No, we might have to do. We might have to set up, you know, we interview Boone on Talking Yanks every week ad. We brought up some of the swing speed stuff and his like hitter, hitter side came out. I like that.

When the boys are talking hitting, you know, I see your eyes light up. He had that same look in his eye. Me and Boone could, I think me and Aaron would be like friends. A couple third basemen. Definitely. Southern Cowboys. SoCal, third baseman.

What's your award, Tram? Is it me? When we start off? Okay. I'm going to go with the Little Big League award. And, you know, baseball at the big league level is got to be fundamentally sound. You can't pull any stunts. You just got to go out there and be a good baseball player.

You got to beat the best. It is, I talk about it all the time. You think you're good until you get into pro ball. And then you're like, oh my gosh, so many people are good at baseball. And then you start to realize all those people I thought were good at baseball, they're not even good at baseball. As you climb up the minor league, you're like, that guy in rookie ball, I thought he was great.

He's not. There's certain things he can't do. And every single level just gets that way until you get to the big leagues and it's like, dude, even the bad players, all the people that you want to slam so you can't do anything. Those guys are such freaking good baseball players. It would make your mind spin. If you hung out, if you

took the person you thought was the worst baseball player in the movies and he went to the park with him and you guys just did a bunch of baseball shit together, your mind would spin and you'd be like, oh my God, I will never say that about another player again. I really think, I wish that could happen to some people.

But every once in a while we see some little league stuff come into the big leagues because it's a lot of season a lot of games, things happen. That's why I think that's the

beauty of baseball is, man, how many times do we say, never seen that before my life? Like, we say that all the time, right? Yeah. Okay. Not that we haven't seen this before,

but Christian Yelich. I don't like when they said he stole home. I guess he technically did steal home. Whenever I think about stealing home, I'm like, did you go on the pitch like Jackie Robinson? That to me is stealing home. But if you watch the Brewers Marlin series, perfect scenario for this, Kristen Yell is on third base.

Not even a massive lead over there, but he's got the right-handed hitter in the box. The catcher just kind of flipping the ball back to the pitcher, left-handed on the mound, which means something. And Yelly, before the catcher even releases the ball, back to the pitcher, takes off. ends up stealing home pitcher tries to bear hand it with his left hand

throw it home doesn't get him out steals home that's a beautiful little league play that's what I'll call a little league play that should never happen in the big leagues that should never ever happen in the big leagues good on Yelly for recognizing that there were some little league shit going on on a throwback to the pitcher

he recognized it took advantage of it that should never happen in the big leagues but it does from time to time because that's baseball Susan I wanted to talk about some other plays Little League plays that maybe we might

start pushing because like I said I've talked to some people fundamentals are down in baseball maybe we can start doing these I have two that I want to talk about maybe you can give me your reaction to it I guess one is another lefty

on the mound we'd like to pick on lefties if we're being honest they're a little silly first and third let me see if this is that one first and third you have a lefty on the mounds and you are at first base take the big lead have the lefty pick over.

Ideally, you have a lefty at first base also so he has to go across his body to throw home. But as soon as the lefty picks up to throw to first base, because this guy at first base has his massive lead. As soon as he picks his leg up to throw to first, you take off to home. And if he doesn't throw to first, you just stop and you go back to third base. we don't see that play often, but I think we could see it more if we just try it. Does that make sense what I'm saying?

Runner's on first and third, lefty on the mound, lefty first baseman. So he's got his glove here, he's got to turn his whole body to throw to first base. Runner gets off on first base, lefty picks over.

As soon as the lefty's leg picks up, runner on third steals home. That's a play. It's a play. You might see that. Yeah. Okay. Here's one that I came up with.

Never ran it. Ran it by our coaching staff. they said they liked it, but I think they were just appeasing me because we never ran it. Kurt Suzuki liked it though. Yeah.

Another first and third play. Okay? First and third, right-hander on the mound. Now, this is a defense calling this play now, right? First and third, a three-two count.

This could be bases loaded. No, yeah, whatever. First and third or bases loaded, right? Right-handed on the mound, three-two-count, two out. So the runners are, running, right? Okay. Right-hander. And say the guy at home plate is a guy you don't want to throw this three, two, pitch to. Right. You're like, fuck that. Like, I don't want to throw this

pitch to this guy. Like, it's a really good hitter. I gave Miguel Cabrera as the answer. Could be Bobby Whit. Could be David Fry. Mm. First and third, or base is loaded. Three, two count, two outs. Runners are going. Righty picks up the leg, throws it to the third base, picks off to third base, which I don't know, can you still do that? Treve, I've been pushing the pick-off to third base agenda so hard. But not to pick the runoff at third, Jake. So this is more for first and third. Throws it to the base because you have to go to the base.

This is how the rule used to be. I don't know if they got rid of this or not. Because you can't do 3-1 now. But I think if you're throwing to the base, you can still pick off to third base as a right-hand picture. I think you still have to throw it there. the inside move to seconds out. Throw to the base at third with the full intention not to pick the runner off

but to go to nab the guy that's going to second base. Because he's going to go on the leg lift. Throw to the third baseman. Then it's just a little bit of rundown. You got to watch the guy at third base, but, you know, big leaguers should be able to make that play. All of a sudden, you don't have to throw that vaunted three-two pitch to the hitter.

Say you're up to run. runs. You're like, I don't want to give up a three-run jack right now. Pitcher comes set, lifts his leg, picks to third. I catch the ball at third base, hammer it to second base, either get the guy in a rundown or tag him out. Game over. Well, and Treb, maybe I can even open you up to slightly more options because the first option there could be third base. Like, say if you got that guy, boom, and then your second option, but I see what you're saying. Like, the runner on first is going to take off first move. He's going to go because he wants to score.

We're not third base. He's just trying to get wide. Third base coach probably hears you come in. I see what you're saying. So these are some little league plays that maybe we start to implement the Bigley level. I just want to give people something

to think about a little bit. And Christian Yelloch got the juices flowing. So maybe you'll see these in the Big League someday. And that's the Little Big League award. Trev, kind of wild, but it's what I like. And I know some of the people that watch this show that they're the pickoff.

to third, like when we saw shifts and guys getting crazy leads off of third, and dude, the way infielders take creep steps, you can set up a runner off third with a righty pitcher so easily. Like, I'm still waiting for that to happen

in a big game and everyone's like head tilting. Dude, this game... You gotta... Yeah. This game we love still has so much to gamify, and I think it's becoming sexier, or at least, and I'm sorry to do this, but our Yankees have been gamifying the game more.

They had Jose Trevino throw a pickoff play on a check swing. So everyone's looking at the check swing to first base, and the runner on third, he's looking at it too. It's just a natural reaction. They throw behind him, pick him off. Volpe comes in, lead off double. They bring in the lefty for Juan Soto. New guy out of the bullpen, left on left.

Juan Soto. First pitch? First pitch And you're like Dude Juan Soto Nobody out You can't make that out at third But Volpe has that new age

Little hop step He was running He got it super easy You now bring the infield in Soto chopper through the infield Gets through It like ended the game There's so much to gamify

About this stupid sport That we can be doing more of Love it They've also been When there's been Double steals automatically throwing for the backrunner because they're reacting, you know? They're not getting the jump.

Tell us what your team does to gamify the game that we need to be looking for. Trev, great award. I saw you put the Little Big League award in there, so I put in the Rally Rally Award, which kind of a famous Little League song, which is probably out now, unless the pitcher's name is Sally. but I've got two teams that I want to see who's going to rally rally. The St. Louis Cardinals,

eight and two in their last 10. We know a lot of their names on the jerseys. Mar-Mal got ejected a little bit ago. Several times. To try to fire up the troops, and they sweep the Baltimore birds who had not been swept, essentially, in the regular season, under this administration.

if you will. The Adley administration. You know I'm political. I like that, yeah. How do both of these teams react? Orioles, you knew it was going to happen, right? Like, this is baseball. You were going to get swept at some point.

You know that. How do they react? Are we going to be talking about in 10 days that the Orioles got hot and figured it out and looked at that sweep as like maybe an exhale? Like, all right, It happened. Let's go out and play Orioles baseball.

Or do we see them real a little bit? In ALEs where the Yankees have been the top dog so far, and we talked a lot about the socks and rays are going to raise and blah, blah, blah. Which of these team is going to rally? I think someone from the NL Central is going to get hot. I've been on that take for whatever reason. And I'm interested to see how the baby birds, who I've been crazy high on throughout,

I'm not going to bet against them But you know this I don't want to say adversity But let's see Let's see if it affects them at all I would bet it doesn't But it would be interesting to see if it does I don't think it affects the Orioles Whatsoever I am happy the Cardinals have gotten it going

Like they need to like this isn't a team That should be at the bottom of the NL Central This isn't a team that should be laughed at And trading away all their pieces Like especially because they've gotten some Like when they brought in sunny Lance and Gibby. We're all like, okay, what's going on here? Like, they're just trying, like, these guys are a little older.

Like, is this really the way? I think a lot of people wanted Jordan Montgomery there. A lot of people, you know, there's a lot of talks about who they should have brought in. Those guys have been doing just fine. It's been mostly the offense. You're getting Mason win, like I mentioned, to be a contributor. I think the biggest thing for me is, like, they've done this ever since Contreras has been out. So it's like they rallied around that a little bit.

And I think Goldschmidt has finally had enough of it. So I think the Orioles are completely fine. But I'm stoked for the Cardinals. I'm stoked for their fan base. Like I want them to get going. I mean, the back end of the bullpen's been pretty dang good, man. They got some guys coming back as well.

I believe like Gallegos is coming back. And is there somebody else that's going back? Like, they're like set up to kind of go now. And I hope they continue this. I really do. But let's just talk. Let's just say truths, right? We speak truths here.

Truths. For the most part. Yeah. Sometimes I say stupid things. The city connects. Come on. That's fair. Yeah, that's it.

But other than that, Cardinals, go Cardinals. Coming into... The rooster downtown. Coming into last season, the Cardinals were one of the premier well-run baseball franchises or so we thought. Let me ask you this. That arch... Okay.

That's built by... the aliens. Like, what's up with that? They influenced that. Like a St. Louis, like a, just a Midwest city. All of a sudden gets this futuristic arch. That's what they should have made a portal.

Like, they did that whole NYC Dublin portal thing. Make that thing a portal. Like, let's be real here. Like, that was influenced by the aliens. That's a satellite for an alien race. Like, that is not something you typically, look at the rest. Look at the rest of the buildings

And that skyline That's Midwest But then you just have this silver arch Right The gateway to the west We're on to you It's tough to fade you on that I will say

I think I do miss a time in U.S. history When building something like that Was like, yes We need, oh I'm all in on that stuff Did you go down to like Chicago And there's like this like water fucking station on Michigan Avenue the most beautiful building you've ever seen.

Like, this is just a water building. Right. Now they make them just with like cinder blocks and like it's like the most indiscreet thing, but they used to build a... Memorial Day! I'm out. I'm out. I almost choked.

Whoa. Oh, that's, where's that? I googled Chicago water building. Yeah, right there, the water tower. Yeah, that's one. What's up with that? Oh, that's sick. What are we doing here?

That's, yeah, I mean, that's Lord of the Rings or, I don't know, it's a little phallic, if I'm being honest. Yeah, that's awesome. You like to sit on that thing, Jake. Okay. Everyone, enjoy your Memorial Day weekend. Build something. Wow. Watch some ball.

Enjoy some good weather. Heard over there? Whoa. We love a flexible king. I might go play tennis. real quick. I gotta do another show though. We've got baseball today coming up. Stay loose, people.

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