Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Dodgers look UNSTOPPABLE in Tokyo Series

Episode Date: March 19, 2025

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Hello and welcome to talking baseball. Baseball is back. The Dodgers are undefeated. The Cubs are defeated. We're going to talk about the ABS challenge system because we miss it. Opening day starters are out. Let's talk ball. Games counted. Trevor's so out. He's playing Fortnite. Oh, I got the Shillhay skin. But they're going to put Byron Buxton in the game. It's going to be an ugly app, people. No, it's not because baseball. is back. Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball, presenting you by Seat. Eke, Code Talk in 2025.

I am Jake Storelli. I am joined by Jolly Olive today in the building. Trevor Plouffe is flying out from the west coast to the east coast. He missed me. And we've got a big warehouse tournament this weekend. And ball is coming up that it's that time of year. Just watch two games in Tokyo. Jolly. Sorry about your Cubs. How are you? I'm good. Great matchup to pick for the Tokyo series. I thought it was really cool. I see guys like Sayy Suzuki, Shota Iminaga,

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, Shohaiyotani. Nice. All pitch and hit in front of their home crowd. I thought that was really cool. It's a cool way to start the season. I know it kind of stinks that it starts at, you know, 6 a.m., but I do think it's important.

And I hope it keeps happening. I know it's kind of a divisive thing with a lot of people, but I really enjoy the table. Tokyo series year and in Europe. Yeah, I think if I'm a Cubs fan, I'm not stoked. Oh, yeah. If I'm being, if I'm being a little real about it, those are both Cubs home games. Tough.

That's a tough aspect. They felt like Dodgers home games. Shohei came up in the ninth inning of the second game, or no, he came on deck and the crowd erupted. So I do want to talk about that a little bit. I'm being a little facetious because it's a long season. If the Cubs are good, the Cubs will be good. but, I don't know, tight division.

Deepbacks didn't make the postseason with 89 wins last year. We could talk about a little bit of that. I want to talk about the two games. Obviously, we're not going to deep dive, and we're not going to go hot take radio on you guys for a day. Should the Cubs sell? That would be good, though. That would be a good F.

What if the end of the season comes down to these two games? Now we're talking. That's how you get clicks, people. Proper reactions. I do want to talk about these two games. a little bit and then segue it into the ABS challenge system because, God, as humans, okay, now we're talking. Fecitious and now this.

As humans, we get pretty used to something. And, God, watching live streaming the first game yesterday and everyone that was with us, the first pitch that was a ball, instinctually everyone did the head tap and it was like, wait, that's not allowed this year. And that's insane because it seems like it works. Everyone's ready for it. I don't think anyone's against it. But we will dive into that in a second.

Jolly, anything else you need to get off your chest? I wrote a burn for this game for the people. I'm very excited for the burn. I don't think that I've ever been in the room for a burn. I've listened to plenty of them, but I don't think I've ever been in the room. And Jolly, you normally listens to them while he's drinking a Corona. While he's watching baseball, watching me burn. He's kicking back ordering coronas and enjoying.

the ride. From the moment we all bail on work to enjoy opening day, we just partially did that. You can fully do that next Thursday. We're going to talk about some of the opening day starters and maybe line up your opening day. Get ahead of it, people. Baseball is the one sport where anything can happen. Team can catch fire, going to run, take their fans to the promise land. There's nothing quite like sharing a corona, relaxing, and enjoying every unpredictable moment with friends. Whether you're in the cheap seats or where Trevor sits, enjoy the official servesa of Major League Baseball. Crack open to Corona, squeeze in a lime, and enjoy America's favorite pastime

with Mexico's favorite pastime. Get yours at order Corona.com. 21 plus, enjoy responsibly Corona extra beer imported by Crown Imports, Chicago, Illinois. Give me some music, Rob. The Cubbies would have to be made of steel with their ace Justin on the bump to fend off the two-game sweep by the Dodgers and their new prize possession. He's so rokey, he's a star, and he throws, throws, throws gas with his arm, yeah. As Sasaki would try to split through Chicago in Japan.

Top two, Will Smith gets jiggy with it on a passball. Kiki, do you love me? Sack flying. Ah, Drake's out. Never mind. It's 2-0. Dodgers. make it three. Tommy tanks as Edmund Yanks won. First homer of the season, but a Nick Cannon

inning for the Cubs as they score a run in the third. It was wild and out. Three walks by Roki leads to John Bertie, Bertie, Bertie, birdie, birdie, scoring everywhere. It's three-one Dodgers. But Enrique, you can take my breath away. Kike with the two-run homer. Look at the hair. Yum. Oh, boy, it's 5-1 Dodgers. Ian Hap tells Trevor Blue, fetch me my wine. RBI single. But if we're here,

let's put on a show. Otani hits a double home run for the fans. Roki to Garcia to Dreyer to Knack to Yates to Vesia. Dodgers win 6'3 and take both games in Tokyo. We're back, folks. You know, I'm trying to get the Dodgers fans back on our good side. Oh, your Yankees stink. They tried to break movies on.

Speak for yourself. I mean, geez. You see how bad you guys were in the fifth inning? You remember how bad the fifth inning was? They don't sound like that. It stunk. I hated what the Yankees did in the fifth inning. You were there.

In that whole world series anyways. It's touchy. Jolly. The Dodgers win two games in Japan. As I mentioned briefly, pseudo home games for the Dodgers while being Cubs games. It's ignoring the Shoda getting. the opening day start a little bit, and Saya being there,

and a couple tough at-bats for him. The Dodgers were without Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, arguably they're two best everyday position players. Yeah, that's fair. And they still looked pretty damn good, and we're not going to... You knew the Dodgers were going to be good. The Cubs season isn't going to be decided by this,

but I guess whether there anything today or anything in these two games that stood out to you. Yeah, I had a lot of fun watching. the Dodgers supporting cast, honestly. Like I know Betts, Freeman, Otani will always take the headlines, but still looking at this lineup without Bats and Freeman in it. Like Edmund at the two, Michael Conforto sneaky seven hitter, Andy Paez, who was a positive offensive player hitting ninth.

They used nine different relievers in two games, Jake, and pretty much all of them pitched well. It was scary and exciting because you got to peek behind the curtain of just how deep this roster truly is playing on a pretty big stage right at the get-go and you can only imagine how much better they're going to get when they're at full strength

which they probably will be soon. So yeah, it was completely the Dodgers show. I do feel a little bit more bad for the Cubs. I feel like as this show has gone on I've been like, man, they kind of got dealt a little bit of a tough hit. Matt Shaw, go make your majorly debut in Japan. Your first at-bats ever

against Roki and Yoshinovo Yamamoto. Good luck, pal. Yeah, just the Dodgers show for a couple days. And no real surprise there. Yeah, the Dodgers pitching stood out to me more than I thought it would because we get caught up in the stars with the Dodgers show, hey, Mookie Freddie. And it's like, okay, Mookie and Freddie are out. And, you know, if you're the cubbies, you hear that.

And I don't want to say you start licking your lips, but you're like, okay, this whole thing's a spectacle, right? It's a display for the sport. I guess people who don't like it, comment below, you're going to comment below if you don't like it. that's when the comments happen. I guess for me, and maybe I'm too close for the situation. I like it. I think this

gets baseball off the ground. Baseball in Japan has become so huge. Another shower thought I had this morning. It used to be comical when the Little League World Series would roll around and they'd be like, these teams from Japan and from overseas, they have such good fundamentals

and they play the game so well and it's so cool to see these kids. And it's like, these kids grew up. And now they're kicking our ass in the WBC. Roki broke Shohay's record in high school for throwing 101. Yep. I don't know.

Should we start maybe asking the guys what we're doing over there? Because it's working. Anyways. The Dodgers pitching was so impressive these past two days with maybe Roki being the low man on the totem pole

which I want to talk about a little bit. It was actually, I enjoyed when we were live streaming the first game. You can't really hear the broadcast, so I got to listen today. And it was really interesting. I mean, Roki couldn't throw a strike with his other pitches. He was throwing the splitter a lot.

He threw a couple sliders in there, but only the fastball he could throw in the zone. And I believe it was Piersinski on the call who was like, man, if you're a hitter, I know Roki's stuff is good, but this is, he didn't say a dream, but he's like you sit fastball and you look for it for a strike. Roki's splitter is gross. the amount it moves, it looks like a curveball. Yeah. It looks like an over-the-top curveball, but it's got that kind of knuckle to it.

That's probably the best one. If you could replay that one again, Rob, against our guy, Matt Shaw. Tough. Yeah, tough. Welcome to the league. Here's Rokey battling. It's just straight down. That, yeah, he didn't have control of that for a lot that led to five walks.

But I was even laughing. Luis Garcia comes out of the bullpen for them. 38-year-old Luis Garcia, but remember he was a star of like the postseason a couple years ago? It was like, wait, who is this guy? And even the rookie who gets into this game for the Dodgers, Dreyer, who I wasn't familiar with, but a lefty with good stuff.

Kirby Yates doesn't pitch. We started doing the Dodgers pitching path to victory in the first game because it was like, oh, they've got a lead. Who's coming out of that bullpen? And we were like, okay, wait. Tanner Scott, Blake Trinan. Are they, wait, so they don't even need Kirby Yates today? And just a reminder, go look at Kirby Yates' stats last year.

Kirby Yates was one of the best pitchers in baseball. That, yeah, it's one of those, when there's great teams in baseball, obviously they're good at everything. If you're a great team, you don't have a ton of flaws. But I guess they could have the best pitching, they could have the best hitting, and we don't, you don't see that. You don't see that. No, you don't see it very often.

And there's not many teams that I can think of that also have potential to do that. I mean, like, the Diamondbacks kind of come to mind, but no one else really, I feel like, scratches the surface of top one potential on both sides of the ball. The Phillies, but. Yeah, the Phillies.

It's still, yeah, it's just, it's a different tone. Like, those teams would need everything to go right. They didn't have Mookin-Fredi. I think you bringing up the AJ thing was important because I don't think it was just about Brokey in the setting, although that's how it came about. I think it was more about like getting ahead of the Dodgers early is pretty much the only way to beat them now.

Like if you let it get to the fifth inning and you're down three or two, it feels like curtains. It feels like 2015 Royals when you got to the seventh inning. Like the game was just over. And that's what they're, I mean, the ninth man on the totem pole, I just want to bring this up. Anthony Banda, lefty in their pen, pitched to a three. 2008 last year in 50 innings.

The two years before he played for five different teams. Got wavered and DFAed and passed around. The Dodgers scooped him up, made him effective, and now they have this weapon as like the last guy on the rung that they need to call to. It's just a testament to how they've built their depth so much over the past two years to the point where it's, you look up and down, you mention the pitching path to victory. It's kind of whatever they want. You know, they have three lefties in the pen and all of them are good.

I mean, yesterday was, what was it? It was Trinanin to Scott. Today it was Vesia and Yates. Yeah, man, those guys could be closers on like 25 other teams. Yeah, Trinens kind of always had that. Tanner Scott was like the prize possession as a reliever. Kirby Yates had an argument. I mean, he's just, he's 38 and the stuff is wild.

He's one of the more wild, not wild pitchers to watch. Yeah. Because he throws 93, but guys. can't touch it because he's got a wipe out pitch. That, yeah, I maybe that's the, I needed to zoom in a little more. They can have the best hitting and nobody would fight that. Go look at Max Muncie's stats from last year. Me and Jolly did a third base tier list on Wake and Jake that comes out also today.

So if you're enjoying this, go check that out. Max Muncie had an OPS that was, what was it, 850 last year? I think in 90 games. 852. he had three war in 73 games. Max Muncie has become, I don't want to say like a blend in piece for this team, but Michael Conforto. Okay, Freddie Freeman, they decided he's not going to play in the first game.

We're going to put in 17 mil a year Michael Conforto, who, if the Dodgers are willing to do that, I'm betting they like what they see out of Michael Conforto this year. And then Tommy Edmund hitting the first home run of the season, there was something beautiful about that. Tommy Edmund, who plays for South Korea. in the World Baseball Classic. Tommy Edmund, who had an amazing postseason last year,

who in a way, the Dodgers have their stars, but they also have their guys that embody, I think, what has made the Dodgers special over the past few years. Max Muncie's part of that. Like his versatility can't be overlooked what he's done over his Dodger era. Chris Taylor. Who am I blanking on? Kiki.

Who homers in this game. And every time there's extra cameras in the stands, Kiki, Will Homer. It's kind of sick that he's just a big game player. Like his, what are his postseason numbers on his career? They've got to be insane. I don't know. If this was clickbait, would I say, could Kiki be a Hall of Famer? I'm not going to say that.

KK, OPS guess in the playoffs, 259 played appearances. Just a guess. 870. Good shot. 874. Good shit. Ball. Geez, Jake.

Go outside. They could, no. They could have, I'm about to watch so much baseball. They, maybe that's the point. I think we, you see a lot of great teams and you're like, yeah, I mean, the lineups amazing and they might have the best rotation. They might have the best bullpen. They might have the best rotation.

They might have the best lineup. You felt that in this series. You're going to feel this as the season goes on. Guys who technically did not dress for these games because they're, They're the Dodgers. And you only needed two true starting pitchers because you're playing two games. Blake Snell and Tyler Glass now looks like they'll get the ball when they get back to the States. Not bad.

And yeah, I mean, they, you know, they cut two after the game was on FS1. They cut two. It looked like Mark Schleirth and Carton. They've got a new FS1 show, a little ad there. And they were like, this show hey, need to pitch this year. And think about what we're saying. Like, the answer is no. do they need Shoah to pitch?

Would you want Show Hay to pitch? Absolutely. And it led to a fun conversation yesterday. Joe's McFly is fighting hard for Shohei the closer. Just because I think his content brain is kicking in a little bit. I don't hate that idea, though. If Show Hay comes out of the bullpen, like how electric that would just be. Although I don't think the Dodgers would have a solo closer, but I like him as like an option.

Well, it's going to be one of the interesting storylines this season is he rehabbing from Tommy John, but is he rehabbing because he can't go on a rehab assignment because he's on the Dodgers. And the bullpen for me doesn't make sense because bullpen is, in my opinion, sneaky, more grueling than being a starting pitcher. You can line Shohei up once a week and getting him on a throwing program.

And I think that's the best way. And just to move Shohei to the bullpen now feels like, I don't want to say a waste, because that's not the word that should be with him at all. but it's The talent on this team is insane Michael Kopeck is on the aisle Probably till middle of the season

He's a guy that doesn't get mentioned right now Bruce Starr just shows up Remember he did that last postseason Yep That yeah this is I guess for me It was one of the conversations of the offseason These Dodgers have a chance to be an actual super team

Seeing it live Missing A Okay let's just just go, let's just go Mooky Freddie in the lineup and let's go Snell Glass Now in the rotation. Leave it there. Sure. And these are four guys that should be back when they get back.

And it still felt like a super team. They are going to be entertaining. I mean, one thing I wanted to mention before we wrap up here is I thought the ending of game one had like a little symbolism to it. Ryan Brazier came in for the Cubs. DFAed off the Dodgers, even though he was spectacular for them last year. We just talked about how deep their bullpen is. He comes in for the Cubs.

He's going to be a piece for them this year. The guy who closes out game one and gets the save for the Dodgers, Ginter Scott, who was largely linked to the Cubs. The Cubs didn't want to give him that fifth year, so he went to the Dodgers. The Otani Slayer now is teammates with Otani. Like that ending to that game really stood out to me as like, yeah, the Dodgers didn't need to give Tanner Scott a five-year deal.

They could have just kept Ryan Brazier and the bullpen still would have been fantastic. And instead they went the extra mile, signed the guy, dished out the money because they knew it would improve their team a marginal amount. And that's all they try to do every offseason is just improve wherever they possibly can. Even if they have productive players, if they know they can improve upon those roster spots, they will do it. And that's what makes them so scary. Kirby Yates, I just want to say the stats again.

just because you're like, oh, reliever got signed that was good. Okay, Dodgers. Again, other teams could have had them. One year 13 for Kirby Yates, who had a... Normally you don't mention reliever war, because why would you? He had a 3.3 war last year out of the bullpen. 61.2 innings pitched, 85 strikeouts, a 117 ERA for Kirby Yates. They added both of these guys.

They didn't lose a lot. Rangers couldn't do that one year 13 got that in budget every team could have where's David Robertson every team could have where is David where is he how is he not signed

he's waiting for the Dodgers to call him let's do a little cubbies while we're here and this is all the Dodgers stuff we knew but it's kind of reiterating a little bit with the cubbies again not going to overreact I did

I did search with AI this I was like wait are the I was like, how many games in Wrigley Park will the Cubs play this year? And I got the AI answer propped up, 79 games at Wrigley. Wrigley Park. Yeah, I was like, get out of here, dude. You don't know ball. I was like, shut up.

And then I got in a fight, and then I kind of fell in love with it. And now we've got a whole shape of water. It's the plot of her, I think, actually. The Cubbies, if I'm a Cubs fan, I would be a little irked that I'm walking away with two regular season losses. Against the Dodgers, there's going to be a lot of teams that can do that this year

and we'll do that. I guess when I found out I'm losing two home games, especially at Wrigley, in a big year for the team. Genuinely a big year for the team, I'm losing two home games that are now losses.

Like, they weren't locked into being losses. They are now losses. I'm not, no, no. I'm not actually doing this. Craig counsel managed the first game not Like Ben Brown came in and threw 50 pitches Like he wasn't playing this game as a

I'm going to use everyone in my bullpen And do or die to win this game Like he kind of took a different approach at it And that's where the game turned Showed Amina did not give up a hit A ton of walks. All the Cubs pitchers gave up a ton of walks this weekend I guess my final statement to start this conversation If I'm a Cubs fan, I'm not super happy

because my team lost two games, which every fan can relate to. Losing two home games when the crowd erupts for an opposing player every time they come up. Part of me doesn't love that. And yeah, man, I'm just... It's one of the things we stumble upon

in every broad baseball conversation. The National League is stacked. Yes. Your NL East. I think not to spoil the TPPs, but I think three of the final top five teams are in the NL East. Doesn't surprise me.

Spoiler, one of them's in the NL West. And then the Diamondbacks, Padres, the whole deal. That in the Central, the Milwaukee Brewers have a factory going on. It's always weird to look at it on paper, but I think that whole division is at grips with it. Pirates fans, I don't know if we're going to talk Jared Jones' elbow, but that was a really tough news to wake up to. Hey, maybe it's nothing.

We like Jared Jones. always came into our office, has given a quick view on some of Jack Doyle's Insta stories. Oh, nice. Yeah, you know, you could see those early viewers. Jerry Jones sometimes gets in there and Jack Doyle really appreciates that. Him and Mitch Keller, they're tapped in. They're dudes.

Yeah, they're dudes. They're dudes who happen to be incredible at baseball. You're having them back. Anyways, if I'm the Cubs, I just really don't want to finish this season with 87 wins and we miss the playoffs by a game. And the Diamondbacks did that last year. with 89 wins.

Yeah, no, I hear everything you're saying, and I do think counsel had a lot of new pieces to try and manage and get into the game. Caleb Bealbar, I mean, Ryan Presley's in the fold now, Eli Morgan, Ryan Brazier, that's just the bullpen. You know, four new guys there that they're going to rely upon. One thing I didn't love, and this might be stupid and nothing, I really would have liked to see Justin Turner playing these games.

Justin Turner feels like kind of a big stage player for me. It would have been cool to see him play against the Dodgers. He got a couple pinch hits, but I would have liked to see him get some starts and potentially, I don't know, get in the action and kind of lead the way for these Cubs, because that kind of feels like it's going to be his role, like veteran guy who's done it before, guy who's won on the biggest stages. So I was a little disappointed by that. But otherwise, yeah, the guys just kind of got, they got punched in the mouth a little bit. They got, I think, blindsided by the crowd. The crowd was definitely not even split. It was mostly pro-Dodgers.

And I hear what you're saying. We got a long 162 game season, so I'm sure the Cubs will be fine. It's just never how you want your season to start. Last year my Mets started 0 and 5. They still made it to the NLCS, so, you know, nothing's set in stone yet for our Cubs. Yeah, and it's, I, the Cubbies are a proud fan base that should have more reason to believe this year than previous years.

Kyle Tucker is there. We saw him put a couple good swings on balls. I guess for me, one of the things in their team profile projection that the fans got mad about, was I was a little worried about their, I guess specifically power in depth in their lineup. Right now, Matt Shaw is in the middle of that lineup. And he, they are depending on him.

I, this is rude and I hope it's horribly wrong. The batting stance I'm not in love with. I kind of like it. If it works, it's sick. Shelley labeled it perfectly. He was kind of like, that dude rolls up to a softball game with that stance and everyone's like, oh, shoot, like move back. Big hitter.

He is about to lay into the ball. Major League Baseball a little different with that. I know we ended up looking at some of his stances from last year. It was a different stance. So, hey, maybe he's going to adjust on the fly. Maybe it just works and he faced Dodger pitching for a weekend. But he was in fifth. And, like, I don't know what I'm going to get from Matt Shaw this year.

I don't know what you're going to get from any rookie this year. Maybe he's a stud. Maybe he's even if he's league average, that's a really good rookie season. that's currently in your five hole. Dansby, you know what you're getting, pretty much. You're getting class defense at shortstop, 15 home runs, and you're hoping he's around a league average hitter. PCA, world-class defense.

If he can be a step below an average hitter, he's a massively valuable baseball player. He is 23 years old. Miguel Amaya catching, nice swing. I don't think the offensive expectations are through the roof. And John Birdie was filling in for Nico Horner. Had a great game today, by the way. Let's say it's Nico Horner.

You're still, you're expecting no pop. He's a great contact hitter. He's a world-class defender that I don't know. Like, I even skipped Michael Bush in this exercise because I'm a Michael Bush believer, but let's see what his sophomore year feels like. That I think this Cubs lineup, I'm worried about the pop.

And I think that's fair. And Cubs fans made it seem like it wasn't. I still believe that. I think the two guys to look at are PCA and Shaw. They kind of will swing the expectations of this lineup. I think you relatively know what you'll get with, say, Suzuki. You know absolutely what you'll get with Ian Happy. He's been the same player for five straight years.

Kyle Tucker is supposed to be the star that brings things together. But for me, the real swings are the guys that are hitting five and seven in your lineup. They need PCA to be at least league average offensively. I know he's 23. He's got plenty of time. and the defense is already there. But I think the expectation that he's going to be a big league caliber hitter, and they need that to start now.

I mean, you guys talked about it a little bit in your TPP about how the acquisition of Kyle Tucker was kind of a wake-up call to the organization of like, it's time to go. Like we need to try and make the playoffs again. We need to reestablish ourselves as a powerhouse in the National League, and we're acquiring Kyle Tucker and all these bullpen pieces to do that. Part of that is the young guys hearing that message as well and saying, I need to step into my own and seize this high.

opportunity. For Shaw, it's a little bit different. He's making his debut this year. He has a ton of pressure on him, especially, I really thought they would be a player for Bregman or some of the third basement. And I think they were. They definitely were. They definitely were. I don't, I don't know that this was Plan A for the Cubs, Matt Shaw's starting on opening day, but it is what it is, and they're going to need him to be a massive player for them. And he has the minor league stats. Like he had an 850 OPS between AA and AAA and AAA last year in a full season's worth of games. That can translate. I guess this is the point. So it's out.

This is an MLB.com article. Hoyer and the Cubs said, and multiple sources said the Cubs offered Bregman a four-year deal worth $115 million. They just missed out on him and Tanner Scout. So think about what does that mean? Would that mean Matt Shaw doesn't start the year on the squad? Probably in AAA.

Does that mean he's at second base? Because Horner's out for this series. Like, you can go a couple different ways with it. But the fact that the front office I mean, if you're a Cubs fan, you should be half excited that your front office was willing to offer that, and that means that the trade deadline in a big year for the Cubs, the Cubs should be about that action pop.

I guess the other side of that is the Cubs thought their team needed a player like this, and they don't have that. Yeah, I mean, I think almost certainly Shaw would have started at the minor leagues just because of the, you know, sit him for a month, get the extra year of control thing, like that roster manipulation. No, they would never. Especially not the Cubs. They always put their best team on the field.

But imagine how differently we view this Cubs team if Bregman's in the middle of the lineup behind Tucker and Tanner Scott's closing the game. And we were inches away from that in both instances. It's frustrating from the perspective of the front office because they're willing to spend, but only to a certain amount where you have teams in the National League, you know, that you're going to be playing a ton

that don't have that limitation. They will do whatever it takes to get that guy on the roster. Cubs, Cubs fans, hey, we can watch this whole thing. It's two games. Let's check in at the end of the month. You guys are five games above 500. All right, Cubs fans, turn off your ears for a second. They're coming back.

Burns and Gallen. Welcome to Arizona. I don't know, man. You got to beat the Burrs. It's a long season. Got to beat the Burrs. It's a long season. Five and eight last year.

Got to beat the Brewers. This is not a dream schedule start for the Chicago Cubbies. No. what is a dream is Indeed. Why don't you guys go to Indeed? Today's episode is sponsored by Indeed. If you just realize your business needs to hire someone yesterday, it's kind of backwards,

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get a $75 sponsor job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com slash talking. Indeed.com slash talking right now support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash talking. Terms and conditions apply hiring. Indeed is all you need. Jall, I want to talk ABS in the challenge system quick because I had a moment of panic. And it's a little bit,

it's quite different by how we get to operate at John Boy Media, which I think we get to use for our good a lot of the times in our warehouse and our company and in general, that if there's something that needs to change, we'll just change it. We say, okay, let's do that. Jim, you're in, let's go. Dude, seeing some of those first at bats,

and you're like, oh, that's a ball. They'll just challenge it. And then you're like, okay, so we're not getting that this year. MLB does this. They tease the new rule. They show you it. They make you like it and want it. You crave it, and then you get it late.

It's just going to be such a weird thing for this year. Because, man, and maybe for people that haven't been plugged into spring training, which actually this year has been a looser spring training for me, just kind of getting highlights and updates, which I guess that's good than me obsessing in watching spring training games. But man, guys aren't going to be able to challenge pitches, and I'm already used to it, and this should be happening. I mean, yes and no.

Like, Manfred, say what you will about Rob Manfred as a commission. What are you going to say? I'm not going to talk on character or lockout or anything. thing. What I will say is that he's implemented three or four rule changes now, and his ease in process for all of them, I think, has been great. Exactly what you said before. This would be too much change too quickly, even if it is positive change. And I think with a sport that is as old as baseball, something like this, I think is bigger than a ghost runner in extra innings or even a pitch clock, which was a big deal when it happened and is now in the background of everything. This is a

fundamental change to the game. It's a new element of the game, a new weapon for hitters and coaches and catchers and pitchers that I think even though I did like watching it in play in spring training, I think the major leaguers needed some time with it because you got to remember it's been in the minor leagues for years at this point. All those guys have been coming up with it. They're going to know how it works upon reaching the major leagues. You know, for Justin Turner, who's, you know, entering his age, what is it, 40 season?

I mean, he's been in the league for 15 years. This is a new element to his game. I'm just thinking of both the fans and the players from this perspective of, I think introducing in spring training was a really smart thing to test out any kinks and let the umpires understand know where things are at now. And I think next year we'll all be much more ready for it. But I do agree that in some instances, even in just this two-game sample, I was like,

I could have seen a hat tip there, or a hat-tap, rather. Well, that's, you know, some of my non-baseball buddies, I got a text yesterday that was, and we've got a silly thing going on in our group chat. Sometimes we'll text something we actually want to say and then we just edit it and put something generic, like good weather today. So my buddy was like,

hey, if we have the technology to show every ball and strike, why doesn't baseball just use that? And then he edited it to like, might go for a walk. And it's a tough question to answer a little bit. I can still answer that because I think there's a beauty to having the, umpires in every pitch and just going with it. And there's some beautiful, there's a beauty to baseball about the gray zones and this

ump zone and that kind of caught the corner. It didn't. Let's keep it moving. Maybe that sentence seems super dumb to people. Like I could see that. I can understand that. I guess I, the system to me is chef's kiss.

The challenge system, you keep them if you're right. I know there's a funny jazz one the other day in the Yankee spring training. This dictates games, man. This dictates games. I guess all the drama I just put into the Cubs two games. My yanks are fighting for a wild card, and that last game comes down, and there's eighth inning.

There's a three-two count. Base is loaded, ball off the plate gets called strike three, and teams can lose seasons. Yeah, I hear you. I do. And we have the technology. So I don't know. It's just, it's frustrating for me because I don't know how much sports talk radio you think we're doing right now. But if they, if Rob Manfred stepped in front of the mic right now and said, hey, ABS is a but we're going to roll it out this season.

Would you want to be mad? Me personally, no, but there's a whole portion of baseball. Oh, Justin Turner couldn't be able to tap it. I'm just saying there's a whole generation of baseball fans, you would alienate by doing that. And I think they've towed that line really. Really, do you say, you were at Justin Turner's bingo? I thought you said Justin Turner plays bingo on the side. And I was like, that's mean.

It is a weird old connection. It's a little bit of, yeah. A Justin Turner bingo tournament, all-star weekend. You guys know who the ABS savant merchant is? No. Alejandro Kirk. Damning. The guy, not even that, though.

His body. Yeah. He is. His strikes on is tight. He's got it on the batting side and the pitching side and the can. And the catching stuff. Oh, he's got like a perfect game going. He's insane.

He's, it was nuts. I had to buy some stock. Aleja Kirk All-Star starter in 2026 because he has a 500 on base percentage because he's just walking all the time. I don't know, man. I think we're going to see a player ejected this year because I think they're just going to kind of mock the hump and tap their head. Which now baseball fans know is the international sign for you got that. You messed this up. I don't know, man.

I like that prediction a lot. I think you should, you know, I feel like, time stamp that. I just feel like we've gotten, now that the cat's out of the bag. I mean, their baseball, MLB, Uncle Robb is really, really making us want to implement it.

And it will be next year, if we're being honest. The one thing I'll say is that if I recall correctly, and I could be wrong, and I apologize if I am, but I think the only... Thank you for the pre-apology. Okay. I think the only Manfred rule change that didn't have a warm-up period and just was implemented were seven-inning double-headers, and everybody hated them in 2021. And I feel like... Right.

It's not the same. It's not the same kind of real-chit. Do you remember, though? How nuts was that? We blacked it out, and we all hated it when it was happening. No one liked the seven-in-dning double-heder. Right. but then we got rid of it.

And then we got rid of it. But I'm saying they don't want to run into that scenario again where they introduce a rule and then there's so much backlash that they have to remove it. Because that's a stain on their, you know, decision making, I guess. Yeah, I, uh,

I'm ready. I'm ready, man. I feel like, so we've had a couple funny moments in spring training. Like there was Trey Turner doing it just to Bug Sherser. That was fun. Um, do you have the job? Jazz one problem?

He pulled it up before you. Oh, my bad. I was not listening to you. Lock in, maybe. I don't know. But, yeah, I feel like players Jazz taps his head and just walks to first. Like, no, dude, that was off the plate.

I'll take my walk. Can't be wrong if you do that. Love that. It was closer than I thought it was going to be. But it's actually not. I mean, that all is low. Anything above, like, I'd say two is far. So that's around two.

I bet. Okay. But, yeah, I mean, because we did an episode daydreaming about how teams are going to use it, because we're like, hey, you can't, you don't want to burn your, you don't want to burn your two, and then you're in the eighth inning and you miss a massive call. I was, again, maybe I have been watching spring training. Austin Wells was leading off for the Yankees, which, by the way, the Yankees are going to have a lead-off catcher this year.

Get ready for the Jollyala video about that. As they're better. Okay. That was toxic. And you know. And you know that. It was the thumbnail from talking to the Yanx yesterday. Come on, I had to say something.

Austin Wells steps up to the plate, leading off the game for the Yankees. First pitch, ball called a strike, and he just goes, no. And it went from 0-1 to 1-0 to start the game. That's significant. That might turn into a walk and that might turn into a judge to her and Homer. I hear you. I do. I definitely hear you.

I don't know. It feels like you've, you've demoed the tech. I've seen it. It works. I'm wondering if there's... I'm wondering if there's more options or more problems with, like, setting up the technology to get it in all 30 stadiums and have it working properly is maybe more of the issue, which maybe it is or something like that.

Has ABS working in Sacramento? Maybe they just... Maybe it's already there, actually. It's a minor league stadium. I don't know. I don't know what's... I've never been to Sacramento. That's happening soon, by the way.

We're about to watch baseball games in Sacramento. I've been to a lot of America's, like, I'll say, second season. cities. Sacramento's a miss for me. I want to get out there. Because that's kind of where I thrive. I go to New York. I go to L.A.

You know, I'm a four out of ten. He's short. Can't read well. What's going on with his teeth? I go to the second cities. I'm a six and a half out of ten. I'm a sacto six and a half, baby. I don't know what to do.

Glad that's off my chest. Anything else with ABS? No, I think you nailed it on the head. I think it is ready, but I think there was no world where they would bring it in, you know, without foremost warning like a year ago. And I think this is how it's going to be. But I think it's a good thing if the fans and the players are longing for it. That means it's in the right place. There.

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Spets expire 168 hours after issuance. Four additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.com slash audio. All right, with, I don't want to say fake opening day before us. The Tokyo series, what's the right way to say? We debated this the other day. With the Tokyo series.

With the Tokyo series done, we have American opening day coming up. See, that sounds wrong. Patriot opening day. Yeah, okay, watch out. We have opening day coming up, basically in a week Thursday, March 27th.

We're getting opening day starters coming out. There's a few surprises. There's a ton of not surprises. And we've actually got our guy Dalton put together a sheet. Shout him out because I told him to give me some fun facts on the Tokyo series.

And I missed kind of all of them. If I'm just being, like, you know, Will Smith, the second player, reaching a game safely in four different different countries territories, joins Gary Sheffield. I didn't mention that before. But how do you work that in? I didn't work.

How do you work that in? Matt Shaw being the youngest Cubs player to make his MLB debut since Gary Scott in 91. That's good. I like this one. I could have said that. Showd us first four-walk game. I thought that was interesting. I think that is interesting.

Roki Sasaki threw it four seamers. threw them all on at the same time. Opening day starters, the guy making the most, Opening day starts Chris Sale Right this is his sixth The two guys with five jumped out to you Yeah they really did

The first one was Bereas On the Blue Jays I guess he got some for Minnesota That flew under my radar This one's not so much surprising Just a testament to how good his career has been Nate Evaldi He's getting his fifth opening day start

I mean he's played for like five or six different teams Funky career for Nate Dogg But like really cool Like just a cool story He's the guy that had Tommy John really early in his career and has come back and is not pitching in his age 35 season. So I thought that was really neat as well. One other guy, I'm really happy. And I want to, you know, give him his spotlight.

Louis Severino, his second career opening day start. I think his first was with your Yanks and 17 or 18, one of those years. It's been a long time coming. Yeah, at one point, you know, 2023, this guy called himself the worst pitcher in all of baseball. He bounced back last year. now he's the ace of the Sacramento A is a team that a lot of people are you know curiously excited for including me and is that going to be in Sacramento or am I or am they on the road

let me find out I don't have the A's schedule memorized yet okay I'll get there isn't it kind of like your gig your job yeah I know I've been slag they're away they're in Seattle damn it sorry it's okay you'd be a good start sorry there you go I like that for Sevi um there's another five timer out here that you would not guess from age, I guess just from age. Sure. Sandy is making his fifth career opening day start.

He's got to be on pace, I guess for a modern record, there's probably some old dogs that just started every opening day. Sandy's getting his fifth opening day start. Why I think that's important, I've now debated it with Treve a couple times that Trevor was like, Marlins, trade him now. I just think his value is going to boost when the world sees Sandy doing it again in games that count.

I think if Sandy gets out to his five-star, two-and-two record, a 190RA, I think for me, Vladdi Guerrero Jr. was going to be the trade storyline of the season, just because final year of the contract, tough division, the Blue Jays doing the will they won't they, can they keep him? Sandy might usurp him if the Blue Jays get off to a good start

And it's like, well, the Blue Jays are going to keep Vladdy They're going to ride this thing out That I think Sandy is going to be Arguably the most talked about trade candidate This year And opening day when everyone's watching We'll be live streaming A soup to nuts start to finish

Best day of the year That's one of those things that sticks to people I still remember Cubs legend Julian Meriwether had an amazing opening day outing. And I think that was like the end of this season, right? He threw like five innings that year. It's crazy. But it still resonates with me forever that I'm excited to see the Sandy man.

Yeah. Matt or Yankee, I forget. Okay, everyone turned it off. Toxic. Everyone just turned it off. That was too. No, I'm curious about Sandy. I mean, you know, I mentioned this last time we talked about him,

but, you know, Marlins traded Luis Arias in early May last year, late April. Right. It could happen. Like very quick. if a team finds a need and they need a proven guy at the top that's going to give you seven and a third every time he goes out.

So I'm happy to see Sandy back. That's definitely one of the cool ones on this list. There's a lot of first timers on this list. Michael King getting his first one. Mackenzie Gore getting his first one. Play Holmes. Also getting his first one. Sean Burke on the White Sox.

Not in my book. Go twirl it, kid. I'm not going to lie. I know of Davis Martin. I like Jonathan Cannon. Not super familiar with Sean Burke. You don't follow Sean Burke. I guess not.

The 25-year-old out of Worcester Mass. Good start today. University of Maryland, go Terps. Okay. MD. The Crabb-5. All Skeen's also getting his first opening start. Worth mentioning.

Yeah, and you know what? I'm going to give Perzinski another shout-out. Sean Burke, 19-80-pitch last year, a 14-2 ERA. So check it out. Out of the pan or starts? Yes. Three starts. Three starts.

Perzinski. We can be tough on broadcasters on that follow-up show that they wrote me in with. Good job, FS1. They were talking about the Paul Skeen's opening day video. I was going to reference this as well. They had the hidden camera and Sheltie and Skeens was surprised. Prisinski faded before I did and he nailed it. He was like, if we're having fun, if we're doing baseball the right way,

they should have told them someone else was getting the ball. Yes, I had the same thought. Damn, sorry, dude. No, it's okay. Dunked on by AJ Piersonson. But, like, that's, like, when he was, like, surprised. Yeah. It felt like, it felt like good Paul Skeen's acting, I thought.

But he knew he was the opening day starter since, like, July of last year. He's the opening day starter. Like, no disrespect to Mitch Keller, no disrespect to Jared Jones, but Paul Skeens is, like, he'll win Cy Young this year. He's, it's hard to believe. He's, yeah. That, yeah, I don't know. We love a nice moment.

and it's cool that this is on video. I guess for his first one would have been a little dick to be, to be like, hey, we're giving the ball. I think Piersinski said it would have been funny if they said they were giving it to Bubba Chandler, the new prospect of being like,

yeah, we like the way he's throwing it. Our most promising young pitcher. Like that would have been great humor. Again, there's a lot of personalities and different things involved. Tough for Bubba. Yeah.

Now he's in the mix. So I get why baseball teams normally play this stuff closer to the chest. But yeah, Paul Skeens is first, and we will, I'm going to guess we're going to see a few of those. Hey, if you're getting ready for your opening day binge, because next week I think we've got our betting episode, our annual favorite player props and everything like that, get some locks, get some knots.

What? And then I think we're doing a season, just like everything, season preview, picks and predictions. Remember when Trev perfectly predicted the 20s, Was that 21 season? Braves. Braves and 6 over Houston? It's nuts.

There's a plaque. Jake, do you remember when we both predicted the Siong from that year, too? Yeah. I mean, it's Ball Knower University. What we do. Ball knowers numero uno. Some people understand that. I think BK and you to go.

I think we're streaming all day. It starts at three, which. Oh, it's another one of those, yeah? Baseball. What happened last year? We got one. Start one of the games. Anyways.

Give us a 1 PM slate. What are we doing? I put Pirates Marlins at one so I can watch Skeens versus Sandy. That's incredible. Oh, that's going to be so fun. Oh, that's a great question. What's the best matchup? I guess he kind of named it.

But if you had to pick out another. I think it's that. I think it's that. That's baseball. Talk to us. We got you. Skeens versus Sandy is the 1 p.m. game? Do you know how electric that would be?

All the discussions about we need more starting pitchers in the game. We need, should we pull the DH when you pull your starting pitcher? This is the game. Pirates, Marlins, every general baseball fan you're trying to hook in. Seize that game on opening day, and I'm sorry to both these fan bases. Not a lot of juice. If I told you was Skeens versus Sandy, this should be one of the games of the day. Logan Webb versus Hunter Green's going to be fun

Garrett Crochet versus Nate Eivaldi is going to be fun We got plenty of good matchups here I wish they started a little earlier in the day That's fine Chris Sale versus King That's going to be a good one That hits a nice righty lefty court Eflin Berrios

I said nothing I said nothing And you said everything by saying nothing I said everything by saying nothing I mean Peralta rode on similar Like, similar. Hey, I'm the Yankees guy. Freddy throws cheese.

Freddy's nasty. Freddy's nasty. I was surprised. I don't think he's received Cy Young votes. I think he was in our Sy Young draft. That surprised me a lot. All right, people. Baseball's getting close.

God, that nightcap, Sevy v. Gilbert. Hubs D-backs on late, too. So, okay, baseball. 3 p.m. till midnight. I guess that's enough baseball. Terrick Scouble versus the Dodgers. That's going to be awesome. That's fun.

God. That's... Man, eight days. America's really going to be rooting for whoever's against the Dodgers. Philly's fan Shelfy looked at the Dodgers and was like, damn, I don't like them. Dude, last year the Betts quote got clowned a lot about playing us.

It's going to be like your team's World Series in the regular season. It's true. It's objectively true. And all eyes are going to be on the Tigers on that 7 p.m. slate. And that's currently working out for them. Yep. The undefeated Dodgers. Thank you to John.

Oh, wait. The Draft King, King of the week, goes to a professional sports player. Not a baseball player. In the Tokyo game, you might have saw this, you might have missed this. Our guy Rodney Pete, former quarterback, a big fan, his wife, they're both massive Dodger fans. I think they both kind of got mad at us last playoffs. Because why? Because we lost.

Holly Robinson, Pete. Rodney Pete makes the catch next to Muncie. Plays it cool, puts the glove behind the back. And yeah, that's the hutspa of a former pro quarterback making a play in Japan. It's probably had a huge week. Like he's probably been at every, like, Dodgers event or bumping around with all the ex-players. C.C. Griffey's in town. Yeah, I got mine.

That's not bad. That's the kind of catch someone makes where you know they're just like not a civilian. Like they got to be someone, you know? To catch it, find the back, kind of smirk, look around a little bit. That's cool. Baseball's back, people. Kind of in a week. I guess distract yourself this weekend.

We are with a lot of our Jam warehouse stuff. Go check it out. Thank you to Jolly Al. Thank you to Rob Chiracco. Trev, safe travels. I miss you so much. Fortnite. Chris Rose, maybe same plight?

First class. Jackson. Ben Casperius. What's his name? Jack Dreyer? He's got a good mustache. Looks good. We need more stash guys. See another?

His dad played major league baseball. That's cool. Of course. Everyone's second generation. That's cool. I think my dad played too