Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - HUGE Drama Happening Throughout MLB!

Episode Date: April 8, 2026

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Hello and welcome to talking baseball. We're getting physical. We got fights. We've got threats going on in baseball and a bunch of injuries. We're going to talk all of that and yuxem ball. Let's F or F. Rinaldo Lopez. Juan Uribe.

Wow. Some rumors about him. Hello. Welcome to talking baseball. Presented by Fanatics Markets, where fans trade on sports. Fanatics Markets. now on the app stores. I'm Jake Store Ely.

That is Trevor Plouf. It's going to be a hot one today. Because baseball, normally this is like that first hot week in May. The season's rolling. And you kind of get that first fight. And it's like, yeah, you know, that team's 10 under 500. They're looking for a spark. We're out here brawling April 8th.

Coach Trev, how are you? I'm doing well. Baseball's hot. John Boy is freaking busy right now. now he's got the john schneider stuff he's got the craig albernaz stuff he's he already put that out you got the brawes a lot of stuff happening around the league i'm excited to have like a yuckin ball type episode here i do have one kind of like we started off really hot there with the juan uribe yeah i do have like i got to like bring it back down a little sad if that's okay that's all right

my former uh triple a manager uh world series champ tom neetto Okay. Who was very, I liked him a lot as a manager. He passed away. I think of a heart attack. So, RIP Tom, and thank you for all the baseball knowledge.

He was the guy that first told me I was going to the big leagues, man. Wow. It's a big one. Yeah, tough. You know, it's kind of like sudden. I've had a few now freaking minor league coaches that have passed.

It's just, it's tough because they give a lot, those guys. They mean a lot to you. Life short people. Yeah. You know, a lot of scary stuff in the world. I guess we're covering all the topics early.

Enjoy the noise now. I was a little nervous at 7.15 p.m. last night. And it wasn't about the Yankees athletics game. We're not going to talk about a lot of that. But we're showing you our range on talking baseball. Like a young top prospect shortstop. 80 grade range on this show. We're going to talk about the brawl happened last night,

a pretty big one, actual punches thrown, which had me spinning in a ton of directions. You're right. You know, John Boy and the breakdowns. A ton of people were reaching out about the Contreras situation with him and the Brewers because he, you know, all-star catcher Wilson Contreras said he's going to take someone out if he gets hit again.

so you don't hear that a lot on a baseball field. We've got a slide involved in it. I don't know. So we had a couple hot ones that we want to talk about that. And then there's some significant injuries, man. It's one of the biggest things as we go through the season that we try to ignore because you just want the ball to sort itself out. But, hey, I think if the Cubs were playing a playoff series

and before the season we said, who are going to be their one, two in the rotation. It might have been Horton and Boyd, and they're both out right now. Hunter Brown for Houston, Verlander. So there's a few more. Connor Griffin got paid, so we're going to hop around the league a little bit.

But first we're going to get, jump right into the action, just like your guy, Walt Weiss did. Good form tackle from 62-year-old Walt Weiss on Jorge Soler. Trev, I'll tee it up for you if people don't know. Braves Halos last night, rivalry game. Both teams would be in the playoffs as of today. That's why things are hot.

And man, Reinaldo Lopez lets one fly high. Jorge Saler has great career numbers off Lopez. Jorge Saler hit a homer earlier in the game off of Lopez. He got hit by a pitch earlier in the game off of Lopez. Yeah. Ball goes to the backstop. So Lair's staring. So Lair starts walking and we get some actual punches thrown. A nice little baseball. I mean, is this, I don't want to say best case scenario for a baseball brawl, but nobody really gets hurt. Some real punches thrown. Go on and keep playing ball. Yeah. I mean, like both guys kind of stood on business. Lopez was backpedaling kind of the entire time.

so that doesn't look great. He held the baseball, which was interesting to me. But I think we need to start at the beginning again. You mentioned those good numbers. And I mean, that's kind of, that's where things as a hitter, you start to say, that's a little fishy right there. 14 for 23. That's a 609 average, a two-daughter OPS.

Three doubles, five homers against 11 runs driven in. So, yes, hits a homer. Right there we're looking at it, kind of like a screaming line drive down the left field line. That's early in the game. The following a bat gets hit, like not too high, but up in the wrist area, which is obviously very dangerous. And then that bat before the brawl takes a big swing on a pitch. The following pitch is up near the head. And like that's just, it sends alarms signals.

like even if we're watching right now and we say hey Ronaldo Lopez wasn't throwing at him you know we can tell that when you're a hitter in the heat of battle like that and it's up near your head after all the things we just talked about like you get pissed off

I don't know how else to say other than that it's like dude like come on like get me out and what Wai said after the game which I love from him because he's a hitter he said I'll never let my guys throw at somebody because they can't get them out. Our job is to get people out. So with all that being said, do I think Lopez was throwing at Solair last night? I don't think so.

But again, it's one of those situations where it's like, I've tried everything, can't get this guy out. Let's just rear back, maybe throw as hard as I can or I'll just let one lose and see what happens. And like, that's like, I hate that that's part of baseball because just because you're good against some. somebody shouldn't put you in danger, right? Correct. And that's, I think kind of what you're saying, and we talk about this with intentionally throwing at or not intentionally throwing at,

it's, I think those pitches by Rinaldo Lopez, you know, whether it's baseball or golf or whatever it is, you kind of have to know where your miss is. And I think for Rinaldo Lopez, he wasn't willing to miss over the plate anymore, because he knows what happens when he misses over the plate.

that when he's throwing those balls, he's like, well, if it sails on me, that's going to be Jorge Soler's business, which, hey, as I preview the episode and we're talking about injuries and how much they can affect teams as they go, 96 to the hands, 96 to the head, like, that's scary stuff. So, yeah, I wouldn't say Soler is necessarily in the wrong, and you're absolutely, I mean, the fact that you have to, Walt Weiss has to answer the thought process of, hey, So Lair crushes that guy is their intent there. Yeah, it's not a great look for Lopez, who off to a great start this season. But that's not what we're talking about right now.

Imagine, let's just go other sports. Like, let's go golf because we just brought it up. Imagine if, like, you're a guy and like, I don't know, maybe you're playing like skins or match play, whatever it is. And you just, you know you have this guy's number. let's call him, let's call him Jake. I got Jake's number on the golf course. Right. Right.

Let's pretend it's a Trevor and a Jake, just for example's sake. And Jake's mad at me because I'm just beating him all the time. And all of a sudden you decide to hit like a low stinger right by my like cart or, you know what I mean? Like that's what's going on right now. Buzz the tower a little bit. Just bust the tower, you know, put a little fear into me. So like, you know, we were talking about this. at least I was online the other day

who else got hit? Oh, Contrars, which we'll get into. And I'm like, dude, how can you not be on his side 24 times? People mention that he leans over the plate, whatever it is. But it just, it gets frustrating as a hitter

because what are you supposed to do, man? Like, what are you supposed to do? That's not, I don't know. It's part of the game. I understand that. I wish it wasn't. or I wish there are more repercussions. I keep saying that and I don't know what they would be for the pitcher.

Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what comes out of this. I guess part of me doesn't care and part of me the league is so flipping with it. And for starting pitchers, like, I don't know. I think Lopez is going to get suspended for this. He gets kicked out of the game. And for starting pitchers, normally you have to suspend them for like nine games to make it hurt because that's the equipment.

of suspending them. I don't know if he gets suspended for this. I mean, So Lair charged the mound. True. And he didn't hit him that there was no warning. What was holding the baseball about, huh? I don't know. I don't know about that tactic.

I think he was going to throw the ball and then decided not to. And then, yeah, that was, I was, when I first saw the highlight, I was watching, like, oh, did he let go? the ball at all and then you see him at the end still with it. Hey, is maybe that 300 IQ pitcher stuff? Because we get mad when pitchers hit with their throwing hand.

I don't think, I think that's the other way. That's low IQ. Why does he want that in his hand? I think it's even worse. Yeah, I don't know. I've never hit someone while holding a baseball. It's like a brass and knuckle situation. I don't know. I don't know if it helps him or hurts him. I think that's a fascinating side of this.

I don't know. And it seems to me like he wanted to throw it. And then I was like, ah, I should just punch him. You throw that ball. Do you throw that ball? I'm saying a lot of different things about Ronald Lopez. Can't throw that ball. No, I'm throwing a word.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, kind of tough. We're not talking a little more. Rinaldo Lopez, who 30 career games with the Braves now, 156.1 innings, a 2.01 ERA. That's kind of, yeah. That's kind of sick. Two big boys going out.

And there was a lot of like old teammate stuff because Lopez on the angels, Salare, all in the Braves. Yeah. So that's, I think an important part of this, if you're wondering what are some of the next steps. Hey, Walt Weiss, go look at the baseball reference.

It's a little bit of some old school shortstop stats on there. but Walt Weiss was out there playing ball for a lot of years. Yes, well, Weiss has been a bench coach, or he's been part of the Braves organization since 2017. I just got the starting gig. And if you remember, Soler was part of the crew that all those outfielders, they got traded over and helped the Braves win the World Series in 21. He came back in 24 and went nuts again for Atlanta,

that him and Lopez were teammates on that overlap. And then I think from there, Walt Weiss tackles Jorge Soler, which 62-year-old Walt Weiss in his playing days listed 6-foot 175. The numbers could have shaken a little bit on either end there. A nice form tackle on Jorge Soler, who he has quotes afterwards saying, like, he was kind of happy with this situation. He said, we have a good relationship. He wasn't trying to do anything.

I think he was just trying to protect me. So that's, Walt White's kind of a massive winner in this. Yeah, so that's where I get a little fuzzy on this one, because, like, he's protecting him, but he tackled him. I get that he wants to, like, stop the altercation, but he also spear tackled. Right. So, I mean, am I impressed by it?

Yeah, actually. Yeah. Like, nice job. Brought, like, that's a big man. He brought down to the ground. I'm also like, shouldn't like managers just stay out of the way when this stuff happens? I'm trying to put myself in that situation in a manager's shoes and be like, what would I do? I feel like you go to the other manager and you start whatever you want to do there.

Yeah, I see what you're saying. And we've seen that in some of these. Sometimes the managers lock horns and that can be, I guess that to me has a bigger risk of being a loss. If you end up squaring up with the other 62-year-old guy and you lose. If Walt Weiss goes in the mix here and he just gets tossed Don Zimmer, it's just like, yeah, dude, you're 62 and Jorge Soler looks like, like if Jorge Soler showed up in a UFC ring, you'd be like, yeah, I might pick him. Like he's, he looks, he's a beast.

Then I don't know, Walt Weiss at that kind of, I think as you start getting older, you still have your strength, you just basically, you get one spurt. Like this was Walt Weiss's one shot. And he made it count. Credit to Walt. After the game, they said there was substantial bruising on, like, one of his hands. Yeah, man. It happens quick at that age.

Yeah, dude. Yeah, like, very easily, Soler could have seen out of the corner of his eyes someone trying to spear him and, like, brought, like, a knee up or, like, sucked him in the face. Yeah, I was thinking about, like, you know, the Pedro Martinez, Don Zimmer thing, because that's pretty much exactly what Don Zimmer tried to do to pay. Pedro saw him and just kind of went like this to him. Which was almost, I don't want to say more appropriate. Like Pedro was like, I'm not dealing with this. I mean, Don Zimmer, I'm literally Googling. At that point in time, I thought Don Zimmer was 130 years old.

He must have been, I mean, he was in his 70s. Don Zimmer age, I guess in 2003. Daltz flashing a lot of numbers, 73. 72. Okay. 72 and 62 are different. Yeah, they are. They're significant.

I've heard that 70s the age, we're like, fuck. Yeah, I, okay, I'm, I'm, look at hot Manny Ramirez pissed off. Hey, pitchers, be careful. You're throwing a hard rock. Pictures don't care. Because guess what? What's going to happen to them? Absolutely nothing.

Oh my gosh, I can't believe that. That was so good. That was insane. I'm not defending, Pete. I guess no, let's do this. What's Pedro's? Did he grab him by the ears? Kind of, which you don't love that. And he throws him down. So that's, that's the problem. But what are you supposed to?

Don Zimmer's charging at you. I think Pedro was like, what? And just did exactly what he needed to do. And then he backed away. Like, he didn't go for the kill. You know, you can knock a guy down in the UFC. Go for the end. I mean, if Pedro jumps on Don Zimmer there,

That's 162 games. You're out, bro. Man. What a sport, huh? We had a great, Rose and I were talking about all, like, the brawls that, like, you know, we remember from, you know, just our generation. He talked about a few.

I'm like, what the hell are you talking? It's like, the Padres versus the Reds. I'm like, yeah. Yeah, who can forget? It was a big one. There used to be massive fights. It's just not, I didn't see it, Chris. Well, the one, the thing that,

is crazy. And the NBA has this, although now they've made their fighting rules so stingy that you see one a year and it's like their crazy storyline. In baseball and basketball, they used to brawl and then nobody got ejected.

And it was just like, yeah, keep playing, boys. Which part of me, part of me does miss that. Like, I don't know. I did too. Like, if it was just like baseball related, like a hard slide or yeah, like someone gets hit, someone gets hit on accident but it's pissed about it like all right do your thing and then let's

continue with this game right i mean a good like if a pitcher's in the brawl and then they got to get back on the bump and start throwing i know this is podre's braves is that what that is who can forget 13 ejections you go well he said it went like 30 minutes Chris rose was at this game um maybe right like i can't rule it out um get jo tory not scared of male pattern baldness there. I always forget how good of a player Joe Tori was. Yeah. MVP? Like, I would guess the wars in the 50s or something like that.

Yeah, he's definitely. In my mind, he's just the old manager of the Yankees. And now what is he like the rules commissioner or something? Yeah, he's he's Joe Tori. I need to respect Joe Tori. What was it? Respect Joe Tori, dude. What are you doing?

I mean, like, I respect him, but, like, I need to respect him more than I do. Remember there was something that happened with a controversial play when it in 2020 or something, and everyone was mad at Joe Torrey for a rules thing? What was that? I don't know. My memory's not good. Well, I guess anything else you need to wrap up on this Braves Halos matchup.

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Check it out online. Limited collection. So once it's gone, it's gone. And 15% off your next in-store headware or apparel purchase by texting Jamboy to 29017. That's Jomboy to 29017. I do think it segues well into our next topic, which is Wilson Contreras versus the brewers

and kind of empty threats, or maybe not an empty threat. I guess we don't know if it's an empty threat yet. Yeah, right? That was the appeal of last night. I'm actually really curious to hear your side on this, and I'll bring us in there, Jake. Oh, let me let me handle this one.

Yeah. Wilson Contreras, used to be a member of this. the Chicago Cubs, who obviously play the Brewers a lot during the regular season because they're in division. He gets hit a lot. There's no doubt about it. There are times where he does hang over the plate a little bit. He's got the elbow guard, uses it to his advantage. There's no doubt about that.

But there are times also like that that we're showing where he just gets stuck in the back. He's been hit by the Brewers 24 times in 120 games. six alone he handed the ballback right there by Brandon Woodruff so it's a lot it's a lot dude it's a lot again he's just one of those guys it's kind of he doesn't stand particularly close to the plate and he does kind of lean but it's not like

people were trying to tell me like oh my god have you seen how much he leans over the plate like every once in a while I've seen the elbow go out but it's not like egregiously close That's not like Anthony Rizzo on the plate. Like, it's just kind of like normal. Am I wrong about that? Yeah, I think there's a couple things going on here. I think, you know, he dives in a little bit.

It does not feel egregious. You see him wearing the big elbow pat. I mean, I think his biggest problem is the scouting report is very clearly up and in on him. Like, if you're one of those guys that leans over the plate, I mean, Rizzo was a sick puppy. still is. A lot of ads for Rizzo right now. Yeah, he's all over the place. Collecting after the game.

What's up with, what's that of people? Like, he's, the guy's so loaded. Right. This is the same way, like Tom Brady, like, why do you have to get more money? Like, leave some for the rest of the, why do you got to be on the ad? I hear what you're saying.

Brady's a whole other conversation. Brady needs the freaking stop. Rizzo has always liked the spotlight, like Rizzo did S&L after the Cubs won. Rizzo wanted a little New York after. Like Rizzo's always, and dude, he checks every box. Like the stuff he does with like the children's cancer and stuff like that. Like Rizzo's always, he's always been about it that for me, that's like, yeah, dude, keep rolling with it.

Even I think he's got a commercial with Blake Griffin now that it's like, yeah, Blake Griffin was always kind of that guy in basketball. But yeah, they have, for me, it's, if you have that amount of money, as long as you're doing what you want to do, like the one that blows, Albert Pujol shows up sometimes at MLB Network, and I'm like, what are you doing, Bapo? He's bored.

I know, and they like getting a little, if you like attention, you like attention. And, you know, when Albert Pujol shows up at MLB Network, he's a religious figure that I get it. But I think Albert Poulos could show up anywhere and do that, that I don't know. I guess if you're one of our rich and famous former players that listen, let us know what you're up to.

Yeah, Tre. I mean, this one runs deep. You get, I understand both sides of it. Oh, and I guess where I was going with that speech is like, Rizzo was willing to get hit and loved getting hit. Like Rizzo, it used to blow my mind when he'd get hit by a pitch. He wouldn't flinch at all, and he'd just start walking a first. Kind of like I won the war.

He was kind of being the bigger man in the situation. And sometimes he was on the plate. I've seen strikes hit Anthony Rizzo. Contreras, it sucks for him that the way for him to be a great baseball player is to have his approach. And pitching up and into him isn't like a weakness. Teams clearly think that's how you can get him out. That, yeah, he's got some serious hit by pitch numbers. He led the league in 2020 in a 60-game season.

He got hit 14 times. that yeah, it's a weird one for me because I think the Brewers are kind of on the other side being like, honestly, we're not trying to hit them. But I do think if the Brewers had a ball player that got hit that amount of times by a single team, they'd be like, hey, don't hit our bleeping guy. That's exactly what I said.

Because Yelly kind of had like a funny take on it. He goes, we've seen that skit for 10 years. Yeah. Which is good. but I said, Yelly, like if you got hit 24 times by a team six times by one pitcher, you probably would be like,

ah, fuck that guy. I think so. Right. I think so. Dude, I mean, I have, I have a past with hit by pitches. So, like, I, if I wasn't already completely on the hitter side,

which you know I am, pretty much about everything, because pitchers are just absolutely ridiculous creatures. You know, add into the fact that, yeah, I broke a rib. I missed time. I lost money because some idiot pitcher who I found out years later hit me on purpose for something that happened months before.

There was not out of my control. I didn't do anything. Like that's where I mean, you know where my head's at. Yeah. The interesting part of all this, obviously is Wilson's brother William is behind the plate for the brewers. And after he,

this all went down. Wilson said, the next time I get hit, I'm taking one of their guys out. Haven't heard one of those in a while. And you just wonder, what does that mean? Because I said, well, if Mizorowski hits him the next day, what do you do? Like, you have to go, you have to charge the mound. You either drop kick your brother or you charge the mount. Those are your two options.

After you say that, you've got to be a man of your word, right? Yeah, and I think it's the pitch. Oh, though a good brother's catcher scrap. My God. Keep everyone else outside of it and just let them sort it out. I've been trying to like formulate like something I think is half funny, half serious about like if a pitcher just like goes over a certain amount of hit by pitches, like something should have happened to them.

I don't think a fine is enough. Like I would love if a pitcher, um, you know, with, in like a two-star radius hits four people. Like, I think they should have to get out on the field with a jugs machine and just wear it fastball. You had me and then you lost me. Why? I mean, I feel like we're...

What else is there? You tell me what... I feel like we've tried to advance as a society to try to get away from that. Let me tell you something. That is advancing right there. I guess where I thought you were going, and I actually had my interest piqued,

was in the NBA, they have, you know, you get a certain amount of technical fouls and you start running into the suspensions. I think it's 16 or something like that. And then every two texts, you get suspended a game, like the famous Dramon one in the postseason. I think Luca gets there kind of every year. I don't know. If you're a pitcher, like maybe there should be a hit by pitch thing that if you exceed a certain amount, whether it's in a time frame or a game or, you know, that would make pitchers

and then you get suspended for a certain amount of games or something like that. That would certainly make pitchers think about it more. And hit by pitches aren't good for the sport. Like you said, you know, I hope there's a couple people that are listening that are like, it affected your career, your livelihood, getting hit by a pitch. I know it's very easy for us that, especially when you're in fan mode, if one of your guys gets hit and then they hit another guy in the hip on the other team, you go, fuck yeah.

let's go this is baseball well you know when when your favorite player gets hit in the wrist and they're out for the season that doesn't feel like baseball um that i don't know i i would be like at least there used to be a chance that a starting pitcher would have to wear one right in the national league at least um even though that did not happen because there's some sort of unwritten rule about that there's always the other team's good hit that got hit. Yeah. Yeah, I just, it just, you got to have some accountability, man.

Oh, what I, well, I can't command the inner part of the zone. Yeah, command it. Don't just let it loose up there.

And if you can't command the inner part of the zone, don't throw it there. Or go down to AAA and figure it out. Right. Like, I don't know, man.

It would be like, if a, think about this, because Wilson Contreras later in that game went in, quote unquote hard to second base imagine if you're a base runner and like every time you go on a second base in today's game you just go and late and spikes up I just can't control it right

people would be like uh buddy slide better like what are you talking about that's like if a guy that a pitcher that's constantly going up and in and hitting people uh that's the same mentality like what what are you talking about then don't then you can't do it you're not allowed to do it then Yeah. I want to know who hits the most people per year. Dalt, you got to look that up. I don't know how you find that out. Hitchers who have hit the most batters. Okay, we'll get Dalt live with that on the fly. Hitter-wise since 2020, only two guys have been hit more than 100 times. It's Ty France and Wilson Contreras.

Yes. So not an ideal list, but get that OBP up, fellas. Ty France. I mean, Ty France is like an Anthony Ariszo where he's fine. Yeah. That's like part. Ty France's game plan. Hit by pitch is a win. Wilson Contraer's like, dude, I can hit the ball really well. Just please don't hit me.

And yeah, for me, I see both sides of the arguments. Like you said, you and I, we've got more connections with the Brewers and the Red Sox that the Brewers are, they're playing the baseball card. Like, hey, we don't, I don't want to put, we don't want to put Wilson Contreras on base. We'd rather get them out the Brewer's way. And it's like, well, I get that, but you're also, you hit them a lot. And you're right. Like, there's, hey, there is some simple math here that, okay,

Wilson Contreras also gets hit by other teams around the league. Wilson Contreras has been on the Cubs and the Cardinals, so that means you're going to play the Brewers a lot. But yeah, man, I, if there was, I think you and I try to think about the other people, Tref because that's who we are. Yeah, if the Brewers had a player that got hit 24 times, six times by the same hit, I think they'd be hot. I think they'd be hot.

You defend your team, essentially. That's kind of what's going on here. You defend your guys and you'll go to lengths that you probably wouldn't go to if they're on your team. We're looking right now hit by pitch per season for pitchers. it's around 19 to 20 is what leads the league every single year yeah doesn't look like anybody's like egregiously hitting guys this severino last year was 16 hunter green the year before with 19

j p cers 19 nickledolo 19 just going back in years now Austin Adams is kind of an outlier a 24 in 2021 and then if you go combine through 21 through 25 it's the salt man Charlie Morton at 70 it's just and you don't think Charlie Morton's hitting guys on purpose it could have been one or two in there

or be like I'm going to go inside and if one slips oh well yeah that's a that's let me tell you something right now a guy like Charlie Morton I know the era of baseball that he first came up in guarantee 20 of those

was like kind of on purpose I'm going to let that fastball run and see what happens. Yes. I see what you're saying. Yeah. Hey, in the comments,

people love rules and new ideas. If you've got a, I don't know if a pitcher had a hit by pitch limit per month or something like that, I'm interested. Like we don't, one of my first talking baseball takes. People are, people are going to just call us all sorts of names.

Brewer's fans were all over me. Have you ever watched? Wilson Contrera is hit him like, yes, dude. Yeah. Yes, I have. I understand there are times where he's over the plate, but like, it's not all the time. Don't hit him. Don't hit him. You can hit him. 24 times is a lot.

Seems like a lot. What was I going to say? Yeah, I don't know. I think there's one of my first takes that people didn't like. By the way, I think it's starting to inch closer and closer. I've seen more pitchers doing it. if you hit a guy, no, nowhere I wouldn't have to think about rules. Give a little my bad. Yeah.

That helps a lot. That helps a lot. Genuinely. And sometimes pitchers do it. And I have a ton of respect for those guys because that ball is hard. We're throwing it 90 plus miles per hour. And if you're genuinely, if you're going to do the whole post game after the game and say, yeah, I'm not trying to hit that guy in the situation.

Well, guess what? Do a little my bad. Because if you're out here competing, I'd have a much higher level of respect for that. But it's their day, Jake. Don't give a shit. It's their day. I can't. I got to be fired up.

It's my day. I can't show any weakness. Shut up your day. I can't. I can't with starting pictures. I can't, dude. Every time I try to get back in and have, you know, some sort of. sort of like sympathy or empathy for starting pitchers.

I think about like what their job is. They're supposed to win. The numbers are heavily in their favor. Even when they stink on a given day, they're still winning more than they're losing. And then they only play once every five days, sometimes once every six days. And they get paid a lot.

And it's their day. Meanwhile, I'm sitting in the hot corner, watching you walk dudes and getting balls hit 114 at me because you can't figure it out. Right. I'm playing every day. Every day. And you just get to hit me because, oh, one got away. Okay.

Oversshadowing. Red Sox getting a much needed wind and their losing streak. Story with the big 2 RBI double. Crocevers Misarowski. And here we are talking about hit by pitches. And Trev, I know you've had our race. radar up since we had skip on the program. D.L. Hall with 2.1

shut piece following Ms. Red Sox get a much needed win. Bullpen looks good. Not the story at all. And I think the bigger thing, Wilson Contreras, Venezuelan. It's the year of Venezuela. Yeah, he actually went, what do you go? One for two with two walks last night after you didn't get hit. Two people did get hit in the game.

And it was one, the bases loaded. I think it was Hamilton, who was like, what did I do? Yeah, he's in this old former brewer. Now Red Sox. He was also in the sliding play. No, former Red Sox now Brewer. Excuse me.

Yeah, he's wondering. He's wondering how to. He's wondering how did he get in the mix with this? He's like, I'm not charging Garrett Crochet. No, it's not going to happen.

I'm going to take one of them out. Okay. Okay. Well, luckily for them, it's, they don't play each other. I think in other leagues, in other sport leagues, that would be a fine, right?

If you're in the post game saying, I'm going to take one of them out. Dude, baseball is in such a sweet spot right now. We got a lot of stuff going on, man. Today's episode is sponsored by Rocket Money. Organizing your finances can feel like trying to sort through the clubhouse after a 14 inning game. There's a lot going on.

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And if you spot a subscription you don't want anymore, Rocket Money gives you the ability to cancel it right in the app with just a few taps. Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at RocketMoney.com slash talking. That's rocketmoney.com slash talking. Let's talk a little more ball, coach. And we were wondering what we're going to talk about today. couple hot ones off the rip.

I mentioned the injury things a few times. I don't have to lay it out. You guys, if you're listening to this part of the show, you know, injuries affect your team. The two, well, there was a couple big ones. Cade Horton, who, you know, if you're doing a sneaky sigh young pick, I know Cubs fans almost getting frustrated when we talk about the Cubs because they're like, did you guys not see what Cade Horton did?

We did. I think there's an unfortunate thing in this sport, right now that if someone breaks out on the scene, especially pitcher-wise, you almost get nervous about what the next couple years can look like for them. Kate Horton, you get the right forearm update. And then there was two hours there where the update was that the MRI was just not good, which it's like, okay, that feels like it's not good.

Season ender, Tommy John? We're not sure. It's Tommy John or the alternative, like the break. Right. But he's out for the season. And then, you know, as I mentioned, a little kicker on that. Matthew Boyd, Team USA. So if you wanted to start doing some of that,

hopeful to return in two and three weeks. But for a pitcher, that can also, you know, if that turns into rehab time, that can turn into a month really quickly. That Cubby's down bat. So I guess let's start there before I start going into Hunter Brown and Kirk and some of the other injuries. I mean, obviously it sucks for K. You just came onto the scene like a fireball last year, start of the year strong.

Interesting, you know, kind of like going through. It's, it's, you know, put this out, something about, gosh, it was it him or was it Kate Horton now? And I hope I don't get him confused. Oh, I think it was Hunter. I think you're about to talk about Hunter Brown. About like the injury. Yes. That's okay.

It was Hunter Brown. Yeah. Well, I was going through, just looking at mechanics. You know, I don't know. I mean, I don't really know. all the biomechanics. But Kate Horton does do the thing that a lot of guys are doing now where he comes out of his glove and like the arm, the hand doesn't drop.

It kind of comes out here, elbow stays up. Like Lucas G. Alito started doing that. And he started having a lot of success with it. I believe it was a big driveline thing. Yeah. I mean, it's something about loading the scap and taking some pressure off the elbow and using more of like your mass. People are like, that's wrong, Trevor, whatever.

I was just kind of looking at the mechanics and his look clean too man and he's not like a high effort guy and it just goes to show you that it's it sucks to say it but it's it's starting to be like it is inevitable like the way guys are throwing and training now I'm assuming that's what it's from

and really trying to rip every single off speed pitch down like it seems like it's inevitable for a pitcher like it's going to happen at some point. That's like a, don't you feel like that's a sad state of where we're at as far as pitching? Like as great as these guys are now, as great as they are,

some of the most pure, beautiful stuff coming from these starting pitchers is like, it feels like it's inevitable for them to either get Tommy John or this internal brace procedure. It's, I don't know how you fix it. Well, we'll be talking about.

this, I mean, maybe until the end of time, because it's a, the loop doesn't have an answer. Because you got to throw your best pitches. Otherwise, you're not making it to the league. And then, yeah, I don't think teams super care. I think they pretend to care. But like, I don't know. Well, pitchers don't care. Pitchers are like, yeah, like, I will take that chance. Yeah, you have to. If you want to be successful at your gig, uh, that, yeah, there's, there's, there's no talking any starting pitcher if you have the ability to throw 98 to be like, hey, well, why don't you throw 93 mile per hour sinker ballers and that'll keep you healthy? Well, you might not be in the league.

And then, again, I don't think teams care because if these guys do get hurt, I think it helps control the money and the financial burden a little bit. And now to get through the minor leagues, you kind of need to be throwing 94-95 plus that, Yeah, it's a never-ending loop. And so you mentioned that the injury, and we need to phrase this, right, because we definitely won't and that'll get us mad because I saw Eno in his own replies trying to defend it.

Okay, the smart people are trying to figure out how can we track injuries or hopefully keep a better timeline on it. Hunter Brown had, so Eno's original tweet, Hunter Brown was an A-health-grade guy. Throws the ball hard, but otherwise seemed like a clean bill. Only of a handful of guys had better health grades pre-season. So what does that mean?

It means they're trying to find a way to track health. It means it's a measurement, I would assume, of your throwing dynamics. The biggest thing, the number one indicator, is previous injury history. and I think Hunter Brown up until this point had had that. So, and I guess that's where things start to get really scary, Trev, because we did this last year. Brother Jeff Passon had an article that talked about high schoolers and college kids. The injury rate is way up.

And if the injury rate is way up there, that means the injury rate is going to be way up going forward that, yeah, man, it's an interesting time because I don't know, I don't have a solution for that. I think we're going to spin our tires on it every year. Every year we're going to see the new guys come up in these absolute freak shows. Mizorowski, Cam Schlittler for my Yanks, throwing three types of fastballs. Two of them are 99 miles per hour.

There isn't a solution. And, yeah, Treve, if we look at, when we look at the best teams in baseball every year, if they only have five starting pitchers going into a season, Even if they're good, we're like, yo, this team, this team is, like we would say we're scared for them. And that's something about that just feels wrong. Looking right now, I mean, I just Google this. 36% of all active majorly baseball pitchers have undergone Tommy John surgery.

So not a majority, but that number has continued to rise year over year over year. And yeah, we're not here to offer solutions on it. it is ever if you follow the game you understand it is just truly a part of a pitcher's like forecast like literally saying like yeah it's probably going to have to do something i mean coming out of high school or the draft excuse me like teams know like yeah we're probably going to have to do you want to just get it done now like there's been times where that's happened which is kind of crazy you know going back to like the cubs and where does that leave them i think they're Obviously, it sucks not having them, but they're better suited to handle this than a lot of teams.

I mean, now that Edward Cabrera trade, you know, Owen Casey's a great player. I think he's going to do great things in this league. But the Cubs are in a win now window, and Edward Cabrera surely helps that out. He's looked great. You know, Shoda, his last start against the Guardians looked really good. Legs look healthy. So you got him. You still have Tyone.

You had Javier Assad in the minors. He came up and pitched against Tampa last night. It looked really good. You and him never been in the same room. never seen it. Colin Ray was already up, like a swing man roll. So they have guys that have thrown big league innings that can get the job done that are going to be able to help

when Boyd is out and obviously now Horton's out. They'll get Boyd back. Justin steals on his way back in May. What does he look like? We'll see. But they're, because of the moves they made, they're better suited, I think, to weather this storm than the Astros without Hunter Brown.

Yeah, I guess something I want to watch going forward is that the team construction part of it is just very interesting. Like right now, my Yankees have Ryan Yarborough and Paul Blackburn in their bullpen. And those were insurance pieces because they already had other injuries that, you know, if you needed to give those guys a start, you feel okay with it because they're major leaguers. Aaron Savali on the other side just got signed by the A's before the season. I think guys like him are going to become more and more valuable. That if you're in a tight spot, the cubbies you just mentioned it, Colin Ray, who he's been for them,

I think those guys value-wise going forward, those are going to be the wins. If you're one of these, I don't want to say old dog pitchers, but if you're an old dog pitcher who you can get through the season, give the team 11 starts if you need to, slide into the bullpen, I think those guys are going to become more and more valuable. and we've also already seen the guys coming into the season who are hurt. Matthew Boyd a couple years ago.

Who's our guy, Alex Cobb? Remember when he was just getting contracts and it was like, hey, Alex Cobb's coming back. I don't, when that sinker's right, watch your hands. Sorry, Wilson Contreras. But like, I don't know. I just think team construction has had to change as part of that. And I guess where I do get a little worried as we talk about the depth

throughout baseball and some of these lower market teams trying to compete. Pitchers is where the depth starts to get thin pretty quickly that, okay, if these better teams have to juice their pitching departments, I don't know who's going to be throwing the pill for some of these other guys. At the same time, I just mentioned Savali look good for the A's last night. So that's his opportunity. Lucas G. Lito is just like out on boats, I think. What's not?

I don't know. Maybe you've done. He looks happy. Yeah, like, maybe he's just like, I found happiness. Or he's just like, hey, Braves, Renaldo Lopez about to get suspended? Where are you at? Wouldn't mind him, having him on my side during a fight. Right.

You're a massive individual. Long. I was going to say something, and now I lost my train of thought. You want me to distract you even further, or you want to focus for yourself? No, it was something about pitchers and, you know, what is. you talk to the leading indicator of future injury is previous injury. I think after that, what they're really trying to hone in on during the game is like stress. Yeah.

And, you know, VLO is a good indicator of that. You start to dip down. That's an indicator of stress and you need to get them out. I'm curious if wearables are going to start being more and more the norm. and like is there something that's going to come out that you can somehow tap into that ligament or somewhere else in your arm where it's like real time data like that's got to be coming soon. I'll vibe code it right now if you want me to Hage League Baseball. Don't like you saying those words. I do know. Yeah, I know there's companies already like working

on that and then it's just how good is it? What can it really track? And what's like, When's a pitch too early? When's a pitch too late? And how much is it affecting the game? Because I don't, I think some of it will never know, man. I just, here we go. What, 47 minutes in, the human body's a mystery. That's what I'll say.

Yeah, I love the human body. I know you do. Love it. All this training we've been doing that's like made pitchers better. We know so much more about the body, yet the injury skyrocket. Like, where's the trade-off? You know what the trade-off used to be? The crazy, the science we have now,

the science used to be the mentality of, hey, dude, you can't throw as hard as you can every pitch because your arm will fall off. And we've gotten away from that. Like, guess what, the pitchers? They try to locate your pitches. The pitchers in the 90s used to be able to throw a little harder. They just didn't do it every pitch.

And now- No, true. It really is like the bottom line. But you won't get noticed. That's a part of the problem. Yeah. You know what? And people are so that's this old school.

You guys don't know your time? No, it's not, dude. That is, that is like the truth. Like sometimes you've got to talk to these old guys. They don't speak in the best terms. And sometimes they get really annoying these old ballplayers. I understand that. But there is still a wealth of knowledge there.

You can't just completely discard what these guys are saying. You can't. Everyone's like, I can't believe you used to run polls and run. That's not, and do long distance, that's not going to get you strong. It's like, well, I don't know. It kind of worked. I guess it kind of worked. For me, it used to be the, remember how many snaps Justin Verlander used to get?

Because it'd be like, you know, in the early innings, he throws 94, 95. But when he needs to get a big out late, he'll throw harder. Whoa! I used to hate that about him. I know you did. Gas me up with 98 above the hand. Sorry. He ever hit you though?

94 and below, people. Did he ever hit you? I didn't get hit a lot. Dalt's on it. You were away from the plate. I had an open stands. I knew how to get it. I didn't wear it gear.

That's so dumb. No, I couldn't do it, dude. So I got out of the way of pitches. Zero hit by pitches, Verlander to you. I mean, why would he hit me? He would just get me out, dude. Like Francisco Lindoor, not Francisco Lindoor, Francisco Liriano, Bruce Chen, those guys should have hit me.

Oh, nice. I'm glad you started with Liriano. That's a little more of a flex. I don't know how that happened. He's lefty. Hey, man. You know another guy that I got that I have no idea how it happened? Jorge Soler shouldn't be hitting 600 off of him, but he is.

You remember Shane Green? I remember Shane Green, yeah. He was filthy. Sugar Shane. And I never felt good against him, and I raked him. So up with that. Now you've got me spinning on a couple things. I won, let's see, Trevor Plufer, Shane Green.

Is that a four for nine or five for ten? Wow. Two homers? No idea. I don't know. I have a developing theory that I don't know what to do with. Because I was talking with Your Guy Foolish Bailey. doing on Wake and Jake doing his top 50 players list every year,

which is just, it's a ridiculous exercise, but it's interesting to see how other baseball minds are thinking about it. And I don't know, dude, I just have a developing theory that, like, you talked about Matt Olson and how consistent he is. He's the naval orange of baseball. Like, Matt Olson, his stats will fluctuate year in, year out. And what is that? Is that just 50 swings a year that?

on that 2-0 pitch, you just miss it and you foul it back, but then the other year you hit a home run? Because, like, Matt Olson as a ball player hasn't significantly changed. That I don't know, in your limited sample with Shane Green, did he just, he threw a couple bad pitches and you just ran into them? Like, if you face Shane Green more, does he, he starts getting you. Like, I don't really know what to do with that. But it's just something that's been in my head recently.

I was trying to formulate or articulate how to explain because Eno and I were kind of chopping it up on on X about this like they someone was saying like there's no like past success has no correlation to future success

I'm like I don't like is that true well the statistics say like it's not true I'm like I don't know man like if I know like I see the ball well against this guy guess what I see the ball well My chances of getting a hit are better than against the guy who I don't see the ball well against. It's just like your rhythm lines up.

Everything lines up. You literally see the ball bigger against them. And what I was going to say, and I think I was, I think I was like, oh, I think it was a little high. So I didn't. Oh, look at you. I didn't. Yeah, it was late night. I didn't tweet this out.

Yeah. Because I was like, you know, I got a little paranoid or something. I was going to say, like, you and I, when we take over the Rockies, one of the ways we're going to do roster construction, or excuse me, lineup construction, is we're going to put an anonymous poll out every day. Do you like facing this pitcher? And you have to be truthful.

And the guy's like, dude, I don't really like seeing this guy. Right. Cool, bro. We got you today. Be ready to, you're probably not going to pinch it because we don't really do that. But like, be ready just in case. Uh-oh. I'm worried if Shane's about to pop up.

on the screen. Sure is. Sure is. First pitch. Oh, a little cut piece. Did I drive that? That's a Homer? Oh, my gosh. Real pop. A couple buttons open on that shirt, coach.

See, even he's like, what just happened right there? Like, and I guess Trev, what? The vibe you're putting out there is very story-L-E-esque. Holy cow. That's, that's, I'm making a lot of money. and I'm hitting homers. I mean, I guess that's, so my underdeveloped theory that I'm thinking of right now.

And, you know, Treb, I'm not going to try to get in your mindset there because you just opened with a lot of open buttons and a lot of money, which I'm happy for you. Like, that's a little first pitch cutter slider thing that if you were, God, it ends up middle, I don't know. I was going to say, was that his last pitch of the game? Was he out after that? Pitching change.

Oh, man. In my theory of 50 pitches a year that dictate your season, if you were just sitting high fastball and you take that pitch, like how does, I don't know. It starts getting very butterfly effect. You know what I'm saying? I get what you're saying. I think a lot of it's just like health

and like how you're feeling on a given day. Like is your body moving the way it's supposed to? We call that when you send a pitcher out, shower ball. Nice. Yeah. I like that. And another thing, just a yearly reminder for you, because it's just such a small thing, but it very much opened my eyes.

Eighth inning comebacks by the home team. The Yanks had one last night that when you go from losing to your clothes are coming in, we're so caught up in walkoffs. You open my eyes to that one that you see how fired up the team gets. It's better, if not equal to a walkoff. I think it's, I honestly think. I honestly think it can be better because you play eight and a half.

Like that's the goal at home. We're playing eight and a half today, boys. That's a nice feeling. Yeah, just going from losing to now the closer's getting up. Now you get the closer intro to we won a game. Like the vibes. And the crowd loves that. Crowd loves a walkoff.

Crowd loves a walk off too. Yeah. But like as a team goes, I think you're right. eighth inning is better. Yeah. We started to talk about injuries Scott's side track. Hunter Brown out with the right shoulder strain, so at least it's not an elbow.

I feel like shoulders are always better. There's no return timeline established. We're trying to figure out what's going on. As I was saying about him, or, you know, we talked about Eno and the bill of health and how he was supposed to grade out really well there. They aren't

ready for a Hunter Brownless rotation. They're just not, man. Like Mike Burroughs, you get him to come over. It hasn't looked great for him so far. Lance McCullors had one really good start where I was like, I can't believe this is Lance McCuller Jr. out there to a not so good start. Tatsui Amai also kind of like the same thing fluctuating.

Even if you want to say you got those three guys there, like Lance McCuller Jr. hasn't thrown enough innings to get through. He's not going to throw 180 innings this year. I can't imagine. That'd be insane if he did that. Tetsuya Mai hasn't been over here. I'm curious how they handle that. Christian Javier coming off of injuries.

And then after that, it becomes pretty like, they're going to have guys throwing the pill that don't have a lot of experience throwing the pill. So I said that I think the Cubs are better with their roster and able to withstand an injury to a starting pitcher. And I just think that that's true.

The Astros are going to have to dig down deep, find something. I think they've been able to, to do that. Like they're an organization that can find pitching and, you know, they can bring guys up and have starts here and there and kind of get through it. But I don't know how long that lasts. That's an every year thing for them. We're going to find out because they're going to be, like I said, relying on guys that don't have a ton of dirt on the spikes, if you will. Yeah. Right. Right now, Burroughs listed as the one. Christian Javier, Tatsuya, my, Lance McCullors,

Jr. and Cody Bolton. The offense has been crushing it. Yeah, I don't know if you're glass half full or glass half empty. The pitching has been pretty horrendous that either maybe that turns around or if it stays there, it's just, it's not a sustainable way to win baseball games. I don't know. Do they wrap up with Colorado for with Seattle who's in the dark place? Seattle's in the dark place.

I mean, literally and figuratively, a little bit in this country, right? Okay. It's great. I don't know. I don't need to send that shots fire. JV., left hip, yeah, get it. Mookie, sadly, I wish we cared more, but we just kind of look at the Dodgers and we're like, all right, I mean, let us know when he's back. It almost doesn't affect their team outlook until it does.

I do think the Dodgers had an awful, was it July last year, that every team does. Like, let's keep an eye out on that for if the Dodgers and when they start to slow down. I think this story is Toronto. Toronto's limped out of the gate a little bit. Alejandro Kirk, basically the whole reason I took their infield in our F-war position units draft. Out six weeks, and I've told the people on here, I've had a catcher theory for a while now that I don't think war fully encompasses who they are as just part of the team and part of the organization. Kirkie has been a key part of that team.

And if you do him, Addison Barger going on the aisle, they have a full rotation on the aisle that Toronto's looking around a little nervous right now. Schneider gets tossed the other night trying to spark the fellas a little bit, that it's an interesting time up north. Yeah, I mean, they're figuring it out. You know, defensive lapses, a lot of the guys that were great for them last year offensively have gotten off to slow starts.

Now you have the injuries. I mean, Alejandro Kirk is such a vital part of that lineup. And like, you know, love me some Tyler Heinenman. There's another guy they brought up as well. But, you know, it's very, you're going to be very hard pressed to replace the offensive and defensive output that he brings. And that's a, that's a massive blow to the Blue Jays. And yeah, they just haven't really in playing the type of ball we saw them play last year where we all kind of fell in love. Like, hey, defense, run prevention, put the ball in play.

and then you get, you know, like big bat in the middle. Great. It all made sense last year. We haven't seen that at all. And it's early. But, you know, these injuries, yeah, they're definitely meaningful. Going back to Muki, at least we get our guy, Hassan Kim. Yeah.

He's going to get some playing time as short, man. And then maybe we're all going to be out there. Alex Freeland, who like, they like, kind of was, like, given him the second base job. And he's, like, struggled in spring training. He's, I believe he's struggling pretty badly now. I think he had like one homer that I saw. Other than that, it hasn't been great for him. I'm curious how that ends up.

When is Tommy Edmund back? Not sure on that. We got stats and research on it. Yeah, you got options between Miggie Rowe, Espinall, Kim, Freeland. So we'll see what's going on there. End of May for Edmund.

Is it Alex Frieden or Kyle Freeland? Kyle Freeland is the pitch. Kyle Freeland's the pitch. Kyle Freeland's the pitcher and been pitching. I nailed it. I nailed it. Let's go rocks a little bit there. All right, Alex Frieden, he's 707 OPS.

Okay, he must have a big game. It's fine. It's early. And that would be fine anyways for the Dodgers. And that seven will probably turn to an eight. You went three for three last night. That'll do it early on. That helps.

Because he had a 514 OPS the night before. It's very early. in the season. Yes. We want to get excited. We want to say we know these teams and we just do not at all. Today's episode is sponsored by Best Western Hotels and Resorts. Life's a trip, so why not make the most of it with over 4,000 hotels worldwide?

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covered. Pack your bag, cue up the playlist, and book more of what matters most. Life's a trip. Make the most of it at bestwestern.com. Connor Griffin, Bagman, gets paid. fantastic. Our good guy, Nikki, our good friend, excuse me, Nikki Cass, putting out a bunch of content that they recorded in spring training. What's up with Nikki Cass? Do you ever talk to you?

I talk to Nikki here and there. It's a check-in. I mean, Daltz guy guy. Yeah. Does he talk to Dalt? There's a too big time now. Yeah. No, he's,

Nicky's taken down the world. You know him. I mean, he's- I like Nicky. I like Nicky. Motivational. He's silly. He's got a girl.

Now he's all. about like he's you know he's taking down the world i root for niki big time sure and if i you know what if i didn't know i might not and what does that say about me um it's a good question um i'm not sure exactly what it says about you i'd say what it says about our people i mentioned this to you did i say this on here uh that when i went to watch a yukon duke ducke game i had two duke guys behind me yeah i was i was i mean i i i wasn't got cock and fire like Like, I don't, I know good press. There's no such thing as bad press.

But, you know, I did, I did not like them. I talked to them and I was like, oh, they're just, they're just guys. They're just guys. And Nikki, Nicky's a great. I think it makes you and I mad that Nikki's, like, Nikki's just clean. He's legit. Yeah. Yeah, he's a legit guy.

We can't blackmail him. He's not like. Got a decent baseball swing, too. Let's get him drunk and I don't, you know, let's, casino night with Nikki. That's not happening. We've had some fun times. Good guy. Nicky, we miss you.

I think that's all that. I think that's what it is. I think this was a long speech. We got a warehouse weekend coming up. He was a big part of that. Hey, and that was Connor Griffin. Because the contract was kind of known nine years. The fact that they can just have him for nine years is like what should be his best years.

Pirates seven and four. They're four and one since they brought him up. The bat hasn't been there. It will get there. He brings so much more to the table with his legs, his defense. Like the guy is a stud. I love the attitude. Seems like he's kind of a baseball rat.

And I'm going to do a rhyme right here. Oh. Yeah. Connor Griffin is a baseball rat. I can't wait to tell you about Cooper Pratt. Okay. You've wanted to talk about Cooper Pratt all episode, which is kind of wild to me.

And I have another young player question. I want to ask you. So let's go Cooper. Okay. Well, this is going to, here we go. Get your mind right. What do you talk about? What area of the United States do you talk about when you're like, oh, that guy's ball player? Oh, boy. I've been saying it a lot lately. I'm a big Miami guy. You're a big Miami guy. And then I was going to zoom out, Florida, and California and Texas. They clearly, you're a, you're a Miami guy. I become a Miami guy. You're a Miami guy. It's in my binder. I want my.

If you're a player guy, you're Miami guy. But I also have a state that I've been talking a lot about lately, about just gamers. Gamers. Do you know what that state is? It would either. Washington. Okay. Southern.

Southern gamers. I don't know. Georgia? What do you got? Mississippi boys. Oh, you, yeah. Gunner Henderson. Mississippi Mudge.

Connor Griffin. Yeah. Cooper Pratt. Was boring. Cooper Pratt was boring in Hialeah, Florida, which is like Miami. Check. Went to high school in Mississippi. This guy is. The perfect mix.

He's with the Brewers. He had a 690 OPS last year in AA, and they just gave him $60 million. That is the Brewers. It's Brewer's devil magic. He's going to be a stud. He had a 690 OPS in AA last year. He's baseball's Deadpool. We put together the best of what we could do.

A little Miami swag, that Mississippi heartbeat. And then the Brewers, Brewers Devil Magic. Yeah. Okay, I'm watching out. I'm watching out. It's insane, dude. I just loved when it happened. I forgot because you'd, first midweek, look at us.

That it was, when he first signed, everyone was like, there's, wait, the Brewers have four short stops ahead of him right now. Like, what? So they know something. you might not like this where I wanted to bring the conversation my last check in on a young dude around the league I'm going to do this sensitive because this is a little I can feel Yankee Jake leaking out the slightest bit

what's going on with Roman Anthony's throws bro oh yeah it's a big it's a big topic right now it doesn't look good and I'm always like amazed when someone in the big leagues can't throw the ball I'm like, what? And that happens a lot with outfielders. And I'm like, I don't understand how you got this far without being able to throw the ball, dude.

There's a lot of names you can think of. I don't typically think of Roman Anthony, because I don't remember seeing that at all last year. So that tells me like, he's hurt. Like something's hurt. Whether it's his legs, whether it's his arm,

it looks like it's not feeling good. Because initially I was like, you know, there are times where you kind of just don't get your feet under you the right way when you're playing outfield. Maybe you're rushing so your mechanics are off. But some of those balls, he's not really charging hard through, and he's still, the throw isn't there.

So something, something's going on. It's interesting. I guess arm strength, arm strength last year, it looks like he graded out middle of the pack-ish, and these throws haven't been that. He's having the middle of the pack now. Yeah, I guess I get nervous thrown out.

injury stuff because I don't know. I don't know what I don't know. Like that throw wasn't awful. Tatis is running. It's a big two outs. This one's pretty bad. This throws pretty bad, man. I mean, that's short Fenway.

I mean, and then it's like, hey, I'm going to throw it all the way at home. Oh, shoot, he's going to score, so I better just keep it low for the cutoff band. By the time you think of that, you don't have the right grip. I don't know. Could be a lot of things. It doesn't look healthy. That's another one. It's fair. It's fair. It's obviously a topic around the league, and I, you know, it's one of those weird,

it's one of those weird moments where Roman Anthony came up, top prospect, was very good for a little bit, that we already handed him a crown of sorts. But it's just very interesting to watch a guy's baseball path. And hopefully this becomes a weird thing where Roman's like, yeah, I was banged up that had a couple weird throws. But yeah, as you talk about his path through what we hope is two days, decades of Major League Baseball. It's kind of like, whoa, you're left field at Fenway. That's supposed to be, that's the easy throw.

But I don't know. Interested to see the next steps there. All right. It's time to look at some future baseball markets presented by Fanatics Markets. Coach, we got a couple ones tonight. I don't know if you've been checking out Sacramento. Can we, I know every year Yumi and Rob do, we got to do stuff. We got to do stuff.

and then we're like, oh, shoot, we have warehouse every other weekend. You're broadcasting. We either need to do Sacramento or Minnesota this year. Oh, yeah, we're doing Minnesota. Okay. We're like setting that up. Okay, let's get the dates. Anyways, I want to get to SACTO before it's gone.

Do I have another year and a half? Okay. I think you do, and I don't really know if you need to. Dude, the crowd looks great, and I know what you're saying, but I just, I think it would help, it would help me mentally. Former Pinstripe great, Luis Severino, star of the DR, is taking Will Warren on for the Yanks tonight. A dramatic comeback late by the Yankees. They've got a little bit of the sauce, 8 and 2.

I don't know, I guess we haven't talked a lot about athletics and Yankees. What do you see from these two teams, coach? The A's offense finally started to get it going a little. They're warming up. They were ice cold. Max months. He looks really good. Severino has not been the same guy that you and I both saw in the WBC.

Juiced up, two outings, two else. Or excuse me, just one loss on his record. But nothing extraordinary. Maybe the juices get flying again for him being back in the Bronx. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. The A's getting traded pretty low right now That if there's a game that you would like them

You believe in Sevy tapping back into You know, I think there's a piece of him that this might be obnoxious I think he I think he wants to be I think he likes the city That's what I'll say Oh wow That's what I'll say

That's what I'll say The other one we're looking at tonight Coach Cubs versus Rays And Rays actually with a little more of the percentages because Joe Boyle is on the bump going against Colin Ray, who we talked about getting thrown in the action. Joe Boyle, as in all stuff, he's such a pitcher. The Ray's might have something there.

They are struggling big time defensively. They don't look like kind of like the team that we think they should look like. but they're also getting some really nice offense from the top of the lineup and Chandler Simpson as well so they kind of got like a nice mixture of power and speed going there you mentioned you mentioned Joe Boyle so I don't I don't disagree what the market is saying I want Tampa they're back in the trop New York's head in there this weekend I make the raise make the raise again that on a shirt If you guys are into that, go check out Fanatics Markets available now in App stores.

Event contracts carry risk of total loss in changing prices. Not good for all investors. Not available in all states. Must be 21 plus see important disclosures in Fanatics Markets of App. Customers are introduced to Crypto.com by Paragon Global Markets LLC, DBA, Fanatics Markets, IB, and introducing broker registered with CFTC and a member of the NFA. Coach, first midweek episode. Anything else you need to let off your heart?

It felt good to yuck ball. I think, do I need to apologize the pitchers? Probably not. No, not until they start apologizing for hit by pitches. Yeah. That's all I want. You know, I'm in with that. Right here.

Yeah. Sometimes guys do it. It gives me a lot of, like, hey, if you're not trying to do that. If you can't go like this and still be a fiery competitor, you need to figure. it out in your life, dude. If this, going like this is going to take you out of your fiery competitiveness, you don't, you aren't a

competitor. I like that. I like that. And now, do I need to apologize again? Because that's a big shot of them. If you're a pitcher method actor, you got to figure it out. Even if you want to stay mad, just quite this. Yeah.

I mean, you normally, you get a reaction. Like, if they're not trying to do that, they let out like I'm not trying to do that. Like, damn, okay. Well, apologize to the guy you just hit with... Whatever. I'm starting to sound soft.

Let's get out of here. Shout out to Dalton on the sheet. Producer Robbie Chiracco, Bobby Golfs, Trevor Plouf on the left coast. We'll be back Friday. Baseball's hot. Big sucks.

Hey, go on my Instagram and rate my swing. Yeah. You have only another day to do it. I want to see what you think. It wasn't my best swing. I feel like I look pretty good. This isn't going to help my street cred. Hitting off a T was always kind of,

because I didn't want to look at the ball the whole time. I wanted to simulate looking at the pitcher and then looking at the ball, that it was just never... Just stop now. Just stop. It's never crispy.