Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Jomboy Media's 2026 MLB Round Table

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

Use our code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKIN2026. Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount Save on essentials. Save the everyday with Amazon. https://www.amazon.com This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off their first month at https://betterhelp.com/TALKINBASEBALL and get on your way to being your best self. Pre-Order Now: https://mlbthe.show/jomboy Here’s what’s new in ‘26: Road To The Show: Road To Cooperstown, Expanded Amateur Years feat. 11 new colleges, Bear Down Pitching , Big Zone Hitting, Diamond Dynasty: The World Baseball Classic* Over 500 new gameplay animations Revamped Trade Experience in Franchise Mode Storylines: Negro Leagues Season 4* Early Access starts March 13th, 2026 Available March 17th, 2026 Get 10% off your Digital Deluxe Edition pre-order if you’ve bought any digital version of MLB The Show since ‘21.**   Coach Trev and Talkin' Jake bring in Jomboy Media's superstars to look into the 2026 MLB Season, what they like about their teams, who they think can make the jump to superstardom and more! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to talking baseball. We are tapping in today. We're hopping around to a bunch of teams, a bunch of players, a bunch of Johnboy media people hopping in. Let's talk ball. That's all it is. Kenley Jansen. Ben Revere. Infield single. That's how a rally gets started. Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. The first. First episode of March, Coach. It's real. It's time. It's March 2nd. WBC fires up this week.

Some of your teams are going to be scrimmaging the national teams. That's going to lead to some good clips and highlights. And we're three and a half weeks opening night. Yanks, Giants, a game that counts, and then the full opening day. Let's go baseball. How you doing, Coach Trev? You know what happened in March. back in the day.

March. The aides of March. Okay. Julia Caesar. Out. Out. Every other sport. Out.

Baseball's here. That's, I don't know. I try to connect the dots right there. Baseball's in. A lot of leaders are out. Where are you at? I'm ready to talk about it. I think we have a fun episode today.

You know, we're doing kind of like our prep for the season, TPPs. in full swing. We're seeing guys leave for the WBC, spring training battles, which are always kind of hilarious to me. But today we're going to bring in some of the other John Boy Media creators to

kind of pick their brain on their team, what's going on around the league. And every once in a while, not all the time, because it's just you and I. Our big brains are all we need on this show. But it's good to get some different perspective. So I'm excited. Plus, I think

we have one special guest. Yeah. Uh, yeah, we, uh, you know, a lot of you that are in our world, well, hey, Jolly Olive's going to pop in for a little bit. Everyone's seen him on, on here, uh, ball knower. Wow, I can't believe I said that about him. Um, shelfy, swilly, uh, Chose McFly, I think is going to make an appearance. Who was just on here talking some WBC. We'll get a little more Yankees out of them.

Uh, and we're going to hop around not only with their teams, but we're going to hop around with some players around the league and stuff like that. So, um, and we did one of these, we did one of these mid-season. And coach, I think you were out. So I don't know. You know, when we get three in here, you and I start to alpha up a little bit. So we'll see. Let's keep everyone in check. Let's see who will be joining us in the seat first.

And it's brought to you by Seekek. Our friends over at Seekkeek are bringing you today's episode. The WBC is here. Me and Coach Trevor are going to be in Miami. And Bobo and Kyle and Luke. We're going down to South Beach for the WBC. We got people going to Houston. The WBC is here.

NBA is rolling. NHL, you know, some cool, proud American moments, as the lads and ladies have showed back up from abroad. If you're going to go to a game, make sure you use Seatgeek. It's the number one rated ticketing app. And if you use code Talking 2026, 10% off your next set of tickets at Seatgeek. That is 10% off any tickets with promo code Talking 2026.

Make sure you click the link in the description. download the app, have the code automatically added to your account so you can use it later on or use it right now when you go to the game. Thank you, Seeky. Go see some ball. Let's see who we got. Jolly

Olive. Super fan of the Mets. Jake called you a ball knower by the way. Oh! Monday just became feeling like a Friday. My goodness. I do love listen to you Talk Ball. I do also consider you

ball, no, or jolly. And that's even more important than Jake's saying. So congratulations. We're here to talk, you know, a little bit about the league, but we want to start with the Mets. And we recently put out our power rankings. I think Jake had him at 12. I'll double check that. I had him at three. Yes, you did. You sure do. I have, I went Dodgers, Mariners, Mets. A lot of people, including many Mets fans are saying, Trev, I'm a Mets fan. I like the Mets, but not. as much as you. So where do you stand overall with, you know, just the Mets roster in general? I think they made a lot of switch. Here's my take real quick. I think they made a lot of switches to kind of, you know, basically the entire roster. We know that some people love that.

Some people don't. I actually do like it. I like the pitching probably more than other people do. I do need Kodi Sanga to, you know, be the guy that he has been. I know that he ended last year very poorly, but a lot of that was due to injuries. I'm expecting them to be better this year. Where are you at with them? Yeah, I mean, this roster needed an overhaul. And I think something I say a lot about the Mets, which I feel funky about, but I think is true is that whenever they enter a season with expectations, they usually fall short.

Like, the good seasons that the Mets have had in recent time have been 22 and 24. And both of those seasons, people kind of felt about the Mets the way they feel right now, which is like, I don't really know what to do with this team. whereas 23 and 25 when they imploded, people had them in the World Series, people had them winning the National League. So I think a season that you enter with the New York Mets where they have this low floor but high ceiling

is a season I'm more into because at least with the previous clubhouse, those guys didn't seem to perform to expectations when they were placed upon them. It's just a lot of new. And I think that's a good thing because the stink of last year and collapses prior kind of lingered onto, whether you want to blame them or not, the guys that were traded this all season,

which were Nimmo, McNeil are, you know, Alonzo not traded but signed elsewhere. Whether it's those guys' fault or not, they're no longer a part of this team. This team feels like it's trying to carve out a new identity, which I am a fan of. For the young guys, because I, you know, we have some pitching stuff on here. And again, like Trev kind of mentioned, there's some depth there and you can get excited on it on different levels. Like Sang has got some different numbers like Clay Holmes, Mania, all those guys. If McLean is that guy, watch out.

ball, Fred. I guess where I get caught up, the young guys, Bady, Alvarez, Viento, Maricio, and Benj? Benj. Benj? Benj. Good job. Carson Benj. What's going on there?

Like, I think Alvarez, hey, he's the catcher. He's showing what he's got. The other guys, I have no clue. Like, I look at Batees last year, and he's the safe bet. Yes and no. I mean, Bady's in a weird spot where he's, like, the best defender of the group and he doesn't have a position. Alvarez had a weird year because the first half his hitting coach was telling him to not swing out of his shoes.

Then he had a bad year. So they sent him down. And then he started swinging for power again. And he turned it around. They love Carson Benj. Like it's really the first time the Mets front office has spoke candidly and said like, we believe in this guy. We want him to make the opening day roster like full on.

So I think it's the, it's exciting because it's the first spring training in a while where it's like, those guys are taking center stage. It's not really just the parts in, you know, and like Juan Soto kind of took over last year's spring training. training. This year the focus has been on all the young guys and the guys moving around. But they figure to be a huge piece because the Mets are going for a more defensive-oriented mindset with their lineup because last year's defense was pretty bad. They very clearly want

the opposing corner outfielder opposite Soto to be a gifted defender, whether it ends up being Luis Robert. He's probably going to play center, but Tyrant Taylor is an option, Carson Benj. So you're going to see a lot of youth on the Mets roster on the pitching side and the hitting side. It's just, it's a lot of it's filling out the bottom half of the lineup. And if you can get Alvarez to finally have that big boy season at, you know, each 24, he's still only 24 years old. Brett Beatty showed a lot of promise last year. There's a lot to like. But again, it's another low floor, high ceiling discussion that I think the Mets are really, really banking on their development, taking a huge step forward this year. We had Ron Darling on one of the

broadcast bring up the idea of getting out of the six-man rotation and basically, telling Kodi Seng got to suck it up and be a guy and let's go back to a traditional five-man rotation. Why is he so into that? What difference does that mean? Or make, I know what that means you take one of those guys and put him in the bullpen, whether that's Holmes or Peterson or shoot, man, I don't even know. Like, would Naya be awesome in the bullpen?

I don't know. Like, why is he so gung-ho about that? Yeah, I mean, Ron, as far as ex-players go, I think is really like modernize and has a lot of good takes, but I do think that's a little bit of, you know, old pitcher that won a chip and, like, you know, do things the right way. I think a six man works really well for this team because they're just laden with a lot of like, you know, mid-tier options behind McLean and Peralta. You hope those guys can become one of the best one-toes in the league, but the window to make Holmes a reliever has already passed because they ramped him up to 70

pitches and he's pitching in the WBC as a starter, so he's not going to the pen. Peterson has relieved before, but I think you look at his numbers from April to August last year in the year before, and you think this guy can still be a very effective starting pitcher. Manaya, the bullpen intrigues me, but you're also paying him $25 million a year, so it's financial allocation. And then you have all these young guys that have a chance to be really good, like Jonah Tong's developing a new pitch. They got a nice start out of another one of their prospects as well, whose name I'm forgetting.

Lack of all knowledge here, my bad. Jack Winninger, who could turn some ads this year. he's at AAA now. Point being, the Mets are trying to, I think, model themselves after the Dodgers pitching staff, which is enter the year with one guy that you know is going to be the one, or maybe one guy you know is the two, and then have like seven options behind them because they're all going to get used because starting pitchers get hurt, and the season is long,

and you're going to need more options. In terms of your original question with Senga, in Japan, these guys have longer layovers between starts and throw more pitches in their starts, so when they transition to the U.S., it's always kind of a weird adjustment for them. Sanga, I think never really made that adjustment, but it's worked with the six man before, so I don't see a reason to change it up, especially with his mechanics issues last year and his injury history as well. On Talking Yanks, we just did our fears episode. We had people call in with their fears for the team. This year we took the angle of we'll quilt your fears.

Oh, okay. I guess what is this team's Mets fear? Because you're saying expectations kind of aren't there, but I think in a way they are, like, if you look at the collection of moves, they Put chips on the table? They paid a lot? I guess what's, what is your concern for this team? Before we started recording, I said that you guys did a good job

on your power ranking episode. I wasn't, you know, too mad about any of the rankings. The one thing that Jake said when he put the Mets out 11 is that he was very worried about the bullpen. And so am I. I don't think this team did enough to address their bullpen. I think they're going to feel the weight of Edwin Diaz's absence

more than anyone is talking about right now because that guy was, it's something to enter the ninth inning of the game knowing that you're going to win that game every time. And that's what Edmund D.S. was for most of his Mets tenure. Williams and Weaver, I work in a Yankees fan-focused office. I heard a lot of discussion about those two guys. I believe in what the Mets philosophy is about pitching. But last year, the bullpen was excruciating to watch. There were guys that would get called up for a day

and then get waived in DFA. There were guys that should have been part of the pen but got sent down because they had an option. A weird example that just popped in my head, the Mets DFAed a guy named Rico Garcia, who is now going to be a huge part of the Orioles bullpen because they wanted to not DFA Ryan Stanick because he was good for clubhouse chemistry. Like there was just a lot of like weird shit going on with the bullpen last year that I think the Mets are entering this year staring down the barrel of potentially doing that again. They have five of the seven guys with no options and some of the guys have money tied up. And I just don't think they did enough in a pretty deep reliever market to feel comfortable

about it. Like there were a lot of places they could have gone. to spend money on relief pitching. They didn't end up doing that. They didn't spend money on starting pitching either. And I just, that's the area of the roster that has never felt great to me. And now 20 odd days from opening day,

it still doesn't feel great. I think people are way too harsh on Devin Williams. And the fact that you were around Yankee fans, and yes, he had some struggles last year. That's definitely an influence. Yeah. Like, dude,

like this guy is going to be a good pitcher for you. I also think Tobias Myers, and I don't know how they've been using him so far in spring training. I know he can be built. up. He stretched out to about 40 pitches right now. He said he's going to get to 60. I see him being a freaking back end for you guys by the end of the year.

I do. I said that as soon as a trade went down, hey, look, this guy could be a three starter, a two starter for you, but he also could be a weapon. If you have guys,

you have already, you know, in the rotation, don't want to move them. This guy can be an absolute buzzsaw at the end of game. So I don't know. I think I possibly was probably too high on the Mets. I got excited.

about the roster turnover because I thought they did need that. And when I'm kind of going over them with you, looking at my sheet right now, a lot of things have to go right. So I do believe that it is a, it's a high ceiling. And a lot of it's going to be contingent on like the health of everybody. Like we need Juan Soto has to play 150 games. We need Lindor and his hamate bone to figure, like those guys have to be. they're playing every single day.

I'm not as worried about the defense as a lot of people are either. I think that'll all figure it out, itself out. There's some bad videos of Boba shout out there right now, but it's early in spring training, relax. I've been telling people. I know, I know.

And like here's what I will say, because I feel like before I depart, because I know we're closing out of 10 minutes, I've been kind of, you know, not pessimistic, but I think realistic about some of the Mets issues. I've been working at Jamboy Media since 2021.

Every year at some point, I talk about NLE East and predictions and all this stuff. I've never said this sentence into a microphone, and I'm going to say it here. I think the New York Mets are going to win the NL East this year. Wow. I think they are. And I'll leave with that.

A high ceiling. And I really do believe in it. I want, I'm happy for you. That's a good feeling to have. Celebrating already. That's a good feeling to have. And yeah.

This is clipped. Clipped. Yeah, for sure. I knew it was going to be. But, you know, I want it out there. I feel confident in this roster. and the changes they met.

Give me last thing from you. I love that. Thanks. Give me the one Mets player that you're higher on than other people and give me one player from around the league that you're high on just going into this season. Sure. One Mets player that I'm higher on than most other people.

I feel like it's not really that crazy of a take, but I just think Francisco Alvarez is going to be a very good baseball player. And I think that, you know, this is an adage that other Mets personalities have used, I don't want to claim it as my own, but Francisco Alvarez, last year, played a full season the same age that Cal Raleigh was when he was at double A. So, I mean, I think you just need to have patience with him because he got called up so young. And I think he's really going to come into his own this year and become, you know, top 10, top five catcher with 30 home runs. Like, I really do think that it's well within the realm of possibility. I will say this.

I'm going to keep it with catchers just because we did our catcher's tearless and I've been brushing up lately. I guess he's underrated, but I mean, if you look at his numbers, he's not, like he's a top five catcher easily. I think Shay Langalear is just going to have a monster here for the A's. He's never a name that comes to mind when you think of that A's lineup, that's sneaky good with Nick Kurtz and Jacob Wilson. I think he's going to end up being the guy that's with Nick Kurtz up there producing offensively. Being in the A's clubhouse for, you know, the hour I was there, guys orbit around him. It's really cool to see. So I feel like he's an important presence on that team.

And he's been getting steadily better every year. And I think he's going to up a notch again this year. One more, one more for me. Great job. Fantastic. Jolly. You forgot one guy's name. We'll let that slide.

Luis Robert Jr. I mean, that's the chalk. Everyone's into that. How do we not talk about that? BP videos. Some baseline expectations from him. Because that's,

that's another thing I think about. Like, if this guy goes off. If this guy, if the change of scenery is real, he's, you're talking about them, winning the NLE East, like if he's in a competitive environment and he's around Soto and Lendor,

like what does that do for him? What are your like baseline expectations for him? So I'll say this. So we did a Shay Station episode, me and Jerry recently, just talking about spring trading. Jerry was down in Port St. Lucie and getting to see the guys. Last year during the trade deadline, when Luis Robert was rumored to be traded to the Mets and it didn't end up happening, Jerry was always very like pessimistic on the idea. He, certain clips he had seen of Louis-Rober and like the effort and the lack of production in recent years. He didn't love the idea of a trade. He spent three days in Port St. Lucie.

He came back and he could not stop talking about how good Luis Robert Robert is going to be for the Mets this year. I'm trying to temper because it's been a while since 2023. So if he's a league average bat and he plays great center field defense, great. He's like a four-war player. He could be insanely good. And I'm going to leave it at that because you can play that game a lot. lot and lead yourself to a bad place with a bad clip that comes out in three months. But I am excited that that trade happened and he's playing centerfield for us.

I'll say that. Okay. Simeon and Robert is a very interesting part of his seasons, especially with all those other young guys floating around. We will see with your Mets Jolly Olive. We will see you. What do you got? We got the Jolly Olive YouTube channel.

You've been all over Wake and Jake as we do our tier list. Jolly plays your Chris Rose Arizona trip. Anything else? I mean, yeah, WBC video came out last week. Go check that out. We spent some time in AZ. Me and Jake podcasting a lot. I mean, I think you covered all of it.

You're like a huge fan of mine, I guess, right? All right. Everyone, thank you. Let's go mad. Today's episode is sponsored by Amazon. When life throws you a curveball, Amazon's everyday low prices on essentials help you save the day. Amazon has everything you need whenever you need it.

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and now I'm here for those in our warehouse world. We got both Rotten Boys here from Forgotten Rotten. That makes me tense up a little bit, but Shelf, how are you? I'm fantastic. You look clean. I do look a little clean. Trev got nervous when I hopped on the Zoom before. He said I looked too serious.

Oh, I don't know. I think I like the half-zip. That's never the case. I almost signed my banana before. Yeah, it's a little substitute, but we're okay. Yeah, that's okay. That might be your style.

That's kind of my sweet spot. Then Trev hates that because he needs me more high fashion. How are we doing with our Phil shelf? I feel like there was kind of a weird when we zoomed in on the off season. We were like, wait, did the Phillies kind of go backwards? A little bit. Yeah. So give me your little bit of Phillies off season and then maybe start sending us the other way.

And I don't know if that's Andrew Painter hype or wherever the good sides of it is. Yeah. This off season was always going to be a big turnover year for the Phillies. and next off season as well. Next off season is going to be a big turn. We got a lot more money coming off the books. But, yeah, I mean, the Mets spending a bunch of money. They didn't really do a lot, but they did spend a lot of money.

The problem is they spent a lot of money on guys that were already here. So it doesn't feel like they did a whole lot. But I was told when Dombrowski came into Philadelphia that he was going to blow the whole thing up, go all in, and then you were going to go into a five-year rebuild. We're about to see all these young guys get a chance to actually play after years and years of, are they going to get dealt? We've heard Aidan Miller's name. We've heard Andrew Painter's name of the deadline every year.

And they've already, Justin Crawford and Andrew Payne are already out there in spring training are kind of getting me excited. I like, I like, I'm optimistic. There's a lot of pessimism about the Phillies this offseason, but I'm actually pretty optimistic. I'm excited about the fact that we're not leaning into a huge contract. We've already got a bunch of those. We got to blend it in. We got to get some of these younger guys to really start being productive on this team and blend in with the vets. And I think they got a good group here.

Where are we at with the starters? because that's always where I start when I look at teams and kind of digest, you know, especially preseason. What are we doing here? We know about Sanchez. We know about Lazzardo. Nola pitching for team Italy. How's he looked? And then I saw that Zach Wheeler through his first bullpen since having that thoracic outlet, the good kind. Where are we at there? Because I think Wheeler is obviously very instrumental to this team's success. Have they talked about, like, hey, it's going to be like a, like we're not even going to remember that that happened? Yeah, all reports seem to be that he's like on track to come back and be good. And it's

going to be early in the season. It almost seems like super early in the season. They're a long tossing when he gets there. Arms good. I think they're just being really cautious with it. The timing of it was best like good and bad. Like you lost him for the playoffs last year, which was really unfortunate. But then it gave him the entire off season to also rehab everything. So it seems like he's on track to join the team in early May is what all reports are saying, which is great. Aaron Nola, like you noted, Knowles is a guy that could be big for the team this year. Even year, Aaron Nola is a thing.

It's just good every other year. For some reason, he has their spike years. And his Velo's up. He threw a couple innings here in spring already. Velo's up. He's spinning the ball. If Aaron Nola has an even year Nola season, Christopher Sanchez takes a little bit of the pressure off, not having Zach Wheeler for the first month or so of the season.

This is going to be one of the best rotations in baseball, and I think they have enough guys there, especially if an Andrew Painter can make the team. to get you to the wheeler point in the season. And then when he comes back, maybe the best rotation in baseball. And I think the other thing that helped me talk myself into the Phillies, and this is a little bit unfair,

because I think bullpen is the most sporadic thing in a baseball season. That Phillies bullpen is still real, man. And, like, I don't know. I know the names have changed kind of overnight a little bit. It's Duran, Brad Keller, who people still probably don't respect Brad Keller's name as a reliever. But I know, I think I saw you tweeting about his first outing that, like, Duran, Alvarado, Keller, Kirkering, Tanner Banks has another lefty, like,

with the rotation, with who the Phillies are still are. This is still going to work. This is still the Phillies. I actually think this going into the season is the best Phillies bullpen that we've had in, like, the Bryce Harper era, which could take a lot of pressure off of the starting rotation, whereas, you know, two years ago, when you had like the Spencer Turnbull, the rotation was great, but then as soon as guys started getting hurt, you've seen the lack of depth in the bullpen really start getting hit on.

the second half they started to fall apart. This bullpen can take all the pressure off the Jordan. They're deep. They have a guy, and this is, I've been saying this for years, having a guy locked into that ninth inning, you don't have to play chess every single night, change in names, musical chairs. You lock that ninth inning in.

Other guys can fall into their roles. And that's what they have now that they didn't have before the Durandre. Where does Edmundo Sosa fit into all of this? You know, a really good player who hasn't got a ton of like time or I guess playing time. Like is he going to be one of those, I don't want to call him a super utilile guy, but a guy that's going to be spelling different guys at different positions.

So he gets all his at bats and keeps everyone healthy. Is that the role? Yes, that is the role. And Trevor, I love that you brought up at Moondososa, because I didn't think we'd be talking about him today. He's one of the most important, like not talked about guys on the team. We need somebody to get a day off.

He steps in and he's good. He's good on both sides. He can play. He's got a really good glove defensively. He smashes. left-handed pitching. He's a, he's a professional at bat. He could get more at-bats, like you said, Trev. He could get more time than he does. But, you know, this Philly's team loaded. There's lots of money all over the place when they're healthy. It's tough. But

Munozor, he's out of here, left field. Yeah, this is the robbery, right? Beautiful. And that too, like the reaction, the team loves him. He, he is a huge part of the clubhouse for this team. He had Munoz, he's a big piece. You don't see him every day. But when he's out there, he makes a difference. Man, that, uh, so ridiculous. Hit, I guess this is just kind of offbeat, but like him and now Jose Caballero are two guys that it's like, should those guys just be getting 140 games at shortstop?

But like the Phillies have awarded Sosa for these past four years or whatever it is that he's just a really good ball player. And I think that's, I like Otto Kemp. I like, I still like what's there. It is just interesting that some of the names that it is, have stayed the same. We haven't expected to stay the same. And some of the new guys this year, that's going to be a Phillies twist. We haven't seen this year with Crawford and Painter. Yeah. And Justin Crawford in particular, he's going to make this team, especially how he's hitting out of the gate. They want him to make the team. He's almost going to have to

play himself out of the role, which he's already not doing. So the outfield is going to be the biggest, like, can you take on the Mets and win this division? I think it's going to potentially come down to the outfield production at the end of the day. I do think there'll be a playoff team regardless us at the end of the day. But just how good can this team be could come down to Justin Crawford in that platoon situation that they got going on in left field, which we don't even necessarily know who those names are going to be yet. You know Brandon Marsh is going to get a ton of abats. You said Otto Kemp. Could Sosa get more of those at bats? We'll see. I don't know. But that's the big question mark on this team is the outfield production. I mean, I knew this already,

but I wanted to make sure that Justin Crawford, Carl Crawford's son. Yeah. Yeah. Looks just like him, by the way. Oh my gosh. Carl Crawford's other kids don't know their names. They're like the same age as my son played at the same league as my son, but they played like three levels up, which they don't even let people do. They won't let you do that,

but somehow the Crawford boys are just that freaking good. So I've never even seen them play because they're just they're at different levels. So Carl's got some lineage coming. We're going to be seeing that name for a long time in the big leagues. And I will say to him and Andrew Painter both, I think they're set up to handle the pressure really well.

Everything I've seen from Justin Crawford and the Iron Pigs put out a lot of social media content on him. That kid is a goofball. He just shows up to the park. He seems like he's a good dude to be around. He's a good player. And then Andrew Painter, he's someone I've actually had a chance to talk to a bit. We played some video games together.

There's some, if you dig deep enough on the YouTube world, you get Shelfy, Andrew Painter, MLB, the show content. That guy sounds like he's 40. he's six, seven. He's a pitcher. Everyone says he's mature beyond his years. I heard Jesus Lazzardo was talking about him a few weeks ago. He's just mature beyond his years.

These young guys, I think they're ready to handle the pressure that there will be coming up into Philadelphia in a playoff scenario. Shove, you mentioned some MLB the show, which is a lot of your life. I mean, half your life. How much of your life has been MLB the show? 17%. Yeah, I got kids now.

We don't have to do nothing. Yeah, that's true. And I did want to mention Carl Crawford's kids. I saw a metal. Oh, yeah. This weekend. We all got after it this weekend. Love that.

Let's talk a new segment. Diamond in the Rough brought to you by MLB the show. We'll be taking a look at players who are diamond card ready before this week's rating, reveal, release his shelf. You're an MLB the show guy. And everyone coming on today, I want to ask them, someone who they're in on, who's not on. their team and I think killing two birds will get in stone tears.

Yes, we are. I am going with my guy, Michael Bush of the Chicago Cubs. Michael Bush finished last season as an 84 overall and M will be the show 25, which is just one point away from that diamond status of 85 plus. Now, he's at 50-57 contact versus lefties in the game, rightfully so, only an 85 OPS plus against lefties last season. But that gives him so much room for growth. You don't even have to be an average hitter against lefties.

you just got to get a little tiny bit better, and that's going to be enough to get him diamond status. So Michael Bush is my guy that's going to go diamond and MLB the show 26. All those cubbies, man. Don't forget people. I mean, if you know, you know, but MLB the show 26.

Pre-order is available March 17th on PlayStation 5, Xbox series S&X, and the Nintendo Switch, rated E for everyone. And those cubbies, man. Did you, did the show reach out to you this year? Oh, yeah. Yeah, you like, you're, you're, You're in the game.

I'm in the weeds. Yeah. I'm out there. I'll be testing the game this weekend, actually. I'll be out there getting my hands on it early. And then we got launch in two weeks. Whoops. Yeah.

Whoops. Watch out. And yeah, those cubbies. Michael, you look at Michael Bush's stats last year and you're like, wait, you're, what? You're the best first baseman in the National League, basically. Yeah. Shelfy, thank you so much.

What else you got, MLB the show season grind. I think me, Norp and Joe's are headed down to do some WBC content. you can be on the lookout for all that. Obviously, go check out warehouse games. See me and my man Trevor Plouffe dominate everything. Always. Three banners. Rebanners.

That last part gets me a little bit. But it's true. It's true. Are you chosen Jimmy Nort? My God. The young man is going to learn. Is he coming in? The young man, maybe he's on deck now.

Can't wait. Thank you so much, Shelfi. Appreciate you. Thank you guys. We are joined by the young man, Jimmy Norp. Jimmy Norp. How are you? I'm great, Jake.

Thanks for having me on. It's a pleasure. We're glad to have it. What's new in the zoo in Tigers camp? What's the word? The word is Kevin McGonagler right now. That guy's going to make the roster. He's off to a real hot start, having a great spring.

We've got a lot of infielders. Tigers fans are kind of split, whether they want them on the team or not. I'm kind of good either way, to be honest. Is he 19? Coach, you're into the young guys. I think he's 21. Yeah, he's not 19. I've been watching some clips on him.

he looks real nice. It's spring training though, relax. How about Max Clark getting a lot of grief? What's up? I think that's fun to talk about a little bit. I'm sure Chris Rose tomorrow's going to ask me about it. So maybe I'll just get some thoughts out here. How do you feel about all of it's going on?

I kind of know your answer because you're young, but I want to hear about it. Again, like it's spring training, Trev. You've been there. We've all seen the clip of him dropping those couple of pop-ups, but like the spring training son from what I've heard, and you can attest to this probably is like it's different. Like you're going to miss a couple of pop flies.

Yeah, he's wearing all the bling. A lot of necklaces. You got people out there like he's caring more about his appearance of the way he's playing. Max Clark's a talented player. He's a talented kid. He's going to be just fine. People are like so ridiculous for that because they're like, he's, yeah, he cares so.

He threw some necklaces on his neck, dude. That's not like he was still getting all of his work in. Do I like four necklaces? No, but I'm also almost 40 years old. So no one cares. what I think. Let the guy do what he wants. If this continues to happen, I might have a different

take on it. But I think, yes, a couple sunballs, we've all been there. I actually famously said on this show that I've never missed a pop of them. I got a few sunballs. Kyle Condor got me with them. I do have a couple things I want to ask about the tigers.

One, it seems like the Terrick Scouble trade talk is gone. Like that is, it's out. He's there for the season. And there's no way where we see him in a different uniform this year. I think, I mean, yeah, you would hope so just because the Tigers, in my mind, are the favorites to win the AL Central. So you think they're going to be competing all year long. The only way you would move them is possibly at the deadline if you're out of it,

which I don't even really want to think about that. That's not going to happen. Not in the Central. Baseball's weird, though. You never know. I think we'd have, in my mind, I think we'd have to be way out of it to trade them. Like, you're talking like 10 games back at the deadline. because this year, heading into 2026 of the Tigers fan,

it's very exciting, but it's also very nerve-wracking because I feel like our championship window kind of just opened, but it's also closing because the reality is we're probably not going to bring Terrick Scoobble back after this year. So it feels like if you're going to win it all, 2026 might be your best opportunity to do so. What's the, I asked Jolly this one. What's the fear?

Because the Tigers are arguably the safest playoff bet, like their talent meets the division. You know, I know Trev's had some questions about the offense kind of repeating, which wasn't, you know, it's not necessarily the most impressive season. But, and I get the concerns. And then I look at the rotation. I look at the bullpen. There's a lot of like, I guess, what's your fear?

Honestly, it's hard to look at one part of when you talk about starting pitching, bullpen offense, what scares you the most. You do have to say the offense, though. I mean, I'm not as worried as some people are. I think this team was top 10 in baseball and runs last year. It's just you don't have. 11th, Jim. Sorry, that's on me.

Come on. Come on. Just outside of the top 10. But there's just, you don't have the big names, right? Like, you're missing that big name in your lineup. Can Riley Green take that next step? I absolutely think he can. But the Tiger score runs in different ways, right?

It's a lot of mix and matching. It's a lot of platoons. You got Kerry Carpenter who is a huge slugger, but he only plays against right-handers. But also, like, you didn't get that big bad at the deadline. You've missed out on Alex Bregman for a couple of years now. It felt like a big fit at third base. However, or sorry, this off-season, not the deadline.

At the deadline, though, I'm thinking if you need offense, that's your chance to go get it. So I'm not really that worried. You need a lot of guys to step up. Sure. Can Colt Keith finally take that next step? Can Glaber Tories repeat a season like he just had? Tork is another guy. There's so much left in the tank.

He had a great year, but he can even be better. So I'm not as worried as a lot of people, but yeah, you'd like to see the offense step up in a bigger way. I got a Riley Green question. Speaking of the offense, you know, a lot of people have him as like a breakout guy, someone that could be, you know, whatever it is, top 10, top five MVP. I'm going to play the role of the hater here. Oh. I'm still like, I know he, I know he had a big season, was it 2024 when he had the

five war season last year, you know, he's, to me, he seems like a, a good hitter in a lineup. But is he someone you think can carry this tiger's lineup? Honestly, Treve, absolutely I do. I kind of said it off last year when we're like heading in the. playoffs and the Tigers are a lot of people around baseball are like the Tigers don't have that superstar and I've always kind of defended Riley Green saying he can be that superstar who can carry a lineup for a couple of months at a time. Yeah, the strikeouts are a problem, right? But I don't

want to compare Riley Green to Aaron Judge. Oh, here we go. Because that's, I understand that's crazy. Don't. What I'm trying to say is Aaron Judge was like in a similar boat where it was like, okay, this guy's a great hitter, but he strikes out too much. Riley Green's a great hitter. who strikes out too much. Aaron Judge was able to cut down those strikeouts. If Riley Green can cut it down, no, he's not Aaron Judge. But that's what he needs to do to become one of those elite hitters in baseball. So, I mean, yeah, usually I say, like, he's 25 right now.

So that does come with time. Like better decisions at the plate, less swing and miss. I think that does, for good hitters, that does happen over time. So that would put him in a different level. It does scare me, man. I mean, just even just simple numbers, like an OPS, he's not, he's not an elite guy there. So I just, that's, I kind of just go there. Again, I think I sound like a hater right now.

I do like Riley Green. But to me, I think this team is, if they want to be serious, world serious contenders, they are a proven middle of the lineup bat away from it still. Not saying they can't go get that or maybe Riley Green turns into it. But that, to me, if I'm a Tigers fan, and I've seen a lot of them, I've called the games and stuff, that's the one thing I'll say is like, I just don't, there's nobody in that lineup that I'm like, oh, like, this guy's going to kill us every time.

That's fair. I agree. I don't think Riley Green is that yet, but I think he will get there. Yeah, and he's, I don't know. For me, I see age 23 season with an 827 OPS. I see an age 24 season with 36 homers, 10011 RBI. Like, I can work with Riley Green. And I, there's something about that.

ballpark too that it's just like it feels like you don't go into the season being like you know what this this might be my year for they've had that for so long though they had back in the day they had killers all through that line up in the same ballpark he would see him

four or five deep of guys that are no I'm talking about the hitters four or five deep of guys that are just like this guy's gonna kill us yeah yeah they don't have that right now they do other things differently I'm I'm in on it again I just that's the one thing when I look at this whole tiger's roster that I think about. But yeah, Riley Green is the guy that needs to step up and be that guy.

I'm so interested to see if McGonigal and Clark get on the timeline or if the trade. Like, I'm going to be very interesting to see how the tigers navigate that, seeing how the young offense goes. Give me one tiger you're higher on besides Zach McKinsgoat. You have to give another answer than McKinsgoat. And give me one player outside of the Tigers who you're high on. Okay, Tiger, this is kind of an interesting one. think it's kind of his make or break year as well.

I'm going to go Colt Keith. He's a guy who just needs to hit for more pop, I feel like, but every time you watch him taking at bat, you feel like he's always in it. He's a guy who doesn't give any at bats away. If he's down 02, he's going to fight and work a count. Man, he's the type of hitter that I love, man on second, nobody out. He's going to get him to third. So the biggest thing for Colt Keith for me is playing time, though.

There's so many infielders on the Tigers. I don't know where he's going to fit in. I mean, Gloucora has accepted that qualifying offer, which to me was a little shocking, but now you have him back at second base. you've still got Javier Schorpe slash Kevin McGonigle. You got Zach McKinster, who as much as we like to joke around, was an All-Star and won a Silver Slugger last year. Like, great player.

Matt Veerling's coming back. I think he had the second highest war for position players on the Tigers in 2024. Like, that's a guy who's going to need at-bats as well. So where can Colt Keith get those at-bats? I don't know. But they gave this guy an extension before he made his Major League debut. So I know the Tigers believe in Colt Keith. And to be honest, I still do a little bit too.

I like you. I'm happy you mentioned Matt Beerling because I was going to say, that's the guy right there. He's the glue. Oh, I love the term glue, Trev. That's just Detroit. Oh, man, this is going to sound so, I mean, I'm just going off right now. Shaw McVe had an acronym for glue.

Glue guy, and he gave an acronym for G-L-U-E, and I'm going to remember it by the end of the episode. So tune in for that. Also, go check out James Norb. What do we got going? Warehouse challenges, warehouse games? What was the most recent one? You were playing

against AUSL? Yeah, AUSL softball players did real well. I had absolutely no chance in the box facing off against Montana Fouts. Were you guys using a real softball in the warehouse? It was a little squishier. Like it wasn't a legit softball, which I don't know. There it is. Felt not John Boy approved, but that's fine.

Sometimes we got to do that. You won't even let me play catch for the real baseball. And I'm like, dude, I'm not going to drop it. Right. Here I am hitting softballs. So, yeah, but it's been a lot of fun. So go check us out, warehouse games. And you're eating food on social.

media and people are ripping you. I'm eating food on social media. People are ripping me apart, but that's fine. It's neither here nor there. I'm going to continue to eat the food anyways because I like to eat. Not to give, spoiler, spoiler, spoiler, when you strike out Montana Fouts and then she basically is like, all right, you're about to get the work.

Get in the box. That was awesome. She wasn't playing around. She had that killer looking right. If you're not terrified of the USL girls, you should be. You will be. You will be. Thank you, Jimmy Nort.

Appreciate you. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Trev. We are now joined, fresh off the plane, Swilly from Arizona spring training. How are you? I'm good.

Like I said earlier, really, really sad I had to put on a winter coat this morning. That really just kind of sucks a little bit of the life out of me. But it's okay. Keep that winter coat out until about May. May. Yeah.

There's going to be one weekend in May that stings. Yeah. I'm just trying to, to be real with you. Just so you guys know, Jakey told me that we're probably past the worst of it. Now he just said keep it out until May. So he's lying to somebody. I don't know. I don't know. Trap. It's, hey, listen. Here with my West Coast girlies. I think, I think there's, I think there's still parts of June that can be cold. I'm telling you. I put it in a photo where you're just like, what the hell is going on? That's either here nor there. Exactly. No. I don't want to talk.

What's going on with our halos? Give me the, um, because we've, it's been a halo. It's been a Halo's off season. It has. Owners quotes to the signings to all of the Yankee people in the office bugging you about Zach Netto every day, which means he's very good at baseball. So what's you were just there? What's the word? Oh, geez.

I mean, there's so many different directions that I could go with that. Because like you said, some of these already quotes that we've gotten specifically in the last couple of weeks and with like the TV with the TV deals, no spring training games. I mean, it has been one of the Halo. off seasons of all time. But I will say, at least from the vibe that I got at camp, I mean, there's a lot of young guys there, you know, especially at like premier positions. So the vibes are always going to be good at spring training, you know, talk to Perry,

got to see him for a little bit. He's in high spirits, you know, did get to speak to my close personal friend Zach Netto and he's excited about the season. So yeah, I mean, I don't know. I think you have to point me in a direction because there's just so many different ways we can talk about this. the coach. Yes, that's exactly right. I love Redetmer's. I don't know if I called it a career year last year, but like, you know, shifts into the bullpen full time has a good year there. Now shifting back into the rotation. Is that a him wanting that or is that the angels being like, well, we kind of need you there? You know, I think it's kind of a little bit of both. I asked him about that last season and he said he really enjoys starting and being in the bullpen. So I think it's a little bit of both. Me personally, I'm excited to see, which I think we're going to talk about a little bit, excited to see how he pairs well with Mike Maddox.

I think that maybe hopefully he can unlock a few other things in his repertoire because we know we've talked about it multiple times. Reed Detmer's has the stuff to be a really good pitcher. And we've seen flashes of it. So yeah, I think it's a little bit of both, but I'm excited to see what Mike Maddox does with him. Well, I'm just, you know, another big buzz. around Angel Spring Training was the fact that they're not having radar guns there. He wants pitchability. He wants location.

He wants to focus on that. You're not too stoked about that. I think the collective pitching world as it stands now is not too stoked about that because Velo. Velo is probably king right now still. You can give all these other numbers, but they're still chasing Vilo more than anything. Sure. Did you get like anything more on that? Yeah, we got your receipts ready to go.

That's fine. Hey, you guys know I stand on business. It's all good. Yes. I will say that, well, I'll say two things. Number one, I do think that Velo is definitely king right now. However, I do think at least, I don't know, if I put my mind in the head of like a big leaguer or like a big league coach, I feel like that's probably not what they want, especially these young guys like chasing. They don't want them chasing Vilo.

They, you know, how like, who cares how fastball four is, whatever. the saying is, I don't know. And the other thing that I'll say is that, you know, I visited four camps and there were other camps that didn't have Velo showing up in their bullpens. So, I mean, they have, I mean, they have hit tracks, but they don't have like a radar gun set up so you can like see. Yeah, I mean, I agree with that. I, I am, I'm in that camp too. Like, look, like, most of these guys throw hard enough. Like, okay, like, if you can add one or two more miles an hour. Obviously the mistakes, we're able to get away with a little bit more. But it truly does. And this is, I mean, I've stood in the box. I don't know if you guys know that, Jake.

I don't know. Wait, really? Once or twice. Wait, when did you do that? Yeah, I know. It's a long time ago, Swill, don't rub it in. Long time ago. It, I mean, look, Velo's great. But if you're over the plate with Velo or you're, again, that's a Washington National saying, how I don't care how fall four is. So maybe we should care how. Fastball for it. When you're in the box, it is location. It's sequencing. It's tunneling.

Those are the things that make it difficult to hit. Like Velo, yeah, it is what it is, man. But you know, you can get on time. A big league hitter can get on time to Velo. So I kind of understand both aspects now. And I don't think coaches are chasing Vilo. I think it's like development in the organization, you know, maybe some of these off-season training facilities.

these they're chasing the Velo. But I do think you're totally right. Like if you talk to coaches and you talk to hitters and pitchers in general, they're like, yeah, like, I'd rather like hit my spot. I'd rather, you know, have the numbers I want on these pitches rather than just go and just throw it as hard as I can. Right. So I'm okay.

I'm actually like okay with it. I know it's getting just absolutely roasted online. But I do think the majority of people in the game are like, yeah, it's spring training. We don't need to care about that. that right now. Yeah, I think if it was any other team, it wouldn't be a big deal. But since it's the Angels, they like, oh, my God. Oh, my God. Whoa. So revolutionary. Yeah, exactly. So you got LOL angels a little bit. It's fine. I'm used to it. Then let's not LOL Angels. What? Okay. What's the dream? Like, well, well, no, but I mean,

I feel like I know the pie in the sky. Right. I know the goal, but like being real with yourself, coming into the 2026 season. Yeah. What's like the, is it all-star game where 500, like things are coming together? Sure. Is it loftier than that? Like, again, I just, I want your real thoughts on it. Yeah, I mean, last year after the all-star break, we were, we were floating around 500.

I think we were maybe one or two games under, one or two games over, something like that. So that was like kind of nice, kind of a little refreshing as an angel fan. I mean, I think the closer we get to 500, the better. I think for me, the big thing that I'm the most excited about, obviously just seeing our big guys or our young guys take big steps. So, you know, Zach Netto, Joe Adele, Logan O'Hoppy, excited to see what they do this season. I'm also excited to see Mike Maddox work with our pitching staff. Pitching is always the issue with us. We haven't really developed a starter in a really long time, like a good starter in a long time.

So excited to see how Mike Maddox works with the guys. And, you know, the buzz around camp too and other camps. is that Kurt Suzuki is making a pretty good impression as his first year as manager. So yeah, just excited to see what he does. Kind of a bummer that he only has a one-year contract. I think that has to do with the lockout, but I don't really know. Like I just, I mean, a one-year contract for a manager is like kind of weird, I think. So yeah, I think that the ceiling is like there.

I would love to see us get close to 500. but I also don't want to make all of these lofty expectations because when I do, then, you know, it's jinx or people are saying I'm stupid or whatever. So we're trying to keep things realistic. I would love to see us get close to 500. And you know what? With the way some of these guys have been doing it, spring training, and it's just spring training, right?

But I think the ceiling is there for a close to 500 season. Who knows? Baseball is a weird sport. So, yeah. I don't hate the lineup, Swill. Yeah. I really don't. I really don't.

I talked about Nolan, Seanwell. I'm like, okay, like, great eye. Like, probably needs to swing a little bit more aggressively in hitters counts, maybe some more power. You need that out of your first baseman. But as you go up and down, like, if Logan O'Hoppe can figure it out, he was like fighting with the interim manager last year. That's not going to be the case with Kurt Suzuki.

Right. So that's one thing you're going to get, like, you're going to get a better Logan Ol Hopi this year for sure. you know, if Joe O'Dell's real, like, can he be that guy? Like, you can, you can dream upon an offense here, I think. Yeah. If this, if this Angel's offense ended up being like a top, I'll say, I'll say 15 or above in most statistical categories, I wouldn't be shocked at all. It is that pitching and it is, that's the make or break of the Angels team, right?

Yeah, always. It's always the maker break. And I mean, I don't know. I agree with you, Trev, but obviously I'm a little biased. I think if you take the names and the team name off of the lineup, I think that you look at it and be like, oh, okay. That's not the worst thing I've ever seen in the world. But again, I'm biased.

So. Alec Manoa going to save the angel. Oh, yeah. Alec Manoa, who by the way does look like he lost some weight and he looks good when I saw him at spring. Again, it's just spring, right? It's just spring. So we'll see.

I am also excited to hopefully see like a healthy Grayson Rodriguez. And we also haven't mentioned, you know, the goat, Mike Trout. We haven't talked about him once yet. Yeah, we'll be the goat. He's Mike Trout. Mike Trout, Mike Trout, the goat. He's literally Mike Trout. Center field.

Well, we'll see. Teddyoso. Docio. Am I saying that wrong? Joe's McFly ruins this company. Joe's McFly calls him Teddy Ursa. If you know, you know. If you know, you know.

And so, really, I was just, it's a long baseball season on July 3rd last year, the Angels were 500. They were ahead of Texas, Boston, Cleveland, Kansas City. Like, so yeah. And you are right. Sometimes we angels them as a roster. Yeah. In a way they deserve that to a degree because of the organization.

But if Greyrod was on almost any other team, we'd be like, get some Greyrod stock this year. And that's just not the tone. Kind of. is the tone throughout parts of the season. Do you go one guy who's not a halo that you're just in on this year? Yeah, I mean, my guy, the last couple of years is Hunter Green. I love Hunter Green. I love watching him to throw baseballs. He's gotten better every single year. Of course, there have been some, there's been some tough injury luck there. But, you know, even this past year, we saw tiny increases in things like batting average against barrel rate and stuff like that. But that's just

because he's throwing more strikes. His K percentage is way higher. His walk rate is lower. And he, like we talked about earlier, he throws a ball very, very hard. So if he's throwing hard

and locating well, I don't see why he doesn't really, like, become a bona fide, like, top starter in Major League Baseball. Sheesh. Is some of his numbers.

He's, he's legit. He looks the part. He looks the part. He looks the part. A whip under one. Is that good? Like,

like, his Instagram is just, watches, cars, working out, a little bit of his dog, out to a nice dinner. Like, I'm jealous a lot of people. You should run your Insta like that, Coach. Yes, you should. I don't even have a watch. I think I have one watch that doesn't work anymore. That's even better.

Just post that like every other week. It's the same time every time. That'd be good. My broken Cartier watch I got for my 30th birthday for my wife. Oh, maybe there's another watch coming up. Swilly, what do you got coming up? I know spring training content. We've got World Baseball Classic content.

What else? Yeah, so spring training was a lot of fun, got to talk to a lot of fun guys. So that stuff's going to be coming out soon. We did two vlogs. Oh, look at us. Me and my close personal friends. Travis Darno and Kurt Suzuki looked the same to me. What's up with that?

Interesting. Catchers. Interesting. Yes. In that picture, at least. Rob's going back to it. Oh, Kurt will never have the chain pop. No, Kurt would never have the chain pop.

I mean, they both. So Travis Sarano is a Long Beach, Long Beach native. Kurt Suzuki went to Cal State Bullerton. So maybe it's there's like a little bit of SoCal crossover there. Just bad beards. Wow. I'm going to tell them that you said that. It always comes back to Southern California.

Oh, it always comes back to Southern California. And yeah, I don't know if me and Zach, notice you're laugh there. Nolan Aronado, another Southern California. Legend. That was really fun to talk to him. Harrison Bader. Harrison Bay to New York, baby. That's right, baby. That's right. That's right. He is like not as tall as some of the other guys, but he's like, but no, I'm saying he's like. Big presence. Yeah. Yeah. He's like Jack. Story. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Story Ellie. Brian Wu and I both get well done fries at in and out. So

we basically are like best season. So yeah. People hate on the fries at in and out. They're great. They're Great. People have better palettes. That's what I'll say. I agree. I do think that getting them well done makes them better, though. Yeah, you have to get them well done, extra crispy. People are just like fake processed fries.

Right. And then out like, yeah, we just cut the potatoes and fry them up. Exactly. Or like old oil, like old oil at fast food restaurants that's been used for days and days. It's like freshen and out. Like I don't know what to say. Cali. Yeah.

Represent. Of course. Take the five to the 405. Swilly. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. Always a pleasure, guys. We'll be seeing you.

Go Halos. Go, uh, have fun at the WBC. Thank you. Yes. Yes. WBC this weekend. Uh, so that'll be a blast. And then before we know.

You're Houston. Houston. Who else is gone? Me, jolly, Taylor Jackson, audio jack. Well, good group. Okay. Yeah.

Good group. Look out. Don't be jealous. Look out. Thank you so much. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. This show is sponsored by Better Help.

It can be tough to know where to turn when trying to handle stress. pressure, burnout, and staying sharp while things start to pile up. BetterHelp can help you develop healthy coping skills, set boundaries, and support personal growth. Therapy isn't just for major challenges. It's a tool for anyone looking to improve their well-being. Finding time for therapy can be a challenge, but BetterHelp is all online, making it easy to schedule and attend your weekly sessions.

30,000 therapists. BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served over 6 million people globally and an average rating out of 4.9 out of 5 stars from 1.7 million client reviews. And if your therapist isn't the right fit, you can switch anytime easily and at no cost. Prioritize your well-being with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.help.com slash talking baseball. Get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp.com slash talking baseball. Our closer for today, a special treat. You'll see some smiles from Coach Trev you don't normally see. Jack Doyle from We Got Isis here. Jack, how are you? I'm doing great. Forgot my hat

and both of my ear pods loose in my pocket. It's the exact start we won. This stinks. The exact is they're not charging and they're not in my ear. It's an absolute useless one. But the hair looks kind of good. We've been telling you that recently. Treves been proud of you. I know. I don't know if it was just maybe I knew I was going to see him on a screen. Ah. Oh, you stepped your game out. That's nice. No, I moved yesterday also, so that could be... Wow. My hats are in a disarray. No more zo.

Your hats? Well, with an S? Because I thought you just had one hat. I have a couple now we're grading up. We're in the same building. Oh, okay. Yes. Okay.

So you and Zoe have separated, but just by a floor two, maybe? We both moved to a different building. And we're both in that new building now. I'm top floor. Excited for that. Whoa. Yeah. It's actually worse.

It's a worse one, though. How are you, uh, Jack, this is This is a baseball show Since you've joined the company A, you guys, you guys, crank content on We Got Ice Yes.

You just filmed something with Eric Sims. Yes. Eric, that comes out today? It's out. It's coming out today at 530. Okay, so that's Monday, if you're listening on a different day. I guess where are you at

with your socks? Because I know between making content that sometimes watching a baseball game every night at 7 p.m. can be tough. Right. Your socks are kind of back in the hype game. They kind of were last year.

It went away a little bit. Where are you at with your socks? Well, for a while, I was going off of kind of the worst team ever to greatest team ever. So hoping for some really bad teams and then that they'd turn really good. That didn't really turn out.

We've been kind of mediocre for a little bit. So I'm hoping for an extreme. And ideally the good one. Yeah. Is that a good... I don't want them to be the worst ever. But I don't want them to be like a wildcard team with no spunk.

I can see that. I get that as like a fan. Like you want the best case scenario, but the worst place to be in a sports franchise is just like a middle of the road team. No direction. You're not rebuilding. You don't know you stink,

so you're not making any major moves. And then you're not at the top. So yeah, I agree with you. That's actually a really good observation of where the Red Sox have been. I had them in the World Series last year. That didn't work out.

I do think, though, that they're obviously with this roster, like much closer to that high-end potential. I still think, I can't, the Red Sox are my new Padres, if that makes any sense. I was so high on the Padres, and I just wanted them to do well. And they won 90 games last year. It is what it is.

But they haven't been able to get over that hump that is the Dodgers, I guess. But I can't, like, shy away from the socks right now. I just think the roster is that good. Yeah. I'm going to be looking for the culture. You guys talk about culture a lot. No more Breggman. No more Devers.

No more Breggman. No more Devers. Who's going to be? Are the younger guys now the sophomore guys? Are they going to create this fun thing? Especially growing up with the socks, it's like Fear the Beard thing. Like I like having a thing. Yeah.

So they need a thing. Last year I don't think there was really a thing. There was some stuff. There was stuff. It's been, um, it was weird. Remember the whole like Cora didn't care phase to start last season? And everyone was like, what the hell is that? And then he did.

And now, I mean, dude, it's the Roman Empire. Yeah, that's true. That's true. That's where everything's, because everyone's going to point to no Bregman, no Devers. But, I mean, Roman Anthony's that guy. Are you weirded out? Is he the first guy who's looking like he's going to be a stud that's younger than you on the Red Sox? Yeah, that's pretty horrifying.

Yeah, man. It's a bad feeling. I just wanted to do it on camera. And he's so much younger. So he's like young. Yeah. like 21 he's 21 he turns 22 like in a couple months that's shocking is he a we got ice fan have you crossed that bridge should be that's awesome i don't think so though i think he's been playing garrot crochet

just not like he he looks like the mountain from game of throne it's like is he not just taking over that clubhouse and like it runs through him usually i don't give that to pitchers is it like a crochet roman I don't think Roman Anthony is like the clubhouse leader right now. That's just not the case. Could he turn into that? Sure. Is, gosh, man. Like, Trevor's story is obviously still there.

He's the adult in the room. He's the adult in the room. And maybe you're looking at a Wilst Contreras coming over and like kind of planting the flag and saying like, I'll take lit Latinos under my wing. Like that's a thing. That's a thing that happens in clubhouse. I don't, I don't know, man. I get what you're saying about culture and like having something. They'll figure it.

out. Caleb Durbin's there. I mean, man. That's going to be your new favorite player, by the way, I think. The new Padroia? Well, I said that. People didn't like that. We got to stop. We got to yeah. Because he's short. He's short. It's crazy. We're comparing him to like one of the best second basement

ever. They had a very solid year. He's short. Yeah. And people don't see height I've seen. People don't see height. That's true. We just said that Dick and Harrison Bader have a big presence. Here's my ex-actor. Yeah.

Sorry for hoeing. Who's going to be playing ping pong in the clubhouse? Is Trevor Stewart going to be playing ping pong? I don't think so. No. So I think we're going to need, and I don't think crochet is either, even though he'd be, overhand would be really good. No, scary ping pong player.

Yeah. So I'd like, like a Roman Anthony, I think he could play ping pong. It's crochet versus Chapman and everyone else leaves during. Yeah. Then they're playing bad men. That is their version of table tennis. So that was your big, that was your X factor. Yeah, I'm just really looking for the clubhouse

culture and some good storylines early on. And all the numbers and stuff, I mean, this is a great program. I'm sure you guys will go over the rest. Thank you. Um, for my socks this year. So I'm not, I'm not even worried about it because you guys got it. I'm glad you're not worried about it. Yeah. Um, what do you guys have coming up? How was spring training? Um, I mentioned the Sims video. What else, what else for this year? This year is going to be exciting. Yeah. We're going to, more videos than it before. Just, oh. Nice. Rob is rushing. production over here. Yeah.

That's a picture of us. Rob Tranks. Yeah, this is an exit. We're doing a lot of collabs this year. I'm trying to tour around the country, strike people out. Really? Famous people, people who want it. Whoever wants to smoke.

Yeah. No. Okay. Am I playing with baseball? No. Whiffle. I mean, sure. I'll hit it.

Is it Wiffle? Is it Blitz? Is it real baseball? I need to know. Well, so far the format I invented for the sim video, three Wiffle, three Blitzball, seventh mystery surprise at bat. That's probably what to do.

So maybe sometimes the seventh mystery surprise at bat. will be real baseball. People don't want to want to see that. You saw my first pitch tour. I was throwing balls everywhere. You were a little nervous. I mean, hey,

you can get better as you get older, a little bit more confidence there. I was also gripped. Apparently, I was blacking out throwing two seam grips every, like I convinced myself the two seam grip was a four seam

and all my pitches were running away. And I was like, what's going on? I was doing two seams for all my first pitches for balls. Okay, next time we're in the warehouse, we're going to get you on the bump.

I'll get some grips for you. Yeah, that's a good one. That's a good strike. And then I'd get off the field. No, yeah, yeah, that was a mascot. Oh, my God. You look, you look like a 90s reliever there. Yeah.

Oh, my God. No. I thought you saw it already. Don't say that. That's a ball out of the hand. Uncompetitive pitch right there. Yeah, no, the worst part is when the stadium grounds. It is.

You think about it. Okay. Here's it again. Oh, we're running it. Oh, there's Chris Rose. We don't have to watch this. Yeah. Oh, no.

Side by side. All right. Well, we're, I'm excited for you. I want, um, ooh, this is interesting because I was going to say I want the Red Sox to be good. And that's a dangerous, dangerous phrase for me. Kind of what you're saying. Like, A, Yankees, Red Sox running in Toronto last year.

Yeah. What the hell? Baltimore's going to be back. It's a tough division. Rays are actually like, they have a chance to be the raise again. Like me and Trev had the same exact reaction. Trev like got giddy. Really?

Just because they just torture you when they, when they play raise ball. Like since you and Zoe have been in our office, the Red Sox haven't been like the socks. Right. Like you guys haven't gotten to walk in here tall on like a Monday morning. Like, hey, all of you Yankee fans, shut the fuck up. Yeah, yeah.

It's close. Last year. It's close. If Sharon Duran squeezes that ball. Drake May. Drake May. I don't want to get into that. We don't need to do that.

Jack Doyle. For those that don't know, go check out the We Got Issa. Go check out your Instagram. You've been messing around with some stuff. I've been messing around on Instagram with reels and posters and normal posts and stories and all the stuff over there. Treb's going to start posting watch content, he said. Really? He only has one.

So I said that would be great. Yeah. That would be great. You can't wear a tube because you have to hold the phone with the other hand. Yep. Subscribe. Thank you, Jack. All right, Trev.

We got a lot of baseball. and they're from a lot of different people. So if you guys like that, again, I know a few of those people haven't had a lot of talking baseball time. So give them some love in the comments. We appreciate it. Trev, there is one more thing that happened in ball that I think you and I need to give some love for and pay our respects to.

Max Scherzer is back with the Toronto Blue Jays. It's our traveler check-in brought to you by Best Western. Highlight one player on the move or not on the. the move. When he originally moved there, we were kind of blown away that Max Scherzer was going to Toronto. We were like, what is this? They go to the World Series. He's a big part of it.

He nuts to guts in the postseason for them. And Mad Max, a guy older than you, Trev, is back pitching for Toronto. I don't know how I feel about it. I think it makes sense. You know, we've got a couple guys going back to, I mean, Verlander going back to his

roots, shirts are going back to where he ended last year. A good debt piece, yeah, the last we saw of Scherzer was in the playoffs and we were both kind of questioning like what kind of role he was going to have and he ended up, you know, I think he ended up on five in his start, which is insane because he just hadn't been doing that. I don't exactly know where he's going to slot into this rotation, but the baseball season finds away. He's turning 42 this year, Jake, so yes, he is older than me. But I mean, you got to love Max Scherzer, even if he's just around your team, if he's

He's just helping the guys out with his wealth of knowledge. And yes, he's going to give you some meaningful innings this year. I think it's a no-brainer for the Toronto Blue Jays. Yeah, it'll be interesting. I mean, right now you see five in their rotation with Gossman, C, C, Savage, Barrios, and Cody Ponce, who we've been excited about. Lauer is still there. That's a guy that's thrown a lot of MLB inning.

So you're going to need innings to get through the season. I wonder, because we talked about this, We talked about this with the Mets a little bit earlier that it's like, hey, we, you're going to need the innings that, you know, you've talked a lot how starting pitchers, you know, they need routine or do they? And like, I don't know if you could find a way to distribute, whether it's a six man or it's not a six man or I wonder if we start seeing more piggyback days where it's like, hey, if you're a starter, get prepared.

Like, you're going to be the first guy in in the bullpen and we might get thwart. three to five innings out of you. I don't know. It feels like that could be part of the next step in pitching. If they end up doing that, Scher would be the one that starts. I don't think at like his age, like the time that he needs to get ready, it's not fair to him to be like,

hey, you're going to go in whenever this guy's done. It might be in the fourth, might be in the sixth. I don't think they'd do that. So if you're, if Toronto is thinking about doing some piggyback starts, he would be the one that starts and then kind of gives what he can give. We'll see. again, it's baseball finds the way, man.

You know every single team knows. Yeah, you might have five. Might have six starters penciled in there, but injuries happen. Again, he'll find his way into, I'm going to give him, I'm going to give him 75 innings this year. How about that? 75? Interesting. He threw, last year he threw, I had it right here, sorry, he threw 85 last year last year,

and he threw 43 the year before. so I'm kind of going a little bit. Maybe that's low. It could be tad low. 85 last year plus the postseason. Glad that we still have one of the best to ever do it in the sport. Speaking of the best to ever do it. Best Western, life's a trip.

Make the most of it with Best Western. And yeah, thank you guys again for letting us do this episode. We love, you know, given some of the other people to Mike for a little bit. You know, and if it's a big game, me and Coach Trev were taking the ball. Like that's it You're gonna have to rip it out of our hands We will be back Wednesday What do we have planned Wednesday?

I know but I forget Breakout players Oh shoot Get ready people Subscribe Jake sucks You think I was ever on like a breakout players list I don't think I was

Oh definitely dude No First round pick Exit Velo couple years man did coach I mean that I need that my son is leaving to a sleepaway camp I'm feeling I'm my feelings right now so I need some some love