Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Late-Inning Heroics Spark MLB Weekend!

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

https://fanaticsmarkets.onelink.me/3MFw?af_xp=email&pid=jomboy&af_dp=fanmarkets%3A%2F%2Fhomepage&af_channel=partnerships&af_click_lookback=7d Start your free online visit today at https://Hims.com/talkin for your personalized ED treatment options. Visit http://sofi.com/Jomboy to start your crypto journey. Go to http://shadyrays.com  and use code TALKIN50 for 50% off 2+ pairs of polarized sunglasses. Book your next trip at https://www.bestwestern.com Use our code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKIN2026. Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount   Coach Trev and Talkin Jake recap the late-inning heroics throughout MLB including, Nico Hoerner and the Cubs sweep, the Braves continuing to dominate, Dodgers not sharp in Colorado and more!   0:00 Intro 5:10 AL Burn 10:10 AL Standings 11:30 Guardians / Orioles 15:00 Mariners / Rangers 19:38 Cardinals / Astros 22:00 Yankees / Royals 26:30 Tigers / Red Sox 33:20 Padres / Angels 36:15 White Sox / A’s 38:20 NL Burn 45:00 NL Standings 48:00 Mets / Cubs 50:47 Braves / Phillies 57:00 Rays / Pirates 1:02:30 Reds / Twins 1:05:45 Blue Jays / Diamondbacks 1:08:37 Giants / Nationals 1:09:45 Brewers / Marlins 1:12:30 Dodgers / Rockies 1:13:15 Standout Performances 1:20:15 En Fuego 1:24:55 Batters who are struggling 1:28:30 Awards   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. A couple teams are smoking hot. A couple teams are ice cold. Either way. Blaze it, baby. 420. Let's talk ball. Come on. Come on. Who am I? Gavin Williams. J.P. Crawford. Why not? Oh. Hello and welcome to talking baseball. Presented by Fanavis. We're fans trade on sports. Fanatics markets available now on the App Store. I'm Jake Storelli. That is Trevor Plouffe. Rob Chiracos producing, Dalton Feeley, putting together the stats info and love.

Hope your team had a good weekend. For some of you, you did. We got a couple five-game win streaks on the board. We also have a very bad losing streak that will probably be talked about in the National League. that has hit has hit almost must-watch levels in the worst way and just a ton of guys who bawled out

or didn't ball out this weekend. Speaking of one guy who did, Trevor Plouffe, how are you? Jacob, Jacob, Jacob. It's great to be back in my seat, taking back my throne from Jolly. Thank you Jolly for filling in for me on Friday. I did win over the weekend as well.

I am a fan of one of those teams that's on a losing streak right now. So, you know, I don't really appreciate you starting the show off like that. Hey, man. But I can't wait to talk about your Yanks and some of the other teams doing really well. The Diamondbacks doing Diamondbacks things.

J.P. Crawford on 420. What are we doing here, people? You know, new segment, a little live producing by me. This segment's called comments from last episode. Movies rule 2011. Trev was never a 162 guy. JP and Danny

They're managing Treves Load That one The comments did good The comments did good I'm glad you're back Jolly um You know Jollywood's just a lot these days Uh and by God

What is good Jollywood's pretty good That's stolen from the office Um And yeah he joined At what he thought would be the low point of the Mets season But who knows who knows right now because it's um it's entered an area we haven't seen a lot um especially with

the expectations that team had for them uh anything before we get into it coach what do you mean by that i feel like you're leading you somewhere i'm not i uh well one missed you um do you do you want to share your good news with the people i i didn't share what you did uh over the weekend but it's that's that's fine yeah I was invited to play in a member guest tournament, a golf tournament. And I'm not like a huge golfer. I like to do it. I don't do it a ton.

But we ended up taking the whole thing down. And it was cool because I told you guys before the show. I haven't really had like singular pressure on me. We're actually felt it in a long time. And you know what? It felt good and I liked it. It wasn't like a nervous like pressure. It was like a fuck yeah.

pressure. I think everyone needs to get the competitive juices going in some aspect of their life. Yeah, we were joking before about our warehouse games where sometimes you get a good version of that. Sometimes you don't. But happy for you. And, you know, you an MVP. And now you're the MVP. Let's just say he took another MVP last year and they couldn't get the job done.

Oh. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. I'll let you guys figure out who that is. But we did. It was Stafford and Vic last year? Close.

Not too far off. Congratulations. It's, yeah, pretty good. It's a win for the talking baseball family. Yes. Family. One of our social. Because I kind of teed it up because I didn't know how much you wanted to reveal.

Put the picture up. Rob, I don't care. I told our socials guy reached out and he was like, hey, what the fuck is Trev doing? And I was like, I told him, and he was half excited. And I was like, dude, it's with MVP won hoisting hoisting trophies. That's special. Yeah, a lot of interesting people there. In the world.

Let's talk ball. Congrats. There it is. A couple Vesper martinis in the trophy. Is that what I'm seeing right now? Yeah. That's classy right there. That's classy.

Kyle's going to be so happy we have that up. That will be on social media very soon. All right. Today's episode is sponsored by Shady Ray. Shady rays are built for real sports fans. No more squinting through the sun to track a fly ball when you already have sunglasses own. Shady rays, their polarized lenses,

let you track that fly ball, the scoreboard, the ump blowing the call. And the lightweight frames won't slip, whether you're at the ballpark, golf course, or watching the game outside on the football. patio and the best part. Shady Rays has their loss and broken protection. If you lose or break them, even right after you get them, Shady Rays replaces them. No drama, no stress, no replacement guilt, just a new pair headed your way. We have also teamed up with Shady Rays to bring you an

exclusive offer. Head to ShadyRays.com. Use code talking 50, 50% off two or more polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the Shades rate of five stars by over 300,000 people. Because it's Monday, and you're a champion. Let's talk the American League. And it starts with an ALCS preview question mark. Guardians in the Orioles teed it up for four. A game that happened but didn't exist yet, Parker Messick, no, no, into the 9th, gets broken up.

And then the Orioles almost spoil it. They did the same thing to Yamamoto last year. Impressive start by Messick. He's had an impressive start to the season. want to talk about him a little bit. Orioles won that second game. Bibi and Bassett both needed bouncebacks, and they did. And then it was guards ball the rest of the way.

Juan Burritos diving all over the field. Guardians jumped out to a big lead in that final game. Playoff, Rokio in April? Cleveland takes three out of four. The Mariners take two out of three from the Texas Rangers. The Rangers have some demons with these Mariners, but they did it on game one when they won a who-woo, 5-0. Brandon Nimmo leadoff Homer.

There's a little copse joke. Jacob de Grom, we've talked about him a good amount, and we're going to talk about him more because he's been great. Mariners, they snap a four-game losing streak, and then they win the series. Luke Rayleigh is destroying baseballs. Rob Reff Snyder was not destroying baseballs and then destroyed his first one of the season.

Randy Rosa Rana. being a little slutty. He went pole dancing. Mariner's take two out of three. The Yankees, they sweep the Kansas City Royals. Snaps for my Yanks. A couple young studs here. Cam Schlittler, Ben Rice, Will Warren. Ryan Weathers, how are you? comma, comma, the royals are in the bad place right now. There are some body language that you don't love to see that they have the worst record in the American League right now. That is not what we expected. Yanks get the sweep.

Tigers and Red Sox are finishing up a wraparound series today. Buckle up, I think, is it Marathon Day in Fenway? They're playing at 11 a.m. Sox, they want to walk off in the green jerseys because that's how they've won every game. They've won. Not a joke. Seven wins in the Friday greens. Seven walk-offs.

insane after a great pitching duel. But then it's been Tigers. Scoobel and Carrie Jesus was a carpenter with a big blast. And then what is going on with Garrett Crochet gets knocked around again? Tigers with a chance to take three out of four today. The Cardinals, who wouldn't be American League without them, they bring the broomsticks to Houston. Did you have that before the season?

No, but you might have had it now because Houston, cannot pitch. Although Mikey Burroughs got off to a nice start, but everything outside of that was just not good enough. Mason win, winning on and off the field back in his hometown of Houston. He has a big series. The Cardinals and the NL Central right now, everyone is winning baseball games. Nolan Gorman putting it together.

There's a lot of guys in St. Louis putting it together. Yordon, Yorda, Yorda, Yorda. Otherwise, it's. been kind of tough in Houston. The Padres, they face the Angels. What a chiller series in California. Jose Soriano is putting everyone on ice right now. Five starts, five wins.

ERA is 032 maybe. Unfortunately, it was Padres the rest of the way. Ramon Luriano and Tatis each drive into in that middle game. And then a little pitchers do well as they survive on getaway. But where were you when Walbert Urania came up? My God, he's kind of nasty. Final American League series, the A's in the White Sox. Oh, fire me up.

The White Sox take two out of three. Davis Martin putting together a couple nice starts. Colson Montgomery is back in hammering baseballs. And by the way, Murakami looks like he can play. I only say that because he went over the batters eye in center field. some fun moments in this one. Then he got fooled on a curveball and went yard. I don't know.

I like what he's doing. White Sox, take two out of three, and that's what happened in the American League. Come on. That a boy, coach. I mean, Murakami, lean back on a few. It's real, real nice. Little Joey Gallo numbers right now.

A little bit. You know, we'll talk about that. I have the standings. I know you want them, and I'm starting to think about a Yordon Alvarez trade. What does that mean? for Houston. In the American

League, I'll give your Yanks their flowers out east. They are on top of the division. 13 and 9 for them, 12 and 9, just a half game back, are my Tampa Bay race. Playing the game the right way, Jake. Sometimes. Sometimes they do.

Baltimore, my goodness, 10 and 12. Boston, 8 and 13 in Toronto, 8 and 13. My preseason like ranking, out the window right now, coach. They're tough. Don't bring him up, Bob. Don't you dare. In the central, twins had a nice run at the top.

We had a nice run. Yeah. It's over. The Guardians 13 and 10. The tiger is 12 and 10. And my twins. Back to twinning, 11 and 11. White Sox 8 and 14 and the Royals, as you mentioned, man.

7 and 15. Worst record in baseball with the Mets of the National League. Out west, this one's a doozy, man. The A's 11 and 11. The Rangers 11, 11, 11, 11. The Angels, 11 and 12. The Mariners 10 and 13, and then Houston, just as we all thought, at the bottom of the barrel, 8 and 15.

Those are your standings in the American League. Can't wait to talk about these series with you, Jake. Well done, Coach Trev. I think we'll start off in your Centrale, like we did through here. Guard dogs baseball And I look at two of the starting pitching performances Parker Messick Who I don't know

Gavin Williams' final line almost looks better than his So that's those are two games And then in that final game, Jose Ramirez, two homers along with Rokio Let's talk Messick a little bit Because he's kind of been the breakout Pitching star for them Gavin Williams happened last year

Messick's been the guy this year Watching him throw in that game I don't know if this is a little corny. There's a... Trev, you call me out if you want. There's a little scoble in that motion, like just the way he flails a little bit. I mean, I think he sits 95-96,

but that looks like what he's copied. It's just a lot of, you know, arms and legs and body kind of coming at you or as a hitter, like you don't like that. You want, like, a nice, easy, smooth delivery because you're able to kind of, like, sync up with that in your rhythm and your timing. but when a guy is kind of a glove up there,

kind of like, I don't want to call it like, it looks like he's going full throttle every pitch, but he's not, just like the body, the way it comes at you is that way. It does make it just tougher to see the ball out of the hand. Then when you got, you know, four or five pitches that you can throw for a strike like he does,

and he becomes very difficult to kind of, you're going to see swings like that on some of these pitches. I mean, he's a real deal pitcher. He's got stuff, but he knows how to go in and out of the zone when he needs to. He can fill it. He can make you chase, and he's got a pretty good defense behind him, too. Yeah, he just says Rob's rolling the tape there on the YouTube.

He saw J-Ram make a patented backhand play, Stephen Kwan at the wall, as he's moved to center field this year, people forget. Yeah, I don't know. I guess the other thing for me this series, Jose Ramirez, 28th career multi-homer game, that's the most in Cleveland history. Six homers and ten stolen bases to start the year. Since 1900, only eight other players have done that through their first 23 games.

And yeah, it's just a talking baseball tradition going back to the start of the show being like, hey, Jose Ramirez probably is a little underrated because he just does the same thing every year. Yeah, and, you know, the beginning of this series, all the kind of usual cast of characters was doing it. Rokio, Schneeman. Brito had some hits, and then, you know, come game four, when you're trying to win the series, you get a two homered day by Jose Ramirez. And Cantillo looked good as well until I believe it was like the fifth inning.

He ended up giving up some runs. But they've been getting pitching, they've getting timely hitting, and then you get every once in a while, not every once in a while, like a bunch of times, a Jose Ramirez game like that. And that's just kind of how the guardians do it. And snaps to our guy Austin Hedges. Oh. proposing on the field in his uniform. Why not?

Nothing he can't do. One of Chris Rose's baseball, love children. Yeah, and hey, we'd be telling a very different story because with all of that, with special pitching performances, with Jose Ramirez, I mentioned Juan Brito on the way through.

If he doesn't make a big play in the ninth inning of that first game, we could be telling a very different story. Orioles, a little hiccup for them, but it could also be, in Cleveland facing those guys, they do that to a lot of teams. The Seattle Mariners take two out of three from the Texas Rangers. I mentioned that Seattle has been a little bit of a house of a horse,

excuse me, for the Texas Rangers. Just make sure you get all the vowels out, little guy. Wow, Texas recorded their first shutout in Seattle since September of 2022. We had the nailer being thrown out at home on this play, which if you're looking for comical sends, we've got one of those. Nimmo has been amazing for the Texas Rangers, former Met. He texted about this play right away.

This send is tough. I mean, like, wait, what? Really? Like, when you have to pump the brakes and not even make it to the plate, that's a tough set right there. What happens there?

I think it's like, hey, we're down to nothing. I believe this was two outs right here as well and it's just like, let's try. Let's like surprise the left fielder. Yeah. But like when you have the ball, you're a big league. You're saying, oh, like, I have to throw the ball 150 feet. It was shallow.

Naylor doesn't run the basis. That was a tough one. Hey, but it doesn't matter for Seattle because it came back and won the freaking series. Does not matter. I mentioned Luke Rayleigh. If you like a majestic home run, He just hit an absolute beauty the other day.

And Brian Wu back on his quality start train. The Texas Rangers have not won a series in Seattle since May of 2023. The Rangers are 10 and 40 at Team Mobile Park since 2020. That's atrocious. And that's a team in your division. You play there a lot. We talk about Brian Wu in the last game, but George Kirby has incredible numbers versus the Rangers.

12 starts 74 and a third to a 133-E-RA. If you don't like that, how about the 0.83 whip? How about that? I do like that. You do like that. I do like that. Bob Ref Snyder getting off his 0-4-18,

hitting a homer off McKenzie Gore. He gives up a couple. And yeah, the AL-West standings right now is not what you or I had to start the year. That it'll be, I mean, right now the Rangers and Athletics are on top at 500 that C. Seattle still kind of fine, even though it hasn't been their ideal start. They have a positive run differential.

Houston, on the other hand, I don't, I'm still not quite sure to do with because, godly, it is. It's a rough watch. We're not there yet, but it's looking old, and it's looking like they're going to have to score a ton of runs, and they don't, I don't know if they have that in them. I mean, they've been scoring, and it's still. Yeah, it's, it's, yeah. Second in runs, but 30th in ERA, that's your net net.

To keep that up is tough. Behind every game, having to come back, all those things that adds up over the season. It just becomes more and more pressure on that offense. Once they trade Yordon, we'll see what happens. Well, we might as well, we're already there a little bit. We could come back to the ALE Beast. It's a lot of Yordon who's leading Major League Baseball

in home runs, who's leading baseball in RBI, total bases, pretty much whatever you're looking for, a 1.26. He's a sicko, dude. He's a sick puppy, that stadium. I'm just joking about him being traded, but I also started to really think about it, too.

He's got two years left after this at 26 million per. He would fetch, he would fetch some prospects or whatever you wanted. I mean, this guy is. essentially a top three he's a top three hitter in all of baseball. Do you have that at all? That was just a weird thought before the show started. I was kind of looking over some numbers.

I saw that he had the two years left. I'm like, okay, where are the Astros are at now? And then, like, I don't know, I don't think they have a ton on the way. And they are an older team on the field right now. Like, would that happen? They don't care about keeping people. They never have. Yeah.

Yeah, the sicko thought was, you know, where do the Dodgers? slide Yordon in the lineup. But that's, yeah, that showhag idea. Bring him home. Bring him home. Bring him back. That's right. I mean, the story in Houston should be St. Louis because they swept.

They've been playing very strong baseball. My Cardinals that I've hitched up on their wagon partially because their coaching staff flirted with me at winter meetings. And partially because you looked at the roster and it's not bad. I'll tell you what. I've been very impressed. They've got a lot of guys walking in their lineup, Weatherhole, Herrera, Jordan Walker's been one of the best players in baseball,

that they're kind of a grindy team right now, that if they get a pitching performance, which their pitching stats on the whole aren't great, but they're doing enough to be the 13 and 8 St. Louis Cardinals right now. Yeah, I mean, they've done it kind of in different ways along the way. some of the some of the young guys come up and doing you mentioned weatherholt he's you know playing good defense and that's kind of like a theme of this entire team i believe right now they are the best defensive team in all of baseball which is you know when you go a little bit younger like they they have

sometimes that could be a good thing sometimes that could be a bad thing but for them right now i mean that's it's kind of what they've relied on some timely hitting you know whether it's moving runners taking the extra base or getting a big homer in situations they've been able to do that kind of like spread it out throughout the lineup. And obviously you have a guy like a Jordan Walker and Weatherholt's been, I mean, really good for, you know, just coming up and, you know, in his rookie campaign. And then a guy like McGreevy kind of like when you get his starts with the way he looks, you know, he's been a guy that you can really rely on.

So it has, it's, it's kind of been spread all over the place with how they're getting these victories. But, I mean, talk about like a much more fun watch than what we've seen over the last couple years in St. Louis, and you always say give him time. Maybe he doesn't eat as much time as we thought. Yeah, man, it's just the ballplayer sniff test. It was like, okay, what if Weatherhole lives up to the height, Mason Wynn is a ball player. I'm not sure to what level. Gorman, ball player, Burleson, ball player, Jordan Walker, we hoped, and now he's been amazing. Herrera that it's like, okay, so wait, this Cardinals team can play. Again, the pitch,

is the fear, and it's currently not tracking well that let's see how that sustains. And Houston, man. Oof. Today's episode is sponsored by SoFi. For a lot of people, getting into crypto has always felt a little overwhelming. Trading platforms can seem complicated, and there's often hesitation around using unfamiliar apps instead of a trusted financial institution. But that's where SoFi comes in.

SoFi is the first nationally chartered bank where you can buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrency. all from one simple, easy-to-use app. With access to 25-plus cryptocurrencies on a federally regulated platform, SO-Fi offers the added confidence and safeguards you'd expect from a bank. The best part, it's all integrated into the same app you already use for your finances, meaning you can manage your crypto right alongside your checking, savings, and investments. And from now until June 30th, new SO-Fi crypto members can receive up to $1,000 to help kickstart their crypto journey.

Crypto is inherently risky and you need to make sure it's right for your financial situation. But if you're ready to explore crypto with SOFi, visit SOFi.com slash Johnboy to start your crypto journey. A little alias, what do you want from my Yanks or from the Royals? Because it's, um, Royals, weird drama with the Royals. I do want to give your guy Ben Rice. Do you have anything for him later? I do not. Okay.

So, um, I believe it was game one. Yeah, it was. walk is throwing so yeah Rob's showing the homer there first at bat he keys him on that change makes him look foolish

almost and then second at bat I believe that was or you know that later in the game same pitch goes back to it and he makes the adjustment like that to me

like those are like that's big time that's big league hitter stuff right there I always go back to there was a Miguel Cabrera versus

gosh, who was it? Was it? Was it Mariana Rivera or somebody? Gosh, maybe was Garrett Cole got him on a change-up? And then came back to it again later in the game and hits a homer. Like, it's just when you can make an adjustment like that in-game, it's really telling of what kind of hitter you are. And I think he's got four homer or four consecutive games with a homer. You guys have talked about him for a long time.

And he's showing up, man. Like, I'm tipping the cap to Ben Rice. He's probably been the second best hitter in baseball to Yordon. And yeah, man, there's a lot of the advanced stats. We're saying how unlucky he was last year. And if you're, you know, an expected Wobah type person, which does generally have the best hitters in baseball up there. I mean, Ben Rice is up there.

So it's been cool to see. He gets two homers off lefties, which last year he hit 200 on the nose against lefties with some slug. but that changes the Yankees outlook a little bit. A cool moment. Ryan McMahon, who's in the bad place right now, hits a game winning Homer in the game. Yeah, what was that Homer? What was that about?

What? That looked like there was a fan pushing that ball out. Like, when they showed the side swing of that. Angels in the outfield, dog. It looked like he popped it up to the catcher. He, um, there's popping that bad. He just haven't been running into things. Oh, come on.

from that angle looked good. Then they showed it one, just like right next to him in the other batters box. I was like, oh, my goodness. I'm happy for him, man. Yeah, he needed to feel something good. So do the Royals. And, yeah, not to knock the Yanks who Schlittler shoved,

Warren shoved, and weather shoves. The Royals offense right now. They're struggling with Velo, which is a really bad place to be. And it, yeah, I mean, the body language. by the third day was kind of like, get us the hell out of here. Well, two things.

I texted Vinnie P on our group chat that he might hit a home run every game and we got crickets. Yeah. That never happened. So I know that's, you know, they're pressing. They want to win. They're locked in right now. Sometimes maybe need to loosen up a little bit in those situations. But then we got the Sal Perez, Quattaro, like online beef that maybe isn't a beef,

but also like Sal. Yeah. Sal's a savvy vet. Like, I don't think he's just firing out a random tweet and just like not thinking about doing it. Right? Like, but also, why not just go in and tell your manager just exactly that? Like, it was a very interesting thing for me. And I know it kind of ended up, they say they're fine. They don't have a beef.

But this is a, that's a weird situation, man, in Kansas City. Yeah. I mean, hey, they're of the list of underachieving teams so far in baseball, Kansas City, the New York Mets, the Houston Astros, and then, I mean, probably the Boston Red Sox. They're, like we said, they're wrapping up today with a four-gamer, so they could get, you know, four-game split with Detroit, which normally when we talk about that on these episodes, you say, hey, well, all right, you know, couple teams, locked horns.

If they don't, they're going to have lost three or four, and they're going to have one of the worst records in baseball. I don't know. I think the storyline is the Tigers have kind of kicked into gear here. Ranger Suarez has a nasty Ranger Suarez-esque performance, which is what you want to see. I think crochet is the story, though. Like, it's, I guess, how worried should Red Sox fans be?

Well, the Vila was back this game. And I told Dalton before, like the twins said they didn't have anything on him they were sitting on some pitches it really shocked me if they didn't have something on him and then this game was kind of like in the rain misty a little bit cold like i don't know can you chalk it up to just two bad starts i think we might at the end of the season like oh yeah that was just a weird blip on the radar he was you know the location wasn't great um he typically like doesn't necessarily need that because the stuff is so good.

But, I mean, yeah, I'm still pumping the brakes on like, hey, there's something going on with crochet. I think it's just a too bad start. I tend to agree. And just an update. Talking baseball fans probably kind of know this. McGonigals just might be my favorite player in the league right now. The way he plays,

it just like, it hits a chord with me that I, I'm trying to. I'm trying to think of another player. Like, we're in a league of freak shows. And by his own accord, he is a freak show playing MLB baseball at this high of a level. But, dude, five foot not, it feels like everything he does. I just, I just like his batting stance. I like how he approaches pitches.

I like the way he plays. Like, every box he checks. Like, I wouldn't change a thing about him. No, he's, we talked about his swing. He's just like a pure type hitter, like nose down. on the ball, like going to put the barrel to it somewhere. Look at it. He's just right there. Like all over the strike zone.

A ton of plate coverage. Playing good defense. I mean, he's putting together some crazy numbers right now. I'm looking at the slash sign right now. It's 312, 411, 481 for the 892. This is a guy who's 21 years old, Jake. It's 21 years old in the show. It's nuts.

He has, it's like there's no fear. That's a good way to put it. No fear. Like I said, he grinds out those at bats. And like he'll foul the pitches off. He's just going to get the big part of the bat to the ball. That's it, dude. Which is like kind of all there is to hitting.

If you can do that, you're going to be okay. Somehow that's left baseball. Not our franchise. Like a couple, I know. There's a couple orcs that would say, you know, McGonical, we got to turn, we got to hit the ball in the air more. No. Let him do his thing.

Do that. I told, I told MVP about my idea to just not know anybody's age on my team. Nice. He loved it. Okay. So we're in. Okay. I would never know that he was 21.

Just a good hitter. Right? Yeah. You're just a good hitter. It's interesting. Red Sox, O and 13, when their starter. fails to complete six innings. Eight and O when they make it through six.

Okay. Seems like something there. I didn't know that the green jersey stuff is pretty crazy. Seven and five, all time. All seven wins have been walkoffs. That's crazy. It's nutty. It's one of those things that when you talk dumb baseball stats,

like how could that possibly be real? As Yoshita chops one to win a one-nothing game, Suarez and Mize out there dueling. Yeah. I don't know what to do with that. I saw our good buddy Jared tweet out about Yoshida. He said something like pants all the way to the armpits gets the knock to win again. Hey, there's a guy whose goal is to just put the barrel on the ball.

He does have those things pulled up past the waist. It's traditional. It's traditional. I mean, he's never got yelled at for sagging, you know. Did you ever get yelled at for sagging? your pants? No, I was not a sagger. I was never a sagging guy. No. Can I ask another thing? Let's start taking this off the rails. What's with people that just aren't trying to sag, but they don't have their pants and sometimes their undergarments

like over their butt. Some people just have their butt out. I'll tell you why. And I'm experiencing this right now. This is actually embarrassing for me, but I'm going to go because I love the people. when I was working out and like squatting a lot, I had a nice butt. Oh. And the butt kept it up. Interesting. And then I started running and like literally ran my ass off.

And I would find myself having to like use my belt a lot to keep my pants up. Okay. I didn't have the shelf. Right. So I don't want to shame, body shame if you got a flat booty and the pants are there. But I think that's a lot of it. Like, you know, the guys that you see with the exposing like that, I think they just need to squat a little bit.

You don't have that problem, Pop, you got a nice set of legs on you. I've got some nice legs. I'll agree with that. My butt should be a little bigger for what I'm, what I'm operating with downstairs. Rob, there was a viral foul ball the other week where a guy's pants. Oh, no, don't get, do not get that. We can't put that up. No.

We can't put much. But that's what, I guess that's what I'm, how does that happen? because that gentleman's pants weren't on. Because people don't use belts anymore either. Like we're a society now that's just an elastic waistband for everything. Oh, the decline of the belt. We need to bring back belts. Yeah, I wear, I wear belts.

I like a nice belt. Okay, I'm glad we covered that. Yoshita batting 300, 462 and 862 OPS. I think that guy can hit. Shout out Dylan Ding there. didn't even talk about him, just pumping crochet dead center right there. Again, that was kind of just like a missed spot. There's a little teaser.

Dylan Dingler might be mentioned later. Oh, I don't know. I don't, not me. I think it could be a Fuego type situation. Oh, holy smokes. It might be you. Sheesh. Red Sox are 2 and 11 when Yoshida plays.

Dalt from the top rope. It's not his fault. 21 when he plays? Yeah. He literally walked the game off. shout out Framber too. What's that? Bounce back start for Framber.

Yeah. I'm never been worried about him. Well, there was one time. Final two AL series, Padres take two out of three from the HALs. Jose Soriano is the Halo story right now. You know, has been the best pitcher in baseball. But Padres come through.

Mason Miller extends a scoreless streak. Jackson Meryl robs another home. that him or Tatis was going to get, that it's just like, what kind of freak shows do they have in their outfield? What else do you have, Coach? Oh, my gosh, I want to see this. Get up.

So good. They're both there. Luriano hitting lead off for them, I think, is interesting, but it's working. You mentioned, let's just get a little angels talk here. Soriano, yes, he's been absolutely filthy. This guy, Uranna, who I think made, he just made a start because...

They pushed Detmer's back. They wanted to push Detmer's back. Did they just find, like, this guy out of nowhere? It's Walbur. He's disgusting. Yeah. I had to do a double check because I was like, it's like, Urania. Is that Jose Urania?

And then I saw him throw a 91 mile per hour change up. And I was like, that is not. Who do we got here? Oh, it's Walbur. It's Walbur. You look good. He looks really good. It looks pretty freaking nasty, man.

A nice series for the pod. As you mentioned, Mason Miller doing it. Bogart's had a nice play up the middle. I don't know. The Padres, number one, first of all, shout out new owner, $3.9 billion they sold a team for, which that is, I don't know if the other owners, like I'm sure they're happy,

but at the same time their whole like CBA, like that's not a good start for them in negotiations. Oh, wow. Yeah. Point for the players, okay. A huge point for the players. A 3-9 vow. Whatever Forbes had their valuation at coming into the year,

they do those projections or whatever, definitely was not 3-9. Yeah. I bet they had them to something in that. We should try to find that out, Rob, if we could. That's massive for Padres fans, by the way. Massive for Padres fans. 3-1, Bill, March 2026.

3-1. So, I mean, 800 million. Quick, quick math on that. We're talking 25% above asking price. Oh, Stanford, man. I don't, Dahl gave a thumbs up.

I'm not going to try to crunch those numbers. Love that. Love that, man. 10 of 11 for the Padres, 13 of their last 15. They're running hot right now, man. second best record in baseball still. They're a really strong team.

Two teams that will be interested to see how they continue their success are, well, White Sox A's, although White Sox take the series. And I don't know, Murakami, I hit him on the way through. Like you mentioned, it is Gallo-esque. I think it's 200 on the nose. But eight home runs has him as one of the leaders in baseball on that. Man, when he gets it, that's a 98-1. mile per hour fastball, by the way, which we were told the Velo was going to be the problem with

this guy. He's a fun story that A's walkoff win was fun. Dallas Braden with some interesting, like the pitcher was in the lineup. Why didn't they walk to him? I don't, I'm also a Dallas. How does that even happen? Yeah. How does that happen? I'm, I'm sure they had, they had someone on the bench. They would have had the pinch hit, but then you lose your pitch. There's all sorts of things that could go there, but at least get him, make him make that decision, and then load the bases and have forceouts everywhere. And instead you just pitch to Max Muncie,

who's like a younger, better version of me, and you lose the game. Weird. Coles Montgomery, by the way, sneaky, I think five homers already. Like, he's just going to be a 30 homer shortstop, and we don't even talk about this guy? The power's ridiculous. I think we're talking about him.

I want to make sure we do because we got to, a lot of young, fun players, and I feel like he doesn't get lumped into them. Yeah, I think there's just a little bit of, I don't want to say fear. We're talking McGonigal. We're talking Weatherhole, all these guys, and I think Colson deserves to be put with them. You're not wrong. I think there's a little, yeah, I'm not going to say fear at all. I think it's a stud. It's just what level of stud he is. And yeah, he's in that boat. He kind of did it last year.

He did it. And we just, hey, if the White Sox start getting more pitching performances like they did from Martin and Schultz, we'll talk about them more. And hey, athletics, you're on top of the leaderboard there. And we have a fun one for you guys. If you missed it last week, we do our JM Football Combine. It's a yearly video. There's a couple videos. Our guy Justin Pennick and a bunch of other John Boy Media creators ran it back this year.

They've game to find. You got some silly stuff. You got some serious stuff. It's one of the more fun pieces of content. Jolly's involved in there. Make sure you check it out. There's a link in the description. Let's do some National League.

Well, the story of baseball maybe is the New York Mets because they got swept by the Chicago Cubs. It's an L-11 for the Metropolitan's. But let's give the Cubby some runs because they knocked it around the ballpark on that first game by Asteroos and Horner go big fly how do you like that? Ian Hap is a slugger these days. Have you seen that slugging near the sixes? That helped on that middle game along with Tyone and Carson Kelly with a big pinch hit three run homer and then it's one nothing Mets. It's the ninth

inning Cubs tie it. Cubs win it in the 10th another situation where they probably should have intentionally walk the bases loaded. It said Nico Horner walks it off because that's what he does. Mets are in the bad place. Cubbies, although that NL Central, get ready for the standings. The Atlanta Braves. Hey, more Mets hell. The Brave sweep, although I guess it's not pure hell because it's against the Phillies who are sneaky being covered up by a lot of the other bad teams. The Braves are absolutely rolling. 15 and 7, five game win streak, nine out of 11. And man, they made that ballpark look small a little bit.

Austin Riley had in the other way. Might hear some Martine Perez later. And Chris Salt and Pepper, Chris Sale? Watch your lips. Braves. Playing amazing. The Pittsburgh Pirates took two out of three from the Tampa Bay Rays. The only thing that could stop them was the rain.

On Skeens Day, Skeens was rolling. The Pirates were rolling. The rain came. Skeens was done. The Pirates were done. Rays end up winning that one in 13 innings, but outside of that, the Pirates take the bread game. Spencer Horwitz, interesting stat on him coming up. And we've got to talk about Connor Griffin, because you boys all over the place. The Toronto Blue Jays and the Arizona Diamondbacks played three. And the Diamondbacks won two out of three. They just keep winning series, man.

And the Blue Jays kind of doing the opposite. They salvaged that final game as they knock Ryan Nelson around. But Corbyn Carroll with the go-ahead grand slam off of Jeff Hoffman. And Mike Soroka, mad at me. I keep trying to put him in the bullpen. He's having a fantastic start to the season out of the D-BACs rotation. The San Francisco Giants win a series against the Nationals. They take the first two games.

10-plus runs for the first time this year. Drew Gilbert choking out the national. if you will. James Wood is a special player. I keep saying that every episode. Matt Chapman delivering game-winning RBIs. Nats shut them out on that final game. Michaelis and Andrew Alvarez, where were you?

The Brewers, they take two out of three from Miami, and that's obvious question mark, a little small ball, some Bad Marlins defense late that the Brewers win it with some big extra innings, offensive output. Brewers win that middle game. Bryce Terang, dude. I think I'm talking. I forget if I'm talking about him more later.

I don't know. He deserves to be talked about because if we're talking about Horner, what this guy is doing is just as special. Marlins, avoid the sweep. Javier Sonoha, all-story Ellie team, big pinch shit. Rockies take two out of three from the Dodgers. They have a wraparound series that finishes today. Glass now and the boys.

Max Muncie, the other one. They hold them off, but it's been a rock pile since, including a big offensive output. Mickey Moniac, you know he was involved. Let's see if they can win the series today. And then your best Western Road Warriors, it's the Cincinnati Reds who went into Minnesota and swept the formerly first place twins.

The Reds keep winning. Close games in this series. was no different. A two-one win in that first one. Extra innings win in the final game. They survived some great twins starting pitching, but it wasn't enough. Gino Suarez showing up at third base.

T.J. Friedel with a clutch hit. That is your Best Western Road Warriors. Life's a trip. Make the most of it at Best Western. That's what happened in the National League. Oh, twins, twins, twins. Bobba, before I do the standings, you to get Javier Sanoha's RBI from yesterday on Sunday.

We need it for Jake just to get them real aged up. But I do have the standings ready, and we'll start. Let's start out west in the National League. The Dodgers are still on top of the division, 15 and 6, but only a half game above those Padres who are going, man. I'm so happy the Padres are good. I want them to be good. I like it.

I still think they've got to figure out the starting pitching, but, you know, it'll be okay. 15 and 7 for them. The snakes, man, holy snikey. They're doing snakes things. We'll talk about it. 13 and 9 for them. The Rockies, after taking 2 or 3 from the Dodgers, so far 9 and 13, and the Giants who are just another,

I don't even know if they're a disappointment chick. Or they just are who they are. I got a little bit of giant stock. I have the slightest bit of giant stock. I might even buy a little more. Curious. Curious your reasoning. Need to know.

Me too. Just all Drew Gilbert and your choke fetish. Yeah, a little bit. In the Central, Cincinnati, 14 and 8, the Cardinals, 13 and 8 a half game back. The Pirates, 13 and 9. The Cubs, 12 and 9, and the Brewers 12 and 9. Every single team, at least three games over 500 in the NL Central. We've always been a central part.

No East Coast, West Coast bias here. In the NL East, the Braves, can't wait to talk about them. I think they're one of the surprises of the season, 15 and 7 for the. them. Nobody else over 500. The Marlins and the nationals, both 10 and 12. The Phillies. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, dude. Eight and 13. And the Mets who are on an L-11 are

7 and 15. Those are the standings in the National League. Please play Javieristanohas. Let's just get to it. Oh. Did you see it? Just jump there. I did see it. I mean, my guy's a grinder. In the teal? There's a reason he's on the All-Storelli team. I mean, just a foot off the play.

and then just watch the hip gyration at second base. Can we get it, Bobbo? Easy with the hip gyration at second base. And that's the National League starts with the 10 and 12 Marlins. Yeah, you can't hit it if you don't swing. Let me have this. And those Marlins unies, it doesn't get better. Three, two, yeah.

That's what, that's baseball. That's so good. We've got a couple teams that are aged up. I don't know if my New York Yankees are hanging dong after some hits, which is just insane. Have they been asked about that? I don't think so. I think it's kind of a don't ask, don't tell. The Dodgers have been throwing hips for years.

Who was it? Is it the Cincinnati Reds who were just thrust in at second base too? we got a couple teams that there's a lot of testosterone on the field. It just is. Let's rip the Band-Aid off because the Cubs and the whole NL Central, like you said, deserve snaps because every team is playing well. The Mets have become the storyline of baseball. The losing streak has hit 11.

Some of the betting sites are taking bets. When are the Mets going to win a game again? It's everything, Coach Trev. that I just want your thoughts on the whole deal. Which one? Cubs are Mets. Mets. Well, offensively just kind of non-existent. If we're being honest here, I mean, in this series alone,

seven total runs in three games. I mean, it's a little bit of everywhere. The starting pitching has not been great. Again, offensively hasn't been there. Defensively, a lot of mental mishaps, regular old airs, people playing at different positions that maybe they shouldn't be playing. It's starting to look like a flawed roster, which some people were saying, and I wasn't one of them, Jake. I said, these guys will figure it out.

I think these guys are good enough. They're going to hit, obviously missing Juan Soto hurts, but you got to be able to pick up the slack when you're big guys out, and they just have not been able to do that. It's become a very, very tough watch for the Mets. It's just nothing is going their way whatsoever. You mentioned, I mean, Devin Williams hasn't got to pitch a ton in this losing streak, but when he does have the, you know, the opportunity to close went out, doesn't get the job done.

It's just like, to me, that's one of the rougher things, too, is we know it hasn't been happening for them, but when you're in, you're ready to win a game and you have your guy in and it just, it doesn't happen. I mean, to me, that, like, that means it's going to continue to happen. That game right there on Sunday, when they had a chance to win it and they don't, I feel like it starts to snowball. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw 15 in a row.

Michael Conforto with a hit. Yeah, that's true. That's a little twist of the knife. Yeah, I, I'm not going to take. a victory lap yet. It's a long season and, hey, maybe you're getting it out of the way. Four teams in MLB history have lost 10 or more games in a row and made the playoffs the last 2025 guard duck. So hey, it's, crazier things have happened, but at one point you need to win a game. And then you got to figure it out from there and you got to get Soto back and you need Lindor to

play better and you need all of it to be better. I think that, the, what was it, in the last 11 games, 62 to 19. That's, sheesh. It's not competitive. So on the other side of this, the Cubs do deserve some snaps. Again, baseball can lead you down a good path and a bad path when you're getting a Carson Kelly pinch it home run to kind of open up that second game. That matters.

And yeah, it's a lot of impressive guys on the field that, This NL Central has become a ton of fun, and we kind of, we dreamt of days like this. It feels kind of real as the Cubs and the Brewers are tied for the last place at 12 and 9. Basically, you get three quality starts out of these Cubs starting pitchers. Cabrera gets one, Tyone gets one, and then Javier Assad is one out away from getting one, so that you got to love that.

You mentioned Ian Hap, kind of finding the power stroke, which is great, say Suzuki's still doing it. We were talking a little bit of smack up by Esteros before the show. Oh. Just about being slow. That's fine. There's a lot of slow guys. Was that during the show?

That was before the show. No, we're just him and Basayo. Like, both of them can hit, and they're going to need to hit a lot because they're not fleet of foot. No, not at all. Actually, Dalton brought that one up. You said Bessayo. I said the twins as a team. You said the whole twins team outside of Bucson.

Well, that's how it started. Yeah. But yeah, man, the Cubs looking good in a very tough division, apparently, which I didn't really have the Cardinals being as good as they've been. Some people had the pirates. I wasn't a super believer. I still iffy on the pirates, but it's looking, Jake, like we're going to have a hell of a race there in the Central. If you're into Fangraph's percentages, which a lot of you probably are,

right now it has the pirates with the highest odds to make the playoffs in the NL Central. It's a lot of ball to go and that can change quickly and it's very close to the cubbies. But just interesting to think about big stretch for the cubbies coming up. They host the Phillies, who we mentioned there in a tough place right now. And then they do a West Coast road trip Dodgers Padres. So we'll find out a little bit more about these cubbies in the next couple weeks. and they've had the injury bug, man. No Matthew Boyd, obviously Horton Steele.

Daniel Palencia on the All-Storelli team out of that bullpen right now. But they find a way. They find a way. They're a deep good team. The Mets infield right now. Let's just put Bady at first. Okay.

483 OPS. Marcus Siamian at Second Base, 606 OPS. Francisco Lendor, 600 OPS. Bobichette, 538 OPS. That can change. It can change. It needs to change, coach.

It has to. Sheesh, man. It has to. Soto needs to come back. I don't know. I mean, that's obviously a spark. When is he coming back? Is it soon?

I think soonish, but I don't... We need it. They need it. That can mean a lot of different things. Speaking of, the Phillies are getting their stink covered up a little bit by the New York Mets. and the Atlanta Braves are the only divisional team that have a real lead right now. They got a five-game lead in the NL East come 420.

They're doing it on all fronts. They're getting, whether it's Austin Riley having a first multi-homer game in about a year, Martine Perez, who I think you're talking about later, Dubon is putting, it's all clicking for the Braves. the Braves are doing like literally everything right right now you go to their fan grass page first and runs second average OPS that's good starting pitchers fifth and whip or first in ERA

whatever one you like that's pretty good relievers first and whip second in ERA they don't walk anybody either so you know they're not putting people on and putting pressure on the defense and then also the defense is great second and out's above average like they are literally doing every single part of the game they're performing. And they still got some guys that can get hot. I mean, this is just a very impressive start for the Braves. The pitching, obviously,

is probably the biggest, you know, I am going to talk about Martine Perez, but, you know, the pitching staff coming into the year with some injuries was going to be the biggest question mark, and they've been maybe the biggest strength of this freaking team. It's great to watch. They look good. The defense, some of Dubon's defensive stats have him. him as one of the best defenders. Like, the list he's on, it's all, it's like Bobby Witt is the best. And then, you know, Julio, a couple of other guys that you would expect. And then it's like Mauricio Dubon.

He's always fighting for playing time and he's moving all over the field that that guy is an asset. Phillies, it's, it's interesting, man. I think their pitching should be better. like they're not walking guys. They are striking guys out, but the ER and WIP are not there. I think the offense has to go, which we've probably said.

We've said that a couple times now, but it's what this team was built on. But we've also mentioned that middle of the lineup, it can be a little not what we remember it being with the Phillies that, I don't know. I feel like two years ago they got off to a slow start, and then they kind of kicked into gear, but they're waiting for the good things to,

happen. Felix Reyes, hello. I want to see something real quick. Perfect. Looking it up. Bryce Harper, decent start to the year, had a couple chances on Sunday's game, didn't really come through. I want to look runners in scoring position.

Getting it up right now. Where is it, guys? Scoring position, and we're looking for OPS, and we're looking, and where are the Phillies at? All right, you know what? They're doing better than I thought they were. They're actually 10th in the league,

755 OPS in that. Maybe batting average is better stat for runners in the morning position, right? It's an argument. Interesting. That they're 20th in. Seems to me like they need to do a better job of that.

Shelfi put out a video saying that he thinks every single game goes the same with them. They get out to a lead or score early on and then just get blanked the rest of the game. So something needs to change with the Phillies in that regard. Yeah, the offense has kind of been the Achilles heel for them, which I don't think will be a season-long problem. Man, they've lost four of their five home series this year.

Worst run deferential in baseball. So it's bad. They are getting covered up by the Mets, the Giants, Astros. But it's starting to get threat level midnight. They got a kick in a gear, especially if the Braves are going to be the best at scoring runs and ERA. Tai Wan Walker needs to get it going. He's had some first inning stuff.

They've changed his routine to try to figure out how to make him better in the first inning. Opener is obviously an option here. We'll see how it goes. The boo birds were getting loud. They should. They should be. Nice, Treve. Look at you.

Hell yeah, dude. Okay, enough of that East Coast-ish. Although the Tampa Bay Res and the Pittsburgh Pirates, I hit this on the way through with a lot of my thoughts. Again, if the Pirates sweep that middle game, which I think if a little mini-hurricane doesn't come through, it'd probably be a little more Pirates love. No, the Pirates continue.

There's a Spencer Horowitz, fun fact, and then I think Connor Griffin's defense is a topic. shout up Mitch Keller a huge day for him loved to see that especially you know a big bullpen game the game before would be able to come throw sevenings pitch and kind of hold the bullpen back

that's big what do you want to talk about griffins defense because it has been a little shoddy I do want to talk about the Chandler Simpson thing with him yeah let's do that then because I think a lot of people probably saw him do the whoopsie do dunkeroo where he spiked it And we watched that play and everyone was like, well, yeah, he kind of got ran into. And it was just a weird play that it was what it was. This one also weird.

I guess I want your thoughts before I give mine. I don't know where he was. Like, what are you doing? Why are you going that wide? Like, there's absolutely no reason to go that wide. When he catches the ball, he could just kind of plant his foot and go straight towards. He sees Simpson way out of the baseline to the right or to his left. And he kind of like gravitates toward him.

Like he just needs to plant there and go straight to first base. And instead he takes like an extra step out. Like why is that to me is the game just sped up on him like crazy right there. Like Simpson gave himself up. So people are saying that he went and took him out. Like no, he didn't. He gave himself up and Connor Griffin ran into him right there. As a short stuff, everything is in front of you turning in double play.

So you see where the runner's at. It was a good feed. and again you just got to get your momentum going towards the base, plant that right foot and go. And he just takes this extra step right here with the right foot. Weird. Yeah, I don't know if he's anticipating Simpson coming back towards the bag because he's out wide there.

He's so far out, like just stay in front. Like you get the ball here, go. Yeah, I mean, it feels towards first. Like you're saying Simpson's trying to do like the courteous thing to kind of be out of the way. and he ends up in the way. I think you're right. I think the phrase I would use right now for Connor Griffin

is that it's happening kind of fast out there right now, which happens for a lot of young guys. It's just going to be interesting to track. The light bulb could kick in tomorrow, kind of like Kurtz comma Nick last year, or sometimes it takes a guy a minute that it's going to be interesting to track because, God, if he does kick in a gear, the Pirates

The Pirates outlook on this season For me would change Like they're they're showing what they can do Their bullpen being strong I didn't have that coming into the year Yeah I'm Marcel de Barrosuna Starting to hit Pitching has been great for them

They're getting you know They got some guys really showing up In that lineup as well The Spencer Horowitz's stat you're about to read Is mind blowing to me 10 for 10 lifetime against Nick Martinez. Three doubles, a Homer. What is that? Don't know because Nick Martinez is one of those guys that throws a bunch of pitches. So, you know, like, it's weird to

be able to stay on a guy like that. I don't know. To me, he's not a guy that you would see someone go 10 for 10 against, but Spencer Horowitz is just, he's in sync. He's in rhythm with him. That's crazy. 10 for 10. I mean, that's near impossible. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what it is except you're just in rhythm with the guy. And I'm sure you can say, hey, his bat path matches up with the ball flight of Martinez. But it's more than that, dude. I keep seeing our guys, Eno said this.

And I don't know how to say his name, but Lance Brodowski. Okay. He's on Twitter. They keep referencing that past performance has no big. bearing on future performance against pitchers. I'm like, it does though. Right. It does, though.

It means something at the very least. Like, you could go up to a guy and say, all right, you hit this guy really well. And I have guys, I'm like, yeah, I do, but I don't know how. And those guys, I would say, yeah, future performance, not guaranteed. Some guys you come to me and say, you see this guy really well and say, yeah, the ball looks massive against him. There is a difference. And if you went to hitters, they would tell you which one it was.

And that is an indicator. And that does mean something. If you're always just seeing the ball earlier and bigger, it means something. So I got to push back against these guys a little bit. I know what the statistics say and they'll continue to go for that. I'll say it is case by case. There are some guys where you just know you're going to knock. No matter what.

Spencer Horwitz, a friend on Instagram, I just message him. I said 10 for 10 against Martinez. What the fuck is that about? So I like that. We'll find out. I want to hear it from the bear's mouth. The bear's mouth. Um, okay.

Okay. Today's episode is sponsored by Hymns. If something's been off in the bedroom, you're not the only one. EDI is more common than most guys think, and the difference now is that getting treatment is easier than ever. HIMS connects you with licensed health care professionals online, giving you simple access to EDI treatment options from your own. home. Through Hymns, you can complete a simple online intake and a provider will review your information to determine if treatment is right for you. If prescribed, your treatment ships directly to your door, discrete packaging that includes sildenafil, also known as generic for Viagra,

available through Hymns at up to 95% less than the brand name version. To get simple, online access to personalized affordable care for ED, hair loss, weight loss, and more, visit Hymns.com slash talking. That's Hymns.com slash talking for your free online visit. at hymns.com slash talking. Prescription required. See website for details and important safety information. Sildeneville is the generic version of Viagra.

Viagra is a registered trademark of Vietris, specialty LLC, Vietris company. Hems Inc. is not affiliated with or endorsed by Vietris Specialty LLC. Reds twins, I'll let you, I'll let you, Chef. I don't know, go Reds go, dude.

They're able to take advantage of miscues by the twins. A couple tough plays defensively in game two. I believe it was game too. Brooks Lee kind of boots one in the ninth. It could have been Friday as well. Forget which one that was.

And then Tristan Gray kind of has one go off his glove. And Austin Martin also boots one. So Ellie Day of the Cruz takes advantage of that. They did it. They looked like a good team, man. They got good timely hitting. Ellie's running all over the field. Sel Stewart looks good.

Eugenio kind of coming up clutch when he needs to. Kind of the only blemish on Joe Ryan's day. and then Emilio Paghan, former twin, just getting a couple saves, shoving it right in front of everybody. So happy for the Reds, sucks for my twins.

They have a lot of work to do, man. Even when they were in first place, that was another one of those things. You're like, okay, well, you know, a lot of season left, a lot of things have been going right. They have to figure out defensively

kind of what they're doing. It doesn't look good right now. I think that's a big thing. for them is and it's not like people are necessarily out of position because that's like where they've played but maybe they need to start thinking about other people at those positions without saying too much yeah i think reds reds right now are the if you're into expected wins and losses run differential essentially the same thing um yeah they're playing it over their skis right now. And that's because they're winning every close game they're in, which I'll say this

in defense of them. Sometimes there's just years where that happens. And Reds have been kind of looking for that year that, hey, getting this hot start. We mentioned when he first went down, like, what if this Red's team is 10 games above 500 and they get Hunter Green back? What if, you know, they've pretty much had two dudes going on offense? What if a couple more guys joined the party that, you know, there's been a lot of central bickering on this program throughout. out. I like all of these teams. Pirates was the team I was the most skeptical about in the NL Central and they are currently living up to their billing with more to it. So I'm fascinated to see where it goes, man. Like Cubs and Brewers bringing up the rear right now. They can do a little

bit of everything, the Reds. They can hit the long ball. They can steal bases. Game two I mentioned, Brooks League kind of boots a ball in the hole. They sack bunt. Day Myers gets a base hit. They take the lead. That's his, you know, so good fundamental baseball. Love, love to see it. Not against my twins, but, uh, yeah, they're a good watch, man. They kind of, they, they do, they do everything well. One of those teams. Tito, um, D-backs, Blue Jays, D-backs take two out of three. They continue to win series. Uh, they also have some, some run differential stuff. And, uh, but hey, they had that amazing East Coast trip. I mentioned, and Soroka and Aeronado has had a couple big games for them,

which they needed to see at some point. I guess the bigger thing is there Toronto worries? They're another team that the start is disappointing. A little bit of bullpen worries for them. Hoffman, you know, even last year during the year struggled. I think he turned it on during the playoffs, except for game seven of the World Series. he gets it the big Corbyn Carroll

Go ahead Grand Slam Which you know Corbyn Carroll's gonna get a lot of people But he yeah he's had his struggles I wonder what they do With kind of at the back end of that bullpen If that continues I mean Hoffman has shown flashes of being good

And then shown that you know Kind of homer prone to some degree So there is that I think it's great by them You get this happening I haven't a I have a word for this I told you

take the lead in the eighth and win it in the ninth I'm calling it a material change let it sink in for a little bit I'm going to because everyone's initial reaction is not great

it can't be like something funny it has to be serious it's a serious thing a material change how many material changes do the diamond bags have this year I think it works I'm going to leave my heart open

It's not loving it I want like a one word It took me a while to come up with that man I mean it's intense Let's keep going We'll keep going with it But to get material changed like that And then to come back the next day

And put up eight In the first this is the Diamondbacks life A life of a Diamondbacks fan I talked to Dalton about this all the time They can't play regular baseball games They had Corby and Carroll do it in game two, and they come out, and they have a starting pitcher that almost gets yes-hitted, as Dalton put it. Yeah.

Tough day for-day-runs in the first. Tough day for Rhine. Getaway game. Both teams take that. Material change. Everyone is. Jeff Hoffman could use a little material change. Schneider gives him a vote of confidence.

Let's see. Lord of Curiel Jr.'s back, which I remember when he got hurt. It was like maybe we'll see him in August, and now he's throwing guys out from left field. So that changes the environment. A little pina. Let's see. What else do we have, coach?

Giants, Nats, I'm talking a little giants coming up in a little bit that I'm a little clear of this series. Okay, can I wait to hear Giants talk? Can I give a little nationals talk then? Always. I thought it was really, a great managerial move. They went Michaelis to Alvarez in the last game,

and they kind of got the job done. And it was a weird spot to remove Michaelis. It was no runs. And four and two-thirds, usually a pitcher would be like, no. I would like to get my win here. Instead, he goes to the bullpen and they get the job done. I thought that was, especially for a 33-year-old manager to go pull out Miles, Michael.

who's a veteran. I thought that was... I don't know. I saw it. I was like, okay. Usually pitchers would say no to that, and he didn't. Give him one more. Yeah, a couple funny pitching lines this weekend.

What was it? The Royals game, too. Just two royals pitchers went four innings, which you just don't see that a lot. Maybe that's future baseball. Maybe it's not. Yeah. More giants coming up.

Brewer's Marlins. I'm mad. I was going to make... I mean, what was it? A Crow versus Junk. We've got a new Brewers pitcher to watch. Coleman Crow versus Jansen Junk. Like that's just, can't be doing that.

What did you see besides my guy? Sanoha. Sanoha took over the game. The Garrett Mitchell hit at the top of the 10th was a big one for them. Brewer's kind of taken advantage of some bad baseball. Augustine Ramirez kind of like whiff on the throw home from Xavier Edwards was interesting to me. I mean, you can't give the Brewers, excuse me, any sort of leash because they're going to take advantage of it. I wanted to see that one again to see really if I thought when I saw the play

initially that that ball might have cut out of Xavier Edwards hand because it looked like Augustine Ramirez was set up perfectly to catch it. I didn't mind his feet actually and then he just whiffed it. So I don't know if the ball cut on him or not. Yeah. If he won't make the double play, which I don't, you know, like, I don't mind you trying to set your feet up that way

because usually he waited long enough to kind of set his feet is what I'm saying. And then it just kind of, I feel like that ball cut. I'm not really sure. Yeah, I like what you're saying there. I mean, I think either way you kind of got to squeeze it, but I,

you got to make sure you get one right there yes but typically you know when you get that play you want to try to get try to get the two didn't uh didn't happen for them you mentioned bryce terrain just an absolute stud brand of woodruff absolute stud sandy was a little shaky here in this game in the second game um but yeah the brewers are kind of just they're right where they need to be Jacob miserowski kind of got a like he can be so

freaking good or he can just kind of like lose command it's it's I want to see more consistency out of him. I know he's striking a ton of people out, but we need more consistency with the command from him. I mean, Yuri, all freak show game three. And yeah, if you like a good breaking ball or a fun breaking ball, let's see what it is. Coleman Crow, what the voodoo he's spinning out of his hands.

Yeah. I asked my pitching guru, John Boy, he's like, I think that can work. I think that can work. Because it looks, it almost looks bizarre, a couple of them. Oof. Yeah, man. That's got, it's got some real, real bite on it. Look, I love the family, just absolutely going ballistics in the stands.

Jesus, grinding, coach. Dodgers, rocks, I don't know. Rocks are amazing. Go, rocks, go. Win the series tonight. Go, Rocks go. Not at all. Hey, Chicago, what do you say?

Dalton Russian keeps homering Kind of tough press conference after the game Weird weird quote about them Like it was weird they were swinging first pitch Or fishy he said It was a weird one I didn't love it I didn't love it

All right I want to talk some giants in a minute Road Warriors We gotta keep let's keep grooving man It's time For stand out performance This guy stood out for Trev I'm going to go with a guy who's been in the headlines

for a little bit on social media and also just for being a good player, Nico Horner. Three for five with a homer, two runs driven in. On Friday, also had the game-winning sack fly where PCA went into the stands and was partying. Got to love that for him. That was a lot of fun. But a guy who we have just kind of put into a box a little bit,

hey, the guy's just a good second, he plays a great defense in second base, and he can slap the ball around a little bit. How about leading all of baseball and runs driven in, people? How about that? A little bit of discourse online about how war is not a good stat for Nico Horner. I would vehemently disagree with that. I think it's the best stat ever for Nico Horner.

He absolutely got paid. and in a different era might not have. But that's for another day. I just think, again, we have him in this box of the guy can play defense and run the bases, and that's all great. But he's hitting 325. He's 3.45. He's 3.4.5.4.18 for the 920 OPS.

I mentioned he leads all baseball and runs driven in. Cubs are hot because of it. Yeah, I did a bit on Horner last episode with Jall because it's just crazy what this guy's doing. You know, when he came up against Crimble, Cimble, Kimbrel. It was basically wild, by the way, that that was the Mets option. I know he's been okay this year, but. Yeah, and it's just, I'll tell you what, the option on the other side is better.

Like, Horner, I can't believe they didn't walk two guys to load the bases like we talked about. Who would have been? It would have been the three-hole hitter? Yeah, so it would have been, it would have been Bregman, which again, you're, I don't know, it's not a great spot to be in, but at least you're giving yourself other opportunities than Nico Horner, who's going to put the ball in play off of Craig Kimball. And this is what- With PCA at third base.

Right? Like you're not giving yourself a shot. This is where, of the same note, Horner, I kind of, because of the off-season chatter and because of the start he's having and the contract extension. He's been a name talked about a lot. Dude, Terang also three, four, fiving. He's got a one dot OPS, leading the NL and on base percentage with four homers, with six deals. Like those two have been a tandem because Milwaukee and Chicago, kind of the punchy defensive second baseman. It's like, these guys are they're raking. Ballers. That's not my standout. And Bryce Terang is on the hot boy list,

according to. Yeah, you're in the doghouse for that. She got, yeah, Taylor texted me, not happy with him. Taylor's mad at you. I mean, I'm just throwing it out there. Throwing. Nope. Because then I get in trouble. I'm not doing it.

I'm not defending your actions. Sorry, Taylor. I don't think that's going to be enough. I mentioned I want to talk some giants, because I always do. And I'm going with Elliot Ramos. Yes, I get sucked in by Drew Gilbert's antics, boxing the manager, which you don't see a ton of that these days. Elliot Ramos, in this national series, he has back to, I mean, this is insane.

This is insane. Drew Gilbert's my favorite player. I love the shower. Has a good time in the shower. Yeah. 1,000%. Ramos, I guess the game you'd highlight would be the 12-inning win where he has three hits, Homer, double.

He has a homer in the game before that. He's picking up steam. After a slow start, kind of got benched. Had to come off the bench the series before against Cincinnati. This series, he's back in the lineup, hit in every game, two home runs, four RBI in that first game. And yeah, for me, he was playing with a certain energy I like. This was a big body language weekend for me.

The Royals, like I mentioned, they were just in a horrific place. My guy Yordon was in left field, and one of the homers sailed over his head. And we talked about, you know, sometimes how outfielders react to home runs. Look at Ramos there, slapping himself around a little bit, round in second. Yordon did a almost rude outfielder turn to his pitcher. Like he literally just slowly did like a lap around to make it look like he watched it. Yeah, I think we've hit the part of the season where if you're feeling bad, you're starting to feel real bad.

Ramos getting benched coming off hitting two home runs. Since the opening weekend, the Giants are kind of playing 500 ball. The energy, we're talking about Vitello with, or we're not talking. talking about Vitello, unless he's shadow boxing Drew Gilbert. Like, things have hit a level of normalcy that I'm not hating the product. The guys on the Giants who need to be guys on the Giants, that's the recipe. And Ramos is supposed to be one of those guys, man. So hopefully if he can get it on track going forward, they need Chapman to be Chapman.

He did a little bit of that this weekend. They need Devers to find his hot streak. They're getting some performances out of their pitchers in their bullpen. Tough ask with the Dodgers coming up at home. But yeah, I like the energy Ramos brought to the field after a series where he got benched. Okay. Ryan Walker, tightrope escaping that. That was great for them.

All I've kind of written the Giants off already, man. I will give them a chance. Just like you made me give Ali Marmall a chance. I'm going to give the Giants a chance. Hey, look at that, by the way. Yeah, we're still, you know, hey, Giants, welcome Yamamoto, Otani, Glassnow. And then that gets followed by Sandy and Yuri. So maybe I should be selling my Giant Stock.

Not yet. I believe in Drew Gilbert. Trev could have been a lot of guys here. Corbyn Carroll's go-ahead Grand Slam. Troy Johnson for those Rockies. Dingler, Eddie Giulien. Kyle Carroll's hit a homer. Shout out.

Absolutely. There's pitchers. Sometimes we don't give them enough love. Let's see if any of them are on Enfuego. Dirt Nasty's on Fuego. That means I'm on fire, baby. Like Waco. We're going to start in Sacramento.

You're humble. Sending. Which is a weed place. I want to go to Sacramento, man. I keep seeing fans on the grass. I don't know why you want to go. Because it's not going to exist in a little bit. Okay.

And right now it looks nice. It's not, I'm not saying like it's terrible, don't go. I'm just curious why. But that makes sense. It's a fleeting thing. You want to say you went to a game there. I understand that. Well, I'm talking about the other team that was there over the weekend.

Munataka Murakami, five for 12, three homers, and they were just absolutely majestic. He's homered in three straight games. The second time he's had three consecutive games with the homer this season. And by the way, we're 20 games in. Yeah. Remember the hell it is. That's insane. I'll lump in Colson Montgomery with him as well.

He went four for 11, a double and two homers in that series. Those boys can hit the ball a long way. Your guy, Cody Bellinger, five for 11, a double, two homers, five runs driven in in that sweep of the Royals. Mason win, winning five for 15, a double a homer. He's got a six-game hitting streak. He's recorded multiple runs driven in and four straight games against the Astros, all in Houston, which is where he's from, right? Yes.

Pretty sure about that. Here it is. Yeah. He graduated from Kingwood High School, 25 miles northeast of downtown Houston. So getting the job done at home, you'd love to see it for the week, Jake. Of course. It's always him. It's always Brian Rochio and spell it right. B-R-A-Y-A-N, 9 for 20. A double. Two homers, eight runs driven in. How about quality of bats? You like those, Jake? Love them. Because he has a 56% quality at bat rate with two strike. this season, that's second best in all of the AL only behind the best hitter,

second best hitter in the AL, Yoron Alvarez. How about Oswald Paraza? Speaking of your former flames, eight for 20 for the Angels, a double two homers, four runs driven in during the week. Marcel Ozuna of the Pittsburgh Pirates, 10 for 26, two doubles two homers, seven runs driven in. And Dylan Dingler goes eight for 19 on the week, three doubles, two homers, seven runs driven in,

mentioned he hit one off of Garrett Crochet, a dead central in Boston. I always felt like that's a great place to hit a homer. Everyone thinks over the monster, it's great. Go to dead center. It's still a big wall. They got the Bermuda triangle out there. If you can do that, you're a stud. Dingner became the first Tigers player

since Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera in 2013 to record 18 or more runs driven in and their first 16 starts. And that is a laser off the wall. and you also it's a homer too. That's his in Fuego, Jake.

Here it is. I want to see it. Oh, you had it up. Show it. Show it. Show it. No. No. Dylan Dingler.

We're looking. There it is. See, that might be. You know what I'm saying, though, about center in Fenway? Wow, the wind took that a little bit, too, because yeah. Yeah, I know what you're saying, because it's a curious outfielders approach that wall the same way every time that you kind of can't tell if it's getting out or not. Highest center field wall in all baseball.

Got to be, right? Oh, interesting. Probably. I'm thinking about Houston for some reason. Arizona's got that weird, what is that wall about up there? There's just a line. What is it? Which one?

Arizona. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah, but they have the yellow line. Right. But it's up there. Yeah, it's interesting. Okay. I did get a good laugh at, where was there?

Did the nationals have a tall center field? I thought I saw, I thought I saw. It's a taller, regular wall. It's not like a wall like that, though. Where the hell were my cardinals? Oh, in Houston. I think it was Nathan Church, who they must have like a 12-foot wall in Houston.

And you saw him a home run went over, and he did his best robbery, just to basically see if he could get his glove above it. And he does. He wasn't robbing anything. But it was just to show that, like, he thought about it before the game. Is there any possible way I can get up there to get one?

That's some advanced scouting. Great job on Enfuego, Trev. Let's bring it down. The good news is the goal of this segment is to get some people to migrate from batters who are struggling to Enfuego. I think we've seen Ozuna, I believe, is one of the first people to do that this year. Chandler Simpson, I believe, has been on both lists, but in opposite order. He's in a 5 for 28 right now.

Speed don't slump, except right now. Same with Evan Carter. He's in a 2 for 20. 067 against relief pitchers this year. That's the lowest in Major League Baseball. Esoc Perretis, interesting year for him going on. He's three for 23 right now. A bunch of trade rumors.

Second lowest sluggling. Whoa. Second slugling? I don't mind that. Slugging just 200 and non-two strike counts this season. That's the second lowest in the AAL. Dahl fucking in his bag. Mikel Garcia is in a three for 24 and Chase DeLauders in a one for 19.

The league always finds away. Luckily, playoff Rochio showed up in mid-April. For two weeks. Uh-oh. Key Brian Hayes, a featured plant on this program previously. Oh, for 29. Yikes. Wenzel Perez in a one for 26.

Mark Vientos, we thought it was back. Two for 33, slugging 040 in pitchers counts. Bad. Giancarlo stands in a little five for 42. Okay. OPS of 190 against lefties. Whoa. That's the second lowest in baseball this season.

And Luis Garcia Jr. For those fight in Nats, he's in a four for 34. Yee. The good news for those guys, health is wealth. And they are not on the IL list. But the guys who are, oh, gee, this is just,

This is a Johnboy Media Murderers Row. Zach McKinsko. Jimmy Norp, Zach McKinstry, left hip abdominal. Abdominal. I can't talk today. Daniel Palencia, left oblique. All story Ellie team. Send the message, Trev.

Patrick Wisdom. You. Now, left oblique, four to six weeks. I think it was like his first at bat, too. I've double-checked that. Duran out of the Phillies pen. Left oblique. Hopefully a short stint.

Send the message, Trev. Jorge Polanco for the Mets' right wrist contusion. Your guy. What is this? Is this a prank? Joey Lofofito, kind of clear from us. Although we like saying the name, right quad.

Let's see what's going on there. Returning from the aisle. Kyle Stowers for Miami. Make that matter. Almost went back on it. Yeah. Yeah, hit by the first pitch, right? First at bat.

Lordus Gariel Jr. mentioned he's back, and how's your knuckler? Matt Waldron. Back for San Diego. Oh, Waldron's hot! That's not an actual call. That's who's back from the aisle.

Let's start everyone's week. Awards are brought to you by Seat, Geek, Trev. Where are you going? Shout out to Mud. Yeah. The Arcelo and Mudd broadcasts were reaching out to us. He was happy that we gave him an award. Holy sheets.

Holy sheets, baby. Yeah. That was cool. It's cool to give him his flowers and him recognize it. I'm going with the Pro's Award. Immediately I said, I texted our group chest. I'm taking this guy for my award. It's going to Martine Perez.

If you know anything about what's going on with him, well, he's been a pitcher in the big leagues for 15 years, a left-handed starter with not overpowering stuff, just a guy that keeps the ball. off the barrel of the bat. He's been doing it for so long. Signs a minor league pack with the Braves in the offseason comes, I think it's a three and a half million dollar deal, but not a guaranteed one because minor league pack comes out. Nice start to the season. Kind of has one iffy start of his first four, but it's been really, really good. Problem is

when you get to be this age, this actually happened to me as well. Sometimes teams will just need an extra reliever and not need you in the rotation or just don't need your services. So they end up the Braves DFA him and just pray that he clears waivers. Because any team was free to pick him up at that $3.5 million rate. Somehow he goes unclaimed.

There's a lot of teams out there that need starting pitching that for a pro rated 3.5 mil, so you're probably on the hook for, let's just call it 3. I would have taken the chance on Martin Perez. I would have. I know he's banged up last year,

but he's a guy that can give you innings, ends up going unclaimed, signs back with the Braves after kind of mulling over his options. He said, I looked around the league, had some offers, decided the best fit for me was the Braves.

I mean, hey, they're the best team in baseball right now, one of them, ends up coming back after all of that, spending a few days at home with his family, goes on to throw a shutout,

six innings pitched, no earned runs, only four hits, just a guy that you can rely on, essentially, that handled that situation very well. And I guess the Braves aren't the, they're not the only team that does this. I mentioned the Tampa Bay Rays did this to me when I was with them. They said, hey, we're going to send you down. But as soon as September callups come back, you're going to be right back up. I thought they were lying to me.

They didn't. This is a little bit different because he had to resign with them. but they end up bringing him back and he just goes and does his job. He's a pro. And he's been a big reason why the Braves and that kind of injured pitching staff and been able to weather this storm,

not even weather the storm. They're riding the waves of the storm, man. They're crushing it right now. And you've got to have guys like this willing to just kind of like buckle down do their job. In an interesting situation, Martin Perez comes out looking like,

I don't know. Like, how do you not love that guy? Like I guarantee after that game, every single person that clubhouse came up to him just gave a big hug. Like, you're a stud, man. Way to handle the pressure. He said he wasn't happy about it, but he's a pros, pro comes, does it for the Braves. And both him and the Braves off to just a fantastic start to the year. Rob, if you could roll the Martin Perez highlights again, because it honestly made me think about developing a theory about guys that can actually locate.

because in the clip that Rob just put up on the screen, we're talking the corner of the new strike zone. Okay, maybe not that one to start. But especially against Bome, I think these upcoming couple pitches, it's, I don't know, man. And now that, look at that. Now that we can measure the strike zone

and, like, we actually know what it is, like, look where Martin Perez is dotting the ball. Like maybe, oh, and this is going to get us with the young heads, Trev. Location's going to come back? Oh, baby. I don't know. It still plays. Like, I get VLO's great, but, like, location still plays.

Again, I feel like people just need to ask hitters some things every once in a while. I don't know, guys that have been in the box against all these pitchers their entire lives. Like, hey, when a guy is spotting up and can mix his pitches, and stay out of the middle of strike zone, it's tough to hit. And guess what? When a guy throws 100 miles an hour, it's also tough to hit.

It doesn't have to be one or the other. Paul O'Neill, who's a gem in the Yankees booth, he was talking about, I forget if it was jazz. Yeah, Jazz doesn't have his first homer on the season yet. And Paul Neal was talking about hitting, and he's like, he goes, dude, you know, when I was struggling, my only focus was to have a good swing. because you hit home runs on bad pitches by pitchers,

but I don't control that. What I control is my swing. Like, it's very kind of cerebral from Paul O'Neill, who's kind of a goofy, quirky guy, but it very much is like, if the pitcher doesn't put it there, then I can't hit it for a home run. And I just thought it's a very basic way to chop up hitting,

but it's like, yeah, so if you keep it out of that honeyhole, you're normally pretty good. There's a lot of that around the league, man. Logan Webb, sinkers at the bottom of the zone. Tough to elevate. Probably going to end up being good because ground balls are outs in the big leagues. Like there's just things that are just, they make sense.

Put in our binders. My final award, again brought to you by Seat Geek code talking 2026, 10% off your next set of tickets at Seat Geek. I'm going to give out the how many Cs. And I don't know. We could be talking about a lot of things. It could be talking about C's get degrees, us still trying to find a name for the eighth inning.

What'd you call it? Material change. That's just a lot, dog. That's just a lot. I was pretty excited to bring that one to you. I like the feeling of it. Yeah, it's a serious thing. But I want it to be, like, tracked as a stat,

and I just, that doesn't have that. MC. Yeah. Anyways. How many Cs? We're talking about thick, Treff. Thick. And there's a player talking baseball favorite when he first came up.

I think John Bino was on it. Old thick-neck Josh Young. Oh, my God. It's a thick neck. I know where you're going on this. Josh Young, putting together some stats. He had a big week. 9 plus extra base hits

First Ranger player since Adrian Beltray. Okay. His batting average in OPS are second on the team to Nimmo, who's been going off this year. He's wrecking breaking balls. 471, the best in baseball on breaking pitches this year. And Trev, for me, you know I stumble into a few of these guys every year, where I look at the stats,

and if you just put on some different lenses, you can make them feel a lot better. Like Josh Young's last year, when you look at the stats, 131 games, 251, 294, a 684 OPS. That's not, doesn't get you jazzy. It is a 101 OPS plus, because that Texas ballpark has been traditionally pretty tough to hit in. He's a career 107 OPS plus.

He's 28 years old. I'm going a little bit from the Storelli metric of he's just always looked like a ball player. I don't know if it's the high socks. I don't know if it's just the way he plays third base. He graded out well last year defensively. So far this year not grading out well, it's a small sample size. But he's hitting the ball. 820 OPS.

He's just someone I've liked from the eye test of the stuff we can't measure that I've always thought there's more in there. And he's just part of that Texas Rangers team that's been kind of tantalizing the past couple years that, I don't know, if he plays like the high-level borderline All-Star third baseman he could be, that would change Texas's outlook. I like that Josh Young, thick-neck is off to a hot start. Jake, he started out the year 0 for 17 in his first four games. Okay.

Since then, 52 at bat's 20 hits, 385, 441, 635 for the one daughter. I like that. He got hot right away. Philly had him in a chokehold, man. He went 0 for 12 in that series. First game against Baltimore, 0 for 5 than since then. Since the calendar shrug April.

He's been a stud. Got a dual groan out of me and Dalton when you said since the calendar hit April. Says something about all of us in a way. Coach, grindy. Good to have you back. I loved that. I loved every show.

Well, if you love this, go check. out baseball today with Trevor Plouffe and Chris Rose. We'll be back with the midweek episode. Life advice? No. Let's see what the baseball gods give us. It's really 420 today. Yeah. You know, I'm past that in my life.

I wouldn't say you're past it. I think it comes in waves. I'm pretty past it. Okay, maybe you're past it. Yeah. It will say that. I'm a champion, though. It's true.

No one could ever take that away from me. Big old lag putt.