Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Paul Skenes is Almost Here | MLB Recap | 835

Episode Date: May 10, 2024

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Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. Top Prospect Paul Skeen's getting the call. Are the Twins World Series champions? We won't talk about that, but we'll talk about everything else. Great counsel. I don't know what happened. Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. Players only, Trevor Plouffe, myself, Jake Storelli, David Mendelson,

coming live. And presented by Seatgeek. And we're not coming live. but see geek code talk and 10 that could still hook you up on some tickets. Happy Friday, May 10th, as the baseball season gets a little more real, talks of Memorial Day on the horizon, which kind of means summer is En route.

We're in a beautiful sports time of the year. There's baseball or a playoff game on every night. Trev, a little joke of your twins, but God, that's an impressive series win for them as they keep rolling. Astros are still swimming downhill. Paul Skeens, we've got, there's always a lot going on in ball.

What's going on with you, Trev? You know, I'm enjoying this start to the baseball season. It did look grim for my twins. They are looking great. I will talk about that, okay? Don't be put in hand. cuffs on my twins talk. You're right, man. NBA playoffs are here.

I don't really watch the NBA at all, though, but I am happy for you because I know that you're just a sports nut. I got to be honest with that. I don't think I've watched one basketball game all year. And that's not a knock on the NBA. It's just isn't my thing anymore. I don't know why. I don't know what happened. I used to like it. Feels like a knock. You're a Lakers chaser. They're out of it, right? They lost. out.

Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, Trump. It's okay. Your Clippers, too. Enough L.A., unless we're talking, uh, Cole Tucker defensive highlights or,

uh, I think Dodgers are on something stupid right now. I think they're 14 and 2 in their last 16 or something like that. They're out, they've outscored opponents in that stretch like 100 to 32 or something. They, uh, it's kicked into gear for them.

Another shocker. Um, Let's talk some ball, Trev, because we did have some good baseball played. And we've got a couple good topics. Awards! I'm excited for yours. Not as excited for mine, you know. But on a Friday, we start with some National League baseball, right?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, obviously. We will start with the Chicago Cubbies hosting the San Diego, Daddy's Darvish versus Steel in that first game. Like seeing both those guys on the bump. They both put up zeros, but the Padres get it done with six runs in the six. Pro Farsalano Campu Sano. That's a lot of fun names to say.

Not as fun as Iminaga, who, by the way, he doesn't stop. Like I tried to fade him because I thought it might stop. No. Seven innings, two earn runs, and then. there's your Michael Bush walkoff, but that is not enough to stop San Diego because Dylan sees one hit in seven innings, yo, and Jake Croninworth with a big game on the field and engaged off the field. Let's go to Jake Croninworth, my friend, same name. Mets take two games from the St. Louis Cardinals. They do not play a third. It'll be made up August 5th. We will have all the

coverage of that game. Mets Cardinals, August 5th. The two games that did happen, Gibby versus Mania, your guy versus my guy. Oh my God. Brandon Nimmo Homer's in that game. Mets take the lead in the seventh. This series made headlines for a different reason. J.D. Martinez, Wilson Contreras, broken form. We talked about that a lot in the midweek. If you didn't listen, go check it out now. why not. Mets broke that one open in the fifth inning. Alonzo busting out of a one for 32. Contract year, people forget. Dodgers swept the fish, man. I tuned into this game a couple times this series, excuse me, Yamamoto, eight innings.

Roderie Munoz got the pill in game one for Miami, and he didn't have much for these Dodgers, and nobody really does. Dodgers fans, you get something special, man, watching show him. Freddie, Muky, even Tayasker, and just watching him let it fly. It's a special team. They sweep the fish.

Speaking of sweeps, hello, Diamondbacks. They've been waiting for one like this, and it comes against my Cincinnati Reds. Oh, no. Reds, losers of eight straight? The offense is gone, and part of that is credit to Gallin, Montgomery,

and then even slayed Sacconi. Oh! in that last game. Corbin Carroll. Breaking out a little bit. Why not? Jock Peterson with the big day at the office. Eohenio Suarez revenge series.

Snakes needed this in a bad way. Reds. Uh-oh. We'll talk about that a little bit. Giants and Rockies teed it up for three at Cors, and we got some Cores field a little bit. Outside of Kyle Harrison, how's your seven shut piece? Otherwise, the Giants, huge offensive inning in that second game,

six runs to blow that one open. Rockies, they got the final game. They had a cycle inning. Every player, single, double, not every player. Okay. Blue Jays, Phillies, they teed up for two. They split two. We had a couple of these.

Orioles Nats, they did the same. Second game went to 12 innings. Our friend Trevor Williams doing some fun stuff, not allowing home runs. That's a really good way to pitch. Orioles with an ugly rally. to win the extra inning game. Like I said, Phillies, they put up a 10 spot, and Chris Sanchez shoved.

The next day, Chris Bassett shoves, and their offense, Kiermeyer three-hit day. Why not? Why not, kid? Sox and Braves teed it up, a little Chris Sale redemption game as he goes six, shutpiece, and your two ERA leaders, Cutter Crawford and Reynaldo Lopez, teed it up in the first one. How do you like that? The Red Sox don't like it a lot. Braves took both games.

Ozuna cannot be stopped this year. And your final series. Angels, they take two out of three from the Pirates. Mitch Keller, nine innings, one-earned run. We love that for Mitch in the game they won. But you can't stop Kevin Pilar's two homers in game two. And Sandoval had a nice start. Joe Adele hitting.

The other stuff gets loose sometimes. But that is what happened in the next. National League. Paul Skeen's getting called up for the Pirates. Do you have the standing strap? It's a great job. Popper. There's a lot of National League games with all the inner leagues and you crushed it as usual and I don't know what you're doing right now. 30. Was that seductive? I was taking a sip of my coffee. If you liked what you saw, I don't know. That's not none of my business. I didn't. I didn't like it at all. You sound like Joe's looking at Mrs. Met.

How about Joe's not knowing any number 24s? What? It's like, most iconic number in baseball. Willie Mays, Miguel Cabrera, Trevor Plouf, whatever. In the National League. In the east, those Phillies, they just are rolling, baby. 26 and 12.

Two games above the Atlanta Braves, who are 22 and 12. The Mets sitting right at 18 and 18, and the nationals tied with them. 500 ball, 18 and 18 for them as well. In the Miami Marlins, 10 and 29. in the Central Milwaukee half game in front of the Cubs are 22 and 15

while the Cubs are 22 and 16 excuse me Pirates 17 and 21 the Reds 16 and 21 on an eight game cooler not a heater a cooler and then the Cardinals what is you doing baby are you dead 15 and 22 at the cellar of the Central and in the West those Dodgers

26 and 13. The Padres, 20 and 20, Arizona, 18 and 20, San Francisco, 17 and 22, already nine games back, my goodness. And Colorado, on the bottom of the entire league at 9 and 28. Those are your standings. Your worst team in baseball, the Colorado Rockies. Makes me sad a little bit. A little bit. Makes me sense. Tough division. Yeah, I mean, let's check the box. And that was a little sad Because this is This is one of the special guys

You know, this is between pitch ninja Twitter itself, Arm Talent in general I mean, Paul Skeens is one of the Pitching prospects we've heard the most about Before reaching the big league since You could throw Strausburg's name out there It's Strasbourg, it's Strasbourg.

It's Strasbourg. Um, yeah, I mean, I guess before being called up, we've seen guys get called up and you're like, Jose Fernandez, Matt Harvey days used to be a big thing. Um, you know, we, we've seen a lot of guys once they get the call, they get hyped pretty hard, but Paul Skeens, we've heard it, you know, I feel like I heard about this guy for two years at LSU. He gets drafted and now he's getting the call to the big league. So what, uh, I'll let you run, Trev because it's kind of a new era for baseball because 10 years ago, I mean, outside of Strasbourg, kids like this would still get buried for at least two years in the minors to learn how it's done.

We've kind of flown past that. And it should be a jolt for the pirates, although it's kind of been the hitting that's been the problem for them. So, I mean, yeah, I don't think there's another one that, another pitcher that's debuted. I think you could talk about, you know, Harper. and you can talk about maybe some position players to debut. I mean, shoot, Jackson Holiday had a massive debut. Hadley Rushman had a big debut. There's something different about a pitcher, though, you know?

It is a little bit different, especially with a guy like this. I mean, he's going to be when he debuts the hardest throwing starter in the history of the game, like on average. He sits at 100 miles an hour. But what I like about him, and he's got like an interesting story, which I didn't really know because I famously don't really care about prospects. Right.

As Blake Snell put it, you're a slap dick until you're not. I don't really mean that, like in a literal sense, but you know what I'm trying to say, people. But his story is pretty cool. Like he, you know, people know him from LSU, but he actually started at the Air Force Academy was a catcher and would close out games. I kind of like love that about him.

He's a massive dude. Think about that dude catching. Mm-hmm. High target. That's what I envision with Paul Skidens. Matt Weeters. He actually hit pretty well. And then he has a good freshman year, enters the portal.

LSU says, hey, we want you to pitch. West Johnson is there, former pitching coach for the twins. Actually got like doubled his salary when he left the twins to go to the pitching coach at LSU. It was kind of a big thing because he left her in the middle of the season. But yeah, and he turns into this monster. Not only does he have the natural ability, you know, the stature and whatnot, but he's got this incredible work ethic. And he's just kind of burst onto the scene, man.

Like he's had, he's had, like, he's dominated in pro ball. Like there's no other word to put it. He's just dominated in the minor leagues. And now we're going to get to see what he does against big league hitters. It's against the Cubs, right, tomorrow? He's making his debut tomorrow. Yeah, against the Cubs. And it's, I just, I love debuts because this is it, man.

Like, this is the league. There's no other stop for you. It's, it's, this is the pinnacle of baseball, it's major league baseball. And, you know, you can be as good as you want in any other league. You can be the best player in any other league and nobody gives a shit. Until you do it at the major league level. And I think this guy's going to be very good. I don't think there's really a doubt about it.

But how good is he going to be? I don't want to like rain on the parade, but these are, you're going to face big league hitters who, you know, I don't think anyone's ever really accustomed to hitting 100 miles an hour. He's got plus pitches on the off-speed side as well,

a good slider. He started throwing like a splitter, kind of like a Johann Duran type thing. They call it a splinker, which is some, I am sick of the names. That's okay. I can be an old school baseball guy

if I want to sometimes. this hair, it's looking good today. Don't tell me anything. But no, I'm just excited. I'm excited about it. I mean, I guess for the pirates too. This is like a signal of they're ready for, you know, maybe their window here. I don't know if it's going to completely change their fortune this year. But when you have, you know, they have a three-headed monster at the top of their rotation now with Keller Jones and Skien's like, sounds like a law firm. Kind of love that. This is exciting times in Pittsburgh. Exciting times for baseball. and Chris Rose and I talked about yesterday

they should be making this a nationally televised game however they can do it they should be doing this and I don't think they are blackout restrictions should be gone we should be making a big deal out of this it is a big deal but we should be trying to make it a big deal

because it's good for the sport that's kind of where I feel on Paul's games yeah I baseball I feel like struggles we struggle to have the must watch moments until the playoffs. I mean, each sports league has their own thing, but, you know, we joke about it in series recap sometimes. Like, you know, again, these are four, or actually,

these are six baseball teams, five that I'd say I'm super interested in this year, that played two game sets this week that are interleague, Like the Blue Jays, Phillies, Red Sox, Braves, Orioles, Nats, all played two gamers. I've been excited by all those team seasons. To say any of those are must-watch TV, it just, it's kind of not. I mean, Chris Sale against his old team, maybe you could say something like that. But Paul Skeen's making his debut, I think, is that. And we've referenced Strasbourg, and we've talked about his first start,

and it was just a different time period. It was 2010. Like, I don't know, social media was kind of rolling, but not. And I think baseball had a little bit more of the spotlight, or at least stardom did, that we saw Strausberg pitch in college. We saw his minor league starts would get aired. And we saw Skeens he pitched in that showcase game at spring training. And Strasbourg's kind of famous first start where he struck out 14 people.

and seven innings was against Pittsburgh. So maybe that'll be the full circle moment that on Saturday we're talking about whatever Paul Skeens does. He's had 27.1 innings at AAA this year with 45 strikeouts. So, yo. The Velo's there.

It does look natural. I mean, that kind of velocity. We've talked a lot about pitchers and it not being natural. But his throwing motion, and it doesn't look like he's over-exerting. That I don't know, this guy has a chance to be next of, as, you know, when we're doing talking baseball 20 years from now

and we're screaming about Verlander and Scherzer, like this guy could potentially be the next one, or, like you said, you know, you're kind of nothing until you're something. You know, Hunter Green throws the ball really hard, and the light bulb hasn't fully gone off yet. So that's always the other side to it because like you're saying, with baseball being the highest league,

you never really know. You don't know until you step on to that man what's going to happen. Hunter Green has actually pitched pretty good. Yeah, he's settling in. I got to get a shout him out. I think this is a chance also. Like, and I don't think a lot of our fans

are going to care about this, but we're speaking about baseball as a business right now as well. Look, this guy has the pedigree. He has the track record of the minor leagues. one-one, you know, played at a big division one, SEC College, like that whole thing. And he's also dating someone who's very popular with the youth.

Famous girlfriend. It's a chance for baseball to capitalize on that and say, and Chris Rose kind of said this is baseball's chance to do the Taylor Swift, Travis Kelsey. I said that's on a different level. But like it is in that vein where you can draw from her fans into baseball or some of the younger demographic who maybe like casual baseball fans

I think they will tune into this game it is a missed opportunity if they don't I mean they're not going to put it on national TV or they're not going to make it blackout free but I think it is a missed opportunity for them not to be doing that like you don't have many times where you can capture a brand new audience that's why we're going and I think a lot of teams

are favoring you know Asian players Japanese or Korean players that's a whole new marketplace that's why we're searching for a baseball player out of India. Like, there's a whole new marketplace, and teams are constantly trying to find those. You kind of have it built in right here. I don't know.

I wish they would have done something a little bit more, but I'm excited to watch this, you know, either way. Yeah, I mean, all that's true. And they're fun and they're young. Like, I hate to be this guy, because I can still, when I wear this shirt and shave, I could pretend to be, you know, on the LSU campus. Maybe grad school, I don't know.

But, you know, there's a picture of them rolling up to the stadium and they're in the car together and she's been at his games and stuff. It's fun. It's cool. It's, you know, maybe it's the next Verlander Kate Upton. How about that? Like that? Just passing the torch as the Yankees get to Verlander.

I don't know. On a pirates level, they're pitching. Pitching's actually been pretty good this year. Their starting pitching has been top 10. And our guy Jared Jones has been great. They've got a couple young arms there that I guess if you're Pittsburgh, you can be excited for that. I tried to talk myself into their offense before the season. They're 28th in OPS, 27th and runs.

Henry Davis gets sent down. I am interested to see, like, we were talking about this on Wake and Jake this week, that, like, Harvey Days used to be such a thing, and they were pretty electric at the ballpark, like the early Mets teams that he was on, that they were still figuring it out before their pitching kind of all came together and the Mets started to go. That I, again, like Yankee fan,

but the fellas would get together and be like, yo, we got to go check this out. Like we saw a Strasbourg Harvey start and it was like $20 tickets, the place was packed. It was sick. And I don't know. It goes back to one of my original baseball things. of like show off how talented and good these guys are.

It's what you're saying with putting the game on TV. If you see Shohei Otani hit a ball 120 miles per hour, that speaks, that hits differently, as the kids say. Judgy, Stanton, these pitchers, Hunter Green, like to see that live. So I'm rooting for Paul Skeens. You should be too unless you're the Chicago Cubs, or I guess any team in their division. That's kind of that.

I got a prediction. Okay. And then let's move on from this. We've talked about him for quite some time. He hasn't even thrown a pitch yet in the big leagues. That's me being a hater a little bit. Paul Skeen's N-L-Bee the show cover, 2025. Okay.

Next year. Yeah. Okay. Wow. Calling it. Trevor Ploof calls his shot. All right. Shoot, what about Shoda Imanaga?

Dang it. Shoot. One of those two guys. No Central represent. Let's crank out a little Central quick. Yeah. Because the Mets won the two games over St. Louis. And the third game gets rained out.

And we talked about that a little bit with Wilson Contreras and J.D. breaks his arm. So that's a bad time. I mentioned, we mentioned the Pirates. They're about to get a boost, but it's maybe not where their team necessarily. needs a boost right now. They lose two out of three to the angels.

So I guess we're, you know, we do everything for clicks, Trev. That's why we're mentioning Livy Dunn, Livy Dunn. And it's why we're talking about the bottom teams of the NL Central right now. My Reds, dude, they haven't been hitting.

And I know they just got some help back. Like Friedel just came back. But, man, these The Cubs and Brewers have separated themselves a bit. I guess of those other three teams, do you believe in any of them? If you had to pick one to get back in the mix. I can't believe in the Cardinals anymore. I just don't see it happening, especially with Contreras out.

You know, the offense just hasn't been there. I just, it looks like we're seeing, I would say, three teams that we were pretty confident in going into the year. I mean, at least I was, the Cardinals and the Astros. Those two teams are like models of consistency. And they have not shown that whatsoever. I believe they're both really like one in nine, one and seven respectively and one run games. So that comes into play. But then you can throw in the Reds as well into that conversation.

I was pretty confident in them going in, especially like the way that they've actually pitched the ball well this year. Yeah. But the offense is abysmal. And if you look at the central stats right now, and you just go to Team OPS. The Reds are 26th, the Cardinals are 27th,

and the Pirates are the 28th ranked team in OPS. They're all sitting there with no offense. Below them, you could guess the two teams, the Marlins and the White Sox. I mean, so you're buttoned up against those teams, and what are you going to, you can't, Jake Ulytics right here,

you can't win games if you're not scoring runs. Ask your twins. That's what changed their whole season around. Like, yeah, I mean, the Reds, you mentioned Hunter Green it's kind of happening. Ladolo's had a couple big starts. They're going.

If you would have told me, if you would have told me that the Reds were going to be, starting pitches were going to be pitching like that. I said they're going to be in first place in the century. 30th in batting average. 26th in OPS. I just meant, like you said, the Pirates are 27th. and the Reds are about to go on their West Coast swing.

They're going giant snakes, Dodgers for four. So I don't know. I mean, you're approaching like player-only meeting time. Encornacian Strand just goes on the IL. I don't know if that's going to work. Like, seriously, I realize not, but with an L-8 going into a West Coast trip, that's one of those things that can bury a season for you.

Red Starters 3-7 overall ERA, they're 13th in the big leagues. Pirates are 364, they're 9th in the big leagues. The offenses just have not showed up. And that's actually, it's a little shocking to me. When you're talking about the Reds, like they have a lot of guys that could do it. Look, some of them are young.

You can expect some sophomore slums out of them. But it's been tough. Eight in a row. I mean, they got to have a massive turnaround. And that can still happen. We're still sitting here at May 10th. but got to see it, Pop. A little credit to my snakes.

They needed some good juice. Corbyn Carroll puts together a big game. They hadn't seen that in a minute. Yeah, he went back to back with Marte, I believe, in the first game. Maybe that's what can get things going in the desert a little bit, which Zach Gallen missed 11 days starting, so he's back in the mix. I think probably the best baseball that combines both these conversations is Padres Cubs.

I mentioned him in Naga. I don't think he's getting shout out later in this episode. It's unbelievable. Like the territory he is entering. Lois ERA through the first seven starts by a Cubs pitcher since 1912. Sure. Cody Bellinger comes back and has a three-hit day for them. but the only game they win this series is a Michael Bush walkoff,

which I don't know, in a way is also great news for them. But the Padres, they put together a rally in that first game, as Justin Steele is working his way back, so more good Cubs news. And then Dylan Seas happens in the last game with Arise, continuing to contribute. Nice. Fresh that one.

Yeah, I mean, this is a close series. You get the Michael Bush walkoff in the race. rain first pitch of the bottom ninth you gotta love that uh in the first game yeah steel comes back and then it's pro far in camp usano uh hitting homers big homers for them campisano like his his uh stance in the box like he's bit he's like kind of like thicker and he's got that big open stance he looks like the bad guy in a knockoff video game like the one that's always going to get hits like he just has that presence in the box about him i really did you write that in your notes i saw you just look at

I thought about that when I was just going over the games and just, you know, he takes daddy hacks like already. But like I, I just remember playing, I have it over here. Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball. And so Ken Griffey's the only one that's actually licensed in the game. Everyone else is like kind of like loosely affiliated with Major League Baseball. But like, you know, the guy who it's third is massive in the box and hits tanks. So like that's kind of reminds me of that when he's. when he's there. I don't know. I just thought about that. I kind of see what you're saying. If there was like a MLB. I watch him swing the bat. The guy, it's all he takes is just massive hacks. I guess if it was an MLB video game and they didn't have the player rights and they just played individual players and like they couldn't get Tatis and Bogarts and Machado so they paid Camp Usano. He'd be a good like Padre's boss.

Like, oh, welcome to San Diego. Throw it in here. He wears the uniform right. I don't know. whatever. Okay. Good baseball, though. And then C's, yeah, the season on the last day was nasty. You know,

he goes sevenings pitch, 12Ks, only two walks, which is, you know, that's the thing you got to watch for him. Like how are the walks doing? And it was great this game.

And yeah, the Padres, the Padres seemed like they're a really good team, man. Like, you know, I feel like they're so up and down. Like sometimes we get so down on the Padres, but the talent level is there,

especially when you have guys like pro far going. And obviously a guy like a, Jackson Merrill. Like, they just, their lineup is a little bit deeper than I think that anybody gave them credit for going into the season. Their lineup looks awesome. Like, and Bogarts hasn't gone.

And I think he had kind of a weird interview the other day, but we can put that in our rearview if... What was the weird interview? You know, we have a inside Padre's source right now in our office, Ryan Cohen. And I forget word for word. You revealed your sources? Yeah. Spoilers.

But I don't, I think it was, I think he was coming in, Ryan was coming in from the fan angle a little too hard. I think it was Bogart's just like, I'm, I'm gonna keep doing my thing. Like, this is baseball, it's gonna happen. But I think from the fan perspective, it came off a little uninspiring for a guy that has, nine years left on a contract or something like that.

It's got a lot of years. So, yeah, I think it was one of those. It was kind of a big picture thing. Padre's offense, though, second and batting average, third in runs. I remember looking for a hole in their schedule. They've got three with the Dodgers, tough. Rockies, okay, but then Atlanta. So they're back to 500.

They're 20 and 20 with the snakes and giants trying to pursue that. but yeah i remember looking at their schedule and they didn't get a break to like really mid to late maybe it was june so uh i i love how the padre's roster feels stronger than it's been since i don't know we first started daydreaming about it do podret when slam diego happened and like the padres were the sexy cool team and we're taking over the streets is this team now better than that team? I guess I'm trying to compare. I guess Padre fans let us know how you're feeling

because I don't know if I can speak on that. Again, I think it's, we all went into the season sales as a very top-heavy roster and lineup in general, but when you have guys at the bottom of it doing what they're doing, I mean, ProFar might be a freaking all-star this year. And what's he making? A million bucks?

Yeah. Just like right above the league minimum. I mean, those are the differences. I say that a lot on the show, but it's the truth. I mean, you have your guys who you pay a lot of money to and you're like, hey, you go do your thing. You be consistent with your numbers. And then if you can get something from your young guys

or your veterans that you bring in to lengthen the lineup, that's when you start to go. That's when you start to win games because, you know, you're not relying on three guys to do it every single game. Those guys are going to struggle at some points during the year. But if you have guys to pick up the slack who are, you know, having good at bats and and, you know, hitting, timely hitting or hitting some homers,

like, that's when you put streaks together. That's when you, you know, that's when you start to, you know, have a nice month or nice run of games. And the podgers have done that, man. Let me ask you this, on three, real quick. San Diego, Arizona, more likely to make the playoffs. One, two, three. Arizona.

Okay. What did you say, Beavers? San Diego right now. I get it. Okay. I have my allegiance. I mean, I could see how the starting pitching, I might take Arizona when everyone's healthy

and doing their thing. I could see that. Snakes, again, Corby and Carroll got off to a pretty tough start. Monty came in late. Gallen just missed some days. Seawald was out. Erod's still waiting to come back. Pardomo and Thomas. I don't know.

I know that there, I'll be real for a second. I know there's something about the snake. run last year that doesn't feel real, whether it's the 84 wins or it's, I don't know, the franchise not historically being a juggernaut, or if it's me like lifeguarding in the pool and being friendly with the team, and it just none of it seems real. But I don't know, there's a lot of real baseball stuff going on, and they really needed that sweep win over Cincinnati, so maybe that's what gets them going. Trev, I mentioned a lot of two gamers, Couple kind of mess here.

I think it's time for some American League baseball. Let me look at this. While you look, I'm going to tell the people about Black Box Sports AI real quick because I've been using this. This is confirmed. If you are into the MLB betting, which, you know, you guys know who are with in that world, Blackbox, it's AI sports gambling.

Last year, they ended. up over 30 units. So that's kind of however much you would bet. So if that's $1, $30. If that's 10, I'll let you guys do the math at home. They hit 68% of their picks last year. I believe after last night, they are at 67.6. So if you round that up, they're at 68%. Again, they're plus eight units on the year. And it's just fun. I mean, it's just a couple bets. One thing I really respected, not in the read here. One day, they were like, hey, our algorithm doesn't have one.

So it's not like they're forcing bets. They were just like, oh, check in tomorrow. But we don't have one for you today. We're not making this up. Like that. Right? Like that. So.

Don't bet just to bet. No. That's how you lose. They're telling you lose. That's how I got in trouble. That's how you lose. Anyways, Black Box Sports AI is the tool to bet MLB smarter.

Get started today by using coach. John Boy at Blackbox SportsAI.com. $100 off the whole regular season subscription. They've got a monthly one too. But that's Code Johnboy, Blackbox SportsAI.com. Smarter baseball bets. Let me just go over a few series. I know we don't usually do two gamers.

Where am I going to start? Okay. We're going to talk about the Dodgers a little bit in a little bit. Obviously they're very good. I don't know who calls the games. Is it Joe Davis? usually yeah the

Otani Homer is great he's yelling like it sounded like a shotgun which is a very it was he's ridiculous the Red Sox Braves

they end up the Braves take two the one note I had from here was Nick Povetta versus Marcel Ozuna the stats are

crazy now I've lost them where the heck are they he's six he has six homers and 22 A-Bs against Nick Povetta. That's ridiculous.

It's a bad feeling. He had two against him in the second game. He also had to go-ahead RBI in game one. Sail with the Revenge Star, like all those good things happened in that one. Toronto, Philly. They rolled the first game. My gosh. Harper with the Grand Slam against Burrios, put him up 8-0.

in game two. There was a crazy catch by Springer. He went down the line. Almost like there's like a little point there where the railing jets in. He dove like right at the thing. Like he was only like a foot away from just like diving his head into the railing. It ended up being a sack fly,

but it's just a great catch. I wanted to mention that. Phillies had a chance in the bottom of the night. They had two runners on with the, I think the go-ahead run. It was at the plate. Merrifield popped up. Two games set right there.

they split that one and then I don't know I guess we talked about the Nationals a little bit like you know splitting with the Orioles had the win in a walkoff

or not a walkoff excuse me extra inning fashion in the game two but Trevor Williams had been really really good like really really good this year like in seven starts like go check out what he's done

we talked a little bit about that on baseball today about like you know what trade pieces do they have are they going to be doing that like where are the nationals at and like their like when is the wind

coming. They're an interesting, interesting franchise. My take on that, if you were curious, Jake, was, I don't think they should trade any of these guys. What's the point? What are you going to get for Trevor Williams? What are you going to get for Jesse Winker? Like, you might get some low-level prospects. Great. But, like, what's more important? Going and continuing to try to win this year and get all your young guys experience in, like, meaningful games or going to get in, like, a little prospect. Like I'd rather just try this year and get all my young guys experience in playing in games in August and September that means something, which I hope they do. I mean, they're sitting at 500.

Like, I hope they continue this and they're playing meaningful games. I guess if you're totally out of it by then, yeah, ship them out. But if you're still in the hunt, like don't just give up on these guys and trade them away for just because you think you have to. I think those games mean more than getting a prospect. And that's about. it. That's all that. Okay. Yeah, for the Nats, I think it depends where they land. If they stay around 500, and you're right, for Trevor Williams, what does that return look like? I mean, maybe it's great. And that's the decision the GM has to make. Um, sometimes not for the faint of heart, but, uh, it'll, it'll depend where they are at in the standings. It's been awesome to see Eddie Rosario start

to go. Um, but yeah, I think, Williams free agent walk here let's go yeah seven what was it seven straight games without giving up a home run uh only other pitcher to do that and that's history geo gonzalez uh 196 through seven that's nice certainly something to monitor Trevor Williams at least of the guys that are rentals and sellable you you would clear a decent amount of salary and a rental pitch or someone and maybe gives you something actually good. The other guys, I feel like don't make enough that that should impact your books too much.

But I don't know. See where they're at. Trevor Williams is getting paid? Not paid, but like 7 mil. Like if at the deadline you're clearing a little over 3 mil, that's noteworthy. Okay. I can make that work.

God, he's really pitching this year. Traded by the Cubs. Early, early friend of the show. Traded with the Cuc. traded by the Cubs with Javi Baez to the Mets for Pete Crow Armstrong. Big wheels keep on Mets fans. It wasn't just for Harvey, all right? Yeah.

Treb, I mean, we got an American League here, and we're deep, Pop. We're deep. Paul Skeens, what'd you do? Speaking of deep, the Minnesota Twins, they take three out of four from the Mariners. I did a little head tilt, Trev. I really did. This is a big one for me. Both these upstart American League teams. They outlast Luis Castillo. They get three off of him in the first game with Simeon Woods, Richardson, holding them to one hit. They followed up the next day, Cal Rally,

with the pinch hit Grand Salami. Game flip-flopped a couple times, but that was the big one that helped Seattle roll to victory. and then Chris Paddock, the sheriff is back. 5.1, 1 Ernie is they get 4 against Kirby, and then they route them in the last game. Pablo Lopez shoves. Willie Castro is just, what, an MVP now? Max Kepler, he's hot, we get it.

Twins, I'm real, recognized, real. Rangers, they take three out of four from the A's. couple fun ones in this one, including the last game that's a 12 to 11. How are your catchers hitting? Jonah Heim and Bengaliers in this one are all over every box score. Rangers took the first one with a Corey Seeger three-run bomb in the top of the eighth. Some fun AOLS baseball. The Rangers do end up in two games they combined for QuickMath,

27 runs. They can do that. Hey, A's won one game in J.P. Sears. One back-to-back starts. Go A's go. In the Central, the Guardians take two out of three from the Detroit Tigers, including an extra inning last game in the final one. Brian Rokio, the kid with his walk-off single,

David Fry, couldn't believe that Homer got out. Sorry, Chafin. Breakdown inbound? The game the Tigers won Andy, Banias, 4 for 4. Ryan Valade, Jesus-looking M-Fer. You thought Carrie was a carpenter. Go check him out.

And then a couple friends in that first game, Flaherty McKenzie. So they probably had a nice bottle of wine after the game and talked about Trevor Plouffe and his fingerprints. The Brewers, they lost two out of three to the Royals. Okay, Royals. I see you.

Bryce Wilson and Cole Riggins. Teened off in that first game, but the Royals took the lead in the seventh. Michael Massey, Homer, and Mikel Garcia. Good day to be a Mikel. Brewers won the middle game mine. Seth Lugo, Willie Adamas, Joey Ortiz. Reese Hoskins, his dog, watching him hit. We got to bark at the park night.

We love that. But Royals take the series in that last game. Bobby Witt double in the first. Perkins slipped. That's tough, but they will take it. And the New York Yankees, Trev, they take two out of three from the Houston Astros. Giancarlo flexes his muscle hardest hit ball the season. Which muscle?

They get to Justin Verlander. Seven earn runs off of him. Paul Skeen's in, JV out. Okay. Verdugo's playing great. Volpe had a couple homers. Houston salvages the last game. Rodon pitches well for the Yanks.

Houston. and then the big series everyone's talking about. Rays took two out of three from the White Sox. Five game winner from the Rays wearing their city connects, the city of skateboarding and neon. We love Tampa. Zach Eflin shoved.

Johnny DeLuca is your guy guy. Erasmo Ramirez with a huge outing out of the pen. Nobody watched. I bet on this and I actually watch for a little bit. But that's what happened in the AL. Nice job, Poppy. I'll give you this, And then I'll give you the history of why Tampa is such a skate city because people have been in my replies.

Jack Flaherty and Tristan McKenzie just being like, yeah, no, Trev's cool. He's just a little off. He's a little old. Just has no idea about Tampa's skate culture. Life's hot. How does he not know about their skate culture? Yeah, his wife is hot. Do they drink wine?

Yeah, they did say my wife's hot. Gosh, she is hot. Shoot, in the standings. The AL East. I think these are updated. Sometimes baseball reference, I feel like it's not updated, and that's where I go for my standings. I've got it.

Baltimore. 24 and 12, at top the division, half game ahead of the Yanks at 25 and 14. The Boston Red Sox. I saw a really funny commercial about Sox and Birds. It's really good. I'll talk about that later.

They're 19 and 18. Tampa Bay Reyes, hey, people are writing them off. People were writing them off. They're 19 and 19, right back in the thick of things. And Toronto is 17 and 20 at the bottom of the division. Drake lost the rat beef. So everyone's saying, maybe we'll talk about that later.

In the central Cleveland, they just win games, dude. I like don't get it. We're going to get into the series, but my goodness. 24 and 14. My twins right behind are at 22 and 15. Kansas City right there at 23 and 16. Tigers 19 and 18. That's four teams over 500 in the Central.

It's a beast. And then the White Sox, not so beastly, at 10 and 28. in the west, those Rangers, 22 and 17, Seattle, 20 and 18 and 1 half games behind Texas, and then Oakland, 18 and 21, the LA Angels, 14 and 24, and the freaking Houston Astros. What is you doing, baby? 13 and 24. And those are the standings. You ready to bury Houston?

I don't know, dude. I don't know. They've just been so good for so long. I feel the same way with the Cardinals, man. I'm much more apt to bury the Cardinals right now than I am Houston. And honestly, I think Houston's playing worse ball. But there's some reason I just can't, I just can't do it, man. Can you?

You just watched them play against your Yanks. I know the Yanks are playing good ball right now and they hit some homers. Like, my goodness, some of those homers. But when you watched them, are they dead? I don't know. I mean, if they didn't have their pedigree, yes, we would be screaming it from the rafters, but they do. They do have the pedigree, and they do still have fucking bangers in that lineup. I did a, I did a Wake and Jake episode two weeks ago where I was like, Houston needs to start winning games.

And it was kind of right around the same time as Minnesota. And Minnesota did. Minnesota's gone off, bro. I'm happy for you, bro. Should we rap beef right now? You hear about this? Twins are winning. Houston's got to win something.

Like they're at Detroit, and they're seeing my scubel and Flaherty, and I don't know. I don't know how that series is going to go. There's a chance we're here on Monday, and it's like, okay, Houston, they needed this. There's also a chance we look at it, and it's like, Houston lost two out of three, and A, they just got straight up beat, or B, something ridiculously baseball happened, and Presley gets hit. or they didn't turn a double play

and the inning gets away from them. Like it just feels like they've kind of got the bad baseball juju right now. They have to start winning something and then I'll open my eyes to them. But what they have done thus far in the season, nothing, nothing. In this series, you know,

we had the three-headed monster, all go yard. Everyone was, you know, like the meme when the guys of the computer with you know what all over himself that's what was going on in my Twitter timeline because I follow way too many Yankees fans Stanton though

well meme is that I'm not familiar Stanton in the first game it's the line drive home at like 118 miles an hour and then the second game goes where only the big boys go in Yankee Stadium second deck and left field at 120 is Big G back talk to me

119.8 Michael Kay gave him 120 on the the call. Can't round up after 100. I don't. Big G is not back to Miami. It's good to know he's got that in there. Oh, I think I just saw that mean.

He's a threat. And we'll take that for now, because there is a little bit where G wasn't a threat. So you'd hope there's a little more in there. It's a very, like, ugly modern day player stat line for him, like low batting average, low on base. But when he hits it, goes. So I don't know.

If the rest of the Yankees can be who they're supposed to be, this version of Giancarlo we can work with. And we couldn't say that like two months ago. And gee, it does feel like the hits he is getting our finding moments. So his runners in scoring position numbers are really good, which that can also buy you some... That helps a lot.

Yep. So here, we talked about two teams, the models of consistency. The Houston Astros are right now on draft Kings to make the playoffs. Minus 200, no. So it's juiced on the no. But you don't really get a big payoff on the yes plus 170. So I still feel like they're still drawing on that people believing in them. I thought it was going to be more on the yes.

I was thinking about sprinkling a little bit on the yes. The St. Louis Cardinals, they have a different view of, my guy. Yes is plus 360, no is minus 450. Obviously, I think that has a lot to do with Contreras. That probably, that line probably shot up. Doesn't help. Man! I'm going to sprinkle some on that Astros line.

Fangraphs has them with a 35% chance to make the playoffs still. So do with that, whatever you want. Trevor, a Tampa note quick, because I really don't have anything on the series. White Sox, they get the last game. Tampa back in the mix, and they just got a couple guys back. Josh Lowe is back for them, who is a huge impact lefty bat for them when he is right. The bigger thing I wanted to mention with Tampa, they control their own fate pretty good coming up.

they play Yankees, Red Sox, Jay's, Red Sox. So, Rays, if you guys are finding it right now, they had a five-game winner. The New Jersey's, did that help? They got a couple bodies back. If there's a time for the Rays to, quote-unquote, raise up, if they do it right now, yeah, they'll be sitting right where they want to be.

I was going to talk about the Keller and Soroka piggyback situation with the White Sox, but I think we'll deep dive into that next episode. Yeah. Yeah, no, they're one of those teams. You can never give up on them. In my opinion, you just can't. Johnny DeLuca had the walk off in the series before.

Then he had a big game. He's been great since coming out of the IL. Eflin's doing his thing. Of course the jerseys work. Of course the jerseys work down in Tampa. And they host one of the biggest pro-am skate competitions every single year in Tampa. The counterculture is massive in Tampa.

It's embedded into the city. That's why they have a guy, Ferry, inspired. City Connect jersey. I need to get one of those. Those things are fucking awesome. Do they really glow in the dark? Trev, I'm going to try to do this Band-Aid style.

No, I was being a fake drama queen. You're twins, man. I did a head tilt. Like, okay, you give me a win streak. We're going to see a lot of wind streaks this year. The wind streak. how are we still looking? Are the boys still going to be bopping? Are we hitting? Are we pitching? They go and they face the Mariners, who were in first place in the West.

And they give them the business in three out of four. And the bats feel real. Like the Seattle Mariners pitching staff that was doing historic things, they get to them. And now the twins are 22 and 15. Like the cold start never even happened. They're having a great start to the year. Yeah, I think there's still room to improve for them. I'll go quickly on this because I am going to be talking a little bit of twins later on. So yeah, they had the win streak against the Angels and the White Sox. Everyone kind of said, it's the Angels and the White Sox.

Then they had to come home and play Boston and Seattle. I'm talking about possibly the two best pitching staffs in the big leagues. And they rolled them, man. They took two or three from Boston, took three or four from the Mariners and he had a big offensive outbursts. I mean, they're kind of getting the same treatment that I was talking about in San Diego. Like you have guys you expect to put up numbers

and then you have the guys, the extra guys, and if they start hitting with Runs and Scorn position or they start having a good season, that's when you start to reel off some wins. You talked about Willie Castro. He's been really good. Every time he gets thrust into more playing time with an injury, he just steps up, man.

He can play center field. He can play shortstop. he could play any, really any position on the field. I love him as a player. He's been really good. Then Ryan Jeffers is like the, he's one dotting it on the year. It's like him, Otani, Betz, Ozuna. It's like him and like some of the best hitters in baseball.

And it's Ryan Jeffers, you know, who was supposed to be the backup catcher to Christian Vasquez. They signed Vasque to a three-year, $30 million deal. Vaski ain't the catcher anymore. It's Ryan Jeffers. And then Ryan Jeffers isn't catching. He's D-Hing. he's doing it. And yeah, and the twins have had,

the pitching has been good. Like they've, Seymie Edwards Richardson, he's looked good. He's a lot better than I thought he was going to look. He doesn't really have like big time stuff, but he's pitching well. And we'll get into the pitching staff a little bit more later.

But I think you have to get the twins credit because of what they did to the Red Sox and the Mariners. I get why people will be skeptical about a win streak against the A's and the Angels and the White Sox, but they took two series now and get some pretty good teams. And good pitching, right? Like, I know the Red Sox, that's not what we thought their M.O. was going to be,

but they've been, like, the best pitching staff in baseball, and behind them was Seattle. So I guess that's what gave me the full head tilt. The fact that they are still hitting. They're pitching enough. I know you're going to talk about that a little more in a minute. They had a chance to speak, too. Like I said, Rocco, like sometimes won't use his good bullpen.

So he brings in O'Kurt. They bring in how Raleigh to pin shit. He just, he had a freaking bomb. Like third deck in Minnesota. Even I didn't get up there. Not in that, not in that Joe Mauer home run derby? Close. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. I thought I saw that get up there. Okay, thanks. Thanks for reminding me of that. No problem, Trev. I think about that more than I really like to. admit to you. It was so much fun. I could not believe how far you were hitting that softball. Yeah, I had it. Had the stroke down. You want to talk Texas A's?

Honestly, I have some Texas A stuff coming up later, so I'm good on that. And I'm, I don't want to say I'm good the rest of the way, but I'm, if you want to cook again. Yeah, I'll just give some notes. Texas A's I mean there was some crazy games there In the second game The Rangers were up 11 to nothing In the second inning but you know I think they ended up winning like 15 to 8 or something like that

That's a very strange game Ersig's the first game against Seeger Six straight changeouts before Seeger pumped him To give Texas a league He said that's my best pitch and I was going to go to it Doing that Corey Seeger I don't know if that's the best Best game plan.

I guess if he executes the pitch a little better, it's different. And then, yeah, the Rooker and Langer Lears, I think you're going to talk about them a little bit later. Rangers are good, man. Other series is the, I guess, the Brewer's Kansas City series. We haven't talked about that yet, have we?

Please. Again, Royals had a chance to sweep this whole dang thing, man. Three-run bottom of the seven gets it done. Massey and Michael Garcia in the first game and then Adomas did you see the whole interaction with the fans? He's on deck. He's on deck it's the bottom of the ninth

the guys are he's the guys have been talking crap in the front row the whole game he said they were very nice it wasn't like a malicious thing but they were just giving him shit and he said hey man if I get up like I'm probably going to win this game and they're oh yeah yeah right Gary Sanchez

great a bat in front of them gets on base and then Adomis pumps it, gives them the lead and if you have the highlight up, go watch this highlight people, but Domus is Homer, he goes back and he's like high-fiving with the Royals fans

after he just gave his team the lead. And this is at Kaufman. They were acting like Brewers fans at that point, but they were just so, it was just such a fun moment, you know, they were talking crap with a big leaguer, and then he does what he says he's going to do.

It was, they were like high-fiving, you know, between the net. It was, it was, It was really fun. But anyways, Royal sweep, I mean, two out of three with a chance to sweep, they're playing really,

really good baseball. They're a dangerous team, and I think they're, they're like one of the teams is probably going to add the most at the deadline if I had to guess. Yeah, we were... Other than that,

I think we're good. We were daydreaming some trades for them. It gets fun. Finney Pascoeal Tino turning on baseballs. Oh, my gosh. He's been hitting bombs this year. Detroit, Cleveland.

Yeah. Riley Green, Homer's on first pitch. the first pitch of the game in game one Abanias. Homer's on the third pitch of game two. He had another Homer in the third

in the third, three-run bomb. Ramirez with the go-head, Homer off my guy, Flaherty, bottom of the six, off the pole in the first game. And then, yeah, Chafin gives up, you know, the Tigers had a real chance there to take the series, but Chafin gives up the Homer

to David Friday to tie the game in the ninth, and then Rokio, they brought the influence, outfielders into the infield first pitch against Lange. Lange? Lange. I think Lange. Lange. Lange. Rokio, getting it done.

That's what I'm saying. Cleveland just finds ways to win games, man. They just, when you think they're out, they're not. And they get it done, man. Trev, amazing stuff. Amazing stuff. We're talking about your teams more in a second,

maybe in our standout performances, maybe in Fuego, maybe IL, or maybe awards. But for now, I need to hear Trevor Ploof's standout performance. I'm going to go with L.A. Dodger Yoshinobu Yamamoto. He's been incredible since that first start. He's been really, really good. And I thought this was a funny one too,

because you have MLB Network showing this game. And Greg Amsinger. I think he's kind of like you in a different simulation. Like he loves ball. Me and Greg need to, you know, I'll be real. Me and Greg need to, we need to fucking hash it out. I can't tell if we are peas in a pod, like if we are yin and yang to each other,

or if we just, if we don't speak the same language. I think me and him need a night with a bottle of whiskey and see what's in the bottom of it. Chris Rose pouring this out to me about him. I don't think he has social media at all. He's just, like, been on this network. And, like, sometimes he's, like, really funny. And he's really engaged.

Like, he, like, obviously really loves the sport. I just, sometimes I see him and you, like, there's some similarities there. My joke I used to make, and it is a joke, because I'm not actually saying this. I used to say it feels like he's got a skeleton in his closet. Just because, like, dude, he's tall, handsome. Like, he is quick. He's funny. Like, it seems like it's all there.

No social media. That's a life decision. I like that. He's just a baseball king of all kings. Like, I'm okay with that if it's true. Also, I don't know. Oh my God. Nobody's got everything.

Nobody's got everything. There's got something wrong with you. He's got good hair too. Great hair. Oh, boy. Okay. Well, I'm giving it to Yoshinabu Yamamoto. Great hair.

Great hair. Great hair. Yeah. He could not rock that sweatshirt, though. No. So you win. Fitting it. I hate when people do this because, you know, a season is, a season.

You can't really take out stuff. But I'm going to do this a couple times this episode, so I don't know why I just said that. Take out that first start. Yamamoto's got 41 innings pitched. Only eight earn runs to a 176 ERA, 45Ks and 41 endings to seven walks. Like, he's been incredible.

And to start this game, Amsinger goes, no hitter alert. They're playing the Marlins. Yomoto is on no hitter alert already. First pitch to the game, Jazz Chis and pumps him. But he ends up going eight innings pitch, two runs.

I mean, the Dodgers have everything that they need, like literally everything that they need. And a farm system that can go out and still get guys. So it's, they're doing well.

And shout out Yomoto because I think he's like flying under the radar somehow. And I don't know if that's like the show hay effect. I don't know if like Imanaga. has kind of like taken over that like, hey, first year Japanese pitcher crown, I don't know.

Whatever it is, I feel like he's flying under the Raider, so I wanted to shut him out a little bit. Well, if you remember, I gave him the Monday Night Football Award because his first start stood out, and a lot of people just move on. But yeah, I like the Amanaga effect a little bit too, and Shohei. Ipe pled guilty.

Did you see that? Yeah, I did. I have so many questions about that. Let's not get into that. another time. Holy. You're making a show about it. Trev, there is a ton of potential NL pitching snubs.

Kyle Harrison at Coors. Mitch Keller goes nine. Tilling C. Seven innings one hit, 12 strikeouts. I'm going a slightly different route. I saw Jonah Heim's four-hit day. And I was like, hey, how's Jonah Heim doing? And he's doing well

Because Jonah Heim's a good baseball player A four hit day at the office always helps Jonah Heim on the year 300 batting average 341 on base a 766 OPS I was in his game logs He got off to a Slow-ish start That if you like Butterknife out the first five games

He's been a 313, 361, 816 Switch hitting catcher which again, those shouldn't fall on trees, and maybe the ALS feel spoiled him in Cal Rale. But there's another guy in the ALS that had a massive day at the office. Shea bangaliers, langoliers, double header.

He has a three hits in the first game, two hits in the second game, home runs in each of them, eight RBI. He has, I mentioned Jankar. having a modern-day stat line. Land-Joliers is in the same boat, 209-260 on base,

but a 513 slug, a 7-73 OPS. He's a big part of the reason the A's are being a competitive team this year. So it was a little love to Landjoliers because the A's are third in home runs. He had a historic double-header, and that's fun. and then it was also just a reminder to me that it's like,

my God, where Jonah Heim come from? You love saying that. We just play it cool. Oh, I love... Texas has a huge switch hitting catcher now. Done. Who's like really good at framing as well. Got him for Andrews' expiring deal.

I love that you gave the catcher some love there because the catchers have been, They be hitting, coach. They'd be hitting this year. There's an article on N.b.com that references that of Major League Baseball's top 20 hitters in OPS entering Thursday, five of them were catchers. Both Contreras brothers, Sal Perez, Will Smith, and my guy Ryan Jeffers. There's some bangers at the catcher position, which is I kind of love. Yeah.

That position has changed now. There used to be one or two guys that played catcher that could hit, Buster Posey, Joe Mower. I guess, what's his name, sorry, Molina at the end of his career kind of learned how to hit, and I was weird. When did that happen? He had like some hitting years, some no hitting games. Yaddy had a nice little contact stretch. He was hit like 300, wasn't he? Like just out of nowhere?

Yeah. Remember he had that walk off and he threw his bat all the way into center field? Do you remember that? That's baseball. That was awesome. That's baseball. Hey, guess what the Cardinals need? That motherfucker.

Uh-oh. Yeah. Is that the end of statement? Yeah, that's it. Okay. Go catchers go. While the A's get mentioned, Brent Rooker has been one of the best hitters in baseball

the past week or so. So it's cool to see a lot of Pilates. Cool to see that story continue. Former twin great. Trev, like I said, a lot of guys. guys, I mentioned the pitchers. Kevin Pilar, two homers, but the list you really want to be on. Dirt Nasty's on Fuego. That means I'm on fire, baby, like Waco.

I think I'm going to be on fire tonight. I got a good feeling about myself. Good feeling about myself today. Jake, Olivia, just texted me saying she misses me. That's great for me. Great sign for me. How about Texas second baseman, Marcus Simeon, Go ahead. Going back to the old stomping grounds in Oakland, he went 10 for 20, two homers, six runs driven in. He collected four hits in the first four innings on Tuesday, becoming the first ranger since Ian Kinsler on April 15, 2009 to do that. I have this little kid on our eight and under team, plays shortstop for us. Ian Kinsler, doppelganger.

Can't wait to see him playing the big leagues. I'd mention this guy before, Andy Abagnas in Detroit. He went five for 11 in the series with two homers, four runs driven. in and five runs scored. Congratulations, Andy Abagnas on your infuego. Mentioned for the week, course this guy is on it. Shohei Otani went 10 for 21, four homers, eight runs driven in, five walks, four stolen bases to boot. What are we doing with this guy? He had four homers in a three-game span for the fourth time in his career because that's what he does. How about our guy, Johnny DeLucah. Famously, my New Year's Eve date wasn't inebriated at all talking to his death. He had,

on New Year's. Seven for 20 with a double, a triple, a homer, and 10 MFing runs driven in people. He mixed in three walks and two stolen bases in that series as well. And then my favorite reliever in all of baseball, Texas relief pitcher David Robertson. He's played for every team now. Is Elyneau-Lochry Hawkins? People are saying three games, one and no, one save, one hold, four innings pitch, no earnings, pitch, no earnings, seven Ks.

How long is this guy going to pitch? for. You remember how chiseled he is. You remember how chiseled that guy's body is. Jake, you saw him in a towel, in the clubhouse, in Clearwater. And then for the two weeks, people, we have two twins

on this sheet right now. I don't write the sheet. Dalton Feeley does. Max Kepler, 15 for 36. He's been incredible since he's been back. He set his career high with an 11 game hitting streak and is batting 434 with a 1.2 with three homers and 14 runs driven in in 16 games since coming on.

the IL. Let me repeat that. He's sitting 434 with a 1.2 since coming off the IL. Massive reason why the twins are doing what they're doing and he's also a free agent at the end of this year. How about Willie Cash Show? We mentioned him. He went 19 for 48, five doubles, three triples, six RBIs, 11 runs scored, four stolen bases. My goodness, I really, really like this guy. He's in line for a nice little payday as well. Gavin Stone. I would say warehouse adjacent Gavin Stone. He's been really, really good. Three games started, 20 innings pitch, only 13 hits, 11 Ks to three walks. That's a 1-3-5 ERA and a 0.8 whip.

All three earned runs the last two weeks have been off solo homers, and he's allowed two or fewer runs in each of his last five starts. So go, Gavin, go. And then lastly on a list, Cleveland reliever Nick Sandland, seven games, he's got one save, seven and a third innings pitch, three hits, no earned runs, no walks, and 6Ks, that's good for a 0.41 whip. And that, my friends, is Susan Fuego.

What's Willie Castro about, Trev? Nicest guy you're ever going to meet, dude. Just like a handsome dude can play every single position. He gets on these heaters with the bat too. Like he can carry a team from time to time and just, I don't know, man. The Twins, I think he signed a minor league. deal with them two years ago. Here he is.

He is, you talk about the old school manager, give me nine of those players and I'll win the game. Give me nine will he cashers. I'll win some games. Me and Craig Council, teaming up, boom. We win World Series. I like that a lot. Great stuff, Trev. Best segment of the show. Followed by the worst segment of the show.

The I.L. And man, we've got a lot of names. Where to start? Wilson Contreras, I guess, because we already know about that one, and we hate that. Jorge Soler for the Giants. That's a bit of a bummer.

I mentioned Encrownsian Strand with Sinci. God, they need hit in right now. Edward Cabrera for Miami. Hate that. Tyler Matzik for Atlanta goes on the aisle. Pepio for Tampa Bay. Big piece in that Glass Now trade. Brandon Drury and Renhifo for the Angels.

Josh Spores in the Texas Bullpen, so going to need the ageless David Robertson to keep pitching, and I think he's officially entered ageless territory. The good news is guys coming back, a couple of these guys I mentioned on Monday is supposed to come back, Walker Bueller and Justin Steele. That's huge. Jake Berger, getting thick for those fish.

Josh Lowe for the raise mentioned, him belly friedel couple lefty outfielders ho frankie montas okay paul seawald on the back end for the snakes uh taj bradley comes back for tampa braxton garrett for miami you mentioned full pension piv now about christian yellich for those fighting milwaukee brewers um and that's the i'll that's the worst segment of the show, but it's time to start people's freaking weekends. Awards are brought to you by the Draft King Sportsbook. Bottom of the 9th. Two outs, bases full, down three, crowd on their feet. The drama of baseball is real, and so is the action at the Draft King Sportsbook.

They've got same game parlays, live betting, odds boost, and so much more. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app now in Use Code talking. New customers bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets instantly. That's code talking only on draft Kings. The crown is yours. A little note not from draft kings. I won maybe my ugliest bet of the year. I bet the Rockies to score in the ninth inning against the Giants.

And with two outs, Elias Diaz went Big Fly. And that won me a bet. Where were you watching that game? On the couch? I was on the couch late night, and that was to bring the Rockies down to when they lost. But I didn't in that moment. So. Thought it matters, but I.

Where's your award going, Trev? It's not twins adjacent, is it? Well, I'm not sure. You'll find out. So my award is called a two-and-one shampoo and conditioner award. And this actually happened this morning. I wake up pretty early here 5 o'clock West Coast time

I got to get up and do some research and I just I don't like to rush so I get up early and I get in the shower and today I just felt like man I don't want to do shampoo rinse condition let's sit and then rinse I remember back in the day

I used to buy two and one shampoo and conditioner but those days are long gone coach I have a wife now she would never let that enter our shower. It's not going to happen. I would assume a lot of our fan base

leans two and one. Okay. Yeah, okay, sure. If you're still rocking than two and one, right, I've forgotten about it, okay? Yeah. So I was like, I don't know if this is going to work. Like, is this going to work?

If I put shampoo and I put conditioner and kind of like mix them up together, like is my hair going to feel as good as it does when I just put, I'm going to do one and then the other? Because when you do that, when you actually shampoo your hair and massage the scalp, rinse it out, and then let your conditioner sit for like three minutes.

I mean, there's no better feeling. Your hair just feels like so silky and beautiful. I love it. And there's that whole, what is that? Adam Sandler movie where he's like, conditioner, no, shampoo. I think conditioner wins that battle. That's my take.

Yeah. Because you don't need to shampoo your hair all the time. That's another myth that people need to know about. So anyways, I wasn't sure it was going to work, Jake. Right. Wasn't sure it's going to work. But I'm in there, about 5, 10 in the morning. and I'm shampooing and conditioning at the same time.

Look at this. My hair looks great, and it worked. It worked. And so now my whole, like, you know, I might be going back to that and saying, Liv, like, sorry, I'm going to put this bottle in our shower. Don't touch it. That's mine. So the shampoo and conditioner thing works.

So give that a try. Or if you're one of our listeners who's already doing it, you're like, obviously it works, Coach Trev. That's what I do, coach. Another thing I wasn't sure was going to work was the twins starting pitching plans this year. All offseason I said, hey, we need to bring somebody in here. We need to go get Dillon C's. That's what I wanted.

Didn't end up happening. He goes to the Padres. The twins kept saying, Twins front office kept saying, look, we have enough. We have Pablo, Ace, Joe Ryan, potential Ace, Bailey Ober. hell of a quality starter, you know, to be in the middle of the rotation. And then the back, you know, the back two was kind of up in the air. Louis Varlane, okay, he's going to get a shot at it. But they were always very, very high on Chris Paddock.

And I wasn't, I wasn't sure if it was going to work. This guy's coming off. His second T.J. came back at the end of last year. And I didn't really see a lot from him last year. I just, I didn't see what they saw. It wasn't into it, especially him being the fourth or fifth starter in this rotation. I felt like the twins needed to go out and get somebody. So I see him pitching during spring training.

Like, okay, like this looks like something. He's gotten into the season, and this guy has been really, really good. A lot better than his numbers will suggest. I think if you're looking just straight at his numbers right now, you're saying, dude, he's got a 4-3-4. Like, what are we doing here, Coach Tray? if you take out his one horrible start, and again, I know I don't like to do that, but he had a really an outlier start against the Orioles where you get up like eight earned runs.

It was very, very bad. Similar to the Yamamoto start. If you take those out, he's got a four and O with a two five without that Oriole start. Better than that, if you take his last four starts, 23 and a third innings pitched, 28 strikeouts to three walks, and only five earned runs. That's a 193 ERA. He has found something. And his story is kind of inspiring.

He talks about the two TJs and kind of like where he went to, you know, mentally. You know, he was down after his first one, but he said that when you have a second T.J, you kind of know what to expect. So he said, I wasn't do or die with baseball. I decided to, you know, go and spend time with my family.

He goes, I really started to get into fishing. He even caught like a nine-pound bass at Lake Okeechobee in Florida, which people know bass fishing. That is a massive largemouth bass. But what I've seen from him and what's really impressed me is his four-scene fastball's been so like kind of up and down in his career. It's been really bad. You know, even to like a negative eight run value one year.

That's the pitch that's really, really played up for him. He's thrown it really aggressively at the top of the strike zone. There's been times where I can tell he's going to throw his fast. He wants to fucking blow your doors off. There was a game I believe it was against the Red Sox Did he pitch against the Red Sox? He did game against the Red Sox it was Devers was up And he's getting him three two and threw him a couple fastballs and Devers was like right on him I could tell by the way he shook his head that it wasn't a fake shake he was like no no Give me the heater and he freaking blows it by Raphael Devers and that kind of

guy can absolutely swing it. So he's got a lot of a lot of confidence in that pitch. The change-up's been up and down. That's usually a really good pitch for him. It's been okay. The curveball, I think, is something that he's really worked on. He's thrown at the top of the zone. It's a big old 12-sixter. That's been a big

pitch for him. But he's just, I wasn't sure that it was going to work. But, you know, with the twins going on their run, he's been a big part of it. Again, you can butter-knife the stats where he's actually done really, really well. And he's got a little bit of a leadership role in the Twins Clubhouse as well.

People like the energy and like the attitude that he brings. He reminds me of an old school pitcher. I really like that. Like it's very much like emotion and he lets it all out in the mound. It's really fun to watch. If you haven't watched Chris Paddock pitch, haven't heard his story or read about his story, go ahead and do that. I'm just happy for him.

And again, just like the shampoo and conditioner, I wasn't sure he's going to work. It's working. That's it. Snaps, you know, it's quite the way to get there. You know, I always appreciate that. I guess my add-ons would just be, you know, how's your baseball story? Like, you know, we did a whole thing about Paul Skeen's getting called up.

A little different, but a 23-year-old Chris Paddock for what looked like a new-age Padres team or an upstart Padres team, hopefully. 26 starts at 333-ERA, the sheriff. like a nickname and attitude about him. And then, like you said, between performance and injury and COVID, things happen quick that he finds himself, you know, he's thrown bullets out of the Minnesota bullpen last year.

He gets an opportunity. And like you said, especially if you use that butter knife, which you can, he's been great for them. And it makes, you know, a part of that trade was Brent Rooker, who I know, Couldn't really find the right opportunity in Minnesota and is now finding it with Oakland. But with what he's doing in their rotation makes that a little easier. And good for him.

It was nine run runs against Baltimore. And they kept him in the game because the bullpen was depleted. He just said, let me wear it, coach. You're going to get from time to time with the starter. So you got to tip your cap there as well. Got to have a little chops to do that. Trev, great award. Great award.

I'm giving out the respect, the card award. Like we mentioned at the top of the episode, I'm a sports guy. I love things that matter in sports. I mean, even, you know, part of the Knicks that are really cool right now is they got three guys that play together in college, and they have awesome chemistry, and that's cool. And we love, like, redemption series.

I asked Boone at the beginning of this week, like, hey, you guys are playing Houston and there's blood in the water. Does this mean more? And the most of the manager is going to give you, he was like, we have it as like a benchmark series for us, which, you know, for baseball managers, it's normally, you know, next day at a time

and that's never too high, too low. Like, to actually put that out there, things have to matter in sports. And Chris Sale got traded away this offseason. For Von Grissom, who, you know, had a cup of coffee, looked okay, then he didn't, and does he have a position and all that? And we looked at it like, wow, is this the brave,

this is kind of a salary dump, and what are the Braves going to tap in? Like, is he just going to be a, we said, is he just going to be a reliever for, like, the Phillies, basically? Is that what the Braves are lining up? The Braves extended his ass instantly. right away. Looking at the other starting pitching on the market

and said this will be fine for us. Chris Sale went six innings shut 10 strikeouts against his former team, the Boston Red Sox. In his last four starts, he is 4-0, 25 innings pitched a 1-8-E-R-A, 32 strikeouts in those 25 innings. He's been a dominant, Chris Sale.

And that's got to feel good for him. And we always wonder when things are going to run out. Father time is undefeated. There's no 70-year-old players in Major League Baseball. Like Father Time will win. And we always wonder when that's going to happen between injuries or just age or whatever. Maybe the Braves, again, they've got a lot of secret sauce going on down there. What's the Braves Foundation?

Why is Charlie Morton still just nasty? Why is Chris Sale healthy and shoving? I don't know. I don't care. Chris Sale against his former team shoved it. And I was going to do just a little assist kicker in this to Big Gene Carlos Stanton because, you know, especially with Soto and Judge, this guy has moved to the back burner.

And the fact that he hit the hardest ball in baseball this year and it's like, okay. So you still do have that in the chamber. I like when the guys with pretty cool back of their baseball cards prove they still got it and sale is rolling. Gee, not fully, but fully enough for Yankees fans. But I just like, hey, this team fucking traded me away? Here's six and ten punches on you.

Love that. We had a couple instances of that this weekend. You mentioned Eugenio going deep against his former team. I love watching Chris Sale pitch. And I think he might be the first 70-year-old to throw a pitch in the big leagues because he's just so different. He had that run. Syung 6, 5, 3, 4, 5, 2, 4 in consecutive years. Never won one, which is kind of crazy.

He's electric, man. And you're right. We were wondering what the heck was going to happen with him down in Atlanta. And they extended him immediately and said, we're going to just tap into the guy that had seven straight, top six, saw young finishes, because that's what they do. And then Big Gee, I think likes, in my opinion, I don't really know, I didn't ask him, but I think he likes being in the shadows.

It's great for him. Like, let me just play behind these guys. You guys do all the thing, and then I'm going to pop in every once in a while and just smoke a ball 120 miles an hour off the bat, and everyone's going to remember how good I am, and that I might still get into Hall of Fame if I go on a heater here in the next couple years.

Good couple seasons, 500 on the horizon. No one in Major League history has hit a ball harder than him. ever. I think one time I fielded a ground ball from him that's like 120 miles an hour. And a lot of times you'll get the hardest hit ball is a ground ball. So it doesn't come at you 120, but he is playing third base with a guy like John Carlos Stanton is not fun.

It is, you know, you're pretty good. Like you have good reactions. Like, you're in the game. Like, you see a lot of hard hit balls, but he's different. Different guy. Some guys. I did just like the image of Chris Sale also just pitch until he's 50 kind of Jesse or Ross going around.

He kind of looks like he's 50 anyway. He did when he was 20. He'll look great. Him and Jesse Chavez together, just on the Braves. Oh, just forever. By the way, Jesse Chavez stats, don't look. Okay. They're really good.

They're really good. Oh, okay. Then I will. Hey, everyone. Wow. Just gross. 135. Thank you, everyone, for tuning in.

Make sure you're subscribed and all the fun stuff. Enjoy your weekend of baseball. ball. We will be back on Monday. Wow. Jesse Chavez and T. Plush, Nijer Morgan, coming over to my apartment in the Arizona Fall League. We all just got tested for marijuana. That was fun. Big three.

That was hilarious. We had a link to you guys back up. Swizzle sticks is always there. Our neighbor had these, like, mini greyhounds that would just run around. round they were so freaking fast I want a mini greyhound they're awesome mini greyhound yeah