Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Pitchers are Exploiting the Pitch Clock Limits | 620

Episode Date: March 6, 2023

We're starting to see pitchers using the Pitch Clock to their advantage already. What kind of Shifts are we seeing? Jomboy, Talkin' Jake, and Trevor Plouffe break it all downGo to http://shadyrays.com and use code TALKIN for 50% off 2 or more pairs of polarized sunglasses.Visit https://get.bluemoonbeer.com/BASEBALL to see delivery options.For a free one-year supply of Vitamin D and 5 free travel packs with your first purchase go to: https://athleticgreens.com/BASEBALL+++++Timestamps:0:00 Intro4:00 Pitch Clock Limits16:15 Stolen Bases and Bigger Bases22:25 Joey Gallo Shift32:15 Concessions at Games37:45 World Baseball Classic Dropouts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices 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. People are dropping out of the World Baseball. Classic veterans are signings to teams, and the rules are finding their limits. The rules are finding their limits. I went with it. It didn't really make sense. Players are finding it.

Prepare for disappointment. Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. Brought you by C. Key Code John Boy, preseason is the coach. It's episode number 600. 20 on March 6th, the year 20, 23. Myself, I'm here. I'm present. Jake, present.

Trevor, present. B-B-D behind-the-dish producing. And we got some spring training storylines. World Baseball Classic is about to kick off and a bunch of other stuff. Trev's on a flight out tomorrow, tonight. When are you flying, Trev? You just told me, tell the people. Tell the people the flight number.

LAX. I won't do that. It is the LAX. bad time tomorrow for me. I got to go on the 405. It's going to be a parking lot. I am excited. I told you guys before the show. I famously don't pick up blitzballs in between blitzball battles. So yesterday it was like a sign from the blitzball gods. I was throwing batting practice to my youth team. At the bottom of my bag, there's a blitzball. And it was like, pick me up and throw it. Pick me up and throw me. I didn't do it, though, because I stick to my guns. I'm coming in hot for Blitzball 3. I can't wait to

ruin some kids' dreams, these Como kids. Come and get it. Wow. Jakey, what's up, bro? Trev, James. I'm excited, BBD. Excited to see you. I hope you pick me up and throw me a little bit when you get into town.

Yeah. Big weekend. Accidentally got drunk. Just took me to a birthday party. I didn't really know anyone there. So I was just in the corner, just sipping tequila sodas and ended up pretty twisted. one guy One guy came up,

started a conversation with me, goes, not much of a sports guy, but, and I was like, all right, well, I don't,

I don't really have much another range, man. He's trying to become a Somalié, nice guy. He's trying to become a Somalié, just drink wine. That was the thing.

He said he's been, it's like a whole thing. He's been pursuing it for seven years, but he's like not passionate about it. I don't know. I kind of got lost. He's got lost. I kind of got lost.

So I'm excited. to talk baseball. I never watched with the fellas. Have you ever watched like the behind the scenes of like becoming a Somaliade docs? It's like the most bullshit industry in the world.

I mean, are you asking me if I've ever watched the behind the scenes of a Somaliade doc? Yeah. That was what I asked. I don't even get to the scenes, man. Is that what you did this weekend? No, I don't know.

I didn't know what I did. I hung out with my son. It was fun. Nice. Good content. I went to the farmer's market and three guys came. came up, said, like, hi to me, and that was cool.

Oh. I haven't been outside in life because it's so cold. So it was nice to go back out and start talking like, you know, like small talk. Oh, that good, you know. Yeah, I got my haircut and. What do you think? Clark or Domingo for the Yanks, huh? Both.

Um, yeah. So it was fun. Nice. Nice. Yeah. All right. We're rocking and rolling on this Monday morning. A lot of energy.

Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of feeling it. Positive and negative energy right now. Blitzball battle puts you in a weird headspace. I'm ready. It doesn't come out if you're like, if you're wondering when it's going to get released in May.

So it takes a little bit. But yeah, it is going to be a five day shoot Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So we are going to be in a zany place. Yeah. In a warehouse full of dust, no windows for five days straight. Yeah. It's nuts.

All right. All right. Let's get right back to the first topic, which is the pitch clock. And obviously we've been talking about this. lot. We've done episodes on it, but there's a new fun wrinkle in that we are seeing teams find the limits of the pitch clock and players. And we had a 20 second strikeout by Wandi Peralta, which fired me up. Just unbelievable to watch. I love Wondi. It made me want to fight

Jake in like a hug fight. In a brotherly way. In a brotherly way. Just kind of like push each other when you're amped up, you know? And a 10 year olds wrestling kind of way. Yeah. That's my It's all I do is tell my kids stop touching each other. I can't. Yeah. Okay. So excited to see you. Then Scherzer, who is literally out there, like as an advocate for the PA, basically, testing the limits of these rules.

Almost even in his press conferences, it feels like he's doing it to find this for all the other players is how he's like talking about it. But he is, you know, quick pitching guys. As soon as the eight seconds is there and the batter's eyes have to be up, bam, pitch is coming. That's what Wondi did. Also, the guy's eyes are up at eight seconds, and now Scherzer is just holding the ball because now he owns the next eight seconds. He can pitch it whenever he wants.

He also tested limits of zero and said in his post-game press conference, like, we got to know what is zero. Because sometimes in basketball you have zero point zero, and, you know, there's time on the clock with zero left, so what is zero? I think my favorite reply to that was, bro, just throw it before zero. Yeah. It's pretty easy. And MLB sent out a memo saying, hey, fuckers.

Yeah. Make sure the batter's ready. Like, come on. Damn pitchers, Trev. Those damn pitchers, huh, Tref? So, yeah, Trev, you want to comment on all this stuff first? Would you have had fun with this experimentation and this loophole finding that's going on? I think for the most part, we're getting a regular old pitch clock and everyone's just kind of.

of playing ball with it. But then like you said, you have these guys like Scherzer, like some of these other guys, you mentioned WANDD, kind of toying with it. I'm okay with it during spring training because I'm hoping it gets ironed out. That's been this whole thing for us this entire time. Like, let's get all the kinks ironed out a little bit. Now, this one's interesting to me because what Scherzer is doing is really, the hold is not illegal.

And that one to me is going to be the toughest for the hitters to do. Quick pitching is tough. But when you have to be ready at eight seconds and that pitcher can hold you there, until the end and then throw the pitch. That's what's going to be tough for the hitters. Because in your mind, you get set up for that, and then you get set up at eight seconds, and he's going right away.

So there is some timing aspects that are going to be worked out. I'm hoping throughout the regular season, like 99% of the time, we're just going to find a nice, peaceful rhythm, and the pitchers aren't going to be trying to exploit this rule to their advantage. I'm curious to see how it works with this memo being sent out. basically what they said like you said

James was like let's can you guys just pitch the ball like reasonably and I think there's some onus on the umpires now which is I know people are going to be like well they can't they don't need more on their plate but come on guys that's your job is to like officiate this game like umpires there still needs to be something in my opinion

where the empire goes all right go you know we've seen that for hundreds of years about a hundred years the empire points to the pitcher and says let's go I think we need that when we saw Wandi doing was getting set really quickly. As soon as the batter's eyes went up, he threw the pitch.

And half of that is on the batter because he had another six or seven seconds before he had to look up. But I still want the umpire to say, okay. I think if we do that, that kind of solves a little bit of everything. As long as the hitter is there at eight seconds, umpire point says, let's go. I think everything will kind of work itself out. But, I mean, at spring training, we knew it was going to be a little, I think it's gone better than expected overall. Even Bruce Bochy likes it.

How about that for a litmus test on new rules? Does Bruce Bochy like the new rules? And he does. That's huge. Trevor's opinion is brought to you by Shady Ray's. I'm wearing my Shady Ray's glasses now. Shady Ray's, friends of the company, I think they've got a huge involvement in our Blitzball battle.

And Shady Ray's part of the reason, A, the product's good, bong, like that. B, they give one of the best discounts. Code talking 50% off two plus pairs of Shady Rays. Jimmy just said he went outside for the first time. I did. So you're going to be going outside the rest of the year. You're welcome.

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so basically they're foreverglasses. So go to Shadyrays.com, co-talk and 50% off two or more pairs. I'm excited. This was the part that I wanted to get to with the new rules is how are the players going to try to take advantage of it? And Trev, those damn pitchers, man, they're obviously going to try to take advantage of it any way you can.

And, man, that's a bad feeling. Like, you know, again, my highest level of baseball is Blitzball Battle 3. And that feeling of when you're standing in there, and a pitcher's just holding a ball. God, that stinks. God, that stinks. Pitchers get everything.

And no, I mean, Max Scherzer is awesome. I mean, the fact that he's pushing these rules to the limits, I like to, sometimes when I'm drifting off in late-night thoughts, I think about, you know, if the world was still, like, militaries and stuff, like Civil War times. Like, Max Scher would be an awesome general. So would Buck Showalter. Maybe we'll do, like, a Civil War general drafts one day.

I kind of like that. I mean, Max Scherz are like the legend of the two-eyed guy that's just like a murderer and a rule breaker. He would be legendary. He'd be unpromotable past a certain point. There'd be one massacre. Well, you're just not going to take the weapon out of his hand, is what I'm saying.

He's always going to be like a field general. Like you're never going to get him into, you know, higher up. Well, Buck Showalter does that. Yes. Yeah. Buckshelter is amazing on the scout team and strategies and all that stuff. We got here, huh? I would send Max Scherzer after the guy and the Patriot, the bad guy from England.

Yeah. Send Max Scherzer after him. Like, we need you special ops. Like, go kill this guy because he's a menace. I kind of have Scherzer as Lieutenant Spears, if anyone's seen Band of Brothers. Like, he's killed some POWs for sure. Whoa. Yeah.

Wondie was awesome. Wondie was awesome. But also, I'm, as someone who loved that strikeout and watched it maybe 20 times straight on loop, I'm off for the umpire and MLB being like, come on. Yeah. Not that. It's a little much. Just the first pitch.

I thought the next two were fine when the batter was like, okay, game on. And then struck him out. But the first one, honestly, the batter, if you watch that, is like, what? That was the pitch. he was not set. And that was your guy, Tuka Pita Marcano, right? Yeah, that was Tukapita Macrano. So I am happy.

What did you say? I'm happy they're finding the limits. And I do think that, like, this will find its balance because once games matter and it's a regular season, even Scherzer probably focuses more and just getting guys out than doing that. Also, it takes one hitter to be like, I'm going to jump this, some bitch.

He's not going to do that to me. And then the pitcher's probably like, okay, all right, cool. cool, cool, we'll be cordial about it. I'm still curious about the stamina aspect of it because you can work fast like that over a one or two inning period. But if we're trying to go deep into games like Scherzer does, like how much is that going to affect him? Maybe not him because he's crazy.

But some other guys, it's got to. You can't keep that pace up the entire time. So I don't know. This games on ship with the holding the ball, quick pitching, I'd like to see it go, but I don't think it's going to happen. So that to me means there's going to be some amended rules because it doesn't, that doesn't look like baseball to me. And I understand the pitch clock really doesn't look like baseball necessarily.

But when you're quick pitching and holding like almost every single pitch, that's like a whole different thing to me. It's already fucking hard enough to hit as a hitter, man. If they, if they do the whole thing, all they're going to do is speed up the clock. I don't think that's going to be a problem. I think you're going to have it every couple times. We already have Quato and Nestor and all the funky deliveries. it's a variation of that,

but I don't think every pitcher is going to be holding until the very end. I think it's hard to do that. That's what I'm saying. And if that becomes the problem, what you're telling MLB is, so you don't need that much time. Man, for some of those funky leg kick guys, I mean, you know, to mess with timing,

you know, we're talking about Max Scherzorzer, what is zero. You know, a couple of those guys, Nestor, Quato, like you said, they could probably hold their leg up there. for four seconds and then throw it if they want to. That's the next level of holding it. Well, they can. Yeah, they can. As soon as long as their knee comes up before zero,

they can do whatever they want in their windup besides the rocking. Garcia's new delivery. Right. That's a bunch of bullshit, huh? Oh, so you didn't have to do that? Yeah. You're still just as good without doing that whole damn thing? He's a gamesman.

And yeah, I think Trev, the other thing that my brain just jumped to, you know, when like the hot days of summer really hit, like that first. 94 degree day in St. Louis and it's just like Midwest heat and they're like, hey, the starting pitchers aren't going to be, it might be a tight one today. We're going to have some clips of some of the big boys breathing. Puffing and puffing out there on those hot days, man. So I guess that's something else to watch us here. I'm reading my favorite article slash opinion piece by Bob Nightingale. It's called Nightingale's Notebook. And one of the paragraphs in it says really the pitchers will tell you instead of being stressed having to

throw a pitch in the a lot of time they've been surprised how much time they really have before delivering a pitch I don't say that pitchers they are going to speed this thing up on you we're going to have a four second pitch clock during the season we don't need that it's a good is a good episode of nightingale's notebook this week I thought it was our guy jamison tyone saying that by the way hot he works pretty fast I think there's some There's some other gains and ship going on on the basis. David Ross talking about first and third plays. We have the two-time disengagement for the pitchers,

and they have to pick you off on the third time or else it's a box. So now what kind of stuff we're going to be doing on first and third? How far is the third-based runner going to get off a third as the third baseman's away from the bag? There's going to be a lot of stuff like that that will see happen that you can't really plan out during spring training because you don't get those situations too often. but they'll be practicing them on the backfields, you know, trying to get that pitcher to pick off. How many times, what kind of one-way lead can you take?

And a one-way lead, I'm sure you guys know because you're ball players, but a one-way lead is get off as far as you can get, knowing that you're coming back to the base. You want the pitcher to see you all far to pick off. So they want to waste those disengagement. The same way the pitchers, when they hold like that at eight seconds, they want the batter to waste his time out. Same thing the runners will do to the pitcher on those disengagement.

Just a big one-way leads so then they can take advantage. We've seen a bunch of, I feel like we've seen like a lot of stolen bases already in spring training. I don't know if it's because of these rules or because of the bigger bases, which no one's really mentioned lately. But I've seen runners go. And guys are getting like one, two, three stolen bases a game. I think it's because of the pitch clock rules.

That's part of the intended outcome is that there's more speed on the bags. And also, I think people were saying the shift helps that a lot too. Well, you don't have a guy right behind second anymore like they had a lot of times where the shortstop or the second baseman, depending, was like right there for the throw. It's more of a whole team play again. But also you saw Zach Granky just picked that dude off on his own. And I know the Mets are throwing over, throwing over naturally. Like they've gotten to themselves in the position where they only have one left a couple times just to see if the leads are bigger. Smart.

Yeah, Buck's going to try all that stuff and see how it goes. The bigger bags. I was watching this game. There was a tweet out at Yankee Spring Training. I think it was Willie Randolph. Hot. Like trying to navigate the footwork over the bag. And it was like the two coaches, him and Boone, I think like.

And they were like looking at it like it was a foreign. object and they were like how are you going to how are you going to pivot off this bag and it was like all this like crazy nuance and I was like whoa I'm kind of interested what this is going to do in person then I flipped to a nessen spring game and they're saying how the second base is now the size of a pizza box they ordered a pizza box to compare it all right and then they get a double play where the second baseman has to catch and pivot and turn and throw and now let's take a look at second base to see the different foot technique uh uh it looks kind of just the same the same the same same and I was like oh my god

they're still going for the edges of the bag that we're still there's still edges to it and we're going to stay it was like no different completely normal now we'll see if it other people struggle with it but I thought it was funny they put so much emphasis on it and you're right traf since then that was the first game that was the first

spring training game and Nesson plays the call at Northeastern is it since then I haven't heard shit about the bags I think people are like okay cool I've heard anything either yeah give me the YouTube video of retired ballplayers just looking and talking at the new bag. I mean, that's...

Did you see that's where we need to get to? No, but I'm so into that. I mean, that's kind of the neighborhood joke, like the group of dads get together and they're just looking at a fence. I mean, to have ballplayers looking at the new big bases, like, wow, can you believe this? I think the other thing that I want to add

to what you guys are saying, just with base running in general, base running's on the way up. Base running's becoming sexy again between the shifts and the pitch clock. And I think it's so funny and we forget, you know, we talk about analytics departments and, you know, these guys are coming from MIT and stuff like that. I think for a few years they were like hit homers,

homers win game, run, score. And it's like, yes, you know, we're still trying to tell our guy A-Rod that. But it's also hard, really hard to hit home runs. So if you can run the base as well, that's really good. and you can score runs that way. And I think all the nerds kind of buried that one for a couple years and now they're like,

bass running. Yes, yes. So I like that you mentioned A-Rod. He loves the bunt. We all know A-Rod. Famous buntor, Alex Rodriguez. What the bass is, now that I'm thinking about it,

it could impact your footwork a little bit on double plays as you're dragging your foot across the base or something like that. You're going to be on top in the middle. the base a little bit longer. I'm curious if there was like an adjustment period for like a day or so as you're learning your feet around the base.

But typically like I was mentioning, you just stay on the edges. Should the bases have a little more boing to them? Like imagine the shortstop. Like a trampoline bag? Yeah, like the shortstop comes over for the four, six, three and Dansby's like up. It'd be some cool pictures. Yeah. There was a time.

I think they had that. There's less now. there was a time at the beginning of spring training where there was a lot of photos of the bases coming out it kind of reminded me when we had the lockout and there was all those like stock photos of the baseball wrapped in chains do you remember that

when like everyone was taking a picture of that and there was an article written about that guy how did you think to take those pictures I went to a little to the field and I just rode chains and it's symbolic that the baseball is locked up yeah and now we're seeing like I saw at the beginning of training the regular old base with the new base,

and there was a picture of all the people taking the picture of that. And that was really, that got me a little bit. There was like four photographers, like laying down, taking a shot of it. We just need one shot. Just one shot by one person. You could share it. You know, anyways. Should we do something in the office?

Should we like draw out what a new base looks like and just stare at it for a little bit? I have the video. I don't know. BPD can put this on the episode. It's a tweet. that I'll hold it up so you can see it, but I mean, it's exactly what you think it is. Yeah.

I know you're going to like it. It's Willie Randolph and Boone. Almost like Zoolander, like the files are in the computer. Just so confused about like. No, he's doing what I'm talking about. Oh, my God. It's awesome. That's some ballplayers right there.

I like that. Just. Oh, Willie finishing the throw. God. That's so good. Who's got that tweet? Yankees videos. Oh, my God.

Yeah, it's good. I mean, I enjoyed that a lot. And then they just turn and double plays like normal. Just like normal. All right. What else is that? We saw the Gallo shift. Yeah.

And there's been some interesting points made on that because there's some data suggesting that that won't happen during the regular season. And if people don't know what I'm talking about, we mentioned it before on the show. Since you can't bring the shortstopper third baseman over into that right field rover position, what they're doing now is pinching two outfielders in the gaps

and bringing like the left field or left fielder over and doing it that way. We saw it with Joey Gallo in a spring training game. And there's been some takes, Will Middlebrook's friend of the show. He's talking about how the Red Sox might employ that quite a, bit because they have the monster in left field basically, you know, acting as another left fielder for them. We might see that more often. But other teams, because of the ability, you know, the shift, if you beat the shift, it's a single. If you beat this shift with two outfielders out there and the

other one back there, it's extra base hits. And that's what we're trying to prevent like almost 100% of the time on defense. So I'm curious to see the risk reward if the guys upstairs are going to be wanting to do that. Maybe certain guys like Gallo, but I don't think we're going to see it like across baseball. No, I mean, it feels like teams are going to experiment with it a little bit, as they always do. And I mean, the fact that we're only seeing it for Gallo in spring training so far is really interesting. And you wonder what other big lefty pull guys they busted out. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. It's still a win for Gallo because in comparison to the previous one, Remember those highlights we've seen

like Manny Machado down the right field line? Like with still with that formation, there's more grass for Gallo. But yeah, it has to be like a miserable feeling seeing that out there in what's a very mental game. But yeah, I mean, at the same time, that first time you flick one down to left field

and what, that's outside of Fenway, that's a triple, right? Like there's just, especially an athletic guy like Gallo. So I don't know. I'm interested. part of me, and this might be walking all over myself because I'm, you know, pro getting rid of the shift as we have. But in this new version, now there's a little more pain.

If you want to do that and someone flicks a fastball the other way on you, then you're going to be sitting there like that clip of Rich Hill coming off the mound when he was cussing off the shift. I think they bunted and he's like, there's nobody fucking over there. What the fuck are we doing? That's not baseball. You know, you leave the door open for that.

I like that they tried it. I think one team was going to just try it. But I mean, even if you look at Gallo's spray chart of balls in the air, it wouldn't work on him. It's not a smart shift. Hits it in the air that way now. He hits it in the air to left.

I mean, I'm looking at a ton. So. But I do. Oh, there'd be some sick highlights, though. The center fielder like. The truth is going to get that ball? Is that going to be the center fielder? Is it going to be the shortstop?

Like, the race to the ball will be fascinating. So in Fenway, that would be awesome Because that's either Maybe that's why they're practicing. Short stuff can just run out and get one off the wall. Oh. That's like an advantage. Wow.

Oh, those snakes. That's why there's a whole group of people that I've been seeing online saying No more, no more Fenway. They want Fenway out of baseball. All group. I do like the shrewing fruit of one guy's still getting shifted. Like I don't, it doesn't need to be Gallo

because I don't think he can handle it. If there's just one guy out there that just still gets shifted like that. Just the one. The shift's gone for everyone. We'll be back, you know, 20 years ago. And it's like three guys that got shifted like that. We were testing out at Target Field because they had the big limestone wall in right field. There's like a hangover of like the stands that comes over.

And the second baseman, they teach you there. If you see a fly ball like and you think it's going to be off the wall, you start running out because there's so much, I guess, buoyancy or bounce off the wall that if the outfielders back there against it, it's going to come back enough. So we would almost like get rid of the cutoff man and say, you just go out there and go for the ball because it's going to come back that far. I think we might see some of that. I don't know.

I remember, yeah, it was you, me, garden hire Rosario. We were talking about that. Rosario was telling me, it's like, Poppy, if it comes off the ball, get moving the other way. And I was like, yeah, all right, Ed. And then me and you and Willie Randolph went out and practiced it a little bit together. We went out. We went out. Me and Willie Randolph would fuck New York.

This week, maybe. I might hit him up, yeah. Hit them up. And- And Joe's together. All that shift talk was brought to you by Athletic Greens, AG1. Why don't you shift your lifestyle with athletic greens? AG1.

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and five free travel packs with your first purchase. Go to Athletic Greens.com slash baseball. Athletic Greens.com slash baseball. There's a link in the description. Joey G. Have a big year. I'm obsessed with this now.

Like if Fenway is the only part where you just don't need a left fielder. And I'm looking at Joey Gallo versus fastballs. And like, yeah, they don't need a left fielder. It's a pop-up that the shortstop catches, like running back, or it's off the monster. The four-out. The four outfielders are done too, right?

Yeah, yeah. They have to be on the dirt. Three outfielders, yeah. That's good. That stunk. Yeah, that was bad. Only the Blue Jays and the, uh, Rays did it really,

and the Angus. Yeah. I found out. And they can still bring one in for like a true five-man in field if they wanted, but, uh, four-man outfield out.

And they can do what they did to Gallo, but. Yeah. Calo. overall I feel like I don't know every once in a while we're getting a story about the pitch clock or the shift and stuff like that but overall

like the games I've been watching I haven't it hasn't been a nuisance or like a lot of things haven't really come up so I'm hoping that carries over into the season and we just kind of see some ball that's sped up a little bit a little bit of better pace I'm sure that there are going to be sometimes though

we're like there's going to be big stories will be up in arms about it a little bit. But so far, so good, right? If we're going to rate what we're seeing on the field, what do you guys think? Like, what's the, out of 10, are you a 7 on the whole new rule? Spring training's not baseball. So it's really kind of tough to, I don't want to say a number or like a route

and then have it completely change when the season really starts. But I like the general pace of play right now, besides when they show the clock the entire time on screen. If they don't show you the clock, I'd almost rather it, like I said earlier that I liked when they were showing the eight seconds, you know, when it counts for the batter in the pitcher. If we get to the point where they don't show it at all, and I just trust if an infraction called,

then they show me the replay with the clock on there, I think that's how I would broadcast it. Right now in spring training, everyone's interested. So you broadcast it with the timer because people are watching. Once the season starts, because if you don't have that clock in your face or you're not getting reminded of it every single pitch, you just wouldn't know it happened until an infraction.

And you would think, damn, they're playing kind of quickly today. So I think that's the, I hope it comes off the broadcast once things get settled. But I understand why it's on right now. Can you see the shot clock the entire time basketball? games or does it only show up on the scorebug when it's close? I'm trying to remember. I haven't watched it a lot of that. I think it's the whole time, but it's part of the bug down there. So, and you get, you just get so ingrained in it. But there's also the other timer

counting down. So there's just, the other sports have that. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I, it feels like, like, some of these, like, tweets that are coming out about it aren't going to bite people in the ass because they're not that crazy. But I think, you know, a lot of these pitchers in spring training are like, hey, I'm, you know, I'm throwing all fastballs and I'm going to throw one off speed pitch. Like, you know, we're seeing these tweets that are like, wow, this game had 15 runs,

and it still finished in two hours, 57 minutes. And it's like, well, I think in a regular season game, I think they'd be thinking about their pitch selection more. I think there's going to be more time that goes into it that I think the current speed, it's going to be a little slower come the regular season, but still landing in that right below 3-300, 3-hour area. I think that's right where you want to be if you're baseball.

I wanted to mention this because we talked about it before the show. Baseball America ran an article asking the minor league teams that ran the pitch clock last year and saw that two-and-half-hour game time throughout the year. They asked them, how were your concessions? Did you end up selling less concessions because people were at the ballpark with a less amount of time? And the resounding answer was no. We sold the same.

And sometimes they sold even more. People were more engaged. They were opting to stay for the post game like fireworks and post game like running on the field because the games happened sooner. So we saw a lot of people before the pitch clock leaving in the seventh inning. Now they're staying through the completion of the game. So people are kind of at the ballpark for the same amount of time. But now they're actually finishing the baseball game. And concessions haven't suffered, which if you know business, they care a lot about the concessions in the stands.

So that's nice to hear that they weren't impacted. Yeah, it is nice to hear that for them. I guess. Bring your own food if you want. You can. I can tell people that bring your own food to the ballpark. Pack a tuna sandwich. I do think you don't have to complain about concession prices.

Because you can bring your own food. I think every... Yeah. I'll still complain about it. I do think they're too high. But like, just bring your own if you don't want to pay for that. You know what you're getting into at this point. You shouldn't be surprised by it.

I like the idea of like cheap basic foods. If you weren't allowed to bring your own food. Yes. We'd have a major, major issue. If you can sell your popcorn, your hot dogs, and maybe like nachos for a reasonable price, price. And then upcharge the beer like you do. I think I'm for that. Like if you're going there and you're trying to get shit faced at a baseball game, you understand what's going to happen. You're going to pay for it. But like, you know, bringing your family who wants your son wants the nachos and they're costing you 20 bucks for a, you know, a canned nacho cheese. I don't like that. Like I'd rather have the basics be down. Charge me whatever you want for the beer. But you're right. People need to understand you can bring a cooler into these games and bring your own food. I wonder

to take advantage of that. The Mercedes Ben Stadium in Atlanta, they were trying to do cheap concessions to see. Yeah, they've done really well with it. We've talked about this before.

Yeah. I think they're still doing it. Yeah. Like they've, I think you get a hot dog or burger for like a buck 50, which. It's the Costco thing.

You get the chicken or the hot dog in the soda for a dollar 50 and that's never changed in the last like 30 years. The chicken's still four bucks. Like that's the whole premise behind it. Get people in to buy those staple

items and then they're going to buy everything else. One of my jobs is to do regular dollar dog night which is fun. Those got to be gross. Oakland Coliseum used to do dollar dog nights and it was like a wrinkled up pinky finger in a bun. Yeah. It was absolutely disgusting. It's better than that. But I did I did that at a Texas Rangers Seattle game

King Felix. Me and my buddy Jared went and we got so violently sick. Eating those yeah those pink shrimpie hot dogs. Those dogs? I don't know if they sell those legally. Jimmy's happy, we think. Oh,

Jimmy's mad. Found something you don't like. I got, no, no. Sorry, I got to go fix my tooth right after this. And they sent me this whole registration form to, before you walk in,

I filled it out once. By the end, I said, it's done. Now it's out. Now I'm out. It didn't fill anything in. So it says log in.

So I logged in. It cleared the whole form. So then I did it twice and just did the same thing to me. So now I'm the dummy. You're the job. yoke today's debacks lineup rojas longoria guerrille walker canzon ameghiggins castillo herrera so yum we play for rings in the desert did you like my post yeah it's proud of you trev growing the game man you can't coach without coaching that was some yogi berra stuff out of you

teddy call yourself coach without coaching teddy did with the chain and pulled it out over the hoodie for the picture so good sorry about you all right Let me do a quick chain story real quick with Teddy. So, you know, he's, there's a couple kids on our team have them. So he wants to be part of the boys. So we were at the mall and, you know, they have the kiosk with like the fake jewelry. And he's looking at it. I see it in his eyes.

Like, fuck, look at all those awesome chains. So he brought him over there. And then we bought him one. I think it was like 30 bucks, you know. It's gold plated or whatever. Or expensive than Jakes. Yeah. So he wears it to school the next day.

He's so proud of it, dude. He thinks it's fucking badass. And he always is popping it. He doesn't wear it under the shirt. Can't. How would people know you're wearing it if it's not out? Exactly. So I paid him out from school that day,

and he doesn't have the chain on it. I'm like, what's, what happened to your chain, bro? And he's got it in his pocket. And he said, a couple of his classmates said they felt it and told him it wasn't real. I was like, that was a motherfickers, dude.

And I had to explain to him. I said, look, it's not full gold. It's gold. play did, you know. Do they have a real gold chain, Teddy? He's like, no. I'm like, well, then tell them to shut up there, play a Hayton. I had to explain to him what play a hate.

That was a great conversation. Glad Olivia gave that privilege to you to explain to them, player hating. Teddy goes to school. My dad said you guys were just player haters. I like reading Trevor Plu's stuff. He's got a lot of good takes. Oh, man. World Baseball Classic.

We had the all dropout team. There's a lot of guys dropping out. It is starting soon. March 8th is the first games, I believe. Yeah. Or maybe tomorrow even. We have seen all the teams, all the guys taking off to the teams

because there are some pools in, you know, Korea. I think there's maybe one in Taiwan. We saw Dustin Morris out there. He's helping the Netherlands with Bert Blyleven. So look out for that team. Old snick-a-boughts. But a lot of dropouts.

Can't believe Burt Blyleaven is a pitching coach for the Netherlands. I mean, who, who, Literally at the end of the day, who the fuck am I? But meeting Burt Blyleaven for a couple minutes. He's a silly character, man. Oh, boy. Buying some Netherlands stock. WBC.

Yeah, man. You want to go over the people that left? Who are the recent ones? Vladdy. Vladdy got hurt. That's a big one. Miggy Roe, and I think he just talked about that on the Chris Rose rotation that came out today. Yep.

Alejandro Kirk, he opted out, I think last week, he's birth of his child, and then Sayo was hurt. Nimmo opted out. I didn't know that one. Kershaw for the U.S., G. Man Choy. So yeah, I don't know. Do we have any other takes besides guys are playing it safe

and that's kind of smart? Do you think there's like a little Blue Jays sneaky exodus with Kirk and Vlad? Vlad's hurt. Kirk, I think they, well, he had complications because he was having a child and then I think that got delayed and he's like away from camp away from he showed up to camp late um but i this is pure speculation i did read some blue jays fans opinions on redid about this way back when happened but but you showed up the

camp plate i think i believe because of the birth of a child well pitchers and catchers and the pitch clock if you don't have that time it was almost going to be he was going to have not a lot of time with this like just the one week so maybe that's why. I thought more catchers and pitchers were going to back out going. Yeah, he gothioka's going, right? Yep.

Yeah. He mentioned that like, hey, like, I know it's going to be odd to do it. He's talking about specifically catching Rodon. I was reading something about that where he wanted some more time, but I'm glad the guys are staying.

Like this is this tournament, the WBC, I think, I understand why teams would be selfish with the players. They're paying a lot of money to. They want them for the regular season. But in the end, you kind of have to think about what the WBC will do for the game, you know, in the long term. I think this is the best chance to grow the game internationally.

Like putting all of the stars out there playing against each other, galvanizing these nations together. Like it's, it's kind of beautiful. And it kind of, like I said, I think it's one of the ways we can really promote the game internationally is doing this. So I'd hope because Mark DeRosa, so when he was on C. Rose rotation again was talking about there are some organizations that were great and they said take our guys like you know like they be careful other teams not so great it wasn't a joke. Nevin came out and said he's telling all the like I think the angels have the most going and also Nevin told players to go. I think it's like go compete get that fire I love it did you hear we never talked about this uh Rendon's quote about the difference between Nevin and

madden you hear my Did you guys hear that? Oh, it was a while ago. He said, and it was very interesting, you could spin it two different ways. There was the one clear spin. And he said, he like paused himself and then said, well, I don't want to say anything because if I say that, you're just going to say that Joe didn't hold us accountable. I'm not going to answer that question because if I answer that question, then it's going to look like I'm shitting on Joe. It's nice to be held accountable.

He's holding us accountable. I think it's awesome. Yeah. In what way? Like he's... I think Nevin's on their ass. I mean, yeah. You could see a difference

to him and Joe Madden in that regard instead of being like, hey, man, do whatever you want. But Rendon, if I do answer this, you guys are just going to say that I'm shitting on Joe. And I was wondering, does that mean like... Rendon's an interesting cat, huh? Mm-hmm. Earlier in that, he said his identity

is about more than playing baseball the next four years. Because he doesn't like baseball. Which. Famously. He's displayed fully. He's just so good at it. Yeah. Well, we know.

That's crazy. We know you're not into it. That's wild. I went through that where I was like, I'm more than a baseball player. And then I realized I'm not that much more than a baseball. Kind of, that's kind of what I am. And I guess if you're the angels and Trout and Otani have decided that they want to do it,

they're kind of the head of your team so I think you kind of have to open it up at that point too you know yeah I don't know dude I'm so excited for the WBC I know it's like the beginning rounds are going to be on at on odd times and you might not for you I mean there's going to be some seven

but this tournament if we get the matchups that we want to get I think is going to be some of the better baseball you'll see all year long even throughout the major league season even in the playoffs like the atmosphere if we get the Dominican versus the U.S. If we get Japan versus Dominican, I think that's the game I really want to see

is Japan versus Dominican. Like, I want to see that because this, talk about different styles of baseball being played too. Like, I think that's one thing that we don't mention enough in baseball is the way the different countries approach the game differently.

And Japan's a prime example of that, especially in these international competitions. I mean, they know how to play like the game of baseball, moving runners, playing defense, situational hitting. They got boppers too.

They got guys that can freaking blow your doors off, but they have a little bit of everything. And then you'll see teams like the U.S. I don't know if they really do that. It's become more of like a freaking blow up by you, freaking pop homework game. Well, wait until the shifts illegal. What does the Vladdy do for the squad?

Who subs in? Devers? Is he now or no, no, no, he's over at first. No idea. Do do do do do do do no idea. Who's going to play first? Let's see the roster.

Adomas Cano Cruz Canoe at first? Cano could. Devers, Wander Franco, Machado. Oh my God. They got options. Yeah, I'm looking right now. I mean, I could see Machado going over there. Who's your worst third baseman?

I like Cano, I think, for them. Wander there. Who plays second then? Wander second. Adama said. You got Gene Seguera, you got Jeremy Pena, Marta, all those guys. I would put Machado at first base, like he's a big target. What if, what if like player GM Cruz is just like, fuck it, I'll do it.

I'm ready. Eloy? Didn't Eiloy play a little first base for the White Sox originally? Yeah, but he might have. Deloy out of the field. Yeah, might get the shits. Also get Robinson Canoe off the field. DR legend.

Adam first and ninth. I think that's the episode. Watch all these games drinking a blue moon, Jimmy, because we got some veteran signings. We got a cover too. Oh, yeah. Watch baseball drink a blue moon. Watch baseball drink a blue moon.

Spring training is here. If you're out at spring training, Arizona, Florida, get yourself a blue moon, sit in the berm. Enjoy it. Just enjoy it. A little sunshine. Maybe take your shoes off. Grounding on the berm with a blue moon.

And if you're not going to spring training, get that Blue Moon delivered. Get the Blue Moon delivered. Check out their options. Get. Dot bluemoonbeer.com slash baseball. Hell yeah. Get. dot Blue Moonbeer. Blue Moon made brighter.

Celebrate responsibly Blue Moon Brewing Co. Golden, Colorado. There's a link in the description. You probably know that. Trev, in probably the biggest news, you are a Rockies guy. It was my rocks. It was Kelsey Winger's rocks.

Cole Tucker, who they're, you know, you can tell team spring training plans of who they want to find out about, you know, the guys that bat first or second every day. Cole Tucker, our guy, getting a lot of at-bats, Homer, triple. So we're excited. We're excited about that. But they also brought in Malibu Mike, a little 1B3BDH option for your boy. so I think it's fully Trevor's Rocks,

never mind Brad Hand in the bullpen who they brought and they're making moves. We play for rings and the Rockies. I've always said that. Cole Tucker's raking. He's doing really well. So I've been watching his at-bats. He's been sending me some clips

and then I'll go back and watch the at-bats. I watched him strikeout against Kirby, I believe it was. Open with a highlight. That's fine. No, he looked good. I was going to say he looked good. Even in the strikeout, really good rips. Kirby made some really good pitches off him.

And he just, you know, got overpowered on a fastball. But he's been, his swing looks simple. It looks repeatable, which is what you want. The Malibu Mike thing to the Rockies, I don't know how I feel about it. Because are they competing for a roster spot? Because then that kind of hugs my heart. I don't think they are, because I think they have coal up the middle,

ideally, whether second, short, and center. And they said, and again, I don't know where this quote came from, but they said he's not playing second base. Yeah, I saw that too. Wednesday of last week, Mike and I were talking about playing tennis and he might join this tennis club. And I'm like, yeah, this is great. You're retired. Now I have a friend to hang out with. And then all of a sudden I see he signed. I said, bro, like, congrats, but thanks for the scoop. And his response to me was, ha ha, ha, I just found out now I'm here.

Like he didn't have any say in the matter or something. So yeah, I'm just a rocky now. So, well, he probably said, go get me on a team. team. Tell me when you do. Do we think they're just sucking up to us? Like the Rocky's front office is friends of the pod. And they're just like, okay, let's give them Kotok and Malibu Mike. And they'll be nice to us. Oh, man.

It's an easy front office to infiltrates, one dude. Also check out, before we end the show, there's some minor leagues or other signings. I guess we'll mention them quickly. But Taylor Hearn has a massive article in the athletic talking about like the rodeo and stuff. So if you're a fan of his, you've seen him on the show before, go check that out. I always love to shout out Tihans. And I should also let people know while we're doing things to be on the lookout for it.

Dale Scott came to the warehouse and umped a blitzball game. I got the catch in front of them. That was really fun. And then we did do like a, I don't know how long we went. 30 minutes. 30 minute chat with him.

So in the next five days, in between all the team player profile and projections, if we aren't able to record one, we might attach that. Attach that. We talked about the rules and umping new rules and all the changes there. It was good.

It was good. Dale Scott's still the man. Yeah. Third appearance. Talking baseball. He is good. He's a stud. I'm trying to watch his Cole Tucker.

It made me laugh at him. I'll send you some videos. They're a baseball savant just like updated it so you can, I think they're in the process of putting the spring training videos on the website. But 375 batting average 444 on base. Excited for him. All right. Big week, Trev. See you tomorrow, Trev.

I love you guys. Me and Nikki Cass be working out, too. Jake sucks. He's got a schedule and slanging sandwiches out of his room. What a nut. What a nut. He's serious. He is.

It's like a poor review on us hosting players. You have no midnight snacks. Hand-in-out chicken sandwiches till I run it. Spring training home run, leader, Kellnick.