Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - The Most Impressive Starts to the 2024 Season | 819

Episode Date: April 3, 2024

Use code TALKIN for $20 off your first SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKIN  Find The Deal with Alex Rodriguez on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. https://link.chtbl.com/A2Mcr1OcGet your tickets to Baseball Today LIVE at https://shop.jomboymedia.com+++++Timestamps:0:00 Intro5:10 The International Rookies8:05 Dodgers RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto12:40 Cubs LHP Shōta Imanaga17:10 Giants OF Jung Hoo Lee19:10 Yankees INF Anthony Volpe & Oswaldo Cabrera26:00 Brewers 2B Brice Turang30:05 Nationals 3B Trey Lipscomb32:30 Catchers Yainer Diaz, Luis Campusano, and Francisco Alvarez36:45 Cool Veterans: Ke'Bryan Hayes, Gurriel, Conforto, Teoscar46:25 Dodgers Shortstop Mookie Betts49:30 Yankees RF Juan Soto and Royals SS Bobby Witt Jr.52:45 Braves 2B Ozzie Albies54:55 Bullpens that are Looking GOOD 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. About a week in, we got some studs off to hot starts. A couple teams. Who's your guy? Let's talk about it. Hello and welcome to talking baseball, presented to you by a seat geek. My name is Jake Storelli. Trevor Plouffe is out.

Hollywood. BBD is here in the big city, and we are talking baseball today. except we got a no-hitter out of the way, obviously. Because that's just, that's baseball now, man. That's what we're doing. Congrats to Ron El Blanco. We'll talk about him a little more in a minute. We're going to talk about a lot of young ball players are balling out.

A couple of the old. How about Mookie and Bryce getting in the mix last night? And man, down to three undefeated. We got Brewers, Pirates, Tigers? Yes. Those are the three you had going the longest undefeated into the season, Trev. So congrats and how are you doing? Jacob and Beavers and everyone listening.

I'm doing great. I talked to you before the show. There's some things going on that I like to fix in my life, but they're small things. And they will get fixed. But these guys were about to talk about today. They are rolling pop. April's been good to them, if you know what I mean. and a little bit of March as well.

This is fun. I love the beginning of the season because we get to highlight some guys that, you know, start the year off hot, help their teams get off the hot starts, and then we might see some of these guys, make an all-JM team, make an all-star team,

because once you start hot, you can stay hot, you get that confidence going. I think that's kind of what I want to talk about most in this episode is, hey, man, like, which one of these? is for real. Right.

Will they stick around? Is this just a flash in the pan hot April? Because that happens too. Hot stretches do happen. But I think some of these guys have made some adjustments on your yanks that might help them throughout the season. So I'm excited to highlight some of these guys. That's kind of like what I like to do.

Right. That's where I got hype for this episode because we just want to highlight, highlight dudes that have put it together. And it's one week and that's the sick part of it. that there's probably going to be one or two names we look back at and we might be laughing in a couple months. I hope not. I hope all these guys are bawling out.

I'm trying to think of who are some of the famous all-JM guys. There's that Hosmer month. Hosmer has an all-JM and them. Content guy. We had like a DH that stole it from somebody. Brent Rooker. I'm going to go find it right now. And wasn't there, there was a shortstop who was like,

had an awesome April and blocked like all of the green shorts. Jorge Mateo. Jorge Mateo. Oh, he's the best, though. Jorge Mateo had a sick April. He's the best. A sick April can still run like hell. They've got it last year.

That's funny. So at first when we were dreaming this up in my head, it was like, all right, let's do. Let's highlight the guys who are going to stick and the guys who aren't. We're not going to do the guys who aren't. That's not our job. I might. That's like, good.

Hey, Treve, if you want to do that. And you know what? The other thing, if you like Trevor Plouf, and if you, maybe you just deal with Chris Rose because that's part of his package deal, baseball today live in L.A. It's going to be out there. Their first live event ever,

Trevor Plouf and Chris Rose at the Boomtown Brewery before the Padres Dodgers game. So I know we got Podger's. I know we got Dodgers fans. I know we're picking L.A. Am I doing it right? Do I have the right fingers? I never know. There you go. Very close. VIP tickets sold out, obviously, because they're trying to get their hands on those faces. But there's still some general admission tickets available. Starts at 5 p.m. And they got the Dodger Stadium Express Shuttle walking distance. If you're going to the game afterwards, tickets are at

shop.johnboymedia.com. Go get tickets to that. Or if you're on that website, get this shirt, get this hat, get BPD's hoodie. We got so much, so much new, cool merch. We actually, like, hired a merch professional. Shocker that that helps. Shout to our guy, Patrick. What up, dude. So go check out baseball today live.

Get some merch. Trev, we had our, the Prince of Snakes, Dalton Feeley, who puts together our sheet. He separated our category. into it was originally rookies, kids, vets, stars, and the pen.

We're going to highlight the pen at the end. I fought that a little bit. I think the biggest one to check in and we've rearranged this a little bit, the international guys, because we might have to change our tone a bit, Trev. And I've called myself out on this the most

because I just come in, when it comes to the international guys coming to Major League Baseball, I basically turn into, if there's a bank robbery going on, I just go hands up and I'm like, I don't know, I don't know, man, like I hope these guys are studs,

but there's a chance they're buns, right? But maybe we're getting away from that, dude, because if you look around the league, like, Sayas put a couple seasons together. The way we measure pitching now. It's tough to be a total dud. And I'm seeing Yamamoto, I'ma Naga, and your

new guy guy, Jung Huli, are on the sheet. So the international rookies, these guys got paid and they've performed in the first week of the season. So I guess which one of these jumps out to you the most, or where do you want to go, Trev?

I think you could say that about any baseball player, though, when it gets the big leagues, bank rob her hands. I don't know. Let's see how he does. Because it's a different league. It's relentless. We talk about it all the time. It's day in and day out, best players in the world, what you got. The scouting and the data has gotten better. The way we can measure certain things and how those translate, I think has gotten better. For me, when I'm looking at, for instance, international free agents, and that's just to say specifically in Asia,

like I think on base percentage and plate discipline that transfers that could come over and play anywhere. If you know the strike zone, you're probably going to put yourself into better hitters counts and, you know, at least have the chance to be more successful. I think if we're talking guys that just slug and the plate discipline isn't there, we've seen some of those guys come over and fail. But the guys with, you know, good plate discipline and, you know, maybe even some more raw tools like speed and defense, like those are going to transfer. Like Hassan Kim is a great example of that. That guy can play D and he knew he could play D. Bad has come along with that as well. But this crop of, you know, this crop of Asian international free agents, you know, specifically has been great.

And they, and like you said, they got paid. So there was a lot of expectations on these guys. And really they've performed. I know, I guess we'll start with Yamamoto because he got an incredible deal, 12 years. What was that end number on that? Beavs, can you look it up? 12 years is incredible. It's a lot.

That's a long time. It's a really long time. What are you going to be doing in 12 years? I was tough. Yeah. Yeah. 12. 325.

Sheesh, bro. It's a, I think, the max out number. I had a, opt-outs, all of that. I had your guy, Foolish Bailey on Wake and Jake to talk about his foolish 50. And I was laughing. He mentioned. and he's like, they're probably going to have like an innings limit on him this year because

he's 25. And it's like, that kind of blew my mind a little bit because you view him as a pro because he pitched professionally overseas. But yeah, every 25 year old we talk around baseball, we talk about them being on an innings limit. So I don't know. That was one of those things that I was just like, damn, that's interesting. Do you think what if he's like, no? Right. Like I know. Where I come from, we throw the ball. I'm a professional. I'm good. Yeah, I want three straight MVP awards before this. I'm good. That is going to be interesting to see what they do there in L.A. because they are going to have a bunch of

pitchers healthy and they got a lot of good guys. I wonder if they go to a six-man rotation just to keep everybody fresh. We'll see. Keat a clunker of a start in Korea. I think you kind of throw all those stats out the window. I know you want to keep the good ones if you're a player, but also like what a weird way to start this

season. Flying all the way over there. Your equilibrium is messed up. You can't sleep. The whole Dodge team came back and they're sick now. Not showing it on the field. Here's what I'll say. I think you're kind of right, which is funny. Unless his next start against San Diego is bad.

And then I circle it. I wonder if he's lined up for that series. He might be. I think they've got a three game set next week, next weekend. First. Where'd you go there, Pop? Yeah, I don't know. A little alien.

A little alien in here. first start one-hitting pitched five earnies four hits one walk only two case that's not great but then he rebounded against the cardinals goes five innings pitched no earned runs two hits and that was with like a rain delay i think he had like 40 minutes in between innings still came out and did his thing better command this stuff is there like this guy is going to be good in the big leagues we'll see how his first year goes like you know as the season goes on he's going to have to make adjustments and change things. And there's no doubt in my mind that he's going to be, I mean, a high-end starting pitcher

in the big leagues. So things look good. I know the first start wasn't great, but I think you can tell that this is going to work out. And I'd like to mention, Shohei and him come to Dodger Stadium, all of a sudden, we got all the good Asian food back, dude. Okay, let's go. I mean, when I was a kid, you go see Hideo Nomo, and they used to do, they used to sell sushi on those nights.

And then they had like, what was that? What's the, what's like the bowl place? Like the really famous one, it's kind of like not around anymore. You might not even know what I'm talking about. I might. Yankee Stadium has, what's the, what's the name of that place? They've got some, a noodle place that I go to, and it's actually, it kind of slaps.

It does slap. Anyways, so I went to the game the other day. I'm like, look, I need to eat something real quick. And then boom, I was like, oh, my God, this stuff is back. So I went and got like a short rib with some kimchi. It was great. Loved it. He brings that to the table as well.

There's a Benny Hana. Benny Hana at the stadium that, like, it's kind of not what you think you're going to eat going to Yankee Stadium, but like pound for pound meal you can get there. I am. Yeah. Hey, fun fact about Benny Hanas, Steve Ayokies, his son. Yeah. What a life that guy has.

Maybe we should be friends with him instead of Hunter Fierry. No, I still like Hunter. Shout out Hunter. Shout out our guy. Will you be friends with us? I'll try. I'm going to unfollow and follow him right now. All right, so we got through Yamamoto.

We think he's going to be great. The guy actually picked to be the NL rookie of the year over him. him is Shoda Imanaga, who had his first start against the Rockies in some really bad weather, six in his pitch, two hits, zero and runs, nine Ks. The strikeout stuff was there in spring training. The ERA didn't look good,

but the strikeouts were there. And if you watch the game, I think he had five of those nine were K's looking. And then he listed a bunch of bad swings. I did have some people pushed back a little bit on me. We talked about this on baseball today. They said the wind was blowing in a lot. He did give up some hard contact.

but we heard in spring training how funky it was and how, you know, a good of a pitcher he is. And I think that's what you saw as well. He's commanding the inside part of the zone to righties. Then he's throwing a slider off of that. So the guy knows how to pitch, and I think that's refreshing. But not only is he a good sequencer and he can locate, he actually got stuff. I mean, he's running up there 95 miles an hour on the fastball.

A lefty doing that is something special. So I think he's really shown that he's going to be a difference maker there in Chicago. Yeah, I was laughing a little bit last night. I was watching my snakes and Zach Gallen. And, you know, when you're talking best pitchers in the game, at some point, Zach Allen comes up because he has been innings and performance-wise. And like, Zach Allen, it doesn't light up the radar gun. Like, Zach Allen's fastball was sitting in 91 to 93,

and it's like, you know, we get so fascinated by the, the 97-98 now and it's like, hey, you know, 93 still gets there. And where you put the ball matters. And Zach Allen, he was putting the ball everywhere. So yeah, I'm trying to see fastball velocity from my guy Shodah. I don't see it on the page. But, yeah, I'm interested.

And I think the thing I want to say with all these guys, he was sitting 92.5. Like, he's not throwing 87 up there. Shout out to Ryan Yarborough. But yeah, for all of these guys, and this is one of Jimmy's bigger things, let's see the second time through the league. Because I know we haven't really gotten to Junghulie yet, who he got his home run, which people were questioning,

like, what kind of MLB power he was going to have in general. But, you know, when you look at Yoshida's second half last year, he really faded. And, you know, was that the league adjusting to him? was that his body wearing down over the grind of the 162? You know, there's a cup, or is it just baseball? Like a lot of guys have bad months here and there. So I'm interested to see with all of that.

But yeah, I'm Shoda. I don't know. That's the one. The Dodgers don't just give $300 million to anybody. Like, I think this Yamamoto guy, that's going to click. I'menaga. Remember when the contract came out? and we're like, wait, this is like, what was it,

four for 54? Like compared to some of the contracts that went out, we were like, oh, that if he can be a major league starting pitcher, which I think there's not a lot of doubt about anymore, that's a super, that's like a valuable contract. It's just the age thing. I mean, Yomoto's 25 years old or 24 years old, whatever he is, and even Aga is 29 or 30, that's all it is.

and I talked to you before the show about talking to a Dodgers front office guy, and my mind was just like, I didn't like it, the things that were being said. Right, right. Anyways, those two guys are going to be great. I have showed a winning the nationally rookie of the year, just because I think that if the Cubs have success, he's going to be a massive part of it, and I think he's going to get a little bit more of those votes because that and Yamamoto has so many guys around him,

then maybe that'll get overshadow a little bit. But Yamamoto also could just go throw three no hitters this year with the stuff that he has. Well, and I, you know, the vibes, the Cubs just lost Justin Steele for maybe a month. So if this is, let's say this is Immanaga's best month, hell of a time to have it, you know? So that six innings shut can go.

a long way. We'll be talking about those guys a lot as the season goes on. The next category that we laid out, the kids. We didn't even talk about John Hul Lee. Just briefly, let's get into him. You go. Because I talked

to Matt Chapman about him. Ooh. And he's like, this guy is, he's the best. He goes, the ball comes off his bat incredibly. Like, he goes, when you watch him hit, you got to see this guy hit. I stayed for one inning of that game

because I was there since 3 o'clock just talking to the boys. First at bat against the Dodgers just laces one into left field. Like a great perfect swing, works to count. He's going to be really good. He has the homer. He's got the personality. I think that's another thing that got mentioned a lot when I was talking to the Giants players. Like he's fit in so well, you know, great, like a great vibes guy as well,

which you need to be. Or it's a huge plus if you can do that and bring that into the clubhouse. So not only is this guy going to perform in center field, batting leadoff for the San Francisco Giants who I think are going to really surprise some people this year, but he's bringing good vibes in the clubhouse every day. And you just can't, like, you honestly can't put a price tag on that. Like being able to show up and get the guys fired up, like, that's half the battle in a baseball season as it grows on and gets longer is like, dude, we need to like, let's go. Like amp it up, June, July, August. Those are very tough months. guys like this who can kind of bring the energy for you,

especially leading off the game, it's going to be awesome to watch him play. The other thing that's real, man, and you see this every year with different players. I don't know, getting that homer out of the way, like just this was the 100 million guy the Giants brought in, that again, that's not supposed to be a massive part of his game, but if it was Cinco to Mayo and Junghu Lee doesn't have a home run,

and that scoreboard has that zero on it, You've talked about the scoreboard effect, and then the media is talking about it. And wait, we gave a guy 100 mil, and I don't know. Does he hit any homer? Like, again, that doesn't matter, but it does. The sport we love. The kids, Trev, and I'll rattle off some names,

and then I think I might jump in because there's a couple pinstrippers on here. Anthony Volpe. That's right. Currently leads Major League Baseball in batting average. A batting average, dude. 529, 9 for 17 so far.

As Walda Cabrera also on the list was balling out in that Houston series. We talked about him. Speaking of Houston, Yiner Diaz, like maybe that guy already broke out, and this is just the continuation, because my goodness. And then we've got Trey Lipscomb, which Shack meme, we got to be honest, like weren't familiar with your game, young man. excited to be.

And then Bryce Terang, who came to the office last year. The offensive stats didn't land there. There was some speed and defense. He's hitting early on this season. And Trev, I'll lean into it because we'll get the Yankees out of the way. Aswaldo, the expectations for him last year probably got above where they should have been a normal Yankees team. This is a guy who his favorite player was Marwin Gonzalez,

and that's kind of what he mimics. Like he plays every position. He kind of switch hits. They've stopped hitting him from the right side, but he's still getting summit baths from the right side. That's a whole, that's a work. Yeah, what's up with that? What does that even mean?

Boone finally kind of answered it yesterday, because every time, every time that Zwaldo or the coaching stats been asked, the answer has been, well, he'll sit down, with the coaches and they'll decide who we'll do it against. And then Boone finally kind of said it to us. It's just guys if they have like normal like left right splits. If they're a left on left guy, he'll bat righty still.

And if they're kind of neutral, they'll let him bat lefty against them. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. He's picking and choosing when a lefties on the hill, which side to go on. Before every series, they look at all the lefties and they're saying,

okay, that one you're batting right against this one, you're batting lefty. Right? Like, I kind of like it. It's, and it sounds like he asked for like. It sounds like he gets a vote, which I, as long as he gets a vote, because otherwise I think that's kind of fucked up to be like, they just played Houston and Hater.

Like, if he doesn't get a vote on that, then why even get in the box? So that's a little bizarre. Supposedly he initiated kind of the whole system and like asked to start doing some left on left. So he's a strong side. Right. Uh, with a little bit of righty option. He's been balling out a couple really good swings. One of baseball's best personalities, if you're into that kind of thing.

And the expectation this year was to be a bench guy. DJ gets hurt. He gets an opportunity. He's been balling out. Love that for him. And then Anthony Volpe, who, you know, was one of the hottest discussions. A Yankee fan. A Yankee fan's son.

Shortstop. New Jersey. The kid. And he gets involved in one of the worst Yankee seasons ever. And he, he's, everything you hear about him is everything you want to hear about your prospect. Like he's a baseball guy. He's an absolute rat. Like the fact he didn't go nuts on the field last year, like was extra motivation.

And he was down in spring training early. The abats, the abats are impressive. He's, he's controlling the zone. He's not chasing. And I think the biggest thing that Yankee fans were saying last year that you never want to be too obnoxious because his bat has pop. But Trev, the guy's like $5.9, a buck 70. And he was having two-strike swings last year where the helmet was flying off. And it seems dumb, right? Like, you don't, his profile, he needs to build up a little of that. And he's just staying in control.

He's line drives, balls in the gap while he's got a home run on the board too. So that's the one for me that's obviously the most exciting. And my guy, Jimmy's been pretty tough on him because he didn't like a lot of the swings in the offseason. And Jimmy has full, you know, his thing is I'm all, I have the right to change my mind. That's how life works. Jimmy's change his mind.

Fulpey looks legit. I like that for him. You know, I think a lot of young guys come up and especially in like the stat cast era, you know, they want, give me hard contact because hard contact is what we're, we're chasing. And it is true. The harder you hit the ball, the better chance you have it, extra base hits are just getting a hit in general.

So obviously I understand that there are just times where you got to spoil a pitch. You got to kind of take what a guy's going to give you because there are guys that you just don't match up well with that you're never going to slug against. And I think that's kind of the lost art of the game. I don't even want to call it the lost art because I really sound like an old when I say that. That's just baseball, bro. Like some guys, you are. went got it against and you got to figure out a way to get it whether that's a walk whether that's moving a runner whether it's just having a productive at bat and you know what the more times you do

that uh the better you're going to be long term and then you're going to learn when can i take my chances when can i say you know what here i go uh i can i'm trying to drive this ball out of the fucking ballpark and there's there is a time for that there's a time for just battling fouling off pitches spoiling stuff so you can get back in a hitters' counts. And a young guy like Volpe, you know, showing that he's been able to do that, that means something. That means he's making adjustments.

That means he's going to be able to, you know, stay and be a productive leader for quite some time. I did read about Oswaldo Cabrera and all the Latin guys going around Soto in the cage and spring training. He's the Latin leader. That's what they're calling him. I love that stuff. Like you need it, man.

And, you know, I think he started off really poorly in spring training. You know, there was talks about like him, maybe not even making the freaking team. You know, change some things up. Watch Soto. Watch how he did his work, what he did in the cage. And Soto's kind of holding court. I love stuff like that. That's why I always say, like, you bring in guys like that. It could change not only your season. It could change the outlook for young players' careers. When you get around a guy, I always think about this. Think about how many guys learned under Miggie cabs. All these dudes, man. J.D. Martinez, Nick Kestis. They learn from that guy, and they're two of the better hitters in the game now,

and they're fucking rich beyond their wildest dreams. Stuff like that can happen when you get around a guy like Juan Soto. So I'm happy for both of those guys. Yeah, and I think pivoting off as Waldo into Bryce Terang a little bit, for me, it's, I don't know where Bryce Terrang's season stats can land. I know he has defense and speed that if his OPS lands, if it starts with a seven, he's like a plus ball player. They're Bryson Stottish.

Yeah, like he can very much be in that lane. I guess for me, and it's the Aswaldo part of it, that, hey, you know, you're probably not going to 1.1 OPS throughout the season, but knowing that you can do that for a week or a series, Just having that in the back of your head, I think that's important for a young ball player and for these brewers who are undefeated. And you mentioned the freshman, which I had forgotten about that term because the, I don't know, the freshman, like, not many kids rose to the top of the class,

but that's what sophomore year is about, Traff. Yeah. Freshman year can be weird. It sure is. You've got some feelings there that you haven't felt before, maybe a little bit of acne. That's okay. I had it. Yeah.

And then you start to figure it out. okay, I'm secure in my own skin. And that's a real thing on the baseball field too. We just talked about what the guys coming from Asia. Like coming here and playing, like, it can be daunting. It can be scary and you're not sure of yourself and you might have failed for the first time. We say that a lot, but I really want people to think about that.

A lot of the guys that get to the big things have never failed on a baseball field. You're good when you're young. You're good in high school. You're good in college. You get drafted high. You go through the minor leagues. This is easy. Baseball's fun.

Woo! Big Leas comes. Smacks you in the face. Then you got to figure it out. So, you know, Terang, I actually really like watching this guy play. Pat Murphy's had some really nice things to say about him. Shout out our guy, Pat.

I saw him make this play. You shaded kind of up the middle and line drive back up the middle. like knuckled. So he went towards the base, like to his right a little bit, started off, and the thing just took off back behind him. And he like extended that way. It was like a

reverse dive and makes this play. Like it was so impressive the body control that he had. So the defense has been on display. The bat is obviously there. He's not going to one. I'll go out and confidently say that. But you're right. Like, you know, being able

to do it, um, and prove to yourself, hey, I can get hot and I can get going at the baby level is great for him. And I said this when they traded Corbyn Burns. I said this Brewer's team. I think this team has more of a chance to win 90 games than the other team that had Corbyn Burns and maybe even had

Devin Williams. Maybe that's part of it. I feel like for some reason, they just get going when people think they're out of it. and here they are undefeated. They, it feels like, I don't know, Mitt, there's a little bit of, they were one, I think they were your lock, um,

when we did the TPPs because it was under 500, which they, you know, they've got a little NL central raise going on, man. They, if they call you up, you can defend your position, like at a high level.

Um, so then if you do anything else, you're like a great ball player. Um, they, they've, they've got something. figured out up there.

Yiner, I mean, my Astros fans, I feel like, you probably don't even need to hear it because you saw it all last year, but he's going nuts and he doesn't have to share any time with Maldonado, so they're high. And then, Trey Lipscomb, sure. We just, we kind of researched him before. 2020, third round draft pick, 2024, third-round draft pick. 2024, he's starting at third base for the Nats, and he's kind of gone off,

and he got his opportunity because of injury. Oswaldo got his opportunity via injury, and that's, you know, one of the beautiful and sick parts of baseball that it's like, man, if you get an opportunity, that's everything, man, because the Yankees traded for John Birdie before the season, and we're like, oh, like, as Waldo's not going to play. Like, as Waldo had a tough year last year,

Bertie had a 103 OPS plus. As well, he goes out, he hits two big homers. It's like, okay, we need this guy. And Trey Lipscomb, go do your thing, kid. Yeah, he's got like a nice athletic, like compact swing, kind of upright, gets extended. So I like that. It seems simple enough to repeat, which is, you know, kind of half the battle there at the big leagues. So, yeah, it is.

It is nice when a guy gets an opportunity and kind of runs with it. he's from Frederick Maryland. Did you mention that? I did not. I did not. Is it close to D.C.? In my mind, it is. It's local-ish.

The beautiful mid-Atlantic United States. That whole thing. I'm obviously a west coast or, brad. Yeah. When we start talking Northeast, it all just kind of is like one thing. Yeah. Yeah, Northeast basically gets counted as one thing.

You know, you start getting too far off in PA or New York or anything. like that. The Mid-Atlantic, like, stuff gets far apart, but everyone, everyone's good with it. Maryland. You can take a train there. Maryland, Virginia. 70% overlap there. West Virginia, Delaware, it's all, it's a pile.

West Virginia and Delaware are, like, close? I'd include Delaware. Yes and no. Sheesh. I wouldn't include West Virginia as close to, like, here, but what's a Nor-Easter would kind of say? Oh. It's a big storm. Nor Easter is a big winter storm, I believe.

I'm out on Norristers. You mentioned Yanor Diaz. So the Astros, what do we say about a catcher they can hit? Cheek code. Difference. Tight end. It's like having a good tight end in fantasy football. Yajar Diaz comes in.

The guy catches a no-no hits two homers in the same game. Love that for the Astros. Luis Campesano for. the Padres, another guy that can rake. So it's like when you, and he's off to a fast start as well, you get those guys, I mean, an offensive catcher, man. Look what Will Smith just got from the Dodgers. I mean, I don't know if those guys are going to be Will Smith,

because probably the most underrated player in the game is Will Smith. Francisco Alvarez, ball in two. I wonder if the catching position is going back to that. It used to, when I was in the minor leagues and kind of coming up, if you could rake and like they didn't really kind of have a position for you or you wanted or you wanted to like put yourself get ahead yeah like guys will try catching it i kf that's how he got his ticket to the show so i mean i'm not saying this is what's going on here but like it's nice to have a catcher that can hit it it changes your lineup's dynamic man

i mean there's you know when you look at that bottom of the lineup and you got the career you know, 640 OPS catcher. I mean, they can have the backbreaking hit too, but they can also, like, man, it's so fun having baseball back. I know that's a dumb line from the Talking Baseball show, subscribe. But, man, like, just seeing how quickly things can turn, you know, a pitcher's struggling, and then they get the line drive out, or, you know, it's bases loaded.

They've got two walks, but they get the double play. ball and then they go the next four innings clean. Like, it's, um, the little, the little things matter and having a catcher in your lineup that can do that kind of damage. Um, if you have it, it's an instant, instant disadvantage for the other team. Treve, I want to get, we got some vets and some stars coming and speaking of, uh, Bloomberg's, the deal with your guy, A. I say poppy.

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And a reminder, I think I said this at the top. There's so many guys that could have been on this list. So if we're not super highlighting your guy, like I'm, let us know. Please don't let us know. I mean, just comment some guy that's doing well.

Don't say we forgot him because we looked at it. Whenever we say let us, know it's a flood of you guys missed this you so let's just like say don't say that we're already going to get some that aren't going to listen to us bring it on before you move on I do have some nor'easter facts they don't necessarily have to be in the winter but it's but it's definitely the most common time for them and the definition is it's a big storm winds are blowing from the northeast okay okay so I had a dumb question lined up but that last sentence just got me I was going to say

can the Midwest have a nor'easter? Yeah. You can't? As long as the winds are from the way, it's the direction the winds are blowing. Can't winds not go that way? Isn't that the whole jet stream thing? It's like why it's like kind of rare.

No, it's like, oh yeah, like it's longer going to California from New York than flying from California to New York. It's a, it's much less common. Then they're like, we found his pocket of air and we can go faster. Yeah, the, the plane. Can we just go faster all the time? Hey, we're going to land an hour 15 early. You're like, what?

That was on the table? It's a lot. Let's just do that. Speaking of Just Do That, this is a fun crop. And I think I'm going to get all the names out there just to do it because we've got a tier of vets, which there is one guy that I was like, wow, you become a vet kind of quick in baseball. And just a bunch of ballplayers I like. And then the stars, and Bobby Witt was under the...

star so shout out um the vets were listed as lordis geryl junior who's doing his thing uh and te oskers on the list which i've always looped those guys together just kind of vicious corner outfield power hitters uh michael conforto on the board getting back in the mix for those giants and then key brian hayes uh which pirates fans uh i've had a lot of fodder with them this off season on on your guy and then the stars we have to talk about Muki Betts because what he's doing just continues to be ridiculous. I mean, Juan Soto's there. I don't have to mention him.

Ozzie Albe is doing it from both sides of the plate. And like I said, Bobby Witt's on that list. So Trev, I'll actually kick off with Key Bryan because you had a plant named after him. The pirates are still undefeated. And I did a third base tier list on Key Brian Hayes, or on the third baseman this offseason. And, Cibrian, you know, he's on the list.

But when you're comparing him to some of the third baseman around the league, you know, Key Brian, his first season with a plus OPS plus was last year at 105. You know, he's a gold glover. What he does at third base is special. But when you're comparing him to an Austin Riley, who's now consistently put up these numbers, Jose Ramirez, like year in, year out. You know, Key Brian needed to earn a little bit more. I think to get lumped in with the Crem de la Crem.

But coming off last season where he had a beast second half, in his second half last year, $2.99 and 874 OPS, to go with the gold glove. And now he comes out of the gates hot. Hey, Pirates fans, I'm open and listening, but his hot start can, I don't know, that might be able to fuel something over there. Dude, he's 27 years old.

if you talk to like old school managers they'll always talk about let me see a guy after 1,500 of bats like that's when you know what kind of player that you have right now 14-609 at bets so like or played appearance

oh at bats so like he's just getting to the point I feel like where he knows truly who he is at the big league level like we call him a vet because, I mean, he's got three years service time. I don't know. I don't know if that's qualified. That's like a mid-range vet.

You're getting there, kid. He's going to be a vet because he signed a deal. He's got all the way through 2030. He's locked up. So he's going to be a vet. But this is like the time where he's figuring himself out. He's seen a lot of big league pitches now. He understands what they're trying to do to him.

So like it would not surprise me if we see his best offensive year this year. He's just at that point. point in his career where like things typically happen. So, you know, and that team right now is hot. Then you've got to talk a little bit of pirates here. I have the team stats up right now. Pittsburgh Pirates. Fourth and runs.

Okay. In the big leagues. Fourth and OPS. In the big leagues, there's a lot of guys kind of going off for them. So we're talking about Key Brian Hayes. I think maybe we should have mentioned like Connor Joe and like the rookies. Sure. Like he's going off. I mean, look all. these guys with OPS pluses like i mean it's it's it's big right now michael a taylor is he in the vets

uh didn't have them there but i know he's your guy he's going off brian reynolds is going off like they have a lot of guys doing some really special things there and you know they got up to a hot start last year so we'll see and maybe temper some expectations but hey like it's it's about time that the pirates started going and you know maybe this is the year where they cause some ruckus in there are there in the wildcard hunt. And they need, they need Key Bryan to continue to do this, maybe not to the fullest

extent, I mean, he's one dot in it right now, but like to have a really good offensive year. I mean, that's kind of what you need to have. When your team goes from the seller to the mid to competing for the division title, like you just have to have guys have career years. Like, that's just what it takes.

Like, guys have to have better years than expected. Bottom line. Can I... This might be the year for the pirates. told you my jakey smoke detector was going off a little bit pirates are five and oh i started liking their lineup before the season i was getting worried about the pitching but if you know regular season jakey um i care more about the hitting than the pitching currently the pirates have had a couple transactions the past couple days uh they traded j t brewbaker who was their opening day starter a couple years back. He's on the 60-day IL. They trade him to the Yanks. And I was just like, that's interesting.

Like, he's supposed to come back this year. Like, the pirates need pitching. I was like, that's interesting to me. I traded him with international money. Yeah, I was just like, I'm trying to figure out what they get in that. I was like, that doesn't pass my sniff test of what the pirates should be doing this year. And then yesterday or two days ago, they traded Jackson Wolf, who was one of our name guys on their, on their, on their, TPP, a pitching prospect for Joey Bart, the end of the Joey Bart times in San Francisco. I think the pirates really like what they've got going on. I know that sounds dumb, maybe, but front office is always like their team more than we do.

They've built their team, so they fall in love with it. It's how you look at your fantasy team or your dog or whatever. You're da... The Pirates trading away some of their pitching That's kind of... I don't know I think the Pirates really like what they have going on And I'm on a big stay in the mix

They started 20 and 8 last year And then things fell apart If they're in the mix And they call up the dude skeins I think Pirates mania is going to start Like sweeping baseball I don't know I got him circle.

Yeah, and El Central is going to be a, I don't call it a beast, but a mess this year. Like, it's going to be, everyone's going to be there. I don't think there's going to be any team there that runs away with it. I picked the Cardinals. That sounds like a horrible pick to me now that I really, really think about it. But I went with like the more veteran club and gosh, that was stupid. And El Central, all 500 are better right now. Best Division in baseball.

We always say that on this show. So shout out the pirates. You're a guy, Loris Garrell Jr. I mean, haven't seen you guys in the same room too often. Or at least your personalities in the same room together. He's looked great and he's been great. What a great addition for them. Since he's been over there in Arizona, he's crushed it 308, one dotting it, three homers,

10 ribby's already. And the OPS in the month of April is the lowest OPS that he has in all of the months of the baseball season. 692 is the career average or career OPS in April. Hey, not this time. No. Let me so far.

It's warm in the desert. Yeah. And I mean, Tay Oscar, we've talked about Conforto would love to see him put together the full bounce back in that Giants team. I mean, you start talking Maddie Chapman, Jung Hoo Lee, Michael Conforto, Solair.

We talk about him and like, I like this team and like, dude, there's good guys, the chemistry is there, but then they just go into Dodgers Stadium and just get rolled. Yeah. The Dodgers might just do that to everyone though. It's kind of nuts, dude. It is nuts. Tiosker's on this list as their eight-hole hitter. Yeah, yeah. If Muncie and Tysker and Outman have like, I mean, those are good players. Hey, I just said I like the pirates. If Tia or Muncie was on the Pirates, I think they'd be their four, five hitters.

And like I said, they're all, I don't want to, like, just do a Dodgers glaze session here, but apparently they're all sick. Yeah. Going around the clubhouse. Yanks got a little bit of that, too, from their Mexico trip. Some, some tummies are rumbling. Some other guys that nominees didn't quite make our sheet, Tyler O'Neill, doing his thing in Boston.

Thanks, kid. Why do you look like every baseball player? I just got, I mean, look, what's that about it? That's pretty good. Dude, my arms are so skinny right now. I need to get back in the gym. I don't like the way I look. I need a core routine.

It's just not great. Kettlebells. Yeah. Yeah. You don't even know you're doing it. All of a sudden, you're like, oh, shit. Oh, okay. I like that.

Yeah, because, like, ab work sucks. I mean, I usually get decent ad work when I'm doing, like, my triceps because I feel my core engage. Welcome to Meathead Talk. in baseball. Can we talk some stars, Trev? Yes. I'll start.

I'll start. Okay, please. Mookie Betts, my pick to win NLNVP this year. First off, I think, yeah, does he have five homers? Yes, he's got five homers now already. He's out there taking early ground balls at ShortsUp because he switched over to shortstop. stop this year. He was an outfit for

10 years, mind you. He's playing a little bit of second base when Miggie Rose starts, but he'll be the primary shortstop for the Dodgers. Let me say that again. Mookie Betts will be the primary shortstop for the Dodgers. Can you imagine if I told you that in like 2017 or 18, whenever he was still on the Red

Sox, just doing his thing? Hey, actually, guys, he's going to be on the Dodgers. I mean, playing shortstop. What'd you think? The two best short stops in baseball might be Corey Seeger and Mooky Betts which is just like It's wild people

He's going off He looks great He took a Logan Webb fastball Bottom of the zone sinker Logan Webb doesn't give up homers And he fucking Lifted you know how hard it is To lift a sinker like that

Not really If I'm being honest Not really You don't really know I'll tell you this time right now It seems to try it Seems super hard But I don't really

No. Stop with the bank robber hands, bro. New signature move? So he's just going off. He's 1.7ing it. I don't know. Honestly, I talk about it a lot, but I just think nationally or just like in baseball fans' minds, we just got to like really give him props for what he's doing right now.

It's insane. Yes. It broke me a little bit because I'm just like, we can't have 30-year-olds playing shortstop for the first time. That's not how this works. But again, he is Mookie Betts. And I think I've seen the light of just being like, you know what, if someone's going to do it,

I want it to be one of the best baseball players I've ever seen, and that's Mookie Betts. I will say this. I watched Miggie Roe and him take ground balls together at shortstop. Watching them together, just straight defense and straight, like, Miggie Rowe's footwork. Yeah. is leaps and bounds above Mukies.

But, Mookie's out there working on it. Can you, like, imagine this guy with, I mean, Micky Rose got to be one of the best teachers of the shortstop position in the game as far as players. When Mookie, if Mookie continues to do that, which I know he will,

working with Mugie, like, we're going to see Mookie get, like, good, if not great, defensively. Yeah,

I just. That's, that's one of the, one of the things that, I don't know, we talk about the coaching staffs a lot, but like guys, guys can get better, Juan Soto, who's on this list,

and, you know, there's been a lot of Soto talk around this office. Juan Soto's defense is better. And that's because he's 25, and he's worked on his defense. Yes. It's the only way to get better defense is to fucking go play defense

and go, like, work on it. Like, you can take, the only way to get better defensively, really, is, as an infant. Go take a shit ton of ground balls. Yeah. That's it.

I love when backfield Trev comes out. That's my favorite video game character. There's nothing. Get me out in the back field. Hit me some grounders. I'm in. Yeah. I'm in.

I'm in. Yeah. I mean, Bobby Witt, it feels like locked up that contract. His second half last year, the light bulb went off. Wouldn't be surprised if you're looking at a top three MVP season from him. What could that do for Kansas City? are centrals. Centrals are hot.

I watched Bobby Witt play because they played against my twins. He's just so dynamic on the field. It was him and Buckson having like a sprint speed off. And that was a lot of fun to watch. Both of them just turning regular ass singles into doubles just because they want to. The way these guys run is something special, man. I think that's like one of my favorite things to watch on a baseball field is dudes that can run. Yeah.

And you always talk about like, you know, football. ball speed like you know who cares about what you can do uh without pads at the combine how do you look you know with pads on how fast are you with pads on who cares how fast you can get down to first base in my opinion how do you run the bases going first to third second to home these guys it's it's crazy watching them turn the corners dude like they're just it's like they don't slow down it all it's like they get faster around a corner it's like some like you know like when they bend light and it gets faster. I don't know if that's true.

In my mind, that's true. No way. No way. It's like, no, there is a thing. It's like, okay, maybe not light, but there's like a science experiment. If you put like a marble on like a curved track, it picks up speed.

And then a marble on a straight track, the curved one gets there first. Right. I could see that. These guys go so fast around the bases. I don't care about first. The guys are marbles. Home to first.

I don't care about that. Tell me how you can. can turn and keep going fast. These guys do it. It's incredible. But Bobby Witt's he's kind of got it all, man. The fact that we're listing him in stars already is a little nuts to me. Not bad. A little nuts to me. You got paid like ones. I guess we have to treat it like that, but this guy is a star. Go look at last year's stats again. I had some Bobby Witt kind of questions a week ago, and then I looked at it again. I was like, oh, okay, that's fine. I had a Bobby Witt take way on early. It was Bobby Witt and Julio Rodriguez coming.

at the same time. Okay. And I said I'd rather have Bobby Witt. And it kind of seemed stupid, you know, the first couple of years, Julio, I think probably outplayed him. But then over the last couple of seasons, I think we're seeing Bobby Witt turn the corner. And the only reason I said that is because he plays shortstop.

Right. I think I want to close with, Trev. I'm kind of over the bullpins. I want to land on Ozzy. Ozzy Albies is doing it again. Remember what I just said about Soto getting older. Ozzy Albies is 27 Ozzy Albies is 27

he should be like starting his prime he's been a great baseball player and as I'm on his baseball reference the one thing I'm seeing God that contract goes through 2027 that I just I need Ozzy Albies to be good for the next four years

so he can get the true payday he deserves I like that yeah he's just an incredible incredibly fun players to watch the things that he can do on the baseball field. It's like, you know how they say, like, I'd take nine of those dudes on my team. I'd take nine of the odds on my team.

I would too. Kind of do it all. Look taller in the clubhouse. That'd be big for me. I like that for you. Yeah, no, I mean, in that series against Philly, he hits the two-run bomb to lead off the game, right-handed hits the two-run bomb

to lead off the game left-handed. Like, stuff like that is so special to me. Like, things that I can never even fathom doing. like the obviously i'm not a switch hitter but talking to switch hitters there's always a power side he's just so dang good man and and for him to be i mean what's what is he when you talk about the braves the fifth or sixth guy you mentioned yeah i mean it's play your game put him on another team you're like this is the dude i mean the the braves have arguments ronald coon you could be the best player at his position austin riley could be the best player to his position um ozi

Albies could be the best at his position. Matt Olson. Sean Murphy. It's, I mean, Michael Harris has like a center field argument. It's, uh, the way that team is built. Max Reed, Spencer Strider. Right? Spencer Strider kind of like Strider has the, the arm talent that everyone thinks he's the best. Max Fried sneaky, I think the best ERA of pitchers with 60 starts the past four years. He's a nut. You know what? I am. I, I'm going to end on the pen. Let's just name the names. Keep it tight.

Look, the pirates have come out hot. Their bullpen has been really good. Hunter Stratton's done his thing. Go check what they're doing. That's kept them in ball games. Same thing with the Tigers. They've had a really good start to the year. We were going to highlight Jason Foley, who's

gross. Fucking bowling balls up there. Not a big strikeout guy, even though he throws like 100 miles an hour. He's got a couple saves this year, no earned runs at all. I guess he was a starter with them. Put him in the pen. That doesn't happen that often anymore, does it? That used to be like a thing.

Yeah, I think it still does. It usually just happens in the minors, I think. Undrafted in the draft and had an impressive showcase. Fairfield. Post draft and signed with the Tigers had a great year in the bullpen last year. In 2021, that's when he was a starter, 139 innings 3.16 ERA. And then you made him. I don't, okay.

Maybe I need to do some more research. on Jason Foley. Some other names in the Tigers Bullpen. Alex Fado, Fayetteau, fucking, how do I say that name? Starter, turn reliever. Nobody knows.

Tyler Holtin, Will Vest. They've all thrown two or more innings with zero runs. How about Victor Vodnick? That's a great name. That's a villain's name. That's such a villain name. Scott McGuff also.

Yeah. Snakes. The Arizona Dimebacks has been doing it. So you got to mention some of these guys. I know it's only two appearances or maybe three appearances, but, you know, these hot starts, the pirates and the tigers have gotten off to,

bullpen's been a part of it. Huge part of the team. Huge part of the team. A lot of these guys and units are, again, don't let Trev know who we missed. Let me know in the comments. Tweet at me and Beaves. Excited.

First Friday recap coming up. Yanks opening. Ronell Blanco, no hitter. Yeah. Whoops. Another Houston. A no-no. 30 years old.

That might stand out. God. Chicks. You looked at a car wash. Signed for $5,000. A 22 years old. A bunch of 16-year-olds. Here's your no-no.

Good job, Houston. Some in the water there. Ready. Julio and Bobby Witt coming together. Same time. Dudes.