Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Tier Listing MLB Superstars!

Episode Date: August 19, 2026

Use our code for 10% off your next set of MLB tickets on SeatGeek*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKIN2026. Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount Be sure to check out all our CPL coverage and highlights on That’s Cricket’s social channels! https://www.youtube.com/@thatscricketjm/videos Book your next trip at https://www.bestwestern.com https://fanaticsmarkets.onelink.me/3MFw?pid=jomboy&af_dp=fanmarkets%3A%2F%2Fhomepage&af_channel=partnerships&c=jomboy_fmx&af_ad=youtube&af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Ffanaticsmarkets.com%2F%3Fpid%3Djomboy%26c%3Djomboy_fmx%26af_ad%3Dyoutube%26utm_source%3Djomboy%26utm_medium%3Dreferral%26utm_campaign%3Djomboy_fmx%26utm_content%3Dyoutube   Coach Trev and Talkin’ Jake tier rank MLB superstars, if they are on a historical pace, who would get MVP right now, and how some can make an impact even during a rough 2026 season   Event contracts carry risk of total loss and changing prices. Not good  for all investors. Not available in all states. Must be 21+. See Important Disclosures in Fanatics Markets app. Customers are introduced to Crypto.com by Paragon Global Markets, LLC, d/b/a Fanatics Markets IB, an Introducing Broker registered with the CFTC and a Member of the NFA.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to talking baseball. We're talking about the studs in this game. Little tearless. We're going to talk about things you can look for the rest of the way. Some certified bangers. Let's talk ball. Carl Povano. Jay Bangalier. Hello and welcome to talking baseball. It's presented by Fanatics Markets where fans trade on sports. Fanatics markets available now on the app stores. I'm Jake Story Ellie. That is Trevor Plouffe.

Rob Chiraco producing The Mighty Quint Loading all sorts of stats and info Because I think Dalt quit I don't know Well one adult's players Might have quit on the team last night I don't know if we're going to talk about that at all

Weird one going on with Catelle Martte It was a wild night in baseball Why are you pitching a PCA Trev How are you? Do we talk? Cotel Marte?

I don't know Start this is a tier list episode but I think that's kind of news. It's news. I don't know what to do with it. I'm doing great, by the way. Thank you for asking. I was watching when PCA hit, I was watching live when he hit the walkoff with my family. That was a lot of fun. Chris and I did a show earlier today. We talked a little bit about Citell Marte. Some of the interviews going around, you know, Tori Lavella, who's had Marte's back for years. I was kind of like visibly shaken up a little bit, very hesitant with his answers. The one that was really telling to me was

Corbyn Carroll's post-game interview where he just, they asked him, is it a distraction? And he went silent for like 10 seconds. And I don't know what, we have no information, so it's hard to speculate, but it is an interesting kind of development for the one game

out of a wild card Arizona Diamondbacks right now. Right. I mean, what was looking like a pseudo-playoff series, D-backs and the Red Sox, both fighting for playoffs and positioning. and yeah, I think that's where, as we enter with giggles and laughs and jokes, it's also like, we don't know what's going on. So if it's something like...

Well, they said he's okay. Like, he's healthy. Right. But again, like the way Tori's acting and... Yes, we're assuming all of that is cool because there has been some drama and some saga with Ketel over the past couple years that, yeah, crazy to see the next steps with that. it's, you know, Kattel goes on the restricted list.

He's not at the ballpark. Yankee fans are sad. Max Fried going on the aisle. Rodon's coming off. PCA's walkoff was insane. That Ray's Orioles game last night. Yeah. That was.

Holy smokes. Holy shits. I will say this. One more thing I could tell Marte. And Chris made a good point with this. It's you don't put a guy on a restricted list if he's like, dealing with family stuff. Okay.

That's Chris Rose. Right? I don't know. I have no clue. Because you don't get paid when you're on the restricted list. Oh, you're not getting paid. Yeah. So, like, if you do that, it sounds like, well, you should be here. Yeah.

There's like bereavement. Right. The paternity. Those lists, you get paid. that makes sense iL paid restricted list not paid restricted list is is usually if you did something naughty speculating

speculating uh well we're gonna keep tabs on that restricted list all the time okay that's that filth that filth wish Zach Esposito crooked ways um let's Trev the whole idea with in the off season we were just daydreaming potential different episodes we could do throughout this year.

One thing, I don't know, I'm a basic guy that I was like, at some point this year, we should highlight the dudes, like the guys that are actually doing good. Because we do so many episodes, recap episodes start in the end of the week, and it's like, look, you know, this guy, this guy's great for Tampa. Yandi Diaz is great. Okay, what's that mean? Like, is he, is he the 70th best hitter in baseball? is he the seventh best hitter in baseball?

Yandi, not on this list. I just like bringing him up, man, because my God, that guy, I know you wanted to do an episode where we rank different guys. I was just about to ask you, where does he rank on that? Where do guys rank in the locker room rankings?

Yondi's not low on the list. In a way, he might be. That I don't know. Every year, it's like one of the beauties of baseball is that you go to the ballpark, you see something new every day. And each season you see something new every day. That we also were like, how do we do this?

Because do we just go, show hey, Otani, still fast, throws hard when he's out there. We decided to Gen Z it a little bit. We've got a tier list that we're going to, you don't think it's Gen Z? I don't know what, what's Gen Z. I have no clue. I was hoping you had that. That we wanted to go through kind of where some of these guys are in the season. season highlight some guys the best way we can.

Maybe you have some water cooler fun facts with some of the stats we've got. And then also, as we start going towards the playoffs or the pseudo playoffs in these final six weeks of the season, something you could look out for. Like if you throw Matt Olson an inside pitch, he's going to hit a homer, 18 of them, the most in MLB this year. That, yeah, that was kind of the construct. Is there anything else you want to put out there, Coach Trev? Not really. I mean, look, yes. This is actually my first tier list I think I've ever done. So, you know, have some grace with me.

Always. As we go through this, I believe I'm a millennial. That's okay. We should just rank one through 10. Now we're doing S is before A. But we don't, we're not doing that this time. Blind rankings. Those are so big for a while. I don't like blind rankings. I don't like blind rankings. They're going to get you on the last one. I hope I get someone good. Gosh, I've been on the internet too much. Um, no, I got. nothing. I'm excited because there are some guys that it's, yeah, some different stats. I think I had a little bit of discrepancy with one of the tier's names. We'll get into that when we get there. I think there's one guy

who we're still undervaluing that I want to talk about, but I believe we're starting out with dudes, guy guys. Yeah, we, on the top of the tier list, we're going to start with historic seasons, which

it's a heavy term. That's a heavy term. That's heavy, bro. That's heavy. There's been a lot of baseball played. To put together a historic season, you need to do something pretty special. We have the other tiers on the YouTube, certified bangers,

rookies making huge impacts, dominant pitchers not named Mizorowski. I don't think is Mizorowski spelled wrong there? Absolutely. Needs to step on the gas. I think, you know, a couple guys that are doing things, and then war, what is it good for at the bottom? I don't know.

We'll see how it sorts out. This is the first time for us. Who? Good God. What a song. What a crazy song. Absolutely nothing. Say it again.

Huh? There's that movie with like a little action figures that that song's in. Are you talking like that movie? It's kind of like a movie with action figures and one of the guys is like a general. He's got this little army. I don't know what it's called. Are you telling like the controversial movie at its time? Is it small soldiers?

Small soldiers. Sounds right. Yeah. That was controversial? No, small soldiers is awesome. What am I thinking? No, I don't think he's talking about small. I think it's like, I am talking about small soldiers.

I swear? That's a tough word for me, small soldiers. Yeah. This movie here. Yeah, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Oh, okay, good. This one. This one, this movie is awesome.

It is awesome, right? It's a really good movie. What was the one? There's a famous gif of the little puppet like throwing up and it's, I think there's like a sex scene in it. You're talking about Team America? Yes. World Police. Team America.

Oh, that's not what we're talking about. Okay, good. That is the insane movie. I was going to say. Let's take this. Put this at the end of the episode. Let's get into our first. This episode is sponsored by Seekkeek covering baseball every day means it's go time.

The playoffs are around the corner. That means the NFL is almost here, which means the NBA is almost here. If you want to actually be at any of it, you need Seatkeek. It's the number one rated ticketing app. 35 million downloads, MLB, NFL, concerts, festivals, you name it. If there's a seat, they got it. And it's MLB's official ticket marketplace, which means every baseball ticket you buy, fully guaranteed, instantly fulfilled right into your account.

And of course, we got a code for you. Talk in 2026. 10% off your next set of MLB tickets at Seekek. 10% off any MLB tickets, promo code, talk in 2026. Click the link in the description, download the app, have the code automatically added to your account. Thanks, see geek. At the top of the list, I think when you talk historic seasons,

when you talk, when we look back in 10 years, 20 years, what are some of the things that define this season? I think the first one that's going to define it, especially if he continues at this pace, is Jacob Mizorowski. Trev, you've mentioned it. It's something we've never seen before. You know, as we talk about some of the pitchers later, I think they either have player cops or it's, you know,

it kind of reminds me of this guy or whatever. Mizorowski really doesn't. I mean, in the face, he's starting to look like Zach Grinky, but the way he throws the ball, the Velo he throws the ball. And I guess this is where I want to start. Opponents are hitting 151 against Jacob Misarowski this season. That's the best amongst qualified starting pitchers. It would be the lowest batting average against for a qualified starting pitcher in a single season ever.

Pedro Martinez 2000. That's a video game for a lot of people. Luis Tiont. That's also a video game for some people. Nolan Ryan. We did watch him put Robin Venture. in a headlock a couple episodes ago. And then 172 was Justin Verlander in 2019.

So again, we're talking 20 points in batting average between some of the most special seasons we've ever seen between what Jacob Mizorowski is doing. It's different. You know, have we seen great pitching seasons before? Yes, but I think the way he's doing it, I don't think we've seen it before. Prove me wrong, people in the comments section,

but a guy starting out throwing 28 to 40 fastballs in a row all sitting over 100 miles an hour as a starter. I name me another guy that's doing that. They're just not. And it's really what it seems when you watch Mizorowski pitch. I've said before it looks like he's bullying guys. And that's exactly what he's doing. If he puts the ball where he wants it, which he has done much more this year than he did last year as a rookie. you're not you're not hitting it man if you have a ball from your you know basically

a belt high or higher you're not hitting that fastball when it gets down he can get hit a little bit obviously the once what is the batting average against 167 151 so you're not hitting it too often uh i i think it's he is he is the pitcher right now where he sells tickets I don't know if there's another one in the game like him right now. It was Skeens last year. A lot of people loved to go watch him pitch. Right now it's Jacob Insurowski.

If you get a chance to see him, you have to go. He is the built-in-a-lab pitcher. And we used to say that about freaks like, hey, I'm 6-5 and I'm 2-40. No, he's 6-7. Go ahead. No, no. Okay, good, don't do it.

And skinny-ish. so he's lanky he's got the whip he built his legs up and he's a certified like pitching nerd yeah like everything kind of goes uh with Jacob Mizorowski and what he's doing at 24 years old

a second round pick 63rd overall a lot of people passed on this guy uh it's he's incredible uh I'll hit you with the Chris Rose one uh which that kind of means I don't I don't know if I believe in it or if it's

corny or you might have a good answer you might say shut up do you think he's like pitching like you know he's thrown his fastball 64% of the time it's got a 175 batting average against which that means all of his other pitches actually have a lower batting average against like i you know what i'm trying to say i'm not trying to say it in a duchy way because there's obviously a game plan and strategy but how much of it is just him like dude he's so much better and more talented than a lot of guys. It's a fair question. He's doing both. There are times where he's just chucking that thing as hard as you can.

And that's part of his game. Like he opened a game the other day with 21 straight fastballs. He did it against the twins. I think it was 28. But I think that's not that's low. We can get maybe somebody on that, Quinn. I don't know if he can find that or not. Yeah, he's first time through the order, I think he is just literally throwing it by people. and then he opens up that arsenal

with the slider and the cutter and the curve and you know we saw it with Otani when he was pitching against the Dodgers his last start where he went slider fastball slider and you can I mean I guess you can call that pitching like usually when we're saying oh he's a pitcher

we're talking about like a soft toss and lefty or a Kyle Hendricks type so I don't know if he ever gets to that realm but he's still a pitch is but I think it is a little bit of a hybrid where he's also saying, here it is, if you hit it, name it type of thing. Yeah.

I mean, yeah, that's... I told people this, you're going to see swings like that on him because you're never trying to hit that pitch. You're trying to get on time for the fastball, and if he throws a good slider, you're going to look like an idiot sometimes. And you just have to be willing to accept that.

Like, you're going to lose and you're going to look bad sometimes against him. that's fine. Don't let that bother you. Again, some of the strikeout numbers, again, the batting average against, again, never. 2000 Pedro, like look, look, go on. Hey, now I sound like actual Chris Rose.

I was going to say go on YouTube and watch some highlights. Jesus. Mizorowski struck out the side 11 times in order this season. That's the most amongst starting pitchers. Strikeout rate of 49% going through the line. lineup the first time this season. That's the best amongst our obviously. So that means

the first time through the lineup. Here come the, everyone getting at bat, nine of you. He's striking out four and a half. Dude, that's silly. Yeah, he's different. He's different. Like, not striking out is a win. We haven't been able to find that clip last thing before we move on. I remember saying we're going to be talking about

Mizzerowski and Paul Skeens in the same breath. That was last year after like start two of his. Yeah, you did. I remember that. Find that clip for me. That would be great because now I look like a genius. Well, there's Paul not pulling his weight. I think if this was an August award show and we were doing Freak of the Year,

I think he would win. I think second place, or maybe, you know, sometimes we split up award between hitters and pitchers. I can't believe how on the nose Evan Longoria was, because he's never missed. Pete Crow Armstrong, which Trev, you and I, I don't know, I feel like we've had to have some look-in-the-mirer moments.

As much as it seems like we don't, we take this pretty seriously. Like, we're number one baseball show. Eat it, Rosie. That there's a responsibility for us to be, you know, make our jokes about, dude, this player just added me on Instagram. Shout out Seth Johnson.

Like, I'm always for that. I think that's cool and fun and a good part of social media. PCA is a dude that you and I have known before he was a big leaguer, and then he makes it to the big league, and he's putting on a show, but there's also, there's some mixed stuff, like where his on-base percentage landed at the end of last year, and how he came down the stretch as a whole, and who's he going to be as a player

and turning down extensions, taking the extension. And then he comes into this year. He gets off to an okay start. Trev, he's been out of his dome. And a guy that has an argument for the best defensive player in baseball, he's got the highest, I believe, Fangraph's offensive war. I think he's the highest in that as well,

that what this guy is doing, and obviously the walk-off last night, couldn't be better timing for us. As he crosses 30-30 on August 17th. I don't know. Talk about the guy, Trev. Here's all you need to know. Right now, Shohei Otani and Pete Kromchong are in a dead heat

when we're talking about Vegas odds for NLMVP. So they don't mess around in Vegas with those numbers. He's overcome a lot. You talk about the type of player he was last year. first half 847 OPS. Yes, on base percentage down 302, but it went even worse in the second half. He kind of fell out a rhythm at the swing. I think the league kind of figured some stuff out against him. He was chasing a ton. He was on base percentage last year in the second half was 262. It's completely flipped this year. Right now, I believe, it's a 379 on base percentage

this year. That is crazy. changing completely as a hitter. Those are two different types of guys. Guys that can slug and don't get on base. He's put the complete package together this year. He's getting on base. He's swiping bags. He's hitting for power.

He's playing elite defense. And, dude, we don't talk about this enough. He's so marketable. That means something for the Cubs. That means so much that you can put this guy out. People want to buy his jersey. they gravitate towards him. Has he said some things on the field that are controversial?

Yes, he has, but I think he's made good on those. And you want people to talk about PCA. I don't know. There's a chance he wins the MVP this year. Would he get my vote right now? He would not. Oh, wow. Okay.

I did this exercise with Rose. I'm going to do it with you. right now. Okay. Because obviously it's O'Tani and O'Tonnie has pitched 14 games this year. Right. If we were to just take every other year and forget about it, blank slate, and there's two players. Their offensive stats are basically identical this year. Otani's got him an OPS plus, got him an OPS, but like, you know, they're very, they're close, very close. It's just called a wash offensively. And then you got a guy that plays goal glove center field, platinum glove center field or a starting pitcher for 14 games who had a 172 ERA.

And it's the same guy. So one roster spot. I just think you're voting Otani. If he didn't, if he's, we'd never seen it before. We're voting Otani. It's interesting because it's, it's fantastic bar fodder that as of a decade ago, we never thought we would have to half. Like if it was 2015, you and I are sitting down with a couple Vesper martinis and talking about, hey, who do you think would be MVP?

A DH who's got a high, an OPS in the high 9s, he can run real fast, and he starts half the season, or the platinum gold winning center fielder who's got similar offensive stats. It would be like a, you wouldn't even have the conversation. You're like, this doesn't make sense. Exactly. That's how you know you vote for Show Hey, because you can't even fathom that's a thing. Right. But this does go into my conversation about future baseball,

where as in our warehouse games that Mr. Rose likes to bring up a lot, you know, Trev, you were the number one two-way prospect coming out of California. You know, I think if you lived in a different era and the twins, hey, twice a week, throw a bullpen, get on. on the mound in high A, let's see what you got. Like, I do think there can be a world in the future where guys aren't full show, hey. You don't have to be a top five starting pitcher. You don't have to be a top five hitter.

If you can be top 30 at either, if you could be top 100. Like, dude, think about the bullpen arms we go through. If you've got a third baseman who could come out, throw 94, and bang a slider, and help your team. Like, I don't know, because then it would open up our. brains to more conversations of like, I know we have war is its own thing and what is it good for that, you know, a lot of people could just say like, well, PCA has a better war and that's a measure of overall that is Shohei providing more to the team? I see both sides of it. I love PCA.

I'm not trying to put this guy down. No, he belongs in this tier. What's this tier called? Historical seasons? Sure. Is this a historical season? Um It's not. I, he's, look, I'm not trying to put him down whatsoever. It can be. 3030 is historical. It can be.

4040 is historical. Does he get, he has a chance to get there. I mean, he's got to, he's got to go with the homers. If he gets to 10 war, like again, I guess, I don't know, I guess in, for context, I don't know how many times that's happened. Right. In 10 war He's got to get another 2.3B war

I don't know what his F war is I mean 7.7B war Through 126 games And yeah Again We still don't know how to quantify defense And This guy

I tell you what we do know how to quantify The eye test Some of the balls this dude gets to Are sick, Trevor He's the man Also, I just found out that he's been, he reached every single level of USA baseball, 12 U15 U18 UBC. That to me, let's go, baby 12 views crazy. I didn't see them scouting in my area.

I really didn't see that. I hate how good the mini Josh Hamilton thing is. Like those, I think everyone that knows and watch Josh Hamilton and then, oh, that was, that was long ago. Yes, yes. He was the first one I saw with that. And I was like, oh, my God, he's nailed it. Because otherwise, I didn't have a comp. And Josh Hamilton, by the time we saw him, was like,

hit big, dude. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah, he was a ray back in the day. Ah, that's right. People forget. Crazy story. 7630, 30, 30 seasons.

640 seasons. We do have the new Stolen Bay stuff. I wonder if he starts chasing that, little more, do we care? Or if he just keeps winning games for the Cubbies? Because, dude, they shouldn't have pitched to him last night. Runner on second, first base is open. Like, teams need to start treating him like he's the MVP. Suzuki's hitting behind him with a lefty on the mound. Suzuki already went up top that game as well. I mean, I think you can pitch to him. I hate to play the result here, but I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. It didn't work out.

You put them on, you have force outs. Suzuki's obviously not going to bunt. 354 with runners in scoring position, fourth best in MLB. The last guy who, again, historic can mean a lot of different things, but I'll tell you what is, a triple crown. And Yordaun Alvarez and the American League and those Houston Astros who, are they your first place Houston Astros as a today? They still are.

The AL West, you never know. You can refresh those standings every day and find something. Currently leads the AL in all three triple crown categories, 321 batting average, 36 homers, and 88 RBI. He'd be the first since Miggie Cabs in 2012, who I'll let Trev talk some Miguel Cabrera, because it's about that time of year. And Miggi Cabs was the first guy since Carl Yostremski. You guys have seen his grandson play a little bit. Pappy was kind of that guy. What do you do with Yordaun, coach. Yeah, I mean, he, very few people do I put on the category of Miguel Cabrera.

He's one of them. It just, one of my favorite hitters to watch. Not only is he going for the American League of Chippercrant. He's going for the major league Chippocran. And I don't know how many times that's been done. He's right there. People got so mad that I said the RBI leaderboard is very strange this year because C.J. Abrams, Sal Stewart, and Alec Berlinson at the top.

They're like, you don't know ball. I do know ball. Alec Berliss and Jovin's 69 runs last year winning one silver slugger. C.J. Abrams, go look what he was doing offensively. It's a massive jump. And South Stewart's a rookie. Like, am I crazy?

No, Trev, what your best argument would have been is for all our guys that do the jam baseball videos like Dalton, Cohen, Jolly, Diversa, I try to hop in there sometimes. They do one game that is like, they'll bring up a stat in a year, but you don't know what stat and what year. Like if you did that RBI leaderboard 10 years from now

and you're like, what is this? And you'd look at those guys and you'd be like, what? Like girls? So that would be your court of law defense on that. People took it like I was like talking poorly about these guys. I'm just saying like it's interesting to me. And I do think with the lineups changed,

guys, their best hitters are hitting first or second. You're going to have less time to drive in runs. and I think we're going to see different names upon these leaderboards. I know ball. Stop questioning that. Ridiculous. I have a freaking, what's the highest, like, I have a doctorate in ball. Oh, you know balls.

Yordawn's the man. I don't know what else there is to say. One guy you want to play in a clutch situation, for me it's Yordon Alvarez. Most like, game on the line, my life, on the line for a guy to put together a good at bat, I'm taking your on Alpros. And I honestly don't think it's close. I don't think there's another guy

who I put on his level as far as at-bats, consistency, right-e, lefty, don't give a shit. I'm putting Yorda on there. No, I think you're right, Trev, because our next section is kind of highlighting some of the other best hitters

that are floating around this season. And I don't think they touch Jordan. And, you know, obviously guys get heard and miss time and there can always be a judge argument, but he's been out. Like, Soto's had a weird year that I think normally he's in the chat for that conversation. But I think you're absolutely right. Like, he's, who he's been and what he's been doing. And one of my things, and I'll, I'll knock on wood for my- 86 walks to 92 strikeouts, people, for a guy with 36 homers already, an absolute banger. I'll knock on on wood for my Astro's brother.

And one of my going away lines has been like he's never actually had the full season, whether it's been injury or just something weird happened. He's on pace for it. He could break Houston's record for home runs in a season. Jeff Bagwell

47. God, what a stance. How did he do that? Strong legs. Second best OPS in Astros' single season history. And he is the best. with runners in scoring position, or excuse me, second best in the AL. Yeah, he's a special guy.

He's out there every day, and he might carry Houston himself to the playoffs. It kind of feels that way right now. He's the overwhelming favorite and betting odds for the AL MVP. The only guy, I mean, the next closest guy is Junior Camerro. And I don't think Junior Camerreiro catches, Your Honor. Just driving home the point Things that Yordon is either first in the AL or Major League Baseball And that would mean it's bold and his baseball reference page

Hits, homers, RBI, batting average, on base, slugging OPS, OPS plus R-OBA, not even sure what that is, but I'm happy for him And intentional walks So, yeah, yeah, five and a half B-WR mostly deaching. How much left field is my guy giving us this year? Okay, 20 games in a pinch. Get out there, big guy.

Trev's saying, no, no, no. Keep him off his fee. All right. I think those are like the freaks of this season. No, no, no. This is why I asked to change the name of the next year. What do you got? Because Shoah Otani is still doing historic things.

We can't just, we can't have this. We talk all the time. What are we doing here? Okay, then talk about your. The next tier was supposed to be called Otani, but just as a hitter. And Otani was going to be on that because he's not pitching right now. He already gave us 14 games of 172. He was the best pitcher in baseball.

Him and Mizorowski going toe to toe. We just talked about Jacob Mizorowski and like, we've never seen anything like this. We've never seen anything like Show Hey, Otani. We can't. He's still doing historic things. Right now he's basically three, four, five, and on the year, 295, 392, 556. Okay, so 948 OPS.

He's split-proof, more than Yordon, by the way. 9.57 OPS against Rite. He's 928 OPS against left-handed pitchers. Your Don, surprisingly, was down in the eights against lefties. So he's still hitting at, you know, an MVP level. And he gave us 14 starts. He will start again this year. I'm not ready to just say this isn't historic because it still is.

Okay. Yeah. How about I can give you a double dip? I think we can put Otani up there because you're right. If this was Otani's first season in Major League Baseball, we would be blown away. So you're absolutely right. I think we can put Otani on that top tier.

And then I'll negotiate, we change the name of the tier, back to Otani. but hitting only, because that's almost highlighting how much of a freak he is. Okay. Otani, but just the hitter. It's almost a double o-mash, because it's just a reminder for half-

Who's one dodding it, though? That's the question. Because I think we're putting O'Tonnie down. Neither is Shoh-hah. Yeah, but I think over the last 23, 24, 25, he did. So I feel like Shoh-hah is just, we don't even put, like,

Show-Hae doesn't belong with the other guys. Sorry. I mean, in a way, you're not wrong. I just, okay, it's his first tier list. Okay, guys who are decent hitters will be the next tier. Good click there. Fine, put Otani, but just the hitter. No, no, I don't want it.

You're right. I don't know what the hell we're doing. Put a picture of Brian Dosher and see what the people do. Ooh, Ryan Braun, 2011. Ooh, people forget. Not as Bitcoin. I like that as a tier. I like that.

as a cheer. How about that? I know you do. You know, put it. Name the whole thing different Ryan Brauniers. Trev, I think the guy that jumps out to me the most, there was a little junior Caminero shout out a second ago. There was also a Matt Olson shout out at the star of the show, because there always should be.

Statistically what jumped off the page to me was Kyle Schwabber, who for me, some of the numbers are crazy. I think it was the stat I saw the other day. Like he averages 45 homers a year in Philly. Like he's trending towards more Hall of Fame than not. And the two stats that I really liked on here. One, Schwerber has an OPS of 1.798. So let's call it 1.8.

When he's ahead in the count, that is the best in Major League Baseball. and as we start trending towards playoff season. Like Trev, that's one of my, playoff baseball is such a multiplier. Every first pitch to Kyle Schwer and how much it's going to matter, I mean, that's going to be a story of the Phillies postseason run.

If pitchers can get that first pitch by them, it completely changes the abat. Good luck because he's hitting freaking leadoff, dude. For whatever reason, pitchers still just like to throw fastball as the first pitch of the game. I don't understand that. Like, that's like, look, I love it as a hitter. Yeah. If I'm a pitcher, I'm not coming out and saying, okay, here's my fastball.

Like, no, like, throw, what, imagine it's the second of bad of the game. You're not just going to pump a fastball in there when everyone knows you're going to do it. Curious to see if that continues to happen. I don't know. I wanted to go back and look at, um, exactly what he's done. as a Philly because I was like, okay, we talk about contracts, hasn't been worth it. Max Scherzer is like,

hey, that's one of the best free agent contracts ever. He signs with the Phillies, I believe it was a four years 80 before he got this last extent. Oh, the first contract? I can double check. I think so.

I think it was four years 80. Um, per 162, 48.3 homers, uh, per year. 229 batting average, eh, but 350 OBP 507 slug for the 856.

I call it well worth it. right there. So 187 homers in those four seasons. Pretty good enough to get you another contract from the same guys, doing the same thing, just mashing baseballs. Yeah, he's a game changer, especially in the playoffs. We've seen him have success and we know how important home runs are. And talk about one nothing table setter guys. I mean, he's like the epitome of it. Sorry,

John's, love you. Comments on our stuff from time to time. I didn't know that. My friend Jock. The original 1-0-0. guy. I love Jack Jones. Is he the original 1-0-0 guy? No. I think he had a license plate that said 1-0. I mean, that's sick. So maybe he is the 1-0 guy. In my head, well, in my head, Alfonso Soriano set a bunch of lead-off home-run records.

But again, I was watching a lot of Yankees baseball. I'm wondering if a lot of his record, like, was Eric Davis a 1-0 guy? We got a researcher. Quinn, he's on it. And yeah, Schwerber's career through 2020, I don't know, it's so funny what it kind of looked like and the Cubs letting him go. And then, yeah, 45 homers over a season per the Phillies.

And, dude, if he, it feels like he's found a comfort with his swing in his body and deaching that, dude, if he rides out four more years, on a similar pace. We're going to be 500 homers will come easy. And like, you start eyeing six and stuff?

He's 120, he's a hundred and twenty three homers away from 500. He's going to be a fascinating Hall of Fame case. A fascinating Hall of Fame case. Some writers are not going to let him in first ballot. No way we're going to do that. Oh, Trev, we're,

we're going to get yelled at because there's a guy who's the lead off Homer guy that you, You and him shared a locker. Ricky Anderson, yeah. A shower. George Springer, also big one-0 guy. I like that Rob's got the Ricky highlights ready to go. There was like the, I didn't mean like he's the only guy that hits lead off homers.

Yeah, I just. They said, like his thing was one-nothing. Given Jock the one-nothing guy, I think we needed the information that it might have been his license plate because that helps. Okay, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that Twins outfit. On the cool meter, I mean, when it was Tori and Jock out there, it was. Who else was it? It was Tori Jock and who? I'm trying to think who we got and left.

I can see this, Porte illustrated. Did Cadire get up there? Cover. No, I don't think it was him. Let's see. Jock Jones, if you guys don't know, 99 through 2008. Let me click on a random Twins team. See what we've got. Oh, such a bad click. Okay, Dustin Moore, your guy.

Bobby Kielty. Oh, God, no. Shannon Stewart. That's who it was. Yes. Shannon Stewart, Jock Jones, and Tori Hunter. That outfields. On the field and off the field.

Never mind Lou Ford the next year. The twins found a way in there. The other guys, I mean, these are just boppers of the sport right now. Although Schwabber's next lead off, Homer will tie him with Ian Kinsler. Oh, yeah. Kenzler, sure. Let me see some Ian Kinzer. Ball player.

Treve, a couple of their boppers meant junior Caminero kind of confirming his last year wasn't super-aided by the minor league stadium because the numbers told us that. Ten home runs on pitches outside of the zone. I kind of like that. Otani crushes outside of the zone, too. And then Matt Olson and Ben Rice, two of the top three best hitters in inning seven through nine. each with some other fun facts in there. Yeah, Matt Olson is consistent as consistent. Gids plays every single day.

He's on a pace for 500 home ones as well. Today's episode is sponsored by Best Western Hotels and Resort. Summer baseball means road trips, driving out to catch a series in a city you've never been flying somewhere just to watch your team play. And when you're making those trips, where you stay. It either adds to the experience or gets in the way. Best Western gets it.

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Life's a trip. Make the most of it at bestwestern.com. No additional purchase necessary for sweep, see, bonus points, terms and conditions and sweep rules for details. Junior Camerre, who I mentioned is second an MVP voting in the AL. Jake, he just turned 23. Like your top prospect in your organization, he'll go, if he comes up, it's going to make a difference.

Like, okay, dude, Junior Camerreiro has been doing it. You forget how young he is because he doesn't physically, he's a bad man and swings the bat very, very hard. on the year 35 homer 79 runs driven in 902 OPS 150 OPS plus he's he's a fun one and I don't mean this

in a disrespectful way it's kind of shocking that he's number two in the MVP in the AO oh okay because that's in a regular season this isn't getting you number two AL MVP correct I do think there's there's something to be said about the race success

like I feel like because of the weakness of the AL, we haven't given them credit for, you know, being head and shoulders first place for a while now, and Camerro is a big reason why. You're not wrong. I guess the other caveat I would put here, Trev, is like, he's playing third base, and I know, you know, I test and defensive metrics. It doesn't, you know, jump off the book. And this is where you can have war discussions. Like, all right, if Camerro was a first baseman and war liked him a little more, he would be a, a, a, a six war guy right now or a seven war guy. No, I think that would be the opposite.

He's playing first base. He goes down even more. I mean, if he's playing first base, he plays third base. If he's Thai France. I don't know. It's where I get caught up in it because I do think sometimes guys get penalized too much. Like the fact he's holding up at third base and being a third baseman providing that level of offense, I don't know if he should be docked as much for defensive war.

I don't know. I realize that's a convoluted thought process, but yeah, you know, I was going to, I was going back to last year's ALMVP's judge and then Cal second. So historic season from Cal after that wasn't much different

than what Cameronero was doing this year. He was MVP 9 last year. I hope you knew that. The year before is more of like where I'm going with this. Aaron Judge with a 10-9 war, Bobby Wood Jr. behind him with a 9-6. Then it was Juan Soto, who was almost one dotting it, 41 and 109 from him.

Gunner Henderson behind him, 3792, with a bunch of swipes and gold glove defense. So that's all I was trying to say. Yeah. No, I get it. I wanted to defend Jr. a little bit because, again, that's where I think you take out the war number. You're still impressed by, a little more impressed by what he's doing.

Who did he get traded for? James Shields. No. Guardians, I forget. He was with the Guardian. Tobias Myers. Wow. I don't believe he ever was suited up for the guardians in the big leagues.

No. No, no. Tobias Myers. Unlisted. And yet, again, I guess I would use this as things to look out for in the playoffs. Matt Olson, the 18 home runs on inside pitches. That's the most of Major League Baseball, which, again, that's just a funny feeling. Like, if you're watching your pitcher on the mound, if you're either watching them nibble outside,

Or trying to get in. That's a dangerous place to be when the bad man's at the place. And then for Ben Rice, or what do you have in Olson, Trep? Sorry. Oh, I was just going to give his doppelganger, which I think is a compliment to both of them. Interesting. Do you have one on the top of your head? No.

John Hamm. Oh, okay. A younger John Hamm, obviously. John Hamm and Mad Men, Matt Olson, same guy. He's a bad man. Absolute studs. And they both rank in the same tier as the other, one we were talking about.

The other tier list. The other tier list. Give me some Ben Rice before we move on. Ben Rice, the best in Major League Baseball OPS in inning seven through nine. So I love that. Trev, I guess I'm having a little baseball sicko kick in, and I'm going to need you to talk me down a little bit. Ben Rice is slugging 792 on high 95 plus mile per hour pitches this season.

That's the best in Major League Baseball. Part of me loves that. Like, you know, you're going to see Velo, especially come October. I guess how much of that goes into a scouting report as the other team and being like, hey, we got to throw that off speed. Because, again, I'm having sicko flashbacks to you savage and Gossman banging splitters against Benny last year, and he really struggled with that. So I'm looking right now, like swing path tilt, like,

what he does. If you have success on a high pitch, it's posture related. You have to have good posture. I can't be kind of like crouching down and kind of bringing my hands back up to it. The timing aspect doesn't work. Attack angle. A real steep kind of swing that gets in the back of the zone here and the barrel kind of gets steep and then goes up. Think of a Riley Green. I can't imagine Riley Green hits fastballs, high fastball as well. So I haven't, I'm looking at it right now, and I'm trying to really decipher what I'm seeing right here on baseball Savant, he's got to have a flat swing or at least enter the zone flat and be able to manipulate his swing path because it doesn't really look like you right there, although that was

a low pitch. That was a low pitch. Yeah, no, he's had some of bets. I think he got Chase Burns this year. Rob, I don't know how quick on the trigger you can be with that one. I believe he caught Chase Burns above the zone at 98. and as he was getting off to a hot start, for me and Jimmy is doing talking yanks,

that was very much like a, wait, he's got that in his bag? Because that's, like you're saying, a lot of hitters, if the elite Velo guys in Major League Baseball locate the pitch up, even if you know it's coming, it's almost an optical illusion

and you're not going to be able to hit it, that the guys that can do that are looked at differently, around the league. Louisa Rice, swing path tilt is 37. So you'd say he has got a pretty flat swing, right? Sure. Ben Rice, 34.

Okay. Swing tilt, huh? Maybe I got to, like, decipher these better. Maybe I might be all over the place. We'll get coach on that a little more. All right. Let's start chewing through a little faster because we're leaving we're leaving Freak Show area.

and we're getting more to here's my Chase Burns Ben Rice Homer Ooh Yeah look at Father's Day bat See to me that To me that looks more like posture Like he keeps it there And then has the ability to manipulate his attack angle

Got him A little spine angle stuff right there Oh I've got a If they gave my spine a look You know what I've been doing What's that? every morning now I saw this on Instagram

I'm doing these jumps Okay And then I'm doing these like arm swings down Little mobility in the morning Oh I feel phenomenal Give it a try Jake Fantastic send me the link I feel fantastic doing it

I've been on my hot yoga is recently Oh I love hot yogaish recently I've been feeling amazing from that So I don't know how similar That is I think I've just got a weak spine because man, the last time I swung a wood bat, the lack of power was just really sad.

Trev, we're 48 minutes deep on this bad boy. Yes, we are. Let's start chipping away. Because, again, a lot of these now we're starting to get just guys that have been good and we want to give them some more love. We've got a nice rookie column. Guys who have joined the program this year have been very impressive.

And they are guys we've given a lot of love too. So I'm glad, you know, if you and I were blindsided by any of these, that would be concerning. Our guy Kevin McGonagall showed the good people of Pittsburgh last night what he does. J.J. Weatherhill, Sal Stewart, and Munitaka Murakami. Maybe I'll Chris Rose you on this one. If I just gave you those four names, who's the one that you think you're either going to be looking back at in a couple of?

years in being they were most impressive or the one that has impressed you the most this season. Gosh. Right? That was good. Yeah, that is a good question. You basically asked me, like, if I had to choose one of those guys to put on my team, to start a team around, where am I going? No.

I wouldn't say I said any of those words. I would just say, like, you know, you and I, we've both fallen in love with McGonigal just for his, like, it feels like a grindy approach. Like it feels like- He doesn't strike out. 11-year tough out. Like almost baseball told us Kevin McGonagall's don't exist anymore, and he exists. Weatherholtz has just been bawling out doing his, like his two stats we have listed.

He's got the second best slugging in the NL on 95-mile-per-hour plus pitches. He's got a hard rate of 51% on sliders. That's a fourth best in the NL. He does everything. He's setting OAA records at second base. and then Sal Stewart and just how beautiful of a baseball player he is all around and then Mooney who we heard legends about and then we see him and he's been amazing so I you're right

it's it's a good question and a bad question at the same time because I don't they're all they're all so different if I'm choosing one of those guys and I'm so I'm phrasing my own question now because that's what I do I'm taking Weatherhole yeah he's proved to be an elite defender. Okay. You know, what gets him right now, OPS-wise, is the slug he's slugging actual 375.

The expected slug is much higher than that. It's on par with McGonigal. It's behind Sal Stewart, but, you know, you're talking Munutaki, Murakami is first base slash DH, Sal Stewart, first base.

These guys are bangers. I do think that in the end, if we're talking about just all around baseball players, I'm going with my guy JJ Yeah Again these guys are all cut from such different cloths I have a weakness for South Stewart And he's filthy

I think I think runs batted in are going to come back a little bit Because if I guess if you have two guys Who drive in a lot of runs in your lineup I bet your offense does pretty good I realize you need bodies on in front of them And the whole deal but yeah you're going to get made fun of By good people who good yeah I hate runs getting driven in.

Oh, that's that. Sal Stewart. And this is what we tried to encompass, Trev. When he first got up, both, we were just using the generic turn. We're like, he's a hitter. Like, he's just trying to get the barrel on the ball. Like, all the generic stuff. But, Treve, a couple beauties here.

11 home runs and pitcher counts this season. That's the eighth most in Major League Baseball. That's when it's 0-1, 02, or 1.2, or 1. won two. So when the pitchers ahead, Sal's still fighting. 10 plus pitches and six played appearances, that's the second most in Major League Baseball. Like, it feels like the word battle has left hitting a little bit because it's like, oh, these guys are too good. Like, you don't, he's in there to battle, man, and he's, oh, right? And how his person, I'll be honest, his personality's getting in the way here.

and maybe the alliteration in his name. Because I don't know, Sal Stewart just feels like 30 and a hunch for the next decade. You know? Great personality. Great swing. Looks like a bopper.

You're right. The ability to extend the bats is, I mean, it's impressive. Not everyone can do that. Some people say it's a skill. I am on the opposite end of that. to foul pitches off, I don't think is a skill. Interesting.

You just kind of, you just like, I don't know, you either do it or you don't. Can't like learn to foul pitches off and extend the bets. I think the main thing is laying off tough pitches and for, I mean, a lot of these guys. You talk about Weatherhole and McGonigal and all these guys. Murakami is more chaste than any of them. The ability to do that at such a young age is why they're talking about them in this regard. Yeah. And they've, again, every year we get excited about the next cropper rookies.

But from the start of this season, this has been a special one. And, you know, we're, you know, Connor Griffin with injuries and so many guys, it's tough. But these guys almost- He's got a 9-11 OPS? Crazy, man, 65 walks. His 17% walk rate is third best in MLB. And you know what? Remember all that stuff like about hitting VILA?

and what's that going to look like? Dude, how about a 94% hard hit rate on curve balls? That's the best amongst MLB hitters. Dude, that gets me so riled up. Watching him in the playoffs is going to be a lot of fun. Yes. Dude, last night's game was so much fun. It was like the, it was the, sorry White Sox fans,

because obviously you're not going to like this, but it was the perfect Cubs White Sox game at Wrigley. Like the White Sox answer. back. You also look at the box score and like the Cubs had 13 hits. The White Sox had four. Like it was the White Sox being the punchy White Sox. It was the Cubs being like the big dog Cubs in Riggly. And PCA ends it. And by the way, I'll tell you something I'm adding to our binder, Trev. No offense to Jake Rogers who, uh, all the talk we've had about catchers and joining new teams and how tough that is and Jake Rogers is on what, his fourth team in two weeks or whatever.

Man, in that final inning, he had a couple ABS pitches that would have changed at bats. That, again, I don't know. And he's catching Jordan Hicks, who's throwing 101 and he's, by the way, Jordan Hicks is changeup. I don't know, dude, throw that more. I don't know what the numbers tell you, but nobody's hitting that. Okay, little Jordan Hicks rant. The next tier. And again, I say tighter and who knows if we will be.

Who cares? This laundry. Rock and rolling. This laundry list of names. My guy, Cam Schlittler and Dylan Sees, battling for the A.L. Cy Young. Always Yamamoto and Scoobel. They're on the same team.

How do you like that? Sanchez, Lazzardo, and Wheeler. I'll have some fun facts on there. Chase Burns, Sunny Gray. Sunny Gray and Chris Sale still being on lists of a list of elites in the year 2026. And then I did

I did want to sneak some relief guys in there. Mason Miller, Duran Chapman, Cade Smith, McGill Baker. These are too many names, but it's exciting.

I think some of the little known relievers are going to be on a grand stage here soon. So I think we kind of put them. I always think that's fun. It's like, all right,

we don't really talk about relievers during the regular season. Oh, yeah, this guy's having a good year. Oh, he's been great. It's like, When the postseason comes around, these are the guys in the biggest situations. Hey, cool, your starter went five.

Yeah. You're not giving a chance to go a third time through the order, not in the playoffs, because you got your dudes back there. Brian Baker, what he's been able to do for the raise, grabbing his, you know what, against his former team was kind of fun to see as they, as they, well, they got one game from the Orioles. That was nice out of four. But Trevor McGill is a guy who I just saw in person,

who I think gets a little. bit lost in the shuffle of what's going on. Mizorowski's in Milwaukee doing his thing. Then you have a guy like Abner Uribe or Aaron Ashby. This is the guy that's closing out games for them. And basically he just throws a heater. He's a two-pitched guy. It's so fun to see.

You'll have guys, you know, the, what we're doing in the big lease now is everyone's got three fastballs, you know, fastball cutter, two seam or a sinker. And then you got, you know, a slide. or a curball. It's like, no, like, some guys still have it where, like, I throw two pitches and good luck trying to hit him. That's McGill. That's basically the, the, him and Uribe, the back end of their bullpen, two pitch guys, but they're so freaking good. McGill's been lights out. I believe it's one blown save on the year. He's been pretty much perfect.

Yeah, it's, as we get later in the season, man, Yon Duran and who the spots he could be in for the Phillies. And Mason, Miller and how far are they going to push push those guys, you know, if it's the seventh inning, like playoff baseball changes. And I'm glad this is a Brian Baker, Trevor McGill love segment because how good they've been has kind of changed their team's dynamics throughout the season, especially Baker, on the back end of that. And then Trev, and we talk so much Chris Sanchez, Scoobel.

I love this. Opponents are hitting 153 against Yamamoto's fastball this year. It's the best in Major League Baseball from starting pitchers. Like we don't even think of him that way. We think of him as like crafty. Like Yamamoto, he's making stuff up. Oh, he just flipped a 3-2 curveball. No, here's the fastball.

I'm the best. Yeah, he's got, he's so fun to watch pitch. When he gets, you know, you always talk about as a hitter you go and you're watching a guy pitch and I don't let him get in a rhythm. You know, do what you got to do to get in a rhythm. you know, do what you got to do to get him out of his rhythm. Whether you got to flash a bun, whether you got to call timeout, you got to try to mess with some of these guys.

Not everyone. Yamamoto is definitely one of those pitchers. When he gets in a rhythm and he's getting the ball back and he's getting on the mountain, he's going. Look out, dude. Like, I talk about big league pitchers being like the tide or like they're just, it's coming. Like it doesn't stop.

Yamamoto, when he gets in a rhythm, it just, he's got deception. like the little pause in his delivery is unique to him. He's got all the pitches. He can locate all of them. And yes, they're nasty as well. Like, it's not,

he is a bully who also pitches. He is, we don't talk about Yamamoto enough. The rest of these guys, I feel like get a ton of time. The Dodgers, I just talked to the roads about this. We put the Dodgers now on like the back burner

because we're like, oh, we're going to talk about them so much at the end of the season that we don't give them a lot of credit. Yes, they're West Coast. So a lot of times people on the East Coast aren't even watching the games.

do yourself a favor stay up late one night and watch Yamamoto pitch in L.A. It's fantastic. He might be when it's all said and done if we're talking about

stuff and pitchability I think he's number one in baseball. That's tricky. Why? I mean, his teammates, Tarek Scouble. I don't know.

I might take him. I think Scoobel's more of a bully type pitcher. Yamamoto can bully but also I just feel like he has such like the command that he has and the sequencing that he does Scoobo is like I'm coming at you as hard as I can

and my change up is filthy but it's like I'm trying to get I'm just trying to throw the shit out of it you don't feel that way with Yamato it's like it's like a ballet it's sweet yeah I mean I get what you're saying

I just think in this whole category, I mean, I don't know, someone like Zach Wheeler, OPS 485 on non-fastballs this season. Like, that's, he's there every year. You're not wrong. Like, I'm not arguing against it, but it's, it just gets tricky because it's like, okay, am I knocking scoobble because he's, because his change-ups so good, he's lesser of a pitcher? I don't know.

I'm not saying that. I'm just saying like the rhythm of it. Like, that's why I say ballet. Like he's, it's like, he's the best ballet pitcher in baseball. New tier list for you. New tier.

By the way, 0.89 whip. Yeah. Suck it. Louis Varlane. So good too. And he's your guy. So I want to get that out there.

And then the other like broad baseball combo, because we had it briefly, um, Schlitler and shout out C's who just set the Blue Jays, you know, fastest to 200ks, him and Schleather are going for the Sigh-Young. Schlittler's been so good on the road. It's an ERA of 1-14 on the road.

That's the best of starting pitchers. And I ask you, as we're starting to eye wild card and D-S's and who's going to pitch at home, who's going to pitch on the road, is that, like, when, how much of a gap would you need to see from a pitcher to let that enter your head? like how much of a conversation would go on for you figuring out like if it really matters starting a guy at home or on the road? From a hitter's perspective, there's definitely reasons for these splits.

Like some guys you just don't see at certain parks, whether it's the batter's eye, whatever it is. Like there are just some parks where you really feel defeated as soon as you step in the box. Sucks when that happens, you grind your way as best you can. I told you that I don't think it matters as much for pitchers. But then I started thinking about, okay, like there is like a vantage like point. Like some mounds you get on, you feel like you're really close to home plate. And sometimes that has to do with what's behind home plate, how far the wall is behind the plate.

Like the depth perception there is interesting. Guys like to feel like they're close to the plate. That makes sense, right? Sure. Could be the mound. It's shocking to me that we don't have like standardized mounds. Like, here, this is the slope of the mound. We got to keep it between X degree and X.

degree, X degree and Y degree. I don't know. I hated algebra, like with a passion. It's when I lost my love for math. Really? When we started using letters. I'm trying to remember if algebra really freaked me out like that. I guess so. Yeah. Like it was fine. I got like I was a good math student, but I was like, why do I need to do this? I was fine when it was based, I guess pre-algebra when it was like, you know, you basically just had to figure out what one letter meant. And you're like, okay. I can do this. Yeah. Okay. I can do this. Yeah. Okay. If that's that, that's that. When they started doing, what's that little tent thing they started doing?

Like, that thing was ridiculous. Do you know what I'm talking about? Pie? Or you talk about sign, cosine, and tangent? Maybe. I don't know. Nightmares. No clue, dude.

I don't know. You talk about baseball. Figure it out. Pat myself in the back. I was an AP calculus, my senior year of high school. Okay. And I'd already signed with USC. so the second day of school I

dropped that class. Oh, square roots. Square roots for me. Square roots? That's a little number. That's like arithmetic still. I mean, what do we do? It comes up when you search things that come up in algebra.

So I don't know. I don't know if you just outed yourself there. What were we talking about? Home and Road splits? Yeah, I guess, look, haven't pitched in a long time, I do remember loving some mounds and hating some mounds. So if Schlitter has a problem with the Yankees mound, I don't know. Like, talk to the ground screw dog.

That's like, that's your home mound. You better get, you better get with it. Yeah, I mean, for me, I would have to go through. And I guess I can quickly because, you know, he's, he's been, it's a 219 ERA on the year. So it's. Yeah, it can't be that bad. It's pretty impressive all around.

I mean, he's been, it's a 395 at home, which a 395 pitcher and a 114 is a little different and we got 11 starts and 15 starts. How many to need a bigger sample size? And you're not wrong. And like I think if you go through the game logs and you'd be like, okay, that that one cooks it like at home versus Detroit where he gives up six runs, like how much does that, if that was a road start, you know, how much does that really change things? But I don't know, it was a conversation in the Yankee land before our guy Max Fried got put on the ILS night, but Yankees Avenue's.

got it all figured out, so we'll be okay. My favorite stat for the rest of these guys is we're chewing through this, Chase Burns' strikeout rate of 39% with runners in scoring position this season. What do you want to do when guys get on second base or third base? Strike the guy out. Yeah, him and Chris Sale also has some impressive runners in scoring position numbers, because obviously. And then the other one, I guess Sunny Gray has allowed an OPS of 516

when going through a lineup the third time in a game this season. it's the third best. Does that just mean, like, hey, if Sonny's cooking, he's cooking, or the fact that he has so many pitches allows him to be better as he goes? He's another guy who I put on the ballet list. Oh, okay, yeah. I like the rhythm of Sunny Gray. He's got a bunch of different offerings he can go to.

He can manipulate speeds, turn six pitches into 12 pitches. He's very hard to, you know, when I call games, I try to get in rhythm with the pitcher and the catcher and try to call pitches. I think this is a good time for X, whatever it is. Oh, God, it's an algebra. Sonny's really hard to do that with. Yeah. He's really hard to get on board with.

So I do love that from him. Also wanted to point out that we have three Philadelphia starting pitchers on this, and that is why they can be a problem in the postseason. Yeah, and that's, I was watching some Phillies highlights last night because, my God, they're, the middle of their bullpen right now is still fighting for their life. it was crazy. I couldn't believe what was going on in that game. It is a reminder that just like the game gets a lot shorter in October.

You know, if one of those guys can go six or even if Philly's probably going to be in a wild card, right? So if they can have, you know, have someone go to the bullpen and you can connect it like that. That's the problem is they need to win in two in their playoff series, their wildcars. because they need to keep one of those guys for game one. You have a travel day in between. So, like, if they have to go three games, they're going to start out the DS and not great shape. Well, and you wonder, I mean, you know,

could you have a guy like Lazzardo pitch two in a game two or game one even? And then he would be rested for the upcoming series. I mean, you can't just, I don't think you just say, oh, two, unless you're up six, seven runs. Right. Obviously, game situation and everything matters. but, dude, I mean, going back to, I know Kora, who's been out of the league for a little bit,

like remember how aggressive he was with his pitchers that year between Sale and Avaldi and was a price? I don't know. A lot of, we've seen a few teams going to the postseason and be like, your bullpen ain't it. But the guys you actually need come October is enough that Phillies could, you can circle them for that because every day. is listed as I saw somewhere on social media that he's the frontrunner for the Phillies job next year. Wow.

That'd be interesting. I think it fits. What does your social media look like? Lord of the Rings. Lord of the Rings, a lot of that. I get a lot of Game of Thrones as well. I get a lot of cooking.

That's my favorite thing on social media. Show me the recipes. I save them all. I don't ever cook them. Yeah, that's tough. I've done a few times. I've done it a few times. Trev, the bottom of our tier list, because again, the dream was to just highlight the good guys.

It's guys that are good, but aren't having the best season that. What do you want to do with it? I mean, what even names are jumping out to you as we wind down this season in this list? I feel like we, like, needed to put some people maybe on the higher list. What's that second list, Otani, but just the hitter? I feel like C.J. Abrams needs to probably be up there. He's been doing that, yeah. With what he's been doing.

James Wood might need to be up there. I think Max Muncie probably needs to be up there. Because I don't want to put them on any of these lists. This doesn't make sense to me. They also don't need to be on the list. Oh, that's how it works. Correct. Correct.

I mean, C.J. A. A.m. is having a pretty good offensive year. I feel pretty good about having him up there. I got to know if Muncie should. I think I think Abrams should be. 91 runs driven in. He's going to be a 30-30 guy this year. Muncie, I got to look up the stats now, Coach. 846? He's got 25, 63. Okay. I mean, like, he's teetering on the line. Hey, now a quick shout out, attention cricket fans or potential cricket fans. The Caribbean Premier League is underway and our very own Adam Bannon has your CPL needs covered. on That's Cricket. Be sure to check out all of our CPL coverage and highlights on That's Cricket social channels.

All right, let's wrap this up. Let's do the bottom of the list. Originally, I didn't dream of that, but it's of no, and I don't know, the social media team will be happy it's there because it'll get the most comments. Three guys that do just jump off the page on what their expectations were and where their season landed. And it's a mix of performance. It's a mix of injury.

It's a mix of everything. Vladdy, Cal Raleigh, and Kyle Tucker. The Kyle Tucker stuff is starting to enter a really, a really funky territory. I mean, not just because of a drop-fly ball, but more so Dave Roberts being like, yeah, playing at home's a thing. You're like, what?

Cal, we've been on the pulse of this year. And the Vladdy Power stuff, Trev, I don't know, like, I don't know what do you do with that? Over a calendar year since he's homered at home. he's had seasons like this before this is before he became Vladty the $500 million player he got $500 right yes he did 14 years 500

it was what year was that I think it was 23 that I'm looking at where like the home runs were down he hit 26 and it just looked like the slug was down and we're like okay like is he ever going to get back to a 48 you know, or a high 30s pace.

And it was just like he was just hitting the ball in the ground too much. Like he wasn't elevating. And does that have to do with swing path? Does that have to do with like your legs and and how you're feeling physically? Like there hasn't been anything going on with Vladdy, to my knowledge, it's like, okay, physically he's not right this year. You can look at some of the swings and be like, okay, he's out of whack mechanically at times or like the balance necessarily hasn't been. I've seen some of that from him. where it looks like maybe his legs aren't underneath him,

but I haven't heard like, hey, he's nursing something. And maybe I'm wrong about that. So seven homers on the year through 115 games is kind of nuts. I mean, even the overall numbers, 693 OPS, years past when the power numbers weren't there. Go back to 2023. We had 26 homers on the year. He still was slugging higher than that.

He was still, you know, heading extra base heads. hitting doubles, whatever it may be. This year, the power has essentially zapped. Lowest slugging percentage of his career, 356 slug right now. I mean, that's on par with, I don't want to say slap hitters, but that's on par with slap hitters. Oh, it for sure is true.

I mean, his stat line is, it looks like a middle infielder. Seven home runs, and that's, you know, you mentioned 2023. Even last year, it's 23 homers, but 34 doubles. And it was a 381 on base that it was like, yeah, like Vlad, he's a guy. He's a guy you don't want to see. In this year, 115 games, I have an OPS that starts with a six.

I mean, it's just jarring. And then, I mean, Seattle fans are probably waving their hands because they just saw arguably the best offensive season by a catcher ever. Now, there was oblique stuff, which as a switch hitting catcher, I can't even imagine. And it, I tried to be fair with the people of Seattle. Everyone told the people of Seattle like,

those numbers have to come down, right? Because 60 homers from a catcher literally has never happened before. It was just, hey, is it 52? Is it 42? And now with injuries and performance, it's jarring, coach. Yeah, he is, he looks like a guy who couldn't find himself mechanically because he was nursing an injury. So once one thing goes, you start to compensate,

and then you just kind of get out of whack. He took the time off. They got him on the IEL, thought it was healed up, comes back. It just hasn't been the same. And he looks right now, kind of like the guy we're going to talk about next, a little bit mentally defeated as well. I want to go back to Vlad to you real quick because a lot of like the percentage, the ratios are not too far off.

I mean, the strikeout percentage is down this year. The walk percentage is down, but it's been around. It's almost 10, so that's not that bad. The fly ball percentage, you know, from 2021, 25%, it's down to 19% this year. The pool percentage is down a little bit. It's just a weird year for him. I don't really understand.

But Cal looks to me like he had nursed an injury, got out of whack and just hasn't found it, and then it's got into him mentally. And reminder, he's a switch hitter. So, like, he's having double the bad thoughts right now. It's true. Yeah, double the bad thoughts while handling a pitching staff, triple the bad thoughts.

quadruple in Seattle right now. And then Kyle Tucker, I mean, any final notes or thoughts on him? I know you've been pushing the like, get ready. Like in October, there's going to be a Kyle Tucker moment. And if he does, the city will end up loving him. But man, oh, man, it's entered a new level of what is going on here. And I don't know if it's pressure. I don't know if it's dollar bills.

I don't know if it's, I don't know what it is. I mean, we're talking 692 OPS for him. It seems like pressure, but the funny thing about that is we talked about Couts are going to the Dodgers to get away from the pressure. Now, I know there's pressure to win there, but like you can dish it off. You could dish the rock a lot if you're a Los Angeles Dodgers. And they don't really care about how much money you're making. If you go to another organization and you're the only guy making the kind of money he's making,

And then yeah, the pressure comes from that. Everybody's getting paid there. We're all rich. We all drive really nice cars, not me. I mean, I drive an escalate. It's nice. So I don't think it's that pressure aspect. I think he's just in his own head right now where it's like new organization.

Things haven't gone the way he's wanted them to. And whether that's a guy that doesn't want to make an adjustment at the plate or there are just times where you can't find yourself, man. and it starts to snowball, and then you start to lose confidence in your ability. Believe me, I've been there many times. A guy like him shouldn't be losing confidence like that, but if you watch him play outfield, Jake,

I think that to me is the most concerning thing. You're going to go through years where you don't hit at the plate. These pitches are really good, but to be zoo and fly balls out there, that is, that means your, you're in your head, like a lot. 0 for 19 on the team 7 game homestand.

It's an 0 for 24 right now. Going to be interesting, man. I know, you know, the Cubs stuff, they played the Cubs again. And, you know, I think there's some boo birds. And Kyle Tucker was like, hey, like, I'm sorry I got hurt. Like, I then tried to come back and play through it. And that is what it is.

that yeah, I don't know for some, maybe here's what I'll say. The A-Rod documentary that came out, was it last year? I believe so. You know, A-Rod's an interesting cat. Him and Joe's McFly have some funny stories. Watching the documentary, the part for me that was the most jarring was remembering how much hate he got for getting that. big contract. When he got that big contract, it was the first like, oh my God. Like, we know

athletes are getting paid a lot of, it was the biggest contract in all sports. Like, it was, it was mind blowing. And it was like, wait, Alex Rodriguez getting paid this much money. Like, how much it was on sports shows and how much it was on the news and like, people just naturally hated him because he was getting so much money. to play baseball. Like, there's a, there's a Kyle Tucker angle in that for what, for what he's getting in his contract, there's a little bit of that. That's a society problem.

Why are we getting mad at people for having success? Like, he just worked hard and was good. You're getting rewarded for it. Like, what does it matter if it's sports or if it's, you know, a surgeon? I want people to earn what they're worth no matter what profession they're in. I don't know, man. I know.

I don't know. It's just what's he hearing, what's going through his head. And boy, he's going to find himself in some October moments. Well, he could be putuned for in October. I think that's what we're headed for. If you look at the splits, you know, right versus left, I think you could have him in there

versus right-handed hitters, right-handed pitchers, excuse me. Oh, he's a, never mind. We talked about this, actually. I got that confused. He's a reverse splits guy, so we're like, we don't know what they're going to do. Camp platoon. Yeah, it's interesting.

You can't. Over his career, is it the same way? I'm looking at it up right now. I feel like over the-counter. He's been split-proof this year. He's been way worse against right-handers, yeah. man it's gonna that story is going to get multiplied on the biggest stage and maybe it ends up in a great place maybe it doesn't but those those deserve to be on the bottom rung of our first ever tier list coach who knows we talked a lot of ball

and I like that part of it I guess let us know what we got right or wrong you're going to love the Instagram comments, Trev. Oh my God. When you get your shield ready, put the kids to bed. When you start digging through the comments, it's one of me and Rob's favorite things. When you get hot on there, it's the best. I have to defend us every once in a while. You have the strength of 10 men.

You're Erdogan. As we do, every midweek episode, it's time to look at some future baseball. presented by Fanatics Markets. Fanatics markets available now in app stores. We'll start some Mariners brew crew. Mariners trying to compete for that wild card and the West. We talk some Cal Rally. What do you hope for?

Lightning in a bottle, baby. Brewers are such a good team. Mariners have won three or four, though, so they're still in it. I mean, it's crazy looking at that AO Wildcard, the last spot there and seeing record, and where people are at. Bryce Miller has been struggling since the All-Star break.

I've been waiting for the Mariners all year long. I don't know if this is the spot where they get right. The only series, these two teams will play this season. Can't wait to see what happens. Aesthetically pleasing. Very much so. I agree with you. The other one we're looking at Dodgers Rockies. A little bit of a different feel.

Shohei Monday night had a two ding-dong. effort that, yeah, an unstoppable force and a movable object. And yeah, if you want to talk about guys who are balling out this season, who maybe should have made this list, our tier list, Hunter Goodman, 34 homers. He already has the franchise record for a catcher with the Rockies. Previous mark was 31. Dodgers have clinched the season series over the Rockies. A little bit of a shocker there.

If you're looking into some future baseball, check it out with Fanatics Markets available now in the app stores. Contracts carry risk of total loss and changing prices. Not good for all investors. Not available in all states. Must be 21 plus see important disclosures in Fanatics Markets of App. Customers are introduced to crypto.com by Paragon Global Markets LLC, DBA, Fanatics Markets, IB, and introducing broker registered with CFTC and a member of the NFA. Thank you.

Coach Trev, Rob Seraco. Quinn getting it done Dawn's on vacation What? Is he with Cotel Marte? Oh You think it's one of those? Did they elope?

What? That's That's nothing. My first tier list, guys. Real proud. Gosh. Can't wait. Go to see you, Pop.

Soon. Can't wait. Soon. Rough. Week, week and a half. Yes.