Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Wander Franco Placed on the Restricted List & The Easiest Strike 1 in MLB (Jimmy's 3 Thoughts)

Episode Date: August 15, 2023

00:00 - Introduction00:20 - Wander Franco05:54 - Allan Winans14:28 - Easiest Strike 1Wander Franco has been placed on the restricted list as MLB looks into rumors that were circulated on social media. Allan Winans gets revenge on the Mets after they let him go for nothing. And Steven Kwan is the easiest strike one in MLB this season. 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 Jimmy's three things. I got three topics I want to discuss and chat about as I finish my coffee this Tuesday morning. Hope you guys are doing well. I did this last week on YouTube. I think we're posting this on the podcast app as well. So it'll be doubled up. So if this is the first time you're like audio only, there are some visual elements, but not a ton. First topic, Wander Franco, crazy story.

Been trying to keep up. So for people that haven't been keeping up, I'll try to update you on what's going on. a lot of not official information yet, although MLB is taking it seriously, and the raise have announced that he is on the restricted list. The restricted list means, I believe it is unpaid, but it can be paid. I believe they are, it's a paid leave. They can replace him on the 40-man roster and the active roster, and they can activate him. Mostly the restricted list, I believe. Sometimes it is for legal reasons if someone's in trouble. they're contemplating retirement.

Mostly these days, I think the restricted list is for mental health leaves, I believe. Anyway, so he's on the restricted list. He's not on administrative leave or whatever, but if push comes to shove, if they find more evidence and he goes on that, or if that's the next update, then it might mean they found more evidence. The whole thing started with an Instagram post that went viral of a girl who's 14. says she says she's 14 years old pictures of her and wander him kissing her on the cheek her wearing his necklace hanging out and there was a whole long caption in Spanish that said he's been dating me and i believe it said something of the sorts of like he does this with lots of girls and this

but i'm going to be the last one he ever does it to because i'm outing him so it's something of that she's since deleted the post you can find it there's not a lot of translations out there or that I could find, but I did find a couple, but they're not like, you know, verified translations. So that's the original post. Before the game happened and before that post went super viral, Wander was on Instagram live in the clubhouse and they were commenting on it. So he addressed it.

But this was before like it was a big story. And the translation of that is he said, they say I'm in public with a little girl that I'm running around with a minor. People don't know what to do with their time. They don't know what they're talking about. That's why I prefer to be on my side and not get involved with anybody. Jose, Siri's jumping up and down in the background dancing while he's addressing this, saying people chase that money.

People chase that money, money. So, all right. So that happened, like the fact those posts happened and that Instagram live where he talked about the rumors happened. that's all true. What happened next was the raise didn't bring him on the road trip with them and placed him on the restricted list to look into matters and take care of it. So all of that stuff is just things that have happened.

And then since then, what has happened is the attorney general of the Dominican Republic says there is a complaint filed by a minor against Wander Franco. That's a different girl or woman than the first one. So now the Dominican Republic, Attorney General says there's two complaints, although I don't know if the first one, the social media, one that went via, is an official complaint. But he's saying there is an official complaint. That, according to the Attorney General, is real. And then there was a follow-up that said, there's also another 17-year-old girl that Wander Franco has filed a lawsuit against, which dates back to July 17th.

So it's a little tricky to keep track of, but it seems like there's the one woman or girl, girl that posted the first thing on social media. And now the attorney general is saying, and there's two other cases, one against him and one him against them. That's kind of a lot of stuff going on. So that's everything. And then the most recent update was that a delegation from M. MLB traveled to the DR to the Southern Dominican Republic to learn more about the case.

So MLB's on it. They're taking it seriously, which obviously you need to take this very seriously. And we don't have a ton of info right now, like substantial info. But hopefully someone gets in a lot of trouble either way, I guess. If this is fake, people faking in and damaging him. If it's real, then he's a pretty bad guy. that deserves a lot of bad things. And his career might be over.

He's 22 years old. He's all-star. He's got a huge contract. He's really playing well. I think he's on pace to win a gold glove. And now he might be out for a while. Because MLB doesn't have to abide by the law here. You saw that with Bauer, right?

He got, the MLB punished him worse than the actual law. So that's what's going on with Wander Franco. And it's, there's all this, like, rumor side of it as well. And hearsay side on. Twitter that, well, I guess I'll steer clear of that until we get more. What I've presented is literally just things that have happened.

That's all happened. Now you're updated on Wander Franco and the situation at hand. Next thing I want to talk about, which is a little more fun than that thing, is Alan Wynens, I believe is how you say his name. so this was a fun story. It's a couple days old, but I really like when these things happen. The Braves were playing the Mets. It was a double header, and the Mets are not great.

They sold pieces, and they don't have a great roster, especially for day one or for game one of a double header. So that's kind of the caveat here, but Alan Wynens was on the Mets. He was in the Mets minor league system. They didn't have room for him on their 38-man AAA roster, the Mets. They said, we don't have room for him.

He's a reliever. and we're not going to save him. The way it works is you have to put guys on your roster to save them. Otherwise, there's the Rule 5 draft, which allows other teams to come draft a guy that's unprotected on your roster. The caveat being that if they draft him, he has to stay on their roster all year. It's a good thing to help minor league players not get stashed.

You know, Derek Jeter's a shortstop for 20 years. Well, that sucks for the short stops in AAA. What if they're just stashed forever? and the Yankees are never going to call them up. So they don't even protect them from being called up. It's kind of like, you know, to guard from that and help guys get another shot. The part I love about this story is the Braves took him from the Mets

and he was a reliever for the Mets, kind of doing a right, not great in high A and double A. The Braves took him in the Rule 5 draft, immediately said, no, you're a starting pitcher and started him in AAA in 2020 last year. I believe you made two starts in AAA and then went back down to rookie ball and minors and worked his way back up. But they were like, you're a starting pitcher, not a reliever. That's got a stink.

I mean, this happened to the pirates for five years in a row, and they got so upset with it. They went out and hired the Tampa Bay Ray's pitching coordinator because they're like, this sucks. People keep taking our pitchers and then using them different. It's like, it's like, we see in black and white and they see in color. So that's what the Braves did to the Mets. And then this kid, he got called up as the extra man during the double header to face the Mets, the team that didn't want him, the team that let the Braves take him for 24 brand. And in that game against the Mets, he went seven innings pitched four hits,

nine strikeouts. Now again, the lineup he was facing was Ortega, Vento, McNeil, hey, Alonzo, Vogelback, M.O.B. Hitter. Almante, Omer, Nevis, DJ Stewart, and Jonathan Arles. Already dominated. And when I went and looked at his actual pitches, his stuff, it was awesome. He's got this cool change-up

and slider combo. That tunnel absolutely perfectly. I was messing around last night just looking at him and looking at the tunneling on them and was a little bit in awe of how well. I'm sure pitching,

Ninja got these out there, but I had made my own. And I was, yeah, I was just a little shocked at like how well it worked. So that is his change up first pitch. And it's got a lot of dip to it. It goes into Ritey's. And then he matches it with a slider in the same at bat that goes away. And we get a flailing swing there. If you overlay them and go slow-mo, they just spread out like crazy.

But the other one I was actually. more impressed with was this slider in and then change up in and then let me start that again he went yeah slider in slider in change up away change up in so he could move his change up from the outside to the inside that was really impressive and i overlayed that because they're going to the same spot but breaking differently so they start in the same spot in his hand and then then traveled different paths to the same place, which I think is wild. But my favorite part is, all right, he faced that lineup. He shut him down.

Cool. What about the Pete Alonzo at bats? Because Alonzo's pretty good. So how did he handle him? Well, in his first at bat, he went outside slider, outside slide or outside fastball, had him three and O and then just intentionally walked him, threw up the fours, didn't even throw a fourth pitch. So Alonzo saw two sliders.

that were like way away. He didn't even recognize them and like look at him. And then a fastball away. And his next at bat, he opens him up with a sinker, a fastball in. That's at 89 miles per hour. So not crazy for a fastball at all. And Pete just takes it. It looks like he was taking the whole way because he got intentionally walked

and was probably expecting to be pitched around again. And then the next pitch he throws is another sinker, which I think was probably. probably a dumb idea. And Alonzo rips it foul, like so hard all over it, timed up to the 88 mile power fastball, obviously. So then he's clearly set up for the change up. But if you're Alonzo, I guess you can't just like sit change up.

He just gets absolutely beat on that pitch, swinging so big. And that was cool. I liked that. But what I loved even more was his fourth at bat against Pete Alonzo. though because now, all right, we lost him and had to intentionally walk him. That was a bummer. Then three pitch strikeout and we're rolling now. We're feeling good.

That's fun. What does he do? The fourth time around, he opens him up with a change up. The pitch that he struck him out last time because last that bad he opened him up with fastball. So if, you know, you're tracking, what's this kid throwing me? Well, he went fastball, fastball change up. Let's see if he establishes the fastball again. No, he establishes.

the change up first and Alonzo takes it and is expecting fastball. You can see his whole body. He's way ahead with his body expecting the fastball gets the change up right down the middle. Like if Alonzo's sitting change up there or off speed, which I don't know if Pete does at all, it's smoked. So then the next pitch is like, all right, I just went slow. Then he tries to speed him up with a sinker. It's high. It's not there. Alonzo just takes it for a ball. Now you've gone change up, sinker. He goes back to the change-up, and Alonzo takes a big swing. I think he was sitting fastball again. He's way ahead of it.

Just absolutely pulls a string on him. Now, here's my favorite part of the whole thing. So now it's all fastball change-up combination. He just got him on the change-up. Alonzo's got the fastball timed. It's a tricky pitch. But the last two at-bats, it's been all fastball change-up. The count is one and two.

And, yeah, if you're listening on just all, audio only this one you might need to go check out on YouTube because unless you're a Mets or Braves fan you saw this already. Pete at this point has forgotten that this kid also has a slider. He did throw him two sliders the very first at bat. It's not in his brain at all. And you can see his brain get absolutely frozen by the slider right in the zone. Pete's geared up like a menace wiggling the bat. Big foot gets down and just absolutely takes. And he doesn't even really follow the ball after the break just kind of looks at the pitcher and stays there in the box like oh i forgot about that one shit so good for uh alan winn's i believe is how you say his last

name for shutting down his former team a lot of his ex-teammates since the met's running out basically minor league squad but those at bats against alonzo were good and the tunneling is is really impressive that it should work well i believe that if you're an m lb hitter you're probably you're going to sit change up, sit slider, and then react fastball because it's only 88 miles per hour and not going to blow your way, but I'm not an MLB batter nor MLB coach, nor former MLB player. So I've got no idea. That's just a guess. All right.

The third thing I got for you, some Jimmy Liddix that I was having fun with on baseball savant trying to just run into some cool information. and what I was doing was I was trying to find. So I went on baseball savant and I said, okay, it's a batter's first at bat of the game. So it's the at batter's first at bat at bat of the game. The count is zero zero. And it's a fastball in the zone.

Which batter are pitchers throwing fastballs in the zone the first pitch they see of the game? Like is there a guy that his scouting report is he will not, he does not swing first pitch heater to start off his game maybe his second at bat of the game he does but not the first and results show there is a leader stephen quaint of the guardians 41 pitches 2% of the all of his pitches i don't know about first pitches about bats but um 2% 41 times he's been just thrown a fastball in the zone the first pitch he sees of the game next is a mile straw another guardian with 34 and then bryson stott with 31 and then it goes into the 20s

but kwan's got 10 more than third place so when he steps into the box for the first pitch of the game so then i said okay well how many are for called strikes um let me see if i have that i have some images here oh yeah So how many of those pitches, pitch result? Pitch result, I'm going to change it to called strike. Is he just, is he taking? And it's 32 of the 41. The third most first pitch I see of the game I take, if it's a fastball batter, is the third is Adley Rushman, who has got 18.

He's got 18 at-bats where his first step out of the game, he just let a meatball fastball go go buy him didn't swing stephen kwan's got 32 second place is 24 he really doesn't swing at all at the first pitch if it is a fastball and then i went and i i was like well when he does swing does he get hits because then that's a that's an easy like as a coach be like hey man when you attack fastballs early you get hits so i went and looked at it and he does have a handful of swings, but he has no hits. That was a 95 top of the zone. He fouls back that he swung at.

This is a Soroka fastball that he grounds back up the middle. Nice play over the bag there. This one is CIS, 96 mile power fastball that he flies out to center field. Let's see, who's this? This is Carasco. He grounds that to third base, double play. that's a bummer. Kirby, I love Kirby's fastball.

Flies that out to left field. So then it's like, all right, dude, I don't know what to do. It's a good scouting report. That's why pitchers are doing it. Because you're not hitting it. So then you just take it. So what I want to do now, I haven't done this, is if you, because if I went to his splits on baseball reference,

and it says here that when he swings at the first pitch, in those at bats he has a 310 batting average now the slugging's a little lighter the on base is lower because you're starting strike one or if you don't get a hit so what are those hits coming on so does stepan sit off speed does he sit off speed first pitch of the game because that's kind of wild so i'm going to change the pitch type to off speed and breaking balls um and let's see and i'll do batter i'll do quon so we just look at him So the first pitch of the game, if it's an off-speed pitch,

so chain-jab splitter, or a breaking ball in the zone, he's seen 23 of those, and the results are 17 college strikes. He's got one hit and one ball put in play for an out. Damn. So he just doesn't swing.

at all his one hit you put two in play you got a triple off of zach davies and uh flew out to uh versus bailey over he comes up with runners on a decent amount in all these clips that was a that was uh wait so what was that triple the flyouts to right field the triple is a ground was that ground ball or am i miss seeing it it was all over that yeah it's uh gets past the second basement and splits the gap to the wall. And he's fast so he gets a triple. Man, so Stephen Kwan just doesn't swing first pitch. So now I'm going to go in this last time I'm going to do,

Stephen Kwan, baseball, savant, and that will show us his swing percentages if we go there. And I'm interested to see his first pitch swing. So the MLB average for first pitch swing is 29.6% of the time. And Stephen Kwan, career averages. 10.1% of the time. So shit. I mean,

who cares about fastball breaking ball? Just throw fastballs in the zone. And again, I'm only doing his first at bat of the game. Seems like he's auto-take. So I'm going to take away all the parameters from the pitching and the pitchers and the location.

He's had 114 first. That's how many games he's played. Make sure that lines up. 117 games. Oh, that doesn't add up then. Maybe it's 100. Does he have games where he was like a defensive replacement? Didn't he get that bat?

Because it says there's 114 going through his game. He's got one game where he didn't get an at bat. Three games where he didn't. So it wasn't like first time through, which I guess so I'm doing. Whatever. He swings. He doesn't swing. and swing. Stephen Quentin, just throw him strikes. If you're playing the guardians and your pitcher,

your starting pitcher doesn't throw a pitch right down the middle to Kwan to open the game, then your team is bad at scouting. How many teams have messed that up? I mean, 58% of the first pitch he sees are called strikes. And then he's got two hits. 34 of the 114 pitches have been for a ball. should we shame all those pitchers? Just like you got to throw a strike. The dude doesn't swing. Let's go shame some starting pitchers that have thrown them first pitch ball. And then we'll get out of here.

I'll finish my coffee. You guys will enjoy the rest of your day. And this little morning session will be finalized. Logan Gilbert's our leading man. Because he has faced the Guardians twice. So he is the only one that has had two first at bat of the games. versus Stephen Kwan, both of his pitches, he threw for balls when Kwan is literally gifting you a strike.

Let's make sure they're not bad calls by the um. Nope, that's way high, just a missed spot. And this game, oh, I kind of, I kind of like that. But the thing is, you don't need to be pretty. Kwan's not swinging. And there you have it. Some Jimmy Liddix to end the show. Thanks for tuning in.

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