We Pick Our April All-JM Team!
00:02 Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. It's time. The All-JM team. I mean, history gets decided today. So let's do it. Let's talk. Well, Bryce Elder. Justin Moreno.
00:25 I think you might be out right now. I think that's a freaking Homer to right center. Hello and welcome to Talk in Baseball. Brought to you by Fanatics Markets. Go check out Fanatics Markets when you get a chance. My name is Jake Storelli. That is Trevor Plouffe. We are giving out the all-JM baseball team.
00:50 The most prestigious award in baseball for years, they missed it. And we said we needed to bring it. So month by month, and then by the year's end, the best players who played the game every year. Coach Trev, how are you? Jakey boy, I always enjoy doing the all-JM team. And I think we talked about it a little bit. Maybe this was off camera,
01:13 but April's the best month because it is an absolute you know what show everyone's all clustered up I have questions about what defensive metrics mean through April I don't know Eno Seres are you going to respond to my text not sure other than that
01:28 I'm doing great I'm happy to see you you look like are you like on the beach somewhere I am in New York Beach Florida my mother lives down here now a snowbirding it a little bit she kind of doesn't want to snowbird it she wants to be down here um and yeah i uh you know we have southern italian skin we tan pretty well uh on me and my mother's side
01:54 um she called me pale which i didn't like how that hit yesterday uh and by the way uh she's she it's it's a tan it's it's old lady tanning for the first summer of her life tan uh so that's what's going on but yeah i came down here uh Cinco to Mama's I'm calling it, a little bit of Cinco de Mayo with Mother's Day. I have a friend's baby shower this weekend and work I couldn't get down, so I panic, booked the trip. I wrote a little mental stand-up routine for the people. I'll tease it on here.
02:28 I don't do stand-up, but I was like, you know, there's a beautiful thing in seeing your parents get old because you have the privilege of seeing your parents get old. The other side of that is me and my mom, we were at a bar yesterday. Any car that was parallel parking, she had to watch. it. And I was like, what's this, mom? I was like, we don't need that. Um, but yeah, she seems happy, uh, happy Cinco to Mama to all those that celebrate. Um, I think we got to dive in, Trev, because these are our gnarliest episodes. Um, I just have one question. And then we'll go. Please. Was she hoping for like a crash of sorts? Like, was she hoping for someone to mess the parallel
03:07 parking up? Was she shaming people? If you can't do it within three turns. Shaming. Shaming. My mom's a very good parallel parker or something? My mom is a very good parallel parker. She did pass that on to me. But yeah, I'll go head to head against anyone in a parallel park, even though, you know, these city days have taken away from my abilities a little bit. But yeah, she wants to see them fail.
03:33 And it's, you know, it's kind of an old party retirement town, so a lot of them do fail. Anyways. AllJM, if you're new here, again, originally the conversation started with all-star games are kind of odd because at the end of the year we say, who are the all-stars? And some of those guys have horrible second halves. Some of those guys may be not deserved initially, sorry, that we wanted to track away to see who are the best players by the end of the year and month by month along the way. but not in the individual month. A lot of times we hear about, oh, the player of the month in June.
04:16 No, we want to stack the months to find out who has been the best player through April, the best player through May, the best player, et cetera, et cetera. That, yeah, we sort through the information. Dalton has put together an incredible sheet. Rob Seraco producing. And, yeah, we try to sort through it to give guys their flowers, which has led to us calling each month the pedal. And if you can somehow win it every month at your position,
04:47 you win the Silver Daisy. Our guy Joe's McFly is going to be handing out some awards this year, which is going to be some fun talking baseball content. And the great John Bino is on call. I should warn the people, he's still in hell. He had his Achilles surgery about a week ago, and he cannot move. but he also kind of can't work.
05:12 He's in hell. He's in hell. That I did ask if he wants to be on call. He said yes. He's in the sheet. That he will be our default split vote. And then from there, it could be the Feely Five. It could be Jolly Olive.
05:28 It could be, I don't know. Maybe Treve calls Brian Dozier. I don't know, but we're going to figure it out. We were texting yesterday. It's nice. Yeah. Okay. Um, anything you need to get off your chest coach.
05:42 First, right off the rip, I think we're going to have a discussion. We're starting in the AO. We're starting in catcher like we always do on all jam. Nice. Right off the rip, I think there's something we have to talk about. And I will say this before, uh, we dive in, uh, a little bit, I don't know, special shout out is the right term, but we got sent, uh, these ALS awareness shirts through book, Shambi's charity, Project Main Street.
06:08 We want to encourage all of you on your end. Buy your own end ALS shirts. Wear it on June 2nd. That is Lou Gehrig's Day. The shirt comes in every color. All proceeds go directly to those living with ALS. Let's end ALS. And yeah, if you like a good talking baseball,
06:27 a little bit of a goof with a very serious thing that we'd like to raise awareness for. I got sent Trevor Plouf's XL Minnesota Twins color and ALS shirt, and Trev got sent me and Jimmy's Medium and Large and ALS Yankee shirts. I put it on. It just wasn't going to be a good visual for the whole episode, so I decided right here in the background's perfect for it.
06:50 Perfect. Yeah, it's weird. You know, parts of my body can fill out this XL shirt and other parts of my body don't, which is really weird. So get involved in that if you can. We would appreciate it. Boog would appreciate it. And Chris Rose, it's all for Chris Rose
07:07 at the end of the day. day. All right, coach, a. L. Catcher, I'll let you tee it up. I had this whole speech because, you know, a lot of times we have our, when the statistics are close, especially early on in the season,
07:22 we have to look for things that each of us like or think can differentiate between players because we have to make a decision. A lot of times it's games played is a big one for us. And bats,
07:37 And, you know, I go walk to strikeout ratio is a big one. Or zero-sum games, which is like a Jimmy O'Brien thing. We go to that every once in a while. So right away, I'm trying to find a way to put Ryan Jeffers and give him a pedal. But then I start going to games played. And then there's an Adley Rushman discussion, but he doesn't have the games played. So I think I have my answer already because those two things cancel out. I'm going.
08:12 Oh. You go. I want to take one step back. I like how you built that up. I like that we're playing with them a little bit, whatever them is. The other thing that I think should be out there is, yeah, this is the only award show where we fully peel back the current. We will tell you if the winner is because of batting with runners in scoring position, whether it's some guys are platoon guys that, yes, we try to get nitty gritty and we lay it all. out there for you people. And hey, if you like it, comment that a lot of us, we watch our teams
08:44 every night that sometimes we get roped in, that we get distracted from some of these other guys that my last thing before this AL catcher position last year, three Silver Daisy winners. It was Cal Raleigh at this AL catcher position. Soup to nuts start to finish every month. Cal Rale won. Aaron Judge in the American League outfield and then Shohay Otani last year's D.H. A great note here by Dalton. A group of guys that all missed it by one month last year. Bobby Witt Jr., Jose Ramirez, Byron Buckson, Terek Scouble, Will Smith, Mani Machado, PCA, Corbyn Caryl. And then some other things of note. You mentioned April's the most fun for you, Trev. Past April winners, but nothing else. Christian Campbell.
09:35 Cedric Mullins, Carson Kelly, Junkhu Lee. Yeah, April. April can be the funkiest. Today's episode is sponsored by Seekek. The MLB season is here, not to mention NBA and NHL playoffs. It's a sports apocalypse, people.
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10:29 there so with all of that trev who is your a l catcher because i think think it's obvious. I like the drama you built, though. I mean, there's four guys that are kind of right around each other. Adley Rushman has the best overall slash line. He's one dotting it, but the games played, the plate appearances just really aren't there. I think he had some sort of ankle thing going on earlier. I forget what it was, but 64 played appearances, probably not going to get it done for you, especially when the guy who I think is a frontrunner has 136. So we can mention Adley and what he's done offensively, Dylan Dingler and Ryan
11:07 Jeffers, I think, are right there as far as the numbers, but if you're going by slash line, plate appearances, and I guess also extra base hits kind of come into play for me as well, so I guess I'm prioritizing
11:23 slug unless you have like a massive crazy OBP, so then I might prioritize that, but I think it's our guy, Shea, Bangaliers. For me, winning the month of April 382, 592 for the 974 OPS. He's
11:41 clearing in B and F4 right now, which I don't know how much of that means early on in the season because some of the defensive metric stuff is interesting, but I think he's there. I wanted to give a shout to Ryan Jeffers because he does have that crazy OVP, 421,
11:57 506 for him. But I think when it's all said and done, I think Shazar guy in April. Yeah, I'm glad you gave some guys love. Adle-Zell, it's April. He's played literally half the games. Carter Jensen getting some love on this list, Dylan Dingler. But, yeah, I mean, Languilier's the batting average.
12:20 And this is also midnight May 1st, people. This is, and I guess you get a little March this year, that in theory, the past five days of games haven't happened, if you're wondering why these stats are off, because we do it at the end of the month. But Langalears, 328 batting average is the best. 592 slugging is the best. That leads to the best OPS.
12:41 He's out there every day that, yeah, I know Jeffers gets slightly dinged by that, but it's what we're doing this time of year that Langalears has entered best catcher in baseball conversations. Oh, yeah, he's definitely there. The catching position is strong to quite strong in the big leagues right now, in my opinion. There's some guys that actually are banging out there, and you can add Carter Jensen. I know we didn't talk about him too much, but he's going to be a guy who I think we talk about a ton. I know he's him and Sal kind of splitting those DH catcher's duties, but I could obviously eventually see him taken over there in Kansas City, and he'll be on this list for quite some time.
13:20 Congratulations, Shay Langalears. Well, after Cal Rally's dominant run last year, we'll see when he joins the party this year. American League first base. Treve, we've had maybe the best entertainer in the sport so far. Munataka Murakami showing up and showing out this season. The Christian Walker resurgence, okay, interested. Vladito, always a constant on this. And Wilson Contreras, not a young guy on the Boston Red Sox.
13:53 I will get ahead of this one for you. I do believe the answer is Ben Rice with the New York Yankees, watching what he's done day and day out has been impressive. That slugging starts with a seven. That's right, a seven. And that, yeah, there's a Murakami Homer's argument. I guess you could hop around, you can pick and play some other things. But that 1.157 OPS, that's rare air.
14:23 It really is. And, yeah, you could talk about Murakami and what is he done. He's hit homers. but Ben Rice is right behind him. I mean, Murakami through April 12 homers, Ben Rice, 10 homers. Ben Rice, more runs, same amount of runs driven in. The walks are also something Murakami does well. 25 walks.
14:43 Ben Rice has 21. The strikeout to walk ratio is just better for Ben. So I do agree with you right now that the way that he has impacted that Yankees' offense is crazy. So I also will go Ben Rice. and Vladdy, like, who is a guy that usually kind of takes over this position in the AL. Nice start for him, too. I mean, through April 354, kind of struggled a little bit through the beginning of May.
15:10 But right now, it's the Ben Rice show. And I think Vladie's got to find a way to, I don't know what he's got to do. Ben Rice keeps this pace up. We're looking like an out of the nowhere Silver Daisy type. of guy. Hey man, I don't know if baseball, well, baseball internet is talking about it. Because Ben Rice coming into the season, I know our guy foolish. He did his top 50 players and it's become a running gag with him online now because
15:42 they thought Ben Rice would get platoon versus lefties with Paul Goldschmidt on the team. He has been so good that he's kind of pinned Paul E.G. to the bench. Although Ben Rice just had a hand thing. So let's see how he reacts to that. But I think he's up there with most homers versus left-handed pitching this year. He's honestly, he was listed as one of the most unlucky hitters last year. I always get a little skeptical on that. He has been nails.
16:09 And yeah, Vladdy, you just, the extra base hits are the difference here, that if Vladdy had a couple more homers, a couple more doubles in that OPS, but I mean, you know, he's basically getting beaten by 250 OPS points. Yeah, look, Vladdy, doing a good job getting on beat four. Vladdy 438 OBP. It's amazing. Ben Rice, 440, or excuse me, 438 for Vladdy, 443 for Ben.
16:35 So anything we're talking about, Murkami, homers, Vladdy, on base, Ben Rice. Congrats to Ben Rice and Trev. I hate to do this to us because this could derail the whole episode. In the talking baseball group chat, we have been debating the eighth inning home game taking the lead in the eighth,
16:57 material change as you've labeled it it hasn't necessarily sparked the nation but we will see because we have nothing better so right now we're just really don't have anything better yeah we we don't i'll leave it at that dalton throughout some suggestions i i didn't necessarily love those i haven't spent a ton of mental energy on it um what did i say from from wrong to right no it rhymed um i don't know we don't have it yet so So that's it. Yankees Internet is searching for a nickname for Rice and Judge, which it's like, okay, we got two names here.
17:36 The grain and the gavel has been thrown out. I don't, we don't have it yet. But the way Ben Rice is playing, people think he deserves a nickname with the judge. So that's pretty nice. Okay. That's real Yankee-centric right there. Real Yankee-centric.
17:55 Yeah. Sorry, sorry we have to talk about. the best team in the American League and the best first baseman in the American League. Sorry for putting everyone through that two minutes of hell. Speaking of two minutes of hell, my college sex. No.
18:09 Second base. Second base is a interesting one. The names listed coach Trev, Ernie Clement, Jeremiah Jackson, Jeff McNeil, and Cole Young. I'll let you chef a little bit.
18:25 It's going to be one of the most difficult discussions that we have. Also shout out, I mean, okay, Parraza getting an honorable mention here, but he's also listed on the third base side of things. Excuse me, where did I see him? Yeah, Parazza's games. So this is the other tricky part, especially early. Paraza is split 12 games at second, 12 games at third. He's had a nice start. It's had a nice start to the year. Yeah. When I looked at this sheet, he was listed as a second base. Dalton must have taken some... He just took him off.
19:02 He took him off. He put him in the honorable mention. So we're still having a conversation. I didn't even talk about Nick Coma Kurtz in First Base, who has an incredible on Bay Street going on. Yeah. Some of that leaks into May a little bit, but yes. Yeah. Here's the names that we have listed here for A.L. Seck Mason. Ernie Clement,
19:22 we know what he does. Jeremiah Jackson, who's just been like electric, like big time hits. some grand slams, I believe. Jeff McNeil who's been really steady for the A's. He's had some big games. Like his overall slash line looks pretty good. And then Cole Young are our young king out there in Seattle doing it. They're so close in all the statistics, it's going to be,
19:48 we got to figure out what's going on. Because if I read the OPS is from top to bottom, 752, 768, 750, and 777, nobody has separate. themselves. So this is like when, okay, what about defensively? Who's doing better? Because a lot of times that'll show up in their war. You know what? I Googled. I googled this this morning. Nice. Yeah. Which is also like Google is also has the AI generated answers. Do you like just go for that and then don't look at the rest of the web? Like what do you do now? Yeah. I mean, the thing that's happening is there's some search. There's some stuff you can still
20:26 search through Google. There's other stuff that I think you search through AI that sometimes there's a tweener that if you get that AI blurb answer you're looking for, then it's over. But you still have to discern that. Yeah, because it's basically just taking stuff from
20:41 articles throughout the internet. Anyways, for defensive metrics in baseball, a significant enough sample size to reliably judge a player's true skill level is generally considered to be what do you think? I would say 100 games. Two to three, full seasons.
21:04 Okay. It's what it says. So I don't know what to do with that information. That's why I texted Eno. I'm like, what do you think about this? Because we've used that on all JM and I don't know. So I think that's out the window for like an April discussion basically is what I'm trying to get at here. So now we have to look at these numbers and figure something else out with these AL Second Baseman.
21:27 If you want to go runs driven in, well, it's Jeremiah Jackson. I talked about some big homer games. He leads in homers as well. Six. Next closest person is Cole Young with three. How does Jeff McGee only have one out there in Sacramento? I'm racking my brain a little bit. If we go extra base hits, it's Ernie Clement because he's a doubles king.
21:48 Runs driven in. He's not there, though. So where are you at? Because I have a lean, but I want to see if you can kind of throw me a different way. for me this excuse me for me this comes down to two guys um it comes down to jeremiah jackson and cole young um i um as i'm going through these numbers
22:10 like you say it is comical that these these four players are showing four different routes to a very similar ops which uh always leads to kind of a fun ops conversation or how do you want to build your team um the two numbers that leap off the page for me. One, I should throw a comma for Ernie Clements doubles. Like, sometimes we ignore double, 13 doubles by Big Earn. That's, those are
22:35 puts them on pace for a lot. That's half a, doubles are half a homer. You guys can have that one for free. Jeremiah Jackson's 24 RBI jumped off the page to me. You know, Ernie Clement in the same conversation, nine RBI. I
22:51 know those are, those aren't a predictive stat. So some Sometimes we don't talk about those, but those are important stat. The other one that jumped off the page for me was Cole Young's 20 runs. That, hey, I still like runs scored, and that's more than double anyone else on this page. So that's kind of where I'm hung up. I think I have my pick, but I'm interested to see what else you're spinning on. We can't really go with team success in this instance.
23:19 I mean, the A's are winning the AOS, but I don't think Jeff McNeil is in the conversation for this. I think he's I think we've kind of narrowed it down. I agree with you. I would add Clement to the conversation, so I'm choosing between three of those guys. I like that stat right there.
23:39 And that might be enough to do it for me. And something this close, and for podcast only, we're showing a clip of Cole Young what he's done with runners in scoring position this early in the season is OPS's 1.030. It's the ninth best in all of baseball. baseball. He's had to, you know, he's had to be a catalyst in an offense that, you know,
24:03 has had some guys start off slow like they typically do. Naylor, Rodriguez, and Cala Raleigh, all kind of starting off slow. Cole Young's kind of picked up the slack a little bit in that offense. Jeremiah Jackson's so impactful in a short amount of time with the homers. I think I'm going Cole Young. Treve, I know we don't even let these thoughts enter our head because it's not part of the exercise both guys off to a slow may um young and jackson i um i don't know and i don't know and i hate to it's not i what it what it is about and you mentioned it's we don't know how to quantify defense yet um i know some of the numbers do like young cole young i like what i've seen
24:51 from young cole young um he was my lean uh he was my lean and he's actually higher OPS versus lefties right now. He's getting on base first righties, but not with a lot of pop. Jeremiah Jackson, two walks to 24Ks. That doesn't help his cause in my eyes. It doesn't help. And there is something about it that feels april-le-flukish, but I don't want to make my pick on that because I like the way he performed. I guess I do think I like Cole Young a little bit better defensively. And if I'm going back to my runs and RBI argument because I'm I watch baseball in the 1980s apparently um Cole young 39 combined Jeremiah Jackson 34 it's it's splitting the atom here my vote was Cole young before I knew I knew your vote and I think it's the right pick I do Cole
25:56 young congrats wow that's got to be his first pedal yes absolutely okay I was wondering if it's Bangaliers first pedal. Ben Rice probably too. It's a new era. We get dalt on it. Let's hop over to... What's that?
26:17 First pedals for all. First pedals for all. Merry Christmas. Trev, the American League shortstop position. There may be a winner, but there may be controversy. McGonagulls off to a fantastic start. We're obsessed with him. We love him. He also could potentially be your third baseman. He's played both at a lot of games. He's switching over late defensively.
26:47 Carlos Correa is on this list. Colson Montgomery playoff, Rokio in April. And Bobby Wood, Jr. I mean, honorable mention Gunner Henderson, Seeger Jacob Wilson, the American League shortstop position coach. You used to be one. I love the collection of short stops we have in the game right now. I do. I do. I think we have a nice mixture. It kind of reminds me of third base in my era where there was a mixture of young guys and old guys getting it done.
27:18 That's what's happening at shortstop right now. You've got Carlos Correa on this list, although he just left with a significant ankle injury, which, you know, that stinks. But then, yeah, you got guys like McGonigle, Colson Montgomery, who has. don't think people are talking about enough. We mentioned as bad a ton. His early season defensive metrics are off the freaking charts. So what does that say? This is going to be a tough one.
27:42 I think McGonicle, as far as we're talking, offensive statistics, has cleared everybody. 935 OPS for him. He is 3-4-5ing it as a earmouse, a fucking rookie. I mean, that gets me going. I know you got a little lead. 328, 426, 509 for him. And we talk about him all the time. He just is a pure hitter.
28:09 He just looks like he's going to rake for years and years to come. Leads all of these guys on our sheet and runs. 19 walks to 17 strikeouts. There's so much to like about him. I'm going to say this. I think right now, if I'm looking at this list, and this is not going to help at all. So I don't even know why I'm saying it.
28:32 McGonigal, Colson Montgomery, and Bobby Witt are the three that I am kind of, I think, are in contention. I have my lean. What say you? What say you? I think we're, I joked about this on Jim's video. I think a lot of this conversation is all for not, because we, Bobby Witt, the one thing that should be mentioned, 10 stolen bases. These other guys, the max you're seeing is two. Like we, you know, I, we don't forget Bobby Witt Jr.'s fast, but that's, that is a special
29:01 level of speed that these guys don't have in their bag that it's also tough because the mental image we have of Bobby Wood Jr., those homers are coming, but he didn't have them to start the year that, and I could do the reverse conversation with Colson Montgomery, whose eight homers do jump out, but again, like McGonagall has two triples. He has 11 doubles to Colson Montgomery has five of either that I think the answer's there. I think McGonigle has been the best shortstop, and I think it's too early in the season and it would be rude to the third basement
29:38 to even do like, well, is it Bobby Witt and we could tuck McGonigle in at third? I don't think that's fair. I think it's McGonigle's the best shortstop, but I like that you're now thinking about it. Well, here's the thing, because we're going to get into September. How do you say it?
29:55 September. September. And we're going to look back and say, shoot, Bobby Witt won May, June. July, August. Who won April? I'm not saying we're going to forget about McGonago. I don't think that's the case at all.
30:08 But Bobby Wood's going to be there. What if Bobby Wood Jr. doesn't, dude. Like, that's the unfair part. I can't give him a pedal just because I think he's going to be good. Well, I'm not saying it's still very, very close because he is the best defender in the game. If not, you know, maybe one to him and PCA. So it's like that, that has. And he has the sample size.
30:30 He has the sample size. Do you want to be rude to the AL third baseman? Because you've been an AL third baseman, Trevor. No, I might even go off sheet for my third baseman. So we're just... Okay. It's a tough one. Okay. Then, you know, I'm... Kevin McGonagall. That is my ballot.
30:51 If we're looking objectively at this, and there were no names, it'd be Kevin McGonigal. I'm taking Kevin McGonnell. Congrats to the kid. I believe this is his first pedal. Is that what we have to do? What? is go no name and do like an initial swipe through the page. No names.
31:09 And just go check, check, check, check. Not a ton of like thought into it. Just say, okay, these are the best numbers. And then have that as like our deciding factor. I'm interested in doing a blind ballot. I think you and I are close enough to the numbers that we could probably sniff through it. But I'm open to that. Okay.
31:27 Okay. Congrats to McGonagall. Today's episode is sponsored by Amazon. when life throws you a curve ball, Amazon's everyday low prices on essentials help you save the every day. Amazon has everything you need people and whenever you need it.
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32:00 Amazon has everything, you want and need all in one convenient place and can deliver to you anytime, anywhere. Whether it's routine shopping or handling life's curveballs, shop Amazon and save on Essentials, save the every day. Rounding out the infield and let's cannot wait to see what Trevor says because on the sheet, Junior Caminero, the power hitting third baseman for the Tampa Bay raise. Michael Garcia, the breakout player from last year. Thickneck Josh Young, ball in, Paulin this year.
32:31 then maybe the most staple of staples on this all jm team going back to 21 or whenever we started Jose hoser ramirez uh and apparently trev's going off sheet so please i'm not because a lot of the statistics are that i was referencing and then i also see he's also he's on the sheet that was going to go to okamoto but a lot of the damage that he did was just against my twins and that unfortunately for him happened in May. Yes, yes. His numbers right now looking nice because he feasted upon my twins
33:07 starting May 1st. Okay, so sorry to Okamoto. We'll see you in May. That's the good news. Yeah, we'll see you in May. Yeah, this is an interesting one because again, nobody's really jumping off the page to me. Yes, Jose Ramirez is always there.
33:25 I believe he is a Silver Daisy winner. I don't know if it was last year or the year before. I believe he's done it before. We have a couple different ways, like you said, of getting to these OPSs right now if you're just looking at slash lines, which is the first place that I start, especially early on in the season. I mean, Josh Jung is running away with it. He is almost three, four, five, in it.
33:48 310, 381, 545 for the 925 OPS. Junior Caminero is the closest to him. He's got the slug with the on-base percentage just down at 328 for Junior Caminero. So really, if we're going hitting right now, which is kind of what we got to do, I think Josh Young is where I'm leaning.
34:15 Yeah, the only, this is the same argument with Bobby Witt that I threw into the fire. I do think it comes down to Young and Jose Ramirez. Jose Ramirez has 12 stolen bases. Like, again, that's not something we ignore, that's very different because if it was slash line, you're right, Treb. I mean, Josh Young has had an amazing start to the season. I mean, the batting average is 100 points better than Ramirez.
34:40 The on base is 40 points better. The slugging is 100 points better. I like Josh Young how he looks defensively. I mean, Jose Ramirez also has that. The conversation for me is two-fold. nice it's Jose Ramirez the stolen bases and how much do they catch up to Josh Young's offensive profile and then the follow-up question for me and this is something I do like to factor is when you're game planning the Guardians Jose Ramirez is the one guy you kind of game plan around
35:17 Josh Young has kind of been in the second half of that Texas lineup and you can you know you're navigating Seeger and you're navigating a few other guys in that lineup that I It's my Eddie Rosario used to always be third for those twins. And like, okay, you got to deal with Eddie Rosario. There's games where Josh Young, he's not the featured guy in the game plan. So I don't know how any of that lands with you. It lands. I mean, Jose Ramirez 222 average right now.
35:48 The expected batting average is 270. Josh Young also underperforming his expected batting average. This is actually 319. He's hitting 310. So a little bit of unluckiness for Jose Ramirez. And if you're looking at the numbers, 21 walks to 18 strikeouts for him. He does have the swipes with 12, no-cut stealing. Josh Young has one in one.
36:18 Scored more runs, hit more homers. All right, it's Jose Ramirez. Oh. It's Jose Ramirez for me. The slash line is sexy for Josh, but everything else is pointing to Jose Ramirez. I can't get caught up in an April slash sign when all the other numbers are Jose Ramirez. Well, let's split it.
36:41 I will go Josh Young. I think when you traditionally think of your third basement, you want that power hitter that's banging it around. Well, you should want Jose Ramirez on any team. I think Josh Young's month is better. Let's split it. And I will send the text to the John Bino. Okay.
36:57 Like that. A little nervous. Okay. How should I phrase it? I'll just put it out there. Jose Ramirez or Josh Young? Boom. Stay tuned later in the episode to see what Jimmy O'Brien, John Boy,
37:14 thinks about the AL-First Base position. Or his leg is in hell and we don't hear from him and we panic, call someone. Congrats to those guys. Trev, American League Outfields. And if you're new to the show, we do have one outfields. you need a center fielder. We believe in that. And we shouldn't have a problem getting a center fielder.
37:38 You can also have multiple center fielder. We don't knock that. But you do need a center fielder. In the American League, too, I mean, Tref, watch Olivia, watch out. Mike Trout and Byron Buxton coming in at the AL center field position. I'm where your T levels. Oh, I was like, what's happening right now? So we have two amazing center field options.
38:07 Along with, I'd hate to get ahead of this, but that Aaron Judge guy still plays in the AL that I think we have two obvious picks to start and then the convo rolls from there. Two center fielder's, so we don't have to worry about that whatsoever, which is a nice one for us. Who are you going to give center field to? I think maybe that's a discussion? I think it's, I think it's clear.
38:35 And again, ignoring what Buck Daddy has done into May, Trout's April numbers are insane. Okay. Okay. You can disagree with me, pal. Byron goes and gets it out there. Yeah. Yeah.
38:52 Maybe I have a, you know, he's also had a pretty nice May. He's continued his play into May, and I'm very in tune with what he's doing. so maybe that's clouded by judgment just a little bit. All right, let's give, let's give our guy who has 32 walks to 30 strikeouts. Let's go my truck. That is, he does not get that very often. If I had to guess, that might be one of a few months that he's had more walks and strikeouts.
39:17 It's a lot of walks, dude. It's a lot of walks, pop. To go on with 10 homers, it's why his on base percentage is a 431. So, yeah, and that would be if we had to do, Buckson versus Trout. I mean, at Bxton crushes, obviously. The on-based percentage at the end of April was 306,
39:35 which those are just completely different players. And they are completely different players. They are completely different players. Mike Trout's back. Snaps from Mike Trout and center field. Are we giving Byron another slot? Well, I would like, I think it would be the right move and easy
39:56 if you gave snaps for Aaron Judge right now because the numbers are still. casually ludicrous. There's so many people listed on here right now that I'm just, I'm just getting to his stats. And yes, I will snap for Aaron Judge. Yeah, he's, it was considered, it was considered a slow start. And he ended the month with 12 homers, a 1.0PS. He had a bad April. Was it last year, whereas, like, was his only month? So I believe last year he had a great April, I think it was two years ago.
40:30 He had the slow April. Okay, so yeah, because he won the Silver Daisy last year. Okay. Yeah. Two years ago, April, and then he went off, obviously. Okay, so we have one more to give out. And there is just so many different types of players right now. You got your guy Chandler Simpson.
40:50 How about my guy, Taylor Ward? Chase DeLauder, what he's been able to do for the Guardians. I mean, Willier-A-A-U's got some numbers? Okay, okay. Willier-A-R-A-U is a constant, like, should he be here? He was also fired up last night with Framer Valdez. He wanted to fight. Okay, I like that for us.
41:13 Carlos Cortez got to get mentioned. The abats probably aren't there, but he's trending in the right direction. A.L. Outfield, I feel like, is always the hardest list to make. there's always multiple multiple guys. Taylor Ward put some respect on his name. My goodness. 27 walks to 21 strikeouts for Taylor Ward. Where are you leaning, coach?
41:44 Again, one wild card thing for here, you know, empty game rate has made the sheet, as it's one of John Boy's favorite stats. Is Chase DeLauder's empty game rate of zero true, or is that a typo? Because that, that would peak my interest I'll go take a look real quick
42:04 that is a John boy feature right now he's in the weeds on the sheet so I'll take a look real quick and I'll get back to you on that That's him, that's all Jim He's operating right now That ain't me Wow
42:17 Yeah I mean that's an interest Byron Buxton a 3% empty rate Which is you want lower percentage in this category I'm not closed off to Buxton Never happened Yeah Yeah, man, he's, he just hit, he's, what he's done is obviously play defense, and, um, he's hit a lot of home runs. He's been very impactful for the twins, even though, you know, they're still kind of floundering a little bit.
42:44 Oh. Okay. Um, really green. Brandon Nimmo had an amazing mom. It really come. It's really close with everybody here. I don't think we could really go wrong. I mean, our guy ran.
42:59 If that DeLotter, empty game stat is. real. I'll cast my vote for him now. Agreed. Looking at it real quick, it might be a typo. I only see two empty games for DeLauder. He had one. He's out. He had an 0 for 5
43:15 game and he had one versus Dodgers where in extra ratings I'm, excuse me versus Garland, it's over five. He's out. I'm, I think Buxton, Wheelier, God, Wheelier got off to a great start.
43:34 start. Is Buckston's playing Buxon level defense coach? Yes. It looks great. But again, a lot of, so he's, he's kind of, you know, from these numbers right here, let's see. I don't know, we've got to do it here. He has added three, like three more homers, a couple more runs driven in. Like, he's, he's kind of gone off a little bit in. That doesn't matter. I know. That's what I'm saying. But that's in my head. So right you're erasing it from your head I get you I'm trying to yeah this is a tough one has jimmy gotten back to us about third base he said he's looking into it we can't put another one on him right away We could I'll I'm casting I'll go Buxton I don't know if it's popular or not The way he does play defense the threat he has been in that lineup a lot more homers than all of these guys.
44:40 Obviously, the walks are down. And yeah, I guess it ties in a little bit to my, if you're playing the Twins, he's kind of the bad man where a lot of these other guys get covered up a little bit that I kind of feel bad for Willier because he also plays amazing defense and has contributed.
45:00 I think my ballot is cast. This is going to be a Jimmy one. I love Buck. I'm showing that I'm not biased. in this situation. I'm actually going to cast mine for somebody different. I'm casting it for Randy or Rosarena. Oh, my God. Tell him why.
45:22 Seven swipes, no caught stealing. Again, I mentioned, like, the guys in the Mariners' offense that are supposed to get the job done really haven't yet. So he's kept that team in the race 381 on base percentage for Randy, which I feel like is very high for him. He's doing a good job there. 15 walks to 29 strikeouts, so he's got the 1-2 working. the runs are there
45:44 I mean he's just all around if I'm putting up between him and Abraeu I guess it's just the on base percentage that he has she's I don't know man I'm all over the place here I'll go how about this
45:58 I'll go Abra you I'll go Abraeu you go Buxton yeah I just changed God damn it I already texted Jimmy coach you got to be careful with that because here's the thing the only thing that he's got on Abrae it was the stolen bases that had me enamored right away because it was kind of an outlier
46:15 at this position which is crazy by the way there's not a lot of stolen bases in the ale outfield so i'm going to go will your brady because the slash line's better the stolen basis got me i'm taking that out of my mind i'll go willier i mean he's hitting 307 right now okay i'll wait for your next pick i guess uh the pick is in rob josh young versus jose ramirez it's close in everything it's not that close in a lot of my tiebreakers. Defensively, Josh Young ain't doing it. He's the bottom of the list, DRS, bottom of the list, outs above average.
46:49 J-R-R-M is positive outs above average, neutral DRS. And then you're going to look at the OPS and say, Young's got him because the OPS is there. But Jose Ramirez has 12 steals. If you look at my stat, OPS plus speed, which takes into account stolen bases, going first or third on a single,
47:08 going second to home on a single, taking the extra base on the pass ball, the wild pitch, and recalculates the OPS plus speed. Okay, so we look at that. And once I find my damn spreadsheet, it's still young beats them, but J-RAM's up to a 922 OPS plus speed. And then you look at empty game rate. And that's where once again, J-RAM beats them. eats him. So Young's got the slug, but all the other stuff, Jay Rams on vote.
47:46 Okay. Nobody better. I mean, look out. Jimmy on the freaking sticks at home on the couch is a scary, scary thing. He's dangerous. It's the most deep dives he's done, which part of him likes that, but part of him hates everything else in his life right now. Let's see who he cast his vote for A.L. Outfield. Trev, I'll cut you off at the pass so we can cook because we always get a little too caught up in AL because we're excited. Yordon Alvarez was probably the best hitter player in baseball by a lot of metrics that the ALDH spot should be his.
48:24 No doubt. There's an article right now on the Fangraphs front page, or excuse me as the baseball savant front page, that Yordaun is, he doesn't do anything poorly as a hitter. Everything. He's good at everything. That sounds good. He's good at everything right now through April, a 1.199. OPS.
48:49 He's fantastic. I guess let's read some stats because people need to know. 12 homers, 25 runs, 27 runs driven in, 21 walks to 14Ks. I mean, nine doubles. These are all blowing everybody else out of the water. It's not even close. So, I mean, he's right now 356, 4.6. 62 737. I've never seen a 347.
49:16 Hmm. Oh, I've seen it. Congrats to Yordaun. Sorry to Yandi Diaz. Carter Jensen, also listed in the DH category. Trev, something maybe I should have laid out earlier. Maybe I should not have. Our util position, which was highly debated through the years, because how do you do utility and what positions is it? We said, screw that.
49:37 Let's give it to the best player who missed. We open it up to a fan vote. we pick the candidates live we'll do it live in front of the people right now that who who do you think should be on the fan vote i think it'd be fun to include uh a murakami i marikami was my first ballot yep okay and we're doing three correct uh we we do whatever feels right okay oh is bobby whit illegal i don't i don't think the numbers warrant it. Okay.
50:21 This time, unfortunately, for him. What about his OPSS Plus, dude? I know. The OPSS Plus is probably right there. If you want to put him on, we can. I think Murakami, yeah, Bob, it's kind of a cheat code in ballot-balloting. But maybe he won't be. Maybe Merck.
50:39 We can't say that. Yeah, maybe Murakami is, dude. We don't know. If that vote gets a brooket. that vote gets abroad Murakami and Bobby Witt yes and then should we
50:58 should we do the loser of the outfield vote whether that's it's Byroner Irons or Rearer Byroner wheelier Yeah Okay Okay
51:08 So we'll let the John ballot come in And we'll let the people vote We put it out Is Twitter the final vote Insta doesn't get a vote Right? Although Instagram does vote now, I think.
51:21 Yeah, I would trust that more than... We put out a Google poll, actually. Google poll that you can find from Twitter or Instagram. How about that? Correct. Okay. Okay. The final thing, and Trev, this is where it gets ugly,
51:38 and we've debated if they should even be a part of it. Pitchers, you know, it's not this program's strength, and especially after April, there's so many guys. The two that jump out to me, Parker Messick was amazing. Schlittler and Jose Soriano, I think, are the final two that I'd love to hear what your eyes see. Look, if you're looking at ERA, you go straight to Jose Soriano. He's got a 0.84 Cam Schlitler, 151. Other than that, I think it's Schlittler.
52:11 I mean, he's numbers that I like, whip. 0.74 to 0.94, slitler on top of that one, obviously both very good. That's allowing less than the base runner per inning, which is great. Opponent batting average is their right on par 167 for Schlittler, 163 for Jose Soriano. Slittler's not allowing any homers whatsoever. He's walking less people. He's striking out more people per nine than Jose Soriano. I think I'm going Camp Schlittler here, even though Jose Soriano has been.
52:50 so freaking good. That's... It's close, but that's my vote. The whip is shocking. 0.74 out of cam. People know I am a little bit of an ERA ho. 16 walks for Soriano
53:09 to six for Schlittler and they both have equal amount of innings. Both have been a silly level of dominant. Hey, you know what? The kids running hot. Oh, Jimmy kind of hate. Actually, no, Jimmy loves pitchers.
53:27 I'll go Soriano. That ERA and one more win as a pitcher, which nobody cares about anymore, matters to me. It doesn't matter to me. I like seeing a 0-8-4 ERA. If Schlittler had a 0-8-4 ERA, my ballot would be for him. Soriano and Schlittler, I'll text it to the big guy. We're hot. I mean, maybe field the ball behind Schlittler or something, Yanks.
53:50 Put Volpe back at short. Oh, here we go. Okay, Jimmy might have his outfielder pick. I just went to confirm. I think Cartinas, by the way. Great. Phenomenal for the race. He's great.
54:08 Trev, the National League, halfway home, partner. We got to go. Got to go, got to go. Luckily, I do think our butts get saved here a little bit. How? Hold the phone. the nationally catching position.
54:23 Drake Baldwin, William Contreras, Liam Hicks, Carson Kelly again, and Dalton Rushing, who been a big topic and has played great baseball. Trev, for me, I think Drake Baldwin has come for the top catcher
54:41 in the game, Crown. Liam Hicks' numbers are shocking. For me, it's Baldwin. I'll put it out there. Liam Hicks has been an absolute. absolute stud. Are we faulting him because he's got to play first base every once in a while? I don't know. I don't think I said it. Augustine Ramirez, I mean, we should put Liam Hicks behind the plate pretty much every game. I don't know what they're trying to do down there.
55:07 Augustine's down. They called up Joe Mack. Yeah, I just, before that, that was what was going on. I hate putting so much on Jimmy, but I think that if I'm looking at these numbers, I might, I might Liam Hicks. Say why? Can you, well, I mean, overall slash line for one. 941 OPS is, I mean, from a catcher is incredible. I love Drake Baldwin. 884 also incredible there.
55:38 Drake Baldwin strike it out a little bit too much for me. Close to a 20% K rate. Liam Hicks had a 7%. So he's putting the ball in play, which is what the Marlins do. I mean, Drake Baldwin is on. a better team. So there is that. I don't know, man. Give me, give me your Drake Baldwin spiel. I mean, they both have seven home runs. Liam Hicks leads and runs driven in. Drake Ball leads and runs. It's very close to me. Yeah, I guess the counting stats as a whole do end up
56:16 benefiting Drake between runs. walks, hits, but that's because he has played more. And yeah, I guess, no, and I'm glad you brought up Liam Hicks that we did highlight on the program, like how good he has been. I guess I am mentally docking points that, you know, 15 games at first base in DH, that's, if you tell me Hicks has 19 games at catcher, that's tough in one month of play. That I, you know, your argument was well received, and that's why we told him. talk about things in this country and on this show.
56:53 Yeah, let's do it. This year, let's see. This can't be right. Has there been that many games? I guess so. 27 games at Catcher for Drake Baldwin, 13 games at DH. It's getting into May. I'll go Drake Baldwin.
57:17 Liam Hicks, valiant effort. Dalton Rush. I could see him on the fan vote. I don't know. I don't know how the rest of the NL shakes out. Yeah, I think if it was listed 19 games at Catcher, we'd feel, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Liam. I'm sorry, talk to McCullough.
57:35 Yeah. Talk to McCullough, but he's also hitting so well that they're putting him at Not Catcher. I don't know. I'm sorry, Lee Lee. I love you. Arkansas State raise up. The National League for, oh, the John Boy vote is in for the American League outfielder. he didn't send a video this time that was nice
57:55 he did say it's so close between wheelier brayu and buxton he cast his vote for buxton surprise me a little bit surprise me a little bit okay that's that is a beautiful outfield right there that's that's America's outfield
58:15 so yeah it's kind of so wheel year will enter the fan vote with Bobby Witt and Murakami. Wow. That's an electric fan. Holy. The WBC continues.
58:32 I also think first base is going to go to an Atlanta brave where he's on a Hall of Fame trajectory. Me and Chris Rose just talked about it. 300 homers on the freaking nose right now. I got him pegged for at least 450 in his career. He's going to get to like close to 70 war. in his career because that's just what this guy does he freaking posts he is our modern day cow ripkin which is kind of a slight to cal ripkin because he did it for so much longer than metals
59:04 and has done it but modern day we're all cissies um he's he's just the man i don't know what there else what else there is to say about him you know you can look at some of south stewart's numbers i know il demarro vargas is probably going to be in some kind of votes because he just is he gets he gets this is the one problem that we have with all JM is if you're playing a much
59:31 of multiple if you're playing multiple positions it's hard for us to put you somewhere so he's had a great start to the yourself Stewart again kind of carried that Reds offense throughout April kind of struggled a little bit to start May but Matt Olson's just been consistent as it gets right now
59:49 296, 371, 6, 16 through April. So I'm going I'm going that also. Sal Stewart is toe to toe with him. This is a classic case of almost every stat you
01:00:05 look at. He's right there, but slightly beat, except one thing. I did not know Sal Stewart was seven steel zero caught. I did not have that in my mind either. And that's part of the
01:00:21 reason we also part of why we do this exercise I do think the other thing that comes into play as Sal Stewart is learning a new profession Matt Olson is also class of class at first base that if I was going to go hey do those stolen bases catch Sal Stewart up in
01:00:41 overall OPS and again like it's very close all around it's got some Will Smith feels to it for those that are familiar with talking baseball all jm lore um i i do it's just everything a little bit minus the steals and then i think if you factor in defense i think it's it's maddles i love sal stewart's attitude feistiness you love him because he's from miami you kind of stole that for me a little bit but a little bit i did so two braves to start off the n l and could it be a third wow
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01:01:47 We all got different needs out there. So whether you're unwinding or adventuring, Best Western helps you achieve your goals. So whether you're going solo with your friends or the entire roster, Best Western has you covered. Pack your bag, cue up the playlist, and book more of what matters most. Life's a trip. Make the most of it at bestwestern.com. Trevor is alluding to Ozzy Albies at second base.
01:02:09 This is going to be our ugliest one. In a way, I almost want us to blind cast a ballot and just make Jimmy decide between whoever it is. because I don't see you and I. We need to announce our pick at the same time on this one because Dalton put his most names on the list that he's done for a position. Ozzy Albi, Xavier Edwards, Nico Horner,
01:02:31 Brandon Lau, Bryce Terang and JJ Weatherhole. I mean, do we have every, we have four NL Central second basement on here. It's the best league in the, or the best division in all the baseball, excuse me.
01:02:45 Does second base drive your team's outcomes. And all these, all like my things that I like to separate my picks for, like walks to strikeouts is a big one for me. All these guys are doing great. Bryce Terrain, 24 walks to 28 strikeouts. Nico Horner, 13 walks to 14 strikeouts. Xavier Edwards, 19 walks to 15 strikeouts. Guys are killing me right now. I'm ready to cast. If you are. Really? Yeah. I mean, we're doing it the same time, aren't we? We are. I guess I don't. I don't know if I'm ready to cast. Oh, okay.
01:03:23 I mean, I, you know, shame on me for looking a sheet over before the show started, but. That is shame on you. I don't, I like hearing your argument sometimes. I think you're a class guy. Oh, I will, but you said you want to do it the same time. No, you're right. I do have, how about this? Jimmy just sent another video that I sent to talking baseball.
01:03:43 So let's see what that is and then we can blind cast our ballots, all right? The best pitcher in the AL in the month of April and March is Jose Soriano. His May start, not good. If this was April plus one start in May, I'd vote for Cam Scholar because he's better in all the stats. But it's not. It's best March and April, Jose Soriano. Unbelievable. It was a record-breaking first four games, I believe.
01:04:13 Lowest ERA through four games in the history of the entire sport. So congrats to Jose. I mean, are we the most unbiased company around? That's shocking. We try to tell people. Well, actually, you know what it is, Trev. We are biased, but we tell you when we're being biased. Like, that's, we bring that to the table.
01:04:40 That, wow, Jose Soriano, record breaking. Okay, during that time, I should have been picking my second basement, and that's a mistake by me. Okay. Okay, I have my pick. All right, ready? Three, two, one, Bryce Terrain. Yeah.
01:05:07 It's just so consistent across the board. We know what he does defensively. I think we have, again, I keep mentioning this sample size thing. We have sample size of Bryce Durang. We do have sample size of Nico Horner as well. We know what he can do. A lot of guys inconsistency. We mentioned Ozzy Albi's Xavier Edwards.
01:05:26 JJ Weatherholt, we haven't really talked about. He's been, I mean, a spark plug for one of the most surprising teams in all of baseball. That's great. He's hit some homers. You've got seven freaking Jimmy Jacks already? Yeah, dude. He's a beast. Gosh.
01:05:44 What B. Low is brought to Pittsburgh, man. Campi, you can't talk enough about it. But Bryce Terang, when it's all said in. done. Overall, I think he's the best, I think he's the best second baseman in baseball. Yeah, and I think part of the problem is when you look at these six second basemen that have all been incredible, you know, I guess what I've been doing an exercise is like who's been the best at what? I don't know. I was just going to talk about it. He does have the best OPS. He has an argument with the best defense, but so to three of these guys on the sheet.
01:06:27 He's tied for the most stolen bases that I think when it came to the most attributes, he has the most combined counting stats. Xavier Edwards does not get enough love. Honestly, that's the one I'm currently regretting. Like if Xavier Edwards was on another team, would I be banging the table more for him? He's the one that I'm regretting a little more than Horner, I'd say, right now. Yeah, I mean, look, Xavier Edwards, I know we get a number. enamored by batting average because that's fine. I think that's okay to get an hammered by guys
01:06:56 that get knocks. Like it's it's part of the equation. It's encouraged. 336 for him. Him and Otto Lopez, I've said it. I mean, maybe the best up the middle punch in all of baseball to start the year. As far as numbers go, like they've been freaking incredible. Otto Lopez bouncing ahead on the sheet, he's hitting 322. That's crazy. No, it's still good. did that. And I like they're more traditional middle infill not these big dudes. Get out of here. Dude, Brandon,
01:07:30 Ozzy out, all of these guys. This is gnarly. Should it have been to rang? Don't be going back on me now. It felt right and it's still not wrong. Congrats to Bryce to ring. 422. One of these guys got to be on
01:07:49 the util list. Who the hell are we going to pick? Ozzie's not running. It might be in all. all second base bin fan vote. Oh, just put them all out there? Yeah. That'll get ugly quick. Okay.
01:08:05 Speaking of ugly quick, let's go to the shortstop position. Where we have, a couple ballers, CJ Abrams, X.J. Abrams, Xander Bogartz. Good to see you, old friend. Elie de la Cruz and Otto Lopez, as you mentioned, with that 322 batting average.
01:08:23 I guess Trev, start running. What do you see? I mean, right now, to me, it's between CJ Abrams and Ellie Dayla Cruz, right off the rip. Ellie, 10 homers. People don't talk about that enough right now. He's always going to strike out a little bit too much for our liking. If he can figure that out, it'd be nice. The on-base percentage lies in a decent place for him.
01:08:47 If he can be a 355, 360 on-based percentage guy, like, look out because the overall slash sign will be great because he is hitting for power. 565 slug for him. I mean, if you're looking at Xavier, or excuse me, CJ Abrams, he's almost 345ing it. He's 296, 405, 556.
01:09:06 He's got the better OPS, better WRC plus. Runs driven in. He's got Ellie beaten, 26 to 24. Ellie's got him in runs. Those are my two picks. Are you leaning one way? So very interesting. I went to go look at the splits because I wanted to see, you know,
01:09:31 Ellie's had a history of having some trouble from the right side and, you know, CJ Abrams sometimes left on left could be tough for any ball player. Treve, I might have confused myself more. As we stand today, even though I know some of these todays don't exist, St.J. Abrams is one dotting against righties, dominant. He has a 699 OPS versus lefties, but here's the slash line. 300, 349 on base, a 350 slug. So C.J. Abrams against lefty clearly has a different approach where he's just trying to become
01:10:03 be a contact hitter, and that's working. Ellie de la Cruz is mashing lefties this year. He's one dotting, which, okay, that's fantastic that he's worked on that and gotten better. His numbers from the left side are a little lower, which if you know math, that's how it works. For me, that's just turned into information, and it hasn't helped me towards the answer. So that's good. That's fucking great. Ellie's really fast.
01:10:37 The defense for both these guys can be questionable. Eight stolen bases for Ellie, five for C.J. Abrams. Walk percentages are right around there. Like I said, Ellie with the higher K percentage. I think I have my vote. I think I have my vote. I want to go three. Two.
01:11:01 One. C.J. Abrams. Yeah. Why did, why did you pick him? Overall slash line, I think. K percentage, if you're differentiating between those two guys, is a big one for me. You know, it's part of Ellie's game.
01:11:16 It's always going to be a fault of his. So that's something that I typically go to right there. I mean, 15 walks, 23 strikeouts for CJ. Abrams. Do we have the 14% empty games for CJ 13 for Ellie, so that's a wash. I don't know. C.J. Abrams' overall slash line,
01:11:34 it's just better than Ellis. Yeah, let me look up one thing really close, really closely. But yeah, I don't think it's changing my belt. CJ Abrams numbers in the quote unquote clutch this year have been fantastic.
01:11:54 Ellie's are not as good. But again, you know, we're really searching at this point. Yeah, I feel bad for my Reds nation. Sal and Ellie in another world end up on this list, but they do not. Congrats, C.J. Abrams. And, dude, I know I do this every now and then,
01:12:15 but remember when he got booted from the team and he was seen gambling late? And it was like, what's going on here? Relatable. That hasn't been. That hasn't been the story recently with him. Congrats to C.J. Abrams. Trev, third base, you lay it out.
01:12:37 This one kind of actually caught me by surprise when I went on the sheet. I know he's been performing well, but I didn't know it was this good. And it's him and Andy Pahas on the Dodgers, if you talk about all the guys on the team, they're like six or seven on the list, yet they've been the best offensive contributors. so far this season. It's Max Muncie for me. He's running away with it, if we're being honest. A 968 OPS.
01:13:06 The rest of the guys on the sheet are Aeronado, Nick Gonzalez. Shout out, I've always believed in you. And Mani Machado, their Opses are in the seventh. Not going to get it done when you're facing a guy who sit in 270, 387, 374 OBP with a 594 slug. He's just done it for me. Nine homers, 23, runs and
01:13:28 wait what only 11 runs driven in how is that possible that's got to be a typo it's a little weird it's a little weird might have to check you know we don't don't want it to all be daggers at hashtag daggers at doll I love that that is right
01:13:47 my goodness yeah what wow seek it turns into compliments for doll call him out nine homers and 11 runs driven in that's almost impossible. Shocking. I'm still voting for Max Buncees above.
01:14:06 I think you're on the same page here. Yeah, it's not my problem that Lowe Stodgers haven't been getting on before them. No, man, I mean, if you wanted to make an argument for someone, I think it would be Nick Gonzo probably, and it's just, it's a different argument. Zero home runs to nine might matter. and then Muncie, the on-base, the slug.
01:14:32 It's not close. A position that's normally one of our most contested positions. Shout out for Nolan Aronado making the list after a tough start and a new team and a salary dump. But a talking baseball celebrity, Max Muncie, third base. Get those RBIs up. Let's get some stakes, dude. What is going on with that?
01:14:55 That's shocking. National League outfields as we hit the home stretch, like we said before, you need a center fielder. So with that, O'Neill Cruz, Money, Mike Harris, the Deuce, and Andy Pahez. So we've got options there. And then that will roll into the rest of the outfield that, Coach, I'll kick off again. What are your eyes seeing?
01:15:21 Because there's a lot of dudes. There's a lot of guys here. I feel like it's best just to start with the center fielders. Okay. On the sheet right now for center fielders, we have Andy Paez, Michael Harris, the second, and O'Neill Cruz, who are all having fantastic starts to the year. I do think one guy is clearing right now, and it's the guy just mentioned with Max Muncie. I think it is Andy Paughes. I think there is enough sample size so the guy can play great defense.
01:15:56 And he's been raking, 321, 366 with a 518 for the 880. which is, I mean, him and Michael Harris have a very eerily similar slash line. 321, 366, 518 for Andy Paa has 317, 352, 535 for Michael Harris adduce. It's 884 for Paa has 887 for Harris. They both clear O'Neill Cruz, so I'm taking Cruz out of this. So I'll go Mike Harris, Andy Pawhez. What are you saying? I'm going Andy Paaughes.
01:16:31 but you can convince me otherwise if you got something. Cruz, the strikeout rate, and the empty games, and the defense. Think about who he's competing with here. Michael Harris, too, and Andy Pahas. Trev, I think I'm genuinely not doing this to make it easy on myself. I think I have both of them on my team. Money, Mike, has been awesome, and so has Pahas that, I guess, how center field goes, if we want to, because you're casting your vote for Pahez,
01:17:07 I have no qualms with that. But I will also lock in my second vote for Money, Mike Harris. He's been awesome. I was very critical of his season last year because I think a big chunk of Atlanta getting buried last year was because of his anemic first half of the season. Dude, he is, and I know he got banged up a little bit, and he kind of entered this pinch hitting role at the end of,
01:17:33 just to like saving games for Atlanta. And when he is out there playing defense, he goes toe to toe with everyone that I, I think him and Paez is an ugly conversation that I don't think it's me copping out on it to not have it. That I'll put Paez in center and I will add money, Mike, to my second outfield vote. And love that structure for you and for us.
01:17:58 Last outfit, I'll give you two who I think are kind of, are just the ones that I'm considering for the third spot would be James Wood who is just all the pop in the world looks great
01:18:13 he leads this group in homers 238 average doesn't help him and also put Mickey Moniac who some of the offensive stats through like I believe it's like June of last year are shocking
01:18:27 like he like the slug I know he plays in Colorado but the WRC plus backs it up as well like i think those two guys for me are um maybe you throw jordan walker in there as well i think you let's do that so between those three guys walker wood and moniac moniac's slash line is the best of all three so let me throw a wrench in the equation um because corbin carroll we've just gotten too bored with how good he is okay um like corbin carroll 296 390s on base of 571 slug.
01:19:07 And none of those guys can run with that cat. I think Jordan Walker, how much I've loved him this season, I think in the Battle of the Biggs, I think James Wood clips him slightly. The strikeouts are scary, but also the walks are just amazing. And James Wood can actually run a little bit too. Him and Jordan Walker tied with steel,
01:19:30 so I shouldn't do that. I do think I would lean Wood over Walker. Moniac, your boy is a problem. He's a problem. He's a one-one guy. One-one, he's one dotting. He found his home and you were right with those stats. I do think he might slightly get clipped this month.
01:19:48 He's about five to seven games short of some of these guys, which I don't know if that was him platooning early on or what that was that, again, we're split in the atom. I guess I could kind of do that with Corbyn. I don't know. I just, I don't want us to go through this. with ignoring Corbyn because I feel like he ends up in the same spot every month. His weighted runs created plus might be the highest on this sheet for a guy that can run
01:20:16 better than anyone in baseball. I don't know. Send at the gym. I'm taking Moniac. And if you want to choose one of those other three guys that you mentioned, go for it. Why is Jordan Walker's B-Wore so high? What the hell is that? I will go Corbyn Carroll.
01:20:47 I think we're just, we're bored for it for no reason. He, he's awesome. He is awesome. That, okay, so Corbyn Carol, you voted for Moniac. I will text Big Dad, Big Papa Pump. Corbyn Carol versus Mickey. What an awesome text to receive by John. Okay.
01:21:19 The National League DH position, where we're also going to have a conversation with a pitcher in it. Shohei Otani, Ivan Herrera, Casey Schmidt, Kyle Schwaber, Moises by Astero's shoutout. I think the games might hurt him. We'll see. Trevor, Shohei's pitching does not count here, but it will count when we get to. the starting pitchers because he's a part of that. Designated hitter-wise, what do you see? I mean, look, what do you want your DH to do?
01:21:52 Bop. Drop nukes. Bob. Kyle Schwarber. Oh, okay. 11 homers. Next closest person, Shohei, was 6. He's got 21 runs. That's tied with
01:22:07 Shoah for the lead. He's got 20 runs driven in. That's the most of any guy on the sheet. 24 walks, which is right up there with Ivan Herrera and Shoha Otani for the lead here. I know he strikes out a bit. He hasn't even really gotten hot yet. That's the thing. Overall slash line 976 because of the walks and the slug.
01:22:28 He does what you want your DH to do. Drive and runs, hit homers, Kyle Schwerver. I think you're right. I want to double check the numbers a little bit. Shout out Ivan Herrera and Casey Schmich. who are, you know, kind of battling in a tough arena right now, but a great starts to this season. I think the counting stats end up winning,
01:22:57 because even if you were like, oh, Schwerber strikes out a lot, Show, hey, sneaky right behind them. Like, not, that wasn't a jarring number that I was wondering if that was going to be part of the conversation. And then, yeah, I think that essentially at the end of May, Schwerber having double the homers, That is the differentiator on the on the sheet. O'Shea has four stolen bases,
01:23:20 which obviously we know he has more than that in him and his threat compared to what Kyle Schwerber brings on the bases. But the slugging being 100 points off, the OPS being close to the same. D.H. legend, Kyle Schwerber, gets the vote. Yeah. Shout out Moises Ballesteros. Dude, that guy.
01:23:48 All Story Ellie team and dominating for the Cubs. I have the last outfield pick from Jimmy O'Brien. Okay. Corbin Carroll of the Arizona Diamondbacks. I tried, Mickey. I tried. I know you did. I might be able to get them in the fan vote.
01:24:07 What are we doing for fan vote? Because a second ago, we said all of the second baseman. Anyone we send to a vote has to be put in the fan vote, I think. Okay. So Moniac's in, and I won. want him in. And like two second basement, I would say. Moniac.
01:24:28 Liam Hicks, we discussed, Sal Stewart, Ellie de la Cruz. Oh, gosh, there are a lot, huh? Who did, we went to rang. I'll go. I'll tomorrow Vargas? Yeah, he has to be in the fan vote. He has to be in. Okay, so Vargas.
01:24:45 Moniac. Moniac. Mniac. Niko. I think I'm not picking a second basement. rather have Sal Stewart or Ellie in there? Oh, I think Nico needs to be in there. Put them in.
01:24:58 And then you pick between Sal Stewart or Ellie. Okay. Reds Nation. I'm feeling the pressure from you guys. Yeah, those are the only two offensive threats on the whole dang team. Although our early Settler, Nathaniel Lowe's had some big swing. Yeah, he's chipping in.
01:25:21 Give me Sal Stewart. I want the kid. I want the kid. He was carrying. Carrying. All right. Coach Trev, the fan votes ready.
01:25:39 The last thing we have to do, the National League starting pitcher. Elder, Glassnow, Clay Holmes, Nolan McLean, Shohei Otani, and Chris Sale. For me, Trev, I'll cut through it a little bit. I think it comes down to Bryce Elder and Shohei. Bryce Elder, your argument, would be the innings, 43 innings with that 188.
01:26:04 Shohei Otani does, through the end of April, was a 06 ERA in 30 innings. It's hard to, usually we do innings pitched or at bat. It's hard to fault Shohei. He's in a six man, and he is doing other things. I feel like he can't really fault him for that because five games started to Bryce Selders 7. Showe has five quality starts. Every single start, he's gone at least six innings, three or less runs, is that's what a quality start is. I'm leading to Shohei here.
01:26:43 All the stats that pitchers like, I always mention it, FIP, big one for them. Fielding independent pitching, 198 compared to 312 between those two guys we mentioned. he has not a lot of Homer yet, which I think is also a very big thing. I'm going Shohei here. I guess curious, like Shohei, let's say he wins starting pitcher of April and then goes and is the DH the rest of the year. Is that considered a Silver Daisy?
01:27:08 I don't think we've come up with that yet. Shohei's created a lot of rules in this game, Coach Treve, that we would have to figure that out. I think it would count knee-jerk reaction. And he is the pick. Like if you want to go counting sets, yes, Elders got innings, he's given up like almost double the hits. If you take away his two non-quality starts, then he's, show hay's has matched in race. Like if you took his two worst starts away, Shohay's still there.
01:27:39 So it's Shohay. Our national crisis is averted. I'm sorry, Atlanta. You got catcher in first base. Get off our ass. Yeah. Yeah. You know?
01:27:51 Okay. We did it? We landed on the moon. Tony Vitello, not in managerial discussion. Did not get it. Carlos Mendoza also not in. In the American League, Shea Langalears, Ben Rice, Cole Young,
01:28:08 and Kevin McGonagall up the middle. Oh, my. Jose Ramirez, in the outfield, we get to the Olds and the Legends, Trev. Buxton Trout Judge. Yes. Yordon Alvarez D.Hing. Jose Soriano on the bump.
01:28:24 The fan boat comes down to Murakami, Witt Jr. and Wheel Here. Yo. In the National League, Drake Baldwin, Matt Olson. Yes, Bryce Terang. C.J. Abrams, Max Muncie. Bryce might be spelled wrong there. Bobo, we might want to double check that. Max Muncie.
01:28:43 Michael Harris, too, and Andy Pahez in the outfield with Corbyn Carroll. Wow. Go and get it. Kyle Schwerber and Shohei Otani. and a fan vote for the ages. Mickey Moniac, Nico Horner, Sal Stewart,
01:28:58 and a name so small I can't see it on my screen? El-Demargo Fargus. El-Demargo Fargus. April's all-JM team. Please, if you've listened to this, go out and vote. There's a Google sheet,
01:29:15 as I knew, where your vote counts. So get out there and vote, you know? I love you, Thank you, boy. Happy Mama's day. Happy Cinco Day Mama. Trev, we do have to send the people out because it's a Wednesday episode with some fanatics markets. Go check out fanatics markets people.
01:29:39 Today, if you're there, a couple fanatics markets games we want to highlight. Guards Royals, Trev, you know we live in the Central. And a couple Southpaws on the bump. Joey Cantillo versus Cole Riggins Royals getting hot coach Royals getting hot
01:30:01 we're seeing a little jet kegley contributions driving in some runs we talked about Bobby Witt and what he brings and our guy Carter Jensen but here's the thing the guards are just kind of inevitable
01:30:15 Chris Rose won't say it Detroit with losing the school bowl that kind of opens up the AL Central. Joey Cantillo living in the zone this season. Coleriggins and that fastball looks to be back. So check that one out. And then if you're looking for a late night,
01:30:34 how about pirates, D-backs, Skeens versus Soroka? Yeah. Both pitchers coming off actually tough starts at the end of April. Skeens against the card, Soroka against the Brewers, and late night, I'll tomorrow fire me up. Yeah, Arizona hanging in there, 17 and 17 on the year. And then the Pirates, two games above that, or I guess one total, 19 and 17 for them.
01:31:03 And they look, the Pirates are starting to look like a complete team, which is a little scary for everybody right now. Connor Griffin getting it going, mentioned some of the other offensive output from them and B. Low and guys they brought in like in O'Hur. And so they're looking good, but I do like both of these teams. They're kind of both sneaky teams you don't want to play. Oh, I like that. Yeah. I like that for different reasons, too. It's been a lot more Connor Griffin in the box scores.
01:31:37 Yes, yes. Event 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 and fanatics markets of app. Customers are introduced to crypto.com by Paragon Global Markets, LL, DBA Fanatics Markets IB and introducing broker registered with CFTC and a member of the NFA. Thank you to Coach Trev.
01:31:59 Everyone in the comments, let us know why we should have picked your guy. We're sorry we didn't. But if they play well in May, we'll talk about them in a little bit. Thank you guys so much. We will be back Friday. Series recap app. Go baseball. Where's that?
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01:32:39 Are you going in the water Or is that it's not allowed I'm living in the water Okay you don't change your spatially either Take a run at me
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