Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - What Has CHANGED For Your Team? | 828

Episode Date: April 24, 2024

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Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. What's the difference on your team? Is it a player? Is it strategery? Something good, something bad. The whole band is here. Let's talk ball. Got to look at the batter.

Hello and welcome to talking baseball. Presenting you by Seekykeek code Talkum 10. Use that now through April. 10% off no matter what you've done. John Boy, Jimmy O'Brien, in the lab. Trevor Plouf out in Calanasty in BBD on the ones two. and threes. We are back and we're excited to talk to the people because that's all we are.

Men of the people. Excite to hear about what's going on with your teams. You guys, as always, know your team better than us. So I'm excited to see our people talking about position you. Our infield defense is better. Our bullpen's banging sliders this year. I don't know what the people have said. BPD lined it up for us.

James Vincent Michael O'Brien. How are you? I'm doing well. I'm doing well. You guys are all wearing blue. I have a blue hat on. So I am in the group. Yeah, I'm doing good.

Happy to be here. I think I'm, I can be, I'm going to be on all the midweeks next month. Because the schedule is good. It depends on the Yankee schedule. Yeah. Yeah.

Treve, how are you? I'm doing well. It's great to see you. James on the program. I have my show. Hey, Otani,

John Boy, immediate, uh, MLB players crossover shirt. because did you see the homer he hit last night? It was the hardest ball hit in the Bigleys this year, 118.3 miles an hour or something like that. So I'm doing pretty good.

Yeah, it was an absolute bomb. A lot of those last night. Jake, what kind of shirt you got on? I'm wearing my Yukon Natty Champs shirt. Yeah, you are. I made a decision back in 2011. College kid with no money, Yukon won at all. And I was like, do I have the $30 to buy?

the Yukon Nattie champ shirt. And I said, you know what? Yeah. And now, every time they win, the second after they win, you get that first commercial ad that pops up, Yukon has won the national title. I buy the dumb shirt.

I don't care. And then Shelfi, who's a new Johnboy media guy, he's a Yukon guy. He bought a shirt and wore it the other day. So I kind of couldn't let him take that from me. So I kind of had to establish my dominance in that lane. I just saw the pitch show he hit out and it was, it was,

can't be doing that. No, not the show. Come on, Barnes. Second hardest hit ball yesterday, Gary Sanchez. He looks, when Gary gets that leg kick up early, the pitcher's like,

he's on time. What is that little sinker he threw to him? That was a bomb. He looks very strange to me in a brewer's uniform. I will say that. Looks good, but strange. It's just the best, man.

they like him out there. I don't know what his numbers are on the year, but I could watch that slow leg kick and then bat to it so many times. And I will. That's twice right now. A lot of good juice going on in Milwaukee. Do we, Milwaukee, not on the, on the phone call list, right? And there were calls about them, but I'll be honest, they called about weird stuff. Okay. That's Milwaukee. The Brewers fans that called in didn't, didn't really understand the assignment. Well, they finally got, they finally got a manager there. Yeah. Finally. So, Yeah, now that they've moved on from council. When's it?

When's the first Cubs Brewer Series? They're on top of the Central right now. It's going to be heated. Do you think the Cubs is like, what are we paying council right now? What are we doing? How much is Pat Murphy making? No, Trev, because that's the difference. That's why Michael Bush is hitting.

Looks like Brewers Head to Milwaukee first weekend of May. Brewers Head to Chicago. Council returns to Milwaukee end of May. that there's a four-gamer the 27th through the 30th. It's going to be a big May in the NL Central. We're always saying that. Let's hear what you guys have to tell us about what's changed with your teams,

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Go check out the whole website, Shadirideyrase.com, code talking 50% off two or more pairs. I think the biggest difference about the Tigers this year is that they're actually competitive in April. this is something that goes back to 2021, really. I mean, in the beginning of AJ Hintz era, they've been atrocious in April and May all three years in the past. So for them to be over 500 at this point,

you know, they're actually able to hit the ball a little bit, which they haven't been able to do for the most part either. I think that's the biggest difference, and I think that's why they're looking quite a better, and we have a lot more hope this year. I love it. April doesn't suck. Trev, you just watched the twins play the Tigers a little bit.

I know you gave a couple tidbits there. I think it's funny that this person came out and said, hey, we're hitting a little bit this year. They are 24th and average, 26 and on base, 25th and OPS. I do think that's a tick up from where the Tigers have been the past couple years. 20th and runs, which that's my favorite offensive stats still. But I guess did you see anything different with the Tigers? They're 11 and 10 in April.

They did play a banger in March. They went 3 in 0 in March. So I think we're including that together. I'm taken back by this guy's call. I'm glad they're happy in Detroit. They've won two series. They've won three series, I think. I think they put themselves in big holes.

This is where I always get, I always get confused about other teams, how they judge what they're doing. They should be better than this. They're supposed to be. Everyone told me the tigers were for real. I think that each team does have, each fan base does have like a different set of, you know, just looks at it through a different lens, if you will.

The Tigers haven't exactly been super competitive as of late, James. So I think anything of a semblance of competitiveness really does a thing. I think all of the A.L. Central really does feel that way, to be honest with you. If you're over 500 in the ALE Century, you're feeling pretty good about yourself. When did he call in? They have won three of their last four. So maybe he's right and high. Well, and I think the other thing that he's doing is, and thank you for calling in,

he's comparing it to the previous April's. In 2021, they went 8 and 19 in April. Yeah, their season was over right away. Yes. Last year they went 7 in – or 22, they went 7 and 13 in April. And then last – or 2020, they started off 10 and 17. So I think just the fact that they haven't been submarined yet Has them feeling better

I mean they got a couple guys throwing the ball really well for them So I don't know if it's necessarily like the hitting aspect of it Now there's a couple guys doing some things Ryla Green had a big night last night against the race But it's really like scoble was like He's a freak I watched a few of his starts now And I'm like all on the bandwagon

because he is a horse, he's got some funk, he's got the stuff obviously, and he just, he elicits very, very poor swings against big league hitters. But I think the main thing and the reason that they're, you know, where they're at right now and maybe, you know, where we have some sort of confidence in this team going forward is that bullpen's been absolutely lights out.

So you get a lead. And you can go back very far with this, that they've, the tigers have had. had tough times finding ways to close games out. And now they don't have that problem. So you're getting these leads and you're holding them. And that's how you win baseball games. And it seems like an easy thing to think of.

But ask some other teams around the league that don't have a putaway bullpen. Ask the Astros how that feels right now. They're supposed to have this incredible bullpen and they've just been coughing up games. I think that's probably a big difference for the Tigers as well. I mean, you're looking at the back end of that bullpen, and you're looking at guys who are just, I mean, every single one of them is performing. That's got to be a big reason for it.

I'm excited for them. I haven't seen the Yankees haven't played the Tigers yet. I've seen just highlights. Like I haven't sat and watched a Tigers game yet. But I've been watching the MLB rundown recap they're doing this year on the MLB app. Those are pretty nice. It's like all the condensed games combined into a 30-minute video. Like that?

Yeah. It's been pleasant. There's a couple hitters. Go ahead. Avi Baez, last 10 games, 273, 314, 769 OPS. They've been praying for something like that. And I think with the lineup, it is kind of funny. The Tigers lineups have been so bad the past couple years that Riley Green, Mark Kana, and Carrie Carpenter going.

Like, that's more than they have had. I think Carrie Carpenter is for real. You love him. I am, at first it was kind of, kind of a joke because I love the whole Jesus comparison. And, you know, he was having a good year, but you got to prove it a little bit more. Like, he's, he's a solid big league hitter. He really is.

And he's got a little bit of swag with him. How about this, relief pitchers, first and ERA, third in whip, first and hits for nine. Like, you're not letting guys get on base. That's exactly what you want. Good formula. What do we get next? It's got to be the best numbers in the big leagues as far. bullpen.

SDRA. Hi, what's going on? My name is Daniel. I'm a fan from the Bay Area, and my team is the San Francisco Giants. And, you know, I think this is kind of crazy to say out loud, but actually having a consistent leadoff hitter is kind of cool. Like, don't get me wrong, you know, like last year we had Lamont Wade against the righties and Austin Slater against the lefties hitting leadoff and nothing against those

guys, especially Lamont, because he's been killing it, but he's much better at two-hitter. And so with the addition of Jung-Hul-Lee, man, like him hitting lead-off every day is just such a breath of fresh air. A guy who can go in, take pitches, and just get

on base is just such a welcome addition, and it's just amazing. So I think that's been the biggest change for the San Francisco Giants in 2024 as a consistent lead-off guy. Love it. Jim, you're our Bay Area guy.

Yeah. You ask the Yankees for a bunch of years to run out the same lineup. Yep. It's, he doesn't, he only leads off against righties, which makes sense. So they're still platooning a little bit, but you have the better half of it. Like Slater is getting, I think, all the starts against, um, lefties. Yeah. Yeah.

But yeah, I mean, that's nice. That is kind of like, and then Rosario's in the nine hole for them. And then they move it around a lot. It looks like Flores and Wade are roti's. rotating, platooning first base in the two hole. So they just have, what are their splits versus lefties and righties? Because they have a completely different one, two versus lefties compared to righties. Like a different.

Where do you find that stat? I got it. Hold on. Let's see. Usually. There are three and three versus left handed pitchers and nine and ten versus right. Well, okay. So there you go. same. I've watched quite a few

Junghuli at Bats this year. He does put up good at bats. The overall statistics, I mean, haven't been exactly, you know, off the charts. I think he slowed down a little bit, but there is something to be said about running the same lineup out there and feeling consistent. I think that, I think fans tend to like that as well. You kind of like know what you're going to get. The twins, I watched mostly, and they do not do that. They are not about running the same lineup out there at all. They tried Julian at the lead-off spot. That didn't really work out.

So now they have him hitting second. Alex Kierloff. They've just moved in to try to spark things around. Sometimes I think that is okay if you need to, you know, if it's not working, obviously you need to try to change some things around. But the Giants are playing pretty good baseball. I think that's kind of, I wonder if that's going to be his skill set in the big leagues, you know, going forward, Zhang Hui.

If he's going to be just a lead off. hitter or if he finds himself, you know, developing a little bit more power and ending, you know, back in the two hole, three hole, something like that. Because I think he's got that in him as well. I think you'd almost want to see him turn into a middle of the order bat. I started thinking that it's a little, like it's a big, big ask, you never seen any of these pitchers before to be the leadoff guy where you're like, you know, supposed to see pitches, take close calls, work counts, and you just never seen this stuff from any of these pitchers.

So that's a tough ask. And then I countered myself in my own head and said, well, you know, this is going to better suit him to get equipped to Major League Baseball faster. And his stats, while you said they're not like jumping off the page, they're not bad. They're above average. They're good. And you always got to wait until second time through the league, in my opinion. But, yeah, I kind of like just throwing them in the deep end being like, yo, go see a ton of pitches.

This is going to help you out. two best on base percentages on the Giants right now or Lamont Wade's crushing at 456 OBP and then you got Patrick Bailey Dare you put a leadoff hitter or a catcher as a leadoff hitter Has that ever been done? Like the history of baseball

I don't think you can do it. Well, Schwabber is bucking that trend I was not catching but our guy Jason Kendall is kind of one of the more things. Jason Kendall we got to go back a little bit for that. It's too early for John Jassel. I think Adley snuck a couple in when he was just getting on base for the birds.

He's definitely had a few days up there. It hasn't been like a, he's set up there. And Jim, you mentioned, you know, Junghuli's season stats aren't too impressive. He had kind of that second week of the season. He had a nice little funk. He hit his first home run, and we were all celebrating that little funk.

Last 13 games, 321, 379, 813 OPS. So that's, that's the, that's like that traditional lefty, sloppy leadoff hitter that, I don't know, that was like the baseball dream for 80 years, and then guys like Schwabor started popping up. Here's some fun stats about the Giants I just found. They're starting pitchers have the highest ground ball rate, second highest ground ball rate in Major League Baseball.

They have, they're the third best in walks, so they don't walk anyone, giant starting pitchers or pitchers in general. and they also don't strike anyone out. So they're just getting the ball in play to their defense, which is helping them probably I'd love to see like the innings by starters. It seems like that's a good recipe. I don't know that for sure.

And they have the third lowest strikeout rate, the third best walk rate of starting pitchers. And they're shifting the lowest amount in the league. So I wonder if they just... How are we measuring shift out? I think it's if like the middle infielder is really close to the bag that's shifting for a for a lefty the shortstop is still going right to the middle like right and like you up to that line so I guess they're not doing that they have the lowest so their ball and play team defensively

it seems from those numbers which Logan went eight innings last night I believe that leads to a watch that I would enjoy. Chapman, Nick Ahmed picking it at shortstop on the left side right now. That's fun. How's the Giants fans? How's Jung Guli look defensively? Let us know. I know that was an in-between area.

Or is one of those, like, he won gold gloves over there, but everyone was like, we don't know. Scouting report was weirdly negative on his defense, like won't stick in center. Yeah. I don't know what it's looked like. Giants were hype to put him in center. Okay. Go Giants go. 6-1-192 for John Huli.

He's going to put some pounds on. You know I love looking forward to later stage ball players putting some meat on, hitting some homers. I could see that happening. Defense defensive metrics on him. Out's above average, 65th percentile arm value, 74th percentile arm strength. So he's at least throwing the ball in a way that the metrics like.

Curious what Giants fans. have to say about it. Wow, Nick Ahmed and Tyro both outs above average really enjoying them. So up the middle, they're strong. And then you got Chapman, who right now is neutral outs above average, but Chapman's pretty good. So their defense is great. That's why they're not moving them around that much.

And sounds like the pitchers are being told, hey, man, just let them put it in play. Get ground balls. That's an awesome formula. Giants, are you enjoying watching that? You should win more games than to be more fun. Get to 500. Yeah. Big game tonight, Snell Mania.

Ooh. Snell you later. Harrison Monroe, I'm from Wichita, Kansas. I just wanted to talk about how the Kansas City Royals, anytime they're doing better, MLB just seems to thrive way more, okay? Yeah, hell yeah. On fire right now, and literally the starting pitching,

pitching in general, even the bullpen, everything is just 10 times better than last year, and look at the MLB season. It's 10 times better than last year. Let's go. Oh, thanks guys. Appreciate you. Love your guys' show. Bye. Love that. I'm so happy for that guy. So happy. Your viewing experience is top-notch this year. It's just got to, it's directly correlated. When the Royals are good, baseball's good.

Do you say anything about the team? I agree with that. When the Yankees are good, I enjoy baseball more. Big time. Yeah. Big time. I mean, they have some really fun. players to watch, especially offensively. The pitching has been great, and it's kind of a cast of type of guys like Brady Singer and Seth Lugo.

I've been doing their thing. Yeah, Cole Reagan's, who everyone was hot on, has had some rough starts. His numbers are the worst of the starting five. So that's, I think you've got to be a little cautious going forward. I don't want to reign on Royals parades. I know the twins haven't been great either, so, you know, join me in my misery, maybe coming up, but their offense is so fun to watch, man. Last night, Laddie made an air, gets Bobby Wood Jr. up and like you just, it's just,

you felt it. You felt like they were, he was going to come through and he did. Puts him my head with a double down the line and Sal is still going hot. M.J. Melendez looks really good. Vinny's got like a 15 game hitting streak or something like that. Like they are starting to have a core. And I don't know how much longer Sal is locked up for or much longer he can produce at this forever. I hope it's forever. I lean forever. But, I mean, they are a fun brand of baseball to watch.

They can play some defense too. They're just, yeah, they're exciting. Well, they're starting pitching is the story, like he said. They have the fourth best ERA in baseball right now. Last season, they had the fourth worst. starter ERA. Yep. Reagan's got Orioles on 420, it looks like,

but he had a 193 before that. Yeah, they teed off on them. Yeah, I don't know. I think rooting for the Royals should be a little bit of a baseball thing just because it feels like they're doing things the right way. Like Salvi Perez is kind of their legacy guy that they locked up who was probably going to get a statue outside.

Bobby Witt is the next guy who they locked up and MVP candidate and all that. And then this team actually, like, had an offseason where they signed starting pitching. They reworked their whole bullpen. Like, that's, they plug some holes on offense with veteran guys. And, you know, Renfro is there. Adam Frazier. I know neither of them are really going, but I don't know. That's supposed to be how off seasons are supposed to work.

Like, our team has holes. We filled them with guys. And now we've got a better product. Dude, think about the guys they brought in. Seth, Lugo, Brady, Singer, Michael Waka. Like, if your team did that in the off season, you'd be like, oh, come on, guys. Can we go get, like, a front-of-the-line star

instead of these three dudes? Singer's been there. But those three guys are at the top of that rotation, and it's, they're doing it. I'd like to know what the difference is. I mean, I guess Waka had a good year last year, too, didn't you, with the PODRES? Yeah, WACN, Lugo.

have been good. They're just... But Lugo's been like a swing man in and out of the rotation. We're seeing a lot of that around baseball this year. Yep. My dude, Ranger.

A lot of swingers. How long has Singer been there? Forever? Forever. Oh. Who am I thinking of a different person then? Yeah, Singer kind of... He broke out in 22

and then he full collapse last year and now he's back to being good. I'm a brain fart there. You're still really antsy looking, angsty looking on the mound? I always like that about him. He got a very nice smile on his baseball reference headshot. Okay, I like that.

Where's his hair at? Because his baseball reference pick is a little in between. He might be hat fishing people. Well. Do we agree with the sentiment that baseball's better when the royals are good? Um, no. For me, no correlation.

But for him, 100% of correlation. Yeah. For White Sox fans, probably opposite. Depends on the roster. White Sox fans are real right now. They're underground. They're bears in a cave, hibernation season. White Sox.

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Just bats. I need to go there. There's a link in the description for you. Teddy has been on me about a new bat. So here I go. This is Bryson from San Diego. My Padres seem to have that dog in them this year that they lacked last year. Last year if they got down in a hole, even if it was just the first inning, they just never seem to be able to get out of it.

In fact, I would often turn the TV off. And this year, whether it's three, four, even eight runs, they just seem to be in these fighting back and showing that they aren't giving up. So definitely winning games that they lost last year and giving us hope here in San Diego. Thanks guys. And J-XX.

Whoa. What was that at the end? I'm sorry about that. How about, yeah, they had the A-O comeback game against the Cubbies this year. I don't know. I've always been a fan of if you get one of those earlys, if you get one of those early.

If you get one of those early, just knowing you have that in the chamber is such a strong feeling as a baseball team. So if San Diego really has that, I don't know about the dog thing, even though that's what our Yankees are doing. But when you have an 8-0 comeback up your sleeve, the team feels it.

Yeah, I mean, that is, although the Guardians, I think, like the best comeback ever a couple years ago. I remember listening to the Rose rotation and Hedges were like, I'm going to rewatch that game the season ends. I was like, really? There's like the nailer one. We had two grand slams or something like that. Yeah, I remember that. But I do,

like, I think you need a couple, but you know, in 2009 when the Yankees walked off the twins like four games in a row, they talked about that later on. Like, we did that. We can do it again. It rung true. Damn. Twins worst starting pitcher ERA in baseball.

Nope, 28th worst. Trev they're coming thanks James for that here's about the Padres because that was what the question was about that's my bad that's my bad I think we are going to get to the twins eventually can't wait to talk about it because they're the hottest team in baseball two wins in a row thank you very much Alex Kiroloff I think the difference with the Padres is it's kind of like who's contributing early for them I think a lot of the times last year we would talk about how top heavy the lineup is and we talked about that you know going into the season in as well, okay, what are the debt pieces going to be?

Are they going to have a center field? All of a sudden, Jackson Merrill is coming. He's been really good. ProFar is also contributing in a huge way out there in the field. And, you know, mystery irrelevant, having some really big hits for him. Aggie Rosario, Manning third base when Machado hasn't been able to play the field yet. If you look right now, I mean, Bogart's and Machado are like, they're not having the best starts to the year.

And we're still getting victories because you have other guys throughout the lineup. producing. I think Tatis kind of getting back to Tatis levels is big for them as well. So it does feel like like a more complete roster this year than last year. And

I think when you have that and there's not just pressure on one portion of it or hey we can kind of pitch around this portion of your lineup and get free outs at the bottom, I think that's a big difference for a team. I think that's a big difference when you're game planning for a team. So I mean, the

Padres do feel like 100% they're going to be in contention for a playoff spot and they could be a scary team in the playoffs. Have you guys talked about Aggie a lot, Rosario? Aggie and Tyler Wade. I think he might have gotten a standout or an award or something like that. But not a lot, James. What he's doing is incredibly impressive and also bad for the future of his career as a baseball player because he might be the best pinch hitter alive right now.

And he wants to start. I know he's in the platoon. He's got a 9-74 OPS as a pinch hitter. He comes in like every game. And he just is doing a good job. Can I tell you some good news? Listed 5-7-150. Love that.

Agie. Yeah. What was that follow-up? Name is Aggie. Padres have like the best pinch-hitting stats. in baseball. And it's all, I was like who they have the most pinch hits. So they're using their bench a lot because they have the platoon there.

And yeah, he's, that's, I've never, that's a lot and to be doing really well at it. He's, his numbers are better as a pinch hitter than as a starter. He's got 20 games at third base, only six starts. Yeah. 7.06 slugging. I, I would be very curious to know his prep. He's probably on that machine you hate. Now, you can't use it during games.

It's illegal. That'll be a fun storyline. I've obviously fallen in love with Jackson Merrill. He's got that. He's really good, and he's kind of got some young and dumb to him that he's got belief in his team to come back in 8-0 wins. I'm interested to see where these other young guys land

for the rest of the season. Graham Pauley, who is the other young infielder who was going to get some run for them, like, Eggie, I don't know, he's 24. Is he going to, well, one of those guys, become a guy because that Padre's lineup looks so much deeper than last year with Camp Usano

being good and Merrill like they they kind of go seven deep right now. They look good. Go Ryan Cohen go. He's uh, you know, felt the love that we gave him on the last episode, Jake. Yeah. You know, it's a scary enthusiasm.

It's a happy guy. I guess that's California stuff. I still think he's got a little darkness in him. I think you're right. We'll find it. Padres are batting 271 against right-hand pitchers and just 200 against left-hand pitchers. That's the third best against right-handed pitchers and the fifth worst against left-hand pitchers. But that is not coming up in their stats because they're four-and-one against lefties and nine-and-12 against righties. Okay. Just batting average.

So maybe more pop less average. Making those left-te's count. Yeah. Okay. Thanks, Slame. The biggest change for my personal favorite team, the Baltimore Orioles, and one of the biggest changes in baseball right now is the emergence of the Orioles as a power hitting team. We finished 17th overall, I believe, in home runs last year, currently home run leaders for the entirety of the MLB on the back, mostly of the scariest seventh and eighth slot hitting in baseball right now, Jordan Westberg, and Colton. Hauser, let's go. O's.

Treb, these guys were your award the other day. Yeah, we've been talking about them quite a bit. This whole lineup right now, and I pose this question, or Chris Rose posed this question, like, is this the deepest one through nine lineup in the AL? I think it probably is. And all of baseball, like, you might go Braves there, but they're not too far behind. And yes, I mean, the reason the power is up, have you seen the swings these guys are taking? Like, they're not getting cheated at all.

Gunner Henderson hit one last night against the Angels. Lefty, lefty, Matt Moore. I think of all these guys, and that you can go up and down the lineup with the Orioles and talk about each guy and how good they've freaking been. Gunner Henderson, and I know he won National League Rookie of the Year, unanimously or American League of Union unanimously last year, I think he's

like he's an absolute star like legitimate is going to be like possibly on a Hall of Fame trajectory like I'm putting a lot of chips into Gunner Henderson and maybe I'm late to the bandwagon but he when I watch him on that team he's the one I'm most impressed with consistently like he is something else

but yeah it doesn't hurt when like he said you're seven and eight hitters are just teeing off on balls, and it feels like they're... I've heard them, you know, being referenced by Orioles fans as like, you know, the Bash Brothers. Like, these guys just, when one hits one,

another, the other one hits one. When one gets a big hit, the other one gets a big hit, when you have that at the bottom of your lineup. It's awesome. And they have, and Jackson Haldet hasn't even gotten going. He will eventually. He's too good to perform like he's been performing.

And then Kirstad came up last night. I don't believe he got any hits last night in his debut. But, dude, they're... I think I'm the latest person on the Orioles bandwagon. They're so fucking fun to watch. I mean, they're incredible. Their slugging splits are any way you dice it up. They're the best slugging team in baseball so far.

They're slugging 460 this season, which is the best in the American League. They're slugging 465 against right-handed pitchers, best in the American League. They're slugging 357 with two strikes, best in Major League Baseball, slugging 514 over the last 14 days slugging 478 at home just any way you punch up the slugging split the Orioles are there but they're last in the AL East

and starting pitcher ERA so in your faces Ooh well I think Grayson got hit around a little bit last night too I'm just joking the Orioles are good by damn angels they're too good for me to troll right now

what's what's scary for me A, to picture like five guys in that lineup at the same time slumping is hard, hard to picture. Like it will happen at some point, but that still means there's four other guys producing. And I don't know. I know Jim just mentioned the pitch, and Burns is starting to find it. Good teams have a way of finding shit. They just called up Albert Suarez, who hasn't pitched in the show since 20.

It's a two really nice starts. Two starts clean. And to correct, their pitching isn't been bad. They're above average. The AL East has four of the top six starting rotations right now, which won't last, but it is funny to look at. Boston won, Yankees three, Toronto, five, Tampa Bay, six starting pitcher ERA. So come at us.

ALE East, known for pitching. Always has been. So you guys are ridiculous. Cole's not even throwing. He throwing. To reiterate, if people, I get asked this question a lot. I'm sure you guys do too, by casuals, if you will, of the fans of the sport. I don't think you have to say casual fans.

You say casuals. Yeah. Like, give me a player that, you know, I should know about. Gunner Henderson is my answer right now. Like, he is, for the foreseeable future, like, he's going to be in the MVP top five conversation, which is. He's 23 years old people. That's a bold statement to make, but it feels like a safe statement to make.

Mine's Shoah. Oh, that's if I'm talking to, like, you know, casual fan, like my uncle, George. Like, you should probably watch show up a shirt, by the way. Pay attention to him. He'll buy this shirt. Barnes threw him a 86 mile per hour two seamer top of the zone last night.

Hammered it. 7,000 feet. And he's using American wood, people. Thought he might be using that SSK wood from Japan. It's different. Epe stole those. You can't get your hands on that if you're American. A little mad about that.

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All right, boys. Well, here's the deal. Look, I'm a race fan. I rep the 813 till I die, until I bleed, basically. What's changed about my team from last year to this year? I don't know.

Did they all forget how to swing a goddamn bat? Maybe that? Maybe Yandi Diaz hit in sub 200? What the hell's that all about? Maybe Randy Orozarena hasn't hit a homer in like, what, I don't know, two months? Oh, boy, what a season we're having. Thank God for our two acquisitions, Jose Caballero and Ahmed Rosario, carrying the offensive load. Look at the numbers. Look at the Ops of everyone. It's pitiful. Austin Shenton, love the guy. Great story. Absolute guy. But he sucks. I'm sorry. He sucks right now. And the bullpins,

Mad. All right, that's it. It's under one minute, I think, now. So that's it. Love you guys. Jake sucks. Yeah. I mean, the clouds are gathering. I tried to tell everyone. No one cares about the raise anymore. They were the epitome of like, let's just throw the ball hard, hit the ball hard. Let's not work on defense. Let's not work on base running. Watching a race game right now. I don't know if you've seen it, Trev. All of baseball is sloppy, in my opinion. Rays are incredibly sloppy. They're wild team. They look like a bunch people that don't know each other and haven't been coached and are just hanging out of the sandlot

and then like one guy runs the extra base and the other doesn't. Or like they turned out of it. It's not paying attention. It was a weird series when they played the Yankees. The Yankees also suffer from this a ton because they tried to be the race for three years and copy them and stop teaching fundamentals.

So it's tough for the raise, but you're in last place and I hope you stay there forever. Aren't there 12 and 13 right now? I don't think the sky's, falling just yet. Yeah, they're going to be really good. They're going to be in contention and they very well could beat the Yankees

by the end of the season. I think I put an odd amount of money on Ray's over 84 and a half. Same. Yeah. Maybe go back and do it again right now. Yeah, see what the line is. Matt have moved in your favor.

I'd like for them to be God awful. If I had one team to choose. That's interesting. It's them. Well, I think they ruined baseball and they don't pay their players, Trev. They're bragging about it every fucking thing. You hate players.

You hate players? I thought you're on the player side. They put the graphic up. They're like Yankees versus Ray's last four years. The rays have out. They've won more games, but they've spent a tenth of the money. Okay. Congrats up being cheap.

Well, I'll say this. They did spend money on one guy that did not exactly. How about checking in the moral class? Holy crap. Who is the other guy? No, they should spend money on two guys. Oh, yeah, maybe, yeah, maybe two guys. Yeah, I mean, look, the bullpillar.

pen's been bad. We've got some amazing Pete Fairbanks quotes after games, but right now they're 28th in ERA, 25th and Webb. This is shocking to me. The 30th in walks per nine is not. The 24th in K's per nine is. They're also giving up homers at an elite clip, 29th in baseball and homers per nine. So just like we talked about the Tigers and that bullpen saving you wins, if you get right now with the raise, that bullpen is not being able to do what they need to do. Their starters are still doing well. Offense for me with the raids has always been

a conundrum. I couldn't understand last year how well they were performing offensively. I just didn't get it. They were all going at the same time. Right now it's not that way, but I do expect them to pick it up a little bit. Don't forget about our boy, Richie Palacios.

He's actually been playing well. Yes. I want to look at the batting order for the raise this time around because they are getting absolutely diced up by relief pitchers. And, you know, they always had the platoons and the balance. But, oh, my goodness, they have no balance. Okay, I get it.

Yeah, two sneaky big injuries. They forgot about what they do. Brandon Lowe went down with an oblique. And Josh Lowe. So Lowe and Lowe went down. Those are their two, like, lefty, homer threat every at bat. Those guys both have obliques going on. Yeah, they need them back, man.

Because I know Rosario and Palacios have been great. But right now, those guys are slotting in, like, top of the lineup. And Randy, we heard it on the broadcast. He's officially on might have got too meaty this offseason truck. Randy got too big, huh? His bat speed is slowing down, has slowed down a lot. And his numbers versus fastballs are bad, which is what he feasted on.

And yeah, I mean, you see this happen a lot. I think the other examples were Benintendi. He showed up to the Red Sox camp like bulky. Benny Bissex. And Cora told him like, what the fuck are you doing? Like you're a fast outfielder with like quick twitch and his numbers dropped. Pena showed up for his sophomore season looking like a jacked kangaroo in Houston in his second year. So, yeah, there is a push come to shove

where I'm not on the full, like, David Wells, or not David Wells, who said it? Like, you can't pull fat mindset. A lot of old baseball players. But there is something to you don't want to be ripped. Ripped if you're playing middle infield and, like, bat speed is your thing. It can slow you down.

Like, I think hockey players don't really bench. They keep their arms pretty. God damn it. Could have been my. Miles worse. Yeah, I just spiked my coffee onto my laptop. My God. I think the whole, like, fitness thing is a case-by-case scenario.

Sure. Like, you don't, if things are working out for you and maybe you're not so ripped, like, I don't think you need to go ahead and try to get all yoked up and tighten those muscles more. Like, it's what works for you? Can I give you some numbers on Randy? Because they are interesting. Please. It's bad.

In 2022, he had a 311 batting average. and a 570 slugging versus four seam fastballs. So a 311 batting average 570 slug that's elite. It's really good. Last year, the slugging stayed there, 541 slugging against four seam fastballs. The batting average dipped to 248, still not awful. So far this year, 087 batting average versus four seam fastballs and a 348 slugging. So until that gets solved.

you're very easy to pitch to. Had a couple Yankees on the team that if you can't hit fastball, you're very easy to pitch to. Everyone's got that pitch. Hey, the raise had their undefeated April last year and everyone was hitting and the stats were kind of blown our mind. Randy from June on last year was 23, 340, 716 OPS. So now, I don't know.

That's almost 100 games last year And if you add it to this game He hasn't been the best to ever do it in a minute So I don't know We're we're checking in on the race We'll see They'll be there They played a pretty tough schedule though

I'm looking at it right now Get the low Lows back And their bullpen's been getting rocked Which is anti-rays They played a tough schedule I mean a decent They played Toronto Texas Giants Yankees

Tigers I would say those are all above average teams. Yeah, no, I think that is. And then the Angels, they played seven games. They've been four and three against them. The Angels have kind of been wishy-washy, Colorado for three. It's a decent schedule. I'm not, I mean, you...

Throwing the race away. If that's your schedule, you're raised fan. I mean, when you see, when the Marlins come to town, or the White Sox this weekend. They're coming to town this weekend. Or the Rockies or those twins. I mean, I'm just joking. That's okay.

Twins are not playing well right now. It's okay. I don't know when their calls coming to, but they're so bad. Called in. Who's that? I'm being earnest with you. I was going over like their stats,

and I was shocked that on both sides of the ball. They're just like, yeah, the lowest. What's up, guys? Ketter here, huge twins fans. What's up, Trev? We missed the Bulldog. We miss Sunny Gray.

We miss everything about them. This president's on the mound. is working with the younger guys in the rotation, his baseball IQ. Having him and Pablo go one, two, was huge for twins. But we missed that right now. But Bailey Ober, the nightmare, and sexy Joe Ryan, starting to look pretty good. So we'll be all right.

Go twins. Thanks, guys. Is that the most Minnesota call you've ever seen? He wanted to blow them up. He wanted to say something mean, but he just couldn't do it. He didn't have it. He had to end with it. He had to end with a compliment.

Holy. No, it's been the freaking offense. It's, you know, as much as you want to, you know, point to Sunny Gray being gone or whatever, a blow-up start here and there by a paddock or an, oh, I don't know, it's been the offense. It's been the inability to hit with runners and scoring position. It's been, you know, guys just simply not producing.

It's been Royce Lewis and Carlos Correa and for most of the year, Max Kepler being out. Now, since Max Kepler's been back, they won two games. And he's been a spark in the offense. He's given them the lead in both of the games he's played in. So to me, that's been the biggest thing. I mean, they have to get those guys back. No team can really survive if, you know, three of your best hitters are out of the lineup.

Maybe these, you know, the Braves and the Orioles, but most teams can't do that. I think that's been 100% the biggest thing. So, yeah, I mean, I miss Sunny Gray too. I think he was great for everyone. But if you listen to Chris Paddock talk yesterday, he was talking during the game, he's talking about how great Pablo is in that leader role. So I think they still have the leader as far as the rotation goes.

And I still like their pitching staff. The depth is being tested for sure. I wish they would went out and got cease. But really, to me, it's just been the offense. And hopefully that starts clicking soon. The offense is, yeah, you got some injuries so you don't have full strength. But there's some numbers that, like, are super scary. Like you go, like with the Yankees last year, I went and look for stats that every team should be good at, you know,

when hitters are in a good spot. And the twins just aren't there. So when facing a pitcher for the third time in a game, they're the word. in MLB on base percentage against the third time batting average and then Ritees. So you face a lot of Ritees. And if you let Ritees go three times and they get you the third time, like there's just a lack of adjustment there. It feels like what the Yankees went through last year,

which I was banging my head. Like how could we not be changing approach? How do you let starters do this to you and the rest of the league struggles? So hopefully that doesn't continue. We talked about this a little bit before the show. I think there has been a little bit like a game planning issue going on. All these things can figure themselves out. I still do believe in the twins.

They have to be healthy. Like Royce Lewis has to come back. I guess he's trending in the right direction. But he's not going to be back until June, I would assume. Massive quad pool. And then Correa, you know, I think he's, I think it's more, Sunday Gray was great. And the Bulldog and, you know, getting all these guys.

guys fired up. I think Correa is even more so that in that clubhouse. Like when he is on the field, even last year when he wasn't performing his best offensively, like he was still such a huge presence in the clubhouse. I think they missed that a little bit right now. They've gotten the White Sox medicine at the right time that they need to take advantage of these games. And then Trevor, it's like it's all on the table start of May. They are going Red Sox, Mariners, Toronto, Yankees, Cleveland.

So for 17 games, they're getting some good AL teams that you either figure it out then if they have another bad stretch. Like it's like over. Trevor, they just taking giant hacks every pitch. The other category here that they're like the lowest in is two strikes. lowest batting average with two strikes lowest on base percentage with two strikes and lowest percentage

of putting the ball in play when they do swing at it with two strikes. So is it just get that a swing off at all times? There's a little bit of that a little bit of that, a little bit of passiveness as well. Eddie Julian was pretty passive in the early going on where he was actually striking out

looking quite a bit. He knows a strike zone so well that I think sometimes it kind of works against him, especially if you get an umpire that's going to give you a little bit more around the plate. He still sticks to, well, I know the strike zone. Well, sometimes if you know the umpire stinks and is giving them something, you've got to make an adjustment a little bit. I don't know, man.

I don't want to go too deep into it. They need to make some adjustments there. I do things a little bit differently if I was getting the boys fired up. Do we have a Mariners call? No Mariners. They have the second highest strikeout percentage in Major League Baseball right now. Yeah, we've been talking about them. Yeah, well, no, they got rid of all those guys, didn't they?

They lead. So I had that last one wrong. The Twins are the second worst team at putting the ball in play when they swing at it with two strikes. The Mariners are the worst. So they're just, did they not let the batters know? We're trying not to strike out, try to swing for contact with two strikes. because it doesn't seem to be happening.

How many more we got, Bebs? This is the last one. With my team, the Cardinals, is that our rotation has gotten a lot more senior. However, when you're going into the season, you thought that was a bad thing. Many people, you know, called down on our rotation.

However, it seems as if Moseilic strategy of having any leaders is actually paying off thus far, even though it's not long into the season. But I personally as a fan feel like our rotation has improved quite a bit over the last season. So I think that's the biggest thing with the cards. Sunny Gray, there you are. Happy? He's had three starts, 17 and a third innings pitch, only giving up two runs in that time.

He's got an ERA plus of 403. I think that's good. I think that's what you want there. Has it mostly just been sunny, though? Lance Lynn's had good starts as well He's had five of them 281 ERA WIP is a little high there

Lance go I mean I don't know I mean Look at the statistics I guess you wouldn't say that But there could be some blowup starts in there as well I know Gibby's had a few good starts You know a few poor starts

Right now if you're just straight up looking at whip and ERA can get really misconstrued because it's more of a small sample size so the swings are bigger. So I mean, the pitching's helping them out. The offense really hasn't come around for them either. I mean, Gibby has three starts that you'll take

and one terrible one that blows up as ERA. That's what I'm saying. And then, Lan, I think you take a lot of his starts. Early on, he had to build up to get there. So I don't know, it is a mixture. Like, they are giving you innings, which does help.

that should help you in a long run. I know what's interesting to me. It looks like they have their pitching formula. Like obviously they have their rotation right now. It's kind of the five guys you thought it would be. So that's the start. And then the back end of their bullpen, Helsley, Romero, Kittred, Gai.

Like they have a formula there. They just got to start winning games. I mean, the NL Central looks strong this year. that I don't know You're 10 and 14 Don't get droopy on us Finish April strong So it's not

Like a bad month You had this guy Back in the day named Jordan Hicks In your bullpen Now he's like the best starter In the big leagues I know they tried that out actually

So you have to give them Some sort of credit But it just didn't work out What's the difference Like why is he so good at in San Francisco And then he wasn't When they tried it in St. Louis That'd be nice

to have in your back pocket, right? As a starter, is he throwing, is he throwing like a sinker more with that defense? No, he's throwing his sinker less this year and he upped his split finger. Ah, the split, the split, the split. Good job, Hicks.

I mean, his numbers on his split figure are kind of nasty. 0.63 slugging on it, 0.63 batting average. How about this? For what he's done this year, I know we're not even talking about the Cardinals, now, but 28 innings pitched.

18 strikeouts. No need. No need. Was he ever a high striker guy? Yes, he was. I mean, he got up to 12-7 out of the bullpen in 2023 per 9. Right now he's sitting at 5.8. And obviously, it's different when you're a lever, into a starter, things you're going to approach

pitching differently. But that shocked me when I just saw that number right there, 18 strikeouts and 28 innings. So the, the Velo's come down as a starter, which is good that he's able to do that. He averaged 100 miles per hour on the sinker last year. He's averaging 95.8. That's a significant drop. And I'm going to toggle this to see the movement because now I'm wondering if with a little less Velo, the sinker is moving more. No, one more inch of break.

Maybe that helps. That splitter must really work off of it nicely. I still believe in the Cardinals, but they are like the old dogs in the NL Central. We've got a bunch of kind of teams that are really relying on their youth there. You know, the Reds are youthful. The pirates are youthful. Cubs are kind of middle ground, but they've, you know, they've been impactful in free agent signings as of late. The Brewers are youthful.

Can the old guys keep up? I mean, right now the old guys aren't getting it done offensively for them. you know, Goldie had that the opposite field homer. We thought maybe the Nolan Gorman walkoff was going to get that offense going. And then last night they lost 14 to 1 against the debacks.

So the starting pitching really not great last night. But I think it's, it's nice that Mason Wynn is going. I don't think that, was he like a big bat in the minor leagues? I guess I'm going to go look that up right now. And he's got an 800 OPS through 76 plate appearances. I bet that's a welcome.

you know, a welcome site for Cardinals fans. I'm going down to the minor league stats right now. 78 OPS to the minors in three seasons. It's not banger, but for a short stuff, that's pretty good. Someone in that lineup's got to, like, go nuts for a week or two. You know, Paul. Wilson's been doing it. Paul, Nolan, Donovan.

Yeah, you're right, but, yeah, they need, their offensive numbers are rough. Yeah, they're tough. The biggest jump in Hicks, this is fascinating. I love this kind of stuff. Sorry, so I'm lost in it. His first pitch strike. So the Giants are definitely, like I said earlier, just saying, hey, dude, throw strikes.

He jumped up to a 66% of the time he's throwing a first pitch strike. He was, his average was 58, the two years before that, down to 43 before that. So looking to get the swing and miss early or whatever, just like hit. the perfect spot. Now he's 6.7% above league average. And that's allowing him to probably get chases because his chase percent is good as well.

Or his chase contact. So when he gets people to chase now, they're putting in play weekly. So the Giants are just having all their pitchers with our strikes because we've got good defense. Maybe I'll tune into some games. It's nice if you just have one of those good fines of the off season.

Like Jordan Hicks clearly a good find. Shoda Imanaga, clearly a good find. Like if your team has some of those, how good does that feel? Twinsigo. Seth Lugo. Brady Singer has never been with the Royals. What an idiot.

I think I was thinking of Soroka. I don't know. I'm sorry. They look similar. Just like if you just picture a blurry version of them right now. White guys. My bad.

I'm even wearing Royal Blue right now. That's a dolly. It's a Dodger shirt, but it's in Royals blue kind of. Baseball's better. Royals have royal blue. Is that their color? I think like the color that is their colors. It's kind of nice.

I don't know. Okay. Well, thank you guys for letting us know what's going on with your teams. We will see you back here Friday. Let us know other teams that we missed. You know, we got some. Jordan Hicks, we got some Mariners. Singer and Soroka, they don't look alike.

They're just both white. Yeah, all white people would be said. Average white riding, except there's not. What team didn't we talk about that they're going to be mad? Oh, the reds. You didn't talk about the reds at all. Sound off. DM Trev.

We didn't talk about the Blue Jays. Not a manor. Gossman, get it going.