Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Who's Shining In Baseball?

Episode Date: April 18, 2025

Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use promo code JMBASEBALLVisit https://www.directv.com/jomboy to learn more!Book your next trip at https://www.bestwestern.comUse code TALKIN2025 for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKIN2025. Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discountCoach Trev and Talkin’ Jake recap this week in baseball, highlighted by the Giants’ great East Coast Trip, Tatis being Tatis, Juan Soto (and others) being “cold” and more!0:00 Intro3:58 NL Burn8:10 NL Standings9:25 Rockies hiring Clint Hurdle as hitting coach10:30 Giants / Phillies12:23 Nationals / Pirates15:38 Tigers / Brewers17:10 Astros / Cardinals19:30 Padres / Cubs22:13 Dodgers / Rockies & Diamondbacks / Marlins23:51 Mariners / Reds27:20 AL Burn31:15 AL Standings32:10 Red Sox / Rays34:33 Royals / Yankees36:23 Braves / Blue Jays38:15 Mets / Twins41:00 Guardians / Orioles42:30 A’s / White Sox44:00 Angels / Rangers46:20 Standout Performance50:00 En Fuego53:45 Pitchers who shoved56:50 Batters who are Struggling59:36 Injured List1:01:11 Awards Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to talking baseball. Big week of ball. The powers in the east, the powers in the west. Good time to be a bird. Blue Jays, Orioles, Cardinals win some series. Let's talk ball. So H. I don't know what I want to do today.

Knuckleball. Oh, Luis Matos, wide stance. Okay. Nobody cares. How about Spencer Strider's awkward body back on a mound? Hello and welcome to talking. I am Jake Storrelli. That is Trevor Ploof. We're coming from you. We're all over the all over this great nation right now. We got Bobby Seraco here. We got a big week of baseball to cover. Man, a lot of the big boys kept it going this week, Trev. I actually felt better about our power rankings. A couple of the teams that people were like, oh, how could you have? Wait, Yankees and Rangers? What's your fascination with them? Well, they did their thing. Um, okay. So let's yell at the, let's yell at the people, Trev. How are you?

Whenever we put a graphic out like that, whether it's power rankings, whether it's our Cy Young draft. It's we know we're going to get just torn to pieces, but, um, I think we did a good job. The Cardinals fans weren't happy. We had to rank very low. But then what, what did we do? We, we put out a social clip about us talking like we probably ranked them wrong. You can't win. Sometimes, Jakey boy, but I am excited to talk some ball with you today. Um, Spencer rider. I don't know if we're going to get into like what he looks like, but you're totally right. Those boats or the skis, excuse me. I call them boats, the skis he has on the bottom of his freaking legs. They're incredible. Trev, it's nuts. I, I forgot. And hey, Braves fans, you're not

getting love this episode and you know that. Like the, the Blue Jays took you down. Things are still bad in Atlanta. And like, ALEs, the rest of you should be rejoicing except the Mets this episode. twins get a series dub let's go baby um but yet seeing strider on the mound a it was like it was a good reminder of seeing seeing seeing a dude on the field and then the everything feels like a funny mirror like the the way his thighs and quads pop out along with his feet it's he's got the boat out feet on the mound too like high tops with the tight like tight like tight like a tight pants that, you know, are only coming down, like, to his ankle. It's, it's a strange look, but it works. It works for him. Speaking of strange looks, uh, that's what we have here

at talking baseball. We're going to get into the series. We're going to hit you with our standout performances and Fuego awards, all of the good stuff today. And it's all brought to us by direct TV. Today's episode is sponsored by direct TV. Are you ready to experience baseball like never before. Direct TV is the ultimate destination for baseball. Bringing you right into the heart of America's pastime, bottom of the night. Base is loaded. Maybe big dumpers up. And if he is, he's going to homer. My God. With DirecTV's MLB coverage, you can catch those thrilling moments. What makes Direc TV even better? You can watch your MLB games completely satellite free. Yep, you heard that right. No satellite with Direc TV. Baseball isn't a sport. It's a passion. If you're ready to try, you're ready to try. You can't.

transform your baseball watching experience. Head to direct TV.com slash john boy or scan the QR code on the screen to learn more. Trev, I mean, this used to be a talking baseball tradition. I think we're going to try to bring it back. I think Fridays are for the National League. Oh, yeah. Come on, baby. They have to be.

They have to be. It just feels right. It just feels right. And we're starting with the big one. Not sure why Dalt led the sheet with this, but the Pittsburgh Pirates take three out of four from the Nationals. Hey, go, Pirates, go. Let's start winning ball games.

Let's stop dunking on you. They take three or four. The first time we've had a one-one and a one-one pitch and catch together. Although me and Treb did something one night in Jersey City. Skeens to Hank Davis. Pirates get a nice three-game series win, or three out of four. Andrew Hingdog closing it out for them.

Really nice start by him against the nation's capitals baseball team. San Francisco Giants in the Phillies. Hello. Two NL Powers teamed up and they end up splitting a four-gamer. Man, fun. Our guy, Tyler Fitzgerald balled out throughout this series. Bryce Harper, you might be familiar with him. And Christopher Sanchez continues to grow, continues to give amazing pitch.

performance as he grinding through this one. J.T. Realmudo got a little hot in this series. Tough strike three call. Circle back on that in a minute. The Brewers. Brewers deserve some love this episode. They take two out of three. Since their opening weekend, I think they've won four out of five series.

Obviously, Jose Cantana's pitching well for them. Obviously, Quinn Priester is pitching well for them because that's what they do. And our guy, research rep, he got back in it with a big game or two. Brew crew are back doing Brewers. that is of note. And so is the St. Louis Cardinals. We've been telling you, we've been telling ourselves, they take two out of three from the Houston Astros. The only game they couldn't win, well, that was because Hunter Brown was on the bomb. And nobody is currently getting to that cat. Yo, these Cardinals hit a lot, and you're going to hear about it. Brendan Donovan,

Aeronado. The birds can bob, baby. Three-run homers. Pocket that for now. Cubs and Padres. Speaking of your NL powers, these are two teams we've been about. The Padres take two out of three at home, and that's obvious. They're 11 and O at home to start the season. Matched the 2023 undefeated raise at home as the longest home win streak to start a season. Hey, the Cubbies break it up in that second game. But man, Fernando and the boys get it done in game three to take the series. And they are doing some dominant, dominant things.

Our last NL series for now, the Seattle Mariners and the Reds. This is my, this is my crush I want to shake versus the girl next door I should like. And the girl next door won, the Mariners. One of the best games you'll see this season on the final day, back and forth. Austin Hayes is back for the Reds and balling out. But don't tell that to Big Dumpur and the best to ever do it, Randy or Rosarena, get it done in the ninth, and then they roll them in extras. That is what happened in the National League.

Oh, I skipped two series. Diamondbacks swept the Marlins. Dodgers swept the Rockies. I'm sorry. Those are unfortunately too obvious right now, and you're going to hear about Josh Naylor homering in every game. You're going to hear about what Pavin Smith is doing. Rockies, it's getting late early.

It's getting later. Dodgers called up their AAA to pitch against these guys. It doesn't matter. That is what happened in the National League. What were you talking about the girl next door And the girl that you actually like But you should like the girl next door? What was that?

So the Cincinnati Reds are the girl I have a crush on That I probably shouldn't Oh, they're the spicy girl. Yeah, yeah. She doesn't even like you. She's smoking darts after school. And like, come on. Can't be having that.

The Mariners is the girl next door That your family's like, hey, like this is a nice thing. She's great girl. She's going to, you should like her. And it's like, I want to. I really want to. You still lost. But her only hobby is World of Warcraft.

Trev, do you have the standings? You got, you made it worse with that explanation. I do have the stings. I can't wait to give them to you. We're going to start out east. The New York Mets. 12 and 7, they got handed. A series lost by my twins, but 12 and 7.

The Philadelphia Phillies right behind them at 11 and 8. And then it's kind of like, oh my goodness. So what is you doing, baby, for the Braves? at 5 and 13 Miami 8 and 10 Washington at 7 and 12 in the central the Chicago Cubs 12 and 9 Milwaukee Brewers 10 and 9 and then 9 and 10 for the reds 9 and 10 for the St. Louis Cardinals and 8 and 12 with the Pittsburgh Pirates that division is always just like that everyone right around 500 and then out west this my goodness the Padres sitting at top 15 and 4 the Dodgers 14 and 6 the Giants 13 and 6 the Arizona

Dianebecks 12 and 7. And then, yes, as you mentioned, the Rockies at 3 and 15. They did, Jake, just fired their hitting coach. And I believe hired Clint Hurdle to take over. So things might be a changing out there in Denver. And those are the standings in the National League. Hey, we shouldn't be leading with this. But hiring Clint Hurdle to be the hitting coach, I don't know, man.

Every hitting coach or hitting analyst this day seems to be a. scientific hitter. No, I love it. This is going the opposite way. Just baseball. It's working for him. I had, when's the manager became a hitting coach?

Rob, I don't know if that's something, AI or something can find out. I think he's been a couple different times already. I mean, that's used to be how it worked, right? Like,

if you were a good pitching coach, you got a manager's look, if you were good. Now it's just completely different. And I don't know. I think it's going to save the rock season. It might. Speaking of,

Tribe, we can come back to Nats Pirates. Giants Phillies, and these are two teams that were bumper to bumper in our power rankings. The Giants have obviously exceeded expectations this year. It's also all been on the road. So Giants fans, if you want to be a little hot to trot, you can be.

These Phillies are still the Phillies, and this was some high-level baseball played with, dude, high-level talent all over the field. It really was. I'm happy to see the Giants go into a place like Philadelphia. I believe the Phillies haven't lost a series at home since July of last year. They end up splitting this one so they keep that intact. But, you know, game one, San Francisco shows like they have that offense that could put

up runs and spurts, big five run inning off Taiwan Walker. And look at this. Got my coffee delivered to me. This is just beautiful. Whoa. Yeah. Good to be the king, man. Yeah.

And again, in game one, they end up running away with the 10-4. And then, yeah, it's just back and forth baseball all the way through. You know, Bryce puts them up 6-3 in the 7th of game 2 with the 2-run Homer and just it went like that throughout the series. My biggest takeaway, Christopher Sanchez, the change-up, absolutely filthy. I believe it was 11Ks on the change-up. And it's one of the most nasty pitches in baseball. He is not growing, as you like to say, every time. He stopped growing.

He's 6-11. It's done. He's finished there. The 7-1 Chris Sanchez. Yeah, man, I mean, Matt Chapman almost brings him back in one game. Alvarado, I guess there was good baseball along with, like, scary baseball. Robbie Ray's walking in two runs in the first inning. A pinch hit by J.HL. Lake gives them a little more hope.

Man, if you're a Giants fan, you have to be this East Coast trip went better than any team's East Coast trip has gone in the past couple seasons. both teams getting mad at the umpires in this one. That's when you know it's really good. Again, if you want to see J.T. Real Mudo, if you're trying to spice things up a little bit, he got hot and not happy with the umpires. Four games split.

So both teams walk with their chin up a little bit. But an expected power and an emerging power in the National League. Nat's Pirates, Trev, again, two teams that have already lost. their momentum heading into the season a little bit. Pirates with as rough of a start as they could go with. Nats, again, we kind of took people off the hype wagon. I guess what stood out for me is the games of Pirates won. O'Neill Cruz was all over the box score. And before the season, we talked about him needing to bring it to another level. And it feels like that might be happening. No, the Pirates have very talented players on this roster

and I hope that they do go on some sort of run. If you look at what's happening right now in this series, and I get it was against the Nationals, but you have, you know, Skeens is going to do his thing. Then you have Bailey Falter go seven in a shooting. You have Andrew Heaney, go seven in a third shot. Again, I know it's against the Nationals, but if you're able to get pitching performances like that,

I think they do have enough guys offensive that can get the job done. We might see them be in the mix in the NL Central, Jake. I wouldn't put it past the pirates to do that. I am. There's too much talent, dude. There really is. And maybe, hey, and maybe we'll look back at Jorge Lopez throwing at Reynolds

and behind Cutch's head as a time that really got them going. What's crazy to me about that whole situation is after the game, everybody was an agreement. It was an agreement that it was not intentional, but then he ends up getting suspended for three games. for intentionally throwing it Andrew McCutche. So they must know something that we don't know. Yeah, sometimes those press conferences aren't always the most honest.

I feel there's a lot of say the right thing to keep it moving. And maybe we're overlooking the power of the fight in necklace, Trev. I know you posted, you still have your collection. Well, I sent it to the talking baseball chat. I was a big fighting guy. And at one point, I swear, I think it, like, I had arm issues where I was. I had like dead arm in my shoulder and I got a fighting necklace and put it on and my issue went away. I'm not joking.

I'm not joking. So whatever happened happened. But yeah, they're using them to get back and they look. It's a little throwbacky and I like it. It's crazy to me that the fighting necklace is a vintage item now. Yeah. Hey, everything's cyclical. There it is.

There we go. My God. Young lettuce. Plufe. Do you know who the other guy is? I'm not sure. Who is that? That's Anthony Sorzac. Swizzle sticks. Wow. Swizzle. Swizzle looks very Latin there.

I guess it's Boys of Summer. Wow, to be on those young twins teams again. Can't wait to talk twins later. That's not true. Hey, for Nats Pirates, Dylan Cruz versus Paul Skeens, the first ever won one thrown to each other. even in the not most exciting of series, still some unique baseball stuff going on. Pirates, get your offense going.

Don't. Don't with that. Come on. Hey, maybe the team we need to start getting more excited about is the Milwaukee Brewers. Like I said, they, after that opening weekend torpedo series to the Yankees, fourth and five tries of their last five series.

That was a weird way to phrase that. Yelich hitting homers, Reese are with the big game. Like, I don't know. Like, even if you look up the Brewer's bullpen numbers, they're still kind of shook from that opening weekend where just everything went out of Yankee Stadium. But Milwaukee is back to playing Brewer Ball and they're going to be in the mix this entire season.

Absolutely. You know, we talk about all the guys, you know, the young guys, the Garrett Mitchell, the Freelicks, you know, the Terangs. But our guy Reese did get it going this series. He actually broke up Scoob's perfect. game in game one then took that into the next couple games and had a good series they need that big time if they want to be where they're uh if they want to be where they think they can't be jake

garr mitchell by the way leading all of center fielders in defensive run saves right now i was looking at it up because i want to see where pca was because he looks like a monster out there pca is right behind him pcaa turning down money right now interested in that and he and you know what He's bunting. That's how you get money, guys. Stop. We're going to get to that. That's a difference here.

My award's anti-bunting. Brewers have four shutouts this year. That's crazy. That's not easy to do. They're not bad. Astros Cardinals, Trev, there is going to be more Cardinal love. We listen to the people and we called ourselves out in this. Cardinals moving to a six-man.

rotation, Matt's back into the rotation, and he looks good. Cardinals first series win over the Astros since 2016. And hey, the pitching for the Cardinals has been solid, and their fan base will tell you that quickly, but they're doing it on the offensive side. I don't understand where their fan base lies, because, you know, when I look at the box scores, when I watch them play, the starting pitching has been completely fine, and they do have some guys in the bullpen that can get the job done. But the Cardinals fans will tell you, our pitching stinks. Does it? Does it? So I'm confused. I'm confused. Did you really? Because I didn't. If you go look at the, we put that clip out on social media and it was all sorts, I guess mixed reactions. So maybe,

maybe nobody knows how to feel about the Cardinals. Maybe that's it. Hey, if I was a Cardinals fan, I would be a little confused. This this offseason where we did did nothing in the Cardinals front office out here being openly talking about how basically this isn't going to be our year. And we talked about how weird that was for the Cardinals. Man, a good start can bring you a long way in baseball. And also like Wilson Contreras has been a negative so far that what Brendan Donovan and Aronado against his former team, the Astros. What was your sunny gray line?

I loved it. Asa Jason. Asa Jason. It needs to be. Nolan Aronado was an astro? Am I? What? Yeah. Well, he declined the trade.

Oh, my God. I was like, what are you talking about? I forgot about that. I thought that one might put you in a spin cycle. Cards down to tied for fifth in OPS in baseball. They were at three a couple days ago when we looked them up. We're still getting the job done. The batting average is there, the on-base percentage.

More Cardinals love coming. Yeah, Houston, you'll get your Hunter Brown. Love. Otherwise, yeah, it's time to start going. That's the only one from my power rankings I can't can't fully defend right now. Just old ghosts getting to me. The Padres and Cubs, Treve, this is probably the last NL series to really sink our teeth in. The Padres and what they've been doing at home, I mentioned there was a reason I wanted to bring up that 11 and 0. It's the longest streak to open a season since those 23 undefeated April raise. man, what that stadium has right now, what Fernando Tatis is doing, the push sheet, that NL MVP season that people thought this year could lead to, again, Shohei asterisk, although we'll see if he starts pitching and how that goes.

Fernando's out of his mind, the sheets and Iglesias guys, when they're contributing, that brings this team to just another level. and I mean the bullpen in San Diego a lot of these top teams their bullpen has been dominant so far but these Padres are they're special man they can do it in just so many different ways Jake I mean the first game was just Fernando taking it over he looks so good right now at the plate very excited to watch him the rest of the year and then you know for the Cubs you know like they again I think both these teams when I'm looking at them overall, they both offensively can do it in so many different ways. They can beat you with a long ball.

We saw a small ball. You know, we got guys like a rise putting the ball in play. We got guys like PCA taking advantage of the least rise at first base, taking the bunch of tie the game. It's just, it's, it feels like good old-fashioned baseball where you're going to have your slugger slug and your speed guys do speed things. and yeah just some really really good baseball being played the moment in this series it really i guess didn't end up mattering too much the cubs end up winning this game but in game two

shoda facing machado two drop fly balls both in foul territory he gets that third chance you knew what's going to happen he ends up homering that's just let's just good old-fashioned baseball right there jake yeah there's a fun stat on here that's like machado has the most home runs after nine pitch at bats or something. It's, I don't know.

I guess just a weird credit to, if this guy sees you, he's going to get you. But Padre fans are in Cloud 9. We have our resident Padre fan, Ryan Cohen, and he is in heaven right now. And hey, if you're the Cubs, man, this was the Cubs opening day series where they took two. So, man, if early playoff series T's, if Cubs, Padres T's T, if Cubs, Padres T, it up. That would be a jazzy one. Trev, I'm going to combine these two because the Dodgers sweep the Rockies, and that's

unfortunately obvious, although like you mentioned, new Rockies hitting coach. And the D-Back sweep the Marlins, which baseball-wise, a couple of the games, wasn't as obvious, but Josh Naylor, three homers in three games. I'm going to talk about Pavin Smith in a little bit, but two of the NLS powers, take it to two of the worst teams in baseball. I think that's all it needs to be said. You see Corby Carroll's Grand Slam, things are bomb. I was trying to put together like a little Corby and Carol Johnny Damon package

because for some reason I just have them in my mind together. It turns out Johnny Damon's 6-2 and not 5-10. But do you get that comparison? I see what you're saying, but also. They're very shouldery. Yes. a lot of their actions are shoulder I like that but Corbyn Carroll

his power blows my mind Johnny Devin like had some power at some point they both can't throw which is like that's kind of what I think about the most but I don't know man It didn't really work when I started looking at the numbers They didn't really line up

Yeah Yeah I mean when Damon turned on one at Yankee Stadium You're like oh that's a nice homer Corby Carroll goes Yeah he's got right to center and center field It's silly. Treve, I did lie. One last thing, and I, again, I made this series unappealing for you just the way I phrase it.

Reds Mariners, you hate to come down to talk about one game. We actually are trying to talk less about one game this year. But that final game has one of the early arguments for Game of the Year. Red, Jake Fraley, Grand Slam to take the lead in the eighth inning. Five, three turns into seven. but then Cal Raleigh and Randy, two swings, two homers to tie it up. Mariners put up the big extra inning inning in to win the series. Really awesome game.

When Jake hit that home run, I was actually watching that game. Can you say when Jake hit that home run again? When Jay hit that Grand Slam, you've never heard that actually. I thought the game was over. Look. Right. The Mariners aren't known as the most offensive. But when you do have a guy like Kyle Raleigh coming up, he gets the job done. Him and Randy, that was pretty awesome, man.

You're right. Game of the Year candidate on April 18th. Cal is hitting historic catcher home runs. I think he's six in six games. The switch hitting catcher chart, which I know not brought to the forefront a ton. But he's like just said, I think he just chased down Yesmani Grandal, who had like, A 15-year all-star career. And it's just like, whoa, what big dumper is really doing as a power hitting catcher?

I don't know if we've seen before. I don't think, whoa, easy with that, Trev. Who is? Easy with that. That handsome guy that plays center field that's all over the airport. I don't know. I see what you're saying. Hey, go Mariners.

The butt of the franchise. The face. Trev, that's so good. The face of the franchise and the butt of the franchise. Oh, gosh. I don't think they could do that. I don't know. Oh, my God.

Mariners fans. Someone give me the Photoshop. Cal Raleigh's big old dumper with Julio's eyes just popping at you. That's Mariners baseball. That's Mariners baseball. Hey, beautiful National League, Trev. Let's head over to the Yale. we're going to circle back on a lot of those guys in awards and Enfuego and all that stuff.

The American League is brought to you by Best Western. Today's episode is sponsored by Best Western Hotels and Resorts. Life's a trip, so why not make the most of it? 4,000 hotels worldwide. Best Western is there for every detour destination, an unexpected turn along the way. We just had our road trip. Just went back to look at it. Rob Seraco did an awesome job on it.

And people are watching it, which is good. Thank you. A little bit of different content from us. There's going to be a little bit more of that this year. And a little spoiler, and I think a must watch part of the video. We are lost in the middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania. 3.30 a.m., the only place open, the best Western. They let us in with open arms. I was talking gibberish to them, and they're like, please just use our bathroom.

That's fine. Travel isn't always predictable, especially that trip. Whatever you are doing, make sure. You check out if there's a Best Western there because they will take care of you. Life's a trip. Make the most of it at bestwestern.com. Let's do some American League. My A.L. East had a weekend except for the Rays because they face the Boston Red Sox.

After a Ray's historic franchise win, 16 to 1 in that first game, Hout gets rocked Red Sox games. Red Sox fans panicking. They come back. They win the next two games. How about a five-hit day from Reggie? That'll do it. And then the only offense in that last game, David Hamilton,

with the home run as the Sox win two games against Tampa. My Yankees sweep the rules. Oh, of course you got the Yankees high up in your bowels rank. Yeah, they won the American League last year. They swept the Royals. Here's what I will say. The Yankees came back in all those games. I like that.

A lot of young guys, Ben Rice and Dominguez, playing incredible for the Yankees. The Kansas City Royals have a bad kid. case of the can't hits right now. And that has been their entire season thus far. So if I honestly had to pick, it's unfortunately a little bit of that. The Blue Jays, take two out of three from the Braves. Oh, Spencer Strider's back.

They don't care. They won that game because Chris Bassett has been one of, if not the best pitcher in baseball. They win on that final game. Man, Youngthick Austin Riley with the two-homer game in that one. our guy Vladito, half of Billy Vlad. He finally gets his home run. Blue Jays continue to win series. And they set a franchise record 19 strikeouts in a nine-any game. The twins beat the Mets. The Twins beat the Mets. These twins are different.

After losing that first game, the Mets are hot, hot, hot. The twins come back. They take the final two. Harrison Bader figured out left field. He's making some highlight catches. And Treb, the injury bug has come through Minnesota, but we might talk about how that could be a good thing for the twins. Twins talk, it's always happening. The Orioles take two out of three from the guard dogs. Boy, did they need that. Our Orioles were struggling a little bit,

and they lost the first game. Logan Allen had a really nice start. But they come back, Ryan O'Hern, Jackson Holiday Grand Salami, and Sugano with seven innings to earn run. Orioles really needed a series win bad, and they get it against a good team in the American League. The A sweep the White Sox. This is what we've been trying to tell you people, and they're doing it by mauling the baseball. Tyler Soderstrom is leading baseball and hitting home runs.

That's insane. Lawrence Butler turned on a couple balls that reminded me of someone that's a crazy unfair comparison coming up in a little bit. White Sox, we're sorry. We're not sorry. You're sorry. The Rangers. Oh, they sweep the angels, Trev. Very interesting.

Very clever. Rangers throw the ball a lot. Shut out in the first game. It's Tyler Molly again. Kumar Rocker on the back end with a very impressive surrog. Oh, yeah, and there's Corey Seeger in all three of these games with multiple hits. Patrick Corvin got bit by something venomous. That's real life, people.

So we'll deep dive into that as this show is good at doing. And that's what happened in the American League. I believe it was a spider that he got bit by. Okay. I literally, my nightmare. I just saw our social media post that was Patrick Corbyn was bit by something venomous. And I was like, gee, I don't, in the nicest way, I'm glad. I hope he's okay.

I don't want to look more into this. I like that they did that leave it ominous. What bit him, it could be anything. That's how social works. That's how you do social. Do you want the standings in the American League? I got them. We'll start out east where your yanks, those pinstripe and bad boys, young dudes, 12 and 7,

and then Toronto, Jake, 11 and 8 right behind, then Boston at 10 and 10, Baltimore, 8 and 10 in Tampa Bay, who I believe I had winning the division at 8 and 11 in the central, that's my division, Detroit 11 and 8 on top, Cleveland sitting at 500, 9, 9, they're in second place, then those royals, 8 and 12, the twins, 7 and 12, that actually looks good. seven and 12 I'm like okay from where we were at okay I'll take it and then the white socks four and 14 and then out west Texas uh above that or on top of that division 12 and seven Seattle 10 and nine my angels as soon as I bought angel stock it went down maybe there was an insider trading I didn't know about they're nine and nine the A is nine and ten and Houston they're calling I've been saying

this Jake at the bottom of that division at eight and ten and those are the standings in the American League. Thank you, Coach. Let's go back to your raise. And hey, awesome first game, 16 runs. Cameron Meiser, there's a couple guys on the race putting up fantasy baseball stats. Shane Boz, like I enjoy that, people. Otherwise, not a winning brand of baseball from the raise a lot of this season.

And the Red Sox, they have an error-free game. Bregman goes nuts. What else did you see, Coach? Well, that was the problem in the first game. Too many errors by the Red Sox. Too many missed opportunities defensively and the race took advantage of that. And then, yeah, I mean, Bueller coming in. And I guess after losing a game 16 to one to come back and give them a chance to win that game is good for them.

And it's interesting. If you're a Red Sox fan, they have to figure out like what to do. We talked about this a little bit going into the season, but I think they're at the point now where, you know, Raphael is playing a great center field. but he's not really hitting the ball and you got a guy like Roman Anthony you know that wants to be brought up like what are you going to do with all of these guys

they actually have too many players going around right now like do you sit Raphael and make him a late defensive replacement in center field like I don't know what they do it's it's going to be very very interesting but yeah take two or three air David Hamilton with the Homer that was great to see

Christian Campbell's continued to do it you know you know not just a strong start but like he's continued to play well. It really entrenched himself in that infield there. So I'm still really high on these Red Sox. I know the record isn't where they want it to be. And sometimes they play a frustrating brand of baseball.

But I think the potential is completely still there. Devers, the 31st Red Sox to play a thousand games in a Red Sox uniform. So that's nice. Go watch some Justin Slighton Curveballs when you get a moment today. Those are they look unhittable. And most importantly, Trev. Alex Bregman.

Second kid. Two homers, second kid. Way to go. I do want to shout out Jonathan Miranda of the raise. He needs baseball and OPS right now. Kind of a platoon guy. I think he only has like six or seven of bats against left-hand pitching, but that's what the raise do.

They put you in positions to succeed. He hits. A lot of doubles. Yankees, Trev, if there's anything you want to add, again, I think the Royals have a case of the not hitting right now. A judge is the best hitter anyone's ever seen in their lifetime. Okay. That could be true.

That could be true. The non-juiced hitter you've seen in your lifetime. And again, these young contributions that I, and they played the raise last night, and it was a lot of doubles and taking extra bases. That's that brand of Yankee baseball. We expected to see more of this year that things are good. Yanks have currently won four in a row.

Royals, 207, 277. 3.04 for a 581 OPS. They're 29th in baseball, only they're right ahead of the White Sox, and they're behind the pirates. So they do need to get it going. For the Yankees, I feel like it's a dream come true for Yankee fans, like the way this season has started off because you are getting, all we talked about was, what's up with a lineup depth is it going to be there? And all of a sudden, Ben Rice looks like he's going to be there for a long time. He might be a guy we're talking about i mean look it's it's early but he looks like the real deal he looks like the real deal so you got him giving contributions wells doing it uh like for instance in that first game i had it up

right there jazz grisham rice and wells hit solo homers that's all the uh scoring they needed and cookie carasco is throwing the ball like it's kind of crazy uh but those the question marks that we had going to the season i mean they're they've answered the question they're doing well. Winning ball games could be six in a row, if not a Carlos Rodon hanger to Junghuli. But maybe he just hits everything. Wasn't it a couple hangers to Junghue Lee?

The Blue Jays. How do you like this? They have their first game this season with multiple homers. That's kind of mind-blowing in that second game. And yeah, Bassett Gossman have been one of the best one, two punches in baseball, which we didn't think we would say that again. again. What was that?

Oh, I think there was a fly. I just was like. I thought you were saying like, you were the same feed me the rock. Feed me the raw. Feed me more Gossman Bassett. I was ready to feed you. I do. Bassett's been absolutely incredible. And watching that game, he was, here's a word for you. He was befuddling Toronto's hitters. He throws too many pitches. He has the funk in his windup. Like he has a little bit of everything. And when he's controlling those pitches, it's,

I always talk about, you know, when a guy has four pitches and he can throw those for strikes, it's very difficult to game plan. Like, you just don't know what to look for. He's got that big sweeping curve ball. Then he can ride his fastball at the top of the zone. Just makes it very difficult. Like, you have to really, you have to guess.

You have to, you know, try to see the ball as deep as possible. But the way he's throwing right now, it's, don't want to do this to Blue Jays fans. I want him to be there the entire year. I hope that they're going to run. He looks like the best trade candidate in all the baseball right now. Cover your ears, Toronto. I'm sorry.

He does. Glad he's not going anywhere. You can act like a normal organization now. Braves are two and 11 on the road this year. Or sign him. Resign them already. Or just keep them and win baseball games this year. That's true, too.

Toronto fans, don't listen to that. Hey, Atlanta Strider's back. I guess now let's get Ronnie and let's start winning, but I don't. I declared the Braves jumping point was when they won that game against the Phillies. Long rain delay. So here we go. And they're two in four since then. I tried to tell you not.

Chalmers, we got glasses. Everything was adding up. Yeah. If you covered your ears for that Chris Passett trade part, you can cover yours now for this. Twins take two out of three from the Mets. What do you got, Coach? What do you mean cover your ears?

I don't know. Twins are still figuring stuff out. There's no doubt about it. Played a little bit better baseball. Like they talked about coming into the season, moving runners, having these abats, did not work out like that early on the season. They did a little bit more of that against the Mets.

But as you mentioned, a lot of injuries, man. Walner's out, Correa, Pablo Lopez. They're bringing up one of their top prospects. It's going to be really cool to see. I don't know exactly where he's going to play. Yeah, what's that beefcake's name? He had a Minnesota name. Luke Creschell, yeah.

Luke Creschel. That's a good Midwest boy. We'll see what happens. But I think they do need, they need some fresh blood. I think Jonah Bride came over from the Marlins. He was designated for assignment. He came over. I don't know what he's going to do for them.

But sometimes you just need a little mix-up in the clubhouse. And I think they're getting that right now. Hey, all jokes aside, after winning that first game, the Mets had won nine out of 11 games. So for the twins to come back, get those two. Maybe they can write in the ship. By the way, Juan Soto had, I think it was game one, first hit with a runner in scoring position,

which makes complete sense why Pete Alonzo is just going bananas. He's getting all those opportunities after Juan Soto. Yeah, that's kind of, that's how it works. He's the best at not getting out. We're in the full hood. Wonsota's been a little too cold this year. There's been a lot of guys who have been just a little too cold. You can't.

You can't wear that. You can't wear that in the floor. That's close to a jacket. That's too much. Like if a little leaguer shows up with that, you're like, that kid's not good. That kid doesn't want to play today. Like his mom made him wear that. His mom made him wear it.

It's too cold. Like the light hoodie, yes, I'll give you. Like, that was like a hoodie. Like he basically, that was too much. I don't like the hood. Get the hood. out of there. Yeah, if it's up, it's really cold.

I mean, that's come on. No. That's when you're really, really comfortable. You know, obviously got a lot of money coming his way. Doesn't really care much about what us idiots say about them, but that's, that's a horrible look. That's billionaire baseball. That's what that is.

Treve, Orioles take two out of three. They really needed a series bad. It's against the guard dog. So again, this is a nice one to put in their back pocket. they need to get better on both sides of the ball. We talked about their starting pitching being the worst, and they got a couple good outing. Obviously, they're going to need that.

I need, for the Orioles to be good, their offense has to be top 10, top five. And they showed some signs of that, especially like Young Jackson Holiday. Need it. That would be huge for them. Gunner with the solo homer in that final game. Yeah, this Orioles needed this in a bad way.

They did, especially. They got some bad news on Grace for Rodriguez. as he's going for an MRI as he was trying to get ramp back up. So that just kind of puts an emphasis on all of that. Offense has to go. Chagano's actually been pretty good for them. Another good start here, 7 is pitch two and runs. No walks.

They're another team. I think along with the Cardinals and the Astros, we had trouble ranking the Orioles in our power rankings. Yes. Yes, because there should be more there, but also that starting pitching can make you nervous. So, hey, if Sagano clicks and they get a couple more outings, I need their offense to be electric. Like, that's the Orioles.

The Orioles we first fell in love with, they had an electric offense. Every inning was a rally. And that bullpen was scary. So with the big man back there, get that bullpen clicking. But I need the offense to be an elite level offense. And they showed some signs against a really good Cleveland pitching staff. So get Gibby up there ASAP. Let's go.

stop it. Get me back here. That's what the people want. Treb, the final two, A's, White Sox, I don't have too much to add. I will say this. There, Lawrence Butler shot on a ball. No other way to describe it.

And I was trying to think he's, the way he plays baseball, there's a cool factor to it, and he's good. It was giving me almost like David Justice vibes. Just like, swaggy destroying balls. I don't really remember David Justice

like off the field swag. For some reason, I have a visual of him and Derry Jeter playing like Jock Jam softball on MTV. Was that a thing? Yes, I think that's him. That's the only reference I have of him. Yeah, I need to bring that back. Yeah, baseball was cool.

I mentioned Soderstrom, J.J. Bladay with a couple big games. He had a really nice season last year. And watch out for Brent Rooker tapping in. Man, these A's can bang. That's what we've said. Trev, I'll leave it with Rangers Angels. These have been your halos you've been defending.

While we've both liked the Texas Rangers along the way, it's three games. Rangers really pitched. Seeger kicked into gear. Yeah, I mean, the biggest takeaway here is how good Tyler Malley's been for them. You know, we talked about going into the season, the Rangers did have the question marks. You know, I think in that rotation,

because there's a lot of guys coming off of injury, especially like a guy like Malley and DeGrom, but Malley's been lights out this year. Six teams pitched nine Ks for him, Kumar with his best start of the season. So yeah, I mean, Angels still believe in you. We got that young core. I think Netto is getting activated.

Maybe he gets them out of this little slide that they're in. But, you know, the Rangers took care of business, man, the way they're supposed to. Dolies Garcia hit a 3-0 Homer. That always blows my mind. I'm and Josh Young kind of have a shoulder neck celebration that I need Josh Young to be careful about. That's a powerful thing he's bringing for his cellies and there's been some injuries. Like, let's be careful with that.

Yandi Diaz versus Adelis Garcia. Naked cage fight who wins? I'm a Yandi guy. Okay. I think Yondi's got a bigger. Why does that be naked, Trev? It always comes back to that. Humar Rocker, seven in his pitch.

Zero walks. We love that. Big dominant series for the Texas Rangers. Let's see if they can get hot. And yeah, Molly is going right now. Bruce Bochi, Trev, tied Dusty Baker for seventh place, and managerial wins all time. Oh, and he turns 70.

Congratulations. That's for Bruce. Looks 69. Let's get into the second half of the show. And it's brought to you with our friends. From the Draft King's sports book, people. Baseball is a marathon, not a sprint, and that's great news for us,

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see dkng.com slash audio. Treb, do you have a standout performance? I do have a standout performance. I'm going with two guys, actually. See, Jake. I'm going with those cards. Okay, I got Nolan Aeronado and Brendan Donovan, both on Monday. Brandon Donovan goes four for four with a double, an RBI and two runs scored. Nolan Aeronado goes three for four, two doubles, a Homer, two RBI's two runs scored.

We talked about this Cardinals offense, and it hasn't just been them. They've gotten like elite production out of their catchers as well. But I think it's a little bit surprising to maybe an outside baseball fan to see them. did it probably do a cardinals fan to see them clicking the way they have offensively um brendon donovan crushing the fastball this year that's been the biggest difference uh last year he did not do that so he's just he's uh on time a little bit better and he's always been such a good bat to ball guy that sometimes he can make up for that but uh you know if you want the production like he's giving uh this year you have to be on time for the fastball he's doing that crushing that

And those two guys, a big reason why the Cardinals are, you know, kind of where they're at in the season. I guess surprising some people. I know they're, I think they're one game under 500, but better than we expected from them. Yeah, Donovan's playing amazing, leading the NL and batting. And yeah, there was a little bit Cardinals player generator for a little bit, where it's kind of meaty lefties and it was him and Gorman and Burleson. Burleson. It was like, all right, so these are our Cardinals now.

I think all those guys can hit a little bit, and he's hitting a ton right now. And it's part of the reason that the Cardinals' best batting average, and they have more of an identity right now. I know this is a big identity show. Like the Cardinals can slap it around the yard. That's what they do. We got nine guys, Jake, right now on the Cardinals.

And some of these are, you know, the plate appearances aren't super high. Like a pose only has 16 plate appearances, but nine guys with OPS Plus over 100 right now. Contribute. Tough at bats. Every inning. Cardinals, there's even more love coming. It's not right now because my love is going to my snakes. And it should probably be Josh Naylor,

three straight games with a home run, and he is finding his groove with the snakes and starting to feel like, hey, snakes, what other cash you got back there? Like, I like it here. You like me here? Let's figure something out. It could easily go to Corbyn Carroll. who's been one of the best players in baseball this season.

I'm going to Pavin Smith. Man, this guy has had an up and down career with the Diamondbacks. It feels, it felt like every time he got the opportunity, he wasn't clicking, although there would be the week or two where it did happen. And it was kind of like, okay, so this is the guy we've heard about and we've talked about. He's been going nuts.

You know, you could pick a game for him, but he's 14 for 13 for 30. in his last 10 games. 467, 3 homers, 4 doubles, 6 RBIs. He's walking. There's swipes in there. Jock Peterson left and has been one of the players struggling the most this season.

And everyone was kind of like, so wait, you're going to let Jock go and you're going to give Paving the keys to the D.H spot? I don't know, Jim. Paving Smith has been incredible for them. Big part of their sweep over the Marlins. And if he can be there, again, I think we're going to look, we're going to see in a couple weeks and we'll be like, yep, the snake's best offense last year and they're going to have one of the best offenses this

year. Yeah, if he continues to even come close to what he's doing early on the season, it's going to be a big part of the reason why the snakes do what they do. I mean, we knew they have a deep lineup with the guys that can do a bunch of different things, but having a guy like Pavin, you know, really up his walk rate and get on base a little bit more than he has in his career and then driving some runs from here and there. That's going to be really good for them. Trev, there's a lot of other dudes. I've mentioned Reese a lot.

The best ever on Seattle. We skipped all the pitchers. God, there's a lot of good pitching outing. But the good news is, I think a lot of them ended up on Enfuego. Dirt nasty's on Fuego. That means I'm on fire, baby. Like Waco. That's right.

Corona. bringing us in fuego. We got some guys on here. We talked about some of them, but let's get into it for the series. Do we still call Austin Riley young thick? Or is he just thick Austin?

I think he just thickums now. He's just thick Austin Riley. He went four for 12 with three homers and six runs driven in. How about Tyler Soderstrom? Our guy, five for 14, three homers, seven runs driven in. He leads baseball with nine on the season.

Nine homers in 61 games. That was last year. he's got nine homers in how many games this year 16 i don't know what it is he's crushing it not only at the field sutter field i believe it's called out there in sacramento he's hitting 4 39 on the road that's the best of major league baseball we talked a little bit about rees hoskins getting out of the slump six for ten in the series of two homers four runs driven in tyler fitzger contributing in that giants line up eight for 17 two doubles a triple two home runs corey seager I feel like he gets lost a lot

in like our discussion around baseball. He's so damn good. Seven for 10 in this year. He's a double, a homer, three RBI. He does 100th Homer with the Rangers on Thursday for the week, Jake. Junior Caminero,

eight for 27, four homers, eight runs driven in. Cameron Meisner, also Tampa Bay, eight for 17, two doubles, two homers, four runs driven in. We talked about Tatis a little bit. He went eight for 25. four homers seven runs driven he's reached base in all 18 games

he's played this year is the third longest streak of his career and he's also crushing the fastball 486 batting average on fastballs this year has the best in major league baseball he's crushing it and this was near and dear to my heartache because I lost my best friend this year Kyle Farmer left the twins he went to the Rockies

he's about the only guy nice travel oh you thought I meant somebody else okay Yes, dude, you teed that up like someone died. I didn't say anyone died. I said, I lost my best friend this year. Okay, well, he was last year. Crazy, dude.

Goes to the Rockies. He's about the only one doing anything with the Rockies, Jake. Nine for 22 for the week for a 409 batting average, six doubles, three runs driven in. And he sat down for an interview with Kelsey Winger the other day. So, like, we're just, we're really doing it out there. Yeah. Friends are friends.

That's who's in Fuego. I do want to piggyback it in a second. We do have to give a couple pitchers love. We have separated them, pitchers who shoved on our sheet. So maybe they don't deserve to be in Fuego, although that was beautiful. And yeah, maybe stop trading Chris Bassett and start trading Kyle Farmer. How about that? Oh, I like that.

I like that. Actually, Yankees could use a little righty power. Twins could use him. They should have signed him back. Sure they could. Trev, can you give me these pitchers who shoved? I know it hurts you a little bit, but it's also when guys do this, you appreciate it. Okay, I'll do pitchers who shove.

You do batters who are struggling. How about that? Yeah, that's how it works. That's how it works. Pitchers who shove, Shane Baas on Monday against the Red Sox, six-a-pitch, one and run 11 K's, no walks. You know that always gets my juices. flowing he's allowed an OPS of just one 17 with two strikes this season so he's putting

dudes away that's the best among qualifying starting pitchers Dustin May is continues to look incredible six in his pitch three hits one and run seven case no walks love that it's his first victory since May 6th of 2023 so snaps for that red-headed son of a gun out there Jake Irvin another Jake a lot of Jake's this episode on Tuesday for the Nationals. He goes sevennings pitched. 6K is one walk. He has a strike rate of 80.3%

when going through the line at the third time in the game this season. That's the highest among starting pitchers in baseball. Don't really know what that stat means. Just read it off the sheet. Got a couple more here. Tyler Malley, we talked about him. He's been maybe one of the best pitchers.

Not maybe. He's been one of the best pitchers in the American League this year. Best opponent's average, 121 average average against OPS only at 3993 how about hits per nine 3.7 that's first in all the baseball on Tuesday he went six innings pitch nine K's two walks then a couple of pirates Jake on this list Bailey Falter goes sevenings pitch no earned runs um Andrew Heaney my guy seven and a third

innings pitched 4Ks no earned runs so the pirates got the pitching and got the series win against the nationals and those are the pitchers who shoved I I like jake Irving strike rate. That third time through the lineup, he's coming at you. I respect that. I think there was also, I know Hunter Brown could have made this every start he's had this year. Third time through, he's got some Framber stuff going on right now that he's getting better as the game goes. So that's, what was it, OPS of 133 when going through a lineup the third time in the game?

OPS of 133. That's, he's on his. sick oh shit right now. We could always mention Nick Pivotta in this as well. Full pension Piv doing it. Yeah, not doing it. He's like legit is going to get full pension.

So like that joke has turned into a reality. It was never a joke for him. It was a joke for you, Sucka. Yeah, he's like, who are you scrub? You're never going to make the team. Stop call me full pension Piv. Thank you. Thank you for that extended infuego

brought to you by Corona. of the official servesa of talking baseball. Yeah, let me tell everyone who's on the struggle bus. Jake's struggle bus, we can call this segment. Man, a couple guys in Philly, but Brandon Marsh, 0 for 27. Yikes, an 097 OPS.

You don't see that with OPS a lot. Hit list in his last 31 at-bats. He's 0 for April, Trev. He's 0 for April Yikes He banged up his knee So let's see what's going on there But we also

Every year it feels like we do a Brandon Marsh Like wait is this guy really really good Man him and him and bone The ire of some Philly fans eyes right now Jordan Westberg A guy before the season I panicked And I was like wait is he one of the best Third Baseman in baseball

He's on a two for 36 right now 0.71 on fastballs, Trev. That means you're not on time. That's what I've learned. Just get on time, Bob. Let's get on time. That's the second lowest in the AL. Gino.

Eugenio Suarez, 4 for 43 after a hot couple games early. 031 on low pitches. That feels that's a... Trev, do you have the cure for that one? I don't know what that is. Low pitches? I think he's saving it. doesn't need it right now is that the rest of the guys got me let me just take my lumps now then

i'll come back that's what i'm thinking on low pitches i mean it's that's a leg thing you got to get through the ball with the legs okay i like that uh lou bob man we keep waiting for him to take off four for 38 um breaking pitches slugging zero on breaking he's got to get out of chicago man i know but the problem i think that's the key one i don't know that's the key one and That's the cure. He's half getting paid so teams aren't offering them anything. And then if he goes and he balls out somewhere, like, I get it. Like, White Sox needed him to put together a good month or month and a half.

And maybe it's still coming. But otherwise, the teams aren't going to offer them anything for him. And then it's tough. Phillies, Brandon Marsh. Jonathan India, our guy guy. The hair is powerful. Great social media account for us. Four for 40.

The hard rate hit isn't there right now. They're moving them all over the yard. I wonder if that's in his head or just different division. They need him. Kansas City needs anybody to hit. They, nobody. Nobody, man. They, uh, missing Yuleiguriel.

The I.O. Again, there's a little lull at the end. of this show before we get to awards and Kelsey Winger can start our week. Chris Bryant, man. I know there's jokes to be made. When I see degenerative back stuff, I won't make them. So I know that contract has been tough for Colorado. A league MVP, Chris Bryant, kind of scary stuff in Colorado.

Brandon Lockridge out for San Diego. He's been all over the place. Again, I'm not saying I'm having it. happy about this, but this has led to Tyler Wade in center field for your San Diego Padres. A couple of bull. That's old Tyler, yeah. Yeah. How do you like that?

Sam Mall, Eli Morgan in that bullpen, different bullpens, but respected bullpins. You mentioned the Minnesota Moose, Matt Walner. Trev, again, this guy's got a little bit of an injury history. Jose Siri for my Mets, Christian Encarnasseon Strand. Paul DeYoung for the Nationals. Andy Rodriguez, not from the collision the other day that we saw, but he's out. And then I felt bad we missed this the other day. We talked about a lot of stuff, but Justin Steele, I mean, out for the season.

I feel like we've mentioned it here and there. But, God, that's one of the biggest injuries that has happened in this baseball season. And we did the whole, you know, are they trade candidates for Sandy and that whole thing? but yeah, that was one of the tougher ones. Here is where things pick up awards with Kelsey Winger. Go check out our warehouse game stuff. I'm at our warehouse right now. Blitzball battle is rolling.

Coach Trev, myself on the field, fighting for glory. Go check that out at our warehouse games YouTube. It's a fantastic watch. Peter Moyland in the booth, Chris Rose in the booth. Go check it out. Warehouse games on. YouTube. Trevor, please. I want to touch on one thing before we get into awards.

Did you see Nico Horner between the legs on the Tyler Wade ground ball? Almost got him. Wade's obviously very fast. So it doesn't matter. Like it's never going to be shown again because it was a base hit. But if he makes that play, like on highlight reels for like a long time, it's tough. It's a funny sport, man. There was a play at second Royals Yankees where it was a, it was a bone. Boneheaded play, he shouldn't have thrown a second,

but Jason Dominguez pulled up because he was like, no way he throws the second. So they double bonehead, ruled each other out. Play got reviewed. It went from a boneheaded play to a heady play. Got him at second base. A lot of buzzwords. Trevor?

My award, this is an interesting one. I can't wait to bring this one out to you and the people listening to this beautiful show because I actually got served this on Instagram. And I was like this, I have to talk about it because I'm very interested in it. I'm going to call this award. I don't really have. I hope AI got you in this.

It's not AI. It's not AI. I promise. I don't even know what to call this award. The, because I can't remember the word that I was going to use for it. Anyways, there are times in the history of baseball where things happen. Plays get brought up, you know, first and third. But that was like a Joe Madden thing.

Like he decided I want to start doing this. He saw a glitch in the matrix. You know, I can expose this. It's very difficult to defend this play. You can talk about, I guess, shifting the shortstop up the middle, the way it used to be played with the shifts. Like that was a monumental thing in baseball that I think changed a lot of people's careers, if we're being honest.

Like there are just times where in baseball things happen. They kind of come out of nowhere that start to make sense. this one i'm not so sure makes sense but i got i got sent it there's a guy out there name jol la flame okay and he is a screenwriter for a tv show called wild card it's about baseball it's about um a woman entering like the front office or the coaching staff excuse me and she wants to like prove her her worth to the organization so what she comes up with is what we're we're calling it the the flame shift now we know we can't shift anymore in the infield and look this is going on all throughout baseball there's many people in front offices trying to figure out ways to

take advantage of the game within the rules right infield shifts done we can't really do it anymore still no shifting uh oh yeah they can they they manipulate a little bit no shifting in the outfield which is something that we've talked about uh quite a bit i'd actually would like to see see no shifts in the outfield. I would like to see guys in their zones and like we want to see guys go get the ball. That's what we always say, right? The flame shift essentially is swapping your, so you have your center fielder, let him be center field. You're right and left fielders. Whoever is the better athlete out there will start to go play right field or left field depending on the tendency of the hitter that's batting. So let's say you have a guy that's that's

pulls the ball in the air a bunch. You're going to put your better defender and his right-handed. You're going to put him in left field. If the next batter hits the ball in the air to the outfield on the opposite side, that defender would then go back to right field. And essentially, what we're trying to do here is you can put a less defensive-minded outfielder, a guy that's more offensively inclined to kind of hide him, if you will, while taking your best defender and putting him where the ball is supposed to go more often than not.

It's kind of what we do already. So for instance, I was thinking, where does this make sense? So the twins, okay, I know them very well. Harrison Bader has been playing great ball, especially in my field, he's been going and getting in. And say you have a Matt Wallner out in right field, who's not necessarily, you know, a speedster going to run down balls. You just swap them depending on tendencies. Have Byron in the middle. And then Bader's just going and get in the ball where it's going to be hit the most.

this is from this show wildcard and like usually i'll sniff these things out this this kind of makes sense this actually could happen if you really have that type of outfield where one guy's just like he's just a banger like i always think about delman young josh willingham in left field for the twins like if you could get the ball away from them and to your better defender in the outfield it makes sense it's logical so are we going to see this la flame shift in the big league soon it wouldn't surprise me if we did jake i actually think it's a decent idea i don't know i don't think there's no rules that say you can't do that you're just moving your defender would you get tired running from right field to left field maybe but not everyone you know i'm gonna

switch on everyone it's just more of the if there's a a tendency to pull tendency to go to the opposite you move your best defender over there so you tell me your thoughts on i'm very interested to see what You have to say you look like you're into it a little bit. So I was laughing because I was like, okay, add for this show. Treves back. I don't even think it's like I think he's trying to pitch this show. It's like not even a real show yet. It's not even there yet.

I know they're doing a basketball version of that show. That Mindy Kaling wrote, I think it's doing pretty well. Anyways, so I am a ban the outfield shift guy. There are yes, because. I want guys to kind of have starting positions and I don't have the rules figured out. I don't know if this would be a shift. I'm doing two different things.

I'm doing two different things. I'm saying what I want. I don't think it's that popular, but dude, there's still a lot of, there's still a lot of line drive or well-hit balls to the warning track that are routine outs that used to be doubles.

Because the center fielder used to play at a quote-unquote normal depth that like, hey, we're always looking to add a little bit of offense. If you have outfielders not starting at the warning track, doubles are going to go up, which is one of the most exciting hits in baseball. To your La Flame shift,

I know for the infield shift, they do have rules in that defenders can't switch sides because they were worried. They were worried infielders were going to do this, that, okay, if you got to pull guy, lefty, righty, just move your shortstop over every abet. So they do have that. So yes, for the outfield, I don't currently believe they have anything.

They might, and we just don't know about it. I don't think they do. I don't think so. I guess my thing is I want baseball to be more dramatic, and maybe this is me hoping to get to the end where we're shifting. That, yeah, there's something there, right? If it's Harrison Bader or Mount Warner, Harrison Bader, put him out there. I know Rob has a little Harry Bader taster reel that,

were debating putting on this, that, you know, I know he had a couple misplays early, but every team knows your outfield. If you've, you got good outfielders that make plays and you, on the other side, you might not. That, yeah, I would be interested to see why teams aren't doing that because it seems like if that's getting to your algorithm, your Insta algorithm that's out there, that I wonder if there's like a league memo sent out to not do that, I don't know. I don't know.

For me, Trev, this is what I want to see. Okay. If there's a big lefty pull hitter, and I'm sorry to everyone, we're going to continue to use the Minnesota Twins outfield, but it's what we have for now. So say there's a big lefty pull guy, and the Minnesota Moose, Matt Walner, is playing right field.

Let's get Moose and Buxton heavy. Like, Buxton's playing right center. Bader's playing left center, if not center, that you have your three outfielder's over here. that left field is open. So if it's a big lefty pull hitter, if they do accidentally hit one down the line, Bader's still over there,

that it's going to be a double. And like, okay, you're willing to give that up if the big lefty pull hitter hits a double. I'm very surprised we don't see more extreme. Think about the infield shifts we used to see. Four guys on the right side of an infield. I'm surprised outfields don't do that more, that is what I would expect

would be the next evolution. Outfielders trading spots would be hilarious. I wonder if the pitch clock makes it tough. Interesting. You're more into it than I thought you were going to be. I thought I was going to say this, and you were just going to be like, this is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

But to me, like, that's what I initially thought was, like, what do we talk about here? Then I started thinking about, okay, like, that makes sense. It allows you, I mean, everyone's trying to run prevent. And do we want to see that as fans? No. I don't want to see offense continue to go. down. I don't want to see it. I'm just saying, think along with the front offices. This is all

they're trying to do is run prevent. So we might see it. I don't know. I don't even know for that award is. Rob? Outfielders are allowed to move wherever they want within the outfield during a game. So it does not, there's no shift or anything that that, you know, defensive shift rule only applies to the infield. I would love one day somebody just to make, just to make, just to make, there, Mark, do exactly what you said. Just leave left field completely open and just stack it up and see. I'm, dude, I don't know. Isok parades. If you're the right fielder, you're not getting a ball. Put that cat on the grass outside the infield. Like, I do think there should be another evolution coming. Trevor, the hitting over a thousand years of baseball, it's a little dramatic. That was a little hobby.

Definitely not a thousand. We just figured out maybe put more meat on the bat where we're getting beat. So, Trev, great award without a name, without a player attached, a potential show attached. I don't know. But you know that that is a topic I'm very into, and I think baseball is going to have an evolution. Because I want more doubles. There's just line drives to the warning track that get caught that we're so. accepting of now that used to be the highlight of the game.

We both want outfielders to go get it to make a play and also more doubles. This would take away a lot of that. So maybe we don't want to give this award. I want it to happen so that the outfield shift gets banned, unfortunately. Okay. Trev, I'm giving out the two's a crowd, but three's a party award. I think it used to be a song and a beer commercial that used to just make your head spin. and you're like, wait, two's a crowd, but three's a party.

It doesn't really make sense. And that's my lane. Treb, I said they deserve, we said they deserve more love. They went out, they won more ball games. The Cardinals deserve more loved. And yeah, you're looking at the hitting stats, and it's okay. You mentioned Donovan's going nuts. My guy, Toot Bar, the catchers are bringing something to table.

Everyone's kind of giving it bats. The Nolan's. The Cardinals. Last year, and we talk about, oh, the Cardinals funk, and they got to, you got to wash it off and all that. Last year, the Cardinals hit 10 three-run home runs. 10 three-runs all of last year, 162. So every 16.2 games, they hit a three-run homer. A little math for everyone.

That was the organization's lowest total in 32 years. The Cardinals recorded their MLB leading six three-run homer in 18 games. So they went from homering having a three-run homer in every 16 games to now they're hitting a three-run homer in every three games. Sometimes we talk about the ju-ju of baseball and when you get the hit and man, the Cardinals feel a little off right now. You get excited about Pete Crow Armstrong laying down buntz. Three-run home runs really help you win baseball games.

I hate to go man-a-lidics on everyone. And the St. Louis Cardinals were off to a better start than we thought they would be. A big part of that is three-run home runs. And if they keep doing that, the Cardinals will be back in the mix and we'll start doing St. Louis as a baseball city, and are they buying and wait, maybe this Cardinals, two GM front office is working. Know what works?

Three run homers and the Cardinals are hitting them. I'd be curious to know what the record is when they do hit a three run homer because those are absolute backbreakers. I mean, a three run homer is, that kills everything for the opposing team. I will say this, 3.42 on base percentage for the Cardinals this year, 312 last year. So getting on base obviously helps with the three run homer

because you got to have a couple dudes on for that. hopefully it continues. I want to see this Cardinals team do well. That's a good one, Jake. Okay. That's a lot of three run homers. That's a lot of three run homers. And they're only nine and ten.

Well, okay. Okay, we don't need this turn right now. I'm just saying. Go Cardinals go. Go Cardinals go. Go all the bird teams. Big weekend for the birds. And there's a big weekend of baseball coming up that we will be back.

Yucking ball about on Monday. Let us know what we missed. Comment below. Whose outfit did you like better? Treves leaving vacation. I'll leave the warehouse maybe. We suck. Check more Yankees.

That's what the comments always say. There we go. More. Moss. Do that more. Let's go. Where are you at with Ali and Marmow? Luke and Baker.

Let's go. What's that with Marmal? My favorite manager.