Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - World Baseball Classic Has Been Amazing | 634

Episode Date: March 20, 2023

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Hello and welcome to talking baseball. Talking World Baseball, classic baseball, because the games have been awesome. So let's talk about them. Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball, brought you by Seatgeek. Code of John Boy preseason helps you out there.

It's March 20th. We are 10 days away from opening day, 11 days away from opening day. But spring training is kind of taking a back seat to the World Baseball Classic because Team USA is putting on. a show they are right now waiting to see who they're going to play in the championship game, which is exciting.

And I'm excited to chat about it with Jake and Treb and BBD who's behind the dish. Jake, how you doing? James, Travis, Davis, excited to get back in the mix. WBC has been fun. Huge sports weekend. Are you kidding me? A little March madness, a little St. Pat's for those who celebrate.

Shout out to all our Irish listeners. And yeah, man, WBC has been a hot in the streets topic on the interstate. It's been a fun in the streets topic. Just to watch, man. Go Cardinals, I guess. Our TPP just came out about them. And, man, they put on a little show last night for us. Trev, how are you doing out there?

I'm doing great, guys. For me, it's more Go Phillies and Trey Turner. You know I love the Phil's. You know I love Trey Turner. I've been on that bandwagon for a long time. It's been so fun to watch. I got to watch the games up in Utah at my friend's place up there.

And I had all of our group sitting around watching the WBC and they all loved it. The games have been so good. I want Japan, US. I want that. That's what I want. Do you think I'm going to get it?

I don't know. Yeah, I think you're going to get it. Japan looks pretty good. Mexico looks great too. They do. But Japan's pitching depth is crazy. And that's been the biggest dance for all these teams is to navigate the pitching.

Toros has got like a nightmare of navigation on his hands. I want to start there because he has killed it, man. Because when he first got announced his manager, I talked to a little baseball player. I don't know about that. I think we need somebody that's like been around the block a little bit more. But he's done great. And I think he's kind of like galvanized the team.

He's got them all kind of like, you know, like understanding the mission. And you're right. He's hamstrung by, you know, restrictions and you can't pitch back to back. There's pitch counts, all this stuff. But he's made it work. The whole coaching staff is crazy. Like it's really when I was watching the quarterfinal game, it was starting to sink in like Andy Pettick goes out to the mound visit.

Yeah. It's just funny that they're like legends of the game, but not coaches full time. I'm sure they have taught their skills and mentored younger players and all that. But, you know, Griffey. hitting in the cage and them all watching him. That's so cool to see. Had it doing his thing. Who else?

There was someone else that was floating around that I couldn't remember. There's a guy behind Trey Turner when he hit his Grand Slam in the dugout that I, kind of a chunkier guy that I knew. Who is that? Do you know it? I like that guy. No, he's my idol, but I don't know who he is. Yeah, I think he's, I think he is next ballplayer of some sort that I couldn't place his name.

But yeah, the coaching staff is wild. And then the hamstringness of how he has to do relievers and not relievers is crazy. Crazy as well. But shout out to my guy, Cedric Mullins, who got his at bat last night and popped a homer because that's what he does. Shout out. Yeah. More exciting. Most exciting Oriole ever in the last 10 years, four years.

J.J. Hardy? No, he's not exciting, but he's so steady. You marry him. Steady, J.J. Yeah. DeRose's job is end of the day. day, because we're going to talk about some WBC, you know, the USA, we have a high standard.

We, you know, we created the game, so we kind of, we got that leg up. Yeah, it's kind of, like, if they go out and win it, we'll be like, shake Mark DeRosa's hand. Good job, fellow American, welcome. If they lose, it's like, DeRosa, ran the team into the ground. And, yeah, some of the pitching stuff was really unique.

I mean, that Canada, what was it, the Canada blowout where they would have, like, run out? out of pitching. And then last night, yeah, they need the Cardinals to come up big. And they went, Wayno to Miko. Is that what they say? Wayno to Miko. Wayno to Miko and never nine, Aeronado and Goldo.

So, yeah. And, dude, all right, I know we're about to, like, fully sink our teeth in, but the Cardinals, how often do we talk about the Cardinals and, like, who they think they are as an organization and who they kind of are? Like, you know, they're one of the best run organizations. in baseball, probably sports. And I thought it was funny because we're doing, and we're about to do a conversation

about the World Baseball Classic and worried about injuries and should guys be participating and all of that. The Cardinals, the Devil Magic Cardinals, who are one of the best organizations, sent the most players to the WBC. I think it was 17. I thought the angel sent the most.

Cardinals beat them out in the end. So I think that says something. I think that says something as we start to head into that conversation. they put on a show. Trey Turner's American hero. Trey Turner's performance reminds me of T.J. O'Shee. We're like on the biggest stage. Remember that shootout, T.J.O. She versus Team Canada.

We're like non-hockey fans all the sudden. And then T.J.O.S. got like commercial deals. He was doing like subway commercials and all these things because he was an American sports hero from the Olympics. And man, some of these players like Turner or, um, there was, oh, there's talking about

Newt Bar and Team Japan is about to get like endorsement deals forever because he's just beloved in Japan right now. There's bigger opportunities than the world baseball classic trophy or winning it for these players, not to get into the wrong reasons to go there. But if you want to put your name on the main stage, it is a global audience that MLB does not have. Randy's going to get some Mexican endorsements out there.

the way he's been playing, like most likely. He already had. I think he's already been. I mean, he publicly pleaded the president of Mexico to make him a citizen just so he could play in the World Baseball Classic. And now he's coming through for them. Bad ass.

And he said, I don't, he said, I would love to beat Japan because team Mexico is just so, uh, what do you say? Something along the lines of like, I want to beat Japan and I hope Cuba beats USA because I want to beat Cuba. Yes.

Ooh. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry. Okay. Starting to get national there. Okay.

Oh, yeah. That's a big hatred. Because Cuba would not allow him to play on international tours, even though he was one of the best young Cuban players because they were scared he was going to defect, like, a lot of Cuban players. So they wouldn't even let him then play. So he defected to Mexico. And he lived there and played in those leagues as like a walk on. And then still in the off season goes and lives in Mexico with his wife and kids. that's like where he lives.

So that's awesome. He doesn't get to beat Cuba though. Yeah, but anyway, you can make a star of yourself and more than on the field stuff just in this global audience, which is cool. And I think for me, the other thing about Randy and Trey Turner is they both look good in Shady Ray's. Yeah, who doesn't?

Yeah, I mean, I wear Shady Rays and I look good as Trevor bites his tongue. The sun is coming out. Spring has trying to spring. in the city. Trev, you were just in the mountains. You know the sun reflects off that snow. You need the hater blockers on.

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And I think we got some big news coming with Shady Ray soon. So stay tuned to that dial. Jim, are you still a ratings guy? Because the rating numbers were big time. No, I haven't been. What were they? They're like breaking records. It's like, and it's a little, let me say this.

The books are cooked a little bit because like we're saying it's international, but that's also the point. Like it's the views have been bigger than the World Series and things like that because have the ratings been bigger than the World Series? Like the actual games? Because I saw a lot of people comparing Twitter view numbers. Yeah. No, not that.

Oh, that's no one gives a fuck about that. Besides like companies like us who that is our bread and better. But like the World Baseball Classic wants you to watch the game. They don't care what their tweet does. It's pretty funny. Jake, you brought it up. Do you know if the ratings were more? Do you have it in front of you?

I don't have the numbers with me. Oh, you're not a numbers guy. I wasn't going to start there. Oh, well, where do you want to start? Well, I want to start with Edwin Diaz. You got to go back quite a bit. The last time we talked, this was before Puerto Rico Dominican. We don't need to go back into all the gameplay of these games,

but hell of a game there. Edwin Diaz comes in. the ninth inning, he gets the Timmy trumpet entrance, comes in and just lights the world on fire, three strikeouts, see you later. Guys are bouncing up and down, then all of a sudden you see a guy sitting on the floor and you don't know what's happening.

And unfortunately for Edwin Diaz, season-ending injury. No? Edwin says he's going to try to come back. I hope so, man. Because that's about as bad as it gets. I mean, it reminds you of Kendris Morales. list on the on the on the homer and we talked about that we're going to ban the jumping around

celebrations that didn't happen we still do that uh and now people are kind of calling for the end of it again and i'm curious your guys take on you know it kind of like leads us into like a little bit of discussion on what this means and how scary it is if you're a met's fan to have your guy go out there now we also have Jose Altuva breaking his thumb he's out for eight to ten weeks which is crazy. There's a lot of going on on the internet right now about is it worth it to come play these games? And every single player that plays in it says yes, it's worth it.

We have guys on Team USA saying if you're a superstar and you get asked to come play this, there's no reason for you not to come play it. I think that kind of says it all. I understand sometimes from the fan-based perspective, like, you know, this is awesome, but you still have 162 to go and you still have, you know, when this is over, like it's time for for major league baseball to start and you want all your guys on the field um but things like this are just kind of they happen well if it hits you it sucks and if and you know like i feel for metz fans i do i think there might be more to it than that i think unfortunately

this conversation lost all its nuance and people are just yelling at each other but i mean they're talking about like there's quotes about how you must come play this is awesome but then they there's other quotes like, it's not spring training. Like the outbats are way different than spring training. And then you have pitchers who are supposed to be in their spring training, find it mix. Now with the adrenaline pumping up way more than they're physically prepared for and like not as maybe, maybe, this is all maybe. Maybe not as fine tuned for. So I do think it is a bit more risky than your average spring training where you go take one at bat, two at bat against a guy who's like slowly.

progressing himself, there's no adrenaline, then in this, where you have Bard who had adrenaline pumping through his body, could not find the zone, was like wild, and because of the limitations to the pitching, keep him in there, and then he hits Sautube. But Gavin Lucks had an injury happened during spring training that was, you know, unfortunate and untimely. That's off the basis, and that's Edwin Diaz. That's not spring training. But some of these hit by pitches, I don't know, I just think there is like some some avenue where like, well, you have pitchers that aren't ready to be firing this hard with this much adrenaline.

But it could happen in spring training. I fully understand that. But like then you have Aeronado get hit in the hand. And at some point, I do think it, it's not black and white. There is like a no thought that has to go into it. But it sucks to see people get hurt. And if I had a Yankee in the tournament, I would, I would not sure if I would be like watching. I'd be watching nervously.

Higgy caught the final inning yesterday. Congrats Higgy. Yes. Yeah, see, that's where my devil ad, Adkavit brain kicks in, is that, you know, hey, guess what? They could be in the fifth inning of a spring training game facing a double a pitcher, and they could be as amped up if they've ever been to face Mike Trout or Mookie Betts, and their fastball can get away.

So if you're playing the sport of baseball, like, it just is what it is. So that's where, like, for me, it's spring training and you're going to be playing games anyways, right? Like, if you're playing baseball games, if I'm a hitter, I want those real at bats. Like, I want guys trying to get me out, not a guy in spring training trying to work on his two seamer and thrown at every pitch. So it's the pitcher injury that's the concern, but we really haven't seen that, except Edwin Diaz, which is a post-game celebration. So the pitcher injury is more of the concern, and we haven't seen a lot of them. But I do wonder if, remember when they had a rush camp? When is that last year?

Or that was 20. Both. Yeah. But one was really bad. Lockout and COVID. Summer camp. I blocked all that from my mind. One of them we saw so many pictures go down in the first month.

Was that last year or is that 20? 20. No. I think it was last year. I think it might have been last year in the first month. Because nobody knew when this, when it was going to happen. And all said, we snapped their fingers and here was spring training. Yeah.

I remember. And there was articles about record amount of. pitchers like going down in April. I do think you have to think about that a little bit, but the injuries we've seen have been mostly just unfortunate. Yeah, and there's no perfect solution for this. There's no perfect timing for it. People are saying, we should take off the summer and do a week during then.

I don't really agree with that. I think this is probably the most ideal time. I don't think like after the season makes sense. So we were talking before the show. And, you know, from a player's perspective, sure it's easy to say everyone should go play in this and we'd all like to see all of our stars go play in this but like from players perspective again

you have a very small window of earning potential so like if I'm a guy who's if I'm Ian half and I talked to Ian about this and he's like dude I would have played 100% like he's like I was on a short list didn't get called but if I would play he's in a contract year like for me at that point you really have to think about like well the WBC isn't going to, I'm not going to get paid from the WBC. Like I have to go do it on the major league baseball field.

So like those are the, those are the thoughts that these guys are having. Most guys want to go do this. And like I said, even Ian have this is me now talking about what I would do. He said he wanted to go play. I think there were like times where you said, yeah, 100% I want to go. Like all these young guys like Bob Wood Jr. and Higgy, like I think it's so cool.

They're kind of like almost grooming these guys for like the next W. BC, like come get your feet wet, enjoy the atmosphere, learn from these guys, because you're probably going to be our starting shortstop in 2026 or whatever it is. But there are, it's just, it's okay that it's nuanced. It's okay that like some guys want to do it and some guys don't want to do it. It doesn't take away from the importance of it. Because it is, I mean, how can you watch these games and not see like what it means to the fans and what it means to these players? I mean, the emotion, when's the last time we saw, like, any of these guys have these emotions during a baseball game, like, playoffs?

Yeah, playoffs or big games, but. But like, not even the playoffs. You see them spill out of the dugout in the playoffs? No. Not like that. It's, it's. The Phillies games, they were like pretty hyped up. Those are awesome.

The trade turn to Grand Slam is, yeah, for non-walkoff spilling out of the dugout like that is kind of crazy. And that slow-mo shot of trout behind them and then mooky behind them is really cool. It's, you know, I'm in a position where I should talk about our society that I, the reason why the conversation has gotten, you know, kind of weird in a bad place online is that whenever you try to tell people what they should care about, like you kind of ended up in the wrong spot. So like, hey, guess what? The World Baseball Classic could mean a lot to you. And that's really cool and enjoy it. World Baseball Classic could mean nothing to you. And that's fine.

That's your prerogative. I don't care. But to try to tell other people it doesn't matter to them, that's none of your business. So I don't know. I think the World Baseball Classic, the other thing going on is in this post-COVID world, like people are caring more about activities and things

that you can do and experience. because we lived that timeline where you couldn't experience anything. And everyone's like itching to go. So I think this has been a tremendous step for the World Baseball Classic. Like you mentioned Trev before we start recording. This is the fifth one. Fifth or six. This is still new in the realm of anything that I think we're working to a great spot.

And I think the best spot would be is the midseason idea that you mentioned? I don't think we'll ever get there because you're talking. about owners and MLB having to shuffle a lot for four years. And hey, I guess what ran through my head a second ago is, you know when MLB owners and teams make things work out when the money works out? So if there's a way to make that work, they'll make it work, and you'll have pitchers at midseason. And if you're a Yankees fan and Garrett Cole has thrown 100 pitches the last five starts

and they say, hey, we need them for 75 for Team USS. you'd say, hell yeah, why not? Fire me up. Because you're playing games anyways. I don't know if we'll ever get there, but even where we're at right now, I think it's a great step for the WBC. It's a great step for baseball. And, yeah, I mean, I think comparing it to the other international sports,

like I said, with soccer trying to get to the World Cup, that's what they do. They pause mid-season, and they have all the players fit, and that's why it's successful. For basketball, we've seen the ebbs and flows of it. it where we've seen Team USA kind of roll out their C squad. And then they got that work by some of the foreign countries. And then everyone was kind of back in.

So that's where you talk about. And where Jim, that image and how cool, you know, baseball through the years and whether you've been up to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown or you see, you know, I feel spoiled with some of the Yankee spring training when we see the Andy Petits hanging around and some Willie Randolph's teaching the second baseman how to turn double plays and stepping on the new big bag. That man, it's really cool that we're going to look back one day and it's going to be, oh, wow, Bobby Witt Jr. was on that team.

With Waino? With Ken Griffey as a coach? Like, what? They're in a good spot. I wonder if they can take it to a next level. And if they can't, that's okay too. Is it recency bias or am I thinking like this has been the, most popular WBC and is that a social media thing? Is it because show hay's in it? Like it feels to

me like people are invested in it this year. Ratings are way up compared to last the last world baseball classic. We had some moments. We still think about the Adam Jones catch. Like that's that sticks in everyone's brain. So there were moments, but for some reason this one feels huge. Yeah. And and maybe it's I mean, but right. The Latin countries freaking brought it, bro. They brought it. I think they made this feel big. Like, Puerto Rico versus Dominican an elimination game. That's massive.

That grouping, Mexico, not Mexico's in the group, but it was Venezuela, Dominican, Puerto Rico, them all going up against each other. And those guys, it's just like, for years, you hear people talking about Winterball and like, you've got to go experience Winterball. It's like, well, it's Winterball. I don't want

to go play anymore. I want my time off. But like, anyone that's ever gone down there and played I said, this is an unreal atmosphere. You got to see it. And now the people who haven't been down there were kind of seeing it, you know, elevated. And it's, they have absolutely brought it from day one. And I think that, I think maybe that's, to me,

to have been the difference is just like that Miami scene has been crazy, crazy. I think that's where, you know, the TV ratings, I just looked at them and it's a very hard world to navigate, but I don't think it's doing well compared to M. MLB games. It's got like 1.5 mil, but I think like the first, the first round of postseason games get 3 million.

But then they have streaming numbers. It's very TV ratings are so stupid. It's very hard how they aggregate it and make it dumb. But compared to the last WBC, it's doing really well. I don't think it's outperforming MLB big games. Like judges going for the record game or the last game of the season for the Braves, they still did better than a world baseball classic. But butts in seats is amazing.

And I think that also comes with representing your country. You're really rooting for a nation, not individual teams, like a region or group of guys. And also it's once every four years. So it's a little bit hotter of a ticket. But that's been great. The fact that they sold out all the games is awesome. So I think it's every three years.

Do you think that's... I think it was every three years, but then they changed it to four because... because it was 06. You think that's right. Like you think it should be every two years? You're thinking this is good. Three is probably fun.

I don't know if they change it to 4. I think it went 06, 09, then 13, then 17. So I don't know if they're at 4 now. And then 23. It looks like they did formally switch to the 4-year cycle from 13 to 17. and a pandemic screwed up the one we're doing now. So now it's been six years. I'm kind of mad that I have to wait for more of this.

It's so fun. I've really enjoyed watching. Two's too quick. Maybe. Well, that's the other problem that it used to be an Olympic sport, but they took baseball out of the Olympics. So that was supposed to be part of the juggle. Isn't that just host city?

Like whoever hosts it, they changed it for like gymnasia. They changed it for her. Japan, they put it back in, but it's out. That was like an exception. Like they put it back in just because Japan hosted it. But for the rest of the time, it's not going to be in unless, yeah, the host city is like we need it. Well, if it becomes an Olympics where then that chain, then you don't need the WBC. Then you do it every four.

Yeah. But then you don't have pros playing in it. That's like it's. Right. It becomes two, it's two different events, which again is okay. If you want to put the, the amateurs in to go win, try to win a gold medal, that's pretty cool too. and if you're not into that, that's all right. And yeah, the number I had before was the Japanese-Italian baseball game.

Oh. Okay. It was like the most watched thing in Japan ever. So that's the number that cooks the books the most on the watching. Is it like half the TVs in Japan? Yeah. It was watched more than the Super Bowl, in quotes. Nice.

So that's huge. No, else is huge. Blue Moon. Bang. Put a couple of those. down the gullet this weekend. Are you kidding me? I did too. My huskies on the way to the Sweet 16 again. And Trev.

I only gave him a shot. No, not really. First half. Yeah, got to let Petino get his rocks off. He's a good coach. Every coach should have to go to a one-bid conference in the twilight of their career. Like, Beheim, like, you think you're good? Go to a one-bit conference.

See if you can get him to the tournament. Because Petino did it like four years in a row. Yeah, he had more scandals than Beheim just becoming a bad coach. But Blue Moon. That's good beer Trev drank it I drank it Jim thought about drinking it BBD had one

Just one take care of yourself Get it delivered Stay in We got the finale We got the what do we got The semi-final and the finale of the WBC Why not order yourself Some Blue Moon

Get dot blue moonbeard.com Slash baseball That whole sentence just does it for me Get dot Blue Moon beer.com slash baseball. Blue Moon made brighter, celebrate responsibly. Blue Moon Brewing Co. Golden, Colorado. We got a link in the description. Get it delivered.

Have a beer. Some people have been tweeting some Blue Moons at me. I'll tell you what. I like that a lot. Thanks, Blue Moon. Thanks, Blue Moon. Do you guys want to talk about, like, the actual games a little bit? I mean, the USA Games, at least.

The USA Venezuela game was awesome. So was Puerto Rico, Mexico. That was an awesome game with Randy or Rosarani making that catch. in deep left center and the big comeback by Mexico in the seventh inning. But the USA game against Venezuela was cool. And it was cool to see Venezuela doing big things, like a nice lineup, fun atmosphere. But I think that's been my favorite game.

Nine to seven. Usually I wouldn't say I like nine to seven games. I like Mexico 5'4, you know, a little defense, a little pitching. But U.S. has to put up runs to win. Well, they put up three runs in the top of the first, and we're like, okay, like, are the bats coming alive? Because we know this team USA, and that's kind of the calling card is the offense, and we're going to figure out with our pitching staff. No shots fired at these guys. Three nothing, but then Venezuela comes back, they put up two in the first, and then it became a game.

When we were sitting around having dinner at my buddy's place, by the way, he has blue moon on tap, so I did drink. Oops. I did drink some blue moons. And I was going I was going over It was couples There was like 10 people, okay? And I was going over my hot boy list

Nice Okay So there was a couple guys on Team USA That on my hot boy list One of them was Trade Turner And And we're sitting there And he comes up

And he gets two strikes on him And I'm like, yeah, this is my guy though Like watch out He hits that home run The whole freaking room erupted dude It was like such a cool special moment. Not all these people are baseball fans. But after he hit that, I got a lot of comments about, well, yeah, we really like him. I was, oh, now you like trade Turner. Now you think he's good

looking. And also, J.T. Riyomuto was the big hit in the room. Oh, because he stared down the pitcher. I forget it. Yeah. And he spit at him. Yeah. He liked it. Of course. A little machismo. You're going to hit me. I'm going to stare at you and spit at you. It's a fair trade. that was I mean that home run is that I mean he says it's the biggest hit he's ever had which is kind of crazy to think about trade turners played in some really big games but the emotion you saw come out of him was yeah I mean I think it's really funny when you ask these recency bias is a pretty big thing in psychology and you know hey was that the biggest home run you ever hit when the adrenaline's still going like 10 years you might have the same

exact answer I'm not disputing that But obviously these guys are going to say the best and nicest things about the thing that they're currently doing and enjoying and playing well. You know, if you're a criminal detective, you can't be asking those questions right away. They would get dismissed in court. Okay. But anyway, it was awesome. And it was the terrible O2 pitch. And I think his next home run, the next game is he had another O2 home run.

So that's where it's been, the pitching's been like from these other teams, Even from the U.S. It's not great. A lot of high scoring. Japan's got the best pitching. Japan has really good pitching. Shout out my guy, Louisa Rise,

for coming and showing up and doing his thing. That so far seems like a fun trade. Like Larissa Rise has showed out in front of his home crowd now, doing his thing. And the twins fans are loving Lopez. So like it seems like we're kind of like

all happy about this one, which is good. Yeah, Lopez. he took the loss, I think, right, for team Puerto Rico? I think he came in after the mess and almost got out of it, but then didn't. He inherited bases loaded, no out. So never mind, he's not to blame at all. They love the trade now.

And then if Pablo Lopez or Luis Ruiz has two bad games, everyone will turn on them. You think the Marlins are like seeing her eyes hit homers and be like, hey, but head. Don't do that. We don't want you to have a knock, you know? He's like, I like the stadium. I can hit him out. Home crowd loves him and, you know,

Kim Ang is like, no-uh. No. We're working pitchers. Bat to ball. Long rallies. Run. Yeah, I love, when you look at the lineups on paper and it's funny with some of the, you know, some of the international teams that you're like, ooh, okay, stacked.

Like, let's go. Or, you know, even Cuba, who's, again, missing, like a chunk of their guys because they put up rules that if you defect. during a tournament you couldn't play, but if you defected kind of recently and all right, we'll let you play. No, no. If you defected, you couldn't play.

No, they, some of the newer guys, like... Well, they didn't defect. They were allowed to leave because the rules changed. Allowed to defect. Venezuela. Okay, you're not defecated. Top to bottom.

Top to bottom. Even guys on the bench, Eddie Escobar, Renhifo on the bench. I mean, these are guys that, I mean, my goodness. like Venezuela doesn't get talked about like the DR and some of the other like Caribbean countries but man what they have is their program pretty cool

I mean Jimenez and Torres at the bottom of the lineup even even a Treves aeohenio Suarez stacked good for Venezuela they need more baseball love the Dodgers I was looking at I was looking at I like looking at fangress of the makeup of teams from like what countries. I think the Dodgers had, there was one team that had primarily Venezuelans as the second,

not Dominican Republic. I know the Yankees have a lot right now, but I think the Dodgers also have a ton of values. No, the Royals have six Venezuelans. Yeah. But when you go through this, you do realize like, oh shit, that is like a,

it's like D.R. then Venezuela as MLB players. U.S., D.R., Venezuela. I want to I want to give a shout out to our guy Tim Anderson, who I feel like a lot of the time people dismiss what he does offensively because he's like a high Babbitt guy. And like he continuously gets called like, oh, it's slucky. How does it keep doing it? He just, he's one of those guys that people will say, oh, he just got that touch.

He finds holes. But he's been doing it for a long time. He's been finding those holes for a long time. He's been putting up an average for a long time. And seeing him move over to second base is really cool. I think the combination of him and Trey Turner is like really fun to watch and he just kind of like

goes about his business and I don't know he's really really grown on me since I've left the game I thought he was good he made some really good plays on me so I made a little bit of hate towards him there took some hits away from me

a little bit of competitive juice but as I step back now and I'm just a fan of the game and I'm watching the guys around I really enjoy watching him I don't know if it's because I just love short stops, but guys being able to move positions like that and still continue to perform,

it's pretty cool. I don't know the White Sox, I don't know the White Sox depth chart or roster makeup. I mean, I could look it up and refresh my brain, but they said on the broadcast, like, I wonder if this opens up opportunities for the White Sox, knowing that he can play second if that becomes a better situation. I don't know if that's true.

White Sox fans, you tell me if there's any like budding prospect or any scenario where this becomes like, a benefit. But it is cool to see a guy go play a new position. And you could also see him kind of adjusting. Like him in a Galdi, he didn't know whose pop-up that was. And Gouldy was like,

dude, I don't catch those. Yeah. You're the second baseman. You catch it. I hit. Yeah. That's what I do.

Dude, his swing. Oh my God. I mean, we're kind of jumping all over the place here. People there's a lot. There's a lot that's happened since the last time we got on the sticks. Uh,

his Homer last. last night against the heck do they play last night? Cuba. Cuba, sorry. The way he pulled his hands in on that pitch. And what kind of bat is Goldie using? It looks like a like a piano leg

at the bottom. Like there's such a huge counterweight on the bottom. So that thing must feel so light in his hands, but I bet you it's like a 34 ounce bag, which is massive. But I bet you it feels so light because of that counterbalance. Oh, that knob, I'm looking at it now. Yeah, it's big. Yeah, it is.

It does look like a bedpost or some shit. Yeah. I'm having Teddy watch these games. I'm like, look, man, like, look at what these guys do. Like, when they get two strikes or like when they're in an offensive count, and things are a little bit different. And you just watch these guys work at bats. And I think I put that out there.

Like the swings, like Aeronado was taking, you know, staying inside that ball down the line like it's not about your a swing people yeah you got to work on your a swing but you got to be able to just put the barrel on the fucking ball and staying inside the ball is so important and these guys are just showing they're putting an absolute offensive clinic on right now you know like trade turner he ain't trying to hit home runs with two strikes you're trying to put the barrel on the ball and things are happening the point i wanted to make about mike trout too is he's been getting beat up inside people have and that's that's where you pick up

Mike you got to go in and make him chase and he has been chasing off but I believe it was his last at bat last at last night could have been a second to last at bat last night gets the base hit to right field if there's one thing that's going to get Mike trout going it's that getting the getting the ball out over the plate taking it to right field it wouldn't surprise me if he goes into the final game now and just goes fucking off and he becomes sorry trade turner i'm going to steal captain america fucking logo from you like he's that's the abat that'll get Mike trout locked in is going the other way, staying inside the ball, letting it travel a little bit longer, seeing it, and we're going.

But the everything from Jeff McNeil choking up 40 inches on the bat to to Goldie with his knob and how he handled it. Aronado swing that ball to right field when he didn't even finish it. It was like a two-handed split grip finish. It's just been awesome, dude. I love watching these guys do their thing. That was that Aronato one was one of the only times, uh, you saw a guy. I was watching.

I was thinking about this. He was just like, I'm going to put this ball in play. Yeah. I don't know what the count was, but he hadn't seen a lot of balls. I think he struck out earlier in the game. And he just blocked that change. Yeah, that was a block, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah.

He just was like, I'm just going to put this in play. I think he was talking to Goldie about it afterwards. I think there was two outs. And I was trying to read his lips. Everyone was passing around. It looked like he was talking about like, I was just swinging out of ball. I didn't want to get pitched around or something like that. but they're just jumping fastballs.

Like it was if you see an off speed, the next one might be a fastball and just swing, and that's what they were doing versus Cuba yesterday. And that's how Turner and Goldie hit their home runs. Both came after 77-mile-power curveballs, pitch one, 93-mile-power fastballs, kind of inside that they just turned on. And to update the Venezuelan thing,

only two teams don't have a Venezuelan on them. Toronto and Cincinnati on the 40-man roster. Every other team got a representative. The Aronado one was the one that changed last night's game because they had the reliever come in. It looked like he was going to have a clean inning. He was lined up. The U.S. had put numbers on the board in each inning.

And then Aronado slaps that one down the line with that swing. And, yeah, then the David versus Goliath. Goliath kind of broke out. Yeah. Well, they were up pretty big at that point, I think. Yeah, I think it was five or six one. still, like that's, to get a zero on the board and be able to move on to, like, the next thing and they couldn't do that, that was kind of, that was game over.

Turner hits another one later on. And he gets four RBIs. So he hits the Grand Slam in the quarterfinal, and then the semifinal, it goes three for five with two homers, four RBIs. How about that Alfredo Des Spain, Despagne, Despagne? I played against him. I played against him. He's got that Storelli gumption to him.

2009 I played against that guy and he was hitting freaking absolute tanks for Cuba. I think he had some like 450 career homers over all the leagues he's played in in Cuba. But yeah, some of these guys like with like the Cuba national team, they've been playing forever. Like 15, 20 years on these teams. and they just do it and it's pretty cool to see it, dude. Cuba's not, they're not where they have been in years past as far as, like,

powerhouse baseball-wise. But when you see those, the red jerseys show up, it's a little frightening, dude. Like, this is Cuba. You know, like, their baseball team, like, they, there's a storied history there. And, you know, they're never going to be an easy game ever.

But they're kind of, they're a little deflated right now as far as the guys they're putting out there. the USA Cuba game was like all Cardinals for the USA team like you guys talking about Astros were pretty heavily involved in the quarterfinal, the Venezuela game. I mean, Al-Tube got hurt, which that stinks, but you have Tucker. He had a really big day at the plate. Presley comes in to pitch.

Luis Garcia got it done on the bump for him. I was like, oh, those Astros everywhere here. So it's kind of cool to see that when it was on both sides. You're like, they're everywhere. And then Tucker doesn't play the next game. Like what? But I think DeRosa's got a lot of rules he has to follow. Like some teams are saying don't start him two days in a row.

I know relievers are being like told you can't start him two days in a row. Like the quarterfinal game, he had four pitchers available. He is three of them. And when Wayno was in trouble, it was like, oh shit. That first ending with Wayno, I mean, come on. Baseball. And Loop was the only reliever. Luke was the only reliever available for DeRosa in that game.

So that was a scary first inning. Yeah, Kenny, Kenny Rosenthal, our guy came on the screen. It was like, the magic number is three. And that's what he wanted to use, three pitchers in that game. So he could kind of have all hands on deck for the finals. They ended up doing it, which is great.

But Wayno did not do pitchers, a service. I know you're getting up there an age, big guy, but those were some rough play. The first one, the Baltimore chopper was tough. That was tough. I was watching that because I might do a little breakdown on it because it was just huge to escape that. But that was kind of tough. I was watching it in slow-mo trying to think like how could he have,

because it wasn't on the fly so you can't catch it, like dive to catch it. You have to let it drop. I think once you let it bounce, you have to just hope it let it go and hope it rolls down. Yeah, he was hoping to bounce the other way and just down straight up. Yeah. Otherwise you got to kind of like run to the spot and pick it on the short hop. That one was, I think kind of a perfect spot, especially for Wayno.

the other one it was just because he had a he has a massive glove like pitchers used massive gloves and there was this big old glove going there and the ball just like not even close to it yeah underneath it and Anderson's going to set set up for the double play and you're just like no nothing nothing yeah I think the the Kyle Tucker thing not not playing in last night's game I think I was getting overblown just a little bit like I get it out too they got hit

and we're doing the injury conversation we just talked about it but it's, you know, not like they're throwing, oh, Tucker's not playing today, Pluffy, we need a couple of innings out of you. Schwabo got the start. Alonso moved to DH. Like, you know, the lineup worked. The lineup worked.

Yeah, it was just how good he had, he was in the game before. The best players in baseball. $400 million. Newtime USA alum, no big deal. You're talking crap about me. Represent this country for us. You, me, and Homer Bailey.

Where were we? South America somewhere? Barquist, No. Excuse me? Italy. Caracas. Caracas, that's right.

Oh, I had one more thing I wanted to say about this game. Now I can't remember what I was going to say. Cuba or Venezuela? I think it was the Cuban game. I, again, I'll reiterate. I hope it's Japan versus the U.S. I think that's kind of a classic matchup. Although, like, Mexico and being like kind of like the

Dark Horse team coming through, we did look at the roster. This is kind of like, okay. I can really get behind this. Who's starting tonight? Bebers, can you look up who's starting tonight for? is Patrick Sandoval. Sanofal. Sasaki.

Roque. That's a big matchup. The kid. San DeVall has looked absolutely filthy. Go Angels fans. Let's go Angels fans. He diced up Mike Trout. That's going to be a fun conversation for them to have.

Otani may relieve now, they're saying. Yeah. I thought he was, I thought the reports where he was going back to Angels camp, but he's like going to be a hitter. And then he might even relieve. Well, when's, when's, um, he's pitching the last, like five days before opening day. So I don't know, uh, okay. I don't know when that is.

Well, the Angels sent him an email saying, could you please stop pitching? And then the trout. There's no way he's going to relieve in the fucking final. There's no way. I would love it. They said he's never pitched on less than five days rest. It'll be four and a half days rest. He hasn't come out of the bullpen since Lord knows when.

Like, it'll be interesting to see. He will start for the Angels on March 24th is what Nevin said. So they would have to have abandon that plan. This is like we a bullpen day. He gets 20 pitches. Trying to do the reliever bullpen day. Close it out with Shohei. But then he would, well, that's tonight, right?

So then. It's the 20th song. So the 21st of the 21st. championship so he could still hit in the championship game because i was with you treb i thought that meant he was not going to be with the team at all yeah now i just didn't do the math calculation so he can still play and hit with them because that gives him time after the 21st fly back fly back and make your start and if they went i mean if they win tonight because mexico is good sandivals stud man two 291 era last year 26 years old and randy's on a mission randy he's on a

Does that guy mind a big game? I don't know. They got a full line up. They still have Darvish lined up for the championship game. Joey Manessus. Trev, did you, you didn't watch the full Mexico. Puerto Rico game. That was the one game over the weekend that I kind of missed.

Did you see any highlights? I don't know if they put this in highlight packages. I put it in the breakdown, but Randy is throwing his glove off. And I don't know if he does this all the time. Like Ray's fans, let me know. Anytime the ball wasn't put in, play and was a strike, he spiked his glove in the outfield so he could two-hand clap. Randy feeds into it.

Randy knows what he's doing. Some people tweeted that they were at the game, like, behind him. And they were like, he was awesome. Like he was like, like, just watching. He's like signing gloves during the game. Yeah, yeah, like just watching and interacting him was worth the price of mission. But yeah, when the pitcher threw a strike and he didn't use a glove because he didn't get put in play, he just threw it on the ground immediately and then started clapping for the pitcher.

So, you know, pitch clock's not going to be able to allow that. Oh, yeah. I was going to talk about that a little bit. The reason I don't like Twitter that much is when you put something out there, then all of a sudden you have, for the last fucking three or four days, people just arguing under my Twitter. I don't like that. How do I stop that?

I can mute it? I can't, I hate it. I need to mute it. I hate it. It makes me not want to use Twitter. So I will do that. But the question I had for you, James, the pitcher, Kihada, that gave up the Grand Slam,

throws his glove and it bounces back. How did that happen? I don't know. I was surprised by that. I mean, not only did it bounce back up to him, it bounced back up to him really fast. Like a fucking trampoline. He threw it on a trampoline.

Like what was that about? I mean, Kehada throws what, 96 miles per hour. So if you bring that out. You go try to do that with a glove right now. Can you go try to do that? You're in your backyard. You got a glove. Like after this recording, can you and then send it to,

send it to BBD? If you do it fast enough, you can put it on on the screen right here maybe. I don't know. What? happened there? Dude, I don't know. I mean, it was hard dirt, right? Because it's the back of the mound. Could it have been on the rubber, on the rubber perfectly. Oh, that's funny if it was on the rubber perfectly. Or like, did you like kick it back up to himself? It was bizarre. Hackie sacked it.

You know he was so mad at his glove. Like, why did you just come back up to my chest? Horrible pitch glove. Or it, or it made him like smile look because he's like, oh, that's cool. Yeah, what's just happened? Maybe he's thinking the same thing. What the fuck? Yeah. that was wild but honestly that was that was uh that was one of the more fun moments i've had watching baseball um in a long time that that homer like that was fucking nuts yeah it was a moment there's a lot of people that your your crew in in park city will remember tray turner for that and that's uh you know when you were talking about happer before and how he you know contract year and blah i don't know it say the u.s goes to a championship game

say it is against Japan and say Ian Hap hit two home runs in that game? I don't know. Hasn't everyone been tracking Otani's followers on Instagram and they've like doubled in a week or two? So yeah, there's value to the WBC in a lot of different avenues. Is it different?

Yeah. But it's pretty cool too, man. It's freaking bring me back a little bit, man. I don't want, I'm not going to talk about myself. Okay. On screen, Jake, Jamie, I'll call you later and we'll just have a huge conversation about me and my Team USA experiences.

Okay. There was a little bit of me that I'm not rooting for Team U.S.A to lose. Let me start over. Wow. But if they do lose, Trev, not kidding, not a joke, you're on deck for that manager's gig. Oh, it's a joke. It's a joke. Dude, what's DeRosa been doing?

DeRosa's been in studio for the past however many years. He played in the world. Baseball Classic, so I think he had like a connection to the... Has Trev played for Team USA? I qualified for the World Baseball. Thank you very much. You know, it's a, I do have a healthy relationship with USA Baseball. Paul Seiler, what's up?

I always get, that's why I mess up Peter Seidler's name because I'm thinking about my boy Paul over there. I would, this is what I would do. I would like to coach like a youth team, not, the WBC might be a little above my pay grade right now. Like, let me get in that youth aspect. Michael Cadier's doing it right now. I would love to take a team overseas or down south and get the boys routed up because

I think Team USA made me like a man kind of. Yes. Because you. Something was bigger than you? You just don't, yeah, you just don't know if you're good enough. And then all of a sudden you're playing with the best players in the country and you're like, oh, shit, I am good enough. Like it really helped my confidence out a lot.

so I think very fondly of it and the experiences are just incredible so I would do that but WBC I mean we're being serious yeah and that's that's not in the cards for me just just yet I don't know Throsa again I started the show this way

but he's done a great job yeah people were really mad about the bardening but he's you got to understand what he has to deal with there's so much going on that's not your normal managing and also if you go back to that bard inning he threw some decent pitch

is, I went back and watched it. Wasn't that crazy? I thought he got that the one hit was a complete check swing that like just blooped over his head in the infield. Yeah. And then he was wild. I mean, he was wild, but We've seen a couple of pictures

in this tournament come out and just like lose it, can't find it at all. I mean, it could be the adrenaline thing that you alluded to earlier, James and just they're not ready for this type of atmosphere yet. That sucks. Jose Al-Tuba getting hurt is just brutal, man. Sucks. And that's absolutely brutal. out for a little bit.

If there's one team that can handle it, probably, it's the Astros. We're still going to be okay. And if he comes back for the second half and is Altovae, then you're going to be okay for the Astros because they're pretty good, pretty deep. And we're, but it does stop.

It does suck, obviously. You know, we were even dancing around pre-show because, again, like some of these have become hot buttony. And yeah, Treve, if it was, if it was Aaron Judge,

out eight to 10 weeks, would we have a different tone? A thousand percent, right? So I don't know, especially in like an AL West that, you know, are the Mariners, are they going to dance with the Astro? Like, what if the Mariners beat the Astros in the West by one game this year? Like, I don't know. We're going to look back at the WBC and say what kind of impact did it have. So there's still ripple effects coming and we'll probably, I'll probably walk over my words a little

bit, but, um, I bet a lot of money that Jose Altube was going to play in the next WBC. I bet a lot of money. Oh, and dude, start signing me up, Trev. You, you talked me into one day thick Mike Trout as a DH one day, like 41 year old Trouty, just like dinger or bust. Um, I mean, give me, like, give me the legend Jose Altuve at age like 45 tapping into the WBC. Like, give me that. there is a difference for those countries and that's where like there's nuance to the debate of like it does mean more to Venezuelans and then it does and Dominicans to then Americans. I don't think that's up for a debate. We have our domestic league, which is major league baseball where the top players come.

Like, you know, Venezuela has a domestic league and it gets viewers. and they have the Caribbean series, which I enjoy watching, which is all the domestic leagues in Winterball and Latin America. But it's like, this isn't going to mean more to Americans than the World Series. I don't think that's going to happen. Maybe it's life.

Two different parts of the brain. But we have the excuse, kind of like Cuba had the excuse, like, well, not all our best players are here. Where, and I wonder, I don't know the depths of the Venezuelan team

and Dominican and who's not there. I'm sure it's not all, you know like one for one the best top 20 players but it was a little sad to see the Venezuelan crowd like lose coming oh shit yeah they're fun that's just great baseball and they're passionate because it is i mean there's other sports in those countries but baseball is king i don't think baseball's king in our country right now i think football's king in our country right now i could maybe make the argument to basketball i think it's football and then kind of everything else right now, but in, you know, Venezuela and, and Dominican, like, it's, it's baseball.

Like, all the heroes are baseball people. It's, it's, that's, that's kind of the difference. It's just, it's, it's different in the words of Jimmy O'Brien's Jersey Shore Beach video. Yeah. What year is that? 1989 or something like that. It's different. Because, yeah, I mean, even going back to the previous rounds, wasn't it, was it Taiwan and Japan that have had a couple crazy games and like it it means the world to them so yeah it's it's just it's different scales and now like I just in my head had a have a 44 year old el tuvee leading venezuela to victory and like how cool would that be for him if he'd been like retired for two years just busted it out

for the tourney like it it opens some different avenues that the world series does not and so does better help trev better help go get yourself some better help help help you're some better Well, getting to know yourself can be a lifelong process. It really is, man. My goodness. There's days when I look in the mirror. Working with a therapist can help you get closer to the best version of you. Therapy is all about deepening yourself, awareness, and understanding.

If you're thinking about giving therapy a try, better help is a great option. It's convenient, flexible, affordable, and entirely online. You'll fill out a survey. You'll get matched with a licensed therapist. And you can switch therapists at any time. No additional charge. So discover your potential of BetterHelp. Betterhelp.com slash talking baseball. Hello.

The name of the show, 10% off your first month, BetterHelp.com slash talking baseball. Maybe crushed it. Can you turn the Bluetooth on? You never know what's going to happen. It's different. You can stay together forever or it's different. That's you? Whatever happens, happens.

but it's different every night and you meet me. No, it's just a really good sound, sound clip from this drunk girl in a documentary. It's different. It's different. I thought that was like an eight-year-old Jimmy O'Brien. No, it's a really drunk girl. It's different. Every night, you never know what's going to happen.

And it's just different. MLB season, that's how they should promote it. Do we have to redo the Rockies TPP now that pro far signs with them? or what's let's wait for the ICF trade okay oh center fielder the Rockies have had just a crazy amount of injuries and I was

you don't root for those but you know Kotuck was kind of like hey there's a better chance for you to make the team now but pro far coming in kind of that's what their answer to that was what was a 7.7 for a year he gets less than what he opted out of with the Padres or

or just 700 and more or something like that. Yeah. But probably more playing time. Yeah. Sometimes you've got to think about that. How many of bats am I going to get? Now he's going to come here. He's going to start every single day.

So go Rockies, right? Trade deadline. If the Rockies ever push the button, unless it's Aeronado and they pay for him to leave. He's such a stud. Still not on my hot boy list. Aronado Now your style

He's the one that everyone gets mad at me for Okay We're too close to the situation Because he's kind of He's a baseball hardo I say that in an endearing way But I think for Hot Boy list You know

It might be too much It might be overwhelming He might be like Showing up at your apartment unannounced And you're like whoa I mean This is very subjective People have very strong opinions

On different like different Looks But you're is my list. You want to put your own list out there, put your own list out there. Sure. Fine. I will. John J-So. He's pretty odd. Number one.

John J-S. You're into pirates. He's a type. John J-So's your guy. Well, World Baseball Classic. We got another semi-final tonight, Japan, Mexico, and then the championship game, USA versus winner of that. So we'll probably recap that on next episode and then whatever other spring training updates happen.

It's funny these guys coming back, like Gleiber coming back from Venezuela. And now he's just like in Tampa, taking swing at bats. Yeah. Spring at bats. Fuck. It's different. What's the Machado? I think Homer did his first a bat back.

If I'm him, I'm just like, I'm good. I'm good, yeah. It's like, wait, let's start this season. We're doing this for another week and a half. It's this time where, yeah, the guys are like, I'm ready to go. But now you have to play even more. That's what sucks for the end of spring training. They'll make you play like six or seven innings.

instead of like three. You're like, dude, I don't, I'm ready. I don't need this, but it's that time of spring train. Shit, the season's here, 11 days. Shit, shit. See you guys. Thanks for tuning in. Subscribe to the channel.

If you're watching on YouTube, leave a review if you're on iTunes or whatever. Appreciate you. I love you. Go baseball. Go USA. Jake sucks. Primer on Japan's Monster. The ReWall.

David Adler tweet. Hey, Yoshi's crush. No Red Sox, I always say that. No Red Sox.