Latest / OneLegUpAlex Sports / One Leg Up 8-2-24 - Belly Up Sports Writer Eric Katz Talks Yanks Trade Deadline Moves and Being An IBWAA Member

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One Leg Up 8-2-24 - Belly Up Sports Writer Eric Katz Talks Yanks Trade Deadline Moves and Being An IBWAA Member · OneLegUpAlex Sports

0:02
Speaker 1: Here's your host, Alex Garrett.
0:06
Speaker 2: Well on my line right now before the Yanks take
0:09
Speaker 2: on a Blue Jays on the Auto Spare podcast network,
0:12
Speaker 2: is another I b W A writer, mister Eric Katz.
0:17
Speaker 1: Eric, thanks for joining me, no problem, Thanks for having me.
0:21
Speaker 2: I assume me getting you guys and the writers in
0:23
Speaker 2: that organization. I love it. And tell me all about
0:26
Speaker 2: who you are. We see you all over Twitter and
0:29
Speaker 2: Eric Katz at REPBX and everything like that. Tell us
0:32
Speaker 2: who Eric Kats is before we get into the series.
0:35
Speaker 1: Well, I write for a website called belliotsports dot com.
0:38
Speaker 1: I won an award this past year for the best ratcle.
0:41
Speaker 1: Ironically enough, it was about it was I was actually
0:45
Speaker 1: defending Aaron Boone depending on what side of the aisle
0:48
Speaker 1: you are on when it comes to him, and I
0:50
Speaker 1: won an award for that. I'm also part of the
0:52
Speaker 1: Internet Writers Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, where you
0:56
Speaker 1: see my articles everywhere. You might love them, you might
0:59
Speaker 1: hate them.
1:00
Speaker 3: I don't care, just if you just make sure your
1:02
Speaker 3: opinion is extra colorful so I can laugh.
1:05
Speaker 2: Well, you know I'm interesting, No so that it's a
1:08
Speaker 2: little different than a BWA. The Baseball Raters of America, right,
1:10
Speaker 2: tell us the difference.
1:12
Speaker 3: This one, there's no member. There's like a one time
1:15
Speaker 3: fee of like seventy five bucks, which you pay that
1:17
Speaker 3: and then you then you're a member for life. The
1:20
Speaker 3: Baseball Rights Association, it's very sophisticated to get in that one.
1:24
Speaker 3: You can vote for the Hall of Fame, the actual
1:26
Speaker 3: real deal, the Internet Baseball Righter soation has their own thing.
1:29
Speaker 3: But you know, but you're not voting for the people
1:31
Speaker 3: who are ultimately going to get into Cooperstown.
1:34
Speaker 2: Is that one of your goals? Eric, I gotta ask that.
1:38
Speaker 3: Right now, the only goal of keeping up with right
1:40
Speaker 3: now is to get into a Major League Baseball press box.
1:43
Speaker 2: Well, we talk about the bit off line said, does
1:44
Speaker 2: this get you any press credits? You're like, not yet.
1:46
Speaker 2: You know, we'll get there though even as podcasters it's
1:49
Speaker 2: kind of a struggle bust in that regard, if you will.
1:53
Speaker 2: But I gotta ask you, go ahead.
1:56
Speaker 3: Well, it's only going to grow because, like if you
1:59
Speaker 3: think about it, it's all because the medium has become
2:01
Speaker 3: has become a lot bigger over the years, and I
2:03
Speaker 3: think part of that's due to part of that was
2:05
Speaker 3: inspired by COVID and I think. You know, overall though,
2:10
Speaker 3: you're seeing a lot more creators out there where instead
2:12
Speaker 3: of just having those giant newspapers or giant internet places,
2:16
Speaker 3: you're gonna see probably more factions where.
2:20
Speaker 1: Well, if the team wants the coverage, you know they'll
2:22
Speaker 1: have to.
2:23
Speaker 3: I mean, right now, just with COVID and everything, it's
2:25
Speaker 3: kind of screwed up coverage for football and baseball because
2:28
Speaker 3: now these pr guys are on a power trip.
2:30
Speaker 2: Because they can they're able to contain it and whatnot.
2:33
Speaker 2: You mentioned you wrote an art World defending him, and
2:37
Speaker 2: I'm starting to think after the trade deadline, which the
2:40
Speaker 2: Yankees won, I know it doesn't look like it on
2:42
Speaker 2: the Tuesday, but Jazz Chism is the biggest acquisition of
2:45
Speaker 2: the entire deadline.
2:46
Speaker 1: Can we agree on that, Mark Letter Mark Letter Junior
2:51
Speaker 1: was on the phone.
2:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that was that was great? Wait, Mark Glider
2:56
Speaker 2: Junior is on your phone.
2:58
Speaker 3: No. In terms of in terms of you saying jash
3:00
Speaker 3: Chishm's the best one, I'd probably argue saying Mark later
3:04
Speaker 3: Junior was probably the Yankees' biggest acquisition. I mean, sure, Jazz.
3:07
Speaker 3: I mean, don't get me wrong, that's an energizer. Bundy
3:09
Speaker 3: to the lineup. But Yankees need helping the bullpen. And
3:13
Speaker 3: you know it's you know, I mean.
3:14
Speaker 1: Contrary to what it's been as a play you know,
3:16
Speaker 1: it's been pretty good this year.
3:18
Speaker 3: You know. Yeah, I play Holds had his struggles and
3:20
Speaker 3: he's been in a slumpouts of recently. But but you know,
3:23
Speaker 3: the Yankees kind of need a boost there because man,
3:26
Speaker 3: it's just been eaten alive by injuries. And instead of
3:29
Speaker 3: a reclamation project, Mark later Junior was coming in with
3:32
Speaker 3: he's the strike up pitcher they need. And you know,
3:35
Speaker 3: you saw it against the Phillies when he struck out
3:37
Speaker 3: Brandon Marshall the bases alone.
3:39
Speaker 2: That's right now. You know, it's interesting about this deadline
3:43
Speaker 2: is and I started to thinking about this some of
3:45
Speaker 2: some other retweetings. What it bright in front of us?
3:48
Speaker 2: Eric was the trade deadline? Is that what he was
3:50
Speaker 2: talking about the whole time when he said it's right
3:53
Speaker 2: in front of us? Is that what he was referring
3:54
Speaker 2: to And we just didn't even see it till it happened.
3:58
Speaker 3: I think he was a final I think he was
4:00
Speaker 3: referring to anything specific. I think you know, we saw
4:03
Speaker 3: him use this again last year.
4:06
Speaker 1: But you know the thing.
4:08
Speaker 3: The thing about it is, I think he's just talking
4:10
Speaker 3: about the games and wins and things, the games and
4:12
Speaker 3: wins and things like that. I think he was referring
4:15
Speaker 3: to that more or less than the trade deadline, because Booty,
4:17
Speaker 3: you know, he's got to say but he doesn't have
4:19
Speaker 3: a final say.
4:21
Speaker 2: Well, and I would say now that he's with the
4:23
Speaker 2: tools to win, I think we're seeing a very different team.
4:27
Speaker 2: But in your an estimation here, you know, before the
4:31
Speaker 2: big win against Boston Extras last week that they did
4:34
Speaker 2: gets run by the Mets, they had that terrible blown
4:36
Speaker 2: loss against the Red Sox. Everybody thought it was going
4:38
Speaker 2: to be the same old, same old. But from your eyes,
4:41
Speaker 2: Eric Cats, what changed in that Saturday. It was the
4:44
Speaker 2: fact that they started to score more runs the last
4:46
Speaker 2: couple of games alone.
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Speaker 1: I think so.
4:49
Speaker 3: I think part of it too is you know, guys
4:51
Speaker 3: got healthier, so that helped. You know, you knew guys
4:54
Speaker 3: are coming back because you, of mind, though the Yankees
4:56
Speaker 3: were going through their struggles there, their injured list was
4:59
Speaker 3: pretty bad. I don't think you can I don't think
5:02
Speaker 3: you there's I don't think you can equate it to
5:04
Speaker 3: just to just like one specific thing. Their injury list
5:07
Speaker 3: is pretty bad too, so you're gonna struggle there when
5:09
Speaker 3: you're that injured and JD. Davis is your cleanup hitter.
5:13
Speaker 3: I think, you know, I think injuries were certainly a
5:16
Speaker 3: part of it. I mean, but you know, it's also
5:19
Speaker 3: the season just evens out. You're gonna go through a
5:22
Speaker 3: hot stretch where you're just you can do no wrong,
5:25
Speaker 3: and the Yankees did, and then you're gonna go through
5:27
Speaker 3: a stretch where it's just the sky's fawned, especially in
5:31
Speaker 3: New York. And the funny thing about it is Baltimore
5:35
Speaker 3: went through the same stretch as we did too, So
5:38
Speaker 3: that's that's what makes it ironic.
5:41
Speaker 2: I was gonna ask you about the we versus them
5:43
Speaker 2: kind of verbiage because you are a writer and you're
5:46
Speaker 2: a sports journalist. But it seems like you're easily able
5:50
Speaker 2: to say you attached something the Yankees or you're just
5:53
Speaker 2: rooting for them. Uh, how does that impact your journalism?
5:57
Speaker 2: Is belly up more like you know, for the fan,
5:59
Speaker 2: I guess you'd say.
6:00
Speaker 3: Off, I write all teams, and it's not just the Yankees.
6:05
Speaker 3: I don't just praise the Yankees all the time. I've
6:08
Speaker 3: I've taken my fair share of my fair share of
6:10
Speaker 3: shots against them, as you've noticed, I've you know, I don't.
6:14
Speaker 3: I like to make sure the topic is expensive because
6:16
Speaker 3: I don't want it to be too short. But you know,
6:19
Speaker 3: I've taken my fair share of shots at them.
6:21
Speaker 1: I took.
6:21
Speaker 3: I've I've ripped Brian cash from the shreds before, even
6:25
Speaker 3: though I've even though I've met the guy before, I've
6:28
Speaker 3: taken I've said, you know, I've I've said, I've talked
6:31
Speaker 3: about the things they needed, the things they need to
6:33
Speaker 3: do before too. I praised them when they needed praising,
6:36
Speaker 3: and I rip them when they need ripping. I mean,
6:39
Speaker 3: I play, I play a fair game.
6:41
Speaker 2: What I love. What I loved about your expert in
6:43
Speaker 2: the trade deadline was that you were right on top
6:45
Speaker 2: of every move possible, giving your own thoughts. Is is
6:50
Speaker 2: it fun to cover the deadline like that? And you
6:53
Speaker 2: know it seems like you become a source at that point,
6:55
Speaker 2: don't you not?
6:57
Speaker 1: Really?
6:57
Speaker 3: But I like putting my own opinion out there, what
7:00
Speaker 3: I thought of this move or that move or or
7:02
Speaker 3: this other move. You know, I like to kind of
7:04
Speaker 3: put my opinion out there. If you love it, if
7:06
Speaker 3: you love it great. If you don't love it good,
7:09
Speaker 3: you know, I'm okay, you do. I you know, I try,
7:11
Speaker 3: and you know, on the you know how nasty social.
7:14
Speaker 1: Media can be.
7:14
Speaker 3: I try, and I try and just ignore the comments,
7:17
Speaker 3: you know, I just you know, you can hate it
7:20
Speaker 3: or you can love it.
7:20
Speaker 1: But either way, you're responding to what I have to say.
7:23
Speaker 3: So apparently you need me in some sort of way
7:26
Speaker 3: to put something out there, because if I stop writing
7:29
Speaker 3: or stop tweeting, you're gonna have nothing to respond to
7:32
Speaker 3: respond to me about. You're just going to tweet at me,
7:34
Speaker 3: and I'm just you know, it's going to be as
7:36
Speaker 3: it's going to be the equivalent of talking to a wall.
7:39
Speaker 2: Well, it seems like get a better day than some
7:41
Speaker 2: other journalists. And some of them might have been blocking
7:43
Speaker 2: you and I you know, John Amon, But anyway.
7:46
Speaker 1: I don't understand.
7:47
Speaker 3: I don't know what I could have done to have
7:49
Speaker 3: that man block me. I've actually met the guy too.
7:53
Speaker 1: Before.
7:53
Speaker 3: I met him a couple of years ago in Tampa
7:55
Speaker 3: spring and training. He happened to be it was me
7:57
Speaker 3: and I don't know if you know him. His name
7:59
Speaker 3: is Mario Gomez.
8:00
Speaker 2: I've heard of him. Yes, yes, yeah, he's.
8:04
Speaker 3: Like the equivalent of Spike Lee at the stadium. He
8:08
Speaker 3: you know, he was we were going to our actually
8:11
Speaker 3: he he yeah, he was leaving the day before we were,
8:15
Speaker 3: so he needed a pla. He texted me one night saying,
8:18
Speaker 3: I need I am I'm leaving the next after the game.
8:23
Speaker 3: But I don't I doubt they're gonna let let I
8:26
Speaker 3: doubt they're gonna let me take my luggage into the stadium,
8:28
Speaker 3: which I'm just like, I don't think that this isn't
8:30
Speaker 3: the this isn't the nineties, Mario, and they So I said,
8:35
Speaker 3: why don't you just keep the stuff at my house
8:37
Speaker 3: which I was renting at the time in Florida. We'll
8:40
Speaker 3: take her, We'll take an uber to the game because
8:42
Speaker 3: I'm not far from the stadium, and we'll just watch
8:45
Speaker 3: the game and have a good time.
8:47
Speaker 1: And we did.
8:48
Speaker 3: We met Brian Cashman that day, and then we happened
8:50
Speaker 3: to run to John Hayman because we were both leaving
8:52
Speaker 3: the stadium at the same time.
8:54
Speaker 1: And then we we we took pictures of him.
8:56
Speaker 3: Now was the ironic part, and it was the year
8:57
Speaker 3: where it was the Winter of our and Judge and
9:02
Speaker 3: I don't know what.
9:03
Speaker 1: I don't know why the guys locked me.
9:04
Speaker 3: I feel like he's a little more sensitive than what
9:06
Speaker 3: Marcus Stroman used to be.
9:09
Speaker 1: You know, Marcus Stroman's kind of lightened up.
9:11
Speaker 2: No, No, he's definitely lined up. I think this team
9:13
Speaker 2: has helped him be a little more looser in the clubhouse,
9:17
Speaker 2: and he's just he seems to be having a lot
9:19
Speaker 2: of fun. I will say that, but I think he was.
9:21
Speaker 1: I think he was just frustrated with all the losing
9:23
Speaker 1: early on.
9:24
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, and of course he fired the guys up
9:27
Speaker 2: on the Diamond Bull. But Eric, the point is is
9:31
Speaker 2: there are journalists like yourself that are going to give
9:34
Speaker 2: the reputable, reputable information and the real information. So what
9:39
Speaker 2: what does it mean when you started hearing podcasters and
9:42
Speaker 2: others say, hey, you know what I just saw Eric
9:45
Speaker 2: kat said on his fee. Does that happen to you yet?
9:48
Speaker 1: It has?
9:49
Speaker 3: I've had I've seen some of my things be cited
9:51
Speaker 3: in Wikipedia articles. I you know, and people want to
9:56
Speaker 3: talk about I don't think it great. All publicity is
9:58
Speaker 3: good publicity.
10:00
Speaker 2: Let's get to the series at hand. Stroman's on tonight.
10:04
Speaker 2: But I love the lineup. I mean, you look at
10:06
Speaker 2: this lineup and John Carlo's in it. Jazz chism. I mean,
10:10
Speaker 2: this is a lineup I can get behind. Would you agree?
10:14
Speaker 1: Absolutely? I mean John Carlo's back.
10:16
Speaker 3: Even though he was his first game back, he was
10:17
Speaker 3: actually hitting the ball really well against Philadelphia. I mean, yeah,
10:20
Speaker 3: they were out, but that ball was coming one hundred
10:23
Speaker 3: and five miles off that bat and they just made
10:24
Speaker 3: a great playoff. And you know, unfortunately he was unlucky
10:28
Speaker 3: that series. But I think John Carlo's gonna get back
10:31
Speaker 3: to doing what John Carlo does best. You know, He's
10:33
Speaker 3: You're going up against the Toronto team that's kind of
10:36
Speaker 3: shed a little bit. I thought they should have shed
10:38
Speaker 3: a lot more, because, to be truthful, I don't see them.
10:41
Speaker 3: I really don't see them going to the postseason next season.
10:43
Speaker 2: Either.
10:44
Speaker 3: They're gonna try, but to me, I'm just like, you know,
10:48
Speaker 3: your team, the wind, you just the window. You know,
10:51
Speaker 3: you just couldn't maxim you couldn't take advantage of the
10:54
Speaker 3: window to try and win a championship. I think the
10:56
Speaker 3: window is closing and it's getting even more closed. I mean,
11:00
Speaker 3: they weren't even though they went to the postseason last year,
11:03
Speaker 3: they really weren't that good.
11:06
Speaker 2: But the window being the I mean, I've seen the
11:10
Speaker 2: Blue Jays go through a couple of windows, by the way,
11:12
Speaker 2: the Batista years and now you got the Guerrero and
11:15
Speaker 2: Butshet years. And are you thinking, you know, Guerrero could
11:19
Speaker 2: ever leave that place that where you're saying that windows
11:22
Speaker 2: closing from the Blue Jay.
11:23
Speaker 3: I think just their winning window right now. I mean
11:25
Speaker 3: they could open another one, because what they they're the
11:27
Speaker 3: type of team that, like, because they don't really spend
11:30
Speaker 3: like like the Yankees or the Dodgers, they have they
11:33
Speaker 3: try and capture their they try and capture their contention
11:36
Speaker 3: and windows, and it's kind of like not nearly what
11:39
Speaker 3: kind of it's not a little better than what Oakland
11:42
Speaker 3: used to do, which they would they were, which I
11:45
Speaker 3: think Cleveland's kind of become that now where you couldn't
11:48
Speaker 3: count them you couldn't count them in, but you couldn't
11:51
Speaker 3: necessarily count them out either, which you know, now obviously
11:54
Speaker 3: that's past and Cleveland's now kind of become that where
11:57
Speaker 3: you can't count them in, but you can't necessarily count
12:01
Speaker 3: them out either. Obviously this year you're counting them in
12:03
Speaker 3: because man, they are they are a I mean pitching
12:06
Speaker 3: is a little a little questionable, but that but both
12:08
Speaker 3: I think they got the bullpen and the they got
12:11
Speaker 3: the bullpen and the bats to really make some noise.
12:14
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you about the Guardians, right, and let
12:16
Speaker 2: me tell you about that team. This is a big weekend.
12:19
Speaker 2: We're all watching it because the Orioles are there.
12:22
Speaker 1: But pants out of them. They certainly beat the pens
12:25
Speaker 1: out of them last night.
12:26
Speaker 2: As I said on actually, this is the series that
12:29
Speaker 2: will show you why you need to win the al
12:32
Speaker 2: least because you will not win against the Guardians in
12:34
Speaker 2: a three game series, am I right?
12:37
Speaker 3: It depends on their starting It will depend on their
12:39
Speaker 3: starting pitching though, because I really don't trust their starters
12:42
Speaker 3: because you know, we saw it last year with San
12:44
Speaker 3: Francisco where their strategy was bullpen, bullpen, bullpen.
12:48
Speaker 1: But eventually around September.
12:49
Speaker 3: That bullpen, that bullpen, you saw it being oversed with
12:52
Speaker 3: that bullpen looked looked worse than a used car on
12:55
Speaker 3: a full day, and they eventually fell apart. Even though
12:58
Speaker 3: they had like they had a wild card spot at
13:00
Speaker 3: one point in September, but then they just I think
13:02
Speaker 3: they only had like what eight wins in September, it
13:04
Speaker 3: completely fell apart.
13:06
Speaker 2: You know, I look at your posts sometimes I think
13:08
Speaker 2: you're either throwing like a fake brick at the TV
13:10
Speaker 2: or something, or you can see your frustration, you could
13:13
Speaker 2: see your elation. Is it a rollercoaster for you like
13:16
Speaker 2: it is for everybody else watching this team?
13:18
Speaker 3: Or what?
13:18
Speaker 1: Absolutely? I don't know. I've always wondered.
13:22
Speaker 3: And something I really do wonder is I really wonder
13:24
Speaker 3: if a baseball game has ever sent somebody to the
13:26
Speaker 3: hospital because of a heart attack, not for not something
13:29
Speaker 3: self induced, where they not something self induced, but a
13:33
Speaker 3: legitimate heart attack, not somebody, not somebody being stupid and
13:38
Speaker 3: hurting their hand on something.
13:40
Speaker 2: Eric, from where you sit right here and you're writing
13:43
Speaker 2: Rebelly of Sports, were talking about the deadline a little bit,
13:47
Speaker 2: But do you think the Anks are truly in a
13:49
Speaker 2: good spot right now to finish out even finished first?
13:53
Speaker 2: I mean, are they in a good spot? I feel
13:54
Speaker 2: like they are, But I want your perspective.
13:57
Speaker 1: Boy, I mean, obviously going to come down to health.
14:01
Speaker 3: And if you know, obviously you have Aaron Judge, want Soto,
14:05
Speaker 3: John Carlos Sten and Jazz and you know obviously for
14:07
Speaker 3: you know, Sprinkle Verdugo and and uh sprinkle some Verdugo
14:11
Speaker 3: and some volpion there.
14:15
Speaker 1: I think they're I think they're at all right shape.
14:17
Speaker 1: I mean, again, it's October. If you get hot at
14:19
Speaker 1: the right time. Look the Arizona dumbucks. You know, I
14:21
Speaker 1: don't really start to I mean, if you're in contention.
14:24
Speaker 3: It's hard to kind of take the regular season seriously sometimes,
14:27
Speaker 3: because you saw last year with Arizona just squeak in.
14:31
Speaker 3: They go ahead and sweep the Brewers, who were a
14:33
Speaker 3: very good team bash that year. You they go ahead
14:36
Speaker 3: and just absolutely man handle the Los Angeles Dodgers.
14:40
Speaker 2: You see a Philly is a couple of years ago
14:42
Speaker 2: right with that, that whole run. I mean, it happened.
14:45
Speaker 3: They could which they really should. They really should have
14:47
Speaker 3: had another one last year, but they fell apart, which
14:51
Speaker 3: I had noa. They had Nola at home. With Nola
14:53
Speaker 3: that year was unhittable at home, and they just couldn't
14:56
Speaker 3: get it done, which I think this year though, they
14:58
Speaker 3: are dangerous. I mean, yeah, they're going through it. They're
15:01
Speaker 3: going through it now. Granted they are going through it now,
15:03
Speaker 3: which but you know, again every team goes through it.
15:06
Speaker 3: Yankee fans, some Yankee fans don't understand that that you're
15:09
Speaker 3: going to go through it. This season is too long.
15:10
Speaker 3: You're not going to be the ninety eight Yankees where
15:13
Speaker 3: everything breaks perfectly.
15:14
Speaker 2: All right, a couple more things before the game starts.
15:17
Speaker 2: Here people watching your feed, No, you write rebellium sports
15:21
Speaker 2: know you're in the ibwa A, but they don't know
15:25
Speaker 2: how you got there. Like, has this been a passion
15:27
Speaker 2: of yours to write the sport in sports and specifically
15:30
Speaker 2: for baseball?
15:32
Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah, I mean you know, I've just baseball has
15:34
Speaker 3: always been a favorite of mine. I like, you know,
15:36
Speaker 3: it's just a long season, so there's so many different stories.
15:39
Speaker 3: It's not like football you have to wait week to
15:40
Speaker 3: week for a story to erupt, which I get. Sometimes
15:43
Speaker 3: with a story it becomes well, there's a lot of
15:45
Speaker 3: action because but football is a lot more micro stories.
15:49
Speaker 3: You have to really be inside the team to really
15:52
Speaker 3: get it. Baseball like there's always something going on, something
15:55
Speaker 3: you can think of, an opinion you can have. I mean,
15:57
Speaker 3: you know, obviously there's all there's all favorite writers for reason,
16:01
Speaker 3: they do elect They do elect writers.
16:03
Speaker 1: Believe or not. You can say what you want about it,
16:05
Speaker 1: but they do elect writers and broadcasters.
16:08
Speaker 2: They do. It's called the form for Hall of Fame
16:10
Speaker 2: section of the the Cooper I believe.
16:13
Speaker 3: Although the Hall of fame's getting worse now because now
16:16
Speaker 3: players that we saw growing up are getting in.
16:19
Speaker 2: Well, either that's getting older or everybody's getting in. Type
16:21
Speaker 2: of thing I think is what you're going for.
16:24
Speaker 1: Adrian Belcher I deserved, Adrian Beltrae I think deserved, and
16:27
Speaker 1: Todd Helton should have been in a long time ago.
16:30
Speaker 3: You know. And because my thing is my thing with
16:32
Speaker 3: Calora Rockies is well, you have to hit on the
16:35
Speaker 3: road too, and you don't just have the thin air
16:39
Speaker 3: in Colorado. You have to go to Wrigley when when
16:41
Speaker 3: it's windy, you have to go to you have to
16:44
Speaker 3: go to a picture a pitch, a very picture friendly
16:46
Speaker 3: ballpark that was that was Miami before Tomorrow's part, Joe
16:49
Speaker 3: Robbie Stadium. And you have to go to Philadelphia. You
16:53
Speaker 3: have to you have to go to Seattle. You have
16:56
Speaker 3: to not Seattle. You have to go to Los Angeles.
16:58
Speaker 3: With Los Angeles and the in the dead of July.
17:01
Speaker 3: Yeah you know you're yeah, you still got to perform
17:05
Speaker 3: there too. Before you can say, oh, they have to
17:07
Speaker 3: thin air well, you have to hit on the road too,
17:09
Speaker 3: and Todd Helton did do that.
17:12
Speaker 2: A couple of more things, Eric, you were talking about
17:16
Speaker 2: the press box. Now, when they come to your town,
17:18
Speaker 2: you're in Milwaukee, right if I can disclose it or not,
17:20
Speaker 2: but you're in Milwaukee when they come to town like they
17:23
Speaker 2: did this year. Did you try for a press credential
17:25
Speaker 2: for the Yankees Brewers? Did you get close to the field?
17:28
Speaker 2: I mean, did you try to get a little access
17:30
Speaker 2: when they were here?
17:31
Speaker 3: No?
17:31
Speaker 1: I didn't.
17:33
Speaker 3: You know, It's again, a press pass now is just
17:35
Speaker 3: an extremely complicated thing now at the major league level,
17:39
Speaker 3: and you got to just know the right people to
17:41
Speaker 3: do it. I mean, for I was trying to actually
17:44
Speaker 3: someone someone who was I know, someone who was in town.
17:46
Speaker 3: He actually covers the Marlins, who was in town and
17:49
Speaker 3: was trying to get me in and it just didn't
17:50
Speaker 3: work out. And actually it was that's a whole that's
17:53
Speaker 3: a whole nother story because he got affected too by that.
17:55
Speaker 3: And but you know, I was trying to do the
17:58
Speaker 3: Brewers and Marlins game. Unfortunately it just did just didn't
18:00
Speaker 3: work out. I was trying to gunning for it. Just
18:03
Speaker 3: I was gunning for it, but unfortunately it just didn't happen.
18:05
Speaker 3: So hopefully we can make that happen the next time around.
18:08
Speaker 2: Why not now? And then I was going to ask
18:10
Speaker 2: about sources. Obviously you're following with everybody else was following,
18:14
Speaker 2: but in your writing and in your connecting and aimed
18:17
Speaker 2: in the ib W A, any sources you've been accumulating
18:21
Speaker 2: in this sports journalism journey.
18:23
Speaker 3: Of yours, not going to give them away, but yeah,
18:27
Speaker 3: you know, you give meet people.
18:28
Speaker 1: It really depends on where you are.
18:31
Speaker 3: You know, if you go out to a bar, Okay,
18:35
Speaker 3: you'll meet a lot of people at a bar, people
18:36
Speaker 3: that you never thought would go there. Go there, but
18:39
Speaker 3: you know, you might accruse some sources there. You'll go
18:42
Speaker 3: to events, you might accruse some sources there. Because teams
18:45
Speaker 3: always have the teams that have you know, tried to
18:47
Speaker 3: put at least some teams have tried to make it
18:49
Speaker 3: make a point of putting on a great off season event.
18:51
Speaker 3: The Brewers were going to have one this past winter,
18:53
Speaker 3: but but it was around the time where Milwaukee guy
18:55
Speaker 3: hit with a bad snowstorm and you know, they just
18:58
Speaker 3: wasn't going to happen. Flights were it was gonna be
19:00
Speaker 3: too completent. The logistics were just too much, so it
19:02
Speaker 3: couldn't happen. It was right before spring training, so you know,
19:05
Speaker 3: they had to do away with it. I know one
19:07
Speaker 3: year they had an event, a smaller scale event. A
19:09
Speaker 3: lot of people came and it was at a bar
19:12
Speaker 3: not far from the stadium, and you got to hang
19:14
Speaker 3: with the players, drink with the players. Actually, what the
19:16
Speaker 3: brewers do is they'll actually have a night where depending
19:19
Speaker 3: on the bar, the players will buy your drinks.
19:23
Speaker 2: Huh, well, I got out there to see what that's about.
19:27
Speaker 2: We're actually going a Woodbridge on Monday night for that
19:30
Speaker 2: big Yankee Bash. It's amazing when you know the right people,
19:33
Speaker 2: you actually find how accessible these players are. You know,
19:36
Speaker 2: from Afar, looks like they're not, but then boom, they're
19:39
Speaker 2: right in front of you at Woodbridge and other places.
19:41
Speaker 3: Right you can you know, and if you get them
19:44
Speaker 3: away from the field, you know, they're just like normal people.
19:47
Speaker 3: I mean, you know sometimes with you know, it's pretty
19:51
Speaker 3: easy to get a general idea on where these guys,
19:53
Speaker 3: where these guys live during the season.
19:56
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, actually had met Nester and that was really special,
20:00
Speaker 2: just a really down to earth guy, and you know,
20:02
Speaker 2: show I'm really wishing he changes his luck around because
20:07
Speaker 2: they need it. They need that arm, that rotation, and
20:09
Speaker 2: there's a reason why they didn't get rid of them.
20:11
Speaker 2: I'll put it that way.
20:12
Speaker 3: He you know, he you know, he's he pitched well
20:15
Speaker 3: the last time out, and you know he's you know,
20:18
Speaker 3: he's obviously you know he's gonna be your back end starter.
20:21
Speaker 3: I mean, that's just the way it is. He had
20:22
Speaker 3: that one magical year in twenty twenty two. He was
20:25
Speaker 3: hurting twenty three. But you know, I think, you.
20:28
Speaker 1: Know he's gonna be a back, solid back. He's a
20:29
Speaker 1: a back end. Actually, his numbers A lot of other
20:31
Speaker 1: teams would beg for that.
20:33
Speaker 3: People don't realize that they would beg for a like
20:36
Speaker 3: a sub four or three eight or whatever whatever it
20:39
Speaker 3: might be.
20:39
Speaker 1: I could guarantee you a lot of other teams.
20:41
Speaker 3: And you're gonna have games where your guy gets absolutely
20:44
Speaker 3: just demolished and the yank him after yank hm, after
20:47
Speaker 3: two or three innings.
20:48
Speaker 1: It happens.
20:50
Speaker 2: You know, we're gonna continue this conversation down the road.
20:55
Speaker 2: But you mentioned yank and the guy I think of
20:57
Speaker 2: Paul Schemes getting pulled after No Hit Bids a couple
21:01
Speaker 2: of times as someone who's been following the game and
21:04
Speaker 2: writes about the games, that frustrates you when these young
21:07
Speaker 2: kids are even pulled out for these, you know, ninety pitches.
21:10
Speaker 2: I mean, it just seems like they're being babied a
21:11
Speaker 2: little bit.
21:13
Speaker 1: I mean that's just.
21:13
Speaker 3: Kind of the way the game is. What the way
21:15
Speaker 3: the game has become now because we're so scared of
21:19
Speaker 3: arm injuries. But you know, but now it's worse than
21:21
Speaker 3: ever before. I think guys want hi old Filo guy.
21:24
Speaker 3: They want more velocity now than ever. I mean, sure,
21:27
Speaker 3: you get guys who rebel against the notion like what
21:29
Speaker 3: Kyle Hendricks was able to do for years, what showed
21:31
Speaker 3: to Amanaga is doing now, and I think what and
21:35
Speaker 3: what other guys in this league are doing where you know,
21:38
Speaker 3: you got some guy. I don't think you're gonna find
21:39
Speaker 3: another Jamie moyre like pitcher who could throw the ball
21:41
Speaker 3: so slow yet you're not going to hit it. But
21:45
Speaker 3: it's you know, it's just the way the game's going now.
21:48
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just kind of how it is. I mean, again,
21:51
Speaker 3: the old way has a way of coming back, And
21:56
Speaker 3: you know, I think that this is just the way
21:58
Speaker 3: the game has gone.
21:59
Speaker 1: I mean I should. I'd love to see guys go
22:01
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty one hundred and thirty pitches. I'm sure.
22:03
Speaker 3: I'm sure general managers and managers. General managers will pass
22:06
Speaker 3: out at that notion now. But you know, it's just
22:10
Speaker 3: the way the It's just what the game has become nowadays.
22:12
Speaker 3: I mean, it's it's not bad or good. It really
22:14
Speaker 3: it's not bad or good.
22:15
Speaker 2: It just is well, Eric, one last thing before I
22:19
Speaker 2: let you go, and we get about analytics all day
22:21
Speaker 2: long and how analytics is completely affecting the sport. But
22:24
Speaker 2: maybe we'll say that for another conversation because I'm going
22:26
Speaker 2: to have you back on before the seasons season is done,
22:29
Speaker 2: but we have a couple more months left in the season.
22:33
Speaker 2: Are you hoping to land a big una interview with
22:36
Speaker 2: one of these guys even if you're in Milwaukee? You
22:39
Speaker 2: know the internet and everything like that. Have you been
22:40
Speaker 2: reaching out to team to get someone on your show
22:42
Speaker 2: or on your blog? Is you know in your writing,
22:47
Speaker 2: I've been.
22:47
Speaker 1: I've been able to reach out to some writers and
22:49
Speaker 1: get some and get some questions.
22:50
Speaker 3: In the past, I got one I got one coming
22:53
Speaker 3: up against I don't know if you know his name,
22:54
Speaker 3: but the Ray Negron.
22:56
Speaker 2: Oh I love right, He's like he is really a
22:59
Speaker 2: brother and I love Ray.
23:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, who you know, George Steinberg, of all people, caught
23:05
Speaker 3: him for feeding outside of all people.
23:08
Speaker 1: It's not like it's there's.
23:10
Speaker 2: A whole synchronicity there because he took me and mister
23:12
Speaker 2: Steimer took my dad and I in to the Steinberner
23:15
Speaker 2: suite for ten years after he saw me outside Yankee Stadium.
23:19
Speaker 2: So it's amazing. The small world. Ray talked about my
23:24
Speaker 2: experience in the back boy play for years and now
23:27
Speaker 2: he's got a documentary coming out. Small World, I'll tell
23:29
Speaker 2: you that.
23:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's you know, he's done so much for the
23:33
Speaker 3: Yankees and probably New York arguably in New York City
23:35
Speaker 3: in general. And he's you know, he's I've met him.
23:39
Speaker 3: I contacted my Instagram. I didn't think he'd contact me,
23:42
Speaker 3: but he did, and he's willing to do a sit down.
23:45
Speaker 2: By the way, thanks to Ray for continuing the legacy
23:48
Speaker 2: of mister Steinberger and doing so much good in New York.
23:50
Speaker 2: Where can we follow you? By the way Instagram and.
23:53
Speaker 3: Twitter, Yeah, you can follow me on my h from
23:56
Speaker 3: my blog belisports dot com. You can follow me on
23:59
Speaker 3: my Twitter at sports seem News, where I'm tweeting everything baseball.
24:02
Speaker 1: I also do some shows with.
24:05
Speaker 3: Something called the South Florids Rebete where I'm on a
24:07
Speaker 3: baseball podcast called one hundred and eight Stitches.
24:10
Speaker 2: Oh nice, Okay, well that's very cool, pretty out there,
24:13
Speaker 2: I see that. All right, let me rephrase one last question,
24:16
Speaker 2: then the dream interview. You want to have the dream
24:19
Speaker 2: sit down? Is it an Aaron Judge? Is it? You know,
24:22
Speaker 2: who's your dream sit down?
24:25
Speaker 3: That's hard because you know, the sport has a lot
24:28
Speaker 3: of a lot of athletes who are just incredible at
24:31
Speaker 3: what they do. I don't want to say Eric Judge
24:35
Speaker 3: because I feel like everybody's gonna want that. I'd say
24:39
Speaker 3: Derek Jeter.
24:42
Speaker 2: Jeeter is a great one for me. It's Chris Bryant.
24:45
Speaker 2: And there's a whole reason why, because Chris Bryant was
24:50
Speaker 2: called up. I kept calling first called up in twenty fifteen,
24:53
Speaker 2: got called up, won the World Series in twenty sixteen.
24:57
Speaker 2: My dad, a huge Cup fan, saw that, you know happened,
25:01
Speaker 2: and we just got Chris Brian to sign a letter
25:03
Speaker 2: that the Cubs were to my dad.
25:04
Speaker 1: So that's incredible.
25:06
Speaker 2: That's the sit down I want to have, even if
25:08
Speaker 2: it's for a couple of minutes on my show.
25:10
Speaker 1: Ran It's a good guy. I remember him with the Cubs.
25:12
Speaker 1: It was a yeah.
25:13
Speaker 3: I remember that year very very very well. I was
25:16
Speaker 3: in Illinois at the time too. We I'm telling you
25:19
Speaker 3: that World Series game Mother Nate Game seven, Mother Nature
25:23
Speaker 3: couldn't even Mother Nature couldn't even handle it with that
25:26
Speaker 3: rain delay.
25:27
Speaker 2: That was. And you know what I still say, You know,
25:32
Speaker 2: they they were doing their best, not the players, the
25:35
Speaker 2: magic the time, doing their best to give it all away.
25:38
Speaker 2: But you know, the Cubs players the curse.
25:42
Speaker 3: You just you just thought it was the curse right
25:44
Speaker 3: then and there at that point. And I remember like
25:47
Speaker 3: they were down like two, one, three one. I don't
25:49
Speaker 3: remember which one it was. I'd have to go look,
25:51
Speaker 3: but I'm just thinking, like when they're going into that
25:53
Speaker 3: like the fourth or the fifth game, you're just thinking, well,
25:57
Speaker 3: here we are, do or die?
25:59
Speaker 1: We have another game.
26:01
Speaker 2: I think it was Joe Man that managed the Cubs
26:03
Speaker 2: at that point.
26:03
Speaker 1: He did, he did, and he managed at.
26:06
Speaker 2: Terrible But that's another story for another day.
26:09
Speaker 3: You could see what you want. I mean, you could
26:11
Speaker 3: see what you want about Joe. Joe was kind of
26:14
Speaker 3: Joe always have a special place in Chicago. Oh but
26:18
Speaker 3: you know the end, it didn't end well for him there.
26:21
Speaker 2: It was a mess. And of course the fire Sail
26:24
Speaker 2: a couple of years after was just see the Cord
26:26
Speaker 2: disband was well.
26:29
Speaker 3: I thought they did the right thing because, to be
26:31
Speaker 3: honest with you, they were all good.
26:32
Speaker 1: They were all good.
26:33
Speaker 3: I thought I thought trading Bryant was the right thing
26:36
Speaker 3: to do. I thought trading Rizzio was the right thing
26:38
Speaker 3: to do. I just you know, they just weren't going
26:40
Speaker 3: to get it, and they tried and tried and tried
26:42
Speaker 3: each year, but nothing but nothing really came about it.
26:45
Speaker 3: And you know, I thought they did the right thing.
26:48
Speaker 3: I think their biggest problem was they kind of neglected pitching.
26:53
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, well on that note, Eric Katz, thanks for
26:56
Speaker 2: your insights tonight, and enjoy this series.
26:59
Speaker 1: I will know.
27:00
Speaker 2: Everybody's gonna want the big sweep because oh my god,
27:02
Speaker 2: they won five, why not make it eight. I just
27:05
Speaker 2: want to win a series. That's what you gotta do.
27:06
Speaker 3: Just just go for I mean, okay, I mean you're obviously
27:10
Speaker 3: going to the game with a lot of confidence because
27:11
Speaker 3: you swept it. You swept a very good at Philadelphia
27:14
Speaker 3: Phillies team on the road. Don't care if they're going
27:15
Speaker 3: through it or not. That's still Bryce Harper, coyleege forber
27:18
Speaker 3: and Eron Tray Turner and everyone else in that line.
27:21
Speaker 3: I've including you bashed them from from game one and
27:25
Speaker 3: but you know it's you know you want you want
27:27
Speaker 3: to take the series. Sure, win streaks are great, but
27:30
Speaker 3: you want to take the serious. I mean, you're stacking
27:32
Speaker 3: enough series wins because you know you're not gonna You're not.
27:34
Speaker 3: I mean, the odds of you going on a twenty
27:36
Speaker 3: game win streak Oakland A's or Cleveland Guardians or Indians
27:40
Speaker 3: at the Indians at the time or like not very high.
27:43
Speaker 3: It's just such a random sport.
27:46
Speaker 2: And one last thing, how did you link up with
27:48
Speaker 2: belly up? Is that your brand? Or is that did you?
27:50
Speaker 2: Did you apply to right for them?
27:52
Speaker 1: I applied to rite for them.
27:53
Speaker 3: I met someone somewhere on Twitter, had a conversation.
27:57
Speaker 1: Was kind of interesting because I was looking for.
27:58
Speaker 3: Something to do and and and then you know, and
28:02
Speaker 3: then I was doing college football first, and then I
28:04
Speaker 3: was just kind of going around. But I just found
28:07
Speaker 3: that my passion lives with baseball, and I wanted to
28:11
Speaker 3: uh and I just want to do that just because
28:14
Speaker 3: it was just so much more fun to write about,
28:16
Speaker 3: because there's always something going on in the sport, whether
28:18
Speaker 3: it be you know, it's such an exciting sport because
28:20
Speaker 3: it's such a long year.
28:21
Speaker 2: Too, absolutely one thing after the other. All right, well, Eric,
28:25
Speaker 2: I gotta let you go back to get back to
28:27
Speaker 2: the game. It's about to start, So thanks for joining me.
28:30
Speaker 2: Pregame here and enjoy this weekend.
28:32
Speaker 1: Actually I'm actually I'm staring at it right now.
28:35
Speaker 3: It's in what the event. I'm on MLB. I'm on
28:38
Speaker 3: the MLB dot TV. It's saying it's in a weather delay.
28:41
Speaker 2: Oh well, there you go, perfect time and get all
28:43
Speaker 2: this in before the game tonight. So thanks for that update.
28:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, no problem.
28:49
Speaker 2: You're in Milwaukee. I'm literally, you know, in Lileand but
28:52
Speaker 2: I didn't pick on that, so there, pick up on that.
28:54
Speaker 2: So there you go. Oh you're in Long Island, Yeah
28:57
Speaker 2: we are, but I didn't en hear the rain, so
28:59
Speaker 2: there you go.
29:00
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, I'm just staring at what they're telling
29:02
Speaker 3: me on the TV, so Eric, thanks so much and
29:06
Speaker 3: we'll talk to you soon. Talk to you soon, Eric Katz,
29:09
Speaker 3: Alex Sparrett Podcast Network,