Latest / Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast / Valdez rakes, Jones struggles in rollercoaster homestand
Transcript
- 0:10Speaker 1: What's up, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Buco
- 0:13Speaker 1: Territory presented to you bye the Foul Territory Network. I'm
- 0:15Speaker 1: Noah Hiles. Joining me as always is my good pal
- 0:19Speaker 1: Platinum Key aka Mark Josh Harrison. Still on vacation, he'll
- 0:23Speaker 1: be back later this week, and we've got a lot
- 0:25Speaker 1: to talk about. The Pirates go three and three on
- 0:29Speaker 1: their six game homestand in Pittsburgh they take two of
- 0:31Speaker 1: three from the Seattle Mariners. They lose two of three,
- 0:33Speaker 1: but avoid a sweep with a win on Sunday over
- 0:36Speaker 1: the Cincinnati Reds. We're gonna talk about that. How they
- 0:39Speaker 1: still stay at five hundred. Jared Jones is gonna be
- 0:42Speaker 1: a subject of discussion in this show. Hasn't been good enough.
- 0:46Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about why and what happens if it continues,
- 0:49Speaker 1: and then we will always wrap up our Monday episodes
- 0:52Speaker 1: with Platinum Keys Key of the Week Mark. Let's start
- 0:56Speaker 1: it off though, reviewing this past week in Pirates base Ball.
- 1:00Speaker 1: It started bad. They got crushed by the Mariners. Then
- 1:03Speaker 1: it got good. They won against the Mariners. They crushed
- 1:07Speaker 1: the Mariners. Everyone was cooking me online for my callum
- 1:10Speaker 1: saying they shouldn't be buyers at the deadline.
- 1:12Speaker 2: Whyeah.
- 1:14Speaker 1: Yeah. And then the reason I'm pessimistic came to Fruition
- 1:18Speaker 1: on Friday and Saturday, where they lost a pair of
- 1:21Speaker 1: very winnable ball games. Friday nights being one with Paul
- 1:25Speaker 1: Skins on the mound they've lost eight straight when he started.
- 1:29Speaker 1: And then Saturdays, I mean, that was one of their
- 1:31Speaker 1: more demoralizing losses of the year, just being down to
- 1:35Speaker 1: your final strike, a guy you tried to sign in
- 1:37Speaker 1: the offseason takes the deep. But then they bounce back
- 1:40Speaker 1: with Sunday Mark, I mean, overall your just thoughts on
- 1:43Speaker 1: the home stand and you know, hey, another week back
- 1:46Speaker 1: at five hundred. It seems like that's just where they
- 1:49Speaker 1: are right now. Yeah.
- 1:50Speaker 3: I mean, the one optimistic takeaway is that this team
- 1:53Speaker 3: gets right back up when they get knocked down, which
- 1:58Speaker 3: I mean that take that for what it will. The
- 2:01Speaker 3: fact that they're getting knocked down so often not great.
- 2:04Speaker 3: But we've seen Pirates teams in the past where they'd
- 2:06Speaker 3: have these losses and just get to moralize, it felt like,
- 2:10Speaker 3: and let that bleed over into the next game and
- 2:13Speaker 3: the next game, in the next game, and suddenly you're
- 2:16Speaker 3: completely out of it. And that's the one thing I
- 2:19Speaker 3: like about this twenty twenty six team where I felt
- 2:21Speaker 3: like this home stand was reflective of that, where they
- 2:24Speaker 3: got their teeth kicked in a couple of times and
- 2:26Speaker 3: got right back up off the mat and like, that's good,
- 2:31Speaker 3: but you need to figure out how to avoid those
- 2:33Speaker 3: punches in the first place, and they just could not
- 2:35Speaker 3: do that.
- 2:35Speaker 2: We saw Paul.
- 2:36Speaker 3: Skeins throw his worst ending of his career on Friday
- 2:40Speaker 3: night in the second inning. That didn't feel good as
- 2:44Speaker 3: a fan. And then to follow it up with the
- 2:47Speaker 3: next night, like you said, down to one strike, I
- 2:50Speaker 3: had my like raise it tweet, ready to go, preloaded ready.
- 2:53Speaker 3: I was like, ah, this won't jinx it. It did,
- 2:56Speaker 3: and yeah, it's just it was tough.
- 2:58Speaker 2: I mean, luckily kind of got to wash some of
- 3:02Speaker 2: that away.
- 3:02Speaker 3: On Sunday, Ryan O'Hearn really stepped up with his two
- 3:06Speaker 3: home run game, had four RBI s Maylan Valdez just
- 3:10Speaker 3: continues to tear the cover off the ball. Had a
- 3:13Speaker 3: four hundred, sixty, four hundred and sixty one foot bomb
- 3:16Speaker 3: on Sunday as well. After he had a home run Saturday,
- 3:19Speaker 3: I want to say either Friday.
- 3:21Speaker 1: Or three straight games with the home run yep, okay.
- 3:24Speaker 3: Ops over a thousand right now, So just really that
- 3:29Speaker 3: stood out to me. But yeah, it was a little
- 3:33Speaker 3: a roller coaster of a home stand to.
- 3:36Speaker 4: Put it lately.
- 3:36Speaker 3: What were your takeaways from it?
- 3:40Speaker 1: Kind of the epitome of this team season. You'll go
- 3:44Speaker 1: through one whole week thinking they stink. Oh they're really good,
- 3:48Speaker 1: they could compete, they stink okay, Like it's just it's
- 3:54Speaker 1: just the roller coaster that it is. I mean, you
- 3:56Speaker 1: get a little bit of good starting pitching and get
- 3:58Speaker 1: a little bit of bad starting pitching. I thought the
- 4:00Speaker 1: bullpen minus Saturday, was pretty good right this week.
- 4:06Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think they allowed a run against the
- 4:09Speaker 3: Mariners entire series.
- 4:11Speaker 1: Right, And I mean I thought they were good in
- 4:13Speaker 1: Colorado last weekend, like they I think the bullpen has
- 4:15Speaker 1: been a lot better. But you can't say they had
- 4:18Speaker 1: a good weekend because or a good week because they
- 4:21Speaker 1: blew save and it was a multi run lead that
- 4:25Speaker 1: got erased. So yeah, you can't. You can't feel great
- 4:30Speaker 1: about the bullpen. I mean the offense had a really
- 4:32Speaker 1: good week. Uh just all together, they crushed the ball
- 4:36Speaker 1: against I mean they took advantage of Mariner's pitching.
- 4:39Speaker 2: Oh, I will say on Sunday, they they loaded the.
- 4:44Speaker 1: Well yeah, but I mean they still scored eight runs. Yeah,
- 4:47Speaker 1: they scored eight runs, and like, yes, they left the
- 4:49Speaker 1: bases loaded. Yeah, nine runs. They left the bases loaded.
- 4:52Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, you still scored
- 4:54Speaker 1: nine runs. So could it have been better? Yeah, But
- 4:56Speaker 1: I mean if you're still scoring nine runs, you're still
- 4:58Speaker 1: scoring nine runs. So that's how I look at it.
- 5:01Speaker 1: But overall, yeah, it's just this team's treading water. And
- 5:07Speaker 1: I guess that's okay, right, like you're not imploding, But
- 5:10Speaker 1: when you look ahead at the rest of the schedule,
- 5:14Speaker 1: it's it's gonna be hard to do. Like this is
- 5:18Speaker 1: the kind of thing they need to be doing in
- 5:20Speaker 1: July really when you look at July's schedule, because they're
- 5:23Speaker 1: gonna need to continue treading water because I just don't
- 5:26Speaker 1: see them pressing forward anytime soon with the injuries that
- 5:30Speaker 1: they're facing and the flaws that they have parlayed with
- 5:33Speaker 1: the competition that they're going to be facing. It'll be
- 5:37Speaker 1: interesting to see because I think once you get to
- 5:39Speaker 1: August the schedule lightens up, you'll have a team that's
- 5:42Speaker 1: probably going to be a lot healthier. Probably it will
- 5:45Speaker 1: have some additional help based off of trades you make,
- 5:49Speaker 1: and you can finish these last two months strong. But man,
- 5:53Speaker 1: you've got a whole other month of trying to win
- 5:55Speaker 1: games the way they've won games, and it's it's it
- 5:58Speaker 1: has not looked easy, but they're finding a way to
- 6:01Speaker 1: do it half the time.
- 6:03Speaker 3: So yeah, and we'll see if that continues when you're
- 6:05Speaker 3: playing teams like the Phillies or the Braves coming up
- 6:08Speaker 3: here in the next couple of weeks, where they're a
- 6:11Speaker 3: little bit better competition than the Reds and the Mariners.
- 6:14Speaker 1: So yeah, So we're gonna take a quick break. When
- 6:18Speaker 1: we come back, we're going to talk about Jared Jones,
- 6:20Speaker 1: his struggles and what the Pirates should do about him. Here,
- 6:22Speaker 1: I'm Bucko Territory.
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- 7:29Speaker 1: All right, Jared Jones, Uh, he's been back for about
- 7:32Speaker 1: a month now, and Uh, I'll be the one to
- 7:35Speaker 1: say it. He hasn't been very good.
- 7:38Speaker 2: He's said it himself.
- 7:38Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, he said it himself. There have been a
- 7:42Speaker 1: couple of good starts. I mean, I do think he's
- 7:44Speaker 1: kind of like every other starting pitcher, is screwed a
- 7:46Speaker 1: little bit by the defense, but overall, I mean, you
- 7:50Speaker 1: just look at the run value on his pitches right now,
- 7:52Speaker 1: the four scene fastball, that's his bread and butter, it's
- 7:54Speaker 1: a negative to run value. The slider, which is when
- 7:57Speaker 1: it's working, like when in twenty twenty four his slider
- 8:01Speaker 1: had a seven run value. That's really good. It's got
- 8:04Speaker 1: a negative one right now. The change up, which he's
- 8:05Speaker 1: throwing a lot more of, is a negative, and the curveball,
- 8:08Speaker 1: which was never really been that good, is negative two.
- 8:12Speaker 1: So Mark, I'll just ask you this. We don't need
- 8:18Speaker 1: to break down anymore, like how's how bad he's been?
- 8:23Speaker 1: But what do you do if this continues with Jared?
- 8:26Speaker 1: Because moving into the bullpen is asking for Carmen Maginski
- 8:30Speaker 1: two point zero? It just is, yeah, like he hates
- 8:34Speaker 1: it just as much as Carmen, and he can be
- 8:37Speaker 1: just as you know, bullheaded as Carmen. So what do
- 8:43Speaker 1: you do if this continues?
- 8:46Speaker 3: That's a great question because you can't just let him
- 8:49Speaker 3: continue to go out there and give up home runs
- 8:53Speaker 3: or get sheld and give up hard contact constantly. We've
- 8:56Speaker 3: seen the flashes where he looks good where he can
- 8:58Speaker 3: get the whiffs, his fast ball philosophies right there, but
- 9:02Speaker 3: the results just have domp been And yeah, it's like,
- 9:05Speaker 3: at what point do you take him out of the rotation?
- 9:08Speaker 3: And if you do, what do you do with him?
- 9:10Speaker 3: Do you send him down to TRIPAA to get right
- 9:13Speaker 3: or do you move him into like a back end
- 9:15Speaker 3: of the bullpen roll where you maybe have him be
- 9:19Speaker 3: like a closer where a lot of people say, like
- 9:22Speaker 3: the fastball slider combo could work as a closer, could
- 9:25Speaker 3: work as a reliever, But at the same time, his
- 9:28Speaker 3: ceiling as a potential like starting pitcher is so high
- 9:32Speaker 3: I think, is it? I like to think so, I know.
- 9:36Speaker 3: I mean, like his twenty twenty four season was good,
- 9:40Speaker 3: it wasn't great. He was twenty two. He gave up
- 9:43Speaker 3: a lot of hard contact. Guys were barreling him a lot,
- 9:46Speaker 3: and the Pirates defense was able to back him up
- 9:49Speaker 3: on that, and a lot of that hard contact was
- 9:51Speaker 3: more like ground balls than as well, so that benefited him.
- 9:54Speaker 3: Now he's letting guys hit balls into the air. There's
- 9:58Speaker 3: no defense behind him. And yeah, it's I mean, I
- 10:03Speaker 3: still think he has a lot of ceiling. He's, like
- 10:05Speaker 3: you said, small sample size here, he's just coming back.
- 10:08Speaker 3: But yeah, it's it's been concerning so far. What would
- 10:12Speaker 3: you do with him if the struggles continue.
- 10:14Speaker 1: I've moved to the bullpen and say, look, dude, this
- 10:17Speaker 1: is where you're gonna be. Like I mean, I voiced
- 10:20Speaker 1: on our show on Friday, or last weekend or last Wednesday,
- 10:25Speaker 1: I believe about my desire for them to acquire another starter,
- 10:29Speaker 1: just because you just don't have guys that are covering
- 10:32Speaker 1: enough innings right now. And Jared that's just something he's
- 10:36Speaker 1: not gonna do. And I don't know if he'll ever
- 10:39Speaker 1: do it. Like I get the potential of what Jared
- 10:42Speaker 1: can do. His stuff's nasty. He was a top one
- 10:45Speaker 1: hundred prospect. Hell, he's a top twenty five prospect at
- 10:47Speaker 1: one time for Baseball America. But I don't know. I
- 10:52Speaker 1: feel like we really put the card ahead of the
- 10:55Speaker 1: horse here, ye with Jones just anointing him as like
- 10:59Speaker 1: this show thing when he really had like two and
- 11:02Speaker 1: a half good months of baseball in the majors. That's it.
- 11:06Speaker 1: And since then there have been other guys who I
- 11:09Speaker 1: think are just more promising. Like if I were giving
- 11:11Speaker 1: out extensions right now the Pirates starting pitchers, I could
- 11:15Speaker 1: think of four off the top of my head. I'd
- 11:17Speaker 1: rather pay before Jared. It'd be Skeens, It'd be Ashcraft,
- 11:20Speaker 1: it would be Bubba Chandler, who I think has a
- 11:23Speaker 1: way higher seiling than Jared Jones. And I would extend
- 11:26Speaker 1: Seth Hernandez before I would Jared Jones, who's still probably
- 11:30Speaker 1: a few years away from the major leagues, at least
- 11:32Speaker 1: one full year. And I'm not trying to dog on
- 11:36Speaker 1: the guy, like I think Jared's good, but the reality is,
- 11:39Speaker 1: like this guy just might be a relief pitcher and
- 11:44Speaker 1: or at least this version of him, because he's clearly,
- 11:47Speaker 1: you know, working his way back into it, and he
- 11:50Speaker 1: might be a starter again one day, but I don't know. Man, Like,
- 11:55Speaker 1: if you could just get Carmen and Jared to buy
- 11:58Speaker 1: into being relief pitchers and then you go go out
- 12:00Speaker 1: and acquire a left handed starter or something that you
- 12:03Speaker 1: have shown the ability to identify at the major league
- 12:07Speaker 1: level year after year after year, I think this team
- 12:12Speaker 1: is so much better with how some of the other
- 12:15Speaker 1: right handed relievers like Mattson's look good over the last
- 12:18Speaker 1: couple of outings. Dennis Santana minus Rockies outing has been
- 12:21Speaker 1: really good as of late. So I think you fix
- 12:25Speaker 1: your you fix your bullpen if you move that, and
- 12:28Speaker 1: I think that that would be better off for Jared.
- 12:30Speaker 1: It'd be better off for Carmen too, but right now,
- 12:33Speaker 1: I mean, hell, I'd rather have Carmen in the starting
- 12:35Speaker 1: rotation than Jared Jones. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know what
- 12:40Speaker 1: you do though, because again, clearly like they take how
- 12:44Speaker 1: these guys will react to things into the equation. It's
- 12:48Speaker 1: not a just it's not as simple as here's how
- 12:51Speaker 1: it's gonna go. I'm the boss, here the employee do
- 12:54Speaker 1: this should work like that. But it doesn't, at least
- 12:58Speaker 1: not as black and white as what I just described
- 13:02Speaker 1: it to be, because we've seen there be pushback from
- 13:05Speaker 1: both of those guys. But I think this team would
- 13:07Speaker 1: be better off with both of them in the bullpen
- 13:09Speaker 1: and going out and getting a fifth true starter.
- 13:11Speaker 3: Yeah, and that just opens up completely. You know what
- 13:15Speaker 3: Ben Harrington can do before this trade deadline? You know
- 13:18Speaker 3: if yeah, it throws a starter into the mix as
- 13:20Speaker 3: well as if you find a bullpen option that works great,
- 13:24Speaker 3: But if not, you can move Jared into the bullpen
- 13:26Speaker 3: and that's your new bullpen piece that you just acquired.
- 13:28Speaker 3: So I don't think it's a bad plan if Jared
- 13:31Speaker 3: buys into it, and I mean hopefully like that he
- 13:35Speaker 3: knows that he struggles or he's struggling right now, so
- 13:38Speaker 3: maybe that will help him buy in to the B
- 13:41Speaker 3: word now that he's seen the results of him as
- 13:44Speaker 3: a starter. But I don't know. I wouldn't bet on that, So.
- 13:49Speaker 1: No, I mean either, and I'll say this as we
- 13:52Speaker 1: wrap up this segment. Like we mentioned in the first segment,
- 13:55Speaker 1: July is going to be a huge test for this team.
- 14:00Speaker 1: There's not a player on this team who needs to
- 14:02Speaker 1: step up more than Jared Jones. Yeah, because I mean
- 14:05Speaker 1: the bullpen. Like you could say, like, oh yeah, if
- 14:07Speaker 1: Brandon Bedoir or whoever, but like and even if Mattson
- 14:10Speaker 1: and Santana continue to get better, like that's great, that's
- 14:14Speaker 1: gonna help the long term aspect of the team. But
- 14:17Speaker 1: right now they need Jared to give them six or
- 14:21Speaker 1: at least five, and it's got to be five with
- 14:23Speaker 1: at least like three or less runs more often than not,
- 14:27Speaker 1: he's got to give him something better. He hasn't. He hasn't.
- 14:29Speaker 1: He's had one good start since he's been back. He's
- 14:32Speaker 1: had one good start, So.
- 14:33Speaker 2: Not good enough.
- 14:34Speaker 1: Yeah, we're gonna take another quick break when we come back.
- 14:36Speaker 1: We wrap up the show with Platinum Keys Key of
- 14:39Speaker 1: the Week here on Buco Territory.
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- 15:41Speaker 3: to mash ops of eight twenty one this year, looking
- 15:44Speaker 3: really good and covering back at first base with Spencer
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- 16:31Speaker 3: All right, now for my Key of the Week segment,
- 16:34Speaker 3: We're gonna spare the.
- 16:35Speaker 4: People the wape and just no, no, we're not all right,
- 16:37Speaker 4: all right here we goes all right, there it is.
- 16:48Speaker 3: This week's key of the week is a guy who
- 16:52Speaker 3: is just burst onto the scene, a guy we talked
- 16:55Speaker 3: about earlier this season as someone that is a fan
- 16:57Speaker 3: favorite that we'd love to see get an opportunity this year,
- 17:00Speaker 3: and he finally has that opportunity now. With Spencer Horwartz
- 17:03Speaker 3: missing time until it sounds like after the all start break,
- 17:07Speaker 3: Ben Sherrington said he's gonna miss weeks probably or weeks,
- 17:11Speaker 3: not days, So prepare for Spencer Horward to be out
- 17:14Speaker 3: for a little bit. And my key of the week
- 17:17Speaker 3: is as Marilyn Valdez continue to step up, continue to
- 17:21Speaker 3: play him every single day. Right now, he's on a
- 17:24Speaker 3: complete tear. As Noah mentioned earlier, home runs in his
- 17:28Speaker 3: last three games ops up to one thousand and one now,
- 17:32Speaker 3: just tearing the cover off the ball, doing it in
- 17:36Speaker 3: multiple situations where he started the game as right field
- 17:39Speaker 3: he hit a home run, coming as a pinch hitter,
- 17:42Speaker 3: just doing whatever this team needs. And in a situation
- 17:45Speaker 3: where this team really needs someone to step up, where
- 17:48Speaker 3: one of your best hitters, your leadoff hitter, goes down,
- 17:53Speaker 3: and so I just my key of the week is
- 17:54Speaker 3: just continue to do that as Maryland continue to play him,
- 17:59Speaker 3: because I think he'll just run with this opportunity. He
- 18:01Speaker 3: struggled a little bit against fastballs, but when the breaking
- 18:06Speaker 3: ball comes in, he is taking full advantage of that opportunity.
- 18:10Speaker 2: So we'll see.
- 18:12Speaker 3: Maybe he continues with the extra opportunities here, you know,
- 18:15Speaker 3: learning to hit that fastball relatively quick.
- 18:18Speaker 2: He has made some.
- 18:19Speaker 3: Serious adjustments in the minors and really blew onto the
- 18:22Speaker 3: prospects scene. Was that two years ago or a year ago?
- 18:26Speaker 1: Yeah? Last year?
- 18:27Speaker 3: Last year, Yeah, and then the Arizona Fall League in
- 18:30Speaker 3: the off season and all that. So love seeings Marilyn succeed.
- 18:36Speaker 3: Just a great guy, seems easy to root for, has
- 18:39Speaker 3: fun out there, leaves in himself, believes in this team,
- 18:42Speaker 3: and I think him continue to succeed is key for
- 18:46Speaker 3: the Pirates in a four game series coming up against
- 18:48Speaker 3: the Phillies.
- 18:49Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, losing Spencer's tough, but when you get
- 18:53Speaker 1: Connor Griffin back to that lead off and then you
- 18:55Speaker 1: get a little bit of that pop with Esmalyn, I
- 18:59Speaker 1: mean he's been he's been great, and I mean him
- 19:03Speaker 1: developing into an everyday player, which I'm still not sure
- 19:06Speaker 1: if he is. This year. I think he can be
- 19:08Speaker 1: a really good fourth outfielder or bench guy and like
- 19:14Speaker 1: someone who can start and stretches whenever there's an injury.
- 19:17Speaker 1: But I do think it's trending like he will be
- 19:19Speaker 1: like an everyday player for this team eventually. And that's
- 19:21Speaker 1: a huge win for their international scouting, which has been horrible. Yeah,
- 19:27Speaker 1: like it just totally nothing.
- 19:30Speaker 3: Nothing like the last like homegrown.
- 19:33Speaker 4: Player.
- 19:33Speaker 1: So yeah, so they they need to find more guys
- 19:38Speaker 1: like this, and you know, the Pirates should hope that
- 19:41Speaker 1: this is kind of the first step in the right direction,
- 19:45Speaker 1: a win for a guy like that who wasn't a
- 19:47Speaker 1: high rated prospect. I mean, no one even knew about
- 19:50Speaker 1: him two years ago. I remember writing him in our
- 19:53Speaker 1: pipeline reports that we used to write every Monday with
- 19:56Speaker 1: the PG and uh, you know, like he had a
- 19:59Speaker 1: good whatever in Bradenton in twenty twenty four and then
- 20:04Speaker 1: in Greensboro towards the end and he just kind of
- 20:07Speaker 1: caught fire and hasn't cooled down since last season. So
- 20:10Speaker 1: he's an easy guy to root for. And I mean, pop, man,
- 20:14Speaker 1: if you're hitting the ball, you're hitting a home run
- 20:16Speaker 1: every day, they'll find a spot for you.
- 20:19Speaker 2: See what he does, which I think is crucial. It's
- 20:21Speaker 2: huge kind of what show exactly.
- 20:24Speaker 3: And so when you get counter or I got counter back,
- 20:27Speaker 3: but when you get O'Neill back from injury, maybe that's
- 20:30Speaker 3: the time where if Ozoon is still struggling and Valdez
- 20:34Speaker 3: is still mashing and able to be your fourth out feeler,
- 20:36Speaker 3: especially against lefties. Yeah, that opens up so much for
- 20:41Speaker 3: your lineup, just getting a zoooning off this team. As
- 20:43Speaker 3: we've said multiple times with opening up that d H
- 20:46Speaker 3: is spot to be a rotation than just once person.
- 20:49Speaker 1: So yeah, all right, Well, before I give Mark his
- 20:55Speaker 1: opportunity to give a final thought, we want to hit
- 20:57Speaker 1: remind everyone to hit that subscribe button if they haven't already.
- 21:00Speaker 1: We were on a mission of three thousand subscribers can't
- 21:02Speaker 1: get there without your help, and we want to remind
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- 21:11Speaker 1: support the show. It would mean a whole heck of
- 21:14Speaker 1: a lot to us if you did it. Mark any
- 21:17Speaker 1: final thoughts before we wrap up another episode.
- 21:19Speaker 3: One final thought just a shout out to Tyler Callahan.
- 21:23Speaker 3: He is looking like a major League ballplayer, and I
- 21:28Speaker 3: wasn't expecting the most necessarily from him. The Pirates acquired
- 21:32Speaker 3: him in the Kyle Nicholas trade, and so I, yeah,
- 21:37Speaker 3: we've seen a lot of these like utility infielders in
- 21:39Speaker 3: the past. Alex Stump, you know, tweeted out the long
- 21:42Speaker 3: list of all these players that the Pirates have similar
- 21:46Speaker 3: to Callahan that have just kind of fizzled out your Josh, Yeah, yeah,
- 21:51Speaker 3: And it's just really been nice to see the energy
- 21:54Speaker 3: Callahan brings. And he's really stepped up and looked good.
- 21:58Speaker 3: His wing looks nice. Uh, played some pre solid defense,
- 22:02Speaker 3: has flexibility, can shift him all around. So I don't
- 22:06Speaker 3: know how much I want him to be like played necessarily,
- 22:09Speaker 3: but it's been really really nice seeing him succeed when
- 22:12Speaker 3: he is given a chance to play.
- 22:15Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he he and Valdez both have been
- 22:18Speaker 1: great in their roles. That's really all I have to
- 22:22Speaker 1: say too. It's a big, big week of Bucco Baseball.
- 22:25Speaker 1: As always, we'll be here to cover it. Josh will
- 22:27Speaker 1: be back with us on our next show. He's Platinum
- 22:30Speaker 1: Key aka Markum Noah Hiles. We're signing off saying thanks
- 22:33Speaker 1: for tuning in. To another episode of Bucco Territory, presented
- 22:36Speaker 1: to you by the Thought Territory Network. Take care