Latest / Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast / Skenes Shoves, Endy Rodriguez is back

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Skenes Shoves, Endy Rodriguez is back · Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: What's up, everybody.
0:10
Speaker 2: Welcome back to another episode of Bucco Territory, presented to
0:13
Speaker 2: you five Foul Territory Network.
0:15
Speaker 1: I'm Noah Hiles.
0:16
Speaker 2: Joining me as always are my co host Josh Harrison
0:19
Speaker 2: and platin Key aka Mark. We're recording this on Thursday evening.
0:24
Speaker 2: The Pirates just concluded a series victory over the Colorado
0:28
Speaker 2: Rockies at PNC Park. They will welcome the Philadelphia Phillies,
0:33
Speaker 2: the Red Hot Phillies into town this weekend for what
0:37
Speaker 2: should be an exciting conclusion to the home stand. We're
0:39
Speaker 2: gonna talk about Paul Skeens, who opened the homestand with
0:43
Speaker 2: a yet another dominant performance. We'll see him pitch once
0:46
Speaker 2: more in the Steel City before this homestand ends. Gonna
0:50
Speaker 2: also talk about Dye Rodriguez in this episode, first game
0:54
Speaker 2: back for our pal Andy, who had a nice day
0:57
Speaker 2: at the play. And then we will round up Friday
0:59
Speaker 2: show as we always do with our weekly segment, Jay Hay. Now,
1:04
Speaker 2: where our own Josh Harrison Brant's about something that he
1:09
Speaker 2: noticed in this week of Pirates Baseball. But guys, we're
1:11
Speaker 2: gonna start.
1:12
Speaker 1: Off with Paul Skeens.
1:14
Speaker 2: This dude's there's no other way to say it, like,
1:17
Speaker 2: this guy is a monster man, And I tweeted it
1:21
Speaker 2: during his at the end of his outing when he
1:23
Speaker 2: was pulled or when he didn't go back out for
1:25
Speaker 2: the ninth. Having covered Paul since the moment he arrived,
1:30
Speaker 2: and even a little bit in the minor leagues before
1:32
Speaker 2: he got here, you're just so used to seeing him
1:35
Speaker 2: shove that at times you kind of take it for
1:37
Speaker 2: granted a little bit.
1:38
Speaker 1: It just becomes like you become numb to it.
1:41
Speaker 2: It's like, you know, like like we kind of do
1:43
Speaker 2: that with Otani too, right where it's just like you
1:45
Speaker 2: just see him do things then no one else has
1:47
Speaker 2: done before. But you're also just like, yeah, that's what
1:50
Speaker 2: he does. But what Paul Skeins has done since his
1:54
Speaker 2: second start of the season is this run that he's on.
1:58
Speaker 2: It's unfathomable and it's really hard to argue that it
2:03
Speaker 2: can't be continued based off of what we've seen. Mark,
2:07
Speaker 2: you have a whole bunch of numbers, go ahead and
2:09
Speaker 2: rattle them off for us. Yeah.
2:10
Speaker 3: So if you need a good laugh, just pull up
2:13
Speaker 3: Paul Skin's baseball reference page because it is just absolutely absurd.
2:18
Speaker 3: Posting batters are hitting one forty five against him this year.
2:21
Speaker 3: They're only getting on base one percent of the time.
2:25
Speaker 3: That's a one ninety one on base percentage. They're slugging
2:28
Speaker 3: two forty four against him, so that's good for a
2:31
Speaker 3: four to thirty five ops. Just nasty. Uh, he's only
2:36
Speaker 3: walking batters three point eight percent of the time. You know,
2:39
Speaker 3: pairs that with a nice thirty point three percent k rate. Yeah,
2:43
Speaker 3: just a casual zero point six four zero a six
2:47
Speaker 3: forty whip, like are you kidding me? And just he's
2:51
Speaker 3: pitched in sixty four career games so far, he's given
2:55
Speaker 3: up eighty one earned runs his entire career across sixty
2:58
Speaker 3: four games, He's only given up twenty five five home runs.
3:01
Speaker 3: He's only walked eighty one batters in sixty four games.
3:04
Speaker 3: It's absurd what he's done across three hundred and seventy innings.
3:08
Speaker 3: Generational is the only word that you can use to
3:11
Speaker 3: describe him. He's a one on one pitcher, one on
3:14
Speaker 3: one player. The fact that he's twenty three just doesn't
3:18
Speaker 3: feel real. Like people are talking about Cam Schlitzer shoving
3:21
Speaker 3: for the Yankees. He might win al Cy Young he's
3:24
Speaker 3: twenty five, Like Paul Skins is two years younger than
3:27
Speaker 3: this guy. So just the amount of years the league
3:31
Speaker 3: has left of enjoying and witnessing the greatness of Paul
3:34
Speaker 3: Skins is very exciting from a fan perspective, and God
3:38
Speaker 3: pirates fans are lucky to have him.
3:41
Speaker 4: Man, it's yeah, definitely lucky to have him. And listens
3:45
Speaker 4: to those numbers, man, it's straight up created player. Yeah,
3:50
Speaker 4: let me let me go type. You know, I'm gonna
3:53
Speaker 4: make Paul Skins number thirty, everything ninety nine. I don't
3:56
Speaker 4: care for cinna zone. Good luck hitting it. You know,
3:59
Speaker 4: those numbers are like what do you tell somebody you
4:02
Speaker 4: said three point eight walk percent? Yeah, yeah, you can't
4:06
Speaker 4: say don't go up there and let him have strike
4:09
Speaker 4: on strike too because obviously he's not gonna walk you,
4:12
Speaker 4: which means be ready to hit. But guess what, he's
4:14
Speaker 4: got stuff that seemed to be unhittable. So you're better
4:18
Speaker 4: off going up there. You know, I'm a competitor, you know,
4:21
Speaker 4: don't give in. But the way it looks like, may
4:24
Speaker 4: go up there, rookie of the year, back of the box,
4:26
Speaker 4: you better off.
4:27
Speaker 5: Yeah hoping that yeah, yeah, become human and you know,
4:32
Speaker 5: just miss a pitching hopefully to catcher, oh that was
4:35
Speaker 5: that was a strike, and they lose challenges and now
4:37
Speaker 5: you know, I.
4:37
Speaker 4: Mean, what do you do when you listen to those numbers?
4:40
Speaker 4: Obviously teams when they face him know what he has.
4:44
Speaker 4: But then it's almost like, bro, every metric across the board,
4:50
Speaker 4: every stat is like, you know what you're getting you
4:54
Speaker 4: walking back to that dugout and and if you're not
4:56
Speaker 4: walking back to the dugout, you probably you know that
5:00
Speaker 4: up the first base coach and just saying you know
5:01
Speaker 4: what I.
5:02
Speaker 6: Just got to say.
5:03
Speaker 4: You know, it's like, you know, it's hard to generate
5:07
Speaker 4: runs when you can't get on base. And typically guys
5:11
Speaker 4: that are like that, you know you're looking for a
5:14
Speaker 4: flaw like okay, his command has issues, or you know,
5:17
Speaker 4: he's susceptible to if a guy gets on.
5:19
Speaker 3: It rather limited pitch mix or something.
5:21
Speaker 6: Yes, you know, it's like that.
5:23
Speaker 4: That's just one of those things that you said generational
5:25
Speaker 4: and the guy that can control the zone because you know,
5:28
Speaker 4: three point eight walk percent with thirty something strikeout percent.
5:32
Speaker 4: He's coming at you, but not also just coming at you.
5:35
Speaker 4: He's mixing pictures and it's like, you know, what you
5:38
Speaker 4: just met your worst nightmare. And they are like, you
5:40
Speaker 4: know what, wake me up from this tomorrow or wake
5:42
Speaker 4: me up right now. And you know what, guys schemes tomorrow.
5:47
Speaker 4: I'm you know they look the lineup sent out the
5:52
Speaker 4: night before. Oh Skins is tomorrow. Those guys that are
5:54
Speaker 4: extras are like, you know what we are today?
5:57
Speaker 6: Fella.
5:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a said that the twenty twenty five n
6:01
Speaker 3: elsa young winner is somehow getting better. And I think
6:06
Speaker 3: he's gotten better this year. His like command just looks
6:10
Speaker 3: everything just looks so much more refined, somehow more polished.
6:14
Speaker 3: You can tell he's just continues to work. It's it's
6:17
Speaker 3: absurd or are you gonna.
6:18
Speaker 2: Say no, Well, I was gonna say, like I remember
6:20
Speaker 2: at this time last year he wasn't going deep into
6:22
Speaker 2: games and there was like some talk of like, oh
6:25
Speaker 2: is Paul skiings, Like you know, is that just is
6:29
Speaker 2: he just really good?
6:30
Speaker 1: Not great?
6:31
Speaker 2: Right, because like he was only going six innings And
6:33
Speaker 2: I think that's the thing that's impressed me is he's
6:37
Speaker 2: just flying through the first third or the order the
6:41
Speaker 2: first time through, like it's it's effortless. Like he had
6:45
Speaker 2: six strikeouts and two innings and less than thirty pitches, yeah,
6:49
Speaker 2: the other day.
6:50
Speaker 3: And followed it up with a four pitching Yeah.
6:52
Speaker 2: He followed it up because Willie Castro and you know
6:55
Speaker 2: that meme went viral of like Paul saying nice bunt.
6:58
Speaker 1: I would have did the same damn thing. What else
7:00
Speaker 1: are you supposed to do? Like make him uncomfortable? Like, uh,
7:04
Speaker 1: I'm looking at his everything? Yeah, yeah, I'm looking.
7:09
Speaker 2: At a Savant page now. And obviously major league teams
7:12
Speaker 2: have more access to data than this. But if I'm
7:15
Speaker 2: a hitter and I'm looking at this Savant page because
7:17
Speaker 2: you know, Paul schemes from the fastball, right, that's like
7:20
Speaker 2: what made him famous to begin with. So originally without
7:24
Speaker 2: any data, if I were a hitter, I would think, Okay,
7:26
Speaker 2: he's probably gonna start me with a fastball. I should
7:28
Speaker 2: just try to sell out early in this account. Then
7:30
Speaker 2: I look at a Savant page and his fastball run
7:33
Speaker 2: values in the one hundred percentile, which means he does
7:35
Speaker 2: that better than anyone. Okay, so I probably shouldn't say fastball. Okay,
7:39
Speaker 2: Well what about off speed, Well that's in the ninety
7:41
Speaker 2: fifth percentile. Okay, so breaking ball breaking ball run values
7:46
Speaker 2: at seventy eight, and he throws like four different ones,
7:49
Speaker 2: so that doesn't help that much either.
7:52
Speaker 3: And it's gonna look like the fastball before you can
7:54
Speaker 3: even tell.
7:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, the the redical on this chart is insane. The
7:59
Speaker 2: only two metrics that aren't in the red are his
8:03
Speaker 2: whiff rate, which I think is intentional because I think
8:06
Speaker 2: he is pitching the soft contact.
8:08
Speaker 1: More frequently and successfully this year.
8:11
Speaker 2: And then the ground ball rates at sixty one percent,
8:13
Speaker 2: and I think that's just because he's getting a lot
8:15
Speaker 2: of weak pop.
8:15
Speaker 1: Flies and striking a lot of dudes out. So yeah, man,
8:19
Speaker 1: it's after his start.
8:22
Speaker 2: Tuesday, in the postgame presser, I made a point to
8:25
Speaker 2: talk to Don Kelly, who was on a team with
8:29
Speaker 2: Justin Erlander in twenty eleven, his MVP season, and he
8:34
Speaker 2: was coaching the Astros in twenty nineteen when Garrett Cole
8:37
Speaker 2: had his probably his most dominant year as a major leaguer, and.
8:42
Speaker 1: I kind of asked, I was like, does this remind
8:44
Speaker 1: you of that?
8:44
Speaker 2: And he said yes, Like this is something where it's
8:46
Speaker 2: like you don't want it, it's must see television, you
8:50
Speaker 2: cannot believe what you're watching. Where it's like you see
8:53
Speaker 2: it one or two innings in, You're just like, man,
8:57
Speaker 2: here we go again, Like it's it'll be fun. It'll
9:01
Speaker 2: be fun to watch him do this against the Phillies,
9:03
Speaker 2: because I mean, the Phillies are playing great baseball right now. Yeah,
9:05
Speaker 2: they have a slew of really good hitters, especially from
9:10
Speaker 2: the left side.
9:10
Speaker 1: Of the plate.
9:11
Speaker 2: Not that splits have really ever mattered against teens, but
9:14
Speaker 2: I want to see. I mean, he's taken a no
9:16
Speaker 2: hitter into the bottom third of a baseball game and like.
9:20
Speaker 1: Three of his last four starts. I believe, let's see
9:22
Speaker 1: if he can do that against.
9:24
Speaker 2: Turner, Harper, Schwarber and marsh who's like leading baseball and
9:28
Speaker 2: hitting right now.
9:29
Speaker 1: I'm really excited to watch it as someone.
9:31
Speaker 2: Who you know, isn't a fan of the Pirates or
9:34
Speaker 2: any team, like I still nerd out over great baseball
9:38
Speaker 2: and like it feels like we're watching Adro ninety nine.
9:41
Speaker 2: It feels like we're watching Erlander twenty eleven. Like it
9:43
Speaker 2: feels like we're gonna remember this season as like one
9:47
Speaker 2: of the best pitching seasons ever. It feels like that's
9:49
Speaker 2: what this is turning into.
9:51
Speaker 3: And it's crazy that it's happening at the same time
9:54
Speaker 3: that shohe Otani is going yeah crazy, that Christopher Sanchez
9:58
Speaker 3: is going crazy like Jacob is Rowski's coming on to
10:01
Speaker 3: the stage. There's a lot of at Yamamoto too in
10:04
Speaker 3: the anl so, but Paul Skins is still the odds
10:08
Speaker 3: on favorite to beat all those guys for the cy
10:10
Speaker 3: Young and you would have my pick this way through.
10:13
Speaker 3: So yeah, I'll the bbwah chapter No, yeah, please please
10:19
Speaker 3: do right in Yeah, no, Ney to send him the ballot.
10:23
Speaker 2: He's already voting. All right, we're gonna take a quick break.
10:28
Speaker 2: When we get back, we're going to talk about a
10:30
Speaker 2: guy who could be catching schemes in the future, probably
10:32
Speaker 2: not because Henry Davis's primary catcher, but nonetheless we're gonna
10:35
Speaker 2: talk about Andy Rodriguez when.
10:36
Speaker 6: We get back.
10:38
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11:40
Speaker 2: All right, Any Rodriguez came back today and he looked
11:43
Speaker 2: pretty good, had a multi hit effort, caught a really
11:47
Speaker 2: successful bullpen outing from everyone involved. And so I'll start
11:53
Speaker 2: off by saying this, Andy Rodriguez man, he's gone through it.
11:57
Speaker 2: As of late, he missed all of two seasons go
12:00
Speaker 2: due to an arm injury that required surgery. I'm not
12:04
Speaker 2: sure if we ever got like official clarification if it
12:06
Speaker 2: was Tommy John or just a elbow surgery on the left. Yeah,
12:10
Speaker 2: he had an arm operation that forced him to miss
12:13
Speaker 2: all of his major league season in twenty twenty four,
12:16
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five. They kind of set him up for failure.
12:20
Speaker 2: I'll just say it. I mean, he was a catcher
12:22
Speaker 2: all spring. He played one game at first base, and
12:25
Speaker 2: that was the final game of spring training, and he
12:28
Speaker 2: was their opening day first baseman.
12:30
Speaker 1: Yep, that didn't go well. And then he goes back
12:34
Speaker 1: to catcher.
12:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, then he goes back to catcher and he struggled
12:39
Speaker 2: there too. He couldn't get in an offensive rhythm, probably
12:41
Speaker 2: because he was trying to learn two positions after missing
12:47
Speaker 2: a whole year of major league baseball. And then he
12:49
Speaker 2: hurt his elbow again and he missed the rest of
12:52
Speaker 2: that season and he had an injury there, and so
12:56
Speaker 2: like entering this year, yeah, there was like legitimate concern
12:59
Speaker 2: as to like, how how durable is this guy? Can
13:01
Speaker 2: his arm stay together for a full year, and even
13:04
Speaker 2: if it does, what kind of player is he? Because
13:07
Speaker 2: you know, he was a top one under prospect but
13:10
Speaker 2: hasn't hit necessarily super well in the majors and he
13:14
Speaker 2: had a good offensive spring, but you never know. But yeah, yeah,
13:20
Speaker 2: so props to him forgetting here, just to get that
13:24
Speaker 2: out of the way, Like, it's always good to see
13:26
Speaker 2: a guy get back like that's it's a hard, hard,
13:29
Speaker 2: hard life being a catcher in the major leagues, especially.
13:34
Speaker 1: When you have arm injuries. So the fact that he
13:36
Speaker 1: got back here is cool.
13:38
Speaker 2: But now I'll bring this to the forefront, and it's
13:41
Speaker 2: something that is way, way, way premature. He's had one
13:44
Speaker 2: good game. But let's say and he keeps hitting. He's
13:49
Speaker 2: a switch hitter. He has more years of control than
13:52
Speaker 2: Joey Bart, and he was supposed to be like a
13:56
Speaker 2: really good defender, although I don't know what he is
13:59
Speaker 2: defensively after all the reps that he's lost due to
14:02
Speaker 2: his injuries. What do you do with him if over
14:06
Speaker 2: the next however long Joey Bart's out, Andy Rodriguez's hitting
14:11
Speaker 2: four hundred, does he get an optioned back down? What
14:15
Speaker 2: do you what do you do if you're the Pirates.
14:19
Speaker 3: That's a really good question, Yeah, really good question, because yeah,
14:24
Speaker 3: it's it's gonna be tough. I mean, it's not too
14:27
Speaker 3: long ago that Pirates fans were begging to have Dye
14:30
Speaker 3: Rodriguez get called up and be on this team when
14:33
Speaker 3: he was that top one hundred prospect and he's still
14:35
Speaker 3: only twenty five. It's not like he's, you know, eclips
14:39
Speaker 3: thirty and on the back end of his career. No,
14:41
Speaker 3: he's he's got plenty of baseball ahead of him. And yeah,
14:44
Speaker 3: I mean, if he can stick at catcher without like
14:47
Speaker 3: having injury concerns, that makes this decision a lot easier.
14:51
Speaker 3: But we haven't seen that, and I don't know if
14:54
Speaker 3: you can really trust that, at least from like a
14:56
Speaker 3: fan perspective, like we're not you know, sitting here checking
14:59
Speaker 3: him out, being like, oh, all his medicals look great.
15:01
Speaker 3: He's going to be perfectly fine this year. We don't know,
15:04
Speaker 3: and who knows, Maybe a freak thing happens, maybe he's
15:06
Speaker 3: just unlucky. But I think if if NDI's hitting, you
15:10
Speaker 3: got to keep him on this team. And I don't
15:13
Speaker 3: know if he's played second base before, maybe he can
15:16
Speaker 3: fill in, give like Lao an extra day if you're
15:17
Speaker 3: moving loud at DH at some points. But it's a
15:21
Speaker 3: crowded in field right and it's not like you're going
15:24
Speaker 3: to be like, oh, hey, why don't you try right
15:26
Speaker 3: field or left field out because I don't think he's
15:29
Speaker 3: ever played those even in the minors, So you're gonna
15:33
Speaker 3: have him on this team to catch even with how
15:36
Speaker 3: good of a bat you think he might have still
15:38
Speaker 3: after all these injuries. So yeah, I mean I would
15:41
Speaker 3: give him a chance, but that you'd have to dfa Bart, right,
15:45
Speaker 3: because you're not going to send down Henry Davis because
15:48
Speaker 3: you want him probably catching Paul Skins unless Andy could
15:51
Speaker 3: catch Paul Skins. But yeah, I don't think you messed
15:55
Speaker 3: with anything where we just got done talking about this
15:58
Speaker 3: generational guy. Yeah, let's not let's not touch that. So
16:03
Speaker 3: your only option would be to replace Bart.
16:06
Speaker 2: With Endy, or you could roster three catchers and you
16:12
Speaker 2: just have Henry Davis's jobs or yeah, and you look
16:18
Speaker 2: at it, it's just like Henry Davis's job is to
16:20
Speaker 2: catch Paul schemes. If you're if you're gonna have a
16:23
Speaker 2: three catcher depth chart, that's typically what that.
16:27
Speaker 1: Includes is you just have your ace's personal catcher.
16:29
Speaker 2: Like the Cubs, for example, in twenty sixteen when they
16:32
Speaker 2: won the World Series, they had Ross.
16:34
Speaker 1: Who was there for yeah, and.
16:36
Speaker 2: Then they had Contraras and they had who was the
16:39
Speaker 2: guy who had the game winning hit, Montero, so yeah, yeah,
16:44
Speaker 2: so they had three, And I mean, I'm not comparing
16:47
Speaker 2: this team to the twenty sixteen Chicago Cubs, but just
16:50
Speaker 2: as an example, it's like that's typically where you see it.
16:52
Speaker 1: You have your aces guy.
16:54
Speaker 2: And Henry can contribute in other ways as well as
16:58
Speaker 2: far as like game play being involved every day there
17:02
Speaker 2: and he could be a defensive substitution is.
17:06
Speaker 4: Just a I mean if you got that too, that's
17:08
Speaker 4: also another body just in case.
17:10
Speaker 2: Right, he's a good base runner. So there are those things,
17:14
Speaker 2: and it's like you would ask yourself, like who's a
17:17
Speaker 2: more valuable twenty sixth man, Andy Rodriguez or Billy Cook.
17:21
Speaker 2: I don't know, I mean, especially now that York's back
17:24
Speaker 2: up here and can play the outfield, and whenever Mangum
17:26
Speaker 2: gets back, like it's an interesting conversation. The other thought
17:31
Speaker 2: for me, and then I'll let Josh speak on this
17:33
Speaker 2: a little bit, is maybe you option Indy back down
17:36
Speaker 2: even if he's playing well, and you play Joey bart
17:39
Speaker 2: a Ton to try to showcase him, because I mean,
17:42
Speaker 2: he before he got injured, he was hitting the ball well.
17:46
Speaker 2: And it's just kind of like, all right, we just
17:49
Speaker 2: need you to have one more really good week and
17:50
Speaker 2: we can we can trade you because teams don't typically
17:54
Speaker 2: love to acquire catchers at the deadline because you gotta
17:58
Speaker 2: learn a whole new staff two thirds of the season through.
18:01
Speaker 1: So if you're gonna make a move for a.
18:03
Speaker 2: Backup country, which Joey Bart would be for pretty much
18:05
Speaker 2: any other team, you would make this move probably before June.
18:10
Speaker 2: So I don't know if Bart deserves to get DFAD
18:13
Speaker 2: over a couple of good weeks of offense.
18:15
Speaker 1: But I don't know, Josh, what do you think.
18:18
Speaker 4: Obviously Tom is gonna tell as you mentioned, today was
18:21
Speaker 4: Indy's first game. Definitely a nice first game to have,
18:27
Speaker 4: you know, I know, especially for him given you know,
18:29
Speaker 4: the recent years of you know, the injuries.
18:32
Speaker 6: And coming back.
18:33
Speaker 4: But you know, we just highlighted I think Joey Bart
18:36
Speaker 4: last week about you know, how offensively he was coming around. Yeah,
18:40
Speaker 4: and I think you still have to be somewhat patient
18:43
Speaker 4: here these next couple of weeks because at the same time,
18:47
Speaker 4: as you mentioned, Joey was starting to swing it and
18:49
Speaker 4: come around, and indeed getting those reps in Triple A
18:53
Speaker 4: could very well be very beneficial as to why he's
18:56
Speaker 4: doing this now, because you know, those two years that
18:58
Speaker 4: he missed. You still don't want him to missed those
19:00
Speaker 4: two years and come up and still be like, okay,
19:02
Speaker 4: what do we have. So you see, he's you see,
19:05
Speaker 4: he's stepping up, and today he caught the bullpen game
19:08
Speaker 4: and handled those.
19:09
Speaker 6: Guys, so it's like, okay.
19:10
Speaker 4: Defensively, he seems like, you know, he's already got that
19:13
Speaker 4: little bit of a relationship with the pictures.
19:14
Speaker 6: Let's if the bat sticks around.
19:16
Speaker 4: But at the same time, you want to get a
19:18
Speaker 4: feel for how he does consistently just being behind the plate,
19:20
Speaker 4: because you know, you want to see how he is
19:23
Speaker 4: going to be blocking balls, if he's gonna you know,
19:25
Speaker 4: how he's gonna.
19:26
Speaker 6: Throw, obviously if he's had arm injuries.
19:27
Speaker 4: But these are all things that I know they've probably
19:31
Speaker 4: gone through just to check and spring train and also
19:33
Speaker 4: triple A. But at the same time, you don't get
19:36
Speaker 4: a real feel until you're really in that real, you
19:39
Speaker 4: know moment.
19:40
Speaker 6: So he's been presented with that today.
19:42
Speaker 4: It was a nice start, and obviously if he continues
19:45
Speaker 4: to do what he does what he's doing, that's obviously
19:48
Speaker 4: a good problem to have because now you're you know,
19:51
Speaker 4: you're dealing from a surplus as as you may if
19:54
Speaker 4: you know he and Joey Barter both you know, swinging
19:57
Speaker 4: it and performing better than what you would say because
20:00
Speaker 4: Joey wasn't hurting them defensively. So that's the other thing is,
20:04
Speaker 4: as you said, he's probably not worthy of a DFA,
20:06
Speaker 4: especially how he's played the past couple of weeks.
20:08
Speaker 6: So I don't think he's a guy that you want
20:11
Speaker 6: to bounce around because you said he's had the injuries.
20:13
Speaker 4: But it definitely is a guy that you might send
20:16
Speaker 4: back to Triple A just to continue to keep him playing. Yep,
20:20
Speaker 4: that's that's if you're not going to carry the three,
20:22
Speaker 4: you know, because if you're gonna carry the three, he's
20:23
Speaker 4: gonna play. But if if you're not gonna carry the three,
20:26
Speaker 4: let him go back to Triple A and continue to say,
20:28
Speaker 4: you know what, if something shakes here in the next
20:30
Speaker 4: you're coming right back, and if not, stay ready. But
20:33
Speaker 4: you know, he's also missed a lot of times. So
20:35
Speaker 4: I don't think they're ready to just go all in
20:38
Speaker 4: and say like, yes.
20:41
Speaker 2: The reality is is we round this topic off. Catchers
20:47
Speaker 2: just they're gonna go on the iyel. Yeah, it's the
20:50
Speaker 2: most physically demanding position in Yeah, you're gonna you're gonna
20:55
Speaker 2: get concussions, you're gonna get contusions, you're gonna like it's
21:01
Speaker 2: just off the rist risk and all of it. Like
21:06
Speaker 2: you need three to four.
21:07
Speaker 1: Catchers to get through a making season.
21:09
Speaker 2: So it's a good thing that if Andy keeps playing
21:11
Speaker 2: well and they have to choose between making him a
21:14
Speaker 2: bench player or stay ready in triple A.
21:17
Speaker 1: I think that's a good problem to have, one that
21:19
Speaker 1: we're still far away from.
21:20
Speaker 2: So all right, we're gonna round out the show, and
21:23
Speaker 2: as we always do on our Friday shows, we do
21:25
Speaker 2: it with Jay Hay Now, Josh, what do you got
21:27
Speaker 2: for us?
21:28
Speaker 6: Hey?
21:29
Speaker 4: Now, man, I get excited about, you know, what would
21:34
Speaker 4: be considered small things, but they end up being big things.
21:37
Speaker 4: And these are baseball plays. And the other day that
21:41
Speaker 4: that baseball play basic low the two outs where Loud
21:44
Speaker 4: ran through the bag at second base and kept going
21:46
Speaker 4: one it stole a run, and you know, just want
21:49
Speaker 4: to give kudos to one that's a baseball play where
21:52
Speaker 4: it's not really talked about, but some guys talk about
21:55
Speaker 4: where you're better off running through the bag because obviously
21:58
Speaker 4: if you beat it and you overrun the bag and
22:00
Speaker 4: then they tag you you beat the four, so either
22:02
Speaker 4: way you're guaranteed to run. And what you saw there
22:06
Speaker 4: was he ran through the bag and kept rounding and
22:08
Speaker 4: they're like, oh man, he beat it. We got to
22:09
Speaker 4: get in a rundown. And props to Nick Gonzales standing
22:13
Speaker 4: in that rundown and pulling a little bit of j hey,
22:15
Speaker 4: you know, back and forth, and then did exactly what
22:19
Speaker 4: you're taught as a base runner. And Cantana knew it
22:21
Speaker 4: right away. He was floating in limbo mode and was
22:24
Speaker 4: thinking he was going to be part of a rundown.
22:26
Speaker 4: And as Gonzales turn, he realized he was in his
22:28
Speaker 4: way and he might have gone a little bit about
22:30
Speaker 4: out of his way. But that's that's what they We
22:34
Speaker 4: practice rundowns and pfps and all that and spring training
22:39
Speaker 4: all the time. It seems very monotonous, but this is
22:42
Speaker 4: a case where they always say, whichever side you throw
22:45
Speaker 4: the ball on, you stay on that side because if
22:47
Speaker 4: you cross across you know that line, the runner makes
22:50
Speaker 4: contact with you, they are automatically awarded you know that bag.
22:54
Speaker 4: And that was a momentum shift right there. You know
22:57
Speaker 4: that that's two runs that they got out of that.
22:59
Speaker 4: That could have putent actually been an ending ending force out,
23:01
Speaker 4: you know at second base. And you know those are
23:04
Speaker 4: moments that obviously we see the highlights and it shows up,
23:07
Speaker 4: but you know that's that's baseball play. That is that
23:10
Speaker 4: is thinking the game, that is earning an edge, and uh,
23:13
Speaker 4: that's what you know, winning teams, winning players do. And
23:16
Speaker 4: as I said, not only did they get one, they
23:18
Speaker 4: got too because you had two guys that was I
23:20
Speaker 4: don't want to say a part of the foolishness, but
23:23
Speaker 4: they called some ruckets on the base paths. And those
23:25
Speaker 4: are plays that I get really excited about because you know,
23:28
Speaker 4: I have my fair share of some exciting plays on
23:31
Speaker 4: the base paths. And you can win some games and
23:33
Speaker 4: still some runs that way, especially when a team isn't
23:36
Speaker 4: prepared for something like that.
23:38
Speaker 1: Dude. Yeah, it's it's so hard to score runs in
23:42
Speaker 1: the game of baseball, Like it's hard to get hard
23:44
Speaker 1: to get hits.
23:45
Speaker 2: It's hard to get hits with runners in scoring position,
23:48
Speaker 2: like these pitchers are really good. And when you can
23:52
Speaker 2: steal one without having to do anything but what your
23:57
Speaker 2: coach to do, that is that's huge.
24:00
Speaker 1: That's huge and didn't lead a win, but it was yeah.
24:04
Speaker 4: No, but but but that's what winning that that still
24:08
Speaker 4: creates a yeah.
24:09
Speaker 6: But you know what else it did? It got his
24:11
Speaker 6: teammate a base hit.
24:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, and in RBI, I don't know the ruling for
24:16
Speaker 4: I don't think it gets the RBR for the second one,
24:18
Speaker 4: but he got an end field single RBI.
24:21
Speaker 6: You know what. You know what we used to say, Hey,
24:23
Speaker 6: you owe him a mistake.
24:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, like literally, yeah, you got your hit, and like
24:28
Speaker 4: you owe him a mistake like that, and you know
24:31
Speaker 4: everybody would be of course, I'll buy your stake anytime if.
24:35
Speaker 3: The get yeah, yeah, you know. And I'll just follow
24:40
Speaker 3: this up by saying how nice it is to watch
24:44
Speaker 3: the Pirates play fundamental baseball and make plays like that.
24:48
Speaker 3: I mean, granted, the rest of the game you can
24:51
Speaker 3: make some argatans, but seeing those plays where it's not
24:54
Speaker 3: the Pirates on the other side feels really nice. And
24:58
Speaker 3: seeing the veteran like Lao just making those great fundamental plays,
25:03
Speaker 3: which is something that like my father in law always
25:06
Speaker 3: text me about the Pirates. He's like, they just I
25:08
Speaker 3: feel like they aren't coached the fundamentals. They're making routine
25:11
Speaker 3: mistakes that like you shouldn't make if you're a professional
25:14
Speaker 3: baseball player, and so to see that actually happening now
25:18
Speaker 3: and lead to runs even if it doesn't result in
25:21
Speaker 3: a win, was really encouraging to see.
25:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that stuff's contagious. Man.
25:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean like like, while, yeah, they ended up
25:28
Speaker 2: losing the game, what was that Wednesday night?
25:32
Speaker 1: You see that?
25:33
Speaker 2: And like I'm not speaking from a point of experience
25:36
Speaker 2: as like I never played major league baseball obviously, but
25:39
Speaker 2: like that stuff.
25:41
Speaker 1: Makes an impression on younger players.
25:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like when when Lao does that, like it shows
25:47
Speaker 2: younger players it's like I need to be thinking to
25:50
Speaker 2: do this when I'm in that situation, like you know,
25:52
Speaker 2: like the reaction in the club or not the clubhouse,
25:56
Speaker 2: the dugout. Yeah, when Gonzalez was running back through the
25:59
Speaker 2: tunnel when he scored that run, it was like he
26:02
Speaker 2: just hit a go ahead home run.
26:03
Speaker 1: In the top of the mors. Yeah, because like that's.
26:06
Speaker 2: Something that's like a team unifying moment. That's something that
26:09
Speaker 2: it's a lesson learned. There's there's so much good that
26:12
Speaker 2: can come from that one small little thing, and moments
26:16
Speaker 2: like that that just show it's like, you know, that's
26:18
Speaker 2: a culture where it's like we're locked in to win.
26:20
Speaker 1: We're not.
26:21
Speaker 2: We're not going through the motions. It's it's a Rockies,
26:23
Speaker 2: it's a Wednesday night. There are ten thousand people at
26:26
Speaker 2: the ballpark. Like, you know, it's it's easy to just
26:29
Speaker 2: give yourself up and the inning. Shoot, we got a run,
26:32
Speaker 2: we're ahead. Cool, but like, no, we're gonna keep fighting.
26:36
Speaker 2: We're gonna make life hell, Jose can tana. You're a veteran,
26:39
Speaker 2: you know what's happening. You're still gonna screw this up.
26:41
Speaker 2: Like that's that's all winning, right, yes, Like his reaction
26:45
Speaker 2: is like I can't believe.
26:46
Speaker 1: I just felt for that, you know, because.
26:52
Speaker 2: Me yep, because he's been on teams that win games
26:55
Speaker 2: like that. Jose has been on a lot of very
26:57
Speaker 2: good baseball teams. And that's what good teams do. They
27:01
Speaker 2: they you know, they outslug you, they beat you with
27:04
Speaker 2: their ace. The Pirates have been doing that. But also
27:07
Speaker 2: it's like, no, we're greedy. We're gonna steal a run
27:09
Speaker 2: this way too, and that's that's the mark of a
27:12
Speaker 2: winner's news. Yeah, yes, so all right.
27:16
Speaker 1: Guys, any final thoughts before we wrap up the.
27:18
Speaker 3: Show, Just a quick shout out to Seth Hernandez jumped
27:23
Speaker 3: all the way up MLB pipelines rankings to number three
27:26
Speaker 3: after Connor Griffin graduated. So the Pirates promoted. Yeah what
27:34
Speaker 3: uh yes, yeah, so just pirates, you know, just reload
27:40
Speaker 3: another top prospect here in the top three as soon
27:42
Speaker 3: as one graduates. Uh, get Hernandez right back up there.
27:45
Speaker 3: And Edward Florentino as well got bumped up to thirty seven.
27:48
Speaker 3: Probably too low for Edward Florentino, but we'll get there.
27:52
Speaker 1: Twenty in baseball marriage.
27:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's like the lowest across the major publications, but
27:57
Speaker 3: he'll get there.
27:59
Speaker 6: Yeah.
27:59
Speaker 3: So and you found thoughts, Josh.
28:03
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Speaker 3: Yeah, appreciate you guys.
28:45
Speaker 2: Absolutely, He's Platinum Kaka Mark, He's Josh Harrison.
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Speaker 1: I'm Noah Hayles.
28:49
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29:00
Speaker 6: The BNP and Deaton the Deponent