Latest / Cards & Categories / Ep. 58 : August Players Of The Month PC

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Ep. 58 : August Players Of The Month PC · Cards & Categories

0:15
Speaker 1: Hello, Ben, Welcome everybody to episode fifty eight of Cards
0:19
Speaker 1: and Categories. I'm Mike Coolard from Rasball, joined as always
0:23
Speaker 1: by my very good friend Jeremy Burr, also from ras Ball.
0:26
Speaker 1: How you did tonight, buddy?
0:27
Speaker 2: Oh, I am just as good as the White Sox
0:29
Speaker 2: on a Sunday, which means I'm losing.
0:33
Speaker 1: You don't have to specify, just a Sunday, Okay, Sorry,
0:39
Speaker 1: I should check they I mean coming into tonight. We're
0:41
Speaker 1: recording this on September fourth, Wednesday night. They came in
0:46
Speaker 1: on an L twelve. They're currently up six to one
0:48
Speaker 1: in the eighth but knowing the White Sox Bullpen, I'm
0:52
Speaker 1: not gonna bank that at all, So we can check
0:55
Speaker 1: in a few minutes here.
0:56
Speaker 2: They've got five wins in their last fifty games.
1:01
Speaker 1: That's it's so bad it Yeah, it's it's like sunk
1:05
Speaker 1: to levels that I didn't even know existed where it's
1:08
Speaker 1: just kind of we'll get into this, I think a
1:10
Speaker 1: little bit. As we get through the podcast today, I
1:13
Speaker 1: should preview that we are talking August Player the Month PC.
1:17
Speaker 1: As you know, it's the first pod of the month,
1:19
Speaker 1: so we're going to go through and recap those players
1:23
Speaker 1: that had great Augusts and go and pick some of
1:26
Speaker 1: our favorite cards. We've got some more repeats, but we
1:29
Speaker 1: are turning into i think an Aaron Judge PC podcast.
1:32
Speaker 1: So I'm going to start maybe working that into lots
1:35
Speaker 1: of our algorithms and make sure that the seos pick
1:38
Speaker 1: that up. But it is going to be an interesting
1:42
Speaker 1: pod because, like I said, like the contrast between the
1:47
Speaker 1: greats and the not greats in baseball right now is
1:51
Speaker 1: as wide as it's ever been in our lifetimes. I
1:54
Speaker 1: think between obviously the White Sox going for the all
1:57
Speaker 1: time loss record, and at the same time we also
2:00
Speaker 1: have CHULIYOTOWNI out there trying to do fifty to fifty.
2:03
Speaker 1: Aaron Judge has slumped off from the pace that we
2:06
Speaker 1: were talking about last week. I mean, no thanks in
2:08
Speaker 1: part to our drinks. But it'll be just a fascinating
2:14
Speaker 1: end I think to the twenty twenty twenty four season
2:17
Speaker 1: here down the stretch in September, so I'm looking forward
2:19
Speaker 1: to it.
2:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's gonna be a fun There's so many storylines.
2:23
Speaker 2: That's what makes baseball fun. No matter what, there's always
2:25
Speaker 2: something to talk about, always something to watch. So end
2:29
Speaker 2: of the season is coming sooner than either of us
2:32
Speaker 2: would like, but hey, this is always fun time of
2:34
Speaker 2: the year to see where where we are going to
2:38
Speaker 2: end up.
2:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. Okay, well, let's get into some of our
2:41
Speaker 1: news and notes. And we've been starting off on the
2:44
Speaker 1: happy news and notes way too much the past three pots,
2:46
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna flip it over to the sad ones first.
2:49
Speaker 1: We'll do the injuries first, and this beginning injury, I
2:54
Speaker 1: think we partly caused it because this is our classic
2:57
Speaker 1: Thursday curse. There's always something crazy that happens every Thursday
3:01
Speaker 1: in baseball nowadays thanks to us in this podcast, although
3:05
Speaker 1: it always follows us to Wednesdays when we report on
3:07
Speaker 1: Tuesday sometimes, so it is absolutely our pod that causes this.
3:12
Speaker 1: But that is Vinnie pass Quentino, first baseman for the
3:14
Speaker 1: Kansas City Royals, suffered a broken thumb in the field
3:18
Speaker 1: on just a really freak play. Lucas Erstig took a
3:22
Speaker 1: comebacker off of his hand, scrambled to go pick that
3:25
Speaker 1: ball up, and then when he threw it over to first,
3:28
Speaker 1: it went right into the first base path where the
3:32
Speaker 1: runner was coming down the line, and Vinnie pas Quentino
3:34
Speaker 1: just got turned around. And we've seen this a few
3:37
Speaker 1: times over the past few years in terms of like
3:40
Speaker 1: breaking wrists and stuff, but it happened to pass Quantino
3:44
Speaker 1: this time. And I know this is really a bummer
3:47
Speaker 1: for you because he has certainly carried a lot of
3:50
Speaker 1: your bold predictions you made during the All Star Break,
3:53
Speaker 1: as Vinnie Pascantino has really been breaking out. You know,
3:56
Speaker 1: it is only a one oh six WRC plus, but
3:59
Speaker 1: I think a lot of the work is bullied by
4:01
Speaker 1: that great park in Kaufman. He is slashing two sixty two, three, fifteen, four,
4:06
Speaker 1: forty six with nineteen homers and ninety seven RBI. That's
4:10
Speaker 1: probably gonna end up wrapping up his twenty twenty four season.
4:14
Speaker 1: Do you think that this injury will have an effect
4:17
Speaker 1: on pass Centino going into twenty twenty five brew and
4:20
Speaker 1: uh any maybe other expectations from what you've seen in
4:25
Speaker 1: his growth profile over the past few months that you
4:28
Speaker 1: might think that he can build upon in twenty twenty five.
4:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, if anything, this really is going to
4:35
Speaker 2: cause a discount going into the next year, because you know,
4:38
Speaker 2: he he was breaking out like since the All Star Break.
4:41
Speaker 2: You know, he's hit two ninety six, you know, three
4:44
Speaker 2: twenty five four twenty four percent above league league average,
4:48
Speaker 2: has eight homers across that time. Thirty five RBIs like
4:51
Speaker 2: he was almost one hundred RBIs already. It's like he
4:55
Speaker 2: he was doing what we expected him to do and
4:58
Speaker 2: guy he was going to break out to be. And
5:00
Speaker 2: really is a matter of like he was hitting the
5:03
Speaker 2: ball so hard everywhere. I mean, he his average acxip
5:06
Speaker 2: velosity's about ninety one mile an hour. He is really
5:10
Speaker 2: just destroying the ball and he just wasn't getting a
5:12
Speaker 2: lift that he needed. But he's it's not like that's
5:15
Speaker 2: not been part of his profile in the past. He
5:16
Speaker 2: just that first half he just ended up being a
5:18
Speaker 2: little bit more of a line drive hitter than a
5:21
Speaker 2: guy that was lifting over the fence and lon and behold.
5:24
Speaker 2: He kind of started to make an adjustment the second
5:26
Speaker 2: halfen the ball starts flying over the fence and so
5:29
Speaker 2: he has looked better and he's not going to ever
5:32
Speaker 2: be your prototypical first baseman trying to be a thirty
5:34
Speaker 2: five to forty masher, But he absolutely is a twenty
5:37
Speaker 2: five to thirty homer guy that he hit almost three
5:40
Speaker 2: hundred easily. Kno getting one ten with Wit in front
5:43
Speaker 2: of him in that lineup. Yeah, I think he's I
5:47
Speaker 2: love Vinnie Pasquentino. I think this is just making a
5:50
Speaker 2: buy an opportunity for next season. So I'm I'm still invested.
5:53
Speaker 2: I'm not worried about the injury. I'm not thinking this
5:55
Speaker 2: is you know, to your point, it's a freak accident.
5:57
Speaker 2: Things happen, He'll be back, He'll be fine.
6:00
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that's a good point too, is like, yeah,
6:02
Speaker 1: you're not looking at like a significant obleak injury or
6:04
Speaker 1: anything like that that hopefully this doesn't linger too much
6:07
Speaker 1: because part of it too is I mean lots of
6:10
Speaker 1: baseball players have just beat up fingers and hands and
6:13
Speaker 1: stuff like that that you would hope that he can
6:16
Speaker 1: overcome it. But thankfully it's not a wrist injury. I
6:19
Speaker 1: will say, like that is the one injury I'm always
6:21
Speaker 1: afraid of with hitters. Thumbs a little iffy, but like it, Yeah,
6:27
Speaker 1: you just tape it up. I mean, thumb's only like
6:31
Speaker 1: created all of humanity. But no big deal details and
6:35
Speaker 1: we'll see how the Royals hang on because it is
6:38
Speaker 1: rough at first base. Now there they have sal Perez
6:41
Speaker 1: playing first base past couple days. They had Ui girl
6:44
Speaker 1: gury Ol. They brought him over from Atlanta and he
6:47
Speaker 1: hurd his hamstring because he's forty years old. That kind
6:51
Speaker 1: of snuck up on all of us. But we'll see
6:53
Speaker 1: if the Royals can still make that playoff run and
6:57
Speaker 1: be able to finish without vintip down the stretch. All right,
7:01
Speaker 1: Next injury we have is it's more of like an update.
7:04
Speaker 1: This is Kyle Tucker from the Houston Astros outfielder who
7:08
Speaker 1: is on his way back from returning. But we actually
7:12
Speaker 1: discussed this last week during our mock draft, where I
7:15
Speaker 1: was actually a little bit hesitant about Kyle Tucker, given
7:18
Speaker 1: that the Astros had been saying his injury was a
7:21
Speaker 1: deep bone bruise or other type of contusion in his shin. Well,
7:26
Speaker 1: lo and behold, it was actually a break. There was
7:28
Speaker 1: a fracture in there. They Dana White, the GM admitted
7:32
Speaker 1: that this week, and it does seem that, like some
7:35
Speaker 1: of the media was frustrated with this. I also I
7:38
Speaker 1: wouldn't be surprised if maybe something comes down from the
7:41
Speaker 1: Commissioner's office because the Astros have had a tendency to
7:45
Speaker 1: kind of toy with the injured list and toy with
7:48
Speaker 1: injury news the way that almost like hockey teams do,
7:51
Speaker 1: where they announced upper body injury, lower body injury, where
7:55
Speaker 1: I wonder if the Astros were trying to gain this
7:58
Speaker 1: a little bit to hold the Mariners off, or just
8:01
Speaker 1: kind of play with that market a little bit where
8:04
Speaker 1: people didn't know how long Tucker was going to be out.
8:08
Speaker 1: So I am actually upgrading my overall assessment. I think
8:14
Speaker 1: I've Tucker going in next year because if we had
8:17
Speaker 1: known that this was a shouldn't break off the bat like,
8:19
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have been worried about his overall health and
8:22
Speaker 1: ability to heal, because in terms of coming back from
8:26
Speaker 1: a break in his leg, he's probably right on time
8:30
Speaker 1: at this point. Do you think, are you on the
8:33
Speaker 1: same page with me or think anything different here A
8:36
Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker.
8:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you're on the same page. I was
8:38
Speaker 2: gonna make the football analogy of the you know, quarterback
8:41
Speaker 2: list as questionable or doubtful for the whole weekend. Then
8:46
Speaker 2: all of a sudden he shows up and he's perfectly
8:47
Speaker 2: fine on Sunday. That's what it kind of felt like.
8:50
Speaker 2: But I'm with you, like it was a little bit
8:52
Speaker 2: more ominous when you didn't know what was actually going on.
8:56
Speaker 2: It's like this guy got a bruise and he's out
8:58
Speaker 2: for two months, Like what's going on? What's is he
9:02
Speaker 2: have a I don't know, some disease with his that
9:06
Speaker 2: he can't recover, Like what's happened to Kyle Tucker? And
9:10
Speaker 2: like I said, alone and behold, like it was a
9:12
Speaker 2: legit injury. There's no way they didn't know this the
9:15
Speaker 2: whole time with all the technology, all the imaging these
9:17
Speaker 2: teams have, like they knew from day one what was
9:20
Speaker 2: going on. And like, yeah, he's absolutely he's probably back
9:25
Speaker 2: earlier than we expected. He's probably ahead of schedule now
9:29
Speaker 2: at this point. And yeah, it's Kyle Tucker. I mean,
9:33
Speaker 2: guy was having an amazing season in just the sixty
9:36
Speaker 2: games he was pacing for like a forty five fifty
9:40
Speaker 2: homeward season, Like he's coming into his own and now
9:44
Speaker 2: maybe that will be tempered a little bit in his
9:48
Speaker 2: sex season, probably not terribly, but to your point, like
9:50
Speaker 2: there was this little bit of twinge of like he's
9:53
Speaker 2: the first guy I'm taking a risk on in the
9:55
Speaker 2: draft from a real injury perspective. Now I feel like
9:58
Speaker 2: I'm not really taking that risk, especially if he does
10:01
Speaker 2: get back, which we fully expect he will be now
10:04
Speaker 2: and he starts performing. So Kyle Tucker, all sides pointing
10:10
Speaker 2: up for you.
10:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. And I think maybe it's also a little
10:14
Speaker 1: bit of just seeing how Mike Trout has really digressed
10:19
Speaker 1: and been able unable to heal that it makes me
10:22
Speaker 1: worried for that type of player. So it's great to
10:24
Speaker 1: see Tucker actually had a legit break and yeah, I
10:28
Speaker 1: think he should be back within the next week or so.
10:31
Speaker 1: And I mean from there, look out. The Astros I
10:35
Speaker 1: think are going to be really dangerous down the stretch
10:37
Speaker 1: and everything just kind of seems to be coming together
10:40
Speaker 1: for them all. Right, next injury we have, we're going
10:43
Speaker 1: to stick in the Al West, and this broke actually
10:46
Speaker 1: just before we started recording here tonight. That is Corey Seeger,
10:50
Speaker 1: shortstop from the Rangers, is being placed on the il
10:54
Speaker 1: with hip discomfort, and there's a little question as to
10:57
Speaker 1: whether or not this will wrap up the season because
11:00
Speaker 1: there was an ominous quote out there in the story
11:03
Speaker 1: that is in the show notes from MLB Trade rumors
11:06
Speaker 1: that they weren't sure whether or not he would need
11:09
Speaker 1: surgery on this hip, which is just strange because if
11:13
Speaker 1: it's just discomfort, you know, you would think that it's
11:15
Speaker 1: you know, more of like a soreness thing. But if
11:18
Speaker 1: it is something more chronic, it didn't hurt Seeger in
11:21
Speaker 1: the second half. Since the All Star Break, he's been
11:23
Speaker 1: on an absolute tear with a one fifty five WRC
11:27
Speaker 1: plus two ninety four, three forty nine, five seventy five
11:31
Speaker 1: slug and that came with an incredible twelve homers. It
11:36
Speaker 1: was just like exactly what you were expecting from Seger
11:41
Speaker 1: being that second round pick. But are you worried about
11:44
Speaker 1: this hip? And maybe some of that ominous wording I
11:47
Speaker 1: said about the surgery because Kyle or Yeah, that was
11:54
Speaker 1: a good back to back there. But Corey Seeger will
11:57
Speaker 1: be thirty one in April next year, so the twilight
12:03
Speaker 1: of his career is certainly much closer than that prime
12:06
Speaker 1: because the agent curve only goes one way from here
12:09
Speaker 1: on out.
12:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm really torn on Cory Seger, to be honest,
12:13
Speaker 2: because as I look at his performance, I feel like
12:16
Speaker 2: he's only gotten better with age. He's aged kind of
12:18
Speaker 2: like a fine line here, and you know, he's three
12:22
Speaker 2: years in a row. His first three in Texas, he's
12:25
Speaker 2: hit the thirty homer plateau, and he's, you know, been
12:30
Speaker 2: a reasonable hitter there. One year hit three twenty seven
12:33
Speaker 2: when he was down at two forty five. This year's
12:35
Speaker 2: two seventy eight, So he's he's held his own from
12:37
Speaker 2: an average perspective. The rum production has been there, he
12:40
Speaker 2: scored the runs, he's docked him in. The issue's been health.
12:43
Speaker 2: But remember he hit thirty home runs three years in
12:45
Speaker 2: a row. Last year one hundred nineteen games, this year
12:47
Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty three. And if he would have
12:51
Speaker 2: got out into like the one fifty one to fifty five,
12:54
Speaker 2: we're talking knocking on the door of forty homers and
12:57
Speaker 2: that I feel like that would be changing the narrative.
13:00
Speaker 2: Corey Seeger like he's been sneakily good, yeah, which is
13:03
Speaker 2: which is really odd to say, because you know, he
13:06
Speaker 2: it felt like he didn't ever quite live up to
13:08
Speaker 2: the expectations in LA, partially because of injuries. So I
13:12
Speaker 2: think this is one of those where I feel like
13:15
Speaker 2: I've said this before with this guy. We we're gonna
13:18
Speaker 2: talk about on our PC usually with Aaron Judge like
13:20
Speaker 2: man like, guys never gonna be healthy, I'm just not
13:22
Speaker 2: gonna buy it. And then there's one of these seasons
13:24
Speaker 2: the guy's gonna be healthy all year and get the
13:26
Speaker 2: luck bug going for him and he's gonna hit forty
13:28
Speaker 2: five homers, hit three thirty, one hundred and thirty RBI
13:31
Speaker 2: and everybody's be like it was there the whole time.
13:34
Speaker 2: I was like, Yep, it was. It's just you're playing
13:37
Speaker 2: chicken with with with the injury history here with Corey Seger.
13:40
Speaker 2: So I'm I'm really torn on probably going to just
13:44
Speaker 2: kind of leave him as is in my in my
13:47
Speaker 2: kind of rankings and projections at this point, because I
13:49
Speaker 2: think there's upside, I think there's downside, and I kind
13:51
Speaker 2: of feel like it's already baked into the price at
13:53
Speaker 2: this point in time. So yep, Seeger is probably not
13:56
Speaker 2: gonna be playing much the rest of the year, and
13:59
Speaker 2: all we can hope is that he does fully heal
14:02
Speaker 2: and we're gonna do it again next year. One hundred
14:04
Speaker 2: and twenty games, thirty homers. We'll see then.
14:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I guess it'll really be important
14:13
Speaker 1: to see how he's feeling in the spring. That it
14:16
Speaker 1: is certainly a track record now with Corey Seger being
14:20
Speaker 1: injured between like hamstrings, obliques, the Tommy John surgery, that
14:25
Speaker 1: it doesn't seem like it's the sturdiest body out there
14:28
Speaker 1: in terms of being able to avoid the soft tissue injuries.
14:31
Speaker 1: So certainly in like keeper leagues and stuff like that,
14:35
Speaker 1: I am certain to be very careful with Corey Steger.
14:37
Speaker 1: But again, I think everybody in your league will see
14:40
Speaker 1: you coming from a mile away. Certainly, if you find
14:43
Speaker 1: something in the off season that works for you, I
14:45
Speaker 1: would consider moving from Seeger. But it's also like at
14:49
Speaker 1: the draft table, I've never really had a chance to
14:52
Speaker 1: get him because he is one of those players like
14:54
Speaker 1: in that second round range where I'm still trying to
14:57
Speaker 1: get some stolen bases and Seeger has never offered that.
15:01
Speaker 1: But if you are in like a I would say,
15:04
Speaker 1: like a shallower league, especially where you can stream a
15:09
Speaker 1: pretty solid shortstop or am I to make up for
15:12
Speaker 1: the production when he's out. I mean, you can piece
15:14
Speaker 1: together a lot of good teams with Corey Seger, So
15:17
Speaker 1: it is going to be very league and just overall
15:22
Speaker 1: size and format dependent. But there's a lot of variables
15:25
Speaker 1: where I could see Seger being pretty valuable still when he's.
15:28
Speaker 2: A weekly head to head monster, weekly head to head
15:31
Speaker 2: league monster, because when he's hurt, he's out. When he's playing,
15:34
Speaker 2: he's fantastic. And you're not in the head to head
15:38
Speaker 2: league categories leagues, you're usually not sitting here too worried
15:41
Speaker 2: about steels like you're willing to go a little bit different,
15:44
Speaker 2: different ranges here. So yeah, it'll be it'll be interesting
15:48
Speaker 2: to see, but you're right. Next spring will be very
15:49
Speaker 2: telling for him.
15:51
Speaker 1: Yes, Okay, Well, the other another injury we had that
15:55
Speaker 1: came through just before we recorded here this evening is
15:59
Speaker 1: Justin Steel, starting pitcher from the Chicago Cubs, has been
16:02
Speaker 1: placed on the injured list with just overall elbow problems.
16:07
Speaker 1: It's kind of the same elbow tendonius that Tyler Glass
16:10
Speaker 1: now has been dealing with, I believe. And initially he
16:15
Speaker 1: had a start pushed back because they were talking about
16:19
Speaker 1: his elbow and it seemed again pretty ominous, But then
16:24
Speaker 1: they let him just kind of like float through that
16:27
Speaker 1: and get evaluated again. And now he's back into that
16:31
Speaker 1: injured territory, being placed on the injured list, And I
16:34
Speaker 1: think this probably will wrap up justin Steele's season because
16:39
Speaker 1: it's gonna be tough to work back from this tendonius injury,
16:42
Speaker 1: and I think in a couple of weeks the Cubs
16:44
Speaker 1: won't have much to play for that will leave him
16:47
Speaker 1: at a three h nine ear array over one hundred
16:49
Speaker 1: and twenty eight innings. If that's the case, only five
16:51
Speaker 1: and five over twenty two starts that he had a
16:53
Speaker 1: lot of like tough luck, no decisions in there. I
16:56
Speaker 1: remember that happening, that it took him forever to get
16:59
Speaker 1: his first win on the season. But Justin Steele will
17:04
Speaker 1: be back next year. Turns twenty nine in July. Actually
17:09
Speaker 1: already turned twenty nine, so he turns thirty in July.
17:12
Speaker 1: Doesn't have a ton of mileage on that arm. What
17:16
Speaker 1: do you think this means for Justin Steele going forward?
17:19
Speaker 1: And kind of like where do you place him just
17:23
Speaker 1: in the overall starting pitchure pool.
17:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm reading this one two ways. I'm really like
17:30
Speaker 2: the commentary, the talk track around it is like, doesn't
17:35
Speaker 2: seem too concerning, But I'm also given of having little
17:39
Speaker 2: Kyle Bradish vibes on some of this as well. It's like, oh,
17:42
Speaker 2: he'll be back, he just gotta work through it. Maybe
17:44
Speaker 2: a little injection here and there type type thing, and
17:47
Speaker 2: I am a little concerned with that, mainly to the
17:52
Speaker 2: extent that, like how hurt is he is it one
17:55
Speaker 2: of those that he's gonna make it to next year,
17:59
Speaker 2: just fine, workout the off season. All of a sudden,
18:01
Speaker 2: you're in spring training there, the first week of the
18:02
Speaker 2: season and something's cropping up that's been there for the
18:05
Speaker 2: last six nine months. That's a little bit concerned. I
18:08
Speaker 2: have a steal like I from a pure talent perspective
18:11
Speaker 2: and what he does, like, I really like the profile.
18:13
Speaker 1: I like it.
18:14
Speaker 2: It's just very solid. It's solid number two stuff as
18:19
Speaker 2: I look at it, and I'll take that all day.
18:21
Speaker 2: But I do just feel a little bit like when
18:24
Speaker 2: you start to get at this point in the season
18:26
Speaker 2: and you start to get those elbow injuries, the shoulder injuries,
18:29
Speaker 2: the like, that's just a little strain, Like those those
18:33
Speaker 2: ones are the ones that really really start to concern
18:36
Speaker 2: me going into the next season. So I'm probably dropping
18:39
Speaker 2: down five ten spots in my pitching ranks, you know.
18:43
Speaker 2: Don't get me wrong. I'll take a gamble on him
18:45
Speaker 2: if if he seems to be slipping a little bit,
18:48
Speaker 2: that if the injury risk gets baked in. I'm I'm
18:51
Speaker 2: I'm obsolutely fine with that. But I have a feeling
18:54
Speaker 2: that he's going to get a a starter or two
18:58
Speaker 2: at the end of the season here, and they're gonna
19:01
Speaker 2: show that he's healthy. I just don't know that I'm
19:03
Speaker 2: gonna believe it enough.
19:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, I think that's all fair. I mean, I've
19:07
Speaker 1: always loved the profile with Steal just solid strikeouts, solid era,
19:12
Speaker 1: solid whip, good ground ball rate, and a lot of
19:16
Speaker 1: those things don't add up to me getting him in
19:19
Speaker 1: the leagues we playing, because we play with a lot
19:20
Speaker 1: of Midwest Chicago based leagues where he gets drafted very highly.
19:26
Speaker 1: But certainly I agree that like it's a solid, like
19:29
Speaker 1: number two, number three fantasy profile, certainly one to watch
19:33
Speaker 1: in the offseason if you're in any dynasty league. Says
19:36
Speaker 1: it unfolds here over the next couple weeks. All right,
19:39
Speaker 1: next injury we have is to another south Paw, but
19:41
Speaker 1: this one's out in Tinseltown. Our good old boy, Clayton
19:45
Speaker 1: Kershaw is hitting the il and it's not with something
19:47
Speaker 1: you would have expected. It's actually with a bone spur
19:50
Speaker 1: in his left big toe. So the timeline here is
19:56
Speaker 1: a little unsure, because I mean, bone spur are just
20:00
Speaker 1: kind of unsure animals themselves, and so this could shut
20:05
Speaker 1: down Kershaw for the season, but maybe not necessarily. And
20:10
Speaker 1: I will say that, like, I was more impressed with
20:12
Speaker 1: what Kershaw flashed when he was on the mound this
20:15
Speaker 1: year than what I was expecting. He put up thirty
20:19
Speaker 1: innings of a four to fifty ERA with seven point
20:23
Speaker 1: two K nine And let me see where that fastball
20:26
Speaker 1: clocked in at stuff, Plus it was only a ninety
20:32
Speaker 1: and yeah, certainly was not at the velocity level that
20:36
Speaker 1: he has traditionally been used to, and with that it
20:42
Speaker 1: has led to actually his worst ground ball rate. Again,
20:45
Speaker 1: it's only been thirty innings, which is a career worse obviously,
20:48
Speaker 1: but the worst ground ball rate of his career too.
20:51
Speaker 1: So you can kind of see where this is kind
20:53
Speaker 1: of all projecting for Kershaw going forward. But did you
20:56
Speaker 1: see enough in these thirty innings that Kershaw came back
20:59
Speaker 1: for this year to possibly put him on draft boards
21:02
Speaker 1: for you next season?
21:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think it's the same thing for
21:06
Speaker 2: Kershaw the last two years that there's still enough there
21:09
Speaker 2: that I think when Kershaw's pitching, I want to have
21:11
Speaker 2: him on my teams, but I just I can't commit
21:14
Speaker 2: to the innings, and I don't think anybody else really
21:16
Speaker 2: is either. So I have him on my draft boards
21:20
Speaker 2: is if I give him at the end of the
21:21
Speaker 2: draft for a late round pick, a dollar bid kind
21:25
Speaker 2: of thing like that, great, But I'm not building any
21:28
Speaker 2: draft plans around him, and that's because I just can't
21:31
Speaker 2: commit to more than thirty innings. More than fifty innings,
21:34
Speaker 2: It's not like he's tied of glass now who he's
21:36
Speaker 2: like one hundred innings, I'm good. He's even further back
21:39
Speaker 2: than that, and you might get lucky, but you're you're
21:43
Speaker 2: kind of baking into what you got this year is
21:44
Speaker 2: what you're gonna get going forward. So I like the profile.
21:49
Speaker 2: I still even though there's I think some slight, you know,
21:52
Speaker 2: potentially step backs and just the thirty innings he got
21:55
Speaker 2: this year, I still think he's one of the best
21:58
Speaker 2: pitchers of our generation. That he is smart enough to
22:01
Speaker 2: figure out how to still just get things done. Uh
22:04
Speaker 2: them satismin not be as good, but you're still probably
22:08
Speaker 2: talking about a guy that's got a low whip, probably
22:10
Speaker 2: talking about a mid three e RA. He's still gonna
22:12
Speaker 2: get the wins. He's still gonna get about a caper,
22:14
Speaker 2: and he like he's still gonna be really really good
22:16
Speaker 2: when he plays. I just I'm not sure if he's
22:20
Speaker 2: gonna play. And because of that, I'm when other people
22:24
Speaker 2: are zigging and zag at the end of the draft
22:26
Speaker 2: and taking Flyers on like a guy that might become something,
22:29
Speaker 2: I'll take Kershel, I'll be I'll be absolutely fine with
22:32
Speaker 2: damage goods. But earlier than that's no, not there.
22:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'm I'm pretty much locking step there with
22:40
Speaker 1: you on Kershaw that like, yeah, it's gonna be hard
22:44
Speaker 1: never to like have him and like to let him
22:47
Speaker 1: linger on on waiver wires, because you just also know that,
22:51
Speaker 1: like he's such a competitor that he wants to get
22:53
Speaker 1: out there and throw well. And I think he's also
22:56
Speaker 1: one of those guys that will walk away before the
22:59
Speaker 1: game walks away from him sort of thing. So certainly
23:03
Speaker 1: I'm keeping tabs on him going into next year, but
23:06
Speaker 1: going to tamper those expectations with however, this season ends too,
23:11
Speaker 1: all right, one more injury to cover and this is
23:13
Speaker 1: actually a two for We've got one going on the
23:16
Speaker 1: il and one coming off the IL in Arizona, as
23:20
Speaker 1: we have Lortis Gurriel hitting the IL with a calf
23:23
Speaker 1: injury that he has sustained. And again, just like all
23:27
Speaker 1: these other injuries we've talked about, it's tough to know
23:29
Speaker 1: whether or not this will end his season. But even
23:33
Speaker 1: if it doesn't, it's been a pretty solid year overall
23:36
Speaker 1: for Lurtis Guriel. And this is also, I think a
23:39
Speaker 1: good segue to conversation. I guess I just didn't comment
23:44
Speaker 1: on who's coming back. That is Christian Walker coming back
23:46
Speaker 1: from the oblique strain. I will set him aside because
23:49
Speaker 1: if you have Christian Walker and you're roading for this,
23:51
Speaker 1: give him in those lineups and enjoy yourself. But with
23:55
Speaker 1: Lordis Gurriel, he put up a season of seventeen homers,
24:00
Speaker 1: sixty nine runs, seventy RBI, seven stolen bases, two seventy
24:04
Speaker 1: four average. That is a heck of a lot of sevens.
24:08
Speaker 1: But do you know what value that kicks out in
24:11
Speaker 1: a standard twelve teamer in our player raider on rasball
24:14
Speaker 1: right now? I don't.
24:16
Speaker 2: I do not, but I think it's what I'm gonna
24:19
Speaker 2: say is I'm probably it's probably gonna surprise me. It's
24:22
Speaker 2: probably significantly higher than I just mentally think of with
24:25
Speaker 2: Lord Gury also here, so hit me with it.
24:28
Speaker 1: What's the number and that stat line too, that because
24:30
Speaker 1: that's a pretty middling stat line, right, like yeah, but overall.
24:33
Speaker 2: It's just really like slightly above average everywhere.
24:36
Speaker 1: Exactly, So in a standard twelve teamer, that's a fourteen
24:41
Speaker 1: dollars player this year. And so that's something that like
24:45
Speaker 1: I've been trying to like keep in mind as I've
24:47
Speaker 1: been kind of wrapping up the season and like looking
24:50
Speaker 1: at either picks from my waiver Wire article or considering
24:53
Speaker 1: for next year, because the overall offensive environment has stepped
24:57
Speaker 1: back enough that an average line like where Honestly, even
25:02
Speaker 1: before I looked it up, I would have guessed probably
25:04
Speaker 1: somewhere in like the five ish dollar range, But especially
25:07
Speaker 1: with how thin outfield can be at the back end
25:11
Speaker 1: of the pool, it pushes somebody like a Guriel up
25:14
Speaker 1: to like a number two or number three outfielder and
25:17
Speaker 1: in some places, and I think that's just something to
25:20
Speaker 1: keep in mind going forward, is that like these types
25:22
Speaker 1: of players who play every day, maybe don't put up
25:26
Speaker 1: the greatest stats, but aren't stuck in a platoon, are
25:29
Speaker 1: absolutely Fantasy Gold because people really underrate them and just
25:34
Speaker 1: don't see them posting every day. But with that, going
25:38
Speaker 1: into next year, like, what do you consider for lordis
25:41
Speaker 1: Guriel and his profile overall, Like does that change like
25:45
Speaker 1: the way that you're going to view him or players
25:47
Speaker 1: of his ilk going into that draft next year in
25:50
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five.
25:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, I look at him as is the kind of
25:54
Speaker 2: high floor type of player. At this point, you're not
25:57
Speaker 2: buying the upside you're buying you're buying the lack of downs.
26:00
Speaker 2: And I think it depends on how you build your
26:03
Speaker 2: team of what you would think of Lord Guriel, Like
26:06
Speaker 2: if if you build a in the teams, I tend
26:08
Speaker 2: to build which is a little bit more solid, less
26:12
Speaker 2: risk up front in the early round picks, and then
26:15
Speaker 2: I go a little bit crazy on injury risk and
26:17
Speaker 2: upside later in the draft. I usually don't end up
26:19
Speaker 2: with the guys like Lords Guriel, just because you know,
26:23
Speaker 2: I've already established a baseline and I'm not looking to
26:26
Speaker 2: offset the risk I took elsewhere. I'm looking to take
26:29
Speaker 2: the risk to get the upside. So I tend to
26:33
Speaker 2: not buy these kind of guys. But I do think
26:36
Speaker 2: that they're the ones that you have to watch really carefully, because,
26:40
Speaker 2: like you're talking, these are the guys that are like
26:41
Speaker 2: in the reserve draft right at the beginning, that somebody
26:44
Speaker 2: just didn't pick up in an auction. You're like, wait
26:46
Speaker 2: a second, this is like a starter. How did he
26:50
Speaker 2: sneak through or just nobody nominated him or something like that.
26:53
Speaker 2: He's the kind of guy that easily falls and then
26:55
Speaker 2: when you look at him, go, wait a second, why
26:59
Speaker 2: he's worth this? So I think you have to keep
27:01
Speaker 2: that in mind very much, because you know, if you
27:04
Speaker 2: see again, I go back to auctions, because the first
27:06
Speaker 2: of all, I love auction drafts. If you see that
27:08
Speaker 2: things starting are starting to go cheap, Guryel is the
27:11
Speaker 2: type of guy to throw out there because nobody's like.
27:14
Speaker 2: The name comes up, you look at it and go eh,
27:17
Speaker 2: and you get him for such a bargain relative to
27:19
Speaker 2: even not just like his actual price, but his market price,
27:24
Speaker 2: because of the lack of excitement in that profile. But
27:29
Speaker 2: to your point, the overall profile is just above average.
27:31
Speaker 2: It's funny to look at his WRC plus for his
27:34
Speaker 2: entire career. It's I guess I can't see the average
27:37
Speaker 2: of my screen here it's average is a one. Uh no,
27:43
Speaker 2: like I've got the average wrong. But regardless, he's like,
27:47
Speaker 2: uh what eleven I think is what it is? His
27:50
Speaker 2: WRC plus career across seven seasons one O two, one five,
27:55
Speaker 2: one thirty four, one O seven, one fifteen, one O
27:57
Speaker 2: five one oh four, Like he's five to ten percent
28:01
Speaker 2: above average, Like that's what it is. But he's always
28:04
Speaker 2: five to ten percent above average, and that there's there's
28:08
Speaker 2: value there, absolute value.
28:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I totally agree, And you just nailed it
28:14
Speaker 1: on on the head in terms of like what I
28:18
Speaker 1: where I pick him up to in terms of those
28:20
Speaker 1: auction drafts where you're at the end of those drafts
28:22
Speaker 1: and you're you've got a dollar left, and there's always
28:25
Speaker 1: players that are leftover that have five to fifteen dollars
28:30
Speaker 1: worth of value, and he's exactly that type of player
28:33
Speaker 1: where you pluck it out and instead of going out
28:36
Speaker 1: and chasing some guy who is at Triple A and
28:39
Speaker 1: might be up in May, picking up Luris Guriella is
28:41
Speaker 1: like the way that you win those types of leagues
28:44
Speaker 1: and being able to just post those Rodo numbers while
28:47
Speaker 1: you're waiting for anybody to come up. So Uh yeah,
28:50
Speaker 1: I thought that was just an interesting tidbit looking through
28:54
Speaker 1: the Player Raider overall, and now we're going to move
28:58
Speaker 1: on to just general transactions overall. So first one we've
29:01
Speaker 1: got is what I think is the saga of Tommy
29:05
Speaker 1: fam this year is absolutely hilarious between starting with the
29:11
Speaker 1: dreadful White Sox being traded back to Saint Louis being
29:17
Speaker 1: cut in dfaight, and then moving across Missouri to the
29:20
Speaker 1: Royals who have suddenly become banged up. Now Tommy fam
29:24
Speaker 1: is in the middle of a wild card race in
29:27
Speaker 1: the Ale batting leadoff for the Royals every day. That like,
29:33
Speaker 1: it just kind of happened out of nowhere, and especially
29:37
Speaker 1: funny for fantasy Baseball because if you're in only leagues,
29:41
Speaker 1: and especially those only leagues where like if they move leagues,
29:45
Speaker 1: you lose them from your roster. That he was in
29:49
Speaker 1: the Ale pool, got booted out of your pool, and
29:52
Speaker 1: now it's coming back to your pool so that you
29:54
Speaker 1: could bid on him this weekend. So it's just a
29:56
Speaker 1: very funny series of events. But what do you think
30:00
Speaker 1: he can actually do in Kansas City hitting leadoff for
30:04
Speaker 1: what is a pretty solid team. He's sitting right in
30:06
Speaker 1: front of Bobby Witt Junior. They the Royals have a
30:10
Speaker 1: great home park. We've talked about a lot. They've got
30:13
Speaker 1: a pretty decent schedule down the stretch. So are you
30:16
Speaker 1: moving to get Tommy Fahm in league center shallower than
30:20
Speaker 1: AO only?
30:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's still going to be a deeper
30:24
Speaker 2: League of fourteen teamer sixteen teamer than really looking to
30:29
Speaker 2: move to get Tommy Fam. He might be the kind
30:33
Speaker 2: of guy in my twelve teamer if I got a
30:35
Speaker 2: deep bench I'm willing to bring in there, because I
30:37
Speaker 2: do think he sit in the top of that lineup,
30:39
Speaker 2: like he's got some decent run potential. And definitely this
30:43
Speaker 2: this year, like past years, he's just been kind of
30:46
Speaker 2: a good, reliable, sneaky value. This year's become a little
30:49
Speaker 2: more of a streaky value, and like he's one of
30:53
Speaker 2: those that you as soon as he starts to get hot,
30:55
Speaker 2: you might want to plug him in and get a
30:56
Speaker 2: little bit of value, and then it's going to cool
30:57
Speaker 2: off pretty quickly. So I'm not jumping ship right now
31:01
Speaker 2: trying to really go after Tommy Fam. But that doesn't
31:04
Speaker 2: mean I don't love Tommy Fam. Because I love Tommy
31:06
Speaker 2: Fam just irregardless of how he performs or anything like that.
31:09
Speaker 2: He's just a fun, fun guy.
31:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I do think that like this is also
31:14
Speaker 1: that type of player, honestly, just like gury Al Very,
31:17
Speaker 1: if you are really hurting for outfielders out there, this
31:21
Speaker 1: is I think a good place to go if he's
31:24
Speaker 1: continued to bat lead off. And like I said, it's
31:27
Speaker 1: a pretty good stretch of games here for the Royals.
31:30
Speaker 1: The second to last week they have a set of
31:33
Speaker 1: all home games and this website's not loading. I want
31:37
Speaker 1: to see who they're playing the last week because I
31:40
Speaker 1: swear it might No, it's not the Socks, because the
31:44
Speaker 1: Socks play the Angels and the Tigers down the stretch.
31:46
Speaker 1: But regardless, I think it's somewhere to go to look
31:50
Speaker 1: for some production in the outfield down the stretch with
31:53
Speaker 1: Tommy Fam in Kansas City, Okay. Next set of transactions
31:59
Speaker 1: is actually it's kind of a cluster has. The Los
32:03
Speaker 1: Angeles Angels of Anaheim have totally revamped their starting rotation
32:09
Speaker 1: since we talked last week. They have called up both
32:12
Speaker 1: cad and Dane Cayden Dana and Samuel Aldegary for their
32:17
Speaker 1: MLB debuts. There and then Redebt Meers has returned that
32:22
Speaker 1: he's been decent enough in Triple A that they're giving
32:24
Speaker 1: him another stretch of run in the rotation to see
32:29
Speaker 1: which Redebtmers is going to show up. And Alde Gary
32:33
Speaker 1: we covered a little bit. He came over at the
32:36
Speaker 1: trade deadline from Philadelphia. First Italian born player I think
32:40
Speaker 1: ever in Major League Baseball. So that's pretty cool. And
32:44
Speaker 1: Caden Dana as a flame throwing twenty year old that
32:48
Speaker 1: is flown through that Angel system the way any prospect does.
32:53
Speaker 1: So of course, like once you like get to Double A.
32:56
Speaker 1: I don't even think they know they have a Triple
32:58
Speaker 1: A squad there in Los Angeles. But of these three pictures,
33:03
Speaker 1: which one of them intrigues you the most? And also
33:06
Speaker 1: go through and rank them kind of one through three
33:09
Speaker 1: in terms of preference for pickup.
33:12
Speaker 2: Man, You're you're really putting me on the spot here
33:14
Speaker 2: and this this, this is kind of a tough one
33:18
Speaker 2: for me. And so I'm gonna go out there and say,
33:22
Speaker 2: the guy I'm probably most intrigued about here is uh
33:26
Speaker 2: Alde Gary. I mean, it's okay, it's by a hair here,
33:31
Speaker 2: And really it's because as I look at all of
33:34
Speaker 2: these guys. This feels like the prototypical Angels draft strategy
33:38
Speaker 2: for starting pictures. It is guys that are a little
33:42
Speaker 2: wild can strike you out in love fly balls, like
33:46
Speaker 2: it is the exact profile which is so volatile it's
33:50
Speaker 2: scarce to leave them the Jesus out of me. So
33:52
Speaker 2: the reason I go with ALTI Gary here is of
33:55
Speaker 2: all the guys, like, it's first of all detmers, like,
33:57
Speaker 2: I just he's just been two up and down. I
34:01
Speaker 2: just I'm off the train at this point. My hands
34:04
Speaker 2: are burned, so I gotta look elsewhere. And so but
34:08
Speaker 2: ALTI Gary, like, the strikeout potential just is higher with him.
34:13
Speaker 2: I think they're also a little bit more volatility potential
34:16
Speaker 2: with him. But you know, as you're looking for guys
34:19
Speaker 2: to kind of figure it out, you know this is
34:23
Speaker 2: gonna be a really terrible comp It makes me think
34:25
Speaker 2: of a little bit of a guy we're gonna talk
34:26
Speaker 2: later with a Spencer Arraghetty to a degree, like you know,
34:31
Speaker 2: that profile is very very similar and I we'll talk
34:36
Speaker 2: about him later, but it's also very dangerous. And so
34:40
Speaker 2: I would say generally I'm not buying any three of
34:43
Speaker 2: the three. But if my hand is forced as alder
34:46
Speaker 2: Gary then Dana than that burst. But I'm very happily
34:52
Speaker 2: washing from the sidelines with all all three of those.
34:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's fair. I think if there's anyone
34:59
Speaker 1: I prefer, it's probably Dana. Just the stuff, the stuff
35:03
Speaker 1: that he throws is really fantastic, and the ratings on
35:07
Speaker 1: it from the Fangraph's staff, from the prospects are, you know,
35:12
Speaker 1: just other worldly in terms of his fastball's a fifty slider,
35:17
Speaker 1: is a sixty curveball forty five forty command. So just
35:22
Speaker 1: like what you're talking about, that all these guys not
35:24
Speaker 1: only do they deal with walks, but they just also
35:28
Speaker 1: can't throw the right pitch sometimes. That's really what has
35:31
Speaker 1: gotten Redentrged into trouble over the years. And Spencer are
35:36
Speaker 1: getty as well as like if you can't place the
35:38
Speaker 1: fastball or other pitches in the zone to get strikes
35:42
Speaker 1: when you need to, those things leave the yard faster
35:46
Speaker 1: than you could ever imagine in the majors. So yeah,
35:50
Speaker 1: it is really funny. Actually, until you said that, they
35:54
Speaker 1: all look the same. Their pages are blurring together. Now
35:58
Speaker 1: it's like you when you were going they look the same.
36:01
Speaker 2: It's the funny thing. I guess the only thing Alde
36:04
Speaker 2: Gary's got going for him is he didn't come up
36:06
Speaker 2: with the Angels. He was in Philadelphia. The Angels just
36:09
Speaker 2: saw and go, hey, he's one of us.
36:13
Speaker 1: Wait, he's not in our system all ready. So yes,
36:18
Speaker 1: I think it is certainly dangerous to go any of
36:21
Speaker 1: those routes. But certainly those three players too, are all
36:25
Speaker 1: If you are looking for strikeouts, this is probably you've
36:30
Speaker 1: probably got to use one of these players. And it's
36:33
Speaker 1: not gonna it's gonna hurt, but like hopefully you have
36:36
Speaker 1: solid enough work in your era and whip that you
36:38
Speaker 1: can absorb it a little bit.
36:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you're looking for one category win, here's where.
36:43
Speaker 1: You go exactly. Okay, The next call up we have
36:48
Speaker 1: is Kobe Mayo coming back in Baltimore. As it looks like, yes,
36:54
Speaker 1: Ramon Urias has been placed on the aisle with a
36:57
Speaker 1: sprained ankle, and that's what allowed Mayo to have the
37:01
Speaker 1: space to be able to have that roster spot to
37:04
Speaker 1: be called up and also to play. But they aren't
37:08
Speaker 1: using him again that e Manuel Rivera continues to get
37:12
Speaker 1: run there in Baltimore. After getting cut by Miami, he
37:16
Speaker 1: is now playing third base for the first base first
37:20
Speaker 1: place Baltimore Orioles, which is absolutely absurd that usually it's
37:24
Speaker 1: more of like the flow that we saw with Tommy
37:26
Speaker 1: fam going from bad team to like a good team
37:31
Speaker 1: and like a but you're a good player like Rivera
37:34
Speaker 1: was just straight up like cut without like the consideration
37:38
Speaker 1: for salary that Tommy Fam had where that's why the
37:41
Speaker 1: Cardinals let him go. So it's been really strange just
37:44
Speaker 1: watching the Orioles kind of yo yo Kobe Mayo this year,
37:48
Speaker 1: and I'm totally perplexed by it, and I'm I'm guessing
37:52
Speaker 1: you are too, But I'm wondering if like there's anything
37:55
Speaker 1: you see within maybe Kobe Mayo's profile or his approach
38:00
Speaker 1: or anything else that is maybe causing all of this
38:04
Speaker 1: yo yoing to happen, and just like them not feeling
38:08
Speaker 1: comfortable with giving Kobe Mayo a spot and letting him
38:11
Speaker 1: run with it in Baltimore.
38:13
Speaker 2: You know, I have to say that I don't think
38:16
Speaker 2: it's anything in his profile. There's nothing I look at
38:18
Speaker 2: and be like, oh, really concerned, Like he's he's a
38:20
Speaker 2: really good player and he's going to be a really
38:23
Speaker 2: good player for some time. And I if I just
38:25
Speaker 2: oversimplify this. I think, you know, Baltimore is good enough
38:31
Speaker 2: team that they don't need Koby Mayo unless he's the
38:34
Speaker 2: Kobe Mayo that you know he can be. Like if
38:38
Speaker 2: he's scuffling in trying to find his way, Kobe Mayo like, no,
38:40
Speaker 2: don't have time for that. And it's kind of the
38:42
Speaker 2: same way with Jackson Holliday when he kind of was
38:44
Speaker 2: scuffling wild and they're like, all right, when you get
38:46
Speaker 2: back and you're showing it, then we're all in. And
38:49
Speaker 2: so I really think it comes down to the scenarios
38:51
Speaker 2: situation there, because like there when they have a good,
38:54
Speaker 2: good team, so Mayo is generally taking a spot from
38:58
Speaker 2: somebody that's pretty good. Now, maybe a little questionable there
39:01
Speaker 2: at times, but I just don't know that they need
39:04
Speaker 2: him terribly terribly at this point. So they're trying to
39:07
Speaker 2: figure out a way to get him the development, get
39:09
Speaker 2: him the reps, and get him comfortable in the majors,
39:11
Speaker 2: because I do think that they want him to get
39:13
Speaker 2: there and be ready for the playoffs. I think that's
39:16
Speaker 2: what they want. But I'm reading it much more into
39:20
Speaker 2: the situation and the comfort where they're at than anything
39:23
Speaker 2: to do with skills or anything like that.
39:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean I do think part of it
39:28
Speaker 1: might be the defensive profile now that I look at
39:31
Speaker 1: at Rivera has been a plus defender at third base
39:34
Speaker 1: now for a few years and has certainly been able
39:38
Speaker 1: to man the hot corner better than Kobe Mayo could also.
39:42
Speaker 1: Just like looking at this roster, I do like, especially
39:45
Speaker 1: given how cheap Baltimore was around the deadline, like trading
39:49
Speaker 1: for Trevor Rodgers when anybody else was available, and now
39:54
Speaker 1: Trevor Rodgers is down in Triple A. Reading the TEVS,
39:58
Speaker 1: it does look like they're let Anthony Santander just totally
40:02
Speaker 1: walk and then shifting either Eloy or Ryan Mountcastle into
40:07
Speaker 1: Santander's spot in the off season, allowing Kobe Mayo maybe
40:12
Speaker 1: to walk into like a first base DH spot so
40:15
Speaker 1: that they can find that that wind up position for
40:19
Speaker 1: him in his bat Because I think if there's anything
40:22
Speaker 1: maybe I am seeing is that Baltimore is just not
40:25
Speaker 1: comfortable with Kobe Mayo at their base.
40:28
Speaker 2: Yeah. That's very very fair, And I will say, like
40:31
Speaker 2: I I still I'm so excited for Baltimore what they do,
40:34
Speaker 2: But man, have they really seem to be mismanaging the
40:37
Speaker 2: talent and the potential that they have. Just from a
40:41
Speaker 2: pure roster management perspective, you go back to Trevor Rogers,
40:44
Speaker 2: you like that one's still just nobody understands what was
40:48
Speaker 2: going on there. You gave away one maybe two, like
40:52
Speaker 2: actual you know, especially middle lineup everyday guys, and you
41:00
Speaker 2: the one thing that you needed, which was really good
41:01
Speaker 2: starting pitching is the one thing you didn't get, and
41:04
Speaker 2: now now you're playing around with Kobe Mayo. You're like,
41:07
Speaker 2: it's just it seems like they're really really they haven't
41:11
Speaker 2: had the talent to do this for so long. They
41:13
Speaker 2: like they're shown they don't know what to do when
41:15
Speaker 2: they have that potential. It's like it's like the guy
41:19
Speaker 2: that is in a fantasy league that finally gets to
41:22
Speaker 2: be in the in the money, but he won't sell
41:24
Speaker 2: that the players to actually make the move because he's
41:27
Speaker 2: he's worried of what happens when he doesn't, you know,
41:30
Speaker 2: when he makes the wrong move versus making just actually
41:34
Speaker 2: going after what he needs. And I think the Orioles
41:37
Speaker 2: went after what they thought they needed and made the
41:39
Speaker 2: wrong move.
41:40
Speaker 1: So yeah, and it does feel like a little bit
41:43
Speaker 1: of humorous Hubris from Michaelias there at the GM in
41:47
Speaker 1: terms of he was able to build Houston up from
41:52
Speaker 1: nothing and obviously did that a lot through the bats
41:55
Speaker 1: that he was able to acquire, but at the same time,
41:58
Speaker 1: Houston really revolutionize the way the pitching development happened while
42:04
Speaker 1: Michae Ollas was there and was on the cutting edge
42:07
Speaker 1: of using a lot of those tools, you know, between
42:11
Speaker 1: rap sotos and just all of the imaging that's kind
42:13
Speaker 1: of gone into modern day pitching development. But that's not
42:18
Speaker 1: going to work anymore because the rest of the league's
42:22
Speaker 1: caught up to Baltimore and Michaelias that it'll be interesting
42:26
Speaker 1: to see how he pulls them into that next level
42:28
Speaker 1: because I can I can tell you that like the
42:32
Speaker 1: compression of everything outside of maybe like the White Sox,
42:35
Speaker 1: the Rocky's, the Pirates and the Angels and like, you know,
42:38
Speaker 1: the classic lowest tier franchises, that the Orioles don't have
42:44
Speaker 1: a leg up on everybody else in terms of being
42:46
Speaker 1: able to find these pitchers. So how they round out
42:49
Speaker 1: this team is going to be fascinating, I think going
42:52
Speaker 1: into this offseason, especially given some of those free.
42:54
Speaker 2: Agents, it'll be fun to watch.
42:58
Speaker 1: That's for sure, okay, next bit of news we have
43:02
Speaker 1: is not really transaction, but O'Neal Cruiz for the Pittsburgh
43:06
Speaker 1: Pirates is going to be transitioned into the outfield as
43:10
Speaker 1: they're just kind of letting him play center field on
43:13
Speaker 1: the fly. Like they give him like a couple of
43:15
Speaker 1: practice sessions over the past week and said all right,
43:19
Speaker 1: you're our center fielder now. As he has been picking
43:23
Speaker 1: up starts both there and at DH. I mean, I
43:26
Speaker 1: think eventually he'll probably settle into a corner, but they
43:30
Speaker 1: want to give him run at center to see if
43:32
Speaker 1: he can do it, and why not do it in
43:34
Speaker 1: September while the Pirates have sunk again to last place
43:38
Speaker 1: in the NL Central. And I guess this is a
43:42
Speaker 1: bit of like a twofold question for you in terms
43:46
Speaker 1: of first, what do you think that this kind of
43:49
Speaker 1: means for Oneal Cruise's outlook going forward. It's been a
43:52
Speaker 1: pretty solid season for him. I wouldn't say like stellar
43:56
Speaker 1: compared to especially where he was at the beginning of
44:00
Speaker 1: the season in spring training and just absolutely annihilating balls.
44:04
Speaker 1: I will say that he's up to seventeen point eight
44:06
Speaker 1: dollars in our Player Raider twelve team value because of
44:11
Speaker 1: eighteen homers twenty one steals with a two sixty nine average,
44:15
Speaker 1: And so, yeah, what do you think that this means
44:17
Speaker 1: for O'Neal Cruz going forward? And then the other question
44:22
Speaker 1: I kind of have is players that are making positional
44:25
Speaker 1: transitions like this and maybe this will be a part
44:28
Speaker 1: of your O'Neal Cruz answer is when you're making a
44:32
Speaker 1: transition from one position to another, especially in field to outfield,
44:38
Speaker 1: or like third base to shortstop, especially moving up the
44:41
Speaker 1: defensive spectrum, how do you factor that into what you
44:46
Speaker 1: see in the player's overall profile for the fantasy realm.
44:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you know, Cruz is oddt least feel
44:54
Speaker 2: like he's stuck under the radar somehow this year in
44:56
Speaker 2: a really weird way, Like he had so much hype
44:59
Speaker 2: in the spring, and then he was so bad to
45:01
Speaker 2: start and then he's like quietly like recovered and delivered
45:04
Speaker 2: a valuable season. This just was kind of a weird
45:06
Speaker 2: roller coaster for him. So I think overall, his value
45:11
Speaker 2: I'd say stays the same or actually slightly goes up,
45:13
Speaker 2: because I think his injury risk goes slightly down playing
45:17
Speaker 2: playing in the outfield. I just he is kind of
45:21
Speaker 2: one of those players that's all out. So I do
45:24
Speaker 2: think playing the infield, he actually has a higher likelihood
45:26
Speaker 2: of getting an injury. That said, from a learning new position,
45:30
Speaker 2: I think people tend to think that moving from the
45:33
Speaker 2: infield the outfield is easy, and tracking a fly ball
45:38
Speaker 2: is not no easy task. It is a exceedingly harder
45:43
Speaker 2: task than what you realize. So I do think it's
45:47
Speaker 2: gonna be a little bit of challenge from it. And
45:48
Speaker 2: I think that's why the Pirates are doing this now,
45:51
Speaker 2: is they want to be able to see how he
45:54
Speaker 2: transitions and it will at times distract from what you
46:00
Speaker 2: want him to be doing, which is the hitting. And
46:01
Speaker 2: so I think that that's what they're doing right now
46:03
Speaker 2: is give him some real world opportunities to do that.
46:06
Speaker 2: And I do think it will actually have a little
46:07
Speaker 2: bit of a detriment to his hitting in the short term,
46:10
Speaker 2: as he he has to put mind share. Say, you know, MVP,
46:14
Speaker 2: he's not going hitting taking a few grounders and hitting
46:16
Speaker 2: the clubhouse. He is going to hit. He's going to
46:20
Speaker 2: outfield and he's gonna track fly balls, and he needs
46:22
Speaker 2: to be really focused on trying to get better at
46:24
Speaker 2: doing that. And that's going to take away from mind
46:27
Speaker 2: share elsewhere. So I think it's gonna be a little
46:31
Speaker 2: bit of a step back in the short term. But
46:32
Speaker 2: I think the Pirates are doing the right way and
46:34
Speaker 2: the right time. I fully agree with you. I think
46:36
Speaker 2: long term he is a corner outfielder. I don't think
46:40
Speaker 2: he last is a center fielder. He'll just be Frank
46:44
Speaker 2: his body type. He is a pretty pretty big, pretty
46:47
Speaker 2: tall guy like he even though he is fast. It's
46:52
Speaker 2: the I would say, the the reactions, the quick twitch
46:56
Speaker 2: that you need that center fielder, the flexibility, I just
46:58
Speaker 2: don't see it as well. Well, he's going to be
47:01
Speaker 2: much better in a corner outfield spot, but there's probably
47:05
Speaker 2: no better spot to learn than centerfield when there's less
47:08
Speaker 2: walls to run into.
47:09
Speaker 1: To be Frank, that is a good point. I haven't
47:12
Speaker 1: really thought about it that way, but.
47:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then, and I say this is from personal
47:16
Speaker 2: experience playing many years of baseball. I played center field
47:20
Speaker 2: for many, many years, and then I switched to a
47:22
Speaker 2: corner corner spot, and there's just a different element. Like
47:26
Speaker 2: as the centerfielder, you're the quarterback. You're the one that
47:28
Speaker 2: everybody defers to, so you essentially just go catch the ball,
47:32
Speaker 2: and as long as you're communicating that you're gonna catch
47:35
Speaker 2: the ball, everybody else yields to you. I will be
47:37
Speaker 2: very clear, the wall does not yield personal experience. I
47:42
Speaker 2: will own this one. I've tried. It doesn't work, and
47:46
Speaker 2: so I think it is a bit of more challenge
47:48
Speaker 2: and you do see more of those injuries for those
47:50
Speaker 2: corner outfielders making contact with the wall, slide into it,
47:54
Speaker 2: running over the bullpen or whatever, and so that for
47:57
Speaker 2: how they going the Cruiz is actually a concern for
47:59
Speaker 2: from me because he plays with a little bit of
48:01
Speaker 2: a Bryce Harper reckless abandon at times.
48:05
Speaker 1: Yes. Yeah, And I think in terms of my view
48:09
Speaker 1: with like the transition from different positions, it's very nuanced.
48:14
Speaker 1: I think that like it's gonna be a player to
48:16
Speaker 1: play a thing, and Cruise does strike me as somebody
48:19
Speaker 1: who is athletic enough and just confident enough to be
48:24
Speaker 1: able to pull it off, especially like you think about
48:27
Speaker 1: Jazz Chisholm doing this, for nano tatists doing this, Jackson
48:31
Speaker 1: Merrill doing it on the fly this year, or like
48:35
Speaker 1: failures that have happened to you know, when Glabor Torres
48:38
Speaker 1: was going from like second to shortstop that one year.
48:42
Speaker 1: It just really messed up Labor Torres in terms of
48:45
Speaker 1: how much more he was on his feet, and especially
48:47
Speaker 1: if you're making that kind of upgrade where it's like
48:50
Speaker 1: second to short or right to center or you know,
48:55
Speaker 1: first base to center, which like Cody Belnder has done,
48:58
Speaker 1: and I still can't believe that one has like worked.
49:01
Speaker 1: But it just like it is gonna have to come
49:04
Speaker 1: down player at a player, and it's really tough, I think,
49:07
Speaker 1: to be able to navigate it. But it's something I
49:09
Speaker 1: keep in mind at that draft table. Certainly it's going
49:12
Speaker 1: to help going into next year with Cruise's value being
49:14
Speaker 1: shortstop and outfield eligible, but if he does not look
49:20
Speaker 1: comfortable in center down the stretch, I think you've got
49:24
Speaker 1: to consider ticking him down your draft board because that
49:27
Speaker 1: is the type of thing where if the player is
49:30
Speaker 1: struggling in the field, I think it does come into
49:33
Speaker 1: the batter's box a little bit in terms of just
49:35
Speaker 1: the overall psychology of how you're feeling and approaching the game,
49:39
Speaker 1: and that's something to consider with O'Neil Cruz. Although the
49:43
Speaker 1: shortstop play also wasn't that great that maybe it could
49:46
Speaker 1: flip the other way where he gets confident in center field,
49:48
Speaker 1: starts to find his groove, and we could find another
49:51
Speaker 1: level from him.
49:53
Speaker 2: It'll be fun to watch because O'Neil Cruz, if anything,
49:57
Speaker 2: he really divides the crowd in the fantasy baseball world
50:00
Speaker 2: of what he's gonna be and who's gonna be. And
50:02
Speaker 2: I don't think that's going to change it at all.
50:04
Speaker 1: Yes, I totally agree. Okay, well, we're gonna move on
50:08
Speaker 1: to some quick card topics before we get into our
50:12
Speaker 1: August Player of the Month PC picks. The first one
50:15
Speaker 1: we have is our boy. Wade Meckler, king of all
50:20
Speaker 1: of baseball collecting right now, did an am on Reddit
50:25
Speaker 1: this past week and it is fantastic. I'll link to
50:28
Speaker 1: it in the show notes that certainly go check it out.
50:31
Speaker 1: Not only between just like the celebration of baseball card
50:35
Speaker 1: collecting that happened between the Reddit community of all the
50:39
Speaker 1: Meckler memes and just other jokes, but he was actually
50:45
Speaker 1: really responsive and Meckler provided a lot of great responses
50:49
Speaker 1: and answers to questions that were posed to him. Some
50:53
Speaker 1: of my favorite there's one about how he actually has
50:56
Speaker 1: twenty twenty vision, but the glasses that he wears when
51:00
Speaker 1: he's in playing baseball actually enhance that even more so.
51:05
Speaker 1: He wears the glasses to hone in and be able
51:08
Speaker 1: to see the ball better. But I think the most
51:11
Speaker 1: fascinating part that came out of the AMA is it's
51:15
Speaker 1: buried down there a little bit. Somebody asked him about
51:18
Speaker 1: whether or not he's kept any of the cards that
51:20
Speaker 1: he's had printed of him, especially like the ones they sells,
51:24
Speaker 1: or has just been able to be offered different cards
51:26
Speaker 1: by Tops of fanatics And I didn't know this, but
51:30
Speaker 1: he was given from TOPS player issued cards that are
51:35
Speaker 1: numbered out of five, and I'm guessing they must do
51:38
Speaker 1: this with all players that they contract with or in
51:41
Speaker 1: some sort of manner where it does sound like Meckler
51:44
Speaker 1: is more into car collecting and baseball cards in general,
51:47
Speaker 1: so maybe not every player gets it. But he had
51:50
Speaker 1: a photo up there in the thread for a bit,
51:53
Speaker 1: but I think he deleted it because it might be
51:56
Speaker 1: something that TOPS has been trying to keep under wraps,
52:00
Speaker 1: because I had no idea that these player issue cards existed,
52:04
Speaker 1: did you no?
52:06
Speaker 2: Like I knew, I've always knew known that, like the
52:10
Speaker 2: players get something like it's always said like there's either
52:14
Speaker 2: extras or things like that that they get, and there's
52:17
Speaker 2: always been like, well there's like they get a whole
52:19
Speaker 2: rainbow or things like that. Like you always hear these things,
52:22
Speaker 2: but you never really see it. And so it was
52:25
Speaker 2: really interesting that he did because I saw that post
52:27
Speaker 2: and it was very interesting, like yeah, that those exist,
52:30
Speaker 2: and like actually when it's going out, like trying to
52:31
Speaker 2: go like eBay or like do any of those exists,
52:34
Speaker 2: and like you just can't find those. Those just aren't
52:37
Speaker 2: out there, and so like there must be something to
52:40
Speaker 2: the agreement when those are provided to you that it
52:42
Speaker 2: is not to be you know, I I's go like
52:48
Speaker 2: world series rings, and I don't know if if you
52:50
Speaker 2: know the some of the background and like the requirements
52:53
Speaker 2: of like a World Series ring, but many teams, when
52:56
Speaker 2: you earn a World Series ring, there's a requvironment that
53:00
Speaker 2: you can't sell that ring. If you go to sell
53:03
Speaker 2: the ring, you must first offer back to the club
53:05
Speaker 2: for a dollar or something to that effect. And so
53:08
Speaker 2: I wonder if there's some type of requirement on these
53:12
Speaker 2: cards that they're yours. You may have them, but you
53:15
Speaker 2: are not allowed to sell them. If you do sell them,
53:18
Speaker 2: you must offer them back to Tops or something to
53:20
Speaker 2: that effect. And I'm guessing that's kind of where we're
53:23
Speaker 2: at because if this is something that's been happening, and
53:26
Speaker 2: let's be clear, Wade Meckler is nothing special from a
53:30
Speaker 2: peer like player hard perspective, it's just it's just there's
53:34
Speaker 2: a cult now following him, and so every other player
53:38
Speaker 2: has the opportunity or has been given these and they
53:41
Speaker 2: have not surfaced. And so I think that's really really interesting.
53:46
Speaker 2: And of all the things that Tops has done, how
53:48
Speaker 2: that's not blown up in their face? I don't know.
53:52
Speaker 1: I have no idea either, because like, yeah, there has
53:55
Speaker 1: to be some sort of contractual agreement that you can't
53:58
Speaker 1: sell it in profit from it, because yeah, it is
54:01
Speaker 1: crazy that I've never seen any of these player issue cards,
54:04
Speaker 1: and I do wonder how far they go back to,
54:06
Speaker 1: because it does seem like something that's probably a little
54:10
Speaker 1: bit more recent, especially given the proliferation of autographed cards
54:14
Speaker 1: since you know, the early two thousands. Back in you know,
54:19
Speaker 1: when we started collecting. In those days, it was really
54:22
Speaker 1: hard to pull an autograph, and there weren't many autograph
54:24
Speaker 1: cards just kind of like available. You know, players weren't
54:27
Speaker 1: signing thousands upon thousands of cards they wait the way
54:31
Speaker 1: they are today, So yeah, I wonder where that the
54:36
Speaker 1: line starts, and it'd be great to just like this
54:39
Speaker 1: is like a perfect example of like what actually I
54:42
Speaker 1: think tops should be doing with some of that like
54:45
Speaker 1: tops ripped and like news stuff that they do where
54:48
Speaker 1: a lot of it is actually they do about what
54:51
Speaker 1: I do here in terms of like harvesting pieces of
54:55
Speaker 1: information and stories off of Reddit and other posts and
54:59
Speaker 1: using that to populate the tops like social media and
55:06
Speaker 1: just news sphere overall. But like, why can't you provide
55:11
Speaker 1: me a history of like player issue cards and like
55:13
Speaker 1: that'd be so cool of like explaining like how the
55:16
Speaker 1: entire process works and who gets them and so on
55:19
Speaker 1: and so forth. That like that's the type of stuff
55:21
Speaker 1: where Tops and fanatics and Panini have that other side
55:25
Speaker 1: and like view into everything that like I just want
55:28
Speaker 1: to see like more of the secrets. You don't have
55:30
Speaker 1: to give everything away, but like let us in on
55:33
Speaker 1: some of the cool stuff, you.
55:34
Speaker 2: Know, Like what is it that you're hiding that this
55:36
Speaker 2: doesn't feel like there's a secret here, Like it's just
55:39
Speaker 2: like we're nice and give them free cards, Like what's
55:43
Speaker 2: the problem here? Like I'm not seeing what you're trying
55:46
Speaker 2: to hide, Like maybe there's like a blood deal here
55:50
Speaker 2: where you can't if you ever give the card away,
55:52
Speaker 2: it's also your firstborn child. I don't know what it
55:54
Speaker 2: is that they're trying to hide, but you're right, it
55:56
Speaker 2: feels like we're all the negative press that they've there's
56:00
Speaker 2: a degree from themselves. Why aren't you taking advantage of
56:03
Speaker 2: the positive press when you can go after it? But hey,
56:06
Speaker 2: it's tops, it's fanatics, all those guys. I don't know
56:10
Speaker 2: what they're doing.
56:10
Speaker 1: Sometimes, yeah, exactly. So we'll keep an eye out there,
56:14
Speaker 1: like to see if any of these ever surface, because
56:15
Speaker 1: that would be cool to see them, and certainly if
56:18
Speaker 1: you've got your PCs out there, I mean, this has
56:21
Speaker 1: got to be like one of the main chases. If
56:23
Speaker 1: one of these ever surfaces, does remind me a little
56:25
Speaker 1: bit of like the tops, like employees get employee sets.
56:30
Speaker 1: Obviously those are much more numerous. You know, there's thousands
56:32
Speaker 1: of those, and you'll certainly see those surface more where
56:35
Speaker 1: either the full set will surface with the stamp that
56:39
Speaker 1: designates that it's four tops employees, or they also become
56:42
Speaker 1: pretty major PC additions because a lot of those don't
56:47
Speaker 1: leak out into the public because I think obviously like
56:50
Speaker 1: it's a little bit of like a reward as an employee,
56:52
Speaker 1: if not maybe even like a holiday like gift that
56:56
Speaker 1: Tops gifts to their employees. But once those do ever surface,
57:01
Speaker 1: like they do, become hot commodities. And I can only
57:04
Speaker 1: ever imagine if there was something that was given to
57:07
Speaker 1: a player that comes up in the future. So keep
57:11
Speaker 1: your eyes peeled out there. Okay, Well, with that, we
57:14
Speaker 1: are going to wrap up the first section of our
57:17
Speaker 1: show here and we are going to take a break.
57:19
Speaker 1: We will be back with that August Player of the
57:22
Speaker 1: Month PC. So stick around all right, Welcome back from
57:42
Speaker 1: the break everybody. We are going to dive right into
57:45
Speaker 1: our August Players of the Month PC picks. And if
57:48
Speaker 1: this is your first time checking us out a little
57:51
Speaker 1: background what we do here every month that it will
57:54
Speaker 1: be obviously puts out the awards for Player of the
57:56
Speaker 1: Month at hitter picture, Brookie of the Year or Rookie
58:01
Speaker 1: of the Month I should say, and reliever for both
58:05
Speaker 1: the al N and L every month calendar month that
58:09
Speaker 1: is throughout the season. And so what we do is
58:12
Speaker 1: we leverage that to then create a PC a personal
58:15
Speaker 1: collection of some of our favorite cards of these players,
58:18
Speaker 1: both to just kind of like highlight and discuss what
58:20
Speaker 1: these players have accomplished over the past month, but also
58:23
Speaker 1: to give you a sense of just like some of
58:25
Speaker 1: the crazy and cool cards that exist out there in
58:29
Speaker 1: today's market and landscape, especially given we didn't discuss it
58:34
Speaker 1: too much in terms of like the calendar and what's
58:36
Speaker 1: coming out because a lot of repeats from when we've
58:39
Speaker 1: discussed that in the past. But there's dozens and dozens
58:44
Speaker 1: of sets that come out from Tops and Pannini every year,
58:47
Speaker 1: so this can kind of help you hone in on
58:49
Speaker 1: what you might want to collect for your own personal
58:52
Speaker 1: collection of your players going forward. Or I'm hoping that
58:55
Speaker 1: there's an intrepid listener out there that is like going
58:57
Speaker 1: out and obviously we've suggested a few like one of
59:00
Speaker 1: one cards here and there in super Fractors, but getting
59:03
Speaker 1: some version of these cards to be able to build it,
59:06
Speaker 1: because like that would be the ultimate homage. And hopefully
59:11
Speaker 1: Gray Albright, I know you're out there doing this as
59:13
Speaker 1: you're following this pod every week, so Brew, I know
59:18
Speaker 1: this has been one of your favorite sections of what
59:21
Speaker 1: we do every month. In the pod and what do
59:23
Speaker 1: you love about it overall?
59:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean what I love about this is it
59:27
Speaker 2: just it gets it gets me back to the core
59:29
Speaker 2: of why I really got into cards in the first place.
59:32
Speaker 2: Is just there. It's fun, it's you know, collecting cards
59:37
Speaker 2: is what you want it to be. My son recently
59:41
Speaker 2: started asking more questions about like I want to collect cards,
59:44
Speaker 2: like you what what what I do? And like like
59:47
Speaker 2: what are you trying to look for? Like I look
59:48
Speaker 2: for the stuff that I enjoy, like simply simply that,
59:51
Speaker 2: like I collect fun things. I collect things I want
59:54
Speaker 2: to do with players that I've enjoyed, like I you
59:58
Speaker 2: know it, I've got a really random call the Young PC,
1:00:01
Speaker 2: like that's there's not like long term value here, and
1:00:05
Speaker 2: the Paul de Young PC, like my currently growing Matthew
1:00:09
Speaker 2: Lebator PC, Like again, probably you know, a middle reliever
1:00:13
Speaker 2: PC is not the way to go, but it's the
1:00:16
Speaker 2: cards you enjoy, and having the PC is mostly Cardinals
1:00:21
Speaker 2: for me, it's kind of fun to go look at
1:00:22
Speaker 2: some of these other players and other things that like
1:00:25
Speaker 2: I don't include in my normal PC collection but would
1:00:29
Speaker 2: be something I would love to add or even the
1:00:33
Speaker 2: chance to like venture out to the cards that I
1:00:36
Speaker 2: would never be able to attain, and we got at
1:00:37
Speaker 2: least one or two of those we'll talk about tonight.
1:00:40
Speaker 2: And I think that's what really really draws me into
1:00:42
Speaker 2: the segment, because it is about the cards themselves and
1:00:46
Speaker 2: the construction of the cards and what makes them, you know,
1:00:49
Speaker 2: art to a degree versus a just trading card that
1:00:53
Speaker 2: might be for currency. Right, there's a lot of things
1:00:56
Speaker 2: that I like about the way we talk about this,
1:00:58
Speaker 2: and at the end of the day, it's it's what
1:00:59
Speaker 2: we make it. It can be anything that you want
1:01:01
Speaker 2: it to be as we go through here. So really
1:01:04
Speaker 2: excited to go through here. I mean, we have some
1:01:06
Speaker 2: really unpredictable guys like this Aaron Judge guy that we're
1:01:09
Speaker 2: going to talk about. I heard he's pretty good. But
1:01:12
Speaker 2: what we'll really see if there's some good cards for
1:01:15
Speaker 2: Aaron Judge.
1:01:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it was a heck of a month here
1:01:18
Speaker 1: for August. As I talked about this in the first
1:01:22
Speaker 1: half in terms of like the jock's position of how
1:01:25
Speaker 1: baseball can be really like just other worldly athletes and
1:01:30
Speaker 1: other worldly accomplishments and then the total bobbo other end
1:01:33
Speaker 1: and we've got that a little bit here in terms
1:01:35
Speaker 1: of name value. I think that we are looking at
1:01:39
Speaker 1: with these players of the Month in August, and we
1:01:43
Speaker 1: typically just picked the batter, the hitter, and the rookie.
1:01:47
Speaker 1: We've done the reliever once because there's a repeat month
1:01:49
Speaker 1: earlier this summer. Go check that out for the July
1:01:53
Speaker 1: Player of the Month PC, but we are going to
1:01:56
Speaker 1: do one of the repeats here this month as Aaron Judge,
1:01:59
Speaker 1: as you alluded two, is the Player of the Month
1:02:01
Speaker 1: for August in the AL again. I think this is
1:02:06
Speaker 1: his third one in terms of June, July, and August now,
1:02:12
Speaker 1: so we're starting to get a pretty good Aaron Judge
1:02:15
Speaker 1: PC built together between the two of us. And this
1:02:19
Speaker 1: is all coming on the heels of an incredible August
1:02:22
Speaker 1: where he hit twelve home runs with twenty one runs
1:02:26
Speaker 1: score twenty four RBI, batted three eighty nine with a
1:02:32
Speaker 1: five oh three OBP or five thirty OBP not five
1:02:36
Speaker 1: oh three. That is insane. He's now run these are
1:02:43
Speaker 1: his consecutive months since May of his OBP four seventy nine,
1:02:47
Speaker 1: five fourteen, four eighty two, five thirty. That is like
1:02:51
Speaker 1: Barry Bonds. It's crazy. Also topped it with an eight
1:02:54
Speaker 1: fifty six slug in August. So just another otherworldly month
1:02:59
Speaker 1: from Aaron Judge. Who are you picking this month or
1:03:02
Speaker 1: which card are you picking this month to put into
1:03:04
Speaker 1: the PC for Judge in August?
1:03:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, I'm gonna go probably arguably maybe the highest
1:03:11
Speaker 2: end that I have gone in this PC chase that
1:03:14
Speaker 2: we've gone. I'm gonna go with the card that is
1:03:16
Speaker 2: listed for over two million dollars right now on eBay,
1:03:19
Speaker 2: by the way, has not sold. Let's be very clear
1:03:22
Speaker 2: about this. So there's a difference when we ask and
1:03:23
Speaker 2: what you get. But I'm going with the twenty to
1:03:28
Speaker 2: fifteen Leaf Trinity Aaron Judge one of one gold spectrum
1:03:33
Speaker 2: Logo Man autograph. And for those that don't only focus
1:03:39
Speaker 2: in baseball and don't really pay attention to some of
1:03:40
Speaker 2: the other sports, which I'm not too far off from,
1:03:42
Speaker 2: Logo Man is a really huge thing in the basketball
1:03:45
Speaker 2: world for the cards, and so I think that's actually
1:03:48
Speaker 2: what drew me to this one. First of all, it
1:03:50
Speaker 2: is a beautiful card, it's an autographs, it's player warn
1:03:55
Speaker 2: game use, but it is just such a cool card.
1:03:58
Speaker 2: But it's also that kind of crossover between sports where
1:04:02
Speaker 2: Leaf tends to do some of like these creative things,
1:04:05
Speaker 2: and like Leaf Trinity. I don't know if you really
1:04:07
Speaker 2: pay attention to Leave Trinity, Like it's one of these
1:04:10
Speaker 2: really underrated sets that people collect very very heavily. And
1:04:14
Speaker 2: so I think a lot of players look great and
1:04:17
Speaker 2: they're Leaf Trinity cards. It's kind of like the Bowman
1:04:21
Speaker 2: first of Leaf with a patch type thing, and so
1:04:25
Speaker 2: I absolutely love the card. It's got the logo man
1:04:28
Speaker 2: of the actual MLB logo Hitter and then but behind
1:04:33
Speaker 2: that on the patch you actually can see the pin
1:04:34
Speaker 2: stripes for the Yankees. So it is a absolutely beautiful
1:04:39
Speaker 2: card something I will absolutely never obtain. If I do,
1:04:42
Speaker 2: I will sell it quickly. If I could get two
1:04:44
Speaker 2: million dollars for it, I will retire off of that
1:04:46
Speaker 2: single card in my PC. But absolutely love this one.
1:04:51
Speaker 2: It is a hard get kudos who ever pulled this
1:04:54
Speaker 2: one and got this one grated over Beckett?
1:04:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I guess it's also it's a it's
1:05:01
Speaker 1: a funny listing because I'll link to it in the
1:05:03
Speaker 1: show notes, and I will also say that like, if
1:05:06
Speaker 1: you want to see pictures of all these cards, also
1:05:09
Speaker 1: go to rasball dot com and find the post for
1:05:12
Speaker 1: this show. It'll also be linked in the show notes,
1:05:15
Speaker 1: but we'll have pictures with the corresponding posts that have
1:05:18
Speaker 1: picked all of the cards that we pick here and
1:05:22
Speaker 1: you can check it out yourself. But the actual eBay
1:05:25
Speaker 1: listing itself has like all of these crazy cards of
1:05:29
Speaker 1: all time, you know, the nineteen fifty two tops, Mickey
1:05:32
Speaker 1: Mantle twelve point six million, nineteen oh nine to six,
1:05:35
Speaker 1: Honus Wagner seven to five. To try to like justify
1:05:39
Speaker 1: this price tag on this Aaron Judge that I think
1:05:42
Speaker 1: if you put it up for auction, I mean it
1:05:45
Speaker 1: hits six figures, but I don't know how far past
1:05:48
Speaker 1: six figures they would go. I'm not huge on like
1:05:51
Speaker 1: tracking Aaron Judge prices, but I don't think it's ever
1:05:54
Speaker 1: going to touch anything close to two million bucks. But
1:05:57
Speaker 1: certainly this is going to be an expensive endeavor for
1:06:01
Speaker 1: Gray to chase down this card for us. But but
1:06:05
Speaker 1: I think it's a it's a great card, great great
1:06:07
Speaker 1: pick and also takes this out of the running, puts
1:06:11
Speaker 1: it right into the Aaron Judge PC we've hit the pinnacle. Yeah.
1:06:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, And to your point, you did a great job
1:06:17
Speaker 2: recognizing that that is Alsoso a very enjoyable eBay listing.
1:06:20
Speaker 2: I mean the cells in here to put the I
1:06:25
Speaker 2: will quote to put Aaron Judge in perspective. If Judge
1:06:27
Speaker 2: plays many games as Barry Bonds played the Aaron Judgment
1:06:29
Speaker 2: and career total of die und and eight home runs,
1:06:32
Speaker 2: like they did their due diligence here, and they it
1:06:35
Speaker 2: is sales pitch after sales pitch after sales pitch and
1:06:38
Speaker 2: base one hundred and fifty year history, there hasn't been
1:06:40
Speaker 2: a player of Aaron Judge's stature and rob power. He's
1:06:43
Speaker 2: not a once in a generation type talent. He's a
1:06:45
Speaker 2: once in a century type of talent. And this is
1:06:47
Speaker 2: a once in a lifetime type card, like there's a
1:06:50
Speaker 2: if this is not owned by a used car salesman.
1:06:52
Speaker 2: I don't know what it is.
1:06:56
Speaker 1: It's a great pitch. They should teach it in like
1:06:58
Speaker 1: marketing classes.
1:07:00
Speaker 2: So where did you go with your Aaron Judge?
1:07:02
Speaker 1: You can't.
1:07:03
Speaker 2: You can't go higher in than I did. So maybe
1:07:05
Speaker 2: you've actually went into the reasonable spectrum with yours.
1:07:10
Speaker 1: Reasonable ish So I mean, we haven't put this card
1:07:13
Speaker 1: in and it's his first autograph card. It's the twenty
1:07:16
Speaker 1: thirteen Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects auto from Aaron Judge
1:07:22
Speaker 1: pretty highly sought after. Even just the base card is
1:07:25
Speaker 1: like a two thousand dollars card, so it's still pretty pricey,
1:07:28
Speaker 1: but it's never coming down anytime soon considering just what
1:07:32
Speaker 1: he has meant to the Yankees lore and we talked
1:07:34
Speaker 1: about last week that, I mean, I think Aaron Judge
1:07:37
Speaker 1: is on a Hall of Fame track record, and especially
1:07:40
Speaker 1: given away this season's going and just another season like it,
1:07:43
Speaker 1: I think he's probably already in. So it's a very
1:07:47
Speaker 1: highly sought after card. He doesn't have very many cards
1:07:50
Speaker 1: back from like when he was first starting, and even
1:07:53
Speaker 1: this it doesn't have a like a Bowman first or
1:07:56
Speaker 1: rookie card stamp or anything on it that that sometimes
1:08:00
Speaker 1: happens as actually we'll get into it a little bit
1:08:02
Speaker 1: with some other players that come up maybe, and the
1:08:06
Speaker 1: just unavailability of like early Aaron Judge cards also kind
1:08:11
Speaker 1: of speaks to where he came from. You know, he
1:08:14
Speaker 1: was very even though he was a first round pick,
1:08:17
Speaker 1: he was kind of like under the radar that it
1:08:19
Speaker 1: didn't just seem feasible that somebody as tall as Aaron
1:08:24
Speaker 1: Judge could make it all work in baseball, and so
1:08:27
Speaker 1: that's why there's not too many cards of his from
1:08:31
Speaker 1: when he was first drafted and really entered the baseball system.
1:08:35
Speaker 1: So certainly different nowadays as there's an Aaron Judge card
1:08:39
Speaker 1: in every insert set and every base set that's coming out.
1:08:44
Speaker 1: But I figured we get we had to go back
1:08:47
Speaker 1: to the OG and put the twenty thirteen autow in.
1:08:50
Speaker 2: I think it's a good call, it's a realistic call,
1:08:53
Speaker 2: and it is a great card, So I think it's
1:08:55
Speaker 2: a good choice for Aaron Judges. If you think about Judge,
1:08:58
Speaker 2: it's one of those iconic cards for him. So I
1:09:00
Speaker 2: think it's a perfect addition to the PC. And it
1:09:02
Speaker 2: does feel like how do we miss this one? Until
1:09:04
Speaker 2: this point?
1:09:06
Speaker 1: I mean we did put in some pretty cool ones,
1:09:08
Speaker 1: so like between like the bat nav that you picked
1:09:11
Speaker 1: and I picked to like the negative refractor that's part
1:09:13
Speaker 1: of it too. We have really goofy tastes. I think
1:09:16
Speaker 1: it is driving some of it.
1:09:18
Speaker 2: Yep.
1:09:19
Speaker 1: Okay, surprisingly the player of the month on the batting
1:09:22
Speaker 1: side for the NL, which I mean if you told
1:09:26
Speaker 1: me this back in June, I would have absolutely like
1:09:29
Speaker 1: my job would have dropped. But it was Corbin Carroll,
1:09:32
Speaker 1: as he had White the month of August, he hit
1:09:35
Speaker 1: two eighty with eleven homers and six dolen bases to
1:09:39
Speaker 1: go along with twenty two runs and sixteen rbi as
1:09:43
Speaker 1: especially like the way that Arizona has been playing in
1:09:47
Speaker 1: the month of August and well into September, as we're
1:09:50
Speaker 1: talking now, putting themselves into the race for not only
1:09:54
Speaker 1: the NL wild Card but the in a West title.
1:09:58
Speaker 1: A lot of his has come on the heels of
1:10:00
Speaker 1: Corbyn Carroll's overall play and also with this, like Carroll's
1:10:04
Speaker 1: recovered a lot of the value that people thought was
1:10:09
Speaker 1: gone from him in terms of when he was drafted
1:10:12
Speaker 1: in fantasy. He's now up to twenty three point six
1:10:14
Speaker 1: dollars in our player Raider, which I mean for a
1:10:17
Speaker 1: first rounder, it does. It's unfortunate, but if that's the floor,
1:10:23
Speaker 1: holy cow, that's not bad for a first rounder considering
1:10:26
Speaker 1: what Ronald Lacunya and Spencer Strider offered other people out there.
1:10:31
Speaker 1: So yeah, first, I think before we get into the
1:10:33
Speaker 1: PC talk with Corbyn Carroll, I mean, you are the
1:10:37
Speaker 1: resident top one hundred bat guy, Like, what do you
1:10:40
Speaker 1: make of this season overall? From Carroll? And like what
1:10:43
Speaker 1: are you doing with him going into twenty five because
1:10:45
Speaker 1: of the up and down nature.
1:10:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm I'm actually taking this as really good news
1:10:50
Speaker 2: right now. I'm taking this as sawhorse slump league adjusted
1:10:53
Speaker 2: to Corbyn. Corbyn justiced the league and he's showing that
1:10:57
Speaker 2: like he's the he's the real deal, and you know,
1:11:00
Speaker 2: this is the kind of month that he he can
1:11:02
Speaker 2: have month after month after month, and so I think
1:11:05
Speaker 2: this is putting him back at the like, back into
1:11:08
Speaker 2: the first round conversation. I don't think he gets really
1:11:11
Speaker 2: in where he was at the come into this season
1:11:13
Speaker 2: where he's the top of the first round conversation. But
1:11:16
Speaker 2: I think it you know, there's still enough doubt to
1:11:19
Speaker 2: be clear, but I really look at his growth rather
1:11:22
Speaker 2: than just you know luck or anything like that. I
1:11:25
Speaker 2: think it's really he's figures some things out and he's
1:11:26
Speaker 2: really comfortable with where he is. And the you know,
1:11:30
Speaker 2: the Diamacks stuck with him. They knew that that's what
1:11:32
Speaker 2: they had. They didn't didn't shy away from it. So
1:11:35
Speaker 2: really excited to see what it means. And I think
1:11:37
Speaker 2: it's really just brings him back to that conversation where
1:11:41
Speaker 2: he may have been slipping into the third fourth round
1:11:44
Speaker 2: conversation if he'd kept up what he was doing previously.
1:11:47
Speaker 2: So salvas in value and I'm excited to see what
1:11:50
Speaker 2: he does next year.
1:11:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I totally agree. I'm right there with you.
1:11:54
Speaker 1: And with that, what card are you putting in the
1:11:56
Speaker 1: PC for Corbyn Carrol? Yeah?
1:11:58
Speaker 2: So I'm going to preface this one like, as I
1:12:00
Speaker 2: look at Corbyn Carroll cards, there's one thing that really
1:12:02
Speaker 2: strikes me, which is the hair. Like the hair, the
1:12:07
Speaker 2: mustache I don't like. I couldn't. I don't feel like
1:12:10
Speaker 2: I can find a Corbyn Carroll card outside of maybe
1:12:14
Speaker 2: one or two that I ran across that it doesn't like.
1:12:18
Speaker 2: I don't know if it doesn't justice, but Corbman Carroll's
1:12:21
Speaker 2: mustache wins the card or Corban Carroll's hair wins the
1:12:24
Speaker 2: card almost every time, and it distracts from everything else
1:12:27
Speaker 2: on it. So I had to go with the twenty
1:12:29
Speaker 2: twenty three tops Chrome variation card for corbyin Carrol, which
1:12:35
Speaker 2: is which is his rookie year, And the reason I
1:12:39
Speaker 2: take this is him I'm assuming paying attention to the
1:12:42
Speaker 2: national anthem. It's got his hat down over his heart
1:12:45
Speaker 2: and he's got the locks flowing in a very mullet fashion.
1:12:52
Speaker 2: Whether it's true mullet, I don't believe it is. It's
1:12:54
Speaker 2: more of a comb over type mullet. But he's definitely
1:12:57
Speaker 2: rocking that. And then you know he the good kind
1:13:01
Speaker 2: of go tea he has looks like you know he
1:13:03
Speaker 2: he's trimmed it down a little bit. But then you
1:13:05
Speaker 2: have the wonderful headshot in the court of the card,
1:13:07
Speaker 2: which has the full on questionable go tea that he
1:13:11
Speaker 2: is rocking. So Corby Carroll, I'm not picking a card
1:13:15
Speaker 2: anything besides the fact that he Every single card has
1:13:18
Speaker 2: some great hair or mustache go t play with Corbyn Carroll,
1:13:23
Speaker 2: So I had to get one that encompassed it all.
1:13:26
Speaker 1: Yes, it reminds me a lot of when we did
1:13:28
Speaker 1: this last month, and I did the same with Bobby
1:13:30
Speaker 1: Witt Junior. Where what it is with these guys and
1:13:33
Speaker 1: these mullets and and just like the facial hair, it's
1:13:38
Speaker 1: it's certainly a throwback and it's funny but great card.
1:13:42
Speaker 1: I've pulled this card before. It actually it came because
1:13:44
Speaker 1: it came from the tops complete sets, like it was
1:13:47
Speaker 1: the the topper, the chrome topper, and so yep, it's
1:13:51
Speaker 1: a pretty cool card. It is. It shines in person,
1:13:54
Speaker 1: so I think this was a great choice.
1:13:57
Speaker 2: All right, well, where did you go? You've already you
1:13:59
Speaker 2: already hit to that that you went with the hair,
1:14:02
Speaker 2: so show me, show me what that hair is doing.
1:14:06
Speaker 1: I mean, it is tough picking one because of all that. Like,
1:14:09
Speaker 1: it was fun flipping through a lot of the Cordyn
1:14:11
Speaker 1: Carrol cards that came out last year in twenty twenty three,
1:14:14
Speaker 1: but I had to go with We don't pick stuff
1:14:17
Speaker 1: from this set very often it's Bowman's Best, but twenty
1:14:20
Speaker 1: twenty three Bowmen's Best had a really great insert set,
1:14:24
Speaker 1: which I don't remember whether or not we talked about
1:14:27
Speaker 1: it last year when it came out, but what it is,
1:14:30
Speaker 1: it's actually like a throwback to the nineteen ninety two
1:14:34
Speaker 1: Bowman set, which included Marion and Rivera's rookie card, where
1:14:40
Speaker 1: all the players in the ninety two Bowmen were wearing
1:14:42
Speaker 1: like these semi casual ish cards, you know, or semi
1:14:47
Speaker 1: casualish clothes, and especially the Mario and Rivera he's in
1:14:51
Speaker 1: like these khakis and like a polo shirt and stuff.
1:14:54
Speaker 1: But what they did is Randy Johnson shot all the
1:14:58
Speaker 1: photos for this insert set. Now that Andy Johnson post
1:15:01
Speaker 1: career is like a photographer a drummer too, like he
1:15:06
Speaker 1: wears a lot of hats nowadays, but he took all
1:15:09
Speaker 1: the photos for this set. What really made it stand
1:15:11
Speaker 1: out to me is Corbyn Carroll's kind of a tiny guy,
1:15:15
Speaker 1: like he's always been a tiny guy, which I think
1:15:17
Speaker 1: is part of what caused some of the adjustments he
1:15:20
Speaker 1: had to make at the plate this year because pitchers
1:15:23
Speaker 1: can really pound the top of the zone and it's tough,
1:15:25
Speaker 1: hient for him to get to that ball. But this
1:15:29
Speaker 1: card for Andy Johnson does Corbyn Carroll no justice. It
1:15:32
Speaker 1: puts him in like this metal silver giant field and
1:15:36
Speaker 1: glove that makes him look even tinier. But when you
1:15:40
Speaker 1: look at it closer, like because Corpyn Carroll is actually
1:15:44
Speaker 1: just about my height I think, and so it says
1:15:47
Speaker 1: he's five to ten, I'm like five nine and a
1:15:50
Speaker 1: half ish and I don't think Corbin Carroll's actually five
1:15:54
Speaker 1: to ten either. So like there's that factor and you're like, man,
1:15:58
Speaker 1: I could be a baseball player, like I'm that height.
1:16:00
Speaker 1: Then you see Corbyn Carroll's hands and wrists front and
1:16:03
Speaker 1: center on this card, and you're like, holy cow, that's
1:16:06
Speaker 1: why baseball players are so good at baseball, Like that
1:16:09
Speaker 1: is absolutely in insane strength that you can tell that
1:16:13
Speaker 1: he's got in his grip. And that's kind of what separates,
1:16:17
Speaker 1: you know, modern day athletes from us regular joes, is
1:16:20
Speaker 1: that not only are they have like the great hand
1:16:22
Speaker 1: eye coordination, the you know, just the great will and
1:16:27
Speaker 1: drive to be athletes, but a lot of them are
1:16:29
Speaker 1: also just physical freaks. And this shows, like why Corbyn
1:16:33
Speaker 1: Carroll is such a great baseball player. So I love
1:16:35
Speaker 1: this card. It is again the twenty twenty three Bowman's
1:16:39
Speaker 1: Best nineteen ninety two by Randy Johnson insert set.
1:16:44
Speaker 2: And it's hard to tell, but I think he's even
1:16:45
Speaker 2: got the mullet kind of flying in this one two too,
1:16:48
Speaker 2: So it's just got the bonuses all around. But this
1:16:52
Speaker 2: is the great pick. I did not look at this
1:16:54
Speaker 2: before before we before we got on the pod here,
1:16:56
Speaker 2: and I'm very proud of you. I'm very proud.
1:17:00
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you. Once I saw it,
1:17:02
Speaker 1: I knew it had to go in. Okay, well let's
1:17:05
Speaker 1: move over to the pictures. So first, on the al side,
1:17:09
Speaker 1: this is what I was talking about in terms of
1:17:11
Speaker 1: anybody can win this award at any given time, any month.
1:17:14
Speaker 1: So Boden Francis from the Toronto Blue Jays is your
1:17:17
Speaker 1: al Player of the Month for August, and it was
1:17:22
Speaker 1: a really great month for him. He threw forty thirty
1:17:27
Speaker 1: four in a third innings with a one oh five
1:17:29
Speaker 1: ear ra a point four to one whip thirty nine
1:17:32
Speaker 1: k's almost no hit the Angels with a complete game shutout.
1:17:37
Speaker 1: He was absolutely electric. He was untouchable. That like, sure
1:17:42
Speaker 1: that no hit bid came against the Angels, but like
1:17:45
Speaker 1: the way that Francis has been mixing that fastball and
1:17:49
Speaker 1: curveball recently, it didn't matter that it was the Angel's
1:17:52
Speaker 1: lineup that day. So this is a guy where I
1:17:55
Speaker 1: was talking about sometimes we don't get many choices for
1:17:58
Speaker 1: our PC last month. This happened with Tyler Fitzgerald then.
1:18:02
Speaker 1: Butden Francis is no different. So it's a pretty limited
1:18:06
Speaker 1: set of cards, because I mean, Boden Francis is, is
1:18:10
Speaker 1: he thirty now, he's twenty eight, he's almost thirty, and
1:18:13
Speaker 1: so he's been around a long time. You think he's
1:18:15
Speaker 1: got a lot of cards. Nope, it's it's pretty easy
1:18:18
Speaker 1: for tops and finats to skip over pitchers who kind
1:18:22
Speaker 1: of have meandered their way through a career. So which
1:18:27
Speaker 1: card are you picking for Boden Francis to put in
1:18:29
Speaker 1: the PC this month? Yeah, well it was very limited
1:18:31
Speaker 1: and you got there first and your pigs, so my
1:18:35
Speaker 1: pickings were even slimmer. But I went back to the
1:18:39
Speaker 1: well here of the minor league cards for Boden Francis,
1:18:42
Speaker 1: and I went with his twenty twenty three Buffalo Bison's
1:18:48
Speaker 1: minor league card. And part of the reason was.
1:18:53
Speaker 2: The Buffalo Bisons, Like did you knowingly pick that team name?
1:19:00
Speaker 2: What's the difference between a Buffalo and a Bison? I
1:19:03
Speaker 2: had to use some chat GPT to try to learn
1:19:06
Speaker 2: about this, and it turns out there is a difference,
1:19:08
Speaker 2: and this for a different podcast. But the other thing
1:19:12
Speaker 2: that I love about.
1:19:13
Speaker 1: Which honestly like that makes it even more confusing that
1:19:16
Speaker 1: they're the Buffalo Bisons, because then it's like the two
1:19:18
Speaker 1: different things, and it's like, are you a Buffalo? Where
1:19:21
Speaker 1: are your Bison? Yes?
1:19:23
Speaker 2: But like, which which way were you going for here?
1:19:25
Speaker 2: I'm not quite sure. Do you live in Bison Town
1:19:28
Speaker 2: or are you from Buffalo? I don't know. But I
1:19:32
Speaker 2: also got to kick out of like this is a
1:19:34
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three card, and if you look at the
1:19:37
Speaker 2: stats on the back twenty twenty three two twenty twenty
1:19:41
Speaker 2: two statistics for the Buffalo Bisons, you to hear your
1:19:44
Speaker 2: ear a of six point five to five with the
1:19:47
Speaker 2: Bisons like this is, and like you look at the
1:19:49
Speaker 2: picture on the front, he's all tattooed up, like he's
1:19:52
Speaker 2: he looks like an absolute career minor leaguer laying just
1:19:56
Speaker 2: you know, for the for the love of the game,
1:19:58
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden he's player of the month.
1:20:00
Speaker 2: Like so, there's just so many layers of this card.
1:20:03
Speaker 2: I just had to go with it, just because it
1:20:05
Speaker 2: was just so out there for the fact of that
1:20:09
Speaker 2: we're now literally talking about him as being player of
1:20:11
Speaker 2: the month and looking for does he have a logo
1:20:13
Speaker 2: man to one of one type things? So, yes, I
1:20:16
Speaker 2: couldn't it, couldn't pass it, pass it up. It's always
1:20:19
Speaker 2: fun to go to the minor league cards.
1:20:21
Speaker 1: Yes, agreed, this was a great choice. Yeah, it's a
1:20:24
Speaker 1: great zoomed in photo of Boden Francis too, so it
1:20:27
Speaker 1: allows you to take him in in all of his glory,
1:20:31
Speaker 1: I guess, so, Yes, I love it.
1:20:35
Speaker 2: Great pick, So where did you go? Like I already
1:20:38
Speaker 2: kind of buried the lead with this one. This is
1:20:40
Speaker 2: the slim pickens are slim, and you picked the uh.
1:20:43
Speaker 2: I hate to say it. I think you picked the
1:20:44
Speaker 2: most obvious option one, so.
1:20:48
Speaker 1: I don't know. There wasn't anything else to pick it really,
1:20:50
Speaker 1: so I'm picking his twenty twenty two Taps Chrome Update
1:20:55
Speaker 1: Rookie auto he didn't. This is his only rookie card.
1:20:59
Speaker 1: It's a it's a sticker autograph. It's just a normal
1:21:04
Speaker 1: picture of Boden France's pitching. But it's the only rookie
1:21:07
Speaker 1: card that exists, so obviously it's got all of its variations.
1:21:11
Speaker 1: But he didn't even have like a base rookie card
1:21:15
Speaker 1: in either Flagship or Chrome or Chrome Update or Flagship
1:21:20
Speaker 1: Update or anything. He's never had a Bowman card, which
1:21:24
Speaker 1: is crazy considering you could have had a Boden Bowman card,
1:21:29
Speaker 1: but he's never been included a Bowman set, so he
1:21:31
Speaker 1: has no Bowman first. I wonder if the when they
1:21:35
Speaker 1: put him in one. I have to imagine he gets
1:21:37
Speaker 1: a card maybe next year, and he's like a rookie
1:21:39
Speaker 1: and first on the same I don't even on the
1:21:42
Speaker 1: same card. They don't do that, but maybe they will
1:21:44
Speaker 1: for Boden Francis. Uh, this card is actually probably pretty
1:21:50
Speaker 1: rare because I guarantee you that this boat In Francis
1:21:53
Speaker 1: autograph is in every dollar box. Like there's no way
1:21:57
Speaker 1: anybody like set this aside to think they'd make any
1:22:00
Speaker 1: money off of it. A career, minor leaguer, journeyman picture.
1:22:04
Speaker 1: This is the type of card that like you get
1:22:07
Speaker 1: fifty cents for after like hitting it out of your
1:22:10
Speaker 1: hobby box. That if anybody did pull one of these
1:22:14
Speaker 1: back in twenty twenty two, make sure you pull it
1:22:16
Speaker 1: out now because the values as high as it's going
1:22:19
Speaker 1: to go right now as Boden Francis is on this tear.
1:22:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, you're right there. That's that was he was
1:22:26
Speaker 2: in a dollar box. That might be in the quarterbox
1:22:30
Speaker 2: type of thing nobody saw about routing Francis coming to
1:22:34
Speaker 2: your point, like this is his rookie card, it is
1:22:36
Speaker 2: his auto card, It is d card if you're gonna
1:22:39
Speaker 2: go get Boden Francis. So maybe it's because there's like optional,
1:22:43
Speaker 2: maybe this was the best one. Maybe it's both.
1:22:45
Speaker 1: Yes, Okay, well we're gonna move to the NL Picture
1:22:48
Speaker 1: of the Month, and that was Blake Snell from the
1:22:51
Speaker 1: San Francisco Giants, who has really rounded in form and
1:22:55
Speaker 1: gotten himself to where I think he's gonna opt out
1:22:58
Speaker 1: of this deal with the Giants and creates again because
1:23:01
Speaker 1: he looks better than ever. Honestly that like he completed
1:23:06
Speaker 1: the no hitter his first complete game, actually first game
1:23:09
Speaker 1: even getting into the eighth inning I think in his
1:23:11
Speaker 1: career and in twenty innings or no, no, no, I've misread that.
1:23:16
Speaker 1: But he pitched to a one sixty four ear point
1:23:21
Speaker 1: eighty three whip and fifty three strikeouts in August while
1:23:26
Speaker 1: going let's see that is not the right spot on fangress,
1:23:31
Speaker 1: but he did pitch thirty eight in a third and
1:23:34
Speaker 1: like I said, this is especially wrapping up the capping
1:23:38
Speaker 1: off of that no hitter that he threw in August. Uh. Surprisingly,
1:23:42
Speaker 1: we haven't had any Blake Snell PC picks. I guess
1:23:46
Speaker 1: maybe not terribly surprising. This POD's only a year old,
1:23:49
Speaker 1: and until this past month, Blake Snell was pretty crummy,
1:23:52
Speaker 1: not in contention for any Player of the Month awards,
1:23:55
Speaker 1: but I'll pass it over you. Which card are you
1:23:57
Speaker 1: picking for Blake Snell to put into our p.
1:24:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, I went with just pure fun for Blake Snell.
1:24:04
Speaker 2: Like he Blake Snell is just kind of a crazy guy,
1:24:07
Speaker 2: and so I had to look for the fun card,
1:24:10
Speaker 2: and I'm going with the twenty nineteen tops retro hat
1:24:14
Speaker 2: logo card for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, not the
1:24:19
Speaker 2: Tampa Bay Rays, because when you are the Rays in
1:24:23
Speaker 2: your more newer team, your retro card as your retro
1:24:28
Speaker 2: look back is two thousand and seven. So that said,
1:24:33
Speaker 2: it is a great card because it's him and his
1:24:35
Speaker 2: retro jersey says Devil Rays on it, and it's got
1:24:38
Speaker 2: this wonderful patch of the Devil Ray itself. The beautiful
1:24:42
Speaker 2: colors that they they had with this it's it makes
1:24:46
Speaker 2: me think that the Marlins, they built their new stadium,
1:24:48
Speaker 2: was just a little bit jealous with all the colors
1:24:50
Speaker 2: that they that the Devil Rays used. So loving this card.
1:24:54
Speaker 2: You can have it for a cool five dollar bill
1:24:58
Speaker 2: and add it to your PC. Nothing nothing better than
1:25:03
Speaker 2: vintage Blake Snell with with the Rays. So easy pick
1:25:07
Speaker 2: for me. It's just a fun, fun card.
1:25:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's a great card and it's also
1:25:12
Speaker 1: like great in the knowledge of the Ray's City connecting
1:25:17
Speaker 1: uniforms nowadays, because it is also a little bit strange
1:25:20
Speaker 1: seeing the Ray without a skateboard, but especially given the
1:25:24
Speaker 1: pink or the purple and green color gradiation on this
1:25:28
Speaker 1: and he's rocking the Matt Garza facial hair, which you
1:25:32
Speaker 1: do not see very often.
1:25:33
Speaker 2: And oh yeah, for good reason, very very true.
1:25:39
Speaker 1: But yes, this is a great pick. I hadn't seen
1:25:42
Speaker 1: it until now, And I love this card. This is
1:25:45
Speaker 1: it's like so ugly, it's awesome.
1:25:50
Speaker 2: That's that's that is Blake Snell in a nutshell on
1:25:53
Speaker 2: the mound. So ugly, it's awesome.
1:25:56
Speaker 1: That's a good point.
1:25:59
Speaker 2: All right, where'd you go with snell? A one up
1:26:01
Speaker 2: be on this one?
1:26:03
Speaker 1: Okay? Well I had to go with Lake Snell in
1:26:05
Speaker 1: a giant's jersey given the no hitter, and there's not
1:26:09
Speaker 1: too many of them right now. There obviously be more
1:26:11
Speaker 1: of them thanks to this no hitter they's pitched there.
1:26:15
Speaker 1: But I had to go with the twenty twenty four
1:26:17
Speaker 1: tops Finus oil spill Refractor short print, which honestly, until
1:26:22
Speaker 1: I started looking up these PC cards for this month,
1:26:25
Speaker 1: I didn't realize this this oil spill Refractor was like
1:26:28
Speaker 1: one of the variations in Tops Finanses here, and I
1:26:32
Speaker 1: love it. It's beautiful. It's just like when you look
1:26:36
Speaker 1: at Tops minus twenty twenty four. Overall, what they're doing
1:26:39
Speaker 1: in the background is that they all kind of got
1:26:41
Speaker 1: like different patterns of just like abstract colors, but usually
1:26:48
Speaker 1: they all fit into a few couple of themes. What
1:26:51
Speaker 1: the oil Spill Refractor does is actually just throws all
1:26:54
Speaker 1: those colors in there and let's it all kind of
1:26:56
Speaker 1: wash over you like a modern a Jackson Pollock in
1:27:01
Speaker 1: the background of the card. And this has got to
1:27:04
Speaker 1: be one where in person, this thing's got to look
1:27:06
Speaker 1: crazy and absolutely pop in terms of all the colors,
1:27:09
Speaker 1: the different patterns, the refractor that it's just kind of
1:27:13
Speaker 1: like a soda suicide of a card. And that's right
1:27:17
Speaker 1: up my alley. Like I love the chaos, I love color,
1:27:21
Speaker 1: I love different refractions, I love different patterns. And when
1:27:25
Speaker 1: you throw it all together with this Blake Snell, it's
1:27:29
Speaker 1: just a pretty normal picture of him pitching in a
1:27:31
Speaker 1: Giant's uniform. But it's just the oil Spill Refractor overall.
1:27:36
Speaker 1: I had to call it out and put in the PC.
1:27:39
Speaker 1: I agree with you.
1:27:40
Speaker 2: The card's beautiful. I love the parallel. I got one
1:27:43
Speaker 2: knit for you though.
1:27:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, there could not be.
1:27:45
Speaker 2: A worse picture of Blake Snell's face. I mean on
1:27:49
Speaker 2: a tree card, Like this is the epitome of like
1:27:53
Speaker 2: you a bad picture that you're like, please never publish
1:27:57
Speaker 2: that anywhere. It's like, it's it almost looks like a
1:28:01
Speaker 2: I generated. It is just so bad. He is strange,
1:28:05
Speaker 2: so bad to throw the pitch like it's it's it's
1:28:08
Speaker 2: been a rough day for Blake Snell in the Giant
1:28:11
Speaker 2: Giants uniform here, so love the card. Blake might not
1:28:16
Speaker 2: be so thrilled about his picture circle circulating around the industry.
1:28:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I'm Blake Snell is not exactly the
1:28:24
Speaker 1: most photogenic person.
1:28:26
Speaker 2: So we just talked about the Mark Macguar's a facial hair,
1:28:29
Speaker 2: so maybe this was an upgrade.
1:28:31
Speaker 1: There is that factor that I would almost challenge you
1:28:34
Speaker 1: to not find a Blake Smell card where he looks
1:28:38
Speaker 1: like that.
1:28:38
Speaker 2: All right, Blake's if here it now, Blake Snell makes
1:28:41
Speaker 2: it back to the PC next month, We're finding the
1:28:43
Speaker 2: sexiest Blake Snell card we can. It might may take
1:28:46
Speaker 2: some deep research on that one.
1:28:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, for all you out there with your shirtless player
1:28:51
Speaker 1: PC cards. Okay, let's get this thing back on the railway.
1:28:59
Speaker 1: We got the two rookies from August. We'll start in
1:29:04
Speaker 1: the AL first. I can guarantee you this guy's not
1:29:08
Speaker 1: taking home the September Rookie of the Month as he's
1:29:11
Speaker 1: pitching tonight and totally went off the rails on him
1:29:15
Speaker 1: in terms of this is who Spencer Raghetti is. He
1:29:18
Speaker 1: threw two thirds of an inning with nine earned runs,
1:29:21
Speaker 1: three walks, one homer tonight, face eleven batters before getting yanked.
1:29:27
Speaker 1: That wasn't that's unfortunate because he was crazy good in
1:29:31
Speaker 1: August and sure certainly own just about in every league
1:29:35
Speaker 1: now a days because of the performance that he's put
1:29:39
Speaker 1: up in the second half. It's been a three thirty
1:29:41
Speaker 1: uh no, three twenty fifth in the second half. That
1:29:45
Speaker 1: pairs up with a I wish all this stuff was
1:29:50
Speaker 1: mashed together better on fangrass to eighty four era, and
1:29:54
Speaker 1: in August he even ramped that up to an overall
1:29:59
Speaker 1: one ninety five I v RA over thirty two in
1:30:01
Speaker 1: a third with thirteen and zero point one K nine.
1:30:08
Speaker 1: It was just a crazy good month for Spencer Arraghetty
1:30:12
Speaker 1: as he I mean, I knew that this was in
1:30:15
Speaker 1: the tank, but then the other flip side is like
1:30:17
Speaker 1: the two thirds of an inning and nine hard runs
1:30:19
Speaker 1: is also in the tank for Spencer. So it's a
1:30:22
Speaker 1: it's a confounding profile.
1:30:24
Speaker 2: It's it's uh Blake smell esque.
1:30:28
Speaker 1: Honestly it is.
1:30:29
Speaker 2: It's smell, yeah, it is, but it's uh, it's what
1:30:34
Speaker 2: we I mean, we talked about this many times because
1:30:37
Speaker 2: uh a Spaghetti as we've liked to term him. Has
1:30:41
Speaker 2: been many discussions on this podcast, and I think this
1:30:44
Speaker 2: is exactly who he expected him to be. It's it's
1:30:47
Speaker 2: gonna be great sometimes it's gonna be path the others
1:30:49
Speaker 2: you're best off just plug it and playing and just
1:30:52
Speaker 2: dealing with the outcome later.
1:30:53
Speaker 1: So yeah, because I mean at the end of the day,
1:30:56
Speaker 1: I mean, he had lowered his ERA to four to
1:30:59
Speaker 1: sixty three after it was ballooned up in like the
1:31:02
Speaker 1: sevens eights before that, but all that work in August
1:31:06
Speaker 1: has been given back. He's now back up to a
1:31:08
Speaker 1: five to twenty six e RA, which still I mean
1:31:12
Speaker 1: that hurts, but the strikeouts have been great. One hundred
1:31:14
Speaker 1: and fifty one strikeouts in one hundred and twenty five innings,
1:31:17
Speaker 1: you just kind of got to know that the blow
1:31:20
Speaker 1: ups are gonna come here and there with Aragatty. But again,
1:31:23
Speaker 1: just like voting, France's pretty limited set of cards and
1:31:29
Speaker 1: just hasn't been a lot of Spencer Agetty out there,
1:31:33
Speaker 1: partly because it's similar to vote in Francis, where Ragetty
1:31:39
Speaker 1: hasn't bounced around as much, but certainly was not a
1:31:42
Speaker 1: herald of prospect when he was selected in the sixth
1:31:45
Speaker 1: round of twenty twenty one by the Houston Astros. But
1:31:49
Speaker 1: with all that said, what card are you picking to
1:31:52
Speaker 1: put into the PC for Spencer Agetty.
1:31:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm going back to where I did just a
1:31:57
Speaker 2: few cards ago and going back to the minor league
1:31:59
Speaker 2: pool here, and we're going with twenty twenty four Spencer
1:32:02
Speaker 2: Arraghetti's sugar Land Space Cowboys card, which I believe was
1:32:09
Speaker 2: actually a stadium giveaway if you actually look closely. On
1:32:13
Speaker 2: the back of it is the can Constellation Promo Night
1:32:17
Speaker 2: card for Araghetti, brought to you by Future Stars Baseball Cards.
1:32:23
Speaker 2: So a knockoff of a knockoff type card here, nothing
1:32:27
Speaker 2: special from an image perspective, it's Ragatty got the locks
1:32:30
Speaker 2: flowing throwing the big pitch again. It makes me think
1:32:33
Speaker 2: of Blake Stell from the other side. But I just
1:32:36
Speaker 2: couldn't pass up the Sugar Lions Space Cowboys like I
1:32:40
Speaker 2: just love like the minor league creativity of the names,
1:32:45
Speaker 2: like why not? And I also got a little kick
1:32:49
Speaker 2: out of this one. I found this over on eBay
1:32:51
Speaker 2: and the fact that the seller put this in a
1:32:53
Speaker 2: one touch to promote the card to sell it, and
1:32:56
Speaker 2: we're talking about like a three or four dollars card here.
1:32:59
Speaker 2: It's like, let me make this thing look as good
1:33:01
Speaker 2: as absolutely possible. So you know, I had to just
1:33:05
Speaker 2: kind of stick to the fun minor league cards a
1:33:08
Speaker 2: little bit more attainable. And you know, if you didn't know,
1:33:11
Speaker 2: Spencer Urgedy was born in January second, two thousand, so
1:33:16
Speaker 2: flipping the century here for Araghetty, So one of your
1:33:20
Speaker 2: two thousand kids, making me feel very old at this point?
1:33:24
Speaker 1: Why two k baby? Yeah, this is a great choice.
1:33:27
Speaker 1: And I also like the color gradient on the side
1:33:30
Speaker 1: of the jersey where it's like reminiscent of the Astros
1:33:34
Speaker 1: color gradient from their Tequila Sunrise jerseys. Yep, that's great.
1:33:38
Speaker 1: I love it that it would be cool actually to
1:33:41
Speaker 1: see like an entire jersey of that color gradient. But
1:33:44
Speaker 1: great choice.
1:33:46
Speaker 2: All right, where did you go? Let's bring bring us
1:33:48
Speaker 2: back to reality and out of the minor leagues.
1:33:51
Speaker 1: All right, Well, people can probably tell between this and
1:33:54
Speaker 1: the boat in Francis pick that I got the first
1:33:57
Speaker 1: pick of the PC cards when we filed this out,
1:34:00
Speaker 1: because I'm going with the twenty twenty three Bowman first
1:34:04
Speaker 1: auto of Spencer Aghedtty. Uh, that's what it is. It's
1:34:08
Speaker 1: a it's a sticker auto. His first Bowman card is
1:34:13
Speaker 1: really like he doesn't he will have a rookie card,
1:34:16
Speaker 1: I think in update because I was looking his tops
1:34:19
Speaker 1: now cards that have been coming out have an RC
1:34:23
Speaker 1: stamp on them, which is pretty indicative that they're going
1:34:26
Speaker 1: to have him included an update and maybe even future
1:34:29
Speaker 1: releases here down the rest of the year. In terms
1:34:32
Speaker 1: of we haven't heard Stadium Club being announced, but I
1:34:35
Speaker 1: have to imagine Araghetty probably stuck his way into that
1:34:39
Speaker 1: set given his performance and just those flowing locks, like
1:34:44
Speaker 1: you can't get enough of long haired players on cards,
1:34:48
Speaker 1: and just like what it can do, especially when you're
1:34:50
Speaker 1: looking at something like Stadium Club. I'm not gonna lie.
1:34:53
Speaker 1: This Bowman card is not anything too special. But if
1:34:55
Speaker 1: you're looking for the rookie card of Spencer Araghedtty, this
1:34:59
Speaker 1: is where you have to Yeah.
1:35:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, I will say all this, Like gave Blake Snell
1:35:03
Speaker 2: hard time for the photo. A Getty looks like a
1:35:05
Speaker 2: mean dude in this photo, like he he's bringing the heat,
1:35:09
Speaker 2: so I gotta give him credit. They picked a good
1:35:11
Speaker 2: photo for for arag Getty in this one.
1:35:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, and uh, honestly, like it's the photoshop amplifies it.
1:35:18
Speaker 1: The photoshop just like makes him look like an uncanny
1:35:23
Speaker 1: Valley picture, you know in terms of like there's you
1:35:26
Speaker 1: just can't quite put your finger on, like what is
1:35:28
Speaker 1: wrong with this card because the photoshop is just like
1:35:32
Speaker 1: too clean and a little bit crooked somehow, And it's great.
1:35:36
Speaker 1: Like if you love Bowman, this has gotta be like
1:35:40
Speaker 1: in the PC because it doesn't get more Bowman than this.
1:35:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely okay.
1:35:45
Speaker 1: Well, in the NL side, we have a repeat winner
1:35:49
Speaker 1: of the Rookie of the Month as Jackson Merrill doubles
1:35:54
Speaker 1: up and is the player of the Month for the
1:35:58
Speaker 1: Rookies on the NL for August and uh it's I
1:36:02
Speaker 1: think he's gonna do it. I think he's gonna win
1:36:04
Speaker 1: the Rookie of the Year.
1:36:05
Speaker 2: I think I think he's gonna he's gonna do it.
1:36:08
Speaker 1: Yeah. I when I picked him in the preseason, like
1:36:12
Speaker 1: rasball staff picks, Honestly, I was doing it a little
1:36:15
Speaker 1: bit like in a hot take manner in terms of
1:36:19
Speaker 1: like saying like, I love Jackson Merrill. I didn't think
1:36:22
Speaker 1: he would actually, like legitimately get a shot at winning
1:36:25
Speaker 1: this award, but I just wanted to call it like,
1:36:27
Speaker 1: I think Jackson Merril is awesome, and uh, it's paid.
1:36:30
Speaker 1: It looks like it's gonna pay off. Hanstanly, he had
1:36:33
Speaker 1: a great August in which he hit three h three
1:36:35
Speaker 1: with a six twenty six slugging percentage, seven homers, twenty
1:36:39
Speaker 1: three RBIs, five stolen bases, and four of those seven
1:36:43
Speaker 1: homers were game tying or go ahead shots. Like he's
1:36:47
Speaker 1: becoming mister clutch. I love the swing, his command of
1:36:52
Speaker 1: the zone. It reminds me actually a lot of Corey
1:36:56
Speaker 1: Seeger like in terms of the way that he approaches
1:36:59
Speaker 1: the ball. And then just back to ball skills and
1:37:01
Speaker 1: then you just add on the development from there where
1:37:04
Speaker 1: he can go in the future. I think the sky
1:37:08
Speaker 1: is the limit here for Jackson Merril going forward. But
1:37:12
Speaker 1: with that, we're double tapping here. We've been through this
1:37:16
Speaker 1: process before, so we're picking our third and fourth cards
1:37:19
Speaker 1: for Jackson Merril and our PC Where are you going?
1:37:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know, Jackson Merrill does have a decent
1:37:25
Speaker 2: amount of options, which is which is fun. But the
1:37:28
Speaker 2: thing that really struck me is I was looking a
1:37:29
Speaker 2: little bit closer Jackson Merrill's there's an evolution of Jackson
1:37:33
Speaker 2: Merrill's autograph. If you really start to look closely, it
1:37:37
Speaker 2: starts out as like a little scribble back in the day.
1:37:40
Speaker 2: Then it starts to expand a little bit, and now
1:37:43
Speaker 2: on his twenty twenty four cards, it is a really
1:37:46
Speaker 2: really nice signature. He has perfected his autograph signature. And
1:37:50
Speaker 2: so that really brings me to his twenty twenty four
1:37:52
Speaker 2: tops chrome gold refractor out of fifty with an on
1:37:56
Speaker 2: card auto for the rookie card. There, Jackson Merrill. A
1:38:01
Speaker 2: few things here, like the the the padres are they're
1:38:05
Speaker 2: they're a tough color match, you know. It's it's kind
1:38:09
Speaker 2: of like this burnt gold type uh color, which is
1:38:13
Speaker 2: kind of their thing, and at least in this photo,
1:38:17
Speaker 2: the the the gold yellow really matches the gold uh
1:38:22
Speaker 2: refractor Uh from a kind of a color match perspective.
1:38:25
Speaker 2: It is the rookie card. I mean, it's a really
1:38:28
Speaker 2: nice photo of of him really, you know, about to
1:38:32
Speaker 2: make a fielding play and I guess said I look
1:38:37
Speaker 2: at that autograph. It is really nice. It's really evolved
1:38:40
Speaker 2: over the years. So definitely a great card to put
1:38:43
Speaker 2: in the PC. Not cheap by by any means. We're
1:38:47
Speaker 2: probably talking easy four figures, uh, if you'd like to
1:38:50
Speaker 2: pick that card up for yourself, but it is a beautiful,
1:38:53
Speaker 2: beautiful card.
1:38:55
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think this is a great choice. And last
1:38:57
Speaker 1: time we did this, we actually didn't have tops Crumb
1:39:00
Speaker 1: cards to pick for Jackson Merril, so it was a
1:39:03
Speaker 1: little tougher sledding. But yeah, especially since Tops Chrome has
1:39:06
Speaker 1: come out and Jackson Merrill was included in all sorts
1:39:09
Speaker 1: of inserts and sets and even the base set, I
1:39:14
Speaker 1: think this is a great choice. That you can't go
1:39:16
Speaker 1: wrong with gold no matter what the team is, and
1:39:20
Speaker 1: Gold's always going to be a popular choice.
1:39:23
Speaker 2: All right, the initials up here bring us home with
1:39:25
Speaker 2: a winner. Where'd you go?
1:39:27
Speaker 1: Okay, well, I am this is We didn't pick any
1:39:32
Speaker 1: variations of this card the first time around, and part
1:39:36
Speaker 1: of the reason why is I think we both knew
1:39:38
Speaker 1: that this card was wonky from the get go. It
1:39:41
Speaker 1: is the twenty twenty one Bowman Chrome Draft first of
1:39:47
Speaker 1: Jackson Merril. I'm going to pick the yellow Lava refractor
1:39:51
Speaker 1: of seventy five to go for that slight color match.
1:39:55
Speaker 1: But it stands out to you right away when you
1:39:57
Speaker 1: look at this card that we just discussed, how awesome
1:40:01
Speaker 1: his left handed swing is. On this card, Jackson Merrill
1:40:05
Speaker 1: is swinging right handed, because at first I thought it
1:40:09
Speaker 1: was actually they had mirror flipped like the image of
1:40:12
Speaker 1: him at like Fanatics stops. But it's not even Jackson
1:40:16
Speaker 1: Merrill on this card. It's actually like a random baseball
1:40:19
Speaker 1: player called named Isaac Frye. So it's Jackson Merrill is
1:40:24
Speaker 1: not even on his own first Bowman, but everyone collects
1:40:29
Speaker 1: it like it is. I think a little bit because
1:40:31
Speaker 1: when I was looking at the prices on these Jackson
1:40:33
Speaker 1: Merrill cards, they're lower than you would expect, And I
1:40:36
Speaker 1: think that's why because it's not actually Jackson Merrill on
1:40:40
Speaker 1: his card. It's just crazy that that got past QC
1:40:44
Speaker 1: four tops considering I mean Merrill came in as a
1:40:47
Speaker 1: pretty hyped prospect. You know, he went very early. He
1:40:51
Speaker 1: went in the first round, seventh overall, seventh overroll. Yeah,
1:40:56
Speaker 1: so like it's not like he was a nobody coming
1:40:58
Speaker 1: into the draft and nobody caught it at any point
1:41:03
Speaker 1: because they produced every single parallel you could imagine of
1:41:06
Speaker 1: this card, and there are tons of them out there.
1:41:09
Speaker 1: But it is just a strange card for such a
1:41:12
Speaker 1: huge name to have somebody else pictured on that card
1:41:18
Speaker 1: and just like it not I guess it sort of
1:41:20
Speaker 1: represents them, but not in totality. So just like a
1:41:25
Speaker 1: little bit of an interesting tibit. So I guess next time,
1:41:30
Speaker 1: when Isaac Frye comes through and wins a Player of
1:41:33
Speaker 1: the month, we can go back and pick another Jackson
1:41:37
Speaker 1: Merrill card, which won't happen because I don't think Isaac
1:41:40
Speaker 1: fry is actually like anything I was looking for him, Like,
1:41:43
Speaker 1: I think they were just like at the same kind
1:41:45
Speaker 1: of like under armor events or whatever back in high school.
1:41:49
Speaker 2: Because that one's totally be very clear.
1:41:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the other thing too. It's a very highly photoshopped,
1:41:55
Speaker 1: especially that that padres helmet is needs some work. But
1:42:01
Speaker 1: that's what I went with.
1:42:03
Speaker 2: Good choice, love the story, love the card. I actually
1:42:07
Speaker 2: decided to go onto eBay and start searching for Isaac
1:42:09
Speaker 2: Fry cards, and it's just hilarious because it was all
1:42:12
Speaker 2: the Jackson Merrill Boone first cards coming up, and I
1:42:15
Speaker 2: couldn't actually find a single card for Isaac Isaac Fry.
1:42:19
Speaker 2: So I think that just gives it even more kind
1:42:23
Speaker 2: of nostalgias to a degree. I feel like this isn't
1:42:27
Speaker 2: the first time. It's very clear for Tom this isn't
1:42:29
Speaker 2: the first time as.
1:42:29
Speaker 1: It happened, No, it and it goes back a long waves. Actually,
1:42:33
Speaker 1: like Tyler Kapner on The Athletic had it in his
1:42:37
Speaker 1: Slider's column this week that there was a picture in
1:42:40
Speaker 1: the seventies for the Yankees were on his rookie card.
1:42:43
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pull it up so I don't butcher the
1:42:45
Speaker 1: story too much because it's a really great story and
1:42:47
Speaker 1: I'll link to it in the podcast. But in the
1:42:52
Speaker 1: seventies there was a highly touted picture for the Yankees
1:42:56
Speaker 1: who came up and they did the same thing to
1:43:01
Speaker 1: him where they didn't actually have a picture of him
1:43:03
Speaker 1: on the rookie card. Because back in the day, in
1:43:06
Speaker 1: those mid seventies rookies cards there used to be like
1:43:09
Speaker 1: four players on them at once, yep. And his little
1:43:12
Speaker 1: box isn't actually him, it's another minor leaguer. So what
1:43:18
Speaker 1: they're trying to do is he's actually a pitching coach
1:43:20
Speaker 1: now and has been around in baseball for a long time.
1:43:25
Speaker 1: And it's for Gil Patterson, who came up through the
1:43:28
Speaker 1: Yankee system, and it's just kind of the classic like
1:43:31
Speaker 1: seventies eighties pitcher where you know, flamethrower, big hyped prospect
1:43:37
Speaker 1: and star, and the Yankees refused to actually trade Patterson
1:43:42
Speaker 1: in some pretty high profile trades and held on to him.
1:43:44
Speaker 1: But then he just got injured back in the seventies,
1:43:47
Speaker 1: obviously with Tommy John surgery not being invented or like
1:43:52
Speaker 1: on the precipice being invented, couldn't fix his arm and
1:43:56
Speaker 1: flamed out from there. But it was the only card
1:43:59
Speaker 1: he ever had. Patterson is now kind of like marching
1:44:02
Speaker 1: towards trying to get a new card of him that
1:44:05
Speaker 1: actually features him on it, because he's signed this card
1:44:10
Speaker 1: thousands of times in his career, you know, through the
1:44:13
Speaker 1: mail and at other places, but it's never been him,
1:44:15
Speaker 1: so it's kind of like a semi tragic story. I
1:44:18
Speaker 1: think that he'll actually probably make it into Allen and
1:44:20
Speaker 1: Ginter or archives or something like that that it does
1:44:23
Speaker 1: seem like there's enough of a groundswell here that it's
1:44:27
Speaker 1: a pretty easy situation for Tops to give Gil Patterson
1:44:30
Speaker 1: a card and rectify this.
1:44:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you're absolutely right, Ginter. Alan Ginter is
1:44:35
Speaker 2: a spot where this where this comes back, and that
1:44:37
Speaker 2: story is just incredible to share. So tough luck there
1:44:42
Speaker 2: for Gil Patterson.
1:44:43
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, like I said, I'll link to that in
1:44:46
Speaker 1: the show notes because it's a great read. This is
1:44:49
Speaker 1: exactly the type of stuff that's up our alley for
1:44:51
Speaker 1: the baseball card collecting. And if anything, it also makes
1:44:54
Speaker 1: that seventy seven TOPS card of Gil Parrison probably even
1:44:57
Speaker 1: more of like a collector's item now that this is
1:44:59
Speaker 1: out there and known, and maybe he can hang out
1:45:03
Speaker 1: and talk about it with Jackson Merril one day, and
1:45:06
Speaker 1: especially like Isaac Fry. That's kind of gotta be a
1:45:08
Speaker 1: little bit cool that Isaac Fry is like on all
1:45:10
Speaker 1: these cool Jackson merl cards.
1:45:11
Speaker 2: But you know, Isaac Fries out there signing these things
1:45:13
Speaker 2: left and right all the time.
1:45:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the next level to get that on eBay. Yeah,
1:45:19
Speaker 1: but all right, like I said, that'll be in the
1:45:21
Speaker 1: show notes. Everything else that we've talked about is in
1:45:23
Speaker 1: the show notes, so certainly check it out there because
1:45:26
Speaker 1: we did our best to describe these cards in this
1:45:29
Speaker 1: audio format. If you want to see an in visual format,
1:45:32
Speaker 1: click the links or check out rasball dot com for
1:45:35
Speaker 1: this post where you can see them all in the
1:45:37
Speaker 1: same post. Makes it really easy. And with that, we're
1:45:40
Speaker 1: gonna wrap up this week. Brew Let everybody know where
1:45:43
Speaker 1: they can find you to read your articles and contact
1:45:47
Speaker 1: you on socials.
1:45:48
Speaker 2: Yep, you can find me on socials over a Twitter
1:45:50
Speaker 2: slash exit Jaybrewer one seven. Find me on rasball on
1:45:54
Speaker 2: the weekends, generally on Sunday, doing hitter profiles top one
1:45:58
Speaker 2: hundred hitters for the rest of the season. We just
1:46:00
Speaker 2: wrapped up our last top one hundred hitters dropping for
1:46:03
Speaker 2: the rest of the season. I'd be frank, there's not
1:46:05
Speaker 2: a whole lot of value in the last top one
1:46:07
Speaker 2: hundred hitters for the last week of the season. Just
1:46:10
Speaker 2: doesn't get a whole lot of reads. So we're gonna
1:46:12
Speaker 2: be turning our focus through probably twenty twenty five. As
1:46:15
Speaker 2: we close out the season here, so please jump in
1:46:19
Speaker 2: check it out. But what about you cool, Where can
1:46:21
Speaker 2: polks find you?
1:46:22
Speaker 1: Yeah? You can also find me on res ball on
1:46:25
Speaker 1: Saturdays doing that waiver wire fab piece which kind of
1:46:29
Speaker 1: like you at the end of the season. It almost
1:46:31
Speaker 1: turns into just like a who's got the best matchups?
1:46:34
Speaker 1: And who a we streaming this week sort of article,
1:46:36
Speaker 1: but also analysis on different pitching matchups and trying to
1:46:40
Speaker 1: parse through any bulpen situations out there. If you want
1:46:43
Speaker 1: to find me on socials, you can find me on Twitter,
1:46:46
Speaker 1: slash x and blue Sky at in Cool seven. You
1:46:50
Speaker 1: can email the podcast at cards Categories at gmail dot
1:46:54
Speaker 1: com or contact us on Twitter, slash x at cards Categories.
1:47:00
Speaker 1: We've got merch that is in the show notes. The
1:47:03
Speaker 1: link is down there to get hats, t shirts, baby onesies, mugs,
1:47:07
Speaker 1: anything you want and blazoned with the Cards and Categories logo.
1:47:11
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1:47:14
Speaker 1: we appreciate if you could rate and review us wherever
1:47:17
Speaker 1: you're listening to us. That those ratings help us spread
1:47:21
Speaker 1: just the overall kind of like profile of this podcast
1:47:25
Speaker 1: and gets us suggested in different platforms. So We appreciate
1:47:29
Speaker 1: that and any feedback that might come through those areas
1:47:32
Speaker 1: as well, so we're going to wrap it up for
1:47:35
Speaker 1: this week. We will be back same time, same place
1:47:37
Speaker 1: next week. Take care until then, everybody,