Latest / Foul Territory / D’backs SP Michael Soroka on FT
Transcript
- 0:12Speaker 1: Great to have you on man, really appreciate the time,
- 0:14Speaker 1: love watching you pitch so far this year. We've enjoyed
- 0:17Speaker 1: our combos in the past, so I want to get
- 0:19Speaker 1: right into it with you. There was a quote you
- 0:22Speaker 1: had the other day about the impact that Diamondbacks are
- 0:24Speaker 1: making for you, and I feel like one of the
- 0:26Speaker 1: top questions fans always want to know is like what
- 0:28Speaker 1: makes this organization unique? And I felt like you really
- 0:31Speaker 1: gave us something there. So I'm going to have you
- 0:32Speaker 1: kind of rehash that if you can, because it has
- 0:34Speaker 1: a lot to do with what we're seeing from this year.
- 0:36Speaker 1: So let's get into it.
- 0:37Speaker 2: What are they doing?
- 0:39Speaker 3: Yeah, I appreciate you guys having me again. It's it's
- 0:41Speaker 3: always a pleasure. The Diamondbacks right out of the gate
- 0:46Speaker 3: last year and in free agency were kind of along
- 0:49Speaker 3: the same plan that I already had moving forward the
- 0:53Speaker 3: Cubs and you know, tyler' zombro. It kind of giving
- 0:56Speaker 3: me a pretty good roadmap to work on things in
- 0:58Speaker 3: the offseason, and the Backs were very interested in continuing that.
- 1:03Speaker 3: So I mean, really it was it was the ability
- 1:05Speaker 3: to add a couple more pitches and and give hitters
- 1:07Speaker 3: a different look.
- 1:09Speaker 4: You know, we all like to throw hard. We all
- 1:11Speaker 4: want to throw hard.
- 1:11Speaker 3: But my gift typically being being able to spin the baseball.
- 1:16Speaker 3: Having to add a couple more in that direction made
- 1:19Speaker 3: a big difference, and you know, really just learn how
- 1:22Speaker 3: to use all that stuff. So Jeremy, Blisch and Kaplan
- 1:26Speaker 3: and Owen do all our entire pitching staff has really
- 1:31Speaker 3: just been great at kind of honing in on what
- 1:34Speaker 3: we wanted to do initially in spring training and then
- 1:38Speaker 3: kind of building on that. So that's it's been a
- 1:41Speaker 3: good process so far.
- 1:43Speaker 5: All right, being able to spin the ball, can you
- 1:45Speaker 5: elaborate a little bit more? And I think I have
- 1:47Speaker 5: a follow up that you were playing during the era
- 1:51Speaker 5: where my follow up might actually happen, but spinning the ball,
- 1:54Speaker 5: can you talk about that and what that means for
- 1:57Speaker 5: you in the process to be able to spin it differently,
- 2:00Speaker 5: you talked about that a little bit and a little
- 2:01Speaker 5: bit better.
- 2:05Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I think again, we all find our
- 2:09Speaker 3: talents in this game. We find what we're strong at.
- 2:11Speaker 3: And for some reason, I've always just had a feel
- 2:15Speaker 3: to be able to make the ball move, not really
- 2:20Speaker 3: mattering what direction is, but typically move left for me.
- 2:24Speaker 3: So obviously being superinated helps with that, you know, being
- 2:28Speaker 3: able to kind of shape a curve ball in a
- 2:30Speaker 3: multiple different directions and spin it quicker, I think has
- 2:34Speaker 3: been big. I know there's there's a lot of people
- 2:36Speaker 3: that look at spin rates and think maybe they don't
- 2:39Speaker 3: add a whole ton it matters, you know, axis and
- 2:42Speaker 3: spin efficiency and all that kind of stuff. We're kind
- 2:45Speaker 3: of getting into the into the weeds a little bit,
- 2:47Speaker 3: but really, I mean, you know, when you catch a
- 2:50Speaker 3: guy that's able to spin it, because everything's just a
- 2:52Speaker 3: little bit tighter, everything just breaks a little later. And
- 2:56Speaker 3: really it was just leaning into that that gift.
- 2:59Speaker 5: Right, how much easier would it have been and would
- 3:01Speaker 5: it have sped up your process if you guys could
- 3:03Speaker 5: still use spider tech for people who don't know, Spider
- 3:06Speaker 5: Tack got banned and now you're talking about like really
- 3:10Speaker 5: being able to spin it and you can naturally do it.
- 3:12Speaker 5: If that was still in the game, would it have
- 3:15Speaker 5: increased this like maturation of the way you spin the ball,
- 3:20Speaker 5: or would it have maybe inhibited it because of the
- 3:22Speaker 5: fact that some guys feel like he gave them some
- 3:25Speaker 5: injury risk too.
- 3:28Speaker 3: Yeah, I honestly so, I missed that whole I missed
- 3:31Speaker 3: that whole thing. I got hurt in twenty Obviously, you
- 3:35Speaker 3: know people have tried stick your stuff in the past,
- 3:38Speaker 3: but I missed the whole spider tack stuff.
- 3:41Speaker 4: I've never I've never touched it.
- 3:42Speaker 3: I've I've heard, you know, guys that experimented with the
- 3:45Speaker 3: off seasons and whatnot. But I know it definitely added
- 3:48Speaker 3: a whole bunch of RPMs, definitely made some some things
- 3:51Speaker 3: a little sharper. But yeah, I would say, you know,
- 3:55Speaker 3: not having to grip the ball as tight definitely is
- 3:58Speaker 3: a key to be able to spin the base in
- 4:00Speaker 3: my opinion. I know, somebody like Nolan McLain says he grips,
- 4:04Speaker 3: grips everything he's got on the baseball, and and you know,
- 4:09Speaker 3: that's how he spins it. And he's probably the best
- 4:12Speaker 3: spinner of the baseball in our game at this point.
- 4:15Speaker 3: But for me, it's always been about just being loose
- 4:17Speaker 3: and whippy with it. And again just learning exactly how
- 4:23Speaker 3: that works best for me has been has been big
- 4:26Speaker 3: over the last really year and a half.
- 4:29Speaker 6: You talk about like a loosening grip. The guy I
- 4:32Speaker 6: think of Pedro Martinez with his circle change, it felt
- 4:35Speaker 6: like it would just sit kind of on top of
- 4:37Speaker 6: his you know, the fingertips a little bit. Is that
- 4:41Speaker 6: kind of how you throw that? Are you trying to
- 4:42Speaker 6: grip that change up really tight so you can get
- 4:45Speaker 6: you know, even more bite to it. Is that part
- 4:47Speaker 6: of your repertoire.
- 4:49Speaker 3: Yeah, No, I got to be super loose with that
- 4:51Speaker 3: one too. As soon as I was tightened up with
- 4:53Speaker 3: that one, I throw it. You know, it's a long dart.
- 4:55Speaker 3: I throw it straight into the ground, you know. And
- 4:58Speaker 3: that's where, again, the shape doesn't necessarily matter as much
- 5:02Speaker 3: if I can stay loose with it and turn that
- 5:04Speaker 3: corner with the wrist.
- 5:05Speaker 4: I think that's the biggest thing.
- 5:06Speaker 3: Is I get to the front of the baseball and
- 5:08Speaker 3: it doesn't really matter if it's moving more left or
- 5:11Speaker 3: north to south, or I throw through it a little bit.
- 5:14Speaker 3: The hitter still sees that whip and still sees fastball
- 5:18Speaker 3: in my opinion, and they just don't pick up that
- 5:21Speaker 3: late break. So again, it's just it's learning all these things.
- 5:25Speaker 3: And to be able to do that has been nice.
- 5:28Speaker 3: To be able to stay healthy the last couple of
- 5:30Speaker 3: years and just keep throwing and just keep getting better
- 5:33Speaker 3: at those things.
- 5:34Speaker 6: I love that. It's like it seems like you're learning
- 5:37Speaker 6: more about yourself. Fewer home runs, fewer walks, and for you,
- 5:42Speaker 6: you don't have to divulge because you kind of hit
- 5:44Speaker 6: most of it. But is it to the fact that
- 5:46Speaker 6: you're having more movement on every single one of your
- 5:48Speaker 6: pitches or is there something else to it?
- 5:51Speaker 4: Yeah, I think a little bit.
- 5:52Speaker 3: I think a lot of it goes into count leverage too,
- 5:54Speaker 3: And obviously if you have better stuff that you can
- 5:57Speaker 3: throw over the plate, it's easier to make sure that
- 6:00Speaker 3: you're not, you know, getting in those cripple counts. That
- 6:04Speaker 3: was a big thing that we were chasing swing and
- 6:06Speaker 3: miss early in counts and getting a swing and miss
- 6:10Speaker 3: one one oh, and then all of a sudden, you've
- 6:12Speaker 3: thrown the guy five six pitches and he's got a
- 6:14Speaker 3: good chance to do some damage because he's he's now
- 6:17Speaker 3: seen everything. So that was part of adding a couples
- 6:20Speaker 3: to give guys a different look. But really it's it's
- 6:23Speaker 3: just been, you know, getting better at the things that
- 6:28Speaker 3: are simple, Like I said, count leverage, getting ahead, staying ahead,
- 6:32Speaker 3: keeping hitters guessing, and our rotation in general has put
- 6:36Speaker 3: a lot of importance on that and our pitching staff
- 6:39Speaker 3: has drilled that into us for sure.
- 6:42Speaker 5: I quit playing in twenty twenty. Twenty nineteen was your
- 6:46Speaker 5: coming out party and it was Sorocus sinker. Now it's
- 6:49Speaker 5: one of your least used pitches. So when I asked
- 6:53Speaker 5: this question, I'm asking it from the fact that when
- 6:55Speaker 5: I saw you pitch in the big leagues, like when
- 6:58Speaker 5: I was had a uniform and it was like, okay,
- 7:01Speaker 5: all sinkers. Now your you've completely changed your repertoire through
- 7:06Speaker 5: injuries all that stuff. For everybody doesn't know and you
- 7:11Speaker 5: seem like you watch and look at other people's pitches.
- 7:13Speaker 2: Is that correct?
- 7:16Speaker 4: Yeah?
- 7:16Speaker 3: Absolutely, everybody that goes out there, if we've got stuff,
- 7:19Speaker 3: I want to I want to know not only what
- 7:22Speaker 3: it's doing on the board, on the track man per se,
- 7:26Speaker 3: but I want to know what hitters are seeing too.
- 7:28Speaker 3: So actually I'll hit inside and watch guys hit off
- 7:31Speaker 3: traject if I can, just to give it get a
- 7:34Speaker 3: slight idea. I think the perceived action is even more
- 7:37Speaker 3: important than what's kind of going out on the numbers.
- 7:40Speaker 4: If that makes sense.
- 7:42Speaker 2: Yes, So then that brings my next question.
- 7:45Speaker 5: Take your foremost used pitches right now, and who in
- 7:49Speaker 5: the game would you say, Okay, I want my four
- 7:52Speaker 5: steamer to look like that because that is my favorite
- 7:54Speaker 5: four seamer. I want my slurve to I want my
- 7:59Speaker 5: sweeper to look like that, My cutter will look like this.
- 8:02Speaker 5: Name your favorite pitches to look at that. You're like, wow,
- 8:05Speaker 5: I'd love to see his edgatronic grip or even if
- 8:08Speaker 5: it's like somebody that's not playing right now, You're like,
- 8:11Speaker 5: I would love to have seen how this guy through it.
- 8:15Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, honestly, for as far as fastball, and
- 8:18Speaker 3: I think it's it's kind of coming out and people
- 8:21Speaker 3: are starting to see a little more. Is Ryan Nelson's
- 8:24Speaker 3: fastball every time he takes the mound. I mean, it's
- 8:27Speaker 3: it's a fastball that he can kind of just keep throwing.
- 8:30Speaker 3: It's pretty incredible. It's it's a super higher rise, upper
- 8:36Speaker 3: nineties heater. That one gets fun every single time. And
- 8:39Speaker 3: it's again it's it's one where hitters will swing and
- 8:42Speaker 3: miss at multiple times, which is such a rare thing
- 8:45Speaker 3: in baseball nowadays. Obviously, you know, talk about pure cutter again,
- 8:50Speaker 3: you talk about perceived action. I still think there's nobody
- 8:53Speaker 3: better than Rivera. You made a career off locating that one. Pitch,
- 8:57Speaker 3: and you know, be interesting to see the data on
- 9:01Speaker 3: that one too, because I'm not sure it would necessarily
- 9:05Speaker 3: wow people metrically. I think it's just a pitch that
- 9:08Speaker 3: hitters just didn't see what was about to happen with
- 9:12Speaker 3: that pitch. So I think that's an interesting part to
- 9:17Speaker 3: our game that I think we're not quite completely understanding of.
- 9:23Speaker 3: You know, we talked about angles again, the Cubs were
- 9:26Speaker 3: kind of one of the one of the teams to
- 9:27Speaker 3: bring that to me, is was perceived movement based on angles.
- 9:32Speaker 3: So you got those ones. And then for breaking balls, yeah,
- 9:38Speaker 3: I don't know. I like to see the outliers. We
- 9:40Speaker 3: just saw Roup in San Francisco. It's an outlier breaking ball.
- 9:44Speaker 3: It's it's another breaking ball that moves in both directions.
- 9:49Speaker 6: You know.
- 9:49Speaker 4: Obviously watching Nolan McLain.
- 9:51Speaker 3: At the beginning of the year in New York when
- 9:52Speaker 3: the wind was swirling, their stuff was going everywhere. So again,
- 9:57Speaker 3: those are all fun to watch, but those would be
- 9:59Speaker 3: the two I think that I think River's cutter I
- 10:02Speaker 3: would love to see today. I would love to see
- 10:05Speaker 3: that because I think a lot of people would maybe
- 10:08Speaker 3: change their mind on chasing just pure raw total movement,
- 10:12Speaker 3: if that makes sense.
- 10:14Speaker 6: True, true, So I'm going to give you a fan
- 10:17Speaker 6: question here. This is from m Jr. Asking who the
- 10:20Speaker 6: best second basement in baseball is. I'm curious what your
- 10:23Speaker 6: answer would be that I think I have a feeling
- 10:26Speaker 6: what you're going to say, But talk to me about
- 10:28Speaker 6: your guy over there.
- 10:30Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, obviously, I got to see Ozzy Ozzie
- 10:34Speaker 3: playing in Atlanta for a long time, but seeing some
- 10:39Speaker 3: of the some of the things that Ka Tell Marte
- 10:41Speaker 3: does on a daily basis, is pretty wild.
- 10:45Speaker 4: We knew he was he was going to catch fire here.
- 10:47Speaker 3: I think I saw a stat the other day that
- 10:49Speaker 3: he had like twenty five balls hit over one hundred
- 10:52Speaker 3: miles an hour go for outs this year, and we
- 10:57Speaker 3: knew it was about to happen. But again, it's pretty
- 11:01Speaker 3: silly to look at a second basement and see that
- 11:04Speaker 3: stature and see what he can do and how fast
- 11:07Speaker 3: he can.
- 11:07Speaker 4: Move his hands and that barrel.
- 11:08Speaker 3: So yeah, obviously I'm partial now, but he's definitely the
- 11:12Speaker 3: most impressive I think I've ever seen.
- 11:15Speaker 5: All Right, did you see the whole pitch tipping slash
- 11:19Speaker 5: being relayed from the dugout with the Cardinals and Brewers Series.
- 11:24Speaker 3: I didn't get the whole thing. I got the gist, Yeah,
- 11:27Speaker 3: I didn't get the lowdown. I didn't hear from anybody
- 11:29Speaker 3: on either of those teams.
- 11:31Speaker 2: Though you have.
- 11:32Speaker 5: Any crazy pitch tipping through your time of trying to
- 11:36Speaker 5: figure out why somebody is getting hitting you or where
- 11:39Speaker 5: like somebody came up to you, you have any cool pitch
- 11:42Speaker 5: tipping stories.
- 11:46Speaker 3: I was for a period of time at the beginning
- 11:49Speaker 3: of twenty four my hands were kind of coming up
- 11:52Speaker 3: too high on fastballs that were coming up higher.
- 11:56Speaker 4: There's always some interesting ones. I guess.
- 12:00Speaker 3: The only one that gets me a little bit is
- 12:03Speaker 3: Josh Naylor last year.
- 12:04Speaker 4: And I know Josh.
- 12:05Speaker 3: I've played with Josh on the junior national team when
- 12:08Speaker 3: we were sixteen seventeen with team in.
- 12:11Speaker 4: Canada, and last year he got me again.
- 12:17Speaker 3: He's so far had my number in the big leagues
- 12:21Speaker 3: and got me last year when we were in Arizona,
- 12:25Speaker 3: and after the game it just kind of said, look like,
- 12:28Speaker 3: I don't even know that you were tipping. I could
- 12:30Speaker 3: just see something different in your delivery on off speed
- 12:33Speaker 3: and I don't know if I necessarily bought it, but
- 12:36Speaker 3: it did feel like literally everything I threw him.
- 12:39Speaker 4: He was on like he knew it.
- 12:40Speaker 3: And you know, there's little things that you'll see all
- 12:45Speaker 3: the time. You'll just see some swings on pitches that
- 12:47Speaker 3: typically don't get hit or get hit hard. You always
- 12:52Speaker 3: got to be careful about it. But again, we've got
- 12:54Speaker 3: a pretty good team over here in Arizona to make
- 12:55Speaker 3: sure that they're staying on, that they're watching us like
- 12:59Speaker 3: a hawk, as if they're trying to pick us. And yeah,
- 13:03Speaker 3: it's it's it's a tough thing because all of a sudden,
- 13:05Speaker 3: it makes it makes pitching much much, much harder than
- 13:09Speaker 3: it needs to be.
- 13:10Speaker 2: Does that get in your head at all?
- 13:13Speaker 5: Because we I used to play with Chase Suttley, and
- 13:15Speaker 5: Chase Sutley would run to the mound when we didn't
- 13:17Speaker 5: have mound visit issues and he put his hand overs,
- 13:20Speaker 5: he put his glove over his mouth, be like, hey,
- 13:22Speaker 5: you're tipping, and then he'd go run back to second
- 13:24Speaker 5: base and I was like like, at.
- 13:27Speaker 2: Least tell like what what what was he doing?
- 13:29Speaker 1: Like?
- 13:30Speaker 5: Does that make you? Does that make you a worse pitcher?
- 13:34Speaker 5: Even if you don't know what the tip is? Like
- 13:37Speaker 5: it's like telling somebody, hey, you run weird? And then
- 13:40Speaker 5: every time you run you're like, what is it and
- 13:42Speaker 5: what am I doing wrong?
- 13:44Speaker 4: Yeah?
- 13:45Speaker 3: I think if you especially if you don't know what
- 13:47Speaker 3: it is, you almost gotta change something in that moment.
- 13:53Speaker 3: It definitely can make you second guess things sometimes, you know.
- 13:57Speaker 3: I think again, you gotta be careful with sometimes just
- 14:01Speaker 3: realizing that maybe they just put a good, good swing
- 14:04Speaker 3: on the ball, maybe you're not tipping. You know, they're
- 14:06Speaker 3: pretty good too. There is sometimes where hitters go through
- 14:10Speaker 3: a lineup and everybody just gets good swings off or
- 14:14Speaker 3: they happen to guess right, So you gotta be careful
- 14:17Speaker 3: not spiraling down. But yeah, I think if you didn't
- 14:21Speaker 3: know what you were doing and somebody told you were tipping,
- 14:24Speaker 3: I think you'd be better off just trying to change
- 14:27Speaker 3: your entire your entire setup at that point.
- 14:30Speaker 5: Do you have any connection with Corbyn Burns as he's
- 14:33Speaker 5: rehabbing here or has he kind of been? I mean
- 14:36Speaker 5: the facility is still in Arizona. Is he hanging around
- 14:39Speaker 5: with you guys?
- 14:41Speaker 3: Yeah, he's been around a ton. He's been at Chase
- 14:43Speaker 3: a good bit. When we're at home. He stayed and
- 14:45Speaker 3: watched a lot of games. I didn't realize until until
- 14:48Speaker 3: I met him, how how into doing his homework and
- 14:53Speaker 3: his scouting reports he is personally.
- 14:56Speaker 4: So I've been kind of asking him questions here.
- 14:58Speaker 3: And there about what he looks for and how he determines,
- 15:01Speaker 3: you know, which guys he's gonna mix in. Essentially, is
- 15:04Speaker 3: his sinker too, which is more like my cutter? I
- 15:07Speaker 3: guess I would say, because obviously his cutter is his thing,
- 15:11Speaker 3: and that's you know, ninety seven mile hour cut bowling balls.
- 15:16Speaker 3: But on the other end, he needs to mix in
- 15:19Speaker 3: the other one to try and you know, drive hitters off,
- 15:22Speaker 3: and that's kind of what I've added my cutter for.
- 15:26Speaker 3: So I think, you know, having him around has been
- 15:30Speaker 3: invaluable and I'm really looking forward to seeing him get
- 15:32Speaker 3: back in the rotation and let a rip. I know
- 15:35Speaker 3: he's been itching and get back and he's tired of
- 15:37Speaker 3: throwing bullpens, so it'll be a lot of fun.
- 15:41Speaker 5: Have you heard him say anything, Because the reason I
- 15:43Speaker 5: asked is obviously he's a possible a So you guys
- 15:46Speaker 5: can add into your rotation here coming down to stretch
- 15:48Speaker 5: for the season. But when I listen to you, I
- 15:51Speaker 5: don't know you at all. Other than from being on
- 15:53Speaker 5: the show, I hear a lot of similarities. Is there
- 15:55Speaker 5: anything that he says to you that resonates where you're like, oh, Okay,
- 16:00Speaker 5: I can go out and do this, or is there
- 16:02Speaker 5: anything that you've been able to say, Hey, you know what,
- 16:05Speaker 5: I went through two years of this and it was
- 16:07Speaker 5: able to bring him up because you guys seem like
- 16:09Speaker 5: you have the same, like very methodical vari Maybe it's
- 16:12Speaker 5: just the hair, Maybe it's just the hair and beard
- 16:14Speaker 5: that makes it the same. But have you guys been
- 16:17Speaker 5: able to connect on those two ends of it?
- 16:22Speaker 2: You know?
- 16:23Speaker 3: I think the one similarity to a doocye is is,
- 16:27Speaker 3: you know, having to kind of make your own way
- 16:29Speaker 3: a little bit in so far as what you want
- 16:31Speaker 3: to do as a pitcher. I know, he decided he
- 16:34Speaker 3: was going to lean into the fact that he basically
- 16:36Speaker 3: couldn't make the ball ride like everybody was trying to
- 16:39Speaker 3: do in you know, in nineteen twenty twenty one, everybody
- 16:43Speaker 3: was trying to get the rise ball going, and he
- 16:46Speaker 3: eventually just kind of said, screw it, I'm going to
- 16:49Speaker 3: lean into what I'm good at and that's it, and
- 16:52Speaker 3: I'm going to be stubborn with it and then all
- 16:54Speaker 3: of a sudden, it wasn't probably one year later and
- 16:57Speaker 3: he was, you know, competing for a SII, And Yeah,
- 17:02Speaker 3: I think there is that similarity a little bit when
- 17:05Speaker 3: you get to a point where you figure out that
- 17:08Speaker 3: your path is your own and you're going to make
- 17:10Speaker 3: it that He went through that and got to do
- 17:14Speaker 3: all of those things that come with it, and got
- 17:17Speaker 3: to learn and got to keep pitching, and it's actually
- 17:18Speaker 3: very similar to kind of what I saw Max Freed
- 17:21Speaker 3: do in Atlanta. So these guys have gotten to the
- 17:24Speaker 3: point where they know exactly what they want to look
- 17:27Speaker 3: for and they know exactly how they want to compete. Again,
- 17:30Speaker 3: it's time that I missed being on the IL and
- 17:33Speaker 3: trying to learn from these guys' experiences is going to
- 17:36Speaker 3: help expedite the path that I want to be onto.
- 17:39Speaker 3: So I'm going to use every bit of them.
- 17:42Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been cool. We're talking earlier about how the
- 17:44Speaker 1: team's getting Corbyn back and then Ajpuck and Justin Martinez
- 17:48Speaker 1: slated to return for the bullpen this season. There's some
- 17:51Speaker 1: reinforcements that are going to help a team that already
- 17:53Speaker 1: looks good. So it's been fun. We always enjoy the combo.
- 17:55Speaker 1: Thanks Michael, really appreciate the time. Keep doing your thing.
- 17:58Speaker 1: It's been a fun watch and we'll catch up with.
- 17:59Speaker 4: You all right, guys, thank you for having me.
- 18:02Speaker 1: Here's a tweet from Tim Kelly Sports. The Phillies are
- 18:05Speaker 1: going to be done playing the Cubs, the Giants, and
- 18:07Speaker 1: the Padres before ever playing the Mets. That makes zero sense.
- 18:11Speaker 1: So we were just picking on the Phillies for this.
- 18:13Speaker 1: But Todd, we always get complaints. Hey, my team's not
- 18:17Speaker 1: playing this team until this time. It's not all going
- 18:19Speaker 1: to be perfect. Could it be better?
- 18:20Speaker 4: Yes?
- 18:21Speaker 1: My thing that I have the bigger issue with is
- 18:23Speaker 1: when two teams don't play each other for a long
- 18:25Speaker 1: period of time, or even have a season series that
- 18:28Speaker 1: ends so early, and you'd like to see a division
- 18:30Speaker 1: rivalry with the top two teams play each other. I
- 18:33Speaker 1: have more of a problem with that, I think right now.
- 18:35Speaker 1: I mean, I guess it doesn't really matter because the
- 18:37Speaker 1: Giants aren't good this year, but I don't think the
- 18:39Speaker 1: Giants and Dodgers play each other again until like September,
- 18:41Speaker 1: mid September. I just like a little bit of balance
- 18:43Speaker 1: with the divisions. I care a little less about the
- 18:48Speaker 1: very beginning of the season, more about the middle and
- 18:50Speaker 1: the end for the division to match up when the
- 18:53Speaker 1: standings get paid more closely at attention to.
- 18:58Speaker 6: Yeah, and I think Cubs, Giants, and Padres they're all
- 19:00Speaker 6: really good teams, so down the stretch, Listen, the Phillies
- 19:04Speaker 6: might have a little easier schedule, so that might help
- 19:07Speaker 6: them too. Yeah, I don't understand that. I think you'd
- 19:11Speaker 6: want to play those teams in the beginning, a little
- 19:13Speaker 6: bit in the middle, and then a lot at the end.
- 19:16Speaker 6: But it's a tough job to figure all that out.
- 19:18Speaker 6: But again, Phillies, I think the Phillies would have the
- 19:21Speaker 6: upper hand here knowing that they haven't played. They're not
- 19:24Speaker 6: going to be playing these really good teams down the stretch.
- 19:27Speaker 1: Right, and then they will get the Mets depending on
- 19:30Speaker 1: what happens. This is the other big factor Krantz is
- 19:34Speaker 1: if you get teams post trade deadline and they strip parts,
- 19:37Speaker 1: sometimes those teams are not that good.