Latest / Foul Territory / FT MLB Power Rankings + Kevin Pillar breaks down Kyle Tucker's slump

Transcript

FT MLB Power Rankings + Kevin Pillar breaks down Kyle Tucker's slump · Foul Territory

0:02
Speaker 1: Hot corner time. This is a man who was known
0:05
Speaker 1: as Superman Kevin Plar in the outfield and was an
0:09
Speaker 1: all out hustler through his whole career, but also an
0:11
Speaker 1: outfielder right and he just like anyone else in the
0:14
Speaker 1: big leagues that went through his ups and downs, especially
0:16
Speaker 1: at the plate, like anybody does. Kyle Tucker's going through
0:18
Speaker 1: that right now. But he has had superstar numbers in
0:20
Speaker 1: the past. So what we want to do here is
0:23
Speaker 1: get your take on what's going on with him. And
0:25
Speaker 1: also Eric Carros, who's been on broadcast TV for a
0:28
Speaker 1: long time, mentioned now he thinks he needs a reset
0:30
Speaker 1: in Arizona.
0:31
Speaker 2: Now.
0:32
Speaker 1: The Dodgers are fine, They're leading the division by a mile,
0:35
Speaker 1: they're going to make the playoffs, they're fighting for a
0:37
Speaker 1: buye get it. But Kyle Tucker is being paid more
0:41
Speaker 1: than anyone this season alone, and he looks lost at
0:44
Speaker 1: the plate at home on the road. He's fine. And
0:47
Speaker 1: the bigger issue now too, that I'm curious about, and
0:48
Speaker 1: I want to start with KP is what's going on
0:50
Speaker 1: in the last few days in the outfield for him
0:53
Speaker 1: where it looks like things are getting to him mentally.
0:56
Speaker 3: Do you agree?
0:57
Speaker 2: Yeah?
0:58
Speaker 3: I think so, there's definitely some mental stuff going on here.
1:01
Speaker 3: But you know, I think part of the reason Kyle
1:04
Speaker 3: Tucker got the amount of money he did is because
1:07
Speaker 3: he also plays a good right field, you know, when
1:09
Speaker 3: he's out there, and obviously when he's been successful at
1:13
Speaker 3: the plate, he's been able to play a great right field.
1:15
Speaker 3: The fact that he's not hitting right now and he's
1:17
Speaker 3: really playing a below average and at times doesn't look
1:20
Speaker 3: like he's very invested out there, there's definitely concerns. And
1:25
Speaker 3: you know, from a standpoint of Eric Carrows, who follows
1:29
Speaker 3: the team and covers the team a lot more than
1:31
Speaker 3: I do, for him to come out and make a
1:33
Speaker 3: statement like he needs a reset is a very interesting thing.
1:37
Speaker 3: And it's not as simple as just telling a guy, hey,
1:40
Speaker 3: who's making you know, seventy plus million dollars this year, Hey,
1:43
Speaker 3: you need a reset, go down to Arizona. You know,
1:46
Speaker 3: it's a very difficult thing. But it's crazy because you
1:50
Speaker 3: would never think this from a guy like Kyle Tucker.
1:52
Speaker 3: You know, I went through struggles like that, but baseball
1:54
Speaker 3: was hard for me. Guys like Kyle Tucker don't ever
1:57
Speaker 3: seem like the games very hard, right for him to
2:00
Speaker 3: struggle like that is pretty crazy, considering the fact the
2:05
Speaker 3: lineup that he's playing in, he's not necessarily the focal
2:07
Speaker 3: point of that lineup anymore like he was in Houston.
2:11
Speaker 3: You think he would kind of be able to, you know,
2:15
Speaker 3: honestly put up better numbers because there's so many other
2:18
Speaker 3: guys in that lineup you have to focus on. And
2:20
Speaker 3: I don't know if this is a case of, you know,
2:23
Speaker 3: kind of a kid who's you know, from a little bit,
2:26
Speaker 3: smaller town, kind of grew up in the Houston, you know,
2:31
Speaker 3: organization not necessarily a huge market team. You know, we
2:35
Speaker 3: saw a little bit of his struggles last year in
2:37
Speaker 3: a big market like Chicago. Now him playing in the
2:40
Speaker 3: bright lights in the big city of Los Angeles, he's
2:42
Speaker 3: not performing at home, So there's a lot of questions
2:45
Speaker 3: to why. And I've also seen people kind of comment
2:49
Speaker 3: and this is me without knowing Kyle Tucker, so this
2:52
Speaker 3: is just speculation of what I've heard. He doesn't necessarily
2:56
Speaker 3: come off as a guy who loves the game. He
2:59
Speaker 3: seems like a guy who might be a little bit
3:01
Speaker 3: content the fact that he's making a ton of money.
3:04
Speaker 3: He put in his time, his six years to get
3:06
Speaker 3: the free agency cash in, and now it looks like
3:09
Speaker 3: he's checked out once again. I don't know, Kyle Tucker Kratzy.
3:12
Speaker 3: I don't know if you know him personally or no
3:14
Speaker 3: people that have been around him. They're just some of
3:17
Speaker 3: the things that I've been seeing on the internet. In
3:19
Speaker 3: our comments right here is he comes off as a
3:22
Speaker 3: guy who doesn't care. And I'm sure he does care.
3:25
Speaker 3: But we've also seen, you know, in recent history, when
3:28
Speaker 3: you go out and you pay a guy a ton
3:30
Speaker 3: of money who's openly said that baseball isn't a priority
3:34
Speaker 3: to him or doesn't necessarily care about the game of baseball,
3:37
Speaker 3: you kind of see the consequences.
3:40
Speaker 2: There's a lot to unpack. We'll unpack the whole Eric
3:42
Speaker 2: Carross his comments, But first, KP, I want to ask
3:46
Speaker 2: you as an outfielder, because we saw the kind of
3:49
Speaker 2: short armed, misplayed ball at the fence in Dodger Stadium,
3:52
Speaker 2: and then yesterday the crumble to the ground looked like
3:57
Speaker 2: a pitcher trying to catch a fly ball. Do you
3:59
Speaker 2: go in slumps? And I thought you should have won
4:02
Speaker 2: at least one goal glove in your career, so you're
4:04
Speaker 2: one of the better outfielders, center fielders that I ever
4:07
Speaker 2: played with. Do you go in slumps? Can you get
4:12
Speaker 2: in slumps running balls down? Because we saw him one
4:15
Speaker 2: over his head that he wasn't able to get and
4:17
Speaker 2: then the one last night coming in that just Clankopotamus.
4:22
Speaker 3: I'm sure you can get into slumps, you know, like
4:25
Speaker 3: any position, you get into slumps. But I think for
4:28
Speaker 3: someone like myself, who did a really good job separating
4:30
Speaker 3: offense from defense, I think that's the bigger concern is
4:33
Speaker 3: it doesn't look like he's been able to separate what
4:36
Speaker 3: he's doing offensively, feeling like he's lost and he can't
4:39
Speaker 3: buy a hit and he has no idea where his
4:42
Speaker 3: mechanics are. When you take that out to the field, yeah,
4:45
Speaker 3: it's gonna look like you're slumping and it looks like
4:47
Speaker 3: you're not going to go make those plays. But when
4:49
Speaker 3: you can kind of have that firm line of this
4:51
Speaker 3: is what I do offensively, this is who I am offensively,
4:54
Speaker 3: and this part of me never should struggle because I'm
4:56
Speaker 3: so gifted, I'm so talented, and more than anything, I
4:59
Speaker 3: have the willing to go out and make plays for
5:01
Speaker 3: my team. That's really what it looks like, right now
5:04
Speaker 3: is he can't separate the two and he's not willing
5:07
Speaker 3: to kind of really put his body on the line
5:09
Speaker 3: in order to go make plays. I knew from the
5:12
Speaker 3: type of player that I was that was my calling card.
5:15
Speaker 3: I couldn't allow defense to slump. I had to go
5:17
Speaker 3: out there and make place for my team because what
5:20
Speaker 3: I did offensively was so up and down throughout my
5:22
Speaker 3: entire career, and I had to kind of trick my
5:25
Speaker 3: mindset into believing that if I went out and I
5:28
Speaker 3: made those plays, the two that you're talking about, one
5:30
Speaker 3: going back against the wall, one coming in. I had
5:33
Speaker 3: to trick my brain into telling myself that was as
5:36
Speaker 3: good of getting a hit, so like I could start
5:38
Speaker 3: to kind of use my defense to hopefully propel my offense.
5:42
Speaker 3: Because a lot of people, if they don't hit, they
5:44
Speaker 3: don't play defense. I felt like if I played defense
5:47
Speaker 3: and I could trick my brain into being like, hey,
5:49
Speaker 3: that feels as good as a hit, maybe I could
5:51
Speaker 3: kind of pick up my offensive game.
5:55
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5:59
Speaker 4: and anytime you want to go to a game, you
6:01
Speaker 4: should go to Sea Geek. I used to call the
6:02
Speaker 4: director of team travel I used to call the traveling
6:04
Speaker 4: secretary whatever they want to be called KP to try
6:07
Speaker 4: to get a seat. But on Sea Geek, I can
6:09
Speaker 4: pick my own seat and I can pick where I
6:11
Speaker 4: want to sit instead of being told where to sit.
6:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a great option. And summer is coming to
6:18
Speaker 3: an end here soon. I'm going out and finding all
6:22
Speaker 3: the day games possible, all the warm weather cities so
6:26
Speaker 3: I could stay in this tank top. I can watch
6:28
Speaker 3: very competitive baseball as the calendar turns into fall. I
6:32
Speaker 3: want to make sure that I get the most out
6:35
Speaker 3: of this tank top and warm weather and Sea Geek
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Speaker 3: is where I would go and get my seats.
6:40
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6:56
Speaker 2: KP. It is as good, believe me. That's why they
6:58
Speaker 2: have all the statistics that they have the value of
7:01
Speaker 2: making a catch. That's why they're doing it because the
7:03
Speaker 2: nerds are like, well, is that as much of a value.
7:06
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, it is, and that's why you are
7:09
Speaker 2: a good player. My question to you is about changing teams.
7:13
Speaker 2: You keep talking about about Kyle Tucker being a superstar,
7:17
Speaker 2: about him being that player that you know is better
7:21
Speaker 2: than you. He's also still a human. So changing teams,
7:26
Speaker 2: when you don't start out or you don't hit the
7:28
Speaker 2: way that you want to or have in the past,
7:32
Speaker 2: how much does that snowball on you? And could that
7:35
Speaker 2: be something that's snowballing on Kyle Tucker regardless of he
7:40
Speaker 2: sucks at home, he's better on the road.
7:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's definitely a compounding effect everything, and it really
7:47
Speaker 3: starts when you go out and you sign the contract
7:49
Speaker 3: that he did and he's making I think what over
7:51
Speaker 3: one hundred million dollars this year including the signing bonus.
7:55
Speaker 3: Once again, a lot of us would love to have
7:57
Speaker 3: this problem, but this is me talking to the inside
8:00
Speaker 3: of the game, because once again, we're not robots. We
8:02
Speaker 3: don't play in a simulation. We still have feelings. There's
8:05
Speaker 3: still a lot of things that kind of factor in.
8:07
Speaker 3: He has a target on his back, whether he likes
8:10
Speaker 3: it or not, not necessarily from the Dodger fans, just
8:12
Speaker 3: in the game of baseball, everyone potentially is wanting him
8:16
Speaker 3: to fail because no one can justify the fact that
8:18
Speaker 3: he's worth a hundred million dollars. So you come into
8:21
Speaker 3: a new team, you have that kind of target on
8:23
Speaker 3: your back. You don't get off to a good start,
8:25
Speaker 3: you start getting in your own head. Am I worth
8:27
Speaker 3: this money? Why did I do this? Why did I
8:29
Speaker 3: come here? Not to mention he's going into an environment
8:32
Speaker 3: of a team who's won back to back World Series
8:35
Speaker 3: and then talk about I'm one hundred million dollar player.
8:38
Speaker 3: They've won back to back World Series. I'm the worst
8:41
Speaker 3: player on this team right now? What the hell am
8:43
Speaker 3: I doing here? You know, I was supposed to be
8:45
Speaker 3: kind of the cherry on top, to put this team
8:48
Speaker 3: over the top, to completely run away. There's no chance
8:52
Speaker 3: anyone's ever going to beat us. As long as I'm here,
8:54
Speaker 3: We're going to win four or five six World Series
8:56
Speaker 3: in a row. So yeah, I think there is a
8:58
Speaker 3: human element to this where he he's probably looking around
9:01
Speaker 3: in this room and being like, why the hell am
9:03
Speaker 3: I here? Like they probably have better players or better
9:06
Speaker 3: performing players sitting on the bench right now, but it's
9:09
Speaker 3: hard to not play a guy regard even if you're
9:12
Speaker 3: the Dodgers, and you know, money doesn't seem like an option,
9:15
Speaker 3: but when you're paying someone that amount of money, you
9:17
Speaker 3: got to put him on the field. He's got to play.
9:20
Speaker 3: And I think that's a lot of stuff that's going
9:21
Speaker 3: on to him right now from a human side, you know,
9:24
Speaker 3: and I think especially go when you look around that
9:28
Speaker 3: room and there's not a lot of other people struggling,
9:30
Speaker 3: it's hard to relate. You know, Mookie's had his struggles
9:32
Speaker 3: a little bit, but he's also been in that clubhouse
9:34
Speaker 3: a long time when he's been really good. I think
9:37
Speaker 3: a lot of these players are seeing Kyle Tucker not
9:40
Speaker 3: for the first time because he's been a guy in
9:42
Speaker 3: the league, but you're around him for the first time.
9:44
Speaker 3: You know, you're getting to know him on a personal
9:46
Speaker 3: level for the first time. And he hasn't been good,
9:49
Speaker 3: and he's probably not the best version of himself, but
9:51
Speaker 3: he doesn't have that comfort and cratzy as you know,
9:54
Speaker 3: there's nothing really like that first team where you come
9:57
Speaker 3: up with a lot of the same guys in an organization,
10:00
Speaker 3: maybe through the minor leagues you go through, you know,
10:03
Speaker 3: the grind and the battles and the wars together. You know,
10:06
Speaker 3: when a lot of these Dodger guys, yes, some of
10:08
Speaker 3: them have come from different organizations, but they've been together,
10:11
Speaker 3: that core group of guys that's been together for a
10:13
Speaker 3: long time. They know how to push each other's buttons,
10:16
Speaker 3: they know how to comfort each other. Kyle Tucker is
10:19
Speaker 3: still kind of the outcast in that room.
10:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean not an outcast in a sense the
10:25
Speaker 2: team doesn't like him, just more of like, hey, we're
10:27
Speaker 2: still trying to figure you out, and he's still trying
10:29
Speaker 2: to You're always trying to prove that you are good enough,
10:33
Speaker 2: and KP. You and I used to joke in twenty
10:36
Speaker 2: fourteen when a pitcher would go, when a bullpen guy
10:40
Speaker 2: would go three or four innings, we'd be like, well,
10:43
Speaker 2: either he's getting sent down or one of us is
10:45
Speaker 2: getting sent down, and totally would be like, no, it
10:48
Speaker 2: could be me, and we're like, yeah, right, you're ra
10:50
Speaker 2: a Dicky's five inning catcher. So we joke about that
10:54
Speaker 2: because that's the reality of baseball. You get sent down.
10:58
Speaker 2: You get sent down when you don't play well and
11:01
Speaker 2: you get you don't just like how many times KP
11:04
Speaker 2: were you not playing well and you go, I would
11:06
Speaker 2: like a mental reset here. And I'm not trying to
11:09
Speaker 2: I'm not trying to downgrade or demean anybody that has
11:14
Speaker 2: mental things going on when you're playing, because it's a
11:18
Speaker 2: real thing. You're grinding mentally through what's going on. But
11:22
Speaker 2: for Eric Carross to say, well, maybe he needs to
11:25
Speaker 2: go down to Arizona, I think is a gross misunderstanding
11:30
Speaker 2: of how I think teams are allowed to use roster manipulation.
11:36
Speaker 2: And we know that the Dodgers will sit guys to
11:39
Speaker 2: give them rests, and you know, okay, would they really
11:42
Speaker 2: be sitting out during this time. No, we're getting ready
11:45
Speaker 2: for the postseason. It's something they're afforded. But now this
11:48
Speaker 2: is just a TV person saying, hey, you know what,
11:51
Speaker 2: maybe he needs a reset. Do you agree that a
11:54
Speaker 2: team should just be allowed to send somebody to Arizona,
11:57
Speaker 2: because if that's the case, you know, somebody gets sent
12:01
Speaker 2: down a triple A to be like, actually, I would
12:02
Speaker 2: just rather want to reset instead and I'll be back
12:05
Speaker 2: in ten days. Do you feel like it's a different
12:09
Speaker 2: scenario because he's making so much that that was suggested,
12:13
Speaker 2: or do you think it's because well, you know what,
12:15
Speaker 2: the Dodgers can do this. They're not going to option
12:17
Speaker 2: Kyle Tucker to triple A. I get that, but does
12:20
Speaker 2: it seem fair.
12:21
Speaker 3: No, it's not fair, And I think all things could
12:24
Speaker 3: be true in this scenario. But I think what ultimately
12:28
Speaker 3: is he's saying is he just looks so lost that
12:31
Speaker 3: they don't have an answer. It's not like hey put
12:34
Speaker 3: him on the bench for two or three days or
12:36
Speaker 3: sit him for a whole series and allow him to
12:40
Speaker 3: reset mentally, physically, work on his mechanics. It's just, once again,
12:45
Speaker 3: Eric Carrossa has a lot of Dodger games. He lives
12:48
Speaker 3: in that he's watching this team, you know, a lot
12:50
Speaker 3: more than I'm watching him on a regular basis, And
12:53
Speaker 3: for him to come out and say a comment like
12:55
Speaker 3: that just speaks to how, you know, bad he's been
12:59
Speaker 3: this year, but also how he just looks lost and
13:01
Speaker 3: there's no answer. There's no quick fix to what he's doing.
13:04
Speaker 3: I think that's ultimately I'm gaining out of it, is
13:08
Speaker 3: there's no quick fix for what's going on. And you
13:11
Speaker 3: know the default, you know, in a perfect world, perfect
13:14
Speaker 3: scenario without the rules that we have in place, where
13:17
Speaker 3: you could just send guys down or you could put
13:20
Speaker 3: him on a little mental reset or a Lettle vacation
13:22
Speaker 3: to Arizona. I think he's saying is he needs some
13:25
Speaker 3: time away from the game to kind of figure out
13:27
Speaker 3: what the hell's going on. And I really hope that
13:31
Speaker 3: this doesn't happen because there are rules in place where
13:34
Speaker 3: teams would start kind of manipulating the roster. And obviously
13:37
Speaker 3: the Dodgers have the luxury to be able to not
13:40
Speaker 3: only afford a guy like Kyle Tucker who's making so
13:43
Speaker 3: much money, to kind of step away from the team
13:45
Speaker 3: for you know, ten days, two weeks, really work on himself,
13:49
Speaker 3: work on his you know, his swing, his mechanics, whatever
13:53
Speaker 3: he needs to work on, because they have internal options.
13:56
Speaker 3: So I really hope that's not a case where that
13:58
Speaker 3: actually happens. Yeah, because there's many times in my career where, man,
14:03
Speaker 3: if I could have just just given me one day off,
14:06
Speaker 3: you know, and I wouldn't be old, because I worked
14:09
Speaker 3: really hard to become an everyday player, But the game
14:12
Speaker 3: could speed up on you. And this compounding effect of
14:16
Speaker 3: yesterday's game were two days ago and then three days ago.
14:19
Speaker 3: Do you kind of get this snowball effect of like, man,
14:22
Speaker 3: I'm never gonna ask for it, But I would be
14:23
Speaker 3: so happy if I was out of the lineup today
14:25
Speaker 3: and I could just kind of sit back and watch
14:27
Speaker 3: and not have to think about going over for or
14:30
Speaker 3: what my swing's gonna do, or you know, my body's
14:33
Speaker 3: just kind of physically not all there right now. I
14:36
Speaker 3: think that's why people in the major leagues, especially guys
14:39
Speaker 3: like Kyle Tucker, who have had a history of being
14:41
Speaker 3: out on the field every single day, and obviously his
14:44
Speaker 3: body of work, you know, you could justify the contract.
14:47
Speaker 3: But that's why these everyday players get paid a lot
14:50
Speaker 3: of money, because it's not just the back of the
14:52
Speaker 3: basebook cart. Statistically, it's extremely hard to go out there
14:55
Speaker 3: every single day without taking any days off. You got
14:58
Speaker 3: to give a ton of credit to guys like Freddie
15:00
Speaker 3: Freeman and Matt Wilson, these guys who post every single day.
15:04
Speaker 3: It's not easy to do mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually. On
15:09
Speaker 3: this game will will drain you of all those very quickly,
15:12
Speaker 3: especially when you're not playing well.
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Speaker 1: o U L. And he's not the only one going
16:15
Speaker 1: through it. Edwin Diaz is a newbie. He was out
16:17
Speaker 1: for a good chunk of the year, but he comes
16:19
Speaker 1: back and he continues to struggle too. I think they're
16:21
Speaker 1: going to try to find some softer landing spots for him.
16:23
Speaker 1: But I mean, you're pitching in a in a blowout
16:26
Speaker 1: Rockies Dodgers game, and you got more runs.
16:30
Speaker 3: I got a very you know, I was talking to
16:32
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16:36
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16:38
Speaker 3: talking about that situation a little bit. And it's very
16:40
Speaker 3: interesting with a closer. You know, Yes, you want to
16:42
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16:46
Speaker 3: with how poorly he's pitching, you can't nestly afford for
16:49
Speaker 3: him to be pitching those final three outs of a
16:51
Speaker 3: game because it's the difference between you winning and losing.
16:53
Speaker 3: But when you've been a closer your whole career, that
16:56
Speaker 3: soft landing isn't necessarily what you need. You know. They're
17:00
Speaker 3: adrenaline junkies. This is what they're built on. They're built
17:03
Speaker 3: on the moment of coming out of that bullpen and
17:06
Speaker 3: the highest leverage of the game and getting those final
17:09
Speaker 3: three outs. So it's a very interesting thing when your
17:11
Speaker 3: closer is struggling because there's no really other way to
17:15
Speaker 3: kind of recreate what he needs. You know, at some
17:17
Speaker 3: point you have to just continue. And luckily the Dodgers
17:20
Speaker 3: are in a position where they could afford him to
17:22
Speaker 3: blow some saves with the sizeable lead they have. I
17:25
Speaker 3: know ultimately they'd like to remain, you know, one of
17:28
Speaker 3: those top two teams, so they can get that by
17:30
Speaker 3: in the postseason. But I don't necessarily know if that
17:34
Speaker 3: soft landing is what a closer needs. Cratsey, you obviously
17:37
Speaker 3: caught some of these guys. I'm sure throughout your career
17:40
Speaker 3: you've had some closer struggle a little bit. I don't
17:43
Speaker 3: know if they felt the same way, but it was
17:44
Speaker 3: a very interesting conversation I had with a former closer
17:48
Speaker 3: about kind of that situation.
17:50
Speaker 2: It's two different pictures, that's all I have to say.
17:53
Speaker 2: A closer throwing in a non safe situation is a
17:56
Speaker 2: different picture than a closer throwing in a tight safe situation.
18:02
Speaker 2: And right now he's not good enough. But I agree
18:04
Speaker 2: with Cody. Cody knew what it took. He had the
18:06
Speaker 2: mental fortitude to be a closer. It's just different. The
18:10
Speaker 2: stuff is in his crisp when you're thrown in games
18:13
Speaker 2: that don't matter, let alone the fact that he's thrown
18:15
Speaker 2: in a game where a position player was pitching for
18:18
Speaker 2: the other team in Colorado, where your slider sink and
18:22
Speaker 2: your sinker slide. So it's it's like throwing on the moon.
18:27
Speaker 2: Like give them the three days off. Maybe give him
18:29
Speaker 2: a mental reset.
18:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, just not in Arizona unless they're playing there. Good
18:34
Speaker 1: talk though, great insight, love the player perspective. Time for
18:38
Speaker 1: power rankings. Yes, we're deep into the season and we
18:41
Speaker 1: want to see what Kevin Pullar has for us first.
18:44
Speaker 1: Then krats will follow KP. There are some in the
18:47
Speaker 1: boat of Dodgers being back to back champs. They should
18:51
Speaker 1: just sit at number one all year long. Aj Persinski
18:54
Speaker 1: is one of those people. I believe you're not. Am
18:57
Speaker 1: I accurate there?
18:58
Speaker 3: Yeah? Your accurate? And let me I'm gonna give a
19:00
Speaker 3: little context here. You know. I wake up in the morning,
19:03
Speaker 3: I get the text from producer Lady, Hey, we need
19:06
Speaker 3: to come up power rankings. I do no research. I
19:09
Speaker 3: go off of recent bias and I go off of
19:11
Speaker 3: a gut feeling. And since my list is printed, I've
19:15
Speaker 3: actually made some notes here. I'm going to be changing
19:17
Speaker 3: a little bit. So because there's been some recent news
19:20
Speaker 3: that has come out, but let's go through it right now.
19:22
Speaker 3: And obviously I'm putting the Brewers at top. You know,
19:25
Speaker 3: what they did over the weekend of the Dodgers to
19:27
Speaker 3: me is look at we could talk about them being
19:30
Speaker 3: back to back World Series champs, we could talk about
19:32
Speaker 3: what they've done to the Brewers in the postseason, but
19:34
Speaker 3: I'm going off recent history. Brewers my number one team
19:38
Speaker 3: by far the race, definitely deserving best team in the
19:42
Speaker 3: American League. I know they just lost three out of
19:44
Speaker 3: four to the Orioles, who are playing good, but they've
19:46
Speaker 3: been just very consistent and strong all year. You know,
19:50
Speaker 3: they got Shane mcclinnahan back, which is a huge boost.
19:53
Speaker 3: I love their starting rotation, love the back end of
19:55
Speaker 3: the rotation, and they secretly have one of the best
19:58
Speaker 3: like two, three four in baseball the Atlanta Braves. That
20:03
Speaker 3: offense is an absolute juggernaut. There's a little bit of
20:05
Speaker 3: concern on the pitching, but I also do believe there's
20:08
Speaker 3: pitching help on the way, whether that's a J. Smith,
20:11
Speaker 3: Shaver or some other guys coming back to kind of
20:14
Speaker 3: bolster this rotation. The Dodgers are the Dodgers. You know,
20:18
Speaker 3: they can go out and play bad baseball, but putting
20:20
Speaker 3: them anywhere below five would just be kind of crazy.
20:24
Speaker 3: At this point, this is where it gets a little
20:26
Speaker 3: tricky to me. I'm gonna just keep the Cubs there,
20:28
Speaker 3: but they're actually gonna get removed out of this list
20:31
Speaker 3: or pushed down on this list after hearing some recent news.
20:34
Speaker 3: Yankees also are going to actually be moved off of
20:38
Speaker 3: this list because of that conversation we just had, you know,
20:41
Speaker 3: about the uncertainty of Aaron Judge actually coming back, and
20:45
Speaker 3: then the news of Max Free coming down. The White
20:48
Speaker 3: Sox definitely a top ten team. I put them at
20:51
Speaker 3: number seven. A tough loss last night against the Cubs,
20:56
Speaker 3: but this is a team I think for weeks and weeks,
20:59
Speaker 3: if not months, we've just kind of been waiting to
21:01
Speaker 3: fall off. And when you watch them play, man, it's young,
21:04
Speaker 3: it's fun, it's exciting. They play with grit. You know,
21:07
Speaker 3: they take on kind of that personality of Will Venable,
21:10
Speaker 3: and I think they're here to stay. You know that
21:12
Speaker 3: that division isn't There's no one else in that division
21:15
Speaker 3: that you know, seems to be a bigger threat to
21:19
Speaker 3: win the division than the White Sox right now. So
21:21
Speaker 3: I'm keeping them there. The Red Sox, you know, they
21:24
Speaker 3: could kind of go mediocre or mediocre right now. The
21:28
Speaker 3: run that they went on just shows you what this
21:30
Speaker 3: team is capable of doing. And you love watching them play.
21:35
Speaker 3: You know, they play with a ton of heart and
21:37
Speaker 3: a lot of grit, and I think they take on
21:39
Speaker 3: that personality of Contrera's playing first base. You know, there's
21:41
Speaker 3: a lot of fighting this team. And then the Phillies
21:44
Speaker 3: man when healthy, when clicking on all cylinders, you can
21:49
Speaker 3: make an argument that they could be even higher on
21:51
Speaker 3: this list. You know, you talk about going into a
21:54
Speaker 3: series with Zach Wheeler, Lozardo, Christopher Sanchez. They have the
21:59
Speaker 3: back end of the bullpen. They got Schwarber, leof they
22:02
Speaker 3: got guys like Bryce Harper. You know, the lineup is
22:04
Speaker 3: the same cast to characters. They got Donny Baseball leading
22:08
Speaker 3: the charge there. So I think they're a legitimate contender.
22:11
Speaker 3: And then my tenth team on this list is the Padres.
22:14
Speaker 3: Love what they've been able to do recently. You know,
22:19
Speaker 3: Walker Buelers pitching better. They went out and kind of
22:21
Speaker 3: addressed some of the starting pitching that they needed. And
22:25
Speaker 3: look at the back of the baseball cards of a
22:26
Speaker 3: lot of those guys in that lineup. I know, Manny
22:29
Speaker 3: didn't get off to a good start, Jackson Jackson, Merrill
22:33
Speaker 3: didn't get off to a good start, But all these
22:34
Speaker 3: guys are starting to hit and play better. But in
22:38
Speaker 3: terms of some of the chaos, I'm actually gonna move
22:40
Speaker 3: the Cubs down probably. I'm gonna split them probably somewhere
22:42
Speaker 3: in eight to nine. And I'm actually gonna remove the
22:45
Speaker 3: Yankees from the list, and I'm gonna put the Blue
22:47
Speaker 3: Jays at number ten because of the recent news of
22:51
Speaker 3: some of the injuries to the Yankees and Dansby's a
22:54
Speaker 3: big blow, you know, not having their short stuff, not
22:57
Speaker 3: having their leader out there is a big blow. I
22:59
Speaker 3: do think they're a top ten team, but I'm gonna
23:01
Speaker 3: move them out of five and I'm going to put
23:02
Speaker 3: them towards the bottom of that list right now.
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24:08
Speaker 3: Yankees are off. Yankees are off.
24:11
Speaker 1: So you think the Blue Jay's power ranking wise should
24:14
Speaker 1: be in a better spot right now than the Yankees.
24:18
Speaker 3: Look at their records. Look at their records obviously, Yeah,
24:22
Speaker 3: you can make an argument. Obviously the Yankees are going
24:24
Speaker 3: to be a playoff team. I'm talking about from what
24:26
Speaker 3: I've seen over the last week. That's how I'm basing
24:29
Speaker 3: my power rankings. Not standings. We can all look at
24:32
Speaker 3: the standings and be like, yeah, we can rank them
24:34
Speaker 3: in standings, but the way they've been playing right now,
24:37
Speaker 3: and I would imagine this list is who do you
24:40
Speaker 3: think is playing the best right now? In terms of
24:43
Speaker 3: top ten? The Yankees aren't scoring runs, and I know
24:46
Speaker 3: the Blue Jays don't score a ton of runs, but
24:49
Speaker 3: I really like what I've seen from Dylan Ce's I
24:51
Speaker 3: really like what Shane Bieber has been able to do.
24:54
Speaker 3: Mac Schurzers kind of regained form. Is he the same guy?
24:57
Speaker 2: Know?
24:57
Speaker 3: But is he pitching very well over five innings? And
25:02
Speaker 3: there's just something. There's just something going on with the
25:04
Speaker 3: Blue Jays post, you know, trade deadline, much like the Orioles.
25:07
Speaker 3: There was a lot of uncertainty at the trade deadline,
25:09
Speaker 3: and they've just been coming out playing really good baseball
25:12
Speaker 3: out of the deadline. They just went through the gauntlet
25:15
Speaker 3: of three three games, three cities, multiple extra inning games
25:20
Speaker 3: against the Cubs, the Houston Astros, and then they just
25:24
Speaker 3: played the Boston Red Sox at home and they probably
25:28
Speaker 3: should have swept them. They lost Game four. Then they
25:30
Speaker 3: just played the Yankees, probably should have swept them too,
25:33
Speaker 3: and ended up losing Game three. And I know this
25:35
Speaker 3: is a really difficult part of their schedule coming up today,
25:38
Speaker 3: going into the trop a place they haven't played really well.
25:41
Speaker 3: But those are my rankings. Those are my rankings. That's
25:43
Speaker 3: just how I feel right now. Is there a little
25:45
Speaker 3: bit of bias with being a Blue Jays guy, but
25:48
Speaker 3: watching the team recently, there's just this feel that you get.
25:52
Speaker 3: They've underperformed all year. They went to this deadline with
25:56
Speaker 3: kind of some uncertainty, they lost some of their guys.
25:58
Speaker 3: They brought back in a guy like Jose Sorry, that's
26:01
Speaker 3: he's in. His two starts has been outstanding you talk about,
26:05
Speaker 3: And they just went up against each other, Yankees and
26:06
Speaker 3: Blue Jays went just went up against each other and
26:09
Speaker 3: their best pictures face their best pictures, and the Blue
26:12
Speaker 3: Jays won two out of three games and probably should
26:15
Speaker 3: have won the third one.
26:17
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna go with my top of the list
26:20
Speaker 2: is different from your top. I go Dodgers, Brewers, Rays,
26:24
Speaker 2: And it hurts me to even put an American League
26:26
Speaker 2: team that high. I thought about putting the Braves ahead
26:29
Speaker 2: of the Rays, and then I go Braves Yankees, even
26:33
Speaker 2: without Max Free But I made that I made that
26:36
Speaker 2: call because I really love their starting rotation. Then I
26:40
Speaker 2: go Cubs, and I think, after the Cubs, I'm just
26:45
Speaker 2: I'm kind of out on the rest of the teams.
26:46
Speaker 2: You made me get ten, you made me put ten
26:48
Speaker 2: up there. You watch the Phillies and you're like, Okay,
26:51
Speaker 2: this offense has no on base percentage. Luisa rise Helps,
26:55
Speaker 2: I watched them get thirteen hits last night, and I'm like, Okay,
26:59
Speaker 2: it's fine. They got thirteen hits against Jansen Junk. I
27:05
Speaker 2: saw a Red Sox team that had to have a
27:09
Speaker 2: historic streak to get to where they're at. And I'm
27:12
Speaker 2: not completely sold on this team, the Padres. If we're
27:16
Speaker 2: talking about recency bias, maybe the Pirate. The Padres should
27:20
Speaker 2: be number two on this on my list because they
27:24
Speaker 2: have hit like they are an absolute offensive juggernaut, even
27:28
Speaker 2: though they went up against McClain last night like they
27:31
Speaker 2: have been killing it. And I put the White Sox
27:34
Speaker 2: in there because I have to give them some du
27:36
Speaker 2: But I just don't think they're a very strong I
27:39
Speaker 2: don't think they're as strong of a team as the
27:41
Speaker 2: top six, So at bottom four, I'm like, Okay, I
27:45
Speaker 2: could pull any one of these teams out, but without
27:48
Speaker 2: saying the Diamondbacks, I really don't know what other team
27:51
Speaker 2: I would put in there, and it's it's it shows
27:55
Speaker 2: the parody of teams. Or you can look at it
27:58
Speaker 2: and be like, well, you know, those top six teams
28:01
Speaker 2: are the ones that are gonna run away with it
28:03
Speaker 2: for me. But I just I really see major flaws
28:07
Speaker 2: in seven through ten that I don't see those major
28:11
Speaker 2: flaws in one through six.
28:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fair. I mean, you got the wildcard teams
28:16
Speaker 1: in the American League where you could create your own
28:19
Speaker 1: rankings of the seven of them, but they're in another tier.
28:21
Speaker 1: So you've got your A tier, your B tier. There's
28:23
Speaker 1: seven wildcard teams or many of them whatever, however many
28:26
Speaker 1: there are C tier and then the non playoff teams.
28:29
Speaker 1: All right, good lists. If anyone has comments, questions, concerns, hate, love,
28:34
Speaker 1: go for it in the comments below