Latest / Foul Territory / Braves checkup w/CJ Nitkowski + Sam Blum’s Angels & Astros stories

Transcript

Braves checkup w/CJ Nitkowski + Sam Blum’s Angels & Astros stories · Foul Territory

0:11
Speaker 1: Former big league pitcher CJ Nikowski joining us right now,
0:14
Speaker 1: and you can hear them on the Braves games on
0:16
Speaker 1: Braves Vision TV. They've done a great job covering that
0:19
Speaker 1: that just popped up this year.
0:20
Speaker 2: CJ.
0:21
Speaker 1: Great to talk to you, man, Always good to see you.
0:23
Speaker 1: I like to start with something hot, so you don't
0:25
Speaker 1: just cover the Braags, you cover the whole sport. Are
0:28
Speaker 1: the Braves the best team in baseball right now?
0:32
Speaker 3: It's a great question. Obviously, they're playing really well. They
0:35
Speaker 3: were the first to the twenty wins. I'll say not yet,
0:39
Speaker 3: just because there's a chance they're going to get better.
0:41
Speaker 3: They are waiting on a couple of more pieces to
0:42
Speaker 3: come back, like Hastlin, Kim Sean Murphy, Spencer Strider, Spencer Schwellenbach.
0:47
Speaker 3: And so they're really good right now. They're pitching well,
0:50
Speaker 3: they're playing good defense, they're hitting in the clutch, they're
0:52
Speaker 3: doing all the things you want them to do. They're
0:53
Speaker 3: winning games. The bullpen has been incredible, and there's also
0:57
Speaker 3: a couple of guys that are still kind of waiting
0:59
Speaker 3: to get it going. So they're really really good right now.
1:02
Speaker 3: They're absolutely near the top. But it's tough sometimes to say,
1:05
Speaker 3: you know who's the best team in baseball unless it's
1:07
Speaker 3: clear and concise.
1:09
Speaker 4: CJ.
1:09
Speaker 5: Did you see this coming with the pitching? I mean,
1:12
Speaker 5: was it just as simple as getting a new pitching coach?
1:15
Speaker 5: I mean, that's a thing to me that stands out.
1:17
Speaker 5: We all thought, eventually, these Braves hitters are going to
1:19
Speaker 5: hit if they're healthy and they're all lineup is all together.
1:22
Speaker 5: But the pitching, right you talked about these Strider's not
1:25
Speaker 5: back yet, strolling Box not there, Smith, Rarver's not there.
1:28
Speaker 5: But did you see this coming? Was it as simple
1:29
Speaker 5: as just bringing in a new pitching coach?
1:32
Speaker 3: And at Hurst and Waldrip and Joey Wentz, they had
1:35
Speaker 3: all these injuries in spring training, AJ and I think
1:37
Speaker 3: there was some legitimate panic among the fan base about
1:40
Speaker 3: what was going to happen pitching wise. It was concerning
1:43
Speaker 3: Price Elder has stepped up in a huge way. He's
1:45
Speaker 3: made huge adjustments to a slider. He's getting unbelievable results.
1:48
Speaker 3: He added a cutter to help him neutralize lefties. He's
1:51
Speaker 3: been incredible. Price Elder's kind of been one of these
1:52
Speaker 3: underappreciated guys over the years that the Braves have asked
1:55
Speaker 3: to step up in certain situations because they've needed a guy.
1:59
Speaker 3: He has stepped up and huge boy. Chris Sale, as
2:00
Speaker 3: you well know, is doing his amazing work like he
2:03
Speaker 3: always does. But other guys have fallen in line. To
2:06
Speaker 3: answer your question, though, realistically, did I think this was
2:09
Speaker 3: going to happen with the pitching if I'm being objective,
2:11
Speaker 3: absolutely not. Jeremy Hefter's done unbelievable work with the troop.
2:14
Speaker 3: Now the bullpen, I would say, yes, they did a
2:16
Speaker 3: really nice job getting this bullpen in order in the
2:19
Speaker 3: off season. Bringing in Robert Suarez has been such an
2:22
Speaker 3: incredible move. With the Ryce el Iglesias down right now
2:25
Speaker 3: in the way that he has slid in, but bringing
2:27
Speaker 3: Tyler Kinley back. You already had a really good arm
2:29
Speaker 3: in Dylan Lee. Aaron Bummer was already here, but this
2:32
Speaker 3: thing got deeper, which has been good. Man, It's been
2:35
Speaker 3: fun to watch, right. You know what it's like good teams,
2:36
Speaker 3: bad teams. When you don't have a good bullpen, it
2:38
Speaker 3: is shaky, even when you have a lead. It has
2:40
Speaker 3: been the opposite here. The confidence is so high when
2:43
Speaker 3: they're leading, but the whole group, the entire pitching staff,
2:45
Speaker 3: is absolutely exceeded expectations early on.
2:48
Speaker 4: National League eest might be down two managers if the
2:51
Speaker 4: Mets fire Carlos Mendoza. What people forget is Walt Weiss
2:56
Speaker 4: has his first year at the Helm. He was on
2:58
Speaker 4: the staff last year. Is there a change in that sense,
3:02
Speaker 4: because all we've heard the last few years is so
3:05
Speaker 4: much potential with this team, ah injuries, so much potential.
3:09
Speaker 4: It's the same team and not the same amount of injuries,
3:12
Speaker 4: but quite a few injuries like you've already hit on.
3:15
Speaker 4: But as a different person at the Helm. Other teams
3:17
Speaker 4: are making changes when their team suck. Is there something
3:21
Speaker 4: different that Walt Weiss is doing.
3:24
Speaker 3: I think the relationships that were already built. Right it
3:26
Speaker 3: was what eight nine years that he was here in
3:28
Speaker 3: Atlanta as the bench coach. I was really happy to
3:30
Speaker 3: see alex Enthopolis pick came. I wasn't sure what direction
3:33
Speaker 3: that we're going to go in. Obviously there's a lot
3:35
Speaker 3: of new coaches, and you guys mentioned Jeremy Hefner, but
3:37
Speaker 3: there are quite a few new coaches up and down
3:40
Speaker 3: the line, so there was some pretty significant change there.
3:42
Speaker 3: But sliding Walt over from bench coach to manager has
3:46
Speaker 3: been seamless. Right, Again, the relationships already there. Everybody does
3:49
Speaker 3: things a little bit different. But I think to AJ's point, right,
3:53
Speaker 3: it's okay, what's the difference. The difference is the pitchers
3:55
Speaker 3: have shown up and done a really good job. And
3:58
Speaker 3: last year they got off to a brutal start, right
4:00
Speaker 3: was that oh and seven start on a west coast
4:02
Speaker 3: road trip. By the time they came home there were
4:04
Speaker 3: owen seven and already playing from behind. It has been
4:06
Speaker 3: a completely different feel. The respect for Walt Weiss goes
4:09
Speaker 3: up and down the line for that clubhouse. He has
4:12
Speaker 3: been excellent. He's been a great fit. There's something about
4:15
Speaker 3: the way that he carries himself. I think, right, there's
4:16
Speaker 3: going to be accountability, but there's also again that the
4:19
Speaker 3: personal relationship that already existed with a lot of these guys,
4:22
Speaker 3: and he knows how to get the most out of them.
4:23
Speaker 3: He's not afraid to say something when something has to
4:25
Speaker 3: be said. He's been an aggressive manager. He's been aggressive
4:28
Speaker 3: with his pitching changes, which has been interesting to watch.
4:31
Speaker 3: He's been aggressive in the sense that Drake Baldwin plays
4:33
Speaker 3: against lefties all the time because he has lefties extremely well.
4:36
Speaker 3: So there have been a couple of small changes, maybe
4:38
Speaker 3: from the way that Brian Snicker had done things. Nothing
4:40
Speaker 3: real significant By the way, Snith just went into the
4:42
Speaker 3: Braves Hall of Fame. That is how respected he is
4:44
Speaker 3: here in Atlanta. But it's been fun to watch Walt
4:48
Speaker 3: do his things second time around. Right, he got that
4:50
Speaker 3: first chance in Colorado. But he is a much different
4:52
Speaker 3: guy now with that experience, and he seems to be
4:54
Speaker 3: pushing all the right buttons.
4:56
Speaker 4: CJ.
4:57
Speaker 5: You know why the Braves are good. They're first in
4:59
Speaker 5: run in their first in the ra and that usually
5:01
Speaker 5: means you're pretty good. So I said that a couple
5:04
Speaker 5: weeks ago when I had the Philly you had the
5:05
Speaker 5: night off. I was in Philly.
5:07
Speaker 4: You got that.
5:07
Speaker 5: You got Friday and Saturday off. I believe if I
5:10
Speaker 5: was if I was wrong, Saturday Sunday.
5:12
Speaker 3: You know, downside of having a good team, I guess right.
5:15
Speaker 3: We let the Braves lost a ton. You can lose
5:17
Speaker 3: up to eighteen National Games a year. We lost seven
5:20
Speaker 3: of our first twenty seven, which means a night off
5:22
Speaker 3: for the local folks. But you and your friends at
5:24
Speaker 3: Fox and Apple and NBC wan ed an early piece
5:27
Speaker 3: of the Braves and they got them.
5:29
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you and Gretchen and Brandon, you
5:32
Speaker 5: guys just stayed home and you know, st sat in
5:35
Speaker 5: the hotel and didn't leave. I mean, the four seasons
5:37
Speaker 5: in Philly really sucks, by the way.
5:39
Speaker 2: I'm sure it was around.
5:40
Speaker 5: Yeah, but you mentioned the pitching, and I keep going
5:45
Speaker 5: back to this, but they brought in Robert Suarez and
5:48
Speaker 5: everyone just thought, oh, man, Robert Swarez was gonna close
5:51
Speaker 5: because of how good he was. He's actually setting up
5:54
Speaker 5: for Iglesias, who has been lights out this year. What's
5:57
Speaker 5: changed with the Glacias and how high? What did the
6:00
Speaker 5: Braves think of him that they brought in Suarez to
6:02
Speaker 5: set up for Iglesias.
6:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's a one year deal to bring ryce
6:06
Speaker 3: Cela Galacias back. He did not have a good start
6:09
Speaker 3: to his season last year, and if you kind of
6:10
Speaker 3: look at his numbers from about June first on, he dominated.
6:13
Speaker 3: He had some issues with his slider, he had some
6:15
Speaker 3: home run issues at the very beginning of the season.
6:18
Speaker 3: He corrected course again dominated over the last four months
6:21
Speaker 3: of the season. They brought him back and Robert horres
6:24
Speaker 3: knew that ryce Cela Glacias was back, and he was
6:26
Speaker 3: going to close, and he was perfectly fine with it,
6:28
Speaker 3: which is crazy, right. I mean, he led the National
6:30
Speaker 3: League and Saves a year ago. He wanted to be here.
6:32
Speaker 3: You know what, you've been here. The culture that they've created,
6:35
Speaker 3: it really is decades long now here in Atlanta. They've
6:38
Speaker 3: made it a place where you want to play. You
6:40
Speaker 3: get treated honestly, you get treated with respect. You rarely
6:43
Speaker 3: ever see somebody leave this organization and have something bad
6:46
Speaker 3: to say on the way out, right. I think it's
6:48
Speaker 3: all about the way that you're treating. So it was
6:49
Speaker 3: a welcoming environment. Obviously the contract helped, but Robert Torres
6:52
Speaker 3: was perfectly fine coming in and setting up for Iggy.
6:55
Speaker 3: And they do a nice job of bringing in really
6:57
Speaker 3: unselfish players as well. And the same thing for Ryce Soliglesias,
7:01
Speaker 3: Like if he's not going well in at times he
7:03
Speaker 3: wasn't last year, he'll pitch a fifth inning if you
7:05
Speaker 3: want him to. He doesn't care, you want him to
7:06
Speaker 3: be an opener, he'll do it. And in this day
7:08
Speaker 3: and age, it's really refreshing. And so they continue to
7:10
Speaker 3: bring those kind of players in and it's a luxury
7:13
Speaker 3: man because again Iggy's on the il right now doing
7:15
Speaker 3: what a little shoulder thing doesn't seem very serious, and
7:17
Speaker 3: now you can just go ahead and have Robert Sores
7:19
Speaker 3: close out games for you.
7:22
Speaker 4: We love our Dogabella, who's really just a couch cushion
7:24
Speaker 4: in our house.
7:26
Speaker 2: And you do anything for her.
7:27
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8:22
Speaker 4: All right, So there's two guys, Mariso, Mauricio Dubon and
8:27
Speaker 4: Drake Baldwin. People are coming back to play their positions. Obviously,
8:32
Speaker 4: I think Dubond's position. You know, he's gonna concede the
8:35
Speaker 4: Kim when he comes in, but he's done a great job.
8:38
Speaker 4: More so Drake Baldwin. How is the deployment going to change?
8:43
Speaker 4: Because if you can somehow figure out how to have
8:46
Speaker 4: both of them in the lineup at all times, and
8:49
Speaker 4: is it going to be an equal catching split with
8:52
Speaker 4: then Baldwin getting a lot of the dhs and Murph sitting,
8:54
Speaker 4: because then that makes Murph a pretty expensive every other
8:58
Speaker 4: day player.
9:00
Speaker 3: That's going to be interesting, Right, Dom Smith has slid
9:02
Speaker 3: into DH against Righty's right and that's when Drake Baldwin
9:05
Speaker 3: is usually catching, and then Jonah him will be the
9:07
Speaker 3: catcher when Drake Baldwin has been dhing. Drake Baldwin is
9:10
Speaker 3: in this line up pretty much every day. That is
9:12
Speaker 3: not going to change, I do think, and it's obviously
9:14
Speaker 3: not my choice, and they'll figure it out once shel
9:16
Speaker 3: Murphy gets off this rehab assignment. The same thing with
9:18
Speaker 3: kim Shaw. Murphy is still an excellent defensive catcher, as
9:21
Speaker 3: both of you guys know, and you watch him, and
9:24
Speaker 3: he is superior. He continues to throw runners out at
9:26
Speaker 3: a really high rates. An unbelievable blocker my guess, and
9:29
Speaker 3: it is strictly my guest. Sometimes I don't ask for
9:31
Speaker 3: information so I can be a little bit more objective.
9:34
Speaker 3: I think he probably catches somewhere around that sixty to
9:36
Speaker 3: seventy percent mark. You can use him as the DH
9:39
Speaker 3: if you want, but obviously the injury history tells you
9:41
Speaker 3: that maybe you're going to be a little bit more
9:42
Speaker 3: cautious with him. Play it safe, give him his days
9:45
Speaker 3: off to keep him healthy, but he'll be behind the
9:47
Speaker 3: plate a good amount. Drake Baldwin's done a nice job
9:49
Speaker 3: making improvements in his defense as well, but his bat
9:52
Speaker 3: is incredible, so his bat will be at all the time.
9:54
Speaker 3: The guy that will end up losing some time because
9:56
Speaker 3: of this, very likely he's going to be Dom Smith,
9:58
Speaker 3: and he's been a godsender for this team. He went
10:00
Speaker 3: down to the wire that they kept him and he's
10:03
Speaker 3: already had some really really big moments. He's taken great
10:05
Speaker 3: at bats. He's been an unbelievable add to this team
10:07
Speaker 3: as well as far as Kim goes. You mentioned Mauricio Debon.
10:10
Speaker 3: When they signed Mauricio Dubon, it was as a backup
10:12
Speaker 3: in case they couldn't sign Kim. Then they got Kim
10:15
Speaker 3: done on that one year deal, and it's okay, Well,
10:17
Speaker 3: Mauricio Debon's going to do what he always does, which
10:19
Speaker 3: is moved around the field. He's a glove utility guy.
10:21
Speaker 3: Then Kim gets hurt, he slips on some ice in Korea,
10:24
Speaker 3: and now Mauricio Debon is your every day short stop.
10:26
Speaker 3: But he has been at left, he has been at
10:28
Speaker 3: third here and there. And my guess is that when
10:30
Speaker 3: Has Sun Kim comes back, you're going to continue to
10:33
Speaker 3: see Mauricio Debon in this line because he's been really
10:35
Speaker 3: good offensively, how aggressive he is right. He is a
10:38
Speaker 3: guy that generally is not going to walk, he's not
10:40
Speaker 3: going to strike out. He can drive the ball the
10:41
Speaker 3: other way. He's going to put in play, He's going
10:43
Speaker 3: to put pressure on the opposing defenses. What has surprised
10:46
Speaker 3: me by watching him every day was how good he
10:47
Speaker 3: is defensively. I get it. He had a gold Glove,
10:50
Speaker 3: but I didn't realize how good he was defensively over
10:52
Speaker 3: at shortstop. So the Braves are about to have some
10:54
Speaker 3: really good problems that other teams want to have, which
10:56
Speaker 3: is where do we put our good pitchers, where do
10:58
Speaker 3: we put our good players, and how do we make
10:59
Speaker 3: this thing work? But Ritio Dubon will also continue to
11:02
Speaker 3: be in the lote of He may have a day
11:03
Speaker 3: or two off otherwise, but he'll continue to hit. He
11:06
Speaker 3: was in there and originally signed to be a guy
11:09
Speaker 3: that was going to play against lefties because he's done
11:10
Speaker 3: so well against lefties throughout his career. So I could
11:12
Speaker 3: see him platuning with Mike Shtremsky out in left field.
11:15
Speaker 3: Give Kim a day here or there. He's going to
11:17
Speaker 3: play some shortstop and you can bounce them around any
11:20
Speaker 3: other time that you need to.
11:22
Speaker 5: That's a lot of moving a lot of moving parts
11:24
Speaker 5: for a team that's playing this well.
11:25
Speaker 2: CJH.
11:26
Speaker 4: And they all come back.
11:27
Speaker 6: They do.
11:27
Speaker 5: They have too many riches. I hate to say that
11:31
Speaker 5: because these things always worked himself out, but their outfield
11:33
Speaker 5: is pretty said.
11:34
Speaker 4: I mean, he hasn't been good.
11:35
Speaker 5: Michael Harrison has gotten off to a much better start
11:37
Speaker 5: than he did. Acuna is not going anywhere right, and
11:40
Speaker 5: then when Hassan Kim comes back, they're going to want
11:43
Speaker 5: him to play. Ozzie's off to a better start obviously,
11:45
Speaker 5: Matt Olson. And then you're not taking Austin Rightley out
11:47
Speaker 5: of the lineup. So how on earth does Walt Weiss?
11:50
Speaker 5: I know you kind of mentioned it, but there's gonna
11:52
Speaker 5: be a lot of questions for Walt Weiss every day.
11:54
Speaker 5: Who do I play it short? Who do I play
11:56
Speaker 5: it left? Who's DH because Tom Smith, like you mentioned,
11:59
Speaker 5: has gotten some huge, huge hits. It might be the reason,
12:03
Speaker 5: by the way, the Phillies Phillies got rid of Rob
12:05
Speaker 5: Thompson because the brainers are playing so long.
12:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's an interesting one. If you remember when
12:10
Speaker 3: Walt Weisse first got the job, one of the things
12:12
Speaker 3: that he said immediately he talked about rest and trying
12:15
Speaker 3: to build in a little bit more rest for guys.
12:17
Speaker 3: The one guy he didn't mention it was Matt Olson.
12:18
Speaker 3: Of course, he has been on this unbelievable consecutive game
12:21
Speaker 3: streak when it comes to being in the lineup every day.
12:23
Speaker 3: But thinking about Ronald Right and the knee issues that
12:26
Speaker 3: he has had over these last couple of years, maybe
12:28
Speaker 3: trying to find the spots where he can dh a
12:30
Speaker 3: little bit more right. That's going to be the balancing
12:32
Speaker 3: act that Walt Weiss will have to go through. But again,
12:35
Speaker 3: it's a good problem to have. And there's been some
12:37
Speaker 3: injury history here the last couple of years that nobody
12:40
Speaker 3: is counting these chickens before they hatch and saying, oh, yeah,
12:42
Speaker 3: we're just going to be healthy. And of all these
12:43
Speaker 3: great players, so maybe we move on from a player
12:46
Speaker 3: or two. I don't think that'll be the case, not
12:47
Speaker 3: for guys that can contribute. It'll be more about keeping
12:51
Speaker 3: guys healthy. I know they didn't make the postseason last year.
12:53
Speaker 3: You go back to the last couple of seasons though,
12:55
Speaker 3: when they did make the postseason and they were beat
12:57
Speaker 3: up going into the postseason, mostly on the pitching. But
13:00
Speaker 3: that is something they're going to try to avoid. But
13:02
Speaker 3: what was really clear about rest, keeping guys healthy, doing
13:06
Speaker 3: his best to loadvantage. I know guys from the older
13:08
Speaker 3: school hate hearing that, but that's the reality of today's game,
13:11
Speaker 3: and I do think we see more of that. So
13:13
Speaker 3: the more good players you have, the easier it is
13:15
Speaker 3: doesn't mean everybody's going to be happy every day. It
13:17
Speaker 3: goes back to again, how you treat people and they
13:19
Speaker 3: do a great job here in the organization that you're
13:21
Speaker 3: willing to get on board because it's what's best for
13:23
Speaker 3: the team.
13:24
Speaker 4: All right, Well, we don't watch the team every day.
13:26
Speaker 4: Tell us what's going on with Ronald Lecunya, and you
13:30
Speaker 4: can't give me the like, oh, he's just about to
13:32
Speaker 4: break out, because there's things that you fear with a
13:36
Speaker 4: player like Ronald who plays the way he does that. Okay,
13:39
Speaker 4: maybe he's got to try to stay healthy. Is he
13:41
Speaker 4: trying to stay healthy too much? Is it something that
13:44
Speaker 4: you know you see him get caught stealing four times
13:48
Speaker 4: early in the season, and you're like, does this mean
13:50
Speaker 4: he's gonna shy away from running as much? Are you
13:53
Speaker 4: seeing the same Ronald and just not the same Ronald results?
13:57
Speaker 3: That's some really bad news for you. He is about
13:59
Speaker 3: to break out because we've seen in the last couple
14:01
Speaker 3: of days. You know, he had some really good at
14:03
Speaker 3: bats over the weekend. You guys watched the game. You
14:05
Speaker 3: know the game extremely well. The things that you're looking for, right,
14:07
Speaker 3: how are the takes? How is the chase, how is
14:09
Speaker 3: the contact? Are you on time for the fastball? Some
14:11
Speaker 3: of those things were not there early. For Ronald Acunyu Junior,
14:14
Speaker 3: they have been there, and they were over the weekend
14:16
Speaker 3: he looked a lot better. And then he has a
14:18
Speaker 3: couple of doubles. Yesterday, he looks like he is starting
14:20
Speaker 3: to break out and get on time. He had not
14:22
Speaker 3: been on time for the fastball. The adjustments look like
14:25
Speaker 3: they have been made as far as the stealing goes.
14:27
Speaker 3: Antoine Richardson comes here right from the New York Mets,
14:29
Speaker 3: and I think the method that these guys were working on,
14:32
Speaker 3: you see a little bit more kind of that hop
14:33
Speaker 3: in that foot movement. Early on, I think there were
14:35
Speaker 3: still some adjustments that were being made. These guys are
14:37
Speaker 3: now starting to come around. Looks like they're a little
14:39
Speaker 3: bit more comfortable. I think he'd be an interesting guy
14:42
Speaker 3: to kind of talk to about that. But early on
14:44
Speaker 3: it was a little bit messy. And the other thing
14:46
Speaker 3: is when you're hitting as well as the braves are
14:48
Speaker 3: right now, you really don't want to get thrown out.
14:50
Speaker 3: So there was some failure at the beginning of the year.
14:52
Speaker 3: Then you start to back off a little bit and
14:53
Speaker 3: say man, just let this lineup hit. It's too good
14:56
Speaker 3: to run into Alex in the base pass. I think
14:57
Speaker 3: we kind of saw that trend here a little bit
14:59
Speaker 3: but a lot better. Again, going back to what Walt said,
15:02
Speaker 3: I think he will try to find his days where
15:04
Speaker 3: he can give him a little bit of rest to
15:05
Speaker 3: try to keep him healthy. He's playing good defense, the
15:07
Speaker 3: arm is still really good. Made a big play last
15:10
Speaker 3: night in the outfield, and I don't think anybody is
15:12
Speaker 3: concerned about Ronald l'cooney junior. Shire was a slow start
15:15
Speaker 3: coming off that WBC and all the excitement that surrounded that.
15:18
Speaker 3: I think there were some really high expectations for him
15:20
Speaker 3: personally and for this team, and he's coming out of it.
15:24
Speaker 3: He is I don't know, again, you guys know what
15:25
Speaker 3: as good as anybody. But give me a guy that
15:27
Speaker 3: is on the fastball, that's hitting the ball the other way,
15:29
Speaker 3: is not chasing making much better decisions. That tells you
15:32
Speaker 3: that he's about to have a run.
15:34
Speaker 4: CJ.
15:35
Speaker 5: Was it, please the play you're talking about Acunyon made.
15:38
Speaker 5: Is it the one where he faked like it was
15:39
Speaker 5: a home run and then he ran in like three
15:41
Speaker 5: steps in. Brandon was like, oh, a lot of player
15:43
Speaker 5: by coon and he jumped like this far off the ground.
15:45
Speaker 5: Was that the one you were talking about jumping?
15:49
Speaker 3: He was like, so he does that a lot, and
15:52
Speaker 3: he will get us on it. You got to be
15:53
Speaker 3: really careful. He did it to Bryce Harper or we're
15:55
Speaker 3: in Philly, and it almost looked like a really pissed
15:58
Speaker 3: Harper off. It's a good act that he's got, but
16:01
Speaker 3: he will catch you. So I don't know if it
16:02
Speaker 3: was that one specifically, but he's made some nice plays
16:04
Speaker 3: out there. He's made some good throws. But I'm a
16:07
Speaker 3: little bit more careful. Obviously I'm not calling play by play.
16:09
Speaker 3: I think PG is also now being a little bit
16:11
Speaker 3: more careful because he does that turn like he's about
16:13
Speaker 3: to look over his shoulder, like the balls ten rows deep,
16:16
Speaker 3: and then he's standing on the warning track and he
16:18
Speaker 3: ends up catching it. So did jump to get Toughtah,
16:21
Speaker 3: he did jump a little bit.
16:22
Speaker 2: He didn't.
16:24
Speaker 3: You leave your feet at the minimum of one star
16:26
Speaker 3: in my book, even if you didn't have to.
16:28
Speaker 5: Okay, perfect, okay day.
16:30
Speaker 4: I like that rating because Jerkson profile is a freaking
16:34
Speaker 4: cheater and he decided to use steroids again, Is that
16:37
Speaker 4: a blessing for the Braves because essentially Dom Smith wouldn't
16:41
Speaker 4: have made the team, and now with Murph coming back,
16:44
Speaker 4: it gives them flexibility for a guy that, you know what,
16:48
Speaker 4: he chose not to be with this team. So is
16:50
Speaker 4: it really something that came out and is like, oh crap,
16:53
Speaker 4: one hundred and sixty two games we're had to eat,
16:55
Speaker 4: you know, this contract's now coming off the book or
16:58
Speaker 4: whatever it is. Is it a bay now that the season,
17:01
Speaker 4: how the season has played out so far and most
17:03
Speaker 4: likely will play out as Murph comes off the aisle.
17:07
Speaker 3: Two years in a row, right that we have dealt
17:09
Speaker 3: with this last year on the roacher, before we ever
17:11
Speaker 3: got home for a home game, we find out he
17:12
Speaker 3: gets that first suspension. I can tell you last year
17:14
Speaker 3: there was nothing that felt like there was a blessing
17:16
Speaker 3: about it. This year, you were really concerned. You were
17:19
Speaker 3: frustrated because the way that this team was built was
17:22
Speaker 3: Mike yu Stremsky on the bench or playing a little
17:25
Speaker 3: bit more left field and Jerkchip Profar Dhing and you're
17:27
Speaker 3: wondering how you possibly going to replace that, especially since
17:30
Speaker 3: Shaw Murphy was not going to be ready to start
17:32
Speaker 3: the season. Dom Smith has stepped up in a really
17:34
Speaker 3: big way. At the time, Walt Why said, thank god,
17:37
Speaker 3: we have Mikey Stremsky here right to be able to
17:39
Speaker 3: cover left field and give us some more opportunities on
17:41
Speaker 3: how we're going to do things. The Brays also saved
17:44
Speaker 3: a good amount of money. This is an ugly situation.
17:47
Speaker 3: Nobody was happy about it. I'll tell you it doesn't
17:49
Speaker 3: get brought up anymore like it went away immediately because
17:52
Speaker 3: the team was playing well and the guys that had
17:54
Speaker 3: the opportunities to fill in advanswered the bell in a
17:56
Speaker 3: really big way. So you know, they saved the fifteen
17:58
Speaker 3: million dollars in salary or some tax money that's saved
18:01
Speaker 3: in there somewhere as well. So somewhere in the neighborhood, I
18:03
Speaker 3: think it's seventeen or eighteen million dollars that ultimately was
18:06
Speaker 3: saved here that hasn't been spent yet, And so a
18:08
Speaker 3: lot of us will sit there and look at and say,
18:09
Speaker 3: does that mean you're leaving yourself some more rumor as
18:11
Speaker 3: we get closer to the deadline as a real possibility.
18:14
Speaker 3: I will tell you that I think all of us thought, hey,
18:15
Speaker 3: now they're going to go out and get a picture. Right,
18:17
Speaker 3: after all the injuries, they're going to bring in Lucas Gilito,
18:19
Speaker 3: They're going to get Zach Hotel. Maybe it'll be Chris Bassar. Right,
18:22
Speaker 3: all those guys were still free agents after that happened,
18:24
Speaker 3: and they didn't do any of it. And I know
18:26
Speaker 3: the fan base, at least the ones that I hear from,
18:27
Speaker 3: were getting frustrated by it. But clearly Alex Santhoppolo has
18:30
Speaker 3: had a plan that is working extremely well. And now
18:32
Speaker 3: we still has that money if they so choose to
18:35
Speaker 3: spend it down the road. Now you do have one
18:36
Speaker 3: more year of George and profile. I believe it's fifteen
18:39
Speaker 3: million dollars for next year. It's going to be a
18:41
Speaker 3: pretty interesting conversation for the off season and whatever they
18:44
Speaker 3: decide to do, they're going to decide to do. But
18:46
Speaker 3: that contract is not done yet. But at least for
18:48
Speaker 3: this year, other guys have proven that they want to
18:51
Speaker 3: be here, that they want to help this team win,
18:53
Speaker 3: that they have performed, and Don Smith is leaving that charge. Wait,
18:59
Speaker 3: no way, no way, no way, that's it's it's a
19:02
Speaker 3: funny thing.
19:02
Speaker 5: Yeah, no way, there's no way. Foot on the braves
19:06
Speaker 5: field again. I'm sorry there's no way. There's no way
19:09
Speaker 5: that those guys, Drake Baldwin, if Ozsie's back, Austin Riley,
19:15
Speaker 5: Matt Matt Olison, Chris Sale, I just don't see an I.
19:19
Speaker 1: Know, but guys, I'm just gonna give you the front
19:22
Speaker 1: office perspective. It's a lot of money. There's a chance
19:25
Speaker 1: he gets popped again. I'm serious. I'm not even making
19:27
Speaker 1: a joke of that part. But if that happens, then
19:31
Speaker 1: the most of the contracts wiped out.
19:33
Speaker 2: Like this is real money, all of it.
19:35
Speaker 3: So if he gets dinged again or god forbid, we
19:37
Speaker 3: have a lockout that last the whole year, he'll end
19:40
Speaker 3: up getting six million dollars of that contract. That's what
19:43
Speaker 3: we'll take home with whatever it was forty two million.
19:45
Speaker 3: I think he signed for now, so we don't get
19:46
Speaker 3: a lockout, but you know, for some reason, or if
19:48
Speaker 3: you were to test positive again, obviously he's banned for
19:50
Speaker 3: life at that point. I think Henry Mihea was the
19:53
Speaker 3: only one that got the three and ultimately got banned
19:55
Speaker 3: for life, So that is kind of wild to think about.
19:57
Speaker 3: I don't know what they'll do, but you're right, I
19:59
Speaker 3: think it's fair to bring up the other angle and
20:01
Speaker 3: saying and well, we've got a much better idea this
20:03
Speaker 3: in the offseason. You know, how do the guys feel
20:04
Speaker 3: about it? It's fifteen million dollars? Does that mean you
20:07
Speaker 3: just walk away from it? Are you willing to start
20:09
Speaker 3: the season with them? And we're so far away from
20:11
Speaker 3: that being a part of this conversation, but it's going
20:14
Speaker 3: to be out there. But right now, these guys don't care.
20:16
Speaker 3: They're focused on one thing, and that's continuing playing good
20:18
Speaker 3: baseball and trying to win this division or have a
20:20
Speaker 3: deep run in October.
20:21
Speaker 4: All right, somebody looks like he's cheating, but clearly he
20:24
Speaker 4: is not cheating. He's just the best player ever show Hey,
20:27
Speaker 4: o'tan what he's doing over there in La. Obviously he's
20:31
Speaker 4: the best player in the game. He's the best player
20:33
Speaker 4: that's ever played because of the fact that he can
20:36
Speaker 4: pitch it hit. Do you think based on how they
20:40
Speaker 4: use his workload, based on what you've seen him do
20:44
Speaker 4: and the fact that kind of looks like we're just surmising,
20:46
Speaker 4: kind of looks like he wants to win a cy young,
20:49
Speaker 4: do you think he's able to do it? Not just
20:52
Speaker 4: with his ability, but with the fact that he may
20:54
Speaker 4: only make twenty six ish starts.
20:59
Speaker 3: Well, the way he's pitch right now, absolutely right, clearly
21:01
Speaker 3: he is dominated. Was a tour and run so far
21:04
Speaker 3: this season, six innings every time out early on. You know,
21:07
Speaker 3: the game has changed dramatically. I've always been a big
21:09
Speaker 3: believer in innings, but go back to I think it
21:11
Speaker 3: was twenty fourteen when Kershaw won a Cy Young Award
21:15
Speaker 3: and Johnnyquato had like fifty more innings than he did
21:18
Speaker 3: that start. That's when it started to change. I might
21:20
Speaker 3: be exaggerating fifty, but it was a pretty significant amount,
21:23
Speaker 3: and that used to matter more. It does not matter anymore.
21:26
Speaker 3: I think the only thing for me is that you've
21:28
Speaker 3: got to be a qualifier at least, right so it's
21:29
Speaker 3: got to be the one hundred and sixty two innings
21:32
Speaker 3: one inning per team game, because you don't qualify for
21:35
Speaker 3: an ear a title or anything else. But absolutely, and
21:37
Speaker 3: we've talked about it on our show and I will
21:39
Speaker 3: never cradio loud outs, and Ryan Spielberg's brought it up
21:42
Speaker 3: many times that you know, clearly it seems like he
21:44
Speaker 3: is motivated to continue to add to that unbelievable trophy
21:47
Speaker 3: room that he already has, and that would be amazing
21:49
Speaker 3: to see him win a cy Young with the MVPs,
21:52
Speaker 3: not as a pitcher, right, and we've seen guys do
21:54
Speaker 3: it like Roger Clemens and others that win an MVP
21:57
Speaker 3: as a pitcher, but the MVP, of course is because
21:59
Speaker 3: he's doing it all. I'm with you, he's the best
22:02
Speaker 3: that we have ever seen. I think he absolutely has
22:04
Speaker 3: a chance if it's only twenty five or twenty six starts,
22:06
Speaker 3: because they're going to keep an eye on them. Plus
22:07
Speaker 3: it's a six man rotation, it's going to be enough.
22:10
Speaker 3: The game has shown us, the voters have shown us
22:12
Speaker 3: that the innings are not nearly as important. So as
22:14
Speaker 3: long as he qualifies and he dominates like he is
22:17
Speaker 3: right now, I think he will be your Syam Award winner.
22:19
Speaker 1: I like it last one for you because you saw
22:22
Speaker 1: a lot of the Phillies already.
22:23
Speaker 2: I mean, you can comment on both.
22:26
Speaker 1: I don't for as good as the Braves have been
22:28
Speaker 1: to see the Mets and the Phillies be at this
22:31
Speaker 1: point in the season over a month in what were
22:34
Speaker 1: your thoughts when you saw the Braves beat them up.
22:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was kind of wild to see how flat
22:39
Speaker 3: they were early on. You know, they didn't address the
22:41
Speaker 3: areas in which they needed to address last year. I
22:43
Speaker 3: think everybody feels bad for Alec Baulm and the stuff
22:45
Speaker 3: that's happening off the field. He is struggling mightily. They
22:48
Speaker 3: thought they had Bobashitt and they didn't get him, and
22:50
Speaker 3: so they have kind of a third base and a
22:52
Speaker 3: second base issue right now. They have a problem in
22:54
Speaker 3: left field. Even before the season started and bringing in
22:57
Speaker 3: a Dolis Garcia, I thought it was a good idea.
22:59
Speaker 3: They're going to be much better defensively. You're hoping he
23:01
Speaker 3: can recapture where he was a couple of years ago.
23:03
Speaker 3: I was covering the Rangers at the time, and he
23:05
Speaker 3: was incredibly impactful. That has not come around yet. But
23:08
Speaker 3: when you sat there and looked at this team before
23:10
Speaker 3: the season started, I was like, man, where the home
23:11
Speaker 3: runs going to come from in the outfield? How are
23:13
Speaker 3: they going to drive the ball out of the ballpark. Sure,
23:15
Speaker 3: Kyle Shober, Brice tarb They're going to do their thing,
23:18
Speaker 3: but they got some issues right now. And I know
23:19
Speaker 3: Dave Dombrowski pushed back on the idea that this roster
23:22
Speaker 3: is a little bit old, but it is. It kind
23:24
Speaker 3: of is what it is right jj Umuto back but
23:27
Speaker 3: now on the IL right away. The pitching issues, like
23:29
Speaker 3: Lozarda was great in his last one. That's important that
23:32
Speaker 3: he gets turned around and gets back to where they
23:33
Speaker 3: expect him to be. We saw Zach Wheeler here make
23:36
Speaker 3: his first start in Atlanta. He looked really, really good,
23:39
Speaker 3: and all this talk about his velocity not being where
23:42
Speaker 3: they thought it was going to be because it was
23:43
Speaker 3: lower than those rehab starts. You all know, like those
23:45
Speaker 3: rehabs starts are just not the same as starting a
23:47
Speaker 3: big league game, especially in your hometown. So there's some
23:49
Speaker 3: encouraging news for them to potentially start playing better. But
23:52
Speaker 3: I think they have some roster flaws and I think
23:54
Speaker 3: that's part of it. But they were flat. The defense
23:56
Speaker 3: isn't good. They seem to make one big mistake every
23:58
Speaker 3: game defensively, and they were just down like mentally early
24:02
Speaker 3: you could tell that the losing was weighing on all
24:04
Speaker 3: of them. We have not seen the Mets yet. They
24:06
Speaker 3: actually just played their first nli's games, I believe these
24:08
Speaker 3: last couple of days, so they have not been in division,
24:11
Speaker 3: so I haven't gotten a first hand look but a
24:12
Speaker 3: lot of it feels the same, just kind of flat
24:15
Speaker 3: uninspiring baseball right now. So I think everybody feels bad
24:18
Speaker 3: for Rob Thompson, who's highly respected in the game. None
24:21
Speaker 3: of this was his fault. They have a roster issue
24:23
Speaker 3: in Philadelphia.
24:24
Speaker 1: And that's how you build a very nice lead to
24:27
Speaker 1: start the season for the team that you get to watch.
24:29
Speaker 3: We're not upset about it over here. I'll tell you that.
24:32
Speaker 5: J Just just do me one favor. Okay, yeah, just
24:35
Speaker 5: tell Gretchen she big leagues me again. I'm gonna yeah, Okay,
24:39
Speaker 5: that's it.
24:40
Speaker 3: Just tell Yeah. She told me she was going to
24:43
Speaker 3: block your number. She said, like one phone calls enough,
24:45
Speaker 3: but not every week. Green is there producer now our
24:51
Speaker 3: VP of Braves Media.
24:54
Speaker 4: She's super big.
24:55
Speaker 3: She's the best.
24:56
Speaker 2: Wow.
24:56
Speaker 5: She's always like She's always like, oh, you're in town,
25:00
Speaker 5: and I'm like, oh, well, you're big league. You know
25:01
Speaker 5: that you have a super cool title and you were
25:03
Speaker 5: just a producing piece begging me to do stuff.
25:06
Speaker 2: Now all of a sudden, not.
25:07
Speaker 1: Just the title, but like I mentioned at the top
25:09
Speaker 1: of this conversation, the TV channels looking good.
25:12
Speaker 2: Man.
25:12
Speaker 1: I know they'll put a lot together in a little
25:14
Speaker 1: bit of time, but it's been good. I saw this
25:16
Speaker 1: morning the numbers have been really good. Not surprised with
25:19
Speaker 1: the way the brads are playing and the fans, but
25:21
Speaker 1: I know it's not easy to put all that together
25:22
Speaker 1: on your own.
25:23
Speaker 2: So props the Gretchen and everyone else involved.
25:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, they stressed.
25:28
Speaker 2: Man.
25:28
Speaker 3: The big one was distribution, right, and you guys know
25:30
Speaker 3: this business. It went down to the wire like literally,
25:32
Speaker 3: like the morning of opening day, finishing some deals with
25:35
Speaker 3: the biggest distributors and they got after it. And there's
25:38
Speaker 3: a good article in there. You mentioned some of the
25:40
Speaker 3: stuff you probably saw. But Derek Childer, president there with
25:43
Speaker 3: the Atlanta Brais, does not recommend trying to start a
25:46
Speaker 3: network in about thirty days. It's about a year long process.
25:49
Speaker 3: But they grinded, they got it done, and they got
25:51
Speaker 3: and you're right, the team playing well right now is
25:53
Speaker 3: a huge help. Eyeballs follow the team that are doing well,
25:57
Speaker 3: and hey, the broadcasters doing great. If the team is
26:00
Speaker 3: playing bad, the broadcaster stink and so does everything else.
26:02
Speaker 3: So we're very grateful that they've gotten off to the start.
26:04
Speaker 2: They've gotten off to this year exactly.
26:06
Speaker 1: You create where you don't want to miss it, and
26:08
Speaker 1: then fans are going to sign up and they're going
26:10
Speaker 1: to find it really fast, and that's what's happening so well.
26:12
Speaker 1: Great job, man, love listening to the games. Is always
26:14
Speaker 1: good to catch up with you. Thanks for joining us, dude.
26:16
Speaker 1: Appreciate you.
26:16
Speaker 2: CJ.
26:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, appreciate you guys as well.
26:19
Speaker 2: Have a great day, Todd father.
26:22
Speaker 1: It's getting a little warm out and that means let's
26:24
Speaker 1: hit some concerts, let's hit some baseball games.
26:27
Speaker 2: And where am I going to go to find those tickets?
26:29
Speaker 2: And if you want to sing the answer, you can.
26:31
Speaker 7: We're going to seek hey, hey, listen. Ultimately, at the
26:34
Speaker 7: end of the day, it is getting warmer and people
26:36
Speaker 7: want to leave the house, and it's time to leave,
26:39
Speaker 7: go see a ball game. I guess where you can
26:40
Speaker 7: find the best tickets, best spots, best places to go seat.
26:44
Speaker 7: Geeks got it all, man, They got their red and
26:47
Speaker 7: their green signs, letting you know which good in bed,
26:49
Speaker 7: all that good kind of stuff. They make it really
26:52
Speaker 7: simple for you at the end of the day. For
26:53
Speaker 7: a guy like me who's running around, I just need
26:56
Speaker 7: five minutes bing bang boom, I got my seat.
26:58
Speaker 2: Yeah.
26:58
Speaker 1: Each ticket's rated on a scale of one to ten,
27:00
Speaker 1: so you know you're getting a good deal. And of
27:02
Speaker 1: course the code for you Territory one zero for ten
27:05
Speaker 1: percent off your next set of tickets at sea Geek.
27:07
Speaker 1: That's ten percent off any tickets with promote code Territory tent.
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Speaker 1: Make sure you click the link in the description to
27:13
Speaker 1: download the app and then have the code automatically added
27:16
Speaker 1: to your account so you can use it later. Thank
27:18
Speaker 1: you to see Geek MLB's official ticket marketplace. Hey Sam
27:26
Speaker 1: Blum joining us right now on FT from the Athletic.
27:29
Speaker 1: Excited to talk to him about the Angels and then
27:31
Speaker 1: some of the other articles that he's thrown out there lately.
27:33
Speaker 1: I'm actually going to put aj on the spot. Do
27:35
Speaker 1: you want to go over angels talking night or do
27:41
Speaker 1: you want to start maybe with something I don't even
27:43
Speaker 1: know if it's more positive, but he two stories in
27:45
Speaker 1: the past week on the Astros. He talked about dik
27:47
Speaker 1: In Park and how the roosts never opened, and also
27:49
Speaker 1: about am I not getting settled into the States.
27:52
Speaker 2: So which side of the equation we let's talk.
27:54
Speaker 5: Let's talk angels in that seven run seventh they had
27:57
Speaker 5: last night, I mean the White Sox had against some
27:58
Speaker 5: last night. Let's talk Angel and Kurtzuzuki looking rough after
28:02
Speaker 5: the game last night, and just the fact that you
28:06
Speaker 5: know they don't they really have a hard time finding
28:08
Speaker 5: bullpen guys, Sam, what the heck is going on? And
28:10
Speaker 5: I will not call them Los Angeles in Anaheim.
28:16
Speaker 6: That doesn't like driving to to LA too often. Yeah, no,
28:20
Speaker 6: I mean, listen, I'm not I'm not around as much
28:23
Speaker 6: this year, but I will say that there after six
28:26
Speaker 6: years of this front office, to kind of be running
28:28
Speaker 6: up this bullpen is you know, I.
28:31
Speaker 3: Think it's it's really bad.
28:33
Speaker 6: I mean to be honest with you, like that most
28:34
Speaker 6: of the guys in that pen, and it's not to
28:37
Speaker 6: you know, crap on them or anything, but this is
28:41
Speaker 6: not a good bullpen, right Like, this is a lot
28:43
Speaker 6: of guys who are reclamation projects, guys who are maybe done,
28:46
Speaker 6: have a ton of velocity, guys who are in their
28:49
Speaker 6: mid to late thirties. It's it's not a it's just
28:52
Speaker 6: not a good enough bullpen. And you know, you have
28:54
Speaker 6: like Joey Lukeasey trying to close the game, and you
28:58
Speaker 6: know Drew Pomeran's coming in the day after he gives
29:00
Speaker 6: it up and does it immediately same thing. I mean,
29:03
Speaker 6: back to back games allowing game coming or game winning
29:06
Speaker 6: homers against left handed batters. I mean, so it's it's
29:10
Speaker 6: just kind of unfathomable. I mean, the I think their
29:12
Speaker 6: era is like close to six. You know, bullpens tend
29:15
Speaker 6: to get hot and get cold, but I just think overall,
29:18
Speaker 6: you know, there's this is this is going to be
29:20
Speaker 6: a big problem for them, and I think when you
29:21
Speaker 6: see really bad teams over the course of a season.
29:24
Speaker 6: Talking about the White Sox in twenty twenty four, I mean,
29:27
Speaker 6: that team was really bad, but a lot of their
29:30
Speaker 6: leads were just kind of given away almost every game.
29:32
Speaker 6: That was why that record was as historically awful as
29:34
Speaker 6: it was years ago. So I'm not saying the Angels
29:37
Speaker 6: were that bad, but I think, you know, the irony
29:39
Speaker 6: of it is that the rest of their team is
29:40
Speaker 6: actually kind of playing pretty well, at least above expectations.
29:43
Speaker 6: Their offense is decent, their starting rotation has actually been
29:47
Speaker 6: pretty good. It's just that that bullpen has given up
29:50
Speaker 6: games that they should win, and it's happening like five
29:54
Speaker 6: times in the last couple of weeks. I mean, they
29:55
Speaker 6: haven't won a game that Jose Soroano hadn't started in
29:58
Speaker 6: like two weeks.
30:00
Speaker 4: When you wash out, like guys who are on the
30:02
Speaker 4: league minimum, off your salary, the next cheapest area, isn't
30:06
Speaker 4: it ironic? The next cheapest area of a team is
30:09
Speaker 4: the bullpen. You're not really going to pay that much
30:11
Speaker 4: to bullpen guys. And yet this is I'm assuming based
30:15
Speaker 4: on what you're saying, the way they built the bullpen,
30:18
Speaker 4: it's not an area that Artie was willing to spend
30:20
Speaker 4: it or is this they did Alex there?
30:23
Speaker 6: I mean, that's like the one that's like the one
30:26
Speaker 6: area they did spend on. I mean they mean Kirby's
30:29
Speaker 6: has been hurt, Robert Stevens and they're spending thirty three
30:31
Speaker 6: million on him and he's pitched like five games for
30:33
Speaker 6: them in the last three years. Drew Pomeranz, they spend
30:36
Speaker 6: money on Jordan Romano. They just defade him. They paid
30:39
Speaker 6: him two million dollars. They're paying these That's actually the
30:43
Speaker 6: one area where they're kind of like trying to at
30:45
Speaker 6: least spend a little money. It's just bad spending and
30:47
Speaker 6: it's bad development. I mean, that's that I think is
30:49
Speaker 6: the bigger issue. It's the spending to mask the development issues.
30:52
Speaker 6: They don't have guys in their bullpen. They can just
30:54
Speaker 6: call up a lot of the guys in the forty
30:56
Speaker 6: men roster who are you know, not in the big leagues,
30:58
Speaker 6: are guys they wuld probably consider prospects like Hayden Dana
31:02
Speaker 6: and Sam Alde Garry. I think like they maybe have
31:05
Speaker 6: some flexibility with like a Mitch Ferris and triple A.
31:07
Speaker 6: But I mean, ultimately, like you're kind of just trading
31:10
Speaker 6: guys back and forth, back and forth who who you know,
31:13
Speaker 6: aren't real proven big league players or guys that have
31:16
Speaker 6: proven to be big league players but just haven't been
31:18
Speaker 6: as good in recent years. And you know, they're they're
31:20
Speaker 6: they're just paying them in the hopes that there's a
31:23
Speaker 6: you know, there's a breakthrough.
31:24
Speaker 1: Uh.
31:25
Speaker 6: You know, similar with like Alec Minou, who you know,
31:27
Speaker 6: I assume whenever he comes back will probably be sent
31:30
Speaker 6: of the bullpen. So you know, they just don't have
31:32
Speaker 6: a ton of options. And it's it's, uh, like I said,
31:35
Speaker 6: it's kind of ironic given the rest of their team
31:36
Speaker 6: has generally been decent. Uh, but you know they've they've
31:40
Speaker 6: given it away. They just continue to give away games.
31:43
Speaker 4: Generally decent Mike Trout's back in center field and he
31:47
Speaker 4: has been awesome.
31:48
Speaker 2: Great.
31:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's doing a plan.
31:51
Speaker 4: Is there a plan to keep him great? Last year
31:54
Speaker 4: the plan was move him to rife field, keep him
31:57
Speaker 4: off his feet. He doesn't want to or they don't
31:59
Speaker 4: want him to dhe he'll take five hundred swings, So
32:01
Speaker 4: there was kind of a plan. Is there a plan
32:04
Speaker 4: in place or is there something that we need to watch, Like, Okay,
32:07
Speaker 4: he's gonna start getting Fridays off so he's fresh for
32:10
Speaker 4: the weekend.
32:11
Speaker 6: I would be shocked if that is the plan, I think.
32:13
Speaker 6: I mean, you know, we're at April twenty eighth today.
32:15
Speaker 6: The last two years he's been he's gotten hurt around
32:18
Speaker 6: April twenty nineth, April thirtieth, May first he's and that's
32:21
Speaker 6: you know, his cost him game. So this is I
32:23
Speaker 6: think an important threshold for him. Can he can he
32:25
Speaker 6: stay you know, performing at this level. And the thing
32:28
Speaker 6: with Trout is he's you know, I mean he's not
32:30
Speaker 6: his average I think is maybe around two forty or
32:32
Speaker 6: something like that. He's he's just getting on base. I mean,
32:34
Speaker 6: he is drawing walks, he is you know, and he's
32:37
Speaker 6: actually making contact on a little bit higher velocity this season,
32:39
Speaker 6: which I think is a really good sign for him.
32:41
Speaker 6: So to me, the next big step is, you know,
32:43
Speaker 6: staying healthy beyond this little threshold he has here, staying
32:46
Speaker 6: healthy and performing this way into you know, mid May,
32:48
Speaker 6: late May, and see where it kind of takes him
32:50
Speaker 6: for the rest of the season. In terms of a plan,
32:52
Speaker 6: I mean, I don't, you know, I never associate the
32:54
Speaker 6: Angels with plans. I think they'll just keep running him
32:58
Speaker 6: out there. I mean, they've given him some DA days.
33:00
Speaker 6: You know, they have a really good defensive center fielder
33:02
Speaker 6: and Bryce Tato Dosio, so they can they can get
33:04
Speaker 6: him off his feet, you know, especially if they're kind
33:07
Speaker 6: of gonna put Tatos in the lineup anyway.
33:09
Speaker 3: Over Josh Lowe.
33:10
Speaker 6: So yeah, I don't think, uh, you know, I mean,
33:13
Speaker 6: I think that's the plan, to keep keep his bat
33:15
Speaker 6: in the lineup pretty much every day. I think he's
33:17
Speaker 6: only missed one game and that was after he got
33:19
Speaker 6: hit by a pitch earlier in April. So there, you know,
33:23
Speaker 6: I would suspect he's going to get some days off
33:25
Speaker 6: here and there, but that's not certainly not been the
33:27
Speaker 6: plan early.
33:29
Speaker 4: Okay, So no, so no plan. We're just gonna keep
33:31
Speaker 4: running the car till it's out of gas, like the
33:33
Speaker 4: last few years. Okay, I get that. I get that, Sam,
33:36
Speaker 4: you you laid that, you got it.
33:39
Speaker 6: I'm not around the team as much, so I don't know,
33:41
Speaker 6: you know, everything that's going on, but I just knowing
33:43
Speaker 6: the Angels, seeing the way they've used out already, it
33:46
Speaker 6: surprised me if they're if there's a meticulous idea of
33:48
Speaker 6: you know, days on, days off, because he's not gotten
33:51
Speaker 6: days off.
33:52
Speaker 4: That's fair, that's fair. The last two days have been
33:55
Speaker 4: litter or last few days have been littered with talk
33:57
Speaker 4: about Alice Kre being fired, Rob Thompson being fired, Kurtsuzuki's
34:02
Speaker 4: out here as the lamest of all lame ducks. Not
34:05
Speaker 4: anything against Kurtsuzuki. His contract was just a one year deal.
34:10
Speaker 4: Does this make does this make Arty Moreno look like
34:13
Speaker 4: a genius because all these other teams are now spending
34:17
Speaker 4: money on managers that are not around, and he's like,
34:20
Speaker 4: I don't need to do this.
34:24
Speaker 6: I don't know if genius is the word I would use,
34:26
Speaker 6: But that's not that wasn't what came to mind. I mean, listen,
34:32
Speaker 6: I think the Angels have kind of a telegraphed that
34:36
Speaker 6: winning is just not their top priority. I mean that ultimately,
34:38
Speaker 6: I mean already essentially set away. He didn't say it
34:41
Speaker 6: wasn't his top priority. He said he wants to win,
34:43
Speaker 6: but he said I don't think it's the fans top priority.
34:45
Speaker 6: And what you're seeing I think is a reflection of that.
34:48
Speaker 6: I mean, you know, like the spending's just down, you know,
34:50
Speaker 6: especially in the last five six years. They don't spend
34:53
Speaker 6: a lot. They don't you know, really seem to invest
34:56
Speaker 6: in the I mean, listen, I don't know what they're paying.
34:58
Speaker 6: Like Mike Maddox, he's obviously a really established coach, John
35:01
Speaker 6: Gimmons an established coach. I think it's a good thing
35:04
Speaker 6: those guys are, you know. In the dugout with Kurtzuzuki,
35:06
Speaker 6: I just I'm not going to sit here and like
35:08
Speaker 6: blame Kurtzuzuki too much. I think he's been in a
35:11
Speaker 6: put in a really tough spot. You know. I do
35:14
Speaker 6: I agree with everything he does, Absolutely not. I mean
35:16
Speaker 6: in terms of game decisions, I like, even last night,
35:19
Speaker 6: would keep Jack o'hannowitz in that game. He's pitching well,
35:21
Speaker 6: and that was wasn't at one hundred pitches or even
35:24
Speaker 6: not close to it.
35:25
Speaker 3: I don't think so.
35:27
Speaker 6: To me, I don't agree with everything, but it's just
35:29
Speaker 6: a really tough spot to be in. And you know,
35:30
Speaker 6: the teams like the Red Sox and the Phillies, who
35:32
Speaker 6: are you know, making these changes of you know, fan
35:35
Speaker 6: bases that are really getting on them about winning. And
35:37
Speaker 6: I mean the I think the Angels fan base really
35:38
Speaker 6: wants to win, but I don't know if the Angels
35:40
Speaker 6: really are too in tune with what you know, their
35:42
Speaker 6: fans are are angry about or or not.
35:45
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's it's just a.
35:48
Speaker 6: Just kind of a weird situation out here, and I
35:50
Speaker 6: don't know how it'll resolve. And I assume that Kurt
35:53
Speaker 6: will be safe for his job until the lockout starts
35:56
Speaker 6: and then you know, everything's gone up in the air
35:57
Speaker 6: with his team.
36:00
Speaker 5: Jose Soriano is really good just that way, I don't know.
36:02
Speaker 3: It's really good.
36:04
Speaker 5: So there are some bright spots. There are some bright spots.
36:07
Speaker 5: So let's just not completely destroy the Angels. Your name
36:09
Speaker 5: is not Scott bron Okay, it is Sam Blum. So
36:11
Speaker 5: let's make sure that we get to let the fans
36:14
Speaker 5: know that you're not Scott Bron when it comes to
36:16
Speaker 5: destroying the.
36:17
Speaker 2: It sounds similar, though.
36:21
Speaker 6: I mean, listen, the Angels are six and oh Jose
36:23
Speaker 6: Sorianos and they're six and eighteen when he doesn't.
36:25
Speaker 1: So that's one syllable, one syllable samd Blum Scott Bron
36:31
Speaker 1: very close.
36:32
Speaker 5: That's fair, that's fair. Let's go to something a little
36:34
Speaker 5: more positive. Let's let's talk Houston Astros. If you're an
36:37
Speaker 5: Angels fan, they also aren't very good, So I guess
36:40
Speaker 5: that's positive.
36:41
Speaker 4: What what?
36:41
Speaker 5: What's the dyke in Park story that you want to do?
36:44
Speaker 5: You want to tell so much is about it.
36:45
Speaker 6: I don't know.
36:46
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't want to tell you about
36:47
Speaker 2: but you know it's you.
36:48
Speaker 6: It was just the thing about the room. They don't
36:51
Speaker 6: open it.
36:52
Speaker 3: It's we just also.
36:53
Speaker 5: Gets hit a lot, by the way, it gets hit
36:55
Speaker 5: a lot. I remember playing there thinking like, there's never
36:57
Speaker 5: going to be a ball that hits that thing, And
36:59
Speaker 5: now you see big me. Every time I do a game,
37:01
Speaker 5: there is a ball that gets rattling around it there.
37:03
Speaker 6: If you're going to employ you are on Alvarez, you
37:05
Speaker 6: should be prepared to open the roof. I think because
37:07
Speaker 6: he can he can hit that roof.
37:10
Speaker 5: The ball doesn't travel, Sam, the ball doesn't travel as far.
37:13
Speaker 5: Because I remember we were in the World Series two
37:15
Speaker 5: thousand and five, the MLB had to make the choice
37:18
Speaker 5: to close the roof because the temperature, and the Astros
37:21
Speaker 5: wanted it open because the ball didn't travel as much.
37:24
Speaker 5: There was this whole big deal and they kept it
37:25
Speaker 5: closed because MLB so they wanted the hitters want to close,
37:28
Speaker 5: the pitchers want it open.
37:30
Speaker 2: Yeah.
37:30
Speaker 6: No, And you know, I think it's what's interesting about
37:33
Speaker 6: it is, you know a lot of these hot weather
37:34
Speaker 6: climate teams like the Marlins and the Diamondbacks, they'll open
37:37
Speaker 6: the roof in any chance they get. I mean, it
37:39
Speaker 6: was just, you know, I think in Houston it's it's
37:40
Speaker 6: just a point of contention. I think a lot of
37:42
Speaker 6: fans prefer to open. I'm not sure that it's universal,
37:45
Speaker 6: and I don't want to speak for everyone, but it's
37:47
Speaker 6: just and it's weird because the Astros don't really ever
37:50
Speaker 6: explain their their thought process on this, but they refuse
37:52
Speaker 6: to open it. So it's you know, I mean, it's
37:55
Speaker 6: just one of those not huge, not a huge, not
37:57
Speaker 6: a big deal. But I think, to me, yeah, I
38:00
Speaker 6: found it interesting. I think I think baseball is better
38:03
Speaker 6: when the roof's open, personally, I mean, one of the
38:04
Speaker 6: guys I talked to for that was Yusai Kakuchi. You
38:06
Speaker 6: pitch for the Astros and you pitch for the Blue
38:08
Speaker 6: Jays and the Mariners. A lot of these retractable roof stadiums,
38:11
Speaker 6: and he's got, you know, numbers that are far better
38:13
Speaker 6: when the roof is closed, but said he prefers it open,
38:16
Speaker 6: just you know, that's how baseball should be played. And
38:18
Speaker 6: so I mean that's kind of the feeling I have
38:20
Speaker 6: about it.
38:20
Speaker 3: But yeah, that was that was that story, Okay.
38:25
Speaker 5: And then and then he talked about Tatsuoi am I
38:27
Speaker 5: and it kind of everyone's been talking about this about
38:29
Speaker 5: how he's having a hard time adjusting. Is it because
38:31
Speaker 5: he went to the Astros and they're not doing very well?
38:33
Speaker 5: What's the deal with him in the Astros and having
38:36
Speaker 5: a hard time with the USA.
38:38
Speaker 6: I just think it's more about the pro The story
38:40
Speaker 6: is more about like the overall process, right, like this
38:42
Speaker 6: is I think they're like these things aren't an accident.
38:46
Speaker 6: That's kind of what the story is talking about, right,
38:48
Speaker 6: Like if you you know, if you got it. There's
38:50
Speaker 6: a lot of things on the back end that go
38:51
Speaker 6: into a player having a really good experience when they
38:53
Speaker 6: first come to the big leagues. And you know, it's
38:55
Speaker 6: we obviously, like a lot of Latin players come to
38:58
Speaker 6: organizations when they're sixteen, seven, ten years old. But it's
39:00
Speaker 6: interesting when you bring players from the Pacific room, most
39:03
Speaker 6: of those guys are in the middle of their career,
39:05
Speaker 6: they're established, and it's it is a huge process. Like
39:07
Speaker 6: one of the guys we talked to in that story
39:09
Speaker 6: was Chris gets the White Sox GM and and you know,
39:12
Speaker 6: they have Murakami. They've never had a Japanese player, uh,
39:16
Speaker 6: you know, and and it was interesting because this is you.
39:19
Speaker 3: Know, they know they need to get this right.
39:21
Speaker 6: Like that was like, we have to do whatever it
39:23
Speaker 6: takes to make this experience positive. It doesn't necessarily mean
39:26
Speaker 6: Murakami is going to do what he actually is doing
39:28
Speaker 6: right now, but it is imperative on them that he
39:31
Speaker 6: has an experience that when he talks about it with
39:33
Speaker 6: other players, and you know that for the national team
39:36
Speaker 6: or when he's back home, or you know, even when
39:38
Speaker 6: he's just on the road, like you want to you
39:40
Speaker 6: want to be able to leave a good impression, and
39:43
Speaker 6: you know there's a lot that goes into that. You know,
39:45
Speaker 6: how you deal with the agent, how you deal with
39:47
Speaker 6: the management companies in Japan, how you know what what
39:49
Speaker 6: work is going on between all those groups once the
39:52
Speaker 6: player gets there, and so with him, I like, maybe
39:55
Speaker 6: that process wasn't perfect, and you know, I think you
39:57
Speaker 6: maybe see the the uh, you know, on the back end.
39:59
Speaker 6: He's had a hard time, and it's often a reflection
40:03
Speaker 6: of you know, players personalities and they're you know, whether
40:06
Speaker 6: they're introverted, extroverted, things like that. But you know, I
40:10
Speaker 6: think one of the things we heard wasn't a huge
40:12
Speaker 6: shock that am I was having the problem maybe that
40:14
Speaker 6: he had when he first got here. And hopefully he's
40:17
Speaker 6: able to figure it out. I know he's making a
40:18
Speaker 6: rehab start today and you know, maybe there's a you know,
40:21
Speaker 6: light at the end of the tunnel there.
40:23
Speaker 5: Sam, were you saying the White Sox have never had
40:26
Speaker 5: a Japanese player of the Astros because Tadahito Gucci's calling
40:29
Speaker 5: online one.
40:31
Speaker 6: I mean, yeah, I don't know, Yeah, the White the
40:33
Speaker 6: White Sox haven't in there in the more more minor history,
40:35
Speaker 6: I guess.
40:36
Speaker 5: Modern Oh my bad modern. Now now we're going modern.
40:39
Speaker 5: That was only turn Yeah that was twenty years ago.
40:42
Speaker 4: Thank you.
40:43
Speaker 5: And by the way, we beat the Astros in the
40:44
Speaker 5: World Series, just Sadden, you know. So uh but but
40:47
Speaker 5: am I My thing is like he's when That was
40:49
Speaker 5: one of the things about when he signed. He was
40:51
Speaker 5: they're worried about his walks and he's walked a ton
40:53
Speaker 5: of guys. So is he not comfortable because he's had
40:57
Speaker 5: too many walks? And that was one of the big issues.
41:00
Speaker 5: Remember when he signed, They're like, he didn't do a
41:01
Speaker 5: lot of innings and he's gonna walk a ton of
41:03
Speaker 5: guys in here is not doing a lot of innings
41:04
Speaker 5: and he's walking a lot of guys.
41:06
Speaker 1: And he didn't want to play with other Japanese players.
41:08
Speaker 1: Remember that interview where he was like, I don't want
41:10
Speaker 1: to you know, it'd be cool for me to not
41:11
Speaker 1: be part of the Dodgers and beat the Dodgers.
41:14
Speaker 2: And we're five minutes into his big lead. I get it,
41:17
Speaker 2: So let's give him a chance here.
41:18
Speaker 1: But yeah, what what do you think goes into a
41:21
Speaker 1: player like this coming here?
41:22
Speaker 2: And I know you got into it in your story.
41:23
Speaker 1: I read it this morning, you know, struggling versus others
41:26
Speaker 1: really embracing the culture, just feeling more ready.
41:29
Speaker 2: How much does it have to do with.
41:30
Speaker 1: The player versus the player support staff, which is often
41:33
Speaker 1: written into the contract, versus the organization right For the Astros,
41:37
Speaker 1: they're probably like, oh damn, Like they want to invest
41:40
Speaker 1: and recruit more into talent from Japan and this is
41:46
Speaker 1: their first guy, and then you get a rocky start
41:50
Speaker 1: and the quotes yes.
41:52
Speaker 6: And I think a part of it is with the Astros.
41:54
Speaker 6: I mean, they obviously just renamed their ballpark after a
41:57
Speaker 6: Japanese HVAC company, So there's I think there might be
42:00
Speaker 6: even been, you know, one of the things we orders
42:01
Speaker 6: there might have been some some almost pressure from their
42:04
Speaker 6: naming rights sponsor to you know, have a Japanese player
42:07
Speaker 6: to get in this market. I think it a lot
42:11
Speaker 6: of it is the player, right, Like you know, we
42:12
Speaker 6: talked about Murakami, like this is a guy who just,
42:14
Speaker 6: you know, when you hear him talk, when you're around him,
42:16
Speaker 6: like he seems like someone who's just pretty comfortable, uh,
42:19
Speaker 6: you know, and that might be a reflection of just
42:21
Speaker 6: who he is, and that might not be the personality
42:23
Speaker 6: that that he might has. I don't. You know, I
42:26
Speaker 6: don't want to make assumptions about him and everything. I
42:29
Speaker 6: don't personally know him, so but I think that's that
42:32
Speaker 6: is part of it, and I ultimately, you know, there's
42:36
Speaker 6: that is on the A lot of this is on
42:37
Speaker 6: the team too, to I think communicate with player representation,
42:41
Speaker 6: with you know, the management companies that are back home,
42:43
Speaker 6: that are you know, working as liaisons with those agencies.
42:47
Speaker 6: So it's it just is a complicated process and it's
42:51
Speaker 6: not something that I think a lot of fans maybe perceive.
42:54
Speaker 6: You just you know, the team will make the highest
42:58
Speaker 6: offer and the player will go there. And uh, there
43:00
Speaker 6: are a lot of players that just don't want to
43:02
Speaker 6: go to specific teams and you know, they might not
43:04
Speaker 6: even be super aware of a lot of big League
43:06
Speaker 6: teams and they just they don't know the city, they
43:08
Speaker 6: have no interest in it. So it's you know, and
43:10
Speaker 6: then those teams maybe are very interested in acquiring Japanese
43:13
Speaker 6: talents and Korean talent, and you know, it's it's it's
43:17
Speaker 6: just a chaotic process that I don't think everyone has
43:20
Speaker 6: really been you know, dealt into too deeply.
43:23
Speaker 5: Yeah, and they've done a better drive in Japan by
43:25
Speaker 5: the way is the modern era include after the Angels,
43:27
Speaker 5: let show, Hey go to the Dodgers, When do we
43:29
Speaker 5: start the modern era?
43:30
Speaker 2: I just want to know what was your last game.
43:34
Speaker 5: I just want to know when I thought it was
43:35
Speaker 5: the last time. When you know, the Angels haven't had
43:37
Speaker 5: a Japanese guy in a long time except for when
43:40
Speaker 5: they had and now they have.
43:42
Speaker 2: They'll take that, say, don't take that.
43:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I don't know and exactly that the Astros
43:50
Speaker 1: really hadn't signed a player out of MPB first one
43:53
Speaker 1: in history. Read the story. It's really good, Sam. Thank you,
43:55
Speaker 1: got to jump. Appreciate you man.
43:57
Speaker 2: Thank you
44:01
Speaker 6: Two