Latest / Foul Territory / Ken Rosenthal’s Inside Scoop: Spencer Jones debut, The Trop effect, Sizzling Cubs + Shift ban deep dive

Transcript

Ken Rosenthal’s Inside Scoop: Spencer Jones debut, The Trop effect, Sizzling Cubs + Shift ban deep dive · Foul Territory

0:03
Speaker 1: Hey, this next segment is presented by a game changer.
0:06
Speaker 1: So let's talk about this article that just came out
0:08
Speaker 1: in The Athletic written by Cody Stavenhagen and Stephensbitt on
0:12
Speaker 1: banning the infield shift not actually bringing back the base hit.
0:17
Speaker 1: But the question is does anyone care? So you can
0:21
Speaker 1: see batting averages go down even while we made that
0:25
Speaker 1: change a few years ago, in twenty twenty three, you
0:28
Speaker 1: can see batting average on balls and play also going down.
0:31
Speaker 1: Some things have changed, primarily left handed hitters can't face
0:35
Speaker 1: that triangle anymore. So banning the shift, it says in here,
0:39
Speaker 1: revived one type of hit left handed. Batting average on
0:42
Speaker 1: balls and play on pulled ground balls up twenty four
0:45
Speaker 1: points since twenty twenty two, but the overall batting average
0:50
Speaker 1: keeps going down with So I'll start here, Should we care?
0:54
Speaker 1: Or does the game look prettier now that everyone's standing
0:56
Speaker 1: in more of the right place.
1:00
Speaker 2: You could say it looks prettier if that's if that's
1:02
Speaker 2: your thing. Uh. I was one of the few guys
1:05
Speaker 2: when this rule change was being proposed that was against it.
1:08
Speaker 2: I just felt like you should be able to play
1:10
Speaker 2: wherever you wanted to play. To me, it was like
1:12
Speaker 2: telling a basketball player you can't go double team this guy,
1:15
Speaker 2: or telling a defense in football you can't blitz. It's
1:18
Speaker 2: just it didn't seem right. You should be able to
1:21
Speaker 2: do what you want on defense. And I'm not surprised
1:24
Speaker 2: that the average averages haven't changed, because it's not there's
1:29
Speaker 2: no philosophy that. The philosophy of hitting is no longer
1:33
Speaker 2: get hits. It's it's do damage, hit homers or walk
1:37
Speaker 2: and if you strike out, it's okay. But you're up
1:39
Speaker 2: there to do damage every pitch of every swing, and
1:41
Speaker 2: if you the strikeouts, it is no longer a bad thing.
1:45
Speaker 2: So until that philosophy changes, you just the averages are
1:49
Speaker 2: not going to be uh what what they could be.
1:52
Speaker 2: Pictures pitchers are getting better, I'll give them that. I mean,
1:55
Speaker 2: their stuff is getting better. I should say the stuff
1:57
Speaker 2: pitchers have is getting better. Pictures aren't necessarily getting better,
2:00
Speaker 2: in my opinion, but their stuff is getting better, and
2:02
Speaker 2: it's becoming harder to hit. And until there's focus, until
2:09
Speaker 2: until players are getting paid on high batting averages, which
2:13
Speaker 2: they're not anymore, the philosophy is not gonna It's not
2:17
Speaker 2: you're not gonna get back to high averages.
2:19
Speaker 3: The end up segment went took it all for us
2:23
Speaker 3: until Major League Baseball pays you for it, Like, you
2:26
Speaker 3: can show me all the graphs, you can show me
2:28
Speaker 3: all the stuff. I'll go look at the highest payrolls.
2:32
Speaker 3: A lot of guys would say in VP sometimes they'd
2:34
Speaker 3: be like, you know, somebody hit a line drive to
2:36
Speaker 3: the opposite field. You're LEFTI you hit it to left field,
2:39
Speaker 3: You're right, you hit it to right field. They're like,
2:42
Speaker 3: oh man, that's how you hit. And then some dude
2:44
Speaker 3: steps in and hits a dinger. The next guy in
2:47
Speaker 3: hits a dinger, hits another dinger, and he goes, you know,
2:50
Speaker 3: that's why you drive a Honda and I drive a
2:53
Speaker 3: Mercedes Benz Like. There is a difference in what could
2:58
Speaker 3: possibly happen and what they really want to happen, the
3:02
Speaker 3: desired outcome, what your approach is. The approach has not changed.
3:07
Speaker 3: The difference is let's take one of the first guys
3:11
Speaker 3: that would have gotten shifted, Big Poppy. Big Poppy would
3:15
Speaker 3: just get hits on the times that he rolled over
3:19
Speaker 3: on the ball that he was trying to go deep on.
3:22
Speaker 3: Big Poppy could hit the ball off the monster to
3:24
Speaker 3: left field. He was not successfully going to hit the
3:28
Speaker 3: ball on the ground to the opposite field. So defenses
3:32
Speaker 3: would be able to play for the fact that, hey,
3:35
Speaker 3: you know what, now we have a guy there. In
3:38
Speaker 3: case he does try to go yard, which if he
3:41
Speaker 3: goes thirty five forty times a year he goes, he
3:44
Speaker 3: puts the ball over the fence, he still has like
3:47
Speaker 3: six hundred and fifty at bats that the ball didn't
3:49
Speaker 3: go over the fence. So most likely there's going to
3:51
Speaker 3: be a rollover. It's going to be a ball on
3:52
Speaker 3: the ground. There's going to be a ground ball on
3:53
Speaker 3: the right side, because in no way is he going
3:56
Speaker 3: to go the other way on the ground. He's going
3:59
Speaker 3: to go the other way in the air off the
4:01
Speaker 3: monster whatever it is. And so the shift, I thought
4:04
Speaker 3: it was such a helicopter parent rule, like, oh man,
4:08
Speaker 3: look at all the averages. They're just so low. It's
4:11
Speaker 3: gonna be a much better game without the shift. Tired, tired, Hey,
4:15
Speaker 3: that guy's got a really good slider. Tell them to
4:17
Speaker 3: stop throwing it. You want to change the game. That
4:19
Speaker 3: would have changed the game.
4:22
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Speaker 1: blue ch You for sponsoring the podcast. Present the fan perspective,
5:22
Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of fans enjoy banning the
5:24
Speaker 1: shift because it just looked like a different sport out there.
5:29
Speaker 1: What you guys might be too. The triangle's ugly on
5:34
Speaker 1: the right side there where you'd load everything up. It is.
5:36
Speaker 1: It's ugly for some fans. They didn't like it, and
5:39
Speaker 1: it's glaring, even though the batting average is not changed much.
5:43
Speaker 1: Kratz there it is if you remember it was everybody
5:46
Speaker 1: just shifting over to one side for left handed hitters,
5:50
Speaker 1: an extreme shift there. Why is it ugly because I
5:52
Speaker 1: think a lot of people are used to and grow
5:54
Speaker 1: up with nostalgia, huge, huge deal in our world. First
5:58
Speaker 1: baseman standing in a certain spot, second short, third, outfield
6:02
Speaker 1: somewhat aligned. Now outfields have gotten much smarter too. They
6:05
Speaker 1: play further back, they know where the base balls are going.
6:08
Speaker 1: There's more athletic outfielders. You're not just hiding guys in
6:11
Speaker 1: the corners as much as you normally did in the
6:14
Speaker 1: past if you're an organization. So all of those things
6:17
Speaker 1: add up too, because they went over barrels. So in
6:19
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, barrels to the outfield generated a five to
6:23
Speaker 1: twenty nine BABIP. If you watched yesterday's show, five twenty
6:27
Speaker 1: nine batting average on balls and play. In twenty twenty five,
6:29
Speaker 1: that number is down to three ninety two. Here's an
6:33
Speaker 1: example of a team that make sure that their outfield
6:37
Speaker 1: is tight, and Christian Yellis talked about it. He's like,
6:39
Speaker 1: the Brewers make sure that they have center fielders in
6:40
Speaker 1: each spot, Garrett Mitchell's Halfreelick Jackson, Churio, et cetera. All
6:44
Speaker 1: ninetieth percentile are better in sprint speeds. So there are
6:48
Speaker 1: things that start adding up and preventing more hits from falling.
6:52
Speaker 1: But back to my original point, Krats, I just like
6:55
Speaker 1: to present all perspectives, and there's going to be some
6:58
Speaker 1: super fans that watch this and say I'm totally off,
7:00
Speaker 1: But I do know plenty of people and plenty of
7:02
Speaker 1: casual fans that would rather look at a field that
7:05
Speaker 1: is a little more like aesthetically pleasing and aligned.
7:10
Speaker 2: To me, It's like, okay, So it's like, it's like
7:13
Speaker 2: a kid who's drake learning to drink from a cup
7:15
Speaker 2: and just keeps spilling on himself, And instead of teaching
7:17
Speaker 2: the kid how to drink from a cup, you just
7:20
Speaker 2: give him a sippy cup. He has a sippy cup
7:21
Speaker 2: for the rest of his life because he never learns
7:23
Speaker 2: how to drink from a cup. You want to get
7:24
Speaker 2: rid of that shift. There was I mean, there was
7:27
Speaker 2: seven guys on the right side of second base in
7:29
Speaker 2: that picture. We should we should hit a ground ball
7:31
Speaker 2: anywhere to the left side. There's there's I don't care
7:33
Speaker 2: what pitch who's who's throwing. I don't care what pitch
7:36
Speaker 2: he throws up there. As a major leaguer, you should
7:38
Speaker 2: be able to hit a seventy seven hopper anywhere to
7:42
Speaker 2: the left side of second base, and that's that would
7:44
Speaker 2: get rid of all that. But but guys were not
7:46
Speaker 2: willing to make that adjustment and not willing to do that,
7:49
Speaker 2: and because of it, Manfred had to step in and
7:51
Speaker 2: grab the hitter's hands and say, okay, guys, we're going
7:53
Speaker 2: to help you out by moving everybody over and maybe
7:56
Speaker 2: you guys can get more hits and get your averages better.
7:58
Speaker 2: It's just it's it's it's on the hitters. It's on
8:00
Speaker 2: the hitters for not making adjustments playing.
8:02
Speaker 1: But you're an outlier. It didn't happen. That's the problem.
8:06
Speaker 1: You know. Some guys said like they couldn't do it.
8:11
Speaker 2: That's because they didn't try to do it. They didn't
8:13
Speaker 2: practice doing it, they didn't work on doing it. They
8:14
Speaker 2: didn't want to do it. They said they couldn't do
8:16
Speaker 2: it because they didn't want to do it.
8:19
Speaker 3: That's one hundred percent, like you can't do it because
8:21
Speaker 3: you're not They didn't come up with that shift. Let's
8:23
Speaker 3: pull this picture up again because it's Joey Gallow and
8:25
Speaker 3: it's the extreme case. And I'm gonna pick on Joey
8:28
Speaker 3: Gallow here, who's no longer in the game but had
8:31
Speaker 3: had prehistoric power, Like this guy was an absolute gargantuan
8:35
Speaker 3: out there. Why is Joey Gallow not in the game anymore?
8:39
Speaker 3: Because he swung and missed a lot. They didn't come
8:42
Speaker 3: up with this right here, this shift where Robinson Cano
8:46
Speaker 3: and Jean Segura are playing like two positions where you're like,
8:50
Speaker 3: I don't even know they came up with it because
8:52
Speaker 3: Joey Gallows trying to put it. If you if you
8:54
Speaker 3: look right in the very top of the screen, that
8:58
Speaker 3: second deck in Texas, that's where he wants to hit it.
9:01
Speaker 3: You know what, how many times would they change this shift?
9:05
Speaker 3: Joey Gallow, who had thirty three stone bases, so he'd
9:08
Speaker 3: steal four or five a year if he bunted four
9:11
Speaker 3: times right down the third baseline. Would they move that
9:14
Speaker 3: one guy over there, or would the next team say,
9:17
Speaker 3: I don't care if Joey Gallo bunts. Oh really, you
9:20
Speaker 3: don't care. If a guy gets on base four straight times,
9:24
Speaker 3: bunt it, he bunts it hard, he might get a double.
9:28
Speaker 3: Like there's situations and guys like Anthony Rizzo took advantage
9:31
Speaker 3: of it. There was other guys that would take advantage
9:33
Speaker 3: of it and were like, just stop shifting. If they
9:37
Speaker 3: stop shifting, now it's open and you've done your job.
9:40
Speaker 3: Plus you also have probably nine to ten hits. My
9:44
Speaker 3: argument was it would take seven straight bunts by a
9:48
Speaker 3: power hitter that they would say, okay, seven for seven,
9:51
Speaker 3: like we gotta move him off there. Joey gallow would
9:54
Speaker 3: have raised his average, which is the reason and he's
9:56
Speaker 3: out of the game not because he lost his power.
9:59
Speaker 3: It's because he's want and missing struck out because he
10:01
Speaker 3: was trying to hit it over everybody.
10:05
Speaker 1: How come no one did it?
10:08
Speaker 3: Because we're getting Yes, my.
10:11
Speaker 2: Last my last thing, I was gonna say one more
10:14
Speaker 2: thing on it is is is the value of it?
10:16
Speaker 2: You did this exit? This average exit velocity is so
10:19
Speaker 2: high now and or it's so important now and everybody.
10:22
Speaker 2: A lot of people are looking at, well, we mix
10:24
Speaker 2: in a strikeout, what's the what's the exoscy on a strikeout?
10:28
Speaker 2: It's zero. So let's start including those at bats into
10:31
Speaker 2: the average and then watch to see where exit velocities
10:34
Speaker 2: go and that that's that would be like a value
10:38
Speaker 2: solution instead of trying to move, trying to move the
10:42
Speaker 2: infielders and outfielders and trying to open holes for hitters.
10:45
Speaker 2: Let's start let's start making strikeouts a bad thing again,
10:50
Speaker 2: and it would make guys a little more weary. I'm
10:53
Speaker 2: putting balls in play, especially now with the with the
10:55
Speaker 2: a BS system, the zones getting smaller with two strike
10:59
Speaker 2: Let's let's let's get ball back in play. Let's quit
11:00
Speaker 2: striking out so much.
11:02
Speaker 1: M Yeah. As a fan, I was looking at this
11:05
Speaker 1: originally and saying, cool, I'm into it. Shifts and then
11:08
Speaker 1: let's see the guys adjust. The problem I had was
11:10
Speaker 1: that I felt like, after a certain number of years,
11:13
Speaker 1: nothing was actually happening. You never get to see what
11:16
Speaker 1: Kratz was talking about, where some power hitter just keeps
11:19
Speaker 1: drilling bunts down the line and getting base hits or
11:21
Speaker 1: even doubles. So eventually I was like, all right, I'm
11:23
Speaker 1: waiting for something that's never going to happen, So I
11:26
Speaker 1: don't mind that they made the switch. We'll finish with this.
11:29
Speaker 1: The article gets to how the most frustrating base hit
11:32
Speaker 1: taken away now is the one up the middle, and
11:36
Speaker 1: how you know if you're a middle infielder you can
11:38
Speaker 1: shade towards second base and take those hits away. So
11:41
Speaker 1: the radical idea was, do they do dots or lines
11:43
Speaker 1: where fielders have to stay in a certain lane. I
11:46
Speaker 1: think we're gonna stop.
11:47
Speaker 3: There because that's Morris. Okay. I'm so glad that we
11:54
Speaker 3: just aren't able to move the line anymore. Wow, yeah,
11:57
Speaker 3: take take that away, wit.
11:59
Speaker 6: Wit.
11:59
Speaker 3: Like, my issue with this is, okay with you, you
12:03
Speaker 3: made a decent amount of money in the game because
12:05
Speaker 3: you were good at something. What if they just said, hey,
12:08
Speaker 3: we're gonna take that away because the majority of players
12:10
Speaker 3: are pretty good at this. Oh you know what that's
12:13
Speaker 3: gonna do. It's gonna tamp down salaries. It's gonna tamp
12:16
Speaker 3: all this down. If they take the shift away and
12:18
Speaker 3: you get singles, who's getting paid for singles?
12:21
Speaker 6: Who's getting paid?
12:22
Speaker 3: Oh hey, we're giving you the singles back that nobody's
12:26
Speaker 3: paid for, Like, there's no like stop with all the
12:30
Speaker 3: stop with all the like. Aesthetically it doesn't look aesthetically good.
12:34
Speaker 3: You know, it doesn't look aesthetically good. A batter walking
12:37
Speaker 3: back to the bench because he was swinging for the
12:39
Speaker 3: fences instead he could have bunted one down. Now you
12:43
Speaker 3: move them over and guess what happens when you have
12:45
Speaker 3: a runner on base. They could score. But we love walks.
12:48
Speaker 3: Walks are great, they're valuable, but for some reason, a
12:51
Speaker 3: bunt through a shift is not valuable.
12:55
Speaker 2: I just like relating it back to other sports and
12:57
Speaker 2: how ridiculous it makes it seem like if it's like
13:01
Speaker 2: it's like making a point guard who who's strong on
13:04
Speaker 2: his right hand but his struggles on the left hand.
13:06
Speaker 2: You make it you force the left. But that's like
13:08
Speaker 2: the commissioners saying, nope, can't force the left. Yeah, let
13:11
Speaker 2: them go right, or like JAMR. Gibbs, Nope, you get
13:15
Speaker 2: your good out in space, but you can't. We're not
13:18
Speaker 2: going to let you run outside of the tackle. You
13:19
Speaker 2: got to stay in between the box because you're so
13:21
Speaker 2: good out in space. It's just it's a ridiculous concept.
13:25
Speaker 6: Yeah.
13:26
Speaker 1: I mean football has a million rules with formations and things.
13:29
Speaker 1: I will say, just keep in mind they make the
13:33
Speaker 1: game set up a certain way. You can't do a
13:35
Speaker 1: lot of things in football. We don't have time to
13:36
Speaker 1: get into all of it, but there are a lot
13:38
Speaker 1: of intricate rules there for football to maintain how it's
13:42
Speaker 1: supposed to look. Just throwing it out there. Also looking
13:45
Speaker 1: at top ten batting averages right now, Dodgers, Braves, Cubs
13:48
Speaker 1: are on here. Raise some of the best teams to
13:50
Speaker 1: start the season are on here. So might not matter
13:52
Speaker 1: for individuals, but for teams, and it matters for the
13:55
Speaker 1: kiddos out there. So pay attention to your batting average.
13:58
Speaker 1: Get on base, it helps you. And also get on
14:00
Speaker 1: the Game Changer app, the number one youth sports app,
14:02
Speaker 1: Coach Smarter Connect Live, replay the action, watch your kid
14:05
Speaker 1: play the game from wherever you are, and get so
14:07
Speaker 1: much more at GC dot com. Let's do this the
14:16
Speaker 1: Inside Scoop with ftsior insider Ken Rosenthal. I'm curious to
14:20
Speaker 1: get your take on this one. Ken. Finally the time
14:22
Speaker 1: has come. Spencer Jones arrives in the Bronx to rival
14:26
Speaker 1: the size of Aaron Judge and try and be even
14:30
Speaker 1: a sliver of what Aaron is. He had similar metrics
14:33
Speaker 1: in the minor leagues in terms of heavy strikeouts, ridiculous pops.
14:37
Speaker 1: So what are you expecting? What are you looking at
14:39
Speaker 1: here with the way the Yankees will implement him in
14:41
Speaker 1: the way that he might produce in the big leagues.
14:44
Speaker 6: I don't know what to expect, and I don't know
14:46
Speaker 6: that anyone does. I saw him described as one of
14:49
Speaker 6: the more polarizing prospects in recent times, and that would
14:54
Speaker 6: seem to be accurate because he is a guy who
14:57
Speaker 6: has immense physical gifts, immense power, and yet yes does
15:01
Speaker 6: strike out a ton and at the major league level,
15:04
Speaker 6: that likely will be a problem that he's gonna have
15:06
Speaker 6: to deal with. If he was dealing with it at
15:08
Speaker 6: the miners, he's gonna be dealing with it in the majors.
15:11
Speaker 6: So they're gonna give him some runway here because Jason
15:14
Speaker 6: Dimingez obviously is out for some time after crashing into
15:17
Speaker 6: that wall, and they brought him up to play. You
15:19
Speaker 6: don't bring up a guy like Spencer Jones and not
15:22
Speaker 6: play him. So with Dimingas in Stanton out, there's a
15:25
Speaker 6: chance here and we'll see how it goes. But yes,
15:27
Speaker 6: they'll have the twin towers basically on the two outfield corners.
15:32
Speaker 3: Aside from the neat story of the tall guys all
15:35
Speaker 3: that stuff. Is there something to look into more because
15:38
Speaker 3: I don't watch enough Scranton rail Riders games that Jason
15:41
Speaker 3: Dimingez got called up before Spencer Jones, Like Jason Dimingez
15:46
Speaker 3: was about to start getting more playing time because he
15:49
Speaker 3: wasn't doing as poorly as he was other times. But
15:51
Speaker 3: was there something to that that maybe they're like, all right, well,
15:55
Speaker 3: I guess we have to call Spencer up instead of Wow,
15:58
Speaker 3: he burst through the door and he's leading those International
16:01
Speaker 3: League and RBIs and now we're gonna call him up.
16:04
Speaker 6: Well, he has played better of late. I saw Amon
16:06
Speaker 6: Boom quoted to this effect today in that the last
16:09
Speaker 6: few weeks there's been a little bit less swing and miss,
16:12
Speaker 6: and yes, he's leading the league in RBIs, the International League.
16:15
Speaker 6: So Domingez was always the guy who was going to
16:18
Speaker 6: be first in my view, because he is someone with
16:21
Speaker 6: major league experience. It was someone that a lot of
16:24
Speaker 6: people thought was going to make the team perhaps coming
16:26
Speaker 6: out of spring training, and when he didn't, it was
16:28
Speaker 6: a bit of a story, so it made sense the
16:31
Speaker 6: sequence here. But now that Domingez is hurt and they
16:34
Speaker 6: feel better about Jones, okay, they can take a look
16:38
Speaker 6: and listen. They're in a great position right now as well,
16:41
Speaker 6: because they have the best record in the American League.
16:43
Speaker 6: Only Tampa Bay is remotely close to them, and Tampa
16:46
Speaker 6: Bay is only a half game back. But the Yankees,
16:51
Speaker 6: I don't know that it's proper to say they can
16:53
Speaker 6: afford to do this because they need to do this,
16:55
Speaker 6: But at the same time, they're in a good spot.
17:00
Speaker 2: That's what I was gonna ask you, Ken, is is
17:01
Speaker 2: the Yankee? I mean, it's not like you're looking for
17:03
Speaker 2: like a spark in their lineup. They're playing great, So
17:05
Speaker 2: what kind of it seems like they're Jones is coming
17:08
Speaker 2: up to be a guy to begin this lineup and
17:10
Speaker 2: to be to be in there just about every day.
17:12
Speaker 2: What kind of leash are they gonna give this kid?
17:15
Speaker 2: Because look at what Judge did when he first got up.
17:17
Speaker 2: It wasn't It wasn't the Judge that we're seeing now.
17:19
Speaker 2: It took him some time to get used to the
17:22
Speaker 2: big leagues and find himself. Because when you get there,
17:25
Speaker 2: it's just I don't care what you've done. I don't
17:27
Speaker 2: care if you've hit seven hundred every level in the
17:29
Speaker 2: minor leagues. You get to the big leagues, it's a
17:32
Speaker 2: different game, especially in New York. You got the media
17:34
Speaker 2: on your neck every day, you got information getting out
17:38
Speaker 2: about you as a hitter. To all the clubs, there's
17:41
Speaker 2: they're they're finding weaknesses, pitchers are better, and it's day
17:45
Speaker 2: after day. So it's gonna take some adjustment for him.
17:47
Speaker 2: It sounds like they're gonna give him a little bit
17:49
Speaker 2: of a leash.
17:51
Speaker 6: That would be my expectation with simply because of the
17:53
Speaker 6: way they are positioned right now with their injuries. Now,
17:56
Speaker 6: what's interesting about the Yankees and their dynamic And I
17:59
Speaker 6: was just talking about this with someone they have in
18:02
Speaker 6: their clubhouse, Aaron Judge, and Aaron Judge, in addition to
18:05
Speaker 6: the many wonderful things he does on the field, seems
18:09
Speaker 6: to have an unusual leadership quality about him. He's not
18:13
Speaker 6: just a leader on the team. He is the leader.
18:17
Speaker 6: He is the Alpha. He's the guy, and the players
18:21
Speaker 6: not just respect him, but they revere him. So when
18:24
Speaker 6: you bring in a young kid to that clubhouse, you
18:28
Speaker 6: have this dynamic that is frankly among the most positive
18:32
Speaker 6: in the game, at least from my understanding. I'm not
18:34
Speaker 6: in clubhouses of course, not a player, but the way
18:38
Speaker 6: players talk, that's the impression I get. So in that sense,
18:43
Speaker 6: bringing Spencer Jones into that environment is ideal. Now, obviously
18:48
Speaker 6: he has to perform, we all know that. But those
18:51
Speaker 6: players in there, and it's not just Judge of course,
18:53
Speaker 6: gold Schmidt and Bellinger and all these others, they will
18:57
Speaker 6: quote unquote take care of him and they'll make his
18:59
Speaker 6: trends position as smooth as possible.
19:03
Speaker 3: I was there in Judge's rookie season, and he had
19:05
Speaker 3: that aura about him as the kids say where Brett
19:08
Speaker 3: Gardner was and CC Sabbathia were letting him run the radio,
19:13
Speaker 3: which was like, as a rookie, you're not running, You're
19:15
Speaker 3: not running the iPad that's on the wall picking out songs.
19:19
Speaker 3: Is there someone else in the game that has that
19:22
Speaker 3: type of aura about him for his team, not necessarily
19:27
Speaker 3: just for the league. I get it. Other teams look
19:30
Speaker 3: at Judge and they're like, oh my goodness, look at
19:32
Speaker 3: this guy.
19:35
Speaker 6: I don't know that there's anyone quite like him Eric,
19:38
Speaker 6: and he is the center of all that they do
19:41
Speaker 6: in that sense. Now, Sandel Contra in Miami, he's a
19:45
Speaker 6: picture so it's different, of course, but he has that
19:48
Speaker 6: kind of respect I believe in their clubhouse and as
19:52
Speaker 6: far as other players, Trout is kind of like that.
19:56
Speaker 6: But I don't know that Trout is quite the leader
19:58
Speaker 6: of the judges. And I'm not knocking Trout all. It's
20:00
Speaker 6: just as you said, Judge has something of an aura
20:03
Speaker 6: about him, and because he's performing at such a high
20:07
Speaker 6: level and working so hard at it all the time,
20:10
Speaker 6: not letting up, he's a guy that they just look to.
20:13
Speaker 6: The players do so off the top of my head,
20:16
Speaker 6: I can't think of another player quite like him. There
20:19
Speaker 6: are a number of players, of course, who get immense
20:21
Speaker 6: respect in their rooms, but he seems to be almost
20:26
Speaker 6: a cut above even what we're talking about with that Ken.
20:30
Speaker 3: If you want to be hip with the kids, you
20:31
Speaker 3: can say aura farming, you can say he is is
20:36
Speaker 3: an aura factory. You can use those words if you want,
20:39
Speaker 3: but I'm going to I've.
20:40
Speaker 6: Given up trying to be hip with the kids. My
20:42
Speaker 6: kids were telling me last night, I unhip. I was
20:45
Speaker 6: one of them was. So it's just a losing cause.
20:48
Speaker 3: That's not fair. You need to surround yourself with people
20:51
Speaker 3: like me who build you up. But you always spend
20:52
Speaker 3: so much time with aj He tears you down. And
20:55
Speaker 3: your kids seem like they're just trying to keep you down.
20:58
Speaker 3: And I think you're a great and I think you're hit.
21:01
Speaker 3: You have a lot of aura. Let's go half a
21:04
Speaker 3: game behind the Yankees, which is so crazy to say
21:08
Speaker 3: that the Rays are half a game behind Before this season,
21:13
Speaker 3: could Ken Rosenthal have have recited half of the Ray's
21:17
Speaker 3: roster after trading guys like Brandon Lao, after trading at
21:21
Speaker 3: Josh Lowe, after the fact that we didn't know Shane
21:23
Speaker 3: McClanahan was going to be on the roster. How are
21:25
Speaker 3: they doing this at this point in the year to
21:29
Speaker 3: keep up with a team who we just said, Wow,
21:31
Speaker 3: they're hitting on all cylinders as the Yankees.
21:34
Speaker 6: I could have recited half their roster. But yes, it's
21:36
Speaker 6: a different group now. I wrote about them today and
21:40
Speaker 6: I wrote about that they've gotten back now to Tropicana
21:44
Speaker 6: Field as their home park after that year at Steinberner Field,
21:47
Speaker 6: where they were welcome by the Yankees quite graciously, but
21:51
Speaker 6: at the same time it was a minor league park.
21:53
Speaker 6: It was a difficult transition. There were all kinds of
21:56
Speaker 6: issues that I wrote about in the column, just the
22:00
Speaker 6: different things that they faced. Now they're back in their
22:02
Speaker 6: comfort zone. We all might think that Troup is not
22:05
Speaker 6: the greatest park in the world, but for them, it's home.
22:08
Speaker 6: So that has made a difference. Now that's not the
22:10
Speaker 6: only thing. Of course, what they have on that team
22:14
Speaker 6: are three really good hitters right now. Diaz of course,
22:18
Speaker 6: Yandy Diaz, Junior Caminero and Jonathan Ronda. Those three guys
22:24
Speaker 6: are quality, above average major league hitters. They've also got
22:28
Speaker 6: Chandler Simpson. Now, Chandler Simpson is not going to blow
22:30
Speaker 6: up your war charts. He's not gonna have the ops
22:33
Speaker 6: of a junior Caroenero. But we saw it again last night,
22:38
Speaker 6: comes off the bench, go ahead hit, and he hits
22:41
Speaker 6: a triple. He can run like crazy, twelve stolen bases already.
22:45
Speaker 6: He adds an element to their offense that is kind
22:48
Speaker 6: of unique, quite frankly. So they have that, and they
22:52
Speaker 6: have a pitching staff that again with McClanahan coming back,
22:56
Speaker 6: with Nick Martinez, with Matts before he got hurt. All
23:00
Speaker 6: the good things that they have going on there and
23:02
Speaker 6: a bullpen that's performing pretty well. It's an impressive, typical
23:06
Speaker 6: Tampa Bay Rays kind of thing. Now, I point out
23:09
Speaker 6: in the column there's some regression that probably is due here,
23:12
Speaker 6: both on the offensive and pitching side. But at the
23:15
Speaker 6: same time, it's a weak American league. So if you're
23:19
Speaker 6: a Rais fan, or if you're just paying attention, you
23:22
Speaker 6: might just look at them and say, well, why can't
23:24
Speaker 6: they be a playoff team? And right now they do
23:27
Speaker 6: look like a playoff team.
23:29
Speaker 3: Well they can't because Ken just said there's going to
23:31
Speaker 3: be some regression, So I guess they can't be a
23:33
Speaker 3: playoff team. But my thing is people look to the Rays.
23:37
Speaker 3: When I went to the Rays near the end of
23:39
Speaker 3: my career, every other team I went to. The very
23:42
Speaker 3: first question for about another organization was what do the
23:46
Speaker 3: Rays do? Do you feel like the team they've created? Now,
23:50
Speaker 3: yesterday I think it was Inosaurus or Petreolo, somebody came
23:53
Speaker 3: out with they are the flattest swing in the game, yes,
23:56
Speaker 3: and all that stuff. Yes, do they have Are they
24:01
Speaker 3: building something with this team? And I got it, it's early.
24:03
Speaker 3: We're not supposed to say that today Scott's rule, But
24:07
Speaker 3: is this something that other organizations are gonna be like, oh,
24:09
Speaker 3: the Raids are doing this, should we look into it.
24:12
Speaker 3: The Blue Jays just went to the World Series and
24:14
Speaker 3: almost won the World Series by quote unquote doing this.
24:18
Speaker 3: Do you think it's duplicated by other teams because the
24:21
Speaker 3: Rays are doing this this way.
24:23
Speaker 6: Not necessarily. I don't know that there is a secret
24:26
Speaker 6: sauce with them right now. They've got good players and
24:29
Speaker 6: in the past from nineteen to twenty three when they
24:32
Speaker 6: made five straight Playoff appearances, good players, and yes, there
24:36
Speaker 6: is a certain quality about them. I think the pitching coach,
24:39
Speaker 6: Kyle Snyder is one of the best in the game.
24:42
Speaker 6: Most people would agree with that. And offensively, they always
24:45
Speaker 6: seem to be a bit challenged, and they're a bit
24:47
Speaker 6: challenged now, but they can score enough and do enough
24:51
Speaker 6: things athletically, which is one of their secrets, to put
24:55
Speaker 6: enough runs on the board. So I know what Mike
24:58
Speaker 6: Petriello tweeted about it was that they are leading in
25:01
Speaker 6: flat swings and also right up there in lowest strikeout rate,
25:06
Speaker 6: and there was another statistic too that it was really
25:09
Speaker 6: good they do these things, yes, but I don't know
25:13
Speaker 6: that it's something eric that teams are looking at and saying, Wow,
25:17
Speaker 6: Tampa Bay's doing this, We've got to do it now.
25:19
Speaker 6: It's just they've done this for a long time, competed
25:23
Speaker 6: at a high level even with their limited resources. And
25:26
Speaker 6: we'll say it again, Tampa Bay, Cleveland, Milwaukee, I'm missing
25:31
Speaker 6: it a few too. There are small market teams in
25:34
Speaker 6: this sport that do a really good job of figuring
25:37
Speaker 6: things out. And Cincinnati and Pittsburgh this year have come
25:41
Speaker 6: on a bit. Miami is getting there. So for all
25:45
Speaker 6: the talk of the sport being broken and all of that,
25:47
Speaker 6: and I know there are problems when we've talked about
25:49
Speaker 6: them had knowledge, we're going to be talking about them
25:51
Speaker 6: a lot more. There are a lot of good things
25:53
Speaker 6: happening with some of these clubs as well.
25:58
Speaker 2: Just imagine if they made the limited resource medi medium
26:03
Speaker 2: mediocre resources I before. Just imagine what they could.
26:07
Speaker 3: Do a team that was not a small market but
26:14
Speaker 3: acted like a small market till I'd say the last
26:17
Speaker 3: two years. The Chicago Cubs. Can you tell me what
26:21
Speaker 3: the heck is going on at Wrigley Because Wit said
26:24
Speaker 3: before this, he goes, oh it's getting hot at Wriglarly.
26:27
Speaker 3: Well it's not hot at Wrigley. It's still wind blowing
26:29
Speaker 3: this way that way, it's cold. But the Cubs are
26:33
Speaker 3: on fire at regularly and just really kind of trying
26:36
Speaker 3: to take a stranglehold on a tough division, which I
26:39
Speaker 3: never thought i'd say. In NL Central.
26:42
Speaker 6: I heard you guys talking about them earlier, and I
26:44
Speaker 6: got to ask a question yesterday on my show Fair Territory,
26:48
Speaker 6: and the question was, do you believe in good luck
26:51
Speaker 6: running out in baseball? That obviously these things do balance out,
26:56
Speaker 6: and the Cubs are not going to win every game
26:57
Speaker 6: at Wrigley the rest of the year. They won't fit
27:00
Speaker 6: team in a row that's pretty good, but they are
27:04
Speaker 6: not simply lucky though. Of course they've had some good
27:07
Speaker 6: things happen. They're a good team. Now are they going
27:09
Speaker 6: to be this good? Of course not. But what I
27:12
Speaker 6: love about them two things, in particular, their defense, which
27:16
Speaker 6: is among the best in the game, and the infield
27:19
Speaker 6: is just really good outfield too. And then you have
27:23
Speaker 6: a lineup that lacks an Aaron Judge type presence. Of
27:28
Speaker 6: course all teams lack that kind of presence, but they
27:31
Speaker 6: don't really have a forty home run guy or anything
27:34
Speaker 6: like that in their lineup. But what they have are
27:37
Speaker 6: guys one through nine that are really good, and they're
27:41
Speaker 6: pretty deep all the way through. They've got some players
27:44
Speaker 6: on the bench as well, Shaw who comes off and
27:47
Speaker 6: does some things. So I like all of that a lot.
27:50
Speaker 6: Their position player group is among the best. The question
27:53
Speaker 6: is going to be their pitching. And we've seen the
27:56
Speaker 6: injuries Horting out for the year still with the set
28:00
Speaker 6: and now Matthew Boyd out at least for some time
28:03
Speaker 6: with the knee injury. That is where the questions come in.
28:06
Speaker 6: But if they can hold on until boy comes back,
28:09
Speaker 6: and if Steele hopefully can give them something, then it
28:12
Speaker 6: looks a little bit better. Certainly a Minaga has been
28:15
Speaker 6: great for them, and Tyne solid, then they're okay. Colin
28:20
Speaker 6: Ray is doing what Colin Ray does. But that is
28:23
Speaker 6: the one question with them, and of course it's a
28:25
Speaker 6: question that they might need to address and probably would
28:28
Speaker 6: address at the deadline.
28:31
Speaker 1: Hey, Ken, one more on the way out, because it's
28:33
Speaker 1: oh what do you got? No?
28:35
Speaker 2: Go ahead? Who Scott? I was just gonna ask how
28:38
Speaker 2: I was us aggressive? You feel like the Cubs with
28:41
Speaker 2: the some of the pitching injuries are gonna be here
28:44
Speaker 2: come in the next month or so when the dead
28:46
Speaker 2: light comes about with the hot start that had gotten on,
28:48
Speaker 2: do you feel them being super aggressive in this around
28:52
Speaker 2: the trade deadline.
28:53
Speaker 6: I do believe that they will be aggressive, and I
28:55
Speaker 6: forgot to mention Edward Cabrera, who of course is talented
28:58
Speaker 6: beyond belief in that rotation. Now, what's interesting about them
29:02
Speaker 6: with they've traded in the past couple of years some
29:05
Speaker 6: big prospects. Cam Smith now in Houston went in the
29:08
Speaker 6: Tucker trade, oh and Casey went in the Cabrera trade.
29:12
Speaker 6: I would imagine they don't want to do this again.
29:14
Speaker 6: But if you're in this position where you've got a
29:17
Speaker 6: chance to really take a step forward, and they are
29:20
Speaker 6: in that position, then I can't imagine them simply saying, ah,
29:23
Speaker 6: you know what, we signed Alex Bregman, we traded for Cabrera.
29:27
Speaker 6: We're done.
29:28
Speaker 7: And that's not how they're going to approach this, all right, Ken,
29:32
Speaker 7: last one for you. Did you see the Trek Schoogle
29:35
Speaker 7: news that he might not miss as much time as anticipated.
29:39
Speaker 7: Your thoughts on how impactful that could be for the
29:41
Speaker 7: Tigers and for him if he does return, say in June,
29:46
Speaker 7: and the elbow surgery wasn't as significant as some feared.
29:52
Speaker 6: First off, I'll believe it when I see it, and
29:55
Speaker 6: we often hear from teams and players and agents he'll
30:00
Speaker 6: be back, and it's not so fast. So the good
30:04
Speaker 6: news is that we're even talking about it in that
30:07
Speaker 6: sense that Trek Scoogle might be back in a shorter
30:10
Speaker 6: timeframe than was originally expected. And if that happens. Number one,
30:15
Speaker 6: it's great for the Tigers. Number two, it's great for
30:17
Speaker 6: Schooble because Schooble is going to want to pitch well.
30:22
Speaker 6: Obviously down the stretch as a free agents. At a
30:25
Speaker 6: free agent, does he need to pitch well, I don't
30:28
Speaker 6: know that he needs to for his market value. He's
30:30
Speaker 6: going to be highly coveted. But he wants to pitch.
30:34
Speaker 6: He wants to compete, he wants to take that team
30:36
Speaker 6: to the playoffs, back to the playoffs. And let's just
30:40
Speaker 6: hope that news is true. But again, I'm always skeptical
30:43
Speaker 6: on timelines. Usually they're longer rather than shorter.
30:48
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, And that's why his teams sometimes won't say
30:51
Speaker 1: much because they don't want to get fans excited. And
30:54
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden they're waiting and waiting and saying, oh,
30:56
Speaker 1: you said he was going to come back sooner, so yes, TBD.
30:59
Speaker 1: We'll see, but hopefully we get s Google back in
31:02
Speaker 1: June versus what I thought was going to be more
31:05
Speaker 1: like August. Ken, good stuff, Enjoy the weekend, See you Monday,
31:09
Speaker 1: Thanks Scott, and Monday is Fair Territory. Always recapping the weekend.
31:16
Speaker 1: Monday Morning's ten am Eastern Time. Thursday is twelve thirty
31:19
Speaker 1: leading up to Foul Territory, but just perfect Monday. You
31:23
Speaker 1: miss anything Ken's got you covered over the weekend. Answer
31:27
Speaker 1: some questions to live on the ftutube channel