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Can the Pirates keep the momentum rolling on the West Coast? · Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: What's up, everybody.
0:10
Speaker 2: Welcome back to another episode of Buckos Territory, presented to
0:13
Speaker 2: you by the Foul Territory Network. I'm Noah Hyles. Joining
0:15
Speaker 2: me as always are my co hosts, Josh Harrison and
0:18
Speaker 2: Platinum Key aka Mark. We're recording this on Thursday, August twentieth.
0:22
Speaker 2: This show will be live the following day, Friday, August
0:26
Speaker 2: twenty first, where the Pirates have a big weekend series
0:29
Speaker 2: against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Why is it a big
0:31
Speaker 2: weekend series, Well, it's because they've won their last two series.
0:36
Speaker 2: Like we said they needed to do, they need to
0:37
Speaker 2: keep winning and they've done that.
0:40
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about that. We're gonna talk about Jay
0:42
Speaker 1: Hay now.
0:42
Speaker 2: Segment as we always wrap up the week. But guys, first,
0:45
Speaker 2: we got to start off with Paul Skens, who started
0:49
Speaker 2: on a week's worth of rest on Wednesday afternoon. The
0:54
Speaker 2: velocity was better, but the start overall wasn't what you would.
0:58
Speaker 1: Like to see.
1:00
Speaker 2: North of eighty pitches didn't get through the fifth inning.
1:03
Speaker 2: I believe it was four and two thirds if that's
1:07
Speaker 2: excuse me, yeah, four and a third, and we've talked
1:12
Speaker 2: about it on this show. I've written about it. What
1:14
Speaker 2: do you do with Paul Skins for the remainder of
1:17
Speaker 2: the year. I suggested that if his start wasn't any
1:20
Speaker 2: better off after this much rest, then maybe you shut
1:23
Speaker 2: him down for the end of the season.
1:26
Speaker 1: I'm leaning toward that still being the option.
1:30
Speaker 2: I'll throw it to you, guys, Mark, what are you
1:32
Speaker 2: What are your thoughts on Paul Skins? You kind of
1:36
Speaker 2: agreed with me when I presented that theory last week.
1:40
Speaker 1: Are you still agreeing with me? Now?
1:41
Speaker 2: Do you think that should be his last start of
1:43
Speaker 2: the year.
1:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's really hard to say, especially with
1:47
Speaker 3: back to back series wins. I feel like if the
1:51
Speaker 3: Pirates hadn't won those series, if the playoffs were basically
1:54
Speaker 3: out of the picture, this would be a really easy
1:57
Speaker 3: decision to make. But they're still in it, and you
2:01
Speaker 3: have this Ace who just continues to struggle. And I
2:05
Speaker 3: think that's one of the hardest parts about this is
2:07
Speaker 3: you know the potential. You know he can be good,
2:09
Speaker 3: you know he can probably help this team, but the
2:12
Speaker 3: way he's been pitching lately, he just really hasn't been
2:16
Speaker 3: a benefit to this team. You're taxing the bullpen when
2:20
Speaker 3: you're not able to go five innings. He hasn't been
2:23
Speaker 3: able to do it efficiently. He's been without the same
2:26
Speaker 3: control that we've seen Paul Skins have throughout his entire career.
2:30
Speaker 3: He opened up his last start by walking the first
2:32
Speaker 3: two batters. So the lack of efficiency, the lack of
2:37
Speaker 3: just ability to control the game and go deep, has
2:39
Speaker 3: been really concerning. And so, yeah, you want him to
2:43
Speaker 3: help this team, but I feel like he can help
2:45
Speaker 3: this team a lot more by being shut down and
2:48
Speaker 3: being who Paul Skins can be. For twenty twenty seven,
2:53
Speaker 3: you still have to I know everyone's apprehensive if is
2:55
Speaker 3: there going to be a season. You still have to
2:56
Speaker 3: plan like there's going to be a season, and you
2:59
Speaker 3: have to protect your most important asset, which is Paul
3:01
Speaker 3: Skans here. And so if you can't do that while
3:07
Speaker 3: he's pitching right now, I feel like you got to
3:09
Speaker 3: shut him down because if something's mechanically wrong, the longer
3:12
Speaker 3: this goes, I start to worry, you know, if he's
3:15
Speaker 3: trying to overcorrect, if he's going to injure himself or something.
3:18
Speaker 3: But he just hasn't been helping this team as much.
3:21
Speaker 3: My only concern about shutting him down is who do
3:24
Speaker 3: you go to replace him in the rotation? Do you
3:28
Speaker 3: go like Wilburd Hotel, Christian Curtis, Antoine Kelly, Like, do
3:31
Speaker 3: you look at one of those guys? Do you give
3:33
Speaker 3: Thomas Harrington a shot? Do you give Hunter Barco a shot?
3:37
Speaker 3: I don't know, so, yeah, probably not, but yeah, so
3:41
Speaker 3: that would be my one concern is just who else
3:43
Speaker 3: starts if not Skins, Joshua, are your thoughts on this?
3:49
Speaker 4: Obviously a dicey situation given where they are in a season,
3:52
Speaker 4: because you don't want to waste what you would call
3:55
Speaker 4: any bullets for games that you would say don't matter.
3:58
Speaker 4: But we can't say that these games don't matter. We
4:00
Speaker 4: just had this conversation, you know, last you know, just
4:04
Speaker 4: over the past week, and they've won a couple series
4:06
Speaker 4: and not saying that everything is looking like, oh, they're
4:08
Speaker 4: gonna be in the playoffs, but this team is showing
4:11
Speaker 4: some fight and looking at his start, yes, you gave
4:14
Speaker 4: him extra rest and you saw some velocity come back,
4:17
Speaker 4: but you still saw, you know, the same concerns of
4:20
Speaker 4: you know, not being as efficient in a strike zone.
4:23
Speaker 1: As you would like.
4:25
Speaker 4: And granted they had a couple little numbers here and
4:27
Speaker 4: there I know a little blooper that I think labor
4:29
Speaker 4: Tours might have hit. You know, it's baseball. But obviously
4:32
Speaker 4: for those looking for the velocity, obviously they're going to
4:35
Speaker 4: be like, yes, the velocity came back. And I think
4:38
Speaker 4: Paul's postgame comments he even alluded to, you know, he
4:41
Speaker 4: felt fresher, which I think anybody has said maybe too fresh.
4:45
Speaker 4: And any picture that you know, gets an extra day
4:48
Speaker 4: or two is gonna feel fresher, and we'll see a
4:50
Speaker 4: ticket velocity. But if something is off mechanically, it's still
4:54
Speaker 4: going to be you know, kind of hit or miss.
4:57
Speaker 4: And I just remember a von Nova. I remember one
5:00
Speaker 4: day he goes Man. I remember, coming off of a
5:02
Speaker 4: six or seven day rest, his sinker turned into a
5:05
Speaker 4: flatter fastball because he had extra miles an hour, you know,
5:08
Speaker 4: in his velocity, which not saying this was Paul, when
5:11
Speaker 4: we're saying sometimes that extra added velocity isn't always an
5:14
Speaker 4: indicator if things are correct, And obviously everybody can kind
5:20
Speaker 4: of look and see that there's a disconnect. And I
5:24
Speaker 4: quote me if I'm wrong, but I even think yesterday's
5:26
Speaker 4: Paul's postgame comments, he said, maybe there's still a disconnect somewhere,
5:31
Speaker 4: and I'm not sure if he said that, maybe I
5:32
Speaker 4: heard that out of turn, but alluding to yes, he
5:35
Speaker 4: felt fresher, but there's still something not quite synced up.
5:39
Speaker 4: And Mark, you made a really good point. When something's
5:42
Speaker 4: not synced up, and given how hard he throws, yes,
5:46
Speaker 4: it can lead to injury, and you do want to
5:48
Speaker 4: prevent that. But it's a fine line of if they
5:50
Speaker 4: keep winning serious you know, it's like, how do you say,
5:54
Speaker 4: our most one of our most prized possessions. We're just
5:56
Speaker 4: not gonna let pitch who is a competitor. So if
6:00
Speaker 4: they keep winning games and series, it makes it tougher
6:04
Speaker 4: on the team. But definitely I think it's still in
6:08
Speaker 4: search mode, you know, just the velocity as I say,
6:11
Speaker 4: it was just from extra rest, but you know, still
6:15
Speaker 4: still some underlying things that need to be cleaned up.
6:19
Speaker 2: In my opinion, yeah, I think at the very least
6:23
Speaker 2: I wouldn't let him start on the West Coast. You
6:27
Speaker 2: get an off day today, which will allow whoever starts.
6:32
Speaker 2: I don't know, you could figure out a way to
6:34
Speaker 2: get through these six games without him, and then I
6:38
Speaker 2: would basically tell him, like, hey, you're starting the first
6:42
Speaker 2: game in Saint Louis, which will be on the twenty eighth,
6:46
Speaker 2: so that will be another full week's rest, if even more.
6:52
Speaker 2: And yeah, we'll try to figure it out without you
6:55
Speaker 2: until then, and then that's kind of his last chance.
6:58
Speaker 2: And if it looks like that, then you go from there,
7:03
Speaker 2: you probably shut him down, you know. I I know
7:06
Speaker 2: I'm like the one dialing it back now, right, but
7:09
Speaker 2: I'm just looking at the circumstances here because I think
7:13
Speaker 2: the only apprehension we have toward fully saying, hey, shut
7:20
Speaker 2: him down is that the team just won back to
7:22
Speaker 2: back series and it's starting to gain a little bit
7:25
Speaker 2: of momentum. So I think maybe you owe it to
7:28
Speaker 2: the team. And if Skeen says he wants to keep going,
7:31
Speaker 2: to figure out a way to preserve him a little bit.
7:35
Speaker 2: But you know, if they go out to LA and
7:37
Speaker 2: they get swept by the Dodgers or they you know,
7:40
Speaker 2: even if they just if they lose these next two series,
7:44
Speaker 2: if they go anything worse than four and two, in
7:48
Speaker 2: your years done and so it doesn't matter anyway. So
7:52
Speaker 2: that's I think that solves the problem in itself where
7:54
Speaker 2: it's like, hey, you know what, we had a little
7:56
Speaker 2: bit of momentum, but then we played two playoff teams
7:59
Speaker 2: on the West Coast and they reminded us that we're
8:01
Speaker 2: not a playoff team now. On the flip side, if
8:03
Speaker 2: they go out and they take two or three from
8:05
Speaker 2: the Dodgers, you take two or three from the Padres,
8:08
Speaker 2: you got it. And Paul is healthy, which by all
8:11
Speaker 2: accounts he is, Oh we've heard.
8:13
Speaker 1: Then you try to figuring it out.
8:15
Speaker 2: But I probably wouldn't let him pitch in San Diego
8:19
Speaker 2: because his next start would be the twenty fifth that Tuesday. Yeah,
8:25
Speaker 2: I would just try to do a bullpen game that
8:27
Speaker 2: day and see what happens. And I know that's tough
8:30
Speaker 2: considering how some of the other guys in the rotation
8:33
Speaker 2: are throwing the ball, but that's what I would plan.
8:37
Speaker 2: Would I would probably just say, hey, you know, you
8:39
Speaker 2: got the ball. The next time in Saint Louis, we're
8:42
Speaker 2: going to kind of operate a little differently and maybe
8:45
Speaker 2: just this extra rest can get him going, because the
8:49
Speaker 2: velocity was back, like that was a step forward in
8:53
Speaker 2: one way, but it's at the same time it's through
8:56
Speaker 2: eighty pitches and he didn't make it five innings. Yeah, yeah,
9:00
Speaker 2: I didn't have the control he was walking guys. So
9:02
Speaker 2: I would probably like, depending on what happens in LA,
9:08
Speaker 2: if they get swept by the Dodgers, I might just
9:10
Speaker 2: say you're done. Yeah, But I think the most I'd
9:13
Speaker 2: be willing to give right now is Saint Louis being
9:17
Speaker 2: his next start date. I definitely would not let him
9:20
Speaker 2: pitch a normal time through the rotation right now, because
9:22
Speaker 2: I didn't see anything that tells me it'd be it
9:26
Speaker 2: would be beneficial for him to do so.
9:28
Speaker 1: So we're gonna take a quick break.
9:30
Speaker 2: When we come back, we're going to talk about the
9:32
Speaker 2: rest of the pirates who are playing some decent baseball
9:34
Speaker 2: here on Bucko Territory.
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10:39
Speaker 2: All right, so we said before the Pirates need to
10:42
Speaker 2: start winning some series. They take two of three from
10:44
Speaker 2: the Boston Red Sox. They take two of three from
10:46
Speaker 2: the Detroit Tigers. They're now only three games under five
10:49
Speaker 2: hundred five and a half back as of the time
10:51
Speaker 2: we're recording here on Thursday afternoon. There's still a lot
10:54
Speaker 2: of ground to make up, obviously, and you look at
10:57
Speaker 2: the road ahead, they're playing teams that are simply better
11:00
Speaker 2: than them right now, the Dodgers this weekend, the Padres
11:03
Speaker 2: after that, than the Saint Louis Cardinals. So it's not
11:08
Speaker 2: to say it's easy, but there is a path here, guys.
11:11
Speaker 2: If you take especially, I mean, you got to win
11:15
Speaker 2: every series, and if you don't, you got to respond
11:17
Speaker 2: with a sweep. So say they only win one to
11:19
Speaker 2: two in LA. If you take all three from the
11:22
Speaker 2: Padres and then you know, go too and one against
11:27
Speaker 2: the Cardinals, you still have something.
11:31
Speaker 1: So let me.
11:32
Speaker 2: Ask you, Mark, if they are are you optimistic right now?
11:37
Speaker 2: And how many more wins do they need the tally
11:41
Speaker 2: of these next nine games that are on the road,
11:44
Speaker 2: how many do they need to win for you to
11:46
Speaker 2: be all the way back in on your belief.
11:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, as far as the optimism goes, I'm cautiously optimistic
11:54
Speaker 3: right now. I'm way way more optimistic than I was
11:57
Speaker 3: a week ago. Really needed those series wins. But as
12:02
Speaker 3: far as the road series, you have to take at
12:05
Speaker 3: least four from both of these, Yeah, I mean, like
12:08
Speaker 3: from San Diego and uh Los Angeles. As far as
12:12
Speaker 3: like the nine games, though, I feel like you gotta
12:15
Speaker 3: go seven. I mean, they're they're pretty far back right now.
12:20
Speaker 3: They need to make up ground. I think the Cardinals
12:22
Speaker 3: series might be more important just because they're all so close. Yeah,
12:28
Speaker 3: all of them are. Yeah, but if you can have
12:31
Speaker 3: the Cardinals lose while you win and take a full
12:34
Speaker 3: game up on them like that way, that's gonna be crucial. Obviously,
12:38
Speaker 3: all of them matter, but these are gonna be some
12:41
Speaker 3: tough games. These are three teams that are basically playoff teams.
12:45
Speaker 3: I even checked where the Cardinals are in the standings.
12:49
Speaker 3: But it's gonna be tough, and doing it all on
12:51
Speaker 3: the road. This is the time if you want to
12:54
Speaker 3: save the season, it's it's this this road trip right here.
12:58
Speaker 3: So we'll see where we're at after the series. But
13:00
Speaker 3: I'm cautiously optimistic. Pirates always seem to play well against
13:05
Speaker 3: the Dodgers. I saw, like, you know, if to compete
13:08
Speaker 3: Marcano and like the likes of them can all sweep
13:11
Speaker 3: the Dodgers in LA in the past. Why can't this
13:14
Speaker 3: Pirates team. Dodgers are kind of on their heels as
13:17
Speaker 3: well right now, so we'll see. But I'm cautiously optimistic.
13:23
Speaker 3: There's life. At least, there's a pulse to this team.
13:25
Speaker 3: You can feel the belief. Seeing what they did in
13:28
Speaker 3: that ninth inning against the Tigers where Flores hit the
13:31
Speaker 3: home run and then lu came right back the next
13:34
Speaker 3: bat and hit one as well, it gives you a
13:36
Speaker 3: little bit of juice. So I'm not gonna say, yeah,
13:40
Speaker 3: this is the playoff team. I'm very confident. I'm not
13:42
Speaker 3: there yet, but this series or this road trip could
13:48
Speaker 3: really really spark something and make September really exciting.
13:54
Speaker 2: The way I look at it is this, and then
13:56
Speaker 2: I'll throw it to you, Josh, you're playing nine games.
14:00
Speaker 2: If you go six and three, you start five hundred
14:04
Speaker 2: in September.
14:05
Speaker 4: There you go.
14:05
Speaker 1: That's that's the way I look at it. That's the path.
14:09
Speaker 2: I mean, you gotta win as many as you can.
14:11
Speaker 2: But if you are five hundred in September, you go
14:14
Speaker 2: into that final month of the season and you're saying, Okay,
14:18
Speaker 2: we got O'Neill back already, we got Spencer back already,
14:22
Speaker 2: Connor Griffin's coming soon, maybe Ryan O'Hearn too, so we
14:26
Speaker 2: have more help on the way.
14:27
Speaker 1: We have momentum.
14:29
Speaker 2: If they have if say they do, say they get
14:31
Speaker 2: back to five hundred, they're able to look back and
14:33
Speaker 2: look at the teams that we just won series against,
14:36
Speaker 2: the Red Sox, the Padres, the Dodgers, the Cardinals. They
14:41
Speaker 2: will have so much going in their favor and they're
14:43
Speaker 2: in five hundred and they just got to look at
14:45
Speaker 2: September and say, this has got to be our best month.
14:48
Speaker 2: This has to be a month where we finished five
14:50
Speaker 2: to six games over five hundred, which isn't impossible. But
14:55
Speaker 2: you can't have that mentality unless you get to five
14:58
Speaker 2: hundred by the beginning of September. So you gotta win
15:03
Speaker 2: six of these nine. If you do that, you're at
15:05
Speaker 2: exactly five hundred. You're still fighting. But you look at
15:09
Speaker 2: their September schedule. You go Giants at home, then you
15:13
Speaker 2: have the Angels at home. Those are pretty favorable first
15:17
Speaker 2: six games to start the month, and then you build
15:20
Speaker 2: from there. That's how it's gonna have to happen. If
15:23
Speaker 2: it does happen, I'll throw it over to Josh. Now,
15:26
Speaker 2: I'm sure he has some thoughts on the subject.
15:29
Speaker 4: Yeah, obviously the question momentum, momentum is real and not
15:33
Speaker 4: saying that they have this great big swing of momentum
15:36
Speaker 4: right now. But obviously they've gotten a little bit of
15:39
Speaker 4: momentum coming from the Miami series where they had the meeting,
15:41
Speaker 4: and then you know, taking two or three from Boston,
15:45
Speaker 4: which is a playoff team right now, and then even
15:47
Speaker 4: taking two or three from Detroit, and you know, like
15:49
Speaker 4: come back fashion. You know, in last night's game, once again,
15:54
Speaker 4: it's one of those things where you said you got
15:55
Speaker 4: to win every series, and they've responded by one of
15:57
Speaker 4: the last two. They're showing that there's some fight. Obviously,
16:01
Speaker 4: you know that within this team, they know where they are,
16:04
Speaker 4: where they stand, and I think Brandon Loud had even
16:07
Speaker 4: mentioned that, you know, in moments, maybe the game sped
16:10
Speaker 4: up on them as a whole, you know, and everybody
16:12
Speaker 4: was just trying too hard, and maybe what you see
16:15
Speaker 4: now is everybody saying, you know, what do we have
16:17
Speaker 4: to lose, Let's be free, let's go back to doing
16:19
Speaker 4: what we were doing in the beginning. And you know,
16:22
Speaker 4: that can become contagious, and as you head out to
16:24
Speaker 4: the West Coast, there's business to take care of. But
16:28
Speaker 4: at the end of the day, if you do what
16:30
Speaker 4: you've done at home is win, win the series. Like
16:33
Speaker 4: we've said, you're gonna put yourself in a good position
16:36
Speaker 4: and you win in the series. That's putting you at
16:39
Speaker 4: six and three, as you guys have mentioned. And I
16:41
Speaker 4: don't really like to put a number to say, oh,
16:43
Speaker 4: they got to win six games, they got to win
16:45
Speaker 4: seven games, because obviously other teams have to play and
16:47
Speaker 4: things have to happen. But realistically, if you win every series,
16:51
Speaker 4: you put yourself in a favorable position. And coming off
16:54
Speaker 4: of the way that they won last night, you know,
16:57
Speaker 4: and just this whole past homestand it is something that
17:01
Speaker 4: they can hope to ride off of, you know, and
17:04
Speaker 4: take in to the West Coast and you know, really
17:07
Speaker 4: make it interesting because they know where they stand and
17:10
Speaker 4: we obviously know what's coming what's to come ahead.
17:14
Speaker 2: All right, well, we're gonna take another quick break. When
17:17
Speaker 2: we come back. We will wrap up our week of
17:19
Speaker 2: Bucco Territory with our Friday segment. Jay Now.
17:30
Speaker 3: On Deck is presented by Fox One, So coming up
17:34
Speaker 3: here on Saturday, the Pirates are playing the Dodgers on
17:37
Speaker 3: Fox and Fox one and streaming on the Fox one
17:40
Speaker 3: app everywhere. We have Jared Jones the Flamethrower, going up
17:44
Speaker 3: against former Cy Young winner Derek Schouble with his new team,
17:48
Speaker 3: the Dodgers. So, guys, what are your thoughts on this
17:52
Speaker 3: game coming up on Saturday here?
17:54
Speaker 2: Now, yeah, I actually have a good little anecdote here.
17:58
Speaker 2: As we all know Jared Jones, he's got a lot
18:01
Speaker 2: going up on, a lot going on up here. You know,
18:04
Speaker 2: he's he's a very he's a guy who's very fiery,
18:07
Speaker 2: easy to motivate. I believe his first career Major League
18:11
Speaker 2: loss was at Camerica Park in a doubleheader, in game
18:14
Speaker 2: one of the doubleheader, and he was against Trek Scooble.
18:17
Speaker 2: That game was it was Jones and Skeen's day. They
18:21
Speaker 2: were both rookies, and in Game one, Scooble outpitched him,
18:25
Speaker 2: and a lot of people probably forgot about that, right
18:27
Speaker 2: because I mean that was the first of two straight
18:31
Speaker 2: Cy Youngs for Trek Scooble. He outpitched a lot of
18:34
Speaker 2: people that season. But I bet you one guy who
18:36
Speaker 2: didn't forget about it is Jared Jones, and he probably
18:40
Speaker 2: you know, wants to get his lock back. And that's
18:42
Speaker 2: how it works with guys who compete at that level.
18:46
Speaker 2: And so I think Jared Jones, considering everything that's at stake.
18:49
Speaker 2: You know, you want to pitch in meaningful baseball games.
18:52
Speaker 2: You want to be going up, you want to beat
18:54
Speaker 2: the best. The Dodgers are the back to back World
18:57
Speaker 2: Series champs, they just traded for the best left hander
18:59
Speaker 2: in baseball. This is a chance for Jared Jones to
19:02
Speaker 2: make a statement. So that's what I'm seeing in this game.
19:06
Speaker 3: What about you, Josh, what are you looking forward to?
19:09
Speaker 4: Same? Just coming off of the weekend that they've had,
19:12
Speaker 4: you know, it's going to be interesting. Dodgers obviously a
19:14
Speaker 4: playoff team back to you know, back to back World Series,
19:17
Speaker 4: Pirates coming off of you know, an exciting homestand got
19:21
Speaker 4: a lot to play for. It's gonna be interesting to
19:23
Speaker 4: see how they respond because we know that their back
19:26
Speaker 4: is against the wall and Jared, as you mentioned, Noah's
19:28
Speaker 4: going to take the ball competitor and has that chip
19:31
Speaker 4: on his shoulder. And I think the Pirates will you know,
19:34
Speaker 4: maybe be playing with a chip on their shoulder, knowing
19:36
Speaker 4: that they're back is against the wall and the you know,
19:38
Speaker 4: the fate of their season, you know, lies within every
19:40
Speaker 4: series and this is a big one coming up for him.
19:43
Speaker 3: Looking forward to it. So and We'll be on Fox
19:46
Speaker 3: is streaming on Fox one the Race of October shirts now,
19:49
Speaker 3: and we have your front row seat to the wildest walkoffs,
19:52
Speaker 3: lights out, pitching, and clutch plays all season long. Follow
19:55
Speaker 3: every camp miss matchup as teams battle for a spot
19:58
Speaker 3: in the postseason. Then stream the twenty twenty six World
20:01
Speaker 3: Series live on Fox one at home or on the go,
20:04
Speaker 3: live or on demand. Never miss a moment. Stream now
20:07
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20:11
Speaker 3: dot com. That is foxwe dot com.
20:18
Speaker 2: Pay mab what do you say.
20:31
Speaker 4: Welcome to this week's segment of JH Now. So, coming
20:35
Speaker 4: off a too exciting series, you know, great, great for
20:38
Speaker 4: the Pirates to, you know, show some fight. And ever
20:41
Speaker 4: since that Miami series, there's one guy on the highlight
20:44
Speaker 4: that has kind of been thrust in a playing limelight,
20:46
Speaker 4: and that's been Raphael Floors. Last seven games, I believe
20:49
Speaker 4: he'shit in four thirty five but two home runs I
20:52
Speaker 4: believe yesterday, not even starting the game, pinch it and
20:55
Speaker 4: then you know, the game time. So, uh, hats off
20:58
Speaker 4: to Rafael Floors because in the situation where we said
21:01
Speaker 4: this season has kind of put up a shut up
21:03
Speaker 4: right now, he has stepped up and given you know,
21:06
Speaker 4: a little bit of boost of life to this team
21:08
Speaker 4: that is otherwise you know, almost looked like they had
21:10
Speaker 4: flatlined right before. So, you know, not a name that
21:13
Speaker 4: anybody might have been looking for coming into the season
21:16
Speaker 4: because you know, the catching depth and you know how
21:19
Speaker 4: many people they had was something that we had questions about.
21:21
Speaker 4: But once again, next man up, Rafael Flores has made
21:25
Speaker 4: a really good impression and kind of you know, kept
21:28
Speaker 4: some life you know, into this season. And big ups
21:31
Speaker 4: to Rafael Floors. And we talked about momentum. He's helped
21:35
Speaker 4: a little bit with that momentum and hopefully it rubs
21:37
Speaker 4: off on the rest of the Gods and they continue
21:38
Speaker 4: to do what they're doing. You know what they did
21:40
Speaker 4: this past two series at home.
21:45
Speaker 3: Mark you or muted Just to put in context really quick,
21:49
Speaker 3: what Raphael floor Is did in Wednesday's game against the Tigers.
21:54
Speaker 3: Perceah Langes slangs on sports Great Great account on Twitter.
22:00
Speaker 3: He is the first batter since nineteen hundred to come
22:03
Speaker 3: in and hit two home runs in a game where
22:05
Speaker 3: he did not start. Just crazy, crazy clutch for him
22:09
Speaker 3: to come in and do that. And it's not like
22:12
Speaker 3: it's surprising. He's been showing us all season long that
22:15
Speaker 3: he has serious pop in his bat, really really like
22:20
Speaker 3: the power aspect. The defense still is coming along, but
22:25
Speaker 3: he's starting to look better, starting to look a little
22:27
Speaker 3: bit more comfortable behind the plate. Obviously that takes a
22:30
Speaker 3: little bit of adjusting, but if his offense, if he
22:34
Speaker 3: can bring this bat, I'm fine with accepting a little
22:38
Speaker 3: bit of mediocre defense behind the plate completely because he's
22:41
Speaker 3: bringing value to this team right now.
22:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, I totally agree.
22:46
Speaker 2: I mean, this is what they need from him, right
22:49
Speaker 2: I mean, they he traded a very valuable asset to
22:52
Speaker 2: get him, and he's got to figure out a way
22:55
Speaker 2: to contribute at the major league level. He kind of
22:58
Speaker 2: lucked out this year in the sense where I think
23:00
Speaker 2: they probably envision him playing a little bit more first
23:03
Speaker 2: when they acquired him, but there was a whole bunch
23:05
Speaker 2: of first basemen, so he didn't.
23:07
Speaker 1: Have a ton of pressure.
23:08
Speaker 2: But moving forward, yeah, you look, that catcher job is
23:11
Speaker 2: wide open and if he's gonna hit same thing, that's
23:15
Speaker 2: the That's the reason everyone hopped on the Endi Rodriguez
23:18
Speaker 2: vandwagon this year is because he came up and he
23:21
Speaker 2: hit You have a guy who can play decent defense
23:24
Speaker 2: with Henry Davis, but they're waiting.
23:28
Speaker 1: For someone to put it together.
23:30
Speaker 2: So if he can keep this going for the remainder
23:34
Speaker 2: of what's left of this season, you go into twenty
23:38
Speaker 2: twenty seven and you're thinking Roe Flores at the very
23:41
Speaker 2: least is one of your two catchers on opening day
23:44
Speaker 2: next year. So that's his for the taking. It's got
23:47
Speaker 2: to be, but it's got to.
23:48
Speaker 1: Be sustained, right.
23:49
Speaker 2: I mean, not anyone can have a great week in
23:51
Speaker 2: the major leagues, but if you reach the major leagues,
23:54
Speaker 2: you're capable of.
23:55
Speaker 1: Having a big week.
23:57
Speaker 2: And he's had a big week, he's had a nice
23:59
Speaker 2: little stretch here, been gone further than a week. But
24:03
Speaker 2: you gotta see it sustained, right, You gotta if you
24:06
Speaker 2: really want to prove that you're worthy of playing on
24:09
Speaker 2: a team that's trying to make the playoffs, and that's
24:10
Speaker 2: gonna be the goal next year too, you got to
24:13
Speaker 2: show it for a little bit longer. So keep it going.
24:15
Speaker 2: Good work, but keep it going. So make another thing
24:18
Speaker 2: we need to keep Yes, another thing we need to
24:21
Speaker 2: keep going is encouraging you all to hit that subscribe
24:24
Speaker 2: button or on a mission to three thousand subs can't
24:26
Speaker 2: get there without your help. Also, be sure to check
24:29
Speaker 2: out the Bucko Territory Team store where we've got a
24:31
Speaker 2: lot of great stuff for you. Mark's got the hat
24:34
Speaker 2: on display right there. Guys, any final thoughts as we
24:36
Speaker 2: wrap up another episode?
24:38
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, just real quick shout out to Braxton Ashcraft continuing. Yeah,
24:43
Speaker 3: after his eighty five pitch complete game goes and throw
24:46
Speaker 3: his eighty pitches in eight innings pitched. Mason Montgomery comes
24:50
Speaker 3: in Also, Yeah, shout out Mason Montgomery too. He has
24:53
Speaker 3: just been lights out so love seeing the combo of
24:57
Speaker 3: those two guys just really really piece things together here
25:01
Speaker 3: in the second half now, and yeah, I feel very
25:06
Speaker 3: confident whenever Ashcraft takes them out that the team's going
25:09
Speaker 3: to be in a great position to win.
25:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, shout out to the boys fighting. They responded, you
25:17
Speaker 4: know at home that is that is enough right there,
25:20
Speaker 4: just to command to say he's fighting his team and
25:23
Speaker 4: we'll see where it takes them. But it was pretty
25:26
Speaker 4: cool to see that.
25:27
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, like we said earlier in the show,
25:30
Speaker 2: the path is there. Yep, you got to get to
25:32
Speaker 2: five hundred by September. If this team is five hundred
25:35
Speaker 2: to September, considering the road that was needed to get there. Yeah,
25:41
Speaker 2: with the wins that they will have earned, there is
25:43
Speaker 2: a legitimate reason to believe that they're going to be
25:47
Speaker 2: in the fight down the stretch and that will be fun.
25:49
Speaker 2: But it is going to be a very, very challenging
25:54
Speaker 2: task to get to five hundred. These none of these
25:56
Speaker 2: next nine games are going to be guineas.
26:00
Speaker 4: They're gonna have to earn it.
26:01
Speaker 1: Yes, you're going to have to earn it.
26:03
Speaker 2: And if you're able to earn it, that is a legit,
26:07
Speaker 2: that is legitimate.
26:08
Speaker 1: Momentum right there, yep.
26:09
Speaker 2: And then it's going to start to feel like there
26:12
Speaker 2: are so many times this year where it felt like
26:14
Speaker 2: everything in the world was going against the pirates. If
26:18
Speaker 2: they can get to five hundred after everything they had
26:21
Speaker 2: gone through, and then you consider who's going to be
26:23
Speaker 2: coming back, it's gonna feel like the tides are turning.
26:27
Speaker 2: But again, you gotta earn it. It's gonna be very difficult.
26:31
Speaker 2: Let's see if they can do it. He's Platinum, Kyak
26:34
Speaker 2: and Mark, He's Josh Harrison, I'm Noah Hiles. We're all
26:37
Speaker 2: saying thanks for tuning in to another week of episodes
26:40
Speaker 2: here of Bucko Territory, presented to you by the Foul
26:42
Speaker 2: Territory Network.
26:43
Speaker 1: Take care