Latest / Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast / Pirates Sweep Reds as Konnor Griffin and Nick Gonzales get Red Hot

Transcript

Pirates Sweep Reds as Konnor Griffin and Nick Gonzales get Red Hot · Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: What's up, everybody.
0:10
Speaker 2: Welcome back to another episode of Buco Territory, presented to
0:13
Speaker 2: you by the Foul Territory Network on Noah Hile's joining
0:16
Speaker 2: me today is Platinum Key aka Mark. Josh Harrison will
0:20
Speaker 2: join us later in the show. He's doing some travel,
0:23
Speaker 2: so Mark will handle the final segment of the show
0:25
Speaker 2: with him, and you just get me a Mark. For
0:29
Speaker 2: the first two segments of today's show.
0:31
Speaker 1: We got a lot to talk about the Pirates.
0:33
Speaker 2: The last time we talked on this show, Mark, we
0:36
Speaker 2: weren't hitting the panic button or anything, but we were
0:39
Speaker 2: pointing out that they had not played well, and that
0:41
Speaker 2: was fair to point out because they had lost five straight.
0:44
Speaker 2: They got swept at home in a four game series
0:46
Speaker 2: by the Saint Louis Cardinals. We ended the show by saying,
0:49
Speaker 2: you have to win this weekend home series against the
0:52
Speaker 2: Cincinnati Reds. And they didn't just win it, Mark, they dominated.
0:56
Speaker 2: They swept the first place Cincinnati Reds, taking all three games.
1:00
Speaker 2: I mean, everything went right. They just they received two
1:03
Speaker 2: stellar outings from Mitch Keller and Braxton Ashcraft. We're going
1:08
Speaker 2: to talk about the second one the back half of
1:11
Speaker 2: that real quick and then Karmen Magensky was solid, the
1:14
Speaker 2: bullpen had low stress leverage to be able to finish
1:18
Speaker 2: that one off, and they hit the ball incredibly well
1:21
Speaker 2: this series, aside from you know, Sunday they scored a run,
1:25
Speaker 2: but they grinded it out. It was That is exactly
1:28
Speaker 2: what you're looking for when you enter a weekend series
1:32
Speaker 2: against the first place team on a five game losing streak.
1:35
Speaker 2: You you cannot get better than turning it around there.
1:39
Speaker 2: And now they get their first off day in a
1:41
Speaker 2: very long time, so all things are looking good for
1:45
Speaker 2: the Buckos. Mark, what'd you like from this Homestand I love.
1:49
Speaker 3: Seeing Travigno pitch three innings, but I mean, geez, the
1:53
Speaker 3: Batch just came alive, putting up football scores and doing
1:58
Speaker 3: it yeah, pretty effortlessly. And everyone was contributed. It wasn't
2:01
Speaker 3: just one guy, although like you had Connor Griffin with
2:04
Speaker 3: four hits, but every single starter had an RBI in
2:07
Speaker 3: Saturday's game. That's great stuff. And then book ending that
2:12
Speaker 3: with the starts from Keller and Ashcraft. Yeah, one an
2:16
Speaker 3: outing from Brax and Ashcraft. In his last outing he
2:19
Speaker 3: gave up six earned runs and but now in two
2:22
Speaker 3: of his last three starts. He's gone seven innings, pitched
2:25
Speaker 3: three starts. Ago he gave up he went seven innings,
2:28
Speaker 3: gave up two earned runs. Today seven point two innings,
2:32
Speaker 3: pitch nowhere and runs, only gave up two hits, just
2:36
Speaker 3: dealing making him look like the players going up against
2:39
Speaker 3: Chase Burns and it's like, oh, who cares. We got
2:42
Speaker 3: Braxton Ashcraft, Like yeah, this guy shoves too, but they
2:46
Speaker 3: were both nasty and it was awesome to see that.
2:49
Speaker 3: So winning in multiple kinds of ways, whether it's one
2:54
Speaker 3: or one, oh and or seventeen to seven, yeah, nine
2:58
Speaker 3: to one, they found a way to win and dominate
3:01
Speaker 3: and just clearly looked like the better team even with
3:04
Speaker 3: the score being one though nothing today they looked like
3:06
Speaker 3: the better team. I felt like, so, oh yeah, I agree.
3:10
Speaker 3: So it was just really resounding a lot of positive positivity,
3:15
Speaker 3: and what a time for it to come following that
3:18
Speaker 3: Cardinal Series.
3:19
Speaker 2: So something that took place in the Cardinal Series and
3:23
Speaker 2: even a little bit before that, And that's gonna be
3:25
Speaker 2: our first topic for today.
3:26
Speaker 1: Connor Griffin.
3:28
Speaker 2: I mean, we've used the tagline heating up before with
3:31
Speaker 2: him when we saw him kind of making progress, like
3:34
Speaker 2: oh he had multiple hits in his series. He's this
3:38
Speaker 2: kid might be here. Yeah, but I mean he arrived
3:41
Speaker 2: in the major leagues. But like I don't know. I
3:44
Speaker 2: mean he's gonna have slumps, but.
3:48
Speaker 3: Hard to not be encouraged.
3:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, Baseball, I hope you're ready. It all it took
3:53
Speaker 2: was him turning twenty years old.
3:54
Speaker 1: Right, That's all it took.
3:56
Speaker 2: Because I mean, you look Mark on the season now,
3:59
Speaker 2: He's had one hundred and three bats. He's hitting two
4:01
Speaker 2: sixty two with two homer, sixteen runs, bat it in
4:03
Speaker 2: seven stolen bases in a seven twenty three OPS. He's
4:07
Speaker 2: played twenty nine games in the major leagues and his
4:09
Speaker 2: last fifteen games Mark he's slashing two ninety three three
4:13
Speaker 2: point thirty nine four or for sixty six. So that's
4:17
Speaker 2: an eight hundred plus or yeah, an eight hundred OPS
4:20
Speaker 2: or better, hitting close to three hundred. He's stealing bags
4:24
Speaker 2: when he gets on. The defense has been fine, if
4:27
Speaker 2: not good. Uh, yeah, it actually has just been good.
4:30
Speaker 4: Uh.
4:30
Speaker 2: In the last two weeks or so, he was nineteen
4:34
Speaker 2: years old, he struggled for fourteen games. He struggled for
4:37
Speaker 2: two weeks and even some some of that stretch he
4:40
Speaker 2: wasn't necessarily bad.
4:42
Speaker 1: He was just bad on the road.
4:43
Speaker 2: Really, he's never really played horribly at PNC Park, but
4:48
Speaker 2: it really does look like this kid has just he's
4:51
Speaker 2: not just someone who's filling out a roster spot, because
4:55
Speaker 2: that's why he was called up.
4:56
Speaker 1: It was he was just the best.
4:57
Speaker 2: Off short shop on a team that did not have
4:59
Speaker 2: a short stop up. This is an asset. This is
5:02
Speaker 2: an asset to a baseball team that's looking to make
5:05
Speaker 2: the playoffs.
5:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I've just been impressed. Obviously, the box score,
5:09
Speaker 3: like his slash line looks great in these last fifteen games,
5:13
Speaker 3: but it's more than that. It's the types of that
5:15
Speaker 3: bats he's having where he has a three to zero
5:18
Speaker 3: count that he worked with the bases loaded and ends
5:20
Speaker 3: up drawing a walk and scores a run that way.
5:25
Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean it's just overall super encouraging to
5:28
Speaker 3: see things click already, because I mean that's half his
5:33
Speaker 3: MLB at bats now and he's playing above average, doing
5:36
Speaker 3: everything right, And yeah, it sounds so encouraged. So can't
5:41
Speaker 3: wait to see what these next five days and the
5:44
Speaker 3: rest of the season brings for him.
5:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, And honestly, like I figured this was gonna happen.
5:51
Speaker 2: I just thought it was probably gonna be like in
5:52
Speaker 2: June or July, right right, And like that's something that
5:55
Speaker 2: Ben Cherrington even talked about. It's like this is someone
5:57
Speaker 2: can develop in season, but true Cornter Griffin fashion, and
6:01
Speaker 2: you know, knock on wood off your Pirates fan, like
6:03
Speaker 2: this could he could turn into a pumpkin an any time,
6:07
Speaker 2: not like for long term, but like he can regret,
6:10
Speaker 2: he could go into a swamp. The league's gonna punch back.
6:12
Speaker 2: He's gonna have to adjust. I'm sure, man. He just
6:17
Speaker 2: looks really comfortable.
6:18
Speaker 3: He looks like coming up in clutch moments. Yes, and
6:21
Speaker 3: yes you think that, like, okay, where the pressures on
6:24
Speaker 3: the most, that a rookie who hasn't been there before,
6:26
Speaker 3: who's twenty years old, he might struggle the most in
6:30
Speaker 3: those situations. And it's been the inverse. I don't know
6:33
Speaker 3: what his late in close stats are, but I mean
6:36
Speaker 3: he's gotta be just tearing the cover off the ball
6:38
Speaker 3: in those moments. We saw it again today in Sunday's
6:41
Speaker 3: game in the eighth where he hit a double with
6:43
Speaker 3: two outs and then he went to the run, scoring
6:46
Speaker 3: to win the game. And so it's just so encouraging
6:49
Speaker 3: when even in those moments he's looking good.
6:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we're gonna take a quick break and we're
6:55
Speaker 2: gonna talk about another guy who's looked.
6:57
Speaker 1: Really, really good so far this season when we come back.
7:02
Speaker 5: You know, we don't always have to do things because
7:04
Speaker 5: that's how it's always been.
7:05
Speaker 6: Look, people consider me old school, and I thought I was,
7:08
Speaker 6: but then we had the pitch clock and the abs
7:11
Speaker 6: and ban on shifts and all these things that we've
7:13
Speaker 6: had for a long time in baseball. And you know what,
7:15
Speaker 6: much like Mintmobile and the other mobile carriers, I'm here
7:18
Speaker 6: for the new school and the changes that have been made.
7:20
Speaker 3: It's a good call.
7:21
Speaker 5: You can ditch over priced wireless. You don't have to say, oh,
7:25
Speaker 5: I'm paying that, because that's how it's always been. Get
7:27
Speaker 5: three months of premium wireless service from mint Mobile for
7:30
Speaker 5: fifteen bucks a month. All plans come with high speed
7:33
Speaker 5: data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's
7:36
Speaker 5: largest five G network. If you like your money, mint
7:39
Speaker 5: Mobile is for you. Shot plans at mintmobile dot com
7:42
Speaker 5: slash territory that's mintmobile dot com slash territory. Upfront payment
7:46
Speaker 5: for forty five dollars for three month five gigabyte plan
7:49
Speaker 5: required equivalent to fifteen bucks a month. New customer offer
7:52
Speaker 5: for first three months only, then full price plan options available,
7:57
Speaker 5: Taxes and fees extra see mint Mobile for details. Get
8:01
Speaker 5: after an FT fan.
8:04
Speaker 2: All right, I'll start off this second segment by saying this,
8:08
Speaker 2: I own nickensals an apology.
8:10
Speaker 3: I A lot of people do.
8:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of people do.
8:14
Speaker 2: Now, Before I go any further, I do want to
8:16
Speaker 2: say I don't think Nick Nzalez is gonna finish the
8:19
Speaker 2: year hitting three twenty just because a like, only two
8:23
Speaker 2: or three people in all of Major League Baseball finished
8:25
Speaker 2: the year hitting three twenty at this point, uh in
8:28
Speaker 2: the game. And he's not Aaron Judge or show Hay
8:32
Speaker 2: or show Hay doesn't even hit three twenty.
8:33
Speaker 1: So yeah, I.
8:34
Speaker 2: Don't even know who else I could compare him to.
8:37
Speaker 2: But when you really look at what Nick and Zalaz
8:40
Speaker 2: has been, he has exceeded everyone's expectations. I'm confident the
8:46
Speaker 2: Pirates did not even anticipate this. I'll go back to
8:50
Speaker 2: We'll start with the defense, just because the offense has
8:52
Speaker 2: obviously bet as calling cardies among the top five.
8:56
Speaker 1: In the National League, and top ten. Yeah, batting average.
9:00
Speaker 3: He's yeah, Jorgan Alvarez as a recording with a three average, right.
9:05
Speaker 2: So, but like defensively, I mean I wouldn't say he's
9:10
Speaker 2: been Brooks Robinson.
9:11
Speaker 1: No, but he hasn't cost them games.
9:14
Speaker 2: And in today in Sunday's game, he saved them again
9:18
Speaker 2: just throw home in what was that the top of
9:21
Speaker 2: the eighth inning?
9:21
Speaker 1: Ye, save your run. That's a defensive run saved.
9:24
Speaker 2: So he's he's been great as far as not hurting
9:29
Speaker 2: the team defensively and being a very reliable offensive weapon.
9:35
Speaker 2: Do I, like I said, do I expect this to
9:37
Speaker 2: persist throughout the whole season. No, I think he's gonna
9:41
Speaker 2: taper off a little bit. But when you look at
9:43
Speaker 2: the other guys Mark that people myself included were saying, oh,
9:49
Speaker 2: go get him instead, go get him. And yeah, you know,
9:51
Speaker 2: Mark Kami's having a great year. There's no denying that. Yeah,
9:55
Speaker 2: but man, like you wanted some people were saying, I
9:58
Speaker 2: was saying, trade for Alec Boham.
10:00
Speaker 1: Look what Alex Boum's doing this year.
10:02
Speaker 2: You know, I was saying, uh, you know a lot
10:04
Speaker 2: of people wanted Esa Paradas, like Paradis not having a
10:08
Speaker 2: great year either.
10:09
Speaker 1: And now, granted.
10:10
Speaker 2: Both of those guys have far more established success in
10:13
Speaker 2: the Major League baseball, they're more than capable of turning
10:17
Speaker 2: it around after a bad month, and we could get
10:19
Speaker 2: to September and those two guys could be way higher
10:23
Speaker 2: in war than Nick and Zalez, and I wouldn't be
10:25
Speaker 2: super surprised. But the reality is they needed Nick and
10:28
Speaker 2: Zalez to not be a liability at third base, right
10:32
Speaker 2: and he hasn't done that. He's been He's been a
10:34
Speaker 2: plus one in the fact.
10:36
Speaker 3: That we're already that's crazy.
10:40
Speaker 2: Yes, So he's been everything that they could have hoped
10:44
Speaker 2: to be in more and uh, you got to take
10:46
Speaker 2: your hat off to.
10:46
Speaker 3: Him, absolutely, and especially coming into the season, I was
10:51
Speaker 3: always our big concern was the glaring hole at third base,
10:54
Speaker 3: and we looked inside, were like, what happens if Jared
10:57
Speaker 3: Triello gets hurt? Who's going to play at third base?
11:00
Speaker 3: Can we trust nick Yorke? Can we trust Nick and
11:02
Speaker 3: Zalez there? Probably not, And we were wrong. You can
11:06
Speaker 3: trust Nick and Zalez there, And I think he's clearly
11:09
Speaker 3: established himself as the starting through basement for this team
11:13
Speaker 3: until he doesn't. And it seems like it's his starting
11:16
Speaker 3: job to lose now, even with Triolo back, and that
11:19
Speaker 3: is quite the development for a Pirates team where you
11:23
Speaker 3: get this guy who was a first round pick you
11:26
Speaker 3: didn't think. I mean, obviously he's playing probably over what
11:29
Speaker 3: you're gonna get from him the rest of the season,
11:30
Speaker 3: but even if he regresses to like seventy five percent
11:33
Speaker 3: of what he's his output is right now, that's still
11:37
Speaker 3: really really great option.
11:39
Speaker 7: Yeah, because Norc Yeah, go ahead, not to cut you off,
11:42
Speaker 7: but like I was just gonna say, like eventually Connor
11:45
Speaker 7: Griffin's getting moved up in the batting order, and you
11:47
Speaker 7: can just having Nicken Zalez as your eight hitter is
11:50
Speaker 7: a pretty good lineup.
11:52
Speaker 3: That's and especially with how he hits when runners are
11:55
Speaker 3: on base and in scoring position, that would be great
11:58
Speaker 3: to have that kind of clutch guy. Obviously that's not
12:02
Speaker 3: necessarily something that's repeatable, but he finds a way to
12:05
Speaker 3: repeat it, it seems like. And so yeah, I would just
12:09
Speaker 3: add more depth and flexibility to this lineup. And yeah,
12:13
Speaker 3: it's it's great to see.
12:16
Speaker 2: All right, Well, hats off the nickings ass. He's playing
12:19
Speaker 2: well that left side of the infield. That big concern.
12:23
Speaker 1: They're looking really good, very much.
12:24
Speaker 3: Yeah.
12:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, So we're gonna round the show up with Mark's
12:28
Speaker 2: platinum Key of the Week and I'll let my co
12:32
Speaker 2: host Josh Harrison along with Mark take it over from there.
12:37
Speaker 3: And we're back. I'm joined with Josh Harrison aka j Hey.
12:41
Speaker 3: How's it going?
12:41
Speaker 8: Jay?
12:42
Speaker 3: Hey? What are your thoughts on the Red series? Here?
12:44
Speaker 3: Pirates sweep? Where your takeaways?
12:48
Speaker 8: I believe I said it the last episode of what
12:51
Speaker 8: better team to write the ship than Rids and I
12:55
Speaker 8: mean Dad more than just won a series, they swept
12:57
Speaker 8: a series, and it was nice to see contributions from
13:00
Speaker 8: you know, pretty much everybody.
13:03
Speaker 2: You know.
13:03
Speaker 8: I was away this weekend and my wife went out
13:06
Speaker 8: of town and celebrate a good friend's birthday. But you know,
13:08
Speaker 8: seeing some of the you know tweets that you put up,
13:10
Speaker 8: I was able to see that, you know, they right.
13:12
Speaker 4: At the ship this weekend against a team that came
13:15
Speaker 4: in pretty hot.
13:16
Speaker 8: So that was pretty encouraging to see that, you know,
13:18
Speaker 8: they finished the homestand because they get ready on the roll, right.
13:21
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, Diamondbacks next so off day Monday and then
13:24
Speaker 3: heading the Arizona.
13:25
Speaker 8: Son Happy flight. Nice little reset. So yeah, that was
13:29
Speaker 8: nice to.
13:29
Speaker 3: See yeah, yeah, all right, Now to get into our
13:32
Speaker 3: next segment here, my key of the week, and this
13:36
Speaker 3: week's key is going to be focused on Henry Davis,
13:39
Speaker 3: who Henry Davis has done a pretty good job at
13:42
Speaker 3: calling games. Pirates are fourteen and eight when Henry Davis
13:46
Speaker 3: is the starting catcher. However, he has failed to really
13:51
Speaker 3: contribute much at the plate. And that's even with the
13:53
Speaker 3: two home runs he hit Saturday night or Friday night.
13:57
Speaker 3: Excuse me, So my key of the week is Henry
14:02
Speaker 3: Davis step it up at the plate. This team is
14:05
Speaker 3: really good with him behind the plate already, with him
14:07
Speaker 3: batting one sixty two and basically bringing nothing to the
14:11
Speaker 3: play offensively. But if he steps it up just a
14:15
Speaker 3: little bit, if he brings some more of those home
14:17
Speaker 3: run pops, if he hits a little bit more for average,
14:20
Speaker 3: gets on base just a little bit more, that makes
14:23
Speaker 3: this team so so much better. And so what I'm
14:26
Speaker 3: really looking for this week is that step forward. We've
14:29
Speaker 3: seen Nick and Zalez take a big step forward with
14:31
Speaker 3: his offensive production. We've seen Connor Griffin take a huge
14:35
Speaker 3: step forward with his offensive production. Now I think it's
14:39
Speaker 3: set up right there for Henry Davis for him to
14:41
Speaker 3: take that big step forward with his offensive production. And
14:44
Speaker 3: even if he doesn't take a giant step forward, he's
14:46
Speaker 3: still night five point one war right now. I mean
14:49
Speaker 3: replacement level, it's all right, maybe a future goal glove
14:54
Speaker 3: level talent caliber with his defense. But Josh, I wanted
14:58
Speaker 3: to get your opinions here. Throw out a couple of stats, uh,
15:02
Speaker 3: and just get your reaction. If you know, Henry were
15:05
Speaker 3: to walk up to you in the dugout and be like,
15:06
Speaker 3: hey man, what adjustments do on you to make? What
15:09
Speaker 3: are you seeing? So a couple of stats you're to
15:12
Speaker 3: throw out. So, uh, thirty two point two percent of
15:15
Speaker 3: the balls that Henry Davis is hitting the play this
15:18
Speaker 3: year have been pulled ground balls. Thirty seven point three
15:22
Speaker 3: percent of the balls he's hit have been topped. He's
15:25
Speaker 3: only making the sweet spot with his long changle twenty
15:28
Speaker 3: two percent of the time, which is third percentile in MLB.
15:32
Speaker 3: Not great to counter that, though, he is swinging the
15:36
Speaker 3: bat well. As far as bat speed. He's swinging in
15:39
Speaker 3: average is seventy five point six miles an hour, so
15:42
Speaker 3: ninety first percentile, So swinging really fast, but just not
15:46
Speaker 3: keeping that barrel in the zone.
15:48
Speaker 4: At all.
15:49
Speaker 3: What would you say to him as a teammate if
15:51
Speaker 3: he went to you asking for advice.
15:55
Speaker 8: You know, I'm not a very analytic driven person, But
15:58
Speaker 8: at the same time, analytics do give you, you know,
16:02
Speaker 8: numbers that you need to look at and take a
16:04
Speaker 8: step back. So when I say I'm not analytic driven,
16:07
Speaker 8: meaning that is not my key focus on, you know,
16:09
Speaker 8: results or what may be happening, but you do have
16:12
Speaker 8: to look at those numbers to say, Okay, maybe that's
16:14
Speaker 8: a telltale sign.
16:15
Speaker 4: Is it pitch selection? Is it? You know?
16:19
Speaker 8: Am I in the wrong spot? Am I seeing something
16:21
Speaker 8: that I'm not seeing? But those are really alarming to me.
16:25
Speaker 8: When you mentioned a A a quick bat and a
16:29
Speaker 8: lot of pool ground balls, it sounds to me one
16:35
Speaker 8: is ultimately what the game of baseball has become.
16:38
Speaker 4: Forget the opposite field, forget the middle of the field.
16:43
Speaker 8: This year. Yeah, and here we are talking about a
16:46
Speaker 8: guy You're saying in what ninety first percentile batspeed? So
16:52
Speaker 8: it makes more sense. I mean I was a guy
16:54
Speaker 8: that growing up, you know, just hearing baseball terms. A
16:58
Speaker 8: if you if you got fast hands, why should you
17:00
Speaker 8: worry about pulling the ball?
17:03
Speaker 4: And that's your get out of jail free card.
17:06
Speaker 8: In my words, that's what I tell people, because at
17:09
Speaker 8: the end of the day, what are hitters afraid to do?
17:11
Speaker 4: They're afraid to get jammed.
17:12
Speaker 8: But I'll tell you good hitters aren't because good hitters
17:15
Speaker 8: understand I might need to take that back to where
17:18
Speaker 8: I get jammed. That gets me back in the right
17:21
Speaker 8: spot to where I'm staying on the ball. But all
17:23
Speaker 8: of this starts from cage work. If that's happening on
17:27
Speaker 8: the field, what is he doing in cage work? And
17:30
Speaker 8: this is not to pick on him. This is just
17:32
Speaker 8: a game of baseball. Everybody goes in the cage and
17:34
Speaker 8: now they're looking at these metrics of what they put
17:36
Speaker 8: up on one of these apps. All yeah, we're gonna
17:38
Speaker 8: go to PNC Park. Give me some flips. I'm gonna
17:40
Speaker 8: hit one hundred. Let me see my ex of velocity
17:42
Speaker 8: and what it looks like. Forget all that right now.
17:45
Speaker 8: You grounding out or topping the ball to the left
17:48
Speaker 8: side of the field too much, go back to the
17:52
Speaker 8: drawing board to say, let me get back to square one.
17:54
Speaker 8: Let me give with my hitting coach, assistant hitting coach,
17:57
Speaker 8: whoever's in a cage with me, he needs to take
17:59
Speaker 8: to the three, however long it takes. I would focus
18:02
Speaker 8: on him. I don't want to see you hit a
18:04
Speaker 8: ball in BP. I don't want to see you hit
18:06
Speaker 8: the ball in cage on the left side of this
18:08
Speaker 8: l screen. We know you can do that. You're killing
18:11
Speaker 8: a lot of worms, you killing a lot of dirt,
18:12
Speaker 8: and it's not giving us any you know, positive things
18:16
Speaker 8: to look forward to. And it's not to pick on him.
18:18
Speaker 8: This is just me giving you know, insight to the numbers.
18:22
Speaker 8: If you're doing that and you're not getting the results,
18:24
Speaker 8: what should you do. You don't have to change something,
18:27
Speaker 8: but something needs to change, which sometimes is not physical,
18:30
Speaker 8: it's mental. You're gonna do what you're thinking. And if
18:32
Speaker 8: you're thinking, oh, I'm sitting here trying to launch homers,
18:35
Speaker 8: guess what, man, you got two home runs?
18:38
Speaker 4: Whooped you do? And they came in the same day.
18:41
Speaker 8: And as I said, this is not a pick on Henry,
18:43
Speaker 8: you know, because I know he's out there busting his
18:45
Speaker 8: tail as you said, fourteen and eight with him behind
18:47
Speaker 8: the plate, doing what he's supposed to behind the plate.
18:50
Speaker 8: But offensively, I think those numbers aren't just his fault.
18:54
Speaker 8: I don't know if those are numbers, they should know
18:56
Speaker 8: those numbers. And that's where they need to sit down
19:00
Speaker 8: to them and say, hey, I don't want to see
19:02
Speaker 8: a ball in BP. I don't want to see a
19:03
Speaker 8: ball during cage on the left side. Trust me, they
19:08
Speaker 8: can keep track of how many you hitting the cage
19:10
Speaker 8: on this You know, hit tracks if you hit one
19:12
Speaker 8: hundred balls. I mean, granted, we're human. I ain't saying
19:15
Speaker 8: one hundred neat to be middle you're human. There's gonna
19:18
Speaker 8: be a couple of pitches that might come inside that
19:20
Speaker 8: you just naturally pulled. But if the intent is there,
19:23
Speaker 8: the body will follow. But if we're just thinking of
19:26
Speaker 8: hitting home runs and pulling the ball, if you ain't
19:29
Speaker 8: getting a pitch to do that with, what about that
19:31
Speaker 8: pitch that's middle way that you're trying to pull, You're
19:33
Speaker 8: gonna top it, You're gonna roll over, and ultimately to me,
19:37
Speaker 8: sounds like its direction is off. And if you got
19:40
Speaker 8: quick hands, you got quick batspeed, you got to be
19:43
Speaker 8: in a good starting position that allows you to understand
19:47
Speaker 8: you relaxed, and then you also have to understand pulling.
19:51
Speaker 8: Thinking pulled is not your best friend, that's actually your
19:53
Speaker 8: worst enemy.
19:53
Speaker 3: Yep, I love it. Uh yeah, And which it's so
19:57
Speaker 3: weird because Henry Davis when the Pirates took him in
20:00
Speaker 3: twenty twenty one, first overall, he was seen as a
20:03
Speaker 3: bat first catcher who you know, might not even stick
20:06
Speaker 3: at catcher. They moved him the right field just to
20:08
Speaker 3: get his bat into the lineup when he first debuted,
20:11
Speaker 3: and he's putting a ton of work to improve defensively,
20:15
Speaker 3: and we see that time and time again with how
20:17
Speaker 3: well pitchers pitched to him. Just the juxtasp position between
20:21
Speaker 3: him calling games and Joey Bart, it's it's pretty stark.
20:25
Speaker 3: So credit where it's due. He's definitely putting work there.
20:27
Speaker 3: I know he has a reputation of one of the
20:29
Speaker 3: hardest workers on the team. So hopefully this season we
20:33
Speaker 3: finally see that bat that the Pirates drafted back in
20:37
Speaker 3: twenty twenty one starts to come to fruition and if
20:40
Speaker 3: he starts to implement some of the stuff Josh was
20:42
Speaker 3: talking about focus going OPO, that's going to help. So
20:46
Speaker 3: hopefully this week he key's in on that and we
20:49
Speaker 3: see a little bit more from Henry Davis's bat besides
20:52
Speaker 3: just a couple home runs in the last five games, soave,
20:56
Speaker 3: he'll go ahead.
20:57
Speaker 8: Ye, just to answer your question, like, it's possible if
21:00
Speaker 8: he increases his offensive production. And as you said, it
21:04
Speaker 8: doesn't have to be one sixty to three sixty. It
21:07
Speaker 8: doesn't even have to be the two sixty, but you
21:11
Speaker 8: will see increased offensive production if he uses the whole field.
21:15
Speaker 8: Get jammed, you might get a blue Rover first base
21:18
Speaker 8: and guess what, they'll throw that pitch again and your
21:21
Speaker 8: body recognize, hey, I know how to get to that pitch. Now,
21:24
Speaker 8: that's a barrel ball that But if you never get jammed,
21:27
Speaker 8: if it's hard to make that adjustment, pictures are too good.
21:31
Speaker 4: This game is unforgiving.
21:33
Speaker 8: You have to be committed to using the whole field,
21:35
Speaker 8: even if you don't use the whole field.
21:37
Speaker 3: Right, I love it all Right? Any final thoughts, anything
21:42
Speaker 3: people should do if they've listened this far, josh.
21:47
Speaker 8: One, enjoy the off day. You know that we had
21:49
Speaker 8: coming up for the guys. And while you got that
21:52
Speaker 8: extra time on your hands, and even when the series starts,
21:55
Speaker 8: you know they're three hours behind in Arizona, you got
21:57
Speaker 8: time to hit that subscribe button.
22:00
Speaker 4: Also check out the merch site.
22:01
Speaker 8: You know we got a lot of cool items, you know,
22:05
Speaker 8: from bucket hats to you know, Bucco Territory shirts, sweatshirts, Duffel.
22:11
Speaker 4: Bags, coffee mugs, beanies.
22:13
Speaker 8: Is still a little chilly out there. The weather's unpredictable,
22:17
Speaker 8: but you know you can also prepare for this warmer weather.
22:19
Speaker 8: We got baby onesies and you know, towels to dry
22:22
Speaker 8: off with. I got the little fanny packed and as
22:27
Speaker 8: you said, hit that subscribe button, go follow and check
22:31
Speaker 8: out the merch store. And as I said, you got
22:33
Speaker 8: time with the off day in the game starting three
22:35
Speaker 8: hours behind, so you can't say you don't have time.
22:38
Speaker 4: I love it.
22:39
Speaker 3: And final note for me, Jared Jones making another rehab
22:43
Speaker 3: starting Triple A on Tuesday, so make sure you tune
22:46
Speaker 3: in for that. Should be pretty exciting. Can't wait to
22:49
Speaker 3: get him back in this starting rotation that somehow is
22:52
Speaker 3: going to get even better. So can't water all right? Well,
22:55
Speaker 3: thank you so much everyone for tuning in. This has
22:57
Speaker 3: been another episode of Buco Territory presents it to you,
22:59
Speaker 3: by the way, followed Territory Network
23:10
Speaker 6: H