Latest / Cards & Categories / Ep. 134 : Ambulance Chasin’ With Keelin Billue

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Ep. 134 : Ambulance Chasin’ With Keelin Billue · Cards & Categories

0:15
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome everybody to episode one thirty four of
0:19
Speaker 1: Cards and Categories. I am Mike Coolard, and I am
0:22
Speaker 1: joined by our very good friend of the pod, Kielan
0:25
Speaker 1: Blou from Rasball. You know where is the ambulance chaser
0:29
Speaker 1: on Saturdays doing the injury reports. Welcome back, Kielan. I
0:33
Speaker 1: think you uh. This officially puts you past Marmo's dad
0:36
Speaker 1: as the most appeared friend of the pod on Cards
0:40
Speaker 1: and Categories. You pulled back into the lead. So any
0:44
Speaker 1: spiteful words you have.
0:45
Speaker 2: For Matt watch you're growing, bro. Just watch it. Nothing's
0:54
Speaker 2: gonna happen. Just keep an eye on it.
0:57
Speaker 1: That's good advice for everybody out there, I think in
1:00
Speaker 1: the general vicinity of just watch your crotches. Yep. How
1:05
Speaker 1: are you doing tonight?
1:06
Speaker 2: Pretty good? Thanks for having me back. I can't believe
1:08
Speaker 2: you said one thirty four is the episode number.
1:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's at episodes.
1:13
Speaker 2: That's nuts. Congratulations. Yeah, happy to be here, Happy to
1:17
Speaker 2: overtake Mormo's dad and have a have a good chat
1:19
Speaker 2: with you.
1:20
Speaker 1: So yeah, thank you. Excellent. Well we are speaking on
1:24
Speaker 1: the evening of April eighth. We've had a lot of
1:27
Speaker 1: baseball action today, during the day, I was working in
1:30
Speaker 1: meetings all day, so it's been quite the flurry trying
1:33
Speaker 1: to get caught up on everything that happened. And I'm
1:35
Speaker 1: still like catching up on Jorge Hilaire getting smoked in
1:40
Speaker 1: the face by Ronaldo Lopez with the ball in the hand.
1:43
Speaker 1: So there's it's a lot to unpack. There's been a
1:45
Speaker 1: lot of baseball action. But we also know when baseball
1:48
Speaker 1: players are on the field doing baseball actions, they sprawling,
1:52
Speaker 1: they strain, they sprain, they break, And that's what we're
1:58
Speaker 1: going to bring you in here for today, just talk
2:00
Speaker 1: about how you manage all these injuries, because it has
2:02
Speaker 1: been quite the large rash over the past few days,
2:06
Speaker 1: if not week, since I was on here last with
2:09
Speaker 1: Brew and yeah, I see plenty of like first roundish,
2:13
Speaker 1: second roundish players that have been going off the board
2:16
Speaker 1: in terms of injuries. So we're gonna discuss with you
2:19
Speaker 1: strategies on how to mitigate that and how to prepare
2:22
Speaker 1: for it the rest of the season as well as
2:24
Speaker 1: I mean, you are a soothsayer at trying to interpret
2:28
Speaker 1: and reinterpret some of the terminology that teams put out
2:31
Speaker 1: there in terms of this injury. You know, their rehabit.
2:35
Speaker 1: They're gonna be back soon there on the mend YadA YadA.
2:39
Speaker 1: I think you've been on the injury beat for so
2:41
Speaker 1: long that you've been able to sift through a lot
2:43
Speaker 1: of that misinformation that comes from leagues or from the
2:46
Speaker 1: teams and being able to point us in the right
2:49
Speaker 1: direction as fantasy players. So I figured it'd be a
2:51
Speaker 1: good time to get you on. But since you're on,
2:54
Speaker 1: we also have to do White Sox talk. I've been
2:57
Speaker 1: waiting to do this with somebody because it's been a
3:00
Speaker 1: fun season so far. What's your take on at the
3:03
Speaker 1: start of the twenty twenty six White Sox because it's
3:05
Speaker 1: been some depressing discussions about the White Sox we've had
3:09
Speaker 1: over the years.
3:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean compared to the discussions we've had over
3:13
Speaker 2: the years, I'm like, oh, this is actually positive in
3:16
Speaker 2: the scheme of the past few years. So I don't know.
3:20
Speaker 2: I came into this season. I think last time we chatted,
3:23
Speaker 2: Murakami wasn't signed. We talked about Murakami, but he wasn't
3:25
Speaker 2: signed with the team yet, and we were just like
3:28
Speaker 2: I even having like a dreaming discussion. I was like,
3:31
Speaker 2: no way, he's gonna lind up here and then not
3:33
Speaker 2: long after that he did. So that alone, I was like,
3:36
Speaker 2: even if they're crap this season, I was like, at
3:39
Speaker 2: least it's going to be something like no offense because
3:43
Speaker 2: I will always go watch them, but there's more of
3:45
Speaker 2: a reason to go to watch them because, Yeah, as
3:48
Speaker 2: we discussed last time, I've been following Murakami for a
3:51
Speaker 2: few years now, so I was like, yes, we'll get
3:53
Speaker 2: to see him a lot now. So that alone, I
3:56
Speaker 2: was feeling like pretty good about And you know, there
3:59
Speaker 2: are some I think there are some decisions on and
4:03
Speaker 2: off through the or the preseason that I was like interesting,
4:05
Speaker 2: But overall, I was like, this feels like a little
4:08
Speaker 2: more watchable. Uh, it feels like they should do better.
4:13
Speaker 2: And then so far through this season, you know, it's
4:15
Speaker 2: kind of been up and down a little, but at
4:17
Speaker 2: least I feel like it's been more fun to watch
4:19
Speaker 2: this season. There's a lot more hope. It seems like
4:21
Speaker 2: all these guys are meshing well together. I was just
4:25
Speaker 2: looking the other day, what's like a wash crap? What
4:29
Speaker 2: is the guy that debuted the other day?
4:30
Speaker 1: Tanner?
4:32
Speaker 2: He yeah, Tanner Murray, Yeah.
4:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, I had no idea who he was until he
4:37
Speaker 1: showed up as short stuff for the Socks.
4:39
Speaker 2: Same yeah, and he had his debut and I saw
4:42
Speaker 2: he and Murakami and their Instagram stories were like complimenting
4:45
Speaker 2: back and forth, and I was like, yes, the dudes
4:48
Speaker 2: are the dudes are rocking. So still been We're with
4:52
Speaker 2: the bullpin, but I'll take it. It's been fun to watch.
4:55
Speaker 2: Can't believe they swept the Blue Jays, So yeah, I'm
4:58
Speaker 2: enjoying it for what it is right now.
5:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, you just returned back to kicking Marmos's dad. Marmos
5:04
Speaker 1: Dad's growing there at that Blue Jays.
5:07
Speaker 2: I know. I try to keep my like gloating and
5:11
Speaker 2: bragging down when it's anything blue because I love the
5:14
Speaker 2: Blue Jays and I love all their fans for the
5:16
Speaker 2: most part, like they're awesome, So I never want to
5:19
Speaker 2: say anything that bad. But you know, occasionally he needs it.
5:23
Speaker 2: We got to keep him in line, right, Yeah, a little.
5:25
Speaker 1: Kick, Yeah, watch his Canadian ego, but yeah, I mean
5:30
Speaker 1: and the White Socks have had a flurry of moves
5:33
Speaker 1: here over the past couple of days. Just this morning,
5:36
Speaker 1: we had Shane Smith get optioned to the Miners, who
5:39
Speaker 1: he was a real pick five pick from the Brewers
5:42
Speaker 1: last year, so they kept him in an entire year
5:45
Speaker 1: on the forty man squad up in the big leagues,
5:48
Speaker 1: and so this or on the twenty six man squad.
5:51
Speaker 1: Sorry for real, five pick is what it needs to be.
5:53
Speaker 1: And so now they're sending Shane Smith back after a
5:56
Speaker 1: pretty rough start to the season. But he did look
5:59
Speaker 1: better in the outing this yesterday in terms of Tuesday,
6:04
Speaker 1: I mean, because he racked up the strikeouts, but he
6:07
Speaker 1: also wracked up the walks. So I'm curious. I haven't
6:10
Speaker 1: gotten a chance to see that Shane Smith starts because
6:13
Speaker 1: they've been pretty ugly and pretty quick. Have you, And
6:16
Speaker 1: what is your takeaway here on Shane Smith? Because the
6:19
Speaker 1: stuff is great, it just seems that like things are
6:22
Speaker 1: a little off for him right now.
6:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, honestly, I haven't been able to see any of
6:27
Speaker 2: his either, so I haven't been able to watch. I
6:32
Speaker 2: thought it was interesting because uh Socks Machine, which is
6:36
Speaker 2: to anybody listening that's not a White Sox person, it's
6:38
Speaker 2: a pretty well regarded White Sox publication. I think James
6:44
Speaker 2: Sagan just did a piece on Shane Smith and like,
6:48
Speaker 2: is he going to be able like to fix things?
6:52
Speaker 2: And it's a pretty good read about this. But yeah,
6:55
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know. I I was a little
6:59
Speaker 2: surprised by it. I think I actually learned about it
7:02
Speaker 2: from reading your like show notes beforehand. I was like, oh, okay,
7:05
Speaker 2: that was that was quite speedy. I do know. It
7:08
Speaker 2: was always a little weird to me that I don't
7:11
Speaker 2: know that we had many other options, But I mean
7:13
Speaker 2: when he was in the All Star Game, that was
7:15
Speaker 2: always interesting. Something always felt like off. It was like,
7:19
Speaker 2: did we just kind of sind a guy? So yeah,
7:23
Speaker 2: I am wondering if they're just going to like rest
7:27
Speaker 2: him for a little bit or what.
7:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, and with that move, they did call up Tyler
7:36
Speaker 1: Schweitzer to fill in a bullpen. He's just kind of
7:39
Speaker 1: like a I mean, he entered the season as the
7:43
Speaker 1: twenty second ranked prospect for the Socks according to Fangrafts,
7:48
Speaker 1: but I think he's more of a depth arm. I mean,
7:50
Speaker 1: the big the big names to keep an eye on
7:53
Speaker 1: are Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith, who have looked fantastic.
7:57
Speaker 1: I can't wait for their debuts, or Tanner mcdo is
8:00
Speaker 1: also a big name. McDougall has actually on the forty
8:05
Speaker 1: man rosters. So that's not Also, actually the staff is
8:08
Speaker 1: kind of loaded a triple A with David Sandlin too.
8:11
Speaker 1: They just picked up Doug nick Hazy from the Guardians,
8:16
Speaker 1: so lots of intrigue in this White Sox rotation. Any
8:20
Speaker 1: of those guys, are you really looking forward to seeing
8:23
Speaker 1: their debut? Between McDougall, Smith, and Schultz, Like, is any
8:27
Speaker 1: one of them like the cream that rises to the crop.
8:31
Speaker 2: I think We've been talking about Noah Schultz for a
8:33
Speaker 2: while now, so I'm pretty interested in that just because
8:35
Speaker 2: it's one of those like when is this gonna happen?
8:38
Speaker 2: Like I'm just waiting for it to happen. So I
8:41
Speaker 2: think that's the one. And I feel like I'm curious
8:43
Speaker 2: kind of like what you think too with this bullpen
8:45
Speaker 2: right now? It's just kind of weird, I guess been
8:49
Speaker 2: so the last couple of years been sort of like
8:51
Speaker 2: up and down and just the carousel of guys say,
8:55
Speaker 2: you know, like, yeah, I'm curious what you think is
8:58
Speaker 2: gonna happen in general this season with it?
9:01
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean I think, I mean, I think
9:04
Speaker 1: McDougal is right around the corner. He looked great in
9:07
Speaker 1: the spring. There's no reason for him to stay down,
9:10
Speaker 1: and honestly, I think the Socks really need to start
9:13
Speaker 1: showing what they can do in the future and bringing
9:17
Speaker 1: some of these guys up. So I don't think they're
9:18
Speaker 1: gonna keep Schultz and Smith down for super long because
9:23
Speaker 1: Jerry likes to sell him some tickets and some beers,
9:26
Speaker 1: especially if he can get oh if he could get
9:28
Speaker 1: like a Noah Schultz debut, but it goes into a
9:31
Speaker 1: rain delay in the third inning that he could just delay.
9:34
Speaker 1: And definitely that is like the Jerry Rhyin store sweet
9:37
Speaker 1: spot for those beer sales. So I think they're all
9:41
Speaker 1: going to be up because there's nothing special at the
9:45
Speaker 1: big league level. I mean, Davis Martin looked really great
9:47
Speaker 1: this past outing, Anthony kay has looked better, but Sean
9:51
Speaker 1: Bark is pretty mid and Eric Fetti is about to
9:54
Speaker 1: be cut. I think that, like, unless they really want
9:58
Speaker 1: that veteran, it means that, like there's no reason that
10:03
Speaker 1: Eric Fetti in his roster spot should be holding back Smith,
10:06
Speaker 1: their Schultzer McDougall when they're ready to go.
10:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, I was kind of bummed about that.
10:11
Speaker 2: I was hoping things would go like they did last time,
10:15
Speaker 2: which turned out pretty well for the White Sox in
10:17
Speaker 2: comparison to the rest of the season.
10:19
Speaker 1: But yeah, or they they can trade Fetty too, because
10:24
Speaker 1: coming back to those Blue Jays, they're out of arms.
10:27
Speaker 1: The Cubs are out of arms, the Mariners are getting close,
10:30
Speaker 1: the Reds are getting close. It is been a strange
10:33
Speaker 1: season for starts across the board in terms of lack
10:36
Speaker 1: of depth for.
10:37
Speaker 2: Some care Yeah, yeah, it's been brutal. That's been crazy.
10:41
Speaker 2: The Blue Jays have been I mean, I'm obviously following
10:44
Speaker 2: that one super closely with the ambulance chasers and.
10:49
Speaker 1: Whenever you have to break the Patrick Corbyn in case
10:54
Speaker 1: of emergency glass, you know things are dire. Let's focus
10:59
Speaker 1: on the socks. We also had Austin Hayes go down
11:01
Speaker 1: with the strain hamstring past couple days. I mean, he
11:04
Speaker 1: had an everyday job which was pretty clutch if you
11:07
Speaker 1: had him in a super deep leak situation because he
11:10
Speaker 1: offered good batting average, a little bit of pop, a
11:13
Speaker 1: little bit speed, a lot of volume. Because there was
11:16
Speaker 1: nobody kind of coming for that corner outfield spot. They've
11:18
Speaker 1: called up Dustin Harris, who came through the Texas system
11:24
Speaker 1: and so he is in a strong slide platoon role
11:27
Speaker 1: in right field. What's your read here on Austin Hayes
11:31
Speaker 1: and what have you liked from him in the beginning
11:34
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty six.
11:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it seems like Austin Hayes has kind of
11:39
Speaker 2: been a fitted at least a little bit from sort
11:41
Speaker 2: of a like change of scenery. I mean, not doing
11:45
Speaker 2: like crazy great, but it's kind of been nice to
11:47
Speaker 2: have him in the lineup there where he's sitting, So
11:51
Speaker 2: I think that's been kind of nice. But you know,
11:54
Speaker 2: obviously hamstring doesn't help, and I think in general, like
11:57
Speaker 2: a lot of these guys are super younger, so it
11:58
Speaker 2: helps to have somebody a little in the game. So
12:01
Speaker 2: I think that's been nice to see out of him
12:05
Speaker 2: so far, just the veteran part alone, I.
12:07
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, And I mean I'm fascinated to see what
12:12
Speaker 1: Dustin Harrison do. Actually, he stole two bases today. He's
12:15
Speaker 1: only twenty six. He didn't really have a great opening
12:18
Speaker 1: spot in Texas, and so Zips actually has him down
12:22
Speaker 1: that if he gets like four hundred and fifty ish
12:24
Speaker 1: played appearances for ten homers and twenty stone bases, so
12:28
Speaker 1: maybe also look out a little bit Austin Hayeser. The
12:31
Speaker 1: Nintendee's also looked really bad, and like, yes, there's a
12:34
Speaker 1: youth movement underway in Chicago, and I think it's a
12:37
Speaker 1: matter of like gets has to start showing something as
12:40
Speaker 1: well as I don't think Will Vinnible signed up to
12:43
Speaker 1: just like babysit. So yeah, he wants to turn the
12:46
Speaker 1: corner here.
12:47
Speaker 2: Yep, yep, I agree. Been Intendee's been, I mean, honestly
12:52
Speaker 2: kind of like painful. It's a lot. Yes, yeah, it
12:57
Speaker 2: seems like there have been so many kind of high
12:59
Speaker 2: lives sort of situations where we have quite a few
13:02
Speaker 2: people on base and then yeah, you can't hit. I
13:05
Speaker 2: think I don't remember. I think it might have been
13:08
Speaker 2: Opening Day. It was only like his second hit of
13:11
Speaker 2: the season so far that he did that, Dan, and
13:13
Speaker 2: I was like, oh my, and I think he's only
13:15
Speaker 2: the DH right now. I think, right like he's.
13:17
Speaker 1: Been Yeah, powerless D.
13:20
Speaker 2: That's insane.
13:22
Speaker 1: The largest contract in White.
13:23
Speaker 2: Sox history, right, that's insane.
13:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, And then also need to bust out the White
13:28
Speaker 1: Sox Twitter meme of all memes with the the heavens
13:33
Speaker 1: you gotta are you gonna bust went out for Brooks Baldwin,
13:36
Speaker 1: who's out for the season now after undergoing internal brace surgery.
13:39
Speaker 2: I should. I've been thinking about bringing it back. Why
13:42
Speaker 2: not Now now's the perfect time. We have a few
13:45
Speaker 2: guys to put on there too. It is interesting because
13:49
Speaker 2: it's like, I don't know if it's I feel like
13:52
Speaker 2: that just so many of these guys are like less
13:53
Speaker 2: recognizable now, So it'd be definitely a different take on
13:56
Speaker 2: White Sox Heaven, where it's like, here's some guys, Like
13:59
Speaker 2: so many times I'll see somebody's name on the roster
14:01
Speaker 2: and be like, I don't even know who that is,
14:04
Speaker 2: and I follow this team like relatively closely clearly, So
14:09
Speaker 2: it could be an interesting twist on White Sox Heaven.
14:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, over under four and a half, people if you
14:14
Speaker 1: post that meme on Blue Sky will recognize Brooks Baldwin's
14:17
Speaker 1: face without me putting the name.
14:21
Speaker 2: I I mean, it's gotta only be like, really, only
14:26
Speaker 2: the people who watch I don't even know, because it's
14:28
Speaker 2: hard to even tell on like TV, And I mean,
14:31
Speaker 2: if you're at the games, you don't see their faces
14:33
Speaker 2: up close. So I feel like it's only going to
14:34
Speaker 2: be people, honestly, and the do like baseball articles or
14:39
Speaker 2: anything where they're having to look at headshots regularly, they're
14:43
Speaker 2: gonna be like, oh, yeah, I know, I know these guys.
14:45
Speaker 2: I was looking at the old ones and it was
14:47
Speaker 2: like Louise Robert Ely just like people who it's like
14:52
Speaker 2: I will I will recognize that, or even their like
14:54
Speaker 2: facial features are very recognizable. And then so many of
14:57
Speaker 2: our guys now it's like kind of a lot of
15:00
Speaker 2: them look the same. They're all like younger looking and
15:02
Speaker 2: have like flippy hair. So yeah, I don't know, we'll see.
15:06
Speaker 2: I'll make it. I'll make one for myself and then
15:08
Speaker 2: try to like forget about it and then go back
15:10
Speaker 2: and try to guess and I'll tell you how that goes.
15:12
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, just racking them up as the season goes.
15:15
Speaker 1: I like that. Okay, Well, let's turn the corner a
15:17
Speaker 1: little bit into our main course. First, if you are
15:20
Speaker 1: listening along, go into those show notes and you'll see
15:23
Speaker 1: a link to Kielan's work on all the ambulance chase
15:26
Speaker 1: that she's been doing on Saturdays to help you out
15:28
Speaker 1: the injuries when you're down there. You'll also find a
15:31
Speaker 1: link to Rasball subscriptions, which they've been fantastic once again,
15:36
Speaker 1: they the Streaminator, the Hitterotron have been getting things right.
15:39
Speaker 1: They've also been like they are dead on in terms
15:43
Speaker 1: of the weather patterns as well too, that like Rudy
15:45
Speaker 1: has it finally tuned where I used to manually sometimes
15:49
Speaker 1: look and see like at stadiums, like what the weather
15:53
Speaker 1: would look like and what the wind would look like.
15:55
Speaker 1: And usually when I flip over to the Streaminator, Rudy's
15:59
Speaker 1: already got those beat up boops, those numbers into the
16:03
Speaker 1: numbers of each starting pitcher and it's kicking out really
16:06
Speaker 1: great suggestions. So Raspball subscriptions, I can't tout it enough.
16:11
Speaker 1: It goes more than beyond the money you pay for it,
16:14
Speaker 1: and then support rasp Ball writers like Keeland and this
16:18
Speaker 1: podcast right here at cards and categories, all your favorites
16:21
Speaker 1: are there. But Kielan provide everybody a little bit of
16:24
Speaker 1: background on ambulance Chasers and what you're doing this year,
16:27
Speaker 1: because I think it's been really fascinating seeing how you're
16:30
Speaker 1: slicing and dicing these injuries, analyzing how to approach them
16:35
Speaker 1: from a fantasy perspective, and maybe some bigger strategic kind
16:39
Speaker 1: of items you might want listeners to know about in
16:42
Speaker 1: terms of how do you handle injuries day in and
16:45
Speaker 1: day out, weekend, week out, months to month, even for
16:48
Speaker 1: Fantasy baseball, it is a long stretch. It is only
16:51
Speaker 1: like week three of the periods and we've still got
16:54
Speaker 1: twenty five ish more to go. So there's a lot
16:57
Speaker 1: of takeaways I think folks can have from your strategies
17:00
Speaker 1: around injuries and so let them know some of the
17:02
Speaker 1: insights before we actually get into discussing some of the
17:05
Speaker 1: new ones that have hit our playerpool. Yeah.
17:07
Speaker 2: Sure, so definitely. I have changed sort of my strategy
17:12
Speaker 2: this year from previous years. And previous years we would
17:16
Speaker 2: like report the injuries, which is like great, cool, but
17:20
Speaker 2: you know, maybe not that helpful sometimes. So over the
17:24
Speaker 2: past few years I started adding in potential replacements or
17:29
Speaker 2: internal options that likely would see more at bats, and
17:32
Speaker 2: then also some external replacements as well, And so I've
17:38
Speaker 2: been doing that, making sure to try to do that
17:40
Speaker 2: a bit more. You know, sometimes there's a lot of
17:42
Speaker 2: overlap between people because it's like, well, this guy would
17:44
Speaker 2: actually be good for both of these guys, but I
17:47
Speaker 2: try to like offer up a few different people and
17:50
Speaker 2: then yeah, I did. I did this year a little
17:52
Speaker 2: differently in pre season because I tried to actually make
17:56
Speaker 2: a series about like things to think about and prepare
17:59
Speaker 2: for or with drafting and just basically like mental resetting
18:05
Speaker 2: for the season. And I think those are honestly doing
18:10
Speaker 2: all of that, and I can share links with that
18:13
Speaker 2: about that. But I think even those early preseason lessons
18:16
Speaker 2: are the things that have been mostly things to like
18:20
Speaker 2: consider all season, and a lot of those are just
18:24
Speaker 2: like kind of taking a beat before making a decision
18:28
Speaker 2: about what to do with a player. I think that's
18:30
Speaker 2: like the biggest thing I see it. I'm actually I'm
18:34
Speaker 2: really so bad. Ton't that I'm like terrible at setting
18:37
Speaker 2: my lineup, But I get all the like obviously, like
18:40
Speaker 2: the notifications of who's going on waivers or not, and
18:43
Speaker 2: it sometimes I'll see stuff come through that I'm just
18:45
Speaker 2: like why, like why would you drop them? So I think, yeah,
18:52
Speaker 2: just taking a beat, and like if you have the
18:56
Speaker 2: opportunity to like hold somebody for a little bit, unless
18:58
Speaker 2: it's something you know, like out for the season, obviously
19:02
Speaker 2: that's gonna be like drop them and get a replacement,
19:06
Speaker 2: unless I guess it depends on the league. If it's
19:08
Speaker 2: like a dynasty Lea, that's a little different, but that's
19:11
Speaker 2: like the biggest thing, because I mean, I think for
19:13
Speaker 2: all of us, obviously, there's people that are more emotional
19:18
Speaker 2: or like reactive than other people. I know some people
19:20
Speaker 2: don't like to hear that, but it's just so easy
19:23
Speaker 2: sometimes to start freaking out and and just like drop
19:27
Speaker 2: somebody or make like an emotional or like quick panic decision.
19:31
Speaker 2: I know because I have done it a lot. So
19:34
Speaker 2: I think that's honestly like the biggest thing. And then
19:39
Speaker 2: I think what's been helping me this season is honestly
19:43
Speaker 2: just like reading a lot, so reading a lot of
19:45
Speaker 2: rasball stuff, following the socials and seeing what pops up,
19:49
Speaker 2: and just looking for who to pick up and fill
19:54
Speaker 2: in those places like everybody else does. So I think
19:57
Speaker 2: I caught Joey why We're yeah, Joey Wimer. I got him,
20:02
Speaker 2: just happened to pick him up to put on my
20:06
Speaker 2: roster to replace and somebody went on the aisl and
20:09
Speaker 2: I was like, that worked out awesome, just from doing
20:11
Speaker 2: what everybody else does and you know, making sure I
20:14
Speaker 2: was just watching closely and it worked out pretty well.
20:17
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think those are the biggest things. It's
20:19
Speaker 2: all like mental stuff and just finding a lot of
20:24
Speaker 2: times you're never going to find the perfect replacement, sometimes
20:27
Speaker 2: good enough, and just having like at bats or whatever
20:30
Speaker 2: stat you're looking for, that's really the best thing you
20:33
Speaker 2: can do and just not expect perfection, which again may
20:38
Speaker 2: not satisfy some people here.
20:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I think that's a great call because, like
20:43
Speaker 1: it has been shown time and time again, and I
20:46
Speaker 1: know Jeff Suberman from Fangrafts has proved this out that
20:49
Speaker 1: just volume is what often wins fantasy leagues. If you're
20:53
Speaker 1: just putting up the most player appearances, you're putting up
20:56
Speaker 1: the most innings, you're putting up the most games. It
20:59
Speaker 1: is really really crucial to make sure that you're filling
21:03
Speaker 1: your roster, getting those lineup set, voiding injuries that are
21:08
Speaker 1: especially if you're in like a weekly league and you're
21:10
Speaker 1: always like playing that dance on Sunday evening, setting your
21:13
Speaker 1: lineups going into Monday, and like a guy, the first
21:17
Speaker 1: guy actually we're gonna talk about in terms of injuries
21:19
Speaker 1: here soon like was in this limbo dances and knowing
21:23
Speaker 1: like how to approach that is really crucial. I mean,
21:26
Speaker 1: some of it is the roulette hitting correctly for you.
21:30
Speaker 1: But some of it is also like if you have
21:33
Speaker 1: a long term strategy and you're paying attention to especially
21:35
Speaker 1: like your article, it will really help you out, I
21:38
Speaker 1: think in the long run. With that, I mean, like
21:42
Speaker 1: I said, you're always parsing through the phrasing of what
21:45
Speaker 1: the teams are putting out there. So I have to
21:48
Speaker 1: ask you, is there one phrase or maybe one type
21:51
Speaker 1: of injury that like just gives you the hebgb's where
21:55
Speaker 1: you're just like, oh no, this is really bad when
21:58
Speaker 1: maybe it's something that's covering up for another injury or
22:01
Speaker 1: covering up for a prognostication. I think the Astros have
22:06
Speaker 1: run into this a lot in terms of not being
22:09
Speaker 1: truthful with their injuries, but all the teams are, So
22:11
Speaker 1: is there one phrase or one injury that just scares
22:15
Speaker 1: the daylights out of you? Oh?
22:17
Speaker 2: Man, I feel like any other day when I'm writing this,
22:22
Speaker 2: I think of these things all the time, But I'm like,
22:24
Speaker 2: which one do I choose? Like anything anything back? I
22:29
Speaker 2: mean I think we all, like Luis Elbow, We're like,
22:32
Speaker 2: oh crap, anything back and shoulder related, especially back, because
22:38
Speaker 2: the back is well one I mean, just as a
22:41
Speaker 2: living human being having back pain is like I don't
22:46
Speaker 2: even have back pain like that often, but even having
22:48
Speaker 2: some kind of back pain is like debilitating. So just
22:52
Speaker 2: as a human, it's like you can't really do a lot.
22:55
Speaker 2: And then just thinking about like in any position, like
22:59
Speaker 2: all of the power that from the back and how
23:01
Speaker 2: much you use it for. I mean, it is literally
23:03
Speaker 2: like holding your body up. So anytime I see anything
23:07
Speaker 2: about the back, I'm just like, uh oh, like that
23:11
Speaker 2: doesn't that's not good at all because sometimes you know, again,
23:16
Speaker 2: a lot of people talk about like oh man, like
23:18
Speaker 2: shoulder impingements and things like that as being like uh oh,
23:22
Speaker 2: and those are those are like kind of scary, but
23:25
Speaker 2: also it seems like they're manageable ish for a while
23:31
Speaker 2: and sometimes people come back from them. So those used
23:34
Speaker 2: to scare me a lot, but not as much now.
23:36
Speaker 2: And then you know, elbows are always like I said,
23:39
Speaker 2: that scares everybody, But yeah, I think a back is
23:42
Speaker 2: a sneaky one. And then I think the ones I
23:45
Speaker 2: feel like we've been seeing more lately could just be
23:48
Speaker 2: me though, or oblaques, that's always I think obliques and
23:52
Speaker 2: hamstrings are usually the ones that are the most annoying,
23:56
Speaker 2: where it's like that doesn't seem like that's going to
23:58
Speaker 2: be that bad. And then the next you know, it's
24:00
Speaker 2: like three months later and it's like, great, we haven't
24:04
Speaker 2: heard from this person, and they don't. I don't know
24:07
Speaker 2: if they're any better or anything. So those are the
24:09
Speaker 2: more like not going to be like complete season ruiners,
24:14
Speaker 2: but like this could be a few days or this
24:16
Speaker 2: could be longer. And I'm adding this one even though
24:19
Speaker 2: you didn't ask for it. But I also all the
24:21
Speaker 2: time think about Planner fasciitis, and yeah, I think about
24:27
Speaker 2: I think he was misdiagnosed, but I think Jonathan India, Yeah,
24:31
Speaker 2: for a long time. That's what he and Carlos Korea
24:34
Speaker 2: as well, and it seems like that never really uh
24:37
Speaker 2: neither of them really like they came back, but you know,
24:42
Speaker 2: maybe not as strongly. So that's another one that's like
24:44
Speaker 2: again not ruining anything, but also like just nagging, annoying. Yeah,
24:51
Speaker 2: any more than you ask for.
24:52
Speaker 1: There, No, I think that's great, And I mean I
24:55
Speaker 1: think the call out on the back is also a
24:58
Speaker 1: really good point because not only do you have to
25:01
Speaker 1: just it's like the core of like everything that you're doing,
25:04
Speaker 1: but we forget, like I can't imagine how brutal it
25:08
Speaker 1: is to travel the way that these guys do. Yeah,
25:11
Speaker 1: all the flights, all of the hotels, all of the buses,
25:15
Speaker 1: all of the taxis, all of the ubers. Most of
25:18
Speaker 1: them are large humans, and so if you're also battling
25:23
Speaker 1: a back issue, it just kind of compounds, you know
25:25
Speaker 1: what I mean, where it's like, yeah, I think compared
25:28
Speaker 1: to like you said, shoulders and elbows are obviously concerning,
25:32
Speaker 1: but you don't have to use that to move your
25:36
Speaker 1: body constantly, and there's usually like a pretty straightforward path
25:40
Speaker 1: to resting and rehabbing those injuries as opposed to a
25:44
Speaker 1: back is just a it can be a quag bar
25:47
Speaker 1: very quickly.
25:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, yep, definitely.
25:50
Speaker 1: Okay, well we've buried the lead here. We're about a
25:53
Speaker 1: half hour in. Let's get into these injuries. And the
25:56
Speaker 1: big one is the wand Soto right calf strain injury.
26:00
Speaker 1: So currently the Mets are saying it's gonna be two
26:03
Speaker 1: to three weeks. But just asked how finnicky calves are
26:08
Speaker 1: to Mike Trout because he's dealt with a calf a
26:10
Speaker 1: couple of years ago where the strain just never really
26:14
Speaker 1: healed upright and especially. I mean, a strain is a
26:18
Speaker 1: tear in the muscle, and so if you're looking at
26:21
Speaker 1: like it not healing properly and he tries to rush
26:24
Speaker 1: it back, it can just compound very quickly. So this
26:28
Speaker 1: is a first round pick, I mean like a top
26:29
Speaker 1: five pick, and I mean things were looking great. The
26:32
Speaker 1: first eight games. He put up a three fifty five
26:34
Speaker 1: four to twelve five sixteen slash line. That's a one
26:37
Speaker 1: sixty one WRC. Plus it was aero point three fangrass
26:41
Speaker 1: war in eight games, So you multiply that out. He
26:44
Speaker 1: was on track for another great Wan Soto season. So
26:48
Speaker 1: the other concerning part is we did get thirty eight
26:51
Speaker 1: stolen bases out of Wan Soto last year, and if
26:54
Speaker 1: he's nursing a calf injury, you got to wonder where
26:57
Speaker 1: that stolen base total comes in for twenty twenty. So
27:00
Speaker 1: what's your take here on Juan Soto going forward? Obviously
27:04
Speaker 1: you can't drop him wherever you got him, So how
27:08
Speaker 1: cautious are you maybe also moving forward? Because like, is
27:12
Speaker 1: it a situation where you might also take fifty sixty
27:18
Speaker 1: seventy cents on the dollar in a trade for him?
27:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I mean it seems like from what I've read,
27:25
Speaker 2: which to be fair, this is very new, it seems
27:29
Speaker 2: like it's not and I looked up like they said
27:34
Speaker 2: he might be up for two to three weeks, which
27:36
Speaker 2: I don't think I've seen that they've said what the
27:38
Speaker 2: grade is necessarily, but I think that tracks with like
27:44
Speaker 2: less like a grade one strain is like four weeks
27:48
Speaker 2: and picking it up to months. So I'm not a doctor,
27:51
Speaker 2: so I don't know, Like I can only speak to
27:54
Speaker 2: what I read. So I definitely feel like he I
27:58
Speaker 2: would hold on to him for sure, and then yeah,
28:01
Speaker 2: I mean, you're honestly gonna have to find somebody to
28:03
Speaker 2: replace him. But I don't think it's going to be
28:06
Speaker 2: anything like super devastating unless again, like we just talked about,
28:11
Speaker 2: they're hiding something or it is something like you mentioned
28:15
Speaker 2: that may go on it becomes a mic trout situation.
28:18
Speaker 2: I think, age wise, like he's still pretty young but
28:24
Speaker 2: still like not you know, not twenty three. But I
28:29
Speaker 2: feel like they'll find a way to make him make
28:32
Speaker 2: it work. So I feel it right now, I feel
28:34
Speaker 2: positive about that. Would hold on to him, just find
28:38
Speaker 2: a replacement for whatever you're needing at this point in
28:40
Speaker 2: the season, whether that is like, yeah, stolen bases or
28:44
Speaker 2: something else or all of it. You know, it's not
28:47
Speaker 2: gonna be on SODO production, but it'll be something to
28:50
Speaker 2: fill that void for a little bit.
28:54
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I think I'm with you because I think
28:56
Speaker 1: if we were later in the season, maybe the Mets
28:59
Speaker 1: don't make this move and they let him slog through
29:03
Speaker 1: a bunch of DH appearances or something. But we're earlier
29:07
Speaker 1: enough in the season that the Mets can make up
29:09
Speaker 1: ground or I mean we're also the Braves are disintegrating
29:13
Speaker 1: in front of us in terms of injuries before the
29:16
Speaker 1: season and suspension, so there's a lot of leeway. So
29:19
Speaker 1: I think that's a very solid take on the one
29:22
Speaker 1: so to situation. Next big injury. This is probably number
29:26
Speaker 1: one starter for lots of people. Houston Astauro's pitcher Hunter
29:30
Speaker 1: Brown hitting the IL with a shoulder injury. And so
29:34
Speaker 1: what makes this strange is he pitched actually at last Wednesday.
29:39
Speaker 1: Is that correct, LA's Tuesday on the thirty first, March
29:42
Speaker 1: thirty first, then went on the shelf later because it
29:46
Speaker 1: sounds like he was doing one of his kind of
29:49
Speaker 1: like mound days, doing some work on Friday. Things went
29:54
Speaker 1: to arry with the shoulder and they put him on
29:57
Speaker 1: the iel. This is not an organization we can try
30:00
Speaker 1: very well from an injury standpoint, given what we've seen
30:03
Speaker 1: out of Kyle Tucker and jord On Alpharez updates throughout
30:06
Speaker 1: the years. And you know you're also looking at Hunter Brown.
30:11
Speaker 1: The control was really eluding him early in the season.
30:14
Speaker 1: It was only ten to two thirds innings with a
30:16
Speaker 1: point eight four ERA, but it was career high and
30:19
Speaker 1: the walk rate that the walk rate was at fourteen percent,
30:22
Speaker 1: and honestly, walk rates going up usually there's I mean,
30:28
Speaker 1: shoulder injuries will cause a lock of control. So the
30:32
Speaker 1: vosity looked okay, it was a tick down, but typically,
30:37
Speaker 1: and actually I wonder if this would be something if
30:40
Speaker 1: you are analytically inclined in data inclined that like it
30:44
Speaker 1: used to be that starting pitcher fastballs would be slower
30:49
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the season pick up. It feels
30:51
Speaker 1: like anecdotally it's been less of that that people are
30:54
Speaker 1: kind of peak getting into the season, but that would
30:57
Speaker 1: be something to look into. It was down from ninety
30:59
Speaker 1: six and twenty twenty five to ninety six to two
31:02
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six, one hundred Browns fastball, but you
31:06
Speaker 1: just said shoulders scare you, and this one especially cropped
31:09
Speaker 1: up without like a direct impact in the game. So
31:13
Speaker 1: how what's your worry meter here on Hunter Brown for
31:17
Speaker 1: the rest of twenty twenty six.
31:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think he made a good point
31:21
Speaker 2: about talking about the Astros not being super you know,
31:28
Speaker 2: open about injuries, and I think even so far what
31:31
Speaker 2: we've heard, like I see as much information as he
31:34
Speaker 2: has a grade to shoulder strain, but then timetable unclear,
31:37
Speaker 2: which is interesting to me. I mean, they could be
31:41
Speaker 2: saying that just because it's like for a number of reasons,
31:44
Speaker 2: but you know, a grade two could be three to
31:48
Speaker 2: six weeks. But if they're not giving any sort of timetable,
31:52
Speaker 2: it's kind of like, is there more going on there?
31:57
Speaker 2: I can see why they wouldn't want to to see
31:59
Speaker 2: just in or all, like maybe they're gonna I doubt
32:01
Speaker 2: they would, and maybe trying to slow him slow ramp
32:05
Speaker 2: him up rather than just like forcing him out there
32:08
Speaker 2: since it is so early in the season. But at
32:11
Speaker 2: the same time, I'm just kind of like that seems
32:14
Speaker 2: the wording is very like secretive, kind of like you're
32:17
Speaker 2: talking about So I think that is interesting and a
32:20
Speaker 2: little a little freaky, and it looks like, yeah, nobody's
32:26
Speaker 2: been really willing to speak on the timeline, so and
32:29
Speaker 2: it says, yeah, he's not gonna be able to throw
32:31
Speaker 2: for two weeks, so maybe they're just waiting and going
32:34
Speaker 2: to be getting more opinions back from doctors before coming
32:38
Speaker 2: out with any kind of timeline. But without hearing anything else,
32:42
Speaker 2: I'm kind of like that seems a little worrisome, like
32:46
Speaker 2: that would be one as if we're looking at if
32:50
Speaker 2: we're looking at one, so it as a comparison, and
32:52
Speaker 2: I know that's hard because he's not a picture, but
32:54
Speaker 2: I would be quite a bit more worried about Hunter
32:57
Speaker 2: round and then looking for or a replacement that is
33:03
Speaker 2: maybe a little more like sustainable or I don't know
33:09
Speaker 2: the sustainable is the right word, but looking a little
33:11
Speaker 2: more seriously basically for alternatives that I could use. Yeah, yeah,
33:16
Speaker 2: it's pitching.
33:17
Speaker 1: So oh yeah, exactly. It's gonna be fickle, but I
33:21
Speaker 1: think that's a great call. And maybe even buying high
33:23
Speaker 1: on somebody who's started hot, like a Jack Lighter or
33:26
Speaker 1: a Chase Burns or something, and pay up for it
33:29
Speaker 1: so you can get number one upside in the trade.
33:33
Speaker 1: I think I would start hedging for sure if you've
33:37
Speaker 1: got Hunter Brown rostered. I agree, this is not This
33:41
Speaker 1: is not the way that you want things to unfold
33:44
Speaker 1: for a picture in terms of the loss of control,
33:47
Speaker 1: the sudden shoulder injury, and the Houston Astros of it all.
33:52
Speaker 1: So I'm totally on board with you. Okay, next injury,
33:56
Speaker 1: we have another superstar shortstop for the Los Angeles Dodgers,
33:59
Speaker 1: Mookie Bets, hitting the il with an oblique strain, and
34:03
Speaker 1: so far it sounds like it's a relatively mild oblique strain.
34:07
Speaker 1: But something you're gonna have to keep in mind here
34:09
Speaker 1: with Mookie Bets is that he is now thirty three
34:12
Speaker 1: years old. This Dodgers team has already opened up a
34:15
Speaker 1: three game lead in the NL West at nine to three.
34:19
Speaker 1: They are just an absolute behemoth and things are moving forward.
34:24
Speaker 1: So are you what do you think the timeline will
34:28
Speaker 1: be on Bets? Considering what you've seen and that Dodgers
34:32
Speaker 1: of it all. They did call up hayes On Kim
34:35
Speaker 1: to take over Mookie's roster spot, but I'll also call
34:39
Speaker 1: out I think Alex Freeland is gonna get fold playing
34:42
Speaker 1: time in La Now, so if you need a replacement,
34:45
Speaker 1: you've got a couple there in Kim and Freeland, So
34:48
Speaker 1: somebody that can provide that volume. But yeah, what do
34:51
Speaker 1: you think about Bets going forward in terms of how
34:54
Speaker 1: the Dodgers will manage his injury and the prospects of
34:58
Speaker 1: Freeland and Kim or maybe somebody else he might be
35:01
Speaker 1: identifying as a shortstop slash middle infielder.
35:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, first, I feel so old. I was just talking
35:08
Speaker 2: about how he's thirty three. And also during the World
35:12
Speaker 2: Baseball Classic, I forgot I was having a conversation with
35:16
Speaker 2: my brother and we were talking about how old players
35:18
Speaker 2: were and like guessing how old they were.
35:21
Speaker 1: A dangerous, dangerous game.
35:23
Speaker 2: It's it's the worst. And it was with Aaron Judge
35:27
Speaker 2: that I was like, oh my god, he's thirty three.
35:30
Speaker 2: I thought he was still like late twenties. Just time
35:34
Speaker 2: passes too quickly. Time is a concept is painful. But yeah,
35:40
Speaker 2: I feel like that's a very good It is a
35:43
Speaker 2: good point to bring up. It sucks, but I mean,
35:45
Speaker 2: the age is a good point to bring up. And yeah,
35:49
Speaker 2: I mean I think he could recover quickly from it.
35:52
Speaker 2: Looks like he had already been kind of struggling a
35:54
Speaker 2: little bit early this season season, so it may have
35:57
Speaker 2: been bothering him for a little bit. And then I
36:00
Speaker 2: think the thing there, I know we just talked about
36:02
Speaker 2: oblique injuries a little bit before and how they're one
36:04
Speaker 2: of those like annoying ones, and yeah, like these they're
36:09
Speaker 2: finicky there. It depends on who they are and how
36:12
Speaker 2: they recover. So I think that's one thing to look
36:15
Speaker 2: out for. And then the other thing with oblique injuries
36:18
Speaker 2: is like they may come back, but their power might
36:20
Speaker 2: be sapped a little bit just from healing, and they
36:23
Speaker 2: may have to change how they hit a little bit.
36:25
Speaker 2: So those are all things that even if he is
36:27
Speaker 2: out of the woods pretty quickly, just be aware of
36:30
Speaker 2: those things. But yeah, in terms of replacements, I mean,
36:36
Speaker 2: I do like Haisong Kim. I've been following him for
36:40
Speaker 2: a while, so I think that would be interesting and
36:45
Speaker 2: I would be okay with that personally, So I would
36:49
Speaker 2: be fine with like the internal on that one as
36:52
Speaker 2: of now. But I would also check everywhere too, just
36:57
Speaker 2: before making a decision.
36:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, and also like watching out for some of like
37:02
Speaker 1: the land mines that will crop up, because I think
37:04
Speaker 1: Liam Hicks would be one for this next injury player
37:07
Speaker 1: we have is Alejandro Kirk. Something to keep in mind
37:10
Speaker 1: as we're discussing this, and I think it's also good
37:14
Speaker 1: in terms of like what you put together in your articles,
37:17
Speaker 1: is that like there's gonna be plenty of flashes in
37:20
Speaker 1: the pans that kind of come out of the woodworks.
37:23
Speaker 1: And certainly like Liam Hicks's RBI total looks amazing, but
37:28
Speaker 1: he's not going to keep it up. If you take
37:30
Speaker 1: in slice and dice baseball over any period, you're gonna
37:33
Speaker 1: get these hot stretches. You just notice them now as
37:36
Speaker 1: opposed to if Liam Hicks did this in August, I
37:38
Speaker 1: don't know if anybody would have batted much of an eye,
37:41
Speaker 1: and so something to keep in mind. But Alejandro Kirk
37:44
Speaker 1: getting back to these Blue Jays. Sorry Marmos, Dad, he's
37:47
Speaker 1: just like hand like hands on his head, just like
37:52
Speaker 1: suffering through this entire podcast. We're coming back to kick
37:55
Speaker 1: you again. He went down. Kirk went down with a
37:58
Speaker 1: broken thumb, had surgery on it, which means it was
38:01
Speaker 1: a displaced fracture and they had to do something to
38:05
Speaker 1: be able to put it back in line. I don't
38:07
Speaker 1: know if we necessarily know whether or not it included
38:09
Speaker 1: like putting a plate in there. But so not only
38:12
Speaker 1: does he have to recover from the thumb surgery itself,
38:15
Speaker 1: but he has to recover the thumb break itself, but
38:18
Speaker 1: also the surgery now too. So it's kind of a
38:21
Speaker 1: double whammy. Should keep Kirk out six to eight weeks,
38:24
Speaker 1: which is a huge blow considering for my fantasy teams.
38:28
Speaker 1: He was a great discount catcher, one great back to
38:32
Speaker 1: ball skills, played in a great lineup, and they're gonna
38:35
Speaker 1: be going with Tyler Heinemann as the every day starting
38:39
Speaker 1: catcher for your defending AL champion Toronto Blue Jays. Woof,
38:43
Speaker 1: And what do you make of this injury? Because Brew
38:49
Speaker 1: talks on this pod a lot about he hates wrist injuries,
38:53
Speaker 1: he hates hand injuries, he hates finger injuries, especially for batters,
38:57
Speaker 1: because it just kind of seems to Linger and sat Power.
39:01
Speaker 1: What is your take on hand injuries, finger injuries, wrist injuries,
39:05
Speaker 1: and this thumb injury for Alejandro Kirk.
39:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I agree with Brew. They do suck.
39:12
Speaker 2: I do feel like yeah for batting, I mean especially obviously,
39:16
Speaker 2: that's that's gonna be an issue. I've seen different people
39:23
Speaker 2: they like recover better than others, So hopefully that will
39:27
Speaker 2: be the case here. And sometimes I don't know, when
39:28
Speaker 2: things are surgically repaired, they actually like heal faster or
39:32
Speaker 2: they're able to get back to action faster, you know,
39:37
Speaker 2: same with human normal humans done MLB humans too. So
39:41
Speaker 2: hopefully that may have actually like cut down on his
39:44
Speaker 2: timeline a little bit because it just heals faster when
39:46
Speaker 2: it's repaired like that. But I mean, yeah, it's still
39:51
Speaker 2: I think that's a good point, still something to look
39:53
Speaker 2: out for his power. I feel like I would still
39:56
Speaker 2: hang on to him for sure, because again that's a
39:59
Speaker 2: long time, but not that long. And then just like
40:02
Speaker 2: observe how he's doing as he progresses in recovery. And
40:06
Speaker 2: then yeah, I mean Tyler Hyeman, that was when Alejandro
40:09
Speaker 2: Kirk got hurt. Was that the game? And yeah, I
40:14
Speaker 2: was at the game, and it completely changed the entire
40:19
Speaker 2: the entire like trajectory of the game because when Tyler
40:23
Speaker 2: Hyneman went in, I mean he wasn't he wasn't really
40:27
Speaker 2: warm obviously because it happened very quickly, like Alanandro Kirk
40:30
Speaker 2: got hit and immediately walked out like you knew he
40:32
Speaker 2: didn't even like pause, he walked off, so you knew
40:35
Speaker 2: something was really wrong, but yeah, the game fell apart
40:39
Speaker 2: after that. He made a few mistakes, so yeah, I
40:43
Speaker 2: know he's done okay in the past, so you know,
40:46
Speaker 2: maybe he's just gets some rust off but not the same.
40:50
Speaker 2: But yeah, I would again still hang on to Aleandro
40:52
Speaker 2: Kirk and just watch in the first couple of weeks,
40:56
Speaker 2: like how he's progressing updates they give, how specific are
40:59
Speaker 2: they being with the updates. He's been pretty pretty tough
41:04
Speaker 2: over the past few years, so yeah, I may be
41:08
Speaker 2: I may be kind of like putting that in my
41:11
Speaker 2: own narrative where it's like he seems just like pretty tough,
41:15
Speaker 2: and a lot of catchers usually are, Like I feel
41:17
Speaker 2: like often they're getting injuries, especially on the hands and riffs,
41:22
Speaker 2: and I think it's again, this could be me just
41:25
Speaker 2: like assigning this narrative myself, but it seems like that's
41:28
Speaker 2: part of like their job, and they usually handle it
41:32
Speaker 2: a little better than maybe others would. But again, you
41:35
Speaker 2: know something actually like scientific about that. Please correct me
41:39
Speaker 2: if I'm wrong. So I feel positive for this one
41:43
Speaker 2: just based on what they're saying, based on the injury,
41:45
Speaker 2: and then based on his injury history in general, and
41:49
Speaker 2: how he recovers.
41:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think that's all fair. Maybe the one
41:55
Speaker 1: thing all through out there is because I mean, he's
41:57
Speaker 1: been a fantastic defensive catcher for the past three years
42:01
Speaker 1: and he is just a workhorse that he might come
42:05
Speaker 1: back earlier than you would want from this injury, and
42:08
Speaker 1: then if he slumps at the plate, I think it
42:11
Speaker 1: creates a buying opportunity on the back end in terms of,
42:14
Speaker 1: you know, if he shows up and people are freaking
42:16
Speaker 1: out over him not being full of recovered. I think
42:20
Speaker 1: you can also chalk that up to saying, hey, maybe
42:23
Speaker 1: Kurt came back a little bit too quick because he
42:24
Speaker 1: wanted to get back on the field. Try to help
42:26
Speaker 1: this blue Jay's pitching staff that is falling apart. And
42:30
Speaker 1: so maybe even if you have him in a league
42:34
Speaker 1: and you can bench him still for another week or
42:36
Speaker 1: two after he finally returns, that would be pretty clutch,
42:40
Speaker 1: because then I think those first couple of weeks will
42:42
Speaker 1: be a struggle. It is his left thumb, which I
42:44
Speaker 1: should have probably explained to you, because that makes a
42:47
Speaker 1: big difference. He'll be able to return to catch like
42:49
Speaker 1: cal Rowley played through a broken hand the other year,
42:53
Speaker 1: and so catchers play through all sorts of injuries content
42:57
Speaker 1: or actually I'm thinking William Contraras played through the broken Yeah.
43:00
Speaker 2: That's who I was thinking of too. I was like,
43:04
Speaker 2: who did that? Because yeah, he.
43:05
Speaker 1: Can get counted too. But like if I would bet
43:08
Speaker 1: like most catchers have something broken in their hands like
43:12
Speaker 1: every other year. Yeah, it is a brutal, brutal job.
43:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's why I'm like, this happens a lot, like
43:20
Speaker 2: when it's with catchers. When it's their legs, that's normally
43:23
Speaker 2: when I'm like, oh, that's bad obviously, but when it's
43:27
Speaker 2: their hands and stuff, I'm usually like, probably be okay.
43:30
Speaker 2: And yeah, I think that was a really great point
43:32
Speaker 2: that it may be he may start off kind of slower,
43:35
Speaker 2: even if he comes back within the timeline. It just
43:37
Speaker 2: because it may it feels weird, like I don't know,
43:40
Speaker 2: I have again, non MLB player, and I have like
43:43
Speaker 2: a plate in my shoulder and it just feels weird
43:47
Speaker 2: and it's a different way of operating, but it doesn't hurt.
43:50
Speaker 2: It just is a different So it wouldn't be surprising
43:52
Speaker 2: if like he starts off a little a little slow.
43:55
Speaker 2: So good call. On the the opportunity like trade opportunity.
43:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, let's get into some picture injuries to round
44:03
Speaker 1: us out. So first one we've got is a guy
44:06
Speaker 1: we're gonna lose for the entire season. I know we
44:08
Speaker 1: don't necessarily always talk about Dynasty impacts when we're looking
44:12
Speaker 1: at the injuries for you, but I will make you
44:14
Speaker 1: a pine a little bit here on some of the
44:16
Speaker 1: Dynasty impacts. For Kate Horton of the Chicago Cubs undergoing
44:19
Speaker 1: we actually don't know what the UCL surgery is yet,
44:22
Speaker 1: because it sounds like they're going to open up his
44:25
Speaker 1: arm and figure it out on the fly that it's
44:27
Speaker 1: either going to be a full Tommy John or an
44:29
Speaker 1: internal brace or I can't think of the name off
44:32
Speaker 1: the top of my head, but somebody recently underwent both
44:35
Speaker 1: at the same time within the past year. I do
44:37
Speaker 1: remember that that, like, maybe it's possible Kate Horton gets
44:41
Speaker 1: a Tommy John with a UCL brace at the same time,
44:45
Speaker 1: because this is also his second UCL injury that he
44:48
Speaker 1: worked his way back. And I mean, I'll give you
44:51
Speaker 1: my opinion for him on Dynasty. It's a straight up
44:53
Speaker 1: drop that like, uh, you know, coming into the season,
44:57
Speaker 1: Brew and I were both selling Kate Horton just because,
44:59
Speaker 1: like I wasn't believing the surface numbers that were coming
45:02
Speaker 1: out of Arizona. This the profile never really struck me
45:06
Speaker 1: as like a great strikeout profile that can kind of
45:09
Speaker 1: be a front end fantasy starter. And I think the
45:13
Speaker 1: hype that kind of came around with his rookie debut
45:16
Speaker 1: kind of had outstripped his actual value. And then now
45:19
Speaker 1: you're laying here in a second, Tommy John, we're seeing
45:22
Speaker 1: how difficult that's been for the likes of like a
45:25
Speaker 1: Spencer Strider. I guess not Tommy John. But you see
45:28
Speaker 1: el surgery. I think you can you know what I'm saying,
45:31
Speaker 1: And so it is, it is real rough, especially for
45:35
Speaker 1: a guy this young. It this is the type of
45:38
Speaker 1: like double Tommy John I do not like because it's like,
45:42
Speaker 1: at what point can he actually withstand the rigors of pitching?
45:46
Speaker 1: So are you with me on somebody like Horton here
45:49
Speaker 1: or do you think there is a glimmer of hope
45:51
Speaker 1: for him moving forward in a dynasty keeper situation? I
45:54
Speaker 1: mean I.
45:55
Speaker 2: Would do exactly what you did. I wouldn't have the
45:58
Speaker 2: stomach to keep him because I mean it sounds really bad.
46:03
Speaker 2: But he's a picture and there's always there are always
46:05
Speaker 2: pictures coming up, and I mean, I'm not one too
46:09
Speaker 2: for pictures. I'm often wouldn't be one to stash them.
46:13
Speaker 2: Even a lot of like people up in the show,
46:17
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be willing to stash them with stuff like
46:20
Speaker 2: this because it's just like, I don't this seems bad,
46:24
Speaker 2: very bad. So I mean, it would depend on who
46:26
Speaker 2: it is. But most of them, you know, there's a
46:29
Speaker 2: tolerance level that I just don't have for something like that.
46:32
Speaker 2: And I actually agree with you. It's funny because last
46:35
Speaker 2: Friday I got my my edition of Ambulance Chasers in
46:40
Speaker 2: a little earlier than usual, and I messaged our editor
46:43
Speaker 2: Trusts and was like, hey, I there may be some
46:47
Speaker 2: situations that are updated that I don't know about after
46:50
Speaker 2: I submit this, So if you want to, if you
46:52
Speaker 2: need to add anything that happens, feel free to do that.
46:56
Speaker 2: Like I didn't know at that point, I knew Alejandro
46:59
Speaker 2: Kirkibbin injured, but didn't know specifics yet, and that came
47:04
Speaker 2: out I think that night or the next morning maybe,
47:05
Speaker 2: and then the Cade Horton thing happened. I think a
47:09
Speaker 2: little I hadn't seen it basically, and so Trust was like,
47:12
Speaker 2: I'm gonna add this in and I was like, okay, cool,
47:14
Speaker 2: that's great, thanks for helping me.
47:16
Speaker 1: But I think so you set that message and you
47:19
Speaker 1: could just like hear the monkeys paw curly as loud
47:22
Speaker 1: as possible.
47:23
Speaker 2: Yep, just like when you had to cover it. Shows
47:28
Speaker 2: it's always something yeah, And then you know, the next
47:30
Speaker 2: morning people were like, what about this? I was like,
47:32
Speaker 2: I don't know, I was sleeping.
47:36
Speaker 1: Welcome to how editing works.
47:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, I always try to be like at time of
47:40
Speaker 2: publication this, but yet Trust added that in, and actually,
47:44
Speaker 2: I I don't know that I even would have not
47:48
Speaker 2: because I don't think it's important, but because there's so
47:51
Speaker 2: many things to prioritize and from my standpoint, which isn't
47:54
Speaker 2: always the right standpoint, but from my standpoint, I'm like,
47:57
Speaker 2: this isn't really like to me, it's like a like
48:00
Speaker 2: a kind of duh thing. But at the same time, like, yeah,
48:06
Speaker 2: that's the good thing about other people reading it is
48:08
Speaker 2: they can be like, what about this? This is important too,
48:11
Speaker 2: So that's how I was thinking about that. If that
48:12
Speaker 2: displays like how I was thinking about that, and that
48:15
Speaker 2: I was like, I don't know that I would have
48:17
Speaker 2: added that necessarily, and Trust was like, yes, we need
48:20
Speaker 2: to add this, and yeah, that's kind of where I
48:23
Speaker 2: stand on it is.
48:24
Speaker 1: Like bye, yeah, yeah, I think that totally makes sense. Okay,
48:28
Speaker 1: we got two more picture injuries where I think this
48:31
Speaker 1: also brings in an interesting question about like what you're
48:34
Speaker 1: doing with these types of injuries. So we've got Baltimore
48:37
Speaker 1: Orioles starter, Zach Efflin is down with elbow discomfort. This
48:41
Speaker 1: is all pretty worrying, and especially when you put together
48:45
Speaker 1: Zach Eflin's velocity was up during the spring, I think
48:49
Speaker 1: you can kind of see that this is a precursor
48:52
Speaker 1: to another UCL surgery, another Tommy John surgery sort of situation.
48:57
Speaker 1: This is when you're looking for all kind of like
48:59
Speaker 1: the in terms of how things progress, that's this is
49:03
Speaker 1: how they start with. And also the Horton situation started
49:07
Speaker 1: like this too, where there's elbow discomfort, there's an MRI,
49:12
Speaker 1: there's swelling, the MRI is inconclusive, and the next thing
49:16
Speaker 1: you know, he's going for our second opinion and they're
49:19
Speaker 1: trying to figure out which U se L surgery they're doing.
49:21
Speaker 1: So you have that for Eflyn which is a bit
49:23
Speaker 1: of a bummer. I actually was kind of hoping he'd
49:26
Speaker 1: be able to bounce back. He had been a dependable
49:29
Speaker 1: starter there for like twenty twenty three, twenty twenty two range,
49:32
Speaker 1: and so it's a bummer to see him go down.
49:35
Speaker 1: You also have Johann Oviedo from the Red Sox just
49:38
Speaker 1: went down today with a flexer strain. This is another
49:41
Speaker 1: kind of precursor to a UCL issue or an outright
49:46
Speaker 1: flexer surgery, which can also take players out for just
49:50
Speaker 1: as long as a UCL surgery. So between the two
49:54
Speaker 1: elbow discomfort flexer strain, is there one or the other
49:58
Speaker 1: that like gives you just even the slightest glimmer of hope, uh,
50:03
Speaker 1: compared to the other that you know you would prefer
50:06
Speaker 1: to see one or the other. And what do you
50:09
Speaker 1: usually do with guys like this where maybe you're on
50:13
Speaker 1: the you're on the fence, and especially like I think
50:17
Speaker 1: we've seen this with players who you know have UCL
50:21
Speaker 1: issues and try to rehabit. Is it something that you
50:25
Speaker 1: find yourself kind of being invested in.
50:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think it really depends on Again,
50:33
Speaker 2: I think I said this earlier, but like I have
50:36
Speaker 2: a hard time with pictures and yeah, I don't. I
50:44
Speaker 2: usually don't draft many of them in the first few rounds.
50:47
Speaker 2: I think like a lot of people don't, and I
50:49
Speaker 2: feel like I have a Yeah, exactly, I have a
50:52
Speaker 2: I actually did take one pretty early, and I was like,
50:56
Speaker 2: kind of kind of did what I said I wouldn't
50:58
Speaker 2: do it. I was like, should I have done that?
50:59
Speaker 2: I don't think I should have done that. Oh well
51:01
Speaker 2: I did it. Anyway, it's done. But I yeah, I
51:06
Speaker 2: have like kind of a detachment I guess around them,
51:11
Speaker 2: so I try not to. I basically try not to
51:15
Speaker 2: pin a lot of hopes on any on any picture
51:19
Speaker 2: because it's just insane how things can happen with them
51:22
Speaker 2: and seemingly out of nowhere, Like yeah, often there are signs,
51:25
Speaker 2: which sucks, but sometimes it's just like, oh, this guy's
51:29
Speaker 2: ligament just busted for no reason in non scientific or
51:35
Speaker 2: medical terms. I think, you know, I'm a little biased
51:39
Speaker 2: on this one because zach Eflin to me is like
51:41
Speaker 2: second opinion goodbye, Like, sure, there's a chance, but if
51:46
Speaker 2: you're going for a second opinion, I feel like it's
51:48
Speaker 2: basically like due diligence. Essentially, they've already they know he's
51:53
Speaker 2: not going to be able to do it, and they're
51:55
Speaker 2: just going to make sure like that is definitely the
51:57
Speaker 2: case before they can kind of you know, they're gonna
52:01
Speaker 2: still pay him and have to deal with all of that.
52:03
Speaker 2: So it's like, yeah, this is this is it for him,
52:08
Speaker 2: So that in that knowing that information, I am definitely
52:11
Speaker 2: very biased towards like, elbow discomfort is bad, but I mean, yeah,
52:15
Speaker 2: I think flex are strain it's also bad, but in
52:19
Speaker 2: this case, like it's a little less concerning, but still concerning.
52:24
Speaker 2: So I feel like it's really a case by case thing,
52:27
Speaker 2: and in this case that's what defines it is we
52:30
Speaker 2: just know more information about it. And then you know,
52:35
Speaker 2: with elbow stuff, sometimes that can be a little the
52:38
Speaker 2: way they word it can be very ambiguous, like elbow discomfort.
52:42
Speaker 2: Sometimes it could just be sore. Sometimes it could be
52:45
Speaker 2: zac eflyn is gotting like done pretty much. Where I
52:50
Speaker 2: think when it's something like flex are strain, it's a
52:52
Speaker 2: little more specific, like we know what it is and
52:56
Speaker 2: what's happening a little bit more. So I think in
52:58
Speaker 2: cases like that what I would do is just again
53:03
Speaker 2: kind of like wait and see if you have the time,
53:07
Speaker 2: and like you have the spots on your roster, just
53:10
Speaker 2: kind of wait and see what comes from it. I
53:14
Speaker 2: think usually when it's going to be Tommy John, it
53:17
Speaker 2: comes out relatively quickly. But then also sometimes they can
53:22
Speaker 2: draw it out. That's true. So I just I don't know,
53:24
Speaker 2: don't don't listen to that part that I just said. Yeah,
53:27
Speaker 2: I would just try try.
53:28
Speaker 1: Breaking just a few minutes before we started recording, Zach
53:32
Speaker 1: Eflin undergoes UCL surgery. Yeah, underwent UCL reconstruction. Tommy John
53:37
Speaker 1: surgery today, So I mean refreshed MLB trade rumors since
53:44
Speaker 1: we had started, and it's right at the top. So
53:47
Speaker 1: I think that just proves your point.
53:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I mean I see everybody have that take,
53:52
Speaker 2: like once they say second opinion, it's he's cooked pretty much.
53:55
Speaker 2: I almost think of it as like when you have
53:58
Speaker 2: to get a you know, get a an exam for
54:01
Speaker 2: like life insurance or something like that. It's it reminds
54:04
Speaker 2: me of the same thing. It's like they're just double
54:06
Speaker 2: checking to make sure that they're going to have whatever,
54:09
Speaker 2: like coverage so they can justify this all the way
54:13
Speaker 2: or Yeah.
54:14
Speaker 1: The other piece of news that is at the top
54:17
Speaker 1: of MLB trade rumors is. Christian Haffier left his start
54:22
Speaker 1: this afternoon for the Astros with also a shoulder issue.
54:25
Speaker 2: So oh so they're about to be in a bad way.
54:28
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, good thing the Blue Jays got
54:30
Speaker 1: in on that, Patrick Sweet Sweet, Patrick Corbin innings while
54:33
Speaker 1: you're still still good. Lucas Giolito must be asking for
54:37
Speaker 1: what like fifteen million dollars a year? Did I have
54:38
Speaker 1: a job at this point?
54:40
Speaker 2: I'm wondering what's going on with that? Actually, because yeah,
54:45
Speaker 2: I think I saw somebody say something about how you know,
54:49
Speaker 2: there's like so many teams that need a picture right
54:51
Speaker 2: now and he's still out there, Like what what is
54:54
Speaker 2: going on? Yeah? Is it the money? I know he's
54:56
Speaker 2: coming off elbow issues as well. I don't know.
55:00
Speaker 1: It's very very be in the middle of a twin
55:03
Speaker 1: peaks rewatch.
55:06
Speaker 2: God. I hope that's what he is.
55:07
Speaker 1: I hope that's what he does like in his like
55:10
Speaker 1: family like Christmas gatherings that the frost all get together
55:13
Speaker 1: into your.
55:14
Speaker 2: That would be this is family time. That's awesome me too.
55:19
Speaker 1: Yes, Okay, well I think that's going to wrap us
55:22
Speaker 1: up for this week's pot. Kielan, thanks again for joining
55:25
Speaker 1: and let everybody know where they can reach out to
55:28
Speaker 1: you on socials. I've obviously got the link to your
55:30
Speaker 1: work in the show notes, but if there's anything else
55:32
Speaker 1: you want to pitch, let everybody know. Now.
55:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, so just doing rasball these days, just do an
55:38
Speaker 2: ambulance chasers and like a specialist at this point. Now
55:42
Speaker 2: it's just my thing. And then yeah, right now, I'm
55:47
Speaker 2: only hanging out on Blue Sky for social media's and
55:49
Speaker 2: that handle is Keelan twelve foot. It's k E E
55:53
Speaker 2: l I N one two ft and then it's dot
55:56
Speaker 2: b sky dot social and I'm always there. I should
56:00
Speaker 2: it off. It's a sickness.
56:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, especially after this week of current events. Maybe, yeah,
56:06
Speaker 1: it's time to take a little bit of Yeah, I
56:09
Speaker 1: got a little crazy around there. Yeah, And if you're
56:12
Speaker 1: also on blue Sky and poking around, you can find
56:15
Speaker 1: me there at mCOL seven cool spelled c O U
56:18
Speaker 1: I L L like my last name. You can find
56:21
Speaker 1: the podcast on Blue Sky at cards Categories and you
56:24
Speaker 1: can also email the podcast at cards Card at cardscategories
56:30
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com. That is a nice little mouthful there.
56:34
Speaker 1: We're gonna Baseball releases have really Baseball card releases have
56:37
Speaker 1: really slowed down over the past couple weeks, but they
56:39
Speaker 1: will pick up again soon towards the end of April.
56:43
Speaker 1: So certainly we're going to keep an eye on when
56:45
Speaker 1: Bowman starts hitting shelves and everything. So if you're ripping
56:49
Speaker 1: products out there, certainly email us let us know when
56:52
Speaker 1: you're down. The show notes. Also check out the link
56:54
Speaker 1: to the Cards and Category store, which I mean, Keiland,
56:58
Speaker 1: that is your logo. Unfortunately, I have not made enough
57:01
Speaker 1: money to pay you any restitution. So maybe in the
57:05
Speaker 1: future if you want to create enough cash flow where
57:09
Speaker 1: I feel like I have to pay keelan restitution for
57:14
Speaker 1: creating the Cards and Categories logo. Buy some of that gear,
57:17
Speaker 1: Buy a hat, by a mug. You've still got your mug,
57:20
Speaker 1: right unless you broke it.
57:21
Speaker 2: I do, no, No, I still have it. I use
57:22
Speaker 2: it regularly. I still have a hat too. I feel
57:25
Speaker 2: like I need to go back in there and re
57:26
Speaker 2: up some stuff because you know, it's been a while.
57:30
Speaker 2: I like to wrap the show. It's a good show.
57:31
Speaker 2: You guys do a great job.
57:33
Speaker 1: Always some fresh slag, thank you, thank you.
57:35
Speaker 2: Fresh flag time.
57:37
Speaker 1: Yes, and so yeah. With all that, everybody, we will
57:41
Speaker 1: see you around same time. Same place next week. Take
57:44
Speaker 1: care and good luck with all those injuries out there,
57:46
Speaker 1: because this is just the tip of the iceberg. Hate
57:49
Speaker 1: to tell you.