Latest / Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast / Mailbag: Can Don Kelly right the ship?

Transcript

Mailbag: Can Don Kelly right the ship? · 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.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Noah Hyles.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Joining me as always are my co hosts Platinum keyaka
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Mark and Josh Harrison. It's good to be back on
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: the show, fellas, and it's especially good to be.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Back on another mail bag Wednesday.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: We've got some questions for you guys to answer, all
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: things surrounding the Pittsburgh Pirate too. As of the time
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: of this recording, fell under five hundred. Yeah, on Monday
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: night in Sacramento against the Athletics. So we got some
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: questions to answer. Let's get right to it, Mark, what's
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: our first one?
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so our first question comes to us from God,
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: who asks, at what record do you foresee the organization
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: giving up on the season and selling off pieces? Obviously
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: most of the fan base is more or less checked
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: out now, but I'd imagine the front office would hold
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: out hope if we can get if we can be
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: less than seven games your wing, Griffin and Cruizer back.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Seven games a lot. Yeah, yeah, seven.
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: Games, but yeah it is. And I was gonna say
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: they kind of answered the question a little bit because
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: they say, what record, And it's not necessarily a record
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: because every division obviously is going to be based off of,
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: you know, the record you know at first place. So
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: it's more of a what, you know, position you're in,
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: how many games you're back. Because the year that the
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: Braves won the World Series in twenty one, when I
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: was with the Nationals, I think we had either nine
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: or ten guys traded at the deadline. We were actually
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: ahead of the Braves. We were second behind the Phillies,
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: I think at the time, but we were like maybe
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: six or seven games back, and you know, at the time,
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: it's like, man, do we you know, blow it up
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: or do we you know, continue to go. And obviously
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: they traded us all the Braves in upon the World Series,
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: But as you mentioned that seven games is kind of that, like,
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: hey man, seven games, not to say it's not possible.
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: We know what in two thousand and two or whatever
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: the Rockies on twenty two straight, but I mean, but like, no,
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: that's not something you want to bank on. So realistically,
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: it's more about can they tread water and stay competitive
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: and keep it, you know, within you know, five games
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: or so, you know, that could be a starting point
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: to talk, but you know, with injuries and stuff, it's
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: kind of hard.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Man.
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: You're still trying to fill a void with injuries, and
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: then you're trying to better a roster that is injury based.
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: So I don't think it's so much your record. Think
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: is how many games out are you going to be?
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: And you know with them falling below five hundred, they
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: need to step on the gas pretty quickly.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and this game is still only two games out
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: from the wild card, even though that they're one game
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: now below five hundred. And I think you have to
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: also consider that this is the Pittsburgh Pirates, and this
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: is the Pirates with one year of Paul Skins, and
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: I think every single year that Paul Skins is on
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: this team, you have to be trying to compete. I
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: don't think they're there's any sense and the Pirates trying
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: to sell off pieces at the deadline here. I don't
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: maybe Brandon Low just because he's an expiring deal that
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: you probably may not be able to afford unless they
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: really want to spend this offseason. But other than that,
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: you have to go for it because there's still a
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: lot of baseball left and even if it's your seven
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: games back at the deadline, things can turn around quickly,
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: and so I think you just have to hold on
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: to what you got and give it your best shot.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: And if you come up short, oh well, but at
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: least you tried. And I think especially with Ben Cherrington,
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: we saw last offseason he was on a hot seat.
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: The front office said we need to win. I think
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: there's an understanding that if the Pirates don't get the
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: job done this year winning, they might have different management.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: And so I think some people might be trying to
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: really hold on to the best players they have possible
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: because it might result in there a loss of a
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: job or a change in changing management if this season
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: is not a winning season.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, to go off Mark's point and Josh's point.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: If Ben's here, I don't see them selling.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, But it just gets to a question of like, okay,
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: well how bad does it get where they just wave
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: the white flag?
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: And I don't think that that's an impossible thing. Like
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: I look at the All Star break. I believe it's like.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: July fourteenth is the All Star break, and if you're
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: seven games out of the wildcard by then, you're done.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: You're done.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: And like you, I mean, I think that a lot
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: of people within the front office will want to keep
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: fighting because they're fighting for their jobs. But at that point,
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: as an organization, you really kind of have to look
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: at yourselves and say, like, look, we can't we can't
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: keep doing this, like we have to. We have to
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: tear it down again, unfortunately, and that would mean selling
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Lao at the very least Loo and Soto because they're
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: unexpiring bills. But then you consider what you can get
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: for Reynolds, you can consider what you could get for
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: O'Neil Cruz. I mean, and again, like I still think
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: we're a long ways away from this, but I mean, look,
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: I mean there's seven teams fighting for a wildcard spot
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: right now. The Nationals don't strike me as a team
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: that's super hungry to go all in.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: This year.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: I don't think the Marlins are super hungry to go
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: all in this year. I don't think the Cardinals are
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: super hungry to go all in this year. I think
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: the Cardinals are good enough where they have a big
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: enough lead where they're gonna be buyers.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: They're not gonna sell.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: But I don't think it would take much for the
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Nationals or the Marlins, if they just have one bad
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: week in July, they'll be like, all right, well we'll
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: try to do the whole sell and buy type thing.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: And that's kind of just where they are as organizations
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: right now. They're not close to their peaks. This is
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: it for the Pirates. So I mean, if they're anywhere
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: close to five hundred, if they're within four games of
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: the Wildcard, they're gonna be buyers. They're they're gonna be
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: desperately fighting for that that late season magic. I do question,
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: you know, the further they fall back under five hundred,
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: how much additional resources will.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Made available to them?
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: Right I think if they were a couple of games
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: over five hundred and still a couple games out of
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: the Wildcard, they would have probably.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: A little bit more leeway.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: To add payroll, as opposed to if you're two games
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: under five hundred and four games out of the Wildcard,
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: you might have to get creative with how you add
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: a little bit more because the owner feels like he's
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: already made a sizable investment compared to his normal standards,
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: and I don't know if he's gonna want to add
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: more into that investment. If the team still has a
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: losing rec.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: Without seeing the return yet.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, without seeing the return, and like, I mean,
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: you got to spend more to get this team better.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: That's just the reality of the situation. But I don't
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: know if that's gonna happen, So.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, to kind of round it all up, it's it's
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: a situation where, like what Josh said, you got to
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: be in the mix still, and if you're gonna sell,
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: then you might as well just fire everyone mid season, Yeah,
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: and just start this whole thing over, because that's that's
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: what you should do.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: If you get to.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: A point where you're no longer trying to win in
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty six, then everyone who's been in charge of
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: making decisions should go.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: That's just the reality of it.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: And I'm not saying we're there yet, but if it
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: gets to that point, like Ben Sherrington shouldn't have the
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: luxury of selling assets, he should only have the luxury
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: of buying. And if you're not gonna be a buyer,
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: then it should be someone else and go about.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: It however you would like, exactly.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: So all right, got another question, but first a quick
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: break from our sponsors.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: I am so excited to talk about today's sponsors Seakeeek.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: Whenever I go to the games at p and C Park,
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: which you guys know I love to do, I always
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: make sure that you seekeek because they always have the
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: best deals I'm looking for. With over thirty five million downloads,
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: seakeek is the number one and rate a ticketing and app,
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: and there are more than seventy thousand events listed on
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: sea geek, including concerts, sports, festivals and more. With the
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: MLB season in full swing, then they'll schedule out now
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: and World Cup games already starting. Seekeek has all of you,
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: has you covered for every single live sport event that
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: you could ever want to attend, and with Seeke's MLB
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: official ticket marketplace, your tickets are fully guaranteed and instantly
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: fulfilled in your account after purchase, which is one of
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: the reasons why I absolutely love using sea Geek. Whenever
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: I order them, I know they're already going to be
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: in my MLB Ballpark app right when I'm ready to
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: walk in the p and C Park. Seakik always has
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: my back. Check out the ticketing scale from one to ten,
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: green dots being good, red means bad, and every single
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: ticket is backed by their buyer guarantee, and of course
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: I have a code for you guys. You can use
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: code Territory ten for ten percent off your next set
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: of MLB tickets at Sea Geek. That's ten percent off
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: any MLB tickets with promo code Territory ten. Make sure
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: you click the link in the description to download the
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: app and have the code automatically added too accounts so
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: you can use it later. Thank you to seek.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: All right, next question, what we got Mark?
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: All right? Our next question comes to us from Ballplayer,
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: who asks what authority does Don Kelly actually have? Is
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: it just AI and the data center running this team?
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: I can only imagine the ridiculous answer Ben Cherrington would
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: give to that.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: I don't think Ben would appreciate that question.
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: I'm just laughing at the AI and data center just
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: the way it would word it was, I mean basically
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: asking about analytics.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so laughing, I get it. Yeah, I'll just say this.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: I don't. I don't.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: I don't think anyone can definitively answer how much power
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: a manager has unless you're the manager.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: You just don't know.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: Like, I don't think Ben could definitively answer that, or
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: quantify that or or anyone else in the front office, Like,
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, you could, they could obviously give a better
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: answer than I can. But the reality is every organization
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: is different, and every manager is different. I think Shelton
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: had a lot more of a say than what people
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: realize in a lot of different areas. I'm not sure
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: how much of a say Donnie has because Donnie's only
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: been doing this for a year and a lot of
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: the people who were making helping Shelton make those decisions
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: aren't allowed around any longer, so it's difficult kind of
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: identifying who he trusts, who he leans on. I think
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: he has a lot to say in roster construction. But
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: like some things that people will cite right, like Ozuna
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: is playing time, some of that's just above him, man.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Like the reality is, they spent twelve million on this
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: guy and they need they need to get him going.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: So it's more of like a look, our projection show
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: this is a better team when Ozu is hitting the ball.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: We have to keep playing him in order to hit
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: the ball. That's like the kind of case scenarios.
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: There, that's true.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I try to find the right matchup, like that's
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: a priority to get him going. Because of the investment,
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: And I don't know if Kelly wants to play him
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: more or less, but like I'm sure that there are
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: people and like that financial influence of it definitely plays
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: a part in that as far as bullpen usage goes.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Like I I say this all the time in my writing,
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: it's very hard to fault Don Kelly for this bullpen
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: being as bad as it is, because there are just
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: so many times where I'm like, what do you want
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: him to do?
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Who do you want him to pitch instead?
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: I mean, the easy answer is Carmen, But like Carmen's
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: one guy out of seven.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: That you should be choosing or eight excuse me, that
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: you should be choosing from. So that's not.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: Gonna be the end all be all here and again
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: you can criticize like how they've handled the Majenski thing
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: or the Jones thing or whatever else it is, but
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: in reality, a lot a lot of the things that
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: people are frustrated with with lineup construction, with who's playing
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: with it's just kind of like who else do you
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: want him to play? Who else do you want him
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: to pitch? Like, you want to keep them in, You
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: want to keep these guys in longer. All right, well,
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: I mean they're already kind of running out of gas
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: as is. So what's that tell you, Like, I don't know,
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: they're I think Don Kelly has the final say. He
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: has a lot of very important people around him who
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: give them who give him.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: What they believe to be.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Like detailed information to help influence his decisions. I don't
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: think it's a case where he's just a puppet doing
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: whatever some people tell him. It's more he relies on
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: people for information and then he makes choices off of
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: that information.
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: Yep. I mean yeah, to keep it short and sweet,
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: as you said, Noah, every organization is gonna be different,
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: gonna run things different. So nobody can really answer how
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: much control any manager has. Even if a manager tells
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: you he has this much control or not, you don't
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: know how true it is because, as you know, some
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: teams value analytics more than others, and you know, as
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: the manager is probably on them to say, hey, this
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: is the information we had, we're paying X amount of
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: money for this department. Take this information. Obviously we know
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: this is what the information is saying. But you know,
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: like at the end of the day, sometimes is at
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: the battle between Okay, I want to do this matchup.
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: But obviously, as you said, no, the financial departments in
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: my ear saying you know, we invested twelve million dollars
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: in the sky or you know, so that's not necessarily
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: been a puppet. That's also somebody that is like, hey,
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: somebody that is in the department that is, you know,
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: above me. It's like, hey to you know, kind of
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: make sure that our investment doesn't we have to justify
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: this twelve million dollar investment. And yes, it may not
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: be what you want to do, but in some situations
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: you have to find the way to get them in there,
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: because you know, before we cut ties with him, if
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: that's what we're gonna do, you're just the guy that
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: has to play this puzzle piece to try to make
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: him fit in. And sometimes that's not Don being a manager.
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: That's just him saying, you know what, I gotta find
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: a way to get this puzzle piece in there that
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: doesn't seem to fit right now. But you know, and
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: I'm just you know, in some cases, he's going to
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: be the scapegoat. That's what managers are because at the
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: end of the day, they aren't the ones going out
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: there to perform. But as you said, you know, a
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: long story short, it's kind of a blend of like, yeah,
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: I don't think every decision, as you said, is based
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: you know, given to him, is kind of like, hey,
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: people that he trusts, this is the information we're giving you,
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: and this is kind of what we think should happen.
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: And you know what you do with that is what
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: you do with it.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: And yeah, there's a reason why so many major league
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: teams employ ivy league math nerds all across their front
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: offices is because this analytics is important. It provides context
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: for the people that make the decisions. I don't think
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: those math nerds are the ones making the decisions for
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: Don Kelly, but they're probably strongly suggesting things based on
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: what the day is looking at.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: So and just around this point out again, it's hard
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: to blame Don Kelly for a lot of the reasons
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: this club is underperforming because everything that we cited as
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: a potential weakness has been a weakness. Yeah, we worried
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: about the durability of the starting rotation, we worried about
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: the depth of the bullpen, we worried about their ability
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: to field, and that's that's what's happened, and we said, hey,
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: there are a couple of guys where if they go down,
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: like they don't have a shortstop. They got a good
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: shortstop when they call it up Connor and they said,
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: and we said, they can't afford for this guy to
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: get hurt.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: He got hurt. They're a worse team. O'Neil Cruz has
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: been really good.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: They're worse without him, Like every worry and again, everything
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: that was supposed to be good about this team, aside
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: from the starting pitching. Like, I mean, are you gonna
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: blame Don Kelly on Mitch Keller playing poorly or Bubba Chandler.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think that's his fault. So like
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: what is I don't know.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: I mean, he's there's definitely been some in game decisions
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: he's cost them getting it does.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: But in the grand scheme of things, all all the.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: Major issues facing this team, I find it very difficult
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: to pin many of them on Don Kelly.
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: The thing.
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: And the one thing he is responsible for is like
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: the cohesion of the team, and that seems way way improved.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll see how much longer that lasts. Yeah, Yeah,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: we'll see.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: So we're gonna take a quick break when we come back.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Final question here on Bucco Territory.
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: This episode is brought to you by fan Duel Baseball Fans.
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: The MLB season is in full swing, and fan Duel
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: is giving you a chance to call your shot with
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: Daily Dingers.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: Joining the action is easy.
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: Just make your free pick on who's hitting a home
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: run in their game, and if you're right, you'll get
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: a profit boost to use on your next bet for
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: a chance at extra winnings. It's just another reason why
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: fan duel is the home of home runs. So are
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: you ready to play your game? Head over to FanDuel
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: dot com slash podcast to get started. That's fan dual
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: dot com slash podcast. To opt in for Daily Dingers
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: and make your free pick on who's hitting a homer.
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: Playball and swing for the fences on FanDuel, an official
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: partner of Major League Baseball. No purchase necessary, opten required.
• 17:14
  Speaker 5: Bonus issued as non withdrawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply,
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: including any token expiration and max wager amount. See terms
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: at sportsbook dot FanDuel dot com. Gambling problem call or
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: text one eight hundred gambler.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: All right. Final question mark what is it all right?
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: Our final question comes to us from will a Tiny,
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: father of my favorite podcast host Nick Turaney, the a
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: New Untold Story podcast, Give It Listening comedy podcast, awesome stuff.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: But he asks how does Platinum Key remain so optimistic
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: during times like this? And I think I'll take this one.
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: I'm about to say that.
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I became a Pirates fan in twenty twenty one,
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: so my length of time of suffering has not been
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: nearly as long. I'm a little bit delusional. I get
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: fat paychecks from the team. No, I'm just kidding there. Yeah,
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: plant status, No, But I just I think sports are
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: way more fun when you believe in your team, when
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: you go into the game and actually watch and think
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: we have a chance, and I'm going to root and
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: hope all the way till the end that we have
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: a chance. And you've seen those moments where every team
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: has come back, you know, those Cinderella stories. There's awesome
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: moments that make sports great, and when you get dejected
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: and so down on your team, it kind of robs you.
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: I feel like, as a fan in my experience, never
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: going to tell anyone how to be a fan. I
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: think we all can fin in our own unique ways.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: If you want to get frustrated and yell at the TV,
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: go for it. It's just not my style. So that's
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: how I say it optimistic, but also just looking at
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: how good this team is comparatively and how far this
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: team has come. There's plenty of moments where you can
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: boil things down to a microcosm and say this is
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: what good happen, and so I'll focus on that. So
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: like last night, Andy Rodriguez went three for three with
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: the walk and home run, his ops is up over
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: nine hundred, I'm gonna focus on that. Yeah, they lost
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: eleven to two, and that sucks, and I was.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Frustrated on that.
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, obviously, but I'm gonna that's how I get
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: through it and get myself to that next game and
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: just hope that finally. You know, baseball, the one good
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: thing about it is they play basically every day, So
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: if yesterday's game didn't go how you want it, maybe
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: today's game will give you what you're looking for with
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: a nice win and some optimism and things turn around
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: really quickly. Runs happen fast. So that's how I say optimistic,
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: but mostly just delusion.
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: Well, I think you need to suit up, Mark. Yeah,
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: you said that. One thing that Clint Hurdle used to say,
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: He's like, man hunt the good stuff. So even through
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: all the chaos or whatever happened yesterday, you're finding good things. Honestly,
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: players do appreciate that from a you know, player standpoint,
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: but also just from being out there because you know,
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: you know, you appreciate those loyal fans even in times
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: of you know, darkness or rough patches. So uh, you know,
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: trust me that that energy does not go unfelt. You know, guys,
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: you know when you show up and you got you know,
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: a couple of hundred fans or whether it's a few
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: however a thousand however, many guys do appreciate that. But
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: you know, the optimism that that's part of you know,
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: being a good ball player because you know, this game
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: will knock you down a lot more than you know,
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: most other jobs. So you know, it's kind of funny
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: hearing you say that, because he was like, man, I'll
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: find something good. Yeah, that's good.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think that that's what makes the show
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: so unique, right is we have a guy who's always
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: going to find the bright side of things. We have
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: a guy who's going to tell you how it is right.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: That's because that's how I'm trained. If it sucks, I'm
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: gonna say, oh, I don't care that Andy had however
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: many hits lost eleven to two and hundred, and just
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: what it is right now. And then you have a
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: guy in the middle of the screen who's lived through
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: both sides of it. He's made a living dealing with
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: those highs and lows, not getting too high, not getting
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: too low, and dealing with the annoying optimism of the
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: fans who never give up and the pressure that that
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: comes with, and then the annoying media who's pestering you
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: and pointing out, hey, it's not going up right well
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: right now?
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Why is that like?
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: And so that those different perspectives are what I think
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: makes the show unique. And it's why I'm super glad
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: that we have Mark on this show because a lot
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: of people most of the people, yeah, but I'm just saying,
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: there are a lot of shows that have a Me
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: or Josh and or a Me and Josh together, or
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: a Me and Mark together, or a Josh and Mark together,
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: But there's not a lot of shows that have all
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: three of us. And I think that most of the
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: people watching this can value what I have to say
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: and what Josh has to say, but they relate more
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: to Mark than anybody, and that reliability is what people
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: crave in today's content driven world.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: So we're very thankful to have Mark on the show.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: Thanks guys, and we'd be even more thankful if you
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: all hit that subscribe button.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: We need you to do it. We're on or hit
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: the teams.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there we are.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: There we go, Yeah, there we go. Three thousand subs
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: is what we're trying to get to. We need your help.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: If you love Mark as much as Mark loves the Buckos,
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: you'll button already and you'll check out our Buco Territory
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: team store as well. We've got a lot of good
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: stuff there. Fellas any final thoughts as we wrap it up.
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: No, let's just get a win. Uh. It's it's been
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: a tough stretch here. The one win against the Dodgers
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: was really fun, but that is not eclipse this the
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: rest of the losses here in this stretch. So give
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: me something more to be optimistic about than just Andy Rodriguez.
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, good to win and welcome back. No, I know
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: you're still high from your New York Knix, So we
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: gave you a shout out last episode, so welcome back.
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: We were debating if you're going to have the Knicks
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: head on or not?
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, but I will or yeah, I will be
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: at the parade Thursday.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: Okay, also that, so I'm excited for that, And yeah,
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: I appreciate you both holding it down while I was
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: on vacation and kind of also enjoyed this next championship run.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: We'll just keep it to the Buckos from here on
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: out though.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: So for Platinum Paka Mark and Josh Harrison, I'm Noahio
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: signing off saying thanks for tuning in to another episode
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: of Bucko Territory presented to you.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Bye, Foul Territory Network. Take care