Latest / Foul Territory / FairT: Rangers shakeup, Casas out, Torrid Tigers, The Simpson effect

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FairT: Rangers shakeup, Casas out, Torrid Tigers, The Simpson effect · Foul Territory

0:00
Speaker 1: The meaning of life is whatever the editors tell us
0:03
Speaker 1: it is, because if I wrote a story saying, well,
0:06
Speaker 1: the meaning of life is this, the editor might say, Nah.
0:09
Speaker 2: It's not really that.
0:13
Speaker 1: Welcome everyone into the Monday edition of Fair Territory. Man,
0:17
Speaker 1: do we have a lot to discuss this week. We're
0:19
Speaker 1: getting into the part of the season where the topics
0:21
Speaker 1: get a little meteor We're gonna talk about the Red
0:24
Speaker 1: Sox first base situation. We're gonna talk about the Texas
0:27
Speaker 1: Rangers and all that is going on with that club.
0:29
Speaker 1: And we're gonna talk about the hottest team in the
0:32
Speaker 1: American League, the Detroit Tigers. And I'm also gonna do
0:35
Speaker 1: the inside dish on my new favorite player. We'll get
0:38
Speaker 1: to that in a bit, but first the lead, and
0:41
Speaker 1: let's start today with the Texas Rangers, because they were
0:43
Speaker 1: in the news pretty much all weekend. So last week,
0:48
Speaker 1: you might remember Chris Young of the Texas Rangers, their
0:51
Speaker 1: general manager, told Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News
0:54
Speaker 1: this was I believe Tuesday, he said about his offense,
0:58
Speaker 1: I'm getting edgy, and rightfully so. It was almost as
1:02
Speaker 1: if that was a warning shot. The way things played out,
1:05
Speaker 1: what happened on Thursday. The Rangers demoted Jake Berger to
1:09
Speaker 1: the minor leagues. Actually the news came out Thursday, the
1:12
Speaker 1: move happened Friday, and then on Sunday. Two major things
1:16
Speaker 1: that happened with the Rangers. One, they dismissed their hitting coordinator,
1:20
Speaker 1: Donnie Ecker, was part of their twenty twenty three championship run.
1:24
Speaker 1: And they placed their center fielder or actually reserve centerfielder
1:28
Speaker 1: at this point Leote Taveres on Outright Waivers. So two
1:33
Speaker 1: people who contributed to the twenty twenty three championship effectively
1:37
Speaker 1: could be gone. Ecker already is gone. Tavares, it remains
1:41
Speaker 1: to be seeing what's going to happen with him. Outright
1:43
Speaker 1: Waivers the way they work for a player with Tavares'
1:46
Speaker 1: service time, he has three plus years of service. It's
1:50
Speaker 1: like this, If he gets claimed, the team that claims
1:53
Speaker 1: him assumes the balance of his four point seven five
1:56
Speaker 1: million dollars salary. Not sure that's going to happen. More likely,
2:00
Speaker 1: in my opinion, he doesn't get claimed, and then what
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Speaker 1: happens is he can elect free agent forfeit the rest
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Speaker 1: of his salary, or the more likely scenario, he goes
2:09
Speaker 1: to the minor leagues and is off the forty man roster,
2:12
Speaker 1: And what the Rangers might be doing here is trying
2:14
Speaker 1: to create room on the forty man for someone else,
2:18
Speaker 1: or they're thinking about promoting Evan Carter, who has been
2:21
Speaker 1: in the minor leagues. He has been a big player
2:23
Speaker 1: for them also in the past. The Rangers are an
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Speaker 1: incredibly disappointing team offensively for reasons that are kind of perplexing.
2:30
Speaker 1: They added Berger and Jock Peterson in the offseason and
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Speaker 1: you thought, wow, okay, they're going to get back to
2:36
Speaker 1: where they were in twenty three and yet entering Sunday's
2:39
Speaker 1: game when they finally erupted against the Seattle Mariners, the
2:43
Speaker 1: Rangers were thirtieth in the league and runs per game
2:46
Speaker 1: they crept up the twenty ninth after that little eruption,
2:50
Speaker 1: So you can understand why they're frustrated why the GM
2:54
Speaker 1: Chris Young is taking action. But that said, as I
2:56
Speaker 1: believe Tricia and I spoke about on Thursday, Young's actions
3:01
Speaker 1: here being public and then doing these things are a
3:04
Speaker 1: little bit unusual in today's game. In today's game, teams
3:07
Speaker 1: generally are more methodical, more deliberate, trying to remove emotion
3:11
Speaker 1: from the equation being efficient and all these great words.
3:15
Speaker 1: It's pretty rare when you see kind of an emotional reaction,
3:18
Speaker 1: and that's what we've seen. Is it warranted, Absolutely, it's warranted,
3:22
Speaker 1: But again it is a little bit unusual in this
3:25
Speaker 1: day and age. All Right, that's Texas. The Boston Red Sox.
3:29
Speaker 1: On Friday, they suffered a terrible blow the loss of
3:32
Speaker 1: Tristan Cassis, their first baseman, to season ending surgery when
3:36
Speaker 1: he ruptured his betel attendant in his knee. Obviously, if
3:39
Speaker 1: you saw the video, it was a really tough injury
3:41
Speaker 1: to watch, tough news for Cast as a guy who's
3:43
Speaker 1: trying to establish himself still as a quality major leaguer.
3:48
Speaker 1: He has definitely shown flashes, but he's not there yet.
3:51
Speaker 1: And now he's out for the season. So the question
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Speaker 1: becomes for the Red Sox, a team that is kind
3:56
Speaker 1: of middling along here. They're eighteen and eighteen, Their bullpen's
3:59
Speaker 1: been an issue. The question becomes what do they do
4:02
Speaker 1: at first base? And there is no easy answer here
4:06
Speaker 1: because they don't really have a plan in place for
4:10
Speaker 1: a catastrophic injury like this. They have Romey Gonzalz as
4:14
Speaker 1: their backup first baseman. He's going to be part of
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Speaker 1: what they do, at least initially short term. They've got
4:20
Speaker 1: Abraham Toro to alternate with Gonzales. He's a switch hitter
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Speaker 1: who can maybe do some things, but he's basically a
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Speaker 1: fringe major leaguer. So the question then is, Okay, where
4:29
Speaker 1: do they go from here? Do they stick with those guys,
4:32
Speaker 1: do they go to the outside, do they try to
4:34
Speaker 1: do something internally? A lot of people thought, well, Raphael Deverz,
4:37
Speaker 1: that's the perfect place. Yes, but learning first base is
4:41
Speaker 1: not an easy thing to do. You can't just put
4:44
Speaker 1: a guy over there and expect that all of a
4:46
Speaker 1: sudden he's going to be able to handle the footwork,
4:49
Speaker 1: the cutoffs, the relays, the pickoffs, all of the different
4:52
Speaker 1: things that go into playing first base. I actually asked
4:55
Speaker 1: Keikey Hernandez about this recently, because he's been playing some
4:58
Speaker 1: first for the Los ange Jos Dodgers, and he said
5:01
Speaker 1: something that I did not realize that at first base
5:04
Speaker 1: you have to move a lot more than in other
5:06
Speaker 1: positions too. When a guy is on, you're bouncing off
5:08
Speaker 1: the bag coming back, so it can be a little
5:11
Speaker 1: bit challenging physically, or at least more challenging than certain
5:15
Speaker 1: other positions in a way that you wouldn't expect. And
5:18
Speaker 1: then people ask with the Red Sox, Okay, what about
5:21
Speaker 1: their two big prospects, Roman Anthony and Marcelo Meyer. Why
5:24
Speaker 1: not put one of them at first base? Same problem.
5:28
Speaker 1: Neither one is a first baseman. Anthony's an outfielder. Mayor
5:31
Speaker 1: is an infielder, but a middle infielder. And you just
5:34
Speaker 1: don't do that to a top prospect in the middle
5:36
Speaker 1: of a season. It's kind of a wacko idea, to
5:39
Speaker 1: be perfectly honest. Now, if you remember last year when
5:42
Speaker 1: Cassis got hurt, the Red Sox picked up Garrett Cooper
5:45
Speaker 1: at one point, Dominic Smith at another, and they kind
5:48
Speaker 1: of patched it together that way. Those guys presumably are
5:52
Speaker 1: still available. Dominic Smith is in the Yankee system right now,
5:57
Speaker 1: Garrett Cooper is in the Atlanta system, and I assume
6:00
Speaker 1: they have opt outs in their contracts. So if the
6:02
Speaker 1: Red Sox wanted to go get one of them, they could.
6:05
Speaker 1: And I'll give you another name too. This guy's not
6:07
Speaker 1: playing Bud. He's out there. Anthony Rizzo. Anthony Rizzo, remains
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Speaker 1: a free agent. I am quite certain it would take
6:14
Speaker 1: him time to get into shape, but again, this is
6:17
Speaker 1: a season ending injury to Cassis, and who knows, maybe
6:21
Speaker 1: the Red Sox would want to take a shot along
6:23
Speaker 1: those lines. As we've discussed with Rizzo, with Lance Lynn
6:27
Speaker 1: when he retired, with JD. Martinez, David Robertson, these are
6:31
Speaker 1: veterans who want to play for a certain price. So
6:34
Speaker 1: who knows if the Red Sox would be willing to
6:36
Speaker 1: meet Rizzou's price, and who knows if he'd be willing
6:38
Speaker 1: to play at this point, But it's certainly something that
6:42
Speaker 1: maybe they will explore. I don't know, I'm just speculating here.
6:45
Speaker 1: So that's the Red Sox. Finally the hottest team in
6:49
Speaker 1: the American League, a team that is suddenly hitting almost
6:53
Speaker 1: as well as it's pitching, and that's the Detroit Tigers. Now.
6:57
Speaker 1: The question with the Tigers coming into the season was
7:00
Speaker 1: they find an offense. Now. I don't want to get
7:02
Speaker 1: too excited about the weekend in which they scored thirty
7:06
Speaker 1: four runs in four games against the Los Angeles Angels,
7:09
Speaker 1: who are struggling, but the Tigers have done some impressive
7:13
Speaker 1: things offensively right now they have seven players seven with
7:19
Speaker 1: ops's over eight hundred. I'm talking about Torkelsen, Kerry Carpenter,
7:23
Speaker 1: Hove Bias, Galabra, Torres, Riley Green, Dylan Dingler, and Zach McKinstry,
7:28
Speaker 1: all over eight hundred. And when you look at the
7:31
Speaker 1: Tigers injured list, there are still a number of offensive players
7:35
Speaker 1: on there. Manuel Margo, Parker, Meadows, Matt Vierling, Weuncil Perez,
7:40
Speaker 1: Jake Rogers. These are guys who aren't there right now,
7:43
Speaker 1: and they're still doing all this. Obviously, Torkelsen's resurgence is
7:46
Speaker 1: a big part of what they're doing. Riley Green is
7:49
Speaker 1: a star in the making. Javey Bias, It's impressive what
7:53
Speaker 1: he has done here, being willing to be a superutility guy,
7:57
Speaker 1: bounce all over the field, and finally he is contributing again.
8:01
Speaker 1: Isn't worth the six years one forty No, not yet,
8:04
Speaker 1: but maybe it will be if he gets them ultimately
8:07
Speaker 1: to a playoff and championship scenario. I want to show
8:10
Speaker 1: you something about the Tigers that is a little bit different,
8:13
Speaker 1: at least in terms of what they're doing right now,
8:15
Speaker 1: when it shows in part why they've been so successful.
8:19
Speaker 1: I want to look at their er and I want
8:21
Speaker 1: to look at their runs per game, because the Tigers
8:24
Speaker 1: are the only team right now in the top five
8:27
Speaker 1: in both categories. So let's take a look. We'll start
8:30
Speaker 1: with runs per game. The Cubs leading the majors in
8:33
Speaker 1: runs per game. Obviously, they're almost at six per game.
8:36
Speaker 1: Yankees at five and a half per game. That's a surprise, right, No,
8:39
Speaker 1: Wan Soto, they're still doing it. The Dodgers five point
8:41
Speaker 1: three five, the Diamondbacks five point one eight, and there
8:44
Speaker 1: are the Tigers five point one one, ranking fifth in
8:47
Speaker 1: the majors in runs per game. Again, that would qualify
8:50
Speaker 1: as a surprise. Era this was not a surprise, or
8:54
Speaker 1: is not a surprise. We all knew the Tigers had
8:56
Speaker 1: a dynamic rotation and a terrific bullpen. That is holding
9:00
Speaker 1: true again in twenty twenty five, just as it did
9:03
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four. You see the Padres, there are
9:06
Speaker 1: two point seven five, the Mets following at two point
9:09
Speaker 1: eight seven, then the Tigers two point nine to six,
9:12
Speaker 1: the Royals, and the Astros. So the Tigers right now
9:16
Speaker 1: look really good. Can they sustain this? I sort of
9:20
Speaker 1: think they can. Can they be a team we see
9:22
Speaker 1: in the American League Championship Series. I sort of think
9:26
Speaker 1: the answer to that is, yes, the Detroit Tigers not
9:29
Speaker 1: a surprise team necessarily because they were a playoff team
9:32
Speaker 1: last year with that amazing run in the last two months,
9:36
Speaker 1: but they're a team to watch out for. They're a
9:38
Speaker 1: team that is perhaps better than we expected. For more
9:42
Speaker 1: on Detroit's dominant stretch. Cody Stavenhagen, my colleague from the
9:45
Speaker 1: Athletic Karen Steckley, and Austin Jackson host Tiger Territory. Tiger
9:50
Speaker 1: Territory drops multiple episodes each week on YouTube and wherever
9:54
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts, Subscribe, share, and rate five stars
9:58
Speaker 1: to the entire Foul Territor network.
10:01
Speaker 2: Well, where will Will Where?
10:05
Speaker 1: Time now for the inside Dish, the part of the
10:07
Speaker 1: show where I talk about maybe a story I've written,
10:09
Speaker 1: a trend in the game, something else entirely, And today
10:13
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the guy I teased at
10:15
Speaker 1: the top of the show, my new favorite player, and
10:18
Speaker 1: he's Chandler Simpson of the Tampa Bay Rays. Now, going
10:22
Speaker 1: back to spring training, I went to the Tampa Bay
10:24
Speaker 1: Rays camp to see Chandler Simpson and to talk to
10:27
Speaker 1: people about him. I was intrigued by a tweet I
10:30
Speaker 1: had seen about a diving catch he had made and
10:33
Speaker 1: somebody said, this guy's incredibly fast. I had not heard
10:36
Speaker 1: of him. Full disclosure, I had not heard of him
10:39
Speaker 1: at that point, but it was intriguing to me after
10:41
Speaker 1: I read up on him that this player could be
10:44
Speaker 1: rather interesting, a guy who makes contact like Luisa Ryes,
10:48
Speaker 1: steals bass like Billy Hamilton, and had the potential to
10:51
Speaker 1: play center field like Byron Buxton. So I went to
10:54
Speaker 1: Raise camp, and I must say I have a great
10:58
Speaker 1: day every day in my career. Every day I'm lucky
11:00
Speaker 1: to be working in this job, and every day I
11:02
Speaker 1: have fun or find something new and interesting. But that
11:05
Speaker 1: day was one of the most fun days I can
11:08
Speaker 1: remember because that day, as I walked around the backfield
11:12
Speaker 1: at the Rays Complex in Port Charlotte, Florida, I've just
11:18
Speaker 1: encountered an excitement about a player that I had not
11:21
Speaker 1: witnessed too many times in my career. I talked to
11:24
Speaker 1: all kinds of Raised people about Chandler Simpson and they
11:27
Speaker 1: were all thinking, we've got something here, and I could
11:30
Speaker 1: tell with the Rays it was like we've got a
11:33
Speaker 1: new toy, and you know, the Raise They're the team
11:35
Speaker 1: that gave us the opener and so many other innovations.
11:39
Speaker 1: So that day, Kevin Cash told me, at every level,
11:42
Speaker 1: people have scratched their heads about this guy. Is this
11:44
Speaker 1: going to work? Is this going to play? It will play?
11:48
Speaker 1: And then some That is what Cash said, and he's
11:50
Speaker 1: referring to the fact that Simpson is a guy who's
11:54
Speaker 1: incredibly fast and can get on base and makes incredible contact,
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Speaker 1: but has almost no that has been the knock on him.
12:02
Speaker 1: I talked to the Rangers outfield and base running coordinator
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Speaker 1: Jared Samberg, and Jared told me that Chandler Simpson had
12:10
Speaker 1: the best drive, work, ethic, and determination of any player
12:13
Speaker 1: in the Rays organization. That's what he said. And then
12:16
Speaker 1: their double A manager, Kevin Bowles, he addressed the issue
12:20
Speaker 1: with the fact that so many people were critical of
12:23
Speaker 1: Simpson's potential as a major league player. He said, I've
12:27
Speaker 1: never seen a player so undervalued by the industry. Anyway,
12:32
Speaker 1: the story was a lot of fun to write. I
12:34
Speaker 1: spoke to Chandler Simpson as wealth great kid, nice guy,
12:37
Speaker 1: and I asked him about being the fastest man in baseball.
12:40
Speaker 1: At the time. Chishom Junior was in a debate about
12:43
Speaker 1: whether he was faster than Bobby with Junior something like that,
12:46
Speaker 1: and he just looked at me and said, I'm faster
12:49
Speaker 1: than all those guys. So fast forward to now, Chandler
12:53
Speaker 1: Simpson is in the major leagues. He joined the Rays
12:55
Speaker 1: about two weeks ago. They're nine and six with him
12:58
Speaker 1: on their club. They're playing other than they did without him,
13:01
Speaker 1: even though they've had some good outfield contributions. He's in
13:04
Speaker 1: center field. He is making things happen. And if you
13:07
Speaker 1: were paying attention to yesterday's Yankees Rais game, you saw
13:11
Speaker 1: two plays which demonstrated how dynamic and damaging to an
13:17
Speaker 1: opponent this player can be. Let's look at them back
13:20
Speaker 1: to back. The first one is Chandler Simpson scoring from
13:23
Speaker 1: second base on an infield single, and this shows you here, okay,
13:27
Speaker 1: there's the shortstop. He makes the play, but he doesn't
13:30
Speaker 1: come up with the ball and boom, Simpson saw the
13:32
Speaker 1: opening goes home right away. That was that. It was
13:36
Speaker 1: an incredible play and it just shows you if you
13:38
Speaker 1: don't make the play cleanly, this guy's going to do things.
13:41
Speaker 1: You see his speed right there. The interesting thing about
13:44
Speaker 1: this play besides just the sheer speed, was the instincts
13:48
Speaker 1: that Simpson showed. Once that ball got away, he was off.
13:53
Speaker 1: He saw the space, he saw the opening, even though
13:56
Speaker 1: his stop sign was on. He saw that he could
13:58
Speaker 1: make it, and he did. The second play with Simpson
14:01
Speaker 1: yesterday was kind of a routine ground ball to the
14:05
Speaker 1: right side. The Yankees were playing in somewhat of a
14:07
Speaker 1: shift and in this case the shortstop as well. Parazza
14:11
Speaker 1: got to the ball, but it didn't matter. It was
14:15
Speaker 1: a relatively routine play. But again Chandler Simpson beat it out.
14:18
Speaker 1: Here's the ground ball. You see, he's a left handed hitterer,
14:20
Speaker 1: so he's got that advantage to start with. You see
14:22
Speaker 1: Paraza get to the ball no problem, and boom. Chandler
14:27
Speaker 1: Simpson beats this play. Not easily, but he beats it.
14:30
Speaker 1: This is the kind of thing this guy can do.
14:32
Speaker 1: And what's so interesting about him in this era of
14:35
Speaker 1: emphasis on exit velocity, when all players are measured it
14:40
Speaker 1: seems by how hard they can hit the ball. Even
14:43
Speaker 1: when a guy is slumping, well, he's hitting the ball hard.
14:45
Speaker 1: It's going to happen for him soon. In Chandler Simpson's case,
14:49
Speaker 1: it's better when he doesn't hit the ball hard. It's
14:52
Speaker 1: better when he hits these soft ground balls. Mis hits balls,
14:56
Speaker 1: gets off balanced and maybe doesn't necessarily do what he
15:00
Speaker 1: he wants at the plate, but it's better that way
15:02
Speaker 1: because the fielders cannot catch up with him. Yesterday he
15:06
Speaker 1: had two balls he hit ninety five miles an hour
15:08
Speaker 1: or above. Both were outs. Again, better off in the
15:12
Speaker 1: eighty bileo at hour range or even less than that,
15:14
Speaker 1: whatever it takes. He's also an excellent bunter, which is
15:17
Speaker 1: a key skill for him given his speed. So people
15:21
Speaker 1: continue to ask, what can this guy be. I had
15:24
Speaker 1: someone tell me last week, someone I respect in the game,
15:27
Speaker 1: a scout. He said, well, if he's a one war player,
15:31
Speaker 1: that'll be really good. One war is nothing, it's not
15:35
Speaker 1: much at all. It's barely contributing. I remember Keith law
15:39
Speaker 1: saying when he rated Simpson. I don't know about maybe
15:42
Speaker 1: a year ago, or maybe it was even this year.
15:44
Speaker 1: Keith said, I kind of find it hard to believe
15:46
Speaker 1: he's going to be a zero point five war player,
15:49
Speaker 1: but we'll see zero point five again, barely above replacement Chandler.
15:55
Speaker 1: Simpson can be more than that if he becomes a
15:58
Speaker 1: player who can hit three hundred with say a three
16:01
Speaker 1: point fifty on base and a three fifty slug and
16:04
Speaker 1: a guy who is an average center fielder. He's got
16:07
Speaker 1: some work to do there. He's got speed, but he
16:09
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily have the defensive instincts that he displays on
16:12
Speaker 1: the base paths. If he can be that guy, he's
16:15
Speaker 1: a dynamic player. And the other thing about him that
16:19
Speaker 1: is so fascinating. You can't measure all that he does
16:24
Speaker 1: by war or any other metric. What he does disrupts
16:28
Speaker 1: an opponent. He commands attention the moment he is in
16:31
Speaker 1: the box, the moment he is on base. He disrupts
16:34
Speaker 1: a pitcher in a way that other hitters simply cannot.
16:37
Speaker 1: He forces teams to throw more fastballs because if you
16:41
Speaker 1: throw a breaking ball, this guy's off. In Saturday's game,
16:44
Speaker 1: he stole second and third coming off the bench was
16:47
Speaker 1: a difference in that game as the Rays beat the
16:49
Speaker 1: Yankees as well. So Chandler Simpson. If he can keep
16:53
Speaker 1: this going, I'm not saying it's a certainty. It certainly
16:55
Speaker 1: is not. But if he can keep this going, he's
16:58
Speaker 1: going to be someone where wide and we're having a
17:00
Speaker 1: lot of fun watching over the years Is he a
17:04
Speaker 1: classic ballplayer for the year twenty twenty five? No, but
17:08
Speaker 1: that is what makes him so fun and so interesting.
17:12
Speaker 1: I'm a Chandler Simpson fan. I can't deny it. I
17:14
Speaker 1: love watching this guy play and I look forward to
17:17
Speaker 1: watching this guy play as a player who will make
17:20
Speaker 1: an impact in the next several years. We'll be back
17:24
Speaker 1: after a quick word from our friends at foul Territory.
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Speaker 1: Time now for grilling Ken. Let's get to your questions.
18:30
Speaker 1: The first question comes from Mark Fowler, who asks which
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Speaker 1: is more likely Aaron Judge wins the triple Crown or
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Speaker 1: hits over four hundred. I love these kinds of questions, Mark,
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Speaker 1: thank you. First of all, he's not hitting four hundred.
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Speaker 1: I feel pretty comfortable saying that, as well as Aaron
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Speaker 1: Judge is playing as incredibly as he's performing, four hundred
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Speaker 1: is probably at a range, even though right now he's
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Speaker 1: at four twenty three. So then the question becomes, all right,
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Speaker 1: what about the triple crown first and home runs first,
19:00
Speaker 1: in batting average first in RBI's He's not leading each
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Speaker 1: of those categories at this moment. He is leading an
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Speaker 1: average four to twenty three batting average, but in home
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Speaker 1: runs he's actually second to Cal Raleigh. Raley has twelve,
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Speaker 1: Judge has eleven, and in RBIs he's tied with Taoscar
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Speaker 1: Hernandez each has thirty three. Now, what is so intriguing
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Speaker 1: about Judge's season is that last season, if you recall,
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Speaker 1: he put together one of the greatest offensive seasons in
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Speaker 1: Major League history, and yet the month of April was
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Speaker 1: not very good for him. This year, he has started
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Speaker 1: off absolutely on fire, and he has maintained that as
19:35
Speaker 1: we've gone into the month of May here. So the
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Speaker 1: one thing I do think is possible for him is
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Speaker 1: the triple slash triple Crown, and that is batting average,
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Speaker 1: on base percentage, and slug He nearly won that last year.
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Speaker 1: That's not really a thing, but it's certainly a measure.
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Speaker 1: Last year he was first and on base percentage, first
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Speaker 1: and slugging, and third in batting average. Bobby Wick Junior
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Speaker 1: was the league leader in batting average. I don't know
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Speaker 1: the Judge will ever have a three point fifty batting
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Speaker 1: average as good as he is, but it's going to
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Speaker 1: be a lot of fun to see what kind of
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Speaker 1: history he can make this season. Because it sure seems
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Speaker 1: like if he stays healthy, he's going to do some
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Speaker 1: really special things.
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Speaker 3: All right.
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Speaker 1: The next question comes from Brett, who says the Royals
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Speaker 1: are now seventeen and oh when leading after seven innings,
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Speaker 1: that's pretty impressive, a testament to their bullpen. It's early still,
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Speaker 1: but with their bats finally coming alive, how serious are
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Speaker 1: they as contenders this year?
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Speaker 2: Brett?
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Speaker 1: That's a good question. And if you recall, in our
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Speaker 1: opening segment, I showed you the top five in era
20:38
Speaker 1: right now and the Royals were right there. The problem
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Speaker 1: is scoring runs, and even after this weekend when they
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Speaker 1: played well against the Orioles, they're twenty eighth in runs
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Speaker 1: per game twenty eight. That's third from the bottom. That
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Speaker 1: has to change right now. Their offense seems to be
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Speaker 1: Bobby Witt, a little bit of Michael Garcia, a little
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Speaker 1: bit of Salvador Perez. Pasquentino's been disappointing. They haven't gotten
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Speaker 1: much their home runs that's been a zero until they
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Speaker 1: hit those seven solo shots the other day against Baltimore.
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Speaker 1: So offensively, that's where they need help, and I don't
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Speaker 1: know where it's going to come. Necessarily, the outfield would
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Speaker 1: be the one obvious area. That's the one area where
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Speaker 1: they have a clear need. But when I say I
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Speaker 1: don't know where it's going to come, I mean as
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Speaker 1: far as the deadline, which players they can add, I
21:26
Speaker 1: expect they will be aggressive. They have been aggressive since
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Speaker 1: the start of twenty four. Actually the twenty twenty three
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Speaker 1: to twenty four offseason. That's when they went out and
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Speaker 1: signed Lugo and Waka and did some really interesting things.
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Speaker 1: They've continued to stay aggressive through the offseason and into
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Speaker 1: the season. If you remember, they were a team that
21:46
Speaker 1: bid on Anthony Santander didn't get him, but it showed
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Speaker 1: they were looking for that kind of player. They need
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Speaker 1: one more middle of the order type at the very least.
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Speaker 1: Otherwise I don't see them as a strong contender. I
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Speaker 1: do see them as a potential playoff team. And the
22:05
Speaker 1: final question comes, oh, look at this. The final question
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Speaker 1: comes from Mark Kurrigg, who asks what is the meaning
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Speaker 1: of life now? Mark Curig, for those who don't know
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Speaker 1: who he might be, is a former baseball writer who
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Speaker 1: now runs the baseball site at the Athletic He is
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Speaker 1: our boss, He's the main baseball editor. And Mark asked,
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Speaker 1: what is the meaning of life, and I answered him
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Speaker 1: and a text yesterday. I often tease Mark and some
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Speaker 1: of our other editors about the editors taking writer's copy
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Speaker 1: and kind of putting their hands all over it and
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Speaker 1: changing words, hopefully not changing meaning, but doing things that
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Speaker 1: actually most of the time improve the stories greatly. But
22:49
Speaker 1: we have fun talking about this. And I told Mark,
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Speaker 1: the meaning of life is whatever the editors tell us
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Speaker 1: it is. Because if I wrote a story saying of
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Speaker 1: life is this, the editor might say, Nah, it's not
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Speaker 1: really that you might want to say this, And that's
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Speaker 1: kind of how the process works. It's actually a great process.
23:08
Speaker 1: I will say this too. At the Athletic, the editing
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Speaker 1: I've gotten has been the best of my career. And
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Speaker 1: that's no slight to anybody who has edited me previously.
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Speaker 1: But from the moment I joined in twenty seventeen, the
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Speaker 1: editing has been incredible. And once in a while there'll
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Speaker 1: be a mistake in the copy and someone will say
23:25
Speaker 1: in the comment, don't you guys have editors? Yeah, mistakes happen,
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Speaker 1: Mistakes like that get through. I'm talking about good editing,
23:32
Speaker 1: and writers know what I'm talking about here. Good editing
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Speaker 1: is when an editor can maybe adjust the structure, can
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Speaker 1: point to different things in the story that can be enhanced, sharpened,
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Speaker 1: points that can be made better. That's what good editing is. Yes,
23:47
Speaker 1: good editing is also a good copy editing and catching
23:50
Speaker 1: those mistakes and hopefully we don't make any, but they
23:53
Speaker 1: happen from time to time. So I don't know what
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Speaker 1: the meaning of life is, Mark, but I'm sure if
23:59
Speaker 1: I write a story worry about that tomorrow, which I'm
24:02
Speaker 1: not going to do, you guys would have all kinds
24:05
Speaker 1: of input on what the meaning of life actually should be,
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Speaker 1: not what ten thinks it should be. I want to
24:11
Speaker 1: thank everyone for their questions, for watching, for listening. You
24:14
Speaker 1: know where to find us, YouTube, Apple, Spotify, like us,
24:17
Speaker 1: Subscribe to us and join us again Thursday for our
24:20
Speaker 1: normal live show at twelve thirty Eastern. It will be
24:23
Speaker 1: myself and Alana Rizzo. Have a great week. Everyone, enjoy
24:27
Speaker 1: the baseball.
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