Latest / Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast / Chances of a Brandon Lowe extension, Gregory Soto in as closer?

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Chances of a Brandon Lowe extension, Gregory Soto in as closer? · Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Bucko Territory,
0:12
Speaker 1: presented to you by the Foul Territory Network on Noah Hiles.
0:15
Speaker 1: Joining me as always are my two co hosts, Josh
0:18
Speaker 1: Harrison aka j Hay and Platinum Key aka Mark. The
0:22
Speaker 1: Pirates take two of three from the Arizona Diamondbacks, another
0:27
Speaker 1: series win. They've won five of their last six. Now,
0:30
Speaker 1: after that five game losing skid which seems like forever ago,
0:34
Speaker 1: we got a good show. Today. We're gonna talk about
0:36
Speaker 1: Brandon low We're gonna talk about the bullpen, the back
0:38
Speaker 1: end of it specifically, and then we always round out
0:42
Speaker 1: our Friday shows with Jay haynow segment. So let's get
0:46
Speaker 1: into it, guys. Brandon Lowe was the best player for
0:49
Speaker 1: the Pirates this series. He's been their best hitter all season.
0:52
Speaker 1: He leads the team with ten home runs. I think
0:54
Speaker 1: he has the highest ops on the team. I'm pretty
0:56
Speaker 1: sure he does. He's just been nails. So uh, it's
1:01
Speaker 1: good this year. No denying that great pick up. But
1:06
Speaker 1: he will be an unrestricted free agent at the end
1:09
Speaker 1: of this season, and as Mark brings up, do you
1:15
Speaker 1: let him get the free agency you know they're handing
1:18
Speaker 1: out extensions now right. They just signed a teenager to
1:21
Speaker 1: one hundred and forty million dollar deal and that was
1:23
Speaker 1: a good investment. But what do you do with Brandon
1:27
Speaker 1: law Do you try to extend him? I'll actually start
1:30
Speaker 1: it with Josh. I mean, if you're in Brandon Lawe's shoes,
1:32
Speaker 1: you're this close to free agency, are you even signing
1:34
Speaker 1: an extension with anyone at this point?
1:38
Speaker 2: No, honestly, especially just saying obviously this part of season.
1:44
Speaker 2: You know, we even mentioned it in one of our episodes.
1:48
Speaker 2: Once you get to a certain date, you know, you
1:50
Speaker 2: kind of table those things. So I answered that because
1:54
Speaker 2: you know, typically guys don't like to talk about it
1:56
Speaker 2: during the season.
1:58
Speaker 1: And then the other thing is.
1:59
Speaker 2: You know, he's close to free agency, he's I don't
2:02
Speaker 2: think he's tested He hasn't tested it, and you know
2:06
Speaker 2: this is another year, you know, trajectory that could be
2:09
Speaker 2: trending in a year that you know could potentially put him,
2:12
Speaker 2: you know, earning quite a bit more money than what
2:15
Speaker 2: he was already supposed to make. But the other side
2:18
Speaker 2: of that is you definitely try to extend him because
2:21
Speaker 2: at the same time, who knows what this off season
2:23
Speaker 2: brings who knows what is looming on the other side,
2:27
Speaker 2: So I think they need to and I think they
2:30
Speaker 2: will try to extend him, And I honestly think, I mean,
2:35
Speaker 2: I can't speak for him, but I mean, given how
2:38
Speaker 2: he's playing and just the vibe here, I think he
2:42
Speaker 2: would probably entertain it, but would also know that if
2:46
Speaker 2: he's entertaining something, just like anybody that was there for
2:49
Speaker 2: free agency, it's got to be market value, and might
2:52
Speaker 2: have to be a little bit more than market value
2:54
Speaker 2: with what he's doing now, So it could make things
2:56
Speaker 2: a little dicey. But for him, he's doing exactly what
3:00
Speaker 2: he was traded to do, and obviously you'd like to
3:05
Speaker 2: extend him because as you see this team makeup and
3:07
Speaker 2: you look down in the minor leagues, it's like, if
3:09
Speaker 2: you let him go, you got to dip in a
3:11
Speaker 2: free agency because you don't really have anybody you know
3:14
Speaker 2: right now ready to take over. So I think it's
3:17
Speaker 2: a situation where they have to explore that because not
3:21
Speaker 2: only does it make sense, but too, he's, as you
3:23
Speaker 2: said no one in your opener, he's been nails.
3:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I'll follow up with that by just saying
3:29
Speaker 3: the players aren't going to get Brandon Lawe for eleven
3:32
Speaker 3: and a half million dollars again next hole, So to
3:37
Speaker 3: re sign or extend Brandon Lowe, it's going to take
3:40
Speaker 3: a lot more. So that's obviously going to be a factor.
3:44
Speaker 3: He may the way he's playing. I mean, maybe he
3:47
Speaker 3: gets out of the Pirates price range because I think
3:49
Speaker 3: he has like the second highest OPS among second basement
3:52
Speaker 3: or something. Right now, he's showing how he is a
3:56
Speaker 3: premier second baseman in MLB. He's gonna be so after
4:00
Speaker 3: in free agency, and it's going to be hard to
4:02
Speaker 3: pass up that opportunity for him. He signed a six
4:05
Speaker 3: year extension originally with the Rays, so this is the
4:08
Speaker 3: final year of that deal, so this would be the
4:11
Speaker 3: first time he actually gets a breach free agency. And
4:15
Speaker 3: then one other point, Josh, you brought up as far
4:18
Speaker 3: as backup options, like, what's what else do the players
4:21
Speaker 3: have at second base? You look at the miners, Tamar
4:24
Speaker 3: Johnson does not seem like the answer for seventy six
4:27
Speaker 3: ops right now. Maybe Nick can Zales moves over to
4:32
Speaker 3: second base and then you sign a third basement or
4:35
Speaker 3: you've signed the second basement in free agency, But I
4:37
Speaker 3: don't think there's really an internal option at this point,
4:41
Speaker 3: which just makes it more of an argument to go
4:44
Speaker 3: ahead and sign lout.
4:45
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts now, Yeah, I mean I'm looking
4:48
Speaker 1: at this twenty twenty seven free agency class and allows
4:52
Speaker 1: probably the best infielder among the bunch. I mean, there's
4:55
Speaker 1: some other names. I'm assuming the chet doesn't opt out,
4:59
Speaker 1: which I mean, you don't know why he would. He
5:02
Speaker 1: would He's getting paid like forty million dollars. Yeah, Like,
5:07
Speaker 1: I don't know who else is playing better baseball. Jazz Aussi,
5:11
Speaker 1: Albi's like, those are good players. Yeah, I would rather
5:13
Speaker 1: have Brandon Lowe than either of those guys. I mean, YONDI,
5:16
Speaker 1: Diaz has had a good career. I'm looking through like
5:19
Speaker 1: I I mean, yeah, I think he's he's probably the
5:23
Speaker 1: best infielder in this free agency clad Sikes. That's that's
5:28
Speaker 1: a good thing. Yeah. But on the flip side, I mean,
5:32
Speaker 1: you don't know what the baseball economy is going to
5:35
Speaker 1: look like in the near future, right, And it's not
5:38
Speaker 1: like I mean it. I guess theoretically you could if
5:42
Speaker 1: the final out of the World Series has made at
5:44
Speaker 1: like eight PM or whatever, then you could hurry up
5:48
Speaker 1: and get a deal in place before that season goes
5:52
Speaker 1: into a lockout, which I believe is what December first,
5:54
Speaker 1: is that the day when the CBA expires. Uh so
6:01
Speaker 1: that's when the lockout would begin, is as soon as
6:03
Speaker 1: like December first, when the deal expires. I've said the
6:06
Speaker 1: correct date so many times on the show, and it's
6:09
Speaker 1: very annoying that I can't remember it off the top
6:11
Speaker 1: of my head anymore. But yeah, like for low it's
6:14
Speaker 1: just like I guess on one foot, it's like you
6:16
Speaker 1: start the conversations now that way, it's pretty much in
6:19
Speaker 1: place with his representation, not with Brendon Lawe, and that
6:23
Speaker 1: way it's in place kind of like what we saw
6:24
Speaker 1: with Naylor last year in Seattle, where like as soon
6:27
Speaker 1: as the off season starts, like all right, well they
6:29
Speaker 1: got him. Cool. Maybe that's come on, yes they did.
6:34
Speaker 1: They were interested. Well, like maybe that happens in the
6:37
Speaker 1: sense where it's like if they think there's gonna be
6:39
Speaker 1: a cap, like you get grandfathered into all of these extensions,
6:43
Speaker 1: and so the pirates could pay top dollar for him.
6:46
Speaker 1: But I mean, man, if this guy he's never been
6:49
Speaker 1: on the open market before, and I think he's trending
6:53
Speaker 1: toward his second straight All Star appearance, and so he's
6:57
Speaker 1: playing the best baseball of his life heading into free agent.
7:00
Speaker 1: I see the smile on Josh's face, because, like that
7:03
Speaker 1: is every player's dream, Like that's what you want. You
7:05
Speaker 1: don't want to come in a free agency off of
7:07
Speaker 1: an injury year or a down year, or whatever the
7:09
Speaker 1: case is. You want to hit that market at your peak.
7:12
Speaker 1: And that's what he's trending to do. And if the
7:16
Speaker 1: Pirates want to retain him, I think he'd be open
7:18
Speaker 1: to that. It seems like he really does enjoy playing here. Yeah,
7:21
Speaker 1: but they're gonna have to make a competitive offer with
7:24
Speaker 1: the rest of the league, and there are gonna be
7:26
Speaker 1: a lot of teams that are interested in potential thirty
7:30
Speaker 1: to forty home run second baseman who will probably end
7:32
Speaker 1: up being a d H later in his career. But
7:35
Speaker 1: you'll take that guy now, I will say, as I
7:39
Speaker 1: wrap this up with Lal, they might be in a
7:43
Speaker 1: place where they don't have to dramatically overpay like they
7:46
Speaker 1: were when they were bidding for Schwarber or Polongo or
7:51
Speaker 1: Naylor or whoever else. Like I think, if you offer
7:54
Speaker 1: market value, you can probably get something close like are. Yeah,
8:00
Speaker 1: if you offer market value, you could probably get him,
8:03
Speaker 1: or you have a decent chance of getting him compared
8:04
Speaker 1: to others because he has played here and if everything
8:07
Speaker 1: goes well, he might want to stay here if he's
8:09
Speaker 1: compensated fairly. So that's my thought on the topic. We're
8:13
Speaker 1: gonna take a quick break when we come back. We're
8:15
Speaker 1: going to talk about the back end of the bullpen
8:17
Speaker 1: here on Bucko Territory.
8:21
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Speaker 1: All right, so back end of the bullpen. We've got
9:24
Speaker 1: an interesting conversation to have about this team. As you
9:29
Speaker 1: can see on the bar here, who is the closer
9:34
Speaker 1: this weekend or not weekend? I should say this series
9:37
Speaker 1: in Arizona, it was Gregory Soto. Guys, Gregory Soto's been
9:42
Speaker 1: their best reliever this season. He's three to zero in
9:45
Speaker 1: nineteen games, the one forty two earun run average, nineteen innings,
9:49
Speaker 1: pitch twenty five strikeouts in zero point six to eight
9:51
Speaker 1: with this guy's been nails, and we're seeing him use
9:55
Speaker 1: more and more in late game situations. Dennis Santana still
9:59
Speaker 1: get high leverage opportunities, but it seems like Soda might
10:04
Speaker 1: be the ninth inning guy. Mark, I'll ask you, what
10:07
Speaker 1: are your thoughts on this?
10:08
Speaker 3: Yeah? That was We're recording this right after the game
10:11
Speaker 3: here on Thursday, and my big takeaway was just the
10:14
Speaker 3: seventh thing. It's like, oh, Dennis Santana is coming in
10:17
Speaker 3: in a game where we have elite already, and you
10:22
Speaker 3: could tell the broadcast was a little perplexed by it,
10:25
Speaker 3: trying to decide like it's just just a get right
10:28
Speaker 3: opportunity he's not had the best couple of outings lately,
10:32
Speaker 3: or is this just kind of his new role. And luckily,
10:37
Speaker 3: Dennis Santana strikes me as the kind of guy who
10:40
Speaker 3: doesn't care what his role is. He'll go out there
10:42
Speaker 3: and pitch. He's not going to be offended or have
10:45
Speaker 3: an ego like that's my ninth inning. If I'm not
10:48
Speaker 3: out there, I'm not going to do anything like throw
10:51
Speaker 3: a little hissy fit like a former Brewers pitcher or something.
10:56
Speaker 3: But yeah, so like I appreciate that from Soda or
11:00
Speaker 3: from Santana, But it's so nice having the fact that
11:03
Speaker 3: it might not even be that Santana's been bad. It
11:06
Speaker 3: might just be that that Gregory Soto has just been
11:09
Speaker 3: that good because he has just been unhittable. And when
11:14
Speaker 3: he comes in the ninth it's not like there's traffic
11:16
Speaker 3: on the basis, it's not like you're being like, Okay,
11:20
Speaker 3: just hang in there. He's gonna get out of it.
11:22
Speaker 3: He just comes in, takes care of business, and walks
11:25
Speaker 3: out with a win. And so I would love to
11:29
Speaker 3: see Soto as the closer moving forward. Or your thoughts here,
11:33
Speaker 3: either Know or Josh, and either you want to jump in,
11:36
Speaker 3: I'll like Josh start.
11:40
Speaker 2: I'll tell you Soto obviously, you know, just going off
11:44
Speaker 2: the spiell that you gave Santana going in there today.
11:46
Speaker 2: Obviously with the lead still a hot leverage situation, you
11:49
Speaker 2: still put them in those situations. But it's no different
11:52
Speaker 2: than you know, a hitter and you have a shuffling
11:57
Speaker 2: of a lineup due to injury or you know somebody scuffling,
12:02
Speaker 2: you ride at the hot hand. But when you have
12:04
Speaker 2: somebody dominating like this, and Mark to add to it,
12:10
Speaker 2: when they first signed him off record, we were texting
12:12
Speaker 2: and I told you you were gonna like this guy.
12:16
Speaker 2: So it's yes, And it's one of those things where
12:19
Speaker 2: it's a guy that's been a closer before, All Star
12:22
Speaker 2: at that role before. So if you are as you mentioned,
12:27
Speaker 2: Dennis Antana not necessarily losing the spot, but if there's
12:31
Speaker 2: anybody I mean that's a former All Star and it's
12:33
Speaker 2: not anything to be ashamed of, but it's definitely something
12:37
Speaker 2: that I'm sure will continue to be asked as these
12:41
Speaker 2: games unfold. But they might pretty much answer it for
12:44
Speaker 2: us if you continue to see solo used in a
12:46
Speaker 2: ninth and but as you said, his numbers right now
12:49
Speaker 2: are really good. I think it's hard to go against
12:53
Speaker 2: him being the closer given what he's done, and you
12:56
Speaker 2: know the track record of him, you know, being in
12:58
Speaker 2: that position before. I think you, as I said before,
13:02
Speaker 2: when they sign him, he might not be the closer,
13:03
Speaker 2: but he's a guy that could very well jump into
13:05
Speaker 2: that role.
13:07
Speaker 1: I don't see anything wrong with having two guys that
13:11
Speaker 1: you can pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning
13:14
Speaker 1: or the top of the ninth inning, depending where you're playing.
13:16
Speaker 1: But yes, with opposite hands. I and I think the
13:21
Speaker 1: way they're going about this makes a ton of sense.
13:23
Speaker 1: Like Josh said, you ride the hot hand. And if
13:26
Speaker 1: if Sodo just keeps doing this and has like a
13:29
Speaker 1: one e R and racks up thirty saves, then cool
13:34
Speaker 1: like that. But you know, yeah, the moment he cools down,
13:39
Speaker 1: you know you have a guy who can get it
13:41
Speaker 1: done in the ninth with Santana so and And I
13:44
Speaker 1: also want to kind of highlight here, It's not like
13:47
Speaker 1: so or Santana started the seventh like he came in
13:51
Speaker 1: mid inning. Mitch Keller is on the mound, he allows
13:54
Speaker 1: a lead off single, and then it's a close game.
13:58
Speaker 1: You bring in your best high leverage arm available. And
14:01
Speaker 1: what does Dennis Santana do. He gets a double playball.
14:04
Speaker 1: So I think out of the two simply because Soto
14:10
Speaker 1: has more experience with success in the ninth inning. Like
14:15
Speaker 1: I look back at like what this team could look
14:20
Speaker 1: like as far as a playoff contender, like how it's
14:23
Speaker 1: constructed and what's the model. And I think I've said
14:27
Speaker 1: this on the show before. I think it has the
14:29
Speaker 1: potential to look something similar to what the Terry Francona
14:33
Speaker 1: Cleveland Indians look like, like the twenty sixteen seventeen eighteen
14:38
Speaker 1: run that they were on. And I don't know if
14:40
Speaker 1: they'll ever achieve those types of heights. I mean, in sixteen,
14:44
Speaker 1: they won the Pennant and were a Raindola from the
14:46
Speaker 1: World Series Crown. In seventeen they won twenty plus games
14:49
Speaker 1: in a row, and in eighteen I believe they won
14:51
Speaker 1: the division as well. The Pirates have to go out
14:53
Speaker 1: and do that. But the way this is constructed, it's
14:55
Speaker 1: built around pitching. You have two studs in the back
14:59
Speaker 1: end of the bullpen and a lot of other guys
15:01
Speaker 1: who are still filling out their roles, and then you
15:03
Speaker 1: have an offense that's gonna be good enough. It's kind
15:05
Speaker 1: of boom or bust sometimes. All those Cleveland teams were built,
15:09
Speaker 1: and that's kind of how I look at this team.
15:11
Speaker 1: In a lot of ways. Dennis Santana can be or
15:15
Speaker 1: Andrew Miller, and I know it's ironic that I'm picking
15:17
Speaker 1: him to be Andrew Miller because Soto's the lefty. But
15:22
Speaker 1: they had Cody Allen in the ninth inning, and Cody
15:24
Speaker 1: Allen was their closer. But Andrew Miller was the Swiss
15:28
Speaker 1: Army knife in that bullpen. And we would see Andrew
15:31
Speaker 1: Miller come in and playoff games in the sixth inning,
15:33
Speaker 1: you'd see him in the ninth inning. Sometimes you'd see
15:35
Speaker 1: him whenever there was a pitch. And on Thursday's game,
15:39
Speaker 1: it's a close game, your starter gets pulled. You're thinking,
15:43
Speaker 1: I'll be damned if we let Arizona back in this game.
15:46
Speaker 1: I'm bringing in a guy who I know. Yeah, and
15:49
Speaker 1: Isaac Mattson has been you know, their firemen for a
15:53
Speaker 1: long time, and you saw him utilized in that role
15:55
Speaker 1: again in the eighth inning. But you brought in your
15:58
Speaker 1: best guy available outside ninth inning guy, and that's Dennis Santana.
16:02
Speaker 1: I don't hate that role for him to be that
16:05
Speaker 1: Andrew Miller, And again, I don't know if he's going
16:07
Speaker 1: to be as good as Andrew Miller was in that role,
16:09
Speaker 1: because I don't know how many relievers were as good
16:11
Speaker 1: as Andrew Miller in that stretch. He was incredible. But
16:16
Speaker 1: if you deploy him similarly and you have a viable
16:19
Speaker 1: ninth inning guy who has been an All Star, who
16:22
Speaker 1: knows how to keep the heart rate low in pitching
16:25
Speaker 1: big games in the ninth when it is the ninth
16:27
Speaker 1: that's just his inning, you can get really creative with
16:30
Speaker 1: how you used Dennis and even Isaac Mattson, and I
16:33
Speaker 1: think that makes the team a lot better.
16:35
Speaker 3: And I just want to say it felt like Don
16:38
Speaker 3: Kelly really utilized that flexibility that the bullpen had these
16:42
Speaker 3: last two games to win this series with a one
16:45
Speaker 3: to zero win and a four to two win. So
16:48
Speaker 3: I mean it's a little easier when you just have
16:50
Speaker 3: to make one roster or one pitching change in Wednesday's
16:54
Speaker 3: game with skeins going eight. But you know it's still
16:57
Speaker 3: I like the management today in Thursday's game.
17:01
Speaker 1: All right, final segment, Jay Hay now, Josh, this is
17:05
Speaker 1: how we wrap it up for the week. What's your
17:07
Speaker 1: jay hay now for this week?
17:10
Speaker 2: Hey, now, I believe last week I think might have
17:15
Speaker 2: been a week and a half ago. We're giving our
17:16
Speaker 2: grades and we talking about the state of the Pirates
17:18
Speaker 2: and the NL central, talk about the central, THEES centraling,
17:22
Speaker 2: and here we are. You know, as you mentioned, the
17:25
Speaker 2: Pirates were in the midst of what the little five games.
17:27
Speaker 1: Kid.
17:27
Speaker 2: Here they have back to back series wins, and this
17:30
Speaker 2: one even bigger dropping the first one. So I got,
17:34
Speaker 2: you know, my hate now is finishing that home stand,
17:37
Speaker 2: you know, taking care of business, righting the ship, as
17:40
Speaker 2: I said, against the Reds, taking that off day. You
17:43
Speaker 2: came back, you lost the first one, but you salvage
17:46
Speaker 2: and you went in next to and win a series
17:48
Speaker 2: once again, another happy flight, and you got an opportunity
17:51
Speaker 2: to continue to head into this road trip and you
17:54
Speaker 2: know keep that, you know, head to another series wins.
17:57
Speaker 2: So my hate now is back to back series wins
17:59
Speaker 2: after that fire Gang skid. As I said, this is
18:02
Speaker 2: gonna be a long road ahead, but when you can
18:06
Speaker 2: limit it like that and you know, have those quick
18:08
Speaker 2: turnarounds to where a we didn't you know, you stopped
18:10
Speaker 2: the bleeding, this is kind of one of those first
18:13
Speaker 2: tests not not letting that compound. So my hay now
18:16
Speaker 2: is you know right and ship you know before it
18:19
Speaker 2: got you know, water got in a little too much.
18:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, this series, we really saw that this twenty twenty
18:25
Speaker 3: six Pirates team is not like the past few years
18:27
Speaker 3: of Pirates teams that we've seen. They yeah, I know, right,
18:32
Speaker 3: But I just really feel like you if any of
18:35
Speaker 3: the past years Pirates teams started a West Coast trip
18:39
Speaker 3: losing nine to nothing, like they're not showing up and
18:43
Speaker 3: coming back and battling out another like hard fought victory
18:46
Speaker 3: right after, like that team would like especially last year,
18:50
Speaker 3: I feel like that team would kind of get in
18:51
Speaker 3: their head a little bit, and we saw that skid,
18:54
Speaker 3: especially in April, where it's like, oh, like you could
18:58
Speaker 3: just feeld the frustration boil over from game to game,
19:01
Speaker 3: And I feel like that's a big impact of Brandon Lau,
19:04
Speaker 3: Ryan O'Hearn, Ozuna, a lot of the veterans that Ben
19:07
Speaker 3: Cheron has brought in this offseason to sit there and say, hey,
19:12
Speaker 3: flush it. You know that happened. We get two more
19:15
Speaker 3: chances and we can still win the series. We're a
19:17
Speaker 3: good team. We're gonna win it. Like who cares, it's
19:20
Speaker 3: one game, let's go. And feeling that belief as a
19:24
Speaker 3: fan has been special, and so it's just really nice
19:28
Speaker 3: to see, especially them winning different ways with their pitching,
19:31
Speaker 3: with bats showing up, even if it's a little sporadic
19:35
Speaker 3: with power. You know, Brandon Law has ten home runs
19:39
Speaker 3: this entire Pirates team's second baseman last year had what
19:43
Speaker 3: eight home runs all of twenty twenty five. So we're
19:47
Speaker 3: sitting here in early May and Brandon Lowe's out hitting
19:51
Speaker 3: you know what last year. The Pirates got at second
19:54
Speaker 3: base last year. So yeah, just really encouraging series and
19:58
Speaker 3: excited to see how they look against the Giant it's
20:00
Speaker 3: coming up.
20:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think the depth has been impossible
20:07
Speaker 1: to deny, Like they're just a better roster. Yeah, and
20:09
Speaker 1: that's that's the difference. Man, Like like O'Neal Cruz, I
20:13
Speaker 1: was looking during our last ad break. He's hitting like
20:16
Speaker 1: under two hundred in his last fifteen games, and you
20:19
Speaker 1: don't even really notice it, just because like there are
20:22
Speaker 1: other guys who are producing in the lineup.
20:25
Speaker 3: Righting in other ways too. When he gets he's Drew
20:29
Speaker 3: walking had of steel today and I think he had
20:31
Speaker 3: two or three steels this series.
20:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're allowed to have a slump now, right, And
20:36
Speaker 1: like that was the problem with Reynolds and Cruz. It
20:38
Speaker 1: was like when they weren't going, It's like this team
20:41
Speaker 1: has no chance, and now they do when you have
20:44
Speaker 1: like Lows. Lows had a little bit of a slow
20:46
Speaker 1: patch here in the beginning of like after opening day run. Yeah,
20:52
Speaker 1: like he he cooled down a little bit. I mean
20:54
Speaker 1: O'Hearn hasn't been lighting the world on fire as of late,
20:57
Speaker 1: but like it's just there. They're good enough team where
21:00
Speaker 1: you're gonna have a thirty year lineut clicking at all times. Yeah,
21:03
Speaker 1: and it might it might not be the top three guys.
21:06
Speaker 1: It might be someone in the top third, someone in
21:08
Speaker 1: the middle third, someone in the bottom third. But you're
21:11
Speaker 1: not gonna really run into a case where it's like
21:14
Speaker 1: eight guys or something at the same time, and that's
21:17
Speaker 1: just a good team. Same thing with pitching. I mean,
21:21
Speaker 1: you know, there was that stretch against the Cardinals where
21:24
Speaker 1: they weren't getting good starts, and how do they respond
21:27
Speaker 1: by it? It's you know, Bubba comes out and struggled
21:30
Speaker 1: a little bit, Paul Skins as Paul Skins, Mitch Keller's
21:33
Speaker 1: Mitch Keller, and all of a sudden, bang, it's another
21:35
Speaker 1: series victory. So yeah, things are looking good. Things are
21:39
Speaker 1: looking good. I'm still I still think it's too early
21:43
Speaker 1: to start caring about the standings. My mentality has always
21:46
Speaker 1: been I'll be curious to ask this to Josh as
21:48
Speaker 1: we round this up, and you probably didn't look at
21:52
Speaker 1: the standings a lot when you were a player, But
21:54
Speaker 1: just as someone who's been around the game of baseball,
21:56
Speaker 1: my stance is the standings don't matter until Memorial Day.
22:00
Speaker 1: On Memorial Day comes, like, you can start paying attention
22:02
Speaker 1: to it a little bit and take take yourself out
22:05
Speaker 1: of the player element for a second. Is that a
22:07
Speaker 1: fair stance or if not, like, when do the standings
22:09
Speaker 1: actually matter?
22:13
Speaker 2: Never been asked that question, but off the top of
22:15
Speaker 2: my head, I'm gonna give you my honest answer. Just
22:17
Speaker 2: how I see it, records don't matter until you get
22:22
Speaker 2: to the trade deadline because that's when you see moves
22:25
Speaker 2: ben made. So ultimately, you know, anything can happen through
22:29
Speaker 2: those first you know, a couple months. But you know
22:32
Speaker 2: that is to say Central was really good teaching me
22:37
Speaker 2: that because we were always there. But you know, it's
22:40
Speaker 2: some divisions where you might be on the West Coast
22:42
Speaker 2: doctors would run away by by by May six.
22:46
Speaker 1: Yeah you didn't, but you know what I mean.
22:48
Speaker 2: So so so it's one of those things where I
22:51
Speaker 2: would say they don't really matter till July because once
22:53
Speaker 2: you get to that, you know month outside of trade deadline.
22:57
Speaker 2: Now organizations are starting to weigh okay, who's under contract,
23:01
Speaker 2: who's got one year left? Who, you know what I mean,
23:03
Speaker 2: who's having it down here? Now they're really starting to
23:07
Speaker 2: you know, get there, you know, roster ready for postseason
23:10
Speaker 2: baseball or getting their roster ready for next year. So
23:14
Speaker 2: and all of that is also based off of where
23:16
Speaker 2: you are in the standings. Twenty twenty one out will
23:19
Speaker 2: leave on this when I got traded from Washington to Oakland.
23:23
Speaker 2: That's the year the Braves won the won the World Series.
23:26
Speaker 2: At the time, I think Washington when I was there,
23:28
Speaker 2: I think they had nine guys traded because we were
23:30
Speaker 2: all on the last year of our contract. I think
23:32
Speaker 2: the Braves were the last in the division at that time.
23:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, when we were trading, so that right there.
23:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, we did too, and we were I think second,
23:42
Speaker 2: we were behind I think the Phillies at the time,
23:44
Speaker 2: So that right there. Let you know, records really don't
23:47
Speaker 2: matter for some teams until you get to that deadline.
23:49
Speaker 2: Some is like it doesn't matter, but for the most part,
23:53
Speaker 2: when you really start to see the shuffling of stuff
23:55
Speaker 2: is you know, you get close to you know, right
23:58
Speaker 2: before All Star break and jump.
24:01
Speaker 1: All right, Well, we got a long ways to go then, guys.
24:04
Speaker 1: Any final thoughts before we wrap it up.
24:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just want to say shout out Ben Cherrington
24:09
Speaker 3: for this offseason. Just look at today's episode. We talked
24:13
Speaker 3: about Brandon Law, Gregory Soto, just two editions that were
24:17
Speaker 3: made and making huge impacts on this ball club. So
24:20
Speaker 3: really impressed seeing that the off season that we all
24:23
Speaker 3: talked about finally come to Fruition and seeing that success
24:27
Speaker 3: and making me excited. So shout out to Ben.
24:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, go to San Francisco. I think when I was there,
24:36
Speaker 2: we played well in San Francisco. So yeah, go go
24:40
Speaker 2: there and do work, keep going.
24:43
Speaker 1: And keep subscribing. Hit that subscribe button if you haven't already,
24:47
Speaker 1: check out the team or our Buco Territory store as well.
24:52
Speaker 1: Got a lot of good items there. I just want
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Speaker 1: to remind you all to do that. He's Platinum Key
24:58
Speaker 1: aka Mark, He's Josh Hair said, I'm Noah Haile, signing
25:01
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25:03
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