Latest / Cards & Categories / Ep. 121 : 2025 Awards Winners PC

Transcript

Ep. 121 : 2025 Awards Winners PC · Cards & Categories

• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Hello, Ben, Welcome everybody to episode one twenty one of
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Cards and Categories. I am Mike Coolard from Rasball, joined
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: as always by my very good friend Jeremy Burr, also
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: from Rasball. How you doing today, buddy. It's a holiday
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: season for sure, and we've got a fun little episode
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: here teed up.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, holiday season when this comes out, it will be
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: a Christmas time when you celebrate, of course, but it
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: is a great time of the year. It's fun to
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: talk about baseball, and this is this is probably our
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: last go around for the year, so it's a little sad.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: But with that means next time we're talking, it's just
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: spring trains right around the corner. It just depends on
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: how you do the math.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, absolutely, And it's gonna be like right prime
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: into starting to crunch all the number on getting the
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: projections into whatever system is of your liking, and getting
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: all your numbers kind of calculated, because I mean, we're
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: gonna be in draft season right around the corner. I
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: don't know about you, but I've got so many leagues
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: too that like the creeping earlier and earlier, so we're
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: gonna have to be prepared right out of the Gate
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six. To wrap up twenty twenty five, though,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: we are going to do the awards winner's PC picks,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: so I know we've been hinting at doing this over
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: the past couple months since they especially put together the
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: MVP CY Young and Rookie of the Year awards. What
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: we like to do here on this podcast is to
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: put together our own little PC quote unquote, our personal
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: collection of some cards from those players to commemorate what
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: they've done. So if you're not familiar with this process
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: going to their show notes, we'll have a link to
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: the actual pod PC so you can see what it's at.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: I've actually been tinted too. Maybe we should like put
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: it on TCDB, although some of the choices that we
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: have they'll put in there. People will be like, wait,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: these guys have these these debut pas cards and.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Tops has multiple one on ones.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Again, yeah, exactly, So maybe not, but it is a
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: fun way to track and see where we've been through
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: the history of this podcast and the uh just momentous
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: and less momentous. I would say maybe players that are
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: in the PT makes it a little fun. We've got
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: lots of repeats this time around, because all of the
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: award winners this year were standouts throughout twenty twenty five,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: so we should have some fun picks. But before we
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: get into that, we are gonna obviously cover our standard
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: news and notes here because even though it has been
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a slower week since we talked
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: last week, we're speaking right now on the evening of
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: the twenty third Tuesday, so a little bit different from
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: our normal cadence. But we're gonna be posting this up
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: on Christmas Eve on the twenty fourth, and things have
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: been slowing down for the holidays in the MLB transaction front,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: but we've still got a handful of items that will
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: certainly impact us throughout twenty twenty six and some fun trades.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: So let's get right into it. Let's start with the
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: big one. First, obviously impacts us as Cardinals fans, as
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Wilson Contreras, the first baseman was shipped off to Boston
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: in a package that included a Hunter Dobbins at, a
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: couple of other prospects, plus eight million dollars will be
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: going with Wilson Contreras over to Boston. Who I mean,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: they sorely needed a first baseman because I'm not sure
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: that they've even kind of are counting on anything from
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Tristan Costas at this point going forward, given that injury history.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: And for Wilson Contreras, I mean, although he is going
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: to be in his age thirty four season, he's been
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: a pretty steady contributor, put up a one to twenty
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: four WRC plus in his first year as a full
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: first baseman for the Cardinals, with twenty homers, seventy runs,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: eight RBI in one hundred and thirty five games, two
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: fifty seven three forty four four four to seven slash lines.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: So it was great for fantasy because you probably used
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: it mostly as a catcher, although in a couple leagues
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: I had him last year, I ended up using him
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: as a CI quite often, just because catcher was pretty
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: deep last year and corner and field first base was not.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: So what do you see in from Wilson and Trera's
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: in the future in Boston now that he's got the
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Green Monster just one gap?
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's only good news for Contreras here
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: because moving to Boston is definitely a better ballpark, not
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: not as much as it is for righties. As if
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: he was a lefty for sure, but it's you know,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: it's gonna be a better lineup, better ballpark, just better
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: environment in general for contrallers, which I think is again
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: why Plus there's a little bit of monetary considerations of
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: why he waved that no trade clause. And I think,
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: you know, the other great news is he's gonna be
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: a full time guy, Like he really has never been
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: that in his career. He's always been trying to figure
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: out this catching thing, dealing with injuries because of it.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: And I think they're gonna they might use him here
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: and there as as a catcher. I wouldn't be surprised
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: if he does pick up a few games and maybe
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: backs into eligibility some somewhere throughout the season. But he's
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: gonna be that full time first baseman. You know, Massa
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: is going to be the DH for the most part,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: so I can't imagine he gets a whole lot of
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: DH goes of it. And that's a good chance for
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: what's called like a two sixty twenty five homer, eighty
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: five run, ninety RBI season. Like it's it's a pretty
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: gosh starting solid season for what would be a first
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: baseman and pretty shallow first base pool. So I really
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: like this for Contreras. I think there's some upside here,
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: and I don't think even with the trade, I don't
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: think he's a really sexy name right now, and he's
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: just gonna be kind of steady eddie for folks. So
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: I'm I'm buying Wilson Contreres all day with this move.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a that's a great take. Let's
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: focus maybe a little bit here on the Cardinal side
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: with the Hunter Dobbins acquisition. Who I mean, he's going
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: to be a good kind of swingman, fifth starter type,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: as I mean. Honestly, he's most famous for getting into
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: the spat with the Yankees because he said that his
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: father had played with the Yankee system and was cut
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: in so he had bad feelings towards the Yankees. Didn't
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: take very long for people to figure out Hunter Dobbins's
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: father had never been in the minor leagues and so
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: it was like a totally made up story just to
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: throw a little fuel on the rivalry there. But mostly
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: the Cardinals are clearing space here because what it does
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: is allows Alec Burlson to move over first base full time,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: puts Von Herrera in a full time position at DH
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: where I mean they've said he's going to catch, but
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: this kind of makes it so that they don't have
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: to force Herrera into a catching role. Plus, I mean
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: they added Leandro bernald to the forty man roster in
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: the offseason, so there's a lot of catching talent coming
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: through this Cardinal system. People have been chattering about it
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: being a reset and a rebuild. I'm honestly this is
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: a little bit like it happened on the pitching side.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: I will give them that with Sunny Gray, it certainly
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: was a downgrade. But on the hitting side, especially once
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: they move Arnaudo, this might be a better lineup and
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: next year without Arnado in conturious kind of flogging it
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: up with their veteran ness that you know, you can
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: mix and match the pieces, you can get younger, more athletic,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: kind of let these players either perform or fall apart
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: and find what you've got in this Cardinals team, because
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: there's lots of good pieces, I think, and it's a
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: matter of trying to see how they all fit together
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: for the future.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: What do you think, Yeah, I don't think you're wrong.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: It is kind of a show me year for the
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: Cardinals come in because there's really gonna be almost nobody
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: on this team that has like a big ego, a
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: big contract, or anything like that to work on. It
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: is going to be put up production. Show us what
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: you got. If you're not gonna do it, we can
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: put somebody else in there, because they need to use
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: this year to figure things out. And they could surprise
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: them folks, because to your point, like they could have
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: a really good team, not in a lot of really
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: great players, a really good team is I think what
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: could come out of that. And I think what this
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: really sets them up for is next offseasons could get
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: real interesting for multiple reasons. This whole collective markeating thing
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: will put it on stuff. Well, we won't go down
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: to that yet. This is not the podcast for collective bargaining,
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: but it's kind of we'll talk about a little bit.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: It's kind of like the Pirates to a degree, who
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: like building that young core kind of figuring things out
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: all of a sudden doing stuff like the Cardinals are
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: gonna have some money to burn and figure out who
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: they have and what holes to plug and then they
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: can go plug them and go, which is gonna be
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: really interesting to see, really more than the twenty seven
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: to twenty eight time frame. So yeah, I still see
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: it as a reset year, but I see it as
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: a more exciting reset year than like a fully cashing
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: it in and waiting to see what happens. Because the
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: guys they're clearing, they're guys that are on the back
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: ends of their careers. Still valuable, don't get me wrong,
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: but you're talking guys in their mid to late thirties
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: with big contracts, and it's actually, I'm bloom, good job
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: making those moves and actually getting some value out of them. Yeah,
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: I get the hundred Dobbins and guys like that are
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: more filler, but there's a few exciting young prospects they bought,
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: you know, down the miners that can do some stuff.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: So I'm here for it. I like the moves. I
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: want to see one more and then I'll call a day.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Okay, I like it. All right, Let's get into the
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: next move, which it involves those Pirates that you alluded to,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: as we have a juicy three team trade. I love
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: a good three team trade, and this one involves the Pirates,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: the Astros in the Rays. So let's start. We'll just
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: go and go around the horn with the Pirates return
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: being they sent out Mike Burrows and got Brandon Lao,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Jake Mangum, and Mason Montgomery back from the Rays. The
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Race obviously sent out Lao, Mangum, and Montgomery, and then
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: they got back Jacob Melton and Anderson Brito from the Astros.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Astros obviously sent out Melton and Brito, they get just
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Mike Burrows back. So you can tell a little bit
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: in my voice there that that's an intriguing kind of
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: haul back for the Astros as it doesn't quite seem
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: to line up with what they sent out. But we'll
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: get into that because let's focus on the biggest piece
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: of this trade first, which is obviously All Star second
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: basement and Brandon Lao leaving the Tampa Bay Rays and
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: going up to the Pittsburgh Pirates. It is a profile
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: with Lao where we've talked about it kind of a
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: couple times over the years, where you know, if you
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: get one hundred and forty games out of him, he's
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: an easy thirty five ish homer bat with two point
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: fifty average, and then the problem with Lao has always
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: just been whether or not he's got the oblique strength
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: to make it through an entire season, so this is
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: gonna be. He is going to be in his age
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: thirty one season, had been playing with the Rays for
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: quite a while and is going to be due to
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: be a free agent after next year, so part of
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: the reason why the Rays are moving on from him.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: What do you think about Brandon lau joining those Pittsburgh Pirates.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: I mean, I like it Brandon Lao. I've always been
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: Brandon law fans. Just health and splits is his issue.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Because the guy can't hit left He's to save his life.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: You know, we got a career two nineteen batting average
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: against lefties, which batting average isn't isn't everything. I recognize that,
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: but the WRC plus ninety two isn't any whole lot
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: better versus one thirty three against arriety. So the guy
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: can absolutely hit hit homers. He knows what he's doing.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: I think this is, you know, actually one of those
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: where the Pirates might even look to resign him after
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: this year, because like he's the kind he's a Pirates
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: kind of guy. He's above average, gonna deliver value, he's
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: gonna play decent in the field, and He's gonna put
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: some some pop in that lineup, which they just haven't
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: had for for a while. So I really like this
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: for for for Law. First of all, Tampa Bay never
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: really gave him the shot he needed. I get that
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: he's played, you know, over one hundred games last three years,
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: but man, it didn't feel like it. I'd have to
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: go look see how of those were pinch hits or
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: things like that, but it just felt like he was
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: not ever given the true chance to run. And to
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: be able to hit thirty homers in one hundred and
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: thirty four game season, that's impressive. So I think there's
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: good things to come. And I think he's gonna be
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: pretty cheap of the draft table.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so too. I mean, I think that
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: it's probably about a neutral ish value because maybe a
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: slight downgrade in park, but then you're gonna get a
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: slight upgrade because I think the Pirates will not fiddle
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: around with platoons quite as much. So whatever we feel
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: as much as the race, Yeah, whatever draft price you
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: were putting on Brandon Law, I think it's probably about
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: the same going forward. And I will just say that
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: if you're taking him as your starting second basement. Make
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: sure you take a backup pretty pretty quick in your
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: your reserve rounds, because you're always going to go through
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: a stint of a couple of weeks without Brandon Law
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: and that roster. Let's move on to the next piece,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: which is probably the most significant from fantasy side. It
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: was in my inflection of my voice it's Mike Burrows
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: as he joins the Houston Astros. I think mostly because
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: he's walking into a rotation spot here with Houston, they've
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: got a pretty good track record of taking arms like
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Mike Burrows, who you know, he can spin it a
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: little bit. He's got a like a five pitch mix
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: that he used over ninety six innings last year with
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: a three ninety four RA four whip. But this is
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: exactly the type of guy where it seems like the
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Astros have historically gotten another tick or two out of
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: this type of arm. And I mean you could see
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: it down in Triple A last year. He was really
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: effective over thirty two and thirty innings with a two
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: fifty one ray at that stop before he got called up.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: I liked him when I was like watching him on
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: the mound last year and the profile I mean, nothing
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: really stands out huge from the stuff. Plus it is
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: a slightly above average change up and just about an
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: average slider, but the five pitch mix all kind of
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: goes well together. What do you think about Burrows joining
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: the Astros here and are you on board with me
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: this being a tick up in his value now that
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: he's found a home in Houston.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's definitely a tick of his tick
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: up in his value. I'm not first of all, I'm
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: not huge on Mike Burrows. I saw this deal was
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: really confused. I'm like, it just doesn't make sense. It
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: seems it personally, and I still feel this way. I
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: feel like the Pirates stole stile Low and Llow on
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: this one. But I think Burrows, why I'm a little
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: interested in him is because the Astros want him, and
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: because the guy has a terrible fastball and he throws
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: it a lot, and I think it's it's decreased, but
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: I think they clearly see something and the tweaks that
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: they can make. And if that's the case, then yeah,
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: I think there's a little intrigue. I'm probably stolen more
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: of the watch mode for him, and I want to
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: see what happens with it and see what spring training
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: looks like before I'm really investing. I don't think there's
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: a huge like I must go grab him, but he's
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: I've got a little intrigue. The profile it self, where
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: it's sat in Pittsburgh, I probably wouldn't have been touching
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: it now because they had the intrigue and they've talked
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: about making some you know, adjustments to his pitch pitch
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: mix a little bit and just the pitch shape. Then hey,
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: I'll take and I'll see what happens with it.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I think that's all very fair. Any thoughts
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: here on Jacob Melton or Jake Mangum between Mangum should
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: be an upgrade in terms of playing time, maybe even
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: for Melton too that like, I don't know if he
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: had a great path to finding a way in Houston,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: because it did seem like they're starting to cool on
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: the Jacob Melton experience, but he does also entered the
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: murky experience of the outfield in Tampa. So any any
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: intrigue in Mangum or Melton.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: I have to say, probably not know on either of them,
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: just because to your point, like the situations aren't great
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: that they're walking into and either has like this great
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: carrying tool that I'm like, yeah, excited about. Honestly, the
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: guy I'm actually interested in this trade is Mason Montgomery
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: going over to the Pirates as well. And you know,
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: I'm I was kind of shocked to see him in
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: this deal because like if you were go back about
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: a year ago, like we were talking about Mason Montgomery
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: maybe future closure for the race and think he had
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: a little bit of rough go of it in you know,
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: his his major league season there, he had some some
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: homer issues and maybe issues like he just had some
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: terrible lucks. He have five to six seven year a
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: but he had a three ninety two whip and this
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: guy throws ninety nine like I did. Santana's not gonna
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: be a lot in the Pirates that much longer. I
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: think Bason Montgomery might gets some saves this year, if
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: not be the closure next year. So that's actually the
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: one that's got me a little more intrigued because it
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: felt like a throw in the way you read the trade,
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: But I think it's much more than that.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean I think actually Anderson Brito might
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: be in that group two for moving over to the Rays.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: He was in the AFL this last year with Houston,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: so that shows that they were already kind of teeing
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: him up maybe for a little bit of like a
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: relief role on a fast track to the majors. But
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: keep an eye, I think on Anderson Brito going forward,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: because that's also another live arm where the Rays are
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: great at juicing everything that can out of somebody like that.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: The way that Houston is, It's just that I think
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: he just kind of fell like fell to the bottom
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: and the shuffle of this trade. So not somebody to
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: scoff at it either, Okay, Well, I mean Tampa was
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: not done dealing. They were very very busy last week
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: as they also dealt out Shane boz Over to the
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Baltimore Orioles for a package that included one, two, three
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: players I believe. Let me count that out again, Yes, correct,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Slater de Burne, Cayden Bodine, and Michael Forett, oh four
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: players and Austin Overn plus a compa a competitive draft
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: pick for all this for Shane boz which those all
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: those players they do sound like made up dudes when
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: I first saw it. But you've got some pretty intriguing prospects,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: you know that were Draft A one picks, and just
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: like I think the Rays are gonna really be the
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: beneficiaries of this going forward. Is especially considering that the
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Ools just shipped out Grayson Rodriguez for Taylor Ward the
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: other week, and you know now are just like emptying
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: their coffers to bring pitching back in when honestly, it
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: doesn't really totally make sense to me given that, like,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: you've got to do something with Kobe Mayo and Ryan
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Mountcastle going into next year, and what you decide to
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: do is trade some of your future capital for Shane Boz, who,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: as you can tell a little bit with how my
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: voice is inflecting again, Shane Boz is not exactly like
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: my favorite person to hunt for in the fantasy realm,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: as he's coming off a pretty rough season for eighty
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: seven ERA over one hundred and sixty six and a
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: third innings and a lot of that for eighty seven
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: ERA was just absolute like blow ups where you know,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: if you are counting on him for a spot start
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: or something, he had no trouble Shane Boz going out
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: there and just dropping like six five eight earned runs
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: even when he that was an outing against the White
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Sox in July. The probably hurt some people. So what
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: do you make of Shane Boz landing with the Orioles
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: here any faith in him going into twenty twenty six?
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: I I faith No, let's just be get that out
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: the way. I don't have faith in him. I think
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: Boz is one of those guys that I'm intrigued by
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: because there's a It's just like Grayson Rodriguez, there is
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: a dearth of talent in that arm. He can make
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: the ball move things like that, but injuries have kind
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: of like dulled the knife's edge a little bit on
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: on Boz and that that's where I'm like, I just
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: don't know how much that's gonna come back, you know.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: And there's a number of pictures in that in that
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: ball game. You'll go back to Tampa with Shane McLanahan
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: and see what happens there, right, And so it seems
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: like the Orioles are counted on, you know, Boz being
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: better than what he was last year, and I think
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: he is gonna be better than when he was last year,
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: you know, another year removed from surgery. Things look like that,
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: And but this just feels like the Ray's doing raised things,
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: like they've identified a group of guys they're gonna hit on.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: Maybe be one or two of those guys. They move
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: somebody along that doesn't wasn't really doing much for them,
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: was gonna start to get more expensive here a year
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: or two, and they can just find pictures out of
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: the air. So this is a probably a logical trade
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: for both teams because Baltimore can't seem to develop all
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: the talent they got, and ultimately they somehow traded Grayson
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: Rodriguez for Shane Pass.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a little bit in a roundabout way, I guess,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: I mean, well, and then maybe the minor leaguers for
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: the outfielder for Tailor Awards. So yeah, yeah, Okay, let's
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: move on to one last trade that was executed this
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: week as the Mets they keep chopping down the longest
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: tenured met that's on their roster every other couple of days,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: as Jeff McNeil's the latest one to be shipped out
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: landing in Sacramento with the A's where this is peaking
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: my interest a little bit. Where it was zero for
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Jeff McNeil on the Mets, it is above zero now
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: with the A's because currently roster resource has him slated
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: to hit fifth in the middle of that lineup. And
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: this is a huge, huge ballpark upgrade where you know,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: last year you look at Savant, he would have only
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: hit eleven homers in total in New York with the Mets,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: but it's sixteen with the A's in that in that
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: little ballpark in uh Sacramento.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: There.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Sorry, I almost said in Vegas. I was like, wait
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: a second, that's not not quite yet. Not quite yet
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: would be very very toasty. I would have remembered that.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: But I mean because of that Steamer putting him down
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: for a two sixty four, three thirty five, four oh
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: seven slash line for next year with mid teens homers
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: kind of puts them right on the radar for back
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: end second basement. Am I what do you think about
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: Jeff McNeil landing with Sacramento.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's it's very interesting that I'm not
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: quite sure what the Mets are trying to do. Watched
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: I have I have a theory, but I do like
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: this for McNeil. It is an arrow up, better ballpark,
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: a better position in the lineup. I think is also
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: gonna gonna help him there. I think he's gonna get
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: a little more RBI opportunities and he just seems to
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: be a better fit for that ball club. Like I
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: don't know if that's a period analysis there, but he
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: just seems like the kind of guy that that the
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: A's would enjoy. So I think it's a slight arrow
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: up for him. But I like your analogy there. He
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: was below zero, now he's above a zero. Like he's
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: back on my radar of like maybe Jeff McNeil. But
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: it's not like I'm targeting Jeff McNeil. Let's be very clear.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: There's a different friends there. So yeah, I'm a little
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: bit lukewarm on Jeff McNeil. Now, really where I'm intrigued
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: is what prospect is getting an opportunity for New York
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: and who's gonna, you know, break through there because they've
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: now got a number of guys that they're gonna have
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: to rely on in that outfield and in that infield
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: between Brett Bady, Carson Bench, there's a few others that
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: are that are kind of coming up there, and so
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: they're it's kind of youth movement going there in New York,
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: and you know, they're actually saving quad a bit of money. Uh. Now,
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: they're also paying quite a bit to a few guys.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: If you've heard of Juan Soto, that one costs you
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: quite a bit. But it'll be interesting to see if
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: they end up redeploying some of this payroll flexibility that
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: they all of a sudden have after they've moved quite
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: a few guys or not resigned the likes of Diaz
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: and Alonzo and now traded McNeil. It'll be very interesting
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: to see what they what they do.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you can see it pretty clearly in
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: the roster resource page that they've opened up an outfield
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: spot for Kyle Tucker. So I mean, I think that's
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: probably the path that they're going to try to go down,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: if not Cody Bellinger and then kind of down the
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: list from there, and you would think, but I mean,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: maybe they do have faith in Carson benj Er and
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Jet Williams or there's some talent. So like, we'll see
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: what they do. But it's it's not a complete picture.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: But you know, if you had to, if you had
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: to put the end on, like the grade on the
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Mets posts or off season so far, it would be
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: a pretty big.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: F I think right now, But I was gonna give
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: him a d like I like the payroll space, bringing.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: Back your college curve, but that it's a very very
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: much incomplete that David Stearns, I think is gonna figure
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: out something and put something on the field that I
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: think will surprise us by opening day.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: Hey, when you're paying uh wellon SODO sixty two million
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: dollars a year, it's you know, your handcuffed a little bit.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: I mean, not the New York Mets. But okay, let's
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: get into that covers the trades that we've got that
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: are going to impact us on the fantasy side. So
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: let's get into some of the signings. We have Michael
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: King resigning with the Padres on a three year, seventy
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: five million dollar deal. He is coming off a season
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: in which he put up a three forty four ERA
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: over seventy three and a third innings with the Padres
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: as he was kind of his classic Michael King banged
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: up self. It was also a four to four to
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: two FIP because the the Homers ballooned on him last
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: year one point four one point five actually per nine,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: which is the highest ever since he had a twenty
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: six innings and twenty twenty which you can throw out
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: the door. And on top of it, the ground ball
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: rate has really degraded here on Michael King, on top
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: of just all the stuff kind of backing up slowly
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: but surely. So like, I see a lot of red
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: flags here in this Michael King profile, especially given the
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: injury history, and you can you can almost see this
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: a little bit in guys, I noticed a lot of
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: the times when you like are doing like your immaculate
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: grid and going through old timey baseball stats from like
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: the seventies and eighties, that some dude will just like
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: out of nowhere put up like a three hundred inning
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: amazing cy Young level season and then just his career
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: goes shot from there. And I feel like it might
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: happen here with Michael King after he put together that
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four with one hundred and seventy three in
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: two thirds innings, where I think he should have always
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: been like a relievery piece and just doesn't have the
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: ability to stand up to a full workload. But what
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: do you think here with Michael King landing back in
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: San Diego?
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: I like when we disagree, Okay, I love Michael King.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: I I'm last year's a blip to me. He had
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: injury issues, he had some bad luck, go football got
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: him a little bit, and he just never settled into
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: who was. But this is a guy that had four
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: straight years before there that he was just nails and
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: he has good control, he keeps the ball on the ground,
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: he's the velocity has dropped a little bit. I think
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: that's because of some of the injury issues. And yeah,
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: the stuff backed up, but with the injuries not pitching consistently, yeah,
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: I think that's gonna happen. So I think that there's
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: a lot to like with Michael King. I think there's
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: gonna be a discount and I think it's the right price.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: We also know we're talking on this podcast. I'm the
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: guy that loves these kind of guys, and these are
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: the ones you put by on a discount and you
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: know that you're you're fifty to fifty shot that you
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: get the ace or you're gonna be scrambling all year.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: And so I Michael King is the kind of guy
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: that I'll probably be picking up a lot of because
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: I don't think he's done. I think he just had
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: a rough injury year, and I think he's still a
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: workhorse and I think he's gonna be just fine. So
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: not deep analysis there, it's just, uh, you know, there's
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: a track record and he's kind of a big body
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: guy that I think can hold up.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think that's fair. I think what
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: does scare me is the price. So let me I'm
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: just trying to pull up.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: I could be wrong. I was not looking at adp
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: so if he's going like a top fifteen, that I
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: could be mistaken. Here, sir, he's got.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: I've got like one hundred and sixty nine drafts of
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: all draft NFBC right now. We are looking at Michael
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: King as a pick one forty the other I mean
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: he's right next to Joey Doll and Luke Kishel, which
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: is kind of a fun tier. But other pictures in
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: this range Shane Bieber and Sheehan, Pablo Lopez, Michael King,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: Robbie Ray, Gavin Williams, Ryan Pepio, Trey Ya Savage.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna owe a lot of that tier.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I am too, but it's not giving me Michael
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: King because a lot of the things I just kind
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: of laid down into.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm I'm still gonna own them. I'm still gonna
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: own Michael King. There there's a few guys I would like,
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: Gavin Williams, guys like that. I'm not touching there, but like,
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: that's that's the that's the juicy part of the starting
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: pigeon draft for me. That's probably what round ten to
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: twelve somewhere there is. That is that right?
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: Uh yeah?
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: You would be like yeah, right, yeah, and and so
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: like I love Shehan. I think Bieber's can you know,
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: gonna have a chance to bounce back here. I think
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: King's gonna like That's that's why I'm looking at what
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: I'm looking at these guys to have these injury risk concerns.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: We know Bieber is pitching through some stuff like parent
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: of bieburn a King at you know, eleventh twelfth round
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: draft prices. One of those is gonna hit the others
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: is gonna give you some inniings and not really hurt
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: you too bad. I'm actually happy with that. So it's
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: really comes down to a preference on how you draft
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: your your rotations.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: All right, I think that's all very fair. Then, Okay,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: let's move on to the next pair of signings. Wht'ch
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: go hand in hand because Chicago White Sox baby making
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: some noise? Is that what I heard? They signed Munataka
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Murakami to a two year, thirty four million dollars deal.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: Who had that one other big go board.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: Considering everybody had him pegged for like eighty two hundred
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: million dollars and.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: Even trade rumors had him for like eight years, like
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: one hundred and eighty million or something like that.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: It was crazy, I think, I mean, even Fangrafts did
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: with all the like crowdsourcing and stuff, and I mean,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: I think I was there at the beginning of the
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: off season, but then as we kind of dug into him,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: you know, we covered him in our discussion of players
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: coming over from Japan late in the season to make
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: card investments on, and then after that I started digging
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: into the profile a lot more. And it certainly didn't
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: help him that twenty twenty five just kind of continued
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: to be a pretty banged up season in Japan, even
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: though it was a two to eleven WRC plus, it
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: was only fifty six total games with twenty two homers,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: And the biggest bugaboo is the contact rate. This is
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: a guy who it was sixty three point nine percent
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: in Japan last year. It's always been kind of hovering
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: around the mid sixties for the past couple of years.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: Kami certainly did put up that historic fifty six homer
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: season in twenty twenty two with a two to twenty
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: five WRC plus. But the strikeouts and the swinging miss
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: have always been in his game because he just swings
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: out of his heels and I think it gives a
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: lot of teams concern. But honestly, for the White Sox,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: what a great kind of player to sign, because if
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: you can convince him to stay and if he can
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: overcome that low contact rate in the Major and turn
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: into I mean something it's always a Joey gallocomp, right,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: But like that is a little bit of the comp
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: maybe not the athleticism and body, but like you know,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: if you can just be a solid DH first baseman,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: that'd be fantastic. And if he isn't, you're only out
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: two years and thirty four million dollars in today's.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: Day and age, like this is dirt cheap. I think
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: that's what people don't realize is that from what I understand,
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: he did have offers of longer deals worth more money
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: that he left on the table to try to basically
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: put a two year learning period in there, show that
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: he can do it and then re enter the market
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: at a young age, which I think is you know,
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: kudos to you if you're if you if you know
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: how to manage your money in first of all, if
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: I had thirty four million coming to be my way
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: next two years, I figure that out. Maybe maybe that's
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: not always how it works in professional sports, but you know,
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: this isn't the guy that's here for the money. He's
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: he's been paid well in Japan. He's got you know,
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: plenty here, He's got plenty of time in front of it.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: I think this is just great all around the White
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: Sox kudos. Like, like I said, didn't see it coming.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: Very savvy move here, because if he does go crazy,
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: how you know, they could flip him, like they could
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: make a big move. They could trade them. If they
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: don't think they can sign them, they could sign them.
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: And he's get comfortable there and he could be the
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: next Jose Abreu with a low average. And again we're
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: measuring him on the spectrum of Joey Gallo. To Kyle Schwarber,
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: that's the spectrum that we're going to be measuring him on.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: And he's got like things before, this guy's got eighty
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: grade power. He has absolute, massive power, and for every
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: argument against him, there's a count a logical counter argument.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: And so that's why I love the deal, because he
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: just gets the opportunity to prove it. Because you complain
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: about the contract contact rate. The guy's been pitched around
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: since he had that massive season twenty two and he's
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: got nothing to swing at, and so he's always trying
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: to swing at junk in the zone because that's all
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: he's getting because he's got no protection in the light up.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: And you talk about all these facts about he couldn't
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: hit the high you know, the high velocity fastballs, and
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: a lot of that was disproven, and there's a lot
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: of a lot of mystery here because his game is
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: just all free swinging power. So I think this is
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: the same exact thing for fantasy. Somebody's gonna take a
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: flyer on him and it could work out amazing or
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: it was a low risk thing. So I think this
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: is gonna be really really fun to watch. I think
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: it's gonna be fascinating to see what this means for
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: the next two guys signing in Tatsia Emi and ak Akamoto,
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: to see what happens for those two guys, because this
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: was supposed to be the big signing and so does
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: this hurt their markets or does actually save some money
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: and uh some relief out there.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think they'll be a little bit independent.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: I don't think it was necessarily like a referendum on
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: players coming over from NPP as much as why b Commy.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's also not helping his profile that it's
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: pretty much zero defensive value, where like Okemodo you can
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: play at third and Emi obviously is a pitcher, so
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: it's a totally different story. But Murakamie, I think you
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: gotta immediately put at first base slash DH, which is
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: I mean where it looks like he's gonna walk right
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: into a job as a twenty five year old here
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: for the White Sox too, so like there's that factor
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: for them. I also liked that there are a couple
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: of like funnier kind of threads I saw in this
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: signing between Murakami's agent is actually Andrew Benin, Tendie's agent,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: so that is the biggest contract that has ever been
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: signed by the White Sox at like five year, seventy
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: five million dollars. So even the two thirty four probably
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: felt pretty heavy to Jerry reinstarf there. The other thing
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: is that people were joking on Reddit and on Blue
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Sky whether or not, like if you remember on Manny Machado,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: like the White Sox put in a real, real, just
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: low bid offer to like say that they didn't done
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: something I want if they did that with Murra Comi,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: and then he came back he's like, actually I'll take that,
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: and they're.
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: Like, whoa, oh no, I gotta call the owner here
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: and see what happens.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: And I mean, I think everything you're saying it Steamer
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: is probably more in line with you than probably what
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: some of my concerns were. Is Steamer has them projected
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: right now is the everyday first baseman one hundred and
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: thirty eight games at the two thirty one, three thirty three,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: four fifty eight line, thirty homers, seventy five RBI. And
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's very draftable if that's what comes true.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: But that is a very aggressive projection.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: I think, yeah, it's but again it comes to the
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: draft price that I don't know if you look at
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: the ADP, and I'm not filtering on dates right now,
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: but as every draft has happened, and I'm assuming it's
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: dropped further, but it's two thirty four, like we're we
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: are getting to the like round twenty. And for me,
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: a guy that could hit thirty bombs around twenty, yes, please,
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: I think it's worth the gamble here, and especially especially
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: Dynasty keeper leagues, because you know, this is these kind
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: of guys. You know there's an adjustment period and he
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: figures things out, watch out because eighty grade power. Let's
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: be very clear, that's not like thirty hoverpower. That's forty
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: five fifty to fifty five overpower. And he absolutely could
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: be that guy. He's still maturing, he's still getting stronger,
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: he's still doing all those things platform seasons coming from Murakami.
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: If I'm a Batman.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And in that ADP, it's right next to cale Manzarto,
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: which is I think very fitting. I think those guys
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: are exactly in the same first space here.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And I'll take the upside of Murakami all day.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: I think there's I mean, Mazardo has some good upside too,
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: so don't get me wrong, but I think that there's
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: this is the kind of guy that you could be
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: talking about like a top five round pick if everything
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: clicks true.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, well let's get into that other sock signing because
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: I know you're an as excited about this as I am.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: Because I am the Sean Newcomb guy around these parts.
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: You could just take this segment. That's fine. I undraftable,
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: not worth his time. You convinced me otherwise.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: I forced you to talk about him back in the
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: end of May, in episode ninety three when he got
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: dealt from Boston to Sacramento. So I'm forcing you to
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: talk about him again because honestly, it looks like he's
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: gonna get a back end rotation spot for the White Sox,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: signing a one year deal with them, and he is
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: coming off a year where it was forty eight games,
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: five starts, ninety two and a third innings of the
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: two seventy three are three or four FIP and just
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: under nine k p nine solid ground ball rate. I
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: also like the Athletics did something with his sinker. It
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: juiced up coming from Boston to Sacramento. And you also think, well,
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: Boston was using him as a starter, Sacramento put him
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: into the bullpen. Maybe that's what kind of caused a
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: little bit of it. I was looking at his splits
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: next year, and actually, I mean the splits were fine
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: as a starter compared to a reliever. So as a starter,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: it was a very babbit fueled era that you know,
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: at the end of the day, the FIP as a
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: starter in those innings was a two ninety one with
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: a four seventy seven babbit. That's what caused the one
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: ninety three fit whip. And I've watched a couple of
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: the starts back when I was interested in newcom last year,
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: and a couple of those were just like he was
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: pitching in Fenway. Allows a couple of seeing ice singles
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: and just kind of unravels, you know, it happens every
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: once in a while, and he was always pretty good
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: with his stuff when he was in last year. Like
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: I said, Solid Sinker has a really wicked curveball, and
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: I know that that Sinker is a great profile that
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: the White Sox will work with. So so another guy
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: that I've got on my draft board as like a
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: late round flyer to be able to fill in the
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: back of a rotation. Are you're going to be joining
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: me in that kind of marching order for Sean Newcom
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six?
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: No, U, I, And this is one of those ones
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: where everything you said is true. Like I'm looking at
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: the numbers, I'm looking at the stats, I'm look at
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: all of it, and there's like you absolutely can make
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: the argument you're making. And then I look at this
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: guy who's been in the big leagues for since twenty seventeen,
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: and I feel like I've had this conversation every other
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: year with Sean Newcomb of like the potential. Look at
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: the switch he's made, Look at this adjustment. You know,
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: twenty eighteen, he has a three six nine xcira, a
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: three ninety era. You know, he just needs to figure
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: out the walks, and then you figure out the walks
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: and he can't. Then he can't strike anybody out, and
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: then he falls off the you know, the map because
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: he allows two and a half homwers per nine. Like
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: it's just always something with Shaw Newcombe and I'm not
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: stuck holding the bag, like this is one of those
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: guys that if you're right, kudos, congratulations, I'm fine with it.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: I just feel like I've watched this film before and
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: I don't know what shoe's gonna drop. I'm just not
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: holding the bag, which is hilarious. I recognize my how
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: I just advocated for Michael King and John Hane Bieber,
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: So I understand my my irrational analysis here, but I
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: I feel like I've seen this this before and it's
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: just you know, at age thirty two, thirty three now,
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: he'll he'll be thirty three of majority of the season.
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: It's just it's too little too late for Sean newcom
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: For me.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's fair. He's also just I'm never
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: gonna be able to quit a big old six foot,
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: five hundred and fifty pound lefty, like this is my
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: bread and butter. I love this type.
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: That does seem to be a trend though this like
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: it feels like they made all of a sudden. Every
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: picture is like six five, two fifty. I don't know
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: if you've noticed that. It's just and everybody's getting traded
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: as all these big guys.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: Like there's no one between. They're either that or they're
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: the like little like six foot guy that I was
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: reading the Braves prospect list at Baseball Perspectives. This week,
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: especially since it's all the same like six foot funky
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: like slot guy, where it's there's no one between. You
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: got to be super giant or exact actly six feet Yep.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, the Padres made another signing. I probably
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: should have paired this up with Michael King the way
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: I did with those White Sox signings, but they signed
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: a player from Asia as well. This is Sun Moon's
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: song who's coming over from Korea and currently is slotting
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: in as the everyday second basement. Well strong Slide put
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: tune second basement for the Padres at the bottom of
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: their order, and they inked him to a pretty decent
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: amount of money to four years, fifteen million dollars, so
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: they are giving him decent money to join the Padres
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: here coming off a season where he went twenty six
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: twenty five with homers and stolen bases over one hundred
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: and forty four games, three point fifteen three eighty seven,
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: five point thirty slash line in Korea. That was good
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: for a one to fifty one WRC plus in his
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: age twenty eight season. Doesn't We'll already turned twenty nine,
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: so that was back in August. Like I said, going
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: to be slotted in as the everyday second basement right
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: now for the Padres, Steamer is projecting him for a
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: two forty eight three oh five three sixty eight slash line.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: But this has been a guy who I guess we'll
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: see a little bit in terms of like how the
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: bad at ball data looks in terms of how hard
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: he hits it. But the ISOs has been pretty solid
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: the past couple of years, and he seems to make
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: pretty good contact while having a good control of the zone.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: You know, equalish walk and strikeout rates in the KPO.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: So what is your interest level here in Sun Moon Song? Yeah?
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: I think it's uh, you know, has on Kim is
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: your comp right, not too terribly different and also going
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: to San Diego not too terribly different of the deal
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: that even though was signed, you know, every all the
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: reports I see say that he's maybe a step below
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: what Kim was, but I was. I'm actually very high
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: on Kim, and so I think there's value here, definitely
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: in the middle infield ranks, and it feels like these
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: guys have over the power is the piece that does
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: not seem to translate nearly as well. And you know,
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: the see of projections that seems to be the thing
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: that's getting dinged. But even though the speed is getting
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: danged from a volume perspective, so I'm intrigued. I'm probably
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: gonna take middle infield into the draft type flyers on
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: song here and kind of see what happens. But to
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: your point, they're they paid him pretty well and they're
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: expecting him to start, so it's, you know, whatever a
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: major league team seems to make that dedication, it's at
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: least piques my interest, so I'll be watching him here.
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: I think he's gonna be a sneaky late round pick
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: that might get you some some volume play, but probably
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: not gonna be the guy that wins the championship for you.
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's all fair. And I think what
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: I like about him too is I think the floor
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: is probably pretty solid, just giving the actual approach, where
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: like it'll be a decent like fifteen team am I option,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: but you know, if the bat of ball data doesn't
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: look great and he doesn't seem to be adjusting to him,
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: will be well and you can kind of cut bait
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: on him. But certainly an intriguing option. I think I
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: don't think he's fifteen.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: That's Okay, never mind, That's what I was gonna say.
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: I literally was gonna say, I feel like this is
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: a fifteen to fifteen guys like what you're buying into,
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: and you shouldn't expect more or much less.
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: So okay, all right, Well, right before we got into
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: the pod, we had another signing with the Pittsburgh Pirates,
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: inking Ryan O'Hearn to a two year deal. And look
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: at this, the Pittsburgh Pirates spending money, my friend, two years,
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: twenty nine million dollars, which I think this is probably
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: like the biggest contract they've signed since maybe like Francisco Leriano.
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: And so the Pirates have been trying to find somebody
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: to take this kind of corner DH money, as they
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: were also in the market for Kyle Schwarber. And it's
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: been a solid season that O'Hearn was coming off of
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: between playing with both San Diego and Baltimore. In total,
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: he put up a seventeen homers with sixty seven runs
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: sixty three rbi over one hundred and forty four games,
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: two eighty one three sixty six four to thirty seven
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: slash line and so one twenty seven WRC plus. Honestly,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: he's a little bit more of like a better real
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: life player, because like it is a really great DH profile,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: but like the counting stats weren't quite there with the
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: Padres and Orioles last year. Do you think he can
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: find those counting stats now with the Pirates as he's
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: slated to be there everyday. DH will probably get in
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: the mix a little bit at first base, but mostly
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: DH and which is also good because I'm a Spencer
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: Horwitz fan, but should be hitting clean up here for
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: the Pirates.
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's this is one of those odd
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: ball ones. I really like him as a corner infielder.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: Like the issue going into last year was a splits issue,
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: and he actually hit lefties last year out of nowhere
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: to a degree. There wasn't a ton of power there,
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: but like he was pretty Goscharn solid against both handers here,
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: and I think that's what what the Pirates are gonna
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: gi him a run at he should be, Like I
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: feel like he's gonna be their cleanup hitter or number
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: three hitter. I mean, it's him and in a low
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: are you trying to decide who's gonna be in those
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: those roles? So I actually actually like this and I
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: think he's sneaky value. He's just bad cops. He's kind
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: of Laine Thomas but better where he's just a little
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: bit like Layne Thomas was always like average and everything.
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: I feel like Ohearan is actually a little bit above
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: average here except for ceiling bases. That's not gonna be
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: his cup of tea. Actually a lot faster than you'd think.
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: We're not gonna play the game today, but he he
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: actually is just a very very solid hitter, and it's
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: just never been given the full run of things. And
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: I think if the Pirates give him full run, I
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: mean Steamers got him only for one hundred and two
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: games with thirteen homers and fifty three RBIs, I'm like,
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: give me a twenty five homer eighty RBI two seventy
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: five season. Like, I feel like that's in the cards
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: here for Ranal Hearn. And I think that in your quarter,
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: Enfield is very very valuable.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think what I like about the
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: profile too is it's like it's a great two seventy
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: five hitter every day, and so even if the the
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: counting sets don't come to fruition, finding an everyday two
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: seventy five hitter that will just play six times a
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: week is tough, and so that stability that Alhearne can
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: add pretty cheaply to your roster is very valuable because
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: it hasn't really had a significant injury history and it
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: has just been a SETI EDDI now for a couple
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: of years that I love him in that kind of
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: CI role.
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: And remember he's at outfield eligibility for the most part.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: Oh he should.
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah that's because he played twenty three games in the
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: outfield last year.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I mean that makes it even better if
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: you can move him in and out of that outfield spot. Okay,
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: well that's going to wrap us up. For the Fantasy
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: relevant transactions, we do have one card relevant transaction just
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: because this dude is a legend in the card collecting game,
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: especially on Reddit as he came to fame in twenty
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: twenty three. Because if you were ripping twenty twenty three product,
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: pretty good chances you found a Wade mechlor Auto. Because
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: we find this over the years that tops and fanatics
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: do I don't know how do they do this. Maybe
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: they just like reach out to a couple players and
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: they're like, hey, how does your hand feel about signing
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: a million billion signatures on a bunch of cards, because
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: it does feel like they find handfuls of players that,
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: especially those unnumbered like Tops, Chrome Auto rookies, where they
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: can use it to boost the production and then just
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: stuff them in. Everyone was hitting these Wade Mecklers, and
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: so he became a little bit of a urban legend
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: on Reddit, especially because everybody was pumped to hit these
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: Wade Mecklers, and it was a little bit of like
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: a commiserating in what Tops and fanatics has turned these
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: hunts and chases into. Because Wade Meckler was very indicative
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: and I think emblement of like what modern day collecting
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: is is where you get this guy who is a
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: quad a type outfielder, has been with the Giants and
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: up and down. And also I mean it doesn't hurt
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: that he has a super bitch and mustache, so certainly
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: that's a good, good aspect. But it has reached him
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: to Wade Mackler, like recognize this. He has fame in
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: the baseball car community because of this, and there's been interactions,
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: but at the same time, like this is exactly the
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: type of guy that you hit tons of autos of
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: nowadays when you're trying to chase those cards. When you're
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: listening to us talk about being cautious in our overuse,
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: Wade Meckler is exactly the type of reason that we're
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: we preach that, because this is the type of guy
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: you're going to hit in those boxes that you're paying
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: hundreds of dollars for, So keep that in mind. But
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: I wanted to reserve this space. Wade Meckler was defaded
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: this week by the Giants. I think he's probably gonna
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: land somewhere because he's a pretty solid fourth outfield type.
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: But even if he doesn't, maybe finds his way to
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: MPB KBO. Any send off that you have for Wayde Meckler,
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: any anything that you might be wanting to wish to
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: people who are out there pcing Meckler and might be
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: drowning in tears right now.
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: Hey, the stash is gonna be back like this. This
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: is to your point. He's a great quada player, Like
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: his slash line at the top level of the miners
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: is two ninety six, three ninety two, four twenty nine.
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: Like he's a great bench player or going overseas. Now,
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: most of those just have been filling up. So almost
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: bad timing for Wade Meckler here because those opportunities are
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: are mostly dried up at this point because there's only
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: so many spots that they can give two players that
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: are non natives. So I think Meckler will lay on
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: his feet and we will see the card comauty come
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: back together and you know, rousing excitement for him to
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: somehow sign another card because this might be these those
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: might be the only cards ever signed by Wade Meckler
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: that make it to the card collecting because he's gonna
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: have to have some big coming out party to get
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: back on that list again. But kudos wayde Beckler. Glad
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: you're still stole the news.
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: Yep, exactly. Okay, well look at that baseball card calendar
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: when you're down the show notes, because there were a
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: few updates that went together. One Panini Flawless did not
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: come out next week, is supposed to come out today again,
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: so I don't know if it actually ever hl's. It's
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: kind of like the set that will never not be
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: on the list will never be released, but maybe it
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: can hit shelse today if you're a Panini Flawless fan
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: out there. Also, we got the Panini Select finally got
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: pushed back officially back into early January, and then we
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: also have tops Chrump Update Sapphire Edition hitting the calendar,
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: should be released in January. The other thing I wanted
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: to note was that there was the pre order for
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: Bowman Draft that hit tops dot com this week, and
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: woo buddy, what a price they hit they had on that,
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: because you were looking at five hundred and twenty bucks
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: from a hobby box, seven forty for a jumbo, sixty
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: dollars for a megabox of Bowman Draft, and I mean
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: I even found those online half an hour after the
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: pre order had been posted, which never happens. Gives you
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: a sense of kind of how the sticker shock was
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: maybe hitting people as they were looking at Bowman Draft. Also,
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: it's a crummy draft year. And I don't know if
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: you've seen the picture of the number one pick is
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: always in Bowman Draft. It was Eli Willets. It is
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: one of the worst Bowman photoshop jobs I think I've
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: ever seen in recent memory of the Eli Willets card
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: with his first it is just not good. I don't
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: know if it's like Ai involved, but like the actual
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: placement of the jersey does not make any sense in
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: terms of like where the Nationals is breaking, And then
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: he's got this like photoshop patch on his front arm
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: that's like partly tucked into an elbow shield and it
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: just it does not look and so on top of it.
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: I don't know if they like put him through some
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: sort of like thinning algorithm or if that's actually what
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: Eli Willis looks like, but he is a stickly little
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: dude on this looks sickly on his own first Bowman card.
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: What are your thoughts here on Bowman Draft? We will
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: cover it in more detail when we actually get closer
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: to set release, which should be probably late January early February.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: But I know you were also stocked or shocked by
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: those sticker prices.
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. I mean, first of all, Eli Willis
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: is a squaller to guy, so we'll give him credit
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: for that. But it is one of those that I
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: think it's actually hit the point where the only chance
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: that you actually play in ripping draft outside of breakers
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: is volume, Like you have to be playing multiple, multiple
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: rips of it, like almost a full case, because there
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: is still crazy value to be found there. The prospecting game.
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: People pay crazy money for these things, but if you
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: only buy one box is Feast for Famin and at
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: like eight hundred dollar box like that, that's just too
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: big of a risk. And so it's just really priced
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: anybody out. And I mean, that's where the hobby's at now.
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: I literally is at the store today and I saw
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: a Lone Tops Chrome Update blaster on the shelf and
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: I was I was there. I'm like, let me just
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: price check this thing. Like I can't remember what these
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: were going for. I'm like, I know, it's a little ridiculous.
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: One I just picked up for grins. It was fifty
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: bucks for the blaster and I'm like, nope, let me
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: buy a single pack of Update, which was just a
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: burnie and five dollars. Building said, but it was Yeah,
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: Bowman's gotten out of control at this point, and I
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: don't know where it goes from here, but if people
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: keep buying, it's probably gonna keep going up.
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: Yep. I think that's uh, we'll see, but it does
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: feel like the cliff is getting closer and closer kind
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: of every release. But it I mean, I guess we'll
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: see when that happens. I'm just kind of also waiting
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: for it to kind of go over that cliff that
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: it can fall back off and like we can get
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: back to rip it and finding retail and stuff again.
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: It was I missed out on the glory days that
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: kind of happened in the early twenty tens, I think
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: in terms of being able to rip and got back
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: in when it got very expensive again. Okay, but with that,
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: we are going to take a short break. If you're
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: down in those show notes because you were looking for
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: that card calendar, stay down there because you're gonna want it.
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: When we get to our PC picks for the Awards
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: winners of twenty twenty five, We're going to take a
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: short break and be back right after. Hello, and welcome
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: back everybody to this pod as we get into our
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: PC picks from the Awards Winners of twenty twenty five.
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: I'm excited about this because this is one of our
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: favorite portions of the pod is making these PC picks.
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: If this is one of your first times tuning in
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: and you're not familiar with what we're doing here, PC
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: stands for personal collection in Baseball card collecting, and what
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: we've been doing throughout the season is whenever there's Player
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: of the Month awards, we will make selections from the
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: AL and NL for the batter, the Pitcher, and the
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: Rookie of the Month, just to be able to build
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: out our PC. If you're in the show notes, well,
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: if you're not in the show notes, I would open
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: up the pod right now and go into those show notes,
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: because we got a link to that lengthy PC list
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: that we've been building over the past couple of years,
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: as well as a link to rasball dot com, where
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: you'll be able to find a post that goes directly
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: and shows all the cards that we're about to talk about,
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: because we've got a great collection to put into the
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: PC for MVP cy Young Rookie of the Year, and
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: our newest Hall of Famer Jeff Kent, who we talked
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: about just the other week. And so what we're going
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: to do is go back and forth each induct one
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: card into our PC. You can go high brow, you
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: can go low brow, you can go all in between,
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: you can find one of ones, you can find commons.
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: And so if you want to be able to follow
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: along maybe and invest in the cards and categories PC
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: over time, well, for one, there's some cards you won't
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: be able to get because they're one of ones. Maybe
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: you can find facsimiles or something else to be able
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: to put in for that card. But I think we've
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: got just cool cards. Especially if you're looking for something
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: to build out your own collection, it's interesting to find
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: fun ways to do that. And I've found that these
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: Player of the Month collections is a good way to
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: build out smaller sets and kind of keep it focused
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: so that you're not trying to really collect everything under
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: the sun out there. So with all that, like I know,
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: we've been working on this PC now for two and
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: a half years. Anything else stand out to you as
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: we've been putting together this list of cards.
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: Well, I'll say one thing that struck me today as
• 57:59
  Speaker 2: I was looking at this and pulling these in is
• 58:02
  Speaker 2: I I decided, like, I'm gonna treat this just like
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: I do with the card show, and I'm not gonna
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: look to see if I put these in there before,
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: because I don't know if you've ever done it before.
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: Where I'll go to a card show, I'll find a
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: card I absolutely love, I'll go at home, I'll go
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: to put it in like the box like and I
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: don't I sort my cards are all sorted, like especially
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: my PC players. They're sorted by like Jersey cards versus autos,
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: versus rookies. And I'll go to right to that spot
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: and I'm all the exact same card and then like
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: you know, maybe a different patch or something like it. And
• 58:27
  Speaker 2: sometimes it's fine because they're you know, unique patches things
• 58:30
  Speaker 2: like that, and sometimes you're like, well, it is what
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: it is. I must have loved the card that much,
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: so I decided I'm just gonna wing it, and if
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: I somehow end up with the same exact card for
• 58:40
  Speaker 2: an Aaron Judge or something like that, then it is
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: what it is because that card clear belong to the PC.
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: But I absolutely love this. Is like I could never
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: decide what I want to do, and so I just
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: start looking at the cards and then something just strikes you.
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: And then sometimes we get into this. I look at
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: what you picked and I'm like, gosh, dake it that
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: that was a great pick. I wish I would add
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: that to my PC. So I think we're having a
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: few of those today because I I was cheated. I
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: looked ahead a little bit, but it's okay, this would
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: be a fun one.
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I mean, if it makes you feeling better,
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: I feel the same way when I look at yours
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: that some of the patch cards that you find, especially,
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: I have no idea how you unearth them, and you
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: are really keen on doing that. I will say, I
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: do double check your work. It does make more work
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: for me in terms of making sure that you're not
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: reintroducing cards back into the PC that've been picked before
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: you didn't, But I do check that for you as
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: I'm going through before we do the show notes.
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: So I'm so proud to have such a wonderful producer
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: of this podcast. Welcome.
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: That's what I'm here for, and I mean I needed
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: to because we've got all repeats except for Jeff Kent
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: here going to the PC, because I mean, it does
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: happen with the award winners, because if you've been good
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: throughout the season, obviously you probably took home a Player
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: of the Month or two. But we've also got repeat
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: cy Young winners or repeat award winners in terms of
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: both the cy Young's and them repeat MVP. So we've
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: got a very lengthy collection of all these players going together.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: But we're still finding new cards of each of them
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: and because they're such big stars. I think it's almost
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: gonna be an endless supply as we go forward. So
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: I have no problem building on our PCs of especially
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: this first guy, Aaron Judge al MVP now for the
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: third time in his career, and uh, just like these
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: past two seasons, Layer and Judge, it's one of those
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: when you like go to the page and you're just
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: like it blows you away. Because it was fifty three homers,
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty seven runs, one hundred and fourteen RBI,
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: twelve stone bases, which was the most since twenty twenty
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: two for him, three point thirty one four fifty seven
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: six eighty eight slash line of two to four WRC
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: plus ten point one war all on one hundred and
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: fifty two games, all while battling an elbow that he
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: couldn't like throw with for two months in right field.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: And I mean edged out Cal Rawley with that amazing
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: sixty homer season. But I mean this is just another
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: peak Aaron Judge, Barry Bond's stratosphere type of season. You
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: just go to the Baseball Reference page and it's just
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: dripping in black ink. This is I think also the
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: season where Judge it was if he had been grant
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: and Brisbee calls it the hit by the bus theory,
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: where before twenty twenty five, if Aaron Judge had been
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: hit by a bus and couldn't play baseball anymore, probably
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: was in the in the Hall of Fame. This season
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: put him past it. He's passed sixty war on both websites.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: He's easily in the Hall of Fame, I think at
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: this point, especially with the three MVPs. So with all
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: that considered, we are looking at let me count them up.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: We are up to number Oh, I don't have to
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: count function on this Google sheet thirteen, fourteenth and fifteenth
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: PC picks for Aaron Judge. Where are you going?
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I had fun with this and he called
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 2: out already, I'm going to one of my favorite products,
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 2: which is funny because I am absolutely a Liso product guy,
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: and this is like the one that I like will
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: make that exception for and is leaf Trinity. If you
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: don't know Leaf Trinity. Leaf trendy is kind of harkens
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: back to someone like the old sp cards back in
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 2: the day, very clean designs, a lot of white, clean
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: lines and what they're what they really do well is
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 2: they have large, clean patches on card autos and very
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: very sleek, sleek feeling cards. And so I picked the
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: twenty fifteen Leaf Trendy Aaron Judge out of twenty five
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 2: auto card and there's a few things about this one
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 2: we have to talk about. First of all, the patch
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: is sick. It is a patch from the Yankees inaugural season.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: It feels a nine of the new Yankee Stadium that
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: would be on the sleeve of the jersey. And if
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: you're actually on eBay, you can find the card from
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: the bottom of the patch and the top the patch
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 2: which was which was fantastic, and so I thought that
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 2: was absolutely great. And it has a big old two
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: thousand and nine emblazoned across that and it's just clear
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: as day in the middle of this patch. The other
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 2: thing that's really interesting to me is if you think
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: about this, this is a twenty fifteen Trinity card for
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 2: Aaron Judge with a Yankees patch on it. And if
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: you read the back of the card, all it says
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: is the autographing patch in the front of this card
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: are guaranteed authentic. What does that even mean? Is an
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 2: authentic patch like I bought it like at the corner store,
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 2: Like I don't know what it is, I mean, and
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: I didn't go back and try to see is like
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: maybe they had it on their minor league jerseys like that,
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 2: because he did not play that season in the majors,
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 2: so he should not have had that patch on his jersey.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 2: And so it is an authentic patch. Whether Aeron Judge
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 2: actually wore that, we don't know, but I thought that
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 2: was the little twist here for a five thousand dollars card.
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is a patch from the Yankee season inaugural
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: the new Yankee Stadium, the inaugural season there in two
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: thousand and nine, and Aaron Judge was drafting twenty thirteen.
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: So I don't know where they got this from and
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: got him to quote unquote wear it. But it is
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: a sick patch. I will give you that, and you
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: can't go wrong with I mean, because it's so early
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: in his career, it's before he debuted. It's a pretty
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: tough get. And probably it's also one of those where
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: like this is gonna I know this is gonna be
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: very judgmental, but the people who I see ripping leaf
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: are very degenerative, like their car collecting, and like some
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: of these are probably tucked away in like just really
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: random spots because like Aaron Judge was not a hot
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: thing back in the day when this was ripped in
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, so probably not too many of them out there.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: So great, fine to put in the PC.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: All right, what did you do to one up me here?
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I went up to you, but
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: what I was thinking along the lines of my pick
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: was when is the last time that you could actually
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: buy a reasonable lee priced tops chrome card of Aaron Judge,
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: Because with these MVP buybacks, you can't get a base
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: Judge or Otani for a decent price anymore because they
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: turn in they convert into real cash at card stores.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: So twenty twenty three was the year that he didn't
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: win an MVP. And it's kind of a boring design
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: for the bass. So I was looking through the inserts
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, yeah, that's when they had Titans,
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: which they haven't brought back. And I'm a little surprised
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: because Titans, if you're not familiar with the design of
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: the insert, it is a picture of the player where
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: they're it's they're pretty much just like cropped out of
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: the background and then plopped on top of the stadium
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: that they're playing in. And it actually fits pretty well
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: with your inaugural two thousand and nine Yankee Stadium patch
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: that you found. Because this Titans card of Aaron Judge,
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think, I think it's going to go
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: down almost as like the house that he built in
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: this new Yankee Stadium, and he is just kind of
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: plopped right in the middle of it. I picked the
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: gold chrome version of it just to be able to
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: add a little flare to the collection. But you've got
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: Titans in the background. It's a really clean card. You
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: can pick up the base of this for like two bucks,
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: so if you want to get this, I think it's
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: gonna be a pretty iconic Aaron Judge card when it's
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: all said and done. Down down the line and the
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: Titans insert's very much slept on. A pretty fun set
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: to put together too, if you weren't looking for a
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: nice cheap little insert chase. Yeah, I like this.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 2: The Titan set was really really cool, Like I think
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 2: it was like Adley's rookie year and things. So I
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 2: have a few of those, like I have some Trouts,
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 2: like I think this is just a really really unique,
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 2: good set, and because it wasn't like they didn't make
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 2: an ultra rare set like maybe a home field advantage
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 2: or something like that. So because of that, I feel
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 2: like they didn't like doubled down on a fact that
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 2: they actually did something right here, and they've just kind
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 2: of let it fall off, which is disappointing but great analogy.
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 2: This is the house that Judge built. Whether he was
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 2: there apparently when it opened or not, we don't know,
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: maybe he was sitting in the stands, but this is
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 2: a good PC pick for sure. Fun card.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: All right, let's move over to the nl where the
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: MVP was once again show Hey Otani this year, and
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: also I think he crossed the path to I mean,
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: I don't even know if there was much doubt that
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: he was gonna make the Hall of Fame before this year,
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: but absolutely cemented it this year with another MVP, is
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: fourth of his career, returned back to the mound, won
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: a second World Series, put up that game in the
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: NLCS where he just absolutely turned it into the Otani Show.
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: He is the biggest superstar that this game has and
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: might ever have. As you know, he's starting to enter
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: just real elite athlete echelon in terms of star like
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: star and card collecting prowess. I mean, it's really just
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: like Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky type
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: of territory that Otani's in right now. He's pretty much
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: a god amongst men, coming off a season in which
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: at the plate he put up a two eighty two,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: three ninety two six twenty two slash line. That's a
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: one seventy two WRC plus fifty five homers, only twenty
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: stolen bases this year in one hundred and fifty eight games.
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: Also hit the mound and no fangrafts going down on
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: me literally right now, but you'll have to just take
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: my word for it. That is a solid season mound
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: oh founded on Baseball Reference forty seven innings, two eighty
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: seven ERA, and sixty two strikeouts to nine walks. Looks
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: like he's going to be a dominant number one type starter.
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: That's maybe like the only thing left for him to
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: achieve at this point in Sotani winning it's a young award.
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: We have multiple cards in the PC for him as well,
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: but not as many because he wasn't quite dominating the
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: months the way the judge was this year. These will
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: be number eight and nine in the PC for Otani.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: What are you doing for pick number eight?
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 2: All right? So you know, I got an affinity for
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 2: the Japanese card market, and Otani is to weirdly get
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 2: overprinted now in the US card market like he is
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 2: in everything with every insert, every little thing. And I
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 2: just wanted something unique and saying like I've got the
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 2: Otani card and be very proud of it. So I'm
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 2: going back all the way to twenty thirteen, going with
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 2: his BBM first version, which in US talk that is
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 2: Tops Tops first release, first series at the beginning of
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 2: the year. And so twenty thirteen BBM first version his
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 2: rookie for the Nippon ham Fighters in a PSA ten,
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 2: because why not get the best that you can. It's
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 2: available for just under ten thousand dollars. But it's just
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 2: a very very clean card. It's got him pitching, which
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 2: is really where you know he was cutting his teeth
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 2: early on, and you know, there's a few others out there,
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 2: but like, to me, this is the true rookie card,
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 2: and BBM they've kind of that's kind of shifted over
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 2: the years. The more recently they've done like Rookie Edition,
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 2: those are kind of now considered the the primary Rookie cards,
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 2: but at the time those were only probos like for
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 2: card shops, so not quite the same same deal. So
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 2: I just I wanted to have the original Rookie card.
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 2: And it's not an insert, it's not a parallel version.
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 2: It's just, you know, Otani's true Rookie in my mind,
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 2: and so I got it out of the PC. I
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 2: haven't for all this time, I hadn't figured out a
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 2: way to do that, and so it's got to be
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 2: in there now.
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: I like it. Great pick. I mean, you can't go
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: wrong with a card like this, So it's gonna be
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: like one of the Otani cards. I think that you're
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: gonna really want for all the actions that you just said,
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: because on top of it, even like his twenty eighteen
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: Rookie cards, certainly the print runs weren't what they are now,
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: but they're certainly more than this twenty thirteen BBM card.
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: And you're gonna want to go back to the beginning
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: if you're a true Atani collector. So great choice. And
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: if that one, yeah, that was, what did you do?
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 2: I mean, I went high end on the market, so
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 2: I'm assuming you went for like a cheap insert right.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, only the most expensive show Hey Tani
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: card ever, which sold just this past week. So it's
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: very newsworthy that. If you recall when we covered tops
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: Chrome this year, they inserted these golden MLB logo patch
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: one of one cards for the award winners from twenty
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: twenty four. The Otani one sold this week for a
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: cool three million bucks. So just like last year when
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: we did this exercise, you put the Paul Skins Rookie
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: patch auto in the Rookie Debut MLB Debut patch in,
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty much doing the same thing with this Otani card.
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: It is is a gorgeous card too, like they designed
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: it really well with the squared up gold MLB patch
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: on it with just the only thing that's on it
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: pretty much is o Tani signature and a picture of
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: him in a one of one with the patch. So
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: it doesn't get much cleaner than this.
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 2: This is.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, if you want the other bookend to be
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: able to put on Otani's collection, if you've got to
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: get the twenty thirteen BBM card. I mean, there's only
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: one of these, so you missed out on your chance.
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: But to the person who bought this and putting together
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: the singular Showho Tani collection, obviously this had to go in.
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, this is an amazing looking card. I
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 2: don't know, I don't know if I could justify spending
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 2: three million. I don't have three million to spend on it,
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 2: so I don't have given it the choice to try
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 2: to justify uh doing that, But it is an amazing card.
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 2: I still love the concept that they have done with
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 2: you know, these truly kind of game war and pass
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 2: patches and what it really means to you know, be
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 2: able to identify and watch that in the season and
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 2: actually then get it in the card because it is
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 2: like as game used as game use can can possibly be.
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 2: So I think that they've done a great great job
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 2: doing that, and I've just a really random aside they
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 2: actually started doing that like Formula one and other things
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 2: like that, where they're actually putting like patches on like
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 2: helmets and things. So it's really interesting. But I'm just
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 2: gonna say you could almost own the entire population of
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 2: PSA ten BBM twenty thirteen Johanntani's for the same price.
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 2: There are four hundred and two of three and twenty
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 2: two of those for the same price, if you want to,
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 2: I think that's probably the better long term investment, but hey,
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 2: who am I to spend year three million dollars like?
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, let's move over to the pitching side. We're
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: going to go back to the al as. Tarik Skoobos
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: took home his second straight cy Young Award, and it
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: was in an other amazing performance for him, a one
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: ninety five or one hundred and ninety five and a
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: third innings with a two two one era, which was
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: lower than the year before. But what's kind of funny
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: is the fifth it was just about dead on from
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four two forty five this year two forty
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: nine and twenty twenty four a thirteen to six record.
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: But that doesn't matter nowadays for pitching for cy Young's,
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: because I mean especially he put up two hundred and
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: forty one strikeouts in those hundred ninety five and a
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: third innings. Just absolutely electric this year and is probably
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, I guess we'll get into it with the
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: n Elsy Young uh winner, you know, the best pitcher
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: in baseball, especially when you watch him on the mountain working.
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: It's just also not only like great control, great power,
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: but also a bulldog mentality. You know, you saw many
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: times they he's pitching down the stretch with the Tigers
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: light in games, topping out over one hundred, making sure
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: that they pulled through to be able to win of
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: playoff spot period after they collapsed down the stretch. The
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: chatter of all the offseason trade talk because the Tigers
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: have one year left of scoopbl and it's a matter
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: of what they do with him after he wraps up
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: being under that first contract next year. Third and fourth
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: PC picks here for Tree School because he didn't actually
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: win any Player of the Months throughout twenty twenty five.
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: The last time that we picked a card for him
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: was back for that Cy Young in twenty twenty four.
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: So where are you going with this pick?
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 2: Well, I said that I like to be licensed, and
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 2: then here we go again where I didn't. But this
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 2: one was just an unbelievable card, and so we are
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 2: going to go with And by the way, this is
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 2: also one of the worst eBay listings out there possible
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 2: from a description perspective, so if you want to buy it,
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 2: two hundred and eighty dollars card bearing the lead here,
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 2: but this is from twenty twenty one Panini Immaculate Collection,
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 2: which is a very high end product from Panini. I'm
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 2: going with a ten of ten serial numbered Rookie Treek
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 2: Schooble the jumbo fielding glove patch auto, so Rookie patch
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 2: auto with the fielding glove. This is one of the
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 2: thickest cards you never see and it literally has a
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 2: piece of his glove in there that you know. We
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 2: talked about Panini what they say it is player worn material,
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 2: so I don't know if you know it says player used.
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 2: I don't know. Did he use it to put it on?
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 2: Hard to know, but it looks fantastic picture of Schooble
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 2: and this one is actually in the greens, so maybe
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 2: kind of a Saint Patrick's Day kind of go or
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 2: alternate jersey view for the Tigers. And it's just a
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 2: really realy card. But again rookie patch auto from a
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 2: glove patch which is you don't see glove patches. And
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 2: it's two toned, which is another big hit. Only two
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 2: hundred and eighty bucks for that card of a multiple
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 2: cy young or just feels like an absolute steal. So
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 2: I'm out with the PC, big old patch, big thick card.
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 2: I need a new top loader for this one for sure.
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exact custom made. You don't see very many glove
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: cards either, so this is a great pick as you
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: get a little bit of like the foam and the
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: leather and yeah, I'm trying to put my finger on
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: where the green is coming from as a minor league
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: stop or pitching at Pacific, but it does like it's
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: I think you might be onto something with the Saint
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: Patrick's Day because it is an older ish picture of Scooble,
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: because I'll get it a little bit into my card,
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: and why I picked it because you can tell that
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: he's starting to get a little more booked up compared
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: to maybe what he started as. But great, great choice.
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: First glove patch that I think we have in our PC.
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 2: I know it's, I will say, the only thing that's
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 2: crazy with the glove patches I've ever seen. I've actually
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 2: had one of these. I think I think I sold
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 2: it because it was such a pain to sore. Was
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 2: a patch.
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 3: I think you put a cleek patch into the piece
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 3: clean patch of course I probably qu patch, yes, chunk, chunk,
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah that things like inch and a half thick like that.
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 2: That's not a card. Would you pull that pack out?
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 2: You know you got something exactly all right? What you
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 2: very the lead? You picked a card here and I
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 2: looked at it. I'm little jealous this one because it's
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 2: a great pick. Where are you going? Yeah?
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: I mean I'll also admit that when I ever get
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: into like a tangle of what card I should put
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: into the PC, I always default back to Stadium Club.
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: You can't go with you because they're beautiful cards, and
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: if you're gonna build a great PC, you've got to
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: have a good handful of Stadium Club cards, I think.
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: So I'm going with the twenty twenty one top Steam
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: and Club Chrome Auto for tweaks Google. It is the
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: Stadium Club Chrome Auto, not the Stadium Club Auto Chrome
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: like refractor, because there is a difference. And the reason
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: I'm going with this one is because you don't get
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: too many horizontal cards of pictures, it feels like. And
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: so this is just a great shot of tweak Schooble
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: mid of his wind up with his foot up in
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: the air, and you can kind of just see it
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: all in the horizontal view, and it's got a great
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: auto on it, just well squared up photo, great design
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: from twenty twenty one, and like I was hinting at,
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: it also gets back to I was looking at like
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: a lot of other tweak schoobl Like early cards, he
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: was a scrawny dude, and he's really bulked up over
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: the past couple of years, which is where he's become
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: the workhorse. You know, people did not expect him to
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: turn into this cy young candidate perennially that you know,
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: he was barely projected to like make it into a
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: rotation at all, and so you can see the progression
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: of him going forward, and so you can that's why
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: I had to go with this rookie card for those factors.
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: Stadium club, great horizontal photo and at the end of
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: the day, can't go wrong with a rookie on card auto.
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And the thing that's striking me about Schooble is
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 2: the pricing. And to your point, he's got one year
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 2: left from the deal. I just feel like Schooble autocraft
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 2: rookie cards in like two years are gonna be like
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 2: worth two to three times what is now because he's
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 2: gonna go sign with like the Dodgers and just dominate
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 2: like a World Series game or something, and this stuff
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 2: is just gonna go insane. This this feels like a
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 2: buying opportunity if ever there was for True School, which
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 2: is ironic comment off of a dual cy Young showing well.
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: I mean that's the other factor too, is two Cy
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: Young's is gonna put him into some pretty like rare
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: air for Hall of Fame discussion. There's gonna be tough
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: plucking starting pitchers for Hall of Fame discussion from this era.
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: And with two Cy Young's, Gooogle's moving up that list
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: pretty quickly. So let's get over to the NL side,
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: where we've got another guy who I think is right
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: on that track with Scooble his second year fantastic with
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: the Pittsburgh Pirates were of course talking about Paul Skeens,
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: who took home with the Cy Young after taking home
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: from the Rookie of the Year last year. This season,
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: thir thirty two starts, one hundred and eighty seven and
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: two thirds innings with two hundred and sixteen k's one
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: ninety seven ERA ten and ten record, and I mean
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: he could have done more. The Pirates were throttling him
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: throughout the year in terms of especially down the stretch,
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: they were watching his innings, and I'm just really looking
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: forward to next year, especially when hopefully they do open
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: it up for schemes and just let him go full
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: force and hit that two hundred inning mark. Because there's
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: anybody at faith in actually being able to do it.
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: It's this big old six six foot bodied guy with
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: the crazy workout techniques. He's just been absolutely electric to
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: start his career. He's all now up to three hundred
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: and twenty and two thirds innings with a nine or
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: a point ninety five whip and a one ninety six era.
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: It's just electric, electric stuff. We have made some PC
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: picks for Paul schemes in the past. This will be
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: cards number five and six. So where did you go?
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm gonna repeat myself. I said, I'm a
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 2: license guy, and now I have somehow gone four cards
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 2: in a row with different manufacturers. I would have bet
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 2: if I would have asked you to name four different
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 2: card manufacturers that's not tops. I don't know if you
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 2: would have been able to do it at this point
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 2: in time, but I managed to go four different ones.
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna go with his twenty twenty three Sports Illustrated
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 2: for Kids, you know, quote unquote rookie cards, and I'm
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 2: gonna go bold on this one, and I'm gonna go
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 2: I don't have a picture of it. I couldn't find it.
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna go with a PSA ten version because it's
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 2: pop one. There's only one of them. And the reason
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 2: that's fun is because the Sports Illustrated for Kids, these
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 2: are cards that come in the magazines and they're perforated
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 2: and you have to tear them out of the magazine,
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 2: and so they are terribly off centered. They're already always
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 2: have ridiculous rips on them, and it's this kind of
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 2: goes back to like I think Tiger Woods is another
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 2: big one that had like Sports Illustrated Rookies. I think
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 2: Tom Brady had sound like there's just things like WNBA
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 2: place too, yep, and they're so hard to get, like
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 2: clean copies. And so I can't even find the picture
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 2: of the PSA ten and I wanted to see what
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 2: it looks like. But it has to be the most
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 2: immaculate card possible because it has perforated edges on it.
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 2: And they must have like somebody must have like somehow
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 2: got a perfect centered one and somehow cut it or
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 2: something like been thinking that far ahead, but then would
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 2: have been.
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: Because when they do the grating, it is like based
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: on the set a little bit, you know what I mean.
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well it's like the perforation. But do they like
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 2: cleanly cut like right down the middle of the perfection?
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 2: I don't know, Like I just that's a good point. Yeah,
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 2: And so like I I want that card because I
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 2: feel like that's the the gym rate on that's gonna
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 2: be like nothing. And so that's got crazy, crazy fun
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 2: value and you know it. So it's you know, if
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 2: the card itself is skemes pushing pitching for LSU, just
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 2: any other ballgame. It's the sports of kids. Cards are fun.
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 2: They got some cool facts on them. Nothing crazy. It's
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 2: just the uniqueness of having the foresight pulling this out
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 2: of that magazine. You know, these are all over the
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 2: place and dumpsters and bedrooms and things like that. And
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 2: to be able to have the perfect one of that
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 2: when there's only one would be so cool.
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I totally agree. And I mean the one that
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: we're gonna link to it is a PSA five at
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: like thirty five bucks all in. Honestly, that's not a
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: bad price that these Sports Illustrating for Kids cards do
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: hold value pretty well because yeah, especially for big stars.
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: So I mean, that's not a bad spot to look
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: for PC investments. So great. Fine, I wouldn't even have
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: been thought this. This is our first SA for Kids
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: card too, so I like it.
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 2: Sometimes I'm gonna I'm to avoid tops all together. I
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 2: can't stick it with it through the rest of this.
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 2: But all right, where'd you go?
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: All right? Well, I went a little bit of a
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: side route here too. I'm this card is We said
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: it was going to be hot when we covered the
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: the overview of the set the other week, and it
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: is hot. It's about a four hundred dollars card. Wherever
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: you're looking right now, I'm talking the twenty twenty five
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: tops Ill Allen and Ginter framed mini Auto of Livy Dunn.
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: And this is just the bass auto. If you want
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: to get the numbered ones or in the if you
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: go back to the Allen and Ginter overview and go
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: to rasball. I found one from the first week of
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: ripping where she put go Tigers with g e. The
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: Frenchish spelling, the fake French spelling that the USNLC for
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: go Tigers. That one was extremely expensive. But yeah, if
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: you're going to put together a Paul Skeens PC and
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: put it together faithfully, I think you have to have
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: the Livy dun Auto in there. This is a great
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: little framed mini photo of her roll of the card,
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: the little tobacco card from Allen and Ginter of her
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: wearing an absolutely ginormous Pittsburgh Pirates hat that is way
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: too big for her hat for her head and just
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: signed simply Livy on the front of it. And so yeah,
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: if you're putting together the ultimate Paul Skeins PC, I
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: think you would need the Livy don card because she
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: comes kind of part and parcel with him at this
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: point that it's a part of the Paul Skin's legend
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: in terms of just like there's no way that I
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: think he gains popular culture notoriety the way he has
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: without Livy done by his side. Otherwise, I mean, I've
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: you've seen him in plenty of interviews. We've all seen
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: that Raising Kines commercial that was on TV during the playoffs.
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: Paul Skin has Skiens has no riz and his risk
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: is just all Livvy and so it is just a
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: part of his entire story. I think you've got to
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: put this in the PC, even if it's not directly
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: a Paul scenes card, it's Paul Skins.
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 2: This was brilliant. I loved it when I saw you
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 2: put this one in there, Like I wish I would
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 2: have thought of that, because it is such a cool
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 2: pop culture dynamic pulling and Livy done as a Paul
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 2: Skians PC, and it is a really good card, Like
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 2: I don't want to I don't want to discount that
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 2: to your point, Like it is a really really well
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 2: done card, and I she has really carved out a
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 2: name for herself, not only from her athletic perspective, but
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 2: also as kind of a pop culture icon, which I
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 2: absolutely love. So this is between the two cards that
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 2: we pulled. This is probably the most unique PC of
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 2: Paul Skins will ever do on this podcast. But it's great,
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 2: great pick.
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: Oh just wait until we get some some Livvy done
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: relics and stuff. I'm sure to put in so in
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: the future, because I don't think this is the last
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: time we're putting Paul Skan's cards into our PC. So
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: let's get on to those Rookies of the year. First
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: one we've got on the AL side is none or
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: none other than the Athletics is Nick Kurtz, who put
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: together a fantastic rookie season. When I mean I was
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: looking a little bit of some of the cards, like
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: the Bowman top one hundred going into next year or
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: last year had him as number thirty two. So we
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: talked about it when we were wrapping up the season.
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: It was a great season for Kurtz that kind of
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: came out of nowhere. Two ninety three eighty three six
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: nineteen slash line one eighty seven WRC plus with thirty
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: six homers, ninety runs, eighty six RBI in one hundred
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: and seventeen games. The correlation between Fantasy league winners and
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: having Nick Kurtz on the roster extremely high. I think
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: this year when I looked back at my leagues, he
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: won plenty of leagues out there, considering especially how poor
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: first base and CI was. As we've talked about many times,
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: these will be the fifth and six cards for Nick
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: Kurtz and r PC as he won Rookie of the
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: Month twice during twenty twenty five. So not too many
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: cards out there, considering he's pretty new on the block.
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: So where are you going?
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 2: Uh? Well, I finally feel like we're getting back to
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 2: our safez here and I'm gonna go with a color
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 2: match rookie auto from Sapphire and color match. Like every
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 2: team doesn't do it perfectly, but the a's are good
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 2: for color match because the greens out of ninety nine
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 2: usually pretty available, and Sapphire is one of my favorite products.
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 2: Kurts doesn't have the great auto by any means, but
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 2: this one is of Nick Kurtz. Looks like he's given
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 2: a big old fist bump. Most likely something just happened
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 2: in the field because he's at first base clearly like
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 2: stretched out, but doesn't have the ball or anything. And
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 2: so you know, big old Nick Kurtz excited. Sapphire has
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 2: that kind of cracked ice feel to it, got the
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 2: color match. This one's a thirteen out of ninety nine.
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 2: Really just cool card. It's a little over a thousand
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 2: bucks right now if you want to buy it on eBay,
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 2: And so I probably wouldn't recommend it because I think
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 2: some of the kurt stuff is gonna come down to
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 2: a degree at some point here. But it's just a beautiful,
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 2: beautiful card. And when you're looking for a rookie auto,
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 2: you gotta check out sapphire.
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think this is a great classic pick.
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: You can't go wrong with a sapphire color match. And honestly,
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: maybe even the price isn't that bad because right below
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: it on the eBay site you could spend another three
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: hundred bucks and get an unnumbered Cosmic chrome auto. So
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: when you're talking tops chrome Sapphire green with a Rookie
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: of the Year winner who put up a season like
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: he did, this is a great pick.
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 2: I can't scroll down, mind, it just has all kinds
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 2: of random Japanese cards. You've looked at too many of these?
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'm being flooded with Livy Dunn cards, So
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: that's in my algorithm.
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 2: The algorithms have gotten. I'll also say this is a side,
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 2: but how much do you enjoy the next two days
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 2: after these PC picks on your eBay because of the
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 2: most ridiculous offers we get? I mean, you know, we didn't. Actually,
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 2: I don't think I'm too crazy or anything. But you'll
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 2: pull like the fifty K card and you'll throw it
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 2: in the PC and then you get an offer like
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 2: you could save five grand. Was like, nope, I can't.
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: I do get a lot of debay offers after we
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: do these PC shows of these ridiculous cards. It's pretty fun,
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: so I agree, I also enjoy that.
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 2: All right, what did you do with Nick Kurtz?
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: Okay? Well, I mean, honestly, we've started to get more
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: to pick from because he's been in all the late
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five releases, and that includes one that we
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: didn't really do an overview of because it's one of
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: the more i would say minor pieces that kind of
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: come out in the fall, especially when you're talking about
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: Heritage High Number and Alan and Ginter coming out tops
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: Archives gets lost in the wash. That's where I'm going
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: from by pick though, because these have been really popular.
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: As I've seen on social media, people have been loving them,
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: and I can see why they are gorgeous. I'm picking
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: the Nick Kurtz stand up card, which is an insert
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: that harkens back to the nineteen sixty four set where
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: they used to have these. You know, you would fold
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: it in half and then you get like the three
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: D animation a little bit, well not animation but three
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: D pop out of the player being on the card
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: a relatively affordable insert. It's about twenty bucks right now,
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: so I wouldn't do the pop up for it now,
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: but maybe some pointing down the line. And I've seen
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: on Reddit people have been buying two of these cards
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: when they get them because they keep on pristine, and
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: then they use the other as the real pop up card.
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: And so this one especially pops because you've got the
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: yellow and the green on it to go with the
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: Oakland A's colors. And as you did with the Sapphire
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: chrome card, you cannot go wrong with an a's color match,
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: either the yellow, the gold, the green. It always is
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: unique and it always pops. And that's why I had
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: to go with this card. It's just a really fun,
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: fascinating card.
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 2: There's just something about the Athletics retro ish color scheme
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 2: that no matter what color match you go after, it
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 2: just works. It just it just workslike anybody else. This
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 2: is accessible, it's kind of goofy. I like it.
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: Good pick okays. Go over to the NL side for
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: the Rookie of the Year, we have Catcher from the
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: Atlanta Braves, Drake Baldwin coming off an amazing season of
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: two seventy four, three forty one, four sixty nine slash
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: line out of Missouri, State of the Valley, just out
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 1: of nowhere too. With the nineteen homers an eighty eighty
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: stone bases, I'd be incredible for catcher eighty rbi and
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: hit the snot out of the ball, which is what
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: I love to see. I think this is a real
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: big fine for the Atlanta Braves who took Baldwin in
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: the third round back in twenty twenty two, and looks
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 1: like he can be a catcher for a long time
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: for them, as he's already shooting up draft boards for
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. And I think it's all well deserved
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: because the more and more that Drake Baldwin played this
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 1: past year, the more and more I fell in love
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: with the profile. It is just like an amazing like
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: Kyle Schwarber like bat, but also catching, so you can't
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: beat it. We have had a few picks for Drake
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: Baldwin in the PC as he took home I believe,
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: let me check it. I believe it's just one rookie
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 1: of the month this past year, so it was These
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: are cards three and four for Drake Baldwin. So where
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: are you gonna go?
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So with Drake great season, I am going to
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 2: go for the rookie card and so we are going
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 2: to the set that just came out, and I kind
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 2: of integrated earlier when we talked about the fifty dollars blasters.
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 2: But going to tops Chrome update for the true Red
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 2: Refractor five of five for Drake Baldwin. It is a
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 2: fabulous card. I do with another color match here, but
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 2: what I actually love about this one is he's got
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 2: the all red jersey and the emotion that he has.
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 2: He must have just hit a homer or something in
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 2: this picture and he is just as pumped as he
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 2: can possibly be. And being a Cardinals fan knowing how
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 2: hard it is to get color matches because is the
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 2: out of five aspect of the red, it is fun
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 2: to see this one. It is currently up on bid
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 2: on eBay sitting at two fifty five ins in a
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 2: few days, so when this pod comes out, it will
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 2: be available if you want to jump in there and
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 2: get it. But like I said, going with top scroll
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 2: update out of five the Red Refractor for Drake Baldwin
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 2: for that Rookie card.
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: Yep I think an absolute classic, and you know he's
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: screaming on the front of it, and it's just an
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: great exciting photo of Drake Baldwin.
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 2: So I love it.
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: You can't go wrong with this pick and more twenty
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: twenty five set designs that we put in as possible
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: also can't go wrong, because I love this set design
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: every time I see it, especially in the chrome version.
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 2: It pops. You just can't afford it, but it pops otherwise, Yes, exactly,
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 2: all right, what did you do with Drake?
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: All right, I'm going back to another set that was
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: just recently released and we talked about. I'm going to
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: Top's Heritage High number here to get the Drake Baldwin
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: Rookie image variation, which is set on that classic throwback
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: seventies design, and so you get the orange and the
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: blue for the braves, which is what came through in
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: the nineteen seventy six design. And this short print includes
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: him wearing a double bubble bubble gum helmet hat, bucket
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: hat that where you know he must have hit a
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: walk off and they're celebrating, and he's got it on
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: top of his head, got a big old grin on
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: his face and so you just can't go wrong with this.
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: It's a great short print card showing a just indelible
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: moment of him wearing this bubble gum bucket. And I
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: love it. I love these type of like walk off
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: goofy cards. I love that we've been getting this in
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: the short prints and Golden Mirrors over the past couple
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: of years from Tops. It has been one of the
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: spots where I think they've done a great job of
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: just finding new and interesting ways to get cool photos
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: into the sets. And yeah, that's where I'm going to go.
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: It's a relatively affordable short print right now that fifty
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: ish bucks. But this set just came out two weeks ago,
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: so our one week ago. We only covered Heritage high
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: number last week, so it is at its peak value.
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: You give this another month or two, I bet it'll
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: fall down into the twentysh dollar range.
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 2: Yep, that'll be My guess is it's a fun card,
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 2: like I just love this. This is It's like Stadium
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 2: Club but not as serious. It's really where this one
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 2: comes from. So we're the double bubble Drake Baldwin.
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: Good job, all right, Well let's make that last PC
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: pick as we are going to go back and honor
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: new Hall of Famer Jeff Kent, who was put in
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: by the veterans community recently, and you know, won an
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: MVP back in two thousand, coming off of a seventeen
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: year career in what she retired in two thousand and eight,
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 1: played with San Francisco, the New York Mets, the Dodgers,
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: the Astros, the Blue Jays in Cleveland one. Did he
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: get a no way? Actually, he did not win a
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: World serious at all with any of those Toronto teams.
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: He was technically a part of the ninety two team,
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: but I guess was not given it on his page.
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: Maybe he does have a ring though, because he was
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 1: on that ninety two Toronto team before he got dealt
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: Ford was seeing the David Cone deal. I believe he was.
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: But I'm going to look that up. Yep, that is
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: the David Cone deal that he was involved in back
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: in the day. We talked about it when he was inducted.
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 1: Maybe not the most likely player that you would have
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: put in from that ballot, but in both of our eyes,
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: deserving enough to get in. Is the all time leader
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 1: in home runs at second base three hundred and seventy
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: seven total career home runs. You know, not all those
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: were at second base, but just a really great slugger
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: during his prime. Certainly was outpaced by a few other
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: people on that ballot with him that probably need to
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: be in. And that's why Jeff Kent's candidacy and Hall
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: of Fame induction are a little bit overshadowed. But you've
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: got a shout out to him because it was a great,
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: great career and he is fifty seven, going to be
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: fifty eight when he gets inducted next summer. Always fun
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 1: to go back through some of these cards to put
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: into the PC of older players going to the Hall
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: of Fame. We did it last year with Dick Allen
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: and Dave Parker. This time it's right in the wheelhouse
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: when we collected, because I've got tons and tons of
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: Jeff Kent cards that they're just kind of like peppered
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: throughout everything that I've ever had, especially tons of those
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: Mets Jeff Kent cards, where like he was supposed to
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: be the next big thing and didn't really kind of
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: like really flourish until he got out of New York
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: there and started really crushing homers with San Francisco. But
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 1: You've got lots and lots of options here between when
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: Jeff Kent debuted back in the early nineties all the
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: way through today when he's still showing up in sets
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: like Archives and Alan and Ginter here and there, and
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: we'll be even more so going forward now that he's
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: a Hall of Famer. So what's your pick to put
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: in the PC for Jeff Kent?
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 2: I would be honest. I struggled with Jeff Can because
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 2: it was kind of like a little bit of nineties
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 2: junk wax time and things like that, and so I'm like,
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 2: I can't can't give me a collector choice of Jeff Kent.
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 2: And you know, so I did my like sixth brand
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 2: of card in this PC, and I went with I
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 2: with Don Ross this time. So I went with two
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 2: thousand and four Don Ross Limited Threads game worm patch,
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 2: the one of one version from from that series. And
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 2: though patches back in the day that were very small,
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 2: this one is a three color patch. I cannot I
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 2: have zero idea what part of the jersey it is.
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 2: You know, it probably part of a letter from the
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 2: front I found the front of this is an Astro's version,
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 2: So that's what I'm guessing it's from maybe maybe even
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 2: part of the Star. I don't think so, but you know,
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 2: I have to do some diagnosis later to figure that out.
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 2: I really did want to go with the giants. I
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 2: felt like, to me, Jeff Kent is a giant, like
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 2: that's how I kind of associate him. But I just
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 2: couldn't find a card that did it for me, so
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 2: fighting a one of one back in the days, for
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 2: you know, even at that time, like one of one's
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 2: always been a one of one, right, but even in
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 2: today's day and age of one to one is there's
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 2: like seven of them in every product. So but back
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 2: in the day, these were really true one of the ones.
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 2: They were really fun to see. So I just wanted
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 2: to go with the shiny patch because hey, that's kind
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 2: of how my PC works in general, even when I
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 2: was of my own money, So that was my go
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 2: to for Jeff Kent.
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think this is a great card
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: because it is very also emblematic of what those early
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: two thousands cards are. They were just kind of like
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: gaudy and shiny, but like still pretty classy too. But like,
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: I think they're gonna age fine because like they are
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: catchy and this one is certainly one of those cards.
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: I'm doing some quick sleuthing. I think with the patches
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: it's actually those Astros back in the day. They used
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: to have like a little loopy part on the A,
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: and I think it's the loopy part on the A
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: as they were kind of starting to lean into like
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: that red and gold motif a little bit during those
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: years when they were still in the NL and still. Honestly,
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: this is a great pick for Jeff Kent because he
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: put up some numbers with the Astros, He was an
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: All Star one time and just like slugged like no
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: other when he was in an Astros uniform. Really put
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: it to our Cardinals and early early career Albert Pooholz
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: back in the day, that's for sure.
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 2: All Right, finish us up. Where did you go with
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 2: our boy Jeff Kent New Hall of Famer.
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: Well, there's a couple of reasons I went with this one,
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 1: So I'm going with the two thousand MLB Showdown, first
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: edition Jeff Kent. Obviously we brought it up a couple
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: of times on this podcast over the years that that's
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: a lot of like where our friendship was founded back
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: in the day. On top of all the other active
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: of these we used to do when we didn't have
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: phones to distract us, and we spent way too much
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: time hanging out with each other and each other's basements
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: and playing MLB Showdown a lot, and so two things
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: that really stood out to this card for me, Well, first,
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: it's a classic MLB Showdown card where if you're not
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: familiar with it, it was a game invented by the makers
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: of Magic the Gathering, So it was like a tabletop
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: baseball game where you would roll twenty sided die and
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: then it would tell you the outcome. It's a lot. Also,
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: if you're familiar with Stratumatic, it's like that, but it
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: was with a collectible card game, and then you used
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 1: them to like build your own rosters and stuff. So
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: the first thing that really stood out is you and
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: I used this card against each other constantly. It was
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: a little bit of like a hidden gym card because
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: the number of points that you had to use on
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: your salary cap to put this card on your roster
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: did not quite line up with how good this Jeff
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 1: Kent card was. He was as good as like some
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: of the most premier hitter where you would get the
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: limited edition foil insert cards for them, but then the
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: foil inserts like made them more salary to put on
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: your roster, you know, like your Berry Bonds, your Sami Sosa,
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: stuff like that. But Jeff Kent was an all star
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 1: hitter without the foil on it, and we both usually
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 1: would use him as second base because he was just
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: a great slugger. And the thing that you denigrated Jeff
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: Kent for when you went into the Hall of Fame
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 1: was his glove. He was a plus se glove. And
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: then will Be the Showdown so well before the days
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: that they had stat cast and anything else that could
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: actually tell us what the true fielding abilities of players were.
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: But yeah, Jeff Kent was a plus in the game
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 1: of it will be Showdown from a fielding perspective, and yeah,
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: it's also just a classic Jeff Kent card where you
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: can see him swinging as hard as he can, and
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: you know the batting gloves in his back pocket, which
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 1: not sure why it's there. He's got two betting gloves on,
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: but the bad glove in his back pocket, which it's
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: about to fall out because he's swinging so hard. So
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: I knew I couldn't go wrong with an MLB Showdown
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: card for our PC.
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 2: I am so mad at you because of this, Because
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 2: I saw this, I'm like, I want to throw my
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 2: one on one back and I want this card because
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 2: this like I wanted a Giants card and this harkens
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 2: back to all those fun times we had playing playing
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 2: this and it is like you said, that was that
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 2: little cheat code, such a great card. I don't have
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 2: all the MLB Showdown cards I used to have at
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 2: one point I still got a handful of them, and
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 2: they're just they're fun cards. It was such a fun
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 2: game due to point the strata maagic to pursue the
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 2: penance and mob Showdown those all like when we didn't
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 2: have the devices. These were the things that we grew
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 2: up with. So absolutely love of it. Whether you snuck
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 2: in the first edition to just for you know, for giggles,
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 2: I'm sure that added extra fifty cents to the contents
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 2: on this one. But yeah, great, great pick to close
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 2: this out.
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and just like I'm looking at it again. He
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: only got out on three rolls and and one of
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: them was to strike down. The other two were fly balls,
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: which is huge for Sack flyes like after that, Jeff
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: Bent Kent was getting on base for you in the game.
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: He was a monster man.
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 2: Jeff Kent was a Hall of Famer for sure.
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Hall of Fame MLB Showdown card for sure. Okay, Well,
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: that's going to wrap us up for this week and
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: for this year on cards and categories. So thanks everybody
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: that's been listening to us out there. We definitely appreciate you.
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 1: I've been seeing it in the listening numbers, so it's
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: great seeing people come back and find the podcast. If
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 1: you haven't done so already, we would really appreciate it
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: if you would rate and review us wherever you're listening
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: to us. It just helps us grow the audience. And
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: I mean we're already showing up on Baseball Card podcast lists,
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 1: so it's a great honor as we put the work
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: into this PC and helping out those card collections and
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: fantasy teams throughout the year. So brew before we get
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: out of here, let everybody know where they can find
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: you if they want to wish you a merry Christmas
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 1: or happy Holidays on socials.
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 2: Yep, find me Twitter, ex Blue Sky and Jaybrewer one
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 2: seven and we will see everybody in the new year.
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 2: Cool Where folks find you?
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you can find me on blue Sky at mcool
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 1: seven cool spelled co U I L L like my
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: last name. You can also find the podcast on blue
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 1: Sky at cards Categories or email the pod at cards
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 1: Categories at gmail dot com when hear those show notes
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 1: looking for that rasballpost link. Also check out the link
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: to the store where we've got all sorts of cards
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: and categories, gear, some hats, some mugs, some t shirts,
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: all sorts of stuff to keep you going into twenty
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 1: twenty six as we got baseball just throughund the corner
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: in a few months. Man, I'm excited for spring training,
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: getting in twenty twenty six, getting into some new drafts.
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 1: So thanks everybody for checking us out. Have a happy Holidays,
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 1: have a merry Christmas, have a happy New Year, and
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: we will see you in twenty twenty six.
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 3: Z