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Answering Pirates Spring Training Questions · Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: What's up, everybody.
0:10
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Bucco Territory, presented to you by
0:14
Speaker 2: the Foul Territory Network. My name is Noah Hiles, and
0:16
Speaker 2: joining me as always are my co hosts, Josh Harrison
0:20
Speaker 2: and Platinum Key aka Mark. It is our first ever
0:25
Speaker 2: mailbag show here on Bucko Territory. Get very excited to
0:28
Speaker 2: get into a couple of the questions that you guys
0:32
Speaker 2: sent in.
0:32
Speaker 1: We appreciate the feedback. We had a lot to choose from.
0:35
Speaker 2: I apologize that we're not going to get it to everyone,
0:37
Speaker 2: so we only have so many minutes to record on
0:39
Speaker 2: this show.
0:40
Speaker 1: But keep sending them in. And the nice thing is with.
0:42
Speaker 2: Spring training, a lot of these questions are evergreen, so
0:45
Speaker 2: we'll be able to use some of these leftover ones
0:48
Speaker 2: for future shows to come. But keep commenting below on
0:52
Speaker 2: questions you want us to answer so we can get
0:54
Speaker 2: into them right now, guys, unless you have any opening
0:56
Speaker 2: remarks before we start the mailbag here.
1:00
Speaker 3: Now, I'm excited, let's get into these questions.
1:02
Speaker 4: Yeah, I bet say again, then.
1:04
Speaker 1: Let's go, all right?
1:05
Speaker 2: Jordan starts U saw if he asks if the Pirates
1:07
Speaker 2: keep Joey Bart, do you see Endy making the roster
1:11
Speaker 2: and flexible in positions on the.
1:14
Speaker 1: Field, or just getting sent down.
1:15
Speaker 2: I personally want to trade Bart and just have Endy
1:18
Speaker 2: and Davis rotate the catcher position. Now, that's interesting. I
1:22
Speaker 2: don't know if that's in the Pirates' best interest. I'm
1:25
Speaker 2: gonna start off by answering this one just because, I mean,
1:27
Speaker 2: Endy's had two arm surgeries now in the last three years.
1:31
Speaker 2: That's not good news for any baseball player, especially a catcher.
1:37
Speaker 2: I'm not giving up on Dy as a baseball player
1:38
Speaker 2: by any means. I mean, this is a guy who's
1:41
Speaker 2: played first base. He played second base in the minor
1:42
Speaker 2: leagues as well. The switch hitting component to his game
1:46
Speaker 2: is certainly unique. But when you look at this catcher situation,
1:49
Speaker 2: you're not gonna expect to get a ton of offense
1:52
Speaker 2: from Henry Davis, and he's absolutely making this team. So
1:55
Speaker 2: right now, I think Bart probably makes the most sense
1:57
Speaker 2: to be the backup because he can hit left handed pitching.
2:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, and there's your platoon guy right there.
2:04
Speaker 2: He's someone that you can probably start on games where
2:07
Speaker 2: Paul is not pitching. Paul or Bubba, those are the
2:10
Speaker 2: two guys I expect Henry to catch primarily. But yeah,
2:14
Speaker 2: I think down the line, Andy's probably the better long
2:18
Speaker 2: term him or Roe Flores to be the backup to Henry,
2:21
Speaker 2: if not replace Henry, to be the primary guy if
2:24
Speaker 2: they can hit consistently. But as things currently stand, I
2:28
Speaker 2: think Andy probably starts the year in the minor leagues
2:30
Speaker 2: and should considering all that he's been through injury wise
2:34
Speaker 2: over these last couple of seasons.
2:35
Speaker 1: Mark, what about you?
2:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean there's no player who's more fun than
2:39
Speaker 3: any Rodriguez. He's just just pure just like Joy loves
2:44
Speaker 3: the Yeah, loves the game. Just great clubhouse guys. So anyway,
2:48
Speaker 3: anyway that they can get any on this team would
2:50
Speaker 3: be great. I just I don't foresee it being the
2:52
Speaker 3: opening day roster, especially just with the injuries last year,
2:57
Speaker 3: and I don't really anticipate him being the answer at
3:00
Speaker 3: backup catcher. I think they start with Davis and bart
3:05
Speaker 3: assuming Bart isn't traded. I think there's a little bit
3:09
Speaker 3: of smoke going on with that right now where it
3:11
Speaker 3: makes sense to trade Joey Barty, and I think you
3:15
Speaker 3: can look at the acquisition of Rafael Flores as kind
3:19
Speaker 3: of just an indication of where the Pirates view Andy
3:22
Speaker 3: Robie Riguez right now because they went out and traded
3:25
Speaker 3: for Flores after they traded Bennar. That was after they
3:29
Speaker 3: knew that Andy was already hurt. So you know, maybe
3:32
Speaker 3: they're just saying, we're acquiring another young catcher that we
3:35
Speaker 3: can see as a backup just in case Andy doesn't
3:39
Speaker 3: have the durability to stick behind the plate. And we
3:42
Speaker 3: have seen Andy show off the versatility. I mean, he's
3:45
Speaker 3: played first, he was the opening day first baseman last year.
3:48
Speaker 3: He's played second in the minors, so he can bounce around.
3:51
Speaker 3: There's still value that he brings. And if he's the third,
3:54
Speaker 3: like emergency catcher, that's great. But I just don't anticipate
3:58
Speaker 3: anticipate him being much of a backup moving.
4:01
Speaker 2: Forward, Josh, I want to pick your brain on the
4:05
Speaker 2: fourth catcher here, Rafael Flores. This is a guy he
4:08
Speaker 2: was the headliner in the David Bednar trade. He's the
4:10
Speaker 2: youngest among this group. He's a guy who at twenty
4:14
Speaker 2: two home runs in the minor leagues last year and
4:16
Speaker 2: is one of the top prospects now in the Pirate system.
4:19
Speaker 2: As someone who's been a part of, you know, a
4:21
Speaker 2: log jam, though when you look at the guys ahead
4:23
Speaker 2: of you, and none of them are necessarily complete players,
4:26
Speaker 2: like they do certain things well, like Davis is a
4:29
Speaker 2: great defender, Dy being the switch hitting guy who is
4:33
Speaker 2: a high rated prospect that can't stay healthy, Joey Bart
4:36
Speaker 2: being the guy who's a platoon matchup hits left as well.
4:41
Speaker 2: How would you be approaching this spring if you're Rafael Flores,
4:46
Speaker 2: who's the number four guy but might have the highest
4:49
Speaker 2: ceiling out of all of them.
4:52
Speaker 4: He's in a good situation from a standpoint in one
4:56
Speaker 4: he was traded so.
5:00
Speaker 5: For a pretty big peace, so I don't think that's
5:02
Speaker 5: anything to take lightly. And listening to the situation, you
5:09
Speaker 5: know with Indy Uh, we talk about all the time
5:12
Speaker 5: being able to have depth and Indy being able to
5:15
Speaker 5: bounce around. As you mentioned, he was opening their first
5:18
Speaker 5: basement last Year's played some second bases, bounced around.
5:21
Speaker 4: But also given the two arm surgeries, also.
5:24
Speaker 5: Probably gives them an opportunity to say, you know, they
5:26
Speaker 5: can take it slow with him and not really try
5:29
Speaker 5: to put too much on him. But at the same time,
5:31
Speaker 5: you got Flora as a younger guy that you bring
5:34
Speaker 5: in that can also push the competition forward because at
5:39
Speaker 5: the end of the day, you know, health is one
5:42
Speaker 5: thing that keeps that keeps you on the field, and
5:44
Speaker 5: you know it's also keeps you off the field, and
5:47
Speaker 5: Indy having his injuries. That's just something where when when
5:51
Speaker 5: ben Arv was traded, they were able to, you know,
5:53
Speaker 5: as you said, find a young catching prospect that you
5:57
Speaker 5: know can potentially make his way, you know, into the
6:01
Speaker 5: big leagues, whether it's the backup or you know, taking
6:03
Speaker 5: over for the future. And that's not to say that
6:05
Speaker 5: you know, they've given up on Indy, but I think
6:07
Speaker 5: it allows them to be able to approach him and uh,
6:10
Speaker 5: you know, allow him to start and triple if he's
6:12
Speaker 5: going to do that, if they really want him to
6:13
Speaker 5: be a catcher, might be valuable for him to go
6:16
Speaker 5: down and really you know, get those innings if that's
6:21
Speaker 5: the case. But as you said, you know they're smoke
6:24
Speaker 5: with Joey's name, Joey Bart. That could be smoking where
6:28
Speaker 5: their smoke is fired, but it could also be put
6:31
Speaker 5: out you know, spring training season. Anything can happen. But uh,
6:36
Speaker 5: you know, I think if I was Indy, I just
6:38
Speaker 5: the main thing is being healthy and let the rest
6:41
Speaker 5: happen and you know, versatility is a good.
6:43
Speaker 1: Thing, absolutely all right, what's our next question mark? This
6:48
Speaker 1: one comes from Jung Ho fan great, great Twitter name.
6:52
Speaker 1: There is there a world where Clevenger makes this team.
6:56
Speaker 2: Mike Clevenger a non roster invite, obviously, veteran guy who
7:02
Speaker 2: played for the Guardians, the White Sox, played elsewhere as well,
7:07
Speaker 2: not on the forty man roster. Right now, we had
7:09
Speaker 2: the privilege of watching him, privilege we had. We were
7:12
Speaker 2: able to watch him pitch on Monday.
7:13
Speaker 1: It was a privilege. Everybody is a privilege, right But
7:16
Speaker 1: on Monday he pitched.
7:18
Speaker 2: He looked pretty good, honestly against the Rays. It was
7:20
Speaker 2: just one outing. But I don't hate the idea of
7:25
Speaker 2: Mike Clevenger making this team. And my stance on that
7:28
Speaker 2: is simply because I mean, if if everyone stays healthy
7:33
Speaker 2: in spring, then yeah, probably not. But if someone has
7:35
Speaker 2: to get sixty day and I've said this before in
7:38
Speaker 2: this show, your number five starter is Jared Jones or
7:42
Speaker 2: Hunter Barco, and those are probably your number four and
7:45
Speaker 2: five starters, and someone in the rotation might actually get
7:48
Speaker 2: moved back to the bullpen because those two guys have
7:51
Speaker 2: crazy upside and they're they're both gonna be contributors to
7:54
Speaker 2: this team.
7:55
Speaker 1: So the number five starter that.
7:57
Speaker 2: Breaks camp, you're gonna need him to give you two
8:00
Speaker 2: months of action, and Clevenger's not the worst option to
8:05
Speaker 2: do that. Personally, I think they'd be better off keeping
8:08
Speaker 2: that as like a platoon spot. I'm not a huge
8:11
Speaker 2: fan of the idea of like planning to do a
8:14
Speaker 2: whole bullpen game for an entire season one way through
8:17
Speaker 2: the rotation, but if you.
8:20
Speaker 1: Can, you can get by doing that for a couple
8:23
Speaker 1: of months.
8:23
Speaker 2: I think, especially when you have three or four guys
8:27
Speaker 2: who are in that tweener camp of Hey, they have
8:30
Speaker 2: experienced starting games. They also have experience pitching out of
8:34
Speaker 2: the bullpen, being those long relief guys.
8:37
Speaker 1: I think if you have.
8:38
Speaker 2: Four true starters breaking camp and then three of those
8:42
Speaker 2: guys in your bullpen, you can shuffle it around to
8:46
Speaker 2: where if they're stretched out enough to get you, know,
8:49
Speaker 2: you ask Carmen to get you through the lineup once,
8:51
Speaker 2: Clevenger to get you through the lineup once or twice,
8:55
Speaker 2: you're already in the seventh or eighth inning there, and
8:58
Speaker 2: you also look at how this roster's formed right now.
9:01
Speaker 2: Paul Skins bullpen's not doing a lot of work on
9:03
Speaker 2: most of the days he's pitching Mitch Keller the same thing,
9:06
Speaker 2: Mitch Keller, even on his bad days, he gives you length.
9:09
Speaker 2: So two of your five start days, your bullpen has
9:12
Speaker 2: a pretty low maintenance day. So I think again, it'd
9:17
Speaker 2: be gutsy ambitious, kind of foolish to try to plan
9:20
Speaker 2: on doing a bullpen game once.
9:22
Speaker 1: Every five days for a whole season.
9:24
Speaker 2: But I think in April, when no one's really stretched
9:26
Speaker 2: out anyway, you can get by with that. And then
9:29
Speaker 2: when you get to May, you're just counting down till
9:31
Speaker 2: Jared and Barkoor back, and heck, I mean.
9:34
Speaker 1: Between Erkidi and.
9:37
Speaker 2: Clevenger or whoever else they have there, maybe someone establishes
9:41
Speaker 2: himself as worthy of being an actual starter, and if not,
9:44
Speaker 2: just hold down the fort. So Clevenger probably not my
9:48
Speaker 2: first option, but I think he's probably the best true
9:52
Speaker 2: if you're looking for a true traditional fifth starter, he's
9:56
Speaker 2: not a bad pick to get you through two months.
9:59
Speaker 1: Mark, What do you think?
10:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head.
10:02
Speaker 3: You've mentioned before on this show how the Pirates with
10:05
Speaker 3: their young pitching prospects, like to kind of build them
10:08
Speaker 3: up in the minors and then once they're yeah, once
10:11
Speaker 3: they're finally ready to go, bring him up. Clevenger is
10:15
Speaker 3: the perfect guy to just have up on the team
10:18
Speaker 3: in that starting role while Barco's getting ready, while Jared
10:22
Speaker 3: Jones is rehabbing, and then once they're ready, you can
10:26
Speaker 3: let him go, or you can kick him in your
10:28
Speaker 3: bullpen or trade him or whatever you can.
10:31
Speaker 2: You can have an honest conversation with him and be like, look,
10:33
Speaker 2: if you deserve to be here, we'll find a spot
10:35
Speaker 2: for you, right, you know, like someone's gonna get hurt,
10:39
Speaker 2: and it might be fifteen day I l or whatever,
10:42
Speaker 2: but it's like, if you're good, they'll find a spot
10:44
Speaker 2: for you, exactly.
10:45
Speaker 1: But if you're not, you're you're what we paid for.
10:48
Speaker 1: You're you're a right, you're a fill in.
10:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're on a minor league contract right now.
10:53
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.
10:54
Speaker 3: And so I mean, I think him and Erkidi are
10:56
Speaker 3: kind of battling for that veteran rule of Indians eater
11:00
Speaker 3: early in the year, and I think Clevenger might just
11:03
Speaker 3: be a little disadvantage with not being on the forty man.
11:06
Speaker 3: So if there's an injury, maybe that helps him maybe
11:08
Speaker 3: he's the first guy added to the forty man but
11:11
Speaker 3: as a sense right now, I think her Key's kind
11:14
Speaker 3: of got the advantage with that.
11:16
Speaker 2: Josh, he faced Clevenger a few times in your career.
11:18
Speaker 2: What does he bring to the table and from what
11:20
Speaker 2: you remember in those matchups, how do you think his
11:24
Speaker 2: game can age and translate into this point in his career.
11:29
Speaker 4: I mean, talk about a guy that's been around the league.
11:32
Speaker 4: So when when you're.
11:34
Speaker 5: Speaking of that fifth, fifth spot, sometimes you want it
11:38
Speaker 5: to be a guy that's been around, that understands the
11:40
Speaker 5: importance of going out there and you know, I'm giving
11:44
Speaker 5: you what I got, and Clevenger show cases in the
11:47
Speaker 5: past of you know, you know, having having good days
11:50
Speaker 5: and having good stuff.
11:51
Speaker 4: I don't know.
11:52
Speaker 5: If he's necessarily that pitcher anymore, but that's not to
11:56
Speaker 5: say that he can't go get out because I mean
11:58
Speaker 5: he's still pitching. He's still out there, you know, able
12:01
Speaker 5: to get jobs. And I think more of it is
12:03
Speaker 5: just as you said, he's the odd man out being
12:06
Speaker 5: off the roster. But we all know that, you know,
12:08
Speaker 5: anything can happen, injuries happen, or he could pitch his
12:12
Speaker 5: way into a roster spot.
12:14
Speaker 4: I've seen it happen before.
12:15
Speaker 5: You know, guys, they as you said, they'll create a
12:18
Speaker 5: spot for you if you're producing.
12:20
Speaker 4: And you know, who knows what the first part of
12:23
Speaker 4: the season is like.
12:23
Speaker 5: Because that fifth starter spart does give you a little
12:27
Speaker 5: bit of leeway, especially earlier year, where you know, sometimes
12:30
Speaker 5: there are a few more off days built in. There
12:33
Speaker 5: are you know, potential for you know, rainouts or you know,
12:36
Speaker 5: makeup games to where that fifth starter is almost going
12:40
Speaker 5: to be one of those. Hey, this game really get
12:42
Speaker 5: banged because it's going to be rescheduled in August, or
12:45
Speaker 5: you know what, this game get banged is pushed back
12:47
Speaker 5: a day because we had an off day built in.
12:49
Speaker 5: So you know, guys like that will be able to
12:53
Speaker 5: as you said, the first sixty games, you might need
12:56
Speaker 5: somebody that's that's able to step in.
12:58
Speaker 4: And while Kitty might have then.
13:00
Speaker 5: Track, that doesn't mean that something may happen down the line.
13:04
Speaker 5: And you know both he and Clevenger both you know,
13:07
Speaker 5: swing start on the fifth one and you know, maybe
13:10
Speaker 5: wanting to put in a pen, but I don't think
13:13
Speaker 5: off the off the rip. He's got a spot, but
13:16
Speaker 5: I think some things have to happen. But I mean,
13:18
Speaker 5: I think if he pitches well, he's gonna put them
13:21
Speaker 5: in a position to, you know, say, we're gonna add you,
13:25
Speaker 5: or I don't know if he has an out built in,
13:27
Speaker 5: because some people have outs built in.
13:29
Speaker 3: Might be it might be like July or something around there.
13:32
Speaker 5: July or some some guys will have two outs. I know,
13:34
Speaker 5: I didn't know some guys had one before spring, and
13:36
Speaker 5: I was like, it might be a case where like, hey,
13:38
Speaker 5: go down the triple A for you know, the first month.
13:41
Speaker 5: These are all things, but uh, realistically, he's got to
13:44
Speaker 5: pitch well. And the other day it was a good
13:45
Speaker 5: out in form so we'll see where it goes from there.
13:48
Speaker 4: Yeah.
13:48
Speaker 1: I think one more thing, just on Clevenger.
13:50
Speaker 2: I mean, they have a very young rotation, so it's
13:52
Speaker 2: not the worst idea to have a guy who has
13:55
Speaker 2: been I mean Clevenger was pitching a part of some
13:58
Speaker 2: of the best rotations of his area. Yeah, you know, yeah,
14:02
Speaker 2: so he's seen what it looks like to basically what
14:05
Speaker 2: to try. The Pirates are trying to emulate that formula,
14:07
Speaker 2: you know, create a dream rotation, have a couple of
14:10
Speaker 2: boppers and just solid players around and you can win
14:14
Speaker 2: a lot of ball games as we've seen, especially when
14:16
Speaker 2: you play in a central division where the payrolls.
14:18
Speaker 1: Aren't super high. All right, next question, let's get into it.
14:23
Speaker 3: What do we got And this one is going to
14:25
Speaker 3: be sponsored actually by one.
14:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, all of our World Baseball Classic coverage is brought
14:35
Speaker 2: to you by our friends at Fox one, which is
14:38
Speaker 2: live stream all of your Fox favorites together in one place,
14:41
Speaker 2: including all World Baseball Classic games over the next few weeks,
14:45
Speaker 2: and after that the best MLB action all season long.
14:50
Speaker 2: All right, So our World Baseball Classic question for today's
14:53
Speaker 2: show comes from Darren. He wants to know does the
14:55
Speaker 2: World Baseball Classic effect the Pirates Grapefruit League lineups? And Darren,
15:01
Speaker 2: he is not sugarcoating it. He's getting to the point
15:03
Speaker 2: that everyone wants to know more. Connor Griffin question mark.
15:07
Speaker 2: If Pirates fans had their drollers, Connor Griffin would be
15:10
Speaker 2: playing a tripleheader every day and he would be batting
15:13
Speaker 2: one through nine, playing every position. He'd be juggling, selling
15:17
Speaker 2: hot dogs and writing my stories for me in the
15:20
Speaker 2: meantime too. I mean, I get it, he's young, he's nineteen.
15:23
Speaker 2: But you know what we're gonna start with Josh here, Josh,
15:27
Speaker 2: and he might be the only one who needs to
15:29
Speaker 2: answer this question. Give us a little insight on how
15:32
Speaker 2: spring training lineups are constructed.
15:35
Speaker 5: Oh for sure, definitely not a modern day Bugs bunny
15:39
Speaker 5: as you just said, no playing all nine positions.
15:42
Speaker 4: But realistically it's built based off of roster positions.
15:49
Speaker 5: Obviously injuries too, You know that those factor in day
15:52
Speaker 5: to day things that guys go through. You know, they're
15:55
Speaker 5: keeping track of guys at bats, how many innings they throw,
15:58
Speaker 5: how many pitches they throw. With all the you know
16:01
Speaker 5: technology we have, you know they're also keeping track of,
16:04
Speaker 5: you know, how much these guys have been on their feet.
16:07
Speaker 5: Spring training is to get you ready for the season
16:10
Speaker 5: and the postseason, so you can't run guys ragged.
16:13
Speaker 4: But you also got to work towards the season.
16:15
Speaker 5: So your question of more kind of Griffin question mark,
16:19
Speaker 5: it's gonna be no, not in a bad way, but uh,
16:23
Speaker 5: you know what it means for the World Baseball Classic.
16:25
Speaker 5: Obviously some rosters are going to be affected because you
16:28
Speaker 5: know a lot of guys are gone from their spring
16:30
Speaker 5: training team, you know, spring training facility playing, So what
16:34
Speaker 5: you will see you won't see more kind of Griffin,
16:35
Speaker 5: but you will see more NASCAR helmets.
16:37
Speaker 4: That is the double.
16:39
Speaker 5: Sided ear flat number ninety seven with no number on
16:42
Speaker 5: the back of his jersey. So you're gonna see a
16:44
Speaker 5: lot more of those guys, Which doesn't mean that these
16:46
Speaker 5: guys can't play, you know, it's just these guys are
16:49
Speaker 5: gonna get the opportunity to play major league spring training
16:52
Speaker 5: games because some guys you know, are playing in the
16:54
Speaker 5: WBC and uh, you know, while you would want to
16:58
Speaker 5: see more Connor Griffin, there's going to come a time
17:01
Speaker 5: and point for that. But you know, the main goal
17:03
Speaker 5: is to get to the season healthy and just because
17:05
Speaker 5: guys are gone, they don't want to put more on
17:07
Speaker 5: kind of Griffin. You know, as I said, that's going
17:09
Speaker 5: to allow for the double air flap, the NASCAR helmet
17:11
Speaker 5: to come up, and you know, those guys get a
17:14
Speaker 5: chance to play. You know, we were out at one point.
17:16
Speaker 5: I think last year Condor was one of the double
17:18
Speaker 5: air flap you know. Yeah, you know, Connor was a
17:21
Speaker 5: NASCAR helmet last year, so you know, it comes full circle.
17:24
Speaker 4: So there you have it.
17:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, on the note of NASCAR, you can watch that
17:29
Speaker 2: on Fox from the World Baseball Classic through the World
17:31
Speaker 2: Series to the World Cup, to NASCAR and Indy Car.
17:34
Speaker 2: With Fox One, You'll get it all live. Start your
17:36
Speaker 2: seven day free trial today. Offers subject to change. Download
17:40
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17:44
Speaker 2: from March six through fourteenth. Go to foxwe dot com
17:46
Speaker 2: for complete terms and conditions Fox one Streaming Now. All right,
17:53
Speaker 2: final question for our mail bag here? What do we
17:58
Speaker 2: got here?
17:58
Speaker 1: Mark? Pull it up? Let me see. This comes from Nathan.
18:01
Speaker 2: Do you think the Pirates would prioritize a fifth outfield spot,
18:04
Speaker 2: likely Garcia or an infielder for depth, particularly behind Treolo,
18:09
Speaker 2: or like a York or Valdez for that last roster spot.
18:13
Speaker 1: I like this question.
18:15
Speaker 2: I think something that people forget is that when you're
18:17
Speaker 2: constructing the roster, one of those outfield spots is Ozuna,
18:21
Speaker 2: Like he's not an outfielder. But when when you have
18:22
Speaker 2: a primary DH, that's that's taking that spot. So but
18:27
Speaker 2: like the final roster spot, Yeah, it's gonna come down
18:29
Speaker 2: to I think probably York or Gonzalez or no York
18:33
Speaker 2: or Valdez, I should say, I think Gozal is a
18:35
Speaker 2: lot to make the team, just because the outfield's already
18:40
Speaker 2: kind of crowded as is, and I think Garcia absolutely
18:44
Speaker 2: has played. His play has been worthy of making the team.
18:48
Speaker 2: But he's so young, and Josh, you you probably have
18:52
Speaker 2: seen a lot of this. When you're a young prospect,
18:54
Speaker 2: you don't have a lot of big league service time,
18:56
Speaker 2: they're going to prioritize you playing every day. And if
18:58
Speaker 2: that can't happen in the major leage right now, especially
19:01
Speaker 2: when you have three key guys being your primary outfielders
19:04
Speaker 2: with O'Hearn, Reynolds and Cruz, you're going to start that
19:08
Speaker 2: guy in Triple A until you need him to play
19:09
Speaker 2: every day.
19:10
Speaker 1: Does that make sense to you, Josh.
19:12
Speaker 4: Oh, yeah, for sure. He's a young guy.
19:15
Speaker 5: He was traded over, meaning like they see a lot
19:18
Speaker 5: of value they.
19:19
Speaker 4: Traded for him and the work.
19:21
Speaker 5: The last thing they want to do is to have him,
19:24
Speaker 5: you know, in the major leagues in a bench row
19:26
Speaker 5: as a young guy, not playing, not developing. You know
19:30
Speaker 5: where he can be down in Triple A, you know,
19:32
Speaker 5: getting those reps, getting those abs, playing well, and uh,
19:36
Speaker 5: you know, force his way onto the roster, you know,
19:39
Speaker 5: in the big leagues. But at the same time, you know,
19:41
Speaker 5: things happen you go down there, they're going to need
19:43
Speaker 5: you at some point. We know this game is full
19:46
Speaker 5: of injuries. But I agree with you, know, it doesn't
19:49
Speaker 5: make sense to have, you know, young guy like that
19:51
Speaker 5: when you already got the outfeel pretty much secure.
19:53
Speaker 4: You want him to be able to play.
19:56
Speaker 1: Mark, what about you?
19:57
Speaker 2: You can finish us off here, Like, who do you
19:59
Speaker 2: think is this roster spot?
20:01
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think you want to have Jake Ingham simply
20:03
Speaker 3: because of what he can do defensively. He's a great
20:08
Speaker 3: guy to bring in in like the seventh inning for
20:10
Speaker 3: that speed defense combo. He can hit lefties as well. Yeah, exactly,
20:16
Speaker 3: And so I think that's where I would go. And
20:19
Speaker 3: that's not a knock on Justinsen. He's having a fantastic spring.
20:24
Speaker 3: But the corner outfield right now, you look at it
20:27
Speaker 3: and there's two All stars and Brian Reynolds and Ryan O'Hearn.
20:30
Speaker 3: Right now, this isn't your like typical Pirates team of
20:34
Speaker 3: the last few years, where I think Garcia would be
20:37
Speaker 3: starting on any of those open the day rosters, but
20:42
Speaker 3: a vastly improved team less roster spots, got to keep
20:45
Speaker 3: him in Triple A to start, I think, just for
20:47
Speaker 3: those everyday opportunities and then when rosters expand come September,
20:52
Speaker 3: give him a shot and see where he's at. And
20:54
Speaker 3: maybe he's going to be a contributor for the playoff
20:56
Speaker 3: push awesome.
20:59
Speaker 1: All right, Well, that wrap up our mail bag show
21:01
Speaker 1: for today.
21:01
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21:04
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21:05
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21:11
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21:13
Speaker 2: Also want to remind everyone to check out our Bucco
21:16
Speaker 2: Territory store. Here we go, let's recite it off. Sure,
21:22
Speaker 2: what's coming next?
21:23
Speaker 1: Is it the Yeah?
21:28
Speaker 3: And then we got the month everyone's favorite and then
21:32
Speaker 3: we got to have to stop back right, Yeah I missed,
21:35
Speaker 3: I cut it too early.
21:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, fellas, any final thoughts before we wrap
21:41
Speaker 2: it up.
21:43
Speaker 3: World Baseball Classics starting this Friday. So Friday night, eight pm, uh,
21:48
Speaker 3: Team us as first game, and then Paul Skeins will
21:51
Speaker 3: be pitching against Mexico. Coming up here. I think that's Tuesday.
21:55
Speaker 3: I want to say the tenth or something I can't remember,
21:58
Speaker 3: but what right? Yeah? Yeah, So it's Brazil and then
22:03
Speaker 3: great Britain will be Schooble and then Skimes is starting
22:06
Speaker 3: Game three against Mexico, so should be pretty fine. So
22:11
Speaker 3: any other final thoughts, Josh.
22:14
Speaker 5: Uh nah, other than you know, it's been cool to
22:17
Speaker 5: see you know, Springs raining games even you know, seeing
22:21
Speaker 5: some of the you know, classic teams doing exhibition games.
22:24
Speaker 4: So you know, excited to see some of those.
22:27
Speaker 5: And as cool play and stuff gets here, you know,
22:31
Speaker 5: the next thing, we know, we're gonna be talking about
22:32
Speaker 5: opening Days.
22:33
Speaker 4: It's gonna go quick. We're already in March, so I
22:35
Speaker 4: can't wait.
22:36
Speaker 5: Excited to see what the boys gonna do for Team USA.
22:39
Speaker 5: Excited to see Paul Pitch on you know the tenth and.
22:42
Speaker 4: Ben yeah, oh yeah, yeah, that's right, he is there.
22:45
Speaker 3: Yeah.
22:46
Speaker 2: So my final thoughts, I'm excited to enjoy a nice
22:51
Speaker 2: summer night in Bradington. I'm gonna drop Josh Harrison's name
22:54
Speaker 2: in every bar I go to, and I'm gonna get
22:56
Speaker 2: VIP access because of it.
22:58
Speaker 1: So that's my plan alright, So on behalf of Platinum
23:02
Speaker 1: Key and Josh. I'm Noah Hiles.
23:04
Speaker 2: Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Bucko Territory,
23:07
Speaker 2: presented to you by the Foul Territory Network,