Latest / The 3-0 Take / Pirates Calling Up Paul Skenes

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Pirates Calling Up Paul Skenes · The 3-0 Take

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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Three O Take, where we talk
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all things Major League Baseball.
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Here's Kyle Corwin and Nate Reyes.
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It all starts right now. Welcome back to the Three O Take
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presented by Sea Geek Distance episode 431.
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I'll be your host, Kyle Corn. I'm here with my Co host Nate
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Reyes Innate. I had some other things in mind
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that I wanted to talk about, but the Pittsburgh Pirates, said Nae
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Nae. It's time to call up the Paul
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schemes set to make his debut this Saturday, May 11th.
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Fresh off of a 45 strikeout, 0.99 ERA, .91 WHIP in 27 and a
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thirds innings pitched across Minor League Baseball, Paul
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Skeens is set to make his long-awaited debut for the
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Pittsburgh Pirates this Saturday against the Chicago Cubs.
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Nate Can you recall a more anticipated debut?
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Not in, not in the old black and yellow.
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Been a long time. Long time.
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I mean, debut wise, is it weird to go back to Harper?
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Is it weird to go that far back? No.
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I don't think that's crazy, is it?
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I think, I don't know, man. I don't know.
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Especially with like, I think the biggest thing is like we got
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the build up. We we knew the name and then
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like the College World Series and like just maybe certain fans
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that are not like as deep into the college baseball scene got
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to, you know, get some exposure and and see what he's about.
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I think it just built the hype up even more.
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I don't know, man. Like all things have just looked
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real, real good, real good. Yeah, this is one of those very,
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very rare situation scenarios where you didn't have to wait
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long. Yeah, the turn around was so
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quick this. Is a quick turn around.
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This is a quick turn around. I would argue not quick enough,
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but that's not for me to decide. But I I've seen some some posts
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going around talking about how the Pirates were just waiting
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for Libby Dunn to wrap up her her time at school, and I
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believe the gymnastic season is wrapping up.
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I wanted I I. Own coincidence, I know.
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I had to think about it. I almost prefaced this this
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segment by saying that Livi Dunn's boyfriend was set to make
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his debut this weekend, but I I figured that wouldn't.
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There are certain people in the world that that see it that way.
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That would that would that would hit for some people.
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I I'm, I'm certain of it. But alas, here we are.
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Yeah, it's big time, Big time. Look, just spin lights out,
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dude. I love.
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I love the quick turn around like you said, like stuff plays,
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you know what I mean? And he's dominated.
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Everything we've seen from him has been domination.
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Mustache Game is on point. All of it's cool.
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I don't know. Did I ever tell you the weird,
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like connection I have with him? It's like a really strange,
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yeah, like an off connection. Not like directly to him, but
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you. Got somebody related to Paul
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Skeens? That'd be nice.
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That'd be nice. That'd be nice.
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No, before he was at LSU, he was at Air Force and the pitching
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coach over at Air Force. He's still there.
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His name's Ryan Forrest. Ryan Forrest was one of my
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summer ball coaches in high school before he started
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coaching at at Air Force. It's a little like a little
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cool, like when you see the video of Skeens going one
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overall in the draft, Ryan is standing like right behind him
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in like a an Air Force polo. It's pretty cool.
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So basically I had a big part in what Paul Skeens is now and what
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he's going to be. It all started with me.
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You are Paul Skeens, is what I'm hearing.
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We're the same size we, I mean the same, you know speed.
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It's just. You both have mustaches.
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There you go. There you go.
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So looking ahead to this, to this career that lies ahead of
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Paul Skein's, what What do we, what do we foresee happening?
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Because we we talked about it at length over the last few weeks
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with the the delay in him getting up, the decision to keep
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him down at the AAA level. And so we talked about, you
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know, like what's eventually going to happen with this
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anyway, given that it's the Pirates.
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Like if there was any other team would be like, OK, we could talk
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about this guy being a cornerstone here for a long,
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long time, but it's the Pirates. And I'm not trying to get ahead
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of ourselves here, given that he hasn't even throwing a pitch in
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at the big league level yet. But like for Pirates fans, for
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example, is this something that they can get excited about long
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term? Do we think or do we?
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Do we foresee this guy being dealt as early as his value will
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allow him to? It's all the alignment.
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It's it's all the alignment. You know, like it it you got to
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think this is different. You got to hope that this is
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different. I mean like me as just a
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baseball fan, I do hope it's different but it's it's the
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alignment of of stars, man. It's like the the roster has to
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be in good shape and it seems like it's starting to you know
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develop a little bit. There's there's guys that are
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signed there long term. You have like you're let's be
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honest, he has potential to be an ace.
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And we've talked about this multiple times on the show and
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if this is your first time listening, we have a a
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definition of ace and a #1 starter, right?
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And there's only a handful of aces in the league.
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Not every team has an ace. He has the stuff to be an ace.
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And I'm a huge fan of what Mitch Keller has been able to do last
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year coming into this year, he did get extended, right?
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So to me he is a 11. He's not in that ace territory
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for me, but it's nice to be able to transition into this where
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like not all you know eggs are put in the skins basket.
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There are, you know, there's talent around them.
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There's enough hype. I'm assuming tickets are flying
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right now, right? Like they're getting sold out
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like crazy, dude. OK, for real, just a little
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tangent here. Get this out.
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Of the way, I know. I know you got something to say
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about that. You.
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Did you see it? Yeah.
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Test. Dude, it's a tough look.
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It's a tough look. Hey, I tried.
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I tried, OK. You did?
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All right, so the news breaks. Sorry not to go into like full
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on story time in the middle of your point here, but just a
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quick tangent. The news breaks and for some
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strange reason my mind immediately goes to oh, you
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should snag some tickets. Maybe give them away.
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Because I mean, rarely does something like this happen
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again, going back to one of, if not the most highly anticipated
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debuts in a long, long time. This doesn't come around every
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day, so I go, let me snag some tickets, Snag some tickets.
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I tried to snag some tickets initially and it kicked me out.
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And so I was like, all right, well, let me go back in, try it
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again. Price has gone up just ever so
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slightly. I was like, all right, we're
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we're still good. I'm going to go in and snag some
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tickets, completed the purchase, and then I get an e-mail.
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I put out the tweet. I was like, hey.
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And the tweet followed the the purchase confirmation correct
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like you followed the correct. Steps.
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Yeah, I I wasn't like, hey, I've got two tickets and I went to go
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seek out tickets. No tickets.
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I I had placed the order. I I thought I had tickets in
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hand. But you know how these things
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work. And I get an e-mail after I put
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out the giveaway tweet being like, hey, got some tickets.
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Tag whoever you think deserves them and I'll pick some.
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I'll pick a winner on Friday. And whoever won, I would have
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sent the tickets to. They could have taken a buddy.
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They could have taken their mom, their dad, whatever.
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I was like, you know, let's make somebody's day.
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Shortly after I send out the tweet, people start engaging.
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They're like, oh, tagging, tagging this fan, tagging that,
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that friend, that family member, blah, blah, blah.
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I get the e-mail that says, sorry, those tickets sold
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minutes before you purchase them.
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I was like, what does that even mean?
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How do you I you sold the tickets to me.
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What do you mean the tickets were sold minutes before they
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were sold to me? It's like a human being.
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You can't be in two places at once.
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How can these tickets be in two places at once?
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If I purchase them, who else purchased them?
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It's a tough, it's a tough scenario.
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Not to name names, but we haven't.
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I mean, do we have a relationship with this
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organization? No.
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So that's a good thing, that lesson learned.
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So never the the. Basically the lesson is you have
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to use seegeek. The point is, and people go,
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whoa, hold on, like if you guys are promoting Seegeek all the
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time, like why are you using other vendors?
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It doesn't necessarily benefit Question fair, but personally,
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for me, especially when I'm like trying to be speedy and trying
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to save a little bit of money like you would as a baseball fan
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seeking tickets, you're going to use our promo code and that's
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how you save money. But for me, I've already used
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the promo code and as we well know, according to Nate's
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philosophy, you can't. You can try to switch emails
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and. Does Rookie?
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Does Rookie have an e-mail 'cause like?
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I could use my golden retriever's e-mail if he has
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one. I'll ask him about that when I
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hop off here. Let me know.
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But anyway, lesson learned. Only use, only use.
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See geek. But yeah, that was the that was
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the bummer of the day you know try to make try to make
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somebody's day and. So are they sold out?
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This is a stadium. That's a good question.
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Let's. Jam packed.
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While you look that up, I will finish my statement of saying I
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think this is different. I'm just going to, I'm just
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going to put my foot down. I think things are different.
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I know the organization. I guess the fan base isn't
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exactly you know happy with the ownership.
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We see the the famous you know like pictures and stuff of the
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kid with the sell the team shirt taking a picture with the owner.
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Like we we understand the category they fit into in the
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past. But this is gotten to a point
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where there, I mean it's it's, it's almost forcing the owner's
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hand right? Like you you've, your
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organization has developed, has signed, has grown this core that
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could very much compete in in sprinkling some, you know, free
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agent moves at some point during this window and you could see a
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run. So I think it'd be a large
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mistake, a very hefty large mistake to not to not lock this
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guy down long term and and make him a pirate dude.
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Like, just make him a pirate. Like, build around this, make
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this organization go do what you need to do.
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What are you finding? You know, I might I might try.
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You might do it. Are you going to do it right
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now? I'm going to try to do this.
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I need to. I need to I need to rectify the
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situation here. I I I made a promise and I
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couldn't follow through. So I need to I need to nail this
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down and on O'Neill Cruz T-shirt day talk about a day for Pirates
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fans Man congratulations. What did what did you all you
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all deserve this. All right.
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This is big. Are you selecting, are you going
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to reveal like, where the seats are?
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I'm going to keep that a little. Is this a?
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Is this a please? I tell you, what do you have?
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Do you have some thoughts on whether or not you think the
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Pirates are turning the corner with it?
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I mean you kind of just went into it a little bit, but can
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you? Provide Are you needing me to
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stall? Is that what you're needing?
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Yeah, that's basically what I was getting at.
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Because I need to go. I need to go.
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If I'm going to, again, if I'm going to do this for the people,
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if I'm going to be doing this giveaway, I'm, I'm going to have
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to follow. Through and you do you get the
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credit cards, so you do you PAPI.
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If you can do that, I will be right back.
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In fact, hey, while I'm gone, maybe give a prediction for how
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you think skiing's day going to go.
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It's only probably going to be like 50 pitches, if we're being
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honest. But give a prediction maybe on
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what you think is adding to be. All right.
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That's fair. All right.
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I I don't know if it's just going to be 50 pitches.
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I think that's unfair. I think that's I mean he's he's
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clearly like built up. I mean he's he's he's got a
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number of starts in in in the minor leagues.
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So like I don't understand why we would have to manage a pitch
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count like that. Look, I like I said if this this
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core can do something, if they continue to build, if they
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continue to put this together, you have youth, you know, like
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you have an O'Neal Cruz, you have, you have Cobrian Hayes who
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does need to get over the hump, but kind of off to a little bit
15:56
of a slow start this year. But still like there's a lot of
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promise, crazy talent with the glove over a third.
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But there is some, some hope around this.
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I think, Dang, I didn't realize Cobrian Hayes is already 27.
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All right, so less time than I thought.
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We need to pick things up then let's let's let's get it going a
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little bit. O'Neill Cruz, we already know
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crazy talent. Cobrian Hayes has it in there
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somewhere. I'm just waiting for like the
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breakout to come through. You know, Brian Reynolds, I I
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don't know the whole thing there.
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I I'm sure he's kind of lost some fans at this point.
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He's he said some weird stuff. He's kind of acted a little
16:41
weird. He's wanted out of town.
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But like, now he's still there. I don't know.
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He, he gives me, I don't know why Bryan Reynolds gives me
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Anthony Rendon vibes. Is that OK to say?
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I think that's OK to say. It's a little bit of like a cuss
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word in our, you know. Bryan Reynolds, You're comparing
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Bryan Reynolds to Anthony Rendon.
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Like attitude wise. Like, I get that vibes and I,
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you know what I mean? I don't know.
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I don't know. That's tough.
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I know. But like the whole, it's just
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been weird. It's like a weird relationship.
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Yeah, I just there's a lot of promise to there's a lot of hope
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around this, and I think it'd be a a very smart time to sell if
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if you're really not wanting to stick around and not be the
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owner of the future, your stock is probably never been higher
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than it is now. So find a way to keep this
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together, find a way to build around Paul and don't let this
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be like a a quick little flash in the pan short window.
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But it does take like a There needs to be another step forward
18:06
in this offseason. Like you, you have the core
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pieces you can work around. Some of them are extended.
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Maybe you could have a couple more extensions thrown out
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there. But there needs to be like, that
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next step. In reality, I can't imagine what
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star or veteran wouldn't want to play for like at this hungry of
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a fan base, this loyal, of a fan base in a ballpark that's, I
18:35
don't know, in my mind, the top five ballpark in baseball.
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So I need it. I need it.
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I need the Jolly Rodger to be raised on a regular occurrence
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moving forward. I need the window to open up and
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I need this owner to double down or get out, sell, maybe give me,
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you know, like the the Rubenstein situation.
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Is there another owner out there that's like that where the
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Orioles have all of this talent and it like the stock is high,
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they sell and now it's just flourishing.
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Like, can the Pirates get there? I think there's names on the
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roster that allow them to get there.
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They just got to build on it. Just got to add some more names
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so you know, make a pitch. Make a pitch to to some free
19:32
agents this offseason and see what you can do.
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Give me a little something. Jerseys are too clean to not be
19:41
worn by some superstar you know. That's a fact.
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So what do you got, pal? You locking it down the done.
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Saturday, May 11th at Four O 5. Eastern Eastern Standard Time.
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Never know might might snag somebody in the West Coast that
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needs to make a flight out. All right, look, here's the
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deal, it said, waiting for the seller to confirm the order.
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So here we are in the same situation.
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We're going to figure it out. Hopefully we're going to try to
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rectify the situation. So hopefully we'll have two
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tickets to give away for Paul Skeens debut on Saturday, May
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11th. Did you give a prediction on
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what how you think he's going to do?
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Official prediction, I think he's ramped up.
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So I think he has some. I think he has some flexibility
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with the with the number of pitches he's going to throw.
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I would say give me against the cubbies.
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I'm going to say 6 and 2/3 one earn run, one walk.
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I'm going to go 7 KS. I'm going to give him, you said
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six and 2/3. I'm going to give him a five.
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I don't think he's quite ramped up as as we might hope and I
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even if he is, even if like even if the discussion is that he's
21:28
he's ramped up behind closed doors, I don't think they're
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going to let him eat as much as we want him to.
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They're still probably going to take a little bit easy.
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I'm going to give him 5. I think even with as good as he
21:45
is I think he's going to. I think nerves are going to get
21:47
to him a little bit. I think he's going to labor deep
21:48
into some counts. So even if he does get up to you
21:52
know 7580, I I think I think he's going to he's going to
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maybe top out of five. I'll give him two runs and five
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KS. It's going to be a somewhat
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mediocre of a debut but anticipated nonetheless.
22:13
I'm that's going to be appointment television.
22:16
I'm looking forward to that. That's going to be fantastic.
22:20
I. Don't know why I can't.
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I was trying to find number of pitches he's thrown in each
22:24
start. There's just, it's just the
22:25
column's just blank. Shout out to Bridge of October,
22:30
said 66 on Sunday. Thank you.
22:35
Had more than that the start before around 75.
22:37
Chances are he doesn't get more than 80.
22:38
Yeah, it's kind of. It's kind of.
22:40
Where? All right, all right, all right.
22:41
All right then. Six and 2/3 is a lot, Yeah,
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especially if we have 77 punches involved.
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I'm going to drop it down to to five and two thirds. 5 2/3 I'm
22:53
still going 7 punches though. I'm strong on that one.
22:58
I like it. I like it a lot, Rookie agrees.
23:01
As you can hear. Rookie just found out he's got a
23:04
new e-mail address That's. Where rookie's going?
23:07
Hey, excuse me, I've been hit with this two step verification
23:11
security measure and I don't know what to do.
23:14
It's asking for a thumbprint and I have a paw.
23:18
Don't exactly know what I'm supposed to do, rookie.
23:22
Shut up. What do you think's going on up
23:26
there? What do you think we got?
23:27
I don't know. I would ask you to stall, but
23:29
you've already done that for me, so we're just going to talk
23:32
about let it be. Or I blacked out.
23:34
I don't even know what I said. That was pretty much me for the
23:39
duration of your your honeymoon that you were on.
23:42
Sure, Yeah. Four episodes.
23:45
Yeah, it was just nothing but Blackout 4 episodes let's talk
23:48
about. Yeah, sure.
23:58
Is he up there alone or is is Meredith home?
23:59
He's up there by himself. That's there you go.
24:02
That's tough. There you go.
24:04
I don't think this has ever happened on this show.
24:07
Actually, surprisingly, yeah 'cause he just turned 1.
24:10
He just turned one on on Sunday. That's a good stretch.
24:14
That's a good stretch. Let's get into what are we
24:16
getting into next? Let me see if I can carry us
24:18
for. Let's talk about what was really
24:22
going to be the headline for the show was how these Japanese
24:24
stars have absolutely taken center stage in baseball.
24:27
And Shohei Otani. We know obviously for one,
24:29
Yoshinobu Yamamoto is settling in very nicely following a rough
24:34
start as we all know at this point.
24:37
And really the story I think is Shoda Imanaka.
24:42
I think they are just or. I think he rather is off to the
24:47
most surprising start 'cause you know what Shohei's going to do.
24:49
Although I don't think we saw this coming.
24:51
You know Yamamoto's going to give you quality performances
24:55
night in and night out when when he takes mountain.
24:58
But Shota Imanaga, my goodness, what a run he's on and I'm going
25:03
to talk more about that when I get back.
25:04
So maybe carry us for a little longer, shall we?
25:08
Yeah, you'll take the the, the Immanaga stuff.
25:12
I did see a nugget Well, saw a tweet from Nugget Chef.
25:19
Shout out to Nugget Chef on Twitter or X at Jay Hay.
25:23
Kidd said that Yamamoto went more than six innings pitched
25:28
for the first time last night. He tweeted this today, so he's
25:33
talking about his start on Tuesday.
25:37
Even making it 6 innings pitched is much rarer than it even was
25:42
just a decade ago. Percentage of starts with six
25:45
plus innings league wide. In 2014 it was 63 percent. 20/19
25:54
it was 42%. So far in 2024 it's 39%.
26:00
That is a bigger issue to me. I don't want to take away from
26:04
Yamamoto, but like, that's an absolutely embarrassing, absurd
26:09
number, But good for Yamamoto, I think.
26:15
I think the unfortunate thing for Yamamoto is that there are
26:20
so many Dodger haters out there. There's so many people that are
26:23
just like we're and I'm. I've got in that boat.
26:26
Like, I get it. Like, I'm I'm kind of sick of
26:27
just every year there's some new superstar joining the roster and
26:32
every year it's kind of the same ending.
26:35
But like, it's not fair to Yamamoto.
26:39
It's not fair for for us to just write him off or or suddenly,
26:42
you know, not want to watch Dodger games.
26:45
Like it's a little, I was saying it's unfair for Yamamoto because
26:49
of the fact that like so many baseball fans that just aren't
26:52
interested in watching Dodgers games because of the Dodgers
26:56
being the Dodgers. But like for for us, we need to
27:00
be able to appreciate what Yamamoto is and what he's doing.
27:04
I think take away like, your Dodger hate and get into his
27:09
starts and watch him pitch. The guy pitches, the guy is
27:18
good. So get over the Dodger 8 and
27:22
appreciate him. Yeah, sorry I I missed your a
27:29
couple minutes of Dodger talk there, but let's start.
27:32
Talking more just like the I was reading off that that nugget
27:36
chef post on Twitter about like the We're under 40% of starts so
27:43
far this year have gone over six innings.
27:46
Just absurd. But it was in reference to
27:49
Yamamoto's start on Tuesday going +6 for the first time.
27:54
Wait, not 40% this season? Said so far this year it's at
28:01
39%. Oh, oh, I right, right.
28:06
Comparatively to the 63 point. Five that was listed back in 10
28:10
years ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
28:12
OK. Speaking of appreciating
28:14
Dodgers, let's let's get to what again as I mentioned was what
28:18
was going to be the original point or the original headline
28:22
of this episode before the the skiing's news broke.
28:24
And that's just this this trio, this three headed monster that
28:28
we're talking about that we're dealing with here.
28:31
You mentioned the Dodgers, Shouhei and and Yamamoto.
28:34
Shouhei Ohtani is playing on a different planet right now and I
28:39
know that that gets that gets run into the ground, the Unicorn
28:43
moniker. I I I get that.
28:45
Believe me, I understand. But Shohei Ohtani just hitting
28:54
is on a different level, even from where he has been.
28:59
And I I understand just hitting you, you remove an an element, a
29:05
facet of what he brings to the table all together in pitching.
29:11
But I don't know, dude, Do you do you think there's any, any
29:15
degree that the Dodgers are looking at this going?
29:18
Maybe we stop trying to force the issue and just let this guy
29:22
hit. Because right now he's leading
29:27
entering entering today, Wednesday, he's leading all of
29:30
baseball in home runs, batting average, double S, slugging,
29:34
OPSOPS, plus total bases. Oh, and by the way, he's tied
29:39
for ninth. He's tied for ninth in all of
29:40
baseball in stolen bases. Joey from Baseball doesn't Exist
29:46
tweeted out. The highest WAR for ADH in MLB
29:49
history is A7 WAR. Edgar Martinez back in 1995.
29:54
Shohei Otani is on pace to have an 11.7 WAR, the highest in
30:02
history for ADH, and he set he's on pace to surpass that by 4.7.
30:09
Yeah, like he's passing that with like an All Star player.
30:13
He's worth. He's worth Edgar plus an All
30:15
Star. Yes, exactly.
30:17
And he's flirting. He's as of right now the the
30:19
number's a little fuzzy. I'd have to go back and confirm
30:22
the the actuality of this, but he last I checked, he's flirting
30:25
with like a 5040 pace. Yeah, what's crazy is that I
30:32
don't know if things have changed since you like
30:34
transitioning to full time DH. I've heard that, like he doesn't
30:39
even. There are times where he doesn't
30:40
even really take BP, Like he doesn't really do like on field
30:44
stuff. They do a little tee work in the
30:46
cages, like in the tunnel, but that's about it.
30:49
Like I he's an alien. He's an alien.
30:55
Like, I I don't know, this is all uncharted territories.
30:58
Every time he does something, it's uncharted.
31:02
So at the same time, it's like, can you just walk away from what
31:07
he's able to do on the mound like you?
31:09
Are you OK just saying no to that?
31:13
Do you at least have to see how it goes?
31:18
Do you turn them into I I don't know.
31:20
Like I it's weird and crazy and cool to watch.
31:25
And also, I'm jealous and all of that.
31:28
For the record, I'm not suggesting that the that the
31:31
Dodgers do that. I'm just throwing it out there
31:33
because it's it's it's notable to the point where you have to
31:37
at least ask the question like, do they just let this guy hit?
31:42
Because he is on a torrid pace right now and it's fun to watch?
31:47
I tell you what I I think I'm I'm tuning into more Dodgers
31:50
games now as of late than I ever have just to watch, honestly,
31:56
even even beyond Ohtani. Just like that that trio at the
32:00
top of of bets, Freeman. Ohtani And then I catch the
32:04
occasional Yamamoto start. Like it's well, that's the thing
32:07
that's The thing is that like, you know, and it's not just the
32:12
top of the order. It's the entire depth of this of
32:15
this lineup that the Dodgers have.
32:19
And you know, like, say what you will about the Angels even when
32:23
they were going good, even when you know it is Trout and Otani
32:26
back-to-back and the rest of the lineup looks OK.
32:30
This lineup is still better and any pitcher that is working
32:36
their way through this line up at least twice is more exhausted
32:42
than they were when he was an Angel.
32:45
So it is about like can a pitcher stay focused for each
32:50
guy? Can a pitcher stay on this
32:52
scouting report to get each guy out?
32:54
And the harder that they know that is for a better hitting
32:57
line up, the better that is. On a scenario for Ohtani,
33:02
pitchers are working. They're working to get through
33:06
this line up. And you have, I mean you have 3
33:12
guaranteed Hall of Farmers in there.
33:16
You could argue that some could be.
33:18
I don't know what Will Smith is going to be when it's all said
33:21
and done or Max Muncie, but like, you have just an
33:26
exhausting amount of depth and two incredible hitters with with
33:33
Mookie and Freddie, you know, surrounding him.
33:37
It's absurd, man. It's absurd.
33:40
Well, let's talk about Yamamoto real quick.
33:43
His last outing last night and I watched that one, went eight
33:49
innings, which was the longest start in his his career.
33:52
His his young Major League Baseball career by two outing,
33:57
by two innings. Actually his his career long
33:59
before that was six. I say career.
34:03
I know, small sample size but still impressive.
34:05
I mean 8 going 8 innings give up two on five hits, 5K, zero
34:11
walks. I mentioned this guy settling in
34:16
nicely and boy is he. His ERA is down to 279 and since
34:26
his debut in the Korea series, has only given up eight runs and
34:30
41 innings for A176 over that stretch.
34:35
I think if you go back to that episode I told you not to worry,
34:39
we it's it's all good. And here it is.
34:42
Proof's in the pudding. He has officially settled in.
34:47
The amount of just erroneous comparisons talking like it'll
34:57
be the it'll be the stat head comparisons where you've got you
35:00
know you got like Yamamoto, Logan Webb and and whoever else
35:04
that these these people on on social media want to compare and
35:06
it's like the the Dodgers paid how much for this guy and it's
35:11
like. Yeah, quickly forgotten.
35:16
Yeah, very much so. It's like you can't you can't
35:22
look at a sample size I I understand it's easy to get your
35:26
quick, cheap shots in early if you're if you're a Dodgers
35:29
hater, I understand that. But like, understand that this
35:32
guy's going to be around for a long time.
35:34
And I would venture to say that the guy not to throw strays at
35:39
like a guy like Trevor Williams or anything, but if there's a
35:42
Nats fan out there that's trying to compare like Trevor
35:45
Williams's 2024 start to Yamamoto as being like, look how
35:49
much money we're saving. Not having to dish out 300 +
35:52
1,000,000 for a guy like Trevor Williams.
35:55
I'm going to, I'm just going to go out on a limb here and and
35:58
plug in any name again, not just throw strays at Trevor Williams.
36:02
Plug in any name that you want to compare that people trying to
36:04
get, like cheap shots at or with.
36:09
I'm gonna go out on a lemon venture to say that a guy like
36:11
Yoshino Yoshinobu Yamamoto is going to have a far better
36:16
career and a much longer career than whoever it is that you're
36:20
plugging into the equation or the comparison.
36:23
That's a pretty safe bet. Yeah, Yep.
36:29
Talked about this before, man. Like we've we've never been more
36:32
analytical. We've never been able to track
36:34
stuff more than we are now. And we know that Velo and and
36:39
spin rate are key. You know, those are the big, big
36:43
variables that we're looking at. And you're, you know, baseball
36:46
doesn't lie. Like the ball doesn't lie.
36:48
And you can see that. I I love the, I love the move,
36:55
dude. I love what these guys are doing
36:58
for Japanese baseball and maybe even Asian baseball in general.
37:02
Like, get them over here, like you can see success.
37:06
You can see the the translating from league to league is is
37:10
working. The gap is narrowing for sure.
37:14
And I know that you know two of these names.
37:15
It's still a very short sample size.
37:18
But, like, it is really, really good to see.
37:21
You know, it wasn't just some, you know, lightning in a bottle
37:25
situation with Ichiro or Hideki Matsui.
37:28
You know what I mean? Like now we have multiple guys
37:31
competing at the top of the league, leading leagues, leading
37:35
leagues in some categories. I know they're on the NL.
37:37
But like, it's still this movement that I think is
37:42
hopefully going to bring down this wall of worry that that we
37:48
once had with guys coming into this league.
37:52
So I'm here for it. It's crazy to see.
37:56
Sucks that two of these three names are on the Dodgers, but
37:59
get over that if you're a baseball fan.
38:01
Like, just enjoy what they're doing because it is absurd.
38:07
Well, you mentioned Velocity, which is a perfect transition
38:12
into who I really, really wanted to talk about because I don't
38:17
feel like we've given him enough appreciation on this podcast to
38:21
this point in the season. Shota Imanaga Seven starts 41
38:28
and 2 thirds 43. K's an ERA of one O 8 and a WHIP
38:34
of .82. He's your National League Rookie
38:37
of the month for the month of April.
38:41
And by the way, his average velocity first fastball 92.1.
38:49
Yes, Sir. 92 point one, and this is what I wanted to touch on
38:56
that I was excited about this. His four seamer has the highest
39:02
run value of all pitches across baseball.
39:07
In other words, his 92.1 mile an hour fastball is the most
39:11
valuable pitch in baseball. And I believe second in line was
39:16
Tyler Glass. Now I want to say it was like
39:20
his he have a cutter. I want to say maybe it was a
39:22
cutter, maybe it was a four seam.
39:24
I think he's cut our sinker guy, but I could be wrong.
39:27
That's what we're dealing with at this point of the season.
39:34
Shota Imanaga is dealing. And not just that.
39:38
The thing that I love, that I've seen and I've watched a handful
39:42
of his starts already. The energy man.
39:46
I don't know how how much or how little you've caught of this guy
39:48
but he he has the fire after he he gets a he ring somebody up on
39:55
a on a big strike out. He lets you know he he's walking
39:59
off the mountain letting you know just exactly who he is.
40:01
So like I'm I'm about it. And on the flip side, he's got
40:07
that, he's got that respect element to him.
40:09
Like I I saw a video today that showed that when, when?
40:14
The umpire throws back like a ball after say like a foul ball
40:18
for example. They got cycling a new baseball.
40:21
He bows to the home plate umpire before he throws it back.
40:25
To him I'm so sick. So like, he's the full package
40:28
man. He's going to go out there and
40:30
dice, he's going to, he's going to bring the juice.
40:36
But he's also going to go, hey, Mr. Umpire, I respect you.
40:40
I appreciate you for coming out here on on on this sunny Sunday,
40:46
spending your time out here among us baseball players.
40:50
I thank you for your time. I thank you for your service.
40:53
Like, come on, man. This is this guy's the real
40:56
deal. It is crazy cool.
40:59
It is really cool to see. To answer your question from
41:02
before, Glass Now's 4 seam is in here. 4 seamer.
41:06
But he's at 9:00 so like there's an an entire two run value
41:10
higher then the next closest. He's tied with Burns.
41:14
Gordon Burns at with his cutter at 9:00 and you have a group of
41:18
three with eight, group of four with 7 all fastballs.
41:25
But it just show, it comes to show that, like, you know, we
41:29
don't need to be obsessed with velocity.
41:31
It just comes down to pitching and deception and that I think
41:36
Imanaga is a master at. Opponents are hitting $1.40 off
41:44
his four team which is 6th and all of baseball.
41:47
He did have a quote that I came across and and digging around
41:50
for some notes that I just loved.
41:54
He said it's I guess and just talking about his his time in
42:00
the majors and and kind of what his his main takeaways are.
42:03
He said it's just a result of of thinking about how can I get to
42:06
the level of MLB pitchers. I know that for me it's going to
42:11
be hard to beat them based on velocity.
42:13
So if I have something else where I can not even necessarily
42:19
try to get ahead of them, but just be even with them, that's
42:22
what I want. So he the the awareness is
42:26
already there. He knows like, I'm not going to
42:30
go out there and blow up by anybody.
42:32
I need to. I need to use craftiness.
42:34
I need to use deception. And in in regards to the
42:37
deception, I don't know if you've seen any overlays of his
42:40
four seam versus splitter. It's disgusting, dude.
42:43
It's gross. So he doesn't.
42:45
Even identical until the last, like 10 feet.
42:47
The bottom just falls right out. It's it's it's refreshing, I'll
42:55
say that to see a guy just go out there like you said, just go
42:58
out there and and pitch instead of throw and this is proof that
43:02
it can be done and that it can be done well and consistently,
43:06
yeah, over the course of many. Starts like and it's it's proof
43:11
that like the the ideology isn't the same.
43:20
You know what I mean? Like the the philosophy.
43:24
I don't know what youth baseball looks like over there.
43:27
I don't know what the process looks like over there, but like
43:31
it, it is proof that there the art still exists.
43:37
And I know like it's going to have like this old head, you
43:41
know get off my lawn type conversation about it.
43:45
But like, you know, the David Cones, the John Smoltz's, like
43:49
the guys that are in broadcasting that very much
43:52
lived in that and played in that generation of pitching is
43:56
pitching without, you know, radar guns being the, the main
44:01
focus. Those guys have to be more
44:04
involved in baseball. And again, it's it's it's got to
44:06
be a philosophical change. It's got to be an organizational
44:10
shift of what pitching needs to look like and it needs to start
44:14
all the way down at the bottom and stop, you know, the
44:18
obsession with radar guns. What did you give him before?
44:23
Is the little little the little peanut butter treat Frozen
44:27
frozen peanut butter, Huh. Clean that up, Peanut butter.
44:31
Yes, married us home, so we're good.
44:33
Hopefully it squared away. Goodness, I apologize to our
44:36
listeners for that. That's he he lets you know man.
44:39
The whole neighborhood knows when he's not happy.
44:42
He's got a he's got a deep voice.
44:43
Now he's. He's growing up, man.
44:46
He's grown up before our eyes. Talking about growing up before
44:49
our eyes. The Washington Nationals.
44:52
How about it? What?
44:54
This is what I told you. This is what I told you.
44:58
I was on record before opening day saying, hey, look, let's not
45:02
jump the gun on the Nationals here.
45:04
We're not gonna give him the crown, the division crown.
45:08
But let's, let's, let's look at this rationally.
45:11
And I did, and I don't recall, did Ryan.
45:13
Ryan was was kind of in the same camp with me, right.
45:16
I don't know if you were. Yeah, I mean I, I, I'm, I'm
45:18
removed from the area. I think it's, I think it's a
45:22
geographical bias, but it's OK. That's all right.
45:28
And to be fair, Ryan was, you know, he played in that
45:30
organization. I think he knows knows a lot of
45:33
different names in there. So I don't know.
45:36
I do know what I mean. The one name that I know that
45:39
jumps out to me is, is CJ Abrams.
45:43
Like the guys popping off. I I think he's probably made the
45:48
biggest leap offensively of any other player in the league.
45:53
We won't talk defense. I don't know if the defense is
45:55
shaped up at all. Saw a lot of errors last year.
45:58
Short, but like if you just let the kid be himself, give him a
46:03
place to play. Sorry, Padres.
46:08
That that was a guy that I was excited about and and the
46:11
Nationals fans that are in the area that I talked to whenever
46:16
they want to talk baseball, we're talking Nats.
46:18
They're going like what do I have to be excited about?
46:21
I'm like and this was this was like a year or two ago and I was
46:24
like just be patient like you. You all are getting solid
46:27
returns for these guys that you're just shipping out and
46:31
it's it's going to take some time but like just just sit
46:35
tight. And I know that there's still
46:38
some some philosophical approaches in that organization
46:42
that maybe need to be addressed to to fully unlock the potential
46:46
that this team has and will continue to to foster as as as
46:51
time goes on and they start hopefully making more additions.
46:56
But yeah, CJ Abrams was a guy that I was excited about
46:58
Mackenzie Gore I think I was a little, I was maybe a little
47:01
higher on just because. Yeah.
47:03
That was a popular name when it went down.
47:06
Yeah, I saw glimpses of what he was able to do in San Diego.
47:10
And I'm like, you know, maybe he maybe he gets something cooking
47:13
up there in DC off to a little bit of a slow start.
47:16
Like he's he's, he's serviceable right now.
47:18
Like he's, he's certainly contributing.
47:21
But CJ Abrams, man, I'll tell you what, man, 77 homers, 19
47:27
ribbies and OPS of 888. And the whole reason I wanted to
47:30
bring up the Nationals anyway is they were making a little
47:33
history of their own, the first time that they had reached above
47:37
the 500 mark since they were 40 and 39 in July of 2021.
47:48
That's such a rough nugget. It's unfortunate, but it it
47:53
speaks to what I hope. Good for them.
47:56
Is the the strides that they're that they're making I.
48:03
They got Dylan Cruz in the hopper, right?
48:05
Like, is he? I haven't really paid attention
48:07
much. Is he working his way up is?
48:10
He yeah, last I saw he was 'cause I I was bombed.
48:15
Now I wanted to go catch him in in Fredericksburg, 'cause
48:18
they're not too far. But he I don't think he stayed
48:24
there long but let me check to see what what the latest on him
48:26
is. But yeah, that's but that's just
48:32
more evidence as to as to what I'm saying like.
48:38
Yeah, he, he working. They've got dancing, they've got
48:41
building. Guys, so currently he's hitting
48:47
246 with a 771 at AA. He's got 15 ribbies, 2 bombs,
48:52
so. So he's going to, he's most
48:54
likely going to be there, be there for a while.
48:58
Keep chipping away, Dylan Cruz. And I see him this year, but you
49:01
never know either way. I think, yeah, there's a lot to
49:04
be excited about. There's they're putting some
49:06
stuff together. Yeah, I mean they beat the the
49:10
best team in the American League and the Orioles in game one of
49:13
this Beltway series, the All City Connect series if you will.
49:18
That was that was interesting. It didn't look bad.
49:21
I didn't hate it. I'm I'm on record.
49:23
I'm a I'm a big Nats City Connect fan.
49:27
Yeah, those those are the jerseys that I those are on
49:30
point. Yeah, like when you want to talk
49:32
about connecting to a city, that's that's what they do.
49:35
Job well done, yeah. Yeah, we'll get into a city that
49:39
did not do that. But yeah, you got CJ Abrams,
49:43
Luis Garcia, he's hitting 333, and this is of course all
49:46
entering today, Wednesday, 333 bombs, 19 rubies, 885.
49:50
OPSI mentioned, Trevor Williams. Trevor Williams I think is the
49:54
story of the team right now, even possibly more so than CJ
49:57
Abrams with his last outing. He's four no on the season 7 / /
50:02
7 starts he's got an ERA of 19630 KS, a WHIP of one O 6 and
50:08
opponents are hitting just two O 9 against him.
50:11
So the biggest improvement I I would say for Trevor Williams is
50:15
the home runs allowed. I'm sure if you've been
50:19
following his his season thus far, you you've seen that nugget
50:23
that last year he allowed the most home runs among all NL
50:28
pitchers and he is the only qualified starter who has yet to
50:33
give up a home run this year. So that he.
50:36
He, yeah, he'll be pitching for a contender this, this, this
50:41
postseason, I think. That's a guy that's a guy that
50:44
I'm excited about because you you hear, you hear about these
50:47
guys having Renaissance seasons or Renaissance esque seasons and
50:50
it's like has has Trevor Williams found something.
50:54
Whether it whether it be mechanically, I think a lot of
50:57
something that gets swept under the rug a lot is mentally like,
50:59
I think people just go, OK, let's let's look at the tape
51:02
let's see what what needs to be fixed.
51:03
That's not always the case. A lot of times for these guys,
51:06
whether regardless which side of the ball you're on it can be a
51:09
mental thing. So maybe it's it's for maybe for
51:16
Trevor Williams it's it's overcoming the fear of attacking
51:18
guys in a certain part of the zone that enables him to
51:21
eliminate the the the long ball time after time during his
51:26
outing. So you never know that could be
51:29
the case for him. But whatever it is, he's figured
51:31
it out. And then you've got on the back
51:33
end, you've got Kyle Finnegan who's who's secured 1212 out of
51:37
13 saves this year. So I mean they could be in the
51:45
mix you know for like I mean you got, you got Greg on the stream
51:50
asking if and that's her wild card dark horse.
51:56
Look, I mean that that's just, but can you like, is it possible
51:59
though because that's as far out on the fringes as you can be.
52:02
Like you're not saying, hey, are they It's our course to win the
52:05
East in in that division, no. I mean I'm it.
52:08
It's not that it's not I I don't think it's impossible.
52:11
It's just like the the depth of of the NL East and the NL W make
52:16
that conversation much more difficult I think if if they're
52:20
smart, if Izzo, you know is is smart with Rizzo, Izzo, Rizzo,
52:28
Rizzo, the GM. Oh yeah, yeah.
52:30
Rizzo, yeah. Rizzo, I think if if if he's
52:34
smart, like you got to recognize.
52:37
I haven't looked into numbers, but I do feel like Jesse Winker
52:39
has kind of found a little bit of a resurgence.
52:42
You got to recognize some of these veterans and and like move
52:45
them when the value is hot. Trevor Williams being a perfect
52:48
example, we set to be a free agent next year.
52:51
He's 32. Like he can fill into a rotation
52:55
for a contender at some point. Like you got to be able to turn
52:58
and burn some of these guys and and can, you know, continue to
53:02
build the farm up a little bit. So I think it makes more sense
53:06
to do that then just have like a let's be you know let's add at
53:13
the deadline to get bounced in the first round like let's just
53:17
you know be realistic of who we are, look in the mirror flip
53:22
what we can flip and just keep building and like get the
53:26
momentum going again organizationally.
53:29
But I do, you know, applaud them for what they're doing and lot
53:34
to be excited about, not. To be excited about for the
53:41
Cardinals, Wilson Contreras, who's going to be out for six
53:45
weeks, had a nasty, nasty run in with the barrel of JD Martinez.
53:52
I don't know if you saw the video, but that was I did.
53:57
Ugly. Yeah, yeah.
54:01
Honestly, I'm surprised it's going to be 6.
54:03
It's just six weeks like that looks like.
54:08
I I have. Brutal.
54:10
Honest. I feel bad for Wilson Contreras.
54:12
I really do. The treatment he's gotten since
54:17
heading over to Saint Louis is it's been strange.
54:22
It's been really strange. It seems like he's been willing
54:26
to change what he's doing and how he's going about how he's
54:33
going about his catching style. Like he's he's been open to
54:36
stuff. Shout out John Denton on X
54:40
talking about some of the improvements that Wilson
54:43
Contreras has made. Strike rate wise in 2023 is at a
54:49
44.3%, which ranked 44th in baseball.
54:54
This year so far is at a 48%, which ranks 12th in baseball
55:02
catcher framing runs. Last year he was -556 in
55:06
baseball. This year he's at 0, tied for
55:09
21st in baseball. He's made adjustments.
55:18
The problem is, is that like, I don't know if the organization
55:22
cares that these adjustments have now put him at risk.
55:26
Multiple times we saw last year he got hit in the head on the on
55:31
the follow through. Him working closer to the plate
55:35
to try and get the bottom of the strike zone to try and make it
55:39
look better for umpires has been the main issue behind this.
55:43
Not to mention the whole weirdness of like removing him
55:46
as a catcher, making him a full time DH, then bring him back.
55:49
It like the poor guy has just not had the best time in Saint
55:53
Louis. Now, I don't know what's going
55:55
on with that organization, and I don't really want to pull at
55:58
that thread right now, but I feel for him because all he's
56:02
doing and all he's been doing is just following instructions on
56:05
what they're coaching and what they're teaching, and this is a
56:09
result of it. Then it is the perfect storm of
56:12
a guy who, you know, JD Martinez sits at the very back of the box
56:17
then and tries to see the ball as late as he can with a Wilson
56:24
and Traeus who's, you know, scooting, scooting up closer as
56:27
as he goes. But ugly, dude.
56:31
Really ugly. This is AI.
56:33
Think this is a whole can of worms, man.
56:35
Like the I I think there's MLBPA that's going to step in for some
56:41
type of rule adjustment. I think stuff needs to be kind
56:46
of cracked down a little bit. I've heard multiple people talk
56:50
about this, so this isn't like any kind of new take for this in
56:53
different podcasts and different articles.
56:55
But like, you know, every hitter for the most part is trying to
56:59
get to the back of the box. The higher this below has
57:01
gotten, the deeper they've tried to get in the box.
57:04
And I don't, I don't know if you did it when you were playing.
57:07
I know I did it. But like, when you get in there,
57:09
if the line is still there, if that chalk line is still in the
57:12
back of the box, you're digging that thing out and you're going
57:15
to convince the umpire that I'm just getting my footing.
57:18
But like, you're getting rid of that line and you're trying to
57:21
work your way back. And every hitter does that for
57:23
the most part. But there, I think there's got
57:28
to be some type of crackdown, some type of weird thing.
57:31
And apparently the rule is, is that if any part of your foot,
57:35
any part of your foot is touching the chalk line, you are
57:39
legally in the box. I don't like it.
57:47
This is, this is the microcosm. I'll go back to the same guy
57:53
John Denton talking about. He's a He writes for the for the
57:57
Cardinals by the way, on Twitter's John Denton 555.
58:03
He wrote to help catchers get more low strikes for for
58:06
pitchers. MLB teams have coaxed catchers
58:09
into getting closer. This has led to far more
58:12
catchers interference calls. Per MLB Research, in 2023,
58:17
catchers interference called every 50.6 games.
58:22
So far, there's been one every 32 games this year.
58:27
Shut out. Baseball Rules Academy catcher's
58:31
interference has increased exponentially over the years.
58:34
In 2002, there were nine such calls the entire season, 2002.
58:41
In 2022, there were 74 violations.
58:46
And last year, in 2023, there were 97.
58:52
This is an issue. It's it's the combination of,
58:56
again, V low hitter, scooting back, coaching catchers to scoot
59:01
closer to try and catch the bottom of the zone.
59:05
There's got to be some kind of adjustment, and I don't know
59:07
what it's going to be, but you know what I was thinking?
59:11
And this is weird. You know how you see that?
59:15
Like 3D, like the strike zone, but it's like the profile view
59:20
and it's the box where it shows like the back of the zone?
59:24
Yep. Have you ever wondered why it's
59:26
perfectly straight up? Why is that box not here?
59:34
Like if you think of an elevated mound.
59:39
It's true, yeah. Why wouldn't that box be tilted
59:42
with the natural fall and gravity of a pitch?
59:47
You know what I mean? Now I know that, like, umpires
59:50
aren't thinking of the the the depth of a strike zone
59:53
necessarily, but like maybe there just needs to be some
59:58
adjustments on how we look at this stuff and how we're
1:00:04
coaching it. But I mean, I remember when it
1:00:08
was like catchers, interferences were were rare where it was like
1:00:11
maybe they caught the lace. This was halfway up the wrist.
1:00:17
This was so high up. And a guy like JD Martinez, who
1:00:23
notoriously looks to take the ball the other way, pepper the
1:00:28
ball into the right right center gap as a righty, is going to
1:00:31
have a little bit of more drag on the on the bat path, and
1:00:34
maybe somebody else would who's trying to get the ball much
1:00:36
quicker. He loves peppering that right
1:00:39
side and he's already as far back as you can be.
1:00:42
So he's going to, he's going to do everything he can to see that
1:00:45
ball as deep as he can. And you've seen, I mean, it's
1:00:48
over all catchers being hit. You've seen it more and more.
1:00:51
I've never really seen so much of like the backswing catching
1:00:57
like the back of the head or the shoulder or like it's hitting
1:01:00
catchers. I if you watch enough games,
1:01:03
you'll see it multiple times a week.
1:01:07
Marcelo Zuna is is notorious for it.
1:01:09
I watched Soto do it the other day.
1:01:11
Obviously they're apologetic for the most part and like they
1:01:13
don't mean to, but like this now we're talking player safety and
1:01:19
like there has to be precedent. Wilson Contreras is now
1:01:22
unfortunately that that you know first one through the frontier
1:01:26
of like now we're losing one of the top offensive guys in the
1:01:33
line up for the Cardinals for a long time and I agree.
1:01:37
I don't think six weeks is going to be long enough.
1:01:45
I didn't want to spend too much time on this, but it was worth
1:01:49
noting the name Monte Harrison, if that means anything to you
1:01:53
listening at home. What a wild, what a wild story.
1:01:57
I'm excited to hear the rest of it.
1:01:58
This is nuts. All right, so the article I was
1:02:02
reading, I want to say it was ESPN article I just pulled just
1:02:06
to make it easy for the background because I'm.
1:02:08
I imagine that not as many people had heard about this, but
1:02:12
it said that less than two years removed from his last MLB
1:02:15
appearance with the Los Angeles Angels, he plans to walk on at
1:02:18
Arkansas as a receiver with the Razorbacks.
1:02:22
Harrison, 28, was a four-star recruit who committed to the
1:02:25
Nebraska Cornhuskers as part of the class of 2014.
1:02:28
But after the Milwaukee Brewers drafted him in the second round
1:02:30
of the 2014 MLB draft, he embarked upon a career in
1:02:33
professional baseball. He ended up making it to the big
1:02:36
leagues in 2020. The COVID season played with the
1:02:40
Marlins didn't do very well, played a little bit in 21,
1:02:45
played a little bit in 22 and then finished his his tenure in
1:02:49
baseball with the Brewers AAA Nashville Sounds.
1:02:54
So he's been out for a little under two years now and has
1:03:00
decided that he is going to take his talents to college football,
1:03:05
so don't know how that's going to happen.
1:03:07
I do know what is interesting though is that according to Arum
1:03:12
Leighton. Arum Leighton, 8 on X on Twitter
1:03:16
said the Marlins return for the Christian Yelich deal is as
1:03:22
follows. Louis Brinson currently playing
1:03:24
in the Mexican league. Isan Diaz plays for the
1:03:28
Lancaster Barnstormers of the Atlantic League.
1:03:31
Monte Harrison will now be playing college football, and
1:03:34
Jordan Yamamoto is the head baseball coach at Dwyer High
1:03:38
School, so that deal is officially.
1:03:43
Bookended. That's such a tough look.
1:03:47
I'm going. To go ahead and say the Brewers
1:03:50
won that deal. Yeah.
1:03:52
Yep. That's a dub.
1:03:55
I I'm assuming he was drafted. Yeah.
1:03:58
Monte. Yeah, the the 2014 draft.
1:04:03
Yep. With Brewers, What?
1:04:06
What pick? Second round, I don't have the
1:04:08
pick. He was a second.
1:04:10
Well, if it's that high, I'm assuming, yeah, like, you know,
1:04:12
higher education is included. You know, if you like, you forgo
1:04:16
getting your degree to go, you know, with the organization in
1:04:21
baseball, most organizations will cover your education
1:04:25
afterwards. So it's not crazy to see a guy
1:04:27
go back to school. Why not, dude, if you still got
1:04:32
some athleticism. Like we saw Jr.
1:04:34
Smith, like, yeah, but grew up in high school, Yeah, but like,
1:04:38
I get that. Like.
1:04:40
He's talking about college football and the SEC.
1:04:44
Still got it in you? Why not?
1:04:47
Why not? What do you got to like?
1:04:48
What else are you going to do? You know what I mean?
1:04:50
You're not going to get drafted. He knows he's not going to go to
1:04:53
the NFL, but like you're in school, whatever, he knows.
1:04:56
He I mean, yeah, to your point. He knows he he can't he clearly
1:04:59
can't hang at the big league level, which isn't a knock on
1:05:01
him. Like it's it's more
1:05:02
self-awareness than anything. Like, hey, let me, let me, let
1:05:05
me milk what little athletic ability I have at this age of 28
1:05:10
and use it for good. Why not?
1:05:13
Like, hey, that was a rough Rd., but I always dreamt of playing
1:05:16
college football and I'm going back to school anyway.
1:05:19
Let's see what we can do. Even as a walk on, I'm going to
1:05:22
go ahead and I'm going to go ahead and say that running out
1:05:26
Saturday night under the lights in front of an SEC crowd is
1:05:30
probably a little bit better than playing 345 games in
1:05:37
Nashville a week. I don't.
1:05:40
Know man like to be 10 years older than some teammates?
1:05:44
That's wild like. It's crazy.
1:05:50
Cops crashed the the party at the frat house and everyone
1:05:54
scatters. But like, you don't need to go
1:05:55
anywhere 'cause you're, you know, old enough to have plenty
1:06:01
of money put away in your 4O1K like.
1:06:05
You're like their uncle. You're like, yeah, it's fine
1:06:08
Officers, I'll take care of this.
1:06:10
Don't worry, I'll clean it up. That's a crazy story.
1:06:13
I'm going to. I hope he gets on the field.
1:06:15
I need to see a teddy or two out of him, something.
1:06:19
Need that? Need it.
1:06:21
You know what I don't need? And I'm sure you don't need
1:06:24
either. These Tiger City Connect
1:06:25
uniforms. I mean, come on.
1:06:28
Like, I, I, I, I don't want to talk very long about this.
1:06:33
And I'm going to, I'm going to hold us to that because that's
1:06:36
not worth talking about. But, I mean, this has to be a
1:06:40
new low. Like they didn't even try.
1:06:44
You just slap Detroit on the hat which by the way the hat isn't
1:06:47
being talked bad enough because they're like oh you've got the
1:06:51
you've got the the Tiger's eyes under the brim.
1:06:55
Sick. Glad we can see those from from
1:06:58
watching on TV and in the in the in the ballpark.
1:07:01
Glad we can see that that's that's a that's a real benefit
1:07:05
to the the uniforms and then the tire tracks.
1:07:08
We get it. Motor City.
1:07:12
Come on dude. Like, take another route.
1:07:15
And for you to say like, Oh well, like that's what the
1:07:17
city's known for. This we, we already talked about
1:07:20
it. The Washington Nationals.
1:07:24
The nation's capital. You the the easy, lazy pick
1:07:28
would have been to intertwine some sort of like political
1:07:32
patriotic government like angle. Like what?
1:07:37
Yeah, the flag. Whatever.
1:07:38
What? How?
1:07:38
Whatever angle you want to take there that would have been the
1:07:41
easy, the the easy route to take.
1:07:43
But like no, we're going to actually, we're actually going
1:07:45
to try here and think outside the box.
1:07:47
Clearly they they were up against the deadline for these
1:07:51
uniforms because they're just like think anything you can
1:07:53
think of with cars, throw it on there and and send it out.
1:07:57
I don't think. I don't think anyone works in
1:07:59
the Nike baseball department. I think it's just AI.
1:08:03
Yeah, Yep, absolutely. Painful.
1:08:08
That's that's like. Even even the you see the pic
1:08:11
with Eminem. Yeah, even.
1:08:14
He looked. Even he was even he was rocking
1:08:16
the old old school D hat like he didn't even want to put that
1:08:19
other hat on. I I thought the picture I saw,
1:08:22
No, I thought the picture I saw. He had it on there.
1:08:24
Nah, I had the old English D, At least the picture I saw.
1:08:28
He still had the jersey. He's still had the Motor City
1:08:30
jersey. But I don't know, just bad,
1:08:33
dude. Just bad.
1:08:34
It's the same old, it's Rinse, repeat.
1:08:36
It's I put out that tweet. It's the same checklist every
1:08:41
jersey. Oh, he is wearing the English D
1:08:43
He's like, yeah, I don't want this crap.
1:08:45
I don't want this at all. Unbelievable.
1:08:51
Yeah. So we don't have to spend too
1:08:52
much time on it. It's just it's lazy and I'm, I'm
1:08:54
just so done. I'm I'll be so glad when these
1:08:56
are over. Me too.
1:08:58
I'm I'm done. They're not good.
1:09:01
And I'm tired of talking about it because it's just like, we
1:09:03
have to talk about it because we we have to talk about everyone
1:09:07
that comes out to be fair to all the teams.
1:09:09
But like, I'm just tired of being negative about them
1:09:11
because they suck. Like, they they they actually
1:09:13
suck with the exception of like a few that we've seen.
1:09:15
But they're just, they're it's lazy.
1:09:19
We get it. Motor City cars.
1:09:20
Detroit. We get it.
1:09:24
Weekend series to watch. But first,
1:09:41
that's my new breaking news sound.
1:09:43
Just a little FYI, giving you a little teaser.
1:09:44
So prepare. Yourself.
1:09:46
Prepare yourself. If we get breaking news, That's
1:09:49
what you're hit Getting hit with breaking news.
1:09:52
The tickets have been confirmed all right via What's the?
1:09:58
What's the qualifications for the giveaway?
1:10:00
Let the people know. They just gotta they gotta tag
1:10:03
somebody. What did I I just put the tweet
1:10:04
out. They have to tag who you'd go
1:10:09
with on my on my Twitter. So go check it out.
1:10:14
It's. Not even bad.
1:10:18
And I will go with I will pick somebody on Thursday weekend
1:10:26
series. Watch I'm going Dodgers at the
1:10:31
Padres. Tyler Glass now versus Michael
1:10:34
King. Game one, 9:40 PM Eastern.
1:10:36
That's the game. Game 2.
1:10:41
James Paxton versus Matt Waldron 8:40 PM Eastern and Game 3
1:10:45
Walker Bueller versus U Darvish, 4:10 PM.
1:10:48
That's the other one. Yeah.
1:10:50
Got to catch 2 out of three of those.
1:10:51
Those are good games. Solid choice my friend.
1:10:57
I don't know if you anyone else is looking at matchups this
1:10:59
weekend. It's Salem Pickens big fall off
1:11:03
after that so I tried to pick two teams that are kind of hot
1:11:09
recently. Let's go Yanks in Tampa we got
1:11:15
Clark Schmidt going against. Is it Lettel Little Lytle.
1:11:21
I think it's Lettel. Lettel.
1:11:22
That sounds nice. 2TS2 LS I'm going to go Lettel game one.
1:11:28
Nestor Cortez going game two on Saturday, and classic Ray's
1:11:33
fashion. We don't know who's pitching
1:11:35
Saturday or Sunday because that's how they roll with Luis
1:11:39
heel finishing up the series with the Yankees who has been
1:11:45
diamonds so far. Real good.
1:11:51
Had that in my bold predictions. Sure did.
1:11:57
Yeah, sure did. Tried to say it.
1:12:02
Speaking of predictions, quick update on our bets if you
1:12:05
haven't been following on social media.
1:12:07
The wager was confirmed and you can see it on on my Twitter.
1:12:14
It was confirmed that the loser is going to have to wear a Billy
1:12:18
Bean esque fit. So it's a gold an Oakland A's
1:12:22
gold slash yellowish polo and an athletics green athletics visor
1:12:28
and you're going to have the losers going to have to wear
1:12:30
that every episode until the All Star break.
1:12:34
And again the wager was that from they played double header
1:12:39
today. So they'll have four games in
1:12:40
the books. But going back four games we had
1:12:44
decided from last episode we had we had said that over the next
1:12:47
14 games if they could go 500 or better that I would win the bet.
1:12:52
And if they would go under 500 because I was of the belief
1:12:55
like, hey maybe the A's like actually aren't as bad as we
1:12:58
think they are. Like they're still going to be
1:12:59
bad but maybe they're not as bad as we think.
1:13:01
And then they'd have the idea of making a bet like let's just
1:13:04
let's just jump right into it. And so sure enough we did the is
1:13:12
the second game over They won not yet top six.
1:13:17
They won the game today, 7/6 to the Rangers.
1:13:22
They won the the third, well you know, like the third game of the
1:13:26
bet today, so. They're one and two.
1:13:30
They're one and two about. I mean if the game ended right
1:13:33
now they'd be one and three, but hopefully they can pull one out
1:13:36
here even it up. It is Nate's birthday today so
1:13:44
we're going to we're going to wrap this up.
1:13:45
He's he's he's got to get a get to a nice little dinner here.
1:13:49
So I don't want to keep him any longer.
1:13:50
So make sure to wish Nate a happy birthday.
1:13:53
We do have. Thank you.
1:13:55
Thank you. We do have a few happy birthday
1:13:58
wishes, Mama Reyes on the IG said.
1:14:02
Happy birthday to my favorite baseball player of all time.
1:14:06
Got got some Happy birthday Nate's.
1:14:08
Happy birthday my guy Nate. All the best birthday wishes.
1:14:11
Lay off the curveballs. Happy birthday salute.
1:14:14
We got, We got some wishes on here for you, so hopefully.
1:14:18
I appreciate it. Hopefully the people are showing
1:14:21
their appreciation to you. Also oddly fitting that I turned
1:14:26
31 on episode 431. That's pretty crazy.
1:14:31
Love that nice little nugget there.
1:14:34
Love it. So yeah, Happy birthday.
1:14:38
Hope you enjoy the dinner that you're gonna be getting to very
1:14:40
shortly, so we're gonna wrap this up.
1:14:42
You got anything else for the folks?
1:14:46
Man, life is good, Life is good. Don't go chasing curveballs,
1:14:53
guys. We'll have you on as always.
1:14:54
Looking forward to talking more baseball with you guys soon.
1:14:57
Until next time, stay filthy.