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Is Rafael Flores Jr. the Pirates' starting catcher next year? · Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Bucko
0:12
Speaker 1: Territory presented to you by the Foul Territory Network. My
0:15
Speaker 1: name is Noah Hiles. Joining me as always are my co-hosts,
0:17
Speaker 1: Josh Harrison and Platinum Key, a.k.a. Mark. It is Friday,
0:22
Speaker 1: September 18th. The Pirates just concluded a three game series
0:25
Speaker 1: against the Brewers. We're recording this Thursday afternoon right before
0:28
Speaker 1: they get started. So we don't know if it was
0:30
Speaker 1: a sweep or not. Nonetheless, they lost the series. They're
0:34
Speaker 1: under 500. Their season's over. So, candidly, it gets a
0:38
Speaker 1: little tough to figure out what to talk about, right?
0:40
Speaker 1: These last couple weeks of the season will be focused
0:43
Speaker 1: on end-of-year picture and who should be brought back, all
0:46
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. But there's also, you know, the
0:49
Speaker 1: great thing about September baseball is sometimes you get a
0:52
Speaker 1: glimpse of guys who... are going to be asked to
0:56
Speaker 1: do a lot more next year. And that's where we're
0:58
Speaker 1: going to start today's show. Rafael Flores Jr., post-trade deadline,
1:03
Speaker 1: has probably been one of, if not the best pirates
1:08
Speaker 1: all around. I would say the only two guys I'd
1:11
Speaker 1: put ahead of him are O'Neal Cruz and Brandon Lau.
1:14
Speaker 1: Those are the only two guys. And you would expect
1:17
Speaker 1: O'Neal Cruz and Brandon Lau to be the best two pirates, right?
1:20
Speaker 1: They're really good players. And Roe Flores has really kind
1:24
Speaker 1: of come out of nowhere. His OPS is over 800.
1:28
Speaker 1: He's got nine home runs. He's just hitting well, and
1:31
Speaker 1: we're seeing him get more and more opportunities defensively as well.
1:35
Speaker 1: So with all that being established, I want to ask
1:38
Speaker 1: you guys, has he shown enough in the last two
1:42
Speaker 1: months of the season to go into camp next year
1:47
Speaker 1: fighting for the starting job? I'm not saying it's going
1:49
Speaker 1: to be his and Sharpie, but... when you consider who
1:53
Speaker 1: he's competing against. Endy is not going to be healthy
1:56
Speaker 1: in spring training. So it's him and Henry Davis, or
2:00
Speaker 1: if they bring someone else in. But we'll keep the
2:04
Speaker 1: conversation here for now, assuming they don't bring someone else in.
2:09
Speaker 1: Is Ro Flores the favorite to be their primary catcher
2:12
Speaker 1: next year, or should he? We'll start with Mark.
2:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, I absolutely think so. You touched on what he's
2:18
Speaker 2: been doing with his bat. with the nine home runs,
2:21
Speaker 2: OPS over 800. He said in one post-game interview, catcher's rake.
2:27
Speaker 2: And we've been seeing that from him. Pirates have the
2:30
Speaker 2: most home runs as a catching unit in large part
2:32
Speaker 2: because of Rafael Flores Jr.
2:34
Speaker 1: Right now.
2:35
Speaker 2: And so I think you have to give him the
2:37
Speaker 2: chance to start. I would still look in free agency
2:43
Speaker 2: or trades and see if there's other ways that you
2:45
Speaker 2: can improve at that position, as we've said. That's been
2:48
Speaker 2: a position that they've been looking at improving this offseason.
2:52
Speaker 2: But with the emergence of Flores Jr. right now, I
2:56
Speaker 2: feel a lot better about Ketcher going into 2027. If
3:00
Speaker 2: we have to start the year with him and Henry Davis,
3:02
Speaker 2: I'll be okay with that. But I think he's a
3:05
Speaker 2: clear start over Henry Davis right now. And yeah, I'm
3:10
Speaker 2: so excited about his improvement on defense as well. He's
3:13
Speaker 2: been calling games really well. We've been seeing him finally
3:15
Speaker 2: start to throw out some base runners. That was something
3:18
Speaker 2: that wasn't really happening when he first came up. He
3:21
Speaker 2: threw out two, I believe, in the Roberto Clemente game
3:24
Speaker 2: that I was at on Tuesday night. So yeah, just
3:28
Speaker 2: loving what I'm seeing from Rafael Flores Jr. He was
3:30
Speaker 2: only projected to have like 0.1 war this year from
3:33
Speaker 2: fan graphs. And I think when I looked yesterday, he
3:36
Speaker 2: was at 1.0 war. I'm guessing that went up a
3:38
Speaker 2: little bit after last night's game as well. So Josh,
3:42
Speaker 2: what are your thoughts on starting Rafael Flores Jr.
3:46
Speaker 3: Um, it's, it's going to be hard to say, you know,
3:48
Speaker 3: obviously if things stay, you know, stand pat at, you know, the,
3:52
Speaker 3: the backstop position that, you know, he doesn't deserve at
3:55
Speaker 3: least a look at being a starter, you know, if
3:58
Speaker 3: it's between him, Henry, and as you mentioned, Indy won't
4:00
Speaker 3: be ready. And, um, he's come as a bit of
4:04
Speaker 3: a nice, you know, bit of a surprise, especially in
4:08
Speaker 3: a season where You know, you had question marks all
4:11
Speaker 3: over the field in various, you know, areas, whether it
4:14
Speaker 3: was offensively or defensively. We knew catching was going to
4:17
Speaker 3: be offensively. And he has shown that his back can
4:21
Speaker 3: play here, you know, at this level. And if he
4:24
Speaker 3: continues to get better defensively, I don't think it's anything
4:27
Speaker 3: to question why he can't, you know, be a guy
4:30
Speaker 3: that's going to make things interesting, you know, in the
4:33
Speaker 3: backstop because, you know, here we are looking at the
4:35
Speaker 3: catcher position, which, you know, he's one guy that can,
4:38
Speaker 3: sit here and attest to that, you know, this is
4:40
Speaker 3: one position that, you know, the Pirates got it right
4:42
Speaker 3: as far as depth, you know, when you have things happen,
4:46
Speaker 3: he's a guy that you look at it. Okay. We
4:48
Speaker 3: have somebody that was down in AAA that, you know,
4:51
Speaker 3: when he, when he came up has really made an
4:53
Speaker 3: impact and that's all you can hope for. And I
4:56
Speaker 3: still think you need to address the catching situation. But
4:59
Speaker 3: as we sit here, I think he has done everything
5:01
Speaker 3: that he's needed to given his opportunity. And if he
5:04
Speaker 3: only continues to get better at calling games and, you know,
5:07
Speaker 3: controlling the running game, I mean, who's not going to
5:10
Speaker 3: take those nine home runs that he's hit so far?
5:12
Speaker 3: And some of them have been some clutch home runs.
5:14
Speaker 3: Let's not sit here and sugarcoat it to where it's like, oh,
5:17
Speaker 3: he's hitting them off of, you know, position players, you know,
5:20
Speaker 3: pinch hit, you know, here and there.
5:22
Speaker 2: Late in the game.
5:23
Speaker 3: So he's definitely, you know, opening some eyes and giving
5:27
Speaker 3: himself a fair shot at, you know, them saying, you
5:30
Speaker 3: know what, maybe we do have something here in the
5:32
Speaker 3: future that we can kind of, you know, maybe, take
5:35
Speaker 3: a little look at and maybe make some things interesting to,
5:38
Speaker 3: you know, help our roster.
5:40
Speaker 2: And real quick, before you jump in Noah, I just
5:42
Speaker 2: want to throw one more thing in there. He's only
5:44
Speaker 2: played 40 games. So it is a smaller sample size
5:47
Speaker 2: right now, but it's been a really successful 40, 40 games.
5:51
Speaker 2: We've seen kind of like Esmeralda and Valdez, you know,
5:53
Speaker 2: break on, break out with like that kind of similar stretch.
5:57
Speaker 2: So it is a very small sample size for baseball terms,
6:01
Speaker 2: but everything we've seen looks very encouraging and looks like
6:04
Speaker 2: he's continuing to improve. Go ahead, Noah.
6:07
Speaker 1: I was just going to say, I think catcher is
6:09
Speaker 1: still the number one position that this team needs to
6:11
Speaker 1: address in the offseason. And after you address that, if
6:15
Speaker 1: you find your primary catcher, I don't hate the idea
6:19
Speaker 1: of having Rolf Flores be your number two.
6:21
Speaker 4: Yep.
6:22
Speaker 1: And if you got to get rid of one, I mean,
6:24
Speaker 1: you have Andy as your insurance policy as your catcher three.
6:29
Speaker 1: Maybe Henry Davis just needs to go. I mean, I'm
6:32
Speaker 1: just looking. There are two things that you want to
6:35
Speaker 1: rely on Henry Davis for, or two reasons essentially to
6:38
Speaker 1: keep him around, right? One is the level of investment
6:41
Speaker 1: that you've put into him. He's a 1-1 pick. And
6:44
Speaker 1: that's very difficult for an organization, especially an organization that
6:49
Speaker 1: still has the regime that drafted him 1-1. Yeah. To
6:52
Speaker 1: give up. If I expected there to be a whole
6:55
Speaker 1: new front office next year, which seems like that's not
6:58
Speaker 1: going to be the case, then yeah, that gets a
7:01
Speaker 1: lot easier because it's just like they didn't draft Henry.
7:04
Speaker 1: But assuming Sherrington's going to be back, I mean, that's
7:08
Speaker 1: their 1-1 pick. They're going to give every... ounce of
7:11
Speaker 1: grace possible to get him to figure that out. But
7:14
Speaker 1: let's not pretend that they haven't invested big in Roe
7:17
Speaker 1: Flores either. He was the marquee trade return for David Bednar, who,
7:23
Speaker 1: aside from schemes, has been the most successful pirate that
7:26
Speaker 1: this current regime has brought in. So, I.
7:31
Speaker 5: Mean.
7:32
Speaker 1: He's just as important, really. I mean, he is a
7:34
Speaker 1: huge trade return for one of the biggest trade chips,
7:38
Speaker 1: the only multi-all-star that they acquired via trade in all
7:44
Speaker 1: those early years where they were rebuilding. Bednar was their
7:47
Speaker 1: lone success story. You flipped him, and Flores was the
7:51
Speaker 1: key return in that trade. He should have just as
7:56
Speaker 1: much equity on that front than Davis. Who's had so
7:59
Speaker 1: many more opportunities than him, um, to be the backup and,
8:04
Speaker 1: you know, assuming you sign a new catcher on like
8:07
Speaker 1: a one or two year deal, then maybe you're, you're
8:09
Speaker 1: grooming him and getting him ready to play every day, uh,
8:13
Speaker 1: as a catcher in the future. The other part of
8:15
Speaker 1: it is this, I mean, you, you value Henry for
8:17
Speaker 1: his defense, but if the defensive value doesn't exceed.
8:22
Speaker 3: Right.
8:22
Speaker 1: Overall. Right. If he's so bad, like Henry Davis, as
8:26
Speaker 1: of the time we're recording is played in 92 games
8:28
Speaker 1: this year, 283 plate appearances. He's worth 0.3 war. Roe
8:33
Speaker 1: Flores is played in 40 games this year. 135 play appearances,
8:37
Speaker 1: so less than half on both of those, and he's worth.
8:39
Speaker 1: 9 more, according to Baseball Reference. So he is three
8:43
Speaker 1: times as valuable as Henry Davis, despite playing in less
8:46
Speaker 1: than half of the games. And I get that maybe
8:50
Speaker 1: water finds its level if you continue to play him more,
8:54
Speaker 1: but Henry Davis, this is just what he is at
8:56
Speaker 1: this point. He is an above-average defensive catcher who cannot
9:01
Speaker 1: hit north of. 170. And at some point, you know...
9:09
Speaker 1: Is that enough? You have to ask yourself. And maybe
9:12
Speaker 1: the duo of Davis and Flores, assuming Flores continues to
9:16
Speaker 1: develop as a hitter, Flores could kind of just be
9:18
Speaker 1: what Bart was in 2024. And that duo worked okay, right?
9:22
Speaker 1: But like overall, I don't know, man. It's just kind
9:25
Speaker 1: of like, who am I hitching my wagon to long-term now?
9:30
Speaker 1: I feel like you've seen enough from Henry Davis. I mean,
9:32
Speaker 1: if you want to keep him around to be a backup,
9:35
Speaker 1: it better be because you couldn't land a catcher and
9:38
Speaker 1: free agency or via trade and you're giving row Flores the,
9:42
Speaker 1: the bulk of the number one reps or until Andy
9:45
Speaker 1: gets back in the mix, if he's still going to
9:46
Speaker 1: be a catcher. Um, I just think the days of
9:49
Speaker 1: like Henry Davis being this team's primary catcher should be over. Um,
9:54
Speaker 1: I think Flores deserves an opportunity just because again, he
9:58
Speaker 1: was a big trade ship for them. And candidly, he's
10:01
Speaker 1: shown more overall promise than Davis ever has. I mean,
10:06
Speaker 1: the best we've ever seen Henry Davis look as a
10:09
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball player is when he was playing right field.
10:13
Speaker 1: That's when he looked the most competent at the plate.
10:16
Speaker 1: And that's when he was drafted.
10:17
Speaker 2: When they called him up just to get his bat
10:19
Speaker 2: in the lineup.
10:20
Speaker 1: Yeah.
10:20
Speaker 3: Yeah.
10:21
Speaker 2: Ironically enough.
10:22
Speaker 1: I mean, he's a career negative 1.2 player, war player.
10:26
Speaker 1: I just, yeah. So I guess we didn't, that wasn't
10:30
Speaker 1: his best because he was worth negative 1.5 war that year.
10:32
Speaker 1: But still, I mean, it's just. It's been four years now, man.
10:38
Speaker 1: So I think at the very least, Roe Flores should
10:42
Speaker 1: be number one on your depth chart heading into the offseason.
10:47
Speaker 1: And if you go find someone who becomes a new
10:50
Speaker 1: number one, that means he's number two. You're just accordingly.
10:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's pretty good too.
10:56
Speaker 5: Exactly.
10:57
Speaker 1: So we're going to take a quick break. When we
10:59
Speaker 1: come back, we have our weekly segment, Jay Hay Now,
11:02
Speaker 1: here on Bucko Territory.
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12:12
Speaker 3: All right, for this week's Jay Haynow segment, I'm going
12:25
Speaker 3: to highlight something a little different. You know, this segment
12:29
Speaker 3: is meant to highlight all things, you know, good, bad, offensively, defensively, pitching,
12:35
Speaker 3: something that might have been interesting that happened. And I
12:37
Speaker 3: want to highlight Tony Beasley. Taking the accountability for that
12:42
Speaker 3: base running play where he held Nick Gonzalez at third,
12:46
Speaker 3: O'Hearn overran second. You know, obviously not an easy thing
12:51
Speaker 3: to talk about in the situation of the game, the
12:54
Speaker 3: situation of the season, everything at stake. I think it
12:58
Speaker 3: speaks a lot to B's character. You know, one, Obviously,
13:02
Speaker 3: you know, taking the heat off of the player, which,
13:06
Speaker 3: you know, Nick, you know, couldn't see. And, you know,
13:09
Speaker 3: Beasley said he had the worst seat in the house,
13:11
Speaker 3: but took full ownership. O'Hearn got up, you know, around
13:15
Speaker 3: second base and before he realized it was too late.
13:18
Speaker 3: Just not a good look overall. But at the same time,
13:20
Speaker 3: it's one of those situations where it's a baseball game.
13:23
Speaker 3: Some of these things happen. Sometimes you're blind. You know,
13:26
Speaker 3: you're visually taken out of the play to where you
13:29
Speaker 3: you know what? That's where you kind of have to
13:32
Speaker 3: rely on your guys to also keep their head up.
13:34
Speaker 3: And that's not picking on Ryan O'Hearn. You know, he's
13:38
Speaker 3: making a baseball play. I know I'm, you know, at
13:40
Speaker 3: some point that trickled away, I'm getting a third. And
13:42
Speaker 3: if something funky happens, I can score, you know, depending
13:44
Speaker 3: on where the outfield or infield is. But, you know,
13:47
Speaker 3: at the same time, you're always told to come around,
13:50
Speaker 3: pick up your third base coach, you know, when they
13:52
Speaker 3: got somebody in front of you because you don't know
13:54
Speaker 3: if somebody's going to trip or fall. But that's not
13:56
Speaker 3: anything on O'Hearn. As I said, this was Beasley. you know,
13:59
Speaker 3: stepping up front and, you know, taking, taking heat off
14:02
Speaker 3: the team who is, you know, otherwise been under quite
14:05
Speaker 3: a little bit of heat the past month with, you know,
14:07
Speaker 3: the way things have gone. That's right. There is just
14:10
Speaker 3: a testament to, you know, your coaching staff also taking
14:13
Speaker 3: up for your players. And, you know, it's not an
14:15
Speaker 3: easy thing to talk about, especially as I said, in
14:18
Speaker 3: the situation of the season situation of the game. But, um,
14:21
Speaker 3: I think that speaks a lot to Beasley's character and,
14:24
Speaker 3: you know, just how much, you know, he know it
14:26
Speaker 3: means to the players and how much it means to
14:28
Speaker 3: the city. Um, You know, it's unacceptable. It can't happen.
14:31
Speaker 3: But at the same time, you know, those things do happen.
14:34
Speaker 3: And I thought it was cool of Beasley to, you know,
14:37
Speaker 3: in this moment, you know, put the heat on himself
14:39
Speaker 3: and not, you know, allow anything to try to divide that,
14:42
Speaker 3: you know, that clubhouse, you know, trying to let these
14:44
Speaker 3: guys focus on the task at hand. That's winning ballgames.
14:47
Speaker 2: So I actually have a question for Noah here.
14:49
Speaker 1: Okay.
14:51
Speaker 2: So you've been in the locker room, you know, beat
14:53
Speaker 2: reporter covering the team in the past. how common is
14:56
Speaker 2: it for someone to just walk in there and just
14:58
Speaker 2: go straight and seek out the media? So Beasley went
15:01
Speaker 2: out of his way to go find everyone and be like,
15:04
Speaker 2: say everyone down and be like, I need to talk
15:06
Speaker 2: about this. How common does that happen after like mistakes
15:09
Speaker 2: like that?
15:09
Speaker 1: I can't, I can't think of a time I've seen
15:12
Speaker 1: an assistant coach go out after a game in any sport,
15:15
Speaker 1: like football.
15:15
Speaker 3: You know, he feels terrible too.
15:17
Speaker 1: Yeah. And yeah, I have a couple of thoughts on that.
15:21
Speaker 1: I mean, one just, what it is at its surface is,
15:24
Speaker 1: is awesome. Um, cause I mean, no one likes talking
15:28
Speaker 1: about when they make a mistake, like in general, like
15:30
Speaker 1: when I, when I screw up dinner, you know, or whatever.
15:34
Speaker 1: And like, it's like, if you burn something, it's just like,
15:36
Speaker 1: you don't like talking about it. It's just like, all right,
15:38
Speaker 1: I messed up. Let's move on. Right. Um, and let
15:42
Speaker 1: alone having to talk about it on camera, camera, right?
15:45
Speaker 1: Like no one. And then There's an obligation to that
15:48
Speaker 1: when you do this for a living. That's part of
15:51
Speaker 1: the job. Talk about all the home runs you hit,
15:54
Speaker 1: you've got to talk about all the balls you drop too.
15:58
Speaker 1: As someone who covers sports in this town, there are
16:01
Speaker 1: a handful of athletes who never want to talk after
16:05
Speaker 1: a bad game. There's a guy on the football team
16:08
Speaker 1: who dropped a whole bunch of passes on Sunday and
16:10
Speaker 1: he was the first person out of the locker room.
16:12
Speaker 1: And he does that just about every time he has
16:14
Speaker 1: a bad game. And, you know, while it's his prerogative
16:18
Speaker 1: to do that, I think it says a little bit
16:20
Speaker 1: about his character while other players stick around and do that.
16:23
Speaker 1: So going back to Tony, Tony does not have to talk.
16:27
Speaker 1: Not once have I ever interviewed a third base coach
16:30
Speaker 1: after game. I don't know if Josh can even remember
16:32
Speaker 1: a time where a third base coach has done a
16:35
Speaker 1: post game presser, right? And so for him to go
16:39
Speaker 1: and do that, it's, it's, it's a testament to a,
16:41
Speaker 1: his character and B to the one thing I will
16:44
Speaker 1: give this coaching staff credit for. You can criticize maybe
16:49
Speaker 1: their overall performance, maybe their in-game decisions, but the one
16:52
Speaker 1: thing they have done successfully well from start to finish
16:55
Speaker 1: this year is they made sure that team knows that
17:00
Speaker 1: they have their back. Yes. John Kelly does it. Bill
17:03
Speaker 1: Murphy does it. All of these guys. And the third
17:07
Speaker 1: base coach isn't someone who is supposed to have that
17:10
Speaker 1: tight knit of a relationship, comparatively speaking, to the hitting coach,
17:14
Speaker 1: the pitching coach, the bench coach, the manager. But it's just,
17:19
Speaker 1: I think... in a time where it's very easy to
17:22
Speaker 1: criticize the Pirates. And trust me, no one criticizes them
17:25
Speaker 1: more than I do, it seems like. But that is
17:30
Speaker 1: a testament to the culture that they have built under
17:32
Speaker 1: Don Kelly and his staff that these guys are going
17:35
Speaker 1: to own it up. There are plenty of coaches that
17:38
Speaker 1: I've covered, not just in baseball. And Josh, I'm sure
17:41
Speaker 1: you've been a part of teams like that too, where
17:43
Speaker 1: the third base coach would just happily go in the clubhouse,
17:46
Speaker 1: have a beer, shower, and go home, and never answer
17:49
Speaker 1: for that. Yeah. There are plenty of people in baseball
17:52
Speaker 1: who are like that. And that is how cultures get worse, right?
17:59
Speaker 1: When players feel like that, you know, hey, I'm getting
18:02
Speaker 1: thrown under the bus. If Nick Gonzalez had to answer
18:04
Speaker 1: for that or Ryan O'Hearn had to answer for that.
18:06
Speaker 1: When in reality, neither of them did anything wrong. Tony
18:09
Speaker 1: Beasley stepped up.
18:10
Speaker 3: Yeah.
18:12
Speaker 1: He made a mistake. He owned it. And, you know,
18:16
Speaker 1: I'm not excusing that mistake. I'm not saying he's like
18:18
Speaker 1: an amazing coach or anything. But it's just more that
18:22
Speaker 1: is the one thing that you cannot take away from
18:26
Speaker 1: this regime is that from start to finish this year,
18:29
Speaker 1: they've been lockstep. And there have been so many opportunities
18:33
Speaker 1: for this thing to fall off the rails from the
18:35
Speaker 1: way Jared Jones behaved, from the way Carmen Majenski behaved,
18:39
Speaker 1: from injuries to losing streaks to their best players not
18:42
Speaker 1: playing anywhere close to good enough. And important thoughts. And
18:46
Speaker 1: then coaches making mistakes, too. Things could have fallen off
18:49
Speaker 1: the rails. And I think the staff deserves a little
18:51
Speaker 1: bit of credit for keeping it all locked in. And
18:54
Speaker 1: if it ever does get figured out, we'll look back
18:56
Speaker 1: to moments like that to saying like, all right, you know,
18:59
Speaker 1: like that's how they're able to overcome adversity and get
19:02
Speaker 1: the results.
19:03
Speaker 4: Right.
19:04
Speaker 1: Because when they weren't getting the results, they didn't allow
19:07
Speaker 1: their defeats and their mistakes to allow them to crumble
19:11
Speaker 1: from within. So that's all I have to add on it.
19:14
Speaker 1: Anyone else have anything on this before we take another break?
19:17
Speaker 3: Nope.
19:17
Speaker 2: That's it for me.
19:20
Speaker 5: All right.
19:20
Speaker 1: One more break. Then we come back with our final
19:23
Speaker 1: thoughts here on Bucko territory.
19:26
Speaker 4: Back in the day, Kratzy and I were looking for tickets.
19:29
Speaker 4: It was so hard to find a seat or anything available.
19:32
Speaker 4: You'd have to go online and there was nothing there.
19:34
Speaker 4: But now with SeatGeek, they make it so much easier
19:38
Speaker 4: for you. They have the green light special. What does
19:40
Speaker 4: that mean? It means when the green light is on,
19:42
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19:44
Speaker 4: to SeatGeek.
19:45
Speaker 2: Kratzy understands how easy it is.
19:47
Speaker 5: Yeah, I know you used to scalp your tickets, but look...
19:49
Speaker 5: it's way, way better now because you get to just
19:52
Speaker 5: go right on SeatGeek and find your postseason tickets. I'm
19:56
Speaker 5: not even going to fast forward to the postseason. I'm
19:58
Speaker 5: going to say the run to October because some teams
20:01
Speaker 5: aren't in yet, so right now is the time to
20:03
Speaker 5: get it, and those seats are available.
20:05
Speaker 4: And it's playoff time, the best time for baseball. And
20:07
Speaker 4: of course, I have a quote for you all. You
20:09
Speaker 4: can use code TERRITORY10 for 10% off your next set
20:13
Speaker 4: of MLB tickets at SeatGeek. That's 10% off MLB tickets
20:17
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20:20
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20:26
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20:26
Speaker 1: All right, guys. Any final thoughts as we wrap up
20:32
Speaker 1: this show?
20:34
Speaker 2: Josh, anything? I got one, so.
20:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was on mute for a second. That's why
20:40
Speaker 3: I had to look over. I was going to say, man, tough.
20:44
Speaker 3: We don't know what they, as we're recording this, obviously
20:46
Speaker 3: we don't know what's going on with the Brewers series. But,
20:49
Speaker 3: you know, as far as on the last day, but
20:51
Speaker 3: you still got to, as we say, finish strong at home.
20:55
Speaker 3: You know, Brewers clinched at your place. But, you know,
20:58
Speaker 3: you still got some games. Regardless of everything that's going on,
21:02
Speaker 3: nobody wants to, you know, just wave the white flag.
21:05
Speaker 3: You still got to obligation to go out there. And
21:09
Speaker 3: as you always say, Mark, give the fans something to
21:10
Speaker 3: cheer about. So, so that's just kind of, yeah. Find
21:15
Speaker 3: a way to win, you know, don't do this series
21:19
Speaker 3: loss to the Brewers, you know, let that be the
21:21
Speaker 3: one and, you know, finish strong.
21:24
Speaker 1: Yeah.
21:24
Speaker 2: My, my final thoughts were just remember this off season,
21:28
Speaker 2: seeing that those bottles of champagne game rolled into the
21:32
Speaker 2: visitor's clubhouse, all the stuff sitting, the Brewers sitting out
21:35
Speaker 2: on your, I mean, I think that has something. The
21:40
Speaker 2: Stefan Diggs staring out on the field after the Super Bowl.
21:45
Speaker 2: Take that in. Use that as motivation. See what that
21:49
Speaker 2: celebration can look like if you get there. One of
21:53
Speaker 2: my other final thoughts was I checked out Legacy Hall again,
21:56
Speaker 2: and one of the items in there was a bottle
21:59
Speaker 2: of Korbel. Right above a Josh Harrison magazine, actually, from
22:03
Speaker 2: the 2013 wild card celebration that they kept from that
22:06
Speaker 2: locker room celebration. Let's pop some champagne again next year.
22:11
Speaker 2: Use this whole final stretch, this bad taste in your mouth.
22:14
Speaker 2: Use that as motivation going into the offseason. And let's
22:17
Speaker 2: just keep building because there was a little bit of
22:19
Speaker 2: momentum before this brewer series. Not so much now. But yeah,
22:24
Speaker 2: just finish strong.
22:27
Speaker 1: The champagne is just one of a million things about
22:31
Speaker 1: what the Brewers represent that the Pirates should look at
22:34
Speaker 1: and be motivated for. There's just no reason why, if
22:37
Speaker 1: they can do it, the Pirates can't. The Brewers are
22:40
Speaker 1: not a historically successful organization. They've never won a World Series.
22:44
Speaker 1: They play in a very small market. It's not an
22:48
Speaker 1: attractive place for free agents. It's not like it's located
22:51
Speaker 1: on a beach or anywhere. They don't spend a ton
22:54
Speaker 1: of money. It's... It's just exactly what Pittsburgh could be
23:00
Speaker 1: if better decisions were made and ownership cared more. That's
23:04
Speaker 1: just it. And I'm not going to sit here and
23:07
Speaker 1: act like they have the best owner either. But he
23:09
Speaker 1: just cares a little bit more. And you can just
23:12
Speaker 1: say it. And people in the Pirates front office might
23:14
Speaker 1: not like hearing me say that, but that's just the truth.
23:17
Speaker 1: It's just they care more about winning.
23:19
Speaker 2: They're willing to spend when it makes sense.
23:22
Speaker 1: And it's not even just spending– on players, it's just
23:27
Speaker 1: making the right decisions, like not firing your GM a
23:32
Speaker 1: month into the off season in 2021, you could just
23:35
Speaker 1: fired him when you fired the manager and screwing up everything.
23:38
Speaker 1: It's just every single thing is seemingly done differently between
23:43
Speaker 1: those two organizations and one. pop champagne at PNC park
23:47
Speaker 1: this September and the other will be playing golf on
23:51
Speaker 1: October 1st. So, uh, that's just it. And that's so yeah, the,
23:56
Speaker 1: the champagne celebration is one thing, but it's just the
23:58
Speaker 1: brewers as an entity should drive you crazy. Like they
24:04
Speaker 1: went and found their own Paul Steens and they didn't
24:06
Speaker 1: have to draft them one, one, right? Like they, they
24:09
Speaker 1: have their versions of Connor Griffin and, and, and, Ryan
24:14
Speaker 1: O'Hearn and whoever else. Like it's like, we, we, we
24:17
Speaker 1: literally complimented Spencer Horowitz on the show by saying, he
24:21
Speaker 1: reminds me of these guys who come in here and
24:24
Speaker 1: they perform. And that is, that is obviously the gold standard. Uh,
24:29
Speaker 1: I mean, if the pirates can even be half as successful,
24:31
Speaker 1: this town would burn to the ground in celebration. And, um, yeah, it's,
24:36
Speaker 1: it's just infuriating because there's, there's nothing stopping them from
24:41
Speaker 1: being able to do that aside from competency. So that's
24:47
Speaker 1: how I see it.
24:48
Speaker 2: Anyway.
24:49
Speaker 1: And you know how I see it. Yeah. I want
24:52
Speaker 1: to remind everyone to hit that subscribe button if you
24:55
Speaker 1: haven't already. We're on a mission of 3,000 subs. Can't
24:57
Speaker 1: get there without your help. Also check out the Bucko
25:00
Speaker 1: Territory team store for Josh Harrison and Platinum Key, a.k.a. Mark.
25:06
Speaker 1: I'm Noah Heil signing off saying thanks for tuning in
25:08
Speaker 1: to another episode of Bucko Territory presented to you by
25:10
Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network.
25:12
Speaker 3: Take care.