Latest / Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast / Pirates Hoist the Cone to Sweep Orioles

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Pirates Hoist the Cone to Sweep Orioles · Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Let's go.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: That was pretty funny. I have a podcast for two
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: of these people, or it's.
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: Your baseball reference Age and Mark looking like an idiot
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: and a com.
• 0:25
  Speaker 4: What's up, everybody?
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: Welcome back to another episode of Buco Territory, presented to
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: you by the Foul Territory Network. I'm Noah Hiles, and
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: joining me as always are my co hosts Josh Harrison and.
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: What's Up guy is.
• 0:40
  Speaker 5: Mark was in town for Easter weekend, so rather than
• 0:42
  Speaker 5: having him drive four hours home and then us recording
• 0:46
  Speaker 5: late Sunday night, I figured you would just drive ten
• 0:48
  Speaker 5: minutes from PNC Park to my house and.
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: We'll record here. I guess.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, we're celebrating Easter as a podcast. Mark, yes, Josh,
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Josh just didn't get the invite apparently.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: I mean I did. I just couldn't make it, man,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: you know, yeah, Cincinnati, Yeah.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: You should be spending these sorts of podcasts go hosts
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: and that your family. Yeah, come on, My.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Bad fellas is one of the few issures that I
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: haven't had a baseball game on. I didn't know what
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: to do with myself.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: Well, on the note of baseball, we've got a lot
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: of good baseball to talk about. The Pirates just concluded
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: a three game series sweep over the Baltimore Orioles.
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: That's where we'll open up.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: Also going to talk about one of their better hitters
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: in that series and.
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: One of their worst hitters.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: Yes, and that series, but guys, we'll just start off
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: with the sweep. The Pirates take all three games from Baltimore.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: They've won five straight, five of their last six, or
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: six of their last seven.
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, five and six of.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: Their last seven. They're they're the hottest team in baseball
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: right now, and they're tearing the cover off the ball.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: I'll open the floor to Mark, since he's just right
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: next to me. I mean, you were at two of
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: the games this homestand so far. What were your takeaways
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: from their last two victories or just the overall home
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: stand in general?
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the fives of PNC Park were outstanding.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: The amount of times that I heard people comparing saying
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: this is the best opening weekend, not just the best
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: home opener, just the best home opening weekend that they
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: could remember. They've scored thirty two runs in their last
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: five games. Ye, I mean, this offense is clicking. The
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: starting rotation hasn't allowed a home run yet. Today they
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: the whole Pirates, they're starting rotation and bullpen struck out
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: fourteen batters without walking a single batter. It's just been dominant. Yeah,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: it's been from the first inning, jump out early, maintain
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: a league, hold it, and then finish. And what was
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: really impressive was Saturday's game where they won a game
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: that they.
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: Were not supposed to win.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, which is something we just never saw with previous teams. Yeah,
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: the last few years, the Pirates found ways to lose games.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: They didn't find ways to win games, and the Orioles
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: get wrapped that and they took advantage and one a
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: one run game in the ninth walking it off with
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Nick York. So I just the clutch gene is out,
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: the vibes are high, there's belief in the city. It's
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: a great, great time to be a Pirates fan.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: Josh, I want to piggyback up off of what Mark
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: just pointed out right now, where they've won it in
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: different ways with different guys and winning games that you're
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: not supposed to with, you know, Jake Mangham tying the
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: game Saturday with an infield single, and then York walking
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: it off against Hesley, which you would feel like the
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: Orioles have the advantage in that matchup nine times out
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: of ten.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they walked ryand o'harn to get to Nick York, right.
• 3:45
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: Would you agree that that's the characteristic of a winning
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: ball club, that finding a way to win those games
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: that you're not supposed to win and getting contributions from everyone,
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: not just the two or three guys that you expect
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: to get it from.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, for sure, that's what winning teams do because
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: every night, every series, you know, teams are gonna have
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: you know, certain guys circled or or mark to say,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: don't let this guy beat us. Oh runners in scoring position,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: We're not gonna pitch to this guy. But that's what
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: good teams do, if they're gonna opt or not pitch
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: to somebody the next the next man up, you know,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: keep the line moving. Teams that win, that's what they do.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: And when we want to Pitchsburgh. Not that I'm trying
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: to compare, I think we said a lot of times.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: I even think myself, Cutch, you know, whether it was
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: a j whoever, Neil, You know, guys are just like
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: you know, we didn't care who got the credit. You know,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: all that matter was getting to win. And you know
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: when you see teams that win like that, when it's
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: somebody different every night, those are teams that are all
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: going in on that collective effort of saying, you know,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: let's win any given way, and if I don't get
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: it done, it's a bat the person behind me can
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: get it done, or vice versa. And I was able
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: to tune into not today's game or you know, Sunday
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Easter game, but I did catch the first two of
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: the homestand and obviously you expected it to be rocking
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: with Connor Griffin's debut opening day, we had already covered that,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: and obviously I felt the electricity through like my screen over.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Then you know, you look at the game yesterday and
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: I won't say not really much a cheer for because
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: I mean, I thought it was a well played game
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: on both sides as far as pitching, just from the beginning.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: So sometimes you know, you look at that one and
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: nothing two to nothing. Those ball games, those are type
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: ball games, and as you said in the past, those
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: are games that you know, not accustomed to winning. You know,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: you're okay, here we go let's look forward to the
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: moral and you could kind of fill it in that
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: eighth inning when it was two outs and I think
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: they did the Mountain visit right before mngam's at back,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: and I was like, this is a situation where that
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: might have been, you know, a little detrimentary to that picture.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: And what did he do? I mean, it's a rude
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: team ground ball, but it goes to show you not
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: the highlight, you know, his mistake. But it's what we
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: talk about in baseball. You put the ball in play,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: you give yourself a chance. And maybe in a year's
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: past that's in that bat where somebody strikes out. You know,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: you put the ball in play, you give yourself a chance.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: On what happens? They going to extra No, it went
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: to the ninth in they walked off. Yep. Yeah, And
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: just another thing of what this season has presented. Baltimore
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: was out of their challenges and health right before that pitch.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: He threw that pitch right at the bottom of the
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: zone and he goes, yeah, we're out. And one of
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: those things where you say things that don't happen in
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: the past might be a turning tide for the Pirates,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: and this weekend to open up at home and to
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: get a sweep at home. I think that is a
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: good start to the twenty twenty six season, especially at.
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: Home, Josha.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: Before we move on to our next segment, because we
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: haven't talked as a podcast since Connor played his big
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: League debut, obviously, we reacted to the news of him
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: coming up.
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: I just want to share, or hey, I just want
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: to share.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: I mean you obviously you sent me a text the
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: morning of that game wishing him luck, and it was
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: it was really cool to relay that message to him.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: I was on the field while they're taking infield and
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: he was walking by me, and I know Connor pretty
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: well by now, so I just said, hey, I need
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: you for twenty seconds and he was like, what do
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: you got And I was like, Josh Harrison wishes you
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: good luck today. And the smile on his face was
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: ear to ear. He's like, you tell him, I said hello,
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: And so that was a cool moment. That, Yeah, that
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: I think meant a lot to him. And I also
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: just wanted to get your impressions of Connor Griffin's debut
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: and how it went. I mean, we all know how
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: Mark reacted to it. Because I mean, if you follow
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: him on Twitter, he's broke his thumbs tweeting about Connor
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Griffin over this weekend, and obviously I've written about it,
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: but what were your impressions on Connor Griffin.
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: Not only his debut but just how he's looked through
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: three games so far.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: I've liked how he's looked. I'm not worried about how
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: he's going to look offensively, because that's something that's going
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: to come with the more that he gets comfortable up
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: there facing pictures he doesn't know, and the whole you know,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: energy just around every time he steps up. You know
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: there's gonna be excitement. But you can see it from
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: his first at bat. I don't think he got one fastball,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: and I think his dad even mentioned it later in
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: the interview, saying the more that the bat went that
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: he felt that he was going to be more comfortable,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: and it looked like that. But what you saw was
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: a nineteen year old kid that I don't want to
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: say the moment they get too big, but he was
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: able to slow it down and in that moment, you know,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: got that inning. I don't want to say, got a
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: jump started because O'Hearn started off the inning form, but
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: that was kind of the jump start of them scoring
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: runs because right after that, Triolo drove Man. I think
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: they scored four runs at aning. But what I was
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: really impressed with was just watching him defensively. I haven't
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: seen him get a chance to make a whole lot
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: of plays, but just watching his action he started. I
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: think it was a first double play the year m
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: I think, but the one that I saw was the one,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: the one that he was charging in on that little
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: in between hop that I can't remember who hit it,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: but it's like that that do or die where you
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: pick it and you can see he kind of fumbled it,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: but the mental, you know, preparation that he had to
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: not rush that throat because it's easy for guys to
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: do that and then sell it. You could see him
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: take the extra half step to get the grip and
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: get it out because I think it might have been
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: a guy on second base. It was like a situation
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: where it was a funky hop and nobody really prepares
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: for that play. But that's a do or die play,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: so that's a situation where you can see that eat
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: up a lot of guys. And I ain't saying nineteen
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: year old, So I'm talking ten twelve year old vets
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: that you know. It's just the door die play and
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: just to see how he handled everything defensively, being where
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: you need to be, cuts and relays. I'm just watching
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: the small things because all things are going to be magnified.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: He's a badge. Oh, but I'm watching the ins and
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: outs of the game, the small things of Okay, he
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: knows where to be, he's backing up, he's communicating, he understands.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: It's a lot louder than you know, a minor league stadium.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: So those are things that I was able to, you know,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: kind of watch him and see, like many handle this
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: really will because that's not easy to do.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: All right, Well, that concludes our review of just the
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: first homestand we're going to take a quick break. But
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: when we get back some O'Neal cruise talk Here on
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: Bucco Territory.
• 10:31
  Speaker 6: With over thirty five million downloads, what is the number
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• 11:32
  Speaker 4: So the first weekend of the season on'deal cruise was
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: the villain? Really? I mean he was the guy that
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: every fan was upset with. Everyone wanted him traded, get
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: him out of town, should send him a yeah?
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: That was a question that was submitted to us in
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: our mail bag. It's funny how things can change in
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: baseball in just a week. I mean Oneal Cruise right now,
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: I will say the defense still hasn't been good. The communication,
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: that's really what it comes down to. It's just I
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: think he just needs to play more center field. With
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: these two guys in their positions, that's still not an excuse.
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: It's just they clearly don't look comfortable alongside each other.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: It's not an excuse, but it's the truth. Yeah, I
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: thingay in Great American where rens And that's not Cruise's fault, ye,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: because you could see he was going for it, called
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: it and Reynolds didn't get out the way. That could
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: be a situation where they didn't hear each other. But
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: also I would have no doubt in my mind that
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Reynolds knows, like all dang, that's my fault, because Reynolds
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: knows if he's in center field, that's his ball. But
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: that's also, as you mentioned, a guy that hasn't play
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: center field too much. Same thing we talk about being
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: in the NFL outfield. Regardless when you have priority, like
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: we used to make a big deal about it in
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: spring training, you're not gonna be embarrassed. If you scream
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: as loud as you can, that is my ball. But
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: at the same time, you know it's kind of hard
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: to do that, and you focus and try and no,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: I got I got it, And you know what I mean.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: They're not trying to be funny. Sometimes there's a language
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: barrier where it might not sound as clear to Reynolds,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: and you know he's used to He's also used to
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: rentals being a right field from last year. So I
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: don't say it's an excuse. I agree, which is not
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: an excuse, but at the same time, it is real.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: But communication is something that is easily fixed, and it
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: should not continue to be as you say it shouldn't
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: shouldn't continue down much further than what we've already addressed.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: On the note of things that have been fixed, it
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: looks like some adjustments have been made for him at
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: the plate. I mean the obvious one is him against lefties,
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: but is he's seven for ten against lefties so far
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: this season. I think he had ten hits in one
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: hundred and eight played appearances eleven yeh one hundred and
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: eleven or eleven hits eleven hits all last year, one
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: home run.
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah against lefties, and like.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and so this year, I mean seven for ten
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: with three home runs against left E's already this year
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: he's actually better against left there's lefties and righties so far.
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: The I don't expect that to persist, but I mean, hey,
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: it's a big step forward, and just overall his bats
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: have been better. My qualm with Cruise in the leadoff
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: spot at times last year was his pitch selection wasn't
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: what it needed to be. When you're at the top there,
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: you want a guy, regardless of what the characteristics of
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: the leadoff spot have evolved into. Right, for years, it
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: was someone like a Kenny Lofton, someone who was fast,
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: someone who's gonna steal bases, someone you know, who could
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: hit the ball on the ground. That's not necessarily the
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: case now, right, you see Kyle Schwarber hitting at the
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: top of the lineup, show tany You've seen it all
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: across baseball. But the sustaining characteristic is you want a
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: quality at bat. You want guys who are going to
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: see a lot of pitches and drive up that pitch count.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: And that's what O'Neil Cruz has done. If you go
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: and look at almost all of is at bats are
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: five six pitches, and he's lengthening counts. He's not fallen
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: behind often, which was a bad thing for him last year.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: You'd blink and it would be O two. And there's
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: still a little bit of swinging this here and there.
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: But he's learned the art of fouling off a pitch
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: that's in the zone but you can't do anything with it,
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: So just take it over to the left, take it
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: over to the right, make him throw another one until
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: that picture makes a mistake or sometimes he gets the
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: best of you. But if it's an eight pitch at
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: bat and you ended up on strike three, that's still
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: a quality at bat, especially.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Right better than and what I was going to ask
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: with that last year, some of those two strikes were
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: those he in a two strike hole because he was
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: not necessarily free swinging, was swinging very yeah, and not
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: saying that he can't because I mean, it's not any different.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: He's still leading off. But sometimes you know that leadoff
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: position if you've never been there, regardless of what type
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: of hitter you are, it will mess with some people.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: I know some people that have flat out after one game,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: gone straight to the manager's office and go, don't ever
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: put me back at lead off again. And they didn't
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: have a bad game. That's the crazy thing about it,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Like the person didn't have a bad game, but it
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: was just like I don't like feeling of leading golf
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: where it was a guy like me, Like I loved
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: the lead off because I'm an aggressive hitter, but when
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: I lead off, I didn't really swing first pitch. A
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: lot of people didn't really know that because the book
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: on me was he's an aggressive swinger, aggressive hitter. But
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: when I let off, I didn't necessarily swing first pitch
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: unless we were playing somebody in a division that I
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: might play a lot to where it's like, all right,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: I faced this dude three times in the start. In
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: all three starts, I took the first pitch. Now the
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: fourth time I might get you. And maybe that's a
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: situation where O'Neil this year has obviously we saw it
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: in the Classic. He's seeing them all a little bit better,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: has slowed some things down and also understood like, man,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: if he can get locked in against lefties, I think
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: it takes care of everything else. And I think that
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: also is why we're seeing this good start to him
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: because a lot of lefties that I've played with, if
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: they were locked in against lefties, that made the right
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: he's that much harder because I mean that much easier
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: because lefties don't really face lefties.
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: So we've talked about Cruz.
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: Now let's transition over to our final topic, which is
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: a guy who is struggling mightily.
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: That's Marcel Ozuna.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: He has just two hits this season, by far, the
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: worst hitter in the Pirates lineup so far. A guy
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: who was booed on Saturday, not by Mark By, not
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: by mister Cohne himself, but by a lot.
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: Of fans, and something that he, to his credit, owned
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: up to.
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: He said, I deserve to get booed after the game,
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: and he's a veteran. It's it's only been one week
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: in the season. But but Josh, I want to ask you,
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: there's a there's a trend that goes on with this
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: Pirates team where it seems like every year they sign
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: a guy right before the start of spring training, and
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: almost always that guy starts the year horribly. You look
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: back to Tom he signed in February of twenty twenty four,
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: and he struggled first couple months of the season. You
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: go back to twenty twenty three, they acquired Michael A.
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: Taylor mid spring. He struggled for like a whole year,
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: essentially offensively, I mean rowdy. Tilliz is another one, although
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: he was acquired a little in the middle of the offseason.
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: But there are these examples.
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: Do you think there's anything too, You know, not when
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: you have a player who doesn't know what is going
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: to be asked of him, you don't know what your
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: team looks like, you don't know what to prepare for that.
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: Even if you get a whole spring, having a full
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: offseason of knowing what you're inheriting, do you think that
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: that makes your preparation a little easier? Is that what
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: we're seeing with Oozuna right now?
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: I just think you're seeing a combination of a lot.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: One is baseball. Baseball is a hard game. Two, he's
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: a veteran. As you said, he's acknowledged. You know he
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: deserves to get Boo. But I'll be honest, I wouldn't
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: really say you deserve to get Boo when you're trying.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: But let's just be honest. It's a little magnified due
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: to his struggles and who he is, you know, replacing cuts.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: So I think a lot of that is where some
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: of the and I think it'd be a lot worse
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: if the Pirates were losing. But he's a guy that's
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: been around and he knows that he'll be able to
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: write the ship. That's not to say he's gonna hit
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: three hundred with thirty homers, but I don't see him
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: still surround with only two hits. And they paid him.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: He's going to have to somewhat justify what they paid him.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: But a lot of it, too is I've played for
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: different teams. I've signed laden Spring, I've signed Norman Spring,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: I've been traded mid season. Yes, it's baseball, but going
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: to a new team and organization is different, even if
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: you've been prepared to go there from the beginning of
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: spring training or whatever, because it's a whole nother city,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: it's a whole nother team, it's a whole other organization philosophy.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Not only that, when you come in, it's not like
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: you the guy. You might be one of the guys,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: but when you come in, you're still you got to
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: fit your schedule around these guys. Because if so and
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: so is in the cage at two thirty. Dang, I
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: used to be in a cage of two thirty, but
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: that was my old place, so I'm not making an excuse.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: These are all things that it might take a guy
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: a month just to get acclimated. When I first went
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: to the White Sox, it was after the lockout, so
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: I signed like right after the lockout, So I got
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: there late. But my whole regiment of what I was
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: used to doing got thrown off because I not only
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: had to learn a new organization, I also had to
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: rush and learn a new organization. And it wasn't until
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: probably about a month until that season that I was like,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: all right, I know how my routine is gonna go.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: What time to get in the cage, what time to
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: get to the field, Which trainer I'm gonna work with,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: because I mean, this is an extensive list that you
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: might have it here, but when you get traded, you
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: know you got to you got to get in where
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: you fit in. And as you said, he's owed up
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: to it. But I think there's gonna be a situation
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: where if if he jumps on board and gets better,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: it's only gonna make the pirates that much better. If
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: this is your only strong right now? You can deal
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: with that because you got enough guys that's holding a
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: ship afloat right.
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: Now, Mark, I'll ask you this with so many other
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: guys clicking right now. You look at Mangam and you're
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: in Gonzalez. These are bench players right now. They're all
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: hitting the ball really well. They all provide a lot
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: of value, and in Mangum's case, he provides value in
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: the field in addition to at the bat.
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: How long would you like to see the pirates out too? Right?
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: The come on right?
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: How long of a leash are you willing to give Ozuna?
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: Is he still does he still deserve every day at
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: bats right now? Or is this kind of a wave
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: where you're trying you would like to see the pirates
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: maybe ride the hot hands and give Ozuna some more
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: off days to just see what the other guys can
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: do right now?
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's going to vary, but I think
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: you have to give a Zoona the chances. You gave
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: him twelve million dollars. You obviously believe that he can
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: be the four hole constant everyday.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: DH.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: That's going to provide a lot of power and a
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: lot of spark to this offense, So you got to
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: give him a shot to get going. Like Josh said,
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: things are in fluctuation. He was with the Braves for
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: a while. This is a whole brand new organization, and
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: so giving him that chance to get his get comfortable
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: so that once we get into the thick of the
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: season he's actually rolling. At the same time, though, I
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: mean it's hard to say when you look at how
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: Jake Ingham's playing. Billy Cook just had a home run
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: yesterday in Triple A before he got called up. I mean,
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: there's some guys that are hot right now. Nick York
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: just walked off. I mean, throw him in right field again.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: So I'd like to see other players besides as sooner
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: right now as a fan. But I totally understand why
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: the Pirates are probably gonna give him a long leash,
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: and I'm trying to figure things out for at least
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: a month.
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's on them to find a way
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: to make his life a little easier, right Like, I
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: don't think it's smart to maybe bat him clean up
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: right now. I don't think it's a bad idea to
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: maybe hit him sixth. You know, he shouldn't be, especially
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: if he left he's on the mountain, like, find him,
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: find him the most advantageous situations. If he has a
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: matchup coming up against the guy who he historically hasn't.
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: Hit well, then don't play him that day. It's not
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: a case where you got to run.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: Him out there every day. But yeah, I mean, you've
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: invested too much in the guy to give up on
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: him one week into the year. But at the same time,
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: but you have to pull the right strings here. You
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: can't because if you're if you're forcing one guy out
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: there who's just not getting it done, you're running the
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: risk of cooling off other guys. And at the end
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: of the day, everyone in that clubhouse should have the
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: same collective goal, which is to win. And if certain
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: guys are helping you win ball games right now and
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: they're not seeing the field because you're prioritizing the money,
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: that's not gonna work well. And that's that's that's a
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: sin that's committed by a lot of teams.
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: Immediately.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Well, I was gonna say to your point, it is
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: a gray area that really shouldn't be gray. If you
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: ask me, I lived it, you know, being that twenty
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: fifth guy where dang, man, it's two weeks twenty thirteen.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: It was two weeks into the season. I didn't have
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: a start, and I'm like, man, it's four lefties in
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: a row on the mound. Other lefties are playing, and
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, like I'm not wishing anything, but
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: like in this case, especially earlier part of the season,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: you still want to keep your bench guys fresh, because
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: that was me. I went from being that bench guy.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: You know, you talk about the names that you mentioned,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: mang them these guys that go to spring training and
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: they're probably leading to spring training in that batch because
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: they're getting the most that batch. But then the last
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: week or two you kind of taper some of their
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: bats because you on the everyday starters. But you know,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: you can't let it get to a situation, as you
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: guys said, where it's a month down the road and
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: you've committed he's at batch to Ozuma and you've allowed
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: guys to you know, sit on the bench and get
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: steal or other guys to cool off. So what you
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: said was finding those matchups but also you know, not
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: giving up on them because you sign them for a reason.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: But at the same time, find those moments where if
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: it makes sense to give him a day here, let
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: that guy, you know, these guys that have been contributing,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: you know, step up two because as you said, you know,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: far too many teams you know, prioritize that overpaying this
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: guy X amount of dollars when it's like depend has
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: got an X amount of dollars, but you're losing. But
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: when this guy is in, you know, this guy has
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: made a difference in the past couple of games. Give
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: this guy a break. Not saying you got to replace him.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: Who knows it might happen, but you got to prioritize winning.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: That's me and it's a fine line.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: And to their credit, they pretty much have right. I mean,
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: that's why Connor Griffin's up here right now. That's that's
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: why Hunter Barco's up here right now. Like they have
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: the best twenty six man roster they could choose from
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: in their organization. So we'll see if it continues. Guys,
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: any final thoughts before we wrap up.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: No, just a good open weekend to you know, opening
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: P and C and keep it going until they're going
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: the road. One thing that we always talk about is
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: protecting home, and you protect home at P and C.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: They will continue to show up, not only for opening
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: day or opening weekend. It'll continue to show up, but
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: definitely a nice start, you know, to this first week,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: and just tell him keep going.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just keep packing P ANDC. Keep bringing that energy,
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: and I think this team is going to match it
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: and respond. So you keep showing up. They're going to
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: keep showing out and keep getting wins and longest win
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: streaking MLB right now, So leave it at that, all right.
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: We want to remind everyone to hit that subscribe button
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: if you have not already. Mark is hitting that hits
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: the subscribe button as I talk, and head to the
• 26:49
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• 26:52
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• 26:55
  Speaker 3: everyone supporting this program. He's Josh Harrison. He is Mark
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: a KA Platinum Key al Noah Haile signing off on
• 27:03
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• 27:06
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