Latest / Foul Territory / Trevor May: Shutting down Shohei, HEEL Acuna Jr., Jesús Luzardo’s sweeper, AL Cy Young debate or nah?
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Hey, Maysplaining, Trevor May, back with us on FT. Good
- 0:08Speaker 1: to see you, Trevor. How you been, man?
- 0:10Speaker 2: I am great. How are you guys doing?
- 0:12Speaker 1: We're good.
- 0:13Speaker 3: You ready for the pitching quiz? We got a number
- 0:15Speaker 3: of questions for you. So let's start with the big one.
- 0:17Speaker 2: Yeah, let's do it. Lay it on me. All right.
- 0:19Speaker 1: Well, Shohei Otani, he's a big deal. He's a unicorn.
- 0:22Speaker 3: And he's kind of wearing down a little bit. Physically,
- 0:25Speaker 3: he's taken a toll this year on trying to do
- 0:28Speaker 3: the pitching and the hitting. And we haven't seen the
- 0:29Speaker 3: pitching much lately. it sounds like he's not going to
- 0:33Speaker 3: pitch again. Now, he might pop up again in a
- 0:35Speaker 3: few weeks because he can do whatever he wants, but
- 0:37Speaker 3: what's your take on what he's going through, what he said,
- 0:41Speaker 3: and what he should do to make sure that he's
- 0:43Speaker 3: as good as possible at the plate for the Dodgers?
- 0:47Speaker 2: Shut it down. Let's just end the dream now. It's
- 0:52Speaker 2: not going to happen. It's okay.
- 0:54Speaker 4: He didn't pitch that much last year. He didn't pitch
- 0:57Speaker 4: at all the year before that. Let's just say it's
- 1:00Speaker 4: okay if he just hits because he's got to be
- 1:03Speaker 4: uh he's got to be on the field and if
- 1:05Speaker 4: if it means you know asking him to do too
- 1:08Speaker 4: much and that hurts him to do the one thing
- 1:10Speaker 4: that he can do well right now then what's the
- 1:12Speaker 4: point of doing it uh guys won four mvps at
- 1:15Speaker 4: some point he's going to slow down and get a
- 1:17Speaker 4: bunch of little uh nagging stuff going on everyone does
- 1:20Speaker 4: in baseball it's actually a miracle that this hasn't he's
- 1:22Speaker 4: gone this long without it happening this is the thing
- 1:25Speaker 4: This is the reason people aren't two-way players usually. So, yeah,
- 1:28Speaker 4: shut it down. He's not going to win the Cy
- 1:29Speaker 4: Young this year. I know that's what we were talking
- 1:31Speaker 4: about a lot. But I think that's a two-horse race
- 1:34Speaker 4: at this point. So, like, just get him ready for
- 1:37Speaker 4: the postseason. We know that's what you do anyways, Dodgers.
- 1:41Speaker 4: And it's September now. So it's the time to shift into, oh, look,
- 1:44Speaker 4: everyone's healthy again. It's time to go on a run mode.
- 1:48Speaker 4: And if that means Shohei throws– gets to magically come
- 1:53Speaker 4: in and throw a single inning in a playoff game
- 1:55Speaker 4: or something, and that's the only thing we see, then
- 1:57Speaker 4: I'd say that's more than we can expect. Just shut
- 1:59Speaker 4: him down, let him swing the bat.
- 2:02Speaker 2: He's 32.
- 2:03Speaker 5: Can you remember you were 32 when you played, the
- 2:06Speaker 5: last year you played for the Mets? How is your
- 2:09Speaker 5: body feeling? Because that is the biggest thing is Dave
- 2:12Speaker 5: Roberts was saying, hey, you know what? He's breaking down.
- 2:15Speaker 5: There's different things I'm seeing overall wear and tear. Did
- 2:18Speaker 5: you not recover as well because of talking about that?
- 2:22Speaker 5: Then you like double that with what Shohei's doing if
- 2:25Speaker 5: he has a possibility of coming back.
- 2:27Speaker 2: Yeah, I was a reliever.
- 2:29Speaker 4: And I remember distinctly thinking, oh, this is what they
- 2:32Speaker 4: talk about when you've gone over the crest of that
- 2:36Speaker 4: roller coaster and starting to look around. at the, how
- 2:39Speaker 4: far you're about to go down. Uh, that's when you,
- 2:42Speaker 4: you start to realize like, Oh, my calf hurts. And
- 2:44Speaker 4: that's never happened before. That sounds like it's a neck thing.
- 2:48Speaker 4: And then it's like a shoulder thing, but not from
- 2:50Speaker 4: throwing from like swinging or sleeping wrong. That's when that
- 2:53Speaker 4: stuff starts to, to pop up. That's when you start
- 2:56Speaker 4: getting the Jeremy Affeld.
- 2:57Speaker 6: Oh yeah.
- 2:57Speaker 2: I tore my ACL. Cause I was picking on my
- 2:58Speaker 2: kids type of stuff.
- 3:00Speaker 4: And so Yes, I remember that. And I was just
- 3:04Speaker 4: the guy that pitched, you know, in a good year,
- 3:06Speaker 4: 60 innings. So I can only imagine what it's like
- 3:08Speaker 4: to go hit in the cage and also go do
- 3:11Speaker 4: your full throwing program and have any energy left over to,
- 3:16Speaker 4: you know, feed yourself, let alone play baseball.
- 3:18Speaker 2: So he's amazing in a lot of ways.
- 3:21Speaker 4: But there's going to come a day of reckoning where, like,
- 3:23Speaker 4: you just kind of have to be smart about shaving
- 3:25Speaker 4: those things down. And we all know eventually he's going
- 3:28Speaker 4: to just be a hitter. That's going to happen eventually. probably,
- 3:32Speaker 4: or he's going to do just one or the other because,
- 3:36Speaker 4: of course, that's what's going to happen. Everyone kind of
- 3:38Speaker 4: does less as they get older. So we might just
- 3:40Speaker 4: be seeing the beginning of that, but I don't think
- 3:42Speaker 4: that's a cause for concern yet. I just think we
- 3:44Speaker 4: have a lot of options here, and he is a
- 3:47Speaker 4: freak athlete. So just let him do the thing he
- 3:49Speaker 4: can do the best right now because at the end
- 3:51Speaker 4: of the day, he's trying to go three feet.
- 3:54Speaker 7: Trevor, that was my question for you, and I said
- 3:56Speaker 7: this when he signed the contract. What happens if he
- 3:58Speaker 7: wakes up one day and says, I don't want to
- 3:59Speaker 7: pitch anymore? I'm just going to be a hitter. Is
- 4:01Speaker 7: the contract still worth it?
- 4:05Speaker 2: That's a great question.
- 4:07Speaker 4: I think we did the GM math the beginning of
- 4:11Speaker 4: this year trying to figure out if the $ 700 million
- 4:15Speaker 4: contract is worth the war he's been outputting. Up to
- 4:17Speaker 4: this point, he's actually been overperforming, which I didn't think
- 4:20Speaker 4: was possible, but it is. But if he just becomes
- 4:24Speaker 4: a hitter, now that has been the majority of his
- 4:26Speaker 4: value since he has been a Dodger as well, so
- 4:31Speaker 4: It's probably closer, but I don't even think that's even
- 4:34Speaker 4: possible to get to that type of number. This year,
- 4:38Speaker 4: maybe in three years when the price per war is
- 4:40Speaker 4: even higher, that is, you know, sans salary cap.
- 4:46Speaker 2: Stay tuned for that. But whatever that ends up being,
- 4:49Speaker 2: it'll be a war number.
- 4:51Speaker 4: I mean, when a guy wins MVP every single year
- 4:53Speaker 4: he's been on the team, though, you can't make that
- 4:54Speaker 4: argument yet. But, yeah, if he becomes just a hitter
- 4:56Speaker 4: and it becomes harder to win MVPs, I would say then, yeah,
- 5:00Speaker 4: I mean, the aging curse comes for everybody.
- 5:02Speaker 2: It's a long-term contract.
- 5:03Speaker 4: At some point, he's going to be worth less than
- 5:06Speaker 4: year by year the amount of production he is giving
- 5:09Speaker 4: the team.
- 5:10Speaker 2: It's just inevitable. It's how these things work.
- 5:13Speaker 5: Obviously, an arm injury is the worst thing that can
- 5:15Speaker 5: happen to a pitcher. What's the second part of your
- 5:18Speaker 5: body that's the worst? Because we remember that Shohei, the
- 5:22Speaker 5: original thing that cropped up before the bicep, before the neck,
- 5:25Speaker 5: was his knee. Is it your legs as a pitcher
- 5:30Speaker 5: that then causes everything else to go? Because Shohei is
- 5:33Speaker 5: also running the bases a lot.
- 5:37Speaker 4: Yeah, I'd say legs are up there, but I will,
- 5:39Speaker 4: I will give you a, a, an alternate that I
- 5:42Speaker 4: think is even worse. And it was what I think
- 5:45Speaker 4: inevitably slowed Clayton Kershaw down was his back. I think if,
- 5:49Speaker 4: if you have back issues, those tend to linger and
- 5:53Speaker 4: they tend to come back a lot. And we, that,
- 5:56Speaker 4: you know, pun intended, they kept coming back for Kershaw
- 6:00Speaker 4: and they've come back for, for, you know, other guys
- 6:02Speaker 4: who kind of have, I mean, we've seen some with
- 6:04Speaker 4: Edward Cabrera kind of, once you go on, you go
- 6:06Speaker 4: back on for the back again. And then it becomes
- 6:08Speaker 4: this like thing that crops up time to time. I
- 6:10Speaker 4: had my own back issues early in a career that
- 6:12Speaker 4: I made sure I got on top of because I
- 6:14Speaker 4: knew that was something that could happen. So yeah, I
- 6:17Speaker 4: would be more worried if it were a chronic back issue,
- 6:20Speaker 4: but I would say legs are probably the next, a
- 6:23Speaker 4: next level there, the knee specifically, because, It's just hard
- 6:27Speaker 4: to build that back up.
- 6:28Speaker 2: You have to like structure. It's all these things.
- 6:31Speaker 4: So many things are traveling through it and connected to it.
- 6:34Speaker 4: It could be weakness one place or the other. And
- 6:36Speaker 4: it's it's there's a lot of force being generated through
- 6:39Speaker 4: a knee when you throw, especially if it's your push
- 6:41Speaker 4: off foot. So that's something that I would be worried about.
- 6:45Speaker 2: But I think guys have.
- 6:46Speaker 4: Been been able to work through that stuff and maybe
- 6:49Speaker 4: not not. age as quickly or, or fall apart as quickly. Uh,
- 6:54Speaker 4: and that stuff that may be a back issue in
- 6:56Speaker 4: terms of affecting your ability to be an effective player,
- 6:59Speaker 4: not just be in pain, but also just like you,
- 7:02Speaker 4: you just don't perform as well because it's really hard
- 7:04Speaker 4: to repeat the things.
- 7:05Speaker 2: You need to repeat.
- 7:06Speaker 4: So it's not a back issue. So, I mean, I
- 7:08Speaker 4: guess we could take that as some positive news.
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- 8:12Speaker 7: Trevor, I just want to clarify one thing you said.
- 8:13Speaker 7: He's not winning the MVP this year. PCA is, so
- 8:15Speaker 7: we can just go ahead and forget about that argument.
- 8:17Speaker 7: PCA's already got that thing on lock, so when you're
- 8:21Speaker 7: saying he's winning MVP every year, and it's not going
- 8:23Speaker 7: to be voter fatigue.
- 8:24Speaker 6: It's just going to be that PCA has just had
- 8:25Speaker 6: an unbelievable year and deserves it. So I just wanted
- 8:28Speaker 6: to get that out there for you.
- 8:30Speaker 4: Hey, man, I am up there in fandom with PCA, man.
- 8:34Speaker 4: The first time I ever met the kid, he was
- 8:35Speaker 4: 19 in Mets camp, and I was like, This kid
- 8:39Speaker 4: knows what he's doing.
- 8:40Speaker 2: And then it came out that his parents are actors.
- 8:42Speaker 2: And I was like, oh, okay. All right, this makes
- 8:44Speaker 2: a lot of sense. But, yeah, he's impressive, man. And
- 8:48Speaker 2: sometimes you just win it. You just win it.
- 8:50Speaker 4: And, hey, they do this in the Academy Awards all
- 8:54Speaker 4: the time, too. You won a bunch recently, man. And
- 8:57Speaker 4: the guy's just clearly like it's– there's an argument to
- 9:01Speaker 4: be made. You're going to lose points for that. It's
- 9:02Speaker 4: just the way it works. I think that's the way
- 9:04Speaker 4: the world should be. No one wants to see the
- 9:06Speaker 4: same person. went over and over and over and over
- 9:08Speaker 4: and over. Things get boring really quickly that way. So
- 9:10Speaker 4: like an underdog, even though this guy might not be
- 9:13Speaker 4: the underdog at this point, especially the glove.
- 9:16Speaker 2: We can't talk about the glove enough.
- 9:17Speaker 4: The guy has been incredible in center field, absolutely insane,
- 9:22Speaker 4: metrically and just watching on TV. Both things have pointed
- 9:26Speaker 4: to this guy is a generational defensive center fielder that
- 9:31Speaker 4: we haven't seen in a while, and I'm here for it.
- 9:34Speaker 5: You tune in to watch PCA play. You tune in
- 9:36Speaker 5: to watch Otani play. Garrett Crochet has not played since April.
- 9:42Speaker 5: His exact quote, now I'm going to pull up the
- 9:44Speaker 5: exact quote. I've done crazy things before. I'm not Joe Schmo.
- 9:50Speaker 5: I've done impressive things. I think that would be a
- 9:53Speaker 5: big ask for some people, but I don't think it's
- 9:55Speaker 5: a crazy ask for me when he was asked about
- 9:58Speaker 5: pitching in the postseason last without throwing in any games.
- 10:02Speaker 5: Do you know where your body's at if you haven't
- 10:08Speaker 5: thrown in any games as a pitcher like Crochet who's
- 10:11Speaker 5: going to push it to the max when the brightest
- 10:15Speaker 5: lights are on for the Red Sox?
- 10:18Speaker 2: That's a mixed bag.
- 10:19Speaker 4: I've seen a lot of guys come out and be really,
- 10:21Speaker 4: really sharp without needing to go and throw in the
- 10:23Speaker 4: minors or get in a game situation. And then I've
- 10:26Speaker 4: seen guys that just like, you got to build it
- 10:29Speaker 4: back up because it's been a long time.
- 10:30Speaker 2: And it has been a while. You're right.
- 10:32Speaker 4: But I think at the end of the day, like
- 10:35Speaker 4: how he would be used would be, you know, starting
- 10:39Speaker 4: a game three and having like a really short leash
- 10:44Speaker 4: because you just can't afford someone to be rusty. And
- 10:47Speaker 4: then it's kind of like playing with house money at
- 10:50Speaker 4: that point where you think that's kind of how you
- 10:52Speaker 4: would be using a third guy anyways, really short leash
- 10:55Speaker 4: in however the series is going. So if they have
- 10:59Speaker 4: him there, I think what he's saying is the right thing.
- 11:01Speaker 4: I think that his mindset is the right thing, that
- 11:04Speaker 4: he's not going to be like maybe– scared of this
- 11:11Speaker 4: of the situation or or like the lights will be
- 11:13Speaker 4: too big and it's been a while and oh i
- 11:15Speaker 4: got to get up to game speed that's not going
- 11:17Speaker 4: to be a problem he's going to be able to
- 11:18Speaker 4: get in the mindset immediately he doesn't need to build
- 11:19Speaker 4: that up now how rusty you are is it depends
- 11:23Speaker 4: on how many bullpens he's thrown and how many live
- 11:25Speaker 4: uh bps he's been able to throw and all that
- 11:27Speaker 4: kind of stuff but when it comes down to it
- 11:29Speaker 4: if you can at least get up to speed in
- 11:32Speaker 4: here uh i think he's just as good as anybody
- 11:35Speaker 4: in the league of being able to do that and
- 11:36Speaker 4: he's a gamer so your.
- 11:38Speaker 2: Minimum thing that's going to happen here Teammates love it.
- 11:40Speaker 2: Everyone's excited.
- 11:42Speaker 4: But I think our experience has been with guys just
- 11:44Speaker 4: coming back four months or three months gone or four
- 11:47Speaker 4: months gone, however long it's been for him, and going
- 11:49Speaker 4: to a playoff series, generally it's usually either just fine
- 11:54Speaker 4: or not great. So I wouldn't anticipate him coming and
- 11:59Speaker 4: throwing a complete game right out of the way.
- 12:01Speaker 7: Trevor, what's more important, rehab for a pitcher or rehab
- 12:04Speaker 7: for a position player? Because Aaron Judge is doing this,
- 12:06Speaker 7: coming back without a rehab. So, you know, Garrett Crochet
- 12:09Speaker 7: might go and throw some innings in the minor leagues
- 12:11Speaker 7: and then boom, right back in the big leagues in
- 12:13Speaker 7: the playoffs. Or Aaron Judge, who's just doing nothing as
- 12:15Speaker 7: far as rehab goes. And I'm back, boys.
- 12:19Speaker 4: I would say it's harder for a pitcher just because
- 12:23Speaker 4: just because of how like regimented you are in the routine. Like,
- 12:27Speaker 4: it's just you got to be game speed. You got
- 12:29Speaker 4: to be able to flow with the game. You got
- 12:31Speaker 4: to be able to be like, oh, I'm not really
- 12:32Speaker 4: dialed in right here and then deal with throwing 25
- 12:35Speaker 4: pitches in an inning. And it's really hard to simulate
- 12:37Speaker 4: that because everything's so controlled. Like you're not in control
- 12:40Speaker 4: out there in that way. You can't limit the number
- 12:43Speaker 4: of pitches you're throwing and hitters have that kind of luxury.
- 12:46Speaker 4: Their ABs are only going to be as long as
- 12:48Speaker 4: their ABs are like, they're not going to be forced
- 12:50Speaker 4: to stand there and then swing 30 times where they're
- 12:54Speaker 4: never be able to simulate that.
- 12:55Speaker 2: So I think you can simulate hitting a little bit more.
- 12:58Speaker 4: I saw the BP judge was facing live pitching of
- 13:02Speaker 4: guys who were like, not hurt. They're like, they're just,
- 13:05Speaker 4: probably not going to pitch very much, or they've been
- 13:07Speaker 4: called up, and they're quality pitchers. He's facing good pitching
- 13:12Speaker 4: in the live ABs, and he can take a lot
- 13:13Speaker 4: of them. I think that he probably has a little
- 13:16Speaker 4: bit more of an advantage there. I played with Starling Marte.
- 13:18Speaker 4: The guy literally refused to ever go on. He never
- 13:21Speaker 4: went on a rehab stand. No matter how long he
- 13:25Speaker 4: was down, he came and just would rake.
- 13:26Speaker 2: Right out of the gate. Some people just, it doesn't matter.
- 13:30Speaker 4: And Judge might be one of those guys.
- 13:33Speaker 2: He's also a generation talent.
- 13:34Speaker 4: I think that having him on the field Even if
- 13:36Speaker 4: he's not sharp right away, he's going to make, like,
- 13:39Speaker 4: Bellinger and Rice, everyone so much better that they just
- 13:42Speaker 4: need the name Judge on the scorecard more than anything
- 13:45Speaker 4: right now, and that's a luxury as well.
- 13:48Speaker 5: That was going to be my question before I get
- 13:50Speaker 5: to Jesus Lizardo, was as a pitcher with Judge in
- 13:54Speaker 5: the lineup, you alluded to it there, but are you
- 13:57Speaker 5: fearful of him even if he hasn't had– As many ABs,
- 14:02Speaker 5: or he looks a little rusty, or do you look
- 14:04Speaker 5: at a guy like Judge and you say, okay, he's
- 14:06Speaker 5: played six games since he's been back on rehab. He's
- 14:09Speaker 5: not swinging it well, so we'll be able to go
- 14:11Speaker 5: right after him.
- 14:13Speaker 4: I think it takes a special kind of pitcher to
- 14:18Speaker 4: have that confidence against a guy with a history like that.
- 14:21Speaker 4: You don't want to be the guy that he clicks against,
- 14:23Speaker 4: and you know he's going to click at some point.
- 14:24Speaker 4: So it's one of those things like, is he washed
- 14:27Speaker 4: or is he not washed? That's not the question. The
- 14:29Speaker 4: question is, How long is this guy going to be
- 14:32Speaker 4: rusty for? And so you need to treat him as
- 14:35Speaker 4: if he is a top-notch Aaron Judge, which then opens.
- 14:39Speaker 2: Things up for the.
- 14:40Speaker 4: Because then you can't lend as much brainpower to the
- 14:45Speaker 4: other guys, which were.
- 14:47Speaker 2: Getting all the brainpower before. They were getting.
- 14:49Speaker 4: Ben Rice was getting really prepared for, and he's just
- 14:51Speaker 4: not quite the quality of overall hitter there in Judges
- 14:55Speaker 4: because there really isn't anyone else that is like that.
- 14:58Speaker 6: And so.
- 14:59Speaker 2: he was getting picked apart a little bit more.
- 15:01Speaker 4: Still a good hitter, still having a great year, just
- 15:04Speaker 4: not the year he was having when Aaron Judge was
- 15:06Speaker 4: hitting in front of him. So it's one of those
- 15:09Speaker 4: things where guys, he's like a black hole. Everyone's focused
- 15:12Speaker 4: on him so much that other people kind of fall
- 15:14Speaker 4: through the cracks and get stuff to hit. And that
- 15:16Speaker 4: is the beauty of their lineup year after year, is
- 15:18Speaker 4: that they have that type of guy. There's only a
- 15:20Speaker 4: couple guys on the planet that are like that. They
- 15:23Speaker 4: can just make every pitcher focus on them so much
- 15:26Speaker 4: that they don't have enough Time to focus on anyone else,
- 15:29Speaker 4: and he is one of them.
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- 16:33Speaker 5: You worry about one guy and you get hurt by
- 16:35Speaker 5: the other. All right, we talked about crochet. Go to
- 16:38Speaker 5: another lefty, Jesus Lizardo. What do you got for me
- 16:42Speaker 5: on the sweeper that is really... pun intended, sweeping through
- 16:48Speaker 5: Philadelphia after his complete game shutout that he threw first
- 16:52Speaker 5: of his career. Is it a case of him coming
- 16:55Speaker 5: to Philly and learning a new pitch, tweaking his pitch,
- 16:58Speaker 5: or him coming to Philly, getting an extension and being like,
- 17:02Speaker 5: now I feel comfortable to be able to be who
- 17:05Speaker 5: you say I am, and I'll be willing to do that?
- 17:09Speaker 4: I think it's actually, I think that, well, first of all,
- 17:12Speaker 4: the sweeper he's had since he was there was definitely...
- 17:16Speaker 4: uh a Cotham thing Caleb Cotham telling him hey I
- 17:19Speaker 4: think that you are a good candidate for throwing this
- 17:20Speaker 4: type of thing he'd been looking for a good breaking
- 17:22Speaker 4: ball uh if you'll remember he used to be just
- 17:25Speaker 4: with Miami and with Oakland just change up sinker hard
- 17:30Speaker 4: throwing lefty with a really good change up still has
- 17:32Speaker 4: a really good change up it used to be by
- 17:34Speaker 4: far his best pitch and then his slider was just
- 17:36Speaker 4: kind of like a cutter thing and he couldn't figure
- 17:37Speaker 4: it out and then they found a grip for him
- 17:40Speaker 4: And as soon as he went to Philly, he started
- 17:42Speaker 4: ripping that thing, and now he throws it 38% of
- 17:45Speaker 4: the time, which is, for a starter, very, very high percentage.
- 17:49Speaker 4: But he has a career 44% whiff rate career on
- 17:52Speaker 4: that pitch since he's been in the Phillies, and that's
- 17:54Speaker 4: three years. So that's a long time of a lot
- 17:58Speaker 4: of success. That pitch just is never hit hard. It's
- 18:01Speaker 4: hit under 80 miles an hour on average. That's pretty good.
- 18:05Speaker 2: Pretty good.
- 18:05Speaker 4: If I had one of those pitches, I would throw
- 18:07Speaker 4: it all the time, too. If it's missed and then
- 18:09Speaker 4: never hit, and then when it is hit, it's just
- 18:11Speaker 4: a soft ground ball, sign me up.
- 18:13Speaker 2: But the beauty about that.
- 18:16Speaker 4: Distinction I think you made with, am I confident because
- 18:20Speaker 4: the extension helps? Sure, the extension helps, I think. But
- 18:22Speaker 4: we saw flashes of this last year. He just had
- 18:25Speaker 4: that tipping thing that was, he had these two stretches
- 18:29Speaker 4: that were just horrible for like four or five starts.
- 18:32Speaker 4: And then he just got right back to being electric again.
- 18:36Speaker 4: I think having Wheeler in that rotation again, we have
- 18:39Speaker 4: another situation where you forget.
- 18:41Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. Lizardo.
- 18:42Speaker 4: We got to deal with Lizardo now because you're so
- 18:45Speaker 4: hyper focused on on the guy, the two big guys
- 18:49Speaker 4: at the top with with Sanchez and Wheeler. So like
- 18:52Speaker 4: he gets he's like a three where he'd be a
- 18:53Speaker 4: one on any other team. And that's helpful for being
- 18:56Speaker 4: really effective as a three. Um, but the best part
- 18:59Speaker 4: about this sweeper is doesn't move as much horizontally as
- 19:02Speaker 4: a lot of others, but it's really hard and it's not,
- 19:05Speaker 4: doesn't have a ton of depth. So like it's, it's
- 19:07Speaker 4: kind of like a really big cutter, which is kind
- 19:11Speaker 4: of what made Mariano Rivera so good. It's not the
- 19:14Speaker 4: same thing, but it does move that way. And he has,
- 19:17Speaker 4: he has an extremely short extension, which is also jarring
- 19:21Speaker 4: for hitters.
- 19:22Speaker 2: So like, it feels like that ball is moving.
- 19:24Speaker 4: Moment it comes out of his hand and it just
- 19:26Speaker 4: keeps going but there's not actually as much movement as
- 19:29Speaker 4: you see so because he has such a short uh
- 19:32Speaker 4: uh stride he just kind of spins the ball out
- 19:34Speaker 4: of his hand and it kind of i liken it
- 19:37Speaker 4: to like spinning a bowling ball that's how his sweeper
- 19:40Speaker 4: works and it's really really hard to hit and he's
- 19:42Speaker 4: gotten really comfortable and throwing it where he needs to
- 19:44Speaker 4: throw it so all of his things in the past
- 19:47Speaker 4: walking guys not getting ahead all of his scenes to
- 19:50Speaker 4: be uh solved by this sweeper and his comfortability with
- 19:53Speaker 4: the sweeper and uh he's always been nasty he's that's
- 19:57Speaker 4: never been the issue it's just about throwing it where
- 19:59Speaker 4: you need to throw it and he's truly unlocked something
- 20:01Speaker 4: so this this philly's team is not a team you
- 20:03Speaker 4: want to match up with especially in a in a
- 20:06Speaker 4: three-game series.
- 20:08Speaker 7: Trevor, I got to ask you. We just talked about it.
- 20:11Speaker 7: Ronald Acuna hit his home run. He's going around the bases.
- 20:13Speaker 7: Zach Wheeler, pitcher, said, it didn't bother me, but our
- 20:16Speaker 7: guy hits 50 and just runs around the bases. Does
- 20:18Speaker 7: it bother a pitcher when a guy does his skin
- 20:21Speaker 7: around the bases? It bothered hitters when guys would strike
- 20:24Speaker 7: them out and they'd fist pump. Listen, I was one
- 20:26Speaker 7: of them. I did skits. I did the whole stuff.
- 20:28Speaker 7: But it would bother me. It pissed me off a
- 20:30Speaker 7: little bit. It would make my next at bat change
- 20:32Speaker 7: the dynamics of where I was. So does it bother
- 20:35Speaker 7: a pitcher when a guy does that stuff? Even though
- 20:37Speaker 7: the game obviously is different now, and I love the
- 20:39Speaker 7: way the game is now with their skits.
- 20:43Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 20:45Speaker 1: Of course.
- 20:46Speaker 2: Of course pitchers get bothered by it.
- 20:48Speaker 4: Uh, especially you got, we all have egos and it's
- 20:50Speaker 4: part of pitching and hitting and playing a sport at
- 20:53Speaker 4: a high level.
- 20:53Speaker 2: You have to have an ego. It's helpful.
- 20:56Speaker 4: Uh, but of course that you can get, I don't
- 20:58Speaker 4: think anyone has any illusions like, uh, you know, I I'm,
- 21:02Speaker 4: I'm not being soft.
- 21:02Speaker 2: They just shouldn't do that. It's really like, no, I
- 21:04Speaker 2: just don't like it. Uh, stop it.
- 21:06Speaker 4: I you've hurt my feelings. It pissed me off. Um,
- 21:10Speaker 4: and that is, I had a couple of times. I
- 21:12Speaker 4: remember distinctly one, one thing happened. This is my Michael.
- 21:15Speaker 2: This is a little bit of a Michael Jordan story.
- 21:17Speaker 4: And I'm going to say a name because I don't
- 21:19Speaker 4: even know if this is true or how this happened.
- 21:21Speaker 4: And I kind of think I made this story up
- 21:22Speaker 4: in my head a little bit.
- 21:23Speaker 2: Maybe embellished it. But Michael Harris, another Braves player, is
- 21:28Speaker 2: rookie year. Great rookie year.
- 21:30Speaker 4: The guy's electric. The guy's a great player. Obviously he's
- 21:33Speaker 4: a great player. And I faced him for the first
- 21:35Speaker 4: time and he hits the ball off the wall. But
- 21:39Speaker 4: he pimps it out of the box. And he thought
- 21:41Speaker 4: it was gone. And it went off the top of
- 21:42Speaker 4: the wall and he ended up going to first and
- 21:44Speaker 4: Acuna went to second.
- 21:45Speaker 2: So they only got one base out of it.
- 21:47Speaker 4: And He was on first, and he was kind of
- 21:49Speaker 4: mad and also like, ah, I'm probably going to get
- 21:51Speaker 4: in trouble for not running that out. And he said
- 21:53Speaker 4: to Pete Alonzo, and Pete told me this, so Pete
- 21:55Speaker 4: could have just been firing me up, but he said, hey,
- 21:58Speaker 4: Harris said, like, he said, how did that not go?
- 22:01Speaker 4: That should have been way out of here. I should
- 22:05Speaker 4: have took this guy way out of here is what
- 22:06Speaker 4: he said.
- 22:07Speaker 2: And I'm like. who's this kid? Who, what have you done?
- 22:12Speaker 4: And I like went totally down that road, even though
- 22:15Speaker 4: I'm me, like, what have I done? Not much, but
- 22:17Speaker 4: I've been around longer than you have. And so I
- 22:19Speaker 4: felt myself be like, man. And then I just didn't
- 22:23Speaker 4: really like him.
- 22:23Speaker 2: The whole, the rest of it.
- 22:25Speaker 6: Like I had a little.
- 22:25Speaker 4: Extra every time I faced Michael Harris, I think I
- 22:27Speaker 4: faced one more time in my career, but I wanted to,
- 22:30Speaker 4: I like, I want, I like trickled his name on
- 22:32Speaker 4: the scorecard. Cause I was like, I really just want
- 22:34Speaker 4: to beat, beat, beat that kid because of something that
- 22:38Speaker 4: he may or may not have actually said.
- 22:40Speaker 2: So that's how it works.
- 22:42Speaker 4: That's how it works. That's how we, everyone operates. It's,
- 22:44Speaker 4: it's healthy, but like, if you're going to pimp your stuff,
- 22:48Speaker 4: be like Josh Naylor. If you're going to rock the
- 22:50Speaker 4: baby and say, I'm your dad and everyone gets on
- 22:52Speaker 4: you and then you lose a series.
- 22:53Speaker 2: You go, that got me. I lost.
- 22:56Speaker 4: I did that because I was trying to get us
- 22:57Speaker 4: fired up and I wanted to see if it would
- 22:59Speaker 4: pay off.
- 23:00Speaker 2: It didn't pay off. This is why I like doing this.
- 23:02Speaker 2: This is awesome. I was like, That's what you should
- 23:05Speaker 2: be doing. That's how you should handle it.
- 23:06Speaker 6: Good job, Pete, by the way. Pete got you. He
- 23:08Speaker 6: got all up in your dome.
- 23:10Speaker 2: He got me, yeah.
- 23:11Speaker 6: Pete got you all up in your dome. That was awesome.
- 23:12Speaker 6: Good job, Pete.
- 23:13Speaker 2: Wow.
- 23:14Speaker 3: We got to remember to ask Pete about that next
- 23:16Speaker 3: time he comes on the show.
- 23:17Speaker 1: And Michael Harris. Yeah, and Michael Harris. That's true. Both
- 23:20Speaker 1: of them.
- 23:21Speaker 2: Neither one of them will remember it because I bet
- 23:23Speaker 2: you it didn't happen.
- 23:25Speaker 1: That's why it's so good.
- 23:26Speaker 2: That's why it's great. Pete nailed it.
- 23:28Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly.
- 23:31Speaker 3: All right, let's finish up with the Cy Young conversation.
- 23:33Speaker 3: American League, do you think it's completely done? I mean, Trevor,
- 23:37Speaker 3: unless something crazy happens, Dylan Cease versus Cam Schlittler is
- 23:41Speaker 3: going to look like a very solid one.
- 23:43Speaker 1: Schlittler, two, Cease, and then the rest.
- 23:49Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's between these two.
- 23:51Speaker 4: And going in, you know, when I got this question
- 23:54Speaker 4: and get ready for it, I was like, you know what?
- 23:56Speaker 4: I'm feeling pretty strongly about Schlittler at this point and
- 23:59Speaker 4: also He's a Yankee. We don't have to act like
- 24:03Speaker 4: that elephant's not in the room.
- 24:04Speaker 2: That's helpful.
- 24:05Speaker 4: But it's closer than I thought it would be. Dylan
- 24:10Speaker 4: Cease has been absolutely dominant. Like 100 hits in 161
- 24:14Speaker 4: innings is incredible. He kind of wins in every other
- 24:19Speaker 4: dominance-related statistic, OPS against, batting average against. He has more
- 24:25Speaker 4: strikeouts in 10 less innings, 17 more strikeouts in 10
- 24:28Speaker 4: less innings. a 35% K rate, 31% whiff rate. Not
- 24:32Speaker 4: that Schlittler doesn't have great numbers in all those either,
- 24:35Speaker 4: but Cease has all-time numbers. So this is going to
- 24:38Speaker 4: come down to the wire. This is going to be really, really,
- 24:40Speaker 4: really close. I still think Schlittler would win in a vote,
- 24:44Speaker 4: but I do think Dylan Cease has been more dominant,
- 24:47Speaker 4: and I do want to point out one thing. The
- 24:49Speaker 4: pattern with Dylan Cease has been when his defense is
- 24:52Speaker 4: really good, this is what we get, and he is
- 24:55Speaker 4: on the second-best defense in run value. this year now
- 24:59Speaker 4: with the Blue Jays, and it was the opposite last year. So, like,
- 25:02Speaker 4: this is not surprising, but I didn't know it would
- 25:04Speaker 4: be this good. It's a coin flip at this point,
- 25:08Speaker 4: but I think if it ended right this moment with
- 25:11Speaker 4: the last outing that Cease had with his last start,
- 25:15Speaker 4: it was not so great.
- 25:16Speaker 7: Bad defense. That defense last night. Did you watch the game?
- 25:19Speaker 7: They had terrible defense last night.
- 25:22Speaker 6: Sorry, Kratzy.
- 25:23Speaker 2: Bad defense.
- 25:23Speaker 7: They had terrible defense last night, and that's what cost them. Literally,
- 25:27Speaker 7: they had bad defense. That cost them a bunch of runs.
- 25:29Speaker 7: It was terrible defense.
- 25:31Speaker 2: It's crazy.
- 25:32Speaker 4: I would highly recommend anyone who loves stats, go look
- 25:36Speaker 4: up the defense he's had every year he's had, and
- 25:39Speaker 4: it's wild how much it correlates.
- 25:41Speaker 2: It is wild.
- 25:43Speaker 4: He's got a 5 when they're in the bottom 10,
- 25:46Speaker 4: and he's got a 2-5 when they're in the top 10.
- 25:48Speaker 4: And it's 1-1 every single year, and the pattern continues
- 25:52Speaker 4: even more this year.
- 25:53Speaker 2: It's... It's insane.
- 25:55Speaker 4: It's just the way he pitches, man. If you make
- 25:57Speaker 4: good plays behind him, he is going to dominate.
- 26:00Speaker 2: It's just the way that it is.
- 26:03Speaker 7: The postseason run is heating up for Major League Baseball teams. Kratzy,
- 26:07Speaker 7: you can go see all these games, all the important games.
- 26:09Speaker 7: Whatever your team is, they have a great chance, almost
- 26:12Speaker 7: all of them, at being alive for the postseason. So
- 26:15Speaker 7: you can go on SeatGeek and find whatever team you want,
- 26:17Speaker 7: whatever game you want, whatever matchup you want to try
- 26:20Speaker 7: to help cheer your team on to the postseason.
- 26:23Speaker 6: Yeah, look ahead of your schedule. Go on to SeatGeek.
- 26:26Speaker 5: Essentially, your team's either in the playoffs or the team
- 26:29Speaker 5: they're playing has a chance in the playoffs. So all
- 26:31Speaker 5: these games in September, you got to get on there,
- 26:34Speaker 5: get your green dot, figure out where you're going to sit,
- 26:38Speaker 5: do it ahead of time, and use the codes.
- 26:41Speaker 7: And of course, I have a code for y'all. You
- 26:43Speaker 7: can use code TERRITORY10 for 10% off your next set
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- 26:58Speaker 7: it later. Get ready for MLB postseason by getting the
- 27:01Speaker 7: perfect ticket on SeatGeek.
- 27:03Speaker 5: Is that because he walks so many guys?
- 27:05Speaker 2: Yes, probably. That and fly balls. He gives up lots
- 27:08Speaker 2: of fly balls. Fly balls.
- 27:09Speaker 4: But when you got, well, he did have, when he
- 27:12Speaker 4: had Varshow at the beginning, he'd just run everything down.
- 27:14Speaker 4: Like if you, things in the gap where guys are
- 27:16Speaker 4: just running them down, not even needing to dive. It's like,
- 27:18Speaker 4: he's like, huh, I remember those bouncing against the wall.
- 27:21Speaker 4: And like, that's, That's the difference for guys like this.
- 27:23Speaker 4: High strikeouts, fly ball guys, not ground ball guys. You
- 27:26Speaker 4: need good outfield defense. It's hurting Paul Skeens a lot
- 27:32Speaker 4: this year, too. Pirates outfield defense is absolutely atrocious. And
- 27:37Speaker 4: just balls that need to be caught are not getting caught.
- 27:39Speaker 4: Sometimes it's just that simple.
- 27:42Speaker 2: All right.
- 27:43Speaker 5: So you say it's a coin flip, but you're leaning
- 27:45Speaker 5: towards camp. What could happen in... these next few starts.
- 27:50Speaker 5: Obviously Cam throws, Cam Schlittler throws tonight against the Rockies.
- 27:54Speaker 5: Pretty much chopped that one up because he's dominated everybody.
- 27:58Speaker 5: What could happen? How could this change? Where could we
- 28:01Speaker 5: see Dylan Cease take it back, take the coin flip
- 28:06Speaker 5: back and it become more 50-50?
- 28:07Speaker 4: I think if one, I think one thing that will
- 28:13Speaker 4: influence voters will, because that's what this is, uh, Toronto
- 28:17Speaker 4: making like a run here in the last three weeks
- 28:19Speaker 4: and like solidifying themselves as a postseason team would go
- 28:23Speaker 4: a long way because he will be probably the poster
- 28:26Speaker 4: child for why that happens because he'll have to throw
- 28:29Speaker 4: really well. But I think really it's Schlittler's to lose
- 28:34Speaker 4: if he just keeps throwing really high quality starts and
- 28:37Speaker 4: having to be in his dominant ways and just doesn't
- 28:39Speaker 4: have an all time stinker.
- 28:41Speaker 2: The rest of the year. I just don't think there's
- 28:43Speaker 2: going to be enough.
- 28:44Speaker 4: Because the Yankees are very, very likely going to either
- 28:48Speaker 4: win the division or finish really close in second. And
- 28:51Speaker 4: they have a great record and he's been a huge
- 28:53Speaker 4: reason for that. And that story is just kind of
- 28:55Speaker 4: hard to overcome when it's this close statistically. So I
- 28:58Speaker 4: think the Toronto Blue Jays themselves will have to be
- 29:01Speaker 4: a bigger story than the Yankees ending the season. I
- 29:04Speaker 4: think that's really the only way to do it because
- 29:06Speaker 4: I don't think he can out pitch Schlittler unless Schlittler
- 29:08Speaker 4: just falls apart at some point.
- 29:10Speaker 2: I just, I don't– especially a season.
- 29:12Speaker 4: Where they lost Freed for the Yankees and, you know,
- 29:16Speaker 4: Cole's been slowly getting back into Cole form. They just–
- 29:18Speaker 4: he's taken over as an ace on a team that
- 29:20Speaker 4: was already supposed to have three aces, and he wasn't
- 29:22Speaker 4: one of them. So that's– that story in itself might
- 29:25Speaker 4: just be what takes it, no matter what happens.
- 29:29Speaker 6: All right, a couple points.
- 29:31Speaker 7: But the Pirates had Kevin Kiermaier work with O'Neal Cruz,
- 29:34Speaker 7: and he fixed everything.
- 29:35Speaker 6: Oh, wait, sorry. Too soon? And then second of all.
- 29:41Speaker 7: Brett Bateman, our next guest, actually is in the outfit
- 29:43Speaker 7: for the Blue Jays, and he runs everything down now also.
- 29:46Speaker 7: So it wasn't just Varshow. It's also Bateman out there
- 29:49Speaker 7: running around, raking.
- 29:50Speaker 2: It's all of them.
- 29:52Speaker 6: Making unbelievable plays.
- 29:52Speaker 4: Whoever they bring in is also really good. They've been– well,
- 29:55Speaker 4: Straw runs everything. These guys are just really good defensively.
- 29:58Speaker 4: That's what they do.
- 29:59Speaker 7: Yeah, and then my last thing before we go, and
- 30:01Speaker 7: we haven't got to this yet, were you surprised that
- 30:04Speaker 7: Luis Robert Jr.
- 30:05Speaker 6: Went on the I.L. with an injury here 20 games ago?
- 30:09Speaker 4: I don't even know what he hurt, but no.
- 30:13Speaker 6: That's the best answer right there.
- 30:15Speaker 2: If he went on the I.L., I'd.
- 30:16Speaker 6: Be like, sure, yep. Yeah, okay, that's it. Is he not? No,
- 30:21Speaker 6: he just got hurt again. He hurt his hand.
- 30:23Speaker 2: Oh, man.
- 30:26Speaker 6: See you later. That was a perfect answer right there.
- 30:29Speaker 6: Perfect answer.
- 30:31Speaker 1: And on that note, Trevor, you are off the hot seat.
- 30:34Speaker 1: You're the man. Thank you.
- 30:35Speaker 3: Trevor content all over the place, the socials, the YouTube,
- 30:39Speaker 3: and sometimes the TV too.
- 30:42Speaker 1: Trevor, good to see you, dude.
- 30:42Speaker 2: Good to see you too.
- 30:44Speaker 1: Thanks, guys.