Hello one, Welcome to Backwards and Nerds Facebook podcast with the British twist.
I am your host is Evening Russell Esom, and I feel like I am
a shepherd herding his sheep tonight because today I am joined by the delightful on
Pringle. How are we doing good, sir? I'm good. I actually
wanted to start the show myself. I wanted to host it, but I
was going to start it with Welcome to x Wings and Blurgs, a Star
Wars park podcast with the British twist. And joining me tonight is Darth Esom
and Rob You're going to be called Boba Navera And I was just going to
annoy John just talk about stars for the first ten minutes. Russell, why
do you hate Star Wars? Uh? I think right now I would rather
talk about baseball. I think there's a lot of good reasons to like and
dislike Star Wars. But as Tom had alluded to, we are also joined
by Randy L Rob Nevres. How are we doing? Rob? The Forces
with me? And I hope it's with you too. Yeah, I don't
know. Does that make me the great grandson of an evil emperor? Or
am I just a random person with some medical ourians, which is the truth
that I should go for. But that's very good. There's gonna be three
three new films, by the way, very exciting. Um, there's been
some baseball. We have yet to speak to you, guys and girls since
the baseball season has started, but here we are. I think there's no
other place that we can really start than the Rays are good? But how
good are the Rays? Rob? I think, Barry, I think we'll
go to you first to give your obviously fan, maybe rose tinted opinion on
and what the Rais has done so far and why they are eleven and O.
Well, I'd start by saying, as a fan, I'm not Rose
tinted because I'm also on Twitter, which which isn't fun every time there's a
win. Rather than enjoying the win now and all, look at this wonderful
new thing that's happened, it's all about Oh no, it's not deserved because
look at the opposition. It's no good, no, no, come on,
let's just first of all, we are eleven games already over as we're
recording this, eleven games over five hundred, and that is valuable that eleven
games are in the bank. They are done. Doesn't matter who you're playing
against. Like, good teams will lose against the worst teams. This year,
so far, the Rays haven't done that. Now, yes, absolutely,
the Tampa Bay Rays have been playing against very weak opposition. We've so
far swept the Tigers, the Nationals, the A's, and again, as
of recording this weird two games up in four game series against the Red Sox,
who, let's face it, are pretty shocking themselves. However, the
point here is that they are not just inching past these teams. Of these
eleven games, two of them have been competitive, and that was the one
nothing victory over the Red Sox two nights ago, and there was the nineteen
income back against the Nationals. Now, if you take the rest of them
out of it, all those games have been won by four and more runs.
And you can only beat what is in front of you. Now that's
a cliche, I get it, absolutely, but in this instance it's absolutely
true. Now you're going to go through the season, you're gonna slide a
couple of games where you're just gonna get that last run past the A's.
You're just gonna gonna, you know, hold down the Nationals with a little
bit of luck. But that's not what the Rays are doing. The net
Raids are blowing through these teams at the moment. And I'm sure you can
point at some Babbitt stats or some you know, woeb and ever, but
but they're good. They're winning, they're winning well, and that is why,
Yes, you've got to take this with a little bit of a pinch
assault in that they are playing against crap teams, but they are playing well
against those crap teams. So I think you'll probably find that, No,
the Rays are not the best team in the division. Granted, however,
they are probably a very good team who are going to do very well this
year. They are already, you know, a ninth of the way towards
towards their goal for the season, you know, of reaching roughly one hundred
wins. So yeah, great, I'm all about it. I mean,
it's good, the pitching is good, the hitting is good. There's power,
there's running, there's speed, there's slap hitting, there's a little bit
of everything. It's all working right now. So take the intangibles from these
from these these games that are won against teams that you should be winning and
and use them the confidence and move that all forwards into into the games that
are coming up, and we'll see how they do against the Astros and the
White Socks. But you know, it's staying easy for a while, so
this this form could carry on for a while. I think the one thing
you past up all of that conversation conversationships given us rob the Tampa Bay Rays
have a two seventy nine Babbits, so I think it's you don't have to
worry about babbit. Look, mate, that's not that's not what's been going
in your favor. I think you obviously did cover it. Like everybody who's
not a raised fan is going to come out and go look at the people
you've beat, And to me, I think the analytical approach to that is
to say that, like, you should have one, two out of three
for all of those series. So the worst you should have been is six
and three getting out of that first three series, so you were three games
better than you should have been, which is like, Okay, that's good,
And I think kind of in the way it does the games against Boston
they're a little bit beat up as well, so I would think you probably
should have taken this series three and one. So you get it. If
you get out of the series with a thirteen and o record, you just
actually only four games higher than you probably should have anticipated to be. So
it's pretty awesome to act actually win thirteen games in a row. But people
I think are just over inflating way just to going like, oh, it's
Ted wins, that's that's something. So therefore they're trying to dig it down
to kind of say that it's not it's not that something that that's amazing.
But yeah, you all right, you're gonna beat what's in front of you,
and Tampa have done it. Well, Tom, have you seen a
single ball or moment of a tamparee? I have? I have watching Rays
baseball. They're looking really good. I really like watching. They're a fun
team. They've always been a fun team. Well, I wanted to ask
Rob though, was they they had any like they've been really lucky in terms
of injuries or anything at the moment as anyone who's like missing from the lineup
at the moment or the rotation, you think, do you know what when
we get this person, Matt, they're just going to get even stronger.
Yeah, you've got Tyler glasnow sat on the bench right now. He is
recovering from a from a string down his side. Who else has been out?
There have been a couple of other minor injuries around the edges, but
but Tyler Glasnowing being the main one. Um. I think even look at
last year, they had a lot of the big boys out. This year
they're sort of you know, got the Lows and the Franco's are back,
and that's that's the difference. That's the difference at the moment. So yeah,
there's there's still more to come. The rotation right now is looking mighty,
absolutely mighty at glasnow into that and I think it's it's it's really really
scary. It's funny though as well asn't it because if this had happened in
the middle of the season, people would be talking about it because it's a
winning streak, but they wouldn't be talking about as much as they are now.
It's only because it's the start of the year and they haven't lost the
game yet. That's all the only reason why people are getting really excited about
it. Yeah, the oppositions not be that great, as Russell said,
you know, people's teams still drop games, against these rubbish teams, and
the Rays haven't done that. They've been consistent, and as you said,
Rob, it's brilliant to be hit eleven above five hundred immediately when the season
starts out. I think that's great. It's good, good fun to watch.
Yeah, everyone keep wins about strength schedule, but do you know what
other teams are going to play ship teams as well, so it doesn't really
matter. It will all come around eventually. Yeah, if the race go
five hundred for the rest of the season, they're a ninety two win team,
which will be so good, which which is pretty good I think.
Obviously, the losses of Flynn, I think is going to hurt the kind
of expose when you say expose the raise underbelly of pitching. But they pitched
a fullpended game and gave up no runs and only a few hits, So
the raise underbelly of pitching is not the same some other teams when you kind
of have to go to your fifth and the sixth starter. So this probably
wouldn't have been the main talking point if they hadn't gone up as is,
Thomas said, the main talking point for probably most of the season, even
probably until the last couple of days has been the pitch timer or the pitch
clock, whatever you want to call it. Games are now it looks on
average twenty seven minutes shorter than they were in the previous season. How has
that affected kind of like your viewing experience? Because for me, like I
will usually I'm a quad boxer, Like I'm really bad at like using the
MLB TV putting on like four games using my attentions kind of barely seeing what's
going on. That's what I usually do in Cleveland aren't playing. When Cleveland
and playing, our generally will have that on one screen and watch that.
But when Cleveland aren't playing, I'll try and watch tons of different games.
But when I was at the MLB Europe event down a Passing Savenues on like
the opening weekend, it just felt actually the games just progressed well, and
you kind of you saw one game and then you saw another game, and
you saw another game to actually see more teams play than you had before.
So we'll start with you Tom on this one, Like, have you kind
of watched many games live? Have you actually kind of therefore managed to see
more stuff than normal because of the pace of play? So this was this
is kind of my good and bad thing because I really love the fact of
the game too quicker. I mean, it makes such a different especially as
like someone in Europe, like it makes such a difference that you can watch
a game and you can start watching the second one if you get to at
a normal bedtime like's it's not bad, like you can start going into it
quite quickly, and it's really good in that sense. And what I also
really dislike is what I used to do all the time was sit on the
computer and do something else at the same time, and I sort of give
the only iPad and then go back down to the computer and then go back
up and back down. I can't do that anymore, Like I need to
watch the game, and it's really it's frustrating in that sense. So I
think John mentioned it now WhatsApp group, like you've kind of lost that lovely
ebb and flow of the game and the sort of gentle parts and the exciting
parts. So while I love it that I can watch games and they as
you say, they progress, which is fantastic, and I think the pitch
timer is just brilliant. Well, I absolutely love and Rob you mentioned it
the other day and what'sapp people stop pissing about with their gloves in the batting
box. I used to infuriate me when people were just adjusting their gloves constantly.
But on the flip side, like I said, I've got to sit
and watch it. I've actually got to watch baseball now, which is really
tricky when I'm trying to do other things at the same time. So yeah,
it's it's really good and I love it, but also it frustrates me
that it's not like test cricket. Wait, it's nice and gentle. It's
a bit t twenty now, it's all a bit crazy, completely agree.
I fixed a toaster last year and that was during a game, and I
couldn't even conceive fixing a toaster now. So you know, if my toaster
breaks, I am. I am forty quid in a hole straight up because
of the rule changes. So personally, I'm I'm not happy, not happy.
You're not even enjoying the fact that it's. Yeah, I can I
can watch a game. I can sit down and I watch a game,
um as if I were watching a game of football, Like I sit down
and I am watching a game. It's my physical it's my primary activity rather
than the back and forth. Now, I think it's great. Right now,
I am worried about the tigue when we are one hundred and twenty games
into the season and I'm just like, I can't focus that much. You
know, I don't know it's your fatigue, not playing fatigue. I thought
you were going to get onto some serious of whole about like player, it's
what about me and my pressure self in Europe? Me watching games that are
perfect for me? Why aren't they playing here all the time? I want
me, me, me, me me. I think you've both kind of
said some salient points, like I definitely have watched baseball games while playing video
games at the same time, because it doesn't doesn't grab you all of your
attention all the time. This is definitely when it's a solo person experience when
you're watching a game. I find it's very different when you're watching games with
people than when you're watching them by yourselves. But this pace of play has
actually drawn me into watch what's going on and not actually just flip to something
else, because I know that I can just go ten seconds looking thirty seconds
looking the way, ten seconds looking thirty seconds the way. It's now like,
oh, I'll watch the baseball for two two and a half minutes while
and then that might be an inning and inning maybe longer, But then I
also know I've got two and a half minutes then when they're in a end
until the next one starts, because we still have two and a half minutes
of adverts between every single innings. If you want to do these things,
do you guys ever listen much on radio or have? You're pretty much all
he's been just to kind of a TV broadcast person. I've never done the
radio. I think Gav mentioned it, didn't he recently and how much he
liked it. I've never done it, and I feel like I should,
especially when I'm like driving and stuff like that, But then again, I'm
generally not driving that late at night, So yeah, I should do because
I've been told it's very good and obviously they're clearly describing it. So maybe
I can do with the things and listen to what's going on instead. What
I was going to mention, though, sorry to just go back to what
we're saying about, like getting interested in the games and actually watching them.
So I mean, I've definitely noticed is my two kids who are five and
eight now want to watch it, and they sit and actually get engaged with
it and watch it, which I find a really interesting point in terms of
young people getting into the game because they actively want to watch it. I
mean, they're five and eight, or they're interesting is playing Lego City on
the PlayStation or trying to paint something. So for them, it's like they're
properly engaged with it and they're interested. So maybe I'll work in that sense.
But no, I do need to try radio. I want to try
radio. I should do. I do. I do listen to it,
but I've obviously finished working venues. I finished very late often so my drive
homes about half an hour, so I usually catch half an hour of radio
on the way home. But I mean notice the difference, not really,
not really. I just noticed that the adverts too bloody loud. Quite frankly,
I'm constantly turning the dial whenever the adverts come on. They're scary because
they make me jump because I'm driving late at night. Anyway, Um,
we're picking it hairs and we're complaining about something. It's great that they've they've
given us a it's a better product like the game to watch out if I
want to sit down and watch a game. It is now better to watch.
So yeah, we're picking, splitting, splitting hairs, picking picking it
bits, but it's it's better. It's just better. It's deer and simple
for me. Do you know what I've not thought about it and not really
noticed it is our announcers stories like getting shorter and they're not doing as many
I've not really tuned into it and listened to it because you used to get
like really long drawn outs, not like I don't mean bad, but like
Vince Scully ones, you know, go over several innings which are always brilliant.
You don't seem to get those anymore. I've noticed that. I think
I feel like there might have been a drop off in those where they've got
to do like quick, short, sharp things. So maybe, you know,
an answers might not be as good in the future because they don't need
to tell that story and have extra bits in the background. I think I
think that's valid. Yeah, I think you're right. I think one,
we just don't have Vin Scully like broadcasters anymore. I just don't think that's
that's something which has been pushed by any team or any media kind of place
for a long time, we genuinely have the guy who says what's going on
and your color commentator, and some places may have like a third guy.
I've felt that at the start of the season some of them seems slightly rushed
in what they were saying. I think this is just from the Cleveland broadcasts,
but they've kind of found their groove now knowing kind of like what they
can say I will not say from another side from me creating my violation Twitter
account and trying to find some of the videos I found in some of the
earlier ones, like they would be over to a replay and be showing a
replay and then the violation has happened, so they even missed like the whole
fifteen seconds of the person looking to home play and what actually happened, so
they have to show it in a replay. So like for the first few
games that was like that. So I think from a from a TV production
point of view, I think that's even going to be interesting to see how
that works, because I think those guys who have had to really be quick
with replays or pull away from them because the game is actually is actually flowing
faster, so it will be. It will be very interesting to see how
this progresses if we do see differences. But I don't know. Nobody whant
nobody has this long, amazing, drawling story that goes over multiple innings anymore.
It's all one where they interviewed the owner of the Brewers when it was
to frigging first home game of the season, and it was just like,
it was just path. It was just like, let's throw the softball out
to the owners so that you could say some very nice comment about all the
money that he's been spending on on the club. So yeah, I think
I think that's going to be the way it goes forward. Robber, you're
gonna add something, No, No, I totally Russell. I want to
add something. Is there do you know if there's anywhere where we can find
out about and pitch time violations? Is there anything available out there? I
mean, I mean that genuinely, because you've worked very hard on what you've
done, so please tell peop where they can find out about it. Okay,
Yeah, Well, if I alluded to earlier on, I basically just
wanted to actually track the violations or but basically when I wanted to look at
it, like three or four days into the season, I found that nobody
had done it. So I just made a Twitter account which is just MLB
PTV, so majorly big pitch time violations. I just tweet out the leaderboards
and I go find the clips of people sleepwalking, which I think is an
absolute amazing term. I can't take credit for it. I saw contang go
use it first, as much as I would love to take credit for that
term, and I very much also enjoyed the struck out napping for the other
side as well. So yeah, so yeah, just keeping track of those,
just pushing that and just getting that out there just so people can actually
see what the leaderboards are. It kind of amused me because effectively, the
first I think for six games of the season, Cleveland had each had a
picture of one picture do one violation per day, and I was like,
well what, and then you just realize that kind of after like day six,
it's then Earn and Karen Check has done another one since then, so
it's like, yeah, I think there are going to be some very interesting
things to pull out of him. It. At a point in the not
too distant future, there's some interesting things around how which badders are taking time
outs like on two strikes now to kind of just make sure that that moment
doesn't happen. Still, like fifty percent of the violations are happening on zero
zero, so that's just people not waking up. So the fact the plate
appearance has actually started, which it is kind of ludicrous in itself, but
yeah, that's a Twitter account. You'll see me and probably bad flips occasionally
pushing this very round the Twitter account. And if you're seeing the blurb,
it's me, So thank you Tom for a language blot. What if we
seen so far from the point of view of stolen bases, like Rob,
how have the Rays been going at it? Yeah? Yeah they have.
I think everyone has. Um. I don't think it's been silly yet.
Again, this is it's it's so so so early. It's hard to tell
if I'm going to get fatigued by this part way through the season. Again,
not them, they can run their athletes. My brain, my silly
brain, whether or not it's going to get fatigued by the stolen basis part
way through through the year. I think in this last weekend gone and again
this is this is just what I've seen. I've seen teams starts to adjust.
I've seen a couple of runouts for both sides. I've seen picture catchers
starting getting the balls down there. Now, I don't know if that's something
that's changed or if that's just luck of the drawer. I've happened to see
it. But um no, I think the running game is great. Um
you know the constant step part and throw overs. I did used to like
that bit of the game, but it did slow it down, and I
see no problem with that. So yeah, crack on, and the bigger
bases are. I didn't think I'd be able to notice the bigger basis,
but I can. You know, I can cut up, I can,
I can see it. I can see the bigger basis. They are definitely
Biggs, Tommy, I mean, Robbie, you suggesting that you love the
kind of like the PANTOMIMESK level of kind of like the pickoffs, where as
soon as one pickoff happened, everybody's like, I love the cameramen. And
now I realize it's partly due to delay. But the directors, whoever they
do it, they always knew they would always cut to the runner getting his
lead, and you knew that there was going to he was either going to
go or there's gonna be a pickoff attempt, and just the concentration and the
look on and the easy leaning, isn't heleaning? I used to love all
that. I used to really love that kind of moment of because I'd be
terrified to do it. There is no way I would ever be able to
steal the base. I would think about it and I would lose my nerve
every single time. So I really enjoyed that sort of does he go?
Doesn't he go? Now now it's really more just a sort of a amp
yourself up, get your legs set, and then just go when you're ready.
So a little bit has gone, but I'm enjoying it right now.
Right now it's just fun. But it might be too too much a bit
later. I don't know if I missed something. Can pitch. There's not
the pickoffs anymore so. As part of the pitch time rules that they've basically
introduced, they're only allowed to disengage with the rubber twice basically in the bat
which equivalent to be basically when there's a runner on base. Even see,
you can only pick up twice. If you pick up a third time,
it becomes a balk, and basically the person is the runner is allowed to
just go to second or third depending. The runner can just like tease him
into throwing it twice and then the running nos is like, well, fuck,
I can go for it now. Yeah, And so there are some
hidden ideas about what you can do or not do with that. Nobody's really
played with it too much. There was some discussion that some teams might actually
do the two pickoffs to kind of put the runner into think that they're going
and then may even do the third pickoff to try and get the guy because
the guys thinking, well, they're not going to pick off, but it's
still an out if they get thee out. But if they don't get the
out, it's a balk. No one's really tested that one so far.
Most of the stats kind of show the same thing that historic, the opposite
to what historically used to happen. So if someone would throw a pick off,
the likelihood of that person stealing a base afterwards would decline. That's kind
of like the standard way it works, because they now know they're on edge,
they're looking for it. What we've had so far this year is as
soon as one pickoff has happened. The stolen base break is now higher afterwards
because they're now just kind of like, well, they can only do it
one more time. They're actually kind of these things are these things are playing
out in a different way, And if we weren't going to too many details
here because it's what's needed or not, what's actually happening in the scene is
a lot more kind of easy stolen bases compared to kind of like so there's
a lot more things that are just don't even look close or are you things
that aren't even like throwdowns because they're getting that good a jump and they're working
kind of like against it. I find really interesting is that, like there
are teams like Cleveland who have stolen nearly twenty bases in ten games, but
then teams that I also think are fairly analytical, like the Dodgers who have
two stolen bases. Well it's like it's like, well, I know,
maybe the Dodgers is a slower team or something like that. Cleveland has already
that's insane already built on their idea of like running. They did it last
year even when it wasn't too much of a thing. But there are yet
there are teams that like I think Arizona Baltimore they both have got like seventeen
stolen bases, and there are teams that there are teams that are in like
one, two, three, four. I think Minnesota only have one so
far this season. So this this hasn't been picked up by everybody, which
is a really interesting, I think, an interesting side to it because I
just thought everybody's going to steal more because it was kind of it was fairly
ubiquitous. That's kind of what we saw like in the minors. So this
is something really too, I think for people to really look out on is
that there are teams that are going for it and there are teams which aren't.
Hm, that is very interested. I don't know if you can pull
it up now, Russell or you already know it. But are we already
up on stolen bases this year compared to last year? Oh yeah, it's
close to Yeah, it's close to like a fifty sixty percent increase. I
think they said for like the first it's probable plateau over time because sometimes like
April and Marchers is usually a little bit of a low spell for stolen bases.
But I think teams of it's a little bit more in their their ideas.
The other thing with I'm saying is that the success rate is higher it's
usually been around. It's like a good like six seven percent more success,
which means there's still their way above like the point you have to be successful.
It's about three to one ratio generally in today's run environment, where you
have to three stolen bases and one court stealing. Like that's that's a fine
ratio. Like you're you're you're, you're posit, You're in just about the
good by doing that. So yeah, some teams might I think some teams
might try and steal more because they can push that line a little bit down
to be even more aggressive. But yeah, that's awesome. That's really good
for the game. Though surely because it's more exciting, that can't be a
bad thing. No, I mean you might end up seeing more injuries,
which clearly would be bad. But okay, well it's going to be fun.
But as Rob said, I think it's it's whether you kind of notice
it, Like I think for me, I think I noticed I've noticed less
groundball double plays because I think I've seen people be a second or be at
or be at third when they would have would have been at short or been
a first normally. And I think that's just because well I'm watching Cleveland mainly
and they are they are runners. So yes, Russell, Yes, Well,
Daniel Vogelback steal a base this year as per the hilarious advert, given
the fact that the New York Mets are one of the teams that are I
think I think they've got above ten stolen bases, so they're one of the
teams are looking like they're actually trying to do things. I want to say,
yes, he has over six hundred plate appearances without a stolen base,
which is basically the active record. I can't remember who was seconds, whoever
was second on that list with like two hundred stall the base last week,
So I'm gonna say, Daniel Vogeback will steal a base. Yeah, in
the prediction twenty three will steal base. If none of you have seen the
advert with with Daniel Vogeback and Buck Showater for the explaining the rules, it
is the best of the MLB adverts over over the offer, I will,
I will, I will just like to add one slight amendum to what you
said. The MLB propaganda wow, very much. Like they've basically just gone
like, here are our rules here. You will love them by having Brian
Cranston tell you that these rules are amazing, or by creating like a funny
ad, not just let them play out and see where the people like actually
like it. They've been gone like, no, you will like these rule
changes. Hey, look just just in what TikTok tells me to do that,
just to let you know many Michado's granted and double played for the Padreays
to lose, so they still exist. Oh well, cheers. I didn't
say that the Cleveland managed to blow a lead and they had the bases loaded
in the bottom of the nights, but I can tell you that happened as
well. But yes, have you always seen the lack of the shift?
I know if you've listened to the commentary, like this has been something that's
been talked about every time that I'm listening in there. When that ball goes
through first, first and second and they go like, well, that would
have been an easy out in the shift last year, and I'm like,
well, yeah, but there's also been a few, isn't that? But
yeah, rule I don't like that is the one I don't like, I'm
really not enjoying that. It feels like we are forcing them to not be
able to do their thing properly. Obviously, every time it does sneak through
and you see the guys like flying both directions to and they just can't get
close it because it's right up the middle. You know, it's no,
it's not right. This is not this isn't right because we're restricting them unnecessarily.
I don't. I don't get it. And yes, maybe it's a
bit hypocritical because we're restricting the pictures on how long they're allowed to have a
little rest, But yeah, I'm not I'm not about this one. This
one is. This one has not sat as well with me. Why does
Rob hate pictures? Why does he hate pictures and people being fatigued like he
loves people being fatigued. Why why robbed? I kind of, yeah,
I kind of get Rob's point, But then also he just said exactly what
baseball wanted, didn't They They want balls in play, and that balls know
and play. Some of it just being picked off really quickly and throw it
into first base. It's in play, and it's excitement. It's people on
the basis. Then you've got people stealing bases, which is what you want,
And then you've got games happening like maybe not as quick because you've got
people on basis. However, that's what they want, don't they. So
I'm kind of with robbing a way, but I'm also with baseball in a
way that I think, yeah, I've not noticed it, but I think,
you know, they need it and it works and it's good. They're
kind of didn't they do it in cricket with people on the leg side and
things like that. They stop people doing that and having a ridiculous amount of
people in the slips wherever it may be. You know, they have to
make these adjustments to keep it exciting otherwise it's going to end up just being
a bit bland. And yeah, it's not the baseball we knew and grew
up with, which you know, wasn't that long ago. But things have
to change at some point then, and this is probably a good one.
Sorry everyone. Yeah, to me, it definitely feels counterintuitive. It kind
of feels that like when we have Rob Manford saying that like analytics race is
an arms race to analytics is an arms race to nowhere, that was basically
means like, well, you just completely don't understand like what marginal gains is.
I think you should have a good conversation with David Brailsford, who could
literally call you, and probably Dick Montford, whom I'm a hundred percent saying
where there's words were put into Rob Manford's mouth came from. You just don't
understand the way like sports or even the world works, that you make a
gain on something and then if everybody else catches up, you make a gain
on something else, like and if there is a detriment to the viewing,
I could made it, get it, And I think the detriment that people
had was the ball that went straight through the middle was a single for one
hundred and twenty years of baseball, and the shift took that hit up the
middle away from being a single, and people went, oh, that should
be a single. Oh wait, it's an owl. And they were like,
oh, it's good hitting to hit it like straight back up the middle,
And so their view of the game was changed too much by the shift.
The funny thing to me is that this change the rules now doesn't stop
that from happening. I've seen a lot of teams have like the second base
or short staff virtually like omber bag, so they're still shifted and they pick
up. I've seen plenty of second baseman pick up the ball on the other
side of the bag from where they started, because yeah, this is how
they're going to do it. So we don't know what's actually going to come
out on the other side of what's actually happened. The initial stats looked like,
actually it's those little short flies into right field against the pull hitters where
the second baseman would have been deep that have actually are happening. Now we're
not maybe seeing more balls in play through with the defense that maybe they want
to see, but who knows. Right now. What I do know is
that we get to see the glorious, glorious of the Royals doing effectively a
five man infield. Have you guys, have you seen have you seen this?
I haven't seen it. No, I saw you put it on the
sheet, and I don't actually know what it is. So the Royals have
basically been pulling one of their outfielders to stand where like the second masman would
have stood in an old shift to basically well, yeah, well we can
move our outfielders. However, we like, they're not allowed to be out
infieldersn't not allowed to go onto the grass. The funny thing is that the
first player I saw them do it, they did it against Joey Gallo.
The guy hit hit the grounder perfectly to the guy in right field and it
absolutely muffed it because it was a right it was it was an outfielder being
in that position trying to take a ground ball instead of the infielder. How
it's been done before, so maybe it isn't working this. The other thing
is that right now the stats I think it's like a four hundred or a
four fifty Wober against it, So it's definitely it's only like forty odd,
not even forty, or plate prints it's like twenty five plate appearances against it.
But the numbers aren't holding up so far. But you you're going to
see teams try and do different things. Now they've got new limitations of what
they're going to do. They're still going to try and be creative. It's
just in a within a slightly different framework. I wonder, I wonder if
teams to have do you say, great big shoes, just random shoes,
great big shoes to stop the ball, so they can kind of you know,
they'll cover more space with their enormous shoes and they can just stop it
with their foot. Do you know what this might be like my base running
glove article. Just everyone just wears clown shoes. It's very tricky to me.
Yeah, but there's no limits on the length of shoe. So you
just have this giant shoe as a barrier that many plays that you've seen somebody
like take one off the shoe, then pick it up clean and throw the
first But when have you ever seen somebody wearing a giant shoe? I mean
a circus? Well yeah, yeah, but I've never seen him. I'm
gonna be careful not to avoid ball any windows here. When have you seen
him, you know, take a ball off his off his foot? You
know it's it's it's all good. It doesn't happen in the circus because they're
not trying it. Put some giant shoes on on Trey Turner. I mean,
yeah, he's everywhere. Tray turn its clown shoes. That's the time
of the episode. But still he's gonna slide and he's gonna come back up,
and he's gonna even brilliant. Then in the end, you have to
wear a nose part of it. Yeah, and make up a sad phase
with him. Come on, it's ridiculous. Just get ridiculous. Anyway,
My point was going to be, sorry, what what about teams that have
recently converted outfielders. He used to play in the infield somewhere, and maybe
they could be utilized a bit better for this five five man infield jobber.
Yeah, there could be. You're gonna you're gonna see some very You're going
to see some interesting things like last year Austin Riley when when Atlanta did put
the person in the short road field, Austin Riley went out, there is
a third baseman, which is very different to while other teams do. We're
going to get exposed. I think some second base second base and who aren't
that good and have been protected by a shift or this allows those I think
Max Munks is good, but this allows those people who would have played like
two or three infield roles and an outfield rolled to be kind of hidden because
they've been able to work to work against it. But we just don't know
what's going to happen, Like everything that happens with rule changes in sport,
there are unintended consequences and which don't know what these ones are yet. I
think so far the five man five man infield and Rob's great shoes were something
that theo Epstein did not did not think about when he was Pascal implementing these
rule changes. I can't wait for that rule to come in that you have
shoe size has to be a maximum of two over your current shoe size.
Well, yeah, I just imagine that, like you're going to be much
slower when you're running. So I think the shoes, we need to have
a clown shoe runoff. That's what we need to don't know, we need
loafers, That's what we need so they can just slip them on like slip
on the big shoes, slip out into the running shoes, bopp off off
they go. Clown shoes sponsored by Crocs. Maybe they can have a knit
on the shoe as well. Yeah, I think saying you can't have amit
on the shoe. Yes, I think the rules on. One other new
rule for this year that I didn't put on the sheet, but I want
to actually quickly discuss is the sponsor patches. Have you guys, have you
picked these out, I don't think. I think don't think half of the
teams actually have them. I think the only ones that obviously I've noticed is
because they talked about it in the season, the Presbyterian Hospital ones that got
put on the Mets, but the boot were red and white, and therefore
everybody was like, well, you're putting Phillies colors on the Mets, and
so the Mets Twitter fans complained even before they got put on, and Steve
Cohen was like, oh, yeah, we're looking to we're looking to change
the color. I've not noticed them at all. I think this is because
we're more used to European sport, where advertisement is like literally all over everything
when it comes to since the sport, when it's like, oh, you
have your main kit sponsor, and you have your trading kit sponsor, and
you have armed sponsors and cap sponsors and all of the sponsorships all the way
around the field. So I haven't noticed it, But yeah, I'm kind
quite interested that neither of you two did. Oh my word, what I
did see is what the Padres have. The biggest one. I do haven't
even noticed. What have I got. I've not even noticed, genuinely Motorola,
isn't it? Have they Okay, I've not even genuinely. Yeah,
they've got big a big round brown circle with the with the white hair minute
on the on the sloop. I thought that was that was Madre's. I
think it's just like excited about mothers and do you want do you want to
know the quality India India quality index media value. I like to call quimn
and for sponsoring, don't we're sponsor logo some professional? Um quite genuine?
This is a genuine page right per season, annal what I signed up for
today? Media sponsorship legos on professional sports jerseys per season? So Major League
Soccer is five and twenty six thousand dollars, NBA's two million, NHA is
one point five million dollars. MLB is twelve point three million dollars. But
what as in that? This is the quality index media value? So I'm
assuming it's showing how much it's worth having these sponsor logos on the jerseys like
form LB, because you've got so many games clearly that sponsorship logos give me
there constantly and it reckons here. The exposure time per game is thirteen point
eight minutes for him I'll be competitive. I guess it's also the kind of
the side to it is that it's just never happened, so when it happens,
it would it would get a lot of like media presence. I don't
know how much she goes watched football when it happened. But when Real Madrid
and Barcelona got sponsored for like the first time, I think in the early
naughties, everybody was like, like, they've never had sponsorships. Now they've
done it, and it was like and Barcelona did it for UNICEF, and
it was like, oh, yeah, well we're doing a sponsorship for a
charity or whatever. It's good. And then eventually it became like some Saudi
Arabian company gave them a lot of money. So yeah, I think I
think because it's a Jersey patch as right, you don't really notice it how
much. I mean, I've not even noticed the Padres one. Supposedly it's
the biggest one. Yeah. This this website talks about the exposure time of
their game, so it's the exposure quimn for game. Okay, I think
we'll move on from Quinn m. There have been a couple of teams that
have had some very good starts that aren't the raised they were a little bit
more slightly less anticipated. Um. Texas and Arizona have both played very well
so far, and would either of you like to discuss about Texas Arizona?
Would you like to giggle in silence for further amounts of time? Rob,
do you have any thoughts on Texas being good? They are good? Yeah?
Sorry, sorry, this is this is what I deal with, boys,
and yes. So the Texas Rangers are currently leading the Al West with
a with a seven and four record and have looked good for it. They
actually have a pretty high positive run differential, and he's even been based off
the fact that, like Jacob deGrom hasn't even had that greater starts. I
would like to have either of my two colleagues back, but they still both
seem to be absolutely giggling their life away. I've got the Grom in my
fancy team. He looked very very good. Grom looked absolutely superb. Yeah,
he had a good good he had. I feel de Grom had a
Otani game the other day where he pitched very well and then got a no
decision because the people behind him blew up. So I think this is going
to be something we might see. Well, that was that was very metsy
for him as well, though, wasn't it? That was very metsy?
They can him feel at home? Yeah, yes, he can't even do
the good old fashioned thing of scoring his own home run or scoring the own
not harbi that actually in a one nail game. So yes, this Texas
team has has looked reasonable. I think we all thought that that was that
was a possibility, but we were basically waiting for the arms to break,
and I guess can they gain enough games in credit before those arms break?
Rob? Have you seen much of them? I mean, I've seen absolutely
nothing of the honesty is appreciate. No, I did. I did put
them on. I did have them on in the background, but it was
very much background. I would say. I think with both of these teams,
what I had noticed was it's more of a stats thing is that there's
nothing sort of really stands out about why they're so good. You know,
if you if you look down at the ra's for the d back for example,
that the rotation is looking pretty sick. And then if you if you
go back over and you have a look at the stats for the Rangers like
that, there's there's not a lot of guys who've got much going on at
all. You've got a catch who's hidden pretty well. You've got Cory Seger
who started well, but then other than that, there's there's not a lot
of sort of you know, there's guys who kind of jumped out and started
adding to the war totals early. Like, it's fairly stagnant. So where
these winds have really come from is a little difficult to put your finger on.
And it's it's because they're just pushing through, I think, rather than
dominating and saying yes, it's because they're fantastic pitching, or yes it's because
they hit the snot out of the balls. It's just middling along enough.
So I don't know how much of it's sequencing versus how good they actually are.
I'm not I've not seen anything to to really turn my head yet,
which is part of why I've not really watched the Rangers in any great detail.
It's tay to ha bad were analyzing because on our prediction, Pard,
we were massively down on the Diamondbacks and the Rangers, and they're looking all
right, But then again, it is the start of the season, and
without looking can you guess who's got the highest WRC plus for the Texas Rangers.
I would imagine it was Corey Sieger. He's beaten by one by somebody
else. Oh, it is, of course the ex Padre speed demon Travis
Jankowski, who is leading the Diamondbacks WRC plus with one eighty seven leading the
Rangers. Sorry, Ngers, I'm assuming this is a backup catcher that has
not I mean, I don't want to backup catcher, but he's not played
much time, which is the reason why he's only played six games. But
I mean he's played six games, he's only a thirteen play appearances, two
solen bases. Obviously for good old Trav with his flowing locks, I'm assuming
he's still got long hair. I'm going to check him out now, carry
on. But yeah, like I think the say is like, I think
a lot of the players are kind of hitting reasonably well. Billian isn't,
which is like when you when you think that they're going to do well,
it's going to be off the back of it. But obviously, with the
Sega hitting well, it doesn't kind of matter too much that m. Simeon
isn't on the on the Arizona side. Um, obviously, once again you're
kind of talking about pitching as what kind of drives a lot of their a
lot of their prowess. I think zat Gallen is having another who would kind
of season. I think is going to maybe once again have one of those
kind of FIP seasons where we all love it from a from an analytical point
of view, but maybe the eara doesn't doesn't match kind of what the under
an aspects are. But yeah, it's very entertaining to see like the d
Backs on the top of that on the top of that division ahead of San
Diego, La and San Francisco. I don't know how long it will last,
the same with Texas being ahead of like Houston and maybe even like LA
and Seattle. But um, it is it is amusing to watch these things.
Tell what I tell, what is amusing Watching Madison Bumgarner be a bit
shit, that's amusing. I don't like him. I think he's an arrogant
fool um. He definitely has had his moments. I was trying to remember
what the name of his Oh yeah, what's his his rodeo name? His
name like Bucky Buckie Long Johnson or something, like that, it's ridiculous.
Yeah, well I remember, I remember that he dated a woman called Madison
ban Garner. What we know that? Yeah, he wants dated somebody who
was also called a woman who was called Madison Bumgarner. No, yep,
so it just shows his Mason Saunders. Yeah. All I remember about that
is I know that the Baseball Reference page for Madison Bumgardner, where it has
his salary, also has below it his rodeo winnings from like the competitions that
he took part in. That is excellent. That is fine work from them,
well done. So I think that's all of the major talking points.
There are obviously, like lots of players that are have played well, but
we'd like to kind of see up or down, but I think we'll try
and cover them in our Too Good Too Bad that we have not stolen from
a long running British television program that is a completely and utterly owned in invention.
So, mister Pringle, would you like to start us off with your
what I'm assuming is Wade Miley. Yeah, I'd love it to be Wade
Miley, but I haven't got his Baseball Reference page yet. It's it's going
to be Hassling Kim actually who I've really enjoyed watching. He is fun,
and what I've enjoyed is the fact that he came to the league and wasn't
particularly great with the bat, and everyone was worried about him with a fastball,
and it was kind of proven he wasn't that good. But in the
field he was really good fun to watch, and he could throw people out
and it was all nice fun. Last year, I believe he picked it
up quite a lot, and then this year he's had an excellent start and
it has been good fun to watch. I haven't really got much more analytics
wise to talk about him, but I'm sure you might do Russell while you're
loading his page, or he probably just got it in your head already.
No, I think he's had a good start. Like I think he's what
hitting just under three hundred, and it's kind of shown some power obviously with
two home runs. But yeah, I think I think I'd be very interested
to see if he's one of those players that's actually from off the WBC well
obviously, like Korea didn't have like the greatest tournament, but he had he
had a pretty pretty good tournament there. So we're interesting to go with that.
I think, Rob, what is a give us a good a good
Well, you just mentioned it WBC. It's the afterglow from the WBC UM
and I think this is this is coming from a spectator point of view,
and there's some players who carried it over as well. I mean, we've
we've seen the interest in show how he's been been huge, That that fantastic
plate appearance show against Mike Trout was was brilliant, and I think that's really
sort of set us up for the season. It was it was his baseball.
It's not just flaccid spring training, which we're all bored out by the
last minute we had. We had the World Baseball Classic. We've got Randy
Rose Rain, you know, posing doing his doing his his arm folds,
you know, and he's come out of the blocks absolutely flying. And again
me and myself, I you know, we all do we lose we lose
interest in spring training halfway through probably not even halfway through. This year,
there was actually something to watch that was meaningful and it was interesting. And
I've come into the baseball season already up on baseball, rather than oh here
it is again waking me up to it I'm already await I'm already I was
ready for it. I as a watcher, have hit the ground running for
it, and I mean I'm enjoying it thoroughly. So I think the after
glow of that has been brilliant and long way it continue and let's get let's
get more of them one even if GB isn't in it anymore, you know,
it was. It was great to watch and I think I think this
World Baseball Classic has finally caught the imagination of the Americans, which I fortunately
where the sport is. That is the thing we really need is is we
need America to be interested in it as much as as Japan is, as
much as career is, to really sort of sort of give it something that
that's worth what And there is a buzz about it and it's palpable and I
really felt that come through it, and it's it's been a great start the
season. Yeah, it's been. It's been pretty awesome for me to see
like Lewis Rayas still just continue to bang things out in Marlin Stadium, like
he obviously had a very good game there for Mexico, and it just kind
of seems to continue one from there. I think he's Yeah. He obviously
he hit for a cycle yesterday, which, as we all know our podcasts
thoughts on a cycle that would probably end up in the bad But Marlin's first
one, isn't it? Yeah, that that is something worth commenting on.
It was quite ridiculous that that that they hadn't actually got one, considering the
likelihood of them occurring. So move on to one of my goods I'll talk
about. I'll take this in the absence of one of our square colleagues.
I think we need to talk about chap Matman. He has probably had the
best start in Major League Baseball. I think he might have been behind Adam
Duval if Adam Duval hadn't injured himself and therefore not played a few games now,
But Matt Chapman and his glorious five eighty one babbit, So that tells
you how long this is going to continue, Boys and Girls is yes,
currently has a four seventy seven average and is slugging at eight forty one.
So for just all you people who just can't quite do the mats in your
head, that is a two eighty two w RC plus across forty eight played
appearances. Hind of good, very good. Yeah, and obviously like Chapman,
who somebody's like his bat has gone up and down kind of like for
his career. We we all know how such a phenomenal defensive player he is
and will kind of hopefully continue to do with that. But he's yeah,
he just he just looks so happy in that playing in that Toronto lineup.
I don't know if it was obviously like towards the end of the eight with
the A's when it was just like, oh, I'm the good person and
then kind of everybody else is leaving and so I'm going to jump ship,
and oh now I'm kind of I'm at a team where I'm good, but
I'm not even maybe regarded as like one of the better players on this team.
And it's just seems to have had this batting renaissance. So it's been
pretty cool to see Boman give us a bad um bad I'm searching for one.
Voll pay is a bit ship so far, isn't it. Everyone was
all excited about him. A bit of rubbish. Let's write him off now,
send him down, send send him down. Voll paid down hashtag voll
paid down. Oh wait there oh, Uh, this is a bit rubbish.
Jeff Donaldson's a bit rubbish as well. A good in accident, which
we'll come back to you for us to put your second good Tom. But
I think I think obviously the things that add on too, like Vulpine quite
a few of the things, is that just you have to sometimes people realized
that, oh, somebody can be great in spring training and then realize that
you know that like eighty percent of the people you're playing against aren't actually major
league players, or aren't major league players trying to play their best, and
so when you then get into the majors and actually have to play regular season
games, it's it's a little bit more different. I think if New York
continue to win, they'll still just let him head out. He may no
longer lead off as he's been doing in a few games if he kind of
continues to struggle, But yes, I think that'll go. Rob gives a
bad. I've got a serious one. I've got a serious bad. And
that is the plight of Austin Meadows and Daniel Bard at the moment. There
is some positive to this and that it is finally becoming okay for professional athletes
to talk about the mental health and I absolutely lord and applaud that, but
it can't be taken away from the fact that these two guys in particular are
going through some really awful stuff at the moment. You could you could see
it in them. They don't look good. They can tell that they're struggling
at the moment, and I think we just want to push smallers and hope
then got back to where where they want to be. Because it's it's not
nice, it's not nice to have its a public um, but it is
it is good that they can finally talk about it, so there is a
positive in there. H Yeah, it's obviously you don't you don't want to
see any of the players go go through this, but it is. It
is. It's brilliant to see that this can actually be spoken about, I
think, and not be kind of held against players by ownership and so and
so forth. Um. Bad for me, Um, this isn't quite known
to a lot of people. I actually quite like the White Sox and I've
not been able to like the White Sox for a long time because Tony the
Russa has been in charge of them, and my deep hatred for him outweighed
my life of some of the White Sox players, but they can't keep that
place fit. Like it's like, obviously we've gone through the season and there's
already like him and AZA's having issues, Moncada's having issues. It's like,
you have such an interesting lineup which could make good make the division, that
the Central Division be interesting. I know, Tom, you have your views
on the Ale Central and I kind of agree with them to a greater extent,
but having a if it could be a three horse race of teams that
are like actually above five hundred, it would be entertaining. And Chicago just
seemed to not be able to keep their players fit, and so we're constantly
just being like, oh, if only Chicago, if only the White Sox
actually had some foot players. But yeah, it's like him and is injured,
Anderson is injured. Obviously Hendrix has been missing time for his like not
Hodge Foma coming into it. I do have to say this is on the
bad, but it is absolutely hilarious. But Joe Kelly is injured for the
Chicago White Sox. And did you hear about how Joe Kelly got injured?
You spoiled it for me, But yes, definitely reveal all for the listeners
if they haven't heard it. So, when O'Neil Cruise did a really crappy
slide, I managed to break his ankle. Obviously there was a kerfuffle afterwards
because Zavella said some pretty naughty words, and so obviously when this happens,
the bullpen players decided they have to jog in. Well, mister mister Kelly,
hold a hammy, or I think he's stranged, is groined, sorry,
strange is groined, basically running in from the bullpen and therefore is now
having to go on the fifteen day. I l I think if there's any
part of me that's ever felt that I could be a major league player,
it's the fact that one of the guys still out there pitching and managed to
pull his groin jogging in from the bullpen, gently jogging in to try and
get into their handbags and pushing okay back to Tom. You can have your
good now. Frenchie Cordero. Amazing more Frenchie Cordero for the Yankees. He
was fun at the Padres. He was rubbish, but he was fun.
Him Jabari Blash Jankowsky, they were all fun, all rubbish, but it's
so good to see him hit him well more Franchie Corderra please. So I
don't think anyone's checked him, an't they? No? No? No.
The thing is like, is he any good right now? Yeah? He's
he hit that he is for. He hit another home run today against Cleveland,
so he's absolutely hot. I don't know if you know Tom, but
have you probably never listened to like the Stackcast demobi podcast or the Bullpark Dimensions
like he love him because like back when that started I think, which is
like twenty eighteen or even like twenty seventeen, like his underlying numbers were like
this guy is going to be legit. Yeah, And it's been kind of
like a long running joke that like when any of them talks about the guy
being legit, they're just like, well, are they just the next Franchie
cordierro or are they actually like going to be legit? So I imagine those
guys are absolutely loving it that of seeing him home run title is in a
season. Oh, I doubt he's even played many games in a season.
So let's say, Okay, I was good. I was gonna make a
guess, but I didn't think he played probably hasn't even played like three hundred
plate apparances in a season at one, but any points, it's well,
he got his eight in a season with Tunes and seventy five plate appearances of
Boston, So yeah, let's I mean, what's the end at the moment
is on three, so you know he's nearly halfway there. He's on form,
and he hit another one today. Oh where there you go? Then,
so it's halfway there and we are, what seven games in for him?
Remarkable rather your second good the Pittsburgh Pirates. Never thought I'd say that
the Pittsburg Pirates are really fun. There might not be particularly good, but
that is a really fun team to watch. Now. Yes, that has
been hampered slightly by the breaking of O'Neill Cruiser's leg, but that aside,
which is a hard thing to put aside because he's so massive, you know,
Gi Juan Bay, Gi Manchoi, Rich Hill Cuts going back like this
is a genuinely fun, interesting team to watch. They look like they're having
fun when they're playing as well, and I'm enjoying that. So long lived
the slightly less Dire Pirates. I decided. I decided in twenty twenty when
we're all in lockdown to go back and watch some games from the year before.
And whilst Tom and John decided they were going to watch players teams that
were good, they were going to do the winner stays on. I decided
to do the watch the teams that were bad and the loser stays on.
So I watched an awful lot of Pirates Baseball in twenty twenty, which,
let's face it was quite gloomy time in the first place. I then added
shedloads of Pirates baseball on top and got with tell them to a very dark
place. However, finally now they started to look a bit more fun.
So yeah, the Pirates, Yeah, I think. I think anything that
obviously has has cuts in it, so it's going to be fun like no
matter regards you add the great gemn Joy into that I have. I met
up with the Bunch guys last week, and so I went back and relistened
to some of their musical numbers they did. I don't know if you guys
remember them, but Henry had one to like this Chubby Man, so like
this Handsome Man by Morrissey, which is about this team man. Just like
I'd completely forgotten it, and now it's back in my head. I actually
love it. But yeah, I was honestly shocked that it was the first
time that like two Korean players at the homeward like for the same team in
in a tournament, in a game. So no, it is has been
great to see. Um, so that comes on to me for another good
Um, I'm gonna go with so probably let's go with that, let's put
let's build off it. Let's go with Brian Reynolds. He's been absolutely phenomenal
for for the Pirates, which is I don't know whether it's a good thing
or a bad thing, whether how long he's actually going to be a Pirate,
if he's if he's playing like this, well, um yeah, I
think he's already got like five home runs, he's been, he's stolen in
a couple of bases. He's pretty much up there on the Aribia charts.
Uh so, yeah, he's he's been as and a fun one to watch,
and yeah, it's it's very nice to see players to kind of get
built up as like, oh this guy is trade bait or people are going
to sell them. I don't know how it feels as a player. Is
he asked basically to be traded and they kind of said no, so but
he's then still gone out there and absolutely smashing it. So I don't know
if he's making his trade value even higher, which means that they might say,
yes, is this what is this his way of getting out of Pittsburgh.
It's like, I gotta play phenomenally and then they've got to get rid
of me. But now if he plays too well, does that mean the
Pirates end up with a too good a record and then he doesn't You can't
get out of Pittsburgh. I mean, it can't just be down to one
man though kind of I get your point, but it's not down to one
man. He's not going to do it solo. He's not Mike Track.
This isn't the NBA, no exactly. Yeah, it's just well, it's
like a guy in contract year, isn't it. He's going to be playing
his hard to get out of there. He wants to, he wants to
impress, and the better offer that it's get, they'll take it. Yep,
Um, Tom, do you have another bad? Yes? The Detroit
Tigers are terribly bad. Wow, they are so rubbish. I just looked
at their roster. Oh my word, they are bad. Yeah, that's
one of the worst teams I've ever seen. Some of these stats are bismore.
I would just have you looked at the Oakland Athletics, but no part
we reckon who would win? When are they playing each other? Let's find
that out. What's the opposite of the immovable object and the unstoppable force.
It's it's that it's whatever the opposite of the unstoppable the immovable force of the
unstoppable object. They don't play Oakland until September. That's disappointing. Well,
yes, I mean they're going to get even worse with the players that they
trade away and oh no, wait there we've got something July. Yeah,
bad, aren't they? Wow? Yes. I think kind of what some
of us were hoping coming into this season with Tigers is that the likes of
like Spencil Talklson and like right Green might come come up and like hit better,
and you'd be like, okay, like these guys can can maybe do
something. Um still not really been seen. Like a Kilber Duo went down,
didn't start on the roster, but I think he's back up again,
which is which is good fun. Don't look at heavier by as his stats.
I think it's just the only thing I can say, Like, I
absolutely love the guy because I think he's defensive wizard and I have probably defended
him for probably too long to say that he's he's a reasonable MB player.
But the guy just swings and nap pitches. I just don't understand it.
And his WRC plus is minus eighteen. Oh wow, I think I think
I don't. People aren't familiar with the WRC plus. One hundred is average
and he's minus eighteen. Yes, so far below average. Yes, I
think I don't know what he's at now. But when I last looked at
did he'd even hit anything above a singles? So far? So I think
his average and his slugging with the same. So it's not good given the
fact that he's supposed to give up some of his contact for power and now
he's not even the power. I think a lot of fans in the UK
live the Tigers vicariously through Jed like he's somebody that I think most of us
will follow just because it's entertaining. It's kind of bit masochistic entertainment, or
maybe not not right the White way of saying it. What's the probably a
bit of shardam freud er. If it's it's it's just like, no matter
how bad my team is, guess what they are the Tigers. Yeah.
I don't worry though, because Bias can opt out after this year, so
probably do that and look for a better deal somewhere else. Or No,
he's going to be around until when is that twenty twenty seven? Never mind?
Jed, Well, it is Miggie's contract up this year. They finally
finally lose Miggie this year, so he's going this year. Yeah, that's
thirty million that they won't spend. Yeah, Meggie's got a better WRC plus
at the moment at fifty four because he's not really playing. Yeah, Rob,
have you got a second bad? Yes? Scheduling. I loved the
balance schedule. I love the idea that everybody plays everybody. I don't love
it for the early season. It felt a bit weird. Um. I
think early early on, you want the games. You know you're you're you're
into it. You want to see the rivalries, you want to see your
your teams that you want some familiar back. Um. I just thought,
you know what, what, Toronto have only just gone home to start with,
which is a bit of an odd in the sched Well, they didn't
get a single home series in the first view, which which seems strange.
You had San Francisco starting in New York, you had the Billies in Texas.
It was just all a bit weird, you know. And yes,
I do like the interleague play, but I think there should have been a
bit of a grace period over the first week or two. It just it
just didn't sit right. It just didn't sit right. I didn't quite like
it. I know it's not rational, but I didn't like it very much.
And I would have preferred that they've stayed in with the traditional a little
bit, a little bit into the season before we started going all over the
shop. Can we just scraped the league yet? Can we just get rid
of them? If MLB ever expanded to thirty two? I think it's happening.
Tom's but yeah, well completely pointless now, isn't it. Well?
The choices. We either get the NFL approach or we get the NBA approach,
which one is better or worse. I don't want to go to the
NBA because we now have seven eight nine play ins to get into terrible and
those teams, Why what are they doing and they don't they play seven games
for every single round as well, they do have to the Yeah, but
that's just the way got like. You've got teams playing like four and every
single time because the eight seed has managed to get through and it's so bad.
One for the eight in basketball is just one. That's just that's what
it is. Um. Yeah, I do kind of agree with you,
Rob. I think personally, I would have something where like end of the
season, start of the season, and maybe middle of the season you would
be playing against your division just kind of like just and then you sprinkle in
like the the other games kind of through that. I guess that is an
absolutely logistical nightmare to try and to just try and do that, and I
for one, don't want to be out there creating. I don't know how
they do it. I would assume they have some sort of computational matrix that
could pop out possibilities for them, or they have some poor bastard who has
to create the whole entire thing by hand. I really don't think they do
it. There's no one person does that, just because that would be absolutely
I've seen horrendous. I've seen the NFL one the NFL one is all to
do the algorithms and putting it like making sure teams aren't playing each other again
and get into visual games in there. But then they also tie in all
the events that are already booked into stadia as well. I don't know how
they can do for a base like NFL. You've got seventeen games now in
a season, so it's not as bad. How to how do you plan
baseball games? Like admittedly there aren't concerts going on in the baseball stadium,
but there's got to be some things that can't clash and stuff like that.
So it must be absolutely mental trying to do the scheduling. Yeah, it's
got to be bizarre. It also annoys me that basically any time that I
go to Lake New York at La Chicago, San Francisco, that they aren't
on at the same time, which I guess is that actually there's a reason
why, like yeah, the A's and the Giants don't play at the same
time, and the Mets and the Yankees don't play at the same time.
That's probably like police singed and results in and all of these other things that
that has to go into it. U But yeah, as a as a
tourist, it's annoying. I'll give you my final bad which is Cleveland spent
money and the players in the player turns out to be not particularly good.
Josh Bell has gone four at four forty two to start the season with no
home runs, two runs and three a RBIs it's um, it's below my
worst expectation of what would happen. I think I mentioned on the preview podcast
that was like he had a good first half and a bad second half,
and I was hoping for just somewhere in between. And it's worse than the
world the bad second half. So who knows, I think I think To
be honest, I will have to double check, but I do you think
he did get a hit tonight? So he has? He is now up
to five hits for the season. So it is it my fancy team.
So I know that he's bad as well. So bad. What's got funny
with that is I probably would have told a lot of people to take him
over Josh NHLer, and then Josh Niler is actually having a pretty good start
to the season. Yeah. I could have also added in like Armed Rosario
here from a Cleveland point of view, because he's been absolutely bog shite and
he's still playing number two and it's just like what changed the team? But
he did hear ding it tonight, Yes, but he also struck out with
the basis loaded down by one run in the bottle of the night. So
yes, I will have thumbs up and thumbs down. I just want to
kind of quickly go over just a couple of the other players that have been
really good, just so we can kind of end on a positive note instead
of ending on a bad note. John decided to ask some of the people
in our discord group on who had kind of performed well this so far this
year. So we're just kind of like rattle off a list of what we've
kind of kind of got here Orlando. I think I think that's have been
one that people weren't anticipating, and it's actually done pretty pretty well for Atlanta.
Um, I'm just chuckling down to see somebody has put not Josh Bell,
which it's chuckling onto me. Ian Hap that's something. He's picked up
a three year contract with the Cobs today, so that's going to be awesome.
I will hopefully be continuing to push my friendship with Ian hap By continuing
to wear my Myrtle Beach Pelican's cap for any further interviews on stuff that he
does for the London series, So you can kind of go like, oh,
is that a Pelican's cap, and I can be like, yes,
please be my friend. Indeed, um, we've got Dylan Ce's being Dylan
cec Dansby Swanson. Oh, Tommy, you went for you went from Nellie?
He's hitting some bombs, is he? Nellie Cruz has been good Man
likes. It's not surprising if he's still jacked up, but I'm not saying
he is, just to clarify for any lawyers out there, but he's been
he's been hitting well. He's been in some good ding as as well,
some very important ones as well for the Padres. So yeah, Cruises then
doing a good start on forty seven the BRC plus at the moment it's gonna
played six games, but when he has played he's been great. No,
that's good to hear, and yeah, so obviously I think we'll we'll end
it there today boys and girls which now need to do a quick I'm going
to do a quick raffle to determine who our discord mug winner is so very
nice. I managed to, after some long winded effort, find a way
of exporting all the names of people from the Discord server so I could put
it into a random raffle thing, and so I can russell easam, isn't
it well? I did try and delete us from the people who could win
this. Rob and Tom can probably see this if I move slightly. But
I do have quite a few of those mugs just by, so we may
be running a few more prize opportunities to win those mugs. So if it
is she needs to say her name and then clearly destraw it again. Just
keep Tom, Rob, Tom Tom again. Okay, And so the winner
is someone called Phil Rockies. So we'll be reaching out to you on the
Discord group with the opportunity to give us your address and we shall post you
a London Series Cups and Cardinals thermal mug. Congratulations to Phil Rockies or not
in our discard group. Samus surnames Rockies when he's a rent fair very awkward.
Well yes, so thank you Rob, but thank you Tom for joining
me today. This has been an absolute delight. I very much do enjoy
it chatting baseball with you with you find guys, because it just it just
goes somewhere. We don't really know. Qu quim I will. I will
end this podcast with telling you that I will not watch the rest of Blobifett.
You've got to do it, just Russell, please. So Russell got
like two or three episodes and went this is rubbish and turn it off and
never went back. You need to finish it, come on, just plow
through it. Come on, man, You've not got a lot going on.
Just I've gone into a whole of CA dramas. My friend, I
am. I am sunk deep in the CA dramas right now. Very much.
Recommend the glory to anybody freaking grief while don't don't say it wrong,
don't say anything not so yes, as always, I'm not going to do
it as always watch it morning. What type of hole will you end up
in? Then? Yeah, it's yeah, it's not quite about that boy,
quite a bad. I really hope people aren't listening with their kids.
This is terrible. Well, you the one who swore like four times in
this podcast. I know as soon as you. I've got no vocabital.
Like these guys are all like university educated I'm not. I'm just I'm just
common gutter filth. Yeah, but you're the one who has kids, so
surely has the filter to not slap. Well, that's what gutter filth do,
don't They have kids because they've got nothing else to do. They get
bored at home. I think we'll definitely time to cut the podcast. You
can say that because I am good to fail and I've got kids. So
yeah. You can find us at bat flips and nerds dot com. You
can find us at bat Flips Underscore Nerds on Twitter, Rob Tom, are
you going to write anything about baseball and not too distant future? Yes or
no? Yes, Okay, look forward to seeing those on the websites.
You might see something for me or not. I'm just looking at stats and
they're not really writing anything about it because I get bored. Hopefully this has
been entertaining for you, and we shall speak to you in the not too
distant future about MLB baseball. Goodbye. We forgot to mention that Evan gattis
as a bell end. Hello and welcome to Backlips and sorry that's good at
the end. Boom