Speaker 1: Hello, I welcome to Baplips and Nerds, the Baseball Podcast
Speaker 1: with a British twist. I am your host today, Russell Lisam,
Speaker 1: and spring training is upon us. There is live baseball
Speaker 1: to be watched. But is that a good or a
Speaker 1: bad thing? That's what we will be discussing today. And
Speaker 1: to do that I have with me my fellow Stato Darius.
Speaker 1: How are you doing, Darius?
Speaker 2: I'm doing very well, Thanks Ross.
Speaker 3: I've enjoyed in lightning Rob about the state of Andragas's hair,
Speaker 3: which may well put down a bonus pod sometime or something.
Speaker 3: Just leaves that hanging out there, people wondering what the
Speaker 3: hell is going on?
Speaker 1: And as Darius alluded to, we have the man who
Speaker 1: will provide the whimsy to our two with statheads, Rob Veras.
Speaker 1: How are you doing, Rob?
Speaker 4: I'm a little I'm just concerned that Andrey lost his
Speaker 4: hair a lot earlier than I thought he did. Honestly,
Speaker 4: I thought his whole career was was full pat sharp
Speaker 4: style locks. But no, nineteen ninety five you went board.
Speaker 4: Who knew nineteen ninety five I could have sworn it
Speaker 4: was the whole The whole length of his career was
Speaker 4: with the full length. My mother and Auntie absolutely loved him.
Speaker 4: That's probably a bit enough about.
Speaker 1: That has suited individuals as such were probably the thing
Speaker 1: in vogue. Obviously we'll get onto spring training in a second,
Speaker 1: but something monumental has happened in baseball since the last
Speaker 1: time we've managed to have one of these podcasts. Potentially
Speaker 1: the dumbest rule in baseball has been made less dumb,
Speaker 1: and the Yankees have decided to allow their players to
Speaker 1: have a well maintained beard by going by their standards,
Speaker 1: probably have well maintained. I do not fall under that role.
Speaker 1: Probably doesn't fall under that too much. It's too stubble
Speaker 1: it role. But I think, yeah, it's the question is
Speaker 1: how you get to being like well maintained. You have
Speaker 1: to grow it quickly but enough to trim. Yeah. As
Speaker 1: someone who I can't remember what reason why we had
Speaker 1: a podcast drafting something, I had the Yankees Beard Museum
Speaker 1: effectively to attribute to all the beards that have been
Speaker 1: lost at all time. To me, it's ridiculous that this
Speaker 1: thing that even still partially exists, but seemingly the Yankees
Speaker 1: have stepped forward to what the current times is.
Speaker 2: Darius Well, I mean, you know.
Speaker 3: They've gone a long way at least the well maintained,
Speaker 3: the well groomed part of it is sort of a
Speaker 3: desperate clinging on. But yeah, this is long reverdue. This
Speaker 3: is one of those things that whenever it does come
Speaker 3: up with people who don't know baseball, they sort of
Speaker 3: look at me like I'm playing a joke on them
Speaker 3: or something that they can't believe in the twenty first
Speaker 3: century that anybody could possibly.
Speaker 2: Have this policy on a sports team.
Speaker 3: It has been one of the more ludicrous things about
Speaker 3: the Yankees for quite a long time.
Speaker 2: So yeah, very good that they've done it.
Speaker 3: I do wonder, you know, was there somebody out there,
Speaker 3: you know, did Startinbreder try and sign someone and they
Speaker 3: were like, no, I'm keeping the beard.
Speaker 2: You can't. You can't have me.
Speaker 1: I want a beard.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know if that that has
Speaker 2: been brought up, you know.
Speaker 3: Addindobtably, even even if it was once, I think they'd
Speaker 3: probably be worth doing it. But yeah, aside from free
Speaker 3: agents who don't want to go there, it's just a
Speaker 3: ludicrous thing that was in place for.
Speaker 2: Far too long. So glad to see it go.
Speaker 3: And yeah, we'll be fun to actually see Yankees with
Speaker 3: beards and to see what well groomed means. How far
Speaker 3: can we push the boundaries of grooming?
Speaker 1: I think rob Like, if you're someone like Devin Williams,
Speaker 1: who's basically had a pretty big beard for probably the
Speaker 1: last six years of his baseball career, I can't think
Speaker 1: of him without the beard. I still don't think of
Speaker 1: him without the beard. He literally turned up two pictures
Speaker 1: and catchers reported having it shaved off, and then the
Speaker 1: day later they're like, ah, you know what that would
Speaker 1: have been fired, Like I'd be about you.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Absolutely, I've got a feeling he's gonna be more
Speaker 4: part of this surely, Like you know this is gonna
Speaker 4: be Yeah, they've gotta They've got a superstar reliver here,
Speaker 4: like absolute top notch geezer. If he's kicked off and
Speaker 4: you know, demanded, I'm not gonna play. I don't want
Speaker 4: to play. I don't want to be here. I want
Speaker 4: to go upsetting the team. Maybe this was the straw
Speaker 4: that broke the camel's back. May maybe it was him,
Speaker 4: I don't know, but yes, he's got to be pissed off, absolutely,
Speaker 4: like he's he's lost his his signature. Beard. I think
Speaker 4: he even described it as signature beard at some point,
Speaker 4: and and now he's allowed to go it back. But
Speaker 4: you know, maybe it come in with a little bit
Speaker 4: of grain in it and mayke a bit more distinguished.
Speaker 4: I think I think it's gonna be a good thing.
Speaker 1: I'll give you another question, Rob, Do you think this
Speaker 1: would have happened if the Yankees won the World Series
Speaker 1: last year?
Speaker 4: Wow? Well?
Speaker 1: Do you think this is? As Darius has said? It
Speaker 1: is a potentially reaction to some free agents that may
Speaker 1: be coming around this year or maybe next year.
Speaker 4: Where are you pointing this? I'm not seeing next year.
Speaker 4: Who's next to you? Oh, Laddie? Surely?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, that makes perfect sense. Now my eyes have
Speaker 4: been opened. Yeah, it's got to.
Speaker 1: Be, isn't it.
Speaker 4: I mean, would you keep keep him under the is
Speaker 4: he well groomed? Would we consider him well grouped? I'm
Speaker 4: gonna have to get a picture of his beard now,
Speaker 4: because I have it in my head as slightly rough.
Speaker 1: If you want to.
Speaker 4: Play along at home, I'm not that Vladimir. That one
Speaker 4: is not a good Vladimir.
Speaker 1: Uh that Rob is googling Darius. Do you do you
Speaker 1: agree with my statement? That this is this is this
Speaker 1: is actually a losing position from the Yankees, like the
Speaker 1: George Emsteinbrenner would be rolling in his grave that they
Speaker 1: were reacting in this way to try and get the
Speaker 1: free agents. Like if those free agents wouldn't shave their
Speaker 1: beard for the Yankees, they're not good enough for the Yankees.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that probably is the kind of thing that old
Speaker 3: George would have said, although he was also in the
Speaker 3: habit of, you know, making very advised free agent decisions
Speaker 3: on a regular basis, so who can say how he
Speaker 3: would have reacted to this really, Yeah, well, if they'd
Speaker 3: won the World serious side, don't Yeah, it seems like
Speaker 3: odd timing.
Speaker 1: I don't go.
Speaker 3: Don't quite understand why this is the moment unless it
Speaker 3: is related to lad and in that case, I don't
Speaker 3: think it's that.
Speaker 2: Like me, he has walked back.
Speaker 3: He would never play for the angest statement, but I
Speaker 3: imagine that's more to use them as market leverage than
Speaker 3: for anything like he'd actually want to sign there. I'll
Speaker 3: let rub weigh in on whether he thinks the beard
Speaker 3: is sufficiently well groomed at this point in time.
Speaker 4: I want say no, I obviously that is not a
Speaker 4: well groomed beard. I think it has been a very
Speaker 4: very neat sculptured chin strap. But I think generally he's
Speaker 4: certainly not the Charlie Blackman, but he's he's really sort
Speaker 4: of letting it go a little wild around the cheeks,
Speaker 4: got some he's got some wisp to it. You know,
Speaker 4: it's it's got a little bit kind of I'm a
Speaker 4: bit wild and dangerous look, and you know it's it's
Speaker 4: it's that. Yeah, I don't think that's well groomed. And
Speaker 4: you know, okay, controversial take. I'm a problem with the
Speaker 4: well groomed element. They are. I work in customer facing.
Speaker 4: You know, there's got to be an element of presentation
Speaker 4: about it. They are very customer facing. They're on the television.
Speaker 4: You know that there's a uniform standard. I don't think
Speaker 4: it's unusual to have some sort of dress code about
Speaker 4: about working if you are one display.
Speaker 1: For the public.
Speaker 4: So yeah, why not well groomed is fine? You know,
Speaker 4: I'm okay with that.
Speaker 1: Are you going to go out there and tell Brandon
Speaker 1: Marsh's not allowed to wet his hair?
Speaker 4: Is wetting it? Groomy it? I would say it's fairly
Speaker 4: well groomed. Grooming is in the essence of the effort
Speaker 4: rather than necessarily the result.
Speaker 1: Perhaps, Ah okay, well give them the fact that they
Speaker 1: have an on site Barbara, and we heard about like
Speaker 1: a triple A level Yankee prospect basically getting his bid
Speaker 1: sorted literally the day afterwards, and being one of the
Speaker 1: first people to the Yankees uniform with the beards. So
Speaker 1: we'll see how this all rolls. We probably could talk
Speaker 1: about this for another forty five minutes if we're perfectly honest.
Speaker 1: This is the type of nerdery and absurdity that is
Speaker 1: right up our alley. But we're here to talk about
Speaker 1: spring training. We're here to talk about the good and
Speaker 1: the bad of spring training because when we get this
Speaker 1: access to baseball, there is an initial like joy. I
Speaker 1: think for a lot of us we have been without
Speaker 1: watching MLB. There has been other opportunities to watch the
Speaker 1: other things, with some winter series, with even some World
Speaker 1: Baseball Classic qualifiers that have been ongoing. But there's something
Speaker 1: about MLB, obviously with a preemium element. But it's not
Speaker 1: all good. So but I think we'll start with a
Speaker 1: good each Darius, what is a good thing about spring training?
Speaker 3: I think one good thing about spring training generally speaking,
Speaker 3: and this can veer into the ridiculous, but it's just
Speaker 3: a nice time for up timism. Nobody is yet eliminated,
Speaker 3: not even the Rockies of the White Sox.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: People might say technically they are, but at this moment
Speaker 3: in time, they are not. You still have that opportunity
Speaker 3: to get excited about things, and that might not be
Speaker 3: We're going to make the playoffs.
Speaker 2: That might be all.
Speaker 3: You know, look at our young prospects that are in
Speaker 3: spring training. Whatever it is, you just haven't had that time.
Speaker 3: You know, that can go south very quickly in the
Speaker 3: season if you get out to a one and nine
Speaker 3: start and everybody's upset. But in spring training, you know,
Speaker 3: the slate is clean, You've got time. Obviously, things can
Speaker 3: go wrong in spring training, but for the most part,
Speaker 3: it's time for optimism. And I think that's nice, especially
Speaker 3: you know, after the long winter of waiting for baseball,
Speaker 3: people can get excited about the season again.
Speaker 4: So speaking optimism, as anybody looked.
Speaker 1: At sorry after you, gentlemen, Well, I'm just.
Speaker 4: Saying it, speaking of optimism and in all going well,
Speaker 4: anybody actually looked at the standings for the grape fruit
Speaker 4: and or Cactus leagues. No one does. Of course they don't.
Speaker 4: I would like to say that the Chicago White Sox
Speaker 4: are two and eight, so with two hundred winning percentage,
Speaker 4: they it's really sad, but it's exactly what you'd expect.
Speaker 1: So I do see the side of your optimism, Darius.
Speaker 1: I do think it is something that we get into
Speaker 1: this level of the season and like in some regards,
Speaker 1: like you can't be beaten down by anything that has
Speaker 1: happened just yet, especially as the start of like spring training.
Speaker 1: The thing that I will sadly say so is that
Speaker 1: to me, this is either pointless optimism or like just
Speaker 1: optimism that isn't actually believed, like it is like it's
Speaker 1: cliched optimism almost to say that, like there are people
Speaker 1: out being there like oh yeah, well, we're gonna surprise
Speaker 1: some teams, like the players will be saying that, managers
Speaker 1: will be saying that. And in some regards, these guys
Speaker 1: are athletes and they have to probably believe that they
Speaker 1: are going to perform quite well. But how many of
Speaker 1: them really believe the stuff that they're saying when it's
Speaker 1: going to be like, you know what, if you're on
Speaker 1: the White Sox, this year, and you're gonna when someone says, well,
Speaker 1: we know we're gonna surprize people, well, surprising people. You
Speaker 1: surprise people last year, just in a really bad way,
Speaker 1: Like surprising people this year would probably be getting to
Speaker 1: seventy wins. So that's not actually good. I had had
Speaker 1: a whole tirade about this, But if any of you
Speaker 1: listened to the Basilall Barber cast, they literally their last
Speaker 1: episode was talking about the cliches, So I would direct
Speaker 1: you in their direction instead of me just going on
Speaker 1: another tirade about this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's slightly different category of the teams,
Speaker 3: and I do have a bit about that later. I
Speaker 3: think I'm just thinking about it in the sense of
Speaker 3: people enjoying the game.
Speaker 2: Of baseball, you know, in terms of the public. But yes,
Speaker 2: I certainly.
Speaker 3: Agree that we get a lot of nonsense out of
Speaker 3: teams in terms of what expectations are and where they
Speaker 3: think they might be going this season.
Speaker 2: That is clearly not true.
Speaker 4: For the White Sox.
Speaker 2: Well, not if they have a two hundred winn percentage.
Speaker 1: They didn't have the worst record ever statistically speaking. So
Speaker 1: so there's records to break, there are the wrong records
Speaker 1: still to break. As I've countered, Darius is good with
Speaker 1: a bad But I'll bring us back to something good.
Speaker 1: What do you what do you enjoy about spring training?
Speaker 4: I really like a tiki bar. H outfields are full
Speaker 4: of you know, bars that have got like a grassy
Speaker 4: roof which maybe isn't the best idea. In in Florida
Speaker 4: where with the daily daily thumbstorms, they've got grassy roofs
Speaker 4: and there's like a great, big, fat kind of wine
Speaker 4: shirt sat there enjoying a fruity beverage with an umbrella
Speaker 4: in pretty much every game, like most most of these
Speaker 4: stadiums have a tiki bar. And there's something very very
Speaker 4: not corporate about a tiki bar. And if we spend
Speaker 4: the whole season looking at major league stadiums with adverts
Speaker 4: for you know, ensure this bomb that you know whatever.
Speaker 4: But but to have to have a purely uh frivolous
Speaker 4: thing sat out there in the outfield, that's lovely. We
Speaker 4: lost that when when we lost the Miami Marlin sculpture,
Speaker 4: and so I I the tiki barb makes me think
Speaker 4: of that. It's there's something completely frivolous that sat out
Speaker 4: there in the outfield. People aren't really watching the games,
Speaker 4: because go how many of us really are and you've
Speaker 4: gotta you gotta, you've gotta like a grass bar in
Speaker 4: the outfield. That's great, that's just frivolous. That's nice. There's
Speaker 4: there's no there's no intentions in it. It's just a
Speaker 4: thing we can enjoy that is there for reasons. Why
Speaker 4: has that become a tradition? I don't know, but it's great.
Speaker 4: Love it so Rob.
Speaker 1: How many have you got to watching training games in
Speaker 1: Florida or I have.
Speaker 4: I went to I've only seen the one. I saw
Speaker 4: the Tigers play the Blue Jays the Tigers game Tiger Stadium,
Speaker 4: and yeah, there's a there's a tiki bar there.
Speaker 1: That was great. You're not going to class myself as
Speaker 1: a season spring training person, but like I've done it
Speaker 1: like three or four times in Arizona, and from my
Speaker 1: experience of those places, they're frequented by people who are
Speaker 1: drunk by the third in and not just like my people.
Speaker 1: I've been to quite a few MOREB games probably actually
Speaker 1: I've been to more spring training games just because I
Speaker 1: love to get out to Arizona at that time of
Speaker 1: the year. But I've never seen someone kicked out of
Speaker 1: an MLB game, of a regular season game for being
Speaker 1: too drunk. And I've seen that probably on about a
Speaker 1: quarter of the spring training games that I've been to,
Speaker 1: someone stumbling around in the green grass outfield area and
Speaker 1: falling onto people who are they have absolutely no business
Speaker 1: with whatsoever.
Speaker 4: Exactly what makes a family picnic better than a drunken
Speaker 4: fatman and a Hawiian shirt falling over onto it.
Speaker 1: Have you experienced sp training.
Speaker 3: I've not not been a spring training in person now,
Speaker 3: so I can't can't comment on taking bars or any
Speaker 3: other aspects of this other than the bits you see.
Speaker 3: It sort of reminds me when you see people at
Speaker 3: spring training. It sort of reminds me a bit of
Speaker 3: like the Wimbledon vibe, you know that just sort of
Speaker 3: like sat out on the hill with like a picnic
Speaker 3: blanket and a bunch of drinks and there happens to
Speaker 3: be some sport going on. But yeah, it's very much
Speaker 3: that kind of atmosphere.
Speaker 4: So it's nice. There's nice.
Speaker 1: I'll sneak in here and kind of put what was
Speaker 1: gonna be one of my nicest Yeah, Like, I honestly
Speaker 1: like going to spring training games is it's really fun.
Speaker 1: I will I will actually say that, like there is
Speaker 1: a far you generally aren't caring about what the result
Speaker 1: is going to be. Even if you're watching the teams
Speaker 1: that you like, you're looking to see kind of who's
Speaker 1: gonna maybe perform well kind of just be like oh.
Speaker 1: For me, it was like, oh, I get to see
Speaker 1: Mike Trout play, or I get to see each aroplay,
Speaker 1: or I get to see Jackson Turio play when he's
Speaker 1: two years away from being like a major leaguer. That
Speaker 1: you get to see things that you do not get
Speaker 1: at other games. But also the spring training games for
Speaker 1: me were just an interaction with a whole load of
Speaker 1: fans that you just do not like normally interact with
Speaker 1: at a game. There is a far more jovial atmosphere
Speaker 1: around kind of like what's going on. I remember being
Speaker 1: out last year telling my friends when we were watching
Speaker 1: a Giants game, being like, yeah, all of the prospects
Speaker 1: that are here, none of them are going to be
Speaker 1: on the starting line, going to be in the starting
Speaker 1: twenty five come the start of the season, And the
Speaker 1: woman behind me was just heckling moving by, what do
Speaker 1: you know? You've probably you sound like you're from the UK,
Speaker 1: what do you know? It's like wow, But it ended
Speaker 1: up having a conversation afterwards, So like, I just think
Speaker 1: that I'm not certain if that would have I've had
Speaker 1: great interactions in regular season games as well, but like
Speaker 1: the everybody was a few beers in and and it
Speaker 1: just led to to a great atmosphere that is, that's
Speaker 1: very good. What do we not like about spring training?
Speaker 3: Well, the thing that really puts the dampener on the optimism,
Speaker 3: usually very quickly, is when you discover who has got
Speaker 3: themselves injured or indeed was already injured at the end
Speaker 3: of last season and didn't tell anybody about it until
Speaker 3: they sharper spring training. And you know, we get this
Speaker 3: flurry every year. Everyone shows up in their training except
Speaker 3: you know that one guy he's not training and the
Speaker 3: be right goes last the manager he's like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, he's just got a toall ligament. It will
Speaker 3: be out for the next four months, just like drop
Speaker 3: that in their casualty. So that's always a bit of
Speaker 3: a down and you're excited about your team. We've got
Speaker 3: a great, great unit together, and then you know you
Speaker 3: realize you're about to sign Kyle Gibson in mid March
Speaker 3: because somebody's blown out the UECL which is going to
Speaker 3: happen inevitably. We haven't really had I don't think the major.
Speaker 3: You know, somebody's lost the season unexpectedly yet, but we
Speaker 3: all know that it's coming.
Speaker 2: And was one.
Speaker 4: I swear there was one.
Speaker 1: I thought Lucis ehel is probably considerable.
Speaker 2: Theis hill Is is going to be out about six,
Speaker 2: six or eight weeks.
Speaker 3: I think it's a big strain, but we have a
Speaker 3: big Tommy John I don't think, not, not that I'm
Speaker 3: aware of. That was an unexpected name.
Speaker 4: And rend he's lost his lost the season probably I said,
Speaker 4: I said, unexpected, Okay, sorry, yeah, that was fairly expected.
Speaker 1: It is. It is a slightly weird one because like,
Speaker 1: on one hand, I'm like our teams, surely the teams know,
Speaker 1: or like the gen Carlo Stanton or whatever was not
Speaker 1: feeling well during the off season, surely like again, the
Speaker 1: fact that he has neither elbows working properly.
Speaker 2: What has been doing tennis? Elbow?
Speaker 3: Was he playing with one arm and then he was like,
Speaker 3: oh that hurts, I'm going to use the other one. Well,
Speaker 3: I know, you get tennis Elbo from other things, but
Speaker 3: I just wonder what has he been doing?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and and and it's kind of like hilarious in itself,
Speaker 1: like how that's happened. But it's like, surely at some
Speaker 1: point during the off season, Stanton's gone, hey, like this
Speaker 1: is happening or whatever, But we don't hit anything from
Speaker 1: the teams until like spring training starts, and then they
Speaker 1: even sometimes try and just like mask it for a
Speaker 1: few days for as long as they can before it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what, this person isn't starting now, we kind
Speaker 1: of really have to say that, like they're injured, and yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to do something about it. And so
Speaker 1: part of my head, I'm like teams are obviously trying
Speaker 1: to push this information back as lately as possible, so
Speaker 1: other teams don't know that someone is injured. But it's
Speaker 1: still basically teams know. By now we now know that
Speaker 1: people who are the people who've carried injuries into the
Speaker 1: off season. How you really impacted I guess most of
Speaker 1: the free agents have been signed to Is that enough
Speaker 1: of a reason to delay this information because it plays
Speaker 1: into how other teams are going to spend their money.
Speaker 4: Maybe they just don't care. Maybe we the consumer just
Speaker 4: aren't important enough, like, oh yeah he's broke. Yeah, sorry,
Speaker 4: we should have said some.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Maybe.
Speaker 4: Actually I looked up the stats on injuries. I compared
Speaker 4: this year to last year up to yesterday. Which do
Speaker 4: you have you have you had a feeling that the
Speaker 4: injuries have been better or worse? How have you felt
Speaker 4: it's gone?
Speaker 1: I've not heard too many major sprawings, but I also
Speaker 1: don't think we get the major sprawings for until like
Speaker 1: the next couple of weeks, and people have truly ramped up,
Speaker 1: and a trent getting close to one hundred percent. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say, I'm gonna have given a push, Rob,
Speaker 1: it's the same.
Speaker 2: How are you respond? I was gonna say, how have
Speaker 2: you assessed this?
Speaker 1: Rob?
Speaker 4: I've used fangrass tracker, I've gone down, I've literally counted. Yeah,
Speaker 4: the number of injuries, Yeah absolutely, I would say though statistically,
Speaker 4: if we take last year as an example, this next
Speaker 4: week we are likely to have about four Tommy John's like,
Speaker 4: this is the week it happens, this is the week
Speaker 4: it's all going to go to hell. I think I
Speaker 4: even saw somebody tread on a It was an our chat,
Speaker 4: wasn't it. Who's who's hurting themselves?
Speaker 2: Say?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Jordan Walker desperate to finally get his big break
Speaker 3: and so everybody he was going to be the great
Speaker 3: player everyone thought he was going to be.
Speaker 2: As a prospect. The big break of his foot instead
Speaker 2: has trodden on the spring player.
Speaker 1: Well, given we're talking about things that kind of are
Speaker 1: news related all throughout, something that I don't like about
Speaker 1: spring training is that it's the first access that bead
Speaker 1: writers have had two players in a long time, and
Speaker 1: we get absolutely stupid questions being asked. Like I just
Speaker 1: think that like people are just being like, oh, like
Speaker 1: are you ready for the next season or whatever? And
Speaker 1: I'm like, what generic thing are they going to respond
Speaker 1: to that? Like I do get in some regards that
Speaker 1: like true journalists have to ask the obvious questions so
Speaker 1: they can have the by all the thing that they
Speaker 1: can say that this person said quote and they can
Speaker 1: put it in in their peace, But like it doesn't
Speaker 1: do anything like I read something to say that, it's
Speaker 1: kind of just like, oh, this has happened, and then
Speaker 1: I would just gonna double down here. And also like
Speaker 1: what happens with like well with Rafael Devers where I'm
Speaker 1: just like that to me and people probably might disagree,
Speaker 1: just felt like ambush journalism where it's like, you know what,
Speaker 1: like I'm just going to basically push at something that
Speaker 1: even though the Red Sox have constantly said break I mean,
Speaker 1: Breakman's gonna play SECD, Breakman's gonna play second. Breakman's gonna
Speaker 1: play second. That's what we've bought him. The first thing
Speaker 1: we're gonna do is Deva's where do you play? And
Speaker 1: He's like, I play third? Like and then it's basically
Speaker 1: just like Devas is not a team player. It's like like, okay,
Speaker 1: could thank you for your sensationalist journalism. Like, uh, to me,
Speaker 1: you just sound like a tool of a journalist, not
Speaker 1: actually Devas sounding like a tool, but that might just
Speaker 1: be my opinion thought.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I see where where you're driving with it. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean it is tough though, isn't it, Because they
Speaker 4: these journalists have really got to balance the the the
Speaker 4: print with the obvious questions because they need to keep
Speaker 4: the access. But yeah, they've got to make a story too,
Speaker 4: They've got to make a living everything, So it is
Speaker 4: a tough one. It is a tough position and often
Speaker 4: here they're trying to make stories out of nothing, because,
Speaker 4: let's face it, it's spring training, people getting injured. It
Speaker 4: is nothing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, am I being an overreacting here, Darius, Well, let's
Speaker 1: start with the first point where it's just like, do
Speaker 1: we just get too much? Like I'm in the best
Speaker 1: shape of my life? Like, let's start there with that
Speaker 1: cliche like.
Speaker 4: Say that anymore?
Speaker 2: I think we probably do.
Speaker 3: Yes, you know, I suppose there is some merit to
Speaker 3: just going around and like is everybody healthy, especially when
Speaker 3: it's some of the guys who were not healthy at
Speaker 3: the end of life season. There's you know, some journalistic
Speaker 3: merriage to just asking those questions, because, as we've talked about,
Speaker 3: sometimes nobody has asked the question, and then at some
Speaker 3: point you.
Speaker 2: Go, why hasn't that guy been on the field for
Speaker 2: the last week, and then you get the answer.
Speaker 3: So I appreciate that that is the thing that needs
Speaker 3: to be done, but yeah, what what else are most
Speaker 3: of these players are going to say, you run into
Speaker 3: the other interesting one, But most of them are going
Speaker 3: to tell you what a great offseason they've had and
Speaker 3: how they're in better shaft than last year, which mostly
Speaker 3: will not be true. So yeah, I think we do
Speaker 3: get too much of that. The Devil's thing is specifically
Speaker 3: is is a weird one. I'm sure it doesn't help
Speaker 3: that it's Boston and they probably are trying to make
Speaker 3: a story out of it. It also felt a bit like,
Speaker 3: you know, they should have the team should have funneled
Speaker 3: that better. They should have known that question was coming,
Speaker 3: and they should have made sure he had had their
Speaker 3: answer ready Like Devons. We should would have known he'd
Speaker 3: get asked that, and somebody should have had a conversation
Speaker 3: with him and said this is this is what we're
Speaker 3: going to say, you know, and then they wouldn't have
Speaker 3: really had to make a story out of it.
Speaker 2: But clearly that didn't happen.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think probably a bit on both sides
Speaker 3: and somebody to be fair, it's, yeah, the big biggest
Speaker 3: story of spring training so far, right probably even if
Speaker 3: it's not a story, it's probably the most interesting news
Speaker 3: item that's happened so far.
Speaker 1: Given the fact that we now think that because he
Speaker 1: does have a slight injury, he might start the season
Speaker 1: as DH, it seems a complete non story in.
Speaker 4: That regard where he should have been anyway.
Speaker 3: We'll get we'll get like five five games of bragman
Speaker 3: at said base and everybody won't want anything to change.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we'll see, all right, Rob, give us a
Speaker 1: trifector of bad then, as we've just done, Darius and
Speaker 1: I have given one.
Speaker 4: Okay, I'm gonna stick with the media. I'm gonna stick
Speaker 4: with the media. And it's about commentary teams, and specifically
Speaker 4: it's about commentary teams saying, ah, it's spring training for
Speaker 4: X two. So every time somebody ballses something up. So
Speaker 4: maybe maybe an umpire makes a bad call, or bull
Speaker 4: boy drops a drops a ball, or you know there's
Speaker 4: somebody misses a catch in the outfield, or perhaps the
Speaker 4: cameraman's looking the wrong way. Ah, it's spring training for
Speaker 4: them too. We've heard that, get another trope. It's boring,
Speaker 4: it's done, it's it's old school now everyone, Yes, it's
Speaker 4: spring training for them too. We've heard all thirty teams
Speaker 4: commentators say about every single thing that goes wrong in
Speaker 4: spring training. How we've heard it for the last twenty
Speaker 4: plus years, probably certainly as long as I've been watching baseball.
Speaker 4: So yeah, let's find something different to say. And if
Speaker 4: you haven't got anything to say, just shut up, let it,
Speaker 4: let it play. It's fine talk about prospects, don't talk
Speaker 4: about oh, spring training for him too? Yeah, boring heard
Speaker 4: it now.
Speaker 1: I would say that I am not too aware of
Speaker 1: this because I think the total amount of innings that
Speaker 1: I've watched live is one so far this season, and
Speaker 1: probably gets was the good one. Yeah, not really, just
Speaker 1: turned out. I just wanted to. I just wanted to
Speaker 1: have a look at rookies as Archi pitch. But like,
Speaker 1: that's that, honestly, that's yeah, exactly, Like I've only watched
Speaker 1: one inning of baseball. I've watched loads of clips, I've
Speaker 1: looked the loads of data, but I do not watch
Speaker 1: the games live because in most regards, I couldn't care
Speaker 1: less Dari's nice background. Do you think do you think
Speaker 1: this rob is is right with the telling people that
Speaker 1: they can't use the same joke, the same almost dad
Speaker 1: joke that has been used for for thirty years.
Speaker 3: I think it's probably a function of it being concentrated
Speaker 3: in a short period. I think if you are a
Speaker 3: person who listens to all one hundred and sixty two
Speaker 3: regular season games, for example, you might notice certain things
Speaker 3: to reemerge. You know, you get, you get the odd Gem,
Speaker 3: you get the Jason Brennett's, you get the Jay Davis's,
Speaker 3: who are you know, engaging and interesting and they bring
Speaker 3: lots of new content. But I bet a lot of
Speaker 3: those guys sort of roll out the same things quite
Speaker 3: a few times over the course of the season. But
Speaker 3: spring training is a very focal point, and yeah, there's
Speaker 3: probably not a lot to say, especially when he gets
Speaker 3: the sixth inning and everybody on the field is guys
Speaker 3: who's going to go down to the day or two,
Speaker 3: and yeah, so they're just I think that is probably
Speaker 3: a moment where I would expect them to just not
Speaker 3: talk about baseball, which is.
Speaker 2: Another common feature of baseball commentary.
Speaker 3: Frequently, you know, if a game has gone dull, you
Speaker 3: will find them veering into completely different territory altogether, like
Speaker 3: Andre Axis here. So yeah, I don't really mind that much.
Speaker 3: I'm not paying a huge amount of attention to.
Speaker 2: Spring training commentary, so it's fine.
Speaker 1: So Darius, give us something that you do enjoy about
Speaker 1: portraying them.
Speaker 2: I like new pictures.
Speaker 3: I like you know, the stuff about players redesigning their arsenal.
Speaker 3: This is of reporting. I am interested. Sometimes it works,
Speaker 3: sometimes it doesn't, but I just like that, you know,
Speaker 3: people are trying things out. The kick change is the
Speaker 3: new sweeper. That's the new pitch this year, which I
Speaker 3: understand it sort of a change up, but you give
Speaker 3: it a little extra flick off one of your fingers
Speaker 3: as you release it to sort of change the spin axis.
Speaker 3: Clay Homes is throwing this amongst other people as part
Speaker 3: of his transition to starting, So yeah, I just kind
Speaker 3: of like that that innovation. I like hearing about the
Speaker 3: sort of pitch design part of it, and you know,
Speaker 3: quite often it does give us a bit of an
Speaker 3: insight into the season. You know, this is sort of
Speaker 3: the foundation for a few of these pictures having a
Speaker 3: bit of a breakout year.
Speaker 2: So yeah, just.
Speaker 3: Kind of enjoyed that that thing. And there's sort of
Speaker 3: time for that as well. You know, one of those
Speaker 3: things that in the grind of the one sixty two
Speaker 3: I think can get a bit lost and you'll read
Speaker 3: a story maybe after the.
Speaker 2: Season, how was this guy so good? Oh, it's because
Speaker 2: he did this.
Speaker 3: But we've got a bit more time to fa because
Speaker 3: some of that stuff in the spring, So I think
Speaker 3: it's a good time for it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's a great chance. I think you
Speaker 1: get some people who are either free agents or minor
Speaker 1: league players trying to make a difference, and you'll hear
Speaker 1: in the off season that they've gone to drive line
Speaker 1: or they've done something else to try and add a
Speaker 1: new pitch. But when you see veteran major leaguers or
Speaker 1: even kind of people, you were just like, oh, you're
Speaker 1: you're inventing a new pitch. Like they have to stay
Speaker 1: on top of like what's going what's going on? And
Speaker 1: it's really interesting to see how many people are trying
Speaker 1: to get to that, like you Darvish Seth Lugo's sort
Speaker 1: of territory where it's like, here's like eight pitches which
Speaker 1: I know I can maybe throw on a day, and
Speaker 1: there's three of them are working, then I'm solid, Like
Speaker 1: I see more people like shifting towards this mentality of
Speaker 1: try and throw everything and see what sticks.
Speaker 4: I think kick change sounds like a dance move.
Speaker 2: It does bit, Yeah, what would that be do you think, Well.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be It's gonna be a kind of a
Speaker 4: high kick with one or like a medium kick with
Speaker 4: one leg and then sort of a little shuffle onto
Speaker 4: the other leg, not really my wheelhouse is honest.
Speaker 1: I was thinking it was more gonna be something like
Speaker 1: it's like a change of temper or whatever. So it's
Speaker 1: like you're going at like a certain speed and then
Speaker 1: there's like a bad bam and then it's like and
Speaker 1: now we're change.
Speaker 4: So oh I like it. I see that. It's like
Speaker 4: a key change but with tempo. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: I get that. I get that you alviously the stool
Speaker 4: stand up off of but yeah change yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 4: I'm going to bring the kick change to the dance
Speaker 4: floors of South Coast over the over the coming weeks, you'll.
Speaker 2: See makes a TikTok with it, Rob and it will
Speaker 2: go viral.
Speaker 4: Nothing sadder than a forty year old fatman dancing in
Speaker 4: his kitchen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well.
Speaker 4: Do it not in your kitchen and they might go
Speaker 4: like that we're all agreement for something.
Speaker 1: I think I'll jump onto to what Darius has said
Speaker 1: that like it's one of the things I look at
Speaker 1: as well. I also love to just see, like I
Speaker 1: look at exit velocity stats. This is the real nerdum
Speaker 1: of me to be like, oh, you hit something very hard,
Speaker 1: like you didn't hit anything hard like that last year
Speaker 1: it has something changed, and then I have a good
Speaker 1: ten to fifteen minutes of going to be like, okay, now,
Speaker 1: and I need to see who you hit that off,
Speaker 1: because it's like, did you actually like take someone deep
Speaker 1: at one hundred and five miles an hour? But it
Speaker 1: was like an eighty four mile an hour fastball down
Speaker 1: the middle by someone from double A, which you know what,
Speaker 1: quite a lot of the Major leaguers can actually punish
Speaker 1: a really average pitch. Did you get it off someone good?
Speaker 1: Did you get off that? And so I like to
Speaker 1: go through these little tangents of kind of what actually
Speaker 1: was the reason behind something good happening? And so I
Speaker 1: find spring training can be great for that, Like I'm
Speaker 1: not going to step on something that I know Daris
Speaker 1: is going to talk about later about trusting outcomes too much,
Speaker 1: but like I really start to kind of I see
Speaker 1: one outcome I like, and then I have my my
Speaker 1: investigatorial cap comes on and I'm like, should I care
Speaker 1: about this? The answer is ninety five percent of the
Speaker 1: time no, But I do love the fun that kind
Speaker 1: of comes with like new statistics. Let me have a
Speaker 1: play with Baseball sav Rob take us away from this
Speaker 1: stats nerdum and hitching design.
Speaker 4: I was gonna stay with stats, nerd them. I was
Speaker 4: gonna stay there.
Speaker 1: Hummed, hummed, World.
Speaker 4: Join us, I don't trap WRC plus yeah did yeah?
Speaker 1: Did?
Speaker 4: I love that bit in spring training where you have
Speaker 4: that ridiculously unnecessary optimism in a grizzled veteran or a
Speaker 4: prospect who realistically has absolutely no chance of carrying on
Speaker 4: the kind of stats that they're showing in spring. But
Speaker 4: I been like, so I did a little little bit
Speaker 4: of a leader board and look at the leaderboards again.
Speaker 4: This was yesterday for four spring training so far, and
Speaker 4: right at the top, w's got Elie Dela Cruz. Fine,
Speaker 4: absolutely fantastic. Expect that. Next up you're Curtis Mead. Wait,
Speaker 4: there's a Ray fantastic looking forward to him. I mean,
Speaker 4: he's been great in spring training in the mind leagues
Speaker 4: for a long time, so you know they can't hang
Speaker 4: on too much after that. Victor Scott the second that
Speaker 4: is our the best hitter right now in the in
Speaker 4: the spring training. Victors got the setting at second, a
Speaker 4: man who had I believe a negative w BLUs for
Speaker 4: the season last year. He's right up there. Then Jacob Huckabees.
Speaker 4: Who the is Jacob Huckabees, I don't know, but he's great.
Speaker 4: So yeah, and and then you just go to they'vet
Speaker 4: Lawrence Butler, fine, Vinnie Capra also horrific hitter, horrific hitter
Speaker 4: last year, and Joge Slaire right up there. So like
Speaker 4: you've got everything there, You've got you got like new guys,
Speaker 4: You've got guys who should love to go quit. You've
Speaker 4: got everything. And and there's a little bit of hope
Speaker 4: that we've picked up Elloy him Andez, you know what,
Speaker 4: maybe he's gonna it around, He's gonna be an All star,
Speaker 4: Like it could happen. So there's that optimism in spring
Speaker 4: training of these guys who who they don't really stand
Speaker 4: a chance, but right now they are top of their game,
Speaker 4: and you think, you know what, it could maybe just
Speaker 4: like that that scratch card is gonna give me that
Speaker 4: million is the chance it's gonna happen. And it's right
Speaker 4: now that you're like, it's it's happening, it's happening, it's
Speaker 4: gonna happen. We're gonna have this and it won't happen,
Speaker 4: but that that moment of utiful optimism I love it
Speaker 4: and it's fantastic. I could not be more on the
Speaker 4: eloy him Andez train.
Speaker 1: So I think as an individual being potentially optimistic about
Speaker 1: someone is fine. I think I'm gonna lead Darius into
Speaker 1: his objectionable. Thing is that people who then turn it.
Speaker 5: Into like this person's going to be amazing, look at
Speaker 5: the spring training stats like they're going to be amazing,
Speaker 5: because guess what, at the start of spring training, the
Speaker 5: bad pictures pitch, and towards the end of spring training
Speaker 5: the better pictures pitch like half the best pictures didn't
Speaker 5: even start pitching until.
Speaker 1: Games like the other this week. So, like Darius tell
Speaker 1: us about small sample sizes and why people really should
Speaker 1: just ignore absolutely everything and spring training, sure, I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't mind when when it's like Rob is obviously
Speaker 3: aware that most of these things are not going to happen.
Speaker 3: But I think far too often, and not just in
Speaker 3: spring training, it happens in the regular season too. But
Speaker 3: spring training is the first action we get, and so
Speaker 3: it gets magnified that we do get this insane amount
Speaker 3: of weight put into something that many many studies have
Speaker 3: shown basically do not matter.
Speaker 2: Like the most important thing about.
Speaker 3: Spring trainings that you make it through healthy and get
Speaker 3: to the regular season. The rest of it is almost
Speaker 3: all noise. So yeah, it does get a little bit
Speaker 3: wearing when people are putting a lot of weight into
Speaker 3: a lot of performances, most of which came against quite
Speaker 3: low caliber competition, and most of these players, you know,
Speaker 3: major League westvals really hard. The list of people like
Speaker 3: Curt Speed, who you know, remains to be seeing how
Speaker 3: Curst Smeed's career goes, but there's a long list of
Speaker 3: people that have come before him who absolutely mashed in
Speaker 3: the minor leagues and just could never do it in
Speaker 3: the majors. Couldn't even get close because it's a lot harder.
Speaker 3: And so once those players start facing the good pitching,
Speaker 3: then they will be in trouble. Once the pitchers start
Speaker 3: facing the good ears, then they will be in trouble.
Speaker 3: And also baseball is just super random. You know, we
Speaker 3: could do spring training three times as long and it
Speaker 3: still wouldn't tell us that much about these players. Definitely
Speaker 3: don't do that. By the way, we don't want more
Speaker 3: spring training. So yeah, this is not something that I
Speaker 3: get annoyed about, like exclusively in baseball at work, all
Speaker 3: the time, I'm annoyed about people who don't understand what
Speaker 3: the small sumper sizes are.
Speaker 2: But this is a sort of extreme version of the problem.
Speaker 3: Vinie Capra probably not on twenty eight year old Vine Cabra, No,
Speaker 3: I think that ship might have sailed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, don't get me started on small sample sizes. That's
Speaker 1: that's basically like my work life for probably the last
Speaker 1: fifteen years. People are trying to make conclusions on some
Speaker 1: wall sample sizes. I think the I think that will
Speaker 1: we give me is that there's quite a lot of
Speaker 1: the time people do read more into it that I
Speaker 1: think should like they should be more knowledgeable to be
Speaker 1: like this doesn't matter. It's like when a like like
Speaker 1: a player or a veteran, it's like, oh, yeah, I
Speaker 1: had a great spring training and you're like, yeah, mean
Speaker 1: you know that makes no difference. Like you probably know
Speaker 1: from times before in any point in your career that
Speaker 1: like you can have a good fifty games and then
Speaker 1: have a terrible fifty games and then have a good
Speaker 1: fifty games and there probably wasn't any connection between what's happened,
Speaker 1: Like you just have to kind of take that rough
Speaker 1: with the smooth and then again where you have like
Speaker 1: some people some some some media some kind of like odcast,
Speaker 1: see what you're just like, come on, guys, you know
Speaker 1: that this isn't any I don't want to kind of
Speaker 1: like yung someone's yum or whatever. We don't want to
Speaker 1: say that like this is like you shouldn't you shouldn't
Speaker 1: be happy, but like you go there, please please just
Speaker 1: understand that, like there isn't actually like anything behind this,
Speaker 1: like anything behind this. Like also this gets us into
Speaker 1: them the regular season, where like I'm going to predict
Speaker 1: right now that like the first time that the Dodgers lose,
Speaker 1: if they lose the first game or if they lose
Speaker 1: like the first couple of games, everybody is going to
Speaker 1: be like, ha, the Dodger's got it wrong. And it's
Speaker 1: like half of that is going to be a joke,
Speaker 1: and half of it isn't going to be a joke
Speaker 1: because there are going to be the people that believe
Speaker 1: that like two games in baseball makes the difference.
Speaker 3: But last year's do anybody want to guess I've got
Speaker 3: the top three hitters from spring training last year? Does
Speaker 3: anyone want to guess guess a hitter before I read
Speaker 3: them out?
Speaker 4: Or will takes a good room, not Niko good room.
Speaker 2: Number three. Mitch haniger obviously, Mariners. Did Mitch Chanigher have
Speaker 2: a good season? It did not.
Speaker 3: Pretty pretty mare for pretty bad for Mitch Hanigher. He
Speaker 3: was WSC plus of eighty five in the regular season
Speaker 3: last year, so actually quite bad. Second place. Mauricio Dubon
Speaker 3: Bond was a little bit better. He had a WSC
Speaker 3: plus of eighty seven in the regular season.
Speaker 2: In first place.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be a good one, gonna be a good one.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be a great one. Kansas City Royals Nick Pratto,
Speaker 3: first baseman, Nick Pratto. Do you want to guess how
Speaker 3: many plate appearances Nick Pratto got for the Royals last season?
Speaker 1: Twelve?
Speaker 2: It was it was one?
Speaker 3: No, no, it wasn't it was it was zero. He
Speaker 3: got into a game, didn't actually give him a plate appearance.
Speaker 1: Idout saying so and he got called up.
Speaker 4: So yeah, So he has never gave him a chance
Speaker 4: to shine on the big stage.
Speaker 2: Didn't give him a chance.
Speaker 3: He did have a ninety one w r C plus
Speaker 3: a triple A, so yeah, maybe for wr plus in
Speaker 3: the majors he had.
Speaker 2: A negative one hundred.
Speaker 4: Actually, how did he manage that when he didn't have
Speaker 4: a plate appearance.
Speaker 3: Maybe it was just he had a sack fly. Do
Speaker 3: you think he had a sack flying and that one
Speaker 3: appearance and.
Speaker 1: That always asked, We're gonna have to find out, now,
Speaker 1: how else can you achieve that as there?
Speaker 4: Oh? Maybe maybe he hit but he got caught out
Speaker 4: trying to stretch it to a double.
Speaker 2: A play appearance.
Speaker 4: That's right, Yeah, we plate parents, wouldn't.
Speaker 2: It He doesn't have a back.
Speaker 4: Did he hit the picture with the pitch? Did he
Speaker 4: caption and throw it back?
Speaker 1: I wondered Darius walking a picture. Maybe it basically just
Speaker 1: categorizes it as like if it doesn't, let you have
Speaker 1: it as blank and just negative one hundred is effectively
Speaker 1: just like what ith and he doesn't have a gaglog. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it'll just be a no value replacement to go the
Speaker 1: data terms.
Speaker 4: But yeah, you are such stats fun you boys, Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: That's fun. This is the best thing about.
Speaker 1: So I'll tell you something that I love about spring training.
Speaker 1: We get to see major league players have to deal
Speaker 1: with new rules that they've never used their entire life.
Speaker 1: And I think this is generally one of the funniest
Speaker 1: things that exists in baseball because you've got major league
Speaker 1: players who've been like, I've played this game for twenty
Speaker 1: years and now I have to deal with Rob Manfred's
Speaker 1: new bullshit he's going to put into the league. And
Speaker 1: you get people like Mike shows that being like, I
Speaker 1: don't know why we have this balls and strike check,
Speaker 1: like that just all be done by umpires. I think
Speaker 1: humans should do it all. When he basically tried to
Speaker 1: check two things and got them both wrong, it's like
Speaker 1: it's just like or you have things where like Trey
Speaker 1: Turner took one down the middle and then just use
Speaker 1: the check to basically waste twenty seconds and try and
Speaker 1: play around with the picture, Like I'm gonna love to
Speaker 1: see if somebody does that. At some point we challenges
Speaker 1: a pitch to basically get like if they've used their
Speaker 1: like batter time out and decides to challenge a pitch
Speaker 1: that's like straight down the middle so they get another
Speaker 1: twenty seconds. Like there are so many things to play
Speaker 1: with this, and there's so many things that kind of
Speaker 1: hopefully that will come out of this, will see how
Speaker 1: things can be used one way or the other. But
Speaker 1: I also then just see love seeing Terry Francona saying,
Speaker 1: all of my major league players are not going to
Speaker 1: are not allowed to challenge because it's not in the
Speaker 1: season this year, So I don't want you learning anything
Speaker 1: about it or using it or not using it. So
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, like it might be happening like the
Speaker 1: year afterwards, Terry. You know, you can plan a little
Speaker 1: like an advance to get someone's ideas. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: love major league players having to basically deal with new
Speaker 1: rules and throwing the toys out of the around the
Speaker 1: same way that like most people do it work when
Speaker 1: they get changed.
Speaker 4: Very good. Yeah, I mean, are we going to see
Speaker 4: are we gonna We're gonna see some weird ones, aren't we?
Speaker 4: You know, somebody who doesn't want to be walked, like
Speaker 4: I didn't hit me, didn't hit me? Review it review
Speaker 4: that's not reviewable, is it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's almost gonna be some weird I think when there's.
Speaker 4: Eventually they don't want to walk because they reckon they
Speaker 4: can hit home run and then they're gonna get in
Speaker 4: trouble for you know, for not taking the walk. You know,
Speaker 4: there's there's gonna be someone with the ego.
Speaker 1: Well, it's it's the point of like you're waiting for,
Speaker 1: like a the whole thing that I'm waiting for is
Speaker 1: the game that gets decided on an overturned decision where
Speaker 1: you get like a full count walk and it's challenged
Speaker 1: and it actually was it was strike and it's a
Speaker 1: strikeout and it ends the game. Like, I genuinely think
Speaker 1: that this system adds drama to the game because I
Speaker 1: I like tennis. I watched a lot tennis, and I
Speaker 1: think the way that the deciding of the decisions and
Speaker 1: seeing it shown and the crowd going oo or one
Speaker 1: way or the other or ooh, I think this genuinely
Speaker 1: does add at drama to the game in a way
Speaker 1: that the other of you sucks the life out of
Speaker 1: games because it takes like two minutes for them to
Speaker 1: go have a discussion with New York about what actually happened.
Speaker 1: But no, I think there's plenty of fun and shenanigans
Speaker 1: that are gonna gonna happen because of this. We've talked
Speaker 1: a fair bit about spring training, Rob Darius. Do you
Speaker 1: have anything left that you want to go quick fire
Speaker 1: on things that we have left anything left for you, Rob?
Speaker 4: Okay, Yeah, things I like just quick by then people
Speaker 4: stop talking about football, which I am very very glad about,
Speaker 4: because just just because I like an American sport does
Speaker 4: not I mean I like all the American sports. So
Speaker 4: if I'm following you on social media because I like
Speaker 4: what you say about baseball does not necessarily media I
Speaker 4: want to hear what you have to say about American
Speaker 4: football because I don't care. So I'm happy about that
Speaker 4: one going. I like the fact that I'm not quite
Speaker 4: so bored of the adverts yet, although already the rotation
Speaker 4: of Judge of Tani, Bets, Alonso and Schurio in there,
Speaker 4: aren't they amazing things that you guys haven't watched enough
Speaker 4: to know. They're all constant repeat. They have thirty teams
Speaker 4: where they could do a little profile of a player
Speaker 4: of oh he's wonderful, he's amazing, but they picked like
Speaker 4: six and two of them for them the Dodgers, So
Speaker 4: that's starting to get But this was a positive. I've
Speaker 4: my positives, and the other two negatives I had is
Speaker 4: you don't actually hear much about training. It's called spring training,
Speaker 4: but like, what training do they do? And why am
Speaker 4: I not hearing about this? I want to hear a
Speaker 4: bit more, like you'll hear like a sound bite from
Speaker 4: each team like, oh, we put large trenches in the
Speaker 4: infield so that we'd encourage our players to hit a
Speaker 4: bit higher. Okay, right, that's one thing. Great, Like what
Speaker 4: else is training actually happens? No? No, like I want
Speaker 4: to see the training bit. Give me a bit more
Speaker 4: about that, Like there's nothing the game of the boring.
Speaker 4: Let's see more about the training. And lastly, I don't
Speaker 4: enjoy the constantly vibrating shit camera angles from the center
Speaker 4: field camera because they make me feel sick and I've
Speaker 4: gone a horrible dealing. Steinbrenner Field is going to give
Speaker 4: me fits the entire damn season.
Speaker 1: Is that because they have like a less permanent facility,
Speaker 1: or they have like the wind is basically.
Speaker 4: There's no stand so the wind is blowing through the
Speaker 4: cameras and they're usually on scaffolding because there's not always
Speaker 4: a camera there during the regular season, and so every
Speaker 4: time we walk past it, the whole things like that,
Speaker 4: And yeah, so it constant vibrating camera like from over
Speaker 4: here the Blue Jays one's an awful angle in particular,
Speaker 4: but yeah, I just yeah, the camera was really annoying me.
Speaker 1: All right, Darius, your quick fires that we've got left.
Speaker 3: Well, one other thing I liked follows them from yours, really, Russ,
Speaker 3: was the just pit players taking things a bit less seriously.
Speaker 3: Especially with the abs, we have seen some quite funny
Speaker 3: challenge moments. People just sort of like, yeah, why not,
Speaker 3: you know it's out there, I'm going to give it
Speaker 3: a try. I know that sometimes they obviously know that
Speaker 3: it wasn't even wrong, but they're like, well, why not
Speaker 3: just going to go out here and test the system,
Speaker 3: make sure it works. So I quite like that people
Speaker 3: just a bit looser, having a bit more fun.
Speaker 2: That's good.
Speaker 3: My other negative was when teams claim that no one
Speaker 3: believes in them, and it's never like the White Socks
Speaker 3: say that nobody believes in them. It'll be like a
Speaker 3: team that's projected for eighty three wins or something, and
Speaker 3: it's like, no, you're fine, Like nobody's saying you're going
Speaker 3: to finish in last place. We have twelve teams in
Speaker 3: the playoffs. Now, it's quite likely that you could get
Speaker 3: into the playoffs. Nobody's out here saying no, you're there's
Speaker 3: zero percent yards it's not going to happen. But it's
Speaker 3: always those teams that are like in that middle maybe
Speaker 3: slightly above middle ground. No one believes in us, we're
Speaker 3: going to the World Series, Like nobody has said that.
Speaker 3: Stop giving us this straw man. I know, maybe you're
Speaker 3: trying to syke up your clubhouse or whatever, but it's
Speaker 3: like you're just you're a fine baseball team. So you
Speaker 3: do you, but you don't need to tell me about it.
Speaker 1: Russ, What did you have?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I had like the somehow like the mantras or that
Speaker 1: seem to come out it's still back on like the
Speaker 1: cliches or whatever, the the one that was on the
Speaker 1: Washington Nationals like training facility a couple of years back,
Speaker 1: of like no one cares how fast you throw ball
Speaker 1: four and it's like, well, actually kind of statistically they do,
Speaker 1: and you should like that's just completely enoughly like wrong
Speaker 1: from like the current understandings.
Speaker 4: You have a fantastic sign of you saying that underneath
Speaker 4: that saying like, well, actually, chat.
Speaker 3: The Nationals have lost the most games in the Major
Speaker 3: since they won the World Series, So is there a
Speaker 3: relationship between those two things?
Speaker 2: You decide?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think I will jump on what
Speaker 1: Darius said about the team's kind of are like taking
Speaker 1: like being defensive, when almost like they don't need to
Speaker 1: be like they're taking a position of like they're they're
Speaker 1: kind of like we need to we need to prove
Speaker 1: everybody wrong whatever. And I'm like, well you kind of don't.
Speaker 1: You just also need to just sort of just spend money,
Speaker 1: and then we wouldn't have been in this position to
Speaker 1: think that you're not going to maybe do that good.
Speaker 1: It still just comes down to cliches for me, like
Speaker 1: hearing about sleeping giants or hearing about the team that's
Speaker 1: like we just got to run it back. I understand that,
Speaker 1: like there is certain things that players and managers and
Speaker 1: coaches will say because they don't want to actually say
Speaker 1: what they think because that would get them in trouble
Speaker 1: or that word that would maybe not be Actually it's
Speaker 1: but the sound bite that you just get again and
Speaker 1: again and again. I just get so so bored. And
Speaker 1: because we get it, we get these interviews for these
Speaker 1: types of interews, we get them for a whole month
Speaker 1: or a month and a half that you will hear
Speaker 1: the same thing from five players on the same team
Speaker 1: and it will be news every time. And I'm like
Speaker 1: I'm really like not bothered whether the things I don't like,
Speaker 1: people should be caring about the Old Baseball Classic right now,
Speaker 1: not spring training like yes, and absolutely like ridiculous tournament
Speaker 1: qualifier in Taiwan and that's another semi ridiculous game hopefully
Speaker 1: tomorrow in or not tomorrow, the day afterwards in in Tusla,
Speaker 1: Arizona between Brazil and Germany to sermon who will be
Speaker 1: the last team to qualify? And with Son, Yeah, with
Speaker 1: Andrea Agacy Son to bring it back full circle, to
Speaker 1: do the the stuff. And I'm just like, it's like
Speaker 1: these this is where like people's attention should be like this,
Speaker 1: this actually matters, Like none of the spring training stuff matters.
Speaker 1: And I I think that's kind of to where I'll
Speaker 1: be at. And I think the final one is that
Speaker 1: we will look at players that we haven't seen before,
Speaker 1: and people make snap judgments and it comes down to
Speaker 1: the small sample size. But like every Japanese player that
Speaker 1: comes over is either a phenomenon or they're not as
Speaker 1: good as a high schooler.
Speaker 2: It's one of their Toney's never gonna work, can't do
Speaker 2: fire thing.
Speaker 1: Like his batting is good as a high schooler. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Whichever MLB executive that said that, you have
Speaker 1: potentially said probably one of the most wrong statements like
Speaker 1: ever in this sport, if not ever, like you couldn't
Speaker 1: have been proved more wrong in such a short time period.
Speaker 1: But now you're basically being proved more and more and
Speaker 1: more wrong. And I think that we we end up
Speaker 1: with just like because we because either people know and
Speaker 1: understand that this information isn't good, so you just get
Speaker 1: superlatives on one side or the other. And that wasn't
Speaker 1: really quick, but there we go. This is me I'm talking.
Speaker 1: I always do so.
Speaker 2: Fire.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have with Russell were.
Speaker 2: More very specific thing. If I hear one more.
Speaker 3: Person say that the athletics or a sleeper team for playoffs,
Speaker 3: get a different sleeper team, everybody like, there's a lot
Speaker 3: of other ones to pick from. Oh, I know they've
Speaker 3: not been very good and they might be a bit better,
Speaker 3: but I've had enough of that.
Speaker 2: Now we can we can move on.
Speaker 1: Thank you for that, Darius. I do need to realize
Speaker 1: that I do need to jump on the ben Limberg
Speaker 1: wan Bagan wan Bagan band wagon bandwagon and say that
Speaker 1: anybody who's just like, oh, this is like the underrated
Speaker 1: player for next season or the player who's going to
Speaker 1: have the breakout, who's already had an effing breakout, Like, jeez,
Speaker 1: the weeds they I don't. I've shot on journalists a
Speaker 1: couple of times already this podcast. But like it's a
Speaker 1: little bit of like, actually do this, Like choose somebody
Speaker 1: who's not had eighty games, have been phenomenal already, Like
Speaker 1: what are we.
Speaker 4: Doing Cara Man this year?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like it is if you're going to say
Speaker 1: James Wood is a breakout, if you're going to say
Speaker 1: that Adley Rutchman is a breakout because he didn't have
Speaker 1: a great season or whatever, or Julio Rodriguez is a breakout, piss.
Speaker 3: Off Jordan Walker. Though Jordan Walker could be a breakout
Speaker 3: as long as he doesn't step on any more sprinklers.
Speaker 1: Well he's already broken something, Darius. But it's not any
Speaker 1: records is bad? All right? All right, Darius Rob thank
Speaker 1: you very much for your time today. This is a
Speaker 1: thoroughly enjoyable podcast and hopefully well you listeners can send
Speaker 1: us your opinions on spring training, be them good or bad.
Speaker 1: As always, you can find more of us on batlists,
Speaker 1: underscore nerds on Twitter, slash X backflips and nerds on
Speaker 1: most other socials, and our YouTube account. Please do look
Speaker 1: out for on the website the season preview series which
Speaker 1: has started now I think ash is One for the
Speaker 1: Giants has gone out, so please do start reading those
Speaker 1: and if you want to contribute, please look at the
Speaker 1: links that are provided on our site to get involved.
Speaker 1: There will be a piece for me about Cleveland. At
Speaker 1: some point Gav gave the suggestion of five reasons to
Speaker 1: be optimistic. He will get five reasons to be pessimistic.
Speaker 1: But yes, thanks as always gents, and look forward to
Speaker 1: chatting you soon and thank you for listening.