Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Battleps and Nerds, the baseball podcast
Speaker 1: with a British twist. I am your host once again,
Speaker 1: Russell easam, and I am delighted to be joined once
Speaker 1: again by Ben.
Speaker 2: How are you doing, Ben?
Speaker 3: I'm good, Russell. He sounded a bit resigned there once
Speaker 3: again by Ben Well.
Speaker 1: I was trying to go with the rhyming thing to
Speaker 1: kind of like get it go, but I think it
Speaker 1: didn't quite give it. Maybe the gravitas that you were
Speaker 1: you were deserving. Otherwise the passion, the way that works
Speaker 1: the one who if I then speak to our other
Speaker 1: man who is one of us, Darius, that really didn't
Speaker 1: work either, Darius, how are you doing?
Speaker 4: I'm good. Tottenham have won a trophy. All is right
Speaker 4: with the world object terrible game of football were fitting
Speaker 4: the two sides playing, but we'll take it.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I'm good, Thank you.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Obviously from most Tottenham fans perspective, as a person who
Speaker 1: lives right next to Arsenal's stadium, it's quite amusing to
Speaker 1: hear them spend a year talking about how they're one
Speaker 1: of the best teams in European football, and then Tottenham
Speaker 1: winning trophy and they don't in European football, so that's hilarious.
Speaker 2: There has been a few.
Speaker 1: Talking points in baseball which will quickly cover before we
Speaker 1: get through what our main aspect today. Today we're going
Speaker 1: to walking through what we called the Surprising Nine. We're
Speaker 1: going through the positions that we're each going to come
Speaker 1: up with somebody who we think has prized us with
Speaker 1: their performances so far this year, and to make that
Speaker 1: good list of players that hopefully kind of like maybe
Speaker 1: some of them will continue, some of them won't. But
Speaker 1: we're just going to do a quick fire through of
Speaker 1: the things that have happened in baseball. Darius, the Orioles
Speaker 1: are bad. They got rid of their manager, who probably
Speaker 1: wasn't the reason why they were bad. Do we have
Speaker 1: any reason to think that they could be good?
Speaker 4: I mean, I think we have reason to believe that
Speaker 4: the lineup will come around. I don't think we have
Speaker 4: any reason to believe that the pitching is going to
Speaker 4: be good. Not really clear if and or when Grace
Speaker 4: and Rodriguez will come back, and the rest of it
Speaker 4: is running on fumes, so they're too far gone. I
Speaker 4: think now it don't think it particularly matters. I think
Speaker 4: their playoff odds are down into the two three percent range.
Speaker 4: I'm pretty sure it would be like one of, if
Speaker 4: not the most implausible comebacks in Major League history. Now,
Speaker 4: if they were to somehow turn this around and make
Speaker 4: the playoffs, they've really just dropped so far out of
Speaker 4: the race. So we'll see. I mean, strange things have
Speaker 4: happened in baseball, but I think sixteen and thirty two
Speaker 4: at this point in the season, that's that's a long
Speaker 4: way back in the alist.
Speaker 2: Talking about the Al East.
Speaker 1: Then we had Soto taking a return visit to the Yankees.
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on the booing and the turning
Speaker 1: around of the fans to Soto as he returned to
Speaker 1: the Bronx.
Speaker 3: Great fun. It was all part of the rivalry weekend,
Speaker 3: wasn't it, which had some quinde of odd rivalries sprinkled
Speaker 3: in there. But obviously Mets Yankees I like the idea
Speaker 3: of making that more of a rivalry because they don't
Speaker 3: tend to see each other very often. And yeah, we
Speaker 3: knew this was going to be fun with Sota coming
Speaker 3: back and the way that whole thing played out over
Speaker 3: the off season, and it seems like I mean, obviously
Speaker 3: Yankees fans were very upset with him because he signed
Speaker 3: with a different team, But it kind of seems like
Speaker 3: Mets fans are turning on him a little bit too,
Speaker 3: and not particularly happy with how he's performing, which I
Speaker 3: know we discussed with Nick a few weeks back as
Speaker 3: an overreaction because he has still been very good, and
Speaker 3: you know, we're like six weeks into a twelve year contract.
Speaker 3: Let's not get ahead of ourselves. But yeah, there does
Speaker 3: seem to be a little bit of animosity from all
Speaker 3: angles pointed towards so to at the moment, whether it
Speaker 3: be because he didn't choose the Yankees, whether it be
Speaker 3: a lack of effort, whether it be his defensive shortcomings.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that was a strange one to keep an
Speaker 3: eye on. But yeah, fun to see that rivalry get
Speaker 3: things going a little bit in May. It's not often
Speaker 3: you kind of see some of the atmospheres we saw
Speaker 3: over the weekend at this time of season. So from
Speaker 3: that front, I thought that was fun and exciting and
Speaker 3: hopefully the sign of more to come from a rivalry
Speaker 3: perspective across the sport.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Mets fans, some of the Mets fans and not
Speaker 1: all of the Mets fans didn't cover themselves in particular
Speaker 1: good vibes when Lindor first started and had like a
Speaker 1: bit of a struggle exactly, so isn't new Otherwise when
Speaker 1: we talk about the rivalry series, a lot of sweeps
Speaker 1: over the weekend, a lot of sweep supply teams. We
Speaker 1: were not expecting the Angels sweeping the Dodgers. I think
Speaker 1: probably was something that none of us had on the cards.
Speaker 1: But obviously the only other big news in baseball is
Speaker 1: Jose Alvarado has now got an aid game suspension. We
Speaker 1: hear the same thing of all I took a was
Speaker 1: it a wait reduction medicine?
Speaker 2: I didn't do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't expect this to happen. It's like go on,
Speaker 1: boys and girls, like you're paid a lot of money,
Speaker 1: Like you shouldn't be putting anything into your body that
Speaker 1: you don't know what it is.
Speaker 3: Payton listening to Rob's quiz a few weeks ago.
Speaker 2: Quiz, so he didn't put the things that were not edible.
Speaker 3: The confusion.
Speaker 4: But the something of an industry is extremely unregulated. But
Speaker 4: if I was in a profession whereby I was being
Speaker 4: regularly tested for drugs, I would basically make sure I
Speaker 4: checked it absolutely everything I put in my body to
Speaker 4: ensure that I was not going to fail a drugs tests.
Speaker 4: And the number of times this happens, it's like, woops,
Speaker 4: didn't realize that was in there. It's just, yeah, I'm
Speaker 4: not sure that that's really what's happening.
Speaker 1: And also given the fact that it's like obviously he's
Speaker 1: not like on a massive contract or whatever, but that's
Speaker 1: like two million, two million dollars he's thrown away basically
Speaker 1: for being suspended.
Speaker 4: So yeah, maybe he thought it would give him better control.
Speaker 4: I don't know. I'm not sure what Elvarado would need
Speaker 4: to do this for. But here we are.
Speaker 1: Okay, so that's our quick trip around what's actually happened
Speaker 1: in baseball. So now we're going to talk about the
Speaker 1: Surprising nine. So we're going to start off with a catcher.
Speaker 1: I haven't told Ben or Darius this, but I feel
Speaker 1: like it is the place to start. I will go first,
Speaker 1: given that I was the one who came up with
Speaker 1: this idea, and I'm going to highlight Will Smith. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's like this is not coming out of
Speaker 1: the blocks with like, oh my god, this is suddenly
Speaker 1: amazing that he's kind of like done this. But Will
Speaker 1: Smith is playing at the best level I think that
Speaker 1: we've seen him play. It's more back to the kind
Speaker 1: of like that twenty twenty one year that we all
Speaker 1: saw and was like, oh, like he's going to be
Speaker 1: like one of the best like hitting catchers in baseball
Speaker 1: and had they had a few years where he didn't
Speaker 1: quite meet that those highs. But I think what he's
Speaker 1: doing in that lineup is actually very important for the
Speaker 1: Dodgers right now because they don't have the same level
Speaker 1: of kind of depth in that lineup seem to have
Speaker 1: towards last year, and his contributions have been.
Speaker 2: Pretty strong.
Speaker 1: Darius and Ben, Where where does that fall on your
Speaker 1: scale of surprise?
Speaker 2: Is it? Is it a pretty mediocre one to start
Speaker 2: off with.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think it's a huge surprise because we've
Speaker 3: seen Will Smith be good for a while. But you
Speaker 3: are right, he's elevated his game this season and it's cool.
Speaker 3: It's almost like Michael Jordan I took that personally meme
Speaker 3: where the Dodgers, I feel like it's Dalton Rushing this season,
Speaker 3: who's the sort of top catching prospect that they've caught
Speaker 3: up and it's just completely elevated Will Smith's games another
Speaker 3: level now, and I feel like that's happened before, and
Speaker 3: forgetting who the Dodgers are, the sort of top catching
Speaker 3: prospect was a couple of years ago. But you know,
Speaker 3: Will Smith continues to be just so good that they
Speaker 3: cannot move him off that position or move him out
Speaker 3: of the lineup to fit these top guys in, even
Speaker 3: though you know he's not quite as herald a or
Speaker 3: wasn't certainly back as a prospect. But yeah, he's gone
Speaker 3: from like a good solid piece in that line up
Speaker 3: to maybe one of the best hitters on the team,
Speaker 3: which says a lot when you're as strong as as
Speaker 3: the Dodgers are. So I don't, yeah, I don't think
Speaker 3: it's a horrible shout. He's been really good. He's raised
Speaker 3: a level further than we thought he was going to
Speaker 3: this season. But you know, I knew who Will Smith
Speaker 3: was going into this year. I knew he was a
Speaker 3: good player, So from that perspective, it's not a huge
Speaker 3: surprise to see him have a very good six weeks
Speaker 3: to start the season.
Speaker 1: Darius, Where would this be on the percentile from Baseball prostectors.
Speaker 4: Pretty high up. I think probably in the eighty to
Speaker 4: ninety range, I would guess, without having looked, I'm not
Speaker 4: sure what Smith's protection was. He's always been a comfortably
Speaker 4: above average hitter, so it's not a shock that he
Speaker 4: is productive. But as you say, this is the most
Speaker 4: productive stretch of his career, even including I think twenty twenty,
Speaker 4: which obviously was not very many games. This is a
Speaker 4: new level for him. So yeah, we're towards the upper end.
Speaker 4: I tended to shy away from the guys with pedigree,
Speaker 4: the guys who have a track record of being great players,
Speaker 4: just because I am less surprised when they have hot
Speaker 4: stretches like this. If we gets to the end of
Speaker 4: the season and you know, he's still got a nine
Speaker 4: to fifty ops, then I'll probably be a bit more
Speaker 4: surprised than I am now. I guess this is this
Speaker 4: is like, you know, decent team ending up in the
Speaker 4: Champions League kind of level of surprise for me, I suppose,
Speaker 4: which we don't know who's in the Champions League this year,
Speaker 4: but that's that's where I'm at. I'm not shocked that
Speaker 4: he's going great, but it's better that's less less shocking
Speaker 4: than that, much less shocking than that.
Speaker 1: Okay, Darius, giving to that thought, who was who is
Speaker 1: your catcher that you've decided to highlight.
Speaker 4: I've gone for Ivon Herrera, which is a slightly weird
Speaker 4: one because he got hurt and missed a few weeks.
Speaker 4: But when he's been on the field, he has been
Speaker 4: absolutely mashing the Cards. Obviously cleared out the catcher spot
Speaker 4: by moving Contrarast to first base, and currently Ivan Herre
Speaker 4: is slashing four seventeen four eighty six, seven sixty seven.
Speaker 4: That's good for a two forty four ops plus. He's
Speaker 4: really mashing the ball as well. Well. He's one of
Speaker 4: the guys that if you go up to the top
Speaker 4: of the old stack cast leaderboard, he's right there. A
Speaker 4: few lower those thresholds, he's in eighteenth. He's barreling eleven
Speaker 4: point four percent in his plate appearances. Yeah, it just
Speaker 4: looks like a really, really good offensive catcher. So Cards
Speaker 4: seem to have made a good move clearing up that
Speaker 4: playing time for him. I'm sure this level of performance
Speaker 4: won't continue, but he genuinely seems like he's going to
Speaker 4: be a real offensive weapon for them going forward.
Speaker 2: Your thoughts on that.
Speaker 3: I will confess to having watched zero Ivan Herrera play
Speaker 3: appearances so far in twenty twenty five. But the stats
Speaker 3: speak for themselves. I mean, his numbers are very impressive,
Speaker 3: and as I Sari have said, the supporting metrics seem
Speaker 3: to show that he can hit the ball very, very hard,
Speaker 3: and if you can do that, you're going to generally
Speaker 3: be a pretty good hitter. The Cardinals have got a
Speaker 3: good track record of developing catchers, I'd say, And so, yeah,
Speaker 3: this is an exciting one. And well, as you can tell,
Speaker 3: not someone that I really had on my radar coming
Speaker 3: into this season. So I say, on the surprise, you know,
Speaker 3: scale pretty high up. Trying to think of an adequate comparison.
Speaker 3: Maybe Leinster getting knocked out of the Champions Cup by
Speaker 3: Northampton Saints. That's one for the rugby fans.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I would be surprised if this was
Speaker 1: one hundred and forty play play. It's worth of one
Speaker 1: hundred and forty plate appearance worth. We're not like the
Speaker 1: seventy to eighty that kind of like it actually is.
Speaker 1: He has missed some times, so those outlandish numbers kind
Speaker 1: of get. It's still lost in the fact that, like
Speaker 1: we know, like some people can just go hot, some
Speaker 1: people can just go like mental. For like it's effectively
Speaker 1: less than twenty games, it's still like remarkable, but because
Speaker 1: it's such like a small sample size, it's more like no, no,
Speaker 1: like they'll say even to take this season, like the
Speaker 1: Padres starting the season like eleven and o or whatever,
Speaker 1: twelve and o wherever they got to. So it's like
Speaker 1: it's something you could believe. It was still surprising that
Speaker 1: it actually happened, but kind of it then fizzled out
Speaker 1: and didn't kind of like continue on.
Speaker 2: With that, I mean.
Speaker 1: Obviously, especially like with what's kind of happened. I think
Speaker 1: I would say to Ben's point, I have seen I
Speaker 1: think three of his plate appearances. I think I any
Speaker 1: watched the card to play one game so far this season,
Speaker 1: So from a actually watching game perspective, I do not
Speaker 1: have much knowledge on him. Ben, round us off with
Speaker 1: the catchers. Who are you going for?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I threatened this before we started, but I've gone
Speaker 3: for Colorado Rocky here, And anytime you can get a
Speaker 3: player in on a team that's eight and forty one,
Speaker 3: you just have to do it. So I'm shouting out
Speaker 3: my guy Hunter Goodman, who has been one of the
Speaker 3: only bright spots in yeah, a black hole of darkness
Speaker 3: for the Rockies this season. Certainly not someone that anyone
Speaker 3: would have had on the railer coming into this year
Speaker 3: unless you were a really die hard Rockies fan, but
Speaker 3: he's been great. One hundred and fourteen WRC plus, one
Speaker 3: of the only good hitters in Colorado. I don't know
Speaker 3: if I see this continuing. His plaid spin is not great.
Speaker 3: He strikes out a lot, but he hits the ball hard.
Speaker 3: And like, if you're a catcher who hit who has
Speaker 3: power and is you know, okay behind the plate, which
Speaker 3: Goodman is, then you know that that probably plays. And
Speaker 3: so for the Rockies, that's, you know, something good to
Speaker 3: hang your hat on. I don't think he's going to
Speaker 3: be an All Star, don't think it's going to be,
Speaker 3: you know, in the running for any awards at the
Speaker 3: end of the season, but he's been good and I
Speaker 3: just wanted to give him a shout out. On the
Speaker 3: sort of surprise rankings, I compared this to the number
Speaker 3: five seeded Chinese Taipe pay pair of Cheng ea Ching
Speaker 3: and Lead Yu Jun falling to the unseeded career of
Speaker 3: public duo with Kim Nayong and Lie Yun Kai. Sorry
Speaker 3: for the pronunciation. In the twenty twenty five it t
Speaker 3: TF World Championships. This year undoubtedly a very big upset.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately no one cares deep.
Speaker 4: Cut that was. That was a real deep cut.
Speaker 3: But facing the Rockies, that's really exactly if a tree
Speaker 3: falls in the words, if Huntter Goodman has a breakout
Speaker 3: season for the twelve winning Colorado Rockies, does anyone?
Speaker 1: But it was like that I saw somebody hit like
Speaker 1: a their first home run at the Rocky Stadium, and
Speaker 1: like the fan gave the ball back and he was
Speaker 1: like and got he got a back given to and
Speaker 1: he's like, oh, this is great. I've only just been
Speaker 1: getting into baseball like this year, and it's like and
Speaker 1: he's going to Rockies games. You're like, like, all right,
Speaker 1: we will move on to first base this time. And
Speaker 1: I think I'll go first again and have to kind
Speaker 1: of maybe get a bit of a mayor culpa, because
Speaker 1: there was definitely a few times in towards the end
Speaker 1: of last season and before the start of this season
Speaker 1: that I've called someone Paul old Schmidt and I'm kind
Speaker 1: of being made to eat my words so far this
Speaker 1: season with with with Goldie's performance, is it, I'm still
Speaker 1: not It's surprising to me, given I think the stretch
Speaker 1: of like how bad he had basically performed in the
Speaker 1: in the last few seasons, that a trip up to
Speaker 1: Manhattan has basically taken him from base he hitting at
Speaker 1: what was basically just got himself down to like league average,
Speaker 1: and he's now back up to I think he's sat
Speaker 1: at basically some close to basically his career highs as
Speaker 1: he is right now. Is it lineup protection? Is it
Speaker 1: kind of like is it a torpedo bat? I don't know,
Speaker 1: but like Goldie is looking every bit of the player
Speaker 1: that he did in like twenty fifteen twenty sixteen, which
Speaker 1: is utterly remarkable as far as I'm concerned. One for me,
Speaker 1: I would put this one with the three and one
Speaker 1: come back for the Cavaliers in twenty sixteen against the
Speaker 1: against the Golden State Warriors. Looked like dead and buried
Speaker 1: and somehow has kind of made his way back to
Speaker 1: almost a victory.
Speaker 4: Darius Cord his way back from elimination.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I laughed at the contract, but the Yankees signed him.
Speaker 4: I kind of like this deal, So I didn't think
Speaker 4: about this one. You're right that, given his age, that
Speaker 4: is somewhat surprising that he has bounced back to this level.
Speaker 4: I don't think he is back to peak belge Bit level.
Speaker 4: I think we'll see that regress a little bit. But
Speaker 4: I loved the fit. I thought it was a great
Speaker 4: place for a left handed to hit, obviously, and I
Speaker 4: thought it would be a nice bounce back opportunity for
Speaker 4: him that the power is down. I think you know
Speaker 4: that there's been a bit of good fortune on the
Speaker 4: bad balls. I think you'll see this much closer to
Speaker 4: a league average line by the end of the year.
Speaker 4: But I did think that he could be a respectable,
Speaker 4: useful every day here for that lineup, and it looks
Speaker 4: like that's going to be a good.
Speaker 3: As much as I'd love to say that I also
Speaker 3: saw this coming, I didn't, so I'm going to issue
Speaker 3: a Mayo Copper two. Although I'm going to mostly blame
Speaker 3: you for this, Russ, But I also thought that Goldman
Speaker 3: was cooked and that, you know, his his days of
Speaker 3: being productive were over. But I could not be more
Speaker 3: delighted to have been wrong. I mean, he's a really
Speaker 3: fun player was so good for so long, obviously in
Speaker 3: Arizona and then in then Saint Lewis, and it's yeah,
Speaker 3: fun to see him be great again in the middle
Speaker 3: of that lineup. And yeah, as Darius said, I don't
Speaker 3: see this lasting all season, and certainly at his age,
Speaker 3: you know, it feels like the wear and tear of
Speaker 3: a year or injuries could could easily take their toll.
Speaker 3: But a really fun renaissance even if that's all it
Speaker 3: is from Goldschmidt so far this season. Cool to see him, yeah,
Speaker 3: back up there showing he can still do it at
Speaker 3: the top level at age thirty seven. One of the
Speaker 3: guys who was kind of coming up when I first
Speaker 3: got into the sport. So it's fun to see him
Speaker 3: still sort of hanging about and being productive. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I like that. Cool credit to Paul gold Schmidt Darrins.
Speaker 2: What Are You Going to Go? Which is a far
Speaker 2: more niche pick Aranda.
Speaker 4: I had two names of my list. One of them
Speaker 4: is Randa. See I'll take Jonathan Randa, maybe Ben will
Speaker 4: take the other. Anyway, Jonathan Randa is one of those
Speaker 4: guys who it feels like we've been talking about him,
Speaker 4: you know, as a guy break through this year for
Speaker 4: five years, maybe like four or five years, which is
Speaker 4: not far off. He did first come up in twenty
Speaker 4: twenty two, and the Rays being the race, he's never
Speaker 4: quite found the playing time to show it, and when
Speaker 4: he has played, he's never really been super impressive, so
Speaker 4: of course sort of forced their hand until this year,
Speaker 4: and now he does look like that real offensive force.
Speaker 4: He's kind of tailed off a little bit since a
Speaker 4: super hot start, but he's still one fifty seven wrs
Speaker 4: plus right now, and he looks like he has finally
Speaker 4: lift up to some of that potential. So I wouldn't
Speaker 4: say that I was like super shocks, because there was
Speaker 4: always this buzz that like, yeah, the Ray is still
Speaker 4: believing around there, and you know, whenever the playing time
Speaker 4: clears up, they'll they'll find room for him. But it
Speaker 4: was starting to feel a little bit like, you know,
Speaker 4: we've waited too long. This feels a bit like maybe
Speaker 4: what's the come for this, Like you know, Peyton Manning
Speaker 4: winning that second Super Bowl, you know where it seemed
Speaker 4: like the window had gone and then and then he came.
Speaker 4: And not that he had that much to do with
Speaker 4: that Super Bowl, that was all the defense, but you
Speaker 4: know what I mean. We had to wait, but finally
Speaker 4: it's happened.
Speaker 2: I like it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you mentioned it like I think he
Speaker 1: is probably like breakout candidate, breakout candidate, breakout candidate, breakout candidate,
Speaker 1: and the joke of somebody who actually probably still is
Speaker 1: a breakout candidate because he's not broken out so many
Speaker 1: times that if you call it, it's like the what's
Speaker 1: the other one? It's like a clock is a broken
Speaker 1: clock is right two times in a day. So if
Speaker 1: you say he's going to break out every single time,
Speaker 1: like at some point someone might just break out. But
Speaker 1: you know, it's good to see him do that. And
Speaker 1: obviously with the race setup it's always a bit of
Speaker 1: a with then wheeling and dealing and moving players in
Speaker 1: and around quite often. This he's finally got this opportunity
Speaker 1: to to do well. Ben, who have you gone for
Speaker 1: as a first baseman?
Speaker 3: It was a roundabout way of getting there, But now
Speaker 3: he's broken out. Sorry, I was workshopping in my brain
Speaker 3: for the last sixty seconds, but I think I would
Speaker 3: have stuck the landing the player I've gone with. I
Speaker 3: don't know if this is the one Darius was considering,
Speaker 3: but it's Spencer Talk. We have talked about him on
Speaker 3: the pod before about his sort of breakup start of
Speaker 3: the year. Again, another guy, maybe even more so than Miranda,
Speaker 3: that we all had been waiting for the breakout to
Speaker 3: come from. He was once i think one of the
Speaker 3: top hitting prospects in baseball, certainly a guy that was
Speaker 3: seen as almost a can't miss hitter. Like you know,
Speaker 3: there's always the question about he's not going to be
Speaker 3: a great defender. He may be a DH fairly soon,
Speaker 3: but he's going to rake at the big league level
Speaker 3: and he just had not been able to do that
Speaker 3: until this season, and it kind of felt like this
Speaker 3: was very much his last chance. But he's tapping into
Speaker 3: that power. I think he's up to twelve or thirteen
Speaker 3: home runs now. His statcast page has a ton of
Speaker 3: red on it. It's, you know, all the good stuff
Speaker 3: when it comes to barrowing the ball up and hitting
Speaker 3: the ball hard. He draws walks, he's cut the strikeouts down.
Speaker 3: So yeah, there's reason to believe that this is a
Speaker 3: real breakout. And as we say, maybe not shocking because
Speaker 3: a guy that everyone knew about and who had been
Speaker 3: you know, talked about as the next great hitter on
Speaker 3: the Tigers for a number of years now, but he
Speaker 3: really made us wait for it. So yeah, my comp
Speaker 3: was actually Spurs in the Europa League. Like, you knew
Speaker 3: the talent was there, but you didn't think it would
Speaker 3: take this long for it to happen. So yeah, good
Speaker 3: for Spencer Talkerson to to finally have his moment and
Speaker 3: a big part of why the Tigers obviously have had
Speaker 3: such a good start to the season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, another guy who is what a very very high
Speaker 1: prospect at some point, was he who had been the
Speaker 1: top ten at most places he.
Speaker 4: Would have been Yeah, I don't I don't know if
Speaker 4: anybody would have had him number one overall, but I'm
Speaker 4: sure people would have had him top five. He was considered, Yeah,
Speaker 4: can't miss, no doubt, slam dunk, you know, middle of
Speaker 4: the autoto hitter. Yeah, it looks like MLB had him
Speaker 4: third at one point. BA had him fifth two consecutive years.
Speaker 4: We had him fourth at BP the year before he
Speaker 4: was called up, So yeah, everybody thought this guy was
Speaker 4: a you know, no doubt, going to really succeed right away,
Speaker 4: really polished college hitter, and actually it took him four years.
Speaker 4: Baseball is hard.
Speaker 2: Baseball is hard. Okay, we were on a second base.
Speaker 1: I'll let somebody else go first this time, Darius, who
Speaker 1: you want to take a pick from?
Speaker 4: I'm going to take Tommy Tanks. Tommy Edmund somehow becoming
Speaker 4: a power hitter at this point in his career, which
Speaker 4: a just if you said at any point in Tommy
Speaker 4: Edmund's career that he was a power hitter, I think
Speaker 4: people would have been like, what, because you know, we've
Speaker 4: all seen Tommy Edmond. He's not a big guy. He
Speaker 4: looks like most of what Tommy Edmund's game is, which is,
Speaker 4: you know, speedy, utility guy, guy that you love to
Speaker 4: have in your team, does a little bit of everything.
Speaker 4: Definitely not going to hit more than thirteen home runs,
Speaker 4: which is his career high. He has eight through one
Speaker 4: hundred and thirty five plate appearances, and he seems to
Speaker 4: have figured out how to really tap into the limited
Speaker 4: amount of strength he does have, and he seems to
Speaker 4: have done it a bit by sort of embracing that
Speaker 4: his power from the right hand side of the plate.
Speaker 4: Ben Clemens wrote a good I think was Ben Cubins Now.
Speaker 4: Dave Andrews wrote a good piece about this at fangross
Speaker 4: about Edmund sort of really leading into swinging hard from
Speaker 4: that side of the plate. So he's got this massive
Speaker 4: platoon spit where he's sort of got no power as
Speaker 4: a lefty switch here and lots of power as a righty,
Speaker 4: which is quite interesting in itself. So always kind of
Speaker 4: like Tommy Edmund, fun guy to watch play. Obviously, the
Speaker 4: poor Dodgers need another breakout candidate, So Dodgers, it's so Dodgers. Yeah, absolutely, So.
Speaker 4: I feel like this is a bit like when Ryan
Speaker 4: Giggs was sort of, you know, the speedy winger was
Speaker 4: that was what he was, and he was coming into
Speaker 4: the twilight of his career and he suddenly just became
Speaker 4: this like genius central midfielder, playmaker type, completely different from
Speaker 4: what he was in the rest of his career when
Speaker 4: everybody was like, oh, he's, you know, thirty four, he's
Speaker 4: going to retire soon, and then suddenly he was a
Speaker 4: different guy completely.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think obviously like beloved in LA for his involvement
Speaker 1: in obviously getting the that World series last year, but
Speaker 1: it was it's remarkable to see like how much when
Speaker 1: I was out of the games, like how much they
Speaker 1: did like love him, like he was one of the
Speaker 1: people who got like the response that you would expect
Speaker 1: like some of the top players to get, but.
Speaker 2: Him and Key k.
Speaker 1: Were beloved by that Dodgers fat group, Ben, who is
Speaker 1: your second base?
Speaker 3: I'm sticking with the Tigers. I'm taking Clavor Torres again.
Speaker 3: I'll hear arguments that he doesn't count, because you know,
Speaker 3: he's been a good player for a while, and before
Speaker 3: that was a well known prospect, so it's not exactly
Speaker 3: a name that people won't have heard of. But he's
Speaker 3: shown signs of being a very different and more productive
Speaker 3: player so far this year with the Tigers. He's actually
Speaker 3: walking more than he strikes out so far this season,
Speaker 3: which he never showed that kind of plate discipline with
Speaker 3: the Yankees, and those are some of the quickest metrics
Speaker 3: to kind of stabilize over the course of the season.
Speaker 3: So although it's a fairly small sample, I think we
Speaker 3: can probably safely say he's made some kind of adjustment
Speaker 3: the plate that allows him to yeah to see the
Speaker 3: ball a lot better, draw more walks, and strike out less,
Speaker 3: which is always a good recipe as as a hitter.
Speaker 3: Obviously passed its one hundred and twenty nine, which is
Speaker 3: obviously a good number, and yeah, he you know, he's
Speaker 3: not flashy. Still, it's not going to be thirty home runs,
Speaker 3: it's not going to be thirty steals. But he plays
Speaker 3: okay defense and he's putting a bat on the ball
Speaker 3: and hitting it hard and walking a decent clip. So
Speaker 3: that's a good productive player. And you know, not that
Speaker 3: he was a bad player with the Yankees, but I
Speaker 3: think we all saw him into free agency as like
Speaker 3: a stay away candidate because his profile didn't look great.
Speaker 3: He's obviously entering the back end of his twenties. There's
Speaker 3: all the height that always comes with Yankees players, where
Speaker 3: you kind of think once they go somewhere else, they're
Speaker 3: not going to be quite as good. But actually he's
Speaker 3: been nothing but productive so far, along with Torcusin, along
Speaker 3: with bayas players who've stepped up when the Tigers needed
Speaker 3: them to and become really important, you know, members of
Speaker 3: that lineup. So, yeah, not the sexy pick of a
Speaker 3: guy that no one heard of coming into this season,
Speaker 3: but I wanted to shout out Labor for showing signs
Speaker 3: of becoming a much more polished or round hitter, and yeah,
Speaker 3: a very good player for for the Tigers. Oh my
Speaker 3: comp this is like a huh ah, didn't expect that.
Speaker 3: So I've just put this down as Southampton holding city
Speaker 3: to a no and Neil draw a couple of weeks back, Like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean that will happen sometimes. I just didn't think
Speaker 3: maybe the once to do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a pretty reasonable comparison. I think
Speaker 1: I might have said this at least to Darius and
Speaker 1: a few other people, that I've been a believer in
Speaker 1: Labor for probably too long in the last like three
Speaker 1: years to be that like now, his underlying metrics show
Speaker 1: that like he's he should he should bounce back, he
Speaker 1: should bounce back, he should bounce back, and well this
Speaker 1: year he finally has. Maybe it's the same way were
Speaker 1: seeing it around as a breakout Candida Labor has been
Speaker 1: that bounce back. Karen did it for for a few years.
Speaker 1: So this one is the one that I've believed in
Speaker 1: but didn't necessarily know that was gonna was gonna happen for.
Speaker 2: For for a while.
Speaker 1: But uh, I wrong early, Yeah, Darius, any thoughts on Labor.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's interesting to see the evolution. I think
Speaker 4: Scott Harris has done a pretty good job with the
Speaker 4: players he's acquired. You know, he hasn't done a lot
Speaker 4: of missing. I think he's obviously a pretty shrewd talent evaluator.
Speaker 4: And yeah, Glabur's improvement seem pretty legit. He has always
Speaker 4: been kind of a devis divisive guy, I think, so, yeah,
Speaker 4: good to see him rebounding and making this Tigers team
Speaker 4: actually pretty much like a genuine threat to go Viara
Speaker 4: in the postseason this year, which is a weird thing
Speaker 4: to be saying, but I seem to be keeping it up,
Speaker 4: so yeah, long may it continue?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's for me, It's like And then I looked
Speaker 1: at second second base and I looked at a few
Speaker 1: people to be like, is there actually anybody really massively
Speaker 1: standing out in this position to be what kind of
Speaker 1: was better than they were? And I kind of just
Speaker 1: came back to I think we just have to talk
Speaker 1: about Brendan Donovan being like he's being He's progressing from
Speaker 1: being good to potentially being like great, Like this could
Speaker 1: be like a five war season out of him. This
Speaker 1: could be like someone who is like should be on
Speaker 1: that All Star team come the end of the season. Now,
Speaker 1: and he's played a lot of positions and whether is
Speaker 1: he probably still actually technically a second baseman, probably just
Speaker 1: but I think looking at like some of his numbers
Speaker 1: this season, like he's actually kind of like getting there.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have a he's got a pretty still got
Speaker 1: a reasonable babbit that's above maybe what you would expect,
Speaker 1: but it's not looking like to outlandish from kind of
Speaker 1: like the underlying figures. And so him kind of taking
Speaker 1: that step further forward and that kind of like that
Speaker 1: continued kind of progression is you're kind of going like, oh,
Speaker 1: like this is actually now something that like we should
Speaker 1: kind of really think about and actually do we have
Speaker 1: to start to consider him about being kind of like
Speaker 1: one of the the bigger hitters, Like my, my, My
Speaker 1: sporting comparison would be like, oh, it's like do we
Speaker 1: think not Ingham Forest might actually be like a good
Speaker 1: football team watching their performances in the last qw s
Speaker 1: in the Premier League, being like, oh, actually, do I
Speaker 1: have to think about them being a tough at bad
Speaker 1: or a tough team to play against next season?
Speaker 4: Devil Magic, Yeah I can say that, all right, well answer.
Speaker 1: But yeah, we'll moved swiftly on to third base. Then, Ben,
Speaker 1: do you want to lead us off this time, I can.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I struggled a bit with this one. I could
Speaker 3: re see anyone that I loved who You know, I
Speaker 3: didn't come into this year thinking would be would be
Speaker 3: rubbish and has turned out to be great. So I've
Speaker 3: maybe gone for a bit of a cop out answer
Speaker 3: in isaac parades of the Astros. Who again, I think
Speaker 3: we all thought was going to be pretty good this year.
Speaker 3: He's he was pretty good last year, has been pretty
Speaker 3: good for a few years now. But I think rightly
Speaker 3: we all saw his pool heavy, right handed swing and
Speaker 3: thought that's going to line up well with the craw
Speaker 3: for boxes in Houston, and sure enough it has. And
Speaker 3: you know he's he's hitting for power using that that
Speaker 3: short porch. But he's also showed improved plate discipline again
Speaker 3: that walks up strikeouts down. He's making hard contact to well,
Speaker 3: I was gonna say to all fields, but it's mostly
Speaker 3: just to left field. But yeah, he's showing signs of
Speaker 3: being maybe even better than he was the last couple
Speaker 3: of years and taking his game to the next step again,
Speaker 3: like he's probably gonna put up career best power numbers.
Speaker 3: How much you want to attribute that to yeah, the
Speaker 3: ballparker is up to you, but I think, you know,
Speaker 3: like at the end of the day, run production is
Speaker 3: run production wherever you play, and I think he deserves
Speaker 3: credit for matching up his skills with the field he
Speaker 3: plays at. So yeah, shout out to Praide's a guy
Speaker 3: who I think we all saw as a guy who could,
Speaker 3: you know, if not break out, have a career year
Speaker 3: this year taking advantage of where he's playing, and he
Speaker 3: seems to be doing it.
Speaker 2: Darius, your third basement.
Speaker 4: I have gone for the Kansas City Rars. Mike el
Speaker 4: Garcia's currently hitting three point fifteen been worth one point
Speaker 4: six war. Looks like a very handy piece for that team,
Speaker 4: which is, you know, not scuffling a bit, but yeah,
Speaker 4: approach of the plate, it's great, doesn't strike out a lot,
Speaker 4: and just kind of a good all around guy. I
Speaker 4: don't think this will continue. It's not the kind of
Speaker 4: thing that I'm looking at the stats and going, yeah,
Speaker 4: I think this guy is going to be like the
Speaker 4: third best third basement in baseball at the end of
Speaker 4: the year. Seems like it's a mirage, but fun to
Speaker 4: watch what it lasts, and I think it's a He's
Speaker 4: a good, good complimentary piece for that that world's.
Speaker 1: Too yes and to or go finish this kind of
Speaker 1: quick fire round of the basement, I'm going to take
Speaker 1: Zach mcinstry. Do I think that his performances are going
Speaker 1: to continue? Kind of know, when you have a twenty
Speaker 1: five percent strikeout rate, and in Major League Baseball, it's
Speaker 1: never really a good sign that things are going to come.
Speaker 1: But he has hit well, has it like and it's
Speaker 1: kind of like has a good solid walk rate for
Speaker 1: him up in twelve percent. Another one of these players
Speaker 1: that's just kind of doesn't really have like power, doesn't
Speaker 1: really have speed, but it's kind of been a solid
Speaker 1: part of that line up at Detroit this year and
Speaker 1: it's kind of enabled kind of has been driven in
Speaker 1: if a few times by the other guys on that
Speaker 1: lineup that have kind of taken that that approach. So
Speaker 1: for one for me that I was I was surprised.
Speaker 1: I thought kind of mcinstry's days as were numbered as
Speaker 1: kind of one of these kind of like utility players
Speaker 1: who probably isn't quite good enough to to get an
Speaker 1: actual kind of like starting position, but he seems to
Speaker 1: have got that in pretty much lockdown now at Detroit
Speaker 1: obviously kind of still in that super utail role, but
Speaker 1: has has definitely probably potentially playing like the season of
Speaker 1: his career.
Speaker 4: We're picking a lot of Tigers here. I don't know
Speaker 4: what this says about the Tigers.
Speaker 2: It says we were all a little bit surprised.
Speaker 1: Does say that, yeah, okay, we were final position of
Speaker 1: the infield to shortstop And I'm going to go first
Speaker 1: so I can get the really easy answer, Heraldo Padomo.
Speaker 2: Do we all just want to say snap?
Speaker 3: Here?
Speaker 1: We can move quickly on if someone actually definitely snap.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is by far the most surprising thing that's
Speaker 4: happening sure stop this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I did.
Speaker 1: I did a tiny bit of analysis for this, comparing
Speaker 1: the Zips productions to the start of the season to
Speaker 1: what effectively kind of like they're on pace productions are
Speaker 1: for the rest of the season. And Poedomo had a
Speaker 1: basically a two point was it two point two war
Speaker 1: protection for the start of the season. He has kind
Speaker 1: of already passed that at two point eight, and currently
Speaker 1: the estimate that I have him roughly at is about
Speaker 1: nine point one. If he was to continue this for
Speaker 1: kind of like potentially like for the rest of the season,
Speaker 1: which is a bit ridiculous when you.
Speaker 2: Think about it.
Speaker 1: I don't think anybody quite thought that Harald Podomo was
Speaker 1: a close to ten War player. Even probably the mother
Speaker 1: did not think that highly of him. So it's one
Speaker 1: of those ones where you're just like, they gave him
Speaker 1: that contract, and I think everybody was a little bit
Speaker 1: just like, oh, yeah, okay, he's a good bit part
Speaker 1: player like that. That's a solid thing to kind of
Speaker 1: like you've got to have a few of those guys
Speaker 1: to kind of like fill in and be like the
Speaker 1: bottom of the lineup. But it's good to kind of
Speaker 1: know who those guys are going to be. Oh wait, no,
Speaker 1: he's actually now the best player on your team. He's
Speaker 1: better than Corby and Carroll is better than can Tell Marte.
Speaker 1: This this, this one is is a shock to me.
Speaker 1: This is this is a like a wig In winning
Speaker 1: the FA Cup sort of level of kind of like
Speaker 1: a level of shock to me.
Speaker 2: Ben.
Speaker 3: You know, yeah, I keep waiting for him to plummet
Speaker 3: down the War leader board, and he keeps rising higher.
Speaker 3: If anything. This yeah, it's been a pretty remarkable start
Speaker 3: to the season. I think in my brain I see
Speaker 3: his name and I think of Luis Paedomo, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: that guy's not good at baseball. Just looked him up.
Speaker 3: He's apparently playing in Japan now. But yeah, Heraldo clearly
Speaker 3: legit this. This has been really impressive to start the season.
Speaker 3: Like you say, I mean, the Dbacks have some very
Speaker 3: talented young players, and he maybe is looking like being
Speaker 3: the best of them. I mean, a nine win pace
Speaker 3: is insane. He's put himself among the game's elite shortstops.
Speaker 3: And look, let's not get totally carried away. It is
Speaker 3: still only a couple of months into the season, and
Speaker 3: I imagine he will slow down this pace somewhat over
Speaker 3: the rest of the year. I don't think he's a
Speaker 3: nine win player. I'm happy to be prove him wrong.
Speaker 3: But yeah, what an amazing breakout year he's having that
Speaker 3: it does feel like people aren't really talking about I like,
Speaker 3: maybe that's just because all I ever see on social
Speaker 3: media is Otani's recent home run or you know, Mets
Speaker 3: fans being Soto. But it kind of feels like it's
Speaker 3: gone a bit under the radar because I guess he's
Speaker 3: not hitting tape measure home runs and he's not doing
Speaker 3: the stuff that they really grabs your attention from a
Speaker 3: highlights perspective. But yeah, he just keeps putting up quality
Speaker 3: at bats and racking up the wins above replacement and
Speaker 3: at this point we can't ignore it any longer. So
Speaker 3: I also had him as my shortstop breakout candidate Darius.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I also wrote down Pidomo this is pretty shocking.
Speaker 4: I think, like you, it was. You know, he's fine,
Speaker 4: It's a decent like you know, averagish kind of players,
Speaker 4: good defender, not going to hit him a lot. So
Speaker 4: I am shocked to see this level of performance. I
Speaker 4: think if he made it to the end of the season
Speaker 4: then it would be like this. Then it would be
Speaker 4: Leicester City when the Premier League levels performance we'll see
Speaker 4: as a long way to go yet, I think I
Speaker 4: don't think that that hitting will be where it is
Speaker 4: now in four months time. But incredibly impressive start and
Speaker 4: Diane Baxter looking very clever right now. I guess the
Speaker 4: other guy I was thinking about is Jacob Wilson for
Speaker 4: the AIDS. Also looks like a very handy ball player,
Speaker 4: and I think you know he was he was a
Speaker 4: good prospect. But I think everybody said, you know, the
Speaker 4: question is is he going to hit enough? And right
Speaker 4: now he does look like he's not only going to
Speaker 4: be that, you know, Luisa Rice Stephen quan type player,
Speaker 4: but also that he might might have a little bit
Speaker 4: more power than people thought. And I think if Wilson's
Speaker 4: even a double digit home run guy with his defensive skills,
Speaker 4: then he's going to be a very good player of
Speaker 4: the A's for a very long time. So I'm also
Speaker 4: surprised to see how well he is hitting.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think I can maybe take an early
Speaker 1: victory lap on One of my breakout players that we
Speaker 1: predicted ear the on of the season was Jacob Wilson.
Speaker 1: I can be completely nottly benched and probably thrown into
Speaker 1: the the rubbish bin for my predictions on Brian Rochio
Speaker 1: as another short stop.
Speaker 4: Do they cancel each other out?
Speaker 2: They cancel each other out?
Speaker 1: Probably probably predictions point of view, doesn't really cancel each
Speaker 1: other out. From Cleveland's point of view, sadly, the one
Speaker 1: that basically has basically been garbage and has been demoted
Speaker 1: to driple a is the one on my team. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's hit the outfield. I don't know, I don't particularly
Speaker 1: kind of want to go left field, right field, center
Speaker 1: field here. So we'll just kind of work our way
Speaker 1: through multiple different outfielders. If we've got probably nine in
Speaker 1: total that we'll kind of talk through. Ben, I'll let
Speaker 1: you go first.
Speaker 3: I'll take the easy one. Then I'll take Pete crow Armstrong.
Speaker 3: I think we all liked him as a player as
Speaker 3: a prospect and thought he was going to be good.
Speaker 3: I don't think we thought he was going to be
Speaker 3: one of the best players in baseball good in his
Speaker 3: rookie season, which is kind of what he's been. And yeah,
Speaker 3: he's got it all. He's got the hitting ability that
Speaker 3: I think is far beyond where we thought he was
Speaker 3: going to be for this stage of his career. He's
Speaker 3: putting up great numbers at the plate, partly because he
Speaker 3: stretches every single into a double and every double into
Speaker 3: a triple, which does help your batting line. But also
Speaker 3: he's just, yeah, I think much more advance as a
Speaker 3: hitter than we thought he was going to be. And
Speaker 3: then you add on to that obviously the speed and
Speaker 3: the defense, which you know, the metrics absolutely love him
Speaker 3: out there in center field, and the he passes the
Speaker 3: eyetes too, like he is making game changing players for
Speaker 3: the Cubs seemingly, you know, almost every night at this point,
Speaker 3: so rare that you see a guy as a rookie
Speaker 3: become immediately the best player on their team. And the
Speaker 3: only appropriate comeback to think of, and I almost feel
Speaker 3: bad putting this on him at this point is Mike
Speaker 3: Trout putting up ten wins as a rookie. It kind
Speaker 3: of feels like Petekra Armstrong is doing Mike Trout's sort
Speaker 3: of stuff so far this season. Not gonna drag that
Speaker 3: comparison out too much because again unfair to PCA, but
Speaker 3: he's he's looking like, yeah, that kind of one of
Speaker 3: the best players in baseball players at this station in
Speaker 3: his career, and that is a very exciting prospect for
Speaker 3: Cubs fans.
Speaker 1: Yeah, last week I was wax and Miracle still continues
Speaker 1: to do amazing he is. To me, it's it's Ken
Speaker 1: Griffey level stuff at center. It's like it's that combination
Speaker 1: of defense, speed, and power, which as much as we
Speaker 1: love Trout, he never quite kind of like combined all
Speaker 1: of those three things together. Like at the same time, Darius,
Speaker 1: are there any more superlatives that we need to say
Speaker 1: about PCA?
Speaker 4: I don't think so. No, much like Wilson. I guess
Speaker 4: the question was how much is he going to hit?
Speaker 4: I don't think anybody doubted how good he was defensively,
Speaker 4: and so far it looks like he's going to hit
Speaker 4: quite a bit. Doesn't need to hit this much to
Speaker 4: be an immensely valuable player, but if he does, then
Speaker 4: he's going to be, you know, a perennial All Star
Speaker 4: MVP candidate. He can keep up anything like this level
Speaker 4: of offensive performance.
Speaker 1: Yep, all right, onto you, Darius, to give us another outfielder.
Speaker 4: I've got another Rocky. I did actually have a look
Speaker 4: at leftfield, Tenierfield and Ryefield and the left field I've
Speaker 4: put Jordan Beck, who is much like his mate Hunter Goodman,
Speaker 4: doing his level best to have a respectable season amidst
Speaker 4: this absolute train wreck of a team. Yeah, Jordan Beck
Speaker 4: is he's got an eight to sixty three APS. Is
Speaker 4: one of the very rare Rockies who's actually above average offensively.
Speaker 4: I think there might only be three of them, and
Speaker 4: Ezequiel Tabor is barely there, so it's basically just Beck
Speaker 4: and Goodman. Ben may have more to say about what
Speaker 4: he thinks of the long term longevity, but yeah, he
Speaker 4: seems like he's got a good, good all around game
Speaker 4: and he's twenty four year old, to a little bit
Speaker 4: of hope for the future maybe maybe.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been good to see from god Don Beck,
Speaker 3: and I will hold my hands up. I did not
Speaker 3: have him down as a Rocky I thought was going
Speaker 3: to be doing this this season. You know, at first
Speaker 3: I thought he was honestly blocking playing time for Zach Viane,
Speaker 3: who felt like a much more likely breakout candidate, and
Speaker 3: that has not been the case at all. And Beck
Speaker 3: has really hit the ball hard, So yeah, I agree
Speaker 3: that I don't know he's going to keep this up
Speaker 3: long term. The strikeout rate is pretty alarming, but the
Speaker 3: power is legit, and you know, he's young and he'll
Speaker 3: have time to work this out a little bit more.
Speaker 3: It's certainly a very good step forward from where he
Speaker 3: was last season, where he looked very lost at the
Speaker 3: plate in the sort of limited playing time that he got.
Speaker 3: So yeah, look, not many silver linings on this extremely
Speaker 3: dark cloud of a season for the Rockies, but Beck
Speaker 3: can put his hand up and be pretty proud of
Speaker 3: his performances so far. So yeah, hopefully he can continue
Speaker 3: to Rake in the rest of the season.
Speaker 1: Yes, so I will take I will go to another
Speaker 1: team that has not particularly played well, but someone has
Speaker 1: showed not any ridiculous level of before so far, and
Speaker 1: that is Kyle Stowers for the Miami Marlins. Stowers came
Speaker 1: across with Norby and the Trevor Rodgers deal and did
Speaker 1: not look particularly good at playing baseball last year. And
Speaker 1: once again I was doing the have Miami somehow managed
Speaker 1: to get a good player trade them and somehow immediately
Speaker 1: lose the trade like they seem to do in every
Speaker 1: single major trade that they've ever done. But in this season,
Speaker 1: he's after coming out with he's hit ten home runs already,
Speaker 1: to have like power that we just not would not
Speaker 1: be expecting like at all. And yeah, I think he's
Speaker 1: He obviously still has that high strikeout rate, which is
Speaker 1: the the alarming side to it. He's got a pretty
Speaker 1: high babbit behind what he's done so far, but having
Speaker 1: that one hundred and fifty five WRC plus is just
Speaker 1: something that was not expected like whatsoever and kind of
Speaker 1: was really kind of like expecting him to kind of
Speaker 1: just be another one of those kind of failed rejects
Speaker 1: at kind of at that kind of like at that level,
Speaker 1: but as somehow kind of shown that maybe like he
Speaker 1: there is a little bit more to him than then
Speaker 1: meets the eye, and maybe Baltimore were a little bit
Speaker 1: loose in letting him go early. I try to think
Speaker 1: back on like who this could be or something like
Speaker 1: that I maybe go with. I'm trying to think of
Speaker 1: some of the footballers who've been loaned out and then
Speaker 1: turned out they had to buy them back. Not quite
Speaker 1: going to say he's sadder level of a bad business yet,
Speaker 1: but that could be.
Speaker 2: I could be where this where this is at at
Speaker 2: some point.
Speaker 4: That might be in the pressure a little bit too
Speaker 4: high at this point in his career, but the Orophones
Speaker 4: could certainly do with some offense right now.
Speaker 3: Styles on my list as well. Yeah he's he's been
Speaker 3: really good, and yeah it's like nice, you know, for
Speaker 3: their minds to have something to cheerful a team that
Speaker 3: have not had a time of players who've lived up
Speaker 3: to the prospect hype. I think I'm probably sick of
Speaker 3: acquiring guys who have got pedigree and then seeing them
Speaker 3: sadly flame out of the major league level. Star wars
Speaker 3: seems to be at least for a short period bucking
Speaker 3: that trend and looking comfortable against major league pitching. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't know how much this will continue at the
Speaker 3: current level given the strikeouts, but he's, you know, he's
Speaker 3: I think he's going to be a legit power hitter
Speaker 3: and that that will play so good for him and
Speaker 3: good for Marlins fans.
Speaker 2: All right, Ben, give us another one.
Speaker 3: Then we should talk about James Wood. I guess I
Speaker 3: thought this guy was going to suck. I don't really
Speaker 3: know why. I think I just saw how big he
Speaker 3: was and that he struck out loads in the minors,
Speaker 3: and I was like, this is just not going to
Speaker 3: work on a major league level, Like he's going to
Speaker 3: get figured out by you know, elite level Velo's going
Speaker 3: to get figured out by elite level pitching, and he's
Speaker 3: going to be, you know, a Joey Gallo type who, yeah, okay,
Speaker 3: hits the occasional take measure home run, but just isn't
Speaker 3: contributing enough outside of that to be worthy of the
Speaker 3: prosper ranking he was given and worthy of obviously being
Speaker 3: the sort of blockbuster name in the Soso trade. Well,
Speaker 3: I was dead wrong. He looks at every part the
Speaker 3: accomplished power hitter that the power is obviously thegit. I
Speaker 3: think his stack cast exit vela numbers are like gian
Speaker 3: Carlo Stanton esque in terms of the upper end of
Speaker 3: those figures, which hugely a good sign when you hit
Speaker 3: the ball that hard. But he's also you know, he
Speaker 3: is still striking out a lot, but he's drawing walks
Speaker 3: and he's somehow maintaining pretty high babbit so you know,
Speaker 3: he's hitting to eighty five, it's not like he's hitting
Speaker 3: two hundred and so he's turned into, yeah, a really
Speaker 3: legit player, stealing a few bases too. He looks like
Speaker 3: he's a decent athlete in the outfield too, certainly got
Speaker 3: a strong arm, So yeah, look a Maya kulper I
Speaker 3: thought Wood was going to be someone who took a
Speaker 3: while to figure out major league pitching and maybe never would,
Speaker 3: and he seems to have figured it out in his
Speaker 3: second season and looks like he's going to be at
Speaker 3: the heart of that that National sign up for years
Speaker 3: to come. So probably not a shock for guys like
Speaker 3: you who actually thought Wood was as good as as
Speaker 3: the prospect list said he was, but for me a
Speaker 3: bit of a surprise to see him be quite as
Speaker 3: accomplish as he has been so far this year.
Speaker 2: I think Darius can take us.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm not surprised why James would been good.
Speaker 2: So I think maybe you're surprised he's this good like
Speaker 2: me straight away.
Speaker 4: I'm a little bit surprised he's this good this quickly.
Speaker 4: Like you know, I think you expect some level of
Speaker 4: learning curve. But yeah, I don't think if you'd said
Speaker 4: to me James would will be one of the best,
Speaker 4: it is the best forall this season. I would have
Speaker 4: been that shot.
Speaker 1: To be honest, Darius, give us someone who has been
Speaker 1: surprising to you, then.
Speaker 4: Well let me tell you Trent Grisham, what is happening here.
Speaker 4: Trent Grisham wasn't even supposed to play, like he was
Speaker 4: just going to be the fourth outfielder for the Yankees,
Speaker 4: and you know, they've had some injuries and Aaron Judge
Speaker 4: isn't really a center fielder, and Trent Grisham's just kind
Speaker 4: of forced their hand and made them play him every
Speaker 4: day because somehow he is not only return to former
Speaker 4: levels that you know, made people think he might be
Speaker 4: a great player enter in his career, but faster pass
Speaker 4: them is it twelve home runs already, he's got a
Speaker 4: nine forty two ops. This is all like, yeah, age
Speaker 4: age twenty eight, mega breakout, it seems like, and it
Speaker 4: sounds like it's mostly happened just because he's decided to
Speaker 4: be a bit less passive at the plate. He's not
Speaker 4: taking quite as many walks as he used to, but
Speaker 4: he's more than made up up for it with that power.
Speaker 4: So yeah, well we'll see whether we can keep it
Speaker 4: up all season. I know a lot of people were
Speaker 4: sort of on the Grishian bandwagon for a long time
Speaker 4: and he bounced around and never quite seemed to keep
Speaker 4: up that level of talent. But yeah, I thought Tranent
Speaker 4: Grisham was going to get like two hundred and fifty
Speaker 4: play appearances this year. I certainly didn't expect him to
Speaker 4: be one of the better center fielders in the Mages.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's one that's definitely shocked a lot
Speaker 1: of us. Given like that outfield, there was possibilities because
Speaker 1: did you, like, what do you think of like you're
Speaker 1: going to get from Jason Domingers and a few of
Speaker 1: the others that were there. But Grisham, he's had had
Speaker 1: to earn that seat, and he's kind of kept it in,
Speaker 1: kept it going. I think I'll go for something that's
Speaker 1: maybe quite similar to that. Then in Javier Baias, like
Speaker 1: what on earth's going on here?
Speaker 2: Like he is.
Speaker 1: Having his kind of like season. He's probably surpassed his
Speaker 1: war for the previous seasons combining the first previous three
Speaker 1: seasons combined for a Detroit. I know he hasn't quite
Speaker 1: yet because he actually the first season was he was reasonable.
Speaker 1: It wasn't amazing, but he was reasonable. But like the
Speaker 1: last two seasons Detroit were ugly, and I don't quite
Speaker 1: know what's changed because he's still basically is striking out
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five percent of the time. He has a
Speaker 1: three percent walk rate. His babbit now is actually in
Speaker 1: the three hundreds, which is where like it used to
Speaker 1: be a not in the low two hundreds like it
Speaker 1: was last year, So it may bit of block's gone
Speaker 1: back in the direction. But he's got a one twenty
Speaker 1: five WRC plus that's something that Abby Bias has not
Speaker 1: done at any point in his career. I Prorom like
Speaker 1: his breakout. He's probrom his big season in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: so it's like this is this is utterly like me
Speaker 1: talking about like gold Schmidt earlier on saying that he
Speaker 1: was done, like Bias was done, Like.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, if if Chris, if Christian wasn't going to play,
Speaker 4: then there was an argument we made for just cutting
Speaker 4: Bias from the team completely, right, Yeah, if he didn't
Speaker 4: have the contract, was that bad?
Speaker 1: Yeah, he didn't have the contract that he had, and
Speaker 1: the optics probably of defaying him, he would have been gone.
Speaker 1: So I'm trying to think of, like you have somebody
Speaker 1: who's basically just being paid a lot it has basically
Speaker 1: done nothing and then just suddenly pops back up again
Speaker 1: and kind of like does something like utterly amazing, Like
Speaker 1: this feels that like it's kind of the end of
Speaker 1: Like I don't want to if it's a bit harsh
Speaker 1: on saying things like David Beckham's time at like AC
Speaker 1: Milan or whatever, where he's basically just gone there to
Speaker 1: have some jollies and then done nothing and then just
Speaker 1: pops up with like an main incredible moment every now
Speaker 1: and then. But I'm struggling to find the other comparison
Speaker 1: in sport to this, because it was just like he's done,
Speaker 1: Like this was not supposed to happen.
Speaker 3: I'm loving it. I mean, he got he's been getting
Speaker 3: such stick with the Tigers, and you know, not without
Speaker 3: due course. He's been singing at pictures that have bounced
Speaker 3: halfway to a play at times. But we all thought
Speaker 3: his career was done right, and like you said, Darius,
Speaker 3: like people were calling for him to be just cut
Speaker 3: from the team and just eat the money and pay
Speaker 3: him to go play for someone else, and so fair play,
Speaker 3: like not only did he move to another position without
Speaker 3: complaining and seems to be pretty legit out in center
Speaker 3: field or certainly making some eye catching plays. But yeah,
Speaker 3: he's starting to put it together a little bit with
Speaker 3: a bat again. How sustainable it is, I don't know,
Speaker 3: But I always loved watch him by his player Like,
Speaker 3: no think I've ever seen anyone who made playing the
Speaker 3: in field look so cool. So to see him now
Speaker 3: and make the outfield look just that call to ten
Speaker 3: years later is just really cool.
Speaker 2: All right, Ben, give us your last outfielder.
Speaker 3: Last one. I'm going to shout out Tyler Sodastrom. I
Speaker 3: was unsure has to put him into the first base
Speaker 3: or outfield c casgory, especially because I think most of
Speaker 3: his production came at first base, but he has now
Speaker 3: moved to the outfield, and I think he has now
Speaker 3: hit at least one home run as an outfielder, so
Speaker 3: I'm gonna call him out here. He slowed down after
Speaker 3: his initial tear. I think he was like leading the
Speaker 3: majors and home runs after the first three weeks, but
Speaker 3: he's still having a really good season. Another guy alongside
Speaker 3: Jacob Wilson who looks like he's going to sort of
Speaker 3: help Banker that A's lineup for a little while here.
Speaker 3: The the bat is really good. I have no idea
Speaker 3: what he's like playing in the outfield. I'm going to
Speaker 3: assume not good. The bat is legit, he draws walks,
Speaker 3: he hits for power, and yet he seems to have
Speaker 3: kind of figured out whatever that mini slump was that
Speaker 3: he had after his initial move to the outfield. So
Speaker 3: certainly not a guy that was on many people's radars,
Speaker 3: mostly because of where he plays team wise, but he
Speaker 3: seems to be showing that he's going to be a
Speaker 3: useful bat at the very least, and maybe more than
Speaker 3: that if he can can make more Jostinson get back
Speaker 3: to that history was for the first three weeks too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Daris, do we think it was a there's a
Speaker 1: lot of discussion now it being a bad decision about
Speaker 1: taking him from first phase and putting him in the
Speaker 1: outfield and actually being like, yeah, you know what, do
Speaker 1: some movement and it's like you could just let the
Speaker 1: guy who was raking just continue with what he was doing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I understand the impulse. It's nice to see the
Speaker 4: reason they did it was to get Nick Kurtz and
Speaker 4: the like that. You know, we always complain about teams
Speaker 4: not promoting their prospects who are obviously need to be
Speaker 4: in the majors, and I think Kurtz probably is also
Speaker 4: going to be a very good hitter. So I understand
Speaker 4: that they wanted to do that to create the space.
Speaker 4: But I did feel a bit bad for Sodastrum, whose
Speaker 4: reward for being one of the best sittings in baseball
Speaker 4: for a months was to have to do a position
Speaker 4: change mid season, which seems a little bit mean. But
Speaker 4: maybe he'll say, Aileen, yeah, I don't. I don't think
Speaker 4: he's going to be a very good outfielder. But while
Speaker 4: they've got Brent Ricker on this team, while they've got
Speaker 4: Kurts on the team. If they're not going to put
Speaker 4: him back behind the plate, which presents its own problems,
Speaker 4: then they're kind of stuck with this. And if he
Speaker 4: can be an passable outfielder, then he has got home
Speaker 4: of power in the bat, which is what you need
Speaker 4: to carry that corner out front spot. So yeah, I
Speaker 4: hope it won't affect him longer term. I think he
Speaker 4: still has only hit the one home and since they
Speaker 4: stuck him out there, but hopefully that turns around and
Speaker 4: you can kind of recapture some of that early season.
Speaker 2: Four, I don't give us your last outfielder.
Speaker 4: I think I'm going to have to go with William A.
Speaker 4: Brew and a. Brewer had a pretty nice little season
Speaker 4: last year, but not to the extent that he has
Speaker 4: been having this season. The Red Sox continue to sort
Speaker 4: of use him as a strong side platoon guy, so
Speaker 4: they are shielding him from those lefties. But he's actually
Speaker 4: been kind of unlucky this season, and that's you know,
Speaker 4: he's got in the eight fifty ops, so that tells
Speaker 4: you the kind of year is having. He's up to
Speaker 4: eleven homes already on the year. Just looks like a
Speaker 4: good consistent offensive force. I wasn't quite sure what to
Speaker 4: believe about him after last season and the strikeout rate
Speaker 4: was a little bit high, but he seems to have
Speaker 4: brought that down and looks like one of the bigger
Speaker 4: threats and what it's pretty post Red Sox lineup, so
Speaker 4: it seems like he's here to stay. And yeah, not
Speaker 4: not shocked that he's a good hitter, but I'm mildly
Speaker 4: shocked that he's a great hitter.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's one is the one. Like the.
Speaker 1: Some of it, you're like, the numbers have definitely protected
Speaker 1: by not platoon being slightly like platoon and not having
Speaker 1: to kind of get that, so you kind of he
Speaker 1: doesn't get some of the maybe the negative equity that
Speaker 1: other players do get from being forced to kind of
Speaker 1: go against that. But now he's been one of the
Speaker 1: highlights of that Boston team so far, and to finish
Speaker 1: off the outfield, I kind of feel wrong, but I
Speaker 1: kind of feel like I have to say Aaron Judge
Speaker 1: because like, to me, this is like my I actually
Speaker 1: thought I thought about this, and I think that this
Speaker 1: is basically like this is like Aaron Judge is Manchester
Speaker 1: United in the late nineties, Like he's gonna win things.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be amazing. But Judge right now is potentially
Speaker 1: like the treble winning team. Like it just everything is
Speaker 1: like going like to the point where he could be
Speaker 1: having like a thirteen or fourteen war season, which is
Speaker 1: just unprecedented.
Speaker 2: Like we all know that he's great.
Speaker 1: We know that he could kind of like probably get
Speaker 1: two thirds of the way there, like he could win
Speaker 1: the Premier League and get the FA Cup, but getting
Speaker 1: that Champions League on top of it, getting his few
Speaker 1: extra war that has kind of like eluded him so far.
Speaker 1: He's had two eleven war seasons. Like, yes, he needs
Speaker 1: to stay fit and played like the entire season, but
Speaker 1: like if he gets to that kind of twelve thirteen
Speaker 1: fourteen character like level, I'm sorry, it's like we didn't
Speaker 1: predict this, Like it is like Bonzian level stuff that
Speaker 1: we're talking about here, and it's just it's just ridiculous,
Speaker 1: and I think we still need to say that, Like
Speaker 1: what he's doing is ridiculous and it is more than
Speaker 1: we anticipated.
Speaker 4: It is sort of like any of the truly elite
Speaker 4: guys when when Ronaldo and Messi were kind of hitting
Speaker 4: their peak, or Federer and Nadal Djokovic, whoever. It is
Speaker 4: the guys who you're sort of like, oh, they're already
Speaker 4: so good, you know, they can't possibly get any better.
Speaker 4: And then somehow they come out and they get better.
Speaker 4: You know, they just take over games and they raise
Speaker 4: it to yet another level. And that that does seem
Speaker 4: to be what Judge is doing. And yeah, nobody is
Speaker 4: surprised that he's the best hitter in the game, but
Speaker 4: I think you're right to say that the fact that
Speaker 4: he is this good is pretty astounding because we know,
Speaker 4: in any of our times as baseball fans, we have
Speaker 4: never seen anybody this good at hitting. I think it
Speaker 4: is worth mentioning that as often as we can.
Speaker 1: Yes, and just to quickly go back to Havier bayas
Speaker 1: they do have something to compare it against that I
Speaker 1: worked out in my head it's Roger Federer to me,
Speaker 1: because it's the point that he was good, had the
Speaker 1: dip like in his kind of like early like late
Speaker 1: early thirties or whatever. And I actually told a lot
Speaker 1: of my friends, I think he should retire before he
Speaker 1: gets like before he kind of goes bad. And then
Speaker 1: he came back and won more titles afterwards. But it's
Speaker 1: not quite to that level, but someone who had that
Speaker 1: mid level dip. Okay, that is all of our position players.
Speaker 1: Let's move on to pitching. Then, let's just do to
Speaker 1: give a short stiff to the many and plethora of
Speaker 1: pitchers that are out there. We're just going to do
Speaker 1: one picture and one reliever each. Darius, do you want
Speaker 1: to start us off with your starting pitcher?
Speaker 3: Yeap.
Speaker 4: I found it difficult to picture just one, but in
Speaker 4: the end I went with Chris Boobach of the Royals,
Speaker 4: who has been hurt for a while. He was kind
Speaker 4: of one of those that quite a big group really
Speaker 4: of you know Royals pitching prospects that were supposed to
Speaker 4: sort of come along and save them, and none of
Speaker 4: it seemed to pan out, and he had some real
Speaker 4: struggles and the rotation never really looked like he was
Speaker 4: going to go anywhere. They tried him, been relief for
Speaker 4: a bit, then he got injured. But now he's come back.
Speaker 4: He's made ten starts, he's got one forty seven ERA
Speaker 4: so far, and it looks like he's finally putting things together.
Speaker 4: So YEP, didn't really see this coming at all. Wasn't
Speaker 4: expecting him to kind of force himself into this Royal's
Speaker 4: rotation picture the way he has, but he looks like
Speaker 4: he's made himself a fixture. And I feel like pitching
Speaker 4: is always the easiest area for this every year, is
Speaker 4: that there's always going to be somebody at the top
Speaker 4: of those leaderboards every single year on the other pitching
Speaker 4: side that you're just like, oh, yeah, he's not even
Speaker 4: going to start. Yeah, and then suddenly, you know, twenty
Speaker 4: five thirty starts later there in the inside Young contention
Speaker 4: or and they're in the top tenor in IRA or something,
Speaker 4: and Boobitch is one of those guys this year. So
Speaker 4: fair play to him. It's been quite a long road
Speaker 4: and it's good to see him succeeding.
Speaker 3: Royals are good at developing pitching, aren't they.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, how they do they keep them? If they
Speaker 1: keep them on the field, that's the.
Speaker 3: But they do. I was torn between a couple of guys.
Speaker 3: I think Lizardo is an easy answer because I think
Speaker 3: he's currently leading pictures in War, which is pretty amazing
Speaker 3: to say, Like, what an amazing job that policea dino.
Speaker 3: He's always had this stuff but seemed to figure it
Speaker 3: out as a starter until this year. So you know,
Speaker 3: the rich get richer from that perspective for the Phillies.
Speaker 3: But I'm actually going to sell you on a gentleman
Speaker 3: called Tyler McGill at the New York Mets who his
Speaker 3: era doesn't necessarily stand out. I think it's mid threes
Speaker 3: right now. Yet his under line numbers are little bit
Speaker 3: better than that, but he's striking out twelve per nine.
Speaker 3: The walks are still pretty high, but he's taking the
Speaker 3: ball every five days and for a rotation that we
Speaker 3: looked out at the start of the year and thought
Speaker 3: that that does not look great. He's maybe been their
Speaker 3: most impressive picture so far, but play Homes has also
Speaker 3: been awesome. But I think it was having a guy
Speaker 3: who they can rely on to go out there, give
Speaker 3: them innings, give them depth. We didn't think McGill was
Speaker 3: going to be that guy because we kind of thought
Speaker 3: we knew what he was at this point. But he
Speaker 3: seems to have found a new level this year of
Speaker 3: production that we had necessarily seen from him in the past.
Speaker 3: And I'm not saying he's going to become an ace,
Speaker 3: but I think if he can be a guy who
Speaker 3: throws one hundred and eight two hundred innings puts up
Speaker 3: four or five wins like that is really really valuable
Speaker 3: for the Mets with the current state of their rotation.
Speaker 3: He's already equaled his career high in in wins above replacement,
Speaker 3: and as I say, with some of the stuff he's
Speaker 3: showing this year, there's reason to believe it's legit. Yeah,
Speaker 3: not a guy anyone came into this year thinking was
Speaker 3: going to be a really important member of that rotation.
Speaker 3: But I think he's maybe showing that he is going
Speaker 3: to be, yeah, at the very least one of the
Speaker 3: most reliable guys and hopefully you can stay healthy and
Speaker 3: turn it into a career year for himself.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, I think he's had that fantastic season. I was myself.
Speaker 1: I was split between two as well. I was split
Speaker 1: between Mackenzie Gore and Matthew librator And I think just
Speaker 1: more because like Gore had a good last season last
Speaker 1: year that to me, I think Libratoria was kind of
Speaker 1: just really pushes it as something that I've just been like, oh, like,
Speaker 1: you've looked good this year and kind of the aside
Speaker 1: to it where it's like he's really dropped the walk rate,
Speaker 1: which has been kind of what's cost him a lot.
Speaker 1: He's never been like a massive K like pitcher and
Speaker 1: kind of command basically had to sharpen for him to
Speaker 1: be something like that and potentially somebody who can throw
Speaker 1: the kitchen sink at you with it, like his variety
Speaker 1: of pitches or whatever. But the command had never quite
Speaker 1: been there, and it seems to be there right at
Speaker 1: the start of the season. And his sub three ra
Speaker 1: along with us up like three FIP for the start
Speaker 1: of the season, is one of the reasons why the
Speaker 1: Cardinals are in a position to maybe challenge for for
Speaker 1: that division, which is something that I definitely didn't expect,
Speaker 1: and I didn't expect him to be one of the
Speaker 1: leading figures in the pushing the similarist team towards that position.
Speaker 1: Darius sim I just picking a freaking first rounder and
Speaker 1: saying like, oh, isn't it amazing that, like he's actually
Speaker 1: now like a great player.
Speaker 2: It's not really hard, is it.
Speaker 4: No? I think I think the shine had definitely come
Speaker 4: off Librattal what once people saw him in the made
Speaker 4: just did kind of look like this, maybe this guy's
Speaker 4: you know, like a four if it all works out,
Speaker 4: And maybe that still is what he's going to be,
Speaker 4: but I think, yeah, he was far enough and moved
Speaker 4: from his prospect pedigree that people had kind of, you know,
Speaker 4: slept on him.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's move on to relievers to finish us off. Ben,
Speaker 1: where would you like to start?
Speaker 3: Well? Can I sell you a funky left hander named
Speaker 3: Gabe Spier? Am I saying that right? For the Seattle Mariners?
Speaker 3: Who does you know? The funky left handed stuff? He
Speaker 3: has kind of a low arm slot, he has fastball
Speaker 3: and a slider. He's got a high velo fastball, and
Speaker 3: he's a nightmare to face if you're a left handed hitter.
Speaker 3: But he also this year seems to be a bit
Speaker 3: of a nightman's face your right handed hitter too. He's
Speaker 3: been really legit in that Seattle bullpen. There is another
Speaker 3: guy who maybe is taking the headlines in that bullpen
Speaker 3: for reasons that hover around zero point zero zero. But
Speaker 3: I wanted to shout out, you know, the lesser heralded
Speaker 3: guy who's doing a lot of the work in the
Speaker 3: seventh and eighth and then to put out fires before
Speaker 3: before Minnals gets into the game. So yeah, shout out
Speaker 3: to Gabe. I always love a funky lefty, especially one
Speaker 3: with long hair who looks a little bit crazy, and
Speaker 3: I and I feel like, you know, Spier hits that
Speaker 3: mold spot on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think he's he's He's definitely given Seattle the
Speaker 1: edge in some of the games.
Speaker 2: Is obviously min Yez is now.
Speaker 1: What appearance twenty one twenty two appearances without an run
Speaker 1: so far, he's got two wee earned, but is what's
Speaker 1: probably calling a lot of people right now. Still got
Speaker 1: a long way to go to get to the thirties
Speaker 1: odd that we saw a few times in the in
Speaker 1: the twenty tens. It's like amazing starts to the season. Darius,
Speaker 1: who's your cavalcade of webs or albas that you want
Speaker 1: to tell us about?
Speaker 4: Well, not to be too much about Homer, but I'm
Speaker 4: going to go with Randon Rodriguez, who is a go
Speaker 4: and to reliever, and he has been absolute filth. He
Speaker 4: has a thirty eight point five percent strikeout rate right
Speaker 4: now in a three point eight percent walk right, That
Speaker 4: is pretty good. He kind of simplified the arsenal a bit.
Speaker 4: I think he was throwing four pictures last year, mostly
Speaker 4: a passibal slider, but just said get rid of those
Speaker 4: we're going only fastball slider. Now he's cooking sitting ninety
Speaker 4: seven slider is filth fastball up on the zone, and yeah,
Speaker 4: it is working for him right now. He doesn't quite
Speaker 4: have the zero ARA, but he does have a zero
Speaker 4: point eighty seven the iron through just over twenty innings.
Speaker 4: And yeah, I'm never that surprised by any relieve it's
Speaker 4: just randomly being great. But Randy Roderigan's certainly a lot
Speaker 4: on my list of this guy is going to be
Speaker 4: they filthy and run over in baseball this season. So
Speaker 4: I'm excited desone the Giants.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's always a good one to see. All Right,
Speaker 1: I'm going to finish us off and I'm going to
Speaker 1: go back to the Bronx and talk about Mark Lighter Jr.
Speaker 1: Think he's somebody who has effectively we know he's not
Speaker 1: going to be effectively moved from his positions of being
Speaker 1: like a starler pretty early on in his career, been
Speaker 1: to that ballbend and has kind of just been solid,
Speaker 1: like nothing, kind of like outstanding a.
Speaker 2: Lot of very high strikeout guy.
Speaker 1: The walk rate has usually been the concern to go
Speaker 1: with it, but like this season, he's kind of that
Speaker 1: walk rate has dropped a little. Is he going to
Speaker 1: stay that way? I don't know, not really giving up
Speaker 1: the big bombs that he does a few more and
Speaker 1: more often than not. But as a player who is
Speaker 1: potentially eligible to play for GV in the World Baseball Classic,
Speaker 1: he's somebody that I will will follow and seeing him
Speaker 1: kind of put out performances like this, it's pretty exciting.
Speaker 1: And definitely he kind of like looks like he's going
Speaker 1: to do well. I was literally looking to see if
Speaker 1: he's done. He was pitching kind of like today as
Speaker 1: we were talking, and I'm like, okay, at least he
Speaker 1: gave it two hits but complete.
Speaker 2: Another zero runs allowed in the inning.
Speaker 1: But yeah, he's had that pretty amazing start at the season,
Speaker 1: which has kind of helped the Yankees given how bad
Speaker 1: kind of Devin Williams has been.
Speaker 3: Doing, I'm gonna say finding a relief pitcher has been
Speaker 3: good this season. It's not easy if like every high
Speaker 3: highly regarded closer has had at least one extremely public
Speaker 3: meltdown at some point this year, So definitely a year
Speaker 3: for the un heraldic guys to step up.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: It was I think when I was looking at it
Speaker 1: was lighter or the greater Ben Casparius was was the
Speaker 1: man I was going to potentially shout out for doing
Speaker 1: multiple innings of relief for Dodgers in some important games
Speaker 1: so far this year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I like Asparius, big fan.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think just to put a final twist on this,
Speaker 1: as we always like to end everything on a bad
Speaker 1: who's been your most disappointing player of the season so far?
Speaker 1: I don't have not given you a chance to research
Speaker 1: this one, So maybe I'll go first, And I think
Speaker 1: I have to say, like Christian Yelich is probably one
Speaker 1: for me, where like I think there are moments last
Speaker 1: season where we were like, oh yeah, like Yelich is back,
Speaker 1: and this season I think he's got a six hundred OPS,
Speaker 1: which is.
Speaker 2: Not very good.
Speaker 1: And optimal suboptimal and someone who's pretty much got full
Speaker 1: game time as well.
Speaker 2: That's that has hurt the Brewers.
Speaker 3: This is half. I feel like I have to choose
Speaker 3: someone on the Orioles just because they've been so disappointing
Speaker 3: as a team. But it feels harsh to put it
Speaker 3: on any of their young players in particular. I mean
Speaker 3: like Rochman. I guess like considering how great he was
Speaker 3: as a rookie, and it was like, Oh, this guy's
Speaker 3: a second coming of Buster Posey. He's going to be
Speaker 3: a legitim middle of the order bat who also is
Speaker 3: one of the best defensive catchers in baseball, which you
Speaker 3: know is extremely rare, and he kind of just hasn't
Speaker 3: been able to get back there since. I don't know
Speaker 3: exactly where his season nine is sitting right now. I
Speaker 3: don't think he's been a bad player by any means,
Speaker 3: but I guess he's someone that comes to mind when
Speaker 3: you think of like where the Orioles were this time
Speaker 3: last year, or even at the end of the season,
Speaker 3: you think about, like, they're so set for the next
Speaker 3: five years because they have some of these guys Gonna
Speaker 3: who you know, has also been a little bit disappointing
Speaker 3: so far this year, but also Rochman, who yeah, just
Speaker 3: hasn't really been able to kick on as as a hit.
Speaker 3: It would seem so, yeah, I look a bit harsh
Speaker 3: because he's not exactly horrible back there, but I think
Speaker 3: considering we thought he was going to be well, he
Speaker 3: looked like he was going to be like future MVP candidate,
Speaker 3: it just hasn't really come together. For him, but hey,
Speaker 3: there's plenty of time left.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is I mean, this is a long list,
Speaker 4: isn't it, Like so many players I think. I think
Speaker 4: Marcus Simeon, he obviously didn't have his greatest season last year,
Speaker 4: and I wasn't expecting him to go back to peak
Speaker 4: semion necessarily in his mid thirties, but starting to get
Speaker 4: a bit like the Rangers in trouble here. You know,
Speaker 4: they've got a lot of years left in this deal
Speaker 4: and things are going very rapidly in the wrong direction.
Speaker 4: He has a forty nine WRC plus right now, so
Speaker 4: extremely ikes on that. I think the other one from
Speaker 4: a sort of more young player upside that I've surprised
Speaker 4: he has been so ineffective is Junior Kameni. He has
Speaker 4: it runs, but he's basically a replacement NOMAL player right now,
Speaker 4: and I think the talent is still in there for
Speaker 4: him to be an elite level back that. You know,
Speaker 4: he's a guy that you consider a top ten to
Speaker 4: fifteen player in baseball at some point, certainly on the
Speaker 4: offensive side. So to see him struggle to the extent
Speaker 4: that he has has been pretty disappointing and surprising to me.
Speaker 4: So hopefully he can turn it around for the race.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I could. I could probably go on all
Speaker 4: day with the guys who suck.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think my my analytical list was is jor Dan
Speaker 1: is the worst, Andrew Vaughn, Bryan Reynolds, Anthony Sander, Christian
Speaker 1: Yelich was basically like mon five.
Speaker 4: Andrew Bawn, Oh my god, that's Andrew Bowne is what's
Speaker 4: meant to Talkerson could have been right negative one point
Speaker 4: three war.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a forty four w RT plus over one hundred
Speaker 1: and ninety three plate appearances like the.
Speaker 4: White Sox are like, we don't care you are going
Speaker 4: out there. He's gonna find which, to be fair, why not,
Speaker 4: He's got to find it any day now, any day.
Speaker 4: I mean, Leti's Robot not much better either.
Speaker 1: No, you're thinking that they don't even have trade trade
Speaker 1: prospects to go out there. Yeah, I think to just
Speaker 1: go to your point, Ben like Rutchman is like on
Speaker 1: my list of like players, you've actually still like been okay,
Speaker 1: but we're expecting to be better. It is literally like
Speaker 1: Adlie ruschbund Gunna Henderson wan So though so and then
Speaker 1: Corey Seeger with same in the bottom but seems not
Speaker 1: even been good.
Speaker 4: So that has been hurt again.
Speaker 3: All right, good glimpse this podcast could have been.
Speaker 2: Ah well, when I.
Speaker 1: Was coming over the surprise nine, I kind of I
Speaker 1: was like, do I want to do a depressing nine
Speaker 1: as well?
Speaker 4: I'm disappointed to the show. Isn't pitching it rubbish? Get
Speaker 4: him out there?
Speaker 3: I agree?
Speaker 1: How dare he claimed to be a two way player
Speaker 1: and we've not seen it in so many years? Like
Speaker 1: the fact that MLB changed the rules just to stick
Speaker 1: with the fact that he's been injured and still can
Speaker 1: be class as a two way player.
Speaker 2: It's an a freaking outrage.
Speaker 1: All right, boys, thank you so much for joining me
Speaker 1: once again for this podcast. As always, our listeners and
Speaker 1: watchers can you can see us on YouTube now with
Speaker 1: this with all of our podcasts that are up there
Speaker 1: live you want to see our reactions as they go along.
Speaker 1: Players always go to the website backplips and nerds dot
Speaker 1: com for plenty of articles going up about the season
Speaker 1: from our intrepid writers. There are some great ones out there,
Speaker 1: seeing ash publishing more things about the San Francisco Giants
Speaker 1: and given the fact that they're back to being rivals
Speaker 1: with the Dodgers again by playing good baseball. It's a
Speaker 1: it's always good to season. Words from from Ash so Yeah.
Speaker 1: As always, you can find us on Bathforts, Uners, does
Speaker 1: and Twitter and backflops ands dot com. Thank you very much, gentlemen,
Speaker 1: See you next time.