Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Batflips and Nerds, the baseball podcast
Speaker 1: with a British twist. I am your host this week
Speaker 1: John McGee and joining me are two of the finest
Speaker 1: baseball minds on this part side of the pond. Mister
Speaker 1: Russell Eason, how are you.
Speaker 2: I'm doing good, John, I'm doing good. Baseball season is
Speaker 2: well and truly into its works. We've had the start
Speaker 2: of the baseball season in the UK as well, so
Speaker 2: it's perfect for it to start rating now. Is that
Speaker 2: nobody else can play baseball for a while? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, how's your How's it going?
Speaker 3: How?
Speaker 1: How how's how's how's that going? Have you got a
Speaker 1: torpedo back yet?
Speaker 2: No, I'm literally going out to the States in a
Speaker 2: few days and basically half of my team have been
Speaker 2: like by a torpedo bat by a torpedo bat, bio
Speaker 2: torpedo bat. So there may be one coming back if
Speaker 2: I find one that is reasonably priced in some sort
Speaker 2: of a store in California, which is probably not actually
Speaker 2: that likely because it's California, but who knows.
Speaker 1: Well, that'll be the last that you hear about that story,
Speaker 1: because Rob Naveria, you really don't want to talk about
Speaker 1: torpedo bats and neither do I. Well, you got it
Speaker 1: out of your system last time, didn't you.
Speaker 3: Get it out of my system? It was never that
Speaker 3: far into my system, As I'd like to clearly point out.
Speaker 1: Please, can we stop talking about these bloody, infernal bats.
Speaker 1: You can tell it's the start of the season. Just
Speaker 1: shut up. Stop. Every single Instagram post does not need
Speaker 1: to be about these flipping bats. Stop it, rob right.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, Yeah, I'm all over Instagram obviously. Yes, no, well,
Speaker 3: you know, we just need something else toly.
Speaker 1: To talk about it.
Speaker 3: I'm sure we'll come acrossing couple of those today. There's
Speaker 3: plenty of silliness.
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, there's plenty of silliness. But before we get
Speaker 1: into the silliness, we must point out that we are
Speaker 1: recording this on the fifteenth of April twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: It is Jackie Robinson Day, so we must remark on
Speaker 1: the brilliant life and career of one of the great
Speaker 1: sportsman of all time. Everyone will be wearing forty two
Speaker 1: today and that we are wearing it in spirit. But
Speaker 1: it would be remiss of us not to tackle the
Speaker 1: elephant in the room around this. Jackie Robinson Day, because unfortunately,
Speaker 1: it feels a little different to some of the others
Speaker 1: that we've seen through in the past. So I would
Speaker 1: urge you to go and read a brilliant piece by
Speaker 1: friend of the podcast Jake Mints of the Suspendies Barbecue
Speaker 1: at Yahoo's Sports on this topic. It is incredibly erudite
Speaker 1: and incredibly thoughtful, and you will forgive me for a
Speaker 1: moment for sharing some of Jake's original thoughts so which
Speaker 1: you know I happen to share. It doesn't seem like
Speaker 1: the sport of baseball is embodying the spirit of the
Speaker 1: man of Jackie Robinson, merely celebrating his existence. This year.
Speaker 1: You can't talk about Jackie Robinson and ignore the fact
Speaker 1: that Major League Baseball appears to have removed references to
Speaker 1: diverse equality and inclusion from its website. You can't talk
Speaker 1: about Jackie Robinson this year without pointing out the fact
Speaker 1: that his team, the Dodgers, the LA Dodgers, he was a,
Speaker 1: of course, a Brooklyn Dodger, visited the White House, as
Speaker 1: is their wish when they are the champions of Major
Speaker 1: League Baseball, having won the twenty twenty four World Series,
Speaker 1: and all of them to a man shook hands with
Speaker 1: a president who is, if I'm being kind, incredibly divisive,
Speaker 1: if I'm being factual, sending people to a country far
Speaker 1: away from where they were born, where they are settled,
Speaker 1: and where their family life is for no reason incorrectly
Speaker 1: and not returning these people home. The Dodgers felt like
Speaker 1: that was okay. This is the club of Jackie Robinson,
Speaker 1: and to say that that's a shame, I think is
Speaker 1: the understatement of the century. Jackie Robinson is one of
Speaker 1: the most important people in the history of the world.
Speaker 1: He changed the course of American life for the better
Speaker 1: when he broke the color barrier in the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball had an opportunity right now to make
Speaker 1: a stand for the millions of people in their country
Speaker 1: who think that's important, not just people of color, but
Speaker 1: people who think that the just way and the right
Speaker 1: way is the way to live their life. And it's
Speaker 1: what's sport embodies, and it's what Jackie Robinson embodied. It
Speaker 1: just feels like it's a shame that in pursuit of capital,
Speaker 1: in pursuit of political advantage, and in pursuit of whatever
Speaker 1: the hell they think is to their advantage the sport,
Speaker 1: the owners, and unfortunately many of its greatest players have
Speaker 1: turned away from that ideal. Let's talk about some fun stuff.
Speaker 3: He's going to take us into the next bit transition there.
Speaker 1: Well, it's hard. Sure we talk about I don't know
Speaker 1: where do we go after that? It still feels quite
Speaker 1: early to be talking about where the clubs are good.
Speaker 1: I know you Robin and Ben and Darius did a
Speaker 1: really good job of picking the bones out of the
Speaker 1: early season a couple of weeks ago. But it does
Speaker 1: feel like there's a bit of a pan now nowhere
Speaker 1: more so than in our two favorite divisions, the two
Speaker 1: central divisions, the NLNA L Central, where it's pretty clear
Speaker 1: that there are, as we anticipated, not very many good teams. Indeed,
Speaker 1: they're appear to be only two out of the ten
Speaker 1: teams who are even approaching palatable. So should we talk
Speaker 1: about well, let's talk about the.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you which do you think is
Speaker 1: worse out of these two? Rob the an L or
Speaker 1: the AL Central.
Speaker 3: Ah, you see, your gut immediately goes with AL Central.
Speaker 3: I feel, and just looking now at the stats, I
Speaker 3: think that is kind of backed up AL Central. But
Speaker 3: then yes, so okay, so like you're your best guys,
Speaker 3: You've got you've got the Tigers as your current AL
Speaker 3: Central best team and the Cubs as your current NL
Speaker 3: Central best team. And if you're saying which one of
Speaker 3: them do you think is gonna be better, you're probably
Speaker 3: saying the Cubs, So like that's your top one that's better.
Speaker 3: And then if you even look all the way down
Speaker 3: through the and you look at the bottom and you say,
Speaker 3: all right, so the worst team in the division is
Speaker 3: the White Sox or the Pirates. And again, if you're
Speaker 3: gonna pick one of those two that you get to back,
Speaker 3: it's probably gonna be the Pirates. So it's gonna be
Speaker 3: the AL Central that is the worst.
Speaker 1: Right, what do you think, Russell? It's it's a it's
Speaker 1: a pretty good argument. Most of the teams in the
Speaker 1: NL Central have actually got players that you want to watch.
Speaker 1: That cannot be said of many of the teams in
Speaker 1: the AL Central.
Speaker 2: It's like we'll come to some of it later on,
Speaker 2: might have to come up with some new bads as
Speaker 2: we're discovering it now. But like Kansas City's offense is
Speaker 2: just awful, like basically Bobby with its basically trying to
Speaker 2: do exactly the same thing as he did last year
Speaker 2: and try and carry them on his back while they
Speaker 2: have some pitching. But there's been a little to no
Speaker 2: improvement there. Yeah, obviously we joke out early and the
Speaker 2: season is it used to be. Hey, when Mike Trout's
Speaker 2: the top of the Phantografts War leader board or whatever,
Speaker 2: you know, it's about time to start looking at stats.
Speaker 2: And I joke now that basically it's when judges are
Speaker 2: top of the the fangers leaderboards, you start to look
Speaker 2: at what the stats to me now and we're there.
Speaker 2: It's probably still a little bit early, but it's not
Speaker 2: been good. Like I've watched Cleveland versus Kansas now five times, no,
Speaker 2: or four times? Yeah, no, five times, and it's not
Speaker 2: None of those games have been like set alight by
Speaker 2: world class hitting. So there's real fear of those teams
Speaker 2: both just really struggling to kind of get out of
Speaker 2: any sort of kind of level of mediocrity. I haven't
Speaker 2: seen the Twins too much, but just once again, it's
Speaker 2: just a lot of kind of like its injury upon
Speaker 2: injury upon injury on that team that just never works
Speaker 2: it out, and the are bad and Detroit maybe doing
Speaker 2: what Cleveland have done for probably most of the last
Speaker 2: five or six years, which is basically win by default,
Speaker 2: and like that gets you the division he gets through.
Speaker 2: Like the other side, I think it's what said, the
Speaker 2: Cubs are definitely a good team. Like I think we
Speaker 2: all maybe laid into the Cubs for losing that those
Speaker 2: couple of games against the Dodgers so easily at the
Speaker 2: start of the season, and we were a little bit
Speaker 2: too early on that one. But yeah, like the rest
Speaker 2: of that division, the Brewers probably had a little bit
Speaker 2: of credit bill because of how they've kind of done
Speaker 2: things in the past that you can imagine.
Speaker 1: That their pitching isn't poorly.
Speaker 2: But that's it. That's what they've been able to find
Speaker 2: and get to work. And I think Rob can maybe
Speaker 2: say as a race fan, like that can work for
Speaker 2: like six or seven seasons, but there's going to be
Speaker 2: the odd season to where it just fails completely. So
Speaker 2: I don't know if that's going to be that season.
Speaker 2: Everyone else it's just it's just such a level of
Speaker 2: mayor like there's just not things to get excited about,
Speaker 2: and that's it's just so depressing and at least the
Speaker 2: other time, I will say, like I would think the
Speaker 2: NAL Central is worth watching more. It's just because La
Speaker 2: the Cubs have actually tried to be a good team
Speaker 2: and they're being rewarded for the success. And even though
Speaker 2: the Pirates are bad, you get to watch Paul schemes,
Speaker 2: so like, there's just nothing like that on Chicago, so.
Speaker 1: Of course, right, and yeah.
Speaker 2: And Hunter Green on the Reds. Hunter Green has been
Speaker 2: absolutely phenomenal. I think he leads like Bangruft's war.
Speaker 1: But of us, some of us are saying that in
Speaker 1: our pre season preview it was not you two, Rob.
Speaker 1: Have you got any thoughts on why these divisions are
Speaker 1: so bad? Like why are they not trying? Obviously we've
Speaker 1: got some traditional quote unquote small market teams and you know,
Speaker 1: the Pirates, the Brewers, they never spend any money Cleveland,
Speaker 1: of course, but beyond that, why are they not trying?
Speaker 1: Like all of these divisions are winnable or have they
Speaker 1: just looked at the Tigers and looked at the Cubs
Speaker 1: and gone fair enough that they're winning their division? Ah, yeah,
Speaker 1: see you next season, lads.
Speaker 3: The small market excuses bollocks and we've seen that, Yeah, bollocks,
Speaker 3: because you know, We've seen the rays do it. We've
Speaker 3: seen the pod rays to an extent do it. We've
Speaker 3: seen clever teams that the a's have done it, you know,
Speaker 3: not now, but like for long stretches, the a's have
Speaker 3: been punching well above their their their their position. So
Speaker 3: it's not that it's not that it's it's it's purely
Speaker 3: got to be strength and competition, you know, it's the
Speaker 3: survival of the fittest. And if no one's that fit,
Speaker 3: then you haven't got to be fitter than the next guy.
Speaker 3: So essentially, this is a bunch of obese rangutans sat
Speaker 3: around eating too much, and there's nothing more to it
Speaker 3: than that. Like they haven't got to get higher in
Speaker 3: the tree. They don't need to outrun the predator because
Speaker 3: there isn't a predator in those divisions. And it's just
Speaker 3: as simple as that, Like they're just lazy, there's no
Speaker 3: need to go for it.
Speaker 1: So why bother, why I bother, indeed, why bother talking
Speaker 1: any more about these two absolutely appalling divisions. Should we
Speaker 1: talk about a couple of good ones. Would you rather
Speaker 1: start in the NL West or the al e Strustle.
Speaker 2: Let's go NL west, because I think there's been a
Speaker 2: little bit more surprise, like in a couple of the teams,
Speaker 2: Like I think a few of us were maybe slightly persumistic.
Speaker 1: Are we going to be nice about the pad Rice And.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sadly we might have to say something nice. But
Speaker 2: they've started well and they've basically have got the best record.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: Giants looked really good watching some of the highlights of
Speaker 2: the games over the weekend. I think John Hoolee wish
Speaker 2: he plays the Yankee Stadium all the time. He was
Speaker 2: having a whale of time in those games. But no,
Speaker 2: and even like the Diamondbacks are nine and seven and
Speaker 2: I was looking at it being like, oh, they're like
Speaker 2: four games out, and I'm like, well, they're actually nine
Speaker 2: and seven, which is basically better than almost every other
Speaker 2: team in the NL, so like apart from like the
Speaker 2: part apart from the Phillies or whatever in the Cubs.
Speaker 2: So you're like, oh, we joke about it sometimes that
Speaker 2: all one division is gonna get all of the wild
Speaker 2: card teams, and well, who knows right now, But actually
Speaker 2: the thing is the Mets, not the Phillies, who are
Speaker 2: doing well. But yeah, it's looking like a bloody tough division.
Speaker 2: To win. I was chuckling that the Dodgers Fangrabs olds
Speaker 2: have gone down by two percent, like they've started the
Speaker 2: season like twelve and four, and they're odds down because
Speaker 2: everybody else's started out ridiculously good as well. So you've
Speaker 2: got one team at the top, and I'm still gonna
Speaker 2: be perfectly honest, I would not know who to choose
Speaker 2: between San Francisco and the Padres and the Diamondbacks. I
Speaker 2: would have had an opinion probably more towards the Padres
Speaker 2: come the start of this season, and with the Diamondbacks
Speaker 2: are close kind of like third and the San Francisco
Speaker 2: being a bit off, But that looks like maybe a
Speaker 2: one horse race and three very other people close behind it.
Speaker 2: Because I still think you can't really look away from
Speaker 2: the Dodgers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, over the long haul, they're surely going to be
Speaker 1: the class act of that division. But it wouldn't be
Speaker 1: a surprise if both of the wild card well, it
Speaker 1: feels almost inevitable that both of the wild cards going
Speaker 1: to come out of that division the way that the
Speaker 1: Phillies and the Braves are started. But you know, baseball's
Speaker 1: a long old season. We're going to get onto justin
Speaker 1: Cossus in one hundred and sixty two games. Momentarily, I think,
Speaker 1: so we'll leave that for then. I wanted to point
Speaker 1: out one player that I thought about putting in my
Speaker 1: two good too bad, but this felt like the right
Speaker 1: point to talk about it. It's not been sensational, but
Speaker 1: a guy who I have great joy for is Kyle
Speaker 1: Hart on the Padres. So he pitched in career last
Speaker 1: year and he was the best pitch and career and
Speaker 1: this is not his first trip into MLB, because he
Speaker 1: was on the astonishingly awful twenty twenty Boston Red Sox
Speaker 1: and arguably took the crown as the worst player to
Speaker 1: play for the Red Sox that season, and there were
Speaker 1: a lot of them. In four games over eleven innings,
Speaker 1: he held an RA of fifteen point five and wasn't
Speaker 1: seen again having been a you know, not a heralded
Speaker 1: but a half decent pitching prospect as a sort of
Speaker 1: back end starter. And yeah, he's been back in the
Speaker 1: minor leagues, he's been in career for a couple of years,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I mean he's putting up creditiable innings, which
Speaker 1: is exactly what the Padres need with that offense. You
Speaker 1: don't need spectacular outside of Michael King to carry the day.
Speaker 1: I just thought that was a thing that was worth
Speaker 1: noting and great to see him him prospering. Still some
Speaker 1: way to go to bring down that career, ra Kyle,
Speaker 1: but you know you're heading on the right track. Al East, Rob,
Speaker 1: That's our division, isn't it. There are some good teams
Speaker 1: in that division there.
Speaker 3: As I was looking up Kyle Hart and I just
Speaker 3: I just found a Reuter's uh piece that actually calls
Speaker 3: him Dan Hart. So that's fantastic. I got very confused
Speaker 3: trying to work out if there's two heart pictures on
Speaker 3: the padres.
Speaker 4: But still still some way to come from Brouss as well, Right,
Speaker 4: A least get your career a e R A under
Speaker 4: ten and they'll call your car.
Speaker 3: A least. Yes, a least. It is a complete toss up,
Speaker 3: isn't it. I mean that there was a terrifying butt
Speaker 3: plug bat moment when it looked like the Yankees were
Speaker 3: just going to run away with everything. But since then,
Speaker 3: like anyone like total roll of the dice right now,
Speaker 3: and it's fantastic, and it's not a roll of the
Speaker 3: dice Ale central style roll of the dice. This is
Speaker 3: a roll of the dice that you can point at
Speaker 3: every team and say that's good, that's really good. These
Speaker 3: guys have got something really excellent, and there's a lot
Speaker 3: of it. I mean, I'm very drawn to the A
Speaker 3: Least anyway, because my team is plays in the al Least.
Speaker 3: But if I'm flicking through the other fixtures, it's very
Speaker 3: often I say, oh, I'm gonna go and watch a
Speaker 3: game that doesn't feature in the Aleast. But I'm finding
Speaker 3: myself more and more drawn, like, okay, look the Baltimore
Speaker 3: Oils run right now, let's see what they're doing, because
Speaker 3: they are relevant, you know, badly pitching badly and getting
Speaker 3: worse through injuries. But you know, every team here is relevant.
Speaker 3: There is There is no team you can say, yeah,
Speaker 3: they're not gonna be here at the end. You could
Speaker 3: feasibly say every single one of these these teams is
Speaker 3: going to be, you know, you know, still in it
Speaker 3: with the last week to go, like a there's gonna
Speaker 3: be wild cud teams coming out of the Al East.
Speaker 3: That's not a surprise. Normally, it's not gonna be a
Speaker 3: surprise this year. Again, there's a lot of good teams.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of good stuff, but it strength and
Speaker 3: rookies we're talking about later or you know, there's been
Speaker 3: some fantastic pitching starts of some some some interesting twists
Speaker 3: from the pitching. We've had a bit of everything. From
Speaker 3: the A least, it's been a real microcosm of the
Speaker 3: whole league. But the good stuff, like we haven't seen
Speaker 3: the crap out of the AA least. That time will come.
Speaker 3: There's gonna be a dip, but right now, these guys
Speaker 3: it's just really competitive, fun baseball.
Speaker 1: It's also got great storylines as well. Russell has it
Speaker 1: not the the incredible orange crush uniforms, the butt plug bats,
Speaker 1: Bladito's Bladito's five hundred million, and the on day off
Speaker 1: day that is Garrett Crochet Day. Sometimes maybe good, sometimes
Speaker 1: maybe shit.
Speaker 2: I think what you've got there, though, is you've got
Speaker 2: the it's not There is an East Coast bias in
Speaker 2: some regards when it comes to like sports medium it's
Speaker 2: not just baseball like it exists for a reason because
Speaker 2: that's where a large amount of the population is in
Speaker 2: the United States, so you can get But if you
Speaker 2: live in the middle and you don't like it, but
Speaker 2: guess what, that's where the population is. The media is
Speaker 2: going to skew to words where people actually live. But
Speaker 2: so we basically need anything that is potentially interesting we
Speaker 2: all know about. Like I had people who don't really
Speaker 2: know about baseball sending me images of why am I
Speaker 2: seeing like powder blue versus like bright orange in baseball?
Speaker 2: Like what on earth is going on? I thought, this
Speaker 2: is something where everybody wore like white. Is this kind
Speaker 2: of like test cricket or the one day cricket? Are
Speaker 2: they changing like what uniforms look like to make it
Speaker 2: kind of more appealing for day night games? And I
Speaker 2: was kind of like.
Speaker 1: Carry carry packers spirit lives on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you've got the you got the someone stepping up
Speaker 2: like Chiron Pollard and it's freaking West Indian, kind of
Speaker 2: like Maroon up there to hit the bat, someone who
Speaker 2: personally I believe posentially could have been a very good
Speaker 2: baseball player. But that is a digression. Now it's entertaining.
Speaker 2: That's the whole reason why we like the like the
Speaker 2: the al least you've got to being you've got the
Speaker 2: probably the biggest rivalry in baseball, and the both teams
Speaker 2: look like they might actually be good again at the
Speaker 2: same time for what the first time in ages like that,
Speaker 2: they're both actually kind of like aligned with doing it,
Speaker 2: and you've got the upstart orioles basically at the bottom
Speaker 2: right now when you ever body was probably putting them
Speaker 2: right towards the top. I'll hold my hand on my
Speaker 2: heart and say that I was one hundred percent certain
Speaker 2: of blood he was done in Toronto, and he's obviously
Speaker 2: now just kind of like got the massive deal and
Speaker 2: in some regards maybe made sure that Kyle Tucker gets
Speaker 2: a massive deal come next year unless he gets himself injured.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's like it's where there is the news,
Speaker 2: and obviously the Rays having fun in their spring training stadium,
Speaker 2: like getting all of those stadium those cheapy homers that
Speaker 2: used to be like the plane of their existence and
Speaker 2: they're now getting some of those cheapy homers themselves and
Speaker 2: enjoying it every now and then. But yeah, it's it's
Speaker 2: it's where, it's where, it's where eyes are on, and
Speaker 2: it's providing the entertainment while it's got the attention.
Speaker 3: Right now, I sidetrack onto that stupid stadium for a moment.
Speaker 3: I'm terribly sorry. I really have to say, like Jesus
Speaker 3: Christ is I mean, I watched a game. It was
Speaker 3: the Raise against the Angels. I lost track of how
Speaker 3: many stupid pop up home runs went out to that
Speaker 3: short porch. Because you've got Yankee Stadium, it's the exact
Speaker 3: same dimensions as Yankee Stadium at Steinbrenner Field. The difference
Speaker 3: is New York is north. New York's a bit chilly
Speaker 3: from time to time. In Tampa, the ball just go
Speaker 3: and my god, was it going like there was there
Speaker 3: was Angels players you've never heard of, because let's face it,
Speaker 3: you've never heard of any Angels players other than the
Speaker 3: Mic Trout. There was Angel players never heard of who
Speaker 3: were like the three home run games. It was stupid.
Speaker 3: It was ridiculous. And they are not hitting home runs
Speaker 3: anywhere else out of that stadium. They are all going
Speaker 3: out to that stupid short porch and we all call
Speaker 3: it the stupid short porch anyway. But like, turn up
Speaker 3: the temperature, and that short porch is like turning up
Speaker 3: the stupidity. Like it's a couple more knocks to the head. Jesus,
Speaker 3: it's awful. I hate that stadium. Not as bad as
Speaker 3: the Age one, but I still I hate that stadium
Speaker 3: already and I haven't even visited it yet. Sorry, sorry,
Speaker 3: it's all right.
Speaker 1: We've all we've all had something to say. I mean
Speaker 1: I did. I did a cold oak for the whole
Speaker 1: podcast where I was, you know, coldly furious, but you've
Speaker 1: been warmly furious, so you know it does matter. Competitive
Speaker 1: balance is important. I too think that that stadium makes
Speaker 1: an entire mockery of the sport. I hate the short porch.
Speaker 1: I absolutely hate it, and obviously I hate that short
Speaker 1: porch even more. Right, shall we go from the sublime
Speaker 1: to the ridiculous?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: We we have to talk about what on earth is
Speaker 1: going on in Colorado and the South side of Chicago,
Speaker 1: don't we? Albeit loathe, loathe, and for me to say
Speaker 1: this and bad timing that the White Sox did take
Speaker 1: a series off The Red Song this week, owing largely
Speaker 1: to Chase Midroth, who was traded to the White Sox
Speaker 1: aspart of that Garat Crochet Heal not not too long ago.
Speaker 1: But goodness gracious, they are running out some people you've
Speaker 1: literally never heard of, and then running out some players
Speaker 1: who are supposed to be okay but here are horrendous.
Speaker 1: What what on earth? Like, ahmen, the Rockies just they
Speaker 1: just contriving to find new ways to lose every single week.
Speaker 1: Where where do where do they go? I mean, what
Speaker 1: what are they doing? Russell? What are they doing? Nobody
Speaker 1: knows the answer to that question. What's Michael Totalia doing?
Speaker 1: He's supposed to be good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the one that really I think that's the
Speaker 2: one that hurts, where it's like you kind of have
Speaker 2: your your power hitting first basement just kind of disappear
Speaker 2: like and just be like, oh, so there's no power
Speaker 2: here anymore. It's like you always remember and obviously like
Speaker 2: with the with Rayers with a framill, like when he
Speaker 2: was in Cleveland and just went from just being a
Speaker 2: power hitter to then suddenly just swinging and missing and
Speaker 2: being completely looking completely netly overpowered. Like it's not good. Yeah,
Speaker 2: still short sample size, will we'll see how it looks
Speaker 2: in a couple of weeks time, but it's it's not
Speaker 2: a good start. And when that team has basically got
Speaker 2: i don't know, three serviceable out of all like hitters,
Speaker 2: and two of them aren't basically doing anything that you
Speaker 2: would hope they would do, it's bad. And you then
Speaker 2: have like Kyle Freeland, like I think pitching.
Speaker 1: Actually center teller O, My goodness.
Speaker 2: Those guys have like sill Still I don't know like
Speaker 2: either basically Colorado is basically the best place or like
Speaker 2: to live like in the world. Or basically the Rockies
Speaker 2: are like the greatest organization with how they treat their players,
Speaker 2: how they treat the players families and people and stuff
Speaker 2: like the Yes, as Rob might'st but that's quite legal
Speaker 2: in quite a lot of you at other US states now.
Speaker 2: But the players that want to be there stay there,
Speaker 2: and they and they stay there for a while, and
Speaker 2: they get like nice contracts, and they seem to all
Speaker 2: have a fairly enjoyable time with what they're doing. They're
Speaker 2: nowhere near basically ever being relevant, and be a surprise
Speaker 2: if they will be relevant again in three or five
Speaker 2: years time. Like I genuinely think that calls might just
Speaker 2: be effect like you just cannot produce basically like a
Speaker 2: good team that plays there because of the difference between
Speaker 2: that and every other field. Now on Chicago side, they're bad,
Speaker 2: and they're bad because they're doing exactly not what Oakland
Speaker 2: did when they went bad. Chicago decided that actually the
Speaker 2: way we're going to do this is put out a
Speaker 2: bunch of gays that you would maybe just about recognize
Speaker 2: their name. I think, oh, that means we're putting an
Speaker 2: effort in. And it's like, no, if you actually just
Speaker 2: threw out all of your quad A players and gave
Speaker 2: them all time, two of them might turn out to
Speaker 2: be good like Butler did. And I mean, like like
Speaker 2: a few others have done, like yeah, so you just
Speaker 2: like Chicago haven't done that. They're throwing out like Mike
Speaker 2: Tauchman and stuff like that. Who yeah, one of one
Speaker 2: of the most unlucky. I don't know if you did you,
Speaker 2: either of you guys. See how the White lost the
Speaker 2: game against Cleveland last week with Tagman being the tying
Speaker 2: runner going around third and pulling his squad and basically
Speaker 2: just like limping to the catcher and just being tagged
Speaker 2: out for like the final act that was That was
Speaker 2: the day after they went the clevenger walked three people
Speaker 2: in a row to load the bases and give up
Speaker 2: the walk of the one nil loss in a walk
Speaker 2: off and a walk off quite literally.
Speaker 1: Yeah I saw the walk off, but I didn't. I
Speaker 1: hadn't seen the Tagman thing. It's just that just cauldn't
Speaker 1: happen to a nicer guy than Mike Clevenger. Sorry, sorry
Speaker 1: to sidechuck you. I just got Antonio Center tellers that
Speaker 1: casts baseball, soaven up, and I mean, uh, as as
Speaker 1: you would expect. There's an awful lot of blue on there.
Speaker 1: Like work. It is fourth fourth percentile for expected are right,
Speaker 1: third percentile for expected buying overage, seventh percentile for average
Speaker 1: exit velocity first like first percentile, okay percentage, fourth percentile
Speaker 1: for hard hit right, Oh, my word is expected right?
Speaker 1: Expected era is eight point three to two. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: keep going on too. It's fine, it's fine.
Speaker 3: I think that's mostly because didn't it didn't he just
Speaker 3: break a record for least strikeouts in the game with
Speaker 3: with no no hit with no oh, I don't know.
Speaker 3: He had no strikeout? Was most what the hell am
Speaker 3: I trying to say?
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ? Without a strikeout?
Speaker 3: Thank you? Yes? And the scoreless innings, that was it
Speaker 3: most scorning. I mean, the defense was amazing, but he'd
Speaker 3: got the guys on on minus zero point three war
Speaker 3: already and he's only plaid three times.
Speaker 1: Goodness gracious me. Yeah, I mean they are both utterly
Speaker 1: hideous teams, and I think we should move meve on.
Speaker 1: Ben's got to listen to this, Ben, Ben. So we're
Speaker 1: going to get onto we've got a substantive item. What
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about food. I think this is
Speaker 1: because we knew you were coming on, Rob and it
Speaker 1: would just obviously be idiotic. But we'll get onto that
Speaker 1: in a second. I'm not going to talk in any
Speaker 1: great detail about the Red Sox Netflix documentary, which because
Speaker 1: I've not watched all of it yet, I've I've watched
Speaker 1: a couple of episodes, and it's fair to say that
Speaker 1: it's as anticipated, incredibly well made. It gives you that
Speaker 1: same level of insight and engagement than as you know,
Speaker 1: the drive to survive and hard knocks and those sorts
Speaker 1: of things and the people. Yeah, I think it would
Speaker 1: it well. It would definitely have been better. But it's
Speaker 1: so interesting watching that first episode where they were complete
Speaker 1: memory hole for my brain, that they were good for
Speaker 1: three weeks and then Trevor's story got injured and everything
Speaker 1: went wrong thereafter. Yeah, the people who were the stars
Speaker 1: of it are exactly those who were anticipated. I mean,
Speaker 1: Tristan Cossus I alluded to it earlier his soliloquy to
Speaker 1: cut A Crawford about why there are one hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty games in baseball is absolutely incredible. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: just wanted to touch very briefly on a player I'm
Speaker 1: going to talk about a bit more in a slightly
Speaker 1: more negative context later, which is Jared Duran, who had
Speaker 1: a brilliant season for the Red Sox last year. He
Speaker 1: was the shining light of the team and you know,
Speaker 1: also went through some unfortunate off field issues, are using
Speaker 1: a slur which is entirely unacceptable. But there's a whole
Speaker 1: episode about Jared Duran which I've not had the opportunity
Speaker 1: to watch yet, but it's about the fact that he
Speaker 1: attempted to commit suicide during that absolutely desperate run that
Speaker 1: he had in their twenty twenty two season a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago, and his rookie season when if you'll remember,
Speaker 1: he was just absolutely shot on the field, like he
Speaker 1: couldn't track a ball, he couldn't hit a ball, He
Speaker 1: looked completely overmatched, and I was quite rude about him.
Speaker 1: So I just wanted to, you know, make that point
Speaker 1: that what an incredible thing to do like that, that
Speaker 1: is going to save the lives of a lot of
Speaker 1: young people who are in and around the sport of
Speaker 1: baseball who are look up to him and admire him
Speaker 1: as a player, or maybe don't even know about him
Speaker 1: as a player. Being that vulnerable in that context is
Speaker 1: admirable of anybody, regardless of who they are. But for
Speaker 1: someone with that platform, I think it's just absolute extraordinary. Like,
Speaker 1: hats off to him, and hats off to the people
Speaker 1: who created an environment within the context of this documentary
Speaker 1: that he felt comfortable enough to share that. Hats off
Speaker 1: to the people in the Red Sox who knew about this.
Speaker 1: There were a number of them, including Alex Cora, and
Speaker 1: who made him feel comfortable and confident to share that too.
Speaker 1: That shouldn't have been the story of this documentary series.
Speaker 1: Everyone hoped it was going to be the story of
Speaker 1: a Red Sox triumph, But in a way it is.
Speaker 1: He's created that triumph for them, and I admire him
Speaker 1: immensely for it. I'm going to be horrible about him
Speaker 1: in a bit, but not as horrible as I was
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: I think even for us, like I guess that like
Speaker 2: jerond around is not listening to like our podcast or
Speaker 2: probably any of his friends or our family or who
Speaker 2: were tuty he waited with him, But like the we
Speaker 2: the pressures that are going through basically some of these
Speaker 2: top players, especially when they're young and been touted for
Speaker 2: a considerable amount of time, is so beyond anything that
Speaker 2: I could possibly comprehend that I actually like hearing somebody
Speaker 2: say this is such a It is a powerful message,
Speaker 2: and it's one that kind of like you do realize that,
Speaker 2: like you hope that makes it does make a difference,
Speaker 2: and it Yeah, just to reiterate what Jod says, it
Speaker 2: is a pretty amazing thing that that that has come
Speaker 2: out of like something stuff like that. And in some regards,
Speaker 2: it puts more context behind like who he is and
Speaker 2: what's happened like afterwards, like doesn't necessarily paint him in
Speaker 2: a better light for kind of like what was said
Speaker 2: in a bad incident in last season, but you can
Speaker 2: see like where things are like touching a nerve that
Speaker 2: you didn't potentially know that like existed, which caused the
Speaker 2: response that he shouldn't have done, but you can you don't,
Speaker 2: you can understand more like what happened. You can still
Speaker 2: say it was wrong and he will still has come
Speaker 2: out and said that it was wrong, and he is.
Speaker 2: We'll try and like learn from it. But there is
Speaker 2: a closer level of understanding than I think that many
Speaker 2: of us had like beforehand.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it explains it without justifying it. I think it's
Speaker 1: probably the right way, right way of framing it. Right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the three word answer I was trying to
Speaker 2: get to with my long winded statement. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Hey, look, I've been pretty long winded twice. Who knew
Speaker 1: that four hours sleep in a trip to the gym
Speaker 1: would make me incredibly maudeling? Apparently it has. Here we go,
Speaker 1: should we talk about food? We are going to do.
Speaker 3: Long winded to needing wind. There's definitely some stuff on
Speaker 3: this list. Take that up, just just take it out.
Speaker 1: There's definitely some stuff on this list of ballpark food
Speaker 1: that would they would give you wind, Russell, do you
Speaker 1: wanna do you wanna? Do you want to take it away?
Speaker 1: Do you want to explain that the context of what
Speaker 1: we're doing here?
Speaker 2: Yes? So, pretty much the start of every season, there
Speaker 2: seems to be a group press release by most of
Speaker 2: the major kind of like sporting sites on what is
Speaker 2: the new ballpark food that it's going to be out there.
Speaker 2: I say it's a group press release because I looked
Speaker 2: at this and I saw basically like an ESPN article
Speaker 2: of Forbes article, like all of these things with almost
Speaker 2: exactly the same headline being like twenty five new ballpark
Speaker 2: go ub to grab or whatever. So I'm guessing that
Speaker 2: it's ready to roll out. But we've had a look,
Speaker 2: and some of us like the look of some of
Speaker 2: these things. Some of them mothers may not like the
Speaker 2: look of these things. But we're just going to do
Speaker 2: a quick little grab draft to kind of be like,
Speaker 2: claim what you think is the best ones of the
Speaker 2: ones available. We will tweet out a link to to
Speaker 2: those so we could view the options that were available
Speaker 2: that we didn't get to. But I'm if we are
Speaker 2: willing to go gentlemen, I will try and grab the
Speaker 2: first pick then for what I would personally most like
Speaker 2: to eat from these new options, And it might be
Speaker 2: left field pick, but I'm going to take the it's
Speaker 2: so hard, some of this is actually really good. I'm
Speaker 2: going to take the z Man sandwich, which is the
Speaker 2: one the new one from which is a It's basically
Speaker 2: a slow beef brisket burger with provolone cheese, on a
Speaker 2: toasted bread roll topped with two onion rings, which to
Speaker 2: me just sounds absolutely glorious and something that I would
Speaker 2: heartily consume, probably giving me heartily issues in probably too
Speaker 2: fast a time as well. So that's going to be
Speaker 2: my number one pick from this list.
Speaker 1: Oh are you going, Rob?
Speaker 3: So if I've got a criticism of it's it's the
Speaker 3: second onion ring, you know, I'm at that point. I
Speaker 3: like one will do for me.
Speaker 1: I've got to say, you sniped me. That was definitely
Speaker 1: going to be my first pick as well. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I am a big fan of barbecue food. I am
Speaker 1: not a big fan, and let's just not start this
Speaker 1: because I could go on for hours of barbecues, which
Speaker 1: are a very different thing. Any American listeners will know.
Speaker 1: This is grilling. In the UK, we call that barbecue.
Speaker 1: It's not the same as smoke pick, Kansas City, Houston barbecue,
Speaker 1: entirely different, in fact, quite the opposite. I hate it,
Speaker 1: and everyone in this country is obsessed by doing it
Speaker 1: as soon as it's vaguely warm, and it revolts me.
Speaker 1: But barbecue, I'm all about. Yeah, suns out. I'm closing
Speaker 1: the curtains and anyone, anyone, anyone giggling anywhere near me?
Speaker 1: Like when I say, I mean within about two kilometers
Speaker 1: of me. Can she's gonna get fly spread in the face? Anyway? Yes,
Speaker 1: this this sandwich, though, looks good.
Speaker 2: You've already rob the chance to snipe you again. So Rob,
Speaker 2: see if you can take the top two.
Speaker 3: After where's he gonna go? I mean, are you.
Speaker 1: Picking your own? Are you picking one that's gonna annoy me?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean you've taken a barbecue range, So I
Speaker 3: mean there's another good sandwiches on here. It's another good barbecues. Well,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go something a bit. You might put it
Speaker 3: on a barbecue. I quite like the Kansas City Royal
Speaker 3: Slugger Dog, which is a treza topped with manchego tempura,
Speaker 3: a batter, Dorito's cool runch crust, and avocado aoli. And
Speaker 3: I think that's fantastic. It's on a stick, so it's
Speaker 3: like a good ballpark food to start with. I think
Speaker 3: it's fairly manageable into your mouth. You know, it's something
Speaker 3: you can eat at the ballpark. I don't like the
Speaker 3: fact they used three rs in the word slugger, but
Speaker 3: you know who doesn't. Who doesn't like a decent bit
Speaker 3: of buttered sausage or some only drizzled over the edge
Speaker 3: going down your chin.
Speaker 1: Love you stuff. I don't think it was going to
Speaker 1: be my number two pick, but it was certainly pretty.
Speaker 1: It was certainly pretty high at my list. I think
Speaker 1: it was probably a toss up between that and another one.
Speaker 1: It did. It did genuinely just make me think of
Speaker 1: like a luxury battered sausage, So I love it again.
Speaker 1: Why not listeners in the States look up a battered
Speaker 1: sausage that is a culinary delicacy for the ages. I
Speaker 1: love a bat of sausage. But yeah, that looks nice,
Speaker 1: actually genuinely looks nice though, Okay, okay, So my number
Speaker 1: two it was completely off in the other direction, but
Speaker 1: also relatively basic. Just give me the tirasou in the helmet, yes, please?
Speaker 1: Oh no, no, oh mate. I love term. I absolutely
Speaker 1: love it. I love I love putting in a helmet.
Speaker 1: All about I'm all about it, even if it's got
Speaker 1: an n y on it. Get get it, get it
Speaker 1: in my face.
Speaker 3: I mean, like a tira messoux is like a like
Speaker 3: almost like a like a faux classy dessert, like it's
Speaker 3: a bit eighties, but it's it's it's got you know,
Speaker 3: there's a bit gone into it, but it's just it's
Speaker 3: kitch kyler crap in a plastic helmet.
Speaker 1: Now you get it in my mouth.
Speaker 2: The only thing that I agree with John that I
Speaker 2: do like a good Turmasu. The only thing that would
Speaker 2: upset me is that this is obviously in one of
Speaker 2: those tiny dessert helmets. I would much like it in
Speaker 2: one of the ones that you would normally get your
Speaker 2: Natcho's and see if you gave Hahos your hat shoes,
Speaker 2: gave me a in one of those Hatcho hats, then
Speaker 2: that's what would I had.
Speaker 3: I had a mac and cheese in one of those
Speaker 3: hat show helmets from a minor league game for the
Speaker 3: Detroit Tigers, and it nearly killed me. It was four
Speaker 3: hat show hats worth of mac and cheese, and I
Speaker 3: was determined, and by the eighth and it was really
Speaker 3: really hot, and by the eighth inning I wanted to die.
Speaker 3: And that wasn't just because it was spring training baseball.
Speaker 1: You if you are watching this on our YouTube channel
Speaker 1: and can only see Robin Russell's happy facial complexions, I
Speaker 1: will illuminate you that they are two of the more
Speaker 1: well built robust.
Speaker 2: Perhaps, yeah, as.
Speaker 1: It certainly does, and it's it's there's there's that exercise
Speaker 1: for one of your arms when it's going to spoon
Speaker 1: in it, but otherwise not much right I am.
Speaker 2: Lifting those heavy pints, John, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Very very true. Okay, should we pick one more each?
Speaker 1: And then there's a couple on here that I just
Speaker 1: to say about them? Yeah, okay, Russ back to you.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll take my dessert option, which I'm not saying
Speaker 2: like if it's actually going to be that good or not,
Speaker 2: but I'm very interested to try what it actually is.
Speaker 2: So I'm going to give the small's case of deer
Speaker 2: from the Phillies, like I like a small and I
Speaker 2: like a case of de normally. Now, will these things
Speaker 2: actually work together? I'm not one hundred certain that's actually
Speaker 2: going to be the truth, but if I was there
Speaker 2: and I saw a bad boy on the menu, I'm
Speaker 2: trying it, and I will give you an answer immediately
Speaker 2: one way or the other, whether I love it or
Speaker 2: hate it, because I don't think there's going to be
Speaker 2: yelling any middle ground on it. But it has me
Speaker 2: intrigued enough to want to want to try it. John's
Speaker 2: tongue sticking out makes me think that he is.
Speaker 1: No, that was definitely on the list of ones. I
Speaker 1: had absolutely no interest in it. Just it just that's
Speaker 1: just like eating a pound of sugar, as far as
Speaker 1: I'm concerned anything that that texture. Yeah, look terriblely he
Speaker 1: has got coffee in it, you know. Oh, no, that
Speaker 1: looks something else.
Speaker 2: Very true.
Speaker 1: Hey, look it's got.
Speaker 3: Cracker crumble on it. That that's got me a bit
Speaker 3: the ground.
Speaker 1: Cracker crumbles one of the things I quite like on
Speaker 1: the case of deer.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: I know, I know I'm not having that. I'm not.
Speaker 2: No, not for me.
Speaker 1: But you know, each to their own, rob, what about you?
Speaker 1: What else? What else tickled your fancy?
Speaker 3: I'll take it. I mean there's a lot on here
Speaker 3: that does. I mean, everything in Arizona looks fantastic. But
Speaker 3: I will, I will, I will go over to the Rockies,
Speaker 3: and I think their dessert is interesting. If nothing else,
Speaker 3: it's meant to look like natchos, but it is. It's
Speaker 3: dessert natchos, which is fried flower tortillas tossed in a
Speaker 3: cinnamon sugar with fresh berries dropped with powdered sugar and
Speaker 3: caramel drizzle, served with a side of whipped cream, which
Speaker 3: is obviously supposed to look like cream cheese. Now, I
Speaker 3: don't know if my head will allow me to enjoy
Speaker 3: it as a sweet dish when it very very clearly
Speaker 3: looks like a savory dish. And there's all obviously gonna
Speaker 3: be that comedy moment when someone next to you has
Speaker 3: bought it and you go in for a natcho and
Speaker 3: it's not, and then you know, the whole lot goes
Speaker 3: everywhere over the person in front, He turns round, breaks
Speaker 3: your nose, tripp to a and e. You know, game ruined.
Speaker 3: But I'll be interested in the desert natchos. I think
Speaker 3: they're a bit different. I quite like the creativity, but
Speaker 3: him so, I'm and you know the Rockies need something,
Speaker 3: goddamn it.
Speaker 1: Well there you go. Good for them. It's they've pulled
Speaker 1: a triumph out that, having a beautiful ballpark, great beer,
Speaker 1: and temperate climb. They've also got a good college football
Speaker 1: team up there, so you know they've got that going
Speaker 1: for them to Okay, I'm going to go root one
Speaker 1: for my next pick. Just just give just give me
Speaker 1: the massive burrito, please. I mean, who doesn't love a burrito.
Speaker 1: I'm not on the list of people who don't love
Speaker 1: a burrito. I do love a burto I love a boomstick.
Speaker 1: I've done the boomstick challenge. It's on this here YouTube channel,
Speaker 1: and I've got to tell you eating that was one
Speaker 1: of the worst experiences of my life. But I have
Speaker 1: nothing to do with with the taste. It is genuinely
Speaker 1: tasty item of food that I met the chap who's
Speaker 1: the chef who I've been trying to google his name?
Speaker 1: If you just if you've gout boomstick chef, you just
Speaker 1: get lots lots of pictures of Nellie Cruise meeting John Favreau,
Speaker 1: which is quite funny, but you can't get the name
Speaker 1: of the guy who invented it. A very nice man.
Speaker 1: I've met him a couple of times. So yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: all in on the on the massive burrito. You probably
Speaker 1: need about four of us to eat it, but yes, please.
Speaker 2: I think obviously the simple adage is just everything is
Speaker 2: bigger in Texas, isn't it. So it's just like they've
Speaker 2: gone for it. The fact that also that it's like
Speaker 2: that twenty four inch burrito because it's a twenty six
Speaker 2: inch tortilla, so there's even like a good folding up
Speaker 2: on it.
Speaker 1: So that helped with the mess.
Speaker 3: That is important because you know what, if you're sat
Speaker 3: there wearing you're like three hundred and fifty dollars Replica Jersey,
Speaker 3: you really don't want to get boomstick down it.
Speaker 1: That's the man who speaks personal experience.
Speaker 3: Hey, I made a boomstick during COVID. If you remember
Speaker 3: again on this YouTube channel.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, we all remember that nervous breaked.
Speaker 2: That video on this YouTube channel.
Speaker 1: We're all having conversations with celebrated baseball reporters and big
Speaker 1: league players whilst you're literally in the corner of the
Speaker 1: screen in your kitchen, in your partner to film. You
Speaker 1: haven't learn of a nervous break.
Speaker 3: Okay, So you want to say it was a low point,
Speaker 3: but it wasn't.
Speaker 1: That poor woman Russell order.
Speaker 2: So I'm just going to go to one thing that
Speaker 2: I think looks absolutely awful. I do know what candy
Speaker 2: floss on fries get.
Speaker 1: I do not want candy floss ever, it's disgusting in
Speaker 1: a wife for me.
Speaker 2: I don't know how according to the MLB article that
Speaker 2: is the top new grub. I'm like will be speaking
Speaker 2: to like six year olds when we were asking their opinion.
Speaker 3: The thing that offends me maybe it's very offensive that
Speaker 3: we have candy floss on top of the chips. The
Speaker 3: second point for me is that this serving looks absolutely
Speaker 3: tiny and I imagine it's very expensive.
Speaker 1: Not the blue sauce.
Speaker 5: That's my second issue is there is a blue sace
Speaker 5: of undetermined providence on these chips.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it looks like an AI phone, like candy flows
Speaker 2: to be put on like some fries. John and Robb,
Speaker 2: do you have anything that you else would like to say?
Speaker 3: No, there is such a list here. There is such
Speaker 3: a list. There are so many things. I'm gonna cheat
Speaker 3: and take two now. The first. The first thing I'm
Speaker 3: going to take is the pair of popcorn bats. And
Speaker 3: this is purely from someone who works This is somebody
Speaker 3: who works in events. Have a look at how they
Speaker 3: think that click the gonna have a look at the
Speaker 3: ESPN article. It's essentially a baseball bat. That the that's wide,
Speaker 3: the the the top and that's where the lid is. Like,
Speaker 3: there is no way to put this thing down where
Speaker 3: there isn't gonna be popcorn absolutely fucking everywhere. And having
Speaker 3: been in events for twenty years, I could tell you
Speaker 3: how much I hate this product. Hate this product because
Speaker 3: there are some poor people who are gonna have to
Speaker 3: pick this shit up after after you've finished watching The
Speaker 3: Pirates lose, and that's just that's just not fair. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm out on those. But the one that's really really
Speaker 3: made me gip, No, that wasn't it. That wasn't it.
Speaker 3: That was my other one. It's got the pad raid.
Speaker 3: What they're doing with their banana pudding is in a helmet.
Speaker 3: Banana putting in a helmet, And I'm also like, I've
Speaker 3: also I found a poem about the banana pudding in
Speaker 3: the helmet. My god, I found this is from Petco
Speaker 3: Park Insider. It's called an ode to Banana pudding in
Speaker 3: a helmet. Oh Sacred Scoopa, Golden Bliss in a padre's helmet,
Speaker 3: Pure Chef's Kiss. Banana pudding smooth and Sweet, a ballpark
Speaker 3: snack that can't be beat. Topped the banana's nuts and
Speaker 3: cookie bold as an all star Fresh as a rookie
Speaker 3: costs seven ninety nine for a generous serving. Size to
Speaker 3: share if they're deserving. Hard to find, but here's the
Speaker 3: key seaside markets where it will be field level Section
Speaker 3: one hundred and five. Are really getting into the details here.
Speaker 3: Peel on down, then feel alive, nearly done, creepy, an absurd,
Speaker 3: like a pie in the face, dreamily served thirty one
Speaker 3: place Bechco Parks and diego there we go, folks. That
Speaker 3: was a dramatic reading of an ode to banana pudding
Speaker 3: in a helmet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Bill, Bill Shakespeare turn in his grave.
Speaker 2: That's not saying I didn't think that there was anything
Speaker 2: worse in the universe than vog On poetry. But I
Speaker 2: think I may have.
Speaker 1: Just Emily Dickinson didn't die for that shit. Honestly, I'll
Speaker 1: tell you what. The reason I was putting my thumbs
Speaker 1: up when you were talking about that is because that
Speaker 1: was also going to be on my list, but mine.
Speaker 1: I mean, the concept is atrocious that the poetry, and
Speaker 1: I kind of feel like pretty pretty pretty furtive about
Speaker 1: censuring myself. I am horrendously allergic to bananas, and the
Speaker 1: notion of bananas being anywhere near me makes me gip anyway,
Speaker 1: So seeing that just made me just angry, and yet
Speaker 1: we're going to bring this segment to a close in
Speaker 1: a moment. People. It is not even the one that
Speaker 1: I like the look on the least.
Speaker 2: The White allergic to, and.
Speaker 1: I think I would genuinely rather eat that than that
Speaker 1: White Sox cake. Now, I know that the banana is
Speaker 1: going to make me violent the ill, but looking at
Speaker 1: that thing makes me feel sick. It is disgusting. I like, again,
Speaker 1: these podcasts are a revelation whenever for everyone, whenever that
Speaker 1: you know that I never know what's going to get
Speaker 1: the inner psych of me going. I really really don't
Speaker 1: like cake, and it's one of my weirdest things. I
Speaker 1: think cake is the world's most overrated food. I'm just
Speaker 1: looking at that bloody milkshake being sullied by that horrible
Speaker 1: dry cake with that nasty cherry on the top and
Speaker 1: those stupid sprinkles that are just going to get in
Speaker 1: your teeth piss off.
Speaker 3: I mean, it wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't
Speaker 3: essentially following on from the only thing that White Sox
Speaker 3: won last year, which was that fantastic milkshake that everybody wanted.
Speaker 3: We've got this abortion.
Speaker 1: It's awful horrendous. I'm sorry I sat like Ron Atkinson.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Just get it away. I've just got it
Speaker 1: open on my screen. I could close this window at
Speaker 1: any time, and I'm going to piss off right time
Speaker 1: to bring this proceeding to a close with too good,
Speaker 1: Too bad. That was a lot of fun, Ron, Do
Speaker 1: you want to go first?
Speaker 2: With you?
Speaker 1: You have the honor of picking good or bad. We've
Speaker 1: had a bit of both in the last fifteen minutes,
Speaker 1: So okay, well, I go where you want.
Speaker 3: I'm probably going to take a bad first because I've
Speaker 3: only got one good at the moment, and so i
Speaker 3: need more time to think about that. So I'm going
Speaker 3: to go with the Tampa Rays pulling their starter last minute,
Speaker 3: which was a really really cheap move to my mind.
Speaker 3: Many people will say it was a good strategy, But
Speaker 3: what happened was it was a game against the Alanta
Speaker 3: Braves advertised with Shane Baz, who let me clarify here,
Speaker 3: was very very healthy, had pitched very well so far.
Speaker 3: Everyone was expecting Shane Bazz to pitch in this final
Speaker 3: game against the Braves. But what the Rays did instead
Speaker 3: without telling anybody, is about half an hour before the
Speaker 3: game they pulled Shane Baz and they they put Joe Boyle.
Speaker 3: They called Joe Boyle up from the miners and had
Speaker 3: him pitch and said, and look, he pitched great. He
Speaker 3: pitched fantastically, probably because the A's that the Braves had
Speaker 3: absolutely no chance to do any scouting. But my problem
Speaker 3: here is there was no injuries, no one was sick.
Speaker 3: This was apparently something they've been planning for days and
Speaker 3: days and days and days and days. So what they're
Speaker 3: doing is they wanted to get an extra day's rest
Speaker 3: for all the starters, so they pushed them all back
Speaker 3: a bit, which is fine. However, to do this with
Speaker 3: like half an hour's notice, Like you've got people probably
Speaker 3: in the ballpark at this point who were specifically there.
Speaker 3: I want to see Shane Baths he is, you know what,
Speaker 3: The Rays have account as a star these days, like
Speaker 3: he is. He's a big name pitcher for them. People
Speaker 3: would have been there to see Shane Bazz play probably,
Speaker 3: and then they've called up somebody last minute like that,
Speaker 3: and it just feels a little bit bush league for me.
Speaker 3: Maybe even getting a bit red ass here, but it
Speaker 3: feels a bit bush to pull.
Speaker 2: Out that move so late.
Speaker 3: In the day for non injury reasons.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, go Russ.
Speaker 2: No, it just made me think of Craig Council pulling
Speaker 2: Wayne Miley after one one batterer in the the twenty
Speaker 2: eighteen like the Championship was the Championship Series was the
Speaker 2: Championship Series obviously kind of just kind of like just
Speaker 2: completely only trying to mentally get one over on on
Speaker 2: like the people that you're doing now. I think in
Speaker 2: a playoffs you can maybe just about say that, like
Speaker 2: you've got to really try and pull every single lever
Speaker 2: that you can to win a game. But during the
Speaker 2: regular season, it's just like, seriously, like there is supposed
Speaker 2: to be an entertainment value what you're doing, and you've
Speaker 2: got pulling your starter for no reason. I think it's
Speaker 2: it might not be Bush, but it's poor entertainment.
Speaker 1: Also, Shane bars they sound like your dad's mate. So
Speaker 1: he goes to the club with Shane.
Speaker 2: That'll a bit Shane and bad Shane.
Speaker 1: Shane. Shane sells insurance and basses a PA coreator.
Speaker 3: No, Shane doesn't say he sells you in shells insurance,
Speaker 3: but he's actually his stuff that's fallen off the back
Speaker 3: of the.
Speaker 1: Back of a lorry uninsured Russell. What's bad for you?
Speaker 2: I mentioned a little bit earlier on, but I think
Speaker 2: I want to kind of go through it in detail,
Speaker 2: like the Kansas City offense right now. I think I
Speaker 2: have to double check it because I was looking at
Speaker 2: this yesterday, but I think they have a sixty nine
Speaker 2: WRC plus for the season so far, which when you're
Speaker 2: a team nice is it is nice? But sadly it's
Speaker 2: not nice. And Bobby Witch Junior already has one war
Speaker 2: in seventeen games, so project that out to basically a
Speaker 2: full season, and he's close to being a ten war player. Again,
Speaker 2: the shame is effectively the Hunter Renfro already has minus
Speaker 2: point six WAR, Michael Massey has minus point four war. NJ.
Speaker 2: Melendez has minus point four war, even like the Salvador
Speaker 2: Perez is a non negative war, so he basically has
Speaker 2: no support apart from Michael Garcia and a bit of
Speaker 2: a tiny bit of like Vinnie Pasquentino, who's managing to
Speaker 2: put out a zero war season so far. It's like
Speaker 2: this team, it's just looked awful with the bat and
Speaker 2: when you have a generational talent as in Bobby with Judy,
Speaker 2: somebody who will be in MVP races. The fact that
Speaker 2: he is not have any support is truly awful. And
Speaker 2: you were just like, this was what a lot of
Speaker 2: us still thought Kansas would get better because they pitched
Speaker 2: well last year, they had some injuries when it came
Speaker 2: to hitting, and you thought, yeah, you know what. I
Speaker 2: didn't think you things could get worse. I thought it
Speaker 2: would only get better. Well, it's only been three weeks,
Speaker 2: but things got worse.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I hadn't quite reckoned with quite how bad. I
Speaker 1: knew they weren't great, but I hadn't reckoned with it
Speaker 1: being quite that bad. Goodness. Gracious, mate, Ah, the nice
Speaker 1: numbers don't need any further exposition or explanation, do they. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's owed me a oh God. I mean, I kind
Speaker 1: of feel like we have to mention it because it's
Speaker 1: just happened. What I put in our prep document is
Speaker 1: that reporter Dickhead, I am referring to Wiley Ballard, the
Speaker 1: sideline reporter of the Atlanta Braves, a gentleman who exudes
Speaker 1: golf energy. Just look at him. That's a man who
Speaker 1: only owns quarter zips. Was very disappointed by the performance
Speaker 1: of Bryce and de Chambo this Sunday. Oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: May If you've missed it, you've been living under a rock,
Speaker 1: because it's everywhere on baseball social media. This twerp I
Speaker 1: tried to hook up with a woman whilst doing his
Speaker 1: job this week, and I don't know if I'm more
Speaker 1: disgusted by that or by the colleagues who are egging
Speaker 1: him on. There's a guy by the name of Miles
Speaker 1: Garrett whose tweet has had an awful lot of retweets
Speaker 1: from female reporters, sideline reporters, clubhouse reporters, TV anchors, and
Speaker 1: he's just left it, you know, he's just leaving it
Speaker 1: out there as though this is absolutely fine. It's just
Speaker 1: totally unacceptable. You know, we all meet a potential partners everywhere,
Speaker 1: but just do it in private, dont don't you know?
Speaker 1: Bull run a poor woman he's trying to watch a
Speaker 1: baseball game into going out with you. He's found it
Speaker 1: really crass, and the celebration of it by all of
Speaker 1: the expected outlets is exactly what you anticipate. Yeah, at all.
Speaker 2: It's a dual standard because this is exactly the type
Speaker 2: of thing that if like a female reporter did they
Speaker 2: would all be lambasting it for being inappropriate and devaluing
Speaker 2: like commentary.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I just blame golf. Just just look like,
Speaker 1: look like the type of guy who just loves golf.
Speaker 1: Golf is the worst thing ever invented. Apart from cank okay,
Speaker 1: Rob something good from.
Speaker 3: You, suthing good. I just dumped on the race. So
Speaker 3: I'm gonna come back on the flip side with the
Speaker 3: Rays and gonna go very home today. And the Rai's
Speaker 3: rookies they're great. They are turning up. It's caveated by
Speaker 3: small samples, of course, but we're looking at Cameron Meisner Junior, Cameronaro,
Speaker 3: Jake Mangham, and Jonathan Randa. These are four guys who
Speaker 3: are They've all hit the ground running. It's fantastic to
Speaker 3: see from a raised fan point of view, for any
Speaker 3: fan point of view, you get that thing with your
Speaker 3: with your with your rookies. They're gonna come up, and
Speaker 3: yes they're gonna have some bad times, but they've got
Speaker 3: to pass that first test of can they actually do
Speaker 3: it at all? And these four have all just like bang, yep,
Speaker 3: they can do it. Whether or not they can adjust
Speaker 3: later on. Those ra all things. But they've passed that
Speaker 3: first hurdle big style, and it's just really nice to
Speaker 3: see like some some young raised hitters actually hitting and
Speaker 3: not getting in trouble with the police. So I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 3: this is this is a nice, nice, friendly family fun
Speaker 3: uh and and there's there's they've got some good stories.
Speaker 3: Some of these guys are debuting very very late as well,
Speaker 3: so it's just a nice story. It's just it's just
Speaker 3: nice to see it happening. And we all like our rookies.
Speaker 3: We all we all live and sweat by our our rookies.
Speaker 3: They're gonna come up, they're gonna save the day. And
Speaker 3: these guys are and that's nice. It's exciting. So I
Speaker 3: want to see more. And it's not just the raise.
Speaker 3: There's there's plenty of them. I mean, look what's going
Speaker 3: on the Red Sox at the moment. I'm sure we're
Speaker 3: gonna mention them in a minute, but uh yeah, there's
Speaker 3: there's some some great rookies out there and they're they're hitting,
Speaker 3: they're they're good. I'm enjoying the rookies.
Speaker 2: Russell to take things back maybe to Jonathan's favorite sport,
Speaker 2: do either of you know who Daniel Lynch. The fourth is.
Speaker 3: Daniel Lynch the fourth.
Speaker 2: No, here is a picture for the Kansas City Royals,
Speaker 2: a relief picture that you've never heard of. Has probably
Speaker 2: the most golf founding name in baseball. But maybe just
Speaker 2: because I think you like Davis Love the third basically that.
Speaker 1: Immediately good thing about the only good thing about golf,
Speaker 1: and it's not on my list is Ken Griffy taking
Speaker 1: that amazing?
Speaker 2: But yes, Daniel Lynch is currently on an eighteen game
Speaker 2: streak of not giving up an earned run. He has
Speaker 2: pitched twenty eight point two innings and has not given
Speaker 2: up a run. He has given up a run since
Speaker 2: August last year. And I just love it when the
Speaker 2: stuff like this, where there's like completely utterly randa reliever
Speaker 2: that nobody's ever heard of that is chasing the twenty
Speaker 2: game streak, which really doesn't happen like in Major League
Speaker 2: Baseball of not giving up a run. Kate Smith is
Speaker 2: currently like one game behind him on seventeen. But it's
Speaker 2: just it's just hilarious to be like, this is the
Speaker 2: duality of what Kansas City has right now. They have
Speaker 2: like a complete nobody reliever who is being pseudo kind
Speaker 2: of like wipes out and but then kind of having
Speaker 2: the other thing to go with this side. The thing
Speaker 2: I found amusing when I was looking this up is
Speaker 2: technically the longest current streak from the last twenty years
Speaker 2: is Casey Sadler, who obviously has sadly retired due to
Speaker 2: personal reasons the last year, but he ended his career
Speaker 2: only twenty nine game streak of not giving up an
Speaker 2: under run, which is just mental. I was looking even
Speaker 2: on this list, Trevor May ended on a fifteen gay
Speaker 2: streak of not giving up a run. You're like, some
Speaker 2: of these guys go out like on the top and
Speaker 2: you never quite think about though, just because they were
Speaker 2: relief pictures.
Speaker 1: Great, I love that. I am going to talk about
Speaker 1: a rookie, and I'm going to talk about a rookie
Speaker 1: second basement, but I'm not going to talk about the
Speaker 1: one that you anticipate I'm going to talk about. I'm
Speaker 1: going to talk about Kyne Paris almost talked about him.
Speaker 1: Yeah he is. I think the guy you were alluding
Speaker 1: to earlier in all of those rinky dink home runs
Speaker 1: for the highlights he was. Yeah, he's had an absolutely
Speaker 1: extraordinary start of the season. He's currently fourth in the
Speaker 1: rank of fangrafts war, behind some guys called Corbyn Carrol,
Speaker 1: Aaron Judge, and Fernando Tatist Junior, and followed by Hunter Green,
Speaker 1: Carl Tucker, Cole Reagan's, Paul Skeins and others. I omitted
Speaker 1: Haraldo Paedomo, sorry Heraldo, that there's no there's no scope
Speaker 1: to talk about you and your your miracle season here yet,
Speaker 1: because I want to talk about Karen Parris specifically. I
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about like how baseball can change for
Speaker 1: players so quickly. So he was he was an okay prospect,
Speaker 1: but never a really great one in in a quite
Speaker 1: poor system. And two years ago he was playing in
Speaker 1: Double A going through a streak of seventy seven plate
Speaker 1: appearances where he had a batting average of zero seven
Speaker 1: to one, and he started the season like a freight train. Now,
Speaker 1: you know, small sample size, cluster luck, all of that,
Speaker 1: but just a really great stufy and you know that
Speaker 1: there is some mechanical changes. He's gone to Richard Shank
Speaker 1: who's Aaron Judges hitting guru, Jeff Fry's arch nemesis, and yeah,
Speaker 1: it looks like it's made a real change. For him,
Speaker 1: and he is the sort of Cinderella story of this
Speaker 1: pretty remarkable start of the season for Mike Trout's halo.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I wanted to just give Kirn Paris his flowers.
Speaker 1: He's been a lot of fun. He seems like a
Speaker 1: very nice young man too, which weighs in his favor
Speaker 1: as well. Right, name, it's a great name, isn't it
Speaker 1: a proper baseball name, that, isn't it? Look I don't
Speaker 1: I don't want to be Aaron Judge. Imine, come on,
Speaker 1: I want Corbyn, Carolyn and Kyne Paris And frankly.
Speaker 2: I'm just waiting for there's a Paris syndrome joke there,
Speaker 2: though I'm not quite working out how it's going to
Speaker 2: like work, where we're all going to start to think
Speaker 2: that he's like good and and he somehow isn't.
Speaker 3: But is that what Paris syndrome is learning today?
Speaker 2: It's the fake thing about like Chinese tourists going to
Speaker 2: Paris and realize that it's not as lovely as they
Speaker 2: thought it would be.
Speaker 1: They're wrong. And Heraldo Haraldoo sounds like a private detective,
Speaker 1: so him as well had private eye. He's gonna he's
Speaker 1: gonna find find your husband with a mistress, no doubt.
Speaker 3: Columbo sidekick.
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right, Harald, Just just one more thing? Is
Speaker 1: it an extra base hit at this right? Yes? Okay,
Speaker 1: rob something.
Speaker 3: Bad, something bad. How can we not talk about the
Speaker 3: A's and their their medical cart. What a joyful little
Speaker 3: blip of baseball life we had there. And obviously it's
Speaker 3: something bad, but I mean it is essentially a good too,
Speaker 3: I mean, like wonderful, just lah, like it's just all
Speaker 3: the stars are lining. So obviously, poor Jose Siri is
Speaker 3: feeling a little bit rough after he's smashed the ball
Speaker 3: off of his shin and it did look like it.
Speaker 3: Hood broke down on the floor as he broken his leg.
Speaker 3: I thought he had a bruise. Okay, well you know, yeah,
Speaker 3: that's gonna smart. He's not gonna lie. So out comes
Speaker 3: the golf bug. He to take him off, but oh no,
Speaker 3: oh no, it's run out of petrol. It's broken down.
Speaker 3: It breaks us up. We don't know what's wrong with it,
Speaker 3: but it ain't going anywhere. They have to get him
Speaker 3: off of the second one. But you think that's it,
Speaker 3: like ah hahah, the thing's rubbish. No, no, no, the gift
Speaker 3: keeps giving when they try and get this thing off
Speaker 3: the field, and you could almost play like the clown
Speaker 3: music in the backgrounds as there's like five guys trying
Speaker 3: to push this thing through the gap in the fence.
Speaker 3: It won't go through the gap of the fence. And
Speaker 3: then there's like the really really big security guy who
Speaker 3: looks like he can push it on his own, is
Speaker 3: just stood there watching whilst he's like five guys are
Speaker 3: mentally trying to push this through the gate. And look,
Speaker 3: hey again, I've already mentioned in this podcast I work
Speaker 3: in live events, and you know I been there on
Speaker 3: a stage with five thousand people watch me trip up
Speaker 3: as I'm trying to gaffitate the back onto the seat,
Speaker 3: you know, like it's it happens like events. People like
Speaker 3: I'm not not having a go at you, like this
Speaker 3: crap is going to happen. But my god, I mean
Speaker 3: just in this ballpark as well, right now at the
Speaker 3: beginning of the stay, it is just everything perfect has come.
Speaker 3: You couldn't written this any more beautiful. It was wonderful.
Speaker 3: If you haven't seen this, and you're probably hiding under
Speaker 3: a rock if you haven't, but please go and watch it.
Speaker 3: It's beautiful, beautiful beginning to end.
Speaker 1: There's almost certainly a version of it with the curb
Speaker 1: your enthusiasm.
Speaker 2: Choose to play that. There's like so many points where
Speaker 2: you could play. When he gets hitting the shin with
Speaker 2: the ball, like, you could do it right there. You
Speaker 2: could do it. When he's getting stuck on the thing
Speaker 2: and it stops. You could do it when they're going
Speaker 2: to do it. It's like the Lord of the Rings.
Speaker 2: There's so many freaking anything that's going on here. Oh,
Speaker 2: I loved it, Russell, I think a manual Class A
Speaker 2: might be broken. He's given up more runs so far
Speaker 2: this season than he did for the entirety of last season.
Speaker 2: His slider just isn't like working the same way it
Speaker 2: did last year. I don't know if he pitched too much,
Speaker 2: because it doesn't really look too much difference from a
Speaker 2: like maybe like a mile an hour lower on the velocity,
Speaker 2: if that's the difference basically between it being probasically one
Speaker 2: of the best pitches in baseball to it being like
Speaker 2: a bolow average pitch. Jese Louise, like, you understand why
Speaker 2: these relievers are volatile, and it's just it could be
Speaker 2: a bit of small sample sized look or whatever. But
Speaker 2: he's just looked bad in pretty much every appearance he's
Speaker 2: had for Cleveland so far this season. And if you
Speaker 2: had given me money to put on which one of
Speaker 2: like the four Cleveland like relievers who did really well
Speaker 2: last year would have a seven year A, it wouldn't
Speaker 2: have been him. Like two of them have still got
Speaker 2: zeros and one of them's got to bring him one
Speaker 2: point eighty or A and class A has a seven
Speaker 2: point seventy one ERA through six appearances. It's like off
Speaker 2: and you just wonder, like, did they just ask too
Speaker 2: much of him? Like from me and John having that
Speaker 2: conversation with Jay Jackson when he talked about like just
Speaker 2: getting to the postseason and being like, wow, it was
Speaker 2: crap because I literally had nothing in the tank, like
Speaker 2: the number of times I've gone up and down and
Speaker 2: other stuff like that, and just like you really think
Speaker 2: they can break. We know what happens with starters, but
Speaker 2: can you do it with relievers as well? Ask them
Speaker 2: to do like one hundred plus innings in a season
Speaker 2: and then you know what they've done and who knows.
Speaker 2: Hopefully he gets it back to it, but it not
Speaker 2: looks pretty to start this season.
Speaker 1: Relievers are fungible. Sam Miller, H yeah, I also want to,
Speaker 1: unfortunately talk about a couple of players who've seemed broken.
Speaker 1: And it's also I'm not gonna lie a little bit
Speaker 1: of a victory lap for me, because you know, as aforementioned,
Speaker 1: I spent most of twenty twenty two transpires that timing
Speaker 1: was not party appropriate saying that Jaron Duran and Tannahuk
Speaker 1: were two of the worst baseball players in the history
Speaker 1: of the sports. Jaron, bless you. I wish you nothing
Speaker 1: but the best, and you've been extraordinary for the last
Speaker 1: two seasons, one of the very best players in baseball
Speaker 1: for the last two seasons. But it looks like you've
Speaker 1: broke in again. And I hope you get it right
Speaker 1: for the conversation that we've had before. But he looks
Speaker 1: like he can neither hit the ball nor field it.
Speaker 1: He is the worst fielder in baseball, and he was
Speaker 1: a pretty serviceable center fielder last year, and he is
Speaker 1: now the worst outfielder in Baseball's playing in left field now,
Speaker 1: which is supposedly an easier position, and his batting is wretched.
Speaker 1: No home runs, are barely any extra base hits, ops
Speaker 1: of five eighty one, which for a lead off hit
Speaker 1: or in the Al East is not going to cut it.
Speaker 1: And yet, and yet, Tanna Hawk really has turned into
Speaker 1: a pumpkin. God love him, he is extraordinarily bad. He
Speaker 1: has a nine point one sixty RA. If you look
Speaker 1: at his stackcast page, it's almost as blue as dear
Speaker 1: old Antonio Senza Teller's. And let's say, Jaron Duran's ceiling
Speaker 1: has been rather higher than that man's. The stat that
Speaker 1: really stuck out to me is, albeit small sample size,
Speaker 1: he's running at three three barrels per plate appearance higher
Speaker 1: than he was last year. So he had four last
Speaker 1: year and it's six point nine this year. That seems
Speaker 1: quite bad. Almost seems like he's pretty much putting the
Speaker 1: ball on a tee and saying, you do what you
Speaker 1: need to do. Yeah. I mean, he was absolutely wretched
Speaker 1: against the Rays yesterday. He got left out too long,
Speaker 1: he did, but he got absolutely boat raced. The bullpen
Speaker 1: has had too much to do for the Red Sox
Speaker 1: so far, and that's probably why they were like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're staying out there. We've lost. Yeah. I feel for him.
Speaker 1: The whole of the Red Sox rotation outside of Crochet
Speaker 1: looks a bit of a mess, and they're desperate for
Speaker 1: Giulito Beao and hopefully Crawford to come back. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it looks like Jaron Duran and Tanner Hawk might be
Speaker 1: headed to the old Phantom my l. I think I
Speaker 1: hope they get a reset because they were They've been
Speaker 1: really really good the last two seasons and proved me wrong,
Speaker 1: and I desperately don't want them to prove me right again.
Speaker 1: LL talk about something good.
Speaker 3: Something good sounds initially like something bad, but it's actually
Speaker 3: think I think is quite a good thing. It's that
Speaker 3: bloke who wrestled the ball out of Mike Trout's glove at.
Speaker 1: Houston.
Speaker 3: This is it's it's almost sort of exactly the same
Speaker 3: as the Mookie Betts incident last year, where two chaps
Speaker 3: wrestled the ball out of his glove and were particularly
Speaker 3: unpleasant about it afterwards. This chap's done it, and this
Speaker 3: is this is how it should have gone first time.
Speaker 3: He even looks a bit like mister Copper Bianco from
Speaker 3: last year. Uh, what's happened is he's clearly reached out
Speaker 3: for a ball he thought he had to go at.
Speaker 3: There's been a rush of blood of the head, and
Speaker 3: he's gone for gone into Mike Trout's glove and he's
Speaker 3: had the ball out and but but what makes it
Speaker 3: better is Mike Trout is quoted saying the bloke was
Speaker 3: was immediately apologetic, and afterwards they met up. He's apologized
Speaker 3: to him. He's Mike's Trout signed a bat for this
Speaker 3: guy's son. It al's played out the way it should
Speaker 3: have played out last year with Mookie Betts if those
Speaker 3: two guys weren't such asses. So, you know, fair play
Speaker 3: to this bloke. He's made a mistake, he's copped to it.
Speaker 3: Fair play for Mike Trout, he's immediately gone, what the
Speaker 3: hell's gone on here? And then and then he's accepted
Speaker 3: the apology. Everything's ended up happy. This is how it
Speaker 3: should be if occasionally fans are going to clash for players,
Speaker 3: because there is a line, a very thin line, where
Speaker 3: they meet. And this one worked out the way it
Speaker 3: was supposed to once once it went wrong. So well
Speaker 3: done everyone for keeping your heads and for being decent
Speaker 3: human beings.
Speaker 2: Have you heard what umpires said? What was the difference
Speaker 2: between that play and the Mookie Bets play at the
Speaker 2: World series. His response was, I haven't seen the mookie
Speaker 2: bets play at the World Series, which this is basically
Speaker 2: spends his entire year umpiring and doesn't watch basically like
Speaker 2: the most important games in the world, which is either
Speaker 2: terrific work life balance or horrendous work life balance. I'm
Speaker 2: not one hundred ten cer and like which way it is.
Speaker 2: Or you've literally just lied out of your arse in
Speaker 2: front of absolutely everybody. So I just want to add
Speaker 2: that on because it was just an amazing from any.
Speaker 1: He wouldn't get that under Howard Webb's pug mall, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm pleased you spoke about that. Mike Trout absolutely all class.
Speaker 1: I'm going to stick up a little bit for that guy.
Speaker 1: I don't think he was anywhere nearing the realm of
Speaker 1: Austin Kappa Bianco. I think you're I think Russian blood
Speaker 1: to the head is exactly the right phrase. He just
Speaker 1: was like, I'm leaning over, I've got this, and completely
Speaker 1: didn't notice that Mike Trout was basically had his glove
Speaker 1: directly under his hand. It wasn't like I'm going to
Speaker 1: win this. Yeah, and he loved absolutely mortified as soon
Speaker 1: as he recognized what.
Speaker 2: Was going on, didn't he the guy was probably willing
Speaker 2: to steal it from a child, but not from a
Speaker 2: major league player.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, god, look, we've got no bads left,
Speaker 1: so we can't talk about that Pillock stealing it from
Speaker 1: emerginal like players.
Speaker 3: That's good, isn't it? Anyway?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're not talking about that Pillic probably, but.
Speaker 1: Russell talk about something good. Let's not talk about Zach Campbell.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you guys have seen recently this season,
Speaker 2: David Lauri has done a really awesome series on Fangrafts,
Speaker 2: which is going through scouting reports with major league players
Speaker 2: like four or five years, six years afterwards, and kind
Speaker 2: of like chatting them through. They're not like particularly long articles,
Speaker 2: and I think there's been like six or seven of
Speaker 2: them up now. This one's with like Cody Bellinger like
Speaker 2: to say that the name another one like quite a
Speaker 2: few others, like the one with Eric Feddey was the
Speaker 2: latest one that went up like today. I've really loved
Speaker 2: the series. I think it's such a clever way of
Speaker 2: kind of like just kind of like having like a
Speaker 2: quick chat with a player and talking about something that
Speaker 2: just the not something they've probably discussed multiple times before.
Speaker 2: I've not seen this format before. It may have been done,
Speaker 2: but I've never seen it. So I think it's like
Speaker 2: it's a cool little thing to kind of hear them
Speaker 2: talk about, Like, yeah, that's how I would have thought
Speaker 2: about myself when I was like coming through college or
Speaker 2: whatever and talking through with like talking through with fed
Speaker 2: A being like, yeah, obviously before we had TJ pretty
Speaker 2: much right before the draft, he was being talked about
Speaker 2: being drafted at the same place as like Jeff Hoffman
Speaker 2: and Aaron Nola and all of that. So really would
Speaker 2: to just people go go and read these kind of
Speaker 2: like groups of articles that I found them really fun,
Speaker 2: and yeah, it's always good to kind of like get
Speaker 2: something new when it comes to baseball writing great recommendation.
Speaker 1: I've not seen him, and I'm definitely going to hot
Speaker 1: foot my way over. Okay, well, God it spins around
Speaker 1: to me to put the top on after my start
Speaker 1: my big run up. I haven't done a big run
Speaker 1: up for a while at the start of the pod,
Speaker 1: and I kind of spoiled for choice. I mean I
Speaker 1: wanted I almost put Jeff Hoffman blowing a kiss at
Speaker 1: the Orioles Dugout. I thought that was absolutely amazing. I
Speaker 1: almost went for the extraordinary starts of the season from
Speaker 1: either the second or the actual most handsome man in baseball,
Speaker 1: e Jong Ho. It's either him or Atani. Let's be honest.
Speaker 1: He's been brilliant and it was such a shame we
Speaker 1: didn't get to see him properly in his rookie season.
Speaker 1: I'm really glad he's going to be a big part
Speaker 1: of the Giants because he's a really fun player and
Speaker 1: as I said, just very handsome ladin He But no,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about Aaron Judge. He has been
Speaker 1: announced as the captain of the USA World Baseball Classic
Speaker 1: squad for the twenty twenty six tournament. Those of you
Speaker 1: who know this podcast well know we're rather big fans
Speaker 1: of that setup. And Great Britain's going to be back
Speaker 1: in the World Baseball Classic again and we are in
Speaker 1: the same pool as the World Baseball Classic, as the
Speaker 1: USA in the World Baseball Classic, and yeah, that means
Speaker 1: that Great Britain's going to get to play Aaron Judge.
Speaker 1: I think that's fun. But it's just fun that Aaron
Speaker 1: Judge wants to play. He didn't play last time. He
Speaker 1: was probably the biggest star that didn't play in the
Speaker 1: USA squad. Harper did, Mike Trout did so. Yeah, cudos
Speaker 1: to Major League Baseball, Cudos to coach de Rosa for
Speaker 1: getting Judge to sign up and to take the reins
Speaker 1: skippering the squad. It's good that the signature international tournament
Speaker 1: of the sport should have the best players in it,
Speaker 1: and the USA have never quite pulled their white. So
Speaker 1: great to see Judge. I'm assuming Russell that you're quite
Speaker 1: excited to see whether or not he can get Tyler
Speaker 1: Visa out of the infield.
Speaker 2: Yeah. That's that's where you kind of think about it.
Speaker 2: You're talking about, like, who are these guys. They're going
Speaker 2: to get their opportunity to face this and do well.
Speaker 2: I think obviously the real fun side to me for
Speaker 2: this is that like this is I think an attempt
Speaker 2: very early from like there and out de Rosa, like
Speaker 2: a few days beforehand. Now announcing like Judge, I think this,
Speaker 2: I don't know whether it's deliberately or not, will put
Speaker 2: pressure on a lot of other players to be like you,
Speaker 2: we're gonna freaking take this seriously. We want we want
Speaker 2: you involved. I've already seen Tyler Glass now say that
Speaker 2: he wants to pitch, which is probably like exactly not
Speaker 2: what the Dodgers wanted to happen, But like that's already
Speaker 2: basically Tyler Glass now pitched for the Team USA last
Speaker 2: last well or Baseball Classical, he would have been their
Speaker 2: number one pitcher, So like that a.
Speaker 1: Bit better than Adam Wine, right, wouldn't That's what.
Speaker 2: They were missing. The hitters went last year a few exceptions,
Speaker 2: but basically like the pitches didn't, and the pitches you
Speaker 2: can sometimes understand why it's just a spring training it's
Speaker 2: about to go. It is. But with Otani, with Yamamoto,
Speaker 2: with Sasaki, I imagine they're all gonna go play for
Speaker 2: Samurai Japan In. So like the Dodgers are going to be,
Speaker 2: like our rotation is all basically pitching in the World
Speaker 2: Baseball Classic.
Speaker 1: It's going to be quite difficult for them to say
Speaker 1: no to Tayler Glass. So equally, it's going to be
Speaker 1: very difficult for the New York Yankees to say no
Speaker 1: to Jazz Chisholm when Aaron Judge has been announced, which
Speaker 1: is obviously extraordinarily good news for Great Britain. So don't
Speaker 1: get injured again, Jazz for crying out loud. We rather
Speaker 1: missed you last time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the only thing we've got to hope for.
Speaker 2: The only major rule, but basically I think is if
Speaker 2: they spent more than ninety days on the IL in
Speaker 2: the previous season, the team has the right not to
Speaker 2: allow the player to go to the tournament. That's pretty
Speaker 2: much the only thing that stops it, apart from teams
Speaker 2: fucking around with arbitration.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so great news that Judge is going to be there,
Speaker 1: and fingers crossed for Jazz. I think that's a hopeful
Speaker 1: situation for us. We'll be a lot more World Baseball
Speaker 1: Classic talk between now and next March. We need to
Speaker 1: have a coach. We haven't talked about coach Spencer. We
Speaker 1: will talk about Coach Spencer plenty between now and next March.
Speaker 1: Let's see who the next one's going to be excited
Speaker 1: to find out. Maybe I was hoping maybe Mark Durris
Speaker 1: would come for us, but you know we can do
Speaker 1: better than that. Great Chats, it's been a pleasure as always.
Speaker 1: Why when it's you two, is it always long? Gov's
Speaker 1: going to be so unhappy yourself? Yeah, exactly, and Rob,
Speaker 1: it's been a pleasure I would ask you if you're
Speaker 1: writing anything, but you're not, so yeah, please like subscribe
Speaker 1: to this podcast. It really does help spread the word
Speaker 1: in the old algorithm. If you like us, tell a friend.
Speaker 1: If you don't like us, don't tell anyone, and we'll
Speaker 1: see you again next week. Goodbye.