Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Batlips and Nerds, the baseball podcast
Speaker 1: with a British twist. I am your host this evening
Speaker 1: for Russell Easam and I am in person with the
Speaker 1: amazing Ben Carter.
Speaker 2: Ben.
Speaker 3: How are we doing? I'm very good us.
Speaker 4: This is a bit weird for us to be sat
Speaker 4: here chatting in person and not over a video screen,
Speaker 4: but it's very exciting first event of the year to
Speaker 4: come watch baseball fellow fans, so no looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: Yes, and as Ben semi alluded to there, the reason
Speaker 1: why we are here in person is because we are
Speaker 1: down at Moonshoot, which is in the Westfields in London,
Speaker 1: to have the first MLB clubhouse event of the year.
Speaker 1: The event being put on by Europe and Week Clubhouse
Speaker 1: and ourselves to try and get people to come down
Speaker 1: and watch baseball together and build that community of people
Speaker 1: who know that other people of baseball in this country.
Speaker 1: Because if it wasn't for things like this, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have known the Backflipsky Nerds existed.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's the main place that we've met everyone basically,
Speaker 4: isn't It's always funny of these relationships started.
Speaker 3: What all of them did for me anyway.
Speaker 4: Online you know, you write stuff or hop on the
Speaker 4: podcast and meet people, but it's nice to actually have
Speaker 4: a chance to see them in real life, have a beer,
Speaker 4: watch a game, banter about whatever's going on in the world.
Speaker 4: So yeah, no, it's nice to be be all back
Speaker 4: together for Opening weekend and get a chance to catch up.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So we've had three days of baseball when I don't
Speaker 1: know where your attention has been. Has it been a
Speaker 1: side that now plays in a short porch that isn't
Speaker 1: Yankee Stadium. Have you been watching a broad, broader set
Speaker 1: of games beyond just what happens at the Steinbrenner Arena.
Speaker 3: I've not been watching a ton of the games.
Speaker 4: Actually, we went together on Opening Day, so I watched
Speaker 4: them of the baseball there with you, which was that
Speaker 4: was good fun, some really interesting, exciting games at nights,
Speaker 4: and some closes looking a little bit shake as we discussed,
Speaker 4: that was fun. I didn't watch much Friday or Saturday.
Speaker 4: I saw the highlights of the Ray's Rockies game. We
Speaker 4: were discussing a little bit earlier. Last night's game was
Speaker 4: was really funny because the Rockies gave up. I think
Speaker 4: it was like twelve hits, five walks, an Tenia Sindetela
Speaker 4: had one of the strangest pitching lines you'll ever see,
Speaker 4: and yet the Rockies managed to win two to one
Speaker 4: on the back of some amazing defense, which is worth
Speaker 4: looking up. But that was my first taste of seeing
Speaker 4: some action from Steinbrenner Field, which is a bit.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Still it doesn't feel like a Major League park when
Speaker 4: you see it on TV. But no, I've been trying
Speaker 4: to keep across all the games that are taking place,
Speaker 4: watching the highlights, keeping up with it. It has been
Speaker 4: a real over day of baseball, but you know, missed
Speaker 4: it after the long winter, I believe.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: Obviously we watched those games on Friday. I watched a
Speaker 1: little bit more on Friday night, and then last night
Speaker 1: I was with my partner and her housemates and know,
Speaker 1: they permitted me to put on the baseball while we
Speaker 1: were chatting and having a good evening. So we put
Speaker 1: on the first game, which was the Brewers Yankees match,
Speaker 1: and yeah, suffice to say, two or three of them
Speaker 1: were really questioning what's normal about baseball because it was
Speaker 1: like home run, home run, home run, and they were like,
Speaker 1: is this normal? And me and my Barner Brenan were
Speaker 1: just like, yeah, no, that's not really normal. I think
Speaker 1: I don't think anybody would have said that would have happened.
Speaker 1: I think having the different lead of hitters going like
Speaker 1: back to back going hitting home runs, I will hold
Speaker 1: my head up and I think, like quite a few people,
Speaker 1: I was lively and probably loudly questioning Austin Wills as
Speaker 1: a lead off hitter just as he smacked that home
Speaker 1: run on Thursday night.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was a great moment Russell berating the Yankees
Speaker 4: putting Austin Well's leadoff just to watch him then smash
Speaker 4: one over the fence. And yeah, last night's Yankees game, Yeah,
Speaker 4: first time in history, right that it was back to
Speaker 4: back to back home runs in the first three pitchers
Speaker 4: of the game. I think we're going to get onto
Speaker 4: the other talking point from that from that game or
Speaker 4: from the bats a little bit later on. But yeah,
Speaker 4: poorn Ester Cortez, that was not a nice reintroduction to
Speaker 4: the stadium in his first start as a brewer.
Speaker 3: That was that was brutal to watch. So yeah, good
Speaker 3: to have baseball back.
Speaker 4: I think we're gonna we're gonna grab George maybe now
Speaker 4: of MLBUK Clubhouse. Maybe talk to him a little bit
Speaker 4: about what we're doing here and what those guys have
Speaker 4: got planned for the rest of the season.
Speaker 3: So I'm going to cleverly tilt our GoPro and introduce him.
Speaker 3: He's live, George.
Speaker 4: Thank you for I'm going to give you this mic
Speaker 4: and then maybe we'll wen chare it a little bit.
Speaker 4: But I guess we've just been mentioned that we're here
Speaker 4: first event of the year. Nicely everyone in person again,
Speaker 4: how are you doing? What does it mean to be
Speaker 4: back with people watching baseball again?
Speaker 2: Firstly, thanks for having me on here and it's it's
Speaker 2: brilliant to be back.
Speaker 5: I think we will miss baseball Junior off season as always,
Speaker 5: and the chance to enjoy it in public and with
Speaker 5: these fans that we've known and grown to love over
Speaker 5: the years, and this whole experience as a shared community
Speaker 5: is wonderful and I think we're just looking to grow
Speaker 5: that year on the year, and I'm excited about the
Speaker 5: whole revamp. Obviously we've got the NIBUK Clubhouse and I'll
Speaker 5: side you guys with the revamp backflips and under the
Speaker 5: europe Fan Network. I think the future is very exciting.
Speaker 5: I really can't wait to see the future holds this year.
Speaker 3: Brilliant.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel people have seen on Socialist the rebrand obviously,
Speaker 4: we also now have shining new logos and colors and everything,
Speaker 4: which is very exciting. As you say, what what does
Speaker 4: it mean for you guys as far as what's like
Speaker 4: changing in terms of your approach this year, What are
Speaker 4: you going to be doing differently? What can fans come
Speaker 4: to expect from the new you know, MLBUK Clubhouse.
Speaker 5: I think it's just more about understanding that there are
Speaker 5: you know, there's a very wide kind of fan base
Speaker 5: out there, and we're trying to appeal to everyone in
Speaker 5: a way which makes sense.
Speaker 2: Everyone's difficult because you've got existing.
Speaker 5: Fans who don't want to be pandered to, like is
Speaker 5: if they've never watched the game before, and you've got
Speaker 5: new fans who really are coming absolutely fresh to the sport,
Speaker 5: and we you know, we can't stress us enough. We've
Speaker 5: always been looking to get these people on board and
Speaker 5: get them into this community and show how welcoming it is.
Speaker 2: So I think in terms of the.
Speaker 5: Rebrand, it's just it just sounds cliched and a bit
Speaker 5: business jogony, but it's just be more approachable and to
Speaker 5: be more clear in terms of like who we are
Speaker 5: what we are, uh And I think that's going to
Speaker 5: become more and more apparent over the course of this season.
Speaker 5: Our goal, as we've always stress this, is to have
Speaker 5: events not just in London but around the whole of
Speaker 5: the UK because it's it's MLB UK clubhouse for a reason.
Speaker 5: It's it really is a movement and the more we
Speaker 5: can get people to understand that and buy into it,
Speaker 5: the more everyone everyone knows gonna benefit from it. Because
Speaker 5: it's a wonderful sport. We're always at pains to stress
Speaker 5: that it will. We welcome fans of all thirty teams
Speaker 5: or fans of no teams. You know, if you just
Speaker 5: like the sport but you don't actually even have a team,
Speaker 5: you're more absolutely welcome to come. It's not it's not
Speaker 5: a close It's never ever been a closed shop, and
Speaker 5: that's exactly what we want to try and emphasize with
Speaker 5: the with the rebrand and the kind of freshness with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's a brilliant sentiment to go with
Speaker 1: It's something that I have found coming into baseball in
Speaker 1: playing either the sport or being kind of that fandom
Speaker 1: is that it's been generally been a great like open
Speaker 1: environment where pretty much anybody you come in you can
Speaker 1: be like there's there's no gatekeeping here, there's no we're
Speaker 1: not one of that. Like we all want you to
Speaker 1: love the sport that we love, so please do if
Speaker 1: you find the opportunity in the future to come down
Speaker 1: to one of these events. Maybe jumping the gun slightly,
Speaker 1: but I think kind of there has been another location
Speaker 1: outside of London kind of decided as what we'll try
Speaker 1: and do with what I think are going to be
Speaker 1: attempts at kind of like monthly events now throughout the
Speaker 1: rest of the year.
Speaker 2: George definitely, I think, I mean that's for us is
Speaker 2: really the priority.
Speaker 5: I think we I don't want to let the cat
Speaker 5: out the bag too much, but I think in terms
Speaker 5: of from em and m or b UK clubhouse side
Speaker 5: of things, we're looking to actually get a couple of
Speaker 5: other people.
Speaker 2: Involved on board with with our group.
Speaker 5: So if you're listening and think that that's something which
Speaker 5: would be an attractive option to you in terms of
Speaker 5: you know, helping us do what we do on social media,
Speaker 5: staying active on there and kind of being in touch
Speaker 5: with the community of baseball, of MLB fans in the UK.
Speaker 5: You know, by it means drop us a DM on
Speaker 5: any any social media platform that we're on. We're going
Speaker 5: to look to expand to other platforms like Blue Sky,
Speaker 5: et cetera as well this year, So don't feel like
Speaker 5: you're limited to Twitter or Instagram or any whatever.
Speaker 2: We're going to be out there. We're going to be
Speaker 2: active and we're going to look to expand.
Speaker 5: So I think working with you guys for us is
Speaker 5: very very important as well, because we cover kind of
Speaker 5: like different sides of the same coin.
Speaker 2: We deal with the sort of community side of it
Speaker 2: as we always have.
Speaker 5: And then you've got bat Flips who are very much
Speaker 5: involved with like grassroots baseball with the statistical and numerical
Speaker 5: side of baseball, and I think it marries up really
Speaker 5: well because everyone enjoys baseball in their own different ways
Speaker 5: and we kind of have that perfect blend.
Speaker 2: So I'm really really excited for what this year's got
Speaker 2: in store for us.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Likewise, I mean, it's funny we obviously have been We've
Speaker 4: known you guys for so long now that these defens
Speaker 4: that have happened in the past, and yeah, I mean
Speaker 4: we met on quite a few occasions obviously going back
Speaker 4: I think maybe pre London Series twenty nineteen even you know,
Speaker 4: when these events are taking place on a smaller scale,
Speaker 4: but it's cool for us and I'll be a little
Speaker 4: bit close together in terms of how we're a bit more.
Speaker 4: We're doing forward and trying to connect with fans. So yeah,
Speaker 4: I would definitely encourage people for just com to check
Speaker 4: these events out and get involved as much as they
Speaker 4: can do. I guess for anyone who hasn't been down
Speaker 4: to an event before thinking about coming along, what can
Speaker 4: they expect when they come down to someone like Moonshot
Speaker 4: and want to see a game of some fans?
Speaker 5: I think, firstly, as I said before, a welcoming atmosphere,
Speaker 5: we always myself and Nick, who you hopefully will know
Speaker 5: from online if you're listening to this also runs the
Speaker 5: Early Angels UK and what we focus on every time
Speaker 5: at these events is to make sure that we're approaching
Speaker 5: people who we can tell are new at the events
Speaker 5: that we've never seen before. Get to know them, get
Speaker 5: to speak to them, see what their connection is with baseball,
Speaker 5: what they enjoy and try and you know, really understand
Speaker 5: how this community works, because I think it's safe to
Speaker 5: say that fans in the UK frame will be are
Speaker 5: slightly different from fans that perhaps in America. Obviously you're
Speaker 5: gonna get a lot of expats here, but if you're
Speaker 5: talking about specifically British fans, everyone enjoys the game in
Speaker 5: a slightly different way. And that's the same if you're
Speaker 5: going to the Far East, you looking at Japan and Career.
Speaker 5: Everyone's got their own kind of fan character and the
Speaker 5: fact and the way that they enjoy it. So it's
Speaker 5: it's very very important to us to try and reach
Speaker 5: out to everyone and make sure that we understand what
Speaker 5: those nuances are.
Speaker 3: Brilliant. Yeah, I mean it was funny when we got here.
Speaker 4: It was myself obviously in my Rocky jersey, the people
Speaker 4: watching can see and a Raised fan came in next
Speaker 4: so literally as all thirty teams represented here and we
Speaker 4: were able to get Raised Rockies straight onto the TV
Speaker 4: to watch first up. So look, they'll be fans from
Speaker 4: every team here. There'll be games on all the TVs.
Speaker 4: It is good fun, nice chat baseball through with with
Speaker 4: fellow nerds and fellow backflip enthusiasts, so so No, definitely
Speaker 4: recommend it for the Kambia Shane get you want to
Speaker 4: not talk a little bit about the Astros, George, How
Speaker 4: are you feeling about the season upcoming?
Speaker 3: How is Astros fans uk going?
Speaker 4: Tell us a little bit about twenty twenty five in
Speaker 4: the Astros world.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of change once again for the Astros.
Speaker 5: Obviously having traded Kyle Tucker away before he would hit
Speaker 5: free agency at the end of this year, and having
Speaker 5: lost Alex Bregman in free agency, a very different feel
Speaker 5: to the Astros. But honestly, and I know I am
Speaker 5: guilty of being slightly over positive at times in general
Speaker 5: when it comes to the Astros, but I genuinely have
Speaker 5: just a bit but I do have. I do have
Speaker 5: a genuine level of optimism for this team. I don't
Speaker 5: know how far they can go, but in terms of
Speaker 5: the actual makeup of this team, I think having Eas
Speaker 5: at Parade's third base is is looking like a really
Speaker 5: good acquisition, even though he doors because he's taking a
Speaker 5: lot of pictures. One of the worst things for us
Speaker 5: last season was that we became obsessed with this ultra
Speaker 5: aggressive mindset of the plate, and there's so many, so
Speaker 5: many games where we'd be you know, five to seven pitchers,
Speaker 5: eight pitchers, three up, three down and putting the pilot
Speaker 5: of the pressure back onto our pitchers. And it was
Speaker 5: a miracle last season that we were able to even
Speaker 5: win the division considering the volume of pitching injuries that
Speaker 5: we had and the makeshift kind of rotation that we
Speaker 5: put together. Was it was actually an incredible job we
Speaker 5: did after a disastrous first six weeks. In terms of
Speaker 5: this year, very excited about the team. I think having
Speaker 5: won that first series against the Mets was very important
Speaker 5: for us.
Speaker 2: Struggles at home.
Speaker 5: Still not quite hitting yet, but obviously it's very very
Speaker 5: early doors in the season.
Speaker 2: I think there's that that will come.
Speaker 5: But yeah, good to see how two V not bothered
Speaker 5: by the switch to left field in terms of his
Speaker 5: actual hitting.
Speaker 2: Lady got five hits in that first series.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm just I'm just very very optimistic about the
Speaker 5: fact that this team is going to grow together.
Speaker 2: There's reasons to be confident that.
Speaker 5: Naturally, every team is guided and you know, dictated to
Speaker 5: by the health of the players.
Speaker 2: If we have two or three key injuries, we could
Speaker 2: be in big problems.
Speaker 5: But I think that's the same form almost any team
Speaker 5: that's not the Dodgers or the Mets pretty much because
Speaker 5: it's they've kind of have unlimited pockets.
Speaker 2: But it is what it is in terms of Astros fans. K.
Speaker 5: Yeah, my content this season, yeah, really expanding it got
Speaker 5: my my next Day recaps, which I've just revamped in
Speaker 5: terms of according it the extra innings Next Day recap.
Speaker 2: So I checked that out.
Speaker 5: If you're an Astros fan listening, I'm also on YouTube now,
Speaker 5: so give the YouTube channel a check. So yeah, pretty
Speaker 5: much all platforms, whether it's Twitter, slash x, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok.
Speaker 2: All of them really, you know, YouTube.
Speaker 5: So I'm very very excited to really push it, try
Speaker 5: and grow this Astros fan base, which is what I'm
Speaker 5: what I'm very passionate about in the UK and across
Speaker 5: the world, and indeed with the fans back in America's well.
Speaker 2: I'm hoping to get out to use to myself later
Speaker 2: this season and looking forward to just interacting with everyone.
Speaker 2: Heah no, that's all for George.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like the from our perspective, I think both the
Speaker 1: BTM and the E team both had the Astros of
Speaker 1: like eighty eight or eighty nine wins.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 1: So it's like I think they have a system that
Speaker 1: we all trust that like the same people that are
Speaker 1: still in place, like behind the scenes, the same place
Speaker 1: is still in place kind of at those key levels
Speaker 1: that you're like, you know what, you've aren't the trust
Speaker 1: the same way that you kind of have with the
Speaker 1: Rays where it's like you don't quite know how it's
Speaker 1: going to fit all together exactly right now, but they've
Speaker 1: aren't that trust. You have players like Framburg going who
Speaker 1: going into his free agency, somebody who could could be
Speaker 1: maybe looking at like a one hundred and like one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty two hundred million dollar contract out there
Speaker 1: from what he's doing like through seven innings on opening day,
Speaker 1: which is only like the one of two guys who
Speaker 1: actually did that massive like innings before, where I think, like,
Speaker 1: once again, like who knows, you could even see Lance
Speaker 1: mccullors throw a pitch, which would which would be a
Speaker 1: dream as someone.
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely he's actually pitching today, I think for the
Speaker 5: Space Cowboys in a rehab start. So yeah, I'm just
Speaker 5: I feel for him so much. He's had such an
Speaker 5: injury nightmare. I really really hope that this is the
Speaker 5: year where he can actually finally get back out that
Speaker 5: he hasn't pitched for us since that ward tier is
Speaker 5: in twenty twenty two where he got actually destroyed by
Speaker 5: the Phillies in game three.
Speaker 2: So yeah, we'll we'll see.
Speaker 5: But it's I agree with you that the thing for
Speaker 5: us at the Astros is that, like I said, the
Speaker 5: process and that and the whole kind of the pitching
Speaker 5: lab and and all that is is I don't know
Speaker 5: what they do, like the ins and outs of it,
Speaker 5: but it's incredible and it is tried and tested, and
Speaker 5: our overseas, you know, our international acquisitions are arguably second
Speaker 5: to none. It's certainly in the top two or three
Speaker 5: and made in MLB, and you know it, just when
Speaker 5: you think, oh, the Astros are gonna that they've lost
Speaker 5: another key piece, suddenly we've got someone coming from like
Speaker 5: Dominican Republican Venezuela's like throwing ninety eight ninety nine, and
Speaker 5: you're thinking, wow, okay, this is just another piece to
Speaker 5: add to the puzzle. So I think, you know, it's
Speaker 5: it's going to be an exciting division. I think that
Speaker 5: the Rangers feel like they are prime to have a
Speaker 5: bigger year than obviously what was very poor for them
Speaker 5: last year. I've got to be honest with you, I'm
Speaker 5: never gonna believe in the Mariners ever. I'm never ever
Speaker 5: going to believe in them. They've got I think that
Speaker 5: they are. That they're pitching is still even even with injuries,
Speaker 5: it's still very, very, very good. And I I love
Speaker 5: watching I love watching their pictures do what they do.
Speaker 5: But their offense is just not there and I don't
Speaker 5: I don't think that's going to change the season. And
Speaker 5: then also the mindset. I think for them, it's a
Speaker 5: bit like they've got a mental block which they can't
Speaker 5: get over. And I mean, and then look at the
Speaker 5: Angels again, I think the Angels have got so much
Speaker 5: to prove in terms of to actually be taken seriously.
Speaker 5: That's that's the key stumbling block for them, is that
Speaker 5: I think they actually had quite a good offseason in
Speaker 5: terms of picking up players that look like on paper
Speaker 5: they should be fairly dependable and not they're not going
Speaker 5: to be world beaters, but the ones that should actually
Speaker 5: just get them through a season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but that's been the Angels of maybe in the
Speaker 1: last five years, you've kind of thought the one year
Speaker 1: deals have been The one year deals have never been
Speaker 1: the problem. It's the how seemingly no prospect has come
Speaker 1: through that system, and there's been good since Mike Trout.
Speaker 1: I'll give Shanuel a bit of an opportunity, and it
Speaker 1: doesn't help, like, I know, run down and gets a
Speaker 1: lot of stick and and potentially like deservedly so, but
Speaker 1: like it doesn't really help the like the guy that
Speaker 1: you put bank on to be like that corner of
Speaker 1: if I it's just like, yeah, you know what, Like
Speaker 1: I kind of don't really like baseball and I'm injured.
Speaker 1: Oh and I'm in it again. I'm injured again. Like no,
Speaker 1: no aspersions against the man's character or whatever earlier and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. But like there's a reason why the
Speaker 1: like national fans will still love Strasbourg even though he
Speaker 1: basically played for like I don't know, five innings after
Speaker 1: that contract. Even then Rendona's done the same.
Speaker 5: I think we're I think we're the Angels, and it's
Speaker 5: obviously it's old ground, but I think if I was
Speaker 5: an Angles fan, I'd still be pulling my hair out
Speaker 5: of the fact that they didn't cash in on a
Speaker 5: tiny when they had the chance, because they could have
Speaker 5: had such an incredible haul. They could have completely revamped
Speaker 5: the farm and even the major league team if they
Speaker 5: if they traded in before that deadline, before he got injured.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I mean, I think for them it's a
Speaker 5: case of like that was a slightly indoors moment. It's
Speaker 5: going to take them years to to to properly get
Speaker 5: to a point where they can actually build something. I
Speaker 5: don't think this is I don't think this is the
Speaker 5: year for them. I'll see what the a's I quite
Speaker 5: I think that they might surprise a few this year.
Speaker 5: They've got some good players there. Butler, he was smashing
Speaker 5: us around last season, So yeah, I think that's uh.
Speaker 5: And obviously watch it, you know, brentin see it's again
Speaker 5: it's a he's gonna do damage. So I think that
Speaker 5: they I don't know what their pitching is like this.
Speaker 5: See I'll be honest with you, I haven't looked.
Speaker 1: Into well it obviously that's where the question does come from.
Speaker 1: But they picked up Severino through six clean, good innings
Speaker 1: on that first experience, so we're really kind of just
Speaker 1: wondering what's gonna happen in that stadium, kind of how
Speaker 1: how that plays out. It generally plays as a pretty
Speaker 1: aggressive stadium when it comes to stats in the Triple
Speaker 1: A stands, So we've got to wait and see that,
Speaker 1: Like are they are they right to concentrate maybe on
Speaker 1: the hitting side so they can actually just hit it
Speaker 1: out of that park, especially when it gets more, when
Speaker 1: it gets warmer and warmer and warmer.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I.
Speaker 5: Think it's a final point for me in terms of
Speaker 5: the Ale West one opportunity for whoever wins it to
Speaker 5: try and do damage on the AL side because it's
Speaker 5: so open, like it's the NL is A is a
Speaker 5: war zone. There's there's so many great teams there, Whereas
Speaker 5: on the Ale side, I think anyone could make it
Speaker 5: to the World Series. You see of the teams that
Speaker 5: are going to be sort of contending for the division typles,
Speaker 5: I don't I really think that it's.
Speaker 2: Gonna be anyone's game. Obviously not gonna prognosticate anything in.
Speaker 5: March, but I think I just think it's it's that's
Speaker 5: going to be fascinating when when it comes to the crunch.
Speaker 2: But yeah, Astros wise, very positive.
Speaker 3: Great to hear. We'll look, we'll we'll let you go.
Speaker 4: I know you've got other things to be to be
Speaker 4: doing here, but thank you for joining us. And yeah,
Speaker 4: for everyone who obviously is listening to George, make sure
Speaker 4: you follow not just ashos fans UK but MLBUK Clubhousese
Speaker 4: guys are doing great work setting up events like this
Speaker 4: making it all happen.
Speaker 3: Good luck to the shows this year, George.
Speaker 4: Hope people have you on a little bit later in
Speaker 4: the season and we can see see how those prognostications
Speaker 4: are getting on.
Speaker 3: But yeah, we'll catch up with you later.
Speaker 4: So I guess other than the Astros and the opening weekend,
Speaker 4: there are a few other talking points who are going
Speaker 4: to get to about what's going on in the world
Speaker 4: of baseball. And I feel like the big talking point,
Speaker 4: especially after the offensive barrage last night and the Yankees game,
Speaker 4: were were those funny shape bats. And as you were
Speaker 4: sitting here, I saw it come up on the on
Speaker 4: the screen about the like newly designed bats and what's
Speaker 4: going on here. I guess for anyone that's missed it,
Speaker 4: it came out on the broadcast last night that a
Speaker 4: few of the Yankees players, based on some research time
Speaker 4: by their analytics department, have now got bats that have
Speaker 4: got a barrel much closer to a larger barrel, much
Speaker 4: closer to their hands than towards the end of the bats.
Speaker 4: So it makes it look a little bit funny where
Speaker 4: it kind of goes out and then back in towards
Speaker 4: the bottom of the bat. But well, their early results
Speaker 4: are that those bats seem to work well, because yeah,
Speaker 4: they hit a team record nine home runs last night.
Speaker 4: I think it's Volpi and Chisholm with the two that
Speaker 4: had the most pronounced differences, and how their bats looked
Speaker 4: like both those guys went deep. Russell has been a
Speaker 4: bit of outcry about should it be allowed? Is it
Speaker 4: within the rules? The answer to that is yes. But
Speaker 4: you know, is this good? Is this good for baseball?
Speaker 4: Is this bad for baseball? We're going to see every
Speaker 4: team starting to use these bats? Is it all much
Speaker 4: about nothing? What do you think about the new bats?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's a weird one because it's like I
Speaker 1: find that baseball in a lot of regards is very
Speaker 1: analytically driven and it's very future forward. It's really kind
Speaker 1: of like working and what it does. But on some
Speaker 1: base things they do almost nothing like we think of
Speaker 1: all the analytics we've had in baseball. It took basically
Speaker 1: until like the naudies of people to actually seed like
Speaker 1: he you know, we're just going to stand in like
Speaker 1: the same even defensive positions all the time, where you're
Speaker 1: like cricket and it's obviously they've never maybe had set
Speaker 1: fielding positions, but you move them literally like all the
Speaker 1: time when you do that. And I don't want to
Speaker 1: pull the comparison once again to cricket, but like so
Speaker 1: many guys have different bats bat shapes in cricket, and
Speaker 1: I know it from the from the baseball side, generally
Speaker 1: we have you have sizes, you have ones that are
Speaker 1: kind of like a little bit loaded more to the end,
Speaker 1: a little bit more of like an even stuff. This
Speaker 1: the kind of like the the point is that we're
Speaker 1: seeing is this pronounced kind of tapering out and then
Speaker 1: back in, which is what people haven't seen. But it's
Speaker 1: like it's one of those weird ones where it's sure
Speaker 1: to me sometimes I'm like, surely somebody thought about this.
Speaker 4: Seems remarkably simple that no one would have thought to
Speaker 4: do this earlier, Right, Yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Think it's one of those things where like in my
Speaker 1: head I equate it to something like the seam shifted wake,
Speaker 1: which for those who don't get it, it's effectively when
Speaker 1: you throw a curple or an off speed pitch and
Speaker 1: you basically keep the seam rotating like on the side
Speaker 1: or on the axis on the because you've got that
Speaker 1: scene permanently there, it actually will move or deviate more
Speaker 1: than you think because the seam actually breaks up cuts
Speaker 1: up the air differently, and that's what gives you that rotation.
Speaker 1: And you're like, well, in cricket, pretty much you spend
Speaker 1: that whole entire time scuffing one side of the ball
Speaker 1: to do exactly that sort of thing. And baseball they've
Speaker 1: got it to the point where you knew that, like
Speaker 1: you were not allowed to scuff the ball. People who
Speaker 1: did scuff the ball deliberately got done in trouble. But
Speaker 1: people didn't think about, oh, yeah, but what happens if
Speaker 1: I just rotate the ball and keep the seam there
Speaker 1: Like that seemingly took until the point that we had
Speaker 1: SlowMo cameras for people to kind of work that out.
Speaker 1: There's something to do. I imagine there are people over time
Speaker 1: who are thrown pictures like that. We've just not been aware.
Speaker 1: That's why they were so good. This once again seems
Speaker 1: one of those things. It just seems so fundamentally, like
Speaker 1: why is everybody using exactly the same bats? It seems dumb,
Speaker 1: But then it also seems that like it's a really
Speaker 1: sensible thing for an organization the size of the Yankees.
Speaker 1: This is the thing that they should be doing the
Speaker 1: same thing with that impact wise, It's kind of it's
Speaker 1: so down to the badness because so many of these
Speaker 1: guys have been swinging the same bats or the same
Speaker 1: weighted bats for probably twenty years, and I don't know
Speaker 1: about you just playing. Like in the UK, I swung
Speaker 1: a bat for like two years. It broke, and I
Speaker 1: tried to swing other bats. I was awful. Really, Like
Speaker 1: I really I really struggled to swing like a different
Speaker 1: bat to the one that I basically spent like my
Speaker 1: first two years playing. Is took me like probably like
Speaker 1: about four or five games before I then just like
Speaker 1: just to adjust to a different bat because it just
Speaker 1: the weight was slightly different, so like and then you
Speaker 1: get in your head and so I just don't know. Obviously,
Speaker 1: these are these are premium sports stars, not single A players.
Speaker 3: In the United States, it.
Speaker 1: Is an adjustment and if it's an adjustment where they've gone. Actually,
Speaker 1: you don't need to make the adjustment because you're so
Speaker 1: good at doing the swing, but you just get yourself
Speaker 1: jammed up a little bit on the inside. So you
Speaker 1: know what you do. You let's move the bat and
Speaker 1: kind of make it work. So who knows.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's a good thing. Honestly.
Speaker 4: I think a lot of the advance and lists or
Speaker 4: changes in development in the last few years have favored pitchers,
Speaker 4: and I think there's been a lot of discussion around
Speaker 4: things like tunneling, things like spin rate. Obviously, velo has
Speaker 4: been known for a while, but all this stuff that's
Speaker 4: been relatively new to the world of baseball that has
Speaker 4: helped us understand what makes pictures effective and how.
Speaker 3: They can become more effect going forward.
Speaker 4: And it feels that we maybe haven't had quite the
Speaker 4: same advances in the world of hitting. You know, exit
Speaker 4: vilo we understand a lot better now and launch angle
Speaker 4: and things like that. There obviously are still metrics that
Speaker 4: we know are important, but I think in terms of
Speaker 4: how we improve those, the world of baseball has found
Speaker 4: that more difficult to get right compared to pitching. So
Speaker 4: I think any advancement like this, we're actually now we're
Speaker 4: going to see hitters, you know, maybe try.
Speaker 3: And them not paying for a bit, or just have
Speaker 3: another option. I suppose to make pictures.
Speaker 4: Think a little bit more is great, And I don't
Speaker 4: think this is the kind of thing where we're going
Speaker 4: to see every single hitter using these bats going forward.
Speaker 4: It's it's obviously some of the identify for certain hitters
Speaker 4: where they were getting jam more often than not. Let's
Speaker 4: move that barrel up a little bit and make it work,
Speaker 4: and maybe that will now need to sort a bit
Speaker 4: of a cat and mouse sort of how to pitches
Speaker 4: the just how the hitters ajust and it will just.
Speaker 3: Make the game more interesting. I think.
Speaker 4: So, Look, if the Yankees go out tonight and score
Speaker 4: fifteen more runs and on eight more home runs, we
Speaker 4: might look back on this and say, actually, is it
Speaker 4: such a good thing.
Speaker 3: But I don't see the effect being that pronounced.
Speaker 4: I think that was probably more nessa Cortes serving up
Speaker 4: delicious place of meatballs than anything to do with with
Speaker 4: the bats themselves. Hey, it's given us a talking points
Speaker 4: mean to talk about. I'll be interested to see in
Speaker 4: the next couple of weeks whether more players, more teams
Speaker 4: start to pick up on those bats and follow follow sleep.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I've seen a few pieces. I think
Speaker 1: Trevor Plue puts something out saying that, as far as
Speaker 1: he is aware, there are actually quite a few guys
Speaker 1: that are thinking of using these really Okay, So it's
Speaker 1: not something that I think is it's not just the Yankees.
Speaker 1: It may have been like a hitting like development, like
Speaker 1: person or whatever that's kind of likes has brought this
Speaker 1: idea and kind of the Yankees maybe organization have taken
Speaker 1: it on board and gone yes, whereas maybe some other
Speaker 1: areas or other teams have gone like no, just get
Speaker 1: better with the normal bat bell end instead of like
Speaker 1: coming here with this fancy, weird butt that no one
Speaker 1: thinks you can use properly.
Speaker 3: Interesting.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well that was the main obviously talking
Speaker 4: fro him from last night, or was there anything else
Speaker 4: storyline wise that you've seen from the weekend. I think
Speaker 4: one thing I noticed yesterday from the games was Jeff
Speaker 4: Conine no Griffin Conine making an outrageous leaping catch over
Speaker 4: the wall for the Mammi Marlins. I don't think they're
Speaker 4: going to get much shut out on our podcast this year,
Speaker 4: So shout out to Griffin for an early catch of
Speaker 4: the Year candidate that saved the game for them that they
Speaker 4: ended up winning an extra innings. He obviously is the
Speaker 4: son of Jeff Conine, which is a nice like parallel,
Speaker 4: I suppose, and that he had a great defensive played
Speaker 4: twenty years ago and the NLCS that won them that
Speaker 4: division series or championship series, and then his son then
Speaker 4: having an awesome play obviously twenty two years on is
Speaker 4: a very nice cool story. And then I was saying
Speaker 4: to you, just Foy started recording, there's a cool work
Speaker 4: in scoring at the end of that game that you
Speaker 4: put me in my place saying that's just the way
Speaker 4: it's meant to be. But it was a tie game basis,
Speaker 4: loaded bottom of the inning in the eleventh I think,
Speaker 4: so extra innings. Obviously one run ends the game wins
Speaker 4: it for the Marlins.
Speaker 3: But there was.
Speaker 4: A ground rule double that was hit, which obviously is
Speaker 4: an automatic two basis, So I thought, oh, would that
Speaker 4: men mean that the Marlins get two runs and they
Speaker 4: would win, you know whatever, it was six to four
Speaker 4: rather than five to four. But actually no, they just
Speaker 4: get the one run even though it was a groundruled out,
Speaker 4: so it goes in the books as a double, but
Speaker 4: only as one RBI, only as one run scoring, which
Speaker 4: is just the most nerdy, boring thing I can ever
Speaker 4: talk about.
Speaker 3: But I thought it was interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, No, it's the glorious ones where you kind
Speaker 1: of the obviously normally if you get the home run
Speaker 1: is basically your way of kind of like getting getting ahead. Further,
Speaker 1: the intricacies of knowing these rules comes from playing single
Speaker 1: a baseball in the UK, where you have five run limits,
Speaker 1: so you know of like the different ways that you
Speaker 1: can potentially score more to we get over that you
Speaker 1: get more than five runs, because you've got to know
Speaker 1: them because if it happens, you've got to be like,
Speaker 1: I want my eight runs, not my five run. Yeah's
Speaker 1: a couple of things for me to talk about. I
Speaker 1: think it would be remiss if we didn't talk about
Speaker 1: Randy's batspike. After that potentially kind of allay up there
Speaker 1: for bat flip, maybe a spikes backflips. I think we
Speaker 1: kind of have to include them.
Speaker 3: Said, it's kind of like the year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's kind of like a bat flip is effectively
Speaker 1: just doing something after you've TOPPD top something. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that was Randy being being Randy, making himself, making himself
Speaker 1: down at stage. I think obviously that he didn't have
Speaker 1: the greatest of years last year with with Sam Babe
Speaker 1: before he went over to Seattle, and he's one of
Speaker 1: those guys that runs hot and cold, and if he
Speaker 1: runs hot, he's amazing. We all remember like that with
Speaker 1: the talks of like Randy being the new like mister
Speaker 1: October or whatever. I remember being out there in the
Speaker 1: WBC and watch Randy just kind of like being Randy
Speaker 1: and just being like, yeah, I am the man like
Speaker 1: everything that's going to want. So he is just electric
Speaker 1: entertainment to watch, kind of like what that happens, and
Speaker 1: hopefully can provide some of those poor Seattle pictures with
Speaker 1: some run support.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think if if he has a good year,
Speaker 4: that's going to go a long way towards making them competitive.
Speaker 4: I know we obviously mentioned with George earlier we kind
Speaker 4: of just ruled them out automatically now just based on
Speaker 4: the years of getting close but not close enough. But
Speaker 4: if if he can have a big year, if if
Speaker 4: Julio Rodriguez have a big year, I think he has
Speaker 4: two steals yesterday, Like he looks healthy and fit and
Speaker 4: fighting like that, you can start to sort of squint
Speaker 4: and see maybe a half decent lineup in there, which
Speaker 4: always been their issue. So yeah, that's that's a promising
Speaker 4: sign for Seattle in the early going. I Rokie Soasaki,
Speaker 4: I was gonna mention obviously struggled last night and his
Speaker 4: Dodger Stadium debut. I think it was he Paul in
Speaker 4: the second inning right and gave up four or five
Speaker 4: wall shrugg with his control.
Speaker 3: I don't think there's anything to worry about long term there.
Speaker 4: I think we saw Yamamoto shrug a little bit to
Speaker 4: start the year last year for Dodgers as well. It
Speaker 4: may just be getting up to speed with with the
Speaker 4: swing of things to start the season. I mean they
Speaker 4: won anyway, right, they're still unbeaten the season we had
Speaker 4: the Mookie BET's walk off. The Dodgers look look a
Speaker 4: force to be reckoned with. So yeah, no concerns there.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 1: I think the some people may not know is that
Speaker 1: the actually the the MPB ball and the NBB ball
Speaker 1: is slightly different. I mean it's like a US like
Speaker 1: it does feel different. So obviously he's had spring training
Speaker 1: and it got through that. But seeing kind of what
Speaker 1: Yamamoto did, maybe even even thinking back to Otani when
Speaker 1: he was first pitching, it took them all a little
Speaker 1: bit of time to get accustomed to kind of like
Speaker 1: what's exactly going on? And yeah, maybe it is then
Speaker 1: for them it's something that's not that used to in
Speaker 1: a while, so it gets a bit of bright lights.
Speaker 1: But I don't really have any concerns of him kind
Speaker 1: of like get getting it on, Like I think he's
Speaker 1: he's a phenomenal guy and and we'll work it out sooner,
Speaker 1: sooner rather than later.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think some teams might be worried, though, is about
Speaker 1: what they're what their closers are going to do. I
Speaker 1: think we saw some pre shocking performances across the board
Speaker 1: from some closers there opening night or class A. Like
Speaker 1: opening night, I was just like, oh, here we go,
Speaker 1: like three nail down, get it back to four to three,
Speaker 1: like Kate Smith boom one up like faces the minimum
Speaker 1: with two strikeouts. Heron comes in faces the minimum, two strikeheads, Goddess,
Speaker 1: doesn't give up a hit, walks a couple, but still
Speaker 1: gets through the inning. And then it was Class A
Speaker 1: was just double single. I looked back on it and
Speaker 1: I was like, actually, like two of those pitches were
Speaker 1: hit like like almost like half a foot off the homes.
Speaker 1: So it's like they're not like meetple pitches, not people
Speaker 1: pictures that were located. Well, but we saw Devin Williams,
Speaker 1: we already seen Josh Hader. I think presidentally last night
Speaker 1: was very lucky to get out.
Speaker 4: Of his as he's using that job sooner than later,
Speaker 4: based on how last night when yeah, he's looking shaky.
Speaker 1: Saved by either a great play from Dansby Swanson or.
Speaker 3: Some terrible play.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Amison, Yeah, I can't quite work out which way
Speaker 1: it is. I think a bit of both. I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: the pump bake is just like, are you really like
Speaker 1: going to go that early? They feel something that I
Speaker 1: would expect in lower league British and how we didn't
Speaker 1: get back to do that. So yeah, that's kind of
Speaker 1: like where you're at then. Otherwise, yeah, I think we're
Speaker 1: just at this. My position is, are any team going
Speaker 1: to have more wins than the Dodgers at any point
Speaker 1: this season? In the fact that they are two games
Speaker 1: ahead of everybody else and their rest days quite a
Speaker 1: while until they get back and they are four and oh,
Speaker 1: do you think that anybody will ever have a better
Speaker 1: record than the Dodgers.
Speaker 4: It's not like every year we see a team go
Speaker 4: like twenty two and eight to start the season or
Speaker 4: something crazy, and maybe that's the Dodgers this year, to
Speaker 4: your point, and so no one ever does. But I
Speaker 4: feel like in this next month, maybe someone has a
Speaker 4: hot start and can overtake them, if only briefly.
Speaker 3: But I mean, yeah, I think the Dodgers.
Speaker 4: I know, I said in our eighteen predictions that I
Speaker 4: thought the Braves might out do them for best record
Speaker 4: in baseball. But look, the Dodgers are going to win
Speaker 4: a whole heap of games. They're going to be a
Speaker 4: regular team. And this is even with yeah, Bets obviously
Speaker 4: still recovering from from his illness, and with Freeman maybe
Speaker 4: still being slightly hobbled, and the rotation not even putting
Speaker 4: it all together yet.
Speaker 3: So yeah, they're they're a frightening proposition.
Speaker 4: I mean, Tommy Edmund's gonna be an MVP, I guess
Speaker 4: based on the first three games of the thirty days
Speaker 4: of the season. So yeah, look, they're going to be
Speaker 4: a wagon again, but we'll see how the next month goes.
Speaker 4: I'm sure someone will will come out and give them
Speaker 4: a run for their money at some point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's probably the case. But it's a
Speaker 1: fun hypothetical to think that the Dodgers will never overtaken, never,
Speaker 1: never be overtaken for the entire season.
Speaker 4: Well, we should probably go and be social ball and
Speaker 4: chat with some the other people here at this event,
Speaker 4: but that was good for us to have a little
Speaker 4: bit of a chat in person in about baseball.
Speaker 3: Rare that we get to do.
Speaker 4: So so yeah, thanks for Russell for taking us time
Speaker 4: to chat with us, or with me, i should say,
Speaker 4: And obviously big thanks to George for hopping on and
Speaker 4: talking us through what we're doing here and what his
Speaker 4: team's doing this year as part of their community efforts.
Speaker 4: And obviously also a little bit about the Astros. And yeah,
Speaker 4: I'll let you do that. Do the outro, but good
Speaker 4: to chat.
Speaker 1: Yeah, write anything then, sorry, writing anything anything?
Speaker 3: Oh God, here we go. Actually I do mean to
Speaker 3: write more.
Speaker 4: There's no point even saying it, but Gav I'm I'm
Speaker 4: kind of working on it.
Speaker 3: At some point.
Speaker 4: We saw him on Thursday and he was brating me
Speaker 4: if for not getting more done for the website. So
Speaker 4: I'm gonna pull my finger out at some point.
Speaker 1: You I always like get stuck between ideas, which is
Speaker 1: always the fun side of doing animals stuff. You kind
Speaker 1: of end up like halfway through something and then you
Speaker 1: go like, oh, something else looks interesting, and you get
Speaker 1: the oop piece of candy. MLB is sorty good with
Speaker 1: the oop piece of candy.
Speaker 4: When it comes to statistics, there's new stuff this year,
Speaker 4: isn't there that they've they've got information on?
Speaker 2: Was it?
Speaker 4: They're like where batters are in the batter's box and
Speaker 4: then where they like step towards when they're swinging.
Speaker 3: I don't really know how.
Speaker 4: That would make for for analystical content, but I'm sure
Speaker 4: if anyone can find a way, probably probably you can.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it says once you get the large enough simple size,
Speaker 1: you can start to look through it some of the stuff.
Speaker 1: Obviously last year we've got the bat speed stuff, which
Speaker 1: is some very interesting stuff that came out of that.
Speaker 1: Knowing that like MLB players choke it up, but choke
Speaker 1: it up basically is like two miles an hour slower. Really,
Speaker 1: it goes from like averaging like seventy one miles an
Speaker 1: hour to averaging sixty nine miles an hour. So like,
Speaker 1: if you think that they do have a slightly different
Speaker 1: like standpoints as well, sometimes a few people are just
Speaker 1: done that, but like, honestly, more more it's they change
Speaker 1: their swing like far more depending on certain pitchures than
Speaker 1: they do on the count.
Speaker 4: Interesting, but there we go plenty to get our teeth
Speaker 4: into nerd wise, and I'm sure we back next week
Speaker 4: to talk through any other storylines in the first week
Speaker 4: of baseball. But yeah, let's go go chat with some
Speaker 4: of the folks here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's go watch some baseball.
Speaker 3: Sounds good, Go Rockies, go Guardians.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you very much, boys and girls for
Speaker 1: listening to us. As always, you can find us at Batflips,
Speaker 1: Underscore Nerds on X and Batflips and Nerds on YouTube
Speaker 1: and ig. We will be speaking to you soon, probably
Speaker 1: with a full review of the first week of the season.
Speaker 3: Cheers, bye,