Foolish Baseball's 2024 Rookie Breakdown

Talkin' Jake is joined by Foolish Bailey to talk about the Braves 2024 season, MLB Postseason structure, and all things 2024 MLB Rookies 

Wake n Jake can be viewed on YouTube HERE: https://youtu.be/tDK4XPWn1vQ

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Timestamps:
0:00 Playoffs are Here and the Atlanta Braves Made It
7:00 Are There Too Many Playoff Teams?
9:10 What Are We Eyeing This Postseason?
13:05 Rookies
14:45 NL Rookie of the Year Race
20:40 AL Rookie of the Year Race
28:20 Rookies You've Never Heard Of
34:55 Should KBO/NPB Guys Be Considered ROOKIES?
38:10 The Preseason Top 10 List (Jackson Holliday)
45:40 The Best Rookie Teams
55:15 The September Standouts

#dpshow

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to Wake and Jake, a special postseason edition.
We are joined by Foolish Bailey BBD is here. I'm
Jake store Eli. Should I say that more at Talkin' Jake?
Follow a lot of Instagram posts shout out to Padre's fans,
Ryan Cohen.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
The postseason is here. We're excited.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
We've talked about a lot we did last last episode
here talking baseball. So when I was talking to Bailey,
and this is where he's different, built completely different, he said,
I want to talk about some of the rookies. So
we're going to talk about the rookies. And I'm excited
to see how you chopped them up and landed and

(00:41):
how you want to sort this out. And I do
want to start with just some general excitement for the
playoffs and your braves and whatever else you're looking for
this October.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
So how you doing, Bailey.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
I'm doing fine, But as a Brace fan, I can't
say I'm necessarily having a good time, to be honest
with you. I mean, they're in the playof that's great.
It's the seventh year in a row. There are fans
of teams everywhere that would kill to be in the
playoffs seven years in a row. You know, they would
kill to see their team win a World Series in
their lifetime, which is something the Braves did for me

(01:13):
just three years ago. But it just doesn't feel right.
The way it happened just doesn't quite sit right with me.
I didn't enjoy the doubleheader one bit. I thought maybe
I was gonna get to watch the first game and
then take the second game off like the rest of
the team did. I was gonna, you know, maybe get
some work done. Instead, I spent basically seven hours on
the couch, just in excruciating pain throughout both games. And

(01:38):
I feel, and I gotta say, you know, I feel
bad for your snakes. I feel genuinely bad for your snakes.
I don't feel you. Look, at the end of the day,
you gotta win the games to get in right, you know,
And that you know, even came down to head to
head tiebreakers for them versus like the Mets and the
Braves to some extent, that was definitely a factor into
this playoff race at the very end. But look like

(01:59):
they score more runs than anybody. They had some intriguing
bullpen arms like Martinez and Puck that they didn't have
necessarily as part of the run last year, they would
have been a more they would have been a more
interesting playoff team than I think either of the teams
that got in via the double header, to be honest
with you, certainly more so than the Braves, probably more

(02:20):
so than the Mets. And so I'm just kind of
bummed by it. And I'm bummed too because it felt
like from the get go that the that the split,
the double header split where both teams that get in,
was inevitable, and I think that yesterday was actually a
good test of that because it was actually the perfect
script were there to be a sweep, because the Braves
used every high leverage reliever in Game one, and then
they had Chris Sale scratched for Game two, so all

(02:41):
everything was lined up beautifully for the double header sweep
to somehow happen for a team that didn't care to
somehow beat a team that does care, and it still
didn't happen. The Braves won three to nothing. It was
totally unconvincing. I'm not conspiratorial to the point where I'll
say the Mets through the game because maybe they liked
the seeding better or the travel situation better, but They
clearly weren't, just from a strategy perspective, trying they're trying

(03:03):
to win the World Series. They weren't trying to win
Game one sixty two after they qualified via Game one
sixty one. And that was very apparent when they had
Joey Lukesey throwing one hundred and eight pitches yesterday, when
he maxed out ninety four in the miners all year.
That's just not right when Brandon Nimmo, the King of Hustle,
is not hustling down the first baseline to make it
runs on first and second, no outs in the ninth inning.

(03:25):
So it like, yes, great, I like the Braves were
in the playoffs. It doesn't have that twenty twenty one
feel to it. The twenty twenty one team got hot
at the end. There, they were coming in hot into
the postseason. This team basically had a great start to
the season when everyone was healthy, and they've played five
hundred orderline below five hundred ball the rest of the way.
You know, the twenty twenty one team was missing a Kunya.

(03:46):
This year's team is missing a Kunya and Riley and Stryder.
You know, yeah, I mean basically there's there's two ways
this can go. They'll either you know, get past the
Padres and win the World Series, or they'll just get
absolutely skunked by the Padres. You know, I don't think
there's any there's no middle point for them right now,
and so I'm gonna enjoy it. I'm gona enjoy plaoff baseball.
I'm gonna enjoy the fact that, even if they lose

(04:08):
playoff baseball, my team has given me a World Series
within my lifetime, which is pretty much anything you can
ask for as a fan. You know, it seems greedy
to want to possibly want more than that, but yeah,
I'm just a little bit perplexed by the entire situation,
and I wish, uh there there was just more excitement
about this general Braves team, but I just don't necessarily

(04:30):
have it right now. We'll see maybe by you know,
the time the West Coast game kicks off tonight, I'll
be all aboard.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah, It's it's a great point, Bailey, because I again,
I'm I'm Diamondbacks adjacent.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
I'm like part of the family. I'm there.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
I'm I'm the Arizona's like weird Italian cousin that lives
in the city and shows up Uncle Eddie's style every
other holiday. Yeah, they kind of got screwed a little bit,
But we keep doing all this the sports talk of like, well,
you know, they limped in down the stretch, they could
have decided their own fate, And it is true, but

(05:06):
you know, we essentially had two teams yesterday that kind
of didn't decide their own fate in that last game, Like,
you're right, the Mets were swinging and not hustling and
not going to use their good pitchers.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
And that's over one sixty two.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
With the new playoff format and how we're trying to
do this whole thing, it's kinda it's kind of not fair,
but everyone is going to hang on the old sports analogy, like,
you know, we could have controlled their own fate and
we could have won more this last week. How many
games did we leave out there this season? That? Yeah,
I think the other thing, the only thing I would

(05:42):
counter on, I think with the recent history of the
Diamondbacks of last year, when you say that they could
be a better playoff team than or a better threat
than the Braves or the Mets, that could change instantly,
Like if the Mets have the sauce and their funky
revival rotation is kicking and the kids are going nuts

(06:05):
in the lineup, Like these Mets are kind of electric
if if your braves are house money braves with a
bottom of the lineup of wit Marorfield giving it one
last run and Geo the God or Schella digging deep,
like there's fun to be had there that you know,
any of these teams can do it. And I guess

(06:25):
it's kind of one of the problems with this new
playoff format that like any any team can go to
the World Series. The Snake's kind of embodied that last
year and it's but to have that opportunity taken away
in like a Fugaisey Game one sixty two, that is brutal.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
Man.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
Yeah, I think maybe is the lesson that and look,
this never happens, is the less arether too many playoff teams?
You know, because I'm not sure if these Mets are
these braves. I'm not saying they can't win the World Series,
Like there's a difference between can you win the World
Series and like a really short tournament where a lot
of it's a lot of small series, but do you
really deserve to be in the postseason. You know, that's

(07:07):
even you could say the same thing about last year's
Arizona team. I think they had a negative run differential
in the regular season last year. That's bad. It's not
you want to score more runs than your opponents, right,
they didn't do that. So but you know, and and
and as someone who like you know, cares about the
playoffs and wants to see like that good competitive balance
where the su have good teams and fun players in

(07:28):
but at the same time, I just lament that it
never in the history of in the professional sports has
it ever seened like a league has said, you know,
what we need is less teams in the playoffs and
less playoff games because everything's money and playoff shares and
blah blah blah. And I hate it because the playoffs,
no matter what, just for the rest of our lives,
they're just gonna keep getting a little bit bigger. You know,

(07:48):
NBA play in tournament, another wild card team in the NFL.
It's just like it's just everything. They're gonna they're gonna
add two expansion teams, you know, and then there's gonna
be two more playoff spots. You know that that's just
I just hate it. I really don't like it.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yeah, who runs the world? Girls, Beyonce, I'll tell you
that obviously. And then it's money man, And I mean, look.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
At look at the state of college football.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
Just turn on turn on a Saturday these days and
look who's playing and you're like, what I had my
I had to tap tap in. I can't believe I
said that in a serious ways. I had to tap
into the new college football game because it was the
game I probably played the most growing up. And I
took the Arizona State gig and I was like, Oh,
this is kind of hype Arizona State, Like this is

(08:34):
a good program, we could get ranked and we're big.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
Twelve schedule and I was like, what the fuck? Yeah,
it's uh, money rules the world?

Speaker 1 (08:44):
And yeah, I I do think baseball is going to
have to adjust this format and I currently don't know
the answer. And maybe it My god, you less regular
season games so you could have a more legitimate playoff.
I don't know, because then you're never gonna do that
because then you can't chase the records of baseball. But

(09:04):
I think we're gonna have more time to discuss that
at a later date. Sure, Lo, what I guess, is
there anything else you're eyeing this postseason?

Speaker 2 (09:13):
But I know that's such a broad question.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
I know you want to talk about the rookies and
it's gonna be cool to see Jackson Merrill on this
stage and Cowser and I know the Wit and Gunner
have graduated obviously, but that's that's fun. Like there's something
beautiful about those two uniforms and two shortstops that brings
me back to when I was a little girl, seeing
Jeter and Nomar out there and all that kind of stuff.

(09:38):
I guess, is there anything else? Like me and Trev
were laughing, we wrapped up talking baseball by doing like
giving our picks, and that's you know again, it's such
a losing process at this point. Shout out to Ben Verlander,
who pitched a reverse perfect.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
Game the other year. But don't know, we don't laugh
at that. We support our Brotherren, But uh, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
I guess it's just all the storylines, Like, I man,
it's Liken. It could line up for San Diego and
La to tee it up again, and how cool that
is between where they're at with Otani and the Padres.
God if Houston and the Yankees somehow find a way
to tee it up again. How electric that would be.
But yeah, I guess it's a bad open ended question

(10:25):
that if there's anything you'd like to say, feel free.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
If not, yeah, here's here's what I'll say. And with
regards to the picks, I want to see if it
can be prognosticated anyway. Is anyone gonna fill out a
playoff bracket that's similar to what actually happens, you know,
because there's a lot of things you can look at
and that you can try to draw meaningful conclusions from.
But October baseball is different, and sometimes teams have the

(10:49):
juice and sometimes they don't. And from the outside it's
really hard to tell who that who that's gonna be
because I don't think anyone would have had the Rangers
and the Dinmonbacks in the World Series last year.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
Yeah, I mean the more I'm spinning my wheels right now,
cause I the one game just felt so so off.
But almost one game almost has less variable than three.
Like I know that make that doesn't make sense, But
like in one game, if you get a team's best effort,

(11:23):
like that's it. Like, hey, whoever you got make it happen,
Chris Sale coming out of the bullpen whatever, like one
game be the better team that day, where three games,
like the Braves may punt this first game of a
three game set just to be set up for Max
Free to win and then everything else that.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
I guess I was kind of against the one game,
but these three gamers just something feels off.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah, it's because you still have to manage the series
even though you know you only basically get to take
one l and then you're facing elimination. But yeah, I
mean the Braves are a great example of this. They
are I think punt isn't all right word to use.
I mean the idea is basically, you're gonna throw out
a couple guys there, and then you're gonna see what's up.
That's what I call I call this to see what's
up game? Like yeah, right, aj Smith Shaw for one

(12:14):
time through the order Anderson one time through the order,
then see what's up? You know? But uh yeah, I yeah,
you don't have to worry about managing the series in
a one game. You just have to win the game
by any means necessary.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
And yeah, maybe maybe that would just take out cause again,
like I going back to my Diamondbacks, the whole thought
process was like, hey, everyone wants to build an eighty
five win team, and now that we got like, now
that we've processed that, you know, the Diamondbacks had a
pretty nice year, like they this was kind of the
vision of like the good playoffs working here, and you're right,

(12:47):
I mean the ending salty and they could have controlled
it more.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
But I guess if.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
There was one game and maybe more teams got a
buy through that one game that makes you try to
win more. I don't know, we'll We'll have offseason to
think about it. I'm excited to get into the action today.
And Bailey, I'm excited to see where you bring me
with this rookie class, because up for whatever reason, I
was more fascinated this year with the rookies, and I

(13:15):
think what it went back to, well, I can't I'm
gonna tout myself and then I'm gonna poop on myself.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
The Jake story, Ellie story.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
We do our over under predictions before the season, and
I correctly got the Texas Rangers, and part of what
got me through it was just looking at Wyatt Langford
and Evan Carter in the middle of the lineup. I
was just like, I don't know, Like that's that's some
serious youth to hit three four, And I started digging

(13:47):
more and doing like, how good could youth be? But
this is a contradicting thought process because every year we
talk about teams getting a youth infusion and that's what
makes them good and it's the lifeblood of the team,
that's what we always say. Yet it's so hard for
rookies to be good. So I'm excited to see where
you take this and let me get this. Let me

(14:08):
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Speaker 2 (15:14):
So, Bailey, where are you going to lead us today?

Speaker 3 (15:17):
I guess we'll start with what people want to hear,
which is like a quick Rookie of the Year discussion.
That's not necessarily what I'm here for, but I understand
that the people may want to hear that. I'll try
to get through it somewhat quickly, so we'll start in
the National League. I feel bad for Jackson Merrill. I
think probably you feel a little bit bad for Jackson
Marril because he's probably not going to win this award,

(15:39):
but he has had a great rookie season. He has
had a rookie season that is better than any American
League equivalent rookie this year in twenty twenty four, I
would say, and I think the problem is that this
race has become kind of a litmus test as too.
Is there any way a rookie pitcher specifically, One that
I would say is, is you know, drafted, you know

(16:00):
and developed in the United States, you know, not like
a necessarily an MPPE guy. Ken a rookie pitcher, went
Rookie of the Year starting pitcher, I should say, because Skiings,
I think is very much the luprint. He was drafted
first overall. He's this, you know, mega prospect, generational pitching prospect,
probably the best we've seen since at least Strasburg. And

(16:22):
what does he do. He comes up? He throws one
hundred and thirty innings in the majors. That's that's what
it's going to be, right Like, That's about as good
as it can get for a you know, an elite
pitching prospect in twenty twenty four at the big league level.
And it's some of the it's it's the best one
hundred and thirty innings you could ever ask for. Really,
I mean, he was sensational. And so the thing is,
you know, you got to take a look at it

(16:42):
and say, hey, if if Paul Skeens can't win Rookie
of the Year, then can any starting pitcher do it,
you know going forward? Because it's just going to be
a workload thing, you know, versus you know, a six
hundred played appearance every day hitter, you know those guys,
that's a that's a bigger chance to influence the game,
even you know, Jack had more played appearances than Paul

(17:05):
Skens had batter's face this year, not to mention the
defense in the base running as well on top of that.
So I feel bad for Meryl in that regard, but
it is Skeens. Skeens is going to win the award.
If I had to vote, I would vote for Skeens
because he was incredible. But I do feel I do
feel bad for Meryl, and I do think you know,
what he did deserves a lot of recognition. He's definitely

(17:28):
got it. But like he wasn't a center fielder and
then he was, and then he played great centerfield and
then he just hit and the Padres don't make the
playoffs without him. So yeah, that's that's my take on
the n L. I think the other sort of impressive
rookies for me this year Mason Win and Jackson Turio.
Jackson Trrow is actually the answer to the are you
familiar with the three Jackson's problem?

Speaker 1 (17:49):
Well, dude, I'm like, does Jackson Let's say Paul Skens
doesn't exist. Yeah, which Jackson would you pick?

Speaker 2 (17:58):
Is it still Meryll?

Speaker 3 (18:00):
Well, it's Merrill for Rookie of the year, but for
long term, like which guy I want on my team
for the next ten Okay, I think it's Cheerio.

Speaker 2 (18:08):
Well, yeah, that's.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
You know how how good chearrio trio? People have ripped
me for this one, and I I don't know. I
feel like I say it differently every time. I feel
like I'm doing a caramel caramel thing Churio right?

Speaker 3 (18:22):
Are is it cheerio as in like cheerio? Or are
we putting more emphasis on the rio? Let me let
me look this up. Let me see if anyone has
us Let's get this right. It's and you know what
I'm doing it wrong? It's we're not. According to the
Baseball Reference pronunciation, it is cheuriochurio like chew, Like we're
emphasis on chew.

Speaker 1 (18:42):
Okay, yeah, because I mean there there was some points
that it was like, wait, does this.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
Guy deserve Rookie of the Year?

Speaker 3 (18:50):
Oh wait, no, I guess it'd be I'm still reading
this wrong. Okay, cheerio.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
We're working on it. We're doing y uh.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
I don't know as a brother too, so we'll have
to really have to get this right soon.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
Brian, did I dream that?

Speaker 3 (19:08):
Oh there's a Jason?

Speaker 2 (19:10):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
There may be a Brian somewhere in there.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
Yeah. Sorry if I'm a little shook. Joe Bimel, the
old Dodgers reliever, liked one of my Insta posts today,
So it's been.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
An emotional day over here. Yeah, I know. Tario was
kind of charging hard that.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
I was like, wait, are the Jackson's gonna knock each
other out and give Paul Skeins the award?

Speaker 2 (19:36):
So what I I guess what are you saying?

Speaker 1 (19:38):
Like it? Do you think Skens does get it? And
Merrill's Meryll's out?

Speaker 3 (19:42):
I mean, Skens gets it for sure. And the thing is,
sometimes when you discuss awards. This is so hard for
like people listening at home to understand. And it's not
the case here, but a lot of times there's a
split between who I would want to win and who
is going to win and so and so when. So,
you know, if I just came out and I said
Paul Sken's is the Rookie of the Year, people don't
necessarily know what I mean by that, you know, because

(20:03):
that could mean I think he's the best, or that
could mean I think the thirty people that are gonna
vote for this think he's the best. In this case,
I think we're probably aligned. But in all cases, no, you.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Know, yeah, yeah, I'll be interested to see because it's
also it's one of those loosely defined awards that rookie
of the Year doesn't mean best. You know, Yankee fans
went through what back when Twitter was hot Andrew Harvar's
Otani God, the streets were alive with music those days.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
But yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
Mean, I don't know. I still think there's I think
Merrill has a chance.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
I think it's more open ended than that.

Speaker 1 (20:47):
I don't know, Like like you're saying, like you know,
to play every day and to be one of the
top two players on the padres this year that are
you know, like a legit World Series favorite.

Speaker 2 (21:02):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (21:03):
I'm interested to see where the old heads kind of
land on it. It's probably Skemes who's who's getting it.
In the al it feels like my guy heel is out. Yeah,
that it turns into Cowcer versus Wells, which I mean,
that's just some.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
Good baseball conversation.

Speaker 1 (21:19):
Your catcher cleaning up for the Yankees, a guy that
stabilized a lot of stuff for the Orioles through different
parts of the year.

Speaker 3 (21:27):
Well, I think Cowser's getting it, and I do think
it'll end up being one of the less impressive Rookie
of the Year winners we've seen in recent years. And
my take on that is that's fine. I think maybe
we've gotten a little spoiled lately. I think maybe we
need a rookie class like this every now and then,
just to really appreciate when a when a Julio comes

(21:48):
along or a Corbyn Carrol comes along, like someone who's
like so obviously great, you know. So I think it's
Kowser for me. Wells, I think the for him, the
rate stats offensively kind of went down there that last
month or so season. I think that maybe it may
have knocked him out as well. And actually, for me,
like if I were filling out my Rookie of the
Year ballot, I'd probably put heel ahead of Wells. And

(22:10):
we talked about this, but you know, if heal is
such a classic case of if you just if the
first half happened in the second half. This is an
incredible narrative we built for ourselves. So and and you know,
I'll say this with regards to you know, the playoff
teams in the playoff races as well, Like I think
what happens when you have a team like the Diamondbacks
that you know just barely misses out. You start thinking, oh, man,

(22:34):
if only we hadn't lost that last series to the Padres,
or oh we had that big lead in that game
versus Milwaukee in September and then we blew it. No
one ever thinks about April. The games in April count
the same as they do in the standings at the
end of the day. And there's so many like like,
you know, you can hear it from Julio himself. Julio,
you know, will the Mariners get close and he every

(22:57):
I think probably these last couple of years, he thought
to himself, if I chose gotten a little bit hotter
in April and May, we're probably in you know. And
that's a lot of pressure to put on him. But
that's the truth, is that a game in April and
May counts the same in the standings at the end
of the years, the ones in September and I sometimes
I feel like we don't necessarily recognize that, but I digress.
Luis Hill would be U ahead of Wells. For me,
I think Cowser would be number one. I do really

(23:18):
want to shout out White Langford. I think it because
because Evan Carter it was bad, he got hurt, it
was bad. White Langford very quietly got his season back
to basically what was projected for him.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
He had.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
He finished with a one eleven oh ps plus. He
was like a three war guy. He nearly one dotted
in the September eight. He had eight home runs in
September to really boost up the stats. But if you
really honestly right now, if you compare Kowser to Langford,
they're not that far apart statistically. It's the it's the truth.
Cowser's got you know, Cowser's on a like a fun

(23:53):
team that's in the playoffs, and and Langford can't necessarily
say that, but I think, I think I hope Langford
finishes hot in the voting. I wouldn't expect him to
factor in, you know, getting a bunch of first place votes,
but I hope he gets the recognition. And the other
guy I'll shout out is Mason Miller still because you know,
he was very much part of this conversation first couple
months of the season. And what I would say is,

(24:17):
in some regards, Mason Miller's season as a reliever is
about as rare as Kowser's season as a left fielder,
if that makes sense, Like like he is too relievers,
you know, Askowser is to left fielders. I don't know
if I can, you know, make that any more clear,

(24:37):
but I guess the point is, you know, he's worth
taking a look at to some degree just because he
was so electric and so fun. So if I were
being like a contrarian voter, he's a guy I would
considered giving a first place vote too.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
Yeah, whyat Langford?

Speaker 1 (24:53):
And so I I wanna te this up by saying
that part of me is the p here and I
think in the right way. If Wyat Langford had done
this on say the Tigers, Whyatt Langford might have a
Rookie of the Year campaign, like come in his way.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
Now it's very different.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
He played on a Texas Rangers team that the season ended,
and I'm happy he finished this way that if he
had done this on the Tigers, he basically would have
been their second.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
Best player, third best player.

Speaker 1 (25:27):
And with his pedigree and them making the poseas and like, yes,
that does change things. So but it is funny just
to put it through that scope of you're right, we
forget the earlier of the year stuff matters. And I
don't know if it's a problem with baseball, Like I
let the Mets and Brewers. They played the first series
of the year and they played their last series of

(25:50):
the year in games that didn't matter to the Brewers,
And think about how far the Mets have come from
their like zero to five lol Mets star. So it's
just it's a tough thing to juggle in baseball of like,
how how do we do that? Where yeah, luis heill
uh he he screwed up his order there and I,
you know, as I'll get in front of this one

(26:12):
for you, Bailey as BBD's got our Yankee pinstripes on,
well you're a brave Has there ever been a more
a guy with a good start in a baseball town that,
for whatever reason, he's like an afterthought?

Speaker 2 (26:28):
I don't I what's happening there?

Speaker 3 (26:31):
Yeah, you know, that's really interesting thought. He is good.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
He's good.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
He is good. Yeah, he's good. He yeah. No, and
he it's not like he was like a total nobody
prospect either, you know. Yeah, yeah, no, that's a that's
a good thought. I had him sort of the you know,
another vote getter, like he'll you know, he'll have a
nice R O Y or or five or whatever on
his baseball reference page in a few weeks here. But yeah, no,

(26:58):
that's that's intriguing too. Not a lot of national attention
for him. I don't know, if you know, the the
entire sort of Red Sox team kind of fell off
these last couple of months. I think maybe if they'd
stayed a little bit more relevant in the playoffs, maybe
he would have gotten a little more love.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
Yeah, it's uh, it's interesting. Mason wyn Man. I like
him a lot. Let's let's see how the offensive profile grows,
and let's see if Heim turns it around. How about
that him and busting Posey stealing headlines yesterday?

Speaker 3 (27:29):
Yeah that, you know, right, and right before uh the
doubleheader kickoff, the everyone was like, hey, here's something really weird.
The him, the him one is honestly weirder because I've
never I can't even think of a time where this
has happened where it's like, yeah, he's taken over later,
you know, like that's so weird, you know.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
So uh, okay, not to go old man on YouTube,
but the whole world's fake. Like I don't well, I
don't know, man, Like go go look at the guys
never mind never mind, not gonna do it.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
Hmm, censoring him. He was about to drop some truth
on us. Oh go look, you know the powers.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
That be this this playoff season. Go look at the
people on the Fox Baseball desk. It's a Rod, it's Poppy,
it's Frank.

Speaker 3 (28:18):
There's about two thousand Homers at that desk, and yeah, like,
good for them.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
They are stars of the game. And like, I don't know,
I think the executives at Fox just like the fact
that they show up to some corporate events and they
get to call them friends, Like I don't know, Like
that's kind of how the world works sometimes whatever old
man can leave us alone, Let's talk about more rookies.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
So where to next, Bailey?

Speaker 1 (28:46):
You you have you have a category of rookies you've
never heard of, which, hey, man, respect the waken Jake
sports people.

Speaker 2 (28:54):
We get in the weeds. I did, should that be
the new motto?

Speaker 3 (28:58):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (29:00):
Kind of a double entendre?

Speaker 1 (29:02):
And then you have a you have a ton of
other stuff here, so again, go for it.

Speaker 3 (29:09):
Yeah, this is a segment I'm gonna quickly do called
the best Rookies You've Never heard of? And it's sort
of descending, right, because there's levels to this. So I'll
start with Tyler Fitzgerald of the Giants, ended up with
a three f four season, played some short stop, played
I think some center field, let me get that right,
kind of played all over some center field, some second base,

(29:29):
some left field in there. For mister Tyler Fitzgerald made
headlines basically because he had like a I guess with
the kids call Lisanity run. For about a one month
span there he slugged eight seventy, which is I wrote
not a typo for that. He had eleven home runs
and eighty six played appearances within the span of about
a month. Not that much else beyond that, but still

(29:53):
like around that time, he was like right at the
top of the Rookie War leader board because of that,
like even up there with Merrill and Skiings, So color
me intrigued. Next, we'll move on to a guy who
had an extremely impressive season, but the only reason he
might not have heard of him is because people don't

(30:14):
often pay attention to relievers that aren't closers. And that
is gonna be Cleveland's Kate Smith, part of The Guardian's
Mega Bullpen. And Yeah, the one thing that stood out
to me he had the low He has the lowest
FIP among any pitcher with at least thirty innings pitched
in the majors. Like that's crazy, Like the ratios in

(30:34):
the strikeouts and the home runs and the walks. Let
me get this right, he struck out thirty six percent
of the batters he faced, only walked six percent of them.
And what is this like one homer allowed all year?
So uh, that's pretty crazy to think about. That's pretty
crazy ratios right there. So that's sort of the second
level and then the third level. You know, if I

(30:55):
haven't stumped you, Waking Jake viewers at home, I'm gonna
tell you what team guy plays four in a second.
But Dane Myers, do you know who he plays for?
Awaken Jake listeners, please say the team out loud, But
bah bah it's the Miami Marlins.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
Lee Miami.

Speaker 3 (31:10):
I I was. I was on Dane Myers preseason. That's
that is how much of a sicko I am.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
Well, Dudeley, I don't want to cut you off too
much of the past, but this is this is a
name for the sickos. Like you know what I'm saying.
Dane Myers. I remember him being a prospect. You know,
it's drafted twenty seventeen. That how how do we end
up here?

Speaker 3 (31:31):
Well, how we ended up here is part of the
intrigue because he was drafted in the Rule five by
Miami I think from Detroit, but not the major league portion,
the minor league portion. You do not see that very often.
You do not see a big leaguer of any relevance
drafted in the minor league portion of the Rule five draft.

(31:53):
Very often. That's what happened with Dane Myers came up.
I think they viewed with them a little bit in
twenty three, but in twenty four. This year, just kind
of intriguing numbers across the board.

Speaker 2 (32:02):
Again.

Speaker 3 (32:02):
It's it's he only had one hundred played appearances, but
he was above average hitter. And you know, he's twenty
eight years old. But I was just kind of intrigued
by I looked at the stat cast. He has good
barrel rate, he has good chase rate, contact could be better.
He has a cannon of an arm. He's fast, Like
there's just there's he's a good athlete, you know, and
so there's just a little bit of intrigue there, especially

(32:23):
in a place like Miami where there are opportunities to
win playing time if you have the talent. So that's
that's my total. You probably haven't heard of Dane Meyers.
If you are, you're a sicko on the level of me.
And uh yeah, those are my three best rookies you've
never heard of?

Speaker 1 (32:39):
Yeah, Tyler Fitzgerald. I surprised to see where the season
end numbers landed, Like good, good for you, dude. Was
it fifteen homers? Seventeen stolen bases, eight thirty one oh
ps ninety six games played. That walk to strikeout ratio
make makes me a little nervous and makes you, uh,

(33:04):
you know, for the next steps. Let's see what happens. God,
I just I started making the joke this year. I
mean Giants player generator between Tyler Fitzgerald and who's the
kid who was playing Grant McCrae.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
Yeah, it's just like, what come on, guys?

Speaker 3 (33:26):
Every now and then you see a Wade Meckler and
you're like, what are we doing here?

Speaker 1 (33:29):
So funny enough, Wade Meckler, the first ever blitz.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
Ball boy, uh to take it to the big leagues.

Speaker 3 (33:38):
Wow?

Speaker 1 (33:38):
Yeah, so we're we're all in on Wade Meckler.

Speaker 3 (33:40):
He's part of your coaching tree.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
It's uh, it's kind of crazy. Uh Yeah. The the inventor,
the creator, Aaron of blitz ball was like, yeah, Wade Meckler,
watch out. And I was like what And then yeah,
there's videos of him as like a sixteen year old
just cranking blitz balls a decade ago.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
The uh uh interested in Tyler Fitzgerald. I believe in competition.
I think baseball's gotten too far away from competition and
the him and Marco Luciano stuff that I think kind
of actually came to.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
A visual forefront.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
I like that, like play ball, come get the position,
like you play well, you get to play like we
sometimes we've come so far away from that in this sport,
which is just like bizarre.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
Dane Myers.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
I just hope something hitting wise ever breaks in the
Marlins direction, because I hitting's fun to watch, and I
feel like Marlins fans haven't gotten to good watch good
hitting since.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
What blank like.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
John Carlow, like what yes, like Giancarlo yell at Jozuna.
I guess they had that tight window there and then
they sold them for parts. And yeah, Kate Smith, I
guess maybe this is where I'm too close to the situation.
That's seeing how the Guardian have done this this year,
knowing how much a part of the ride h he

(35:05):
has been. Yeah, I don't know, Tyler Fitzgerald's thrown me
off right now, because I don't know if I want
to buy stock or if I just look at those
numbers and be like, I've seen baseball do this too
many times.

Speaker 3 (35:17):
Yeah, I'm kind of in the ladder camp, but I'm
still intrigued.

Speaker 1 (35:20):
Yeah, okay, we're to next.

Speaker 3 (35:26):
Anything on the sheet interests you by any chance?

Speaker 1 (35:29):
Oh well, I think this is a good topic that
baseball people would like to hear that you have. Should
the NPB, KB O CNS guys be eligible for Rookie
of the Year. It's a good conversation, right, because we
we clearly don't grade them on that scale. Otherwise we
would have had uh you know, I think another Yankee

(35:50):
one was a HITDECKI that that that didn't get the
Rookie of the Year. I'm forgetting how it happened, but
you know that these are guys that have been pros
that we we don't them on the same scale that
you know showed him a Naga had a great year
this year.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
And yeah, like I guess if this was.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
A neutral, neutral Rookie of the year, would he outdo
schemes because he has a full season.

Speaker 3 (36:17):
I was having that thought, and to be honest with you,
to be honest with you, if I was voting, I'd
probably say yeah, because it's just uh, well it's like
forty more innings, right you know. So yeah, there's something
you said about that.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
Yeah, I I don't have the answer because I mean
I feel bizarre if we just do a like you
you listed here, so this isn't shots fired at you,
but like a best Newcomer award, I don't know if
they still have Rookie of the Year and they have that,
and there's like one year where there's one guy that
comes over that's like a ends up being a util
guy with a six seventy seven ops and a point

(36:52):
five warrant. It's like, well, welcome, welcome to our best
newcomer junk Jung Ho Kang.

Speaker 2 (36:59):
What's he up to? Did he get in trouble?

Speaker 1 (37:02):
You think?

Speaker 3 (37:04):
Oh no, I was gonna say, yeah, that was a
while ago.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
Though, yeah either way that yeah, I don't know what
to do. It's it's a mental it's a good mental
exercise for society because I don't think there is a
good answer.

Speaker 3 (37:18):
Yeah, I'm starting to lean know, to be honest with you,
I mean because for partially for some of the reasons
you just described, like if like if Y'ama Moto pitches
a full season, like how does that even factor in there?
I mean even Nanga had a wonderful year, and it's
like how could how could a uh you know, a

(37:38):
college arm compete with them if if they're if they're
gonna max out one twenty or one thirty in the
rookie season, and those guys are come over and throw
one eighty. You know. Yeah, so I think that's tough,
and I think, you know, I like I I used
to be like, I don't understand why everyone hymns and
hawes about this. You know, uh if you know O
Tani wins or you know, for example. But but now

(37:59):
I'm like, I think part of respecting the league and
part of respecting the level that they play at would
be not including those players and Rookie of the Year
discussions and saying, hey, you're a grown man coming over
from a grown man league, playing a grown man sport.
You don't have to be considered a Rookie of the
Year eligible, you know.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
Yeah, I mean maybe if you don't want to go
a step further, you could do like an age thing
and do like twenty six and under if they made
up over here and they have a great season. But yeah,
I yeah, I think I think it ends up being
sort of sort of moot.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
You know. I don't like to say that.

Speaker 1 (38:35):
What I think I'm more interested in this the preseason
top ten and it kind of starts off with a bang,
and it leads into your second topic, Jackson Holiday. Yeah,
we came a long way from you know, you guys
know who his dad is, and he grew he grew
up with a bad engage, and he's the next one

(38:57):
to like whoa, whoa, oh baseball, baseball gets pretty real
pretty quick. Where are you at with them?

Speaker 3 (39:06):
I think I'm probably a little bit more negative on
him than a lot of people would be. And I'll
tell you why, because you know, and look, this is
what I'm about to describe to you is not a
bad thing. But when a really young layer comes up
and he struggles, it is shrugged off. Every single time.
Everyone says he's young, they'll figure it out. Ah, he's young,

(39:27):
you'll figure out, they'll do it. You know, he's twenty now,
they'll do it when he's twenty one. They'll do it
when he's twenty two. If he's still not good bye,
then ah he's young. And that's like the you know,
in the public sphere, like, yes, I get it, that
makes perfect sense, but that is just the prevailing opinion.
And anyone who you know feels otherwise. Who would maybe
downgrade their expectations long term for this player, saying, ah,

(39:49):
it's a small sample, he's twenty years old, what's wrong
with you? Ya sicko. But the thing is, sometimes those
guys just don't figure it out. It's true, they just
don't figure it out. And so I am slightly downgrading
the well, now I'm not mean, I am downgrading the
long term expectations for Jackson Holiday based on a two
hundred played appearance sample when he was twenty, like, And

(40:10):
people are going to say that's crazy to do, but
I think if you look at it sort of historically, right, like,
So I did a stat head search here since two
thousand and I looked for rookie seasons with at least
two hundred plate appearances and a below six hundred ops.
Seventy three guys did that. Really, only three of them
became what I would call a really good player Brandon Phillips,
Brand Crawford, Hobby Bias. And I think for a guy

(40:34):
in Jackson Holiday's position, you can fall into what I
call the Kelnick thing, which is, this is what people
did with Jared Kelnick. Oh he came up and he
did bad. Now I'll be great next year, don't worry
about it. Oh he did bad again. Oh, it'll be
great the next year. And then all of a sudden,
you know, you know, at the trade deadline, we were
talking about, you know, in terms of cutting bait, we
were talking about trading Jackson Holiday for uh, you know,

(40:57):
Terrek Skouoble for a cy Young triple crown winner mid season,
and uh, you know last off season, the the Mariner's
traded Hellnick to the Braves for nothing. Right, The only
difference there is like two more years, you know. So yeah,
I'm gonna say, yes, I am kind of worried. I'm

(41:20):
probably more worried than you think I should be, but
you know, I'm just gonna it's because every time this happens,
the prevailing opinion is always going to be, yes, he's uh,
yes he struggled, but he's really young, and he's really talented,
and he's a really highly taled prospect and his dad's
Matt Holiday, so of course he's going to figure it out.

(41:40):
And sometimes those sure, you know, things to figure it
out don't always figure it out. And you know, people say, oh,
you have these expectations. Every rookie has to come up
and do great right away even though they're really young.
But like you know, it's it's two hundred plate appearances,
it's something. It's some data. You know, you have to
you can draw some sort of conclusion from that data.

(42:02):
So I'm gonna say long term, my expectations of Jackson
Holliday versus what they were on opening day have downgraded.
And so yeah, I am a little bit worried, especially
just with the situation being what it is in Baltimore
where they want to compete right away and they might
not totally have the patients that he would actually need
to develop into a great big leaguer.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
It's an interesting combo. I mean, there's a there's a
part of me that just wants to old head you
and be like he's young that everything you're saying. And honestly,
the part that's hurting me and.

Speaker 2 (42:38):
This is bizarre.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
Uh he looks and feels so young like it it, Yes,
Like I don't know if that's me getting older or
if for a twenty year old because like I don't
know Jackson Merrill and maybe i'm too performance based it
both Jackson Chario like a Chario. We're doing our best
like he and again this could just be literally just

(43:03):
pure face because he's got like those rosy cheeks on
Jackson Holiday.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
But I don't know.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
I think of Trev talking about some of the players
that when they used to come over from overseas and
they were just like everyone who's a.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
Big leader, big leaguer is.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
Built and like it's a physical sport without being a
physical sport. That I think some of the some players
that used to come over from Asia used to be
overmatched by that because every night it was ninety five
and a pitcher who was six five, two forty And like,

(43:42):
I guess that would be the only thing that I
would I would put as another caveat for Jackson Holiday.
Of yeah, man, I uh, I can't rule a kid
out like that. I it's and I know you're not
ruling him out, but you're you're saying, like there there
is data here that should be considered that a lot

(44:04):
of people won't. And I like, I think, I'm I
think I'm closer to the like I can't like it
just and maybe it's I just I'm too close to it.
But it is when you bring up Jared Kelnick and
like I didn't realize how ugly his year got at.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
A certain point it.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
These top prospects stop being top prospects. And yeah, almost
the quicker, the quicker you can get in front of it,
like like the better because the value does start to
change for.

Speaker 3 (44:36):
Them, and it can change really rapidly.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
Yeah, god it it it's you know, for the people
that are prospect heads, like how quickly, okay, MLB top prospects,
let's go twenty eighteen, you know, how quickly you go
from your going to be the guy to not? Twenty
eighteen which was random random show. Hey was one okay again,

(45:05):
interesting loophole.

Speaker 3 (45:05):
Their unique situation there.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
Ronald cun You Junior.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
Vladdy Guerrero, Sure, Eloy Jimenez, Glaber Torres, Victor Roblaz, Nick Senzel.

Speaker 3 (45:17):
Yeah, that's a mixed bag.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
It happens quick uh and in a lot of different ways,
whether injury, whether maybe you were in the wrong spot,
Victor roe Blas Uh. Clabor's an interesting just conversation in general.
And that's followed by Tatisan Forrest Whitley. So like it's
where you go, it's where this sport can be a
disaster class that I don't know, I guess that it

(45:44):
would be very interesting to hear, like a real Orioles
conversation of if it's like tough and like oh hey
Jackson Holiday, like he's gonna be okay, like listen to
you idiots talking about two hundred bats, or if like
they closed the door and it's like hey, like let's
like next spring training matters for him, like you know.

Speaker 3 (46:02):
Right exactly? Yeah, that may be very well. The conversation
that's happening behind closed doors interesting.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
What else do we need to check off?

Speaker 3 (46:12):
I want to talk about just I want to skip
ahead to the best rookie teams because you know this
is we talk about we talk about Rookie of the Year.
It's an individual award. But there are some teams this
year that have just excelled because they've called up rookies
and they've had multiple guys be contributors.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:30):
I it's funny because the the last team on your
list here, I they feel like the sexiest team for
the twenty four to twenty five offseason. Like that, this
team is about to get a lot of steam, the
top team. It feels like the sport is being rude

(46:52):
to and we need to start treating them with the
respect of like prime Rays and they're not getting it.
And then the middle one I'm attached to for different reasons,
So you.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
Tee it up.

Speaker 3 (47:05):
Yeah, the top team is a playoff team. It is
the Milwaukee Brewers. We have, of course talked about Jackson Churio,
our favorite player whose last name we're one hundred percent
sure how to announce. And then but Joey Orti is
also a rookie for them. He was you know, he
was fun to watch this year. Man, I don't know

(47:26):
if you watched a lot of Joey Ortiz play, like,
especially on the defensive side. Just I really enjoyed watching
Joey Ortiz this year. I was surprised how much I
enjoyed watching Joey Ortiz this year. To be honest with you,
Tobias Myers sung his praises. I think in the last
episode we did as sort of the unsung hero of
the Milwaukee Brewers season, like guy who had bounced around organization, organization.
They pick him up and he's been key member of

(47:48):
the rotation. And then Brian Hudson, I'm surprised, Abner Uribe's
Name's not here, but it's Brian Hudson, who is your
rookie Milwaukee Brewers, you know reliever who has really really
pressed throughout the entire season. So those four I think
represent probably the best overall contributions from rookies on any

(48:09):
major league team. You've got like the fun mix of
you know, future slash maybe even present face of the franchise,
Jackson Churio. You have Joey Ortiz, you have to buy Smyers,
you have Brian Hudson. There's a lot to enjoy here,
and we'll get to enjoy more of them in the postseason.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
Brian Hudson man could could be a big talking point
this October. That dude I mentioned guys you don't see
until the major league level, Like he's listed six eight
two twenty and he throws it feels like his arm
comes through his body when he throws. Yeah, I'm not
sure what you do with that when you're hitting. Yeah, man,

(48:48):
the Brewers are the class of the NL Central, and
maybe the Guardians should be the better comparison to them.
Like I feel like we have this Guardian's kind of
thing built up. Maybe it came from the Lindor trade,
Like how can you trade a player like that? And
yet they somewhat rebuilt this thing on the fly without
payroll and seemingly a lot of talent everywhere. That's it's

(49:11):
kind of what the Brewers are doing. And Churio seeing
some of his second half numbers, you're like, oh, shoot,
like that speaking of being twenty to twenty one, and
like what it feels like that can turn into feels
pretty special.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
And then yeah, I like.

Speaker 1 (49:33):
Red Sox fans, I'm just a little lost on the
socks man because they they have this little bit of
it feels like there's a lot of young talent around
the team. They pitch so good the first half the
wheels did fall apart the second half that it's I mean,
maybe it's just as simple as they just need to

(49:54):
bolster this thing with a little more pitching and it's
gonna click because I don't know, you could go around
the horn like, okay, I was gonna say this an
impressive way. I was like, I was gonna go around
the horn top of my head. Really cool flex Jake Connor,
Wong Cassis, Raphaela Hamilton in the outfield while he or

(50:16):
brayw we just talked about that, and this is that's
before you mentioned obviously like Dever's and some some of
the other ways they can boost this team at Fenway
Park and.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
Who canceled, Oh yeah, sorry.

Speaker 1 (50:31):
Uh that yeah, I mean this team was around in
the first half and their pitching was their strength, and
there was a ton of injuries. Trevor's story has become
an afterthought, which is insane baseball. That yeah, I uh,
I just don't know. It feels like they have a
good pitching coach in plays. We talked about Andrew Bailey

(50:53):
a lot this first half of the season. That just
booster it with a little more pitching. And it may
be if you get that those seven eight innings strong
from one more guy every other week, that that can
change the whole rhythm of the team.

Speaker 2 (51:08):
But I don't, I don't know. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
Like I thought Boston was having a Mets type season
and then they they kind of don't and are more confused.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Again.

Speaker 3 (51:21):
Yeah, I don't. I don't think I necessarily bought it
while it was happening because of the pitching thing, like
they were just gonna run out of gas, you know,
the too many guys having to throw, you know, career
high innings. It's just mathematically, it just wasn't gonna necessarily
work for them unless the batch just kept going crazy.
And but the thing about Boston is they have the

(51:41):
best farm system, you know. Yeah, So I don't know
if that's the long game for them, but it's like yeah,
I mean, like, yes, you can bolster what they have now.
But the point is in two years they're gonna have
Roman Anthony and Marcel Meyer and Christian Campbell and Kyle
Teel and it's gonna be a different look. Like it's
gonna be a different look for sure, But you know,
help is all the way. I guess it's the point.
And so yeah, maybe they just need to figure out

(52:04):
how to get innings to help that core.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
How many of those guys were pictures?

Speaker 3 (52:09):
Well that here's can I tell you my thing. Okay,
I don't think none of those guys are pictures, but
I it's about the group when it comes to a farm.
As far as the pitching, for me, it can't just
be one guy. If they had one great ace coming
up the pipeline, I don't necessarily think that's a game
changer because there's just so many things that can go wrong.

(52:29):
There's the famous phrase there is no such thing as
a pitching prospect. So I think if you look at
the depth of the system, like, yes, maybe there's enough
guys who will work it out, but they're not all
going to be like household names right on, you know,
the top one hundred list. It's just can you get
the innings in the bulk from the miners? And I
think they have that ability.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
Ailey, Nate Pearson's going to change things for the.

Speaker 3 (52:49):
Blue Jakes, right exactly, Forest Whitley, Did you know.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
Choris Whitley for Houston.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
It feels like we're being rude to those guys when
it's the sport itself that is rude to those guys,
but it it.

Speaker 2 (53:01):
Yeah, it's a great point.

Speaker 1 (53:02):
You need you need a collection of both man, because
we still don't know how to do this. Like, yep,
there's a the Scouts had a cooon. You're right, they
they didn't have a couple other guys right that.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
Yeah, I don't. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (53:20):
And it's even funny when you talk about Joey Ortiz
if he becomes a standout major league third baseman, I
think there's talks of him potentially going to short when
Adamis leaves, Like okay, and now, where's Jackson Holliday at
Like the game, the game moves quick with your prospects,

(53:41):
and yeah, there's organizations that have proven to be great
at it. And it's you know, Baltimore. I guess I
was going to take a jab at them for Gunner
and ADLEI uh, being good just because they're top picks.
Gunner the whole story as he wasn't that Baltimore still
knows knows what they're doing. And yeah, I'm excited for

(54:02):
the Nats next year because they're like they can be
a big budget team. They were, and they've called up
some serious prospects and they have, like you said, with arms.
And I'm gonna not compliment myself some of these Nationals
arms that came up, and I've learned this year, I

(54:22):
didn't I didn't have them like they They weren't the
names like Jake Irvan.

Speaker 3 (54:28):
I didn't know who Mitchell Parker was. I don't think
I did on opening day.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
Jake Irving and Mitchell Parker, Mackenzie Gore obviously a little
bit of a different story.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
But you know, like that's.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
These guys came into the scene and they could be
awful next year. They could be solid next year and
help stabilize that rotation. But man, you go around that
horn for those baby gnats and god, I want are
they like a sneaky Alonso team because it looks like
they're of first base DH in the middle of that lineup.

(54:59):
Feels like it could take them a long way. That Yeah,
I'm I'm excited for the future of the Nationals. I
think things are things are going to turn around fairly
quickly in the nation's capital.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
Yeah, but that's that's where that's where I.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
Mean, dude, Dylan Cruz and James would like, Yeah, that's
that's got a chance to be.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
Very dynamic.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
And at the same time, I started this by saying
I didn't like the Texas Rangers because they had two
young outfielders in the middle of their lineup. So it's
where this sport is so silly, Bailey, you know, it's foolish, even.

Speaker 3 (55:37):
It's a foolish baseball whoa I want to say a
few words on I'll do Wood and Cruise, although you know, Jake,
Jake Young Mitchell Parker deserve love to would I mean,
I don't know if you felt this way, but what
was so scary about his appearance in the big leagues.
Is like, I just felt like he left so much

(55:58):
on the table and he was still so good already,
you know, like he like you look at his numbers,
You're like, oh, these are good numbers. These are good numbers.
You call up your guy, you know, for the last
couple of months, these are good numbers. This you know,
you're you're happy with this. This isn't a Jackson holiday situation,
for example. But there was so much left on the
table because there's so much with his swing and his
bad ball distribution that he could just like tap into

(56:19):
more power because obviously he has the raw power, but
there could be an increase in the game power. And
that's scary to think about, right, because then we're talking judge,
you know, like straight.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
Up, the opposite field was silly.

Speaker 3 (56:34):
It was silly. He hit He hit a ball. I
mean I literally stat casted it. He hit a ball
that has not been hit before in Major League baseball.

Speaker 1 (56:42):
Left fast ball right, yes, exactly, Yes, that it just
simply hadn't happened before.

Speaker 3 (56:51):
But Cruse, here's here's what I want to say about Cruz.
And we'll and we'll transition Cruise into my final category,
which I called the September Guy. So these are guys
who appeared in the big leagues this year. Their rookie status,
I believe is still intact, so they may be, you know,
interesting to talk about for Rookie of the Year twenty
twenty five. And I'll start with Cruz. I've always been
a little down on him, to be honest with you,

(57:12):
Like even when he when it was lose for Cruz
season at LSU, you know, I was like, well, I mean,
you know, he doesn't have prodigious power. For example, it
would be one knock on him, the same way James
Wood does. And you know, I was like, oh, I
like Langford more than him coming out of the draft schemes.
You know, it's a pitcher, so it's kind of apples
and oranges. I was impressed with his you know, not

(57:37):
even going through the miners, Like he did not crush
it like Langford did or even Nolan Shanewell did, Like,
you know, he took his time, and you know, I'd
been a little down on him. I found this cup
of coffee very encouraging and I sort of realized what
it is. I was like, Oh, here's what it is.
Here's here's who Dylan Cruz is. He's a war guy,
That's what he is. He's one of He's like, he's

(57:59):
just an all rounder. You know, he's gonna hit two sixty,
it's gonna be like a three point fifty on base.
It's gonna be like a four to fifty slug And
you're gonna all of a sudden you can have this
eight hundred ops great defensive center fielder who steals bases
and he's gonna put up like five war seasons. That's
what it is. Like, there's nothing, it's not gonna be
super sexy necessarily, but he's just gonna be valuable, you know.

(58:21):
And so you know, just like he's already he's already
so disciplined at the big league level. Look at those
strikeout rates on those walk rates, like they're great. So
I get it now, like I didn't get it at first,
and I know it might be uh, oh wow, Bailey,
it took you thirty one games of like a six
forty one OPSU to come around on this guy. But yeah, no,
now now I see the vision in a way that

(58:41):
I didn't necessarily see it beforehand. So happy about him? Yeah,
I don't know do you have any thoughts on him
or should we move on to the to the next
few guys.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
I would just close it out with NAT's outfield. You
talk about racking up war Oh yeah, if James would
turns into James Wood, Jacob Young catches every ball out there,
and you have Cruise in right casually doing like a
righty Kyle Tucker light type deal. Yeah, you could run

(59:12):
into fifteen war outfield feels high, but again the potential game,
and then we'll.

Speaker 3 (59:19):
Get through the rest of these guys A little bit
quicker here. Will Wagner alluded to him a little bit earlier.
Toronto second baseman, son of Billy Wagner, acquired in the
Kakuochie trade from the Astros. Really nice September. I guess
you call that a cup of coffee for him. Three
h five average hit, a couple homers, seven eighty eight ops.

(59:41):
He had such a hot start. What he pick up like,
I don't know. He had some sort of ten hits
in two games. I don't know exactly. I don't remember
what it was at this point. But he's interesting too
because I think Toronto have a lot of young lefty
hitters kind of in similar positions, and I will now
attempt to name them all for memory. Spencer Horowitz, Addison Barger,

(01:00:03):
Johnson Classe is a switch hitter, but it means he's
gonna mostly bat left the low Perfido also in that trade,
big guy who's the Nathan Lucas. So it's like it's
there's a bunch of there's just so many of these guys.
They're all kind of competing for the same type of
playing time. But I think Will Wagner is in the conversation.
We'll see him in the playoffs. Thothough, I think sparingly,

(01:00:23):
but luis an Helicunya Ron's brother. He really kind of
saved the day for the Mets, to be honest with you,
because Lindor missed some time with the back injury, and
then he they basically saw him in the lineup and
then he did a lind Dor impression for you know,
a week, and that was really all they needed to
get to get that final push in there. Adrian del Castillo,
what can you tell me a little bit about Adrian
Del Castillo, Because I can tell you some stuff. I'm

(01:00:45):
curious if you know kind of the story here.

Speaker 2 (01:00:47):
I don't know the full story.

Speaker 1 (01:00:48):
I I just know a team in a franchise that
fell in love with Gabby Moreno for some you know
the way he mauls lefties and their win loss record
with Gaby remember when that was a thing.

Speaker 3 (01:01:02):
Oh he hit.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
Adrian del Castillo came up and just started hitting grand
slams and it was just like I'm here here, I
am so no, I don't know the story. It was
just like when he played, he was the box score.

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
Yeah. He Adrian del Castillo after his freshman year at Miami,
which was in nineteen, was in like conversations to be
the number one overall pick for his draft class. And
then he it slowed down for him, like his sophomore
in his junior year, ended up getting drafted in the
wh We got second round here by the Diamondbacks. But yeah,
that's what's kind of intriguing about him is here's a

(01:01:38):
guy who really not that well I guess five years ago,
but would have been like thought of, as you know,
one of the top you know, teenage hitters in the country.
And so maybe it's like a post hype with him
because he's had a massive year in the miners as well,
and then partlaid that into a nice appearance in the
majors in twenty twenty four.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
Yeah, I mean to a certain degree, talent is talent,
and like I I don't know, I'll be interested to
see the next steps with this kid, because it's where
baseball is also dumb that if he let's say, this
guy does have top five talent, which is rare, Like
that's that is rare. However you want to label that that,

(01:02:21):
you know what, it could be one one swing or
one coach that says like get that foot down earlier,
and like we we laugh at that dumb stuff. But
that's literally how this works. At Jerry Blevin's It's it's
a great conversation. The Cubs, I believe it was told
him to start sewing throwing submarine eighty three, and he

(01:02:44):
did it a couple of days and he was getting
absolutely rocked. And when one of the pitching coaches came
up to him is like, what are you doing, dude,
And he's like, oh, they're telling me to do this
thing is you're about to be cut dude, Like throw
the ball the way you want to throw the ball,
because it's not happening right now. And Jerry had like
the lefty dream reliever career.

Speaker 2 (01:03:04):
And so that's right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:05):
Obviously somewhat apples and oranges here, but seems like the
Snakes organization has like maybe we need to talk about
what they're doing as an organization a little bit more.
And Yeah, if you tell me this guy has top
five pick potential in him and something's clicked, I'll believe it, because, Yeah,

(01:03:26):
the twenty five games he came up, he went nuts.

Speaker 3 (01:03:30):
Yeah, next up, we'll go Michael McGreevy here, pitching prospect
for the Cardinals. He's just had some big games. He
pitched their last game of the season. How about eight
innings of one run ball at San Francisco for him,
you know, had a spot start at the end of July,
seven innings of one run ball there. You know. So

(01:03:52):
he's only made four big league starts, but again he's
going to retain rookie eligibility. He's got a sub two
eer at the big league level, six two ground ball, right,
that's nice not you know? So, Yeah, Michael McGreevy, he's
a guy that I've just kind of kept hearing about.
I follow some Cardinals prospects guys on Twitter, and that
I just I know I probably know more about the

(01:04:14):
Cardinals farm system than hein Bloom at the moment, just
because I'm inundated with information on some of these guys.
But Michael McGreevy is one of them. And then we'll
close out here with a guy that you will see
in the playoffs. That is Eric Sebrowski, reliever for the Guardians. Folks,
they got another one twenty inches inverted vertical. Why can't

(01:04:36):
I do this vertical break on the fastball? It rises
and then he throws a big curveball, it goes down.
Andrew Walter is also a guy who they drafted last
year who I think may factor into the bullpen at
some point, but I think Subrowski is a little bit
more intriguing for the moment. So yeah, those are some guys.
You'll see some of them in the postseason, some of
them you won't, But they are guys to keep in

(01:04:59):
mind going in the twenty twenty five where they still
have their rookie eligibility intact.

Speaker 2 (01:05:05):
I love it, Bailey McGreevy.

Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
I've just I feel like I've been too hurt by
Cardinals pitchers and pitchers in general that you know, it's
the one spot start against Texas on the trade deadline,
which was a great start, and then it's Pittsburgh, Colorado
and San Francisco at the end of the year, which
I you know, I don't want to send any more
shots fired at those programs, but they were packing up.

Speaker 2 (01:05:30):
The bus a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:05:32):
But yeah, hey, I mean he was a first round pick.
And then yeah, Guardians, Guardians pitching factory man, go, yeah,
hey go. I told Bailey I daydreamed of us doing
a feyoupa aka how we would take over a team

(01:05:54):
and hire someone from the Guardians pitching organization.

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
Sure, yeah, go for it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:02):
It's a step in the right direction. All right, I
think I have to run, Bailey. It's almost playoff baseball
time or I guess this is coming out tomorrow. So,
oh my god, those games last night were incredible.

Speaker 3 (01:06:15):
Can you believe when he hit the ball, and then
can you believe when he didn't and he swung and missed?

Speaker 2 (01:06:19):
Oh that catch? Ah?

Speaker 1 (01:06:21):
And to close, oh my gosh, to close off our
football coverage, I will sell.

Speaker 3 (01:06:24):
That base running snaff food.

Speaker 1 (01:06:28):
How could he you learned that in Little League? We
do have our first London game this weekend, so nine
to thirty Saturday or Sunday. Get ready for a full
day of sports between football, playoff, Baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
We're there.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
The winter sports are starting to do their stuff, Bailey.
We'll send everyone to Foolish Bailey, Foolish baseball, and we
thank you man enjoy the postseason.

Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
My best wishes to your braves.

Speaker 3 (01:07:00):
Thank you. My worst wishes to your Yankees.

Speaker 2 (01:07:02):
I didn't need that, Babes.

Speaker 1 (01:07:03):
Tell them about Dan Link and Jiki's production of Dan
Patrick Productions, John Boy Media and Workhouse Media.