May 27, 2024 • 41 mins
Talkin' Jake reacts to Ronald Acuna Jr.'s injury and shares why he's worried about the Texas Rangers. Jake also deep dives on how this year's MLB rookies and sophomores are performing and why you should potentially be nervous about relying too much on your young talent as well as sharing some thoughts on the NBA Conference Finals series.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:45 Ronald Acuna Scary Knee Injury
4:35 Corey Seager Getting Hot
9:40 Rookie Check-In
18:00 Sophomore Check-In
19:10 Cup-of-Coffee Guys
31:55 I'm A Little Mad at the Pacers
33:25 Timberwolves Trying to Survive
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to Waken Jake myself, Jake Story, Ellie
BBD producing his butt away, and a happy Memorial Day
weekend to everyone tuning in. Hope you had some fun
in the sun. Northeast is having good weather. Which Memorial
Day that's always a coin flip. Also, speaking of sports
apocalypse season, as we record this, Yanks are playing the
(00:24):
Padres just to the lead. You may not care about that.
The Rangers and Panthers are tied up at four, So
a lot of heartstrings on the line there right now,
along with a massive weekend in baseball and NBA playoffs
are rolling Celts up three to zero. Fun fun fight
by the Pacers last night the neb Hard game. I'm
(00:50):
good on that. Good for the Pacers for fighting McAfee
rallying up the crowd. But yeah, that's looking sweepier, gentlemen,
sweepy over there. And we are recording this before the
t Wolves try to fend off going down three to
zero tonight to Dallas. But I do want to talk
a chunk of baseball, a little bit around the league,
(01:13):
a little bit of the top teams, a little bit
of some star performance, and I want to circle back
on the young guys conversation I did earlier this year.
I want to circle back and just keep tabs on
young baseball players because it's a lot of teams are
fueled by youth, yet at the same time you can't
(01:35):
bank on them to contribute. So again, that sentence may
not have helped you. But all of this kind of
started with the news that Ronald Acuna Junior will be out.
We'll see for how long people are dreaming up a
month or so. I don't know. I'm not as medical
(01:59):
as i'd like to, but it's a knee he has
a history with.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, all I've seen since it happened. I saw one
article it said they think they avoided the worst possible outcomes,
but I didn't even read the article that was the head.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah, what I've the tweets I've seen have been like
a minimum of a month.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
And honestly, the Braves, who coming in today had the
seventh best record in baseball. Funny that that's been disappointing
for them. The Braves better win percentage in the Milwaukee Brewers,
who I don't know, felt like the Brewers have been
playing above their skis all year, and felt like the
Braves have been semi disappointing. Uh Ronald Decunya Junior, if
(02:43):
you haven't seen the stats, having kind of an ugly year.
The stat line is as follows to forty six batting
average three forty eight on base a three point fifty
six slug in a seven four OPS, so right round
league average OPS still has a chunk of steels, sixteen
(03:04):
stolen bases, only two caught stealings, four homers won triple
seven doubles. This is coming off the year where he
won the MVP, he led the NL and OPS, which
is insane because he had seventy three stolen bases last year.
That's a stat man we've dreamt up OPSS plus on
(03:27):
basically OPS on base plus slugging with stolen bases in there.
If you do that Ronald Acunya season, I don't know
how many could match it. Another couple things from last
year that stand out compared to this year. Last year,
Ronnie besides the forty one homers, bowled all over his
Baseball Reference page, which meant he led the National League
(03:47):
in those categories eighty walks in eighty four strikeouts, which
is always a sign that you're seeing the ball very good,
and you have good plate discipline at the major league level.
This year fifty three strikeouts, twenty seven walks, so his
walk to k rate has nearly doubled or kay to
walk rate. I guess that's how you'd measure it. And
(04:10):
the ops I mean is at seven oh four. It's
a it's a bad day away from being in the sixes.
Which this is a guy who one dotted last year.
He's got a career nine to three. Again, it hasn't
affected the Braves too much, but I wanted to segue
it into something else that the script might be flipping
on soon, because there is a team that I think
(04:33):
has been underachieving this year, that their star player has
been underachieving a bit, but he's actually just hit the
go button Corey Seeger with your Texas Rangers. If you've
been checking in periodically throughout the year, if you've been
following Corey Seger, was not putting up Corey Seger stats
(04:55):
and last year he was nuts. I mean, it got
overshadowed because of injury, and like show Hay, last year,
Corey Seger led the league in doubles, only played one
hundred nineteen games, had thirty three homers in ninety six
RBI A one dot one three. Again, this isn't one
(05:15):
nineteen games from a short stop. It was a special,
special season. And the crazy thing is with baseball, how
quick it turns. Us Yankee fans have gone to see
Aaron Judge turn on these past three weeks and it's
the best three week stretch of his career. It's insane.
I think it was what eleven doubles and twelve homers
(05:38):
in twenty games or something.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, it was just his last twenty games something like that.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
First time in MLB history that's been done. It's pretty good.
Doubles and homers. We like that.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
There was a fun one during the Mariner series. So
outdated now, but I think it was like his last
thirty three hits. It was eleven to eleven, eleven singles, doubles, homers.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Oh wow, how about that? Corey Seeger? Who if we
recorded this on May On May eighteenth, this is about
a week ago. Corey Seeger had a six eighty one
ops in the last six games, including today, he now
(06:21):
has six home runs. He has homer and five homers,
and five out of six games with two homers today,
which got them to win today, but it did not
in the previous five games. The Texas Rangers have been
skidding a little bit and it looks like Seger's going
and if Corey Seeger goes, there's gonna be wins that
(06:43):
follow as they are currently standing twenty five and twenty nine.
So yeah, they just got rid of an L six today.
Six straight losses for them, and it's kind of streak season.
The Rays came into today with an L six, The
Guardians and Royals were both in a W eight coming
(07:06):
into today, and even the Dodgers with an L four
next to their name. As the Cincinnati Reds are trying
to save their season, I want to go back to
Texas for a second because it was it was something
when we do our team profile and projections before the
season that if we're being honest, there's a chunk of
(07:29):
guess into it. You see some things you like, you
see some ads, but you know you're guessing what players
are gonna either take the leap from the younger side,
which players are gonna overachieve or underachieve from last year,
or just play to their baseball card. And I think
that's why we like I think we like stars, because
stars tend to have really good years consistently analytics kind
(07:53):
of what makes you a star, right, it's really hard
to do. I think there is a funny lane for
guys that are consistently themselves and Yank recent Yankee Lorer,
guy like Brett Gardner, you're gonna get some good defense,
you're gonna get enough offensively or his offensive profile. Another
guy that was kind of a West Coast Brett Gardner
(08:14):
for years, a Cole Calhoun like you just kind of
knew what you were getting year in year out. The
Texas Rangers when we did their team profile and projection.
And this is kind of funny because I said the
opposite the year before. I was pretty excited for the
Rangers offense. Last year, It's like, oh, there could be
(08:35):
something here. Simon Seeger, Nate lowe Heim, the Dolius Garcia.
I liked what I was seeing last year, and a
lot of those guys were back this year. Here was
my problem, Corey Seeger to replicate what he did last
year really hard, and maybe he's just taken the steps
(08:55):
to start doing that, and maybe we're gonna see that.
He's also a guy that does have a chunk of
an injury history. So there was part of me that's like, hey,
when you're doing a team profile and projection, is that
something you can kind of fade a little bit. Yeah,
but always Garcia, who's been playing really well. He he
went nuts last year, but again, could you say, and
(09:17):
he's got kind of incrementally better every year that there's
room to slip, but no more than any other normal,
any other player in baseball. Nate Low got hurt coming
into the year, so that felt it The thing that
stood out to me even more than that. Marcus Simeon's
kind of as steady as it gets, plays every day.
(09:38):
In the middle of their lineup that people were hyping
as a good thing was Wyatt Lankfort, the top prospect
out of Florida, and Evan Carter, the top prospect who
showed out during last postseason. Here's why that concerned me then,
and it's why you can't bank on youth. So I
(10:00):
did a little bit of this and awaken Jake earlier
on this year, and well, I have you on the hook.
Make sure you guys are subscribed. Subscribers have been going up.
Thank you, Big foolish episode coming up in the midweek,
so get ready for that. But thank you guys. Epps
have been doing really well. Earlier this year. I did
(10:23):
a young Players and who's contributing at that point in time.
I think Jackson Merrill for the rookies was the leader
in the clubhouse. Depending how I want a butterknife this.
I can make this look as good or bad as
I want pretty much for the rookies this year. So
this is guys who didn't play it all last year.
(10:44):
I want to specify that, and it might lead into
a little theory I have developing. But these are guys
that have made their debuts this year. Of rookies that
have played over twenty games games, we're you know, I
think the Yankees are about to finish their fifty third
(11:05):
game or something today, give or take. They said on
the broadcast it's the one third point of the season.
So would that be fifty four? I think for you, Yeah,
so we're a third of the way through the season.
So twenty games, that's fairly generous. That's, you know, close
to a third of your team's game. It's never been
a math pod. I know that's not right. There are
(11:28):
three rookies that have played over twenty games that have
an ops plus over one hundred. If you'd like to
try to name them Beebes, you're more than welcome to.
But it's it's a little bit of a losing exercise.
I assume Meryl's still above. So Jackson Merrill came in
today at one hundred flat. Jackson Merrill, who I love,
(11:51):
and it's been fun to watch him this this weekend.
Two seventy six, three nineteen a three sixty five slugs.
So the power kind of hasn't been there for him,
but yeah, they it has him right around a league
average hitter, which again has been a solid rookie campaign.
So he is not on the list. I know.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Raphael isn't there.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Nope, and he's technically on the list of he debuted
a little bit last year. Oh so he's So that's well,
we'll get to Saidan in a little bit. As I
wear my soccer jersey today, MESSI ter with my soccer
hair going on. It's a look of the guys that
have made their debuts this year. Blaze Alexander h for
(12:37):
my Diamondbacks. He's been playing some shortstop, hitting a little bit.
Two sixty three thirty six four oh six of seven
forty three thirty five games, one fourteen OPS plus. Good
for you, Blaze Blazer uh right above him with an
eight oh one OPS. When Seal Perez from your Detroit Tigers.
(12:59):
We've seen his pop up a lot.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Checked him out a little bit in the in the
Sunday morning game.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
But twenty four years old has been has moved up
to the middle of that Tigers lineup. Couple stolen bases,
couple triples, couple homers and eight oh one ops went
Seal Perez. He would be leading the way if I
didn't make it twenty games. If I made it twenty
two games, because with twenty one games, Kyle McCann, the
(13:33):
catcher for your Oakland Athletics, has a one dot two
OPS right now. He's only played in twenty one games,
and I think it's just been funny whenever we have
a lot of baseball people in our office, you see
a lefty hitting McCann playing catcher, and you're like, oh,
Brian's nephew or something. Kyle McCann has been going nuts
(13:56):
when he's played this year, and we love a lefty
hitting catcher. Again, if I made that, if I had
made the requirements for this twenty two games or twenty
five games half, he would not have qualified, but go nuts. Ryan,
(14:17):
Kyle mccannon. I almost just called him Brian. For those
of you who have been keeping up with the a's, I'm.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Sorry, it's is he related to Brian?
Speaker 1 (14:25):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
He's from Georgia and I know Brian is why not
comments to let us know?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Maybe he's a nephew. Sure so a couple guys that
deserve half shout outs. Joey Lo Perfido just got called
up for the Astros. He's been playing well, but that's
fourteen games. Austin Shenton that actually doesn't deserve a shadowt
one eighty nine batting average. When he hits him, it
cost good for you, Austin shen.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
So what we've well, you've dug Blaze. Alexander's the the
real one. The others are right like on the cutoff right.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yeah, yeah, more or less.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I mean, I I could pooh pooh Blaze Alexander too
because it's just killing lefties. Sure but I but overall
doesn't change the point.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Hey do what you do, Blaze.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
That's a that is a good thing to find something
you're good at this quick.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
We can we can work with that from there. You're
looking at Jackson Merrill. Well, again, I like a lot,
but it's a six eighty three OPS. That's for people
that you'd be looking at everyday players in your lineup.
You want more than that, Like, you can only have
like two of those in your lineup if you're hoping
(15:43):
to be kind of a quality team. Uh Andy Payes
uh for the Dodgers who got thrown in there. His
OPS is down to six seventy one. Jung Hu Lee
got hurt and is out for the year. He landed
at six forty one. Trey Lipscomb, who we talked about
a lot for the Nats, was doing some things at
third base. He's down a six twenty. Everyone else. I
(16:05):
don't want to embarrass their their stats, but everyone else
is below that. These guys are in the fives. Wyatt Lankford,
who I just mentioned. Remember he's got forearms from the Gods.
He won the d h job for the Texas Rangers. Like,
watch out for this kid. How special is he? And
Carter are going to be in the middle of that
(16:26):
lineup five eighty eight OPS said, I wasn't gonna say
numbers Jackson Trio the other Jackson. His ops is five
eighty seven, one point below. He's struggled. Colt Keith got
the contract extension before the season. Welcome to the big leagues,
bug Bug. Sorry, sorry to all our bug listeners. He
(16:51):
is below them. Five seventy eight. Kyle Menzardo this is
small sample size. And Jordan Beck rookie who's playing for
the Rockies before he got hurt there in the fours.
Graham Paully ops in the fours. He was a guy
that we heard end of camp might become the Padres
(17:12):
starting third baseman. And then it just gets worse from there.
Victor Scott won the center field job out of camp
two seventy four. He hasn't been playing. Jackson Holliday, you know,
he got sent down a one to seventy ops. He
really struggled. So these are all the guys that got
called up this year, and I think it's just of
(17:36):
note going forward as we're seeing some second year players
and I'm getting to that list coming up. Man, to
have a true rook rookie in your lineup making their
debut and trying to be an impact player, that's a
tough ask. It's a little better with the sophomores, and
(17:58):
we'll get a laugh because this is a that we've
been talking about a lot recently. The number one sophomore
leading the way, twenty eight year old David Frye, Oh
of the Cleveland Guardians. He's been going nut job and
he's twenty eight. He wasn't a top prospect. He was
(18:18):
kind of the Guardians like third catcher coming into the season,
but he's been playing some other positions and he's been
mashing with the best in baseball. So hey, this is
what this beautiful sport has to offer. Sometimes you find
guys like David Frye and enjoy that ride. Maybe it sticks,
maybe something happened, but good for him. He is one
(18:39):
dot winning right now, been one of the best players,
one of the best players in the AL in all
of baseball. I don't even say al after him. So
this is where things get interesting because I said you
can't bank on young players. But I do want to
mark this down as a note because especially come the
end of the year, when we do cups of coffee
(19:01):
and guys getting their feet wet, and should we call
them up? Do you want to start their service time?
There's a group of guys that got cup of coffees
last year that are playing really well. Joey Ortiz the
main one of the main pieces in that Corbyn Burns
trade eight eighty three ops. Him and Jordan Westbrook, who
(19:25):
you know, Brewers might have had their chance at those players.
Both of those guys have very similar stat lines and
have been playing crazy throughout. Willie or Brau for the
Red Sox, he had a cup of coffee. His ops
is in the eights coming into today, Colton Kowser, same,
Johnny de Luca, Trevor Plouff's midnight kiss on New Year's
(19:47):
Eve one thirty ops plus. That's really good. That is
really good. Mason Wynn. We talked about him with Jolly
olivin Foolish Baseball, in a little fake out or breakout.
He's continued to go good on him. And let's see,
are any of these other guys cup of coffee guys?
(20:10):
You know? Michael Bush, Michael Bush for the Cubbies, you
know he he got the slightest bit of experience last year.
And then I'll circle back on some other guys. So
those are all of the guys that have positive ops pluses.
They got a cup of coffee last year, and it's
one of those again, the game of baseball. We don't
(20:36):
know what's gonna happen on the bottom of second year
players are guys like Ryan Noda. Well, if I told
you the the Oakland A's were doing anything this year,
you'd say, Oh, I don't know. Ryan Noda looked pretty good,
good eye, good on base percentage. He really struggled in
thirty games this year, a four to forty OPS. Jordan Walker,
(20:58):
who like put together a fine rookie offensive season, a
four to ninety seven OPS. Christian and Carnassim Strand in
the fives this year after having a great season for
the Reds previously. And yeah, I mean there's a mix
of other top prospects. Rafaela you mentioned for the Socks.
He's got a fifty nine OPS, plus Ryan Rochio who's
(21:23):
been playing for Cleveland, Evan Carter in forty four games,
a six forty one OPS, a one ninety batting average.
That guy looks like he was going to take down
the world last postseason, and he kind of did that.
Being said, it's a sixth sport we like, and I
(21:48):
guess where I'm trying to land the plane on this
Banking on young guys is just tough as it is,
and part of that is because if you're an old
guy that it's hung around, that means you're really good,
really consistent at what you do. But man, bringing up
those rookie numbers again and seeing that almost no one
(22:11):
is bringing it to the table a pretty crazy thought,
especially US Yankee fans. We watched Anthony Volpi last year
and had an offseason of like, you know, what were
our honest goals for Volpi this year? Like two fifty
three thirty on base they got. I had been saying
around the office, if he finishes year ops plus ninety five,
(22:37):
which is not good, that's five percent worse than league average.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
I thought that would lock him into getting the twenty
twenty five gig because we know the Yankees want him
to be there and all that, and that would have
been a big step up.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Right, He has been much better than that, and I
think he just extended a hitting streak to nineteen games.
Some other guys on the second earless, Patrick Bailey has
been playing really good for the Giants. Elie de la
Cruz we've kind of talked about his full blown breakout.
David Schneider is just running it back for the Blue Jays,
(23:11):
good kind of one of the only guys running it
back for Toronto. Jeff Passing getting his his tweet off today.
It might might start gain ugly in Toronto before it
gets pretty. They are going to be talked about a
lot as a potential team to be plundered. And I
don't think I gave him credit because we already recorded it.
(23:31):
But foolish Bailey was kind on that first What was
that last August, last September.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
I wasn't feeling great.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
He was not eyeballing what Toronto was doing and liking it.
Some other fun guys on this list can Zone, Bryce
Terrang who just had a full blown awful rookie season. Then,
I don't know. I guess my developing theory here be
if you got a guy you think you might be into,
(24:04):
and it's the end of the year and it's a
losing season, give him a little bit of run, because
if you ain't played in the big leagues, you ain't
played in the big leagues. I'm sure I could do
some year over year analysis, not my specialty.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
There's definitely a chance this year is just a particularly
and we're two months in.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
I'm sure there's some fluctuations, but it probably not as
much as I could even be alluding to. You know,
there's years you look at the Rookie of the Year
ballots and you're like, whoa.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Even last year, I know, will he did get Gold
Glove and all that, and like if you put a
gun to our heads at the end of last year
and said, does he deserve any Rookie of the Year votes,
we would have said no.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
I'll go to twenty twenty three debut guys real quick,
just to see what we've got. Yeah, I was gonna reference,
you know, I know Ryan Mountcastle finished pretty high on
a Rookie of the Year one year.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Rook of the Year votes in two different years.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Guys that actually played last year. How about this, I'll
do Guys that played more than seventy games, uh in
that year. Jordan Westberg, Mastakoshita kind of illegal. Jordan Walker,
who I just mentioned struggling this year, had a one
fourteen ops plus Ryan Noda also at the bottom of
(25:28):
that struggle bus. My guy Matt McClane's been hurt, damn it.
Eddie Julienne's been right below league average for most of
this season. Those are the guys with positive ops pluses.
So again you're you're looking at a handful of guys
who played and were at least positive offensive contributors or
(25:50):
above league average. So it's one of those bizarre things
because we found ourselves saying it. Like even with with
the Cleveland Guardians this year, we've talked about young players
stepping it up. Josh Naylor's twenty seventh, He's been around
the league for a while. Same with Jimenez God Jose
(26:11):
Ramirez is just being Jose Ramirez again, filmbers.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
All the way back where you wanted them.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
I guess David Frye that, yeah, it's this weird mix
of youth is the lifeblood for teams, but you also
just can't bank on it at all. That's probably where
I'm landing this of the.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
What do you do? And like some of these guys
that by the end of the year their numbers will
be better, some of them they will be worse. But
there's you can't expect zero learning period.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Rarely does someone come in and take down the league.
And why it's why we remember guys like yeah, Seal Puige,
Like if we did that if we did a social
video like who's who's a rook You remember coming in
and dominating offensively, like how people would say Pueague. How
long ago was that?
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Especially? Yeah, yes, say all time. So it gets people
thinking back a little bit. I mean even even addly.
You know his he's been awesome pretty much the whole time.
The first two weeks numbers when he first came up
were bad, Like guys need to need time to figure
it out. It's hard, it's hard to rely on them.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
So with that, it's if I see a lot of
youth on your team, that's scary, even though somehow they
are the lifeblood and the star power. Let's see how
the Braves react without a Kunya, because again, he kind
of hasn't been going nuts this year. They've also missed Murphy.
(27:50):
Let's see what that means for them. And with the
Texas Rangers starting to enter kind of a dangerous, dangerous
part of their season, Corey Seeger has hit the on button.
They're gonna need some help elsewhere. And I enthuse you
don't think that's the right word. Go check out the
(28:10):
MLB standings because I laugh every day. I think right
now there are eleven teams with a record of five
hundred or above five hundred. Eleven teams are playing above
five hundred. Ball goes to a third of the league,
Mariners or Cubs have a couple of tough days at
the office, a third of the league would have a
winning record. So it's been I think it's gonna be
(28:34):
exciting to see one of these teams in the you know,
fourteen to twenty three range, is gonna turn it on
and it's gonna happen. And we've seen a couple teams
kicking a gear. Cardinals have a W four right now.
They're playing on Sunday Night Baseball. They got rained out,
so they're only gonna play two games against the Cubs.
(28:55):
Could they have a mini sweep of the Cubs, a
five game win streak that would be potentially huge for them.
Did my Reds win today? Let me get over there.
I think they did.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Think they were up.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Yeah, red swept the Dodgers. They've got a W three
as they're trying to save their season. And that's what
I talked about with you guys last time. Someone in
that central is gonna step up. And it's just comical
to look at all of the team's records from fourteen
through twenty four, like everyone is still in the same bucket,
(29:33):
and man with expanded playoffs, a lot of teams get
to dance. So even if your team's been putting an
ugly product out there, there's gonna be a chance for
it to turn around. And I do want to give
one team a special shout out. It's a team that's
in that positive bucket. Padre fans have been feeling electric.
They traded for Luisa Rise. He's been hitting out of
(29:54):
his mind. They've always had the talent pitching and hitting wise. Also,
they had a winning Their record against good teams, teams
above five hundred was really good. Let me see it's
changed now because the Yankees have won the first two games,
but they were seven and fourteen against teams with the
(30:16):
winning record, which again that's a really high number. They
are down to twenty seven and twenty eight right now.
I'm hoping they're gonna lose to our Yankees, but it's
not looking so good as the Padres are four to
one the San Francisco Giants. They lost today to go
(30:36):
back to five hundred, but a four game win streak
had them at twenty seven and twenty six. It was
their first time like living above five hundred in a
while coming into today, and they lost. They had the
twelfth best record in baseball, a Giants team that like
felt like they've been doing the exact same thing. Jung
(30:59):
Houlie got hurt and that was kind of like, ah,
that was one of the things that could have made
you different. Although Luis Matos, who filled in for him,
has been balling out the San Francisco Giants, they're going
to be a part of this season.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
If the if the Padres hold on and win today's game,
that could change things as we're recording it. But as
of this very moment, playoffs start in three minutes. Giants
have the final wildcard team.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
In the L. Look at that, so a team that
hasn't been getting a ton of love this year. Good
for San Francisco hockey. I think our Rangers are going
to overtime right, so looks like it. I think we're
gonna watch that and they win, hopefully. I think the
(31:51):
only thing I want to talk about with the basketball man,
I hope this doesn't come off as too old, but
we've now seen the Pacers kind of blow two games,
but kind of not because they are playing the Celtics,
who are a better team, and I know they blew
(32:14):
a huge lead in that final game, where if one
or two things happened, it goes differently. Like I even
remember Jalen Brown at one point took a mid range
fade away that was a tough shot that if that
had clanked, it changes the whole outlook of the game.
I think, like the Pacers were up four or five
at that point. You know, one or two shots don't
(32:35):
go in for Boston. Al Horford's corner three that he's
made every time he's ever taken it in the playoffs.
But I mean what the Celts did. They they executed,
They came back, and they they won that game. Nem
Hard played out of his mind. I talked about that.
McConnell played out of his mind always all he knows.
(32:58):
I was furious at Indiana for dry up in that
first game because that was your shot that this game three,
if it was one to one and Boston's down by
five late, do they feel it a little more that
tricep in your jump shot. We'll never know, And I
think they're either going to go on to sweep them
(33:19):
or not sweep done. My Minnesota Tea Wolves that I've
become just delided with. I love Anthony Edwards. I love
the fact they tried something different. They brought in go
bear with Towns when the rest of the NBA was
going small. They took a shot on something and it's
it's kind of taking off. They lose Game one, that's fine.
(33:44):
Someone who's gonna win it. Close game. Kyrie had a
massive first half, Hey strong closed by Luca. That that
is what it is. Although I mean, you know they
had the lead in that game too. PJ. Washington hit
a big shot down the stretch. Luca hits a big
(34:04):
shot down the stretch. It was a great game one
like no whatever could have could have gone either way.
You could say that about a lot of NBA games.
You got to execute down the stretch. Game two, the
Minnesota Teables, they made me a little mad. They got
(34:24):
a big game out of nas Reed. You know, they
made some uncomfortable decisions. They nas Reed was going off,
so they didn't play Towns. A lot of people have
been wondering if that's that was gonna happen this playoffs. Uh.
The part that got me, uh, Minnesota who oh man,
(34:45):
I forgot. They were up five at one point with
a minute thirty left, Kyrie makes a three. The part
that got me was Dallas gets the ball back and
a tough review. They said it went out of bounds
(35:06):
off the Wolves, off Dallas. They reviewed it McDaniels. I
think had the ball he got hacked, it would have
been a foul, but they couldn't call a foul with
the NBA review rules, So technically it went off McDaniels
even though he was fouled, but they couldn't call the foul,
so ball goes back to Dallas. One. That's a tough rule.
(35:28):
And I saw Ryan Ruco he posted on his ig
story the WNBA has a rule that it's like, if
that happens, you can make the right call. Like I
think the way they phrase it is like if if
there's a clearly deemed possession, whether foul or not, something
(35:48):
like that. I forget what it was might still be
in his Instagram story and either way, I've never understood
why reviews haven't had common sense rules or why do
they have so many You can't review this like we're
literally reviewing things because we can. At the same time,
I'm one of the first guys to complain when review
takes too long, So that's kind of what they were
(36:10):
trying to do. But you gotta get the call right. Anyways,
this is where I won't defend Minnesota. The Dallas Mavericks
are bringing the ball up the court down to the
ball is in Luka Dontrich's hands. Okay, lucas dribbling. They
go to the screen with Lively. Tell you why I
(36:32):
remember that off the top of my head. They decide
not to double. They leave Gobert, Defensive Player of the
Year on Luca, even though Gobert is the defensive player
of the year. He's a guy that we've seen get
tuned up by guards on the perimeter and know it's
fine about that. He's seven to four. There's times he
(36:54):
should get tuned up on the perimeter. He's not supposed
to move like that. He kind of gave a great effort.
He had one faulty step that gave Luca clear lane.
Luca bangs the shot. T Wolves come down. Nas Reed
gets an okay, look, missus, the Reed the three. But
a now you have nas Reed shooting your game winning three,
(37:17):
which love nas Reed six Man of the year. Uh,
this is kind of rude. Six Man of the Year.
I'm gonna break it down very basic for you. This
is the best player who's not a starting player. Like
I don't want that to come off super rude, but
like there's a partial reason. I mean, part of that
(37:37):
is he's good offensively. And there's guys like Lou Will
and you know the guys who have racked up those awards.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
There's been a handful of guys who it's like, yeah,
they are starting level player.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
They they'd be starters on lesser teams. Yeah, Like in
a way, that's what the award.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
They're like being a sixth man to make their team unfair.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
That's kind of what the award is telling you. Anyways,
played great. If he hits the shot, wouldn't be saying
any of this whatever. So you have Nasered taken the shot.
That's over Karl Anthony Towns, who had been on the
bench for the end of the game but is widely
regarded one of the best shooting bigs in the league.
Anthony Edwards, who all this talk about him being him,
(38:19):
he doesn't get a look with the rock. My main
problem though, where I can't defend you. They go over
to the screen I mentioned, Lively sets it. If you
double team Luca there, they pass it to Lively at
(38:41):
the top of the three point line, you know, a
non shooting center, and worst case, because the lane was
kind of open, Derek Lively drives dunks it bank tie game.
You probably get the ball with nine seconds left. Instead,
(39:02):
you kept the ball in Luca's hands. You know what
he wants to do. You'll put go bear on him.
I mean, he told you after he hit the shot
how he feels about that. Didn't need to read too
many lips to see what he was saying. Pretty hilarious.
In his press conference, he said he was speaking, where's
Luca from? Sir?
Speaker 2 (39:25):
No, He's Slovenia.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
Okay, he said he was speaking his native language. Uh, No,
you weren't. How do you not? I mean, with the
way the NBA goes, there's an argument you give up
the dunk, keep ten seconds on the clock, and set
up whatever play you want to try to win the game. Instead,
they let Lucas shoot the three. He hits it, You
(39:50):
go down. You have your sixth man taking a deep
contested three point shot to try to win the game,
and you lose, so I'll be in should see that
could be it. Like they're going to Dallas tonight. I'm
excited to watch the game. Minnesota has been fantastic on
the road. I guess just the basketball gods, the sport gods.
(40:13):
If it was one one, I think I'd be continuing
to say all the same things, like this is probably
going seven, the Aunt Luca, Who's next? Who's hymn? Thing
is gonna be a lot of fun. The MAVs have
a chance to watch this ant hasn't played great. You
know his moment's probably coming. But you're up to oh
(40:36):
when you're going to Dallas for two, I mean, even
if they get one of those. Although three to one
has become one of the dirtiest words in the NBA.
But yeah, little little disappointed in my Wolves. It's a
little disappointed. And that's kind of where we're at. Our
Rangers are in overtime, our Yanks are trying to rally.
I hope you guys had a great Memorial Day weekend.
(40:59):
Make sure you're so prescribed in all of that fun stuff. Again,
we will see you Wednesday. We already pre recorded with
Foolish Bailey the one year Wonders one Year, Wonders of
MLB Baseball Fun Draft, Aden Beeates, Lake and Jake
Speaker 2 (41:15):
Is a production of Dan Patrick Productions, John Boy Media,
and Workhouse Media.
Hello, and welcome to Waken Jake myself, Jake Story, Ellie
BBD producing his butt away, and a happy Memorial Day
weekend to everyone tuning in. Hope you had some fun
in the sun. Northeast is having good weather. Which Memorial
Day that's always a coin flip. Also, speaking of sports
apocalypse season, as we record this, Yanks are playing the
(00:24):
Padres just to the lead. You may not care about that.
The Rangers and Panthers are tied up at four, So
a lot of heartstrings on the line there right now,
along with a massive weekend in baseball and NBA playoffs
are rolling Celts up three to zero. Fun fun fight
by the Pacers last night the neb Hard game. I'm
(00:50):
good on that. Good for the Pacers for fighting McAfee
rallying up the crowd. But yeah, that's looking sweepier, gentlemen,
sweepy over there. And we are recording this before the
t Wolves try to fend off going down three to
zero tonight to Dallas. But I do want to talk
a chunk of baseball, a little bit around the league,
(01:13):
a little bit of the top teams, a little bit
of some star performance, and I want to circle back
on the young guys conversation I did earlier this year.
I want to circle back and just keep tabs on
young baseball players because it's a lot of teams are
fueled by youth, yet at the same time you can't
(01:35):
bank on them to contribute. So again, that sentence may
not have helped you. But all of this kind of
started with the news that Ronald Acuna Junior will be out.
We'll see for how long people are dreaming up a
month or so. I don't know. I'm not as medical
(01:59):
as i'd like to, but it's a knee he has
a history with.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, all I've seen since it happened. I saw one
article it said they think they avoided the worst possible outcomes,
but I didn't even read the article that was the head.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah, what I've the tweets I've seen have been like
a minimum of a month.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
And honestly, the Braves, who coming in today had the
seventh best record in baseball. Funny that that's been disappointing
for them. The Braves better win percentage in the Milwaukee Brewers,
who I don't know, felt like the Brewers have been
playing above their skis all year, and felt like the
Braves have been semi disappointing. Uh Ronald Decunya Junior, if
(02:43):
you haven't seen the stats, having kind of an ugly year.
The stat line is as follows to forty six batting
average three forty eight on base a three point fifty
six slug in a seven four OPS, so right round
league average OPS still has a chunk of steels, sixteen
(03:04):
stolen bases, only two caught stealings, four homers won triple
seven doubles. This is coming off the year where he
won the MVP, he led the NL and OPS, which
is insane because he had seventy three stolen bases last year.
That's a stat man we've dreamt up OPSS plus on
(03:27):
basically OPS on base plus slugging with stolen bases in there.
If you do that Ronald Acunya season, I don't know
how many could match it. Another couple things from last
year that stand out compared to this year. Last year,
Ronnie besides the forty one homers, bowled all over his
Baseball Reference page, which meant he led the National League
(03:47):
in those categories eighty walks in eighty four strikeouts, which
is always a sign that you're seeing the ball very good,
and you have good plate discipline at the major league level.
This year fifty three strikeouts, twenty seven walks, so his
walk to k rate has nearly doubled or kay to
walk rate. I guess that's how you'd measure it. And
(04:10):
the ops I mean is at seven oh four. It's
a it's a bad day away from being in the sixes.
Which this is a guy who one dotted last year.
He's got a career nine to three. Again, it hasn't
affected the Braves too much, but I wanted to segue
it into something else that the script might be flipping
on soon, because there is a team that I think
(04:33):
has been underachieving this year, that their star player has
been underachieving a bit, but he's actually just hit the
go button Corey Seeger with your Texas Rangers. If you've
been checking in periodically throughout the year, if you've been
following Corey Seger, was not putting up Corey Seger stats
(04:55):
and last year he was nuts. I mean, it got
overshadowed because of injury, and like show Hay, last year,
Corey Seger led the league in doubles, only played one
hundred nineteen games, had thirty three homers in ninety six
RBI A one dot one three. Again, this isn't one
(05:15):
nineteen games from a short stop. It was a special,
special season. And the crazy thing is with baseball, how
quick it turns. Us Yankee fans have gone to see
Aaron Judge turn on these past three weeks and it's
the best three week stretch of his career. It's insane.
I think it was what eleven doubles and twelve homers
(05:38):
in twenty games or something.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, it was just his last twenty games something like that.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
First time in MLB history that's been done. It's pretty good.
Doubles and homers. We like that.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
There was a fun one during the Mariner series. So
outdated now, but I think it was like his last
thirty three hits. It was eleven to eleven, eleven singles, doubles, homers.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Oh wow, how about that? Corey Seeger? Who if we
recorded this on May On May eighteenth, this is about
a week ago. Corey Seeger had a six eighty one
ops in the last six games, including today, he now
(06:21):
has six home runs. He has homer and five homers,
and five out of six games with two homers today,
which got them to win today, but it did not
in the previous five games. The Texas Rangers have been
skidding a little bit and it looks like Seger's going
and if Corey Seeger goes, there's gonna be wins that
(06:43):
follow as they are currently standing twenty five and twenty nine.
So yeah, they just got rid of an L six today.
Six straight losses for them, and it's kind of streak season.
The Rays came into today with an L six, The
Guardians and Royals were both in a W eight coming
(07:06):
into today, and even the Dodgers with an L four
next to their name. As the Cincinnati Reds are trying
to save their season, I want to go back to
Texas for a second because it was it was something
when we do our team profile and projections before the
season that if we're being honest, there's a chunk of
(07:29):
guess into it. You see some things you like, you
see some ads, but you know you're guessing what players
are gonna either take the leap from the younger side,
which players are gonna overachieve or underachieve from last year,
or just play to their baseball card. And I think
that's why we like I think we like stars, because
stars tend to have really good years consistently analytics kind
(07:53):
of what makes you a star, right, it's really hard
to do. I think there is a funny lane for
guys that are consistently themselves and Yank recent Yankee Lorer,
guy like Brett Gardner, you're gonna get some good defense,
you're gonna get enough offensively or his offensive profile. Another
guy that was kind of a West Coast Brett Gardner
(08:14):
for years, a Cole Calhoun like you just kind of
knew what you were getting year in year out. The
Texas Rangers when we did their team profile and projection.
And this is kind of funny because I said the
opposite the year before. I was pretty excited for the
Rangers offense. Last year, It's like, oh, there could be
(08:35):
something here. Simon Seeger, Nate lowe Heim, the Dolius Garcia.
I liked what I was seeing last year, and a
lot of those guys were back this year. Here was
my problem, Corey Seeger to replicate what he did last
year really hard, and maybe he's just taken the steps
(08:55):
to start doing that, and maybe we're gonna see that.
He's also a guy that does have a chunk of
an injury history. So there was part of me that's like, hey,
when you're doing a team profile and projection, is that
something you can kind of fade a little bit. Yeah,
but always Garcia, who's been playing really well. He he
went nuts last year, but again, could you say, and
(09:17):
he's got kind of incrementally better every year that there's
room to slip, but no more than any other normal,
any other player in baseball. Nate Low got hurt coming
into the year, so that felt it The thing that
stood out to me even more than that. Marcus Simeon's
kind of as steady as it gets, plays every day.
(09:38):
In the middle of their lineup that people were hyping
as a good thing was Wyatt Lankfort, the top prospect
out of Florida, and Evan Carter, the top prospect who
showed out during last postseason. Here's why that concerned me then,
and it's why you can't bank on youth. So I
(10:00):
did a little bit of this and awaken Jake earlier
on this year, and well, I have you on the hook.
Make sure you guys are subscribed. Subscribers have been going up.
Thank you, Big foolish episode coming up in the midweek,
so get ready for that. But thank you guys. Epps
have been doing really well. Earlier this year. I did
(10:23):
a young Players and who's contributing at that point in time.
I think Jackson Merrill for the rookies was the leader
in the clubhouse. Depending how I want a butterknife this.
I can make this look as good or bad as
I want pretty much for the rookies this year. So
this is guys who didn't play it all last year.
(10:44):
I want to specify that, and it might lead into
a little theory I have developing. But these are guys
that have made their debuts this year. Of rookies that
have played over twenty games games, we're you know, I
think the Yankees are about to finish their fifty third
(11:05):
game or something today, give or take. They said on
the broadcast it's the one third point of the season.
So would that be fifty four? I think for you, Yeah,
so we're a third of the way through the season.
So twenty games, that's fairly generous. That's, you know, close
to a third of your team's game. It's never been
a math pod. I know that's not right. There are
(11:28):
three rookies that have played over twenty games that have
an ops plus over one hundred. If you'd like to
try to name them Beebes, you're more than welcome to.
But it's it's a little bit of a losing exercise.
I assume Meryl's still above. So Jackson Merrill came in
today at one hundred flat. Jackson Merrill, who I love,
(11:51):
and it's been fun to watch him this this weekend.
Two seventy six, three nineteen a three sixty five slugs.
So the power kind of hasn't been there for him,
but yeah, they it has him right around a league
average hitter, which again has been a solid rookie campaign.
So he is not on the list. I know.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Raphael isn't there.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Nope, and he's technically on the list of he debuted
a little bit last year. Oh so he's So that's well,
we'll get to Saidan in a little bit. As I
wear my soccer jersey today, MESSI ter with my soccer
hair going on. It's a look of the guys that
have made their debuts this year. Blaze Alexander h for
(12:37):
my Diamondbacks. He's been playing some shortstop, hitting a little bit.
Two sixty three thirty six four oh six of seven
forty three thirty five games, one fourteen OPS plus. Good
for you, Blaze Blazer uh right above him with an
eight oh one OPS. When Seal Perez from your Detroit Tigers.
(12:59):
We've seen his pop up a lot.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Checked him out a little bit in the in the
Sunday morning game.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
But twenty four years old has been has moved up
to the middle of that Tigers lineup. Couple stolen bases,
couple triples, couple homers and eight oh one ops went
Seal Perez. He would be leading the way if I
didn't make it twenty games. If I made it twenty
two games, because with twenty one games, Kyle McCann, the
(13:33):
catcher for your Oakland Athletics, has a one dot two
OPS right now. He's only played in twenty one games,
and I think it's just been funny whenever we have
a lot of baseball people in our office, you see
a lefty hitting McCann playing catcher, and you're like, oh,
Brian's nephew or something. Kyle McCann has been going nuts
(13:56):
when he's played this year, and we love a lefty
hitting catcher. Again, if I made that, if I had
made the requirements for this twenty two games or twenty
five games half, he would not have qualified, but go nuts. Ryan,
(14:17):
Kyle mccannon. I almost just called him Brian. For those
of you who have been keeping up with the a's, I'm.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Sorry, it's is he related to Brian?
Speaker 1 (14:25):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
He's from Georgia and I know Brian is why not
comments to let us know?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Maybe he's a nephew. Sure so a couple guys that
deserve half shout outs. Joey Lo Perfido just got called
up for the Astros. He's been playing well, but that's
fourteen games. Austin Shenton that actually doesn't deserve a shadowt
one eighty nine batting average. When he hits him, it
cost good for you, Austin shen.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
So what we've well, you've dug Blaze. Alexander's the the
real one. The others are right like on the cutoff right.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yeah, yeah, more or less.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I mean, I I could pooh pooh Blaze Alexander too
because it's just killing lefties. Sure but I but overall
doesn't change the point.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Hey do what you do, Blaze.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
That's a that is a good thing to find something
you're good at this quick.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
We can we can work with that from there. You're
looking at Jackson Merrill. Well, again, I like a lot,
but it's a six eighty three OPS. That's for people
that you'd be looking at everyday players in your lineup.
You want more than that, Like, you can only have
like two of those in your lineup if you're hoping
(15:43):
to be kind of a quality team. Uh Andy Payes
uh for the Dodgers who got thrown in there. His
OPS is down to six seventy one. Jung Hu Lee
got hurt and is out for the year. He landed
at six forty one. Trey Lipscomb, who we talked about
a lot for the Nats, was doing some things at
third base. He's down a six twenty. Everyone else. I
(16:05):
don't want to embarrass their their stats, but everyone else
is below that. These guys are in the fives. Wyatt Lankford,
who I just mentioned. Remember he's got forearms from the Gods.
He won the d h job for the Texas Rangers. Like,
watch out for this kid. How special is he? And
Carter are going to be in the middle of that
(16:26):
lineup five eighty eight OPS said, I wasn't gonna say
numbers Jackson Trio the other Jackson. His ops is five
eighty seven, one point below. He's struggled. Colt Keith got
the contract extension before the season. Welcome to the big leagues,
bug Bug. Sorry, sorry to all our bug listeners. He
(16:51):
is below them. Five seventy eight. Kyle Menzardo this is
small sample size. And Jordan Beck rookie who's playing for
the Rockies before he got hurt there in the fours.
Graham Paully ops in the fours. He was a guy
that we heard end of camp might become the Padres
(17:12):
starting third baseman. And then it just gets worse from there.
Victor Scott won the center field job out of camp
two seventy four. He hasn't been playing. Jackson Holliday, you know,
he got sent down a one to seventy ops. He
really struggled. So these are all the guys that got
called up this year, and I think it's just of
(17:36):
note going forward as we're seeing some second year players
and I'm getting to that list coming up. Man, to
have a true rook rookie in your lineup making their
debut and trying to be an impact player, that's a
tough ask. It's a little better with the sophomores, and
(17:58):
we'll get a laugh because this is a that we've
been talking about a lot recently. The number one sophomore
leading the way, twenty eight year old David Frye, Oh
of the Cleveland Guardians. He's been going nut job and
he's twenty eight. He wasn't a top prospect. He was
(18:18):
kind of the Guardians like third catcher coming into the season,
but he's been playing some other positions and he's been
mashing with the best in baseball. So hey, this is
what this beautiful sport has to offer. Sometimes you find
guys like David Frye and enjoy that ride. Maybe it sticks,
maybe something happened, but good for him. He is one
(18:39):
dot winning right now, been one of the best players,
one of the best players in the AL in all
of baseball. I don't even say al after him. So
this is where things get interesting because I said you
can't bank on young players. But I do want to
mark this down as a note because especially come the
end of the year, when we do cups of coffee
(19:01):
and guys getting their feet wet, and should we call
them up? Do you want to start their service time?
There's a group of guys that got cup of coffees
last year that are playing really well. Joey Ortiz the
main one of the main pieces in that Corbyn Burns
trade eight eighty three ops. Him and Jordan Westbrook, who
(19:25):
you know, Brewers might have had their chance at those players.
Both of those guys have very similar stat lines and
have been playing crazy throughout. Willie or Brau for the
Red Sox, he had a cup of coffee. His ops
is in the eights coming into today, Colton Kowser, same,
Johnny de Luca, Trevor Plouff's midnight kiss on New Year's
(19:47):
Eve one thirty ops plus. That's really good. That is
really good. Mason Wynn. We talked about him with Jolly
olivin Foolish Baseball, in a little fake out or breakout.
He's continued to go good on him. And let's see,
are any of these other guys cup of coffee guys?
(20:10):
You know? Michael Bush, Michael Bush for the Cubbies, you
know he he got the slightest bit of experience last year.
And then I'll circle back on some other guys. So
those are all of the guys that have positive ops pluses.
They got a cup of coffee last year, and it's
one of those again, the game of baseball. We don't
(20:36):
know what's gonna happen on the bottom of second year
players are guys like Ryan Noda. Well, if I told
you the the Oakland A's were doing anything this year,
you'd say, Oh, I don't know. Ryan Noda looked pretty good,
good eye, good on base percentage. He really struggled in
thirty games this year, a four to forty OPS. Jordan Walker,
(20:58):
who like put together a fine rookie offensive season, a
four to ninety seven OPS. Christian and Carnassim Strand in
the fives this year after having a great season for
the Reds previously. And yeah, I mean there's a mix
of other top prospects. Rafaela you mentioned for the Socks.
He's got a fifty nine OPS, plus Ryan Rochio who's
(21:23):
been playing for Cleveland, Evan Carter in forty four games,
a six forty one OPS, a one ninety batting average.
That guy looks like he was going to take down
the world last postseason, and he kind of did that.
Being said, it's a sixth sport we like, and I
(21:48):
guess where I'm trying to land the plane on this
Banking on young guys is just tough as it is,
and part of that is because if you're an old
guy that it's hung around, that means you're really good,
really consistent at what you do. But man, bringing up
those rookie numbers again and seeing that almost no one
(22:11):
is bringing it to the table a pretty crazy thought,
especially US Yankee fans. We watched Anthony Volpi last year
and had an offseason of like, you know, what were
our honest goals for Volpi this year? Like two fifty
three thirty on base they got. I had been saying
around the office, if he finishes year ops plus ninety five,
(22:37):
which is not good, that's five percent worse than league average.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
I thought that would lock him into getting the twenty
twenty five gig because we know the Yankees want him
to be there and all that, and that would have
been a big step up.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Right, He has been much better than that, and I
think he just extended a hitting streak to nineteen games.
Some other guys on the second earless, Patrick Bailey has
been playing really good for the Giants. Elie de la
Cruz we've kind of talked about his full blown breakout.
David Schneider is just running it back for the Blue Jays,
(23:11):
good kind of one of the only guys running it
back for Toronto. Jeff Passing getting his his tweet off today.
It might might start gain ugly in Toronto before it
gets pretty. They are going to be talked about a
lot as a potential team to be plundered. And I
don't think I gave him credit because we already recorded it.
(23:31):
But foolish Bailey was kind on that first What was
that last August, last September.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
I wasn't feeling great.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
He was not eyeballing what Toronto was doing and liking it.
Some other fun guys on this list can Zone, Bryce
Terrang who just had a full blown awful rookie season. Then,
I don't know. I guess my developing theory here be
if you got a guy you think you might be into,
(24:04):
and it's the end of the year and it's a
losing season, give him a little bit of run, because
if you ain't played in the big leagues, you ain't
played in the big leagues. I'm sure I could do
some year over year analysis, not my specialty.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
There's definitely a chance this year is just a particularly
and we're two months in.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
I'm sure there's some fluctuations, but it probably not as
much as I could even be alluding to. You know,
there's years you look at the Rookie of the Year
ballots and you're like, whoa.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Even last year, I know, will he did get Gold
Glove and all that, and like if you put a
gun to our heads at the end of last year
and said, does he deserve any Rookie of the Year votes,
we would have said no.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
I'll go to twenty twenty three debut guys real quick,
just to see what we've got. Yeah, I was gonna reference,
you know, I know Ryan Mountcastle finished pretty high on
a Rookie of the Year one year.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Rook of the Year votes in two different years.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Guys that actually played last year. How about this, I'll
do Guys that played more than seventy games, uh in
that year. Jordan Westberg, Mastakoshita kind of illegal. Jordan Walker,
who I just mentioned struggling this year, had a one
fourteen ops plus Ryan Noda also at the bottom of
(25:28):
that struggle bus. My guy Matt McClane's been hurt, damn it.
Eddie Julienne's been right below league average for most of
this season. Those are the guys with positive ops pluses.
So again you're you're looking at a handful of guys
who played and were at least positive offensive contributors or
(25:50):
above league average. So it's one of those bizarre things
because we found ourselves saying it. Like even with with
the Cleveland Guardians this year, we've talked about young players
stepping it up. Josh Naylor's twenty seventh, He's been around
the league for a while. Same with Jimenez God Jose
(26:11):
Ramirez is just being Jose Ramirez again, filmbers.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
All the way back where you wanted them.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
I guess David Frye that, yeah, it's this weird mix
of youth is the lifeblood for teams, but you also
just can't bank on it at all. That's probably where
I'm landing this of the.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
What do you do? And like some of these guys
that by the end of the year their numbers will
be better, some of them they will be worse. But
there's you can't expect zero learning period.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Rarely does someone come in and take down the league.
And why it's why we remember guys like yeah, Seal Puige,
Like if we did that if we did a social
video like who's who's a rook You remember coming in
and dominating offensively, like how people would say Pueague. How
long ago was that?
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Especially? Yeah, yes, say all time. So it gets people
thinking back a little bit. I mean even even addly.
You know his he's been awesome pretty much the whole time.
The first two weeks numbers when he first came up
were bad, Like guys need to need time to figure
it out. It's hard, it's hard to rely on them.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
So with that, it's if I see a lot of
youth on your team, that's scary, even though somehow they
are the lifeblood and the star power. Let's see how
the Braves react without a Kunya, because again, he kind
of hasn't been going nuts this year. They've also missed Murphy.
(27:50):
Let's see what that means for them. And with the
Texas Rangers starting to enter kind of a dangerous, dangerous
part of their season, Corey Seeger has hit the on button.
They're gonna need some help elsewhere. And I enthuse you
don't think that's the right word. Go check out the
(28:10):
MLB standings because I laugh every day. I think right
now there are eleven teams with a record of five
hundred or above five hundred. Eleven teams are playing above
five hundred. Ball goes to a third of the league,
Mariners or Cubs have a couple of tough days at
the office, a third of the league would have a
winning record. So it's been I think it's gonna be
(28:34):
exciting to see one of these teams in the you know,
fourteen to twenty three range, is gonna turn it on
and it's gonna happen. And we've seen a couple teams
kicking a gear. Cardinals have a W four right now.
They're playing on Sunday Night Baseball. They got rained out,
so they're only gonna play two games against the Cubs.
(28:55):
Could they have a mini sweep of the Cubs, a
five game win streak that would be potentially huge for them.
Did my Reds win today? Let me get over there.
I think they did.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Think they were up.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Yeah, red swept the Dodgers. They've got a W three
as they're trying to save their season. And that's what
I talked about with you guys last time. Someone in
that central is gonna step up. And it's just comical
to look at all of the team's records from fourteen
through twenty four, like everyone is still in the same bucket,
(29:33):
and man with expanded playoffs, a lot of teams get
to dance. So even if your team's been putting an
ugly product out there, there's gonna be a chance for
it to turn around. And I do want to give
one team a special shout out. It's a team that's
in that positive bucket. Padre fans have been feeling electric.
They traded for Luisa Rise. He's been hitting out of
(29:54):
his mind. They've always had the talent pitching and hitting wise. Also,
they had a winning Their record against good teams, teams
above five hundred was really good. Let me see it's
changed now because the Yankees have won the first two games,
but they were seven and fourteen against teams with the
(30:16):
winning record, which again that's a really high number. They
are down to twenty seven and twenty eight right now.
I'm hoping they're gonna lose to our Yankees, but it's
not looking so good as the Padres are four to
one the San Francisco Giants. They lost today to go
(30:36):
back to five hundred, but a four game win streak
had them at twenty seven and twenty six. It was
their first time like living above five hundred in a
while coming into today, and they lost. They had the
twelfth best record in baseball, a Giants team that like
felt like they've been doing the exact same thing. Jung
(30:59):
Houlie got hurt and that was kind of like, ah,
that was one of the things that could have made
you different. Although Luis Matos, who filled in for him,
has been balling out the San Francisco Giants, they're going
to be a part of this season.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
If the if the Padres hold on and win today's game,
that could change things as we're recording it. But as
of this very moment, playoffs start in three minutes. Giants
have the final wildcard team.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
In the L. Look at that, so a team that
hasn't been getting a ton of love this year. Good
for San Francisco hockey. I think our Rangers are going
to overtime right, so looks like it. I think we're
gonna watch that and they win, hopefully. I think the
(31:51):
only thing I want to talk about with the basketball man,
I hope this doesn't come off as too old, but
we've now seen the Pacers kind of blow two games,
but kind of not because they are playing the Celtics,
who are a better team, and I know they blew
(32:14):
a huge lead in that final game, where if one
or two things happened, it goes differently. Like I even
remember Jalen Brown at one point took a mid range
fade away that was a tough shot that if that
had clanked, it changes the whole outlook of the game.
I think, like the Pacers were up four or five
at that point. You know, one or two shots don't
(32:35):
go in for Boston. Al Horford's corner three that he's
made every time he's ever taken it in the playoffs.
But I mean what the Celts did. They they executed,
They came back, and they they won that game. Nem
Hard played out of his mind. I talked about that.
McConnell played out of his mind always all he knows.
(32:58):
I was furious at Indiana for dry up in that
first game because that was your shot that this game three,
if it was one to one and Boston's down by
five late, do they feel it a little more that
tricep in your jump shot. We'll never know, And I
think they're either going to go on to sweep them
(33:19):
or not sweep done. My Minnesota Tea Wolves that I've
become just delided with. I love Anthony Edwards. I love
the fact they tried something different. They brought in go
bear with Towns when the rest of the NBA was
going small. They took a shot on something and it's
it's kind of taking off. They lose Game one, that's fine.
(33:44):
Someone who's gonna win it. Close game. Kyrie had a
massive first half, Hey strong closed by Luca. That that
is what it is. Although I mean, you know they
had the lead in that game too. PJ. Washington hit
a big shot down the stretch. Luca hits a big
(34:04):
shot down the stretch. It was a great game one
like no whatever could have could have gone either way.
You could say that about a lot of NBA games.
You got to execute down the stretch. Game two, the
Minnesota Teables, they made me a little mad. They got
(34:24):
a big game out of nas Reed. You know, they
made some uncomfortable decisions. They nas Reed was going off,
so they didn't play Towns. A lot of people have
been wondering if that's that was gonna happen this playoffs. Uh.
The part that got me, uh, Minnesota who oh man,
(34:45):
I forgot. They were up five at one point with
a minute thirty left, Kyrie makes a three. The part
that got me was Dallas gets the ball back and
a tough review. They said it went out of bounds
(35:06):
off the Wolves, off Dallas. They reviewed it McDaniels. I
think had the ball he got hacked, it would have
been a foul, but they couldn't call a foul with
the NBA review rules, So technically it went off McDaniels
even though he was fouled, but they couldn't call the foul,
so ball goes back to Dallas. One. That's a tough rule.
(35:28):
And I saw Ryan Ruco he posted on his ig
story the WNBA has a rule that it's like, if
that happens, you can make the right call. Like I
think the way they phrase it is like if if
there's a clearly deemed possession, whether foul or not, something
(35:48):
like that. I forget what it was might still be
in his Instagram story and either way, I've never understood
why reviews haven't had common sense rules or why do
they have so many You can't review this like we're
literally reviewing things because we can. At the same time,
I'm one of the first guys to complain when review
takes too long, So that's kind of what they were
(36:10):
trying to do. But you gotta get the call right. Anyways,
this is where I won't defend Minnesota. The Dallas Mavericks
are bringing the ball up the court down to the
ball is in Luka Dontrich's hands. Okay, lucas dribbling. They
go to the screen with Lively. Tell you why I
(36:32):
remember that off the top of my head. They decide
not to double. They leave Gobert, Defensive Player of the
Year on Luca, even though Gobert is the defensive player
of the year. He's a guy that we've seen get
tuned up by guards on the perimeter and know it's
fine about that. He's seven to four. There's times he
(36:54):
should get tuned up on the perimeter. He's not supposed
to move like that. He kind of gave a great effort.
He had one faulty step that gave Luca clear lane.
Luca bangs the shot. T Wolves come down. Nas Reed
gets an okay, look, missus, the Reed the three. But
a now you have nas Reed shooting your game winning three,
(37:17):
which love nas Reed six Man of the year. Uh,
this is kind of rude. Six Man of the Year.
I'm gonna break it down very basic for you. This
is the best player who's not a starting player. Like
I don't want that to come off super rude, but
like there's a partial reason. I mean, part of that
(37:37):
is he's good offensively. And there's guys like Lou Will
and you know the guys who have racked up those awards.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
There's been a handful of guys who it's like, yeah,
they are starting level player.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
They they'd be starters on lesser teams. Yeah, Like in
a way, that's what the award.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
They're like being a sixth man to make their team unfair.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
That's kind of what the award is telling you. Anyways,
played great. If he hits the shot, wouldn't be saying
any of this whatever. So you have Nasered taken the shot.
That's over Karl Anthony Towns, who had been on the
bench for the end of the game but is widely
regarded one of the best shooting bigs in the league.
Anthony Edwards, who all this talk about him being him,
(38:19):
he doesn't get a look with the rock. My main
problem though, where I can't defend you. They go over
to the screen I mentioned, Lively sets it. If you
double team Luca there, they pass it to Lively at
(38:41):
the top of the three point line, you know, a
non shooting center, and worst case, because the lane was
kind of open, Derek Lively drives dunks it bank tie game.
You probably get the ball with nine seconds left. Instead,
(39:02):
you kept the ball in Luca's hands. You know what
he wants to do. You'll put go bear on him.
I mean, he told you after he hit the shot
how he feels about that. Didn't need to read too
many lips to see what he was saying. Pretty hilarious.
In his press conference, he said he was speaking, where's
Luca from? Sir?
Speaker 2 (39:25):
No, He's Slovenia.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
Okay, he said he was speaking his native language. Uh, No,
you weren't. How do you not? I mean, with the
way the NBA goes, there's an argument you give up
the dunk, keep ten seconds on the clock, and set
up whatever play you want to try to win the game. Instead,
they let Lucas shoot the three. He hits it, You
(39:50):
go down. You have your sixth man taking a deep
contested three point shot to try to win the game,
and you lose, so I'll be in should see that
could be it. Like they're going to Dallas tonight. I'm
excited to watch the game. Minnesota has been fantastic on
the road. I guess just the basketball gods, the sport gods.
(40:13):
If it was one one, I think I'd be continuing
to say all the same things, like this is probably
going seven, the Aunt Luca, Who's next? Who's hymn? Thing
is gonna be a lot of fun. The MAVs have
a chance to watch this ant hasn't played great. You
know his moment's probably coming. But you're up to oh
(40:36):
when you're going to Dallas for two, I mean, even
if they get one of those. Although three to one
has become one of the dirtiest words in the NBA.
But yeah, little little disappointed in my Wolves. It's a
little disappointed. And that's kind of where we're at. Our
Rangers are in overtime, our Yanks are trying to rally.
I hope you guys had a great Memorial Day weekend.
(40:59):
Make sure you're so prescribed in all of that fun stuff. Again,
we will see you Wednesday. We already pre recorded with
Foolish Bailey the one year Wonders one Year, Wonders of
MLB Baseball Fun Draft, Aden Beeates, Lake and Jake
Speaker 2 (41:15):
Is a production of Dan Patrick Productions, John Boy Media,
and Workhouse Media.
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