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April 8, 2026 13 mins
Our Padres Insider From The UT Kevin Acee LIVE From Pittsburgh About The Team Going 4-2 On The Road Trip And More.

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I would assume just scheduled off the top of the
season with his twelfth overall game. So let's go to
Pittsburgh with our Padres Insider.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
The Padres Reward with Kevin acy. He's brought to you
by Hamul Casino Resort A Players. This is all yours
Hamul Casino Resort A players place.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
All right, Padres are six and six. There's a lot
to react to. Kevin Aicys or Padres Insider with us
right now on Scheffrin Sleiwa from Pittsburgh. Kevin, we talked
about this, I think weeks ago. We said, when you're
facing Gazac School Bull and Skiens and whomever else, we
thought six and six was maybe a desired result, And
here they are. They went through it kind of a
unique way to get here. But at the end of

(00:40):
the day, I think most Padres fans would take where
they are right.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Well, yeah, we did talk about it. I did think
about that. Today finally got something right. But also after
starting two and four with the way that the offense
progressed on this trip, the way the offense came through
in the way that it said it would, you know,
even when they were two and four and hitting you know,
one ninety seven, but they said that before that when

(01:06):
they were hitting one eighty two. Uh, because they did
actually kind of break out the last game of the
homestand so yeah, and then to you know, come on
this trip continue. Look, those Pittsburgh starters are good, man,
And I thought it was a you know, it was
it was an excellent trip.

Speaker 4 (01:22):
Kevin, stay on Michael King here for a quick second
to as we kind of look at what he's done
so far this year in his three starts, and just
how encouraging is it to see that he could potentially
be the player that the Podreys are obviously hoping for. No,
he's not the ace technically at the moment. It's Nick Povetta.

(01:42):
But just just how big do you think these three
starts have been?

Speaker 3 (01:46):
You know, I absolutely agree, like like he's not happy
with him and and gush, if you're as talented as
him and you're making the money that he is and
you want to be that guy, then he shouldn't be.
But but I thought that they were really encouraging, like
every one of them had they're encouraging moments, you know,
based on gosh, what what how last year finished for him?
And when I say, finished basically the second half, unable

(02:09):
to really do more than pitch out of the bullpen
and the postseason. And I thought that the fact that
he's gone what he went five and then five and
then today six plus was able to get up to
ninety five pitches and what he did today, and I'm
sure that I didn't even have a He addressed it

(02:29):
a little bit, but I didn't have the heart to
like press him on it because I've talked to him
about it so many times. One of the traits of
an ace type pitcher is to not have your best
stuff to be behind to you know, be wondering where
is it, and you can't fix it in the middle
of the game, and you still battle through. And I
realized he wasn't facing the twenty seven Yankees or even

(02:51):
the you know two twenty six Yankees.

Speaker 5 (02:53):
But like I'm telling you, if you.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
Watch these games, the Pirates put together good at bets
and Michael did not have it half of his start
today and the guy throw six scoreless innings before you know,
going back out there in the seventh and giving up
two hits and then the runs scored. I mean, that
was a grindy impressive start.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Yeah, against an offense that to start the year. You know,
Pittsburgh's you know, had a pretty good offense obviously the
first two weeks of the year. Kevin Acys are Padres insider.
He's with us right now on Schaeffer and Sliwa. I
remember you wrote in March about the plan to rest
Manny Machato more. But I remember we had a conversation
about this. It's like, it's one thing to have that
as a plan, but it's like the Mike Tyson line,

(03:34):
It's like everyone's got a plan until they get punched,
so to speak. But credit to the Padres organization and
Craig Stammin and even Machado because last year you know
better than me, right, it took like one hundred and
fifty games for him to get a scheduled off day.

Speaker 6 (03:45):
Today he gets it in the twelfth.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Game of the year. What does that signify? And how
often would you expect him, Like is it monthly? Is
it every couple of weeks or how many scheduled off
days do you think they're going to put in there
for him this year?

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Well, yeah, I'm not surprised at all, because you know
I said this is who coach Stanmon is there, Like
this is one example of why he was hired, not
only relationship with Manny, but you know, somebody could walk
in off the street. Craig is very gonna Craig's going
to do what he thinks right for the team and
that he thinks is right. And there was no doubt.
But yeah, the reason there would have been doubt in

(04:19):
people's mind is, hey, this is Manny Machado. Mannochatdo played
one hundred and fifty games before a day off last
year because of Manny Machata. Like and if you read
the story that I wrote in the spring, I mean
the quotes in there lead no doubt that, like that's
like a man thing for him. That's like, that's like
who he is. And the stats, the fact that he's
played in more games than anyone else since twenty fifteen

(04:42):
will tell you that unless Paul Molshman plays tonight, then
they'll be tied. But like, it is remarkable what Manny does.
But there was really no doubt they were going to
do this. As for how often I think this might
be a signal, I'm not saying every twelve games. I'm
not even saying there's a prescription, but it got out
of hand. There's no way they wanted to go one

(05:02):
hundred and fifty games without him resting. But at some
point then the offense was struggling. They were struggling. They
wanted to, you know, get a playoff spot. They were
chasing the Dodgers until what mid September, and it was
like both Manny and Mike Shill determined he couldn't sit,
and so they got to get ahead of it this year.
So in case they're in that situation again where Manny

(05:23):
does need to play forty to fifty games in a row,
he has, He's not already tired. He should have had
days off earlier. Mike Shild did a pretty good job
managing the different parts of his roster.

Speaker 5 (05:35):
That was one.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
Hey, no one's perfect.

Speaker 5 (05:37):
That got away from him last year.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
Kevin is that is that tough for somebody like Craig
Stamon or any of these young managers who are looking
at such a veteran. Let's hypothetically, so Manny Machado says, no,
I don't want to sit this early in the season.
I'm good to go, I'm healthy, I'm feeling fine. How
tough is that to get one of your stars and
to paint that big picture of look for the you're

(06:00):
actually doing this because it could potentially help us down
the road. Is that a tough position that the manager's
in and how often does that interaction happen with the players?

Speaker 3 (06:09):
I think it's really tough. I mean there's a reason, uh,
you know, certain players haven't moved down in lineups here
with the past couple managers. There's you know, there's we'll
see when Craig gets to you know, if people are struggling,
certain names are struggling. What he does there in terms
of you know, we are we're already talking about his lineups.
Didn't he get drastic? But like I doubt, I don't

(06:30):
have any doubt that he will. But that's a really
it's the biggest part of the job handling these guys.
And I've talked about it with you guys before and
in a lot of places because they know that the
media and stands we get all caught up in game
management and there's not a manager out there who's managed
in the past saying ten years or so, and probably
guys before that, but that wouldn't tell you managing end

(06:53):
game strategy decisions is no more than twenty percent of
the job. This other stuff is that eighty percent, and
it only is getting more as managers have less power
in some organization was sway and as players.

Speaker 5 (07:06):
Look, let's be honest, right enough to.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
Sound like an old man, but you know these kids
have changed. And then you got a veteran like Manny
Machado who's like, who does have the argument of Hey,
this is how I've played, and this is how I've succeeded.
I'm better when I play, and so it's a strong personality.
But I said this from the day Craig Stamo was higher.
You know, I covered him for eight years and I said, yeah,

(07:31):
I was surprised, but I don't know what kind of
manager is going to be. But he's got the personality
and he's got the sway over players, including Manny Machado.
And when Craig Stannel was a middle reliever on this team,
Manny Machado listened to Craig Stamon on things.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
Really good insight from Kevin Acier podcas Insider with us
right now in Schaeffer and Sliwa, It's funny I posted
something about where we started, like, hey, six and six.
It's kind of what you were asking for. I think
it's a good enough start, and it's so social media,
so take it for whatever it's worth. But one of
the immediate replies was, well, they can't they can't hit
good pitching, so they can't win the World serious. I'm like, well,
first of all, that's the World Series is seven months,

(08:09):
so relaxed.

Speaker 6 (08:10):
Second, but to the general you want to take down
your posts, You're right.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
The World Series take it is over, You're right. But
to the general point, I mean he may be onto
something in terms of look at what they've done against Skeens,
scooble Valdez, shoot, even Mitch Keller here today.

Speaker 6 (08:27):
Would you call that a concern?

Speaker 1 (08:29):
The fact that this lineup, with this investment, with the
pieces they have in it, consistently hasn't good, hasn't hit
consistently good pitching.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
Okay, so then you know, to be fair to people
on social media too, it doesn't leave room for us
to get context from them either, right like where like
has had that person said hey, you know, we probably
should keep an eye out down the road, right for
how these guys do against top starters, I would say, amen, brother,
or sister, I would absolutely agree with that that that

(09:03):
is something to watch out. To say that right now
is like, uh but yeah, today was they played ten games,
the seventh quality start against them, and I can't remember
how many of them not just quality starts, but like
shut out six innings or whatever, and so yeah. But
also rember Belt does I think has allowed two runs

(09:24):
in his three starts. Eric Scooble's pretty good, Paul Schames
is pretty good, Bubba Chandler's pretty good. Mitch Keller can
be very good. Take a look at his career. Yes
he can get pummeled, but he also has plenty of
starts like this, Like Sonny Gray's pretty good. You know,
I know a land and Root got shelled by the mess.

Speaker 5 (09:45):
But he's okay.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
Logan Web's pretty good. Like they have really been you know,
they've been under it here now. Hey, absolutely a valid concern, man,
Like I mean, I've written about it, you guys probably
it's not a lot of time talking about it. This
is absolutely something to keep an eye on. They wanted
coming into the season to do better against starting pitching.

Speaker 5 (10:07):
It was a few days before the season I.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
Wrote about it that they don't want to have to
always take a time through the through the order well.
But also in that story it was pointed out how
they were going to start the season and get some
really good pitchers, so hey, maybe that's it. And then
also Craig Stanmond's been very upfront. I've got some good
stuff from tomorrow's newsletter from Nick Cassionis has been a
part of this whole you know, switching and mixing and matching,

(10:32):
but Craig's been pretty much fun about we're using this
first part of the year to figure out our lineup
and to figure out where the pieces fit. And so
let's list let's just slow.

Speaker 5 (10:44):
It down a little bit.

Speaker 4 (10:46):
Kevin'll find a one for me looking at your article
yesterday in the UTI, great article on Joe must Grove
and just kind of where he's at based off of
your interaction with him, and I'm sure for Joe and
for a lot of Padre fans surprised how he's still
dealing with the issues that he's dealing with. Can the

(11:07):
Padres do you think depend on Joe Musgrove at any
point over these next couple of months or is this
kind of a wait and see.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
Depend That's a key word right there. Can they depend
on him, and I want to be careful because I
know how people react and and you know, but I
would say by the strictest term of can they depend no,
And I base that on talking with people and being like, so,
what's up, Well, don't know, don't know, just going to
see every day to day and so like. And the

(11:37):
fact is he's only played catch. And the fact is
Joe's been pretty upfront about this. And so do they
anticipate that in the next couple of months he's going
to pitch for them? Yes, but can they depend on it?
Is it really front of mind for them right now? No?
It is not one thing I do want to say
anyone that questions Joe must Grove's dedication or his desire

(12:01):
and how hard he works, Like this guy has worked
too hard in the past to come back from insane injuries.
He pitched through his arm could have given out at
any point. In twenty twenty four, he pitched through pain.
That makes twenty starts, including some pretty damn good ones
at the end of the season, help the Punters getting
the playoffs in twenty four Like, Ah, it's not my

(12:23):
job to defend players, but it is my job to
sort of set the record straight. And if there was
someone I was going to defend, it would be Joe
musk Grow. And it's like insanity. It's like insanity to
suggest that Joe Muskrow like it doesn't want to get
out there or is it working hard enough or whatever.
That's just like, yeah, I can't even put it into words.

(12:45):
And that's bad because I'm supposed to be able to
put things into words. But I'm like, that to me
is mind. It means you have not been paying.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
Attention completely agree and remarkably in doing this sports talk
as long as we've done it, Shaeffer and Sliwa. But
as long as we do sports ill keeach it every day.
That's never even been broached with, Like I don't even cross.
I don't even if someone were to text that, and
I won't even entertain that. That's the must ridiculous. I mean,
that was so utterly insane to think about a with

(13:15):
a professional athlete and be with someone of the caliber
of Joe Musgrove.

Speaker 6 (13:19):
Kevin travels safely. We will catch up with you.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
Back in San Diego as the Rockies gets to town
out tomorrow night.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
Thank you, Kevin, Thank you Podre's report with Kevin Acy
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