July 29, 2025 • 14 mins
-The recent induction of Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, and Billy Wagner into the Hall of Fame
-Ichiro Suzuki's illustrious career boasts an impressive collection of accolades, including 3,000 hits and a .311 batting average.
-CC Sabathia's remarkable achievement of 251 career wins and where he stands in all time wins
-The Kansas City Royals made a strategic decision to extend Seth Lugo's contract, reflecting their commitment to building a competitive team.
-Billy Wagner's induction into the Hall of Fame, despite previous delays, highlights the evolving recognition of his significant contributions to the game.
-The Royals' recent trades and player acquisitions indicate a clear intention to strengthen their roster for future seasons.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome in to this is Baseball.
My name is Brandon Johnson.
Thank you for tuning in today.
First order of business is abig Congratulations to the 2025 MLB
hall of Fame class, IchiroSuzuki, CC Sabathia, both, both first
(00:20):
ballot hall of Famers andBilly Wagner, hall of Famer who got
in on his 10th and final yearon the hall of Fame ballot.
Just going through some of thecareer stats and accolades of these
(00:42):
three.
Hall of Famer CC Sabathia, CyYoung winner, 2009 World Series champion,
ALCS MVP, six time MLB All Star.
He had 251 career wins.
That is best for 46th all timeand wins.
(01:04):
251 wins.
And looking at just activeplayers today that are kind of in
that realm as far as careerwins are concerned.
Justin Verlander has 263 winsand counting in what is likely his
final season.
(01:26):
Max Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw.
Max Scherzer has 217 wins.
Clayton Kershaw has 216 wins.
They actually both have spentabout the exact same amount of time
in the league, so that's cool.
But those are kind of the nextclosest players.
I would put all three of thoseguys as first ballot hall of Famers
(01:48):
as well.
I think what's interesting isI don't think that we're ever going
to see a 300 game winner againbecause Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer,
both of them along with JustinVerlander are likely in their final
seasons.
(02:09):
The next closest in wins asfar as active players is Garrett
Cole.
Garrett Cole has 153 wins, sohe's also 34 years old.
And then it just goes downfrom there.
Charlie Morton, Chris Sale,Charlie Morton's 41, Chris Sale's
(02:30):
36.
Sonny Gray, Carlos Carrasco,Zach Wheeler, you, Darvish, and yeah,
so on.
So that's pretty cool for CC Sabathia.
250 career wins.
Congratulations to him.
Ichiro Suzuki, almostunanimous first ballot hall of Famer.
(02:55):
He missed out on one vote.
I still don't understand howyou have a vote for the hall of Fame
and you look at Ichiro andsay, you know what?
I don't think so.
Real quick, Ichiro's career onBaseball Reference.
MVP Rookie of the year, 10time all star, 10 time gold glove
winner, 3 time silver slugger,2 time batting champ and all star
(03:21):
MVP.
Career batting average of 311, had over 3, 000 hits and just
1 of the best players to everdo it.
So congratulations to him.
And then finally Billy Wagnerfrom Houston Astros, a player that
(03:43):
on his final year on theballot, like we said, his percentage
for getting into the hall ofFame just kept going up and going
up and it just looked like,okay, this is going to be the year
that he finally gets in.
And he did.
Career 231 ERA, 422 saves.
And those 422 career saves puthim as eighth all time in saves,
(04:10):
which I don't reallyunderstand why it took them so long
to get Billy Wagner into thehall of Fame when you have Mariana
Rivera, who's obviously theall time saves leader, 652 saves,
unanimous hall of Famer TrevorHoffman, 601 saves.
He's in.
Lee Smith, 478 saves.
And then nobody in between there.
(04:34):
Obviously.
Kenley Jansen's fourth alltime in saves.
He's still active.
Craig Kimbrell still active as well.
He's fifth all time.
K Rod hasn't been out longenough, but I'm, I'm shocked that
it took them this long to getBilly Wagner in.
So I am curious for KinleyJansen and Craig Kimbrell, is it
(05:00):
going to take them a while?
Because they're 200 saves offof Mariana Rivera.
Both of them, both KenleyJansen and Craig Kimbrell.
Great closers, obviously, bothof them.
A little bit of journeymancareers in the back half, but yeah,
(05:21):
they're great.
So I'm hoping that playerslike Jansen and Kimbrell don't have
to wait the entirety of theireligibility to get in.
But congratulations to BillyWagner, CC Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki
on your hall of Fame induction.
So let's talk a little bit ofRoyals baseball.
Some stuff happened over theweekend that we need to discuss.
(05:42):
So.
So it felt like last week itwas a foregone conclusion, at least
from the media talking headsthat Seth Lugo was getting dealt
to the Chicago Cubs.
That was what I thinkeverybody was trying to speak into
existence was Lugo's going tothe Cubs.
And you look at it and itmakes a little bit of sense.
(06:05):
Seth Lugo again having a greatyear with the Royals.
You just look at his stats onthe surface.
295 ERA, 113 innings pitched,a WHIP of 1.088.
And even just dating back tolast season, 16 and 9, a 3 ERA, 33
game start, games started, 206innings pitched, all star, he was
(06:31):
second in Cy Young voting.
He won a Gold glove.
So great 2024 season and doingpretty much the same thing in 2025,
he does, he has a playeroption or he had a player option
(06:52):
for 2026.
So it made sense at the time.
Okay, the Royals, I don't knowif they're really in contention.
It's really hard to know.
But with the this extra wildcard spot, it makes, makes this time
of year really interesting.
So it made sense that maybethe Royals would want to trade Seth
Lugo and try to get maybe anoutfielder or something else that
(07:14):
could help them maybe now,this season or next season and seasons
beyond.
And the Royals said, nope, wenot trading Seth Lugo.
In fact, we're going to extendSeth Lugo.
So I'll read this just frommlb.com the Royals are finalizing
(07:36):
a multi year contractextension with right hander Seth
Lugo.
Lugo's deal is a two yearextension worth a guaranteed 46 million
that will begin in 2026 with avesting option which becomes guaranteed
if he reaches a certainperformance incentive threshold for
2028.
Lugo, who's 35, will make 20million each in 2026 and 2027 with
(08:01):
the vesting option worthanother 20 million or a $17 million
club option with a $3 million buyout.
Luco also receives a $3million signing bonus.
If Lugo reaches all incentivesand the contract is maxed out, it
would be for three years and63 million.
That was again from MLB.comwhich I actually think this is really
(08:23):
cool.
I was actually one of thepeople that thought it was inevitable
that Seth Lugo was getting traded.
I just made sense with wherethe Royals are at and where Seth
Lugo's contract was 24 hours ago.
Right.
But I like this, I like, Ithink Seth Lugo has been a large
reason as to why the KansasCity Royals pitching staff has been
(08:48):
one of the top five pitchingstaffs over the last two seasons.
And it makes sense that theRoyals want to keep that in place.
So you have Seth Lugo healthy,Cole Reagan's Michael Waka just dealing
quality starts and then NoahCameron who I think is going to get
some votes for Rookie of theYear and then Chris Abubich having
(09:11):
a breakout season as well.
So you have five really solid starter.
So I like it and I like thatSeth Lugo obviously wants to be here.
To me, I know that Seth Lugomaybe, maybe isn't a premier free
agent.
He's kind of in the back halfof his career.
(09:31):
But it's good to see thatplayers want to come to Kansas City
and they see a vision and theywant to be part of that potential
and I think that's great.
Keep the pitching staff intactand see what you can do.
I don't really know what thatmeans for 2025 as far as being competitive.
(09:57):
I don't, I don't know if theRoyals feel like they have that they'll
be able to turn it around.
Royals also made another move.
They've actually made a couple moves.
They brought back AdamFrazier, traded Cam Devaney last
week.
We talked about that.
Devaney is a 29 year old AAA player.
(10:18):
So while he didn't get achance here and he's obviously a
little old for a guy thathasn't done time in the majors, wish
him well in Pittsburgh.
Bring back Adam Frazierdoesn't really move the needle for
me.
He's not to me.
I think the Royals need help.
Offensively.
I don't think Adam Frazierreally checks that box.
(10:40):
Another trade that was madeover the weekend for the Royals was
Randall Gritchick, who Royalslooked at bringing into Kansas City
last off season.
But Gritchick went to Arizona.
Royals traded for him.
I was looking at this andagain, I don't.
(11:01):
I mean it is what it is.
I'm not necessarily been outof shape that the Royals brought
in Randall Gretchik.
I don't think that again, itchecks any boxes that the Royals
were needing to check.
As far as having their offenseget a little bit of a spark.
I was looking at just theoutfield in general and there's only
(11:25):
one player in the outfieldthat gets playing time that has a
positive war and that's Kyle Isbell.
And Kyle Isbell's war is point8 and everybody else's is negative
0.3 or 0.4.
So yeah, this is just, to meit doesn't really move the needle.
(11:46):
It's a nothing move.
We've got a little bit of timeobviously between now and the trade
deadline to see what else goes down.
But so far that's kind of theRoyals happenings right now.
And the Royals are playingpretty good baseball.
They took two out of threeagainst the Cubs last week.
They took two out of threeagainst the Guardians this week.
(12:09):
The Detroit Tigers are notplaying good baseball right now.
So there's a little bit of agap being filled there in the division.
But the Royals host the Bravesthis week.
They gotta win that series aswell because then they're headed
to a little bit of a toughstretch, six game stretch on the
road against the Blue Jays whoare the best team in baseball and
the Boston Red Sox who havebeen playing great as well.
(12:30):
Very interesting time, though,and exciting.
Like I said, the Adam Frazierand Randall Gritchick moves don't
really move the needle, but Ithink it's pretty cool to see Seth
Lugo get the extension withthe Royals.
I am curious.
(12:51):
I I again, we have timebetween now and the trade deadline
to see some potential moveshappen, but I do think that it's
going to be we're gonna haveto have a lot of conversations in
the off season about theRoyals because I think that there's
moves that they didn't makelast off season that they're going
to need to look at this off season.
(13:13):
So we'll have to spend sometime looking at some free agency
and potential moves that theiroils could make over the off season.
So a little bit of show newsbefore we get out of here.
(13:34):
We are starting in August, weare going to be moving back down
to one show a week.
One this is Baseball episodeper week and we're gonna move that
back to Wednesdays.
Wednesdays was kind of theoriginal day and original schedule
for this Is Baseball.
(13:55):
So we are going to go back tothat and get ready for kind of the
stretch run of the last twomonths of the Major League Baseball
season and really dial in there.
So starting next week, I.e.
august 6th, will be the firstWednesday edition of this Is Baseball
(14:20):
and that will be the schedulethat we keep moving forward.
So get that on your calendarsand I'm excited to get back into
that schedule.
Thank you for listening to theshow today.
I will see you in the next one.
Welcome in to this is Baseball.
My name is Brandon Johnson.
Thank you for tuning in today.
First order of business is abig Congratulations to the 2025 MLB
hall of Fame class, IchiroSuzuki, CC Sabathia, both, both first
(00:20):
ballot hall of Famers andBilly Wagner, hall of Famer who got
in on his 10th and final yearon the hall of Fame ballot.
Just going through some of thecareer stats and accolades of these
(00:42):
three.
Hall of Famer CC Sabathia, CyYoung winner, 2009 World Series champion,
ALCS MVP, six time MLB All Star.
He had 251 career wins.
That is best for 46th all timeand wins.
(01:04):
251 wins.
And looking at just activeplayers today that are kind of in
that realm as far as careerwins are concerned.
Justin Verlander has 263 winsand counting in what is likely his
final season.
(01:26):
Max Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw.
Max Scherzer has 217 wins.
Clayton Kershaw has 216 wins.
They actually both have spentabout the exact same amount of time
in the league, so that's cool.
But those are kind of the nextclosest players.
I would put all three of thoseguys as first ballot hall of Famers
(01:48):
as well.
I think what's interesting isI don't think that we're ever going
to see a 300 game winner againbecause Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer,
both of them along with JustinVerlander are likely in their final
seasons.
(02:09):
The next closest in wins asfar as active players is Garrett
Cole.
Garrett Cole has 153 wins, sohe's also 34 years old.
And then it just goes downfrom there.
Charlie Morton, Chris Sale,Charlie Morton's 41, Chris Sale's
(02:30):
36.
Sonny Gray, Carlos Carrasco,Zach Wheeler, you, Darvish, and yeah,
so on.
So that's pretty cool for CC Sabathia.
250 career wins.
Congratulations to him.
Ichiro Suzuki, almostunanimous first ballot hall of Famer.
(02:55):
He missed out on one vote.
I still don't understand howyou have a vote for the hall of Fame
and you look at Ichiro andsay, you know what?
I don't think so.
Real quick, Ichiro's career onBaseball Reference.
MVP Rookie of the year, 10time all star, 10 time gold glove
winner, 3 time silver slugger,2 time batting champ and all star
(03:21):
MVP.
Career batting average of 311, had over 3, 000 hits and just
1 of the best players to everdo it.
So congratulations to him.
And then finally Billy Wagnerfrom Houston Astros, a player that
(03:43):
on his final year on theballot, like we said, his percentage
for getting into the hall ofFame just kept going up and going
up and it just looked like,okay, this is going to be the year
that he finally gets in.
And he did.
Career 231 ERA, 422 saves.
And those 422 career saves puthim as eighth all time in saves,
(04:10):
which I don't reallyunderstand why it took them so long
to get Billy Wagner into thehall of Fame when you have Mariana
Rivera, who's obviously theall time saves leader, 652 saves,
unanimous hall of Famer TrevorHoffman, 601 saves.
He's in.
Lee Smith, 478 saves.
And then nobody in between there.
(04:34):
Obviously.
Kenley Jansen's fourth alltime in saves.
He's still active.
Craig Kimbrell still active as well.
He's fifth all time.
K Rod hasn't been out longenough, but I'm, I'm shocked that
it took them this long to getBilly Wagner in.
So I am curious for KinleyJansen and Craig Kimbrell, is it
(05:00):
going to take them a while?
Because they're 200 saves offof Mariana Rivera.
Both of them, both KenleyJansen and Craig Kimbrell.
Great closers, obviously, bothof them.
A little bit of journeymancareers in the back half, but yeah,
(05:21):
they're great.
So I'm hoping that playerslike Jansen and Kimbrell don't have
to wait the entirety of theireligibility to get in.
But congratulations to BillyWagner, CC Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki
on your hall of Fame induction.
So let's talk a little bit ofRoyals baseball.
Some stuff happened over theweekend that we need to discuss.
(05:42):
So.
So it felt like last week itwas a foregone conclusion, at least
from the media talking headsthat Seth Lugo was getting dealt
to the Chicago Cubs.
That was what I thinkeverybody was trying to speak into
existence was Lugo's going tothe Cubs.
And you look at it and itmakes a little bit of sense.
(06:05):
Seth Lugo again having a greatyear with the Royals.
You just look at his stats onthe surface.
295 ERA, 113 innings pitched,a WHIP of 1.088.
And even just dating back tolast season, 16 and 9, a 3 ERA, 33
game start, games started, 206innings pitched, all star, he was
(06:31):
second in Cy Young voting.
He won a Gold glove.
So great 2024 season and doingpretty much the same thing in 2025,
he does, he has a playeroption or he had a player option
(06:52):
for 2026.
So it made sense at the time.
Okay, the Royals, I don't knowif they're really in contention.
It's really hard to know.
But with the this extra wildcard spot, it makes, makes this time
of year really interesting.
So it made sense that maybethe Royals would want to trade Seth
Lugo and try to get maybe anoutfielder or something else that
(07:14):
could help them maybe now,this season or next season and seasons
beyond.
And the Royals said, nope, wenot trading Seth Lugo.
In fact, we're going to extendSeth Lugo.
So I'll read this just frommlb.com the Royals are finalizing
(07:36):
a multi year contractextension with right hander Seth
Lugo.
Lugo's deal is a two yearextension worth a guaranteed 46 million
that will begin in 2026 with avesting option which becomes guaranteed
if he reaches a certainperformance incentive threshold for
2028.
Lugo, who's 35, will make 20million each in 2026 and 2027 with
(08:01):
the vesting option worthanother 20 million or a $17 million
club option with a $3 million buyout.
Luco also receives a $3million signing bonus.
If Lugo reaches all incentivesand the contract is maxed out, it
would be for three years and63 million.
That was again from MLB.comwhich I actually think this is really
(08:23):
cool.
I was actually one of thepeople that thought it was inevitable
that Seth Lugo was getting traded.
I just made sense with wherethe Royals are at and where Seth
Lugo's contract was 24 hours ago.
Right.
But I like this, I like, Ithink Seth Lugo has been a large
reason as to why the KansasCity Royals pitching staff has been
(08:48):
one of the top five pitchingstaffs over the last two seasons.
And it makes sense that theRoyals want to keep that in place.
So you have Seth Lugo healthy,Cole Reagan's Michael Waka just dealing
quality starts and then NoahCameron who I think is going to get
some votes for Rookie of theYear and then Chris Abubich having
(09:11):
a breakout season as well.
So you have five really solid starter.
So I like it and I like thatSeth Lugo obviously wants to be here.
To me, I know that Seth Lugomaybe, maybe isn't a premier free
agent.
He's kind of in the back halfof his career.
(09:31):
But it's good to see thatplayers want to come to Kansas City
and they see a vision and theywant to be part of that potential
and I think that's great.
Keep the pitching staff intactand see what you can do.
I don't really know what thatmeans for 2025 as far as being competitive.
(09:57):
I don't, I don't know if theRoyals feel like they have that they'll
be able to turn it around.
Royals also made another move.
They've actually made a couple moves.
They brought back AdamFrazier, traded Cam Devaney last
week.
We talked about that.
Devaney is a 29 year old AAA player.
(10:18):
So while he didn't get achance here and he's obviously a
little old for a guy thathasn't done time in the majors, wish
him well in Pittsburgh.
Bring back Adam Frazierdoesn't really move the needle for
me.
He's not to me.
I think the Royals need help.
Offensively.
I don't think Adam Frazierreally checks that box.
(10:40):
Another trade that was madeover the weekend for the Royals was
Randall Gritchick, who Royalslooked at bringing into Kansas City
last off season.
But Gritchick went to Arizona.
Royals traded for him.
I was looking at this andagain, I don't.
(11:01):
I mean it is what it is.
I'm not necessarily been outof shape that the Royals brought
in Randall Gretchik.
I don't think that again, itchecks any boxes that the Royals
were needing to check.
As far as having their offenseget a little bit of a spark.
I was looking at just theoutfield in general and there's only
(11:25):
one player in the outfieldthat gets playing time that has a
positive war and that's Kyle Isbell.
And Kyle Isbell's war is point8 and everybody else's is negative
0.3 or 0.4.
So yeah, this is just, to meit doesn't really move the needle.
(11:46):
It's a nothing move.
We've got a little bit of timeobviously between now and the trade
deadline to see what else goes down.
But so far that's kind of theRoyals happenings right now.
And the Royals are playingpretty good baseball.
They took two out of threeagainst the Cubs last week.
They took two out of threeagainst the Guardians this week.
(12:09):
The Detroit Tigers are notplaying good baseball right now.
So there's a little bit of agap being filled there in the division.
But the Royals host the Bravesthis week.
They gotta win that series aswell because then they're headed
to a little bit of a toughstretch, six game stretch on the
road against the Blue Jays whoare the best team in baseball and
the Boston Red Sox who havebeen playing great as well.
(12:30):
Very interesting time, though,and exciting.
Like I said, the Adam Frazierand Randall Gritchick moves don't
really move the needle, but Ithink it's pretty cool to see Seth
Lugo get the extension withthe Royals.
I am curious.
(12:51):
I I again, we have timebetween now and the trade deadline
to see some potential moveshappen, but I do think that it's
going to be we're gonna haveto have a lot of conversations in
the off season about theRoyals because I think that there's
moves that they didn't makelast off season that they're going
to need to look at this off season.
(13:13):
So we'll have to spend sometime looking at some free agency
and potential moves that theiroils could make over the off season.
So a little bit of show newsbefore we get out of here.
(13:34):
We are starting in August, weare going to be moving back down
to one show a week.
One this is Baseball episodeper week and we're gonna move that
back to Wednesdays.
Wednesdays was kind of theoriginal day and original schedule
for this Is Baseball.
(13:55):
So we are going to go back tothat and get ready for kind of the
stretch run of the last twomonths of the Major League Baseball
season and really dial in there.
So starting next week, I.e.
august 6th, will be the firstWednesday edition of this Is Baseball
(14:20):
and that will be the schedulethat we keep moving forward.
So get that on your calendarsand I'm excited to get back into
that schedule.
Thank you for listening to theshow today.
I will see you in the next one.
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