Episode 373 - Early Season Overreactions

Ben, Darius and Rob come together to discuss some early season storylines, including Devers' struggles, the Dodgers winning start and the Braves spring slump. They then get on to torpedo bat chat (which now has a new name...) and of course finish with 2 Good, 2 Bad!

0:00-17:45: Early season storylines
17:45-24:15: Torpedo bat chat
24:15-39:12: Extensions, extensions, extentions
39:12-1:02:15: 2 Good, 2 Bad

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hello, and welcome to Batflips and Nerds, the Baseball Podcast
with a British twist. We are a week into the
Major League Baseball season and we're coming together to overreact
everything has happened so far. Joining me for this fine
adventure is Darius Austin. Darius, how are you.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
I'm doing all right. I'm excited that baseball is back,
and I think we'll have a lot of fun with
the discourse that's been happening over the last few days.
It didn't turn out for us to have the first
truly stupid story, like literally two days into the season,
to have an US only ridiculous news cycle. It's been great.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
And joining the two of us is the master of discourse,
Rob Navera. Rob, how are you.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
I'm loving the I mean we're going to come to them.
I'm sure the Chris bats, I'm loving it. I can't wait.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
It wouldn't be the start of a major League baseball
season with us some kind of odd scandal with it.
So yes, we are going to get into that, obviously
at some point later in the pod, and we're also
going to cover some of the extensions that have taken
place in the last few days. Do a couple are
two good? Too bad? But I think we're going to
kick it off with some classic old fashioned early season
over reactions. Baby, it's been a week of baseball, not

(01:26):
even at this point, so obviously there are some really
silly stat lines out there already that people are being
very rational and calm about, as baseball fans tend to be.
So I thought maybe we could spin through a few
of them, maybe higher profile struggles or successes early in
the season, and see how much on the scale of
I don't know, one to ten, we're believing or overreacting

(01:48):
to this start to the season. So let's kick it
off with maybe the one that's been catching people's either most,
and that is the early season struggles of poor Raphael Devers,
who had a bit of a spread in his kind
of giving it the bigger and about not wanting to
be moved off third base, then moving off third base,
and then getting injured, and then being told he's basically

(02:09):
going to be full time DH at least for a
while while he recovers from his injury. And he has
responded to being told he is now the designated hitter
by deciding not to hit. I think to this point,
he is over nineteen with something like fourteen strikeouts. I
may even be selling him short on the strikeouts there.
It's been a horrendous start to this season for Paul Raffie.

(02:30):
So yeah, I'll answer me this, Rob will Raffis Devers
ever get a hit again?

Speaker 3 (02:35):
No, he's done, cooked, finished, that's game over for mister servers.
Obviously he's going to get a hit or two. But
you know what we've seen Chris Davis, you know, like
he was insane and then all of a sudden, bam gone.
And you know what, he's kind of a big guy.
He's known as a bit of a hitter. Could be it,
you know. So I think the soul king has been

(02:58):
for fun. I've really enjoyed watching the soul He looks
like a chastised four year old sat on the bench
at the moment. I could totally understand if I was
doing that bad at my job, I would I would
look pretty bad and sulky when I'm sad at work
as well. So obviously there's gonna be some regression to
the mean. But you know something, break people, you know,

(03:19):
and he really really does not seem to have taken
well to the the whole Bregmann situation and third base thing.
So when he can get over his sulking, maybe, but
you know these highly paid manchild athletes, who knows, maybe
he can't get over it. Maybe maybe this is this
is the Raffie Devers We've got from now on.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
I guess that's a caveat it with all of these
things short samples, small sample size. This is basically a
five game stretch that we're judging him based on here.
But where's the fun in caveating stuff? Right? And I
think Russell been a little bit of digging in our
group chat into the worst starts of the season in
baseball history, And I think we have to go back
pre universal DH to actually a sound Cisco Giants pitching

(04:02):
legend who I think outdes devs the worst start to
the season, at least did before his latest over four
day Darius. Should we genuinely be concerned about this, especially
with a strike up number where it is. It seems
like he just isn't picking up the ball in a
way that most major league hitters do. Or is this
just a very weird slump that is magnified by the
fact it's the first week of April.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
I think we're arriving at like, not just small sample.
This is extremely concerning territory because everybody has these fifteen
over twenty and you know, six of them are lying
drives straight to the short stopping. That just happens. But
to have this many strikeouts, and I think I say
it was the Brooks Skate twitter account pointed out that

(04:44):
also the last four games of last season, I think
he had eleven strikeouts and one hit in those in
those games as well, so he's had what he's running
a well over fifty percent strikeout rate for sort of
his last ten games, which is very very high for anybody.
Even gallow would be like, this is too many strikeouts.
So that's a worry. Now, whether it's because he's hurt

(05:06):
because you know, the second wrong with his swing, or
because he's just throwing his toys out of the pram
that Alex Bregman gets to play third base better than
he does, I don't know, but it is concerning at
this point. I think you don't expect a player of
this quality to strike out this often. If it was
just groundouts or line outs, whenever, I would say, don't care.
But I am starting to get a little bit like, yeah,

(05:28):
has the DH thing got in his head? Is he
doing it on purpose just to make a point. I
don't know what's going on, but it's reached the level
for me that, yeah, I'm worried that something is wrong
and we're not going to get you know, the usual.
Raphael Devis, who's been a very good, very consistent hitter
for a very long time.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Now. I'll be honest if if Darreus is worried, I'm worried.
I was just expecting you to be the voice of
reason and tell us that we're overreacting. And it's only
a few games.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
And to be clear, but I've never seen a stress
like this from anybody. You know, it doesn't well, don't hit,
it doesn't happen anymore. So it is pretty remarkable for
somebody as good as Devi's, who's like, you know, career one,
twenty six ops plus year, to strike out fifteen times
in nineteen at bats. It's kind of insane.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
I think he needs a silly bat.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Maybe he does need a silly bat. We're going to
get onto that at some point, but yeah, no, not
not good for devas that lead. I've seen that we
keep listening for a little bit. Get that ad revenue in.
We've seen people are in the old side by sides
of you know Devas last year, Devas this year? Is
he looking bigger? Is he out of shape? I don't
think Devers ever had a small derry yet, did he?
But maybe there is some truth to the fact that

(06:38):
he's a little bit larger than he was last year.
So to see if that, if that escalates into anything
more as the struggles go on. But I will just
leave that bombshell there and move on to the very
next overreaction, which is more in the positive direction. Darius,
I'll come to you first for this one. Will the
Dodgers ever lose this season they break the single game

(07:01):
win record? Will they do it in August? Will the
Padres also never lose again? And our West is off
to a hot start.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
It'd be on brand, wouldn't it If the Padres won
like one hundred and twenty games. But the Dodgers won
one hundred and twenty five, so doesn't get a division title.
I could believe that probably they will lose at some point.
I'm not going to predict one hundred and sixty two
and o just yet, but if you were a Padres
or Diamondbacks fan coming in this season going, oh, maybe
the Dodgers haven't off year and win ninety two games,

(07:30):
I think you're already a bit underwhelmed now, a bit disappointed,
kind of having to accept that they haven't played that
well either. They haven't looked like you know, there's been
Sasaki's look pretty shaky, and you know, Mookie Betts lost
like half his body weight and they're still seven and os.
So it's concerning, especially when you consider that you know
Otani's going to come back and pitch at some point,

(07:51):
and they've got all these other arms who are going
to come off the injured list. It's there's a lot
lot there, and they're already seven and o and it's
quite difficult to see how they're not going to win
one hundred plus games already.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
I like it an unimpressive seven and o. Yeah, be better,
be better, yeah, roll, but anything stood out to you
from what you see from so far, they've obviously, yeah,
I agree, the rotation hasn't necessarily looked that strong, and obviously, yeah,
Betts was hampered for the first few games. Freeman doesn't
necessarily one hundred percent, but the wagon just keeps on rolling,
doesn't it.

Speaker 3 (08:23):
I think all the caveats that are being applied are
Dodgers caveats. We expect the Dodgers to be exceptional, winning everything,
and let's fake they've already won the same. The gap
they've got is already like approaching a division winning, you know,
sort of sort of lead. You know, all right, the
paves ride up there chuffs, but you know, to go

(08:44):
seven and o and have three four and a half
games over some of your competitors at this stage means
they've already sort of put that gap in, like the
chase is already on.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
We're not.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
We're less than a week in and we've already got
in between them and their rivals. So I think one
hundred and sixty two and oh is a touch of
a stretch, a touch. But you know, could they do
another thirty wins before they lose a game?

Speaker 1 (09:16):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (09:16):
They could, They really really could. This could be sewed
up and done and dusted. If they keep going at
this rate, with the rest of the division not all
chipping in at full rate, they could be done and
dusted by the end of May.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Well, well, let's hope not for the sake of an
exciting and our West race, and the other teams do
look good. I mean, the Padres are six and o,
the Dbacs have looked lively so far. The Giants even
look like they've got a pulse this year. Darius, We're
not going to talk about the Rockies, but that's four
good teams in the division. So you know, maybe if
they do slip up at any point, then then there's
a chance for other teams in that division. But it

(09:50):
concerns you that the guys who would need to be
bad this year for them to have a bad year,
like Edmund, like Hernandez, actually look as good, if not
better than they'd did last year. So not a great
start for Dodgers haters. A great start of the plate
though for a certain Euhennio Suarez. This is a fun
early season stat line. Janerez has five hits so far

(10:11):
this season that is not particularly notable. All five of
them have been home runs. I think he leads the
majors with with those five home runs, including a dramatic
one was it last night against the Yankees go ahead
Grand Slam? This is kind of a dunk on the Reds.
I guess who let him go for peanuts, but also
Juhanio Suarez probably can't go, you know, fifty hits, fifty

(10:33):
home runs. But this is kind of the hitter he
is now, Darius, Is this just a bit of a
peek into one of these you know, new three trier
upcome players or is it just a funny, quirky opening
season stat line.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
Yeah, he's always been a streaky guy. We had an
extreme first half second half split from him last year.
I think he had you know, three hundred points of
ops difference between the two. He is this type of player. Yeah,
he's got he's got a lot of power, and when
he gets some of these hot streaks, he's he's really
really good. I don't think it's going to take a
super long time for pictures to say, oh, you know,

(11:04):
this is what he's weak against this season. You know,
it's a big hole on that swing over there, and
we might be here in June saying why is there
Han Suarez gone over nineteen with fifteen strikeouts in his
last five games. But yeah, he's a good power hitter.
He's always been a good power hitter. And as long
as the batting average doesn't collapse, then you can certainly

(11:25):
live with that, but yeah, ride it when it lasts.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
Thebacks fans, I was wrong, wasn't. I was sorry. It
was the Mariners that gave him away for nothing. The
Reds did have him at one point, but that's done
from the Mariners instead.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
Rob. I mean, he's been there before, hasn't He didn't
He didn't he he'd take a home run title off
of Trout.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
A few years ago.

Speaker 3 (11:45):
I think he's the wrong person's that's not off brand
for me. I'm pretty sure he had a home run title,
didn't he in Maybe twenty nineteen, maybe twenty twenty one.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
I don't think he'd led the league. He did hit
a lot of home runs that year, but I don't
believe he'd the league.

Speaker 3 (12:01):
Oh Okay, for the sake of the podcast, I'm not
going to sit here and google silently whilst I will
find out for you if he didn't, if he didn't
win the home run title. I'm pretty sure he was.
He was right there. So you know what, the guy's
got power. He's demonstrated it historically. He had at least

(12:23):
chasing the league lead for home run I know he did,
and so yeah, yeah he could do it. We haven't
yet seen what what is the score with with the
ball this year? Perhaps he'll change to a silly bat
just to bring it up for a third time for
Ben to have to put it down and make it
make it a later thing. So perhaps he's got a
silly bat. Who knows, but I think he could. He could,

(12:46):
he could be the real deal here. Absolutely, let's kneed jerk.
Let's let's overreact and say, yeah, a Suarez is going
to going to rival Aaron Judge this year for the
home run lead.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
You're sort of partially correct, Robin that he did hit
more runs the Mike Trout, but he was in the
wrong league because he was on the Reds, so he
couldn't have taken a AL title away from Trout regardless.
Peter Lonso hit fifty three, Okay, bad season, So but he.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
Was sixty nine was pretty impressive. Yeah, actually a good
looking at for his page. Now he has all I've
alway in my mind, he's always been so streaking inconsistent,
and that's kind of been from year to year. But
actually he always ends up putting up like pretty good
power hitting stat lines, doesn't it, at least since that
kind of power surge from the Cincinnati days, So maybe
I deserve to give Suarez more credit than he deserves. Regardless,

(13:33):
probably not going to be an MVP candidate, but a
very good hitter. Who Yeah, Marinas fans might regret letting walk.
My final overreaction, then, is another bad one. It's it's
the Atlanta Braves. Certain people on their predictions podcasts thought
the Orlanda Braves would be the best team in the
National League this year, and those certain people it might

(13:53):
be feeling a bit silly right now, which I will
not comment on. But it's not been a great started
season for the Brave for reasons beyond just their record.
That again, we might get to you later. I'm keeping
people hanging here, aren't I? But this, this is this
does not look good for Atlanta. Again, probably a bit
too early to overreact, but rob the Braves falling apart

(14:14):
of the scenes. Is this the start of an epic
Atlanta Braves collapse? Yes, Love, I agree.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
I'm still firmly believed that the Braves are the best,
second best team in the National League. They've They've done
this over the last few years. They've they've gone they've
blown really really hot and cold, and when they've been
blowing cold. You can sort of see like, ah, they
should have been blowing hot. There's something not gone quite
right here, but it's it's kind of out of their out.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
Of their their reach.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
You know. It wasn't really their fault that they they've
they've had the bad now it's been been injuries. They've
they've had like like a random down year a couple
of times in the middle of their their stretch. Now,
if you go back and look at the beginning of
the Braves run at that they're currently on to to
where they are now, the aggregate is fantastic. They've been

(15:03):
brilliant across the board, and not much has changing with
this team. All they've done is they've they've they've grown
into their ages a little bit more and they've they've
got some some more experience. So I do genuinely still
believe that the the Braves should should be a fantastic team. However,
tragedy starts to perfall them. Maybe it's the NL East,

(15:24):
Maybe it's the Mets sort of shrugging off their long
Mets vibes and a little bit of a splashing over
onto another team. I don't know, but but the Braves
should be absolutely fine. There is there is nothing about
this team that says that they should be They should
be doing it, they should be smashing it up, and
of course they will. Of course they're going to come back.
So no, I don't I don't think the Braves are cooked.

(15:46):
I think they're having another if he start to a year,
but come the end, they're gonna be right there.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
They're gonna be right there.

Speaker 3 (15:52):
There's no way, Darius, do you have any thoughts on
the Braves Whilst Ben is doing some some technical.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
I think, oh, yeah, they're not cooked. I think you
can probably given the information we have that Reynaldo Lopez
is going to be on the IL for several months,
if not missing the entire season, that Jerks and Profile
has got himself suspended for peds, that we know they
have lost six games already without any wins. I wouldn't

(16:19):
blame you if you wanted to say I thought the
Braves were a ninety two win team and now I
think they're an eighty nine win team. I think that's
okay to say. I don't think this means the Braves
are now assently six win team. We've seen these starts
of the season before, and you know they can. With
the Cardinals a few years back spring to mind, I
think where it's like, oh, the Cardinals are going to
come out of it, and they didn't. You know, they

(16:41):
never really really got there. So that's kind of how
I feel about at Atlanta and in this division where
you've got the Phillies and you've got the Mets, who
are both can be pretty competitive. It doesn't help to
have six losses on the leisure with no wins. You know,
it's not good. So yeah, I'm not worried. They've got
a call you line up. They've still got plenty of

(17:01):
good pieces in that rotation, but it's it's, you know, okay,
downgrade a little bit on the expectations.

Speaker 3 (17:07):
I think, yeah, and they they've they've got stuff coming back,
haven't they?

Speaker 1 (17:11):
Big style.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
I mean, we've got we've got a Kunya and we've
got Strider coming back. And you know, if you want
to make up six wins, there's six wins and a
shedload more just just just sat there ready to happen.
So I don't think we can expect there to be
an ongoing problem with the Braves here. Your points well
made drop a little bit but like, don't don't take

(17:34):
too much of your expectations of the Braves. These these
guys are are the team you know, we we we
thought they would be. So in Ben's absence, I think
we should we should move on as quickly as we
can into the next bits of bobs of business. Was
there anything else that sort of caught your eye on
the overreaction trend, Darius at the beginning of the seasons,

(17:55):
or anything that you thought, oh, maybe maybe this is something,
or you know, hopefully this kid can it might be
might be a little bit fun. Is there anything you
saw well?

Speaker 2 (18:04):
I mean, I suppose the overreaction probably does lead us
quite neatly into our next topic, which maybe we'll be
allowed to talk about now, because that's the thing that's
in my mind, is the thing that people have been
flipping out about, probably quite unreasonably when you consider all
the facts of the situation. But we are we allowed
to have bat discourse now? Do you think we can
sneak that in while Ben's trying to sort his technical

(18:25):
issues up.

Speaker 3 (18:26):
I think the fact that Ben can't actually say no
anymore means that it's a very very good time for
us to uh to start talking about the bats, which
I wanted to talk about it along because I think
it's I think this is the best story we've had
in baseball in a good few years. So those of
you who have been buried on the moon and haven't
seen anything, the New York Yankees particularly, and just be clear,

(18:48):
not just the New York Yankees, have deployed a new
style of bat. Oh my god, it's incredible.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
It's so different.

Speaker 3 (18:56):
Wait no, they've just shaved a little bit off the end. Okay,
so there is a new style about the young have had.
They ran into the Milwaukee Brewers the start of the
season and they broke the record for their team for
home runs in the game with was it nine home
runs they hit in the end, and then they continued
to hit afterwards. It's been it's been fantastic all the way.
So Yankees' bats, Darius, Is it real? Is it real?

Speaker 2 (19:22):
I think to the extent that they have identified something
about players like Anthony Volpi, who was hitting the ball
with a different part of the bat than the barrel
very often, then yeah, I can I can believe that
that's real. People seem to think this is something that's
brand new. These bats were being used last year. I
think maybe the year before, Jian Carlos Stanton was sitting

(19:43):
home runs with this bat in the playoffs and nobody
said anything warning. It just so happened. I think I
think Adamy Richmond the day before and hit to home
runs on these bats. But because the Yankees came out
and hit nine home runs against the Brewers, everyone was like.

Speaker 3 (19:57):
Well, the Yankees are cheating.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Look at this brand new thing. So I don't think,
you know, there's nothing illegal about They've just moved some
of the woods from the end of the bat to
slightly further down the bat. If you are the kind
of player who was already hitting the ball on the barrel,
I think it would be bad for you. And I
think there's probably ways that pitchers might say, oh, you
know what, I'll pitch a little bit more outside and
this guy is not going to be able to get
the thick part of the bat on the ball so easily.

(20:22):
So it doesn't seem like a game breaking thing that's gonna,
you know, ruin baseball or anything. But I can believe
that there are players like Olpi who are going to
benefit from doing this, at least in the short term.
While pitchers figure out what to do.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
And we've seen a few players, as you say, Elie
de la Cruz, Junior Kamenera, have all come out and
said that they've had some success with the bat as well.
Torpedo bat though, are we happy with torpedo bat? Ben?
You seem to be back in the room. What's your
take on torpedo bat as a phrase.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
I can't believe I left your a lone for five
minutes and you went rates the torpedo bats. This is unbelievable,
excellent hosting work for me. They're being unable to hear
anything you said for that five minutes. I think torpedo
bats makes sense, Like I see where the names come from.
They look a bit like a torpedo, and it's probably
more fun than I don't know what else. People call
it odd bats or Yankees' bats as they were the

(21:18):
first day, So I don't have a problem with it,
But it sounds like you think that we should be
doing better.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
I just think a little bit of creativity, Like everything's
a torpedo and it's slightly sleek looking. I mean, couldn't
we like a skittle bat? It looks more like a
skittle to me, and you know, like torpedoes are too
cool and like it's the bloody Yankees. Let's not come on,
that's like the butt plug back. I don't care, you
know what, just something that's you know, like a different Okay,

(21:45):
I don't know why we're head went straight there. That's
that's not important right now, but like something of that
shape surely has other connotations other than than a torpedo.
We come on, let's let's let's let's brainstorm it a
little bit before we settle straight on top. You know,
come on, I.

Speaker 1 (22:01):
Don't think we to brainstorm it anymore. I think butt
plug bats has officially taken off.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
To butt plugged second, like on your list of ideas
says a lot.

Speaker 3 (22:10):
We're going to take it off quite quite carefully, though, Yeah,
I mean like these bats. I mean the alternative is,
of course, maybe the bats aren't doing all that much.
Maybe maybe the Brewers are just rubbish. They've not started
well and they've looked really awful. Perhaps it's just that.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
No, the Yankees have certainly slowed down in their torpedo
bat home run hitting since they weren't able to face
Snister Cortez and his eighty five mile an hour fastwards,
so that that would probably seem to be part of it. Yes, yeah,
I think it was probably exaggerated quite quite the impact
of the butt plug bats, But we'll see. And it
sounds like they're going to be going much more white,
being making much more widely used. I've had people in

(22:51):
my Richmond baseball group chat asking if we can use
them in our league? Are they now legal to use,
you know, anywhere, even at single A level. I can't
imagine a torpedo, But is the difference between you know,
me being one of the you know, thousand worst players
in baseball to suddenly being one of the only five
hundred worst baseball players in the UK. But hey, I
will try anything at this point, So I'll come back

(23:12):
to you in a few weeks once my butt plug arrives.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
The league. The league's gonna gonna ban them, aren't they?
If this continues this way is not going to persist,
is it, surely, Darren?

Speaker 1 (23:24):
I think it will. Everything favors pitchers these days, finally
something that makes hitters lives a bit easier.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
Mhmm, okay, yeah, I mean I don't think it will.
So this is maybe a bad question to ask me
but I think the balance has been tilted towards pitching
for a long time. You know, people have been talking
about should we move the mound bag. This is a
much easier way of dealing with the offensive problem than
moving the mound back, so I don't see why that
they would change it unless for some reason games started

(23:52):
taking four and a half hours every night time because
the offense had exploded, which you know, even that game
didn't take that long, So it's fine, fair should.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
We move on. Let's do a quick trip to a
few extensions that have been signed in recent days and
cover those off and then we'll get into too good,
too bad. Two big moves from the Boston Red Sox,
who yeah, have signed a couple of their exciting players
to long term deals, very different deals though. First up,
it was Garrett Crochet, their new ace starting pitcher, opening

(24:26):
day starter, who signed a six year, one hundred and
seventy million dollar extension to stay with the team, yeah
for the next six seasons or actually, and they even
be beyond that, so I'm not sure if it adds
on to the back of his current arbitration deal, but anyway,
the opt out will be for him after twenty thirty,
so we could potentially become a free agent again in
five years time. And yeah, next year would have been

(24:48):
his final year of arbitration with the Red Sox, so
signing him up a little bit earlier than planned. But
I think this was something that they've been working on
over the winter ever since they acquired him effectively, and
so good for Red Sox fans to get this. It
is an interesting deal though. I mean, Darius Garrett Crochet
is a great picture. Don't mean anyone woul dispute that,
but his track record is not enormous in the majors,

(25:08):
and he also has had Tobby John surgery already. Was
this a risky deal for the Red Sox? Do you
see this one being one that they may come to
regret if he in some way regresses or if the
elbow starts barking again, or is this just Hey, when
you've got an ace on your staff, you keep them
on your staff.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
It's a picture, so there's always a decent amount of
scope for some regrets. People have comped Crochet to Chris
Sail before. You could also see it going that way
where people spent almost all of Chris sales career saying, oh,
he's going to get hurt, he's too thin, he's not
going to hold up. He's going to get and you know,
he's been one of the best pictures of the generation.
And yes, he's had the odd issue staying healthy, but

(25:47):
it hasn't stopped him from being an immensely valuable picture
when he's been on the field. And if the Red
Sox get you know, one hundred and forty hundred and
fifty innings on average out of Crochet over the course
of this deal, I think they'll be perfectly happy with
that because he's clearly, when he's on amount, one of
the top four or five pitches in baseball. So I
think it's the kind of thing you have to do.
You know, if you want to lock these players up early,
you've got to give them this kind of deal to

(26:10):
make them fore go some of those years. And he's
in his age twenty six seasons, so it's not like,
you know, we're signing somebody up at thirty one, thirty
two to maybe get some of those tail end of
the career years you would expect, you know, help permitting
that all of these are going to be really high quality.
I don't think there's any doubt about the stuff, So yes,
always potential for regret. But I think if you were

(26:30):
going to lock up somebody young who's you know, not
called Trek Scuball or Paul Skins, it would be Garrett
Croche probably.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
Yeah, it's hard to see this is a bad move
for we either side. Really for Crochet, it gets him
the long term security that you would want at his age.
I guess there is risk. I'm just looking at his
performance in PP years. I mean, rob he was obviously
a full time start largeyear for the White soxters did
an amazing job, certainly had the peripherrules to show him
as an ace in the league, but that was effectively
his only full season and the majors. You know, before that,

(26:58):
he'd pitched a little bit as a rookie in twenty
twenty when he went straight from the draft effectively to
the majors in the COVID season. He obviously started twenty
twenty one, I think in the rotation then or possibly
even spent that as a reliever, then moved to the
rotation arm blew up. So last year was basically his
first four years a starting pitcher. He was obviously great,
but This feels like a lot of money to commit
to someone who you know may not be the ace

(27:21):
that they think he is. I'm surprised. I guess that
we take last year as the new norm with him.
I guess with pictures, because we can see so much
data about their pitch style, it becomes easier to think, well,
that's just who he is now.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
I mean, I think that's spot on. The question around
pitchers these days is almost always going to be about
about their injuries, you know, and it seems to be
a flip of a coin, roll of a dice. However,
if you look at what they're actually doing when they
are healthy, that's what you're investing in. And he's also

(27:53):
probably a bit of a bit of a benefit here
of the really buoyant market for starters that we've seen
this offseason. In the average annual values but about about
twenty seven twenty eight million, and that's you know, that's
that's not far off where where we've seen a lot
of pictures going this year, So I mean, you can't
really argue it too far. Like he's we've always knowns

(28:14):
me good at pitching. When he is pitching, will he
stay on the field of course, with every picture, that's
the flip of a coin. But you know, for the
picture you're buying, if he is pitching, yeah, it's got on,
no problem. You can't argue that with the results in
what he's done, and certainly in a poor, poor situation
in Chicago as well, he shone. So yeah, I think

(28:37):
it's fine. It's fine. And plus, you know what the
economy is very volatile, is what is twenty eight million
going to be worth in a couple of years. You
know that that could be peanuts and the very very
good chance of that being just peanuts very very shortly
with the way the dollar is going at the moment.
So who knows. Fine, it's fine. Yeah, not a bad deal.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
And if it's not so happy with that one, then
Resols fans must have been delighted with the news this
afternoon that they've taken a page out of the alex
and Popolos manual and signed up Christie Campbell, who's got
a grand sum of about twenty Major League play appearances
to his name, to an eight year, sixty million dollar
extension that can escalate ten years and one hundred million dollars. Obviously,

(29:22):
he's literally just joined the majors, has got a couple
of weeks worth of play appearances under his belt, was
the Minor league Player of the Year last year. Is
why he regarded as one of the best prospects in
baseball and as close to a sure thing I guess
as you can get with a prospect which isn't super
close to a sure thing. But this is, yeah, an
interesting deal. Obviously, does rd SOX believe in him, are

(29:43):
going to invest in him now? But also for Campbell's sake,
this is an awful lot less money than he could
be getting on the open market, but he obviously wants
to make sure he cashes in on these next few
years when the otherwise wouldn't be earning much. I mean,
who wins this, Darius to both sides win? Or is
this one where Campbell probably should have bet on himself
and tried to to hold out and hit free agency
at a young agent and cash in.

Speaker 2 (30:02):
Then Yeah, it's one of those where his profile people
are saying he should better himself. But when you have
this little experience and somebody offers you this much money,
you know his family is never gonna have to worry
about money ever again. Like that, that's the tempting thing
to take. And you know, our our batflips chats were

(30:24):
alive this afternoon with all the mentions of the guys.
It didn't work out for the Evan Whit's the Scott
Kinger is John Singleton, Remember John Singleton. You know he
did give it for the Astros, but they give him
money and he never even made the mass for they
didn't get this much money. But you know, we've we've
seen a lot of these deals get signed early on
and they haven't really panned out into anything at all.

(30:46):
It's you know, not even like those players were okay,
you know, Evan White didn't ever do anything for the Mariners.
Scott Kingery is below replacement level player, I believe. So yeah,
there is always risk with that when you haven't seen it.
Rise has also been incredibly fast. You know, people thought
he was going to be a utility guy basically, you know,
a year and a half ago, and then he was

(31:08):
suddenly Minor league player of the Year. So there's always
some risk that you know, that some of that goes away,
that it was just a hot minor league season and
in the majors he gets a bit more exposed. So
I think I think it's a good deal for both sides.
It seems fair to me. There is a great chance
that yeah, in three or four years, we're going, Wow,
Christian Camill should not have done this because he's going

(31:29):
to could be making so much more money. But also
he's really really young, and he's going to get an
opportunity to go to free agency. Still they haven't signed
out his whole career, so I think it's it's reasonable.
I think it's a good deal for both sides, and well, well, no,
in five or six years, whether or not it's a
bargain one way or another.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
We will. And there was another deal done for a young,
exciting hitter wie with slightly more major league experience in
Jackson Merrill with the San Diego Padres, who obviously was
phenomenal last year as a rookie. I think when they're
up in Rookie of the Year voting has immediately established
himself as one of the Padres' best players, and they've
just signed him up to a nine year extension worth
I think one hundred and thirty five million base value

(32:09):
could go up as high as two hundred and five
million with a tenth year option, and with various performance
escalators that could yet increase that base number. Exciting news
that the Padres spent money. They hadn't been doing that
for a long time. Break to see them lock up
an exciting young player in amidst all the cornage that's
going on behind the scenes with ownership, and this again,
seems like a very good deal to me, at least
for the Padres. We've seen him be very, very successful

(32:31):
at a major league level. He is versatile, he's a
great hitter, he's got speed. To lock someone like that
up for nine years at a relatively good discount seems
like a good deal to me.

Speaker 3 (32:42):
Rob a good deal, Yeah, absolutely, if you can bloody
work out what the hell the deal's all about. This
has got to be one of the most complicated deals
I've ever seen. It's got options like player options that
no sorry, team options that turn into player options. If
he jumps up and down three times on a leg
whilst waving his bat over his head and shout torpedo,

(33:05):
it's weird, weird contract. This seems to be becoming a
bit of a new norm. But either way, I mean,
this guy was phenomenal last year, Like he is one
of the one of the one of the best in
the game at the moment, I reckon and and he's
barely started with Christian Campbell, you're saying, oh, is he
going to do it? Like, I think Meryl's done enough

(33:27):
that you can say, ah, yeah, this guy does have it.
He really can do it. It's nice to see the
Padres keep on with the spending man. They've got a
little bit more stability in their ownership situation. But yeah,
it's a great deal. It's a great deal.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
It's fantastic.

Speaker 3 (33:40):
You know. Again, people are gonna start saying, oh, is
this is this a good deal for him? You know,
it's just considered like it's a minimum of one hundred
and thirty five million dollars. I just think sometimes we
need to sit back and think, like that is just
a ludicrous sum of money. Just what would you, you know,
what would you do with one hundred and thirty five
million dollars. So so, yeah, young guy takes generational like

(34:05):
multi generational wealth for it's a great deal for the Padres.
It's a great deal for Jackson Merrill like and his
family and his family's family, Like, long after he's dead,
this is still gonna be fantastic for his family. So
when you look at like that, yeah, maybe maybe there
could be a little bit more at the back end.
If this guy does another good season, that he could

(34:25):
have asked.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
For double, like very very possible.

Speaker 3 (34:28):
He's that kind of player that you could say the
four five hundred millions, but right now, no more risk
to his life. That's it. Fantastic, great take that cash.
Same for the Padres. They've got a They've got a
fantastic player locked up for his for his best years,
and so yeah, well done, everybody. Everyone's a winner here.

Speaker 1 (34:47):
I guess feasibly, both he and Campbell are young enough
that even when these contracts end, they will still be
able to cash in again, potentially with a nine figure
contract depending on how productive they've been. So it's not
as if this is now their career earnings sewn up,
so that that is a positive. One thing that came
to mind for me, which I thought was interesting. I
don't knows any present for this in baseball, but I
know in the NFL, when players sign long term contract,

(35:10):
especially when they do so at an early age, you
often get to a point where two three is into it.
They then feel underpaid versus their market value obviously, especially
if salaries keep climbing and players then kind of hold
out and decide, I am actually not going to turn
up this year and play for you in the spring
training equivalent. You know, in pre season. I want my
contract rework. So why I'm earn more money because I
think I deserve that. And even though you know they're

(35:32):
contracted to play on at what they're supposed to play
on at, it often does work. You know, there's no
reason why teams couldn't just, so to speak, force them
to play on it. But you know they'll ask for
a trade request, They'll do everything they can to kick
and scream and try and get more money. There isn't
reasoning that happens in baseball. I'm thinking, you know, like
a Ronald of Kuno who clearly has paid pennies on
the dollar, There'll be no precedent for him turn around
to the brads and go, I know I signed that deal,

(35:53):
but actually I want more money now, beyond the Braves
wanting to keep him happy, beyond the lifetime of that deal.
Am I wrong inside that? Darius? No, I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
I can't recall a specific occasion while I've been following
the game that the player that comes to mind for
me where this was sort of the case was Salvador Perez,
but the Royals just gave him more money. I don't
think he like said I'm not going to play. I mean,
it's Salvi. I don't think you could give him off
the field if you tried. I think they were just like, yeah,
this isn't really fair. You're worth so much more on

(36:23):
this to us, and we're going to give you more money,
which I don't know if that says more about the
Royals than baseball. I don't know if the fact the
players don't hold out is just to do with, you know,
the general this is how you play the game, you know,
kind of clubhouse sentiments that these players have been brought
up in. I don't know enough about the legality of

(36:44):
what would happen if they said I'm not going to
sit out, you know, with the teams be able to
do anything about that. Presumably, if Christian Campbell Law Jackson
Merrill is what the teams want them to be, they
wouldn't actually do anything to the players anyway. If they
said they wanted to sit out by presumably they would
have some reco legally in terms of the fact that
the players have agreed to a contract and if they
are fitting healthy, they should be allowed to you know,

(37:06):
so you're in the lineup and if you don't play,
then we will penalize you. Now, that might not really
work if the player is saying I want more money,
you know, certainly going to escalate the situation, but considerably.
I suppose the team could avoid the contract in that
case and then they get no money. At that point,
then the Dodgers signed them and everybody's upset. So so, yeah,

(37:26):
you're right, I don't I don't know any case. Somebody
is probably going to write in or a tweet us
or something and say, oh, this happened in the eighties
with so and so, But I don't know of any
occasions in which it has happened. Whereas it does happen
in the NFL all the time, doesn't it.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
I would imagine this this happens behind closed doors, and
there's there's been a couple of I mean, Garrett Cruche
last year he said he wasn't going to play in
the postseason if he didn't get his extension, so that that,
you know, if he was traded so that that was
the beginnings of this. I mean, you look back to
you know, ever Longoria's extensions, at points where he's had

(38:00):
a long time left on his deal. You know, even
Mike Trout had had an extension on top of an extension.
We don't know what's being said behind closed doors very well,
could be these sorts of chats happening, So I'd imagine that.
I imagine they happened on some level. We just haven't
got to the point whereby it's you know, screaming it
into the media yet. But if Ronald McCune, you absolutely
should once he's fixed.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
Yeah, I might be misremembering, and Red Sox fan yell
at me if I am, but I feel like watching
a documentary recently about their fourteen, wasn't Nomar Garcia Para
doing a little bit of that where like he wasn't
not playing, but he was kind of sulking, and it
was a bit of an insinuation that he was half
passing it on the field because he wanted an extension
and wanted to be told he was going to be
the future shortstop of the Red Sox. Again, I might

(38:43):
be misremembering that a little, but I feel like, you're right,
there probably are ways in which this does manifest itself,
just not in the version of I'm not going to
play for you anymore. It's more behind closed doors or yeah, crumping.

Speaker 2 (38:54):
We had the Josh Hayder I'm not pitching botopoliny this
thing as well. Yeah recently, which again, yeah, much more
muted version, but we have had these under the surface.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
Yeah, very good. Well, let's crack on with too good,
too bad. Then we're trying and get through it quickly.
I know we've been going for a while already, so
let's start with well, I don't know, would you want
to start with good or bad? Robbie kick us off.

Speaker 3 (39:17):
Let's start with good today, shall we. I'm going to
kick off with Mookie bets Is okay. I think there
was there was a little bit of concern over the
last few weeks that he's had some sort of mystery
illness which has stripped an awful lot of weight off
of him. Now, I I'm sure it was horrible for him,
but you know, if he could have passed it around

(39:38):
a little bit, I wouldn't have wouldn't have argued, but
he's lost an awful lot of weight. But he has
come back. He is hitting home runs, and he's already
put a decent amount of weight back on. I think
there was some genuine concern through through elements of the
media a week or two ago, this this two week
long wasting virus he seemed to have, but it does
seem to have passed. He does seem to be on

(39:59):
the then. So one of the good guys of baseball
that I think people, you know, sort of universally like,
despite him being a Dodger, you know, I think everyone
wishes Mookie particular. Well, so we're all quite glad to
see he is back and we get to watch one
of the best of generation play the game. So good job,

(40:20):
Mookie is better and he is on the mend and
playing again.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
Yeah, I will admit I was concerned when he said
he lost as much weight as he did right before
the season began. It's not ideal preparations for a guy who, yeah,
isn't necessarily that young anymore anyway. But no, you're right,
it's great. Mookie is so fun and I think if
he played on a team that wasn't successful, the Dodgers,
that didn't have showhir tan he which I guess is
part of why they say successful. But you know, he

(40:44):
would be like the face of the sport right a
lot more than he is. And I think it's credit
to him that he just runs out there and puts
up six wins every year and we'll kind of just
take it for granted. Darius, give us your good.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
Well, I'm going to go with Wilson Contrerass eating his
bat tape, which was one of the silliest things I've
ever seen in my life. And what made it even
better was that he didn't really seem to understand why
he'd done it. They asked him about it after the game,
and he came out with some explanation that, like the
pitch clock was counting down and he had to do
something or he'd strike out, which he then struck out anyway,

(41:21):
But that was the excuse he gave for just deciding
to chew on his bat tape. So it seems to
just been he panicked, he was running out of time
and he was like, I'm going to eat this, this
thing that's hanging off my bat. That was his explanation,
one of them all bizarre. Just just google Contrarost's batape
and the first thing you'll see will Be Wilson and Terrest.
It's like a fruit roll up or something and just

(41:41):
what rolls it up and sticks it in his mouth
chews away and I think he keeps it there for
a while as well.

Speaker 1 (41:46):
I didn't no idea the video.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
He doesn't know why he did it. It's absolutely bizarre,
hilarious only in baseball.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
Yeah, I think well concerns me the most having watched
a video is that doesn't look like the first time
he's done that, Like that is a seasoned tape, Peter,
based on his body language there, maybe this is just
the first time we've actually noticed it. So yeah, that
is a very very odd one. Ever had a urge
sweet bat tape?

Speaker 3 (42:10):
Rob Well, I thought, yes, oddly sort of. Yes. I
I've always imagined pine t would be really sweet, So
I've never tried any. You know, I don't know if
it's poisonous, but maybe maybe we should get hold of
some because you know, if it's covered in pine top,
maybe it's just got a kind of nice sort of
sweet taste, you know, and it's it's probably quite spongy

(42:32):
and chewy, so like a kind of sweet gum. So yeah,
why no, I'm going to go.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
That's the future piece of content that we need to
make sure that we get. I will finish off our
first round of goods by talking about Dustin May, who
made his return to the Mound last night Los Angeles Dodgers,
which is great needs. I think it was his first
time on the mount since twenty twenty three, maybe even
before then. He yeah, has spent a long time out,

(43:01):
obviously recovering from from me John surgery, and then had
a life threatening issue at home. I'm forgetting the details
of it now, but it was something great.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
One he was eating a salad, Yes, lettuce, some lettuce
got like stuck in his throat, right, yeah, cut.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
His throat from the inside.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
I mean she like ruptured as the sophacus, and it
nearly died from eating this this salad.

Speaker 3 (43:21):
Basically extraordinary sound is bad for you for years I've
been saying this.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
Door getting my homework. Excuse, isn't it. Oh sorry, salad
was a bit scratchy, so I almost died from a
suffergle tear. Anyway, it's probably not really a joking matter,
given the injury journey he's been on, and then to
be like, oh, this will be safe. I'll just go
out for dinner with my wife and have a salad. No, yeah,
that you are truly curse at that point. Anyway, Fortunately

(43:49):
he made a full recovery back on the mound and
effectively looked like his old self, didn't he. You know,
the the sinker was sinking, the slider was sliding. I
think he got through five innings of pretty effective baseball Dodgers.
I'm not sure if he got the win, but they
certainly won the game. So yeah, he was electric obviously
before he went down for Tommy John a few years ago. Now,
great to see him back on the field, and even

(44:10):
better if he can come back and be anything close
to that that dominant self that he was back when
he first came up into the Big Leaves. Plus one
of the great heads of hair in the majors. I
think we can all agree, loves of Ginge right, give
us a bad rob.

Speaker 3 (44:27):
David Bedner. David Bednar was optioned like today or yesterday.
He's very, very very quickly moved, certainly in my head
from one of those phenomenal closing pictures. Who was, you know,
right at the top of his game, and everybody like, oh,
I wish we had a Bennar on our team, like

(44:47):
he's the new phenom, the relieving phenom. He's he's fallen
from grace so hard and so quick over the space
of a season and a half, to the point he's
just been optioned to Triple A. And that's kind of sad,
you know, like this, this guy was great. Not only
because he's on my fancy team, that's one of the
sad reasons, but you know, you're like this, You want

(45:08):
to see relievers do good and stay good because it's
so so frantic anyway with the up and downs with
them all. But this this seems extreme, and I yeah,
I just just there's not a lot of rhyme or
reason like his his pictures are still moving the way
they used to be, hasn't lost any velo yet for
some reason, he's just gone from a low two s
e ra a too high fives and out of the

(45:31):
blue and now he's in Triple A. And I think
it's it's just sad to see from a from a
guy who was who was exciting, genuinely exciting reliever is
now you know, scrap heap and trying to recover his career.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
And it's that's real shame. You can never trust a
relief picture, can you.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
Darius, No, It's true. There is no trusting trusting a
relief picture. I mean, you know there's Mariana Rivera, I suppose,
and that's about it.

Speaker 1 (45:56):
I've heard of him, you.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
Know, isn't Craig kimberl. Creig kimber would the best picture
of a generation for quite a long time. But now
anybody sees Creag Kimberland, they have to hide behind a
pillow and stay there until he goes away. You know,
two pillows, two pillows. So yeah, don't trust.

Speaker 1 (46:13):
Realise, give us your first bad.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
My first bad. Well, I'm going to tell Rob this
isn't actually my first bad, but bad news troub. You
can't eat pine tar. It really will will make you
quite sick. However, apparently the Finish are into lots of
tar flavored foods, so you can get that tar taste.
If you want to go to Finland have that experience.
Then there's there's the good news. But don't eat baseball

(46:39):
pine tar. It will make you sick. Apparently, get the
Mookie BET's Weight Boss experience. My actual bad shout out
to Hanna Kaiser, friend of the pod who's just started
a substack with Zach Kreiser the bandwagon. But she points
out that we now have a situation where a white
man is running every baseball operations apartment again except one.

(47:01):
Dana Brown is the only non white person running department.
So going from you know, Kim Ang being the first
woman and we say, oh, you know, we get a
bit more diversity. And then obviously in the context of
the Trump administration and all there, let's get rid of
DEI initiatives. This is just another sort of side piece
in that. But yeah, it's going to be more difficult

(47:21):
to get diversity in a lot of places, I think,
and this is not anybody in particular's fault, but the
town of points out it's not a great look that
we have twenty nine white men running baseball ops departments.
So hopefully some of that diversity can come back in
the future, but yeah, just a bit of a sad
state of affairs at the moment.

Speaker 1 (47:42):
Yeah, it's a pale, male, stale sport at the best
of times, isn't it? Baseball? And this is definitely a
step in the wrong direction. After it looked like we
were making good progress in that department for a while,
so hopefully things will address or people will address that soon.
But good to have a bit of light shone on it.
My bad is actually not really a bad, more of
a sad. It's Lance Linn retiring from baseball, which he

(48:05):
did in very lance linb style, under the radar without
anyone really noticing. And I just think he's a bit
of a last of a dying breed, or certainly you know,
one of the last you know, a proper hoss of
a pitcher who just chewed through innings and would give
you reliability and consistency. Basically just threw like three versions
of a fastball and said, like, try and hit it.

(48:27):
And actually, at his best was really really good. He
was one of the guys. I think he was probably
worst impacted by the COVID shortened season because that came
right on the heels of his best every year with Texas.
He pitched great in that COVID year, but obviously he
was only able to throw eighty four innings of a
really good baseball and then was great again the year after.
We probably missed out on a pretty dominant three year
stretch from Lance Linn, which which yeah, is a shame

(48:50):
and he obviously with the Cardinals before that, again had
reputation for being a real innings eater and a machine
at the last couple of years, obviously not quite so effective,
but still going strong at a very high aging. Tell
you decide, I'm sure you would have had offers to
have a job somewhere or maybe work in the miners somewhere,
but decided that he didn't, wasn't loving it anymore and
was going to hang the cleats up. So yeah, hat

(49:11):
tip to Lancelnn, who who will not be a Hall
of Famer, but will be a Hall of pretty good picture.
And I remember some guys candidate in a few years time,
but he was. He was a fun guy to watch
when he was when he's on form, bring us back
with a good rob ooh good.

Speaker 3 (49:30):
The White Sox. Let's have a look at the White Sox.
So the White Sox last year took eleven games to
get to two wins, and they're already at two wins
now five games in. So I think we can we
can fairly safely say that that that base is being
pulled up a little. We know that the White Sox,

(49:50):
as well as being horrific, were unlucky last year, and
it seems that luck has at least started reverting to
the mean a little bit. So having the worst team
in baseball slightly less bad can only be a good
thing for baseball. Don't get me wrong, these guys are
still atrocious. However, you know, they sat on top of
that league for a couple of days, you know, on

(50:12):
you know, run scored, so the White Sox, possibly very early,
possibly not being record setting, dreadful. That's a good thing,
good thing for baseball, good thing for everyone. Well done
the White Sox.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
Amen the.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
Yeah, I am going to take the raise bullpen in fact,
and especially Mason Montgomery. The race ball pen went over
a stretch over the I think after the first game
season where they struck out forty five and issued no
walks forty five to zero strike to walkway show very good.
And Mason Montgomery is one of the raised relievers. I've

(50:52):
had a mine in for a little while, one of
my favorite reliever sleepers this offseason, and he's come out
throwing a hundred from a wild arms slot. Just you know,
the latest and the long line of oh I hate
Rays have got a guy and now he's throwing high
nighties out of the bullpen with filthy stuff. So you
know when you say you haven't, the Rays do it
every year. This is kind of how they do it

(51:13):
every year. And yeah, pretty pretty fun run to see,
so long mate it continue.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
Okay, tell you what.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
Whilst they have lost today they had the early game,
they have not issued another gone another day. The bullpen
has not issued a walk today, So there's another day
we'll go and another one, two, three, four, five innings,
four innings, sorry with without issuing a walk.

Speaker 1 (51:35):
So good stuff should have caveat in it earlier, shouldn't.
I don't trust a relief picture unless they're wearing a
raised jersey, in which case you probably can trust them,
even if you've never heard of it.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
But they tried them as soon as they get don't
fall in love with it. Replace them with someone you've
never heard of.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
Right. My second good is a young man named Kyle Tucker.
Probably not news to our listeners that Kyle Tucker is
good at baseball, but he is continuing to be good
at baseball in his new uniform with the Chicago Cubs
this year, and I'm chotting him out, not just because
he's off to a great start to this season. I
think he's got the best swing decision metric if any

(52:11):
hitter so far this season, which is a cool metric.
He's also hit I think home runs in four straight games. Now, yeah,
he's a monster, and it's great timing for him, not
just because he wants to win games with the Cubs, obviously,
because this is a walk year for him, and I
think if he has a monster year at age twenty
eight going into a winter as a free agent, he
could be in nine four a pretty large extension. We're
probably not talking one Soto or show here's how many

(52:32):
money here, but he will potentially headline what's a probably
strong class. So plenty of reasons for Carl Tucker to
continue with his with his hot form and maybe earn himself,
you know, something close to half a billion dollars in
the off season. We will see how that plays out,
but certainly not a bad way to go about your
first week of the season if you're planning to make
as much money as possible. Not so much great news
for Cub fans. So you hope to extend him because

(52:54):
he's very quickly getting out of their budget range. Bring
us budget range. I mean, true, he's not out there brings.
They're just cheap.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
They're a very very big market.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
Let's depress everyone to finish them. What's your final bad rob.

Speaker 3 (53:10):
I'm going with Jerks and Profile just got busted for
taking shagging drugs, So he's Jerks and Profile has taken
a fertility drug. He's been caught and given eighty days suspension.
The fertility drug he took was called here we Go
Coral Coryonic Gona dough Toughlin Coreonic Gone too Toughlin. I

(53:36):
think that was in Lord of the Rings, and that
is apparently it is something to do. It's a fertility drug,
but it also it's used to suppress the use of
other pds, all sorts of rumors about his Lincoln friendship
with Fernando Tatis and who obviously had his own drug
suspension last year, a couple of years ago. So it's

(53:59):
it's it's a real shame. We we don't want to
see a player who's who's finally come good and then
have to start wondering, is that because he took shagging pills?
Because you know, nobody really wants to hear about that.

Speaker 1 (54:13):
It's depressing, it's depressing, and obviously casts a bad light
on his breakout so to speak, year last year, where
I don't think he gets the benefit of the doubt anymore.
He claims he was clean and was tested all the time.
But when this happens to you, questions come up, and of.

Speaker 3 (54:29):
Course they always say that, they always say, you know,
I didn't know it was you know. So so I've
got I've got a little game for you. And so
I've got I've got five five chemicals written down here.
Some of them some of them are drugs that are
on the MLB Banned Substance list, and some of them
are aren't. So put yourselves in the in the shoes

(54:51):
of a of a major league player and see if
you would know if you should or should not be taking.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
Some of these.

Speaker 3 (54:55):
So I've tried to write these down phonetically. So first
of all, amino benzoic asked Sid, what do we reckon?
We reckon that is a band substance or it's something
else that they are allowed to take band you think
they can take? Okay, right, Well, Darius is correct in
this time because amino benzoic acid is a key chemical

(55:17):
used in personal lubricants. Go back to butt plugs again. Okay,
so that's number one, So well done, Darius, You're you're
you're winning on that one so far. Second, we've got
hepta minyl heptaminyl legal band legal, you're saying legal, band,
Darius is to to o here. Minor is a blood

(55:38):
pressure treatment, which is a banned substance in Major League Baseball.
Number three, we've got gluterol dial dialide die heard die
high dial hyde gluterol dialehyde.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
Let's go with that band.

Speaker 3 (55:55):
It is one word, yes, one word gluteral die yes.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
It sounds like it should be do with your glutes.
I'm gonna say band.

Speaker 3 (56:04):
As well, both saying band. Well, you know you can
take it, but it's probably not good for you because
it's actually a key part of embalming fluid. So you
can take that if you really want to, although not
not not advice. Number four we have Corby and Zorix clobors.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
Okay, I'm gonna say band doesn't sound like you do
you much good?

Speaker 3 (56:31):
Yeah, I'm gonna say band to Okay, right, Well, you're
both right this time. Corbyn Zorix is a Mexican appetite
suppressant but also has something to do with with you know,
muscles and ship I don't know. And last of all,
then I've got per a Flora nano nano eight per
Flora nanoate band.

Speaker 1 (56:56):
Okay, well, I think.

Speaker 3 (56:57):
This makes you a drawer overall, because is right and
you can take it. Post Flora nannate is a is
a key key ingredient in mister muscle. So where it
doesn't give you muscles, it is in mister muscle the
cleaning fluid.

Speaker 1 (57:11):
So there we go.

Speaker 3 (57:13):
You can take it.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
You mean it's just not on their band lists.

Speaker 3 (57:16):
The band list. Yeah, you mean you shouldn't take it.
That should be wrong, but you're not going to get
a suspension for it. Maybe you're just gonna vomit horribly.

Speaker 1 (57:25):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (57:26):
So that's what Mochi Betts had.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
That's it. He took mister muscle.

Speaker 3 (57:30):
He didn't read the label properly. Always read the label.
Everyone always read the label.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
If I were a baseball player, I would simply never
ingest anything and just die of starvation after two weeks. Yes,
there we go where even well we I think, Darius,
we need a bad from you.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
I'm bad. Somebody who has had a substance injected into
their body is mad. Max Shs, a who appears to
have arrived at this stage in his career where he
literally cannot do anything without a part of his body,
sending him to the injured list. It took one game
and I think three innings somehow. He says his injured thumb,
which is what he's had the course of and injection,

(58:09):
is why he came out with Lat's Hornis. He says
he's throwing the ball differently because of his thumb hurting,
and so that's given him lats Hownis. But at this
point it's a rich tapestry of injuries for Max. You know,
one thing goes wrong and then it makes everything else break.
And he's one of my very, very favorite pictures to watch.
So it's just a bit sad that we didn't even

(58:29):
make it, like five starts into the season of a
bit of vinter shares before he went on the oil.
I hope you can come back and you know, make
twenty starts or something for the Jays and look a
bit like old Max. But it does kind of feel
like this is just the way things are now.

Speaker 3 (58:43):
As a man who's recently converted to his forties, I
understand and sympathize with him. Everything hurts every morning.

Speaker 1 (58:52):
Yeah, Max Shows was properly breaken at this point, which
is sad, but it feels like this might be the end.
Well that's depressing. My final bad is also depressing. But
what changed there is the Colorado Rockies. Obviously hilariously, they
have actually got scoreless starts from all of their aging

(59:12):
rubbish members their rotation to start this year, which is
great since of Teller had like the weirdest that line
ever against the Rays last week. Her mam Marke has
actually looked pretty good on his return from injury, and
I mean Kyle Friedland who cares. The reason that they're bad, though,
is because despite all of that, this team is rubbish.
I think they've won one game. They're not good even
when they starts throw performing. So it's driving me nuts

(59:32):
that they have Zach Veen and Chase Dolander sat down
in Triple A learning absolutely nothing when they could at
least be getting some rept in at the major league
level and trying to be you know, future star players
on this team. You know, we know now that Major
Baseball taking steps against service time manipulation. I don't think
it's even that is the reason. I don't they just
genuinely think that these players need time playing on some

(59:55):
stupid ballpark that is affecting me the surface of Mars
against players that aren't going to help them improve, who've
just on the off chance that some guy called Nick
Martini now becomes a star outfielder for the Rockies. It
doesn't make any sense to me. So yeah, if we're
gonna be bad, I want to stas to be entertaining
and bad and that for me, me and seeing some
of these young players given a.

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
Go, Nick Martini is definitely one of those. How is
he still around?

Speaker 3 (01:00:18):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Players?

Speaker 3 (01:00:18):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:00:19):
Like I always had that moment where I was like,
what why is Nick Martini starting in right field for
the Rockies every day?

Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
Like what? That's probably this podcast probably the main reason
people realize Nick Martini's on the Rockies, because otherwise, yeah,
why would you ever know that? Why would you need
to know that? But he is, and he's starting every day,
and he's banging clean up some days. Colorado, Colorado. Well,
I think I just about does it for our podcast today.

(01:00:47):
That was great fun having a lot of subjects. Thank
you guys for the time. I will throw it to
either of view to let us know if you're writing anything,
imagine you probably are.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
I'm not writing a thing, but lots of our writers
are writing things. So just you know, go to bat
flip Centers dot com. There's stuff going out all the time.
Gav's doing a great job and we've got a really
big team of writers now. So we did lots of
season previews. Gav has written about how the Twins have
defayed their best season pitcher this season, who is Randy Dobnak.

(01:01:22):
That's just, you know, the kind of content you get
out of Gav, Randy Dobnak focused content, really plumbing the
depths of the Twins roster for all the quality stuff.
But yeah, lots of good things over on the website,
so do go and check it out.

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
Yeah, seconded, they've just finished obviously the team previous for
the year, but there's still some really great stuff going
up there every day. There's a fin artical about Alex
Williamson on projections and the Business of Projecting, which is
well worth a read, giving Russell run for his money
on the on the analytics side, to do check that out, obviously,
follow us on on all the platforms, give us a
subscribe on YouTube, where we're trying to grow, and that's

(01:02:00):
why we've got these nice new cameras that I spent
half of the podcast trying to fix so you couldn't
hear me. But anyway, do give us a follow and
subscribe and I like, and we will chat with you
in due course. Thanks so much for listening. Goodbye,