Episode 374 - New Ballpark Food Draft

The guys mark a very unusual Jackie Robinson day in Major League Baseball before reflecting on the disaster zones that are the AL Central and NL Central and the bin fire Colorado Rockies and Chicago White Sox.

Come for the baseball, stay for the incredibly strong food opinions.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, and welcome to Batflips and Nerds, the baseball podcast
with a British twist. I am your host this week
John McGee and joining me are two of the finest
baseball minds on this part side of the pond. Mister
Russell Eason, how are you.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
I'm doing good, John, I'm doing good. Baseball season is
well and truly into its works. We've had the start
of the baseball season in the UK as well, so
it's perfect for it to start rating now. Is that
nobody else can play baseball for a while? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Yeah, how's your How's it going?

Speaker 3 (00:32):
How?

Speaker 1 (00:33):
How how's how's how's that going? Have you got a
torpedo back yet?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
No, I'm literally going out to the States in a
few days and basically half of my team have been
like by a torpedo bat by a torpedo bat, bio
torpedo bat. So there may be one coming back if
I find one that is reasonably priced in some sort
of a store in California, which is probably not actually
that likely because it's California, but who knows.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Well, that'll be the last that you hear about that story,
because Rob Naveria, you really don't want to talk about
torpedo bats and neither do I. Well, you got it
out of your system last time, didn't you.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
Get it out of my system? It was never that
far into my system, As I'd like to clearly point out.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Please, can we stop talking about these bloody, infernal bats.
You can tell it's the start of the season. Just
shut up. Stop. Every single Instagram post does not need
to be about these flipping bats. Stop it, rob right.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
I'm sorry, Yeah, I'm all over Instagram obviously. Yes, no, well,
you know, we just need something else toly.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
To talk about it.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
I'm sure we'll come acrossing couple of those today. There's
plenty of silliness.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yes, indeed, there's plenty of silliness. But before we get
into the silliness, we must point out that we are
recording this on the fifteenth of April twenty twenty five.
It is Jackie Robinson Day, so we must remark on
the brilliant life and career of one of the great
sportsman of all time. Everyone will be wearing forty two

(02:03):
today and that we are wearing it in spirit. But
it would be remiss of us not to tackle the
elephant in the room around this. Jackie Robinson Day, because unfortunately,
it feels a little different to some of the others
that we've seen through in the past. So I would
urge you to go and read a brilliant piece by

(02:25):
friend of the podcast Jake Mints of the Suspendies Barbecue
at Yahoo's Sports on this topic. It is incredibly erudite
and incredibly thoughtful, and you will forgive me for a
moment for sharing some of Jake's original thoughts so which
you know I happen to share. It doesn't seem like
the sport of baseball is embodying the spirit of the

(02:47):
man of Jackie Robinson, merely celebrating his existence. This year.
You can't talk about Jackie Robinson and ignore the fact
that Major League Baseball appears to have removed references to
diverse equality and inclusion from its website. You can't talk
about Jackie Robinson this year without pointing out the fact

(03:09):
that his team, the Dodgers, the LA Dodgers, he was a,
of course, a Brooklyn Dodger, visited the White House, as
is their wish when they are the champions of Major
League Baseball, having won the twenty twenty four World Series,
and all of them to a man shook hands with
a president who is, if I'm being kind, incredibly divisive,

(03:30):
if I'm being factual, sending people to a country far
away from where they were born, where they are settled,
and where their family life is for no reason incorrectly
and not returning these people home. The Dodgers felt like
that was okay. This is the club of Jackie Robinson,

(03:52):
and to say that that's a shame, I think is
the understatement of the century. Jackie Robinson is one of
the most important people in the history of the world.
He changed the course of American life for the better
when he broke the color barrier in the nineteen fifties.

(04:12):
Major League Baseball had an opportunity right now to make
a stand for the millions of people in their country
who think that's important, not just people of color, but
people who think that the just way and the right
way is the way to live their life. And it's

(04:33):
what's sport embodies, and it's what Jackie Robinson embodied. It
just feels like it's a shame that in pursuit of capital,
in pursuit of political advantage, and in pursuit of whatever
the hell they think is to their advantage the sport,
the owners, and unfortunately many of its greatest players have

(04:55):
turned away from that ideal. Let's talk about some fun stuff.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
He's going to take us into the next bit transition there.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
Well, it's hard. Sure we talk about I don't know
where do we go after that? It still feels quite
early to be talking about where the clubs are good.
I know you Robin and Ben and Darius did a
really good job of picking the bones out of the
early season a couple of weeks ago. But it does

(05:26):
feel like there's a bit of a pan now nowhere
more so than in our two favorite divisions, the two
central divisions, the NLNA L Central, where it's pretty clear
that there are, as we anticipated, not very many good teams. Indeed,
they're appear to be only two out of the ten

(05:48):
teams who are even approaching palatable. So should we talk
about well, let's talk about the.

Speaker 3 (05:56):
Right.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
I'm going to ask you which do you think is
worse out of these two? Rob the an L or
the AL Central.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
Ah, you see, your gut immediately goes with AL Central.
I feel, and just looking now at the stats, I
think that is kind of backed up AL Central. But
then yes, so okay, so like you're your best guys,
You've got you've got the Tigers as your current AL

(06:24):
Central best team and the Cubs as your current NL
Central best team. And if you're saying which one of
them do you think is gonna be better, you're probably
saying the Cubs, So like that's your top one that's better.
And then if you even look all the way down
through the and you look at the bottom and you say,
all right, so the worst team in the division is
the White Sox or the Pirates. And again, if you're

(06:46):
gonna pick one of those two that you get to back,
it's probably gonna be the Pirates. So it's gonna be
the AL Central that is the worst.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
Right, what do you think, Russell? It's it's a it's
a pretty good argument. Most of the teams in the
NL Central have actually got players that you want to watch.
That cannot be said of many of the teams in
the AL Central.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
It's like we'll come to some of it later on,
might have to come up with some new bads as
we're discovering it now. But like Kansas City's offense is
just awful, like basically Bobby with its basically trying to
do exactly the same thing as he did last year
and try and carry them on his back while they
have some pitching. But there's been a little to no
improvement there. Yeah, obviously we joke out early and the
season is it used to be. Hey, when Mike Trout's

(07:29):
the top of the Phantografts War leader board or whatever,
you know, it's about time to start looking at stats.
And I joke now that basically it's when judges are
top of the the fangers leaderboards, you start to look
at what the stats to me now and we're there.
It's probably still a little bit early, but it's not
been good. Like I've watched Cleveland versus Kansas now five times, no,

(07:49):
or four times? Yeah, no, five times, and it's not
None of those games have been like set alight by
world class hitting. So there's real fear of those teams
both just really struggling to kind of get out of
any sort of kind of level of mediocrity. I haven't
seen the Twins too much, but just once again, it's
just a lot of kind of like its injury upon

(08:11):
injury upon injury on that team that just never works
it out, and the are bad and Detroit maybe doing
what Cleveland have done for probably most of the last
five or six years, which is basically win by default,
and like that gets you the division he gets through.
Like the other side, I think it's what said, the
Cubs are definitely a good team. Like I think we
all maybe laid into the Cubs for losing that those

(08:34):
couple of games against the Dodgers so easily at the
start of the season, and we were a little bit
too early on that one. But yeah, like the rest
of that division, the Brewers probably had a little bit
of credit bill because of how they've kind of done
things in the past that you can imagine.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
That their pitching isn't poorly.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
But that's it. That's what they've been able to find
and get to work. And I think Rob can maybe
say as a race fan, like that can work for
like six or seven seasons, but there's going to be
the odd season to where it just fails completely. So
I don't know if that's going to be that season.
Everyone else it's just it's just such a level of
mayor like there's just not things to get excited about,

(09:16):
and that's it's just so depressing and at least the
other time, I will say, like I would think the
NAL Central is worth watching more. It's just because La
the Cubs have actually tried to be a good team
and they're being rewarded for the success. And even though
the Pirates are bad, you get to watch Paul schemes,
so like, there's just nothing like that on Chicago, so.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
Of course, right, and yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
And Hunter Green on the Reds. Hunter Green has been
absolutely phenomenal. I think he leads like Bangruft's war.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
But of us, some of us are saying that in
our pre season preview it was not you two, Rob.
Have you got any thoughts on why these divisions are
so bad? Like why are they not trying? Obviously we've
got some traditional quote unquote small market teams and you know,
the Pirates, the Brewers, they never spend any money Cleveland,

(10:10):
of course, but beyond that, why are they not trying?
Like all of these divisions are winnable or have they
just looked at the Tigers and looked at the Cubs
and gone fair enough that they're winning their division? Ah, yeah,
see you next season, lads.

Speaker 3 (10:25):
The small market excuses bollocks and we've seen that, Yeah, bollocks,
because you know, We've seen the rays do it. We've
seen the pod rays to an extent do it. We've
seen clever teams that the a's have done it, you know,
not now, but like for long stretches, the a's have
been punching well above their their their their position. So

(10:45):
it's not that it's not that it's it's it's purely
got to be strength and competition, you know, it's the
survival of the fittest. And if no one's that fit,
then you haven't got to be fitter than the next guy.
So essentially, this is a bunch of obese rangutans sat
around eating too much, and there's nothing more to it
than that. Like they haven't got to get higher in
the tree. They don't need to outrun the predator because

(11:08):
there isn't a predator in those divisions. And it's just
as simple as that, Like they're just lazy, there's no
need to go for it.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
So why bother, why I bother, indeed, why bother talking
any more about these two absolutely appalling divisions. Should we
talk about a couple of good ones. Would you rather
start in the NL West or the al e Strustle.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
Let's go NL west, because I think there's been a
little bit more surprise, like in a couple of the teams,
Like I think a few of us were maybe slightly persumistic.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
Are we going to be nice about the pad Rice And.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, sadly we might have to say something nice. But
they've started well and they've basically have got the best record.

Speaker 4 (11:50):
Now.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
Giants looked really good watching some of the highlights of
the games over the weekend. I think John Hoolee wish
he plays the Yankee Stadium all the time. He was
having a whale of time in those games. But no,
and even like the Diamondbacks are nine and seven and
I was looking at it being like, oh, they're like
four games out, and I'm like, well, they're actually nine
and seven, which is basically better than almost every other

(12:14):
team in the NL, so like apart from like the
part apart from the Phillies or whatever in the Cubs.
So you're like, oh, we joke about it sometimes that
all one division is gonna get all of the wild
card teams, and well, who knows right now, But actually
the thing is the Mets, not the Phillies, who are
doing well. But yeah, it's looking like a bloody tough division.

(12:35):
To win. I was chuckling that the Dodgers Fangrabs olds
have gone down by two percent, like they've started the
season like twelve and four, and they're odds down because
everybody else's started out ridiculously good as well. So you've
got one team at the top, and I'm still gonna
be perfectly honest, I would not know who to choose

(12:56):
between San Francisco and the Padres and the Diamondbacks. I
would have had an opinion probably more towards the Padres
come the start of this season, and with the Diamondbacks
are close kind of like third and the San Francisco
being a bit off, But that looks like maybe a
one horse race and three very other people close behind it.
Because I still think you can't really look away from
the Dodgers.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
Yeah, over the long haul, they're surely going to be
the class act of that division. But it wouldn't be
a surprise if both of the wild card well, it
feels almost inevitable that both of the wild cards going
to come out of that division the way that the
Phillies and the Braves are started. But you know, baseball's
a long old season. We're going to get onto justin
Cossus in one hundred and sixty two games. Momentarily, I think,

(13:38):
so we'll leave that for then. I wanted to point
out one player that I thought about putting in my
two good too bad, but this felt like the right
point to talk about it. It's not been sensational, but
a guy who I have great joy for is Kyle
Hart on the Padres. So he pitched in career last
year and he was the best pitch and career and

(14:02):
this is not his first trip into MLB, because he
was on the astonishingly awful twenty twenty Boston Red Sox
and arguably took the crown as the worst player to
play for the Red Sox that season, and there were
a lot of them. In four games over eleven innings,
he held an RA of fifteen point five and wasn't

(14:24):
seen again having been a you know, not a heralded
but a half decent pitching prospect as a sort of
back end starter. And yeah, he's been back in the
minor leagues, he's been in career for a couple of years,
and yeah, I mean he's putting up creditiable innings, which
is exactly what the Padres need with that offense. You
don't need spectacular outside of Michael King to carry the day.

(14:46):
I just thought that was a thing that was worth
noting and great to see him him prospering. Still some
way to go to bring down that career, ra Kyle,
but you know you're heading on the right track. Al East, Rob,
That's our division, isn't it. There are some good teams
in that division there.

Speaker 3 (15:02):
As I was looking up Kyle Hart and I just
I just found a Reuter's uh piece that actually calls
him Dan Hart. So that's fantastic. I got very confused
trying to work out if there's two heart pictures on
the padres.

Speaker 4 (15:17):
But still still some way to come from Brouss as well, Right,
A least get your career a e R A under
ten and they'll call your car.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
A least. Yes, a least. It is a complete toss up,
isn't it. I mean that there was a terrifying butt
plug bat moment when it looked like the Yankees were
just going to run away with everything. But since then,
like anyone like total roll of the dice right now,
and it's fantastic, and it's not a roll of the
dice Ale central style roll of the dice. This is

(15:54):
a roll of the dice that you can point at
every team and say that's good, that's really good. These
guys have got something really excellent, and there's a lot
of it. I mean, I'm very drawn to the A
Least anyway, because my team is plays in the al Least.
But if I'm flicking through the other fixtures, it's very
often I say, oh, I'm gonna go and watch a
game that doesn't feature in the Aleast. But I'm finding

(16:15):
myself more and more drawn, like, okay, look the Baltimore
Oils run right now, let's see what they're doing, because
they are relevant, you know, badly pitching badly and getting
worse through injuries. But you know, every team here is relevant.
There is There is no team you can say, yeah,
they're not gonna be here at the end. You could
feasibly say every single one of these these teams is
going to be, you know, you know, still in it

(16:37):
with the last week to go, like a there's gonna
be wild cud teams coming out of the Al East.
That's not a surprise. Normally, it's not gonna be a
surprise this year. Again, there's a lot of good teams.
There's a lot of good stuff, but it strength and
rookies we're talking about later or you know, there's been
some fantastic pitching starts of some some some interesting twists
from the pitching. We've had a bit of everything. From
the A least, it's been a real microcosm of the

(16:59):
whole league. But the good stuff, like we haven't seen
the crap out of the AA least. That time will come.
There's gonna be a dip, but right now, these guys
it's just really competitive, fun baseball.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
It's also got great storylines as well. Russell has it
not the the incredible orange crush uniforms, the butt plug bats,
Bladito's Bladito's five hundred million, and the on day off
day that is Garrett Crochet Day. Sometimes maybe good, sometimes
maybe shit.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
I think what you've got there, though, is you've got
the it's not There is an East Coast bias in
some regards when it comes to like sports medium it's
not just baseball like it exists for a reason because
that's where a large amount of the population is in
the United States, so you can get But if you
live in the middle and you don't like it, but
guess what, that's where the population is. The media is
going to skew to words where people actually live. But

(17:52):
so we basically need anything that is potentially interesting we
all know about. Like I had people who don't really
know about baseball sending me images of why am I
seeing like powder blue versus like bright orange in baseball?
Like what on earth is going on? I thought, this
is something where everybody wore like white. Is this kind
of like test cricket or the one day cricket? Are

(18:13):
they changing like what uniforms look like to make it
kind of more appealing for day night games? And I
was kind of like.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
Carry carry packers spirit lives on.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yeah, you've got the you got the someone stepping up
like Chiron Pollard and it's freaking West Indian, kind of
like Maroon up there to hit the bat, someone who
personally I believe posentially could have been a very good
baseball player. But that is a digression. Now it's entertaining.
That's the whole reason why we like the like the
the al least you've got to being you've got the

(18:44):
probably the biggest rivalry in baseball, and the both teams
look like they might actually be good again at the
same time for what the first time in ages like that,
they're both actually kind of like aligned with doing it,
and you've got the upstart orioles basically at the bottom
right now when you ever body was probably putting them
right towards the top. I'll hold my hand on my
heart and say that I was one hundred percent certain

(19:07):
of blood he was done in Toronto, and he's obviously
now just kind of like got the massive deal and
in some regards maybe made sure that Kyle Tucker gets
a massive deal come next year unless he gets himself injured.
But yeah, it's like it's where there is the news,
and obviously the Rays having fun in their spring training stadium,

(19:28):
like getting all of those stadium those cheapy homers that
used to be like the plane of their existence and
they're now getting some of those cheapy homers themselves and
enjoying it every now and then. But yeah, it's it's
it's where, it's where, it's where eyes are on, and
it's providing the entertainment while it's got the attention.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
Right now, I sidetrack onto that stupid stadium for a moment.
I'm terribly sorry. I really have to say, like Jesus
Christ is I mean, I watched a game. It was
the Raise against the Angels. I lost track of how
many stupid pop up home runs went out to that
short porch. Because you've got Yankee Stadium, it's the exact

(20:07):
same dimensions as Yankee Stadium at Steinbrenner Field. The difference
is New York is north. New York's a bit chilly
from time to time. In Tampa, the ball just go
and my god, was it going like there was there
was Angels players you've never heard of, because let's face it,
you've never heard of any Angels players other than the
Mic Trout. There was Angel players never heard of who
were like the three home run games. It was stupid.

(20:29):
It was ridiculous. And they are not hitting home runs
anywhere else out of that stadium. They are all going
out to that stupid short porch and we all call
it the stupid short porch anyway. But like, turn up
the temperature, and that short porch is like turning up
the stupidity. Like it's a couple more knocks to the head. Jesus,
it's awful. I hate that stadium. Not as bad as
the Age one, but I still I hate that stadium
already and I haven't even visited it yet. Sorry, sorry,

(20:53):
it's all right.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
We've all we've all had something to say. I mean
I did. I did a cold oak for the whole
podcast where I was, you know, coldly furious, but you've
been warmly furious, so you know it does matter. Competitive
balance is important. I too think that that stadium makes

(21:15):
an entire mockery of the sport. I hate the short porch.
I absolutely hate it, and obviously I hate that short
porch even more. Right, shall we go from the sublime
to the ridiculous?

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (21:32):
We we have to talk about what on earth is
going on in Colorado and the South side of Chicago,
don't we? Albeit loathe, loathe, and for me to say
this and bad timing that the White Sox did take
a series off The Red Song this week, owing largely
to Chase Midroth, who was traded to the White Sox

(21:55):
aspart of that Garat Crochet Heal not not too long ago.
But goodness gracious, they are running out some people you've
literally never heard of, and then running out some players
who are supposed to be okay but here are horrendous.
What what on earth? Like, ahmen, the Rockies just they
just contriving to find new ways to lose every single week.

(22:18):
Where where do where do they go? I mean, what
what are they doing? Russell? What are they doing? Nobody
knows the answer to that question. What's Michael Totalia doing?
He's supposed to be good.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
Yeah, that's the one that really I think that's the
one that hurts, where it's like you kind of have
your your power hitting first basement just kind of disappear
like and just be like, oh, so there's no power
here anymore. It's like you always remember and obviously like
with the with Rayers with a framill, like when he
was in Cleveland and just went from just being a

(22:52):
power hitter to then suddenly just swinging and missing and
being completely looking completely netly overpowered. Like it's not good. Yeah,
still short sample size, will we'll see how it looks
in a couple of weeks time, but it's it's not
a good start. And when that team has basically got
i don't know, three serviceable out of all like hitters,
and two of them aren't basically doing anything that you

(23:13):
would hope they would do, it's bad. And you then
have like Kyle Freeland, like I think pitching.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
Actually center teller O, My goodness.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Those guys have like sill Still I don't know like
either basically Colorado is basically the best place or like
to live like in the world. Or basically the Rockies
are like the greatest organization with how they treat their players,
how they treat the players families and people and stuff
like the Yes, as Rob might'st but that's quite legal
in quite a lot of you at other US states now.
But the players that want to be there stay there,

(23:50):
and they and they stay there for a while, and
they get like nice contracts, and they seem to all
have a fairly enjoyable time with what they're doing. They're
nowhere near basically ever being relevant, and be a surprise
if they will be relevant again in three or five
years time. Like I genuinely think that calls might just
be effect like you just cannot produce basically like a

(24:11):
good team that plays there because of the difference between
that and every other field. Now on Chicago side, they're bad,
and they're bad because they're doing exactly not what Oakland
did when they went bad. Chicago decided that actually the
way we're going to do this is put out a
bunch of gays that you would maybe just about recognize
their name. I think, oh, that means we're putting an

(24:33):
effort in. And it's like, no, if you actually just
threw out all of your quad A players and gave
them all time, two of them might turn out to
be good like Butler did. And I mean, like like
a few others have done, like yeah, so you just
like Chicago haven't done that. They're throwing out like Mike
Tauchman and stuff like that. Who yeah, one of one

(24:55):
of the most unlucky. I don't know if you did you,
either of you guys. See how the White lost the
game against Cleveland last week with Tagman being the tying
runner going around third and pulling his squad and basically
just like limping to the catcher and just being tagged
out for like the final act that was That was

(25:18):
the day after they went the clevenger walked three people
in a row to load the bases and give up
the walk of the one nil loss in a walk
off and a walk off quite literally.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
Yeah I saw the walk off, but I didn't. I
hadn't seen the Tagman thing. It's just that just cauldn't
happen to a nicer guy than Mike Clevenger. Sorry, sorry
to sidechuck you. I just got Antonio Center tellers that
casts baseball, soaven up, and I mean, uh, as as

(25:49):
you would expect. There's an awful lot of blue on there.
Like work. It is fourth fourth percentile for expected are right,
third percentile for expected buying overage, seventh percentile for average
exit velocity first like first percentile, okay percentage, fourth percentile

(26:14):
for hard hit right, Oh, my word is expected right?
Expected era is eight point three to two. Oh my god,
keep going on too. It's fine, it's fine.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
I think that's mostly because didn't it didn't he just
break a record for least strikeouts in the game with
with no no hit with no oh, I don't know.
He had no strikeout? Was most what the hell am
I trying to say?

Speaker 2 (26:45):
Jesus Christ? Without a strikeout?

Speaker 3 (26:47):
Thank you? Yes? And the scoreless innings, that was it
most scorning. I mean, the defense was amazing, but he'd
got the guys on on minus zero point three war
already and he's only plaid three times.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
Goodness gracious me. Yeah, I mean they are both utterly
hideous teams, and I think we should move meve on.
Ben's got to listen to this, Ben, Ben. So we're
going to get onto we've got a substantive item. What
we're going to talk about food. I think this is
because we knew you were coming on, Rob and it

(27:21):
would just obviously be idiotic. But we'll get onto that
in a second. I'm not going to talk in any
great detail about the Red Sox Netflix documentary, which because
I've not watched all of it yet, I've I've watched
a couple of episodes, and it's fair to say that
it's as anticipated, incredibly well made. It gives you that
same level of insight and engagement than as you know,

(27:43):
the drive to survive and hard knocks and those sorts
of things and the people. Yeah, I think it would
it well. It would definitely have been better. But it's
so interesting watching that first episode where they were complete
memory hole for my brain, that they were good for
three weeks and then Trevor's story got injured and everything

(28:04):
went wrong thereafter. Yeah, the people who were the stars
of it are exactly those who were anticipated. I mean,
Tristan Cossus I alluded to it earlier his soliloquy to
cut A Crawford about why there are one hundred and
sixty games in baseball is absolutely incredible. But yeah, I
just wanted to touch very briefly on a player I'm

(28:25):
going to talk about a bit more in a slightly
more negative context later, which is Jared Duran, who had
a brilliant season for the Red Sox last year. He
was the shining light of the team and you know,
also went through some unfortunate off field issues, are using
a slur which is entirely unacceptable. But there's a whole
episode about Jared Duran which I've not had the opportunity

(28:47):
to watch yet, but it's about the fact that he
attempted to commit suicide during that absolutely desperate run that
he had in their twenty twenty two season a couple
of years ago, and his rookie season when if you'll remember,
he was just absolutely shot on the field, like he
couldn't track a ball, he couldn't hit a ball, He
looked completely overmatched, and I was quite rude about him.

(29:10):
So I just wanted to, you know, make that point
that what an incredible thing to do like that, that
is going to save the lives of a lot of
young people who are in and around the sport of
baseball who are look up to him and admire him
as a player, or maybe don't even know about him

(29:31):
as a player. Being that vulnerable in that context is
admirable of anybody, regardless of who they are. But for
someone with that platform, I think it's just absolute extraordinary. Like,
hats off to him, and hats off to the people

(29:51):
who created an environment within the context of this documentary
that he felt comfortable enough to share that. Hats off
to the people in the Red Sox who knew about this.
There were a number of them, including Alex Cora, and
who made him feel comfortable and confident to share that too.
That shouldn't have been the story of this documentary series.

(30:13):
Everyone hoped it was going to be the story of
a Red Sox triumph, But in a way it is.
He's created that triumph for them, and I admire him
immensely for it. I'm going to be horrible about him
in a bit, but not as horrible as I was
in twenty twenty two.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
I think even for us, like I guess that like
jerond around is not listening to like our podcast or
probably any of his friends or our family or who
were tuty he waited with him, But like the we
the pressures that are going through basically some of these
top players, especially when they're young and been touted for
a considerable amount of time, is so beyond anything that

(30:57):
I could possibly comprehend that I actually like hearing somebody
say this is such a It is a powerful message,
and it's one that kind of like you do realize that,
like you hope that makes it does make a difference,
and it Yeah, just to reiterate what Jod says, it
is a pretty amazing thing that that that has come
out of like something stuff like that. And in some regards,

(31:17):
it puts more context behind like who he is and
what's happened like afterwards, like doesn't necessarily paint him in
a better light for kind of like what was said
in a bad incident in last season, but you can
see like where things are like touching a nerve that
you didn't potentially know that like existed, which caused the
response that he shouldn't have done, but you can you don't,

(31:39):
you can understand more like what happened. You can still
say it was wrong and he will still has come
out and said that it was wrong, and he is.
We'll try and like learn from it. But there is
a closer level of understanding than I think that many
of us had like beforehand.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
Yeah, it explains it without justifying it. I think it's
probably the right way, right way of framing it. Right.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
Yeah, that's the three word answer I was trying to
get to with my long winded statement. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
Hey, look, I've been pretty long winded twice. Who knew
that four hours sleep in a trip to the gym
would make me incredibly maudeling? Apparently it has. Here we go,
should we talk about food? We are going to do.

Speaker 3 (32:19):
Long winded to needing wind. There's definitely some stuff on
this list. Take that up, just just take it out.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
There's definitely some stuff on this list of ballpark food
that would they would give you wind, Russell, do you
wanna do you wanna? Do you want to take it away?
Do you want to explain that the context of what
we're doing here?

Speaker 2 (32:37):
Yes? So, pretty much the start of every season, there
seems to be a group press release by most of
the major kind of like sporting sites on what is
the new ballpark food that it's going to be out there.
I say it's a group press release because I looked
at this and I saw basically like an ESPN article
of Forbes article, like all of these things with almost

(32:57):
exactly the same headline being like twenty five new ballpark
go ub to grab or whatever. So I'm guessing that
it's ready to roll out. But we've had a look,
and some of us like the look of some of
these things. Some of them mothers may not like the
look of these things. But we're just going to do
a quick little grab draft to kind of be like,

(33:18):
claim what you think is the best ones of the
ones available. We will tweet out a link to to
those so we could view the options that were available
that we didn't get to. But I'm if we are
willing to go gentlemen, I will try and grab the
first pick then for what I would personally most like

(33:39):
to eat from these new options, And it might be
left field pick, but I'm going to take the it's
so hard, some of this is actually really good. I'm
going to take the z Man sandwich, which is the
one the new one from which is a It's basically

(34:00):
a slow beef brisket burger with provolone cheese, on a
toasted bread roll topped with two onion rings, which to
me just sounds absolutely glorious and something that I would
heartily consume, probably giving me heartily issues in probably too

(34:21):
fast a time as well. So that's going to be
my number one pick from this list.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
Oh are you going, Rob?

Speaker 3 (34:28):
So if I've got a criticism of it's it's the
second onion ring, you know, I'm at that point. I
like one will do for me.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
I've got to say, you sniped me. That was definitely
going to be my first pick as well. I'm like,
I am a big fan of barbecue food. I am
not a big fan, and let's just not start this
because I could go on for hours of barbecues, which
are a very different thing. Any American listeners will know.

(35:03):
This is grilling. In the UK, we call that barbecue.
It's not the same as smoke pick, Kansas City, Houston barbecue,
entirely different, in fact, quite the opposite. I hate it,
and everyone in this country is obsessed by doing it
as soon as it's vaguely warm, and it revolts me.

(35:24):
But barbecue, I'm all about. Yeah, suns out. I'm closing
the curtains and anyone, anyone, anyone giggling anywhere near me?
Like when I say, I mean within about two kilometers
of me. Can she's gonna get fly spread in the face? Anyway? Yes,

(35:45):
this this sandwich, though, looks good.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
You've already rob the chance to snipe you again. So Rob,
see if you can take the top two.

Speaker 3 (35:52):
After where's he gonna go? I mean, are you.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
Picking your own? Are you picking one that's gonna annoy me?

Speaker 3 (36:01):
Well, I mean you've taken a barbecue range, So I
mean there's another good sandwiches on here. It's another good barbecues. Well,
I'm gonna go something a bit. You might put it
on a barbecue. I quite like the Kansas City Royal
Slugger Dog, which is a treza topped with manchego tempura,
a batter, Dorito's cool runch crust, and avocado aoli. And

(36:25):
I think that's fantastic. It's on a stick, so it's
like a good ballpark food to start with. I think
it's fairly manageable into your mouth. You know, it's something
you can eat at the ballpark. I don't like the
fact they used three rs in the word slugger, but
you know who doesn't. Who doesn't like a decent bit
of buttered sausage or some only drizzled over the edge

(36:45):
going down your chin.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
Love you stuff. I don't think it was going to
be my number two pick, but it was certainly pretty.
It was certainly pretty high at my list. I think
it was probably a toss up between that and another one.
It did. It did genuinely just make me think of
like a luxury battered sausage, So I love it again.
Why not listeners in the States look up a battered

(37:08):
sausage that is a culinary delicacy for the ages. I
love a bat of sausage. But yeah, that looks nice,
actually genuinely looks nice though, Okay, okay, So my number
two it was completely off in the other direction, but
also relatively basic. Just give me the tirasou in the helmet, yes, please?

(37:32):
Oh no, no, oh mate. I love term. I absolutely
love it. I love I love putting in a helmet.
All about I'm all about it, even if it's got
an n y on it. Get get it, get it
in my face.

Speaker 3 (37:48):
I mean, like a tira messoux is like a like
almost like a like a faux classy dessert, like it's
a bit eighties, but it's it's it's got you know,
there's a bit gone into it, but it's just it's
kitch kyler crap in a plastic helmet.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
Now you get it in my mouth.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
The only thing that I agree with John that I
do like a good Turmasu. The only thing that would
upset me is that this is obviously in one of
those tiny dessert helmets. I would much like it in
one of the ones that you would normally get your
Natcho's and see if you gave Hahos your hat shoes,
gave me a in one of those Hatcho hats, then

(38:27):
that's what would I had.

Speaker 3 (38:30):
I had a mac and cheese in one of those
hat show helmets from a minor league game for the
Detroit Tigers, and it nearly killed me. It was four
hat show hats worth of mac and cheese, and I
was determined, and by the eighth and it was really
really hot, and by the eighth inning I wanted to die.
And that wasn't just because it was spring training baseball.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
You if you are watching this on our YouTube channel
and can only see Robin Russell's happy facial complexions, I
will illuminate you that they are two of the more
well built robust.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
Perhaps, yeah, as.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
It certainly does, and it's it's there's there's that exercise
for one of your arms when it's going to spoon
in it, but otherwise not much right I am.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
Lifting those heavy pints, John, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
Very very true. Okay, should we pick one more each?
And then there's a couple on here that I just
to say about them? Yeah, okay, Russ back to you.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
Okay, I'll take my dessert option, which I'm not saying
like if it's actually going to be that good or not,
but I'm very interested to try what it actually is.
So I'm going to give the small's case of deer
from the Phillies, like I like a small and I
like a case of de normally. Now, will these things
actually work together? I'm not one hundred certain that's actually

(39:57):
going to be the truth, but if I was there
and I saw a bad boy on the menu, I'm
trying it, and I will give you an answer immediately
one way or the other, whether I love it or
hate it, because I don't think there's going to be
yelling any middle ground on it. But it has me
intrigued enough to want to want to try it. John's
tongue sticking out makes me think that he is.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
No, that was definitely on the list of ones. I
had absolutely no interest in it. Just it just that's
just like eating a pound of sugar, as far as
I'm concerned anything that that texture. Yeah, look terriblely he

(40:39):
has got coffee in it, you know. Oh, no, that
looks something else.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
Very true.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
Hey, look it's got.

Speaker 3 (40:47):
Cracker crumble on it. That that's got me a bit
the ground.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
Cracker crumbles one of the things I quite like on
the case of deer.

Speaker 2 (40:55):
No.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
I know, I know I'm not having that. I'm not.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
No, not for me.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
But you know, each to their own, rob, what about you?
What else? What else tickled your fancy?

Speaker 3 (41:06):
I'll take it. I mean there's a lot on here
that does. I mean, everything in Arizona looks fantastic. But
I will, I will, I will go over to the Rockies,
and I think their dessert is interesting. If nothing else,
it's meant to look like natchos, but it is. It's
dessert natchos, which is fried flower tortillas tossed in a
cinnamon sugar with fresh berries dropped with powdered sugar and

(41:29):
caramel drizzle, served with a side of whipped cream, which
is obviously supposed to look like cream cheese. Now, I
don't know if my head will allow me to enjoy
it as a sweet dish when it very very clearly
looks like a savory dish. And there's all obviously gonna
be that comedy moment when someone next to you has
bought it and you go in for a natcho and
it's not, and then you know, the whole lot goes
everywhere over the person in front, He turns round, breaks

(41:51):
your nose, tripp to a and e. You know, game ruined.
But I'll be interested in the desert natchos. I think
they're a bit different. I quite like the creativity, but
him so, I'm and you know the Rockies need something,
goddamn it.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
Well there you go. Good for them. It's they've pulled
a triumph out that, having a beautiful ballpark, great beer,
and temperate climb. They've also got a good college football
team up there, so you know they've got that going
for them to Okay, I'm going to go root one
for my next pick. Just just give just give me

(42:26):
the massive burrito, please. I mean, who doesn't love a burrito.
I'm not on the list of people who don't love
a burrito. I do love a burto I love a boomstick.
I've done the boomstick challenge. It's on this here YouTube channel,
and I've got to tell you eating that was one
of the worst experiences of my life. But I have

(42:49):
nothing to do with with the taste. It is genuinely
tasty item of food that I met the chap who's
the chef who I've been trying to google his name?
If you just if you've gout boomstick chef, you just
get lots lots of pictures of Nellie Cruise meeting John Favreau,
which is quite funny, but you can't get the name
of the guy who invented it. A very nice man.

(43:10):
I've met him a couple of times. So yeah, I'm
all in on the on the massive burrito. You probably
need about four of us to eat it, but yes, please.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
I think obviously the simple adage is just everything is
bigger in Texas, isn't it. So it's just like they've
gone for it. The fact that also that it's like
that twenty four inch burrito because it's a twenty six
inch tortilla, so there's even like a good folding up
on it.

Speaker 1 (43:33):
So that helped with the mess.

Speaker 3 (43:38):
That is important because you know what, if you're sat
there wearing you're like three hundred and fifty dollars Replica Jersey,
you really don't want to get boomstick down it.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
That's the man who speaks personal experience.

Speaker 3 (43:50):
Hey, I made a boomstick during COVID. If you remember
again on this YouTube channel.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
Okay, yeah, we all remember that nervous breaked.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
That video on this YouTube channel.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
We're all having conversations with celebrated baseball reporters and big
league players whilst you're literally in the corner of the
screen in your kitchen, in your partner to film. You
haven't learn of a nervous break.

Speaker 3 (44:22):
Okay, So you want to say it was a low point,
but it wasn't.

Speaker 1 (44:26):
That poor woman Russell order.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
So I'm just going to go to one thing that
I think looks absolutely awful. I do know what candy
floss on fries get.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
I do not want candy floss ever, it's disgusting in
a wife for me.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
I don't know how according to the MLB article that
is the top new grub. I'm like will be speaking
to like six year olds when we were asking their opinion.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
The thing that offends me maybe it's very offensive that
we have candy floss on top of the chips. The
second point for me is that this serving looks absolutely
tiny and I imagine it's very expensive.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
Not the blue sauce.

Speaker 5 (45:14):
That's my second issue is there is a blue sace
of undetermined providence on these chips.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
Yeah, it looks like an AI phone, like candy flows
to be put on like some fries. John and Robb,
do you have anything that you else would like to say?

Speaker 3 (45:38):
No, there is such a list here. There is such
a list. There are so many things. I'm gonna cheat
and take two now. The first. The first thing I'm
going to take is the pair of popcorn bats. And
this is purely from someone who works This is somebody
who works in events. Have a look at how they
think that click the gonna have a look at the

(46:01):
ESPN article. It's essentially a baseball bat. That the that's wide,
the the the top and that's where the lid is. Like,
there is no way to put this thing down where
there isn't gonna be popcorn absolutely fucking everywhere. And having
been in events for twenty years, I could tell you
how much I hate this product. Hate this product because

(46:21):
there are some poor people who are gonna have to
pick this shit up after after you've finished watching The
Pirates lose, and that's just that's just not fair. So yeah,
I'm out on those. But the one that's really really
made me gip, No, that wasn't it. That wasn't it.
That was my other one. It's got the pad raid.

(46:42):
What they're doing with their banana pudding is in a helmet.
Banana putting in a helmet, And I'm also like, I've
also I found a poem about the banana pudding in
the helmet. My god, I found this is from Petco
Park Insider. It's called an ode to Banana pudding in
a helmet. Oh Sacred Scoopa, Golden Bliss in a padre's helmet,

(47:02):
Pure Chef's Kiss. Banana pudding smooth and Sweet, a ballpark
snack that can't be beat. Topped the banana's nuts and
cookie bold as an all star Fresh as a rookie
costs seven ninety nine for a generous serving. Size to
share if they're deserving. Hard to find, but here's the
key seaside markets where it will be field level Section
one hundred and five. Are really getting into the details here.

(47:24):
Peel on down, then feel alive, nearly done, creepy, an absurd,
like a pie in the face, dreamily served thirty one
place Bechco Parks and diego there we go, folks. That
was a dramatic reading of an ode to banana pudding
in a helmet.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
Yeah, yeah, Bill, Bill Shakespeare turn in his grave.

Speaker 2 (47:46):
That's not saying I didn't think that there was anything
worse in the universe than vog On poetry. But I
think I may have.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
Just Emily Dickinson didn't die for that shit. Honestly, I'll
tell you what. The reason I was putting my thumbs
up when you were talking about that is because that
was also going to be on my list, but mine.
I mean, the concept is atrocious that the poetry, and

(48:17):
I kind of feel like pretty pretty pretty furtive about
censuring myself. I am horrendously allergic to bananas, and the
notion of bananas being anywhere near me makes me gip anyway,
So seeing that just made me just angry, and yet
we're going to bring this segment to a close in

(48:38):
a moment. People. It is not even the one that
I like the look on the least.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
The White allergic to, and.

Speaker 1 (48:48):
I think I would genuinely rather eat that than that
White Sox cake. Now, I know that the banana is
going to make me violent the ill, but looking at
that thing makes me feel sick. It is disgusting. I like, again,

(49:13):
these podcasts are a revelation whenever for everyone, whenever that
you know that I never know what's going to get
the inner psych of me going. I really really don't
like cake, and it's one of my weirdest things. I
think cake is the world's most overrated food. I'm just

(49:35):
looking at that bloody milkshake being sullied by that horrible
dry cake with that nasty cherry on the top and
those stupid sprinkles that are just going to get in
your teeth piss off.

Speaker 3 (49:51):
I mean, it wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't
essentially following on from the only thing that White Sox
won last year, which was that fantastic milkshake that everybody wanted.
We've got this abortion.

Speaker 1 (50:01):
It's awful horrendous. I'm sorry I sat like Ron Atkinson.
I'm sorry. Just get it away. I've just got it
open on my screen. I could close this window at
any time, and I'm going to piss off right time
to bring this proceeding to a close with too good,

(50:23):
Too bad. That was a lot of fun, Ron, Do
you want to go first?

Speaker 2 (50:29):
With you?

Speaker 1 (50:31):
You have the honor of picking good or bad. We've
had a bit of both in the last fifteen minutes,
So okay, well, I go where you want.

Speaker 3 (50:37):
I'm probably going to take a bad first because I've
only got one good at the moment, and so i
need more time to think about that. So I'm going
to go with the Tampa Rays pulling their starter last minute,
which was a really really cheap move to my mind.
Many people will say it was a good strategy, But
what happened was it was a game against the Alanta

(50:58):
Braves advertised with Shane Baz, who let me clarify here,
was very very healthy, had pitched very well so far.
Everyone was expecting Shane Bazz to pitch in this final
game against the Braves. But what the Rays did instead
without telling anybody, is about half an hour before the
game they pulled Shane Baz and they they put Joe Boyle.
They called Joe Boyle up from the miners and had

(51:20):
him pitch and said, and look, he pitched great. He
pitched fantastically, probably because the A's that the Braves had
absolutely no chance to do any scouting. But my problem
here is there was no injuries, no one was sick.
This was apparently something they've been planning for days and
days and days and days and days. So what they're
doing is they wanted to get an extra day's rest
for all the starters, so they pushed them all back

(51:40):
a bit, which is fine. However, to do this with
like half an hour's notice, Like you've got people probably
in the ballpark at this point who were specifically there.
I want to see Shane Baths he is, you know what,
The Rays have account as a star these days, like
he is. He's a big name pitcher for them. People
would have been there to see Shane Bazz play probably,
and then they've called up somebody last minute like that,
and it just feels a little bit bush league for me.

(52:02):
Maybe even getting a bit red ass here, but it
feels a bit bush to pull.

Speaker 2 (52:06):
Out that move so late.

Speaker 3 (52:07):
In the day for non injury reasons.

Speaker 1 (52:10):
Yeah, yeah, go Russ.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
No, it just made me think of Craig Council pulling
Wayne Miley after one one batterer in the the twenty
eighteen like the Championship was the Championship Series was the
Championship Series obviously kind of just kind of like just
completely only trying to mentally get one over on on
like the people that you're doing now. I think in

(52:32):
a playoffs you can maybe just about say that, like
you've got to really try and pull every single lever
that you can to win a game. But during the
regular season, it's just like, seriously, like there is supposed
to be an entertainment value what you're doing, and you've
got pulling your starter for no reason. I think it's
it might not be Bush, but it's poor entertainment.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
Also, Shane bars they sound like your dad's mate. So
he goes to the club with Shane.

Speaker 2 (53:01):
That'll a bit Shane and bad Shane.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
Shane. Shane sells insurance and basses a PA coreator.

Speaker 3 (53:07):
No, Shane doesn't say he sells you in shells insurance,
but he's actually his stuff that's fallen off the back
of the.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
Back of a lorry uninsured Russell. What's bad for you?

Speaker 2 (53:17):
I mentioned a little bit earlier on, but I think
I want to kind of go through it in detail,
like the Kansas City offense right now. I think I
have to double check it because I was looking at
this yesterday, but I think they have a sixty nine
WRC plus for the season so far, which when you're
a team nice is it is nice? But sadly it's

(53:37):
not nice. And Bobby Witch Junior already has one war
in seventeen games, so project that out to basically a
full season, and he's close to being a ten war player. Again,
the shame is effectively the Hunter Renfro already has minus
point six WAR, Michael Massey has minus point four war. NJ.
Melendez has minus point four war, even like the Salvador

(53:58):
Perez is a non negative war, so he basically has
no support apart from Michael Garcia and a bit of
a tiny bit of like Vinnie Pasquentino, who's managing to
put out a zero war season so far. It's like
this team, it's just looked awful with the bat and
when you have a generational talent as in Bobby with Judy,

(54:19):
somebody who will be in MVP races. The fact that
he is not have any support is truly awful. And
you were just like, this was what a lot of
us still thought Kansas would get better because they pitched
well last year, they had some injuries when it came
to hitting, and you thought, yeah, you know what. I
didn't think you things could get worse. I thought it

(54:40):
would only get better. Well, it's only been three weeks,
but things got worse.

Speaker 1 (54:47):
Yeah. I hadn't quite reckoned with quite how bad. I
knew they weren't great, but I hadn't reckoned with it
being quite that bad. Goodness. Gracious, mate, Ah, the nice
numbers don't need any further exposition or explanation, do they. Okay,
it's owed me a oh God. I mean, I kind

(55:07):
of feel like we have to mention it because it's
just happened. What I put in our prep document is
that reporter Dickhead, I am referring to Wiley Ballard, the
sideline reporter of the Atlanta Braves, a gentleman who exudes
golf energy. Just look at him. That's a man who

(55:32):
only owns quarter zips. Was very disappointed by the performance
of Bryce and de Chambo this Sunday. Oh my goodness,
May If you've missed it, you've been living under a rock,
because it's everywhere on baseball social media. This twerp I
tried to hook up with a woman whilst doing his
job this week, and I don't know if I'm more

(55:55):
disgusted by that or by the colleagues who are egging
him on. There's a guy by the name of Miles
Garrett whose tweet has had an awful lot of retweets
from female reporters, sideline reporters, clubhouse reporters, TV anchors, and

(56:16):
he's just left it, you know, he's just leaving it
out there as though this is absolutely fine. It's just
totally unacceptable. You know, we all meet a potential partners everywhere,
but just do it in private, dont don't you know?
Bull run a poor woman he's trying to watch a
baseball game into going out with you. He's found it
really crass, and the celebration of it by all of

(56:37):
the expected outlets is exactly what you anticipate. Yeah, at all.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
It's a dual standard because this is exactly the type
of thing that if like a female reporter did they
would all be lambasting it for being inappropriate and devaluing
like commentary.

Speaker 1 (56:56):
So yeah, I just blame golf. Just just look like,
look like the type of guy who just loves golf.
Golf is the worst thing ever invented. Apart from cank okay,
Rob something good from.

Speaker 3 (57:10):
You, suthing good. I just dumped on the race. So
I'm gonna come back on the flip side with the
Rays and gonna go very home today. And the Rai's
rookies they're great. They are turning up. It's caveated by
small samples, of course, but we're looking at Cameron Meisner Junior, Cameronaro,
Jake Mangham, and Jonathan Randa. These are four guys who

(57:32):
are They've all hit the ground running. It's fantastic to
see from a raised fan point of view, for any
fan point of view, you get that thing with your
with your with your rookies. They're gonna come up, and
yes they're gonna have some bad times, but they've got
to pass that first test of can they actually do
it at all? And these four have all just like bang, yep,
they can do it. Whether or not they can adjust

(57:54):
later on. Those ra all things. But they've passed that
first hurdle big style, and it's just really nice to
see like some some young raised hitters actually hitting and
not getting in trouble with the police. So I'm like, yeah,
this is this is a nice, nice, friendly family fun
uh and and there's there's they've got some good stories.
Some of these guys are debuting very very late as well,
so it's just a nice story. It's just it's just

(58:16):
nice to see it happening. And we all like our rookies.
We all we all live and sweat by our our rookies.
They're gonna come up, they're gonna save the day. And
these guys are and that's nice. It's exciting. So I
want to see more. And it's not just the raise.
There's there's plenty of them. I mean, look what's going
on the Red Sox at the moment. I'm sure we're
gonna mention them in a minute, but uh yeah, there's
there's some some great rookies out there and they're they're hitting,
they're they're good. I'm enjoying the rookies.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
Russell to take things back maybe to Jonathan's favorite sport,
do either of you know who Daniel Lynch. The fourth is.

Speaker 3 (58:48):
Daniel Lynch the fourth.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
No, here is a picture for the Kansas City Royals,
a relief picture that you've never heard of. Has probably
the most golf founding name in baseball. But maybe just
because I think you like Davis Love the third basically that.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
Immediately good thing about the only good thing about golf,
and it's not on my list is Ken Griffy taking
that amazing?

Speaker 2 (59:08):
But yes, Daniel Lynch is currently on an eighteen game
streak of not giving up an earned run. He has
pitched twenty eight point two innings and has not given
up a run. He has given up a run since
August last year. And I just love it when the
stuff like this, where there's like completely utterly randa reliever

(59:29):
that nobody's ever heard of that is chasing the twenty
game streak, which really doesn't happen like in Major League
Baseball of not giving up a run. Kate Smith is
currently like one game behind him on seventeen. But it's
just it's just hilarious to be like, this is the
duality of what Kansas City has right now. They have

(59:49):
like a complete nobody reliever who is being pseudo kind
of like wipes out and but then kind of having
the other thing to go with this side. The thing
I found amusing when I was looking this up is
technically the longest current streak from the last twenty years
is Casey Sadler, who obviously has sadly retired due to

(01:00:11):
personal reasons the last year, but he ended his career
only twenty nine game streak of not giving up an
under run, which is just mental. I was looking even
on this list, Trevor May ended on a fifteen gay
streak of not giving up a run. You're like, some
of these guys go out like on the top and
you never quite think about though, just because they were
relief pictures.

Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
Great, I love that. I am going to talk about
a rookie, and I'm going to talk about a rookie
second basement, but I'm not going to talk about the
one that you anticipate I'm going to talk about. I'm
going to talk about Kyne Paris almost talked about him.
Yeah he is. I think the guy you were alluding
to earlier in all of those rinky dink home runs
for the highlights he was. Yeah, he's had an absolutely

(01:00:56):
extraordinary start of the season. He's currently fourth in the
rank of fangrafts war, behind some guys called Corbyn Carrol,
Aaron Judge, and Fernando Tatist Junior, and followed by Hunter Green,
Carl Tucker, Cole Reagan's, Paul Skeins and others. I omitted

(01:01:18):
Haraldo Paedomo, sorry Heraldo, that there's no there's no scope
to talk about you and your your miracle season here yet,
because I want to talk about Karen Parris specifically. I
wanted to talk about like how baseball can change for
players so quickly. So he was he was an okay prospect,
but never a really great one in in a quite

(01:01:40):
poor system. And two years ago he was playing in
Double A going through a streak of seventy seven plate
appearances where he had a batting average of zero seven
to one, and he started the season like a freight train. Now,
you know, small sample size, cluster luck, all of that,
but just a really great stufy and you know that

(01:02:02):
there is some mechanical changes. He's gone to Richard Shank
who's Aaron Judges hitting guru, Jeff Fry's arch nemesis, and yeah,
it looks like it's made a real change. For him,
and he is the sort of Cinderella story of this
pretty remarkable start of the season for Mike Trout's halo.

(01:02:22):
So yeah, I wanted to just give Kirn Paris his flowers.
He's been a lot of fun. He seems like a
very nice young man too, which weighs in his favor
as well. Right, name, it's a great name, isn't it
a proper baseball name, that, isn't it? Look I don't
I don't want to be Aaron Judge. Imine, come on,

(01:02:46):
I want Corbyn, Carolyn and Kyne Paris And frankly.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
I'm just waiting for there's a Paris syndrome joke there,
though I'm not quite working out how it's going to
like work, where we're all going to start to think
that he's like good and and he somehow isn't.

Speaker 3 (01:03:01):
But is that what Paris syndrome is learning today?

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
It's the fake thing about like Chinese tourists going to
Paris and realize that it's not as lovely as they
thought it would be.

Speaker 1 (01:03:13):
They're wrong. And Heraldo Haraldoo sounds like a private detective,
so him as well had private eye. He's gonna he's
gonna find find your husband with a mistress, no doubt.

Speaker 3 (01:03:33):
Columbo sidekick.

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
You're absolutely right, Harald, Just just one more thing? Is
it an extra base hit at this right? Yes? Okay,
rob something.

Speaker 3 (01:03:47):
Bad, something bad. How can we not talk about the
A's and their their medical cart. What a joyful little
blip of baseball life we had there. And obviously it's
something bad, but I mean it is essentially a good too,
I mean, like wonderful, just lah, like it's just all
the stars are lining. So obviously, poor Jose Siri is

(01:04:07):
feeling a little bit rough after he's smashed the ball
off of his shin and it did look like it.
Hood broke down on the floor as he broken his leg.
I thought he had a bruise. Okay, well you know, yeah,
that's gonna smart. He's not gonna lie. So out comes
the golf bug. He to take him off, but oh no,
oh no, it's run out of petrol. It's broken down.
It breaks us up. We don't know what's wrong with it,

(01:04:29):
but it ain't going anywhere. They have to get him
off of the second one. But you think that's it,
like ah hahah, the thing's rubbish. No, no, no, the gift
keeps giving when they try and get this thing off
the field, and you could almost play like the clown
music in the backgrounds as there's like five guys trying
to push this thing through the gap in the fence.
It won't go through the gap of the fence. And
then there's like the really really big security guy who

(01:04:49):
looks like he can push it on his own, is
just stood there watching whilst he's like five guys are
mentally trying to push this through the gate. And look,
hey again, I've already mentioned in this podcast I work
in live events, and you know I been there on
a stage with five thousand people watch me trip up
as I'm trying to gaffitate the back onto the seat,
you know, like it's it happens like events. People like
I'm not not having a go at you, like this

(01:05:10):
crap is going to happen. But my god, I mean
just in this ballpark as well, right now at the
beginning of the stay, it is just everything perfect has come.
You couldn't written this any more beautiful. It was wonderful.
If you haven't seen this, and you're probably hiding under
a rock if you haven't, but please go and watch it.
It's beautiful, beautiful beginning to end.

Speaker 1 (01:05:26):
There's almost certainly a version of it with the curb
your enthusiasm.

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
Choose to play that. There's like so many points where
you could play. When he gets hitting the shin with
the ball, like, you could do it right there. You
could do it. When he's getting stuck on the thing
and it stops. You could do it when they're going
to do it. It's like the Lord of the Rings.
There's so many freaking anything that's going on here. Oh,

(01:05:54):
I loved it, Russell, I think a manual Class A
might be broken. He's given up more runs so far
this season than he did for the entirety of last season.
His slider just isn't like working the same way it
did last year. I don't know if he pitched too much,

(01:06:17):
because it doesn't really look too much difference from a
like maybe like a mile an hour lower on the velocity,
if that's the difference basically between it being probasically one
of the best pitches in baseball to it being like
a bolow average pitch. Jese Louise, like, you understand why
these relievers are volatile, and it's just it could be
a bit of small sample sized look or whatever. But
he's just looked bad in pretty much every appearance he's

(01:06:39):
had for Cleveland so far this season. And if you
had given me money to put on which one of
like the four Cleveland like relievers who did really well
last year would have a seven year A, it wouldn't
have been him. Like two of them have still got
zeros and one of them's got to bring him one
point eighty or A and class A has a seven
point seventy one ERA through six appearances. It's like off

(01:07:02):
and you just wonder, like, did they just ask too
much of him? Like from me and John having that
conversation with Jay Jackson when he talked about like just
getting to the postseason and being like, wow, it was
crap because I literally had nothing in the tank, like
the number of times I've gone up and down and
other stuff like that, and just like you really think
they can break. We know what happens with starters, but

(01:07:23):
can you do it with relievers as well? Ask them
to do like one hundred plus innings in a season
and then you know what they've done and who knows.
Hopefully he gets it back to it, but it not
looks pretty to start this season.

Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
Relievers are fungible. Sam Miller, H yeah, I also want to,
unfortunately talk about a couple of players who've seemed broken.
And it's also I'm not gonna lie a little bit
of a victory lap for me, because you know, as aforementioned,
I spent most of twenty twenty two transpires that timing

(01:07:58):
was not party appropriate saying that Jaron Duran and Tannahuk
were two of the worst baseball players in the history
of the sports. Jaron, bless you. I wish you nothing
but the best, and you've been extraordinary for the last
two seasons, one of the very best players in baseball
for the last two seasons. But it looks like you've
broke in again. And I hope you get it right

(01:08:19):
for the conversation that we've had before. But he looks
like he can neither hit the ball nor field it.
He is the worst fielder in baseball, and he was
a pretty serviceable center fielder last year, and he is
now the worst outfielder in Baseball's playing in left field now,
which is supposedly an easier position, and his batting is wretched.

(01:08:40):
No home runs, are barely any extra base hits, ops
of five eighty one, which for a lead off hit
or in the Al East is not going to cut it.
And yet, and yet, Tanna Hawk really has turned into
a pumpkin. God love him, he is extraordinarily bad. He
has a nine point one sixty RA. If you look
at his stackcast page, it's almost as blue as dear

(01:09:01):
old Antonio Senza Teller's. And let's say, Jaron Duran's ceiling
has been rather higher than that man's. The stat that
really stuck out to me is, albeit small sample size,
he's running at three three barrels per plate appearance higher
than he was last year. So he had four last
year and it's six point nine this year. That seems

(01:09:24):
quite bad. Almost seems like he's pretty much putting the
ball on a tee and saying, you do what you
need to do. Yeah. I mean, he was absolutely wretched
against the Rays yesterday. He got left out too long,
he did, but he got absolutely boat raced. The bullpen
has had too much to do for the Red Sox
so far, and that's probably why they were like, yeah,

(01:09:45):
you're staying out there. We've lost. Yeah. I feel for him.
The whole of the Red Sox rotation outside of Crochet
looks a bit of a mess, and they're desperate for
Giulito Beao and hopefully Crawford to come back. But yeah,
it looks like Jaron Duran and Tanner Hawk might be
headed to the old Phantom my l. I think I

(01:10:05):
hope they get a reset because they were They've been
really really good the last two seasons and proved me wrong,
and I desperately don't want them to prove me right again.
LL talk about something good.

Speaker 3 (01:10:15):
Something good sounds initially like something bad, but it's actually
think I think is quite a good thing. It's that
bloke who wrestled the ball out of Mike Trout's glove at.

Speaker 1 (01:10:27):
Houston.

Speaker 3 (01:10:29):
This is it's it's almost sort of exactly the same
as the Mookie Betts incident last year, where two chaps
wrestled the ball out of his glove and were particularly
unpleasant about it afterwards. This chap's done it, and this
is this is how it should have gone first time.
He even looks a bit like mister Copper Bianco from
last year. Uh, what's happened is he's clearly reached out

(01:10:51):
for a ball he thought he had to go at.
There's been a rush of blood of the head, and
he's gone for gone into Mike Trout's glove and he's
had the ball out and but but what makes it
better is Mike Trout is quoted saying the bloke was
was immediately apologetic, and afterwards they met up. He's apologized
to him. He's Mike's Trout signed a bat for this

(01:11:13):
guy's son. It al's played out the way it should
have played out last year with Mookie Betts if those
two guys weren't such asses. So, you know, fair play
to this bloke. He's made a mistake, he's copped to it.
Fair play for Mike Trout, he's immediately gone, what the
hell's gone on here? And then and then he's accepted
the apology. Everything's ended up happy. This is how it
should be if occasionally fans are going to clash for players,
because there is a line, a very thin line, where

(01:11:34):
they meet. And this one worked out the way it
was supposed to once once it went wrong. So well
done everyone for keeping your heads and for being decent
human beings.

Speaker 2 (01:11:43):
Have you heard what umpires said? What was the difference
between that play and the Mookie Bets play at the
World series. His response was, I haven't seen the mookie
bets play at the World Series, which this is basically
spends his entire year umpiring and doesn't watch basically like

(01:12:03):
the most important games in the world, which is either
terrific work life balance or horrendous work life balance. I'm
not one hundred ten cer and like which way it is.
Or you've literally just lied out of your arse in
front of absolutely everybody. So I just want to add
that on because it was just an amazing from any.

Speaker 1 (01:12:22):
He wouldn't get that under Howard Webb's pug mall, yeah,
I'm pleased you spoke about that. Mike Trout absolutely all class.
I'm going to stick up a little bit for that guy.
I don't think he was anywhere nearing the realm of
Austin Kappa Bianco. I think you're I think Russian blood
to the head is exactly the right phrase. He just

(01:12:42):
was like, I'm leaning over, I've got this, and completely
didn't notice that Mike Trout was basically had his glove
directly under his hand. It wasn't like I'm going to
win this. Yeah, and he loved absolutely mortified as soon
as he recognized what.

Speaker 2 (01:12:55):
Was going on, didn't he the guy was probably willing
to steal it from a child, but not from a
major league player.

Speaker 1 (01:13:02):
Yeah. I mean, god, look, we've got no bads left,
so we can't talk about that Pillock stealing it from
emerginal like players.

Speaker 3 (01:13:10):
That's good, isn't it? Anyway?

Speaker 2 (01:13:11):
Yeah, we're not talking about that Pillic probably, but.

Speaker 1 (01:13:16):
Russell talk about something good. Let's not talk about Zach Campbell.

Speaker 2 (01:13:22):
I don't know if you guys have seen recently this season,
David Lauri has done a really awesome series on Fangrafts,
which is going through scouting reports with major league players
like four or five years, six years afterwards, and kind
of like chatting them through. They're not like particularly long articles,
and I think there's been like six or seven of
them up now. This one's with like Cody Bellinger like

(01:13:45):
to say that the name another one like quite a
few others, like the one with Eric Feddey was the
latest one that went up like today. I've really loved
the series. I think it's such a clever way of
kind of like just kind of like having like a
quick chat with a player and talking about something that
just the not something they've probably discussed multiple times before.
I've not seen this format before. It may have been done,

(01:14:06):
but I've never seen it. So I think it's like
it's a cool little thing to kind of hear them
talk about, Like, yeah, that's how I would have thought
about myself when I was like coming through college or
whatever and talking through with like talking through with fed
A being like, yeah, obviously before we had TJ pretty
much right before the draft, he was being talked about
being drafted at the same place as like Jeff Hoffman
and Aaron Nola and all of that. So really would

(01:14:30):
to just people go go and read these kind of
like groups of articles that I found them really fun,
and yeah, it's always good to kind of like get
something new when it comes to baseball writing great recommendation.

Speaker 1 (01:14:40):
I've not seen him, and I'm definitely going to hot
foot my way over. Okay, well, God it spins around
to me to put the top on after my start
my big run up. I haven't done a big run
up for a while at the start of the pod,
and I kind of spoiled for choice. I mean I
wanted I almost put Jeff Hoffman blowing a kiss at

(01:15:03):
the Orioles Dugout. I thought that was absolutely amazing. I
almost went for the extraordinary starts of the season from
either the second or the actual most handsome man in baseball,
e Jong Ho. It's either him or Atani. Let's be honest.
He's been brilliant and it was such a shame we
didn't get to see him properly in his rookie season.

(01:15:25):
I'm really glad he's going to be a big part
of the Giants because he's a really fun player and
as I said, just very handsome ladin He But no,
I want to talk about Aaron Judge. He has been
announced as the captain of the USA World Baseball Classic
squad for the twenty twenty six tournament. Those of you
who know this podcast well know we're rather big fans

(01:15:45):
of that setup. And Great Britain's going to be back
in the World Baseball Classic again and we are in
the same pool as the World Baseball Classic, as the
USA in the World Baseball Classic, and yeah, that means
that Great Britain's going to get to play Aaron Judge.
I think that's fun. But it's just fun that Aaron
Judge wants to play. He didn't play last time. He

(01:16:06):
was probably the biggest star that didn't play in the
USA squad. Harper did, Mike Trout did so. Yeah, cudos
to Major League Baseball, Cudos to coach de Rosa for
getting Judge to sign up and to take the reins
skippering the squad. It's good that the signature international tournament

(01:16:27):
of the sport should have the best players in it,
and the USA have never quite pulled their white. So
great to see Judge. I'm assuming Russell that you're quite
excited to see whether or not he can get Tyler
Visa out of the infield.

Speaker 2 (01:16:44):
Yeah. That's that's where you kind of think about it.
You're talking about, like, who are these guys. They're going
to get their opportunity to face this and do well.
I think obviously the real fun side to me for
this is that like this is I think an attempt
very early from like there and out de Rosa, like
a few days beforehand. Now announcing like Judge, I think this,

(01:17:05):
I don't know whether it's deliberately or not, will put
pressure on a lot of other players to be like you,
we're gonna freaking take this seriously. We want we want
you involved. I've already seen Tyler Glass now say that
he wants to pitch, which is probably like exactly not
what the Dodgers wanted to happen, But like that's already
basically Tyler Glass now pitched for the Team USA last
last well or Baseball Classical, he would have been their

(01:17:26):
number one pitcher, So like that a.

Speaker 1 (01:17:29):
Bit better than Adam Wine, right, wouldn't That's what.

Speaker 2 (01:17:32):
They were missing. The hitters went last year a few exceptions,
but basically like the pitches didn't, and the pitches you
can sometimes understand why it's just a spring training it's
about to go. It is. But with Otani, with Yamamoto,
with Sasaki, I imagine they're all gonna go play for
Samurai Japan In. So like the Dodgers are going to be,
like our rotation is all basically pitching in the World

(01:17:55):
Baseball Classic.

Speaker 1 (01:17:57):
It's going to be quite difficult for them to say
no to Tayler Glass. So equally, it's going to be
very difficult for the New York Yankees to say no
to Jazz Chisholm when Aaron Judge has been announced, which
is obviously extraordinarily good news for Great Britain. So don't
get injured again, Jazz for crying out loud. We rather
missed you last time.

Speaker 2 (01:18:15):
Yeah, that's the only thing we've got to hope for.
The only major rule, but basically I think is if
they spent more than ninety days on the IL in
the previous season, the team has the right not to
allow the player to go to the tournament. That's pretty
much the only thing that stops it, apart from teams
fucking around with arbitration.

Speaker 1 (01:18:30):
Yeah, so great news that Judge is going to be there,
and fingers crossed for Jazz. I think that's a hopeful
situation for us. We'll be a lot more World Baseball
Classic talk between now and next March. We need to
have a coach. We haven't talked about coach Spencer. We
will talk about Coach Spencer plenty between now and next March.

(01:18:51):
Let's see who the next one's going to be excited
to find out. Maybe I was hoping maybe Mark Durris
would come for us, but you know we can do
better than that. Great Chats, it's been a pleasure as always.
Why when it's you two, is it always long? Gov's
going to be so unhappy yourself? Yeah, exactly, and Rob,

(01:19:16):
it's been a pleasure I would ask you if you're
writing anything, but you're not, so yeah, please like subscribe
to this podcast. It really does help spread the word
in the old algorithm. If you like us, tell a friend.
If you don't like us, don't tell anyone, and we'll
see you again next week. Goodbye.