Episode 375 - Ranking The Top 10 Players in Baseball - Bat Flips And Nerds

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:16):
Hello, and welcome to Batflips and Nerds, the Baseball Podcast
with a British twist. I am your host, Ben Carter,
and I'm joined this evening by one of my regular campadres,
Darius Austin.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Darius, how are you.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
I'm doing all right. I'm looking forward to talking to
some baseball nonsense, some fairly ludicrous stories this week, and yeah,
it should be an interesting one.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
It should be.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
We're also joined by one of our not so regular campadres,
with someone who has been with us before and I'm
sure will be again in future. It's Nick Wright of
La Angels UK MLBUK Clubhouse.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
How are you, Nick?

Speaker 4 (00:51):
I'm very good, very tired, but very good. I did
the tripleheader this week, staying out for the two forty
am starts against the Blue Jays, so I've done all
three of them this week.

Speaker 5 (01:01):
So yeah, very fresh.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Ready to true sicko for staying up for the Angels.
I have to say that is more than I can
muster for my Rockies. But hopefully we're not cutting into
your nap time now in doing this and you're able
to catch the game a bit later tonight.

Speaker 5 (01:18):
Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
I mean we'll see it is not the most enticing
matchup right now, so we'll see how it. Guys, it's Friday,
nothing really to get up for on a Saturday morning,
so actually probably be rude, not too, wouldn't it.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
That's a spirit.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
We've got some fun stuff to talk about today. We're
going to talk, as Darius said, through some some recent
baseball stories, some teams that are good, some teams that
are are not good, and we're going to finish it
off with kind of a fun discussion around who are
the ten best players in baseball? Which sounds like a
very simple question, but I think also is quite a
complex question. So we're going to get into that and

(01:53):
a bit of a debate around that. So let's kick off,
I guess with a few of the news stories. I'm
going to go back a little bit for the first
one because I don't think we've podcasted since the news broke.
But GB Baseball will announced their new head coach. It
will be Brad Marcellino, who is hising coordinator for the
Arizona Diamondbacks. A former GB player, he has been a

(02:14):
long time sort of coach and assistant in the GB
system too. I think has done several tournaments with them,
including the previous WBC very well respected, it seems within
the organization and within within the game. I'm not going
to pretend to know a lot about about Brad, but
I know guys like Russan and John have have met
him and speak very highly of him, and that everyone
within the game seems to see this as a good hire.

(02:36):
Any strong thoughts from neither of you guys on on
Brad or does this just seem like a very sensible
move for a team that they needed to make a
decision quite quickly.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
Yeah, I mean Brad's got a long history with the
GB setup, played for US for a long time, well
respected coaching career. You know, he's been with the Mariners,
with the Dbacks currently, and yeah, it's been around the
GB setup for a long time. So everybody I know
who's been with that team and around it has spoken
very highly of him. So I think he's got a

(03:07):
lot of useful experience to bring. You know, he's been there,
he's done that. He's been either on the team or
coaching with the team for a long time. So yeah,
sad to see Drew go. We all know what a
great guy Drew was, But as we saw with Liam
before him and Drew picking up that mantle. I think
Brad's a great person to step in and take over
that position and really take this team to the next level.

Speaker 4 (03:28):
Yeah, I think it's just really it's just a smart move.
I mean, it's been a system that's been on the up.
We all saw what happened at the last WBC. We've
seen what Drew has been able to do with Team
GB and getting them to this place where it was
just getting a bit more recognition. Isn't it a bit
more impetus behind it? We all know it's slow progress
and we all want to see it climb quicker. But
getting that person in who knows the system, knows what's

(03:51):
been doing well and could probably just carry that on.

Speaker 5 (03:54):
I think it's just smart.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
And as you say, everyone I've spoken to that has
met him, had a conversation with him, says he's the
right choice, and I trust their judgment and John's as well.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
I don't know about John's judgment, but we'll let this
one slide. Yeah, big shoester fill. Of course, in less
than twelve months until the WBC, there's you know, the
Olympics looming large in the background. So yeah, it's a
big job for bad Steppinty, but like you say, it's
a sensible higher. He seems like the right man for
the job, and we obviously wish him the best and
hopefully we'll get him on to the podcast and chat
with him at some point soon once once he settled

(04:25):
into the role a little bit. In other baseball news,
a couple of stories this week. The Pirates were the
first to move in the sacking the manager department. I
don't know who had where they were in the betting
ods or who had them to go first with this,
but Derek Shelton is the unfortunate man who loses his
job only, you know, a month into the season. Bench
coach Don Kelly, I think one time Tiger's legend possibly

(04:48):
other teams is in as the new manager, and I
think he's been named the sort of permanent manager rather
than just an interim, which obviously a big leap of
faith in him. Pirates obviously off to a rough start.
This would be happening if they weren't. Was this a
bit knee jerk for you, Darius, or is this a
matter of them, you know, having sort run their course
with Shelton.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
I mean, I think this is Bob Nothing trying to
do something that makes him appear like he cares about
the team's success without actually spending any money. Basically, I
don't know why this would be the time to decide that,
you know, it's the end of the line, as opposed
to any other point in the past five years. I
think they've won a maximum of seventy six games in

(05:31):
that period, and so yeah, it's just, oh, let's try
and appear like we're doing something to get the team going.
The parents aren't going anywhere. They're not going to spend
any money to go anywhere, they're not going to make
any trades to go anywhere. But firing the manager is
an easy way to look like you are doing something.
So I think that's all is. I'm sure not much
is going to change with Don Kelly. Yeah, Tiger's legend

(05:51):
are very well respected to go around the game from
what I understand, But yeah, I don't think this is
going to make a big difference to the Pirate's fortunes.

Speaker 5 (05:58):
Agree more, and I mean they have even mean trying
to win.

Speaker 4 (06:01):
That's the point. I mean, we know this across the
major leagues. We see it all the time where guys
are ready to come up, guys are ready to contribute,
Guys are better than the people you have in the majors,
but they don't. Bubba Chandler being the prime example, right,
they've held him down. He's absolutely dominating in the minors,
and yet he's still there this Pirates team. I know
that actually pitching's are not really their problem, and hitting

(06:22):
very much is. However, just solidify that area, get him
in there with schemes. I mean, why not, right at
this point if you're trying to win, but they don't
seem to be. And as Darius says, it's a bit
of a desperation move to try and show something, show
that he cares, show that they're trying to win. But
in reality, anybody that's got half a brain cell and
follows the team or follows baseball can see that it

(06:44):
is just that.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, I'm never sure how much impact managers have any way.
To be honest, I'm sure it's more about, you know,
clubhouse chemistry and how well the guys respect them and
kind of keeping a group together over the course of
a very long, arduous season. So yeah, it very much
feels like window dressing. Doesn't it made a change. Things
will be different now, but like you say, the fundamental
flaws with that franchise stay the same, and it's a
shame because they have very exciting players as your reference.

(07:07):
But yeah, looking like another fairly lost season for them.
We'll see how Don Kelly gets on. Good luck to him.
It doesn't seem likely. This is the beginning of a
sort of Pittsburgh Pirates renaissance. Our final story a more
sort of light hearted one, I guess, depending on whether
you're a Red Sox fan or not. Last night, there
were some pretty explosive quotes that came out in the press.

(07:28):
I don't have the exact phrase in front of me,
and I think, actually it is a point of contention
about how well translated these quotes have been in the
press that Raphael Devers gave after the game last night.
I believe the crux of it is there's a conversation
that was had between him and their general manager around
him moving to first base. Obviously, long term injury to
Tristan kas who also missed a lot of time last year,

(07:49):
Redzocks had got a major hole there. I think the
idea was that he could potentially fill in there, especially
with Bregman obviously holding down the fourth third. There was
the whole debarkle One's bring training about him dhing that
sort of blew over. It's now exploded again with him
saying something to the effect of, I don't think it'd
be a good idea. I would need time to prepare
for it. I'm not very comfortable with doing that. That

(08:11):
has sort of turned into Devi's refuses to play. First,
He's a selfish player. The way the Boston media loves
to run with these stories, Nick, is this an overreaction
or is this raffie Devers taking his money and taking
his ball home and not wanting to play.

Speaker 4 (08:24):
That's exactly what I was going to say. It's exactly
what it is. And I think this speaks to the
problem of guarantee contracts in baseball, and there's pros and
cons to it, and we see it in other sports.
You see in the NFL the loyalty and how they
can cut players and they're not performing, but also ask
them to restructure with loads of money left on the table.
In baseball, they can't. He's got this contract, he's got
this money whatever. He doesn't have to perform to get it.

(08:46):
I see it, and I speak as someone that's seen
this franchise where we've had players come in. Anthony Rendin
the prime example, he got his bag and he didn't
care anymore. He didn't need to. He dictated every terms
when he didn't want to play when he was brew.
I'm not playing baseball and Devas. I'm not saying Devas
is going down that path because Devis can still perform
at a pretty high level, but he doesn't need to.

(09:09):
He does have the incentive now to go out there
and do whatever the manager wants and help the team
in that way. Some players have it, some players don't.
And I think what we saw in the off season,
what we see now is Devis just doesn't have that
same drive and desire and willingness to be a team
player and to win as others we've seen in history.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
It's one thing, Darius for Devis to not want to
play first or DH whatever it might be. He wouldn't
be the first star player who wants to play on
his turn to a certain Derek Gea comes to mind.
He wasn't keen on moving positions. But it is something
different to maybe air that out in the press in
the way that Devers has quite publicly now and not
keep this behind closed doors. He's effectively, you know, gone
into the face of Craig Breslo and basically ed out

(09:48):
their dirty laundry in public. Is that more a concerned
to you than any of the actual detail around where
he plays and how comfortable he is at that position.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
Yeah, I think so, not just from Davis's side. I
don't think we talked about this, you know, early in
the season when it was the Bregman controversy, and we said, like,
somebody should have had this conversation before it got out
in the press. You know, it shouldn't have been this
this situation. Somebody should have briefed him. There should have
been a chat.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
You know.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
It didn't seem like it had been handled well. Then
the espionation over the Monster blog did have some clarifying comments.
Somebody who obviously speaks Spanish had actually had a go
at listening to the interview themselves, and they kind of
suggested that maybe the you know, the initial comments about
first base were slightly overblown in that I think he
was trying to say, I've never played first base, so

(10:37):
I'm not going to be able to do it right away.
But the stuff about the front office is, you know,
not a mistranslation. He was clearly taking a shot at Breslo,
basically saying, you guys should go and sign a first basement.
That's your problem, you know, Romey Gonzalez, Abraham Torro probably
not the answer long term. And I think he's saying,

(10:59):
you know, you shouldn't expect me to learn first base
on the fly when you should. You know, the organization,
the Boston Red Sox have enough resources to just go
out and get somebody. I think that's what he's trying
to get over that said, you know, he could just
try and learn to play first base. It would be
a good configuration for them, especially with Yashida hopefully coming

(11:19):
back at some point. Even just having the DH spot
for them to rotate would be beneficial. I think given
the amount of talent they've got with Maya and Anthony
still in the miners, you know, just having that option.
At the moment, they're looking pretty stuck with a lot
of these guys. They don't have places to play them.
If Devis could play first then they would have a
lot of flexibility. So I think it would really help

(11:39):
them a lot and he doesn't seem that interested in
doing it to help them out. Now. I don't know
the extent to which the relationship has broken down between
him and Breslow. I don't think he's got a problem
with Korra, doesn't sound like he's got a problem with
any of his teammates, So on that front, I think
it's probably okay. But yeah, it's not a great situation.

(12:00):
And the only silver lining is that he doesn't seem
to be actually affecting his performance on the field, you know,
if he's just hitting like he always does, So that's
that's the plus side. But I think at some point
Romean Gonzalez is going to stop hitting like an All
star and then they're going to have to make a
difficult decision about what they're doing here. Do they go
and get somebody to other just say here's the first place,
go Rafi, go and go and play over there.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
There's one thing that Moneyball taught us, it's that it's
normally easy to play first base. Yeah, I think yeah,
Nix's manager actually was the person who came out with
the with that line or lines to that effect in
the movie. But it's interesting with the Red Sox I
don't know if you guys have watched it, but the
documentary about their their season last year on Netflix. I
am almost through it now, going very slowly. I'd say

(12:42):
Devers is conspicuous by how inconspicuous he is in that
he barely features at all, given he is their star player.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Again, that might be a language thing.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
He's not comfortable being interviewed in English or even Spanish
flag matter and being mistranslated, as it seems like may
have happened a couple of times this year. But he
certainly doesn't play a big role, whereas Bresway very much does,
and maybe there is just a slight tension there between
those two, you know. I think Cora is particularly well
loved by that team and especially the Latin players, who
obviously has a very good relationship with. But maybe there
is a little bit more friction between the front office

(13:12):
and Breslon in particular, and some of those players then
is let on and it's not great if that starts
to air out in public. Not a good sign for
the team if you know your star player is calling
on you to to take action and sign someone, so
we'll see what comes of it. Not a great sign,
but as you say, if Devis continues to hit, and
he has done since that horrible stretch to start the season,
then I imagine it it'll work its way through. Before

(13:34):
we get into our sort of top ten discussion, I
thought we could have a look at some overforming and
underperforming teams, or good teams of band teams as I've
called them in a running order. Let's start with some
good teams. The Seattle Mariners. They are on fire. I
believe this is their best start to a season since
two thousand and three. They have a lineup that seems
to be able to hit, led by Big Dumper himself

(13:57):
fifty one home runs as a team, fourth and major
League Baseball that was act as of yesterday at least,
do they finally have a lineup that can hit? And
obviously for a long time we talked about how good
their rotation is and continues to be, and they do
even have reinforcement on the way in the pitching department
as well. Nick, you obviously get to see them play
a lot every season. Should we be taking the Mariners
for real? Or is this another mirage in what feels

(14:17):
like two decades of mirages for the Mariners?

Speaker 4 (14:21):
I think it's somewhere in the middle. I think you
can take them seriously. I think they're a good team.
I think you also know that ultimately they will let
you down when it comes to the crunch. I think
one thing is pretty consistent over the years is the
Mariners don't quite reach the heights that some people expect
them to. I mean, this is a weird season though,
because this offseason, I know Maris fans were pretty despondent

(14:41):
at the sort of moves that they were making, didn't
feel like they were making any real effort to improve,
felt very light on the hitting front, and just thought
that this was a team that was going to be
so reliant on its pitching that actually they're going to
lose too many close games because they don't have those
big hits. And it hasn't panned out like that so far.
As you say, col Rally just looks like the best

(15:02):
catcher in baseball are both both sides of the ball.

Speaker 5 (15:05):
They are a good team.

Speaker 4 (15:06):
I do expect they're hitting to slow down a little bit.
I don't think the preseason expectations were that far wrong
on what the lineup looks like as it's constructed, But
you never know. As we know, you can get a
bit of momentum in baseball and it takes you a
long way. Clearly, the confidence is up. Clearly that rotation
is legitimate, and there are pieces to come back into it.
So I think the Mariners are a playoff team. I

(15:29):
think they're going to be right up there in the
division all year. I mean, I don't think the division
is as strong as maybe at the top end, as
some people thought it could be, although they're all relatively
good teams other than US, I don't know how strong
it is, but I think let's wait and see. With
the Mariners, I think they're good. I don't think they
will get over the line when it comes to playoff time,
but I think they're probably just enjoying it right now.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
It does feel like this is going to make the
inevitable September slump that much more painful, doesn't it, Darius?
Is there reason to believe this is sustain this is
for real?

Speaker 3 (16:03):
I mean they were especially bad last year. They seem
to have maybe fixed a little bit of their strikeout issue.
You know, they had some turnover at hitting coach, but
you know, juje planco is hitting way over his head.
I don't expect JP Crawford to have a four or
eight OBP at the end of the season. You know,
you don't look at this line up and go, oh, yeah,
these guys are doing what I expect them to do. Yeah,

(16:26):
Judio is probably gonna have a bit of line at
the end of the year. But apart from that, you
pretty much expect everybody else to go in the opposite direction.
So I don't see where the reinforcements are coming from.
They've kind of had a couple of injuries as well.
You know, Luke Rody was starting to hit well and
then he went down. They've obviously got Ryan Bliss. You know,
for most of the season, there's not a lot of

(16:46):
hitting depth in the miners for this team. And is
Jerry going to go and make a trade to boss
of this lineup? History has said no basically, So yeah,
I think they're going to fall off. The good news
their pitching hasn't been that good, I suppose, And if
Kirby comes back and Gilbert comes back and they pitch
like aces, then you maybe this looks more like the

(17:08):
Mariners we expected, and they might have already got enough
wins in the bank to get over the line. But
we don't have much confidence in this team doing what
it takes to say, let's go out, and being not
a five win team, you know they're going to sit
on their hands. I think and hope that this is
what they've got is enough?

Speaker 2 (17:25):
Sounds about right.

Speaker 5 (17:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
I have a bit of a soft spot for the Mariners,
so I do hope they're able to to hold on
and make it through and then that horrible streak, but
history is not on their side. Another team I have
a soft spot four, much more publicly than New York Mets.
They look like the team to beat in the NLAST
right now. They run the French Show. I believe it's
the best in the National League. They are hitting particularly well.

(17:48):
I think their line up was good on paper. It
looks even better to start the season, partly because Peter
Lonzo has turned into Babury's reincarnate with a two o
one WRC plus making that contact look very good already.
And that's with yeah, one say to you're not really
getting out of first gear yet on the hitting side.
So have you been impressed with with what you've seen
from the Mets? I mean again, another team where heartbreaks

(18:09):
seems to always be around the corner. But it feels
like with the rotation that's sort of surviving a lot
of the injuries they had in pre season, and a
lineup that's starting to click, they could well be, you know,
up there with with the Phillies at the end of
the year, and obviously can take advantage of the fact that
the Braves have been pretty sluggish to start the year.

Speaker 5 (18:24):
Nick, yeah, I must have been.

Speaker 4 (18:27):
I haven't watched too much of Mets baseball, but have
seen the results coming in and seen some of the
stuff in social media. And Pete Alonso for example, he
couldn't have landed back in a better spot. I mean,
all the talk of him trying to go elsewhere and
get more money elsewhere, this was the team for him.
This was the place to be and surely there's going
to be an opt out again. I think he can
opt out Karnie in the winter. You'd have thought he's

(18:49):
going to want a proper long term contract here. He
kind of got that halfway house contract, lots of money
up front, but not the long term security. But he
looks great when Sota. I'm not actually surprised he's had
a slowish start, but it's just that it's slow ish, right,
It's still good. He's still a very good baseball player.
He's still going to be an exceptional baseball player for
the Mets for a very long period of time. We

(19:10):
know that there. You don't just suddenly fall off when
you're that talented. So I think they've got to be
excited that once Soto finds his feet a bit within that,
that they've just got more to come. And I think, yeah,
I mean, I think the Mets are legitimate. I don't
think that division. I think that division is quite fragile
as well. I mean I think the Phillies are quite fragile.
They seem very up and down at the moment. I

(19:30):
think they can go on some hot streaks, but also
can go on some cold ones as well. So yeah,
I think if you're a Mets fan and you're looking
at where the team is now and what's to come,
I think you've got to be excited that it feels
like they might have found the right formula this year.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
Gone, Darius put some cold water on us. This rotation
is not going to keep going like this forever. It's
going to fall apart at some point. There'll be injuries,
Thendor can't continue like this. Alonzo can't continue like this, Canny.

Speaker 3 (19:57):
I don't think Alonso can continue like this. No, I
mean Lindor is lind Or. It's unusual for him to
have a decent start, to be fair, Normally he starts
super slow and then turns it on later. Yeah. I
don't think Peter Alongso is going to have a you know,
two hundred WRC plus all season, probably not going to happen.
He might still drive in one hundred and forty, you know,

(20:17):
but based on where he's sitting in the lineup, you
would you would kind of expect that if you've got
Lindor and so so ahead of you, that that's kind
of be expected. Yeah, I think the rotation is probably
not going to hold up. It's it's not an all
star cast, is it, Like you know, Tyler mcgillige in
number three.

Speaker 4 (20:36):
It's it's it's kind of Griffin Cannings in there.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
Gryffin Canning's pitching all right, Yeah, but you know again.

Speaker 5 (20:43):
That will fall off.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
Claim is not going to pitch hundred and eighty innings,
is it? Griffin Canning is not going to pitch hundred
and eighty innings. Where is this rotation in mid August?
That's what I'm looking at here, Like there could be
a lot of holes. Code I think obviously missed most
of last season. Yeah, it's it's good dicey. I would
expect this team to go out of the deadline and
try and get a big, big name, you know, who
can we count on. Who's who's pitching for a team,

(21:08):
who's out of it, who we know is going to
make thirty two starts. I think that's what this team
needs to really kind of cement themselves because that that
is where the weakness is. Tyler Anderson to me, pitching great,
Tyler Anderson, Yeah, no problem. It always goes out there,
takes the ball every firth day, can count.

Speaker 5 (21:29):
What they need.

Speaker 3 (21:32):
So yeah, that that's where it's going to fall apart.
I think, you know, I have no concerns about lind Or,
no concerns about Soto. Alonso is going to do what
he does. That the lineup is solid. But yeah, I
think that that rotation you could see them going into
the playoffs and being like, who is the top three here?
Because it looks sweet.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
It does, let's let's get across up pigeon we get
to it.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
It's my view.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
Let's talk a little bit about the Tigers and maybe
just about the Al Central, which has gone from being
you know, the worst vision in baseball to the best.
Question mark. The Tigers look great. They now have the
best run to friendship in baseball. Don't know how much
credit we give them for that, because they just put
about forty runs past the Rockies in the last three nights.
But we'll get onto them later. But the Tigers look
for real. You know that the heavy Bayer's renaissance, I

(22:17):
think greatly enjoying in center field. He looks very much
at home out there. He's actually hitting for once. What
looked like one of the worst contracts in baseball is
maybe starting to come around a little bit. Although again,
you know, five weeks worth of sample size, don't want
to read too much into that. But we know that
there's you know, weapons at the top of this rotation.
We know that the lineup has some upside to it.

(22:37):
Is there reason to think that, you know, the Tigers
have kind of made that jump into being competitive that
they basically showed they could do last year at the
end of the season, Darius.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
I think there are bits of this, you can believe
in Spencer Tougilson seems to have finally figured it out.
You know, the promise if you'd said this, and having
three years ago, I don'tbody we've been surprised. I think now,
given that we've seen all the struggles, is somewhat more surprising.
But this is the kind of offensive player people thought
he would be when he got drafted, and it's just
taken him a really long time to figure it out.

(23:08):
Avi Baias has always been a tremendously fun player to watch,
but I don't think an awful lot has changed. You know,
he's got an insane babbi and I think the offensive
production is going to create her. The good news is
it seems to have taken well to playing center very quickly.
He's always been immenseally talented at everything other than making
contact with the baseball, so I believe in that that

(23:29):
part of it. You know, I think he can be
a useful utility guy. But I think if you're counting
on him to hit like this the rist of the way,
you're probably going to be pretty disappointed. They've arguably got
the best starting picture in baseball on the team that
never hurts and yeah, I think I think the lineup
is a concern. You know, it gets thin pretty fast.

(23:50):
It's a lot of mixing and matching. They've got some
injury concerns in there from some of the better guys
as well. So yeah, I'm not like a big believer
in the Tigers that this level of production. But can
they win this division? Can they make the playoffs? Absolutely
with someone do it last year and I think they've
probably had a worse team last year, So yeah, I

(24:10):
think they can. They can do it, And I think
the Ale Center is not super strong despite you know,
the run totals, the win totals, at the moment, I
think it's still pretty weak division. So yeah, it's going
to be a right for the Tigers. I think they'll
be competitive all year, but maybe tempered the expectations offensively
a little bit.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
The other team in that division getting headlines right now
I'm representing them today is the Royals, who have been
on the great run of late. I think they've won
fifteen of seventeen. Again, maybe you can point us some
of their opponents over that stretch as a reason for that,
but certainly, you know they're showing they're going to hang
around and be competitive. We spoke a little bit about
questioning how sustainable their formances last year were when they had,

(24:50):
you know, two young candidates and a ten win season
from Bobby Witt. But it looks like Bobby Whitt's going
to be just a ten win player going forward, and
that rotation still has really good pictures in it. Reagans
looks great again. Are the guys that have stepped up
and performed as well?

Speaker 2 (25:03):
Nick? Can you see?

Speaker 1 (25:04):
Yeah, the Royals and Tiger's basically becoming the cream of
the crop in that division where you maybe thought it
was going to be the Guardians and Twins at the
start of the year.

Speaker 5 (25:11):
I think yes, you can.

Speaker 4 (25:12):
But at the same time, I would hate to rule
out the Guardians at this point. I mean, you just
can't do it. You know what you're gonna get from them,
and they will be in and around it. The Tigers
I've seen recently. I mean, I think I've had the
same experience as you. We ended the three game We
did actually win one of the games, but in the
other two we lost nine to one and the other
one we lost thirteen to one. So that I've seen
those level of performances but I think it's hard to

(25:35):
judge when they're playing the Rockies and the Angels, but
they do have a good rotation. They have the best
pitcher in baseball. Their number five guy went against us,
which is Rues Olsen, and I think he's not really
a number five on a lot of teams. He's got
stuff to be much better than that. So promising on
both sides of ball. The Royals, again, when you've got
someone like Bobby Witt that can just set the table
and just run a team in a way that not

(25:57):
many players in baseball can and just be such a
dominant figure. And as you said, if you've got a
few frontline starters as well, you don't need much. I
don't think in the majors these days to go on
a semi good run, and that is like a platform
for them to do it. So I think both teams
are going to be good this year. I think both
teams are going to be battling it out. I do
find it hard to analyze the Tigers without putting that

(26:18):
Jed lens on everything. I can't see anything without seeing
his perspective, which does sort of taint it a little bit.

Speaker 5 (26:27):
But I think they're good teams. They're good baseball teams.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
He does dominate my ex time and every morning it's
one of the first things I see is how the
Tigers got on last night because we've got, you know,
some Jed tweet that went viral, which I do enjoy seeing.
I don't know how where he gets his sleep either.
With apologies to some of the other good teams in baseball,
we're going to move on some of the bad teams now.
And I thought i'd let maybe let you take it away, Nick.
With the Angels, it's been a weird season for them

(26:52):
so far. Big SI there, I think sums it up. Well,
what's your current mindset when it comes to this team
and what's the sort of planned for the rest of
the year as far as they're concerned.

Speaker 4 (27:02):
I mean, I think you've caught me on a slightly
better day than some only that we have just won
a series against the Blue Jays, who should be on
this bad team list. Quite frankly, I mean, I think
the Angels are what the Angels are. And I said
at the start of the season, I predicted a sixty
five win season. I think you guys predicted something very
similar to that, maybe even that. I just think people

(27:23):
got carried away from the good start. Me too, and
I think you need to enjoy it when it happens.
But ultimately, there is not enough talent on this team
to sustain any level of performance for any length of time.
The franchise is flawed. The owner is one of the
worst owners in baseball. They don't spend enough money on scouting,
they don't spend enough money on development. There's a reason
why we're having to rush players from the college into

(27:46):
the major league team. And actually that's how a level
of success. I have to shout out Zach Netto at
this point, who is a genuinely, really good baseball player,
probably a perennial All Star at some point when he
gets when he gets properly developed. Really like him. Shanuel's
kind of like meh. Doesn't hit for any power, hits
a lot of balls on the ground. The rotation's pretty average.

(28:07):
Like the ballpen is horrendous, and that's where we've been
losing games a lot of time. I think it's the
worst era in baseball by quite a considerable distance in
the ball and actually I think Ron Washington the game's
passed him by. Great coach not a good manager. Some
of the decision making is awful. But yeah, the Angels
are a bad baseball team. Fundamentally, there is some talent

(28:28):
on there, and I think the frustrating thing this year
was we were hoping to see the steps be made
with that young talent. Logan o Hoppy also very good player,
Zach Netto, good player Taylor Ward's an above average outfield.
Hopefully Mike Trout was going to be back, but Trout's
another one. I mean, he's injured again. Hopefully this injury
isn't too bad, but he's now effectively just hitting home

(28:48):
runs and singles and then striking out a lot.

Speaker 5 (28:50):
That's it.

Speaker 4 (28:52):
Yeah, it's tough, and I just don't see any way
they make any steps forward. Like there's ten years without
the playoffs. It could easily be another ten and nobody
would be surprised because the Angels aren't doing the things
you're supposed to do when you're bad. Right, We've got
the number two pick in the draft this year, and
I guarantee we go under slot. I guarantee we try

(29:12):
and save money for elsewhere when you just need an
infusion of real talent. But they just make bad decision
after bad decision anyway.

Speaker 1 (29:20):
Yeah, it sounds sounds depressingly familiar. I'm afraid to say
I was going to say, we'd be remiss not to
talk a bit about about Mike Trout. I think, obviously,
like you say, it was a bit of an odd
start to the season. It is hitting for a lot
of power, but maybe not showing his usual plate discipline.
And now the injury and we have seen this before,
having Darius Ware and initially downplayed injury then leads to
an il stint, then leads to we're not sure when

(29:41):
he's going to be back, and look touch Wood, he
will be back fairly soon. And this is just an
abundance of precaution, which makes sense given how it's been lately.
But it does feel like here we go again a
little bit with Trout, doesn't it, Especially from a health perspective,
but also from a you know, he's entering the back
of his career anyway, and maybe we should expect to
see performance decline too.

Speaker 3 (29:59):
Yeah, I think you know, you've sort of always been
able to hang your hat on Oh well, but he's
on the field. It's still been you know, elite level
Mike Trout, and now we're starting to see the cracks
there as well, and we have reached that point where
your your baseline expectation is when he's just going to
be out for the season, even though they're saying, oh,
it's fine, but they've done this. This is, you know,

(30:19):
third fourth time. It's not that serious. I remember writing
about this for BP anual I think three or four
years ago when he I think it might have been
a knee injury or I can't remember which injury it was.
There's been so many, but it was kind of like
Joe Madam was just I was coming back, He's coming back,
He's coming back. Oh, actually he's not coming back.

Speaker 5 (30:40):
I think that was the calf injury.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
That was the calf injury.

Speaker 5 (30:42):
He has the calf one that just went on and
on and on.

Speaker 3 (30:44):
Yeah, and it was like May and then he ended
up being out of the season. So I hope this
isn't the same thing. But at the same time, it's
kind of like, well, yeah, is this just what Mike
Trout is now? You know, are we ever going to
get you know, one hundred and twenty games again, I'm
not expecting one hundred and fifty games anymore. I'm just like,
can we get three quarters of a season? Can we

(31:05):
get fifty percent of a season? That would be a
good result at this point in time, which is a
sad thing to say. Obviously he's a Hall of Famer,
but yeah, at this point in time, I just I
don't expect anything. Anything we get it's gravy, but I
think it's it's all downhill from here. Really.

Speaker 4 (31:21):
Yeah, it's such a shame because I mean, that first
period of his career, it was on course to be
the greatest of all time, almost like it was just
an incredible start to his career. And these injuries have
just cost us and I think that's the thing they've
cost not just me as an Angels fan, They've cost
baseball one of the all time greats from having that
second half of his career well actually, where we've seen

(31:42):
some of the all time greats get stronger and stronger
and grow into it. And it is just such a
shame where Mike is and I think we just have
to be realistic. He still has that level of aura
when he's on the field, he still carries himself well,
but I would like to question the Angels tactics with
him again, right, They've moved into right field this year
to lighten the load. Fine, they have daged him a

(32:04):
bit when they wouldn't have done previously. He's played in
twenty nine out of twenty nine games before he got injured. Right,
What part of we're gonna try and you know, hold
him back a little bit so that we can have
him later in the season. What part of that is
playing him in every single game, Even if you are
dhing him, it's still putting a strain on his body.
And this one was ridiculous, Like he got bone Bruis

(32:26):
running down the line and putting his foot on the
back and it just the.

Speaker 5 (32:30):
Impact gave him a bone Brew. It's like the guy
is just injury prone.

Speaker 4 (32:34):
Unfortunately, he's carrying a lot of timber on an athletic frame,
but it just doesn't seem to be working for him anymore.

Speaker 5 (32:41):
And it's so sad. It's sad.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
Yeah, yeah, Mike Trout's one of my favorite players and
always will be. But yeah, it's sad to see him
not able to make it onto the field as much
so Touchwood. In a week or so's time, he'll be
he'll be back out there and it'll all be you know,
us being paranoid, but you do. Yeah, you do always
fear for the worst, given recent history. Speaking the worst
in recent history. Let's talk a little bit about the
Colorado Rockies. I usually try to skip over them just

(33:05):
because it's boring to talk about them, and I don't
think anyone wants to. But I feel like the level
of utility they've reached this season means we kind of
have to talk about them a little bit. They are
doing a very good reenactment of the twenty twenty four
White Sox, if not worse, I think they're on pace
for something in the thirties win wise. They got blown
out in double headed yesterday by the Tigers. Their rotation

(33:28):
is moribund. The lineup is just a bunch of guys
you either never heard of or didn't realize weren't playing
in Triple A somewhere. This is not a serious baseball team.
A lot of what you were saying rang very true
for me, Nick, in terms of just not taking this
the way that you know good functioning franchises do, all
the way from ownership to the front offish, to front

(33:48):
office to coaching. Yeah, this organization is truly broken, and
this does feel now or at least this season, like
the very Nader the bottom of where they could get to,
and sad to see because I think it's a town
that wants to support a good baseball team. It's an
amazing stadium, they have some very nice uniforms. They have
had superstar players play for them. They don't now because

(34:10):
they've given them away. But you know, it's just sad
to see the team get to this point and it
makes you wonder, yeah, almost what the future of the
sport is for this team because they've not made it
to the playoffs in you know, going on ten years now,
they've never won the division. Are they ever going to
be competitive? I genuinely question it a little bit now, Darius.
I don't know if you had any chance to watch

(34:31):
the Rockies. I hope for your sake you haven't. Do
they feel like one of the teams that could be
in contention for worst of all time because that's what
their record suggests.

Speaker 3 (34:39):
Yeah, they kind of do. At this point. They're actually
on pace for twenty six wins six which, like the
White Socks, are almost as terrible as they were last season,
and nobody is talking about them because the Rockies are
so bad They have the second worst OPS in the Magees,
just ahead of the White Sogs playing in corse Field.
Not ops plus, just ops six twenty three ops. They're

(35:01):
hitting two eleven as a team, the team that plays
in Corsfield. It is unbelievable how bad they are. And
you know, we did not expect this. I think it
was Tom that throughout the win total that was ludicrously
high on the prediction pod, and you immediately shot it
down and said they are losing one hundred and now

(35:23):
it looks like we should have just said one hundred
and twenty straight off the bat. Yeah, I don't see
where the upside is coming from this team. Do I
expect them to win twenty six games? No, it's really
hard to win only twenty six games. Nobody's ever been
that bad in the history of baseball. But if we
are sat here in mid September going, oh, the Rocket's
going to be worse than the White Sox last year,

(35:43):
I will not be surprised one bit. There is not
a lot of upside here. You're not looking at the
team going oh, he's going to get better, and you
know they'll get this guy back and it'll be great.
Like I don't know where that's coming from.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
I mean, their best hitter is a man called Hunter Goodman,
who I'm assuming listeners to this podcast have never heard
of batting a certain mickey moniac and the cleanup spot
in some games. Nick, I'm sure you can attest to
what a terrible idea that is.

Speaker 4 (36:06):
The fact that you took a player released by the
Angels at the end of spring and stuck in forth
in your lineup should say everything you need to do
about the Rockies. I just wonder what implication this level
of fucking has for the next CBA. I mean, there's
certain teams here that just don't have any sort of

(36:26):
pathway it scenes to being good baseball teams again. And actually,
how long is that sustainable? How long can you have
this sort of two tier MLB? Almost And I guess
there are examples. You can look at someone like the
A's to terribly mismanage off the field, But the one
thing they do do well is replenish their farm system
and get them back into the major league teams to

(36:46):
sell them off again. They do that fairly well. But
I do wonder at some point whether this does become
a conversation we hear it all the time, don't we
about salary floor, salary cap. You hear like some of
the discussion about it, But I don't know if this
level of is sustainable to keep this level of bad
teams that maintain how bad they are.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
Yeah, I think it will become a point of contention
for sure. And like you say, it's the Rockies do
actually spend some money badly. They spend it badly, but
they do spend it sometimes. It's just the player development
is atrocious, you know, even the exciting young players. Chase
Durlander looks as shallow of himself already, Zack Ben's been terrible.
So yeah, they just can't seem to develop good players.
And so it'll be interesting to see what comes of it.
If they continue to be on at twenty eight win pace,

(37:28):
this conversation might pick up some steam in terms of,
you know, what needs to be done urgently to address this.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
But we'll see, it's a long season.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
They'll find wins along the way, but it's yeah, it's
a depressing time to be a baseball fan in Denver.

Speaker 2 (37:40):
Let's finish our bad teams.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
Then with the Orioles, who, unlike the two previous teams,
we mentioned probably came into the season with a lot
more hope and expectation for what they would be able
to achieve this year, given how strong their roster was
given performances in the last couple of years. But it's
been an April and early May to forget for the Oriols,
hasn't it, Darius. I think injuries have certainly paid a factor.
But even some of the you know, players at the

(38:02):
top of their lineup that they would expect to be
MVP stars haven't really hit yet. And the rotation that
we all criticize at the start of the season has
looked every bit as bad as we might have feared.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
So is this cause for genuine concern?

Speaker 5 (38:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (38:17):
I think so. They're in one of the harder divisions
in baseball. You know, you can't afford to get out
to this kind of start and expect, you know, the
Yankees to give you a free pass and let you
back into the division. That's not going to happen if
you're looking for silver linings. Yes, I think the lineup
is going to hit better. You know, Gunna Henderson is
going to hit better than he's hits so far. I

(38:39):
think Adlie will hit better than he's hits so far.
But at the same time, you look at that rotation
and we did you know, it wasn't a surprise to
anybody that this this was a weak group and the
fact that Grayson Rodriguez went down has only made things worse.
But now Charley Morton is absolutely one hundred percent cooked,

(39:02):
Zach Eflyn's been hurt, which, yeah, again, you know, when
you don't have that depth, then it gets really really thin,
really fast. And now yeah it's Tamuki Sigano the number
one starter, and this is a guy who like barely
strikes up more than he walks. Yeah, sure, he's like
a fine you know, number four, number five, like prop

(39:23):
up the back of the rotation guy, and you're like,
can we count on him? And Kyle Gibson. This is
not the rotation of a team that should be contending
for the World Series. It's not even close. You know,
they need arguably three four guys in here. So yeah,
Eflyn's going to come back this weekend, I think. But
what Moreton has done, who knows what's gonna happen with Rodriguez?

(39:44):
And is Michael Las going to finally say let's trade
some prospects let's go and get a high end picture,
because that's what they need. I think the lineup will
come around, but it might might already be too late,
and if it's not, I think they need to do
something relatively quickly. I don't think it's any point wait
until the end of July to see if this useless
group is going to turn it around, because where's the upside.

(40:06):
You know, the Ciganov has done surprisingly well so far,
but he's got a cape and ie less than five. Like,
this is old school baseball stuff. It's not going to
hold up the long term. So yeah, I think the
Oriols are in trouble. They're in a lot of trouble.
And this is when they should really be, you know,
in there. They should be in the mix. They should
be in the playoffs every season. And these guys are

(40:27):
going to get expensive soon as well. You know, Henderson Reischmann,
they're going to go into urb and they're going to
pay him some money. So it's time to strike.

Speaker 4 (40:35):
I think you hit the nail on the head there
with I mean, Ben and I expected our team to
be bad.

Speaker 5 (40:40):
The Areols aren't supposed to be bad.

Speaker 4 (40:42):
They're supposed to be in a window where they're competing
for the highest honors and they've yet they've managed to
mismanage everything so badly that they've got this rotation in place.
I think they are seeing some signs of life on
the hitting. I think Jackson Holiday in particular has really
picked up recently and looks like he's coming to terms
in major legue pitching. But the Oriols have to make

(41:03):
a move. You cannot wait and waste this young core.
You cannot waste this level of talent that they have.
And you've got to be so frustrating for a team
that's the team that was mismanaged for a while. Anyway
to suddenly get new ownership in who promised to do
things differently and promise to spend, and then to have
a general manager that's refusing to spend any of that
money just makes no sense and got to be so frustrating.

(41:27):
I think I'd be even more frustrated if I thought
we were supposed to be good and we weren't.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
Yeah, I think the good thing is, if you can
call it that, is that they've been off to such
a bad start that it just has to be a
wake up call for the front office in that you know,
if they were hovering around five hundred with a poor rotation,
you can maybe close your eyes and say what, we'll
figure it out once Grason's back. But I think this
will hopefully force them into action scene it rather than
later and embulsing that rotation with people that aren't named
Carl Gibson. So yeah, well we'll see where this nets

(41:54):
out for the Oriels. I'm not panicking yet, but like
Darius said, this is a very good division and you
can very quickly fall out of contention and which they're doing.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
Let's get onto the sort.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
Of meeting bones of the podcast and conscious for forty
minutes in and haven't got on to our list yet,
which may take some time to go through. So as
mentioned at the top of the show, we thought it
would be a fun exercise, you know, fun and inverted
commas to try and go through who we think the
top ten players in baseball? And all I said to
Darius and Nick was I wanted to come up with
a list of the ten best players in Major League Baseball.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
No other context to it.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
You know, you can define that word however you like to,
and I think it might be fun to start there
and hear a bit about how you guys attack this
and whether you found it easy or not. Personally, I
found it more difficult than I thought. I think it
felt like they were a clear top three, and then
it felt like after that you could kind of go
in a few different directions. So I'm interested, Nick, you're
nodding along a little bit there. How did you find

(42:48):
it trying to put this list together? What was your
sort of methodology when you were coming up with the
top ten?

Speaker 4 (42:52):
Exactly the same as you. I mean, there was no
real methodology. This was just pure vibes from my film perspective.
But I think there was a clear I think there
was a clear five in my list. I knew I
wanted to be in my list, right? And are we
going into names because I think my top two are
absolutely the top two, which is Aaron Judge and Shoe Aatani.
And I think the order on that one depends on

(43:15):
if Ittani's pitching or not. If Ittani's pitching, he's number one.
If he's not, I think Judge takes it. I think
number three for me is Bobby witt Jr. I think
there was no questions asked in my perspective on those three.
I then had two pictures in there, and actually one
of them I think is probably premature, but I think
it's Skul from the Tigers. But also Paul Skeins I've
gotten in there. So that was my top five. They

(43:36):
were the five guys I thought guaranteed in my list.
The rest of it, honestly, you're you're plucking out names.
You're thinking, yeah, this guy's got to be in there,
and then you pluck out another name, you go, well,
is he better than him?

Speaker 5 (43:48):
Is he not?

Speaker 4 (43:48):
And it was tough, but I think the rest of
my five I like my list. So I've got and
actually not really in much of an order, but I've
got Corbin Carroll in there, Tatist Junior, I've got Kyle Tough,
I have got Juan Soto, and I've got Jacob deGrom,
which I think.

Speaker 5 (44:05):
I've stuck him in there at the end.

Speaker 4 (44:07):
I think people are about the Grom because of the injuries,
the elite performance before and then actually he's come back.

Speaker 5 (44:13):
This year and he's looking pretty good again.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
I love that show. I'm a big de Grom fan.
He wasn't on my list, and actually we differ a
bit throughout the list, which is interesting, Darius, How did
you find the exercise? Yeah, let's maybe start at the top.
Did you have the same top three? What order did
you have them in? And then how did you go
about constructing the rest of the list.

Speaker 3 (44:31):
I did have the same top three. I went back
and forth on Judge and O'tani. I did end up
with Judge a number one, because right now he's basically
the best right handed here in baseball history, and I
think it's difficult to not put that number one. I'm
sure o'tani will come back and be good on the mound,
but he isn't doing it right now, and we obviously

(44:53):
don't know when that's going to happen. I think, when
you know, Ifany's going to have a thousand plus OPS
and he's going to be, you know, a top twenty
pitcher in baseball, you can't not have him number one.
Doesn't really matter. Maybe if Aaron Judges like has a
fourteen hundred OPS and then.

Speaker 4 (45:09):
He's it's the same MVP argument, right, Yeah, when Ai
was winning MVPs, when he was doing both at elite levels,
how can you vote against that?

Speaker 3 (45:17):
How can you beat that? Like, Yeah, he's like one
of the top three hitters in baseball, and by the way,
also with your ass like you can't you can't beat that,
and I appreciate you know. I'm not going to sit
here and argue that Judge isn't a better hitter, because
he is, but is still one of the very best hitters.
It's not like is a mid hitter and a good
picture likes he's elite.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
So I had a tiny one as well. Actually I
put him above Judge partly because of the pitching piece,
but also like any still fifty bases last year, I
think he's still fifty nine in the end, on the
basis he's such a weapon too, and not the Judges
a slouch, but he's not quite at that level. And
maybe that offsets with the fact that Judge actually plays
defense whereas Attorney DH's. But I felt like there was
enough that o'torney gives you just as a hitter. And

(45:56):
on the basis that even if you think the pitching
is a you know, you know right now he's not
pitching as you say, Darius, so that it doesn't really you know,
tilted for you, I still think you can make an
argument that he is level with Judge, if not slightly ahead.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
But sorry, I'll that you can carry on.

Speaker 3 (46:09):
If Judge was a little bit worse, then I would
have a return. But the Judge is basically Barry Bonds.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
Now.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
That is what's happened. That is the level is reached.

Speaker 4 (46:17):
But Tiny is exceptionally handsome, though he has got that
going for him as well.

Speaker 5 (46:20):
It's true, yeah, looking for a tide breaker.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
Yeah, whereas Judge, I mean he yeah, God wouldn't want
to wake up next to him.

Speaker 3 (46:28):
So yeah, I did have the same top three I had.
I had wit third. That was not, likewise particularly difficult
for me. I think I tended to lean on a
sort of track record over the hot new thing. There
were a few younger guys that I was like, oh,
you should have put this guy in here, and I
was like, I don't know if I've seen enough yet.
So I ended up with Soto at fourth, just because

(46:48):
I have the utmost confidence in his ability to sort
of be the elite on base guy in baseball. You know,
we talked about him having a slow start year. He's
got one hundred and forty four WRC plus, Like, this
is what constitutes a slow start for this guy. He's
like twenty six years old. And you're like, oh, it's
a bit slow. He's only like the tenth best hitter
in baseball. That's that's elite to me. So I've got

(47:10):
him there. I've actually got Bets in at five. I'm
a little bit concerned about his weight and his you know,
his illness. He doesn't quite look the same, but again,
elite track record. I think he will, you know, as
he gets further removed from that come around. I believe
in that talent. And then following up with that, I've
got Lindor and Ramirez. Marirez does not get enough respects

(47:34):
in baseball, I don't think, you know, just consistently high end,
every year quality player. I have to Teas in there
as well. And then I went, I hesitated on this
because he is first baseman, but I've put Freddy Freeman
in there because Freddy Freeman is money in the bank
and his elite Again this year, you know, I was

(47:54):
worried about the ankle injury. I thought, is it going
to be bad? You know, are we going to see
the start of any Freeman declient? You know, he's actually
better than ever right now. If you look at the
guys who have the most war over the past. However,
many seasons Freddie Freeman is going to be in the
top ten because he's out there. He's in the field
every day, he's putting up the numbers. He's just relentlessly consistent.

(48:16):
He's the playoff legend now as well, which obviously burnishes
his I mean, he's a Hall of Famer. I don't
think anybody is doubting that at this point in time.
And then I was kind of like, well, I don't
have a picture. Should I have a picture? I went
back and forth and having a picture. It's quite interesting
if you look I kind of like, I was like,
let's go back, let's see who, like the best pictures

(48:37):
were by war. If you actually look at at Fangraffs
War for pictures over the last you know, since twenty
twenty three, like it gets really thin, you'll never guess
who is in fourth place on the top war for
pictures the last three years. That one Zach Wheeler, no surprise.
Number two Logan Web because he always pictures. Number three

(48:57):
is Scooball. Who do you think is number four since
twenty twenty three? Since start twenty twenty three.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
Can be someone who always pictures.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
He's made sixty eight starts, so yeah, he's been on
the mound most of the time. Not necessarily a thing
he would have thought about this guy, I think earlier
in his career necessarily, But.

Speaker 5 (49:21):
That's out misery.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
It's sunny Gray, great, Oh my god, it's going to
give me the start of twenty three, which is kind
of to me saying don't put a picture. I think.
I yeah, I probably would go for schooball right now
if I was going to do it, But I think
the way that Kyle Tucker has been playing, you know,

(49:45):
he looks like he's he's taken it to another level
with the Cubs. He's kind of always been an underrated
guard as well. So in the end I went for
for Tucker at ten because he kind of looks like
he's going to be an MVP Kendident this season and
he's still pretty young guy. So I went all hitters
in the end. That's just a comment on my lack
of faith in pictures of what it is to stay healthy.
I had like another fifteen guys. I was like, oh,

(50:06):
I should I put this guy in, and ended up
not doing it, but that was my list.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
Interesting.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
Yeah, I went into the exercise in my mind saying
I'm going to go no pictures for the reason you
said where I'm like, you know what, I just don't
know if I could tell you who the best picture
in baseball is anyway, And I think it's so tough
to know year to year, who's going to be healthy,
who's going to be good, all of that kind of stuff.
So I went into it thinking I'm going to go
ten position players, and then I got to like eight,
and I was like, do I really love this guy

(50:34):
more than I love whoever you think is the number
one picture in baseball? And I kind of decided that
that I didn't. So I do have one picture in
my list. I have the same top four as you actually, Darius,
like well in a side offer order over Tarney one,
Judge two, w Junior three, Soto four. I then have
Lindor five, Like I just think he's so good and
has been so good for so long, like it's just

(50:56):
plays a premium position, plays it so well.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
Is such a good hitter.

Speaker 1 (51:01):
I think has got that like whether you want to
call it clutch, Gene turns up when the lights of
brightest thing to him.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
So I got him at five.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
I've got Hozier and mirrors at six for the same
reason as you mentioned, just relentless consistency. Nearly went forty
forty last year, and I feel like no one cared
because of Otani.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
I had Bets at seven.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
Again, the consistency thing gives you value in all three areas.
I then went Trey Turner, which I just think he's underrated,
like he's been good for a long time. Again, plays
a premium position and plays it well, speed power, does everything.
Even when you think he's had a bad year, he's
still like a three to four win player. So I

(51:37):
put him in there. Zach Wheeler was my one picture.
I put him at nine. I probably would lean like
Scuba or Schemes if you were saying, I don't know,
like you're building a franchise today, who do you pick
just because of Wheeler's age, But he's just been so
consistent in terms of innings and production. Another guy who
is a playoff monster. I put him in there, and
then at ten Nice Snut carving Carol in there. Undernaed

(51:59):
about you know which of the big upside younger players
to put in there, and I think Carrol if we
assume his first half from last year is like the
worst player he can be. I think that, like he's
just a good player, right because he ended up even
with a good stat line last year.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
This year he's off to a phenomenal start. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:15):
I think he's a really strong player that you could
build as team around. So so I'll have him in there.
But maybe let's go back and debate a few of
the guys who are in the middle. It sounds like
we're pretty aligned on the top three. Nick, did you
have so too on your list?

Speaker 5 (52:26):
Yeah? So is in there. I actually have him fifth
on my list.

Speaker 4 (52:28):
I didn't read it out on the order I've got
the okay, But to be honest, he probably is that
number four guy as well. I've actually got Corbyn Carroll
up there in the four spot just because I wanted
to get him into the lineup. I don't think he's
the fourth best player in baseball right now, but I
kind of did it. I think I have done it
very differently to Darius and very differently to you in
some ways, Ben Or though I think you've judged it
in the same sort of way, which is I'm thinking

(52:51):
brand new team. These are the guys I want to
get in there. I've considered age, I've considered future potential performance.
That doesn't necessarily mean they are the ten best right now.
Darius list might be more accurate, but I think if
these are the guys I'd want. But I do skew
that argument slightly because I then have Jacob de Gram
at the end of it, just because I think that's
my recognition pick that you've had, You've had a good career,

(53:13):
you've shown elite stuff. That's your recognition, you know. But
I think I'm happy with my list. I think we've
agreed on lots of it. I think Kyle Tucker is
a lock personally.

Speaker 5 (53:22):
I think Darius did. I think he should be a
lock after what he's done. What are you doing?

Speaker 4 (53:26):
Astro's changing teams and then getting off to this sort
of start. I think tattis junior. You didn't have him
in there, did you, Ben?

Speaker 2 (53:32):
I didn't know. I like Tatis.

Speaker 1 (53:35):
It's just just the concern about that the injuries for
him now he's playing in the outfield, as that reduces
value a little bit as well, Like he's such a
fun player at it. I'm not going to say you
guys are wrong having him in your list, but that
was the only reason that I ended up going with
Like Trey Turner, he's a bit more boring, but I
think he's just a bit more reliable than than Tatti's.

Speaker 4 (53:53):
Yeah, I mean, I thought Trey Turner was very whiffy.
He didn't even come didn't even come into consideration for me.
But that's why this is fun. That's why I mean.
I think Turner, when he was at the Dodgers, you'd
have had a good case. I think since he went
to Philly and he hasn't quite lived up to expectations
of that contract or that crowd, I think I'm listening

(54:14):
to that Philly crowd too much.

Speaker 1 (54:15):
And so yeah, I think, Look, I might be wrong
on that one, but I just think I looked at
his stats and I was like, this is a good player.
You know, in my head he's a good player. The stats,
he's a good player. I like him, but I'll admit
I might be a little bit too high on him.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
I'm interested, Darius.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
If we were to say right injuries are turned off,
all players are now fully healthy and will be fully
healthy for the foreseeable future. Is there anyone who wasn't
on your list that would definitely go straight onto it.
For me, I think Ronald of Kunya would be up there,
even though we obviously haven't seen it from him in
a long time. You can't argue that when he was
fully healthy, he was one of the best players in baseball?

(54:53):
Is it anyone else who you know, if we were
to say, forget about the injury concerns, would suddenly vault
into contention for you?

Speaker 3 (55:01):
Yeah, I mean the pictures for sure. Yeah, Wheeler was
close to being on for me. School was closed, Skins was,
you know, they were all in consideration for the back
end of mine. I think Carol as well. That was
a thing that I thought about because we have seen
those ups and downs with him, and I think part
of it was related to the shoulder, and I still
get a little bit twitchy about that. You know, he's

(55:22):
had a fantastic start to this season, and I think
if he had a slightly longer track record then I
would definitely have put him on. But you know, we
just have seen that up and down from him a
little bit where I'm kind of like, let's make him,
let's get through a whole season healthy at elite level
and then then we'll talk. So he's on there, I
don't know if there was anybody else who I ruled

(55:44):
out from in you, I don't think there's any other
picture worthy of being up there Byron Buxton.

Speaker 2 (55:50):
I could guarantee his.

Speaker 3 (55:51):
Health if you could guarantee me one hundred guarantee games
of Byron Buxton. If you asked me like three years ago,
I would say, I think we've seen you know, I
think maybe last year was the first year you sort
of saw Buxton on the field and not elite. The
rest of his career, it was kind of like, oh, yeah,
he's playing, he's going to be great, and then he's

(56:12):
just not going to be playing. And there were some
you know, ups and downs with that. But yeah, I
don't I don't know. I think if you looked at
the Warper one hundred and sixty two, maybe Buxton would
be top ten for the last five years or whatever.
I haven't done that run those numbers. I wouldn't be
surprised if that was true. I'm just going to try

(56:33):
and find out what his warp one hundred and sixty
two games played is now. Actually, because while you do that,
I got another question for you.

Speaker 4 (56:39):
Do you think we've all been a bit harsh not
having Juan Soto in the lock category. We all basically
had a lock three, and I know we've all picked him,
but really when you consider all this, it probably should
have been a lock four. It should have been those
four just reeled off straight away.

Speaker 3 (56:55):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (56:55):
And actually I think both of you did have him
in force, So maybe this is on me. We didn't
sort of talk about him in those terms, and he
probably is at this stage.

Speaker 1 (57:05):
I think I get the argument if you want to
say Soto isn't at that level of you know, the
certainly the judge Natani and I think we'll be weak.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
We will put up there right as well.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
Just in that Soto doesn't really give you value that
isn't with his bat or with his eye, you know,
like he's not a great baser and he's not a
great defender. And I still the reason reason I put
him forth is because I think as good as he's been,
and he's been unbelievable in his career and he's still
on his twenty six years old, I feel like there's
just another level to him, Like I feel like he's
got that upside of like a three thirty four eighty

(57:39):
six eighty season in him where like it all just
clicks and but he hasn't really done that yet, right,
Like his seasons have all been great at four hundred AVP,
hits thirty home runs, but he hasn't shown like the
Aaron Judge offensive performances that you know where you'd be like, oh,
that guy is just the best offensive player in the
league and there's no doubt about it. So I get
why people might say, like, I want to see so

(58:00):
to be the no doubt best hitter before I put
him in that echelon. But for me, if what we've
seen so far is like not quite his one hundred percent,
then that just says more about how good he is
than anything that we should do to knock him down.

Speaker 4 (58:13):
I think my argument, and I agree with you. I
think my argument there is when you consider him against
everybody else we've got on our list, he's the clear
number one. Maybe we should be having like a tier
of that top three and then just a fourth of
Soto on his own, because I don't think anybody else
around him quite matches him. But I totally get the
arguments that he hasn't hit the heights the Judge and

(58:35):
attireely have and certainly Witch just looks like he's a
superstar and was a superstar last year and is going
to continue to be So I think that's I think
it's fair to have him there, but I do think
he probably deserves recognition over the rest of the list.

Speaker 3 (58:48):
Yeah, I didn't have to think about him in fourth,
he was he was immediately four. For me, I didn't
debate having anybody else over, And.

Speaker 1 (58:56):
I mean just did I mean on that topic, I
guess because for me, if we were to just judge
who is the best pure hitter, you know, as a
separate question, I think about Soto in the one spot, right,
just in terms of how elite his eye is, how
good is his bad ball skills are, the power he has.
But there are guys who didn't make my list who
I think if it was a list of like top
ten hitters, they would have been in there, right And

(59:18):
for me, Freddie Freeman didn't make the list, he'd be
in there if all we had to care about was
how good they are at hitting. I also think, like
maybe the injuries couldns this again, but like you're done, Alvarez.
If we talked about this list a year or two ago,
we had probably been talking about him in that kind
of Soto era of like he is such a good
pure hitter that he has to be in contention. So
I think if you just take how good they are
at the plate and ignore defense, ignore base running, ignore injuries,

(59:41):
maybe that's another guy who becomes a contender. But I.

Speaker 3 (59:49):
Think you mentioned yeah, yeah, you're done, is another guy
who is fearsome usually at the plates, and you've just
never been able to have confidence in him staying on
the field, and if you do put him in the outfield,
then you get twitchy about him hurting himself. So that's
that's the factor for me. But yeah, I think I
think that that he's primarily a DH does does hurt him,

(01:00:14):
and he's not at the level he's not judged, he's
not so too, and so I'm not going to put
him in the top ten.

Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
Did you find the bucks in number.

Speaker 3 (01:00:23):
Per one sixty two is a five point three war
so he'd be I think he'd be on the boardline
of that top ten. You know, he's probably pretty similar
to some of those guys on the back end. I mean,
if we compared him, probably not necessarily a fair comparison,
because Tucker has maybe ascended to another level, but I

(01:00:43):
expect that Tucker's per one sixty two is pretty similar.
Five point nine, Yeah so isn't isn't that range I think?
But yeah, I think he's lost a step. Obviously he's
not the super elite athlete that he was. He's still
incredibly good athlete, but I think he doesn't lead the
league and everything. If you look at Carol for example,

(01:01:06):
four point nine more per one anti two. Yeah so
again speaking to the fact that he has had that
that ups and downs in his career. Obviously a very
short career so far. But yeah, so I don't think
Buxton would make it. But I think if he told
me it was going to be super healthy, I'd have
him in the top twenty.

Speaker 1 (01:01:23):
So if we take your point nick around tiers and
take it a one step flatter, we have a top
three that's clear. We have Soto in his own tier.
What does that next tier look like?

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
Do we think?

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
Is it like the super consistent guys that we all
kind of had on our lists, like the Tuckers, who
will admit was an omission on my part, like the Lindores,
Joseier Ramirez, Mookie Betts. Is that probably that next tier
of like they're elite at the plate. They've done it
for a while, there's no reason to think they're going
to stop.

Speaker 5 (01:01:51):
I think that's fair. I think there's probably two ways
to look at it.

Speaker 4 (01:01:54):
I think that way, I don't have Jose Ramirez on
my list, but I quite easily could have done and
potentially should have done. I mean, it's being consistent for
so long, just so good that he probably deserves me
in that tier. I think the next way to look
at it is maybe that's where you slop those Ace
pictures in there, if you had Pictures on your list,
because I think they can give you a certain something

(01:02:15):
in terms of winning games, particularly when you're in the playoffs,
particularly if you're in the World Series.

Speaker 5 (01:02:19):
Just gives you that edge.

Speaker 4 (01:02:20):
And we haven't necessarily seen it with any of the
guys on the list yet, but you could do. You
could see it, and we've seen it with Aces in
the past. So I think you could go either way.
You could go with your consistent all stars every single
season you know what you're getting in production, or you
could go to that just elite level talent that can
give you that little bit more. I think probably when

(01:02:41):
you're doing this, you go with your safer approach, which
has just been there, done, it got the production seen.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
It all safe for boring though, isn't it?

Speaker 5 (01:02:49):
It is safe for boring. But they deserve the recognition
for it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
If we're going to go for a.

Speaker 1 (01:02:53):
Tier of pictures, then who do we feelm makes that?
For me, it was Scooball Wheeler schemes with the three
I can sit for my list? Are they the only
three that you know? Even if he turn injuries off,
does Gerret Cole spent a Strider make it in there?

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
Do we think? Or is it those three in a
tier of their own?

Speaker 4 (01:03:08):
I mean, I think Garrett Cole would have done if
he wasn't injured. But I don't think you can turn
injuries off. I think it's it's hard to said.

Speaker 3 (01:03:15):
What does that mean? Like do I get peak Spencer
Strider back? Because yes, if so, But like Pete, Garrett
Cole has gone. I think even if he wasn't hurt,
I don't think he's the same that he was you
know a couple of years ago. And yeah, Strida, you
know we saw briefly and he's gone back on the il.
So it's sale textualize that.

Speaker 4 (01:03:38):
Cole Reagan, I think you're looking at like tears down here. Okay,
I think we're looking at the elite of the elite here,
I think and I think schemes can be that Scoogle
has been that last year and continues to be. I
think Wheeler has been in the past. But I fear
with Wheeler that again probably not quite in that top

(01:04:01):
ten tier now. Main getting older, getting older.

Speaker 3 (01:04:06):
It depends how much you value you know, just banking
on it as well. Like for that, I think Wheeler
is the guy. If you're like, who do you expect
to take the ball the most? You know, who is
just going to be there? Who is the most reliable
sort of ACE level starting pitcher who has done it
for years and years and years right now? It is Wheeler.

(01:04:27):
Doesn't necessarily mean he's going to stay healthy, but I
think he is.

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
He is that guy.

Speaker 3 (01:04:35):
I like, I'm going to say something before somebody gets
mad at us. I don't think anybody has said the
words Gunner Henderson yet.

Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
Was a month so he's gone.

Speaker 3 (01:04:47):
He was on my he was on my short list
for like the back end of the top ten. You know,
he had a nine more b ref season last year
and finished fourth, and like, did either of you guys
think about putting him on?

Speaker 4 (01:05:00):
Didn't cross my mind. And I think that's where That's
where I think production and a history of production counts
for me, and I guess it. I don't see it
so much on the pitching stide as I do on
the hitting. I think the hitting I needed to see
a level of production to have got there. Even considering
that Corbyn Carroll has had one exceptional year, one not

(01:05:22):
so exceptional year, and then has looked great this year,
I think I've just seen enough of him, whereas Henderson,
I don't know, I just did not consider him.

Speaker 1 (01:05:31):
I considered him like I had him in that Corbyn
Carroll Caspory of like young guys with big upside who's
like shown that they can be superstars. But I feel
like Carrol's floor is higher and the god, yeah, I
just probably need to see it a little bit more
from him, you know. I think it's a fair point that, like,
if he was off to a great start to this season,
are we not saying he's like kind of Bobby Whittlight,

(01:05:52):
you know, because he had a very great, a very
good season last year. He's got prospect pedigree. He's been
you know that this staff, the Orioles for the last
eighteen months. But yeah, I think just hasn't quite got
the Yeah, the degree of consistency. Say, someone like Hulio
Rodriguez right like marin his hand's going to be like,
surely he gets a sniff for me. The upside is
really high, but the downside is also really low. And

(01:06:15):
whereas Carol struggled in the first half last year and
then turned his whole line around by the end of
the year, Julio like never really got fully going last year,
did he, And again like this year he's off to
a bit of a slow start. He just feels like
he's going to be one of those hitters who ends
up with great numbers and will put up some war
but he's a bit too streaky to be a top
ten player.

Speaker 4 (01:06:31):
Julio gets worse every single season, doesn't he. I mean,
he's Julia did not come anywhere near my mind for this.
I mean, just wasted potential as far as I'm concerned,
very Mariners of him.

Speaker 3 (01:06:46):
I think he's just been very up and down, hasn't he.
And he's like had these really extended stretches of just
quite disappointing production, and then he sometimes he just goes
red hot for two or three weeks. I think it's
entirely possible that he has a ten more seasons at
some point in his career, but we've not seen him
maintain that level of consistency. I will say that Henderson

(01:07:07):
has more war than Carol, both be ref and Fangrass
war than the same age, So you.

Speaker 5 (01:07:15):
Know, not numbers. I made that clear from the very.

Speaker 3 (01:07:23):
Oriol's vibes are bad right now, which I think is
an influencing factor.

Speaker 1 (01:07:27):
But if you consider Ellie on the exciting young shortstop front, I.

Speaker 3 (01:07:33):
Wrote him down and then I was I just like,
was actually going back and looking at his stats, and
I was like, he hasn't actually proven that he can
hold up? Can he? Like he's spectacular. Don't get me wrong,
if you were like, who would you list as the
ten most exciting players to play in baseball?

Speaker 2 (01:07:49):
That's next week.

Speaker 3 (01:07:50):
Yeah, it'd definitely be top three if he wasn't number one.
But yeah, when I'm list reviewing his stats and comparing
him to all these other elite guys and like, no,
you got to you got to show it. You know,
he hasn't actually proven that you can do this consistency.
The strikeout rate is still pretty high. You can see
him being pretty streaky. Yeah, the level is not quite
there for me yet. Absolutely, he could be the best

(01:08:12):
player in basketball with all the physical talents he's got,
but he hasn't proven it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:17):
I like it. Well, maybe we'll do I'm going to
pull my phone acts.

Speaker 1 (01:08:20):
We did put out a tweet and a blue Sky
post earlier asking for the fans send in their list,
So I'll just have a quick look and see if
there's any people we should shout out from there list.
Mark Blakemore sent his in. He's along the same lines
as us. Yeah, a lot of the same names. He
had Scuba at four and Schemes at ten with his
two pitchers, and then the rest were very similar to
what we had. Are the wee Witch Junior down at seven?

(01:08:42):
So so too at three? Don't know Ballmark, I'm afraid
Gareth sent his in. He had Petrow Armstrong at ten.
That's too soon, right, I think so like he might be.

Speaker 3 (01:08:56):
The best center fielder in baseball, but I think it's
too soon.

Speaker 5 (01:09:01):
Too soon.

Speaker 1 (01:09:02):
He does look very good, I'll say that, but it's yeah,
what like three months into his major league career.

Speaker 3 (01:09:08):
And also, you know, Kevin Kimia was the best center
fielder in baseball, but he wasn't the best, Like, he
wasn't a top ten player, was he? Like, you wouldn't
have put him on this list. Maybe we should have done.
You wouldn't have done.

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
Jenko boy had two outside shouts. One Austin Riley, which
we didn't discuss. I think there's maybe an argument to
be had for him there we didn't for a reason.
The other word, Yamamoto, there is no argument for him,
I'm afraid, so I'm going to ignore that one.

Speaker 4 (01:09:37):
I think that's harsh. Really is a better shout than
Austin Ley. I don't think he's in there, but on
that next year down of pitching and what we've seen
this year, I think he's he's in and around it.

Speaker 3 (01:09:51):
He looks great. Yeah, you know, I didn't do any pictures,
so he was never going to make my list, But
if we were doing a picture's only list, I think
he would probably in the top ten.

Speaker 1 (01:10:00):
Now, yeah, I think he looks good this year, but
he struggled for the first half of last year. I
don't know if he's got two hundred ings in him, Yeah,
he wouldn't be. I'd need to see it a lot
more from him before I'd have him in my top
ten pitchers, never mind top ten players. On Blue Sky,
Adam korn Gold had Lars Newbar at five just by
name alone. Hard to argue with that. He had James

(01:10:22):
Wood at seven. I think it's a slightly tongue in
cheek list James Wood's seven. He did have Rickie Henderson
at six to two, under the premise that he might
still be alive. Valley Junior we didn't discuss. I mean,
another one of those guys where if you're just talking bat, maybe,
but the all around game probably not.

Speaker 4 (01:10:37):
Lad was one definitely I thought about and ruled him
out basically because it is just a bat.

Speaker 5 (01:10:43):
But he's very good.

Speaker 4 (01:10:44):
I mean, as you said, if he was a top
ten hits list, he's probably in there. And again, if
we're looking future focused, then he might be one of
those guys you would have in there.

Speaker 5 (01:10:55):
Because you're expecting him to be good for quite a
long period of time.

Speaker 3 (01:10:58):
I would put Henderson in over over Vlad. Future focused,
I've definitely obviously I'll take free one out.

Speaker 4 (01:11:05):
Above lad as well focus Just to just to clarify
for those Orioles listeners, I do still think he's a
very good player.

Speaker 3 (01:11:12):
I thought I did think about James Wood. You know,
he looks elite, to be honest, but again not not
shown it enough. I mean, he's got five hundred Big
League play appearances, like, give it some time.

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
I was a James Wood non believer at the start
of the season, and I've had to very quickly eat
my words on that one. He does look very, very good.
I think we've probably said enough players now to not
massively upset a single fan base, but I'm sure there'll
be someone we've missed.

Speaker 2 (01:11:37):
The people get very much.

Speaker 3 (01:11:39):
Who else did I write down? Matt Chapman? I wrote
down Matt Chapman Giants.

Speaker 5 (01:11:44):
I've got to be honest, he at least crossed my mind.

Speaker 3 (01:11:48):
I mean, Matt Chapman is like it. He's not in
the top ten, but if he's in the top twenty,
I think.

Speaker 4 (01:11:52):
He's got a lot to his game. I mean, last
year was really good, he started this year very well.
He's a good, good baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:11:59):
Play baseball player.

Speaker 3 (01:12:01):
But Jackson Merrill I wrote down Jackson Merrill. Obviously he
has been hurt to start this year, but season. Yeah,
I wrote down Bryce you know, I know he doesn't
do anything defensively anymore, but still an elite Here Lewis
and I wrote down two catches. I write down the
big dumper. Of course, I wrote down Patrick Bailey, who
is just an absolute stud defensively.

Speaker 5 (01:12:22):
So and Louis I know he's obviously I wrote down
Probably sneak on to the back end of this list.

Speaker 1 (01:12:30):
But now we definitely have named every single Major League
baseball player that could possibly be discussed.

Speaker 3 (01:12:36):
Somebody is going to get mad that we haven't mentioned
somebody mentioned Brent Brent Ricker. Yeah, is who is the
best day of this season? I think hazing war? Actually,
who's the well Jacob Wilson. Wilson no power, He's out

(01:12:57):
to a hot start, but yeah, no power, no walks either,
I don't think so Strum has hit home runs it
and so stuck him in left field. So what are
they doing? Really?

Speaker 1 (01:13:09):
I think you're the only person to even notice, Darius Unfortunately.

Speaker 3 (01:13:13):
Wow, this is the kind of thing that I notice.
Well I only noticed because I was like, why why
would you do this? Like the guy is absolutely on fire,
and now we're going to ask him to do a
position change. Yeah, that's that's what's happened to.

Speaker 2 (01:13:27):
Rafie Devers is onto something.

Speaker 3 (01:13:28):
He's onto something. Let's see Raphie Devers in the outfield.

Speaker 2 (01:13:32):
Come on, I'll see that makes it look so easy.

Speaker 1 (01:13:35):
Anyway, I think we've probably covered off enough of the
players to end that segment. Will I'll type up each
of our lists and get them on Socials and get
some debate going. I'm sure people will be mad at us.
They usually are, but do send in your own top
tens or you know, any comments on our own lists
and players you think we omitted for bad reasons and
we'll yeah discuss again at some point of fun exercise,

(01:13:58):
and I think we'll probably leave it there for today.
We've obviously won for over an hour and now. So
always have for me to say is thank you guys
for joining me. Nick. Where can people find your work
both on socials and on your podcast?

Speaker 4 (01:14:09):
Yeah, if you want to any Angels content so at
La Angel's UK, and the podcast is halfway around the Halo.

Speaker 5 (01:14:16):
We've had some good guests on recently.

Speaker 4 (01:14:18):
It's worth of checking those out, and also check out
MLBUK club House for all the upcoming events in the UK,
and we're going to try and get not just in London,
We're going to try and get some events sorted around
the country this season as well, to get those meetups,
get people coming together watching baseball, drigging some beer, eating food.

Speaker 5 (01:14:34):
It's a great time. So yeah, look at that.

Speaker 1 (01:14:37):
Yeah, second in on that one. They're always a good time.
As much fun as it is to chat on the podcast,
it's always better when we can do it in person
with a beer. There's a lot of great content going
onto the Backflips and Nerds website. Do you make sure
you check that out. I think Ash has got a
new post that's gone up in the last day or so,
so make sure you give that a read. Darius is
back from his holiday now, not Darius GAVs back from
his holiday now, so I'm expecting the content to continue

(01:14:59):
to go up and win. Darius, anything that you want
to shout out before we finish up.

Speaker 3 (01:15:04):
I was going to shout out Ash, who's written about
how good Jung Hulee is And when we do this
exercise again next year, we'll all been debating whether Jung
hu Lee is a top ten player in baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:15:12):
So there we go.

Speaker 1 (01:15:14):
Now we've mentioned him for the one person who would
have called us out ash probably on not mentioning Jung
Hu Lee.

Speaker 2 (01:15:20):
Well that just other for today. Thanks so much for listening.

Speaker 1 (01:15:22):
We'll be back soon with another podcast, and yeah, do
check out our work across the website and socials in
the meantime and we'll catch you next time.

Speaker 2 (01:15:29):
Goodbye,

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Episode 375 - Ranking The Top 10 Players in Baseball

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 375 - Ranking The Top 10 Players in Baseball