Top 5 starting pitchers in MLB + Yanks open AL East race back up

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Right now.

00:00:00
Speaker 2: It's frustrating because they're just not putting up runs. And when you see a team that has, you know, three hundred million dollars payroll that's scoring one run night after night, it's just incredibly infuriating.

00:00:10
Speaker 1: As a fan.

00:00:15
Speaker 3: In the Weeds is powered up by Arena Club.

00:00:18
Speaker 4: We're doing our top five starting pitchers in the game right now. I had stripped fresh off the field, and now I have to pick favorites. Where your top five starters in the sport And yeah, it's probably, you know, not difficult to put together the tippy top, but you're definitely going to have to make some tough.

00:00:35
Speaker 3: Decisions later on. So had you put your list together?

00:00:39
Speaker 5: Yeah, my four first four were pretty easy to put together. I did in order scooball schemes, Wheeler and Web and I imagine we're going to have some overlap there. AJ And then my fifth spot. I went back and forth a lot and really found myself between the three lefties that I like with your Crochet, Max Freed, and Framber Valdez, and I ended up going Framber for just just steady Eddie Man. He's been like top ten Cy Young last five six years. Uh, he's got a better playoff pedigree than Max, and then just more inning's under his belt than Crochet. I imagine by the end of the year there's probably world Crochet is on this list, and I wanted to put de Gram on there. He's he's making his way back into the end of this too. But I just I live in Houston. I see what Framber does every fifth day, and he's done it for five six years now. I think I had to put him in there in the fifth spot.

00:01:29
Speaker 4: Heye, Andy thoughts, why don't you lay your list out first and then we can see first.

00:01:33
Speaker 6: I can't complain about any of that, but I'm going I went schoobol skiings one two. It's hard to argue that those two guys aren't the best in each league. Uh school, Why did you put scoobl first? Because he's left handed and because he's left handed and he talks trash, That's why I love it. That was the same, And I went three Hunter Brown because I just like where he's at right now. And by the way he drilled Netto and then Netto said something and under Brown went after him. Hunter Brown ain't backing down, So I like that. I love that about any pitcher, And I went Zach Wheeler four and I went Logan Web five. I would have thrown Chris Sale in there, but he's hurt right now, and this is right now. Also, you could throw Crochet in there, you could throw a bunch of guys in there. But for me, Logan Webb, he takes the ball every fifth day and he freaking dominates man. Every time he picked takes the ball, he just dominates. So those are my top five argument if you want. I know, people are gonna say Hunter Brown's probably a little too high. Look at his numbers, man, look at what he's done. That sinker he's found has been good.

00:02:30
Speaker 5: How many times I sat in the dugout in twenty twenty three on the Giants and would look up after six innings and Logan Web would be at like sixty four pitches and I'd be like, what is going on here? I mean it's almost like let the first guy get on and let the next guy hit a first pitch double play. I mean, I just he does that three times a game, you know, And you can't print a pitcher better for that stadium. And yeah, he's he's a bulldog man. Logan web deserves to be on this list, no doubt.

00:02:58
Speaker 3: You've seen him pitch a lot.

00:02:59
Speaker 4: I mean kind of give us the evaluation of his stuff and why it stands out, and it's different. And he's really so different from almost anybody else on your lists. I guess you can make a little bit of a framber cop he'll he'll rock up ground balls too.

00:03:12
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, well that's you know, the other guys are power right, And even though Webby is starting to mix in some like ninety four ninety five's up in the zone, which is just unfair. He just crushes you with this stuff down in the zone. And what makes him different is actually you talked to hitters about why why you just pound Logan Web into the ground or even get swing and miss, And it sounds like what they say is specifically on the change up, but even on the sinker a little bit. As you see it out of the hand, you read it, Oh, that's a change up. But it moves three different ways. One goes down, one runs into you, one might even cut a little bit. And you're like, oh, I see change up. I'm moving my barrel to it, and it moves one of the three ways, and you don't know which one, and all of a sudden, you hit a nineteen hopper to the shortstop in your back, in your dugout. So I just think it's It's not only is he deceptive and has extreme movement profiles. His movement profiles are erratic in a way that hitters can't plan for or their eyes don't even know how to tell them what it's doing. So I think you know that just makes them so frustrating.

00:04:08
Speaker 6: Hey, strip, So we did a thing earlier in the year. We had to pick our three players we'd want to choose to start a team with, and he was one of my picks. And Krats and Scott blew me up. So thank you for having my back on this one, they blew me up about. I'm like Logan Web. Yes, cal Rawly was one on one. I forget my other one maybe Bobby Witt, and then my one pitcher I picked because I got confused by what it was supposed to be. But I picked Logan Web because again, I like guys to take the ball. Every fifth day, they get quick out, they go deep into games every time. He's perfectly made for his ball.

00:04:38
Speaker 5: Bark yep spot on Man two hundred innings every year. Just go ahead and pencil that in. He might even lead the NL and innings every year for the foreseeable future. And yeah, it's just and there's too many nights where it's just easy. Last year I pitched against him and I was actually doing really well and he threw like a two hit, complete game shutout and didn't even give me a chance. So's it's just there's nights where he takes the ball on that stadium and the game's over before it even starts.

00:05:04
Speaker 3: Wow.

00:05:05
Speaker 4: We got one fan with reaction to this, Adrian said, where's Andrew Abbott? I mean, I can make the same case for Chris Bubich who's having a sick year, but that's like a little too current, and you want to see a little more of a track record, right aj Even Rono Brown, who was really bad the first couple months of the season last year, now consistently you go for at least what June so almost the rest or all but two months of last season, and then halfway through this season and he's got a top three ERA. He looks like a one. So what's the delineation?

00:05:37
Speaker 3: I guess.

00:05:38
Speaker 6: Plus I wanted to throw some young blood in there. Yes, andrewrabbits having a nice year, but he's got such a history of being injured, and it's just I don't know, I got to see more, like you said, And yes he's having a great year. There's a lot of guys that are having a great year. But this time next year you do this list, guess who might be on it Andrew Rabbit. But for me, this is the guys that I like right now. And like I said, I like guys to talk a little trash. So Hunter Brown drills guy goes after him right, Logan Webb, he'll strike you out of talk a little bit. I mean, Chrissale, those guys, I mean, Scoopball talks trash. These are the guys I like. Sorry, you know we all have our opinion.

00:06:11
Speaker 3: Yep, I'm with you.

00:06:12
Speaker 5: I love how I love how he's on both of our lists. AJ, sorry, real quick, I love always on both of our lists, Zach Wheeler. And we don't even we don't even talk about him. That's how like underappreciated. He is man talking about what he's done the last couple of years and just doing it here again, it's he's on the both of our list. Top five and we're barely even speaking about him.

00:06:31
Speaker 4: He's the best for the longest period of time at this point. You know, you look at the last like five years. Yeah, look at the playoffs.

00:06:40
Speaker 6: Look at his playoff numbers. Are you kidding me this, dude?

00:06:46
Speaker 5: You know the Mets that came up with, you know, Harvey and Cindergard and de Grom and Wheeler and Mattz. I think that was the five. There might even be a six in there, and I think we're probably gonna look back and say that Wheeler was the best and had the best career.

00:06:56
Speaker 3: You know.

00:06:56
Speaker 5: De Grom has the cy youngs but is now you know, mixed and some injuries ages. But Wheeler just like slow and steady in here man of those Mets starting pitchers. It's it's it's unbelievable.

00:07:07
Speaker 4: Wheeler's retiring two seasons from now. If he does what he's doing right now for two more seasons, he's probably a Hall of Famer. I know, you know, he started a little bit late with his stardom, but he's getting close. I mean, you're gonna be a top five so young guy year after year. All right, all right, we'll bring that debate.

00:07:24
Speaker 6: I don't know, we'll have talking about it, but let's yeah, we'll talk about that Hall of Famers. Yeah, we'll talk about it.

00:07:31
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00:07:55
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00:08:46
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00:10:02
Speaker 2: Well, the Yankees are stumbling, obviously, the Aliast is tightening, saw the Red Sox back to about five hundred.

00:10:09
Speaker 1: The Rays right on our.

00:10:11
Speaker 2: Heels Orioles, don't have to worry about them. We got the Blue Jays coming up, so that'll be an interesting series. The Yankees play in Toronto beginning next Monday, so that'll be an interesting series. They have not played well against the American League East in general, and over their last eleven games, they've played really bad. We had some guys that looked like they were heating up a couple of weeks ago when we played the Royals. You know, Austin Wells looked like he was getting ready to go on his you know, summer hit barrage.

00:10:38
Speaker 1: But he was hot for.

00:10:39
Speaker 2: About as long as my coffee this morning, about five minutes.

00:10:42
Speaker 1: And he's cooled off.

00:10:43
Speaker 2: We've got a lot of bats cooling off, and it's it's it's been a rough week and the fans are feeling the Yanks.

00:10:49
Speaker 6: Derek, I just want to know this. It's such a typical Yankee fan like you are to mention the Red Sox first and not even bring up the Rays or the Jays. The razor game back and the Yankees suck in extra innings, so god forbid if they go into extra innings because they are terrible in extra innings. But typical Yankees fan, Oh, the Red Sox, they're not doing anything. But the Rays and Jays are bringing it, and especially the Rays. The Rays are the hottest team going. Are you worried?

00:11:15
Speaker 1: I mean it's hard not to be worried.

00:11:17
Speaker 2: We've seen a five and a half game lead shrank to one game over the past you know, a week or so. We've seen them flush leads in June and July. In recent years, the Rays winning the division and playing in our minor league park would really really upset a lot of people for some reason. I think, look, the Yankees have just got to play better. If they can just play better, I think they can hold off these teams. But you've got some guys that have really cooled off. Paul Goldschmidt over his last thirty games is hitting two toh four. Anthony Volpi over his last ten games is hitting one to eighteen. Judge over his last ten games, hitting two twenty two with just two home runs and two RBIs Domingez hitting one seventy six against this year, Austin Wells over the last ten games, hitting one fifty two. You can't have all of your big bats cold. At the same time, we were hoping that when Stanton came back, you know, maybe he would be hot. He's hit some singles, you know, a couple of doubles, but he hasn't started leaving the ballpark yet. Ben Rice looks like he's coming.

00:12:16
Speaker 1: Out of it. He hit home runs.

00:12:18
Speaker 2: He had a home run this weekend, and then he hit one yesterday that almost left the Great American Ballpark. So there's some promising signs, but you just gotta you just got to put it all together for a little while. The pitching has been really good, so that's that's one good sign. Rodin again last night was terrific. We got Max Freed going today. He's been terrific all year. But you got to support these guys with some runs.

00:12:40
Speaker 5: Derek, what's up man. Nice to meet you, Bud. You know, you just kind of touched on it. Yankees have you know, struggled in some summers in the past seasons, and here we're go into a July where it's like only playoff teams coming up on the schedule, you know, and you think about the Yankees when I was playing them, and they would they just kind of like muscle their way through stretches like this. I feel like, because you know, the roster and the team kind of is what it is. And I just wonder, you know, as you head into a stretch like this and into the All Star break, like what are some what are some of the things they can do within the cracks or going into this kind of stretch to write the ship a little bit well.

00:13:15
Speaker 1: As Aj mentioned, and it's nice to meet you too. Ross.

00:13:19
Speaker 2: They're really bad in extra innings, and I think that goes to the approach in general of being a slugging team. They don't move runners over. A lot of times you start with the Manfred runner and extra innings and you don't move them over. And I think just the little things like that add up. You know, there's been some bullpen meltdowns. It seems like, you know, we used to have this thing where every night a different hero would step up, right, Well, it seems like every night a different guy in the bullpen has a tough night. And you know, guys like Lowisaga who you know, have been injured, but you know coming back, he's he's gonna have to step up. We got Luke Weaver back in there now, so maybe he can get hot again. He was not exactly inspiring in his first outing, but he pitched a little bit better last night. I just think you got to get better in the margins. And and again, Aaron Judge needs to get hot. When this team is hot, it's because Aaron Judge is hitting. You know, he's slipped over the last couple of weeks. And you know, when you the best hitter in baseball goes down for a while, other guys have to step up, and they have not.

00:14:18
Speaker 1: They have not.

00:14:20
Speaker 6: Derek, I want to ask you. You mentioned a lot of these guys and Austin Wells seven o eight ops Vulpi seven twenty nine, Bellinger seven sixty seven, they're they're okay OPS wise, But what are Yankee fans feeling about these guys, because, like you mentioned, it's it's a lot of their opia. I mean, because then you go batting average Austin Wells two sixteen, Volpi two thirty three, So a lot of their OPS is hitting for home runs? Are they an only home run hitting team? Is there a way to improve what they're doing? And are Yankee fans satisfied with what the lineup is doing? Well?

00:14:53
Speaker 2: This is what we've been saying for the last decade or more. This this Yankees approach, right, it's it's fruit from the poisonous tree.

00:14:59
Speaker 6: Right.

00:15:00
Speaker 2: The things they teach in this organization is to just hunt fastballs and hit long balls right, draw walks, hit home runs. But you've got to play baseball too. There's one guy who I think plays decent baseball that you mentioned, and that is Cody Bellinger.

00:15:12
Speaker 1: I feel like his OPS.

00:15:14
Speaker 2: Is better than you would you know, then it looks because a lot of it is like doubles and stuff like you know, Volpi's ops is held up by hitting nine home runs in the first you know, a couple of first couple of months, and Jazz Chishom's ops is held up by hitting home runs early on.

00:15:31
Speaker 1: They don't.

00:15:31
Speaker 2: They don't get a lot of hits, right, They just they don't hit with the runners in scoring position. They don't hit a lot of doubles. I don't have the stats in front of me. I mean, maybe they've compiled numbers, but it seems like they go long stretches without productive at bats. I think it was John Boy pointed out they have more big innings than almost any team, but then they have a lot of innings where they don't score because they're you know, to quote one of the guys, I think it was uh Oh, I can't remember his name, the guy from the baseball documentary Ken Burns documentary said the strategy is to put two guys on and then have god Zilla hit one into Tokyo Bay. That seems to be the Yankees approach for the better part of a decade. Right now, it's failed in the playoffs, it always fails at some point for a long stretch during the summer, and their hope is that they can just get to the playoffs and one or two guys get hot like Stanton last year, and you slug your way to the World Series and maybe you, you know, build a really good pitching staff that can stay healthier than a lot of other teams can afford to keep a staff. So that seems to be the approach right now. It's frustrating because they're just not putting up runs. And when you see a team that has, you know, three hundred million dollars pay roll that's scoring one run night after night, it's just incredibly infuriating as a fan.

00:16:47
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00:17:48
Speaker 6: Derek, where are the fans at? On Jazz Chisholm? Last night? He gets ejected in an next r inning game two oh pitch borderline. He won't let it go. And what was interesting to me is if you watch the broadcast, he was kind of yelling in Boon and Brad Oustmas and the rest of the team wasn't really like I don't want to say no, they weren't standing up for him, but they weren't telling him to quiet down either, right, They were just kind of letting him have And then he gets ejected. It leads to a scar having to play third base. Not that it ended up hurting him, but you know what I'm saying like, where are the Yankee fings out with just Chisseholm?

00:18:18
Speaker 1: It could have.

00:18:18
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean it's it's great that you bring this up because we had some calls about this last night on the show. A lot of people felt like it was an incredibly immature thing to just let it drag on. Yeah, calls get blown, right, I mean we how many calls get overturned every single day and how many aulmps missed calls in big spots. It's part of the game, right, I mean, sometimes you're gonna have calls that don't go your way, especially in a tight game. You've got to just put that in your pocket, set aside and get to work. And you know, we hear a lot about how you know New York fans, are you know, knowledgeable about baseball and things like that, and this is one of the spots where it shows up for me because I feel like instead of calling in and being pissed at the ump for blowing the call, people were calling in they were pissed at Jazz for putting the team in a difficult spot. Now, like you said, thankfully it didn't end up hurting the team, But I mean, who knows what could have happened. I mean, the game could play out any number of different ways if you don't, you know, in any number of scenarios, if he doesn't get it ejected. So you know, it's it's it was, in my opinion, a bad case of judgment to let it keep going. And you mentioned Boone and the coaches not standing up for Jazz but also not quieting him down. I think you gotta step in right there when you see, Hey, this is a tight game. Jazz is really ticked off. Let's settle him down. Let let's let's say, hey, go to your happy place for a second, right and then to borrow a happy Gilmore parlance, go to your happy place, settle it down, and go get him be pissed after the game. Maybe you know, maybe you can, you know, say something to the reporters after the game. Let let them know you're unhappy. But right now is not the time.

00:20:03
Speaker 5: Yeah, I agree, Derek Kay. Last question here, probably no one more excited to see out of the division Rafael Devers than Garrett Cole. I don't know if he was public enemy number one for the for the Yankees fans, but certainly for Garrett Cole. But now that Devers is out of the division. Who are Yankees fans claiming public Enemy number one got their sights on.

00:20:25
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what, Jackson Holliday looks like he's coming around. He's going to be a problem for years and years. You know, Cam and Arrow could be a real.

00:20:35
Speaker 1: Problem for a while.

00:20:37
Speaker 2: Roman Anthony. I saw his five hundred foot home run in the minor leagues. I watched his first major league home run. I haven't seen a lot of him other than that, but he's going to be good. I don't think we've identified public Enemy number one right now. It might honestly be Aaron Boom. It might be you know, whether he's deserve it or not. I feel like that's that's the way the papers are going. But I think that's to be determined. But it is nice to see Raffi out on the West coast, and I hope he has a really nice, long career very far away from that.

00:21:08
Speaker 4: There you go, nice straight bye, boss. Yeah, I would say, yeah, well you mentioned Boonie. Is Vulpi the guy you're hearing the most complains on him?

00:21:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, fans are tough on him right now, and look, he's twenty four years old. So I try not to be too tough on him. I mean, he's still growing as a player. It's very difficult Alex to stop. Sorry, I was setting my alarm to come on later. You guys got me to come on a little bit earlier. But yeah, I feel like he's got room to improve, and I don't think he's done improving. As Boone always says, improvement is not linear for young players. You'll see him go through spurts where he looks really good, it makes an adjustment, and then things kind of settle back in and he goes through a long stretch. I wish he wasn't quite so streaky. I feel like he's struggled more defensively this year than we've seen him struggle, especially in big spots. That's been a concern, and you're starting to hear more whispers about, oh, maybe we should trade Volpe, maybe we should get another shortstop, and I just keep saying, who's out there that's better. I mean, there's nobody available that's that's better or cheaper than Volty Right now. You got Lombard coming up, but he's sitting two twenty in double A, so he's no threat to Volty, right now, so I think you just.

00:22:11
Speaker 1: Stick with him.

00:22:11
Speaker 2: I think that the strategy for fans should be to cheer him on, get a little bit of our our trade turner vibes, give the kid a nice ovation, really get behind him, show him some of that love that we showed him when he first came up, and maybe he'll get back to being that player that we saw in the first part of last year when he got on base for thirty four straight games and was doing such a great job in front of so Doo and Judge to set the table.

00:22:30
Speaker 1: But since then he's kind of been up and down.

00:22:33
Speaker 4: I agree, I'm with you. I mean, he's definitely, you know, at least average, if not above average.

00:22:37
Speaker 3: He's not a superstar.

00:22:38
Speaker 4: And I think some Yanks fans were looking at him, you know, as their top prospect, thinking this guy is going to be a superstar, superstar.

00:22:45
Speaker 2: Sinatra doesn't say he wants to be middle of the heap or you know, you know, middle of the pack, right, it's we want to be number one, top of the list, right, That's what we're trained to expect.

00:22:54
Speaker 3: This fans expectations are high, and that's fair.

00:22:57
Speaker 4: And also, by the way, Max freed as a two o five rais not too shabby too, So I want to make it like the world is ending for Yanks fans.

00:23:03
Speaker 3: But much more of this.

00:23:04
Speaker 4: Obviously, every single night with Derek postgame and then you can catch him at least a few times a week before games as well. Takes voicemails, the whole deal. Derek, good to see you man.

00:23:14
Speaker 1: Good to see you guys too. Take care