MLB Power Rankings update + Mets therapy session w/Jim Duquette

00:00:08
Speaker 1: Former MLB exec GM Mets Orioles. He's great. Cheers to you. Yes, cheers Jim Duquett, cheers, friend of mine for a long time, love his work. Serious XM. Many other spots to us. And why the whole deal, Duke. You know why we're here. It's a therapy session. We got ten minutes to just find out if the Mets are ever going to score several runs in a game again. They've lost eight in a row. They were just spanked by the Dodgers. They've scored twelve runs over those eight. They're seven and twelve on the season. It's not like they're two and seventeen, but it feels that way. What are you seeing, man?

00:00:44
Speaker 2: You know, ten minute therapy session is never enough. I know that for sure. But I'd be able to do the best we can in this. I mean, you know, I didn't think with the Sodo injury that we'd see this kind of decline on the offense. Like you know what Soto means standing lineup, not just what he does product uh, from the production side of things, but everyone else around him. They can kind of relax and they don't have to worry about you know, they got the guy that can carry it right and they don't have to try to do too much. Now you're seeing a lot of guys pressing, and I you know, it starts with Lindor at the top. Like we're seeing pressing offensively, we're seeing them with a lot of mental mistakes on the defensive side. And you know, he's always been a slow starter. Now you throw in the coming back from the hammate, right, and then he hasn't worked. He hasn't played with his new teammates all that much. Like it's it's been pretty ugly just just with him alone. You know, it's gonna take some time. With Bashett, Hopefully he's going to figure it out like we've seen him. I'm not so sure about Palaco, you know, with the lower half issues that he's had. You know, two years ago he had to knee this year the achilles. I'm hoping that that'll that'll clear up here soon so he can start to swing the bat better. But I don't know what you guys thought about the offense coming in. I thought it was a little top heavy for me, with some question marks down below. And Roberts swung it better than I thought, and so has Elva Red and I had some serious questions with the rest of it, and it's that part's kind of played out. So I think the the offense is definitely going to be better. I just don't know. I don't think it's going to be a top ten offense. I never thought it was going to be a top ten offense.

00:02:24
Speaker 3: Jim, what's going on Francisco Lindor? I've never seen it like this. I mean, at least he did hit a home run and get an RBI, so at least he checked those boxes. But we're almost twenty games in and he was sitting on zero and zero for what eighteen games or whatever it was. So what the heck's going on with Francisco Lindor? And then the uninterested I don't want to say it's uninterested, but fans are calling it the uninterested defense, where he doesn't know how many outs there are, he forgets what's happening. He's just this isn't the Francisco Lindor we've seen for his whole career.

00:02:52
Speaker 2: I agree with you on that, aga. I don't know how to put a finger on it. There's a couple of plays like like you mentioned, didn't know how many outs there were on a routine double play ball that he didn't make. Last night was a routine ground ball that it kind of looked like he got caught by surprise. And how hard Tiascar or Hernandez can get down the line on a routine ground ball that should have been out and it ends up snowballing into a big inning and ends up costing in the game they score five runs after you know, Rushing hits a three run homer. So there's been little things like that that have really had to scratch in your head, Like to play over the weekend, when he went far to his left, Simeon clearly had the ball. That one I kind of could excuse because he doesn't he doesn't know Semi and yet they haven't played a lot of games together, and even though he should have, they didn't play a lot together obviously in the spring, So there's some excuse there, but most of the excuses are inexcusable really, And you know, I'll take this a step further. I don't know if you guys have watched a lot of those games like I have, but I don't see him in a acting with his teammates as much as he normally does too, and I don't know the reason behind that at the moment, So there's a lot of things there with the Ndor, you know, the power I think will come, Like we've seen that with guys have had handmade injuries. The power gets sapped early on. I think it. I don't. I don't know if he'll be a thirty homer guy this year, but I think that the power will come. But there are a lot of questions and not as many answers on why there's been so many lapses on the defensive side.

00:04:33
Speaker 4: How about all the position changes that all of the that most of these guys have gone through. I get it, Lindor's still playing shortstop. Do you feel like it's a collective And we're saying this because they've lost ag straight and they're not hitting at all. But guys switch positions and their offense declines because they're putting a lot of time into that defensive part. They're doing it together as a team. Now it's not just Polanco, it's not just Bushett, but you have Beatty playing from places, you have Carson Bings learning the big leagues. It's it's those things that do you feel like that's affecting the offense.

00:05:08
Speaker 2: I think that it's a it's a big possibility. Kratzy. I. You know, it really stood out to me when I was in there spring training camp. And we go and talk to many as many guys as we can, You go, all right, let's let's go around the field. And Lindor is the only guy that's in the position that he was last year. Every other position is new. You know, Soto moving to left field is all new. You got a new center field or new right fielder. The entire infield, first, second, and third, so you know, and and some of those, as you mentioned, are our change of positions too. So it's it's really really unusual to see that, the change of positions. And then you take into account of them coming into a new environment and coming to New York, which takes an adjustment too. And that was the thing that had me scratching my head this winter with all of these changes, is you had guys that you knew could handle New York. They had played, had succeeded in New York, and now you're kind of ripping it up and shredding it and bringing in guys that you weren't quite sure they could handle New York. So you know, I still don't know which one of those guys, you know, is gonna gonna be able to handle it or not handle it. I mean, that still remains to be seen. It's so darned early. But I know this, when when they got boot off the field against the Athletics there after being swept by them. Uh, I think there were a lot of guys that were stunned at how vociferous, how loud the fan base can be when they're not happy. And you know, if you're watching it, obviously you guys are watching the social media, it's pretty it's pretty loud. They're calling for everybody's head, So you know that part of it. You never really know. At the end of the day, hopefully they're going to figure some things out and the winning will make a lot of that go away. But there were a lot of a lot of changes, and I can't remember, you know, another team having that many changes when you were effect to win.

00:07:04
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00:07:33
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00:08:04
Speaker 4: Do you feel like the way the roster has now leveled out through the entire offseason? Do you feel like this was David Stearns in the front office's actual plan because it just seems very disjointed. Did they want to make us over arching changes?

00:08:22
Speaker 5: Yes?

00:08:23
Speaker 4: But do you feel like it came out the way they wanted or does it feel like it just came out the way that the chips crumbled because they were putting spots where they didn't get the guy that they actually wanted.

00:08:36
Speaker 2: I don't know if this was their plan A. You know, I think if you go back, they absolutely wanted Diaz, and you know, I didn't think they handled that negotiation very well and lost out. You know, in the end. Obviously they they were in on Tucker once they had the conversations about whether he could handle New York or they felt comfortable in that sense, they they pursued him hard and heavy and then lost out to him. So I think those were the cards that they were showing early on that they wanted those two guys, don't. I don't know if it really changes, you know, the way that they start out of the gate. Maybe it's a little bit better, But you know, I think what they were able to do in terms of pivoting, I think was was a you know, overall saved the winter. But again, once you're making all those changes, I don't know how you know you could sit there and know for sure, and you know, in fairness, I did talk to David Stearns about this. He was pretty you know, uh, let's say realistic early on that they might have some issues on the defensive side, which we've seen. So you know, I think when you take those athletic guys and you move them, there's going to be some rough patches. But I do think that they will figure it out. I think Baschete will figure it out, but I do. And it's also quite a good possibility that their defense or their offense rather it's suffering because of it. So, you know, a lot of these at bats that you were seeing are not competitive. I thought there was a couple of games in the Dodgers series that were better, Like there are bats against Yamamota were better.

00:10:12
Speaker 5: I know, they didn't win it.

00:10:13
Speaker 2: You know, against Otani, he's going to make you look silly the way he's pitching right now. But there were some better at bats. But you know, as Carlos Mendoza said after the game, they're they're not making excuses. They're out of excuses. They just need to execute and that that's something that they haven't been able to do consistently enough.

00:10:32
Speaker 3: Hey, Jim, Also, by the way, I thought they were doing run prevention. So I was moving all these guys. It's not why they went and traded for Simeon and some of these other guys because it was supposed to be run prevention. There are their defense has been preventing them from winning. Actually it's been kind of bad so but but I want to ask. I want to ask about Mendy. Carlos Mendozo is one of my favorite people to talk to in baseball. And you mentioned him and he's saying, no more excuses. They made him fire his coaching staff last year, and you know it was a former GN. You've fire coaches usually your next right is he on the hot seat? If they this continues the way it's going, They're already lost enough in a row. And I know mess fans already calling for his head, but I don't think that's going to happen at this point. But is he on that hot of a seat right now?

00:11:14
Speaker 2: So the answer to that question, I had to go and look at the last manager that lost all of his coaches in the winter time. It had one year left on his deal or one and a half years left in his deal, and then had had these high expectations. They got up so slow starting. Oh that was last year Brandon Hyde with the Orioles and he was fired at May seventeenth. You know what their record was, they were thirteen under five hundred. Now, they didn't want to fire him, but ownership basically said you got to do something, and you couldn't fire the coaches at that point because they were new. So do I think Carlos is on the hot seat right now? No, But you know, if you get into you know, a month from now, or even less than a month from now, and you're starting to see this team and you know, still play the way they are and still having the mental lapses and all of these struggles, I do think he's going to be coming getting on the hot seat. So you know, I think that. To me, it's unfortunate because I don't think it's his fault. I think early on this is more about roster construction than anything else. But you know the reality of it, as we've seen, you know, if there's one that has to go, it usually is the manager first, and I think that would be completely unfair. And let's hope. I'm with you, ag Cratzy. I love talking to to Carlos. I think he's and I think he's a good manager, but you know, the reality is in our sport is there is going to be someone that is going to take the fall if they continue to play this poorly.

00:12:43
Speaker 4: All right, Jim talking about an owner firing people. Steve Cohen fired a tweet out after the loss on Tuesday. We love the fact that the owners fire and tweets out. As a former GM, do you love that from your owner that you fire and tweets out and you're trying to do your.

00:13:00
Speaker 2: No no, and and you know, I think I go back to when he I think it was maybe three years ago he was questioning the hitters and the hitter in the approach of the hitters and even the hitting coach. I mean it was just a couple of years ago, and he's like, oh man, it's you just don't want want that, you know, happening. You don't need the negativity, right, you don't need your owner piling on. I think from from that perspective of what he said, it was a I would say a fair Hopefully fans took it this way, but it was more positive than anything else. He was trying to talk about approaches. He was talking about one Soto who by the way sounds like he's been running, if it's not full speed, pretty close to it and is getting better quickly. So it was he was trying to give some optimism, I think, to the fan base, and so that that's how I would take it generally. As the GM, you don't really want your owner, you know, compounding any the issues or or causing more problems around the clubhouse. And I think that part of it has been cleaned up. It's been most of the time. I think when when Steve is tweeted, it's been more directed at the fan base to try to get them to calm down. But as we know with the Mets fan base, there's at least a third of them that are absolutely insane, no matter whether the team's playing well or not. So I don't think there's anything you can really do about it. But I took that tweet obviously as more of a positive, you know, more hopeful than anything else.

00:14:32
Speaker 1: Hey, a couple more for you. So David Stearns obviously wants some time for this roster to settle itself in. I know he's not going anywhere anytime soon, but can you operate that way where you kind of gut a roster and you try and put it all together quickly, and things can fall on you fast. It just seems like the urgency meter is I don't I don't want to say it's not being recognized. But when you do some of that, and you've seen that in the past, I mean used to do this all the time. The Brewers deal with turnover, you know, when the Mets do it this way, and clearly they don't like the sauce that they had last year, I get it, but I just don't feel like you can handle like a one year layover when you also have some players that like Boba Schett, who I think can still opt out right after is it after this year, after the next year, Like it's I just don't see the oh well, just you know, preach patients like either make the playoffs or you don't. In my mind, and the one other part in the evaluation process that I'm still struggling with is that I do feel as if they eventually are going to have to get away from the we can't touch starters for too long of a period of time, like you know, playing foots you with mid range starters and signing them to three year deals where the money is still high versus you know, if you like Freddy Peralta and one party you know is offering one number and one's at another and it's not that far away, give him the extra damn year and sign the guy.

00:15:55
Speaker 2: Right right now. There's a lot there, you know, I agree with you and the starting rotations again, finding the right the right starter, and maybe it's maybe it's Freddy, maybe it's Scooble.

00:16:05
Speaker 1: You know.

00:16:06
Speaker 2: The hard part with that is in free agency is you're going to be competing against the Dodgers, probably again, and so you've already lost out to a couple of guys, including losing out on Otani, losing out on Sasaki like everybody has. But the Mets specifically are pursuing a lot of those guys and they've lost to the Dodgers. So what makes you think you can you can beat them when it comes to Schooble as a free agent. So so there's you know, those elements for sure. I think, you know, when you look at a big turnover like that, I was trying to remember a roster of any kind that you know missed out by you know, they missed out by a game by the way, getting into the postseason last year and it wasn't great the whole look, but they still is still only one game, and they would have been in the postseason that kind of turnover and then trying to win again. It's you know, I wouldn't have done it that way. I know when I talked to a lot of general managers and former gms, they wouldn't have done it that way. Now, maybe this will still work. You know, David Searn's talked about an urgency or he even kind of admitted at the end of last year He's like, man, maybe I didn't have a sense of urgency in addressing the starting rotation for the second half. And I think that's a fair self evaluation. So I would hope that that would not be the case this year, that there would be more urgency. You know, he's done it with a couple of relievers already. But you know, if if you know a starter like Peterson, if he continues to struggle, I hope they're not going to continue, you know, along that path and keep him, keep running him out there when you have some other guys you got to at least give a shot to. So there's that aspect of it, and I think the final thing on the on the pitching side is I think they're hopeful to piece together the rotation, you know, get more out of one or two guys like they have with Holmes, let's say, you know, which I thought was a good signing, but but developed their own top of the rotation starters obviously other than McClain. They're hoping that Tongue turns out to be that guy, Christian Scott hopefully too so. But here's the thing you can do both. You can sign the really good, inexpensive free agents and develop them like that's what they should be doing. And I don't think they've quite figured that part.

00:18:19
Speaker 3: Of it out yet.

00:18:21
Speaker 4: All right, let's go to the bullpen, specifically, Devin Williams. Do you feel like the tightrope that he walks or has walked since he went to the Yankees, since he's now with the Mets early on in this season, do you feel like that's a tight rope that he's going to be able to walk for this season or the length of this contract in the New York market where he kind of admitted, you know what, last year at the beginning of the year kind of got in his head and then the other guy they brought in, Luke Weaver, it's kind of doing.

00:18:51
Speaker 5: The same thing.

00:18:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I know, I think I have I definitely have concerns on it.

00:18:56
Speaker 5: Now.

00:18:57
Speaker 2: Devon's been off to a pretty good start, Brooks rarely, Weaver had has had a couple of crash and burns. So I'm not sure if that's how that's going to end up working, because you know, you guys saw that when he was with the Yankees after he had his hammy issue and on the injury list, he wasn't the same guy as velocity was down and he didn't have the same results. So, you know, relief pitching is in bullpens in general, is so hard to build, and and there's so much inconsistency, Like you know, the answer might look like yes now, and you know a week later the answers no. But I think with Devin, I'm hopeful, you know, David Stearns obviously knew him from Milwaukee. I'm hopeful that he learned from what happened there last year. Like if you talked in any Yankee fan, they think he was absolute worst reliever in the sport. Now, he wasn't that bad, but he wasn't good either, right, So you know I think that that that highlights how how much pressure there is on him to almost be perfect and he can't be in those roles. Well, I have a little concerned on what the reaction is going to be when he blows, you know, two in a row over a weekend, when the team's at home. You know, the fans are going to let him have it, and how does he react to it? So you know this, this is a long answer to say, I don't know how he's got to handle it. I'm hopeful that he will based off the fact that David Stearns knows him, you know so well, but there's no as we know, there's no guarantee that any of these guys are going to be able to handle it.

00:20:27
Speaker 1: Well, that was fine. Everyone get off the chair at the psychologist and let me know how you're feeling.

00:20:34
Speaker 2: I'm in a slump.

00:20:35
Speaker 1: Actually you are, You're not slumping, Duke talking.

00:20:40
Speaker 2: Myself out of anything. I was hoping i'd feel better after this, but not really.

00:20:45
Speaker 5: Sorry, we tried.

00:20:46
Speaker 1: Hey, broadcasters, don't lose. You just delivered. If you show up. Yeah, you're the man. Thank you for joining us on X The whole deal. He's great, Thanks Duke, See you soon, man.

00:20:58
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00:21:23
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00:23:27
Speaker 3: Oh Andy pie Is what he's doing has been really really good. Obviously, Justin Crawford coming up in a city like Philadelphi's getting on base, He's playing good defense in center field. I meanyeah, obviously this is a couple of days ago. But man, the Mets in the top ten. They should be in the bottom ten. I'm sorry. With the way they're playing, the way they're hitting, I don't know how they store even in the top ten. Even before losing those two games. They're just not very good right now.

00:23:51
Speaker 5: Now.

00:23:51
Speaker 3: It's right now. A month from now, they might be on an eight game winning streak and we're talking about how great they're playing. So if we're doing this just off right now, the pottery has got to be up there too. They got to be two or three behind the Dodgers right with the way they're playing and the way they're winning the game. So I like this list, But yeah, I think I think if you're going to do this, and you do it, you know, obviously a couple of days later we're getting to it. I think you got to move the Padres up and the Mets in the bottom ten right now.

00:24:15
Speaker 4: Yeah, obviously Pajes after we saw what he did. I think he had one RBI in the postseason. I think he hit like one. I don't even know if he hit one hundred in the postseason. Like they were, they were finding places to put him in just defensively. But to me, it's about Mason Miller. I mean, the people like the surprises. You knew a guy like that was going to come in and dominate. He's going to be the closer. That's why they traded for him, because they weren't going to re sign Robert Suarez. And then he went out and does this eight innings, twenty punch outs. That is just a ridiculous number of punch outs. Like they I was trying to look up to see what his era plus is for the season, but they don't. They don't even calculate that yet, So it's like what he's doing is uncharted territories. Like like somebody we were talking about the other day, like chance of one hundred and fifty strikeouts for a reliever that has sixty innings seventy innings, Like that's ridiculous. That's like I think, I mean, he would, he would beat Billy Wagner's number. I think I forget what his number of strikeouts per nine average was in his best years, but what he's doing is incredible, and I think it makes the games a lot easier for the offense and the starting rotation when you only had to play eight innings.

00:25:35
Speaker 1: Kratz while you're on some surprises. What about Justin Crawford for the Phillies and the way that he's been getting on base. I think some have said, or maybe it was Ben Davis the other day on our show. Yeah, let him loose a little bit on the bass paths too, because he's getting on and he's super fast. But thoughts on him early on for a Phillies team that's been.

00:25:56
Speaker 4: Mey definitely a team. I mean, he's got to that spark. I heard Michael Young used to talk about how when he came over from the Rangers. He was like, the young guys need to bring energy, be the spark and be quiet every single day. The veterans have to feed off of that energy. And I think he is a prime case of the Phillies need the veteran hitters, which I think they'll be fine, need to be able to feed off of his energy. The part of running or not running, like what Ben Davis said, Like he's getting on base at a ridiculous clip. This is the issue that they feel like they were going to run into if he was batting ninth.

00:26:36
Speaker 5: Yes, it's awesome.

00:26:37
Speaker 4: They go left, right, left, right, left right, But now you have Trey Turner, Kyle Schwarber, and Bryce Harper hitting like each one of those guys has a chance to drive you in from first base. So I know Paco figure row over at first base, the first base coach is saying, hey, we got some spots here, but we got to be one hundred percent to be able to let him go. And I think it's look, I kind of agree with Ben, and I don't agree with Ben, Like, look, he's doing really well. Allow him to continue to have success and don't put him in spots where you know what, Hey, we're gonna make this. We're gonna We're gonna be safe eighty percent of the time here because right now on top of that lineup isn't really doing a whole lot. Trey had a nice homer yesterday, Harper had won late in the game. Maybe that's when he gets scorching hot. Schwarbers leading the team in homers. But I think if you want him to have his full package, if you want that fool like whoa, this guy is a difference maker in this lineup. I think Ben's right, he does have to start running, and they possibly move him up to seventh slot, Bryson Stott down at ninth.

00:27:51
Speaker 1: We'll see, hey, one more in the top ten than I want to get your thoughts on, and then we'll move to the bottom ten. AJ thoughts on the Atlanta Braves and their nice start to the season given the rotation injuries that have hit them. The player that was pointed out by the Athletic was Mauricio Dubon, who is off to a great start and can play a number of positions. You've got Kim out and Dubon can fill in there. He can even fill in some outfield and I think he did that a little bit with center, but mostly some shortstop for him. For now, he's hitting three thirty three, three seventy one, five point fifteen, so he's smoking hot. Eventually, you hope that he can bounce around when everyone is healthy. You remember that Braves took on some money to save money for the Astros, and they took Nick Allen on. There's a pretty big difference between those two players. Nick Allen's just much more of a glob only guy. Dubon usually we'll give you more around league average hitting production. So your thoughts on them and Bryce Elder two I think should be on the surprise list. He's shoving.

00:28:51
Speaker 3: The Braids are playing well. I just don't know if they have enough health in their rotation. I think they're both knowing the Glaciers and Suarez at the back end, but do they have enough health After Chris Sales Elk, can Elder do a Ca Lopez stay out there?

00:29:03
Speaker 5: Right?

00:29:03
Speaker 3: They're gonna need some innings from some guys that are probably not counting on going into the offseason and into this season early. So I love the Braves. I think Matt Olsen's off to a nice start. It looks like their offense is bouncing back a little bit, and Dubon won a Gold Glove as a utility guy, so it's not like he isn't been doing hasn't been doing this all the time. He can play a bunch of positions in him playing shortstop, centerfield, giving guys a day off. That's a nice luxury for Walt Wise to have. Do I think the Braves are good?

00:29:29
Speaker 5: Yes?

00:29:30
Speaker 3: Do I think the Braves the third best team right now in baseball? Probably not, but they're playing well right now and they deserve some credit for how they've come out of the gates.

00:29:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, the fact that they're playing well, I don't hate them that they're up there. Everyone else is kind of playing mid and across the board. To me, the surprise, yes, my ex teammate Marisa Dubon awesome.

00:29:50
Speaker 5: Great. Sean Murphy's out right now.

00:29:53
Speaker 4: Yes, Drake Baldwin was Rookie of the Year last year, so maybe it's not a surprise the start that he's had in the fact that he's up and been that guy that catches. In the days that he's not catching, he's dhing. To me, I think the start that Drake Baldwin's had is really he's kind of been that catalyst when the team wasn't scoring a ton. Matt Olson has started to come come alive a little bit. Dom Smith has had some massive hits for them, But to me, like Drake Baldwin has just from opening day till two nights ago, like he has he has had he has really kind of been that like not captain, but kind of the dude that's made the position players get going.

00:30:37
Speaker 5: Here good call.

00:30:39
Speaker 1: Okay, let's get to the bottom tier. Middles boring, so we want to do the bottom ten. Here's the list. White Sox are at thirty, Rockies twenty nine, Cardinals at twenty eight. They have the Giants at twenty seven, the Angels at twenty six, putting the Nats at twenty five, the Reds of twenty four. I think that's that one stands out to me. I think the Reds look pretty good right now and the A's are at twenty three. That's tough, and I get it. It is difficult to knock teams out, and you don't want to judge too much on the meginning of the season when most teams are within five games of five hundred d Backs at twenty two, Royals at twenty one. AJ thoughts on this crew, and I'll give you a couple names to on the surprise side that they've pointed out so far. Slower start for Nick Kurtz, fast fast start for Jose Soriano. They used the whole lineup for the Nationals looking pretty good so far on offense. Those are a few that they threw out there.

00:31:38
Speaker 3: Well, Abrams is having a nice start, right, I mean in Washington. I mean he's doing all right. And Washington scores a ton of runs every game, so they're doing nice.

00:31:48
Speaker 5: Listen.

00:31:48
Speaker 3: I mean the White Sox, the fact that they're still behind the Rockies after this you know, rebuild and what they brought up. But I can't argue that the White Sox aren't thirty on this team. Have you guys looked at the White Sox lineups and their ops's and what they're put this lineup? Have you guys ever, have you guys looked at it? It's man, it's rough. I mean Vargas one fifty five five eighty nine, Midra two O three six O four, Mark Commy one seventy nine eight eleven. Because he's sitting some homers, but he hadn't early, He said homers when they really haven't been a big deal Pereira, I mean he didn't have enough bats. Kiro one forty six, three eighty five ops right, been attending one seventy eight five thirty four. These are guys that they were counting on coming in the season being better. Is is Kyle Teal being out? Mean this much as this White Sox team, I mean, it's it's it's it's saddening for a White Sox fans to look up and I mean there it is like they' they're hitting one ninety three as a team. They have under a six hundred OPS as a team. As a team, guys, this is unbelievable to me that you know, with all this young talent they're supposed to have, where are they outfield? Where's the outfield? If you can find me a worse outfield in baseball right now? I don't know. I'm sorry, it is what it is. But man, I can't, as much as this Paint's can say, I can't make an argument for why the White Sox aren't thirty right now now with's the way they swing the bat and the way they've played it's it's bad. But the rest of these, I mean, the A should be higher. I feel like the red should be higher. So this will move. Come back in a month and let's see where all these teams are.

00:33:12
Speaker 5: I don't know.

00:33:13
Speaker 4: I don't know if the White Sox are gonna are gonna move, and it might be a battle as much as the Dodgers are gonna be number one the entire year in the power ranking. The way the White Sox are hitting, and the fact that these are the dudes that are gonna play like this is what you got, like can't can't look anywhere else, they might stay at thirty the whole time. The Rockies, the Rockies are gonna swing it. They're just gonna give up a ton of runs too. To me, out of the whole bottom the bottom part of the power rankings is the Cardinals. One of the Cardinals to me, are playing way better than I thought they would. I thought they had a good group of young guys, but they were just good. There was a lot of hype, you know. I think wins was was the best player in that group. But now you have different guys in that lineup that are stepping up. JJ Weatherhold is doing an incredible job jumping into the big leagues. The fact that he can hit I think all three of his home runs I know is the two home run game the other day were apo to me. That puts you at a different level of power, a different level of ability to.

00:34:17
Speaker 5: Hit in the big leagues.

00:34:18
Speaker 4: But the real surprise is Jordan Walker, like the dude eight home runs I think now eleven game hitting streak. You know, you're talking about hottest starts for hitting home runs in Cardinal's history, names like Mark McGuire, Like, what he's doing is incredible, and every time he hits a home run, I don't know if people that don't watch the Cardinals see it, but he goes to the bullpen and he goes like this, I don't see anybody else doing that, And you know, maybe there's some motivation because a guy like this the last two seasons that he's had. I brought it up the other day. But if the Cardinals weren't in a rebuild, if they did, like just say, you know what, we don't like the path that the organization's going, We're going to go in and rebuild.

00:35:06
Speaker 5: He might not be in the big leagues.

00:35:07
Speaker 4: He might have to be figuring this out in the minor leagues and the fact that he is stuck around in the big leagues. Continue to work at what he knows he needs to get better at, whether he worked at it before or he didn't, and now he's committing to it. He's elevating pitches, he's elevating breaking balls, heaters pitches away, pitches in and his hit tool is now combined with his power. Oh and he's twenty three years old. So every time he hits a home run and goes like this is the bullpens, I hope it's because, you know what, I.

00:35:40
Speaker 5: Just hit another homer. It's going to cost a little bit more to extend me.

00:35:44
Speaker 1: If you're the Cardinals, hey, you know, just looking at the fans in the chat, they don't like where the Diamondbacks are being placed since they've looked pretty good. And then I'd say the biggest complaints right now are coming from fans and me about the Reds. And they did point out how we pointed out this list came out two days ago. I don't care. Two days ago didn't change it for me. With Cincinnati to be in the bottom ten right now, I know that now they're eleven and seven and have the current best record or tied with the best record in the National League Central But aj for me, if this team figures out some offense from their outfields and that should be attainable at the trade deadline, I know it's far away. They look pretty damn good to me. I think the way they focused on pitching is real. At some point, you hope they get Hunter Green back, but I don't even think they really need him right now with the amount of arm talent that they have.

00:36:41
Speaker 3: Oh Green and Lodola, right, yeah, which is scary.

00:36:45
Speaker 1: Look, I mean they already look great.

00:36:48
Speaker 3: Genos Wors have this much swagger with him. Whenever he goes, he just makes teams that much better.

00:36:53
Speaker 5: He is.

00:36:54
Speaker 3: He just the ultimate vibes guy. I mean, he's awesome. And you see them and the Giants are. They're also you know, talking a little trash to each other back and forth, so that's also fun. Yeah, the Reds should be higher. I don't know how they're in the bottom ten in the A's too. I'll see it again, the A's and the bottom ten surprises me because the a'ser are over five hundred even after the way they started so the Diamondbacks are playing all right. You know the rest of this list you can just I mean, the Royals, the rest of them are just watched. But to me, the Reds in the aes should be at least.

00:37:25
Speaker 5: In the middle ten.

00:37:26
Speaker 3: How are they not in the middle ten. It's maybe not top ten, but in the teams at least.

00:37:31
Speaker 4: I watched a little more Reds this year because I picked them to make the playoffs, so I'm like, okay, I want to watch their games. They're pitching was nasty last year. They're pitching missed out on Hunter Green last year too. The fact that Lodolo right now and Green are down, Rett Lauder and Chase Burns have stepped up and punched out the world, and the fact that they've continued it with their rotation. They've continued it with a bullpen that besides the me other Pegan, very few people know what they're bringing out of that bullpen, but there's some absolutely filthy Frisbee sliders. If you watch a Reds game of different guys that are running out of that bullpen.

00:38:11
Speaker 5: And the fact that.

00:38:11
Speaker 4: This lineup has guys who I've been expecting to be really good at some point with Elie de la Cruz finally hitting some right handed home runs last year. Maybe that injury was a bigger deal than we thought when he had that power outage. The fact that Spencer Steer I think has more in the tank. Matt McClain. Maybe if every day back from that shoulder surgery, he's going to get more and more power. But the story is last night's hero Sal Sal the way that he is hitting as a rookie again. He's taking balls to the opposite field with power. It's in citizens back, I mean, it's in the great American small park.

00:38:56
Speaker 5: But he can hit. He can hit, and for a rookie.

00:39:00
Speaker 4: Or has an opportunity to do some things in in Cincinnati. And I think he's only twenty two, if I'm not mistaken, he has some things he can do, some things in Cincinnati that if he continues this, he's gonna give Nolan McLay in a real run for his money for Rookie of the Year this year.

00:39:18
Speaker 1: Correct, he's twenty two years old. He's bawling right now for the Reds. If you have thoughts, let us know, drop it in the comments and go download MLB Perfect Inning twenty six right now. Check it out on your phone. Yeah, it's an officially licensed MLB game. You can experience the thrill of the real time PvP baseball game. Updated team logos, uniforms, the whole deal. Stadiums for the twenty twenty six season. Perfect integration of the official MLB Designated Runner rule for extra innings. Download MLB Perfect Inning twenty six from the app Store today