Willson Contreras v. Brewers BEEF, Dodgers haunt Toronto, Woah quotes from Craig Breslow & Tony Vitello

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, look who's here. Trepor May with us. Good to see it, Trepper may Day, may Day, bron Kratz and May with you. Okay, before we dive into the nitty gritty, Kratz, I just mentioned this to you before the show and just wanted to get your quick thoughts. And then Trevor can follow since he's pitched in Philly. Mike Bassett has been on the show before. A former big leaguer. It does a really nice job Rangers, broadcast radio, the whole deal. He just randomly throw darts at Philly fans for leaving games early.

00:00:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't quite understand that. It was kind of like, you know, the hoop Lob opening day, we got all these people, wasn't quite sold out like it was in Philly. But they said he said something about they leave early. I'll be honest. They blue collar Philly fans. They leave it early. They rarely even show up late either like they're there for all nine innings because they want a reason to get on their team, good or bad.

00:01:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not been my experience having been I was drafted by him. That was not what I was told to expect. You know, they love tailgating. There too. You're right, they're there way early before the game. Man, they're there early for day games. They're beating the team, like the way team to the park. I don't know where they came from. Hey, but I will say one thing. If you want to light a fire on her fan base, all you gotta do is, especially the Phillies fan base, you just say you guys leave early.

00:01:28
Speaker 4: And they heard him.

00:01:29
Speaker 3: Ears pair carup all across the city, So maybe there was maybe he's just playing five D chests and we're just we're I are playing checkers.

00:01:37
Speaker 1: We're all talking about him. That is true. You just took a shot through a dart and it was from the weekend, and I've still seen it carrying, so I figured we'd bring it up for a moment. I didn't give it much thought over the weekend because I was like, that doesn't even make sense. It's just not a fan base that you would ever put that towards. And same here. I've covered the many Phillies games, been there a ton. I never got the vibe that the place was the classic La crowd where you'd be like, hey, they're late from the traffic, they're leaving early from the traffic, right, you want to make that case cool. Philly doesn't have the traffic level either of some of the cities that we're talking about. There's traffic, but it's not crazy. It's relative here, I mean, Kratz, you would probably agree.

00:02:17
Speaker 2: Marlins fans they leave her well, I guess they just don't show up. So I guess they're like they leave early for warm ups. How about that?

00:02:24
Speaker 1: Not your words, Sandy ol Countra's words, but now your words too.

00:02:28
Speaker 2: Sandy's thrown today, so I forgot how to bring it up.

00:02:30
Speaker 1: That is a good call, all right. Now, let's get to the big series of the week's charge that well, Trevor Miguel Rojas can do it all, as he pitched in a fourteen to two beat down for the Dodgers over the Toronto Blue Jays, a rematch of last year's World Series, doing it regular season style, and the Blue Jays have now lost five games in a row. But it has to bite and hurt even more when you've got Biggy Rowe pitching at the end of the game. Of course, he was the one who saved the season there for the Dodgers in Game seven in the ninth inning, and as far as offense. I mean, this is a historic run right now for the Dodgers on this road trip too. You had two homers and four hits for Dalton rushing, Kim contributed a couple knocks. You had Otani going along in a very Otani way to center field. What else? We had Tasker Hernandez against his old team, Freddie Freeman with a long bomb. This was essentially a nightmare, right If I said to you, Trevor as a Blue Jays you know, if I said to a Blue Jays Van, hey, what would be your worst case scenario for the first Dodgers Blue Jays matchup after the World Series, They'd be like, we get clobbered. Our pitching staff is in shambles. Everybody homers that we don't want a homer, and Miguel Rojas pitched in the game too.

00:03:50
Speaker 4: You're forgetting one big element too.

00:03:52
Speaker 3: They're like, if we could really quickly just get swept by the White Sox the series before that, would that would really put the salt on top.

00:04:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's slow going for the team.

00:04:04
Speaker 3: A little bit of a World Series hangover, a little bit of concern around what I considered ten days ago one of the deeper pitching staffs going into the season. They've had a couple Cody Ponstin was just kind of a freak injury. And then we had the comments from Scherzer after the Ponds injuries like, hey, let's not do anything crazy. Let's all be smart here. No one, no one go out on the boat anywhere or do anything weird. We gotta try to stay healthy here. And then you know, he comes up with a Barkin for arm yesterday. So yeah, not a great start. Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong for the Blue Jays. But it's funny, even after all of this, there's still a pretty complete team, even with the losing Alejandra Kirk to thumb surgery, Like it's it's not how you want to start. Long, long way to go though, and still a very talented team with a lot of really good players that haven't gotten going.

00:04:58
Speaker 4: Yet at all.

00:04:58
Speaker 3: So if you can just tread water, I mean, I've been on a team that started oh to nine.

00:05:03
Speaker 4: It can be.

00:05:05
Speaker 3: It can be a mindset that sticks with you if you don't if you don't change it and change it quickly somehow. So I know later on the show we're gonna talk about another team trying to get themselves going and trying some new stuff. So they're they're due, They're due for some good luck. Uh, and I'm paying attention to it. But lat having the Dodgers come in on a historic heater, at least in the box after a tough, tough road series against the team you're supposed to beat every day, it's.

00:05:32
Speaker 4: Tough to swallow.

00:05:33
Speaker 1: There.

00:05:33
Speaker 3: There's it's an inflection point. They gotta they gotta figure something out. They got to get get the fires lit a little bit.

00:05:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think this is how we're supposed to speak in the Blue Jays locker room as fans. You watch it and you go, well, maybe the Blue Jays are the twenty twenty four Blue Jays and the twenty twenty five blue Jays are just a just a figment of our imagination now, like, oh, they just had a great year and now the you know, the real Blue Jays, the twenty twenty four Blue Jays are the team that's gonna show up this year.

00:06:06
Speaker 4: No, that's not what's gonna happen.

00:06:08
Speaker 2: Look, this team has doubled down on the fact that it puts together really good at bats by continuing to keep this lineup together, continuing to make sure they're in a good spot that say, you know what, when we're putting good at bats together, when we're scoring runs as a team, we're gonna have a pitching staff that was looking like it was going to start like going out the door, Bassett soon, Gosman, Barrios. We didn't know what was going to happen. Bieber at the end of the season, didn't know he was going to accept his player option. Now you look at it and you go, it's good they have this depth because this team has been made on pitching in defense, and the lineup just showed up last year. They showed up in ways that it was a really team lineup. So they have to get back to that. They have to get back to team at bats and clean defense because right now they're starting pitching is going to need to be picked up by their bullpen, which had a pretty big road to hoe when they When you lose Sureser that early in a game, you expect him, you know, expect him to go nine, but you expect him to at least give you five. It's a tough way to start a series against a team that was swinging really well, but The biggest issue is now they're into that bullpen. Anytime you get into the bullpen for six plus innings in a three game series, advantage Dodgers in this case, and they were already hot. Now it's another big advantage to them. So they're going to need a big They're gonna be a big outing tonight.

00:07:47
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00:08:16
Speaker 1: You out with the exclusive FT code which is Territory ten for ten percent off your next set of tickets at Sea Geek. That's ten percent off any tickets with promo code t er R it R y one zero. Make sure you click the link in the description to download the app, and you can have that code automatically added to your account so that you can use it later. There are regular season MLB games going on right now. There are hot tickets across the country, so make sure you go to Sea Geek. They will take care of you. Trevor, where are you at with the World Series hangover? I know you mentioned it in your first response, but Toronto has a good amount of the same pitching returning. Then they added some names. Of course, it was I don't know what you'd call it, but more freak accident there for Cody Ponce chersiers back. You had to leave the game early, but it sounds like he'll be okay and not miss his next start. Trey Savage, good example of someone who was super super extended. It was worth it. You almost won the World Series, but it's not surprising that he gets hurt. So where are you at with how teams deal with that? And do you agree with me that part of the reason why the Dodgers didn't suffer from the World Series hangover like other teams is that they essentially shuffled out their rotation from twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five. A lot of the guys that were the big names pitching for them in twenty five, aside from maybe Yamamoto and the rotation, were not the guys that were contributing in twenty four.

00:09:40
Speaker 3: I mean they do that every year in some way, shape or form. A lot of times it's like they shuffle out the rotation from the regular season to the playoffs, like they're hurt all the time. That's like their mo They always have so much depth, but guys don't throw full seasons and then suddenly they're ready for the playoffs. Same thing with the bullpen, where they're covering these diamonds of the rough too, to kind of take leverage innings at the end of the end of games as well towards the end of the year, and like leaning on somebody really hard, and it's it's a it's like an expectation, and it's what it does is that I think what they do better than anything is like this is built in and so they don't panic when guys get hurt because they know, like what how this thing works for them generally, and they have lots of depth and guys to step.

00:10:25
Speaker 4: In and to fill the role. They're just really smart. They know how to do that.

00:10:28
Speaker 3: So the reason I think, I don't want to say they've they've been resistant, not immune, but but resistant to it is they can handle these blows when they lose guys early in the season and then they just they're good enough to hang around and stay in first place in the division and then at a little space at the end and then get going for the playoffs. I believe Joe Kelly has said this very publicly. A lot is just about it's it's it's not even an unspoken secret, it's it's an open secret, and we're just talking about openly that you'll be back for October. Like, So, they operate that way. It's a luxury to be able to operate that way. But it seems like they've built their team that way for the last half decade or so. And it's not like you just decide to do that one day and then it works. You have to have it built in, and they've they've invested in their team in a way that is going to allow them to do it. So, but but swapping guys out like that weren't didn't go all the way in. It's just a unique thing that that's why it's so hard to win back to back. It's like when you get it's already the shortest offseason in professional sports. If you reduce it by a month, you get three months off and then you're playing for nine months. And that's not including you know, guys who play winter ball and stuff, which there's a lot of them. So it's just an all year round sport and you got to manage it. That's why we don't see any Dodgers playing their full team until like March twentieth every year because they know that in order to go back, they're going to have to give their guys as much rest that they can give them.

00:11:50
Speaker 2: It takes a lot of trust in the player. It takes a lot of trust from the player from the team like so it's a two way street year for the Dodgers' rotation, there was nine guys that started seven or more games. So an easy way to say, okay, we don't have a World Series hangover is all these guys were spread out. It went Yamamoto and then very few people can guess, including me, who had the second most starts on the team. People would say, oh, Blake snow Tyler Glass. Now, no, it's it was Clayton Kershaw. So they are going to need guys in the rotation to step up to be able to keep the bullpen healthy. But oh yeah, that bullpen added Edwin Diaz at the back. They added more to that bullpen to say, Okay, we may not be able to get a ton of stretch out of our rotation because they had, like I said, nine guys all the way down to land in nac who made seven starts. You just need guys to come in and do this. And it shows the depth of the organization in the sense of that it's not just free agents that they brought in to it's well, it's guys from the guys from the minor leagues, guys from trades, guys from whatever it is. They're building a team that I'm not saying they're averse, like they're definitely immune to World Series hangovers. It's just they understand the length of the season is not six months. Their season is seven months long, and everybody trusts and they're just they're a locomotive going downhill right now.

00:13:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, and some of them are living their best life with their best friends. Trevor did you see Otani and Yamamoto before the game hopping on the mound.

00:13:37
Speaker 4: I did not see that.

00:13:39
Speaker 1: But let's get a live reaction from Trevor.

00:13:45
Speaker 3: Oh, it's the best. I don't know what they're doing, maybe just trying to relive it. But that's what little kids do. You're always I mean dry runs, you know, Kratzy knows just like dry hacks.

00:14:03
Speaker 4: You swing.

00:14:04
Speaker 3: Everyone's like, yeah, how many times you swing today? One hundred times with my bad and about five hundred times with my ghost bat.

00:14:11
Speaker 4: That's what we do. We just do.

00:14:13
Speaker 3: We just go through our motion constantly because it's the most natural thing in the world does And that takes me back to being ten years old in the backyard imagining, imagining game Game seven, World Series, kind of like last time, last last year pitching though fortunately you didn't want to be the picture in that situation last year. But it's what we do. It's what we do. They having fun love to see it.

00:14:37
Speaker 1: To me, that was like taking some little leaguers on the fields and you have like the pictures, and the pictures are like, oh yeah, let's run on the mound and simulate like we're in the World Series. Dodgers and Blue Jays, except it's Yamamoto and show Hey o Tani, very cool video. If you're listening to the podcast, I would encourage you to go fourteen minutes into the YouTube version of this show and check it out. Hey, we're back. What was your take, Trevor from the weekend for Matt Chapman. So, first of all, he had an uncharacteristic four errors or he has four errors on the season. A couple errors in that one game were charged against his account that he felt were more Casey Schmidt's ball, but you know, he said he took accountability for. Also the base running mistake, three run deficit ninth inning gets caught at second. Tony Bytello's manager said that there's actually been two other incidents behind closed doors like the one captured on camera between Chapman and Casey Schmidt. So if you'd also like to comment on the manager really like living out the entire reality show, Tony Bytello has dominated like these mini segments that we're doing with his soundbites.

00:15:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's an interesting situation, an interesting situation that, to be honest, I was pretty excited to see how this hall, this whole dynamic was going to come together because historically to talk about Fotello at the out of the gate. He's been pretty candid, and I know that's refreshing in a lot of ways for media because you know, you get canned answers quite a bit, and you talk to them constantly.

00:16:13
Speaker 4: I believe.

00:16:15
Speaker 3: AJ was brought up the other day and on the show that you know, you're talking to the manager three times a day, or the media is talking to the managers talking to the media three times a day, so you kind of like sometimes you're lelding some candid answers or you're making stuff up just to be interesting. But he's been pretty open about what's going on behind closed doors already, which is something that is like, is not a Major League Baseball thing. Usually it's like, let's sleep coast to vest. We got to keep this door opaque, not a screen door. So it's interesting, but weird out of chatman. It's not stuff we're used to seeing from him.

00:16:48
Speaker 4: I don't know, I don't know what's going on.

00:16:50
Speaker 6: So that kind of the idea of deploying our players in a way that maximizes positive outcomes by creating the most favorable matchups that we can is a term, you know that that I would call optimization, and I think that's synthesizing analytical information. It's synthesizing the real time feedback that we would be getting from our players and our coaches who are interacting with each other every single day to ensure that we're doing that and making sure that we're not leaving wins on the table.

00:17:15
Speaker 1: Craig Breslo, who is running the Red Sox, that's putting everyone to sleep. And this is GMS, this is a former player. Trevor's loving it. Okay, Trevor, so help me bridge the gap here because this quote went viral. The Red Sox are up to a poor start. We're about to talk about them and their beef with Contrares, but also we'll expand that into the Red Sox at two and eight. When you hear that, do you feel like that's what should be said from front offices or should they be speaking to the fans a little bit more?

00:17:48
Speaker 3: That is not a very digestible way of saying it. No, and that is, you know, it's a skill to be able to communicate. It's not a very complicated thing. It's like we're trying to make put guys some positions to be successful as much as human I possible using numbers.

00:18:04
Speaker 4: Everyone's doing it.

00:18:05
Speaker 3: He just it's almost like he said it in the in the most technical way possible.

00:18:12
Speaker 4: Uh.

00:18:12
Speaker 3: The only word that was left out of there in terms of corporate speak is synergies. So I'm glad we didn't hear that.

00:18:19
Speaker 4: I I don't I hear it.

00:18:23
Speaker 3: I know what he means, and I that is the That is a good way of approaching. There's a lot of teams doing a lot of good things in that way, but the timing and the market and the fan base that you have is not gonna want to hear that. And maybe there's other fan bases that would like.

00:18:39
Speaker 4: To hear that.

00:18:39
Speaker 3: That would be more you know, it's more exciting. I found it sounds like something's happening for the teams that really haven't changed a lot or maybe behind everybody else.

00:18:47
Speaker 4: Boston Red Sox are not one of them.

00:18:48
Speaker 3: Uh, and Bres really really he went for it. I mean, I got to give credit where credits do. As a Nerd myself, I mean, if you going full nerd on TV, is even twenty twenty six still pretty at this point.

00:19:01
Speaker 1: It's two fans. That's the thing. The press conference is for journalists to take notes for their story for fans, and some fans do like to get into some really in depth analytics talk. But for the most part, you can even do that without sounding like you're doing the quarterly earnings report for your publicly traded company. That's what it sounds like.

00:19:20
Speaker 2: I wear my hat backwards. I don't know what they're all gonna buy.

00:19:23
Speaker 1: All. Yeah, what's the beef is the segment. It is the perfect title for what we're about to discuss, and it is Wilson Contreras against the Brewers. It's been going on for a long time. He's been hit twenty four times by pitches. So we're going to get Trevor's perspective and Kratz's perspective pitcher and catcher. Right, he will start with Trevor, so Contreras didn't just get hit, and also he gets hit a lot because he kind of crabs a plate. I'll let you comment on that how you want. He also had some very pointed words. First of all, he said he predicted that this was going to happen before the game, and he said they always say this is the quote I'm not trying to hit you. That gets old. So next time they hit me again, I'm going to take one of them out. That's a message that to me sounds like a threat. Trevor, what did you take from that? And Brandon Woodriff hitting him to load the bases didn't seem intentional, and then them verbally jabbing at each other until Woodriff was like, wait, I recognize that he does this all the time and this was going to fire his team up, so I stopped.

00:20:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, here's the deal.

00:20:38
Speaker 3: You get hit one hundred and thirty one times in your career, you do something that makes guys throw on the inside.

00:20:44
Speaker 4: Of the plate. To you, we have a lot of hard throwers. We had a lot of.

00:20:47
Speaker 3: Sinkers in the game now, and he is a I've had this experience. I've only faced some a couple times in my career, and I had the experience with him as well. Like he'll come out, he'll swing real hard the first pitch he sees to try to like maybe basically establish a power dynamic.

00:21:04
Speaker 4: It's like part of what he does.

00:21:06
Speaker 3: This is a normal thing that there are hitters around the league that do, like a great example of a pitcher who did this stuff was John Lackey. I went head ahead with him as well. I had to head against him. He did it to me, so I was like, this is just something that is part of guy's game. Wilson Creris is one of those guys. So he gets over, he leans over the plate. Krats probably can speak to this as well. You see a guy that leans over the plate, you know the scouting port on him, you know, we got to bust him in, Like it's one of those things like.

00:21:33
Speaker 4: We're gonna work him in. We're gonna workhim in, We're gonna work him in.

00:21:36
Speaker 3: He gets hit a few times, he reacts the way he does. He's a high emotion guy. Those guys hate to be on there or hate to play against him, love to be on their team type of guys. This is not new for him. This has been We've heard about this his whole career, no matter what team he was on. And and it's one of those things like we're not trying to hit you, but if we do, we don't really feel that bad. And it's like you get that reputation and then then it becomes your reputation for a long time time. Carlos Gomez. We all remember him and his antics and how he excited he was. He got a reputation. Some guys they throw him in and if we get you, if you end up getting in way of the ball, then I'm not gonna feel a bad as maybe if we hit somebody else. So I think that's what the situation goes. The Brewers will go Rodriffs hit him on his own six times, like they know the situation. He's like, and I'm gonna throw you in next time and hopefully you swing and I'm hitting the edge the whole time and you get yourself out, Like that's that's what we're working with. But that's how it turns into it. I just think that with the way that the Red Sox are playing right now, contros like if they hit me, I'm gonna get mad, but instead of just trying to calm myself down, I'm just gonna lean into it.

00:22:41
Speaker 4: And that's I think that's what we saw.

00:22:43
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm pretty sure the video if you watch it, he has a handguard, he has a elbow guard, and if you watch I went back and I watched all six hip by pitches from Big Wu. I mean it dates all the way back to I think twenty nineteen. I didn't see any from when I was catching Big Wu in eighteen, so I think it was nineteen on. And a lot of those hit by pitches are really just really just like inside pitches that he's not getting out of the way of. Is he sick of getting hit? For sure, everybody's sick of it. But when you go into a game, it's my theory of the whole Angel Hernandez was Angel Hernandez a bad umpire. Yeah, but when you go into the game, the very first borderline call, oh, Angel, You're terrible. So now Wilson Contrerez goes into the game and he's like, they're gonna hit me the very first pitch that's way inside with runners on second and third, Like they want to put him on. If they're gonna put him on, you can just Garrett Cole to Raffie Divers four put him on, like get a hit is not new. What's new about this whole situation is the fact that he went in and he he went in and did this. He said he went to get one of them. I'm gonna get one of them, And he went in and he put a cleat right in Hamilton's calf. Now you catch somebody, you know, maybe you're sliding in and as you slide in, your foot comes up. It could look malicious, but it's not necessarily malicious. If you go back and watch his replay, he is under complete control. He went in both hands up and his cleat was about knee high. He was trying to do damage. And the only reason I can say that for certain is because that was his exact quote. And if Major League Baseball does not come back and have some type of suspension for this, some type of fine for this, then they're two faced. Because if a pitcher says, I'm just trying to I'm just trying to hurt this hitter. I'm just trying to. I remember when Cole Hamil's hit Bryce Harper back when Bryce was a rookie. He was like, I was just trying to welcome him to the league, like when I first got called up to the league. He got suspended for an intentional hit by pitch. You should get suspended for an intentional cleap to the calf that ripped Hamilton's pants.

00:25:16
Speaker 1: Trevor, what if in the next game coming up, Wilson Contreres goes to Carrot Krishane. He's like, we're hitting first batter, or we're targeting someone early and we're hitting him and it was you that he's talking to. What would you say, oof, go.

00:25:36
Speaker 3: Drop that question on me. It would take more than just Wilson, I'll be honest to lock that one in. It would take more than just Wilson. This would have to be a collective veteran leadership, like, hey, we're gonna we're gonna play these guys hard like situation. And that's you know, that's old school too, but like you know, you don't go head hunting for one guy who has a lot.

00:26:03
Speaker 4: Of history with it. It's not like it's just random.

00:26:05
Speaker 3: Or it was blatantly obvious, right, It's it's still not blatantly obvious that you're being thrown at.

00:26:11
Speaker 4: It's just the way that you're pitched.

00:26:13
Speaker 3: And I think we've seen enough of these situations where we're like, hey, man, like how about I throw everyone in? How about I just be aggressive in on the plate and be okay, if one gets away with me or Go or Gray somebody or whatever the same way they're approaching you, I gotta I gotta compete, but I gotta compete in the baseball way, especially when you're Gret Crochet. You're like, I could strike every single guy out in the game potentially, Why would I give a free base if I can avoid it. So it's one of those things. It's like it's an ongoing conversation. It wouldn't be that simple, and it shouldn't be that simple, And honestly, you should probably come out on the on the end of like, we just got to beat him on the field. I know that's boring for a lot of people, but it is. It is the way the game is played now, and it is the best way to keep everyone on the field too.

00:27:00
Speaker 2: It's kind of an inflection point. I mean, it's not like Wilson Contreras has been on this team forever. His teammates are still trying to learn him. They're still trying to learn who he is. You know, is he the real who he was in spring training? Is this who he is? Do we like that fiery personality? If it's a guy that's been there for like, let's turn the tables. Christian Yelich has been with the Brewers forever. He's a respected veteran on this team. People have seen him come to the ballpark day in and day out a certain way for years, since twenty eighteen when he came over there. If he comes to somebody and says what he did was messed up, I want you to put one in his ribs. That's way different than Wilson Contreras, who if you sit back and you watch what happened, it's like, ah, what I don't understand, Like why you're so mad, Like he barely ticked you. If they're throwing at you, they're putting one. They're putting one in your ribs. They're putting one where you can't get out of the way of it. I mean, we played the Cardinals forever, and the Cardinals would routinely hit Yelly, whether they were trying to do it or not. As a team, you are not allowed to let your best hitter, who is the MVP that year, get hit. You can't allow that as a team because then they're just going to control the inner half of the zone if they have it. If they have the inner half of the zone as a hitter, like you just say, well, they're never going to throw in there because they're afraid of hitting me. Then you just look out over and if we have the heat map. I sent the heat map. I'm not sure if we have it yet or not, if we can bring it up. This is fastballs in from right handers. Okay, this is the red is power zone for Wilson Contreras. The blue and light green close to the hitter is where he does not have much slug versus the fastball slash a sinker. So if you're a hit pitcher, where are you gonna throw your fastball? Trevor up and in like all day long, all day long, like this is this is what you're looking at. If you want success, you don't want him to do damage against you. This is where you have to throw your fastball. So I'm sorry, like, I'm not throwing at somebody. I'm not throwing somebody on the other team because they're throwing in a location that you can't hit.

00:29:31
Speaker 4: That's a good point.

00:29:32
Speaker 3: He makes good points, unassailable, I would say a couple interesting also points to point out here guy getting getting the cleat fired at him is David Hamilton, who was these guys teammates last year on Boston, who by all accounts very well liked and everyone was sad to see him go. Uh, Caleb Gurban came over in that trade, So it wasn't just some like you know, it wasn't like a guy who's been a brewer for a long time is like he's like, hey man, I was one of you, Like I know you guys like why me just because I'm I'm here. So there is a little bit of that going on where you know you're conflicted when you know a guy who's on the other side of the receiving end of something that he doesn't deserve because he wasn't involved in the thing. And then and I also want to say this, you make a great point about Yelly and and like, say what you want about Wilson Turrets great hit or great player. He has a history of some highly charged uh like getting angry about about guys and being hit and not being too happy about it.

00:30:29
Speaker 4: He'll say what he thinks.

00:30:30
Speaker 3: Like if I as a younger guy with the twins and Joe Mauer.

00:30:34
Speaker 4: Came up to me and said, hey, we got to go and get this guy.

00:30:37
Speaker 3: Yes, Joe, when it tell me, when tell me exactly which pitch you got it? Because you're Joe Mauer and I would never think you would ever have. It must be really serious if if Papa Joe's asking so like it's one of those situations. Uh, same with Yelich. Like some guys that's not their mo or they're not they don't get upset and they're upset and they need something. You pay attention. You're much more willing to to to figure out a solution to that problem quickly. Then maybe somebody who From time to time it's hard to tell whether or not it's a then thing or there's really a big deal going on there.

00:31:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it was David Hamilton on the Red Sox, but Wilson Contrera's on the Cardinals, so they weren't teammates. But I still see what you're saying. And also, wait, I'll add to that for you. William contraras Wilson's brother is on the Brewers, So if this does escalate, are they going to fight to each other? The one thing that I want to finish my thought with, you know, I let you guys handle most of like the actual Hey is this appropriate? Where is he standing on the plate? How to get him out? The one thing that I like, Krats is the Red Sox look terrible right now they're two to eight on the season. They look bad right on basically all fronts. They are slumping and you can lose your season really quickly. Ask the Orioles from last year, especially in the American League East. I'm not saying you should do this all the time, but this is part of what you sign up for. Wilson Contreres has done this for years. He's had the same reputation for years. He's going to be a top three hitter for the Red Sox and sometimes they're going to get this and for me, at least, it's entertaining, and I think from the fan perspective, sometimes they're like, damn, they need a freaking shock. They need to get electrocuted right now, because if they go down a bad hill for the next few weeks, they might not be able to climb out of it.

00:32:25
Speaker 2: Next few weeks. They're they're putting themselves behind the eight ball because of the fact that the East is a gauntlet. We just had the Orioles on. We were talking Orioles yesterday and what they've gone through. They haven't hit the East yet. Like, if this team is two to eight and they're playing the Padres, they're playing the astros. They're playing the Brewers, they're playing the Reds and they've played the Twins. Oh I'm sorry, No, yeah, no, the Twins. That was spring training Red's astros. Like you need to be if you're going to compete in the East, you need to win the games outside of the East and maybe tread water and be five hundred in the East. So they have an uphill battle already. Sorry, like it's ten games in. You don't win the season in the first ten, but you can lose it.

00:33:18
Speaker 1: Hey, one more thing from this Red Sox loss yesterday, Trevor. We brought it up a couple of days ago, Alex Cork kind of called Roman Anthony out for his defense, and they've been sitting the more often. Of course, his arm from left field comes up big in the wrong way, comes up in a big moment in the wrong way. Yesterday a couple runs score late in the game that ends up being the difference. I mean, he's flat footing throws from left fields. The core called out the footwork being off. So did you see the throw and what are your thoughts on Roman Anthony kind of seeing life coming at him really fast right now. I think he's about twenty one years old, he got super paid. I think he's being asked to be the superstar on the team. And Anthony himself, of course, was very accountable. He said, terrible throw again, bad baseball. It's on me. Got to be at least competitive, and it wasn't so terrible. And he's right, it was like dozens of feet off the mark.

00:34:13
Speaker 4: Yeah, when it.

00:34:14
Speaker 3: Comes to it always actually has blown me away with the wide variation between outfield arms and because the outfield is such a and it has been this way since we were in Little league. Like, you know, if if a guy can hit, but maybe it isn't the best defensively, or I didn't have the strongest arm, we find somewhere out there to put him and and it remains that way. So coming up Anthony, it's not like Anthony was a high he has been a very highly talented prospect. But the arm wasn't part of it defensively, you know, good instincts was was the was the name of the game, but not necessarily the best arm tool. That said, I think there is another element here with the footwork and just playing. Basically, it's about playing the balls that you can get to if you don't have a lot of range. You can just kind of make sure you're really tight with the things that are within your ability to do. Mark Canna, a teammate of mine on with the Mets, was a guy who kind of preaches.

00:35:12
Speaker 4: He's like, dude, I know not the fastest guy.

00:35:14
Speaker 3: I know I don't have the best arm, and I know i'm the most range, but I want to make sure that I'm playing within whatever my sphere is influences out here. I need to be as good as I can be within those parameters. And I don't think we're seeing that from Roman Anthletic, Like it's okay if you don't throw the guy out, but we you got to put yourself in a best position to get them out if you can, if it's within your ability with your talent to do so. And it doesn't seem like that is what's happening. It seems like it's a lack of care and focus on mechanics with it. Now, I guess twenty one years old, but he is a superstar. It is something that we are counting on him.

00:35:51
Speaker 1: From him, Yeah, now it's becoming a story early on here too.

00:35:57
Speaker 2: You can go in defensive slumps too, so maybe you can work himself out.

00:36:00
Speaker 7: Of it better than Bass Scoors.

00:36:13
Speaker 1: Let's start with Jose Ramirez. He has played many games. In addition to being one of the most complete players in the sport, he also plays He's durable, so he passed the all time games played record for The Guardian's enfranchise history. So since his debut in twenty thirteen, yesterday was now his one thy, six hundred and twentieth game that passes Terry Turner for most enfranchise history. Who is Terry Turner? I don't know. Ask your friends that we're following baseball from nineteen oh four to nineteen eighteen. Otherwise we can just focus on the seven time All Star now with another accolade, Kratz. I mean, he's just hard to not love. Of course, he is the guy, the icon in Cleveland, but there's just like nothing bad to say about him. And I think this just points out one more component is the availability that he provides to Cleveland. Imagine if he was a more injury prone player. I mean, when he's not in games, which is pretty rare for Cleveland, they're in trouble.

00:37:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely.

00:37:20
Speaker 2: I mean you're talking about there's very few players that are I'm even sure the lynch pin more of a linchpin of a lineup than Jose Ramirez. What do we talk about the Cleveland Guardians all the time, terrible lineup, unbelievable, no power. Then they had a power serge and then it's like, oh their outfielders can't hit. Oh now they got it. Like the whole constant, the whole time, it's Jose Ramirez. Like the fact that this guy has played this many games. I couldn't believe that sixteen hundred was the most by a Cleveland baseball player. That was surprising to me. He just signed an extension. He's going to be there for a little while. Like I feel like a guy like Jose Ramirez will age differently. This is talking about a guy who has been nine nine years. He has got his seven time All Star nine years MVP votes six of those nine years top five MVP votes, Like easily the most underrated player because of the fact that he doesn't have an MVP and he's close to he's close to like a sixty war for his career. So you're talking about a Hall of Fame type of player that Cleveland has gotten to watch his entire career.

00:38:31
Speaker 1: And Trevor, you've faced him probably too many times.

00:38:33
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, he's up there. I think he's top five and guys have faced not a fun ab came up against him too. We were same kind of class to break in. It was, and I'll be honest, there was a group of prospects over there in Cleveland and he was probably third behind Francesco Lindor, who is the big highly touted one, which I mean I think that's also warranted, very very good player in his own right, and Hazus Aguilar was the big bopper first base coming up with Cleveland, so you know, he was always with third base. He's you know, he's kind of more of a second base type. Maybe didn't really have much that much power in the minors and he just found this mode. It feels like he can operate at ninety percent speed at all times and still have still stay healthy and still be able to steal bags. He's like that good of a player, but he always feels under control, and that is something I think that is more special than you can really give credit because it's just not flash. He's hard to pin down, but there's just like he's just there he's inevitable. He's just he's just a constant in that lineup, and that team would be not not close to as good of a team without him in that lineup. For as long as he's been there, I think they've been searching for that new group, those three guys that they're excited about since he came up, and they're hoping these these young these young guys and de laughter and sneaming and and they can start to get some power around him to keep the core going because he's going to be there till the day he retires. So it's awesome to see. But you just don't see this as often that you're not as touted, and you kind of develop into this type of guy while you're in the big leagues.

00:40:14
Speaker 4: It is. It is impressive, and he is He's always a guy.

00:40:17
Speaker 3: You're circling on every lineup, just automatic when you face him in and I had to do that quite a bit. It was always like, okay, you got Lindor and Ramirez and Santana every single day. So they were in my top three face for quite a while in my career.

00:40:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, Craps looked it up. He said six for eighteen, So I don't know how mean he played appearances, but yes, I.

00:40:40
Speaker 3: Don't think there's a homer in there, so I'll take a no homer. And this is important.

00:40:46
Speaker 4: Dang it.

00:40:47
Speaker 2: Well.

00:40:47
Speaker 4: The fact that I could remember is a good thing. Uh.

00:40:49
Speaker 3: But uh, I will say I only picked guys off first base twice and I picked him off once, and no one was more surprised than Jose Ramires because he was like, I'm going this guy stinks.

00:41:03
Speaker 1: I bet he has not been picked off very often. He is a super high Baseball IQ awareness guy and one of the best base runners in baseball too, not just talking about stolen bases. I'm talking about just everything that he does, taking the extra base, having the awareness at all times. When you watch him, it's like a clinic. So the Guardians lost the game. This is better than box scores four to two. They walked Ramirez twice. By the way, Guardians are in first place. It's five seconds into the season. Every Ale Central team basically has the same record right now, which is interesting. Guardians are six and five, there's a five and five Royals, and the rest of the teams in the division are four and six. We'll swing over to the Nationals game real quick. I mean, I'm going to talk about the Nats and Cardinals a little bit more in the beginning of the season, Kratz, because then we probably aren't going to talk about them much past the first month or two of the year. But both bullpens look really bad. I'm going to bet on that game. Later we'll talk about it. James would look really good, off to a nice start at the plate and defensively made a ridiculous catch.

00:42:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, the home run home run saving play, I don't think people are I mean, we just had Joe Adele on yesterday about his three home runs, like those are that he that he robbed against the Mariners, Like it's not easy to rob home runs. The issue with James Wood when he robbed the home run that he robbed last night, like it didn't even look like he had a jump. He is such a large human. He hits the ball so hard, and the fact that he hit a line drive to the center fielder in the eighth inning that ended up going out of the ballpark really showed like kind of a glimpse. Unfortunately, not many people watched the Cardinals NAT's game last night of what this guy can do. It was a two iron. It was a stinger off the deck that went out and almost broke the bullpen cart in Washington.

00:42:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's got a few homers to start the year. Really, the last couple of games is when he's been picking up the pace seven twenty two ohps and I think things can change. But you're going to get a high swing and miss guy and probably thirty forty homers per year in athletic outfielder out there for the Nationals who are just in like total rebuild, let's have fun mode. Same with the Cardinals this year. So just like play loose, have a good time, put up numbers, do your thing in James Wood.

00:43:28
Speaker 8: So coming from the Miami Marlins. When I walk around Miami, I never saw a Miami Marlins jersey. I never saw in Miami Marlins hat. I saw nothing at the sort of pope. When I'm walking around downtown Denver, they are really excited about the Rockies. They want the Rockies to be good. This is a sports town. We are trying to put a good product on the field. I think Paul's done a great job of that. I've never seen so many supporters of one team that I've actually been a part of and that I've been on. So this city and this team wants to win, and we're going to try to put the best product every night and do our best to win.

00:44:00
Speaker 1: It's Rockies outfielder Troy Johnston talking about how he likes Stenver a little bit better now he's Patrick Saunders, who's covered the team for years, saying that the announced crowd on Monday Night was sixteen thousand and three oh one, lowest in franchise history, including the COVID seasons. That would be a huge win almost any night in Miami. I know we've been picking on their attendance lately, but the guy does have a point, Trevor. I've been to Colorado a number of times, Denver specifically, I lived in Miami. You do see Rockies jerseys everywhere, and this is actually part of a dynamic with two teams that have been towards the bottom for a while. The Marlins struggle even when they're good. The Rockies do well attendance wise, even when they're bad.

00:44:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's an interesting adamic also very well, said Troy. I couldn't tell if you were the new GM of the team or just a player on it, so that was well done. I think that that'll be in the archives for when you do want to become a GM someday. He makes a great point, do you know what, do you know what jerseys and hats? You do see a lot in Miami Yankees. So, uh, they do like baseball. They just happen to like the Yankees more. It's it's you know, it's a different situation than the weather is different.

00:45:16
Speaker 4: I understand there is an element.

00:45:18
Speaker 3: Of that, right, It's you get the beaches and it's Miami, and it's it's a different type of town that is built around other entertainment.

00:45:25
Speaker 7: Uh.

00:45:26
Speaker 3: And Denver no offense to Denver. That's not the case to Denver. Denver is a different style. But that said, the discrepancy in terms of attendance should not be what it is. And if you're gonna be on a team that isn't really that competitive usually year on year out, and you you want to at least feel like the fans are behind you. I mean, well, unless you're a pitcher, Denver is not a great place or Denver's a great place to choose, right, So, and guys have made that calculus before.

00:45:55
Speaker 4: I've I've heard that directly like that. I would make that.

00:45:58
Speaker 3: Decision because it's just seems like a more fun place to play that doesn't feel so it's not fun to play where it feels like it's empty or in an empty warehouse all the time, and it's super hot outside all the time.

00:46:11
Speaker 4: So I mean, he said what he thought. I love it. You candid, say what you're thinking.

00:46:16
Speaker 2: Say it with the jest.

00:46:31
Speaker 1: A few minutes to go here slappands a great day with Trevor May. Trevor, I wanted to ask you about the Mariners since you're in the Seattle area. What is the buzz on the team so far in the first week and a half of the season. Cal Roley at its first home run in a great a b against Jacob de gram although in a losing effort to unlass for them, but thoughts on the Mariners as a whole in the first week and a half and also just the vibes I think, who is it? Ryan Divish said that the excitement level and anticipation up in Seattle for the Mariners for this season is the highest since he can remember it since he's been covering the team, so probably fifteen years or so, since early two thousands.

00:47:11
Speaker 9: Yeah, well classic a little bit of excitement out of the gate and then a little bit of the tempered excitement out of the gate with the slow start to the middle of the lineup.

00:47:22
Speaker 3: You know, a lot of there was a lot of like this stat thrown out that they had the third most homers in the league last year, and half their runs were scored were off homers. And this is, you know, a notoriously fairly finicky middle of the offense, even with the talent that's there. The two guys that are anchoring in and cal Ralely and Julio Rodriguez are two of the most streaky hitters on the planet and both notorious slow starters as well.

00:47:47
Speaker 4: They've come out of the gate slow. Cal also has run into bad luck with being.

00:47:51
Speaker 3: One of the robbed homers by Joe Odell, so he would have to and he probably could feel little bit better about it. But yeah, I think that people are like, oh, are we actually as good as we thought? I've heard of had a couple of times like yes, just the pitching is exactly as advertised, that it's going to be a lot of close games. It was always going to be this way. I think that when they get into groove though. Having got Josh Naylor and Brendan Donovan flanking those two guys in the middle is going to make all of the difference in the world. Putting together really good abs. Even when they're not hitting, they're going to put together good at bats. They're still going to walk. So this is what I testipate. But yes, I think it's tempered more than it's ever been here, and there's an expectation. There's an expectation to win the division and go back to the playoffs and make a run again, and that is something that has never existed since I've been alive here, So that is it's a good problem to have, and I think that that is.

00:48:42
Speaker 4: The general sentiment here.

00:48:43
Speaker 1: And yeah, right, it's a four and seven start, it's super early. You shouldn't be worried there. The afters look like they're going to be able to swing it a little bit, but they lost their race and Hunter Brown, so that certainly helps the Mariners standings wise. Kratsat looks like you're still.

00:49:00
Speaker 2: These are in first place too, by the way, but do you guys know what hat this is?

00:49:04
Speaker 4: WBC oh, Chris or good? What is it that that.

00:49:11
Speaker 3: I don't know what they not the Czech Republic.

00:49:14
Speaker 4: I wanted to say, the check republic ette.

00:49:16
Speaker 2: Me and show hey both both wear one because show hey, we're one. Af War one. After the guys struck them out.

00:49:25
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